More money is what it all boils down to. If we can start seeing our incomes increase by the hard work we are doing on our blogs, what more inspiration do you need? Money is the best inspiration to keep adding fresh new content to your blog and to keep practicing your SEO skills.
Many people don’t realize that some businesses are willing to pay quite a bit more for certain keywords that are related to products the company offers, which in turn makes it worth more money to adsense publishers.
The more generalized your blog is, the less your clicks will be worth. Try blogging about specific items and companies to see what kind of ads start showing up in those posts. These will be the ones worth the most to you.
Here is a good example of a site that gets almost 100 clicks per day but only makes a measly $4 with about 750 page impressions. tattooideasandmore.com Yes it’s mine, I bought this from someone about 7 months ago when it was brand new. However, I managed to get on the front page of Google for a good keyword phrase by using the SEO Tips that I learned right here at BlueVerse before I started writing here.
It always amazes me to see the high number of clicks with only the few dollars of profit. Now if I were to start adding content to this site that relates to certain tattoo parlors or tattoo manufacturers, I’m sure the amount per click would dramatically increase.
Now, here’s another of my sites, heatknowledge.com I bought this from a DP member and added quite a bit to it. This site has a higher paying set of keywords I know, but you can see how I’m targeting certain keywords and getting certain ads to appear on my pages. I still have a long way to go with it as far as SEO, but I’m happy overall with the traffic Google has already sent me and with the value of the clicks.
You can make more money to keep you inspired by mentioning brand names and talking about specific products in your posts. You will be amazed at how much of a difference there can be for one site. It could be just a few cents or a few dollars per click, it’s all in how you target your keywords.
Blogging about products gives you another way to keep adding fresh content on your blog. It’s a win-win situation for you to mention specific products. It’s hard for me to tell you what words to use without knowing your niche, but I’m sure you will have some idea of what they would be.
Every webmaster has his fair share of fans and haters, most people appeal to the fans but if you appeal to the haters you might get something like this..
After Jeremy’s article a tiny dispute erupted on his blog soon it spread across several blogs and lately i’ve been doing alot of sphinning and saw this story on how shoemoney is a “damn” hypocriteand the whole article revolved around his argument of how make money online bloggers are seos themselves and the worst of them all. Badmouthing someone like shoemoney with hardly valid points got him great traffic and a front page spot at sphinn but what most people don’t see is that the person blogging about this is a “make money online blogger” himself and is doing more bad mouthing to others then actually getting anything done and besides from that it was a good link bait technique with a fairly big price to pay.
Badmouthing people could get you some really heavy traffic if you appeal to at least 30% of the traffic but it comes at a price of making several enemies at once, It could be considered as a last resort in my opinion.
While reading all the latest from the Crunchies 2007 over at TechCrunch, I found this picture of Shoemoney living it up over at TechCrunch’s Crunchies 2007 party.
Well I guess he was living it up, they reported to have drank beer from metal bottles so I’m assuming Shoemoney had a few.
After the awards ceremonies, which was a joint venture between TechCrunch, Read/Write Web, Venture Beat and GigaOm, people gathered in the Herbst Theatre including those who couldn’t get tickets to see the awards being presented. It appears that everyone was having a good time mingling amongst each other and getting to learn more about the new start-up sites.
Before the party, they gave out 20 awards with StumbleUpon getting the one for the most viral marketing site. Others to mention were facebook coming out best overall, but we all expected that one didn’t we?
See the full list of awards that were given here at TechCrunch
SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, and is a cognitive tool used in business to evaluate both the internal and external aspects of a business entity. SWOT analysis is used in conjunction with the Mission Statement (see here for the article on Mission Statements) The general rule is that strengths and weaknesses are internal, that is they are aspects of the existing business. Conversely opportunities and threats are external to the entity, and include the business world at large and competition. Using again my own business as an example I have developed the following strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths
Weaknesses
High level of technical writing ability
There is an upper limit to the amount of work that can be taken on
Strong reputation with existing customers
Existing Customer base is small
Good turnaround of projects
Not enough time is spent generating new contacts in the industry
As a general rule of thumb, there should be as many weaknesses as there are strengths. This is because it is natural for many of us to focus on the positive things about our businesses. Whilst it is important to focus on the positive it is equally important to focus on our weaknesses so as to develop strategies to combat them. Focusing now on the opportunities and threats
Opportunities
Threats
Constant Demand for new content
High Levels of Competition
Ease of accessing the customer base on web forums
Quality of content often sacrificed to price by consumers
Specialist Business Market increasing daily
Sourcing new work is time consuming
Again it is important to assess the threats in as much detail as one assesses the opportunities, as really knowing the limitations of the external environment will help to develop the strategies needed to maintain the competitive edge. From the use of SWOT, as well as having a good Mission statement, the business owner will be able to develop a good Balanced Scorecard, which is the focus of the next article. For more information on SWOT analysis see www.quickmba.com/strategy/swot/, a good site with much detailed information on SWOT analysis, it is also probably a good idea to look briefly at PEST analysis, which takes SWOT a step further and details on this can be found on www.marketingteacher.com/Lessons/lesson_PEST.htm , but the level of detail here is sufficient to develop our business plan.
I have written about mission statements before in my series on Strategic Content Development, where the mission statement was used to help define and keep on task, content development projects. Essentially for the business plan the format is the same, it is a short statement which encapsulates the Mission of an organization and from it a set of aims and goals are developed to measure success of the site. Common mission statements include a general statement about the business such as
“TimK Copy Writing Plc is a dedicated web content development company which provides laser focused SEO tailored content for Webmasters in any Niche.”
This is included to give an immediate idea of the scope of the business, and should only include what it is, not what it isn’t. The second part of the Mission Statement should include the specific things which the organization aspires to in order to differentiate from its competitors. Such as
“TimK Plc will deliver low cost content within strictly defined deadlines. It will individually tailor unique content, relevant to the SEO needs of the individual Webmaster to the highest levels of professionalism.”
Increasingly Mission Statements include a little detail about the future of an organization as well, for example
“TimK Plc will grow organically to steady monthly targets, and increase its reputation on the Web for its level of proficiency in delivering content.”
From this mission statement it is possible to develop a set of Aims, which are the specific actions that are going to be undertaken to fulfill the mission statement, and Goals, which are the targets which can be measured to prove the success of the aims, so for each Aim, there should be a Goal. Here are my Companies Aims and Goals.
Aims
Goals
To Keep prices in line with competition for content of comparable quality
To update the charging of content on a monthly basis by comparing prices of competitors from their website
To Deliver content within tight deadlines
To have a 100% delivery on time per contract record
To ensure the relevance of content to SEO needs of the customer
To include all the customers keywords and phrases in content in a relevant and sensible manner
To ensure customer satisfaction in all cases
To ask for and keep a log of customer feedback, which will be 100% positive
From these two tools, the mission statement and the aims and goals, it is possible to develop the benchmarks of success. From my example it is clear that I measure success by being competitive on price, developing SEO targeted content, and by having customer’s satisfaction. (Shameless plug, although if you would like help with content development contact us,Benchmarks are important because its how we know we are on task, and they help you to develop the Balanced Scorecard, along with SWOT analysis (seen in later articles in this series)
If you are offering Intellectual Incentives, you are offering ideas, tips, hints and full blown tutorials on how to do something (Just as I am in this Blog) Here are some of the things which I have found help with offering this kind of incentive.
Chances are your subject, say how to incentivise your blog, is already covered by many other websites, so it is important that you offer a unique perspective on the subject. I tend to get an idea for a how to article from the net and turn it around, and then provide a link back to an article that gives a step by step guide on the nuts and bolts. I do this because I believe that I am good at providing an Intellectual Framework to a subject, and that if there is a good nuts and bolts ‘How To’ I do not need to regurgitate the topic, I can act as an editor to my readers and simply recommend that site.
If you have a new or virgin topic for a tutorial, it is important that you provide a sound perspective on it. Readers are very unforgiving for erroneous or simply wrong information. Therefore it is highly important to be confident in both writing style and content for your tutorial. Don’t be afraid of spending more time on these than you would ordinarily on a blog as the kudos that comes with a good tutorial will pay you back in spades. You will become a figure of authority in that field to your readership, increasing a feeling of loyalty and an increase in return readership. Read my other thoughts on Similarity of interest in the introduction to this series of blogs here.
After learning how to use Twitter..
Twitter has many applications for the Business User (web based or otherwise) and the following are just some examples
Feedback
Does your website appeal to people, is it easy to use, does it get the message across effectively. Ask people, if you have a following on Twitter, you can ask people to appraise your site, generating traffic, and who knows, if they like it they may come back.
Networking
The platform is a perfect way to connect with a network of peers as well as potential users, sharing ideas and product news/business tips and tricks. It’s fast and effective and basically free.
An Intranet
If you work with others, separated by distance and connected by computer, Twitter provides a connectivity tool similar to a local intranet. It’s easy and free to use. This especially useful for webmasters as they are often dealing with a number of people who are only connected by the internet.
Branding
The most important aspect to modern marketing is the Brand; it is used excessively in internet based business to establish new sites/products in a niche to users. Whilst it is difficult to establish a brand, it is often even more difficult to communicate that brand effectively to a wide enough audience. Twitter allows a free medium for communicating the brand of your company to interested users. (see my article here for tips on Branding)
An Office Tool
Schedule meetings, arrange diaries and manage time with twitter. If you find yourself using Twitter on a regular basis then why not use it as an all in one tool for organizing yourself. It is possible to utilize the application to manage all aspects of your working day.
However you use Twitter, you will find that it is an effective application which can benefit many aspects of your business.
