Trying To Make Money Online

2 Create a Website

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:58:00 +0000

I've been surfing the Internet now since 1997 and I'm pleased to admit that one of my favorite web sites of all time is Lisa's 2 Create a Website.

Lisa Irby is a minority in the online world, actually someone who walks the talk.

Irby has been making money with her information web sites since the goldie oldies in Internet years of 1998. In fact, she makes so much money online that she was able to quit her day job in 2004 and now works full time on the Internet.

You might be saying, "how can she make money anyways with just information web sites? Doesn't Lisa have to sell something?"

The short answer is "no." How's that for a short answer!?! The majority of money that Irby makes is from affiliate programs such as Google Adsense.

If you spend any amount of time online I'm sure you have visited sites with Google Adsense ads. This is a free program that allows the webmaster and/or blogger to make money by simply placing Google Adsense ads on your web site and/or blog. The exciting thing is that Google Adsense is not like a lot of affiliate programs, such as Amazon.com, where someone has to actually both click onto your ad or link and buy something for you to make money. Google Adsense is a pay-per-click program program where you make money every time someone clicks onto one of their advertisers ads on your web site or blog. How exciting is that?!?

What I like about Lisa is that she guides the reader by the hand on everything(well, almost everything) you need to know to create a website - registering a domain name, finding a web host, web site builder, writing content, learning HTML, building traffic, and more.

Lisa is certainly not some fly by night Get Rich Quick guru, like I've come across so many times before.

Throughout 2 Create a Website Lisa stresses the importance of finding a niche/topic that you are passionate about and writing unique, interesting, and creative content. As I've said before, nothing is harder than writing day in and day out on a topic you've little or no interest or knowledge in.

People will be able to see it if you are truly passionate about what you are writing about or if you are just creating a web site and/or blog in an attempt to make a quick buck. Through writing good content with the reader you develop trust.

Visitors are much more likely to buy something from someone they trust, see as a friend. Not a pushy salesman flashing 3/4 of your screen full of affiliate ads and boring, copied content.

Lisa is genuinely interested, knowledgeable, and compassionate about creating web sites and this shows in the high quality of her content.

Another thing I like about Lisa is her honest, enthusiastic, easy to understand(believe me, I need "easy to understand!"), and friendly approach writing her blog, web sites, tutorials, narrating her video's, and moderating her webmaster forum.

Website Babble, the 2 Create a Website forum, is the most friendly and helpful webmaster forum that I have come across. Lisa, besides being the founder and moderator, is an active participant in this discussion group as well.

If you are a looking for free information and tutorials on how to create a web site and/or blog, than I highly recommend you check out 2 Create a Website. I certainly will continue to visit this superb web site on a regular basis.

Free CSS Tutorials & Web Design Templates

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:28:00 +0000

As I said in my post Don't Let Your Domain Name Expire I recently purchased my domain internetsecurity101.net back for $300 from sedo.com. To make a long story short, last year I lost my domain by letting it expire and by not renewing my domain. Thus, someone else purchased internetsecurity101.net. Through the domain name broker sedo.com the new owner sold internetsecurity101.net back to me.

To make matters worse, my previous laptop's hard drive crashed. I had made the mistake of not having a CD backup of my web site(a mistake that I'll not make again). I was not able to recover any of the data on my hard drive, including my web site.

Thankfully, I found an archived copy of my web site Internet Security 101 on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

I want to use the same CSS template from Open Source Web Design that I used before. You can find many sites with free web design templates by doing a search on the subject with your favorite web browser. I personally really like oswd.org, which has 2080 web design templates, contributed by its members. You can download the templates free of charge, like I've done. In return, all they ask is that you link back to oswd.org. The later is not required though.

However, in order to modify and change the design I need to learn some CSS. For example, I want to modify the CSS style sheet so that the header image and title doesn't reload for every page of my site the user visits. I've build a few websites over the years using HTML, but my knowledge of CSS is very limited to say the least. Actually, to be honest it is more like my knowledge of CSS is nil.

I wrote a post in the most friendly and helpful webmaster forum that I have found, called Website Babble, asking for advice on where to find good CSS tutorials.

So far, I've received a few recommendations for where to find CSS tutorials.

Lisa, the owner Website Babble and 2CreateaWebSite, suggests to learn CSS I check out W3Schools Online Web Tutorials. By briefly viewing their home page, it looks like this site certainly does have an abundance of basic to advance web site building tutorials, including learning CSS.

A couple of other members of Website Babble recommend a book called Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML. I need to do just that - dive head first into learning CSS! James says that this book is "one of the best." He went on to say that "on most pages you find what looks like hand written notes with arrows pointing out important parts of code, and other similar notations." He also says that " it deals directly with the things you really want to know to build your web pages." Amazon.com's 239 custumer reviews of Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML average 4 1/2 stars.

I know you might be saying, "I thought you said this post was on Free CSS Tutorials & Templates and books aren't free." Well, if you check them out from your local Public Library they are indeed free. That's exactly what I plan on doing.

I will certainly be spending some time checking out the above resources to learn some basic CSS, so I make modifications and changes to my free web site template. Who knows, perhaps I'll learn some other helpful and useful web site building tips.

Nobody Likes A Spammer

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:12:00 +0000

One real pet peeve that I have is people who post in a forum asking to have their site reviewed, when they really don`t want any feedback or constructive criticism. All they want is the backlink and increased traffic to their website or blog.

One tale-tale sign that there only motivation is to increase traffic to their website/blog is that they`re new to the forum with very few if any other posts. Or just enough posts to meet the requirements to post their site or blog to be reviewed.

Worse yet, they might leave useless, one line feedback and responses to other members posts. An example of this is someone replying to a post with a comment such as "nice site", when in fact the website they're "reviewing" has A LOT of room for improvement.

Once the spammer has reached the required quota to post their site asking for feedback that`s the last you`ll ever see of them again in the forum. I`ll assume that they have gone on to find another group to spam their web site or blog to.

I find this particularly annoying when I take the time to review the posters website/blog and never hear from them again.

There is nothing wrong with politely asking for your site/blog to be reviewed in a forum. However, at least make the effort to participate in the group, or at minimum acknowledge the feedback that other members have left.

If you happened to read my post 10 Free Ways to Increase Traffic to your Website/Blog you might be thinking "hey, didn't this know it all say to submit your blog/site to forums such as Ozzu.com."

Yes, I did suggest you ask other members to review your site/blog to increase traffic to it. In fact I've personally gotten a lot of hits to my blog/site by doing just that.

However, I didn't mean for people to become spammers, only posting to groups to try to get people to visit their site/blog. Take the time to become an active member of your forum. Turn into an expert in a newsgroup/forum related to your niche, leaving a hyperlink to your blog/site in the signature of your posts.

People, myself included, like to visit the site/blog of a friendly, helpful expert. Not someone spamming the forum they belong to.

I know I'm not perfect, being guilty myself of asking for my site to be reviewed on forums that I'm no longer active in. That said and done I'm certainly going to make an effort now to be a contributing, friendly, helpful expert in the forums I belong to, such as Webmaster Babble.

I've gained so much knowledge by being an active member in a couple of forums and listening to the feedback/advice others have given me. I've also learned a lot by visiting and reviewing other sites/blogs. We can learn so much from both the strong points and the mistakes of fellow bloggers and/or webmasters.

It is so much better to be a trustworthy friend to others in a newsgroup rather than a thoughtless spammer. You'll gain far more traffic to your website/blog by being that trusted friend as apposed to the spammer.

net2ftp - Free Web Based FTP Client

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:27:00 +0000

Wanting to upload, download, delete, or even edit your ftp files of your blog or website without downloading ftp software? net2ftp is a free fully functional and easy to use web based ftp client that can be accessed with your web browser.

It is great when using locked down or restricted computers at work, in libraries, school, and Internet cafe's.

I know I'm sounding like I am in the sales department for net2ftp, but I really like this free web tool. In fact, I personally use net2ftp all the time to view, manage, and upload files to my web host. It's a wonderful alternative to a software ftp client, such as CuteFTP. This handy web based ftp client even includes two different WYSIWYG(What You See Is What You Get) HTML editors(FCKEditor and TinyMCW). I've had no problems accessing and using net2ftp on both Internet Explorer and Firefox.

If you're not using your own PC or simply don't want to use ftp software than net2ftp is a good option.

DrPic: Free Online Picture Editor

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:59:00 +0000

I found a really useful, easy to use, and free online picture editor and image host called DrPic, formerly PicResize. This handy dandy tool is a great alternative to using a software image editor, such as IrfanView .

DrPic began in 2005 as a College project for a student and has evolved into what is apparently "one of the most popular online image editing tools available on the Internet". From my short experience with this nifty free online tool I can certainly see why it is so well used.

This free online picture editor can be used to perform a wide variety of functions such as resizing, shrinking, and cropping your photos, pictures, or images before uploading them to your website and/or blog. Other cool features include adding text with various fonts, elimating color, or rotating(turn it around or upside down) your image to name a few. You can also use DrPic to convert your picture to JPG, GIF, PNG, or BMP.

I used DrPic today to resize and shrink a few images, converting another from BMP to JPG. I know I sound like an infomercial but I must say it was so simple to use and did a great job.

Another thing I like is that it really is free - no catches. I didn't even have to register. Thus I don't have to worry about being bombarded with even more spam, but that's another story!

Not using your own computer or want to save your image online? No problem. You can upload your picture to DrPic's free image host. Believe it or not no signing up required for this service either. After using DrPic to edit your photo to your hearts content simply click onto the hyperlink on the left toolbar "Save to Web". Your image will be uploaded to DrPic's server, assigned its very own publicly assessable URL. Pretty cool, eh? How can you tell I'm Canadian, eh?!?

If you are ever in need for a free online picture editor and/or image host for your photos enhancements and/or to host your image than I highly reccomend DrPic.

12 Ways to Improve your Alexa Ranking

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:14:00 +0000

Wondering how to improve that Alexa ranking that we all love to hate? Here are 12 ways to improve your Alexa Ranking, while at the same time increasing traffic to your blog and/or website. Using most of these methods I was able to change the Alexa ranking on my website from well over a million to 218,820 in just a few weeks.

1. Install an Alexa Toolbar and visit your site everyday.

2. Even better yet, use your charm to convince a few friends install the Alexa toolbar and visit your site and/or blog everyday. Or if you own a business, install the Alexa toolbar on all the computers. Than set the home page to your blog and/or website. Watch your Alexa ranking magically improve! Mind you, the later will only work if you have dynamic or different IP's.

3. Change the focus of your blog and/or site to a more webmaster related theme. This makes sense, since webmasters are more likely to have the Alexa Toolbar installed.

4. Post in webmaster forums and add your signature in your post. One way to gain a lot of webmaster traffic is to go to http://www.ozzu.com, sign up, go to the Review Forum, and politely ask for your website or blog to be reviewed.

5. Write webmaster related articles and circulate them around the Internet. There are many sites where you can submit free articles, such as Ezine Articles and Article City.

6. Write an article on tips to increase your Alexa ranking. Chances are high that people looking for information on how to increase their Alexa Ranking have the Alexa toolbar installed.

7. Buy ads on search engines to increase your traffic. This will improve your Alexa ranking.

8.Submit your site to Directories, such as Dmoz and Yahoo Directory. By doing this you will increase your backlinks, ranking in the search engines, and ultimately traffic. Alexa loves traffic. Search engines love content and backlinks.

9. To obtain more of those valuable backlinks, politely request sites and/or blogs that are related to yours to place a hyperlink to your blog/website on theirs. One way to do this is by placing a link to the competing site and/or blog on yours, with a nice description of their blog and/or website. Than notify them that you have added a link to their site and/or blog. It is amazing how far flattery can get you! The blogger and/or webmaster just might add a link to your site or blog as a special "thank you".

10.Don't forget to write good quality,useful, and interesting content on a regular basis. This will increase traffic as well as improve your Alexa ranking.

11. Write reviews for the Alexa Top 100 sites and include a link to your website and/or blog.

12. Download the Alexa ranking button, traffic history graph, info links, and other traffic counters onto the page of your website and/or blog that receives the most traffic.

How I Made Money With Google Adwords and an Affiliate Program

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 05:21:00 +0000

Back in 2004, being a starving student taking the Residential Care Aide Program, I decided it was a perfect time to make some money on the Internet.

While surfing the Net, I read some information about a man who had made a fortune with Google AdWords and affiliate programs. He was trying to sell an ebook for some astronomical price.

While I never did purchase the ebook it planted the idea in my head. If he could make money with an affiliate program and Google AdWords than I could too!

At the time, Bsafe Online had a partner program offering a cool 25% commission for every customer referred to them and purchased a one year subscription to the Internet Filter for US$49.95 or the All-In-One Security Filter for US$69.95. Let's see, that's $12.50 in my pocket for every Internet Filter sold and $17.50 for each Security Filter sold. Not bad!

The funny thing is, I had signed up for the Bsafe Online Partner Program a couple months before this. I just had no idea at the time how I was going to promote their product and make money. Google AdWords appeared to be the answer I was looking for.

So, off I went and signed up for Google AdWords. I didn't have a huge budget at the time, so when asked which countries I wanted to target my campaign to, I just chose USA and Canada to start.

Next, I had to create an ad. "Oh my, this sounds hard" I thought to myself. After all I am no advertising expert. I came up with the following ad:

Bsafe Online Net Filter
Surfing the Net
unprotected?
Protect your
family. Free Trial
http://www.bsafehome.com

Now, the hard part, choosing the keywords.

At first I chose really general keywords like "Internet filter". Big mistake! I received lots of clicks and very few actual sales. After only a few days I had spent way more money than I had actually earned from my affiliated sales.

Disappointed, I put my campaign on pause, figuring that was the end of my Internet marketing career.

A light bulb went off in my head. Why not use the actual company name and common misspellings of the company name. I misspell companies and products that I am searching for all the time, so that means that other people must be too!

I than added keywords such as "download bsafe internet filter", "besafe", "bsafe", Afa Filter (the companies old name), "be safe filter", etc.

Bingo! Lone behold, I was making money on the Internet. In June/2004, I received by first cheque from Bsafe Online for $227.24 US, and I had only spent $158.30 on Google AdWords. That's a net profit of $68.94. Not bad for a beginner, if I can say so myself, though I think most of it was "beginners luck".

My cheques from Bsafe Online from July/2004- October/2004 were all over $300 US.

From November/2004 - June/2005, my lowest cheque was $427.15. My highest cheque was for the amount of $929.20 in May/2005.

I believe my increasingly high earnings might have caught the president of Bsafe Online's attention. He was kind enough to take time out of his busy day to call me personally. I was informed that the Partner Terms & Conditions had been changed so that you cannot use the companies name, former name, or any typo's of Bsafe Online's name in Pay Per Click(PPC) advertising.

Once I was no longer allowed to use these keywords, my income plummeted. I was back to spending way more on Google Adwords advertising than I was making in my little online business venture. As a result I was forced to stop promoting Internet filtering and security software through Bsafe Online.

It was sure good while it lasted though. I netted $7700 US from Bsafe Online, while I spent $2200 on Google AdWords. I spent perhaps another $500 at the most on banner advertising, and other pay per click advertising. The later two both yielded poor results. Let's see, $7200 - $2700. That's $4800 US, except I sure wish I knew where the money went, but that's another story....

My Experience With Free Web Hosting

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 03:49:00 +0000

I do not recommend using a free web host. If you do your site very well might be gone in the wind, just like this mans papers. You know the old saying that you get what you pay for. From my personal experience and countless others with free web hosts I can tell you this is certainly true.

Several years ago back in the late 90's and early 2000's I used a free web host called FreeYellow to host my first web site. One definite disadvantage was that my site was plagued with FreeYellow banner advertisements and pop-up ads.

Do you really want to put all your hard work and energy into a site filled with spam that you have no control of? It has Amateur marked all over it. Even if you are a newbie it doesn't mean that you have to look like one.

The straw that broke the camel's back was back in early 2004 when I received an email from FreeYellow advicing me that they were discontinuing free Web hosting plans. It went on to tell me that if I wanted to continue having my site hosted by FreeYellow that I would have to upgrade my account to a paid hosting account. How nice of them!

What really angered me is that FreeYellow's prices for web hosting were far from competitive, though I do know that prices for hosting have gone down a lot since than. If I wanted to have the privilege of hosting my site on FreeYellow's servers, I would have to pay $34.95 a month for a mere 300 mb. of web space. Compare this to Hypermart which offers 300 gb of disk space and 3000 gb of bandwidth for $4.25 a month.

To add to my problems, I was using the free website builder that FreeYellow offered to construct my place on the Net.

However, I wasn't willing to pay the outrageous amount of $34.95/month to host my website with FreeYellow for a site that was not making any money.

I was a full-time College student at the time. I didn't have the time to try and find another free web host and the online website builder that FreeYellow offered. As a result my countless hours of hard work and research to create a website were lost forever. In April/2004 FreeYellow took my site off the Internet.

If you want people to take you seriously and don't want to be at the mercy of a free web host I highly recommend you purchase a domain and web hosting. Especially today with domains and web hosting being so inexpensive.

I've used a few different web hosts(Yahoo, Coffee Cup, Go Daddy) and I have found that Hypermart is definitely the best bang for your buck. I have used this web host to host both a blog and website and have purchased several domains from them. I've been more than satisfied with Hypermart, finding them to be good value for the dollar and a reliable web host. They also offer excellent 24/7 costumer service and technical support.

Don't make the same mistake I did and use a free web host. It is simply too risky. It is well worth the few extra dollars a month for the peace of mind and reliability of a paid web host.

Blog Wild - Great Book for the Beginner Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 03:11:00 +0000

Looking for blogging tips, especially directed toward the beginner blogger like myself? Not even sure how to blog or set up a blog? Blog Wild, by veteran blogger and blog consultant Andy Wibbels might be the book for you.

He even will guide you step by step how to create a blog using TypePad.

Andy highly recommends TypePad for beginner bloggers like myself. He feels that "TypePad gives the most professional results out-of-the-gate".

At the time Blog Wild was published back in 2006 I certainly would have agreed with Wibbel - that "with other tools you have to know a little more HTML or code to get results that are going to look impressive." This is still true with Wordpress. That said and done, today with little or no technical expertise you can easily custumize your blog with the new Blogger point, click, and drag layout editor.

I haven't read Wibbel's book cover to cover, but what I found particularly useful is how to create your own persona and 5 Ways To Get Traffic For Your Blog.

Blogs are not CNN and nothing is more boring than reading a blog that reads like a newspaper article. If I wanted to read a news article I'd go to CNN or read a newspaper. Wibbels shows you how to put your own personal flair in your blog.

I agree with Wibbel "that a blog with no author info is pretty darn boring". It is nice to know a little about who is writing the blog! Author info certainly makes your blog more interesting and personal. Also, people are a lot more likely to trust someone they know rather than pages that look like they've been taken out of a textbook.

Andy says the best way to get traffic on your blog is to comment on other blogs.

Wibbel does not recommend using free hosting. As the author says, "who are you going to complain to[using free hosting] when your provider goes down?" Point well taken Andy! Currently, I'm hosting my blog on blogger.com and haven't had any problems that I know of anyways. However, in 2007 when I hosted a blog with Blogger it was down at least a couple of times. If it wasn't for the fact that to use the new Blogger customizable layout you need to host your blog with Google, I would use Hypermart to host my blog.

Hypermart is a reliable, reasonably priced web host with friendly and helpful 24/7 custumer service and technical support. The later has come in handy many times, believe me! I will be hosting my site Internet Security 101 with Hypermart. I've also used them in the past to host both web sites and blogs.

Blog Wild includes ways to make money on your blog, such as using Google Adsense or selling products/services. None of this was new to me, but might be helpful for other novice bloggers.

There is lots more in Blog Wild that I haven't written about, especially directed towards people wanting to use a blog to promote their business.

In a nutshell, I highly recommend Blog Wild for beginner bloggers like myself. It contains lots of useful, helpful info and is well worth the read.

Don't Let Your Domain Name Expire

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 06:25:00 +0000

Whatever you do, if you want to keep your domain name don't let it expire. Otherwise, someone else could end up owning your valuable piece of online real estate.

That is precisely what happened to me while I wasn't checking my email for an extended period of time due to illness. This occurred when my credit card was declined by my web host to renew my domain name and for monthly web hosting. I lost my domain and my site was taken offline.

When I returned to the online world, I went through the over 1000 unread emails that I had in my Inbox. Among that massive pile of electronic mail, I found several emails from Hypermart, the web hosting company where I purchased my domain and hosted my web site. Through these emails I learned that my domain name had expired and that my site had been removed from their servers due to my credit card not going through.

I went to check if internetsecurity101.net was still available, and to my horror, found that someone else had purchased my domain. Out of curiosity I visited what used to be my web site and I discovered that it was for sale. The current owners were taking offers through Sedo, a domain service provider where you can park, sale, and purchase domains.

I ultimately ended up buying my domain back for $300 US.

However, I've lost a lot more than just the purchase price for my domain. Since my website is currently offline internetsecurity101.net now has a Google page ranking of 0(previously 4) and is no longer listed in the search engines. In terms of SEO and building traffic again on Internet Security 101, I am virtually back to square 1. Not only that, I now have to go through the hassle of transferring my domain and uploading my site to my web host.

In the meantime I've decided I'm going to completely redesign the layout and update the content of my website.

Soon, I hope to have Internet Security 101 up and running again.

If you want to keep your site on the great frontier called the world wide web or not have to pay a fortune to purchase it, renew your domain. Don't make the same mistake I did and let your domain name expire.

10 Free Ways to Increase Traffic to your Website or Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 06:41:00 +0000

Tired of your Mom and Grandma being the only visitors to your blog? Help is on the way! Here are ten free ways to get more traffic on your website or blog.

Create unique, useful, interesting content and update it on a regular basis. This will increase traffic to your website or blog and best of all keep people coming back to your blog or site. Also, if you create high quality content people will link to your website or blog, giving you valuable backlinks.
Write about something that you are passionate about. It is difficult day in and day out to create content about a topic that you have no interest in. People will "clue in" pretty quickly that you are not passionate about your niche, and just writing for money. Thus they will not return to let alone create those valuable backlinks to your blog or website.
Here's a really simple one! Add a signature to a link to your website or blog in your email.
Contribute insightful comments in blogs related to yours. Include a link to your blog and/or website. Bloggers like to visit the website or blog of people who leave comments on your site. Who knows, they might even link to and/or become a regular visitor to your blog or website.
Write a blog entry or article endorsing, praising, and/or recommending a website or blog, especially one that shares the same niche as yours. Email the webmaster/blogger, informing him or her of your endorsement. Sometimes flattery can go a long way. They very well might return the favor and quote your endorsement with a link to your website or blog.
Provide links to websites or blogs sharing the same niche as yours with your own personal review of the website/blog. Email the webmaster or blogger, informing them that you have added a link to their site or blog. Once again, flattery can go a long way. They might just add a link to your site in their website or blog, providing you with traffic and valuable backlinks at the same time.
Contribute to newsgroups and forums that are related to your niche. Become an expert on your topic. Include a link to your blog or website in your signature. I am absolutely amazed at the amount of traffic I receive from posts that I have made in forums and newsgroups, often months after I wrote the post. Please remember, do not spam the forums/newsgroups. Nobody likes a spammer, doing you more harm than good.
Submit your website or blog to be reviewed on sites such as Ozzu.com. You would be amazed at how much traffic this can bring and you might gain some valuable feedback/advice on your site or blog from other webmasters and bloggers.
Submit your site or blog to directories. There are thousands of free directories out their that will provide a link to your site for free. The two big ones are the Yahoo Directory and Dmoz, but they are both really hard to get listed in, especially Dmoz.
Write articles related to your niche and submit them to article sites such as Article City and Ezine Articles. This can really bring a lot of traffic to your site or blog.

Banner Advertising A Waste Of Money

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 07:57:00 +0000

Back in September/2006, I had the bright idea to purchase a banner advertisement for one month on the front page of a podcast site completely unrelated to my niche.

As the site claimed to get 10,000 unique hits a day, I thought it was a great idea. I was certain that I would get a ton of traffic for my small investment of $26.00. How much traffic did I get you ask? 300 hits, maybe a thousand? Nope, nowhere close. According to my web stats I got a grand total of 35 hits, and at least one of those hits was from me making sure that the link was working properly.

I should have listened to blogger guru Shoemoney, who says that banner advertising brings in real crappy traffic. From my limited experience in banner advertising I certainly agree with him.

I have also read in numerous marketing blogs, websites, and forums to only have links placed on sites relative to your site.

Of course, I knowing more than every other web marketer and SEO expert worth their weight in gold, ignored them and wasted 26 hard earned bucks to get a mere 35 some odd hits. That works out to 75 cents a click, for traffic that resulted in little or no monetization! What a deal!

What have I learnt from this experience?

Only pay for advertisements in sites that have the same niche as my blog and/or websiteFrom my personal experience and what I have read from others banner advertising is dead. Can you remember the last time you clicked on a banner?
The meager amount of traffic that banners bring to your site/blog usually don't monetize anyways.
Finally, to obtain those valuable backlinks that are so crucial to obtaining a good search ranking and Google PR, you need text hyperlinks in reputable sites related to your site, preferably with a good PageRank. Again, please let me know if I am wrong, but search engines don't index banner ads, thus they don't count as back links.

I suppose $26 is a small price to pay to learn a lesson in how not to spend my limited advertising budget.

Write Posts in Advance

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 02:44:00 +0000

"Oh no, it is almost the end of another day and I haven’t written a thing! What in the world am I going to write about?”

Does this sound like you? Come on now, be honest! Well, the above is certainly me some days. Than on the other hand there are days when it seems like I could write forever.

You’ll be happy to know there is something that you and I can do about this. “What is this?”, you ask. Glad you asked. Thought you would never ask! The solution is simple - When the writing mood hits us and we have a bit of spare time on our hands, we’ll write a few posts. Or at least two anyways. This way we’ll have articles already written up when we are too busy to blog or simply not in a writing mood.

That is exactly what Tricia, who has five blogs, does. In fact, she was in such a writing mood in the end of July that for some of her blogs she wrote two weeks worth of articles!

Tricia says that we’ll benefit in two ways by writing posts in advance.

The first way is that we will find that we have more time for other blogging related tasks. I’ll put my two cents worth of advice in as well and say that if you have website you will have more time for website related jobs also. I certainly hope that it will free up the time to get my Internet Security website up and running again anyways.

Last but not least, Tricia tells us that our blogs we publish will be “of a higher quality because [we] wern’t under pressure to post”. From what I have read in her blog, it looks like writing her posts in advance has certainly paid off this way. This certainly makes sense. If I am feeling under pressure, just don’t have the time, or simply not in the mood to post it is reflected in my writing.

We can jot down some ideas or write a rough draft of a future post or two as well. As a matter fact, we don't even have to be at our computer.
I am a nursing assistant, who has actually been on medical leave for about a year and a half, with a bad bout of depression and anxiety(I am getting better though). A couple of times while working Night Shift, which can be slow, I wrote articles for my Internet Security site with a good old pen and paper. This is a great way to utilize "free time".

I have also used posts in my old unpublished blog as drafts for some of my articles. That said and done, I have significantly edited these posts, so I really have no idea how much time I am actually saving. It sure is nice though to have some rough outlines for posts in my blog.

I don’t know if I’ll be as good as Trich and have two weeks worth of posts done in advance. However, I’ll certainly make an effort to have some posts written in advance.

That way, I should have some time freed up for blogging and webmaster related activities.

Hopefully, my posts will be of a higher quality as well. After all, don't we all want a website and/or blog with informative, high quality, and helpful content.

13 Ways To Prevent You From Becoming A Victim Of A Get Rich Quick Scheme

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 07:44:00 +0000

Yesterday, I shared with you how back around 1994 I became a victim of Don Lapre's 1-900 number Get Rich Quick Scheme. These types of scams are more common today than ever with the growing popularity of that great frontier called the World Wide Web. The Internet has become a haven for online scammers looking to take away your hard earned cash. Without further ado, here are thirteen ways to help prevent you from becoming yet another victim of a Get Rich Quick Scheme.

If something sounds too good to be true it very well is. Prior to spending several hundred dollars on Don Lapre's "Making Money" package, 1-900 number from Don Lapre, and advertising it I should have asked myself this. After all, how many people have you known in your lifetime that make millions placing "tiny classified ads" in newspapers? If it were only that simple to obtain financial prosperity that is what we'd all be doing!
Prior to investing in a business opportunity ask yourself the following. Just how often do you or people you know purchase the product or service you will be potentially selling? Just how many people, including myself anyways were spending $2.99 a minute to talk on a dating line? I am sure if I had asked myself this alarm bells in my head would have been ringing.
Get Rich Quick schemes offer a high rate of return for a low investment. While there are people that do make money from these schemes(ie. gambling, day trading) they are few and far between.
While there are legitimate work at home jobs, they generally require a lot of work, time, and some financial investment. If an opportunity is too easy be sceptical of it.
Prior to investing in a business opportunity check out the company on the Better Business Bureau website.
Don't be rushed or pressured to invest. Remember that if you are given a limited time offer, there is usually a reason why.
Be extra careful with investments over the Internet.
Be super careful with investments on TV primarily in the form of infomercial or on the telephone. From my own personal experience falling for Mr. Don Lapre's Making Money Get Rich Quick Scheme I can tell you this is good advice
Never reply to spam. As SpamBusters.org says, "if it's spam, it's a scam.
Be careful of any business opportunity that is not in writing. That said and done, be sure to get everything in writing prior to investing your hard earned cash in any investment.
Even if you are up a creek and without a paddle financially, you don't have to share that with the world. It is not a good idea to post messages in forums saying you are in dire financial straits, or desperate to find work. This is a sure way to bring all the scammers out and be overwhelmed with phony offers.
Be sure to ask for details, in writing, of the refund policy before you invest in the business opportunity.
Ask present owners or employees about their experiences with the company.

Sources:

Frequently Asked Questions on "Get-Rich-Quick" Scheme
ScamBuster.org Work At Home Jobs: How to Avoid Getting Scammed
CYBERDRIVEILLINOIS Get-Rich-Quick Self Emplyment Scams

I Fell For Don Lapre's Get Rich Quick Scheme

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 04:06:00 +0000

Remember Don Lapre? The late night infomercial salesman from Phoenix, Arizona with exaggerated mannerisms and youthful good looks.

Sometime around 1994 give or take a year or two, I fell hook, line, and sinker for Mr Lapre's late night "Making Money" infomercial selling an information package for $39.95(originally $79.95) of the same name.
In this infomercial Don told the viewer how by placing 100's of "tiny classified ads" in newspapers in his one-bedroom apartment he made over $50,000 a week. He and his company, the now defunct New Strategies, over and over again suggested that by simply following Mr. Lapre's words of wisdom for starting a business, $50,000 or more a month could easily be made by anyone.

This sounded extremely appealing to me, barely making ends meet at a measly $8.50/hour, slaving away cooking in a hot kitchen. Hey, if anyone could make a minimum of $50,000 a week, than I was certain I could make at least $50,000 a year. So away I went and dialed the 1-800 number to order the Making Money package with $39.95 US of my hard earned dollars. A small price to pay for a jump start to my road to wealth and happiness. Well, so I thought anyways.

Shortly after receiving Mr. Lapre's "Making Money" package I received a phone call from a salesperson representing New Strategies. Now, all I had to do to be wealthy like Don Lapre and his army of followers was to purchase just one or several 1-900 numbers(psychic, dating, entertainment, and chat). Since I'd personally seen the most classified ads for 1-900 dating lines, I thought that I'd make the most money by owning and promoting one. Easy, huh? I racked up several hundred dollars that I didn't have on my Visa to be the proud new owner of a dating 1-900 number.

I than went on to spend an untold amount of money(I can't remember the exact amount anymore but I am sure it was a few hundred dollars) on "tiny classified ads" in several newspapers. "How much money did you make?", you ask. Thousands of dollars? Oh, too much..."After all you were just a newbie so perhaps you just made a few hundred dollars." Well, no my friend, not even hundreds of dollars or any number with three digits for that matter. Once again my memory is wavering, but if I think I made not more than 20 bucks. That convincing and likable Don Lapre scammed me out of hundreds of dollars, never to be seen again. My naivety and desire to get out of poverty caused me to fall for a Get Rich Quick Scheme.

What have I learned from this hard lesson on scams? Tomorrow I will share with you some ways to avoid becoming the next victim of a Get Quick Rich Scheme. Back than, if I had known and practiced a few simple things I very well might not have fallen for Mr. Lapre's empty promises of prosperity.

How To Build A Website

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:25:00 +0000

Never build a website before? Don't know any html or CSS? Well my friend, that doesn't mean that you can't build your spot on the web. Here are a couple good tutorials that I found that guide you step by step on how to create a website. Without further ado, here they are.

2createawebsite.com Tutorial On Building A Website - Where beginner webmasters learn to build a website from A to Z - how to register a domain name, some basic HTML, descriptions of different web hosts and website builders. Lisa also provides you with the knowledge on how to enhance your website - message boards, forums, graphics, hit counters, guestbooks, and even chat rooms to name a few. If you insist, Lisa will also will guide you by the hand on how to "spice up your web pages by adding background music or sound". I will agree to disagree with her on this. I think that "adding background music or sound" to your website or for that matter blog is more like dousing it with cayenne pepper! If I wanted to listen to music I'd play my own thank you very much! Lisa shares with us more of her Internet entrepreneur wisdom in the 2 Create a Website blog, website, and webmasters forum with superb, easy to understand videos, tutorials, and posts on building, promoting, and monetizing websites and blogs. I've bookmarked 2 Create a Website and am more than happy to admit that I'm a regular visitor.
Thesitewizard.com Beginners Guide To Starting Your Own Website - The title says it all! This tutorial guides you and provides relevant links in Thesitewizard.com from registering a domain name, designing your website, to promoting your site.

Focus On Writing Good Content First

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 05:19:00 +0000

It is crucial to have good content in your website or blog before worrying about how you're going to monetize your blog, get traffic, etc.I have seen so many bloggers and webmasters out their who seem to think that if they have one page of mediocre content or even none, a bunch of advertising, links, and search engine listing they are on the path to riches.

Sadly they are mistaken. Like the real world, there are no Get Rich Schemes on the Internet. It takes time, dedication, and hard work to make money online.

In fact, just the other day I read a post in a webmaster forum from a so-called webmaster looking for ways to get his site listed in Directories and search engines to increase his traffic.

Out of curiosity I clicked on the link to his website which turned out to be a webpage. Yes, you heard it right my friend. A webpage...One single little page with some second rate, inpersonal content, terrible web design, scattered with multiple duplicate keywords. The page looked like it was written more for a search engine than an actual human being.

Well, guess what?!? Search engines like Google are now smarter than listing sites and blogs like this. They are actually looking for online resources that the reader finds helpful.

In fact, search engines now use toolbars such as Google Toolbar to tell them how much time a real living breathing person actually spends surfing a particular site or blog. They also use the toolbars to tell them if visitors actually return. The search engines apparently use this information, among other things, to factor in where a website or blog ranks in its listings for different keywords.

You can spend all the time and money in the world on SEO, but if your site or blog has poor content, it is likely to rank poorly in the search engines.

In fact, even if a site or blog with mediocre content ranks well in the search engines, it is likely not going to monetize well.

After all, who are you more likely to buy something from? An impersonal, poorly written website or blog, that is shouting at you to buy something and/or click on an ad. Or a friendly blog or site with well written, informative, helpful content - that seems more like a trusted friend, not a pushy, annoying salesperson.

Well, I can imagine, like me, you would be more apt to spend your hard earned dollars or visit an advertiser in the later blog or website that I mentioned.

Also, think about how good you'll feel actually helping people with the content that you provide.

10 Blogging Mistakes

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:13:00 +0000

Some time ago I read a few interesting posts on blogging mistakes. I've learnt in this life of mine that you can learn a lot from the mistakes of others, so naturally these three posts caught my attention.

Darren from Problogger has a post titled Ten Mistakes That Will Kill A Forum...Or Blog. Rose DesRochers has a post in her blog on the Top 13 Blogging Mistakes. Not to be outdone, John Chow shares with us some of his expertise in 10 Blogging Mistakes To Avoid.

(1) Rose's #1 blogging mistake I personally find a real annoyance as well and want to click the "Back" button ASAP. Wondering what that is?...Background Music. If I want to listen to background music while surfing the Net I'll choose my own music to listen to. Not some annoying music on someones blog or website.

(2) Avoid making John Chow's #2 blogging mistake - Blogging Only For Money. He is right on mark when he says that "if you are blogging only for money you are in for a shock."

(3) Commit to writing one post a day, or whatever you can manage and stick to it. Avoid making John Chow's listed #1 blogging mistake - not updating! In order to be inspired to write on a regular basis you need to write about something you are passionate about.

(4) On the other hand you don't want to information overload your reader either. This might discourage people from subscribing to your RSS feed or bookmarking your blog. In other words, they might not come back!

(5) I think Problogger's #10 blogging mistake Over promising and under delivering is a huge mistake as well. Or giving advice and not following it yourself, which I know I have been guilty of. I read a post in the archives of someones blog to update your blog on a regular basis. Well, they didn't follow that advice for long! The most recent post was over two months ago from the time that I read their blog.

(6) Nothing is harder or more discouraging than trying to write day in and day out about a topic that you have absolutely no interest in. I've seen people put a huge effort into marketing their blog which frankly has very poor content. They have put the cart before the horse. It is so obvious by the content, or rather lack of it, that they are writing a blog for one reason and one reason only. You guessed it, to get rich. After a while these people can't figure out why they're not cashing in on this great invention called the World Wide Web. Ultimately, they give up figuring that making money on the Internet is just a bunch of hype.

(7) Don't be a copycat. You might be saying, "You're one to talk. Every man and their dog is talking about making money. Plus, you are copying blogging mistakes mentioned in other peoples blogs!" Well, yes the market is oversaturated right now with people talking about money. However, I try to add my own unique point of view and personal experience when writing posts. If you think you're going to make a fortune by simply cutting and pasting what other people have written in their articles, blogs, and websites, you are sadly mistaken. Remember, as John Chow says, "the most unique thing about a blog is you."

(8) I am trying really hard not to make John Chow's number 4 blogging mistake - Not Being Personal. As Chow says, your blog is not "not CNN or News.com". Believe it or not people actually "read your blog to get your opinion and point of view". Make their visit to your space in cyberspace worthwhile.

(9) Rose and Problogger both list Excessive Advertising as a blogging mistake as well. In fact, nothing will get me to click the "back" button quicker than being bombarded with a ton of ads. Remember to focus on writing good content and getting decent traffic before puting your energy into advertising.

(10) I agree with Rose 100% on No Alt Tags on images being a mistake that bloggers make. As Rose says, spider bots cannot read images. On my former Internet Security website I included alt tags on my images on my website. You would be amazed by the amount of traffic it got from people searching for images on Google Image Search, etc.

Darren at Problogger, Rose, and John Chow have all listed many more Blogging Mistakes. Check out their posts. I am always amazed by the amount we can learn by the mistakes of others.

Don't Discount The Amazon Affiliate Program Just Yet

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:01:00 +0000

Can you believe it? People are actually making money as Amazon affiliates! I thought that with the low 4% commission it was next to impossible to make a lot of money as one of their affiliates. Boy, was I ever mistaken! Just last month, I read an encouraging and interesting post by Problogger titled 9 Reasons I Am An Amazon Affiliate.

Back in June/2007 alone Darren Rowes earned over $2500 US as an Amazon.com affiliate. Not bad. Definitely reason to pause before discounting the Amazon Associates program just yet as a means of monetizing our website and/or blog.

As for that low crappy 4% commission, that is only with the Classic Fee Structure or if you don't sell very much. Now when you sign up into Amazon affiliate marketing program, you are automatically enrolled in the Performance Fee Structure. So, what the heck does that mean anyways? Well, glad you asked. What it means is that on most products there is a sliding scale. In other words, the more items sold the higher amount of money you earn(4-15%). Bottom line is hopefully more money into yours and mine pocket.

Another cool thing is that affiliates earn money on all items purchased by the buyer on Amazon within 24 hours of sending them to their website. Problogger actually makes more money on other products that the buyer purchases than the original item he sent them to.

Darren also points out that links to Amazon do better in a post with a helpful review of a product than links and banners on the sidebar. From my own personal experience and what I have read from other online entrepreneurs, banners are dead anyways. People are so sick and tired of those pesky banners that they simply don't click onto them anymore. After all, can you remember the last time you visited a site advertised on a banner? I know that I can't. I rest my case.

After reading this post I am seriously considering signing up for the Amazon Associates program once I obtain a larger audience.

Honesty Is The Best Policy

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Hecker) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 06:27:00 +0000

Lisa from 2 Create a Website brings up a really good point(among many) in her blog entry How to Build Credibility Online. She advises us “to take the good with the bad” when writing about products that we are affiliated with.

After reading the later sentence you might be left saying, “won’t I lose sells if I mention anything negative about the product I’m supposed to be selling to the reader?!?”. Lisa goes on to state that by being honest to your audience they will ultimately “take your reviews more seriously.” This is ”because they don’t appear to be too biased in one direction.”

I think this is an excellent point that Lisa brings up. After all, who are you going to trust more? Someone who goes on and on about how wonderful such and such product is. Than tells you how you can’t live your life without that product. Or a writer that truthfully writes about the pros and cons of a product.

I’m sure you’re like me and you would trust the last writer more than the first. Guess what? I’m going to be a lot more likely to buy something from someone I trust, that I see as a friend. Not just a person yelling out to me that I have to buy a product.

I am ashamed to say it, but I too have been guilty of being the pushy salesman instead of the trusted friend.

Right now, I’m not affiliated with any products. However, in the future when I am I will be sure to include both the negative with the positive.

As Lisa says, “the long-term results of this practice equates to more credibility and sales for you.” It would be good to accomplish this goal while providing honest, useful content to the reader.