Monday, June 16, 2008
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Offer stuff for free, or hold a contest!
I have seen this done on many sites before and the attention that you get when holding a contest or by giving away something for free is amazing. One of the tricks that online guru John Chow does is offering stuff that he has received from trade shows or things he has laying around in a contest on his site. You can for example set up the contest so that if someone adds your site to their favorites in Technorati by a certain date they are eligible to be randomly picked for your prize. This method not only increases your ranking on a search engine or social networking site but also increases your exposure through referrals as viewers will tell others about your contest.
Try this sometime and see what happens! If you have a great story from your own experience, post it here.
Try this sometime and see what happens! If you have a great story from your own experience, post it here.
Increase your Adsense exposure by running multiple sites
One of the key tricks I've learned over the last few months to increase your Adsense exposure is to create multiple sites, primarily targeted towards various topics that interest you. The key is that the sites must be something you are intested in writing about so you can update and maintain the site without becoming bored with it and losing interest. The adsense program will also only allow you to have up to three banners per page on each site, by running multiple sites you are increasing your exposure for your banners. If you are running three sites with three banners each and your content draws the attention of search engines you are tripling your chances of click throughs on your banners. The tough part if you are blogging or managing multiple sites is keeping the time and interest to focus on each of them, just remember to keep focused and interested and you'll quickly see your account on the rise.
If you have any other advice, please feel free to comment on this post, especially if you have advice on running multiple sites.
If you have any other advice, please feel free to comment on this post, especially if you have advice on running multiple sites.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Basics of Blogging Software
There are many different blogging software formats you can use on the internet, all of them have their benefits as to what they will offer you in the long run as far as customization. Some of these perks will come at a slight cost depending how far you want to go with your blog.
For most of my sites I use WordPress that I have hosted on a server by a hosting company, my favorite of which is BlueHost.com. WordPress is a very customizable format that gives you full control of you site in a very easy to use interface. Without having any knowledge of PHP, HTML, XHTML, and all that other mumbo jumbo you will still be able to make a great site with easy customization, including templates to suit your needs as well as plug-ins to make your life even easier. One of the best and most well known plugins for Wordpress for example is called Adsense-Deluxe, with this plug-in you can easily set the code however you like for your Adsense banners to show up, then use a simple command line in your blog post to call the script. It's extremely easy and intuitive and will save you a huge amount of time while setting up your site and maintaining it.
For most beginners I would highly recommend starting a small blog to feel out if this is your niche or not by creating a free online blog with Blogger.com or WordPress.com, and if you eventually do decide you like it, find a good host that is Fantastico enabled that can easily auto-install your blogging software with your domain name and hosting account. I guarantee you'll never regret the decision of owning your own piece of the internet and working to maintain it for your fellow readers. Please feel free to add your thoughts!
For most of my sites I use WordPress that I have hosted on a server by a hosting company, my favorite of which is BlueHost.com. WordPress is a very customizable format that gives you full control of you site in a very easy to use interface. Without having any knowledge of PHP, HTML, XHTML, and all that other mumbo jumbo you will still be able to make a great site with easy customization, including templates to suit your needs as well as plug-ins to make your life even easier. One of the best and most well known plugins for Wordpress for example is called Adsense-Deluxe, with this plug-in you can easily set the code however you like for your Adsense banners to show up, then use a simple command line in your blog post to call the script. It's extremely easy and intuitive and will save you a huge amount of time while setting up your site and maintaining it.
For most beginners I would highly recommend starting a small blog to feel out if this is your niche or not by creating a free online blog with Blogger.com or WordPress.com, and if you eventually do decide you like it, find a good host that is Fantastico enabled that can easily auto-install your blogging software with your domain name and hosting account. I guarantee you'll never regret the decision of owning your own piece of the internet and working to maintain it for your fellow readers. Please feel free to add your thoughts!
Adsense, YPN, Intellitxt? Who are they and what will they do for me?
As you continue further into your journey into the world of online blogging and monetizing through affiliate programs you are going to see hundreds, if not thousands of different Affiliate programs that all look very tempting to join.
Over time it is best to try various affiliate program to see what works for you and you site, be very careful to make sure that the TOS (Terms of Service) for each program do not conincide with the terms of another service. An example of this (although this isn't the case anymore) is that it used to be you could not run IntelliTXT and Adsense on the same site/page because Google's TOS would not allow for another contextual advertisement to run alongside it. By contextual, they mean that their service bases their ads on the context of your site; you run a tech site, you get tech ads. By running the two services they are in a sense competing with each other, however, the rules have changed recently. In competition with YPN (Yahoo! Publisher Network) Google has loosed it's TOS to allow this as long as the competing banner is not near, or does not in any way directly resemble or compete in the same visual realm as Adsense, therefore you can run Intellitxt and Adsense side by side, YPN banners on the other hand, look just like Google Adsense banners.
This is just a basic rule to remember as you try out various affiliate programs. A great resource for affiliate comparison and value is a personal blog run by internet mogul John Chow. On Chow's site in a previous post back in December of 2006 he runs a recap of his earnings with various affiliate programs, remember however, he takes his time and runs great articles hence a large number of page hits. See his article by clicking here. For a list of other affiliate programs also check out his post listing various programs that should be a great resource to assist you. If you are ever confused by the terminology Wikipedia is where I went and quickly learned the meaning behind such terms as CPM, and CPC.
If you have any other questions, or would like to post some additional information that I may have missed, please feel free to comment and I will try to attach it or create a new post down the road. Enjoy!
Over time it is best to try various affiliate program to see what works for you and you site, be very careful to make sure that the TOS (Terms of Service) for each program do not conincide with the terms of another service. An example of this (although this isn't the case anymore) is that it used to be you could not run IntelliTXT and Adsense on the same site/page because Google's TOS would not allow for another contextual advertisement to run alongside it. By contextual, they mean that their service bases their ads on the context of your site; you run a tech site, you get tech ads. By running the two services they are in a sense competing with each other, however, the rules have changed recently. In competition with YPN (Yahoo! Publisher Network) Google has loosed it's TOS to allow this as long as the competing banner is not near, or does not in any way directly resemble or compete in the same visual realm as Adsense, therefore you can run Intellitxt and Adsense side by side, YPN banners on the other hand, look just like Google Adsense banners.
This is just a basic rule to remember as you try out various affiliate programs. A great resource for affiliate comparison and value is a personal blog run by internet mogul John Chow. On Chow's site in a previous post back in December of 2006 he runs a recap of his earnings with various affiliate programs, remember however, he takes his time and runs great articles hence a large number of page hits. See his article by clicking here. For a list of other affiliate programs also check out his post listing various programs that should be a great resource to assist you. If you are ever confused by the terminology Wikipedia is where I went and quickly learned the meaning behind such terms as CPM, and CPC.
If you have any other questions, or would like to post some additional information that I may have missed, please feel free to comment and I will try to attach it or create a new post down the road. Enjoy!
FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS!!
The one thing to remember upon your entry in the blogging world is to not lose your focus, and do not feel discouraged! It can be very frustrating to put all you time, work, and sweat into your blog just to see a low hit count, however, you can't let this get you down. One thing to remember is that most high paying affiliate programs will not add you until you reach a certain number of total page hits per month, or until your site reaches the 3 month old mark. As discouraging as this can be it also gives you something to strive for! You have three solid months to focus on content, site focus, layout, marketing and more for your blog. I myself have had some blogs that were slow to take off and have quickly started to take off recently because it took time for them to reach out. So, in the journey ahead of you, remember success comes one quality post at a time.. Enjoy the ride!
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Got a new blog and no idea how to increase traffic?
You've created your blog and have added some Adsense banners, but noone is clicking through and you have no idea how to increase traffic. This is a horrible situation that most of us have found ourselves in once entering the online world of blogging, marketing, and earning money.
There are several sites that you can go to that list sites that you can submit your site to such as search engines and blog logs, but I'll do my best to simplify these links so you can steer clear from the garbage sites and save some time. BEWARE! This will take some time and can be nauseating after the 1000th form, but once it's done, it's done! Then you will be able to focus on creating great content articles that will draw new readers, and keep the older ones.
The lowdown.
1) Go to the RSSTop55, scroll about half way down the page (unless you want to read the author content), there you will find links currently starting @ Blog Toplist. Go through as many of these sites and fill out their submit forms. Most of these will add your site to their searchable directories, and some will display your RSS feeds live.
2) Go to the DigitalPoint Forums, and scroll down to the first post by KeithLDick, he makes a great post with LOTS of links and information on getting your blog out and about, including more links on submitting your blog.
3) Add your site to Technorati, a popular and centralized blog listing and search engine. Also, once you have created a compliant sitemap for your site, which you can have auto-generated for your blog depending on the software you are using (such as the Adsense-Deluxe plug-in for WordPress), or you can find a site that will do this for you by either paying or for free. I will have a later posting with more information on doing this. Once you have generated your sitemap, add it to Google (click here for sitemap submission) and Yahoo! for indexing.
4) Create original content, this is the most important part! You'll need to take some time with your posts, if you throw up a bunch of small articles with random garbage your site will never take off. You need to focus on a "niche" in a way. If you write about cars one day, then knitting the next, and something else the next, noone will have a clue where your focus is and that will determine if you will have repeat visitors.
These are the basic for starting your blog, I will add more information about ad placement, site fine-tuning, and individual blog software tips later on. If you have any feedback or additional information, please feel free to add it here.
There are several sites that you can go to that list sites that you can submit your site to such as search engines and blog logs, but I'll do my best to simplify these links so you can steer clear from the garbage sites and save some time. BEWARE! This will take some time and can be nauseating after the 1000th form, but once it's done, it's done! Then you will be able to focus on creating great content articles that will draw new readers, and keep the older ones.
The lowdown.
1) Go to the RSSTop55, scroll about half way down the page (unless you want to read the author content), there you will find links currently starting @ Blog Toplist. Go through as many of these sites and fill out their submit forms. Most of these will add your site to their searchable directories, and some will display your RSS feeds live.
2) Go to the DigitalPoint Forums, and scroll down to the first post by KeithLDick, he makes a great post with LOTS of links and information on getting your blog out and about, including more links on submitting your blog.
3) Add your site to Technorati, a popular and centralized blog listing and search engine. Also, once you have created a compliant sitemap for your site, which you can have auto-generated for your blog depending on the software you are using (such as the Adsense-Deluxe plug-in for WordPress), or you can find a site that will do this for you by either paying or for free. I will have a later posting with more information on doing this. Once you have generated your sitemap, add it to Google (click here for sitemap submission) and Yahoo! for indexing.
4) Create original content, this is the most important part! You'll need to take some time with your posts, if you throw up a bunch of small articles with random garbage your site will never take off. You need to focus on a "niche" in a way. If you write about cars one day, then knitting the next, and something else the next, noone will have a clue where your focus is and that will determine if you will have repeat visitors.
These are the basic for starting your blog, I will add more information about ad placement, site fine-tuning, and individual blog software tips later on. If you have any feedback or additional information, please feel free to add it here.
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