http://www.keepblogging.net/chitika-yellowbook-citygrid-media-lax/ http://www.keepblogging.net/chitika-yellowbook-citygrid-media-lax/#comments Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:46:12 +0000 Sam http://www.keepblogging.net/?p=2076

For those who don’t know about it, Chitika is one of those Ad Networks that allow bloggers like me to make money blogging by displaying targeted ads.

Well, an email hit my inbox yesterday from Chitika Support announcing a new way to make an income blogging.

I’m talking about LAX (Local Ad Exchange)

What is great about this new income source is that it will improve your local traffic conversion which is awesome as bloggers best source of traffic comes from local traffic –specially when starting-

LAX will allow you to improve your earnings concentrating on local traffic, displaying targeted ads depending on the location.

There are split in:

Chitika | LAX For Desktop: Find desktop and laptop users who are searching for local products. Chitika’s Local Ad Exchange (LAX) technology determines users’ intent and matches it with their location.

Chitika | LAX For Mobile: The first local solution that automatically detects mobile users and adjusts the experience accordingly. One touch allows potential customers to call the local advertiser from the mobile ad.

These days finding something new and innovative is really hard so you can’t miss this opportunity and give it a try.

If you want to take a look at this new Chitika advertising method, check the LAX site.

Thank you for reading and see you on next post.

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Every blogger out there that wants to take this seriously must know which traffic sources are the best.

There are many sources, such as the word of mouth –which is my favorite one because it’s free and because it’s targeted traffic- others as PPC Advertisements, which you need to pay to get that traffic…

But there’s a way to get traffic that seems to be a little “forgotten” though it’s amazingly effective.

I’m talking about Viral Traffic. How to go viral and get tons of visitors to your site?

Going viral is extremely important if you want to make some profits with your blog, selling affiliate products or selling your own one –an ebook, blogging lessons, etc- so it’s vital to know which techniques can be used to achieve it.

Let’s start from the beginning in case we have a newbie reading this

What is going viral?

The thing is very similar to the word of mouth. Let’s explain it using a very simple example.

Let’s say you launch your new ebook. You tell 10 people about it. It’s a very low number of persons, but those 10 people know 10 different guys and they will tell them about your new ebook.

Those last 10 will, again, spread the world, and will tell about your product to 20 other guys each.

Let’s see, your product has been advertised to 2000 bloggers. 10 x 10 x 20 = 2000

And it just started talking with 10 friends.

See the power of it? That’s Viral Marketing.

Things are not so great from now own, as now we will figure out how to go viral, how to get 10 people to advertise something to other 10 guys and so on.

How to ride the Viral Wave and going Viral

This is when the hard part comes. There are tons of websites that promises you to put an affiliate link that will be spread across their users. That sounds great, but the most of them –if not all- will only promote your link if you first promote other links from other members.

That sounds bad. Really.

So, from my point of view and experience, I think that the next three ways are the most useful and easier to go viral.

1)      Twitter. Loving contests.

Twitter seems to be made to exploit viral marketing. Each retweet is gold. Getting retweets is going Viral.

A great way is to do promotion and contests or something that requires a retweet to enter the contests or to get a ticket for a draw… Need to be creative, but that’s the main idea.

2)      Relationships.

It’s not about how many friends you have, is about how influential they are. If I tell you what would you chose, having 100 friends or to be friend of someone like Shoemoney or Darren Rowse?

I’d choose the second option, definitely.

Does this means you only need to focus on building relationships on probloggers? No, not at all.

You must take every reader you have and build a relationship with him the same way you would act if he / she was a problogger.

3)      Useful Stuff.

The obvious one. Couldn’t finish this post without the useful content thing, could I?

If you have something interesting to share, people will do the work for you.

I may be forgetting something –in this case please drop a comment to update the post to make it more accurate and complete-

Always be creative and innovative.

Thanks for reading and see you on next post.

There’s a common feeling around sportive people that, despite you to the gym every day and working out harder and harder, it seems like you never goes forward.

That idea can be applied to blogging too.

There’s a moment, when you reach a point that, you feel like you and your blog go nowhere, no forward but no backwards either.

That’s when you’ve to apply something else to give your blog that little push it needs.

I’ve tried the following three techniques and although they’re no secret they work like charm.

1)      Buy the traffic: This is a great way to get rid of the “no progress” feeling as you see immediate results on your rankings.

Apart from that,  you will feel that although you bought that traffic now you’re writing for an audience and not just for mom or dad or a close friend who won’t ever say “Hmmm, sorry to say but your blog sucks, you should change this, this and this.”

Don’t be afraid to buy traffic, targeted or not –if it’s targeted then better- everyone does it, even professional bloggers.

2)      Profit from that traffic: Spend $1 get $1, 50 is the number one rule of a good internet marketer.

If you’re not profiting from the traffic you’re buying then you’re just wasting money.

Release a program at the time you’re buying the traffic to maximize the potential of your new readers.

If you want to go even further, prepare a landing page –read this post about how to make a landing page- where the user will safely land and where you’ll make sure you put everything needed to make the reader come back.

3)      Profit from that moment: Once your traffic starts to increase, profit from that to show the world the power of your blog.

What can you get for doing so?

You’ll be more respected on your field than ever, you will get opportunities just for the fact f having traffic because people will have interest in your blog now it reach an audience, people will want to advertise on your site, bloggers will want to write guest posts on your blog…

You will also need to offer yourself. In other words, clearly state that you’re opened to make business with whoever wants to.

I’ve met bloggers who think that buying traffic is not the “legal” way to reach success, and that’s something really stupid.

Its mind blowing to think about the opportunities you will have just by spending some bucks here and there.

Just remember: Profit > Money spent and vice versa

Check for your best traffic builder solution, plan then act. You will see your blog on the next level in no time.

Thanks for reading and see you on next blog post.

The most important blogger’s decision comes when it’s time to choose what we are going to blog about.

The importance of this decision doubles if you’re thinking about making money blogging.

I’ve seen a lot of bloggers lately writing blogs about personal ramblings thinking about monetizing it.

Let me tell you something: It won’t work.

Some of you may have read Jonh Chow’s blog and thought “Hey, the guy’s making hundreds of thousands of dollar every year just by posting what he eats and where he goes on vacation! I’m gonna do it too!”

Well, if you thought that you’re already on the wrong way.

Those few guys you see making a living from a blog talking about personal ramblings are doing so because they did something before blogging about what they do.

As an example, John started to blog about personal ramblings but, let’s be frank, nobody cared except his family.

Once he decided to monetize he’s blog is when he started to get people’s attention.

Now people cares about what he do because he’s already a celebrity on his field.

If you’re not convinced yet, I’ll try to show you why you shouldn’t blog about personal ramblings.

Blogging about personal ramblings won’t work.

1)      Who are you?

The most common problem you will face is that one. Who are you?

People just don’t have the time to read what a completely unknown guy is doing and if they had the time to do so, you wouldn’t be the chosen one.

First build yourself a reputation on a particular field. Then you will be able to blog about your life, once people know you and are interested about what you do.

2)      How are you going to monetize it?

If monetizing a blog about how to make money blogging is really hard, I won’t tell you about personal ramblings.

You will need a blog full of ads and that’s something people don’t like too much so… You’ve a double problem here.

3)      Are you an active guy?

If you don’t travel enough or don’t do things that “normal” people can do you’ve an issue.

You must show to your reader’s things amazing, like other countries, other cultures… If you just show yourself walking on Camden Town… Nobody will care about that, sorry.

One of the best ways to be a blogger which blogs about personal ramblings is to have a news blog. You can focus on a football team or on another sport and just follow all the events related to that sport.

This way you will be both giving people something of interest and talking about your personal ramblings.

You must find the perfect combination so you can run a profitable blog on that subject.

Thank you for reading and see you on next blog post.

We’re always reading blog posts about “How to know your blog is dying” or “7 signs of a dying blog”.

That’s why I’ve decided to write a post using the opposite technique.

How to know you’re taking your blog seriously, as a business.

Treating your blog as a business is one of the most important steps you need to run a profitable blog.

Running it seriously doesn’t necessary means spending thousands of dollars on it, although you eventually will if you take it as a business.

From my point of view and experience, the first step is to mentally treat your blog seriously, then, you will take action.

How to know you’re already running your blog as a business.

1) You know it because each and every single day you wake up and, even before eating breakfast, you turn on your computer and check your WordPress Dashboard, check new comments, visits counter, emails…

The same can be applied when you go to bed. You do a quick – last check before sleeping.

2) You know it because if you don’t do what’s stated on point number 1, you don’t feel comfortable. Especially when going to bed, you can’t sleep or take more time than usual to fall sleep.

Those are great signs; they mean you CARE about your blog. You really care.

3) You know it because you’re always thinking about future posts or new features to add on your blog.

You’re at work or at school/college/university and you’re 70% focused on what you’re doing –in fact, on what you should be doing- and 30% thinking about your blog and everything that involves it.

4) You know it because you’re already thinking big. Let me explain you this one.

Average people start a blog “just to see what happens”.  People who want to be probloggers have plans in mind even before writing the first post.

They have a route and a schedule set and things on mind for the future, new projects to leverage their personal blog…

5) You know it because you’re not afraid to use your real name or phone, to show yourself.

I must say though that this is not always the way it works, as privacy is really important for people, but that should be the reason, privacy and not because of shame.

6) And last but not least, you know it because you’re ready to invest money on it, ready to create a company to pay your taxes, ready to have your phone to pick up or send calls to other people or bloggers.

Every serious business has its original spin, so as your blog should.

And you? Are you running your blog as a business?

Thank you for reading and see you on next blog post.

And yet another blog post named “Why most bloggers can’t make Money blogging”… It’s interesting how many people have tried to look at the problem –can’t make money- to try to get the solution –to make money-

It’s a different way to look at the one million dollar question.

I’ve never gave my opinion on this subject before and I thought I would give it a chance.

This is my truth about “Why people can’t make money blogging”.

I’ll make a short recompilation about the most named reasons out there and tell my opinion –very briefly-

- Reason number one: You’re not passionate.

Ok, I’ve read that a lot of times –thousands? – But it just doesn’t seem enough for me. I mean, it is valid at certain levels or with certain topics. You can –and should- love writing / blogging if you want to make money blogging, but, is it really a MUST to be passionate about your topic?

This point leads me to John Chow. The guy claims to make thousands of dollars because he tells other people how to make money online….

I mean, is John passionate about making money? Ok. Who isn’t anyway? I don’t think someone has a PASSION for making money.

It’s something everyone aims for but, can this be turned onto a passion?

I’d rather say no. I’d say you need a topic people are CURIOUS about. It doesn’t matter your passion level, although passion will make things easier for you.

- Reason number 2: You don’t take your blog seriously, as a business.

Well, to take something as a business, you need to dedicate it hours of work per day. At least when starting. And I’m afraid not everyone can make it.

People have a bunch of things to do, especially if you have kids, a work… You can’t just take blogging as a business and dedicate it the hours it takes to build that business.

I’d say this is a valid reason, but not the main one. It doesn’t fit my needs.

- Reason number 3: You’re not a marketing guy.

I’ll tell you what. Marketing doesn’t exist. Marketing = People. The true marketing comes with the word of mouth technique.  Doing a good work will make people share your posts. That’s it. That’s what I consider marketing.

My true reason about why people can’t make money

In fact, I’ve two main reasons.

Reason number one: You’re too late.

Yes. Most of bloggers out there who make money blogging by teaching how to make money blogging can’t just admit it, because their blog would be just useless, but those guys have been riding the blogging wave since the beginning.

Today, there’re just too many blogs and about the same topic.

Their domain worth more than ours so they get better ranking position, they’ve a fixed audience…

It’s not impossible, but almost.

Reason number two: You don’t have a business to leverage your blog work.

That’s the reason most important –and it’s related to number one-

If you don’t have a business that you can use to leverage your blog work, then you’re out of track.

Check it. Every problogger has its own business that they used at some point to leverage their blogs when starting.

I said this reason it’s related to the number one reason. Why? Because there’s a way you can ride the blogging wave with other probloggers, and it’s offering deals where they can win something and setting a quid pro cuo. Unfortunately this can only be achieved if you’ve something powerful. Something that could be helpful to drive traffic or leverage something.

Of course some would agree and some won’t. Some will find my reasons just silly and others not, but that’s the true blogging power.

Some can make money blogging and some not, but every one of us can use our blog to express our thoughts on our little online home.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and see you on next blog post.

I wanted to show the power of the new John Chow ebook, The Ultimate Blog Profit Model, by following step by step its advices on this blog.

However, and after reading the ebook, I’ve decided to abandon this idea and make a quick review.

Reasons are inside the post.

Before start I’d like to publically show my respects to Jonh Chow. I’m no one to critic his work, although this time I will.

John could have saved the time to write this new ebook and just update or maybe extend a bit the old one, the one he’s currently advertising on his site, because he didn’t came with anything new or innovative, unfortunately.

I was hoping to read something new about a topic that seems to have nothing new to bring. Great advices, sure, but nothing NEW.

I even enjoyed more the old ebook than this one. From my point of view it gave much more information. Info that beginners will love.

I thought, hey, it’s free, what were you expecting? It’s true. It’s a free ebook, but coming from a man like John I was hoping more when I saw the youtube video telling that he will show us what he did to take his blog at the point it is now.

I’m not the kind of guy who just say “Good job” or “AWSOME!” just because it’s a celebrity work.

I didn’t like it at all. Don’t mean it wasn’t nice to read, but, it was… Useless. I could have save the time to read it.

That said, if you’re a newbie here, go ahead and download it. If you already have his old and amazing ebook “How to make money online”, stick with it and save some time.

See you on next blog post.

I thought about making a review from this new John Chow ebook, The Ultimate Blog Profit Model, but then I came to the conclusion that it would be even better if I follow each advice given on that ebook to see if it REALLY brings in something new and interesting.

So, if you’re interested on this new experiment, come back often, as we’ll see which is the real power and knowledge of the so called Probloggers.

See you on next blog posts.

And I was about to quit blogging, at least quit posting on this blog, until I saw many friends letting their blogs die and that made me think.

Losing motivation, more important things to do (University), didn’t have any tool at all to enhance my posts and increasing my marketing appeal. I wanted to keep the blog post level at one per day, and that’s not possible unless you’re making a living off your blog… So I felt like I was letting my audience down if I was not able to maintain that blog posting frequency.

But I thought, let’s give it a second chance, posting when I’m able to and posting about I really know, although I always did it.

So from now on you will be able to enjoy with my wonderful and amazing posts… Kidding, but I’ll update this more frequently than the last months.

This is just the news on keepblogging.net. Post will come soon. And I’ll try my best.

See you on next post.

This is the sixth month report.

Not a lot of changes happened during last month. I’ve been pretty busy with university exams so I decided to shut down post production a bit instead of posting low quality articles.

Anyway, there are some posts that deserve a special mention.

As for the blog stats, I’ve added a new way to make money blogging thanks to Justhost which gives me $60 for each referral I get, which is quite a lot.

This has boosted my earnings, although I still have to break the $300 – $400 average I make monthly.

Daily visitors remains the same, still have to break the damn 100 UV/day barrier. Still happy though.

Pageviews remains the same also, with 2.3 pageviews per visitor. The average time spent on the site did decrease to about 2 minutes per visit, which is still enough to keep me happy.

There’s stuff –something for you, for free, that you may like- that keeps cooking behind the scenes, most of them are surprise so you will have to wait.

Apart from that, I’m working to create another blog –actually, a web because I won’t update it every day nor even every week so it can’t call itself a blog- with useful info.

I’m supposed to finish my exams within a week so I will –hopefully- stick back to my post frequency.

To end this post, here are the top 8 post from last month.

How to increase social media traffic

See? Titles are always very important

You shouldn’t create a make money blogging blog

Why you should create a make money blogging blog

Make money blogging – Only for heroes?

How to create a blog on local host – Videotutorial

List of 80 blogging tips

What can you learn from The Godfather

Thanks for reading.