A-Store! Create Your Own Amazon Book Store

Amazon a-store is here! Well many of you may have noticed that I now have a book store attached to my site. I thought of making a post about all the books on the subject of blog/web site monetization which I have been reading and using as daily reference guides and thought to myself....hmmm, I wonder...

Well I checked and the answer is yes, they do have an affiliate program, it's easy to sign up, easy to make a product site, and easy to link to your blog. (Check out my a-store's sidebar widget to the right.)

As a test I bought this book through a-store and YES, they will pay you the commission! The book looks good, I haven't gotten that deep into it yet, but I did get $.66 from it's purchase!




So it doesn't matter what you are blogging about, there are books on the subject, books you probably have read and use as a reference and can recommend to your readership, so why not? If you like cats and have a site about cats, why not have a little bookstore dedicated to cats, where you can make $.66 per purchase?

Check out my store at the link below, it is categorized by what I'm reading now, what I've read and found useful, what works as a reference guide, and what is crap. Yes that's in there as well, if I find a book that is crap, I will be the first one to tell you not to buy it.

A Crash Course in Blog Terminology!

A Dictionary of Blogging Terms...Very Cool!

ahhhh, like a breath of fresh air...good and free info...

Go To:

http://www.blogossary.com/

then choose any of the links on the left, in order to get a quick definition of the term, read the info and if you want more just wikipedia it at http://www.wikipedia.org/

the cool thing is how you can just scroll down the list and quickly become proficient in the language of blogging, which will make all of your other research on the topic that much easier.


Here are some examples:

Blogroll
Blog Hop

Link Love (which is still elusive to me, more on this later)
Trackback

Check it out!

lg

Page Monitors Are Fun!

Where does one find all this stuff?

Well it's simple, hang out on blogs, actually look at the stuff in the right hand column, (yes including the ads!) then scour the page for cool widgets and gadgets. There is always a link to the gadget provider's site and take it from there.

In the case of this little guy, you just fill out a form, they want all the basic info, first name, your town, email address (of course!), url, etc. etc.

Then you just grab the code and post it on your site! Easy!

Ok the site where I got the widget is a bit confused, I would imagine that most folks who find it are going there for a reason as it's not pretty to look at nor easy to find what you are looking for.

You can start here: http://whozontop.com/

Click the regional link for your location and enter your url. The flow is understandable after that.

One thing that I like about this site is the concept that if you create a widget, you can build a company around it or at the very least a site that just disseminates that widgets gaining you TRAFFIC which you can then monetize!

Just look at all the ads on that site....it's a thing of beauty is it not!

Cheers,

-lg

Affiliate Marketing - Wikipedia Excellent Article!

Affiliate Marketing - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
Click on this link to check out an excellent article on Affiliate Marketing. It helps to explain the basics of these types of programs and will give you a new pile of questions to answer, but they are good questions.

The contents of this article include:

1. Affiliate Marketing Defined
2. History of Affiliate Marketing
3. Compensation Methods (VERY IMPORTANT!)
4. Multi-tier programs
5. Pros and Cons
6. Adware
7. And much more.
   

I have two affiliates thus far for this site: "blue host" and "the super affiliate handbook" both of which I use, the first as my web hosting service and the second as a daily reference book.

Cheers!

lgblogger

If you found this information useful, hit an adlink! ty

Here is yet another way you can monetize your site!

Many of you may have noticed recently that there is now a Paypal Donate Button on my site it looks like this

and it's off to the right.

To many bloggers this button is also euphemistically known as a "Tip Jar".

Basically it is a place where those who are so inclined can leave a couple of bucks for the author of the site. At first I thought it was kind of cheesy but after I got a few donations I thought...'what the heck?'.

Here's how to set one up:

1. http://www.paypal.com/

2. click on merchant services link: or here, https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_merchant&nav=3

3. click on their "donate" option: or here: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick-donations-factory

4. fill out the form, select your button. note: go with the "button encryption", actually whenever in doubt, I always opt for encryption...it's safer that way.

5. create the button and grab the HTML on the following page, and post it wherever you need.

If you have any questions, just drop me a note!

Cheers everyone!

lgblogger

Why $3.46 Is So Exciting...Still Yawning??

Here's a partial list of some of the wonderful things about monetizing a blog or website which keeps me up at night.


Last night I made $3.46 on this blog from a person in New Zealand!

Thank You New Zealand!!

Now some of you are still yawning at the idea of earning $3.46 from some person in New Zealand whom you will never meet who may never patronize your site again, whom just popped in out of the blue, clicked some links and clicked happily off into the void again, perhaps never to be seen again, but then again maybe so...who knows?

But it kind of reminds me of Sam Walton, the frugal billionaire who made his fortune 5 cents at a time selling bubble gum, toilet paper, toothpaste, pantyhose and other consumable goods at a slim margin to nice, good, hardworking people all over the US.

Except! Hold onto your hats people; The Difference is that our Opportunity Requires:

1. No Stores
2. No Employees
3. No Major Capital Outlay
4. No Distribution Channels
5. No Consumable Goods
6. No Risk

And the list goes on and on.

Basically what we have here is like owning a store that sells information, and that store has the ability to generate $3.46 or much, much more per visitor.

I live in a tourist area and I think of the store keepers who sell trinkets and key chains for $3.46 to nice people who are visiting from New Zealand and am amazed that WE happen to be at the right place at the right time with this brand new opportunity to generate income with very little overhead selling to people who are on the other side of the planet, whom we will never meet and whom have never even left their homes.

If that doesn't excite you then I don't know what will.

-lgblogger

Important Site Stats: (provided by Google Analytics)

64 Visits (that's 64visits/9 users = 7.11 visits per visitor!)

9 Absolute Unique Visitors (thus far)

210 Pageviews

3.28 Average Pageviews

00:06:24 Time on Site

40.62% Bounce Rate (very important, more on this in another post)

14.06% New Visits

Web Traffic And Search Engine Optimization

I spend most of my free time these days researching and learning about the concept of web and blogsite monetization and how to increase traffic. I have found a few books to be very helpful and a few that were just dogs, I won't waste any more time on the latter by posting about them here but I did think it would be a good idea to let you all know where you could find some useful information. I have posted a review of the book along with link information to Amazon.com where you can pick it up.

In the book you will find most of the tricks around Search Engine Optimization as well as other methods of increasing your traffic which most of you will eventually come by through trial and error. Or you can buy the book and short cut the process.

The Book:

Book Increase Your Web Traffic; in a weekend
by Jerry Lee Ford, Jr. and Williams R. Stanek

Areas of Note:

Pg. 49, Using "meta" tags and information
Pg. 60, How to Avoid being Delisted
Pg. 159, Ad Masters - this site will list you with all the major search engines
Pg. 155, Directories, Search Engines and Guides, how they're different how to find them and where to register

At under $20.00, the book is an excellent reference guide, a quick read and wheras it it can get technical at times I found it easy to follow understand and full of relevent ideas that are easily implemented.

I will post my progress and site traffic spikes in the coming weeks.




Here's the review:


Book Description
These days, everyone seems to have a home page or a Web site. However, just because you create and publish a Web site doesn’t mean anyone will visit it. Competition to attract visitors is extreme. The reality is that of the millions of Web pages out there, only a handful actually attract a steady readership; and these same Web pages are the ones that attract advertisers. In order to compete, you need to develop and implement a Web site promotion plan. What can you do when you build a home page that no one visits? What can you do to earn money on your Web site? Is there an easy way to attract readers and advertisers without spending a fortune? There are low-cost ways to attract readers and advertisers to your home page or Web site, and Increase Your Web Traffic In a Weekend, Fifth Edition shows you how. The book lays out a cost-effective, comprehensive plan that both Web beginners and experts can use to build an audience for a home page or Web site. The techniques covered are the result of the authors’ years of practical experience, but you can put them to use in just a weekend!

About the Author
Jerry Lee Ford, Jr. is an author, educator, and an IT professional with over 18 years of experience in information technology, including roles as an automation analyst, technical manager, technical support analyst, automation engineer, and security analyst. He is the author of 23 other books and co-author of 2 additional books. Ford has a master’s degree in business administration from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, and has over five years of experience as an adjunct instructor teaching networking courses in information technology. William R. Stanek is a leading network technology expert and an award-winning author. He is a regular contributor to leading publications such as PC Magazine and has written, co-authored, or contributed to numerous computer books, including Microsoft Windows 2000 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant, Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant, and Windows 2000 Scripting Administrator’s Guide. Stanek has a master’s degree in information systems, with distinction, and a bachelor’s degree in computer science, magna cum laude. He has been involved in the commercial Internet community since 1991 and has experience developing server technology, encryption, and e-commerce technology.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Product Details

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 5 edition (October 30, 2007)
Language: English




Affiliate Link Created by Amazon.com Associates Program I will have a book store up and running soon so make certain to come back again.

Affiliate Marketing!

**Disclaimer**

This is not a "pay-for-post", this is an honest to goodness Affiliate product which means that I get a portion of the sale if someone buys the book! I use this book, I love it, I reference it daily and it was worth every penny.

**End Disclaimer**

Ok, I know I've been remiss in posting on this blog but I have started a couple of other blogs and am building a site around another concept as well as doing all of the research required to make a go of this whole thing without having to pay a "consultant" 5 Grand to take me through a power point in some lame webinar, so thanks for coming back and for your patience.

So far I have found in my research, 6 ways to monetize a blog site:

1. Google Adsense - check!
2. Affiliate Marketing - check!
3. Selling Advertising - not ready for this one yet.
4. Donation Buttons - you'll find this button and a "how-to" tutorial on this site later this week!
5. Selling Products for others
6. Selling my own products

This post is about Affiliate Marketing, one of the hottest ways of monetizing a blog site:

Here's the low down; you connect with other marketers who want referrals from your site, you post a link on your site which leads to theirs, the referrals leave with a cookie which identifies your site as the referring site. When one of your referrals purchases something on that site, then you get a piece of that action, generally to the tune of 50% of the sale.

Neat right? Here's an example of how I plan to monetize my Tango site, which I just got up and running and has yet to be monetized as I'm still building traffic and content. At this site I plan to connect with Affiliates in the Travel industry who specialize in travel to Buenos Aires the Mecca of Tango. When a viewer goes to the travel site and buy plane tickets or a travel package, I will receive a portion of that sale.

Everyone wins, the viewers are getting information on Tango from my site, the affiliates are getting traffic which they would never have gotten, and I receive a portion of the sale for the referral. It's beautiful!

So where did I learn about Affiliate Marketing? Well I did about two weeks of research and reading on the subject, there's plenty of information on this subject, all you have to do is Google it and start reading. Or you can just go the best source I have found:

The Super Affiliate Marketing Handbook!

Ok this is the BIBLE, for how to do affiliate marketing. The author of this book is brilliant, and has broken the art of Affiliate Marketing down to an easy to understand and duplicatable science.

From this book, you will learn everything you need to know to get started and to excel at creating affiliations. I won't go into further detail here but will just say again that this book contains EVERYTHING YOU WILL NEED TO KNOW. Period end of story.

Most "training" manuals sold for hundreds of dollars on the net are basically selling you half the story the, and the "content" ends up being a pitch product which will try to sell you on more ebooks, seminars and consulting services. This book covers it all, just check it out, it will save you time and money, at the very least it will save you two weeks of research.

I have posted a quick review and link to the book below, tell me what you think!

-lg

SuperAffiliateHandbook hspace=15 src="http://www.superaffiliatehandbook.com/images/SuperAffiliate4_3.gif" width=121 align=left border=0>Read the amazing true story of how one woman, with no previous business experience, earned 436,797+ in 2002 and now earns MUCH MORE than that ... just by selling other people's stuff online!

In her down-to-earth, sincere and often humorous style, Rosalind Gardner guides you through the entire process of building an affiliate marketing business on the 'Net.

Frequently revised and updated to reflect industry changes, the Super Affiliate Handbook now consists of 235 pages and 235 screenshots that will show you step-by-step how to become a Super Affiliate. , you'll learn how to pick the best programs, negotiate a commission raise and save time, money and effort on everything from affiliate software to web hosting.

To learn exactly how she does it, Click Here.

I'm Back!

And at it!! Ok this is definately not as easy as its all cracked up to be. This kind of reminds me of trying to get classes in college before internet. Go here, go there, ask questions, ask more questions, every answer makes more questions, go here again, then there....

Well getting adsense on your blog is simple, getting content is simple, getting traffic, well I thought that would be my next project and maybe I'm putting the cart before the horse, but I thought it would be a good idea to set up a website at the same time I'm monetizing a blog...

Maybe I should just do one thing at a time.

Ok progress check:

Blog site up
Adsense up
Affiliate link up
Google Analytics tracking
Traffic in past two weeks: 116 visits!

So I'm encouraged by the number of visitors and that they come back when I post again.

My next project and post should regard driving traffic so stay tuned!

lgblogger

Feedjit!!!

Yay, people are finding my blog, I had 15 page impressions yesterday and 3 so far today!! They didn't go to any of the ads but that's ok, people are finding the site with no effort on my part. I have to find a nifty tool to post my daily hits so that you all can see them.

One tool I did find which is very cool is the Feedjit map to in the right hand column, if you click on it it will show you the town in which the viewers are located. Not the most useful bit of information but it's fun to look at! Feedjit also has other functions such as showing traffic feed statistics on your website in real-time.



It'll show:
Which city and country your visitors are in
Which website they arrived from, if any
Which page they visited on your website
Which external link they clicked to leave your site, if any

There are 4 different tools to choose from on the site the little map was the most interesting for me so I put it in there. BTW it is the easiest thing to do, you just click on their "add it" link, grab the code and drop it into your blogger template area, its super easy.

Check it out!

lgblogger

Bluehost

ok I've moved one of my blogs to Bluehost.com, and its not the easiest task in the world. For the novice, I recommend a generous portion of time with a healthy desert of patience, and you're going to have to chase it down with a pot of coffee. Black!

However I needed a place to host my sites and these people cost the same as everyone else but will let me host an unlimited number of sites for the same price, and they have EXCELLENT tech support which for this NOOB it is more than necessary!

I have zero previous experience with writing editing code or even knowing what the basics of the inner workings of the internet. I could post in a blog, and that was about it....but now, and with the help of the friendly tech staff at bluehost. com, I'm starting to feel a bit more confident, by my third site, I'm certain I'll have my process down.

Anyway, if you're reading this it's probably because you're interested in how to monetize a blog site...and if so then you should help your own future blogging Karma along by clicking on some of the links to the right. It won't cost you a dime, but it will put one in my account!! So far I have 12 of them, haha, not a bad start if I do say so myself!

Anyway, I learned today that this bit of code:

a href="http://www.excellentfootwork. com/blog">com/blog">Visit excellentfootwork!
url

makes my url point to my blog at bluehost.com, at least that's what i think it does, my site would not come up earlier today until i found this bit of code on an unrelated site having to do with how to code in html....

http://w3schools.com/

I was led to that site by the tech staff and mainly by trial and error and a few hours of hunting around on the site that I found the code, I then plugged it into Wordpress using the HTML editor and crossed my fingers.....well it worked. My first site is up you can find it at:

www.excellentfootwork.com/blog

There will be more content in the coming weeks so favorite it so that you can track my progress.

In closing I would like to say that this is not this is not for the light at heart, if you have patience, have a go, if you have $2,000.00 to spend and don't mind parting with it, have someone do it for you! I'd rather keep my money and learn how this all works....but that's just me, I would probably be better off just getting more sleep.

Anyway, check out Bluehost, the button is to the right!

Cheers everyone,

lgblogger


*****(there are some parts of the above html code missing as it will make a link to my blog if i complete the code, i edited it so that you can see what it looks like, neat right?, anyway if you need help with this part, drop me an email and i'll show you how)

On Monetizing Blogs

Ok ater reading 4Hour Work Week, I started researching how ordinary folks such as myself make money on the internet. And lo&behold I have stumbled upon Google and the concept of monetizing blog sites.

This blog is an example of said monetization...see the ads to the right, well click on one and put a dollar in my adsense account!!

So far I have have earned $1.20, a humble start but who knows, set up enough of these little guys and maybe I'll make $120.00 in a day some time very soon.

The next step is to start drawing traffic to the site right?

Ok more on this later, cheers everyone,

lgproject