Wednesday, 30 November 2011

AdSense Profits Interview: TucsonOnTheCheap.com - DailyBlogTips

AdSense Profits Interview: TucsonOnTheCheap.com

Posted: 28 Nov 2011 08:45 PM PST

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago I’ll be posting interviews with some of the people who took the AdSense Profits Course back in June. Below you’ll find the second interview, with Kate Reynolds. She owns TucsonOnTheCheap.com, which is a website dedicated to finding the best deals in her city. She pretty much doubled her AdSense earnings within months, so check it out.

tucson-on-the-cheap-blog

1. When and why did you start TucsonOnTheCheap.com?

I’m a freelance writer and belong to quite a few online writing groups. About three years ago, an online friend in one group starting writing about her blog, Atlanta on the Cheap. Her inspiration was to post bargains and deals attractive to Atlanta visitors. Well, a bunch of us thought that sounded like a great plan–especially since this economy is rough on freelancers–and we formed a group. We call it Cities on the Cheap (http://CitiesOnTheCheap.com), and it’s a network of hyper local bloggers. All of that is how TucsonOnTheCheap met the world. Here’s one interesting gem we all learned: we may have started by thinking our blogs were intended for visitors to our individual cities, but we quickly learned that our true customers were local. It’s good to be flexible and observant. We found our niche.

2. What goals did you have for it initially? Were you planning to make money?

To answer the second question first: You bet. I knew exactly nothing about making money from a blog, but I knew it had been done. Initially, I wanted to post only ephemeral sorts of deals (a dinner bargain at a local restaurant good for only three days etc.). I later learned that people were using my blog to find fun things to do in Tucson that don’t cost a lot. So it became a blog that highlighted not just passing deals but also inexpensive ways to have a blast (festivals, cheap but good Mexican restaurants etc.). A tip: Try to make your blog useful to someone. That’s the key element that determines what I post. Is the information useful?

3. When did you decided you should start monetizing it, and did it go for the first months?

I put up AdSense ads about two months after starting the blog. Nickel after nickel rolled in until I had earned a whole dime. I’m kidding, of course, but quite seriously it didn’t go well. I recall that I didn’t earn my first check from Google until about four months after putting up the AdSense ads (Google only sends out checks after you earn at least $100). After that, I regularly earned the minimum each and every month. So AdSense has been kind to me after a slow start.

4. Do you know HTML/CSS? What other technical knowledge do you have?

I do know HTML but not CSS. But I cheat: my husband is a computer guru, and he helps when I need something special. I try not to bother him too much. Knowledge of CSS would be a plus, however my blog is on WordPress, and CSS is not essential.

5. How do you promote the website?

For a while I put up AdWords, but I stopped when I realized that AdWords is a better tool for people with an actual product to sell. In my case, I give away information and hope people will click on my ads or buy from my affiliations. I do regularly tweet and make Facebook status changes. I try to engage with my readers on Facebook and have become friends with some. Twitter and Facebook are huge for me. StumbleUpon is ok, but the people who come via that route are not my target audience and they don’t stay or come back. So Twitter an Facebook are fine traffic sources, but organic search is better. Some people may not understand that good SEO is also good website promotion–in fact, it’s vital to getting the word out. What good is an excellent blog on any subject if nobody knows your blog is there? Most of my visitors come from organic Google search.

6. How much were you making before you joined the AdSense Profits course?
Here’s the breakdown on the months just before I took the course:

March 2011: $355.36
April 2011: $418.87
May 2011: $328.35

The average was around $360. As for traffic, I was receiving around 15,000 unique visitors per month.

7. How did your earnings increase after it?
On the months that followed the course I noticed a big increase in earnings. Here’s the breakdown:

July 2011: $855.94
August 2011: $669.95
September 2011: $713.39

The average is $740, so you can see my earnings pretty much doubled in a matter of months. My traffic increased as well.

8. What concepts/strategies did you learn from the course that had a positive impact on your earnings?

I had not understood the value of ad placement and size until I took Daniel’s AdSense class. Daniel personally looked at my site the first week or so of the class. He made personalized suggestions that I implemented immediately (talking about ad placement & size here). I kid you not: within maybe two or three days I had earned so much more than usual that the entire cost of the class was covered. My AdSense revenue has remained solid since then.

But that’s not all I learned. I had no idea about the world of buying and selling websites/blogs. I was simply stunned. Not only that, but I have decided to sell Tucson on the Cheap soon and plan to use methods I learned in the course. Who knows? I might wind up buying and selling websites for a living now!

9. What tip do you have for beginners that are just getting started with Adsense?

Tip # 1: The more specific your blog niche, the better Google will be able to target your site.

Tip #2: Learn where to place your ads on the page. It matters. Really.

Tip #3: STUDY the AdSense rules. Google takes its services seriously and will throw you out if you do not follow the rules. So sit down, read them, and learn.

Tip #4: Grow your audience before placing ads. In the first place, Google shows preference to older sites, and it also shows you to be a reliable blogger who isn’t looking for an easy buck. All that matters to Google–and to you, too.

10. What plans do you have for TucsonOnTheCheap.com, and how much do you think it can potentially earn per month?

I think TucsonOnTheCheap can be a highly profitable blog, and someone can make decent money with a couple of hours of work per day. That someone should be a person who understands marketing (not one of my strengths). I think my blog might potentially earn several thousand dollars/month. But I am ready to move on, and I am hoping to sell TucsonOnTheCheap soon as I mentioned.

Original Post: AdSense Profits Interview: TucsonOnTheCheap.com

Tuesday, 29 November 2011

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Monday, 28 November 2011

One Very Simple Way to Come Up With More Blog Post Ideas Than You’ll Ever Need - DailyBlogTips

One Very Simple Way to Come Up With More Blog Post Ideas Than You’ll Ever Need

Posted: 27 Nov 2011 07:01 PM PST

Any great piece of content has to begin with a great idea. You can be an amazingly talented writer – but without a strong idea, your post isn't going to resonate with people.

So, where do you get your ideas?

If you're like most bloggers, you probably sit down in front of a new document and stare blankly at the screen, wondering what to write about. If you're lucky, a great idea pops up – but often, you'll end up writing nothing at all, or you'll come up with a topic that doesn't really work.

I strongly recommend setting aside time just to come up with post topics/titles. There are lots of great ways to do this, but here's one of my favorites. It's very simple – but very effective.

Use the "Popular" Posts on a Large Blog

Many big blogs have sidebar listings of their popular posts. (If you're reading this on the DailyBlogTips site, rather than in a feed reader, you'll see the "Popular Articles" list over to the right.)

You can take these headlines and "twist" them to suit your blog.

For instance, the first article on the DBT list is:

28 Ways to Make Money with Your Website

You could turn this headline into:

35 Ways to Save Money on Your Household Bills (personal finance blog, home improvements blog)
17 Ways to Make Money from Your Writing (writing blog, entrepreneurship blog)

You could even move further from the original by choosing a different benefit:

8 Ways to Improve Your Skills through Your Local Library (career blog, personal improvement blog)

Here's another example:

The 7 Characteristics of Good Domains

(This one reminds me of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, another great title.)

You could turn this headline into:

The 7 Characteristics of Great Job Opportunities (career blog, student blog)
The 7 Characteristics of True Friends (personal development blog, women's blog)

Again, you can shift further away from the original:

The 10 Key Habits of Successful Gardeners (gardening blog, hobbies blog)

The great thing about this process of idea-generation is that you can repeat it again and again. You might get multiple ideas from just one headline – but even if you go through all the popular posts on one blog, you can just head on over to another blog and start again.

So – it's your turn! Pick one of the headlines from the "Popular Articles" list in the right sidebar of DailyBlogTips, and come up with something that would work for your own blog. (You might also want to take a look at the article itself to see how it's structured.)

Share what you come up with in the comments below…

Ali Luke is a freelance writer and coach, and the author of the Blogger’s Guides covering freelance blogging, effective writing, and creating ebooks). She writers a weekly column about online content creation for DailyBlogTips.

Original Post: One Very Simple Way to Come Up With More Blog Post Ideas Than You'll Ever Need

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Sunday, 27 November 2011

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BLOGSND

3 Unusual Ways to Earn Money at Home

Posted: 26 Nov 2011 08:27 AM PST

Are you searching for some ways to earn money at home but have already looked into most of the typical advice for how to make money online and decided it’s just not for you? Well, then maybe you would be interested in one or more of the following three unusual methods for earning money from home…

1) Doggie Sitter – We’ve all either been to or at least heard about babysitters or home day cares for kids, but something you don’t hear much about are dog day cares. They basically work in the same way except you will be taking care of different people’s dogs each day rather than their children. And yes there are plenty of people willing to pay you to “babysit” their dogs rather than leaving them home alone all day, so this can be a great way to earn money from home.

Of course, a few things will be required of you if you plan to become a dog sitter. At the very minimum you will need to love dogs and know how to take care of them properly. You will need a lot of patience to be able to handle all the chaos of multiple dogs running around your house. You will also need to have a decent sized yard that is fully fenced in. And obviously you will need to be home every day when most other people are at work, so you can run your doggy day care.

2) Home Tutor – If you are very knowledgeable about math, science, history, geography or any other subject then you can tutor students at home. There are kids of all ages and levels of school struggling with certain subjects and their parents are often more than willing to pay for someone to help them.

You could also teach older adults and other less tech savvy individuals how to use the internet or computers in general. There are a lot of people willing to pay for that education, especially now that the internet is an integral part of life and work for almost everyone. You can really home tutor on any subject that people struggle with and are willing to pay for help as long as you know enough about it to teach them.

There isn’t much you will need in your home to do this. It could be done from your kitchen table if nothing else. Although, you should ideally have a home office or somewhere else that is quiet and free of distractions for you to tutor people.

3) Crafts Business – For the more creative among you there is always the opportunity to turn your hobbies into a home business. If you enjoy doing crafts or another hobby that creates something other people would be willing to buy, then you can earn money selling them. And almost anything that is handmade and high quality has someone out there that would like to buy it.

You can utilize sites such as ebay, etsy, craigslist, and several others to sell your items on. You could also have your own website built for your crafts business to sell them from. This is a great way to combine the power of internet marketing with a good old fashioned traditional offline home based business.

So, there you go, you now have three unusual ways to earn money at home both online and offline. They aren’t the typical methods you come across when searching for how to make money but they are still great nonetheless. Now, all that’s left is for you to set up shop in your home and get started!

How to Write Faster Blog Posts (Every Time) - DailyBlogTips

How to Write Faster Blog Posts (Every Time)

Posted: 21 Nov 2011 12:13 AM PST

Last week, we looked at why great content is so important. But one of the biggest problems that bloggers face is finding enough time to write.

If you're spending hours on every blog post, then read on! These tips will all help you improve your writing speed … without sacrificing quality.

#1: Keep a List of Ideas

Do you ever sit down and stare at a blank document on the screen, wondering what to write about? Lots of bloggers do, but there's an easy way to fix this.

Create a list of ideas (this can be on paper, in an online tool, or on your computer – whatever's quick and easy to access). Every time an idea occurs to you, jot it down. To begin with, you might want to set aside 10 minutes each day to stock up your idea list. Pretty soon, you'll never be short of ideas again.

#2: Plan Before You Write

If you find yourself deleting paragraphs or starting your whole post over again, then the problem isn't with your writing – it's with your planning.

Before you begin any post, write down:

Your topic (or title)
"Introduction"
Several key points that you want to cover: these could be list items (this post started off as 5 bullet points) or individual paragraphs in your post.
"Conclusion" and "Call to action"

It's much easier to stay on track when you've got this framework in place.

#3: Close Down Distractions

Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Skype, Gmail … they're all great tools, but also great distractions. Close them down when you're writing.

If you're spending several hours working on every post, be honest with yourself: are you writing for the whole time, or are you mostly checking emails or hanging out on Twitter? (If you're genuinely unsure, try Rescue Time to find out where your time is really going.)

#4: Write, Don't Edit

Many writers try to combine two separate steps: writing and editing. They'll type a sentence or two, then immediately delete and rewrite them.

Writing is a creative process, and your focus should be on getting the raw material onto the page. Editing while you're writing can kill your creativity and your flow. While you write the first draft of your post, focus on getting from the start to the end of your plan. You can fix small grammatical errors, or tweak sentences, later.

#5: Leave a Gap if Necessary

Sometimes, you'll be mid-way through writing a post and you'll realize that you need to look up a fact or a link. It's tempting to just go ahead and do that … but this can break your concentration.

When you don't have a particular piece of information to hand, just leave a gap. Put "XXX" or similar in the text and highlight it yellow (so it's easy to come back to when you edit). That way, you can do all your fact-checking or link-finding in one batch – much more efficient.

If you implemented every tip on this list, you could easily double your writing speed. Even following just one or two of them will help. Which could you try today?

And if you're already a speedy writer – let us know how you do it in the comments!

Original Post: How to Write Faster Blog Posts (Every Time)

Wednesday, 30 November 2011

Tuesday, 29 November 2011

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Monday, 28 November 2011

Use the "Popular" Posts on a Large Blog

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Sunday, 27 November 2011

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Saturday, 26 November 2011

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Friday, 25 November 2011

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Thursday, 24 November 2011

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Wednesday, 23 November 2011

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Tuesday, 22 November 2011

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Monday, 21 November 2011

#1: Keep a List of Ideas

#2: Plan Before You Write

#3: Close Down Distractions

#4: Write, Don't Edit

#5: Leave a Gap if Necessary

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