So I’m issuing a TRIPLE Dog Dare because recent events have become increasingly unbearable!  In fact, not only have obstacles been met, they’ve been ensuing for almost 3 years, and they appear to be impossible to overcome!   (For those of you who don’t get the reference – Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates II)

So here’s what’s been happening:

A friend of mine, who shall remain nameless (But you might know her as FlipDiva) has been trying to get to Platinum status at Ezine Articles for 3 years.  Yes, I said THREE YEARS.  During that time, I believe she has published well over 1200 or 1300 articles.  Maybe even more than that.  She’s not on line right now for me to get the exact count… but you get the picture.

In the beginning, like any new writer, some of her articles were rejected for editorial reasons.   Then a pattern started to appear.  Every time she got within 10 articles of achieving Platinum, Ezine would reject an article and start the counter back at 25 again.  In the year that I’ve known her, this has happened at least 4 times.

Flip recently got up to the number 10 mark again, just within the past few days, and sure enough – Ezine busted her on some minor infraction and pushed her back to 25 – AGAIN.

But here’s what’s so wrong about that:

FlipDiva has been publishing articles that she wrote herself, just like all of her other articles, under another user’s account – as part of a service she’s offering a client.  And those articles are passing with flying colors!  In fact, they’re getting approved so fast she can barely keep up!  Same author, same writing style – accepted on one account and denied – REPEATEDLY – on the other.

What’s up with THAT Ezine?!  Inquiring minds want to know!

Here’s my theory and if someone from Ezine would like to come on here and debate the issue I’d be very happy to give you log-in information for access to the dash.  But this is what I think is happening:

Somebody at Ezine has blackballed FlipDiva!  There’s no other explanation.  If her articles for her client are easily passing the editor test on one account but not the other, then Ezine must have blackballed the original account.  And if that’s the case….

What ELSE is Ezine “cooking” up?!

Let’s take a look at one more statistic that doesn’t quite add up.  I have an article - How to Hire a Freelance Writer – that, to date, has been viewed 196 times.  Looking at the Most Viewed list for that particular category, I see at least one article with less than 75 views.   Yet MY article is nowhere on that list.

Conclusion?  Zombies!

Either Zombies are currently in command at Ezine, or they’ve eaten the brains of all of those who are.  Seriously!  What else could it be?  Ezine claims to be the most credible article directory on the web.   They claim that nothing but quality articles will get past their editorial microscopes.  Yet, I see articles like THIS every day at Ezine:

Effective marketing is an essential aspect of doing successful business. Every businessman in this world follows some kinds of marketing strategies to promote their business. The people, who are into online business, online marketing is the most essential thing that is required to make their online business an effective one.

And THIS:

Hypothyroidism occurs if your thyroid gland, which is located on your neck, is under-active and is unable to produce the hormone needed by your body to function normally. This causes your body to also be under-active in a lot of ways which becomes worse as it progresses.

First of all, those of you who have a thyroid gland on your neck, please step to the front of the room.  The doctor will see you in the order in which you arrived.  And just what the heck is an “uderactive body”?!

Secondly, those are just 2 examples of Ezine’s dreck file, and they’re not even the worst examples!  I just don’t have time to sit here and surf for more.

And after all THAT, Ezine has the nerve to blackball FlipDiva for the quality of her content?!  Puh-leeze.

This goes back to something I was just discussing in my last post - Bloggers – Breitbart in particular – Need to Step Up and Stop Stirring the Shit.  We have ALL got to understand that while this may well be the age of the internet, there are still PEOPLE (or Zombies!) on the other side of the monitor.  There may be a software package in place, there may be some fancy coding that takes care of everything automatically.  But at some point, a human being is involved in everything that goes onto the web.

A human being has the final say somewhere along the line.  And human beings operate on an emotional level.  Therefore, you can NOT always rely on them to do the right thing no matter how much they tell you they are.  Ezines claims of hyper-editing for the sake of maintaining their integrity and page rank, so as to be able to pass that same authority on to their authors, is just a bunch of elephant poop.  When all is said and done, business, online and off, is still being conducted by a bunch of human beings passing around a jar full of black and white marbles, deciding the fates of poor schmucks like FlipDiva and laughing all the way to the bank.

And human beings are exactly what Zombies like to eat!

Need I say more?  I thought not!

It’s definitely summertime here in Kentucky.  And summertime in Kentucky brings hot, dusty, tree-lined lanes that you just have to walk along barefoot.  And every so often you see some old, rickety bridge off in the distance…  which always makes me think of this song.  So here’s to summertime in Kentucky!

Bookmark It

The only problem is – Breitbart only showed part of the video.  He doesn’t show the part where Sherrod explains that working with that farmer helped her to realize that she was there to help ALL poor peope – not just poor black people.  He also doesn’t include the pleas from the farmer and his family, asking that the world also be told that, without the help of Sherrod, they would have lost their family farm.

Here’s the COMPLETE video if you’d like to see what REALLY happened.

In essence, what Breitbart REALLY did was just stir the shit.  And in the process he ended up getting Sherrod fired.

My first question is this:

Has Breitbart never in his life made a mistake, learned from it, and become a better person because of it, never to repeat it again?

My second question is this:

Is Breitbart so arrogant that he thinks he’s the only person on the planet smart enough to take away a valuable lesson when they do make a mistake?

And my third question is this:

Is anyone going to hold Breitbart accountable for ending this woman’s career?  Other than intelligent, powerless people like you and me, I mean.

It’s plain to see that Breitbart did one of two things:  He either didn’t research his initial article well enough and get ALL the facts – ORRRR – he intentionally ruined Ms. Sherrod’s career.  And all so he could create a little controversy and attract more traffic to his blog.  Either way, his actions were completely unconscionable and Breitbart is one of the biggest reasons that bloggers have such a horrible reputation on the internet.

Which leads me to Bloggers in general…

Not all bloggers are like Mr. Breitbart – thank God!  But let’s face it – there are two types of bloggers:  those who blog for personal reasons like keeping in touch with their family or just creating an online journal of sorts, and those who blog for money.  If you’re reading this, you probably fall into the second category, and I do, too.

But bloggers need to keep one thing in mind – this is the 21st Century.  It’s the age of the Internet.  Just a few years ago it was months before some soldiers in the South heard that the Civil War was over.  Now, in a matter of minutes, you can post something to your blog and completely ruin someone’s life.

But how does this affect YOU?  Your blogs are all about dog food, baby care and how to build a chicken coop.  You don’t have to worry about the integrity of YOUR content, right?

Wrong!

What if you tell someone who’s reading your dog food blog that it’s perfectly fine to feed your dog onions because they’re loaded with vitamin C?  And what if that person follows your advice and adds a chopped up onion to his dog’s food every night?  And what if that dog that has been that reader’s constant, loving companion DIES as a result of eating those onions – because onions are really like poison for dogs?  Because you didn’t thoroughly research your topic, this reader who trusts you, just fed their dog a potentially lethal food.

What if you tell your readers that mini-blinds are the perfect window treatment for a nursery because you can close them to block the sun no matter what time of day the baby sleeps?  And what if that baby gets tangled up in the cord to those mini-blinds and either chokes or suffers some other terrible injury?

And what if you DON’T tell your readers who are looking for chicken coop information that they need to include some type of fencing or enclosure so their chickens don’t run off or get eaten by predators?

Bloggers Need to Blog with Integrity

I’m sure you’ve heard at least a dozen people say, “It’s TRUE!  I saw it on the Internet!”  You and I both now how laughable that statement is.  I could do a whole post on how the grass in Kentucky really is blue and the mountains really are made out of rock candy and there would be at least a dozen people on the planet who would read it and believe it.

In all of the various methods of making money online we speak of building authority – for our sites and for ourselves.  Because we can’t actually look our buyers in the eyes when we’re speaking to them it’s necessary for us to work even harder to get them to believe that what we’re selling will really help them with their problem.

And, as more and more people turn to US – and the Internet – to find the information they’re looking for, don’t we have a moral obligation to make sure the information we’re providing is accurate?  And I don’t mean – “To the best of my ability…”  I mean spot-on accurate – so no one is seriously harmed?

Most people who come to the web for information are still under the mistaken belief that someone intelligent – someone with some type of “Authority” – is actually sitting at a typewriter every day and keying in all of the known facts in the world.  They don’t have a clue how the Internet works and it never enters their mind that regular, every day people like you and me are the ones putting out all of those “Facts”.

Controversy is Good

Yes, a little controversy is good for your blog.  I’m still getting traffic and comments over that post I did about the Warrior Forum -Warrior Forum Down…Hacked…Sucks…Banned…Reasons Why…WTF! But you’ll note that, in that post, the only thing I talked about were my own experiences with the Warrior Forum.  And I made it perfectly clear that it was an opinion piece.

But blatantly misrepresenting something as FACT – when you either haven’t researched it or you know very well you’ve doctored the evidence – is what gives bloggers such a bad name.  And THAT’S the reason that Google finds it necessary to continually tweak their algorithms.  Because bloggers who blog to make money online would rather take a short-cut or the easy way out than do the necessary work to attract traffic by providing a site full of good, quality, RELIABLE information.

You, as a blogger, may be applauding Breitbart for his success in attracting a lot of traffic to his site and getting his name, once again, out into the public eye.  But YOU, as a blogger, have just been harmed, once again, by Breitbart and bloggers like him.  As more and more searchers come to the Internet for information, they’re gradually beginning to realize that there really are only people behind those blogs – not professors, or teachers, or highly educated business executives.  And they’re learning that not all sites are created equally.

What a lot of US fail to realize is that Breitbart, and bloggers like Breitbart, are just that – bloggers.  Just like you and me.  They’re regular people making a living on the Internet.  They may get a lot more traffic than you or I do, but they’ve also been around a lot longer.  But they are only bloggers – not gods, not gurus, and, in my humble opinion, certainly not someone we should emulate.

I’d rather my visitors came to my site because they trust my information – not because they want to see someone rousing the rabble and stirring a pot full of shit!

Bookmark It

Anyway, Examiner.com.  First, let me tell you what it is..

What is Examiner.com?

Examiner.com is a nationally promoted website that deals in local news articles.   For example, I am the Berea Food Examiner which means I write about anything to do with food that happens locally here in Berea, Kentucky.  Local, traditional recipes, the Berea Farmer’s Market, seasonal foods, food events like church pot lucks and festivals, and special events at local restaurants.  I recently wrote an article on the local fast food restaurants and how you can go to their websites and get coupons.

The point is, everything I write has to be food related and relevant to Berea, Kentucky.  In a town of only 14 or 15,000 people you might not think there’d be much to write about but so far I’m managing to come up with 5 or 6 articles a week.  The trick is – making them local.

When you write for Examiner.com you get paid on your page views PLUS you also get an additional $1.00 per article – as long as it’s local-ized.  There’s a limit of $5 per week that you can make off of your local articles and then the rest of your income comes from your page views.  So, obviously, SEO and promoting have a lot to do with your income.

When writing for Examiner.com, your articles are supposed to be written as if they were newspaper articles.  Third person, who, what, when, where, why, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera as my good friend Yul once said.   And they say they would prefer short, to the point articles – after all, it’s online reading and we all know how short the average reader’s attention span is.

Which brings us to what Examiner.com is NOT.  Examiner.com is NOT a blog.  If you’re thinking about joining Examiner then it’s important that you understand the difference between Newsworthy Articles and blogging.  When you blog, you generally write in the first person – “I did this…”  “I love chocolate!”  “I think I’m gonna puke..”  etcetera, etcetera, etcetera….  And you express your own personal opinions and form your own conclusions.

When you write a Newsworthy Article you need to keep it short and sweet, no opinions, no likes or dislikes, and answer the “Ws” – Who, What, When, Where, and Why. And you need to write in third person – “At 2:15 PM on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 14, 2010, the cow, taking a running leap from the edge of the meadow, jumped over the moon to see if it really was made out of cheese.” Just like they do in the newspapers.

And the whole point is…??

The reason you’re writing newsworthy articles is because if you can come up with the right article and the right title, and you can do it in a timely fashion, the folks at Examiner.com work hand in hand with the folks at Google and your article MIGHT get submitted to Google News – garnering you tens of thousands of page views and boosting your views on the rest of your articles, too.  You make money on page views and Examiner.com makes money on the ads they have on the site.

How much do you make?

That depends.  It’s just like any other type of web presence.  You’ve got to get the titles right, you’ve got to use SEO, you need to know what the searchers are searching for and you have to use the right keywords.  And then, of course, there’s the promotion aspect.  Just like with any other type of marketing, the more promotion of your articles you do the better your traffic/page views.

Keep in mind, I’m in a country town, about 15,000 people, and these folks have better things to do all day than sit and search the web for Berea recipes.  Like raise their ‘backer and work their farms.  In one month though, I made over $25.  All I’ve done for promotion is bookmark a few of the articles at about 10 sites each – including Google of course.  And I’ve Tweeted a few, too.

I’ve never had a blog make $25 the FIRST month in Adsense – but then again, I’m also not known as the Queen of Promotion.  I’m lucky to get anything written for my own sites so promotion often falls by the wayside.  (Which is ONE reason I’ve sold off most of my sites!)  So – You Be The Judge as to whether you think it’s worth it.  Personally, I’m enjoying the time I spend at Examiner.com which is probably one reason I’m showing some good results for the first month.

However….

And you knew that was coming!  There’s always a “However”.

Let’s compare my Examiner.com results to my Ezine Articles results.

At Ezine I have 79 live articles, Examiner has 26.  Both sites have had roughly the same number of views over the last 5 weeks – approximately 1,000 give or take a few.  But let’s look at earnings.

As I stated above, I made a little over $25 in the first month at Examiner.  In one month’s time, the Ezine articles that I have pointed at my sales page attracted roughly $500 in sales.  But keep in mind – Examiner articles are only one month old and I don’t have any type of a food site set up to point at – YET.  (I’ll be remedying THAT situation soon!)  My Ezine articles are a little more aged and they’ve got better SEO behind them to get them higher on the index.

Basically, though, we’re looking at two completely different markets and two completely different income streams.   Examiner is for the people here in Berea and their relatives outside the area and the Ezine articles are for searchers all over the net.  While it’s probably really too soon to tell if one income stream will be better than the other, I think they’re both going to be valuable.

Benefits of writing for Examiner.com

The biggest benefit is the exposure you’ll get.  Examiner is in a partnership with Google and the submit articles all day long to Google news.  We’re talking national exposure and instant authority here when your articles get picked up by G-News!

Here’s the thing about Examiner – they have gazillions of different topics for you to choose from so you can write about anything that interests you.  I chose Berea Food Examiner because here in Berea I’m known as a pastry chef because that’s what I did when I lived here before.  Plus, I had no idea how Examiner worked and just wanted an easy topic to work on while I figure out the system.  Here in the South, food is always a popular topic of conversation.

BUT – now that I know, I’m going to be applying for a couple of other Examiner positions.  I’ve been analyzing the market and here’s what I see.  If you want to really make money with Examiner.com you need to:

Get a newsworthy category – Let’s face it – there aren’t too many people outside of the 15,000 here in Berea who are going to be interested in the Boone Tavern’s recipe for Spoonbread.  In fact, most of the people here in Berea think the Boone Tavern’s spoonbread sucks, so they’re not interested either.  I need a category that’s going to attract some attention.  And since I live in such a small town, I’m going to have to go after a National category.

Stay on top of the news – Unlike blogging, people come to Examiner.com looking for news.  That means if Lindsay Lohan is whining about something in the news today, there are going to be a lot of people searching for her name.   In my case, as the Food Examiner, that means I need to somehow tie Berea, Food and Lindsay Lohan into one article.  Difficult?  Nahhhh.  Check this out - Lindsay Lohan and LeBron James Inspire Berea, KY Mixmaster to Create Cocktails. See how that works?

Promote, promote, promote! – Just like anything else, if you want it to show up on the web you gotta promote it.

Conclusion?

You have to consistently write in order to be successful with Examiner.com.  And you need to enjoy that writing style.  You also need to cover more than one category.  I’ve seen people on the forum who are covering 3 or 4 categories or ever 8 or 9 and Examiner is the source of all of their income.  I’ve seen people who report they’re making over $10,000 per month just off of Examiner articles.  But they’ve also been at it for over a year and they’ve got quite a few articles built up.

Keywords and titles are crucial.  And quality content is imperative.  You can definitely make a name for yourself at Examiner and you can also make yourself look like a complete idiot.  But, of course, that doesn’t seem to bother some people.

How do you join Examiner.com?

If you’re interested in earning an income with Examiner.com there are plenty of categories available.   Each city on the planet can have an Examiner for each category.   And if they don’t have your city listed, or a category that you’re interested in, contact them anyway.  They created Berea Food Examiner for me and I’m sure they can create a category for you.

There are also a number of ways you can leverage your Examiner articles – for example you could link back to your own blog or website, link to your Ezine articles, send them to a Squidoo lens, etc.  As long as when you do that you’re sending them to a relevant source for more information.

Or – you can simply do what I’m doing and write just for the writing income.  I’m used to multi-tasking so it seems like a waste of perfectly good web space just to write for the sake of a few clicks but a lot of people are making pretty good money doing just exactly that.

You will have to submit a sample of your writing and fill out a brief application.   While filling out the application form you’ll see a box that says, “How did you hear about Examiner.com?”  It would be really cool if you told them that Donna Anderson sent you!

Bookmark It

If you’ve noticed a change in your Adsense earnings since the end of May it may have something to do with Google’s Interest Based Advertising which appears to have something to do with Mayday, although Mayday occured around the beginning of May and IBA seems to have started rearing it’s head around the beginning of June.  But it’s still important to understand what it is and how it affects your sites, so let’s take a look.

In a never ending effort to provide the best search experience possible for it’s users Google threw yet another monkey wrench into it’s Adsense toolbox.  What it does is track the searchers interests.  If you want the complete Google explanation, visit Google Ads Preferences.  But here’s how it breaks down in a nutshell:

Let’s say Mrs. Smith is an avid gardener and she looks up lots of gardening sites and blogs and clicks on lots of Adsense ads related to gardening.  Google is now recording that fact and they’ve got her tagged, with cookies, as someone who is interested in all things gardening.  So now, no matter what site she visits, if there’s an Adsense ad it’s going to be something about gardening.

That’s all well and good as long as your site is about gardening.  But what if Mrs. Smith needs information on Acne Medication for her teenager?  And what if, when she does a search, your site (which has Adsense on it) is at the number one spot?  When she visits your site she’s going to see Gardening ads in the Adsense blocks!

According to Google searchers can edit their Adsense results by doing one of two things – going to their Ads Preferences manager, or clearing their cookies.

But here’s the thing…

Who clears cookies?! – How many people ever even clear their cookies?  How many people even know they CAN?  How many even know what a cookie IS?!  The average user, someone who’s just online looking for information isn’t going to think to clear their cookies every time they do a search.

Who even knows they can edit their preferences?! - Again, how many searchers even know they have this capability?  I work on the Internet 18 hours a day and I didn’t know it existed.

Who even notices?! – Searchers don’t go to blogs and websites LOOKING for Adsense ads.  It’s like the impulse items you see scattered around the cash registers at the grocery store.  If you happen to glance at it and it’s interesting you pick it up and buy it.  By the same token, if you see an Adsense ad and it looks interesting you click on it.  But you don’t go to an ACNE MEDICATION blog hoping you’ll find a really cool Adsense ad for GARDENING TIPS!

Urgent!  Update!  Update!

I was just Googling around researching some stuff and I can across this question on Google’s Adsense Help site:

Can I opt out of interest-based advertising for my site?

Here’s Google’s response:

You can opt out of showing ads that are based on user interest categories (e.g. ’sports enthusiasts’). In turn, Google will not use visitation information from your sites to help create interest categories. However, you cannot opt out of showing ads to users based on their previous interactions with the advertiser, such as visits to an advertiser’s website.

To opt out of ads based on user interest categories:

1. Sign in to your AdSense account.
2. Visit your My Account tab.
3. Go to the Account Settings page.
4. In the Interest-based Ads Preference section, click edit.
5. Select the button marked Do not show ads based on user interest categories and save your changes.

Please keep in mind that by opting out, you’ll decrease the number of ads competing to appear on your website, which may decrease your potential earnings.

We now return you to our regular programming…..

Mayday, Will Robinson!

It appears that Interest Based Advertising is a tie-in with Mayday.   As if anyone really understands what happened on Mayday!  But here’s what I’ve been able to find out so far – it has something to do with long-tails and authority.    Let me start at the beginning -

Whenever I have a question about ANYTHING related to Internet Marketing I head over to The Niche Blogger Forum.  I joined this site when I first started online work and I’m a lifetime member.  I’ve been a member of a lot of different forums and I don’t care what anyone says, if you need information you’ll find it on this forum.  And it will be well researched and mucho talked about.

I’m getting a new Adsense blog ready to launch and I wanted to know if there’s anything new on Adsense, what with all the changes in algorithms and hype lately, so I went to The Niche Blogger Forum to check out the gossip.  And that’s where I found out about long-tails, domain names and authority.

Long-tails – Here’s my buddy Matt again, talking about the recent Mayday changes with regard to long-tails and authority.  According to Matt, Google is going after more long-tails now because that’s what searchers are looking for.  And they’re also looking for authority sites.  Meaning, if you’re putting up a little 5 article Adsense site and then moving on, don’t plan on seeing Page One anytime in the near future – or EVER for that matter.

You’ll also need to start digging deeper for those long-tail keywords.  Which keyword has more authority – “Monkey” or “How to get a monkey to click on your link”?  Exactly.  Anybody can write an article about a monkey but if you can tell people how to get a monkey to click on your link then you must really know what you’re talking about.  At least, that’s how Google is looking at it.

Authority - Like I just said, Google is looking for sites that provide quality information.  Amy Bass at the Niche Blogger is coaching her members to change their emphasis to concentrate more on content.  Amy’s original approach was to get your blog set up and start filling it with content.  And once you had 10 or 12 posts, move on to the next – BUT KEEP ADDING CONTENT to the first blog.  Now, she’s telling her followers to get that first blog loaded up first before you move on to the next. Google is looking for quality, authoritative sites whether you like it or not.  If you’ve had any of your sites de-indexed recently, take a look at your content.

Domain names – Another thing that Amy was recommending was to choose a keyword rich domain name but she’s changed that recommendation, too.  Google has de-emphasized the importance of the domain name.  After all, I could name my domain RedBobbySocks and still post about gardening if I want to – What’s in a name?  Now Google is looking at the keywords you’re using in your content and that’s what they’re using to determine where your site is indexed – your content is really king now!

So what does Amy suggest you do about Domain Names NOW?

Well,  I don’t think I should answer that here.  If I hadn’t included info about the Niche Blogger here, I’d probably just go ahead and tell you what you should do myself.  But since I mentioned Amy above I don’t want to give away all of her secrets.  After all, she’s a fellow Internet marketer.  But since you’re here, let me tell you a little bit about ….

The Niche Blogger

Yeah, this is blatant PR and I’m not a bit ashamed.  I rarely promote something in a post here but this is one program that I really believe in and I hardly ever mention it.

We all run across Make Money Online programs every day – some good, some pretty bad.  I ran across The Niche Blogger over a year ago and instead of paying the monthly fee for the rest of my life, I went ahead and became a lifetime member about 3 months into it.

We’ve all joined our share of shoddy membership sites that promise you a year’s worth of information and when you get inside you just see a bunch of vidoes and they’re all about 10 minutes long.  You can watch them all in a day and you’re done.  What are you supposed to do for the next 364 days and 20 hours?  You paid for a year’s worth of content.  Where the hell is it?!

With The Niche Blogger, Amy really over delivers.  You really do get a year’s worth of content.  In fact, I haven’t made it all the way through YET and I’ve been a member since March of 2009.   

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• Setting up a blog
• Making money with your blog posts
• Dominating the search engines
• Affiliate marketing
• Driving traffic and gaining visitors without spending a dime
• Building email lists
• Creating and launching your own information products
• Combining CPA & blogging for a knockout punch
• Blog flipping & selling
• Building and promoting your own niche membership sites and so much more…

And she doesn’t present this information in a general way like so many others do.   You have a video and accompanying text for every single step – enough to cover 365 days.  She goes into so much detail that you don’t even publish your first blog post until Day 18.

What I really like about this site is that you get a month of information at a time (You can have access to the whole year if you upgrade to lifetime member status.)  So you have a full month to totally concentrate on what’s being covered before you can move onto the next subject.

And as you progress to month 2 and month 3 and so on, the previous months are always still available so you can go back for reference.

Amy is also very diligent about updating the information whenever changes occur in the marketplace – such as the Mayday changes – or whenever new technology is available.

The Niche Blogger Forum

Believe it or not, The Niche Blogger Forum is a PR2 site all by itself because it’s so active.  I don’t often participate there myself because I’m just not a forum person.  But I do regularly visit there for information – and it’s much more reliable than the crap you see at the Warrior Forum.

In Conclusion

Anyway, if you liked the information you found here today – the Mayday update and the Interest Based Advertising information, then you can thank Amy Bass and The Niche Blogger because that’s where my research started today for this post!  Now how many times have you tried to find this same information on the Warrior Forum?  ‘Nuff Said!

Try The Niche Blogger for FREE!

Click Here for a FREE 3 Day Trial

Bookmark It

Never one to preach about it without practicing it first, I wrote and published a series of articles on How to Make Money With Adsense and published some early results in the above mentioned blog post.

I occurred to me while I was writing those articles that ya’ll might be interested in the source of my inspiration and information.  I say “Inspiration” because yes, I use the information and tips in this book myself.

I’ll be honest and admit that I don’t have any full-blown Adsense sites up at the moment, simply because I don’t have time to build full sites right now.  But I do use these tips in individual blog posts on blogs that I have where I’m using Adsense and my clicks have increased dramatically.  So much so that I’ve been staying up late at night researching keywords so I can finally dive in to the Adsense market myself.  So much so that I feel confident enough to write a series of articles about making money with Adsense.

Whether you want to go full tilt into Adsense marketing or just increase the click throughs on the sites you already have, I highly recommend you check out this book.  Each page is loaded with nothing but information.  You can get a good idea of what you’ll find if you check out my article series mentioned above.  But there’s lots more where that came from.  I guarantee you’ll love this book!

Click Here for The AdSense Code: The Definitive

Guide to Making Money with AdSense

Bookmark It

A lever is a tool used for increasing you power so you can lift something you wouldn’t ordinarily be able to lift by yourself.  So leveraging your articles means to use them as a tool to help you lift something – in this case – your business.  The simple fact that you’ve published an article is leverage because now you have 2 links pointing back to your website and they’ll help increase your visibility.  But there are other things you can do with those articles at Ezine to get even more torque out of them.

Write a Series of Articles

and Become a Serial Killer!

You might not be aware that Ezine has their own blog where they dole out writing tips and give you a lot of great information about article marketing. And I can’t find it now but I remember reading a blog post somewhere that suggested one of the ways to increase your article views was to write a series of articles – like chapters in a book.

And then just recently, Penny, the managing editor, wrote a post called, “Optimizing Titles for Articles in a Series“. Since I’m concentrating on Ezine right now and twice now something has popped up about writing a series of articles, I took it as a sign and did just that.  Hence, my 20 article series on “How to Make Money With Adsense”.

I’m going to link here to the first 8 articles so you can see what the titles are and how they fit together.  (I’m also doing it for link juice but hey, I never said I was perfect!  I have, however, admitted quite a few times to being a tramp!)

How to Make Money With AdSense – Chapter 1 – Is it Possible to Make a Living With AdSense Sites?

How to Make Money With AdSense – Chapter 2 – What Exactly is AdSense?

How to Make Money With AdSense – Chapter 3 – 5 Benefits of AdSense Marketing

How to Make Money With AdSense – Chapter 4 – Do You Need a Product?

How to Make Money With AdSense – Chapter 5 – What If You Don’t Have a Product?

How to Make Money With AdSense – Chapter 6 – How AdSense Works – The Advertiser

How to Make Money With AdSense – Chapter 7 – How AdSense Works – Google

How to Make Money With AdSense – Chapter 8 – How AdSense Works – The Searcher’s Role

Anyway, you get the picture.  But why did I do it?  What’s so great about writing a series of articles?

Here’s the thing….

You’ve all seen a soap opera or two.  You get hooked and you have to tune in tomorrow to watch the next episode.  The same thing happens with your articles.  However…

Each article has to be able to stand alone - That means it has to have a complete thought.  If you’re going to shoot JR you have to either make sure he’s dead at the end or let him get up and get back to drilling.  You can’t leave your reader hanging.   Each of the articles above tells you one thing about how to make money with Adsense.  You don’t have to read the article before or after it to find out the whole story.  That’s important.  You’ll only piss your readers off if you force them to keep flipping through articles to find the information they want.

Each article has to be engaging – We’ve talked about this before.  Write for your reader, not the search engines.  Each of those articles uses it’s own keyword but they’re written for the reader, meaning they sound like they were written by a real person and not a robot.  Keyword stuffing sucks and if you think it helps your cause then just look at the articles that YOU read all the way through and look at the articles that tempt YOU to click through to the website.  I doubt any of them sound like they were written by the same guy that writes the Encyclopedia Britannica.

On the Upside…

One major plus on the side of writing in a series is that it’s so much easier to do.  If you write about something you know then you just take a few minutes and write down all the key points you want to express and then make each one of them into an article.  If you have to research your topic, you’re going to find multiple points when you do.  Do the same thing – make each point it’s own article.

And even MORE…

Don’t have enough ideas?  Go look at the Top Authors in your category and rewrite some of their articles!  Since you’re already familiar with the topic, whether you already knew about it or you recently researched it, you’ll be able to recognize the keywords and points they’re using and work them into your own articles.

But does it WORK?!

One thing you need to get used to is checking your stats if you’re going to make article marketing your way of life.  And yes, it does work.  Check it out:

Four Day Results

The stats on the left are from around noon on 6/14 and those on the right are from 2 minutes ago – at 11AM on 6/18.  Not to shabby considering I only have 78 live articles.  But you’ll notice I’ve had 46 profile views, 161 article views, 3 more articles published, 10 more click throughs and even picked up a couple of votes along the way – and it all comes from 20 articles that took me less than 6 hours to write and publish.

Granted, you may not be able to write twenty 400 word articles in 6 hours but it’s so much easier than you think, especially if you do it in a series format.  Try it!  You’ll see what I mean!  Seriously!

Additional Leverage that puts the icing on the cake…

Domination! – Because I submitted 16 articles the first day and 4 two days later, I’ve been dominating the “Recently Accepted Articles” page for the PPC Publishing Category for almost 4 days now.  Even more exposure for my articles plus addition links from that page.

Top Author! - Because I chose my sub-category wisely, I’m the Number 4 author in the Top Authors for that same category.  Even more exposure for my articles and my profile.

One more thing I forgot to mention…

Your Resource Box!  Because you can’t actually link to a series of articles at Ezine (each has it’s own unique URL) you need to let your readers know that there’s more where that came from.  I used the following resource box:

This is another in a series of Make Money With Adsense articles that Beamer Anderson has written to help you make money online just by setting up simple AdSense sites. Of course, you’re going to need good quality, strictly SEOd content and she can help you with that, too. Take a look at her An Article A Day Special Offer.

You’ll notice that one of my links goes to a sales page (although it’s not a very good page yet) and the other goes back to my articles at Ezine to keep them reading.  Do I consider that second link a wasted link?  Not at all.  It’s keeping eyes on my articles.  I even have some resource boxes that I’m testing with only one link.  That’s one of the keys – testing. I have a file of resource boxes and I just keep adding to it.  Try that, too – Test Your Resource Boxes!

OK, that’s it for today.  Another post that turned out waaaayyyyy longer than I planned.  But hey, if you read this far, then I appreciate it very much.  Truly I do.  Seriously!

Hey!  I don’t know where YOU are – but it’s freakin’ HOT here!

Yayyyyy!  It’s finally SUMMER!

Bookmark It

Leveraging Your Articles to

Get More Bang for Your Buck!

I’m sure we can all agree that I’m a nut about using article marketing to promote your site – after all, it seems like nearly every post on this blog lately has had something to do with Ezine or Squidoo.  So let’s just assume you agree with me so I don’t have to repeat the same old stuff about how publishing a bunch of articles can set you up as an authority in your niche and create those all important back links to your site and yadda yadda yadda, blah, blah, blah…

Now, you can sit there and write articles until the cows come home, and you can even write articles that are good enough to be accepted at Ezine and some of the other high PR directories, but if you really want to make money with article marketing you need to start leveraging your articles.  And by that I mean – you need to start workin’ the system, dude!  Because there IS a system.  Let me tell you about it…

Expose Yourself, Mister!

We’re going to talk strictly about Ezine today but you can apply this to just about any other directory you submit to.  The key is just to remember that there’s more to the system than meets the eye.

When you head over to Ezine you probably go right to your Author’s Area and check your stats or submit your articles.  But, when the average Joe Blow heads to Ezine they go to the home page – EzineArticles.com.

On that home page you’ll see two interesting things.  At the top of the page you’ll see Article Categories.  At the bottom of the page you’ll see Recently Approved Articles. Since this post is appropriately titled Part 1, we’re going to talk about Article Categories today, and how you can use them to leverage your articles, and we’ll leave that Recently Approved Articles stuff for the next post.

You’ve probably seen my post titled, “Hey, Ezine! I Double-Dog-Dare Ya!” where I rant about Ezine’s policies regarding the Top Author status and the requirements for attaining said status.  If not, feel free to read it at your leisure because I’m on a roll here and I don’t want to interrupt it with another rant.  Plus the fact that I’ve got some errands to run today so I’m trying to keep this short and sweet…

First of all, what does it mean to leverage your articles?  For that matter, what does it mean to leverage anything?  We hear the word all the time in this business… Leverage your articles, leverage your links, leverage your sig, etc.   Think of it this way.  Ya’ll know what a lever is, right?  A tool that you use to help you lift something.  Leveraging your articles simply means using them to their full potential to help them lift, or increase, your business.

So let’s take a look at leveraging your articles and Ezine’s Top Author category to increase your exposure, and therefore your business, at Ezine Articles.  ‘K? K!

If you click on each one of those categories at the top of Ezine’s home page you’ll see that there are a number of sub-categories under each one.  Click on any sub-category and you’ll be taken to a page that shows the most recently published articles in that sub-category.  That in itself is one way to increase your exposure, but we’ll talk about that later, gator.

Now, at the top of THAT page you’ll see a link for Top Authors in whatever category you’re looking at.  In this case, I happen to be looking at Top Authors in Internet-and-Businesses-Online:PPC-Publishing.  Now, if you’ll scroll down the page you’ll see that Yours Truly is ranked somewhere between Number 10 and Number 4 – depending on when you’re reading this article and assuming that no one else writes any more articles before you get there.

That’s Leverage!

There happen to be quite a good number of marketers out there who have no problem going to Ezine to get content for their websites.  And when they do, a lot of them go to the Top Authors category to see who’s doing all the publishing.  Because….they probably know what they’re talking about!

So it behooves you (I love that word!  It makes be think of baby cows!)…it be-hooves you to get your name on that Top Authors list so you can get even more exposure for your articles.   And it’s not necessarily as hard as you think.

You can see by looking at the Top Authors in any category just how many articles they’ve published in that category and how many you’re going to need to write to get onto the list.  Just go down through the sub-categories that you’re interested in until you find one you can beat!  I spent about 30 minutes looking through categories the other night and found 4 right off the bat that I could easily write enough articles for.  I’ve got a few more that will take a little longer but, hey, ya gotta start somewhere, right?

And here’s another thing…

Not only am I showing up in Top Authors in Internet-and-Businesses-Online:PPC-Publishing, but there’s also a link to my articles there, and a link to my bio WITH a link to my blog, AND I’m also on the Home Page for Recently Accepted Articles, AND whenever someone reads ANY article in that sub-category my articles appear at the bottom of the page under “Other Recent Ezine Articles from Online:PPC Publishing. Not to mention the fact that I’m now 16 articles closer to my goal for the Ezine HAHD Challenge! All that from 16 little 400 word articles that took me less than half a day to write!

Now I Ax ya – Is that leveraging your articles or what?!

Stay tuned for part dos…and in the meantime…Go Find Yourself a Sub-Category and Get Busy!

This is Crystal Swing from Cork…and if you’re reading this, Colin, you BETTER leave a comment!

Bookmark It

The previous tenants in the little house I rented almost 2 weeks ago felt sorry for a stray cat and left it, ALONE, in the house when they moved out – with no food or water.  And the little BEAST tore the place up!  So now I have to wait for the landlord to repair the place before I can move in!  Somebody somewhere definitely has it in for me and some day my cousin will pay for this!

On Stephen King and Article Marketing

While I’m holed up here on my mom’s deck with my plain, old regular coffee and my Misty Menthols, I’ve had the pleasure of re-reading one of my favorite books, Stephen King’s “On Writing“.   It’s been a few years since I read this the last time and as I was reading it last night it occurred to me that some of his advice would be very handy for people who are having a difficult time getting started writing articles.

There are a lot of bloggers and internet marketers who are afraid to write and even if you don’t want to use article marketing to promote your business you still need content for your blog or website.  And that means someone has to write it.  So you’re either going to have to pay someone to do it for you or you’re going to have to do it yourself.

If you’re afraid to take that first step into article marketing because you just don’t think you can write well enough, my very good friend Stephen King has THIS to say about THAT:

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others:  read a lot and write a lot.  There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.

I’ve told you all that I read several blogs every week.  I also read the newspaper most mornings, and I always have at least 2 or 3 books laying around the house that I’m reading all at the same time.  And I also spend a lot of time reading articles at Ezine or looking at Squidoo lenses.

I don’t do all of this reading for research – I actually enjoy reading and learning new things.  But I do pay attention to how things are written.  For example, there are some pretty crappy articles at Ezine if you really want to know the truth.  And there are some pretty crappy articles at Squidoo, and ArticlesBase and just about every other directory you can think of.

But somebody told me a long time ago, whether it’s a good lesson or a bad lesson – learn it.  And remember it.

So – if you’re having trouble getting started writing articles, head over to Ezine and read some of your competitors.  You’ll find out soon enough that you probably write much better than you think you do!

And speaking of writing…

I just published my first article at the Examiner!  Yayyyy!   Traditional southern Chess Pie recipe your family will love.  Yes, that’s my article, and yes, I actually baked that pie!  (Did I tell you that in a past life – before I got in to this Internet thing – I was a Pastry Chef?  Well, I was.  And NO, I will not marry you!)  (And ignore that picture.  You’d look like crap too if you just went through the crap I’ve been through over the past 4 weeks!)

Anyway, here’s what’s so great about writing for the Examiner:

Exposure - It’s like writing for an online, hometown newspaper.  There’s an Examiner for nearly every major city in the US and they have openings in hundreds of categories.  And if they don’t have an opening, once you get accepted they’ll create one for you!  I was originally accepted to write for the St. Petersburg, FL Examiner, right in the middle of all of this move stuff.  Once I made it back to KY I contacted them and asked them to create a category for me for Berea and they did.  Now I’m the Berea Food Examiner and I get to cover things like recipes, cooking tips, and fun food stuff like Farmer’s Markets and festivals here in Berea.

Prestige – Think about it.  I’ll basically have a Press Pass once I get my business cards.  Berea is a small town and I already have a few contacts here.  Once word gets out that these people and events can get national exposure when I write about them for the Examiner….

Sales – Like I said, once people figure out what kind of exposure they’re going to get when I write about them, how many of them do you think are going to start asking me about helping them set up a website or a blog?  Can you say OFFLINE Marketing!?

Back to Exposure – My goal is NOT to sit here and write 400 and 500 word articles for the rest of my life.  I’m trying to break into offline publishing as well.  Having my work published on a national website is just another notch on the ol’ bedpost.  As soon as I get my profile straightened out at the Examiner it will be linking back to this blog.  Plus, I can link to my blog – or anything else I want to – in my Examiner articles.

Compensation – The Examiner pays per post and per view count.  They also have a couple of other compensation deals, plus, like I said, I can link back to my site and include a link list to anything I want.

It’s not really difficult to get accepted by the Examiner but you do have to write articles that pertain to your locality.  They want local news and articles so don’t be discouraged if you get turned down the first time.  Just think like a local newspaper reporter and you’ll be fine.

Click Here to get more information about being an Examiner for your city or town. Once you get to the site just click on the link at the top to choose your own city.  And when you’re filling out the application – tell them Donna Anderson sent you!

Interesting Links I Found This Week

Kitchen Diaries - I wondered when she’d get Superman on the page!

Style Rookie – Tavi amazes me with something new every week.  She and her friends actually make magazines!  This kid is going to go soooooooo far when she gets older.  Even though I’m not interested in fashion I read Tavi’s blog a few times a week just for the sheer inspiration.

10 Viral Marketing Strategies to Try – Some interesting tips.

Seed.com - This is a new article site for writers.  I’m not yayyy-ing or nayyy-ing it yet since it’s still in Beta.  I’m trying it out myself and I’ll keep you posted but you might want to check it out, too.

Ezine Articles Blog Post – This just happens to tie in with getting accepted at the Examiner – all about writing articles with a local flavor.  I think I’m going to start a blog about Berea!

OMG!  Is it Pink, is it Janis, or is it Memorex?!

You be the judge!

Bookmark It

I’m going to miss this place.  Outside my door I have palm trees and an angry squirrel and lots and lots of sunshine.  I think I’m leaving at a good time though.  Thanks to BP, Florida is headed for some even tougher times than they’ve been having.   First the housing industry now the oil.

Anyway, yesterday I received an email from Spencer.  You remember Spencer, don’t you?  I told you about him in my post Spencer’s Niche Adsense Challenge.  Spencer had a little problem with de-indexing but he’s recently sent me two emails that I thought you might be interested in.  In  May Update on My Niche Sites Spencer spills the beans on how much his sites made in May and, in my humble opinion, I think he did quite well even though he’s not too pleased with the results.  And in In Search of Black Swans he has an interesting outlook on Internet Marketing to share with you.

Ezine Speaks!

If you read my post Hey, Ezine! I Double-Dog-Dare Ya! then you know I’ve been waiting for an answer from the folks at Ezine.  I want to know why it’s OK to submit thousands of less than 300 word articles so you can make it into the ranks of the Top Ten Authors but it’s NOT OK to submit 300 word articles if you’re just trying to get to Platinum
level.  It would seem that Ezine wants you to jump through hoops to get that Platinum rating and then after that they don’t really care what kind of crap you submit as long as it attracts Adsense clicks.

Here’s Ezine’s response:

…all article sizes are included here (The Top Ten Author articles). This does include articles less than 400 words. The “Most Viewed” and “Most Published” sections of the article view are where we restrict the word count to a minimum of 400 words.

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Thank you,
Penny

Managing Editor

So – it appears that Ezine is looking out for their quality authors in that they require the 400 word minimum if you want your articles to appear in the ‘Most Viewed’ and ‘Most Published’ listings.  Let’s talk about that…

Leveraging your articles

Yeah, one of the great things about article marketing is all those backlinks you establish.   And it only makes sense that the more articles you publish the more backlinks you’re going to create.   And there are a lot of authors out there who are prolific and proficient writers – meaning they write a LOT of articles FAST.  (Can you tell I’m up to the ‘P’s” on my “Word-a-Day” toilet paper roll?)

If you want to get more bang for your writing buck it behooves you to write compelling articles that will get enough views to be listed in the ‘Most Viewed’ category.  Every time Ezine publishes one of your articles it appears on the front page for a couple of hours.  But if you can write just one or two articles that bring in the views, your article will be listed in the ‘Most Viewed’ category – which appears under EVERY article – for at least 60 days.

So, yes, those Top Ten Authors are publishing thousands of crappy less than 300 word articles, but they’re not getting the leverage they could get if they’d only add another 100 words.

Stay tuned for more on leveraging your articles. I’m going to go into this more in the next couple of weeks but right now I’ve go to get ready to move!

The Warrior Forum Still Sucks!

I had a Skype call yesterday from a writer friend of mine who’s still doing business on the Warrior Forum.   He’s trying to build an article business and he’s getting buried in orders but can’t keep writers on staff to get all the writing done.  Consequently, he’s either losing business or losing money or losing his sanity.

Apparently he doesn’t read this blog. I told him to get off the Warrior Forum and find some REAL clients who weren’t all cry-baby whiney butts and who would actually be willing to pay him for his services.  His response?

I can’t really blame them.  I expect the same thing when I hire Warriors.

Whatever!  ‘Nuff Said!

For those of you who are looking for a new Internet Marketing forum – hang on!  I think I’ve found one.  I’ll be checking it out over the weekend and I’ll give you the scoop sometime next week after I’ve had a chance to meet some of the members.  But I think you’ll like this one – so far the posts I’ve read are really great and the people seem very genuine.

Blog Posts of the Week

You all know I cruise several blogs during the week.  I thought I’d give you links to some of my favorite posts this week before I head out to start loading the car.

Awkward Family Photos – Check out Lil’ Earl! BTW – Awkward Family Photos just released their first book and it’s already on the New York Times Best Seller List!

Style Rookie – this is weird. No, that’s the title of her post!  Tavi is awesome – if you’ve got children then you need to turn them on to Tavi’s blog and get them started on their own!

Kitchen Diaries – Ruling Without Fear. My daughter’s blog.  What can I say?  READ IT!  COMMENT!

BPGlobalPR – BPGlobalPR is a Twitter account that is absolutely hilarious!  Don’t get me wrong – I am heartsick at the destruction BP has caused.  It literally makes me sick every time I see it on the news or read a post about it.  But whoever is running this Twitter account is really taking some digs at BP!  Follow that account and RT as often as possible!

Warrior Forum Sucks - Warrior Forum Sucks is Shocked, Shocked That Scamming Is Going On There! You GOTTA read this one!

On the Road Again!

OK, I’m outta here ’til next week.  Pro’ly Tuesday or Wednesday.  And since I’m going to be doing a lot of driving again this weekend I’m bustin’ out the Maroon 5!  Everybody have a good one!

Bookmark It

Every year, on the first Friday in June, Donut shops across the nation celebrate National Donut Day.  Or maybe I should say that Donut LOVERS across the nation celebrate National Donut Day.  The Donut Shops just supply the donuts!

Anyway, if you’re lucky enough to have a Dunkin’ Donuts or a Krispy Kreme in your area then you need to waddle on over tomorrow and get a free donut.  If neither of them is in your neck of the woods, give your local bakery or donut shop a call and see if they’re participating, too.  And if they’re NOT – then go buy a donut anyway in celebration of this most popular breakfast item.

But why am I taking up space on an

Internet Marketing Blog talking about donuts?!

For one thing, there are going to be a lot of people looking for information about National Donut Day over the next few days.  So I’m being a traffic whore and using ‘National Donut Day’ to try to make it to the top of Google for another keyword phrase.

But here’s the real reason I’m talking about National Donut Day:

There are going to be a lot of people looking for information!  Are you Ready?!

As sure as God made little green apples the term ‘National Donut Day’ is going to be on the Google Hot Trends list this weekend.  It may even already be there.  You should have a site up and indexed already.  If you don’t, you’re missing out on sales like donut makers, donut mixes, donut recipe books, donut coupons, donut jewelry, and even donut USB drives!

If you’re NOT ready then shame on you!  Any type of marketing, whether it’s online or off, involves anticipating the next big trend.  Whether it’s an item that people are willing to stand on line for at 2AM because they’re only releasing a dozen per city or it’s an item that’s only going to be hot for one or two days, a trend is a trend is a trend.  If you’re marketing online then you need to strike before the iron even starts to warm up so you can get your site indexed and backlinked in time for the rush.

Wanna Know What the

Hot Trends are for July?

I’ve already researched two Hot Trends for July.  I’ve got one for the middle of the month that has 2900 exact global monthly searches and only 6670 competition.  And I have one for the end of the month that has 1000 exact global monthly searches and only 8050 competition.  I’ve also researched 10 keywords for each topic ranging from 880 searches to 5400 and competition is below 85,000 on all but 4.  And both niches can be easily monetized with a variety of Amazon products.

Interested in my list?

Click Here for your Free Copy of

Hot Trends for July!

No Opt-in Required!

By the way…I need a favor….

My daughter has decided to start a Prestige blog and she’s posting to it pretty regularly.  If you get a chance, visit Kita Crago’s blog at Kitchen Diaries and leave her a Howdy-do in the comments somewhere.

And since I’m talking about my daughter, naturally I’m thinking about both my kids now.  So I’m gonna kill 2 birds with one stone.  Here’s a video that’s going to drive you crazy for days to come because you will NOT be able to get it out of your head.  So it’s gonna remind you that you need to start staying ahead of the trends.

And of course, I’m dedicating it to my kids and my parents – Family movie nights were always a blast!

Bookmark It