So I am trying a little experiment here. This is a really old blog that I have resurrected. I probably should call it the Lazarus Blog, just for fun!
Except for this post, all the posts are very old and some are completely irrelevant. But for now I am going to leave them all here and see if they get any traction.
So if you happen to stop by, could you please leave a comment? Either on this post, or any post you think is worth a comment. Either because it is so terribly good, or terribly awful. (I suspect most will be in the awful catagory!)
Thank you so much for your time.
If you think this is really weird, feel free to follow me on Twitter. @weirdtrep I follow back!
I have been spending my time studying on how to be a better blogger.
I am writing this quick post mostly as a tool for me. I need a place to keep all this information together. But I hope you can find it useful as well.
Here are the blogs I am spending a lot of time on. I also listen to their podcasts when they are available. ThinkTraffic by Corbett Barr Smart Passive Income by Patt Flynn Internet Business Mastery with Sterling and Jay CopyBlogger Hector Cuevas ProBlogger Social Media Examiner
Here is a list of sites where you can post your articles, summaries and more. I plan on adding to it as I find more sites. All of the sites listed l provide some form of revenue sharing and all are good sources for backlinks. Please let me know if you know of any other revenue sharing sites and I will add them to the list!
Unlike the other sites, Bukisa pays for page views as opposed to ad clicks. This is great if you are good at generating traffic, and/or you have a topic that doesn’t convert to clicks well. Also, unlike the other sites, Bukisa pays directly to your PayPal account so you don’t need to wait for Google’s $100 payout threashold. Bukisa is a good place to start blogging for money because you don’t need an adsense account and you don’t even need your own blog. You can literally get started for free.
Xomba is a revenue sharing site where you can post original articles, or you can “bookmark” links to sites that you like.
Hubpages has a nice revenue split of 60/40 and in addition to Adsense you can also earn commissions with Amazon and Ebay.
SheToldMe is a site where you can post original content, or you can post “sccops”. Scoops are basically bookmarks to sites you find interesting. Yours or anybody elses. SheToldMe is nice in that instead of having a split, one of the adblocks on the page is 100% yours. You get credit for all the clicks.
Best Reviewer is a new addition from the creator of SheToldMe. Here you create original “best of” articles in a list format. Like SheToldMe you get one adblock that is always showing your ads.
YouSayToo is a revenue sharing site with both Adsense and Amazon. They have a handy little tool where you can automatically have your blog posts show up on YouSayToo.
Blog Engage is a little different from the others in that it is more of a bookkmarking site and you are only supposed to add your own sites. Other users can then vote you up or down. Blog Engage is a 50/50 Adsense revenue site, but with a little effort there is a way where your posts can show your Adsense ID 100% of the time.
If you are like a lot of techno-geeks, you have all of your media in many different formats. Do you get frustrated when you try to load a movie to your iPod and it won’t accept the format? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to take any DVD with any type of media and rip it into almost any file type you can think of?
ImToo DVD Ripper is a software program that will rip your DVDs and convert them into almost any type of file. There is also a DVD Ripper Mac version.
What is really cool about this software is you can take just about any type of file, and do just about anything you want to it. You can clip, merge, and split videos. You can specify specific parts of a DVD by time, and rip with the angles and subtitles of your choice.
I found a blog post that I thought was just brilliant. Number one because the topic was interesting, and number two, because the post itself encouraged you to read further into the blog.
The post is Blog Setup: 40 Practical Tips. The title itself is great, it is interesting and Google is going to love it. Notice how the keywords come first, very important for SEO. The post caught my eye because I am always looking for tips on how to set up a blog. I am always starting new blogs, and anything that makes blogging easier or more profitable is of interest to me.
Opening the post I was surprised to find 40 links dealing with all sorts of blog topics. Now I was just a bit annoyed that I would have to do more clicking to get the information I was after, but I had to admire the technique. For the most part the links were to other posts in the same blog, but some were to outside posts. All look interesting and I am going to be spending some time checking out the links.
The links were organized by topic. I found that very helpful, it is easy to get put off by a long list of random links. With the links organized into sections it was easy to jump from topic to topic. For instance, I skipped right over the basics and went straight to the section on SEO and analytics. Someone just starting out would probably start with the links on how to choose a hosting account.
All in all a great post from many different stand points. I think it is a format that I will be using in the future!
Visit the forums and you will find that the debate rages on. Is it better to use a free blog service, or pay for your own domain and hosting? In my opinion the answer is both!
The biggest advantage to having a self hosted blog is that you have the most control over your blog. You can post the ads you want and the content you want.And when you you use a provider such as Hostgator or GoDaddy you can rest assured you will have reliable hosting without too much downtime.
But there are advantages to using a free host. The number one advantage is that it is free! Free blogs are a great way to test the water of blogging. Try it out and get some experience before you actually pay money to blog. Free hosts are also a useful source of backlinks to your regular blogs.
There are some downsides to free hosts. Some will place ads on your sites. Some will not allow you to place your own ads on your site. Read the terms of service carefully and make sure that the host you choose will meet your needs.
Following is a list of free host sites. My favorite, just because it is small and I know the owner is Blogging4Life. My blog there is Katalina Online. Have fun creating your free blogs!
Well, it is over. My best performing domain has been taken from me due to trademark issues.
Just a recap if you don’t feel like reading my first post on receiving a cease and desist letter.
Last summer, my finance website started to take off. I was showing up on the first 3 pages of Google search, and the income was going up along with the page views.
Then the letter came. Apparently, two of the words in my domain were trademarked, and the attorney wanted me to hand over the domain.
I argued, I fought, I asked for concessions, but in the end I handed the domain over. In return, I got nothing.
I might have been able to fight it, but I felt my chances for success were low, and I didn’t want to spend the time or the money. In the end, I moved my blog to a better domain, Money, Debt and Taxes, and now I will just do what I did before to bring it up in the search rankings and build the traffic.
As a result of this I am now much more careful in choosing my domains. I am looking to see if there is any chance that they might be trademarked. I don’t want to lose that much hard work ever again!
I spend many hours every day on the computer. Offline I am a tax adviser so during the months of January to April I might spend 12 or more hours every day on the computer. And without fail by mid February I would have some form of RSI, Repetitive Strain Injury.
Repetitive Strain Injury
RSI refers to arm and hand pain that can occur when you perform the same motion over and over again. It is common in the computer world. For me, I would often get pain and weakness in my right forearm. I have been diagnosed with Tendinitis and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I was prescribed wrist braces and pain relievers. But nothing seemed to really work. Surgery could not promise a cure, because the real problem was the amount of time I spent on the computer. It seemed like my only options were to live with the pain, or go on disability. I didn’t like either of those options.
Before I go on, I want to stress that I am not expert in Repetitive Strain Injury. I am just sharing with you what worked for me. Everyone’s situation is different and you should consult with your own professional advisers regarding your particular situation.
Avoid Using Braces or Splints
Short term these are OK, but if you use braces or wrist splints for an extended period of time the muscles in your wrist will weaken. With weak muscles you will not be able to support your wrists properly without the splints, and you run the chance of re-injuring yourself. Limit splint use to one or two weeks at most, and when you are not on the computer, do strength exercises that target the hands, wrist and arms.
Always use proper wrist position
Notice the wrists are straight and are not resting on any supports.
The funny thing here is that many devices that are designed to help prevent repetitive strain injury can actually make it worse. It is very important that you keep your wrists straight and in a neutral position. Using a wrist rest can put the wrists in a bent up position that can make repetitive strain injuries worse.
Put Your Hands in Your Lap!
This is actually the technique that made the most difference for me. When we spend long hours on the computer there are many times when our hands are not being used. It might be for less than a minute, but you may have your hand on your mouse waiting for a page to load, you may be thinking about what you are going to write next, or you may be watching a video. No matter how short a time, take your hands away from the keyboard, away from the mouse, and put them in your lap. By doing so you give your neck, shoulders, arms, wrists and hands several “mini breaks” during the day. All those little mini breaks add up and I found that even after a long 12 hour day I was still pain free.
As bloggers and webmasters we can spend many hours per day in front of the computer. By following these few simple techniques, you can drastically minimize your chances of getting a repetitive strain injury. So now tell me, while you have been reading this post, where have your hands been?
Recently I have been writing a few hubs(posts) on Hubpages. Hubpages is a site where you can write about just about anything, and they share the page impressions with you. So when someone looks at my hub on getting rid of credit card debt, 60% of the time my adsense ads are showing and 40% of the time the hubpages ads are showing. My clicks go into my account and I don’t have to trust HubPages to pay me. Having recently been burned by another get paid to blog site, I really like the way HubPages pays.
So here is the challenge, Can you write 100 hubs in 30 days? And if you did, what would your income be?
You can join the challenge over at HubPages, but I would like to make it even more fun. Sign up for a HubPages account using this link.
Then join the challenge and start writing hubs. Leave a comment here with a link to your new HubPages profile. Anyone who signs up under my referral link and writes 100 hubs before June 17, 2009 will receive $5 via PayPal! That will be in addition to any Adsense, Amazon, and eBay affiliate earnings you get from your hubs. (That will go direct into your affiliate account.)
If no one writes 100 hubs before June 17, 2009, then I will give one $5 prize to the person who writes at least 25 hubs and has the highest number of hubs written.
Now I have to get busy. The challenge officially starts on Monday and I need to have a few hubs ready to go!
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