It has been quite some time since I have done any writing for this blog and many things have changed in the ‘Blogoshpere’ (do we use that word any more?). Of course some things have not.  I’m going to ask you to do something, and it quite possibly may hurt. The phrase “content is king” has been kicking around for too long, and it seems that people are only saying it because it has been said for so long.  The next time you say it I would ask that you take a big bite out of your tongue or chew some tinfoil. You need to stop.

The saying of course stems from the idea that you should write for people and not search engines. I agree with this.  The other thought is that by saying and writing “content is king”  you will attract visitors, more traffic, social sharing and all that other fun stuff that bloggers get all crazy about.  Well, to me it’s just a bunch of bull corn.

Content isn’t King, it’s actually the Queen.

I agree that writing awesome content is extremely important. It’s the reason why people come back to your blog, its the reason why they leave comments, buy your eBooks or give you back rubs. But think about it for a second-Is having content that is powerful enough to cast Meteo, or content that can cure cancer really King? No, not really. To illustrate my point I could talk about a tree falling in a forest, but I would rather…

Make a point with a Star Wars Reference

I’m going to start this off with two names: Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba. These were the two guys in Episode 4 of Star Wars that accosted Luke Skywalker in Mos Eisley’s Cantina and shortly thereafter were attacked by Obi Wan Kenobi. Here are some interesting facts about them:

1. Ponda Baba did not like Luke Skywalker
2. Dr Evazan did not like him either
3. They were both ‘Wanted Men’
4. Dr Evazan had the death sentence in 12 systems

Now while those are not amazing facts, they are things that we would have never known if not for a chance encounter with Obi Wan and Luke. If these characters had never shared that information with someone of influence, then we would have never known any of the above 4 points.

For those of you that just didn’t get the Star Wars reference please think about the tree falling in the forest and whether or not anyone was around to hear it.

I can guarantee that there is a butt load of great content on the web that is worthy of the title ‘King’ but because no one has ever seen it or read it does it really exist? Can that amazing content be considered the “end all be all” of attracting people to your blog?  The fact is, your ‘awesome frickin content’ can’t even be considered awesome unless someone else reads it, or more importantly – shares it.

The point I am getting at is that you need to get your content in front of people of influence who will share your awesome content. That is King. From here on in, perhaps we could say “Content is Queen” and “Social Sharing of Queen content is King.” I may have to rethink that last one. Let’s start saying things like “quality content that will be shared” instead of invoking some kind of weird monarchy of writing.  Besides, having your content being shared is really a measure of whether it is good content or not.

Since the last post in 2009 I have created and deleted a ton of blogs.  None of them ever received the amount of traffic and community that this one did.  This blog was my first love and I always kept thinking about it. Well today I have decided that it is time to hunt down my first love and start things all over again. I figure with a domain that is almost 4 years old, and a decent PR of 3 I should be able to pour myself a few glasses of whiskey and back in the swing of things.

I like a fresh start, so I am going to be finding a new theme, deleting all the old plugins that I don’t really recall what they do. Right now I am not sure what my plans are, but I do know that my Adsense account is about $70 shy of being paid out, so perhaps I will kick it old school and try to build a few more Adsense sites.  I guess I really never learn.

Since deciding to revive my old blog I have had posts going through my head non-stop. Problem is they go just as quickly as they come and as soon as I have a chance to write them down the ideas have disappeared from my brain. I think one of the challenges of the old site was that I wrote a post pretty much every day. Even though I think that most posts were a hit, that left me very little time to promote my blog, try to monetize it, or even take care of it like a little bonsai tree. I think the plan for now is to take it slow to start, get back into the groove of things, and perhaps stalk some of my old readers and invite them to join me in the second half or remake of my blogging journey.

I am continually trying to find new ways to draw people to my blog and subscribe to my RSS feed. I am sure that is what most of us want. We all have different motivations, but we all want the same results: A buttload of subscribers. Most of us want more readers so we can gain a bit of fame, as well as make some cash from advertising. I like to follow a simple equation here:

Whiteley Enterprises + a high subscriber count= Selling advertising. Which to me equates to increasing the amount of fluid in my liquor cabinet.

I have been stewing on this method of getting more subscribers for quite some time, but I never really wanted to implement it as I kind of respect and enjoy the company of my readers. So I am not going to screw with you guys just to satisfy my ego and cravings for booze.

The theory:

When you first start a blog it is tough to get people to subscribe to your blog, and if you display your Feedburner chicklet of 3 subscribers people will generally discount your blog as being new, and not worth subscribing to. This is the main reason why people don’t show their subscriber count until they reach around 100 subscribers. Once you have hit this mark it is much easier to have people subscribe to your blog, as people will see that others have found your blog worthy to subscribe to, so they will subscribe as well.

So it kind of snowballs, the higher your subscriber count is, the easier it is to gain new subscribers. So it is that first hump that is tough to get over, but once you have a ton of subscribers you can pretty easily get more.

The Method:

Like I said earlier I had been toying with this for a while, and I am not going to do it on my blog because I have a solid foundation of readers that I don’t want to offend. There are a few ways to that you can make it look like you have more subscribers than you actually have:

1. Steal someone elses feedburner code
2. Use the Feedburner Hack

Of course both of those methods may have either been fixed, or are in the process of being fixed ( I haven’t fully researched either method but feel free to do so and share). My idea was to create a simple gif image that showed an inflated number of subscribers. It’s not entirely honest, but it could give those new blogs an extra push to becoming more popular.  OF course if you show an inflated RSS count and manage to deliver cruddy content, then people will eventually figure it out.  Then they will laugh and point at you as if you were that kid in school that wet themselves.  Nobody likes a blog wetter.

I have cooked up a few images that you can use to show a false number of subscribers on your blog. I would be curious to see how much of an effect that this would have on someones blog. So if anyone is using, or plans on using this method leave a link to your blog in the comments below so we can follow your progress.  Just save the image below and crop out the image that you would like to use. Or if you would like a custom one made with different colours and reader numbers please use the contact form ad let me know the background and text colour (in hexidecimal) as well as the number of subscribers and I can make one for you.

That was a mistake.

I watched as several bloggers started up blogs around the same time as I. I then watched as their blogs surpassed mine, even though they were the generic make money online post ideas that were generally ripped off from the big name bloggers (and not half as eloquent). I had a unique voice, an intriguing style, yet when I reached the 50 RSS subscriber mark, they had hit 200. So what was my problem? Why was I not successful?

Because I Was Living on Adsense.

The title of my blog, was like an icepick to the toenails; sounds funny when you mention it, but isn’t a great idea in reality. I wanted to branch out, but I had to keep writing about Adsense if I wanted to increase my readership and have people coming back. But what I wanted to write about was my life as a regular guy trying to make money online.

Well I am now free of Adsense

No longer will I obsessively check my stats, no longer will I keep trying to create and update a million blogs just to earn a few pennies. I am now free to make money online in any way I please, I am now free to write about what I originally planned on and not have readers get confused as to why a blog called “Living on Adsense” just wrote something about blogging, or about drinking too much Red Bull. I have moved my blog to a new domain name, a domain name that is generic enough that I will be able to continue blogging “Whiteley” style for as long as I like. I have tossed away my old Tri-Force of Blogging, gone to defeat Ganon, and have risen from my challenge with:

A new Tri-Force of Blogging:

1. I will blog about making money
2. I will blog about blogging tips and ideas
3. I will blog about items 1 & 2 as they affect my life

So now that I am free, what will I be doing?

Well, the first item on my list is start making use of all of the old domain names I have just sitting around. During the old Adsense days I had acquired a bunch of domain names as I came of with blog ideas. Then I kinda stopped with the blogs. So now I will come up with uses for these domains. I have a butt load of cool ideas in my brain that I haven’t been able to unleash as I was to distracted and oppressed by the evil powers of Google. With my trusty wooden sword in hand, I have freed myself of the evil forces of Google. “Don’t be evil” Right. I filled up my hearts and shot Google with my sword of power.

As Sarah said to Jareth, so I say to Google:

“You have no Power over me.”

I feel a breakup coming on.

There is only so much I can write about Adsense, without going stale. I prefer to chronical my journey, and share my thoughts and ideas along the way. That’s the kind of blog Living on Adsense has been. Yet I made one grave mistake: I named my blog: Living on Adsense. When people head to my site they expect to find a bunch of advice on how to make money with Adsense. They read for a bit and then realize I dispense Adsense once in a while, and then leave. I realize that I have created a blog where people have a preconceived idea as to what I am blogging about. Everyone expects Adsense advice, and that is not what I want to be all about.

So in order to outwardly project what my blog is about, I am going to rebrand my blog. You will find that I will still be churning out the same style of posts and writing. Well actually it will probably get much better as I will feel liberated from this Adsense prison. Over the next few weeks I will be cooking up a new blog template, transfer all my old posts to the new domain, and will be:

No longer Living on Adsense.

I think from here on in I may lose some people, but that’s alright. If people want to go, then let them. I think my honest style of blogging will keep people coming back, and I think more people will be able to share in my journey after I rebrand my blog into something that more appropriately conveys what my blog is all about.

Well I think I have rambled on enough about my future plans, I mean this is just an earnings post! Anyways please share your thoughts and ideas, and whether you are for or against this new direction I am going in.

Here are my stats for the week of Jan 5th to 11th

Here are my stats for the week of Jan 12th to 18th

So try not to think of fighting against sploggers, really you are battling Oompa Loompas. First off I would like to dispense some advice to these Oompa Loompas in a method the will understand: An Oompa Loompa song…

Oompa Loompa doo-pa-dee-do
I have perfect puzzle for you
Oompa Loompa doo-pa-dee-dee
If you are wise, you’ll listen to me

What do you get when you steal content?
Trying to monetize a little Adsense
Google won’t even look at you twice
When your a splog and you do not play nice

Slapped for duplicate content.

Oompa, Loompa, doo-pa-dee-da
If you’re not greedy, you will go far
You will live in happiness too
Like the Oompa Loompa doom-pa-dee-do

So many people have devised methods to combat these Oompa Loompa sploggers. Most people have chosen to include links back to there blog so that there is a chance that someone reading the slpog will click on the link and find your blog. Or people include the link so that they can get a bit of link juice to increase their page rank.

This method is fine and dandy, but I think there may be a better technique. What if instead of adding a link back to your blog, you add a link to an affiliate product? This way when your content gets stolen, the splogger will end up having a link to an affiliate product where you get the commissions for any sales. Seems like a good idea to me.

Another idea which you can use, provided you do not have adsense on your site, and you are confident that your post will get picked up by a splog, is to write a post asking people to click on your adsense ads. That way when the splogger steals your content there will be prominent calls to action to click on the adsense ads, which I am sure the splog has. There is a rare chance, but still a chance that Google may notice this blog and shut them down for violation of the Adsense TOS.

If you have a great idea of how to take advantage of the Oompa Loompa Sploggers please feel free to share below

Huh?

To me they have always seemed like just another thing that I need to moderate. Which I don’t have time for. And most of the time the trackbacks I get are from spam blogs that have stolen my content. It just goes to show how important my posts really are. Real people don’t’ post about my content only the spammers do. It’s like having junkies vouch for me.

So despite my anger towards trackbacks I decided to try and make them somewhat useful for me. Even though every trackback I get is usually some junk splog, I still go and check it out. Of course whenever I go check my (snail) mail I still get excited over junk mail. I guess it is some kind of cry for attention.

So magic of these craptastic trackbacks is that I always end up checking out the blog that has given me the trackback (even though I know that nobody cool would post about one of my articles). This gave me an idea.

If David Letterman on his Late Show were to say something nasty about Oprah, there is a pretty good chance that it would get back to Oprah. Even if he just mentioned her name, she would probably end up knowing about it. Upon hearing this Oprah would probably watch the part of the Late Show that mentioned her, and then possibly contact David Letterman. This is pretty much like a trackback. Although an unlikely scenario it gives an idea as to how trackbacks could work in your favour to get attention to your blog.

In the blogging world this method should work well to attract a bit of attention to your blog. Now this method may not work on really big bloggers that get trackbacks all the time. You should focus on blogs that are at the same level as yours, or a little bit higher. Most likely if you follow this method the blogger you trackback should come to your blog and at least make a comment. They may even become a subscriber or even mention your blog in one of their posts.

Here are the steps to use this method:

1. Choose a blog that is near the same level of success or a bit higher than your blog.
2. Write something attention getting about this blog or blogger.
3. Link your comment about this blog or blogger to a post that this person has made. Do not link to the blog home page though otherwise there will be no trackback, you need to link to a post, and preferably a new one.
4. Publish your post.

I am going to test this one out by targeting one of my favourite blogs: Bloggernoob. I should be able to attract some attention when I mention that sometimes I think about hunting down The Noob and slapping him right the face, the only reason I don’t do it is because I cannot figure out whether I want to slap him with the front of back of my hand.

You don’t have to be mean like I was. I just figure The Noob has a pretty good sense of humour. That’s pretty much it. Go ahead and test it out yourself and see if the person you mention comes to your blog and makes a comment. Who knows, it may lead to them posting about you and giving you a bit of exposure.

It’s amazing what happens when you avoid technology for two weeks. I had over 500 emails, and I am afraid to log into Google reader catch up on the blogs I read. There was one major benefit though: when I came home I had a Clickbank and Adsense cheques waiting for me. Of course I was to excited to cash my adsense cheque (it was $165) that I did not take a photograph of it as I did with first adsense cheque. This is my second adsense cheque since I started blogging in December 2007.

I have decided to reinvest this Adsense cheque towards my blog, but now that I have money to promote my blog I have no idea where it would be best utilized. If you have any ideas please do share.

This post is of course my monthly earning post so please read on to see my earnings for December:

Adsense: $39.83

ClickBank: $153.71

Earnings since Day 1 December 10th 2007:

Adsense: $288.80
ClickBank:$4388.44

Total: $4677.24

Average Monthly Income:$359.78

I have decided to leave a quick note to all my readers that I will be away from the blog until Jan 9th 2009, as I will be going on my honeymoon in Italy.  My new bride has asked that this be a technology free honeymoon (aside form the camera), so this means no blogging on the road!

I will be back to posting in the 3rd week of January.  Have a great Christmas holiday everyone!

I’m around 4 cents higher than last week!

Here my earnings for December 8th to 14th: