I thought we were friends.  I though we were going to work together to make my luvbritney.com project successful.  I turns out I was entirely wrong.  Although we had a good run, things were just going to well.  I thought everything was fine and then BAM!  I get dumped.  On Valentines Day!

Ok so things weren’t as bad as it seems.  It’s just that Facebook decided that it didn’t want to run my ad for the Britney search engine anymore.  Which I guess is fine considering that my $100 advertising credit would have probably run out tomorrow.   I am just nervous because now I have to see if all of the advertising work I have done over the past week has been successful.

So now after coming back from a huge Valentines Day dinner, and being filled with wine, beer, rum and grappa, I have to somehow discuss the successes of my Luv Britney project.  So here we go:

The Redesign:

I was looking through my Google Analytics stats to get some information about the people that come to my site.  One of the firs things I noticed was that most of the users were viewing on a 1024×768 resolution.  I decided to check out the site in that resolution and found that the site looked horrible.  I decided that today I would revamp that site and make it look nicer in a lower resolution.  I also had a few suggestions from the comment section of the previous post about this project.

apps:  suggested quite a few items which I will prolly implement once the site takes off.  I did  add the share on Friend Feed button, as suggested, and instead of adding the iLike widget I added an Amazon widget that plays Britney songs and has the option to purchase the music.

Ren B.: Suggested that I add a Shoutbox, which I have added.  I was quite surprised to see that people had actually used this function.  I though I was going to have to make up a bunch of fake shouts to get things rolling.  I turns out that I was wrong!

Another worry that I had had was when I checked my stats to see how many search queires had been done.  Around 3:00 today there was only 3 queries done.  According to my Analytics stats I was getting a lot more hits than what Facebook was sending my way.  But the 3 queries had me worried.  I though maybe all my stats were wrong and now that Facebook had cut me off, I would be getting no traffic at all.  I checked the queries this evening and found that they are still on track.  Hopefully when I check the Analytics stats tomorrow I will find that I am still getting a lot of traffic.

I will keep my fingers crossed while I sleep.

I am sure I have a lot more details to cover here, but most have been forgotten considered the “booze factor.”  Tomorrow I should be able to share more details, or at least I can cover more in the comments section.  So if anyone has any ideas for improvements, or questions about the site or the progress thus far please let me know and leave a comment below!

The main site was completed on Feb 7th, but I have been adding bits and pieces here and there as the need for improvements arrives.  My first task was to promote the site on Facebook.  As I said in my previous post I felt this was the best avenue as I could specifically target Britney fans.

I did a quick search on Google to see if I could find any coupon codes for Facebook advertising.  I figured I may as well get as much free advertising as I could, that way if this thing bombs I can at least say it didn’t cost me anything.  My only experience with Facebook advertising is with affiliate marketing which in the past has not performed all that well.  If you do do any advertising on Facebook I suggest you do a bit of searching for coupon codes.  Most that you find will only work for new advertising accounts (which I did not have), but I did find a Visa Business App that gives $100 of free advertising if you sign up.  So I did!

After the campaign was set up I started getting a large amount of hits (thank goodness for the credit), and I realized that these people were just cheeking out the site and then moving on. I needed to find a way to keep them on the site, coming back, and sharing it with their friends.

So this is what I did:

1. I made a “make luvbritney.com your ho me page” button
2. I made a “share this site on Facebook” button

I figured that the Share on Facebook button would work well considering most of my visitors will be coming from Facebook.  Another factor I realized I need to consider was that I wanted to be able to sell some advertising space on the site at some point. With the current design there wasn’t really any space set aside for ads.  As well I don’t want to suddenly change the design when I started to take on ads, as this will most likely make me lose a few viewers.  I added the homepage and Facebook button on a newly created sidebar area.  This way, when I start to sell ads, there was already “junk” in the sidebar that the average user would be used to.

I figure with the free advertising credits combined with people sharing the site on Facebook, traffic should get off to a really good start.  So far after two days of being live I have had:

Unique Visits: 354
Visits from FB advertising: 324
Organic Visits from FB (not advertising):30
# of People that have clicked on the “Make this your homepage button”: 119
# of People that have clicked on the “Share on Facebook button”:6

The stat that I am super stoked about is the number of people that have made the site their hompage- 119.  I think this will be an important number when selling advertising on the site.  I have a bit more tweaking that I need to do this evening, so I will report backi either tomorrow or the next as to how I am progressing.

In the meantime please feel free to share your feedback on this project, or any ideas that you may have.  Most importantly: Do you think this will work as a money making site?

This whole trying to make money and actually doing projects is tough!

I spent last night converting my mock up for the Britney Spears Search Engine to an actual website.  As far as turning a mock up into a site, it was pretty easy to do.  The main trouble was adding in the search functionality and positioning the search bar exactly where I wanted it, and making sure it looked good in both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Ya know standard boring web guy stuff.

This evening I have taken care of my primary promotion method: Facebook.  I figured that Facebook was the best place to promote the site, as I can specifically target people who are fans of Britney Spears.  I could have used Adwords or YPN with similar effect, but I felt that Facebook was the best avenue to test on.  The fact that I also added a few Social Bookmarking tools to the search page which will hopefully get used by the Facebook users. I may also spend a little bit of time on Twitter promoting the site, but I spend so little time on Twitter that I may need to research a few effective Twitter promotional tactics.

I will give it a few days and see what becomes of it.

If it does end up being semi-profitable then I will put together some instructions and make a web template for those that want to replicate this search engine.

As I am working on this project I keep thinking about the next project that I should do.  I spent a bit of time this evening with my list of projects in front of me.  I shouldn;t do that as I always end up never completed my current project before going onto the next.  I guess since the main parts of the luvbritney.com project has been completed I can move onto the next.

Of course it would be cool to get some feedback.  What do you think of the luvbritney.com site? What do you think it needs? (if anything)

The list is pretty big.

So for my first few projects I want to use some of the domains I have acquired, but done nothing with.  I would have great ideas for a blog, purchase a domain name, and then come up with a better idea.  It is so much easier coming up with ideas than it is actually completing a project and making money.  I lose interest pretty quickly, so I have to complete these projects quickly in order to be successful. My first project will put to use a domain that I really thought would end up just drifting aside, collecting dust, as I didn’t have a solid idea of what I was going to do with it.  I was embarrassed that I purchased the domain, here’s why:

luvbritney.com

That’s right I was going to create a blog about the train wreck of Britney Spears.  Let’s keep this story short, and say I realized that I could not keep up with a blog about her, and it is quite a competitive market to rank for any variation of Britney’s name in keywords (and its just sad).  So now my plan is to create something that I hope Britney fans will use, and it should be viral enough that I won’t have to do well in Google.  I plan on creating a Britney Spears Search engine , using the Google Search function.  Yeah I know: I drop a blog that was about Google and Adsense, and then I come crawling back for the first project on this blog it’s quite silly, I know.

The steps for this project are quite simple (as I said earlier: start with the easy ideas for making money!):

1. Create the Britney Search Engine.
2. Promote it through the Facebook Advertising program, which you can specifically target Britney fans.
3. Track its usage and traffic, and if it gets decent traffic, sell advertising, or some kind of music related affiate programs
4. Hope I don’t get sued.

Even if I do get sued, I could turn the domain into a blog about my journey being sued by Britney!

Last night I cooked up a mockup and had the full intentions of conveting the mockup into a template this evening but was sidetracked by a few googd friends: Rum and Beer.  I have managed to pull it together enough to write this post, but I feel the familar calling of the “Passing Out Fairy” coming to take me away.  Hopefully tommorrow I will have more progress on this project.  Sure its one of my easy ideas for making money, but getting hosed really doesn’t make it much easier.  I am a little concerned about the time when I get to the more complicated projects…

I am continually trying to find new ways to draw people to my blog and subscribe to my RSS feed. I am sure that is what most of us want. We all have different motivations, but we all want the same results: A buttload of subscribers. Most of us want more readers so we can gain a bit of fame, as well as make some cash from advertising. I like to follow a simple equation here:

Whiteley Enterprises + a high subscriber count= Selling advertising. Which to me equates to increasing the amount of fluid in my liquor cabinet.

I have been stewing on this method of getting more subscribers for quite some time, but I never really wanted to implement it as I kind of respect and enjoy the company of my readers. So I am not going to screw with you guys just to satisfy my ego and cravings for booze.

The theory:

When you first start a blog it is tough to get people to subscribe to your blog, and if you display your Feedburner chicklet of 3 subscribers people will generally discount your blog as being new, and not worth subscribing to. This is the main reason why people don’t show their subscriber count until they reach around 100 subscribers. Once you have hit this mark it is much easier to have people subscribe to your blog, as people will see that others have found your blog worthy to subscribe to, so they will subscribe as well.

So it kind of snowballs, the higher your subscriber count is, the easier it is to gain new subscribers. So it is that first hump that is tough to get over, but once you have a ton of subscribers you can pretty easily get more.

The Method:

Like I said earlier I had been toying with this for a while, and I am not going to do it on my blog because I have a solid foundation of readers that I don’t want to offend. There are a few ways to that you can make it look like you have more subscribers than you actually have:

1. Steal someone elses feedburner code
2. Use the Feedburner Hack

Of course both of those methods may have either been fixed, or are in the process of being fixed ( I haven’t fully researched either method but feel free to do so and share). My idea was to create a simple gif image that showed an inflated number of subscribers. It’s not entirely honest, but it could give those new blogs an extra push to becoming more popular.  OF course if you show an inflated RSS count and manage to deliver cruddy content, then people will eventually figure it out.  Then they will laugh and point at you as if you were that kid in school that wet themselves.  Nobody likes a blog wetter.

I have cooked up a few images that you can use to show a false number of subscribers on your blog. I would be curious to see how much of an effect that this would have on someones blog. So if anyone is using, or plans on using this method leave a link to your blog in the comments below so we can follow your progress.  Just save the image below and crop out the image that you would like to use. Or if you would like a custom one made with different colours and reader numbers please use the contact form ad let me know the background and text colour (in hexidecimal) as well as the number of subscribers and I can make one for you.

That was a mistake.

I watched as several bloggers started up blogs around the same time as I. I then watched as their blogs surpassed mine, even though they were the generic make money online post ideas that were generally ripped off from the big name bloggers (and not half as eloquent). I had a unique voice, an intriguing style, yet when I reached the 50 RSS subscriber mark, they had hit 200. So what was my problem? Why was I not successful?

Because I Was Living on Adsense.

The title of my blog, was like an icepick to the toenails; sounds funny when you mention it, but isn’t a great idea in reality. I wanted to branch out, but I had to keep writing about Adsense if I wanted to increase my readership and have people coming back. But what I wanted to write about was my life as a regular guy trying to make money online.

Well I am now free of Adsense

No longer will I obsessively check my stats, no longer will I keep trying to create and update a million blogs just to earn a few pennies. I am now free to make money online in any way I please, I am now free to write about what I originally planned on and not have readers get confused as to why a blog called “Living on Adsense” just wrote something about blogging, or about drinking too much Red Bull. I have moved my blog to a new domain name, a domain name that is generic enough that I will be able to continue blogging “Whiteley” style for as long as I like. I have tossed away my old Tri-Force of Blogging, gone to defeat Ganon, and have risen from my challenge with:

A new Tri-Force of Blogging:

1. I will blog about making money
2. I will blog about blogging tips and ideas
3. I will blog about items 1 & 2 as they affect my life

So now that I am free, what will I be doing?

Well, the first item on my list is start making use of all of the old domain names I have just sitting around. During the old Adsense days I had acquired a bunch of domain names as I came of with blog ideas. Then I kinda stopped with the blogs. So now I will come up with uses for these domains. I have a butt load of cool ideas in my brain that I haven’t been able to unleash as I was to distracted and oppressed by the evil powers of Google. With my trusty wooden sword in hand, I have freed myself of the evil forces of Google. “Don’t be evil” Right. I filled up my hearts and shot Google with my sword of power.

As Sarah said to Jareth, so I say to Google:

“You have no Power over me.”

I feel a breakup coming on.

There is only so much I can write about Adsense, without going stale. I prefer to chronical my journey, and share my thoughts and ideas along the way. That’s the kind of blog Living on Adsense has been. Yet I made one grave mistake: I named my blog: Living on Adsense. When people head to my site they expect to find a bunch of advice on how to make money with Adsense. They read for a bit and then realize I dispense Adsense once in a while, and then leave. I realize that I have created a blog where people have a preconceived idea as to what I am blogging about. Everyone expects Adsense advice, and that is not what I want to be all about.

So in order to outwardly project what my blog is about, I am going to rebrand my blog. You will find that I will still be churning out the same style of posts and writing. Well actually it will probably get much better as I will feel liberated from this Adsense prison. Over the next few weeks I will be cooking up a new blog template, transfer all my old posts to the new domain, and will be:

No longer Living on Adsense.

I think from here on in I may lose some people, but that’s alright. If people want to go, then let them. I think my honest style of blogging will keep people coming back, and I think more people will be able to share in my journey after I rebrand my blog into something that more appropriately conveys what my blog is all about.

Well I think I have rambled on enough about my future plans, I mean this is just an earnings post! Anyways please share your thoughts and ideas, and whether you are for or against this new direction I am going in.

Here are my stats for the week of Jan 5th to 11th

Here are my stats for the week of Jan 12th to 18th

So try not to think of fighting against sploggers, really you are battling Oompa Loompas. First off I would like to dispense some advice to these Oompa Loompas in a method the will understand: An Oompa Loompa song…

Oompa Loompa doo-pa-dee-do
I have perfect puzzle for you
Oompa Loompa doo-pa-dee-dee
If you are wise, you’ll listen to me

What do you get when you steal content?
Trying to monetize a little Adsense
Google won’t even look at you twice
When your a splog and you do not play nice

Slapped for duplicate content.

Oompa, Loompa, doo-pa-dee-da
If you’re not greedy, you will go far
You will live in happiness too
Like the Oompa Loompa doom-pa-dee-do

So many people have devised methods to combat these Oompa Loompa sploggers. Most people have chosen to include links back to there blog so that there is a chance that someone reading the slpog will click on the link and find your blog. Or people include the link so that they can get a bit of link juice to increase their page rank.

This method is fine and dandy, but I think there may be a better technique. What if instead of adding a link back to your blog, you add a link to an affiliate product? This way when your content gets stolen, the splogger will end up having a link to an affiliate product where you get the commissions for any sales. Seems like a good idea to me.

Another idea which you can use, provided you do not have adsense on your site, and you are confident that your post will get picked up by a splog, is to write a post asking people to click on your adsense ads. That way when the splogger steals your content there will be prominent calls to action to click on the adsense ads, which I am sure the splog has. There is a rare chance, but still a chance that Google may notice this blog and shut them down for violation of the Adsense TOS.

If you have a great idea of how to take advantage of the Oompa Loompa Sploggers please feel free to share below

Huh?

To me they have always seemed like just another thing that I need to moderate. Which I don’t have time for. And most of the time the trackbacks I get are from spam blogs that have stolen my content. It just goes to show how important my posts really are. Real people don’t’ post about my content only the spammers do. It’s like having junkies vouch for me.

So despite my anger towards trackbacks I decided to try and make them somewhat useful for me. Even though every trackback I get is usually some junk splog, I still go and check it out. Of course whenever I go check my (snail) mail I still get excited over junk mail. I guess it is some kind of cry for attention.

So magic of these craptastic trackbacks is that I always end up checking out the blog that has given me the trackback (even though I know that nobody cool would post about one of my articles). This gave me an idea.

If David Letterman on his Late Show were to say something nasty about Oprah, there is a pretty good chance that it would get back to Oprah. Even if he just mentioned her name, she would probably end up knowing about it. Upon hearing this Oprah would probably watch the part of the Late Show that mentioned her, and then possibly contact David Letterman. This is pretty much like a trackback. Although an unlikely scenario it gives an idea as to how trackbacks could work in your favour to get attention to your blog.

In the blogging world this method should work well to attract a bit of attention to your blog. Now this method may not work on really big bloggers that get trackbacks all the time. You should focus on blogs that are at the same level as yours, or a little bit higher. Most likely if you follow this method the blogger you trackback should come to your blog and at least make a comment. They may even become a subscriber or even mention your blog in one of their posts.

Here are the steps to use this method:

1. Choose a blog that is near the same level of success or a bit higher than your blog.
2. Write something attention getting about this blog or blogger.
3. Link your comment about this blog or blogger to a post that this person has made. Do not link to the blog home page though otherwise there will be no trackback, you need to link to a post, and preferably a new one.
4. Publish your post.

I am going to test this one out by targeting one of my favourite blogs: Bloggernoob. I should be able to attract some attention when I mention that sometimes I think about hunting down The Noob and slapping him right the face, the only reason I don’t do it is because I cannot figure out whether I want to slap him with the front of back of my hand.

You don’t have to be mean like I was. I just figure The Noob has a pretty good sense of humour. That’s pretty much it. Go ahead and test it out yourself and see if the person you mention comes to your blog and makes a comment. Who knows, it may lead to them posting about you and giving you a bit of exposure.

It’s amazing what happens when you avoid technology for two weeks. I had over 500 emails, and I am afraid to log into Google reader catch up on the blogs I read. There was one major benefit though: when I came home I had a Clickbank and Adsense cheques waiting for me. Of course I was to excited to cash my adsense cheque (it was $165) that I did not take a photograph of it as I did with first adsense cheque. This is my second adsense cheque since I started blogging in December 2007.

I have decided to reinvest this Adsense cheque towards my blog, but now that I have money to promote my blog I have no idea where it would be best utilized. If you have any ideas please do share.

This post is of course my monthly earning post so please read on to see my earnings for December:

Adsense: $39.83

ClickBank: $153.71

Earnings since Day 1 December 10th 2007:

Adsense: $288.80
ClickBank:$4388.44

Total: $4677.24

Average Monthly Income:$359.78