Monday, February 25, 2008

6 more free steps to making money online

by: Darren Power
Copyright 2004 Darren Power

If you read my previous article you will know that the goal of these articles is to teach you ways to get started making money online without having to spend any money.

This is the second in the series and this time we deal with having your own blog. There are endless ways of making money once you have traffic, and your blog will get you traffic. The income we will be looking at today will come from Google Adsense.

There are multiple benefits to having a blog including the low cost (or no cost), the resources that will help you get traffic to your blog and the fact that you can provide your blog as an RSS feed. An RSS feed will allow readers to automatically receive your updates into their RSS reader.

Let's get started with our 6 steps.

1. Set up your blog. You will need to decide what you are going to blog about. You should decide on a theme and name your blog appropriately.

There are a number of free ways to set up a blog & to have it hosted for free. We will go with Blogger.com for our first blog.

Blogger will allow you to set up a blog for free they will host it for free and they will ping search engines every time you update, meaning you will get spidered & found.

Visit blogger.com & click the button on the front page labelled 'create your blog now' then follow the step by step instructions that Blogger provide.

Some key settings you will want to get right are:

I) 'Host your blog at Blogger' = Yes
II) 'Add your blog to our listings' = Yes
III) 'Ping Weblogs.com' = Yes
IV) 'Publish Site Feed' = Yes

2. Write some content. Before we move any further there has to be some information on the site & that means that you have to make some entries. You can write some of these entries yourself & some can be quotes from sites of interest to your reader that you can post using the Google Toolbar.

You can download the Google toolbar for free at toolbar.google.com. The toolbar includes a Blogger button. When you visit a site that has something of interest to your readers you can highlight the appropriate text & click the Blogger button. The content will then be added to your blog along with a link back to the site.

3. Once you have some content eg a weeks worth of blogging with 1 or 2 entries for everyday, you can apply for an adsense account. When you sign in to Blogger you will see an invitation to join Adsense. Use this link and apply for an account.

You can find out all about Adsense on the Adsense page but basically you get Google ads on your site & get paid if your visitor clicks them.

Google will decide what adverts show on your site based on the content it finds within.

You need to be aware that Google will decline your application if your site is not considered to have content. Nobody outside of Google knows the precise rules on this.

Once you have been accepted you can get some javascript from Google to add to you site. Copy this & then log in to Blogger.

Once you have logged into your blog you will see that one of the tabs across the top of the screen is labelled 'Template'. Click this. You will need to know a little bit of HTML to help find the right location to paste your Google code. But with a little experimentation you will find the right place for you. See the resource box at the end of this article for more help.

I would suggest that the ads need to be seen when the site loads but should not be too obvious or dominate your site.

4. Write some more content. Try and keep your content coming at regular intervals as a number of directories will check on your site at regular intervals & the smarter ones will visit on a schedule based on your update schedule. They will probably determine this in the hours after you first submit to them. Which is what we will do next.

5. Submit your site to Blog & RSS directories. Because you are hosting at Blogger, Weblogs.com will already be notified when you update your blog. (That means that every time you make a new entry they are automatically notified) You will need to manually submit to the various other directories some of which will require a link on your site to theirs.

You can add these links to your template below your Blogger logo. For a list of directories to get you started visit www.themoneyseed.com/rss

6. Keep writing interesting content. Ideally you want people to come back again and again. As with customers its harder to get a new visitor than to keep existing visitors. So make it interesting, in fact make it so interesting that they can't help but tell all their friends about it also.

As with most free ways to make money this will take time to get going, but if you can build a following you will make money.

Google Adsense Strategies and Tips

by: Alden Smith

Adsense is beginning to make a huge impact on the affiliate marketing industry today. Because of this, weak affiliate merchants have the tendency to die faster than ever and ad networks will be losing their customers quickly.

If you are in a losing rather than winning in the affiliate program you are currently promoting, maybe it is about time to consider going into the Adsense marketing and start earning some real cash.

Google is readily providing well written and highly relevant ads that are closely chosen to match the content on your pages. You do not have to look for them yourselves as the search engine will be the doing the searching for you from other people’s source.

You also don't have to spend time in choosing different kind of ads for different pages. Google makes it very easy for you, with no codes to mess around for different affiliate programs.

You will be able to concentrate on providing good and quality content, as the search engines will be the ones finding the best ads in which to put your pages on.

You are still allowed to add Adsense ads even if you already have affiliate links on your site. It is prohibited, however, to imitate the look and feel of the Google ads for your affiliate links. One of the things you can do, however, is to utilize Google's custom palette to customize your Google ads, making them to appear a part of the web page itself. The idea here is to match background and links to match the theme of your site. People on the internet today are trained to click on a link that is blue, and if your Google ads have the same theme as your web page, it makes the Google ads appear to be a portion of your "content."

You can also filter up to 200 URLs. This gives you a chance to block ads for the sites that do not meet your guidelines, and also block competitors. Remember that it is unavoidable that Adsense may be competing for some space on web sites that all other revenues are sharing.

Owners of small sites are allowed to plug a bit of a code into their sites and instantly have relevant text ads that appeal to your visitors appear instantly on your pages. If you own many sites, you only need to apply once. Then ,you are issued a unique "publisher ID", which can be used on any site you currently own. A small snippet of Javascript is placed on your site in the location you wish the ads to appear in, and generally speaking, the ads from Goggle will appear in minutes. This ends the hassle of having to apply to many affiliate programs, and keeping track of many different URL's and user ID's and passwords.

As Google ads are very easy to customize, and can be placed anywhere on your site you wish, you can experiment with placement, colors, and themes. Many tricks are available to the resourceful webmaster, including adding images in conjunction with your Google ads to make them more noticeable.

The payment rates can vary extremely. The payment you will be receiving per click depends on how much advertisers are paying per click to advertise with the use of the AdWords. Advertisers can pay as little as 5 cents and as high as $10-12, sometimes even more than that too. Some savvy lawyers are currently paying as high as $75 for advertising the keyword mesothelioma! And you, as the ad publisher, are earning a share of that money generated.

If your results remain stagnant, it can help if you try and build simple and uncluttered pages so that the ads can catch the visitor’s eyes more. It sometimes pay to differ from the usual things that people are doing already. Google has many tutorials, including a "heat chart" which shows you where the best placement for ads are. You will need an account to access these tutorials. Sign up for an Adsense account at https://www.google.com/adsense/?sourceid=aso&subid=ww-et-awhome&hl=en_US. It is also a refreshing sight for your visitor once they see something different for a change.

It is still wise to look at other people’s information and format your Adsense in a like manner. A wise old business axiom is to "find a good business model, then copy it." Let others do the hard work for you, and learn from a successful site. Just think about it as doing yourself a favor by not having to work too hard to know what content to have. Look to sites that have high page rank, and carefully observe their layouts, their content, and placement of their ads. A little time spent doing research can put dollars in your pocket down the road.

Publishers have the option of choosing to have their ads displayed only on a certain site or sites. You can also have them displayed on a large network of sites if you so desire. Google now has the option to allow other people to advertise on your site. This only makes good sense. If you are marketing to a tightly defined niche, you can place your own ads, written by you, on site that allow this option. The choice is yours, depending on what you think will work best to your advantage.

It is important to note that you cannot choose certain topics only. If you do this, search engines will not place Adsense ads on your site and you will be missing out a great opportunity in making hundreds and even thousands of dollars cash.

Topics to be avoided includes gambling, firearms, ammunition, tobacco or drugs. If you are being offered more cash in exchange of doing Adsense with these kinds, it is just like signing your own termination paper.

With all the information that people need in your hands already, all you have to do is turn Google Adsense into your own cash cow. It all boils down to a win-win situation both for the content site owners and the webmasters or publishers.

Our website, http://www.for-the-record.biz, is a good source of information for the beginning marketer. We present a lot of content for those needing more information on a variety of subjects.

Is Your Site a One Trick Pony?

by: John Gergye
Copyright 2004 John Gergye

Don�t know about you but I really look forward to watching The Apprentice on TV each week. Because it almost always offers a lesson in online marketing.

Take the recent episode where the two teams were charged by The Donald with making money any way they could selling services to dog owners.

Drama aside, the team that lost was a so called "one trick pony". They pinned their success on one thing - dog washing. A good idea but not quite good enough. Because the winning team not only offered dog washing but dog massage plus nail clipping too. I don�t think it�s a coincidence that by offering a variety of services they earned three times as much.

Income diversification is also a winning strategy online. One I mention to all who will listen. That�s because it�s dangerous to depend on one product�s cash flow for your site�s survival.

So here are three ways to avoiding the fate of most one trick ponies.

===== > Promote Your Own Product

I strongly believe you should have your own product to promote.

Ideally something digitally delivered like an eBook or software? This way your "bread and butter" can�t suddenly be taken away from you should the product owner decide to no longer use affiliates. Which happens you know?

Even better it�s smart to develop a higher priced back end product that offers even more help. Doing so knowing that if you offer a high quality product a certain percentage will want even more ideas and solutions from you. And these back end sales are the easiest kind.

Oh and don�t think I didn�t hear that groan two paragraphs ago. But anyone can develop a starter info product in 24 hours.

� Develop a list of 25 pressing questions those in your niche want answered.
� Have a friend interview you for an hour over the phone asking you those questions.
� You provide insightful answers while taping the call.
� Transcribe the audio tape and convert the text into a PDF file.

There you go - nearly instant product. If it sells flesh it out further and raise the price to reflect the added value. If not try again with another topic.


===== > Promote Related Affiliate Products

But what if your visitors don�t want YOUR product? Well, don�t let them slip through your fingers without a fight. In this case affiliate products ARE the perfect solution.

Because a site focusing on weddings can not only sell a wedding planning book it can also offer one on how to throw a bridal shower. Or another how to get the best deal on your honeymoon.

Now to find such related eBooks available at Clickbank I use Affiliates Alert. It�s time saving software that runs from your desktop. With it you can find top selling products by keyword or commission payout by searching the entire Clickbank Marketplace or just a selected category. Best of all you can download it for free from www.AffiliatesAlert.com.


===== > Cash in on Waste Traffic

Still not every visitor is going to buy from you no matter how many tempting solutions you dangle in front of them. In fact the vast majority won�t. But that doesn�t mean you still can�t make money off them.

The most common way to cash in on waste traffic is to use Google�s Adsense. That�s where you display Google Adwords ads on your site for some unspecified cut of the action.

The nice thing about Adsense is you can be up and running in no time. All I do is incorporate the Adsense code in my page templates using SSI or server side includes. That way every new page added gives me more opportunities to make money.

Now if the mystical and magical nature of Adsense is a turnoff, there are other services that offer similar revenue sharing programs. Even better some, unlike Adsense, let you specify the keywords you wish to target. Here's a short list of them.

Searchfeed www.searchfeed.com
RevenuePilot www.revenuepilot.com
AllPPC www.allppc.com
BidClix www.bidclix.com
Azoogle Ads www.azoogleads.com

Of course maybe you don�t want to settle for pennies and would rather shoot for dollars? Okay so what if the ads served up were for ClickBank products? Here are several ways to do that.

CBAdwords http://cbadwords.com
CB Clicks www.cbclicks.com
ClickAdWords www.clickadwords.com
CB Ad Generator www.procoversdeluxe.com/cbgenerator

The thing to remember about Adsense, or any of the alternatives, is visitors can�t click on the listings if they can�t see �em. So make sure you display the listings front and center. In the visitor�s face. If at all possible within the actual page content. For sure not at the bottom or below the fold somewhere lost in the recesses of the web page.

So there you have it. Three ways to diversify your online marketing efforts. Play your cards right and you won�t end up washing dogs for a living.

Five Knockout Affiliate Tips

by: Nicholas Dixon
Here are five �hook em in the jaw� affiliate tips that really
work. Implement them and see how well they work for you.

(1) Develop a positive and realistic mindset. Do you believe that
you can get rich quick or that your business will take time to
grow? Those who believe in the online hype are the ones who
normally lose. Think positive and know in your heart you can earn
an income from your efforts.

(2) Too much information or the lack of it can be dangerous. Not
using the knowledge that you have gain can stop your business
from getting off the ground and not having the right information
can have the same effect.

(3) Market your programs with Google Adwords. This is a powerful
strategy you can use and as long as you earn more in commissions
than your PPC costs, then you are getting something for nothing.

(4) Write your own ads, articles and reviews instead of the
pre-formatted ones offered by affiliate programs. This will set
you apart from all the other affiliates in the same program.

(5) Make sure your affiliate program matches the content of your
website or newsletter. If you have marketing content then you
should promote marketing products on that page. Think of it like
matching ads to the page content like the way Adsense does. There
may a few exceptions to the rule though, even Adsense does it
some time.

There you go. A few tips to help you with your affiliate programs
whether you are looking for your first check or to boost your
current earnings. Try them all or even a couple and test and
track your results. I am sure Lennox Lewis would be proud of your
hooks and jabs

Friday, February 22, 2008

Google Adsense

Google Adsense
by: Phil Wiley
here's an all about Google letter. It didn't start out that way, but when my fingers got typing that's what flowed out of them.

My brain could have had something to do with it too. But not a lot. It's still quite muddled from being ill.

Hope you find this stuff below useful.

1. Google Adsense stuff

I've heard that Google have been getting tough on Adsense sites recently, investigating sites displaying Adsense and removing ones which don't meet the criteria.

You see, what's happening is that people are getting approved for one site, then adding the code to other sites they own.

That's fine by Google as long as the new sites have nothing wrong with them/don't break Google's small print.

Well some of that small print is mighty small and two friends have written to me this week to say their sites have been banned in the past 7 days.

Why?

Well both for the same reason. They both put a lot of work into building new content sites and put the Adsense ads up on almost every page.

But it was obvious that the sites had no purpose other than displaying the Adsense code.

They didn't try to get subscribers to their ezines, they didn't promote affiliate programs, etc.

All they did was have good quality targeted content + Adsense.

Now you might think there's nothing wrong with building a site like that, but Google just doesn't like it when it comes to Adsense.

One friend sent me the letter Google sent him. Here's part of what Google had to say:

"Ads may not be placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads, whether or not the page content is relevant."

______________________________________


Ok, so seeing that having quality content isn't enough, what can you do to make sure your own Adsense sites don't fall foul of the rules?

______________________________________


Well what you have to do is give your sites an extra purpose.

Here are a few ways of doing that:


# also display some affiliate links on the pages, and include an affiliate graphic or two.

# perhaps run a news ticker. You can get good ones from a number of sources, but one of the best is http://www.moreover.com which
has newsfeeds covering a huge variety of niches.

# link to authority sites on the subject, even though they're probably not linking back to you.

# start an ezine and have a subscribe box displayed prominently on each page.

# if your site is about online business/marketing give away a free ebook or two. But make sure they're quality one's you can customize with your affiliate links so that you stand a chance
of profiting from them.

# have a poll running on your site. I use a good one from One Minute Poll

If I were you I'd do all of them.






2. Google Adwords Traffic:

One way of GUARANTEEING plenty of visitors from Google is by buying Adwords.

If you do it right you can make a fabulous income. If you do it wrong, you'll be well out of pocket.

Recommended Adwords Resources ->

Chris Carpenter's GoogleCash ebook, which details how Chris makes a living from Adwords. An excellent resource.

I'm a big user of Google Adwords to promote my many mini sites. And it's now made easier because of the help I get from using GoogleCash and AdWords Analyzer. Read the page listed below to
follow this strategy (it works).

http://www.ozemedia.com/google-adwords.htm






3. Google and blogging...

Google is still ranking frequently updated Blogs very high. And having your own blog (and keeping it to the theme of your main site) could be a great way of getting more traffic.

To learn how to do it well I'd like to recommend you read James Maduk's Blogging Secrets which is a really good multimedia ebook. Very tasty.

Like his excellent Google course "How to Get Ranked #1 On Google" it's a combination of Audio / Video / Whiteboard Training and Screen Captures. (plus you get 4 Hours of bonus audio
interviews from his private E-learning sessions.

If you're thinking of blogging for profit you need to read this first.





4. More Google Stuff...

Your commercially oriented sites probably took a rankings kick in the guts in the last Google update.

Don't worry, you're not alone. This site lets you enter the main keywords for your site and see how many other sites with the same keyword phrase have dropped in rankings.

Not really useful, but interesting.

http://www.scroogle.org/

More useful - in fact a MUST READ if you're at all interested in learning more about how and why Google's latest update is affecting your sites - is a detailed online report "A Statistical and Experimental Analysis of Google's Florida Update" written by Leslie Rohde who developed that marvelous ranking software Optilink.

There's no charge to read it, though Leslie could easily have packaged it up into a "special report" and sold it.

When you've done with reading it though, I seriously suggest taking a look at Optilink.

Leslie is one of the most knowledgeable search engine people around, and the Optilink software works a treat.


_______________________


Looks like an Adsense competitor is on the way early in 2004 http://www.quigo.com/adsonar.htm

Overtures efforts in this field are in beta, with some major sites already running content matched Overture advertising, (and rumors that it's going to be opened up to all of us) and Commission Junction have got a contextual advertising/content matching solution in the works - though unlike Adsense it's very unlikely
to offer pay per click.

You can get more on Overture's Content Match here and while you're there you might want to consider advertising on them. I've had an account there for years now and get tons of traffic to my mini sites. A friend of mine, Paul Manuel, wrote a free report
detailing how he makes a great living from his Overture advertising. you can get it here.


Ok, one last Google thing: Trackmeat.

It's no cost software that saves you logging into Adsense 50 times a day to check how your commissions are doing.

Once you install it and click "Go" it minimizes right away, and your AdSense income will update down in the taskbar and system tray at intervals set by you.

It also works for Commission Junction.

(note: I haven't used this software, so I'm not recommending it, just informing you that it exists)


About the author:
Phil Wiley is the author of the best selling book Mini Site Profits www.minisiteprofits.comand writes the free weekly Letter from Phil at www.ozemedia.com

Read About

Meet Adwords, AdSense’s Fraternal Twin

by: Diane Nassy
AdSense is one of the best ways to monetize your web traffic. People see those little “Ads by Gooogle” tidbits and they click like crazy. Or at least that’s the plan. But have you ever given though to where those ads are coming from? That would be AdWords, the Pay-Per-Click program for people who want to advertise their products on Google.

They are the fine men and women who are willing to part with some coin of the realm every time a visitor to your web site chooses to click on an AdSense ad. Google grabs the cash from the AdWords' member’s account, keeps some of it for themselves, and gives the rest to you. How much they keep and how much give away is a State secret, but who cares; just as long as we’re getting ours each month.

How AdWords Works

AdWords provides pay-per-click advertising to merchants who are willing to shell out anywhere from a minimum 05 .05 per click all the way up to a maximum of $100 per click. Can you imagine anyone paying $100 just to have someone click on an ad?

Anyway, the advertiser joins the AdWords program and gets a control panel similar to the one that we AdSense users get. They can write their ads, pick their keywords, and establish an advertising budget. They get tools to track performance as well as to help them pick keywords. There are no monthly minimum spends required and they can turn their ads on and off at will.

Once an advertiser is happy with their ad, it gets released to the network and shows up on web sites like yours and mine. That’s if the keywords on your site match the keyword requirements of the brand spanking new ad, of course.

They can’t “buy” their way to the top

Google doesn’t simply push the people with the highest paying ads to the top of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). They use a rather fair methodology that takes into consideration not only the maximum CPC (cost per click), but also includes a secret recipe for determining an ad’s placement based upon the number of clicks the ad receives. So, at least in theory, an ad paying .05 per click could rise above one paying $5.00 per click if it’s more popular with Google’s audience.

I say “in theory” because if the owner of the $5 ad is paying attention then he or she will see that they are being bested by a lowly nickel ad and do some serious rewriting to get back up to the top where they belong.

Personally, I’m not sure that I have the guts to invest a lot of money into hoping that people who click on my ad will actually buy something, since I still have to pay Google whether I make a sale or not. But, as a dedicated AdSense user, I’m sure glad that my AdWords brothers and sisters have more nerve than I do. And you should be thankful as well.

About the author:
Diane provides marketing and internet profit tips.
For more Google AdSense tips, visit http://www.adsense.deeljeabiz.com
Email : deeljeabiz@gmail.com

Are you using both sides of the GoogleCoin?

by: Jason Hulott
By now most of you realise that Google can give our websites the ability to appear within their results pages using a Pay
Per Click model (PPC).

This is called Google Adwords

Hopefully, you will also be aware that that Google offers website owners the ability to display these PPC results on
their own websites.

For this privilege, Google will pay the website owner a share of the PPC revenue earnt from any click throughs on the results displayed on their website.

This is called Google Adsense

So there you have both sides of the Google coin.

On one side, the ability to drive low cost targeted traffic and on the other side, the ability to generate revenue from
your existing traffic.

You'd think that was the end of it but really it is only the beginning.

Heads or Tails?

Heads it is….

Let's look at Adwords

There are those that think…

…write your ad, pays your money and away you go.

Which to 80% of the people using Adwords, this seems to work OK for them. Remember I said OK!

For the other 20% , these guys and gals, are testing,changing, innovating and working Google as hard as they can.

One such character is Chris Carpenter , whose GoogleCash is pioneering in the way that he works Google and now lets
other work Google just as hard.

"Like Bruce Lee taught us the art of fighting without fighting, Chris Carpenter shows us the art of website revenue generation without a website!"

Chris has shown examples of Adwords campaigns that cost cents to set up but pay dollars in commissions. None of my
current investments give me such a high ROI.

I have tried my hand at it and I am currently making around $4000 per month just from this one product. I am only
spending $250 on Adwords to get this return.

Why not have a look at Google Cash yourself.

http://www.j2-squared.com/google-cash-book-review.htm

Tails you win!

Secondly, while most people just cut and paste Adsense code into all the pages of their site, they just leave it at that
thinking job done!

They don't explore the high value keywords in their market or niche.


Why do that?

Well if you knew what the more profitable keywords and terms are, you can write content and these words can be displayed.
Google Adsense will then look at your page content and work out what to display.

You could double your income by changing words on your site. Maybe Life insurance to life assurance or personal loan to
loans or adverse credit to bad credit.

Also sites tend to use one format and one position for the ads.

Test, test, test

Try different layouts and work out which ones work best for you. You may be surprised.

Test, test, test

There are several tools that can help you identify keywords but the best for you would be either the Google Adwords program or Overture view bids tool.

Don't worry about thinking you are doing anything wrong. In fact, think about it - you will be creating relevant content for Google to display and for their users to read. Users are happy, Google are happy and you will earn more revenue from Adsense. So hopefully you'll be happy too!

A Win Win situation!

Again, like most things rather than reinvent the wheel there is a whole book on Adsense written my friend William
Charlwood has written The Definitive Guide to Google AdSense which tells you exactly how to make money by hosting small
ads on your website. It is a detailed road-map of everything you need to do to get going and then maximise your AdSense
income.

Once you've got it right, you can look forward to a check every month from Google.

Check this out here:

http://www.j2-squared.com/adsense-guide.htm

So there you are, there are two sides to the Google coin.

Are you using both sides!

Good Luck!


About the author:
Jason Hulott is Director of J2 Squared, leading specialists in Internet consultancy
whose specific aim is to drive more Revenue to websites. Their main area of focus are the insurance,finance, and automotive industries.