Naturally Speaking I might not type in the Future

As a professional blogger, I type a great deal.  I type thousands of words a day.  I have years of training as an ergonomics trainer and instructor working in data entry facillities.  This means I know how to avoid and prevent injury while I continue to type everyday.

Next week, I will commence trying an old tool in a new version that I  hope might spare me some of that work.  Its Dragon Naturally Speaking and its basically a speech-to-text or voice transcription program that allows a user to speak naturally and convert their words directly into typed text.

I've used the program in the past off and on over the years and it never seemed like it was an entirely practical solution.  But these days it seems to have taken a turn in evolution that might make it much more functional for me as a blogger.  I am hoping to begin typing most of my blog work by speaking it into my computer, saving my fingers and hands and wrists.  I will keep you posted on my efforts in this area and will let you know how it pans out and if the software is truly up to the challenge!

 

Technorati tags: voice recognition software, text-to-speech, text to speech, text to speach, voice transcription software

Meet the Adsense Team

Now as most of you know and realize.  I do not work for Google nor am I on the Adsense Team.  I have just been sharing information about my journey learning how to market and earn money through multiple online platforms.

I would like to introduce you to the Google sponsored Adsense site

At Google Adsense  of course they are using a blogspot address!

Here's their recent holiday card showing the team (linked to their site for this card)

Their site is a great resource for lots of information about everything Adsense, especially when you are looking for the official version.  (Sure would like one of those Google t-shirts!  ;)

On those occassions when you are looking for a different perspective, something else un-Google related or talk about multiple aspects of trends and things that Google just can't talk about publicly for lots of good reasons, then please come back by and check us out, or hit the subscribe button so that you don't miss anything and can screen the headlines for those stories that are most important and relevant to you!

 

Happy Holidays!

From The Adsense For Idiot's Team!

 

Technorati tags: Google Adsense Team, holiday greetings Adsense style

Installments generate more Adsense Impressions

Here's a handy little monetization tip that every large news site already knows.

If your reader gets to the bottom of a page, clicks the next page or page 2, 3 or 4 button, the new html page they land on will be a new impression and one more opportunity to earn revenue from the advertising on those pages.

You can benefit from this concept as well.  We will be covering some demos of how to create this functionality in your blogger blog (if you are running word press, you've got it easy as its a built in function already, but this presumes you are on a hosted account as the free accounts will not let you earn money at all.  They will delete your account!)

In the meantime take a look at the articles you write.  If the article is over 2-400 words, you might consider whether you would have been better off providing the article in multiple parts or with multiple pages to generate more impressions and more revenue!

Balancing Act

Of course the more pages and parts you build the harder you will have to work to insure that your writing is enticing enough for your reader to follow you to the next page!

Softduit Partners Working On Surfing Exchange Solution for Bloggers

I was speaking with the chief development and design officer at Softduit Partners today over lunch.  She indicated that the design team at Softduit was fielding some new tools that could solve the problem that many bloggers encounter when they attempt to promote their site through various surf exchanges such as Blog Explosion or BlogMad or BlogSoldiers or any of the others.

We have discussed the problem here in the past, but the basic issue is that Google may send a nasty email/letter to any Google Adsense Account holders that run a blog or website through one of these exchanges as these exchanges engage and condone the practice of selling credits.  These credits can be converted into an impression indirectly and this is what Google does not like.

Softduit is working on a solution that would enable bloggers to keep their blogs and Adsense accounts in tact and run their blog promotion campaigns in a completely above board and acceptable fashion for Adsense and for the exchanges themselves.  Softduit is building a solution service package that will enable bloggers to get the full benefit from these exchanges without having to fear for their Adsense accounts nor re-code their blog templates every time they want to list or de-list from an exchange!

In summary its a solution that can enable bloggers to get serious about blog promotion and push their blogs whole heartedly and continue to focus on optimizing their blogs for content and monetization purposes separately.  We'll have previews of this service and soon, and hope to hear back from some of our readers and early beta testers soon after the beginning of the year.

Technorati tags: Blog Promotion Solution, Surf Exchanges not acceptable for Google Adsense problem solution coming

Is Your Blog Phone Friendly?

Have you set your blog up so that it will run on a mobile phone platform?

This can be achieved in a number of ways from recoding the CSS on the site to setting up a mobile mirror site and many other options.

This can be a lucrative option for users as Google has been slowly expanding its Search and Adsense options to run on a mobile platform.

Providing a Google Search box on your blog can make you real AdCents if you have readers that view your site from their phones.  On mobile systems it can be very tedious to click over to a page for Google Search, but if the box is built into your web page, you are much more likely to have a visitor use your Google Search box for expediency than you would be on a regular computer generate web page, where they are likely to have a Google search box built into their browser's toolbar.

Technorati tags: value of Google Search on mobile phones

Don't Steal Content!

In the blogosphere it is all to easy for a person to rapidly copy and paste content from one location to the next.

Some people do not realize this is bad for them for several reasons.

1. Google will un-index you if they find that you are running duplicate content and this can torpedo your attempts to earn money from your blog.
2. Some of that content may be copyrighted and you may be breaking the law. 
3. Many people have ignored number 2 as there was a perception that its too hard for companies to police the internet, that day is ending.  A number of new technologies and services such as a new service from Attributor Corp in Redwood City, CA, are allowing billions of sites to be indexed each week so that content can be cross indexed to identify duplicate content.  Then they can fight back.
4. Understand the difference between syndication / sharing and stealing.  Syndication occurs when a company provides a feed.  this sometimes includes an option to provide that feed on additional sites offering up a promotional option for vieweres to come visit the original site based on a feed or partial article that they read somewhere else.  Other services like YouTube and many content services share content with thousands of people, sometimes even selling that access so that it can be republished and provided to niche audiences.  Stealing can work in technical practice like syndication or sharing, but the difference is that the person using the information does not have legal authority to do so.

When Great Gadget Tools Move Online

Sponsored Article

Epocrates recently took their long standing Epocrates hand held tool and move it online for doctors and medical workers to access prescription information and tables on the go.  After recently reading a new press release from Epocrates I have learned that our favorite sponsor is now expanding out their online services tools to provide drug and formulary reference guides replete with additional medical practice tools and patient education materials.

Now when a patient is prescribed Zyprexa for example, clinicians can go online, view images of the pill, showing it to patients to reduce the potential for errors and even print out medical information about the pill like what to do if the patient misses a dosage or what they should or shouldn't eat with the medication.

BlogExplosion sells credits - ergo Impressions beware Adsense users!

This week it came to my attention through the PayPerPost user forum that BlogExplosion does indeed sell credits to its members.

This means by inference that running a blog through Blog Explosion when that blog has Adsense ads running on it, would be a breach of the Google Adsense Terms of Service.

I have mentioned several time that running a blog on a blog exchange is an excellent way to promote it.  Knowing what I know about BlogExplosion does not change my mind.

You MUST remove the Adsense code from your blog before you run it on an exchange.

I run several of mine on exchanges for 1 week out of the month with no Google Adsense ads on them.  I take them off the exchange and put the Adsense back in to the blog.

This gets me more readers and keeps my Adsense account safe!

Hopefully someday Google will find a way to block clicks from the exchanges without having to shut down accounts.  The exchanges do perform a useful service for bloggers and should be used with care.  But they should definitely be used.

To get signed up or to use over 13 different exchanges check out our site at Softduit Partners.  Blog Surfing Exchanges

Blog Partners Wanted!

Are you looking to promote your own blog more?

Are you looking to share some great information about earning money by blogging?

Adsense for Idiots is looking for a couple blog partners to join in at our site here and contribute some useful information to our readers.

If you think you might be interested, leave a comment on this article with a hyperlink to an existing blog or website(s) .  The link can be to specific articles on the topic.

We are looking to cover these specific topics:

• Earning Money with Adsense
• Earning Money Blogging
• Earning Money Writing
• Blog Monetization
• Podcast Monetization
• Blog Promotion

All content submitted should be unique and written by you!

All post submissions will need to be at least 100 words in length, and ideally should cover individual topics.  We're not looking for dissertations or white papers, yet!

You can participate on the blog, daily, weekly or monthly or sporadically under any of those time frames (weekly for 2 weeks, daily for 4 days, and monthly the next 2 months). 

If you have some other collaborative ideas, we're always open to suggestions!

Low Tech Blog Backup - Feedburner

There is a very low tech way that you can back up your blog articles painlessly.

All you need to do is setup a feed on feedburner (which is a great idea for many reasons relating ot promotion of your blog).

Once you have a feedburner account you can use their email subscription tools to provide some code in your template that will allow your readers to subscribe to your blog via email.

Then you only need to subscribe to your own blog.

This serves many purposes (see above) but it does provide you with an email copy of every single article that you write!

Then you need only to file away those articles in your inbox or somewhere else, and you will always have a copy of your content off line!

Technorati tags: low tech blog backup, feedburner blog promotion

Are You Prepared for the GeoCache of GeoTag Traffic?

Our sponsor at Northeast marine Electronics recently provided a release describing their ample catalog of products including fish finders and marine electronics.  They specifically provide some great tools gadgets that include GPS systems and Chartplotters.

It is rapidly becoming more important for our blog and website owners to become familiar with these tools and I encourage you to take a look at them.  More and more the world of the internet is starting to incorporate an overlay of GPS coordinates to better target ads and viewers to websites and to products.  You would be well served by using and understanding the GPS system technology so that you can be skilled in the application of the advertising requirements that are rapidly advancing.

Calling Out to More Writers - Sponsors will Pay You to Write on Your Blog!

I have been writing for a service called PayPerPost for almost 6 months now. 

I started slow when the service began.  I have earned at least $200 a month every month.  I have written more because I am more financially motivated and I have seen my PR go from zero and 1 on respective sites to 3 and 4 (and soon going to 5 on both).

You can earn anywhere from $5-$30 per day with sponsors on one blog and more if you have more than one blog.

I do recommend this service that brings paid posting sponsors to your door and puts money in your PayPal account like clockwork.  These days I get a PayPal payment almost every day and usually several a day!

Plus PPP now has a great affilliate program so you can round up your blogger friends also!  You will find that this is a largely growing and very helpful community of bloggers.  The service is excellent for bloggers and many are starting to advertise and sponsor bloggers of their own with the funds they have earned from PayPerPost.  You can definitely make this business model work for you to create a new stream of revenue.

Technorati tags: sponsored writing, freelance writing, payperpost

Be Virally Link Happy!

Here is a little exercise in Viral Marketing to help your website gain some traffic and improve your Page Rank.

I just read a great article over at Make Me a Blogger a newly re-designed website that was ported out of a blogger blog and to its own domain.

The site looks excellent, and I came across a great little article titled "Be Link Happy".

I would highly encourage you to read the article, but here is where you can help your self by helping  . . . .well yourself.  :)

Exercise to build PR

1.  Write a quick 50-100 word article and talk about this article Be Virally Link Happy! that you are reading right now.  Mention the name of the article and the name of the website Adsense for Idiots and then link to both of those names with the actual links.

2.  Then link to the original article and the original web page with the names above.

3.  Then challenge your own readers to repeat this process adding your site to the first bullet point above!

4.  We can then kick off a viral campaign to build links for all of us that read and participate in this exercise!

5.  Drop a comment on the sites that you link to when you write this article and odds are the people that linked to you will come to check out your blog and you'll gain the opportunity to build your Blogging network, you'll pick up some nice traffic and maybe even earn a little more in advertising money!

Keys to success

Its important that as we do this that you write you write your own unique title and that you do not just copy the blog articles that you see.

This exercise will help you build links to your main sites URL and to a deep link in an actual article.  :)  Double benefit.

Technorati tags: Viral link building, viral PR building, increase your page rank virally, promoting your blog, promoting your article

Defining Click Fraud

Search Marketing Standard ran an article titled Defining Click Fraud.

For anyone that earns money from Adsense or gains advertising from Adwords, wiping out Click fraud is very important.  Click fraud devalues the services of Adsense and Adwords and harms the potential for Publishers to earn money from Adsense.  Similarly, click fraud hurts Adwords advertisers right in the pocket book.

Both sides of the industry are harmed by click fraud.

You can help to define click fraud and help the industry find solutions to prevent it to safeguard your advertising revenue and improve the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns.

Two groups have been created to help.

1. Click Quality Council
2. JoinTheNetwork

 

Technorati tags: preventing click fraud, defining click fraud, click fraud prevention groups, click fraud prevention councils

Exodus 3000-Paid To Play

I just signed up with a online game serivce Called Exodus 3000.  They pay you to play an online game, kind of like a roll playing game.

Throughout the game you earn Mars Bucks and at the end of the month you can convert the mars bucks into US dollars.

Along the way you can earn mars bucks by Mining or searching ruins or by attacking people and taking their Mars bucks.  You can build alliances, joing communities and network and many other things.

I highly encourage my readers to try the game out.  Its free to join, sign up here at Exodus 3000. 

While you are there take a look at how the website owners of Exodus 3000 earns money from Adsense!  Now that is smart and not too difficult either.

You have to actually play the game to see how the Adsense earning works.

Technorati tags: paid to play games, games earning money from adsense

Domain Name Availability Checker

Here's a great new tool that just came to my attention from the great team over at Smartlab Software.

Its a nice simple and easy tool that can check the whois registry fast and tell you if a domain is available or previously registered.

The tool can be found under the Smart Lab Software Website Tools section. This specifically is in the Tools Category and titled Whois - domain research.

Its very fast and very simple and worth bookmarking!

Technorati tags: domain availability tool, whois tool, smartlab software

Fielding a New Paid Writing Service

This week I've been doing just a little bit of work to field a new writing service from AC (think Associated Press but for the blogger masses).

They will pay you for article submissions and pay you more or less depending on whether you grant them full rights to the article.

I submitted my first article about 36 hours ago and am still awaiting approval.  They say it takes anywhere from 1-5 days.  So we will see where it goes.  It was not a unique article, instead it was one that I had also posted on my blog under a slightly different title "Sony Deals Self a Cyber-Shot in the Foot."

I do like the idea of getting paid for an article that I have already published and look forward to going back through some of my older articles that have stood the test of time and giving them new life in a republished format through AC .

Technorati tags: freelance writing, freelance writing marketplace, market your articles for further distribution

Closing out the Month of November earning about $6 - $60 from MyLot

Well I'd project that I am going to make about $6 from MyLots for the month of November.  It was a partial month and I only put in a little bit of time.

Today MyLot upgraded their algorithm which is supposed to increase the amount of earnings that are paid to people that provide quality postings so I am hopeful of seeing an increase in my earnings as I always give the good stuff.

The real benefit I have recieved from MyLot has been in generating ideas.  Those ideas have earned me about 10 times as much money (again for just a few hours of work and that's money I would not have seen otherwise).

So for a few hours, I'm netting around $60 give or take $5.  That's close to $10 per hour for marginal hours that would have been spent in front of the boob tube and that instead are promoting my business, brand, writing and more!

Technorati tags: mylot, earning from discussion boards, where to generate writing ideas and topics

They'll make a deal with you and split the Affiliate Commission!

Ebates is a service that I came across today.  I heard about them a long time ago, but never had a chance to investigate more thoroughly.  I finally got around to looking into their business model today. 

Ebates provides consumers like yourselves with an interesting method of receiving additional rebates from your online purchases. 

Ebates has established a system where they provide coupons to their members.  They simply provide a portion of the affiliate commission to the shopper in the form of a rebate that the Etailer is paying to Ebates. 

Its real simple! 

Affiliate commissions have been around since before the internet was invented.  The technology just makes it easier to track and provide access to the masses via cookies and software that Ebates utilizes to insure that the sales are legitimately accounted for in their own affiliate commission.

Technorati tags: Ebates, splitting affilliate commissions, Bigger Online Shopping Discounts

Freelance Writing Service pays you for your Content!

I have been deep into my laptop today, writing for a new freelance writing service and testing things out overall.

I like the concept of the service as they have a combination written, audio, and video content monetization platform.  Plus, its not a review site where you write about the topics they hand you from sponsors, instead they are looking for unique content written about anything that you find interesting.

The downside is that the articles don't get published on your site, you get paid up front and then they market your writing to the highest bidder where ever that might be.

This is overall very similar to a blog directory that I have written for in the past, but that directory does not pay you for any of your articles, just delivers up a little more recognition, circulation and traffic through links in your profile.

So its a good way to get more exposure for my writing and for my name and I do get the benefit of promoting my writing profile which includes links back to my website and two of my blogs.

For anyone interested on investigating the service, you can find out more with my personal invitation.  I've only written my first article for them today, and have no earned any money yet nor been paid in actual cash. 

I am not endorsing them yet.  I'll save that for the day when I get the first PayPal Payment! 

Technorati tags: Free lance writing, free lance article marketing, paid to brain storm models

MyLot Earnings Update!

OK, I wanted to give my readers an update about MyLot .

First, if you missed my original article on it, MyLot is a forum that pays you for your contributions to the forum in regards to the content you provide including:

• written content
• discussions,
• replies,
• comments and replies to other comments and replies,
• uploaded images
• tags applied to written content
• tags applied to images

Basically, MyLot recognizes that forums earn money from the people that write and talk to each other in them.  Instead of keeping that money for themselves, they share it with the people using the service.

This is a lot like Adsense, if MyLot earns money from Adsense they have an algorithm that attributes a portion of the earnings from the page that generated it to the people involved in the content submission on that page.

UPDATE

I have not been as active as I intended on the site as I have been traveling, but I have earned over $4 there in the last couple weeks.  Its not a lot of money, but its better than nothing and the site has proven to be an excellent source for ideas.  I've broken through writers block there at least a half dozen times such that I could write articles for a number of other sites, that have earned me several hundred dollars. 

I look at it as a service that helps give me ideas and tips me on the way out the door!

Technorati tags: Paid to talk, earn money brainstorming, promote your site or articles on MyLot and get paid for the effort, how to beat writers block and get paid for it

Good Graphics Can Make Your Web Site or blog Sizzle!

Let's face it Web Graphics are worth their weight in gold.  OK, well they are weightless so they are actually worth a lot more!

If you want your site and articles to capture the attention of your readers and turn those eyeballs into dollars then you are probably going to need to learn how to use some great graphics incorporated into your site.

I'm  running a special promotion on Creating Web Graphics for Dummies.  The price is only $17.84 through the Softduit Store.

That's over $7 off the price at Amazon!

(check it out at Amazon yourself and see its $24.99 Creating Web Graphics for Dummies.)

Bonus Offer with Reciprocal Link

1. Contact me with an email including: proof of order from Softduit, a picture of you holding the book and your website url, and I'll feature you in an article here on AFI providing you a reciprocal link to your site.
2. Create a great graphic and include a link to it and I'll link there also!

Technorati tags: Web Graphics for Dummies, Create Great Web Graphics to promote your site, Increase ROI with Better Graphics, Order Web Graphics for Dummies and recieve a reciprocal link

Earn Money and Promote your Website at the Same Time!

About two weeks ago, I started using a new website to help promote my blog articles, blog sites and websites.  The service is a website that brings people together to host a discussion forum.

The basic concept is that if you strike up a conversation on their website, you are generating content for them and they earn money from content.  They don't pocket the money totally for themselves.  Instead they share some of their earnings from the page with your content directly with you via PayPal.

You can in effect strike up conversations with other people from around the world and get paid for the conversation. 

Promotion Benefit

Talking to people in discussion forums of any type are a great source for promoting your articles individually or your site in total.  This forum happens to pay you at the same time!

You can sign up for the service for free with this invitation from Adsense for Idiots.

How You Earn Money Together!

The site does not calculate your earnings in real time.  Instead earnings are calculated every 24 hours and displayed on your profile.  You can earn money from the content you write, from pictures you upload, from tagging your discussions and from generating or spurring on a conversation that motivates people to respond.  The more responses, the more visitors to that conversation and hence the more earnings to share between the service and yourself!

Technorati tags: promoting articles, promoting blogs, promoting websites, earn money for discussions, paid to talk

Organizing Your Novel on A Blog

have dreams of writing your own novel?  Don't want to do it for free?

Do you want to attract and keep readers?

I'm going to walk through a few tips on the topic of Novel writing.  This will be the first in the series

Organizing Your Table of Contents

I've seen many other blog writers write up a book on a blog.  They are often very difficult to read.  Not because the writing is bad, but because the chapter structure of a book doesn't work well with a blog.  The nature of a blog lists the chapters in order of the most recent submission.

Here's a suggestion to help your new readers get acquainted with your writing in the proper sequence.

1. Create a blog post that lists the chapters in order. -    Chapters 1 - 30
2. For each chapter write the chapter title, then highlight the text and create a hyperlink to that actual chapter.
3. If you haven't completed a chapter or haven't named a chapter yet, then just write
   Example
   • Chapter 14 Climax of this book - Chapter not published yet
   • Chapter 15 - Chapter not written yet
   • Chapter 16 - Chapter written but not named
4. When you post this blog article with your table of contents, future date the posting and this article will always appear at the top of your blog. Example date it for November 1, 2007

Alternatively, and probably even better, take this same code and put it manually in the top of your sidebar!  This might be better if you write other things in your blog beside the chapters for your novel. 

If you have multiple novels, create a different section with TOC for each book, and if you are good with coding write it such that the TOC toggles away (expands or contracts as necessary.)

Technorati tags: Blog Novel Tips

It is Possible to Monetize your Feed with Adsense!

Here's a great way to monetize your feed!

That's right many people don't fully appreciate the power of a feed.  They look at a feed a way for a reader to read your content without having to go to your site and possibly earn you some money through your sponsors or other programs.

This is partly true and partly false.  First, it is a convenience that you offer to your customers the reader.  Second, they may not always have the time to come to your website, so providing this convenience allows them to stay in touch with your work and keep your site relevant and necessary for them.

Three, it is possible to monetize your feed, even through feedburner with Adsense!  Just like in your blog or website, you can insert Adsense code into your feed.  The feed if generating full html will then insert your adsense code on the destination website that the person is looking at after every few articles (usually 3-5 articles with an adsense section dropped in)

Typically I recommend a box style adsense section as opposed to a skyscraper which can mess up the code.

Now that you know its possible, check back in one of my future articles (within an article or three from now) and I'll walk you through the processes of inserting Adsense into a blogger feed, into other hard coded feeds, and even how to include adsense for search boxes into your feeds!

Technorati tags: Monetize your feed with adsense

Accidentally Click on an Adsense Ad of Your Own? Report Yourself!

Every now and then it happens to everyone, you accidentally click on an Adsense ad on your own website.

Its against the Terms of Service to click on your own ads and if you are caught (Google is very good at catching people eventually) you will lose your Adsense account and any accumulated money in that account.

If you happen to be on your website and the mouse slips and you accidentally click an ad, Report Yourself immediately.

Very professionally report to Google that on the date in question and the site in question (provide the URL) you believe that you accidentally clicked on your own ad and would like that particular click noted and removed by Google from your Adsense earnings.

Similarly, if you see a trend in your Adsense clicks and it appears that a visitor to your website is inappropriately clicking on your ads over and over, you may want to provide Google an email pointing out the issue such that they can potentially blog the click through results for that person IP address.

You can find more information on contacting google at their Help Center.

You can also email them directly with this address adsense-abuse@google.com

Accidents happen to everyone, just be open and honest with Google so that they can protect their own reputation and their advertisers money.

What is a Site Feed?

I was recently asked the Question, What is a site feed?

My reply:

A site feed is an XML script that processes yoru blog or webpage and prepares it for syndication. This basically means that it pulls the content up in a way that it can generically be 'fed' or pushed across the internet and viewed by a reader in a location that is not your website.

This can be very good for your readers that do not have time to surf to your web page every day. Its possible for them to read your articles as you post them through their favorite feed reader, or on MyYahoo or Googe pages, or even in Outlook.

www.feedburner.com is the largest feed creator on the internet and provides a free level service that can help you learn how to benefit from a feed.

If you have a blogger blog, you automatically get an atom feed in the dashboard setup area. You'll need this (it looks like a link) and with it you can go to feedburner and paste it in and they will help you make the feed process pretty easy after that!

Best Regards,
Brett
http://mavenmapper.blogspot.com
http://somethingaboutharry.blogspot.com

Some Great ways to generate more traffic!

I'd like to highlight some great ways to refer traffic to your blog.  If you have a new blog this is also a great way to get exposure to other blogs and get some ideas about how you want to refine and develop your blog.

Here is a small sample list of Blog surfing exchanges from our partners site, Softduit Partners:

webcentresurf

trafficpods

blogmad

clickpirate

blogazoo

blogadvance

A surf exchange gives you credits for every blog that you surf through on the internet.  You can then exchange that credit to the system to generate a referral that will send other blog surfers directly to your blog.

If you build a good blog and write some great content, you may even convince those visitors to sign up for a subscription to your site and thus earn a repeat customer!

For more information on surf exchanges and for a full list, check out Softduit blog surfing exchanges.

Getting signed up to earn money with Google Adsense

Its been several weeks since we highlighted our step by step process for setting up a brand new blog with a brand new adsense account.

Let me take a second to orientate you to Adsense for Idiots.

You will notice a large bar towards the top of this blog just below the title.

It states 'Get targeted ads on your website with Google Adsense'.

If you click that button, you can begin the short process necessary to sign up for Google's adsense program.

Basically how it works is you copy and paste some code from Google's site and put it on your blog.

Google signs up advertisers that want to advertise on many sites and blogs.  When a person views your blog from a browser the code you pasted will trigger a Google ad to appear from their advertiser.

If that visitor browsing your sight, mouse clicks on that had, YOU MAKE MONEY!

It is as simple as that.  You can click the button to start the sign up process and if you need help along the way check out our Setup Adsense Steps Part 1 and part 2 just below the button.  These will also walk you through the process just in case you get a little lost or disorientated along the way.

Don't have a blog or website yet?

No problem, the same steps can guide you through the process of setting up a free website so that you can put adsense advertisements on it and start making money right away!

It can take Google several business days to approve an account so its best if you act now to sign up so that Google will be ready for you, when you are ready to start receiving checks from Google.

New Internet Marketing Resource

You may want to bookmark a new internet marketing resource called NetResults, which is a newly launched website. 

NetResults has created a internet marketing blog hoping to pool the efforts of multiple people in a group blog.  They will cover topics that will vary from  Web 2.0 to Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and to general internet marketing topics.

If you are interested in writing on occassion with NetResults or occassionaly submit an article to them for posting they can be reached by email from their website (thumbnail feature on the right).  This is an excellent way to cross promote your own writing abilities and often times your own website or blog as well.  It develops community, and introduces you to other people working in areas that might interest you. 

They get to know you and you them and you might then follow each others writing.  Sometimes group writing projects like this will also generate referral or reciprocal links.  Sometimes these are in the content itself and sometimes in profiles on various pages of the website.

Technorati tags: NetResults, internet marketing news, Elastic Cloud Solution

Putting together the Podcast

I'm bringing together my Podcast equipment and getting things organized.

It has proved a bit challenging but for the  most part its coming together.  I purchased a mixer that does not have a USB connection so that means I bring the sound in through the Microphone jack on the side of my computer.

I have a pair of dynamic microphones that plug in through line jacks on the mixer even though they have a three prong plug on the bottom of the actual microphone, I believe that's called an XLR connection but it goes to a line jack at the other end of the cord, so I can not yet benefit from the preamp built into the mixer.  New cords will probably be an upgrade for another day.

Technorati tags: Tapco Mix 100 mixer, Dynamic Microphone, podcasting rig, XLR connection

My AdWords Campaign

I started running my first Adwords campaign a little over a week ago and it has been enlightening.  I have worked with adsense for quite some time now and I had forgotten how confusing it seemed in the very beginning when I did not know anything about it.

With Adwords I at least understand how adsense works, but getting the campaigns setup and running have definitely been a challenge.  I am finding that I am learning a great deal about Search Engine Optimization and keyword analysis.  I thought I understood these fairly well until I launched my program with adwords.

Now I do think that Google's interface for adwords is a bit more complicated than it needs to be but mostly I am just learning the ropes.

Here are two great tools from Yahoo! that will help you with Google's adwords.

View Bids Tool from Overture (owned by Yahoo!)

Keyword Selector Tool from Overture

 

Technorati tags: keyword selector tool, view bids tool, overture, adwords, adsense

More Blog Revenue Tools

I've shared this in the past but wanted to push this information out to some of the new readers of the site.

Adsense for Idiots :) is managed by Softduit Partners and Softduit provides many different services that are free and can help bloggers promote their sites and learn additional ways to monetize their blog.

Softduit provides a Blog Revenue Tools page that walks through many different components that can be jointly executed on a blog or website to provide for multiple levels and paths of income streams on your website.

There are many other great sources of information on the Softduit site, which I'll specifically detail later, but you are free to explore them right away.

Technorati tags: Blog Revenue Tools, Softduit Partners

Its not Money for Nothing You Earned It!

Adsense earnings sometimes feel a little bit like Monopoly money.  This is partly because the earnings often times trickle in and then eventually build up and ultimately hit a critical mass where you realize, this is Fantastic!

To help you along a little bit, I'd like to reward you with a tip I picked up today.  I came across this release from Orlando fun Tickets.  They were talking about the discounts they can offer on Disney World Tickets which are not cheap even if you are an Adsene Guru. 

You can get tickets for everything from Disney World to Arabian Nights and Medieval times and not waste the Adsense money you have spent so much time trying to earn!

Don not delete your Blogger Account If you want to Re-Use It!

I just learned of a situation on one of the Google groups.  A person had deleted their blogger/blogspot blog and sometime after deleting it, went back in to the system to set it back up again and start over.

The name was gone and the URL was no longer available.

When an account is deleted, It does not become unusable.

In fact the blog name goes back into open circulation almost as soon as it is deleted.

In the situation I encountered, it even looked like someone had taken the URL and re-directed it to a parked domain to try and make some money off the former tennants traffic.

Its possible that redirecting to a parked domain is against the Google Blogger TOS.

Regardless it is very unusaul for a blogspot address. (For more information on domain parking and how you can earn money from this practice check out Softduit's Blog Revenue Tools Domain Parking is a legitimate business practice when its not abused.)

This particular blogger may be able to take the issue up with Google support to see if they can help.

For future readers, its important to recreate your blog again immediately after you delete it or else someone else may take it from you!

 

Technorati tags: do not delete that blogspot blog so fast, blogger domain parking redirects

Categorization of Products

When I first setup my store, I basically went shopping for inventory like I was on a mad shopping spree, piling things into the basket (virtual shelves) and running around like nuts.

That's probably not the best way to do things as I've learned the hard way.  When you set up your store take a methodical approach and focus on the best things and deals you see.  I have just wrapped up a session where I re-organized and categorized my store so that it makes more sense.  I started with cameras at  my store.

These were some of the first products that went into the store.

I reorganized the Camera section to categorize things by brand and by Mega pixels.  You have the option to assign a single product three categories, so if someone happens to browse into brands they will find cameras by brand and they will possibly find the same camera in the 8.0 megapixel section and in the generic Camera section. 

Next up I need to organize my DVD's better!

If you are interested, I would be glad to help you with your own online store.  You can set one up quickly and the rates start at $29.99 per month giving you full ecommerce capability.  You can take your first order in 30 minutes after setting things up, and choose from 700,000 products to stock your store.  I've set up this page to help anyone interested in the concept.  I'm working on featuring the people that set up a store on several of my blogs.  So make sure you let me know if you start your own store today!

Where to go to spend that Adsense Money?

OK, so let's say you've been blogging and blogging all year long and you've earned a nice little nest egg of money (don't tell me how much its against the Google TOS!)

You should consider taking a trip down to Florida to the tourist meca of the world.  That's right I am talking about an Orlando vacation.  You've got Disney World and Sea World and Discovery Cover and Bush Gardens and you name it.  Great hotels and more.  I just read the web release in the link above and learned the interesting fact that Orlando has more top rated golf courses within 40 minutes than anywhere else in Florida.

I used to live in Boca Raton and that surprises me even!  It shouldn't though because whenever we went on vacation we went north to Orlando too.  :)

My Favorite Google Group: blogger general discussion

Its the blogger general discussion Group.It doesn't have any capital letters on purpose, but this is a great group for lots of activity, knowledge and information on blogger and even on blogging in general ~ hence the name!

I write as a moderator in the group.  Your first message will be moderated to insure that you are not an auto spammer.  Once your first message is cleared you can communicate freely on the board.

Buttercup is the owner of the board and has done a great job of bringing together a very polite and helpful forum full of great information that will definitely help you with your blogging efforts!

The Adsense Help Forum

The AdSense Help forum is a great forum to get a great deal of information on the Google Adsense program.

The group is broken down into multiple sections

1. AdSense Basics
2. AdSense Guidelines
3. Earnings & payments
4. Troubleshooting
5. Optimization (New)
6. Features & Products
7. Miscellaneous

All of these sub groups are excellent sources of information on many different topics.  They can help you insure that you get the most out of your AdSense campaign.  They can also help you so that you do not make a mistake that gets you into hotwater with AdSense.

Missed one of the forums . . .

I just realized that in my recent post Two more Great forums for Adsense I only included one forum! lol

Well its Friday.  I meant to also cover a great new forum called

Promoting Your Site

This is a new group and as such a great chance to meet some of the original people and help grow with the group.  It already has some great promotion information on the group including links to some great blog directories to list your site in.

So check out this forum, join up and share your own experience and great ideas for promoting your website or blog.  I look forward to seeing you there!

Get Your Blog Reviewed and make improvements

There are a number of great forums that can help you find ways to improve your website or blogHere is another great group to check out.

Blogger Review is a fantastic Blog review community.  You submit your blog and request a review and wait for the members to give you your feedback.  But don't be shy, go review the other sites in the groups yourself and talk about what you like and do not like.  You may not be an expert but participating will help you learn and meet people that can visit your blog.

This is a very active group and sure to provide you some good information and traffic too.

Make Money in the Market no matter which direction a stock Goes

It is possible in modern times to trade in stock options that in a way that allows you to protect your money.

Let's say that you are not sure if Microsoft's stock will go up or down, but you don't want to lose money.  You've got principal that you have to have when you retire.  You can use Stock Option investment strategies that essentially allow you to protect your money and your principle.  Essentially, how it works is that you place a bet (stock option derivative) on both sides of the transaction.

You win if the stock goes up, and you lose.  However, the two net out and you protect your investment principle.

If you want to take big risks, you can invest in options and leverage your investment, buying an option to buy a stock at a fraction of the actual cost of the stock.  If the stock goes up, you have an option to buy that stock at your guaranteed lower price and immediately sell it at the new higher price.

So if you buy an option on Microsoft stock at $1 for an option to buy a share at $28 and the Share goes up to $30.  You have $1 invested, you cash it in and get the share for $28 and immediately sell it for $30.  You net $1 in profit and get your $1 principle back ($30 - 28 = $2)

A stock options newsletter is available that will help yoou start to learn the ins and outs of these transactions and how you can protect yourself or take big risks for a potentially big reward.  These investments are risky if you do not know what you are doing, so do the research and get some good tools and advice.

PowerOptions recently provided a release describing their new SmarSearchXL.  They provide investors with internet based data that can help identify the highest return option.  Information about their tools and services are available in the newsletter as well.

ShareASale Affilliate Program

There are lots of ways to generate a sponsor for your website or to find advertisers.

Today, I'm featureing one of my newest and most productive affilliate providers ShareASale. This is definitely an affilliate that you want to sign up with and review their merchants. Its important for any web business to look for multiple affilliate programs, don't cast just one seed and hope to harvest a crop.

Check out ShareASale and I'll feature another affilliate provider soon. (I'm only featuring affilliates that have earned me money!)

Technorati tags: ShareASale Affilliate Program

Creating Buzz About your Website or Blog

So you have a blog and or you have a website and maybe you've entered into the Online E-commerce world as well.

Your set to make money, but you need more traffic.

A great way to generate buzz and increase your page rank is to generate a little buzz through a program from Blogsvertise.

You get a number of benefits for working with Blogsvertise and these benefits keep on giving.

1. Generate immediate buzz from reviews and blog articles from other bloggers across the internet
2. Bloggers themselves will visit your site, review and could become customers or readers and no matter what you'll get some positive link building out of the little bit of effort
3. You'll get an increase in traffic from the bloggers readers and especially from natural search as your page rank on keywords improves
4. You get not only a link to your site, but you get a deep link contextually written for multiple locations and possibly deep links in your own website

All of these things are good for your website and your web business.

 

Technorati tags: Generate Buzz for your Website, Link Building reviews and press releases

Don't Set up a free Account on WordPress if you want to Make Money!

WordPress cancelled a number of blogger accounts today on their freely hosted server space.  Bloggers that make money from their WordPress hosted accounts are breaking the word press TOS. 

WordPress cracks down like this every few months.  The last large crack down I heard about was last July.  They will provide their users with very short notice and delete the account from the database.

To my knowledge Blogger doesn't have any such problem with free blogs making money, partly because Google wants bloggers to use Adsense to make money, which makes Google money.  Personally I don't think it really matter if someone is earning a few bucks from their blog?

here's what you have to do if you are on WordPress and fear a deletion

1. You should make an immediate backup of your blog.
2. You should start making contingency plans of where to move your blog should WordPress lock you out.
3. Now's probably as good of a time as any to find a domain host and get setup fresh. 

You can still use WordPress software on your own domain and host and then you will never have to worry about big brother WordPress deleting all of your hard work.

Today's Featured Product: E-Commerce for Dummies $15.78

E-Commerce for Dummies from our Softduit Store.

$15.78 for Adsense For Idiots Readers

(some irony there I think . . . :)

You can find it and other great books at our Softduit Store.(Adsense for Idiots is owned by Softduit Partners)

We write a great deal about many ways that you can benefit from monetizing and improving your website or blog. But don't just take it from us, when you go into business working with the internet you need to stay up on as many sources and concepts as possible.

The web is in a constant state of change and you never know when an idea that makes money is going to turn stale or be re-invented.

Check out E-Commerce ofr Dummies. It covers a number of other areas besides those focused on here in this blog.

If you Like this store, check out our tutorial of setting up your own online store in 30 minutes.

Cafe Press Gift Sites with your Blogs Brand

I've talked already about opening your own full fledged E-Commerce sight in less than 30 minutes with a complete line of products.

Today, I'd like to talk about the benefits of opening up a Cafe press shop. Cafe Press doesn't offer a complete assortment of products. Instead they let you pick a few simple products. You can then upload any pictures you like and those images or logos are put onto the products.

These typically go on coffee mugs, magnets, clothing including T-shirts and vests, if you want to do something risque even the occasional thong.

Similar to my previous article, all you have to do is sign up for an account. A Cafe Press account is Free!

Once signed up you can upload any images you like and then select the products that these will go on. Cafe Press handles everything else and they even allow you to use some of their promotion tools.

Technorati tags: Cafe Press Site Setup to Monetize your blog, Putting your Logo on a Tshirt, Website Monetization, Blog Revenues through Gifts

The Amazon AStore for your website

Amazon has recently expanded their Associates program to offer up a new concept. Website owners and blog owners or anyone can now create an Amazon AStore or AStore for short.

Basically, this is a store stocked with Amazon products. You define what goes in the store and what categories and you can pick the look and feel of the store.

Amazon does what Amazon does best. They get the product, price it, and ship it and you receive an associate commission on the sale.

Its free to setup with Amazon. The only down side is that you have no control over pricing the products in your store and essentially you are competing with the Customer's that might go directly to Amazon.

You benefit from the fact that your Astore is Amazon and you help your customers by keeping a focused little store with products that they won't have to search for at Amazon.

I'd definitely recommend it since its free. It can compliment your current activities and you can earn a little money on the side, but you won't receive the freedom and control of setting your own price, coupons campaigns and more. For a more advanced E-Commerce Activity, I'd recommend checking out our Guide to Setting up an Easy Online Store in 30 minutes.

NoFollow Meta Tags Prevents Spammy Comments and Adds value for advertisers!

Fighting spammy comments can be a big hassle, but its important not to harm your blog in your attempt to block the spam.

Installing Meta Tags in the header of your blog that block Search Engine robots from following hyperlinks on your blog, decreases the value your blog can provide to partner websites, blogs, companies that you like and Advertisers.

The Header Situation

The nofollow tag in the header is very different in scope to the nofollow tags found in blog comments. In the header it warns off robots from following the links on your page to the other webpages. This means that if you have a link on your website and nofollow meta tags in the header, google will not give credit to the destination web page for having the link on your page.

If you exchange reciprocal links with a fellow blogger, and they have nofollow meta tags in the header and you do not, your link will increase the importance of their site, but theirs will not help you.

The Comment Situation

The nofollow tag issue can cause lots of havoc and confusion for bloggers and advertisers alike for obvious reasons.

There are many misconceptions that if a nofollow tag exists anywhere on a source page, such as in the comments, that it degrades the benefit of a reciprocal link. This is not true.

From an advertisers perspective, nofollow tags actually improve the value of an advertising article or press release. If an advertiser receives a write up along with a reciprocal contextual link in that write up, it will not necessarily serve their purpose or benefit the advertiser for that article to be followed by spammy comments, including links to the advertisers competitors or to a site that might be offensive to viewers.

The nofollow tag in the comments doesn't stop all comment spam, but does serve as disincentive for spam from an SEO and article hijacking perspective.

I utilize a meta tag in my blogs to push for the robots to follow tags as opposed to not follow :

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW" />

I'm led to believe that having no Meta tag would work just the same, but sometimes I find it useful to point to this out to my advertiser sponsors. This enables the advertiser to explicity see the value they are receiving from a press release on my website.

Technorati tags: nofollow tags, nofollow meta tags, nofollow tags header, nofollow tags comments, advertisers benefit from nofollow tags in comments, SEM value of nofollow tags

Google Checkout

A friend of mine at Google-Power tipped me off to a new service from Google.  Its called Checkout and it allows people to use the power of Google to streamline their online shopping experience. 

It can help to cover you for fraud protection.  It will also help you track multiple orders from all across the web in one Googlized locations.  Finally it can help you keep your email address confidential.  You just need to look for stores that are setup as Google Checkout Stores.

To find out more and browse the google stores got to https://checkout.google.com/

 

Technorati tags: Google Checkout

SEOMOZ.org's Page Strength Tool

As you are working to develop your blog or website, you will want to focus building out your site and monitoring how well it grows in the eyes of the Search Engines.

Some of my best blogs and websites receive over 60% of their traffic from search engines every day.  The remaining traffic typically comes from repeat visitors.  That search engine traffic allows me to make a good first impression and possibly bring the surfer back for more information or send them deeper in my site to additional pages.  The deeper they go the more impressions I receive, the more potential I have to earn moeny from a PPC click. 

You want to employ good landing strategies, and you want to improve your page rank and page strength.  PageRank is a term used by Google to identify the importance of your website.  The more important the higher in the search engine rankings your site or page might go.

I really like the PageStrength tool at SEOMOZ.org.  It puts together a total score based on the weights that multiple Search Engines provide together, from yahoo to Alexa to Google and more.

I'd suggest you check your blogs page strength with the tool and then post the image code to display your sites strength so as to remind you to go back and check it as you improve the site.

Here is the PageStrength of Adsense for Idiots as of November 7, 2006.  Notice this image is static and will not update on its own.  You must go back to the site and manually check and update this image button yourself!

Technorati tags: SEOMOZ, pagestrenght tool

Adsense For Idiots adding Audio downloads

I received my Tapco Mix.100 Ultra-Compact 10-Channel Mixer earlier this week.

Later this week, I'm going to start getting my Studio assembled (Pictures to come).  I've looked into running a  Text to Speech program for the audio version of our blog and I've seen some promising tools, but like the idea of giving my readers my actual voice a spin and if nothing else making it a little easier to pick up on some trends from this blog.

As I do this, I'll walk you through the world of monetizing a Podcast with Adsense as well as with several other revenue generating models.

I can't wait to get started and I can't wait to expand out the reach of this blog to communicate with more people wherever they happen to be! 

Technorati tags: Podcasting, mix.100, Tapco, Mixer, Podcast Station

Buying Diamond Earings with Adsense Earnings

Now you may not be able to buy diamond earings with your Adsense money right from go.  However, working at it you might be able to grow your website(s) or blog(s) into a revenue generating stream of businesses and eventually you might be able to afford diamonds afterall. 

Primestyle might even be able to help you when you're ready.  They provide princess cut diamond stud earrings and recently released a press release that helps to guide a diamond shopper in how to select not just the first glittery stone out of the display.  Instead they focus on finding the right jewelry to match a persons look and personality.  Their located in the diamond district of Manhattan and have many customer testimonials available to give you some perspective on whether or not they can solve your needs.  At the end of the day Adsense may not make you rich over night.  With some hard work, it just might make you some money to please that special person in your life.

Technorati tags: princess cut diamond stud earings, spending adsense money on diamonds

Monetize Your Blog with an Online Store in 30 Minutes!

I'm going to share with all of my readers a great way to get an Online E-commerce site up and running / Up And SELLING in 30 minutes!

You get full credit card processing capability(Visa, Mastercard, American Express or go the PayPal option), full shipping services through UPS, FedEx, DHL, USPS even Canada Post!

But an online store doesn't do you any good if you don't have anything to sell.

This Plan gives you instant access to sell 4,000 products chosen from a catalogue of 700,000 products!  You don't buy any inventory.

You sell on consignment!  You set the margin, market the site, when a customer buys something, you get a direct deposit every month.

The deal is even better than it sounds.  You don't have to store, pick, pack, wrap, or ship anything.  You don't have to provide customer service or setup a toll free number.  That's all covered too and ready to roll after you setup the account, which can be done very fast!

Sorry to drag out the details, I have all the information at my Softduit Site (Softduit sponsors this blog :).  Don't worry, you don't have to download an e-book or anything.  The information is self contained with diagrams and maps and everything you need to dig in and figure out how to start making money with your own store.

If nothing else, you can buy Christmas presents with your own self given discount code!

Oh, and I forgot you can setup the store with a Free 7 day trial.  So set it up, get a feel for it and figure out if its right for you!

Here's the information site

Easy Online Store

If you want, send me a picture of your first check and I'll write an article about you, your store and your blog!  Plus, I'm setting up a Store directory on Softduit.  If you try this out, I'll let you list your store in the directory with a contextual description.

More Blog Directories Plus more details in the reviews

I've been working all weekend to sample, try and submit my blogs to many of the Blog Directories that I've compiled at Softduit Partners

My list of directories has grown to 129 strong, but I now have added my impressions as I've gone through the directories and tried them myself.  I've made it through the first 50 directories when sorted according to their Page Strength.  That's right, I'm submitting my blogs to the strongest directories first, and I'd advise that you should consider the same.

Please note, that there are no referral programs with blog directories so I receive no advantage for this.  Its just a service and something I found useful for myself so I published it on the net and its kind of taken off as a project in its own right.

I'm hoping to make more progress and get through the other 79 directories within the next two weeks.  However, I just received a list of 50 more directories that were not included in the original, so I will be reviewing them and adding them in one directory at a time as well.  That will take the list of Blog Directories up to almost 200 before its all over.  That's a lot of potential for listings, readers, pings, feeds, and link backs.  If you are serious about promoting your blog you should definitely consider it.

I have had one reader confer that they spent a week listing their single blog in every single directory and saw an increase in traffic the following week by one thousand impressions per day.  For some that is huge and for some that is no big deal.

For me, I'd welcome another thousand visitors, so that's what prompted me to get off my rear and start submitting all of my blogs to these directories.  It can't hurt and I'll take the 129 link backs if nothing else!


Technorati Tags: Directory of Blog Directories, 129 Blog Directories

Directory of Blog Surfing Exchanges

Softduit Partners has posted a directory of Blog Surfing Exchange sites.

Currently they feature 13 different blog exchanges that new bloggers can list their blogs within to work to surf and earn more traffic.

New bloggers and even old hands at the trade need to be careful however.  Google's Adsense program and some other advertisers frown on the exchanges that offer traffic impressions for sale for money.  Exchanges such as BlogExplosion do not seem to upset them, but some of the sites that offer bloggers the means to pay real cash for impressions violoate the TOS of Adsense.

here's my recommendation:  If you have a new blog and you are trying to build up traffic.  Take your Adsense off of the blog.  Sponsor the blog in multiple exchanges and earn yourself a following of readers and network with the other bloggers in these forums.

Down the road in a few months when you have a lot of regular traffic, you can turn off your listing at the exchanges and put Adsense back on your blog if you choose to.  This will earn you more money from Adsense as you'll have more traffic.  Plus it will let you promote your site.

I do not encourage people to purchase impressions myself.  I do think that earning impressions by networking and viewing other blogs can help however.



Technorati Tags: blog surfing exchanges, exchange directory

Podcast and Portable Media Expo

I will be attending the Podcast and Portable media Expo.  If you would like to meet up with me at the event, arrangements can be made

I'm really looking forward to the expo and will be attending as many of the events as possible.

Blog Valuation

The easy way to value your blog is take a look at your earnings in cash for the last twelve months and discount it, projecting your earnings over the next twelve.

There are obvious issues with this, the primary being that 'past performance' is no indication of future performance, but it can give you a rough guideline.

What may be difficult to add to the calculation is how much actual work you had to do on your blog to get the traffic that click on the ads that generated all the revenue.

There are a number of blog valuation sites that offer up algorithm type formulas to calculate the value of your blog.

As an example Blog Worth does this by looking at your alexa ranking and your incoming links and then putting an arbitrary US dollar amount to this.
See example:

Of course, this doesn't mean that there's an actual buyer out there that will buy your blog for that much money, but its a start. In trying to determine an appropriate valuation, its important to look at your blog from the perspective of several approaches.

With that in mind I'm building a directory of Blog Valuation services which I'll host at Softduit similar to the Blog Directory listing I have accumulated offering Blog Directories in alphabetical order, ordered by Alexa Ranking and ordered by SEOMOZ.org's PageStrength. These directories allow you to target and prioritize the best directories to list your blogs in order to get the most traffic and listings the fastest.

So in a future post, I'll include a similar group of directories of Blog valuation directories.

Blog Business Summit in Seattle

The Blog Business Summit in Seattle is coming up at the end of October.

Its a little pricey but it might be worthy of consideration. It runs from the 25th - 27th of October.

Dreamweaver Tips: removing hyperlink underlines

I've been converting over from FrontPage to Dreamweaver 8 and love the new tool.

I'm going to start identifying some of the great tips I'm learning in Dreamweaver 8.  This one can be applied to the style sheet of a blogger blog as well.

Many people do not like ot have hyperlinks in their body text displayed with the underline.  If you want to remove all underlines from your CSS - style sheet, here's how you can do it fast and easy.

Dreamweaver:

1. go into your CSS Window and then the CSS Styles Tab, select All
2. n the 'All Rules' window, right click anywhere and select 'New' for new style
3. Select the Radial button for Advanced (IDs, pseudo-class selectors)
4. in the selector drop down box, select 'a:link'
5. also select this document only if its just for this page.
6. click OK
7. A pop up window will appear, make sure the Category of 'Type' is selected~this is the default
8. Towards the bottom middle/left in the Decoration section, choose the box for 'none' and then click apply and OK

That's it, the underlines should be removed and in this local level page you'll find a new CSS section that should look like the following:
a:link {
    text-decoration: none;
}

If you want to remove links from a blogger template, just do the following steps,
Blogger Template Changes:

1. Open your template for editing in blogger (Make a backup of your template and save it in notepad)
2. find the a:link section in the template if it already exists
1. If it exists change or add the section: text-decoration: none;
2. If it does not exist add it as follows:
1. a:link {
   
       text-decoration: none;
   
   }
3. Preview the template to insure that the underlines are gone
4. If everything is OK, then save template
5. Republish entire blog

You are done!

Advertise Anonymously in the Want Ads with MyAdBox

MyAdBox is a new internet service that allows people to advertise anonymously. Through their service you can sign up for a toll free number, an anonymous email address and an anonymous website to display the goods or items you are offering.

They have three different levels of service that range in price from approximately $5 - $20 for 30 days worth of service.

They offer the ability to setup your own voice mail on the anonymous toll free number, and with preimium services you can even setup interactive interview questions on the voice mail. A short and simple website with text and a picture upload is another possibility.

So as an example if you wanted to post a job, apartment for rent, or vehicle for sale in your local paper, you can provide this anonymous toll free number, email address and even a website with a description of the job or apartment and or a picture of the apartment or vehicle.

For more information:

Visit MyAdBox here

Syndicate your Blog with Feedburner

Feedburner syndicates blogs (just like Seinfeld gets syndicated in Cable TV land), you can have your blog syndicated such that it will not only publish your content on your site, but allow your readers to read your content from their preferred news related tools. Everyone has their own news preferences. I like Google News and push all my subscriptions to my my.yahoo.com. so if you set up a feed, I could subscribe to it and have your headlines pushed to my.yahoo.com where I could read it.

Feedburner provides many other useful tools to promote your blog as well so don't miss those tips either!.