During the past year I've read a lot of eBooks and studied many training courses. All that in addition all the blogs I follow and read, the email lists I've subscribed to. In addition to the free stuff, I've purchased many information products, starting from simple $7 products and up to the $97 a month coaching/training programs.

I've liked (nearly) all the products and courses I've bought and learned a lot. In total, I've used hundreds to educate myself to online marketing. By now, I should be making tons of money, right? Well I'm making some, but we're talking a few dollar here, another there — probably in the range of four figures a year (not month).

So I am making some, but I didn't go through all that "education" to make couple of bucks. I want the hundreds, the thousands, the tens of thousands. But only very few get there, so how can I make sure I get there? It certainly won't happen if I (or you) sit on your ass and do nothing.

I shared my thoughts about this topic in my Posterous already (you can check it here: Success - Doing the things that you don't enjoy, which have to be done), but I wanted to continue on the subject...

How to Never Make Money Online

As got past that intro, there's a chance that you're interested in making money online. You are, right? But you haven't made much either, no matter how hard you've tried. You want to build yourself the Internet lifestyle you hear people talking about. You've already worked your ass off to make it happen.

Or have you really? By running around and looking for the perfect solution, looking for the next big thing, you keep yourself busy. False sense of productivity. Instead of working hard on the stuff that works (but is hard and boring), you go for the shiny new object. Sound familiar? The Never-Ending Cycle of Internet Marketing Product Jumping(TM), the eternal journey, where the only action you take is: "Add to Cart".

You want to make money online, but instead of making it, you look for "the system". You look for the amazing new software that will make you money, push-button easy. Just enter your PayPal address and hit go, and let the money flow in. Not gonna happen.

There are new cool products, services, eBooks and Internet marketing courses launched all the time, each promising to make you rich. You watch the product launch videos with your eyes wide open, stunned at the amazing information they give away for free.

You read their perfectly formatted, A/B tested, but so annoyingly long sales pages. You see the proof. You see how the marketer or someone else have made a lot of money using "the system". The system works.

You're hooked in. You buy their shit stuff. You dive into the training, reading the eBooks, watching the videos. Your brain is full of new information. You can't wait to start using that to make money. The product was worth every penny. Wow. You're so excited that you acted fast enough to get the limited offer. You're in the exclusive group who got to see the info, and now all you have to do is make it happen.

Why you're still waiting? You're not going anywhere, because you're not doing anything. Instead of doing something, you move to the next product. You use hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to WSOs at WarriorForum. Amazing stuff. If you have the budget, you buy the Product Launch Formulas, Kajabis and Video Bosses too. You're learning so much! You really are.

All That Info — And Nothing... Still haven't figured out why you're not making a dime? You're not making money, because you buy yourself a feeling of progress in the next shiny new object you buy. It's gonna be all the same. No matter how good the information you get is, nothing will happen.

Nothing will happen because you are lazy. Or you're afraid to do anything. Maybe you're afraid to waste time and money, so you don't put any effort into what you do. You're half-ass, instead of kick-ass.

Somehow you convince yourself that you're good where you are. Of perhaps you have the self-doubt. Whatever the reason, you're not gonna do anything. Why some people will never make money online?

BECAUSE IT TAKES A LOT OF WORK!

You need to write ebooks, you need to do affiliate marketing, you actually need to blog to make money blogging (go figure!). You need to get traffic. You need to build a better blog. Whatever your chosen method is, you have to work to get to your goals. Buying the course, training or eBook telling you how is not enough (duh!).

Getting overwhelmed by the number of options is another thing. Don't spend time choosing and looking for the best option, do first, evaluate second. You don't have to make it perfect the first time, what ever it is.

Yaro Starak, in his post about why people struggle to get what they want said:

Sadly most people know what to do, they just don’t do it. The reason is a lack of belief and confidence.- Yaro Starak

Take the lack of belief and confidence, add some laziness, and finally mix in the fear. It's much, much easier to buy new stuff and lie to yourself that you're taking action. You might be lying to yourself that you don't have the skills. That it's too late. You can't possible achieve what someone else did.

Truth?

You master the art of making excuses and you achieve nothing.

That's why some, if not most people are not making money, or they're making tens of dollars, and not thousands. The people who make money put what they know into use, they work hard. Those who don't do, don't get.

Don't be fooled about the big figures someone got "easy". Before they got easy, they worked hard, they failed, they put in the hours and then got results. The only 100% certain fact in the Internet marketing is the result of not doing anything. That's right. The result of doing nothing is zero. Doing nothing, gets you nothing.

Some people will never make money online, because THEY DO NOT DO ANYTHING, they just fake it to themselves by buying information products that teach them making money. The very few who do work hard, make all the money.

At some point, they have put in the hours (or the dollars to pay for someone elses hours). They are not smarter, they are not luckier, they just do more that those who don't make money. It's really as simple as that, even if you don't want to admit it.

Luckily - there's is one, and only one, solution to all this. With this one thing, THE ULTIMATE SYSTEM, everything is possible. But if you expect it to be easy, you're not gonna like it. It's the *real* secret to making money online.

Find the closest (literally) shiny object and look into it.

Will YOU be part of the very few who make it?

1. Make time, not money
2. 37signals: A Secret to Making Money Online
3. The games we play and the stupid **** we do to get seen online

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
Why Some People Never Make Money Online

Summary: Good content needs to be relevant, keyword optimized for good SEO, written with a purpose and promoted properly. Then and only then content can be King.

This is a guest post by Steve Schafer.

"Content is king" is a phrase that you hear over and over again in the Internet business community. What exactly does it mean? Is content really King? The answer is yes, as long as the content follows certain guidelines. In order for content to be king, it must be:

• Relevant
• Keyword optimized
• Written with a purpose
• Properly promoted

If your content is not all of these things, it is not king, it is little more than a waste of time and energy. Let's take each of these bullet points and expand on them a little and you'll see why.

Relevant

Relevancy in content takes two forms: how relevant your content is to the subject matter you are trying to monetize and how relevant it is to the rest of the content published on a particular domain. An example of poor relevancy would be somebody writing an article about internet marketing with links pointing back to a site that sells laptops.

That same person posts that article to an article directory that focuses on home improvement. That home improvement site might have good page rank, but the links will not be worth nearly as much as they should be. Not the best way to make money online.

Keyword Optimized

In order for an article, or any bit of content for that matter, to be keyword optimized, it should strike a balance between using your keywords enough so as to create no doubt about the subject matter of the article without being spammy.

A good rule of some is to include your keyword in its exact form once every 100 to 150 words, and include a couple of cousin keyword variations once or twice each. Keep it natural and on topic.

Editor's note: The key for SEO friendly posts is including the keyphrase in the headline (and through that, in the title tag of the page). The keyphrase should also be in the first paragraph and possible the last paragraph. Repeating the keyphrase more than those 1-2 times is not necessary, and in fact, including the keyphrase too many times will make the article less optimized.

Written with a Purpose

You should always keep in mind the intent of your content. If you are writing content that is intended to get people to buy something from you, or click to another site for whatever reason, your content should be informative and compelling. It should be easy to read, and leave your reader wanting to buy your product or click over to your website.

If the purpose for which you are writing your content is merely to target keywords so that people will find your website from search engines and click one of your adsense ads, it needs to be written in a completely different style.

For these types of sites, the content should be well written enough so that you sound like you know you're talking about, but not so informative so that your reader gets all the information that they need. You want to leave them wanting more that they can hopefully find by clicking one of your ads.

Properly Promoted

Very simply put, if you do not properly promote your content, no one will know it's out there. Usually, the best way to promote your content is by finding ways to point links to it. If your content is relevant, keyword optimized, written with a purpose, and has links pointing to it, it will be found.

The search engines will know what the article is about and that is important, so that when people go to the search engines looking for information that pertains to your content, the search engines will point those people to it. That's what earning online is all about, right?

This is a guest post by Steve Schafer. To find more great internet marketing tips, head over to the Internet Business Guide.  While there, check out their guide to earning online blogging.

If you are interested in writing a guest post to Zemalf.com, go ahead and contact me. Check the guest post guidelines for more information.

1. 4 Tips to Turn Your Blog into an Income Stream with Content
2. 3 Tips for Writing Effective Link Bait Content

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
Is Content Really King?

Summary: Stop looking for ways to make money, start looking for ways to make time. Money is just a tool that gets you more time. And more time makes you truly happy

Time is limited, money is not

There is (arguably) endless amount of money in the world. But there are only 86400 seconds in a day, no more, no less. Time is limited.

I think making $20000 a year, working for 10 hours a week (or less) is much more respectable than making a million and working 80 hours a week.

If someone makes an annual income of $20000 for 10 hours of work a week - the typical mindset is to work for another ten hours and make another $20k. And another and another until you have no time or energy. Oh boy, doesn’t all that money make you happy now?

I say - STOP! If $20000 is enough, why waste all that time to do more?

• How about finding ways to make $40000 with that same 10 hours instead?
• What if we couldn't try to make money online, but make time instead?

More money or more time?

Would you rather have:

• more money, or
• more time?

Would you take more money, if it would mean working more (and have less time)?

If you said no, you probably don't work... this is what most "jobs" are. You take your free time and give some of it to your employer and they pay you for those hours.

• You are earning money, but you have less time to do anything else.

(Note: if you enjoy your work / business / job, which I really hope you do, the time does not go into "waste"- but it's still time you are working = "less time". And work is great, but not the only thing in the world)

Turning hours into money

When we get a job, it usually means we are required to work certain amount of hours a week or month to get paid certain amount. Or we might even get paid an hourly fee...

• More hours we put in, the more we are paid.

If you do your work better and faster, that means you have to do more work (yes, you might get some bonuses, but still).

• What if you would get paid the amount you deserve for the results you get - no matter what time you use to it (as long as you deliver the results)?

If you could improve the workflow, processes, etc. in a way that you could do your work in 5 hours a week. Totally possible - but in the "corporate world", this would mean, doing 35 hours of something else, probably more work.

• Since 5 hours a week feels like pushing it - let's shoot for doing things in less time, OK?

Time over money

Let's say you have your typical day job.

• Would you rather have a 10% raise, or
• cut your work time by 10% and get the same money as before?

Example: Let's say you get paid $1000 for working 40 hours a week. You could make:

• $1100 for 40 hours, or
• $1000 for 36 hours

Think: How about not asking for a raise, but ask for a cut instead?

...or even better, what if you would get paid $1000 for certain results, no matter how much time it takes. Wouldn't you spend all your time trying to automate what you're doing, finding better ways to do the work? Wouldn't you tweak your workflow and systems until you get the job done in 1 hour instead of 40, and still get paid $1000?

• Now if you can resist the urge to work for the other 39 hours, you have quite a bit of free time to do everything else you want to do.

And as a reminder - you don't need to use that time to make more money...

Time is valuable

Having the time to do whatever you want to. That is true freedom. I take more time over more money any day.

I'm getting obsessed with this. I'm talking about lazy blogging and doing less. I'm done with productivity and getting more things done. I'm all about productivity for getting what matters done (with minimal effort and time-investment possible).

For entrepreneurs, this is possible. For employees, it's hard. For businesses, it is unconceivable.

But it doesn't have to be.

• It is OK to not grow your business.
• It is OK if you don't make more money this year than before.
• It is OK to settle for enough.
• Is is AMAZING to understand money is just a tool for more time.

Greed is not good, no matter what Gordon Gekko says. You don't have to be rich, just rich enough.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
- Gandalf, in The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R.Tolkien.

Stop looking for ways to make money, start looking for ways to make time.

1. Why Some People Never Make Money Online
2. Where Is The Money in Social Media?

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
Make time, not money

Is it because it is not worth it to craft the review, if you're not gonna recommend it? Is it because, you don't dare to say bad things about the product? Are you afraid you'll lose the advertisers and/or partners if you publish a bad review?

This is the topic of the day for this discussion. I'd like to hear what you think. Join the discussion on the comments.

Bad review? Good review?

What is a bad review? Not recommending the product? Giving it a bad rating?

• bad review = "do not buy this"
• bad review = "this is not good"
• bad review = "rating: 1 out of 5"

Discussion

This is an open table and the word is free. Speak your mind about pros and cons of different kind of reviews. Below are some questions to get the discussion going...

Should you cover only the "good products" on your blog? Is it better to publish only positive reviews ("recommended"), or should bloggers publish bad reviews as well?

• Have you published a bad review on your blog? How did your readers react to the review?
• Do you only publish positive reviews, e.g. only products you like and recommend? Why?

1. 3 levels of affiliate marketing – link, review and promote
2. Step-by-step affiliate program evaluation checklist

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
Bad reviews – Should you publish them or not?

In order to get seen online, we desperately look for means to get in front of people. We want to be in the search engines, the social media, forums, blogs, video and whatnot. These are the things you read about, how to get traffic, SEO, using Twitter and all that. These are the games we play. The games we have to play. Even if we don't like to.

Doing stupid **** because everyone else is doing it too

It has become the norm to distribute same content all over the net. It has become the norm to artificially play the systems, like search engines, to make money. It has become the norm to do all kinds of stupid ****, just because everyone else is doing it. And doing stupid **** just because everyone is doing it is, well, pretty ******* stupid.

I'm talking about social bookmarking, article marketing, video distribution, blogging and how people are bending the rules to make money and get traffic to their websites. I'm doing it, you're doing it and you are telling others to do it. I am telling everyone to do it too. We do it, because everyone else is doing it too. Why? Because these things work.

The stupid **** we do

Let's start with the popularity contest on Twitter. Wouldn't it be cool to have 100000 followers? Sure it would, and it is very easy if you put effort to it. All you have to is follow enough people until 100000 have followed you back. Yes, it will take (some) time, but anyone can do it. And if done right, you can make decent money through tactics like this. And many think this is cool and the way to go.

Similarly, it's common understanding that as a part of search engine optimization, you need to do this thing called link building. I'm building links, because it's good for SEO. Why do we even need to talk about link building, shouldn't it all be organic? Why do we need to go out there and tell Google our blog is here. Why do those who shout the loudest end up winning?

Yes, I can create awesome content, but someone can copy your content and get more traffic than you, just because a search engine thinks their site is the "authority" as they have been doing some link building and you have not.

And speaking of content scraping, isn't it wonderful when people can so easily take your post, publish it as their own and not even bother linking back to you and rank higher in the search engines and get more traffic than the post you worked 7 hours on? I need to do stupid ****, because they are doing it, and I can't let them win.

What about social bookmarking? Why do we need to get our blog posts to Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Mixx and thousands of other sites? Who REALLY uses those sites? There is so much crap on all of these, that I need to wipe my face every second to see if there is actually anything good in there, and even then I rarely find any, apart from the same top 26.5 tips I read yesterday. What is the point of a system which only exists is to make something else popular? What happened to sharing?

And social networking is hip and cool now, you know, the social media. We need to "be everywhere". Because there are hundred new sites ramped-up every day, and we have tools to automatically post to Twitter & Facebook, among other sites, why wouldn't we? I could be broadcasting the same status messages to several social networking sites, even that I'm only really active in two.

And then there is article spinning, which is the way some people are doing article marketing, where they use a software to create tens, hundreds or even thousands of articles, all based on the same original text, but in different order, with slightly modified words, etc. Is it just me, but isn't something wrong if we need to create clutter and post the same stuff in different order to 1000 sites?

There is only one way to make truly unique article and that is to write ONE article and publish it on ONE place, no spinning, no distribution. But that's not gonna do anything. No-one will know that post or article is there unless you promote it. You must share that post on Twitter. You ask people to bookmark it on Delicious, Stumble it, Digg it and share it to their friends on Facebook. These are all cool services and I like them a lot, but it makes me sick that we HAVE TO do this.

Is there a way out?

There are people who are doing all of the above "the right way", they are not doing anything "wrong", but I'm questioning why anyone needs to this **** in the first place...

• There is so much clutter online, that do we really want to be part of creating more of it.
• When did distributing the same **** all over the interwebz become the norm?
• Why do we need to game the system and borderline cheat to make things work?

Let us not get depressed over this, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though this is what we have to live with today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.

I have a dream that one day we will find a way to make this work, look past our personal gain and help each other out instead.

I have a dream that one day we do not need to post our content all over the net just to get links to our site, but it will be enough that we craft amazing content for others to enjoy.

I have a dream that one day I can find the best source of information from the net instead of those who shout the loudest, and the truth will prevail over playing the SEO game.

I have a dream that one day we don't feel forced to bookmark our own blog posts with 100 social bookmarking sites and I don't need to join all possible video sites to get my videos spread all over the place.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, all over the Internet, people will give credit to each other for the work they have done. Link to each other, instead of copying the content and publishing it as their own.

I have a dream today!

- Inspired (obviously) by Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream".

So... what now?

I could teach you thing or two about link building, article marketing, social bookmarking and the hip-cool stuff, but I haven't yet figured out a way to do it without doing all the stupid **** everyone else is doing. Have you?

I do this ****, but I'm lazy. I wish I wouldn't need to build links, write meaningless list posts to get to front page of Digg/Delicious or I wouldn't feel the pressure to follow people on Twitter just because they followed me...

So I wrote this "angry blog post", because it was less of an effort to whine about it than just do it. Maybe I need some lessons from Yoda again.

I am Antti's eternal ability to not take action.

1. Get Free eBooks to Boost Your Online Success
2. Why Some People Never Make Money Online

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
The games we play and the stupid **** we do to get seen online

• Linking means you go and get an affiliate link to a product and add it to a blog post, tweet the link or whatever.
• Reviewing means you actually use and test the product (e.g. read a book, install and test a software program, test drive a car, etc.), and then publish a review of the product.
• Promoting means you put time and effort into actually selling the affiliate product (and not just link and/or review).

The idea with the 3 levels is that as you level up, the likelyhood of making sales increases, but at the same time, the amount of work goes up.

Preface

In my book, joining an affiliate program, copy-pasting a swipe-copy to your email list is not promoting. That's linking. Placing a banner with affiliate link on your blog is not promoting, that's linking.

Promoting brings you the best results, reviews work very well too, linking works, but it will not bring the results you can get from reviewing and promoting. All levels can and do make money, but in very different way. Linking relies on traffic volume, promoting relies on relationships and trust.

Linking is the first level. The second level, reviewing, is important in order to find the best products for the last level, promoting. As you go to the next level, the time you put in increases and the number of products on that level decreases.

• You can do plenty of linking (or choose to do very little)
• Reviewing takes time, so you probably can't do it as much as linking
• Promoting works best when you focus your effort into a few products, so keep the numbers low

Now, let's take a look at what each of these levels actually mean.

Linking

First of all, using affiliate links is necessary in order to make commissions online, unless specific coupon codes or such are used, but in this context, linking means using affiliate links without additional "selling" like a review or recommendation of the product.

Making money through affiliate linking is not much different from contextual advertising, the money comes (if it comes) with volume. The click-through rates are probably much smaller than with reviews and promotions, and the conversion rate into sales is very likely even smaller.

Linking is the least effective affiliate marketing, since you are "just" linking to a product. You can make money, but probably not much, because you're not "pre-selling" or promoting what you're linking to. Linking is how most marketers start after joining their first affiliate program, thus I refer to it as the first level.

Even when "just linking", you need to consider if you want to be associated with something. I do this with any kind of linking, not just affiliate linking. I only link to places I think are beneficial to the reader, whether it's an additional tips, further reading or some product related to the content I've done.

For example, I link to someone who has also written a book. If I do short intro of that person, I might link to that book on Amazon. If I haven't read the book, I'm telling "this person has written this book" without actually recommending it. Since I'm linking to it, I might as well make it an affiliate link, right?

Some people choose to do this, some don't do it all. Those who don't do linking, think it's not worth to do this, so they either don't link at all or link without affiliate links.

Moving from linking to reviewing means that you have first-hand experience of the product. When you have used and tested something yourself, your recommendation and the affiliate link gets a lot more weight.

Reviewing

When doing reviews, you go through a 3-part process

1. choose a product for testing and using
2. test, use and evaluate the product
3. do (and publish) a review

If you haven't used the product before (you are looking for new products to promote), the product must match the criteria from the affiliate program evaluation checklist.

Firstly, it must be worth the time you put into it. Since you put time into testing and reviewing, making a review should be worth it. Note that reviewing can be beneficial even if you don't make money directly from it. For example, you can review a free product and that review can benefit you and your blog, even that you don't make any sales since the product is free.

Secondly, if you think it's worth the time, you can start testing and using the product yourself. How could you review a product if you haven't used it, right? For a product or service you're using already or have used before, these two criteria have already been met.

Lastly, the third criteria, does the product meets the needs of your following, will tell whether or not you recommend the product to your following.

If it doesn't meet the needs, or the product is not good, it does not mean you should not publish a review. It comes down to decision, do you want to publish bad reviews or not.

To summarize reviewing,

1. first choose the products to test and use (starting from products and services you are already using is a good start, like a book you've read, a tool you are using, etc.).
2. Then evaluate the features, advantages and benefits of the product.
3. Based on this evaluation, you can decide if you do a review or not. If you think the product will benefit your following, or you also publish neutral or negative reviews,
4. the last step is to do and publish the review (write, record an audio or video).

Going from reviewing to promoting means you refer people back to your review or promote and recommend the product in other ways.

Promoting

Promoting an affiliate offer is the third, the highest level, and the most effective way of affiliate marketing. This is where you really put an effort into selling the affiliate product yourself.

Reviewing can be a preceding step for choosing the products to promote, but it is not necessary, although doing a review and then referring back to that review is a great way to promote a product.

For example, you can do affiliate promoting by recommending the affiliate product within your own products, offering bonuses for those who buy the product through you or teaching your following how to use the product.

When choosing a product to promote, the products you choose to promote should check well with all three criteria of affiliate program evaluation:

1. Does it meet the needs of my followers?
2. Is the payout worth the effort (ROI)?
3. Have I used or tested this product myself?

Since you are putting yourself, the trust you have built and your time into promoting the affiliate products, the products you promote must be worth it (both financially and effort-wise). In order to keep the trust, and keep it ethical, you should have used and tested the product yourself.

You should not waste time on anything that will not benefit your following, in fact, promoting something that is not good and beneficial can have negative effects on your business. With every affiliate promotion you do, you put your influence and trust on line. And no amount of money is worth enough to lose the trust you have built over time.

Conclusion

• When choosing products for any level of affiliate marketing, look for products and services that complement your own offering (your own products and services).
• You can link and review to many products, but only choose a few products that you put more effort into via promoting and selling.

As you build the trust with your following and your influence grows, you can see better results as you move to the higher levels of affiliate marketing. Remember to keep it real and honest, choose the affiliate products carefully, and do plenty of free content in between the reviews and promotions.

As always, questions and comments are more than welcome and encouraged. Please, share your thoughts and views on affiliate marketing on the comments below.

1. Affiliate Marketing Explained
2. Step-by-step affiliate program evaluation checklist
3. How To Join Your First Affiliate Program

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
3 levels of affiliate marketing – link, review and promote

When looking for affiliate programs that you could join,

• take a look at the product and
• ask yourself these 3 questions (in order of importance):

1. Does it meet the needs of my followers?

This is the first step and the most important one too. You'll see much better results when you choose a handful of products that

• benefit your following
• complement what you already offer
  • other affiliate products, or
  • your own products and services

Whether you are doing an review, a larger promotion or just linking to a a product, ask

• is it something that will actually benefit your following?
• does it meet their needs?
• does it fit in with other products you recommend?

If the answer is no. You should look for better options.

2. Have I used or tested this product myself?

Every affiliate promotion you do, you put your influence and trust on line.

Trust is equally powerful currency to money.

• pick only the ones you really KNOW, TRUST and HONESTLY can recommend.
• concentrate your effort into those

For best results, choose the products you have used or are using yourself.

3. Is it worth my time?

You will invest time and possibly money to market this thing, so it should be worth it.

• you want to know what the payout is.
• make sure the money is worth it.

Does the ROI make sense? Will you end up making a profit from the product?

When evaluating whether or not it's worth it, try to think of the indirect benefits as well.

• is the product so good that recommending the product will increase your influence?
  • it is worth investing some time to recommend the best of the best, if that increases your credibility and trust, even if you very little or no money directly.
• a product that rounds up your affiliate marketing portfolio can be good, even if the direct payouts are small.

Summary

Use the 3-step process as a checklist to choose affiliate programs and products to link, review and promote to your following.

• you want to find great product that
  • benefits your following,
  • is something you are using or have used yourself, and
  • is worth your time to start marketing it.
• if the affiliate program meets all three criteria on the list, you have a winner.

Note that the criteria is not just tied to products, use it to evaluate sellers as well

• if multiple sellers (with affiliate programs) offer the same product, choose a trustworthy and well-known seller over higher payouts
• if the quality of service is the same, check if one of the sellers is offering the same product on a cheaper price (= beneficial for your following)

Keep in mind, whatever affiliate programs you choose - do not market something just for the affiliate commission. There is no affiliate commission big enough that compensates the loss of trust you have built with your following if the product does not deliver and does not benefit them.

As always, comments are welcome and encouraged. How do you choose affiliate programs to promote?

p.s. This post was inspired by the Internet Business Mastery podcast, episode 86, 6 secrets to choosing an affiliate program. "IBM" is one of my favorite podcasts, so check it out if you're interested in listening to Sterling and Jay and their #1 Internet business and marketing podcast.

1. How To Join Your First Affiliate Program
2. 3 levels of affiliate marketing – link, review and promote
3. Affiliate Marketing Explained

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
Step-by-step affiliate program evaluation checklist

Many successful individuals, businesses and companies have been marketing with video for many years now, and there's a reason for that - It works (just look at how well Zappos is doing). Here are some facts for you about online video:

• video sells.
• online videos get A LOT of traffic.
• videos rank well in the search engines.
• you don't need fancy camera or video editing courses to do this.
• you can create awesome videos with just your computer (even for free).

Here's Why You Should Start Doing Video Marketing...

I know making online video is scary, especially if you put your own voice, let alone face into play. But don't let that fear stop you. Doing a video doesn't mean you have to film yourself; you don't have to become an actor, just a smart marketer.

The hardest video you ever make is the first one. Once you have done it once, it gets easier and easier every time. Those who have done this already, and use video marketing as part of their business are reaping the rewards.

But let's be honest, it's not like it's any secret, right?

You know that online video works. Maybe you think it's too hard, too expensive or will just take too much of your time?

Personally, I don't even know why I'm not doing more video, even that I've seen the results with my a few gaming videos... But that's about to change.

It has to change.

So perhaps it's time for you and me, to stop sitting on our a%¤es and learn how to do marketing with video, yes? Yes, you will have to learn a couple of new things, but in the end it's not any more complicated than writing a post and publishing it on your blog.

Like anything else, video is not the silver bullet that will make everything work like magic and bring instant results, but the results CAN be amazing, because...

Online Video Gets a LOT of Traffic

Here are some numbers about online video and search in the U.S. (stats via ComScore):

• 33 billion videos were watched on December 2009
• YouTube got 13 billion views
  • 1/3 of videos online were watched on YouTube
• Google search is used by 10 billion users a month, all search engines get about 15 billion users.
• The popularity of online videos is not even near its peak

This means that all online video sites combined get 2-3 more traffic than all search engines combined.

What if I tell you it's about 10 times easier to rank a video high in the search engines than it is with a normal page?

When it all comes together, it's not as simple as that (because Google search only shows so may videos versus other web pages for example), but I'm taking 3 times the traffic potential for 1/10th of an effort any day.

You?

Search Engines Like Blogs, but LOVE Video!

Have you seen videos on the search results when you use Google? You probably have, and if you've paid attention you've noticed that the videos pop up quite high on the results, anything between 1st and 5th place, depending on the search phrase (not all searches show videos, but anyway...).

Without going in-depth in search engine optimization, you probably know that incoming links are the most important factor for search engine rankings, right?

For example, videos that are shown on the first page of Google might have about 10 to 20 links. When the web pages appearing below them might hundreds, if not thousands of backlinks.

Would you rather write a blog post, and get at least 100 links to it to get the the post to the first page of Google, or should you make a video, and get 10 or so links to that video (by yourself if you have to, using free blogs, Squidoo and such)?

Online Video in the Search Results

For example, with Google search for a phrase "how to bake a cake"

• There are about 21 million competing pages
• Search phrase gets 33000 searches a month, according to Google Keyword tool
• There are two videos in about 3rd to 4th place. Those videos have 2 and 10 backlinks when I checked.
• The normal pages on top and below the videos have about 30 and 100 backlinks. (and one of them is actually a VIDEO!)
• There are as little as 7 links to ranking pages on the whole first page, with minimum of 600 links to the domain

Here's an example Google Search Results Page (SERP). ...try not to be stunned by my mad skillz when it comes to image-editing and writing with mouse, OK?

for this example search phrase

• You can rank a video on the first page of Google with just 2-10 backlinks,
• When it might take over 100 links for a normal webpage to get the same result, or several hundreds of links to the domain

I also checked several other keyword phrases for same results. For one that gets over 200000 searches a month, there are two videos in 3rd place on the Google search results. One of them has 100 links, the other has 1000. A lot yes, but guess how many links the website below these videos has? - 2 MILLION.

You can get an estimate of backlinks yourself, by taking any URL/link you find from the search results and

• Go to Yahoo.com and enter search phrase "link:example.com" (without the quotation marks and replacing example.com with the link to the page you want to check)
• you'll get directed into Yahoo Site Explorer and see the number of "inlinks" there
• enter in Google: "link:example.com"

Why Video Ranks So Well in Search Engines?

This happens through the power of online video sites and the fact that Google does what's called universal search. Google looks for relevant content from all sources, not just text-based web pages.

And since the domain where the videos are hosted, e.g. YouTube, has so many backlinks that no site can match that. With the domain links, the individual pages, or in this case videos, need a lot less page-specific links to rank well.

Make sense?

There is still need for SEO writing, but if you are not doing video marketing, you are giving away HUGE opportunity (and we didn't even go for the viral potential of videos, just search). The best case is to rank with both your videos and normal pages, but getting the video there is a good start.

Coaching Course to Professional Video Marketing

I learned much of what you saw above from Andy Jenkins' free videos that were available for a limited time at his Video Boss -site.

For a short time, there were free videos on the site, promoting the program, with over an hour full of quality info about making and marketing with video and I learned a lot. In fact, I don't think I've seen such huge amount of info packed into one just for a product launch. But like said, they are not there now :( I'm sorry if you missed them.

The links here (Video Boss) are affiliate links, so if you end up buying (when the program is available), I'll get paid. With that said, Andy Jenkins is a professional video maker and he has done marketing videos for pretty much every "big" Internet marketer and product launch out there, in addition the stuff he has done for TV and movies (he got Emmy for video editing too!). So I'm thinking video marketing course doesn't get any better than this, even that I haven't taken it myself.

I left this information here in-case top-notch video marketing and professional video course (based on the free videos I saw) interests you. You can find out about the program via the official site at www.TheVideoBoss.com. If it's sold out - sign up to the waiting list, so you'll get noticed when the program is available again.

Conclusion

The video sharing sites get 2-3 times more traffic than Google search. Using video is better for conversions, better for sales, and you can even do it for free. YouTube is free, tens and hundreds of other video sites are free. Making a video does not have to expensive, you can do just fine with free video tools, so the only "cost" is your time.

If you are doing business online, NOT using online video for marketing is the biggest mistake you can do right now, since marketing with video is much easier that you think and the potential is enormous. Even if you use it "just as" a way to increase blog traffic, using video can potentially capture a lot more readers, subscribers and even buyers to your blog.

1. Affiliate Marketing Explained
2. Web Site Traffic Analysis – Lessons for Blog Promotion
3. How to Increase Blog Traffic

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
Get more traffic and sales through marketing with video

If you feel your niche is hard for making money (which one might consider to be an unprofitable niche), you have to think outside the box in order to find a way to give your readers what they want, which might be saving money, free stuff, entertainment, etc. - while making money yourself. Easy? No. Doable? I think so...

Question: How to Monetize a Blog (when you feel like you can't)?

Brian told me that he has a site called Daily Fuel Economy Tip which actually gets a lot of traffic. He also has decent amount of people on his newsletter email list, too. Unfortunately, he is having the hardest time coming up with ways to monetize the site and email list. So Brian asked: "I was wondering if you might be able to give me some good suggestions on things I might be able to do (in order to monetize my blog and list). Any help would be GREATLY appreciated."

Birney had similar problem as Brian. He also "suffers" from the business model of saving money. Folks who visit his site, Energy Boomer, come there to cut their spending NOT to spend. He makes some money through advertising and affiliate programs, but not much. E-Book sales are poor. Birney hasn't been able to monetize her newsletter, after trying couple of affiliate programs, so he asked to hear about other ideas.

I gathered my answers, thoughts and ideas to this post, and I welcome you to continue the discussion on the comments.

When Your Readers Are Not Buyers

First of all, if you are blogging about a topic that feels hard to monetize, don't give up! If you are passionate about the topic, keep going, it's just a matter of finding the way. But you do have to think outside the box.

In niches and blogs sharing ways to save money, or getting stuff for free, you have to look into other means than selling (if your readers are not buyers, why bother trying to sell them anything?). I would personally keep growing the blog and mailing list through free content, giving out valuable tips as you have so far. And start thinking outside the traditional ways to earn money.

If other bloggers are selling eBooks or other products, that doesn't mean you have to. If you have the readers, but they are not buyers, you have to find something else. Advertising is one possibility. Don't be afraid to think beyond AdSense. Advertising can make you money, especially if you have plenty of traffic.

If traditional advertising doesn't work, or you just want to diversify your income, contact advertisers and potential companies directly to ask if they would be interested in doing business with you and possibly give your readers discounts or other special deals.

Give Your Readers What They Want

If your readers are looking to save money, you have to give them exactly that (and collect the money elsewhere).

If you have a blog in a niche which is "hard to monetize", people are used to free stuff or are looking to save money - do your readers a favor and... help them save money! Find products and services your readers are paying anyway AND find a way to offer that to them for cheaper price, while getting paid by the seller yourself.

For example, you blog about "saving money", you share tips on how to save energy, drive economically to save fuel, etc. What if you could offer your readers discounts on their energy or fuel bills? And get paid to help them?

Find Ways for Your Readers to Save Money

I would contact potential advertisers and businesses on your niche, and suggest if they could offer discounts to your readers. In addition to selling advertising on your blog, work on to get special deals between you and the advertiser, for example discounts or free samples for your readers.

1. advertiser pays you,
2. you tell the people on your list about them (giving them a discount),
3. your readers get discount (save money),
4. the advertiser gets a targeted guest (and make profit).

The hard part is finding products and services that suit your blog and list, and then negotiating the deals. If you're working on a relatively local niche, e.g. city, contacting the local businesses is good place to start, and if you work on it, I'm sure you'll be able to find potential advertisers.

Then start working on working the details with those advertisers. Consider offering to distribute their discount codes for free to see how things go (for both you and the advertiser).

Look for Affiliate Programs that Offer Discounts

If suitable products and companies already have an affiliate program, contact the affiliate manager and ask for coupon codes and discounts to give to your readers, if the affiliate system doesn't offer such by default.

Or alternatively, you can try to work on custom affiliate agreement with any company, e.g. they pay you (or you invoice them) when someone comes in and uses the special discount code you're distributing through your list.

• Instead of selling to your readers (who are there to save money),
• give them what they want, like stuff that saves them money,
  • including discounts from businesses who pay you to advertise them.

The companies who work with you like this, might even get better results through special deals for your readers than they would through normal advertising.

For example, this is what Mike CJ and his wife have done on their travel blog - they are offering discounts to their subscribers and readers, all through DIY affiliate program with a local car rental service. You should also check the full case study (free) by Mike, sharing the whole story behind taking a Lanzarote travel blog from zero to a full time income in one year (inspiring story of how hard work pays off in the end. anyway, moving on...).

Whether you find discounts through available affiliate programs or set a deal yourself

• Write an overview,
• a review or
• do an interview about the product or the service, and
• publish it to the blog.

On the post, offer discount or special deal for the product (which you agreed with the advertiser). You can also offer a larger discount to those who subscribe to your email list, which can be huge incentive for people to join your list.

If you gather plenty of advertisers, or otherwise find a way to get a lot of different (and regular) discounts, with that alone you could turn your mailing list into premium service, or even a full membership site, and ask for a small monthly payment from the subscribers.

Can You Monetize Any Niche?

I can't speak from personal experience, since I only have experience from handful of niches, but I think you can monetize any niche - it's just a matter of finding the way. Yes, some markets will be a lot tougher to monetize than others, and might require a lot more traffic than others for example.

This is especially true for the markets where people expect content to be free, "funny" sites and humor is often referred as such (people expect to get entertained for free online). But there are people making money with funny cat pics, so anything is possible, right?

If making money online feels like running to a wall, you either find an opening or go through it. I hope this advice and answer helped you on that...

What are your thoughts on monetizing a blog in a seemingly unprofitable niche? I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences! (e.g. What would you do if you were Brian or Birnie?)

p.s. If you have questions about niche blogging, making money online, SEO or anything else - send your questions to me through the contact form and I'll answer you via email as soon as I can - and I might write a post like this, linking back to your site (if you want) as my thank you for your great question.

1. How To Choose a Domain Name for a Niche Site [Q&A]

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
How to monetize a blog in an unprofitable niche? [Q&A]

Summary: Google AdSense Secrets eBook, earlier priced at 97 dollars, is now available for free. Good guide to getting started with contextual advertising.

Just yesterday I shared you a secret to making money online, and today I share even more good stuff.  I know, I know - the amount of "secrets" on my blog is getting overwhelming, but what can I do when people title their videos and eBooks like this? Anyway, let me show you what these 3 free guides are about and how to get them.

AdSense Secrets and More

Joel Comm is giving out some of his guides for free in order to promote his current product, the Secret Classroom. There are three Contextual Advertising Guides, including one very famous guide for AdSense, two more for Chitika and Kontera.

• AdSense Secrets 4.0, 237 pages
• Chitika Secrets, 35 pages
• Kontera Secrets, 39 pages

The AdSense Secrets guide, now available for free, is the updated version of the famous What Google Never Told You about Making Money with AdSense -eBook, originally published in 2005 and updated in 2008.

Joel has also published New York Times and Business Week bestselling book The AdSense Code (in 2006), so he probably knows something about AdSense, or at least I'm assuming so. I don't know if the print book is the same, or follow-up, for the eBook as the tagline is the same, but one of them free, so let's go with that :)

These products have been on sale before (the AdSense Secrets guide for $97), and they are now available for free. In total, there's three contextual advertising guides with over 300 pages of content available for download after giving your name and email to sign up for a email list.

Disclaimer

I wrote this post to share the free guides, not to promote or recommend the Secret Classroom itself. I suggest you download the free reports, at least the AdSense one.

I cannot recommend the Secret Classroom as I am not familiar with that myself. Secret Classroom might be really good product for all I know or it might be bull crap, so you're on your own with that :) Since I'm sharing the free downloads with you, I might as well use my affiliate links while doing it, right? With that said - if along the line, you choose to join the Secret Classroom, I will get paid (and I thank you for the coffee!).

Oh and feel free to unsubscribe from the email lists as soon as you have the PDF -files on your computer, or stay on lists, there might or might not be something good there. I'm cutting the email clutter myself, so I'm quite fast at unsubscribing from lists if all I see is promotions and sales pitches.

Google AdSense Secrets for Free

Who Else Wants The Most Popular eBook On Making Money with AdSense - FREE!

The AdSense Secrets guide is the updated version of the famous What Google Never Told You about Making Money with AdSense -eBook which Joel published in originally in 2005 and updated in 2008. This has been paid product so far, priced at $97, not available for free before.

People have been paying for this eBook, so it's definitely "worth it" now when it's free. Making money with Google AdSense is probably not as easy as it was couple of years ago (if it was actually easy even then), but the principles are the same and this book has them all.

The AdSense Secrets is good, in-depth guide to Google AdSense, or at least it is relatively long and comprehensive. There are sections on tweaking the ads to increase click-troughs, using proper colors, ad placement instructions, how to control the ads, using Google Custom Search, and advanced topics like building content, getting traffic, SEO and tracking performance.

There's even sections on combining AdSense with other contextual advertising networks, like Chitika, Kontera, etc. So all in all, this is great guide for AdSense and it even includes 12 case studies, which are always great addition to any information product.

Google AdSense Secrets 4.0 Free Download

If you get just one guide of the 3 shown on this post, get this one from adsense-secrets.com. Do note that it's been a paid product before, so you'll see the "typical" sales page (not too long thou), don't mind that as the eBook itself is now free - just scroll down to the bottom for the "Download for free Today".

Go the the site, sign up for the email, verify the subscription, download the PDF. In true Internet marketing fashion, this is for limited time only, whatever that means (a week? a year? forever?), so get it while you still can as I can't predict what Joel will do :)

The Other Guides

The Chitika and Kontera guides are much smaller. I wouldn't pay much for these, but luckily they are now free, so no worries there.

Chitika only shows ads for search engine traffic from US or Canada (other countries like UK is on it's way). So the ads are not showed to regulars, like RSS readers or people coming from Twitter for example, which is great.

The ads are highly targeted for the arriving search traffic, which results in high click-through rates compared to other advertising. In a sense, Chitika is actually helping your readers, which is the reason I like it a lot. If you're not using Chitika yet, I suggest you give it a go. The free guide gives an introduction to Chitika, so it should help you get going.

Kontera on the other hand turns words on the page into adwords / links. This is something I haven't used yet, but apparently it is working for some people, as I see many sites, including some really big sites, running Kontera ads. If you want to give it a go, this free guide will help you get started with Kontera.

If you'd like to have one or both of these guides, you can get them from these pages (again, signing up for the email list, verifying the subscription, download, unsubscribe if you don't want to stay on the list):

• chitikasecrets.com
• konterasecrets.com

How To Get The Free Guides

In case you're not familiar with the email list dance (the sign up for a list, verify for the list (double opt-in), get second email with the download link, download), here are the instructions how to get the free guides:

• You get the download information after joining the email lists
• You can unsubscribe any time you want (right after you have the guides on your hard drive)

1 Go to one of the pages

• adsense-secrets.com
• chitikasecrets.com
• konterasecrets.com

2 Enter your name and email address

Scroll down a bit if needed. Ignore the "sales page", as the guides are free.

• You'll be redirected to Secret Classroom, but just ignore that
  • Close the page once you are taken to secretclassroom.com
  • (unless you have the time and really want to see what's it about. I didn't)

3 Go to your email and check if the mail arrived

The subjects of the emails will be something like these:

• Response Required, confirm to receive your copy of AdSense Secrets
• Response Required, confirm to receive your copy of Kontera Secrets
• Response Required, confirm to receive your copy of Chitika Secrets

4 Verify the subscription at your email inbox

5 Download the PDF

Repeat for the other 2 sites (if you want all 3). You'll probably receive sales and promotions from Joel if you stay on the lists, but you can unsubscribe after you have all the PDFs on your hard drive (I know that's not "cool" thing to do, but signing up for four lists to get 3 guides and keep all subscriptions is a bit much, isn't it?).

Conclusion

If you're thinking about making money with Google AdSense, or displaying AdSense ads on your blog, the AdSense Secrets eBook will help you with it. It won't be easy, but you won't know if it works for you if you don't try. With this it'll cost you nothing apart from the time you take to study it and then put what you learned into action.

I wish I could give you the direct links and save you the email hassle, which is kinda pain in the ass, but what can you do. And like said, at least get the AdSense guide, the other three are not that good.

p.s. I said it at the beginning, but just ignore the Secret Classroom stuff you'll be redirected to (or check it out if you really want, I don't care). I have very little knowledge about it, but wanted to share the free guides with you.

1. How I Made One Dollar and 88 Cents ($1.88) With Google AdSense!
2. How To Get Google AdSense and Display Ads on Your WordPress Blog
3. How To Combine Google Custom Search and AdSense with the Default WordPress Search

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
Free Google AdSense Secrets eBook

I'm not doing Internet business, blogging or marketing, as a primary source of income, so all this is extra for me, which is great. For all this I own HUGE thanks to the 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, the book most are familiar by now.

On April 5th 2009 I placed on order at Amazon.com - DVDs and some books for my wife, H. For some odd reason, I don't know how, the Amazon magnificent recommendation system showed me the 4HWW while I was placing the order.

I ordered the book, it arrived 2-3 weeks later (takes a while for packages to arrive from US to Finland), and I immediately started reading the book. So this was around beginning of May. In matter of days, I read the book and it changed my life, especially my "online life".

The World of Warcraft-, EVE Online and XBOX 360 -playing gaming geek suddenly realized he could make some extra cash online. And that's how I started. On 20th of May, Zemalf.com was born. And here's how I did traffic- and money-wise.

Traffic

Statistics from Zemalf.com are public at See the Stats and here are stats since birth of the blog, 18358 visits:

This blog was founded on 20th of May 2009 (or actually 21st, but as I registered zemalf.com on the 20th, let's call that the birth day). The above statistics are all time stats for Zemalf.com as of 7th of January 2010, which makes this blog 233 days old, or 7 months and 19 days as of today. According to this date duration calculator (pretty handy btw), that also converts to about 5600 hours and over 330k minutes.

As there were 18358 visits within that time rage, there has been about 79 visits each day on average, or 3 visits every hours. Near the end of 2009, the daily visitor count was at 100.

Unique Visitors and Traffic Sources

During 2009, 13645 unique visitors checked visited this blog:

During the first couple of months, the blog had redirected traffic and imported posts from my gaming blog, which I later exported back, thus the quick traffic from day one (and the downward spiral from middle of July to late August). Majority of the traffic came from search engines, namely Google, but there were other sources as well, on smaller volumes:

There were not big spikes during 2009 and I didn't do any guest posting (something I will work on during 2010 and onwards). Interestingly, blog commenting alone brought Problogger.net to the list of top traffic sources. Nothing earth-shattering, but 187 visitors is 187 visitors.

I should probably combine all the traffic I've received from blog commenting and we'd be talking thousands, which is huge for a new blog, all thanks to the advanced blog commenting tricks and keeping it real. What makes the traffic from blog commenting so special? Bounce rate for blog comment traffic is 35% smaller than the average (for me, based on top 10 blogs that have sent me traffic through my comments).

That reminds me, that I really got to work on my bounce rate. It's at 70-80% range, which is really bad. Not sure of the reasons, but probably the lack of eye-candy on the design has something to do with it.

RSS Subscribers and Hub Sites

As of today, this blog has 209 RSS subscribers, which I'm quite happy for. The number fluctuates a bit, but it's still a rough estimate. Unfortunately, the subscriber count has quite a bit of "subscribers" from FriendFeed, and the real number of subscribers is around 110-130.

As for other blogs of mine, largely thanks to the gaming blog I mentioned, there were about 40000 visits to all my blogs combined. In addition to this, some of my Web 2.0 videos and documents did nicely (not related to Zemalf.com, but to the gaming site instead).

• AnttiKokkonen / Scridb, 9673 reads.
  • 30+ page guide on how to create perfect character in Fallout 3 (great game)
• TheZemalf / YouTube, 90,406 views.
  • WoW Achievement: The Lurker Above has about 80k views all time.

All this in addition to increasing Twitter following relatively naturally from 0 (I registered on Twitter on November 2008 and started actively using it on May or so) to 1390 by the end of the year, 2009 was a great year.

Money

As I stated on 7th of June 2009, until that day, I had made 1 dollar and 88 cents (through Google AdSense) online, and that was my starting point. And here's how I did on 2009 (note that this blog no longer has any form of advertising, and most of the income is from my "niche blogs"):

• Advertising $592.70
  • Contextual Advertising
    • AdSense $15.06
    • Chitika $1.64 (tested for a bit)
  • Direct Advertising $576
• Affiliate marketing $258.25
  • Affiliate products $230.39
    • Reviews on Zemalf.com
      • Beyond Blogging
      • Beginner's Guide to Twitter
    • Misc
      • Micro Niche Finder
      • 31 Days to Build a Better Blog
      • + Other products on the niche sites
  • Amazon.com $13.12
  • eBay $14.74
• Product sales
  • No products $0

Total Income Online: $850.95

I went from $1.88 to $850 in seven months (or 214 days), which equals to nearly 4 dollars a day :) Not something I'll retire on, but taken that prior to May/June 2009 my Internet marketing skills were 0 (that's zero) as all I knew to do was activate AdSense on a blogspot blog, I'm happy I got that much.

2010

2009 was a great year, but now it's time to think bigger, here are the goals.

At the end of 2010 the numbers will be at least:

• Traffic: 500 unique visitors a day
• Subscribers: 750 RSS subscribers, 100 email subscribers (to be started)
• Money: 250 dollars a month

To be honest, I'm not sure about the "money-goal", but the traffic and subscriber numbers are within reach but I gotta step up the game for those as well, and whatever money I happen to make will be a nice bonus. 2009 was a life-changing year for me and now it's time to make 2010 even better.

How will I achieve this? Primary methods for traffic: Guest posting and article marketing, in addition to more focused SEO strategy. And I'll be experimenting more with my niche sites, as there's great potential there, as I didn't do much to get the figures I showed above (from which majority came from other sources than this blog).

Was the 2009 as exciting for you as it was for me? How did your blog do?

1. Monthly Review, June 2009
2. Moved my gaming related posts back to blogspot
3. Look Back on the First 365 Days of Zemalf.com

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
Look Back on the Year 2009

Google + Twitter + "I want" Search

This tip is useful for anyone looking for a niche or something to write about for your blog. It's a fast way to check what people are having trouble with and you can tweak the search terms in anyway you want depending on what you're looking for.

The tip in all it's simplicity:

1. Go to Google search engine
2. Type in the search term
3. site:twitter.com "I want"
4. Hit Enter

That's it. At the time I'm writing this I got over 1.6 million results with that search term. You could probably use Twitter's search for this too, but I find it a bit clunky so I like to use Google. For a quickie, click here to do the "I want" Twitter search right now.

Looking for Spesific Products or Topics

If you want to go to spesifics, just add something to the search, e.g.

What kind of car people are looking for

site:twitter.com "I want a car"

What books people want to read

site:twitter.com "I want to read"

What Twitter Users Need?

Like "I want", there are many other similar terms that you can use on the search, like "I need":

1. Go to Google search engine
2. Type in the search term
3. site:twitter.com "I need"
4. Hit Enter

Other Possibilities for the site:twitter.com Search

• tweak the search term towards your niche, topic or products and you'll might find some useful information.
• find people to follow and connect with by looking for topics you are interested in. For example, search for
  • keywords and terms in your niche / topic
  • books you like
  • movies you like
  • online tool you use
  • a blog you read
  • a person you like
• switch the site for another Social Network site, like Facebook
  • site:facebook.com "I want"
  • (personally I haven't used that much, but I'm guessing it'll work just as fine)

Other Sites To Look For Ideas

• 43Things, where people list, share and cheer their (life) goals
• Yahoo! Answers, where people are asking questions about anything and everything
• Google (Hot) Trends, to find what are being searched right now (or was searched on spesific date before)

Now it's your turn.

Do you have a spesific method you use to find topics to write about, products to promote, or even ideas for a whole new (Internet) business?

1. Here’s a Quick Way to Get Twitter into Google Reader
2. Quick Remote Working Tips
3. Twitter mistakes: hit and run following

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
Quick and Easy Market Research Using Google and Twitter

Do Not Waste Time and Money on Static Websites

It is AMAZING that there are businesses and people who pay other people tens of thousands of dollars for setting up website. I guess if you make $5000 an HOUR, you can afford to pay someone to do it for you for that amount. When setting up a new website takes an hour, you should pay accordingly...

Of course putting a website in an hour, or less, means "standard" text pages and using existing design (like WordPress Themes for example), so all extra functionality and new web design take time, but you can start adding content from day 1 (or minute 1 actually) and whenever you want you can change whatever you want without breaking other parts.

Setting up a website and designing a website is not the same thing. Using ready-made templates (which is fine) should not cost the same as fully customized and tailored website.

Even So-Called Professionals or IT Specialists Get It Wrong!

It is equally amazing to me how unaware non-techsavvy public is about building websites. If they need a web page for themselves or their business, they run into "HTML" and "FrontPage" and such, and they don't look further. They think that's how it's done. They are stuck in the 1990s.

But not only that, but there are IT Professionals out there that are using or would use FrontPage to build a web page if they would need to.

Just test this, ask the techsavvy persons you usually turn to when you have a tech related question: "I need to create homepage or web page, how can I do it?" - If anyone says something about HTML or FrontPage, you know that they don't know what they should know (about this).

If you ask a professional web page designer or service the same question and they suggest static web page, run away. If they mention WordPress, or "content management", you know they're on top of their game.

Yes, a static HTML design can look good and yes, FrontPage can create beautiful web pages (backed with competent graphical design), but what happens when you need to change something? You will waste HOURS for a job that would take seconds or couple of minutes in WordPress.

I truly hope you're not thinking anything like "I don't change anything after I set it up once", because then your thinking, business model and everything related needs to be worked on, but I won't go into that in this article, I just say that if your website has anything to do with making money, you gotta (SPLIT-)TEST, TWEAK and CHANGE things before you can "forget it".

If You've Paid Thousands of Dollars for Getting Your Website Up, You Got SCAMMED!

Yes, there are websites which have a huge backend systems, databased, security and lot of servers - that costs money, of course. But I've heard stories where someone has paid several thousands for a simple website for a business with more and less just text and images, no custom design or anything, just the setup and ready-made (free) template.

And so many just don't know that you can do a whole lot with just WordPress plugins that many businesses are building from ground up. Waste of time and money I say..

I've heard that people have paid over $5000 or even TENS OF THOUSANDS of dollars for a web page that they (or someone else) would've set up with WordPress in an hour. And they don't even know they were scammed. That makes me sad.

Do Not Pay Too Much For Your Website

If you know someone who needs to create their first website, again for themselves or for their business, tell them that you don't have to pay thousands of dollars for a website.

Tell them to get great hosting for a great price (personally, I like and recommend DreamHost, thus the link) instead of getting ripped by these "we host the site that we build" deals that end up costing a fortune..

Tell them about the free tools like WordPress and educate them what setting up a website really costs.

Pay for the consultation. Pay for the web strategy. Pay for the design. Don't pay too much for simple setup. But that doesn't mean you should be setting up your website yourself, just that you know what you're paying for and don't overpay for something relatively simple.

1. Warning: If You Still Build Your Webpages With FrontPage, You Are Doing It Wrong!
2. You Don’t Have To Be a Web Designer to Build a Website

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
Don’t Pay Too Much for Static Websites

In the last century people got educated that everyone should build a "homepage" and that instead of "coding" the page with HTML, it's easy to do with this cool editor called FrontPage.

And then came "blogging" or "webblogs" and new tools for that, and now we had blogs and webpages. Dare I say, CONFUSING! And to this day, pretty much every blogger out there (me included) have contributed to this confusion by keeping up an illusion that blog is a blog and not a website.

All this has contributed to the fact that there are a LOT OF PEOPLE out there who think that the only way to build a website is static HTML and that a blog is somehow separated from all that. So I'll share this with you right now that you can share with your friends..

Static HTML Pages Are Dead!

Take your average person who needs to create their first webpage and you'll find that they create that page with some online webpage editor provided by their internet service provider, they use FrontPage, Dreamweaver or similar HTML editors, they pick a HTML for Dummies book from library and start up the page with text editor, or take "how to build a homepage" course that is outdated for about 10 years and end up building the webpage using some of the other mentioned methods.

I tell you a secret: There are PROFESSIONAL Web Designers out there that build websites for themselves and their clients using plain HTML, either directly or using an fancy WYSIWYG editor (boosted with graphical design tools like PhotoShop). They are charging THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS (or similar value anyway) for that work.

In the end the customer, client, business - worst case: you - gets a website that is very clunky, static and looks like it was created on 1995 by a 11-year old. And the customer is happy - "Wow, I have a webpage now" - They don't know about anything else, neither the customer or the designer. Or the designer knows, but refuses to share that info with the customer.

But I'm not to mock designers or anyone else here, I'm trying to tell you that there is another way and I truly wish you will educate all your friends that there is another way..

Separate the Content from the Design

What if you want to change the colors? What if you want to add more content? What if you need to edit the content or organize it a bit differently? Go on, go and edit that HTML code, re-organize and totally re-design a website. Ask a professional do that and she'll ask anything between $100-$10000 for it.

• What if your website was powered by WordPress (or any other CONTENT MANAGEMENT system for that matter)?
• What if you could change the website design in a heart beat without losing any content.
• What if you add new content in minutes, even if you can barely double-click with your mouse?

THAT is the power of WordPress Over Static, HTML websites.

Stop wasting your time with ugly, static HTML webpages and enter the 21st century, get WordPress and never look back.

And please, please tell all your friends that they should not use FrontPage or any other static HTML editor to create their webpages!

1. You Don’t Have To Be a Web Designer to Build a Website
2. Don’t Pay Too Much for Static Websites

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
Warning: If You Still Build Your Webpages With FrontPage, You Are Doing It Wrong!

Jack of all trades, master of none,though ofttimes better than master of one.

"Jack of all trades, master of none" is a figure of speech used in reference to a Generalist, a person, that is competent with many skills but is not outstanding in any particular one. Generalist tries to do and learn everything, but falls short of doing any of those really well. A specialist picks one or two things and learns those things inside out and tries to execute those things to the perfection.

Can a jack of all trades Internet marketer succeed? Is a generalist blog destined to fail?

Generalist Does a Lot, But Achieves Very Little

If you are a generalist, you will be in a substantial disadvantage versus the specialists of the areas you try to grasp. You will be the decathlon athletic running a 1500 metres versus the other who have specialized in running. You will finish the run, but you cannot win. So is it better to be the specialist?

Not necessarily. Being a generalist has advantages of getting results from many fields, and as those results add up, you might overcome the results of being a specialist. On the other hand, being a specialist, you can focus all your efforts on the thing and crush the competition, become the expert and teach others (other aspiring specialists and the generalists) about your field of expertise.

Can Jack of All Trades Survive?

Can a generalist succeed? Sure, to some degree, but as I see it, to truly succeed, you must specialize. Otherwise you run into danger of trying all things and burning yourself out if you don't get anything to work. For example, at Internet marketing, the jack of all trades approach is great for beginners, but staying on that path too long, and you end up with nothing and just give up. If you go after each and every "new opportunity that will change your life", it's quite possible that you see no result, because there are too many specialists reaping the rewards of the method or technique.

Business world, Internet marketing and blogging are not that much different from this perspective. Too generic approach won't work in the long run, unless you somehow manage to grow it huge - but that will be difficult, if not impossible to achieve. The biggest companies in the world have become more and more focused during the years and they are putting all their effort on these "core businesses" of their. And I think that's what bloggers and Internet marketers must do too.

A blog has to have a specific enough topic to make it interesting - try to please everybody and you will get nobody. And with too much to cover you'll not only burn out if you try to do it yourself, and even with help, it's very likely that you'll have hard time attracting an audience.

Is There Room for the Generalists?

This is a hard one. I'm one of those who like to learn a lot about various topics, so kind of extreme generalist. Or to be more clear, I like to learn a lot of things before I choose what I should specialize in. But the problem is, there's always new things to learn which "might be better than these old ones". So even generalist has to make choices, it's just impossible to learn and do everything, even the new amazing idea and method to do this and that.

Of course, it's a bit different to be enthusiastic about learning and be the jack of all trades student of life, than it is to be a generalist business owner. Lifetime learning and is something where generalist is at home, learning new skills and languages, knowing bits and pieces about a lot of things. But when it becomes to business, blogging and Internet marketing - you need to focus your efforts.

Specialized Jack of All Trades, Is It Possible?

Maybe there's a middle road on this, a specialist who really knows her stuff about one or two things, but also a whole lot of other things, but still focuses her efforts on the things she's the best at. This way, our specialized generalist knows what's going around her, but still can get results with the specialized skills. Or even better, get others to help her with the things she knows about, but doesn't want or need to focus on. Perhaps outsource and get specialists to help with things, so one can focus on what really matters? Run a business instead of being the business and all that?

Not the most easy topic to get into one single "correct answer", perhaps because there is none..

Are you a specialist? Or more jack of all trades kind of person?

How does that show in your blogging/business/Internet marketing/something else you do?

1. How To Avoid Information Overflow?
2. A Swiss Army knife of skills and knowledge

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
Be a Jack of All Trades and You Will Fail?

As I'm starting these monthly reviews right from the start, you will be able to see how I do and hopefully learn something in the progress. Not too many bloggers do this kind of reviews, and I'm not saying everyone should, but for me, this kind of review is on par with my target of writing about things I do, honestly and transparently..

Making Some Money Blogging

There are several ways to make money from a blog, with the primary choices being:

• Text link or banner advertising (e.g. Google AdSense, Chitika, etc.)
• Direct advertising (sold by yourself or through a service directly to your blog)
• Affiliate marketing

At the moment my blog has:

• Google AdSense and
• Search engine targeted Chitika Premium ads and
• Affiliate links to related products and services.

How Much Did I Earn Last Month

• Blog Advertising: $2.69
• Affiliate Programs: $128.65
  • e.g. Micro Niche Finder (Affiliate Product, Clickbank)
• Miscellaneous Earnings (?): $40

Total Money Made June 2009: $171,34

Month in Review June 2009

One hundred and seventy-one dollars, 34 cents. Not a life changing money by no means, but compared to the $1.88 I had made between late 2005 and the end of may 2009, that's pretty damn good!

I had 2549 visits to this blog last month, with relatively steady traffic each day around 100, topping at 128 unique visitors on June 17th. Most of the traffic to this blog came from search engines, almost all from Google. Other, more minor, sources of traffic this month were StumbleUpon and my blog comments on other blogs. As I write this, this blog has 12 RSS Subscribers. Conclusion: You can make money with very little traffic, not much, but money nevertheless.

Accomplishments June 2009

I haven't started more strategic marketing of the blog, but my social networking and blog commenting earned this blog PageRank 4 in a month, which I am very proud of. With this, I have a nice stepping stone to the future now. I'll continue to concentrate on writing posts and articles and at the same time, I'm looking into more efficient ways to monetize the blog and hopefully increase my income next month a bit.

I'm learning more and more as I go on, and it an honor that you have taken the time and shown interest to me and this blog by reading this review of 2009 of mine.

1. Look Back on the Year 2009
2. Become a Blogger Premium Re-Launch on June 29th 2009
3. 3 levels of affiliate marketing – link, review and promote

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
Monthly Review, June 2009

I've been gathering quite a library of free downloadable eBooks during the last couple of months. One example being the free downloadable eBook The Roadmap to Become a Blogger by Yaro and Gideon Shalwick. I've been getting these free downloadable eBooks in form of PDF-files from various blogs and websites and there's a huge amount of information in them and the free eBooks are doing great things for the bloggers who give them out..

Impact Marketing Techniques

In addition to your great content in form of blog posts, Yaro recommends to create more powerful, valuable content in form of:

• Free downloadable eBooks
• Podcasting
• Videos

He calls these the Impact Marketing Techniques. Yaro himself has these used techniques to drive loads of new traffic to his own 6-figure income blog. So I guess there's something in this for all of us. And it's no rocket science.

But Yaro is right, the power of these techniques has been proven over and over again in the blogosphere and Internet marketing. If you go to any better than average blog, you'll quickly notice they're offering something for you for free, usually free eBook to download after opt-in for email list or a free eCourse delivered through email.

And that strategy is one of the main factors why those blogs and bloggers are doing as good as they are. Giving out stuff, downloadable eBooks, information, even hard goods, like mp3 players or printed books, is the modern way of marketing. You've seen it in TV too, just check Oprah or Ellen giving DVDs, CDs, or something as big as cars to their audience. It's about marketing. But on the other hand it's about sharing and making people happy. Everyone loves free stuff!

Why Giving Out Free eBooks is Worth It?

In general, people don't like being sold to.. You don't want anyone to sell you anything, instead, you want them to serve you what you need, right? When you go to cafe, you want the coffee you usually get, but you don't necessary want hear about the specials of the week. When you go to the grocery store to buy the bananas you love (no monkey jokes!), you don't need anyone to come in and try to convince you eat apples instead.

Most of the time you come to a blog or website for the first time, you're looking for information. The free report draws attention if it answers the need you have, and increases the chances you'll come back to the blog in question or maybe even buy something you need because of reading the free eBook.

For example, "Joe" runs into a blog about car he's driving, spots a free "fix-it-yourself" eBook on the blog, downloads it, reads it, and starts considering to fix or polish his car a bit with the instructions he now have. If the eBook happens to show him where to get discounted parts for the car, Joe is very likely to check those parts, right? The Result: Joe gets cheap parts and most likely the person who created the eBook gets her commission from the store selling the parts.

Everybody wins. And that's the power of free downloadable eBooks.

How much the free eBook costs per visitor?

Let's say you write and produce an eBook and use $1000 dollars for it. And let's assume that over time you give it out to 10000 visitors you get to your blog or website. The eBook has costs you 10 cents per visitor, not much, when you compare it to paid traffic from pay-per-click advertising for example.

If 1% visitors turn and choose to join/buy/order whatever you offer, the free downloadable eBook you created has probably more than paid itself back.

This is just one way to "calculate" the return of investment for the eBook, but the best thing about the free eBook you created is that after you've produced it once, it will continue to do good things for you, even after several years.

When you think about it, giving out free trials ain't anything new (you know, the first time is free, shareware software, 14-day trials etc.), so it is no surprise that the most successful bloggers do it. Take John Chow dot com for example, and see John Chow's an hour long presentation about the success he has had with his blog (and John gives out free eBook too!)

But now, go see the video I mentioned, which has been released on Yaro's blog entrepreneurs-journey.com, How To Rapidly Grow Your Blog Traffic, as sneak-peak of the content you get from Yaro's and Gideon's Become a Blogger Premium course.

Consider all this and what you learn from the video when you're thinking about ways to improve your business, blog or online success in general.

1. Get Free eBooks to Boost Your Online Success
2. What Free eBooks You Have Read Recently and Would Like to Recommend to Others?
3. 8 Free eBooks That Have Helped Me a Lot

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
The Power of Free Downloadable eBooks

As of 11:23AM EST on June 2nd 2009, Chitika crossed the 50,000 publisher mark. Since the launch of Chitika | Premium last May (about 13 months ago), the Chitika network has more than doubled (an almost 170% increase) from around 18,000 pubs to today’s momentous 50,000+

Do You Have Chitika Ads on Your Blog?

50000 other bloggers and websites think you should have!

Chitika's search traffic targeted advertising the easiest way to cash in on all the search engine traffic you get and it can be used in addition to Google AdSense and other advertising you might have on your blog. Chitika is targeted to US and Canada at the moment, but as long as your blog gets traffic from the North America, it's all good, so your blog can be anywhere in the world.

Chitika's ads have proved to be very successful and most of the big blogs around run them, as they work especially well on search traffic and you don't have to show those ads to regular visitors. I think at least ProBlogger and QuickOnlineTips use these, but I don't know for sure because I never see them as I rarely enter by search, nor am I from Northern America.

Free eBook from Chitika

2 years ago (2007) Chitika gathered 30 Internet and blogging experts together, turned the hints & tips and their  best practises into an eBook and published it to everyone for free. You can get the book from Chitika's website.

If you want to join the Chitika publishers and get their ads on your blog, click on the banner above or watch the video at Chitika and learn more.

1. How To Add Category and Tag Based Advertising and Content to Your Blog
2. How To Combine Google Custom Search and AdSense with the Default WordPress Search
3. How To Add Google Custom Search to Your Blog

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
Search Targeted Advertising Seems to Work For Chitika and Blogs

It is possible to install your own php instead of using the one that shared hosting offers, but if you do that, you are responsible for maintaining that php with upgrades and other maintenance. It is not difficult, but it requires a bit of knowledge and isn't worth the trouble, because at the point you actually benefit from self-hosted OpenX ad server, you probably have your own private server already or multiple even, and can even dedicate one server fully to act as ad server.

If you want to test and use OpenX, I suggest you get a free account and sign up for OpenX Hosted, which has and you don't have to worry about installations and maintenance of the OpenX itself, but can concentrate on managing your advertising.

Benefits of Having Your Own OpenX ad server

Not much really, unless you have a lot of blogs and websites and you want to manage all the advertising from one interface (and in this case, you can easily have dedicated, private ad server).

Self-hosted OpenX offers you access to the OpenX API of your own server (you know, the advanced stuff), manage all your blog advertising from that one server and of course deliver as many ad impressions as your server can handle..

OpenX Hosted can show up to 100 Million ad impressions per month for free, which is plenty for most blogs. When you reach that level of advertising, you can get your own private server and pay someone to take care of the self-hosted OpenX installations :)

But now, if you need your own ad server or having your own OpenX Server would just make you feel cool, I'll show you how to install one!

Step by Step Guide to Install OpenX

To install Your Own OpenX Server on your blog, you need to:

• Download OpenX ad server and upload it to your server via FTP
• Create a Database for the OpenX (e.g. MySQL like your WP blog)
• Configure the OpenX Server

To display ads on your blog with OpenX, you need:

• add advertising codes, banners and/or links to the OpenX Server
• add the code your theme or widget to your blog

The installation instructions and how-to videos on openx.org are very good, so consider taking a look at those as well:

• How to install the OpenX ad server

They show everything but this part creating the new mysql database..

1. Create a New MySQL Database for OpenX

In theory, you could use the same MySQL Database as your blog, but it is better to give the ads their own database, so the advertising load on the database doesn't interfere with the blog.

Go to your hosting account and create a new mysql database

to give an example, if you're on DreamHost like me, go to the control panel (http://panel.dreamhost.com):

1. Login if necessary
2. Look for "Goodies" on the left side panel and click on it
3. Click MySQL Databases
4. Fill in the information
   • database name
   • database domain
   • database user and password

You'll need the MySQL database name, hostname, username and password on later stage of the OpenX installation, so write these down or save the information to text editor.

• Database Name, e.g. cool_open_mysql_database
• Database Hostname, e.g. openxmysql.your_domain_name.com
• Database Username
• Database Password

2. Download OpenX

• Download OpenX ad server
• Unzip the installation package to temporary directory, e.g.\install\
• After the unzip you'll have the OpenX directory in the directory, e.g. \install\openx-2.8.1

3. Upload OpenX to Your Webserver

• Create directory "openx" to the root of your domain
• Upload the contents of the OpenX directory you just downloaded and unzipped into the "openx" folder on the domain

The upload will take some time as there is large amount of files in the directory

4. Check the Permissions For the images and var Folders

OpenX needs to be able to write to the files in the openx/var and openx/www/images folder to complete the installation successfully.

After the upload is finished, set the file permissions with your FTP client..

Set these directories to "0777" = writable (OpenX needs this to store data):

• /openx/www/images
• /openx/var
• /openx/var/cache
• /openx/var/plugins
• /openx/var/templates_compiled

no need to touch the files or other subdirectories.

5. Run the OpenX Installation Wizard

Go to the directory you uploaded OpenX into with your webbrowser, e.g.

http://yourdomainnamehere.com/openx

Follow the instructions from the OpenX Installation Wizard.

1. Read the welcome page and hit Continue >>
2. Read the Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Policy.
3. System Check
   • In System Check, if you see a warning about the memory you have to go to your php.ini settings and increase the memory_limit to 128 Mb
   • If you're running your blog on shared server, you don't have access to the host's php files, so you cannot change this, unless you install your own php.
   • This is the reason this guide is for those who run on private servers or have otherwise access to their php installation.
   • If you're running your blog on shared server, I suggest you sign up for OpenX Hosted and manage your ads through that.
4. Database Settings
   • For Database Settings, enter the Database Information you saved when you created the new MySQL database.
5. Move on to the Administrator and Delivery Settings
6. Check the Configuration checklist (the defaults should be ok, but here you can customize the installation if you want)
7. Create the administrator account
   • set the administrator username, password and email + set the language and timezone preferences
8. The installation wizard installs the OpenX plugins automatically (click Continue >> after done)
9. Sign-up for the updates and security alerts (recommended)

That's it, not as easy as WordPress one-click install, but pretty close.

If you need assistance, open these documents on the side:

• OpenX Installation Quick Start Guide
• OpenX  Administrator Guide

I don't have my own OpenX server running, but I'm planning on test running the OpenX Hosted free service, as it seems like a great way to manage advertising on a blog or website. And as it's free, just give it a go if you're interested and looking for a way to efficiently manage advertising on your blog.

Further Information on OpenX Advertising and OpenX ad server

• Create and serve your first ad campaign

For the latest installation instructions and documentation, consult the openx.org website:

• How to install the OpenX ad server
• OpenX Support Documentation

1. How I Pushed My Blog from PageRank 0 to PR4 in 37 Days
2. How To Manage Ads and Track Clickthroughs with AdRotate Plugin in Your WordPress Blog
3. How to automatically backup and optimize WordPress database

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
Installing OpenX ad server for Your Blog(s)

• I'll introduce you to the affiliate marketing through the easiest and the most well known affiliate program and
• I'll walk you through the Amazon Associates sign up process and
• help you to create your first affiliate link to your blog or website.

It doesn't cost you anything (but just a little bit of your time) and it is very easy as I'll show you next.

Preface

For this tutorial, we choose the easiest and the most versatile affiliate program there is, Amazon Associates. Amazon Associates is a great service to "train" affiliate marketing, and in the long run it might make you some money. And that makes it perfect first affiliate program to join and try.

For introduction to affiliate marketing, you can also read my previous article: Affiliate Marketing Explained, but in short:

You're doing affiliate marketing when you recommend or refer your friend, mother, blog reader or anyone to a product or service that is sold and provided by someone else (for example, Amazon).

The easiest way to "send" referral to the seller's site is through links on your blog, or through email, Twitter, etc. The key is not to over-do it - nobody likes SPAM, right?.

When someone clicks to your link and is taken to the product page, like a book from Amazon, and that person happens to buy the book - you get a bonus.

Just to give you an example, when mentioning a book you read or movie you watched from DVD on your blog, you can place a link to that book or movie that takes your reader to Amazon.

When you talk about a book, movie, new software, new jeans you bought or the great new song you just downloaded - you place a link to whatever you're talking about on your post, right? With affiliate marketing there's a chance to earn little money on the side. It's not any harder than that and there is nothing "shady" about it.

There are people online making doing affiliate marketing for a living and earning good money with it, but that is not the point of this article.

Why You Should Join Amazon Associates?

Joining Amazon Associates, like most affiliate programs, is free and there is no risk (unless you go and spend money on promoting, but that's another topic).

If in doubt, you can read why Darren Rowse at Problogger is Amazon Associate and how he earns four figures with it each month: ProBlogger.net: 9 Reasons Why I AM An Amazon Affiliate.

The reasons Darren lists are also the reasons why I'm Amazon Associate and why I suggest you join it too, especially as your first affiliate program. To pick a few from Darrens list, here are some good reasons to join and try Amazon Associates out:

• Amazon is a trusted Brand
• Easily Integrated
• Wide Array of Products

Think about it, browse through Amazon a bit. Even if you first think "books" when you hear Amazon, take a look around. There is everything in there, starting from books - yes - but continuing to music, electronic goods, jeans, shoes, and so on.

There something for everyone in Amazon, and because of that, it is very likely that there's something you can try to promote through your blog.

And if someone buys what you promoted, you get paid small amount and those add up, if someone buys more from Amazon at the same time, you get paid for those purchases too.

And people often do buy more than one item from Amazon, you know "while I'm here, I might get this and that for the same shipping" = more money to you.

• Do your write about books? Promote a book.
• Do you write about digital photography, promote cameras.
• Hell, just promote your favorite movies and music.

Amazon Associates is very easy to use and you can promote any product and products you want, it makes a perfect first affiliate program you join.

Here we go!

How To Join Amazon Associates

1. Go to Amazon Associates
2. Click "Join now for FREE"
3. Enter you credentials and website/blog information
4. For "Briefly describe your site, including the type of items you intend to list.", enter some products you will most likely promote, e.g. books, music, etc. This doesn't matter much, but it will fasten the approval of your account.
5. For "Primary method for generating referrals", choose Blog if you're a blogger or other option that best describes your plans. Again, don't worry too much this, it is mostly for the approval process and maybe some Amazon statistics.
6. Accept the "Associates Operating Agreement" (In addition to the "terms and conditions", itt explains the whole program, how you get payed etc, in addition to the terms and conditions.)
7. click finish when done.

You're taken into a "Thank you for applying to the Amazon.com Associates Program" -page.

There are two most important things on this page!

Your unique Associates ID is... write this down, memorize it. it is your Amazon Associates ID.

• Click on the Select Payment Method Now
• (You can change this at any time from your account settings, but let's set it now to get started)
• Choose Your Payment Method:
  • Pay me by Amazon.com gift certificate/card
  • Pay me by direct deposit
  • Pay me by check

Direct deposit is the easiest way in the long run, so choose that -or- choose gift certificate/card FOR NOW, if you are likely to buy something from Amazon yourself.

Just remember to go check payment method on direct deposit or check when you start to make so much money you can't buy enough.

Done! You are now in your Amazon Associates account.

In theory, your account approval is still pending at this point, but you can start looking for things to promote and add them to your blog already.

If you're not familiar with Amazon Associates, I suggest you check the "Get Started Now" information (the button on the left, below your account ID and tracking code information).

After checking the Getting Started Tour, it's time for us to

Create Your First Affiliate Link

The most easy way to do this is to add the "Site Stripe" to your Amazon.

What this does, is add kind of toolbar to the top of the Amazon store. And when you find any product you want to promote, you can click on the toolbar/stripe and instantly create a link to that product.

1. Click on the "Links and Banners" tab on top of the Amazon Associates account
2. Scroll/look at the end of the page where you see "Site Stripe" and Click on the picture or "learn more"
3. Turn on the stripe
4. Stripe will be on the top of the window when you enter Amazon store

Now go to the Amazon store and find your favorite book, movie, song, or whatever you want.

Found a product? Great.

• Take a look at the top of the screen, there is the "Site Stripe" we just activated.
• On the top left, you see "link to this page" option - click on it.
• You get taken to a "Customize and Get HTML" screen:
  1. Choose a link type (Text, Image or Text&Image)
  2. Highlight and copy the code that is automatically generated.
  3. Place that link to your post (HTML side, not the Visual WYSIWYG editor)
  4. Now you have a referral link on your post!
  5. Publish or update your post.

That was easy, wasn't it?

Now you can find more products that could fit to your older posts and add links to them or write a new post, review or anything and create Amazon Associates referral link the same way we did it above and place it on your blog.

You can add affiliate links anywhere on your blog, not just your posts. For example, create "books I've read" -list on your blog's sidebar or create new page for it. Possibilities are endless.

That's It, You Are Now a Affiliate Marketer!

Word of warning thou, it is possible, or even very likely, that you won't make any affiliate sales with your first attempts to promote something. Some topics or niches are harder to reach with affiliate marketing than others, but just keep on trying and don't give up.

Amazon Associates is perfect for trying out what affiliate marketing feels like, and you'll notice it's easy, fun and it just makes sense to create a affiliate link to a product you would link anyway.

Congratulations, you have taken the first leap by starting out and joining your first affiliate program. Chances are, if you decide to go deeper into the wonderful world of affiliate marketing, you'll join many affiliate programs more.

Here's to your success and all the money I hope you make!

If you have any questions about affiliate marketing or how to make the most out your blog with affiliate sales, send me your questions and queries through the contact form and I'll be happy to help you or leave a comment right here on this article.

p.s. There are several other affiliate programs out there, Amazon Associates is just an example. All kinds of products can be marketed and sold through affiliate marketing, it is just a matter of selecting the right products and affiliate programs for your topic and business. When choosing products to promote use the affiliate program checklist.

1. Step-by-step affiliate program evaluation checklist
2. Affiliate Marketing Explained
3. 3 levels of affiliate marketing – link, review and promote

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
How To Join Your First Affiliate Program

There are tens, if not hundreds, Internet marketing experts out there that are selling their own products and some of them make hundreds of thousands of dollars or even millions to the people behind the coaching programs, products or eBooks. Prior to the actual launch, there is something Internet marketers call pre-launch.

I just recently realized I have thousands of dollars worth of free information on my email archives and notes from the mailing lists I am in. There is huge amount of valuable information in the emails your receive from the email marketing list, if you just keep all of them and study them later..

Pre-launch process is very important to a successful product launch. Not every marketer do huge pre-launches, but most do. And the greatest things about this is that we can watch the whole pre-launch process for free and learn from the people who teach us how to do successful product launches.

Some Internet marketers are better than others, and these are the men and women that the industry looks up to. From what I've learned, one of the biggest names in the industry are Rich Schefren and Frank Kern (there are many others, but these are the two I've been following closely). And one of these gentleman (Rich) is doing a launch right now and I think Frank is doing a re-launch but I can't quite figure it out.

People are buzzing about these product launches because they are everywhere. Affiliates are promoting the products like never before and there is no-one in the industry who hasn't at least heard about the products.

What I did, was get involved in the product launch, marketing and promotion even that I don't have much to work with (you know, reader- and visitor-wise). But, I didn't subscribe to the mailing lists of these people for nothing. But as I mentioned already, I did it because I figured out how to..

Learn from the Internet Marketer Masters for Free

Why I am writing this? Because I wanted to share what I'm doing right now. I am watching the HUGE product launches of the most successful Internet marketers in the world. And I don't have to pay a dime for it, all I have to do is to subscribe to their mailing lists and receive all the emails they send and archive them.

You can do this too and use this information on later stage if you happen to do a product launch of your own. The value of this free information is undeniable. These product launches have been carefully thought out and use a certain process that has proved to be successful.

• it involves free eBooks and reports
• getting people to mailing list to get those eBooks
• sending more free information, reports and links to video through the list
• build up the buzz
• get people interested

And then finally after several weeks, even months after starting the whole process, the actual launch day arrives.

When this day comes, couple of things happen:

1. Lot of people buy the product

This happens, because these products are the top of the line and worth every dollar they cost and people are willing to pay for the results these products promise to deliver. With the money-back risk free guarantees, these products sell like crazy, and fast.

2. The whole product launch process has been exposed

After the product has been launched I have all the information on "How To Do a Successful Product Launch" in my email archives and personal notes. Yes, I am missing the expertize and coaching of these gurus, but on the other hand, I got all this information for free. Quite amazing if you ask me.

The Secret Magic Formula to Gain The Product Launch Information for Free

You need to be on the receiving end of the product launch and marketing emails.

1. Go to a page with free report or video, that has "opt-in" box in it
2. Give your name and email address to get the free information
3. Archive and store all the information that is send to you

That is so simple that I feel stupid I haven't done it for years. Now that I've done it, I feel like a genius!

I'm sure that many others are doing the same, but before I was "afraid" to sign to these lists, because I was afraid that I would be "forced" to buy something or the world would explode. But as I've now learned, it's nothing like that, and if I'd wanted I could've unsubscribed at any time (which I didn't as I wanted to get all the info).

I've been following several product launches and getting the free information this year, but here are two that are coming to closure soon.

If you read this post later than the beginning of June 2009, the product launches I mention and followed might not be available anymore, but there are many other out there that you can follow and learn from.

Frank Kern and Mass Control 2.0

There is something wrong with the world when a marketing guy is so hot that people cheat, steal and mask their websites to like "Frank Kern's Homepage". Seriously, Frank Kern and his product is so hot that it is VERY HARD to find the real Frank Kern and his site from all the affiliate sites out there that have been SEO'd and disguised as "official" Frank Kern site, so I'm doing you a favor and sending you the right way

Anyway, Frank is extremely likeable and fun to watch, so you are in for a treat if you haven't seen him before. I sure was. And in addition to all the entertainment, I gained loads and loads of information Frank has been putting out there for free.

You can get all the videos and information from the Mass Control Blog. And also watch this, hilarious "Sneak Attack" video.

Special note: As someone in the WarriorForum.com said it, getting into Frank Kern affiliate program can be quite hard as "You gotta know someone who knows someone who's uncle played kickball with that someones brother. Or something like that." So no, I am not affiliated with Frank in anyway, but if you know someone who knows someone else, who can get me into Frank Kern's affiliate list (so I can sell s%¤t you know), throw me an email using the contact Zemalf -page :)

Rich Schefren and Guided Profit System 2.0

Rich Schefren's Guided Profit System 2.0 (GPS2.0) is released in less than two days from now (11th of June 2009). So you are in a hurry if you want to receive the last mails, but I believe you can still get a lot of info from this as the last days are pretty hectic. And of course you will have the free reports as resources saved to your hard drive.

One part of the Guided Profit Systems launch is the free reports which are available for free download, here are two of them to name a few:

• Internet Business Manifesto
• The Entrepreneurial EMERGENCY

Rich Schefren seems to be the master of releasing very powerful free information to build up the hype before the launch. All the reports available at StrategicProfits.com offer great advice and are beneficial just like they are.

Rich uses same kind of technique as Frank Kern and as the launch closes, he backs up the free reports with great videos, case studies and testimonials from people who took the previous Guided Profit System (1.0). Of course, the video is seemingly casual, shot on the beach and all that, but I can't deny that Rich knows what he's talking about and liked the video a lot.

The Free Information Is Out There For You

The best technique a beginning Internet marketer can do, is to follow the product launches of the other Internet marketers.

Opt-in and archive all the emails send to you, watch the videos, read the reports, store them. And in the end, you have a step-by-step guide on how to do a successful product launch, if you pay close attention. The product launches can be over more quickly than you realize, so it's worth it to be on the lists before the launches or re-launches begin.

Now go and subscribe to as many opt-in lists as you can take and start archiving those marketing emails you get!

1. 3 Ways to Earn Money Through Internet
2. The Power of Free Downloadable eBooks
3. Get Free eBooks to Boost Your Online Success

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
Learn from the Internet Marketer Masters for Free

One way to earn money is to do affiliate marketing. Actually it's more than just "one way" as people are doing this kind of marketing for living and some are making a lot of money.

If you're not into affiliate marketing already, here's true Affiliate Marketing 101 for you.

This article covers the basics of affiliate marketing and in the followup article, I'll help you to join your first affiliate program.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

"Affiliate Marketing is an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliates marketing efforts." -Wikipedia

Affiliate marketing can be done in number of ways, so it is not tied to blogging alone, but doing affiliate marketing through your blog is an excellent way to do it.

Affiliate marketing is a big business and there is a lot to learn about it, but at the root level, it's really simple.

• You refer your reader or friend or family member to a seller
• I liked this book, and I think you would enjoy it too, go check it out, here's a link
• Your reader/friend/mother buys the product,
• the seller gets the money, and
• the seller pays you percentage of the sale!

The Concept of Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is sort of re-selling, but in the digital world you don't have to move any products, just REFER someone to a service or product. If they buy or join, you get percentage of the sale.

You might think yourself as a "sales person" for the company you are affiliated with:

• You try to get buyers for the products, and
• "sell" the products to the buyers you've found
• (or get the "buyer" to subscribe to a email list or join a service)
• if you succeed, you get paid and all parties benefit.

For example, you write a book review. You will most likely link to the homepage of the author and possibly to a place where people can buy that book, right? Well, that book link could be affiliate link!

Let's say you link to the book in Amazon, where your readers can immediately purchase the book you reviewed. And when they do, you can earn 4-15% in referral fees. Plus anything else they happen to buy on that same visit.

The Concept of Affiliate Marketing Explained

There's a whole lot more in affiliate marketing and there's endless number of different products and services you can promote on your blog, but the principles remain the same.

1. Choose a product that want to recommend to your readers
2. Join affiliate program for that seller or product, if you have not yet joined.
3. Get referral link to the product you want to promote
4. Place the link or banner to your blog, post or elsewhere
5. (Write, record a podcast or make a video review for the product or service)
6. Publish your link or post with the link in it
7. Your reader is interested in the product you linked to and clicks on the link
8. That reader then buys the product from the seller
9. You get paid percentage of that sale!

Making Money with Affiliate Marketing Sales

The percentage depends on the product and the affiliate programs, but you can receive anything between 0,1% and 100% of the sales. For digital products like eBooks or eCourses, you're usually getting 50% of the sale, but like said, the percentage varies on different products and affiliate services.

Let's take an example that the you're getting 50% of the sale amount. And let's assume you reviewed an eBook you read. Something that costs $30. Your reader then clicked on the link in the review post and bought the eBook and paid $20 dollars for it. You just earned $15! It's simple as that. Multiply this with tens, hundreds, even thousands of sales, and you are true affiliate marketer!

Getting your first affiliate sales feels like a million bucks, and just for that feeling I'd recommend to at least try affiliate marketing.

It is possible, or even more likely, that you don't sell anything right away, but don't get too encouraged by it.

Keep trying and do your best and the results will follow.

Next up - How to join your first affiliate program and the affiliate program evaluation.

1. 3 levels of affiliate marketing – link, review and promote
2. Step-by-step affiliate program evaluation checklist
3. How To Join Your First Affiliate Program

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
Affiliate Marketing Explained

You know, the first rule of Fight Blog Club, you DO write about blogging and making money and the second rule, you DO WRITE even more.

So here's the thing, most bloggers don't make any money from their blogs. I'm not one of those bloggers, because I have made 1 dollar 88 cents from Google AdSense during the 4 or so years I've been blogging.  And I haven't even tried, and still I made money, it's quite amazing if you ask me. As a clarification, that's $1.88 all time! It's not like I have monthly income here yet.. All this was more and less when I had my blog(s) at blogspot.

This is my all time Google AdSense earnings up to the end of May 2009. One Dollar and 88 cents.

That's one hundred million percent more than those bloggers are making who make none! It's all about positivity and working hard, so I'm planning to double my earnings during this summer, wish me luck!

Here comes the revelation, I'm 100% sure you can do this too.

How I Made One Dollar and 88 Cents ($1.88) With Google AdSense!

1. I wrote posts to my blog
2. I created Google AdSense Account
3. I generated Google AdSense ad code
4. I placed the AdSense code to my blog
5. Repeated couple of times for different placements on my blog

That's quite easy isn't it? Check out my quick and easy guide if you need additional info: How To Get Google AdSense and Display Ads on Your WordPress Blog.

I bet you can do that too and I think you're gonna love it! Getting paid for doing what you do anyway is like the best thing in the world. But I hope you do hell of a lot better than I do. You know, more than one dollar...

But you and I have a starting point right there. I think I gotta be reading some of these (you can too if you like):

• 5 Reasons You’re Not Making Money as a Blogger
• Why You're Not Making Money Online
• Why You Can’t Make Money Blogging
• Reality check: You're not going to make money from your blog
• Why You're Not Making Money Online
• Don’t Just Make Money Online - Build Business Assets that Last
• The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Effective Adsense Link Units Optimization

How are you doing? Better than me? Not getting much? Have any plans on making more? Please tell me too.

1. How To Get Google AdSense and Display Ads on Your WordPress Blog
2. Free Google AdSense Secrets eBook
3. How To Combine Google Custom Search and AdSense with the Default WordPress Search

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
How I Made One Dollar and 88 Cents ($1.88) With Google AdSense!

If you have blog with different categories, you might consider customizing the advertising shown on posts in spesific category or categories or posts with certain tags. And it doesn't have to be advertising, you can show different links on different categories and tags.

For example you can:

• Show links to different themes and plugins on your "WordPress" tagged posts, and
• Amazon.com Associates cookbook links on your "Cooking" category.
• Or just display your best posts in the "Fishing" category.
• etc.

The possibilites are endless, so you can do whatever you can show anything you want and need to show, based on the tags or categories of the posts.

I wanted to do this, because many of the readers who come in and check some of my World of Warcraft material, or EVE Online posts, are not necessary interested in the WordPress content. And if I write about advertising on a blog and how to utilize a plugin to do it, that gamer just wanting to know how to powerlevel mining on the new alt character, most likely does not want info on latest WordPress Premium Themes or such. So I wanted to customize the advertising, extra content and links I show on different posts.

First, I utilized the "Yet Another Related Posts Plugin" to show the related links, so that was easy and does superb job at providing the related post links.

But getting spesific advertising in those posts wasn't hard either..

If you have the same kind of situation, and want to display advertising or special links based on the categories or tags of your posts, I'll show you a quick way to achieve that. You do have to dig into your WordPress theme php-files, or find a plugin to insert the code, but it's really simple...

Category Based Advertising and Content

Example from WordPress Support forums post "Show banners/ads based on Category?":

<?php if ( is_category( 'cat') ): ?>
<!-- Insert code for cat ad here -->
Test Cat

<?php elseif ( is_category( 'dog') ): ?>
<!-- Insert code for cat ad here -->
Test Dog

<?php else: ?>
<!-- Insert code for generic ad here -->
Test Generic

<?php endif; ?>

Add this kind of code before or after the post in the single.php and edit it as you like (I didn't test it on other pages yet, but let me know if you have something like this running already):

<!-- Category based content START -->
<p>
<!-- Use Category ID -->
<?php if ( in_category('1') ): ?>
<!-- This code will be displayed if the post is in category with ID 1 -->
<!-- Category ID 1 code starts here -->
<!-- INSERT advertisement code for Category 1 here -->
<!-- Category ID 1 code ends here -->

<!-- Use Category Name -->
<?php elseif ( in_category('Gaming') ): ?>
<!-- This code will be displayed if the post is in category named 'Gaming' -->
<!-- Category 'Gaming' code starts here -->
<!-- INSERT advertisement code for 'Gaming' here -->
<!-- Category 'Gaming' code ends here -->

<!-- Use ID, Name or Category slug together -->
<?php elseif ( in_category(array(2, 'Blogging', 'personal-development')) ): ?>
<!-- This code will be displayed if the post is in any of the categories defined in the array -->
<!-- Category ID 2, 'Blogging' or 'personal-development' code starts here -->
<!-- INSERT ad code for several categories here -->
<!-- Category ID 2, 'Blogging' or 'personal-development' code ends here -->

<?php else: ?>
<!-- This code will be displayed if the conditions above don't hit (you can also remove the else) -->
<!-- Code for all other categories code starts here -->
<!-- INSERT code for generic advertising or other content here -->
<!-- Code for all other categories code ends here -->

<?php endif; ?>
</p>

Remove the unnecessary lines and comments if you like and you're all set. You can use category IDs or category names, and even category slugs work. For detailed info on how the "in_category()" works, check the WordPress Codex: Conditional Tags -page.

Tag Based Advertising and Content

Exactly like with categories, you can customize the content based on the tags of the posts:

<!-- Tag based content START -->
<p>
<?php if ( has_tag('WordPress') ): ?>
<!-- This code will be displayed if the post has a tag named 'WordPress' -->
<!-- Tag 'WordPress' code starts here -->
<!-- INSERT advertising code for posts with tag 'WordPress' here -->
<!-- Tag 'WordPress' code ends here -->

<?php elseif ( has_tag(array('How-To', 'Monetize')) ): ?>
<!-- This code will be displayed if the post has at least one tag defined in the array -->
<!-- Tag 'How-To' or 'Monetize' code starts here -->
<!-- INSERT advertising for several tags here -->
<!-- Tag 'How-To' or 'Monetize' code ends here -->

<?php else: ?>
<!-- This code will be displayed if the conditions above don't hit (you can also remove the else) -->
<!-- Code for all other tags code starts here -->
<!-- INSERT generic advertising code or other content here -->
<!-- Code for all other tags code ends here -->

<?php endif; ?>
</p>

Detailed Info and Afterword

• WordPress Codex: Conditional Tags

I wanted to get this done quick on my blog, so I only added and tested this in the single posts and placed the code to show the content after the posts.

So if you try it in the sidebar, header or footer, let me know how you do with it. Also if you know any great plugins that do similar, please share the experiences and leave a comment.

1. How To Add Feedburner RSS Feed to the Sociable Plugin
2. Search Targeted Advertising Seems to Work For Chitika and Blogs
3. How To Add Google Custom Search to Your Blog

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
How To Add Category and Tag Based Advertising and Content to Your Blog

Why Google AdSense?

It's not the only way, but it is the EASY way.

If you want to get advertising to your blog, the most simple way to do it is to ad Google AdSense ads to your blog. Getting Google AdSense for your blog is quite simple, but here's super simple how-to for getting those ads up on your WordPress blog.

In this post, you'll find out:

• How to get ad code from the AdSense control panel (easy)
• How to insert the code in your WordPress blog theme (advanced / hard)
• Learn how you can display the ad on top (or below) of each post, or in the blog footer or on each post on your front page, etc.
• How to display the ad using Widget in your blog (very easy)
• List of WordPress plugins you can use to automatically insert the ad code to your blog where you want the ads to be displayed  and manage your advertising and AdSence ads.
• Learn to get ads to your BlogSpot blog
• Learn why you should move to self-hosted WordPress, if you're using WordPress.com
• and much more, in a simple step-by-step tutorial with screenshots

How To Join Google AdSense

Go to the Google AdSense -site and join up, if you need instructions or help, check the Google Help for AdSense. After joining and getting familiar with the interface by browsing and using the tutorials and help on the site (which are quite excellent by the way), you can move on...

Getting the Google AdSense Code from AdSense control panel

1 Setup AdSense for Content & Choose Ad Type

• Click on the "AdSense Setup"
• Click on "Get Ads" if it didn't open as default
• On this screen you can choose what kind of ad you want to create

Choosing the Ad Type

• "Ad Unit" can show both images or text ads on it,
• "Link Unit" has only text links.

In this example, we choose Ad Unit as we like to create a banner ad.

2 Set Format, Colors and Other Parameters

After choosing the ad type you want, click Continue...

Now you get to choose the format, color and other options for your ad:

Select Ad Format, Colors and Other Options

Select values and  color you want and set the options for this ad unit:

• What kind of ad unit you want (e.g. vertical/horizontal banner, small box, etc.),
• select color "Palette" from the selection or create your own,
• select font and ad block shape (rounded corners or not, etc)

In this example we choose 468x60 banner with default Google Palette and Verdana font.

3 Set Ad Channel for The Add

When happy with ad format, color and the other options, hit Continue again..

Now you can choose an existing channel for the ad, or create a new channel like this:

Create a new channel for your ad or choose one of your old ones

Here, we create a channel "zemalf.com". Channels can be used by advertisers to focus advertising on your channel, and you can edit the description of the channel if you want. Focused advertising is mostly used for bigger and focused sites, so if you're just starting this doesn't matter much, but the channel is there "when your blog is huge" if you will..

4 Name the Ad Unit

Again, after setting the channel or channels, hit Continue. Now, name to your ad unit.

This name will help you find the ad in your control panel and the name will go into the code as well as html comment:

Name Your Ad Unit to Find and Track it Easier in AdSense

The name of the ad unit will be visible on your control panel, so it's worth it to name the ad unit in a way that you can easily see what kind of unit it is and where you are using it. For example, "zemalf.com 468x60 for Articles/Footer/Header" or such.

5 Submit and Get the Code

After naming the new ad, you just have to press "Submit and Get the Code", and copy the generated code where you want to display it. On the next part you'll see an example where you can insert the code in your WordPress and show the ad in your blog.

Copy the Code and Paste It Where You Want To Display the Ad

You can always go and get the code again from the "Manage Ads" page on your control panel if you need to get the code again for this ad.

Adding the Google AdSense Code to Your WordPress Theme

You can choose one or more places for your ad, but I recommend choosing one place / AdSense code, as you can then track the performance of the ad unit from the control panel (e.g. how many times that ad unit has been displayed and how many clickthroughs you have got with that ad and place).

If you are comfortable with editing your Theme php-files, go to the Theme editor (Appearance - Editor in WordPress 2.7.1)

WARNING! editing your theme files directly might cause problems on your site, so do this only if you know what your doing. There's easier and better way to do this with widgets and/or plugins, so this is just to show how it's done if you really want and need to...

Option 1 Displaying the Banner After Each Post On Your Blog Frontpage

1. Go to the theme editor and open the index.php.
2. Find code like this (it might be a bit different, depending on your theme):

   while (have_posts())

3. Then look for this code after that "while":

   <?php endwhile; ?>

4. This is your "post loop", so if you want to display something before or after all posts on your front page, you can place the code inside this while-endwhile loop.
5. To get the ads on top of each post, copy the code just below the "while (have_posts())" line.
6. To get the display the ads after of each post, copy the code just above the "endwhile" line.

Option 2 Getting the Banner To Show Below Each Individual Post

1. Open single.php if you theme has one
2. To display the ads on top of the post, copy the code just below "while (have_posts())" line.
3. To display the ads below the post, copy the code just above the "endwhile" line.

Option 3 Displaying the Banner in the Blog Footer

1. Go to the theme editor and open the footer.php.
2. copy the code just above the </body> tag/line.
3. or inside/above <div id="footer"> or such, if you want to display it higher.

Option 4 Place the Code Using a Plugin or Widget (Recommended)

Editing your template might be a bit tricky and you have to re-do it if and when you update or change your template, so you should definately use either widgets or spesific plugin to add the Google AdSense code to your blog.

How To Use a Widget to Display Your AdSense Ads:

1. add "text" widget to the sidebar or any widget area your theme supports and
2. copy-paste the AdSense code to the widget (mind that the ad unit must be correct size for that widget area/sidebar),
3. save
4. done

Your code is now safe from any Theme updates and you don't have to worry about breaking anything by manually editing the .php code.

In case you want more controlled way on displaying the ads and more control on how they are displayed, I recommend that you use a ad managing plugin...

Displaying Google AdSense on Your Blog Using a Plugin

With a WordPress plugin or plugins designed to manage ads or even spesifically Google AdSense code, you can easily insert ads whereever you want in your blog and change the ads and placements with ease...

Here are some examples of plugins that you can use to manage your ads (they work in different ways, some offer easy way to manage the ad codes, but do not place them in the blog, others just place the code, some do it all). Go to the plugin homepages to learn more:

• WP Simple Adsense Insertion
• AdSense Manager
• All in One Adsense and YPN
• Easy AdSenser
• Advertising Manager
• AdRotate
• wp-insert

Some of these are easier to use than the others, and I won't go through these on this article. Go ahead and try them, or share your experiences in the comments if you have used or are using these or some other pluging to manage your blog advertising.

AdSense in BlogSpot and WordPress.com blogs

If you're using free blogging platforms like blogspot or WordPress.com, you can have ads in your blog too.

In BlogSpot/Blogger, as it is run by Google, it is almost automated for you, just click "make money" or "earn" kinds of links in your blog settings, and the system will set you up with AdSense.

With WordPress.com, you're in bad shape. As far as I know, you can't have AdSense in there, as the widgets don't allow javascript in them. So I recommend you setup your own, self-hosted WordPress.org based blog.

Unfortunately, I haven't used other blogging platforms, like TypePad, so I'm not aware of advertising options in those.

How AdSense Works and Will You Make Money With It?

First of all using AdSense is the easiest and the most simple way to get advertising on your blog. There are plenty of other options, but the easiest is definately this. You can make hundreds of thousands of dollars per month with AdSense or you might make zero or couple of cents. Of course, I hope you make a boatload of cash with AdSense in your blog, but in case it doesn't work for you, look for other means to monetize your blog.

If you need more detailed information on how it works, check the Google Help for AdSense, but in short: AdSense will customize the ads based on your website or blog content, so in case your content and/or niche is right and you have plenty of readers, AdSense can gain you nice income. But like said, without much traffic or "advertising-friendly" content and audience, you might not make much.

Only way to see what kind of results you and your blog can achieve, you must try it and then decide if it is good for you. Just remember to test different kind of ads and add placements on your blog. When you have enough data to analyze whether or not you should continue with AdSense, you can decide if you should look for other kinds of ways to make money from your blog.

Add Google AdSense to your blog and start testing different kind of ad blocks and ad placements to see how it works for you. Don't go into conclusions too fast if you don't get many clicks, especially if you don't have a lot of traffic. After getting the ads up on your blog and seeing how they do, drop back here and share your results in the comments.

Until next time, I hope this tutorial was useful for you!

1. How To Manage Ads and Track Clickthroughs with AdRotate Plugin in Your WordPress Blog
2. How I Made One Dollar and 88 Cents ($1.88) With Google AdSense!
3. How To Combine Google Custom Search and AdSense with the Default WordPress Search

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
How To Get Google AdSense and Display Ads on Your WordPress Blog