Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Make Money Blogging

Do you want to make money blogging? If you do - you’re not alone. More and more bloggers are finding that blogging is a profitable medium. Whether it be to earn a few extra dollars a week to feed their coffee habit, or making enough money to stop them having to get a part time job to get through college, or whether they’ve got it to a point where they are able to make a full time living from their blogging - there are tens of thousands of bloggers making money from blogging.

In this page I want to share some information for beginners on making money from their blogs.

I will start by sharing my own top Money Making Methods (updated regularly) but below that point you to some great resources and teaching on how to increase your income from blogging.

What follows is a quick summary of my main income streams from blogging. Before you read it though - keep in mind that every blog is unique in how it can make money. Some of the following income streams will work on some blogs a lot better than others - the key is to experiment with as many as possible and see what works best for you.

The following income streams (from a number of blogs) have helped me to earn a six figure income each year for the last three years from blogging. I’ve ranked them from highest to lowest.



I hope you find it useful to see the mix and variety of ways that I earn a living from blogging.


1. AdSense

AdsenseDespite not using it here at ProBlogger any more (here’s why) I continue to use AdSense with amazing effect on my other blogs. I have them all set to show image and text based ads and find that 250×300 pixel ads work best (usually with a blended design). I don’t have much luck with their ‘referrals’ program but their normal ads work a treat and continue to be the biggest earner for me.
2. Chitika

ChitikaChitka continues to be a great performer for me on my blogs. They work best on product related blogs although their recent announcement of their Premium ad unit is exciting as they now offer ads with a non product focus that I’m hearing great conversions on (I have one reader who is getting $28 CPM on this ad unit).Chitika offers a range of ad units that I experiment with. I find their eMiniMalls work best and that Related Product Units are also good. Their Shoplincs product isn’t performing as well as it once did for me - mainly because I’ve been promoting it less and have driven less traffic to it. Over the time I’ve been using Chitika they’ve now earned me over a quarter of a million dollars - I can’t recommend them enough!
3. Private Ad Sales/Sponsorships

private-ad-salesPrivate ad sales directly to advertisers have continued to grow over the last few months and as a result they’re now my third highest income stream. I expect them to overtake both Chitika and AdSense in the coming months. This includes ad sales of the 125 x 125 ads here at ProBlogger as well as a campaign or two at Digital Photography School.
4. Amazon Associates

Amazon-Logo-1
Amazon’s affiliate program has been one of my big movers in the last 12 months. I used to make a few odd dollars from it - however in recent times it has become a significant earner for me (as I’ve shared previously). This quarter it grew even more than previously as a result of continued growth of DPS where I recommend books, software and cameras.
5. Miscellaneous Affiliate Programs

miscellaneous affiliate programsI run a variety of affiliate programs on my blogs - most of which bring in smaller amounts of money that don’t really justify a category of their own. These include - - Digital Photography Secrets (a camera technique series), Pro Photo Secrets (a great photoshop product) , Yaro’s Blog Mastermind Mentoring Program (about to open the doors again), SEO Book (Aaron’s legendary resource) and the excellent Teaching Sells course (which just continues to grow in what it offers to it’s members in terms of content).

The great thing about many of these programs is that they are of such high quality that they sell themselves and I am being emailed from readers who sign up to them thanking me for the recommendation!

6. Shopzilla


shopzilla.jpgAs I wrote recently - Shopzilla has really impressed me with how it’s performed over the last few weeks. It’s actually doing well enough to debut in this list at #6. The ads are similar to Chitika but the click values have been higher for me to this point. They don’t offer quite as many options as Chitika does in terms of types of ads but for a new ad network there’s definitely promising signs. I’m looking forward to seeing how they continue to develop!
7. ProBlogger Job Boards

Jobboardheader The job boards here at ProBlogger continue to grow each month in the number of advertisements that are being bought. This enabled me to invest most of the money that they’d earned a while back into getting a new back end for the boards and to redesign them. It hit me today that the boards are now bringing in around $1000 a month in revenue which is pretty nice considering that they are so low maintenance to run. They also offer a service to readers and add value to the overall blog.

The only problem that I face with the job boards is that there are so many bloggers looking for work that the demand for jobs far exceeds the supply. On the good side of things is that advertisers are reporting getting amazing quality of applications.
8. WidgetBucks

widgetbucks.jpgAnother newcomer to this list is WidgetBucks - another ad network that ProBlogger readers will be familiar with.

WidgetBucks is similar to Chitika and Shopzilla in many respects and works well on product related sites. It does best on sites with US traffic (the reason I’ve not used it as much as I get a lot of international traffic) so if you have a product related site with a US audience it’d be a no brainer to try out WidgetBucks. I’m hoping they’ll continue to expand their offerings in terms of ad types and visitor location.

Disclaimer - WidgetBucks are an advertiser on ProBlogger

9. Miscellaneous Advertising Programs

miscellaneous ad networksI also play with a number of other ad networks. Some I run as tests to see if I should review them here - and some are just advertising that run in the background on some of my smaller blogs. These include ShoppingAds, Feedburner RSS ads, Vizu (a poll advertising system), Kontera and Bidvertiser. Together these don’t add up to major earnings for me - not because they are not good, but because I don’t use them heavily (a blog can only run so many ads on it).

I think that that covers most of it although it’s worth mentioning that last time I did this list I also included TextLinkAds which used to be every bloggers favorite way to make money blogging by selling text links. I’ve stopped using them due to Google cracking down on them (read more about this here) but it’s worth noting that many bloggers still use them successfully - I advise to proceed with caution. Disclaimer - TLA are an advertiser on ProBlogger

Useful Resources for Bloggers Wanting to Make Money Blogging

A lot has been written on the topic of making money online from blogs. There is a lot of wonderful information out there - but also a lot of hype and sometimes dangerous information.

Below are a number of articles that I’ve written exploring some of the different ways that bloggers make money.
Read More..

10 Ways to make your Blog more Attractive to Advertisers

1. Have an “Advertise with Us” Banner on your site

This is the single most important issue. It should click to an Advertising information page and have an easy way to contact you for more information and rates. Key points: Make it a graphical image or a tab. Keep it above the fold.

2. Keep the ads on your site specific to your site

Don’t have smiley ads and wallpaper ads if your site is site is about mobile phones.

3. Show them the banners

If you currently have no paid placements on your site, put up house ads or partner ads in the same spot you would run a paid spot. (A house ad refers to banners for other products or sites that you or your company own)

. Throw up a free bonus ad.

By putting a free advertisement on your site, you may not only encourage similar ads or competitors to that product, but the company you added for free may decide to advertise with you. Ask for full disclosure of the performance of the campaign in return. (Total clicks, total purchases etc. ) Key points. Put the free bonus up with a direct URL without tracking tags or affiliate tags.

5. Show your site stats.

You need to show at least the basics for site statical information: Monthly unique visitors and total number of impressions are the 2 key ones. Other less important can be Google PR & Alexa rank.

6. User demographic information. Know your audience.

The bare minimum is Male/Female % and average age of your readers. Other potentially useful information includes geographic, HHI, single/married, number of kids. etc. How do you get this info? You can do site polls, survey’s, or get more detailed stats from ComScore or Quantcast.com

7. Have an ‘About Us’ section.

Clearly explain who you are and what your site is about. And also why you are an ‘authority’ on what you are writing about, and why anyone should care about what you have to say.

8. Don’t use Google AdSense on your site.

OK, this could be the most painful one for most people especially if you are generating a few hundred bucks a month from it already. But Google ad sense devalues your site and makes it look unprofessional. You have to ask yourself, “Do I want some real revenue from my site or Google’s table scraps.”

9. Keep your blog on topic.

If you are all over the map in regards to topics about which you talk about, advertisers won’t know if they are a good fit for your site.

10. Keep your blog professional.

If you are talking about your cat, (Matt Cutts), ranting about your drive to work, swearing or bashing every product you can think about, it will scare away advertisers.

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9 Reasons Why I AM An Amazon Affiliate

However the Amazon Associates Program is well worth considering for some bloggers. I use it and this month it’ll earn me over $2500 USD - not my biggest income stream, but not the ‘pennies and dimes’ that some say it has the potential to earn.

To bring a little balance to the debate over the Amazon Affiliate program I thought I’d give a few reasons that I am an Amazon Affiliate:

1. Amazon is a trusted Brand - I surveyed some of my readers a year back and asked them to give me a list of online stores that they had made purchases from in the last 12 months. Amazon came up number 1 as the most popular shopping destination mentioned. Readers know Amazon and are familiar with it - they trust it and do spend significant money there.

2. Commissions - John writes that he’s not satisfied with a 4% commission. He’s right in some ways, 4% isn’t that much when you’re selling a $10 book - however when you’re selling a Get a Price on the $5000 Camera or a $25,000 Tractor (I know someone who does quite well out of ride on mowers and tractors) it certainly adds up. Not only that, the 4% rate that John talks about is the base rate. Unfortunately it is as high as it goes on consumer electronics - however on most other products there is a sliding scale where the more you sell the higher your commission goes to. Sell more than 6 items in a month and your commission goes to 6% - sell over 630 and you’re up to 8% (the rate I’m on). The 4-Hour work Week that John uses as an example earned me around $1 a book. Still not a lot - but I did sell 100 or so of them (after my interview with it’s author) which not only earned me $100 but also helped push the numbers of sales up for the month, moving me into the next earning bracket.


3. People Buy More than One Item - the great thing about Amazon is that you don’t just earn a commission on the product that you people to, but anything that they buy once they’re at Amazon. I did an experiment earlier in the year where I published a review of a digital photography book on my blog and placed a tracking code in the link to see how much the review earned me specifically. What I found was that the product in the review did quite well - but the sales of other products that people made once they got to Amazon was actually much greater than the sales of the actual book. People went on to buy all manner of products (other books, electronics, cosmetics etc) - I earned a commission on each one of them - now that’s passive income. You earn a commission on anything that a person buys within 24 hours of you sending them to Amazon.

4. Easily Integrated - There are more and more plugins and tools that have Amazon Affiliate integration built into them to help you easily place links in your blog posts. I use ecto for Mac which has a tool that searches for products and links them in in just a couple of clicks. WP has plugins also. The affiliate links already mentioned in this post took seconds to integrate in.

5. Payment Options - Amazon pays their affiliates in a number of ways. One of the things that I like is that they give you the option to be paid in products instead of cash. I don’t do this every month (I couldn’t spend that $20,000+ a year at Amazon… well maybe I could) but occasionally do and use it as prizes for blog readers. I recently offered DPS readers $500 of Amazon products in a forum signup competition. The prize is paid for out of my affiliate earnings.

6. Small Payments Add Up - In my early days of making money from blogs I didn’t have the luxury of picking and choosing my income streams as much as I (and other full time bloggers) now do. I needed to earn money somewhere and even the small amounts that Amazon brought in were better than nothing. Over time these payments began to add up. In the early days I didn’t even earn enough for a minimum payment amount and had to wait a few months before they’d pay me - but those pay outs were milestones that I celebrated. If I’d not gone with Amazon because they didn’t earn me a lot I might not have gone with any ad networks or affiliate programs - sometimes you have to take what you can get.

7. It’s an Investment that Matures Over Time - My approach with Amazon is to treat it a little like a savings account or an investment that you put a little into each week and which matures in it’s earnings over time. What do I mean by this? I add links to Amazon over time and find that in doing so I’m creating more and more doorways into the Amazon store. Each time I do I increase the chances of sending someone to Amazon and seeing returns on those visits.

8. The Holidays are Boom Time - While I’m really happy with the way my Amazon Affiliate income is growing ($2500 a month is so far beyond what I’d ever expected from it in the early days) it’s worth noting that things really fire up in the lead up to Christmas and the holiday season. Over the last few years I’ve noticed significant jumps in Amazon earnings in December (as much as 100%). The key is to plan ahead (make sure your links are all up to date a couple of months out) and run a few Christmas specific posts in the lead up to the Holiday rush (start to prepare as early as October/November).

9. Wide Array of Products
What initially attracted me to using Amazon’s Affiliate program was the breadth of products that they had in their system. This is a great thing if you’re niche is narrow or quite obscure as many bloggers find it difficult to find affiliate programs to match their blog’s focus. Blogs like John’s and mine here at ProBlogger do have an array of options for affiliate programs (which is why I don’t use it a lot on this blog and make most of my earnings from Amazon from product related blogs) but many bloggers don’t have the luxury of being able to choose high paying affiliate programs because they simply don’t relate to our topics. Amazon then becomes one of the more attractive options.
So is the Amazon Affiliate Program for you?

I can’t answer that question for everyone - I won’t pretend that it works brilliantly on every blog but I know quite a few bloggers making significant earnings each month from the program. Blogs with a strong product focus can do quite well through the program if links to Amazon are well integrated into posts (see some of the links below for tips). I would advise moderation in using the program - don’t place them in every post you write unless they are relevant. Links placed in genuinely helpful reviews do better than links and banners in sidebars.

The best way to see if it converts is to give it a go.

Read More..

Best Tips for get started with earning money from "Paid Surveys"

Paid surveys are great opportunities for people who wants to make money online with little effort (other than reading and typing your answers) on your convenient time. These are usually conducted by many companies in relation to development of their new products. These companies recognize how you need to spend time and effort to answer their queries, so they pay you accordingly for answering them. Therefore, you really do get paid for surveys. Here are the best tips to remember while you get started with earning money from "Paid Survey" agencies
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Do NOT divulge your personal information:
Never ever give any personal information - this is a rule. No company is interested in knowing what is your street address and phone number. May be they would like to have your postcode or city name - that is enough for them. Do not use your personal email-ids. May be your email -id could fall into wrong hands and victimized to spams. Sign up with a throw-away email id and create one with Google or Yahoo exclusively for this purpose.

If anyone asks you money to participate, DON'T:
Genuine companies pay to get your (customer's) opinions, remember? If someone asks you to pay to take part in surveys, show them your hand (or the finger).

Invest in a course; Learn from experts:
Time is money, if you agree or not. So, spend your time wisely. we can seen lot of peoples are complained that they have lost countless hours of their hard labour in filling surveys that were conducted by bogus companies. Such companies get your responses and sell it to a higher rate to the companies, and you may not even get paid at all. So, invest in a good course and learn the insider's tips and tricks.

Know the Terms and Conditions:
Every survey opportunity comes with a certain terms and conditions. Marketers, sometimes, would like to have the opinions of a certain age group, nationality or geographical region. Read the fine print before you start filling the surveys. Obviously the people living in USA and Europe will have more number of survey opportunities than the people living in India or Pakistan. There is nothing against them, but 70% of the companies are based in USA and Europe. But, the trend is changing, as India, China are growing as the biggest consumer base for any company in the world. They can't simply ignore.

Keep an eye on Suspicious things:
Bad things, deceptive opportunities and traps exist everywhere. So, open your eyes and smell for only good opportunities. That's why I ask you to invest in a good course that teaches you all the tricks and tips about paid surveys. It is worth every penny. And you can't ignore experience, you will get better as you progress. If you do not invest in learning from a course or from other experts, you will lose your precious hard work and time which could be well worth hundreds and thousands of dollars.As you start filling surveys, you will get to differentiate between a legitimate survey agency and a untrustworthy one. Trust your own instincts in choosing the surveys and do not fall for the big bucks.

Read More..

Monday, March 30, 2009

10 Powerful Secrets To Make Money With AdSense

Tip #1: Forget About Perfect Markets.
Looking for a “hot market” and then trying to get in on the action just makes
sense, right? Wrong.
While some online markets are definitely more profitable than others, the key to
success with AdSense is not through picking one high-quality market and sticking
with it - it’s about quantity.Put simply, the more you diversify your online interests, the more money you are bound to make. Does this mean that you shouldn’t take time to do market research by checkingOverture’s search numbers, click costs, search engine competition, and affiliateprograms? No. Those are fundamental tools that you simply must use and master.But understand that not all markets are as easy to conquer as others, and thereis honestly no rhyme, no reason, and no market research that can determinewhich ones you’ll have success with. For example, one day you may be able to reach the top-ten in a supercompetitive market, and the next day you may find yourself barely entering Google’s ratings. Even wide-open, non-competitive markets may be difficult to get a foothold in (rankings wise), making predicting success is difficult if not impossible.That’s why it’s important for you to work in as many different markets as possible, instead of analyzing which one or two might work best for you.Chances are, if you test out ten markets, at least two or three will be profitable.
Do this every week, and odds are that you’ll be making quite a profit in no time.

Tip #2: Quantity Outweighs Quality
Unless you are extremely gifted at predicting the future, we suggest that you
heed this secret. It is based on simple math. The more opportunities you are
working with, the better you can expect the results to be.
We learned a long time ago that we cannot accurately guess which markets are
going to profitable and which are not.
Now do not misunderstand us. We do all the standard market research that we
all need to do before choosing a market.
We would investigate Overture's search numbers and cost per clicks, we'd check
on the competition, we'd make sure there were at least 2 or 3 reliable and solid
affiliate programs associated with the particular market and so forth and so on.
We were doing our homework.
But even after all the research, the investigating, there were some markets that
we were simply not able to turn a profit in.
More often than not, we noticed that this failure had nothing to do with the
competition that we faced in that market. In fact, there were some markets that
were very competitive in which we achieved very high rankings. Then, for some
reason, there were other markets that should have been a snap for us to profit in
that did not pan out at all. There were times when we couldn’t even make the top
10 for a single keyword!
So that's when we decided to employ a new methodology.
It's simple: throw enough out there and something will hit the target.
And it works.
After using this rather simple method and seeing the results, we no longer care if
a market appears to be quality market or not. Our results proved to us, at least,
that if we go into 10 markets, we can usually expect 2 or 3 of them to turn out to
be profitable winners.
Once we understood that this method, while simple, returned good results, we
continued to use it. We would put in another ten markets per week, and over
time, by doing that, week after week, we eventually built a huge network of sites,
in hundreds of different markets, all of them profitable. Now, you can follow our suggestion and do what we have been doing or you can
work yourself to death trying to find those few “perfect” markets, which, as far as
we are concerned, actually change one week from the next.
Our method takes work. There is no way around that truism. But we have some
tips on that for you as well.

#3: This is business. It is not playtime.
You might be surprised by the number of people who complain that they do not
make any significant income from their AdSense campaigns. When we ask them
how many markets they're in or how many domains they have, their answer is
usually 10 or 15 markets, and only 1 or 2 domains per market.
Here is another truth that many people do not want to face head-on. You cannot
make any money with AdSense unless you are in a lot of markets. And within
those many markets, you must have many websites if you want to really
penetrate your niche market and make the most profits from that market. In
today’s world, you need to have a lot of smaller sites.
So how can you do all of that?
Well, you cannot, unless you first address some important issues.
In order for you to accomplish all this work, you need three things:
1) Procedures
2) Achievable Goals
3) Help
PROCEDURES: As mentioned above, in order for you to maximize your profits
and exposure, you must have a lot of websites working for you. With that being
the case, you need to have some system of generating a lot of websites and be
able to get those sites up and running in as quick a fashion as possible.
So how about an assembly line metaphor? Let’s assume you want to get into 20
markets. One way to do this would be for you to do the keyword research for all
20 markets. Then purchase your domain names. Then setup your hosting
accounts. And lastly build and upload your web pages.
Your procedure, in this case, allows you to work in a systematic, organized way
which is much more efficient than attempting to build each site, one at a time,
and one domain at a time.
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ACHEIVEABLE GOALS: Anyone who is self-employed, either full time or part
time, understands the importance of setting realistic goals and then achieving
those goals. You need to set daily, weekly, and monthly goals to keep yourself
on track and give yourself a clear picture of where you are and where you want
to go.
Your goal list is your roadmap to success.
However, each goal that you set for yourself must be achievable. Do not set your
goals so high that failure is almost assured. That sort of action will kill your selfconfidence
and cause you to lose faith in your work.
If you are just getting started out, you might set a monthly goal of 10 markets,
with 3 domains per market.
Is that too much?
How about starting with 5 markets with 2 domains per market?
You would then set weekly and daily goals to ensure that you meet (and even
exceed) the goals you set.
Without goals you can't keep score, and if you can't keep score you don't know if
you're winning or losing in business, or in life, for that matter.
HELP: The last element that is vital to your success is help.
In order for all the work to get done, you will need to outsource as much as
possible.
This is vital. You must understand why outsourcing is so important.
Your mission is to perform a task only until you know it well enough to teach
someone else how to do it. The faster you can duplicate yourself, the faster you
can expand your business as you focus on the most profitable actions that need
to be taken. For this to work, you have to be management, not grunt.
Our entire page generation business is 100% outsourced. We have one person
who selects my markets, another does the keyword research for those markets,
and yet another who actually builds and manages all my pages.
This frees us up to concentrate on the markets that are truly profitable. It allows
us the time and the mental space to think through our next move. That freedom
to think would be greatly diminished if we had to spend the majority of our time
doing work that others can do just as well, and, in some cases, better than us.
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Tip #4: Target your pages to Keyword Phrases
Regardless of the markets that you are in, the vast majority of your traffic will
come from the 3- to 5-word keyword phrases you select rather than from your 1-
and 2-word "root keyword".
If you're going into the "Birthday Cards" market, you will get more traffic from
keyword phrases like "Free Printable Birthday Cards” than from something like
“Birthday Cards”.
The secret for more traffic is to aim your website pages (title tags and content) to
keyword phrases. To find the best keyword phrases you may use
www.WordTracker.com or overture keyword suggestion tool here:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
Tip #5: Use Relevant Content Related To the Theme
There are a lot of places where you can borrow content and articles as long as
you credit the writer with a link to his/her site. The best content is an original
content, however building a huge network of sites writing articles yourself or
outsource the writing tasks to other ghostwriters is time consuming and very
expensive. We use other people articles, once combining more then one article
on a page, make the page an original page.
Below you may find a list of article directories where you can borrow articles and
content.
name Category PR
Articles Factory general 8
Articles Hub general 7
Search Guild general 7
Elib Articles shopping 6
ArticleWorld.net Free Articles general 6
Article Biz general 6
Article City general 6
Article dashboard general 6
Article Sender general 6
Best Ezines general 6
Bharatbhasha general 6
Buzzle general 6
Easy Articles general 6
eZine Articles.com general 6
eZine Plug general 6
Free Blog Articles general 6
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Go Articles general 6
Hotlib Articles general 6
iSnare general 6
New List general 6
Health Guidance health-fitness 6
ArticleTrader general 5
Webmasters Cavern webmaster 5
ArticleDepot.net Free Articles general 5
Infonexus.org general 5
Free Business Articles business 5
Free SEO Articles seo 5
A1 Articles general 5
A1 Optimization general 5
Article99 general 5
Article Alley general 5
Article Beach general 5
Article Blast general 5
Article Depot.co.uk general 5
Article Fever general 5
Article Garden general 5
Article Point general 5
Article Rich general 5
Website Content Articles general 5
Articles 911 business 5
Article Sphere general 5
Article Trader general 5
Big Articles general 5
Http Articles general 5
Search Articles general 5
Search Warp general 5
Self SEO seo 5
Webmaster Articles webmaster 5
Webmasters Library webmaster 5
Website Content Articles general 5
Work On Internet webmaster 5
Wow Articles general 5
Article Hub.net general 5
Ace Articles computers 5
Articler general 5
ArticleQuery general 5
101 Articles general 4
Article Connection general 4
iReprint.info Free to Reprint Articles general 4
A1 Article Directory general 4
Featured Articles general 4
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LABusinessJournal general 4
ArticleCat.com general 4
ArticlesAZ general 4
Article Blotter general 4
ArticleCube general 4
Article Master general 4
365 Articles general 4
Article University general 4
Amazines general 4
Answers about internet promo webmaster 4
Tip #6: Use Fewer Links
This secret revolves around mathematical probability and common sense. If you
have 25 links to other webpages on your page, and only 5 of those links are
AdSense ads that pay you, chances are pretty good that you visitors will click on
the links that do not pay you.
Having too many links that do not pay is even more damaging to your CTR than
having too much content on the page.
Placing your AdSense ads at the top will help some, but you are still going to lose
a lot of traffic by giving your visitors the option to click away via a link that doesn't
pay.
So how can you deal with this challenge?
1) You can put the non profitable links at the bottom of the page
2) Each link should open in a new browser using the html target="_blank"
tag
Tip #7: The Fewer Ads the Better
When Google raised the ad block limit from one per page, to two, and then later
to three, many marketers decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and max
out the number of ad blocks on their pages.
That was not a good idea and many of these marketers have suffered from it.
It is important for you to remember that when you publish Google AdSense ads
on your pages, Google is effectively syndicating their Adwords ads, which is a
pay-per-click advertising network.
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What that means is the ads at the top of the page are there because the
advertisers for those ads are paying more (for the better placement) than the
advertisers with ads at the bottom of the page.
W
hat this means to you is if you max out the number of ad blocks on your page,
you will go from having 4 ads to having 12 ads. This is assuming that you are
using the large rectangle ad block. The math: 4 ads per ad block and 3 blocks
equals 12 total ads.
At first glance you might consider this to be a good change, one that should be
more profitable for you, right? After all, the more ads you have available the more
chances you have of getting a click. Seems to make sense, doesn’t it?
Actually, it is not a good thing for you because it can very easily and very quickly
cut into your profits.
Why?
My tests in this matter have shown us that not only do we get fewer clicks the
more ads we have on a page, but we also earn much less for every click that we
do get.
we decided that this only makes sense.
If the top ad on your page pays you $0.50 per click, there is a very good chance
that the bottom 4 all pay less than $0.15. In essence, by increasing the number
of ads, you are trading higher-priced (higher paying) clicks for lower-priced (lower
paying) clicks.
We tested several pages of my own and decided that 4 ads is usually the golden
goose. However, this is not a hard and fast rule that must be observed at all
times. Occasionally, a 2 ad block pulls the best combination of earning-per-click
(EPC) and click-through-rate (CPC) which is exactly what you want.
My advice is if you're using more than one ad block on your page, test that same
page with just a single block and careful keep track of the results. Odds are you
will make more money by decreasing the ads.
Tip #8: Sell the Click…Carefully and Creatively
Google policy strictly forbids you from writing out, “Click on the links below”. They
do that to protect the advertisers, and to keep things fair for each advertiser.
However, if you can “suggest” that your visitors click on the links (without actually
saying it in print), your CTR will be greatly increased.
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Many people have tried many methods of doing just this thing. Some have tried
using arrows and other graphics that point to their ads, in the hopes of pulling
visitors in, but, be warned, Google seriously frowns upon this type of behavior.
What they don't mind, however, is if an image appears next to your ad block, and
if that image just so happens to catch the eye, well…
More subtle, but still highly effective, is to have an unrelated image sitting next to
your ads. For example, if your page is about a particular magazine, you may
want to include a photo of the editor of that magazine next to the ads. The photo
of this editor will naturally draw the eye toward it. At the same time, Google would
not mind this photo being there because it directly relates to the content of the
ad.
Another way to “sell” the ad is to place the article below the ads and below the
fold so that the visitor does not see immediately see it. Now this is highly
aggressive and may cause trouble for you with Google, so use at your own
discretion.
If you want to be less aggressive, make sure you include plenty of resources in
the article below the ads. Keep in mind what we discussed earlier that the more
content and links the lower your CTR will be. In this case, it is very good advice
to test, test, test.
The last tip for this section is so simple and easy to use it is nearly insane. When
you write your paragraph or two of content, make sure you end the last sentence
of the last paragraph with an ellipse.
Like this …
Generally speaking, when people begin reading something they want to finish it.
By leaving them hanging with the ellipse, you are inviting them to click on the link
to read the rest of the content. It makes it appear as if the article continues on
one of the pages being linked to, and many times they will click on the link just to
get to the rest of the content.
Tip #9: Avoid the "Advertise on this site" Program
Sometimes what is good for someone else is not good for you. This is one of
those occasions.
Google's newest enhancement to their Adsense program is the “Advertise on this
site” program. We hate it, and we suggest you not use it.
Here's how it works:
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By allowing "OnSite Advertiser Signup" on your sites, Google automatically
posts a link at the top of all your ads. The premise is that a potential advertiser
will visit your site, decide they want to advertise on your site, and click that
Google link to signup.
On the surface it sounds like a good idea. But when we tested it, it cost us money
to tune of a 9% drop across the board.
We're not sure what caused this but we do have my suspicions:
First, it was another link on my sites. As mentioned above, the more links you
have, the less money you make. And in this case, the only way to be paid
through this link is if someone actually fills out the form and signs up. That does
not happen very often, if ever.
The second reason we feel this “enhancement” cost us money is that the ad itself
makes my other ads look less like resources and more like ads. It's bad enough
that Google still puts that unsightly and annoying "Ads by Gooooooogle" line
across the top of your ad block, but adding another "Advertise on this site" link
right next to it really pushes it over the edge. People hate advertising when it is in
their face. What do they do? They leave. Fast.
Third, very few advertisers, at least those who are serious, are going to be willing
to agree to advertise on your site and your site alone. It is simply not good
business to be tied to one site (even if that site belongs to you) and most people
will not agree to that. We know we would never agree to participate in something
like that, something that restrictive. We can’t blame others for not wanting to do it
either.
Most of the people we have talked to have also experienced a decline in
earnings when the ad appeared on their sites. If you have it on your pages, you
should consider dropping it.
"OnSite Advertiser Signup" is activated by default at Google. Unless you tell
them you do NOT want to participate in the program, they will turn it on.
It is easy enough to check and to fix. Log in to your Adsense account and click
on the "My Account" link. Scroll down to the bottom and look for the line that
says: OnSite Advertiser Sign-Up. Make sure this says "You are not currently
subscribed to Onsite Advertiser Sign-Up". If it doesn't say that, click the "Edit"
button and unsubscribe.
Now, it may take a few days (perhaps longer) for the code to update across all of
your pages, but eventually it will vanish, and hopefully your profits will increase.
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Tip #10: Get Indexed in The Search Engines.
The best way to get indexed and crawled by search engine bots is by getting
links from other websites that are already indexed in the search engines. Then
when the search engine bots will crawl the site that is pointing to your site it will
notice the link to your site and after a few days will start crawling your site and
pages.
There are a lot of ways to get links from other sites and I will mention a few
1) Link exchange with other websites that are on the same theme as your
site (link exchange done wrong can get your site ban by search engines)
2) You can submit your sites to search engine friendly directories.
3) You can write articles and submit them toy article directories
4) You can use companies that their expert is linking for example
http://www.text-link-ads.com/
There are a lot of other ways to gain links to your sites, the above are very easy
to use and implement. Of course you can outsource the link building tasks if you,
as we do!
Links is one of the most important things to get to the top of the search engines,
if done correctly.
Last Thoughts:
The key to dramatically increasing your profits through Adsense is in the
numbers. The only thing separating you from a $20 a day profit and a $200 a day
profit is the numbers. If you do more of what you are already doing, the numbers
will take of the rest.
But be intelligent about it, too. Be smarter than the next person. Set up and then
use your Procedures. Make that Goal List that we explored earlier and then
achieve those goals, one at a time. Outsource when it is the smart thing to do.
Never be afraid to ask for help.
This business is about volume. You should ask yourself as often as possible,
“How many markets are you going into this month?" Your answer to that
question, more than almost anything else, will determine your success.
Once you know how many markets you want to open in a given month, sit down
and plan out each step that must be taken in order to make that goal happen.
Use the assembly line method we spoke of earlier. Do your work in batches
rather than one site at a time. Find good people who can help you with keyword
research, website design and maintenance, and other tasks.
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Keep a close eye on your results from each site or page. When you notice
something has changed, increase or decrease in profits, get in there and try to
track down the problem. Testing is the key to success in this business, and it is
not something that you only have to do one time and then forget about it. Testing
your sites, testing your content, your keywords, your key phrases, all of that is
crucial to you staying on top.
IMPORTANT THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND:
There are many tips and tricks that you can use to improve your profitability with
Adsense, but it is never a good idea to get too far away from the basics either.
For that reason, we have included here some of the more general aspects of
using Adsense in order to maximizing its overall effectiveness.
When your content changes, so do your ads.
The technology behind Google AdSense goes beyond simple keyword or
category matching. In essence, they try to understand your content and deliver
ads that are relevant to specific pages, automatically, no matter how many
thousands of pages your site may have, or how specialized or broad your
content. With that being the case, as your content changes, Google's ads change
to match.
What that means to you is that if you go changing your content too much; do not
be surprised if the ads change as well.
And while many people complain about Google, they do offer some very useful
safeguards which you may want to explore.
• Competitive ad filters. You can block competitive ads, or other ads you
want to keep off your site, simply by telling them which URLs to block.
• Ad Review. Before ads appear on your site, they're reviewed using a
combination of human and automated processes. The review process
takes into account a variety of factors, including the quality of the ad and
whether it's suitable for all audiences.
• Sensitive content filters. At times, certain ads may be inappropriate for
some pages. For example, Google automatically filters out ads that would
be inappropriate on a news page about a catastrophic event.
• Choose your own default ads. In the unlikely event that Google is unable
to serve targeted ads on your page, they offer you the option of displaying
a default ad of your choice. This ensures that your advertising space is
always being used as effectively as possible.
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Customize ads to complement your site.
Google offers you a lot of choices when it comes to design. While it is better to
stick with the more traditional look, you can, if you wish to experiment or test,
choose something else. They offer over 200 colors and 24 pre-set color
palettes—you can create and save your own custom palettes using a simple
point-and-click color selection tool.
One thing you simply must do is track your earnings with online reports.
You can monitor your ad performance with customizable online reports that offer
details like the number of page impressions, clicks and click-through rate.
You can track the performance of specific ad formats, colors, and pages, which
can help you, identify trends quickly. These reporting tools let you group your
pages however you want, so you can gain insight into your earnings by viewing
results by URL, domain, ad type, category and more.
Track your results online.
You can track the number of queries, clicks, click-through-rate—as well as your
Adsense earnings—via a web-based account which you can easily update at any
time.
As we said, this may not be for everyone, but for many marketers, this is a good
option to look into. It offers a lot of perks.
We hope this guide has been useful to you. The only way that it will really be
useful, however, is if you use the information contained within.
Now, please understand that some of the techniques that we have included in
this guide may be too aggressive for you. Using them may make you nervous. If
that is the case, you should avoid using them or try to modify them in such a way
that you can sleep at night. There is nothing worse than being nervous over a
business matter or a matter of conscious.
It is your job to maximize your site and to make it profitable, but do that within
your own comfort zone.
We wish you all the best of luck.
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Sunday, March 22, 2009

Easy Ways to Make Money Blogging

Now that blogging seems to be in full swing, there’s a predominant question in every blogger’s mind – how do I make MORE money blogging?

The blogging world is a gold mine for the person who knows what he is doing. Tips and techniques can be shared and methods learned for making money with blogs , however, you cannot make money Blogging until you start trying. So, the first thing to do is plunge straight in and start trying to monetize your blog.

Ads ads and more ads:
If your blog is catering to a niche market and you are providing valuable content, there is an easy way to make money blogging – sell ad space! Even large corporations are on the lookout for ad space on blogs that have a good following. After all, Blogs are all about public opinion. If you let others advertise on your blogs with banner ads, sponsor ads, solo ads and classifieds, you can start earning money by blogging.

Google AdSense is another attractive option if you want to make money blogging. Google’s Adsense program makes it easy to advertise on your Blog. You get paid for every time someone click on an adword campaign located on your blog – not a bad way to subsidize your blogging income!

Endorse, promote and link:
‘You rub my back, and I rub yours’. Joint venture marketing is a powerful marketing strategy. By entering into joint venture, you basically promote or endorse certain products. The profits from these sales are split. If you have a loyal following a joint venture is easy because people want to JV with you.

Affiliate marketing is another way in which you can make money blogging. When you come across a product that is related to your blog recommend the product to your readers by linking to it. If they click the link and a sale takes place, you get a percentage of the profit. Some products can really make you a lot of money.

The membership model:
If you own a blog that provides quality content, you can think of converting it into a membership based blog. Once you have hooked your readers on your blog content, they will find it difficult to stop reading your blog. If you make your blog a paying member’s only blog they will pay to gain access. However, this can be done after you have established your blog and convinced readers that your blog is worth paying for.

Convert Blog into E-Book:
Sell your blog content in more ways than one by converting them into e-books. If you cater to a niche market, there usually is a great demand for an ebook on the topic. Converting your blogs into content that can be sold will help you earn extra money blogging.

Ask for money:
You do not have to pound away at your keypad for free. If you have a blog that caters to a need or fights for a cause, do not hesitate to ask for a little monetary appreciation.

Recently, one blogger was able to leave his day job for ‘uniterrupted Blogging’ by cashing in on donations sent by his supportive readers.

If you have decided that you are blogging for money, do so whole heartedly. Place your Ads where people can see them, not in some half-hidden corner. If you are asking for a donation, ask loudly, don’t just leave an add or donation button sitting on your blog half-heartedly. There is no need to feel apologetic or defensive about making money from your blogs. After all, if you have started a blog that gives people something they want, you have every right to get paid.
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