Is this pay for post today? I’m not sure. I want to join RSSHugger and the deal is either you write a post or you pay 20 dollars. So I guess we’ll call it a “barter” arrangement. Ok RH is a website that aggregates RSS feeds from blogs and then ivory soap style floats the most popular 100 blogs to the top. Am I done yet? Have I fulfilled my part of the bargain? Nah, I got more to say. The site is run by the MixedMarketArts.com guy Collin LaHay. I’ve actually read stuff on that blog and found it very useful so I think he knows what he’s talking about with RH. The “structure” of RH reminds me a famous 3 sided Egyptian death tomb (hint, hint). See the idea is that a person joins, writes a blog posts which attracts ten people, those ten people join, they write 10 blog post (all in lieu o the 20 dollar fee), and the cycle continues. It’s traditional Multi Level Marketing in that respect. But inside the site you can either browse with the “random blog” button or look at the top 100. The good news is that there are currently only 1675 blog feeds listed. And the today the number 1 blog has 30 views listed. So you stand a good chance of making it up there. And the colors of the sound don’t sound good on paper (gray, brown and orange) but they’re actually kind of soothing and easy on the eye.

So why am I joining. I want to have my stuff read. I work on this blog every day, so since it’s not a private diary people should be reading it. I’ll be honest, when I started I wasn’t really thinking (or even knew) about making money from the blog, I really just wanted to have a website for my t-shirts (see above or below). But then I learned that people were making money and some people were making a lot of money , I thought hey, let’s get in on THAT part of blogging. So then around October 2007 I made the decision to post once a day. I would try to write a legitimate, researched, image included article of some sort. And I did man, I mean I really put it out there. And I started reading and reading and reading about how to get more traffic and/or money. And it becomes this great exercise in filtering; what’s crap and what’s real. Because the content was here. I was doing that part, and still not getting any great regular traffic. As you can see I have a real ghetto fabulous, home made strategy board-well actually it’s two. One “whiteboard” is made from a cleaners bag and the other is like some giant 4 foot dinner mat. But the main thing is they both have erasable surfaces.

And the money thing was just disgusting. So I decided in March 2008 to “solve the problem.” And for all intents and purposes after 2 months I did . I mean I learned that a popular blog is NOT the same as a money making blog. You don’t NEED a popular blog to make money . It helps but it’s not mandatory. This blog is still slightly under 500 visitors a day and I can make about $2 a day with Adsense. The main reason for the problem is the multiple topics confuse Adsense, so some days the ads are relevant and some days not. But I have other blogs and now I make about $70 a day, and I know how to double and triple that. BUT; I still want THIS blog to be read by people. Because this is my personal blog. And so I’m joining RSSHugger hoping to get read…

And Now, a Word From our Sponsor!

The Software I use to Make Money Online .

This blog makes me a few dollars, but it’s not one of my serious money sites. My money sites are set up in a completely different way. This blog is my 1^st one and covers issues that are interesting to me personally. No research, no planning and not that much promotion. On the other hand, with my money blogs not one line of code is touched until I know EXACTLY what I’m doing. I’ve researched and tested first.

But the big story here is that I use software . And on top of that, it’s software I bought. So here’s the story on that; my 100$ a day (and growing) income CAN be done manually-no software. There are also free software tools out there, but let me give you a comparison model; I’m a single guy with no kids and for years I washed my clothes at home in the tub. For one guy without that many clothes it was fine. But in any scenario, other than that, it’s NOT a wise use of time or money . So paid software is like a washing machine in the house. Free tools are like trekking to the laundromat with quarters, the crowds and the gas usage. And no software is a tub full of clothes!

Now, the deal about making money is understanding and using Long Tail theory (lots of people use the buzz word “niches” but it’s essentially the same thing). And the way I use Long Tail to make money is through Adsense, eBay stores and affiliate sales. There are probably many ways to make money online, but after months of experimenting and testing those 3 methods are what I found to be a) things I could do b) have no ceiling on income-sky’s the limit c) not have to depend on other people approving me to take action and d) generate the most money with the least amount of costs (money or time). So here’s my junk I advise looking into them, to see if they’re right for you too. I wouldn’t offer them to you if I didn’t believe in them AND use them.

So I use 4 tools. The first one is SEO Elite . EVERYBODY with a blog or website should be using this if they want traffic; for website research. The second is Microsoft free plugin/add-in for Excel called Ad-Intelligence or Keyword Elite . Ad-Intelligence is buggy and you need to have an account with Microsoft Adcenter. Keyword Elite works without any trouble] these are for keyword research. The third is BANS for eBay, and a companion tool that REALLY cuts site creation time with BANS called Niche Store Writer . It’s a way to make an eBay store cleanly and fast. BUT if you’re willing to spend a little time and you like Wordpress, you can turn Wordpress into an eBay store with phpBay . I use that one too, and it takes a little more work but all those theme choices are nice. Just keep in mind; making sites is not where you should be spending your time. Researching keywords, choosing a product, getting targeted traffic and site promotion is where you should put in the time. So you definitely want to shave off hours and hours of tedious tasks. And the thing about DOING tedious tasks is you make mistakes , “oh man I forgot to put in this code or those keywords” and stuff like that. The software speeds up the process and maintains the integrity of your work. I also will tell you that I use HyperVRE for Adsense, but listen very closely; you need to learn the ins and outs of Adsense before you try this software . If you can make $10 a day with an Adsense site then maybe you’re ready-otherwise think twice, and then think a third time. Download the free copy just to play with it and read the manuals, those are very helpful. But I cannot recommend you buy and try to build sites if you can’t already make money with Adsense already. LASTLY, I use Article Submitter , like all the other tools you can look for alternatives on Google, but for the price and the automation this one is the winner. There are submission services but I’m not ready for one yet. BUT this tool is TIRESOME the first couple of uses while you get registered at all the sites. Plan on a day of watching over it while it does its thing. But you need articles out there.

So to recap; you can do it for free. If all you have or want is one site you don’t need to go the software route. Or you can look for free alternative tools. Also if you’re going to buy of you don’t NEED to buy it all at once! Choose a path and learn it. Many of these also have multiple uses; SEO, Keyword and Article work for whatever kind of site you’re making.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Tags: Computers and Internet //