SEO Techniques that are Working

I hate posting redundant info, but these things will help you with getting more traffic to your blog from search engines. The Monetizer's been busy lately working on other blogs and making posts that get picked up in search results. This blog here unfortunately takes a backburner to other projects since it's the newest of the bunch. However, I want to re-emphasize that the following techniques WILL work to get you into the top of Search engine results. These are all things I've been doing more of lately, and it's paying off.

1) Use Free Keywords Tracker - You may need to spend some time there, but try to find popular searches related to your blog topic. If there are any that get searched for thousands of times a day, try doing a real Google search on them. If you see there is only 500,000 or less results (300k or under is even better!) then you should probably target those keywords or phrases. You'll want to write a blog post using that Keyword in your title, as well as within the entry itself. This will give you a new page on your blog to bring some search engine traffic.

2) Write an article, or two - Write up a 350-500 word article which relates to the keyword or phrase you are targeting. It doesn't even have to be brilliant material. The idea is to publish to article directories which allow HTML in your article. In your author or resource box, link back to your blog and the specific post itself, using your keywords as the anchor text. For example: The Monetizer is the author of a blog about making money online.

I then use Article Submitter to go and submit to 20 plus article directories. Again, I target those that allow HTML in the article, otherwise it doesn't seem worth the trouble because you get no links back. Check out my review of Directory Submitter which has a link for both Directory & Article Submitter, two powerful tools.

3) Use Social bookmarks - I've used socialmarker.com quite a bit now. It has 31 social bookmark sites included and allows you to submit your blog entry to them all much easier. When you first go to Socialmarker, you enter your blog entry title, your URL, description and keywords. You click "Submit" up on the top right of Socialmarker. Then you will go 1 by 1 through sites such as Digg, Stumbleupon, reddit and other bookmark sites. You may need to register for those you don't belog to yet. This helps as it will provide backlinks to your blog entry. I scored traffic from a few of these social bookmark sources as well.

4) Use Squidoo - If you have time I recommend you make a Squidoo page that relates to your blog topic in general. You can always add in links to your new blog posts at a later time, and it gives them extra link juice. If you have even more time, create a new Squidoo page just about the Keyword/phrase you are targeting and add in links to the blog post throughout it (using keyword/phrase as anchor text). I will have a post in the future discussing more about Squidoo which is a site I think many scoff at or ignore because it isn't making them money. There's more to it than that, in an indirect way.

5) Place links elsewhere - You should try to link back to your keyword targetted blog post in other entries on your blog. Ask/Answer forums, other blogs that have DOFOLLOW for comments, forums, social media sites. Find places to put your link with anchor text for your keyword. I haven't gone too crazy with this.

The combination of the above things is working well for me, and I believe it can work for you too. They will take time, patience and determination, but they work. It's taken just a few days for several of my blog entries to get into the first 3 pages of results. Some got to page 1, others got to page 2 or 3. If you try using these methods above and are targetting highly searched Keywords with lower results (500,000 or under), you will most likely see the same success. Again, sorry to be redundant with this material, but I think people are missing out on capturing loads of traffic via search engines.

Make Money with Pay Per Play!

Well the Monetizer has officially made the Pay Per Play plunge (say that 5 times fast!) Pay Per Play is the revolutionary new audio advertising program by NetAudioAds which goes into effect February 2008. It's been positively talked about in The Wall Street Journal, so it just might be the biggest new thing for money makers online. They are likening it to Pay Per Click, so time will tell if this one really takes off. The idea though is to sign up now for Pay Per Play, because the faster you sign up, the faster you can start getting people referred! What's the referral plan? I'm glad you asked..

* 5% of what the advertiser spends on PPP ads played on the
website(s) of those you refer.

* 5% of what the advertiser spends on PPP ads played on the
website(s) that your direct referrals bring on board.

So as you can see, it pays to get in and get referrals before other people do!

Don't worry, this doesn't look like another Agloco type deal. The payments WILL start in February 2008, with the minimum $25 payouts going to your bank, home mailbox or PayPal account. It involves audio ads that you can stick on free blogs or other sites you own. You get paid based on a person visiting your site for 2 seconds minimum with the audio ad, whether they have their sound on or not. So if you can get the traffic up for niche blogs, you have yet another moneymaker!

I have a few other blogs where I'm going to test this out. They aren't high traffic yet, but I am targeting keywords and phrases to bring in more traffic. I'll be reporting back on my discoveries of course. I'd recommend those who'd like to try a new moneymaker online, sign up today and start implementing the code on your sites or blogs!

It's OK to Use Blogspot to Make Money

I've had the question or suggestion here more than a few times about "getting a self-hosted" domain for the blog. While this is advised by many moneymakers, the Monetizer is here to tell all those who shun using Blogspot blogs that you can in fact make money and profit from them. A blog I recently discovered, Make Money for Beginners (also hosted on Blogspot) sums it up very well. Grizzly, the blog's author discusses the concepts of making money online vs. building up your snazzy looking brand/authority. For example, you can have a fancy looking Web 2.0 blog full of style and pizzazz, but usually this is best for building yourself as a brand and making yourself look good online. It can most likely help you if you get into the realms of serious e-book sales or affiliate marketing. There's nothing wrong with that. There's also the concept of making money, and using free methods to do it. Since Grizzly discusses the topic for beginners, he points out that using Blogspot is a good way to go. A free investment that makes you money is better than spending for hosting, wouldn't you agree?

Now, the Monetizer has had hangups and irritations with Blogspot as well. For example, the other day I went through and realized I needed to add sitemaps for all my blogs to Google webmaster. This can be quite a chore to do with Blogspot. Usually you can just enter your Blog's URL and "atom.xml" at the end as a sitemap, but sometimes it will report errors and not index properly. There seems to be an issue related to RSS feeds on Feedburner and your original Blogspot feed, but I haven't quite nailed this down yet. Another issue comes when submitting this blog to search directories. Often times they won't allow you to submit something if you don't have an email address from the same domain. There's no "@blogspot" email addresses, yet. Wordpress on self-hosted domains will obviously give you greater freedom and ability when adding a sitemap or having an email at your domain. It also gives you total ownership, at a price of course. It will make your site a brand, and give a site you can be proud of. You really need to determine your goals though. Having a flashy site to impress people and gain as many loyal fans, or making money through simply set up blogs and sites.

The choice is really yours. You can easily build 1, 5, 10, 100 Blogspot blogs and make your own personal army of "free" moneymakers. They do make money folks, so don't think having a domain and self-hosting is the only route to go. It may be advised by A-Listers and those who have built themselves into a brand (or those trying to). But if you want to make decent money, Blogspot can work just as well.

I'd also encourage readers to check out Courtney Tuttle's challenge here. It involves getting yourselves top search rankings and is definitely worth learning as it can help drive traffic to your blog while you're sleeping.

Tips for Running a Blog Contest

Running a contest is good for many reasons on your blog site. It will bring you new subscribers, links back to your site and ultimately reward one lucky winner with a prize. As the "Hit 777 EC's With the Monetizer" is the first contest I've ever run on any blog, it's definitely been a learning experience in the early stages. It's had over 10 entries so far, so it takes some work to keep track of the various entry types.

Here's some things to consider when you set up a contest on your own blog:

1) Keep the rules clear and simple. Last thing you want to do is confuse people. I think following form of most other blog contests you've seen helps here. Take a look at the blog Contestblogger.com. They announce every contest around and you can see how sites set their rules. With this I also decided to make a minimum number of entrants. Entrecard is popular but you never know what you're gonna get based on current traffic, etc.

2) Promote the contest elsewhere - Not just on your blog itself. I'd suggest you make a clear link somewhere noticeable on your blog. Look to other blogs and forums to announce your contests as well. Especially if you're a newbie blogger and may not have traffic to get enough entries. With this contest I posted on the Entrecard forum and informed a Contest Blog. The word of "mouth" from other blog entries helps too.

3) Keep a spreadsheet - That's the best way I could come up with to keep track of who has entered and how they've entered. Have columns for each of the ways to enter, RSS, Email, and Blog Post. List out each entrant. Then put the appropriate "entry amount" in that column for each person. I've also used it to keep track of people's emails, blog post URL's and screenshot URL's. So it's a smart idea to set up an Excel Spreadsheet or even download the free OpenOffice.org.

4) Determine a Good Deadline - I set the contest to end February 1, which seems far away right now. I'm thinking 2-3 weeks is good for most contests, because the longer it runs the more potential entries you will get.

5) Make Sure You Have the Prize - I've read on another blog that someone won a Playstation 3 and never received it. In this case I'm good for the 777 EC's sitting within my Entrecard account, so have no fear ;)

Again I wish good luck to any and all who've entered so far. I've also decided I will provide link love on the post announcing the winner. That means every entrant will be listed in the post as well, with a link back to their blog site or entry. It's rather simple to enter and you can check it out here:

Hit 777 EC's With the Monetizer!