Direct Ad Selling

January 11, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Some of the best money to be made on a website or blog is direct ad selling. I have a work at home site and 99% of the revenue from that site is made on direct ads. I make very little from affiliate programs or Adsense.

The problem is trying to manage those ads. Well, here is a solution – OIOPublisher. This is a great wordpress plugin that lets you get rid of the middleman. It has the ability to not only sell text links, but reviews as well.

You can even win a free copy of this direct ad selling product. Of course, if you don’t win, the product is a steal at only $37!

Filed Under: Advertising, Contests Tagged With: , ,

SEO – Blog Taglines are Important

January 10, 2008 By 3 Comments

One of the most important things that you can do for your blog is SEO.  SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.  Applying sound SEO techniques to your blog will help your blog obtain higher search engine rankings, specifically from Google.

SEO is not something you can learn overnight.  It is not something that you can apply in one hour to your blog and be finished.  You must continually work at it.   That is why I am starting this SEO series – to give you a little help at a time. Now, I don’t claim to be an SEO expert, but I have taken a few classes and I will continue to search and read and make discoveries about SEO techniques.

Here is something you may not know, Google crawls your site starting at the top left.  It will then read the left hand column and then move to the next column and so on until it ends at the bottom right of your webpage.  And what does Google want to know?  What your blog is about.

The name of my blog and domain name do not accurately describe what my blog is about, but I really can’t do anything about that.  However, I recently changed my tag line to include the word blogging and blog.

Your tagline should describe your blog with enough good key words that the Google bot knows what your blog is about.   If your blog is about cats, don’t use a tagline that says “Meow, Meow, Meow.”  It is cute, but it does nothing to help your rankings with Google.  Instead try something like “A cat fancier who loves purebred cats and pedigree cats.”  Google won’t mistake that your blog is about cat sounds (meow), but instead will realize that your blog is about cats, purebred cats, pedigree cats, etc.

Write out a couple taglines and ask others for their opinions.  Can they understand the main purpose of your blog from your tagline?  Remember, it is a matter of trial and error.  Eventually you will find the ideal tagline for your blog!

Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: ,

Another Entrecard Contest – 1000 Credits!

January 8, 2008 By 1 Comment

If you love Entrecard like I do, then you will be interested in an Entrecard contest that can net you 1000 credits. Think of all the advertising that will buy!

This contest is brought to you by You Can Learn Series. The contest is a scavenger hunt. Three clues will be posted on the blog, if you find the page the clue originates on, send an email (three separate emails, one for each clue). You can read the full details of the contest here. There is also a second prize (200 credits) and a third prize (100 credits).

Filed Under: Blogs, Contests Tagged With:

I won!

January 7, 2008 By 3 Comments

I often visit other blogs and if they have a contest going, I will join if the prize appeals to me. In December, I joined a contest at EasyWordPress.com. I blogged about the contest and won a Marshmallow Shooter!

Here is a picture of the gift being used by my 5 year old son. Notice the two marshmallows shooting out in the top left hand corner.

Marshmallow Shooter

TIP: Hold a contest on your blog and increase readership and traffic.

Filed Under: Contests Tagged With:

Show Comment Love!

January 7, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I have just discovered two new WordPress plugins that will help you show comment love to your commentators. The first is the Show Top Commentators Plugin.  This plugin will show the Top Commentators on your blog with a link back to their website or blog.  Upload the plugin to wp-content/plugins directory and activate it.  If you are NOT using widgets, you are finished!  If you do use widgets, you will also need to download and install the Exec-PHP plugin and activate it as well.  This plugin will place a PHP Code 1 box in your Available Widgets.  Drag the PHP Code 1 box where you would like it on your sidebar and then edit it.  Include the following code:

<?php if(function_exists('ns_show_top_commentators')) { ?>
<li>
<ul><?php ns_show_top_commentators(); ?></ul>
</li>
<?php } ?>

Name the Widget “Top Commentators” and save changes.  Finished!

The second Plugin is called Comment Relish written by Justin Shattuck. This plugin will send an email message to a commentator the first time they leave a comment. After uploading the plugin to your wp-content/plugins directory, activate the plugin. To configure the plugin, click on the Plugins tab and then choose Comment Relish. The cool thing about this plugin is that you can add the article name, your RSS Feed, the comment that was posted as well as other items to the thank you note.

NOTE:  If you have problems with Comment Relish, there is a new optimized version as well.

Filed Under: Plugins Tagged With:
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