February 4, 2007 - Carl Ocab dot com was born. The 13-year old blogger made waves, gigantic waves in the blogosphere - up to now.
Err! Enough with the spiffy 3rd voice introduction.
So yeah, I’ve just celebrated my first year anniversary, bought a cake and took a good glance of the past. I’ll also be having a contest, but there’s more than that.
Blogging has taught me hundreds of things since then. Today, I’ve compiled them and picked the best to share it with you. I’d suggest you bookmark it, print it out and save it in your desktop.
But before that, I would like to give a little plug here to those who have helped me succeed a lot of things online, blogging and in life. Special mention goes to the Lord God for guiding me, helping me and in all of these things. My parents who have supported me all the time. Lil’ brother and sister for the laughs. Friends and classmates (Gloria, Audrey and Jean requested a special mention, hehe) for giving me few hits here and there and for taunting me for my outstanding english - that I rarely show in class. My online buddies (too many to mention) for helping me with their tips and updates and last but not the least, to YOU my readers.
Alright, I guess I’ve thanked everyone. Without further ado, here are the 32 things that blogging taught me in 12 months:
1. WIIFM or What’s In It For Me
The first question that pops out to all of us everytime.
Let’s have a little question and answer here just to prove it to you:
Why do you work? - To make money.
Why do you want to make money? - To buy the coolest car.
Why do you want to buy the coolest car? - To impress my neighbor.
Ask yourself, you’ll always find out that you do all things that give you a benefit.
Here’s a totally different scenario where you want to help people in need. You try to do it anonymously as you can.
But what’s in it for you? - you feel happy on the inside helping people and seeing them happy.
People need benefits. You can’t just ask someone’s shirt if it wouldn’t benefit them, and you can’t sell a product without giving a reason why the customer need your product. Show the benefits.
You won’t be reading this article if you didn’t have YOUR benefit right? Ask yourself.
2. People Like To Be Fed, Spoon Fed
I added a follow up message to those who download my free report “This Is Quick Money” asking them “What have you done today that I taught you in the report you downloaded yesterday?” I got loads of replies.
They were asking me basic questions like “How do I start my own freelance service?” or “What is an autoresponder?” that can be simply answered by our little household friend - Google.
Look at it on the brighter side, what if you sell an ebook that spoon feds people on what they need. Wouldn’t that make you a good sum of money?
3. Content Is Not King, Marketing Is
The internet is FULL and overspilling with awesome useful content. It’s so many, you can’t stay on a site for a minute.
If you generate more and more content, do you think your traffic will also increase? Nah. Well with the right marketing, it will.
Marketing without content is dumb. So I consider content, as part of marketing.
4. Always Show BIG Numbers
What do A-listers have in common? (Preferably John Chow, Shoemoney, and Problogger)
They have BIG Numbers to show.
John Chow with his eye cracking monthly earnings, Schoe with his $180k AdSense check and Problogger with an astonishing amount feed readers.
5. Sleep Is Important
Here’s a good one.
There was a time when I slept 1:30 AM on a Sunday night. Tomorrow is school so I had to get up 5:00 AM.
That’s roughly four hours of sleep for me. My eyes was closing all day long. I even took a nap on our lunch break.
When I got home, I tried to write an article but I just can’t. No ideas was floating on my mind. All I can think of is to sleep and forget all those things first. I can’t even answer a single email!
I’ve learned a lesson the hard way.
6. Act Now, There’s No Later
You have this super idea that you know if you take action, would make thousands over thousands of dollars. After sometime, you forgot about it and you were surprised to see someone did it and got the cash you dreamed of. Has this happened to you?
When you have an idea, implement it now - before anyone does. If you have to stay up all night long, sure. Just act.
7. Log Your Achievements For The Day
Everyday I bullet point all the things I’ve done. From writing a blog post to SEO stuff and etc, just so I can track my achievements.
If I did less the other day, then I would exert more effort the next day.
8. Blogging Is A Sport
You get better and better everyday. The more practice, the better you get.
Let’s have this little article I wrote on my first month of blogging, compare it to this post ;-)
9. You Won’t Make Money Blogging - ALONE
Quoted from the Kidblogger’s Master Plan leaked report.
Yes, you won’t make money blogging alone. Although you can get some coins but that’s not money. It’s not enough compared to the time blogging ate.
That’s why, there’s a system. With that in place, everything is completely duplicatable - Of course, you have the option to hire writers too.
So if you think you can make money off blogging by yourself now, STOP.
10. Blogging Is A Job
Writing an article everyday, sponsored review deadlines, blog commenting schedules?
What’s the difference from your ordinary day job? Ah well at least, you’re at home. But still…
11. Very Good Is Not Very Good At All
I owe this one to Seth Godin. Having read his Purple Cow (Still on the halfway) my perspective and goals change when doing something.
We see very good things everyday, when we walk down the street, everywhere. Very good is too saturated. When you’re unique, you’re just you, you stand out.
12. You Don’t Have To Be Passionate About Your Niche
Our passion is to make money – not writing. So why do you need to be passionate about your niche? You can always hire writers who are passionate enough to write good articles for you.
13. Don’t Sell Yourself Too Thin
Have you encountered those $27, $17 or even $7 crap books? (No offense intended, most of them are really CRAP). They’re selling their self too thin, why sell for $7 if you can for $97?
If you think you can sell a $97 product 100 times, do you think you can sell it for $7 1000 times – with the same people? No! Not a chance.
Why?
You see, some people are not buyers. They’re there to see what’s going on and skim over your site, but only small amount of real buyers are worried about the price.
So if you have 1000 prospects, 10% of them bought the $97, but not 100% of them will buy your cheap $7 product.
14. Monetize Now Or Die
The “Wait for your readership to grow, before you monetize” saying just makes me laugh all the time.
Let’s just say you waited half a year to monetize your blog, then on the 7th month, your hosting crashes. All the back ups are gone – or your blog got hacked, the tables in your database ruined and you don’t have a chance to fix it.
Wanna cry now?
Tip: Here’s how I sold my private advertisements.
15. Blogging Is Communication
I’ll let author Tom Peters speak to you “Communication is everyone’s panacea for everything.” In blogging, you communicate by writing informally. You write like you’re talking to your reader. Informal is the best, even copywriter legend Gary Halbert (You are a homo habilis if you don’t know him) uses it to sell!
16. Go Positive
Don’t give clues to your readers for the things that you don’t want them to do. Like say, “Don’t unsubscribe to my blog! I’ll post tomorrow” (Darn, I said it! But with this post, I think you would stay subscribed, aye?) or “Don’t leave yet… *sales pitch here*”
Even though that’s a warning, it’s still a command that might give your visitors a hint.
17. Experiment!
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, take risks - the money is there. Here’s one from me ol’ favorite speaker Anthony Robbins “There is no failure, there are only results”.
18. Experiment! Be Careful Though
Just a word of warning, don’t go below the belt. If it still urges you, don’t forget to grab hold of your privacy.
19. Gurus Don’t Know Everything
Even though they make thousands or even millions of dollars online, they don’t know everything.
I’ve talked to loads of marketers who make six figures a month, but guess what - I still have something to share to them. Everyone has something good at.
20. Focus
Speaking of number 19, that’s the number one reason why those guys are called “gurus”. They are good at a specific, very VERY specific sub niches of internet marketing.
In link building, we have Jack Humphrey. List building, Joel Christopher. Affiliate marketing, Ewen Chia and Chris Mcneeney. Traffic generation, John Reese. The list goes on…
They boiled down so much, they tend to ignore other things not relevant from the niche they are focusing at.
21. Be Prepared For Legal Issues
I can’t believe loads of people put legal issues as the last item on their list! Imagine with just one (yes, it’s that serious that I have to put all the styles in it) flaw, you can lose your whole business - or worse, even your personal stuff.
I won’t finish this as I’m not qualified to do so. Just go get a lawyer now and let him tell you what to do.
22. Set Goals In Everything You Do
When I get home from school, I rest for half an hour before I go online. I never thought that that 30 minutes is one of the most important factors of success.
I plan my day strategically so I won’t lose a single minute out of the blue. And these goals are not just for the sake of writing, they need to be done.
23. Shorter = Better
We are at the attention age era. People are surrounded by tons of information, we give too little attention to things as we have the option to just move on and click away.
In that case, we have less time to tell people what we are really trying to tell them. And heck, it’s actually harder to explain things shorter than the usual.
P.S. Yes, this article is shorter than the usual, I have 32 things to pin point so there. :-)
24. Design Is An Important Factor
Like what I said above, we are at the attention age - and one of the most attention grabbing part of a site is it’s design.
Your website’s design speaks for you. Connect your design with your niche. I guess my master plan is a good example.
25. Sometimes We Could Use Some Ramblings
Blogging is communication aye? (number 15) Why not give your readers a bit taste of your life and how you live?
Even though, yes, your readers are there for topics about your niche, but a post a month with updates of your current lifestyle won’t hurt right?
Most people are curious cats and would always like a snippet of someone’s life. That’s one reason why gossip is a pretty wide niche. ;-)
26. Mingle With The Big Boys
It has been said that if you add up all the earnings of the top five people you hang out most and get the average of it, it will be close to your current income.
That’s simply true. When you hang out with poor people, they’ll influence you to do what poor people do. If you hang out with middleclasses, same thing happens. If you hang out with millionaires, they will influence you too on how to become as rich as them. Even if you have nothing in hand! They’ve got the kicks, all you have to do is listen.
27. Under Promise, Over Deliver
I hear amazon.com does this nicely.
When I ordered my first books from amazon they gave me a rough date when will the books arrive, it’s for three weeks I guess. Surprisingly it arrived in our frontdoor in only two weeks.
I’m pretty sure that they knew they can give it in less than three weeks, they just under promised to make us think they have over delivered in service.
28. Protect Your Feed
Content aggregation is a big hit these days. You know those guys who scrape all your content and plaster big blocks of ads around it trying to make money?
Yes, it annoys me too. One way or another, I see five to 10 duplicates of every article I post on this blog - luckily most of them links back to the original article, but some just don’t get it. Some just copy pastes the whole post, leaving no trace behind.
However, if you place links inside your posts, it will be carried by the scraper because most of them still carry out the html.
29. Make People Feel Important
This I owe to my email list.
First of all, lead capturing is harder than you think it is. It takes three steps to make people subscribe to your list. They type their name and email, press subscribe and go to their inbox to confirm it. Sounds simple? NO! Tell you what (I guess there’s no softer way to say this) people are LAZY.
Why do they have to spend their spare minute to subscribe to your newsletter (or whatever you are offering) when he can subscribe to the one next block?
Make them feel important, give them private access to your swipe files for example. Or maybe a beta access to your new site, etc.
30. People Love Lists
Oh c’mon, you’d never get this far if you didn’t love lists! ;-)
31. Leverage Other People’s Resources
In order to start making money, there are a lot of things you should consider. You need traffic, list, content, credibility and tons more. If you drill down those things and do it all by yourself, it will take years before you can establish a good online business. Notice, I only said good.
But what if you can leverage other people’s resources? Other people’s traffic, list, content and credibility? Wouldn’t that skyrocket your business and your profits?
32. Read Then Implement
This is probably the best thing that blogging taught me after 12 months - read. Don’t just skim, read. If you bought a book today, read it, finish it then implement it. Don’t get another book if you still haven’t implemented the principles taught in the first one.
Start this year right, buy a book now then read it and implement. You’ll be mesmerized by your improvement. I guarantee it.
To Close This One Up
I’ll let Henry Ford close this looong article with his infamous quote “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”
Friday, August 15, 2008
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
SEO H1 Tags
This SEO tip moved my website 300 places on google.com.au
Some search engines will give words found in the “H1″ tag a boost in relevancy. The H1 tag is used to specify page or topic headings. The problem with the tag is that it’s often too big and ugly to use very much. In most browsers H1 is an oversized font that often looks out of place on a page.
The good news is that there is a clever way you can get the best of both worlds by using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). With CSS, you can specify that the browser display the H1 tag or other tags on your page anyway you please. This is great since you can get both a boost in relevancy and get better control of your page’s appearance in one easy step. How?
In the area of the page, put the following STYLE lines:
The above will force all H1 tags on the page to use a 12 pt Arial or Helvetica font in black text. You can adjust the point size or font to whatever values look best on your page. By using this CSS tag, you are free to use the H1 tag on ALL your pages to gain extra relevancy WITHOUT sacrificing the look of your pages. Since many engines give more weight to keywords that appear within H1 heading tags versus the regular body text, this is one tip you’ll definitely want to implement today!
or
H1 {
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 12pt;
color: #000000;
background-color: #ffffff;
}
or
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
color: #000000;
font-size : 12px;text-decoration: none; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;}
Some search engines will give words found in the “H1″ tag a boost in relevancy. The H1 tag is used to specify page or topic headings. The problem with the tag is that it’s often too big and ugly to use very much. In most browsers H1 is an oversized font that often looks out of place on a page.
The good news is that there is a clever way you can get the best of both worlds by using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). With CSS, you can specify that the browser display the H1 tag or other tags on your page anyway you please. This is great since you can get both a boost in relevancy and get better control of your page’s appearance in one easy step. How?
In the area of the page, put the following STYLE lines:
The above will force all H1 tags on the page to use a 12 pt Arial or Helvetica font in black text. You can adjust the point size or font to whatever values look best on your page. By using this CSS tag, you are free to use the H1 tag on ALL your pages to gain extra relevancy WITHOUT sacrificing the look of your pages. Since many engines give more weight to keywords that appear within H1 heading tags versus the regular body text, this is one tip you’ll definitely want to implement today!
or
H1 {
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 12pt;
color: #000000;
background-color: #ffffff;
}
or
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
color: #000000;
font-size : 12px;text-decoration: none; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;}
Page Title SEO
You have your site all setup but no-one is visiting! That is where you need SEO - search engine optimization. You can pay money to a SEO expert but it is also possible to do it yourself, FREE.
There is much debate about whether the domain name should include one of your main keywords. I look at it as another little plus in our SEO plan. So if you have a domain name without one of your main keywords you can still use these tips.
We are using our other site www.zipposuperstore.com as an example.
So we have our three popular main keywords for our zippo store:
zippo lighters
zippo tricks
zippo collections
If you look closely all contain the word “zippo”. This is to make things easy when we look at off page ranking, which we will talk about in future blogs.
First thing we need to look at is the page title. The page title should only include our main keywords. Try not to use too many words as Google will give more weight to each of your keywords and you will rank higher.
Please, the page title should not say, “Welcome to our website”. Also do not use say ” zippo lighters and zippo tricks and zippo collections”. Though the last does contain our keywords it does looka little long.
So we will shorten it by doing this “zippo | zippo lighter tricks | collections. Notice We took out the “ands” and replaced them with a “|”. Also only used “zippo” twice for keyword densitity. When possible always combine your keywords to cut down on the total number of words used in your page title. When google looks at our title it will see all 3 of our keywords.
Next SEO blog we will look at ways to boost your ranks by nearly 300 pages by using one simple method.
There is much debate about whether the domain name should include one of your main keywords. I look at it as another little plus in our SEO plan. So if you have a domain name without one of your main keywords you can still use these tips.
We are using our other site www.zipposuperstore.com as an example.
So we have our three popular main keywords for our zippo store:
zippo lighters
zippo tricks
zippo collections
If you look closely all contain the word “zippo”. This is to make things easy when we look at off page ranking, which we will talk about in future blogs.
First thing we need to look at is the page title. The page title should only include our main keywords. Try not to use too many words as Google will give more weight to each of your keywords and you will rank higher.
Please, the page title should not say, “Welcome to our website”. Also do not use say ” zippo lighters and zippo tricks and zippo collections”. Though the last does contain our keywords it does looka little long.
So we will shorten it by doing this “zippo | zippo lighter tricks | collections. Notice We took out the “ands” and replaced them with a “|”. Also only used “zippo” twice for keyword densitity. When possible always combine your keywords to cut down on the total number of words used in your page title. When google looks at our title it will see all 3 of our keywords.
Next SEO blog we will look at ways to boost your ranks by nearly 300 pages by using one simple method.
Keyword SEO
We shall use our sister site www.zipposuperstore.com to show you how easy SEO is, and that it can be done free. Zipposuperstore.com is an Australian site, but these tips can be used globally. Australian customers are our main focus, so we will use the stats from Google.com.au for our main keyword, zippo. As of 18/01/08 there are 28,700,000 pages listed, so if we want to rank on the first page for this targeted keyword we need SEO. First thing you need to do is find which keywords are being searched for. The two keyword research tools we use are:
http://inventory.overture.com/ ( when it works )
and
http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/index.php
Searching zippo on these sites, gives us these following most popular searched keywords: zippo, zippo lighters, zippo tricks and zippo lighter tricks. These are the keywords we want to target. But other searched for terms are collections, faqs and collectors, so we will want to use these keywords too. This will improve keyword densitity, which we will explain in future blogs.
Keywords of single words is useful to attract the general audience and helps in getting high ranks,if the web site is new. Keywords of single words should be used more in the root level pages or top level domain pages. This is because these pages are the ones that attract the general traffic & are generally the pages which do not specify specifics. Hence single word keywords based on themes can be targeted for on these pages.
Keywords of multiple words are useful to attract a targeted audience, therefore should be used topic wise for each page according to subject of that web page. Relevant set of Keywords should be use in Title tag, Header Tag, Meta tag, Body tag, Alt tag, Anchor tag, Comment tag and in the url of that specific web page. Use underscore or hyphen to differentiate Keywords. These keywords are normally targeted upon in deeper level or sub directory level pages.
Keywords based on theme is useful to attract targeted audience therefore they are strongly recommended to be used. Typically, although it is not a hard and fast rule but in theme based keyword we use general keywords in root level and uses specific keyword in directory level.
Overall one can safely say that in keyword targeting one uses a dart board strategy. Wherein the smallest circle attracts your core audience & hence should have theme oriented multiple word keywords. As we move up on the theme (dartboard) the circle ( traffic) tends to get larger & the keywords tends to get simpler( singular) even though they are theme based.
Keywords and keyphrases used in domain names & urls of directory pages is also a factor in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as well as it helps to inform the targeted audience, about the sites content. Therefore, special care should be exercised in choosing a domain name. All the search engines start reading each web page with its respective domain name.
Having said that, let me add that there is a raging debate amongst the seo community to determine the exact importance of keywords in the domain name. One camp believes that it is hugely important to have keywords in domain whereas the other maintains that brand building domain name is more important than keywords incorporating one.
When Keywords and Keyphrases are used in a Domain name then its called Keyword specific domain name. Keyword in the domain name to my mind has one advantage: It is better to have a keyword domain name for it is worth remembering that most of the people link to you using your URL. If your URL has the keyword or the keyphrase then you are automatically using the keyword in the very important anchor tag.
So please subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up to date with our SEO tips.
http://inventory.overture.com/ ( when it works )
and
http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/index.php
Searching zippo on these sites, gives us these following most popular searched keywords: zippo, zippo lighters, zippo tricks and zippo lighter tricks. These are the keywords we want to target. But other searched for terms are collections, faqs and collectors, so we will want to use these keywords too. This will improve keyword densitity, which we will explain in future blogs.
Keywords of single words is useful to attract the general audience and helps in getting high ranks,if the web site is new. Keywords of single words should be used more in the root level pages or top level domain pages. This is because these pages are the ones that attract the general traffic & are generally the pages which do not specify specifics. Hence single word keywords based on themes can be targeted for on these pages.
Keywords of multiple words are useful to attract a targeted audience, therefore should be used topic wise for each page according to subject of that web page. Relevant set of Keywords should be use in Title tag, Header Tag, Meta tag, Body tag, Alt tag, Anchor tag, Comment tag and in the url of that specific web page. Use underscore or hyphen to differentiate Keywords. These keywords are normally targeted upon in deeper level or sub directory level pages.
Keywords based on theme is useful to attract targeted audience therefore they are strongly recommended to be used. Typically, although it is not a hard and fast rule but in theme based keyword we use general keywords in root level and uses specific keyword in directory level.
Overall one can safely say that in keyword targeting one uses a dart board strategy. Wherein the smallest circle attracts your core audience & hence should have theme oriented multiple word keywords. As we move up on the theme (dartboard) the circle ( traffic) tends to get larger & the keywords tends to get simpler( singular) even though they are theme based.
Keywords and keyphrases used in domain names & urls of directory pages is also a factor in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as well as it helps to inform the targeted audience, about the sites content. Therefore, special care should be exercised in choosing a domain name. All the search engines start reading each web page with its respective domain name.
Having said that, let me add that there is a raging debate amongst the seo community to determine the exact importance of keywords in the domain name. One camp believes that it is hugely important to have keywords in domain whereas the other maintains that brand building domain name is more important than keywords incorporating one.
When Keywords and Keyphrases are used in a Domain name then its called Keyword specific domain name. Keyword in the domain name to my mind has one advantage: It is better to have a keyword domain name for it is worth remembering that most of the people link to you using your URL. If your URL has the keyword or the keyphrase then you are automatically using the keyword in the very important anchor tag.
So please subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up to date with our SEO tips.
SEO Basic Tips #1
I look at a lot of sites on a daily basis. There are a lot of common problems I see on sites. Some people may have tags set-up improperly or use tags that have no real purpose. I have compiled a list of the 5 top do-it-yourself SEO errors. It’s safe to say that many do-it-yourselfers may have at least one of these errors on their sites. These should help you omit these often costly mistakes and pull you up in the ranks.
1) Keyword tag – A keyword tag is for keywords, but not for any keywords. You can’t just stuff this tag with keywords that your entire site is related to. The tags should reflect keywords only on that particular page; not the entire site and not every keyword you think your site might be searched on. Also, you should have no more then 20 words in the tag. You should not repeat any word more than 3 times. If you sell tickets, for example, don’t write: Broadway tickets, circus tickets, hockey tickets, boxing tickets and so on. Do use Broadway, circus, hockey, boxing, tickets and so on.
2) Abstract tag – It is sometimes used as a replacement for or combined with a description tag. However, more and more people are using these to stuff keywords. Search engines like Google are interested in what is on the page. More specifically, what visitors can view. In my opinion, the abstract tag has no place on a site.
3) Description Tag – The whole point behind this tag is to describe what the “page” is about. Keywords related to the page should be implemented as well. The limit on words should be 20 – 25. I see many website owners stuffing this tag with keywords, or having a description that is entirely too lengthy. Stay within these guidelines and you will be fine.
4) Title tag – This, to me, is the most important tag. This is the first tag the search engine reads. It tells the search engine what the” page” is about. Don’t put your web address here. Do not add your company name in the beginning of this tag either. It should not exceed 60 characters.
5) Content- If you notice, I have been commenting on relevancy to the “page”, not your overall site. Each page has it’s own keywords. Tag the title tag, description and keyword tags. All of these keywords should be the same. Add them to your content as well. Now your page should be fairly well optimized.
Why do sites fall short? Simple, content is not optimized. Search engines are, for the most part, pretty basic. You type in a search term and it retrieves sites containing those terms while also taking a few other factors into account. So, if your site doesn’t have these terms, how will you be found? You won’t. Over do it with keywords and you will experience the same result, but for different reasons. Sometimes reading everything about SEO can be bad. Trying too many tricks, tips or methods is like too many cooks spoiling the soup. In the end they can do more bad than good. These are very basic rules that should be followed by all. In, doubt? Always consult or hire an SEO professional.
1) Keyword tag – A keyword tag is for keywords, but not for any keywords. You can’t just stuff this tag with keywords that your entire site is related to. The tags should reflect keywords only on that particular page; not the entire site and not every keyword you think your site might be searched on. Also, you should have no more then 20 words in the tag. You should not repeat any word more than 3 times. If you sell tickets, for example, don’t write: Broadway tickets, circus tickets, hockey tickets, boxing tickets and so on. Do use Broadway, circus, hockey, boxing, tickets and so on.
2) Abstract tag – It is sometimes used as a replacement for or combined with a description tag. However, more and more people are using these to stuff keywords. Search engines like Google are interested in what is on the page. More specifically, what visitors can view. In my opinion, the abstract tag has no place on a site.
3) Description Tag – The whole point behind this tag is to describe what the “page” is about. Keywords related to the page should be implemented as well. The limit on words should be 20 – 25. I see many website owners stuffing this tag with keywords, or having a description that is entirely too lengthy. Stay within these guidelines and you will be fine.
4) Title tag – This, to me, is the most important tag. This is the first tag the search engine reads. It tells the search engine what the” page” is about. Don’t put your web address here. Do not add your company name in the beginning of this tag either. It should not exceed 60 characters.
5) Content- If you notice, I have been commenting on relevancy to the “page”, not your overall site. Each page has it’s own keywords. Tag the title tag, description and keyword tags. All of these keywords should be the same. Add them to your content as well. Now your page should be fairly well optimized.
Why do sites fall short? Simple, content is not optimized. Search engines are, for the most part, pretty basic. You type in a search term and it retrieves sites containing those terms while also taking a few other factors into account. So, if your site doesn’t have these terms, how will you be found? You won’t. Over do it with keywords and you will experience the same result, but for different reasons. Sometimes reading everything about SEO can be bad. Trying too many tricks, tips or methods is like too many cooks spoiling the soup. In the end they can do more bad than good. These are very basic rules that should be followed by all. In, doubt? Always consult or hire an SEO professional.
Basic SEO
You can achieve high rankings and even have your website listed on pages 1 or 2 on Google for your main keywords simply by applying certain rules.
The one i think about most is… How can i help the search engines provide relevant search results!
While I am far from being an Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ) expert, i am just sharing experiences here, I’ve achieved some fantastic results by following these basic rules and without resorting to any ‘tricks’. More importantly, these are rankings that will last.
Please i am not suggesting you shouldn’t learn about SEO or use genuine search engine optimization software that helps, you should. But as usual i will try do this all free, as i have done on our site and will show you links to the websites we use for our search engine optimization a bit later.
You do not need to spend any money on SEO ebooks or other programmes when it is all available on the net free!
SEO can be done FREE, it just takes a little time and patience.
Sometimes SEO can even be fun, especially when i am spying on our competiors to see what they are doing.
Here are our rankings for our some of our main keywords
Google.com.au as of 28/12/01
zippo: rank 7 out of 28,600,000
zippo lighters: 3 out of 139,000
zippo tricks: 11 out of 42,500
zippo lighter tricks: 14 out of 36,500
zippo collections: 2 out of 147,000
On google.com
zippo: 42 out of 28,600,000
zippo lighters 18 out of 137,000
zippo tricks: 15 out of 42,600
zippo lighter tricks: 11 out of 36,800
zippo collections: 7 out of 147,000
While these are not exactly earth shattering results i think it’s not a bad effort for a first time website and done totally FREE. In the next few blogs i will be revealing all my secrets.
So please, check back and let me know your opinion on our SEO tips, how these tips have worked for you or maybe let us know about your search engine optimization tips
The one i think about most is… How can i help the search engines provide relevant search results!
While I am far from being an Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ) expert, i am just sharing experiences here, I’ve achieved some fantastic results by following these basic rules and without resorting to any ‘tricks’. More importantly, these are rankings that will last.
Please i am not suggesting you shouldn’t learn about SEO or use genuine search engine optimization software that helps, you should. But as usual i will try do this all free, as i have done on our site and will show you links to the websites we use for our search engine optimization a bit later.
You do not need to spend any money on SEO ebooks or other programmes when it is all available on the net free!
SEO can be done FREE, it just takes a little time and patience.
Sometimes SEO can even be fun, especially when i am spying on our competiors to see what they are doing.
Here are our rankings for our some of our main keywords
Google.com.au as of 28/12/01
zippo: rank 7 out of 28,600,000
zippo lighters: 3 out of 139,000
zippo tricks: 11 out of 42,500
zippo lighter tricks: 14 out of 36,500
zippo collections: 2 out of 147,000
On google.com
zippo: 42 out of 28,600,000
zippo lighters 18 out of 137,000
zippo tricks: 15 out of 42,600
zippo lighter tricks: 11 out of 36,800
zippo collections: 7 out of 147,000
While these are not exactly earth shattering results i think it’s not a bad effort for a first time website and done totally FREE. In the next few blogs i will be revealing all my secrets.
So please, check back and let me know your opinion on our SEO tips, how these tips have worked for you or maybe let us know about your search engine optimization tips
Adsense New Pin Details
Got a big scare today with Google Adsense. Logged into my account And i saw this pink box saying “Your payments are currently on hold. Action is required to release payment. “.
With all the posts in webmaster forums i see of accounts banned, i didnt even read the notice properly and thought my account was banned.
After reading the more details part, i found out its on hold till i enter my pin number. But i only have $30 in it and they usually send it when you reach $50. That got me thinking some more.
So, off to read Google Adsense TOS again. Guess what i find?
This is from the Google Adsense site: ( link below )
When will I receive my PIN?
Once your account balance reaches $10, your Personal Identification Number (PIN) will be generated and sent via first class mail within 3-5 days. You can view the date it is generated by clicking the Please enter your PIN link on your Payment History page. After your PIN is mailed, you should expect it to arrive within 2-4 weeks, but it may take longer to reach you depending on the postal service in your location.
WOW! Google Adsense has changed the amount when you receive your pin.
With all the posts in webmaster forums i see of accounts banned, i didnt even read the notice properly and thought my account was banned.
After reading the more details part, i found out its on hold till i enter my pin number. But i only have $30 in it and they usually send it when you reach $50. That got me thinking some more.
So, off to read Google Adsense TOS again. Guess what i find?
This is from the Google Adsense site: ( link below )
When will I receive my PIN?
Once your account balance reaches $10, your Personal Identification Number (PIN) will be generated and sent via first class mail within 3-5 days. You can view the date it is generated by clicking the Please enter your PIN link on your Payment History page. After your PIN is mailed, you should expect it to arrive within 2-4 weeks, but it may take longer to reach you depending on the postal service in your location.
WOW! Google Adsense has changed the amount when you receive your pin.
Google Adsense Themed Ad Units
What are Google Adsense themed ad units. Simple. They are ads that have special colors and graphics to celebrate the season! For instance, you might see your ad with orange print with a picture of a black cat for Halloween. How about red print with a green mistletoe for Christmas?
The themed ad units are specifically tailored to users in the appropriate locations as determined by their IP address. For instance, a user in the United States might see colors and graphics appropriate to the Fourth of July while users everywhere could see colors and graphics for New Years Day.
Again, it’s your choice and your page. You can turn Themed Ad Units on or off by yourself. Just log in to your account, go to the My Account tab. On the Account Settings page, scroll down to the Ad Type Preferences section and click Edit. You can now enable or disable the Themed Ad Units. Click save changes and Voila! Your selection will apply to all your Google Adsense Ads.
So give it a go and let us know how things went. Just leave a post in our comments section.
The themed ad units are specifically tailored to users in the appropriate locations as determined by their IP address. For instance, a user in the United States might see colors and graphics appropriate to the Fourth of July while users everywhere could see colors and graphics for New Years Day.
Again, it’s your choice and your page. You can turn Themed Ad Units on or off by yourself. Just log in to your account, go to the My Account tab. On the Account Settings page, scroll down to the Ad Type Preferences section and click Edit. You can now enable or disable the Themed Ad Units. Click save changes and Voila! Your selection will apply to all your Google Adsense Ads.
So give it a go and let us know how things went. Just leave a post in our comments section.
Making money online with Adsense
I would like to know how to make money online with Adsense, will it help me to buy Google Adsense e-books and reports?
As with any money-making venture, there are pitfalls, pros and cons and some outright cons. As popular as Google Adsense has become, it’s no surprise there is a wealth of information for sale.
The fact is Google Adsense will tell you everything you need to know – for free. They have a support site that covers virtually everything you would need to know about the program and experience will teach you the rest, There are a lot of people online who will gladly answer your questions for free and there are many forums where you can post questions. You can even email the Google Adsense Support Staff if you have questions that their Support Site doesn’t answer.
Experience will probably be your best teacher anyway. And the good news is the Google Adsense program makes that experience painless in that you have nothing lose. So just take a chance on yourself for now. Learn everything you can to maximize your earning potential. But i shall reveal what i think is the best Google Adsense tip out there and the end of this post.
In my opinion the best tip is NEVER click your own ads, but since we wants visitors to our site to click the ads i needed help. One day i searched everysite i could find for the keywords Google Adsense and i happened to search youtube.com. I found a few videos from Joel Comm.
I actually watched 6 of his videos straight and his tips on Adsense Secrets totally changed the way i looked at making money online. Joel presented the Adsense program in an easy to understand relaxed manner, and the way he explained how to make money online with Adsense, i felt like a beginner, even though i had been using Adsense for 6 months. To be honest i had only made $20 in 6 months, but now that figure is almost $5 a week.
All it took was a bit of my time watching the videos and implememnting the changes. The changes actually worked within days. BUT!! You need traffic to your site. So please, sign up to our RSS service, and in up coming blogs i shall be explaining ways i have driven traffic to my site and methods of tracking different Adsense ads. All methods and statics shall be revealed!
As with any money-making venture, there are pitfalls, pros and cons and some outright cons. As popular as Google Adsense has become, it’s no surprise there is a wealth of information for sale.
The fact is Google Adsense will tell you everything you need to know – for free. They have a support site that covers virtually everything you would need to know about the program and experience will teach you the rest, There are a lot of people online who will gladly answer your questions for free and there are many forums where you can post questions. You can even email the Google Adsense Support Staff if you have questions that their Support Site doesn’t answer.
Experience will probably be your best teacher anyway. And the good news is the Google Adsense program makes that experience painless in that you have nothing lose. So just take a chance on yourself for now. Learn everything you can to maximize your earning potential. But i shall reveal what i think is the best Google Adsense tip out there and the end of this post.
In my opinion the best tip is NEVER click your own ads, but since we wants visitors to our site to click the ads i needed help. One day i searched everysite i could find for the keywords Google Adsense and i happened to search youtube.com. I found a few videos from Joel Comm.
I actually watched 6 of his videos straight and his tips on Adsense Secrets totally changed the way i looked at making money online. Joel presented the Adsense program in an easy to understand relaxed manner, and the way he explained how to make money online with Adsense, i felt like a beginner, even though i had been using Adsense for 6 months. To be honest i had only made $20 in 6 months, but now that figure is almost $5 a week.
All it took was a bit of my time watching the videos and implememnting the changes. The changes actually worked within days. BUT!! You need traffic to your site. So please, sign up to our RSS service, and in up coming blogs i shall be explaining ways i have driven traffic to my site and methods of tracking different Adsense ads. All methods and statics shall be revealed!
Google Adsense
How Does Google Adsense Program Work For Webmasters Wanting to Earn Income?
Advertisers pay Google when someone clicks on their ads which are placed on pages that contain text. For example, if you write content about dogs, you will likely see ads from pet shops and/or trainers on that page. When someone clicks on those ads, the advertiser pays Google and Google pays you. Of course, the advertiser is hoping the person that clicked on the add will actually purchase the product or whatever they’re offering.
In fact, Google is very strict about the integrity of this process. You are forbidden to click on your own ads. If you do, your Adsense account will be terminated and you might never get it back. You are also prohibited from asking others to click on “your ads”. It makes sense. Why would advertisers want to pay just so your friends and family could click on your ads when no one is really interested in dogs or subject of the ad.
The good news is that it’s not necessary to “cheat.” Google Adsense is so easy you’ll make more money just going by the rules. Have or write interesting content that will turn up in search engines and you have “targeted” the right people to read those ads. Just think, somebody in Texas hires a dog trainer and you get a commission!
What Not to Tell Others About the Google Adsense Program – The Most Important Rule
Sympathy only goes so far. Not only is it against the Google Adsense Program Policies but if you rely on friends and family members to click on your ads instead of diligently working the program, you’re cheating yourself – and the Google Adsense Program.
The “help me out” wail may work when your kid is selling outrageously expensive candles for the end of the year school party but it has no place in the Google Adsense Program.
Besides, if you’re asking people to click on your ads, that means you’re not optimizing your site for valid clicks as well as referrals. Use that same energy to polish your content and your site. When family and friends ask what you’ve been up to, you can proudly show them your hard work. When they see how excited you are, you’ll see your referral revenue go up.
Advertisers pay Google when someone clicks on their ads which are placed on pages that contain text. For example, if you write content about dogs, you will likely see ads from pet shops and/or trainers on that page. When someone clicks on those ads, the advertiser pays Google and Google pays you. Of course, the advertiser is hoping the person that clicked on the add will actually purchase the product or whatever they’re offering.
In fact, Google is very strict about the integrity of this process. You are forbidden to click on your own ads. If you do, your Adsense account will be terminated and you might never get it back. You are also prohibited from asking others to click on “your ads”. It makes sense. Why would advertisers want to pay just so your friends and family could click on your ads when no one is really interested in dogs or subject of the ad.
The good news is that it’s not necessary to “cheat.” Google Adsense is so easy you’ll make more money just going by the rules. Have or write interesting content that will turn up in search engines and you have “targeted” the right people to read those ads. Just think, somebody in Texas hires a dog trainer and you get a commission!
What Not to Tell Others About the Google Adsense Program – The Most Important Rule
Sympathy only goes so far. Not only is it against the Google Adsense Program Policies but if you rely on friends and family members to click on your ads instead of diligently working the program, you’re cheating yourself – and the Google Adsense Program.
The “help me out” wail may work when your kid is selling outrageously expensive candles for the end of the year school party but it has no place in the Google Adsense Program.
Besides, if you’re asking people to click on your ads, that means you’re not optimizing your site for valid clicks as well as referrals. Use that same energy to polish your content and your site. When family and friends ask what you’ve been up to, you can proudly show them your hard work. When they see how excited you are, you’ll see your referral revenue go up.
Adsense Tips
Google Adsense is a fun and easy way to make extra money. It’s important to follow the rules though as Google is serious about the integrity of this program. Not following the rules could result in your Google Adsense account being terminated. Here are a few Don’ts for using the program:
DON’T
Never, ever, ever click on your own ads. Google Adsense makes it very clear this won’t be tolerated.
Don’t ask your friends and family to click on your ads. Rather, earn money by referring them to the Google Adsense program.
Don’t participate in the Google Adsense program strictly for the money. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It will take time and hard work to make a profit.
Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything the first day. Although the Google Adsense program is extremely user-friendly, it may take a little time to integrate all the facets of the program. Be patient and above all, have fun!
Hopefully, these helpful tips will ease you into using the program and help you avoid mistakes that could possibly cost you a lot of time or money.
DON’T
Never, ever, ever click on your own ads. Google Adsense makes it very clear this won’t be tolerated.
Don’t ask your friends and family to click on your ads. Rather, earn money by referring them to the Google Adsense program.
Don’t participate in the Google Adsense program strictly for the money. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It will take time and hard work to make a profit.
Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything the first day. Although the Google Adsense program is extremely user-friendly, it may take a little time to integrate all the facets of the program. Be patient and above all, have fun!
Hopefully, these helpful tips will ease you into using the program and help you avoid mistakes that could possibly cost you a lot of time or money.
BuyPixAds.com
This is phase 2 of my evil plan to take on the smaller banner exchange sites. I have just started a new website called www.buypixads.com
This takes my total number of sites to four, with Zipposuperstore.com, AdsenseAddict.com and WebBannerz.com being the other three.
Obviously my main focus is to make money online, but here at AdsenseAddict the goal is to help others not only earn money online but also help them find ways to market and advertise their site and attract quality visitors.
WebBannerz.com was phase one of my plan to help people advertise their site using banner exchanges. But as you know there are a lot of free banner exchange sites out there, but i felt most lacked something.
That is where BuyPixAds.com is different. I call it Unconventional Advertising - The Pixelated Advertising Site. You purchase pixel ad space on our home page and the price is calculated on the number of pixels your logo or banner occupies.
Don’t worry, it does not cost $1 a pixel or anything crazy like that. We are charging $0.02 per
10×10 pixel block. So for example if you would like to purchase a 125×125 ad space, it would cost just under $3US per month.
It works out to be less than 10 cents a day! So if you are looking for a different way to advertise what have you got to lose.
The following sizes are accepted, 100×100, 125×125, 200×200 and 468×60 logos or banners. Prices are per month. And please no porn or nudity pictures.
Besides the benefit of gaining traffic when submitting your logo or banner, you can specify a title and alt tag value for your site so hopefully BuyPixAds.com will also help improve your rankings with search engines as all links will be counted as backlinks to your website or blog.
This takes my total number of sites to four, with Zipposuperstore.com, AdsenseAddict.com and WebBannerz.com being the other three.
Obviously my main focus is to make money online, but here at AdsenseAddict the goal is to help others not only earn money online but also help them find ways to market and advertise their site and attract quality visitors.
WebBannerz.com was phase one of my plan to help people advertise their site using banner exchanges. But as you know there are a lot of free banner exchange sites out there, but i felt most lacked something.
That is where BuyPixAds.com is different. I call it Unconventional Advertising - The Pixelated Advertising Site. You purchase pixel ad space on our home page and the price is calculated on the number of pixels your logo or banner occupies.
Don’t worry, it does not cost $1 a pixel or anything crazy like that. We are charging $0.02 per
10×10 pixel block. So for example if you would like to purchase a 125×125 ad space, it would cost just under $3US per month.
It works out to be less than 10 cents a day! So if you are looking for a different way to advertise what have you got to lose.
The following sizes are accepted, 100×100, 125×125, 200×200 and 468×60 logos or banners. Prices are per month. And please no porn or nudity pictures.
Besides the benefit of gaining traffic when submitting your logo or banner, you can specify a title and alt tag value for your site so hopefully BuyPixAds.com will also help improve your rankings with search engines as all links will be counted as backlinks to your website or blog.
About Bidvertiser
In 2003, Bpath spotted the need of website owners to sell their ad space directly to advertisers, overcoming the disadvantages of automated systems, like Google's AdSense and Overture' Content Match, where neither the advertiser nor the publisher has any control of the advertisements' quality, pricing and timing. Bidvertiser On-Site Bid Per Click offers website owners with the ability to sell their ad space, automatically, to the highest bidder, on a price-per-click basis, where the price is mostly effected by the quality and popularity of their website. Advertisers can place ads directly on sites of their choice and pay only when a visitor clicks-through their site. Bidvertiser serves text ads in all types of standard ad units, including banners, buttons, skyscrapers and inline ads.
Network Standards
Bidvertiser has strict guidelines for its participating publishers and advertisers. We manually review each website and ad to ensure our publishers the highest yielding ads, and the best conversion rates for our advertisers.
About Bpath
Since 1997, Bpath has been providing its services and tools as private labeled add-ons to the leading web hosting and domain registration providers. Bpath’s private labeled website tools leverage any web hosting or domain registration platform by expending its offering while generating new and stable revenue stream. Bpath provides its services to a loyal audience of more than half a million webmasters and thousands joining daily. Over 80% of Bpath’s customers are small business owners that are using the services through one of its partners. Bpath is privately owned by the management team. The management team has had over 10 years of experience in the internet market, and have managed to use the ups and downs of this industry to strengthen Bpath and make it a leader in its field.
Friday, May 23, 2008
7 Strategies to Help you Get Started Immediately - Blogging
You can make money from blogging. It can pay for your bills. It does work for everyone. There’s no secret and you’ll just really need to know how to get started and which blogging framework to follow.
It’s not a difficult process at all and this post will provide 7 distinct methods you can use to generate substantial income from blogging. These seven methods are strategies you can adopt right from the beginning, preferably before you set up your first blog.
You can think of them as guidelines which point out the different options you have, if you’re serious about using blogging as a method of making money online.
1. The “Flagship” or Big Blog Route
This is simultaneously the most profitable and most time-consuming blog venture. The flagship method directs all your focus on a few blogs in order to make them incredibly popular in their niche. Flagship blogs should have a large audience as well as high daily visitor traffic numbers.
These type of big blogs have a wide variety of monetization options with direct advertising sales being a big part of it. Know that not everyone can successfully create a big blog so attempt this route only if you absolutely believe that you have the networking skills, niche knowledge and marketing know-how that’s needed.
Benefits: Fame as well as more monetization options/potential for your blogs, alongside personal satisfaction. Another advantage is that big blogs usually market or promote themselves automatically once a certain level of fame has been achieved.
Disadvantages: Very time-consuming especially if you are not outsourcing the content creation or marketing duties. Expect a lot of work and experiment with creative promotional ideas if you decide to go this route.
2. The “Pay per Post” or Get Paid to Blog Route
This is rather simple. Set up multiple niche blogs on either your own domains or free blog hosts like Blogger. Maintain them over a period of time and focus on writing content and building up their Google PageRank, link profile and Alexa Rank.
Submit all of your blogs to multiple get paid to blog websites like Blogitive, Blogsvertise, Review Me, Sponsored Reviews, PayperPost, LoudLaunch and then start writing sponsored posts. I highly recommending using PayperPost as they simply have the largest amount of paid offers available.
Benefits: The greatest strength of this method is that you don’t even need a large audience to make money. 20 people could be visiting and reading your blogs everyday and you’ll still be able to make at least $15 a day from each blog. If skillfully done over multiple blogs, this method can allow you to easily make over $1.5 K a month.
Disadvantages: No passive income. You’ll need to spend time writing multiple sponsored blog posts, which can be boring and time consuming. Work will also be needed to maintain your multiple blogs, although that will be minimal after they have been optimized and running for some time.
3. The Automated Blogging or Splog Route
Automated blogging involves the setting up of blogs which automatically pull content from RSS feeds, search engines and news sources to serve as content on your website.
Some bloggers set this to pull full RSS feeds which does go against some copyrights and one can choose to only include excerpts with a link back to the site in question. Monetization for automated sites is usually done through contextual ads like Google Adsense or affiliate programs.
Benefits: Very little work needed to maintain these blogs as they do not need you to actively generate or write content. You might need to do a little SEO and regular maintenance now and then. Try if you are adventurous.
Disadvantage: A weak potential for profit unless you understand the entire process perfectly and if you have quite a large number of blogs.I estimate that a fully automated blog will make you around $5 a month although the actual value depends on the niche and your skills. Assuming that this is so, you’ll need 1,000 blogs to make around $5000 a month. Splogs dwell in ethically gray areas as well.
4. The Text Link Selling Blog Route
The main bulk of your income through this method comes from selling text links to various webmasters and businesses who want to improve their site ranking in Google. While text link selling works for the flagship or other blog models as well, sites can be primarily built for text link sales as well.
The overwhelming emphasis here is on Google PageRank and niche relevancy so you’ll need to focus on these two factors. You can either convert a domain into a text link and sponsored post selling blog or you can purchase a domain with existing PageRank to sell text links for a quick buck. I suggest looking for link buyers directly through webmaster forums.
Benefits: Selling text links or contextual text links is rather easy and doesn’t involve much work. Potential for profit will correspond to your Google Page Rank and niche. A site with a high PageRank and a profitable niche (mortgages, credit cards) will be very attractive to link buyers. Like paid review blogs, traffic is not a factor in these blogs as well.
Disadvantages: Over Reliance on the Google PageRank algorithm means that your income may rise or fall depending on your actual Page Rank. There may also be a limit to the number of links you can sell which leads to an income ceiling.
5. The Made-for-Adsense or Made-for-Affiliate-Program Route
This involves setting up a blog around a specific topic with moderately high priced keywords (e.g. teeth whitening, car loans). You’ll only need to create around 25 keyword rich articles on the topic, optimize it for search, set up Adsense or affiliate programs and then leave them alone.
The main emphasis is on building links to the specific webpages, according to the long tail keywords you want to target. Search engine visitors will then find your blog and either click on the ads or convert on a product.
Benefits: Not a lot of time involved as you can usually contract an experienced writer to develop the keyword rich articles. Not much time is needed to update the blogs as well and new material can be added on a bi-weekly or even monthly basis.
Disadvantages: There might be a lot of competition in a profitable niche and search traffic might not lead to sufficient income, unless you go for volume and set up dozens of similar websites in other niches as well.
6. The Blog Network or Contract Blogging Route
This involves joining a blog network and getting paid to maintain and create content for blogs. You’ll get paid according to the amount of pageviews, possibly receive a token base fee in the hundreds or a share of the blog’s ad revenue.
Benefits. Relatively stable monthly income because of the base fee. Contract work usually leads to more freelance blogging or writing assignments because of your proven ability or association with a specific organization.
Disadvantages: Why bother? If you’re that good at creating and promoting a blog, set up your own website and keep all the profits. However, it is useful to note that a lot depends on the type of network or contract agreement you receive.
7. The Blog-as-Marketing or Branding Route
This method will only apply if you own an online business or provide a freelance service like web design, copy writing or marketing consultation. A blog can be used to help promote your personal or business brand and attract more customers.
This is an indirect method of making money. Ideally, this sort of a blog shouldn’t be plastered with ads or paid reviews because it can tarnish the image of the brand.
Benefits. A blog can help your brand or business to develop much more search visibility because it allows you to easily create more fresh content that caters to specific demographics as well.
Disadvantages. Your blog will only be as useful as the quality of the service or product you are pushing. The amount of money you earn doesn’t entirely depend on the quality of the blog but the value of your service/product as well. Income is therefore indirect and can be inconsistent.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are several strategies you can choose if you’re interesting in making money from blogs. To ensure maximum success, be sure to pick one that suits your personal schedule, skill level and interests.
To receive more tips on how to make money blogging, consider subscribing to Dosh Dosh’s RSS blog feed or sign up for free email updates.
It’s not a difficult process at all and this post will provide 7 distinct methods you can use to generate substantial income from blogging. These seven methods are strategies you can adopt right from the beginning, preferably before you set up your first blog.
You can think of them as guidelines which point out the different options you have, if you’re serious about using blogging as a method of making money online.
1. The “Flagship” or Big Blog Route
This is simultaneously the most profitable and most time-consuming blog venture. The flagship method directs all your focus on a few blogs in order to make them incredibly popular in their niche. Flagship blogs should have a large audience as well as high daily visitor traffic numbers.
These type of big blogs have a wide variety of monetization options with direct advertising sales being a big part of it. Know that not everyone can successfully create a big blog so attempt this route only if you absolutely believe that you have the networking skills, niche knowledge and marketing know-how that’s needed.
Benefits: Fame as well as more monetization options/potential for your blogs, alongside personal satisfaction. Another advantage is that big blogs usually market or promote themselves automatically once a certain level of fame has been achieved.
Disadvantages: Very time-consuming especially if you are not outsourcing the content creation or marketing duties. Expect a lot of work and experiment with creative promotional ideas if you decide to go this route.
2. The “Pay per Post” or Get Paid to Blog Route
This is rather simple. Set up multiple niche blogs on either your own domains or free blog hosts like Blogger. Maintain them over a period of time and focus on writing content and building up their Google PageRank, link profile and Alexa Rank.
Submit all of your blogs to multiple get paid to blog websites like Blogitive, Blogsvertise, Review Me, Sponsored Reviews, PayperPost, LoudLaunch and then start writing sponsored posts. I highly recommending using PayperPost as they simply have the largest amount of paid offers available.
Benefits: The greatest strength of this method is that you don’t even need a large audience to make money. 20 people could be visiting and reading your blogs everyday and you’ll still be able to make at least $15 a day from each blog. If skillfully done over multiple blogs, this method can allow you to easily make over $1.5 K a month.
Disadvantages: No passive income. You’ll need to spend time writing multiple sponsored blog posts, which can be boring and time consuming. Work will also be needed to maintain your multiple blogs, although that will be minimal after they have been optimized and running for some time.
3. The Automated Blogging or Splog Route
Automated blogging involves the setting up of blogs which automatically pull content from RSS feeds, search engines and news sources to serve as content on your website.
Some bloggers set this to pull full RSS feeds which does go against some copyrights and one can choose to only include excerpts with a link back to the site in question. Monetization for automated sites is usually done through contextual ads like Google Adsense or affiliate programs.
Benefits: Very little work needed to maintain these blogs as they do not need you to actively generate or write content. You might need to do a little SEO and regular maintenance now and then. Try if you are adventurous.
Disadvantage: A weak potential for profit unless you understand the entire process perfectly and if you have quite a large number of blogs.I estimate that a fully automated blog will make you around $5 a month although the actual value depends on the niche and your skills. Assuming that this is so, you’ll need 1,000 blogs to make around $5000 a month. Splogs dwell in ethically gray areas as well.
4. The Text Link Selling Blog Route
The main bulk of your income through this method comes from selling text links to various webmasters and businesses who want to improve their site ranking in Google. While text link selling works for the flagship or other blog models as well, sites can be primarily built for text link sales as well.
The overwhelming emphasis here is on Google PageRank and niche relevancy so you’ll need to focus on these two factors. You can either convert a domain into a text link and sponsored post selling blog or you can purchase a domain with existing PageRank to sell text links for a quick buck. I suggest looking for link buyers directly through webmaster forums.
Benefits: Selling text links or contextual text links is rather easy and doesn’t involve much work. Potential for profit will correspond to your Google Page Rank and niche. A site with a high PageRank and a profitable niche (mortgages, credit cards) will be very attractive to link buyers. Like paid review blogs, traffic is not a factor in these blogs as well.
Disadvantages: Over Reliance on the Google PageRank algorithm means that your income may rise or fall depending on your actual Page Rank. There may also be a limit to the number of links you can sell which leads to an income ceiling.
5. The Made-for-Adsense or Made-for-Affiliate-Program Route
This involves setting up a blog around a specific topic with moderately high priced keywords (e.g. teeth whitening, car loans). You’ll only need to create around 25 keyword rich articles on the topic, optimize it for search, set up Adsense or affiliate programs and then leave them alone.
The main emphasis is on building links to the specific webpages, according to the long tail keywords you want to target. Search engine visitors will then find your blog and either click on the ads or convert on a product.
Benefits: Not a lot of time involved as you can usually contract an experienced writer to develop the keyword rich articles. Not much time is needed to update the blogs as well and new material can be added on a bi-weekly or even monthly basis.
Disadvantages: There might be a lot of competition in a profitable niche and search traffic might not lead to sufficient income, unless you go for volume and set up dozens of similar websites in other niches as well.
6. The Blog Network or Contract Blogging Route
This involves joining a blog network and getting paid to maintain and create content for blogs. You’ll get paid according to the amount of pageviews, possibly receive a token base fee in the hundreds or a share of the blog’s ad revenue.
Benefits. Relatively stable monthly income because of the base fee. Contract work usually leads to more freelance blogging or writing assignments because of your proven ability or association with a specific organization.
Disadvantages: Why bother? If you’re that good at creating and promoting a blog, set up your own website and keep all the profits. However, it is useful to note that a lot depends on the type of network or contract agreement you receive.
7. The Blog-as-Marketing or Branding Route
This method will only apply if you own an online business or provide a freelance service like web design, copy writing or marketing consultation. A blog can be used to help promote your personal or business brand and attract more customers.
This is an indirect method of making money. Ideally, this sort of a blog shouldn’t be plastered with ads or paid reviews because it can tarnish the image of the brand.
Benefits. A blog can help your brand or business to develop much more search visibility because it allows you to easily create more fresh content that caters to specific demographics as well.
Disadvantages. Your blog will only be as useful as the quality of the service or product you are pushing. The amount of money you earn doesn’t entirely depend on the quality of the blog but the value of your service/product as well. Income is therefore indirect and can be inconsistent.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are several strategies you can choose if you’re interesting in making money from blogs. To ensure maximum success, be sure to pick one that suits your personal schedule, skill level and interests.
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Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Intresting way to make some cash / I didn't use it/
Hi,
Here's an amazing report that shows you how to make real money from home - with the internet...
Grab yours now before it's gone:
http://tinyurl.com/57uroj
This simple report truly helps you to get a full-time income from home with just a computer and internet connection...
It even includes a *ready-made* business built in for you!
When you own this report, you can have access to the amazing "Instant Income System" that makes you $150+ over and over again...
Get this now and relax at home with cash coming in 24/7!
http://tinyurl.com/57uroj
Here's an amazing report that shows you how to make real money from home - with the internet...
Grab yours now before it's gone:
http://tinyurl.com/57uroj
This simple report truly helps you to get a full-time income from home with just a computer and internet connection...
It even includes a *ready-made* business built in for you!
When you own this report, you can have access to the amazing "Instant Income System" that makes you $150+ over and over again...
Get this now and relax at home with cash coming in 24/7!
http://tinyurl.com/57uroj
Socially Responsible Investing - Greening the Global Economy
After a 15th anniversary year of big issues, exciting interviews and excellent articles, many of which were widely reprinted, we return with even more information for this Spring 2008 edition.
It all took time, especially the highly anticipated "SRI Trends Report," which reveals that the SRI expansion has led to new possibilities in sustainable investments for institutional and individual investors, private and public pension plans, university endowments, foundations and expanding SRI mutual funds.
It's exciting that the world is catching up to the ideas we've shared together over the last decade and a half. The multibillion-dollar Green Business sectors of the U.S. and global economies will prove vital in the years ahead. Thus, venture capital seeks innovative green companies and technologies while mutual funds reflect soaring demand for cleaner energy and greener investments.
SRI growth in community investing and shareholder activism also continues. Community development loans are stimulating local economic development and social change around the world. Community investing and microfinance resources like kiva.org and Microplace, a new subsidiary of EBay, are providing impactful investment opportunities around the world.
Could the Greening of America actually be happening?
Publications such as Business Week, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and US News and World Report have given SRI more mainstream coverage then ever before, encouraging discussions in many new arenas including the now frequent 'Going Green' segments on CNBC.
Indeed, the green spectrum is getting a bit thin in places. Although we appreciate the increasing media coverage and stated corporate commitments, we are concerned about greenwashing. Standards must be applied to green claims. Authenticity matters.
Is there a way to enjoy growth and prosperity…and save our planet too?
This issue offers some answers. We begin with the new SRI Trends Report from the Social Investment Forum, Joe Keefe of Pax World Funds continues his series on SRI and sustainable investing, and GreenMoney's Ted Ketcham looks into ten of the new green mutual funds. We close with vital insights for our future: Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, a blueprint (or greenprint) for a more sustainable world.
Here on greenmoney.com you'll find more then a dozen additional SRI articles, including three exclusively for GreenMoney: SRI in the UK & Europe by Lisa Hayles and Stephanie Maier of EIRIS (Ethical Investment Research Service Ltd.), and a profile of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center as well as a look inside a new book by Richard Asplund entitled "Profiting from Clean Energy." Also, see the 2008 Social Capitalist awards from Fast Company.
Green and sustainability-focused conferences around the globe are yet another indicator of increasing awareness. In the coming year on our greenmoney.com calendar we currently count over 150 conferences and events. Participate. Educate yourself so you may educate others.
Globally much is happening with SRI, including the new UK Ethical Investment Week in May, marking the first occasion on which the financial services industry and grassroots organizations will join to encourage people to consider ethical investment, details at- http://www.neiw.org . Also in May, the Triple Bottom Line Investing (TBLI) Asia conference will be held in Bangkok, Thailand, details at- http://www.tbli.org. See our global green events calendar (http://www.greenmoneyjournal.com/page.mpl/calendar.html ) for more spring events like the Green Festivals in Seattle and Chicago as well as the BALLE Conference in Boston.
A bit closer to home, at the LOHAS 12 Forum on June 18-21 in Boulder, CO, leaders will gather to promote and discuss the $209 billion lifestyles of health and sustainability marketplace. Global executives from various sectors will intersect to share common interests and develop unique business relationships. The expected 700 attendees can attend keynote speeches as well as sessions on the LOHAS Market Size and Consumer Trends, Conscious Money, How to Pitch to Conscious Investors, The Future of Green Media, Authentic Leadership, Ethical and Fair Trade Sourcing, and Sustainable Product Design. More details at- http://www.lohas.com
Monday, May 19, 2008
Make Money Online (Without Spending a Dime)
Even with no product and no Web site, you can get paid for what and who you know
Making money online used to pretty much require you to have your own Web site, products to sell and some marketing savvy. But a new generation of dot-coms have arisen that will pay you for what you know and who you know without you having to be a web designer or a marketing genius.
But it's hard to tell hype from the real deal. I did a search on "make money online" and "making money online", and much of the information out there is just promoting various infoproducts, mostly about Internet marketing. I see why people sometimes ask, "Is anyone making money online besides Internet marketing experts?"
So I put together a list of business opportunities with legitimate companies that:
Pay cash, not just points towards rewards or a chance to win money
Don't require you to have your own Web domain or your own products
Don't involve any hard-selling
Aren't just promoting more Internet marketing
Give a good return on your time investment
In the interest of objectivity, none of the links below are affiliate links, and none of them have paid or provided any other consideration for their presence here.
Sponsored Links
Make Cash £200 - £500p.w.
quick setup Start making money today
loadsofcashforfree.blogspot.com
Earnings Money Traders
Invest See Your Earnings Gaining. Get Real Success Online Easily.
www.earningsmoneytraders.com
Easy $5000 a month
Don't cry anymore we'll teach you how to earn money, join free
www.cashonline.com
These are legitimate companies with business models that allow you to get paid for a wide range of activities.
Help friends find better jobs.
Sites like H3.com and JobThread connect employers with prospective employees, many of whom are already employed and not actively job-hunting, via networking - the people who know these qualified candidates. Rewards for referring a candidate who gets hired range from a few hundred dollars to as much as $5,000 - not chump change. This is a great way to break into the recruiting business with no overhead. JobThread is intriguing in that they can set up a job board for your site or your organization (you don't even have to have a web site) at no cost to you -- no merchant account required. You determine the posting fees and split the revenue with them.
Connect suppliers with buyers.
Referral fees are a common practice in business, but they haven't been used much in online networking sites because there was no way to track them. InnerSell provides that. Vendors set the referral fees they're willing to pay, then when a deal happens, you get 70% of the referral fee.
Provide business contact information.
One of the greatest challenges in sales is getting accurate contact information about prospective customers. A growing number of services have launched in the past couple of years to help address this, but most rely on members to maintain their own contact information. Jigsaw, on the other hand, pays members to help keep information up-to-date on the people they know, not just themselves, and pays them to do so ($1 for each unique new qualifying contact you put into the system). According to Jigsaw, in their first payout after launch, the top ten point-earns each received more than $750.
Become a semi-pro reporter.
Creative Reporter is a new program from Creative Weblogging that lets just about anyone become a paid reporter/blogger. They're looking for people to create original, but non-exclusive, blog posts / articles of 250-500 words on topics including parenting, celebrities, travel, mobile technology, and more. Pay is $10 per 1,000 page views on your posts (that's excellent pay for Web writing, although there's no telling how much traffic/money you'll actually get).
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