Welcome 2008! I wonder what the year holds in store?

We all have a great opportunity to look at where we are and where we'd like to be. What are you doing right now? What responsibilities do you currently have? What would you rather be doing?

What will it take for you to be able to do it?

It's an excellent time to create new goals and new priorities. The possibilities are endless. We don't need to buy new exercise machines! We just need to get ourselves resolved to make a change, and to (finally) make use of what we've already got! That same idea can be applied to all areas, including making money online.

So what is it you should have done? Now all you've got to do is will yourself to take action.

I'll just run through a quick list of some solid ways to generate income on the web:

1. Build a web site that offers a valuable service, and run AdSense on it.
   

2. Build a web site with high Page Rank (PR) and Alexa rank, and sell Text Link Ads on it.
3. Build a decent web site or blog and sell it.
4. Start a blog and sign up with pay-to-blog programs. Each paid post will get you around $5 at the least, and much more if your blog has good traffic, subscriber numbers, PR, Alexa rank, and Technorati authority.
5. Get paid to write content for other web sites, blogs, and eBook sellers.
6. Write your own eBook and sell it.
7. Sign up with an affiliate program like Amazon or ClickBank and advertise their products.
8. Buy domain names with proven traffic and park them with a site like Sedo that pays you for every click an ad on your page gets.
9. Sell your stuff on eBay.
10. Sell your web design or coding skills on a job-by-job basis.

    Bonus:

11. Trade stocks or currencies (Forex) online.

Google provides everyone a great service with their website. You just go there, type in what you're looking for, and Google presents you with the results it thinks are most relevant. It is good for Google to strive for relevancy. If Google were to cheat, and put its own pages on top, when most searchers didn't want to see them, Google would make those people unhappy with its results. They'd leave, Google's traffic would go down, and Google would make less money from advertisers. Advertisers pay to be seen, and if Google isn't getting as many viewers as usual, advertisers will look elsewhere. So it is in Google's best interest to do a good job of cataloging every meaningful web page in existence.

Even if Google hired thousands of people to do research manually, individually going through the web finding and cataloging new sites, it still wouldn't be able to keep up. Many new web pages are being created every day. Plus, it is less costly to put machines to work doing the cataloging. And machines are faster. So what does this mean for us?

Since Google uses machines to index our sites, we can get ahead. We do this by learning the rules the machines follow. The Google Bot operates like any other program, using the formula that was programmed into it. Since Google hasn't yet revealed itself to be self-aware, we can assume that there is only a key set of guidelines we must follow (rather than the selective judgment of a person). It started out that Google's rules weren't immediately apparent. Some even considered them secret. Today, many of the basic guidelines are public knowledge.

Of course, there are most definitely other hidden guidelines that are not widely known. And since Google is constantly evolving, there will likely be new guidelines to follow in the future. However, the basic rules for getting your page indexed by Google are pretty simple.

The benefit of following these rules is that your page and site will rank higher (for search terms that you choose) than other pages and sites that don't follow the rules. You can use this to your advantage. If you do some keyword research, you can come up with search terms that are very popular. Then you follow Google's rules and optimize your site for them. Google will index your page, and it will appear somewhere in the search results for those terms. The best possible outcome would be for your page to come up as #1 on the front page of Google. Then when a surfer visits Google and uses the search terms that you optimized your site for, he or she will be immediately presented with a link to your site, up front and on top. That is a good place to be, because your site will then get a good amount of traffic. Getting traffic is half the battle when it comes to making money online.

So once you figure out what search terms you want to optimize a page for, how do you go about it? Let's say your top chosen term is "keywords and search terms". This is how to use those words in your page to get a boost through Google:

Use your keywords in header tags:

<h1>Keywords And Search Terms</h1>
<h2>Keywords And Search Terms</h2>
<h3>Keywords And Search Terms</h3>

Use the keywords in the URL of your page:

http://www.your-site.com/keywords-and-search-terms.html

*Many people believe that keywords-and-search-terms.html is better than keywords_and_search_terms.html as well as keywordsandsearchterms.html

Use the keywords in the file name of an image on your site:

<img src="http://www.your-site.com/images/keywords-and-search-terms.jpg">

Use the keywords in the alt tag of an image on your site:

<img src="http://www.your-site.com/images/keywords-and-search-terms.jpg" alt="Keywords And Search Terms">

Use the keywords in your content, and let Search Engines know they are special with bold, italic, and underline tags:

Blah blah blah blah blah blah <b>keywords and search terms</b> blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah <i>keywords and search terms</i> blah blah. Blah blah blah blah <u>keywords and search terms</u> blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Link to your page using the keywords in your anchor text:

<a href="http://www.your-site.com/keywords-and-search-terms.html">keywords and search terms</a>

*This can be done from within the page itself, from other pages on your site, and in links coming from other sites.

Link to your page using the keywords in the link's title tag:

<a href="http://www.your-site.com/keywords-and-search-terms.html" title="Keywords And Search Terms">keywords and search terms</a>

*This can be done from within the page itself, from other pages on your site, and in links coming from other sites.

The main thing to remember is that Google sees all the special things you do with words and phrases, so the more times you treat certain phrases (your keywords) specially (using them with bold, italic, underline, title, alt, and header tags, and in URLs and file names), the better you will rank for those terms.

A warning: If you use these techniques too intensely, Google could penalize your page or site as containing spam. It is best to use each of these tricks where they fit, and where they add to the user experience. Making a page look attractive while using a handful of these SEO tricks will usually prevent you from going overboard and into spam-like territory.

To track how your site ranks for certain keywords and search terms, you might try some free software called Free Monitor For Google.

Have A Merry, Merry Christmas!

With the rise of the internet came the rise of digital merchandise — downloadable information that people are willing to pay good money for. People buy eBooks all the time. Looking for info on every conceivable subject, web surfers will every now and again find "the promised land," a web site that apparently has all the answers, distilled into a simple, downloadable eBook. Out pops the credit card, and money flies through cyberspace. You can get some of that money.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is a form of business. An affiliate will market someone else's products, for a fee. ClickBank is a well-known, established company that facilitates business deals between eBook buyers and sellers, and between affiliates and product creators. There are three ways you can interact with ClickBank:

The third option is what we will consider here.

How does it work?

Let's say Misinterpreted dot Org decides to write an eBook about some key ways to earn a living online. As the author and creator, I would sign up with ClickBank and pay them to list my eBook in their marketplace. I decide to set the price of my eBook at $97. A user just randomly happens to find my eBook, and buys it. I just made $97. I'd like to make more, but I'm not interested in advertising my eBook. I've got other stuff to take care of. So not many people show up. I don't make that much money. What can I do?

I set an affiliate commission at 50%. Joe Genius is already signed up with ClickBank as an affiliate marketer. He searches for new products to promote, and comes across my eBook. He thinks it's a worthy item, and believes he can convince others to buy it. So he creates a special "hoplink" that will direct web surfers to my product, and keep in mind that it was his link and no one else's.

He goes to work, and drives traffic through his hoplink to my special product page. Some surfers leave, but others decide to buy. Every time someone Joe Genius sent me buys my $97 eBook, he gets $48.50 (50%) credited to his ClickBank account. Joe Genius is truly good at his job, so he ends up sending tons of people who are eager to buy. Let's say he sends me X visitors a day, 10 of which buy my eBook. That means that $970 is collected every day. So Joe Genius and I each earn $485 a day. Better for me, since I wouldn't have had nearly as many buyers without my trusty affiliate. And it's great for Joe, since he's making money just by moving people around on the internet!

What's so great about Affiliate Marketing?

An affiliate marketer with ClickBank doesn't have to touch physical goods. There's no shipping, no wrapping, no boxes, no postage, and no insurance to worry about. All you have to do is send prime buying candidates through a hoplink to a page they're likely to buy from, and you earn a commission.

What's the catch?

There are a few details regarding ClickBank that you should be aware of. First, the % you earn depends on the product. It can range from a low number up to 75%. But what is also important is the price. If you successfully refer a $1000 sale, and you make 10%, that's $100. But if you refer a $20 sale, and make 75%, that's only $15. So even though percentages might be higher, your overall earnings could still be lower. Lower still if the product doesn't sell very well.

Once you earn your first commission, ClickBank will credit it to your account. However, you won't be able to touch any of that money until you refer enough sales so that at least 5 different credit cards were used to buy. This is to prevent people from simply registering so they can buy through their own hoplink and get a discount. If you were to buy my imaginary eBook through your own hoplink, you'd pay $97 up front, but get $48.50 credited to your ClickBank account. You just paid half price. ClickBank doesn't think this is a good thing, and so they've got the 5 credit card number rule to try and filter out the "bad seeds" from the good affiliate marketers.

Another issue to be taken into consideration is how much and when you get paid. When you earn commissions, ClickBank creates a "ball of money" in your name. When it comes time to get paid, you only get a portion, while the rest "rolls over" for some reason. Doesn't seem fair right? Well they've spelled out their reasons at their site. The logic that can allow someone to overlook this apparent injustice is that if you make enough sales, you'll still get paid a good wage, even with the rollover in effect.

Let's get going

So how do you get started? Once you sign up, you'll be able to create your first hoplink. You go to the marketplace and find a product that fits the theme of your site, or perhaps one you plan to build a site around.

Your hoplink will look like this:

http://jgenius.ebookauthor.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=TRACK

jgenius is where your ClickBank user name would go

ebookauthor represents the creator of the product you want to promote

hop.clickbank.net is a standard portion of the hoplink

?tid=TRACK is a tracking option you can choose to use (not a requirement)

TRACK can be anything you want, anything you want to keep in mind, like EBSELL or FIRST or 0108

At the Marketplace, each product listing will have a "create hoplink" link that opens up a small window where you input your user name and optional tracking code. Once you create a hoplink, you can do all kinds of stuff with it.

More on hoplinks

You can use it in an article you write. You can check to see if the product page had a link to a special affiliate section where you can get product banners and images. Then you could use those images on your site and link them to your hoplink. You could even create an AdWords campaign and use your hoplink as the destination URL that an ad-clicker would end up at.

When someone clicks your hoplink, they are taken to the product page, and a cookie is installed on their computer to keep track of the fact that you are the one deserving a commission. If someone clicked on your hoplink, arrived at the product page, left, then clicked on someone else's hoplink, and finally bought, that affiliate would get the commission, and you would get nothing. So it pays to have your hoplink clicked last, just before the purchase.

Where's the big money?

Some people are conceivably earning incredible amounts of money through affiliate marketing. They are very good at what they do. These people are rare. Many (maybe even most) affiliates are searching for the secrets to such incredible success. There is a lot to consider:

Finding true success

There are many more variables to consider. The more you work, study and learn, the better you'll do. The ideal scenario would be to find a system that produces more money than you put in, and work on expanding it. The more aspects of that system you can put on autopilot, the better. If you work hard enough, and have the luck to find something that works, you might end up living the dream, and earning a mostly passive income online through affiliate marketing with ClickBank.

Holy crap! 5 years until Armageddon!!!!!

But seriously folks… take my wife, please!

I read on Wikipedia and elsewhere that among the things that are predicted for December 21, 2012 are:

With so many possibilities for an earth-changing event, it looks like 12-21-2012 is a date that will live in infamy, at least until it happens and is highly unextraordinary.

But maybe something big really will take place… So just make sure you make as much money online as you can now, while there's still time!

For those of you seriously curious about December 21, 2012, here's a clip of the show "Sightings" that answers a few questions. I think it's a little old; they say there are only 2 future Popes left until "The End," but I think now we're down to one. The next Pope is supposed to be the last, according to the prophecy.

Here are some things I thought you'd find interesting:

• Clarke wrote about how you can build a custom WordPress theme with no design skills. This ties in with my recent post on why updating a basic theme is a good thing.
• Nicholas listed 9 reasons it's better to have your own domain like www.example.com, rather than use a free subdomain like you'd get from sites like Blogger.
• Oleg has a tip on how you can increase your CPC (Cost Per Click) with advertising on your site (like AdSense). If you're getting only a couple of bucks for a ton of clicks, you'll probably benefit from his article.
• For your holiday pleasure, Sire posted his info on the recent media frenzy surrounding why Santa Claus' comments landed him in court.

Have you ever been so passionate about an idea, so completely enthused, that you couldn't wait to get to your computer and get your new project up and running? Did you work for hours and hours, trying to get things going as quickly as possible? What happened then? If you're like some people, you may have lost a considerable amount of interest somewhere down the line. Maybe you hit a snag, or maybe you just ran out of steam. But for whatever reason, your sprinting came to a dead halt. "It doesn't matter," you might have thought. "Wouldn't have worked anyway."

But what if it could have? All that passion you had to begin with must have come from somewhere. When you were still going strong, you knew it in your heart that you were working on a winner. "But it never took off." Well, nothing works when we stop working.

Sometimes we have to temper our passion, and make it last. If we use too much of it too quickly, we can burn ourselves out. It's like what tends to happen when the media takes a new hit and shoves it down our collective throats. At first we can't get enough of a new song, or artist, or video, or whatever. We say, "More, more, more!" And you end up seeing, hearing, or talking about it all day long. Pretty soon we get bored. Fed up. Overloaded. That same effect can occur with web development.

You might be so sure, so confident, so absolutely thrilled with your new idea. But you've got to be careful you don't wear yourself out trying to get too much done too quickly. Mind you, it is sometimes necessary to get things up and running in the rough as fast as possible. But as soon as you reach some basic level of functionality, you've got to give yourself time to rest, to recover from the intensity of it all.

Passion is somewhat self-replicating. As long as you take a break before you get too frustrated, your passion will have time to regenerate. But if you use all of your passion up too quickly, you risk losing it altogether.

The beauty of working online is that once we do something, it stays done. Once we create that brilliant image, write that amazing article, or format that gorgeous homepage, it will stay brilliant, amazing, and gorgeous for as long as we want, with no further effort on our part. This means that today we can easily build on the work we did yesterday. If ever you feel that you are losing motivation, just take a break. When you come back to your project, things will be just as you left them.

Your web site is like a castle. Every day you add a new room. When you do a little at a time, you keep yourself in a sustainable work mode. Without risking excess stress, you maintain the freedom to continue building your site up, little by little. It's amazing how much every little bit of effort can add up over time. Pretty soon, you might be shocked at the wonders you've created, simply through pacing yourself. It's no wonder so many people say, "Slow and steady wins the race."

Today I updated Misinterpreted dot Org's theme to get it further from the default WordPress look. I think I did a decent job, but I can still see areas that I might change in the future.

Part of the reason I did it was because I believe a web site will do better when it looks like time has been put into it. I visited a site yesterday that had an interesting article, but at first I wasn't sure if it was a scraper site that had stolen its content. It was just using the basic WordPress theme, and I've seen other scraper sites do that. In the end, I think the site was non-scraper, but it made me think about how the look of your blog can have a huge impact on the impression you give your readers.

I recently watched a show that had an extravagant title sequence. The show was 2-D animation, but the opening was 3-D. It just added so much, and it made the show seem like there was more to it than 2-D action. I think in some cases, a well-done title sequence might end up being one of a viewer's favorite parts of a show. This could be applied to web sites. If a site looks good, like it has something to offer, the visitor will be more hopeful and friendly toward it. If a site has the best content in the world, but looks generic or poorly-made, a visitor might just dismiss it and miss out.

Bottom line: When it comes to your blog or web site, looks matter.

Lots of times, people will overlook what could be considered the most important key to building up a site's traffic — content. I know that in the past, I've been curious about simple tweaks and tricks that will get more visitors to my site without me having to worry about what they'll find when they get here. But really, when it comes to traffic, content is king.

You hear that idea so many places that it might get old. "Yeah yeah, content is king, whatever, give me the secrets! The tricks the pros use!" In all honesty, I have to say I think "content" really does belong on the list for tricks pros use. Maybe even at #1.

How will great content bring more people to your site? Let's say your site is a notch above unknown. You've got a steady trickle of visitors. Not a whole heck of a lot, but a consistent number, and it's above 0. Imagine if you suddenly put up some amazing content. What would happen? The few people that see your site would say, "Wow! This is great stuff! I've got to remember this site…" Maybe they bookmark you. Maybe they mention your content to a friend or coworker. Maybe they even blog about you, and post a link so more people (and the search engines) can find your site. All these great things will happen because of great content. It's the Great Content Effect.

Now let's say that after a while, your site hasn't changed. There's that one piece of great content, which probably ends up getting its own trickle of traffic from search engines. And that's on top of the original traffic stream, so you're site is now getting more visitors than before. But your original visitors have found nothing new, and see no reason to keep coming back.

So you put up another piece of really great content. The Great Content Effect returns. A visitor says, "Hey, all right, this is perfect! I can't wait to see what they come up with next!" Others tell their friends about your site, and your traffic grows a little more.

Each time you put out great content, you increase the overall value of your site. The more valuable resources there are, the more people will come. Great content = great value = great traffic.

The beauty of using content to build traffic is that it's largely passive on your part! You regularly take the time to write or create something great, something useful and attractive, and then post it on your site. Bam! Done. Now your visitors will do all the heavy lifting, telling others about your site, bookmarking you, and keeping you in mind in the future. You can focus on what matters most, providing excellent content, and the traffic will essentially build itself.

What if rather than great content, you put up something lousy instead? Maybe a Made For AdSense template with old information. A visitor shows up, and if they are decently net savvy, they can tell your site holds less value than they expected. Suddenly your site has made a bad impression, and the visitor remembers not to come back. That can happen again and again. Pretty soon, most of your remaining visitors are all unfamiliar strangers who immediately turn away when they see you don't have too much to offer. There's no repeat traffic, which is a major component to a site's success. And if anyone happens to mention your site, the description won't likely be very positive. The lesson here is that a website is only as good as its content.

The benefits of consistently producing great content are:

The Great Content Effect is magnified depending on how much traffic you've already got. The more traffic you start with, the better the results will be. This is because larger groups of visitors seeing your great content for the first time can spread the word more quickly and powerfully than smaller groups. So you can see how this could snowball:

Traffic Level (X) + Great Content = Traffic Level (X+)
Traffic Level (X+) + Great Content = Traffic Level (X++)
Traffic Level (X++) + Great Content = Traffic Level (X+++)
Traffic Level (X+++) + Great Content = Traffic Level (X++++)
Traffic Level (X++++) + Great Content = Traffic Level (X+++++)
…Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!

One of the keys to succeeding in business is to provide great value for others. The more valuable you make your site with great content, the more traffic it will receive. And when it comes to making money online, getting traffic is half the battle.