How I Do Simple Search Engine Optimization - SEO

The subject of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is always being bandied about. Personally I like to follow the KISS principle - Keep It Simple Stupid.

I read some stuff on the subject and still get a bit bewildered by some of the tech guys, a lot of whom seem more out to impress us with their vast knowledge rather than write something that the average blogger understands.

Anyway, most of my SEO is simple. I concentrate on keywords.

I have a think about what my blog (or post) is about (i.e. the main subject matter or niche) and then use a Keyword Research Tool to create a list of keywords.

Two Keyword Research Tools are: WordTracker and SEO Tool.

I then use these words on my blog in places such as: blog post titles, page titles, headines and any other important places like the tags or labels at the end of a post. I also use a few of these keywords throughout the post contents. And that's it!

I also like to use phrases such as 'How To' and 'Tips' when I can - these seem to appeal both to the search engines and also to the people searching.

The posts should flow naturally and shouldn't be overstuffed with lists of keywords. And that's definitely it!

See also MMMM posts:
The Long Tail Way To Make Money - about using 'long tail' keywords.
Free SEO Keyword Tool - Guess what? Its about an SEO Keyword Tool!

Good luck,
Mike.

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What Role Do You Play When You Blog?

Something today not to be taken too seriously. So what do you reckon your persona is when you blog? What is the role you are playing?

No idea? Well the website Typealyzer reckons they can answer those sort of questions.

How? By simply entering the URL of your blog and then clicking the Typealyze button. And up will pop the type of person you are.

For example I entered the URL for one of my Squidoo lenses World War 2 Photos and this is the sort of person they claim I am:

"The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

They enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters."

But when I entered another lens Awful Jokes I'd changed!

"The active and playful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time."

It seems that we change personalities with different blogs.

So there you go. As I said not to be taken too seriously. Is this of any use? Typealyzer reckons so, but I guess they would, see their FAQ. English isn't their first language so there are a few spelling and grammatical errors.

Click here to discover your blogging personality

Good luck,
Mike.

Great Expectations Make Money

Here's a strange thing, well I think it is, my wife is always finding money. Mostly in the street and she's now got over 160 coins in her 'lucky pot' to prove it.

This amazes me as I'm usually with her when she finds the money, but I never see it. We walk for about three miles every day to keep fit and it's proving profitable!

This week she started finding paper money. A £20 banknote (bill) floated down to her feet. Note not my feet! There was nobody else about, so goodness knows where it had come from.

What has this got to do with blogging?

I suppose it's a lesson in expectation. We get what we expect.

A couple of weeks ago my wife found a coin two days running so she immediately said that she would now find a third as 'things come in threes.' Sure enough the next day she found yet another coin. She expected to do so - and she did.

This sounds perhaps a little like New Age and away with the fairies stuff but, if you think about it, there is something in it.

If we expect nothing, we get nothing. If we don't expect lots of visitors and money making success with our blogs then we shouldn't be too disappointed when we are proved right.

It's odd but once we decide what it is that we actually expect then we can usually get it. It's therefore worth jotting down our expectations so that our minds can get to work.

This doesn't mean we can sit on our backsides and do nothing but, because we are expecting certain good things to happen, we tend to become enthused and motivated. We start looking for ways to achieve our expectations.

So expect the best and get it. Great expectations can bring great things.

Good luck,
Mike.

YouGov: Complete surveys and polls for payment - genuine company. See Money Making With Surveys for more info.

Money Making With Surveys

I did something yesterday that I haven't done for a while, I completed a survey for YouGov all about the financial position of the UK at the present time. It was actually quite interesting as it's something that I have opinions about.

However, the thing that pleased me most, about logging on to YouGov, was to see that I have £44.00 in credit, that's about US $65.00.

This isn't a massive amount of money by any means but it is money for which I've done virtually nothing to earn myself. It's that theme I often go on about: introducing others to money making programs which you consider worthwhile. See also How To Make Money With Your Feet Up On The Desk.

With YouGov, for example, if you refer others to join their panel this is what you get (to quote their words):

"For each new member that signs up via your personalised registration link below, you will receive equivalent amounts in survey credit for each survey they complete during their first three months of membership."

If you think about it, that's quite a good deal. I'll let you work out different scenarios.

There are a lot of scam survey websites about but YouGov is genuine and the results of their polls and surveys are often seen in newspapers and on television.

Now YouGov won't make you rich, far from it, but I look on all money made as being good money so I welcome the odd £50 or $100. Money accumulates.

I'm lucky in that I can allow the money I make this year, from blogging and the Internet, to earn interest in my savings accounts. What I do is allow this to build up for the complete year and then I spend it, invest it or whatever next year. At the moment I'm using my blogging income, from 2008, for home improvements, holidays and so on.

By doing this the more I earn this year, the more 'fun' I can have next year - in a spending or investing sense that is.

Going back to YouGov they are active in the UK, USA, Austria, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Middle East, Norway, Poland, Russia and Sweden. For more info follow this link and, if not in the UK, see the box at right of the page where you can select the country where you live.

Good luck with your referrals.
Mike.

No Orders To Making money

It's always good to talk about blogging when things are going well but sometimes it isn't always a smooth ride.

In the course of making money I try various programs and affiliate ventures. Some are going well but I thought, for a change, I'd mention two that I haven't done very well with this year: ClickBank and Amazon.

First ClickBank. Over the last 30 days I've had 908 clicks to products and this has made me absolutely nothing. Even at a 0.5% response this should have given me 4 orders.

And it's not much better with Amazon for either the UK or USA sites. All I've managed in the last month is one order which has made me $1!

To my mind, in some respects, ClickBank and Amazon are similar. You'll probably say, "No way. Amazon has quality products whereas ClickBank has a lot of old tat."

I'd agree with this but I mean in the way they need to be promoted. Neither work well by slapping a banner on a blog and crossing your fingers. Yes you may be lucky but generally this doesn't work that well.

Instead they need the personal touch. The products need to be included in blog posts as recommendations or reviews. So, if you do it right, the reader thinks, "That looks worth investigating, especially as Mr. or Ms. Blogger has written about it."

In other words you use your reputation to sell the product. And this is what I've personally failed to do this year with either Amazon or ClickBank.

For both it takes some pro-active effort: a review, perhaps a special Squidoo lens devoted to a range of products and so on. A little effort pays. It has for me in the past but, as I've seen this year, hoping that things will take care of themselves isn't a good strategy.

Now, about being successful with blogging, have you seen all of the excellent information on Blogging Good Blogs? Okay, okay it's an Amazon aStore I set up ages and ages ago ... but you have to do what you preach ... especially if you want to make money ...

Good luck,
Mike

Other Reading:
How To Get Up To 90% Discounts On Amazon

A People Search For Lots Of Info

I guess today's post is a bit off the normal subject but it may be useful.

I'm sure we all Google someone or a name, perhaps for info for blog posts. I know I do for my celeb blogs but here's a new(ish) search engine dedicated to 'people search': 123people.

So that it can limit the findings searches can be done for UK, USA, Austria, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland or the World.

I've found the site useful but better for some names than others. When it does hone in on a name it can turn up all sorts of stuff: Photos, email addresses, Videos, Weblinks, Social Network Profiles, Phone Numbers, Blogs, Documents, News, IM's and so on.

In some ways it might be considered a bit too intrusive but 123people isn't doing anything illegal. It's simply doing a thorough Internet fast search that would normally take a while to get the same results.

Everything is for free. 123people describe their service thus:

"123people is a real time people search tool that looks into nearly every corner of the Web. Using our proprietary search algorithm, you can find comprehensive and centralized people related information consisting of images, videos, phone numbers, email addresses, social networking and Wikipedia profiles and much more."

They have a questions and answers page here for users.

Depending on the niche of your blog 123people might prove useful.

Good luck,
Mike.

Top Ten Tips To Live Longer, Some people have lived for over 150 years so why can't we all? Tips suggested for a longer life.

Test Out Your Link Bait Or Niche Before Publishing

If you have a written a special article or post, something that you think will attract some link bait, is it actually best to use this as a blog post or should you perhaps create another website for your masterpiece?

A bit of a long first sentence but I've been thinking about this for a couple of reasons.

Firstly I published some World War 2 Photos of London bomb damage as a Squidoo lens. As you may remember I'm doing a money making test on Squidoo.

The thing is, I had published these very same photos, for which I have the copyright, as a blog post on one of my now defunct blogs. On the blog they didn't get many hits and got lost amongst the other posts.

The same photos, however, on the Squidoo lens have had 55 different keyword combinations used for referrals from the Google search engine over the last seven days.

So the photos, with virtually the same text, worked much better on Squidoo than on a post on a run of the mill blog.

I was also reading another blog post Link Bait Launch Cycle where the writer suggested:

"Don't Publish Your Article/Idea As A Blog Post - blog posts are perceived as low value.

Create a dedicated branded site, or dedicated branded page for your product, service or idea. By all means create a blog post to link to your branded site or page, but try to make the presentation of your idea different to what you normally do."

So those two things got me thinking that it might be a good idea to test out an article or particular niche on a Squidoo lens. If it proves reasonably successful the idea could then be transferred to a proper website with it's own .com address. (You can get a .com for about $10).

As you know I like to experiment and test things, it's really the only way to learn for yourself, so I may well now test out ideas on Squidoo lenses.

I would add though, that some of my other Squidoo lenses aren't getting any referrals from search engines - again this illustrates the benefit of testing things out.

We shall see but, as I often say, food for thought.

Good luck,
Mike.

WidgetBucks: Result Of Money Making Test

On the 4th of February I wrote that I was doing another money making test on WidgetBucks - see my post WidgetBucks Money Making Test Re-Visited.

I've reached a quick conclusion and have removed the WidgetBucks widget from my testing blog.

Why?

Two reasons:

(1) Their widget was holding up the loading of the blog I was testing it on. As we know, if a blog or website takes a while to load people go elsewhere and don't hang on for more than about 8 seconds. Frankly I want every visitor I can get. As I keep repeating over and over like a parrot: Traffic = Money. And I'm in blogging to make money.

(2) The second reason: Because of the stats on the right: 4982 page impressions = income 42 cents! Not really much more need be said about that, but I will!

WidgetBucks said on their blog: 'publishers (are) earning more with YieldSense without lifting a finger.' That's why I did a second money making test.

Well this isn't what I've found in fact it's the opposite!

If you compare this test with the big test I carried out last year, see my post How Much Should You Earn For 1 Million Page Impressions, you'll see that this time the rate has gone down from roughly 11 cents per 1000 to 8 cents per 1000.

So bye bye WidgetBucks. As I said back in November: All that glitters is not gold.

Good luck,
Mike.

Persevere To Make Money With Blogging

Sometimes people seem to have the wrong idea about making money with blogs. It's not one of those get rich overnight schemes - though some promoters try to infer that it is for their own benefit i.e. they make money by saying this.

The fact is that, in most instances, it takes a while to build up a decent income from blogging.

A Squidoo lens publisher summed this up nicely when she left a comment on one of my Squidoo lenses Making Money With Free Blogs.

Tracey_M wrote:

"...after 3 years of struggling to make money online I have in January made my first $800 passive income, which I hope to compound every month to the end of the year. I work full-time at it too and my word of advice to anybody trying to make money online is to be patient and persevere and it will happen! I have never felt so positive about my future." My underlining.

Now I'm not saying that it takes three years to build an income, it can genuinely be done in a lot less time than this. The fact is, however, that many people take up blogging, or creating something like Squidoo lenses, and then give up after a couple of months. Traffic to blogs doesn't just happen, it has to be worked at.

To be successful with blogging there are possibly three essentials:

(1) Write stuff that people want to read.
(2) Publish as regularly as you possibly can - an ideal would be daily.
(3) Do some work every day to get more traffic. Promote your blog regularly in other words.

These are generalisations but they work. There is, of course, lots more besides these, such as monetising your blog properly, having a reader friendly layout, using keywords, SEO and so on and so on. But most of all it's about perseverance and building your blogging business on a sound foundation.

Good luck,
Mike.

Further reading:
40 Free Ways To Get More Blog Traffic
Long Tail Way To make Money

Ad: Free money making space on the Internet with Squidoo. Examples of Squidoo lenses: Making Money With Free Blogs / Images And Photos For More Traffic / Money Making With Penfriends And Friends / The World Of Ponzi Schemes / World War 2 Photos / Awful Jokes / Elvis Presley The Early Years

Update Report On Adult Money Making Blog

Now I'm not suggesting you do the same for one minute, each to their own. However, as regular readers know, I have been experimenting with an adult style celebrity blog and also bought a .com address for this: CelebTease.com.

Someone else actually does most of the work for me and the whole experiment has proved successful in making money.

As you can see from the chart below last month there were over 110,000 unique visitors and this went up to a massive 279864 for January when reloads were included. As is often said: sex sells - and therefore makes money.

CelebTease: Monthly Unique Visitors March 2008 to January 2009
Now this isn't really my thing but as I keep saying: often to make money you have to give people what they want.

Please don't go to the CelebTease if you think this may offend, this isn't what I want to do. All I'm trying to illustrate is that the adult market is very profitable even in a recession.

CelebTease: Blue=Uniques, Yellow=Reloads, Pink=Uniques+Reloads
The problem, if you can call it such, for me now is that I can't really give up the blog as it produces a reasonable income for me. I guess I could perhaps sell up and may eventually do this - 110,000+ vistors must have a saleable value.

That's my update on my money making adult niche test. There is lots of money to be made in this sector if so inclined.

Good luck,
Mike.

Adult niche affiliate programs: Sexy Ads / AdultFriendFinder / Sex Toys / Wegcash / Penthouse / Met Art - all strictly over 18's only.

WidgetBucks Money Making Test Re-Visited

As regular readers know I gave up the ghost with WidgetBucks in November of last year, see my post How Much Should You Earn for 1 Million Page Impressions as for the reasons.

Basically I didn't think it was worth continuing because of the low returns and the slowness of their widgets in loading - which also slowed down the blog from loading as well.

Always a glutton for punishment I thought I would give them another go for two reasons:

(1) They have introduced something called YieldSense which claims that 'publishers (are) earning more with YieldSense without lifting a finger.' Mind you with the lousy returns I was getting previously this shouldn't be very difficult! They give an example of one publisher where things have improved dramatically but, of course, one swallow doesn't make a summer. Always love a good cliche.

(2) The second reason is that they 'owe' me $35.47 and, as they only payout over $50, I thought I should be able to push the amount through the payment barrier. Even a small amount like this is better in my bank than theirs.

Okay so that's the reasons for testing WidgetBucks again. At the moment the widget is only on my Celebrity Insider blog.

It's very, very early days but so far the widget appears to be loading in a reasonable time frame. But what's more important will be what money I make. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating - excellent, another cliche.

I'll report back on the pudding situation in due course.

Good luck,
Mike.

Ad: Squidoo for your free space on the Internet. Examples of Squidoo pages: Making Money With Free Blogs / Photos And Images For More Traffic / World War 2 Photos / Awful Jokes / Elvis Presley The Early Years / Everything Perry

Top Ten Money Making Posts

Another month and as usual I've been looking through my stats. Below are the Top Ten Money Making Posts from this blog. By this I mean the most read posts during January.

I'm always surpised at these lists as I never know what suddenly pops up in them, often oldish posts - there are four from 2007 - which I'd virtually forgotten about.

The top two are posts where I have taken time to promote them independently- see Deep Thinking Links. As an example I used Squidoo to promote these, which worked quite well.

This is The Top Ten

1. May 2008. How To get 90% Discounts On Amazon
2. Dec 2008. 40 Ways To Get More Blog Traffic
3. Mar 2007. How To Make Money With Chain Letters
4. Dec 2008. How To Disguise Your URL
5. Mar 2007. Money Making With Free Blogs Part 1
6. Jan 2009. Over 50 Social Networking Websites
7. Feb 2008. 40 Blog Directories Offering Free Listings
8. May 2008. Long Tail Way To Make Money
9. Nov 2007. Money Making With DIY Dating
10. Aug 2007. Make Money With Your Own Social Network

Good luck with February.
Mike.