To Monetize That RSS Feed Or Not

Many people have a RSS feed on their blog or website. And those that do often have Google's Adsense or one of many other programs for monetizing their website. RSS feeds have been growing in popularity as you all know, they simplify staying current with your favorite website or blog. But technology has been advancing as the popularity of RSS feeds have been increasing. And with this advancement has been the ability for publishers to capitalize on their feeds.

Before, someone with a news reader or aggregator could easily read all the articles from a site and never have to leave their reader. Nice clean articles without being bombarded by ads or having to filter through other things. Great for the reader, not so great if you are the publisher desiring to make some money on the side etc. Well, now publishers can do exactly that, feed their articles to people and add adverts along with those feeds. Covering all their bases on making money possibly.

Although I must stress and warn this might not be the best route to go. A better possible route might be to turn on the "show more" ability in your favorite aggregator account "like feedburner" or in your WordPress built site use the "show more" button in all of your posts. Why? because then you do not have to annoy your visitors and readers with even more ads when they receive your feeds. Yet still giving them an idea of what the article is about in a brief summary kind of way, by showing your first paragraph or two, and giving them the choice to click to your site to read the full article or not. At this point if they choose to visit your site then they can be shown the relevant articles. If not then you havn't lost a reader by pushing more ads onto them, yet you also gave them enough information to decide whether or not to come read the rest of your article at which time they would be exposed to the ads on your site. A kind of happy medium to this show or do not show debate.

Continue Reading...

Submit Feeds to RSS Directories

Looking to increase your traffic?

Try submitting your RSS feeds to search engines and directories who accept them. Many of the big players will allow you to add a feed in the webmaster section (or toolbox etc) like google does. But what about those lesser known directories that cater strictly to RSS feeds? or feeds from blogs only? Well here is a small list of some sites, but I am sure many more could be found by using google or your favorite search engine. If anything, these sites act as a good way to improve ones page rank, or to get indexed, and quite possibly may attract some new viewers to your site. No harm in adding these sites to your "promotion" tactics.

RSS Junky
Million RSS

Feeds4All




Feeds Farm (News Sites Only)
Jordo Media
RSS Feeds
RSS Buffet
RSS Micro
Search 4 RSS
Syndic8
2rss
Solarwarp
Rss-network

Continue Reading...

What is RSS?

What is RSS?

RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many sites be it news related, web blogs and other online publishers, syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it. These feeds can be delivered through a reader or into one's tool bar in their web browser.

It allows you to easily stay informed and up to date on the latest articles by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually.

What do I need to do to read an RSS Feed?

Feed Reader or News Aggregator software. Which allow you to grab the RSS feeds from various sites and display them for you to read and use.

Some popular feed readers include Amphetadesk (Windows, Linux, Mac), FeedReader (Windows), and NewsGator (Windows - integrates with Outlook). There are also a number of web-based feed readers available. My Yahoo, Bloglines, and Google Reader are popular web-based feed readers.
As well many browsers now will allow you to add feeds into your toolbar and give you the latest headlines and you decide whether or not it is time for a visit to your favorite web sites.

Once armed with a feed reader or news aggregator, you only need to find a site which offers feeds, which normally are shown by a small icon with the acronyms RSS, XML, or RDF to let you know a feed is available.

Continue Reading...

Optimise and Tweak Your New Adsense Account

Well you have your newly approved google Adsense account approved, you managed to build your ads and grab your code snippets, and uploaded this into your website and or blogs and all feels great. But no one is clicking! It is now time for you to start optimizing. Don't worry it will take awhile most likely to get it right and even then it can vary from one site to the next. What works for some people might vary well not work for you or your site. That said, Google's Adsense program is still one of the biggest tools a publisher has to making money by monetizing their website. It could be you have high traffic and a low click through only due to the fact your ads are not optimized enough to bring in that lucrative revenue. So why leave things to chance, experiment a little and see if any of these tips work. They've worked for others.

Some people report drastic changes in their click through rates and their revenue by just changing a few things while still keeping their overall visitors and traffic steady. Perhaps this could work for you. In the past some of these tips have worked wonders for me on other sites.

Are you using those big banners and skyscraper type ads? Many people in the Adsense community as well as many polling companies have mentioned many a time that the average surfer on the internet is becoming desensitized to ads. In short they are "blind" to them and nothing screams ADVERTISMENT like those big skyscrapers and banner types. Try not using these and see what happens. What seems to work best is when ads can be "worked" into an article, to make it flow and seem like it is part of the overall look and not some big flashy neon banner blinking away. This can be done quite easily.
Try choosing a smaller dimension format. Perhaps a 250x250 square. There are quite a few smaller ad choices that can be chosen so experiment a little. Next look at your page that this ad will be displayed on, and tweak the background color of your ad to be the same as that of the articles or the section of page the ad is sitting on. Or at least as close as possible to give the ad a feeling of "blending" in. Next get rid of those borders around the ad by setting the color as well, to that of your background or as close as possible. All of these changes are simple and quick and can be done within your Adsense account. Remember that each time you make changes the code will be given in the footer of the page in your Adsens account, so you have to paste this new javascript into your website page. Changes can take as long as 10 minutes at times to take affect. Although I've never had to wait that long myself.

Another tip often mentioned is the positioning of the ad itself. Obviously you want to place your ads somewhere that will be noticed best. I wont tell you I know exactly where that "sweet" spot is, but it has been said, and it does seem plausible, that the first place the average person looks is the top left most corner of any page, and then begin to scan to the rest of the page from that starting point. Perhaps the way the web is setup, we are trained to look there first. Most menus hang around that area, navigation as well. Even search engines place the most important information up top and first. Or at least what they think is most important anyhow. Many languages as well read from left to right , top to bottom which again seems to fit this argument. That being said most people seem to have more success the closer their ads get to the top left and less as the ads seem to migrate further down to the right. Again, this is a test and see deal.

Next up is looking at what type of Adsense ads you display. Or more exact, what type of format. So far I have been assuming the normal text box content types. Adsense has another type that are Adlinks. These create a series of links that look similar to a normal Google Adsense adverts box, that a person can click on, where they are then taken to what looks like a google search results page. I am sure you have seen these. What I like about these, is that every time the visitor clicks on one of these they go to the page that looks like a google search results page and start clicking on various links/adverts. As a publisher you get paid for each click through and if it was not what they were looking for? There is a good chance the visitor may just back arrow and try another link or two etc. which Is good for you.

Now these are only some basic tips and basic techniques that will take time to master and refine to your sites needs. But if you have noticed your clickthrough has started dropping perhaps your visitors are indeed becoming immune to your ads. Time to switch it up and give the place a new look by playing with your ads.
I should also not that the Adsense account had a section for tracking your ads statistics, that allow you to track ads, ad formats, across your site and across multiple sites to see exactly what is performing and what is not performing and where.
By spending an hour on your site/s and tweaking your ads, their formats, locations and sizes, you can have drastic results and changes. Perhaps some of these tips will work for you too!
If you have any of your own, feel free to post them and comment. Best of luck in optimizing your Adsense Ads!

For more information on Adsense, I recommend reading the following book.

Continue Reading...

Learn How To Make Money From a 14 Year Old!

And believe me, that’s no joke. Ever heard of Carl Ocab of carlocab.com? If you haven’t, it’s probably because you haven’t been blogging for very long. Carl is a world-famous 14-year-old kid from the Philippines who runs one heck of a blog about how to make a fortune online.

While some kids his age are playing video games and sleeping in, Carl is working his butt off on his blog and ranking number one in a Google search for the term “make money online.” Carl Ocab Dot Com has been featured in his national newspaper, has been covered by some of the greatest bloggers on the Internet, and—perhaps most importantly—all of his current advertising on his blog is completely sold out.
Carl Ocab is a great blog to highlight here on Advertising Blogger, specifically because it’s a great example of what you can do online if you work hard and set your mind to it. If a 14-year-old kid can make a ton of advertising cash with a blog—even with school and chores getting in the way—then there’s really no reason why you can’t, too. And no, there isn’t a big secret to how Carl got where he is. He kept blogging, networking, and getting back links, and put together an awesome advertising page that tells potential advertisers how they can benefit from purchasing ads on his site.
If you get a chance, go check out Carl Ocab’s About Page to learn a little bit more about how he got into blogging and rose to become one of the most influential bloggers on the Internet. But keep this in mind: becoming a much-visited site is a great thing, but monetizing that traffic will take you from blogging as a hobby to being a professional blogger. If Carl Ocab can do that at age 14, you can do it, too!

Source: http://www.advertising-blogger.com/learn-how-to-advertise-from-a-14-year-old/

Continue Reading...

Create An Adsense Account

This being my first post, I thought it might be fitting to describe how to apply for an Adsense account. After all this blog is about making money online, and it is my purpose to share how others as well make money online. Google's Adsense program is the most widely used and adopted program for publishers , bloggers and website owners. No it is not the only one out there, but it is the most widely used and arguably best so this is where we shall start. In the coming weeks I may touch on others.

I know by now you must be rather intrigued and excited about the possibility of making money online. How much money can be made? the sky is the limit. Some people make pocket change, others put more effort part time and research well, and make a decent supplement to their normal jobs and careers. There are also those "experts" out there who make a living from running their own websites, blogs and forums. And yes using Google's Adsense program to make money online and bring in the dough.

What is Adsense? In short it is a program for both advertisers and website publishers to display content related ads to people surfing websites. More importantly YOUR website. As a publisher and website owner you can display these ads on your website and earn money each time someone comes to your site and click on one of the ads. Simple enough eh? In the coming weeks and months I plan to share more information on exactly how to ramp up traffic to your website or blog as well as information on how to create a better looking page, blog or web site to help improve your money making with Adsense from Google. As well look for information on others who are doing the exact same thing. Now back to this article. How to create an Adsense account!

I will assume you already have a Blog or a web site that you wish to monetize or add advertisements to, for the purpose of generating some added extra revenue.

First thing is first! Make sure that your website meets all the requirements for submitting a site to Google's Adsense program, which can be found at Googles Adsense Site.
Now that your website meets their general rules and requirements and does not post adult oriented pictures and is indeed a site rich in content as well as no illegal type information or actions you are then ready to goto the next step. The sign up stage!

You will then be asked for things like your name, email address, and mailing address. You will also have to submit your country of origin and website URL where you will be displaying your Google Adsense Ad's. Of course you will also choose the payment preference. The paypal method if you have a paypal account and do not wish to receive cheques in the mail or cheque if you live in an accepted region for the mailing of personal cheques.
In all it will take you minutes to fill out the application form. But my advice is to take plenty of time and read all of the FAQ's as well as other documentation offered to learn about the program. You will be glad you did.

After you apply, you will then have to wait for your application to be reviewed. This process typically takes 2 to 3 days (Business days that is) for a site to be reviewed. My best advice is to be patient and continue working on your website or blog during this waiting period and improve upon it. If a week goes by and you have not received an acceptance or rejection email then perhaps a polite email can be sent to inquire about your sites review.

That's it! Simple as 1 2 3
Now the easy part is done!
And now you too can be on the road to earning money online!

For more information on Adsense I suggest reading this book.

Continue Reading...

Privacy Policy

I respect your privacy and I am committed to safeguarding your privacy while online at my site http://blogmethemoney.blogspot.com (Blog Me The Money) . The following discloses the information gathering and dissemination practices for this Web site.

Log Files
Like most standard Web site servers, I use log files. This includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses, etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information.

E-mail Subscription
If a user wishes to subscribe to my posts via e-mail (powered by Feedburner), I ask for contact information such as name and email address. Out of respect for my users’ privacy, a way to opt-out of these communications is provided.

Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s computer tied to information about the user. My site use cookies for tracking visitors’ activity. Some of my business partners use cookies on our site (for example, advertisers). However, I have no access to or control over these cookies, once I have given permission for them to set cookies for advertising. You can choose not to accept cookies by modifying your browser settings. At any time, you may remove any cookie stored on your hard drive by deleting them in your browser’s settings section.

Links
This Web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that I am not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. I encourage my users to be aware when they leave my site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Web site.

Advertisers
I use outside ad companies to display ads on my site. These ads may contain cookies and are collected by the ad companies, and I do not have access to these information. I work with the ad companies: Google Adsense, Kontera and Net Audio Ads. Please check their websites for respective privacy policies.

Contact Information
If users have any questions or suggestions regarding my privacy policy, please contact me by emailing me.

Continue Reading...

Contact Me

For more information about me or this blog feel free to email me. As well if you wish to suggest a topic, article, or wish to have a link added feel free to email as well.

Email me at: webmaster at blogmethemoney dot com

If you have social bookmarks, feel free to add me, I can be found at:

digg -http://digg.com/users/icebreaker74
stumbleupon -http://icebreaker2000.stumbleupon.com/
delicious -icebreaker2000
mixx -http://www.mixx.com/users/icebreaker
furl -Icebreaker74
reddit -Icebreaker74
propeller -icebreaker2000

Continue Reading...