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Results for: yugatech tips to successful blog

August 18, 2009

Search Engine Marketing Conference 2009

For the 3rd year in a row, the Search Engine Marketing Conference 2009 is all set to happen this October 1 & 2, 2009. As usual, we’ll have a whole new line-up of search marketing topics to fill the 2-day conference shared by practicing internet marketing experts.

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Events, Search, SEO
December 16, 2008

Mahalo Answers: Pays to Answer Questions

The newly launched Mahalo Answers is just like Yahoo! Answers plus a couple bucks of tip. In short, you get paid for the best answers you contribute.

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Search
September 14, 2007

Early Friday morning round-up.

I’m off to Philippine Science High School in a couple of hours for the Future Summit entitled “Technology: Where are we taking it? Or is taking us?“. So, while I’m away for the larger half of the day, I’ll leave you with some interesting readings and snippets around the sphere.

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Daily Blogs
May 10, 2007

A big Thank You to all my TLA referrals!

Of all the “making money online” lessons I’ve learned in the last two years of problogging, the affiliate marketing aspect is something that still escapes me. So, when Text Link Ads was launched last year, I thought I’d try their affiliate program since the product/service is very relevant to my niche and readership profile.

TLA ReferralsSince then, I’ve tried all other programs from Amazon Associates, Chitika to AdBrite without much success. Well, today, I can definitely say TLA tops them all.

I used to do a monthly post (with link loves) thanking each and every blogger who signed up under my TLA referral account. I wasn’t able to maintain that link love post but just now, when I realized I already had 40 successful referrals which amounted to $1,000, I’d like to thank everyone again. The number may not be much but the total amount it raked in is sizable enough (at least for me).

Again, a big Thank You! to all my TLA referrals.

P.S.
The TLA Referral report only shows the number of successful sign-ups with ad placements. That means, it will not show any other sign ups that have not had a TLA ad ordered thru them. I think there are more under my account but haven’t had any success in getting an ad placement. Watch out for the next post on tips on how to get TLA ad placements.

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Problogging
July 22, 2006

From zero to $800 with Adsense in 4 months

Leo shared that his 4-month accumulated AdSense income has reached $800. He mentioned in the same comment thread 3 months ago that he got $17 after 23 days.

I’m not sure if all of it was from his OFWTips blog but that sure is a really good amount to reach considering he’s only into blogging in the last 4 months. He has several blogs actually, some of which are really good niches like Entrepinoys Atbp., OFW Business Tips and Entreprenuer Help.

His oldest blog is getting some decent traffic (400 uniques/1,600 pageviews on average) and is actually at 20 something at Pinoy Top Blogs.

The best case on blog monetization I had was with PTB which broke the $100 mark with Adsense on its 4th month, though there were direct ads on it as well.

My other groups blogs like the Urban Blog and the Travel Blog weren’t as lucky though.

Care to share? What’s your most successful blog so far?

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Problogging
May 05, 2006

Google Picasa Referral and More

Google has just added Google Pack and photo-oraganizing software Picasa into their Adsense Referral Program. Referrers get $2 for every successful install of Google Pack and $1 for Picasa.

Picasa and Google Pack Your Google Adsense Control Panel will show the following products for referral.

What is Picasa?

Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organised by date with folder names you will recognise. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organised.

Picasa also makes advanced editing simple by putting one-click fixes and powerful effects at your fingertips. And Picasa makes it a snap to share your pictures – you can email, print photos home, make gift CDs, and even post pictures on your own blog.


What is included in Google Pack?

Google Earth – 3D Earth browser
Google Desktop – Desktop companion
Picasa – Photo organizer
Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer – Search toolbar
Google Pack Screensaver – Photo screensaver
Google Talk – Voice and IM application
Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar – Web browser
Ad-Aware SE Personal – Antispyware utility
Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition – Antivirus utility
Adobe Reader 7 – PDF reader
RealPlayer – Media player
GalleryPlayer HD Images – Images
Trillian – Instant messenger


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Freewares
April 30, 2006

Blogger Interview: Rickey Yaneza

This is supposed to be my interview on professional blogging for Rickey but since he claims he is not a problogger, I changed the title of the entry.

Given that, half of the questions here might not be appropriate for him. However, since Rickey’s blog has been consistently on top of Pinoy Top Blogs and he monetizes his blogs with Adsense/YPN, Amazon and BlogAds, I’d still consider him to be a professional blogger (see my official definition here).

Let’s move on with the interview…

  • How do you define problogging?

    Blogging for the sole purpose of making money. This of course disqualifies me since this is not what I do. I just happen to have ONE popular website (which happens to be a blog) with Google Ads that a tiny percentage of my readers click on — this doesn’t make me a “professional” blogger. I had Google Ads on my blog for two years earning nothing and then one day, I earn $10, and then all of a sudden I’m a pro. That doesn’t make sense.

  • When did you start blogging? When did you get into problogging and how did you realize that there’s some money to be had from it?

    I started using Blogger.com in 2001, but I was making online journals since 1996. I have never gotten into problogging, but I realized that I could leverage my blog traffic when sometime in 2004, I got 15,000 visitors and earned $3 from one Google Ad.

  • Which blogs are you writing for and which blog networks are you affiliated?

    rickey.org
    pinoy.rickey.org
    live.usa.ph (Basang Sisiw Show)

    I am affiliated with the rickey.org blog empire network (evil laugh)

  • Are you problogging part time or full time? Do you see this career as a part time gig or you are looking into going problogging?

    Again, non-problogger here. I only blog part-time like everybody else and keep a job during the day. Recently however I have been possessed by the entrepreneurial spirit and would like to start a new website.

  • How do you monetize your blog? Which ones bring in the most revenues? How long did it took you to significantly earn from your own blog/s?

    Adsense, YPN, BlogAds, Amazon Associates … and the most lucrative, selling t-shirts. However, since I have no new t-shirts to sell this year (yet), I get the most from Adsense. My blog started to pay for part of my rent early 2005 when I added a Google leaderboard at the top of my home page.

  • How long before you got significant revenue from your blogs? How consistent are the revenues and what affects it?

    I don’t remember when, it just happened. Weekends are slow. Website traffic is a major contributor to AdSense earnings. I think it is more stable to go for direct advertising, which requires a lot more work in marketing (and has nothing to do with the act of blogging).

  • How much time do you spend on blogging? (in est. hours/day or hours/week)

    I think I blog 24/7 — at least it seems like it.

  • What other benefits do you get from problogging?

    Rickey is not a problogger! Gifts from my Amazon wishlist. Friends. Fame.

  • What’s the most significant event/moment you had in your entire problogging career?

    I don’t have a problogging career. I don’t do SEO, buy links, link-bait, etc. and all these tips and tricks supposed probloggers do. The only SEO I do are use relevant titles in my blog posts and link to a site high on a search term I want to move up on — do these little tidbits of information make me a “professional?” I’m just a lowly blogger that found my audience. Technically, I’m just running a website.

    My blogging life however from the past two years has been good. The most significant moment I’ve had as a blogger was identifying myself as a Filipino after years of obscurity.

  • What personal tips can you share with bloggers who want to try out problogging?

    I am not a problogger! I cannot give any tips on the subject. Just go to Darren Rowse’s site and help cement his position as the #1 problogger on Google forever.

    However, some tips for general blogging success:
    1. Write clear, value-laden posts everyday. To establish identity, narrow your topics considerably.
    2. Establish a meaningful and lasting friendship with Marc Macalua.
    3. When your blog reaches critical mass, seize the moment and don’t let go.

It would seem that Marc’s SEO advocacy has greatly influenced how Rickey defines a problogger, thus the angle of the response.

I would like to clarify though that SEO and problogging are not exclusive to each other. You may not know anything about SEO and still be a problogger like our previous examples with Gloria, Ruth, Stef and Jayvee.

Most of the independent probloggers I featured here did not actually expect they could successfully monetize their blogs. It just happened. And these are their personal blogging stories.

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Problogging
April 24, 2006

Seeing blank Adsense Ads?

One of my blog readers emailed and asked “Why are some of the Adsense ads appear blank?”

There are a couple of reasons for this to happen. You may also refer to the Adsense Stop Words I discussed here before.

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AdSense
April 07, 2006

Problogging Q & A from Manuel

In connection with my problogging interview series, Manuel shot me with the following questions in the SEO Philippines mailing list:

1. How does Yugatech go about choosing blog topics? (pixel/overture, wordtracker, database of keyword lists, ebay directories, adsense accelerator, whatever topic you’re truly and deeply interested in)

Frankly, I don’t even use any of those “tools” for my blog topics. I blog to generate conversations as it’s apparent from my post-to-comment ratio of 10.16 (which is pretty high IMHO). The topics that I often blog about are personal tech experiences, commentaries, tech news/tips, guides/tutorials, and some personal favorite topics which includes photography and gadgets (that I bought and toy with or wanted to buy). These will be the same topics I would talk about whenever I’m with friends, chatting over a cup of coffee or a bottle of beer.

2. How do you generate the content for those topics? (outsource, private label articles, automated article rewriters, CJ.com links, self-written)

For the most part, I write them myself (evident from the grammar and spelling mistakes I often make). There’s the occasional comment-quote-comment posting style, but that’s inherent with most bloggers these days.

I really have to thank all of my regular visitors and commenters. They practically doubled, maybe tripled my content. Sometimes, it’s not really just the posts but the comments that adds value to the blog.

3. How do you get your blog posts to rank highly in SEs? (heavy SEO, WordPress default settings, network with other bloggers, simply write for your target audience)

I really don’t know. I practically have the default WP settings. I have several hints though. My blog is relatively well linked to in the blogosphere (Technorati Rank: 4,546 – 659 links from 280 sites) with a nice PR5. If we follow Marc’s “The Google SERP Party” explanation, I have a good mix of links from trusted sites as well (.EDU, Press, etc).

The only SEO practice I actively do with my blog is to track old posts and rewrite them when I have time. That’s why I really like MeasureMap because it can easily show me which posts in my archives get the most hits for a certain day (and from what keywords) along with the number of comments. I then go back and edit those old posts to add related keywords or a permutation thereof, or even rewrite the title.

The “Related Entries” plugin is a good way to pass traffic (and PR) from popular pages to less popular ones within my blog or across blogs I own or write for.

I am no expert on SEO so I can’t say how much of what I practice is really good (or not) for my blog. In the last 5 years that I have been blogging out of passion, it’s only in the last 12 months that I seriously tried to monetize my blog and have been relatively successful at it.

Just over a year ago, when Connie’s cooking blog was raking in hundreds of dollars from Adsense, I remember telling myself that problogging is not for me. Still, that did not deter me to strive and persevere. Had I accepted the glaring truth that like millions of other regular bloggers, I have no future in problogging, I would not have been able to blog fulltime today.

Thanks to Robert Kiyosaki and a xerox copy his book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad“. But that story is for another time. :p

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Problogging
April 03, 2006

Pinay Problogger: Ruth Schaffer

Ruth SchafferOur next on the list of Filipina Probloggers is Ruth Schaffer. She is a Microbiologist by training, and used to work on experimental research for an international agricultural research institute before being relocated to Europe.

The rest of her personal details are still unknown to me but I’m very glad to also have her on board our Philippine group travel blog.

  • How would you define problogging?

    Professional blogging is getting paid to blog, writing a blog with a purpose of generating revenues.

  • When did you start blogging? When did you get into problogging and how did you realize that there’s some money to be had from it?

    I started my personal blog in Feb 2004. I started dabbling in problogging in July 2005, but it was more of a hobby, rather than an income generating move.

    It wasn’t until late in 2005 til I started to realize my blogs’potential to be monetized. I received my first significant paycheck in January this year.

  • Which blogs are you writing for and which blog networks are you affiliated with?

    I am the sole author of
    The Biotech Weblog , of Creative Weblogging (CW)
    Let’s Visit Asia, of b5media

    I have also just launched the Allergizer, also of CW, this week.

  • Are you problogging part time or full time? Do you see this career as a part time gig or you are looking into going fulltime problogging?

    Part-time. As of the moment, I see it as a part-time gig. While the potential revenues can be lucrative, there’s just no saying how long the opportunity will last.

    I am hoping to earn not only from my blogs but also BECAUSE of them: other writing gigs, other jobs.

  • How do you monetize your blog? Which ones bring in the most revenues?

    Since my professional blogs are part of a network, I myself don’t deal with the revenue schemes. What ads goes into my blogs are decided and chosen by the network administrators. I know both uses adsense and text link, as well as direct sponsors.
    CW also offers other forms of ads.

  • What are the requirements to go into problogging for a network? Flat fee or profit sharing? How much is the salary range?

    Since my professional blogs are part of a network, I myself don’t deal with the revenue schemes. What ads goes into my blogs are decided and chosen by the network administrators. I know both uses Adsense and Text Link, as well as direct sponsors. CW also offers other forms of ads.

  • What are the requirements to go into problogging for a network? Flat fee or profit sharing? How much is the salary range?

    Main requirements, I guess are passion and expertise on a topic, as well as the ability to blog regularly, possibly more than once a day.

    CW has both payment models (fixed payment or revenue sharing). CW also invites creative reporters who are paid on a per post basis upon publication.

    With b5media, blogger gets the first $100 (?) and then splits the rest.
    Other networks pay on a per-post basis.

    Salary range can be from a few cents to more than $1,000 a month, especially with those models that pay per post.

  • How much time do you spend on problogging?

    About 4 hours a day, 20 hrs/week.

  • What other benefits do you get from problogging?

    I have personally benefitted from my blogs, because they are all educational. I blog about the topics that personally interest me so I personally profit intellectually from my blogs.

    My time online becomes productive, instead of simply randomly surfing the net. Problogging keeps my day structured.

    Because I am a part of a network, I have also gotten to know several great probloggers, some of them even A-listers, in the process, and have learned a lot from them. I have also developed stronger relationships with blogging “colleagues”, some of them I already ever regard as friends.

  • What’s the most significant event/moment you had in your entire problogging career?

    It’s a toss between the launch dates, the first comments, the first link back, but I guess nothing can compare to the adrenaline rush as I cashed in my first considerable paycheck.

  • What personal tips can you share with bloggers who want to try out problogging?

    Before even contemplating problogging, think how much time and effort you are willing to dedicate into problogging. This is not a fly-by-night get-rich-quick scheme.

    Next, pick a topic you really know a lot about and can CREDIBLY blog about on a regular basis.
    Make sure your blog is different from the hundreds, or thousands of others that may already be tackling your topic.

    Problogging is a job, treat it as one. Learn the ropes and tricks from the pro’s. Problogging takes more than just writing and producing posts. It needs a lot of time and therefore, patience, to acquire recognition and to establish readership. One has to be ready to learn to build and sustain a successful blog.

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ProBloggers
June 01, 2005

Getting the best out of AdSense

I intended to post a more comprehensive entry about Google AdSense for some time now but refrained from it because of AdSense AUP. Likewise, they did not allow us (AdSense members) to publish any details of our account earnings. They have since allowed publishing of revenues except for CTR and CPM stats just weeks ago. And since Rain has started an entry about this, I might as well follow up on it.

checkIn the 15 months that I signed up for AdSense, my monthly revenues varied from a low $20 to an all-time high of $80 each month. (This is nothing compared to what Connie earns on a weekly basis. :D ) In any case, the clicks that I am getting are fairly good enough for a blog, even when compared to regular bloggers in the west.

In all these time of inserting AdSense codes, customizing, and placements and channel analysis, I learned some few pointers of my own.

  • Since AdSense relies on content relevance (contextual), make it a point to post enough content for it to be able to recognize ad relevance.
  • Users or readers are familiar with what an ad or banner looks like and more likely, they don’t like them much more click on them. So, focus on making and customizing the ads as if they are part of the content. Text colors, backgrounds and border colors should be at least within the color scheme of your website.
  • Ad types and sizes matter. Obviously, image banners earn more than text ads so optimize your site ads to cater to them. From experience, the 728×90, 468×60 and 160×600 skyscrapers are advertiser’s favorites. (This is based on local ad placements. Remember the AirBorne Access banners?)
  • Some ads pay better than others. While some ads pay as low as $0.01 per click, you could land some high-paying clicks as much as $3-5 each. Ads on web hosting, banking and finance, as well as real estate pay the highest premiums, so talk about these topics in your blog once in a while.
  • Google illustrated a “heat map” for ad placements. Follow this map the best you can without compromising the original layout of your site and contents.

heat map Google Heat Map. Earning from blogs isn’t an overnight gig. One has to work for it. A $1 a day of AdSense earnigns is still $30 a month or $365 a year. That’s more than what you need to pay for your domain and hosting. That’s still something.

Check out Google AdSense’s Optimization Tips for more ideas.

Please be reminded that the tips I shared here are based on my personal experience with using Google AdSense. They might work best for me but I do not guarantee that it will also work for you. Likewise, all these will be for naught if you don’t have regular readers to boot as they are key to a higher and more successful revenue stream. ;)

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AdSense