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!

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!

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.

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...

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.

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...