Posted Friday, August 1, 2008 by momscashblog |
When I bought MomsCashBlog in early May I knew very, very little about how blogs worked and my technical skills were ah.. pretty low! lol. One thing I did know is that to make money sometimes you have to take a risk, and the best way to learn something fast is to just jump right in feet first! That way you have no choice but to learn the ropes. (it’s sink or swim… and most people swim! lol) So I bought a blog that was already in progress… already monetized by a pro, had good PageRank, and had a great tutorial to market and attract new visitors.
Back then I planned to tell my blog earnings after the first 3 months, no matter what it was. August 4 will be the official end of the 3rd month, but this is close enough to give you an idea as I’m rounding off the amounts anyways. I have never divulged any of my incomes before, much less put it on the internet! lol But I want to do my blogging earnings just this once. I feel obligated to tell this because I think it’s encouraging to others who are starting a blog and for those who want to get into blogging. It’s just good to know what some blogs make. (more…)
Posted Friday, July 18, 2008 by momscashblog |
The following guidelines will help you write good ad copy if you’re using your blog to make money by selling a product or service. If you need to know more about ad writing, there’s many books with more details (Also read Part I in my last post). Here’s a couple of books on advertising that are rated very well: The Online Advertising Playbook and Tested Advertising Methods.
Headline
Ad headlines are different from blog post titles, so don’t use this advice for post titles. Headlines can be 2 or 3 lines long and they should be intriguing. On the other hand, blog post titles should be short and to the point if you want them to be searchable. You don’t have to worry about anyone searching for the headline of your ad. They’ll be searching for your product or service.
Ask a Question Headline: Ask a question in your headline to compel your reader to continue reading the ad. Some good question headline starters are: Why should you… What would you do if…. When should you… Would you… Should you… Could you… Did you know… and What if… An example would be: What would you do if your blog traffic doubled overnight and tripled within a week’s time? (more…)
Posted Sunday, July 13, 2008 by momscashblog |
Here are some tips and ad writing techniques to help those of you who plan on selling products with your blog. If you’re getting into Affiliate Marketing you may have to write your own ads. Ad writing is also helpful for anyone with a blog. If you want to make money online or you have a blog with ads you’ll need to sell ads in your posts from time to time. Even if you don’t sell a product or ads, you will want to drive traffic to your blog from another site (either from a social networking site or from another blog). In other words, you will have to “sell your blog”. Knowing the basics of ad writing can be a big help for anyone with a blog or a business. (more…)
Posted Tuesday, July 8, 2008 by momscashblog |
It’s no secret that the economy is in a bad way right now. Some call it a “slow down”, some are calling it a “crunch” but whatever you call it, times are hard. We’re feeling the pinch with record breaking gas prices and the cost of food going up at a steady rate. Some businesses are going under and people are losing their jobs. Last week, the US Department of Labor said the total number of people claiming unemployment in the US is around 404,000… that’s 82,000 more than last year. This month Starbucks will be closing 600 shops which will mean thousands more will be unemployed or displaced. Are you tired of hearing all the bad news yet?? Well, here’s some good news… (more…)
Posted Saturday, June 28, 2008 by momscashblog |
One thing you can do to bring in new visitors to your blog is make posts that are ”off topic”. Studies have proven that new visitors are the ones most likely to click on your ads and use them for all they are worth. When a person first visits a site his/her brain is stimulated and engaged in the process. Their minds are open and they become curious and they don’t mind pushing those buttons and checking out your ads to see what it’s all about. After a visitor has been on a site for a while and becomes a ”regular” he/she becomes desensitized and eventually stop using your ads. There’s a certain point where visitors only read your posts.
By going off topic and bringing in someone new you not only benefit from their first time curiosity and clicking instincts… chances are very good that you can change their thought process and that can be good for both you and the visitors. (more…)
Posted Monday, June 16, 2008 by momscashblog |
I find working from home on a computer makes it easy to spend too much time reading and searching. Every day we can find hundreds of posts telling us how to make money with our blogs. It’s wonderful to have this information but it can also eat up your whole day just reading things that don’t really matter.
If you always read How to Make Money blogs it can mess with your head. Some posts are designed to make you feel like a failure if you don’t make $20,000 a day, while other more humble bloggers’s say be reasonable and don’t expect too much. You want to believe the $20,000 a day, but you know the humble blogger is probably the “real deal”. Reading conflicting reports like these can cause anxiety in your subconscious mind and keep you searching for the answer without knowing exactly why your stuck on that one topic. It’s your brain’s own little SEO at work and you don’t even know it!
Then there’s the technical stuff we’re all expected to keep up with. Every day there’s a new tech term some kid made up just to throw me off and I spend half the day trying to find the definition. Sometimes when I do find out what it means, I still don’t know what to do with it. More times than not, I end up on a scavenger hunt going from one blog to another and never learning what I needed to know. There goes a whole day sitting behind my laptop more frustrated than when I started. You may think it’s the classic case of “information overload” and it is, but it’s also your brain’s own SEO hard at work again.
The Zeigarnik Effect
There’s a good reason that we feel anxious and unsettled when we overload our brains with useless information. Ironically, the reason we feel that anxiety is the same reason that we continue to read that useless information in the first place! It’s a phenomenon called the Zeigarnik effect, named after the Gestalt theorist who studied the mind’s behavorial patterns. It explains the mental tension and unbalance a person feels when a task has not been completed. Our minds have a need for linear path thinking… which means “seeing one task all the way thru to the end”. It doesn’t matter what that information is, you asked yourself a question once and your mind will try to conduct a search until it finds the answer. Your brain has the best SEO available to you, but it needs guidance.
Most bloggers are stuck on the question: “How much money can I make with my blog?” That sends your subconsicous mind on a scavenger hunt for something that you have no conscious control over. If your brain had its own way, it would search day and night for little things it never got the answers to. So if you read useless information, the brain will seek the answers to useless information for as long as you let it. Your brain is doing it’s own computer search but YOU might have little control over the keyword search your mind is conducting.
Trick Your Brain’s SEO With a List of Your Own
You can trick this behavior pattern by becoming “aware” of the Z-effect and using it to your advantage. Make linear thinking work for you, not against you. Here’s a few ways to do this:
1. Make a list of what you want to know before your start reading blogs. The mind loves lists. If you don’t make a list, it will make it’s own list and do it’s own searches on what it THINKS you want to know. Making a list gives your subconscious mind something useful to look for.
2. Search for the topics on your list one at a time. Keep your mind on a ”linear path” of your choosing and finish the task. Your mind likes to finish tasks.
3. Write down a certain time to turn your computer off. By doing this you give your mind another task to finish which takes it away from the task of searching useless information. The mind’s new task is to turn the computer off at a certain time. (Hey, it’s a lot better than searching useless info all day and night, isn’t it?)
4. Write a list of things to do in the real world. This is very important. You need to remind your mind (and yourself) that you have a life other than your blog and the computer. Be specific with tasks with lists like: “play with the kids, “go swimming today”, “take a walk”, “read your mail and do the bills”, etc.
Use the Z-effect In Your Blog
Knowing everyone experiences the Z-effect and has a need to finish a task to its end can work to your advantage on your blog. When a visitor is on your site you want them to feel the need to finish a task. One effective way to do this is by having “related topics” at the end of your posts. (It works for me every time I see it. I always feel the need to check out the other posts listed at the bottom.. the Z-effect in action!)
Many great online marketers who work with big companies know it is the Z-effect that compels people to buy a product. Try to craft your site, and/or your posts in a way that makes your visitors feel a need to finish a task on your site. (for most bloggers, the task is to click on your ads, of course!) Be careful though, because by doing this you are causing some conflict in the person’s mind by making them feel a little uncomfortable… like they are not done until they complete everything asked. If you create too much conflict or anxiety it can backfire on you and make them leave your site upset. So experiment a little with the Z-effect and see what happens.
