See How Much I Love You

How to Dominate Google Rankings; Easy as 1, 2, 3!
By Scott Jason (c) 2008

Search engine optimization has changed a lot over the years. What worked a few short years ago can get your site banned from Google today.

Actually, let me rephrase that… Search engine optimization tricks have changed a lot over the years. But in truth, good solid SEO practices have remained stable and work better today than in years past. Why better? Because so many others keep trying to win with tricks that Google hates. This leaves you to reap the rewards of methods that Google loves! The most important thing to realize is that Google, and other popular search engines place 90% and MORE of their ranking preferences on content and links. Keywords are still important, but only in the content of your pages; not in META tags like the old days.

It’s that simple. And just as simple is how to accomplish that top ranking…

1.) First you need to find the best keywords and place them just right in your page’s content.

2.) Next you need to find, get and manage great inbound links.

3.) Last, you need to closely monitor your progress (and your competition!)

Goal 1: Find the Best Keywords

Let’s use Google’s own keyword database to see what search terms are best to target. Go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and enter any keyword or keyword phrase you think your future customers are looking for. Now get ready for a LOT of great results!

INSIDER TIP: Use specific and “long tail” keyword phrases whenever possible. One of my clients is in national floral delivery. Here’s a real example of how my business partner and I put that business at number one ,on Google with the perfect keywords…

The client had been paying per click for the term “flowers” and barely breaking even after spending tens of thousands of dollars per month in PPC costs. We not only gave him much better targetd keywords for his pay per click campaign, at one tenth the cost, but also made jim number one for his new primary keyword using the methods described later in this article. Before we go too deep however, let’s look at the new keywords and the logic used to get there…

Instead of just the word “flowers”, which has 233,000,000 competing pages on Google, we looked at what he really wanted to attract visits for. Although there are lots of possibilities, we will stick with just one example that saves him about $35,000 per month in PPC expenses and gives him another $100,000 per month in profit. We first evaluated “send flowers”, which has 1/10th the number of competing pages. Then we asked him to try “think like people speak” (I.E./ I’m “sending flowers” to my mom.) As it turns out, a lot more people are searching for “sending flowers” than are searching “send flowers” and “sending flowers” has less than 1% of the competing web pages as the search term he started with, “flowers”. Now that’s impressive!

Use this method of keyword determination (get exact and use longer keyord phrases when appropriate) and you have will have an instant advantage over about 99% of your competitors.

Once you have your keywords selected, take the top three or four and list them in order for best to second best and so on.

Goal 2: Develop the Best Possible Content

Content is King! The ability to create search engine friendly web content, optimized for real people, is the key to your success. Modern search engines (especially Google) can read a page just like any person would thanks to natural text algorithms. Now Google can tell in nanoseconds if your web pages were pages for real people or just to get better ranking. With the following tip, you can easily do both!

Step A.) Call a good friend and tell him or her what you want to tell your web visitors. Then immediately write it down as close as you can remember it. If you can record the conversation, it’s even better.

Step B.) Now simply review your text and place your top keyword as close to the beginning of the opening sentence or two as possible. Then place your next most important keyword someplace else toward the beginning of that same first paragraph. Try to get your third keyword into the last sentence or two of your first paragraph or at the beginning of your next paragraph if it fits better.

Step C.) Now place just one instance of each keyword in the next few paragraphs, anywhere they fit well. So if you have six more paragraphs before the final, each keyword should be three times total (once in paragraph 1, twice in the remaining 6 paragraphs with one mention of a single keyword in each paragraph.)

Step D.) For the last paragraph, do the opposite of what you did for the first paragraph and place your least important keyword toward the beginning of the paragraph and your most important toward the end. This shows the search engine consistency of topic.

Step E.) Last but not least, don’t repeat any keyword more than four times per page and always let the text flow naturally.

Part 3: Get Great Links and Monitor Your Site

Getting and maintaining high quality inbound links typically accounts for more than 75% of today’s search engine optimization success on Google. Getting these links is the crucial step that will get you over the top and keep you there! But you also need to monitor your progress and your site’s status (not just ranking but how search engines REALLY see it). This will tell you more than just where you are but also where you are likely to be. Back in the day we did all link work and monitoring by hand. And I can tell you that it took a long time (My business partner and I spent about sixteen hours each week, per site!) My advice to you is to do what we did and find a good SEO tool that does the heavy lifting and time consuming work for you. Buying the right product is easily the best money you’ll ever spend on your site’s marketing and publicity.

As for products, there are some good ones out there. I used one called WebPosition Pro for a couple years. I ended up switching to another called SEO Elite because it has automated linking, which is the most time-consuming aspect of my SEO efforts. However, both are fantastic products for tracking and reporting.

Number 1 Pick: SEO Elite

Cost = $167 (lifetime free upgrades and no annual fees)

Personal Results: 121 top 5 rankings on Google in 3 weeks; Mostly 1’s and 2’s

Favorite Features: Finds the best link partners, including special “Authority” link partners that count for more with Google; Automates link process; Provides great Site Monitoring

Comments: I bought SEO Elite in 2005 and have used every upgrade (all are free.) I got rid of my other products since this one did a better job for me and does not have any ongoing fees.

Number 2 Pick: WebPosition

Cost = $389 WebPosition Pro or $149 Standard (plus $99 per year subscription fees for either)

Personal Results: 44 top 5 rankings in Google in eight weeks; Mostly 3’s and 4’s.

Favorite Features: Site Monitoring; Great reporting; Site Critic

Comments: I stopped using WebPosition because there were no automated linking capabilities and did not want to continue paying the $99 per year in ongoing fees. I did however really like the reporting.

That’s about it. Now you’re ready. Good luck!

Colour can be descriptive. Colour can affect the way we think. Colour can affect the way we feel.

A resent study conducted by Dr. Gitte Lindgaard of Carleton University in Ottawa has shown that the public in general takes only 50 milliseconds to make a judgment about your website.

This makes the importance of ‘feel’ in your web design a much more important feature.

No matter how good your website copywriting is – if the visitor gets the wrong ‘feel’ in that first 50 milliseconds, they won’t stay around long enough to read it.

Based on this – the colours that you choose for your online branding can be the difference between attracting or repelling a potential customer.

Oranges and Yellows

Bright colours such as oranges or yellows are often seen as friendly and fun, great for younger audiences.

On the flip side, these colours can be viewed as less professional and make your site look like it lacks conviction.

Blues

Colours like navy blues can be seen as professional and serious. Colours such as these are often used on websites that represent law or finance.

The negatives of this colour include making your brand feel stuffy or without humor.

Reds

Reds represent feelings of heat and strength. They portray confidence and power.

Unfortunately, reds can also describe anger, which can be intimidating to some visitors.

Greens

Greens embody nature and health. It is often used when referring to the outdoors or fresh foods.

Some people link this colour to ‘green’ political statements, which can be good or bad depending on your point of view but means that it is often absent from corporate sites.

Light or Dark

Whether your colours are light or dark will also have an effect on the perception of your site.

Light colours and large areas of white are used on websites to give a site an easy, free feel. It can make the content feel easy to read and can give an impression of health and beauty.

Dark colours and black can add a dramatic feel to a website. Dark colours can give your images more punch. Large blocks of text on dark colours can be harder to read but can give a sense of gravity to your words.

By combining these colours and of course the millions of other colour combinations you can help your visitors make their initial decision about your business.

There are no hard and fast rules. There are no right and wrong colours. But colours do influence a visitors experience and therefore will have an impact on your bottom line.

So when looking at your web design, make sure you consider colour. Take some time to determine how you want your visitors to feel when they enter your home page. Then decide – do these colours describe that feeling?

Building trust with your customers is a crucial ingredient for a successful business and will be the thing that provides a long life cycle to your advertising.

A brand promotion company will help you to introduce your brand to the world through print, web and other advertising methods.  But it’s the word-of-mouth that follows that campaign that will provide longevity to your advertising.

What is word-of-mouth?

Word-of-mouth advertising has been around as long as we’ve been able to speak with one another, and it still remains the most effective.

When you refer any product or services to a friend, colleague or member of your family you’re employing word-of-mouth advertising for the product owner.

You are actually becoming part of their marketing team.

The realization is almost enough to make me want to go and ask a number of large organizations for a share in the profits.

So wouldn’t you want to leverage this effective marketing tool for your own business.

Building a trusting relationship with your customers

Most products are not able to speak for themselves. But they do so through marketing campaigns and advertising.

Using word-of-mouth, existing customers can be influence friends, family and colleagues to use your product. This is because they are already trusted to provide truthful information about a product they’ve used.

At the beginning your company or product will not have that same influence through your advertising. So we should view each statement we make in our advertising as a promise to potential clients.

Much like a relationship with someone you’ve just met, the product needs to build trust into its relationship with its customers.

By delivering on the promise made through our advertising we can cement trust in the statements our company makes.

If a product doesn’t deliver on what it promises, customers often feel that the company has lied to them in some way. Being caught out in a lie is one of the quickest ways to end any relationship. The relationship with a new customer is no different.

So how do I build trust in my brand?

So when starting a advertising campaign with the goal of building this trust the key is to be sure that your product will deliver on your promises.

If you say your product is the fastest, then it must be.

If you say your products are the best quality, then be sure that they are.

You want to be careful using definitive terms like, fastest and best unless you know them to be true. Statements such as this also have a short life span. Once the next big thing comes along, your product may no longer be the fastest or best quality and you will need to shift your product statement so as not to mislead new customers.

The same goes for terms that depend on a customer’s point of view. For instance, if you were to say your product was the tastiest. You may run into trouble because one customer’s preference on taste may well not be compatible with the next customer.

Let’s use a Chicken Shop as an example.

Instead of saying something like ‘We have the tastiest chicken” which is a statement that could be challenged, you may want to say “You just have to try our delicious chicken”.

This statement invites them to make up their own mind, which in turn give them ownership of whatever decision they make after trying – ‘Our Chicken’.

The ownership over this experience will be the thing that prompts a customer to share it with others. Much like the reason that people tell you about their day.

Keeping that brand trust in the future

The key to continuing to build a customer base from trust, is to deliver the expected level of product and service that we’ve promised through our advertisements.

The word ‘expected’ almost sounds poor when referring to service. But this is the minimum level that must be maintained in order to keep that relationship of trust with your customers. It will give us a base line for quality control.

Provide a higher quality if possible, but as long as the customer receives what they are expecting when they make a purchase, then you have kept the trust in your promise and will likely continue to keep that customer in the future.

反向链接、网站结构优化、关键词布置，并列搜索引擎优化SEO三大法门，其中，反向链接的获得往往是做SEO的朋友最感头痛的。芋头在这里总结了最实用的七大法门共12招，不那么实用易行的方法就不列了。你只要把下面的方法都做一遍，就不愁没有反链了。
一．合作法
  
  第1招：几个站长相约合作，实行三向的间接交换链接，A链向B，B链向C，C链向A

(http://www.gomenow.com)

二．文章法

  第2招：写出适合转载的文章，合理的加上链接，自己贴到显眼的地方。
  独特观点不那么容易有，写总结你总会吧，总结性文章很容易让别人转载，例如：   XXX的10个方法、XXX的10个窍门、XXX的十大迷思、XXX的100个博客（这些人可能很兴奋，会写篇文章谈论）。

(http://www.gomenow.com)

三。购买法

  第3招：到http://www.wanyouyinli.com这样的链接交易市场购买
  也可以看中站点后直接跟站方联系购买

(http://www.gomenow.com)

四．提交法
 
  第4招：大量登录网址站。网址站很多，凡是没有被引擎处罚的就进
  第5招：用搜索引擎搜索“提交网站、add url”等相关关键词，向搜索到的网页登录
  第6招：参加自助链，http://inout.donews.com/等自助链是有效的反链
  第7招：将网站提交道DMOZ目录等，然后等

(http://www.gomenow.com)

五．诱饵法

  第7招：如果你会编程或有朋友会编程，尝试开发一个免费又有用的线上服务
  第8招：增加自助链接申请功能，吸引其他网站主动与你链接

(http://www.gomenow.com)

六．web2.0法

  第9招：网摘和书签
  第10招：看贴回贴，在签名中加上你的超链接。
  第11招：在各大bsp大量创建blog，在blog里加入链接
  搜索引擎现在给论坛、博客的链接权重降低了，但积少成多嘛

(http://www.gomenow.com)

七．群发法

  第12招：群发TrackBack，对google有点用，也是积少成多

(http://www.gomenow.com)

Love is like wildflowers.
It’s often found in the most unlikely places.

To get more out of life, give more of yourself.

Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb.
That’s where the fruit is.

You’ll learn more about a road by traveling it
than by consulting all the maps in the world.

When fate shuts a door, come in through the window.

No failure is ever final, nor is any success.

If you’re doing your best,
you won’t have time to worry about failure.

Dreams come true for those who work while they dream.

No one is guaranteed happiness,
life just gives us time and space.
It’s up to us to fill it with joy and meaning.

Do for others with no desire of returned favors.
We all should plant some trees we’ll never sit under.

True wealth is what you are, not what you have.

Almost all of our unhappiness is the result of comparing ourselves to others.

We can’t do much about our appearance, but we have total control over the kind of person we become.

To change everything, simply change your attitude.

Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye.

Carrying a grudge is like a run in a stocking ?br> it can only get worse.  Forgiveness is the answer.

When you remember how hard it is to change yourself,
you begin to understand what little chance we have of changing others.

Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers,
why not gather your own bouquet.

A friend is a person who knows all about you
but likes you anyway.

Friends are like a beautiful garden.
They require regular care.

The people on our planet are not standing in a line single file.
Look closely, everyone is really standing in a circle, holding hands. Whatever you can give to the person standing next to you, it eventually comes back to you.

Today, give a stranger one of your smiles,
it might be the only sunshine they see all day.

“我的祖父和祖母结婚已逾半个世纪，然而多少年来，他们彼此间不倦地玩着一个特殊的游戏：在一个意想不到的地方写下“Shmily”这个词留待对方来发现。他们轮换着在屋前房后留下“Shmily”，一经对方发现，就开始新的一轮。

他们用手指在糖罐和面箱里写下“Shmily”，等着准备下一餐饭的对方来发现；他们在覆着霜花的玻璃上写下“Shmily”；一次又一次的热水澡后，总可以看见雾气蒙罩的镜子上留下的“Shmily”。

有时，祖母甚至会重卷一整卷卫生纸，只为了在最后一片纸上写下“Shmily”。

没有“Shmily”不可能出现的地方。仓促间涂写的“Shmily”会出现在汽车坐垫上，或是一张贴在方向盘轴心的小纸条上。这一类的字条会被塞进鞋子里或是压在枕下。

“Shmily”会被书写在壁炉台面的薄尘上，或是勾画在炉内的灰底上。这个神秘的词，像祖父母的家具一样成了他们房间的一部分。

直到很久以后，我才能完全理解祖父母之间游戏的意义。年轻使我不懂得爱——那种纯洁且历久弥坚的爱。然而，我从未怀疑过祖父母之间的感情。他们彼此深爱。他们的小游戏已远非调情消遣，那是一种生活方式。他们之间的感情是基于一种深挚的爱和献身精神，不是每一个人都能体验到的。

祖父和祖母一有机会就彼此执手相握。他们在小厨房里错身而过时偷吻；他们说完彼此的半截句子；他们一起玩拼字和字谜游戏。祖母常忘情地对我耳语祖父有多可爱迷人，依然还是那么帅气。她骄傲地宣称自己的确懂得“如何选择”。每次餐前他们垂首祈祷时，感谢他们受到的诸多福佑：一个幸福的家庭、好运道和拥有彼此。

可是一片乌去遮蔽了祖父母的家：祖母的癌恶化了。首次发现是在10年前。跟以往一样，祖父总是跟祖母肩并肩地走过人生艰难之旅的每一步。为了安慰祖母，祖父将他们的卧房喷涂成黄色，这样在祖母病重不能出屋时，亦能感到周围的阳光。

起先，在祖父坚实的手臂和拐杖的帮扶下，他们每天清晨一起去教堂散步和默祷。但随着祖母日见瘦弱，终于，祖父只能独自去教堂，祈求上帝看顾他的妻子。

然而那一天，我们担心忧惧的事终于还是发生了，祖母去了。

“Shmily”写在祖母葬礼上花束的黄色缎带上。当人群散去，叔伯、姑姑和其他的家庭成员又走上前来最后一次围聚在祖母身旁。祖父步向祖母的灵柩，用颤抖的声音轻轻的唱起“知道我有多么爱你……”透过悲伤的泪，这歌声低沉轻柔地飘入耳来……

我终于明白了他们特殊小游戏的意义“S— h— m— I— l— y”：“See how much I love you（知道我多么爱你）”。

因悲伤而颤栗着，我永远无法忘记那一刻，这个令人震撼的发现。谢谢你们，祖父祖母，教我懂得了爱。”

My grandparents were married for over half a century, and played their own special game from the time they had met each other. The goal of their game was to write the word “SHMILEY” in a surprise place for the other to find. They took turns leaving “SHMILEY” around the house, and as soon as one of them discovered it, it was their turn to hide it once more.

They dragged “SHMILEY” with their fingers through the sugar and flour containers to await whoever was preparing the next meal. They smeared it in the dew on the windows overlooking the patio where my grandma always fed us warm, homemade pudding with blue food coloring. “SHMILEY” was written in the steam left on the mirror after a hot shower, where it would reappear bath after bath. At one point, my grandmother even unrolled an entire roll of toilet paper to leave “SHMILEY” on the very last sheet.

There was no end to the places “SHMILEY” would pop up. Little notes with “SHMILEY” scribbled hurriedly were found on dashboards and car seats, or taped to steering wheels. The notes were stuffed inside shoes and left under pillows. “SHMILEY” was written in the dust upon the mantel and traced in the ashes of the fireplace. This mysterious word was as much a part of my grandparents’ house as the furniture.

It took me a long time before I was able to fully appreciate my grandparents’ game. Skepticism has kept me from believing in true love — one that is pure and enduring. However, I never doubted my grandparents’ relationship. They had love down pat. It was more than their flirtatious little games; it was a way of life. Their relationship was based on a devotion and passionate affection which not everyone is lucky enough to experience.

Grandma and Grandpa held hands every chance they could. They stole kisses as they bumped into each other in their tiny kitchen. They finished each other’s sentences and shared the daily crossword puzzle and word jumble. My grandmother whispered to me about how cute my grandpa was, how handsome and old he had grown to be. She claimed that she really knew “how to pick ‘em.”

Before every meal they bowed their heads and gave thanks, marveling at their blessings: a wonderful family, good fortune, and each other.

But there was a dark cloud in my grandparents’ life: my grandmother had breast cancer. The disease had first appeared in years earlier.

As always, Grandpa was with her every step of the way. He comforted her in their yellow room, painted that way so that she could always be surrounded by sunshine, even when she was too sick to go outside.

Now the cancer was again attacking her body. With the help of a cane and my grandfather’s steady hand, they went to church every morning.

But my grandmother grew steadily weaker until, finally, she could not leave the house anymore. For a while, Grandpa would go to church alone, praying to God to watch over his wife. Then one day, what we all dreaded finally happened. Grandma was gone.

“SHMILEY.” It was scrawled in yellow on the pink ribbons of my grandmother’s funeral bouquet. As the crowd thinned and the last mourners turned to leave, my aunts, uncles, cousins, and other family members came forward and gathered around Grandma one last time. Grandpa stepped up to my grandmother’s casket and, taking a shaky breath, he began to sing to her. Through his tears and grief, the song came, a deep and throaty lullaby.

Shaking with my own sorrow, I will never forget that moment. For I knew that, although I couldn’t begin to fathom the depth of their love, I had been privileged to witness its unmatched beauty.

S-h-m-i-l-y: See How Much I Love You.

Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa, for letting me see.

Below you’ll find my latest update on how I make money blogging (this is something I post about every few months - although it’s been a over six months since I last did it ).

How Much Money Do I Make from Blogging?

I get asked how much money my blogging makes me on a regular basis. These days I don’t go into specifics about it - all I will say is that it continues to be well over six figures per year (but less than seven figures). What you’ll find below are my top income streams - ranked from highest earnings to lowest.

Keep in mind that this is a summary of all of my blogs (not just ProBlogger). It does not include any income that I earn from b5media where I’m paid a salary as VP Training.

I hope you find it useful to see the mix and variety of ways that I earn a living from blogging.

1. AdSense

Despite not using it here at ProBlogger any more I continue to use AdSense with real effect on my other blogs. While I do use AdSense Referrals and their search feature it is their normal ads that work best for me. I have them all set to show image and text based ads and find that 250×300 pixel ads work best (usually with a blended design).

2. Chitika

Last time I did this sort of summary Chitika ranked #1. This time around it has been overtaken by AdSense - not because Chitika slipped in how much it earned but because AdSense went up and because I also replaced a few Chitika ad units with WidgetBucks ones. Chitika offers a range of ad units that I experiment with. I find their eMiniMalls work best and that Related Product Units are also good. Their Shoplincs product isn’t performing as well as it once did for me - mainly because I’ve been promoting it less and have driven less traffic to it. Over the time I’ve been using Chitika they’ve now earned me over a quarter of a million dollars!

3. Amazon Associates

This has been one of my big movers in the last 12 months. I used to make a few odd dollars from it - however in recent times it has become a significant earner for me (as I’ve shared previously). This quarter it overtook TLA as my third biggest earner - largely on the back of me directing traffic to Amazon from my product related sites - mainly digital cameras. While the commission on cameras is only 4% this adds up when those that you refer buy higher ticket items.

4. Private Ad Sales/Sponsorships

This includes ad sales of the 125 x 125 ads here at ProBlogger as well as a couple of private ad deals that I did with sponsors on my camera blog (including sponsorships with Canon, Kodak and Adobe). This area has jumped up since last time also as a result of the new design here at ProBlogger and our expanded sales team at b5 who now sell ProBlogger’s ads for me.

5. Text Link Ads

The income from TLA has dipped slightly over the last few months simply because I took the decision to stop selling them here at ProBlogger and most of my other blogs. This was because I wanted to focus more upon selling the 125 pixel ads instead and felt that the ads I was attracting were not as relevant to this site as they could have been. As it turns out this might have been a good move because it seems Google has been penalizing blogs that run them lately.

6. ProBlogger Job Boards

The job boards here at ProBlogger continue to grow each month in the number of advertisements that are being bought. This enabled me to invest most of the money that they’d earned a while back into getting a new back end for the boards and to redesign them. It hit me today that the boards are now bringing in around $1000 a month in revenue which is pretty nice considering that they are now so low maintenance to run! I’ve just given a development team a new brief to expand the job boards in the coming month so stay tuned for some new features coming soon which could see this revenue increase and more importantly for it to become an even more useful resource to readers.

7. Miscellaneous Affiliate Programs

I run a variety of affiliate programs on my blogs - most of which bring in smaller amounts of money that don’t really justify a category of their own. These include - - Digital Photography Secrets (a camera technique series), Pro Photo Secrets (a great photoshop product) , Yaro’s Blog Mastermind Mentoring Program, SEO Book (Aaron’s legendary resource). This area is set to continue to grow in the current quarter with me having had reasonable conversions from the promotion of the excellent Teaching Sells course.

8. Miscellaneous Advertising Programs

I also play with a number of other ad networks. Some I run as tests to see if I should review them here - and some are just advertising that run in the background on some of my smaller blogs. These include AuctionAds, Feedburner RSS ads, Vizu (a poll advertising system), Kontera and Bidvertiser. Together these don’t add up to major earnings for me - not because they are not good, but because I don’t use them heavily (a blog can only run so many ads on it).

I think that that covers most of it. Since last quarter I’ve also been experimenting with WidgetBucks as well as one other ad system that is still in a closed beta test. I’m certain that WidgetBucks will feature in next quarter’s list because I am getting good returns on that so far. In fact at it’s current earnings it’ll debut at at least number 4 on the list and perhaps even at number 3.

How Much do I Spend?

As mentioned last time - I don’t spend a lot of money in order to bring in my income. I do have some basic blogging costs (hosting etc) and play around with a limited amount of advertising (AdWords and StumbleUpon) but rely more heavily upon word of mouth and organic ways of drawing income into my blogs. I also have some costs in paying writers on a couple of blogs - but these don’t make up a massive part of the overall earnings each quarter.

I’ve been reflecting this week about the amazing diversity of opportunities that are opening up for bloggers to make money from blogging.I’ve long advised that bloggers seeking to make money from blogging spread their interests across multiple revenue streams so as not to put all their eggs in one basket.

The wonderful thing is that this is becoming easier and easier to do 2005 has seen many options opening up. I thought I’d take a look at some of the methods that bloggers are currently using to make money through blogs.

Income Streams for Bloggers - How to Make Money Blogging

Advertising Programs - Perhaps the most obvious changes in the past few months have been with the addition of a variety of viable advertising options for bloggers looking to make money from their blogs. The most common way bloggers seem to earn money online is via the contextual ad program from Google - Adsense. A more recent addition that many are using successfully are Chitika’s eMiniMalls and WidgetBucks, Text Link Ads.

Azoogle Ads, Intelli Txt, DoubleClick, Tribal Fusion, Adbrite, Clicksor, AdHearUs, Kanoodle, Pheedo, TextAds, Bidvertiser, Fastclick and Value Click (to name just some of the options) and there is a smorgasbord of options. Of course there is more to come with MSN Adcenter and YPN both in beta testing and with a variety of other advertising system currently in development (YPN is only available to US publishers).

Lastly there’s BlogAds - one of the first blog specific ad networks.

RSS Advertising - The past 12 months have seen some advances in RSS Advertising also. I’m yet to hear of any bloggers making big money blogging through it to this point - but as improvements are made to the ad programs exploring this I’m sure we’ll start to see examples of it being profitable.

Sponsorship - In addition to the array of advertising programs that are available to join there is a growing awareness in the business of the value and opportunity that exists for them to advertise directly on blogs. I’m hearing more and more examples of this and have been fortunately to have a couple of ad campaigns of my own in the past month - one with Adobe a couple of weeks ago and another just completed with Ricoh for a new digicam over at my Digital Camera Blog. These are not isolated cases - as I say I know of many blogs exploring sponsorship with advertisers at present and suspect we’ll see more of it in the year ahead. Sponsorship is also happening on a post by post basis with some bloggers being paid to write on certain topics by companies - either in one off or a regular fashion - and they are able to make big money from their blogs doing so.

Affiliate Programs - There are larger affiliate programs like Amazon, Linkshare, Clickbank and Commission Junction but also literally thousands of others from the large to the very small.

Digital Assets - Increasing numbers of bloggers have been developing other digital assets to support and add revenue streams to their blogs. By this I mean that I’m increasingly seeing e-books, courses and tele-seminars being run by bloggers. My recent foray into this with the first series of the six figure blogging course that Andy and I ran a few weeks ago and have just released the study version of. This type of activity will only increase in future - in fact this week I’ve seen numerous examples of bloggers running courses.

Blog Network Opportunities - with the rise in popularity of Blog Networks - bloggers are also being presented with more places to earn an income from their blogging - by writing for and with others. While it might be difficult to get a writing gig with one of the bigger networks - there are plenty who are always asking for new bloggers to join and who are willing to pay bloggers using a variety of payment models. While there are distinct advantages of blogging for yourself - blogging for an established network who will handle a lot of the set up/promotion/admin/SEO etc has it’s advantages also. More and more bloggers are combining writing for themselves on their own blogs with taking on blog network blogs as additional income streams.

Business Blog Writing Opportunities - as blogging has risen in it’s profile as a medium more and more businesses are starting blogs. Many of these companies have internal staff take on blogging duties - but an increasing number of them are hiring specialist bloggers to come on and run their blogs. I know of a number of bloggers who in the past month or two have been approached for such paid work. Check out Bloggers for Hire if you’re looking for this type of work.

Non Blogging Writing Opportunities - Also becoming more common are bloggers being hired to write in non blogging mediums. Manolo’s recent coup of a column in the Washington Post is just one example of this as bloggers are increasingly being approached to write for newspapers, magazines and other non blog websites. Along side this is the rise of bloggers as published book authors - this is to the extent that one blogger I spoke with this week complained to me that they were one of the few bloggers than they knew who didn’t have a book deal!

Donations - Tip Jars and donation buttons have been a part of blogging for years now but this last year saw a number of bloggers go full time after fund raising drives. Perhaps the most high profile of these was Jason Kottke of kottke.org who through the generosity of his readership was able to quit his job and become a full time blogger.

Flipping Blogs - Also more common in 2005 was the practice of ‘Blog Flipping’ - or selling of blogs. This has happened both on an individual blog level (I can think of about 20 blogs that sold this year) but also on a network level (the most obvious of these being the 8 figure sale of Weblogs Inc to AOL).

Merchandising - My recent attempt to sell ProBlogger.net T-shirts wasn’t a raging success, but it is an example of how an increasing number of bloggers are attempting to make a few extra dollars from their blogs by selling branded products through programs like Cafepress. While I didn’t have a lot of success with merchandising - quite a few larger blogs are seeing significant sales - especially blogs with a cult following. I’m not at liberty to discuss details - but I know of one largish blog which will see sales over $20,000 in merchandise for the calendar year of 2005.

Consulting and Speaking - While it has been popular for established consultants to add blogs to their businesses we’re also starting to see bloggers with no consulting background able to make money by charging readers for their time in consulting scenarios BECAUSE of the profile that their blogs have built them. Blogging has the ability to establish people as experts on niche topics and we all know the value of being perceived as an expert. I spoke to one blogger last month who charges himself out at over $200 an hour for speaking and consulting work - his area of expertise was something that he knew little about 18 months ago - but through his blog he’s become a leader in his field and a minor celebrity in his industry.

As time rolls on there are more and more ways that bloggers make money from their blogs opening up. Feel free to suggest your own ideas and experiences in comments below.

1. If you’re launching a new site, or new content, write an introduction and submit it to share sites like Digg, Reddit and Now Public.
2. Create a Yahoo Group in the niche your site sits.
3. Create a MySpace account and use it to publisise your site.
4. Bookmark your site on Del.icio.us and if you’re really keen, add a Del.icio.us button to your homepage.
5. Create a Technorati account and “claim” your blog.
6. Submit your site to free, search engine friendly directories. An excellent list can be found here.
7. Conduct a survey. This is an excellent way to generate offline publicity.
8. Place a free ad for your company on Gumtree.
9. Syndicate your site’s content by using an RSS feeds.
10. Submit your RSS feeds to agregator sites like FeedBurner, Squidoo, Feedboy, Jordomedia, FeedBomb, FeedCat, rssmad, feeddirectory and feedfury. Stolen from DigitalPoint
11. Write an article related to your site and submit it to article sites.
12. Sign up to StumbleUpon and get your friends to Stumble your site.
13. Create a custom 404 page so that even if someone encounters an error on your site, they are re-directed somewhere nice.
14. Set up a 301 redirect to take traffic from your non-www address to your www address. See here for more info.
15. Add a link to your site in the signature of any forums you post on.
16. Tell your friends about your site. It’s free advertising init.
17. Speel cheek ur stie. Nothing appears more amateur than a site with typos or spelling mistakes.
18. Test your site and make sure it appears correctly in all major browsers.
19. Buy enough hosting. No one likes a slow site.
20. Don’t worry about PageRank - worrying about PageRank is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum.*
21. Offer something for free. Free is good. People tell their friends about free stuff.
22. Tell your neighbours, you never know what contacts they might have.
23. Offer your users as many ways as possible to contact you. MSN, Skype, Yahoo etc all complement email, phone and a real address.
24. Advertise your site on Craigslist. It’s free, relevant and localised.
25. Do NOT use frames.
26. Submit your site to DMOZ.org. It may take time, but it’s worth it.
27. Create an XML sitemap of your site and submit it to Google.
28. Get a custom t-shirt made with your website url on it, and wear it often.
29. Ask a large breasted lady to wear one too.
30. Sign up with an affiliate programme to sell your product, or if you’re a publish, make some cash!
31. On your Contact Page ask people if they mind receiving your newsletter.
32. Send out a newsletter!
33. Go to a free seminar for Website owners. You might learn something.
34. Find quality and relevant blogs and leave a comment (with a link back to your site of course).
35. Don’t pay people to submit your site to search engines. It’s a waste of money.
36. YouTube and Google Video are excellent portals on which to launch a viral campaign.
37. Giving away an eBook is an excellent way to generate word-of-mouth about your site.
38. Sponsor a Wordpress theme or a phpListDirectory template.
39. If you sell products that are advertised on television by the manufacturer, add “As Seen on TV” to your site!
40. Avoid proprietry technologies like Java and Active X.
41. Put downloadable content on your site, but make sure it’s not manufacturer specific - so mp3 rather than wma.
42. Learn about CSS. It’s the new HTML.
43. Contribute to related subject areas on Wikipedia.
44. Ask bloggers and other Web site owners to review your site and/or products.
45. Have user friendly page names - most tools comes with some way to avoid http://www.yourdomain.com/pgInfoPage…CFE3AEDAF8DD9D
46. If you must have a Flash homepage, make sure you have a “Skip Intro” link.
47. Tell your local rag about your site. These newspapers are desparate for stories and you may well even get a pic of your ugly picture published.
48. Become a leading authority on your chosen subject.
49. Donate money to a charity and most will place a link on their site back to you.
50. Abide to W3C standards - it will help your site in the long term.
51. Your local community sports teams offer cheap, but highly effective sponsorship opportunities.
52. Publisise your site on related forums - but don’t spam!
53. Ask bloggers to write about your site or product - in return for a link of course.
54. Offer a competition related to something in the news - so football around the time of the World Cup etc.
55. Add a “Tell a Friend” function to your site, so people can easily recommend you to their mates.
56. Have a Sitemap on your site to allow users to navigate around quickly and to aid the search engines.
57. Have a nice keyword rich title at the top of each of your pages. Users and search engines both like descriptive titles.
58. Include a Feedburner button on your site so people can easily subscribe to your feed.
59. If you use PPC then create a landing page for each of your AdWords - it’ll boost your conversations no end.
60. Appear on Dragon’s Den.
61. Create a Press section on your site where can you store all your press releases, logos and banners.
62. Add a link to your site from within your eBay profile.
63. Ask your friends to give you honest feedback on your site.
64. The best way to find someone to do any kind of work on your site is through personal recommendation.
65. Gain exposure by submitting photos and pictures to Flikr.
66. Share your banners on banner exchange sites.
67. Make sure it’s easy for your users to subscribe to your RSS feed.
68. Create a “lense” for your site on Squidoo
69. Ask friends, collegues and associates to “Favourite” your blog on Technorati.
70. You can add a Bulletin to your MySpace account promoting your site that all your MySpace Friends will see.
71. Response to your customer’s emails promptly, even if it is with a simply auto-responder. No one likes to wait 3 or 4 days for an acknowledgement of their contact with you.
72. Get a professional Copywriter to give your site a once over. If you are on a tight budget, limit to the just the homepage.
73. Make a list, “Top 10″s work well. Update it regularly to give your visitors a reason to return.
74. What did you learn today? Tell other people and they might learn something too.
75. Do you have really hot content on your site that geeks would love? If so Slashdot will bring you a mass of traffic.
76. Deep link directories are an excellent way to promote inner pages of your site.
77. Meta tags might carry less weight than previously, but you should still have them on every page.
78. Ask your Gran for feedback on your site. Never ignore the silver surfers.
79. Include a “Add to your Technorati favourites” button on your site.
80. Google Analytics is free and will tell you all you need to know about who’s visiting your site.
81. Search engines will find you. Don’t pay money for your site to be “submitted”.
82. Don’t be afraid to link to other sites, especially if they are relevant and to highly respected sites.
83. Keep It Simple Stupid: use CSS to control layout, style and colours and use HTML text rather than graphics to represent text.
84. Validate your HTML and CSS. It’ll help ensure your site displays well in all browsers.
85. Small pages sizes and optimised graphics will give your site a snappy feel and won’t require users to wait around for it to load.
86. If you plan to submit your site to lots of directory or article sites - create an email especially for this. Delete it when you’re finished to avoid spam.
87. “Link baiting” means writing some killer content that people will want to link to. Like a “101 Tips to Improve Your Web Presence” list!
88. If your chosen field is technology related then write a “whitepaper”. That’s a posh name for an article.
89. Google receives roughly 50% of all search requests, Yahoo 25% and MSN just 10%. That’s a good rule of thumb as to how much emphisis to put on each.
90. Make sure you have a robots.txt file in the root of your Web site. You can use this to control search engines, but if nothing else it’ll reduce the number of 404 errors in your Weblogs.
91. Free online games, a forum or chatrooms will give your users a reason to come back to your site.
92. Ebooks with re-seller rights make an excellent “free gift” for your site.
93. Upload your product feed to Froogle. It’s FREE!
94. This is an excellent list of Top 25 Social Bookmarking Sites
95. Search out unanswered questions on Yahoo! Answers and add your site as the “Source”.
96. PageRank is vanity, ranking is sanity.
97. Yahoo are catching up with Google with an excellent set of webmaster tools called Site Explorer.
98. Don’t buy traffic. It’s un-targetted and won’t convert.
99. Pay Per Click advertising gets you fast results - and if it’s handled well can be very profitable.
100. Upload a favicon.gif file so that your users have a nice icon when they bookmark your site.