This weeks updates and news
I have been starting to do some simple SEO optimization for this blog using the SEO professional Jim Westergrens guide, SEO for Wordpress. I have a few steps left to implement on this blog, but when I am done I am sure it will help out a lot, I am already getting quite good traffic from Google on keywords from my motivational section so that is what I have decided to optimize for.
I have also ordered a few reviews for this blog via PayPerPost.com, which has given me some permanent backlinks, I hope they will bring value and do some good for this blog both with traffic and SEO.
Regarding my earnings from this blog, so far I have not reached my goal to double the amount I earned last month, which makes me a little dissapointed but the fact is I have had to much to do, so the ad selling part has not been as active, but as I mentioned in an earlier post today I am going to work on the private ad sale part from now on, with some help from Nate Whitehills guide. We will see in a few days how my earnings this month was compared with the last one.
Fellow Entrepreneurs Wrote (8)
Shane over at Zoomstart.com has published the article, Leverage. It’s How You Make Big Money In Anything. A good read, and he is breaking it down to the basics and I guess it where we have to go sometimes, to see the bigger picture, building something for the future. So back to the basics with your business.
As always one of my buddy Nates posts is mentioned here. It really is one of my favorite blogs and he always deliveres awesome content for his readers. His last post covers How To Sell Your Blog’s Advertising and even if I already use some of the advice he is talking about here I will follow his guide from top to bottom and see if I can improve my ad selling on this blog.
Unique Blog Marketing
This blog post is sponsored
Nowadays blogs are a very powerful tool in any companies marketing strategy, both for SEO and direct buzz. One company that has adapted this is thinkBIGsites which is a website optimization firm that has developed new and unique ways and strategies to help you get more website traffic.
Lets have a closer look at their services. They offer a wide base of products and services with everything from Blog marketing to PHP programming.
Their blog marketing section is what interest me the most, and what they offer here is a full service helping you set up a blog for SEO purposes. This is maybe nothing for the experienced blogger but could absolutely help someone just getting started with their blogging. This service is quite unique from what I know, at least I have not seen anything like it until now.
If we look at their website it has a very nice design and it made me interested in what the have to offer, they also present their services briefly directly on their front page with a great overview. That gives their website in whole a higher score from me.
Go to their website and be sure to check out what they offer
Hectic but fun weekend
I am sorry to say this my friends but this weekend I will probbly not be able to post anything at all here. I have a lot to do, and it involves al lot of hard work but also a lot of heavy partying.
Tomorrow I will go to Linkin Parks concert here in Sweden and rock, rock and rock. 30 Seconds to Mars, which is another band I totally digg will also be playing before the big act. After this we will go out to a club and party all night long.
On Saturday, I will meet up with my new business partner Magnus to get started with our new venture, we will have meetings all day with a break in the afternoon with a visit to the swedish SEO-meet where we will network with some really interesting people, connecting for the future. This will be a great day I think.
PayPerPost Direct
PayPerPost has finally launched a feature in their system I have been longing for, and that is something called PayPerPost Direct. This new feature on PayPerPost allows you as a blogger to add a badge on your site (you can see mine in the third column) where you advertise directly to the advertiser that they can buy a blog post on your post directly.
What are the advantages of this? One thing is that you probably get more exposure that you are available to write reviews of companies sites, products or services, which means a bigger chance for you to earn more money. Another big advantage is that you can set your own price for a review, I have set mine to $20 because that is what I think a quality review on this blog is worth at the moment.
Compared to competitors to PayPerPost, like ReviewMe this system has very low fees for the advertisers and bloggers, only 5 -10% to cover PayPal and credit card fees. Compared to ReviewMe’s 50% this is quite good, if not amazingly good.
Blog marketing is a great thing and this new system will for sure help PayPerPost and us bloggers to get more reviews and earn more money.
Be sure to check out their blog, where they also have published an instructional video on how to use this new system.
Changed my mind again
A couple of days ago I told you again that I would try to sell my network of arcade sites and some other sites, but I have changed my mind again. I have now decided to improve this network, and see if I can get things going.
The network will go under the name Arcaderz, and just by linking the sites in the network to eachother all sites has increase thei traffic, and by this I am recycling the traffic I get and send it around the network and hopfully they will stay and register on some of the sites. I have also already seen an increase in the Adsense account daily from some of these sites, so I think I am on the right track.
I have bought 3 new entertainment sites that I will try to make better, with some basic SEO and cleaning up the design. I will update you on how this project is coming along.
CMS Templates from Themestock
A couple of weeks ago now I reviewed the products of BoxedArt. This time I am having a look at another concept in their network of sites called Themetock.
Themstock is an excellent resource that offers you cms templates and skins, and they have themes available for almost every content management system out there, including a great collection of wordpress templates and joomla templates.
Their website is very clean and easy to navigate because of the structure they have on the site.The directories of themes is also very pleasent to look through and it is quite simple to find a skin that fits your sites topic just by browsing through their category list or using their search engine.
I have choosen to have a closer look at the WordPress template section since WordPress is a cms I use on a daily basis on many of my sites. Here they have a wide range of different templates with everything from animal themes to real estate themes. The templates are very nicely designed and they really adds a professional look to your blog, which is absolutely neccesary for your blogs success.
One of the greatest things with Themestock is the price for their full access membership which is at only $139.99 per year. For this you get hundreds, or if not thousands of different templates for content management systems like, drupal, wordpress, oscommerce, joomla, zen cart, cre loaded, xoops, mambo and php-nuke.
Be sure to check their site out at www.themestock.com they are a perfect resource if you want a good looking and professional design for your site wthout spending to much of you hard earned money. These templates are not unique but it is less likely that thousands of people use the same template as you as it is with the free templates available.
Self Discipline
Self discipline, the art of being able to step out of your comfort zone and stop making all your decisions based only on your comfort level. Is that a good description? I think so, or as a matter of fact I know it is that way based on my own experiences and what I have heard from other entrepreneurs, most of them working from their home.
By stretching beyond our comfort level we are able to really get things done that needs to get done and by that we are also boosting our confidence in what we do. Most of us know what needs to be done and are actually able to do it, but a lot of people, including myself, sometimes find it hard to discipline ourselves above of what is comfortable at the moment, and with this our companies do not perform what they should if we would give 100% to get our job done.
Because of this we all really need to have a look at this, and what can be done to change this set of mind to the better. How do we stretch ourselves over to the next level out of the comfort zone? There are a couple of steps to help you improve.
Your Responsibility
A first step to take is to acknowledge your responsibility. You got to see what you have to do to be succesful with your venture and admit to yourself that you are sitting around doing nothing and that it is your own fault if you do not succed when doing this.
Define your purpose
What do you want to accomplish? That is a question that helps you determaine a cause of why you are doing what you are doing. A part of this process is setting goals and realizing the importance of goals.
Do not feel stressed
It may take some time to get things done, but do not feel stressed over work, try to find the balance and allow things to take the time it needs. My article on stress management can be a great additional read to this article.
Schedule work
If you are really having a hard time getting a good structure in your work, setting up a schedule with work sessions is an excellent tool. As self-employed you should still work at least 8 hours a day if needed, and if you are working at home you can be more flexible so if you need you can spread your work sessions over the day. But if you are really having problems with your discipline you should not divide your work sessions in more than two 4 hours sessions.
Except from scheduling the hours you should also set up a priority list, with what you have to do today and what should be finished during these work sessions. When something has been done, strike it off the list.
Avoid distractions
As I discussed in my article, Importance of a seperate work space it is very important to find a place to work at where a minmum of distractions are available. This includes family members, TVs and other stuff keeping you from 100% focus on your task.
As with everything you need to do you will be tempted to not do it from time to time, to make up excuses for youself why you should not do it. Do NOT fall for that. Instead offer yourself some incentives and think of what you can do, when the money comes rolling in. Maybe a cruise in the Carribbeans or a new bike? On what level you put it is up to you, but it sure helps to motivate you.
There is no short cut to this, it is all about hard work, but with the steps above you are able to set your mind to this and start your journey to success.
When you have set a higher level of self discipline you will be able to do almost anything, the only one that can stop yourself from doing something is you.
Small Business Web Hosting
This blog post is sponsored
If you are going to launch a website for your business it is important to have your own domain name, like yoursite.com and stable and reliable web hosting for your site.
There are tons of providers out there and as a beginner in this industry it is very hard to find the right solution and service provider out there. Below is a review and a recommendation of one provider offering small business web hosting solutions that fits you with a newly started business.
The service provider is Concentric and they offer you, web hosting, email hosting and domain registration. Their website is easily navigated and it got great overview which makes it simple to read up and find a hosting plan that fits your needs.
The prices are absolutely ok, especiallly if you look at what a generous amount of traffic and disc space you get along with a bunch of other nice features.
Visit them here: Concentric
Google has aquired Feedburner
Google has paid 100 miliion dollars cash for Feedburner, the company which is providing most of us bloggers with a tool handling our RSS Feeds.
This is yet another step for Google to strengthen their position as a leader online. We have seen a lot of big aquisitions lately and we will see more of these in the future with out a doubt.
I want to contraulate Feedburner on their $100 million payday.
Read more on: TechCrunch
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About Andreas Bard
My name is Andreas Bard and I am a web entrepreneur, writer and blogger. On this blog I write motivational articles and aim to help you on your way to success with your business venture.
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