Top 5 Ways To Increase Your Text Link Ads Income

The top 5 ways to increase your Text Link Ads (TLA) income is a continuation from yesterdays post on "How Much Money Do You Make Blogging?".

Since I am always testing money making ideas I figured today would be a good day to talk about improving an existing money making source. Don't settle for the basics, always test to see if you can improve your income.

Here are what I feel to be the Top 5 ways to increase your Text Link Ads income.

1) BLOGLINES.com Subscribers

Get more subscribers to read your RSS feed on BlogLines. TLA uses the number of BlogLines subscribers as part of their blog juice ranking. Getting more RSS readers from BlogLines will improve your score and should increase your link value.

This is the main reason I included a Bloglines link right below the regular RSS feed icon. Visitors can choose the regular RSS feed or subscribe with only one click using the BlogLines icon.

2) Alexa.com Ranking

I'm not going to go into detail about what an Alexa.com ranking is. But you need a low one. Alexa.com provides a ranking of your traffic compared to other sites on the internet.

One thing you can do to improve your Alexa score is to provide a download link to the Alexa Toolbar. The more people that use the Alexa toolbar the better chance you have of improving your score.

Another way that I have been testing is to use the Alexa Re-Direct (like this One Penny Project) when posting my blog link on other sites. It is unknown if this improves your ranking, but you might want to test it yourself.

Your Alexa ranking will also improve as your blog grows and gets more traffic. Getting a good Alexa rank will also help improve your score on other networks as well.

3) Technorati Ranking

Technorati.com is a search engine for blogs. If your site is not already listed at Technorati you should submit it today.

Adding a Technorati Favorite button may help your ranking, but you will earn more value when other bloggers link to you.

4) Search Engine Links

Confirm your blog is listed on all the major search engines. After that start writing content that will get people linking to you. When you have a great post, include a link back to that post on a day when you are getting high traffic.

Join social networks such as MyBlogLog and get involved in communities that interest you and your readers. Other bloggers will notice you and could link to your blog.

5) Stay On Topic

If your blog has a specific topic, try to stay focused on that one topic. For example if your blog is about gardening don't start blogging about credit cards every other day to increase your AdSense earnings. Advertisers like to see consistent posts on a blog that has value to its readers. It is ok to throw in a few posts that are off topic, but don't overdo it or you could loose advertisers.

The thing to remember with selling text links is advertiser value. You are selling the value of your blog and a share of your traffic to an advertiser.

Your link income will increase when Text Link Ads evaluates your Blog Juice and sees that your blog is constantly improving in content and traffic.

Michael

How Much Money Do You Make Blogging?

You see all over the internet how "A" list bloggers make $10,000 or more per month. Making over $10,000 with blogging is a long shot for most of us. Not impossible, just very difficult.

I am optimistic that some day I will break the $1,000 per month barrier. But for right now, I consider my blogging income average.

Looking over my numbers for all forms of advertising on this blog I bring in about $57 per month. I know what you are thinking, $57 a month isn't even close to minimum wage. You are right, but there is something bigger going on then just income. I am building an asset. This blog increases in value each month as I continue to post and drive more traffic.

The biggest lesson for me was when I figured out that AdSense was pocket change compared to other forms of advertising. That took my income from pocket change to fancy dinner for two.

My first income boost was with Text Link Ads. Within days of joining Text Link Ads I had all 4 ad spots sold. Instead of earning per click I earn per link per month. I continue to post every day and drive traffic to my blog to provide value to my link buyers. The focus is changed from a single ad click to overall traffic and blog value.



The second income boost came this month. I finally started using Pay Per Post. This is something I should have started as soon as my BLOG met the 90 day & 20 post minimum requirements. Now instead of a single post generating $1 in clicks I get paid $5, $10, $15 or in many cases more for the same amount of work. There are plenty of offers to choose from, but I like to limit paid reviews to once per week. I could easily make $100 a month if I did 3 or 4 reviews a week.



If your blog is older then 90 days and has at least 20 posts consider joining and doing a review of this post or my blog. They will pay you a cool $7.50 for writing about my blog.



Michael

Last Lazy Day Of Vacation

Today is the last lazy day of vacation. I started working out my blog posting plan for the week and making a list of the things that need to be done.

The 30 day challenge starts on Wednesday. I completed all the pre steps so far. Monday and Tuesday will probably also have some prep work before the big day on Wednesday.

I am considering asking my daughter if she wants to do the 30 day challenge this year. Six is a little young, but she can read and write above her age level. Hmmm, get her started now and see if she can make enough to pay for college?

Today I worked on the sales letter for one of my products. This is something I should have done months ago. I can't believe that I waited so long to test changes.

There was a big traffic spike to the blog one day last week. I need to go check the logs to see what happened. I want more of that. :-)

I finished about half of my spider programming book while on vacation. That should be enough to help me complete my next project.

Michael

Where Has Your Advertising Gone?

Today I downloaded a new script for FireFox. It is a "NoScript" extension.

The first thing I did was check one of my blogs. Sure enough most of my ads did not display.

This is because the "NoScript" program blocks the JavaScript that many of the advertising networks use. Fortunately I use multiple networks and have a variety of ad formats.

It is good to be back home, but I do love the beach.

Michael

30 Day Challenge - Ideas

I just watched the 30 Day Challenge video for today. Ed talks about getting ideas. If you have been reading my BLOG this is something I started a little over a week ago.

Here is the link to my idea resources. But like Ed says, don't forget to look offline too.

I also use the little pocket Moleskine notebooks that Ed showed in the video. They work great, but to keep from looking like a nerd I stopped putting them in my shirt pocket.

That reminds me. I have one of those little notebooks loaded with marketing info that I collected over the years. I will have to review that before the challenge starts.

Even though the goal of the 30 day challenge is to make $10. I have a much larger goal and need to make more then my co-worker.

I am anxious to get started. Now off to the pool to think up more ideas.

Michael

Last Day At The Beach

Today is our last full day at the beach. Tomorrow we head home. I am anxious to come back and only wish we could stay MUCH longer.

I have a few more ideas for the 30 day challenge. This morning I looked over my ideas and tried to plan out the content. I can't do much until the challenge starts and they tell us what to do. So I am just taking my ideas and jotting some notes about them.

I really like FireFox. The spellcheck as I type feature is awesome. This saves me time at the end of each post. But that SEO plug-in has got to be my #1 pick of 2007. Very cool utility to use.

The current goal is to make $1,000 by Thanksgiving. On August 1st I will update the project balance. That is also the start of the 30 day challenge. I need to get in gear to reach my goal.

I'm off to the pool, then out on the town for one last evening.

Michael

Recharge Your Batteries

The beach is one way that I recharge my "marketing" batteries. I could easily live here. Hit the beach in the morning, work from noon until dinner then go out on the town. A goal to look forward too.

You may have noticed that I am including a copyright notice on my posts now. This is one of the trends that John Chow started. I had someone scrape my content and not give me credit before. I stopped them by posting at least 3 advertisements in each of my posts until they stopped.

Tonight we are heading to the boardwalk. I should easily come up with 3 or 4 more ideas for the 30 day challenge.

Time to get back to recharging my "marketing" batteries.

This post is (c) 2007 one-penny-project.blogspot.com all rights reserved.

Michael

Lazy Day At The Beach

Today is a lazy day at the beach. Four days of Sun, Sand & Surf is starting to wear me out. The late nights aren't helping either. :)

Today I added some more make money thoughts to my notebook. One or two will be used for the 30 day challenge and the rest will be use for this project.

I have some great ideas, now I just need the time to execute them and start testing them out.

I'm guessing that Ebay will have a special price listing day sometime close to Labor Day. This is just a guess based on that it has been a while and they usually run them near holidays. While at the beach I got a few ideas for things to list on Ebay.

Selling digital products is so much easier then physical delivery. That is unless you hit on a hot product with a limited number of sellers. I'm taking a break from physical products and going to stick to digital products.

That reminds me. I found 26 cents to add to the balance. Not a huge amount, but every little bit helps towards the next goal.

With only 2 more days at the beach I may not have time to post any more until Saturday. I'm anxious to start testing some new ideas, but wish I could stay at the beach much longer.

This post is (c) 2007 one-penny-project.blogspot.com all rights reserved.

Michael

Search Engine Marketing Service

It is almost a full-time job keeping up with search engine marketing changes.

Today I found Search Engine Marketing in Dallas. They offer professional Search Engine Marketing services in addition to Pay Per Click and Search Engine Optimization.

Check out the resources page for links to 9 great SEM/SEO/PPC resources. One on the list is FireFox that I mentioned earlier today.

Brenda Molloy founded The MasterLink Group, Inc. in 1995. MasterLink offers a free Search Engine Ranking report. Just fill out the form at their site.

Don't forget to visit the MasterLink blog and subscribe to the RSS feed.

Michael

Use Leverage To Save More Money

How can you use leverage to save & make more money?

There are many forms of leverage. What I want to talk about today is tools.

For example if I want to put an in ground pool in my yard I would use a backhoe instead of a shovel. It would be crazy to attempt to dig a pool using a shovel.

The other day while watching the thirty day challenge prep video I downloaded FireFox.

Wow, the extensions you can add to FireFox are out of this world! Credit goes out to Ed for driving this point home.

I installed 1 SEO tool that will easily save me an hour per week if not more! And that is just one tool.

Without a doubt tools are what we need to get closer to a 4 hour work week.

I will be working on more software tools when I get back from the beach. I might even write my own FireFox extension.

This post is (c) 2007 one-penny-project.blogspot.com all rights reserved.

Michael

How Many Prices For The Same Product

Today we had breakfast. A $38 breakfast for 2 adults and a child. Back home that same family style breakfast would have been about $18.

I know the restaurants can get away with the higher prices because the market at this beach location will pay those prices. Are the restaurants making nay more money then the ones back home?

My guess is that the restaurant back home makes more then the higher priced restaurant here at the beach. Figuring the cost to rent a location, pay taxes, staff and other expenses. Not to mention the beach location will do most of their business from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Stop back tomorrow to read about using leverage to save you money.

This post is (c) 2007 one-penny-project.blogspot.com all rights reserved.

Michael

30 Challenge Prep - At The Beach

The 30 day challenge is getting closer. Friday Ed said to join DIGG and Stumble. I skipped that step since I am already a member of both.

While here are the beach I am still working on my notebook of ideas. August is going to be a busy month, but I am planning for success.

Sorry for the short posts this week ... I am on vacation.

This post is (c) 2007 one-penny-project.blogspot.com all rights reserved.

Michael

At The Beach

Well we made it to the beach! And there is wireless internet access.

Very Cool!

Since I am on vacation there won't be an update every day, but I will do what I can to post updates and some pics.

Best of luck on your money making tests. I will write more early in the week.

Michael

The Path To Success - Planning, Tiral & Error, More Planning

Success is relative and means something different to each of us.

But hopefully success is not something you ever fully achieve.

For example I was successful at earning $100 with this blog before summer. That was my goal and I completed it. But I didn't stop there. My next goal was set and I am currently working on that.

There isn't much time left to make $1,000 by Thanksgiving. But I will give 110% to achieve this goal. The next level after the $1,000 will build on what I learn in this process.

The other day I mentioned about trying to make $1,000 in August with the 30 day challenge. I have decided to not attempt that gaol and stick to the original plan. Which is to make more money doing the 30 day challenge then my co-worker does.

But I do plan on leveraging my efforts from the 30 day challenge to reach my Thanksgiving goal.

I picked up a new notebook today and will spend most of next week on the beach working on ideas for August.

This post is (c) 2007 one-penny-project.blogspot.com all rights reserved.

Michael

How To Use 10 Minutes to Improve Your Whole Day

Music has the power to set your mood. Select music to fit your mood or music to change your mood.

What music puts you in the mood to make money? I like to start with an audio book on marketing to get my mind thinking in the right direction, then I switch to rap for the deep bass and fast beat to pump me up for taking action.

Music has an effect on my mood and I am guessing yours as well. We can use

What music or audio book I listen to in the car on the way to work can have an impact on my mood for the whole day.

This is another thing I learned from Steven Covey. In the time between stimulus and response we have the power to choose. Though not a direct relation to the Covey quote, I choose to use music to adjust my mood.

Later today is the "Beach Special" announcement. Stop back for a special offer that you can only get while I am on vacation at the beach!

This post is (c) 2007 one-penny-project.blogspot.com all rights reserved.

Michael

Pay Per Post - Better Then AdSense (for me)

I have no idea why it took me so long to use Pay Per Post. Just 2 posts per month brings in more then AdSense does for me.

The requirement to get your BLOG approved is simple. Your blog must be at least 90 days old and have 20 posts on it. There are a few other rules, like no adult content and stuff like that. But the two biggest rules are age and posts.

If you have not already signed up, now is a great time to get started.



If your blog doesn't already meet the requirements, just sign up now and submit your blog when you do meet the requirements. It will give you a chance to look over the offers and see how the process works.

Almost beach time! Tomorrow I will post a special offer. I still don't know what it will be.

Michael

How to Convert More of Your "Work" Time Into "Whatever I Want" Time

Focus, Focus, Focus

It happens all the time. We get distracted from doing what is important.

Steven Covey writes in The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People that there are 4 quadrants of tasks. Important-Urgent, Important-Not Urgent, Not Important-Urgent and Not Important-Not Urgent.

The key to completing your Important-Urgent tasks is to focus on them and avoid all distractions. No phone, tv, computer games, gotta check my email again, etc.

This fact is repeated again in The 4 Hour Work Week. Eliminate time wasters and focus on the important task at hand.

I often find myself playing poker when I know I should be working on my eBook update or the members area. But I use the "I'm taking a break" excuse and the task doesn't get done.

Do you really need to check your email and website stats 20 times an hour? This type of activity is often done to avoid doing the things that need to be done.

Instead what I need to do is not allow any distractions and focus on the tasks that I have marked as important.

Deadlines are a good thing. The more time we have to complete a task the more time we will use to complete the task.

By using time wisely and focusing on only the Urgent & Important tasks first you will have more time to do whatever you want later.

Tomorrow I will show you how to use 10 minutes to improve your whole day.

This post is (c) 2007 one-penny-project.blogspot.com all rights reserved.

Michael

30 Day Challenge - Pre-Challenge Starts Tomorrow

Ed Dale sent out an email today with a YouTube Video link. Looks like there is a prep stage before the challenge starts on August 1st. Very cool!

Ed mentions again how everything will be free including the marketing. I have some plans for what I am going to do, but I can't wait to see how the challenge is going to be this year.

One thing that changed is instead of the goal to make $1 it is now to make $10. Awesome, I think $10 is a great target. I'm doing the 30 day challenge as a competition with one of my co-workers. I'm going to kick his butt. Then I get a free lunch. I love free food.



So far the only thing I did was start a notebook of niche ideas. Tomorrow we will find out what we need to be ready to start the challenge on August 1st.

I am so ready to reach my $1,000 by Thanksgiving. I might re-think my 1 hour per day plan and try to make $1,000 doing the 30 day challenge in August.

Wow, what a goal. I'm going to sleep on it, but that would be sweet to hit my $1,000 goal 2 months early!

Michael

How To Get Your Visitors To Come Back More Often

Driving traffic to your website or blog is not easy. You either pay for it or work for it.

We all know that writing good content is one way to get visitors to return. But with so much new content being generated every day competition for repeat visitors is only going to get worse.

I have been testing a unique (for bloggers) way to get repeat visitors. This may not work for all topics, but test it for yourself.

Planning Ahead & The Clif Hanger

Instead of daily planning one blog post at a time I am now planning the topics of my posts for the whole week. There is flexibility in my schedule so I can change my mind, but the point is I have a plan for the week.

The second part to planning is the clif hanger. At the end of my posts I am leaving my readers with a cliff hanger to get them to come back tomorrow. Without planning ahead this would not be easy.

That I know of there are no bloggers currently leaving their readers with a cliff hanger every day. I got the idea from the old TV shows I watched as a kid, BatMan, Lost In Space, Get Smart, etc...

My tests so far have generated a positive increase in traffic. Feel free to post your comments or test results here.

Stop back tomorrow to learn how to convert more of your "Work" time into "Whatever I Want" time.

Michael

30 Day Challenge 2007 - Secret Info

I have a secret for you. But first let me state that I am not involved in any way with running the 30 Day Challenge 2007. I am a participant for the 3rd year in a row.

For me the challenge is fun to do and a great way to interact with others. I already made my first $1, but I follow along to see if I can pick up something new. My friends and I also have a side competition to see who can make the most within the 30 days.

I have no idea what format the challenge is going to be in this year. I'm just going to guess that we will need to have some ideas on niches we want to be involved in. That is why I started a notebook of ideas now.

Here is a link to a resource page that was used in last years 30 day challenge. Not all the links still work and I have no idea what the process will be like this year. But if you are curious as to what the 30 day challenge was like last year then here is a resource link.

http://www.undiesresources.com

Best of luck to all who follow along. Don't forget my new traffic testing announcement tomorrow and the big beach special on Friday.

Michael

KeepCash.com - Save Money On The Stuff You Want

KeepCash.com is your online source for the best discount codes.

I found this SanDisk 4GB Cruzer Micro USB 2.0 Flash Drive for only $37 including shipping. Looking in the local newspaper this past Sunday I could not find a flash drive below $10 per GIG.

New deals are added every day on KeepCash.com. Good thing they have an RSS feed to make getting the new deals delivered to you even easier. If you are not into RSS, KeepCash.com also has a weekly email newsletter featuring the best money saving online coupons.

In the coupon codes section there are discount codes for stores like Dell, Maidenform, Kohl's, Chefs, Wilsons Leather, Orvis, FootLocker and many more. Circuit City is one of the stores listed and they have a whole page of offers. One of the things I just noticed at Circuit City is an 8 GIG flash drive for slightly over $10 per GIG. Now that is a great deal.

Finding specific deals is easy with the site wide search. You can also browse the great deals by store or by category.

KeepCash.com wants to help you keep more of your hard earned money. Check the KeepCash.com website before you spend a dime on your next purchase or subscribe to the newsletter so you don't miss a bargain.

Michael

This Was A Paid Post - Disclosure Policy

Get Ready For The 30 Day Challenge

In a little over 2 weeks the 30 Day Challenge begins. This will be my 3rd year going through the process.

If you are new to making money online the Thirty Day Challenge is the way to learn. This year we are supposed to be able to make our first $1 without any financial investment.

My guess is that we will be creating a free blog or a Squidoo lens. This is just a guess.

Even though I have already made my first $1 online I like to do the challenge. It is a great way to pick up great tips and the format is very goal oriented.

If you are going to participate in the 30 day challenge plan to set aside a little time every day. A high percentage of people start every year, then give up before the 30 days is over. Plan your time now and don't give up!

Here is my pre challenge plan.

From now until August 1st I am going to jot down ideas. For example the new Olympus digital camera we got the other day is an underwater camera. So I might jot down "underwater photography" in my notebook.

At this point I am just collecting ideas, not researching markets. Start with things you are passionate about.

If you need some websites to get ideas, check out:

Alexa

Yahoo Buzz

Lycos Top 50

Magazines

There are plenty of sites on the internet that can give you ideas. Your local bookstore is also a good place to find ideas.

When the challenge starts on August 1st I will have about 2 pages of ideas. Now to plan my time for the challenge.

This is how I plan on spending my time during the challenge. You may need more or less, this is just my plan.

Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays I am going to work 10 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes at lunch time and 30 minutes in the evening. Tuesdays & Thursdays I am going to work 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes at lunch. On Saturday I will work 2 hours (1 for Saturday and 1 for Sunday), most likely in the early morning or late evening. This will give me a grand total of 30 hours devoted to the project.

As you can tell this is a very aggressive schedule. I was thinking about 2 hours a day, but decided to force myself to focus and fit it all in within an hour per day.

Want to know how to get your visitors to come back more often? Tomorrow I will reveal a technique to increase return visitors.

Michael

Ebay Results From Book Sales

I made one penny from my past book auction on Ebay. It would have been a 19 cent loss, but Ebay refunded my listing fee since it was a re-list.

If I would have just purchased the one box of books my profit would have been over $6. The box of 1918-1920 National Geographic magazines cost way more then it sold for. This was my fault. I knew that the one set of books would sell, but I just guessed that I could profit from the National Geographic magazines because they were very old.

In the past I had mixed results with selling books on Ebay. It all comes down to knowing what books or magazines to buy and how much to pay for them. I started a list of books that sell from my research, but since then found someone selling a list of Books That Sell On Ebay

One idea to make more money from old magazines is to rip out the advertising and sell them individually on Ebay. I did this in the past with old Life Magazines. But before you go ripping out the ads, do a search to confirm that the magazine isn't worth more intact. I only found 2 ads in these old National Geographic magazines that might be worth selling. Since this is for my project I don't want to risk making this test a loss with only 2 to sell. If I had more to sell I would list them and offer free shipping on any quantity. Selling Old Magazine Advertising is a great way to make money from a magazine that would otherwise be trash.

The next thing I am going to sell on ebay will be a digital download product. In my research I found plenty of successful sellers. Now that I have a model of success all I need to do is pick my niche and create my product.

Stop back tomorrow for an update on my Thirty Day Challenge planning and some resources to get you ready for the challenge.

Michael

More Blog Traffic - Check Out The Stats

Check out my FeedBurner site visitor stats. Slow and steady growth. The biggest change I made was not to rely on Google to send me natural search traffic.

Yes, free search engine traffic is awesome. But you can't count on it for long term.

That is why I started testing other forms of free advertising. As you can see my testing is paying off.

The plan is to expand my current traffic building efforts and look into some free offline advertising.

What free advertising brings you the most traffic?

I'm going to try and keep each post to one topic. Later today I will update on my past Ebay auctions.

Michael

Blogging For Profit

I see so many bloggers talking about how they make money from blogging. But the thing is they mention their income from AdSense or similar networks.

If you goal is to get visitors to leave your site then great. I prefer to have my visitors want to stay and come back often. There are other ways to make money with a site or a blog.

I'm working on my to-do list for the week. With all our regular activities and getting ready for the beach this is going to be a busy week. Even my GTD Schedule will be filled to the max every day.

Today I picked up an Olympus Stylus 770 SW digital camera. This will be for the beach and pool pictures since it is a waterproof camera. I didn't like the idea of taking my Fuji down on the beach so we picked this up. This one is also small enough that my wife can carry it in her purse.

I'm learning some new spider programming techniques, so there should be some new programs n the members area when I get back from the beach.

If you are interested in making some money online, check out How To Buy A Website to find out how I profit from buying websites.

Michael

How To Buy A Website

One of the ways I make money online is buying websites.

It isn't always easy to find a site that will be in profit within months, but easy money when you do. I look for sites that don't require much work and have lots of user generated content.

The ideal site will also be an under performer. For example the advertising might not match the visitors or they aren't collecting email addresses.

The only problem with buying a website is that scammers try to trick people into thinking a site is better then it really is.

That is why I created the How To Buy A Website guide. I'm working on a new version that will include video. The price is going up at that time so get in now before the price increase. If you buy now you will get the updated video version when it is released.

My friend Allen bought a gem of a website not too long ago and is currently in the process of getting a patent! Can you imaging buying a website fixing it up and realizing that it is so good you can patent it.

Michael

SEO - Short Term vs Long Term

I remember a couple years ago tweaking my website to try and rank in the search engines for specific keywords. Things are so different today.

Blogging makes things so much easier for adding fresh content to a site. Search engines also love blog content.

What I am noticing right now is a combination quick hit and long tail. Looking at my stats I see a few hits on my most recent post and a few hits from posts I did weeks ago. I'm guessing that after 2-3 months these searches will go down as fresher content is indexed by the search engines.

Is it better to focus on the short term SEO or long term SEO. This blog is all over the place, but my other blogs are on a specific niche. I'm thinking a combination of the two. For example increase the number of posts to at least one per day and try to stay on topic. This will give a quick hit and provide some longer term results. Back to my book idea from a couple days ago. It would be like writing a chapter in a book every day, but keeping the content fresh and on topic.

I'm always testing new ideas with my sites. What odd tests have you done lately or what results would you care to share? Post your comments here with your tests or test results and I will do a followup post with links early next week.

Michael

Make Money Project Status

The 2 spider code books I ordered arrived yesterday. This should help me improve what I already know. Hopefully I will be able to write some more efficient code. I have some big ideas planned.

I'm glad I switched my stats tracking over to FeedBurner. The interface is so easy to use. I find myself checking the search term stats a couple times a day. It is interesting to see the terms people use that find my site.

Last night I played a little poker and surfed the net. I was going to get ready for the 30 Day Challenge. Then I figured I should take some time off and relax. Tonight I have 2 meetings.

The second set of books from my Ebay auctions was paid for yesterday. I shipped them out this morning. It looks like I am about $2 in the negative after all the Ebay & PayPal fees. There are 4 more books listed. If two sell I will be very close to break even. For this project I am done buying stuff at auctions to sell on Ebay. I will stick to digital products instead.

Michael

30 Day Challenge - More Prep

Tonight I am going to do some prep work, to get ready for the 30 day challenge in August. I am going to wait until the challenge starts before doing any research and stuff like that. But I want to get my screen cam program working before the challenge.

I use a freeware program to do screen captures of my computer. It does a fine job, but if I record a movie longer than 4 minutes the audio does not match up with the video.

This is supposed to be caused by my audio being on the motherboard of my computer. But I think there is a way to change the interleave to avoid this issue. Another thing I want to try is record only 2 minute segments and then connect them together in my movie editing program.

I also use a free flash movie creator to convert the movies into files that can be played on web pages. It has been a long time since I did this.

So the plan for tonight is to test my screen capture program and document the settings and process that works best.

I don't think video will be required for the 30 day challenge, but I want to use it anyway.

Michael

Get More BLOG Traffic Without Trying

Something happened the other day and one of my BLOGs was mentioned on a MAJOR site. I'm not talking DIGG or a niche site. My BLOG was mentioned on a broad audience site with a Top 100 Alexa Ranking.

I have no idea how it happened, but I know why it happened. My BLOG post was a perfect match for the topic they were talking about and my post was written only a couple days before their article was published. The fact that my post was on a Blogger BLOG didn't matter. What mattered was that I did my research and wrote some decent content.

I can't tell you how to get noticed by the top 100. But if you post original content that is your best work every time, when the Top 100 finds your site, they just might reference your content.

If you provide a resource of information, people will refer to you. This BLOG is my commentary BLOG where I write about my projects in a personal voice. But on my other BLOGS I am going to start something new today. Every post will be written as if it were meant to be a chapter in a book.

Michael

Ebay Auction Listings

Two of my Ebay auction listings ended tonight. I will have to wait until after they are both paid, but this should bring me close to break even.

There are 3 or 4 more books listed. I will make a small profit if any of them sell. This set is a re-list of the books that didn't sell last week. Hopefully I will come out ahead this time.

The cost to list the books on Ebay was almost as much as I paid for the books. I'm going to focus on digital products for Ebay in the future. That is why I spent so much time doing research on successful ebay info product sellers last month.

My experience buying and selling books in the past was very positive. But the past few auction listings that were part of this project ended up costing me money.

I think my time will be better spent working on my software and members area.

Did you see the comment from Ian Kennedy on my MyBlogLog loophole post? Looks like adding admirers to your contacts doesn't count against your 15 limit for the day. Very cool, now if we could only get them to up the limit to 30 a day ...

As you can tell my mind is in constant motion. Between posts tonight I came up with 5 new website ideas.

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Michael

Garage Storage - Who Knew There Was A Website For Your Garage?

Garage Storage - Who Knew There Was A Website For Your Garage?

I had no idea that garage storage was so popular that it demanded its own website. carguygarage.com is the only website I know that sells this much garage stuff.

At carguygarage.com they want you to think of your garage as just another room in your house. Once you see all the cool garage stuff at carguygarage.com you will understand how easy that can become reality.

I love the 7,000lb Low Ceiling Car Storage Lift, how cool is that. You can turn your one car garage into a 2 car garage. This gives a new meaning to "Honey, can you move your car".

They have tons of storage bins and supplies to make your garage look more like another room in the house.

Michael

Online Social Networking Success Tips

5 tips to a more successful and enjoyable social networking experience.

1. Maintain your "True" contacts outside of a social network website.

It is ok to add people into your contacts list who you don't know. Use a CRM software program, Rolodex or some other way to keep track of your "True" contacts and networking partners.

By having a large list of contacts on a social network site you increase the chances of meeting someone who you will want to add to your "True" contacts list.

2. Limit what people know about you

If you have 5 websites, list only the main one. When people are presented with too many options, they often choose none.

Only display the top one or two methods for contacting you.

For example on MyBlogLog you can list all the BLOGs you author. If you list 3 or more there is a smaller chance that people will visit your site or join the community you want them too.

3. Don't SPAM your contacts

If you treat others with respect, there is a better chance that they will work with you in the future. This goes back to the "True" contact list mentioned above. Don't risk sending junk email to a potential networking contact.

If you have something important you want to announce to the world, use a press release.

4. Join all the online social network sites

Not everyone in the world drives the same make and model car. We each have in us a unique quality that we use to determine if we like something or not.

Don't use just one social network website because it is the one you like the best. A future business partner may be using another site.

5. Brand yourself

When (not if) you join multiple social network websites. Use the same name and photo.

This makes finding you easier and creates an online brand for you in the social network sites.

I often see a persons photo on a blog comment that I recognize from a social network site.

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Michael

Internet Marketing vs. Online Poker Tournaments

I played in a poker tournament yesterday and it got me thinking. Poker and internet marketing are a lot alike.

You need to have some skill to win a poker tournament. Just knowing how to play the game is not going to get you to the final table. Same goes for internet marketing. Just knowing how to market online is not going to make you money.

Part of winning a poker tournament involves luck, or at least luck with a little bit of gut instinct mixed in. Again, same goes for internet marketing. Having some luck and gut instinct will enhance your internet marketing efforts.

Internet marketing is gambling. There is no guarantee that you will make money. Take a look at the internet bubble burst from a few years ago, big money was lost in seconds. It is a risk and reward game. How much are you willing to risk?

I am finishing up a Social Network article that you will be able to read later tonight.

Michael

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Technorati Spider Rules and 30 Day Challenge Prep

I was going to create an advanced search for Technorati to add to me members area. But they have a ban on spiders in the folder I need access too. Since Technorati is bis on RSS I can probably just call my spider a RSS Reader and do the advanced stuff on my server. I want to be a nice guy so I will ask them first if I can do what I want with their feed.

July 9th is my birthday. So far I got one email from a forum that I am a member of. That was a cool surprise. I am anxious to see what other birthday wishes I get in my email box. On Tuesday I will include a list of everyone as part of my post. Many of the places I belong to don't know about this blog, so this should be fun.

The 30 Day Challenge starts in a little over 20 days. So far I only got one email from Ed. I thought there was supposed to be some pre-challenge stuff that we were going to be told about in email. Could be going into my spam filter too. Guess I better look.

I am going to update one of the ebooks I wrote years ago. The last time I did an update was over a year ago. So much to do, so little time.

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Michael

MyBlogLog Loophole and Audio Powered Cell Phone Charger

I think I may have found a MyBlogLog loophole. Today I was able to add 54 new contacts before hitting my daily limit of 15.

Yes, that is correct. I added 54 new contacts before I got the "15 daily contacts" limit warning message.

39 of the contacts were my admirers. Normally I use my software program to find new contacts but today I noticed that my admirers backlog was growing too big. I decided to do some cleanup.

Interesting enough, I was able to add all 39 as contacts and also add 15 new contacts today. Very Cool, lets hope that MyBlogLog allows this to continue. I don't t