I’ve been successful in getting a few refunds online as of late. The more that you shop and use services online the more you need to watch that everything is what you expect. There are several ways on how to get a refund online.

Tell Them What You Want

Writing an angry email and simply stating you didn’t like their service etc, won’t do much. However, tell them how they can make it right. A free coupon try use them again or something else. You may be surprised.

Be Persistent

You may have to constantly email or call to get what you want. Several times I emailed stating what I wanted and they said there was nothing they could do. A few emails more I ended up with what I wanted (a refund for shipping).

Talk to a Manager

Sometimes there is nothing the person you are talking to can do. They only have the authority to do so much and that often doesn’t include refunds. Of course they won’t offer to put you through to a manager, so you have to do so yourself.

Blog About It

There is blogging power, use it. Companies actually do google themselves and may take a look into your post. The post I wrote about Neverblueads ranks on page 1 for the term Neverblueads. It is negative and lists everything that I felt they owed me. They contacted me and it was resolved.

Lie A Little

You might have to lie a little to get what you want. They lied to you right? It’s sort of an eye for an eye, but it may work. I told DHL several things about my shipping and how I wouldn’t use them, or my company. However they guaranteed next day delivery and I didn’t get it.

But Be Fair…

This has to be the biggest rule in trying to get a refund. If you felt shorted on the shipping and want a refund, thats what you are going to get. You can’t ask for more than what you lost or didn’t get. Maybe something free or discounted for the next time, but after that it’s hard to get more value for whatever you are trying to get a refund for. If you lost 10$ on a transaction, don’t ask for $100. It’s just not going to happen.

After writing Making Enemies on Social Media I knew it needed a follow-up. I’ve gotten caught up in “online drama” which has effected certain social media aspects. It’s unfortunate, but can be avoided.

Here are 5 ways to go about making enemies online.

Constantly Thumbs Down/Be Negative on Stumbleupon. Tons of bloggers use stumbleupon for their own promotion as well as finding interested articles online. If you are looking for attention, go ahead and be mean and negative, but you won’t be making many friends that way.

Bury On Digg. Don’t forget to leave a comment that you buried the story. Unless there is a good reason, I don’t see the point in burying anything just because you don’t like it. Obviously people do, thats why it has votes.

Call People Out on Your Blog. Blogging news spreads fast, especially if it’s controversial. We’ve seen this a lot on the blogosphere in the past weeks. Take a look at my list of drama link love. Maybe these bloggers are out of things to write about, instead are trying to cause a stir.

Submit “Spam” to Social Media. If you want to piss off a social media user, submit spam. Start with Sphinn, they are very focused on quality. Start submitting spam, you will be found out pretty easily and you can gain a few “enemies” of pissed of internet marketers.

Lie to Your Readers. This is the biggest sin of them all. Some bloggers do this by recommending a product or service. If it doesn’t turn out to be what they thought, they can get burned.

An example of this was/is the Agloco scam. Many bloggers promoted this (not me) giving people the idea it was making them money and they too should join.

How could Agloco of been mentioned on some blogs as their “biggest earners” when no one made anything? Make sure to have integrity while blogging.

The moral of the story goes back to the old saying. Do to others like you would want done to you. Unless an article is crap I don’t give it a bad review, I just move on. Just because you don’t have value to it, someone else might. Just because it’s the internet, doesn’t give you an excuse to be any less of a good person.

Are you on Twitter?

Some people use Twitter to spam others, some use it simply as a marketing tool. Others, use it as a personal journal but, I like many other bloggers are using it to connect with their audience.

When I introduce Twitter to a newbie the very first time, they always seem to say “I don’t get it” or “why would I use this”. To them its simply a underpowered blogging engine. But I always do a deal with them - to use it for a week and then tell me what they really think. And most of them get hooked.

See Twitter isn’t just a microblogging platform, its a simple yet extremely way to connect with you audience.

I use Twitter everyday for a number of purposes. First and foremost, I use it like the beefed up version of Yahoo Answers - I can blast out a question and within a minute or two I can get some great responses. Then I can use Twitter to follow what my fellow colleagues and bloggers are up to. But most importantly, I can stay connected to my readers and those who follow me, ask for feedback and see what they are doing.

But I also have a bit of fun - I like to giveaway domains, hosting etc. which always draws and crowd and is a bit of a hoot!

So if you’re not on Twitter yet, I recommend giving it a go. Give it a week or so and you may just start to see how valuable this site really is. You can follow me at twitter.com/feint

Video Blogging (Vlogging) could be the future of blogging, some have predicted so. People want their information fast, easy and a lot of it. Several bloggers that I follow have either turned strictly to vlogging or make sure to do one weekly or monthly (even more).

Benefits of Vlogging

Vlogging allows you to connect with your readers on another level. Some bloggers like to add pictures to their blog to give a face to the name and blogger. Better yet, is vlogging. This allows you to interact with your readers to not only put a face to the blogger, but also show them even more personality.

Typing an article can be time consuming, sometimes you may not get to write everything you want to. With a vlog the topic is basically endless. You can say whatever you want for as long as you want. There is no word limit.

On a vlog you can incorporate different topics and questions all into one vlogging session. Instead of writing 3 small articles, you could combine them into one vlogging video. This is excellent for answering readers questions. You could basically do this with writing, but vlogs seem to flow better with different topics. The transition is much easier.

Overall it seems vloggers can really express themselves better. You can really be yourself instead of trying to write in a certain format.

Vlogging Is Nice… But…

I still don’t like it that much. I’d prefer sticking to regular blogs. Heres why:

Some vlogs seem like a waste of time. Get to the point, I really don’t have 10 minutes to spend just listening to ramblings. Some vloggers basically put together half hour shows regularly.

There is no text to get search engine referrals. Unless you already have the traffic or the video does well on social media, it may be a lost cause.

Watching videos online can be a hassle. Sometimes there is a missing file or plugin I need in order to watch the video. With slow loading times this can be another issue.

Is Video Blogging the Future?

It could be, but I could never imagine doing an entire blog with just video postings. I don’t think that blogs could generally, really excel with just a video blogging format.

Do you video blog?

Lots of bloggers have suffered a loss in PR from selling links that pass PR (and some that weren’t). We’ve lost one point, then had a PR 0, now we are back to 3. I still wish it was higher.

How to Request Reinclusion

To do a Google reinclusion you need to register your blog for the Google webmasters tools. Its important to have regardless. This is how I removed several old URLs (when we had a forum) that was hurting our search engine rankings.

After you register your website or blog for webmaster tools, you then must “request reconsideration.

Google Reinclusion Tips

I’ve filed for Google reinclusion three times. The second time the reinclusion gave us a PR 0. Our reinclusion request wasn’t very long and didn’t say very much. That was a huge mistake.

I have read many “success” stories of people getting their PR back and they all pretty much did the same thing. You basically need to say 3 things.

1. What you did wrong. Whether it was using payperpost or selling links, tell them what you did.

2. That you have corrected the errors. Now that you are following Google’s terms tell them how you did so. You either removed the links, posts, or added no-follow to them.

3. That you won’t do it again. A statement that you are no longer using paid to post services is a good start. Or that your advertising page clearly states you won’t pass pagerank.

Remember to give Google time to process your reinclusion. I wouldn’t recommend doing it more than once every 1-3 months.

Is getting your PR back important to you? If so which steps have you taken to get it back?

I found a new site, Homepagle, that has the makings for being an interesting way to market your website or blog. If your sneaky, like me.

Create Your Homepage

When I first visited this website it was one of the moments. Those moments in which you tell yourself “Why Didn’t I Think of That?” Then I began to think how I could use this to help me. When creating your own homepage you can upload an image if you want to. It’s basically Google with a customizable feature.

Why not upload a banner promoting your website or blog? This may not impact anything if you just use it for your own homepage, but think bigger. By putting a network of computers as that it can be effective. Another great way to advertise your website for free!

Now all they need now is to put your own “favorite” links and websites and rss feeds. Add my homepagle as your homepage!

Ever since we lost our Pagerank 4 to 3 it has bothered me. Especially because we deserve a 4, 5, or 6. In December I filed my first reinclusion request after spending hours deleting sponsored posts, changing text and adding “nofollow” to some links. All that work didn’t help and our Pagerank remained the same.

Two weeks ago I double checked my blog for sponsored posts and links and filed again for reinclusion. I began to worry two days ago seeing a pr0 on my toolbar, but the data centers still reported a three. Today I checked and it was 0 still and the centers told me it was a big fat 0.

Where Did I Go Wrong?

I tried to follow Courtney Tuttle’s advice with reinclusion. However, my reinclusion requests were short and didn’t really say what needed to be said. I can only imagine that be one piece of the puzzle.

Now that I am sitting at a PR0 I decided to file one more time for reinclusion this time with a longer explanation. I can’t go any lower than 0. If it remains the same PR I will just have to wait and try again.

Filing for Reinclusion

Before you file for re inclusion to get back lost Pagerank make sure you first remove sponsored posts and links from your site (obviously). No wonder I received a pagerank slap in the first place, I had a category dedicated to “sponsored posts”. That obviously is a bad idea.

Thats what I think has been the problem for us at Blog about your Blog. Sponsored posts from places like PayPerPost. I don’t plan on using them again with their current system, on this blog. Hopefully that will count for something.

Courtney Tuttle outlines three things when filing for reconsideration with Google.

1. What you did wrong. For us it has been sponsored posts, I told them that we have removed and no followed posts we have been compensated for.

2. That you have corrected the errors. See above

3. That you won’t do it again. This is the one I failed to mention and may not get our pagerank restored because of it.

Have you suffered a PR slap and filed for reinclusion?

Bloggers who blog about blogging have been told throughout the blogosphere that it isn’t a real niche. That it’s pointless, as well as not profitable. Or so I’ve read…

It Won’t Die

Blogs about blogging are a useful resource for all bloggers no matter what niche they blog in. As long as there is blogging there will be blogs about it. It’s very similar to the make money online niche. As long as there are people who want to make money online there will be blogs about it.

Not Profitable?

Some bloggers have said that blogs about blogging aren’t profitable. With the low cost of maintaining a blog, it’s hard for them not to be profitable. If you break down the cost of hosting and a domain it’s under 10$. For this blog, it runs to be about 6.58$ per month. 6$ per month for hosting, .58 cents per month for the domain (7$ divided by 12 months).

I wouldn’t say that it’s been easy or I’m making a ton of money on this blog, you can see January’s earning report, but I am definitely making a profit. If you can offer good content that people want to read and really be honest, you can easily make that few bucks a month spent on the blog.

Pointless?

Blogging has grown exponentially over the years. Huge numbers of blogs are created daily. New bloggers are born everyday. Who’s going to teach them our ways? Someone has to. That’s why we have the uber bloggers that we do. They offered the content people wanted and needed. Not only did they help bloggers grow, bloggers made them grow. You can earn quick money on a “fad” niche like Webkinz or Hannah Montana, but that only lasts so long.

What is your opinion on blogs about blogging?