Another money making blog: September 2007

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Update: Ad Placement

Ok, finally. I'm back at a computer and can finally wrap up this post. I can now link and so on. So what I was talking about was the Adsense heat map. Here's the link . If you can find a better map, tell me via comments, or email me if you can find my address ;).

I found this image over at "jerm and his shadow". So, what I'm doing in terms of ad placement is quite good. As for the things on the right, I knew that was a bad place to put AdSense.

So now you know, this is these are the places where you should put your ads. Tell me if you have any success, or have any tips or your own strategies. Don't be shy, c'mon! You don't have to register for commenting, you can be anonymous.

Monday, September 3, 2007

Step 5: Getting some traffic to this here blog of yours (step 2)

Continued from part 1.
Bribe a search engine. Why not pay a nominal amount of money to a
search engine, in exchange for a high ranking on that search engine.
Sound like bribery? Well Yahoo are doing it! Pay them money and they
give you a high position on a search result.

Viral marketing. Why not start a viral marketing program. You go and
subtlely mention something along the lines of -insert topic here- blog
and the address. This will get them to maybe tell more people about
it. Then, they'll think its the only good source about that particular
topic, and use it all the time. Sounds like a plan.

Basically the main point of this post was to give you some examples of
good ways to get some traffic to your site. Hope it helped you
somewhat. If YOU have anything to add, such as an idea or a tip, why
not add a comment. Ps: I will be adding to this list as I get
inspiration.
Cheers!

Step 5: Driving some traffic to this here blog of yours (part 1)

Ok, I know I said that I would make a post about ad placements, but
currently I can't use the computer, and am once again using my
cellphone. So let's start on driving some traffic to your site!

Some people may pick up on the fact that this post kind of jumped the
gun, but I'm excited to write this post (I also planned the whole
thing only to find out that I'd chosen the wrong **** topic). Most
blogs, sites, etc. get their traffic from the search engines (and
overzealous family members visiting their site every minute). In order
to get your traffic from a search engine, you need to be ranked high
on that search engine for a particular key word. So, many people
optimise their site for such a thing. Then, they write good,
interesting articles and posts. Yes, this method does indeed work, but
there are many other ways to do such a thing. Lets give some examples:
making comments on other blogs in your topic range (I'm tired of using
the word 'niche'). This really does work rather well, as I have been
doing such a thing and have seen an incremental increase in traffic
over the last two days. But please, don't expect a huge explosion of
200 visitors a day, this is unreasonable. Obviously, if you put about
5 comments on 200 blogs, it could happen. At the moment, you probably
won't even feature on the google search results (I know I'm not),
unless of course you have a tight topic range.

Another method, which I haven't actually tried yet, but its been on
every other blog I've read (another thing you should do, read other
blogs in your topic range). Making a press release can inform a couple
of people of your site, why its important and why they should visit.

Submit to digg. The social news site is famous for sending
server-crunching traffic. This is a difficult thing to do, but if you
work at it, it can send even a couple of curious souls. Remember,
anyone can stumble upon your site, but it takes a good blogger to keep
them there.

I just ran out of letters with which to type! :( Continued later.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Step 4: Where you should place your ads.

This step is basically all about where you should place your ads. I'm
assuming you are using adsense, but it doesn't really matter that
much. Ok, let's start.

As you can (maybe) see, I have ads in three different places. I don't
know if these are 'hotspots', but I do know that there is a chart
which shows you where the hottest zones for ad placements are. I'm too
lazy to link, so you can check yourself by doing a google search for
'adsense heat zones' or something similar. Basically, when you have
found it, it will show that an ad between a post, is very hot. I have
done something similar. Tell me if that's a hotspot :).

Using this chart, you can figure out where the hottest zones are, and
place your ads accordingly. Placing an ad between a post is something
that requires quite a bit of explanation. Unfortunately, I'm posting
this off my phone, and linking and researching is actually impossible.
If you are impatient, do a google search for 'placing adsense between
posts'.

Hopefully, this post has given you some tips on where to place your
ads. Remember, choose a place where the readers are actually forced to
look at it (as in between a post). Also remember not to violate the
terms of service. The next post will tell you how to place adsense in
the middle of a post. Stay tuned.
Cheers.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Update: Carl Ocab

Don't know how recent it is, but Carl Ocab of Carlocab.com, is said to be a mouthpiece of his father. More about the story here. Now I just think the comments are those of jealous people, and they should just leave him alone because he's hugely successful.

Although he is my distant competition (I started this blog recently, he's no. 2 on the google search results!) I still will give him the credit he's due. Carl, you're good.

Step 3: Monetizing your Blog

This is the point everyone has been aching to get to. There are many, many options when it comes to monetizing a blog. You could use text adverts working on a CPC, CPM or CPA basis, video ads, image ads; the possibilities are endless.

The point of this post is to give you some of the most popular options available to you. I would personally recommend text ads, as they are the best for blending in with your content, although banners do draw your attention to them. There are yet more options available within text ads. These are: CPC (cost per click); CPA (cost per action [such as buying a product]) and CPM (cost per impression [usually 1000]). CPC is the new dominant advertising option, whilst CPM was the old option and CPA is the emerging dominant option. I would personally choose CPC, as it can generate the most profits for an average traffic site. Here is a list of the current ad networks available (some networks aren't in business, got info from John Chow.com):

CPC:

CPM:

CPA:

As I said there is a lot of ad networks out there, but bear in mind that some are out of business at time of writing or post writing. I personally love going with AdSense because it is contextual and scans the page itself, which many other ad networks DON'T do.

Making the right choice can be difficult, but here are some tips if you are stuck:

Choose CPC if: You are writing content rich websites which have average traffic and a loyal readership (doesn't apply to new bloggers).

Choose CPM if: You plan on having a website which generates a high amount of views, but not much interesting content (it can still have good content). You do have a loyal readership which returns regularly.

Choose CPA or Affiliate If: You are specializing in a product, and then entice people to buy it from another source.

There is another type of network, this is affiliate advertising. You advertise a product on your website and then people can go to the website and buy it, giving you a percentage of revenues. This is very similar to CPA, but there is a fine difference.

Hope this post has given you information on the different options available to you. It really is up to you what option you choose, but bear in mind that readers prefer CPC.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to comment (no registration).
Cheers!

Step 2: Choosing your topic

This is the topic I would like to get out of the way as soon as possible, because it is quite a frustrating topic to address, as everyone wants me to tell them the topic they should choose.

If you have been searching the internet for any amount of time, you will see that choosing a niche topic is all the rage. A niche is a highly specific topic which you blog about. So, you may be thinking "Oh, well isn't that easy!". Well, to tell you the truth, it really isn't! Many of the niches you have thought of have already been thought of, or, it has no monetization opportunities whatsoever. This can be a problem, especially if you want to make some cash. If not, then go for it.

Here are some examples of bad niches for monetization: "different rulers"; "crete stone colours"; "the Utah Underdogs". A couple of good examples would be: "Ebook information"; "DVD reviews, news and technology". The reason why ebook info is good, is that when you have ebook all over your page, Google will search this against inventory, see results for free ebooks or something, and display the appropriate ads. This is how all new bloggers should think, as it will tell you how successful your blog could possibly be. Always remember to take into account things such as number of people who will actually read your blog, then you will choose a good topic!

You may be thinking, "Wow, I never knew people thought like that!". Well, the truth is people, it is. Maybe not all publishers do it, but majority do use this tactic. The niche that I chose is not something I would recommend to new bloggers, because it is already so well established, and, there are so many big players that I need to beat, that it is very difficult to beat them (I am trying though :)).

Basically, the whole point of this post is, to help you choose a good topic. I hope I've helped you on your way to choosing a good niche. Remember, choose a niche for high monetization!

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to comment (no registration).
Cheers.

First Step: Choosing a Place to Blog

There are a lot of options when it comes to blogging. All these options can easily be confusing to somebody who is new to the scene. So read on to help you choose what would be the best option for you.

Free - Blogger ; Wordpress ; Livejournal (there may be more)
Paid - Typepad

Paid blogging platforms can be much more reliable in certain cases, but I've had hardly any bad experiences with blogger in terms of downtime. Its up to personal preference which you would choose, but it wouldn't be a bad choice using blogger or wordpress for a start-out platform, as you get a free blog, a free sub-domain and very good tools. I personally, choose Blogger over Wordpress, because you can serve AdSense on it (on free wordpress blogs, you can't do this) and I like being able to access things such as AdSense, Gmail and Blogger in one central area (my Google account). I don't have any experience with Typepad or Livejournal personally, but I haven't heard anything bad.

Basically, the whole point of this post, was to give you advice and more importantly, information on the different blogging platforms out there; in the end though, it is your choice.

In the next post I will be giving you the next step in the quest to build a blog!

Cheers!

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Monday, September 3, 2007

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Saturday, September 1, 2007

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