About two weeks ago, I ordered a signed copy of John Chow’s Make Money Online book. While it did actually arrive within a few days and I read it quite quickly, I had to put off doing a review so I could focus on visiting family and my daughter’s birthday. Though I’m back on track.

Overall, Make Money Online is a very easy read. The book is less than 150 pages and a couple chapters more of reference than packed with text. The chapters can be grouped into three types: John Chow’s personal history of being on the internet, the basics of setting up a blog and blogging, and specific information about monetizing a blog.

I found John’s history to be as much a revisit on my own past as much as visit on his past. Each point in time that he targets, I can recall at which point in my development as a webmaster I was at. The major difference between us is that he was learning how to, in essence, be a businessman. I barely touched the affiliate stuff and never considered selling anything.

As I do have experience with the technical aspects of setting up a blog, the chapters on this subject did feel very slow and I had a hard time getting myself just to skim the information. However, the information presented is such that someone less inclined to coding can follow the directions several WordPress versions from now and still get a good idea of how to go about things.

Finally, the real treasure of the book – monetizing a blog. I wish I could thump the book on some people’s heads and get some of the information to stick. Not only were the chapters covering this topic inspiring to me, but even people building “regular” content websites rather than pure blogs could stand to absorb this information. If you feel confused and dizzy with all the advice floating around about SEO this and ad network that, John Chow will get all the clutter cleared for you.

I would have no issues with recommending Make Money Online to a fellow webmaster or blogger. The advice presented is clear, simple, and highly valuable.

Traffic exchanges are both quite popular…and unpopular. The problem is that while they are low-cost resource, they are hard to understand and actually use correctly.
The average traffic exchange is advertised as a free advertising resource that is as simple as viewing others’ websites in return for views of your website. What isn’t said is that you should not advertise your homepage or any other main page of your website and you probably shouldn’t advertise any regular page for that matter. Forget even advertising straight affiliate links too. If you are using traffic exchanges right now, that information is surprising. Especially considering how many small business sites and the traffic exchanges themselves tell their affiliates to advertise the affiliate links on traffic exchanges.

So what is the “secret” to traffic exchanges? In another post, I mentioned they should be thought of paid services. I’m also telling you they are lead generators.

Paid Service
Do not be fooled, traffic exchanges may be “free” to join and technically, free to use, but they are not free for you. On average, 30 minutes of surfing traffic exchanges will only allow you to view about 100-120 websites and you will only get about 20 to 120 views for your page out of all your viewing (because most exchanges only give you a fraction of a “view” for each of yours). Thirty minutes of your time to maybe get 120 views on your own website and in the same amount of time it took you took to earn those views, they will be gone. It doesn’t matter whether they’re unique views or not (honestly, good advertising is about getting a balance between new and returning users).

So if you want to use a traffic exchange efficiently, the best route to buy credits. It is at this point, I must point out that not all traffic exchanges are equal. A lot of people buy or acquire traffic exchange scripts cheap and don’t have the skills to manage them. So before you start buying massive credit packages everywhere, choose a couple traffic exchanges that are designed well, are well ranked among people using them, and have a responsive administration. Reading the fine print helps as well.
Start with a moderate package of at least one thousand views (which averages about $10) and test out your results – which I’ll get to shortly. If your results are favorable, try a larger package or start a credit subscription (communicate with the owner if a subscription isn’t listed in the section for buying credits).
Be sure to check on your results every once and a while to make sure your advertising is still going well. Advertisements can get “burned out” quickly in traffic exchanges, so be prepared to tweak your advertised pages often.

Lead Generator
As I have already noted, even many traffic exchange owners themselves encourage placing regular webpages or regular affiliate links into traffic exchanges, but people that get results from traffic exchanges don’t do that. Not usually at least. The page you put into a traffic exchange’s rotation should be an advertisement for the web site it’s connected to. The term for this is splash page or capture page (depending on how you connect to your main website).

Splash/Capture Page Basics

• Keep file size low: People are not going to wait past the timer for your page to load or to read your wall of text.
• Submit an alternative page: If you are submitting a page with media on it, even a plain sound file, also submit a page without media. Surfers do not always react favorably to media on pages, especially if it automatically plays. Be ready to pull a media page if the alternative performs better.
• Assure users: If you are presenting a surfer with a sign up form, be honest about your privacy policy. They don’t need the whole legal book, but let them know their information is secure (and it should be).
• Respect the surfing frame: Do not have a frame-breaking script on your page and open any links in a new window.
• Track results!

The important thing is to get surfers to visit your web site outside the traffic exchange. If you throw a regular page in the exchange, that is the only thing they will see. Repeat it to yourself, surfers will only see in a traffic exchange the page that has been submitted to the traffic exchange. This is true even if you have a great web site. Imagine you have been granted an opportunity to have a large advertisement below the search box on Google’s homepage. What would you put there? Hopefully, not an entire web page.

Tracking Results
Whenever you do any advertising, you should have a way to track what’s going on. At the least, throw a Google Analytics code in the footer of your page. The things you should know are how many hits you’ve gotten, the bounce rate (basically, whether users hung out or ran away from your site), the rate of hits per day, whether visitors are completing the actions you want them to, and what the real cost of your views are.
Traffic exchanges don’t really lend to a high conversion rate. The number of people that will click through your advertisement compared to all surfers during the time you are advertising will always be low. Even people that have made their success in traffic exchanges will confirm this. That said, if only 1% of people are clicking anything on your advertisement and less than that are completing desired actions, then you should take another look at your advertisement.

Recently Facebook users found themselves staring at another dramatic change in Facebooks layout, igniting yet another round of “change it back” protests from a vocal segment of the userbase. While it would be foolish to think Facebook will never change things again, Facebook has made it clear they intend to do a lot more in the near future. Just take a look at the Developers’ Roadmap on the official Facebook Developer Wiki.

I understand if you don’t want to scratch your head over the details of the Roadmap, so here’s a rundown of my interpretation of the Roadmap.

Instead of having a simple page where you can quickly knock down requests for applications (whether accept or reject), application requests will be pushed to your inbox. These requests will be divided between the sort of messages you can currently receive from apps and a filtered “invites” section of the inbox. “Notifications” will be compressed into your homepage, as a number next to the source application on the left sidebar. Additionally, the boxes tab is going to eventually say goodbye and applications will be forced to work with profile tabs if they want to have “permanent” content on your profile.

Now that you’ve been warned, don’t be surprised when the changes come. Though please refrain from sending me a bunch of “change it back” group and page requests.

It’s been a while since I’ve really been to Technorati. I set up my account there a couple years ago and got busy on other things. So I’m verifying my blogs and checking it out now that I’ve been reminded of it and have a few moments.

View my profile at
http://technorati.com/people/erythisis

So, you have a new website with lots of content ideas and a great design, but where are all the people? There are hundreds of web sites dedicated to getting traffic, but many can be classified into a handful of types with specific techniques.

Online
Social bookmarking (Digg, StumbleUpon, etc)
These sites allow for browsing from webpage to webpage based on keywords of interest. As people view the pages, they rate up or down the pages and this affects the overall viewing activity of particular webpages. Quality of your content and your interaction with the community tends to drive how well Social Bookmarking works for you.

Social Networking (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc)
Rather than browsing web sites, these allow for browsing personal profiles. The primary focus is friendly, content-filled communication with like-minded peers. Not advertising. However, as with social bookmarking, the more you positively interact with others via the networks, the more likely network “friends” will respond to the occasional posted link. Just a caution though, make sure you learn about proper usage of privacy settings before “letting it all hang out”. The wrong picture or message has gotten enough people in trouble that ignorance is not an excuse.

Social Streams (Twitter, MyBlogLog, Google Buzz, etc)
These are a marriage of Social Networking and Social Bookmarking. Users activity and thoughts are fed into quick updates which are then shared with “followers”, people who choose to receive the information from others. People expect to see outgoing links and are not opposed to clicking through, but the response tends to be more dramatic. Either the link is acceptable and you remain followed or it is considered unacceptable and you risk being unfollowed. For more information about using Twitter, read my Twitter Basics post.

Web Rings and Top Lists (tend to be niche managed)
Older webmasters may reminisce about the days when these services where the popular choice for people without a lot of advertising money, but web rings and top lists still exist and can easily be the most targeted traffic you can get for free. The trade off is that you will be required to display some code on your website, which may not be the most visually appealing and allows surfers to easily navigate to other member web sites. With top lists, you websites will be ranked based on traffic movement between the top lists homepage and your site.

Forums (niche-based)
If you are willing to be a community member and contribute content-filled posts (not necessarily articles, just information that isn’t advertisements), forums related to your website topic can draw in visitors via your signature (and sometimes through specific board posts). The big caveat is that you must read the community guidelines regarding links and be a participating member in order for people to be willing to check out your website. If all you do is advertise, chances are you will be labelled a spammer and have your links ignored.

Advertiser/Publisher Networks (Adwords/Adsense, Commission Junction, etc)
These run from simple pay for views of text or banner ads and click-throughs to your web site to full affiliate management programs. The idea is that you set a certain offer price for having an action completed (such as someone signing up for your newsletter) and a “publisher” (another webmaster) can decide if that offer price is enough to display your advertisements. In the simpler setups, the process is automatic but with the affiliate management programs, an approval process will need to be set up – even if you have it automatically accept anyone who requests to display your ads. A good idea is to do some research about what your “competition” is doing and what their offer prices are before getting into these networks as an advertiser.

In-House Affiliate Program (usually self-hosted using distributed scripts)
While running your own affiliate program works best when you already have at least a trickle of traffic, it can drive much more traffic when set up correctly. As with the big networks, the key is to do some research on what your competition is doing and what the best publisher offer is.

Traffic Exchanges (StartXChange, SWAT Traffic, etc)
Be careful with using traffic exchanges. They are foremost a business to business adverting resource, with emphasis on internet marketers and dosed heavily with “income opportunities”. The concept is that the views your webpages get are based on how many times you view other member websites. Instead of being a relative metric (based on how people perceive you) like in Social Bookmarking, the view/receive ratio is actually coded into the traffic exchange. I have a beginner’s guide to traffic exchanges in draft, but the best advice I can give for these at the moment is to consider traffic exchanges as paid services. Instead of getting sucked into surfing pages on end every day (and traffic exchanges always have surfing promos going on), take the short route and buy a “credit” package to test the site out. Having money invested should encourage you to carefully weigh whether traffic exchanges will benefit you.

Safelists (member base tends to be widely spread out)
Safelists can be considered sibling to traffic exchanges in that many successful (as in, making plenty of money) affiliate marketers don’t care for them and safelists are again, primarily business to business services for internet marketers. While safelists are not inherently bad and can be a fair source of traffic, expecially if you have a great advertising idea of your own, they are somewhat tricky to manage as a user. The term “safelist” refers to the fact that by signing up for one, you are agreeing to receive email messages from others in exchange for the ability to email the group. Which means in a popular safelist, you may easily receive hundreds of messages every day. With all honesty, few people really gain a lot by using safelists and usually it isn’t the members. I mostly cover them here because if you get involved with traffic exchanges (or in another direction, get-paid-to programs), you will run into safelists and they will sound tempting.

Your Own Newsletter/Email List
As you gain visitors, or in preparation for visitors, having your own mailing list set up can be very beneficial, especially if you have a website selling products or services. There is a lot of information to running an email list, but there are “two” accepted rules of the professionals you’ll see repeated. One, be legal and fair, do not add people to your list (or share their information) without their express permission and offer an easy out for people that wish to unsubscribe. Two, follow through with expectations, send email as regularly as and with the content you said you would.

Offline
Business Cards
The key to business cards is to not use them as advertisements for whatever product or service you offer. Instead, they should highlight who you are and what your business is. They should contain your name, your relationship to your business (such as owner or webmaster), your business, your business address (web and/or physical), and a visual representation of how you want to be branded. Having an offline method of contact is ideal, but a working website with some sort of easily accessed contact form works well too.

Branded Items (hats, pens, notepads, etc)
There isn’t one specific method to designing branded items that works for all websites and businesses, but choosing which products you brand (and then distribute) can sometimes be more fruitful than simply handing out business cards. People are more likely to keep your name (or your website name) handy when it’s on an item they can and want to use. Branded items can be handed to people in person, but offering a free branded item via your website, especially if it’s a bigger item, can also draw in visitors. If you choose something like t-shirts, be sure to save a few for yourself to wear and actually wear them. Getting a bumper sticker for your car isn’t a bad idea either if your website is a long-term project.

Niche Events
Pay attention to what going on in your area and go to events with subjects related to your site content. Even you have a lot of people stop by your booth at an event looking for free samples, every person is a chance to talk about your site and why it’s something they want to see. On the flip side, if you have a service for businesses or other webmasters, browsing the booths at an event might connect you with someone interested in seeing your website.

While working on another web site with WordPress and Thesis, I decided that breadcrumbs would be a perfect little extra detail. My initial response was to head over to ThesisThemeTools, where I had seen a breadcrumb tutorial before (WordPress does not have an internal breadcrumb function). However, the implementation, while definitely good and valid, doesn’t have the flavor I like. So with a little coding inspiration from CatsWhoCode, I developed an advanced version which combines the easy customization and plugin-free power of Thesis, the div and css structure from ThesisThemeTools, and the page-specific crumb-code from CatsWhoCode.

Code for custom_functions.php (in your thesis custom folder, do not edit the root functions file for thesis)
function universal_breadcrumbs() { ?>
<div id="breadcrumbs">
<a href="<?php bloginfo('home'); ?>">Home</a> <?php
if (!is_front_page()) {
echo ' &gt; ';
if (is_category() || is_single()) {
the_category(' &gt; ','multiple','');
if (is_single()) {
echo ' &gt; ';
the_title();
}
} elseif (is_page()) {
the_title('<a href="'.get_permalink() .'">','</a>');
}
}
?>
</div>
<?php }
add_action('thesis_hook_before_header', 'universal_breadcrumbs');

Code for custom.css (also in your thesis custom folder, do not edit the root style file for thesis)
/*=================================================*/
/* EASY BREADCRUMBS */
/* Version 1.0 */
/* Written by Mike Nichols December 23, 2009 */
/* Website: http://thesisthemetools.com/ */
/* Copyright (c) 2009 by Michael L Nichols */
/* License: Creative Commons Share-Alike 3.0 */
/* http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ */
/* THIS NOTICE MUST STAY WITH ANY COPY DISTRIBUTED */
/*=================================================*/

/* hover properties of fonts */
#breadcrumbs a:hover {
color: red;
font-size: 1em;
/*font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;*/
font-weight: bold;
text-decoration: underline;
/*text-transform: uppercase;*/
/*font-style: italic;*/
/*font-variant: small-caps;*/
}

With this pair of codes, you will see “Home” on the home page, regardless if it’s the default (with posts) view or a static home page. If you are on a page, the breadcrumbs will appear as Home > pagename. Categories will appear as Home > categoryname and posts will appear as Home > postcategory > postname. Each part of the breadcrumb trail – page, post, and category – is linked to the appropriate resource (category to the category page). Additionally, I skipped on the current page being both self-linked and non-linked one right after each other. So it’ll look like
<a href="yourhomepage">Home</a> > <a href="thepage">thepage</a>
instead of
<a href="yourhomepage">Home</a> > <a href="thepage">thepage</a> > thepage

Tweaks
Changing “Home” to “Yoursitename”
In functions file change <a href="<?php bloginfo('home'); ?>">Home</a> to <a href="<?php get_option('home'); ?>"><?php bloginfo('name'); ?></a>

Changing the section separator from greater-than bracket (>) to something else.
In the functions file, replace each of the three > with the symbol of your choice. Watch for the spaces on each side of the character.

Changing style options
The CSS code contains several commented properties, which are identified by being preceding with a slash and asterisk (/*) and followed by an asterisk and slash (*/). Uncomment the properties you want by removing the preceding and succeeding asterisks and slashes, then editing as desired.

Not too long ago (June 2009), Google did a street survey asking people what they thought a browser was, as well as what a search engine is. Interestingly, a lot of people don’t know the difference.

So in October 2009, Google made a video that explains what a browser is and suggests people use one they like.

Why am I talking about this a few months later? Honestly, I spotted the second video while pondering why Chrome likes forgetting how to find webpages, but the lesson that can be gained from the videos is important.
The truth is that the average person will never have as much knowledge about any particular subject as a person who is specifically interested in that subject. Whether the subject is browsers or something else. You cannot assume just because you know something, everyone else knows it. Part of the reason why I do a lot of very simple instructional articles, both on this site and elsewhere.

Though honestly, I don’t think the videos are going to make a lot of difference. You don’t really need to know how an engine works to drive a car, it’s just helps, and like engines, browsers are not dinner conversation for the average person. Short of discussing how it does not work. So while some people not involved with web development might be interested, the videos are more of entertainment for those of who do know the difference between a web browser and a search engine.

Visit the average publicly accessible webmaster forum and chances are, you’ll find a fair number of backup horror stories. Or more accurately, horror stories involving the lack of a good backup to deal with an unfortunate event. It’s easy to put it off, or just hope your web host will take care of it, but if you value the time and effort put into your website, you need to always have immediate access to a good backup of your web site.

My host takes care of backups for me…
No they don’t. There are several hosts that do list backups as a feature, but generally speaking, the backups either aren’t for you or aren’t of the quality and availability that is needed.

In the first case, all good hosts will do regular backups of their servers in case something goes wrong for them, they can easily resurrect server data and all the accounts of their wonderful (aka, paying) customers. However, very few hosts will actually go through their server copies just to find your files, at least without making you pay for the service separately from your hosting bill.

In the second case, you may actually be able to request, or directly access host-created backups, but as your host has over 100, maybe thousand, other customers, they will not be backing up your files often enough and storing long enough, to ensure good backups. You may find yourself with a month old version of your site, which had changed many times since that backup was created. Or worse, your host may backup your site between the time something does go wrong and you find out…replacing the last good backup of your web site.

What should be backed up?
Everything. Unless your site is purely static, it’s not going to do you much good to be missing your database. Likewise, a database doesn’t do much without the code in the web pages that manipulate the data in the database. Don’t forget all of your photos, miscellaneous files, and if you’re not regularly downloading via an email client, your email messages.

How often should I back up?
At least weekly, but more often if you are changing your content more than that. Prior to every major change to your site, especially database changes, backup your web site. It’s easier to copy and paste, or overwrite, existing code than it is to rewrite it and re-debug it.

How long should I keep backups?
At the very least, keep backups for a year. While it’s easy to get confident that you’d spot anything wrong with your web site, some issues may take time to develop before you realize something is wrong. Some long-building problems can be wiped out with a little adjustment, others could require days to straighten out without a backup.

How do I backup my data?
Personally, downloading all files via ftp, then a MySQL dump works for most small websites. However, there are commercial, and more automatic solutions available. I do not have any specific recommendations, as the best fit is dependent on what features you need, but there are a couple musts. Before making a longterm investment, make sure the backups created are readily available, complete, generated often enough to be useful, and not overwritten by subsequent backups.

Some alternate solutions are using Cpanel’s backup option or by archiving your files in Cpanel’s file manager. However, not all hosts have these options activated and even if they are, not as recommended.

Design is in the details, and one of the details that have been missing for Erythisis Designs is a consistent icon or logo. I’ve always attached the site to the image of a cherry, but the look of the cherry (or cherries) has changed more than the site has changed themes, and until recently, that’s been often. Not only has the associated image changed, but what is displayed has been different between services. One kind of cherry on place and another kind of cherry elsewhere. This is not a good branding practice.

So now that I am at a point where I am happy with how the site looks and works, I finally invested time into creating a icon that carries both the simplicity I seek and the uniqueness that points to “erythisis”.

Not only is this new icon featured to the left, and bottom, of each articles/post here, but I will be propagating the same icon to social networks Erythisis Designs is part of. You can already see it taking a pose at my @erythisis account on Twitter.

The cherry icon has now been moved to the header, as a sort of watermark. Still you will find the symbol marking many of my projects.

This article was originally posted by me on APSense. Feel free to view the original article and give it a tops.

Either you get Twitter, or you don’t. I’m not sure whether it’s a good thing or not that there isn’t much middle ground. Hopefully though, this will help turn some of the “do not get” into “got it.”

Before diving in, let’s scatter the bird of misconceptions. Twitter isn’t just a bunch of meaningless, mundane updates interspersed with spam. While there are people who post stuff that honestly they only care about and some people than think it’s like a advertising free-for-all, those types are truly in the minority.

A person who uses Twitter smartly will discover it to be a powerful personal branding and communication tool. Whereas many people shy away from using forums and contact forms on websites, often due not being sure if anyone will hear them, this restriction is largely lost at Twitter. Despite the character limitation of updates, it is quite easy to make sure whatever concerns, and kudos, you have are heard clearly. Twitter is a pretty good way to get some real feedback.

So, how to squeeze the most of this tool?

1. Put others first.
Search for a few people to follow. About five at a time (or per day) is good. Just make sure you’re interested in their twitter content. Do not follow people just to get follow backs¹. Many businesses have twitter pages and not only provide some customer support via Twitter, but often offer deals to followers. When visiting your favorite websites, keep an eye out for “follow me” links to Twitter. Having a method to your following practices shows others that you are interested in the Twitter community, not just trying to suck it dry for a few cents.

2. Throw away that super link gun.
If you’re running a blog or your OWN website, it’s okay to link in to articles and posts from twitter. With light usage, throwing in links to other places is fine too. There’s plenty of cool tools to shorten links, even track clicks. Just keep the number of links small compared to your total number of posts. Twitter is not the place for hard selling.

3. Communicate.
Twitter is not a blog where you talk to people. It looks strikingly similar, but Twitter is a social platform more like Facebook where you talk with people. That means it is a good idea to interact with other people. Re-tweet updates you think are cool, reply to other people’s tweets with your (polite) thoughts, and when someone responds to you, don’t just act like it never happened. It says a lot about a company when they’re more than willing to send updates, but never respond to people sending messages and updates their way. That “says a lot” usually isn’t very nice.

4. Understand the shortcuts used by the community.
You can find the official shortcuts under the help section, which is linked to in the upper right corner of Twitter. Under the Getting Started category.

As an example, a hashtag is the pound/hash symbol (#) followed directly by a keyword. Hash tags are used to make it easier to find updates related to the keyword. It’s a good idea to observe hashtags being used by others before jumping right in.

5. Mind your manners.
If you have a bone to pick, fine, but make sure you think through whether it’s okay for a particular comment to live forever. A tweet is like your own voice. Once you say something out loud, you can’t take it back and with Twitter, there are a couple hundred services archiving every single tweet that passes through Twitter, including yours. Even hitting the delete button right afterward offers no guarantee.

6. Throw in meaningful updates.
Offer tips and mention news regarding your favorite subjects. Give information relevant to your business’ niche. Offer to help people with stuff that you can. This tip ties in with number 1, but with emphasis on your tweets, rather than your “buddy up” routine.

7. Stay connected
Visiting the Twitter site daily is one way to keep your flow going, but if you are serious about taking advantage of this social platform, consider installing a desktop client on your computer that supports Twitter.
Personally, Digsby is my choice. Not only does it do Twitter, but it keeps me updated on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Myspace activity, plus handles my messengers so I don’t have a bunch of programs running at once.

Just started on Twitter or looking for some fresh tweets? Feel free to follow me: @erythisis