Christmas Money

It's been eons since I've written so with no excuse I trust I can keep posting ideas and views right here.  I'm pretty sure you haven't been wondering what happened to me, well, maybe after the first few months of not writing.  There has been a lot happening in my life and I bet, yours as well.

I left off here with the 90 day plan to making a great income with AdSense.  And a lot of you have written to me telling me that the strategy is working well.  One of my last posts on the subject was that I was going to put all the posts in a document and market it.  Would you buy it?

What is it?  Making money with AdSense and blogs has probably been one of the less expensive ways to make money online that I know of.  There is PPC, pay-per-click...but the cost of getting into that is not cheap.  And the learning curve is high.  Even with the many pay-per-click course out there, it is just baffling to most.  The money is needed elsewhere and if you're like most, you'll admit right now you're doing your best to keep your head above water.  So PPC isn't an option.

The sweet thing about blogging and putting up a few ads is that it is practically free.  Find a place to host your site and you're in business.  The important points are all covered in this blog.

So what have I been doing and where have I been the past few months?  I've been developing some courses with other people and coming up with new ideas all the time.  One of my latest projects is to map out how easy it is to get started in web hosting.  I know, that sounds crazy, but I have a great deal of experience in that arena.  And I know it something you could do, it all boils down to marketing.  Just like anything else.

OK, about Christmas money.  With AdSense, it's too late for that because you get paid a month after you start.  But you can still get started with a site.  It is easy and the only commodity is time.  Combined with a little knowledge and elbow grease you'll have a perfect game plan for the new year.  I know you don't have the study guide, but enough is in the blog here to get you started.

Hope you have a wonderful day and may God bless!
Dave

Why Tivo Works Well

I get a certain question probably a lot more than others and that is, why do some things just take off and others that you would think be a great idea ..never get off the ground.

And the answer is real easy.

It's whatever people can relate to. Write that down.

It's the reason shows like Dancing With the Stars and Extreme Makeover are SO popular! We see us up there on the screen. We can relate.

And think of something in life you loved but didn't last and the answer you'll find is that somehow it was unrelateable.

We have an innate need to connect with stuff on "some" level. It just makes sense, no? You always associate with that which makes you comfortable.

So take this lesson and apply it to your niches. Why people think Tivo is such a great product? It allows them to playback things they can relate to at any time. Sometimes that's as good as mama's chicken soup.

Love to hear your comments.

Dave
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Updating Via Email

Unless you were looking for it, you wouldn't know I updated my blog here by emailing this post to a control address at Blogger. Most blogging platforms will allow you to do this, so it's a good idea to stay active simply by writing to your blog.

Do you have other ideas about keeping you blog content current? Share them with me and I'll post them here.

Talk soon,
Dave Jackson

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Update Your Blog Via SMS
Keep your blog up to date by posting directly from your phone. This will keep anything that monitors your blog aware you are working.

Update Your Blog Via SMS
Keep your blog up to date by posting directly from your phone. This will keep anything that monitors your blog aware you are working.

Blue Skies

One of my favorite things is jogging about an hour after sunrise.  It doesn't always work out that way, like so many things, but often it does and I get the opportunity to enjoy something that is visually satisfying and just great for my body as well.

This morning the skies were simply blue.  No clouds.  And I thought as I trotted off toward the beach that times are changing and that the day is going to be awesome.  The run was wonderful and I even split up my running in the morning with an afternoon upper body workout.

Once home, some phone calls started coming in.  These were the energy zapper types that seem to take the wind out of you.  When I got done listening to the messages, I just wanted to stare out the window and contemplate what I am really doing here.  Some people don't get it, and yet, others want you to be all things.

I came to this blog because I really haven't given you an update in a while.  A couple of seasons have seemed to go by and even though the web address is still here, I haven't added anything.

Today I found by poking around the backend of Blogger, that you can actually update the blog by SMS Text.  And many of you have asked me when your list of websites you publish to gets sizeable, how do you keep up without some sort of automation.

Well, you know I hate automation on websites.  I can tell when it is used and it just feels so cold.  I've been down that road and tried it, and the results are like a flash of kindling.  Yes, you can realize some quick profit from it, but the long-term damage that it does to your blog or website reputation isn't worth it.

So I'll try a few quickie updates using SMS.  I don't see how this is anything different than Twitter since you can only write a couple of lines.  Still, it should keep the Googlebot gods happy, whereas Twitter can't do that for you.

Keep me bookmarked.  I have some cool stuff I want to share with you that has been going on this past summer.  And you are my friends, no?

Ed Dale is Fun

One of the great things about running an operation from your home is that you are afforded more choices. What I mean is that you can make time for things that you couldn't do at work. And yes, there's a lot of garbage out there, but there's one chap I always gain a lot of information from. Ed Dale.

His Thirty Day Challenge is always refreshing and comes around each August. If you are into technology and how it can get your web business ahead, check him out here http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com/

Let me know what you think about it and if you've followed him before.

Talk soon,
Dave

Google AdSense Now So Easy

One of the most rewarding things about technology is that it keeps improving.  Whether or not you're on board, is something you have to wrestle with.  It's not going to slow down, and you must get your stuff in gear unless you want to remain in the caboose forever.

I've been spending more time tweaking a system I use to put up small blogs and getting them to make money in a few weeks.  It is very rewarding and something that doesn't take much time.

Google has been great at keeping current with trends and with what works.  I was actually happy to see them drop video ads, i.e. ads that are displayed across YouTube videos when placed as an AdSense block on your page.  These never worked and the videos did not follow the context of the site most of the time.

Soon I'm going to be releasing a video series on how to create the blogs and make money from them with contextual advertising.  This will be similar to my famous 90 day challenge, but now all on video.

Talk soon!

Dave

Taking the Ecology Seriously

It's amazing to me it means this much to them, even as good stewards, or maybe pressure to act wisely, but whatever the case, Google has done some great strides.  Over the weekend, they posted a story in the Official Google Blog, about Powering a Google search.  And don't just skim through the numbers.  Read each paragraph so you get a good understanding of what they're trying to say.

Google has become more responsible than most data centers, and they are showing facts to tell you they're working toward keeping their carbon footprint down.

I thought about what my day is like and what I personally do to cut down on emissions that hurt the enviroment.  I don't print as much as I used to, and even print on the other side of paper when I goof up the first time.

Are you turning your PC off at night?  How about the little light in your office?  Are you keeping it on for some reason?

And what is your thermostat set to?

Make a difference - peace of mind.

Dave

Above the Fold

For almost a decade we've been hearing the words - above the fold - and yet I get the question at almost every event - where above the fold should we be putting our ads, Dave?   And the answer is that there are SO many variables that you must test.

One of the reasons I keep a journal is so I can look back over the pages and see what worked and what business I didn't finish, maybe a few things that I wish I never did... those kinds of things.  And that's what I'm talking about here - it's sort of like - well, as complicated as life can be.  What you need to do is:

1. Find a nice website or blog you like.

2. Copy it.

3. Test ad placement.

Once I was under the impression that a great layout from a high trafficed site would bring me tons of AdSense revenue.  But what I forgot was that I could not replicate that traffic exactly.  Their traffic might be from any number of places with people set on buying.  My traffic to the same style site might be from tire kickers.

So just because CNN is running a 150 x 150 ad in the top left corner and making $3000 a day doing so doesn't mean anything other than a starting point.  The bottom line is that you must test and test at least through 1000 visits.

Even then, I advise using Google Analytics to see who is coming to your site.  Another great tool I use is called Hittail.  This is a tracking service that will show you search terms that may generate even more traffic.  When I review my analytics, I can see what type of Internet user is coming to my site.  With that info - and where, what time of day they are coming - I can pretty well tailor my site to them.

But you'll get none of this if you don't try stuff out.  Don't say it doesn't work - it takes a ton of work to find the sweet spot.  And remember, your sweet spot might be someone else's rotton spot simply because of demographics.

Go ye therefore and track!