Posted by admin on Jan 31, 2009 in
Monetization Well hello there guys, welcome back to the blog. Today’s post is all about the practices of monetizing our blogs and the methods we will use to do this. It’s a pretty simple concept and today I’m just going to highlight various methods.
Website Monetization
Now that we have a fully functioning blog with lots of content and hopefully a flow of visitors it’s time for us to place things on our blogs to make us money, as that’s what this is all about. Technically we could have, and maybe we should have, put this into practice before we began promotion but it kind of slipped my mind. Either way it doesn’t really matter just as long as we get some form of monetization onto our blog so that we can get results. Here are the things which I will discuss on this blog.
1. Adsense
AdSense is the ad serving platform created by Google which appears on many websites. You can tell if an advertisement is AdSense because it will say, “Ads by Google” somewhere on it. This is used by many webmasters and is by far the most popular but not necessarily the most profitable.
2. Commision Junction/ Clickbank Products
These are 2 different affiliate programs that allow you to send visitors to buy products and you make a commission on each sale you send through. This method offers a good amount of money to be made but it is also a little more difficult to get sales. Even if you get click throughs to the sale’s site it isn’t guaranteed to get you any money. However, it is still well worth it because when you do make a sale it usually has a significant amount of money for you.
3. Amazon and other Affiliate Programs
If you’re niche has more to do with physical products or other things there you are likely to be able to find an affiliate program for items in your niche. Amazon has a great affiliate program that pays you a percentage on sales and is by far one of the best physical item affiliate programs. If you need an affiliate program just do a Google search with your niche keyword and affiliate program and you should find at least one to promote.
In tomorrow’s post I will discuss AdSense more in depth and then I will also discuss the other methods further. That’s all for today.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: adsense, Monetization
Posted by admin on Jan 30, 2009 in
promotion Welcome back everyone. Today we are going to discuss Squidoo and how we can generate traffic from it. Squidoo is basically a small website for you to use that’s usually used to educate people and we are going to use it to get people to our blogs. Let’s go.
Squidoo Visitors to Your Site
So as I said before, Squidoo is basically a site that allows you to build your own one page websites one whatever topic you choose. These one page sites are targeted on one specific topic and are very easy to make. There’s a good lens that talks about all of this in a crash course on Squidoo that is very helpful for all the basics of Squidoo.
Generating traffic from your lens to your site is actually pretty easy to do. As long as you offer quality content on your lens odds are that people will click to your site which is exactly what you want them to do. When I create a lens I want minimal distractions for my visitors. So I place just content on my lens with links back to my site. That is another thing you will gain from Squidoo, quality backlinks from a high ranking website.
A good way to get people to your site is to offer something for free. Say a free ebook download on your topic. You offer this on your lens and place a link to the signup form on your site. They sign up, you get people on your email list, and you get traffic. It’s a win-win.
Creating a lens is really easy so there’s really no excuse not to be leveraging this for your own site. So sign up to Squidoo, create a lens on the topic of your niche, place links back to your site, and if you have an email list to build send them to where they can sign up. Making a decent lens could take about 30 minutes or so depending on how long it takes you to write up the content for your lens. Also one last bit, I advise that you bookmark your lens in at least Digg so that your lens gets a little bit extra boost. Well, that’s it so good luck on building your lens!
Popularity: 68% [?]
Tags: promotion, squidoo
Posted by admin on Jan 29, 2009 in
Graphics Hello again everybody. Today’s post is going to be about favicons. We are going to be talking more about the look of our site today rather then the content or promotion of our sites. Let’s get started!
Favicons Make Your Site Memorable
In case you don’t know what a favicon is it is that little picture in your browser next to your window of the site you’re on. The best example I can think of is Google’s favicon which used to be this, 
, but now it’s a little different. Favicons bring memorability to your websites because most people enjoy seeing these images rather then a blank image.
Favicons are really easy to create and they are just 16X16 images commonly saved in the .ico format. You can download a tool that will create images in the .ico format or you can just use one of various tools online that will do it for you. My personal favorite is Favicon.cc because it’s easy to use, gives you a preview, and simply lets you download your image once you’re done. Once you have a completed favicon you simply upload it to the root folder of your hosting where you upload your other files. Unless you have a .png or .jpg then you won’t have to edit any code but if you do have one of those then just upload it into Favicon.cc and it will convert it to a .ico so you don’t have to mess with any tricky code.
As alwyas you can do this yourself or you can hire someone else to do it for you. If you are going to hire someone to do it for you then I would suggest that you buy a whole lot of graphics. You might as well purchase a banner, header, ad graphics, and a favicon so you can jsut get it all at once and probably save a little money in the process. As usual you can find people for graphic work all over the place but I usually like to stick with the WarriorForum because everyone there is just so awesome.
Whether you hire someone or not you should create a favicon just because it helps people remember your site and it gives your site a little bit more credibility from your visitors. I know that when I visit a site that doesn’t have a favicon I might think a little less of it, and yes I know this site doesn’t have one yet, but I’m working on it. That’s all for today.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: favicon, Graphics
Posted by admin on Jan 28, 2009 in
Content,
development Well now that we have taken all the steps to where we need to be I am going to start talking about various topics that are important to developing your blogs once they get off the ground. We need to keep up with our blogs so that they don’t die off and our efforst can reap some rewards. So today I’m going to talk about how to oursource your writing so you can focus on other things.
Outsourcing Saves a TON of Time
Outsourcing is the act of paying someone else to do work for you. It’s a simple concept and it saves you a lot of time but it does cost you money. However, if you find a quality person to do your writing or other activities then you will get plenty of quality for your money. In the long run it is always well worth it to spend a few extra dollars for your content because if you buy low quality content you will ust have to spend your time going through and editing it and fixing any errors it may contain. That is really annoying since you basically paid someone for a rough draft of an article. I’m a person that never likes to waste any time so for me I always try to spend a little more if it means not having to edit the article later.
Now that we know what outsourcing essentially means we can find places to get the people to write our articles. There are many places you can go to oursource your writing but one of my favorite places to find writers is the WarriorForum because there are many skilled and experienced writers there that can really help you out. They may cost a little bit more but they are so much better then other writers I have hired. It’s pretty easy to find people there that are available to write content for you. If you scroll down and go to the Warriors For Hire section you can see many offers for content creation. After taking a quick look at the current offers I’d say the average price per article is around $5 but some threads have articles at $3 per and as high as $10 per article. I think that’s a pretty good representation of what you will find there. My suggestion is find one person who you feel will do the best for you, purchase a few articles to see what quality you get and if you like it stick with this person long term. It’s always best to get long term agreements because it builds a relationship and often saves you money.
You don’t have to outsource your article writing but if you are feeling like you are getting too busy to write for your blogs then I suggest you do it. Also, if you start developing multiple blogs at once it becomes quite tiresome to write posts for each one and it is often easier to just outsource it while you work on other things. Whether you outsource or not is up to your but I tell you it will help you out and probably will make you more productive! That’s all for today so I’ll see you guys tomorrow.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: outsourcing
Posted by admin on Jan 27, 2009 in
Basics,
promotion After seeing a discussion on this topic in a forum earlier I decided to take a look at this subject and disucss it here. This is a perfect example of what I talked about before, finding topics to discuss from blogs. Let’s get started.
Does PR Matter?
Well first off PR stands for PageRank and it is a number that Google gives to websites that range from 0-10. 10 is the best and 0 is the worst, but I want to discuss if having a 0 PR site really is the worst. Many webmasters will rank their success by the PageRank of their sites. However, I think this is the wrong thing to think about because PageRank isn’t the only factor of success, and in some cases it doesn’t even affect your success. Too many people think that PageRank is the end all but in fact it really isn’t.
I have seen in many cases that 0 PR sites can actually out rank higher PR sites in Google. It’s a fact that Google doesn’t rank sites in Google based upon their PR, just go search any term and you will see fluctuation between each site’s PR. In my experience I have had sites with 0 PR rank first for certain keywords over sites with much higher PR. In my opinion that is way better then having a good PR because if I don’t get traffic and results with a higher PR then it’s useless to me. Ranking in Google is always my number one concern and it should be yours too.
So basically when you are creating your sites you shouldn’t even worry about PageRank because it’s not worth the hassle to worry. The only time PR is worth anything is when you are selling your sites to other people, but it usually ends up that they don’t understand PR either. Just try and get into Google for your desired search terms and you will see PR follow, just keep working at it. See you later.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: pagerank
Posted by admin on Jan 26, 2009 in
Content Over the past few days we have discussed various ways to promote your website. Today however we are just going to discuss something that I have discovered that cna be really helpful. Recently I have discovered that using the forums that I have been posting on actually allow me to come up with new article ideas. I just want to share with you this information.
Using Forums to Get Article Ideas
The vast amount of knowledge that is on most forums is pretty impressive. Every minute new information is being posted for everyone to see and sometimes this can lead to new ideas for your own websites. Lately I have been seeing that using these ideas I can actually create articles for either my site or to submit to article directories. Some days I just can’t think of what to talk about but when I go to forums I can see what people are discussing. If there is a certain need that I am able to solve then that is one thing I can write about. If there are questions about a topic then that is another thing that I can target. It’s all about answering people’s needs.
Most of the time if a forum full of dedicated followers in a niche will have similar problems or questions. If some have questions then more then likely others will also have questions. That is perfect because we can answer these questions by using our blogs. One thing that I’ve heard stressed a lot is that you should always be trying to solve people’s needs. So if you know of a need make sure you capitalize on that and answer it! It really is the perfect opportunity to use your knowledge to help other people out.
The next time you see someone on a forum ask a question then just jot it down on Notepad for later use. That’s how I do it so that whenever I’m short of ideas I cna just open up my list and pick one to talk about for that particular day. It’s a great method if you are having trouble with ideas and it could be very beneficial to your blog. See you guys tomorrow.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Tags: Content, ideas, writing
Posted by admin on Jan 25, 2009 in
promotion Today will conclude my promotion discussion. Today is all about how and where to get paid promotion for your website. Over the past few days we have discussed other various methods to promote your website but today is all about using paid services to get traffic to your site.
Paid Promotion isn’t For Everyone
First I must say that not everyone should use these methods. They require money, and I understand that not everyone has a constant supply that they can put into a website. However, if you do have money then using the paid services can be very useful and profitable. I don’t want people blowing every last cent they have on paid promotion methods so please, if you don’t feel you have enough money then don’t do this. Stick with the free methods and you should be just fine, only difference is it will just take a little longer to see results.
The first way to use your money to get people to your site is pay per click, or PPC. This is most usally attributed to Google because they are the major search engine that does it. Whenever you do a search on Google on the right side there is a sponsored link section. This is where people like you and I pay to get our advertisments up there to ge tpeople to our site. You don’t pay per person that sees your ad but rather, per click, thus the name PPC. This method is most notably used in affiliate marketing where people get visitors to their sites and then hope to get them to buy products. However, we cna use this just to get people to our site. It’s pretty easy. AdWords is the most popular way to do this so you can sign up there, and if you signed up to HostGator then you most likely got a $100 credit to AdWords that you can use. This is useful because it allows you to test and get used to the tools before spending your own money. Now you simply make an ad, enter your payment details so that Google can be paid, and then the ad goes live. Depending on your niche you could see results quickly or it may take a while but you will see results. Also each clcik will cost different depending on your niche. Once you start getting results you need to work on your ad copy to try and get better conversions and a better quality score.
Next is a prety simple concept. You pay someone to get your banner or link on their site. This method usually charges a per month, or per 1000 visitors, depends on where you get it and who it is. These are prety easy to find, and you can go to a site like DigitalPoint where tons of people have sites where you cna place your link. The price will vary from site to site but one thing to make sure is keep it in the same niche. Pretty easy concept.
That’s all the methods that I would use if I was going to pay to get traffic to my site. Another method I may consider is a sponsored review but those are generally quite expensive. Hopefully after all of this promtion talk you guys have some traffic coming to your site everyday. See you guys tomorrow.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: promotion
Posted by admin on Jan 24, 2009 in
promotion Today we are going to continue on the path of our website promotion discussion and today look at article marketing. Some call artilce marketing “bum marketing” but we won’t be using it that way. We aren’t going to be using it the way bum marketers do however, because we will use it as an additonal support to our websites. Let’ get started.
Article Marketing 101
The basics of article marketing is basically this.
1. Write articles using your keywords you are trying to target.
2. Submit your articles to the most popular article directories.
3. Receive traffic from teh resource box on your articles.
That is everything in a nutshell. Some people will actually use article marketing as their sole income source on the internet by selling affilate items or by selling their own product through the article’s resource box. We however use the resource box for traffic and backlinks. Essentially that is all we really use this for.
The first part is creting your articles. That’s pretty easy, just do what you would normally do when you write a blog post and that’s really all there is to it. The second part is submitting to article directories. The most popular by far is EzineArticles. It’s relatively easy, just sign up and submit. It won’t appear immidiately because they must approve it first but as long as you didn’t do anything against the rules it will show up in a day or two. The resource box you simply put a link back to your website with the desired keyword phrase you wish to rank for. That is it! It is really that easy.
The cons to this method of marketing is that it takes up a lot of time to write your articles. However, it is well worth it to get your articles into these directories because 1 article can send you traffic for a long time. Now imagine that you do 1 article that each brings you 25 visitors a day for a year. That’s 9125 visitors a year from just one single article! Now think of duplicating this with 10, 25, or 50 articles and the traffic you could receive is unimaginable. It does work! You just need to dedicate your time to make sure it does. If you start practicing your writing then you can get your writing time down to 15 minutes per article and just crank them out to get you a real nice set of articles that provide traffic and backlinks to your site. It is worth every second you spend on it so get started now and see the results it can bring.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: article marketing, promotion
Posted by admin on Jan 23, 2009 in
promotion Ok, that was my poor attempt at being punny. Haha, okay that’s it. Today is all about forum promotion of your website. Despite my poor jokes today is pretty fun. It’s all about going on forums and posting as to promote your website. 
Forum Posting is Useful, but Time Consuming
Well yesterday we talked about one form of promotion for your site and today we are discussing another type. Today is all about forum promotion. Everyone know’s what forums are, they are like websites where discussion between many different people takes place and it is very community oriented. Forum promotion is very similar to blog posting in that you go to another site to write small comments to get your link around.
The process is pretty much the same as blog commenting. You search Google for something along the lines of, “your keyword forum” and find one that seems will do the trick. Again we are looking for a forum in our same niche. Then we sign up to the forum. Most forums require email verification so then we go and confirm our emails. Now most forums will require you to do a few posts before you can get an activated signature, the place where we will place our link. So first you must go around and post USEFUL and MEANINGFUL posts that add to the discussion. Then we simply go to the user control panel and insert our link so that we can get that on the forum.
Once you get your minimum posts it’s important that you keep it up, building an authority on your topic is important. Also building a reputation on any forum takes time so don’t ruin it at first. Build it up over time so that you seem more and more reputable. If you are on a very popular website an aged and reputable account is worth a lot. The sooner you start the better.
The downside to forum marketing is the sheer fact that it does take up a lot of time. Some of this time you may want to dedicate to some other aspects of your site. That’s why I recommend only spending a little bit of time each day on this part of your promotion. For my first week on any new forum I try to get anywhere from 50 to 100 posts over the course of a week that are high quality and add to the discussion. This is critical just like it was for blog commenting because no one will respect you if you show up and start spamming links and garbage. So just take it slowly and add something worth while to it.
That’s all there is to it. It’s really simple but it does take up time. If you aren’t willing to devote the time just yet I just recommend you sign up to the forum first so that you can at least start aging your account because it will look a little better. Continue working on your blog, too, and I’ll see you guys tomorrow.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Tags: backlinks, promotion
Posted by admin on Jan 22, 2009 in
SEO,
promotion Welcome back guys. Today is going to be all about the importance of gaining backlinks to get your site higher in the rankings for search engines. Just a side note is that today is my birthday so I’m pretty happy. Let’s get started on today’s lesson.
You Need Backlinks to Win!
Remember way back when we were still doing research? It seems like a while ago but it wasn’t that long ago. Well part of our research was on our competition and one of hte things we looked at was backlinks. This was an important number because it was something we could look at and target for our own promotion. Now we can look back and see how many backlinks should get us near the position of Google, of course there are many other factors other hten backlinks but this is one of the most important.
We’ve talked about getting our links in the bookmarking services that are on the internet. This is just one way to get your link out there and today I will talk about another method that is very effective. This method is called “blog commenting” and it’s really easy to do. It is exactly what you would expect. You go to other blogs and comment on them leaving your link in the comment area. However, there’s a little bit more to it then that. In order to find these blogs I usually just do a quick Google search on, “keyword blog”. This usually allows me to find at least one good blog to comment on. The first thing is that you need to make sure that you are commenting on blogs in your niche. What’s the point on commenting on a dog training blog when you run a site about working out? It wouldn’t make much sense at all. The second thing is that you comment on the higher ranked blogs because that link will be “worth” more in Google’s eyes. You could waste your time getting 100’s of low ranking backlinks but if you get just a few high quality backlinks then you will be on your way. The last thing is that you have the keywords you are trying to rank for as the backlink text. It’s called the “anchor text” and it helps to rank better for your targeted keywords. If you can do those 3 things you will be looking good.
One thing that I must stress however is that you never, and I must say it again, never, ever, spam anyone’s blog just to promote your site. When you comment make sure it’s meaningful and that it will give back to the article or add to the conversation on the article. I personally hate spam so much and once you get a site you will also understand how annoying it is also. So please, for the sake of everyone, don’t spam anyone’s blog with comments, it just isn’t cool.
Well that’s it for now, building backlinks is so important so you need to get on this now. The sooner the better. Backlinking your site is an on going process that never really ends so you need to get in the habit now so that you can continue doing it later down the road. Tomorrow we will discuss another way to get your backlinks in another popular place.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: backlink, promotion, SEO
