Here are some interesting search phrases bringing traffic here…

earn money like Ashbo - sure, why not?

jobs making outrageous money, is it true - unless you’re the CEO of a Fortune 500, sorry!

making with blog - umm… making what with blog?

Every now and then you should comb through your web stats and check for phrases that people are finding your blog with. This will give you an idea of what kind of content your readers are looking for.

Technorati Tags: search traffic

Popularity: 24% [?]

I thought it would be fun to look back at the gifts I have received from the companies that I have worked with online.

Here’s what I got from Google for Christmas 2006:

And for Christmas 2005:

You can see more photos of the goodies here.

For Christmas 2004, it was a mood radio:

This was something I got when I was a YPN publisher. I think it was from 2005.

These little gifts are thoughtful and makes us affiliates feel appreciated and motivated to achieve loftier goals.

Technorati Tags: Google Christmas gifts, Yahoo Christmas gifts

Popularity: 29% [?]

It’s nice when the people you work with appreciate you and send you a Christmas gift. I got a nice surprise in the mail today from NeverBlueAds.

My total earnings with them in the last few months were somewhere around $6,000.

Here’s what they sent me:

Some nice comfy slippers for the cold winter months…

Some things to help me curl up in front of the ‘virtual’ fireplace with a good book. I can pop the DVD of the virtual fireplace in and settle in my favorite chair to enjoy some NeverBlueAds popcorn.

Thank you NeverBlueAds, especially to my affiliate manager, Jason!

If you’d like to join a great CPA network, you can sign up with them here.

Technorati Tags: NeverBlueAds, Christmas gifts

Popularity: 27% [?]

I’ve been reading up on a lot of Warren Buffett lately. His business acumen and common sense is legendary as proven by his track record. If you’re interested in investing, I suggest going to your local library or bookstore and picking up some books on Buffett. Another source of lots of Buffett wisdom is the Berkshire annual reports.

This is Buffett giving advice about being successful in life…

To protect your business, you’ve gotta build a castle and a big moat around it. Your business is your castle. As a money-making blogger, your blog is your business. You have to build a moat around your blog. Now, what does that mean, you ask?

In business, the moat is the barrier to entry to the business. If your business model and product is easily replicable and there’s not much to distinguish you from your competitor, then you’ve got a small moat. As a blogger, what is your competitive edge?

Your network is your moat. You may have built relationships with other bloggers in your niche. That’s a competitive advantage. For example, a mention on an A-list blog could get your traffic shooting up for a few days.

The links to your blog is your moat. If you have spent time marketing your blog and building your brand, then you’ll get links back to your blog which help you get better search engine rankings. That’s a barrier to entry for new bloggers.

Your web stats are your moat. By mining your data, you’ll understand more about your visitors and where they come from. You’ll know the return on your advertising and marketing efforts. You’ll know which keywords you are ranked for that are bringing most of the traffic. With all that data, you can tailor your blog to target the people you want to reach.

Your domain age and search rankings are your moats. Blogs on older domains that have a history of constant posting tend to get lots of attention from search engine spiders. As a result, it’s a lot easier to rank for lots of different long tail phrases that, in aggregate, can bring you significant traffic. I’ve seen with this blog that a lot of phrases I use in the title of the post will come up on the first page of the search engine results after a few days.

If you’re thinking of starting a blog, get your own domain name. Forget about saving a few dollars with free hosting on Blogger or Wordpress. You want to own your domain and build a recognizable brand.

These are just a few examples of how you can build a competitive advantage even in the fast-moving world of blogging.

So go ahead and widen your moat. Every day.

And while you’re at it, throw some sharks and alligators in there as well.

Technorati Tags: Warren Buffett, competitive advantage

Popularity: 28% [?]

My initial thoughts about Entrecard is that the traffic quality is lousy. Most of the people are just surfing through to gain credits.

According to Google Analytics, since I set this blog up in Entrecard on November 28th, I’ve gotten 211 visits through Entrecard, that is including people who click through ads I placed as well as people browsing my site through the Entrecard inventory. Folks who intend to advertise usually click through the blog to check it out.

The number of card drops on my blog:

The number of ad clicks through ads placed on other blogs:

Clicks on my card from the Entrecard site (organic clicks):

Here’s the kicker - the average time on the site is 75% less than visitors through other referrals. Entrecard visitors look through 40% less pages and the bounce rate is 37% higher.

Here are more stats:

1. On average, I’m getting about 15 card drops per day.

2. I did manage to get an ad on JohnCow.com for a day - that brought in a measly 23 clicks. You would think that with the number of credits required to advertise (80 credits per day when I did it - it’s now 160 credits per day) on JohnCow that my return would be better.

3. Advertising on DormEarning.com with 12 credits per day brought 10 clicks. Moral of the story, test your advertising and measure the returns. Spending more credits on ads doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get more visitors clicking to your site.

Tips for using Entrecard effectively:

1. When looking to advertise, check out the blog you intend to advertise on. Make sure that your card will appear somewhere uncluttered and easily noticeable - somewhere above the fold is the best. If the blog has a ton of ads all over the place, chances of your card getting click gets lower. If your card appears all the way on the bottom of the page, once again, you’ll likely not get any clicks.

2. Try other categories. If your site is about making money online, you can also try advertising in other categories like hobbies, internet, lifestyle, etc. This might also cost you less credits as the popular make money blogs require lots of credits.

3. Advertise on newer blogs listed on Entrecard. These require few credits to advertise on, so you won’t have much to lose while getting more exposure for your ads.

4. When you visit other blogs you find through Entrecard, leave them a comment and let them know. Network with other bloggers.

5. Leave recommendations for people you know. They might do the same for you.

6. Design a more attractive card. Don’t know how to do it yourself? Ask people for help or hire someone. An attractive card will increase your chances of getting your ad noticed. It will also help build your brand.

It’s harder to track things like how many people who visit through Entrecard become RSS subscribers or mailing list subscribers. Harder but not impossible. If you’re serious about measuring your traffic, you should consider tracking all these things.

Technorati Tags: Entrecard, getting traffic to your blog

Popularity: 23% [?]

Last month’s TLA earnings across my network of sites - $716.31

Not really something to write home about but it’s really passive income. I haven’t done anything else since submitting my sites to TLA.

It looks like the earnings have levelled off. And the recent changes with Google didn’t really change much in terms of the number of advertisers advertising on the sites. Look at my previous post showing the growth of Text Link Ads earnings.

Want some extra income for your blog?

Technorati Tags: passive income, blog income

Popularity: 29% [?]