SEO blogs are everywhere now, you don’t have to look far to see the cobwebs on a few of them either. So why do many webmasters insist on having a blog about SEO?

Personally speaking, I’ve been there, done that, hell I’ve even had a forum. But whilst I didn’t fail miserably I felt that the effort put into the blog & forums didn’t warrant the returns.
I’m absolutely sick of seeing guys (or girls) on forums who have links to SEO Blogs in their signature asking stupid questions like:

1. What is Anchor Text?
2. How Come my Blog isn’t Indexed Yet?
3. Why can’t I rank for the word SEO?

Why on earth would you bother reading or hiring someone who asks these types of questions?

I came across a rather interesting post yesterday mentioning that the site that ranks number 1 for Search Engine Optimization only gets roughly ~200 hits per day & that traffic rarely converts into a paying client (0.001%). Most clients from from referrals.

This is a common pattern, in the company I work for, most clients that come through our website are low quality, the high quality corporate websites are ALWAYS referred or contacted directly.

So it still baffles me as to why so many people start up SEO Blogs. The best solution that I can come up with is this:

SEO is something you can’t be taught, it’s almost like learning through experimentation. In this game knowledge is power & more power equals more respect.

Whilst SEO Blogs themselves do not make money they do help the webmaster network with like minded individuals. For example, Earners Blog has only been around for a few months & I’ve already networked with a number of other great bloggers simply because we found each others writing creative & interesting.

It’s almost like the whole DJ analogy. DJ’s these days don’t make much money from record sales, but they need to make the records to get noticed & get bookings for gigs, thats when they make their money. SEO is very similar, you need to increase your profile to the point where people will want to consult with you & PAY you for it.

There’s a number of ways to increase your profile. Take Shoemoney for example, when he posted his $100,000+ Adsense cheque the traffic to his blog went through the roof.

So there you have it, whilst an SEO blog itself may not make you any money. It doesn’t mean that it can help you reach the stepping stones to bigger & better things.

http://www.earnersblog.com/seo-blogs-dont-make-money/

The internet is an amazing thing. It’s easy to get lost in a huge amount of information, articles, software & products. Then, before you know it you have your hand in your pocket reaching for that cold bit of plastic ready to purchase a shiny new ebook on how to “Supercharge your Traffic” or “Quadtriple your Adsense Earnings Overnight!”

So, put your card away for now, lets have a look at how to not lose your money or your personal details online:

Don’t Buy Get Rich Quick Books

Quite a simple one really. Most get rich quick ebooks don’t actually tell you how to get rich. Avoid these at all costs, there are many places that you can get the same information without paying anything:

• Digitalpoint Forums
• Earners Forum
• Problogger
• Link Building Blog
• Shoemoney’s Blog

If you want to spend your money on one decent book buy Aaron Wall’s SEO Book (aff).

Don’t Gamble Based on Probability

Gambling is a game of odds, what most people don’t realise is that the odds are against them. There is no likelihood that a certain event is going to happen, just because it hasn’t happened in a long period of time.

Never Pay for anything via Money Transfer

If you buy goods via Western Union or Bank Draft then you are asking for trouble. Unless you know the person or they are a recognised dealer then I would generally avoid it. Especially on Ebay. If something happens and you are for whatever reason conned you have no comeback & nowhere to go for help.

Be careful of people Phishing in your Inbox

Phishing is a common form of online fraud. You will likely receive an email in your inbox from your bank or perhaps Paypal saying that they are updating their systems & you need to revalidate or reupdate your details. Instead of taking you to the required site you are redirected to a mirror of the site that will capture your username & password which the hacker can use to empty your accounts. Be careful not to enter your personal details into unauthorised websites.

Get Firefox 2.0

Firefox 2.0 is the best solution for Windows based PC’s in the fight against Spam, Phishing & Popups. It has built in systems to detect & alert you to potential scams & intrusions to your PC. My browser of choice.

Remember to Set a CPC & Daily Budget when using PPC

This is a common mistake when starting your first PPC (Pay Per Click) Campaign. Make sure & set yourself a daily budget of what you can afford. Whether it’s $10, $20 or $2,000. If you forget to set this you’ll be continually charged for clicks & you could get a very nasty surprise when you next log in.

Never Log into Non Secured Accounts when on a Public Wireless Network

With the rising popularity of Wifi & Wireless Laptops you can log onto Public Access Points almost anywhere these days. Every year at the Defcon Convention they run an interesting experiment called the Wall of Sheep. In a nutshell they scan the unencrypted wireless network for passwords & logins of people using it. They then name & shame the people live on a huge TV Screen.

This shows how easy it is to obtain personal information over a public network. So make sure to never log into personal accounts unless they have a secure login (begins with https://).

Never buy links from High PR Sites without checking the True Pagerank First

Yep that’s right, unfortunately PR (Page Rank) can be faked. A common practice for people to make money off you by selling links on their site. If someone offers you a high page rank link for a price that’s too good to be true, it probably is. Check the domain with the Fake Page Rank Detection Tool.

Know the Expired Domains Process before placing Backorders

Expired Domains have a particular process they go through before deletion. Some people forget that generally you’ll have to place a backorder to secure the Domain. However you can be outbid & possibly lose your money or end up paying a small fortune. The above link outlines the expired domains process in great detail 

Never Reply to Emails telling you that you’ve Inherited a small Fortune

One of the common types of email scams you’ve probably received is the 419. An email that explains to you (in poor english) that someone has died & left their fortune to you. You need to send money to release the funds into your bank account.

Yep, you guessed it. It’s a scam. But unfortunately some people do fall for these, otherwise no-one would do it. The above website is dedicated to this 419 Nigerian Scams, it will educate you on how to avoid them & also get some revenge.

Now that we’re making some progress lets take some time out for another Lesson. Eventually, you’re going to need to invest in one of the most important purchases of your online career. Webhosting.

Webhosting comes in various different forms & in general can be quite confusing for someone who doesn’t know that they’re looking for. I’m going to give you a quick run down of what I personally feel is important for you to have with a webhost, recommend a few hosts I’ve had experience with & at least then you will be a bit more knowledgable when the time comes to make the leap.

What do you need Webhosting for?

Webhosting allows you to create websites, pages, forums, shops, newsletters & much more. It allows you to market your products however you see fit, it allows you to set up a personal blog, communicate with people who visit it or even receieve email to your personal address (yourname@yourwebsite.com).

It is vitally important if you want to try & earn money online that you have a good reliable webhost, one thing also to remember is that expensive often doesn’t mean reliable. I’ve used about 6 webhosts over the past 5 years & it’s amazing how much things have changed, especially things that people now take for granted.

So what do I need to look out for with a Webhost?

Cost: Cost is important to me, I like to shop around, compare companies & find the best deal. So should you, don’t be implusive about buying Webhosting because it can bite you in the ass later. At this stage you really shouldn’t need to spend more than $10-15/month on Hosting. Also avoid hosts with huge setup fees.

Server Space: This is the amount of space that you get on your Webhost’s Server. It’s basically hard drive space like on your own computer. Webhost’s range from 1GB anywhere up to 1000GB+. So lets be realistic, you want enough space to do what you need, but you also want enough space to grow incase you build up a hefty portfolio of websites.

Bandwidth: This is the amount of data that you can send to & from the host in a calendar month. Anything from 10GB+ should be great for what you need it for, unless you’re streaming video or have a very Image intensive site. Again it’s important to plan for growth.

Unlimited Domain Names: Once you have a hosting package you can just buy domain names & add them in. This means that when you want to create a new site it only costs you $5 or whatever the domain name costs to buy. Some Webhost’s only allow you a limited number of domains that you can host, I personally would avoid this at all costs & go with a host that will allow you to host as many domains & subdomains as you need.

Unlimited Databases: Software such as this blogging platform that I’m using, uses Databases. It’s a much easier way of storing information on your Web Server without having to create bulky pages. So if you can get a hosts that gives you lots, or unlimited databases that’s awesome.

Good Support & Customer Service: If you have a problem you want quick help, if your tech knowledge is limited ideally you want somewhere that has 24/7 telephone support, if not then email support. Many hosts now run blogs that give you up to the minute details on outages, problems & other news.

Do your Research: If you find a good webhost that you like, do some research. Search Google about them, read forums, read other peoples experiences then make up your mind

What Webhost do you Reccommend?

I Personally have used Dreamhost for about 1 year now. I moved over from IX Hosting & haven’t looked back. Here’s a brief rundown of what I get.

I pay $7.95/month (although I paid upfront for 2 years), so there was no setup fee.

• 20GB Server Space (Which increases by 160MB per Week)
• 1000GB Bandwidth (Which increases by 8GB per Week)
• Unlimited Domains & Subdomains
• Unlimited Databases
• 97 Day Money Back if you’re not Happy

One of the main reasons that I chose Dreamhost was the increasing bandwidth & diskspace always gave me room for growth & the plan was one third of the price of any other host I looked at. I’ve had no problems so far, maybe 3 outages in the past 6 months for a few hours or so.

If you want to give Dreamhost a go I’ve organised a special discount voucher for all readers of this blog. It’ll give you $97 off the yearly or two year hosting plan. That’s the maximum discount.

Lesson”>http://www.earnersblog.com/choosing-the-right-webhost/”>Lesson #2: Choosing the Right Web Host

When first learning about what it takes to make a living online it is easy to get lost in a world of imaginary guidebooks that will help you “start making money within minutes.” It all sounds so easy, you’re uneducated, what do you have a lose? Your OWN money of course!

Lets think about it logically, if you knew some awesome way to make $1000/day that no-one else knew about, would you go running straight to your PC to write a book about it OR capatalize on it?

Yeah that’s right it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work that one out. So what can we deduce from this? That MOST (Not all) of these types of books will contain old methods that don’t work as effectively anymore. So you end up buying a concept that 1000’s are already putting into practice; whilst the writer of the Ebook is out making money on a newer more up to date method. I guess this is why when the books first come out they’re priced at $197, then they sloooowly reduce in price. Whenever you see a book that’s been reduced to $39 that probably means it’s well past its sell by date and alarm bells should be ringing.

So which of these books are the biggest culprits:

1: Affiliate Cash Vault

2: Survey Income System

3: Type At Home

4: Ultimate Wealth Package

5: Data Entry Pro

And that’s just five of them. There’s Hundreds if not thousands more.

The Survey & Data Entry books are the biggest cons, they lead you into believing you will be earning money from filling out surveys but in actual fact they teach you the basics of Affiliate Marketing instead, so you end up filling out Pay Per Click forms NOT Surveys. I will talk more about Pay Per Click later on but you can see for yourself that the only thing most of these books are selling to you are “false promises” of wealth.

So if these books are so rubbish then how come they get such good reviews?

There’s a method behind the madness. Each book has its own Affiliate Program, this means that if I was to write a review about one of the books then you purchased it via the link on my page then I would get money for referring you. The books above give a nice 75% Affiliate Commission. So if the book is $49 you would make $37. You can see why so many people are writing good reviews about products that are clearly sub standard. This in itself proves a problem; mainly that it’s is very difficult to find people giving unbiased opinions…

Well you’re in luck because I am not going to reccommend you any products or services that I would not or do not use myself. We will try to look at not only paid services but also the free alternatives aswell. So now that we’ve learnt what not to do, in my next post we’ll look at the basics, the different ways you can earn money online then we’ll explore each option.

And finally I urge you that if you have been CONNED by any of these books & you have purchased them through Clickbank then you are entitled to a full refund within 90 days if you are not happy. No questions asked. So don’t be afraid to ask for a refund if what you have purcahsed doesn’t live up to expectations.
Until Next Time.

Recommended Reading:

• SEO Book
• Affiliate Project X
• Super Affiliate Handbook

Recommended Resources:

• Agloco
• Join Adsense

tip for WordPress newbies participating in this project - all themes are not created equal. Realizing that from the beginning will save you a lot of frustration. Choosing the wrong WordPress theme can be very limiting (and time-consuming) for a WordPress beginner.

I’ve helped out several new bloggers who ran into trouble because the WordPress themes they selected wouldn’t accommodate their monetization goals without some major tweaks. One of the biggest mistakes made by new Wordpress users is believing that switching themes just alters the way your blog looks. In actuality, a theme combines visual and functional components.

Don’t choose a theme just because you think it’s pretty - instead, look for the features and functionality that will best serve your needs. No matter what theme you choose, you can always swap out the header image or play around with the color scheme.

Off the top of my head, here are a few questions to consider when selecting a theme:

1. Does the sidebar appear on every page or just the main index page?

2. Will the theme accommodate ad units in multiple areas? Is the content area wide enough for a 468px banner or can it be widened without having to alter background images in Photoshop?

3. Does it have separate “main index” and “single post” templates that can be manipulated independently?

4. Does the architecture of the theme fit your needs? Are you happy with the number of sidebars and how they are positioned?

Obviously with a little time and effort, any of these things can be customized, but choosing the right theme will speed things up so you can focus on content and marketing.

 Go reg a domain name, anything will do fine.
If it’s related to your niche (eg mortgages) it’ll be easier, but it’s not mandatory.

The words ‘yahoo’ and ‘google’ and ‘dell’ dont mean anything in the english dictionary, but there’ve been brands built around those words.

The cost of failure in internet marketing is $8 (for your domain?) and it just costs another $8 to try again.

Coming into internet marketing, you’d ideally want $1,000 - $2,000 to try stuff out, expect to fail at least some of the time and figure out what works.

So part of this thread is also inculcating the mindset that 90% of the stuff you try out as a newbie might crash and burn. But the 10% that succeeds could give you a 900% ROI.

So if you are serious about testing this stuff out, with free instructional guidance from the admins and mods here, then i think you need to scrap a budget together to at least give it a go.

IMO I get a lot of enquiries from people who want to make a million bucks, but they aren’t even willing to spend $8 on a domain name. There’s a bloody big disconnect there if you ask me.

Anyway, the bottomline is that part of this exercise is being in the right frame of mind starting out. You’re learning a system, and there were requirements posted in the first post.

It’s as much about (and probably more importantly about) the learning than just the money itself.

If you get that one lesson, you’re better than 99% of the people out there already.

Q: Should we look at loading the domain with keywords to help it rank better?

A:Blogger.com/Blogspot.com
1) free
2) supposedly indexed by google easily
3) didnt support categories the last time i checked.
4) doesnt permit custom permalink structures
5) can mod the templates to some extent
6) domain is owned by google, who can shut you down for violation of ToS, especially if you wander into pills, porn and poker, or spam
7) processing and updating crawls during peak hours.
8) *** Can be hosted on your own domain, which mitigates (7) somewhat.
9) if you’re using a (blogname).blogspot.com blog, you’ll have a hard time transferring/selling the domain if you ever want to.

Wordpress.com
kinda the same as blogger, cept google doesnt index you as readily,
similar to hosted wordpress, except has a number of limitations from what I’ve heard (don’t use wordpress.com myself)
[can’t sell the domain either]

Hosted WordPress
1) comes standard with most hosting accounts out there.
2) installs on your own domain with a single click from cpanel.
3) setup takes about 30 seconds.
4) flexible SEO-friendly permalink structure
5) widgets and plugins give you lots of flexibility for traffic gen/seo/metrics
6) greater visibility with user-customized XML-RPC list.
7) since it’s hosted on your domain, you can sell it, monetize it easily.
8) cons: not as idiot-friendly as blogger/wordpress.com, but can be more powerful in terms of functions and traffic reach.

 We spend money here to make money ets say we spend $150 that brings us in 2500 unique hits from MSN, GOOGLE , YAHOO ect paid search.
Out of that you convert 31% of that traffic @ $5 - $20 each.
Add that up, this is why that is needed to be spent, dont live in the past like all the WH forums where they pray for small traffic for free, when the people who make money spend money, thats how it works with any type of business.

I want to show some of you how easy it is to make money online, especially by season. So let’s do a bit of a group project and keep the information up to date, day by day here so others can also learn and benefit.

If you’re up for the challenge, I will give everyone up to a week to decide or get ready for this project and then we will begin, step by step, day by day, for approx 1 month to get you on your way to making money online. These are conservative goals and don’t be ashamed if you can’t meet them, all it takes it drive/effort and time really.

Winter 2007 -
What you need:
- Wordpress or Blogger account
- Your own domain
- Cheap hosting
- Custom layout
- Paid content (or you can write your own to cut costs and stay unique)
- Adsense/YPN account
- Ad network campaign for your niche topic (optional)

Budget:
- $100-$150 per month

Goals:
- Have a blog up and running within a week or less.
- Hire a content writer (or do it yourself)
- Have at least 1 new blog post every day for a month
- Make at least $200/mo with new blog by month 2.
- Generate at least 100 uniques a day via SE’s by month 3.

Good niche topics to choose from:
- Tax season (businesses in March, consumers in April)
- Cold/Flu season remedies/medicines
- Winter sports (skiing, snowboarding, ice fishing, hunting)
- Winter vacations
- Winter accessories (shovels, sleds, salt)
- Fashion (gloves, coats, scarves)
- Jobs (ski instructors, ice skating rinks, shoveling snow).