Make Money With Blogs By Finding A Hunger

I was talking to a successful entrepreneur the other day about making money. He said it was easy to be successful. All you have to do is find a hunger and feed it. That's all there is to it.

Now when we start setting up blogs to make money, and read many of the blogging experts, they tell us to write about what we love, the things that really inspire and motivate us. But this is far from the whole picture.

If your passion is for some obscure subject, no matter how beautifully you express your subject you probably won't end up making much money, at least from blogging. Why? Simply because there isn't a hunger for something obscure. So not many people are going to feed upon your words.

Deciding on a blogging niche that will make you money is about, as I've previously said, giving people what they want - what they really want. Not what you think they should want or might want. It has to be something that readers are hungry for.

This is where the value of following trends comes into it's own. But better still if you can get into something before the mainstream has caught on to it's potential and hasn't realised that there will soon be a hunger for this particular trend.

The only problem with lots of trends is that they don't always last very long. So perhaps you need a niche where you can incorporate many trends as and when they are on the way up - technology, music, politics, celebrities and so on spring to mind.

As the man said find the hunger and feed it.

Good luck,
Mike

My latest Squidoo lens: Cornwall Walks

Making Money While On Holiday

Away a little longer than expected and had a great time. For the final week of our break we stayed in a 14th century cottage - very creepy and creaky.

Back to reality. I've been checking my blog stats and the break doesn't seem to have done any harm to my blogs. I think once you have a lot of posts, on a blog, they will virtually tick over by themselves - with the help of the search engines that is.

A couple of things I did notice was that Zimbio sent one of my celeb blogs 600+ referrals over the last seven days. I think it's worth joining Zimbio as you can put your blog on 'automatic' and they will add posts to relevant sections of their website.

I've been doing this for ages and an extra 600 or so hits a week is a worthwhile boost for most blogs. I must add though that Zimbio works better for some niches than others. It doesn't do as well for Mike's Money Making Mission for example, but all extra traffic is welcome.

Showing Zimbio Referrals For One Of My Celeb Blogs
One thing I do when checking blog stats is to see what posts are getting the most hits. I then check the posts to make sure they carry some relevant up to date advertising - mostly in a text format. If not I add something. If a post is attracting visitors it makes sense to try and make some money out of it.

Must press on, lots to do.

Good luck,
Mike.

Heading East

My wife and I have decided to take a break so we are off on a road trip for about 15 days. Leaving our town and heading east.

Will 'see' you when we get back.

As per usual, when we take a holiday, there will be no computers or phones etc. It's tough!

Good luck,
Mike

Shoes Make Money!

I've been experimenting with various Amazon adverts to see which ones perform the best. I've never really done that well with this affiliate program. I get a few sales and make a bit a commission, but nothing too exciting.

One of the ads I tried was for their Endless.com store. Without much enthusiasm I plonked a header advert for this on one of my celebrity blogs.

Much too my surprise it's done exceedingly well.

The products are shoes and handbags, so they may not be suitable for all blogs, but they seem to appeal to celebrity fans.

Endless.com was set up by Amazon as (to quote them), "...an exciting shoe and handbag shopping experience. Endless.com is dedicated to providing the best prices, selection, and overall experience. With free overnight shipping, free return shipping, 100% price guarantee."

Now what I didn't realise, even when I put the ad on my celeb blog, was that the commission for sales is 15%, as opposed to Amazon's normal 4%. This obviously makes a big difference. Looking at my stats today I've just had $328.15 worth of orders which has given me $49.22 commission. If that continued I could make a decent amount every month.

The sales I've had, throughout August, have all been for shoes and not handbags.

I thought I'd just pass on the information as it might be useful to Amazon affiliates and earn you a few dollars. If you think, that is, your blog readers might be into shoes - but, come to think of it, isn't everyone into shoes?

Good luck,
Mike

Add Your Ad For Free: Place a free plug for your blog, website or lens.

Promote Your Blog And Make Money With She Told Me

Here's a website where you can promote your blogs, Squidoo lenses, websites and so on, plus make a bit of money with AdSense.

The site I'm talking about is She Told Me.

Okay, it may not be completely original. You will no doubt have seen similar style sites but the advantage with this one is that it is reasonably new and has the potential to make some extra money with AdSense.

Once signed up, it only takes a few minutes - and it's free, of course - you can then start to submit links to She Told Me - your own and also other websites you come across that may be of interest to others.

There is a familiar pattern whereby you can vote up (or down) links and stories that have been submitted.

One major advantage, I haven't mentioned, is that with every link you submit your own link, to your main blog or website, will also shown. So if you submit enough stuff of interest you could have lots of links pointing at your blog / website.

How To Make Money From AdSense With She Told Me.

For every story / link that you submit a page is created and on this page will be your own AdSense ad block, with your AdSense ID number. You therefore earn money this way, but there is more.

You can also introduce others to She Told Me. For doing so, and to quote the website, for every member you introduce ...

You will have your AdSense ID displayed on every content pages this member submits, 100% of the time, for life! Even if this new member doesn't have an AdSense account!

In theory this could eventually add up to a healthy chunk of revenue.

The nitty gritty. Will She Told Me send visitors to your site? Will it earn you any money?

The honest answer is: I don't know for sure.

I've only just joined myself, so time will answer these questions. I will, of course, be updating you how I get on in the future.

In the meantime I can't see any downside to joining and having a go. It's still reasonably unknown. The 5th top referring user, for example, has only introduced 8 new members.

Sometimes you have to have a go at new things and get in early. If they work you could have a head start and do okay. If, say She Told Me, doesn't make you any money at the very least you'll have a few links pointing at your blog or website. This in turn could send you traffic.

Good luck,
Mike.

Just Like With Elvis Dead Blogs Make Money

Elvis Presley is the top earning dead celeb. He, or rather his beneficiaries, rake in over $50 million a year. Charles Schulz the cartoonist, also deceased, still makes millions of dollars.

"So what's that got to do with blogging?" you may ask.

Probably not too much, but imagine if you had some 'dead blogs' which still make you money. You'd no doubt be pretty pleased, especially as you are alive and well!

I have several dead blogs that make me money. Okay, not millions - far from it - but they help to top up my blogging income.

Elvis, and those top earning dead celebs, have steady revenue streams from work they created when in their prime.

If we bloggers can create things of value within blogs - even dead blogs - then there is money to be made.

By something of value I mean something that people will want to search for. This could be information, a 'how to' article, photos, images or absolutely anything.

If people will search for it, on the search engines, then it is of value and should be monetised.

With my own 'dead blogs' I still pay them some attention now and again. If you couldn't buy Elvis music, photos, memorabilia then there would be no income. So his music isn't allowed to die, it's updated, re-mastered and so on and even promoted.

It's the same with dead blogs. If they have something of value update them occasionally, change the ads and so on. This doesn't have to take long but it keeps the dead blog alive - just as the Elvis memory is kept alive.

In fact, at times, it's an idea to actually create some dead blogs intentionally. If you come across anything 'of value' put it on the Internet. It could just make you an income for years to come.

Good luck,
Mike


Buy at AllPosters.com

Make Money With A Banner Exchange Program

There are many ways to promote your blog or products for free on the Internet.

One way is by joining a banner exchange program.

These programs work as you would expect. In other words by running banner ads on your blog you will be able to have your ads published on other blogs / websites in exchange.

Most of these run on a like for like basis. Some, for example, offer points for every page impression on your blog and these will allow your ads to run on other blogs for the same amount of impressions. This makes a fair exchange.

Normally everything is done automatically by placing a supplied HTML code on your blog - and that's it.

An example of a website offering this service is NEObanners and, with their free service, there are statistics so you know how many banner impressions you have had etc.

If you need to make simple banners I often use Banner Fans where you can knock up a banner, of varying sizes, in a few minutes - well you can once you get the hang of it. If you sign up with them they will also store your banners together with the relevant HTML.

We all need to promote to make money and, if we can do it for free, so much the better.

Good luck,
Mike.

Squidoo is your free space on the Internet where you can promote your product or write about anything else - plus make some extra money.

How To Use Copyrighted Photos And Images On Your Blog

Buy at AllPosters.com

It's been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Not sure how true this is but images and photos certainly improve the appearance of posts and blogs.

Sometimes however, without breaching copyright laws, it's hard to get the right image for a particular niche. There is, however, a way to have a choice of hundreds of thousands of copyright photos and images to use on your blogs for free.

What's more you could earn money as well.

The answer is the AllPosters affiliate program.

Many bloggers join AllPosters purely to use the photos and images available. But there is also the additional benefit of being able to make 20% commission on any orders you may get for photos, posters and other products.

AllPosters helps solve the problem of sourcing photos and images and has the added bonus of being able to make some extra money as well. This makes it an affiliate program worth considering.

In all honesty I doubt if you'll earn a mountain of commission but, as I often say, all profit is good profit - especially if it's a bit extra!

Webmasters Make $$$
Good luck,
Mike.

Give Away a Freebie And Make Money

A good way to make money is to give something away for free.

That sounds a contradiction at first but, along with the freebie, you'll need an affiliate program or product to tie in with whatever you are giving away.

An example of this going round is an advert that says they will tell you how to make money for free.

So you click and go to the blog, or whatever, and they glowingly write about how they have made a bundle of money. What's more they are willing to give you the full details absolutely free - all you need is an email address. They stress that you will never have to pay them a cent or a penny but, if you do make a lot of money, a donation would be appreciated. They will, however, never ask for this.

With nothing to lose you give your email address and you are taken to another page which gives you the full free report on how to make money.

In this example it turns out to be a 'guaranteed' roulette system - which you can test out by playing it for free.

Again with nothing to lose you decide to give it a go. Ah, but you'll need somewhere to play roulette. And this is where they make their money by giving something away for free.

They are affiliates for several online casinos and helpfully suggest that one of these is used to try out the roulette system.

What they are doing, in a round-about way, is simply promoting affiliate programs - by giving something away for free.

There are heaps of ways to give a freebie and tie it in with a money making opportunity.

In a way it's what a lot of blogs are doing without realising it. They provide information, pics, news or whatever (for free) and visitors click on other things which makes the blogger money.

Giving away freebies makes money!

Good luck,
Mike.

DIY Dating. Get your own free dating website and make excellent commission.

30% Income For Doing Nothing

I was looking through some blog earnings stats and noticed that with my FriendFinder affiliate account 35% of the money I have made has come via other affiliates I have introduced.

I followed this up by looking at some other affiliate programs I have promoted and, sure enough, about 30% of the money made comes from the efforts of people I have introduced.

I think this is already sufficient to get the obvious message across i.e. if I hadn't have also promoted the programs to others my income would have been about 30% less.

It's so easy to get enthused about an affiliate program and go like mad to promote whatever the products / services are. However, thinking longer term, the best bet is to also promote the scheme to others as a way to make money.

Terms vary on differing affiliate programs but most offer about 10% of the earnings of any introductions. With a few calculations the potential of this can be realised.

There is a reality check though about introducing others into affiliate programs: The majority will do either none or very little business. This is a fact and the way of the world with most sales or even MLM.

So you don't get too excited when someone signs up under you but, there again, don't get too deflated when they don't make you any money.

It's a numbers game, like so much in sales. Just keep plodding away and you'll hit upon a few jewels who will make you money. You might even come across a real biggy who'll earn you a mountain of cash.

With affiliate programs think:

(1) sales of the product and
(2) introducing others.

There's plenty of money to go round, there are billions of people in the world. All you have to do is present what you have to offer to as many people as possible.

As I've said before: Contact some people and make some money but contact lots of people and make lots of money.

It all goes back to: traffic. The right traffic, in the right numbers makes money.

Good luck,
Mike.

YouGov: Make extra money by completing surveys and polls for payment - genuine company.

The World Of Tumble-Logs Such As Tumblr

In the previous post I talked about Posterous, the very easy to use Blog platform. Today I'll mention another similar website tumblr.com.

This is almost a cross between Twitter and a full blown blog.

It's easy to use and is built for quick blog posts, videos, photos, quotes and so on.

The advantage over Posterous is that it all looks more professional and there are dozens of templates to choose from.

One of the stalwarts of tumblr is Katy Perry, see photo, plus another couple of million people who have set up blogs on the site.

I dabbled in setting up a blog and it is a little more difficult than with Posterous but, once set up, posting is a piece of cake.

These sort of set-ups are now being known as tumble-logs, as opposed to blogs and are worth investigating.

It could be useful for promoting a full blown blog and generally getting known on the blogosphere. There is potential for the likes of tumblr, Posterous and indeed Twitter to be used as aids for making money.

Have a look at tumblr.com and see what you think.

Good luck,
Mike.

YouGov: Make extra money by completing surveys and polls for payment - genuine company.

The Easiest Place In The World To Set Up A Blog

Looking for the easiest place to blog from anywhere in the world?

I wasn't! But I did come across Posterous, which I hadn't heard of before.

It's somewhere you can blog by using emails from any email address that you have registered with them. You can use several if you wish.

It really is that simple - no HTML etc needed. You can send them text, photos, MP3's, documents and videos (both links and files) and that's it! Whatever you send will become a blog post.

Posterous will also, if you wish, automatically update your accounts at Facebook, Twitter, Flickr etc. with your latest post.

You can make your blog public or keep it private for friends and family.

Okay, this all sounds okay but there is one snag: the layout is none too special, no fancy stuff. It's very basic in appearance.

I set up a Posterous blog out of curiousity. And sure enough it was live in minutes and the two posts I have sent by email were on the blog within seconds.

I can see that there are ways where it could be of use. I'm not sure if I'll bother with it myself at the moment but, if I can find a way for it to work for me, then I might just continue.

See what you think.

Good luck,
Mike.

YouGov: Make extra money by completing surveys and polls for payment - genuine company.

Squidoo Money Making Update

I thought I'd do an update on Squidoo.

If I'm honest it's not going as well as I hoped in respect of making me money. That's not to say that there is anything wrong with Squidoo, it's a good site and there are benefits other than monetary.

I enjoy using the website, time permitting, but my major point of joining was to make money and this has been disappointing so far.

To earn commission the lenses (pages) you have made need to have a good Squidoo ranking. One that is under 2000. Now, as there are millions of lenses, it can be seen that to have one of the best 2000 is no easy task. I've done this and had several in the category but, through lack of time, the rankings have gradually dropped.

So what decides your ranking? Well it's another mysterious algorithm. From what I can see this is based on various things relative to the lens.

These 'things' include:

(a) Traffic - same old chestnut!
(b) Ratings stars - how other members rate your lenses
(c) Clicks Out - how many clicks are made to Google ads, Amazon, etc. etc.
(d) Goods Bought - have readers bought anything from, say, Amazon and eBay modules.
(e) Latest Updates - length of time since the lens was updated.
(f) Angel Blessings - some established members are called angels and they can bless lenses they think are exceptional. Blessings improve a lens ranking.

So there are quite a lot of things to constantly think about if you want to make money by having decent lens rankings.

It's not an easy money making ride and I feel it will take several months of continued effort to make anything worthwhile. Though you could just do it for the enjoyment and possible contacts you might make.

As I said earlier there are also other benefits to making lenses. They could, for example, be for your own products or affiliate programs or maybe to help drive traffic to your blog or website.

A few Squidoo lensmasters do claim to be making decent money but these appear, in the main, to be long established members.

To sum up Squidoo is a well run program and quite easy to use but getting regular, direct payments from Squidoo will take time and effort.

Good luck,
Mike.

A few of my Squidoo Lenses as examples: A Year In My Cornish Garden / Sidney Sock Goes Missing / Funny and Humorous Letters / Awful Jokes / Golf Jokes and Golf One Liners

Wonder Wheel For Michael Jackson Keywords

Have you been using the new Google Wonder Wheel to help find more keywords or other related searches?

I've only just come across this and have found it useful when writing articles and posts. All the more we can establish popular keywords and phrases and what is being searched the more successful our search engine optimisation.

Better seo brings better traffic, at least that's the theory.

To find the Wonder Wheel do a normal Google search (and remember the suggestions in the drop down box are also very useful as keywords) and on the results page at the top left you'll see 'Show options'. Click on this and the Wonder Wheel link is towards the bottom of the list shown.

The Wonder Wheel will show usually 6- 8 phrases associated with whatever you searched. The example below shows the current Wonder Wheel when searching for 'Michael Jackson'.


The 'Show options' list (to the left of the example above) also includes other helpful links to stuff you are searching for - which, again, may come in handy when writing your article or post.

Every little extra helps. The right keywords and phrases make the world of difference to attracting traffic from search engines - especially Google. And, of course, more traffic = more money.

Good luck,
Mike.

YouGov: Make extra money by completing surveys and polls for payment - genuine company.

Received Money from YouGov

I've received another cheque / check from YouGov. They are the surveys and pollster company who are genuine - there are many dodgy ones about.

YouGov won't make you rich but I know that there are a section of readers who want to make a little extra cash or pin money. As you will see below my cheque is for £50 - which is about $100, to keep it in round figures.


So who are YouGov? This is how their Panel Manager Tom Burgess explained things:

You have probably seen reports of YouGov in the media: we are regular pollsters for the Daily telegraph, The Sunday Times, Sky News and others. We also do research for a wide range of other clients from businesses to charities to local government to utilities. In giving us your views, you are therefore providing your input in a wide variety of areas, from informing the debate on a public policy issue, to ensuring that a product meets the needs of consumers.

Though the above refers to the UK YouGov are active in USA, Austria, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Middle East, Norway, Poland, Russia and Sweden.

From my own experience and enquiries they are a genuine, trustworthy organisation. To join click here. If you are outside of the UK, after clicking, you will see a Non-UK Resident section on the right of the page where you can click on your country.

As I've said it won't bring you in a heap of money but it will make you a little extra for completing surveys. Give it a try and see what you think.

Moving on: Further to my previous post, below is a genuine copy of my commission statement for one of my FriendFinder accounts!


My commission now runs into millions - and that's just for two weeks! They 'pay-out' every two weeks. I won't hold my breath!

Good luck,
Mike.

What A Lot Of Money!

I thought I'd show you a genuine copy of what I saw when I logged into one of my affiliate accounts with the FriendFinderGroup.


It made me smile.

What do you reckon?!

Bing Referrals To Blogs

I've noticed that Microsoft's new search engine Bing is now making referrals to my blogs. On most of my blogs it has shot into second position after Google (of course) for search engine referrals.

I look at this as being something positive. Microsoft are keen to see Bing out-search Google, which would be quite something. It's still very early days of their five year plan but they seem to be already catching Yahoo (at least with my blog referrals!)


As can be seen above, on one of my blogs over 9% of the traffic is by way of Bing.

I must admit that I haven't used Bing all that much myself to do searches but it has a certain likeability about it. Perhaps it might just be the competition needed to rival Google - well, one day at least.

Microsoft says of Bing:

Bing is specifically designed to build on the benefits of today's search engines but begins to move beyond this experience with a new approach to user experience and intuitive tools to help customers make better decisions, focusing initially on four key vertical areas: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business.

So what does the word Bing mean? According to Microsoft it's the 'the sound of found' - not too sure about that. Some say it stands for Bing Is Not Google.

Whatever it means, a quality search engine to (eventually) rival Google must be a good thing.

Good luck,
Mike.

Golf Jokes and Golf One Liners

Make Money By Giving People What They Want

It seems a bit of a glib answer but, when asked how I managed to get quite high traffic on some of my blogs, I answered that it was because I tried to give people what they wanted.

If readers want, say, Katy Perry it's no use giving them the Rolling Stones, if they want Internet Riches it's no good telling them about The History of Money.

This means that you have to try and tailor your blog to your readers requirements.

There are two basic ways to do this.

The easy way is to get it right from the beginning. In other words you define your exact niche before you set up the blog.

Doing this should attract the right readers - they will find you. Providing, of course, that your niche is in demand and not some flight of fancy. It means a little groundwork, prior to setting up the blog, to make sure there is a decent possible readership, for whatever it is you wish to impart on the world.

The second way is to follow trends. Pick ones on the way up, new things, before the mass of bloggers cotton on.

It's better to write about a celebrity, for example, who is just getting known than to hone in on the likes of Paris Hilton or Angelina and Brad where there will be hundreds and thousands of other posts - most churning out the same stuff.

Blogging to make money is simple, at least in theory. Give people what they want and tie this in with compatible products and affiliate programs.

QED.

Good luck,
Mike.

YouGov. Make extra money by completing surveys and polls for payment - genuine company.

Clicking Traffic Makes Money

When I start looking at blog statistics it does make me wonder if I have made the most of the traffic I have received.

On one of my blogs, for example, I am coming up to 1 million unique visitors, which equates to getting on for 2.4 million page views.

When I look at figures like this I ask myself the obvious 'if only' things like ... if only all of these vistors had paid me $1 or even 50c each visit. Of course life and blogging isn't like that, or that easy.

The reality is that the pages have to have something of interest to visitors which makes them want to get clicking.

I've always said that traffic = money and I stick with this statement, as a percentage will always click on something - it's simply what happens. But it's clicking traffic that = big money.

So the more people click the more money we will make. It's one of the reasons why ads should be geared to whatever is being written. And this is why I like text ads following a post. The post then becomes a selling opportunity in it's own right, with the side columns and maybe header postion there as 'back up.'

I guess it's getting the balance right.

Best results, I find, are always from posts where they contain links within the body of the article. They have to be relevant and helpful to the subject matter and, if they are, readers will click.

If you can get traffic and thenentice them to click there's a lot of money to be made.

Good luck,
Mike.

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My Love For Cheesecake recipes. If you love cheesecakes take a look here.

Making Money With Diamonds

Amazon USA have moved into the world of diamonds whereby customers can create their own style rings and at a price within their budget. Perhaps this could be a good money maker for bloggers.

A special Create Your Own Ring page has been set up on Amazon which has sets of sliding bars to help choose diamond shape, price, carat, cut, colour, clarity and so on. Customers can click the 'see results' button at any time.

It all sounds ideal for engagement rings and the like. Instead of plodding round the shops, hoping to see the right design, this can be all done from the comfort of home and customers will get exactly what they are looking for.

Plus, of course, there could be some decent commission to be made as diamond rings are generally good value items.

As far as the customer is concerned Amazon state: "We can sell the same ring as a conventional jeweler, for about a third less than their price." Now that must be a real incentive to buy from Amazon.

Other plus points quoted by Amazon, "... all of our diamonds are graded by highly trained gemologists and come with a certificate, you can be confident our diamonds measure up to their stated qualities. And because our diamonds are certified conflict-free in accordance with the Kimberly Process, your customers can buy with a clear conscience."

As with any product you need the right customers but, with a 'third off' normal prices, Amazon diamonds might be worth a test on various niche blogs.

Good luck,
Mike.

YouGov: Make money by completing surveys and polls for payment - genuine company. (I have recived payments from them - Mike)

Get Spidered More Often For More Traffic

Updating a blog regularly does have advantages, providing you have the time and the inclination of course.

One of these advantages is that your blog will be spidered more often by Google. I have found this to be the case on a couple of blogs which I update at least once a day.

"So what," you may say.

As I see it the more often your blog is spidered the quicker you get seen in the search engine results. In the past, where I have followed hot trends, I've had a number one or two ranking on Google within one or two hours of posting.

If you can therefore get in on an early trend, something on the way up, it can pay dividends in the way of big traffic. I did this with a celebrity story, on a blog I update regularly, and got over 40,000 hits in a day which were mainly Google referrals.

So, yes, a regularly updated blog, with the right content, can help towards making a decent income from blogging.

Good luck,
Mike.

Your Business Name Could Spell Success Or Failure

I often take a look at Michael Fortin's website as he knows what he is talking about - or at least appears to!

An interesting article he has recently published is Brain-Burning Brand Names Boost Business. He talks about how important it is to choose the correct name for your business, product or domain name. He reckons that this is 'often the single, most important business decision you will ever make', and it's difficult to argue with this.

In his article he writes of his five basic guidelines for choosing a name. These are:

Suggestiveness
Spelling
Size
Singsong
Scalability

If we look at suggestiveness this means that it tells you what the product/website/blog is all about from it's name. With singsong he talks about how the name sounds, using perhaps alliteration, which is often known as 'head rhymes'. Examples of this are Coca-Cola, SiteSell, Krispy Kreme, No Brainer Blinds and so on. They stick in the mind.

Often we set up a blog, website or prodcut without giving it's name a lot of thought, when in essence it could be the tipping point of becoming successful.

Read the full article on Michael Forlin's website - link as above. Another article he has written on a similar theme is How To Make Your Name Memorable. It's food for thought.

Good luck,
Mike.

And now, have a smile: Funny Humorous Letters / Awful Jokes / Sidney Sock Goes Missing / Tracy Tremble Virginity Shock

Lawrence of Arabia Will Hopefully Make Me A Few Dollars

One of the good things about going away for a few days is that it gives you something to write about on Squidoo!

As I was in Dorset for three days I have written about this on a new Squidoo lens called Dorset, Thomas Hardy and T.E. Lawrence.

I don't expect this to make me a heap of money but with Squidoo the more lenses you write the more, at least in theory, you should be able to make.

I say in theory because, as with normal blogging, the lens still has to be reasonably well written and will need promoting.

It takes longer to make a Squidoo lens (that's a page, if you haven't heard much about them before) than a straight forward blog post but, as I see it, even if each one only makes a few dollars a month this can add up if you have lots of lenses. So Squidoo isn't instant big money, it's something that develops over time.

With Squidoo you can write about virtually anything (legal) that you wish and each lens can be about something completely different. This can be, in some ways, easier than blogging about a particular niche as the world is your oyster.

I'm quite happy with the way things are going so far with Squidoo.

Good luck,
Mike.

Get Your Free Plugs And Free Adverts

I've been looking at Plug Boards and Plugs. I'm not sure if you have seen them but they are websites where you can place free adverts in the form of buttons or banners.

As an example I have started a Plug Board myself: Add Your Ad For Free where you can enter a free advert and this will go live straight away.

Now I can't tell you if these Plug Boards will bring you much in the way of referrals but I'm testing them out and have been leaving my ads all over the place.

It's really going back to my blogging philosophy from when I first started blogging. I reckoned that one of the ways to get traffic was to leave my URL absolutely anywhere possible. So I hit the Blog Directories, Forums, Free Ad Places, Profiles and so on and so on. If I could leave a link I did.

I didn't, back then, realise that links were also useful for things like PageRank but remarkably Mikes Money Making Mission soon got a PageRank5 because of me doing this. My PR has been thumped since them because Google doesn't like the selling of links which I was once, innocently, doing. But that's a whole different story.

Anyway, back to Plug Boards. The only problem with these might be the fact that you need banners and/or buttons. However this is easily overcome by going to a website such as Banner Fans where you can create free buttons and banners within minutes. They will even store your banners for you and provide links, again for free. (The buttons illustrated on this post were ones I knocked up in about 30 minutes.)

I'm sure that big established bloggers will sneer at the thought of Plug Boards. They will talk of writing articles and other ways to get traffic and links.

I'm sure these 'other ways' are probably more effective but a link in is a link in.

Don't forget to place your free plug on Add Your Ad For Free.

I'm away now for about five or six days on business so, until then, happy plugging!

Good luck,
Mike.

Lists Make Money And Attract Blog Traffic

I have been grumbling recently that I haven't been doing too good with Amazon, it hasn't brough me in much income. I thought, however, that I wouldn't just give in and have tried creating some Top 10 Amazon Lists as a trial on a couple of my blogs - and they seem to have been effective, well at least I have had some orders.

This is the sort of thing I mean. Prepare a Top 10 list of books, DVDs or absolutely any other Amazon product relative to the niche of the blog. For example with Mikes Money Making Mission I could start off with a list made up of the best selling books on blogging.

1. WordPress For Dummies
Bloggers love WordPress! If you're ready to start using this free blogging software, WordPress For Dummies, 2nd Edition is just what you and your blog need to make a splash.

2. ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
The Problogger website is where bloggers worldwide go for advice and information on enhancing their blog's presence. Whether you're just starting out or have been blogging for years, these two professional bloggers show you how to turn your passion for blogging into extra revenue.

3. Blogging For Dummies
Everybody’s doing it! And while that logic never got far with your mother, it’s a fine reason to start blogging, especially if you have a business to build or a cause to promote. Well-run blogs do more than offer an outlet for your thoughts. They’ve actually influenced everything from a company’s image to the outcome of a local election.

4. The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging
The editors of The Huffington Post -the most linked-to blog on the web - offer an A-Z guide to all things blog, with information for everyone from the tech-challenged newbie, looking to get a handle on this new way of communicating, to the experienced blogger looking to break through the clutter of the Internet. With an introduction by Arianna Huffington, the site's cofounder and editor in chief, this book is everything you want to know about blogging, but didn't know who to ask.

5. Start Your Own Blogging Business
Blogs are one of the Internet's fastest-growing phenomena - and one of the best and easiest ways to make money online. Learn how to choose a topic, start a blog and attract thousands of avid readers. Then use your blog to generate income from advertisers, promotions, affiliate links and other techniques-all from your own home.

.... and so on.

I've always found that lists do okay: 50 secrets, 40 ways, top 10's and so on - about almost anything. They often get reasonable positions on search engines as well. Plus people seem to like them. One of my most visited posts this week is, again, 40 Ways To Get More Blog Traffic.

Lists work generally so why not with Amazon as well.

Good luck,
Mike.

50 Article Directories For More Traffic

Article Directories Can Help Bring Extra Blog Traffic

Most 'experts' reckon that writing articles and publishing them in the various Article Directories is a way to get more traffic to your blog.

With that idea in my I have created a list of 50 Article Directories where bloggers can submit their articles on just about any subject. Your will find this list on Squidoo in my lens 50 Article Directories For More Traffic. The Directories are listed in PageRank order.

The value of using these Directories is threefold.

(1) They can help produce traffic to a blog.
(2) They can give you good links - from the Directory itself and also from other blogs and websites who reproduce your articles - in doing so they have to include links to your blog.
(3) These extra links can help with improving PageRank.

Article Directories are also a source of material should you ever be stuck for something to post on your blog, though you must follow the rules specified. There is a vast array of subjects.

Have a look at the Squidoo lens mentioned for more information.

Good luck,
Mike.

Further reading:
40 Free Ways To get More Blog Traffic
40 Blog Directories
Over 50 Social Networking Websites

Money Making With Amazon

I have written before, here, about how I have never really been all that successful with Amazon from a money making perspective. I've done okay with their UK website and received some payments but nothing really, what I would consider to be, worthwhile amounts.

I was reading teatreebergamot's post Why Affiliates Should Avoid Amazon Associates and I agree with what she writes.

It's all about cookies and how Amazon sets these for just 24 hours. The problem with this is that many people take longer than 24 hours to make up a purchase. So if you send a prospective customer today to Amazon, and the next day they order something, after the 24 hours is up, you get nought - zero commission.

In the post I have mention the writer shows, through stats from another affiliate program, how the majority of people purchase after 24 hours. I've thought about this and, if I'm making a decent sized purchase, I often don't buy for a couple of days - after I've done price checks and thought things over etc. I did this recently with a television I bought online, it took me two days to decide.

So, is it partly the 24 hour cookies that is preventing a lot of us from earning any decent commission with Amazon?

I say 'partly' because there are also other things to consider as well, but it's something to think about.

Good luck,
Mike.

Sidney Sock Goes Missing. Suspense, sadness, sex (well sort of, but safe for all to read) and mystery. What has happened to Sidney Sock? Photos of sightings. Have you ever lost a sock?

A Suzi Perry Suggestion

Following on from my Hippo posts I just wanted to touch briefly on keywords again.

I mentioned previously where to put chosen keywords within a post and here is an example of how to choose the right keywords.

You need the right words, which people are going to search for, and there are several free Keyword Suggestion Tools about to help with this. Some are also described as Keyword Popularity Tools - the one at Free Web Submission is such an example.

I entered the words 'make money' into their tool and they came up with the following keywords in order of popularity of what people are searching for:

make money online
make a craft money tree
how to make money
how much money do you have to make to file taxes
bail bonds make money
make money at home
ways for kids to make money
how much money does a zoologist make
how to make money online
how much money does an archaeologist make
make money from home
make money fast free
ways to make money

This, therefore, is a ready made list of keywords / phrases I can choose from plus some of them can also be used as ideas for subject matter for future posts.

This works for must niches. I use it with my celebrity blogs to find out what people are searching about a particular celeb.

For instance, I considerably boosted the traffic on one of my Squidoo lenses called Everything Perry which wasn't performing particularly well. The lens, as the title suggests, is about absolutely anything to do with Perry, i.e. my surname.

I have one section on the lens for celebs called Perry. I fed in one of the names - Suzi Perry (a UK television presenter) - and two of the top five keyword phrases were 'Suzi Perry ill' and 'Suzy Perry Illness'.

I had no idea she was, or had been, ill but I did some quick research, found out the details and added these to the lens. I wish her well soon.

The result has been hundreds of referrals a day from Google. So a lens that wasn't doing too well improved greatly.

Okay I know some will immediately say something negative about this, but that's okay because I'm happy with the result and that's what matters.

I stick by the mantra that all traffic is good traffic.

Good luck,
Mike.

Have a laugh: Awful Jokes and Funny Humorous Letters