It's All About Comments

On my post, The Viral Train To Easy Money - It's Just Like Beefy Bertha's Knickers, I wrote '... leave a comment and I may well give you some Link Love in return'. So, true to my word, here are the links to those who left comments.

Blog: Affiliate Programs and Internet Scams.
This blog belongs to Matt who I'm often bumping into around the money making scene. This is what Matt writes: Want to know if something is a scam? Just ask! I will research it and post my conclusion within 48 hours! So there's an offer you can't refuse.

Blog: Super Blogging.
I'd like to tell you a little about the blog owner but I can't. Please see my yesterdays post about being anonymous. Anyway, the latest post on this blog is called: Rule of Blogging #1 Establish Relationships. Okay, but ...

Blog: Dummies Guide to Google Blogger Beta.
This one is from Vin, a male from India and his latest post is entitled: Google and Technorati PageRanks Compared.

Blog: The Pisstakers.
One of my favourite blogs, it's daily satire at it's best. And the guy who says so is Ed. Before writing his post, Today's funny stuff in tech and news, it seems he was out on his bike and he tells us some of the advantages as opposed to using a car. This seemingly is just one:

'Instead of tasting the recycled air-con in the car, you can perpetually recycle your gummy spit until it becomes unbearable and then you, you know, make a space for some more!'

Such a lovely way with words!

Blog: Mike's Money Making Rants and Raves.
Another Mike, but not with a mission! He tells us something about himself: 'Basically I'm an artist. I have sold my art in galleries, art shows and for the last few years online at my website and on auction sites like Ebay and Art By Us. With the art world being an up and field, I needed to find other ways to supplement that income so I started joining money making opportunities.'

His latest post is entitled: Technorati Train Meme Rave. Full steam ahead.

Thanks for the comments everyone.

I've read elsewhere, but can't think where at the moment, about how some bloggers get concerned if they don't get too many comments.

I guess we all like comments, especially if they are positive, but does it really matter as long as readers are returning to the blog?

For those concerned about the number of comments I thought I'd give you the following stats about Darren Rowse's excellent problogger blog. As I'm sure you know he is held up as an example to us all and makes a ton of cash.

At the time of writing the blog is averaging 6689 visitors a day - wow! But if you take his last nine posts, on his current front page, he is averaging, 16.5 comments per post.

Now if we divide 6689 (visitors per day) by 16.5 (comments) we get 1 comment for every 405 visitors. So perhaps your own blog isn't doing so bad after all! Mind you, 72.66% of statistics are made up and 71.3% can be adapted to say whatever you want.

Good luck,
Mike.


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Six Naive Mistakes With Kate Moss

It's nice to be nostalgic over a pint of beer and reminisce of days gone by.

I remember when I was a lad and started this money making blog. Okay not quite a lad, but it was 32 weeks ago and I was a little naive, in a blogging sense, at the time.

I mean, can you imagine ...

1. Being Anonymous.
There I was starting a blog but didn't give too much away about myself. How naive was that? I did say my name was 'Mike' but that was it, no photo or what part of the world I came from etc.

One day I woke up and realised that this wasn't the way to run a business. It's publicity you want, it's attention you want, it's well traffic you want. So I told my story, became 'Mike Perry' (it is my real name) and published a photo. Strangely enough, it actually made a difference - despite the photo!

Blogging is about communication and community. You wouldn't go to a party wearing a mask and not tell anyone who you were, would you? Unless, that is, it was one of those 'odd' parties I've only read about.

Look at Kate Moss, the model, she put herself about this week, wearing hot pants, in aid of her Topshop fashion collection. She wasn't anonymous, she made use of her name and created some publicity. It's the same with blogging. You can't hide your light under a bushel. So, like Kate Moss, get yourself on display.

2. Being Concerned About How Other Blogs Are Doing.
Quite honestly it doesn't matter a toss about how your rivals, if you consider them as such, are doing. I remember judging myself by how another blog, which started at the same time, was doing. How naive was that?

You've got to be true to yourself and set your own objectives. Know where your want to go and then try to get there. It's all pretty obvious (a bit like Kate Moss), but without set targets most people fail.

3. Being A Newbie Without Doing Any Research.
How naive is that? I would never, in a million years, start a business without doing my research first. But I started my blog on a whim and without knowing very much about virtually any aspect of blogging. I suppose this was because it didn't cost me anything, other than my time.

I should have done my homework first, goodness knows there's plenty of advice and info on the Internet - though some of it is a bit dodgy to say the least.

4. Being Concerned About Mentioning Other Blogs.
At first I thought that if I mentioned any other blogs in my posts, of a similar nature, it would be detrimental to my own success. How naive was that?

By referring to other blogs, with their links, actually helps you. I guess it's a little like 'you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours'. There's a whole lot of scratching going on. And some backs are no doubt more rewarding (and perhaps more pleasurable) than others.

5. Being Daft Enough To Monetise The Blog From The First Day.
I had adverts on my blog from day one. Not sure why as there wasn't any visitors! How naive was that? This is getting the cart before the horse. You've got to get traffic before anyone will click on your offers. It's quite obvious really. I keep writing the formula: Traffic=Money.

Prioritise! Learn about traffic, keywords and so on - preferably even before you start the blog - as in 3 above.

6. Not Knowing What To Write About In Your Posts.
I remember one snooty so and so saying she couldn't see why anyone would want to read my blog. There was nothing of value there. She was actually quite right (though I'd only just started out) but she didn't say it in a very nice way!

From day one it's necessary to write content of value. What's value? Something that will make readers want to return and possibly subscribe.

I do feel though, that it does take time before a blog can normally be of real value. It builds as the weeks pass, or at least it should.

So that's six of my naive mistakes from when I was a blogging lad. Have you made any?

I'm a little wiser now - and that's why I brought Kate Moss into the conversation!

Good luck,
Mike.


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Money Making Updates

Firstly, I wasn't being serious in yesterday's post, as some people thought, more satirical than anything.

Anyway, a few updates on things I haven't mentioned in my Money Making Weekly Reports:

daytipper
At last. My tip has been published and I have earned the grand sum of $3. But what a wait. My tip was approved for publishing on the 14th. of January and then went into a queue. If you are thinking of making money with daytipper be patient - be very patient!

From what I can see it took 107 days for my tip to be published and during this period 975 tips in total were published (and therefore got paid). This works out at about only 9 tips a day being monetised. Present figures show that 1611 tips have been published to date. Nothing wrong with the website but it's not something for serious money making.

Helium
As well as the normal commission Helium have now introduced weekly prizes ranging from $5 to $300. Write the best articles and you could win a prize on top of the normal payments.

I keep saying to myself that I must write more articles for them but somehow I don't get round to it. I quite like Helium though, it's got a nice 'feel' about the website.

Treasure Trooper
This really is a dead loss unless you live in the USA. I carried out one offer for payment in January but it has just disappeared from my earnings. No idea why. This is despite the fact that the website concerned bombards me with junk emails several times a week. It's probably all okay for USA residents but elsewhere it's a bit dodgy.

I have actually now made 25 cents! This has come from referring other members, problem is the full details can't be seen anywhere.

review me
I joined this way back on January 15th but have never had a sponsored post to complete for them. Seems a favoured few do get offers and make some decent money but nothing has come my way as yet. So I'll do one of their text ads: Get Reviewed by this blog for $60 at ReviewMe! Well you never know.

Wealth Toolbox
I know I said I wouldn't mention this again but I've come across one of their videos which you should be able to see here. There's a bit of chat first and then a video of a forex screen. The idea behind this is to get people to join Jason Steele's course - he's the Wealth Toolbox founder. My opinion is the same: don't touch this with a bargepole - read here.

Good luck,
Mike.


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The Viral Train To Easy Money - It's Just Like Beefy Bertha's Knickers.

Have you heard? Have you heard! The secrets out about how to make easy money. Anyone can do it. You start by getting a good Technorati ranking - and it's so easy to do.

This is what Beefy Bertha has to say, "It's simply amazing two weeks ago my Technorati ranking was 1,124,674 and today it's 961. It's magic."

This part of the money making secret is all about viral marketing, sort of a chain thingy with links.

Back to Beefy Bertha, "There's always a way to work the system. When I joined Weight Watchers I wore six sweaters, five skirts, hiking boots and lead lined knickers. Then each week all I had to do was take off a sweater or skirt and I'd lost weight. No effort. I plan to be slimmer of the year when I eventually take off my lead lined knickers. The world will be agog. It's the same with these Blogging rankings you just fiddle the system."

Yes, it's all perfectly true. Catch all of the viral trains and away you go. Don't worry if you've missed one there will be plenty more along soon. You just copy all of the hundreds of links on to your blog post and that's it. Like Bertha said it's magic, down will come your Technorati ranking, no problem.

"Yes, but doesn't the person who starts up the viral train come out of it best? What with his/her link to the full instructions on his/her own blog?"

Well yes, but shhhh! let's not bother with trivialities. Let's move on to Alexa Rankings. This is the second part of the secret. You join up with the all of the Hit Exchanges, you know like Blog Explosion, Blog Soldiers and Blog Mad. Mad's the right word!

This way you can get thousands of visitors to your blog and they all stay for at least 20 seconds. Fantastic. Of course you need to spend some time visiting other blogs also for 20 seconds but that's okay because you are getting one over on the system - and that's what we all want, don't we? Blow this idea of building your customer base on a firm foundation.

Lots of cosmetic visitors will bring down your Alexa ranking. More magic. And guess what? With all of those viral links as well, then blow me down, your PageRank will improve as well. It's all sleight of hand or something.

So your Technorati and Alexa Ranking have improved dramatically, by following this formula, and your PageRank has improved (and maybe your Technorati favourites as well) so what do you do now? Sponsored Posts that's what. Fill your blog or blogs with them. Pack them into every small space. Some of them will want to pay your more now as you are such an esteemed blogger.

"Yes, but is that fair on the people who are paying for the sponsored posts?"

Do you want to make money or not?

"Yes."

Okay, in a nutshell the formula is:

(1) Start a blog.
(2) Join all of the gravy, sorry viral chains/trains.
(3) Join all of the Hit Exchanges and, as soon as possible afterwards ...
(4) Write loads of Sponsored Posts.

But be quick about it, before everyone in the Blogosphere is doing the same. Just think of what could happen then.

Be warned though, steps are already being taken. PageRank are increasing their rankings* up to 20 and Technorati are starting at minus numbers* once you get to the number one position. So the top blogs will go 3, 2, 1, -1, -2, -3 and so on. This may be confusing as you could be the number one with a number of -49,671 and you'd never know.

It's all an illusion this blogging business, a bit like life. There's no such thing as reality, there is only how we perceive things to be.

So what do you reckon? Is this the real formula for success. Tell you what, leave a comment and I may well give you some Love Link in return. Better still we could start a Love Link viral train with the links ... full speed ahead to nowhere.

Now about this Konnie Huq ...

Good luck,
Mike.

This post was sponsored by BBTS Bloggers Beating The System.
* a figment of imagination.



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Link Love Day

Link Love Day and I'll start with three posts:

What to do when someone steals your content
Julio of the 15 Thousand Dollar Mission writes: '... lately I´ve had 5 different blogs copy a post of mine, html links and all, without naming the source (while many others continue naming this blog as the source), so I was wondering, what does one do when such things happen?' The post goes on to answer the question. Must admit I get annoyed when blogs 'steal' some of my posts ... perhaps some action is needed!

What a blogger can learn from Paris Hilton
From the blog Make Money on Line: 'You might think this girl is simply a dumb blond, but is she? Let’s have a look at the facts and see what bloggers can learn from Miss Paris Hilton.' In view of my recent posts mentioning Konnie Haq and Kate Middleton this post made me smile - it's blatant search engine bait. Tut, tut!

Epions
This post from Money, Money, Money starts out by saying: 'Epinions is a US review writing site. The site is free to join and open to international members, but all reviews must be in English. It works differently from the UK sites Ciao and Dooyoo, in that ...' You'll have to read the post to discover the differences and also how you can make money with Epions.

I'll move on now to four members of my MyBlogLog community. They were picked at random.

I must give more attention to MyBlogLog as I am getting some good referrals from their site every week. Have you joined yet?


Just click on a photo to go to their MyBlogLog page. It'll be interesting to see who of the four gets the most clicks. From left to right they are: JennyHow, abhishekkumar, Retire Rich Blog and 10K-money-blog.

That's all for today. Tomorrow's post will be my Weekly Report.

Good luck,
Mike.


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Keywords, Images & Konnie Huq Again

I'm following on from yesterday's post today but mainly focusing on keywords.

I've written before about the value of having secondary keywords alongside your main keyword (or phrase). This way you can compete with the 'big boys'.

Yesterday I mentioned Konnie Huq. If I put her name into Google my blog, as you would imagine, is nowhere in the listings - at least not on the first couple of pages. But, if you remember, I also said yesterday that my keywords alongside 'Konnie Huq' were 'low + cut + dress'.

If I put 'Konnie Huq dress' into Google this blog is in on the first page, in second position. For 'Konnie Huq low cut' this blog is also on the first page.

And before anyone says that it's unlikely searches will be made with the keywords mentioned - well people have! The reason being is that the main news story yesterday in the UK, about Konnie, was because she was wearing a very low cut dress to a film premier. If she'd been out and about in jeans and a t-shirt she wouldn't have been a news story and people wouldn't have searched her name. It was the dress that was as much the news as Konnie herself. It's necessary to pick out the essence of a news story as keywords.

The above also illustrates once again, as with Kate Middleton, that if you post about hot topics you'll get extra visitors via search engines and also from Technorati tags (providing you use them, of course). It also shows how quickly you can get on Google if you do things the right way - exploit what's hot.

Moving on slightly, I would recommend that you have a tracker which shows the keywords search engines have used to send traffic to your blog. If your counter/tracker doesn't do this try eXTReMe Tracking - they list all keywords.

From this list you can then see what words are working for you. Sometimes this may be because you have written about something specific. If you see certain keywords are working, because of the subject matter of a post you have published, you can then do a follow up on the same theme. This will most likely get further search engine referrals.

The old cliche is right: Give people what they want, not what you think they want. You can judge this, to a degree, by looking at your tracker's list of keywords.

One more thing ...

About images, as per yesterdays post. Shane has left me a comment to say: 'You should use dashes instead of underscores to separate the words, since search engines don't see underscores as spaces.' He mentioned this as I wrote about how photos/images should have proper keyword titles. I gave the example of konnie_huq_low_cut_dress. According to Shane I should have used the title konnie-huq-low-cut-dress instead.

After all of this talk about low cut dresses I think it must be time to take a break. Keep an eye on those keywords!

Good luck,
Mike.


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Konnie Huq And An Eureka Moment About Images

I was thinking about keywords, while looking at a friend's blog stats, and suddenly had an Eureka moment. Okay what I'm about to write may be pretty obvious to you but it wasn't for me. The stats I was perusing showed that 13 of her last 20 search engine referrals were from Google Image Search.

It suddenly dawned on me that I wasn't using images properly, even when I did my Kate Middleton experiment. I don't think I've ever had a referral from Google Images so I reckon I'm missing out. It's not easy to bring too many images into a money making blog but, when I do, I want to now try and do this properly to make the photos, or whatever, more attractive to search engines.

Today the UK newspapers are full of photos of Konnie Huq (a children's TV presenter) in a low cut dress while attending a film premier. So I thought I'd use her photo to start out my mission to try and get a few referrals from search engines. My wife thinks I have an ulterior motive for doing this!

This is how I see images should be presented.

(1) The image should have a proper name, not something like 1003.jpg. It needs to say what the photo is all about - obviously with as few words as possible. In my example I've titled the photo konnie_huq_low_cut_dress.

As I see it konnie huq and dress are my keywords. I threw in low cut as this might also be something entered as a search.

(2) I understand that it is search engine friendly to state the size of the photo. In Konnie's case 110 x 200.
Looks like this:
height="200" width ="100"

(3) Alt should be used for your keywords. In my case I'm using the same words as my title. Looks like this:
alt="Konnie Huq in low cut dress".

In case you are not sure, alt creates the words seen when you hover over an image. It was originally used as an alternative to the image in case the photo couldn't be seen.

(4) Don't spam. By this I mean don't use too many keywords in your photo title or alt. This also applies to text - use keywords but do not over use them. It makes search engine's cross!

That's about it, you might know differently. Either way I think it's important that we use every possible trick to get more referrals via search engines. Let's not miss out on images.

Good luck,
Mike.

Further reading:
Kate Middleton Makes Wonderful Bait


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