Is this yet another "How To Make Money Online" tutorial? Well, yes and no. Yes because you may find a lot of information here to be very useful to the beginner. Since I am actually documenting my own blogging experience here, you may find a lot of what I go through useful and informational to you. No because this is not a traditional how-to blog where an "expert" is trying to tell you what you should and shouldn't do. I am sure there are a lot of sites and blogs out there that can tell you that. Although as I tried to search for information online I noticed that a lot of "experts" are just reiterating what other "experts" are saying. In addition, a lot of sites are really not very detailed and are mainly outlining what should and shouldn't be done. I don't find those sites to be very useful.
I am hoping to document my experience here mainly for myself to remember what I have done and what I will be doing. In a way this is really just my diary. This is also a way for me to track what I do and how I am doing.
I guess my title is "Why Blogging?" and I should be answering that question here. Why do I blog? To make money of course :) But also for me to tell the world what I am thinking. I guess we are a vain species. We always feel the need for attention. Or maybe that is just me :)
Why do people blog? To share their thoughts I guess. The need to "let it out". Whatever the reason, it is making a big difference in this time and age. And with the Twitter thing, micro blogging may just be the next big thing. The need to blog is not enough, now we feel the need to tweet.
(this is a repost of "Why Blogging?" - to serve as an intro first page)
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Submit to Digg and StumbleUpon
I submitted my sites to both Digg and StumbleUpon over the past few days with some of my "interesting" posts. Well, I check again and it seems that I am the only visitor checking out those links :) It is pathetic, but kind of amusing. Well, there goes my chance for my site to be "Dugged" and "StumbleUponed". Thank God I am hosting my blogs on a free site :)
A lot of blogger (for money) claim both Digg and StumbleUpon to be useless. If they do bring traffic they are mostly social traffic, traffic from social sites, and those people are not likely to click your ads. I guess that is what it is all about, people clicking ads (sad but vital). What bloggers for money want are search traffic, traffic from search engines. That is why it is so important to get ranked high on search engines (hence the SEO).
So that is probably the last time I will post anything on Digg and StumbleUpon, or any crap "discover sites" out there.
A lot of blogger (for money) claim both Digg and StumbleUpon to be useless. If they do bring traffic they are mostly social traffic, traffic from social sites, and those people are not likely to click your ads. I guess that is what it is all about, people clicking ads (sad but vital). What bloggers for money want are search traffic, traffic from search engines. That is why it is so important to get ranked high on search engines (hence the SEO).
So that is probably the last time I will post anything on Digg and StumbleUpon, or any crap "discover sites" out there.
Using Adsense
Well, my Adsense is up. Now what?
I checked it the last few days and I seem to be the only visitor on both sites. And my balance for all my accounts is $0.00. Am I expecting too much for being online for a few days? Maybe a bit :)
I guess I just have to wait a bit......
I checked it the last few days and I seem to be the only visitor on both sites. And my balance for all my accounts is $0.00. Am I expecting too much for being online for a few days? Maybe a bit :)
I guess I just have to wait a bit......
Using Google Analytics
I just signed up for Google Analytics. It took me a little bit to configure Analytics to work. It is not hard, I just didn't realize that it took time for Google to analyze my site. Initially when I set up Analytics, the status kept on showing "Tracking Unknown". After doing some googling (again) I realized that it is normal. It took a few hours before Google is actually reading my data.
And when it does, it is disappointing. No one has show up and I was the only visitor. That is normal, since I just set up the site. But still it is a bit sad :)
So I set up both Analytics to analyze this site and my "Coolest Stuff On The Planet" site. Both show really pathetic data, but at least it is working.
And when it does, it is disappointing. No one has show up and I was the only visitor. That is normal, since I just set up the site. But still it is a bit sad :)
So I set up both Analytics to analyze this site and my "Coolest Stuff On The Planet" site. Both show really pathetic data, but at least it is working.
Make More Money With SEO
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, knowledge is a must (supposedly) if you want to make money with blogs. Your site needs to be ranked up high (as high as possible) with Google for others to see that you exist. Isn't Google powerful? They seem to be able to decide when you fail and when you succeed, now if that is not power then I don't know what is.
When your site is ranked high on the search engine, visitors can find you and click on your site. When they are on your site, they can find the ads to click on and that is where you make your money.
So I found all these resources online and read through them to optimize my site. One of the important things that I have picked up is the concept of choosing and positioning of my keywords. I then tried to "optimize" my site using these keywords.
But considering that I am writing a blog about making money online and making money using Adsense my competition is fierce. I probably ranked low on the search engines and I am not expecting this to change anytime soon. Actually if you are reading this, you might be one of 10 people who have visited my site this month :)
When your site is ranked high on the search engine, visitors can find you and click on your site. When they are on your site, they can find the ads to click on and that is where you make your money.
So I found all these resources online and read through them to optimize my site. One of the important things that I have picked up is the concept of choosing and positioning of my keywords. I then tried to "optimize" my site using these keywords.
But considering that I am writing a blog about making money online and making money using Adsense my competition is fierce. I probably ranked low on the search engines and I am not expecting this to change anytime soon. Actually if you are reading this, you might be one of 10 people who have visited my site this month :)
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Make More Money With Adbrite
I do not believe in the idea of putting all my eggs in one basket. That is simply too risky. In any business venture, it is always wise to have more than one sources - of customers and of suppliers.
I decided to add some more ads networks to my site. I have done some research online and a lot of people recommended Adbrite as an Adsense alternative. Some other ones are Bidvertizer and Yahoo Publisher Network. I have signed up for all three.
Signing up for Adbrite and Bidvertizer is pretty straightforward. They don't have that Adsense suspense of waiting for your application to be approved. For Adbrite, you just sign up for an account. It is the same for Bidvertizer.
For Yahoo, it is a bit more "interesting". I signed up and haven't heard from them since. A lot of people online said the same thing. Some never heard from them again. I expect the same. I find them to be a bit arrogant though. They don't even take the time and the bandwidth to send you an email saying that you are "rejected". At least Google is being courteous :) Maybe some of these big guys deserved to be arrogant. They are after all providing all these "free" services to the Internet public, so they should reserve the right to be a bit cocky. Corporate as*holism is what makes America great right?
Now I have the power of three (four minus Yahoo) big ads networks to help me conquer the world (of the blogosphere).
I decided to add some more ads networks to my site. I have done some research online and a lot of people recommended Adbrite as an Adsense alternative. Some other ones are Bidvertizer and Yahoo Publisher Network. I have signed up for all three.
Signing up for Adbrite and Bidvertizer is pretty straightforward. They don't have that Adsense suspense of waiting for your application to be approved. For Adbrite, you just sign up for an account. It is the same for Bidvertizer.
For Yahoo, it is a bit more "interesting". I signed up and haven't heard from them since. A lot of people online said the same thing. Some never heard from them again. I expect the same. I find them to be a bit arrogant though. They don't even take the time and the bandwidth to send you an email saying that you are "rejected". At least Google is being courteous :) Maybe some of these big guys deserved to be arrogant. They are after all providing all these "free" services to the Internet public, so they should reserve the right to be a bit cocky. Corporate as*holism is what makes America great right?
Now I have the power of three (four minus Yahoo) big ads networks to help me conquer the world (of the blogosphere).
How To Make Money With Adsense II
I finally got my Adsense account. Now I just have to find out how to plug that into my blog.
It turns out to be pretty easy actually. That is the beauty of hosting a blog on Blogger. It is so integrated with Google that makes it very easy to add and remove any Google components. That is the good and bad thing about Google products. Good because everything is so integrated. Bad because, well...everything is so integrated. When everything is so integrated it either is a match in heaven or match in hell. At this time, for me at least, it is a match in heaven.
All I had to do to integrate Adsense into my Blogger blog is to define a "gadget" in the template and add the "Adsense gadget". Nothing is as simple as that. Once I added my "Adsense gadget", the ads just show up on my blog. No coding required. No cutting and pasting of JavaScripts. I am a programmer by trade, so cutting and pasting of any code is not really that difficult for me. I have done far more complicated stuff, but the fact that it is so easy to create a blog here, it is worth praising.
Don't get me wrong. I am not selling Blogger here. I am sure I will find more faults as I proceed. But for now, it is actually kind of fun. I do feel more of a blogger than two days ago.
Now I have Adsense up, all I need to proceed is "optimize" my site. So more research on SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
It turns out to be pretty easy actually. That is the beauty of hosting a blog on Blogger. It is so integrated with Google that makes it very easy to add and remove any Google components. That is the good and bad thing about Google products. Good because everything is so integrated. Bad because, well...everything is so integrated. When everything is so integrated it either is a match in heaven or match in hell. At this time, for me at least, it is a match in heaven.
All I had to do to integrate Adsense into my Blogger blog is to define a "gadget" in the template and add the "Adsense gadget". Nothing is as simple as that. Once I added my "Adsense gadget", the ads just show up on my blog. No coding required. No cutting and pasting of JavaScripts. I am a programmer by trade, so cutting and pasting of any code is not really that difficult for me. I have done far more complicated stuff, but the fact that it is so easy to create a blog here, it is worth praising.
Don't get me wrong. I am not selling Blogger here. I am sure I will find more faults as I proceed. But for now, it is actually kind of fun. I do feel more of a blogger than two days ago.
Now I have Adsense up, all I need to proceed is "optimize" my site. So more research on SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
How To Make Money With Adsense I
When I first signed up for Adsense I was rejected. The reason I got rejected was that my initial website had no content. I didn't know that you have to build a site first before you sign up for Adsense.
It makes sense. Google is a reputable company and they don't want to be associated with sites with no contents and especially with sites that are under construction. There is an image that Google needs to keep here and it is totally understandable. But I wish someone would have told me about it before I decided to sign up for Adsense. That is definitely a lesson I hope others don't have to go through.
When my initial site was rejected I actually felt confused and dumbfounded. I then went online and did a little research on Google and found out that a lot of people actually went through the same thing I did. That was kind of a consolation, but then I wanted to find out what it would take for me to be not rejected again. Because getting rejected once was bad, and if I got rejected again that would actually hurt my ego. As I am kind of an insecure guy, I really don't take rejections that well.
So I went on a programming spree and spent about 15 hours straight to create a site that I knew no search robot could reject. I created my first blog at http://coolthings2.blogspot.com/. I kept on refining the site and added contents I found interesting and hoped that the little search robot at Google would like it too. I actually thought that I should spend a few days on the site to refine it further before I resubmit to Adsense. But I was too impatient to find out if my new site have what it takes to be accepted to the venerable Adsense program. I decided to submit it anyways.
I slept at 7am on that day. That was almost an all-nighter.
So how does it take to make money on Adsense? All the hours of labor and my little all-nighter, that did take a lot. That was my first lesson that making money with Adsense is not easy.
When I woke up at 4pm, I kept on checking my status at Adsense to see if I got accepted. Every hour or so I checked, but for hours the status was still "processing". I finally gave up and decided that Google won't give me an answer until the next day. After all they said they will answer within 48 hours. So I assume they will get back to me "later". I have heard some guy didn't hear back from Google until about 5 days later. I actually hoped it did not take that long. That is how much it takes to make money with Adsense. It takes a lot of patience.
At around 7pm I checked again. And I was so happy to see that my application had been accepted. That was a good evening. I decided to just watch TV after that. No more programming for that night.
It makes sense. Google is a reputable company and they don't want to be associated with sites with no contents and especially with sites that are under construction. There is an image that Google needs to keep here and it is totally understandable. But I wish someone would have told me about it before I decided to sign up for Adsense. That is definitely a lesson I hope others don't have to go through.
When my initial site was rejected I actually felt confused and dumbfounded. I then went online and did a little research on Google and found out that a lot of people actually went through the same thing I did. That was kind of a consolation, but then I wanted to find out what it would take for me to be not rejected again. Because getting rejected once was bad, and if I got rejected again that would actually hurt my ego. As I am kind of an insecure guy, I really don't take rejections that well.
So I went on a programming spree and spent about 15 hours straight to create a site that I knew no search robot could reject. I created my first blog at http://coolthings2.blogspot.com/. I kept on refining the site and added contents I found interesting and hoped that the little search robot at Google would like it too. I actually thought that I should spend a few days on the site to refine it further before I resubmit to Adsense. But I was too impatient to find out if my new site have what it takes to be accepted to the venerable Adsense program. I decided to submit it anyways.
I slept at 7am on that day. That was almost an all-nighter.
So how does it take to make money on Adsense? All the hours of labor and my little all-nighter, that did take a lot. That was my first lesson that making money with Adsense is not easy.
When I woke up at 4pm, I kept on checking my status at Adsense to see if I got accepted. Every hour or so I checked, but for hours the status was still "processing". I finally gave up and decided that Google won't give me an answer until the next day. After all they said they will answer within 48 hours. So I assume they will get back to me "later". I have heard some guy didn't hear back from Google until about 5 days later. I actually hoped it did not take that long. That is how much it takes to make money with Adsense. It takes a lot of patience.
At around 7pm I checked again. And I was so happy to see that my application had been accepted. That was a good evening. I decided to just watch TV after that. No more programming for that night.
How To Start A Blog
I just started blogging two days ago. I have absolutely no experience whatsoever in blogging. Where do I begin to learn how to start a blog? I figured the best way is to start googling it and see what I can find. It is amazing how much resources there are out there. I did a search on "how to start a blog" and there were at least 755,000 results! It seems that everybody who is anybody has something to say about how to start a blog (including myself). I am sure that once I am done with this blog, my site will just be number 755,001. Just another footnote in the history of blogging I guess. But I do hope that I can contribute some useful information to the blogosphere. It would make all the days and hours I spent researching all these information for this blog to be so much more worthwhile.
I started by reading some of the sites out there on how to start a blog. I found a lot of sites to be useless. That explained the 755,000 results. Most sites didn't have really good contents. Most just gave you an outline but provided very little details. I guess starting a blog is really not that difficult, so an outline may just suffice. Most really just gave you the reason to start a blog, but didn't really walk you through on how to do it.
So there were a lot of things I had to figure it out. I may not know where to start, but I knew that I didn't want to pay a lot to start this little venture. I wanted to use free resource if possible.
I opted to go for Blogger (it is free). I also did a lot of research on web hosting to see if I needed to host my own blog. But after some consideration I found hosting my own blog to be too much of a hassle. I don't consider myself to be a professional blogger. I am not sure if I would even want to become a professional blogger. I am sure that if later on I decide to become a professional blogger I can always find better hosting options at that time.
Blogger is owned by Google. So I am sure it won't be going away anytime soon. I also know that I can link my own domain to blogger if I want to look more "professional". A lot of people don't seem to know that. Most people seem to think that blogging on Blogger requires you to host your site on blogspot.com. A lot of people also want to host their own blog because they think they can better control over their blogs. But what they don't realized is that maitaining a site can be pain in the ass. Most beginners started with inexpensive shared hosting plans that may range from $3 to $20 a month. That may seem inexpensive, but the headaches that can comes with some of these plans can ruin the blogging experience. Most shared hosting plans are oversold. Some people might opt for a dedicated hosting plan, but they could be quite expensive.
The bad thing about having a blog hosted by Blogger is that you may not have a lot of control in customizing your blog and your blog's data is owned by Google. For serious bloggers that is a big deal and just for that reason they opted to host their own blog. And that is definitely for a good reason. So it does depend on what your needs are. For now, I just want to blog to "let it out". So there is really no need for me to be too serious about hosting my own blog. One other thing I like about Blogger is that it can scale. After all this site is owned by Google. Their infrastructure should be good enough whenever my blog got "Dugged" or "StumbledUpon". I don't see that happening soon, but just in case :)
Setting up a blog with Blogger was easy. I already got a Gmail account, so the process was even simpler. If you don't have a Gmail account, signing up for Blogger is actually just creating a Gmail account.
After I signed into my Gmail account all I had to do was creating a title for my new blog and chose a new Blogspot subdomain and my new blog was created.
Creating content for my blog took me a while. I also had to play around with the Blogger template for a little bit, but within an hour or so I got the hang of it and started adding test posts.
I started by reading some of the sites out there on how to start a blog. I found a lot of sites to be useless. That explained the 755,000 results. Most sites didn't have really good contents. Most just gave you an outline but provided very little details. I guess starting a blog is really not that difficult, so an outline may just suffice. Most really just gave you the reason to start a blog, but didn't really walk you through on how to do it.
So there were a lot of things I had to figure it out. I may not know where to start, but I knew that I didn't want to pay a lot to start this little venture. I wanted to use free resource if possible.
I opted to go for Blogger (it is free). I also did a lot of research on web hosting to see if I needed to host my own blog. But after some consideration I found hosting my own blog to be too much of a hassle. I don't consider myself to be a professional blogger. I am not sure if I would even want to become a professional blogger. I am sure that if later on I decide to become a professional blogger I can always find better hosting options at that time.
Blogger is owned by Google. So I am sure it won't be going away anytime soon. I also know that I can link my own domain to blogger if I want to look more "professional". A lot of people don't seem to know that. Most people seem to think that blogging on Blogger requires you to host your site on blogspot.com. A lot of people also want to host their own blog because they think they can better control over their blogs. But what they don't realized is that maitaining a site can be pain in the ass. Most beginners started with inexpensive shared hosting plans that may range from $3 to $20 a month. That may seem inexpensive, but the headaches that can comes with some of these plans can ruin the blogging experience. Most shared hosting plans are oversold. Some people might opt for a dedicated hosting plan, but they could be quite expensive.
The bad thing about having a blog hosted by Blogger is that you may not have a lot of control in customizing your blog and your blog's data is owned by Google. For serious bloggers that is a big deal and just for that reason they opted to host their own blog. And that is definitely for a good reason. So it does depend on what your needs are. For now, I just want to blog to "let it out". So there is really no need for me to be too serious about hosting my own blog. One other thing I like about Blogger is that it can scale. After all this site is owned by Google. Their infrastructure should be good enough whenever my blog got "Dugged" or "StumbledUpon". I don't see that happening soon, but just in case :)
Setting up a blog with Blogger was easy. I already got a Gmail account, so the process was even simpler. If you don't have a Gmail account, signing up for Blogger is actually just creating a Gmail account.
After I signed into my Gmail account all I had to do was creating a title for my new blog and chose a new Blogspot subdomain and my new blog was created.
Creating content for my blog took me a while. I also had to play around with the Blogger template for a little bit, but within an hour or so I got the hang of it and started adding test posts.
Why Blogging?
Is this yet another "How To Make Money Online" tutorial? Well, yes and no. Yes because you may find a lot of information here to be very useful to the beginner. Since I am actually documenting my own blogging experience here, you may find a lot of what I go through useful and informational to you. No because this is not a traditional how-to blog where an "expert" is trying to tell you what you should and shouldn't do. I am sure there are a lot of sites and blogs out there that can tell you that. Although as I tried to search for information online I noticed that a lot of "experts" are just reiterating what other "experts" are saying. In addition, a lot of sites are really not very detailed and are mainly outlining what should and shouldn't be done. I don't find those sites to be very useful.
I am hoping to document my experience here mainly for myself to remember what I have done and what I will be doing. In a way this is really just my diary. This is also a way for me to track what I do and how I am doing.
I guess my title is "Why Blogging?" and I should be answering that question here. Why do I blog? To make money of course :) But also for me to tell the world what I am thinking. I guess we are a vain species. We always feel the need for attention. Or maybe that is just me :)
Why do people blog? To share their thoughts I guess. The need to "let it out". Whatever the reason, it is making a big difference in this time and age. And with the Twitter thing, micro blogging may just be the next big thing. The need to blog is not enough, now we feel the need to tweet.
I am hoping to document my experience here mainly for myself to remember what I have done and what I will be doing. In a way this is really just my diary. This is also a way for me to track what I do and how I am doing.
I guess my title is "Why Blogging?" and I should be answering that question here. Why do I blog? To make money of course :) But also for me to tell the world what I am thinking. I guess we are a vain species. We always feel the need for attention. Or maybe that is just me :)
Why do people blog? To share their thoughts I guess. The need to "let it out". Whatever the reason, it is making a big difference in this time and age. And with the Twitter thing, micro blogging may just be the next big thing. The need to blog is not enough, now we feel the need to tweet.
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