Welcome To The PureBlogic RSS

Make Money Online With DreamTemplate Dot Com

Kila Morton — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:58:19 +0000

I'm going to tell you about an absolutely fantastic site that I personally love. This site offers you something that you will likely need in addition to a great way to make money online. The site is called DreamTemplate.com and it's a site that offers very high quality templates for websites. This site offers both standard website templates as well as beautiful Flash templates. One of the best things about DreamTemplate.com, aside from the obviously wonderful design templates, is how the templates are organized. If you are looking for a template for a photography website, DreamTemplate.com has them. If you are looking for templates for an educational website, DreamTemplate.com has them. If you are looking for a template to tell the world about your little fluffy pet, DreamTemplate.com has them! They have a wide range of different types of templates to get your web project off the ground in no time.

I would never tell you about a company that I don't believe in. I own my business designing software and websites and I use their templates all the time to offer my clients quick and easy ideas for their web projects. I still do most of the design work for most of my clients, but using these quality templates for some of my projects has been a super timesaver! Sometimes there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done. DreamTemplate.com takes some of that web design worry off of your hands. The templates are easy to use, they are very well designed and they offer you a quick and easy way to get a website up and running. Now you don't have to run to an expensive designer like me to get very beautiful web templates (thanks a lot DreamTemplate!). Instead, you can go to DreamTemplate.com and find the template that fits your business or personal needs.

Now you may be asking yourself why I'm even telling you about DreamTemplate.com. You may be thinking "I don't design websites! Why is Kila telling me about DreamTemplate.com?" Well let me fill you in on something else about DreamTemplate.com. DreamTemplate.com offers you a great way to make money on your website. DreamTemplate.com has a great affiliate program that allows you to place banners on your website that link back to them. If someone clicks on the link on your website and makes a purchase, you get paid a percentage. If you have a website geared toward creative professionals or if you have a website geared toward other website owners, this could be a real money maker for you! Signing up to be an affiliate is quick and painless. Visit DreamTemplate.com and click on the 'Affiliate' link at the top of the page.

Another beautiful thing about DreamTemplate.com is that they don't just offer the templates alone, they also offer you a subscription to a stock photography site. This alone is worth the fee to be honest. I have used so many photos from that site on a variety of websites, postcards I've designed and other things. You also get access to DreamTemplate.com's sister site which offers WordPress & Joomla blog templates too! That's a value that just can't be beat! If you are creating websites for yourself, the templates are great to use, but if you have your own site, why not use DreamTemplate.com to make money online? The web templates they offer are great and the templates are certainly things that people coming to your site could use!

The last thing I want to tell you about is DreamTemplate.com's level of service. Perhaps that is the most important thing (well other than the fact that you can make money with them :-)). This company offers outstanding service! I had an issue with a file I downloaded. I sent them a message and they responded very quickly. In addition to being very responsive, they handled my issue in a very professional manner. So if you are looking for quality web templates that are beautiful, well designed and professional or if you have a website and are looking to make money online as an affiliate run over to the great people at DreamTemplate.com and sign up for an account or become an affiliate. If you like, you can do both!

Click here to visit DreamTemplate.com!

Written by Kila Morton

The Types Of Sites That Can Help You Make Money Online

Kila Morton — Mon, 19 May 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Many people spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to make money using the Internet. This is no secret. However, one of the principle reasons why some people will never make money online is because they are taking the wrong approach. Let me give you an example. There are many, many, many blogs about how to make money online. The simple problem with most of these is that the people behind a lot of the blogs aren't making any money. Can you explain to me how you are going to tell someone how to do something that you yourself can't do? That's like teaching someone how to stay married when you have been divorced five times! Now some may look at you and say that it took you five times to figure out what didn't work so you must have it all together, but the rest of us are going to look at you and say who are you to tell us how to stay married when you couldn't figure it out yourself!

A lot of people start a blog about making money online because some very big name bloggers have done it and have been successful. They look at John Chow and say wow! (Look I made a rhyme!) They look at people like Vic over at Blogger Unleashed and think, if he can do it I can do it. The problem is that these guys actually have experience making money online. John built his following from a tech blog he used to run and Vic has been making money online in different ways for years. The thing that they have in common is that they have experience making money online (by the way, Vic would die if he knew that I was telling you that HE has something in common with John Chow!). They may make money in different ways, but they both have experience doing it. So what is the point that I'm making? The point that I'm making is that you have to find something that is important to you, that you know about, that you can learn about or that you want to know about to help YOU make money online.

To begin the process of identifying what you need to make money online, you have to first identify some things that you may be good at that you could use. These may be things that you haven't even thought of. Before we do that, I'm going to tell you some things not to do and some things you should do. Now please understand something. I'm not telling you not to do what you want to do. I'm just presenting some things that you should think about to help you. Here are some things for you to consider.

DO NOT start a blog about making money online if YOU want to make money online or if you don't know how to make money online or don't have experience making money online. I will admit that reading that free John Chow ebook may make you feel like you can go out and start instantly making money online, but unfortunately that's not how it's going to work out. You are going to start your blog about making money online, you are not going to make a lot of money and then you are going to burn out after you put a lot of effort into it and don't see the return. I'm not saying that you won't or can't ultimately be successful, I'm just saying that it takes more than reading an ebook to truly make an impact in the “make money online” segment of the Internet. If you don't know what you are doing, you are going to put up your site trying to tell people how it's done and you are going to waste your time. There are easier routes to take and routes that can make you far more successful monetarily – if that is what you are looking for.

DO NOT try to copy the style of a particular problogger. A lot of people think that if they can just have a blog like Shoemoney then they will make it. This is so not the case. You have to set your own style up. That is what was part of the attraction for those sites. They had their own style. Now every guy that starts blogging about making money thinks that they need some sort of fancy car in their header to be successful. Is that what you are about? If it is, then by all means roll with it. If, however, you have your own style, then roll with that. I'm going to tell you something. Vic over at Blogger Unleashed has a blog that is full of typos, misspellings, curse words and great information. People still read his blog. You know why? He has his own style. He isn't following anybody and his approach is unique. Some people are going to find his style offensive and some people are going to find him abrasive, but his content is interesting and he has a style like no one else. This is what I mean when I say that you have to follow your own path and carve out your own style. Another fantastic example is Maki over at Dosh Dosh. Maki, who I originally thought was a woman, is a guy who has crafted his own easy going style. My point is that you should not start off trying to copy another blogger's style. You need to be you. Trust me – being you is good enough to make lots of money online if you have a good idea for your blog.

How To Use Entrecard To Promote Specific Articles You Have Written

Kila Morton — Fri, 16 May 2008 06:00:00 +0000

As most of you know, Entrecard is the latest greatest thing in blogging - according to some. Entrecard allows you to create a digital business card and then drop it on the blogs of other people. Those people, after seeing your drop, will often visit your site and drop their card on your site. You get credit for each drop you make. You can use the credits to advertise on the blogs of others and you can get credits when people want to advertise on your site. Sounds great right? Well there is another thing you can use Entrecard for – promoting your old or barely seen blog posts!

Entrecard allows you to specify the page that people are taken to when they click on your card. You can change that url to the url of a great blog post you have that you want people to see. Maybe you wrote the post on a day when nobody was using the Internet and no one saw your post :-), maybe you wrote the post at a time when you had very little traffic and no one saw the post, maybe you wrote it and forgot to submit it to social networks and no one saw the post. Whatever the reason, you can use Entrecard to direct people to it. Here is how you would do it.

First, go through your site and get the urls of posts that you want to promote. These posts should be quality posts – not just old posts that didn't become popular. Remember you are trying to attract and retain readers from the Entrecard droppers. We Entrecard droppers have short attention spans when it comes to visiting and dropping. If something catches our eye, we will stop and read, otherwise it's look, drop, go!

Next you need to log into your account at Entrecard and change the url. You can do this from the main dashboard screen if you scroll down until you get to the area that looks like this.

Press edit, enter the url of the article you are going to promote and then save your changes.

That's it!

People will now see that article when they click on your Entrecard business card. The benefit of this should be obvious. If you have posts that you want to promote a little more than others, you can use the Entrecard system to allow people to see those articles AND build traffic to those articles that will count with Google. The one issue to using this system is that you can only promote one url at a time. However, if you use a page that has other links on it, you can direct users to those articles as well. Even power droppers will stop and look if it is something that is really interesting to them.

Spend some time rotating your articles with Entrecard. Use the system to your advantage. Some people have suggested that Entrecard is a bad idea because big name bloggers can use it to drive traffic to their blogs. The truth is that Entrecard puts everyone on a level playing field. You can use this system to your benefit with a little time and effort. Don't be afraid to try different things to get the most out of using Entrecard.

Written By Kila Morton

If You Have Decent Traffic, Pay Per Lead May Make More Money For You Than Pay Per Click

Kila Morton — Thu, 15 May 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Many people think that Google Adsense is the way to go to make money online. Google pays out millions per month to people so it is certainly a viable source of money. However, once you have a steady stream of traffic to your site there is no reason why you can't get more money using the traffic you already have. Google Adsense operates on a pay per click model. A person visits your website, sees an ad that is relevant to them, clicks on it and you make money. It sounds pretty idiot proof. The reality is that there are a number of variables that effect how much you will get paid. A few of those factors include the number of ads on your site, the type of ad and which ad the person clicked on. This can lead to you earning far less than you thought you would given your traffic level and the amount of people clicking on the ads. There is another way.

That way can end up being far more profitable for you in the long run than Adsense could ever be. That way is called pay per lead. Instead of getting paid every single time someone clicks on an ad, you get paid when someone signs up for something after clicking on an ad. The difference is significant and powerful.

Pay per lead programs often pay you far more than pay per click programs. For instance, on a dating tips niche site I have, I earn $50 per person for sending people to one particular advertiser and getting them to sign up. There ARE people looking to sign up for that advertiser's services so my job becomes finding those people. Instead of earning a few cents or a few bucks for a few people clicking on an ad, I generate far more income by having people sign up for this one advertiser. When you do the math, you quickly see how profitable a pay per lead program can be if you have the traffic or can get the traffic to support it.

Where do you find pay per lead programs? Finding them is easy. After identifying a target niche, you can find the programs on Commission Junction, LinkShare and even Google. If you select Adsense Setup / Referrals you can select programs that pay per lead. These will often generate far more income than simple pay per click programs.

Pay per lead programs are not for everyone. If you have no traffic or traffic that is not targeted, you may not make any money with pay per lead programs. If, however, you can find an advertiser with products or services that match whatever your site is about, you may be in business. Get over to Commission Junction and LinkShare and create an account. Then add some pay per lead ads to your targeted sites. Remember, you need to match the ad with your site.

Written By Kila Morton

entrecard

Kila Morton — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:10:33 +0000

42 Feed Sites To Help You Drive Traffic And Promote Your Articles

122 Bookmarking Sites To Help You Get Link, Love Traffic & Page Rank

4 Ways To Stop Your Bounce Rate From Increasing With Entrecard

Kila Morton — Wed, 14 May 2008 06:00:00 +0000

There is no question that Entrecard can drive traffic to your site. For those that may not know, Entrecard is a digital business card system. After signing up for Entrecard, you go to a site that has Entrecard on it and hit the drop button. This allows you to drop your digital business card on their site and allows you to earn credits every time you make a drop.

For most people, this is a great system. However, some of you may find that your bounce rate, which is the percentage of people who enter and leave from the same page on your site, increases. In plain English, this means that the people who came to a particular page on your site didn't read anything other than what is on that page. They just came and left from the same page. Many people who drop Entrecards do this because they are trying to reach the magic 300 number each day and don't take time to read things they aren't interested in.

If you are facing this problem with Entrecard droppers and you don't know what to do, don't despair! Help is on the way later on in this article. Before I tell you some ways that will help you, I'd like to say this very important thing. Entrecard is a good system to build traffic for your site. There are some people who are going to come, drop and go, but there are a lot of people that won't. If they find something interesting, they are likely to stay, click on something else and come back later. Don't abandon the Entrecard system just because some people don't read everything on your site. I personally haven't had a bounce rate increase, but if you have here are some tips to help you decrease your bounce rate.

First things first. Make sure that you have good content. I know you hear it all the time (or read it all the time), but there is no substitute for interesting, quality content. If people see that your site has something to offer them, they ARE going to stop and read.
Second, and perhaps more important, is to make sure your titles are great. Entrecard is really where good titles come into play. You will notice that I have a lot of titles on the front page of PureBlogic. When Entrecard readers come through, they are bound to find SOMETHING that seems appealing to them and click on it. You have to make sure you have good content, but you can't cram all of your content on the main page so you HAVE to make sure that you have good, enticing titles for your articles ON YOUR FRONT PAGE!!!
Third, is to place your Entrecard widget under an area that displays your articles or next to an area that displays your articles. I have my card in the upper right area of the screen, however, I don't have a bounce rate issue with Entrecard. If I did, I would place the widget underneath the Money Making Ideas area. That way a person would see the article titles BEFORE they saw the widget and that would make them more likely to click on an article either before or after they clicked on the widget. Widget placement can really have a profound effect on your bounce rate with Entrecard.
Fourth, if you want to do something really drastic, you can put the Entrecard on a separate page all by itself and put one or two links to your best articles on this page and encourage people to click on the card and the articles. If the articles are titled really well, this will work for you. For instance, if I were going to do it, I would put the card on a page of it's own like – http://www.pureblogic.com/entrecard and then have 5 of my most popular articles including pillar posts like 42 Feed Sites To Help You Drive Traffic And Promote Your Articles and 122 Book Marking Sites To Help You Get Link Love Traffic PageRank. Then I would use my tracking tools to judge the results. I have seen several Entrecard members do this. By narrowing the focus on the page, they capture the readers attention and help to decrease their bounce rate.

Try these method out on your site if your bounce rate has increased with Entrecard. With a little bit of effort, you can make Entrecard really work for you. I can't tell you how many sites I have stopped and looked through during my mega 300 drop times. If the content is interesting, I will read it. I'm not alone. Don't give up on Entrecard and write it off as traffic that isn't quality traffic. MAKE it quality traffic for your site! Entrecard is a good system and it can work wonders for your traffic if you put forth an effort to make the most out of it.

In case you missed it, you can sign up for Entrecard by clicking on the little E in the lower left corner of the graphic and signing up.

Written By Kila Morton

Make Money Online Off Of Someone Else's Stuff

Kila Morton — Tue, 13 May 2008 06:00:00 +0000

A lot of people only think of conventional ways to make money online. A little Adsense, a few ads, some affiliate programs. However, if you are serious about getting down and dirty and REALLY making money online, then you are going to want to explore every opportunity available to you. I'm going to tell you about a way to make money online that capitalizes on the growing foreclosure crisis in the US. This method requires some offline legwork, but the online payoff could be enormous.

Everyday millions of people in the United States are faced with losing their homes. They struggle trying to figure out how to pay the bills and sadly, for some, the end result is losing their homes. Often, however, those people don't lose everything that was IN there homes. Storage facilities often offer the first month free. So a lot of these people, with limited funds in hand, run to a storage unit and put their stuff into storage to avoid losing that too. The problem is that storage fees can become quite high over time and many of these people end up losing the storage unit too – WITH all of their stuff in it! Here is where you come in.

Every month self storage units around the country have people who default on their storage agreements. The self storage companies will then auction off the entire contents of the unit to the highest bidder. This allows you to take the stuff and then sell it on eBay and other auctions sites. This method of making money involves online and offline legwork, however, the benefits can be enormous.

Here is an overview of how the process typically works. The storage unit facility will advertise an auction day. You go to the auction. The auctioneer lifts up the front of the unit and you are allowed to see what is inside. You are not allowed to touch anything, however. Then, you and other people bid on the entire unit. The bidding typically starts at a $1. Once you win, you typically have a few days to clear out the unit. Once you win, you can go through everything and determine what can be sold. Then you take pictures of the items, load them on eBay and sell them to the highest bidder. Many famous people, including Michael Jackson, have lost items by leaving them in storage without paying the storage bill. Some of the items are obviously worth more than others and it will be up to you to decide what is junk and what is a treasure, but one person's junk really IS another person's treasure in this instance. There are people who are actually able to support their families by doing this.

You may ask yourself why you would want someone else's junk. The truth of the matter is that it isn't all junk. Many, many times people put their stuff into storage and then become hooked on drugs. After a few months, they have forgotten about that stuff or have become unable to maintain the unit. Some people just run out of money and have no way to get to their stuff. Some people are injured or become incapacitated and can't get to their stuff. Think about it. If you put something into storage and didn't tell your family and then something happened to you, who would know that you had stuff in storage? The bill would simply stop being paid and then your unit would be sold. It doesn't mean that what you had in it wasn't valuable.

To find out about storage unit auctions in your area, you can use the phone book to look up storage units and call. Many storage companies hold their auctions at particular times every month. The next few articles are going to highlight a few of the more unconventional ways to make money online that may not come to mind when you are putting together a mix of things to do. Take some time, examine each and then decide what works for you. Remember, one person's junk is another person's treasure!

To create an eBay account if you don't have one, click here. Ebay is great for buying and selling new and used items.

Written By Kila Morton

2 Great Places To Find Articles For Your Blog � Articles Modern And Articles Caravan

Kila Morton — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:00:00 +0000

How many times have you been told that content is king in the blogging world? The truth is that content is really king AND queen. If you don't have interesting stuff for people to read, people are not going to continually come to your site. I am going to tell you about two absolutely fantastic resources for you if you are a blogger continually looking for fresh content.

The first site is called Articles Modern.com. Articles Modern is a great site containing articles from the back issues of magazines, journals, trade publications and newspapers. The site is broken down by category. Articles Modern.com also contains a listing of recent articles for you to go through. You may be asking yourself why you would want to go to the site if you are looking for original content – not content that has been printed already. Here are a few reasons why Articles Modern is a must see for bloggers.

Articles Modern.com gives you a place to find great ideas to write about. No matter what topic your blog covers, you are likely to find something great and interesting over at Articles Modern that will give you an idea and inspiration.

Articles Modern.com gives you a place to do research on your chosen topic. The site is very well organized and laid out in a way that allows you to easily find information on your chosen topic. There are also A LOT of topics! From health insurance and music, to home and garden and negotiation – there is a little something for everyone in an easy to find layout!

The articles on Articles Modern.com are quality articles! This is very important. There are a ton of sites that offer very cheesy articles. The articles on this site are well written. I believe that the articles are copied verbatim from the original source, however, that means that you don't have to spend time trying to understand poorly written articles if you need information quickly.

Articles Modern.com is simple to use. Nothing gets you an A+ like simplicity! (Well almost nothing :-)) The site is very easy to use. Find your category, click on it, read through the article summaries and titles and find something that is appealing to you! What could be easier?

I suggest you check out Articles Modern.com. It is an excellent site for quality ideas and material for your blog. However, we aren't done yet! The second site I'm going to tell you about is run by the same person! She goes by the name Tarawat and she is one of my BlogCatalog friends (I LOVE BLOGCATALOG!!!). Her second site is called Articles Caravan.com. Articles Caravan is a little different from Articles Modern.com. Articles Caravan supplies free articles for reprint on your website. That's not even the best of it. The site is update every single day!

Articles Caravan.com has a layout that makes it easy to find articles – just like Articles Modern. The site contains quality content in an easy to read and understand format. I don't even need to list the benefits of such a site for the blogger that blogs everyday, but I will add one thing. Should you decide to use articles from Articles Caravan, you may want to reword them so that you are not penalized for duplicate content should someone else decide to use the same articles.

Articles Caravan.com offers a wealth of categories from which to select an article. The categories are alphabetized so it's easy to see if there are articles in categories that you can use on your site.

When you have time, take a look at both Articles Caravan.com and Articles Modern.com and then go add Tarawat as a friend on Blog Catalog. Oh yeah, then come add me as a friend on BlogCatalog :-)!

These sites are too good to pass up!

Written By Kila Morton

Boost Your Alexa Rank With Entrecard

Kila Morton — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:55:35 +0000

I haven't updated my Alexa stats in a while because by now I'm sure that anyone who cares can scroll down to the bottom of the screen and see the details. Today, however, I decided to add another Alexa update because I wanted to tell you about one more way to boost your Alexa rating. As you know, Alexa stats don't accurately reflect your traffic. Alexa doesn't count Safari users, doesn't count Windows Vista users and doesn't count other users. However, Alexa doesn't count these items for anyone so that puts all of us on a somewhat level playing field.

I started my updates because I wanted to show people ways to boost their ratings if they needed to because there are advertisers that actually look at and count Alexa ratings. My article on ways to boost your Alexa rank outlined 5 simple ways to boost your Alexa rank. Another article outlined yet another way to boost your Alexa ranking by joining groups. Today I'm going to tell you about one more way to boost your Alexa rank. That way is Entrecard. As you can see, I've added an Entrecard widget on the right hand side of PureBlogic. Entrecard users are a terrific way to build your Alexa rank because many of them have the Alexa toolbar installed because they are trying to build their own Alexa rank.

Take a moment and drop your card. If you don't have a card, sign up for one by clicking on the small E in the lower left corner of the Entrecard widget. It is free to sign up. After you sign up, you can earn credits that allow you to purchase advertising on other people's blogs by dropping your card. You can sell those credits, give the credits away via a contest or use the credits to purchase reviews and links to your site among other things. The process is simple.

When you have time, run over and sign up for Entrecard and then drop your card here!

Written by Kila Morton

Find Out Why A Sitemap May Not Be Good For Your Site

Kila Morton — Tue, 06 May 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Anywhere you go on the web to learn about search engine optimization, you are likely to be told that you need a Sitemap. The Sitemap people suggest you have is basically an xml file that lists all of the pages on your site that you want Google and other search engines to index. Most people look at search engines indexing more of their pages as a good thing. The truth is, however, that having a Sitemap may not be nearly as beneficial to you as you think. The first step to understanding why they may not be beneficial is understanding why Sitemaps are necessary in the first place.

You need a Sitemap if:

You have a site with only a few backlinks to it.

Search engines like Google follow links to find sites. If you have a new site, Google may not visit all of the pages on your site because those pages may have very few links to them. Sitemaps allow you to tell the search engines about the pages it may not find due to your site having very few incoming links.

You have poor internal linking on your site

Since we know that search engine bots follow links, if the main page of your site is indexed and your individual pages aren't linked together well, a Sitemap can help you tell the search engine about pages it may not be able to find on your site due to your pages having a poor link structure between each other. Not having menus and not having links on your main pages and on your article pages can create a poor internal link structure between your pages.

Your site has a lot of dynamic content

If your site has a lot of dynamic content generated from the database and only a few internal pages, you will likely need a Sitemap to tell Google about your site because the Google robot won't be able to find the “pages” of your site – which, since your site is dynamic, aren't really pages. If you don't understand what I mean, let me explain. Some sites may only contain one main page. When you click on a button on such a site, instead of taking you to a new page, a request for information is sent to the database and data is simply returned on the same page – but to you it looks like an entirely new page.

Here is an example. On my niche site for the Wii, ShopWiiWii.com, I use dynamic information to generate information on the game page. If you click on Wii Games along the left hand side. The main game page just shows all of the games, however, if you click on one of the pictures on the right you will see that the Url has additional information appended to it.

Original Url -

http://www.shopwiiwii.com/Wii-Games/

Dynamic Url -

http://www.shopwiiwii.com/Wii-Games/?game=wii+game+Monster+Jam

There is only one Wii-Games page, however, by using the additional information appended to the url, I can tell the page to retrieve certain information from the database and display that information. The Google bot may not be able to find these dynamic “pages” so I need a Sitemap to tell Google that http://www.shopwiiwii.com/Wii-Games/ and http://www.shopwiiwii.com/Wii-Games/?game=wii+game+Monster+Jam are two different pages. The truth is, however, that it there is only one physical page.

Your site uses a lot of Flash and AJAX

If your site makes extensive use of Flash or extensive use of AJAX, you are going to need a Sitemap because the bots will have a hard time grabbing all of the links when it visits your site. Sitemaps offer you the ability to tell Google about the urls on your site that it may not find because of the Flash or AJAX embedded in your site.

Etsy Provides Creative And Non-Creative People With A Great Way To Make Money Online

Kila Morton — Mon, 05 May 2008 09:09:04 +0000

Are you a creative soul? Do you love making crafts? Are your crafts good enough to sell? If you answered yes to any of the questions I just asked, you may be able to make money online. There is a great company called Etsy that allows you to easily and quickly create an online store to sell your items to the world.

Etsy was launched in June of 2005 and now over 100,000 creative people have lined up to sell their wares online. As a buyer, this site is incredible if you are looking for custom made items. From earrings to clothing to handmade cards, you can find something for everyone on your shopping list.

Three of my favorite Etsy shops and artists are Artsy Clay's Etsy shop / (Visit Artsy Clay's Website), Filed Finger's Etsy shop / (Visit Filed Finders' Website) and The Joy Of Homemaking Etsy shop / (Visit The Joy Of Homemaking's Website).

These sites are just a sampling of the fantastic sites created by Etsy artists. Etsy allows you to focus on creating whatever it is you create. You don't have to know how to create a website or how to program. Etsy allows you to create, load things and start selling quickly and easily. If you don't have products to sell you can still make money with Etsy. Here are a few ways to make money online with Etsy whether or not you have something to sell.

Create an Etsy store of items you make yourself.

Create Etsy stores for people who create things. You can act as a middleman between the artist and Etsy.

Create a site that helps Etsy members by driving traffic to their shops on Etsy. You can even create a marketing agreement with Etsy members that allows you to receive a kickback for every sale the artist makes.

If you create an Etsy shop, you can also direct people to your shop. Here are some ways you can do this.

Create a blog and promote it on different social networks like BlogCatalog, MyBlogLog, MySpace, Friendster, etc. Make sure that your blog links to your Etsy shop.

Review other people's Etsy shops on a site that has your Etsy shop prominently displayed.
Use Google Adwords to drive traffic to your shop and blog site.
Network with other Etsy members that offer products that are different from yours. Place information on their blogs and allow them to put items on your site.

Market yourself at craft shows and hand out postcards to direct people to your shop.

There are a number of other ways that you can promote your site and a number of other tools you can use as well. If you are a creative person or know creative people, run on over to Etsy and check out everything they have to offer. Etsy offers you one more way to make money online.

Written By Kila Morton

How To Make Money Using eBay Without Selling A Thing!

Kila Morton — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:29:57 +0000

Over the last few weeks I have been working on a series of articles for you about a system that can really help you make money online. Have you ever been up late at night and happened to catch those crazy infomercials that tell you that you can make money on eBay without selling anything? They all look like some sort of scam. How could you possibly use eBay to make money and NOT sell anything? No inventory? No sales? Well, ladies and gents, I'm going to tell you about a way to do just that and it's not a scam!

As you may already know if you have been reading PureBlogic for a while, I own a company that develops software, does web development and builds websites. Over the last few weeks, I have been creating websites for myself using developer tools supplied by eBay. These tools are not new. I'm using them to build an application that will allow me to deploy eBay sites without programming each one individually. Anyway, the point of me telling you this is to show you how you can make money online using eBay without selling a thing. In the future, I'm going to sell the software I'm creating to deploy eBay websites in minutes, but for now I'm just going to give you the down low on how you can put the power of eBay to work for you.

There is not a doubt in my mind that you have heard of eBay. Unless you've been on another planet, you know that eBay allows you to bid on items and purchase items at often deeply discounted prices. The eBay network spans many countries and languages and that system has created a cottage industry of support businesses. There are companies that allow you to drop off things you want to sell to them and they then handle taking the pictures, putting the items on eBay, selling the items and giving you your money. There are companies that focus solely on helping you take pictures of your items for eBay. There are companies that help you create stores on eBay and so on.

EBay recognizes the power they have and they have done something that gives them the ability to push that power even further all while benefiting people like you and I. What am I talking about? I'm talking about the eBay affiliate system. By using the eBay affiliate system, you can sell products without maintaining any inventory and without actually selling a thing. I'm going to use a real world example that I've created to show you how it works.

How Mixing Ads On Your Site Can Make You Less Money Online

Kila Morton — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 11:59:18 +0000

A lot of people think "the more the merrier" when it comes to advertisements on their sites. In their attempt to make money online, they cram their sites with every ad type known to man in the hope that something will appeal to everyone coming to their sites. This often turns out to be a waste of time to the blogger and an irritant, to put it mildly, to the blog readers. Let me explain what I mean.

You have a limited window of opportunity to get your message across to your website viewers and a very limited amount of time to convince them to click on your ads or visit your advertisers. That time is precious. By clouding your blog or site with ads from everywhere, you run the risk of having the user not click on anything because they feel overwhelmed. When you have Adsense ads,Kontera/LinkWorth/Text Link ads, ads from Commission Junction, ads from LinkShare, links to stuff from ClickBank , etc. all on one blog or site, you run the risk of advertising overload. Instead of responding with a click on something, the viewer responds by leaving the site. Monetization is great, however, it has to be done with your target audience in mind AND your ultimate goal in mind.

What do I mean by ultimate goal? After all, the goal is just to make money right? The goal is to make money, however, you must have a path that you are going to take to accomplish that goal and your mix has to make sense for what you are trying to accomplish. After all, if you didn't care how you made money, you could just put up a porn site and not worry about blogging at all! (That was a hint for SOME of you out there :0) )If you are trying to make money with Adsense, you need to make sure that other ads on your site aren't stopping you from accomplishing your goal. Here is an example to consider to further explain what I'm talking about.

Let's say that you have Adsense, Kontera, Commission Junction and some LinkShare ads on your site. Let's say that the Google Ads are in a banner at the top, the Kontera ads are double underlined text from words that were already on your blog, a couple of CJ ads are on the left and in the text of your articles, a couple ofLinkShare ads are on the left and then more Google ads are on the right. Now, with this mix, let's assume that someone comes to your site. They read through an article and they click on your Commission Junction ad and leave your site. They get to the vendor's site and look around and then leave that site too. Now, not only has the person left your site, they clicked on something and you didn't get any benefit from it! If you only had Google ads in your text, the user may have clicked on the ad and left your site, but at least you would have made money off of that click. This is just one example of how too many ads can distract the reader and make less money for you. You can never properly channel the reader into clicking on anything if your ads are all over the place. You have to focus. This doesn't mean that you can't have multiple advertising methods on your blog, it just means that you have to be careful about how you mix them.

When you decide to put ads on your site, you need to do so with a goal and a method to achieve that goal. Too many competing ads is not a good thing. You are likely going to need to do some experimentation to discover the right mix for your site. For instance, on some of my other sites, I use Adsense at the top of the sites and CJ ads in the body of my articles only when I'm promoting a CJ advertiser's product or I place CJ ads on the side of the text. I have tested this mix versus other placements and determined that this is a winning combination for those sites, however, on PureBlogic I just use Adsense. The Adsense placements are at the top of the site, at the top of the main article and at the bottom of the main article area. I could have used other methods, but this site isn't really a vehicle I'm using to make money for myself. It is site that I created with the primary goal of connecting with and helping other people. For the sites that are dedicated to making money, the ad placements and mix of ads are a little different. You have to determine what your goal is.

The Monday Review For New Writers

Kila Morton — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:00:00 +0000

This review is about a site for writers. The site is called http://www.cutewriting.blogspot.com/ and it is a resource site for creative writers. The site is written by Lenin Nair and it offers tips and information on how to be a better writer. After going through this site, I believe that this site is best for someone who is new to writing. The site is also great for people who learned English as their second language. Native English speakers may find the text a little verbose and non-standard. For instance, on his "List Of Popular Idioms and Usages Part C", there are some phrases that he listed like "Cold Shouldered" which a native English speaker would know to be "the Cold Shoulder" as in "I wanted to be her friend, but she gave me the cold shoulder". Although there are other examples like this throughout his text, that shouldn't discourage you from reading the information on Lenin's site. By and large, the information on Lenin's website is pretty good and will be useful for new writers out there.

Lenin's blog offers a lot of information and his articles present a different point of view for new writers. Sometimes that view can seem a little pessimistic. My suggestion is that you look at the tips and information given on his site as an indicator of the somewhat pessimistic view that some readers of your work may take. For instance, one of Lenin's articles entitled "Publishing vs. Vanity and Self" offers a look at 3 routes that artists can take to become published. One of Lenin's assessments is "that people not talented or lucky enough to draw a deal from a normal publisher" gravitate toward self-publishing. However, the reality is that many authors chose this route because they want total creative control over their work. In addition to that, with the advent of the Internet, you don't need to have a traditional publisher to make a lot of money or to achieve success as a writer. Writers like Steven King may not be self-published, however, when Steven King started writing the Internet was not an option for promotion the way that it is today. When you read Lenin's blog, you just have to keep in mind that his views reflect one way of doing things and his opinion. You shouldn't feel discouraged if you have been trying to become published and have not achieved the level of success you want. Just remember that many, many authors -including J.K. Rowling- were rejected by publishers at first. They kept persevering until they achieved success. You have to do the same.

For tips and a nontraditional look at writing skills that will likely provide you with a perspective you may not have had before, check out Lenin Nair's site http://cutewriting.blogspot.com .

Posted By Kila Morton

Week 6 Of Alexa Traffic Building

Kila Morton — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 23:51:34 +0000

Here is the update for Week 6 of my Alexa traffic increase experiment designed to give you a realistic idea of how to improve yours and how long it will take. Since March 7th I have implemented the strategies in my article 5 Simple Ways To Boost Your Alexa Rating and Grow Your Alexa Rank By Joining Groups. I will keep this short and to the point. Here is the latest update. Click on the article titles in this post that I just mentioned to read about strategies for increasing your Alexa rank. I am going to stop this little experiment around week 10 because I think you understand how you can increase your Alexa rank if you need to. There are a few other ways to increase your rank like adding EntreCard to your blog. If you are in a situation where you need to increase your Alexa rank quickly, that may be a very good approach for you.

So here is the breakdown thus far:

Week 0 - March 07, 2008 -	660,166
Week 1 - March 14, 2008 -	588,229
Week 2 - March 21, 2008 -	554,546
Week 3 - March 28, 2008 -	538,745
Week 4 - April 5, 2008 -	546,314
Week 5 - April 12, 2008-	531,659
Week 6 - April 19, 2007 -	367,868

Even though I say this each and every time I talk about Alexa, just in case this is your first visit to PureBlogic I will say it again. Alexa ratings are inaccurate, however, several major advertising companies use them to determine the traffic and popularity of your blog as well as using the rating for the purpose of determining how much you are able to charge for advertising on your site. Increasing your Alexa rank will only benefit you when you deal with these advertisers.

Posted By Kila Morton

5 Fast Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Site

Kila Morton — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:17:38 +0000

It's fabulous Friday! I'm going to turn this into Fab Five Friday with a list of 5 things. Having trouble generating traffic to your site? Here are 5 quick ways to generate more traffic to your site that you can start today!

make money online

Review Other Sites
This is a simple yet easy way to generate traffic to your site. Notify the person you are reviewing in advance. This offers you the ability to do a few things. First, you get to review any cool site that you want to review. Second, the person you are reviewing is likely going to tell people on their site about your review so the traffic will often flow both ways - from your site to theirs and from their site to yours. Third, and perhaps one of the most underhanded, if the other person's site does well and gets a lot of traffic, your review will be tied to that site via our mighty friend the search engine. Fourth, you are building a name for yourself. The key to a successful review is actually going to the site and looking around. I have seen some people review sites that they clearly have not visited. Perhaps those were paid reviews. I'm not sure, however, it makes you look like and idiot when you try to review a site you haven't gone through. Make sure that you Stumble the review, bookmark the review, digg the review and mixx the review.
Join BlogCatalog AND Start A Discussion
Do you feel too intimidated to do this? Don't feel that way! Even if you say something stupid, you don't have to look anyone in the eye so it's OK! :-) Use the free tools that are available to you. As you know, if you've seen any of my prior posts on BlogCatalog, I'm a huge BlogCatalog fan. I have generated a good deal of traffic by just networking with other people on that site and asking questions that other people have found interesting. If you are really looking to generate traffic, create your own group! Don't be afraid to put yourself out there. The web allows us to have a certain amount of anonymity if that's what we want, however, you need to make yourself visible to get traffic to your site.
Answer Questions On Yahoo Answers AND Include The Url To Your Site
A lot of people don't think about the basic ways to generate traffic. Yahoo Answers offers you the ability to find targeted leads for your niche AND create backlinks back to your site. I have used this tactic with one of my niche sites http://www.thedatingtipsmagazine.com. I will spend about 30 minutes reviewing questions on Yahoo Answers and then answer some with links back to my site. This does three things. It gives me a great idea of the questions people have about dating since The Dating Tips Magazine is obviously about dating tips. It gives me the ability to answer questions that people have and establish myself as an 'expert' on the topic AND it gives me a quality backlink back to http://www.thedatingtipsmagazine.com. I always include the link at the end of my answers. I have been using Google Analytics to track the results of visitors from those links since I started doing it and the amount of traffic in relation to the amount of links I have created is about 52% daily. That's a 52% return from doing nothing more than answering a few questions one time, because once you answer the question, the answer is there and the link is there! If you can provide quality answers for your niche, you can create a steady traffic stream of targeted traffic to your site. This traffic is targeted because these people are seeking answers to things and if you have the answer on your site, you will likely be able to convert this person to a click or purchase.

Make Money Online With ClickBank

Kila Morton — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Making money online doesn't have to be hard. In fact, it can be quite easy if you work on developing the pitch page for the products you want to promote and if you work on developing traffic to those pages. One of the absolute best ways to make money online is through a company called ClickBank. ClickBank is the Internet's largest digital marketplace and it can be a great asset to you if you are looking for ways to make money online. ClickBank allows you to make money in two ways.

First, if you sign up as an affiliate, you can sell any of the products available in the ClickBank marketplace. This means that you can create very targeted campaigns marketing just the products that fit your niche. The second way to make money with ClickBank is by marketing your own products. If you, for instance, have written an ebook about cooking, you can sell your ebook through ClickBank and put the power of their affiliate system to work for you. That is a very powerful benefit of ClickBank. You may bristle at the idea of someone else selling your products, but think of it this way. Your site has a certain reach. A certain number of people come to it and know about it. Now think about your book being sold on 50 additional sites in addition to your own site. Do you see how much more you can make by having other people selling the book too? It's like having a clothing line and having it in multiple stores. Having those items in one store might be great, however, if you are trying to maximize your exposure and reach the maximum amount of people, you need super affiliate power.

Getting started with ClickBank is easy. You can just go to the site and sign up. If you have a product to sell, there is a small fee $49.95 activation fee. If you are an affiliate, you can sign up for free and start marketing products right away. It's important that you go through the pitch pages for any products you select. Make sure that the products you select fit within the scope of your niche. It's important to research the product's level of success through ClickBank. If the product has a solid history, it may be an easy sell or there may be a lot of competition in marketing the product. You have to do your research. Use the SEO Book Keyword Tool to research your niche and use search engines to research the products.

Go over to ClickBank and take a look at the ClickBank marketplace. You can get a great idea of what is available to you and how you can market the products. ClickBank will work wonders for your bottom line if you work the system correctly.

Visit & Sign Up For ClickBank by clicking here!

Posted By Kila Morton

The Monday Review Is All About Making Brew - With Fermentarium Dot Com!

Kila Morton — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:51:33 +0000

OK. Get ready all of you mad scientists out there. Today I'm going to tell you about a site that offers some very interesting information for those of you that would be interested. The site I'm going to tell you about is run by a guy who calls himself DJ Brew. Before I tell you about his site, I'm going to tell you a little bit about him. DJ works as a Software Engineer by day, however, at night DJ trades in his computer for a pot! Calm down! I didn't say 'for pot' - I said 'for A pot'! What am I talking about? DJ is a home winemaker and home brewer! That's right! This computer geek by day is an avid alcoholic beverage maker by night! BTW, I use the term 'computer geek' with all of the affection in the world because I too have a few degrees in Computer Science and I too am a computer geek in female form :-).

DJ's site, Fermentarium.com offers a glimpse into the world of wine and beer making and a series of quick how-to articles for those new to brewing. From telling you ways to make particular types of beer, to articles on how to fortify your beer, DJ's site has a little bit of something for every home-brewing enthusiast or for those who just want to understand how home brewing is done. DJ even offers you a step by step how-to showing you how to brew your own beer in his article How To Brew Beer!

If you are a home brewing enthusiast or just looking for a great site where you can learn something new, visit DJ Brew over at Fermentarium.com! Happy brewing!

Posted By Kila Morton

Week 5 Alexa Rank Update

Kila Morton — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Here is the update for Week 5 of my Alexa traffic increase experiment designed to give you a realistic idea of how to improve yours and how long it will take. Since March 7th I have implemented the strategies in my article 5 Simple Ways To Boost Your Alexa Rating and Grow Your Alexa Rank By Joining Groups. I will keep this short and to the point. Here is the latest update. Click on the article titles in this post that I just mentioned to read about strategies for increasing your Alexa rank.

So here is the breakdown thus far:

Week 0 - March 07, 2008 -	660,166
Week 1 - March 14, 2008 -	588,229
Week 2 - March 21, 2008 -	554,546
Week 3 - March 28, 2008 -	538,745
Week 4 - April 5, 2008 -	546,314
Week 5 - April 12, 2008-	531,659

Even though I say this each and every time I talk about Alexa, just in case this is your first visit to PureBlogic I will say it again. Alexa ratings are inaccurate, however, several major advertising companies use them to determine the traffic and popularity of your slog for the purpose of determining how much you are able to charge for advertising on your site. Increasing your Alexa rank will only benefit you when you deal with these advertisers.

Posted By Kila Morton

6 Great Ways To Make Money With HubPages

Kila Morton — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:56:55 +0000

In Part 1 of this little series on how to build a HubPage and how to make money with a HubPage, we examined the how to build a HubPage part. This included what we would need to set up a HubPage account (Google Adsense account number, eBay affiliate number, Amazon affiliate number) and how the process of setting up a HubPage account works. Today we are going to look at some specific ways to maximize our earning potential with HubPages.

Before I get into that, I'm going to tell you something about Hubpages. They aren't exactly like Squidoo. On Squidoo, self promotion is welcomed and encouraged. HubPages is not quite the same. Instead of focusing on 'her is my HubPage come see my site', you should focus on 'here is the value in reading what I'm writing for you - come see my site'. This is an important distinction because you don't want to be seen as 'spammy'.

Instead of giving you a conversational view of how to use your HubPage to make money, I'm going to list some very specific ways you can make money with your HubPages.

You can set up a one page or small multi-page site full of affiliate links to products for a specific niche. For instance, let's say that you decided on baby products. You could create a page full of nothing but baby product retailers from Commission Junction arranged in an attractive way. Create a few additional pages that are textual and keyword rich (baby products, products for babies, things a baby needs, etc). Make sure you research your keywords with the SEO Book keyword tool AND actually look at the results on search engines BEFORE you decide on your keywords. After that, create a hubpage that outlines the importance of one of the particular retailers products for babies. Put links in your hubpage that go back to your page full of baby products. Make sure that you are offering some sort of assessment that provides real value for the reader – not something that says 'please come visit my affiliate site'.

Sign up with ClickBank. You can sign up by clicking here. Select a few products in a popular niche and create a mini site (5 or so pages) that are keyword rich and center around the subject of the items you selected from the ClickBank marketplace. Write several hubpages that center around the subject as well, but make sure that they all link back to your website. What you will probably find is that the hubpages will outrank your site, but since the hubpage contains links back to your site, you will still be able to have people get to you.

Utah Luxury Dot Com - Showcasing The Homes Of The Rich And The Richer!

Kila Morton — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:00:00 +0000

It's Review Me Monday and I have to say that I absolutely love the site I'm reviewing today. The purpose of my reviews is to highlight the efforts of other bloggers and website owners and introduce sites to you that you may not normally encounter. Todays visual delight is going to be something that you really enjoy.

UtahLuxury.com is a website that offers a glimpse of how the rich and richer live in Utah. I have to tell you that this site was really an eye opener. It's not that I thought that there weren't beautiful properties in Utah. I just never realized just how beautiful they are. Of course there are plenty of wealthy visitors. Sundance is an annual film festival that attracts many famous people to Utah. However, you don't have to be famous to pick up one of the homes profiled on UtahLuxury.com – you just have to have money!

To start off, visiting the site is a visual treat. After the website loads, you are immediately tantalized by 10 images of very beautiful properties – each one with a distinct flavor, feel and color. There is nothing contemporary about these homes! What will you find at Utah Luxury? I'm going to tell you! Flowing walls of glass flanked by stone bases and flowing pools, homes with flowing curves and lines that almost seem to make the house look like it grew up from the land, seemingly seamless glass walls that offer striking panoramic views of the rugged Utah landscape, sophisticated colors that make the homes stand out against the beautiful blue Utah sky, homes with exposed wood beams that remind you of a medieval castle, kitchens so large that your food could get cold as you cross from one side of the kitchen to the other, foyers and entryways so dramatic that you could just fall in love from simply stepping into the home, bathrooms with tubs you could swim in with tile that dazzles the eye and melds in color into the surrounding fixtures and walls, and finally, lighting that would tantalize the senses of even the most discerning lighting connoisseur – these are just a few of the things you are going to see on UtahLuxury.com. (Can you say all of that at once?)

I have to say that some of the properties actually made me want to move to Utah. The photographic work and subsequent photo uploads to the site are absolutely fantastic because they give you an extremely clear view of the various homes profiled on the site. I invite you to take some time and head on over to Utah Luxury. Not only might you find your next home, you may find some ideas for your current home. If luxury properties in Utah aren't in your future, at least you can look at UtahLuxury.com and dream.

Visit UtahLuxury.com by clicking here!

Enjoy!

Posted By Kila Morton

Part 1 - How To Build A HubPage & How To Make Money With Your HubPages

Kila Morton — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Do you have a real passion for writing? Do you want to establish backlinks to your blog? Do you want to increase your exposure and establish yourself as an authority for a particular topic? Do you want to create targeted marketing efforts based on keywords using an easy to use tool that requires minutes to set up? If you answer yes to any of the above, you are ready for Hub Pages.

HubPages are mini-web pages that you create that contains content that you create. The content can be about anything. It can be an article about marketing, one of your hobbies or anything else you want to talk about. The beautiful thing about HubPages is that you can create a fantastic, keyword rich article about anything and establish a great marketing campaign for your site or for any product you are trying to promote. In addition to that, you can earn income from your hubpage by including Adsense, eBay and Amazone items on it. In this lesson, I'm going to tell you how to build a hubpage that will allow you to promote any product that you are trying to promote and make money. In future lessons we will examine how you can use additional resources along with hubpages to make even more money.

Week 4 Alexa Rank Update

Kila Morton — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Here is the update for Week 4 (1 month of Alexa increases - yay!) of my Alexa traffic increase experiment designed to give you a realistic idea of how to improve yours and how long it will take. Since March 7th I have implemented the strategies in my article 5 Simple Ways To Boost Your Alexa Rating and Grow Your Alexa Rank By Joining Groups. I will keep this short and to the point. Here is the latest update. Click on the article titles in this post that I just mentioned to read about strategies for increasing your Alexa rank.

So here is the breakdown thus far:

Week 0 - March 07, 2008 -	660,166
Week 1 - March 14, 2008 -	588,229
Week 2 - March 21, 2008 -	554,546
Week 3 - March 28, 2008 -	538,745
Week 4 - April 5, 2008 -	546,314

Even though I say this each and every time I talk about Alexa, just in case this is your first visit to PureBlogic I will say it again. Alexa ratings are inaccurate, however, several major advertising companies use them to determine the traffic and popularity of your slog for the purpose of determining how much you are able to charge for advertising on your site. Increasing your Alexa rank will only benefit you when you deal with these advertisers.

Posted By Kila Morton

42 Feed Sites To Help You Drive Traffic And Promote Your Articles

Kila Morton — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:26:38 +0000

Are you ready to promote your site and drive some traffic your way? If you are, then you are ready for the list below. This is a list of places to promote your RSS feeds and drive traffic to your site. I went through and personally checked out every single site. Take some time and go through the list and submit your feed to every single one of these sites. In addition to building backlinks, you are also going to be exposing your feed to other people through the other services these sites offer. It is a long list, however, I was able to get through it in less than an hour. Promoting your site is the number one way to get noticed so relax and make it happen!

This site was originally put together by Jason Bartholme over at http://www.jasonbartholme.com. Here is a link to the original article he posted. After going through his list of 45, I removed some of the sites that were not working. There was one site that I left on this list that wasn't working at the time I visited. I left it because the site still had a lot of information on it that I thought you would find useful. I umm.....can't remember which one it was, but I'm sure you will come across it.

2RSS.com
BeGoodBe
BlogBunch
Blogdigger
BlogPulse
BlogStreet
DayTimenews
Feed Ooyoo
feed24
Feedbase

Research Your Keywords With The SEO Book Keyword Tool

Kila Morton — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:05:10 +0000

When you need to determine which keywords are popular in your niche, there are a variety of methods you can use. One of the absolute best methods is the SEO Book keyword tool. This tool offers you a lot of information.

Instead of walking you through each individual element, I'm going to give you an overview of how to use the tool to determine if you are doing as much as you can to maximize your search engine optimization efforts.

Here is the initial screen you reach when you go to the tool. As you can see, it's simple and familiar.

The Monday PureBlogic Review - Is It Really A Wundurful Wurld?

Kila Morton — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 05:52:40 +0000

I guess you could call me a little hard to please. I just don't laugh if something isn't funny! If you want to make me laugh you have to be above and beyond. Your satire has to be clear and precise. Your delivery has to be dead on and to the point. I have to feel like you KNOW what you are doing if I'm going to take time out of my day to laugh at your jokes! Fortunately for the hard to please crowd like me, there is a place where we can go to take a break and allow ourselves to fall over with laughter. The site I'm going to tell you about today, voted one of the funniest blogs on BlogCatalog, is WundurfulWorld.com and it is just that - wundurful!

Wundurful Wurld is the hilarious brainchild of Horatio Salt, comedian according to me and creative director, writer, dreamer and free agent according to himself.

His site is incredibly funny and offers a welcome respite from all of the crazy things going on in the world. Just to give you an idea of what we are dealing with here, take a look at one of my favorite titles from Wundurful Wurld.

Dr. Phil offers to inspect Roger Clemens’ buttocks

I'm not going to tell you what the article is about. I wouldn't want to take away the suspense. Suffice it to say it's funny.

This isn't the end of what Wundurful Wurld has to offer. There are other tasty tidbits like his post about Barry Bonds -

Tests Prove Barry Bonds Knows Which Kind of Spice Girl He Is

What's Happening This Week On PureBlogic To Help You Make Money On The Internet?

Kila Morton — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:56:16 +0000

I am really anxious to share some new things with you. Over the past few weeks, you may have noticed that I have not been updating PureBlogic everyday the way that I normally do. This is because I'm in the process of testing out a few things on several niche sites and I wanted to make sure that I had my ideas for you together before I made my big reveal. I am happy to say that there are some great things in store for all of us as we take this money making journey together. To start of this week, I'm going to tell you about a few things that are going to really help you as you figure out the best way to make money on the Internet. As I've been testing ideas on my niche sites and fine tuning things, I've come to realize a number of things that I know you are going to find useful. So from now on Sunday will be the day where I tell you some of things we are going to cover this week. Here goes...

First, we are going to have a wundurful review on Monday! Are you asking yourself if I can spell? Of course I can silly! You will see what I mean on Monday. We are also going to uncover an absolutely fantastic way to build hundreds of quality links to your blog in no time! Isn't that exciting? We are going to cover a little bit of Alexa since I am trying to be all over that inaccurate system our blogs are beginning to be judged by. We are also going to look at who PureBlogic gave link love to (sorry about not letting you know last week :-()! There are a few more surprises on PureBlogic that you will see this week as we usher in the month of April.

Are you ready? I'm so glad to have you along for the ride! Let's kick this week of with a bang! Are you ready....

Posted By Kila Morton

Week 3 Alexa Rank Update

Kila Morton — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Here is the update for Week 3 of my Alexa traffic increase experiment designed to give you a realistic idea of how to improve yours and how long it will take. Since March 7th I have implemented the strategies in my article 5 Simple Ways To Boost Your Alexa Rating and Grow Your Alexa Rank By Joining Groups. I will keep this short and to the point. Here is the latest update. Click on the article titles in this post that I just mentioned to read about strategies for increasing your Alexa rank.

So here is the breakdown thus far:

Week 0 - March 07, 2008 -	660,166
Week 1 - March 14, 2008 -	588,229
Week 2 - March 21, 2008 -	554,546
Week 3 - March 28, 2008 -	538,745

Even though I say this each and every time I talk about Alexa, just in case this is your first visit to PureBlogic I will say it again. Alexa ratings are inaccurate, however, several major advertising companies use them to determine the traffic and popularity of your slog for the purpose of determining how much you are able to charge for advertising on your site. Increasing your Alexa rank will only benefit you when you deal with these advertisers.

Posted By Kila Morton

Make Money Online With Triond

Kila Morton — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:23:27 +0000

Do you think you have something relevant to contribute to the world or do you just want to do something that people will get to see AND make money while doing it? If you answered yes, then Triond may be the right place for you. Triond is a site that takes the content you create and publishes it on websites that are connected to what you created. Then, you earn royalties on that content. The content can be almost anything. Articles you have written, videos you have shot and pictures you have taken as well as podcasts and original music you have made are all items that Triond accepts.

The process to submit your stuff is pretty simple. You go the Triond website, create your account and then submit your stuff. Once your stuff is approved, Triond handles the rest. They publish your stuff and your content starts earning revenue for you! Doesn't that sound simple.

I think that Triond is an excellent venue for making pain-free money online that you can use as you build your Internet empire. When you have time, run on over to Triond and check it out.

You can learn about how Triond works by clicking here.
You can sign up for Triond by clicking here.

Posted By Kila Morton

5 Free Tools To Help You Learn More About Your Site's Rank & Links

Kila Morton — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:58:20 +0000

Well, it's Tool Time Tuesday here at PureBlogic and I have 5 great tools that are going to help you predict your future PageRank, see who is linking to you and find out very interesting things about your site.

Future PageRank Prediction Tool

http://www.iwebtool.com/pagerank_prediction

This tool allows you to see, based on the backlinks to your site, the number of pages on your site and a few other factors, what your future PageRank is going to be. This tool shows you your current PageRank and future PageRank after you enter your web address.

Find Out How Fast Your Website Loads Up

http://www.iwebtool.com/speed_test

This tool allows you to check how long it takes for your website to load. This is useful information for optimizing your site and figuiring out if you may need to decrease image sizes or move your site to a faster server.

Find Out How Big Your Page Sizes Are

http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/page-size/

If you are a designer, this tool is a must-have for you. This tool helps you to figure out how big your pages are. As you know, a bigger page results in a faster download time. If you have users that are not on a fast connection, this information can help you figure out that you may need to decrease your page size.

Week 2 Alexa Rank Update

Kila Morton — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:00:01 +0000

I skipped my weekend Alexa update since I wrote about Alexa so many times last week. As you know by now, I'm tracking Alexa stats to give you a realistic idea of how to improve yours and how long it will take. Since March 7th I have implemented the strategies in my article 5 Simple Ways To Boost Your Alexa Rating and Grow Your Alexa Rank By Joining Groups. I will keep this short and to the point. Here is the latest update. Click on the article titles in this post that I just mentioned to read about strategies for increasing your Alexa rank.

So here is the breakdown thus far:

Week 0 - March 07, 2008 -	660,166
Week 1 - March 14, 2008 -	588,229
Week 2 - March 21, 2008 -	554,546

Even though I say this each and every time I talk about Alexa, just in case this is your first visit to PureBlogic I will say it again. Alexa ratings are inaccurate, however, several major advertising companies use them to determine the traffic and popularity of your slog for the purpose of determining how much you are able to charge for advertising on your site. Increasing your Alexa rank will only benefit you when you deal with these advertisers.

Posted By Kila Morton

Make Money Online By Using Your Site Keywords To Learn About Your Site Demographics

Kila Morton — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:06:56 +0000

Many people spend a great deal of time adding methods of monetization to their sites. They run to Google Adsense, Kontera, Link Worth, TexLinkAds, etc tro try and use as many ways of capturing a click as they can. This is understandable. We all want more money. There is, however, one inherent flaw with many site owners that do this. They have absolutely no idea who is coming to their sites! No idea! Now you may be one of those people and I can almost read your mind. You are asking yourself HOW it would be possible for you to know who is coming to your site? In this article I'm going to show you the how and help you figure out what you need to know to maximize the earning potential of your site. Before I begin, let me just say this. Until you figure out who is coming to your website, you will never be able to earn the kind of money online that you want to earn IF earning money is your objective.

First, targeting the "make money online" group of people will be almost impossible if all you use is Adsense. Why? Because people with websites about making money are often the least likely to click on an Adsense ad on another site. They are information gatherers typically. When they visit a site they aren't really interested in anything other than some piece of information they think you may have. All of your pretty in text ads and Adsense ads are absolutely meaningless to this group. Many, many people think that they are going to jump into that make money online arena and prosper because they see a popular blogger doing the same. The thing that you have to realize is that those pro-bloggers typically have a mix of advertising systems at work on their sites AND they typically never derive their income solely from Google Adsense. So what does this mean to you? Here are your first lessons.

Build Up Your Web Traffic By Building Your Relationships - Link Love Week 1

Kila Morton — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:55:40 +0000

Building up your website traffic and getting your site noticed is about more than just building it and putting it up. It's about having something relevant to say, it's about having something relevant to give and it's about building relationships with other people. The web allows all of us to mix and mingle together in ways that we may have never had the opportunity to do in "real" life. In an effort to build that relationship with people, I'm starting something new. I told you last week that I was going to be giving people link love. For those that don't know, you give link love when you provide a backlink to a site with a link that allows the search engine crawlers to find that site from your site. From now on, I will publish the PureBlogic page of link love so everyone can see some of the wonderful places to visit on the web.

This week I invited people from the BlogCatalog Stumble group to submit their sites for inclusion in my list of love. I'm happy to say that some of the members did! Here are the PureBlogic link loved sites for you to visit this week!

TheDomainConnection.com

colorfulmars.com

gamedrift.com

buogo.com

celebrityviplounge.com

bargainshoppersdream.blogspot.com

utahluxury.com

venessagiunta.com

fatalhilarity.com

When you have time and are looking for great sites to see, check out these sites and tell them Kila over at PureBlogic sent you! Do you have a great site? If you do, I want to know about it! Click here to tell me about your site and I'll add it to the list.

To visit the BlogCatalog Stumble group, click here !
Subscribe to the PureBlogic feed so you can find out all about everything, click here !

Posted By Kila Morton

Increase Your Website Traffic And Grow Your Alexa Rank By Joining Groups

Kila Morton — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:55:18 +0000

After my small rant on Monday about how my Alexa rank that I already know is inaccurate shifted a substantial amount between two days, you may be sick of reading about Alexa here. Well don't get sick just yet. I'm documenting this process because you may find it significant to you should you ever decide to offer advertising on your blog or site with a company that uses the stats from Alexa or if you should ever need/decide to increase your Alexa rank. I will begin as I usually do when I talk about Alexa with a link to my article about how Alexa is inaccurate. I do this because I don't want anyone who may be reading PureBlogic for the first time to think that Alexa is accurate and should therefore be something they use.

Yesterday my rank shifted again. This hasn't been updated in the widget yet. There seems to be some delay between what the widget shows and what the actual rank is sometimes. PureBlogic went from 593,064 to 590,028. This is significant for one reason. I joined a great group of people onBlogCatalog .com this week. This group is called the Alexa group. They are a group of people that have the Alexa toolbar installed who read each others sites. The group isn't really large, however, I happen to know that several of the group members have visited PureBlogic since my last rank update was posted on Monday. This small group of people caused a small shift in the rank.

You may be asking why this important to you. It is important to you because it outlines how easy it is for you to grow your rank by following the 5 simple rules I outlined in a prior article to grow your Alexa rating. Again, this information is useful if you decide to start building your Alexa rank.

Here is a link to the BlogCatalog Alexa group. When you have time, join and say hi. There are also other BlogCatalog groups that you can join to increase your traffic. Stop by and give BlogCatalog a try !

Posted By Kila Morton

Are You Sacrificing Traffic Just To Get PageRank?

Kila Morton — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:44:08 +0000

The understanding, or misunderstanding depending on how you see it, of how the Google PageRank system works has caused a lot of people to make a major misstep as they try to build up PageRank & traffic for their blogs. Let me give you a little background before I get to the misstep. Google PageRank is a numerical score assigned to your blog/site by Google that determines how important Google feels your site is on the Internet. Their algorithm primarily looks at three things.

It looks at-

The number of pages you have on your site
The number of backlinks to your site
The quality/relevance for your niche that those backlinks have for your site
The actual PageRank of the sites that link back to you

Many people will also say that the age of your blog/site is examined as well, however, I have proven that you can get a new blog PageRanked very quickly. The key is your timing. Google doesn't update PageRank everyday for the general public (although it is maintained on their servers). That means that when the PageRank daddy comes around with lollipops, you have to make sure that you are in the right place to get yours. If you start your blog a month before the updates come out AND you build up quality backlinks to your blog AND you have a large number of pages, you will get a PageRank if you haven't done anything that Google doesn't like with your site. It's that simple. Don't let people fool you into thinking that a new blog can't get a PageRank. It can, things just have to be in order for it to happen.

As an example of backlinks versus pages versus PageRank versus search engine placement, you can look at the search term 'dating tips' using Google . I am working on a dating tips niche website that I will be revealing soon and in my research on dating tips, I discovered two sites that hold positions 1 and 2 on Google for dating tips. The first site has a tremendous number of backlinks that are, for the most part, very relevant to dating. The second site has taken a completely opposite strategy. They have a more than tremendous amount of pages on their sites and only 164 backlinks. As you can see, Google places a higher value on quality backlinks, however, you can get an extremely good position just by generating an enormous amount of pages on your site. Here are the exact figures.

Current #1 for 'dating tips' on Google - http://www.topdatingtips.com

Page Rank 4

Yahoo Site Explorer Pages -

Pages (143) | Inlinks (1,335)

Current #2 for 'dating tips' on Google - http://www.datingtips.com

Page Rank 3

Yahoo Site Explorer Pages -

Pages (11,504) | Inlinks (164)

Notice the MASSIVE amount of pages that datingtips.com has in relation to the number of backlinks to their site. You can view this information for any blog, including your own, using Yahoo Site Explorer.

Back to our subject. Since the algorithm looks primarily at the four things I mentioned earlier, it should be clear to you that you can manipulate the rank somewhat by the following techniques.

Having a tremendous number of pages
Having a tremendous number of backlinks

This is where the problem begins. A lot of people will try to build their backlinks by having sites with good PR linking back to them. Sometimes those sites may offer link love pages - like the PureBlogic link love page that you can add your blog/site to :-)! Sometimes those sites do a blogroll and will link to a lesser ranked sites. The problem is that some people become so consumed with the idea of PageRank that they ignore the truth. PageRank by itself WILL NOT bring you traffic! Let me repeat. PageRank alone will not bring you traffic.

When you are trying to build PageRank, you have to ask yourself what is it really going to mean for your blog/site. Since I've just shown you that PageRank CAN be manipulated to some degree, you should understand that PageRank doesn't necessarily mean traffic. There are sites with NO PageRank and a lot of traffic and sites with a PageRank that have minimal traffic. So what does this mean? Well, here is the misstep I was talking about. Many people will not try to build link love for themselves from sites with no PageRank. Instead, they will only link to sites that allow them to get PageRank. This is a bad way to build PageRank. Why? Because PageRank does not equal traffic. Here is an example of the problem.

Site A has a lot of traffic (10,000K per month) but no PageRank because they started their site right after Google gave out PageRank updates.
Site B is new and has no PageRank.
Site C has a PageRank of 2, however, Site C has very little traffic (1,000K per month). Their PageRank was built through using backlink building techniques.
Site A invites Site B to add their site so they can get a backlink.
Site B refuses because Site A has no traffic.
Site C invites Site B to add their site so they can get a backlink.
Site B accepts and gets a backlink from Site C!

Do you see what just happened here? Site B turned down the opportunity to be seen by 9,000 more people per month just because Site C had the better PageRank! What a huge mistake! Now Site B has a link from Site C that may give it a small boost in the Google algorithm, but, they are linked to a site with FAR less traffic. A better approach for Site B would have been to have backlinks from Site A AND Site C or if you had to pick one Site A. It is obvious that the link on Site A is going to be seen by far more people.

Realize this. It is not hard to build backlinks to your blog. I have a list of 122 social networks on PureBlogic that you can use to build backlinks all day long. This will mean absolutely nothing to you if you don't have traffic. Period! You must look to get relationships, traffic and PageRank - IN THAT ORDER! A personal relationship with another blogger can result in faves on Technorati, following on Twitter, an I like it! on Stumble, something dugg on Digg, a review that generates Traffic, a link on a blogroll, a mention and link in an article. Can PageRank do all of that for you? No, no and no!

When someone offers to link to your site, if their site isn't in your niche, but is a QUALITY site, you should go for it. Those people are likely asking a lot of other people and that could mean more traffic for you. Never be so focused on building PageRank that you miss out on building traffic.

Posted By Kila Morton

What Is Wrong With Alexa?

Kila Morton — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:32:46 +0000

I have to say that I am truly perplexed about Alexa. I am outlining my journey with Alexa so people can see what will help them boost their Alexa rank and what won't. I updated my stats for you on Saturday morning. At that time, the rank showed 588,229. This morning, Monday morning, it shows 593,064. I'm not sure what is going on with Alexa, but, I will keep you updated as always.

It's so crazy that there are actually companies that use this information for any purpose. We will see how the rankings shift in the future.

Posted By Kila Morton

3 Unconventional Places To Promote Your Articles

Kila Morton — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:16:33 +0000

When you are looking for ways to promote your articles and generate traffic, you may feel like you don't know where to begin. There are so many places available to you and your prospects can seem daunting. Social networking sites, bookmarking sites and news sites are the typical places that you look to for article promotion, but, are you doing all that you can do? If you are looking for creative ways to market your fantastic articles, I'm going to tell you about a few unconventional places you may want to try. These places offer the ability to connect with new readers, build links to your blog and market your quality content.

1. Google Groups
2. MSN Groups
3. Yahoo Groups

These 3 places may seem rather unlikely places for promoting your daily blog posts and I'm not suggesting that you promote every single post with them, however, your special blog posts can build great traffic back to your blog. You will be exposing new people to your articles that may have never come across them any other way. Give the groups a try and you will notice two things. First, you will increase traffic if you join a them and promote your articles. Second, you will increase the number of backlinks back to your blog. Remember that the backlinks you build for your site should be based on keywords that are inline with your blog. Now go build buzz for your blog articles.

Posted By Kila Morton

Week 1 Alexa Rank Update

Kila Morton — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 06:00:00 +0000

OK. So it's been about a week since I installed the Alexa Widget on PureBlogic. The intent, which I talked about in my March 7th, 2008 article outlining 5 simple ways to build up your Alexa rank, was to see how the widget changes my traffic stats. I've decided to provide a weekly update so we can chart the growth together and so you can see how beneficial or not beneficial installing the widget will be. As I've already stated in a previous article, I know that Alexa stats are inacurrate, however, their ARE companies that use your rank to determine how much advertising money they will pay you. Therefore, even if you don't care about Alexa, building your rank with them isn't going to hurt you.

So here is the breakdown thus far:

Week 0 - March 07, 2008 -	660,166
Week 1 - March 14, 2008 -	588,229

That's a change of about 10.8%.

Clearly those 5 simple ways I outlined to increase traffic do actually work.

I will keep you updated on the changes. Hopefully as Alexa refines and streamlines their process, we will see an increase in their accuracy. In the future, Alexa rankings may end up being an industry standard. Paying attention to your rankings now can't hurt.

Posted By Kila Morton

Building Great Traffic To Your Site With Blog Carnivals

Kila Morton — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:41:54 +0000

No! It isn't a place for you to take your blog and put it on a roller coaster :-). It isn't a place to go and get cotton candy either :-)! Instead, what blog carnivals are is a way to build quality traffic and back links to your site. Blog carnivals put together multiple posts from different bloggers on the same topic and then market the compiled collection or 'carnival' to people who then read the posts. The one document with all of the posts may contain a myriad of different bloggers, all writing about the same thing. It is an aggregator for posts about a particular topic. Depending on how often the blog carnival is run (weekly, monthly, etc), you can go from 0 traffic to substantial traffic very quickly.

When submitting your posts to a blog carnival, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Make sure you don't spam the carnival by submitting your posts to multiple categories that don't fit with the niche of your blog. Good carnivals take care of issues like this, but, the truth is that you should be smart enough to handle this one on your own. The purpose of the blog is to provide targeted information to people about one particular topic. Submitting your posts to topics it doesn't fit in only dilutes the value of the carnival, thereby defeating the purpose. Control yourself and submit your posts to the category it fits in.

Giving Readers A Full Plate - Of PureBlogic RSS

Kila Morton — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:14:22 +0000

The PureBlogic RSS feed is changing people! I admit it. I was trying to control my RSS subscribers so they would come to the actual site. I was bad and I'm sorry :-(. In an effort to focus on giving my readers what they want, I'm going to start doing a full RSS feed. There are going to be a few kinks along the way as I work out the details for including different things in the feed, but, in the end you won't have to come to the site to read all of the great content on PureBlogic. I know this will make some of the people who have asked for this happy. I am working through some programming issues with the feed, so right now the main article on the front page is partially displayed in the feed. Once I finish programming the RSS module I'm working on, this will change and the full front page article will show up in all of it's glory in the full feed.

For now, enjoy the new look of the PureBlogic RSS feed. I hope you like it!

Check out the new look here!

Posted By Kila Morton

5 Simple Ways To Attract And Retain Your Blog Visitors

Kila Morton — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:40:03 +0000

What is the difference between something you need and something you don't? When we create our blogs, we often create our blogs based on something we want to give to our target audience and something we want them to do for us, namely click on an ad, sign up for something, increase our traffic or post a comment. We right posts daily and then market those posts to attract people. But, have you ever stopped to ask yourself if you are giving people what THEY need? One of the most basic abilities we possess is the ability to survive. We focus on the things that we need and then we go after those things. When you are trying to make a living blogging, your job is to tap into that basic need for online survival that people have and give the people what they need. You have to objectively view your blog and ask yourself what are you giving to your blog readers that can satisfy their needs. Here are a few questions you should be asking yourself when you analyze what you are giving your readers.

Do My Posts Offer The Blog Readers I Am Targeting Something They Can Actually Use?

When people try to make money blogging, they sometimes forget that there are actually readers out there that are looking for something. Those readers are typically not reading your blog just because they have nothing else to do. They are looking for knowledge about something and trying to figure out what they should be doing, what they should be changing and what they should be focusing on. They are looking for some sort of guidance. The Internet is so wide open. The truth is that there are many ways to be successful. Readers are looking for clues on getting it right. If your post is not about offering the reader something they can use in their mission, you are not going to be able to cultivate a long term relationship with that reader. Trying to get your readers in so they will click on your ads is good for you, but, what are you offering your reader that they can take and use for them? By focusing on tying your passion about your blog in with something your readers can actually use, you will create a win-win situation for both you and your readers.

Optimize Your Site With The Free WordTracker Keyword Tool

Kila Morton — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Have you been looking for a way to see how the keywords for your site place in search engines? Do you know which keywords your post should include? Do you know which keywords place higher in relation to other keywords? If the answer to any of those questions was no, then you need the free keyword suggestion tool from WordTracker.

In short, this keyword tool allows you to put in a keyword and get a list of related keywords and an estimate of their search volume. This tool is an invaluable way to optimize your posts, site description and post titles to include the best keywords for your niche. The tool is very easy to use and free. Take a stroll over to WordTracker and start optimizing your site today.

Visit the free WordTracker keyword tool here!

Written By Kila Morton

5 Simple Ways To Boost Your Alexa Rank

Kila Morton — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:00:00 +0000

We all know that Alexa ratings are not necessarily accurate. However, Alexa rankings are looked at by several advertisers. So what can you do if you have no ratings for Alexa and you need to boost your ratings for some company that cares about Alexa?

Alexa Traffic Boost Tip 1 -
A quick and easy solution to start with is to install the Alexa toolbar on your computer. This will allow you to boost your ratings because you will undoubtedly visit your own site. Although this won't provide you with a mega-boost, it will allow you to add to your Alexa ranking. If you make your homepage the default page when your browser opens, this will ensure that every single time you open your browser, your visit is counted by Alexa.

Alexa Traffic Boost Tip 2 -
Ask a few of your friends to install the Alexa toolbar and visit your site. You can ask them to add your blog as their default homepage as well.

Alexa Traffic Boost Tip 3 -
Install the toolbar on every computer you use and visit your site on all of those computers.

Alexa Traffic Boost Tip 4 -
Install the Alexa site widget. Every single time a person visits your site, Alexa will record that information. This will certainly provide an Alexa traffic boost to your site because it's downloaded every time someone visits your site. PureBlogic is currently at 660,166. I'm adding the widget today so we can watch the rise of PureBlogic with the widget together. Install it on your blog and write a comment to this article. I'll take a look and we can watch our growth together.

Is StumbleUpon Dot Com A Mind Altering Drug?

Kila Morton — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Hello my name is Kila and I'm a StumbleUponholic! If the first step to curing a problem is admitting that you have one, then I'm here to say I need help. I don't know what has happened to me! It started off innocently enough. I went to StumbleUpon.com months ago and signed up for an account. I thought I knew what I was doing. I'm a good person! Why can't I Stumble around? Am I not worthy? I was so innocent and naive back then. What happened to me? I installed the darn toolbar. OK. Things were going well. I hit the Stumble! button......oh......ohhhh.....WHAT HAVE I DONE? I have now gone from regular website viewer to a "you better explain your website to me visually in 2 seconds or less or I'm hitting this darn Stumble button" person! What happened to me? Where did I go wrong? How did I end up being a.....a....StumbleUponholic?

The StumbleUpon effect has taken a lot of people by surprise. This effect is two fold. On one end, you have the effect that Stumble Upon visitors have on your website. They come in droves very quickly and tend to leave just as quickly. Some will sign up for your feed and some will come back, but, Stumblers are typically in and out. The second aspect of the StumbleUpon effect happens to the actual Stumbler. You actually start processing things more quickly as you view a website. Click the button, don't like this site, I'm gone - 1.5 seconds. Click the button, this site is great, hit the 'I like it!' button, I'm gone - 4 seconds. Click the button, I will read this site at some point in the future, hit the 'I like it!' button, bookmark it with Google Bookmarks, I'm gone - 60 seconds. Does this sound familiar to you? If it does, you may be a StumbleUponholic too!

I'm a business woman and, among other things, my business is creating software and designing websites. As a web designer, StumbleUpon.com starts to have a very strange, yet wonderful effect on you. You start thinking about how quickly your message is communicated when someone visits your blog or website. Oh yes, yes, you thought about this before, BUT, StumbleUpon.com forces you to think about this more than you ever have before. When I first came across StumbleUpon.com, I just submitted a few of my own articles.

KillerStartups Dot Com - Bringing You The Next Big Website

Kila Morton — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Sometimes it's hard to stay abreast of the latest comings and goings on the web. There is a site out there that makes staying in the know a little bit easier. The name of the site is KillerStartups.com. The purpose of KillerStartups is to highlight new websites. KillerStartups.com reviews the website and members of the site can vote on the site. This site is like the hotornot.com for websites - instead of rating photos you are rating websites. This site offers you the chance to find out about the newest sites before the whole world knows about them.

It's a place for entrepreneurs looking to market their next big thing, investors looking to gauge the potential of the next big thing and end users that want to see the next big thing. So if you think you have the greatest thing since sliced bread or just want to see the next great website coming down the lane, head on over to KillerStartups.com and check out the sites they have reviewed. With over 30+ sites reviewed daily, you are sure to find a new site offering something that you will either need or find interesting.

Visit KillerStartups.com here

Written By Kila Morton

Are You Looking For Link Love? Well PureBlogic Is Looking To Love You!

Kila Morton — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:00:00 +0000

A lot of people have asked me if I would do a link exchange with them over the past few months. I used to say no. It wasn't because I don't care about others. It was because I wasn't sure where I would put the links! Well if you are a regular PureBlogic reader, you may have noticed a new area on the site. It is the PureBlogic Link Love page! The link is in the upper right corner. I just added that to the site last week. As you may or may not know, I took the site down last week to make some changes to both the front and back end. That link love page was one of my changes.

Now that I have this new page, I need some sites to give link love to. If you have a great site that is updated regularly, I would love to link to you! Tell me about your site and give me all of your details. The process is manual on my end so don't expect the site to be added in an instant.

Here is the link to the page where you can submit your site!

If you want to link back to PureBlogic, I would love that, however, you don't have to! My love is unconditional :-)! Hope to hear from you soon.

Posted By Kila Morton

10 Resources For The Savvy CSS Developer And Those Who Love Looking At Great Designs

Kila Morton — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:00:00 +0000

When you are looking for inspiration or a place to promote your CSS web designs, where can you go? I'm so glad you asked! Here are 10 inspirational sites that showcase beautiful designs for you to peruse. In addition to showing you beautiful designs, most of these sites also allow you to submit your own designs. Check out these sites and have fun!

1. Beautifully :: Webdesign - This site is so beautiful. Nice ajax effect as well. You are going to like this site.

2. CeeSeS

3. Cool Site Collection - I'm in LOVE with this site! It's just beautiful :-)

4. Cool Home Pages

5. CSS Beauty - I'm in LOVE with this site too! It looks great!

6. CSS Bloom

7. CSS Blue

8. CSS Drive

9. CSS Gallery (www.csselite.com)

10. CSS Inspirace

I'm sure you will find these sites to be both inspirational and beautiful. These sites offer you a look at great design work on the web!

Posted By Kila Morton

Google Docs - 10 Reasons Why Every Blogger And Human Should Be Using Google Docs

Kila Morton — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 19:21:39 +0000

There is something to be said for a quality product that just works. Google, in its ever present goal for world domination, has provided something that is absolutely fantastic. I mean absolutely freakin' fantastic! For those of you who don't know, that product is called Google Docs. Google Docs is Google's answer to Microsoft's Word, Excel & PowerPoint offerings and I'm here to tell you people that it rocks! I have been using it for the past few weeks after my Microsoft Office trial expired on my new laptop. Google Docs allows you to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations right over the web. As I told you in one of my past articles, I think that Google is going to push Microsoft in the same way that Microsoft pushed Netscape and this product is one of the ways that is going to happen . So without going through that again (you should read that article because it was pretty good :-)), I'm going to tell you the top reasons that I think you should dump Office and move on over to Google Docs.

1. Google Docs Is Entirely Web Based

What does this mean to you? It means that you can have access to your important documents anywhere in the world! No need to travel with your flash drives that may be stolen or damaged. No need to run around wondering if you bought the right files with you. As long as you can access the Internet, you can access your files. It's that simple! What happens when you need your files on your local machine? Just export the file from Google Docs in html, rtf, Word, OpenOffice, PDF or text and you can have your file on your local machine.

2. Google Docs Allows You To Quickly Share Your Docs With Others & Collaborate In Real Time With Them

When you create a Google Doc, you are allowed to share it. When you share the document, other people can look at it, change it and update it. The changes are reflected in real time to other people working on the document. This collaborative environment is great if you are, for instance, on a conference call and need people to be able to see what you are talking about in real time. If you were doing a remote presentation and your client asked you to change something, you could change it and your client would see it in real-time.

3. Google Docs Allows You To See If Your Collaborators Have Actually Done What They Were Supposed To Do

Google allows you to view a feed that contains changes to a document. If you share a document with an employee, for instance, you can monitor all of the changes made to the document. If you are working in a team environment and you need to make sure that certain changes were made before you make your changes, you can easily look at the change history and see if the changes you required were made. How is that for looking over someone's shoulder?

4. Google Docs Allows You To Publish Your Document From Inside The Interface

You can easily publish your document directly to your blog. You can also publish the document to the web. Google will assign your document a unique URL that you can then share with the world. This is also extremely useful if you want to promote your blog using Google Docs. You can create back links back to your website or blog by creating a great document that was published with Google Docs and has a Google URL.

5. Google Docs Is Not Operating System Dependent

This kind of goes hand in hand with my first point, but, this is worthy of its own point for one simple reason. Who knows what will happen with the Windows, the Mac OS, the Linux, the Unix, the whatever. When you have your documents and spreadsheets on Google Docs, you don't have to care! You don't have to wonder about what OS you are using. You don't have to care if Apple decides to not allow any non-Apple products on their computers or if Windows gives you the blue screen of death every time you turn on your computer or if Windows Vista hogs so many resources that you can't open your word processor. You don't have to wonder or worry about any of those items because Google Docs doesn't depend on any operating system. How is that for freedom?

6. Google Docs Allows You To Add The Word, Excel & PowerPoint Documents That You Have Already Created

Already have documents in the Office format? That's fine! The people over at Google that love us have made it easy to upload our already created documents without drama and hassle. How is that for making life easy?

7. Google Docs Provides Us With A Familiar Interface And Almost Non Existent Learning Curve

If you have been using Office for years you will not have to go through a long learning curve to get started with Google Docs. The interface is very simple and uncluttered (unlike the darn ribbons Microsoft 'decided' we would prefer over the familiar interface we have been using for years!

8. You Can Easily Create A Document On Your Computer Or Mobile Device And Just Email It To Your Google Doc Accounts

Uploading documents to your account is so simple. If you can type in an email address, then you can upload documents you have created to your Google Docs account. Google gives you a unique email address when you set up your Google Docs account. You can then use that email address to send documents directly to your Google Doc account. How much easier can uploading documents you create on your phone or computer get?

9. Google Docs Allows You To Restore Your Blog Articles Easily If Something Happens

Ummm....just ask me how I know about this one? By creating your articles in Google Docs, you can always replace them on your server should the need ever arise. I had a situation a few weeks ago that required that I restore my blog articles. Since they were on Google Docs, I was able to complete the restoration easily. Google Docs offers you are great place for not only creating your documents, but also for maintaining backups of your documents. You will never have to worry about how you will replace your locally destroyed documents again. They will be safe and well fed on the Google site - the ultimate document babysitter!

10. Google Docs is 100% Free

Free doesn't necessarily mean better, however, in the case of Google Docs - it does! You get a product that works flawlessly combined with the features you are accustomed to AND it's free! What more could you ask for?

To use Google Docs, you need to have a Google account. If you already have a Google account (which you should), then you can just log into your account and go to the links below. If you aren't using Google Docs right now, my suggestion would be to try it. Google changed the color of the Docs interface for Valentine's day. Personally I love it. The normal interface is dull looking to me. I will let you make your own choice.

To view the Google Docs interface in Valentine's Day pink -

click here.
To view the Google Docs interface with the normal colors - click here.

Posted By Kila Morton

Bloggeries Dot Com - A Place To Build Back Links For Your Blog

Kila Morton — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Link building is a never ending process. Here is an additional site to add to your collection of back link building resources. The site is called Bloggeries.com. This site allows you to submit your site to their directory. They have lists of the most popular blogs on their directory as well as an area where sites are reviewed.

Go over and take a look when you have a chance and then submit your site to Bloggeries to build a back link to your blog. Bloggeries has a good PageRank so a link from this site will certainly be beneficial to you.

Posted By Kila Morton

10 Places To Promote And Find Great WordPress Themes

Kila Morton — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Are you looking for ways to promote your newly created WordPress theme? If you are, you are in luck! I have a list of 10 great sites where you can upload and promote your fantastic WordPress theme. If you are someone looking for a theme, then these websites are a must have resource for you as well. From 2 column to 4 columns and everything in between - these sites offer inspiration, great WordPress theme designs, free WordPress themes and easy navigation for anyone and everyone looking for their next great WordPress theme.

BlogFlux Themes -
BlogFlux is a resource site that offers people the ability to load their themes and download the themes of others. You can preview the themes and download them easily.

BloggingThemes -
This site offers free WordPress Themes. You can upload your WordPress theme to their database and users can download your WordPress theme easily.

Fresheezy -
This site is beautiful. You can submit your WordPress theme and users can download them with ease. The best thing about this site is that it is attractive. It is a pleasure to look for themes using this site because it is so attractive.

iThemes -
This site has great WordPress themes. You can sumbit your themes and download themes from other people. The interface is easy to use and your WordPress templates are easy to submit.

ThemesBase -
This site allows you to submit your WordPress themes and it allows others to download the themes quickly and easily. Their interface is clean and they offer you a preview feature.

Themes-WP -
This site is another beautiful site that offers WordPress themes. You can upload and download WordPress themes as well as filter their themes to find exactly what you want.

Weblogs Tools Collection -
This site is great for designers and those looking for themes. You can post your theme and then people looking to download them can click on your entry and see your themes. This is just a great resource if you are looking to promote your theme.

WordPressWow -
This site offers reviews of free WordPress themes. You can view a lot of themes on this site and get a great idea about the pros and cons of a particular theme.

WPDesigner -
This site is great. They offer honest (sometimes brutally honest) reviews of WordPress themes for those of you trying to promote your templates. They also offer a collection of free templates. The site is both attractive and informative and will give you a great idea about what to look for when you are trying to find a great theme. I would certainly recommend taking a look at this site BEFORE you purchase a WordPress theme. Their reviews alone will give you a wealth of information.

WPSkins -
This site allows you to submit and download WordPress themes. The great thing about this site is that you can filter the WordPress themes to find what you are looking for. So if you want a 3 column theme with other particular items, you can filter and find WordPress themes that fit your criteria.

Posted By Kila Morton

History Repeats - Google Is Beating Microsoft At Its Own Game

Kila Morton — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

It's strange how history repeats itself. One big circle going around and around. Recently I was working on my Sony Vaio laptop. I have Windows Vista Ultimate installed and I had that darn automatic windows update feature set. I typically keep a whole lot of different browser windows, document windows and spreadsheet windows open. On this bright and sunny day I was working diligently on my latest project. I had a few things to take care of and I made the colossal mistake of leaving my laptop up while I went to take care of some other business. During this time, Microsoft decided that I needed some updates. Ummm.....for those of you familiar with the updates, can you tell me what happens when they are done??????? After they complete, your computer is automatically restarted.

Many of you may be asking yourselves what's the big deal. Well the big deal is that I was working on many things at once and there were many open documents, even some php programming ideas I was toying with in notepad, that weren't saved. Oops! I came back and my desktop was sitting there smiling at me. My documents, my php programming windows, my .NET programming windows, open browser windows and everything else was gone!

I tried to hold back the torrent of curse words, but I was unsuccessful. Most of the time I am really great about saving my documents just in case Windows Vista decides to throw a tantrum. This time I wasn't. The question I ask myself is should I have to remember. When FireFox crashes (yes it DOES happen from time to time!!), I can get back every browser window when I open up FireFox the next time by using the Restore feature. Opera has never crashed on me, but, Windows Vista has. When it does, Opera can automatically restore every single browser window that was shut down. When Internet Explorer crashes, I am out of luck!!! Why? Why isn't Microsoft all over this? Why isn't Microsoft working hard to make the best product out there? What has happened to the company that I knew and loved so much?

I remember when Microsoft first started to offer Internet Explorer for free. (Oh God am I getting old??) Netscape was in a comfortable and secure position. Everything was going along well for them and then here comes Microsoft offering something great for free! Free! Free??? Free?!?!?!?! Netscape laughed a little. I'm sure they thought Microsoft's move into the browser market would be nothing more than an insignificant blip on the radar. They were wrong. Incredibly wrong!

That is ancient history right? Well not exactly. Remember how I started this article off - history repeats itself. Google is now doing the exact same thing to Microsoft that Microsoft did to others - ONLY BETTER. I am writing this article right now using Google Docs. Why you ask? Well, Microsoft included a free trial of Office 2007 on my laptop. I tried it. They removed the classic view in Word that I have been so very comfortable with for so many years. I went to Microsoft's website and tried to locate the place where I could learn how to switch back to the classic view of Word, Excel and so on. Well Microsoft decided that this wasn't important. The ability to switch back isn't there. What???? Change the way that people work in a software product and not give people who are used to a certain look the ability to use the classic view and ease themselves into the new look? Not allow people to learn the new features when they have time? I don't have time to figure out which freakin' "ribbons" hold which function. I design software and websites. I will take the time to learn a new programming language because one of my customer's prefers it. I refuse to take the time to relearn how to use a product I have been using for years. I don't have the time! Needless to say, when my trial period expired I decided not to purchase it. I decided to use my old version of Office. After one particular Vista shutdown, the documents restored but did not save the entire document. It missed a few sentences. It was only a few sentences, but, that was it for me! Google here I come. I use Word & Excel for old documents that I've created, but, all of my new documents are Google docs. Why? Because it's free, it's easy to use, it lets me automatically post things to my blog, it lets me easily share documents with my employees, it's familiar and perhaps most importantly, it just freakin' works! When the last Microsoft updates came around and my computer cut off, I wasn't afraid anymore (I love you Google!). My heart didn't jump into my throat at the realization that I forgot to save my work. Why? Because Google did it for me! Google, can you come cook for me and clean my house too? I have a car. Can you drive me too? Please? Please?? Can you think for me so I can focus on only the essential things in my life?? Can you take away the small minutia in my life so I can be productive???? Please??

So now look at what has happened. I'm using Google Docs instead of paying for Word or Office in the same way that people started using Internet Explorer instead of paying for Netscape Navigator. The only thing left for Google to do is come up with an operating system and .......a.......(dare I say it) web browser ;-)! For those of you who don't know - a Google Browser and operating system are _________ (left blank intentionally)! The circle of history here is clear. Google is on its way to becoming the new and improved Microsoft. Microsoft is on its way to becoming Netscape and some other company is on its way to becoming Google!!!! How does that picture look? I was surprised when I recently went to the Microsoft web site and was told that I had to use Internet Explorer to download some updates. What's going to happen when Google comes out with an operating system that works with everything? Hmmmm????

So what do I have to say now that I'm using a free spreadsheet and word processor from Google that never loses my darn documents and autosaves so I don't have to remember that little detail in my freakin' busy life AND now that I'm only using Internet Explorer for the few sites that require it and to check websites I create before launch because it causes me to lose all of my browser windows when it crashes?????

Microsoft, you have been good to me. You will always hold a special place in my heart. By learning and using your programming products, I went from having nothing to having a whole lot of something. I care so much about you. I still love you. I will miss you.

P.S. Come back soon......XOXOXO

Posted By Kila Morton

Html Playground - A Great Resource For Xhtml & CSS Developers

Kila Morton — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

As I was spending a little time stumbling, I came across a great reference for designers, programmers and new developers alike. That site is http://htmlplayground.com/ . This site allows you to select an html tag from a list and find out exactly how to use it complete with clear examples. The site not only offers you the ability to enter your html directly into their tool, it also allows you to preview the results instantly. This allows you to easily create your ideas and test them before you use your code someplace else. So just how easy is this site to use?

Here is a screenshot of the site. The interface is so clear and extremely straightforward.

From the simple and mundane tags to the more extreme tags, Html Playground offers you the ability to test out your code, see the additional tags that are available to you and see what the end result will be before you put the code in your site.

This site is extremely easy to use and understand. The next time that you have an opportunity to work with html, run on over to the HTML Playrground and test out their service. I’m sure you will find it a resource that you will use over and over again.

Visit the Html Playground by clicking here!

Posted By Kila Morton

Unconventional Methods Of Link Building - Ebay Blogs

Kila Morton — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Unless you’ve been living on an island with no communication with anyone for many, many years, there is no doubt that you have heard of eBay. I am personally an eBay addict. I use eBay to purchase office supplies, personal items, things for my vehicle and so much more. EBay serves a lot of different purposes for a lot of different people, but, have you ever thought of promoting your site and building back links with eBay?

What are eBay Blogs?

Ebay blogs are a great way to let your personality shine and connect with friends, family and other buyers and sellers. You can create your eBay blog, put up your thoughts and ideas and really promote your own blogs. All it takes is an eBay account.

Why Ebay blogs?

You may be asking yourself why you would use a service like eBay to promote your blog. The answer is because you can! As long as you are an eBay member, you can create a nice little blog for yourself with links to your main site that will offer you excellent PageRanked back links. Ebay is seen by millions of people all the time and promoting your site to all of those people with the Ebay blogs feature is easy to do.

This is a little hidden gem that can really offer you a great way to build links for your blog.
So click on the link below and start building your links with eBay blogs!

Visit eBay right now and set up your account and your blog! Link building in unconventional places can be easy and fun. Do it now with eBay!

Posted By Kila Morton

Use DaniWeb To Network With Others, Learn Way More Than You Know And Promote Your Site

Kila Morton — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Are you making the most of your networking efforts? If you haven’t visited DaniWeb, then the answer is probably not. DaniWeb is a vibrant forum based community of software developers, web developers, internet marketers and tech gurus all looking to network and interact with people like you! Although some of you may not be tech people, that’s ok. DaniWeb allows you to find out a lot of different techniques to market your site.

DaniWeb offers information on promotion and marketing plans, how to grow an online community, advertising sales stategies, ecommerce, pay per click advertising, search engine optimization, website reviews, internet marketing and so much more. You can connect with people doing a variety of things relevant to the things you are trying to do with your website.

Now you may be thinking that you have nothing to gain from a forum community. Think again! You can use this site to get ideas for your future articles in addition to the powerful ability to connect with people doing so many different things.

Go over and take a look at DaniWeb.com when you have a chance. Join the community and invest some time in networking with other people.

Posted By Kila Morton

Use Autopinger To Automatically Submt Your Site Updates To Search Engines To Generate Traffic

Kila Morton — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

In a recent article I discussed how you can use Google’s ping feature to get your site indexed and included in search results in a couple of minutes. I also told you about several plugins that work with both WordPress and Joomla to allow you to automatically ping services to let them know you have updated your blog. Well now I have another product to tell you about. For those of you who don’t want to invest in a plug, don’t want to ping a multitude of services by hand and want to ping as many services as you can at once, http://autopinger.com/ is just the thing for you.

Pinging services like Google’s Blog Search let’s the service know that you have updated your blog with fresh content. Pinging is something that you need to do after every article you publish to get the article indexed by search engine robots and blog directory bots. It can be time consuming, but, if generating traffic is important to you, then you need to do it. Autopinger.com makes it simple.

Sign up for a free account. Autopinger will ping your blog every 30 minutes for updates. When it comes across an update, it notifies the services you have selected. If you update your site and need to have other services notified immediately, you can use their manual ping feature to have that information sent out immediately. Autopinger allows you to forget about notifications and get on with the business of being successful online.

Get on over to Autopinger.com and start using this great service to let the world know when you update your blog!

Posted By Kila Morton

How To Create The Ultimate Search Engine Friendly Article

Kila Morton — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Writing articles that are search engine friendly is very easy to do if you know the right ingredients to use. We are going to examine some of the techniques you should employ in your articles to make optimize them for search engines and to help them index well. Instead of giving you my usual long article about who, what, where and why, I’m going to give you a nice little list that you can print out and go through.

I’m going to make a few assumptions. First, I’m going to assume that you already have search engine friendly urls set up for your article. You will notice, if you clicked on the title to this article, that the title of the article is also the url of the article. This is easy to replicate if you are using WordPress, Joomla or many of the other available blogging platforms. I’m also going to assume that your article is about something related to what your blog is about. If your blog is about making money blogging, then I’m going to assume that your article content is about the same thing. Now that we have my basic assumptions out of the way, let’s get on with it.

DECIDE ON THE KEYWORDS YOU ARE GOING TO USE IN YOUR ARTICLE
If you are really into trying to get organic traffic, you need to be sure that all of your articles contain the same keywords. This type of repetitive use of keywords helps your articles to rank well when they are searched for. This helps you drive organic traffic to your site. For more information on how to drive organic or search engine traffic to your site, visit PureBlogic’s article on how to drive search engine traffic. That article is part of a series of articles that may prove helpful to you when you are trying to decide what to do to drive traffic.

CREATE KEYWORD AND PHRASE LINKS TO YOUR PRIOR ARTICLES INSIDE OF YOUR CURRENT ARTICLE
When you write an article, you need to make sure that you create a keyword or phrase link back to your prior articles. For instance, in the prior paragraph I have linked to an article that I wrote about generating search engine traffic. That article links to several additional articles. Those articles link to several other articles. Each article is tied to the other articles with keywords and anchor phrases. This is done for an important reason. You can often get multiple pages ranked at the same time. As the search engine bots crawl your site and follow the links, your keywords and phrases will be indexed along with the actual article you submitted. Make sure that your keywords and link phrases all contain your keywords.

ADD YOUR KEYWORDS TO YOUR ARTICLE AS MANY TIMES AS POSSIBLE
As you put the words for your article together, make sure that you use your keywords as many times as possible. You need to make sure that your article makes sense and is keyword rich. This is done to make sure that the search engine sees your article as relevant for the search terms you are targeting.

GIVE YOUR ARTICLE A TITLE THAT CONTAINS YOUR KEYWORDS
If you have your search engine friendly url plugins installed, your url will become your title. Make sure that you use your keywords in your title. This will add to your article’s search engine credibility.

That’s it! You have now created a search engine friendly article you can now submit to bookmarking sites, use to make money with your blog or website, include in your feed and allow to be indexed by the search engines using their ping services. Now wasn’t that easy?

Posted By Kila Morton

Remember To Write Blog Articles That People Can Actually Read

Kila Morton — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

One of the key things that a lot of people forget when they start writing content for their blogs is that they are writing content for people. What am I talking about? Well let me give you some background. When I was little I used to love to learn big words. I confess. I was a complete nerd. I loved to learn unusual and large words so that I could go to school and say things that the other kids wouldn’t understand. Then, after peppering my conversations with words that I knew they didn’t know, I loved to ask them if they understood so I could see the confused look on their faces. That was when I was in 5th grade.

As I grew up, I grew out of the need to feel superior. The problem with a lot of people writing blog content is that they haven’t. When you are writing content for your blog you need to write in a way that actually allows people to read and understand what you are writing. Big terms, fancy words, cloaked meanings are all superfluous fluff that should not be a part of your blog writing. Here are some reasons why.

{xtypo_quote_left}Using a whole bunch of big words in your articles makes you look like you are incapable of communicating with others.{/xtypo_quote_left} When you can’t explain something in basic terms that people can understand it doesn’t make you look better or bigger. Instead, it makes you look like you never learned basic communication skills.

There may be people who have learned English as a second language that are reading your content. While your big words may seem perfectly fine to you, someone who is not 100% at ease with the language, much less your fancy words, may have trouble understanding what you write.

It doesn’t make your content easy to read. People like reading what’s easy for them. I’m not saying that your writing should be on the level of a 1st grader, but, I want you to think about something for a minute. Which of these sentences do you think someone would find easier to read?

“Writing blog articles can be a fun thing to do if done with care.”

“Completing an exposition can be an experience marked by jocularity if executed punctiliously.”

Both of the sentences above say essentially the same thing. However, they don’t make YOU feel the same. With one of those sentences, I can almost guarantee that you looked around for that dusty copy of your dictionary to figure out the meaning of some of the words. Your readers are no different. High level words may look good, but they leave your readers feeling like they need a dictionary beside them to read your content. If you need reinforcement of your superior brain power, look for it elsewhere. Don’t make your readers feel like they need to be smarter just to read your work.

Using unnecessarily long words makes your article longer than necessary AND, since it has all of those words that people may not understand, people are therefore less likely to actually read what you wrote. How does it make you feel to think that with all of your superior intellect, no one is actually reading your articles? It should make you feel pretty silly. People don’t like things that are too complex. Make it complex and the majority of people will not read it.

People will not like or come back to your site. If you want traffic from a lot of people, then write for a lot of people. Don’t think for one second that people are going to invest the time in understanding what you wrote. A few people might, but, the masses won’t. There are too many websites out there with good content for them to waste their time trying to figure out what your superior bull crap means. You are writing for other people - not for you.

I love to write long blog articles simply because I love to write. I think I make them informative and at least a tad witty. You have to write for your audience and learn what they like as well. If you have questions about if you should use certain words, pick a different easier word. You may feel like you shouldn’t have to dumb yourself down, but remember that you aren’t writing for you. You are writing for others. You are writing to help other people understand something. Make it easy for people to understand what you write. Doing that will not only help you attract visitors, it will also help others get the wonderful message that you have to offer them quickly, easily and in a way they can understand.

Posted By Kila Morton

Great WordPress Themes, PageRank & Direct Traffic - Oh My!

Kila Morton — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Are you in the mood to see beautiful WordPress themes that you can use for your personal & commercial projects that are 100% free? If you aren’t then stop reading now. If you are then you need to make your way over to http://www.freewpthemes.net . Created by NodeThirtyThree Designs, these templates offer you an easy way to get a beautifully designed blog without the expense of hiring a designer yourself. These templates offer you the ability to add your content and go without worrying about the design details.

From flowery designs to strong bold designs, freewpthemes.net offers something great to help you display the exact image you are looking for on your blog. In addition to the great WordPress theme designs they offer, they also have another website that offers free CSS templates for your personal and commercial use. They do kindly ask that you link back to them in some way, but hey - who cares if they are giving you a free template for nothing more than a link back to their site?

A lot of people question why someone would give away free templates when they could charge for them. People do it for a variety of reasons.

Every link back to their site helps them build up terrific PageRank. For instance, freecsstemplates.org has a PageRank of 8 and their other site freewpthemes.net has a PageRank of 7. If you are looking for a great way to build up your PageRank, offering a few free WordPress themes will certainly do the trick. You can easily adapt this to whatever you are offering as well. If you are blogging about blogging, offer a free ebook. If you are writing about products, review popular products for free. All of these things help to get links back to your site and they help to establish you as an authority on a particular topic.

People are going to come back to the site over and over again to see the new goodies that have been added. This means that you are going to get a lot of direct traffic. Remember what I said in Part 3 of my series on building direct traffic - direct traffic comes directly to your site. They aren’t coming by mistake and they aren’t coming because they were searching for some term that your site was included in. They are coming specifically for you and what you have to offer.

It helps to build up goodwill and good karma. If people associate your site with something they know and love, like WordPress, then it makes them feel good about you as well. Then, when you have additional products to sell, they are willing to purchase them or at least read about what you are offering because they have already built up a positive relationship with you and they trust you.

Make sure that you take a look at freewpthemes.net AND freecsstemplates.org . After you finish looking through their wonderful designs, think about how you can apply their business model to whatever you are offering.

Posted By Kila Morton

Alexa Ratings Are Inaccurate But Are They Useful?

Kila Morton — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Are Alexa ratings accurate? In short, the answer is no. Alexa rankings are generated based on data from users that utilize the Alexa toolbar, widgets and other tracking items. This, of course, doesn’t represent everyone. When trying to determine if Alexa’s information is accurate, you only need to go as far as the Alexa website itself.

Our users are disproportionately likely to visit sites that are featured on alexa.com such as amazon.com and archive.org, and traffic to these sites may be overcounted.

The extent to which our sample may overcount or undercount users of the various browsers is unknown. Alexa's sample includes users of Internet Explorer, Firefox and Mozilla browsers. The AOL/Netscape and Opera browser is not supported, which means that sites operated by these companies may be undercounted.

The extent to which our sample may overcount or undercount users of various operating systems is unknown. Alexa sample includes toolbars built for Windows, Macintosh and Linux.

The rate of adoption of Alexa software in different parts of the world may vary widely due to advertising locality, language, and other geographic and cultural factors. For example, to some extent the prominence of Chinese sites among our top-ranked sites reflects known high rates of general Internet usage in China, but there may also be a disproportionate number of Chinese Alexa users.

In some cases traffic data may also be adversely affected by our "site" definitions. With tens of millions of hosts on the Internet, our automated procedures for determining which hosts are serving the "same" content may be incorrect and/or out-of-date. Similarly, the determinations of domains and home pages may not always be accurate. When these determinations change (as they do periodically), there may be sudden artificial changes in the Alexa traffic rankings for some sites as a consequence.

The Alexa Toolbar turns itself off on secure pages (https:). Sites with secure page views will be under-represented in the Alexa traffic data.

This means that they know that their information is not completely correct, they are telling you that their information is not completely correct and they have provided understandable reasons why their information is not correct. So what does this mean to you?

Well first, you need to understand that inaccurate doesn’t mean that the ratings are not valuable. While they may not provide you with the most accurate data in the world, they do provide some people with a sample measurement of traffic with an adjustment for errors. Some sites use this information to calculate your site’s worth. For instance, Text Link Ads factors in your Alexa rating. The better your ranking, the more your site can earn. Text Link Ads is not alone.

The bottom line is that people are looking for every measurement they can get to determine how many people look at your site and how much traffic you get. PageRank, Alexa rankings as well as other factors are used to make the best possible judgment about your site. Remember that people don’t know you. They don’t know your quality as an individual or your quality as a website owner. All they know is how your site looks and how they feel about your site. These ranking tools try to give people a somewhat subjective picture of your site to allow them to determine if they may want to conduct business with you. The rankings provide some way to gauge what’s happening on the backend of your site. Just because they are not 100% accurate in their measurements doesn’t mean that they are not valuable. Therefore, if it matters to you, you need to work to make the most of the tools that supply that information instead of discounting the tools as useless. In future articles, we are going to examine the Alexa system in more depth and create a system to make the most of Alexa.

Looking for ways to boost your Alexa rankings? Check out our 5 simple ways that will help you do just that.

Posted By Kila Morton

Part 5 - How To Get Referral Traffic To Your Site And How To Measure It

Kila Morton — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

In Part 1 of our multipart series on building web traffic we focused on defining and identifying the 3 types of traffic that come to our sites. In Part 2 we examined the tools necessary to count and track the traffic coming to our sites. In Part 3 we examined how to drive direct traffic. In Part 4 we examined organic traffic. Now we are going to focus on referral traffic. Again, I use Google Analytics, however, any tool you have should be sufficient as long as you can track referral traffic.

So what is referral traffic? Referral traffic is what you get from all of those backlinks we created with my list of 122 bookmarking sites (make sure you check that out!) and my list of 15 social networks. It is the traffic that visits your site using a link from another site. Referral traffic requires a lot of initial legwork to build, but, it is probably the best type of traffic to use to really build your site. Referral traffic tends to come back if your content is good and they tend to tell others about your site.

If you haven’t read the first parts of this series, I encourage you to read those sections so that you can understand how to create a baseline idea of your current traffic before you start your referral traffic efforts. If you are the type of person who just wants results and doesn’t want to know about the details, then you probably won’t need that additional information. It may still be useful, however, to take a look. After all, more knowledge is better than less knowledge.

The first thing you need to understand about referral traffic, or rather the first thing I’m going to tell you, is about PageRank. A quality backlink is one that not only gets traffic for your site - it also allows you to build PageRank. PageRank is Google’s measurement of importance of your site. Now PageRank doesn’t mean that you will get traffic, but, there are situations in which having a good PageRank will be beneficial for you. For instance, if you decide to start reviewing other sites, many agencies that pay you for this set your rate based on a combination of things and they typically include PageRank. This can be good and bad. You can build PageRank easily, but, if you don’t have one right now, then you are out of luck. The key, is to build links to your site from sites that have some page rank - the higher the better. Google’s algorithms make determinations about the importance of your site based on the number of PageRanked sites that link to your site. Sites that have higher PageRank that link to you add value to your site.

Let me explain a few additional things about referral traffic. When you submit your articles to a site like Blog Catalog or Blogging Zoom or Blog Engage, a few things happen. First, those sites are going to provide you with back links like I explained above. The next thing that happens is that other people start to visit your site. These people will become your friends, your acquaintances, your commenters, your partners, your critics, your sources of inspiration and many other things.

So what exactly do you need to do to build referral traffic? You need to first make sure that you have great content. When I say great content, I mean that you need articles that really offer value to people. Not articles like, “I Have No Traffic..Help Me”. I’m talking about articles that take people by the neck and say, “You Have To Read Me Because I’m Really Going To Help You!” You need these types of articles because a lot of the sites you are going to submit to won’t result in actual traffic if you don’t. I’m sure most of you have heard of StumbleUpon.com. This site is an excellent resource for building traffic, however, if the articles you place on that site are not good, people will come and go off of your site quicker than a drop of water evaporates in a fire. You need to have something of quality to attract people and draw them in.

Using your sites RSS feed is another method of generating referral traffic. Many sites, like Blog Catalog and MyBlogLog will look at your RSS feed and publish that information on their site in your profile. This is a great way to build links.

The importance of building referral traffic cannot be underestimated. You can easily build the traffic and once you do, you must maintain it with quality articles. In the final part of this series, I’m going to give you a step by step list on what you should do to build your traffic. This will be a summary for all of those people who think that I talk, or rather type too much.

Links To Prior Articles In This Series

Part 1 - A Basic Overview Of The 3 Types Of Traffic That Come To Your Site

Part 2 - Google, Wordpress And Joomla Tools To Help You Track Traffic On Your Website

Part 3 - How To Create Campaigns To Drive Direct Traffic To Your Site And Measure Your Success

Part 4 -How To Get Organic Traffic To Your Site And Measure Your Success

Posted By Kila Morton

Part 4 - How To Get Organic Traffic To Your Site And Measure Your Success

Kila Morton — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

In Part 1 of our multipart series on building web traffic we focused on defining and identifying the 3 types of traffic that come to our sites. In Part 2, we examined the tools necessary to count and track the traffic coming to our sites. In Part 3, we examined how to drive direct traffic. Now we are going to focus on driving organic traffic. I use Google Analytics, however, any tool you have should be sufficient as long as you can track organic traffic.

We know that organic traffic results from people searching for particular terms and then finding and coming to our site after seeing our site returned in their search results. This traffic, as I stated in the first article, can prove to be extremely useful in helping you garner success in your web efforts if your inclusion in the search results is intentional.

One of the hardest things for a lot of bloggers to understand is how to get the information on your site indexed and included in search results. There are a number of key points you need to understand in order to achieve success with organic traffic. First, a lot of people run after Google PageRank, which is Google’s numerical value of a site, as if it’s the holy grail. It isn’t. PageRank does not equal site traffic. While a good PageRank is great, you don’t need PageRank to get traffic and having PageRank won’t get you traffic.

A lot of people are also confused about how long it takes to be included in Google’s search results. Many people think that there is a sandbox that new sites automatically go into and, once in that sandbox, Google won’t include you in search results for popular terms. This is a myth. You can get a site included in Google’s search results at any time. Your level of placement in those results depends on how popular the search terms are and the level of optimization on your site. I am going to show you how to get your site indexed and included in Google’s search in minutes. Other search engines have processes similar to the Google processes I’m going to show you.

So how do you go about getting organic traffic that actually WANTS to be on your site? First, you need to decide on exactly what your site is about. You need to be able to condense your site definition down to a few key words. For instance, if I were picking words for a site like Pure Blogic I would select, blogging, new bloggers, how to blog, how to make money blogging, how to be successful blogging, blogging information, blogging ideas, blogs about blogging, new to blogging. Those keywords need to go into your meta tags. Most modern day search engines don’t seed their search return results based on meta data, however, including that information is still useful for those that do and for monetization programs that may use this information.

After putting your keywords into your meta tags, you know need to optimize your site for the keywords you selected. You do this in a variety of ways. First, you have to focus on your content. If you are really focused on driving organic traffic, then each of your articles have to be keyword rich. Your articles need to make since to the people reading them, however, you need to include your keywords every step of the way. For instance, let’s say that you have an article about generating web traffic and generating web traffic is what your site is about. An optimized title includes as many of your keywords as possible. The article needs to be coherent, but, you need to make sure that both your title and your content are consistent with your site’s overall keywords. A lot of people say that you need to write articles for people and not search engines. I am telling you that you need to write for both. Your articles need to be keyword rich for the search engines and they need to make sense for your readers.

After you have your meta data set and your articles content and titles optimized, you need to then focus on getting your articles indexed and included in search results. This is effortless and can be done in a variety of ways. My favorite way is to make sure that my articles are included in my feeds and then ping Google. If you are using WordPress, there are tools that automatically allow you to ping Google. If you are using Joomla, you can use Weblog ping. Here is a link . If you are using WordPress, you can look in the plug ins area on the Wordpress site. You can also ping the Google service manually with your feed information. Here is the link to Google’s ping service . You can add your site and get your site indexed and information included in the search results for blogs and websites. The purpose of the Google ping service is to inform Google of continual updates to your site. Therefore, you should send pings to the service everyday. The automated plugins make it easy to do this when you post an article.

If you want your site to come up in particular search results, you need to make sure that you optimize your site for those results by following the instructions above. It isn’t difficult and it isn’t rocket science. You just have to put in the effort to make it happen. Here are some of the principal ways that you can get organic traffic to your site.

Figure out exactly what your site is about and create keywords for your site based on what your site is about.

Place your keywords in your meta tags which are in the head section of your site.

Customize your articles for the search engines by including your keywords in your article as many times as you possibly can.

Customize your article titles for search engines by including your keywords in the title as many times as you possibly can. Make sure that the title and the content make sense.

Submit your feed to the search engine’s ping service.

Use the method identified in Part 3 of this series to calculate your current average direct traffic information and then use that information to track your efforts in trying to get organic traffic. I won’t go back into the same information here, but, you can take a look at the outline in Part 3 that outlines how to measure a particular type of website traffic by clicking here .

Getting organic traffic is not hard, you just need to understand the fundamentals behind what drives your article to the first few pages of the search results. You need to understand that there are a lot of other people competing for many of the words you want to use as your keywords. Don’t be deterred by that competition. Simply understand that it exists and optimize your site to deal with it. If you put in the effort to really optimize your site, you will see good organic traffic coming to your site.

In the next part of this series we are going to examine referral traffic.

Links To Prior Articles In This Series

Part 1 - A Basic Overview Of The 3 Types Of Traffic That Come To Your Site

Part 2 - Google, Wordpress And Joomla Tools To Help You Track Traffic On Your Website

Part 3 - How To Create Campaigns To Drive Direct Traffic To Your Site And Measure Your Success

Posted By Kila Morton

Part 3 - How To Create Campaigns To Drive Direct Traffic To Your Site And Measure Your Success

Kila Morton — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

In Part 1 of our multipart series on building web traffic we focused on defining and identifying the 3 types of traffic that come to our sites. In Part 2, we examined the tools necessary to count and track the traffic coming to our sites. Now we are going to focus on breaking down the information we have collected, analyzing that information and then using it to drive traffic to our websites and blogs. I’m going to use the Google tracking system in this article. I encourage you to use Google too since the information it provides is in-depth. We are going to analyze each type of traffic separately starting with direct traffic.

We know that direct traffic is the result of people directly typing our web addresses into the browser. So how does a user know about our site if they were not directly referred from another site or someplace else? Here are some of the principal ways that direct traffic makes it to your site.

Indirect referrals -

Word of mouth
Directly asking people to come to your site in forums

Direct promotion -

Direct mail
Telephone marketing
Email marketing

Familiarity -

People type the address in because they have visited the site before and they know enough to come straight there now

So now that we know some of the principal ways that direct traffic makes it to your site AND we know that we can track direct traffic via Google, we can create campaigns specifically to drive direct traffic and then directly track their results using our tools. The first step to doing this is to analyze our average amount of direct traffic. Analyzing the average amount of traffic allows you to create a baseline reference that you can then use to separate your normal direct traffic from the traffic you get from your promotional activities.

Getting The Average Number Of Direct Traffic Per Day

Total # Of Direct Visits / Total Number Of Days For The Total # Of Direct Visits

If you have 125 direct visits across 4 days, your average amount of direct visits per day is 31.25. That number provides you with a baseline measurement for determining how many new direct visits you are going to get from your promotional efforts. Once you have this, you need to decide on what you are going to do and you need to record your activities.

Record your activities from the very first day you start direct marketing. This is going to be the first day you use to determine your average increase in visitors. To do this using the figures we started above, you are going to calculate the total average across the same amount of days that you institute your program and your cutoff date. So let’s say that you start your efforts on a Monday and stop them on the following Thursday. Measure your total traffic and divide it by 4 days. This is the number of traffic per day. Now you are going to subtract the number we came up with before from this number. This will be how we can approximate how successful our efforts have been. Make sure that you use the exact 4 days that you used initially. If you initially used Monday through Thursday, then choose Monday through Thursday to do your promotion. This method isn’t 100% because there are always refinements that can be made, however, it will give you the ability to get a loose picture of how successful your efforts are and what works and doesn’t work for you. Also understand that I’m using 4 days as an example. You will probably want to give your efforts more time to be successful.

Here are a few ways to generate direct traffic to your site.

Start off by talking to people. Make a goal for yourself of telling a certain amount of people per week about your site. Getting people interested by talking to them is a great way to get them to visit your site.

Advertise your site in your local City Paper. This costs money, however, it is doesn‘t cost a lot. A great ad will attract people to your site.

Sponsor a local event along with other similar businesses. This will also require money.

Make up flyers and pass them out at businesses related to your site. If your site is about wedding cakes, go into a florist and ask if they will allow you to leave your flyers there. Contact dressmakers and ask them the same thing. By connecting yourself to other businesses, you may be able to attract people to your site. Make sure you offer the people who help you link love on your site. Give something to get something.

Have bumper stickers and t-shirts advertising your site made up. Wear the shirts as much as you can and put the bumper sticker on your car. Just make sure it is the kind that comes off easily.

Ask people to promote your site. Let’s say that you are creating a ringtone site. Your teenage neighbors would probably love to play a part in the promotion of your site if it means they can get a few free ringtones. Use the people you interact with to promote your site as much as you can.

I published an article some time ago about connecting with old friends through sites like Reunion.com. Reconnecting with these old people and telling them about your site is a great way to get traffic. If you had a lot of friends in school and college the traffic could turn out to be substantial. If you didn’t, don’t stress yourself out. There are other ways to generate direct traffic.

Remember, we are only focusing on direct traffic - not referral traffic. Getting direct traffic is much harder than getting referral and organic traffic because you have to do more than just sit in front of the computer. Generating quality direct traffic takes more physical effort than getting any of the other traffic types. However, direct traffic tends to become repeat traffic if they find something interesting. If you put in the effort to generate quality direct traffic, you will see good results. This, however, is only one part of the traffic equation.

If you aren’t willing to go after direct traffic, then organic traffic and referral traffic are your best bet. We are going to examine each of these methods in detail in future articles.

Links To Prior Articles In This Series

Part 1 - A Basic Overview Of The 3 Types Of Traffic That Come To Your Site

Part 2 : Google, Wordpress And Joomla Tools To Help You Track Traffic On Your Website

Make Money Without Spending Money- Part 1: Make Money Off Of People You Used To Know

Posted By Kila Morton

Part 2 - Google, Wordpress And Joomla Tools To Help You Track Traffic On Your Website

Kila Morton — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

In Part 1 of this multipart series we defined the three types of traffic . Now that you know the types of traffic that could possibly come to your site, we are going to look at the various ways to tell how much traffic you are currently getting AND what type of traffic you are getting.

We have to have some way to tell our current traffic stats as we move toward the exact ways to generate traffic to your site. Fortunately, there are a number of tools out there to track this information. Understanding what these tools can offer us, how to get the tools and how to use the tools is both simple and easy.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS
Surprisingly, I have encountered many people who have not taken advantage of the wealth of information provided to us by the almighty Google machine. Google strives to be a lot of things to a lot of different people. Fortunately for us, one of the things they want to be is a source of information on the types and quantities of traffic that come to your site.

First, let me tell you that I think that this information is very self serving for Google in a number of ways. As Google moves forward with the myriad of projects they have, it stands to reason at some point that they will use the traffic information obtained with Google Analytics to determine the importance of your site. I’m not a conspiracy theorists or anti-Google. In my humble opinion, however, it makes sense. For instance, if Google can determine how many people visit your site for a particular search term AND how long they stay, it would make sense as they revise their algorithms to make them better, that they would then factor that information into their equations. As I stated in Part 1 of this series, having organic traffic that is both intentional and direct is the best method to drive organic traffic. If people didn’t intend to find the information from your site that was returned to them in the search results and it isn’t correct for what they were really searching for, the results become unusable. There isn’t a question in my mind that Google understands this correlation and will at some point incorporate that analytical information into their algorithms somehow.

I hope you understand that what I said above isn’t a bad thing. By refining search results, people are going to be able to get to you much easier if your site has the information they need. Making sure that you get your site out there is what you need to focus on - not how Google does there business.

{xtypo_quote_left}So what can Google Analytics offer you? In one word - PLENTY!{/xtypo_quote_left} Since this article is just about traffic, I’m going to focus on that part of the program. Another article delving deeper into it will be available later. You can also install the program and view it for yourself.

Google Analytics offers you the following:

The ability to get a count of all of the traffic to your site.
A breakdown of that traffic by traffic type (direct, referring & organic).
Information on the exact source of your referring traffic.
The keywords used by your organic traffic to find your site.
A traffic trend analysis that shows you your peak, low and no traffic days over time. {/xtypo-quote-right}

To use the Google Analytics program, you will have to sign up for an account with Google and install a small bit of javascript on your site. You can find the sign up screen here. If you are using Joomla, you should install the code in the index.php file of your template. If you are using Wordpress, you should install the code in the footer.php file or the index.php file of your site right before the body tag.

WORDPRESS PLUGINS

WordPress also offers a number of plug-ins for your WordPress blog that allow you to track your visitors.

WordPress Stats
This plug-in offers a barebones approach to tracking. It gives you just the essential metrics you will need to understand where your traffic is coming from and how much traffic you are getting. It isn’t as fully featured as Google Analytics, but, it does give you the basics of the information you will need. It is available here .

CyStats For WordPress Blogs
CyStats is another statistical plug-in for WordPress that integrates with the WordPress admin area. It also allows you to track all blog visits, the pages hit and it gives you a lot of general information on the actual visitor like their IP address, screen resolution and more. This tool also allows you to see the hits per day, week, month and year. You can find CyStats here .

WordPress phpMyVisites
This plug in is well known and allows you to track your traffic. This plug in also has an easy to use interface that helps you to quickly understand what your traffic. This fully featured products offers most of the same information that you can get from Google Analytics,. This plug in is also available as a stand alone product for your website also. You can get the product here .

There are additional plug-ins you can use. For more, you can visit the Wordpress website and search for statistics here .

JOOMLA PLUG INS

There are also a variety of traffic tracking tools for my Joomla brothers and sisters.
Here are some notable plugins and components for Joomla.

Joomla Visites (This is based on phpMyVisites - the same thing the Wordpress Plugin, WordPress phpMyVisites, is based on.)
JoomlaStats
BSQ Sitestats
AstatsPRO

{xtypo_quote_left}One of the key benefits to using Joomla components is that you can read a lot of reviews of others who have used the products before you download and install them.{/xtypo_quote_left} All of the components interface with the admin portion of Joomla and each offers you the ability to track your traffic and either one of the items mentioned above will provide the traffic information you need. There are many additional components, plugins and modules to select from and you can walk through and read the descriptions of all of them here .

After you select and install the tracking software of your choice, you will gain a greater view of who is coming to your site, where they are coming from and what they did on your site. Once you have information about your site traffic, you are ready to go to the next step. Our next step will be an analysis of the characteristics of the three types of traffic including what appeals to each type of traffic.

Links To Prior Articles In This Series
Part 1 : A Basic Overview Of The 3 Types Of Traffic That Come To Your Site

Posted By Kila Morton

Use Your Domain Name When You Twitter

Kila Morton — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

A lot of us use Twitter to promote our articles. Doing this gets your message out to a vast audience. Some of these people may decide to visit your site and some may not. Either way, Twitter is a very powerful communication tool. Now, there is something you should know about Twitter. Twitter has an interface that’s available to programmers. Why do you care? I'm so glad you asked!

The Twitter interface that is available to programmers allows them to write applications that take data from the public timeline among other things. This means that those quick little tweets don't necessarily die right away. Instead, they are stored by various people around the world. By using your website's link as much as possible, you build additional links back to your site because of the fact that the data is stored. This means that whenever possible you should use your domain name in your link instead of using software to cut your url down.

In some cases, using your own url may be impossible. What I've started doing is linking directly to my home page when using Twitter. I write my message about the current article showing there. This will increase the relevance of that page in the search engine world. Think about using this strategy the next time you are using Twitter.

Posted By Kila Morton

Part 1 - A Basic Overview Of The 3 Types Of Traffic That Come To Your Site

Kila Morton — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

There are many things you can do to drive traffic to your site. Before you start those efforts, you should understand the three types of traffic to your website. This article is a primer to a series of articles I’m going to present to you that will tell you how to drive the exact type of traffic you want to your site. Let’s begin.

First, we are going to start with a few definitions. It’s pretty basic, but it’s essential that you understand exactly the types of traffic available to you.

Direct Traffic -
These are the people that directly type your name into their browser’s address bar like this http://www.pureblogic.com.

Organic Traffic -
Organic traffic results from people who reach your site through search engines. This means that you have some term on your site relevant to what these people were searching for AND they clicked on your site when it came back in search results.

Referral Traffic -
This type of traffic comes from link that people click on other sites to get to your site. For instance, when an article is Stumbled and all of those Stumblers rush to your site, that is called referral traffic. When someone posts a link to your site, that is referral traffic as well.

Understanding what drives each type of traffic and then being able to get the type of traffic you want is critical to understanding how to make money online and be successful online. Let’s break down each of these types of web traffic.

People who come to your blog directly may be coming for a variety of reasons. Word of mouth, promotion that you are conducting for your site offline or a request or invitation from you to come visit the site are all reasons that someone may come to your site directly. People who come to your site this way are often curious about what is on your site. They tend to click around to check things out.

Organic traffic, which comes from search engines, can really drive your site’s monetary success through the roof. If your inclusion in the search results was intentional and correct, you have the potential to successfully make money off of your organic traffic or the potential to be successful in your interaction with this type of traffic if you define success in some other way. The key in that statement is ‘if your inclusion in the search results was intentional and correct’. PureBlogic ranks #1 on Google when you search for ‘movie reviews google traffic estimator’ (without the quotes). This stems from an article that was indexed about the Google Traffic Estimator. So what has happened when people have found http://www.PureBlogic.com from this search? They have left right away! PureBlogic’s inclusion in the results was not intentional or correct. Getting results from organic traffic means that you have to really optimize your site for the search engines so that you pop up in the proper place.

Referral traffic is last but not least. Referral traffic comes from all of that link building and online promotion you have been doing on places like Digg, Stumble Upon, BlogCatalog, MyBlogLog, Blog Engage, Blogging Zoom or any of the other 122 bookmarking sites on my list (yes that’s a link for you to go see it J !). When you first start joining communities and submitting your articles to places, referral traffic will typically account for a large percentage of your overall traffic. Referral traffic can be a tremendous source of traffic for a number of reasons. If you don’t have PageRank, getting your article on a site like Digg or Technorati can help your article place high in search results. So the referral traffic can help you turn visitors into organic traffic. I have had articles that I have placed on Digg that have ranked higher in the search results that the actual article on my site. Digg is, according to Google & every other search engine, more important to more people than PureBlogic.

Now that we understand the types of traffic, in the next article we are going to focus on figuring out approximately how much traffic we are getting and where that traffic is coming from.

Posted By Kila Morton

How To Get Banned From Reddit For No Good Reason

Kila Morton — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Maybe it’s just me, but, I just had a really negative experience with Reddit. In fact, I will never use that site again. Now I’m sure that many of you have used Reddit before, so, I’m not going to give you one of my long stories or a drawn out analogy (I just love those). Let me just tell you what happen to me and why I have been banned from Reddit.

I signed up for a Reddit account at the beginning of this month. I’m not sure of the exact date. I decided to submit three of my articles to Reddit. One article was the list of 25 Things A Newbie Would Do, the other was the list of social networks and the third was a list of bookmarking sites. I submitted the first two articles without a problem. After a few days I went back to submit the third article and guess what???? I could not do it! I contacted Reddit to figure out what was wrong with my account. At the time I had no idea that I was banned.

I submitted my service request on January 14th, 2007. On January 21st, Alexis Ohanian who identified himself in his email as the co-founder of Reddit.com, informed me that I had been reported as a spammer! What!! Me?!?!?!? A spammer?!?!?!?! You must be kidding me!! Here is what he said in his email.

Hi Kila,

It looks like you recently got reported as a spammer by the community. redditors tend to frown upon users who submit content from only one or two sources (especially when it looks like a personal blog or website).

It might be worth checking out this community-generated reddiquette page (reddit etiquette) http://reddit.com/help/reddiquette

This'll help you get a better idea of what users are looking for in submissions.

best,
Alexis

I was pissed! I am not, nor have I ever been, a spammer. When I submit my articles to places like Blogging Zoom, Blog Engage, Digg or any other site, I make sure that I respect the rules of that site. I don’t even submit ALL of my articles. I submit what I would consider to be most useful to the readers of that site. I rechecked the rules to make sure that I wasn’t crazy. I looked at the rules when I joined the community. Maybe I missed something.

reddiquette
Please do:

* Search for dupes before posting something. That said, sometimes bad timing, a bad title, or just plain bad luck can cause an interesting story to fail to get noticed. Feel free to post something again if you feel that the earlier posting didn't get the attention it deserved and you think you can do better.
* Post links directly to interesting things. Because reddit is a meritocracy, old content and some self-promotion are okay, but submitting content from only a select few sources is discouraged.
* Put the file type at the end of the title if it is something other than html or text, like [pdf] or [video].
* Add a link to a direct version of a media file where possible, if the article links to a streamed version.
* Link to canonical and persistent URLs where possible, not entry pages where the content may temporarily feature. In particular, use the "permalink" for blog entries, not the blog's index page.
* If you are going to downvote a post, it helps the poster improve their post quality if you tell them in the comments why you downvote it. However, you only need to do that if you really think your criticism can help the poster improve.
* Read the new page and vote on it: someone has to! Regard it as a public service.
* Actually read an article before you mod it! This sounds trivial but it seems that it is becoming more and more common to mod articles based just on the titles. This behaviour considerably harms the system.

Notice the parts that I put in bold. First, the rules say that submitting content from only a few sources is discouraged. Well if you can only submit one article at a time, that article is only going to be from one damn source! I submitted two items and was banned! So you mean to tell me that submitting two articles from the same source classifies as an offense worthy of banning? I didn’t even get a chance to submit any other articles from any other place!

Second, the rules say that self-promotion is ok. Well if you are self promoting aren’t you going to submit something you wrote or created? Then the rules say that you should link to the Permalink of a blog. That must mean that adding an article from a blog is ok right? Is my level of understanding somehow impaired? Here is what I sent back to Alexis.

Oh my goodness! I only submitted a few of my articles! I'm not a spammer!
What can I do? Can you look at what I've submitted please?
I've only submitted a few of my own articles.
Is that against the rules? If you look at my blog you will see that these are just my own articles from my own site.

Thanks,

Kila Morton
PureBlogic.com

Here is the response Alexis sent back to me.

Hi Kila,

The reddt community tends to frown upon users who submit content from only one or two sources (especially when it looks like a personal blog or website). The site is supposed to be about the best content on the entire Web -- surely there's other interesting content beyond your own website.

It might be worth checking out this community-generated reddiquette page (reddit etiquette) http://reddit.com/help/reddiquette

This'll help you get a better idea of what users are looking for in submissions.

best,
Alexis

OK. That’s really useful. ‘surely there’s other interesting content beyond your own website.‘ WHAT????? If I think that my lists are interesting and someone else things the same then what is the problem?

This was my response back.

Hi Alexis,

Thank you for that response, however, right now my account is locked out!!!!!!!!
That is why I sent the message in the first place.
I looked at your rules and I was not doing anything to violate them.
Can you look at what I submitted and unlock my account please?
I am NOT a spammer! I just submitted a couple of quality articles with great content!
That's all!

Can you unlock my account please?

Thanks,

Kila Morton

Alexis did not respond to me again. I guess he is not going to. I may be just one person, but I will never use this site again. I submitted two quality articles. Maybe I’m too ignorant to use Reddit J! I think I’ll shorten my prior list of places to promote your site by 1. Reddit is off of my list. Thankfully, there are a multitude of quality sites out there to use. So Alexis/Reddit, you may have banned me, but I’m banning you too.

Posted By Kila Morton

10 Things To Check BEFORE You Agree To A Link Exchange

Kila Morton — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I’m going to say something and it’s going to sound mean. Before I say what I’m going to say, I want to ask you a question. If someone in a prison jump suit with handcuffs on their wrists came up to you while you were sitting in your car with the window partially down and asked you for a ride, would you give them a ride? There are some people who would say yes I’m sure. The majority of us would say no! Although this was an extreme example, it illustrates the point of this article. Never agree to a link exchange just because someone asked you to exchange links!

Our websites and our blogs are a window into who we are as people and what we think about things. We are mini-kings and queens on the Internet! We set things up the way that we want. We say the things that we want to say! We do what we want! We market and advertise what we want! Some of us are more successful and some of us are less successful. No matter what, we are in the ultimate position to control what is put out there in our little space. Since this is true, we have to pay attention and make sure that our ‘kingdoms’ represent who we are.

So what’s the point. The point is that this is your space and you have to take care of it and respect it when it comes to people asking you to put links on your site. In fact, you should have a set of guidelines that you follow when asked to link to someone’s site. I love sites like BlogCatalog.com, as you know if you read this site. I think it is a vibrant community full of interesting people, sites and groups. When you join a community like that, inevitably you will find someone who asks you for a link exchange. Here are some guidelines you should use when evaluating if you should put up a link on your site from whoever asked you.

Look at the site of the person asking you for the link ALWAYS. Never put a blind link on your site! You could be linking to ANYTHING! If you don’t know, think about how your readers will feel when they click on the link and find more than they bargained for!

Is the site updated consistently?
If you don’t update your blog regularly, then why would I want to link to you?

Is the content great?
If the content is great, I may link to you even if you don’t update your site everyday, however, the key is that the content must be great!

Is the site inline with what your visitors came to your site for?
In other words, does the site you are looking to link with match your genre? If it does, great! If it doesn’t you should think about why you would want to link to it.

How old is the site and what type of traffic does the site get?
Is the site a site that no one goes to or does it get traffic. I want you to think about this for one reason. If the site is an older site (you can tell by the posts) and has little traffic, that means that the owner is NOT actively promoting the site the way they should. If the site is new and has little traffic, then it could just be that the owner is working on the traffic issue and traffic is going to build. One path shows that the owner is not going to care about their site as much as you care about yours and the other path shows a new Internet neighbor that is going to hustle to get traffic to their site. I don’t know about you, but, I want to link to the person who is going to hustle like me!

Does the other site fit within my branded message to my readers?
If your site is about great religions and the link for the other site is advertising one way tickets to hell, you may want to think twice about linking to that other site! Think about it!

Does the link I would put on my site add any value for the readers of my site?
Does the site give your readers anything that would be worthwhile, in your almighty opinion, to them? Remember you are the guide and you determine what you think is important for your readers.

Does the person seem interested in actually building value for them AND you or is the person just looking to hitch a ride on a blog for something like say PageRank or to use your traffic?
There are people out there that I call ‘Professional Link Exchangers’. All they do is exchange links. When you get to their sites you see little content and a HUGE list of sites they are linking to. People like this may create a backlink for you, but it isn’t a quality link. Remember that your site is YOUR kingdom. Do you want to be associated with something that isn’t quality?

Do YOU think the exchange is worthwhile? A lot of times you may know that the person’s content isn’t great. You may also know that the site isn’t so great either. However, you may still have the desire to help a person you feel is genuine. If that is the case and you still want to link to the other site, make sure that you point out some of the things the person could do to build a better blog, send them to PureBlogic.com and link to them. There is nothing wrong with making a friend or helping someone with a link as long as YOU understand why you are doing it. You are, after all, IN CHARGE.

Evaluate if link exchanges are something that you want to get involved with.
There are lots of sites out there and linking to just one looks kind of crazy on your site. Just look at people’s blog rolls, do you just see one link? If you aren’t prepared to actually start linking to other people then be honest.

Last, but certainly not least - NEVER EVER BE AFRAID TO SAY NO!!! If you visit a site and see that you don’t like it please just be honest. Honesty is the best policy and it helps you stay true to yourself. Be nice about it. Leave the window open, if you like, by explaining to that person that you would love to link to their site if they updated it more. Remember that you are in charge and your site represents you! Make sure everything on it says what you want it to say!

Getting Google PageRank In Days - Google Gives PageRank Love To New Sites Too

Kila Morton — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Recently I have been contacted by a few people who asked questions about how long it took me to get PageRank love from Google. These people were curious about when I started this site because of an article I wrote about the PageRank love Google gave PureBlogic.com during their updates earlier in January 2008. I received a PageRank of 2 out of 10. A lot of people put a lot of time and energy into telling you that purchasing new domains is going to put you into some magic Google secret place that you won’t be able to get out of for some time and so on and so on. People, please listen to me. Just because you read it in more than one place doesn’t make it so.

While 2 isn’t a huge number, since more than one person asked me after the PageRank update about when I started my blog, I decided to write a post about this to dispel myths and let people know that getting “sandboxed” by Google just because you have a new site may be more about the sites that you used to establish link love for your new site and your optimization techniques and less about how old your new domain is. Here is a timeline of what I did.

First off, I purchased PureBlogic.com on November 4th of 2007. I decided on a Wordpress format for my blog, however, I didn‘t add anything to the site until November 28th.
Between November 5th and the 28th I decided on exactly what I was going to right about for the first 10 days. I wrote my articles in MS Word but I didn’t put them into WordPress yet.
On November 29th, 2007, I loaded my first article and scheduled the rest of them.
I joined MyBlogLog on December 4th, 2007.
I joined StumbleUpon on December 5th, 2007.
I joined Delicious and started bookmarking my posts.
I wrote two articles about two people who were creating things for WordPress. Darren Hoyt is a designer who has created a great theme called Mimbo for WordPress. Lester Chan is a student who has created fantastic plugins for Wordpress. Both Darren & Lester linked to my article. Darren’s girlfriend, who was also mentioned in the article because she is on his front page, also wrote an article and linked to my article.
I added Google Adsense, Commission Junction, Kontera & TextLinkAds to PureBlogic.com. (I stopped using the last two after I changed from WordPress to Joomla.)
I set up my RSS feed with Feed Burner - http://feeds.feedburner.com/pureblogic .
I scheduled my articles to roll out every single day. On the days when I had nothing scheduled, I wrote the article offline and put it into Wordpress manually.
I submitted each post to Digg and I used a WordPress plug-in that automatically sent out pings to notify search engines and other sites every time I made a new post - which was everyday.
I Stumbled the site.
During the first week of January, I received a PageRank of 2 from Google.

Now the interesting thing is that I ranked in the search engines for Darren Hoyt right away. Darren is quite popular due to his Mimbo theme and other design work. I ranked in the search terms as soon as Google was notified via my ping that I had an update that included the article about him.

That’s it people. There were no magic potions. I didn’t have to bribe anyone at Google. I wasn’t sandboxed, sandwiched or packaged! (That was a small joke!) The time it took from my first post to getting PageRank was only 44 days! Don’t let people scare you into thinking that you can’t get a new domain indexed or you can’t get PageRank quickly or that you are automatically sandboxed because your site is new. It just isn’t true. Google calculates PageRank on a regular basis. They don’t publish the rankings for everyone to see on a regular basis. Instead, they tend to publish the snapshot they have in their system quarterly. Understand that. Google calculates PageRank very regularly. What you are seeing when you actually notice a change in your Google Toolbar is the snapshot Google is providing to you for that point in time.

You need to create backlinks to your site from sites with good PageRank (feel free to use my list of 122 bookmarking sites), you need to write fresh content daily and you need to use plug-ins to ping every service out there when you have an update. If you do those things, when Google gives out PageRank love, you will be on the receiving end. Try it out for yourself. Follow the steps I have listed above and you will see the same results, if not better, when Google gives out its next round of PageRank updates. People please don’t make it harder for yourself than it has to be. Building backlinks, PageRank & link love is very, very easy.

Posted By Kila Morton.

Be Careful When Using WordPress Themes From The WordPress Theme Viewer!

Kila Morton — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

A while ago I wrote about the Wordpress theme viewer and how beneficial it could be for you if you were looking to find Wordpress themes for your blog. I really think that the theme viewer is a great piece of software and a handy tool that allows theme designers to market their free templates to a lot of people. So what is the problem?

The problem is that many template owners have not been able to make necessary updates to their templates for some time. This may seem like a trivial issue. It isn’t. Many owners have recognized errors and issues with their templates since initially uploading them. They now don’t have the ability to make the updates they need to make. That is a real big deal because people are using these templates on their blogs to try and do things like make money!

On December 11th, the Wordpress team told everyone that they were working on fixing the system for uploads so that theme designers can change and update their themes. Unfortunately, the system isn’t fixed yet. What does this mean to you? It means that you should be careful when you use templates from the current Theme Viewer. I’m not saying that the theme you download will cause problems, but, who wants to be the guinea pig for solving theme related problems when you have people coming to your blog everyday?

Many professional bloggers will tell you that you should not use a free theme anyway. I’m not 100% in agreement with them. I think it is entirely possible to make money as long as your theme is attractive and monetized AND full of great content. You, however, must make the decision for yourself. Consider yourself warned. Be careful when you use Wordpress Theme Viewer themes until their system is fixed.

Posted By Kila Morton

The Inspirit Blog - My Blog Catalog Friend

Kila Morton — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Networking is really an important task when you have a new website. If you create a site and don’t connect with the outside world, all you will have is a site with no visitors. Marketing yourself and generating a buzz around your site takes some effort and time. One person who knows this quite well, is Abhinav Sood.

Abhinav is an engineering student from India who is making his mark in the blogging world. His site is called the Inspirit Blog. His blog is about his journey blogging, his desire to be successful at it and what he is doing to be successful at it. I decided to write about Abhinav because he is so aggressive in marketing his site. I love to see that passion in a blogger! It’s important. It’s what keeps you going when you don’t feel like blogging.

Abhinav has a number of different ways to generate income on his blog including Pay Per Post, Adsense, Auction Ads and a few more. One that really makes me like Abhinav’s blog is that he is really working hard to generate relationships with other bloggers. From RSS promotion, to Technorati promotion, to Stumbles and more, he is the kind of person who really focuses on not only marketing his work, but also trying to help other bloggers do the same. All of that plus focusing on his studies! I think that’s just great J!

His blogs offer a fun look at a new bloggers journey into the world of blogging and, although you can‘t see it directly, his marketing is going to take him far. When you are looking for new blogs to discover and new people to meet, run on over to the Inspirit Blog and take a look at Abhinav’s site.

Websites & Contact Info Named In This Article:

Abhinav Sood’s Inspirit Blog

Abhinav On BlogCatalog.com

Visit PureBlogic on BlogCatalog.com

Posted By Kila Morton

18 Great Wordpress Plug-ins For Your Blog

Kila Morton — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I decided to revisit one of my prior articles today to help out my readers using Wordpress AND to reinforce the fact that there are tons of great plug ins available for the platform. Lester Chan develops plug-ins for Wordpress sites that you are free to grab and use. His plugins are for WordPress blogs and offer a number of features to bloggers. Check out the article below.

Wordpress has taken the blogging world by storm. Its user base is huge and it just keeps growing every single day. A few of the beautiful things about the platform are the large amount of plug-ins available and the support available to Wordpress users. One developer is capitalizing on this platform and taking the Wordpress plug-in world to another level. If you’ve been to some of the largest A-list blogs, you have probably seen some of his work. So just who is this masked, Wordpress plug-in, Jedi master? His name is Lester Chan and he is undoubtedly making a great name for himself in the programming world.

Lester Chan is a student. While attending school, he decided to start developing Wordpress plug-ins to support himself. These plug-ins offer great functionality that extend the Wordpress platform. For instance, at the bottom of this blog there is a rating system. Where did that come from boys and girls? Lester Chan! Need polls for your blog? Who can you turn to? Lester Chan! In fact, Lester has developed over a dozen plug-ins for Wordpress users.

Now the development of such plug-ins is a great thing, but, it doesn’t stop there. Lester also supports his plug-ins through his online forum system! Even thought Lester offers great support for his plug-ins, you likely will not need that support because he has carefully documented all of his plug-ins and he provides that documentation along with installation and usage information to all.

Here is a list of some of Lester’s Wordpress plug-ins and his descriptions for his plug-ins.

	WordPress Plugin: WP-Ban 1.20 » development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Ban users by IP, IP Range, host name and referrer url from visiting your WordPress's blog. It will display a custom ban message when the banned IP, IP range, host name or referrer url tries to visit you blog. You can also exclude certain IPs from being banned. There will be statistics recorded on how many times they attempt to visit your blog. It allows wildcard matching too.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-DBManager 2.20 » development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Manages your Wordpress database. Allows you to optimize database, repair database, backup database, restore database, delete backup database , drop/empty tables and run selected queries. Supports automatic scheduling of backing up and optimizing of database.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-DownloadManager 1.00 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.2, 2.3 Adds a simple download manager to your WordPress blog.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-EMail 2.20 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.3 Allows people to recommend/send your WordPress blog's post/page to a friend.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-PageNavi 2.20 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Adds a more advanced paging navigation your WordPress blog.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-PluginsUsed 1.00 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Adds a more advanced paging navigation your WordPress blog.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-Polls 2.21 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.3 Adds an AJAX poll system to your WordPress blog. You can easily include a poll into your WordPress's blog post/page. WP-Polls is extremely customizable via templates and css styles and there are tons of options for you to choose to ensure that WP-Polls runs the way you wanted. It now supports multiple selection of answers.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-PostRatings 1.20 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.3 Adds an AJAX rating system for your WordPress blog's post/page.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-PostViews 1.20 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.3 Enables you to display how many times a post/page had been viewed. It will not count registered member views, but that can be changed easily.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-Print 2.20 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Displays a printable version of your WordPress blog's post/page.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-RelativeDate 1.20 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Displays relative date alongside with your post/comments actual date. Like 'Today', 'Yesterday', '2 Days Ago', '2 Weeks Ago', '2 'Seconds Ago', '2 Minutes Ago', '2 Hours Ago'.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-ServerInfo 1.00 » development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Display your host's server PHP and MYSQL information (integrated into WordPress Admin Style) on your WordPress dashboard..
	WordPress Plugin: WP-Stats 2.20 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.3 Display your WordPress blog statistics. Ranging from general total statistics, some of my plugins statistics and top 10 statistics.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-Sticky 1.10 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Adds a sticky post feature to your WordPress's blog. Modified from Adhesive by Owen Winkler.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-UserOnline 2.20 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.3 Enable you to display how many users are online on your Wordpress blog with detailed statistics of where they are and who there are(Members/Guests/Search Bots).
	WordPress Plugin: WP-Wap 2.10 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Browse your WordPress's blog entries on a Wap enabled mobile phone.
	GaMerZ File Explorer 1.20 » demo Enables you to browse a folder on the web like Windows Explorer. It has the ability to search for folders and files too.
	GaMerZ error_log Cleaner 1.00 Scan And Delete error_log File Generated By PHP On Your Web Site.

These links will take you directly into his site. Once you get there, feel free to use his plug-ins. Although he doesn’t charge for his plug-ins, he does ask that we donate a few bucks to him if we find the plug-ins useful. So donate a few bucks ok! This guy is doing great work for the blogging community and it’s also very good Karma!

Check out Lester’s blog here .

Posted By Kila Morton

Gratuitous Self Promotion Pays Off Eventually!

Kila Morton — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

As you know, if you have been reading my posts for the last few weeks (if you haven’t shame on you), I love BlogCatalog.com. This community allows you to join groups and promote yourself and your blog quite easily. Well, I am happy to report that I made the front page of BlogCatalog.com. I was so happy to log in and see myself……I mean see my avatar. Anyway I took a screenshot to prove it to myself. This is proof that they will let anybody on the front page :-)!

For the uninformed, BlogCatalog is a great site that allows you to heavily promote your site and really, really network with other bloggers. You can create groups and invite people to read and review your articles. You can take a look at an article I wrote about BlogCatalog to get a better idea of all you can do.

If you aren’t a BlogCatalog user, get on over there and sign up. Come see me and we can network. Remember, you can never have too many friends or too many visitors to your site! See you on BlogCatalog!

Visit PureBlogic's Page On Blog Catalog And Join My Network

Posted By Kila Morton

122 Book Marking Sites To Help You Get Link Love, Traffic & PageRank

Kila Morton — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Building traffic & links is a lot like gardening. You have to put serious care into it. Are you up to the challenge? Well if you are ready to grow PageRank, link love & traffic, get ready because I’ve put together a nice list of 122 bookmarking sites for you. A lot of these sites have great PageRank. What does this mean to you? For most, it means that you will get link love from these bookmarking sites back to your site. Link love translates into PageRank when Google does their famous updates. These sites also offer you an opportunity to introduce other people to your wonderful content.

I have gone through each link and checked each site. As of 1/14/08, all of these sites were up and running and waiting for you to come bookmark your site and your articles. Ok, so they aren’t really waiting for you, but they are ready for you to use to create lots and lots of traffic, link love and ultimately PageRank. Are you ready? So let’s get on with it! Here is the list.

http://aboogy.com/
http://bluedot.us
http://bookmarksync.com/
http://buddymarks.com
http://cloudytags.com
http://complore.com/
http://del.icio.us
http://de.lirio.us/
http://digg.com
http://dohat.com/
http://ez4u.net/
http://feedmelinks.com
http://freelink.org/
http://go.lilisto.com
http://hubpages.com/
http://i89.us
http://ka-boom-it.com/
http://kinja.com
http://linksnarf.com/
http://linkatopia.com
http://ma.gnolia.com
http://myweb.yahoo.com/
http://newsvine.com
http://public.sitejot.com
http://quadriot.com
http://saysaid.com
http://shakk.us/
http://sitebar.org/
http://socialbookmarkingsite.com/
http://socialposter.com/
http://sphinn.com/
http://spotback.com/
http://technorati.com/
http://waveright.homeip.net/products/FavoritesAnywhere.html
http://web2list.com
http://wink.com
http://www.a1-webmarks.com
http://www.backflip.com
http://www.barksbookmarks.com
http://www.bibsonomy.org
http://www.blinkbits.com
http://www.blinklist.com
http://www.bloggingzoom.com/
http://www.blogmarks.net
http://www.blogreporter.biz/
http://www.bookmarkcommando.com/
http://www.bookmark-manager.com/
http://www.bookmarkbuddy.net/
http://www.bookmarkmagic.com/
http://www.bookmarkplace.com
http://www.bookmarktracker.com
http://www.business-planet.net
http://www.butterflyproject.nl
https://www.chipmark.com/Main
http://www.care2.com/news/
http://www.clipmarks.com/
http://www.connectedy.com
http://www.contentpop.com/
http://www.diigo.com
http://www.fark.com/
http://www.favoor.com/
http://www.folkd.com
http://www.fungow.com/
http://www.furl.net”
http://www.futurosity.com
http://www.gabbr.com
http://www.getboo.com
http://www.givealink.org
http://www.globusport.com/cgi-bin/Index.ssp
http://www.google.com/bookmarks
http://www.ifaves.com/
http://www.ikeepbookmarks.com
http://www.jumptags.com/
http://www.lensroll.com/
http://www.linkagogo.com
http://www.links2go.com/
http://www.linkroll.com/
http://www.listerlister.com
http://www.listible.com
http://www.livefavorites.com/
http://www.markaboo.com
http://www.marktd.com
http://www.memfrag.com/
http://www.mobleo.net/
http://www.mybookmarks.com/
http://www.mylinkvault.com
http://www2.myhq.com/
http://www.myvmarks.com
http://www.netvouz.com
http://www.newsfeeder.ca
http://www.newsnooze.co.uk
http://www.ning.com/
http://www.onlinebookmarkmanager.com/
http://www.oozm.com
http://www.plime.com
http://www.propeller.com/
http://www.rawsugar.com/
http://www.reddit.com
http://www.riffs.com/
http://www.rollyo.com/
http://www.saveyourlinks.com/
http://www.searchles.com/
http://www.simpy.com
http://www.spurl.net
http://www.startaid.com
http://www.stingit.co.uk
http://www.stumbleupon.com/
http://www.syncone.net
http://www.tagcloud9.com
http://www.tagne.ws
http://www.tagtooga.com
http://www.tallstreet.com
http://www.tedigo.net
http://www.thoof.com/
http://www.urlex.info
http://www.uvouch.com
http://www.votelists.com
http://www.web-feeds.com
http://www.wirefan.com
http://www.yample.com
http://www.zlitt.com/
http://www.zoogim.com

This list can be a tremendous resource when you are looking to build links back to your site. Getting the word out about your site is also going to be great for your site. Remember that building up your site takes effort. You have to get the word out about your site. If you consider your site to be great, make sure that your link building efforts reflect that. Now go Stumble & Digg this article and then sign up for some of these bookmarking sites and bookmark like crazy!

Posted By Kila Morton

25 Ways To Look Like A Blogging Newbie

Kila Morton — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

When you are new to blogging, its easy to make mistakes that illustrate just how new you are. I mean how can you know what you don't already know? The answer is to read all you can and absorb knowledge like a sponge before you start blogging or very soon after you start blogging. To make it easier for you, I've put together a list of things that newbies typically do that shows just how new they are. Don't get upset as you read the list. I think that every blogger has thrown up at least two of these newbie indicators on their blogs at one point or another. Keep an open mind and remember that this whole thing is just about learning what works and what doesn't work. With that said, on to the list we go!

Not having an optimized url for your posts. Instead of this - http://www.yourdomain.com/My-Website-Makes-Money, you have this - http://www.yourdomain.com/?p=66. When you are using WordPress it is very easy to make sure that you have search engine optimized urls. Go into your Administration panel and select the Options tab. From this tab, select Permalinks. Under Common Options, select Custom, specify below. In the box below that option, enter the following - /%postname%/ . This will now allow you to have your post title as the link to the post. If you are a Joomla person, you can do the same. You just turn on search engine friendly urls in the admin area, rename your htaccess.txt file to .htaccess, add an extension like sh404 and you are done. You will have search engine friendly urls that adhere to the same structure as the WordPress urls - except that your urls will have the first letter of each word capitalized. You can look at the url in your address bar to see an example of this. Now that your titles are optimized, you now need to make sure that your titles make sense.
Using meaningless titles for your posts. I think that a lot of newbies do this because they don't realize the significance of a title in the search engine optimization process and in the attention grabbing process. You need to make sure that your titles scream "READ ME!". You need to make sure that your title is keyword rich and you need to make sure that the title is in line with what your blog is about. All of these things will help people find your articles & understand what your articles are about. It will also help your site with your search engine optimization & PageRank because that title will be in your url if you make sure to check out step one.
Not checking the links in your articles. Stopping to make sure that the links you have in your articles go where they are supposed to go is a basic, yet a lot of people are guilty of this one. If you don't have time to do it, then don't include the link. You can't expect people to take you seriously if you have a whole bunch of broken links all over the place.
Switching your theme during peak traffic hours. I know that this makes you look like a newbie, but, I was so guilty of this. Do your site updates at night! It may seem like no one cares, but, you never know. I submitted PureBlogic to a site that required manual reviews of all member sites. I had an upgrade planned well before I did that. At the last minute, I decided to do the update during the day instead of waiting until that night. Guess when the reviewer came to review my site? During the update. It was a review for advertising and you can pretty much guess that I didn't get the opportunity to have that advertiser on PureBlogic. I received my nice little rejection email and even though I tried to invite the advertiser back, the deal was sealed. That's proof that everyone makes mistakes. Don't do this to yourself. Make your updates at night.
Changing the look of your website every few days. People like consistency. They don't like things changing over and over again. The short of it is that it makes you look unprofessional.
Complaining on your site about how you don't have traffic. Stop whining and go get some. There is absolutely no reason not to have traffic if you really want some. There are so many communities to join, groups to join, networks, bookmarking sites - you name it! If you really, really want traffic don't whine about it - go get it! A lot of people are dealt a heavy ego blow when they set their websites up and quickly discover that no one cares. Your website is a diamond among diamonds. You have to promote yourself to make any kind of significant difference in your website traffic. Promotion is queen. Content is king. You need both to be successful.
Not posting consistently. Plan out your articles, write them and then schedule them! It's a no-brainer. If you are using WordPress, all you have to do is edit the timestamp area of the post page. You can set this timestamp to a future date and time. When that time and date roll around, your post will automatically appear like magic. If you are using Joomla, you can do the same thing by changing the create date & start publishing date to the same thing and setting the finishing date to never or the day you want the post to stop showing up. Joomla requires slightly more effort if you are doing it without any extensions, however, it is still very, very simple to do.
If you find additional things you want to write about, you can go ahead and add those new items in. You can schedule them or let them roll out right away. Either way, you still have your regularly scheduled posts.
Having affiliate program banners and links on your site that link to programs of companies that have gone out of business. I can't tell you how many Agloco banners I've seen on people's sites. It shows that they aren't actively monitoring their sites. It makes you look like a newbie.
Constantly referring to big name bloggers on your site. John Chow said this.....and then he said this.... and then he said this. While this may offer John Chow an ego boost, more likely than not, it turns the people who are reading your blog right off. People want real content, not shrines to big name bloggers. If they want to hear someone talk about John Chow in every post, they can go over to John Chow's website and get that straight from him. Make yourself stand out. don't try to ride the arm of other people.
You get the point
Constantly questioning why you are writing the blog in your posts. If you are doing what I call "post whining" (that's my term - I came up with it and don't you steal it!), then you may as well just stop blogging right now. If you can't figure out why you are blogging then no one else is going to be able to figure it out either. Blogs like this are a sure sign that the person is either new or very troubled. Either way, its just not a good sign. Figure out who you are and why you are doing what you do BEFORE you start trying to do it. You are going to need that focus to keep you going.
Constantly writing about how you have nothing to write about. There are so many things going on in this world. Are you seriously trying to tell me that you can't find ANYTHING to write about? If that is what you are saying, you need to open your eyes and stop daydreaming your way through life. There are lots of things going on and lots of things to write about. Politics, plastic surgery, technology, problems in the world, problems in your life - there are so many things to write about! If you can't find anything to say, its a sure sign that you aren't trying. Stop being a whiner and go get yourself some topics. A quick read of Yahoo, or another blog, or the newspaper or any other thing that's readable should give you at least one idea for a post. Life is too big to say you have nothing to write about.
Generating articles that are completely off topic and not related to the topic of your blog. This doesn't mean that you can't blog about different things, but, if your blog is about cakes, write about cakes! I don't want to see how you dissected an engine on your blog when I'm looking for cakes! If your blog is about cakes and engines and everything else, then make it clear to the readers of your blog by putting that in your blog description. That way no one gets confused. Newbies have a real hard time staying on the topic of their blog. If you have real trouble with that, then make sure you call your blog "The Ramblings Of A New Money Maker" or something like that. That way no one will expect that you are going to stay on any particular topic.
Constantly talking about how much money you are making from day to day without a lot of other content. I saw a blog in which the owner kept a running tally of how much they made each day with their blog about making money online.
"Today I made 4 cents with Adsense. I can't even get a cup of coffee with that. Maybe tomorrow will be better. I can't understand why no one is clicking on my ads." Get over it. If you aren't making money on your blog about making money, letting the world know is definitely a newbie move. If you feel like you just HAVE to tell the world how much you have made, don't make it an entire post. Keep a running total in your sidebar or something and have one post about it each month. That way you can tell people how you are rolling in the money without turning people off from reading your blog.
Telling the world that you are clueless about what you are doing online. I have seen several blogs that have a lot of traffic even though they do this. The people acknowledge that they are new. I could tell before I read their acknowledgements when I read their posts. If you are clueless, read the millions of blogs out there and get a clue. Don't write posts about how you don't know anything. Write posts about the things you learn. We have enough people who don't know anything that we have to deal with in this world already.
Having no pillar posts on your blog. I know that even some seasoned people don't do it, but, more do than don't. Pillar posts are posts that you put together that contain a lot of information. For instance, a list about the
things that newbies do. It shows that you actually think about what you are going to write. It also enables people to have something to link to on your website. People love to link to quality lists.
Constantly writing posts that link to other sites and AWAY from your blog without writing any interesting text of your own. Doing this is justridiculous. If you want people to visit your blog and invest in you, you have to< br />give them something to read. Telling them about a great post you read and sending them away is really helpful to the other site, but, it's of little value to you. If you are going to link out, make sure you havestrong anchor text to attract people back to your site. Here is an example of the wrong thing to do.< br />I have seen people, in an effort to get lots of content on their blog, link to other sites in each of their posts. Their posts go something like this.
"I saw this great article about the top 20 things that newbies do. Here is that list. Have a great day!" The person leaves the site and that's it
Speaking of leaving the site, make sure that any link you place on your site opens in another window!!!! I have seen sooo many people do this and I am consistently amazed. When you create a link to another site, make sure that you have that link open in another window instead of going to the other site using the current browser window. If you are using an editor that allows you to insert the links without typing any html, make sure that you select 'Open in new window' for the target. If you are manually adding your links, make sure you create your link to include the target tag <a href=http://whateverTheSite target="blank">Go to this great site </a>. That target tag tells the browser to open another window. You don't want to send people to another site and have your site disappear. Once the user finishes looking at the article on that other site, they can just close that other window and your site is still there looking them in the eye.
Writing the same thing over and over again. Believe it or not, I have seen people who write the same type of post over and over again with only a slight variation in the words. Forinstance , I have seen people who write about how to make money and they obviously don't have a clue. Instead of doing a little research, they do things like this.
Monday - Making money online is not difficult to do. You have to put ads on your site and make sure that you get traffic.
Tuesday - When you want to make money on your site, make sure you get traffic. Traffic will help you make money online.
Wednesday - Putting ads on your site that your traffic will click can make money for you. The ads will help pull traffic in.
Thursday - You can make money with traffic. It is easy if you have the right ads.
Friday - Your site can contain ads. Ads + traffic equals money.
I have said the same thing in five different ways using almost the same words. Aside from being a slightly creative play on words, this is 100% something newbies do because they don't really understand what they are doing.
In today's information rich society, it's absolutely unacceptable to do this. You CAN find quality information everywhere you look. All it takes is a little research and some time.
Having more ads on your site than content. When a person comes to your site, they are looking for something to read. They may be looking for additional things as well, but their primary reason for coming is to see what you have to say. You make yourself look like a newbie when all you have is ads on your site. This tells people that you aren't concerned about writing or content, you just want people to click on the ads. People aren't stupid. They will leave and they won't come back. Content is king. Ads are important, but, the placement has to be sensible or at least palatable.
Having Google Adsense ads all over your site. Not only does this tell people that you are a newbie, it also tells people that you didn't read. You are only supposed to have three Adsense units on your site. Sometimes you can get away with 4, but, 3 is what you are supposed to have. If you have a site with a whole bunch of Adsense ads all over the place, people who are visiting instantly know that you are new. Those that don't know might actually click on the ads, but, remember this. It only takes one person reporting you to Google to end up getting you banned from Adsense. I'm not saying that Adsense is the only way to make money, but, it can be a good way to make money. Getting banned will stop you from having Adsense on ANY of your websites - not just the one you misbehaved on! Don't do this! Keep yourself out of trouble.
Having a categories list on your site that covers everything from apples to zebras. Organize your categories! I don't know why people think that EVERYTHING they write deserves its own category. Who do you think is going to click through 60 categories to find your posts? Newbies do this so often. Why do you think that places like Digg have a set number of categories? It's because everything basically fits into one of them. If your site is about a particular thing, sit down and think of the things that are related to your blog and then create categories from that list. That will also help you generate content because you will have a focused list of categories to use. Don't drive people crazy with a whole lot of categories. People will never click through all of them.
Writing that contains words that most regular people can't understand. A lot of times newbies are so anxious to get their words out that they start writing content that may be filled with words only someone in a particular field would understand. If that is the purpose of the site or blog, then fine, but, if you are writing for the everyday person, make sure you explain the terms you use so regular people visiting your site will understand what you are trying to say.
If you don't, you will have writing with no readers.
Not using spell check. A lot of seasoned bloggers are also guilty of this one. There is, however, an important thing to remember when you write. Sometimes you may have readers that are visually impaired or blind. These people usually have audio systems in place to read the text of your page. If you have a bunch of misspellings that system may not be able to properly process the page. Make it easy on those people and spell check your work. Also, people who don't speak English well or who have English as their second language, may occasionally need to cut your text and paste it into a translator or have your text interpreted by a translation program. If you have a lot of misspellings, your text becomes unreadable to them. Be careful about that. It only takes a few seconds to do and< br />it can eliminate a lot of headaches for other people. Besides all of the things I just mentioned, it makes you look a little uneducated to some people when you are constantly misspelling things. Most people know that spell checkers are easily accessible. Don't leave your readers asking why you didn't use one.
Writing another blog that's just about making money. Newbies seem to think that this is the way to riches. It just isn't. You are putting yourself at the bottom of a mighty long pit. Do something original. Add some value to the pot. There are so many blogs about making money. You have to offer something more valuable than just that. If you do make it solely about making money, make sure that it stands out. I went to a site called Blogger Unleashed. I couldn't take myself away from that site. You know why? The guy who writes the site, Victor, curses a lot. His content is great, don't get me wrong, but I love the way he curses and still communicates his point to his readers. I found myself absolutely captivated by how many times he cursed yet still made his articles so interesting. His blog may be about making money but he truly stands out! His content is excellent and his writing is insanely funny.
Writing posts instead of articles. A lot of newbies just want to write something so they put up anything. The problem is that every communication with the outside world says something about who we are. Make your writing count for something. Make it a quality piece. I'm not saying to analyze it to death before you post it, but if your objective is to write the bare minimum, then you are going to have a hard time. Write quality articles instead of brief posts. I'm not saying you have to write an essay, but, making sure that your writing has good depth and quality is a must. Content is king. Understanding that content is king puts you ahead of a lot of people. Make sure your writing reflects that understanding.

If you are guilty of a few of these things, don't worry. There is still time to save yourself and your readers. Take some time and make changes to your site. It will benefit you and soon you will be able to take your newbie hat off and hand it to the next person in line.

Feel free to link & trackback to this article, but don't steal it. Article stealing brings bad karma.

Posted by Kila Morton

15 Social Networks To Help You Network With Others & Build Traffic To Your Site

Kila Morton — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Getting traffic to come to your website is easy if you know what to do. Today I’m going to give you a little list that is going to help you if you are one of those people trapped in a “web traffic depression”. It’s time to dust off your fingers, put a smile on your face and start networking. Here are 10 social networks to help you direct traffic to your site.

This list is by no means exhaustive. There are a lot of social networks out there. Take your time and go through the list to make the most of each network. You are only going to get out of it what you put in. If you don’t feel like networking with other people and visiting other people’s sites then don’t. If, however, you recognize the benefit of networking with others and you are willing to invest your time, then visit the networks listed and make the most of each of them.

1. MyBlogLog.com -

MyBlogLog is absolutely great. MyBlogLog allows you to meet new people, find great new sites and join great communities. You can also start a community of your own with the people you meet.

MyBlogLog offers a widget for your website that allows your MyBlogLog visitors to get some link love. You can start off by creating an account and visiting PureBlogic on MyBlogLog - Pure Blogic’s MyBlogLog Account.

2. BlogCatalog.com -

I love BlogCatalog. This site is a lot like MyBlogLog. You can join a whole host of groups with people who are trying to do a lot of the same things you are trying to do. You can find people to help you with every aspect of your marketing efforts, from digging your stories, stumbling your stories, checking out your ads, reviewing your blog, etc. You can also create your own groups and ask for support for different aspects of your website marketing. It’s a great place to network if you are willing to join and communicate with others.

3. StumbleUpon.com -

StumbleUpon is a strange animal. This site allows you to submit the articles that you like. You can add your posts to Stumble as well as the posts of other people you like. You can also Stumble other people’s websites. I have seen a strange thing happen when I’ve stumbled articles. There will be a flurry of activity that will die off as quickly as it started. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t Stumble articles, I’m just saying that to maintain traffic, you will need to make sure that you continually Stumble quality articles. You can visit Pure Blogic on Stumble - Pure Blogic’s StumbleUpon Account

4. Digg.com -

You can turn an exceptional article into a Digg masterpiece by getting networking with others and having them Digg your articles. BlogCatalog.com can definitely help you with finding people to help you accomplish that. A lot of people have told me that they consider it a mistake to Digg your own articles. I say what-e-ver! If you like your articles, let the world know. In fact, I recommend Digging your articles as soon as you post them. Look, don’t let people tell you that you should or shouldn’t do a particular thing. You need to do whatever works for you.

You can become a fan of Pure Blogic on Digg here - PureBlogic’s Digg Profile

5. Technorati.com -

Technorati allows you to submit your content and have other people see it. It’s a very good way to promote your blog, build authority by getting links to your blog and have fun discovering content from other people.

You can visit the PureBlogic Technorati page - PureBlogi’s Technorati Profile

6. Squidoo.com -

Squidoo is excellent for a number of reasons. First, you can create great pages on Squidoo that can generate income for your. These pages, called lenses, allow you to promote whatever you want to promote. You can promote your blog, a product, an idea or whatever. Squidoo is just excellent! You can also use SquidWho.com to promote yourself. SquidWho allows you to create a page about somebody famous, namely you!

7. RateItAll.com -

RateItAll.com is a very interesting concept that allows you to earn income and rate whatever it is you want to rate. You can rate your website, products or whatever else you can think of. You can add your Google Adsense id to the site and then the site will share 50% of the revenue with you from all of the clicks you generate on their site from your review. It’s almost like they handle the marketing, you write the content and both of you make money. The benefit is clear. You can also use this service to drive traffic to your site while making money. I’m going to give you an update about RateItAll.com in a later article. It is certainly a service that can help you earn some spare cash and drive traffic.

8 & 9. Jaiku & Twitter -

I group both Jaiku, which is owned by Google, and Twitter in the same category. They both do essentially the same thing. The benefit of each of these services is that you can tell people what is going on with your site by sending them a quick update. The services are simple and easy to use. I have to admit that I didn’t see the value of Twitter at first, but then I saw the Twitter Light and got it together. Now I recognize the potential of Twitter. You should too.

10. Pownce.com -

I think that Pownce is going to be something really great. It’s in Beta right now, but, I love this site. You can add a lot of information to Pownce and create a lot of information that links back to your site. Go to Pownce and take a look around. If you want to join, contact me and I will try to sponsor you so you can become a member.

11, 12, 13 & 14. Facebook/Friendster/Bebo/MySpace -

I grouped these sites into one because they are actually variations of the same theme. You can create a page and direct people to your site. These sites are more about networking than promotion even though you can use them for both.

15. Bumpzee -

Bumpzee is kind of like MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog. You can create a network and socialize with others. This allows you to build a great network of people that you can exchange blog visits with. This site is absolutely excellent to gather research and information from.

This quick list should keep you busy making friends and even busier promoting your site. A lot of these sites have Google PageRank which will help you build your rank with links back to your site. Join, have fun and connect with others.

Posted by Kila Morton.

SocialMarker.com - Submit Your Site To Social Sites With One Easy Click - I Just Love It

Kila Morton — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I just love to see technology that makes the lives of people doing a lot of social bookmarking and article submission easier. A while ago I wrote an article about AddThis.com. I thought it was a great tool that allows you to submit articles from your site to multiple places without clicking on 50 million buttons to do it. Addthis.com IS a great tool, BUT, and this is a big BUT, SocialMarker.com is waaaayyyyyy better.

Just like AddThis.com, SocialMarker.com offers you a toolbar that you can install at the bottom of your post. Once you or one of your site visitors clicks on that little toolbar, your article can easily be submitted to a whole host of sites. With a small check, you can deselect one or more of the available sites. Here is a look at the main interface.

One really nice thing I like is that the title of the article pops up when you click on it from a particular page. If you are viewing all of the articles in a particular section (Joomla people know what I’m talking about), instead of one particular article, you can bookmark the entire section with this tool.

Take a look at the selection list.

With the click of a button you, or your site visitors, can deselect the social networks that you do not want to send your article to.

Try SocialMarker.com out and see what you think . If you want to give your submission efforts a swift kick, this tool is the one to use!

Posted By Kila Morton

Make Sure Your RSS Feed Is Ready For Autodiscovery

Kila Morton — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Sometimes social networks use software to automatically detect a website’s RSS feed. This process, supported by most major browsers, is one of the best ways to inform users about your website’s sydication (RSS) feed.

When you have Autodiscovery set up on your site, the RSS symbol will display on the address bar in Firefox. In Internet Explorer 7, the icon will be located next to the little House icon in the toolbar area. Here is a look at the placement of the icon in both FireFox and IE7.

Here are the steps that you need to take to enable Autodiscovery for your website.

Create your RSS feed. You can use your own methods or you can use a service like Feedburner.com to help you.
Add the following tag to the head section of your website before the closing </head> tag.

<link rel=“alternate” type=“application/rss+xml” title=“Your feed name” href=“http://feeds.feedburner.com/pureblogic”>
Of course you replace the “Your feed name” with your actual feed name and the http://feeds.feedburner.com/pureblogic should be replaced with the link to your actual feed.
After loading the changed page on your server, you should refresh the page and you will see the RSS icon in the address area of FireFox and the RSS icon next to the home icon in Internet Explorer 7. You can look around for the different locations in other browsers.

That’s it! You have now enabled Autodiscovery for your feed and software programs from places like BlogCatalog will be able to find your recent posts when you sign up for their service.

Posted By Kila Morton

Part 1 - Traffic Building With BlogCatalog - The Stumble Group

Kila Morton — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

As I told you yesterday in my article about BlogCatalog.com (Building-Traffic-With-Blog-Catalog-Dot-Com) , Blog Catalog has the possibility to be a tremendous resource for promoting your website. Today, we are going to take a look at one of the groups on Blog Catalog. This group is called the Stumble group. The Stumble group is a group where you can ask for stumbles, which people only give if they like your stuff, links and many other things to help you get your blog noticed.

Instead of talking you to death, I'm going to suggest that you go over to the Blog Catalog Stumble Group and check it out for yourself.

Posted By Kila Morton

Part 1 : Advertising Programs To Help You Make Money On Your Website

Kila Morton — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

You type away at your computer everyday generating content that makes your reader’s mouths water with anticipation. Now you want to turn your blogging passion into some cold hard cash. What can you do to start filling your pockets while you blog about the things that are important to you? We are going to go through a few programs that are going to help you turn your beer dreams into champagne reality. As you are making the transition from blogging for fun to blogging for profit, there will be a variety of things that have to change on your blog. This article represents just a few of the advertising items that you can add to your arsenal of money making tools.

Google Adsense
Google Adsense is one of the easiest advertising programs to start on your blog and use to make money blogging. Google offers you the ability to add ads to your blog for free. All you have to do is sign up for an account. How simple is that? You get paid when people click on the ads on your site. I truly believe that you can make a good profit with Adsense if you place your ads correctly AND if you use tools to make sure that the ads displayed are relevant to your blog content. The key with Adsense is to understand who is visiting your blog. Seasoned, Internet savvy readers are less likely to click on ads of any type. If you are marketing your blog to such a group, you have to make sure that your ads are compelling enough to get people to click on them OR you need to use another form of advertising for those people. Understanding your target readers is essential to making money with Adsense and placement of the ads is king. Make sure you pay attention to both before you use Adsense.

Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs are a great way to generate money from your site. Linkshare and Commission Junction are two of the larger affiliate programs. They are free to sign up for, however, you have to have your site up and running BEFORE you sign up for the advertisers they represent. You can also sign up for advertising programs from individual retailers like Amazon. Again, you have to make sure that the ads you place on your site are relevant to your content or likely to generate traffic to the advertiser. Unlike Google Adsense, you actually have to actually generate leads that purchase products from the advertisers you affiliate with. This means that making sure that your ads fit your site or will be attractive to your site visitors is even more important.

Selling Ad Space On Your Blog
If you have a popular blog that you are looking to monetize, you may be able to sell ad space on your blog and eliminate middlemen. You can place a small graphic on your site that says ‘Advertise Here’ or something like that. If you decide to do this, you will need to make sure that you have a way for advertisers to contact you directly. You should also be able to provide accurate traffic statistics to potent ional advertisers. You can use Google Analytics to help you with that.

Don’t Like Ads Or Classic Advertising?
If you don’t like classic advertising or trying to get people to click on ads, you can always take the direct approach and ask people to donate to your site. A simple paypal setup can get you a few bucks here and there. The only thing is that it seems a little like standing on the street corner begging for change……but….ummmm…..I do have to admit that I give money to those people begging for change.

There are a multitude of things you can do to help your blog along. We will explore them in upcoming articles. However, you must keep in mind that this is only the tip of the iceberg. You have to put in effort to see money rolling in. I would say good luck, but, luck has nothing to do with it. It takes perseverance, a plan and work.

Posted by Kila Morton

Building Traffic With Blog Catalog Dot Com

Kila Morton — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Everyone with a website is looking for a way to build traffic. Fortunately, certain places on the Internet make it very easy for us to build traffic if we have quality content - and sometimes even if we don’t. Enter Blog Catalog. Blog Catalog is a social blog directory. You can submit your blog, promote it, find other blogs on different topics, connect with other bloggers and learn a lot about the world of blogging.

It’s very easy to sign yourself up for a BlogCatalog.com account. Once you do, you will have the ability to promote your blog and join a wide variety of different groups. Just to warn you, the process isn’t instantaneous. Signing up requires that you wait until BlogCatalog can check your site. That took a whole day in my case. Even though this is the age of instant gratification and I like to see and do things now, now, now when I go to a website, waiting on Blog Catalog to check your site is a completely worthwhile effort.

Here is a look at the main Blog Catalog site.

One thing that I was not thrilled about is the fact that Blog Catalog REQUIRES that you add one of those widgets OR one of their links to your site. Yes I said REQUIRES. The problem is that you won’t have any friends at first. It looks kind of pathetic initially. I set my widget up under the MyBlogLog catalog widget on the right. I’m sure that I will have Blog Catalog friends in the future. In the meantime, I’ll just look at that blank space and sigh. I don't like those little one line links they offer as a substitute for the widget. That doesn't offer enough information to site visitors in my opinion.

Blog Catalog uses Autodiscovery to get information on your posts. To enable the Autodiscovery service to discover your blog, you can add the following right above your closing </head> tag.

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Your Title" href="http://YourFeedAddress.com" />

If you add this to the head area of your website, a few things will happen. First, sites using Autodiscovery to crawl your site and get information about your posts will be able to find your information. Second, the little RSS icon will show up in FireFox in the navigation area at the end of your website address. In Internet Explorer, the RSS icon won’t show up in the same place. Instead, it will show in the toolbar area beside the little Home icon. You can also press Alt-J to see all of the available feeds on a page in Internet Explorer. If your feed is set up for Autodiscovery, you will see your site info pop up.

After Blog Catalog discovers your site, you will be given a rank that determines where you are in the directory chain. You can then go crazy and join groups. Blog Catalog is really a rich resource for someone trying to promote a blog. For the next few posts, I’m going to focus on the various groups in BlogCatalog and what each offers you. In the meantime, get your body over to BlogCatalog and sign your site up for what promises to be a huge traffic boost.

Make sure you check out PureBlogic tomorrow. We are going to begin our visit to different Blog Catalog groups.

Visit the places mentioned in this article:

BlogCatalog -
http://www.blogcatalog.com

PureBlogic’s BlogCatalog Page -
http://www.blogcatalog.com/blogs/pureblogic.html

Posted by Kila Morton

The Latest Google Update Gave Us PageRank Love - Check Your Google PageRank Now!

Kila Morton — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Got PageRank? Google's last update, many moons ago, hit a lot of people hard. A few days ago Google updated their system again and gave a lot of people PageRank love! Many of you may have noticed the PageRank change. Google's system update has resulted in an increase in PageRank for many sites - PureBlogic.com included! Overnight I went from zero to two in the PageRank garden of websites. What does this mean exactly? It means that a few people may have liked what I had to say in the past. Some of those people linked to PureBlogic.com and now Google recognizes me as a 2 out of 10.

Now what is PageRank exactly and why should you care about it? I’m going to quote Google’s very own description for you.

Google runs on a unique combination of advanced hardware and software. The speed you experience can be attributed in part to the efficiency of our search algorithm and partly to the thousands of low cost PC's we've networked together to create a superfast search engine.
The heart of our software is PageRank™, a system for ranking web pages developed by our founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University. And while we have dozens of engineers working to improve every aspect of Google on a daily basis, PageRank continues to play a central role in many of our web search tools.

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at considerably more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; for example, it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important." Using these and other factors, Google provides its views on pages' relative importance.

Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines dozens of aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.

So to sum up all the fancy words, Google uses PageRank as a determination of the relevancy or importance of particular pages on your site. Please understand, this does not apply to your entire site! You could have five pages on your site all with different PageRank.

Take a look at PureBlogic’s current page rank. I started this blog on November 29th, 2007 with no page rank. Now, one month and 12 days later on January 11th, 2008, I’m a 2. Thanks Google for looking out for the little guys and little girls. We appreciate it.

To check your PageRank you should install the Google Toolbar.
If you want to install the toolbar & FireFox at the same time, you can click here .
If you want to install the toolbar for use in another browser, you can click here.

Your PageRank changes as more people link to you and as you link to more people. That’s one of the reasons that social bookmarking and social networking sites that allow you to place links that come back to your site can be so valuable. If you were skipped in this round of updates, don’t be discouraged. You can always get link love from various places. Keep joining social networks and linking to your site and your PageRank will start moving up in no time - or at least on the next Google update!

Finding Your Place On The World

Kila Morton — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

When you start blogging, everyone will tell you to find something you are passionate about. What does that mean? Does that mean something you enjoy, something you really like or something you know something about? It means that you should blog about what is important to you, but, figuring out what is important to you can be difficult if there are a lot of things that are important to you.

Sometimes the easiest way to get to the end of the road is a straight line, and, sometimes it’s not. Many of us spend the beginning of the year making resolutions that we know, deep inside of our hearts, we will never keep. Sometimes it’s to lose weight or be a better person. Sometimes it’s to work harder or make our relationships better. The problem is that we don’t follow through. For whatever reason, we just don’t do what we say we are going to do.

This year, lets make a resolution to do something different. Look at all of the things you enjoy. Look at how much you know about those things. If you don’t know enough about the things you like to sustain blogging about that subject everyday, don’t feel discouraged. Instead, make a resolution to learn more. The Internet offers us a wealth of possibilities in terms of what we can learn and what we can do. Don’t waste that opportunity.

One of the key reasons that people fail at starting their own ventures is because they have to have people tell them what to do and, without that structure, they fall apart. Resolve to figure out your place without being told what your place is. Learn more, change things, do more, figure out more. Take the time to really stop and think about what it is that you really want. No one knows you as well as you know yourself. The key is to be honest with yourself about who you are, what your strengths are and what you like.

Don’t blog about something because you think someone else wants you to. Blogging with passion is about blogging from your heart and, only you know what’s in your heart. Be honest about your passions, don’t be afraid that others will judge, put on foot in front of the other and take one step at a time toward the rest of your life. Make this year the year that you find peace within yourself.

I hope your new year offers you a wealth of the type of happiness you desire. Let’s all blog happy!

Posted By Kila Morton

PureBlogic Has Changed!

Kila Morton — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Ok. The time has come. After a lot of work and a lot of sweat, PureBlogic has been updated. Take some time and look around and let me know what you think. The changes to PureBlogic have been made to help you get the most out of the site.

Look around and let me know what you think. I'm sure you will find the navigation and organization of the site easier to manage.

Posted By Kila Morton

Allow Your Visitors To Get Their Link Love - Remove The NoFollow Tag In Your Comments!

Kila Morton — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Recently, I noticed something that I was not happy about. I noticed that the comments that people were leaving on PureBlogic included a nofollow tag. For those that don’t know, nofollow tags tell the bots that search and index pages NOT to follow a particular link. This means that you will not get any link love from sites you leave comments on. Now what does that mean?

When a site that is page-ranked links to you, it increases your "importance" in the Google algorthim world. This in turn, can lead to you getting a better PageRank after the next round of Google updates. This is one of the reasons that link building is so important. Good link building to PageRanked sites can help you build good PageRank very quickly. The reason that NoFollow links are added is to prevent spammers from getting PageRank by adding spam comments to your site. The problem is that adding the no follow link to ALL comments hurts both the good commentors on your site. So what can be done? I'm glad you asked.

To allow your visitors to get their page rank on a WordPress blog, you can install a great plug in that will remove the no follow tags or edit the php file that adds the link. I would also suggest that you make sure that you have your spam protection enabled for your comments.

To edit the php file, go your wp-includes folder and find the file comment-template.php. Replace tthe following line :

{xtypo_info}$return = "<a href='$url' rel='external nofollow'>$author</a>"; {/xtypo_info}

with this line:

{xtypo_info}$return = "<a href='$url'>$author</a>";{/xtypo_info}

To use a plug in, visit this page on WordPress.org and download it. You can then install the plugin on your WordPress system. This plug in will allow you to help your commentors receive their link love and allow you to protect yourself from spammers.

Posted By Kila Morton

Blogger Unleashed : A Great Website With A Lot Of Curse Words!

Kila Morton — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Whenever I come across a website with a lot of great information, I have to let other people know. Today’s review is going to be very, very, very brief because I’m in the process of changing a lot of things about PureBlogic. Blogger Unleashed is a great website full of great information for new and seasoned bloggers.

What really sets Blogger Unleashed apart from the crowd is the writing style of the site's owner. If have eyes that are sensitive to curse words, then make sure that you stay away from his site. If, however, you want some great information combined with a writing style that makes you wonder how many curse words one person can cram into a sentence and still communicate their point, then Blogger Unleashed is the site for you!

Stop by and take a look for yourself. Visit Blogger Unleashed for great information on blogging!

Posted By Kila Morton

Make It Easier To Generate Daily Content For Your Blog

Kila Morton — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

When I first started blogging I didn’t have an exact plan for putting together my blog topics. Most people don’t. I started with an idea and a goal. That was enough to get me started and it’s enough to get most of us started. But, what happens to us after time goes on? What happens is that most people stop blogging. They become dissatisfied with the money they are making with their blogs, they become busy with other things or they simply don’t want to do it regularly anymore. Why? The reason is simple. If you are doing something that is completely self-directed, it’s very difficult to keep going without reinforcement.

It’s been said that people fail because they are unable to keep going without someone making them. I think the reason is far more basic. If you don’t plan to succeed then, by default, you plan to fail. You have to organize your thoughts if you intend to succeed. There are 365 days in the year. If you blog every single day, that means you have to write at least 365 articles. How are you going to do that without any sort of plan? Most people don’t think about that when they start blogging. They simply decide on what they want to do and then move forward. Stopping to create some sort of plan can make your life a whole lot easier.

Here is a plan that can help you to NOT become frustrated while trying to create new content for your blog.

Decide on the core categories that your blog content is going to center around. For instance, if you have a blog about cooking, your core categories could be cooking with strong spices, cooking for vegans, cooking pasta dishes, making desserts, cooking dishes with various wines, etc. By using these core categories, you can create a batch of articles that are related to your core topics without being dated. For instance, certain wines are used to cook certain dishes. It doesn’t matter how much time passes by. Those dishes still use the same wines. Articles written about those dishes can be published at any time without appearing to be old. You can create a variety of articles for your site in exactly the same way.

Keep a list of very idea that you may have. You have to always be on the lookout for stories and ideas. I keep an idea list with me at all times. I record written notes using my cell phone. I also record verbal ideas into my Zen when I am in a position where I can’t write.

Use the features of your blogging tool to write posts and have them automatically roll out. If you are using Wordpress, you can use the timestamp feature to schedule your blog posts at any time. Just set the date for a date in the future and when that date and time rolls around, your post will be included.
If all else fails, you can use a blog writing service to generate articles.

Just remember that you don’t have to become frustrated with blogging. There are resources and tools available to you that can offer you help in coming up with, scheduling and writing your articles.

Posted By Kila Morton

Using Google's Traffic Estimator To Create Targeted Content And Place Higher In The Search Engines

Kila Morton — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

When you are designing a system to rank higher in a Google search, it is very, very, helpful to be able to estimate the popularity of the keywords you want to use. Fortunately, doing the estimation doesn’t require a lot of guesswork. Google makes it easy for you to get quick traffic estimates for new keywords without adding them to an account or using the sign-up wizard for Adwords.
If you are not familiar with the Adwords concept, I will give you a quick overview of how it works. Unlike Adsense, which is free to add to your site, Google Adwords allow you to create a marketing campaign where you pay Google for sending traffic to your site. You only pay for the actual clicks you receive and you determine your budget before you start. Sound confusing? Here is a short blurb from Google on the program.

Google AdWords is a quick and simple way to advertise on Google, regardless of your budget. AdWords ads are displayed along with search results on Google, as well as on search and content sites in the growing Google Network, including AOL, EarthLink, HowStuffWorks, & Blogger. With searches on Google and page views on the Google Network each day, your Google AdWords ads reach a vast audience.
When you create an AdWords keyword-targeted ad, you choose keywords for which your ad will appear and specify the maximum amount you're willing to pay for each click. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad. To save you even more money, our AdWords Discounter automatically reduces the actual CPC you pay to the lowest cost needed to maintain your ad's position.
When you create an AdWords placement-targeted ad, you choose the exact Google Network content sites where your ad will run and specify the maximum amount you're willing to pay for each click (CPC) or each thousand page views (CPM) on that site. You pay whenever someone views your ad. As with keyword-targeted ads, the AdWords Discounter automatically reduces the actual amount you pay to the lowest cost needed for your ad to win the placement on that page.

So that’s an overview of how Adwords works. Even if you don’t use Adwords, knowing which keywords generate good traffic is useful to you because of Adsense – those wonderful ads we know and love and place on our sites! It can help you use great targeted keywords in your site’s content to rank better in search engine traffic. Now I know what you are thinking. People will always say to write your content for people, not for search engines. The truth is that you need to create content for BOTH. You need to write your articles for your site visitors in a way that allows you to communicate with them clearly and you need to make sure that the content you write includes the correct keywords and targeting to allow you to place better in search engine results to attract new traffic. Writing for the web is NOT like the movie ‘Field Of Dreams’ – if you build it, they will NOT come, but, if you market it, they will.
The tool that will allow you to see which keywords get the most traffic is the Google Traffic Estimator. This is yet another fine, free tool provided by the good people over at Google to make our ad targeting that much easier. Here is a look at the main page.

As you can see, all you need to enter are 4 things, including, the keywords you want to search for (one per line), your budget, the language and the country. These items will allow you to get an idea of how much traffic will be available to you. Here are the search results for making money online.

As you can see, this keyword is popular and targeting it for a day may cost you between $300 & $490 per day. This isn’t exact, but, it is an estimate based on Google’s search engine. This information allows you to create great campaigns for yourself by creating targeted content that will help you place higher in the rankings. You can also use this information to create Adword campaigns if you want. Targeting an unconventional keyword can often allow you to get into the top return position in the search results.
Google makes this tool available to you for free so take some time and go through it to see which words may work for your content and your site. Investing a little bit of time to optimize your site content will pay off in search engine placement and attracting visitors from the search engines.

Posted By Kila Morton

How To Get People To Click On Your Google Adsense Ads Without Directly Asking Them To

Kila Morton — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

When you add Google Adsense to your new blog or site, you are faced with a daunting task of trying to make money with the program without asking your site visitors to click on the ads. Google’s goal is to create a win-win situation for everyone – they want their cut, they want to allow their advertisers to get qualified leads and they want you, their publishers to make money as well. So how are you supposed to do that if you can’t ask your site visitors to click on the Google ads?

Just for the record, I know that there may be some readers who do directly ask their site visitors to click on the link. Just so that you are clear, that is a violation of Google’s terms of use. If some really nice jerk decides to report you, you risk being banished from the Google Adsense world forever and ever. Many other ad programs, like Kontera, work the same way. They don’t want you clicking on the ads. You will notice the double underlined links on this site. Those are Kontera ads. Just for the record, you can sign up for Kontera by clicking here. I like the fact that the links to Kontera allow you to make money without taking up any space. LinkWorth is also another company that offers in text ads.

So back to the question – how are you supposed to get your site visitors to click on the links without asking them to click on the links? Well there are a variety of ways you can do this without violating Google’s terms of service. Here is a quick list of ways to get people to click on your links without directly asking them to:

SETTING THE RIGHT AD PLACEMENT
Placing your Adsense ads in the right spot to get the maximum click rate is more of an art than an exact science. While placing your ads above the fold is the general rule, deciding on where to place them above the fold can be difficult if you are trying to figure out how to combine your site content AND your ads. I mean who wants to visit a site that is full of ads and light on content? On the other hand, how are you going to make money if you are light on ads and heavy on content?

Google allows you to have three of their ad units on your page. Placing at least one unit above the fold in the main content area and at least one unit on the left or right side of the main content area guarantees that your site visitors will see the ads as soon as they come to your site. This makes it easier for them to find and click on your ads.

SETTING UP THE RIGHT AD TYPES

A lot of people think that they have to have a huge banner to attract people. Sometimes this has the exact opposite effect. People are so accustomed to seeing flashing banners at the top of sites that a lot of people mentally filter those out. Just think about yourself. When is the last time that you clicked on one of those rotating ad banners at the top of a page? The last time I did was a few years ago. In fact, I so rarely click on those banner ads that I can tell you the exact details of what I clicked on. It was an ad for the Newport News clothing store. I was checking my Yahoo email account and that ad popped up at the top of the screen offering free shipping. Now since I have a Newport News account AND I was about to order something from them, getting that free shipping was important to me at that moment. However, the reality is that I avoid those ads on purpose.

After taking a small poll of slightly less than 100 people, I have determined that there are a lot of people that think exactly like me. We find the ads more annoying than helpful. Does that mean that you should avoid placing banner ads at the top of your site? The choice is yours; however, using that space for something more appealing to your visitors may be useful. Another thing to remember is to use text ads. A lot of people feel more at ease by clicking on a text link as opposed to a huge banner. Also, you can offer more ads at once by using the text format. Video is also another option, however, it takes up a lot of space. If the videos have some special purpose, however, they may offer you a great way to attract visitors to a particular piece of real estate on your site. You could also place text ads close to the video to further entice people to click on the ads.

TALK TO FRIENDS & FAMILY ABOUT YOUR SITE

Take the time to tell your friends about your site and ask them to visit it. Using family and friends as away to promote your ads can be very useful in making your site monetization strategies a success. Now I certainly wouldn’t encourage you to ask your friends and family to just click on ads to make money for you, however, you can encourage your friends and family to use the ads and blogs for things they are actually going to buy. For instance, if you know that your brother is about to purchase a camera, why not direct him to use the links on your site or ads on your site to purchase that camera? You can even set up a page just for allowing friends, family and other visitors to your site to purchase items from your links and ads.

MAKE SURE YOUR ADS ARE RELEVANT TO YOUR SITE CONTENT

If your site is about insurance, then you should have insurance ads. Although you can have ads that span different businesses, the reality is that people are more likely to click on ads related to the content they came to your site for. If your site is about insurance, then make sure you have insurance ads. Tailoring your website ads from Google Adsense is easy to do. You can visit, this post on PureBlogic.com to see how to optimize your site content for Adsense ads.

BLOG ABOUT HOW YOU CAN’T ASK PEOPLE TO CLICK ON YOUR ADSENSE ADS

This is an easy way to direct people’s attention to your ads. It can also help people to realize that you need and want them to click on your ads. Believe it or not, some people are wrapped up in your content and they aren’t focused on your ads. You have to let people know what you want them to do.

COMMUNICATE WITH OTHER BLOG AND SITE OWNERS ABOUT YOUR SITE MONETIZATION STRATEGIES

If you have friends with blogs, encourage them to use your site to join different programs. This way you both benefit and your friends get things they need. You can also promote your site using tools like MyBlogLog and communicate directly with different blog owners. Don’t be afraid to use all of the communication tools you have available to you.

There is no magic involved in getting people to click on your ads. Getting those clicks requires subtle communication and correct ad placement. Remember that Google is offering a great service to us. We have to make the most of it. You can try a variety of things, but make sure that you don’t get yourself into trouble. Don’t label your ads in a way that violates the Google terms of use. Make sure you use all of your resources and don’t be afraid to try different things. Don’t forget to direct traffic to your site every chance you get. Let’s work together and market our ads to the max!

Posted By Kila Morton

Use Free Google Tools To See How Google Sees Your Site And Analyze Your Site Traffic

Kila Morton — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Google offers a variety of free tools to webmasters that provide an easy way to make sure your sites are Google-friendly. The Google webmaster tools, as they are called, offer you the ability to see exactly how Google views your site. They also offer you the opportunity to diagnose problems with your site and to provide Google with information that could help improve your site’s visibility.

he Google tools allow you to learn a variety of things. You can find out when the Google bot last crawled your site, if the bot had any problems crawling your site and what words others use to link to your site. You can get a large amount of information on how your site is indexed within Google. To use these files, your site must be verified by Google. The verification process is done through the use of a Google file that is placed in the root directory of your site. You can also use add a META tag with a unique value to your site's home page. Google recommends this solution if you are using a blogging application that doesn’t give you access to the root directory. You have to create a Google account, if you don’t have one (if you are using adsense, Gmail or Orkut you already have one), and then sign up for the Google Webmasters Tool. Once you are into that account, you can add your blog or blogs, select verification and get the META tag Google gives to you.

’m not going to walk you through all of the tools in the webmaster toolset. You can look through and view the tools for yourself. The tools I am going to walk through are the Indexing tools visible if you click on Statistics and then Index stats.
After adding all of the required information to your site’s root or the META tags, you can use these commands in Google to view your site information:

info
info:YourSitename.com and/or info:www.YourSiteName.com

This allows you to see all of the pages that link to your site’s front page. This is one of the most useful tools Google offers. When you use this in the Google search box, you will see a list of other links that will lead you to additional information. The 5 links that typing info:YourSiteName.com can also be typed directly into the search box as well. Take a look at the screen shot below.

cache
cache:YourSiteName.com and/or cache:www.YourSiteName.com

This shows you the page that Google has cached for your site

site
site:YourSiteName.com and/or site:www.YourSiteName.com
This tells you which pages of your site have been indexed

link
link:YourSitename.com and/or link:www.YourSiteName.com

This is supposed to allow you to see all of the pages that link to your site’s front page. I have to say that I found this particular item inaccurate because there are sites that I KNOW for a fact have linked to www.PureBlogic.com. Those links didn’t show up when I did the search, however, they do show up in the Find web pages that contain the term www.pureblogic.com (see the screenshot above). I have to investigate this particular feature a little more to find out why the links that should show up don’t. For instance, here is a link that Caroline Middlebrook created to PureBlogic. I can see it in the Google index, however, this link doesn’t show up when I use the link keyword. Here is the link so you can see that I’m telling the truth :-) http://twitter.com/cmiddlebrook/statuses/524459952.

There are plenty of others that don’t show up as well.

related
related:YourSiteName.com and/or related:www.YourSiteName.com

This shows the pages that Google has determined are similar to your site. This does not always return what one would expect. It is better to type in info:YourSiteName.com and/or info:www.YourSiteName.com and use the links provided on that page.

The tools that Google provides are free so take some time and make the most of them. Look at how Google sees your site. If there are errors or issues with how Google sees your site, you should take corrective action. I’m not saying that you should spend your days worrying about how Google sees your site, however, for those of you out there that intend to try and conquer the Google keyword thing, using these tools will be very, very beneficial for you. For the rest of you, just knowing how you fit into the Google world is great information. Happy Googling People!

Visit the Google Webmaster Tool Center here!

Posted By Kila Morton

Organize Your Categories To Optimize The Experience Of Your Website Visitors

Kila Morton — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

A lot of people like to sift through a lot of information to get to the information they want. Unfortunately, very few of the people who visit blogs are the type of people that like to do that. You have to make sure that the information on your blog is organized and easy to find. Never make the assumption that your information is so interesting that people will willingly wade through information that they don’t care about to find information they do care about. You have to be proactive when it comes to organizing your blog categories effectively.

Different things work for different people, but, if you are trying to make money online, you have to keep a few important points in mind. I was visiting a blog that had an extremely unorganized list of categories. Here is how the site I visited listed their categories.

Now I don’t know about you, but there is no way that I’m searching through this list to find anything! Although it is clear that this blog owner is a prolific writer, this blog category list is just entirely too large. Everything that you do has to be thought of from the perspective of your blog readers. Each post you write should not only link into the purpose of your blog, it should also allow your readers to be able to find old pages. Each of those posts should be categorized so that they are easy to find. Another point to remember is that a huge list of categories takes up a lot of space. That’s space that you could be using to monetize your blog.

One of the key things to remember is that most people need some sort of order and reason in their lives. When they look at things, they want to be able to understand them and figure them out with ease. Doing that with a list of categories like the one above is almost impossible. Just think about it. How is the word ‘identity’ as listed in my screenshot above tell you what the posts are about. Your readers aren’t trying to play click-and-guess, they are trying to find precise, quality information.

So here is how you can whittle your list down to a manageable size and attract your readers to your past post. Sit down and write the purpose of your blog in one to two sentences. Don’t think that your blog can be defined by one or two sentences? Well think again! It doesn’t matter what your blog is about, it can be defined in one to two sentences. After you determine what your blog is about, think about short phrases & words that relate to what your blog is about. For instance, if your blog is about showing beginners how to get started cooking, some words & phrases that are relevant would be:

Spices
Cooking Wines
Cooking Oils
Beginner Recipes
Advanced Recipes

As you can see, the categories become very clear once you identify the purpose of your blog. These categories can then be used to help you eliminate clutter in your categories and make clicking on your categories appealing to your site visitors.

So what do you do now? Take some time and organize your blog categories and make them appealing to your site visitors. If you are just starting your blog, this will be easy and you should try to create some categories before you get started posting. If you have already started posting, you should make some time to organize your current categories. Taking a little time to invest in your categories can pay off big in terms of repeat visitors and end user appeal.

Posted By Kila Morton

Bookmark Your Posts At Your Favorite Bookmarking Sites With 1 Submission!

Kila Morton — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Many of us put in an excessive amount of time into bookmarking a variety of different things. The problem is that doing so can take up an inordinate amount of time. You have better things to do don’t you? I am always on the lookout for things that make blogging easier. You will notice that at the bottom of my postings I use a feature from AddThis.com. It allows people to send my post to Digg or bookmark the post on their favorite site. I also keep other bookmarking icons around for those people who may not be familiar with using the AddThis.com bar.

So where can you find this one stop shop that will allow you to bookmark everything you want with ease and simplicity? You can find that one stop shop at OnlyWire.com. This site allows you to go to one place and handle all of your bookmarks in one place. How refreshing!

Here is a look at the OnlyWire main page.

You have to enter your login information to the bookmarking sites you use, however, that effort is well worth it. Here is a snapshot of the OnlyWire page you fill out right after you open your account with them. Filling out this one form will save you loads of time when you want to submit your postings. One click will send your post everywhere.

Take a moment and visit the OnlyWire main page. Anything that helps you market and promote your site in an easier fashion is only going to give you more time to do other things.

Posted by Kila Morton

Link Building While Being Tracked?

Kila Morton — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

How do you feel about someone knowing exactly what programs you use on your computer AND how long you use them? Would you willingly let someone track your software usage for free? Well the time has come for us to open up our computers and let the world know what we are using! Are you scared yet? As you know, my mission is tomake money online, and show others different ways to do the same, all while having fun. Part of that mission involves link building. During my link building efforts, I have come across a site that absolutely terrifies and intrigues me all at the same time!

Wakoopa is a website that offers a piece of tracking software you can install on your computer that tracks the software you use on your computer and reports that usage back to Wakoopa. Allowing Wakoopa to track you offers you a variety of benefits. When updates to the software you use are available, Wakoopa notifies you. Also, Wakoopa will tell you when someone writes a review about the software you use. Wakoopa also allows you to share your software usage and your opinions about software, create a profile page and invite your friends to view it, or put a widget on your own site. The only thing you don’t get is any privacy. Maybe you will miss your privacy and maybe you won’t. Does the chance to persuade someone not to buy a piece of software intrigue you? Does the opportunity to see how real people feel about a piece of software intrigue you? Well it sure intrigues me! Now I hate to have intrusive companies trying to pry into my life only to turn around and tell others what I’m doing. However, since this is one of the ways that companies can find out what people are really using and what they need, then maybe I will let Wakoopa keep track of me like an animal in a zoo :-)!

I honestly find this application’s potential to be incredible. The Wakoopa website offers different little tidbits of data. For instance, did you know that women spend more time in Adobe Photoshop than men? I didn’t know that and I’m a woman! Should I have known that? I don’t know, but now that I do know that I want to know more! If you stay on the Wakoopa website, you CAN know more. For instance, I found out another tidbit of info - Did you know World of Warcraft is played most on Sunday, and least on Tuesday? According to Wakoopa, they know this because they know software! I think this company is going to be an absolutely INCREDIBLE resource for businesses that are trying to launch new products or find out statistics on current products - if their results are accurate. Since they are directly tracking the applications that people are using, I would assume that they are accurate ;-).

Here are a few more interesting ‘did you know’ items taken directly from the Wakoopa website. If you want to see them for yourself, visit the website and look in the lower right corner.

Did you know people browse 7 times longer with Firefox then Internet Explorer? We do. Wakoopa knows software.
Did you know communicating is the second biggest activity on the computer? We do. Wakoopa knows software.
Did you know the average computer user has 54 pieces of software? We do. Wakoopa knows software.

Here is PureBlogic's page on Wakoopa. Of course, the benefit to us is that we can establish yet another handy dandy link so the PageRank gods will love us.

I think this company is going to be a tremendous resource as they accumulate more data. This is one company that I can honestly see Google either taking over or emulating in the future. The idea is so smart and the implementation for the end-user is so simple that I am sure that they are going to revolutionize the way data is collected and used. The fact that they are honest about the fact that they are tracking you kind of makes you feel secure in a weird sort of way. I mean, can these developers be bad if they tell you up front that they are collecting your information? ;-)

Take a look at Wakoopa and see how you feel about it. You may be witnessing the next big thing in friendly-big-brother data collection.

Posted By Kila Morton

Updating PureBlogic & Causing Trouble - All At The Same Time!

Kila Morton — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Many people have asked me why I had such a dark layout on my site. I am, after all, a bright and sunny person :-). Well I can honestly say that I only had one reason for that layout -it was a placeholder while I got my mind together and figured out how I wanted PureBlogic to look. You know, it’s funny how we agonize about different things. I’m a programmer and web designer and, among other things, I own a company that creates web sites & custom software. When it comes to other people’s projects, I can whip something out without any agony at all. When it comes to my own sites, I agonize about the smallest details. Sometimes I take a long time to finish things for myself because I can’t decide which designs I like the best. I go back and forth, and forth and back and then forth, and back all over again. I put PureBlogic out there even though the look wasn’t perfect, or even nice :-), because I didn’t want PureBlogic to be just something I intended to do. Sometimes you just have to pull the trigger, stop analyzing everything and put things in place as you go. That was/is my lesson.

So I was very busy today. Not only did I add a new look to PureBlogic, I also added a little graphic to MyBlogLog profile. That bland smiley face was getting old. I read this article over at WordPlay on getting people to visit your site by having an interesting image on your profile and it spoke to me. I knew everything in the article, but, knowing and doing are two different things :-). Now I’ve stopped being another gray face in the crowd! Anyway, updating my sight today resulted in an unintentional issue. I submitted PureBlogic to a number of sites that have to approve your site before they will allow you to join. In hindsight, I should have waited until I changed the site anyway - but I didn’t :-(. It seems that some of those sites reviewed my site today of all days! Why couldn't they do it when I actually submitted my site? HaHaHa…the jokes on me! At different points today, during my updates, the site didn’t display correctly and, at other times, it just looked crazy. I jumped the gun on that one. That’s another lesson.

Next time I will update the site at night and start submitting after I have the look I want. I guess I won’t be making any money with any of those sites ;-). Maybe I’ll send a polite email begging for a second look – maybe not! Anyway, thank you for waiting on me while I got my look together. Now I can get back to creating content and not worrying about how I look while I’m trying to do it. Posted by Kila Morton

Twittering For The Positive Things In Life

Kila Morton — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

A few days ago, I blogged about Twitter. I signed up for a Twitter account and started sending some tweets. At first, I honestly didn’t see the point. Now I think my frustration was a wee bit premature. After going through the service and having the light bulb go on over my head, I can see the potential in Twitter to reach the masses. Now that I’ve had this epiphany, I’m going to use my twittering skills for good!! First I’m starting what I call ‘Positive Tweets ‘. I’m going to use Positive Twee

How To Use In Text Advertising To Make Money Online

Kila Morton — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

When you set up you decide to monetize your blog, you face a number of options regarding advertising. One of the options available to you is inline keyword advertising. This type of advertising uses keywords from the text on your site to generate targeted ads to your site visitors. The ads aren’t displayed until your visitor places their mouse over the underlined keyword. You can see examples of this on PureBlogic. The double-underlined words display this type of inline advertising. The system is extremely easy to implement on your site primarily because you have already created the text yourself in your blog article. Typically the system just requires a block of code placed in the back-end files of your site to operate.

Relevant in text keyword based advertising has the potential to be very profitable for new blogs and blogs that get a lot of traffic for a few key reasons. First, once you have a regular number of visitors to your site, those visitors become acclimated to the ads on your site. If the look of your site doesn’t change often, regular visitors will begin to reach a point where they don’t even really “see” the advertising area any more. They will look right past it and go to where they know the content is located. Text links keep your visitors from becoming accustomed to the ads located on your site.

In addition to keeping your site visitors from becoming acclimated to the actual ad, inline text ads also are less obtrusive than banner ads. Many people regard banner advertisements on a site as intrusive and annoying. Those who do not may click on the ad once, however, they are not going to continually click on the same ads. If they have signed up once for the advertising programs on your site, you are not going to be able to continually use the same ad and get the same result. You reach a point of ad maturation on your blog. This means that you will either have to generate additional traffic to maintain your income stream or you will have to change your ads, your ad program or your ad placement strategies.

An additional benefit to inline text ads is that they take up no additional real estate on your site. Another key benefit to inline text ads is that they take up no additional site real estate. This means that you can use your space to do other great things like adding additional monetizing methods to your blog.
From a publisher’s perspective, using inline advertising can blend very well with your additional advertising efforts. You can use inline advertising along with Google ad products as well as with other forms of advertising. Also, because these ads are targeted, people who click on them are more likely to be willing to click on other ads you have if they find the inline text ads relevant to what they want. In other words, visitors are more likely to trust your inline text advertising.

Here are some in text advertising programs that may be useful for your blog.

Kontera
LinkWorth
Text Link Ads
Vibrant Media (IntelliTXT) – You must have at least 500,000 page views per month to join Vibrant

This list is not exhaustive, however, it should be enough to get you started.

Posted By Kila Morton

I Guess I�m Just Twitter-Dumb! I know I�m Twitter-Confused. Is It Just Me?

Kila Morton — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Ok. I gave in! Everyone has been talking about how GREAT Twitter is so I thought I’d give it a try. I guess my computer science degrees must not mean much because after looking at this application for the past three hours, I’m asking myself why, why and for the love of god why? Am I just missing the point? People have said that this is so great, revolutionary, exciting! I’m just not seeing it. What’s wrong with meeeeeee? Am I just too Twitter-Stupid to get this? Is anyone else sitting back and asking themselves why they should use this app over plain old, “un-fun” instant messaging?

For those people who don’t have the faintest clue about what Twitter is, I will tell you. Twitter allows you to send messages and have people read those messages in real time. You can follow people who are leaving messages and you can leave messages that people can follow. You can send messages that everyone following you can see. Now I can certainly see the benefit if you have a large group of people to send messages out to, but, if you don’t, then I don’t see the point.

Maybe I’m not thinking about Twitter clearly. Both I and a friend have spent a few hours setting up the service, communicating and trying to see what we could do with it. I found the interface counterintuitive and confusing. I tried to search for myself by name and couldn’t find myself. Then I tried my username, PureBlogic. I found myself using PureBlogic, but NOT using my name Kila Morton. That’s not good. How would I know what my friend’s usernames where if they didn’t use just their names? We should be able to search by both username AND regular name.

I was able to send and receive messages from the person I was testing this app with but I’m upset now. I want to Tweet with other people! I want to be Twitter-Happy! I want to be Twitter-Clever! I am going to figure this app out…I hope J! I’m not going to write Twitter off just yet. Keeping an open mind about new apps can sometimes help us see opportunities that we weren’t thinking about. Maybe I will become Twitter-Smart or Twitter-Intelligent someday soon. How about you? Do you find Twitter useful? Are you as Twitter-Stupid and Twitter-Confused as me? What are you using it for? Leave a comment and let everyone know how you are making the most out of Twitter or if you found it to be not useful.

Posted by Kila Morton.

SquidWho From Squidoo Allows You To Promote Yourself And Build Links To Your Site

Kila Morton — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I think I am in LOVE! Who am I in love with? Rather than asking who, you should ask what! That’s right! I’m in LOVE with a thing! I am in LOVE with SquidWho – not Squidoo, SquidWho. What is SquidWho you ask? Let me tell you all about it. This article focuses on how we create tie-ins between our sites and other sites. This is part of the traffic equation in the content + traffic = making money online because building up links to your site helps to increase its visibility and increasing the visibility of your site helps bring traffic.

This is a part of Squidoo that I just happened to stumble upon. This part of Squidoo is called SquidWho. SquidWho provides an interface to search for someone famous. Now I know what you are thinking. Why would searching for someone famous hold any relevance to you and what you are trying to do? Exactly how does that relate to making money online? I’m glad you asked. The relation is very simple and easy. SquidWho asks you to search for someone famous online, but, that famous person could be YOU! That’s right :-), I said YOU! In fact, the page specifically says that the people at Squidoo think that you and I are famous so we should make sure a page exists about US! Wow! I’m famous???? Who knew?

Anyway, let’s say you decide to type in your name and then you click Search. You just type in your name on the search screen. Here is a screenshot of it.

Let’s say you search for someone ultra famous like, like, like, oh, like say Kila Morton (that would be me! :-)). Here is what the screen would say if there were no references for me.

Ok, there is no page for me but the people over at Squidoo care enough about me to build one! Isn’t that nice? You wait for a few seconds and then this wonderful thing pops up!

Wow! Who is Kila Morton? Once this page comes up, you can click in the upper right and claim your page. If you want it, and we all should want it if we are trying to make money blogging, then you select it and sign up. You have to enter a few details and then verify your existence by clicking on a validation link sent to your email account, but that’s it! Once you do that, you can type in the “Three reasons to love Kila Morton”. I love it! What could be simpler? This system makes it so easy to create link love for yourself. You can link to your blog, place your feed on the site and put information about you out there so people can find you! This little Squidoo feature helps you build up your blogosphere empire and it’s so much fun. You can also add modules to your page that do different little things.

After you claim your page and add a few things, the page ends up looking something like this to the people who will visit the page. Please don’t mind the fact that I haven’t added all of the pics and stuff to the page. Give me a minute will you?

Take SquidWho for a test drive and put in information about yourself. Make sure you link back to your blog and make sure that you take advantage of the ability the site offers to you to add your feed to it. Here is a look at my SquidWho page. It isn’t complete – no pics – but I’m sure you get the point.

After you set your page up send me a link to it. Maybe I’ll create a great wall of SquidWho and give you more link love!

Here is my SquidWho page! Now go and claim your SquidWho from Squidoo now!

Posted by Kila Morton

Agloco Lessons: 8 Ways Bloggers Can Protect Themselves From Bad Affiliate Programs

Kila Morton — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

The Internet has CERTAINLY seen it’s share of failed businesses. A lot of ideas, from big to small, have floundered and flopped in front of a worldwide audience. Agloco, the company that was going to pay people to surf the web, has gone belly up. Their website, however, is still allowing people to sign up. Their interface does not say anything about the fact that the company is going out of business, however, according to many people who were a part of the network, they have received emails from the company letting them know.

Some people never received a dime from the company, although they were able to attract a large number of referral traffic to Agloco. I even found one site that still had it’s Agloco promotional material up, although, the owner of the site knows that the Agloco era is over. So what can bloggers take away from the Agloco downfall?

The lessons are simple. Here are a few tips that you should use when evaluating any money making venture with any company over the web.

Do a search on the company and read as much as you can. This can’t be your only method of research, but, it is a good starting point. The reason that this can’t be your only source is because search results can be manipulated by good SEO (search engine optimization) marketing. Doing a search can, however, give you a quick glance about something being wrong with a company. Often if a company is not paying its affiliates or its publishers, there are a lot of people who will be pissed about it and a lot of people who will talk about it online.

If something seems too good to be true AND doesn’t require a lot of effort on your part, try it out. There are situations where things will seem to be too good to be true, however, there are also times when those situations are true. How can you ever know if there is not negative information about the opportunity out there? The answer is that you can’t know 100%. Therefore, if the opportunity doesn’t require you to do anymore than put a banner on your site, try it out. If it works – great! If it doesn’t, you haven’t really lost anything. Sometimes you have to take a chance with opportunities on the Internet. There will be ideas that work and ideas that don’t, but, every idea has to start somewhere.

If a company doesn’t give you a way to keep track of the ads you are using from them, think long and hard before using them. If they don’t give you a way to track things, chances are that they are going to take advantage of that situation. You have to know what was clicked and when to be able to track your most profitable time of the day, the most profitable ad placements, etc.

Make sure you pay attention to stats for your money making programs. If you don’t know what is making money for your site, then you won’t be able to make business decisions about what should be removed or what should be changed.

Don’t be afraid to get out if you aren’t getting paid. If months have gone by and you have not been paid…..ummmm…..it’s time to call it quits. Don’t let your desire to see things through or your hope that the company will turn it around stop you from making the business decision that will help you make the most money.

Pay attention to the blogs of people you respect. If a particular blogger has had a negative experience with a company, ask them why. If they didn’t get paid by the company then that may be an indication that the company is having a problem. If they along with others have not been paid, that is a huge red flag that you shouldn’t ignore. Learn from the mistakes of others if you can.

Any company can go out of business. It could be because of poor management, lack of funding, the owner’s desire to do something else, or any number of other reasons. It’s up to you to search around and make sure that you investigate a company BEFORE you sign up with them.

Never join a program JUST because an influential blogger joined the program! A lot of people made this mistake with Agloco because they saw it on John Chow’s blog. The truth is that John Chow is just a human being. He makes mistakes too. We all do. It is up to YOU to research a company. If no one is getting paid, then you aren’t likely to get paid either. Remember that this isn’t high school. You are grown and you can’t let peer pressure make your mind up for you. Do YOUR OWN research.

When it comes to advertising programs, doing a little legwork in the beginning can save you a lot of trouble in the end. As Agloco has once again shown us, everything that glitters on the Internet is not gold!

Posted By Kila Morton

fatalhilarity.com
fermentarium.com
interbride.ru
sogeshirts.com
fcukjournal.blogspot.com
bigtony423.blogspot.com* Welcome to blogging Big Tony!
cutewriting.blogspot.com

	WordPress Plugin: WP-Ban 1.20 » development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Ban users by IP, IP Range, host name and referrer url from visiting your WordPress's blog. It will display a custom ban message when the banned IP, IP range, host name or referrer url tries to visit you blog. You can also exclude certain IPs from being banned. There will be statistics recorded on how many times they attempt to visit your blog. It allows wildcard matching too.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-DBManager 2.20 » development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Manages your Wordpress database. Allows you to optimize database, repair database, backup database, restore database, delete backup database , drop/empty tables and run selected queries. Supports automatic scheduling of backing up and optimizing of database.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-DownloadManager 1.00 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.2, 2.3 Adds a simple download manager to your WordPress blog.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-EMail 2.20 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.3 Allows people to recommend/send your WordPress blog's post/page to a friend.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-PageNavi 2.20 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Adds a more advanced paging navigation your WordPress blog.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-PluginsUsed 1.00 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Adds a more advanced paging navigation your WordPress blog.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-Polls 2.21 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.3 Adds an AJAX poll system to your WordPress blog. You can easily include a poll into your WordPress's blog post/page. WP-Polls is extremely customizable via templates and css styles and there are tons of options for you to choose to ensure that WP-Polls runs the way you wanted. It now supports multiple selection of answers.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-PostRatings 1.20 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.3 Adds an AJAX rating system for your WordPress blog's post/page.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-PostViews 1.20 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.3 Enables you to display how many times a post/page had been viewed. It will not count registered member views, but that can be changed easily.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-Print 2.20 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Displays a printable version of your WordPress blog's post/page.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-RelativeDate 1.20 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Displays relative date alongside with your post/comments actual date. Like 'Today', 'Yesterday', '2 Days Ago', '2 Weeks Ago', '2 'Seconds Ago', '2 Minutes Ago', '2 Hours Ago'.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-ServerInfo 1.00 » development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Display your host's server PHP and MYSQL information (integrated into WordPress Admin Style) on your WordPress dashboard..
	WordPress Plugin: WP-Stats 2.20 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.3 Display your WordPress blog statistics. Ranging from general total statistics, some of my plugins statistics and top 10 statistics.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-Sticky 1.10 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Adds a sticky post feature to your WordPress's blog. Modified from Adhesive by Owen Winkler.
	WordPress Plugin: WP-UserOnline 2.20 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.3 Enable you to display how many users are online on your Wordpress blog with detailed statistics of where they are and who there are(Members/Guests/Search Bots).
	WordPress Plugin: WP-Wap 2.10 » demo \| development \| documentation » Compatible With WordPress 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Browse your WordPress's blog entries on a Wap enabled mobile phone.
	GaMerZ File Explorer 1.20 » demo Enables you to browse a folder on the web like Windows Explorer. It has the ability to search for folders and files too.
	GaMerZ error_log Cleaner 1.00 Scan And Delete error_log File Generated By PHP On Your Web Site.

Welcome To The PureBlogic RSS

Make Money Online With DreamTemplate Dot Com

The Types Of Sites That Can Help You Make Money Online

How To Use Entrecard To Promote Specific Articles You Have Written

If You Have Decent Traffic, Pay Per Lead May Make More Money For You Than Pay Per Click

entrecard

4 Ways To Stop Your Bounce Rate From Increasing With Entrecard

Make Money Online Off Of Someone Else's Stuff

2 Great Places To Find Articles For Your Blog � Articles Modern And Articles Caravan

Boost Your Alexa Rank With Entrecard

Find Out Why A Sitemap May Not Be Good For Your Site

You need a Sitemap if:

Etsy Provides Creative And Non-Creative People With A Great Way To Make Money Online

How To Make Money Using eBay Without Selling A Thing!

How Mixing Ads On Your Site Can Make You Less Money Online

The Monday Review For New Writers

Week 6 Of Alexa Traffic Building

5 Fast Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Site

Make Money Online With ClickBank

The Monday Review Is All About Making Brew - With Fermentarium Dot Com!

Week 5 Alexa Rank Update

More PureBlogic Link Love!

6 Great Ways To Make Money With HubPages

Utah Luxury Dot Com - Showcasing The Homes Of The Rich And The Richer!

Part 1 - How To Build A HubPage & How To Make Money With Your HubPages

Week 4 Alexa Rank Update

42 Feed Sites To Help You Drive Traffic And Promote Your Articles

Research Your Keywords With The SEO Book Keyword Tool

The Monday PureBlogic Review - Is It Really A Wundurful Wurld?

What's Happening This Week On PureBlogic To Help You Make Money On The Internet?

Week 3 Alexa Rank Update

Make Money Online With Triond

5 Free Tools To Help You Learn More About Your Site's Rank & Links

Week 2 Alexa Rank Update

Make Money Online By Using Your Site Keywords To Learn About Your Site Demographics

Build Up Your Web Traffic By Building Your Relationships - Link Love Week 1

Increase Your Website Traffic And Grow Your Alexa Rank By Joining Groups

Are You Sacrificing Traffic Just To Get PageRank?

The number of pages you have on your site

The number of backlinks to your site

The quality/relevance for your niche that those backlinks have for your site

The actual PageRank of the sites that link back to you

What Is Wrong With Alexa?

3 Unconventional Places To Promote Your Articles

Week 1 Alexa Rank Update

Building Great Traffic To Your Site With Blog Carnivals

Giving Readers A Full Plate - Of PureBlogic RSS

5 Simple Ways To Attract And Retain Your Blog Visitors

Optimize Your Site With The Free WordTracker Keyword Tool

5 Simple Ways To Boost Your Alexa Rank

Is StumbleUpon Dot Com A Mind Altering Drug?

KillerStartups Dot Com - Bringing You The Next Big Website

Are You Looking For Link Love? Well PureBlogic Is Looking To Love You!

10 Resources For The Savvy CSS Developer And Those Who Love Looking At Great Designs

1. Beautifully :: Webdesign - This site is so beautiful. Nice ajax effect as well. You are going to like this site.

2. CeeSeS

3. Cool Site Collection - I'm in LOVE with this site! It's just beautiful :-)

4. Cool Home Pages

5. CSS Beauty - I'm in LOVE with this site too! It looks great!

6. CSS Bloom

7. CSS Blue

8. CSS Drive

9. CSS Gallery (www.csselite.com)

10. CSS Inspirace

Google Docs - 10 Reasons Why Every Blogger And Human Should Be Using Google Docs

Bloggeries Dot Com - A Place To Build Back Links For Your Blog

10 Places To Promote And Find Great WordPress Themes

History Repeats - Google Is Beating Microsoft At Its Own Game

Html Playground - A Great Resource For Xhtml & CSS Developers

Unconventional Methods Of Link Building - Ebay Blogs

Use DaniWeb To Network With Others, Learn Way More Than You Know And Promote Your Site

Use Autopinger To Automatically Submt Your Site Updates To Search Engines To Generate Traffic

How To Create The Ultimate Search Engine Friendly Article

Remember To Write Blog Articles That People Can Actually Read

Great WordPress Themes, PageRank & Direct Traffic - Oh My!

Leave A Comment If You Like An Article - Don�t Be Shy

Alexa Ratings Are Inaccurate But Are They Useful?

Part 5 - How To Get Referral Traffic To Your Site And How To Measure It

Part 4 - How To Get Organic Traffic To Your Site And Measure Your Success

Part 3 - How To Create Campaigns To Drive Direct Traffic To Your Site And Measure Your Success