PageRank Update

There appears to be a PageRank update happening right now. As I'm not in the business of buying or selling links PR means a lot less to me than it does to many webmasters, for me it's just a curiosity. But that being said, I am still curious about this curiosity and there is a certain excitement in the updates even if I don't feel they are very important (if at all) to my bottom line.

You can use DigPageRank to see the PageRank update in progress. By the way, this particular site doesn't appear to be moving anywhere. Still a PR 1. Perhaps that will change but I wouldn't be surprised at all if it sticks as I've done very little link building work for this site.

This site for me isn't my focus. I make my money as an affiliate marketer not as a "guru" and that's why I think my advice should have a bit more weight to it than "guru" advice. Most of those guys haven't made money doing anything except for teaching people how to make money.

I suppose I've allowed this post to become another anti-guru rant, eh?

Sorry about that, sorry to spoil this special internet marketing holiday.

Happy PageRank Update Day!

Diversification

Just like in playing the stock market, diversification is important when "playing" internet marketing.

Today is a prime example of that for me. My biggest money making site got dropped like a rock in Google's search results today (for no apparent reason that I can find, probably just the usual shuffle, unfortunately for me this shuffle is going to cost me a lot of money.) It went from #1 for it's primary keyword to the 30s (no not #31, I don't think it's the 30+ penalty as the site still ranks #1 for it's domain.)

This is such a good example because despite the fact that my #1 money making site going down significantly in the search results is a big blow to my income, it's not the end of the world. For one thing I can still use Pay Per Click to drive traffic to that website but more to the point I also have many other websites that are still bringing in money.

On the other hand I think it's important to strike the right balance. Trying to do too many sites leads to low quality sites and a difficulty in keeping track of all of the sites. Perhaps start off with about 5 websites and then go from there.

One thing you can do (and something I've started to do) is to become the SEO/webmaster guy and let other people be the content creation guys. For example what if I know a guy that is really into the Chicago Bears. Why not make a Chicago Bears blog site where I take care of all of the SEO and monetization and let him take care of all the content. Then you can split the proceeds with him. With this sort of situation you can have a lot of websites/blogs but still be providing high quality content.

Avoid Internet Marketing "Gurus"

My advice for today: Avoid Internet Marketing "Gurus."

These are the guys that want to teach you how to make money online but have never made money online doing anything but teaching people how to make money online. Think about that for a little bit.

I don't want to name too many names (*cough*) but keep your wits about you. Don't fall for BS. You aren't going to make money with any get rich quick BS. You are going to make money by putting in some hard work and some time and energy. SEO isn't easy. Especially at first. But it does get easier as it goes along. It's something where your work builds upon itself. So get started WORKING now. Don't get started by joining traffic swarm or some other such nonsense. Get started buy getting a domain and a web host. Do both at once with Host Monster.

Have an idea for a website? Get your page up as soon as possible. Don't wait. Do it now. If you have a good market to go into that you feel confident about (not the "make money online" market) then do it now! What are you waiting for? The sooner the better.

If you don't have your idea for your first website yet then start at the beginning: See Step One Choosing A Market/Product.

Host Monster - Recommended Web Host

I've mentioned Host Monster a few times before on this blog. Right now they are the web host I'm most happy with. They provide outstanding service and reliability. In fact I don't recall my Host Monster hosted sites ever going down for even a moment.

Host Monster also has great prices. For just $5.95/month you can host unlimited domains. You can also register one domain free with your account. On top of that you can register additional domains through them for only $10 each with privacy included! (Privacy will keep people from finding out your personal information including your home phone number and your personal email address.) If you buy domains with privacy from other sources you could pay twice that.

Do you want to succeed with on the internet? The first step is getting your website up and running. That's the first thing you need to do! Go to www.HostMonster.com to get your new website online within the hour.

$996.

Another record setting day for me yesterday: $996 in profits.

It's actually surreal to me to be making this much money, I didn't really expect to be making this much money with SEO tactics within a year of really getting serious about SEO (which I did late last year.) All of these earnings came from natural search results which were gained through the combination of creating quality content and the use of white hat SEO tactics. All of this money was made through affiliate programs. I have no product of my own.

Do you want to get started on a path similar to mine as soon as possible? My first advice is to get your website(s) up and running NOW. There's no reason to wait. Even if you just put up a title and a few words on the homepage, at least get that site up and running as soon as possible. There's a growing process with the search engines. They trust older sites more. So you are better off getting going as soon as possible.

I recommend using HostMonster.com as your web host and as your registrar. Why? First of all they will let you have your first domain free of charge with your web hosting account. Secondly they will let you add on additional domains for only $10 per year with privacy included. If you go through other domain registration services the privacy inclusion will cost a lot more than $10 per year. With HostMonster.com you can get it all done at once. Thirdly, let you host unlimited domains with your one account. Each additional domain will only cost you the $10 per year registration fee.

Click here for a more in depth look at getting started with affiliate marketing.

Looking For Bloggers (To Be Paid)

I'm looking for people who are really into the following subjects. People who would likely write on these subjects even if they were not being paid. If this sounds like you - Then please contact me at Zibblu@Gmail.com about becoming a paid blogger for me. I'm looking for QUALITY content. I'm looking for experts, for people who really care about these subjects.

If you do really love one of these topics, then why don't you start writing about it and getting paid to do so? You will be getting paid much more by me than you're likely to make with other paid to write sites like Helium where you're unlikely to get much of anything. You are also likely to build up a large base of readers.

Openings:

1. US Politics (In particular the upcoming presidential election / candidates) - I'd prefer left leaning people but it may be interesting to have people from both sides, sort of a "crossfire" deal.

2. Major League Baseball - I'm looking for "Page 2" type content. Editorials and the like. Not really "The Yankees won 3 to 2 last night" - People can get that sort of info other places.

3. New York City Travel Guide - Do you live in NYC? Can you write about the places to eat and shop and play in NYC in an interesting way? Perfect.

YouTube Ads

Google has a new advertising option for AdSense publishers: YouTube Ads. I'm just now experimenting with them. I'm going to be inserting this new YT AdSense code at the bottom of each of my blog posts. I'm very curious to see how all of this works. This blog probably isn't the best place to put this I'd imagine. But I'm a big fan of just trying things out and seeing how it works. I can adjust from there.

Another Record Setting Day For Me

Yesterday I set another new record for most profit made in a day. $670. It's pretty thrilling (and somewhat weird) to be making this kind of money. It's exciting to see all of my SEO work pay off. And yes natural search results are how I make over 90% of my money. As I've mentioned before, I still do a little PPC work but by and large it's SEO for me.

Create quality sites. Get quality links. Make money.

Oh yeah, and be patient. SEO takes time and work. But you can be very successful if you keep at it and don't try to take too many shortcuts.

Original Banners/Logos

If you want to get serious** with your website I think it's a very good idea to get a quality original banner and/or logo. Check out MyCustomLogoDesign.com, Lorrie Elizabeth makes some great logos/banners and they are available at a good price. They are custom made original work which is very important to consider because many other logo design providers will give you very generic looking logos and banners. Lorrie Elizabeth's work is unlike anything else on the 'net! This will help give your site a unique look so it'll stand out from the crowd.

**You may notice I do not have a banner/logo for this site yet and yes thus far I am NOT serious with this particular website. As I've mentioned before, unlike other "internet marketing gurus" I actually make my money as an internet marketer not by being a "guru."

AdSense Creating A Blank Space

I got back from my vacation yesterday. How did my week away from the computer go? How about this: I made a record amount of money (for me) last week: Over $2000. Pretty nice to be on vacation and set a new record for money making at the same time! And that's one of the things that's so great about affiliate marketing. Once you get the ball rolling, it mostly rolls on it's own.

Today's post is about something that started happening during my vacation: AdSense Ads Not Displaying Properly. This blog should actually be a good example of what I'm talking about. AdSense only displays 3 blocks of contextual AdSense ads per page, so if you place AdSense ads in the code for a blog post like I do (in this blog's case they are at the bottom of each blog post) then normally the ads display for the top 3 blog posts on the front page and then don't display for the rest of the blog posts on the page. For some reason now, instead of just not displaying at all, they are leaving a blank space where they would have shown. This leaves an unsightly white gap. I'm assuming that they are aware of this bug and are doing something about it... So I'm not going to mess with my settings in the meantime. But perhaps I shouldn't assume so much?

I suppose as far as problems to come home to, this is a pretty good one. While it does make the layout of the front page (and archive pages) look a little funny, it's not that big of a deal. I'm glad I have nothing more serious to worry about (at least as far as my webmastering goes and that's all this particular site is about.)