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SOB Business Cafe 06-08-07

June 8, 2007 by Liz

SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Problogger’s having a party in NYC. I’ll be there. Will you?

ProBlogger New York Readers Meetup – RSVP here


Manage to Change tells the highlights of our NYC trip so far.

Conferences, Gatherings, & Answers


LifeDev uses Google as a personal example

What Google Can Teach Us About Self-Image


Ask Delaney Krik has student advice that works for more than college professors. Use college professors as a metaphor for bloggers.

Great Advice From Students For College Professors


Daily Blog Tips wonders about the timestamp.

Should We Remove the Timestamp?


Related ala carte selections include

Workboxers has a request.

Please – Keep It On Blogger!!!


Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

Have a great weekend!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Filed Under: SOB Business, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Daily-Blog-Tips, LifeDev, Manage-to-Change, Problogger, Workboxers

SOB Business Cafe 01-12-07

January 12, 2007 by Liz

SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Success from the Nest has a question that could impact our bottom line.

Do You Know Where Your Nuts Are?

Deep Jive Interests has offers Yahoo! a plan to get their ROI from MyBlogLog.

Here’s How Yahoo! Could Capitalize on MyBlogLog

Solo Business Marketing reminds us of one thing we should be certain to find out.

Does Your Client Have the Authority to Pay?

Workboxers explains how to name a real world business opening online.

Selecting a Solid Business Domain Name

Drew’s Marketing Minute has an important ultimatum.

Love me or let me go

Logic + Emotion gives us a tour of what will soon be the newest and fastest growing habitat of the business world.

The iPhone Ecosystem

Technosailor details a series on the business of podcasting.

Podcasting Essentials: Strength in Numbers

Whimspiration has gathered a comprehensive list of non-GMO, natural, heirloom, organic, and CNG seed vendors for gardeners looking to buy products on the Internet

Winter’s Grasp

Related ala carte selections include

Scribbit reminds us that not all things should be business.

Creative Family Activities: Part One

Creative Think explains the benefit of resting to change and creativity.

Pause for a Bit

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like.
No tips required. Comments appreciated.

Have a great weekend!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Filed Under: Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Creative-Think, Deep-Jive-Interests, Drews-Marketing-Minute, logic-+-emotion, Scribbit, Solo-Business-Marketing, Success-from-the-Nest, Technosailor, Whimspiration, Workboxers

SOB Business Cafe 09-08-06

September 8, 2006 by Liz

SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the title shots to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Blog Blog has a new look, but the same great service since we met.

Blog Blog New Look

Simplenomics reminds that folks value what we value.

Be Proud of Your Prices

Business Blogwire is getting wired into a series on big, big business blogs.

Fortune 500 Corporate Review Series

Service Untitled takes us to the Ritz.

Customer Service Difference #3 Ritz Carlton

Workboxers has THE interview with Patrick Gavin, explaining everything, including how signing up for a Text Links Ad will help put my son though college.

Revealing All about TextLink Ads

Related ala carte selections include

The Hillbilly PhD has a great question and the answer’s not 42 OR 43.

 How Do You Define Your Personal Mission

It’s a Numeric Life isn’t telling tall tales here.

Tall People Earn More

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like.
No tips required. Comments appreciated.

Have a great weekend!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Filed Under: Blog Review, Business Life, Customer Think, Motivation, SOB Business, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Blog-Blog, Business-Blogwire, Customer Think, Hillbilly-PhD, Its-a-Numeric-Life, Service-Untitled, Simplenomics, Workboxers

A 30-Second Tactical Guide to Adsense

August 8, 2006 by Guest Author

by James Martin

New Blogger Logo

So you’ve started a nice new blog, you have a funky domain, some content and you’re all up and running. A few weeks later you magically come across a blog by the name of ProBlogger run by Darren Rowse. You find out that he works from home and earns a very respectable income from blogging.

Your mind goes into overdrive, maybe I can earn money from my blog – but how does he do it?

For you Successful-Blog readers, I’m going to briefly delve into the wonderful world of Adsense.

WARNING – this covers a very basic guide, however I will reveal a few tactics that you may be unaware of…

Introduction to Adsense

Adsense is a publisher’s god send. Google Adsense is a contextual advertising system that allows publishers (people who own/run websites, blogs) to place advertisements on their site. When people click an advert, the publisher will be paid for that click.

Signing up is easy; however you must have an already established website with real content. Click here to signup for Google Adsense.

Once your site has been approved you will be able to select an advert type, color and shape. Below I will list some tips that you should try and stick to when choosing these options.

What works:

    1) Blend the ad into your content as much as you can. If your blog background color is white, make your advert background color and border white as well.

    2) When considering a “link color”, try making it the same link color as the links found on your blog. If your blog has links in the content, what color are they? Apply the same color to your Adsense adverts.

    3) If you’re unsure about what color to use for links, stick with blue. It’s a standard across the web and when people see text that’s blue, it screams “click me”.

    4) Location is important as a well placed advert can be the key to success. 468×60 adverts work well above your blog content; horizontal link units work well too.

    5) Another 468×60 advert works well under the first post, click here to learn how to place an advert under your first blog post. (WordPress only!)

What doesn’t work:

    1) Skyscraper adverts don’t work too well on a blogs sidebar; they just scream “I’m an ad!” and generally don’t attract much attention.

    2) Ads with borders. Though some people have success with them, the majority don’t. You could always test it, on one week, off the other.

    3) Bright, ugly colors. Don’t go there.

Big No-no’s

    1) NEVER click your own adverts. This is a big no-no and Google have devices in place to detect fraudulent clicks.

    2) Never ask your readers to “click on your adverts”, or have headings that state “please click my ads to support this site”. This is strictly forbidden as per Google’s terms of service.

How much will I earn?

The question that gets asked the most is how much will I earn or how much should I be earning. The trick to this question is that different content will receive a different CPM. (Cost per thousand impressions). There are keywords that will attract a higher CPM, while others won’t.

There are people who write content specifically designed to include high paying keywords as to attract higher earnings. But that is a whole new story and generally isn’t considered true blogging as the user is publishing content made for Adsense, and not the readers.

The general consensus is to create content that is valuable and useful to REAL surfers. MFA (made for Adsense) content won’t make you rich overnight and with so much competition, you’re better off creating real content that you love writing about.

I’m sure Liz will agree 🙂

James “Jamsi” Martin

__________
Check out James’ blog, Workboxers. His approach to business blogging is refreshing, inquisitive, and intelligent. Workboxers a great read, packed with information in the right size nuggets. I always catch myself remembering his posts long after I’ve read them.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Want to Be a Guest Writer?

Filed Under: Business Life, Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Successful Blog, Tools Tagged With: Adsense, bc, Google, James-Martin, Workboxers

Success Is . . .

August 3, 2006 by Liz

Jamsi at Workboxers Says

Be the turtle. Click the title to find out why.

Be the Turtle

He’s got the numbers, and he’s right you know.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Filed Under: Business Life, Personal Branding, Strategy/Analysis, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Jamsi, success, Workboxers

SEO-OSE-SOE–When an Alternate Spelling Is Optimization

November 15, 2005 by Liz

SEO misspelling article link search image

When I do a link search on MSN for my personal blog, I always get that starred question Were you looking for . . . ? The same thing happens on Google, Yahoo, and most search engines.

I find it useful when I mistype a word, fun to follow when I’m on a link search, and funny when it’s unconnected to what I’m searching for. I didn’t think much about it, except to notice the number of listings under misspelled words.

In an October post written by Jamsi at Workboxers, The Overlooked Optimization Technique, Jamsi tells how with the Overture Keyword Tool, he used an alternative spelling as Search Engine Optimization. By removing a space and a capital letter from a keyword, Jamsi achieved a top three rank in the listings at Google, Yahoo, and MSN for an obscure blog.

The logic is simple and compelling.

It’s the big fish in a small pond strategy. Choose the less preferred spelling, and you’ll get more attention. Use the Overture Keyword Tool to make sure that you still have an audience. Then tag your post with keywords that will get you a higher rank in a shorter listing.

–ME “Liz” Strauss aka My Lis Straus

Filed Under: Marketing /Sales / Social Media, SEO, Strategy/Analysis, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Google, intentional_misspelling, Jamsi, keyword_misspelling, misspelled_keywords, MSN, Overture_Keyword_Tool, search_engines, SEO, Workboxers, Yahoo

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