Pay Per Click (PPC)

Pay Per Click (CPC) is what an advertiser pay to search engines and Internet publishers for a single click on their advertisement, which directs one visitor to the advertiser’s website.

Google’s Adsense program is the biggest player here. It’s pretty simple to get running as a publisher/blogger. You sign up for an account, use their tool to build an ad code, and then paste it onto your site. People click on those ads and Google pays you x amount per click. Hence the name “pay per click.” This is a great way to make passive income.

Basically they bring together advertisers and website owners and in return you split the profit with them. Google pays 68% of the money that they typically receive. They’re basically charging a third in commission, but two-thirds of something is a whole lot more than 100% of nothing.

The ads are contextual which means that they are selected based on your website’s content. They come in both text & graphic banners, and have various ad sizes.

Microsoft & Yahoo use to have their own Publisher programs, but have since exited that market. Yahoo recommended Chitika as replacement to its former publishers. Here’s a list of top 10 alternatives to AdSense.

Basically this type of cost per click blog advertising is great until you get big enough to attract direct advertisers – and that should be your goal!

Banner and Text Ads

Banner ads could be super lucrative and really help you make money online, but not always the easiest to get the off the ground. They range from simple logo to various ad unit sizes. It is what it says it is. Say you know Al of Al’s Health Foods and he wants to pay you ‘x’ amount of dollars a month to put his logo somewhere on your site. That my friends, is a banner ad…

It might seem like easy money, but there is a barrier of entry. As we said repeatedly, build your audience first, then the advertisers. There are also tons of ad networks out there, but most of them require that you have at least 100,000pageviews per month. Furthermore most of them pay pretty low ad rates, depending on your niche.

A text ad is similar to a banner ad but you are putting text (similar to a Google Ad) on your website. This is not the same as paid links which we highly discourage!

The difference can get blurry, but essentially if someone approaches to buy a link placement, you should be careful. Yes it’s easy money, but if search engines like Google ever catch on, then your website could be harshly penalized in lowered ranking. Many webmaster found their website traffic slowed to a trickle as the result.

Paid Product Reviews

Basically, when people are going to buy something, they go online first to see what people are saying about it. Companies know this and now often pay bloggers to review their products. Nothing wrong with it – just be sure to disclose that you are being paid to review it, or have a general disclaimer in your terms of use.

In late 2009, the FTC began to legally require bloggers and online publishers to have such disclaimer on their websites.  However, bloggers get make money online, so we have to play by the rules!

Amazon Affiliate Program

Amazon is the original granddaddy of affiliate programs. It’s where if someone goes to your web page and sees a little widget that says “Bob recommends this book on puppies” and that person clicks on that link and buys the book, you get some money.

Of course these days Amazon carries a lot more than books. You can find almost any retail item on their site. It’s a great way to earn money when you start. It’s easy because you can find items similar to your niche.

The downside of the convenience is that the payout is relatively poor with many items paying as low as 4%.  So you might want to pay attention to specific affiliate programs as you begin to grow.

Sell Stuff (Yours or Other People’s Stuff)

This is our personal favorite way to make money online! For example if you’ve got a dating blog, and you have a rabid, dedicated following, and you’ve got tons of great posts that people love to read, why not collect your posts and make them for sale in a book/e-book format?

Plenty of sites like Chuck Norris Facts or Texts from last night make a ton of money off of this. Or you can even build premium content available only to paying members. Viola, now you have recurring income!

The numbers can add up dramatically if you offer substantial value and keep your members satisfied. This can lead to other sales opportunities such as coaching sessions, workshops, and other products.

You can even hire ghostwriters to create the product. That way you just sat back. Let them do the hard work, pay a fixed amount, and then collect a potentially lucrative payoff down the road.

Or if you don’t want to mess with your own product – because there are things to manage like sales pages, additional web hosting, customer service, & creating the product, then sell other people’s stuff. (affiliate programs)

The key is to partner with some of the really successful people in your niche to sell their products on your site for a commission. Hopefully they have a turnkey system setup that result in a high probability of sales. You don’t want to be a guinea pig to help someone unproven to work out the bugs in their sales process.

Many eBook authors will give you as high as 75% – 100% commission for each sale. (They make their money with repeat sales and memberships). So take advantage and build your success!

The post How To Make Money Online Using Your Blog In 5 Easy Steps appeared first on Blog Success Journal.

In a market monopolized by a single global vendor (a.k.a. Google Adsense) with strict rules, we found another option – Qadabra. Qadabra offers a compelling alternative for blog monetization that replaces the inexplicable slaps and unnecessary risks that typify the current online advertising environment with a distinctly different approach: simplicity. If you know us, we’re all about making things simple!

Qadabra aims to become the most recognizable name in self-serve display advertising, focusing on maximizing eCPMs through performance based algorithms (that means you make more money from every click).

Quick Look:

• $1 minimum payment
• No minimum impression volume
• Built in optimization algorithm
• Banners go live the second after creation
• Supports all geographic locations
• Rich media creative
• Live and advanced reporting system
• Dedicated support team

You can sign up with them in as little a 15 seconds, create your ad placements, and let Qadabra do the rest.

So if you’re looking for an alternative to Google Adsense, check out Qadabra and let us know what you think.

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If that’s you, you’re wrong.

One of the best ways to make some extra crash either on the side, or to make enough to quit your full time job, is to simply set up a landing page. If you have a blog or are starting up an affiliate marketing campaign, this is definitely a “must.”

What Is A Landing Page?

A landing page, which is also commonly referred to as a “squeeze” page or a “capture” page, is really any page that traffic is directed to on a website which will then try to prompt a particular action. A few different examples of landing pages include:

• Internet traffic is directed from your blog post or a link on a sidebar to a landing page that is selling affiliate products
• Internet traffic is sent from a link that the clicked to a page that is prompting them to purchase something
• Internet traffic is sent from a banner advertising that they clicked to a landing page that is designed for that particular target audience (i.e. if the banner ad was about doggie daycare, it is to be assumed that whoever clicked it is looking for doggie daycare. The landing page would then be related to that)

The goal of a landing page is really to obtain personal information on whoever is coming through your site. You may ask for an email address on a landing page, or a name and an email address. Some landing pages ask for phone numbers and addresses, though people are far less likely to offer up that information. The benefit of this is that when a person who provided you their email address leaves your website, you then have the ability to contact them again via an email list. You can send them follow up emails, daily specials, deals. You can send them whatever you choose and boost your potential sales as a result.

How To Write It

The problem with a lot of landing pages out there is that the quality of the writing is lacking. There are some things that you should do when you write a landing page to ensure it is successful. First, provide a clear call to action. Whether you use hot linked text or graphic buttons doesn’t matter. The text on your page needs to tell your reader what they have to do to get in on whatever it is your landing page is about. Try to add in a call to action at least 3 times in a landing page so that you are sure that they got the message.

The headline of your landing page should also refer to where your visitor just came from. Make sure that you always write in the second person (which means using “you” and “your”) and make sure that the message is clear and persuasive. Don’t try to be clever, don’t try to be overly creative – now is not the time. Be direct, be clear, and you will have better results.

TIP: When it comes to writing your landing page, you can write your copy to be as long as you want. Just keep in mind that it should be as concise as possible and to keep it tight. As a general rule of thumb, have a longer copy when you want to sell something and close the sale, and have a shorter copy for any sort of newsletter or subscription sign-up (or something of no monetary value).

All of your most important points should be at the beginning of each paragraph, and in bullet points. Keep in mind that visitors are just skimming your page and not looking at it word for word. Having things like bullet points and white space will help you draw your customers’ eyes to exactly where you want them to be.

Oh yeah, and keep that first paragraph short. 1-2 lines is just enough to engage them rather than bore or overwhelm them.

How To Design It

Not sure how to design your landing page? Not a problem. Start scoping out what your competitors are up to. Make note of what you like and what you don’t. Write it all down and start thinking about what you could use for yours. Think of any simple revisions that you may want to make.

One thing that we have to stress is that when it comes to your landing page, remove all visual clutter. This includes navigational bars and any links to other sections of your site. Your goal is to have the reader focused on your writing and your writing only. Their eyes should not be tempted to wander off to a flashing graphic in the sidebar.

On that note, any critical landing page elements should be placed in the upper 300 pixels of the page. Why? Because people want information quick and immediately. Most people who are just skimming through your site are only going to look at the top half of the page and won’t even bother to scroll down. So make sure that you get right to the point straight away without having to make any visitors do any “work.”

It’s also a good idea to use standard conventions when creating your landing page. For example, if you have any links, underline them. Allow them to be “blue,” this is what people expect. Be clear, be descriptive, and make sure that any visitor looking at the link will understand why it’s there.

Lastly, make sure your page loads quickly. Having a page that doesn’t load quickly enough will have them clicking that “x” in the upper right-hand corner faster than anything else. This means keep the graphics to a minimum and only optimize those which are essential.

The post How To Make Money Online With Awesome Landing Pages appeared first on Blog Success Journal.

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If another site takes your content and gets higher rankings, Google could still knock you off the search results because they might think that the other site is the original. In addition to Google penalties, you could face copyright lawsuits even if you unintentionally plagiarized, resulting in legal and damages fees. To prevent any of this from happening to you, there are several proactive things that you can do.

One of the most highly effective moves is to use the duplicate content detection tool www.PlagSpotter.com to manage your site’s content. By using PlagSpotter’s unique algorithm of plagiarism detection, you will be able to find people who stole or reposted your content and to improve your own content by making it less similar to other websites. This will improve not only your site’s content but will potentially grow your readership and audience. Internet users are always on the prowl for any sign that can discredit your site. That’s why you should take the initiative and improve your site’s content before it’s too late.

PlagSpotter was launched in the fall of 2012 by a Ukraine-based team. Among its many features are their Custom Monitoring Plan, their Batch Search Feature, and API for programmers and web developers.

With their Custom Monitoring Plan, you can not only check your site for duplicate content but are able to get a personalized report or DMCA takedown service. Additionally, you can be set up with an API account which allows to check offline text, and you may request any other services you need.

PlagSpotter’s Batch Search Feature allows you to thoroughly check your site or selected URLs in a few easy clicks. All you have to do is copy/paste your URLs, link to sitemap.xml, or individually upload your txt.xml file and then you are able to check as much as you need. There are no sign up fees or monthly costs (you pay for on-demand checks only) and it costs $0.04 per 1 URL check.

Lastly, the API allows web developers and programmers to check offline and online text for any duplicate content. To use this feature, just write a basic PHP script on the server site to have your texts and URLs sent for checking.

Users can also post the PlagSpotter DO NOT COPY badge to warn potential plagiarists from stealing your content.

PlagSpotter’s easy-to-use, reasonably priced, duplicate content checking services are ideal for anyone managing online content. It ensures that all your content is original and locates users who have lifted you content and posted it elsewhere. This ideal system guarantees your content’s integrity and longevity.

The post New Duplicate Content Detection & Monitoring Tool – PlagSpotter appeared first on Blog Success Journal.

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1. Complete WordPress Backup

The backup must be complete. You must make sure that you backup not only your database but also all your files. Your WordPress site consists of two equally important parts.

a. Database: This stores all your posts, pages, and comments. It also stores your configuration. If you are running an e-commerce site, all the information related to the products and all the transactions are stored here in the database.

b. Files: Themes, Plugins, Uploads, Images are stored as files.

2. Regular Backups

The backup must be done often. For a site which is very active and posting multiple times a day, hourly backups are the best option. On the other hand, if you have a design agency, and your website changes less often, it can be backed up once in a while. However, make sure you carefully backup and check backups both before and after any major changes such as WordPress upgrade or a new plugin installation.

3. Automated Backups

We already have a million things to do. Adding another manual chore to the busy day of writing articles and managing your community is not the best thing to do. We hence recommend an automated schedule of daily backups which will make sure that this important task does not fall prey to procrastination or overwork.

4. Offsite Backups

Now that we are doing regular automated backups of our complete site, we need to make sure that we keep the backups in a safe remote location. This is one common mistake which many people make. They store the backups on the same machine. If this machine crashes, not only the original but also the backup will be lost! Or, they store the backup in the same office. In case of natural disasters (storms, volcanoes, quakes or floods), both the original and the backup are at risk. Hence the wisest action is to keep the backups in a remote location. There are plugins which can store your backup in a variety of locations such as Amazon S3, Google Drive, or Dropbox. Others can email it. Diversify your backup.

5. Third Party Backups

Another common mistake which many people make is that they rely on their hosting providers to do the backups for them. While this is definitely better than “no backups”, prudence dictates that backups should always be third-party. If the hosting provider gets hacked, there is a good chance that you will lose the backups too.

6. Versioned Backups

You should not only keep the latest backup but also the history of old backups. This ensures that even if there is a corruption in the data, which goes undetected for some time, you can get back to some recent version. This is very common when your site gets hacked. You may realize this only a week later, and it could end up being too late as the backup would have the hack too. But if you had a week old backups, you could easily restore from that. Further, the different backups files should be easy to manage and named appropriately. During the crisis, you should be certain which file has the exact backup you need.

7. Test the Restore

We have this quote which we use very often: “A backup is only as good as its restore”. Make sure that you test out the restores of your backups. You do not want to land in a situation where your backup systems fail you and you realize it too late. Even backup systems are prone to bugs and given the complex nature of WordPress deployments, there will be times, when the backups software will fail you. Hence, it is best to test your backups from time-to-time.

8. Security Is Critical

A backup contains the complete data of your site. This can include critical information such as passwords or API keys. Hence safety and security of the backup files is critical. It should be encrypted and stored in a safe way.

Here are a few of our favorite online backup services:

• blogVault
• CrashPlan
• Mozy
• SugarSync

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