In this series of posts I’ll be covering several strategies to maximize your blogs potential with proper optimization. How can you be both search engine and user friendly at the same time? It’s a tough balancing act at times, but if you really want to make money blogging, you must start with a properly optimized blog.

Display Your Keywords First And Often

Let’s use Blogging Experiment as an example. For almost 2 years now, BE has been a content driven resource teaching people how to make money. The topics include blogging, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, and how to buy and sell websites. While the topics are varied, the general theme is consistent: how to make money online.

For this reason, a list of popular keywords that BE wants to rank well for (and subsequently write content for) must be related to these keywords.

Currently, our site ranks well for a number of keywords related to the topics listed above, but as I started browsing through the site, I noticed a couple key areas where further optimization would help even more.

Starting with the navigation bar, I changed “Home” to “Make Money.” For those who don’t know, the anchor text (the phrase used to describe the link – in our example “Make Money”) is very important in search engine rankings. By keeping the word “Home” as the anchor text pointing back to your home page you are inadvertently telling the search engines that your home page is trying to rank for the phrase “Home.”

Because 99.9% of other websites just leave the word “Home” as the anchor text to your home page, you are now competing with virtually every other website online for the keyword “Home.”

Furthermore, in our example, the navigation bar is the first text our site displays. Not all sites have the navigation set up like this, but this makes it even more critical in our situation.

Those top links are the first introductions search engines have to our site after going through the title tag and meta description. For this reason, we want to make sure that they (the search engines) quickly realize what this site is about. By making “Make Money” our anchor text with the link back to our home page, we let the first on-site text be a very keyword rich phrase in which we want to rank.

If you want to use the word “Home,” at least try to fit in one of your targeted keywords somewhere close to the top.

The second part is to display your keywords often.

Remember, often doesn’t mean trying to keyword stuff every article or page with your targeted keywords. Instead, it simply means to be aware of the keywords in which you want to rank and use them strategically throughout your site. Consistency is the key here. Be aware of your targeted phrases and use them wisely.

Don’t Forget The Footer

Just as important as it is to have the search engine see your keyword phrase somewhere close to the top of your site, it’s equally important to include that same phrase, or even a little different variation of that phrase (what I recommend) at the bottom in your footer.

As you can see, instead of using the phrase “Make Money” like we used in the navigation bar, this time we used another target keyword: “Make Money Online.”

We want the search engines to see that our site, more specifically our home page since that’s where the links point, are directly related to each other. The next step is to make sure that your content actually reflects information related to those key phrases. Meaning: don’t just pick your best two keywords, put them in your header and footer then talk about completely unrelated topics on your site.

That’s not what this is about.

Optimization by it’s definition is to modify a system to make some aspect of it work more efficiently or use fewer resources. Taking the time to do these little “detail” things are what separate the mediocre sites from the ones who actually make money. Granted, optimization will not necessarily put money in your pockets directly, but a better optimized site means more traffic which ultimately means more money.

These tips work great with optimizing wordpress, other blog platforms, or any website in general.

-Kyle

We’ve all heard the stories, and we’re all most likely feeling the realties of this current recession in one way or another. As I was thinking this week about the state of our economy, my mind immediately shifted to the internet (it usually does) and how this could affect those looking to make money blogging.

Since no one needs more reminders of the challenges this economy faces, I’d like to start off my first post by sharing why I think this is the BEST time to be blogging followed by a few things to consider.

It’s All About Timing: In the two most recent recessions (1990-91 and 2001), business starts had been falling until the year the recession began – but then took off again the following year. Paul Kedrosky from the Kauffman Foundation summed it up very well when he said:

Companies that are created in a bad economic period are more disposed to succeed. These entrepreneurs are the few, the proud, and the crazy. They tend to be highly motivated and can work on a shoestring budget.

 
There is no better time than the present to start that blog or web business. Do you already have one? Focus your efforts to grow it bigger. This is one of the few businesses with relatively no downside and almost limitless potential.

Let’s face it, we’re not talking about spending $250K to open a Subway. What business can you start for less then a $100 that has so much potential? There’s not many. Actually, there’s not ANY that come to mind.

The internet affords you the opportunity to build a viable, revenue generating business for next to nothing. It doesn’t matter if it’s a blog or a full blown e-commerce website. No longer is it a question of the big vs. small but rather the fast vs. slow.

If You Want To Make Money, Start A Business Not A Hobby: Is the reason you’re starting a blog because you have this burning passion to talk about (fill in the blank), or is it because you want to make money? If it’s the latter, then your focus should be on what people want to know, not what you care to share.

So many people make the mistake of trying to force feed their interests and passions to others when that’s really the exact opposite of what you should be doing.

When you walk into McDonalds, they don’t tell you want you want, they ask you. Think of blogging the same way. Find out what people are looking for, and simply answer their questions. Don’t treat your blogging business as your personal preferences, opinions, and ideals (unless that’s the point of the blog), focus instead on common questions people have. For those looking to start a blog, here are some common questions people ask:

• How can I lose weight fast?
• What are different parenting techniques?
• Where is the best place to find cheap airfare?
• How can I make money online? (BloggingExperiment.com)

The point is this. (1) Have a clear focus to your site. Don’t try to be all things to all people. That’s the very nature of why blogs are so popular. People can find other people who have very specific skills or knowledge about a topic that they wish to acquire. (2) Treat it like a business. If your looking to make money from your web business (blog, e-commerce site, etc) treat it like a business. Set measurable goals and objectives, have someone else hold you accountable, and know your end goals before you begin. (3) Don’t let the gloom and doom keep you down. There is no time like the present.

On a personal note, I realize we haven’t been “properly introduced,” yet so in the next couple of days I’ll be posting a bio so you can know a little more about me. In the mean time, I  just wanted to share this one little thought as it’s been on my mind for the past few days.

The first is where the website’s purpose is to educate the reader.

This can include things like teaching valuable lessons, giving outstanding advice to people in their market, sharing things that most people don’t know about, etc.

This is basically the model I chose when I took over the BloggingExperiment blog a couple months ago. Since taking over the site, the traffic level remains pretty steady compared to when we bought it. The RSS subscribers has increased slightly. Income has increased significantly. BUT, the site hasn’t taken off to the equivalent of an A-List Blog…

My initial thought was, people NEED to learn how to make money online, and I was determined to teach people what I knew. I’m not saying this model is flawed, but it may not be the best option if you want a super popular website.

The second path people take with their sites is to primarily entertain their readers.

I was listening to an interview Frank Kern did a while back where he gave this example. I can’t remember the exact way he stated it, but it was something like this: ”People are painfully bored in their lives and they are desperate for entertainment…your job with your website should be 15% content, 85% entertainment” (something to that effect anyway)

Then he gave this example: He said “close your eyes for 10 seconds, and think of 4 things you learned in college. Next, close your eyes for 10 seconds and think of 4 characters from the tv show Seinfeld”.

Sure enough, Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer came to my mind MUCH faster than anything I learned in college. In fact, not one single thing came to mind when I thought about what I learned in college.

The difference? Entertainment is more enjoyable and easier to remember than even the best education or training. Is this the reason why JohnChow and Shoemoney are two of the most popular blogs in the make money online niche? Probably so. Do they always give out the best content? Not even close…

So, what direction are you taking your website or blog?

Are you so focused on educational content that even though you have incredibly valuable stuff to share, it’s just not catching on because you are “not entertaining enough”? That’s why celebrity gossip is so popular, as well as reality TV, soap operas and Youtube. Entertainment trumps true content every time, but is it a more profitable direction to take your business?

Which do you think is best?

TIME

This is something most marketers and internet business owners forget about. Of course we know OUR time is valuable, but we tend to forget that our customers and readers have limited time as well.

Especially in the future, when there will be 10 times as many things to distract us in a day compared to our crazy busy schedules today. I predict there will be a major shift in how marketers and internet business owners operate in the near future. When you think about it using common sense, it’s pretty obvious.

Example #1

Would you rather purchase a huge 22 DVD, 1000 page manual mega training course or a condensed “no fluff” 1 DVD, 50 page guide?

Personally, when I see those mega courses being sold for $2,000, my first thought it “how am I going to find time to go through all this stuff”. Sadly, this is exactly what happens most of the time.  People get excited about the opportunity to learn what the course teaches, but when it arrives, the customer gets overwhelmed and may never even open the box!

I know the purpose of having those huge courses is to “increase the perceived value” by making people think they are getting more for their money. I’m sure this little trick does work for most people in the market. To me as a marketer however, I know MOST of those DVDs are going to be fluff and a complete waste of time.

There is nothing worse that trying to learn from someone who waffles around for 30 minutes telling stories about their dog, rather than just getting to the point of the lesson.

Example #2

Blog posts are another thing to keep in mind. I hear a lot about how you need to make in-depth blog posts for them to be considered a valuable contribution, and that you need to make posts every single day or people will stop following you.

This is something I’m trying to get over myself!

From this point on, I’m going to work really hard to shorten my blog posts AND only keep the most valuable information in the post. I know your time is limited and you don’t have time to read long posts from 30 different bloggers.

I’m also going to change my posting frequency to about 3-4 posts per week. If you have time to read this blog (or any blog) 7 days a week, then you are taking away from your time to make money online. Not saying I don’t want you here or that I don’t think you should read this blog, but I do appreciate your time and I want you to be successful online. If I can help you save a little bit of time and help you put that time into your own business, I’ll be happy.

YOU DON’T MAKE MONEY READING A BUNCH OF BLOGS EVERYDAY!

I know that doesn’t make sense for a blogger to say that, but it’s true. It’s important that you spend most of your time working on your own business. I’d recommend only reading your favorite 4-5 blogs (this one and 3 others, ha!), and only dedicate 20-30 minutes per day total to blog reading/commenting. If you can do this, I guarantee you will make more money online than you are right now.

I’m taking this exact strategy with my How To Buy & Sell Websites class I’m teaching in a couple weeks. The lessons are going to be intentionally short and to the point.  Most of the videos will be about 5-10 minutes each, and ONLY contain valuable content worth its weight in gold. Each lesson will have bullet points explaining what content is shared in each video so customers and jump to exactly what they want to learn.

Sure, it will be more work on my end, but my customers will appreciate the fact that they don’t have to sit through hours and hours of long videos. I won’t be rambling on about nonsense just to make the class “look bigger”.

When you are working on your business, please make sure you consider how valuable your customers’ time is as well. If you are writing a 7 day mini email course for an autoresponder, don’t just write a bunch of fluff to fill up the emails.  Make sure you write solid, to the point, and valuable information.  Your customers will appreciate that much more than 20 pages of nonsense.

I know your time is valuable so I’ll wrap up this post now…

Do you know one of the top reasons why people don’t make money online?

I’ll tell you. They pick the WRONG market!

Not all niche markets are good business ideas for websites. It’s not that big of a deal. This is the internet, and not everyone in the world is out to make money from their website. Some would rather spend 20 hours a day writing content about rare tropical birds and they could care less if they make a dime from their effort.

The problem arises when you DO want to make money online, and then you decide to spend 20 hours a day writing about rare tropical birds even though it’s almost impossible to make money from that topic.

Don’t Fall In Love With A Topic

I get lots of emails from readers of this site asking for advice about their website or how they can make money, etc. It’s fun because I like to help people as much as I can, but unfortunately the majority of the emails I get go something like this:

Hi Max,

I want to start a website on nature trails (or fill in any hobby here). My family loves to go hiking and there are not enough good websites out there that show where the best nature trails are. My plan is to build a massive resource of the best nature trails in the United States. I want to quit my job and earn my living from this website because nature trails are my passion. I think I can sell calendars with nature trail photos to make money, as well as charge for advertising.

Can you give me any advice to make this happen?

Here’s my advice…don’t do it!

If you want to create a hobby website based on your passions, by all means go for it. If you want to make money on the internet, you absolutely MUST pick a topic that is proven to make money. The amount of money you want to make depends on which topic you pick. The more competitive the topic is, the more money there is to be made.

There’s a reason why you don’t see any advertisers in google for the search term “tropical birds”. It’s because nobody is making money on that topic. If there was money to be made, someone would be advertising for those keywords. Also, what makes you think you can sell advertising on your website if google doesn’t even have any advertisers for this topic?

So that’s one very important lesson when researching a profitable website topic, there has to be people advertising in that market. Let’s take a look at the search phrase “make money” in google. If you click that link, you’ll see there are more than 1,000 advertisers paying for that phrase! Do you think someone’s making money in that niche market?

A huge mistake I made when first starting out was thinking if there were no advertisers in my market, then I would step in and clean up since I would get all the traffic and the traffic would be cheap. And I was right. I WAS able to BUY 2000+ clicks per day in google adwords for the phrase “baby names” at just $0.05 per click. Lots of traffic, cheap traffic, but at the end of the day I was spending $100 a day and not making any money in sales.

Want to know how to find the best niche markets? It’s simple…you steal the research of the experts.

Ok, maybe stealing isn’t the right word, but using their data that is freely available to anyone online can save you a lot of time and headache.

Here’s what you do…

Go to About.com and click on Browse By Topic (or click here to go straight there). About.com is a major information publisher who makes their money by writing about profitable content. So much so, that About.com was acquired by The New York Times for about $410 million in cash back in 2005! Do you think they know what they are doing?

You can be pretty certain if About.com covers a topic, then that topic will likely be a good potential business to start. About.com is written by “guides” and these guides are paid based on how much their content makes for About.com. I’ve read somewhere that there are some guides for About.com that make over $100k per year writing content!

Just looking at the topics listed under the letter N, I see at least 5 topics that could all be a profitable website businesses.

- Nascar
- Needlepoint
- Newlyweds
- Nutrition
- New York City Travel

Picking the topic itself is only one piece of the puzzle though. It also depends on what you do with the topic. For example, if you picked Nascar from above, most people would see that topic and immediately come up with a website idea such as starting a fan club site for a specific driver. Or maybe they would want to write a blog about their views of last week’s Nascar race.

Those ideas to me, are hobby sites that you could do for fun, not for profit. If I were to tackle the Nascar market, I would focus on where the money is. Things like selling the Nascar racing gear, partnering with and promoting the “nascar experience” driving schools, brokering ticket sales for races, or even creating Nascar getaway vacations and sell travel packages including hotels, tickets, pit passes, etc.

What about a monthly membership where you interview one Nascar driver each month by asking the driver questions that were submitted by your members. (note – it’s not as difficult to get interviews with celebrities as you might think, especially if you have a “business” in the industry such as your nascar website.)

One thing you always need to keep in mind if you want to make money from a website is “How is this going to make money?”. That MUST be your first question when doing market research. Without knowing where the money is coming from, you will be driving your business without a map.

You can’t just assume your website idea will be supported by enough advertisers to let you quit your day job.

I just remembered a great quote (I can’t remember who said it), but it’s a perfect fit for this post. It went something like this:

“What does it take to have a successful restaurant, great tasting food or cheap prices?”

Answer – “neither, I just need a crowd of starving people!”

In other words, I think people sometimes get caught up in all the nitty gritty details about starting an internet business. They get so sidetracked on SEO, pay per click, article marketing, etc, rather than just focusing on finding the starving crowd of people and giving them what they want.

When you are able to find these starving markets, it’s so much easier to make money from your website.

Think about it…if you were starving and there was only one restaurant within 50 miles of you, would it matter than the restaurant is charging $15 for a cheeseburger?

That’s the difference between being in the right market (making lots of money) and being in the wrong market (with an empty bank account).

Make sense?

Whenever the term linkbait crops up, I almost always hear people complain that it’s a practice that only works for tech or internet related blogs. Not to be harsh, but that thought couldn’t be more wrong. Just to prove my point, here are 5 Linkbait ideas (and a brief description of each) that will work for ANY blog.

10 Myths About…

The principle of linkbait is to provide people with content that is not only interesting, but something that’s noteworthy. You’re goal is to create something that another blogger or webmaster would want to point their friends or readers to. To that end, calling commonly held misconceptions (myths) into question works great. Not only are you implying that these things are incorrect, you’re also stating that a lot of people are wrong about them. For example, if you had a baseball blog, 10 Myths About Steroids or 10 Playoff Myths would immediately draw readers attention and would probably have them pointing other fans or readers to your post. The key here is to pick a popular or controversial topic, and of course, one that has several myths associated with it. Debunk those myths, and even if people disagree with you, links and traffic will begin to pour in.

Lego Reconstructions

This linkbait tactic is probably the most difficult on the entire list. However, if you search Digg’s front page stories for the word Lego, you’ll find over 200 results. The basic concept is pretty simple, anything built with Lego’s is automatically 10 times cooler. Some of the most successful examples of this tactic would be a recreation of a battle in Lord of the Rings, the first level of Super Mario Brothers, and an enormous aircraft carrier. Now, I realize that some of you may not have grown up playing with the colorful plastic building blocks, however, that doesn’t mean you can’t still use this method to create a unique piece of linkbait for your blog. Once you figure out the scene or the structure you’d like to recreate, you can either go out and buy a mess of bricks and give it a go yourself, or find the nearest college and I guarantee you there will be more than a few lego experts ready to “work” on your project.

7 Secrets for…

This is another tried and true method of grabbing attention for your post. In reality, most of the great linkbait tactics have been used for years in traditional media sources (newspapers, magazines, etc) and this is no exception. Much like the 10 Myths method above, this makes use of two great pillars of linkbaiting, the list, and exclusivity. The list format tells people that they’ll be able to quickly skim the content and find out what they want to know. For better or worse people reading online often want to digest content in small, scan-able, bite size pieces and lists are built for that.

By throwing in the word “secrets” you’re once again implying that you know something they don’t. Unlike the Myths method, these secrets don’t have to be widely held beliefs, in fact the fewer people that know about them the better. What makes this method so easy to use, however, is that your secrets can be geared to all sorts of different skill or knowledge levels in your niche. For example, you could write “7 Secrets that the Experts won’t Tell You” which could simply be 7 advanced tactics or methods in your niche that the average person doesn’t know. You could also write something along the lines of “7 Secrets of for the (whatever your niche is) Newbie” which would obviously be even more basic and targeted at people who are new to your field. The ability to target different groups of people within your niche or industry is what makes this method so widely applicable and successful.

The Beginner’s Guide to…

Another pillar of the linkbait repertoire is the Beginner’s Guide. In any given niche or industry there are always differing skill levels. If it’s a popular niche, and for your sake, I would hope you picked at least a somewhat popular niche to blog in, there will always be new people being attracted to it. Those people will obviously not have the same skill or knowledge of the niche and therefore, have a lot to learn. The Beginner’s Guide is successful for largely two reasons. The first is that people generally like to have all the information presented to them in one place, if possible. Secondly, those who are more advanced in a given niche, often like to have a single place to direct newbies to that will answer most of the typical questions they have. The advanced members of the community have probably been asked the same set of questions several times and if your guide answers them well, they’ll just point people your way (by linking to your post) rather than answering them over and over. And, if done well, not only will a Beginner’s Guide act as linkbait, it can also establish your site as an authority in your niche

Interviews

Another linkbait method that any blogger can pull off is an interview. It doesn’t matter whether you’re new to your field or an established blogger, an interview with an authority in your given niche will leverage their reputation to draw attention to your blog. While this is an effective linkbait tactic, you shouldn’t take it for granted. Not only can it be difficult to land the interview(s), they’re also becoming more and more common. You’ll still need to be sure to ask questions and gather content that is useful and noteworthy to your readers. Other variations of this method would include several shorter interviews with top members of your industry or interviewing two authorities on the opposite side of a controversial topic.

Linkbaiting is far from an exact science, but these 5 topics can be applied by almost any blog for an immediate influx of traffic and links. If you are seeking to increase the traffic to your site, I’d encourage you to give one of these methods a shot, and let us know how it goes.

Well, last night I sent “GreenLantern” $25 via paypal for winning the “What’s Your Favorite Topic” comment contest (here it is if you missed it). I’ll post a video of the live drawing below in case you want to watch the heart pounding excitement.

Ok, it’s not as exciting since I just told you the winner, but at least you can see how I ran the drawing.

I wonder why more people don’t do live drawings for contests? I guess it’s easier to cheat and give away prizes to your buddies if you pick the winners without anyone watching…

This post is not about the contest though. It’s about something much more important (not that Mr GreenLantern isn’t important, but you know what I mean).I learned some amazing things about what you are interested in. To be completely honest, when I was planning out my “outline” of topics to cover over the next 3 months, I was picking things I wanted to write about and things I *thought* you wanted to read about.This is a mistake a lot of people make. We make assumptions. BIG MISTAKE.

I was planning to continue on with the topics that Ben was covering because I thought that’s what you wanted. I was getting ready to write out the “WordPress Wednesday” tutorial, until I saw the results of the poll you took. Turns out there were only 3 votes for WordPress Tutorials out of the total 258 votes placed (as of this writing).

This is obviously not a “hot topic” for my readers, so there’s not much sense in dedicating an entire day of the week to something not all that popular. Sure, I’ll still do the occasional WordPress Tutorial, but I’ll no longer be posting WordPress Wednesday articles every single week. Maybe once a month would be a better idea…

Funny thing is, a lot of what I was planning to talk about turns out to be the exact opposite of what people actually wanted!

Let’s take a quick look at the results of the voting poll from a couple days ago. I’ll re-order the results from most popular to least popular…

1. How to monetize your website better 15% (39 votes)
2. How to get more traffic to your website 13% (34 votes)
3. How to buy and sell websites 9% (24 votes)
4. Watch me start and grow a new site from scratch 10% (27 votes)
5. Affiliate marketing tips 8% (20 votes)
6. Email marketing tips and getting subscribers 7% (17 votes)
7. Search engine optimization tips 7% (17 votes)
8. Mistakes to be avoided 6% (16 votes)
9. Pay per click advertising tips 4% (11 votes)
10. Motivational case studies and success stories 4% (10 votes)
11. Reviews of your site 3% (8 votes)
12. Watch and learn – how to videos 3% (7 votes)
13. Contests with good prizes 3% (7 votes)
14. Interviews with other internet experts 2% (5 votes)
15. Honest product reviews 2% (4 votes)
16. MP3 audio lessons / podcasts 1% (3 votes)
17. Beginner wordpress tutorials 1% (3 votes)
18. Negotiate discounts on products 1% (3 votes)
19. Absolute beginner…what is adsense? 1% (2 votes)
20. Other: (1 vote)

Again, going back to my Common Sense Marketing concept, what topics do you think I should be focusing the most time and effort on?

I can sum up in one paragraph exactly who my readers are and what they want to know. Here goes…

You would like me to start a brand new website from scratch, use search engine optimization (mostly) and pay per click advertising (some) to generate traffic. I should use that traffic to make money from affiliate programs, email marketing as well as test different monetization ideas to get the site making as much as possible (with some video training lessons along the way). I should show you all the mistakes I make along the journey so you can learn from them. Then I should sell this website.

What do you think? Pretty accurate of what you would like to see on this site?

Now I just need to figure out logistically how I can give you what you want…I’m open to ideas on how you think this would work out best. If I could just make each day 28 hours long!

So, am I a genius? No. (ironically I had to look up how to spell that!)

Do I have magical powers? No.

Yet even I, the non-genius, magical power lacking human, can still pin point EXACTLY what hundreds of people want to learn from me.

Can you summarize exactly what YOUR market wants with this much detail ? If not, why?

I’ve just given you the exact steps to collect this information.

Create a survey/poll. Create a list of questions. Wait for results.

It cost me all of $25 and a couple hours of time to learn this incredibly valuable information.

REAL companies in the offline world spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on market research trying to figure out what their customers want. I just did it in 3 days and for a whopping $25 (which I probably didn’t even have to give away to get the feedback I needed, I just thought it would be fun to make it a contest).

If you don’t see the value in this “experiment”, then you need to go back and re-read my last 3 posts. It will help you make a lot more money, save you a lot of time, and make your readers think you are a genius.

I really should be charging for this information, don’t you think?

Nah, keep your money. Instead just make it your biggest priority in life to visit this blog every single day and tell everyone you know to come to…we’ll call it even : -)

I think it would be pretty funny if this blog gets more traffic than all those other “guru” make money online sites combined. How about I focus on writing world class content, and you help spread the word?

PS – Comments below are greatly appreciated. It helps with my mind reading capabilities when you tell me what your thinking

When I stated in yesterday’s post that I was going to change a few of the “copied techniques”on this site, this is what I meant…

For some reason, people think if they see something on a popular blog, then it’s automatically a good idea. While I do think it’s a good strategy to “model” your website after proven, successful websites, you do need to use some common sense and test different ideas.

I like to use what I call “common sense marketing” on my websites. I think people just don’t use common sense when they try to make money online.

Let me give you a great example…

I read a post on another blog a few minutes ago. This person broke down their income for the last month. It looked something like this:

- Affiliate program commission – $2500
- Private ad sales – $175
- Adsense income – $155
- Sponsored posts – $100
- Kontera income – $22

Ok, that’s great. He is making about $3,000 per month from his blog, not bad.

But, when I review his website, there is a huge problem (maybe you are doing this too).
I don’t want to call him out on it publicly because his actual site isn’t what’s important, it’s what he is doing wrong that matters.

(If your website looks like the one above, I don’t mean to offend you. If it’s working for you, great. If you aren’t making as much money as you want, then keep reading)

The blogger from my example above is not using common sense and focusing on what’s making him the most money. Instead, he spends most of his time and his “premium real estate” (ie – above the fold) on the things that make him the least amount of money.

On his blog homepage, he has an obvious paid review, which he openly states on his website are $20 each. The blog post below this one is loaded with Kontera ads, which drive me crazy. To the right of his post is a column with an adsense block and to the right of that are the 125 x 125 ads.

After reading his blog a bit more, I found that many of his posts are discussing advertising opportunities on his blog. Are you crazy?

About 85% of his monthly income is from affiliate programs he promotes. (I had a hard time finding these promotions because they were so buried on the site) The majority of his time and screen real estate was on promoting advertising opportunities on his blog, the thing that makes him the least amount of money.

A better solution for this guy would be to completely eliminate all the distracting, relatively low paying advertising on his site. By doing this, it would make his user experience much better for his visitors. Happy visitors means more links, more referrals, a better following and would help build a better relationship with his readers. The result would be an increase in his affiliate commissions 3-4 times more than his current figures.

I know it’s a difficult decision to remove any money making pieces of your site. But you need to realize if you remove the distracting things on your site, the other sources of income will skyrocket. Don’t take my word for it. Try it for a couple weeks and see what happens.

Increasing your website’s revenue is not rocket science. Just because you see someone like “John Chow” doing something, it doesn’t mean it’s always right for every business. Use some common sense.

The way to run a profitable website, blog, or any business is to look at the cold hard facts and make decisions based on those facts and those facts alone.

If you are making 85% of your money from affiliate programs, you need to FOCUS on affiliate programs.

Utilize your best website real estate for the things that are making you the most money. Rather than putting 125 boxes on your site, try putting a “Top 5 Must-Have Resources” box in it’s place, and have your best paying affiliate programs listed there.

The benefit to doing something like this instead of the 125 boxes is because of the possibility of additional sales. With advertising, your income has a ceiling. If you charge $40/month and have eight 125×125 boxes, the most you can earn from that section is $320/month.

With affiliate program links (or whatever else is making you the most money) in it’s place, you have the potential of making much more. Personally, I don’t have a huge problem with 125×125 ads themselves. I just think there are better uses of the space. When was the last time you clicked one of those ad blocks? I’m guessing it’s been a while.

When they first came out, they were pretty cool, but just like anything online (ie – banner ads), they quickly get overlooked. When these blocks get ignored, they stop being profitable for the advertisers, which means it’s harder to sell them on your site.

Just something to keep in mind while thinking about the monetization plan for your site. Rather than spending all your time trying to sell advertising, why not take a different approach? The way I look at it, there are two things you should focus on when you are running a website…

1) How much value can I provide my visitors.

And

2) What’s the best way to monetize these visitors after giving them value.

Today’s lesson, stop annoying your readers and stop playing follow the leader!

Ok, rant is over…

Now go make some money

And then the idea hit me, a Lessons on Blogging Meme!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with memes, allow me to explain. The person starting the meme (in this case me) writes a post and then tags other people to follow suit. The tagged bloggers then write a post of their own in the same theme as the original and tag even more people and so on. I’ve never been a big fan of memes just for the sake of memes but I hope this one will end up being useful and well worth reading.

The rules of this one are going to be simple; I’ll tag 5 people asking them to post one lesson bloggers can learn from their favorite TV show. Each person then tags another 5 people and the chain continues. If you don’t get tagged immediately and can’t wait to participate, feel free to jump in at any time. I’ll try to keep track of all those participating in the meme here on this post so if you do participate, please either link back to this post to alert me via trackback, or drop me an email to let me know where to find your post. Hopefully this will be a fun one to participate in and we’ll end up with some great advice at the end as well.

Alright, let’s get this thing kicked off right. Here are the 5 people I’m tagging in no particular order:

• Christine Kayser (author of Prison Break: Lessons on Blogging)
  • Marina from RowThree.com
  • Josh from Best Play Ever
  • Fletch from Blog Cabins
  • Dan from Popcorn, Soda, and Goobers
  • Matt from Obsessed with Film
• Darren Rowse (if you’re gonna go, go big right?)
• Chris Garrett (he helped me launch the only other theme I’ve ever started, the Charity Link Meme)
• Shane Ede (thatedeguy)
  • Mark @ 45n5.com
  • Tom @ Webfeedcentral.com
  • NG @ Whaling Season
  • the Big Moo @ JohnCow.com
  • Empress @ Building my Empire
• and my fellow Digg researcher, Tamar

Remember, you can jump in at any time but remember to let me know (either by trackback or email) about your post. Enjoy!