The Years created so far are 1929, 1934, 1939, 1949, 1950, 1954, 1955
1958, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1976, 1979, 1984, 1987, 1989,
1990, 1994, 1999.
To Find the others and more as I create them please pop over to The People History
Steve
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Free Birthday Gift
As you or may not know I also run a site called The People History and I have created a number of A4 size posters which are ideal for a Birthday Present, Anniversary Gift or reunion hand out. Below is an example from 50 years ago in 1959. You can print it or save it to your computer and print it from there.
The Years created so far are 1929, 1934, 1939, 1949, 1950, 1954, 1955
1958, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1976, 1979, 1984, 1987, 1989,
1990, 1994, 1999.
To Find the others and more as I create them please pop over to The People History
Steve
The Years created so far are 1929, 1934, 1939, 1949, 1950, 1954, 1955
1958, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1976, 1979, 1984, 1987, 1989,
1990, 1994, 1999.
To Find the others and more as I create them please pop over to The People History
Steve
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Update
Major update with over 120 blogs deleted who have not posted in the last 60 days If you know of any blogs we do not have included please use the form at the end of that guide to request inclusion on our bloggers list which means they will be added to our latest posts widget
This service is free with no advertising and no data collection and is a service for bloggers to keep up with fellow bloggers posts even if they are not included on your blog list, this provides bloggers the ability to keep up to date with between 50 and 100 other bloggers posts who share similar interests.
Visit the specific page to add your blog or a blog you recommend, or to request our Latest Posts Widget to display on your blog
Bird Watchers Power Guide and Latest Posts
Gardening Power Guide and Latest Posts
Fashion Clothes Power Guide and Latest Posts
Food and Cooking Power Guide and Latest Posts
Artists Power Guide and Latest Posts
Cars and Autos Power Guide and Latest Posts
Farming Power Guide and Latest Posts
Environment and Alternative Energy Power Guide and Latest Posts
Education and Teaching Power Guide and Latest Posts
Fishing Power Guide and Latest Posts
This service is free with no advertising and no data collection and is a service for bloggers to keep up with fellow bloggers posts even if they are not included on your blog list, this provides bloggers the ability to keep up to date with between 50 and 100 other bloggers posts who share similar interests.
Visit the specific page to add your blog or a blog you recommend, or to request our Latest Posts Widget to display on your blog
Horse Bloggers Power Guide
The first of the guides to come online was the Horse Lovers Power Guide because the project was started when my wife identified an area in her blogging time which she felt was wasted . In general the bloggers in the horse world blog about .35 posts per day or 1 post every 3 days , my wife spent a number of hours going to all those blogs she had on her blog roll often finding no new posts to comment on. Blogging is built on a community interacting together and commenting on each others posts, so I tried to set up a tool so she would know who had new posts , and then put a small piece of javascript on her site to display for herself and the other members of the blogging community . There are about 30 horse bloggers using the latest posts widget on their site
Horse Lovers Power Guide and Latest Posts
The Bird Watchers Bloggers Power Guide
The Bird Watchers Power Guide, includes many personal Bird Watching bloggers and others interested in wild birds , Birding specialist sites, with RSS feeds we felt would be useful to include.We do have A Public Google Map for this bloggers guide showing bloggers locations around the world
Bird Watchers Power Guide and Latest Posts
The Gardening Bloggers Power Guide
The Gardening Power Guide, includes many personal gardening bloggers and others interested in growing anything and everything , Gardening specialist sites, with RSS feeds we felt would be useful to include. We do have A Public Google Map for this bloggers guide showing bloggers locations around the world
Gardening Power Guide and Latest Posts
Below are a few more we maintain
Fashion Clothes Power Guide and Latest Posts
Food and Cooking Power Guide and Latest Posts
Artists Power Guide and Latest Posts
Cars and Autos Power Guide and Latest Posts
Farming Power Guide and Latest Posts
Environment and Alternative Energy Power Guide and Latest Posts
Education and Teaching Power Guide and Latest Posts
Fishing Power Guide and Latest Posts
Monday, November 10, 2008
Wood, Corn and Pellet Burners
Some time ago Callie posted on her blog about our latest way to save on this winters fuel bills Cumberland Pellet Stove, We were so pleased with it we bought a second stove ( It is an old converted barn with 3 floors and insulation does not exist ) . So now they are both installed and the joy of having a warm home all rooms is a joy and I am sure we will save plenty on our gas bill ( One month last year hit $1,600 for a month ) . The Pellet stove picture on the left goes to the manufacturer that we used.Well because of that and after a lot of research I have found there are over 30 Wood, Pellet and Corn burner manufacturers .
I have created a page on The Power Guides providing a full list of manufacturers and links to their websites Pellet, Corn and Wood Burning Stoves, together with some information about using these energy and environment friendly alternatives for heating your home
Monday, August 4, 2008
Blogger In Draft
1st
Question : What Is Blogger In Draft
Answer : It is where Google tries out new features before making them available in full blown blogger
Question : How do you get to or Use Blogger In Draft
Answer : Just choose blogger in draft and do your blogging in that environment
Question : Will my blog get messed up
Answer : I would guess that the chances are good everything will work fine
I thought I would touch on some of the stuff available in Blogger In Draft. As a rule most of these will be available at a later date.
1. Have your comments box automatically embedded at the end of the post instead of as a pop up.
2. Put those fancy little stars ( Star Rating ) so other bloggers can rate your post
3. Slightly Cleaner Looking Dash Board
4. Ability to Make Blogger In Draft Your default environment
5. Better editing of gadget preferences
6. Import / export of blogs.
Now one of the most important features this allows is for you to set up a different blog and import your old blog posts into the new blog . I have not played with it but seems a great idea
Also back up your blog posts to your computer which is also handy if you screw up or Google screws up your blog
7. New post editor I have not played with this yet but could be great for getting photos to be where and size you want them to be and allow you better handling of text round photos
That is just a brief round up
steve
Question : What Is Blogger In Draft
Answer : It is where Google tries out new features before making them available in full blown blogger
Question : How do you get to or Use Blogger In Draft
Answer : Just choose blogger in draft and do your blogging in that environment
Question : Will my blog get messed up
Answer : I would guess that the chances are good everything will work fine
I thought I would touch on some of the stuff available in Blogger In Draft. As a rule most of these will be available at a later date.
1. Have your comments box automatically embedded at the end of the post instead of as a pop up.
2. Put those fancy little stars ( Star Rating ) so other bloggers can rate your post
3. Slightly Cleaner Looking Dash Board
4. Ability to Make Blogger In Draft Your default environment
5. Better editing of gadget preferences
6. Import / export of blogs.
Now one of the most important features this allows is for you to set up a different blog and import your old blog posts into the new blog . I have not played with it but seems a great idea
Also back up your blog posts to your computer which is also handy if you screw up or Google screws up your blog
7. New post editor I have not played with this yet but could be great for getting photos to be where and size you want them to be and allow you better handling of text round photos
That is just a brief round up
steve
Monday, July 7, 2008
About Meetup Horse Lovers and More For The Real World
Click on the Graphic To See More detailsBloggers who have a specific interest can now meet like minded local bloggers to share a coffee or just interact in the real world.
I came across this today and did some checking for some of the communities The Power Guides Covers
For examples below are maps they have for
Horse Lovers Meetups
Horse Lovers
1,843 Members 41 cities
Bird Watchers Meetups
Bird Watchers
292 Members 8 cities
Cooking and Recipes
Cooking And Recipes
31,081 Members 187 cities
Fishing
Fishing
3,308 Members 30 cities
I suspect it is still fairly new but seems like a great way to meet other local people interested in the same thing as you are. Meetups .COM
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Warning For WordPress Bloggers
Hi all you WordPress Bloggers just a check you might want to do if you run a Wordpress Blog To Check your blog is not hacked
Search Google for something the name of your blog or distinct description from your blog
Click on your blog from Google Search results
And Check it goes to your blog
If you have been hacked it may well redirect to a "mega search" site or another site which could be even worse
Just one more tip if you just type your blog name it will work fine only problem is when someone finds you in Google Search Results.
This is a hard hack to spot as most times bloggers will type in their own blog address so not even realize it is happening
Check you are running the latest version of WordPress and pop over to the Wordpress site for more help and to upgrade
steve
Search Google for something the name of your blog or distinct description from your blog
Click on your blog from Google Search results
And Check it goes to your blog
If you have been hacked it may well redirect to a "mega search" site or another site which could be even worse
Just one more tip if you just type your blog name it will work fine only problem is when someone finds you in Google Search Results.
This is a hard hack to spot as most times bloggers will type in their own blog address so not even realize it is happening
Check you are running the latest version of WordPress and pop over to the Wordpress site for more help and to upgrade
steve
Friday, June 20, 2008
Set This Guest Book Up For Bloggers
I created this as I thought it would be pretty cool to share .
I have created this to share with the great family of Horse Bloggers
But is also ideal for
Birdwatchers, Artists, Fishermen, Fashion and Clothes, Food and Cooking etc
Get 1 person to create it ( Find It on Slide )
then get others in your community to host a copy as well , great way to share within a community. PS I set it up for verify to stop spammers hitting it
The Front Picture I have used is of
Wild Horses on the Range from The Bureau of Land Management.
You can upload your photos of your horse or horses to share with other horse bloggers and you can get the code to add to your blog to get even more horse bloggers to join in.
I have enabled verify so we do not get spammers just adding c???, so may take couple of hours before you appear .
Guest Book Users do not have to enter email address to add your photo and greeting only if you want to be updated with latest guests
You do not have to have a blog to leave a photo or comment in the guestbook
PPS Great Idea from On The Bit to add your Blog Address I never thought of that
It comes from a site called slide .
steve
I have created this to share with the great family of Horse Bloggers
But is also ideal for
Birdwatchers, Artists, Fishermen, Fashion and Clothes, Food and Cooking etc
Get 1 person to create it ( Find It on Slide )
then get others in your community to host a copy as well , great way to share within a community. PS I set it up for verify to stop spammers hitting it
The Front Picture I have used is of
Wild Horses on the Range from The Bureau of Land Management.
You can upload your photos of your horse or horses to share with other horse bloggers and you can get the code to add to your blog to get even more horse bloggers to join in.
I have enabled verify so we do not get spammers just adding c???, so may take couple of hours before you appear .
Guest Book Users do not have to enter email address to add your photo and greeting only if you want to be updated with latest guests
You do not have to have a blog to leave a photo or comment in the guestbook
PPS Great Idea from On The Bit to add your Blog Address I never thought of that
It comes from a site called slide .
steve
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Changes To The Way You Can Use Internet
This blog post tries to explain some of the implications for YOUR internet access following the passing of the Cope Act , these are my own opinions and I would be quite happy to be corrected if I have got it wrong.
To give it it's full title
Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act (Cope Act) 2006.
Congress passes the Cope Act by 321-101 votes.
What Is the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act (Cope Act)
The Cope act is a major overhaul of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 with a large number of changes some good and needed but some which may well cause the largest changes to how we are allowed to use the Internet once we have paid an ISP for a connection.
Below I have included the most important part of the act and an example of how I believe it will effect ordinary subscribers and how some subscribers are being affected today.
Network Neutrality
What Is It
Network Neutrality broadly means that once you have paid for your subscription to the Internet how you use the access is up to you, and all service speeds ( the speed a page or download is delivered to your browser ) are free and equal of limits via the ISP'S.
What Effect could it have on your Internet Access
As you can see unless a form of Network Neutrality is put back in the new bill, the internet we all use could change.
Current use of this ending of Network Neutrality is being used by Comcast who are slowing down certain protocols for example the BitTorrent protocol because the BitTorrent protocol is used to transfer large files including full-length videos partly because it competes with the cable company’s own video-on-demand and television offerings.
Current ISP Problems
Like all things there are two sides to any story and currently 10% of subscribers to ISP'S can easily use 60% of the available bandwidth making access slow for the rest of the subscribers.
Removing Network Neutrality should not be used as the answer as it could and will be used by some for the monetary gain. If ISP'S wish to address the issue they should begin offering a service which is based on users usage ( not how it is used ) this would possibly make Internet Access cheaper for most placing the cost on the heaviest users.
below is a video which although very biased does give an idea of the worst case scenario unless the situation is changed.
To give it it's full title
Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act (Cope Act) 2006.
Congress passes the Cope Act by 321-101 votes.
What Is the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act (Cope Act)
The Cope act is a major overhaul of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 with a large number of changes some good and needed but some which may well cause the largest changes to how we are allowed to use the Internet once we have paid an ISP for a connection.
Below I have included the most important part of the act and an example of how I believe it will effect ordinary subscribers and how some subscribers are being affected today.
Network Neutrality
What Is It
Network Neutrality broadly means that once you have paid for your subscription to the Internet how you use the access is up to you, and all service speeds ( the speed a page or download is delivered to your browser ) are free and equal of limits via the ISP'S.
What Effect could it have on your Internet Access
- The company who provide your Internet Access Could define which VOIP ( Voice Over IP Telephone Service ) i.e. block those they do not supply.
- The company who provide your Internet Access could define where you download music or video from.
- The company who provide your Internet Access could even in the worst case define which shops were available through your connection at high speed and which were not ( Possibly Only Companies who payed the ISP would be accessible ).
- The company who provide your Internet Access could even in the worst case define which search engine you could or could not use.
As you can see unless a form of Network Neutrality is put back in the new bill, the internet we all use could change.
Current use of this ending of Network Neutrality is being used by Comcast who are slowing down certain protocols for example the BitTorrent protocol because the BitTorrent protocol is used to transfer large files including full-length videos partly because it competes with the cable company’s own video-on-demand and television offerings.
Current ISP Problems
Like all things there are two sides to any story and currently 10% of subscribers to ISP'S can easily use 60% of the available bandwidth making access slow for the rest of the subscribers.
Removing Network Neutrality should not be used as the answer as it could and will be used by some for the monetary gain. If ISP'S wish to address the issue they should begin offering a service which is based on users usage ( not how it is used ) this would possibly make Internet Access cheaper for most placing the cost on the heaviest users.
below is a video which although very biased does give an idea of the worst case scenario unless the situation is changed.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Adsense and Privacy Policy Important Read
Important ---- Important Changes to AdSense Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy Must now be implemented if running Adsense
On February 26th Google implemented a new set of
AdSense terms & conditions and program policies.
Most times I suspect like most other small publishers I just hit the yes to accept button and thought no more about it.
This latest T's & C's are much more important because you must ensure you have added earlier or will add soon something on your blog or website to abide by the new Terms
To run Adsense Now you must have a privacy policy on your blog, website
Below is the relevant sentence from the new T's & C's
"You must have and abide by an appropriate privacy policy that clearly discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your users’ browser, or using web beacons to collect information, in the course of ads being served on your website. Your privacy policy should also include information about user options for cookie management."
So what and Why has this been done and what is it for.
Mainly because even if you do not create a cookie on your visitors computer Google or Google's advertisers will and your privacy policy should state this.
There is a great post at Jensense Explains New Google Terms and Conditions
As I have said before I do not run advertising of any kind currently on this blog or The Power Guides so I have not implemented.
But I do have a site where I Run Adsense For Search The People History and I have included the recommended Privacy Policy that Jensense recommends on my about page
Privacy Policy for thepeoplehistory.com
The privacy of our visitors to thepeoplehistory.com is important to us.
At thepeoplehistory.com, we recognize that privacy of your personal information is important. Here is information on what types of personal information we receive and collect when you use visit thepeoplehistory.com, and how we safeguard your information. We never sell your personal information to third parties.
Log Files
As with most other websites, we collect and use the data contained in log files. The information in the log files include your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as AOL or Shaw Cable), the browser you used to visit our site (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which pages you visited throughout our site.
Cookies and Web Beacons
We also use third party advertisements on thepeoplehistory.com to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).
You can chose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security. However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites. This could include the inability to login to services or programs, such as logging into forums or accounts.
I believe this may well be enforced at some time in the future and sites / blogs may well be checked by Google that they are in compliance with the latest Terms and Conditions so you are better off doing this now rather than later.
Privacy Policy Must now be implemented if running Adsense
On February 26th Google implemented a new set of
AdSense terms & conditions and program policies.
Most times I suspect like most other small publishers I just hit the yes to accept button and thought no more about it.
This latest T's & C's are much more important because you must ensure you have added earlier or will add soon something on your blog or website to abide by the new Terms
To run Adsense Now you must have a privacy policy on your blog, website
Below is the relevant sentence from the new T's & C's
"You must have and abide by an appropriate privacy policy that clearly discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your users’ browser, or using web beacons to collect information, in the course of ads being served on your website. Your privacy policy should also include information about user options for cookie management."
So what and Why has this been done and what is it for.
Mainly because even if you do not create a cookie on your visitors computer Google or Google's advertisers will and your privacy policy should state this.
There is a great post at Jensense Explains New Google Terms and Conditions
As I have said before I do not run advertising of any kind currently on this blog or The Power Guides so I have not implemented.
But I do have a site where I Run Adsense For Search The People History and I have included the recommended Privacy Policy that Jensense recommends on my about page
Privacy Policy for thepeoplehistory.com
The privacy of our visitors to thepeoplehistory.com is important to us.
At thepeoplehistory.com, we recognize that privacy of your personal information is important. Here is information on what types of personal information we receive and collect when you use visit thepeoplehistory.com, and how we safeguard your information. We never sell your personal information to third parties.
Log Files
As with most other websites, we collect and use the data contained in log files. The information in the log files include your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as AOL or Shaw Cable), the browser you used to visit our site (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which pages you visited throughout our site.
Cookies and Web Beacons
We also use third party advertisements on thepeoplehistory.com to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).
You can chose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security. However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites. This could include the inability to login to services or programs, such as logging into forums or accounts.
I believe this may well be enforced at some time in the future and sites / blogs may well be checked by Google that they are in compliance with the latest Terms and Conditions so you are better off doing this now rather than later.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Google Presentation Tool Using On Your Blog
A quick guide to how to use Google Presentation to provide easy to show content on your blog, The first presentation provides an overview of what it can achieve , the second presentation is a practical use I used on another blog.
One more great advantage to this Software is that if you wish to add or edit a slide you do not have to change the code on your page.
Below is an example of using Presentation Software in a practical way on a blog
Borrowed From The People History Blog showing World War I and World War II Posters
World War I and World War II Posters
One more great advantage to this Software is that if you wish to add or edit a slide you do not have to change the code on your page.
Below is an example of using Presentation Software in a practical way on a blog
Borrowed From The People History Blog showing World War I and World War II Posters
World War I and World War II Posters
Slide 1
Example Of Using Google Documents
Presentation
I Wanted to display a series of old World War I and World War II posters on The People History Blog , to also include some text in an easy to use experience for my users.
I had tried using a Photo Slide Program but could not include the text description to go with each poster so this is how I chose to create this post
I had tried using a Photo Slide Program but could not include the text description to go with each poster so this is how I chose to create this post
Slide 2
Not as strong as Powerpoint
With a number of Basic Options
Missing
Slide 3
But it's free and ideal way to present this style of information.
Advantages Include
- Easy to share with friends
- Drag and Drop Works Well From Other Browser Windows
- Very Easy to Implement On Your Blog
Slide 3
Things To Remember
When Using Google Presentation
Software
The Search Engines will see nothing to index on the page unless you help the Search Engines by including text after the presentation.
I Could Not for the life of me find a spell checker
The number of themes is limited but enough for this type of project
I did find it slowed down as the the number of visitors increased who were viewing the slide
Slide 4
Slide 4
This only shows the uses of this type of Application on A Blog
I have just used this as an example of using this application on a blog but there are many more
- Collaboration On A Presentation
- Showing your presentation around the world
- Putting A Presentation On Your Website
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Removed Equine Mine Horse Adds
Due to the very large number of Equine Now Horse Adds the blog has been removed from The Power Guides Horse Bloggers Listings
If you wish to keep up with horses for sale below is the Link
http://www.equinenow.com/horses.htm
This goes with our overall concept that no blog or RSS feed should dominate our latest posts widget.
PS we have also added an additional 30 new horse blogs over the last 2 weeks
Steve
If you wish to keep up with horses for sale below is the Link
http://www.equinenow.com/horses.htm
This goes with our overall concept that no blog or RSS feed should dominate our latest posts widget.
PS we have also added an additional 30 new horse blogs over the last 2 weeks
Steve
Friday, April 4, 2008
Being realistic about visitor numbers
The Internet and websites and blogs is still growing exponentially so being realistic on how many visitors your blog or site will attract is a fact of life below are some of the factors that come into play.
Age of website, blog or page
The search engines are inundated with websites and blogs trying to make a fast buck and one of the many ways they deal with it is by looking how long the page has been online ( some webmasters will create a new site each week with 100,000 pages in the hope they will make loads of money they are not trying to provide anything useful or informative just to make money . This is one of the main reasons that search engines use age as one of the main defining factors , If the content is good and over 12 months gains a number of natural links from other websites the search engines will give more credibility to that site / page / blog
This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as the sandbox effect and the more competitive the words you are hoping for traffic from the deeper the sandbox
Other links to website, blog or page
As you can see from the item above the SE's expect your new site to gain a number of natural links over time ( sometimes they even help by putting your page high in the results for a day or a week to see if natural links occur ) so you might see loads of traffic for couple of days maybe in the beginning or could even be suddenly for no reason ( this is where social networking sites tags can be useful as it can be a link but also can create other links
How well the page is Search Engine Optimized
SEO is a difficult question to answer so my honest advice is write for your visitors
How many other sites pages are targeting the same words
This is where the going gets tough the more sites targeting the words the harder to compete lets take as an example CAR INSURANCE . as anybody knows this is a cut throat industry and as such website pages number millions so don't expect to compete very well on that type of keyword
How interesting and well written the content on the page is
This is at the core of success or failure if you provide something interesting and informative from your perspective the chances that people will read or link or bookmark or email to a friend is much better and although you may not get as many visitors as your page deserves it will provide a platform for long term growth
How much you have spent on promotion
I am afraid the Internet is now such big business that the amount of money / time spent on promotion is a big factor in weather you will be successful .
Below are some of the ways to spend money and help your website be found / linked to
1 Directory Submissions
2 Paying for a review of your website
3 Paying for Visitors from somewhere like StumbleUpon
4 Adwords / Yahoo Search Marketing / Microsoft ADDS
5 Paying for banners
6 Affiliate traffic
7 pay for links on other sites which might send you traffic ( be careful with this as SE's are cracking down on some areas of paying for links )
Free Website Promotion
I have covered this on earlier post including some basic ideas for link building and social network tagging so I will not go into it here again
The main object of this post is to help you realize there are some things you can do to help get more visitors but some you can't and that patience is a virtue for visitors the same as most other things in life
By far in my opinion the most important fact in building long term traffic is visitors who decide the information, content and style of writing is great that they add your page to their favorites or tell others or send emails or even just tell friends in the pub as this is how the Internet started and can still today provide as much traffic as search engine queries
Steve
Age of website, blog or page
The search engines are inundated with websites and blogs trying to make a fast buck and one of the many ways they deal with it is by looking how long the page has been online ( some webmasters will create a new site each week with 100,000 pages in the hope they will make loads of money they are not trying to provide anything useful or informative just to make money . This is one of the main reasons that search engines use age as one of the main defining factors , If the content is good and over 12 months gains a number of natural links from other websites the search engines will give more credibility to that site / page / blog
This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as the sandbox effect and the more competitive the words you are hoping for traffic from the deeper the sandbox
Other links to website, blog or page
As you can see from the item above the SE's expect your new site to gain a number of natural links over time ( sometimes they even help by putting your page high in the results for a day or a week to see if natural links occur ) so you might see loads of traffic for couple of days maybe in the beginning or could even be suddenly for no reason ( this is where social networking sites tags can be useful as it can be a link but also can create other links
How well the page is Search Engine Optimized
SEO is a difficult question to answer so my honest advice is write for your visitors
How many other sites pages are targeting the same words
This is where the going gets tough the more sites targeting the words the harder to compete lets take as an example CAR INSURANCE . as anybody knows this is a cut throat industry and as such website pages number millions so don't expect to compete very well on that type of keyword
How interesting and well written the content on the page is
This is at the core of success or failure if you provide something interesting and informative from your perspective the chances that people will read or link or bookmark or email to a friend is much better and although you may not get as many visitors as your page deserves it will provide a platform for long term growth
How much you have spent on promotion
I am afraid the Internet is now such big business that the amount of money / time spent on promotion is a big factor in weather you will be successful .
Below are some of the ways to spend money and help your website be found / linked to
1 Directory Submissions
2 Paying for a review of your website
3 Paying for Visitors from somewhere like StumbleUpon
4 Adwords / Yahoo Search Marketing / Microsoft ADDS
5 Paying for banners
6 Affiliate traffic
7 pay for links on other sites which might send you traffic ( be careful with this as SE's are cracking down on some areas of paying for links )
Free Website Promotion
I have covered this on earlier post including some basic ideas for link building and social network tagging so I will not go into it here again
The main object of this post is to help you realize there are some things you can do to help get more visitors but some you can't and that patience is a virtue for visitors the same as most other things in life
The Most Important Website Promotion Tool
By far in my opinion the most important fact in building long term traffic is visitors who decide the information, content and style of writing is great that they add your page to their favorites or tell others or send emails or even just tell friends in the pub as this is how the Internet started and can still today provide as much traffic as search engine queries
Steve
Google The King Of The Internet
Google is still the undisputed king of Search and with many of the companies they have purchased and the additions to the portfolio are becoming the Undisputed King Of The Internet
Google Search still the best search ( sometimes takes a while to catch up with spammers but does do eventually )
Google News ( To search local news but honestly seems to be lacking many great sources ) maybe should be combined to use the best news blogs and there are some great ones
Google Images ( simple and quite powerful but I think ASK is slightly better now )
You Tube ( With problems re: Copyright ) But the epitome of Web 2 whatever that is?
Feed burner ( Will most likely become the standard in Feed Technology )
AdWords ( Advertising for all on a semi-simple platform )
Reader Simple To Use for anybody and everybody
AdSense ( Allow the ordinary webmaster to pay towards his hobby and the very large sites to monetize easily)
Blogger ( Blogging for the ordinary man and easy to use, my wife non techy gets so much pleasure from blogging about her horses )
Google Maps ( Of them all this is I think the best as easy to use and will provide a great income stream later through local advertising )
Gmail has now set the standard that all the others will need to match or better free but financed through low profile advertising
GTALK this has not become the standard yet but when combined with free Internet access through VOIP may dominate the market
Google Apps ( this is the Microsoft killer if it does make major inroads into the Business arena )
Picasso Not as good as some of the other offerings but close enough not to be dismissed
and finally to protect it's core product
Google Customised Search ( not fully there yet but may provide Google with a good additional base of trusted resources ) and real people with knowledge in the subject are creating this knowledge base for free long way to go but could be the spammers worst enemy together with The Google Toolbar
Google Search still the best search ( sometimes takes a while to catch up with spammers but does do eventually )
Google News ( To search local news but honestly seems to be lacking many great sources ) maybe should be combined to use the best news blogs and there are some great ones
Google Images ( simple and quite powerful but I think ASK is slightly better now )
You Tube ( With problems re: Copyright ) But the epitome of Web 2 whatever that is?
Feed burner ( Will most likely become the standard in Feed Technology )
AdWords ( Advertising for all on a semi-simple platform )
Reader Simple To Use for anybody and everybody
AdSense ( Allow the ordinary webmaster to pay towards his hobby and the very large sites to monetize easily)
Blogger ( Blogging for the ordinary man and easy to use, my wife non techy gets so much pleasure from blogging about her horses )
Google Maps ( Of them all this is I think the best as easy to use and will provide a great income stream later through local advertising )
Gmail has now set the standard that all the others will need to match or better free but financed through low profile advertising
GTALK this has not become the standard yet but when combined with free Internet access through VOIP may dominate the market
Google Apps ( this is the Microsoft killer if it does make major inroads into the Business arena )
Picasso Not as good as some of the other offerings but close enough not to be dismissed
and finally to protect it's core product
Google Customised Search ( not fully there yet but may provide Google with a good additional base of trusted resources ) and real people with knowledge in the subject are creating this knowledge base for free long way to go but could be the spammers worst enemy together with The Google Toolbar
Friday, March 28, 2008
Money From Affiliate Marketing On Your Blog
I have referred in a few posts to affiliate marketing and thought I would explain how it works best for bloggers.
Additional Ways To Earn Money From Your Blog Include Affiliate Marketing
Done correctly it can provide a great additional source of income.
Most bloggers if they do become involved in an affiliate agreement just sign up with an affiliate company and add a few banners in the side bar , but you can do so much more and much better than that.
Rules Of Play
Remember if you P?? off your visitors by just trying to sell something so you make money will quickly lead to no visitors ( Plus The Search Engines will soon realize what you are up to )
OK few additional advantages
1. It is possible your contextual advertising for that post could also match the product or service which can be a bonus ( But remember loyal visitors will often become add blind over time )
Check my earlier post on How Contextual Advertising Works and remember the Contextual advertising may well think the most important and likely sales may come from Double Glazing , or Racking because you talked about the glass and the shelving in the greenhouse ( Remember Contextual Advertising is just a computer driven set of rules ) so not as clever as us humans.
2. If the post proves popular and you do gain sales then create a specialist area which just includes reviews of products and services ( this may then be used by your visitors as a long term resource ).
OK the question I have been asked most is how and where do you find these affiliate programs
Much easier than you think
Commission Junction Has thousands of companies registered who you can apply to join
including large companies like Walmart and just about any other you can think of
Clickbank is yet another
Amazon also has great affiliate offerings and will allow you to check out books or videos related to your niche and review them.
But beyond that is check out some of the companies you may use currently to buy products and services most if not all have some form of affiliate program ( sometimes it can take a little time to find but worth it. Remember this will also allow you to get the affiliate commission from something you want to buy for yourself so additional bonus .
The second question is How Much Will I Earn ?
Ok Depends on
Well I hope I have provided you some ideas of how you could help to earn some money for the effort you have put into your blog.
Another Blogging Idea From Steve at The Power Guides Blog
Additional Ways To Earn Money From Your Blog Include Affiliate Marketing
Done correctly it can provide a great additional source of income.
Most bloggers if they do become involved in an affiliate agreement just sign up with an affiliate company and add a few banners in the side bar , but you can do so much more and much better than that.
Rules Of Play
- Make sure the product or service will appeal to your visitors ( So if you run a gardening site why not spend some time on research on Greenhouses and take some time to create an informational review post) this will benefit your visitors who will appreciate the effort you have put in.
- If you post normally once or twice a day your visitors and the Search Engines will not object if you post a review about a product or service Once A Week ( Your loyal visitors may even be grateful for the information.
- This type of post is often referred to a Pre Sell which means when the visitor clicks on the link they are more likely to purchase.
- My advice is to also include a link to the competition , I am sure if you are looking round you look at multiple suppliers prior to your puchase
- Do Not just copy the description ( That is what spammers do ) and will be seen as such
- Only work with affiliate companies you personally would be willing to do business with
Remember if you P?? off your visitors by just trying to sell something so you make money will quickly lead to no visitors ( Plus The Search Engines will soon realize what you are up to )
OK few additional advantages
1. It is possible your contextual advertising for that post could also match the product or service which can be a bonus ( But remember loyal visitors will often become add blind over time )
Check my earlier post on How Contextual Advertising Works and remember the Contextual advertising may well think the most important and likely sales may come from Double Glazing , or Racking because you talked about the glass and the shelving in the greenhouse ( Remember Contextual Advertising is just a computer driven set of rules ) so not as clever as us humans.
2. If the post proves popular and you do gain sales then create a specialist area which just includes reviews of products and services ( this may then be used by your visitors as a long term resource ).
OK the question I have been asked most is how and where do you find these affiliate programs
Much easier than you think
Commission Junction Has thousands of companies registered who you can apply to join
including large companies like Walmart and just about any other you can think of
Clickbank is yet another
Amazon also has great affiliate offerings and will allow you to check out books or videos related to your niche and review them.
But beyond that is check out some of the companies you may use currently to buy products and services most if not all have some form of affiliate program ( sometimes it can take a little time to find but worth it. Remember this will also allow you to get the affiliate commission from something you want to buy for yourself so additional bonus .
The second question is How Much Will I Earn ?
Ok Depends on
- How much traffic you receive
- Are your visitors interested in that item or service
- How good your pre-sell is
- The amount of sales you generate ( More likely to produce dozens of sales for $50.00 item but only the odd 1 for a new greenhouse at $2,000 )
- The % of commission you receive on completed sales which could range from 2.5% up to 7%
Well I hope I have provided you some ideas of how you could help to earn some money for the effort you have put into your blog.
Another Blogging Idea From Steve at The Power Guides Blog
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Contextual Advertising How Does It Work ?
How to monetize a blog like The Power Guides Blog
The Power Guides Blog is a purely informational blog and at some time after putting many hours of work into providing free information , most bloggers would like to make some money for all their hard work .
So What are the options for Contextual Advertising
1 Contextual Advertising
To most webmasters who run websites the most obvious one that comes to mind is Google AdSense due to wide range of advertisers fairly good payout and easy to implement.
How Does Contextual Advertising Work
Contextual advertising by Google and the other companies is done using a special program / Bot which looks at all the content on a page to decide what the page is about and tries to match the advertisers to the content on the page.. It is also thought that Google has quite a bit of information about the visitor gained through ( cookies ) plus will know where the visitor is from .
I will try to explain .
Lets say your page is about garden sheds and Google has also decided it is about Garden Sheds ( Due to trust of your site over period of time ) , Also would help if your blog / site was 75% about Gardening.
Possible Stages Prior to delivering Add
So delivers a great add from local advertiser selling Garden Sheds In Illinois.
( This would mean much more likely the Visitor would ( 1 ) click on the ADD and ( 2 ) buy a shed )
Now understanding how much information Google has before it delivers adds will also help to explain why some traffic is not as good as other traffic
Example 1
StumbleUpon , Generally the visitors from StumbleUpon are just flitting through hundreds of sites aimlessly to find something interesting and not that likely to provide a good prospect for an advertiser.
Example 2
A news story about garden sheds being blown down due to a hurricane many miles away is unlikely to mean the reader will be interested in buying a new shed ( he was not affected ) But If Google Comes From The Effected Area they may make a great prospect so will adjust advertising accordingly .
Example 3
A Visitor with no referrer would not be considered as good as a visitor who came from a search query on new garden sheds from Any Search Engine ( maybe would explain why bloggers who go to the same sites every day not the best prospects. )
There are many other examples I could provide but I hope you have a better understanding from the examples above
Google Adsense
Google is open to fairly new sites / blogs with low traffic and is available for publishers in most countries in the World and in multiple languages.
It is easy to implement and in Blogger is even easier once you have applied and been approved for your account.
Payment is not made until you have reached $100.00 in your account and can take up to 3 years for blogs with low traffic.
My Wife has been blogging for over 12 months and I suspect it will another couple of years before she receives her first check ( But when she does she will super chuffed ).
NEVER EVER CLICK ON YOUR OWN ADDS
YOU WILL BE CAUGHT
YOU WILL BE CAUGHT
Google Takes the clicking of your own adds very seriously because it means you are defrauding Google's paying customers THE ADVERTISERS and without those advertisers trusting Google to monitor click fraud the Adsense market would not exist.
It does depend very much on your niche and Google's view of your blog re: providing the advertiser with a ROI ( Return On Investment ) and it can take some time before Google has enough information to decide it is a good fit for specific advertisers in that niche.
As you can see from the above the information Google has to work with provides Google with all the tools to match Advertisers >>> To Prospects and the better the match the more everybody is happy.
contextual advertising KONTERA this is very different from AdSense in that the adds are displayed when a visitor runs the mouse over a word in the text which an advertiser has targeted , As per Yahoo does not have the breadth and number of advertisers of Google Adsense
YPN from Yahoo only available for US advertisers and does not have the number and range of Advertisers of Google Adsense
I will go into detail in a later post some of the great opportunities offered by Affiliate Marketing which can provide as much if not more income than contextual advertising .
The Power Guides Blog is a purely informational blog and at some time after putting many hours of work into providing free information , most bloggers would like to make some money for all their hard work .
So What are the options for Contextual Advertising
1 Contextual Advertising
To most webmasters who run websites the most obvious one that comes to mind is Google AdSense due to wide range of advertisers fairly good payout and easy to implement.
How Does Contextual Advertising Work
Contextual advertising by Google and the other companies is done using a special program / Bot which looks at all the content on a page to decide what the page is about and tries to match the advertisers to the content on the page.. It is also thought that Google has quite a bit of information about the visitor gained through ( cookies ) plus will know where the visitor is from .
I will try to explain .
Lets say your page is about garden sheds and Google has also decided it is about Garden Sheds ( Due to trust of your site over period of time ) , Also would help if your blog / site was 75% about Gardening.
Possible Stages Prior to delivering Add
- Page Is about Garden Sheds ( Pick Garden Shed Advertisers )
- User Is Middle Aged and Goes to lots of Gardening sites implying it is their hobby ( Therefore meaning they are more likely to spend )
- User ended up at the page when they were searching for information about Garden Sheds.
- User Lives In Chicago , Illinois ( Easy to find out often through IP but Multiple Options to obtain Geographic Location ) ( If you want to see it in action check out the little Sitemeter icon to find out about where visitors have come from on this blog ( Geographically and which last Site etc. ) and that is know where near the level of sophistication a company like Google has at it's fingertips.
So delivers a great add from local advertiser selling Garden Sheds In Illinois.
( This would mean much more likely the Visitor would ( 1 ) click on the ADD and ( 2 ) buy a shed )
Now understanding how much information Google has before it delivers adds will also help to explain why some traffic is not as good as other traffic
Example 1
StumbleUpon , Generally the visitors from StumbleUpon are just flitting through hundreds of sites aimlessly to find something interesting and not that likely to provide a good prospect for an advertiser.
Example 2
A news story about garden sheds being blown down due to a hurricane many miles away is unlikely to mean the reader will be interested in buying a new shed ( he was not affected ) But If Google Comes From The Effected Area they may make a great prospect so will adjust advertising accordingly .
Example 3
A Visitor with no referrer would not be considered as good as a visitor who came from a search query on new garden sheds from Any Search Engine ( maybe would explain why bloggers who go to the same sites every day not the best prospects. )
There are many other examples I could provide but I hope you have a better understanding from the examples above
Google Adsense
Google is open to fairly new sites / blogs with low traffic and is available for publishers in most countries in the World and in multiple languages.
It is easy to implement and in Blogger is even easier once you have applied and been approved for your account.
Payment is not made until you have reached $100.00 in your account and can take up to 3 years for blogs with low traffic.
My Wife has been blogging for over 12 months and I suspect it will another couple of years before she receives her first check ( But when she does she will super chuffed ).
NEVER EVER CLICK ON YOUR OWN ADDS
YOU WILL BE CAUGHT
YOU WILL BE CAUGHT
Google Takes the clicking of your own adds very seriously because it means you are defrauding Google's paying customers THE ADVERTISERS and without those advertisers trusting Google to monitor click fraud the Adsense market would not exist.
It does depend very much on your niche and Google's view of your blog re: providing the advertiser with a ROI ( Return On Investment ) and it can take some time before Google has enough information to decide it is a good fit for specific advertisers in that niche.
As you can see from the above the information Google has to work with provides Google with all the tools to match Advertisers >>> To Prospects and the better the match the more everybody is happy.
contextual advertising KONTERA this is very different from AdSense in that the adds are displayed when a visitor runs the mouse over a word in the text which an advertiser has targeted , As per Yahoo does not have the breadth and number of advertisers of Google Adsense
YPN from Yahoo only available for US advertisers and does not have the number and range of Advertisers of Google Adsense
I will go into detail in a later post some of the great opportunities offered by Affiliate Marketing which can provide as much if not more income than contextual advertising .
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Google Docs Presentation Software
Using Google Docs Presentation
I thought this might be interesting for some of those in the blogging community .
I have used this on a project of mine where I wanted to include a number of old war time posters in a single easy to run application and to add a small amount of text for each slide you can find my attempt at the end of this post.
It could be useful for a blogger who wanted to create a presentation for training or to be able to include a series of photos showing a process over an elapsed period of time, plus the added advantage of fully portable and internet friendly.
The great thing I liked about it was to be able to add text to each slide.
I will warn of one downfall and that is it will not be very Search Engine friendly so when I have used it I have created a written post about what the presentation includes.
I thought this might be interesting for some of those in the blogging community .
I have used this on a project of mine where I wanted to include a number of old war time posters in a single easy to run application and to add a small amount of text for each slide you can find my attempt at the end of this post.
It could be useful for a blogger who wanted to create a presentation for training or to be able to include a series of photos showing a process over an elapsed period of time, plus the added advantage of fully portable and internet friendly.
The great thing I liked about it was to be able to add text to each slide.
I will warn of one downfall and that is it will not be very Search Engine friendly so when I have used it I have created a written post about what the presentation includes.
So How Much Can You Realy Expect To Earn From Your Blog
Separating the Myths from the realities of earnings from your blog
Facts, Fiction, Dreams and Everything In Between on Expectations of earning big money from your blog ( I will quantify that by saying big money ranges from enough to live on upwards )
So You Have A Blog and Want To Get Rich Quickly
Is It Going To Happen Sorry To Disappoint you in 90% of cases
NON , NO and "In Your Dreams"
So what can you expect and what are the criteria to earn money from your blog
The most important factor in defining your earnings is Traffic / Visitors which depends on the following.
Traffic / Page Views
1. Popularity of topic ( Some sectors are super popular like Entertainment, Fashion , Food, Technology )
2. Style of Writing ( If your writing style is easy and interesting to read and not to Airy Fairy or Complicated )
3. Information or Personal ( A Blog providing easy to read help on a specific subject with a lot of other similar posts will gain more visitors than a blog talking about your good or bad day )
4. Age of Blog ( As a blog ages it's visitors increase through word of mouth or links )
5. Design Of Blog ( The blog should be easy on the eye with content above the fold ) If a new visitor comes to your blog and sees nothing but adds without writing . Will they take the time to scroll down , You may earn money from the click but will you gain a new visitor to revisit your blog.
6. Optimized for search engines ( This is a big subject on it's own check out our sitemap for some of the posts talking about Optimizing Your Blog ( SEO )
7. Easy Navigation ( If visitors come to your blog make it easy for them to find other posts related to the post they came in from and provide a way for them to navigate the blog for other similar posts ) Most popular method is Label Clouds
Traffic ( Can improve through SEO by leaps and bounds if blog is optimized ( Search Engine Optimization )
As you can see Traffic / Page Views is the single most important factor in how much you earn but there are a number of others
Possible Advertisers / And How Much You Earn PER Click
The difference between what advertisers pay is critical some will pay up to $10.00 for each click ( usually in the finance market Mortgages, Loans, Credit Cards Etc. ) but most pay much less than that . Advertisers fall into two quite distinct types.
1. Those selling a product or service
2. Those trying to buy traffic from your blog to theirs for the cheapest amount they can
The difference in potential earnings between these two types of advertisers is significant with
Those selling a product or service very dependent on if your visitors are the type that will buy their product or service, if so they may well pay very well ( Great if you can combine both Advertisers Who have a product or service to sell and visitors who are willing to spend money ) WIN WIN. Lets give an example you have written a post about the new horse barn you have erected and the adds are for horse barns there is a great chance your reader may leave your blog and go to an advertiser to find out how much etc. I suspect an advertiser would be willing to pay a reasonable amount for a live prospect for a new horse barn.
Those trying to buy traffic from your blog to theirs for the cheapest amount they can these are the ads that say things like find more of this in our directory, or play game for free, or get a free widget for your blog and pay very very very little plus least likely your visitors will click the add seen them all over the internet on thousands of blogs.
The number of clicks you receive and the amount per click,
Once again you can do something to influence this
1. The more advertisers who are targeting the content of your post the better ( It is an auction based system , not just by the highest bid but also based on quality score of Advert, Advertisers Landing Page and Your Post. You cannot influence the first two but you can influence the quality of your post .
Where you advert is on the page also has a big effect , the optimum place is above the fold but finding the correct mix between pi??ing of your visitors and gaining the highest number of clicks is a balancing act.
Below is a graphic from Google's Page on Best Placement for adds check out the page for more information
Now one of the biggest problems for bloggers is assuming the more adds you have the better ( Not true ) the most likely scenario is the price per add goes lower and you could lose your visitors for 2 cents not 50 cents that you may hope for.
So now I suppose you want some meat HOW MUCH PER THOUSAND PAGE VIEWS
It does really depend it could be as low as $2.00 per thousand for the worst areas but up to $50.00 per thousand if you get it right but if you can get your CTR to 5% ( Number of Clicks Per Hundred Ad Views ) and your price per click at about the mid range of 20 cents you can work it out from here
1000 page views = 50 clicks ( 5% )
50 clicks at 20 cents per click = $10.00 ECPM
So if you get 650 visitors per day viewing 1.5 page views per day this is what you might expect to earn $10.00 per day
If you are getting those figures or better you are doing well and I think close to the average
Now just a few additional notes if your visitors are all loyal readers of your blog they may well become adblind over a few months and less likely to click, but if your visitors come from Search Engine Results or Blog Search Results your earnings will be much better.
I will try to discuss the differing options on ad types, sizes, and other information that may effect your earnings in a later post but this post ended up much longer than originally planned
Steve
The Power Guides Blogger
Facts, Fiction, Dreams and Everything In Between on Expectations of earning big money from your blog ( I will quantify that by saying big money ranges from enough to live on upwards )
So You Have A Blog and Want To Get Rich Quickly
Is It Going To Happen Sorry To Disappoint you in 90% of cases
NON , NO and "In Your Dreams"
So what can you expect and what are the criteria to earn money from your blog
The most important factor in defining your earnings is Traffic / Visitors which depends on the following.
Traffic / Page Views
1. Popularity of topic ( Some sectors are super popular like Entertainment, Fashion , Food, Technology )
2. Style of Writing ( If your writing style is easy and interesting to read and not to Airy Fairy or Complicated )
3. Information or Personal ( A Blog providing easy to read help on a specific subject with a lot of other similar posts will gain more visitors than a blog talking about your good or bad day )
4. Age of Blog ( As a blog ages it's visitors increase through word of mouth or links )
5. Design Of Blog ( The blog should be easy on the eye with content above the fold ) If a new visitor comes to your blog and sees nothing but adds without writing . Will they take the time to scroll down , You may earn money from the click but will you gain a new visitor to revisit your blog.
6. Optimized for search engines ( This is a big subject on it's own check out our sitemap for some of the posts talking about Optimizing Your Blog ( SEO )
7. Easy Navigation ( If visitors come to your blog make it easy for them to find other posts related to the post they came in from and provide a way for them to navigate the blog for other similar posts ) Most popular method is Label Clouds
Traffic ( Can improve through SEO by leaps and bounds if blog is optimized ( Search Engine Optimization )
As you can see Traffic / Page Views is the single most important factor in how much you earn but there are a number of others
Possible Advertisers / And How Much You Earn PER Click
The difference between what advertisers pay is critical some will pay up to $10.00 for each click ( usually in the finance market Mortgages, Loans, Credit Cards Etc. ) but most pay much less than that . Advertisers fall into two quite distinct types.
1. Those selling a product or service
2. Those trying to buy traffic from your blog to theirs for the cheapest amount they can
The difference in potential earnings between these two types of advertisers is significant with
Those selling a product or service very dependent on if your visitors are the type that will buy their product or service, if so they may well pay very well ( Great if you can combine both Advertisers Who have a product or service to sell and visitors who are willing to spend money ) WIN WIN. Lets give an example you have written a post about the new horse barn you have erected and the adds are for horse barns there is a great chance your reader may leave your blog and go to an advertiser to find out how much etc. I suspect an advertiser would be willing to pay a reasonable amount for a live prospect for a new horse barn.
Those trying to buy traffic from your blog to theirs for the cheapest amount they can these are the ads that say things like find more of this in our directory, or play game for free, or get a free widget for your blog and pay very very very little plus least likely your visitors will click the add seen them all over the internet on thousands of blogs.
The number of clicks you receive and the amount per click,
Once again you can do something to influence this
1. The more advertisers who are targeting the content of your post the better ( It is an auction based system , not just by the highest bid but also based on quality score of Advert, Advertisers Landing Page and Your Post. You cannot influence the first two but you can influence the quality of your post .
Where you advert is on the page also has a big effect , the optimum place is above the fold but finding the correct mix between pi??ing of your visitors and gaining the highest number of clicks is a balancing act.
Below is a graphic from Google's Page on Best Placement for adds check out the page for more information
Now one of the biggest problems for bloggers is assuming the more adds you have the better ( Not true ) the most likely scenario is the price per add goes lower and you could lose your visitors for 2 cents not 50 cents that you may hope for.
So now I suppose you want some meat HOW MUCH PER THOUSAND PAGE VIEWS
It does really depend it could be as low as $2.00 per thousand for the worst areas but up to $50.00 per thousand if you get it right but if you can get your CTR to 5% ( Number of Clicks Per Hundred Ad Views ) and your price per click at about the mid range of 20 cents you can work it out from here
1000 page views = 50 clicks ( 5% )
50 clicks at 20 cents per click = $10.00 ECPM
So if you get 650 visitors per day viewing 1.5 page views per day this is what you might expect to earn $10.00 per day
If you are getting those figures or better you are doing well and I think close to the average
Now just a few additional notes if your visitors are all loyal readers of your blog they may well become adblind over a few months and less likely to click, but if your visitors come from Search Engine Results or Blog Search Results your earnings will be much better.
I will try to discuss the differing options on ad types, sizes, and other information that may effect your earnings in a later post but this post ended up much longer than originally planned
Steve
The Power Guides Blogger
Using Your Own Reader Feed to display latest posts
One of the weaknesses of Google Blogger is no easy widget in the templates to display your latest 10 posts .
You can place the archiving widget in your sidebar but the problem is options are limited and once chosen often can show to many or to few posts.
There are a number of widgets available out there and I will go through just a few.
1 My Favorite just put your own feed through Google Reader make a tag with website name choose public and choose add a clip as shown below , I did create a Reader Help Guide on an earlier post here.
Now like all things there are a couple of disadvantages
1. The text is bloody huge and dominates the page
2. There is no option to display some of the first words of the post as a teaser.
The Big advantages
1. Super easy to implement
2. Very little delay in updating latest posts ( few minutes maximum )
OK so lets look at alternative ( once again a company owned by Google ( Feedburner )
Below is A feed from feedburner as you can see the text is much smaller and looks nicer plus it has some small amount of text as a teaser to the post.
The process to do this is quite simple
1. Register ( Create Log In ) on Feedburner
2. Add your Blog Feed
3. Choose Buzz Boost
4. Choose Options
5. Grab The Code They supply
6. Choose Customize and Add Page Element ( HTML / Javascript )
7 Post the code in to page element and Bobs Your Uncle
This is just one option you could create a headline animator or change the way your feed looks and so much more play with it You Can Not Break Your Blog or Their Software so play and learn
Now there tons of options or you can go one step further and create a sexy looking widget using the Spring Widgets Skin Option Available inside Feedburner
1. Just Choose Spring Widgets Skin From The Sidebar on Feedburner >>> Publizice
2. Add a graphic ( bug requires you must have a graphic ) So I used an old one I had Kicking around for The Power Guides
3. It will now generate your nice widget which you could put in your sidebar
using add html / javascript
Each one of these options adds a delay in updating your feed to display the latest posts and things like Spring Widgets also can slow down the time it takes to display your page .
I will stick to my boring Google Reader option but try these things and see what is best for you
You can place the archiving widget in your sidebar but the problem is options are limited and once chosen often can show to many or to few posts.
There are a number of widgets available out there and I will go through just a few.
1 My Favorite just put your own feed through Google Reader make a tag with website name choose public and choose add a clip as shown below , I did create a Reader Help Guide on an earlier post here.
Now like all things there are a couple of disadvantages
1. The text is bloody huge and dominates the page
2. There is no option to display some of the first words of the post as a teaser.
The Big advantages
1. Super easy to implement
2. Very little delay in updating latest posts ( few minutes maximum )
OK so lets look at alternative ( once again a company owned by Google ( Feedburner )
Below is A feed from feedburner as you can see the text is much smaller and looks nicer plus it has some small amount of text as a teaser to the post.
The process to do this is quite simple
1. Register ( Create Log In ) on Feedburner
2. Add your Blog Feed
3. Choose Buzz Boost
4. Choose Options
5. Grab The Code They supply
6. Choose Customize and Add Page Element ( HTML / Javascript )
7 Post the code in to page element and Bobs Your Uncle
This is just one option you could create a headline animator or change the way your feed looks and so much more play with it You Can Not Break Your Blog or Their Software so play and learn
Now there tons of options or you can go one step further and create a sexy looking widget using the Spring Widgets Skin Option Available inside Feedburner
1. Just Choose Spring Widgets Skin From The Sidebar on Feedburner >>> Publizice
2. Add a graphic ( bug requires you must have a graphic ) So I used an old one I had Kicking around for The Power Guides
3. It will now generate your nice widget which you could put in your sidebar
using add html / javascript
Each one of these options adds a delay in updating your feed to display the latest posts and things like Spring Widgets also can slow down the time it takes to display your page .
I will stick to my boring Google Reader option but try these things and see what is best for you
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Changing Feeder Settings To Not Give It All Away
This post is just to explain about one of the settings in the Feeds Settings and to stop giving everything away without visitors ever coming to your blog and just using a feed reader to view your post .
This is a difficult call but I have changed the settings on my Feeder Settings
Go To Settings >>>>> Feeder and change from full to short if you want to do this.
I may well turn it back on later to full as I am not that worried if people come to visit just try and help the ordinary blogger compete with those who are in the know.
Working Together As Bloggers
One of the things I have noticed over the past few months is that the professional bloggers ( those who make a living from blogging ) not all sectors is this possible but some are.
They have specific things they do which the ordinary blogger does not.
1. Quote each others blogs with links embedded in the post
2. They will often review a subject and put links to 2 or 3 other bloggers posts related to the subject
3. They will often act as guest bloggers on other blogs and return the favor.
I talked earlier about using links inside a post to other related posts to gain traffic on your blog , the same thing applies but even better if you can send your visitor out to another blog ( It is very much a you scratch my back I will scratch your back thing ).
OK so why do it and what are the gains when it would appear you are sending traffic to your competition
1. Provides a service to your visitors
2. Search Engines like to see links to similar pages and counts the link as a plus for both you and the page you are linking to.
Like all the things I have talked about all things in moderation so do not do it unless it provides something good for your visitors ( gains from Search Engines should be secondary.
Now one final piece of the puzzle giving a good description for your links is as important as the link itself. If you look at the link I have in this post to an earlier post I had the option of saying "here" or "links inside a post to other related posts to gain traffic" both are equally good for your visitor but the second is much better for SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) because you are telling the search engine what the page is about.
They have specific things they do which the ordinary blogger does not.
1. Quote each others blogs with links embedded in the post
2. They will often review a subject and put links to 2 or 3 other bloggers posts related to the subject
3. They will often act as guest bloggers on other blogs and return the favor.
I talked earlier about using links inside a post to other related posts to gain traffic on your blog , the same thing applies but even better if you can send your visitor out to another blog ( It is very much a you scratch my back I will scratch your back thing ).
OK so why do it and what are the gains when it would appear you are sending traffic to your competition
1. Provides a service to your visitors
2. Search Engines like to see links to similar pages and counts the link as a plus for both you and the page you are linking to.
Like all the things I have talked about all things in moderation so do not do it unless it provides something good for your visitors ( gains from Search Engines should be secondary.
Now one final piece of the puzzle giving a good description for your links is as important as the link itself. If you look at the link I have in this post to an earlier post I had the option of saying "here" or "links inside a post to other related posts to gain traffic" both are equally good for your visitor but the second is much better for SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) because you are telling the search engine what the page is about.
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