May 1st, 2008
I don’t know how many evil spirits possessed this person who took the time to hack my blog and include un-related content into my blog’s layout. This unwanted content made my blog get indexed for keywords that are not at all what my blog is all about!
One more problem that this hacking brought is that my blog is now getting AdSense ads that are for the bad content that the hacker placed on my blog. Although I’m not earning a 6-figure income from this blog, the AdSense earnings I used to get was a big help in putting food on the table. Now I’m only earning peanuts.
I was able to get rid of the code that the hacker embedded on my blog’s layout. However, Google’s still thinking that my site’s optimized for the wrong keywords. Although I’m thinking that performing more aggressive SEO techniques might help recover my blog’s search engine standing, unfortunately, I currently don’t have the time and tools to make this work.
Have you ever experienced such situation? How did you handle it? Help please.
image credits to sxc.hu
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By Alfa Mercado -- 11 comments
April 29th, 2008
It’s that time of the month again, when we wrap up our monthly poll. This time, we’re talking about social networking and online businesses.
If you haven’t voted yet, I encourage you to do so. I’ll be closing this poll shortly and reporting the final votes in the next few days or so.
Do you use social networking to help you to make money online?
If you already voted, thank you. I really do appreciate your feedback.
Tags: feedback, online business, polls, social networkingShare This
By Shai Coggins -- 2 comments
April 28th, 2008
Twitter is something I’ve been writing a lot about on my personal blog. One of my post popular Twitter articles is: Top 9 Ways to Use Twitter.
If you think I’ve always loved Twitter… Well, I have to say that I wasn’t always a fan. When it first came out, I signed up for it. Tried it. Then, immediately discarded it. Tried it again, still nothing. I even ended up deleting my first Twitter account. A few months later, I tried it again. Liked it a bit better. But, still felt lost on why I should use it. Tried it again. And slowly, I found more and more uses for it. Now, it’s part of my work and social life.
What about you? Do you use Twitter at all?
Our current poll already asks whether you use social networking as part of your online business or not. And, I was wondering if Twitter plays a role at all in your online work? If yes, how?
And, if you do Twitter, please feel free to share the URL to your Twitter account in the comments section below. Maybe fellow JMMO readers can check them out too.
If you’re interested, mine’s at http://twitter.com/shaicoggins.
Image: Based on Microsoft Stock Photo. Edits, Shai Coggins.
Tags: open mic, social networking, social-media, twitterShare This
By Shai Coggins -- 6 comments
April 26th, 2008
While reading yet another info-packed blog post by Seth Godin, THE marketing guru, about focused intent traffic, it reminded me of the importance of increasing pageviews.
However, this time, Seth mentioned about bounce rate. It’s another site traffic measure that gauges the percentage of the people that leave your site as soon as they get to it.
Seth’s tips are about engaging your existing users more deeply and turn them into ambassadors, which makes so much sense. Why not focus on what you already have rather than obsessing on your bounce rate, right?
But for those who can’t stop obsessing about their Google Analytics stats, yeah all of you, er, us, there is a solution to your bouncy traffic. Make your content as focused as possible. How? Post as much relevant and yet interesting info that your site promised to offer, whether through your site’s title (if it’s obvious, more on this later) and/or domain name.
But what if you think your content’s focused enough already? Hmmm…
A large percentage of site traffic bounces for many reasons. A few of the factors that make traffic bounce off easily include:
- Too lengthy articles
This one I’ve learned from providing off-page marketing service to one great writer who produce really long articles. No matter how well-written the writeups are, readers get easily overwhelmed when they see a 1000 to 3000-word article. So my suggestion here is make articles easy to digest by writing shorter ones. But if that’s not your style, you can write long and short articles alternately to mix things up.
- All-Text Content
Images, Images, Images. Don’t blame all the visual addiction to men - it’s human nature to enjoy eye-catching images so include some relevant images on your site.
- Overly Clever Titles
Oftentimes, easy reads (meaning not too many brain hemorrhage-inducing paradoxes, oxymorons, hyperboles, metaphors) score more cookie points than being too snarky. Just imagine if I wrote “It’s Your Right to Get the Right People Whom You’ve Been Long Writing For to Notice Your Site” instead of this post’s current title. Wait, that’s not a snarky title, it’s an uber-long title, which actually sounds stupid to me. But I hope you get the picture… :-)
The main idea is keeping things simple and just quickly giving the needs of the traffic that the search engines (yep, another SEO technique) drove to your site. Titles and subheadings that say what the content is all about greatly helps here. I call it WYRITTIWYG.
And the rest of the pageview-increasing tips might be of help as well.
What else can you suggest in keeping site bounce rates low?
image credits to sxc.hu
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By Alfa Mercado -- 5 comments
April 25th, 2008
Is your blog or site mobile web ready? If you’ve ever tried to use your web-enabled mobile device to surf blogs and sites, you may have experienced the difficulty of having to see blogs and sites properly. Many blogs and websites are not ready to be viewed on mobile devices - they’re too big and/or load too slowly. Hence, losing possible viewers, readers and customers.
If you’re not able to find a quick and easy way to make your blogs or sites available to mobile users, then try Mofuse. It’s very simple to set up your blog or site to make it mobile device-friendly using this service. Just sign up, enter some basic details, and you’re all set.
You can even use some of their tools like permanent redirects (to redirect viewers on mobile device to your mobile version), widgets, and buttons. Plus, you can even customise your mobile site with your logo. There’s even iPhone settings available. And, you can view stats on how many people get to visit your mobile site.
Another cool thing about Mofuse is that you can register for their revenue sharing programme, to make money with your mobile site. It’s free to join the programme: Just indicate your interest and choose between using Google Adsense or AdMob. You get 50% of revenue on the free version.
Yes, Mofuse has Free and Pro versions. The free version is completely usable. The professional version (US$3 a month, with first month free) just has some extra bells and whistles as follow:
- Ability to use any domain name you want
- Create as many mobile sites as you want
- Unlimited text messaging from Mofuse SMS widget to promote your website or blog
- Keep 100% of the revenue from your mobile site
- Exclusive Professional mobile badges for you to display
- Your logo replaces the MoFuse logo on your SMS widget
- No Powered by MoFuse at the bottom of your mobile
If you want to see a mobile site in action, I used Mofuse with my personal blog, and here’s a sample of the mobile version. I’m on the free version at the moment. And, currently, it’s very basic as I still need to customise a couple of things. Also, I’ve only started using this a couple of days ago, so I have yet to see how it will affect monetisation of my blog. But, overall, I like the concept and the service. I especially like the fact that mobile device users can now view and read my blog a lot better.
What about you? Have you mobilised your blog or site yet? If yes, are you using a service like Mofuse- or, are you registered with Mofuse as well? What do you think of it?
In any case, I’ll let you know if I learn anything more on this service.
Tags: make money with mobiles, mobile apps, mobile phones, mobile web, mofuseShare This
By Shai Coggins -- 2 comments
April 24th, 2008
To all of those who are making money online through helping netpreneurs manage their businesses in various ways - Happy Admin Assistant’s Days!
If you’re planning to be a virtual assistant, here are some helpful resources and associations for new VAs:
VANetworking - one of the largest virtual assistant’s associations with one of the most helpful forums.
International Virtual Assistants Association - a non-profit association for VA education and certification, they’re currently having their Annual Summit.
Online Tools of the Trade - Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Zoho, BaseCamp, and many other virtual tools.
Freelance Marketplaces - oDesk, RentACoder, and ScriptLance are just a few of the places that’ll help you land your first few VA gigs.
Got other useful resources for newbie VA’s?
image credits to klsanderson
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By Alfa Mercado -- 0 comments
April 23rd, 2008
Over the last few years, I’ve been following various products, articles and newsletters from Trent Steele. Trent is the manager of the Internet Business Tools, among other online products. It’s one of Trent’s latest sites.
Internet Business Tools has a list of online business products that target people who wish to make money online - from building software empires and owning website templates to targeted email lists and fax marketing. However, you do not need to buy any of those products to benefit from the site, as it offers a free newsletter where each issue contains news, latest updates, and a free downloadable gift. Some of these “downloadable gifts” may even be sold by you - and you get to keep the profits.
If you want to know whether I’ve bought any products recommended by Trent Steele or not, I’m happy to say that yes, I have. Some of them are really great - and had no regrets. I’ve found some of them useful.
Of course, there are products that will not appeal to certain people. I’ve bought some of those too.
But, it depends on where you are in your online business - and what you wish to do.
In any case, if you’re interested, do sign up for Internet Business Tools.
Disclosure/Disclaimer: The Internet Business Tools site is connected with myHelpHub. And, I am an affiliate of myHelpHub. However, I will not make any money if you sign up for the newsletter. That’s completely free. I will only be given a small commission from the company if you buy any of their products using my affiliate link.
Tags: e-newsletters, internet business tools, online tools, trent steeleShare This
By Shai Coggins -- 0 comments
April 22nd, 2008
There were 3 things I realised about JMMO today:
1. It’s 3 years old! It celebrated its 3rd blogiversary last 6th of April - and I’ve completely missed it.
2. It shares my birthday. I didn’t realise it before but I actually started this blog the same day as my birthday. I must’ve been really bored that day. ;)
3. I’ve never celebrated JMMO’s anniversary - ever. At least, not that I can remember. If this were a marriage, this blog would be so upset by now. Heh.
With these in mind, I thought I needed to do 3 things:
1. Make an About page. It’s something I’ve put off doing all these years, strangely enough. I’m a big fan of ‘About pages’ - and I’ve never done it for JMMO. So, today, I finally created an About Just Make Money Online page. It provides some background on JMMO and myself.
2. Think of a way to celebrate JMMO’s anniversary. I’m still stuck at the moment, so all suggestions are welcome. Shall we hold a contest? A giveaway? A virtual party?
3. Well… I’m pretty sure I had a #3 in mind too. Or maybe, I had more. But at this time, that’s it.
Now, what?
Image copyright: Shai Coggins
Tags: about page, anniversary, blogiversary, celebrationShare This
By Shai Coggins -- 2 comments
April 21st, 2008
In the U.S., it’s National Small Business Week between 21st to 25th of April 2008. The event is meant to acknowledge the contribution of small businesses in American economy. If you’re in the U.S., what are you doing to celebrate/observe this occasion? It’ll be interesting to know what small online business people are planning to do for this event.
Since I’m in Australia, we don’t really have events here to go to. However, I recognise that there are many U.S.-based JMMO readers and friends. So, I would just like to encourage folks to check out blogs like Small Business Boomers, Biz Chicks Rule, and the rest of the Business blogs here at b5media.
Image: Based on Microsoft Stock Photo. Edits, Shai Coggins.
Tags: event, national small business week, small businessShare This
By Shai Coggins -- 0 comments
April 20th, 2008
Hope you’re having a good weekend! Here are some links I’d like to share with you…
Also, if you’re interested to find out how the Adelaide Bloggers’ Meetup that I wrote about turned out, here’s the wrap-up report on my personal blog.
Image: Microsoft Stock Photo
Tags: link love, make-money-online, web linksShare This
By Shai Coggins -- 0 comments
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