Referrals via myLot

I had an unexpected free hour during the week so I decided to see if myLot could drum up extra visitors to this blog in 60 minutes.

In a way it's another 'back to basics' move as I used to use myLot when I first started blogging, though I haven't really bothered with it for ages.

As I was already a member there was no time wasted in joining. I simply went straight to work leaving comments on discussions set up by other members.

As the whole idea was to see if this would generate any traffic I only left comments on discussions that were to do with either blogging or making extra money.

Obviously spam comments are frowned upon so I picked out discussions where I thought I could get away with leaving a link to this blog. If there was, for example, a discussion on how to make money I felt it permissable to leave a link because it was relative to what was being written.

I didn't take a note of how many comments I left but you can't get that many done in an hour when you are looking for specific discussions.

The nitty gritty is that my one hours 'work' got me an extra 18 hits to this blog. I'll let you decide if this was worthwhile. It really depends on how established your blog is. Personally I feel I have now moved on and think I could have done better using other methods.

As well as the 18 visitors I also earned ... roll of drums ... 15c. Not exactly a good rate of pay but this wasn't the primary motive.

Looking at myLot it has improved in quite a few ways since I used to visit the website on a more regular basis.

The money making was always low. Going from memory I think I made about $30 from myLot when I first started blogging. Not exactly a fortune but I was grateful for such a small amount when I was learning the business.

I doubt if I'll become a regular visitor to myLot but if you have the time and like starting and commenting on discussions it might be worth a look.

Here is a post I wrote about myLot back in late 2006: myLot, Money and Referrals.

Good luck,
Mike.

Basic Blogging First Steps

I've had a few emails recently asking what you should do as soon as you have started a blog. A back to basics question.

I guess if I was starting blogging today my first steps would be to:

(1) Write as many posts as possible as quickly as possible.

I do this now when I start up a new blog. I write as much as I can - and all separate posts - in the time I have. A blog needs substance and a bit of meat on the bones and I say this despite being a vegetarian! Quantity though must still be quality!

Regarding the posts I would suggest that these should be as varied in subject matter as possible, but within your chosen niche. For example, if your blog is about dogs then write about everything to do with dogs. Don't keep the subject too narrow and simply write about Scruffy, or whatever your own dog is called.

Spread the words of wisdom you are imparting to cover say dog breeds, dog training, dog illnesses, dog food, dog baskets, dog stories, dog competitions and everything you can think of about dogs - yes and also about Scruffy.

I say this because:

(a) This way you should get more search engine referrals. It's worked for me. I've had search engine referrals on the same day as setting up a blog - only a few of course.

(b) You are building your 'back catalogue' of subject matter that readers can refer to. This is the value of having 'labels' shown in a blog's side column. These will catch the eye and should increase page views per visit.

(2) Decide on your Keywords.

Keywords are essential in getting search engine referrals. Decide on your words and then try to incorporate them within your post title, your post's first sentence and in the body of what you are writing.

Also associate other words with your main keywords. For example with words such as 'money making' there will be a lot of competition from the Big Boys. If, however, you can associate money making with other words like I have, for example, with say 'Money Making Wealth Toolbox' then it's more likely to get on the first page of Google.

(3) Write about anything new within your niche.

If it's new, and on the way up, get in early. By doing this you are more likely to get a good position on Google. If you write about, say, Paris Hilton forget it. There are too many other blogs doing this already. But write about someone who is about to, or has just, hit the headlines for the first time and then you are in with a chance.

(4) Use Images.

As I wrote in my last post that images and photos, if used properly, bring search engine referrals.

From what I have written here you'll see that what I consider to be the first basic of a blog is content - the right content. Start with this and then move on to getting traffic and all of the other things associated with having a successful blog.

Ask yourself: Are my posts interesting enough for someone to read and would they make readers want to return to my blog?

What would be your advice to someone starting up a new blog?

Good Luck,
Mike.

The Power Of Images

As we are always looking for ways to get more referrals from search engine's I thought I'd mention again the power of images.

Not only do images / photos brighten up posts and make them more interesting and appealing they also can bring lots of referrals to blogs.

My celebrity blog has been running for 237 days and has now had 148,969 referrals from Google Images (see below). This averages at about 628 per day since starting the blog from scratch.


I don't get anywhere near as many referrals for Mikes Money Making Mission, as I've only really been adding images conscientiously since I altered the page format. I get about 5 per day - and every little helps!

What I have found is that images have to be presented in a certain way. I say this from personal experience and 'experts' may disagree!

(1) The image should have a proper name. By this I mean it should tell you what the photo is about.

Many people seem to give their photos numbers, like 1028.jpg, or some other code instead. If we take the example of the photo on the right the name is Kirsten Haglund bikini. This makes more sense to the search engine.

I'm using Kirsten's photo as she is the new Miss America and I might just get a few hits because of this. Blatant promotion!

2) Use the 'alt' option. In this case I have used alt="Kirsten Haglund, Miss America, bikini".

I've used these words because I consider them to be the keywords that people will use when searching. They may well use Kirsten Haglund or Miss America and I've added bikini because I think this is likely to be used together with the aforementioned names.

I always try to use the name of the photo within 'alt' and sometimes add a couple of extra words that tie in.

3) Don't overdo the number of keywords included in 'alt' as this makes search engine's think, "Mmmm, spam!"

And that's it. Some say that including the size of the photo is search engine friendly i.e. height="200" width="100" but I'm not convinced of this.

Think post - think images!

Good luck,
Mike.

Discipline Makes Money

It's all about discipline, blogging that is.

I've noticed several blogs have been writing about SEO Meter recently. It can tell you how often Google crawls your blog or website.

Yes, you can have your very own Google Crawl Cycle chart but I'm afraid all this did was make me yawn.

"Not more stats to pour over," I thought.

I'm sure statistics, charts and whatever are useful but it's possible to spend so much time looking at them, comparing them, moaning about them that a lot of valuable blogging time is actually wasted.

Most bloggers have only a certain amount of time to devote to their blogs and I bet, in lots of cases, this time isn't always used to it's full potential.

If we go off at a tangent, from what our real aims are, we end up getting - well not as far as we hoped.

I feel that blogging time has to be planned.

I'm not going to say what the plan should be, this is a personal thing and depends on your objectives and why you blog.

You could be just blogging for fun, so what the heck, but if say your priority is to make money then it makes sense to use the allotted time wisely.

Do whatever is most important first.

Pretty obvious, but I know I used to start my blogging session looking at what amount of money I'd made the previous day from each of the programs I was promoting. Then it would be the stats for each blog and other things - and all of this didn't actually benefit me financially.

Now I look at earnings only weekly and try to concentrate on making money and getting more traffic before anything else. They are really virtually the same thing as traffic = money.

I earn most money from my celebrity blogs so therefore they have to get priority. As I keep saying - play to your strengths.

When I've finished this post I know what I'll do next - it's on my plan.

I really do think that one of the secrets of success with blogging is discipline. It's so very easy to get side-tracked.

Stats, Google crawls and the like can be useful to monitor how everything is going but peruse them at the right time - say a special time slot each week.

Discipline, discipline, discipline. Yes, it can be a bit boring, unless it's a particular fetish, but it brings results.

Good luck,
Mike.

Blogging Good Blogs

Make Money With Free Information

One of the easier ways to make money on the Internet, or with blogging, is by giving some 'useful' information away for free.

In a way I guess that this is really what all of us are doing when we monetise our blogs. We can, however, take this a step further.

As an illustration I saw someone doing this a few weeks back, unfortunately I've no idea who it was now. It was just something I jotted down for future use when I was surfing about.

Anyway, this bloke was advertising on Google Ads that he knew of a way to make easy money and would give the info for free - if an email address was provided.

The free details was in fact a roulette system that he claimed worked - it was actually something quite old whereby you double up losing bets on red or black and then switch colours when you win.

The point is though that he suggested joining one of about eight gambling style websites he had listed. He also suggested that the reader deposited a small amount of money with them to prove that the 'mathematical system' did in fact work.

Quite simply he made his money by being an affiliate for each of the gambling sites he asked his prospective punters to consider joining.

So he made money by giving away free information.

There are dozens of variations that could be done on this theme and all using free blogs. All you need is some info, that others may want, and link this with relevant affiliate programs.

You need a good 'sales pitch' within the info and also give a convincing reason as to why the reader should click on one of the affiliate links.

It's not a something that needs to be continuously updated. It's a 'one off' single page item placed on a blogging host and then advertised using as many ways as possible.

It may not bring in a lot of money - though it could - but what if you had dozens of similar blogs/sites - then it could get interesting. It's also a way to build a list of email addresses.

Good luck,
Mike.

WidgetBucks and RealRank Updates

WidgetBucks
I've had a grumble about WidgetBucks in the past but I forgot to mention that the end of December figures show that I've now gone through the $50 payout barrier - $64.31 at the end of the year to be precise.

This month, to the 19th of January - they are always a couple of days behind - I've made $37.73, an average of $1.985 per day.

I don't think this is all that good considering one of my celebrity blogs alone has had over 104,000 unique visitors this year and this is without reloads.

By comparison with Voxant, for example, I've made around $250 this month so far and AdSense, plus some other money making programs, are also going well.

RealRank
There I was yesterday getting almost enthusiastic about RealRank but today I'm waining already. My confidence in them is subsiding rapidly.

In the entertainment Top 100 List my Celebrity Insider blog dropped from 2nd to 7th place. Okay, still not bad but quite frankly I don't think the figures are accurate.

Money Money Money told me that regarding her blog stats RealRank are "counting my pageviews but not my traffic. I understand a fix goes out this week."

I'll say no more for now, and will see how things pan out over the week.

I just wish I could find a ranking system and stats that I can fully believe in.

Otherwise life is great!

Good luck,
Mike.

Is RealRank A Real Ranking?

I wrote a few thoughts on various blog rankings on Thursday. In view of what I said you might think it strange that today I'm going to write about another ranking system - this time about RealRank.

I signed up to RealRank yesterday.

Why would I bother as I'm not over enamoured with ranking systems?

Mainly because I'd read about it on various blogs and wanted to see if it would be of any use to me. Could it, for instance, direct any traffic my way?

Okay, before I get into my first day with RealRank a few facts: It is run by the Izea group who also run PayPerPost. From this you can gather why they have an interest in an alternative ranking system to Page Rank. A lot of PPP members had their PR's slashed for writing sponsored posts.

Though they do have a self interest in promoting their own ranking system they make some good points in favour of another ranking system. For example they write:

"PageRank is not based on real traffic, but on what Google perceives as the quality of a website as determined by a link rating algorithm and some cloudy rules. The arbitrary and unpredictable nature of this ranking system has left both bloggers and advertisers longing for accurate statistical measure."

This is true. Does it make sense for a PR4 with 10,000 visitors a day to have the same 'value' as a PR4 with only 100 visitors daily or maybe a PR7 with 1000 visitors a day?

RealRank is based on the following open formula:

70% weighted towards visitors per day
20% weighted towards amount of ACTIVE
inbound links per day
10% weighted towards pageviews per day

So if you are, or were, an advertiser which has the most useful info you need? PR or RR? I know which I'd prefer.

I'm sure we could all think of other formulas that may be as effective. Also RealRank is limited because it only lists blogs that that sign up as members - whereas PR covers all established blogs. (Note that RealRank is for blogs only.)

The overall rank is based on all blogs (who are members) but these are also subdivided into various categories - as per list shown at the top of this post.

Each category has a Top 100, as does 'All Blogs'.

As I said, I signed up yesterday with my Celebrity Insider blog - and in the first day it has a RealRank of 11 (1 is best going upwards to however many blogs there are who are members).


If I look at the category for 'Entertainment' then Celebrity Insider is in second position in the Top 100 list.


However, I still fully stick by what I said on Thursday: Focus on the right content and getting visitors to your blog - because nothing else really matters.

In other words I'm not too fussed what my blogs' rankings are - though obviously, if I had a choice, I'd prefer them to be reasonable and accurate.

What I am interested in though, regarding RealRank, is to see if this will send me any traffic or something else worthwhile. As more and more blogs sign up I may well slip down the list, only time will tell.

I'll be keeping an eye on referrals and will let you know what happens.

So that's RealRank. It may be worth joining to see if you make their Top 100 lists. Depending on your niche you could well do so. Perhaps this could be of value - you never know in life.

Good luck,
Mike.

Teenage Success Stories

A couple of quick stories I picked up on today in the UK newspapers that illustrate the 'potential with blogging' I mentioned yesterday. Both are about teenage girls who have managed to attract a lot of attention - and, before you ask, there's nothing 'dodgy' going on!

Firstly there is Jaydee Stone from London who started an online video diary and she's now amassed nearly 3 million hits. Her most popular video has had 1,123,800 when I checked it earlier.

Okay, it's all kids stuff you might think but supposing the site had been monetised. The mind boggles!

The second girl I'll mention is 19 year old Rebecca Strachan. I've written more about her here on my celebrity blog where there is also a video of her singing.

Her story is that she's caught on in a big way in South Korea - even though she's from Basingstoke, UK and has never been to Korea.

She's made some music videos that the Korean's love, so much so that a South Korean network site are paying for her to travel to Seoul and to do a gig there.

All these two stories do is illustrate the enormous possible worldwide potential of blogging - and the power of videos. The right something or other that catches on, or is promoted properly, and the money might just pour in.

Perhaps vlogs are the way to go - food for thought.

Good luck,
Mike.

Blogging Is a Laugh!

I just can't take this blogging business seriously.

It's all a bit laughable when so many gauge the success of a blog on stats and rankings that are frankly ludicrous.

Okay, perhaps not ludicrous, but lets put it another way. Why should big organisations be able to have a detrimental effect on honest bloggers?

The simple answer is, of course, because they are big and powerful.

I'm talking about things like PageRank, Alexa, Technorati and commercial websites such as Commission Junction and AdSense. They can all do virtually whatever they want and 'say' whatever they want about a blog (or website). This wouldn't happen in any other form of business without recourse or repercussions.

For many PageRank is all important. It has a value for prospective advertisers - though I'm not fully sure why. Surely what really matters is the number of visitors to a blog and the number of clicks/sales this produces.

Anyway, as with many other money blogs, my own PR has been slapped down.

In naive days, when I thought PR important, I worked at getting a PR5 and achieved this. Then, as most of us know, the PageRank secret algorithm was messed about with and I was relegated to a PR3, and then last week to a PR0! Today, however, it's back to a PR3.

My sin was doing a few sponsored posts.

Lets look at Alexa. Advertisers and the like attach some importance to the figures they produce. Again, goodness knows why, because the stats they produce are estimates - and very bad ones at that.

As I've said before on my main celebrity blog I've had up to 11,000 unique visitors a day. Alexa seem to say I only get between 100-200. I think I would call Alexa stats ludicrous in this instance.

As for Technorati, for ages they black listed this blog and a search on their website would show 'no such blog'. Again some think that Technorati ranking is important. I emailed them several times without response. In fairness I have now, at last, managed to get this blog reinstated though the 'authority' has dropped considerably.

So there we have three instances where organisations, for a want of a better word, can have a detrimental effect on a blog - that has done absolutely nothing dishonest or underhand.

As for Commission Junction they closed my account, owing me money, supposedly something to do with fictitious clicks - which is nonsense. The thing that made it worse was that the money I had earned was for sales and not clicks anyway. Needless to say my emails were unanswered.

And no doubt we've all heard of cases where bloggers have been 'terminated' from AdSense. Fortunately this hasn't happened to me.

Okay, you may think that I'm on a bit of a downer writing this post - but I'm not! I'm actually feeling very upbeat.

None of it means a jot.

The message I want to get across is that if you blog there may be disappointments, things that annoy you but it's still a great 'business', 'hobby' or whatever to be involved in.

Despite PageRank etc. etc. I'm now making more money than ever - which was my reason for starting blogging. It doesn't matter what problems arise they can be overcome - just don't let them get to you.

The potential with blogging is amazing. I told you a while back that I had 40,000+ visitors to one of my blogs in one day, when I hit on some good content for a post. This strikes home what can be done and achieved. It's almost mind blowing to have contact with that many readers in one day. Just think: the clicks, the response, the commission ...

My advise, for what it's worth, is: Focus on the right content and getting visitors to your blog - because nothing else really matters.

Good luck,

Mike.

Should It be Done Every Day?

Since I started this blog my aim, besides making money, was to write a post every day. I felt that this was necessary for all sorts of reasons and something I had to do.

Over the last seven to ten days I haven't been able to post something daily because of other commitments. I was slightly concerned about this.

The strange thing is that my worries have been unfounded. The blog is still getting the same amount of visitors and I'm getting the same number of clicks.

In fact, if anything, the number of hits has increased - though I suspect that this is purely because of the time of the year. January is an active time for people and their New Year resolutions about making money.

So I have broken what I considered to be the great taboo but it's virtually made no difference to this blog.

The question is: Is writing a post every day essential to success? Or perhaps even more than one post.

Personally I still feel that something should be written every day, and I hope soon to get back to this, but it does sort of show that there are a lot of myths about blogging. The 'experts' aren't always correct.

Probably when starting blogging regular posts are essential to build trust and to show that you are serious about what you are doing. Once established though, it may be preferable but not quite so necessary.

It would be interesting to know how other bloggers feel about this.

Good luck,
Mike.

How To Be Successful

So how do we make a blog or website successful?

The answer is really quite simple: fulfil a need.

Once we know the need, or niche, that we want to fill we should talk about the benefits that this will bring to our readers.

Everyone wants benefits from life whether this be financial, with relationships, spirituality, some short term solution or whatever.

Why do we want to be successful with our blogging?
Perhaps because of the benefits this will give us - financial, prestige, status etc.

Why do we want a relationship?
Perhaps because of the benefits this will give us - companionship, love, sex, children etc.

Why do we want to make money?
Perhaps because of the benefits this will give us - security, freedom, food etc.

And so it goes on in every aspect of our lives. We all have needs to be filled and the successful people are those who tell us, or infer, that they know how to fulfil these needs.

It's why 'How To' manuals and information is successful and profitable.

When I used to publish magazines I also sold 'How To' manuals on all sorts of things. These fulfilled a need - a need for answers and solutions. So they gave benefits to the readers - and made me money as well - a fair deal!

If we want to sell or promote something we should hone in on the benefits not the features.

We don't need to know, for example, that a lawnmower has a super duper new fangled engine. What we want to know is that it will benefit us by cutting our lawn in double quick time leaving the grass looking perfect - for others to admire.

The formula, therefore, to be successful with blogging or with anything else in life is:

(1) Find a need to fill.
(2) Tell others about the benefits.
(3) And be successful.

Good luck,
Mike.

Money Making Egg Scrambled

I used to make $5 now again by referring others to AdSense. I didn't make a massive amount, which is just as well, as this option has now been removed by Google.

Okay, commission structures are often altered but Google have gone one stop further and have said that:

If you're outside of North America, Latin America, and Japan, AdSense referrals will be retired.

Note that the only change is with referrals to AdSense - all other products and ads etc remain the same.

So this referral option has been taken away from us in the UK, Europe and Australasia and so on.

For those in the favoured USA etc. the commission has reverted to how things used to be:

The payout for referring a user who generates $100 with AdSense in the first 180 days will return to $100.

Now as far as this is concerned it will become more profitable for Google. Let's be truthful and say that the majority of small bloggers never reach $100 commission in 180 days - therefore less bonuses will be paid out.

And, of course, many never receive any AdSense payments, because they never reach the $100 payout figure - very profitable for Google.

But why rule out us other international bloggers completely? Like a lot of bloggers the main bulk of my traffic arrives from the USA - probably nearly 70% overall on all my blogs.

It's difficult to speculate why this has been done by Google. Perhaps it's the advertisers profiles, the volume of ads or a shift in the main targeting areas for adverts - who knows. I guess we are unlikely to get a defined reason.

All of this probably won't make a very big difference to the majority of bloggers. There is, however, still a lesson to be learned: we shouldn't put all of our money making eggs in one basket.

Instead we need to plan things so that if one source of income disappears we have other revenue to take it's place. Nothing is certain with money making on the Internet.

Never become reliant on one particular way of making money.

Good luck,
Mike.

Are Your Stats Accurate?

We all like to have some form of tracker or hits counter on our blogs but are they accurate? Well I guess they can't be as they give differing statistics.

When I first started blogging I used eXTReMe Tracking. This worked fine until I started using hit exchanges such as Blog Soldiers, Blog Mad and Blog Explosion Any hits from these sources weren't registered. I tried also running sitemeter and the hit exchange traffic was then captured.

Though I've long forgotten hit exchanges - they only give artificial, cosmetic traffic - I still have problems getting accurate figures.

On my celebrity blog my IceRocket tracker often shows nearly 1000 additional visitors to eXTReMe Tracking - but as far as Google Analytics goes, along with Alexa, they seem to reckon that the blog is getting only 100 or 200 hits a day when in reality it's attracting several thousand. I get more Google clicks than they say I have hits! My celebrity blog Alexa Ranking is therefore way adrift.

It's all a bit confusing.

Actually though I try not to get too bogged down by studying statistics. I'd rather spend my allotted blog time doing something practical that might just earn some money.

Of course it's useful to see such things as the number of visits, page reads and how many clicks there are on on the varying adverts - though not all trackers do this. MyBlogLog does and also FeedBurner has interesting stats for free.

In the end though, if you have a money making blog it's the money you make that's the important statistic. It's so easy to get sidetracked into various statistical measurements and rankings and forget what the real reason is for blogging.

Stay on track.

Good luck,
Mike.

0 to 6000 In Four Days

I've been using, what I call satellite blogs, to make money and also to attract visitors to my celebrity blog.

I actually started a new satellite blog four days ago and this has already had nearly 6000 visitors - see below (today's visitors not included).


What I mean by satellite blogs are blogs that are spin-offs from your major blog. For example, if your main blog was all about, say, General Health you could have spin-offs featuring on things to do with general health.

These could be about Influenza, Aerobics, Insomnia or absolutely any specific subject relative to health. The blogs don't necessarily have to be updated daily (though it's an advantage if you have the time to do this) but just when you have something extra to say about that particular niche.

Now the advantage of having satellite blogs is that this can keep readers longer perusing your own material.

Plus when you write a post about one of the satellite blogs subject matter, on your main blog, you can use a link to direct your traffic to the satellite blog.

When doing this make sure the satellite blog opens in a new window (i.e. use "_blank" within your link). This way readers will hopefully return to the main blog once they have seen the satellite blog.

Conversely there should also be links from the satellite blogs to the main blog.

It may look as if readers are simply circulating but they are doing more than this. Every visit you receive to any blog is an opportunity to make money. So you monetize each blog to the degree that you are happy with.

The satellite blogs themselves will also generate their own traffic.

On my latest blog I had my first referral from the Google search engine within six hours. This can be done if you use the right keywords and have reasonable content - which people want to read.

Over a period of time it's possible that a satellite blog could in fact also turn into another main blog, and could then also have it's own satellites. Using the example I initially gave - the satellite blog Influenza could have it's own satellites about the various strains of flu.

I'm not suggesting that you use general Health or Influenza as blog subject matter, by the way! The niche could be about absolutely anything.

What I don't think a lot of new bloggers realise is that the 'names' who write about money making do not necessarily make their incomes from the money making blogs they write. I see many new money making blogs flounder because of this.

To make an income I feel that you have to expand, linking all of your efforts together.

Good luck,
Mike.

Can't See The Money For The Trees

---

Alternative words: surf blogosphere blog or blogs content subscription

---

If you were to go for a walk in the forest there would be thousands and thousands of trees and all of them would seem to look very similar.

Occasionally you might find a tree that is of interest and one that impresses you. You might even notice it sufficiently to remember to look out for it the next time you are having a walk in the forest.

But as for most of the trees they will hardly ever warrant a second glance. And, let's face it, most of them won't even be seen because of the sheer number of trees within the forest.

Of course, you might just be lucky and walk along the right path and come across a special tree. Perhaps one that has extra special fruit, the sort that you enjoy.

There will no doubt be lots of other people around this tree also enjoying the fruit. Other people will have told them about how useful the fruit is and the word will have spread about this special tree.

You will probably tell friends and colleagues yourself about the fruit as well and will definitely make a special note to look out for the tree the next time you are in the forest.

Enjoy your walk.

Good luck,
Mike.

---

And the BIG celebrity story is about Britney Spears:

Four Ways To Get 1200 Referrals

On my celeb blog I had over 111,000 unique visitors last month (December) and someone asked how I did this. The easy answer is to go on about keywords and content but I don't want to cover old ground. Instead here are a few other things I have used to get visitors.

My main referrers are the search engines but the following have contributed in a smaller way. I can't promise that they will work for you. All I can give are the stats so you can see what they produced for my celeb blog. There are no guarantees in blogging!

Mahalo.com - December 557 referrals
I suppose this is cheating in a way because it's another search engine but with a difference. In their own words:

"Mahalo is a human-powered search engine that creates organized, comprehensive, and spam free search results for the most popular search terms. Our search results only include great links."

Looks like I must have some great links! With Mahalo it's also possible to make a little cash as well by creating search result pages - see their Greenhouse for info - yes Greenhouse!

Technorati - December 330 referrals.
Actually I usually get more referrals than this from Technorati. I'm sure nearly everyone will be involved with Technorati but if you aren't - join.

I had a slight fall out with them as they blacklisted Mikes Money Making Mission for quite a while, and no idea why. At last I've got it reinstated but have lost a lot of my 'authority' unfortunately - it has almost halved. Despite this I think it's necessary for bloggers to be on Technorati.

Zimbio - December 174 referrals
This doesn't work so good for MMMM but it does okay for my celeb posts. It's all quite simple: submit your blog and your posts will be entered onto appropriate wikizines if there are any - or you can start your own.

All I have ever really done with Zimbio is join and let everything take care of itself.

Wikipedia - December 138 referrals
I guess most of us use Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, for reference. What I've managed to do is get my blog listed on a couple of popular pages as a 'Reference' and an 'External Link'. These are at the foot of most Wikipedia pages and seem to produce referrals.

I'll leave the suggestions there. It's really all about trying different ways to attract traffic. Some will work and some won't - but if we don't have a go we won't get anywhere.

The above produced 1199 referrals. Now if you have a dozen such ideas, along with the power of the search engines and other bloggers' links, traffic starts to build nicely.

And, of course, referrals = making money

Good luck,
Mike.