Scratchback - Get Paid Back for Tipping
Posted on May 12, 2008
Filed Under Scratchback, Web Listings, Cheap PPC, blog donation, blog tip | Leave a Comment
In a previous blog post on blog monetization, I mentioned Scratchback (the donation widget) as a way of monetizing your blog. It seemed to be a great system - you tip a blogger that you like and you get a listing on their website in return. As of yet, no one has taken me up on my offer to be listed here for 30 days for a $5 tip. So I had to ask myself, is it worth listing other sites on my blog for less than $5? Well, not to me, but apparently it is to others. I currently have three #1 spots on various blogs and websites that are using Scratchback, and two of them I only paid $1 for. Some publishers used a fixed time frame (as I am currently) and others use the auto-bump feature where the listings just keep moving along as new people come along and tip. Two of my three listings are still at the #1 spot since last Thursday, which isn’t a pretty bad return for spending $2 - and yes, I have seen traffic come through for my $2.
I guess the concept is slow to catch on, but it is promising, especially given the traffic I am getting based on being listed for $1 on various websites. I can’t give away all of my secrets without negatively affecting my current position, but once I am moved to the bottom, I will let you know where you can get listed for $1 on a site that lists about 20 sites in it’s widget. I will most likely do it again, once my $1 ride is over, and you will be amazed at the site when I tell you. If you figure it out, let me know. Until then, I will see how much traffic I can get for my $1. Actually, if you sign up for a listing on my site, I will let you in on the secret early, as long as you promise to keep it a secret. You can also search the Scratchback Directory for other sites to get listed on.
MSN Live Search Ahead of Yahoo and Google in Spidering & Ranking Web Sites
Posted on May 12, 2008
Filed Under MSN Live, MSN Search, MSN, google, Yahoo | Leave a Comment
Two weeks ago I did some updates to a website; primarily titles on a site that had the same title tags for nearly all of it’s pages. A week later (last Friday) I was checking to see what updates, if any, had been picked up. Google had not seemed to notice, Yahoo noticed a bit, and MSN Live had a few top 10 rankings. Interesting, so I thought and then I made some additional changes on a different area of the same web site, and here is what I found this morning. MSN Live has already spidered the changes, updated the code and also has several top 10 rankings based on these changes.
Kudos to the MSN Live search team!
Oh yeah, and the subtle moral of the story is “if all of your title tags are the same, you are likely missing out”
Mothers Day Giveaway for Mom Bloggers
Posted on May 10, 2008
Filed Under blog contest, Mothers Day | 6 Comments
First, I would like to honor all of the moms out there and wish each one of you a very Happy Mothers Day. I have had the privilege of working and networking with many mom bloggers over the past year. I have enjoyed learning from you all and I am thankful for all of the support that you have given me (and my site).
Every Mom Needs some pampering, right? As much as I’d like to be able to bless each one of you with a day of pampering, the best I can do for now is to offer a one hour massage from Massage Envy (or comparable center, if there is no Massage Envy near you) to the mom blogger that does the best mothers day related blog post. It doesn’t have to be posted on mothers day, and it can be related to you as a mom, your mom, of just something related to Mothers Day (a special memory, etc).
No need to stress about it this weekend, just post sometime between now and Sunday, May 18th. Make sure to add a reference to the contest with a link to the contest at the end of your blog post. It doesn’t have to be a brand new post either, you can link from anything you have written related to Mother’s Day at any time. Every time someone clicks through from your site to this blog post, it will count as a “vote” and the blogger with the most referrals from her site wins. You must agree to be listed as a winner so people know that someone got the prize. This offer is open to US and Canadian residents only.
Happy Mother’s Day!
Does Anyone Read Print Magazines Anymore?
Posted on May 8, 2008
Filed Under marketing magazine, SEM Magazine, Website Magazine | 4 Comments
Years ago (1999), a friend and I were going to start a magazine in a niche that had never been done before (it still hasn’t so I will keep the niche under wraps for now). Anyhow, a friend of my magazine partner suggested that we just do a web based magazine. Looking back, that may have been a great option. Incidentally, the guy that recommended that we take the magazine online eventually became my business partner in my first Search Marketing Firm that I started - funny how things come full circle.
Today, nearly every magazine has an online presence, in fact if they don’t they would be considered behind the times. What I want to know is are people still reading print magazines or has the web taken over? Certainly there are benefits to reading print magazines:
1. You can read them on airplanes.
2. You can easily bring them to appointments.
3. Some people read them in the bathroom (although some also bring their laptops with them - ok… confession time) 
How about Internet Marketing industry magazines? What are you reading? If you haven’t checked out Website Magazine, you really should. Sure, you can view it online, but why not add it to your free subscriptions? Visit Website Magazine for a FREE subscription today!
How Can I Make Money From My Blog?
Posted on May 6, 2008
Filed Under make money blogging, blogging, blogging basics, contextual ads | 2 Comments
This has to be one of the most often asked questions by rookie bloggers. There are several ways to monetize a website, but the most critical factor in earning money is having visitors. Once you’ve gotten that down, the rest is simple. My recommendation is to study all you can about search marketing and social media marketing. This will get you on the right track to generating traffic to your blog (or website) and then you can decide how to monetize your website.
Here are 5 great ways to monetize your blog:
1. Sell a Product or Service. The most obvious way to make money from a blog is to have a product or a service. I encourage clients to establish themselves as a voice in their industry, which in turn builds consumer confidence and should result in business.
2. Selling Ads. Ads are often sold based on “x” per thousand monthly visits to a website, listed as CPM where $5 CPM would be equal to $5 per thousand monthly visitors. If you don’t have traffic, this will not be an effective means of monetization.
3. Affiliate Marketing. There is a goldmine in affiliate marketing in my opinion. I have been an affiliate marketer since around 1998, and have monetized several blogs and websites by selling affiliate products. If you want to learn how to do this effectively, I strongly recommend reading the Super Affiliate Handbook.
4. Contextual Ads. These are ads that are served on your blog based on it’s content. Google AdSense is the most popular of these type of programs, but rather than recreating what already exists, here is a pretty comprehensive list of contextual ad networks.
5. Donations. You can put your hand out and just ask people to donate, or make it creative (i.e. buy me a drink). Amazon actually has a widget you can use to accept donations, but one of the newest “donation sensations” is Scratchback which is a widget that allows people to donate to your blog and in exchange post an ad on your site (you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours). You can list the ad for up to a month and can request whatever amount you think people will pay you as long as it is at least $1.00. I recently added the widget to this site, so if you want to make a donation, you can get listed here for the next 30 days (shameless plug).
If you learned something and it makes money for you, please come back and donate
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