March 3, 2010 By

BlogSell – My First Software Offer

blogsell

I’ve said before that I have a new direction for 2010, which will see me moving away from information marketing, and diving head first into software application development.

Now, I can announce the project I’ve been working on for the past 4 months – BlogSell.com

BlogSell is a blog monetization & management software that gives you the tools to make more money from your existing blogs. Currently, BlogSell allows you to:

  • Manage and track affiliate links
  • Manage and track affiliate banners
  • Sell links, banner ads, and paid reviews

And yes, it’s designed to work with WordPress blogs only for now, although integration with Blogger is a future possibility.

Since it is a hosted software (or hosted app), there is no script for you to upload and install to your own server. Everything is done centrally, but you can connect BlogSell to your own WordPress blogs using some simple plugins.

If you are a previous customer of my blogging products – WordPress Adsense System, Super Affiliate Blogger, Blog Paycheck or PLRWPVideos – then you will receive an invitation email by now to be one of the first to signup with for a ridiculously price.

For everyone else, we’ll officially open up registration once we’ve launched Version 1 at the end of March. For now, you can get more information and get access to the demo by going to www.BlogSell.com

Our first project took some time, and I learned a LOT of things in the process. All of which will help me designed even better software applications in the near future.

Filed Under: Blogging Tips Tagged With: , , , ,
August 20, 2009 By

Blogging 101 – Top tools to monetize your blog

make money After the process of setting up a blog, working with the basics and promoting it, it’s time to milk some money out of your hard work. No doubt it’s not a cake walk but at the same time, it isn’t a rocket science either. We shall look at some of the monetization programs which you can opt for your blog.

The biggest of all is Google’s very own – Adsense. For the uninitiated, Google Adsense is an advertising program by Google than can be run on your site or blog to enable text, picture and video ads. The Adsense program is one of the most recognizable and widely implemented online monetization tool by bloggers across the globe. It is one of the highest revenue generation program for most bloggers. The ads which get displayed on your site are more often than not contextual.

One of the main reasons of Google Adsense program being widely used than others is the ease of use and the Google brand. The ads are closely matched in context with the post, geographical location, and other parameters, etc. There are different ways to use Adsense effectively. Be it feeds, search, domain names and mobile content – Google has it for all!

Surprisingly, most people think that Adsense is the only program that is present on the web to help them monetize your blog. However, there are a plethora of other programs that people have successfully made money with. We shall talk about a few of them;

  1. Clicksor – It helps in driving customers with graphical banners, text ads, interstitial ads and pop-up ads. It is different from other programs because it majorly focuses on concentrating on converting visitors to your site into consumers via their product Content Marketing Technology. This helps the user in increasing the ROI quickly and effectively than others.
  2. TargetPoint – They claim to be technology leaders by providing the most relevant of ads. It is one of the most cost effective pay-per-search based program. The company only works with a limited numeral of direct advertisers. Their services are mostly publisher oriented in which the publisher will have control command over the ads form, regulation over ad content, entire statistics on your performance and enhanced bottom-line revenue.
  3. Adbrite – It is tipped as the 2nd best advertising program after Adsense. The ads fit the content of your site and have their base of advertisers which are biggies such as Live Nation, GM, AT&T and Verizon. As they are the 2nd best, their ads run on more than 1 billion pages and provide opportunities to scale up.

    4. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Free Tips Tagged With: , , ,
August 15, 2009 By

Blogging 101 – Optimizing Your Blog

I hope you’ve been keeping a tab on the series – “Blogging 101”. This is the fifth and the last post in the series.

wordpress optimization Today, we shall deal with one of the most important concerns of a blogger – Optimization of a blog. This is a a tricky process and often involves spending long working hours on the blogs. It has given a lot of bloggers several sleepless nights, testing ad units and their placements and finding an appropriate network to get on board. Boosting your profits can be simple if you are a keen observer and can interpret and match the layout of your blog with a great theme. Having your own winning formula apart from the money you make from your content consistently includes ad placement skill, use of  plug-ins, choice of colors, text, etc. which can make a big difference.

Let us focus on few requirements which can shape your idea to fit into the frame of profit making business.

Suggested Plug-ins

It is strongly recommended to spend some time making your website appear distinguished, particularly if your aim is to eventually decrease the bounce rate. Plug-ins for the WordPress play a great role in helping you out with this.

There are a lot of plugins which bloggers use to get the best out of a blog. We shall check out 5 of the must have plugins to help you run a blog at ease. Some of the plug-ins are especially useful in reducing your ‘hand-work’ to the bare minimum and makes managing your WordPress blog easy.

  1. All in One (SEO) – By far the most widely used plugin to get that search engine optimization you always wanted. The pack allows you to specify the title, description and keywords for your blog and individual posts.
  2. Akismet – Spams are a blog’s worst enemy! This plug-in comes with a standard installation of WordPress and virtually eliminates spam comments, reducing your burden to mark them as spam manually.
  3. Related Posts – A major problem a blogger faces is to dig through old posts that are related and manually link them in the new post. This problem is solved with Related posts which inserts relevant posts automatically.
  4. WordPress Database Backup - Backing up your blog is crucial and this plug-in allows you to back up everything in no time.
  5. Top Commentators - It lists the visitors who have commented for most number of times on your blog, hence showcasing their name on your blog. You may find a lot of commentators returning back seeing their name in the list! It also adds value to your blog to help new visitors to stay longer to dig into your blog’s content.

Positioning of Advertisements

Perhaps one of the most common mistake that a newbie blogger makes is with the positioning of advertisement itself. The theory is pretty simple – if you have the capability to analyze where people actually look while exploring your blog, you have solved half of your query.

When you look at the front page of blogs like that of ProBlogger Darren, you will notice that only a part of the page is displayed and to see everything on the page you need to scroll down. The elements of a website below the fold are seen by significantly less readers than elements above the fold resulting in lower conversion of ads.

The content of your blog is another place where most of your readers are drawn to. Different bloggers have different opinions on the positioning of the ads between the posts. Say - Engadget places a rectangle AdSense unit between the second and third posts on the front page. The Movie Blog uses a rectangle ad directly under titles and aligned left on individual pages. Practically, there is not just one thumb rule. You need to experiment to find what works best for you. Your ads are often accepted differently by different visitors

All in all, you need the best optimization to unleash the profit potential lurking in your blogs. Convert your blog into a cash-cow with mantras like ads placement, software store commissions, your own products, your affiliate program etc. Opt for a good color combination if you’re getting your blog designed. Alternatively, you may intelligently choose a free theme or one of those paid themes like Thesis.

Image credits: Jose U

Filed Under: Free Tips Tagged With: , , , , , ,
July 9, 2009 By

Blogging 101 – The Basics: Research & Writing

The striking catchphrase used in the world of online marketing today is the “Affiliate marketing” which can be twigged directly with the e-business. The rules is, “People have their websites & web communities where they build an opportunity to display various advertisements. Any reference to transaction from the ads will furnish them commission.”

blogging tips

The underlying concept of “Affiliate marketing” is fairly simple but sometimes people get entrapped in the web of intricacies.

If you are interested in knowing the nitty-gritty of the profit making program, various ways to optimize the profits and the dos and don’ts while directing your business towards what I shall call as blogging bonanza read the articles at the series Profit blogging 101 which will have a interrelated flow of thoughts on this naive concept.

The very thought of making money online sounds exciting. Knowing the right way is a matter of paramount importance. That said, affiliate marketing is not as easy as perceived as it requires focus, effort, creativity and money. The results aren’t immediate but often unimaginably big over a period of time. Blogging is one of the best ways to get started with making money online if you are sincere about your efforts.

Here are few techniques bloggers can use to find readers and the key to open the lock for earning money. As Yaro Starak once mentioned,

“Eventually once you establish enough momentum you gain what is called “traction”, which is a large enough audience base (about 500 readers a day is good) that you no longer have to work too hard on finding new readers. Instead your current loyal readers do the work for you through word of mouth.”

  • Relevance of research: If you need to make your blog successful, it has to be backed up by an in depth-research on your area of writing, the digital assets to be used on the blog, having knowledge about various affiliate programs and on various other grey areas. You need to constantly consult with the ones who are into blogging. A proper know-how can help in bagging of an easy five-digit income as earned by many bloggers.
  • Write one new blog post per day minimum. You have to keep your blog fresh with a daily news or short article style post. This demonstrate to first time visitors that your blog is updated every day and makes them feel if they subscribe to your blog feed they will surely find something new with each new day. ProBlogger in one of its post has put forth that “Daily posting is great, but don’t stretch yourself too thin early on. Two quality posts a week is better than 7 average ones.”
  • Start commenting on other blogs: One of the best ways to find readers for your blog is to comment on other people’s blogs. Focus on dropping comments on blogs which are in the similar niche of writing as that of yours as these bloggers will be interested to revert back and visit your blog.
  • Importance of writing: The core requirement of your blog is quality writing. The flow of your writing is the second requirement which will keep the readers preoccupied with the previous paragraphs. Having sub-headings and bullet points in a post add to its attraction and makes it easier for the readers to relate to the concept.

blogging guideThere are many other things that can be incorporated in the list liking networking opportunities, advertising programs (Adsense, recent additions are Chitika’s eMiniMalls and WidgetBucks, Text Link Ads.) There are several strategies you can choose if you’re interesting in making money from blogs. You can experiment with several of these methods in order to develop a better grasp of how blogs work or you can zero in on a strategy that appeals to you the most. As said by Yaro Starak: “Affiliate income is the most significant source of revenue I have for my blogs”, which is the winning point.

Look out for the second post in this series to know about “Spreading the Word” about your blog.

Image credits: Kristina B & Andyp UK

Filed Under: Free Tips Tagged With: , , , ,
January 23, 2009 By

Authority Blogging: Blogging Models That Work!

So you want to make money blogging?

How much do you understand about the different blogging models, really? I’m not talking about monetization models – that’s a completely different subject. How you make money from a blog is independent from how you build and market that blog.

In this 3-part mini series, let me give you a short but useful introduction to the top three blogging models: authority blogging, niche blogging, and autopilot blogging. Of course our discussions will completely ignore the other blogging model: blogging for fun – since I believe that’s not why you’re reading this blog right now.

If you buy any blogging ebook, software or attend a blogging seminar, everything you’ll learn will fall into these three categories.

Is Authority Blogging For You?

authority-blogging This blogging model is perhaps the most common.

90% of all blogging tips out there teach you how to become an “authority” blogger’ someone who commands respect, is recognized as an expert, and frequently writes great content for his blog.

Almost every blog we frequently visit are run by authority bloggers. They know the “inside scoop”; they have the best answers and they are a sea of information on whatever topic they blog about.

An “authority” blogger in almost all cases can only be perceived as an authority in one, at most two, unrelated markets. The scope is limiting, but besides just money this path promises you fame, recognition and also die-hard fans.

Here’s how this blogging model breaks down:

  • Visibility Level: High
  • Effort Level: Medium
  • Time to Profit: High
  • Technicality: Medium
  • Risk Level: High
  • Potential Rewards: High

Visibility level is high, because if you want to be recognized as an expert you need to put up pictures of yourself, reveal your FaceBook or Twitter profile, and even do some videos or podcasts.

People need to see your face. They need to know you so they can trust you and ultimately, do business with you.

Effort level is also high, since you need to constantly put up relevant blog posts daily (or every few days). Besides just writing new blog posts, you need to go the extra mile if you want to be recognized as a true authority. Talk about podcasts, interviews, and videos.

Time to profit is high because you need to blog for a long time before anyone would recognize you and want to put ads on your site.

However, this is only true for the advertising monetization model. You can make money much faster if:

  • You already have a solid product or service, and you’re just building your brand
  • You have an ebook, software or other information product to sell
  • You are the author of a book, or currently writing one

Technicality required is medium – just an ordinary WordPress blog will do. The key here is content, not the gadgets. However, you still need to have great technical skills or knowledge in the filed that you want to dominate.

An authority blogger also doesn’t need to spend as much time figuring out keyword research, PageRank or SEO tactics. All he or she needs to do is write to communicate, and focus on long-tail keywords, referral traffic and residual traffic from social bookmarking.

Risk level is high, in my opinion, because if you follow this strategy you need to put all your eggs in one basket. What if your blog doesn’t quite catch on? What if after months of blogging, you find it difficult (if not impossible) to monetize your blog?

If however, you succeed, then the rewards you get will be the best. You can make money not only from advertising, but by selling even more information products from your blog, speaking engagements, physical books, and perhaps even product commercials. I’m not kidding – a lot of hot female bloggers achieve some sort of semi-celebrity status, and are sought after even by large multi-national companies.

If you want to be an authority blogger, then the most important question to ask is “Can I be an authority figure in this market?”

If the answer is “No”, then no matter how hard you try your blog will not be one of the best. There will always be other experts who know more than you do, have better connections, have access to insider information, and so on.

Anyways, even an authority blogger can only be an authority in one or two markets. Trying to build an authority blog in more than 2 markets is too time-consuming. Because you are the authority and have a certain style of writing, you cannot outsource your content or marketing as much as you could with niche blogging or autopilot blogging.

Becoming an authority blogger is a full-time affair. Sometimes it can feel like you’re stuck to it, but if you really love your topic, work seems like fun. I think that’s the key to becoming an authority blogger – love what you do.

So, is authority blogging your cup of tea? Or do you just want to make more money online an don’t care about the recognitions or fame?

Filed Under: Free Tips Tagged With: ,
January 3, 2009 By

Upgrade Your WordPress to 2.7

If you’re using WordPress, I highly recommend you upgrade now to the latest 2.7 version. Unlike most other versions since 2.3, this will be well worth your time. Overall, this version really improved on the user interface, the loading time, and also the ease of use.

Some videos I created about using WordPress 2.7:

Installing WordPress Plugins Automatically

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5scWM6zYqrc[/youtube]

Upgrading WordPress Plugins Automatically

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhUigATo1P4[/youtube]

Deleting WordPress Plugins Automatically

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0oFJJD6vZo[/youtube]

However, if you are using the old “Instant Upgrade” plugin, be very careful to remove the plugin according to the instructions before you upgrade. In the case of this blog I forgot I was using the plugin and just went on to upgrade my older WordPress files.

As a result, so many things went wrong that I had to deleted my entire site and install everything again from scratch. That’s why you may have noticed the blog was down and out, for almost two days. I was a nightmare experience and I still have data loss that I am trying to restore.

Besides, with WordPress 2.7 there is an additional feature where you can also upgrade WordPress automatically within the dashboard itself, so future upgrades should be very easy!

Filed Under: Blogging Tips Tagged With: , ,