Jack Parker's Make Money Blogging

Getting Website Traffic

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:38:00 +0000

I came across this article by Y. Julaidan, author of three interesting blogs, Internet Business and Money and Food and Cooking and Health Fitness and Beauty I think that you will find this interesting, some of it is stuff you already know I am sure, but it never hurts to read another person's ideas and think about how they agree or disagree with your own.

The comprehensive guide to getting website traffic in today's world - a general overview by Y. Julaidan

In this article I will list the many ways and methods to get traffic to a website in a general comprehensive overview. The purpose is to highlight the variety regardless of all other variables. In other words, the only criteria here is pure listing not cost efficiency or traffic effectiveness. I think it is important to have the big picture in mind before starting to devise a plan to generate traffic to any website. Why? Because not all websites are the same. One traffic generating method can only work with certain types of websites and another method can only work with other types of websites. For example, the methods used to generate traffic to an e-commerce website might not be as effective in generating traffic to an information nonprofit website.
Generating website traffic can be classified into two big groups based on the cost incurred. One is paid even though as cheap as few cents per visitor and the other one is free! As good as it might sound; generating free traffic is harder than and not as effective as paid traffic generation. This is pretty natural because in general, the companies that specialize in the service of generating traffic to websites have breakthrough technologies and experienced teams of specialists with the only purpose of generating quality targeted traffic for their customers. I am not trying to degrade free traffic as it is important to reduce costs, but in general paid traffic still supersedes free traffic in terms of quality and quantity.

Paid traffic isn't affordable by all advertisers, but still it offers a lot of peace of mind and results. Here is a list of the most prominent paid traffic generation methods:-

1- Pay per click (PPC):- Known by all yet most hated for sucking cents and dollars out of advertisers pockets without as much satisfying results. Google being the king of PPC has been making life harder and harder for PPC advertisers by imposing more and more criteria to determine which ads get higher positions in PPC ads. Believe it or not, if your website isn't optimized enough for Google, your ad will not get better positions even if your bid is higher than others! This proves the point that even though PPC is disappointing many advertisers, there is actually a logic that you have to figure out to get better results from your PPCs. There are techniques to get better results from your PPC campaigns using low and pocket friendly bids, which is going to be a topic of another article that I'm going to write about.

2- Paid SEO services: - SEO is a short for Search Engine Optimization. In short it is about optimizing the design and the coding of a website so it can get better free ranking in search engines. This is referred to as organic ranking. Even though the end result is free better ranking, still SEO companies charge tons of money to make a website search engine optimized. I will address SEO in more detail in future articles.

3- Paid targeted 100% opt-in e-mail blasts: - There are advertising companies that have huge lists of 100% opt-in subscribers. 100% opt-in means that every one of their subscribers has agreed to receive promotional e-mails from them on the topics of their choice and this is how it is targeted. This method has proven its effectiveness, but there are a lot of fake companies out there that claim 100% opt-in, but actually have much lower opt-in percentages or even not at all. This is important because you don't want to pay for a campaign that ends up in the junk or spam folder of the users e-mail. Be careful and deal with the reputable ones only.

4- Banners and image based advertising: - this form has lost its effectiveness over the years, but still is used by many advertisers. Find the ones that work like PPCs, which means you don't get charged for impressions; only clicks.

5- Guaranteed visitors schemes: - These are companies that promise you a number of targeted traffic for a fee. Usually they will tell you that they get the traffic from expired domains and traffic redirected from other sites. Trust me, for the most part, these are scams so beware. It could work well for those who have gambling or sex related websites because they canâ€™t use PPCs to promote their websites.

6- Video advertising: - A new and growing advertising trend that Google is pursuing heavily. Yes I know that you can post videos in YouTube for free, but I'm talking about a new wave of video advertising that is very similar to PPC. It will be more popular soon so watch for it.

Now for the fun and most pleasing part, free traffic! Getting results from free traffic requires much more work and time compared to paid traffic. Even though these methods generate free traffic, I see a lot of courses and e-books sold for hundreds and even thousands of dollars to teach people these methods. So much for the free part! Luckily, you will be able to get an overview of these free traffic methods for free today. I'm not going to explain each in detail, but will be the topics of some of my future articles:-

1- Article marketing: - You write good articles, post them in article directories with links pointing to your website. People read the article, like what they read and visit your website. I will address it more in future articles.

2- Website directories: - these are directories that organize websites in categories which makes it easier for people to find what they are looking for. Even though all will let you submit your link for free, a lot of them offer a "premium"listing for a fee which is worth paying if they have high search engine ranking.

3- Video sites like YouTube, Yahoo and MSN videos: - don't underestimate its power! Find at least 10 more video sites and submit your videos to them. But how can you advertise your website with video? Get a screen capture video maker. There are free ones online and sold. My advice is to buy one for the quality of videos as free ones produce low quality videos. Make a small presentation about your website on your own screen, capture it on video and upload it to video sites. that's it! It will be helpful if you use a basic video editing software like windows movie maker to add your URL on the bottom of the video.

4- Forums and blogs: - This works in two ways. Either you own a blog or forum and generate your own community using quality content and funnel this traffic to your website. The other is to post comments with links pointing to your website in high ranking blogs and forums.

5- RSS feeds: - you can set up an RSS feed linking to the topics and issues in your website and syndicate it. More on this on future articles.

6- Groups and newsletters: - Can be found in all major search engines and internet service providers like Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN. Establish relations and spread the word about your websites. Avoid spamming and misbehaving!

7- Online free classifieds: - There are so many. The only problem is that your ads in these classifieds need re-updating every 1 or 2 days which is very time consuming.

8- Social bookmarking: - These are sites where people leave sort of brief descriptions about their websites, blogs, forums etc. and a link to visit.

9- Social media/interaction websites or what is called web 2.0:- My Space, Face book, twitter and Squidoo are all examples of this new internet trend. Basically they are all about an online gathering point where people express themselves and share knowledge, experiences, hobbies, passions, pictures, videos, music and much more. Why not use it to get traffic to your website?

10- Going viral: - Don't ever think that this is not important because this is number 10. It can be the most powerful traffic generating tool if you know how to use it. An example would be giving away a free report with lots of information and your website links inside. Give it to as many people as you can and in turn they give it away. This can continue forever and never stop. That's why they call it viral and is very powerful!

If you ask me which methods are the best and should be used to get traffic, I would say all of them. The only problem is that we have limited resources and I mean time and money. I suggest using a mix of free and paid traffic. The mix to be determined according to what type of website is promoted and traffic objectives. Watch out for more detailed articles on the subject.

For more free information and guides, visit Internet Business and Money

About the Author Y. Julaidan
I write about everything that interests me. I'm good at it because I find facts and paint a clear picture afterwards.
I like to build informative websites too. Check out my websites:-
www.internet-business-and-money.com
www.foodandcooking.org
www.health-fitness-and-beauty.com

Making Money Online - At Last!

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:13:00 +0000

I have to apologize for not posting lately, but I have been busy...busy making money online! Yes, after what seems a long time of trial and error, perserverance and hard work, I am finally starting to make some money from my blog! Sure, I still have my day job, and probably will for some time to come, but I am now making enough extra money from my online efforts to call it worthwhile.

This has been a long journey, all the way from 2005 when I first discovered blogs and blogging. In fact, I was blogging before even some of our IT guys knew what a weblog was. Oddly enough, I cannot remember how I discovered blogging, but I do remember that I didn't start it with the idea of making money. I started with the idea of improving my writing skills, and to get started on what I hoped would someday be a regular newspaper column, and a book.

I seldom think about the newspaper column anymore, and I gave up the book around the middle. Not that either of these ideas has left me entirely, far from it, but I have decided that blogging accomplishes two things I wanted, to write and to be read. Now I have blogs that, over the course of a day, see several thousand readers a day. Granted, not everyone who comes to my blogs read them, but many do, and those that do seem appreciative of what I have to say. That in itself is almost payment enough for my efforts, but, I have never lost sight of the idea that I would someday make enough money from my blogs that I could quit my day job. That is still my goal, and I know that eventually I will reach it, although I will likely be retired by that time. However, retirement might free me up for some of the other projects, like the book, that I have on the backburner.

Tracking Performance - Channels

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:16:00 +0000

I believe I reported recently that my Adsense earnings were up, well they are up even higher today, and wow, what a feeling that is....Imagine my surprise when I clicked on my account to check my earnings and it was three times what it usually is. Now before you get all excited, that is still not life changing money, but it is money.

The worst of it is, I am not sure where it is coming from because I stupidly haven't gotten around to setting up channels for all of my add placements. So...I obviously haven't been practicing what I have been preaching.

I have been telling you all along to set your ads up with channels, particularly if you have multiple blogs, so that you can tell which blogs and which placements are doing the best. Then, you can use those placements and those blog ideas for your other blogs. Except, I found it easier to set up the adsense code right inside the blog, which of course doesn't have a place to set it up as a channel. So, now I have an increase in earnings and I am not sure where it is coming from. Stupid me....

So don't you be dumb like me, get your Adsense in channels and keep track of where and how you are making money from your website.

10 Things I have Learned About Making Money Online

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:34:00 +0000

I thought that tonight might be a good chance to go over a quick list of some of the things I have learned about making money from a website or blog. It's not a particularly long list, but then again, I am a slow learner....
1) I have learned that making money from a blog requires a lot of hard work....whew....a lot of hard work....

2) I have also learned that it is all about content. When you read the articles that say "content is king" they are not kidding, you need content, and copious amounts of it to build the kind of traffic you need to make any money from advertising or affiliate sales.

3)I have learned that you need to really push affilate items if you want sales. It's not enough to just feature a widget or a link in your sidebar. You have to push them.

4) I have learned that a domain name rather than a wordpress or blogger name in your URL works a little bit better. My hits have increased since switching many of my blog to a .com address that I own. It's worth the $10

5) I have learned that there are a lot of experts in the make money blogging field, some of them actually know what they are talking about. Others...well...not so much.

6) I have learned what the experts say, 'ads above the fold do well' At least better than ads placed below the fold.

7) I have learned that Adsense is probably the best way to consistently make money, at least for the kind of blog enterprise that I have undertaken.

8) I have learned that there are several other ways to make money online, including writing and selling e-books, which, although I haven't done it yet, offer all kinds of potential for income.

9) I have learned that sex and celebrities get hits. No matter what your blog topic, if you can find a way to work sex and celebs into your text, you will get hits. Not necessarily hits that convert to money, but you will get hits. What does that say about the internet?

10) I have learned that multiple blogs seems to be the way to go, but....it is very, very difficult to keep multiple blogs current. You need to find the highest number of blogs you can handle and write for, and concentrate on tip number one above, content, content, content.....

How about you? Any tips to add to my list?

Money Making Update

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:05:00 +0000

Hey! It's been a while since I posted, sorry about that. It's not that my blogging has stopped, far from it. I have been concentrating on the blogs and techniques that make me money, which is after all, a big part of why I chose blogging as a second career. That and a love of the written word, writing is one of my passions, and since I have become a blogger, it has become a huge passion. Considering I am writing several hundred words a night, posting to at least 5 blogs each day, I need to love writing....

There are easier ways to make money at this than going alone, creating everything from scratch. There are options you can purchase, for a small investment, like Gary Nugent's SiteBuilder Elite System that will save you tons of time and effort creating websites. I am seriously considering investing in Gary's system myself, as I am realizing that if I am going to make big money at this blogging business, I have to work smart, not hard. I have been working hard for a couple of years, and although the returns are starting to improve, I'm not where I want to be, or for that matter, where I hoped I would be by now. Don't get me wrong, I am happy to recieve the cheques that are coming in, on a monthly basis these days, but it hasn't reached what I would call life changing money yet....note I said "yet" Because I truly believe it will.

I have learned that if you want to make money you have to "will it to come to you" to some degree. Now I don't know if it is possible to just dream money and make it, but I do believe you have to have a money focus, and be open to opportunities and ideas that will make you money if you are truly serious. If you are thinking about making money, you are changing the way you think, and you are putting your mind and your efforts into ideas and processes and plans that will eventually help you to make money. That's where willing it to come to you is important.

I have found that since I changed my focus somewhat, and started to concentrate on money making ideas and doing things related to blogging that make money, my online financial endeavors have improved. Unfortunately blogging to make money means you may not be able to write for the sake of writing, and you do have to control or craft what you write in ways designed to bring money to you. Blogs about products, reviews, written with careful attention to keywords are important. Monitoring how each blog and each ad unit is doing are important. Changing or improving the ones that aren't working is important.

The problem is, making money online requires a lot of effort, a lot of content. As they say, content is king. So you need to be producing tons of content to get the readership, the visitors to your blog, and the right type of visitors too.

I'll be writing more about attracting the right type of readers in an upcoming post.

Thanks for coming by, oh, don't forget to check out Gary Nugent's SiteBuilder Elite System it may be the perfect answer to your online money making business.

Your Own Blog Personality

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 01:34:00 +0000

Making money online is a daily challenge, no matter what anyone may tell you. It takes an enormous amount of dedication, hard work, long hours and so on. It's also a job requiring a certain amount of creativity. Sure, you can do what the others do, but if you want to be successful, you have to take the things that work for others and put your own spin on them. If you don't, you're just replicating what is already out there, and you will have trouble standing out from the crowd.

With a blog, that can be rather difficult, because the format's are usually the same or very similar, the layouts are basically one of only 3 or 4 varieties.

So how do you stand out from the rest? I think it has to be with your writing. You're gonna need to impart some of your ideas and personality into your writing. Don't be afraid to put your slant on the world into your work. Sure, not everyone will agree with your opinions, but that doesn't really matter. What matters is do they read your blog? Some of the most successful bloggers and columnists for newspapers are very opinionated and their ideas are disagreed with regularly. Believe it or not, that is what makes them so popular.

People like to read both types of written words, the ones they agree with, and the ones they don't. In some cases, the writers they disagree with the most are the ones they like to read. My point is, don't be afraid to say what you think, regardless of what others may think about it. Also, don't be afraid to adopt your own writing style, but don't become a slave to trying to develop a style, it will seem too forced. Your best bet is to write and let your style evolve over the course of your writing, over the course of several...no many posts....

That said, it's OK to look to some of your favorites and try to emulate them, in one way or another, but don't become just another Robert Parker or anyone else for that matter. By all means, use their techniques, just put your own spin on them.

Does that make sense?

A good written personality, strong beliefs in what you write, and engaging subject matter will get you readers over time.
---------------------------------
SiteBuilder Elite System

Free Trial Offer From Amazon Prime

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:15:00 +0000

I'm going to stray a little from making money blogging to how you can save money...on your online Amazon purchases. As you know, I like to promote some Amazon products on this blog and some of my others. In fact, over the last year, I have become convinced that Amazon is one of the best shopping experiences that the internet has to offer. There is almost nothing you cannot find on Amazon...they have it all.

Of course, one of the things to consider with any online purchase are the shipping charges that apply to whatever product you order. Well, those charges can be significantly reduced and eliminated if you sign up for Amazon Prime! This is a fantastic offer from Amazon.com that gives members unlimited free two-day shipping on millions of eligible items. What's even better, all new members are being offered a free trial to give you a chance to experience the convenience of shopping with Amazon Prime. The free trial lasts for one month, you get the entire benefits of Amazon Prime free for one month - no charge.

So what are the benefits of joining Amazon Prime? Well, for starters, it's fast delivery, and there is free two-day shipping on millions of items and you can upgrade to one-day overnight shipping for the low price of just $3.99 an item.
There is no minimum purchase required and you have members only 1-click buttons on product pages.

But wait...there's more...members can share benefits with up to four family members living in the same household. That is a great deal.

So here is the deal, you can try Amazon Prime free for one month. After the free trial period you will be automatically charged a $79.00 annual fee unless you choose not to upgrade to a regular membership at or before the end of the free trial period.

Why not signup for the free trial now, just Click Here for Amazon Prime You've got nothing to lose!

Don't Put All Your Eggs In One Affilate Basket

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:08:00 +0000

I am reminded every once and awhile why diversification is important when it comes to monetizing your blog or website. I recently got another of these reminders in relation to an affiliate program I had signed up to on one of my other blogs, My Skimpy Bikini.

I had come across a bikini company called Love Swimwear who produce some very fine and very sexy bikini swimsuits for women. Of course, as a writer of a blog about bikini's I had to look into their affiliate program which seemed to be pretty good, not exactly what I liked, but certainly appropriate for my blog. So I signed up and posted some of their banners and links etc to my blog. I also posted some of their swimwear contest videos, in other words I signed up and committed to promoting their products.

I even wrote to the company about making their pictures more accessible for use on blogs and websites and they did, they responded immediately and I was impressed, thus committed even more to their cause.

Imagine my surprise when I looked at my email the other day to discover that they had 'suspended their affiliate program' indefinitely. That was not only a surprise, it left me with a lot of affiliate links and posts on my blog for a company that apparently no longer has an affilate program. In other words, I am now advertising their company and products for free.

So I am left with a bit of a dilemma, do I leave the posts containing links to their program or take them down? I suppose the smart thing to do would be take them down immediately and forget it, move on, and find another company to promote or stick to Amazon products. So far I have decided to leave the posts, mostly because removing them would leave some big holes in my blog. I liked their stuff and their promotional pictures and videos so I think at least in the short term they can stay, if I send them some free traffic well....what the heck, I learned a lesson...don't put all your eggs in one affilate basket....

Evaluating Widgetbucks

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:15:00 +0000

I'm more than a little disappointed in the return I seem to be getting from
WidgetBucks
I've had their widgets and ads on several of my sites now for a few months and seem to be having trouble to get over a buck or two in revenue. I think I wrote about this before, even threatening to take the code out of my blogs and move on, but decided I would ride it out a little longer and see what happens. Well...I did...and nothing happened. At least nothing positive.

So now it comes down to the value of my real estate, in this case the real estate being the space on my blogs. It has some value, perhaps not as much as some of the bigger bloggers, but nonetheless, everytime someone reads my blogs they also see the advertisements. Whether they click on them or not is another thing. The problem is, you can fill your real estate up with stuff that has little or no return and in effect, waste the space. That's what seems to be happening with my widgetbucks. I am showing the ads for no return, or not enough to make showing them worth my while. At the same time they might be distracting my readers away from ads that do pay, or affiliate products that sell.

That's what channels and tracking ad performance is for and why it is so important. It's not as simple as writing a few posts and sticking some code in there beside it then waiting for the money to roll in. It's about figuring out what works and doing more of that, it's about not wasting space with products or advertisments that don't convert one way or the other.

I pay pretty close attention to the ads on my blogs and the affiliate sales from products that I promote. If they aren't showing me some return, at least the equivalent to the other ads, then I have to question the value of having them on my blogs. Much better to point readers to Adsense or Amazon, or Clickbank, programs that for me have been working. I can use the Widgetbucks space to promote another one of my blogs or for an affiliate product that might result in a commission from a sale.

In the meantime, I will look for something to possibly replace Widgetbucks. One thing I have found is there are an endless array of affiliate and ppc programs out there, it is just a matter of finding the ones that work the best for your particular enterprise. I am not suggesting that Widgetbucks won't work for you, in fact, it might be work great for you. It just didn't seem to payoff for me. If you're not familiar with WidgetBucks give them a try, it doesn't cost anything to sign up and the widgets are cool. You can adjust them to display content related to your blog posts etc, which is nice.
Click Here to try WidgetBucks on your blog.

I'd love to hear from other bloggers who have tried Widgetbucks, I'd love to know if it is just me.....

SiteBuilder Elite

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:59:00 +0000

My Adsense earnings are up! Yes! That is what I have been striving to see for so long, and finally, after I dunno, about two years anyway, probably three, I am starting to see some returns of note. Now, I am still not able to quit my day job, but I'm getting there. If nothing else, if this continues as it has been going, by the time I retire in about 3 years I should have a decent income to supplement my retirement pension. In fact, my plan is to make enough to not even realize I no longer have a day job.

Instead I will have a nice work at home job...blogging....only need to work about 12-14 hours a day....just kiddding....I hope...*wink*

Since my earnings have started to go up, and I might add, most of it coming from only two of the 40 or 50 blogs I have, I am wondering if it is time to move away from the blogging platform into more of a website system. It seems to me that websites do better in terms of income, even though blogs are more or less a website, there seems to be something to having an actual website. Of course, websites usually mean you have to spend money on domains and hosting etc, something that is not necessary with a blog. However, if the website is making money, and you can cover your costs as well as make an income, well...there is no harm no foul. If you can make more money than blogging...well I rest my case.

Just like blogging, the secret to making money lies in diversification of income streams and having multiple websites. If your blog is making you 35 cents a day, ten blogs should make $3.50 and 100 blogs should make $35.00 a day and so on. But how to manage all those blogs or websites?

That's where something like Gary Nugent's system, called SiteBuilder Elite comes in to play. Gary has a process (actually some software) to help you build potentially hundreds of websites where you can place you Adsense code, Amazon products and other affiliate programs to make money. Of course, with a hundred websites your chances of earning a substantial income is increased.

Now don't get me wrong, Gary's system is not where you buy 100, 200 or 300 Adsense ready websites, although that is another route that you can take, with Gary's system, you need to build your own websites, but Gary's software makes that easy. Probably a lot easier than trying to write 100 or more unique blog posts a day...whew! But Gary does show you how to create websites that will earn you money.

I have looked at a lot of these systems over the past few years, and some of them seem quite attractive, and Gary Nugent is certainly not the only game in town, but, his system does seem to be inexpensive, and judging from his sample websites, I think they just might work. You need to know a little about websites, design etc, for things like building a blog header, but otherwise if you follow his process I think a beginner could start creating valuable websites in no time at all.

If you are interested in a system like this, I suggest you have a look at what Gary Nugent has to offer you from SiteBuilder Elite System You can purchase Gary's software immediately and start on your way to owning a virtual real estate empire today. I think he also has some bonus offers on the go as well if you are ordering right now.
------------------------------------
If you are interested in buying websites all ready to start earning you money, you might be interested in AdsenseReady This is an opportunity to buy 150 websites all ready for your Adsense code. Although I am not saying that this is not a good way to go, I am saying it may be more work than it sounds, and may not be as lucrative as it sounds. Personally I like the SiteBuilder Elite System better.

Selling Advertising

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:44:00 +0000

Sometimes I cannot help but think that pay per click or ppc advertising as it's called is actually the reason why bloggers are not making much money. Sure, these programs do make copious amounts of money for some bloggers and website owners, but many of us only make chicken feed from ppc ads.

Think about ppc for a minute, if the process of getting paid based on an action, i.e. clicking a link or visiting a website advertised on the blog, didn't exist, advertisers would probably have to resort to paying a set amount to advertise on a website. There are blogs and websites that do this now, but ppc programs are the most common, and I suspect the most popular with advertisers. Gone are the days when an advertiser paid based on circulation or visitor numbers, happy to get the name of their company or product in front of readers, much like television, newspaper, magazine or billboard and radio advertising. For internet ads, advertisers don't want to pay unless we can prove, through their visitor statistics, that the visitor went to their site, they don't pay.

Think about that for a second....ok....finished? If a car dealership runs a television advertisement for example, the television network gets paid regardless of whether or not one or one million visitors visit the car dealership and/or buy a car. Traditional media publishers etc, are not easily held accountable for whether or not their advertisements are working. Sure, the advertiser can monitor their sales, but it can be difficult to say for sure that business has increased because of an advertisement. Particularly if ads are running in several different media at the same time.

Website owners and bloggers don't have this luxury. We are relegated to trying to get our readers to do something, hoping they visit our advertisers or buy something because that is the only way we get paid.

There are some internet advertising companies, like Adengage and Text Link Ads, which do have a provision to allow the advertiser to pay a fixed amount to run an ad on a specific site, but it's still not the same thing. Advertisers have the ability to monitor clicks and measure the exact effectiveness of the ads, dropping those publishers who don't deliver. However, lots of advertising is not about an end result in terms of visits or sales, some of it is strictly to get the name out there, to make people aware of them.

That is the kind of advertising that prpbably makes the most money. All you as the publisher has to do is make sure you get decent traffic and you should be able to make money for each space you sell on your site. Think about it, if all internet advertising worked like that, we might be in a very different business....

That said, I am seriously considering changing my advertising to this kind of process, selling space myself, keeping all the money, and cranking the price up as my visitor statistics go up.

So....wanna be the first to advertise on Jack Parkers Make Money Blogging???

Blog Monetization Strategy Continued....

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:35:00 +0000

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am rethinking my blog monetization strategy. After several years at this you'd think I would be getting pretty good at it, but the money, although better than when I started, is still not exactly coming in by the bucketload.

My philosophy to now has been to put monetization products up on my blogs and let them go, checking in periodically but seldom taking them down even if they are not earning money. I tend to think that somehow, eventually they will start to make me money. However...they don't. Occasionally I will try to experiment with their placement or widget style etc, but for the most part I put up a widget or ad block that I like, and that is pretty much the end of it.

The problem is, that means I end up with a lot of 'junk' on my sites that are taking up valuable space, and perhaps distracting my readers from something that might make me a little money. Blog space is more or less limited, and if something isn't giving a return, at least comparable with the other monetization strategies etc, you have to wonder if it is worth it. These extra widgets and ads tend to clog up the blogs and probably act as more of a distraction than anything else. It may also mean that returns are being diluted somewhat as clicks and purchases are spread out over several products instead of focused on one or two. Because revenue often depends on the number of clicks, it can take a long time to make the minimum amount that gets you a paycheck.

I have been learning from having my Adsense ads recorded using the 'channels' option, which I have found to be helpful in terms of learning about placement and to a lesser extent widget style. Using the channel option has also been useful in showing me exactly which of my blogs are making money and which ones are not. I have also started maintaining a hand written record book where I record the amount of money I make from each of my monetization strategies each month. I also record the amount of each cheque I recieve each month.

Recording my earnings has been very enlightening as I am seeing clearly which products and strategies are making money. This was something I only thought I knew until I started tracking it on paper. The results kind of surprised me, although my top producer is still Adsense, some of the ones that I thought were doing the best are actually not that hot.

ReThinking My Blog Monetization Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:29:00 +0000

Hi and Thanks for taking a few minutes to drop by. I appreciate it....does that sound a little too um...'slurpy' or something? I really am glad you dropped, by, and I really appreciate you reading my blog but...well...what they heck, I said it now....

Well I have been watching the results of my entry into the WidgetBucks Program and to tell the truth I have been a little less than impressed. So far after a month or so, I have made pennies...not the return I had hoped for. Of course when do we bloggers actually get the returns we hope for? However, this is less than acceptable so far.

So what to do? Well, I am watching it closely, and I have to admit, I haven't really spent the time I should to try and tweak things a bit, maybe some different widgets, maybe revisit the keywords I am using etc. However, I am not really all that keen on doing all the work in terms of advertisments on my websites. I have enough to do to keep the blogs written and up to date without spending all my time worrying about the advertisements. I'm thinking hard about that kind of thing these days. I mean, how long can a person keep doing something over and over without making some money?

But like most blog monetization programs, it isn't enough to add the widget, and then forget about it. All of these things take time and they take some tweaking to find the best combination for your blog or website. I do the same with Adsense and the other programs I use, but that takes so much time it cuts down on the time I have to write. I suppose if I was big enough I could hire someone to handle that aspect of the business, and I could concentrate on the writing. A bloggers dream....

So WidgetBucks hasn't performed as I had hoped, but neither are some of my other programs. It takes a lot of posts and a lot of hits to those posts to make much return, and I shoulder some of the blame myself for not finding enough visitors yet. However, I have had a few and when you see that a number of hits is only returning pennies...well...it is cause for concern. Are those hits to a non-performing ad, or low paying ad, taking away better paying results from programs like Adsense or Amazon? That is the 64 dollar question isn't it? How many ad programs does a blog need to make money, and how many is too many? It's quite possible that I have over done it on some of my sites, showing too many ads to make anything pay well.

On the other hand, I do have a few things on the go that are making a bit of a return, one of them is Amazon, where sales have picked up fairly well in the last few months, making me wonder if that might be the way to go. My Amazon sales got off to a slow start in the beginning, but have be steadily increasing over time. That's partially because I have more posts and more products and partially because I have a bit of an Amazon system that I use, which is getting the products out there and people are buying some stuff. It's not life changing money, but it is money. Besides that, it is kind of fun to try and sell actual products instead of just advertising space. Kind of the intangible versus the tangible.

There is a bit more effort to promoting Amazon in a way that gets sales, but on the other hand, one sale is often worth many times more than a few pennies....

Perhaps it's time for a rethink.....should I be using more space on my blogs for Amazon and less for some of the other programs that don't seem to be performing, or do I wait a while and see if the newer programs catch on?

I think I will sleep on it.....

New Adsense Search Features

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sun, 11 May 2008 17:05:00 +0000

I stumbled upon the new Adsense Search features almost by accident. I was in my Adsense account setting up some code for a new blog, when I discovered the changes that the folks at Google had made to their search box features.

I gotta say I like it. Now you can set up a search box, and have the ads open up as part of your page, and lots of them too. I tested this new blog feature on several of my blogs, and although it's too soon to tell if it works in terms of earning money from the blogs, I cannot see how it won't provided my readers decide to enter a search term on the blog.

The only thing I don't like is that it does take away from readers searching my own blog for specific posts, but it' a trade off. For one thing, I would prefer they search for something that will lead them to an ad they can click on which will in turn earn me some money as opposed to searching for something that might lead to another post on my blog. They would still have to react to one of my ads in order for me to make any income from that search. So, on the blogs where I am running the new Adsense search feature, I have removed the other search box that was internal to my site. Too many search boxes, like too many of anything might be confusing. Can't have my readers confused....

If you aren't running the new Adsense for Search box on your site, what's stopping ya?

Time Magazine's Top 100 Influential People Includes Michael Arrington

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:51:00 +0000

Every once and awhile I come across something that gives me a little push, a little encouragement to keep blogging. Today it was the discovery that Michael Arrington, a former corporate lawyer, who is now a blogger has become one of the most influential people on the internet. Michael has been named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People On The Internet. Arlington's blog is called TechCrunch perhaps you've heard of it....

Two other fellas...of interest to us as bloggers, and who have also made the list of acknowledgement with Arrington are Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, and Jay Adelson, (CEO of DIGG)

Arrington, Bezos, and Adelson, come to this title under the Builders and Titans category and are among other such notables as Jeffrey Immelt, (CEO of GE) Karl Lagerfeld, (Fashion), Rupert Murdock, (newspaper publisher), Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, (America's biggest foreign investor) Catherine Roitfeld (Editor in Chief, French Vogue magazine), Jamie Dimon, (Wall Street, JPMorgan Chase) Steve Ballmer, (CEO Microsoft) Cynthia Carroll, (CEO Anglo American, mining) Ratan Tata, (Indian automaker), Mo Ibrahim, (African democracy advocate, cell phones, Mo Ibrahim Prize For Achievement In African Leadership) Lou Jiwei, (Chinese investor) Neelie Kroes,(EU Commissioner for Competition), Ali al-Naimi (Saudi Arabia Oil Minister) There are more, if you want to read the entire list, go to Time or pick up a copy of the magazine.

Not to take away from the accomplishments of any of the others, but I think it is important that Michael Arrington in particular made this list. Everytime something like this happens, everytime blogging gets mentioned in these kind of contexts, the business, or the "Art" we call blogging, gets legitimized a little more.

Blogging fits into what is really the current big thing on the web, it's called Web 2.0 and refers to things like blogs, interactive websites, social bookmarking sites like DIGG and Delicious, etc. It's the interaction with the readers that makes Web 2.0 what it has become. There's more to Web 2.0 than blogging, trust me, you will be hearing more about it as that title goes more mainstream, but remember blogging is heart and soul Web 2.0

With that in mind, I am going to reinstate the "comments" on Jack Parker's Make Money Blogging, I had turned them off because of spammers, but what the heck, I guess I will use comment moderation to deal with those.

Take heart my blogger buddies, someday maybe we will be listed in Time's top 100! Maybe we will make up the entire list.....

WidgetBucks

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:30:00 +0000

The astute among you...that's you...will notice that I have added a new widget to my sidebar and a banner advertisment at the bottom of the page. That's because I have come across another program that promises to help me make money blogging. It's called WidgetBucks and it seems pretty cool so far.

WidgetBucks is easy to use, and has lots of options, lots of banners and advertisements that are easily customized to fit your particular blog or website. What's more, the products seem to be pretty decent, and the ads themselves look good on my pages. I have added them to several of my blogs, in what was probably less than an hour. In fact, the entire process, from signup to approval to adding the code to my pages took less than an hour.

According to their information here's how you make money with WidgetBucks:
1) PPC, or Pay-Per-Click ads. Each time a user from the U.S. or Canada clicks on a WidgetBucks ad widget on your site, you get paid.
2) CPM, or Cost-Per-Thousand Impressions. When a user from outside the U.S. and Canada views one of your pages that contains a CPM ad from one of WidgetBucks' ad partners, you earn revenue.
3) Referrals. When you refer a new WidgetBucks user, you will receive a 5 percent referral fee based on the commissions earned by the people you refer. You'll receive this 5 percent for the full 12 months after the new member joins.

WidgetBucks look like they will work good on my niche blogs in particular, as they have a feature, not unlike Adsense whereby they crawl your pages and determine what your blog or website is about, and then match products to your subject matter. Or, you can choose your own topics etc and set it up from the get go with several to choose from.

I have to admit, I did find the list of potential subjects a little limiting in one respect, but that might just be me, so I chose to let WidgetBucks decide what would be appropriate for my pages. I'll try that for a little while, and maybe experiment, depending on how it goes.

It's a little early for me to recommend WidgetBucks so I won't, but if I were you.....I'd sign up!!It's free and it's easy!!

Sunday Ramblings

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 15:06:00 +0000

I've been doing quite a bit better with my Amazon affiliate sales lately. I'm not exactly sure why, other than the idea that over time I have built up quite a few posts that feature Amazon products.

The funny thing is, most of the items that I feature are not the ones that I am ultimately selling....leading me to believe that I don't have a very good handle on what people are buying. The stuff I sell...well...it's just not what I would expect. I'm not complaining though, it's still a sale and it's still money in my pocket.

I don't know, it seems like ever since my meltdown, where I wrote the post saying that the bottom was out of the blogging business, it seems to have picked up....go figure....

So instead of throwing in the towel and getting ready to enjoy summer, I have stepped up my blogging efforts.

I'm not going to write much here today, as I have a couple of other commitments going on at the same time. But I am going to leave you with a reminder of one of the key secrets to making money from websites....traffic...you need traffic...that is all there is to it...find out how to get traffic, visitors to your blog or website, and you can sit back and watch the money roll in....of course as soon as you figure out how to get qualified, converting, traffic to your site and lots of it...please tell me.....

Adsense Channels - You Need Them

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:37:00 +0000

Even though I figured in my last post that the 'bottom was outta her' I haven't decided to quit yet, just taking some deep breathes and building up my resolve to make some money blogging, even if it kills me....and it just might....

Lately I have started using channels for my Adsense ads running on my sites. It's taking some time to convert them all over, but I'm getting there. When I began blogging, with only a couple of blogs, I really didn't see much point of bothering to set up channels to track them. However, now with more and more blogs to my credit, channels have become more important.

If you're not using channels you should be. That's about the end of it really. Channels tell you exactly where you Adsense revenue is coming from. What sites, and what ad blocks. This is so useful for determining the best ad placement, as well as the colors and design. It also says which blogs are earning money, and which ones aren't. That means I can decide which blogs to drop, or, tweak, for better CTR and revenue.

In the week or so that I have started using channels I have discovered my three top money earning blogs, and the ad blocks that are earning the money. I've even played around with placement a bit, and design. It's far too soon to start changing too much, but by reviewing the channel information,. I am getting a good idea.

Realizing that it's too soon to be definitive, I am finding something that I hadn't expected. Out of three ad block placements on one of my blogs, there is no clear leader between the three placements, which surprised me. I have read that sidebar ads don't usually perform as well as ads placed above or below the content. That is probably true, but I have one blog where the sidebar ads are working every bit as good as the other ones. Go figure. I'm actually kind of happy about that, because for some reason, I like sidebar ads....

But back to channels...if you are running adsense on your blog, and not channels, you need to go back and set up the channels now. It's a bit of work. It seems you cannot set them up in a Blogger blog using the widget for adding adsense from the layout page. Instead you have to set up the ad block and channels in your Adsense account and then copy and paste the code into the HTML widget. Works just as good, but not quite as easy.

But I believe it's worth the trouble for the information you learn from them. So, let me say it one more time, regardless of whether or not you are making money on your blog or website now, you need to create channels for your Adsense contextual advertisments.

Convinced?

The Bottom's Outta Her !!

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:22:00 +0000

I apologize because this is more of a rant than a helpful post, but sometimes ya just gotta let it out....man this is a tough way to make a buck...The hours that I invest in trying to make money blogging is out of this world, and most of the time, I make pennies.

The worst of it is, I am having trouble to make sense of it. Last week I had one of my biggest yet as far as Adsense revenue, and for that matter, this month looked like it was going to be good, between Adsense, Adengage, Clickbank and Amazon. Still not quit your day job money, but money nonetheless.

However, the past two days have taken a downturn with a bullet. As they say around here, "the bottom's outta her" which I think refers to boats, but is also a very accurate picture of my blog revenues...the bottoms out and I seem to have fallen threw it....

Of course I know that this is only a temporary glitch, at least I sure hope so, if it isn't I gotta find something else to do with 10 hours a day of my time. Thank heavens I didn't borrow any money based on my blog income.

Maybe this is a good wakeup call, to remind me that making money is not the only reason I have a blog(s). The other reasons include entertaining people, having a voice, and writing for the sheer joy of it. A couple of my blogs make me little or no income, but I still write to the regularly, mainly because I love the topics they cover, and feel I have something to say about them.

I'm not ready to quit just yet, although sometimes I must admit the idea sounds attractive at times. I can't help but be bothered by the idea that if I wasn't spending so much of my time blogging, I might be doing something else that makes money, like selling real estate, painting pictures, writing books or magazine articles, or working as a Walmart greeter....

It's during these times, when the money seems elusive dispite the number of visits I get, that I find myself questioning things. It's also times like this that I use to turn my questions around and try to find out why or explore new ways of doing things. It's hard to make major changes to your blog format or advertisments when you are making money from them. There is a reluctance to change anything for fear it might screw up a good thing. But now, with the bottom out of her....well...it might be time....

Following the Rules - Adsense Policies

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:10:00 +0000

You'll notice that I have added a post called Privacy Policy, where I outlined the...um...privacy policy of what is this blog and basically Google Adsense. I did this because I learned today while reading the blog of another talented blogger, Jennifer Slegg from JenSense that it was part of the latest Adsense program policies that I had agreed to recently....obviously I agreed to the their policy without reading them, or at least without understanding what I was reading....

Thank heavens for bloggers like Jenn who are kind enough to point out things like that for those of us like me, who are just flailing about in the blog wilderness unaware of what is really going on....Jennifer is a freelance writer and an acknowledged expert in the field of Adsense and Yahoo contextual advertising. Her blog should be in your list of favorites.

There is a lesson in this, and it's that whenever new policies are introduced a person should not only read them, but should also look around at the sites in your niche and see what others are writing about them. Sometimes another person will see something that you (or me) missed.

Now I am not unequivocally positively sure that I have to post the policies in the manner that I did, but I have enough faith in Jen that if she says I should, I should...and I did. In fact, I have been working on adding it to all my blogs tonight, which has been a chore, and I'm still far from finished.

I did it a little differently on this blog than I did on some of the others. Most of them I went back in my post history, found a post that either was short or not much good and replaced it with the policy, then placed a link to the policy on my sidebar. By the time I got to this one, I was getting bored with the process so decided to just stick it right in the next post and go forward from there. I still put a separate link in the sidebar. If Google Adsense comes looking I want them to find it.

If making money from your blog or blogs is your goal, one of the first rules of blogging you want to remember is follow the rules of your advertisment provider, be that Adsense, Adengage, AVN ads or even Amazon and other affiliate sales organizations. After all, they are the ones paying you, and you don't want to run afoul of their rules. I know I don't...it's hard enough to make money from a website without adding to the problem by losing your ad provider.

So the lesson is, read the policies of whatever affilite or ppc ad companies you sign up with and stay current with their policies. Secondly, if you are running Adsense, play it safe and post a privacy policy, use the one I used, (which I got from Jen's site,) or create your own, whatever....just make sure you do it.

Good luck and keep blogging!
Jack
Thanks again Jennifer from JenSense , great site by the way, I learn from you regularly. I appreciate you keeping me out of trouble !!

Privacy Policy

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:48:00 +0000

As part of Googles new terms publishers who show Adsense must post privacy policies on their sites...here is mine. I got the text for this from JenSense Thanks Jen!!

Privacy Policy for www.jackparkersmakemoneyblogging.com
The privacy of our visitors to www.jackparkersmakemoneyblogging.com
is important to us.

At www.jackparkersmakemoneyblogging.com
, we recognize that privacy of your personal information is important. Here is information on what types of personal information we receive and collect when you use visit www.jackparkersmakemoneyblogging.com
, and how we safeguard your information. We never sell your personal information to third parties.

Log Files
As with most other websites, we collect and use the data contained in log files. The information in the log files include your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as AOL or Shaw Cable), the browser you used to visit our site (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which pages you visited throughout our site.

Cookies and Web Beacons
We do use cookies to store information, such as your personal preferences when you visit our site. This could include only showing you a popup once in your visit, or the ability to login to some of our features, such as forums.

We also use third party advertisements on www.jackparkersmakemoneyblogging.com
to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).

You can chose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security. However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites. This could include the inability to login to services or programs, such as logging into forums or accounts.

Tracking Ad Performance with Channels

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 16:52:00 +0000

I guess it is time I start to practice what I preach....I have written before about the importance of tracking how your adverts are doing on your blog or website, and the best way to do that is to use Adsense Channels for your contextual ads.

Well...I have a confession...even though I wrote about tracking channels being important, I didn't do it...gasp...mostly because I didn't have time, or didn't want to take the time to redo my advertisement html to add the channel tracking stuff. Well, I got ambitious the other day and decided the time had come to find out what the heck is going on with my advertisments so I bit the bullet and started converting my Adsense to channels.

Having several blogs it has become a bit of a project I have to admit, but, it's already shown it's value. I now have a much better idea where the majority of my hits to my ads are happening, and what they are paying. I'm far from finished, but I have the majority of the important ones converted now, and find it very useful.

Using Adsense Channels, I can tell what my readers are clicking, allowing me to compare my ad placements and optimize them for the best return. I am also learning that some of the places I thought were not the best, actually are pretty good. For instance, I have found that the upper left sidebar is working well on one of my blogs, and I didn't think it was. Ads above the fold are true to what everyone says, the best placement, at least on the blogs I have channels for, but the sidebar is not doing too bad either.

It's far too soon to tell for sure what channels or placements are best, but I know I am on my way to discovering it now. Be prepared for quite a bit of work though, especially if you use Blogger and there in blog feature that lets you add Adsense under the layout tab. There isn't a way to add channels using this feature, so you have to go to your Adsense account and create new ones which you then can use to replace your existing ads blocks. That's what is taking time for me because I started using the layout feature when I went to the new Blogger, so I have a lot to undo or redo....

That said, I am still going to do it. The information I am learning from watching my channel reports is invaluable. It's going to give me an opportunity to not only experiement with add placement, but also design and color schemes. In addition, having channels is telling me quickly what blogs are worth keeping updated, what blogs attract readers who will read the advertisments. Very useful information.

So if you aren't using channels to track your contextual ad performance, you should start. Open your Adsense account and go to Manage Channels and start setting them up. I think it will be worth your time.

Custom Domain Names

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 21:02:00 +0000

Since I began blogging I have read several times about the importance of your own domain name. Having a web address that includes things like 'blogspot' etc in the url is apparently detrimental to your cause. That seems to be the advice from the experts, the bloggers who are making serious money from their blogs. But to a guy who had no internet experience before I began blogging, getting my own domain name seemed to be a confusing exercise, one I didn't understand, nor really see the need for. It wasn't until I stumbled upon how easy it was that I began to think about doing it.

As I said, for the most part, and up until now, I have ignored the advice from the blog experts about custom domain names, even though it came from some leaders in the make money blogging field. No matter what the experts said, I chose to remain with my original web address that included the name of my blog host. Until now...

I recently discoverd how easy, and how cheap it was to switch my address to a new domain name, in fact, it has to be one of the most painless experiences of my blogging career. It does cost something, $10, but that is for a year, and what the heck, I spend more than that on coffee and Red Bull to keep me awake so I can blog all night long...So, after reading about it, almost by accident, on the blogger site, I decided to give it a go.

Now instead of having a blog with blogspot in the url, I have my blog name followed by .com as easy as that. It even looks better at the top of the page. If you have a blogger blog, all you need to do is go to the settings tab for your blog, and choose the option for a 'custom' domain. Put in the name you want, and they'll tell you if it is available, and if not, what are some possible options. Nothing to it. From there it's a matter of filling in some information and paying for it.

You'll get an email in your inbox that tells you what to do next, which is really just confirm your email address and get a user name and password set up. It also tells you about the other options you now have, like email for example.

So, what does a custom domain do for me? Well, for one thing, it makes the title of my blog easier to remember, and for another, I think it may help with making my blogs look more professional, and I'm thinking maybe get more traffic. One of my blogs has earned more money today than ever before. That's not a lot of money mind you, but more than usual. I am wondering if it has anything to do with the new custom domain....I hope so....this could be good....

I suppose because blogging for me is largely a case of teaching myself, and learning as I go, it seems to be a slow process for earning money. But, I have to say, since I began, my earnings are up, my hits are up, and I have learned immeasurable 'stuff' about websites and blogging. I have also learned to type really...really...fast!!!

Blogging - The Great Time User

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:22:00 +0000

I came across a blog called Adsense Tracker written by a young woman from Iowa. She caught my eye not only because of her blog, but also because she listed her favorite books as 'anything by Stephen King" who happens to be a favorite of mine as well...but I am digressing...

The young lady's blog is slightly misnamed because I couldn't find much about tracking adsense exactly, but she does have some interesting posts. One that I found quite interesting was this one from January 2008 where she asked, How Does Anyone Do This? meaning, how does anyone make money blogging and keep up the pace necessary to maintain a blog, or two or three or a hundred...

It's a good question, and elicts some interesting answers from other bloggers in her comments. It's amazing how many people are out there trying to make something of this whole blogging thing, especially when you relate it to how many are actually making money from blogging. It's also interesting to learn how much time it takes to manage a blog or several blogs. Of course I have quite a bit of experience with managing multiple blogs myself, with over 50 some on the go. It got me to thinking about how much time I spend at this.

I start every evening around 7:00 right after I get home from work and have supper. A quick nap for about 45 minutes and I am at the computer, starting my nights work. I blog until about midnight, some nights past midnight before hitting the sack. Back up at 6 a.m. to check my stats etc, before heading out the door to my day job.

The weekends are another matter entirely, blogging consumes most of my time from Friday night until Sunday night. Friday nights my blogging goes until way past midnight, and Saturday things start again around 10 in the morning, running into the wee hours of the night. (I do take the occasional break, but not too many) Sundays are just like Saturdays only I usually quit around midnight.

I refuse to add up the hours I spend trying to make money online, or trying to get readers. (not all my blogs are for making money, a couple are just for the sake of writing) The reason I refuse to add up the hours is that would mean that I would then calculate how much I am making, and then reduce it to an hourly wage...at that point I would probably start to cry...smash my computer and go get a second job as a greeter at Walmart or something, undoubtly far more lucrative, and not so many hours....

The thing about it is, I wouldn't like a job at Walmart or anywhere else for that matter. I am too independent. I sell my soul everyday from 8:30-4:30 that's enough of that. At night and on the weekends, I want to do things I like to do, and blogging has become one of them. Unfortunately, it has become the only thing I like to do, mainly because I have no time left to do anything else....

Would I change it? Nope, not likely. I keep telling myself I need to re-organize, get some semblance of a schedule and stick to it, perhaps even free up some time for other things. I also have considered collapsing some of the blogs that I don't write to frequently, but something always stops me. For one thing, I hope to retire in a few years and then I will have more time for this....might need those extra blogs to keep me busy....

Targeting Content

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 18:02:00 +0000

I must admit, Google Adsense does a pretty decent job of delivering up advertisements related to the content of my blog posts. However, there are times when for no apparent reason, I end up with ads that I don't want, or ads that don't seem relevant to my posts.

The reason for that seem to be that when the Adsense crawler looks at what I have written, it either picks up on the wrong thing, or I am too all over the place in my text, writing on too many subjects in one post, leaving Adsense to wonder just what the heck my blog is about.

Naturally, in the niche blogging business, that can't be good. You run the risk of ads that don't relate to the subject and unless you are very lucky, none of your readers are going to be interested in them. For example if your post is about making money with adsense, you don't want ads on security systems.

The good news is, there is a trick to this, a way to get Google to recognize the parts of your post you want recognized. This is the section that should be keyword intensive, talking about making money from blogs, working at home, income from websites, earning money online with blogs and related information for bloggers interested in making a substantial income from a blog or website.

It's called content targeting, or targeting content, whichever you prefer. It's quite easily done. All you need to do is place a little code in front of the text you want to target, and some behind it. This tells Adsense where to look for the keywords you want to target, and therefore the type of advertisements you want to display.

Section targeting can be used to suggest as many sections of a page as you like. Google doesn't guarantee results and it can take a couple of weeks for the crawlers to figure it out and start using it. You need to be careful to include enough material between the code to give the crawler the right idea of what you want targeted. You can't use it to manipulate the ad targeting to get ads that are not relevant to the content of your pages...that is against the policies and bad.

You can get the section targeting code directly from Adsense and read more about it Here!