Saturday, March 18, 2006

It's Official! The New Blog is Live

Check out www.ClickNewz.com
for the Latest Updates!



It's official... I am now blogging over at ClickNewz.com (on WordPress) instead of here at Blogger. It's time to update your bookmarks, and join us at the new location! ;-)

If you subscribe to this blog via email, don't worry - you will automatically begin receiving email updates from new posts at the new blog! (And if you don't, just use the form to the right to get yourself signed up!!)

If you subscribe through My Yahoo! or a feed reader, you'll want to update the feed URL so that you don't miss out. All of the subscription links to the right (see the list below the email notification form?) will subscribe you to the NEW feed at www.ClickNewz.com ;-)

Any other suggestions for making the switchover a smooth one are most welcomed, of course. I've really enjoyed my stay at Blogger over the last year and a half... but I'm having a blast with the new WordPress blog! Here's that link again:

Internet Marketing Blog

See you there!

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Posts at my new blog...

I am in the process to switching over to the new blog at www.ClickNewz.com

Over the next few days I will be updating this blog to display the link to the new feed, switching the Feed Broadcaster (email notification) over so that subscribers will receive notification of posts at the new blog, etc.

I'll keep you posted as things progress ;-)

In the meantime, here are the newest posts at ClickNewz:


Work-at-home-Mom Caught Porn-Spamming
Jennifer is a WAHM who runs MommyJobs.com (yes, that’s in addition to the spam/porn involvement)… but it turns out that she is not even a mom! She admits that she lied about being a mother to everyone on her wahm site just for the sake of credibility with other work at home mom’s…

Shopping at Google Store
I had it on my agenda for the week to do a little shopping when I got the opportunity. And then I had the thought that it would be cool to search around online - maybe at some of the CafePress stores - and see if I could find some cool ‘geek wear’…

The Optional Excerpt in WordPress
Usually when you create a post, WordPress will take a snippet of that post and use it as your excerpt on the category pages - and also in your Feed (if you chose to display excerpts instead of full posts). Find out why you should use the Optional Excerpt instead!

Test-Driving WordPress
Switching from Blogger to WordPress, I’m finding the setup to be super-easy and the features make the switchover well worth it. Just some general notes on those features and my thoughts as I give this blog a test-drive with my first post!

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Setting up a WordPress Blog

In a recent post, I announced that I'm finally moving from Blogger to WordPress. I thought it would fun to track my progress along the way. Maybe useful for others who are considering the move, or setting up new WordPress blogs. And definitely useful for me, because you guys share awesome resources with me in your comments!

I have to say, once I finally got started on the project I really got into it. I've always said the "getting started" is the hardest part - but now that I'm over the hump, things are rolling right along. Besides, I had to procrastinate just a little bit. A project just wouldnt be a project otherwise ;-) LOL.

So I started out yesterday afternoon, and went ahead and set up the new hosting account at HostGator. Once I got that set up (which took all of 2 minutes) I logged in to GoDaddy and updated the DNS servers for my blog's domain. I wanted to get that out of the way early on Friday so that everything would be ready to go over the weekend.

I chose HostGator to host my new WordPress blog for several reasons. First because it's cheap at under 10 bucks a month, considering what they offer. Also because that package offers unlimited domains, which means that I can set up 9 or 10 small sites under the same account - which is something I'm considering. And too they offer cPanel with great stats, fantastico, etc.

So far I am really pleased with them - they offer a lot of flash tutorials, the set up was quick, everything was just super easy to work with.

Like I said, I set all that up in a matter of minutes, and then I was busy the rest of the afternoon getting things rolling for the weekend. Finishing up my work for the week, tying up loose ends, and then spending some time with the kids before they were off to their own plans for the night.

I actually ended up with a houseful of girls for a Friday night sleepover, but they all decided to go skating from 7 to 11... so I dropped them off, put on a big pot of coffee, got comfortable and then sat down to dig into this project.

There's nothing like a good cup of coffee and a quiet house, let me tell ya!

The first thing I did was check my email and grab my hosting details. Then I headed over and logged in to my cPanel and went to work. I set up an email account and then FTP access. And then I checked on the one-click install for WordPress and found that it was version 2.0.1 - Cool! So I went ahead and installed it in the root directory.

That took all of 3 minutes... and I started realizing this was all going to be much easier than I had thought :-)

So there we go - "Hello world!", right?

Before I touched anything, I grabbed Teli's OptiNiche manual - which I had printed out earlier - and read through it with a highlighter and a notepad by my side. I have to say, that baby is short... but it is jam packed from cover to cover! That was nice because there was no 'junk' to scan through, just the step-by-step details I was after.

I would definitely recommend this package to anyone that is setting up a WordPress blog with the intention of optimizing it and earning money with it. OptiNiche is not just an ebook with step-by-step directions... it contains plugins, a template and several other extra's. It seems ridiculous to 'go it alone' when we have a WordPress Expert that will hand it all to us on a silver platter ;-)

I installed Teli's plugin, and the optimized template, and followed the steps she suggested in the manual. Again, it was surprisingly quick & easy... and I sat back and looked it over. I made a couple of test posts, checked out a few of the features. Not bad... not bad at all!

All that was left was customizing my template, and a bit of brainstorming on my goals for both blogs (the old one and the new one). I made some good notes along those lines, too - which I'll share with you in another post (perhaps at the new blog).

Once I dug in and started making small edits to the template, I remembered some blogs that I saw in Joel Comm's Adsense Case Studies that I got as a bonus to the Adsense Secrets Course the other day. He was showing examples of great Adsense placement, and a couple of those examples were blogs.

I was up until after 3am last night, and back up before 8 this morning... reading, tweaking and brainstorming. The layout and design is basically the hardest part, but I'm enjoying playing around with it... and figure I'll get it where I want it over the next day or so.

I have to say, it's been awhile since I've had this much fun on a project!


If you want to take a peek, you can check it out here: www.ClickNewz.com

As always, your comments & suggestions are welcomed ;-)

Friday, March 10, 2006

While WordTracker's Free Trial is Down

You might have noticed that WordTracker's free trial is down at the moment. Pretty frustrating, considering I use it pretty much every single day :-p

BUT...

In the meantime, you can use Digital Points free tool for comparing WordTracker and Overture keywords... because it's still working just fine:

==> http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/


There's always a work-around ;-)

Billionaires in 2006

On Yahoo! Finance this morning, the featured article is:

The Richest on the Planet
Forbes.com

This year’s list features a record 793 billionaires, 102 more than last year, including eight from China. Their average net worth: $3.3 billion. See who made the cut and whose net worth has fallen (sorry, Martha).

-------------------------

Some interesting tidbits from the article:

"The world's wealthiest also continue to find new ways to make money. Consider the appearance of online gambling tycoons. PartyGaming, the company that operates the popular PartyPoker site, went public in London last June, turning three of its founders into billionaires overnight. Among the three is American Ruth Parasol, the list's only new self-made woman."

"Canadian playboy Calvin Ayre went down to Costa Rica a decade ago and began taking bets over the Internet. Most of his revenue comes from the U.S., where online gaming is illegal. Now he too is a billionaire, and one, at least so far, beyond the extraterritorial reach of the U.S. law enforcement and tax authorities."

"Seventy-eight women make the list, 10 more than last year..."

"Twelve people return to the list including Hiroshi Mikitani, founder of Japanese Internet shopping mall Rakuten."


Check out this Slideshow: Billionaires Under 40 !



See the full article here:
http://biz.yahoo.com/special/bill06_article1.html

It makes for a good dose of motivation, in addition to being a great read! ;-)

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

My Thoughts on Joel Comm

As promised, my thoughts on Joel Comm and the Adsense Secrets teleseminar...

First, here's a note from Chris Knight on the recording of last night's call:

-------------------------------------------------------

If you missed it, for a limited time:

Your AdSense TeleClass Audio Replay Is Ready:
http://EmailUniverse.com/adsense-secrets/ty.html

You can listen to the call or grab the
MP3 and upload it to your iPod or whatever
your favorite MP3 Player is.


-------------------------------------------------------


I do realize that Joel Comm has been around for a bit now, and many of you are probably already familiar with him and with his Google Adsense Secrets course. I had actually read William Charlwood's Definitive Guide to Google Adsense (and loved it!) before this one came out, so I didnt jump at the chance to buy Joel's book when I first heard about it. So yes, I'm late to the "Joel Comm fan club" - but hey, I'm here now ;-)

Some of you may think I'm just a big guru fan, but that's simply not the case. In fact, I can be quite the skeptic! I have learned my lesson about jumping on bandwagon's too... and there's been more than one time that I've had to state a change of thinking.

Anyway, over the last 48 hours I have followed an impressive trail of links and had the opportunity to check Joel out a bit. I'll share with you some of what I learned along the way...

Let me just say, though, that I am no newbie when it comes to Google Adsense. In fact, you've probably heard me offer my own Adsense tips through my Weekly Newsletter or even at my Discussion Forum.

So why the sudden interest in Joel's Adsense courses? I'll tell you straight up:

Yes, I use Adsense. And yes, I get a decent check every month. But it hasnt been my primary focus over the last year or so. Instead I have been focusing on product-based affiliate sites and on automating my affiliate sales. I have managed to create several consistent streams of Passive Income, which I am very pleased with.

Adsense represents one of those sources but I actually cut back my Adsense placement to encourage product sales, or to discourage distraction from the main objective of certain pages. Simply put, I dont have "adsense sites" - instead, I was placing Adsense on various websites that were already out there.

(To give you an idea of why I cut back on Adsense, read "Adsense, Is it right for YOUR Site?" in this archived issue of SSWT: Google Adsense Tips )


To give credit where credit is due, it was actually a recent conversation with Rae that originally inspired this re-thinking of my Adsense revenue. Rae and I were discussing PubCon (anyone going??) among a million other things - Adsense being one of the quick topics we touched on. If you know Rae, you practically have to take notes when she's talking... because she moves quick and she's full of good info! LOL ;-)

Anyway, the comment she made about Adsense took root in the back of my mind, and then this teleseminar announcement came through my Inbox the very next morning. So I thought what the heck, I'll listen in, right?


What I learned on the call...

Already being familiar with Adsense, and optimizing it for higher profit potential, the two main things that I walked away with from this call were: 1) a great impression of Joel Comm, and 2) a serious dose of motivation!

Joel talked about a number of things including section targeting, AdLink units and even video ad formats which are now in beta. He talked a bit about ad layouts, colors & placements - and about getting traffic, and using your email newsletters to increase your Adsense revenue. Lots of good stuff!

You'll want to listen in to the call yourself to catch all of the tips that he shared, because certain points may be more interesting to you than others.

I think one of the best suggestions that Joel made was to keep an Adsense Journal. He mentioned that not tracking your results was one of the biggest mistakes that you could make. The idea was to make small changes, track those results, and keep a record of what works and what doesnt - as it is obviously going to be different for each site or each niche.

He talked about the Adsense Detective and the Adsense Buddy and even Adsense Journal (all of which are bonuses when you order Google Adsense Secrets at his site) which give you details on how the ads are performing across your site - which pages, which ad formats, etc are bringing you the best results.

I really liked the fact that he didnt condone "junk sites" or "blackhat methods"... but instead encouraged people to invest the time into developing quality sites for long-term income potential. He was very encouraging - but also very realistic. The lack of hype gave him lots of bonus points in my book ;-)

When asked if it was too late for "newbies" to get in on Adsense, he stated "no, it's not dead at all!" and "the land rush is still on!". Joel said that with things just heating up between Google, Yahoo and MSN... he anticipates great things ahead for Adsense publishers.

All in all, I found the call very encouraging and very motivating. As I mentioned yesterday, I ordered two of Joel's products - one of which was his newly revised ebook titled Google Adsense Secrets. This is the 3rd Edition, 2006 version, which is 199 pages and content-packed. He mentioned on the call, too, that he had added a 10-page section on Search Engine Optimization to help his readers get free traffic to their websites.


Listen to the call and check him out for yourself. I think you'll really like this guy, and find that he definitely knows what he's talking about when it comes to making money with Google Adsense!

As for me, I'm giving him TWO THUMBS UP and a big smile! :-D


If you like what you get on the call, here are some more links where you can check out Joel and his Adsense tips:

> Google Adsense Secrets, the book
> Google Adsense Chat, the forum
> Google Adsense Podcasts
> Joel Comm on ReveNews


Enjoy!

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Ok, I had to have that!

Tonight's call was really great! I hope you had a chance to listen in... but if not, I do believe Chris is going to post a recording of the call (if I heard him right). I'll keep you posted, and I'll also share my thoughts on Joel Comm and tonight's teleconference...

I'll save that for my next entry, though. It's getting late, I'm tired... and my Nyquil is kicking in :-p

But I will tell you that I'm totally pumped, and I decided to grab a copy of BOTH of Joel's Adsense courses. I ordered his new edition of Google Adsense Secrets (3rd Edition, 2006):



... and his physical product, which is a 2-CD Set and Binder:





I'm psyched, of course - I cant wait to dig in!!


p.s. Does Joel look like Armand Morin on that book cover, or is it just me?? :-p

Free Adsense Secrets

There is a free teleseminar tonight (March 7th) at 8pm EST:

==> http://emailuniverse.com/adsense-secrets/


Learn AdSense revenue generation secrets such as:

- An overview of what's new with AdSense strategies for 2006 and what it means to your bottom line

- What's the scoop on Google's new Ad formats? Why do many fail the first time they try to implement the new formats? (such as the ad link units)

- How you can prune low paying ads from ever appearing on your site

- What the top 3 biggest mistakes most AdSense publishers make

- Learn how to drive & increase the relevant traffic coming your site

- Get a beacon to help you know when you may be crossing the line so that you can remain a whitehat publisher (and not lose your account)

- How to zero in on top-paying ads and pages with keyword research

- Discover how to optimize your website for ads that make you the most money & much more!


This is a free 45 minute interview with Joel Comm, author of "What Google Never Told You About Making Money with AdSense" (3rd edition, 2006):



Here's that link again:

==> http://emailuniverse.com/adsense-secrets/


Enjoy!

Thursday, March 02, 2006

I Wanna be a REAL Blogger :-)

I have been blogging here at Blogger for well over a year now... and I have to say, it's a great little solution for the beginner. It's simple and it's free, and everything is all tied up in one neat little package.

When I first started blogging here, I basically just wanted to test it out and get my feet wet. I ended up enjoying the whole concept, and got great feedback on it... so I just stuck around and kept on blogging.

But lately I feel like I have outgrown Blogger, and so I have (finally!) decided to make the switch over to WordPress. That's what all of the real bloggers use, right? ;-)


Some of the main reasons that I want to move to WordPress include:

  • Stats! You guys know me - I'm a complete stats junkie! I would like to be able to track where my visitors are coming from, which posts are most popular, exactly how much traffic the blog is getting, etc etc etc. I feel lost without my stats!!
  • My Own Domain While I realize that you can point your Blogger blog to your own domain, I decided that if I am going to invest in hosting and a domain name then I might as well use the one-click install and put WordPress on that account. Maybe I should have titled this bullet "Total Control" hehe... Anyway - it just seems to make sense that you would take advantage of all of the traffic to a blog and establish your own domain name, versus Blogger's.
  • Categories! And boy do I ever need 'em :-)
  • Options - Everything from custom templates to neat little add-ons. I love all of the cool options with WordPress. It just seems like WP users have so much more flexibility in design & features!

With this change, I also want to give the blog itself a bit of a 'facelift'. I need a good flexible template that is also visually appealing. I have two already that I will be choosing from - one that Teli created for me, and one that Andre and I had designed awhile back.

I also plan to market this one a bit more heavily - through SEO, "tags" (whatever those are LOL), networking with other bloggers, syndicating the content, etc. Blogs are great little tools, if they can be found!

And in addition to that... I really feel that my blog needs a bigger dose of Personality! I've noticed that my more personal posts tend to get a lot more comments. I also find that I enjoy certain blogs myself that have a lot of character - you know, the ones where you feel like you really get to know the author behind the posts.

A good example that comes to mind is Rae Hoffman. Definitely a 'model blogger' ;-) That's her newest blogging spot, by the way - you probably know her best from: http://www.causeiliketohearmyselftalk.com/ .


So here's my Action Plan (always got to have one of those!):

- Set up hosting at HostGator (it's less than $10/month!)
- Install WordPress (HostGator has a one-click install, easy!)
- Choose one of the templates and tweak it (eek! lol)
- Pull out Opti-Niche and soak in every last word! (Thank you, Teli!!)


As always, your comments and suggestions are welcomed!!