Sunday, January 20, 2008

What is Blogging all about and is Google AdSense a good idea?

Big topics these. I have found a very good site call entrepreneurs journey that gives excellent information on blogging, AdSense and the like. The conclusion I have reached after little over a month blogging (I reserve the right to change my mind later...) is that successful blogging requires a special interest and a discliplined journal keeper (which is really what a blogger is) as well as an interested audience. I have placed a lot of Google AdSense on this site. Still in experimental mode and I may start to remove some. My aim is to improve the quality of the content. One of the reasons why the Google AdSense revenue on this site is low is because it it a blog about blogging and there are so many of these that per click rates would naturally be very low... Looks like the "long tail" and "Microniches" in BlogLand really do mean something to Google... So much to learn!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Tip on creating a simple NAVBAR

When I started looking at other sites, I wondered how I could make my blog even begin to compete with theirs. Well, a few short weeks later I have a new look blog. I have looked around on the net and come up with some sources of information. I created the navigation bar you see now by making use of the code that you see on the site dininghall.blogspot.com except that I placed the HTML in the page element and not in my template. I placed only the variables in the template. See that it is also possible to place HTML elements ABOVE the header that Blogger gives you!

Friday, January 18, 2008

Never Give Up

Hi All. It has been a hectic week in the day job. I really hate the commute. Well I suppose no one said life was fair. I do have a very good day job! One must be grateful for this. Now to the topic of blogging. I have added an AWEBER autorespond button (see top right). If you are serious about affiliate marketing, this is the autoresponder of choice. Recommended by Internet Marketing Gurus (especially those not out to scam you/us). I will talk more in another post about AWEBER and auto responders and why they are necessary. In essence they help you to automate your site. They also help you to build a loyal customer base for your site. Discover AWEBER by submitting your email address. You will be glad you did.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Do Not Give Up your Day Job

Hi! Like I said in a few earlier posts: blogging is hard work. It takes time. It tests your writing and proof reading skills. Especially if you are new to it. And if you are new to the concepts of the Publishing and Advertising industries. Blogging is Publishing and Advertising with a twist! It is "Citizen Journalism" about absolutely EVERYTHING... and then some! It is always online. There are millions of publishers. Always posting. Around the world. 24x7x365 x +-1Billion internet users who could potentially turn into bloggers - OK maybe not so many! Recent stats put USA based Blogs at approx 110 million. How many blogs in China? How many in India? Europe? Rest of Asia? Rest of Americas? Australia? Africa? Many Blogs. Many people. As to Blog topics, I think that one should (unless it is really your genuine and burning passion overriding all others) be careful not to make your blog about blogging to make money. There are so many of these blogs out there and quite frankly I think they are boring and encourage "get rich quick mentality" in people. This site is mutating into a site about how to blog on Google's Blogger Platform and how to monetize (any site) using Google AdSense and AdWords [at least giving examples of where to place the code for these products - is all for now]. Internet Marketing, the Social Web and Web 2.0 technologies are indeed very exciting and interesting and "majorly" time consuming, especially when you start on the learning curve. This site is now tending in the direction of learning to blog by means of following the author's voyage of discovery in respect of the very nature of blogging itself...

Monday, January 14, 2008

How do I put icons or adverts in a grid or table?

Blog Tip of the day. When I started with Blogger, I thought that "add page element" meant just to add only one page element at a time. But then I looked at sites like JohnyChow.com and I was not impressed by how amateurish my puny little site looked in comparison. OK his site is not hosted on Blogger I see, but I like using Blogger and I do not want a separately hosted site. Anyway, one of the first things I asked myself was how to maximize the use of the blog space especially above the fold, for both my content AND my Google AdSense ads??? Well for those of us who have been following the changes to this blog since December 27 last year (...Thanks for the fealty), I would venture to say that this blog has improved?? N'est pas?. TIP - see the Google AdSense and Google AdWords Buttons at the top right of this page. How did I place them together like that? Simple. Follow these steps for Blogger (and any other blog for that matter):
1. Log into AdSense and get the code for both buttons;
2. Paste the code for both buttons into a notepad file;
3. Place the code for an HTML table cell around each of these "button" codes you got from AdSense. See pic to the right for what I mean;
4. When Happy save the Notepad file;
5. When in Blogger, Template, Page Elements, Add a page element, HTML element, copy the code from the notepad file into the window, save the page element and preview your blog.

So far so good. After cleaning up this site and reinstating the Google Adsense Leader to a position above the fold, I have noticed in the past three days a small uptick in my Google Adsense Revenues. Now to go slightly off the point. But I believe to a relevant point! I have noticed that my sent packets on my Local Area Connection seemed to be suspiciously high. Why should I be sending so much when I am actually doing a lot of browsing? AND ADSL broadband where I am is far too expensive (this is another topic for another time or maybe even another blog). So what? Well I found a great site and I copied their code in about Top 5 Security Threats - see top right. There is no affiliate or referral on this link, but if, you, like me have always been suspicious of the processes running in task manager then this is just the site you need to use to analyze the processes running on your PC. So after doing the following: 1) reviewing my processes 2) running my disk cleanup and 3) ensuring I have up to date MS Windows XP updates and after rebooting, I find my network packets sent to be way down. Although this post is not directly about blogging, it will help you to keep your PC safe from unwanted intrusion while you are online and blogging.

In my planned Blog Posts to come I will be giving tips on: 1. Adding NAVBAR to this Blog, 2) Adding a TAG Cloud 3) Adding a Blog Roll. After that I will look at adding social bookmarking and tagging. So please subscribe to this site (click on the Orange Button to get updates through the feeder (which I have has burnt on Feedburner.com) and visit this blog frequently). I realize NOW that I have an audience and I need to improve the quality of information on this site.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

So this is what I have learnt so far (continued from my last post):
1. It is now no longer enough to put up a site, stick some Google AdSense links onto the site and hope for the best (it never was enough!) - You need to get much more information about how to succeed in this area. You must read a lot and try out what you learn. If you find what works for you then you have distilled the correct essence from the information overload on this topic. I think you should check this click bank offer out. I have not bought it yet, but it looks like it could be genuine: AdSenseVideos
2. I think that there is good money to be made with AdSense as long as you have a good product targeted at a market of willing buyers AND as long as you can reach your market by participating in the other side of Google's service offering, which is called AdWords.
I am still looking for a good affiliate program to advertise on this blog (not just in this post). I think I might have come across one. I registered on click bank. There could be some good products there. I am also looking for a 3 column Blogger template and I came across a good site for this. They also have a pixel page for Blogs (This is Like the fabled Million Dollar Home Page) of legend and by now ancient history - I liked the idea so I decided to spend a very small amount of money on a few pixels. Go here to check it out. Still a lot of space.
Click on the pic:


I am going to sign off now, but if you feel you have maybe learnt something from this post then please leave a comment and a track back link to your site/blog and fave me on technocrati.


Two other good blogs I came across are;

1. Money Blogger Nice Neat and Clean Site - Look at the January 09 Post about changes to Google referrals.
2. jakeldaily.com What I like about this site was how it started with a blog and developed into what appears to be a good online business...

I have spent the weekend blogging and learning about blogs. Once again, I am left with the profound "learning" that successful blogging is dependent on three things:
1. a passionate and engaged blogger;
2. an interesting subject - the more "niched" the better;
3. a blogger with the time and patience to filter through all the garbage that is out there and to discover useful sites with really useful information.
We are, after all, in the INFORMATION Age! I would guess that of all the information that is out there, at least 80% is garbage (if not more). Why do I say this? Well, let's look at the theme of this blog. It is about learning to blog and about making money while doing so (Continued in next post..).

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Excellent! I have CLEANED UP THIS BLOG. Keep it simple. Focus is on Google AdSense and Google AdWords. I have Kept my AMAZON Widget. This site is dedicated to the discovery of the best way to blog and to make money blogging. Please read my tips in the posts below and comment on them.

Time for another post

Blogger Tip 101: See below there is an inline advert from Google Adsense. How did I do this? Well, it is very easy! After I WASTED the whole of last night trying to find a Blogger hack for this, I found out it is very easy to do! So, Q) how do I put an ad just under a post in blogger? A) Sign into Blogger, go to Template > Page Elements > Blog Posts > Edit > check the option to Show Ads Between Posts. Great Huh? Now all I need to work out is how to get rid of the block immediately below this first post (forgot how I managed to place it there...)

Friday, January 11, 2008

Keep on discovering

Hi All. Another day another dollar! Soon it will be an internet million dollars! Or an online million dollars! Blog Tips (101) for you: Sign up for affiliate programs - I have. e.g. goto: www.offerforge.com. Sign up for blog directories - I have - look for them on the net. Join me as I discover this blog thing. I reviewed my site today. It sucks. It is a crashing bore! I MUST and WILL raise the BAR! Blogging is hard work! But it should be FUN!!! More Blog Tips (101): Set up AdBrite. Go there and do it yourself. I have also downloaded RoboForm as it takes away the pain of filling in all these forms!

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Posting a Meaningful Daily Blog Entry

My New Year resolution was to master WEB 2.0 and WEB 3.0 (the so-called Semantic Web). I chose to do this by creating and maintaining this blog. I know that this blog's current theme is about Learn to Blog (using the theme: Make Money online). This blog is, however, slowly changing into one that gives tips to people on how to create and improve a blog. I do not keep "before and after" snapshots of my site as I change it. But this site today is a vast improvement on its first version (Idea! - i will see if I can do "B4 and After pics of my site for every major delta... )

Blogging has taken off. I think, because of the inherent desire of people to form communities. In my view the best blogs are about very good content of posts, graphics and the quality and "mass" appeal its topic. For example, go to Blogger: Blogs of Note and you will see what I mean. Below is a list of their most recent TOP Blogs (really good examples of the standard of blogging that is possible and which we should all seek to emulate);

Sexy Spanish Club in Buenos Aires | http://sexyspanishclub.blogspot.com/
Bird Lovers Only Rescue | http://birdloversonly.blogspot.com/
Political Arithmetik | http://politicalarithmetik.blogspot.com/
Juiced Sports Blog | http://www.juicedsportsblog.com/
.: Mommy Doodles :.| http://mommydoodles.blogspot.com/
Carbonfund.org | http://carbonfund.blogspot.com/
NarelleWorld | http://bnarelle.blogspot.com/
Tacky Christmas Yards | http://tackychristmasyards.com/
"Do You Speak English?" |Radio Show: http://doyouspeakenglishradio.blogspot.com/

AND BEST OF ALL (My favourite just now;... :

Local Girl's day in pictures: http://www.dayinpictures.co.uk/

ALL OF THE ABOVE ARE ON BLOGGER


I have found some very good blogging tips on the site: Problogger.com.

So from now on this blog will more and more dedicate itself to finding good blogging "education" and learning information and material both off-line and on-line with a view to reach that interested community of people who are looking for a good resource to help them, especially at the beginning stages of their blogging career.

Happy Blogging...

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

It is already Late Tuesday night here in the South African corner of the Blogosphere. I am dedicated to this blog. I have been studying Google adwords and adsense. I have applied the lessons of where best to place adverts and contents. I have learned about Section Targeting for more Adsense focus. Google says to wait say 2 weeks before this yields results in terms in "click" income. I know I should not complain but Adwords and Adsense seem conflicted. i.e. surely business profitability would promote Google's favoring one over the other??? I suppose this is a small price to pay when you consider how Google has changed the world so quickly

You really should study the help files that Google has on optimizing your blog for search. I am still trying to work out how to get a Sitemap sorted out for this blog on blogger/blogspot, but am experiencing some technical issues.

Last night I saw that Google had last crawled this page in late December. I need to get incoming links because the crawler travels along all the links as it moves around in its incessant perambulations.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Beginners Guide To Blogging


Some Tips for Brand New Bloggers. You want to blog but do not know how. FOLLOW THESE STEPS:

1. You can create a very powerful blog for free on Blogger (www.blogspot.com OR www.blogger.com). This is Google's blogging platform. Best of all it is free. I use it and I am impressed with how quickly it allowed me to create a nice looking site. SIGN UP;
2. You will be asked to give your blog a URL name: http://xyz.blogspot.com, where xyz will be the name you give your blog (it can be anything - subject of course to no "bad" content (check the policy when you sign up) - No Porn etc.etc.);
3. Choose a template from among many;
4. Make your settings;
5. Once happy, save your settings;
6. Start posting!
7. In another Session sign-up with Google AdSense. You will be asked for your BlogSpot URL by AdSense which will auto-link to your blog.
8. You can also add page elements very easily. I recommend that you immediately ad Google Adsense Ads, Goto: Dashboard>Layout>Add Page Elements. Tip - if you do not see facility to add page element you need to download latest java add-on for your browser.

USE MY BLOG AS AN EXAMPLE of what you page elements you can place on your blog. I have: Google Search, Google AdSense Button, Google AdSense, Amazon Widget and others.

For Email I Use GMAIL also by Google.

Happy Blogging!

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Different Time Zones and Other More Profitable Musings

It is Sunday 06 January 2008. Another day spent browsing on the topics of Blogging and Making Money with Blogs. I will be creating another blog that will be based on a three column template with a grid structure - I would like to present the best of what I have found on that site. I am still busy with that blog, so when it is ready I will activate it.

I am writing this blog in "discovery mode". The main theme of my content up to this point has been my arriving at an appropriate moral point regarding the blog title: for myself that is. One lesson is that the topics: Learn to Blog and Make Money Blogging (online) are really two different topics, one educational and the other both revenue oriented and educational.

The aim of this blog therefore will continue to be one of me tracking my Web 2.0 Discovery while I learn to blog AND at the same time while I learn about making Money Online.

I have looked at creating a blog in wordpress which is just now in a created state. I have also looked at TypePad but their platform is not free like this one is.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Hi All. Just spent the last few hours looking around on the topics of blogging and learning to blog and to make money from blogging. There really is a lot of rubbish out there... BUT just when you are getting tired of wading thru BS along comes a GEM. You literally stumble across some truly good information and when you have finished reading it you think to yourself : "well there is hope of mastering the art of Blogging AND generating blog revenues, while having fun blogging".

So what have I learnt in my ramblings through the Blogosphere?

The key lessons are as follows:

1. If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is;
2. The internet does give hope to people, but it is very easy to get scammed a lot of money for a generic type
ebook - reminds me of the movie I just rented from the video store called Prime Gig. If you have not seen
it you should...
3. The real key to prospering with a blog is to:
a) have very good content of value to readers;
b) have high levels of traffic visiting your site!

4. The devil is indeed in the detail as regards actually achieving internet profits. How to do this? I am still in
discovery mode.

When (If) an idea makes a profit, I will do a detailed lesson post on the idea.

Discover >Learn to Blog > Make Money Online is the process I am following.

I went back to my day job yesterday.

The title of my blog is: Blog Make Money Online... I am wondering if it is such a good title??? The best blogs I have seen are where the content is so good. They are usually NOT about the topic of making money (except for John Chow of course). These sites get their traffic first based on their interesting content (e.g. VinnyLingham.com or that nice British Cartoon blog that is on blog spot (I will try and find it again)). Once the surfer is on the site they enjoy the content and then I am sure that they probably leave by clicking an interesting link out, even if it is not a Google ad.

After building the site that I have built, I find that it to be a bit "clunky": too harsh an opinion??? Maybe? I want to place all my small icons on one line and not each on its own line for example. In addition, I want to make the title font smaller but not also have to reduce the normal text font size when I do this. I like Blogger. I will try to find ways of working these things out before blaming the tool that I am working with.

I am also thinking of building a blog on Vinny Linghams Synthasite. I signed on. It looks really good! Well happy blogging. I'll post again when I can...

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Hi All. Hope all is well this fine day! This posting is about how to add the things to my site that you see on the site:

1. Amazon. The scrolling widget at bottom is from Amazon. If you want it just go to Amazon.com and sign up as an associate (link at bottom of their home page). Once inside you can set up your astore and you can choose from a number of widgets.
2. Google Adsense. Go to their link (i have linkyfy'd it here). Sign up. I am still looking for a way to add a money making Google Adwords link to my blog).
3. Technocrati, RSS Feed and Digg will be the subjects of a later post.


I am looking for feedback on my site. I am using blogger, but at this stage I feel that I could do better with page layout if I had a custom template. One site I really like is JohnChow.com.

I see I have a really low reader count so I am still on a mission to get an effective way of driving traffic to this blog. ANY tips out there that really work?

Love to hear from any one. regards. Alan

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

There is no silver bullet

Happy New Year to all !!! May you have a good and prosperous New Year. I have just finished reading a book by John C Maxwell called "Failing Forward". I would really recommend this book to anyone. The bottom line is that if you want to succeed in life you have to master yourself and how you react to failure which I am afraid is inevitable in life, especially if you have the courage to venture new things. So how does that relate to this blog? Well the hard lesson I have learnt so far is that the internet gives people hope. It is true, it is a source of much information and if you can get the correct information you can use it to deal better with circumstances in your life than if you did not have such information. I have also been reading the Rich Dad/Poor Dad books and I would recommend buying all of them. That is what I have done. I live in Africa. In South Africa which is pretty westernised though we are behind in some aspects (like cheap broadband but it should improve in the run up to the FIFA world cup (2010)). Enough rambling.
I have decided that I will daily try to improve this site by adding content the value of which I hope to improve as I learn more. My reading and reaserach leads me to my latest reflection which is that it is quite a complex matter to get a blog that appeals to the reader both content wise and visually. Visually, I am still working on my site.

I also want to start featuring products and advertisements that will genuinely assist the reader in their efforts to establish profitable (but legitimate) businesses online using blogs. I have placed a RSS feed (burn your site at feedburner.com) on my site AND I must confess that I have set up a small budget on Google Adwords (so much for trying to attract traffic without spending a cent). I have purchased some key words around learning blogging and learning to use a blog to make money on the internet. So far I have spent just under $1 but made $0.00 on adsense.

I'll keep you posted.