$20+ a day...movin' on up!

As some of you know, I've been testing out a directory generator to see how it works and if you can actually make money. Well, I'm at $20 a day now and things are moving right along. Last time I posted, I was at $10 a day. I still haven't had that much time to develop more sites, but I put a few more out there. Here's a breakdown of how many pages (and sites) I have that are indexed in Google:

Site 1: 293 pages indexed
Site 2: 93 pages indexed
Site 3: 10,900 pages indexed
Site 4: 60 pages indexed
Site 5: 101 pages indexed
Site 6: 120 pages indexed
Site 7: 127 pages indexed
Site 8: 452 pages indexed

Still, the trick is to get links to these sites to get them crawled. Now, my sites aren't your normal "directory generator" type. Using scraped SERPs just doesn't cut it...for my standards at least. A lot of people will tell you that the SERP scraps will last for 3-6 months and then get dropped. I don't want these sites to get dropped, so I found another method to add content, that seems to be working out nicely. My next update on this project will be when I hit $50. I'm thinking that will be sometime in the end of January; so many projects going on right now!

$10,000 a day

This was an interesting post over at ShoeMoney's blog. I really haven't looked into Google Base. This kinda post goes to show you that once you jump at a new opportunity on the web, you have a chance to make a lot of money, but you have to do it quick and fast right from the gate.

I've never dabbled in the "Adult" industry. It's just sooo saturated and I don't think it would be beneficial of my time to try and build an empire. I hear all the time that it's saturated, which makes me wonder if these amateurs are trying and just failing, then spreading rumors that is't really saturated (meaing they just don't know how to garner search/web traffic.

Adsense Preview Tool...Awesome!

This Adsense Preview tool is awesome. I hate logging into Adsense, just to get the exact combination of colors right. Of course, I'm a designer too, so I can just pull colors from Photoshop or Dreamweaver and plug them directly into the JS (which I don't really recommend unless you know what your doing).

You can preview Adsense, YPN or Chitika. Also lists out all the different ad displays too for Adsense...which I really do hate logging in to just find the right size I need. I can never remember the sizes, so loggin' in becomes REALLY cumbersome after throwing up a couple sites in a day. Have fun!

Hahaha...good shit

This is what blogging is all about. I found Dax's blog via Cutts and couldn't help myself read every post on the index page. Great way to waste 30 minutes. I highly recommend you read his blog and try not to piss your pants.

P.S. - I've gotta try this REAL soon!

New Google/Yahoo! Layout

Google's doing a little testing on SERP layout. Kinda reminds me of a 3 column blog. :) I have to say though, isn't ONE of the reason people switched over to Google search was the simplicity of it? Do you think it's getting a little crowded?

Looks like Yahoo! is doing a little changing too. G and Y! are just like the competitive neighbor next door. If you get a brand new car...your neighbor will try and "one up" you. Good times.

Wordpress/Ecommerce Solutions

Funny that this post should come from Performancing, as I was looking at using Wordpress, using various themes, to integrate into an ecommerce site.

The great thing about using Wordpress is that you can get static, HTML pages outta the box, rather then using OsCommerce or some other ecommerce integration scripts that include ID sessions, product codes, etc. into the URLs, which then become "search engine un-friendly".

I have a few dropship sites lined up over the course of the next 6 months. Should be fun and interesting. I'll keep you posted, as the dropship sites are tying into another project I have going, doing a JV with a guy.

Link Love: Voyages of the StarShip Google

Not that I'm a big fan of StarTrek, put you gotta think like Captain Kirk. Those guys scoured the unknown, looking for new places to explore. That's how you gotta be with you link building. Matt has been going on a rampage (for an award :) ) and in return, a few people have been mentioning other methods other then our (in)famous link broker. Jim has nailed it on the head in my opinion.

This is the method I use to garner links as well. I'll do a really broad single-keyword search for my topic in Google. Then I'll go to page 5 and start looking for link partners. Everyone in the top 40 are usually too commercial and won't sell you a link or the time invested to teach the "what a link is and what it's used for" just isn't worth it.

Not only is this a good method for gaining links that are "un-traceable", but more often then not, the site you purchase links on haven't monetized their traffic with link advertisers, which turns out to be a nice little side incoming for the site owner. Win-Win.

Just added to my RSS feeds

NickW (Nick Wilson), the former owner of Threadwatch, has just started a new blog network. Performancing looks very promising and already provides great content like an interview with Matt Cutts and how to customize your Wordpress templates.

I was reading the interview on Martinibuster at Todd's blog and Martini really hit a lot of key issues on the head, with regards to SEO/M. You gotta build a social network, a reason for people to come to your site, a reason for webmasters and bloggers to link to your site. Getting the community involved, not just with forums and blogs, but user reviews and other "outta the box" methods to get other's to join in on the fun.

Performancing just did an interview with Matt Cutts. That type of interview is going to garner a lot of GREAT incoming links from not just authority type sites, but from other bloggers that have a "fan base" already, so the click-value is worth so much too for generating new blood for Performancing's RSS feeds.

If you're a blogger, get interviews from industry leaders. If you have an ecommerce site, start a blog...and get interviews from industry leaders. :) Also, enhance with user reviews or setup a "blog-like" atmosphere on each product page.

Thinking on the Future
I read a recent forum post the other day (can't remember where) that mentioned if you start a website/business online today and KEEP WITH IT for 5 years and grow it into a full-time business, wouldn't it be worth it? I mean...5 years is going to come and go whether you like it or not. Start a few websites. Get some sort of contextual monetizing revenue stream (Adsense/YPN) and continue to do this. If you could be completely dependant on your efforts in 5 years, what are you waiting for then?

So many of us are looking for that quick buck. But if we start building our own network of money-generating sites and continue to "plug away" it will reap rewards down the road. Remember, the web is only 10 years old and isn't going anywhere. Build up your mini-network of sites and resources and grow it...continually. What's going to set you apart from the "quick buck-ers" is that you're in it for the long run.

I have my blackhat sites that generate quick bucks. I also have my whitehat sites that I'm pushing for the long haul. They don't generate any revenue for me, couple $$'s everyday, but if I continue to built more sites and keep building these sites into authorities, what kind of money will I be making from them in 5 years? I probably won't be doing to shabby? :) Don't think just for today. Have goals. Outline a plan of attack for each site and don't ever stop with it until it's at a level you REALLY love.

ok..ok..I'll stop. Got kinda goin' there for a minute. :)

AffiliateFinances.com launches

A friend of mine, Robert, has been working on this site for the last year or so. Before the site was up, he had just a single page, asking visitors to submit questions they needed answers for in regards to running a business through the web.

The site has now been launched and he seems to be going over the questions submitted in blog format. I think this is a great idea. I wasn't sure how he was going to layout the site, but a blog is a great way to do it.

Robert's strategy for getting content for this site is key to making it a success. Many people online want to make money with a website. I'll always tell them they need content (first and foremost), to flesh out the site. Robert had this idea, took a year to build up questions or "topics" and is now blogging on them on a regular basis. He's doing 2 things extremely right:

1 - Providing content that his visitors want (obviously, since they submitted the questions)
2 - Proving content that is extremely useful to web users

If you're having trouble getting content for your niches...ask you demographic. Ask the people that are on your site. Ask your niche in a forum(s) they participate in. You'll have content for "days"... :)

KeywordHandy...kinda handy

I already have scripts that do this for me, but if you don't, you can try KeywordHandy.com. It displays 3 tools in seperate frames - Overture's Keyword Selection tool, Overture's Bid Request tool, and Google's Sandbox tool.

Adsense Integration - This is what I'm talking about!

Still, a lot of webmasters don't know how to fully take in how to effectively integrate adsense into their sites. They'll just throw up the javascript and be happy with the $2-$5 they're earning a day (because hay...they weren't earning that before!). Even so, optimizing your adsense ads in a way to get the most clicks for your traffic is what's going to turn you into a "FedEX" publisher.

Here's a really good example I recently found:

www.stereo411.com/forum/ - awesome placement

Here are a few more examples:

www.articlescollection.com
www.skin-care-101.com

YPN Integration:

www.tutorialpod.com

In conjunction with getting a good amount of visitors to your site, or having high-paying keywords displayed (or both), you'll soon have more money then you thought could be made with Adsense/YPN.

Since starting my little directory site experiment, I've noticed using these methods can really drive up conversion rates and click-throughs. Most importantly, have a few different channels and test to see what works best. Once you found a way that works...duplicate...on all sites. :) Have fun!

Google Re-inclusion Requests Work!

I hear a lot of webmasters who find out there site is not listed in Google. Now, there can be many reasons why your site isn't getting indexed. Most reasons for newbies is you just need to get some backlinks pointing to your site and it will get indexed in a couple of days (usually a lot sooner, thou).

Another reason your site might not be getting indexed is that it is, in fact, banned from Google. In this case, a Re-Inclusion Request to Google is necessary to get your site indexed into Google's database.

I've heard stories of others trying this and nothing happened. Well, recently, I purchased a couple of domains that were used by a spammer and Google decided to ban them. I verified that they were used by spammers by checking Archive and seeing how the pages were designed. It's obvious (at least for me) to tell when someone's used a domain for spamming purposes.

Of course, the sites had been completely redesigned and were also in a completely different direction, meaning they weren't being used for spammy purposes and the sites were of value to be included into Google's indexed.

I wrote 2 seperate emails at 2 seperate dates a few months ago. I checked this morning for some weird reason to see if they were indexed (after I sent the requests, i was checking everyday for a couple weeks, but nothing). I was amazed! It was great to see.

A lot of webmasters think Google's Customer Service is a giant abyss to reach. Well, here's someone from the Re-inclusion trenches and I'm telling you it works.

Here's Matt Cutt's How-to guide to a Re-Inclusion Request

Now, for all you spammers...go get your site's back into Google! :)

Day or Night?

For all of you who have websites with adsense displayed on them, when do you get the most clicks? In the morning or more towards the afternoon?

GuruSense, of at WMW, says he gets better paying ads in the morning. He justifies this statement by saying most advertisers will hit their adsense limit in the morning or early afternoon, so the per-click amount drops in the afternoon.

I've can attest to this a little. I've see a majority of my adsense income come in the morning and kinda stagger off in the evening. What about you?