Every blogger, Internet marketer, affiliate marketer and general web site owner has a fascination with traffic. The more the better is the general consensus. Imagine having a nearly unlimited source of traffic, for free. How about adding the ability to get top rankings in Google within minutes of publishing a post for competitive keywords and phrases?

Sounds like 20 other cheesy marketing emails you’ve probably opened in the last week. Here’s the difference with this one, though. We’re talking a legitimate site that ADDS VALUE for the reader and is formally recognized as “good” by Google. The type of site we’re talking about is a Google News site.

For those of you who don’t know, a Google News site is one that is included under News results in Google search results. Only accepted sites are included, but once you’re in, you have the ability to rocket to the top of search results effortlessly. Here’s an example:

For the past 6 months or so I’ve had this idea that I wanted a Google News site. I’ve even started the process of building such a site several times, but never got anywhere with it. At least not until I stumbled across an ebook a fella named E. Brian Rose was selling called Google News: Your Untapped Source of Traffic and PPC Riches. I hadn’t heard of EBR before nor of his product, but I was intrigued, so I asked him for a copy to review. He kindly obliged and I was surprised at how easy it seemed to get going.

Here’s a little taste of what a Google News site is able to do for you:

Like so many things in my life, I sat on it and didn’t follow the process. A few months later, he emailed me letting me know about a new product he had just released called Google Red Carpet and gave me access to look under the hood. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised at how he had developed his approach for building a Google News site. Every step is laid out very clearly with tips for getting things right the first time around to ensure compliance with the Google News review team.

Following the steps, I finally set out to build my Google News site. I’ll be honest, it’s a fair amount of work, but definitely not an insurmountable task. The best part is, I grabbed a new domain and hosted it on one of my dedicated servers. My only cost so far is just under $8 for the domain.

Getting everything set up is pretty straightforward, especially if you’ve done much with WordPress in the past. The lion’s share of the work is in gathering content for the site. That part took longer than expected, but I’ve already gotten a lot quicker at finding content and putting it together.

I don’t want to reveal too much of the process that Google Red Carpet takes you through, but if you have any interest in having a Google News site, this is by far the best product I’ve come across. EBR is very active in the forums, holds regular webinars detailing monetization techniques and site tips, and he has a number of articles covering a broad range of related topics.

For my test project, I’m in the waiting phase with the Google News review team. I submitted the site a little over a week ago and have just continued posting new articles every day while waiting for a response. I wholeheartedly believe in the Google Red Carpet product and would recommend it without a doubt.

I will post a follow up once accepted into the Google News network.

In the interest of being up front, I was given review access to the site, but no other compensation. The links are not affiliate links.

If you’re looking for a solid source of traffic and the ability to get to the top of the search engines for competitive terms, check out Google Red Carpet. It’s not a get rich quick scheme and does require some work, but based on what I’m hearing from others, it’s WELL worth it.

Check it out here: Google Red Carpet.

I’m way way way far behind on both posts and general work on Blueverse. I haven’t given up on the blog, just been pre-occupied with a couple of projects. One of which I’m going to post about in the next couple of days. For now, though, these are the earnings for July 2010:

Banners – $30.00

Adsense – $31.12

LinkXL – $15.00 (estimated)

Total: $76.12

Top Commenters

1. money magazine
2. live forex trading signals
3. fendi handbags
4. robbinsbrothers
5. Murlu
6. ogrish
7. Laptop Briefcase
8. travesti
9. çizgi film ?zle
10. cheap textbooks

Want a permanent link on Blueverse.com? It’s easier than you think. Just post some comments and shoot for the Top Commentators list. The top 10 Commenters for the month get mentioned along with a link to their site.

Thoughts and what I’m working on

I don’t have a whole lot to say about what I’ve been working on at the moment. The posts will filter in on my projects over the next couple of weeks. Blueverse has just taken a back seat, which happens sometimes. I am, however, working on a blog clean up though. Call it Fall Cleaning. I’ve got some new resources I want to make available and am generally tidying things up. Takes time though, so it’s slow going.

For those of you who will leave a comment about posting more increasing the blog income…you’re absolutely RIGHT. You know it, I know it, the American people know it. (someone needs to leave a comment with what tv show or movie that’s from)

For those of you who are going to comment about how guest posts could help…you’re absolutely RIGHT. Send me a guest post today. Don’t delay. Put your fingers to work.

All in all, I’m exciting about Blueverse, as always. I love this blog. Thanks for reading my ramblings.

I read about this yesterday on Shoemoney.com and found it both interesting and humorous. Fast Company magazine, a publication that writes about entrepreneurs, start-ups, business ideas, etc., asked themselves this question: “Who are the most influential people online right now?” Rather than trying to answer it themselves, they decided to experiment with a site called The Influence Project.

The Influence Project is designed to measure the amount of influence people have over others (duh!). BUT, it’s not just about how many friends or followers you have. It’s about being able to actually affect the behavior of those you interact with. On the site, the more influence they measure in connection with you, the bigger your picture. Here are the criteria:

The scale of your influence, and therefore the size of your photo, is based on two measures.

1. The number of people who directly click on your unique URL link. This is the primary measure of your influence, pure and simple.

2. You will receive partial “credit” for subsequent clicks generated by those who sign-up as a result of your URL. In other words, anyone who comes to the site through your link and sign-ups for their own account will be spreading your influence while they spread theirs. That way, you get some benefit from influencing people who are influential themselves. We will give a diminishing, fractional credit (1/2, 1/4, 1/8 etc ) for clicks generated up to six degrees away from your original link. [The Influence Project]

It’s actually a pretty interesting, very simplistic experiment. What I find funny is the way they’re getting people into the site…The promise of getting your picture into an arguably influential magazine! Who doesn’t want that?!

So, if you have ever dreamed about getting your mug into a magazine, sign up. Doesn’t cost anything. That’s the sole reason I signed up. By the way, if you click on any of the links to the project in this post, it will affect my influence.

I kind of wonder how many of the hot chicks will end up being the big influencers. It will also be interesting to see how long it is before someone games the system and creates a fake influence.

Check it out here: The Influence Project.

Those of you who have done any advertising on Facebook Ads know EXACTLY what I’m talking about. Sometimes it just seems like the Facebook Ads review team is smokin some kind of funky dope or tossing back the hooch while clicking through ad submissions. For those of you who are unaware of what I’m talking about, let me give you some quick background. Then I’m going to reveal the ONE THING you need to be successful making money online no matter what the method you choose.

Facebook is a monster traffic source. They have taken over the #1 spot for most trafficked site on the Internet. Hitwise.com has shown Facebook at the top spot for several months now…even over Google. Google themselves are reporting over 550,000,000 unique visitors a month for Facebook. That represents a heck of a lot of traffic for whatever offer, business or service you want to promote. It’s an affiliate marketer’s dream come true.

PLUS, Facebook Ads is drop dead simple to use. You can use your existing Facebook account, fill out a few fields, write some short copy, upload an image and you’re set. Targeting is reasonable and stats are pretty decent. There are plenty of people killing it with Facebook ads to affiliate offers alone.

BUUUTTTT…there’s one massive pain in the butt thing about the whole process. The review/approval process. This is where I’m convinced Facebook has a hooch n’ hash provider plan for it’s review team. There’s just no rhyme or reason to the process. You attempt to follow the guidelines Facebook has published by writing compliant ads, yet you still get bitch slapped.

Case in point is a campaign I built on Monday around a credit card offer. I targeted females in the US in 5 different age ranges. I had 2 versions of ad copy and about 15 images. When all was said and done, I had submitted about 160 ads total. Keep in mind though, that it was just split testing those items. The copy was more than compliant as were the images. No question there. YET…initially about half of the ads were disapproved. Then, over time, another half of those were disapproved.

The strange thing is, I still have about 30 to 40 of the ads running in the Facebook campaign. Some of the ads that were disapproved were done so AFTER the ads had already been served up and even generated some clicks. It seems to me that a non-compliant ad worthy of disapproval would be the same across the board. Yet the exact same ad was sometimes approved and other times disapproved.

Unfortunately, this is just the haphazard nature of Facebook and their ad review team. Everyone has experienced it. Part of the Facebook Advertising gig I suppose.

A valuable lesson can be found in all of this though. In fact, it’s so important, it could easily be deemed the MOST important lesson you can learn in your journey to making money online success. It’s one single word: PERSISTENCE!

Yep, persistence. That’s the single thing that separates the online successes from the failures. Sure experience can make your efforts more effective and your life a little easier. Vats full of extra cash sitting around the house also helps. But at the end of the day, if you’re persistent, you will be successful. It’s near impossible to not be. Now I’m certainly not advocating you willy nilly piss money away, but do it persistently. But I AM saying you need to buckle down and keep trying.

If you’re a seasoned veteran, keep at it. You’ve likely already learned the persistence lesson and it’s paying off for you.

If you’re relatively new to affiliate marketing or making money online, you need to heed my advice. Just because something isn’t going the way you want it to, don’t give up. If you’ve tried Facebook and it’s “just too hard”, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don’t give up. Keep trying. You will find success. Test everything. Try thinking about things in a new light, Take different approaches, but keep trying.

The word of the day…say it with me…persistence!

Curious about how much money I make from Blueverse.com and from what sources? Here’s where I make money online from blogging at Blueverse.com alone. These earnings are for June 2010:

Banners – $80

Adsense – $19.39

LinkXL – $??? (locked out of my account for some reason)

Total: $99.39

Top Commenters

1. Harshit Singhal
2. Charms
3. locke
4. Costumes
5. Get Backlinks
6. Laptop Briefcase
7. textbooks
8. Neus_Gator
9. PS3
10. Aer conditionat

Want a permanent link on Blueverse.com? It’s easier than you think. Just post some comments and shoot for the Top Commentators list. The top 10 Commenters for the month get mentioned along with a link to their site.

Thoughts and what I’m working on

It’s crazy how fast the time goes sometimes. One day you’re starting the month, the next day the month is gone. Too many good things in the hopper for me these days.

I’ve still been pounding away on a couple of projects and working hard to learn some new things over the last month. That has severely eaten into my time to update Blueverse and quite honestly some of my desire to do so. When you’re in learning mode, it’s sometimes tough to get motivated to write something.

One thing I did manage to do in June was take a hard look at Blueverse, from design to content. I made a list of a number of things I plan on updating and changing. I’ve already started on those, but it will be a pretty big relaunch of the site.

If you’re interested in some exposure, shoot me a guest post and, if the content is decent and relevant, we’ll get it posted up here for you with a link to your site. I’ve done a number of guest posts on other blogs and it always helps with traffic. Both short and long term.

Here’s the monthly blog earnings for May 2010:

Banners – $30

Adsense – $36.98

LinkXL – $15.00

Total: $81.98

Top Commenters

1. Inner Game
2. Andrew@BloggingGuide
3. Anna
4. Sally
5. Laptop Briefcase
6. Online Printer
7. pandora beads
8. ??????????? ??????
9. Matthew Proman
10. mikeroosa

Want a permanent link on Blueverse.com? It’s easier than you think. Just post some comments and shoot for the Top Commentators list. The top 10 Commenters for the month get mentioned along with a link to their site.

Thoughts and what I’m working on

Been a whirlwind of a month. I’ve put a bunch of projects online that I’ve been working on or thinking about over the last 6 months. Trying to be more action oriented rather than just an info collector.

One of the projects I focused on for Blueverse.com was my Shoemoney System Review. I spent 30 days working on the system and writing up a daily review. It was a big waste of time and was downright boring. I haven’t been back into the system in probably 3 weeks. I need to jump back in, watch the new videos available and give a little update. Honestly, I’m just having a hard time finding the motivation since the 30 day project was such a bust.

I have a few things on tap to cover this month and hope to do some more reviews as well as a couple of how to guides. As always, let me know if there’s something you’d like me to cover. Also, if anyone would like to gain some exposure for themselves, feel free to send in a guest post.

I’ve been following John Chow at JohnChow.com for a couple of years now. I remember back in the early days of his Make Money Online blog experiment when he was only pulling in a couple grand a month (yeah, I know only a couple grand!). I got to the point where every month I started looking forward to his Monthly Income Report. I found it both inspiring and motivating.

I’ll admit, I was a bit skeptical about the Make Money Online book he and Michael Kwan wrote together. Quite honestly, I find most of these books by authors with another outlet for their content, such as a blog, simply a regurgitation of the same content you can find on their blog. I thought the same thing about Darren Rowse’s Problogger book. That’s both the beauty and curse of books like this.

Make Money Online is not going to revolutionize your life. It IS in fact much of what you can find on JohnChow.com, HOWEVER, I would still recommend it and think it’s worth reading. This applies to newbies and seasoned online money makers alike. Books like this provide great reminders, pointers and if nothing else, renewed inspiration to get off your butt and make something happen.

This is what Make Money Online did for me. If you’re a newbie, you’ll want to read it cover to cover. If you’ve been in the game for a bit, you may want to skip portions. I particularly enjoyed the tips found in chapters 4, 5 and 6, although again, they were more reminders than anything. No matter who you are, you’ll find a gem or two that will make it worth your time.

My favorite chapter was probably chapter 10 that talked about optimizing for Google Adsense. I’ve been a big Adsense poo poo’er for about 2 years, but now I’m starting to change my tune. I’m actually seeing a trend back towards Adsense and seeing it as a solid way to earn money from the content you create, especially for sites and blogs with smaller numbers of visitors. Make Money Online provided some good things to try.

Overall, as I mentioned earlier, I’d recommend Make Money Online to everyone. It’s inexpensive. Only $10.85 on Amazon here: Make Money Online: Roadmap of a Dot Com Mogul. It reads quick and is well worth your time. Check it out today!