With the result of the weekend, I have a few pieces of critical information. I am working on a few larger posts and developing the proper time to post them to maximize readership as I believe they are important for bloggers as well as the general public. Anyways, here is the good stuff.

If advertising on a website with the following sounds interesting, then please contact me.

Advertise With John Cow

John Cow dot Com has a monthly average of ~50,000 unique visitors with nearly 400,000 page views. The blog is targeted for Internet users, bloggers, aspiring entrepreneurs and dairy lovers in general.

Site Stats

• PageRank: 0 (Predicted strong PR5, possibly 6)
• Alexa: 15,757
• Technorati: 3,055
• RSS readers: 440+

Advertise With Online Cash Flow

On the other hand, if advertising with a predicted PR4 for $5 a month sounds attractive, then please contact me as well.

Advertise For Free

If paid advertising is not your style, then I suggest you take a look at this information.

Contests For Exposure

As I have restated time and time again, I am running a free promotion contest in order to help increase exposure for many bloggers. It is very simple. Check it out!

Additional Tidbits
Also, keep your eyes open as I will be writing a few in depth articles about additional free advertising, and how to go about receiving it. There is only one thing greater than traffic to your blog. Free traffic to your blog!

Almost all bloggers want it, and many of these bloggers will do anything they can to get it. Money. However, a large quantity of these people are unsure of what they are doing to their brand and readership when they plaster their blog with advertisements, both within, and around their content. First off, the majority of readers do not find your site because they heard it has a lot of advertisements. People are attracted because they are interested in reading the content you have to offer. Once that becomes diluted, the experience that one should receive from reading your blog becomes far less than it would be if you properly, or even under monetized your blog.

The Obvious Ways

Of course there are ways when advertising becomes extremely annoying. If you have browsed through a number of websites, I can personally guarantee you have seen a few of the following examples.

Overbearing AdSense

The first culprit is the overbearing AdSense ads. You have a layout which is easy on the eyes, but people think their advertisements will have a higher CTR if their advertisements stick out more. Unfortunately, some people actually have advertisements that look like this. It doesn’t take an expert to realize that this is extremely annoying and it makes your experience much more overbearing than it has to be. Personally, when I come across a website with advertisements like these, I wonder why they decided to do something that takes away from the readers experience. After all, isn’t blogging about the production and portrayal of knowledge for your readers? Of course you can still make money, just be smart about it.

Overbearing AdSense, Part 2

Another way which can be equally annoying at times, are those websites that put 2-3 large AdSense blocks within every post. We all understand you want to make money, but when you have to read through the advertisements because you aren’t sure if it is actually what they typed or an advertisement, there is a problem.

Overbearing AdSense, part 3

Similarly, another largely annoying factor is when somebody has their sidebar filled with advertising. Don’t these people understand that the CTR on the skyscraper ads is much lower than that of the others?

The Not So Obvious Ways

I realize with Kontera that you cannot control which words are picked for advertising. However, if your website is not receiving a substantial amount of traffic, there is a good chance this will be extremely annoying. Even if you are getting a lot of traffic, this method can be a large hassle to your readers.

Annoying Kontera

Again, I am sure you have seen blogs like this as well. Not only is it annoying when you hover over each of these words, but if you are trying to click on an outgoing link (making money online in the example to the left), it is definitely more of a hassle than it should be. Granted you may be getting a couple clicks here and there from genuine consumers, but many of the clicks will be accidental and will most likely anger your readership. I don’t know about you, but my goal in blogging is not to turn my readers against me. If you notice that Kontera is linking too many words, turn it off. You might even see your readership increase, and you will probably get a few nice comments from your current readers as well.

What You Should Learn

When you are monetizing your blog, make sure you do so in a moderate fashion. If you implement a new form of advertising and notice a decrease in revenue or readership, make changes. When monetizing, you will most likely be working at improving your CTR. However, try to improve your reader’s experience as well.

If you are having a hard time making money as is, turn off all advertising for awhile and see if your traffic increases. If that happens, then you can slowly re-implement advertising. As you have heard time and time again, do not put all your eggs in one basket.

If you see yourself struggling with traffic, I have just the opportunity for you. Free, easy, and effective. Check it out!

Many bloggers do posts with links to other blogger’s content that they believe is pertinent and well written. I have never done that, but I definitely agree that it is beneficial. Not only does it work on developing potential relationships (I will touch on that idea in the near future), but it allows your bloggers to read the same material that you do. Many times these articles spark ideas for your writing, or are ideas you have written about in the past. In any case, I believe providing a little “link love” is beneficial to both the blogger, and the person who is receiving such love. You never know, these bloggers may notice and provide you with a little love of your own. Even if they don’t, it doesn’t hurt you to do something nice for someone else.

Online Article Flow

Uber Affiliate - [Using Current Events to Make Money]
Dean Hunt - [How to Dominate a Niche in Google]
DoshDosh - [The ‘Free’ Business Model]
BCMBlog - [Making Money Off Of Dead People]
NetBusinessBlog - [Spend 37% More Time Writing Your Headline]

I hope everybody enjoys the articles. I read them and they are very interesting.

On a side note, check out my contest for free exposure. It’s extremely easy to enter, and you get a whole variety of prizes!

As I have been blogging for just over 6 months, I have learned a lot about blogging and how to be a successful blogger. Granted, I still have a lot to learn, but I believe I have learned more than just the basics and that I have the tools needed to become a very successful blogger. Depending on who you talk to, you might run into various aspects they enjoy or they believe to be beneficial when blogging. However, if you ask any big name blogger, you will hear the same things about being successful. Being successful is more than making money blogging. Unfortunately, that is why many people start blogging, and yes, that is a great incentive to being a successful blogger.

In order to be successful blogging, you must have the following three items: passion, persistence, originality. These are not in order of importance, but three of the most important qualities of a successful blogger. Of course there are exceptions to the rule, but I will explain in detail about how each of these aspects plays an important role in being a successful blogger.

1. Passion

Many people become bloggers for the wrong reasons. Either because they are trying to get rich quick (which is extremely hard to do as a blogger), or they are blogging for the sole reason to make money and do not care what they have to do to achieve that milestone. There are plenty of bloggers out there making copious amounts of money blogging about what they love. Topics ranging from health and diet, to sports and cars. Of course within the niche of money making, it is very easy to find out who is successful and why people read their material.

Another reason that you have to be passionate is if you run into trouble and you are not passionate about your material/blog/writing, it will be very easy to call it quits. However, if you invested time and effort into something you truly care about, it will be much harder to pack your bags and leave it than if you did not care about it.

When you are excited about what you do it doesn’t seem like work anymore. If you enjoy writing about a certain niche, and enjoy teaching people the information you know, it doesn’t seem like work. You may be making thousands of dollars, but if it is doing something you truly enjoy, your level of happiness will far exceed what it would be if you were working for the sole purpose of making money.

2. Persistence

Although it is hard to believe, everybody starts at ground zero. I have a hard time believing somebody with 30k subscribers, or 400k subscribers started at 0 like I did. However, everybody starts there and it is those who are willing to put in time and effort while maintaining their brand, that truly succeed at what they do. I will touch more on what “brand” means in the originality section. I was doing a little research of three of the more prominent bloggers in the make money niche (johnchow.com, problogger.net, and shoemoney.com), and found out a few very interesting things.

*You can see all of this in the image below*

First of all, the current daily reach of these three bloggers is very impressive. Secondly, you can notice their spikes in traffic which probably occurred from a social networking explosion, as well as well written content published continuously afterwards. However, the most important thing I noticed is the part of the graph I circled in red. During 2005, Problogger had only a fraction of the daily reach it has now (although it was still impressive), and Chow and Shoe both were off the chart (literally).

What this means?

Two years ago today their daily reach was 0 (or very close to it). Granted there were probably a number of factors that helped them along the way, but if you are persistent enough, you will succeed. Some bloggers take longer than others to become extremely successful. This chart also proves how Problogger had a more gradual increase in readership, while Chow and Shoe both had very steep slopes of traffic increases. Of course getting this increases is difficult, but maintaining the traffic after you incur such an increase is the truly hard part.

3. Originality

I cannot stress the importance of this point. Originality goes beyond publishing unique content. The two most important things of an e-commerce website (I know I’m off topic now, but it is somewhat related) are critical mass, and brand. A blog is not far off, because instead of selling something, you are providing information as an asset. Critical mass means the amount of traffic you bring to your website, and brand means how you are known. If you are known to copy information, your brand will not hold up. This is a big reason as to why you shop at eBay instead of Joe’s Auction Hut. You know eBay will take care of your information and provide you with what you purchased. Another way to think of brand is reputation.

When blogging, if you continuously publish unique information, your reputation will be viewed as unique and that you have the ability to publish your own content. You need to make sure that there is a reason to read your blog.

This is another reason why I tend to stay away from the trendy items, and why it gets pretty annoying reading 10 different blogs who all post essentially the same thing. Of course I fall into a trap here and there, but for the most part I think those items take away from the whole blogging experience.

So remember, be passionate, be persistent, and be unique. Nobody wants to read duplicate information, so do your best to produce quality information. If you are struggling, take a break, but do not infringe on another’s rights as a blogger.

Blogging is one of the coolest things. You are essentially manufacturing what you are selling each day… Information.

I received an email from Andrew of Goldigg. He explained an interesting offer to me, and it was a premier membership to his new web-business, Goldigg. It is similar to Digg in that you can submit and vote articles up to promote various works which you believe need to be seen. I decided to join because this seemed like a very interesting opportunity, and I wanted to be a part of it.

First of all, I enjoy getting in new things on ground level because that opens up a ton of opportunities for you. Also, it is a very unique idea and because it is so young, there is only one way it can go. Up.

What Is Goldigg?

If you browse the About section you will find everything you need to know:

To become a member of Goldigg.com it will cost $100. Once you are a member you can quickly gain that back by placing ads in your story submissions, by charging to submit someone’s story, having others pay you to vote, or by selling your account. Almost anything is possible to generate income for yourself.

Many people are skeptical about the startup price, but because of what he claims to do with the money, it does not seem all that bad.

I created this site so that I can earn some money to donate to a charity (Modest Needs), to pay for college, and to re-launch another venture that didn’t succeed in the past because of my limited resources.

Also, the fact that he is only allowing 5,000 members, creates a sense of urgency and importance for those who were able to and decided to join.

You can read the extensive list of terms and a small FAQ if you read the About section.

The Actual Site

They layout is very basic and extremely easy to navigate and utilize. The color scheme could use some work, but overall it has a nice feel to it.

If you have not taken a look at Goldigg yet, I recommend doing so. First of all, he is still offering a few more free memberships if you contact him in the near future. Otherwise, be prepared to pay the $100 to sign up.

The main problem with all bloggers is how to attract viewers, and once you achieve this traffic, how to maintain it. Due to this, many people seek advertising from various sources. Whether you advertise on other blogs within your niche, do PPC (pay per click) advertising with Yahoo!, MSN, or Google, or seek other methods, increasing traffic is the key. Unfortunately, if you decide to advertise using any of these previously listed methods, you will have to pay advertising expenses. Whether these expenses are fixed and a one time payment, or if you are required to pay per click, it can all add up depending on the traffic volume you are receiving. Advertising costs can become quite burdensome, and that is why many people turn to other avenues.

Where Else Can I Advertise?

Myspace

Many people seem to forget about the importance and volume that can be provided from Myspace. Not only is it 100% free traffic, but the amount of traffic Myspace as a whole receives is incredible. According to Alexa, Myspace is the 6th most viewed website in the world, and about 30% of all internet users visit Myspace every day.

In order for this method to be truly effective though, you need to be patient and smart about it. First of all, you need to build up your friends count so that you can effectively reach a wide base of people. To do this, I would not recommend spamming, but instead inviting a small amount of people each day until you have a very large group of friends. At this time you can post bulletins of affiliate links to increase exposure to your blog or links. In the end, it is a cheap and effective way to increase traffic if you do it correctly.

Facebook

Facebook has created a variety of ways to advertise now, including a few ways which are a little more shady. First off, you can create fliers which were created to generate revenue for Facebook and increase exposure for the advertisers. Another method, which is free, is to make listings in the marketplace. I have done this on a few occasions and it has provided me a decent amount of traffic.

Also, you could be more creative and make a group or develop an application, but both of these take a lot of time or work to do, and many people do not want to invest the amount of time for a potentially small or no viewer return.

Paid Methods, Explained

If you are interested in doing PPC advertising, I have come across a $75 coupon code for free advertising. This is very effective in driving traffic to your website if you create an attractive advertisement. On top of that, you are getting free traffic, and for the most part it is highly targeted traffic.

Another method you could approach is to advertise on the Million Dollar Wiki. A page can be purchased for $100, but with the current publicity it is receiving, that is a steal. Bloggers like John Chow and ShoeMoney have written about it, so it is generating some serious traffic right now.

If you are interested in advertising within the Make Money Online niche, I have purchased an ad slot on John Cow dot com. I am willing to sell that space for upwards of 3.5 weeks, and I will sell it in as small as 7 day increments if you are interested. As a side note, I have advertising slots available for the price of $5 per month for a text link ad.

Finally, if you are interested in free exposure, I am running a contest here to provide just that. A free ReviewMe review, a 2 month text link ad, and a banner/header redesign if you are interested. You can check out my newest review here, or take a look at the contest here. It is very simple to enter, and the benefits are extreme for the little work it requires.

After the blog redesign and availability for more sponsorship room, I was fortunate enough to purchase an ad space on John Cow dot com. The design is great and looks surprisingly original. However, he did manage to implement a few aspects from the good old Mr. Chow as well.

What’s The Point?

My point is that I’m willing to share my advertising with you. By share, I mean I am providing you the opportunity to purchase the spot from me. The cool thing is that the ad blocks are 140×140 as opposed to the general 125×125. That’s a lot more ad space!

If you are interested, I am willing to sell the advertisement in 7 day blocks. Please contact me and let me know if you are interested and the price you are willing to pay. Also, if you are unable to create a button, or would like me to make one for you anyways, I would not mind.

There have been many different posts as to who are the most influential bloggers and who helped you get to where you are, but my list is pretty short. Granted I read more blogs than I can list now, there were a couple of bloggers who really helped me get started, and they might not even realize they were doing so. If you are blogging because you enjoy doing so, then all you care about is getting your material published and read by various people. However, that is one of the hardest things to achieve. Traffic is not easy to come by, and even the best bloggers have had their struggles with traffic. This is somewhat a thank you post, and also a little information about how these bloggers have been helpful.

Who Are They?

Steve Pavlina

One of the first articles I read and was influenced by was an article written by Steve Pavlina. He wrote about how to make money from your blog. Not only was the article well written, but the numbers he listed in there were extremely eye catching. The fact that he was earning upwards of $1000/day from his blog was enough to intrigue me to read on. It is also nice to see a different style of writing as he writes extremely lengthy articles, unlike many of the bloggers now who write many shorter articles. Steve explains “This article is seriously long (over 7300 words), but you’re sure to get your money’s worth (hehehe).” An extremely long article, but if you have not yet read it, I would highly recommend it.

ProBlogger

What up and coming blogger has not read ProBlogger? There are so many different posts I read on his blog before starting mine that I cannot even list them. I like how he openly explains how he got to where he is now, and it seems almost unreal how successful he is now. However, one thing I do not like about his blog now, is the fact that he offers so many guest posts that it seems to take away from the whole “atmosphere” of reading material from a ProBlogger. If you have not yet read his material, I would strongly suggest doing so. There is more there that can be read, and the amount of knowledge you will gain about blogging is immense.

DoshDosh

I have read a lot of information published at DoshDosh, but the articles I think are most beneficial are those that explain how to increase traffic using social bookmarking sites. I have not used these ideas yet (to gain any substantial traffic), but the ideas are very helpful and they do work. I also enjoy a different mix of writing style and design. Another thing I like about DoshDosh is that although there is a lot of information on the front page, it is not crowded by any means. I would recommend reading his material to learn about making money online and other ways to improve your blogging.

John Chow

Love him or hate him, he has published some great content and has to be doing something right to be earning close to $20,000 per month. He also offers a unique experience as he frequently writes about cars or his dining experiences. Some people are annoyed by the amount of monetization he has on his blog, but you can easily read over it if you are interested in the content. Here is where I first read about time stamping posts, creating the opportunity to write a post and have it published the next day, week, or year if you want.

Many Thanks

Because of them, not only was I intrigued to begin blogging, but I learned about what to write and how to present it. It is my goal to be on someone’s influential blogger’s list someday.

I realize I am a little late, but I figured I would mix it up a little bit. Nearly every blog I read in the past week posted about DealDotCom. I figured I would give it a break for a few days, then write a post about it! I have read nothing but good things about this program, and I believe it will actually work. I hope I haven’t been made into a liar, because I believed AGLOCO would actually work too, and I have not read one thing about a member being paid yet. We’ll have to wait and see about that one.

Anyways, DDC is a great opportunity no matter who you are. Webmaster, blogger, entrepreneur, or an internet user in general. The products they sell are dirt cheap, and this program is very similar to Woot! as they have a new product each day.

Why Join DDC?

There are many different reasons to join DealDotCom. First of all, if you have a website, it is very easy to present your link and allow other people to signup. On top of that, they offer a pretty hefty referral system:

Whenever you refer someone to DealDotCom via your handy-dandy affiliate link, you get paid 35% of DealDotCom’s profit for every item that they buy. If someone you referred to DealDotCom refers someone else, you get paid 15% of DealDotCom’s profit every time they buy something for the rest of your life.

If I didn’t read anything else about this opportunity, that would have sold me on it. Another interesting thing is their range of products. In the first few days I have seen products ranging from $1 to over $100. Each of these deals are extremely cheap according to the original cost as well.

They also have a DealDotCom Blog where they outline past offers, and explain other promotions they are running with their website. The newest promotion is an advertising/infomercial contest. Whoever creates the most unique infomercial for DDC will earn themselves $1000. Pretty hefty reward for a simple infomercial.

If you like contests but do not have the means or time to make an infomercial for DDC, you can enter my Win Something For Nothing contest in a matter of minutes.

- Click here to sign up for DealDotCom -

As three of the most important factors for determining the credibility for your site are traffic, RSS, and page rank, I am often times wondering what my page rank will be after the update. I was looking around at various sites and found a couple very interesting things. First of all, page rank is not determined solely on the number of links you have. For instance, if you were to make 1,000 starter websites and put your links on them, you still wouldn’t have a great page rank. This is because the page rank is determined on a deeper level.

Another reason why page rank is so important, is because many people looking to advertise want to find a blog or website that has an established readership, and a great way to prove this is with page rank. As RSS and Alexa traffic rankings are easy to track, it is very easy to establish those figures on your site. However, since page rank is updated less frequently it is much harder to determine.

What Have I Found?

I found a site that actually predicts your page rank. Having a current page rank of 0, it is nice to see what it is predicted to be after the update. Check it out.

As you can see, it is predicted that I will be a PR4 after the update. I think that’s very exciting as that is a large jump from being PR0.

This is only a prediction though, based on my backlinks. You can also see that the estimate is using 81.1% accuracy. I’ll take a close to guaranteed PR4 when the update comes along.

Based on all of this, I would think it would be extremely difficult to pass up free exposure, especially from a PR4 website or blog. If you are interested in some free exposure from a PR4 blog, you can check it out here.