Blogging Tips

How To Make Money On The Internet

2013-12-29T17:55:00.000-08:00

There are a ton of different ways to make money on the Internet. This article is not going to cover all of them. This article is only going to cover one of the very best ways to make money on the Internet.

It is the method that we personally use. It is called niche blogging.

If you don't know what a "blog" is, we encourage you to read the following article by Darren Rowse: "What is a blog?"

The truth is that there are literally millions of blogs on the Internet today, but very few of them are successful and even fewer of them make a decent amount of money.

But that is our goal.

In fact, that is the goal of most bloggers.

So how do you do it?

How do you build blogs that will make you money not only this month, but for many years down the line?

The truth is that there is not a "magic formula", but in this article we will give you the information that you will need to set up a "niche blog" and how to give it the best chance to rank high in the search engines.

But none of the tips that you are about to read will replace hard work.

Without a ton of hard work you just are not going to make a lot of money on the Internet.

So if you are looking for a "get rich quick" scheme you have come to the wrong article.

But if you are willing to learn and willing to work then you can make money. Thousands of people are making excellent money by setting up niche blogs even as you read this.

Okay, so are you ready to get started?

#1) Choose The Niche For Your Blog

When setting up a "niche blog", the first thing you need to do is to pick your niche. Successful bloggers tend to pick a subject to blog about that they know a lot about and that they are passionate about. Personally, my wife and I have set up a LOT of blogs, and the blogs that always do the best are the ones that are about a topic that we truly love. So don't necessarily gravitate toward a topic that you think will make money - especially when you are first starting out. Instead, we encourage you to pick something to blog about that you really love. Blogging about a subject that you are really into will help you from getting burned out as well.

Once you have gotten your feet wet by starting a couple of blogs, then you can branch out and start selecting blog topics based on their potential profitability. In fact, the short video below will guide you through the process of choosing a profitable blog topic for a niche blog....

*Video: "How to Start a Blog - Step 1: Pick Your Niche"

#2) Select Your Keyword

It is going to be extremely important to select a good keyword for your blog. This is how search engines are going to find you. For example, "cat sweater" is a keyword. People who are interested in finding a "cat sweater" are going to type that phrase into Google. In order for Google to rank your niche blog highly for that search term, you are going to want to put that phrase into the title of your blog, into the description of your blog, into the titles of many of your blog posts and you will want to sprinkle that phrase throughout your blog posts. But don't overdo it or Google will penalize you. The key to all of this is for people who are interested in the topic of your blog to be able to find it. If you name your blog "I love potato chips" when it is all about cat sweaters, Google and the other search engines are simply not going to find you or bring much traffic to your blog.

#3) Select Your Domain Name

You will also want to incorporate your keyword into your domain name. If you wanted to use "cat sweater" as your keyword, ideally you would choose something like "catsweater.com" for your domain name. However, often the best domain names are already gobbled up, so you might have to use something like "catsweaterguide.com" or "catsweatertips.com". Having your keyword somewhere in your domain name is going to give you extra juice with the search engines. The following short video will give you additional information about how to select a domain name....

*Video: "How To Choose A Domain Name"

#4) Register Your Domain Name

The next step is to register your domain name. This is the part where things start to get a little technical, but after you do it the first time it is a piece of cake. So don't get intimidated - the end result is very much worth it.

We purchase all of our domain names from the same place. GoDaddy.com is the world's #1 domain name registrar, and they have incredibly cheap prices and great customer service. We have purchased dozens of domain names through them and it is always very quick and easy. You can purchase a domain name through GoDaddy.com right here.

If you are doing this for the first time, we highly recommend that you follow the step-by-step instructions in the videos below. It can be a little tricky the first time through, but the videos will get you through the process without any problems....

*Video: "How To Register A Domain Name"

#5) Sign Up For Website Hosting

Now that you have a domain name, you will need somewhere to host your sites. You can do that at GoDaddy.com, but we use Host Gator because they are less expensive for hosting and they do a great job.

We have not had any problems with Host Gator and they handle spikes in website traffic very well.

Hosting your website on Host Gator is really easy. You can sign up for a hosting account on Host Gator by clicking here.

Once again, don't let this process intimidate you. It is not that hard. In fact, if this is your first time doing this, just let the two videos below guide you step-by-step through the process....

*Video: How To Buy Hosting on Host Gator

*Video: Pointing Your Domain At Your Hosting Account

#6) Install And Set Up WordPress

WordPress is the blogging software that the vast majority of professional bloggers use. It is free, easy to use and it is being constantly updated. Once you have set up hosting with Host Gator, installing WordPress and setting it up is a breeze.

The following three videos will take you step-by-step through the process of installing WordPress, setting up a new WordPress theme for your site and installing the very important "All-In-One SEO Pack Plugin" for WordPress....

*Video: Finalizing Hosting And Installing WordPress

*Video: How To Install A New WordPress Theme

*Video: How To Install The All-In-One SEO Pack Plugin For WordPress

#7) Start Blogging

Before you put up any ads, you will want to start writing and putting up articles. This is the fun part.
If you are new to blogging, we encourage you to read over Darren Rowse's excellent blog about blogging: ProBlogger.

#8) Choose The Right Ad Programs

Once you have got your blog going for a bit you can start to put up ads. This is how you are going to make money. People are going to come to your blog and then they are going to click on the ads.
That is the beautiful thing about niche blogging - you never have to sell anything, ship packages or deal with customers. You make money from the ad revenue that your blogs bring in. You will want to select ad networks and affiliate programs that relate well to the subject of your blog. After all, a blog about cat sweaters is not going to do a very good job of getting people to click on ads about football jerseys.

The following are the ad networks that we use. Each one has different policies and procedures, so be certain to read the rules for each ad network as you sign up for them....

*Google Adsense

*Ebay Partner Network - If you sign up with the Ebay Partner Network, we highly recommend that you use the phpBay Pro WordPress plugin to feature Ebay items on your website. That plugin will enable you to create pages that are constantly updating with the latest items up for sale on Ebay that relate to your niche.

*Amazon Associates

*Chitika

*The Pepperjam Network

#9) Write Great Content

This is the most overlooked step by most bloggers. The truth is that there is a ton of garbage out there on the Internet. In order to get your blog to stand out you are simply going to have to write something either really good or really helpful. Always remember - content is king in the world of blogging. If your articles are great then your blog has a good chance of succeeding in the long run. If your content is trash, you might be able to generate some blog traffic for a little while but in the end your blog will be a failure.

For much more on how to succeed as a blogger, we recommend the following excellent resource from Darren Rowse: ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income.

#10) Build Your Links

Once you have built your blog, you are ready for the traffic to start pouring in. But it will not "pour in" at first. It will come a little sprinkle at a time in the beginning. In order to get a ton of traffic from the search engines, you will need to get on to the first page of Google for your keyword. To get on to the first page of Google you have to build lots of links to your blog. Google basically looks at links as "votes" for your site. The sites that get the best and the most links are the sites that are going to rank the highest for that keyword (everything else being equal). The Google ranking formula is actually extremely complicated, but links always have been, and probably always will be, an absolutely crucial factor in determining how high your site will be ranked.

So how many links will you need to get your blog on to the first page of Google? For a non-competitive keyword you may only need 10 links, while for a really competitive keyword you may need a million links. A great tool for seeing how competitive your keyword is going to be is the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. That tool will show you how much traffic is typically generated for your keyword. The higher the traffic that keyword typically generates, the more competition you will probably have.

When you are first starting out, it is best to target keywords that are not highly competitive. After you have been successful in getting on to the first page of Google for some non-competitive keywords, then you will have the confidence to battle for some bigger keywords.

So how do you build the links that you will need to get on to the first page of Google. The two articles listed below provide plenty of ways to start getting those links....

*Article: How to Really Build Backlinks and Dominate Google

*Article: Getting Website Traffic in 2010

#11) See What Is Working And What Is Not And Refine Your System

The Internet is constantly changing, so you must continually monitor your results. If you do not know how to use Google Analytics, you will need to learn how to. It will tell you how many visits your blog is getting and where your traffic is coming from. When you find something that is working for your blog, you know that you can repeat that for another blog. When you find something that is not working you know that you need to refine your system.

Becoming a very successful blogger is not going to happen overnight.

It takes time and a massive amount of hard work. In fact, in your first month of blogging you will be lucky to make a couple of bucks.

But if you stick with it you can definitely make a lot of money blogging.

In fact, one day when you are sitting at home working in your underwear making more money than you ever dreamed you will want to thank us for telling you the truth.

Unfortunately, statistics show that over 90 percent of those reading this article will not stick with blogging long enough to succeed.

If you want to be a successful blogger, tell yourself that you are determined to be in the 10 percent that simply will not give up until you have achieved victory.

It is not easy, but great rewards have always taken incredibly hard work.

After all, who ultimately becomes Olympic champions - the thousands that just dabble in a sport or the few who commit everything that they have to becoming the best that they can be?

If you are willing to commit and work very hard, you can be wildly successful at blogging and you can make a lot of money on the Internet.

But will you?

8 Reasons Why Your Blog Stinks

2013-12-29T17:46:00.000-08:00

Today there are literally millions of blogs on the Internet. In fact, according to Technorati there are over 100 million blogs on the Internet. So why in the world would anyone want to read your blog? Is there anything special about your blog that would cause someone to want to spend time there? The truth is that the vast majority of the blogs on the Internet are garbage and are destined to fail horribly. For many of these blogs, it is because the owners are simply too lazy to put in the hard work necessary for them to succeed. For others, the owners may be trying really hard but they simply do not know what it takes to succeed. But it isn't that hard. With a little knowledge and a lot of hard work, you can make money on the Internet by blogging. Unfortunately, most people will never come close to getting there. The following are 8 reasons why most blogs don't get read and are going to fail miserably....

#1) Ugly Layout

Nobody wants to read a blog that is stone cold ugly. You know what I am talking about. No matter how great the writing is, if a blog looks like it has been hit by an ugly stick then nobody is even going to stick around long enough to read anything.

Just like in life, looks matter. If you want to have a successful blog, then it must be attractive. This is the real world. Get used to it.

#2) Too Many Ads

This may come as a shock to you, but people don't come to your blog to read advertisements. They just don't. But of course if you want to make money you have got to advertise something. Just don't be an idiot about it. Don't wrap your blog posts from head to toe with obnoxious ads that are going to give people a headache.

Your readers are going to be pissed off if they see Adsense at the top, middle and bottom of each article. They are going to be REALLY pissed off if stuff starts popping up over the top of everything.

And you know what? Pissed off readers will not come back to your blog.

#3) Your Site Is Too Slow

Do you want to know how much time you have got to get the attention of someone new who visits your blog?

Less than 2 seconds.

If your blog does not load quickly you are dead.

So don't overload your blog with obnoxious widgets that will massively slow down loading times.

Keep it simple.

#4) You Never Update Your Blog

If people are going to keep coming back to a blog they expect it to be updated on a regular basis. If the last time you updated your blog it looked like Hillary Clinton was going to be the next president, then you have got a problem.

Seriously, if you want your blog to have a chance at success, you have to update it at least a couple of times per week. Otherwise you might as well pack it in.

#5) Heavy Handed Moderating

We have all seen blogs with heavy handed moderators, haven't we? The new blog owner thinks that he or she is a little Kim Jong Il and starts insulting visitors and deleting everything in sight.

The truth is that people do not come to your blog to be bullied by you. Owning a blog is not about being a dictator. Get over it. The reality is that if you are nice to the people who visit your blog they might actually come back.

#6) Lack Of Moderation

This is the flip side of the problem talked about above. Some blog owners do not moderate their blogs at all, and it ends up being a spamfest filled with shout outs for male enhancement products and debt reduction solutions.

Who in the world wants to visit that?

So pay attention to what is going on in your blog. If you let the spammers take control, you blog is finished.

#7) Your Writing Stinks

If you have this problem, then you might as well stop blogging right now.

Or go back to school.

Seriously.

This is one of the biggest problems in the blogging world.

Most people who visit your blog are coming to read your writing.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of bloggers are not very good writers.

And if your writing stinks, your visitors are just not going to come back.

So if you are having trouble getting loyal readers, you might want to check and see if your writing passes the smell test.

#8) You Don't Publicize Your Blog

Most people who start blogging have no idea how to do this, but the reality is that this is one of the easiest problems to fix.

The truth is that with so many blogs out there, it is absolutely imperative to publicize your blog.

People are not going to show up just because you decided to write something.

Even if what you have written is the greatest thing since sliced bread, nobody is going to care enough to read it - unless you publicize it.

After all, why should the people out in Internetland visit your blog and not one of the other 100 million blogs out there that look exactly like yours?

And how are people going to find your little blog when it is on the 57th page of Google search results?

The truth is that if you want to succeed at blogging you need to learn how to properly publicize your blog and you need to learn how to start building legitimate, long term traffic that will bring you lasting blogging success.

So how in the world do you do that?

Well, most people out there want to charge you $70 for an E-book that will explain how to do that, but we have put together a FREE guide that will tell you exactly what you need to do. The truth is that it is not that hard. The guide that we have put together will take you through the process of developing a successful blog from A to Z and back to A again. For those of you who are not afraid of a little hard work and who are absolutely determined to succeed at blogging, you can find our free guide to blogging success in the article above this one.

Crazy Day Blogging

2013-02-16T18:47:00.003-08:00

Whew. I wish you could hear where I am writing right now. Between the people talking, the phones ringing, the radios blaring and the dogs barking I should not be able to keep a sentence in my head. So how am I writing, you ask? Well after a little while in this I have figured out a few tips to productive blogging even in chaos:

Crank up the music –The first thing I do when I am surrounded by chaos is to try and block as much of it as I can. Most of that confusion is audio so music is a great way to drown it out. Invest in a good set of noise canceling head phones or ear buds and put on your favorite tunes. For me, music with lyrics is a no-no. When I hear words I stop and listen to them instead of writing. Either that or I type the lyrics! That is just great, right? Going along, writing a good article on ten ways to blah blah blah and suddenly “I can see clearly now, the rain is gone”. Pretty funny. Anyway, I try to put on instrumental music or nature sounds. The faster the music the faster I write. The slower the music the calmer I am. It all depends on what my needs are that day. I love to listen to Pandora, an internet radio site, and get a great variety of instrumental music there.
Turn off the phones – Another thing I do is to turn off my phone. Many times I have been in the middle of a great train of thought and had it ruined by a phone call or text. Thus I have learned to just turn it off. Even Facebook notifications and email notifications are a hassle. Vibration mode is not much better, but if you absolutely cannot turn off the phone it is the lesser of two evils. If you expect people to freak out if you are out of contact for an hour or two send a mass text message before hand and then shut it down!
Shut down social media – Another big distraction and time waster is social media. You do not have to check status updates and tweets twenty four hours a day. I myself have wasted valuable writing time on social media and regretted it keenly later on. Even picture media, like on Pinterest, can fritter away the hours right from beneath your very nose. (If you wonder at my language I hear Pride and Prejudice going on in the background and cannot help but pick up some of the vernacular.)
Sit up straight –I have posture problems. I really do. And although it seems like it should not be a big deal it oftentimes is. When you sit at your computer in a bad position you increase your risk of back and wrist pain, which can distract you from your writing and eventually even make you stop writing, possibly forever. When it is time to write for your blog find a place where you can sit up and be in the proper position. Sitting up right also gives you the benefit of extra oxygen. You can take deeper breaths, which means more fuel for your brain. The more fuel the better!
Have your own area – Speaking of sitting up to work it is best if you get a desk or work space to work at. Having your own work area makes it easier to stay organized, which is very important. You do not want to waste time trying to find things that you need. If you can, try to pick a place that is off the beaten path and has a door you can close for privacy and to block the noise. A kitchen or living room is usually not a good place but a bedroom or out of the way sitting area is. You can even use a closet if you need to.
Set aside writing time – If you write at the same time every day the people around you that are causing all the distractions will get used to it. That is not to say that they will quit being distracting, but if you say no enough times they will get the picture. This is also true of phone calls. The more regularly you set aside time the less people will bother you.
Make an outline – I love outlines because they keep me on task. In confusing situations I find myself having a hard time remembering what my points would be. When I make an outline it helps me to clarify what points I want to make, what order to put them in and kind of gives me an idea of how long my writing will be. Setting deadlines is easier when you have an outline because you can schedule a certain amount of time for each section. Then you feel like you are accomplishing something even a little at a time.
List posts – Yikes. I am glad I made this into a list post because it has gotten worse here, not better. Now Gone with the Wind is blaring in my ears. List posts have many advantages. They allow you to get your points down all at once so you will not forget what you are doing, especially with interruptions. List posts are naturally choppy, and anyone can write a hundred words at a time. If you are having a hard time keeping your thoughts in line then list posts are the way to go. List posts are also popular with readers as it is easy for them to scan quickly. It is also easy to see how long it is before they ever click to read it. For example a list post with the title “5 Ways to Eat Tofu” will be shorter than one that says “25 Ways to Eat Soy Beans”.
Keep it short –Short and sweet is the best way to get blogging done quickly. Readers love short posts because it allows them to scan and glance at a post and get the idea. Summaries are a lot easier to read and quicker too. Most people do not have the time or energy to read pages and pages of text bit they will read a few hundred words. Writers love short posts too because you can have a lot of content for the same amount of work. Try to shoot for around five hundred words. Any longer and you lose readers but any shorter and you lose search engines!
Stick with what you know –When you have a lot going on the best way to keep writing is to write what you know. You do not have the time or concentration level to do good research or read a lot of notes. Instead write what you are familiar with and what comes easy for you. It will make it much easier to get a post done quickly.

We all have times in our lives that chaos gets the better of us. However we also know that keeping your blog updated is crucial to success. Balancing our environment with our blogging is not always easy but it can be done. Even the least promising blogging situations can still be an opportunity to be productive. All you have to do is make the best of your circumstances and get to work!

About the Author:

Ken Myers is an expert advisor on in-home care & related family safety issues to many websites and groups. He is a regular contributor to www.gonannies.com. You can get in touch with him at kmyers.ceo@gmail.com.

Thriving in the Online Marketplace

2013-01-25T16:15:00.002-08:00

Internet commerce has taken off in an epic way, and you have yet to take advantage of it. There are so many places to peddle your goods and services that it can get dizzying at times. Giants like eBay or Amazon are surrounded by more specialized sites like Etsy, Rock & Dirt, Overstock, Ubid, NextTruck Online, and an even bigger horde of free, albeit somehow less reputable online venues.

You need to start selling to make some revenue. Wat do?

Know Where Your Target Market Shops

It’s futile to put up your wares where your target audience isn’t at. While there are general auction and sales sites like eBay, you have to make an effort to find sites and online communities where the people you intend to sell to hang out. It’s different for every product or service, so you really have to make an effort and search. Google is your friend in this endeavor, so don’t worry and start looking.

Obviously, post on more than one site. Don’t go overboard with those places that charge for just putting up your goods on sale or auction, you might end up eating your profits before they even arrive.

Price According To What They Are Willing to Pay (and display it)

Now is not the time to be coy about how much you’re willing to ask for your goods. Online folk get pretty antsy when you are evasive about your prices and specifications; they need all the information at hand so they can compare and decide.

I’m assuming you’re not one of the big fish in your market, but you really do not need to be the cheapest (nor should you be the most expensive). Price your products somewhere in the lower-middle end, but have little extras or bundling promos and shipping discounts so your goods will look like the more attractive proposition.

Get Personal

Not in a bad way, mind you. You merely have to be responsive to customer inquiries and make them feel that they are being given the proper attention. We’ve all encountered those who feel extra-entitled just because they’re the one handing you money, but you can’t use the minority of the purchasing public as a basis for the way you treat every customer.

Unambiguous, fast, and generally trouble-free transactions keep the customers coming back, remember.

Stay Relevant

Though you should sell a few obscure or antiquated items (especially if you’re in the antiques business), you should also have your ear to the ground on the new products and services being offered in your particular segment of the market. It pays to keep up with the trends to find out what your customers currently want.

Listen to your customer feedback as well. You can’t grant everything they’re asking for, but if you notice that a lot of your clientele are asking for the same thing, you’d best be offering that product very soon.

This also involves snooping in on the competition to see what’s selling on their end, as well.

With these simple but solid tips, you should be on your way to selling more and hitting revenue targets way easier. Onward to a more prosperous online business!

About the Author

Stacey Thompson is a professional writer, marketer, entrepreneur, and a lover of weird little animals. She is based in San Diego, California, and is currently working on her gang’s group blog, Word Baristas.

High Speed Internet Protection For The Blogger On The Go

2013-01-08T11:58:00.001-08:00

The high speed internet that allows you immense freedoms could, unfortunately, also be the source of your heartache if you're not careful. In this day and age, security of information is more important than ever. Wi-fi internet is everywhere. On almost every corner there is a coffee shop or a fast food restaurant that offers free Wi-fi. There are some cities that are wireless access zones where no matter where you go you remain in a wireless hotspot. As high speed internet continues to revolutionize the access to information, never has it been more important to consider the potential troublesome ramifications. If you are a blogger on the go you probably relish the fact that you can sit in your favorite coffee house with your favorite cup of java and be right in the center of your work. Here are a few safety tips to consider while chugging away at the keyboard on both familiar and unfamiliar wi-fi networks.

Basic security measures

* Make sure your operating system is fully updated. You usually get automatic notices, or automatic updates. But if you don’t do this a lot of your online tools start to breakdown. Other software is geared toward the latest update and the latest security patch could be the one that fills the breach in your system.

* Activate your firewall. Even if you don’t understand what a firewall is, if you have virus software (you Windows owners do, don’t you?) that will help give you not just a veneer of security but a real obstacle to people who may just be “joyriding” the superhighway looking for easy targets.

* Use quality and frequently updated antivirus and spyware software.

Look for the key and the “s”

By now you have probably been using the internet long enough to know that when you are on a website with private information you can rest assured that it is secure, IF there is a little key in the corner of the address bar. The same is true when you are out and about using Wi-fi. Also, look for the “s” at the end of http, which stands for “secure”.

Use only trusted high speed internet networks

Ask the establishment whose Wi-fi network you are using what the exact name of their network is. Don’t accidentally use a hacker’s network by getting the name wrong.

Get your own high speed internet

If you are constantly traveling and using Wi-fi connections, you might want to consider purchasing a monthly plan through a cellular or wireless high speed internet provider. Personal hot-spots and mi-fi cards have come a long way since they were first introduced not that long ago. Like you, people like to get around and stay connected. Like you, they sometimes want and need secure connections and less worry. No more worrying about Wi-fi security. Blog safely on the go by following these security measures and have peace of mind. One more thing – airplanes. When you have your laptop open in the plane or in the terminal, people are generally closer together. They can see what’s on your screen. Don’t embarrass yourself; don’t be the source of a security problem.

Best Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website

2012-12-06T18:05:00.001-08:00

When it comes to driving traffic to your website, there are so many different things that you can do to improve your results each day. Some of the best ways to drive traffic to your website are absolutely free and others are not. Whether you use free, paid or a combination of free and paid techniques to start driving visitors to your website, you will be on your way to driving more traffic to your website.

Submit Articles to High Ranking Free Article Directories

One of the best ways to drive traffic to your website is to begin submitting articles to free article directories that rank well on search engines. Before submitting your articles to an article directory, you want to take the time to make certain the article directory you are interested in allows you to provide one or more links to your website. If an article directory has a high page rank and allows you to embed a link to your website in the body of your article or in a resource section, then you should consider submitting articles on a regular basis. As visitors read your articles and click on the link in the article or in the resource section, you will start receiving more visitors.

Post Videos to YouTube and Other Video Sharing Websites

Another free and effective way to drive traffic to your website is to post videos to YouTube or other video sharing websites. This is considered one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website because YouTube and other video sharing website are absolutely free to use. In addition, video sharing sites attract millions of visitors each month. As visitors watch your videos, they can click on a link to your website.

Start a Link Building Campaign to Drive More Visitors to Your Website

If your goal is to drive more traffic to your website, then you should consider starting a link building campaign. Whether you choose to start a link building campaign on your own or you pay a company to do this for you, link building is extremely important when it comes to driving traffic to a website. It is very important to make sure you have a large number of incoming links from high ranking websites. This is because search engines like Google prefer sites that have incoming links from high ranking websites.

Offer Your Visitors Free Items and Bonuses

Offering visitors free items and bonuses is definitely one of the best ways to drive traffic to a website. Websites that offer free giveaways to visitors often see an increase in traffic because visitors like free deals. Bonuses and giveaways also help drive traffic to website because everyone likes sharing a good find with others while using social networking sites. By offering a free giveaway, you will automatically start driving more traffic to your website.

Optimize Your Website For Search Engines

In addition to all the other things you can do to drive traffic to your website, you should also take the time to optimize your website for all the major search engines. Whether you take the time to optimize each page of your website on your own or pay an expert to do it for you, by taking the time to optimize all of your pages you will be on your way to driving more traffic to your website. Optimization is important because search engine spiders prefer websites that are optimized. If your title, meta tags, keywords, content and other aspects of your website are not optimized for search engines spiders, then you will have great difficulty driving traffic to your website.

By taking the time to use some or all of the best ways to drive traffic to your website discussed above, you will be on your to driving traffic to your website. Whether you choose to submit article to article directories, post videos to video sharing websites, start a link building campaign, offer visitors free items or optimize your website for search engines, you will be on your way to achieving your goals and driving more traffic to your website soon.

Author Bio

Katelyn Roberts is a frequent contributor for NetQin. She writes on a wide variety of topics including technology,green living and entertainment

Best Places For Online Gaming

2012-10-29T12:19:00.001-07:00

The idea of bringing the arcade experience of yesterday right at your fingertips wherever you can get Internet access has been around for more than a decade or so now. Online gaming is a favorite way to spend downtime for many people. When it comes to online gaming, there are many choices in cyberspace. The most popular online gaming sites tend to be ones that are free. Serious gamers, however, don't mind spending a little green for an enhanced gaming experience via their PC, laptop, or smartphone. Here are some of the best places to enjoy online gaming:

Free Online Games

Games.com

Games.com, powered by America Online, offers hundreds of free online games. Many of the games can be downloaded and others can be played directly through streaming. Some of the games offer cash competitions as rewards for outstanding players. Games on this site include: sports games, casino games, puzzle games, online versions of popular board games, and word games. If you do sign up, you get the added option of chatting with other players in real-time as you play.

Gamehouse.com

Formerly Real Arcade, Game House offers a decent selection of games. You have the option of opening an account, but you don't have to do so in order to play. Most of the games are played online, while some require downloading. You do get the opportunity to earn cash for some of casino games. Popular games on the site include action and adventure games, card games, arcade games, and word games. If you play without an account, you usually run into ads here and there. Most of these disappear quickly though, but it can be a slight distraction.

Yahoo Games

You'll find plenty of free games here to entertain you on Yahoo Games. There are ads that appear before the games start, but you can usually skip them after a few seconds. The only requirement for playing free games is to have a Yahoo account, which is also free. You get the usually selection of games, from casino games and board games to card games and word games. Attractive features include updates on popular games such as Rock Band and the inclusion of versions of the popular Sims game.

Shockwave

Most games on Shockwave require Macromedia Flash Player, which can be downloaded for free via the site. Popular games on the site include arcade games, adventure games, games for kids, photo games, sports games, and board games. You get a decent mix of both games you can play online after you download the required Flash Player and downloadable games.

Paid Online Games

Star Wars Combine

It's easy to see why a game dealing with the Star Wars is popular. Avid gamers will appreciate the different play options. You get to meet most of the major Star Wars characters along the way.

Mario Games

Mario has been a popular game character since the days of arcade shops at the mall and home game consoles. Most of the popular Mario characters are found here.

A Living Universe

If you want a lot of multiplayer options set against a science fiction backdrop, this is the site for you. This Massively Multiplayer On-Line Game (MMPOG) offers space and science fiction games you can play with other gamers or friends who also sign up.

Notorious Online

If you want the action of the Grand Theft Auto games, you'll find it with this collection of games centered around dangerous streets filled with murderers and unfortunate pedestrians occasionally caught in the crossfire. The graphics are decent and there are enough game play options to keep you entertained for hours.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

You can't play most World of Warcraft games strictly online without first purchasing the game or downloading the necessary software. If you want the WoW experience online, however, you can enjoy it with World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. There's plenty of game action to keep you busy and the graphics are really good.

Author Bio

Kathleen Martins is a blogger for Torch browser: the best internet browser for gamers.

The Basics Of Internet Marketing: What Are SEO And SEM?

2012-04-24T19:30:00.000-07:00

Despite the way that social has catapulted itself to the top of the internet, most people still find out about new brands and sites from the search engines, not their social networks. As a marketer, your eyes have to be on the search results, wondering what you can do to capitalize on all that traffic. The answer lies in search engine marketing (SEM), and search engine optimization (SEO).

Explaining the Acronym Storm

What do these terms really mean? Well, to make things a bit more confusing, SEM is sometimes used to describe any form of promotion that takes advantage of the search engines. Other times, it is used to refer exclusively to paid search, the ads that display above and next to the search results. SEO, on the other hand, is based on an understanding of the search engine algorithms. The goal of SEO is to improve a site's visibility in the normal search results, also called the "organic" search results.

For this reason, SEO is sometimes categorized as a portion of SEM, and sometimes they are considered to separate things. For the rest of this article, we will use SEO to describe tackling the organic search results, and use paid search to refer to advertising on the search results and using other paid methods for search visibility.

The Essentials of SEO

We only have enough time to scratch the surface, but here are the most important takeaways.

- Keyword Research - This is all about identifying which keywords to target. SEO requires an investment of time and energy, and sometimes money, so it shouldn't be wasted on going after the wrong keywords. The popularity, potential profitability, and competition revolving around a keyword must all be taken into account.

- Page Optimization - The keyword should be included in the title and placed appropriately throughout the article. On-page optimization is also being expanded to adapt to changes in the algorithms that target low quality content, excessive advertising, and poor user experience.

- Site Optimization - Bad coding can hurt a site's chances of showing up in the search results. Other factors include internal linking structures, sitemaps, domain names, and possibly loading speed, among other things.

- Link Building - One of the strongest signals of authority is whether or not other sites are linking to pages on your site. The location of these links, the kinds of sites that link to you, the relevance of the links, the text in the links, and many other factors effect how this impacts search results. Outreach is an important part of this. Outreach is also being expanded into the social realm, as social signals are starting to become another off-site indicator of trust, relevance, and authority.

The Basics of Paid Search

Here are some of the things that paid search marketers are thinking about as part of there process.

- Keyword Research - Once again, identifying the right keywords is an important part of the process. In this case, you're entering an auction and paying to display an ad when users search for a particular keyword, so this becomes an incredibly important part of the process.

- Ad Copy - The ads themselves need to be tested and adjusted on a continual basis in order to improve the click through rate, and sometimes even the conversion rate (the percentage of visitors who end up taking an action such as buying or subscribing). Some knowledge of statistics combined with marketing experience is important to make this work.

- Landing Page Optimization - When you are paying for traffic, you want to get as much out of each visitor as possible. Testing changes on the landing page to see if they improve results is an important part of the process.

- Buying Funnel Analysis - It's not always the keyword, the ad, or the landing page that is the problem. In some cases, the way that these are lined up with one another is the real issue. Testing how well keywords, ads, and landing pages match with one another is another important element.

- Split Testing - If the previous points haven't driven this one home yet, split testing is a crucial part of almost every element of paid search. Every change must be tested against the most successful version, and the most successful version must always be tested against potentially better versions.

Conclusion

This should give you an idea of what SEO and SEM are all about. If you have any questions we'd love to point you in the right direction.

Author Bio Stacy Dewald is a blogger for the Moby Tickets official site.

Urgent Blogging News Update: If You Are Republishing Full Newspaper Articles On Your Website You Need To Stop NOW!

2010-07-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

After years of allowing blogs to repost full copies of their articles, mainstream newspapers are now cracking down in a big way. Lawsuits are sprouting up all over the place, and many website owners are having to pay out thousands and thousands of dollars in damages. If you are republishing full newspaper articles on your website you need to stop NOW. That is not an exaggeration. There are now bots scanning the web as you read this looking for people to sue. This is very real.

Just check out the ordeal that Godlike Productions has been going through....

GLP IS UNDER ATTACK!! PLEASE HELP!! Send a Simple Email To Help Us Stay Online!!: http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1139887/pg1

It's All Out War On Alternative Media Sites!!!! - WE MUST FORM A COALITION!!: http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1141462/pg1

Reuters President Responds To GLP Emails...: http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1141475/pg1

Needless to say, this new trend is going to ROCK the blogging world.

As soon as you are done reading this article, you need to go to your sites and make sure you are removing all full copies of mainstream newspaper articles.

This is a very serious crackdown that you do NOT want to get caught in the middle of.

Blogging News Update: New Law Would Allow Barack Obama To Shut Down The Internet For Four Months

2010-06-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

How would you feel if you could not get on the Internet for four months? Especially for those of us who battle with Internet addiction, it would be a complete and total disaster. Well, a new law being pushed through the U.S. Senate would give Barack Obama the power to shut down the Internet for at least four months without Congressional approval whenever he wants to.

You read that correctly. The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, which was approved by a key Senate committee yesterday, would give Barack Obama unprecedented power over the Internet.

The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, which is being pushed hard by Senator Joe Lieberman, would hand absolute power over the Internet to Barack Obama whenever this is a declared national emergency.

And these days presidents have been declaring "national emergencies" for just about anything.

In essence, what this bill is going to do is give Barack Obama a "kill switch" for the Internet.

Talk about a killer for freedom of speech!

The truth is that the great freedom that we have enjoyed on the Internet is not going to last forever. Governments around the world are increasingly taking control over it. A time is rapidly approaching when you are not going to be able to say whatever you want online.

And in times of "national emergency" you might not be able to get online at all.

So enjoy the Internet while you can.

Because the world is changing - and not for the better.

Large Numbers Of WordPress Blogs Being Hacked?

2010-05-21T18:40:00.000-07:00

The latest blogging news and tips from around the blogosphere....

According to various reports, in the past few days a large number of websites created using WordPress have been hacked. While the attack initially appeared to be limited to websites hosted by American ISP DreamHost, it has since become apparent that blogs hosted at GoDaddy, Bluehost and Media Temple have also been affected.

Over on SEOMoz, there is a huge debate brewing about the importance of great content.

Will political blogs soon face regulation by the Federal Election Commission?

If you are confused about SEO, you might want to check out this article: "Google Experts Answer your SEO Questions".

It is being reported that Blogger is in the process of deleting a large number of blogs that violate the Blogger terms of service. Is your blog in danger of being deleted?

Copyblogger has posted an article that has some very interesting ideas about how to draw in lots of new readers.

For those looking for new ways to build backlinks, SmartBloggerz has a new article with over 20 suggestions.

Owen Paepke is explaining why the Facebook "Like" button is not going to change the world.

If you have a new blog and you are not sure how to promote it, you might want to check out this article.

Darren Rowse has some great tips on ways to find great pictures for your blog.

If you enjoy reading this blog, please be sure to visit our brand new instructional websites as well: How To Get Out Of Debt and How To Make Money On The Internet.

There are two books on Amazon that we are recommending to all of our readers....

#1) Apollyon Rising 2012: The Lost Symbol Found and the Final Mystery of the Great Seal Revealed - What Tom Horn has to say about what occultists believe about the year 2012 will absolutely astound you!

#2) The Hebrew Yeshua vs. the Greek Jesus - Nehemia Gordon does a good job of revealing the Hebrew roots of the Christian faith in this excellent book.

If you haven't gotten an iPad yet, a great place to get a massive discount is on Ebay.

If you are looking to make some extra money online, we very much encourage you to check out The ShoeMoney System.

We also encourage you to check out our brand new shop: The Economic Collapse Bookstore

Lastly, we want to ask you a very important question.

If you died tonight, where would you go?

Would you go to heaven?

Are you sure?

If you are not 100 percent certain of the answer to that question, then we urge you to read the following article: What Does The Bible Say About Salvation?

$1053 In One Week? Here's How To Make Money Online The Right Way....

2010-04-25T15:23:00.000-07:00

If you're not making at least $1000 a week and want a "fool proof" step by step system for getting there... then listen up!

We here at Blogging News are always looking for the best new ways to make money online, and Jeremy Schoemaker (you know him as Shoemoney) has released a system that you rae just going to love. In fact, he is already raving about one of his Shoemoney System students that made over $1053 in his first week.

Check out the email this student sent to Jeremy...

"Hi Jeremy, I just wanted to update you on my progress with your system. I went through your Facebook Advertising lessons on Sunday, and got started that night making my first campaign.

After 3 days of testing and breaking even, I went back through the videos and something in my head just finally clicked on!

I made some changes to the ad copy and my landing page, and over the past week or so I've made $1,053 in profit all from advertising on Facebook.

I cant thank you enough - I'm absolutely blown away. I've struggled for the past 3 years to try and make money online and nothing has worked. I have 2 blogs that make about $20 bucks a month, and I lost my ass on a Google PPC campaign a few months ago...

But I think I'm really onto something here with the Facebook Ads and I cant thank you enough.

I even took my girlfriend out to this new steak house we've been dying to try out for the past 2 months. I think this is the first time she's ever believed that I could actually make money online haha!

Thanks again Shoe!"

- "Jeff" from Florida

Pretty cool huh?

BTW if you want to try out the system that "Jeff " used
to get these results, check out the link below...

The ShoeMoney System

This is really an extraordinary system!

Some of the stuff he goes over I have literally never
seen before online...

Things like arbitraging on eBay - which you basically buy stuff
for $100 and sell it for $150. If you do 4 of these a day you're
on your way to $1000 a week pretty easily.

And not only is it really easy, but Jeremy even has a really
simple trick for doing this without spending even a penny.

Along with the eBay arbitrage lessons Jeremy has 7 indepth
lessons on making BIG money with Facebook advertising.

Now Im not sure if you know this or not, but Jeremy is one of the
top 3 biggest advertisers in the world on Facebook. Literally...

Last time we talked, he was banking $5,000+ each and every day
solely from Facebook Ads! That's damn impressive!

These are only a few of the BIG things he covered already in the course.

Like I said this is one of the best step-by-step systems
for making real money online in a matter of a few days.

And the best part is, there's a 60 day money back guarantee...

If you don't like the program for any reason, or see the results
you want you'll get 100% of your money back. So there's
really no reason not to give it a shot.

I highly recommend you checking out Jeremy's video now
explaining the system...

The ShoeMoney System

Enjoy!

P.S. - In the Shoemoney System you'll be learning from a guy who's
been in the "trenches" and has made over $10 million in the past few years online.

He's one of the few guys in this industry who actually walks the walk...

Here's the link again for his video on the Shoemoney System...

The ShoeMoney System

Is The Death Of YouTube On The Horizon?

2010-03-22T16:09:00.000-07:00

The latest blogging news and tips from around the blogosphere....

Viacom's lawsuit against YouTube is going pretty well, and many analysts are now speculating that a victory by Viacom in this lawsuit could mean the death of YouTube as we know it.

Blogger is getting rave reviews for the great new template designer that they have rolled out.

On the other hand, bloggers who have suddenly had their blogs deleted are not that thrilled with Blogger at this point.

Why are so many bloggers jumping on the bandwagon of multi-author blogs?

More than 10 billion tweets have been sent through Twitter since the microblogging service launched in 2006.

Did you know that Facebook now has more than 400 million active users?

If you are new to blogging, then you should most definitely check out the latest post on Viperchill: "The Most Important Blog Post You’ll Probably Never Read".

Is Google becoming a social media company?

Susan Gunelius is sharing 10 ways to use Facebook to bring more traffic to your blog.

Many people turn to blogging as a way to make some extra money and to get out of financial trouble. But making more money is only part of the equation. You also need to get out of debt. For those struggling with this, we encourage you to check out our new blog: How To Get Out Of Debt.

Copyblogger is sharing "the secret ingredient" to building an irresistible blog.

Lastly, we have put together a very long and detailed (and free) guide on how to make money on the Internet. Please go check it out and let us know what you think.

Domain Name Registrars Will Be Raising Their Prices?

2010-02-27T20:34:00.000-08:00

The latest blogging news and tips from around the blogosphere....

*Effective July 1st, most domain name registrars will be raising their prices on .com and .net domain name registrations due to VeriSign raising prices on them.

*Are you looking for new ways to build links to your blog? If so, you should check out this new article on Viperchill: How To Really Build Backlinks And Dominate Google.

*If you are looking for some great blogs that will accept guest posts, then you should check out this list.

*Is your blog not getting any comments? If so, here are 8 reasons why that might be.

*Do you need a new design for your Blogger blog? Is so, Blogger Buster has about 80 great ideas for you.

*Still trying to figure out the world of social media? If so, you might want to check out this article by Copyblogger: The 7 Harsh Realities of Social Media Marketing.

*There are a lot of people talking about how to make money on the Internet, but are there some Internet marketing secrets that nobody wants you to know?

*Lastly, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says that blogging is old news. Could it be possible that blogging is not as "hot" as it used to be?

350 Million Users On Facebook - How Many Of Them Are Coming To Your Blog?

2010-01-23T21:03:00.000-08:00

The latest blogging news and tips from around the blogosphere....

Did you know that there are over 350 million users that are active on Facebook? How many of them are you reaching?

Many Internet marketers are now turning to Facebook pages to get more traffic. In fact, John Haydon has some really interesting ideas for exactly how to do that.

It turns out that Digg is finally getting a much-needed overhaul. Will this impact how blogs are marketed on Digg?

Deb Ng has posted a guest article on ProBlogger entitled "8 Tips for Rocking a Crowded Blog Niche".

With the new changes to Google, is 2010 going to be the beginning of the end for quality content on the Internet?

The Keyword Academy has a very interesting article up about the difference between running a blog and running a "supersite".

Do you know how to research your competition on Google? If not, then you might want to check out this article by Soggy.

10 Things You Should Always Do in a Blog Post – An interesting list of really useful blogging tips.

Are you getting frustrated with Twitter? If so, you might want to read this article: "How to Get Your Blog Post Retweeted".

Copyblogger wants to teach all of us "how to blog like Shakespeare".

Is there really a way to make big money as a blogger without being a total slimeball?

10 Online Advertising Trends in 2010 - are you ready for the major changes coming to the world of Internet advertising?

There has been a huge rise in Facebook and Twitter accounts that have been getting hacked. Do you know how to prevent this?

Selling blogs continues to be a growing trend in the blogging community in 2010.

Lastly, Google has announced that they will no longer support FTP publishing on Blogger after March 26, 2010.

Wow! Squidoo Is Now One Of The Top 100 Sites In The United States!

2009-12-12T19:35:00.000-08:00

The latest blogging news and tips from around the blogosphere....

*Squidoo is now one of the top 100 sites in the U.S. in traffic. If you gave up on Squidoo perhaps it is time to give them another look.

*ProBlogger is stressing the importance of having your own product to sell.

*Is your blog getting stale? Here are ten new WordPress plugins you may want to try out.

*Speaking of plugins, the latest version of the "Sexy Bookmarks" WordPress plugin has been released.

*Need even more plugins? You can find over 100 WordPress plugins reviewed here.

*Soggy has posted a video that has some really interesting tips for getting links from .edu domains.

*Google is telling webmasters that it is very, very important to be careful with blog comment spam.

*Court has posted an article entitled "5 Internet Marketing Strategies That Don’t Work".

*Is it really possible to boost traffic to your blog using trackbacks? At least one blogger thinks so.
*Is it that time already? - "Top 10 Internet Marketing Strategies for 2010"

*Copyblogger has posted an article entitled "How To Do Less And Get More".

*Do you need more links for your blog? If so, you might want to check these tips out.

*David Risley has posted an intriguing article that he is calling "7 Ways To Blog Your Way To A Thousand Visitors".

*Lastly, thousands of people are making excellent money on Twitter every week by allowing big brand advertisers to send out one tweet per day on their accounts. How? They have signed up with Ad.ly.

Make Significant Money On Twitter By Partnering With Brand Name Advertisers? - Ad.ly Is Taking The Internet Marketing Community By Storm

2009-11-19T14:28:00.000-08:00

The latest blogging news and tips from around the blogosphere.....

*Have you heard about Ad.ly yet? - Ad.ly is making huge waves in the Internet marketing community right now. If you have a Twitter account, Ad.ly enables you to make significant money by sending one Tweet every day from advertisers that you approve. All you have to do is sign up with Ad.ly, approve the big name advertisers that you want to partner with and then forget about it and the money will come in week after week automatically. They only send out one tweet over your network every day, so it is not "spammy" at all. I have signed up and I am encouraging everyone else to do the same. There are some big Twitter users that have already made thousands of dollars with them. I think that you will be very surprised how much money you can make when you check them out. You can sign up for the Ad.ly network right here.

*Google’s Matt Cutts strongly hinted this past week that Google is considering using a site’s speed as part of the algorithm that ranks the order of pages in its search results.

*Wordpress 2.8.6 has been released which primarily addresses a couple of important security issues.

*Darren Rowse over on ProBlogger has a very interesting article up on how stories can be used as an effective communication tool for your blog.

*Soggy has posted a very insightful article that explains why "the berries often taste better than the coconuts". If you don't know what that means maybe you should check out the article.

*On John Chow, a guest poster named JC is explaining what he learned during his first year of blogging.

*On CopyBlogger, Josh Hanagarne is telling what he learned from writing 42 guest posts in 7 weeks.

*Are you using Google Wave yet? If you are considering using it, you might want to check out these 5 real life case studies.

*Have you noticed a huge increase in spam comments on your blogs lately? We sure have. Well, EduBlogger has an article up that has some great tips on dealing with those spam comments.

*Britney Spears has had her Twitter account hacked again. Is your Twitter account secure?

*Are ad swaps a smart and easy way to get some free traffic?

*Are you having trouble getting people to link to your blog? If so, maybe you should read this article: "6 ways to create link magnets with every blog post".

*Lastly, do you need to learn more about Search Engine Optimization? Well, Keller Hawthorne has written an article about the "greatest SEO myths of our century".

Blogging News: WordPress 2.8.5 Has Been Released!

2009-10-24T18:55:00.000-07:00

The latest blogging news from around the blogosphere.....

*WordPress 2.8.5 has been released. This version fixes a number of security issues and improves several areas of the code.

*Google and Twitter have come to an agreement under which Google will now be able to include Twitter updates in search results. It will be very interesting to see how that plays out.

*Technorati's State of the Blogosphere 2009 is out and they have discovered some very interesting things.

*Grizzly is explaining why the SEO and social media industry will hurt you.

*Darren Rowse of ProBlogger is sharing "The #1 Reason My Blogging Grew Into a Business".

*Soggy says that "Made For Adsense" blogs are back in vogue.

*On Copyblogger, Sonia Simone is sharing "The #1 Secret of Confident Bloggers".

*BloggerDesign has some interesting ideas on how to keep your blog running smoothly when traffic spikes.

*Lastly, Gyutae Park has an excellent article up entitled "How to Develop an SEO Link Building Strategy That Delivers the Goods".

6 Recent Posts From Blogs About Blogging That We Actually Love To Read

2009-09-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple of years, we have visited hundreds of blogs about blogging on the Internet. Most of them are garbage and a complete waste of time. However, there are a few real gems out there. Tonight we wanted to share with you some of the very best recent articles from 6 blogs about blogging that we have found to be absolutely excellent.

So, here they are in no particular order.....

#1) ProBlogger: Almost everyone who is serious about blogging knows about Darren Rowse. In fact, he is one of the most famous bloggers out there. His blog is great for people who want to become "big time" bloggers, but not so much for those who are in this for purely making money. A recent article posted on his site entitled, "9 Things to Do To Make Sure Your Next Blog Post is Read by More than Your Mom", is fairly typical of what you will find on his site.

#2) The Keyword Academy: If you do not know about Mark and Court, you need to learn. We have learned a lot from them. Their site is not so much about how to become a "good blogger", but rather how to make money from blogging. On their site you will find articles with titles such as this: "7 Brutally Straightforward Tips For Making Money On The Internet".

#3) Grizzly: If you already know about Mark and Court then you have probably encountered Grizzly as well. Grizzly has ugly blogs, but he doesn't care because they make boatloads of money. He is a gruff, "no nonsense" kind of blogger, but the reality is that he will teach you how to make money online. His most recent post is entitled: "Customizing Your Blog Theme To Make More Money Online".

#4) The Build A Niche Store Blog: One really great site that I try to visit almost every day is the "Build A Niche Store Blog". The title is not that inspiring, but the reality is that Soggy delivers excellent tips and material on a regular basis. He probably does so more consistently than anyone else. His recent post entitled "How I Plan My Day" is an example of how he gets down to the nuts and bolts of things for his readers.

#5) Lanie Grace: She hardly ever posts stuff, but when she does it is absolute gold. While other people talk a good game, this is a young woman that is actually making an obscene amount of money online. If you have not read her classic three part series called "Wordpress and eBay Equals Money" then you need to go read it. Right now.

#6) Copyblogger: The truth is that I should be visiting Copyblogger more often myself. A lot of great material gets posted there, and that is one of the big reasons why they keep winning awards. They regularly post articles with titles such as "How I Got 294 Comments With One Blog Post" that not only get your attention but that actually deliver the goods.

If you know of any other great blogs on blogging that you would like us to review please let us know. But the truth is that if you go read those 6 sites alone it will be the equivalent of a graduate degree in Internet marketing. So stop wasting your time on all of the garbage sites and go check them out. Or just keep on doing what you are doing right now and keep pounding your head in frustration. The choice is up to you.

Google AdSense Now To Include Certified Ads From Other Ad Networks

2009-08-31T14:22:00.000-07:00

There is great news for Google Adsense publishers! Google AdSense will now allow publishers to allow ads from other Google-certified ad networks to appear on their websites. This is very exciting, because more ads means more competition, and that ultimately should mean more money for publishers.

For those of you who may have concerns about the new ads, the truth is that you still have control over what ads you wish to appear on your site, and you still have control over what ads you want to block.

In addition, the Google AdSense team is making it clear that the new ads will most definitely comply with all Google standards for quality.

So what is the bottom line to all of this? This should mean that there should be less times when your ad blocks don't show an ad or show public service ads instead. It should also mean increased competition which will hopefully raise earnings for everyone who uses AdSense.

Posted below is a YouTube video that goes into detail about these new changes to AdSense. If you have questions about these changes we would definitely recommend that you watch this video because it is very helpful.....

Can You Make Money With Twitter?

2009-07-27T14:54:00.000-07:00

Twitter is very hot right now, but the key question on the minds of Internet marketers everywhere is this:

Can you make money with Twitter?

The truth is that yes you can, but only if you know what you are doing.

That is where Bill Crosby and his Twitter Traffic Machine come in.

You see, Bill Crosby got 16,000 Twitter followers in just 90 days, and now he is ready to teach you all of his secrets.

Not only that, but every time he sends out a link over Twitter, he gets 2% of his followers clicking on it immediately. That is 400 clicks within just minutes!

So if you want to use Twitter as a marketing tool, we definitely suggest that you check out this material.

Click Here For The Twitter Traffic Machine!

A Guide For Beginners On How To Make Money From Your Blog

2009-06-21T07:44:00.000-07:00

One of the bloggers that I learned the most from when I first started blogging was Darren Rowse. He is the publisher of ProBlogger, and if you have never checked out his website about blogging, then we definitely encourage you to do so.

One of the most common questions about blogging goes something like this: "Where can I find a guide that will help a beginner like me learn the basics about blogging"?

Well, Darren Rowse teamed up with Chris Garrett to put together a tremendous guide for new bloggers. It will take you through the ABC's of what you need to know in order to start down the road to a successful blogging career.

Their book is called "ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income", and if you are new to blogging it will save you countless hours of trying to figure out this stuff on your own.

The following is a description of the book from the Amazon.com website.....

Problogger.net 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. This practical guide to creating and marketing a blog with the potential for generating a six-figure income shows you how to choose subject matter that works for you, handle technical issues, and evaluate your blogs success so that you can use your blog to generate income indirectly.

So if you are new to blogging, or if you are a veteran who needs some inside tips on how to get to the next level, then we would definitely recommend this book for you. You can get this book at a deep discount right now on Amazon.com.....

ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income

Is BANS (Build A Niche Store) Dead?

2009-05-06T19:50:00.000-07:00

Many Internet marketers have been debating whether or not BANS (Build A Niche Store) is dead or not. For quite a long time, many savvy Internet marketers were using Wordpress and BANS to build a lot of niche Ebay stores and were making a lot of money off of it. However, now word is getting around that a lot of BANS sites are getting deindexed by Google.

So what are we to think about all of this?

Well, there are generally two opposing points of view.

The first point of view is that BANS is dead and should not be used anymore, and one of the best articles from this perspective was written by Melissa Eaton: I Can No Longer Recommend Build A Niche Store aka BANS.

Melissa's argument is that it is tough to risk putting together and promoting a site using BANS knowing that it could be deindexed by Google at any time. The following is an excerpt from her article.....

You cannot imagine how sad it makes me to say that. Until two days ago, all but one of my BANS sites were still listed in the Google index. All were nearly 3 years old, had good traffic and made excellent money. This is no longer the case as they have now all been de-indexed. They are still getting traffic from Yahoo and MSN as well as earning money, but nothing like they were before.

The second perspective on this floating around the blogosphere is that BANS is still a good tool if you produce a content-rich site. Soggy of the Build A Niche Store Blog recently wrote an article from this perspective entitled: No, BANS Is Not Dead.

He believes that BANS is still as good a tool as ever if you follow some common sense guidelines. The following is an excerpt from his article.....

I have received a few emails over the last week from readers who are saying that they heard that BANS is dead and that they should not use it anymore. This is the furthest thing from the truth. I will say though that if you just put up an out of the box BANS site with little to no content, default category settings and default meta tags, be prepared to fail and get deindexed etc. etc.

So what is the truth?

Is BANS still a good option for Internet marketers?

I do know that BANS has helped a lot of people make a LOT of money over the years, and they are to be commended for that.

But is the gravy train over?

Or do people just need to adapt?

What do you think?

Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts.....

Get Number One Position on Google

2009-04-20T18:22:00.000-07:00

Today we have a guest post from Kai Lo. I think that you will really enjoy this information on how to improve your ranking on Google. If you enjoy the article below, you will also want to check out another article by this author: How To Be Number One On Google.

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Do people preach to you that you need high Google pagerank to rank high in the search engine? Should you listen to these people? No. You can get the number one position on Google with a pagerank of 0. You need to understand the proper use of anchor texts and specific keywords that you want to target to rank high.

Assuming that you have a really amazing article that you want everyone to read, you want this article to be found not just on first page of Google, but first place. Your title is very important. If you are teaching beginners on how to climb mountains, then your title should be something like “Beginner's Guide to Mountain Climbing”. If your title is just “Mountain Climbing”, then you will have a very hard time ranking even on the first page of Google.

Anchor texts are very important to get your post to #1 spot. You want your anchor text to say “Beginner’s Guide to Mountain Climbing”, and make sure it is linked to your post directly, and not to your homepage. For example, (a href=”http://www.url.com/beginners-guide-to-mountain-climbing.html”)Beginner’s Guide to Mountain Climbing(/a), you want to replace the ( ) with < > for HTML.

A lot of people will tell you that you need lots of backlinks to rank higher on Google, but they don’t tell you how to make the best use of the backlinks. The backlinks need to be used in proper anchor text format. If you type “click here” on Google search, the first result is Adobe Reader. Why? Because a lot of people link to Adobe Reader as “Click Here To Download…” If the backlink to your site says “Click Here”, then you are competing with Adobe, a pagerank 10 site. The Adobe Reader page has nothing that says “Click Here”.

What are some of the best places to leave a backlink to your site? Guest posting on peoples’ blog, Ezinearticles.com, forum signatures are some great examples. Generally, when you guest post, the author of the blog would be nice enough to link back to your site with the anchor text of your choice (remember, you want the direct URL to the post, and not the homepage). Ezinearticles will let you put anchor text links in the resource box. You must follow their writing guideline otherwise they will reject your articles. Many forums will also allow you to place links in the signatures.

High pagerank will only get you so far if you don’t understand proper SEO. Pagerank is a small factor to determine where you should be in the search engine. Remember, you want a lot of anchor text “Beginner’s Guide to Mountain Climbing” pointing to your post so you can get to the #1 spot on Google.

DiggBar

2009-04-13T06:37:00.000-07:00

Those of you who use Digg already know that Digg has implemented what is now known as the "DiggBar".

For those who don't know about this yet, the DiggBar acts as a URL shortener and it frames all external pages underneath the DiggBar.

Why did Digg do this?

They did this so that Digg users will stay on Digg and therefore produce more revenue.

After all, Digg is losing money right now, so they need to do whatever they can to increase pageviews and advertising revenue.

However, this DiggBar is very bad news for bloggers and Internet marketers.

Basically the DiggBar kills "linkbait".

Many bloggers and Internet marketers would try to get stories on to the front page of Digg so lots of people would link to that story.

But now with the new Diggbar, Digg no longer links directly to stories.

Instead, Digg links to the shortened Diggbar URL instead.

Ouch!

That means that we lose all links from Digg.com, and most bloggers who see our stories on Digg will just link to the shortened Diggbar URL instead of the link to our story.

So now a front page story on Digg will create tons of links to Digg and very few to you.

So Digg has now gone way down in value for blog promotion.

Do any of you have any additional thoughts about the DiggBar? Please feel free to leave a comment.