Making Money Through Adsense Firefox Referrals: A Look at Explorer Destroyer

I’ve only recently come across Explorer Destroyer, an interesting website which helps you to make more money from Adsense by switching users from Internet Explorer to the Firefox browser.

As you probably already know, Google’s Adsense referral program will pay you $1 for every person who downloads Firefox from your referral link.

Explorer Destroyer expedites the task of getting more Firefox referrals by offering a free script that allows you to automatically promote Firefox to IE users visiting your website.

Once the script is installed, a message which sells the benefits of using Firefox (along with your referral link) will appear to IE users when they visit your website or blog.

There are three types of settings for the script, depending on how aggressively you want to push for conversions. Installation instructions are clearly provided at the Explorer Destroyer website.

Level 1 will make IE visitors see a message across the top of the page, encouraging them to download Firefox.

Level 2 will direct IE Visitors to a splash plage with a download link and a link to continue to your site.

Level 3 will not allow anyone using IE to access your website. A splash page is shown instead with a Firefox download link. This seems to go against Google’s TOS, so you’ll have to use a regular, non-Adsense referral link instead.

It is interesting to note that Explorer Destroyer was started by a team of four people with the sole aim of overturning Microsoft’s dominance over the web browser market. Their manifesto offers more clues into Explorer Destroyer’s mission:

Firefox is one of the most important software applications in the world because it can play a big part in determining the future of the web. It is crucial that an open-source, standards-based web browser becomes the most popular browser, and Firefox has a shot at being that.

We’ve spent days fixing computers of our family members that have been hobbled by spyware that Internet Explorer allowed in. These annoyances alone more than justify a aggressive campaign to switch people to Firefox.

But what really matters is putting the internet back in the hands of the public and ensuring that the technology that will remake so much of our world in the next 30 years is a public resource not a corporate one.

The Explorer Destroyer idea does seem like it would lead to more Firefox downloads, although it seriously affects web usability because it interrupts the viewing experience of all visitors to your site.

Level 1 of the script setting is the least intrusive and will probably be the only one that is doable for most blogs or websites. Level 2 and 3 might be more successful in getting sign-ups but they will most definitely drive visitors away from your site as well.

See this parody website for an alternative perspective on Explorer Destroyer’s campaign to win more Firefox users.

I haven’t seen any other websites using the script so I’m not 100% sure if the script still works. If anyone has used it before or am currently using it, do leave a comment to let us know if it still works.

Update: According to various readers, the script apparently still works and you can try to download it from Explorer Destroyer’s website.

Enjoyed this post? Do consider subscribing to Dosh Dosh’s RSS blog feed for more quirky and legitimate ways to make money online.

View the Original article

Using Job Boards to Monetize Your Website

Online job boards have been increasingly used by blogs as an additional monetization strategy. I was checking my Feedburner stats today when I came across an ad for Simply Hired’s Job-a-matic, a website which helps you to make money from your site through ready-made job boards.

Initially launched in January 2007, Job-a-matic might not be new to some of you out there. I’ve never written about Job Boards as a way to monetize a blog or website before and I’ll thought it’ll be interesting to examine their potential in general.

Part of the reason why I decided to focus on Job-a-matic was because they offered Feedburner flare integration. Many Dosh Dosh readers are bloggers and Feedburner users as well, so I thought this would be particularly relevant.

How does Job-a-matic Work?

It basically allows you to monetize your site’s audience by selling job listings on your own customized job board to employers who are looking for talents in a specific field.

According to Job-a-matic, putting up a job board on your site adds value to your readers because these targeted listings provides an additional service/feature that is directly beneficial for them.

While your readers will likely tolerate advertising, they’ll view targeted job listings as a valuable addition to your site. And revenue from job listings can quickly outpace that from standard CPC advertising programs as you build your base of listings customers.

How do I Make Money with Job-a-matic?

There are basically two ways you can monetize your site through Job-a-matic:

Click-based revenue from paid job listings from Simply Hired’s database. You’ll earn 30% and they’ll keep 70%. It’s not clear whether if this is on a pay-per-click basis or you’ll earn only when the applicant you referred is hired by the employer.

Sell listings on your own job board. You can set your own price per posting as well as the length of the posting period (E.G. $20 for a period of 30 days).

Job-a-matic is owned by Simply Hired, a vertical search engine which has a large online database of over five million jobs.

These job listings can be easily displayed below the listings that you’ve sold directly on your job board and allows your visitors to access more relevant jobs through your site.

The additional benefit of this is that you’ll also stand to make money by promoting the other paid job listings from Simply Hired’s database.

More information on why this is beneficial for you:

Simply Hired’s paid job listings will appear beneath those that you sell yourself. This feature ensures that the jobs section of your site is always full of listings that can earn you money, even if you don’t have time to sell as many listings as you’d like.

And your visitors always find interesting choices when visiting your jobs section, which keeps them coming back. Which makes it easier for you to sell listings in the future.

Creating A Job Board with Job-a-matic

I’ve signed up for the Job-a-matic and tried creating a job board for Dosh Dosh. The three step process was fairly straightforward and only took a few minutes.

I had the option of setting it on my own domain but I’ve used the default Job-a-matic domain so you can get a rough idea of how the job board looks. All of the current job listings on it come from Simply Hired’s database.

A look at Job-a-matic’s Features

Most of the functionalities available in Job-a-matic can be found in almost all of the other job board providers on the market.

Custom header or footer for the Job Postings, Job Details and FAQ pages

Multiple color themes from brown to green. Very simple and basic color schemes. Functional but not extraordinary.

Use your own domain name through domain mapping. For example, this allows me to use jobs.doshdosh.com instead of the default jobs.jobamatic.com.

Restrict job posts to certain regions in the U.S.A. For example, for New York you can limit jobs to regions like Long Island, Hudson Valley or the Metropolitan Area.

Create custom categories which your jobs will fall under. This determines what types of listings you will get from employers.

Determine if paid job listings or ‘back-fill jobs’ should show up on your job board or not. You can also choose to display a specific number of jobs to show.

Ability to create dynamic widgets to display on your website’s side bar. Needs some tweaking before they can fit perfectly with your site theme. The default widgets are decent but don’t look very impressive.

Promotional Banners and Links. There are currently only five types of promo banners available and I’ll really like to see more creativity and options in the near future.

Feedburner Tools. You’ll be able to advertise your jobs in each feed entry using a Job-a-matic Feedflare.

Other Job Boards and Monetization Potential

The concept of site monetization through job boards isn’t exactly ground-breaking. Other similar companies like JobThread and JobCoin also offer webmasters an easy way to monetize their sites through the inclusion of sponsored job listings.

What stands out is Job-a-matic’s promotional strategy. Unlike other job board services, Simply Hired seems to have specifically targeted blogs through partnerships with Six Apart’s Typepad as well as Feedburner, which has a sizeable market of ready users.

An requirement for monetary success when using job boards is your niche and the size of your audience. If your site is about software programming and commands a very large readership, it won’t be hard to be imagine employers paying for job ads on your site.

Consequently, smaller blogs won’t do well with job boards, even though they might make a very small amount of money through occasional user clicks on other paid listings.

Then again, why would visitors use the job board on your website when they can use a dedicated job search engine like Indeed.com?

Are Collaborative Job Boards the way to go?

A few months ago in January, Techcrunch’s Michael Arrington wrote about Job-a-matic and job-boards in general, offering some insight into site monetization and the Job Board Bubble:

Tools to easily create a job board are great for bloggers who don’t want to spend a couple of thousand dollars to build it themselves. But it will only exacerbate the problem we already have – too many niche job boards all over the place.

Instead, I’d like to see a single job board for tech bloggers, one that we can all sell into, and share the revenues pro-rata. There’s no reason why TechCrunch, VentureBeat, GigaOm, Guy Kawasaki and the others should all have their data in separate silos, aggregated only at the SimplyHired or Edgeio level along with other less interesting listings from all over the planet.

Problogger, a giant in the professional blogging niche has one or two new listings almost everyday on its jobboard. Part of it has to do with Problogger’s overall popularity and part of it has to do with its tight niche focus (Part-time/Staff blogging jobs).

Unlike Arrington, I don’t really think that ready-made job board systems like Job-a-matic lead to the problem of an over-proliferation in niche job boards.

Job boards derive their attractiveness from the size of the host site and the popularization of ready-made job boards just accentuates the importance of having a large site audience AND a strong niche focus.

I do however agree that collaborative job boards can be useful. I’m quite sure that Dosh Dosh doesn’t yet have the leverage to attract advertisers en masse and so I thought of working with other like-minded bloggers to set up some sort of a collective job board.

Integration and revenue share would definitely require some planning and communal agreement, which can be time-consuming and difficult to engineer. But it does remain an attractive idea.

What if an advertiser paid $50 a month and were able to have their job ad replicated across 20 medium-sized blogs in different specific fields?

I’m sure it’s a rather attractive proposition and one that may even more effective than only having their job listing posted on one single large blog.

View the Original article

What抯 A Blog And Why Should I Have One? - Using Blogs To Generate Business

Article Body:

Most everyone on the internet has, at some point, run across blogs. Blogs are simply internet journals recording whatever happens to be on a writer抯 mind at a given moment. Typically written in an informal tone, blogs read as though the writer is having a friendly conversation with their readers. Though blogs have exploded in popularity, few online retailers understand that having a blog can be a very effective way to drive sales for their e-businesses.

Getting Started

The easiest way to start a blog is with a free commercial service, like http://Blogger.com or http://BlogSpot.com. All you have to do is just set up an account and start blogging. To create a blog that sits on your website, you can go to http://SixApart.com and choose from several software options.

It takes time to build a loyal base of readers, but you can start guiding traffic to your site by linking with relevant blogs. Go to http://Technorati.com and find blogs whose content ties in with yours. Link only to blogs with content that抯 useful and entertaining to your customers. Request they look at your blog and consider linking back to you.

For your product sales site, you don抰 have to blog about your product itself. Blog about things related to your product. If you sell camping gear, blog about the country抯 top camp sites, your hiking trip in the Appalachians, or the best time of year to visit Yellowstone. According to Anthony Perry, of http://BlogAds.com, 揧ou can make your customers feel empowered if you inform them to make their own decisions, as opposed to just beating them over the head, saying, 慣his is a great product! You should buy it!挃

3 Benefits of Blogging

In addition to educating your viewers, your blog provides you with several advantages:

1. The familiar tone of blogging creates a window for buyers to see there抯 a real person behind your site. The internet抯 an impersonal selling medium, but the personal nature of blogs creates an element of customer trust and loyalty to your brand.

2. By sharing your valuable knowledge, you抮e giving your customers a reason both to stay and to return. It抯 a proven fact that the more time a user spends on a site, the more likely they are to purchase something. The more your readers return for your expertise, the more you increase your sales.

3. Get feedback on your products, your site, and your customer service. Let your users leave comments, and find out what changes they抎 like to see or what products they抎 like you to carry. Says Perry, 揃logging抯 a tool that lets you communicate with your customer base in a way that抯 far more intimate than a monthly e-newsletter.?

What is Blogging: The New Form of Journalism

Ever wonder why most all of the teens today are addicted to the internet? Well it has everything a young exploring mind needs. From browsing the net for document researches, shopping, cooking, gaming, chat, and a whole bunch of stuff going inside a website抯 offer.



Yep, all of these including one secluded part of a teen抯 life which is their journal. Don抰 believe me? Then try hooking up on the internet now and see how much there is that is available today.



Aside from being a window for the readers to see what抯 on the author抯 mind, a blog lets him elaborate on facts or scribble out whatever idea that pops out his head. A blog is a simplified term for 搘eb blog?a new generation medium for writing articles, essays, statements and the like.



It抯 usually composed of texts or sometimes pictures and multimedia topics. If you抮e tired of jotting down every single detail of your life抯 worth on paper, why not try the new fad of journalism which is blogging. Blogging literally means sharing a comment of life through the internet.



It is an up-to-date source. A sequence of events. A timeless exhibit of creativity and style. An outlet for one抯 self.



The popularity of blog comes in different areas. Anyone can write anything that comes out of his head. Whether a walk on a sunny day or a dip into California 抯 wild waters, it serves as a diary and is readily updated. What抯 good about blogging is that it is not bounded by editing and is cheap.



The commercial velocity of a blog depends on a writer抯 instinct to create a worthy article. Either formative or informative, rational or irrational, for as long as the readers can visualize what the author has posted your blog抯 a hit.



Technical specialties and skills, not necessary. Publishing freedom, an advantage. All that is needed is for you to have a witty mind, a desire to share ideas and part of your story, and a bit of knowledge to toggle into the internet. Grammatical errors are welcome. No editors and publishing companies to please. Journalism without rules or guidelines to follow and what抯 best is that readers could post a comment or be inspired to write one too.



Blogging wouldn抰 be difficult if you have the right recipes. Not just a simple-text article, a blog may be enhanced or converted into other types like an audio blog or a video blog. Nowadays, blogs are more sophisticated and advanced. Element of a blog starts from a good and captivating headline down to the author抯 personal profile. Included herewith are the blog post, permalink (combined term for 損ermanent link?, and the reader抯 comments.



A friend of mine is a blogger. She would entertain herself by posting blogs on her web page. She told me that blogging is an advantage for her to speak up to the world of the things that抯 keeping her shut. And I quote, 揑 am an internet junkie. I am not a big fan of journalism or any kind of writing.



But it all changed when the blogging fever entered internet society. I appreciated it more when I felt everything that抯 written are real and not just a compulsory decoy to deliver information. Right then, I became a part of a bigger picture.?


Trapped in a world of unwanted opinions, blogging is a benefit. But everything has its own consequences. Blogs are much harder to manage than that of the broadcast media. In politically sensitive issues, blogs can be considered as a political misfit. Results are triggered through suppression of bloggers and punishments were made. Another grave case is the issue of defamation and liability.



Nevertheless, blogging is still out there. So if you抮e the type who has the snap for writing, give blogging a shot. You never know how much it would contribute to the society and to your pockets.

Monetizing The Gap: Four Ways to Make Money from Your Single Blog Post Pages

At the end of most blog posts you’ll often come across empty space. A gap between the last word and the opening comment. This area is often unexploited and unjustly so, because it’ll definitely help make more money from your blog.

If you want more monetary benefits from your content, you should probably spend some time optimizing what I call the Gap or the space between your blog post and the comments section.

In this article, I will outline four methods you can use to effectively monetize this untapped space, while correspondingly increasing both your profit potential and your reader base.

Introducing ‘The Gap’: Anatomy of the Single Post Page

The Gap is the empty space immediately after the end your blog post, until the start of the comments section. While some have enthusiastically filled the space with advertisements of all sorts, it is often an untouched resource for most blogs.

Here is the main reason why you should make full use of this space:

Relevancy through Association. Anything placed at the end of an article appears to be structurally connected with the content and gives the illusion of relevancy, simply because it exists on the same page as a chunk of content.

Relevant ads and links receive more clicks from visitors. If you want to promote an affiliate link for a web host, you don’t put it on a page about baby showers but on a page about web hosting or webmaster tools.

Here’s the catch. All of your written blog posts are goldmines lying untouched. Each of them are about very specific topics and are perfect specimens for targeted ads, links, recommendations and call-to-actions. To not use them in some way would be absolutely a waste.

And waste it we shall not. Here are four easy methods you can apply to make full use of the Gap.

1. Use Related Posts to Add Value and Increase PageViews

Related posts are a excellent way to introduce a reader to more material on your blog and there are three primary benefits which can result from it:

Higher pageviews. After reading an article, a reader is likely to visually scan the list of related post titles and click on the one that leads her to another post, while possibly doing the same for the next post as well.

Higher pageviews means more potential ad clicks and a higher ad impression rate. This directly impacts the monetary earnings you will see from your blog.

Increases your reader base.This is an easy way to encourage a new reader to browse through more material on your blog and can exponentially increase the potential of gaining a longterm reader or feed subscriber.

This is especially important because a large portion of most blog visitors arrive through the search engines and land on the single post pages.

Adds value for your regular readers. By adding related posts, you provide your regular readers with more relevant information which is helpful. This generally adds to their viewing experience and is a great way to develop visitor loyalty.

How do I put up Related Posts ?

If you are using Wordpress, I highly recommend using Aizatto’s Related Posts plugin, which is a improvement over the original Related Entries plugin that most bloggers are currently using.

This excellent plugin does not require you to insert any code into your blog template and automatically includes related posts at the bottom of all your single post pages. It also allows you to customize the look of the related posts section through the admin panel itself, while giving you the option to include related posts within your RSS feed as well.

I’m currently running this plugin on Dosh Dosh and you can see it in action at the end of this post. I’m sure there is a way to do it in Blogspot and other platforms as well but so far I haven’t been able to find any tutorials or instructions.

2. Display Highly Relevant Advertising

There are basically two options here: advertising networks or affiliate programs. Google Adsense is an obvious choice for most bloggers and is really a hassle-free method that’ll help you to make some extra money from your single post pages.

As I’ve written in my previous article on monetizing your archived posts, a large number of your blog posts are likely to be only viewed by search engine visitors and monetizing them with relevant advertising is an effective way to make more money from your blog.

My favorite method of monetizing single posts involves putting up a short one-line recommendation for an affiliate program that I’ve personally tried. Here are some reasons why:

Unobtrusive. Text links within a sentence do not break the flow of the entire post, nor do they stand out like contextual ads. They naturally position themselves within overall framework of the post and are unoffensive to almost every reader.

Recommendations encourage conversions. If you are a blogger who generally receives some respect or attention (however minimal) from your audience, recommendations of affiliate programs are by far the best way to monetize.

Affiliate programs differ from most advertising programs, which do not allow you directly entice the reader to click through on an ad. It’s not abnormal to receive extremely high clickthrough rates if the program promoted is legit and highly relevant to the post itself.

3. Include a Customized Call for Subscriptions

A strong feed subscriber base has two correlations to making money with any blog. Monetary benefits can be directly derived from several feed-based monetization options after you’ve gained a decent amount of feed subscribers.

The indirect benefit is that feed and newsletter subscribers help you to grow your blog in the long run. Having a larger subscriber base means that you’ll have more people reading your every post, which increases your blog’s potential linkability and hence your referral traffic.

You can insert a simple one-liner asking for more feed subscribers if they’ve enjoyed the post. I would personally take it one step further by making the call to action more relevant to the post.

For example I have an article on how to make money from myspace, which receives a decent amount of search visitors everyday. A call for subscription could read like this: “Enjoyed this post? Subscribe to my blog feed for more future posts on how to make money with myspace”

Relevancy and appealing to the reader’s already piqued interest is a very important point that is often overlooked.

4. Sell Ads and Links after each Blog Post

As I’ve mentioned in my post on direct advertising methods, you can sell links or banner space to interested advertisers using the space under specific post pages.

Text Link Ads (aff) is an ad network which allows you to sell post-level ads but I personally do not fancy using them.

I believe that if you have a strong webpage with regular search traffic, it would be disadvantageous to go through an ad broker and therefore lose out in terms of commission.

You’ve spent all the time and effort in writing and promoting that great post, which is heavily linked and ranks well on the search engines. Do you really need to share the money you earn with middlemen who have done absolutely nothing for your blog?

The only advantage of using Text Link Ads or other advertising networks is convenience and if you want that more than anything else, by all means go through an ad broker.

There are many ways to find advertisers and direct ad sales is an easy and flexible way to make money from any post on your blog.

And that concludes the post..

Feel free to experiment with your single post pages by switching ad options and measuring their performance over a similar time frame. If you don’t know where to start, I would suggest tweaking your archived posts as they are largely invisible to your regular audience.

Don’t forget to target the popular blog posts which attract the most daily search traffic. These are the ones you’ll want to optimize first because they offer the biggest returns on investment.

View the Original article

What is Blogging??

Blogging 101


If writing is an art, then, blogging is one way of using words to come up with an art. This is because people who are into blogging are the ones who are artistic on their own sense, carefully choosing words that would best describe their feelings, sentiments, wishes, desires, and everything.

Basically, blogs were first introduced as weblogs that refer to a 搒erver抯 log file.?It was created when web logging hit the virtual market. Since its inception in the mid-1990s, web logging gradually saturated the virtual community making the Internet a viable source of greater information.

However, with web logging, you still need a web site and domain names, but with blogging, you do not need anything just an account with blog providers. In most cases, these kinds of blogs are free of charge.

With the onset of blogging in the industry, personal journaling had been a common ground for people who wish to be known all over the world. However, not literally famous as this is not a case on being popular or well-known personality.

Generally, blogs are created for personal use. Like a journal, people can write their daily adventures, sentiments, and whatever ideas they want to express online.

Nevertheless, with the advent of the online businesses, blogs had gradually taken the limelight in providing businesses a chance to boost their productivity online. This is where the business blogs have taken the limelight.

Business blogs are, basically, created to advertise the services or products of a certain web site or online business in order to increase online sales.

Moreover, business blogs are also one way of promoting the company so that the other readers will know that a certain company exists online. With blogs, entrepreneurs are able to establish a name in the virtual market through articles that can be very useful in the reader抯 life.

From there, you can make money out of blogs by simply syndicating it to your business?web site. This can be done through the RSS technology.

So, if you are thinking to create a blog, whether for business or for pleasure, you need to know some tips that could help you get through and make your blog one of the interesting blogs online.

Here抯 how:

1. Consider your audience

Even if your blog is generally personal, still, it would be better to consider the minds of your readers. You have to think of something that would interest them.

After all, most of the reasons of people who write blogs are not at all confined to their own personal motives. Most of them would love to be 揾eard?(or read) and would love to be known, in some way or another, even for just a minute. Hence, it is very important to come with a write up that everybody can understand, not necessarily that these people can relate to it but they can understand it.

2. Pictures speaks a thousand words

To make your blogging worth the browsing effort of your readers, it would be extremely nice if you will put some pictures in it. It does not necessarily mean you have to place a picture of yourself. Any photographs will do as long as it does not pose danger or insult to anyone who will be reading your blog.

3. Make constructive and beneficial blogs

Even if you are free to write anything you wan to say to the world, still, it would be better to create some write-ups that would be beneficial to your readers.

After all, its information technology that you have there so better be inclined to provide information rather than sheer quirky entertainment.

4. Avoid making multifaceted and complicated blogs

In order to have an interesting blogs, try not to use some highly technical and highfalutin words. After all, it is not a science discourse or a debate that you are making, so better stick to simple facts and short blogs.

Bear in mind that most people who use the Internet usually do more scanning than scrutinizing each site word for word. Therefore, it would be better to come with blogs that will not bore your readers just because you have these lengthy articles.

5. Make it interactive

As much as possible and if your capacity will allow it, make your blog interactive. Yu can do this by placing some video or audio clips in your blog.

You can even place an area for comments or for some feedbacks. In this way, you can get some impressions or reactions of other people. Who knows, you might even gain some friends just by making them feel at home in your blog site.

Indeed, blogs are not created just for the mere fun of it. It also has its own purpose in the world of the Internet.
Therefore, for people who wish to harness their craft, as far as writing is concerned, blogs are the best way to do it.

As they say, blogging is the contemporary term of creative and commercial writing.

Wired with Video Blogging

Much as it抯 appealing effect to the people who sees it and who sympathizes with its content, video blogs are treated as a phenomena. Mainstream entertainment is wired with video blogging. You are the director of your own video. Popularly known as vlogs (short term for video blog), usually it contains scenes of everyday life.



Not just an outlet for media response, vlogs can also be profitable. According to some experts, by creating a video advertising sensible products and linking it up with various web directories, fast income is a possibility.



Youtube can be a very typical example of a resource for the numerous vlogs being done today. A lot of people posts their videos either sensible or of no sense at all. You could learn from it or you could trash it. It抯 a media-friendly digital file anyone could author and direct anytime, anywhere, anyhow.



What should be the content of my vlog?



Basically, everything you can think of. A mixture of humor, downfalls, heartaches, struggles, and life抯 simple pleasures. You could feature anything -your favorite food, an MTV you proudly taped, vices, poor sleeping habits, health problems-ANYTHING. This issue is inevitable.



Majority of the experimental vlogs signifies a liberated take of documented short videos of gatherings or events like birthdays, graduations, weddings, etc. It doesn抰 have to be a crowd-pleaser; it just has to be real.



How can I start my own video blog?



Gather up a camcorder or a mobile phone. Put the lens in front of something that you think would be interesting and would catch your viewer抯 attention like your face or your neighbor抯 bathing habits. Then start recording. The time will depend on how you would visualize your vlog抯 appeal and resolution to the masses. Be in control.



When is the right time to start?



After you抳e assembled the right equipments, make a go for it. Take it as you wish. Record it as you please. Anytime is the best time. Just make sure viewers end up understanding what you抳e wired.



Below are 3 easy steps for beginners and first timers on how to put up a vlog.



1. Visualize ?of how your vlog would look like. Think of the means. Think of the filling. Think on how it would start and how it would end. If you have no idea on how a vlog really looks like, browse your way through the internet RIGHT NOW!



2. Design ?after streaming the content of your videotape into the computer, its best that you find a suitable and familiar blog site.



3. Upload ?post your vlog on your favorite website. And voila! You抮e very own video blog. At last, a tiny space amongst millions! Easy isn抰 it?



An amateur vlog is always welcome, no one will sue you for showing your butt-crack. But don抰 just go with the basics. Make your vlog more appealing by advertising creative words people would search for.

6 Ways to Improve Conversion Rates for More Subscription-based Revenue

Many online businesses use subscription-based monetization because it provides consistent recurring income over a period of time. This is particularly important when the business needs capital to expand its service or product offerings.

Subscription-based models often utilize a trial subscription program which allows customers to try the product or service, in order to see if it fits their needs.

These free trial subscription periods usually offer less functionality than paid subscriptions and are designed to encourage a transition from free usage to paid subscriptions.

The success of converting a potential user into a loyal customer depends on a lot of factors, one of them being the trial experience, during which the customer becomes gradually familiar with the features of the product offered.

Conversion Mistakes Will Cost you Customers (and Money)

I’ve been using 103bees, a search traffic tool for some time and have mentioned them in my extensive article on longtail keywords. Today, I logged into my 103bees account and realized that the 30 day trial period for my account had expired.

In order to continue tracking the search hits for my websites, I needed to pay $5 a month to upgrade my account. I didn’t take the bait and pay up because I didn’t find their web tool to be particularly helpful for my websites.

More importantly, I noticed some weaknesses in their conversion model for paid subscriptions. These mistakes are common to other websites as well and they will impact potential customer signups and profit earned.

Six Ways to Improve Conversion Rates for Subscription Products

Here is a collection of methods to increase your conversions for paid subscription models. Some of the points can be applied to blogging and affiliate marketing as well, to improve your own newsletter or feed subscription signup rates.

1. Provide Incentives to Encourage Signups

Apart from the usual paid features that users will enjoy, you can offer specific incentives which will improve your conversion rates. Examples of these incentives include free eBooks, software or video tutorials for advanced usage of the specific product.

A purchase-related incentive can also take the form of a satisfaction or moneyback guarantee, which will considerably soften the perceived risk.

2. Offer Flexible Paid Subscription Options

While locking users into a long term plan is beneficial for you, customers might hesitant to take that leap. For example 103bees only offers a 3 month subscription package which may not be appealing for everyone.

Offer both short term and long term subscription packages, while providing long term discounts to further encourage signups.

3. Send Reminders to Users with Expired Accounts

If the specific user has opt-ed in for newsletters and admin announcements, you should probably send an email notifying the user that his or her trial period has expired. The email should be brief, while containing a link to the specific benefits of a paid subscription.

Don’t assume that all users will be visiting your website to check their account regularly. 103bee forgot to send any emails to inform me that my trial subscription had expired.

4. Give Free Limited Period Upgrades

At the end of the free trial period, offer a free limited period upgrade so users can try the paid features for a few days.This gives them a clear taste of what to expect and is a powerful method to encourage a final conversion.

5. Build Customer Trust by Providing Efficient Support

The best way to earn the trust of your potential customer is to offer excellent and speedy support for customer queries. Don’t just offer a free trial and completely ignore the user because they aren’t paying for the service.

Users gauge the value of your company and product by the type of support they receive. For example, Feedburner is a company that has provided excellent support for its free feed users.

I was impressed with the fact that one could leave a question in their support forums and receive a reply within hours from an admin. Remeber to address any feedback you receive speedily through private or public channels.

6. Soft Sell Your Product by Providing Relevant Information

After a user has signed for your free trial they will need some prodding into convert into users. You can do this by creating a company blog or public support page which addresses troubleshooting issues and tips on how to better use the service.

103bees has done rather poorly in this aspect, by only updating their blog once or twice a month. A regular posting frequency with more articles on search traffic/keywords would really help to promote their product.

They should also integrate their latest articles within the user account profile as well for maximum visibility, much like what Wordpress is doing for most WP-powered blogs.

Remember the goal here is to gradually soft sell the potential customer and gradually convince him or her that your product is necessary for their goals.

I’ve limited my suggestions to these five methods but one should note that there several other relevant factors, such as your site design, brand reputation and sales copy.

While all these elements play a role in determining conversions, the value of your product or service remains of utmost importance.

If your service is useful or unique, it’ll naturally sell itself to the user. Such products will make it far easier to obtain conversions for most types of paid subscription schemes.

Found this article useful? Subscribe to Dosh Dosh for more monetization tips.

View the Original article

Why you should use blogs and RSS feeds

Blogs and RSS feeds are great marketing tools! Now, if you're like me, you're probably scratching your head and saying, "Wonderful, but what in the world is a blog, and what the heck does an RSS feed?" Let's make it quick and simple.

A blog is basically a journal or diary that is kept online. It changes every day as you add new content. An RSS feed is a little more involved. RSS (usually referred to as Really Simple Syndication) is a means to publish regular updates to web content. The content itself is known as the feed. In other words, RSS feeds are a great way to get information that changes often (for example blogs or even news headlines) out on the web to an amazingly large audience.

Now to answer the question, why should you use blogs and RSS feeds? Numbers, numbers, numbers! Let's think about it. When more people view your site, you will make more sales - obviously. Of course, the trick is to get them to your site. While you sit there reading this article, there are search engines silently exploring cyberspace for new or updated web content. Aha! When you update your blog and use RSS feeds, your new information will be noticed by these tireless search engines and published across the World Wide Web. Hey, it's free advertising, right?

Anita was excited! She finally had her own website and an ebook on the market. Her enthusiasm was a source of amusement to her friends and family. Every lull in a conversation was an opening for Anita to discuss her new enterprise. Though Anita netted a lot of good natured eye-rolling and teasing, she knew they were all proud of her. It wasn't long before Anita's enthusiasm began to wane. After all, what good was an ebook if nobody bought it?

She'd tried buying email lists and sending advertisements out, but it didn't seem to earn any profit. Why? Spam filters, like virtual pac-men, were gobbling up the emails that Anita sent. In reality very few were ever even opened.

Have you, like Anita, been frustrated at the lack of web traffic your site receives? Follow the example of hugely successful sites like Yahoo!, CNET, ABC News,and Amazon. Get on the RSS feed band wagon and share in the success. Join the masses of bloggers who are posting personal and professional blogs. Write your way to success.

Don't be left behind with an empty bank account, when you could be enjoying huge profits!

If this sounds too easy for such an intricately technological subject, that's because there are people who have done the hard work for you. In fact, blogging and RSS feeds have been made simple for even the most technologically challenged.

Need proof? Go to Internet marketing online You'll discover a simple plan to incorporate blogging and RSS feeds into your marketing plan. You'll discover a brand new marketing technique that will astound you with the increase in profit your website will net.

Why You Should Blog!

I have been blogging for just over two months now. Many of my mentoring students have been asking my advice on blogging. I have so far hesitated to teach much about blogging, because it抯 not something I feel I 搆now?yet. I feel much more comfortable teaching about things I know.

Well?I took a look at Alexa today and noticed that this blog almost hit the top 10,000 most visited sites on the Internet today. I have been seeing success with many of the methods that are unique to blog promotion. I felt it was time to write a post about blog promotion?BUT?WAIT! I haven抰 even explained why I have this blog thing. I can抰 really jump into getting traffic to your blog without explaining why I have a blog and why you should have one too; now can I?

Let抯 go back to my history. I 搈ade it?online without many of the tools you see me offering today. I had no products. I had no copywriting ability. My search engine ranking data was my key to my original success on the Internet. I would simply create high ranking web-sites for some market and sell the traffic from those sites directly to those who did have copywriiting ability and products. Obviously I no longer recommend that. Having your own product and copywriting ability are both multipliers to knowing how to get traffic. Now-a-days I focus on all three aspects of your Internet business and recommend that you do the same.

With that said?don抰 underestimate the traffic business. Consider this. Who is the richest man in the world? Right. Bill Gates. He sells software. Software is a good business! Consider this though. Who are the 3 leading sites on the Internet? Go check Alexa if you don抰 know. OK; don抰 check. I抣l just tell you:

1. Yahoo

2. Google

3. MSN (Microsoft)

Now take a look at that third one. That抯 the company that Bill Gates (the richest man in the world; remember?) started. Now he抯 messing around on the Internet in the #3 spot.

Now; let抯 take a jump here. What do those three sites sell? Ok; take a minute on this one. There will be a test.

That抯 right. They sell traffic (or they mostly sell traffic?Yahoo and MSN are a tiny bit more diverse than that). Now isn抰 that interesting?The richest man in the world?who go that way by selling software?now wants to sell traffic.

OK; that was a diversion. We抣l come back to that later. What I wanted to tell you about was my experience selling traffic (which is still the largest part of my business). I made a mistake. I sold traffic anonymously under corporate names. None of my traffic customers know who I am. They just buy traffic from XYZ Corporation because it converts to sales for them. XYZ Corporation has no personality. In fact, it抯 fully automated and most of my customers seem to like it that way.

I tried to change that a couple of years ago. I started sending them emails teaching how they could get the most out of my traffic service. I was too late. They didn抰 know me and they didn抰 want to hear from me.

Then I tried one last attempt (I抦 glad I did) by offering them a special on traffic that month. I think I did a two for one deal or something like that. Over 25% of my customers bought a new campaign that day. I made over $60,000 in one day with that one email. I thought that was cool! I still do. I can write a single email and make thousands of dollars in a single day. I think a lot of marketers like that.

The power of your customer list is incredible! If you can convert 2% of strangers into customers with a sales page, you can convert 25% of your existing customers into customers of another product with that same sales page. That抯 powerful!

I tried it with another product. It was a good product. It was mine. It was the search engine research itself that lead to the traffic those customers were buying. In effect, I was offering to teach them how to generate the same traffic that I was selling to them. It flopped miserably. No-one bought. I tried several other products. Nothing. Why?

Some of the responses told me right away. Even though I was writing under the company name, they didn抰 know me. I抣l repeat that. They didn抰 know me. They knew my company. They knew that my company delivered great converting traffic, but they simply didn抰 know me. An endorsement of one company by another isn抰 very powerful. It isn抰 nearly as powerful as an endorsement by an individual.

So, I went on to do the Freedom Events. You know how they went. Based on the endorsement of a few well-known Internet marketers, they sold out. Lesson learned. To get that 25% number, you need one of the following:

1. To be marketing to your customers as a company and selling a special offer on the product of your company that your customers already know about.

2. To be marketing to your customers as a person and selling a special offer on any product that you personally endorse?and have never given a bad endorsement on a product to your customers before.

I wanted to do the latter with my own customers?not those of another Internet marketer.

What is the best way to do that? As I look around, a blog is the absolute perfect vehicle for that. As I sell products (and cross-promote them on the owner抯 pages), I also promote this blog. I do it very early in the process. It is mentioned on the owner抯 page and is also mentioned in the very first email most people get after purchasing one of my products.

They buy the product from a stranger, but I introduce myself as the creator of that product very early by pointing them (you) at this blog.

Then, I don抰 hide the blog behind some corporate image. You do buy my products from a corporation, but do you even know the name of that corporation? Who cares what it is called? I want you to get to know me. That抯 the purpose of this blog.

Now some folks are finding this blog before they purchase one of my products. That抯 OK too. Some people buy a product based on the sales page. Some buy because they know the author never produces junk. Some have a combination of those reasons.

OK; so?yes?you should have a blog. I suggest that you create your blog between your 3rd and 4th product in your primary market. That抯 when I created this blog. That is also when you want to start cross-promoting your 3 or 4 products on their owner抯 pages.

Here are some other things that I think are important:

1. Register your name for the domain for your blog.

2. Put your name at the top, not some cutesy blog name.

3. Share of yourself. Do not post to your blog like you are a customer service rep answering the phone for a large company?never revealing anything of yourself?only the corporate script. Chat with your customers like they are dear friends. Don抰 give out your home address or phone number, but within the context of the blog?what are you afraid of? Let your blog readers get to know you.

4. Post often. People can get into the habit of doing something daily or hourly very easily. It is much more difficult to get into a weekly or monthly habit. Post at least daily so your blog readers can get into a daily habit of reading what you have to say.

5. Don抰 worry about giving away secrets of your products. That抯 one reason I only sell software, video and mentoring products right now. It抯 simply not possible to accidently give away too much in text on your blog. Software and video are both more robust mediums than text. I can explain in words all day long how to do something?it will still be useful to buy the software to automate that task and/or buy the video to actually see how it all works.

6. Get a subcribe link up on your blog (and all of your content sites). Some people will want to follow your blog, but won抰 remember. You need to give them a way to allow you to send them reminders when you post. This will dramatically increase your number of repeat visitors over time.

OK; I think that answers the question about why I have a blog and why you should too?and how you should set it up. Now, I can jump into the specific ways to get traffic to a blog that only exist for blogs?not other types of sites. I抣l do that in a future post.

For now, go register your name and get Wordpress installed on that domain. Get your subscribe link up. Write an article and submit it to your blog?and then submit it via Artemis Pro with your blog mentioned in the resource box of your article. That抯 how I started just a little over two months ago and as of today?I抦 almost in the top 10,000 most visited sites on the Internet. See if you can beat me in the next couple of months.

Why using blog to earn money online?

This question has been around for many times. Here we will tell you the reasons why using blog to earn money



1. You must not be an HTML expert

The biggest problem to earn money from internet is HTML knowledge to design website. Blog comes as a solver problem for this matter. Most of you have to do just type what you like and let the system work for you toe display it in a webpage format.



2. Keep the content fresh

Blog is similiar to online jurnal. Like you write your activiy in your diarybook, and you write it often even daily. The reader also requires frequently updated blog then seldom, because it is useful information for them.



3. Search engine optimize blog frequently

Search engine love fresh content.



4. Blog creates A Built-In Linking Structure

Blog always creates linking between old and new post. This condition is one of tool search engine optimization.



5. You Can Keyword-Optimize Your Blog Extensively

All parts of your blog's template can be customized. And a very powerful way to do it is by inserting relevant keywords. It's a do-it-once job that will give you ongoing benefits for as the life of your blog. You can include keywords in your blog title, description, blog post headings, trackback links, comment invitations, archive titles, and category names. By doing this you can optimized your blog, and also can earn money from blog



6. You Create An Online Community

If your blog is on a specific theme, you can build a loyal readership and develop an online community. You can even take it a notch higher by tying it in with a forum or membership site. Ask for comments, suggestions, ideas and feedback, or invite reader participation. Pretty soon, your blog will be growing organically - even if you don't write a lot! And you have a traffic for your site.



7. You Can Syndicate Your Content Easily

Getting readers for your content is good. Getting your content out where many more readers can see it is GREAT! Syndication (via RSS feeds) is built in to most blogging platforms, giving you a quick and easy way to get a wide readership for your blog posts.

How to Make Your Blog Attractive to Advertisers and Traditional Media

Originally online journals used for recording and sharing personal perspectives, blogs have gradually become an established form of online media.

Mini-hubs of social interaction, blogs have gained an interested audience derived from a smörgåsbord of keywords, communities, interests and demographics.

They have evolved into platforms allowing traditional media and businesses to reach communities hitherto immune to their advertising efforts. Because of their strong integration with niche communities, blogs are also becoming an invaluable part of any viral marketing or promotional campaign.

The Value of Blogs as Advertising Platforms

A recent analysis of the advertising revenue earned by bloggers in 2006 examines the rising value of blogs as advertising platforms. Utilizing data from Chitika’s network of 12,000 blogs and Technorati’s ranking system, several conclusions were reached:

Ad revenue in a blog is more sensitive to the rank of the blog..One reason for this may be the social value of advertising in a blog. If online advertising is like advertising in a mall, advertising in the blogosphere is like advertising in a country club.

Apparently, the top 15% (rank-wise) blogs accounted for approximately 90% of the total revenue earned. The report goes on to suggest that the overall social popularity or size of a blog is important to advertisers.

There are several major weaknesses in the report. For example, it uses a small sample size and does not take into account the indirect income generated by a blog.

Another problem is the focus on Technorati rank instead of traffic figures, which has a higher relevance when it comes to blog advertising revenue.

While the link between the statistical data and conclusion is not strong, I agree that the ability to influence a specific target audience appeals to advertisers.

Traditional Media’s Growing Interest in Blogs

News broke today that Discovery Communications purchased TreeHugger.com, a environment and sustainable development blog, for $10 million dollars.

In the issued Press Release , Discovery gushed predictably about how the partnership is a way to fulfill their vision of ‘bringing green living to the masses‘.

And rightly so. Discovery just acquired the most popular and respected blog in the environment niche. Treehugger’s figures: 1.4 million unique monthly visitors, 13,500 posts and 35K feed subscribers.

This includes archives of video podcasts, radio shows, newsletters and a job board. An established niche blog which reaches an large audience through multiple streams of communication.

To put it another way, an influencer with a community of readers and supporters.

How to Make Your Blog a Magnet for Big Advertisers/Media

Treehugger’s purchase exemplifies traditional media’s growing interest in blogs. Large advertisers as well, have money to spare and they are looking for blogs which offer the best platform for their brand.

If you own a well established blog within a particular niche, you have a potential money maker. One way to improve your blog income is to focus on attracting both big advertisers and traditional media.

Here are some tips on how to do so:

Actively contact advertisers to look for ad buyers. Passively relying on advertisers to contact you limits your ad selling potential. At the very least, create an advertising page for your website.

Think of your blog as a business. Monitor your traffic and webpages with conversion ratios in mind. Set up auxiliary streams of income (Job board, online stores) to improve your site’s perceived income value.

Consider syndicating your content through alternative means (podcasts, newsletters etc.). Contact online and traditional magazines and offer some of your articles for free in return for credit.

Build a community around your site by actively engaging in dialog with other similar blogs in your niche. Create forums, social voting sites or allow users to generate content for your site as well.

Develop social proof indicators such as the Alexa Rank, Technorati Rank or RSS Feed subscribership. While these indicators of social proof can be flawed, they are widely accepted and acknowledged by traditional media and some parts of the general public.

Establish Authority by focusing on a specific topic in great depth. Spread your opinions by contributing articles to online magazines, blogs and newsletters. Get interviewed if possible.

Hire writers/guest bloggers so you can focus on strategic planning for your blog. Multiple writers will also help establish your blog as an online publication or community blog.

A strong community that trusts and support your blog is attractive to advertisers, particularly because they can leverage your personal reputation or blog brand.

Building advertising partnerships with traditional media and online businesses is an effective way to generate a substantial amount of regular income from your blog.

For more tips on how to earn money blogging, subscribe to Dosh Dosh today.

View the Original article

Blog Critics

Advertisers are in a continuous search for bloggers and reward them to advertise on blogs. Advertising on blog is important for the advertisers to get a better ranking for their site and have more visitors to come to their sites. There are many bloggers who are into blogging just because they like to comment but why not blog for cash? You can earn from $7 up to $110 per blog in Critic Directory



Critic Directoryconnects advertisers with bloggers. Advertisers login here and place orders for blogs that they want to add links for their sites. Advertisers will only pay for blogs that they admire. They are not bound to pay for badly written contents. Bloggers that sign up will have their blog sites screened before they get approved. Once the blog is approved, they can begin to get paid for blogging .This site could prove beneficial both the bloggers as well as the advertisers by being connected through this particular website.



Building link to any website is regarded to be one of the most crucial tools for promoting your website. This will inflate the traffic in the form of more visitors to your site and hence, giving rise to utilize services that your website provides or to sell your product. Building link will improve its PR (page ranking) make your website 憉p?in search engine抯 page. CDH Bidding Web directory allows you to build link in fruitful manner. One of its best highlights includes the ranking of the page on the side of the link. This gives a clue of the traffic and popularity of the website without opening the weblink. With the highest bidding, you can link up your webpage on homepage of CDH bidding web directory under the heading of top websites or their front.



Just like its happening name "Templement Template" has a bright futuristic appearance. Genuine Paid Directory is glad to announce this free word press theme, which is being sponsored by the famous Musab of Paid Directory. This template is also xhtml valid/ css valid. With an complimentary Wp Version of this template this template has its own unique value..

Pay Review: Submitting your website to the specific category within Alive Directory or is defiantly a must. No other web directory can substitutes the quality of hand pick many different topics to choose from, always view and submit your website to category related to your business.



The greatest advantage of the alive directory is the high respected page rank it receives form Google at 7/10. configuration, it had some Adversal code which shouldn抰 of been for download via the theme free themes. If you think you may have it, please remove the proxy theme and do a FULL download of the theme proxy you were using. If you notice any of the proxy themes still using mine configuration, kindly report back to me as soon as you can.

Why is my blogs revenue so low?

Those who blog partly because they want to earn some extra money often ask the question:擶hy is my revenue so low??There are people who think that blogs simply can not generate much money. They are wrong! Blog can generate you the same amount of money if not more compared to any other website. Now im talking about PPC (Pay per click) sorces of revenue such as google adsense here.

The main problem I have noticed is that people tend to concentrate on wider markets. If you are running a personal diary kind of blog, the chances are that there are thousands of similar blogs around. The more competition you have, the harder it will be for you to make some cash. Instead try concentrating on smaller markets also known as niche markets. Not only it will be easier for you to develop the traffic, the CPC (Cost per click) should also be higher due to advertisers demand exceeding publishers supply.

Secondly you need to have a unique selling point. You need to give your readers something that nobody else does. This should really help you get returning visitors.

Finally it抯 the ads themselves. You should channel your ads. This way you will be able to measure your ad block抯 performance. One of the most important things is to experiment. Try different ad formats, colours and positioning. Run your setup for a few weeks, note the performance and try something different. Even if you think you have found the optimum ad setup keep on trying to improve it. In most cases you can always tweak something to make your ad performance better.

If you need help finding traffic for your blog, you can always submit your blog stories to the new personal blog news publishing system designed especially for the blogging community at the blog reporter

BLOG CRITIC

Advertisers are in a continous search for bloggers and reward them to advertise on blogs. Advertising on blog is important for the advertisers to get a better ranking for their site and have more visitors to come to their sites. There are many bloggers who are into blogging just because they like to comment but why not blog for cash? You can earn from $7 up to $110 per blog in www.smorty.com. www.smorty.com connects advertisers with bloggers. Advertisers login here and place orders for blogs that they want to add links for their sites. Advertisers will only pay for blogs that they admire. They are not bound to pay for badly written contents. Bloggers that sign up will have their blog sites screened before they get approved. Once the blog is approved, they can begin to get paid for blogging .This site could prove beneficial both the bloggers as well as the advertisers by being connected through this particular website.



Building link to any website is regarded to be one of the most crucial tools for promoting your website. This will inflate the traffic in the form of more visitors to your site and hence, giving rise to utilize services that your website provides or to sell your product .Building link will improve its PR (page ranking) make your website 憉p?in search engine抯 page . CDH Bidding Web directory allows you to build link in fruitful manner. One of its best highlights includes the ranking of the page on the side of the link. This gives a clue of the traffic and popularity of the website without opening the weblink. With the highest bidding, you can link up your webpage on homepage of CDH bidding web directory under the heading of top websites or their front.

Just like its happening name "Templement Template" has a bright futuristic appearance. Genuine Paid Directory is glad to announce this free word press theme which is being sponsored by the famous Musab of Paid Directory This template is also xhtml valid/ css valid . With an complimentary Wp Version of this template this template has its own unique value..

Pay Review: Submitting your website to the specific category within Alive Directory or is defiantly a must. No other web directory can substitutes the quality of hand pick many different topics to choose from, always view and submit your website to category related to your business.

The greatest advantage of the alive directory is the high respected page rank it receives form Google at 7/10. configuration, it had some Adversal code which shouldn抰 of been for download via the theme free themes. If you think you may have it, please remove the proxy theme and do a FULL download of the theme proxy you were using. If you notice any of the proxy themes still using mine configuration, kindly report back to me as soon as you can.

Where To Get Content For Your Blog

Blogs and websites that have rich content are always going to do better than those that don抰. I am sure you wondered where these blogs get their ideas, views and opinions. It is easy to write about something you are passionate about- but to do that most days of the week is extremely hard, since you would probably run out of things to talk about or you simply don抰 have the time. So how do they do it? Where do they get their ideas? Do they get help from tools and other sources available on the Internet?

The best way would be to provide the content yourself, and this is of utmost importance if your goal is to try to create traffic to an affiliated link. You抣l definitely want to sell the idea about the services and products beforehand. What that will do is set the stage or the 搈ood?and give your recommendations authenticity.

Expounding on the uses of a particular service or product, with your own likes and dislikes, achieves this naturally. With an affiliate program, it is a good idea to have a personal anecdote that goes hand in hand with the product or service.

Using private label articles is a viable alternative. PL articles abound in the Internet and you can always buy some that are connected to your central topic and then place them in your blog. One way of maximizing a purchased PLA is to cut it down into several pieces, thereby maximizing its content.

Utilizing RSS feeds to post on blogs is becoming very popular, although not everyone is familiar or willing to learn about RSS feeds. The advantage to an RSS feed is that your blog is automatically updated with fresh news and content. The disadvantage is that it is not unique content and that anybody interested in the feed will likely click out on a story that appeals to them.

Putting in your very own content is the best way to go. One way to find fresh ideas is to look for an appealing news article and then do a summary write-up based on it. It抯 not as easy as it sounds, but you and your readers will find it the most rewarding way. If you feel that you just don抰 cut it as a writer or you genuinely don抰 have the time, then hire someone else to do it for you. There are many services out there who provide a 揵log service?which includes daily posts of unique, engaging content and you can instruct these content writers as to where you want the links in your blog pointing to- so that any burden of cost in terms of hiring them should be offset by the gains in your increased visitor base, the marketing of your other websites and earnings from your affiliate programs.

These are the best ways to generate content for your blog. It is advisable not to be going with the automated path. If you do decide to do that, you will probably have plenty of content- but the substance of the text is unlikely to increase traffic for you. Putting in some good, old-fashioned content work will yield better results for you. As the expression goes- 搚ou get out what you put in??!

Blog And Ping Does It Work?

I have been doing an experiment with blogging and pinging, one of the ways which supposedly gets your site listed and ranked higher quicker.

Firstly I'll explain what blogging and pinging is. Blog and ping is a technique you can use to get your site listed in search engines. The idea is that search engines like blogs because of the ever updating content, so they keep going back. By writing a blog and placing some site links in the posts, the search engines will spider the links, and pages shortly after you blog.

Pinging is when you send a "ping" to let the directories, which keep lists of blogs, and when those blogs are updated, know that you have added content to your blog. These are allegedly closely watched by the search engine spiders, so they can spider any new content and add it to the search engine which controls them.

Anyway, back to my experiment, does blogging and pinging really get your site noticed?

Well my results have been encouraging. I have tested by only using a blog as the front page of a new information site I started. http://www.informationpagesonline.com has only been advertised by way of the blog to announce new content, and then pinged through http://www.pingoat.com which distributes the blog entries to several large ping sites.

Following a week of adding content, and then posting an announcement of the new content to the blog on the front page and pinging with pingoat, the site seems to be getting visitors to most of the sections, which I can see from the log files. I can also see some of the traffic is coming from search engines, and also a lot of spider activity can be seen on the site, where the search engines are crawling the content.

So I have to conclude that blogging and pinging is a way of getting listed on search engines, or at least of getting noticed by them quickly.

Should you be blogging and pinging?

Of course that's up to you, but for the time it takes, it maybe worth trying blog and ping for yourself and tracking the results. A quick blog post (use http://www.blogger.com if you don't already have a blog) and then ping with pingoat takes only a few minutes, and may help a site into all the search engines quickly.

How to Make More Money with Your Website (without Getting More Traffic)

It’s possible to increase the amount of money you earn from your blog or website without increasing the amount of traffic you currently receive. While the amount of traffic greatly affects how much money you earn, all income sources can be tweaked to generate more revenue without an proportionate increase in traffic.

One simply needs to strategically optimize your website in order to best accommodate whatever traffic you are currently receiving.

This article will provide some useful details on the various methods and principles you can immediately use to improve the overall net revenue from your website or blog.

Main Principles to Follow for Greater Income

There are three main principles you should remember when trying to increase the overall income for your site. These are conversion, leverage and diversification:

Conversion. If you want to make money from the same ad space on your blog without an increase in traffic, you need to develop greater conversion rates for affiliate programs and contextual ads. This includes restructuring your website to highlight specific webpages, projects or advertisements.

Leverage. To expand your income beyond on-site advertisements, you need to start using your site as a platform towards something a specific service or product that brings in an external income.

Diversification. To increase your overall earnings, you also need to gradually develop a diverse income stream by experimenting with multiple ad programs and monetization strategies which fit the overall content and direction of your site. This also involves the development of content that can be easily monetized.

5 Ways to Gradually Make More Money from Your Website

These five methods are practical explanations of how you can apply the three principles outlined above to your own website or blog. Consistent application of these methods will ensure that you increase the income generated from each site.

1. Make an Effort to Use Affiliate Links Regularly

Reviews of products like books and software or other websites will allow you to generate income via affiliate links. Conversions for affiliate links will always work best when combined with personal recommendations within content.

Strive to write objective reviews of these products or websites on a regular basis. Write one review every week and you’ll gradually develop a substantial archive of monetized content accessible by search engine traffic and other visitors.

2. Develop and Display a List of Recommended Websites/Products

This list of websites should be prominently displayed on a sitewide level although you can choose to display it on its own webpage. Each of the recommended websites should preferably be linked to a presell page on your website.

This can come in the form of a review post or a short note detailing your experiences with the website or product. I highly recommend creating your own presell page, instead of sending your visitor directly to the affiliate product or website because presell pages will lead to higher conversion rates.

3. Focus on Conversion: Optimize your Existing Ad Placement

Income generated from on-site advertisements can vary a great detail depending on placement, particularly if they are contextual CPC or CPA ads. Try experimenting with ad formats and placement on your site while monitoring your click-through rates and ad earnings at least once every week.

This should gradually give you a good idea of where to best place your ads for maximum earnings. You can also choose to place ads on specific areas of your website for greater overall performance. For instance, effective monetization of your single post pages will provide an additional source of income.

4. Diversify Your Income: Try New Monetization Tactics

Diversification of your income is one method to make full use of your blog’s earnings potential. Sign up with new ad networks and run ads to test if they produce equal or higher earnings. Some websites work very well with Adsense, others would probably do better with text link sales (aff) or direct ad sales.

A good way to pick up different ad-models is to observe the various sites in and outside of your niche. How are they monetizing their site? Can you apply the same method to your own site?

Another method of monetization would involve offering premium features or content for subscribing members. This requires a substantial amount of work but may work if your site already has an established audience which trusts your product or brand.

5. Leverage Your Blog to Promote Your Services or Business

If you have a particular skill such as web design or writing, I would recommend putting up a page on your site promoting your services. This aim of this page is to let visitors know that you are available for hire and will encourage interested visitors to contact you for assignments on specific projects.

This indirectly increases your monthly income by providing a revenue source on top of your regular monetization methods. David Airey is a good example of a freelance graphic designer who leverages his site to promote his services.

David’s blog clearly shows that he is available for hire and prominently displays his portfolio. A collection of featured articles on topics such as graphic design, advertising and branding demonstrates his knowledge on the topic to prospective clients. It also helps that he has optimized his site to rank well for local search terms like ‘graphic design edinburgh’ and ‘web design edinburgh’.

Building Traffic is Still the No.1 Priority

While the above methods will definitely increase your online income, building regular amounts of traffic to your website is still of primary importance because it exponentially increases the amount of money you can earn from every single ad format or program that you run.

Should you need more information on traffic building, do check out my category of articles specifically on how to get more visitors to your website.

For more tips on making money online, subscribe to Dosh Dosh’s blog feed.

View the Original article

Where Should You Host Your Blog?

Should you host your blog yourself or pay someone to host it? It doesn抰 matter if you抮e a newbie or a veteran this question always comes up when creating a new blog. Usually someone new to blogging would gravitate to hosting a blog themselves or get a free blog and as time goes by with experience they begin to ponder maybe paid blog hosting isn抰 so bad after all. So what is better?

To answer this question, let抯 first look at how a blog is created. Just like creating web pages, first, you need a software or script that will take your entries, format it and publish it to the web. The second component of a blog, is the web space, where the software should publish to, a home for the blog pages.

Knowing this information, let抯 review the different ways to host a blog:

Full blog host.

This is where the blogging system or software is provided for you and your blog is also published to a web space provided by the host. Blogger, SquareSpace and Typepad fall into this category. It抯 very much like creating a website with a site builder.

Hosted blog software but published elsewhere

This is where the blog software is provided for you but the blog pages are published to another website or web host altogether. By doing this, the software acts as a publishing system like FrontPage except it creates nicely formatted blogs. Blogger is probably the most well known for this. Yes Blogger can do both. Publish to their host or to yours. As a comparison, this is like using FrontPage to publish your website.

Blog software and blog are hosted on your web server

This is where you would install the blog script (software) on your web server ?it can be any web hosting account. And when you publish, the blog itself resides on your web server also. To draw a parallel, this technique is like buying web hosting and then installing a content management system on it to help you build web pages.

If you抮e new to building web pages or have built sites using site builders then you might want to go with a fully hosted blog. These hosts do all the nitty gritty for you and there抯 very little technical stuff you need to know. If you can point and click, you can build a blog with a full blog host.

Having said that, just because you抮e seasoned at building web pages doesn抰 mean full blog hosts won抰 work for you. In fact, if you have many blogs this becomes very appealing since you won抰 have to worry about upgrading the blog script, people exploiting the script, making plug-ins work or what happens when your web host decides to disable part of your blog functions because there is a security hole. All you do is concentrate on blogging. After a while, blogging becomes more important than maintaining your blog and that抯 the way it should be.

Next up, hosted software but blog is published to your website. This seems to be the best of both worlds. At time of writing, Blogger is one of the best ways to do this but because of its popularity often, you find the system too slow to publish or completely down just when you have a hot idea to share. The idea is good but you抣l also be depending on someone else抯 availability to publish your blog. It抯 much like using a friend抯 computer to build your web pages and you know how that can go.

Finally, you have the option to use scripts. This is also a very popular method. The flexibility it allows is very liberating because you can mould the blog anyway you want. You can even get a programmer to create custom plug-ins or customize the whole blogging system the way you want it. In short, you can do pretty much anything you want.

The down side, you need at the very basic, some knowledge of HTML or publishing web pages. Also the burden of upgrading, troubleshooting and maintaining the script is on you. If you have one or two blogs it抯 not so bad but once you start having more, it can be quite tedious. You also have to consider all the other responsibilities of maintaining the script as mentioned earlier.

Armed with this information, you should be able to figure out which one is for you. If you抮e still undecided, think of how you would do it if you抮e creating a regular website. Chances are your choice method for publishing a website is also the best method for you to create a blog.

BLOGS! What They Are... And WHY They're Becoming A POWER TOOL For Internet Marketers

BLOGS! What a crazy name for the "NEWEST" Internet marketing trend to hit the Internet.

But, I like it.

It makes this new form of communication kind of mysterious in a way, though, BLOGS have been around for quite some time and only recently have been recognized as a VERY valuable asset to Internet marketers.

Recently, I was visiting some Internet marketing related Forums and noticed many of the threads having similar "Subjects" saying... "What the heck are BLOGS?"

So, I did a little research and this is what I came up with since I was Very curious myself.

I think it's best that I clearly define to You exactly what a "BLOG" is so that as I go through this article with you, you'll have a clear picture in your head of what a Blog IS and so there won't be any confusion.

A "BLOG"(A.K.A. Web Log) by definition is:

A combination of online diary and/or guestbook. You sign up for a blogger account and then you enter the information You want on your Website. Then you can set it so that only you can place entries on it or so that anyone can. Then you can either keep a private journal or you can have a place where your readers can get together and place entries to each other or to you.

So... there you have it in a nut shell.

To simplify it even more let's just say BLOGS are a place to go and post your personal thoughts that you can share with your subscribers and/or readership and receive feedback.

Now, for the purpose of this article, now that you know the true definition of a "Blog", I'm going to share with you some reasons WHY they're becoming a widely recognized "POWER TOOL" for Internet marketers around the world.

So, with that said, lets go to Reason #1.


Reason #1. Great way to stay in touch with your subscribers.

Blogs are a great way to stay in touch with your subscribers and/or readership and builds regular readership Traffic to your little community where you can interact with them.

It also helps build rapport, which in turn, will help develop that TRUST in You, Your Products and/or Services that You recommend.

Reason #2. It's a great way to get "Feedback".

Blogs are a great way to get Feedback from your subscribers/customers simply because they have the ability to leave comments on each "Post" you make which will then help you find what it is they're looking for making YOU look like a "Hero" in there eye's and putting $Money$ in your pocket.

Reason #3. Can be managed by ONE individual.

Blogs require NO "HTML" experience, making it easy for ANYONE to get started.

Most "Blog" communities online use what is called a "WYSIWYG" HTML editor.

Did I lose you there with the "WYSIWYG" abbreviation. That simply stands for... "What You See Is What You Get".

It's one of the easiest HTML editors to use, making it easy for You to get started right away.

Reason #4. Your able to list your "Main" website details.

When you sign up for your Blogger account you're given an area to set-up your "Personal Profile" where your able to list your Main website and URL, plus, any other personal information you wish to share that will be displayed on your Blog.

Reason #5. A great way to publish "Information".

This is probably ONE of the Biggest benefits to Blogs because you have the ability to post informative information in the form of "Articles and/or Reviews" for your subscribers and/or readership which will make you look like an Expert on the subject and giving you INSTANT credibility in the eye's of your reader.

Reason #6. You get your own URL.

That's right, you get your own URL you can use in all your promotions and/or on your personal website if you have one.

This feature is great, especially for people just starting out and don't have there own website up and running yet.

-----------------------------------------
Here's my Blog for you to take a look at.

It's called... The Internet Wonders Blog.
http://theiwe.blogspot.com
-----------------------------------------

Reason #7. Search Engines love them.

Search Engines love Blogs because they are so "Content Rich" and are always being updated on a Daily to Weekly basis.

When you compare a regular static website, which might be updated on a monthly basis, to a Blog, which is updated on a Daily to Weekly basis with NEW content, you'll gain favor with the search engines with your Blog.

The S.E. "Spiders" will then gladly stop by to munch down on whatever NEW content you posted and Index your website more often since that is what Search Engines love and are constantly looking for.

Reason #8. The ability to use RSS with Blogs.

A powerful feature about Blogs is the use of RSS(Real Simple Syndication) that allows you to Instantly send your Blog highlights to your readership upon publication which will keep your reader up to speed on your business and your Products and/or Services.

Not only that, RSS also gives your Blog more exposure to a wider audience of subscribers building a bigger readership in less time.


By simply adding an human element to your business through the use of a "Blog", IS a great way to build rapport and gain the trust of your subscribers and/or readership, which in turn, will turn them into buying "Customers".

Well, there you have it, "BLOGS! What They Are... And WHY They're Becoming A POWER TOOL For Internet Marketers".

I hope this article clearly answered the questions you once had about "Blogs" and the benefits of starting one of your own.

Blogging - Why It Works So Well For SEO

Blogging is one of the most efficient ways to increase your website rankings on search sites like Google and Yahoo. Blogging refers to posting your website links to blog sites in order to increase your website rankings. Blogging work best for the SEO as it is the one of the most effective tools to make your website popular amongst the people. If your website is more famous it will generate more revenues as more and more people will visit your site.

You can follow these simple rules for SEO and your blog will definitely rank much higher in search engines. You should use your primary keyword most often in your blogs. The URL that you post on the blogs should contain a primary keyword to optimize your website. You can also use the main keyword in sub domains to get better results. In case your website is about automotive parts then you can use the keywords 揂utomotive Parts?in your website. Also it is necessary to use your main keyword in the title of your posts and the titles of your web pages. Also use the main keywords and key phrases in your H1 and H2 headers to make them more searchable.

Next you can use your secondary keywords in the body of your post in the blog. The more times the keywords are found in the webpage or post, the better are the chances of the search engines will be able to pick up the keywords. However it should not look like spam. You should refrain from posting the same keywords again and again in the same post as then Google will ban your site for some time and your rankings will fall drastically.

You should also use your primary and secondary as much as possible in the anchor texts for linking the text to other blog sites or other blog posts. Also make every effort to make your site easier for search engine to track. Also it is very much necessary to make your navigation bar of the whole website on every page of the website. All your previous posts should be linked to all pages so that they can be easily searchable by search engines.

You should also create back links to your website on as many blogs as possible. This is because it will help a lot in getting the rank of your website higher in the search engine pages. The more links you have created the higher will be the rank of your website on search engines. You can get back links to your website is to submit your blog and RSS feeds to as many blog search engines and blog directories as possible. Exchange your links with other blogs and network with as many people as possible on the blogs. If you find any interesting information on a blog then don抰 forget to link it. The track back will become a link to your blog after some time. In the end to optimize search engine results for your website you should update your blog frequently.

Blogs Are A Great Tool For Influencing The Search Engines

Blogs are becoming a widely used devices for publishing information on the web. They can be used either to communicate general information, or as a marketing tool to promote products and services. Although the blog format has been around for a number of years, the way it is being used is still evolving.

The most distinctive thing about a blog is that it is "content-rich". Most blogs consist of a number of posts entered on a regular basis. These posts can be short references to some other resource on the net (connected by a link), or long posts which are essentially articles or essays on a specific topic with embedded references to other related sources on the web. This makes them ideal for writers, reporters, journalists, as well as marketers wanting to systematically report on current activities, news of the day, or the features of products.

For instance, blogs are used extensively by bloggers in China to comment on the political and economic scene there. They are used by political advocates in most parts of the world who want to push a certain point of view. They are used by journalists as an alternative medium to communicate their experiences and ideas without them being filtered by large publishers. And blogs are used by corporate communication people to keep in touch with employees and customers by carrying corporate news and comments on the developments within a company or industry.

They are also increasingly used by marketers who want to promote certain products and enhance the search engine exposure of specific websites. If you have a website, or are promoting a website on behalf of a client, then planting references to it in blog posts is a very good way of bringing it to the attention of the search engines.

**Blogs and Search Engines**

Blogs are useful marketing tools because the major search engines pay close attention to them. The structure of blogs makes them easily spiderable, so the major search engines -- Google, Yahoo, and MSN, etc. -- tend to view them as sources of "news." The more active a blog is, the more frequently it will be spidered. If a blog contains new posts every day, it will get spidered every day -- and sometimes more than once a day.

That means that the information in an active blog will show up in search engine indexes much more quickly than changes made to ordinary static websites. Many people think that simply making a change to their website -- for instance, posting a news item on their home page -- will result in that chance of being picked up by the search engines. But this is not the case. The search engines can only reflect that change after the site is spidered. And unless a site has a history of being constantly updated, the search engines will only spider it occasionally.

Therefore when it comes to influencing the search engines, blogs can serve two useful functions. First, as we have seen, an active blog gets spidered regularly. So as long as it remains active a blogger can expect a regular visit to his blog from the search engines to see what is being reported. New posts will get indexed almost immediately, and will start to show up in search engine results.

**Two Important Conclusions about Blogs**

First, if you want to have something reflected quickly in search engine searches, writing about it in a blog is the best way to accomplish this objective.

Second, since the search engines follow links, placing links in your blog posts to other sites to which you want to draw attention to is a good way to get them spidered as well. For instance, say you introduce a new product on your website. The best way to have the search engines visit your site quickly and reindex the changed pages is to make an announcement in an active blog. The spiders will visit the blog, follow the links pointing to your website, and index the changes to the website.

This is why links placed in blog posts are generally the most effective way of drawing attention to other targeted websites.

**Taking Advantage of Blogs**

There are two fairly straightforward ways to take advantage of these important features of blogs.

The first way is to start your own blog. It is surprisingly easy to become a blogger. Many sites offer free blogs that are part of a larger "community" of blogs. For instance, go to blogger.com (owned by Google), sign up (for free), and you can have you blog up and running in a matter of minutes.

The problem with this approach is that you may not be a writer, you may not be interested in making regular posts, or you may simply not have anything to say on a regular basis. In that case you might try to find someone who will let you make posts every now and then in their blog -- or at least create links pointing at your website.

Another interesting alternative is to pay someone to review your site, or feature your products every couple of weeks in their blog. That way you get all the marketing and search engine advantages of blogging without actually having to do any of the work.

What Are Blogs And How Do You Profit From Them?

'Blogs' or 'Blogging' have existed for several years and there are still many people who don't know what one is and how important it is to making you money.

A blog is a web log. It's used to add contents of a diary or news by the owner (blogger). For example, I may want to blog about the latest affiliate programs there are and ones that have good commissions as soon as I know about them. People can visit my website and see new contents on my website regularly.

A blog should contain information about a similar topic. For example, cars, computers, stamps etc... The good thing about blogs is that you can write whatever you want on it. Your visitors can even comment on what they think about a particular blog. With a blog you do not need to have any programming experience. You can update a blog easily by just typing what you want just like with a word processor. What an easy way to update a website.

So now we know what a blog is, what's so good about a blog? Why are so many talking about it?

Owners have found that updating fresh content to their websites has been made easier by using blogging software. Before blogs were popular, people had to create the content, get it transferred into HTML by the programmer, and then uploaded to the website. All this hassle is gone with blogging.

Perhaps, the most important thing about having a blog is that the search engines love them. Yes, search engines love new content. It means a website is not static, therefore search engines will visit that website often and get them indexed. If you have a blog, search engines will have your website in their listings quickly.

Blogging should be done regularly by your business. The customers should have the feeling that your blog will be updated regularly so that they will feel the need to visit often. If your blog is stagnant, then people will not go back. This is not how blogs are used.

What a lot of people don't know about blogging is that it can also help make you money. Yes - blogs can be profitable too.

One of the ways you can profit from blogs is to provide valuable content to them, and keep them regularly informed. Once you have created that relationship with them, you can place affiliate links within your blogs. These have to be products or services that you recommend to your readers to use. Good commission comes with using this idea.

You can even ask your readers to donate money to maintain your blog. Stress that your blog is a free service and you hope that they will support you etc...

Once you have a lot of visitors to your blogging website, you can use Google's Adsense which shows Google's ads on your blogs. When your visitors click on those ads, you'll get a percentage of the payment for each click. With a lot of visitors, this will add up to a nice check every month.

You can even have an advertising space at the top of your blog. Advertise this space. You can charge people weekly to advertise what they want. You may even have more than one space for advertisements. The more popular and more visitors your blog gets, the more you can charge for these advertising spaces.

The blog http://www.home-business-setup.com shows the ways in which money can be made which I've discussed throughout this article. Notice the AdSense at the top of the page and also the text link which other people will pay for once they know the blog gets traffic.

Just shows that there are so many ways to profit from blogging that it would be crazy if we don't start now.