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- Make Money Blogging: a Dollar Saved Is a Dollar Made 20
- Why Google PageRank Could Be a Thing of the Past 38
- Why Plugins Can’t Help You to Rank Better and What You Can Do About It 50
- Blog Audit Friday: Are You Profitable? 39
- Bloggers: If You’re Not Struggling, You’re Failing 71
- Personal Internet Marketing: From Zero to Hero in 4 Short Months 45
- Outsourcing: THE Biggest Little Secret Nobody Talks About 48
- How to add Social Media Buttons in WordPress 32
- Blog Audit Black Friday: How to Be Irrisistably Attractive 48
- Do They Celebrate Thanksgiving in Russia? 35
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I am a wife to a great husband of 13 years (here ya go, now I have to make changes to this sentence once a year), a mother to a beautiful and, no doubt, genius little girl, and a successful internet entrepreneur. I also devoted my life to Jesus Christ many years ago, and He remains my true priority, focus, and hope.
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Another great post Anna.
I use those pinging sites - though like you, I too find Pingoat annoying, so hardly use it!
Your sharing of information is always valuable and straight to the point - no mucking about with fluff and endless raving
Keep it coming - your emails too are some of the very few I bother reading nowadays
cheers
Pete
Hi Ana,
I’m so glad google alert me of your blog, I love reading other blogs as well not just for my love of reading but for the things I learned upon reading…Your blog is a fantastic one and I’m sure be returning to read more of your post…
Hi Reinier,
Thanks for coming into my blog. You are always welcome to come anytime and learn more from my posts.
Glad you found your way here,
Ana
I use MBP Ninja Affiliate and it works like magic. My affiliate link management is very easy now.
Hi Ana,
Step by step is what peoples should do, this is how I do it. If you have decent traffic to your blog, you can add Adsense and make money with.
I recommand MaxBlog Press to your reader!
Thanks,
Dave B
Thanks for the comment Dave. I appreciate the additional info.
Have a nice day,
Ana
Hi Ana,
Outsourcing is very important for your business. You can’t do everything yourself and expect to achieve incredible results. We only have 24 hours in a day!
Thanks for sharing your insights and the sites.
All the best,
Mavis Nong
Hi Ana,
Great video.
Did they change it because I’m having a hard time getting it to show me the two columns you mentioned. One of them (cpc) shows up as a choice, but I still don’t see a $ amount. Maybe I’m doing something wrong…
This was great info, thank you!
Susanna
I struggle Tristan, Man it’s not easy I gotta say!
What’s most intriguing about your post is the fact that I couldn’t even negate any of the four points you raised. It was like you were describing what I go through being a blogger and I am just marveled at the striking similarity between we bloggers. It’s just so true for us, the struggle to keep up is a daily thing.
Recently, I have been asking myself whether to increase my blog post from once weekly to twice and I haven’t gotten round that fact yet since I am still trying to catch with visiting as much blogs out there as possible to connect.
If you asked me, I would say, Blogging is a full time business. I spend as much as 10hrs every two days on my blogging activities and I still have other things in my life to contend with. WOW!
May the struggle continue. Thanks for this awesome post, You really did pick it out of all our minds. You spoke for us all, well done mate!
Hi Ana
The Maxblogpress stuff you mention is really good stuff and anybody not using some of their tools should consider doing so and would do well to take up your offer because it represets a big saving
You ask what else do we use on a regular basis, I find Seopressor is really good as a tool to get blog posts ranking highly and it teaches you as you use it
Outside of that I think the thing we all need is the availability of good Outsource partners, in fact I am beginning to think it’s a case of together we are stronger in terms of knowledge here
We have all found and recommended some great people the trouble is with each new turn comes a leap into the unknown with somebody new, sometimes great and sometimes plain awful with all the frustrations that throws up
As always thanks for sharing, I always learn something every time I visit Tony
Hi, Tony:
Thanks for SEOPressor recommendation.
I use Thesis theme, so all my SEO needs are taken care of by it, but it’s good to know about this plugin, since my readers ask me about them all the time.
Outsourcing is great… I definitely need to spend more time building a good team.
Have a great night!
Ana
Ana,
Just wanted to add that I love my MaxblogPress tools. And this is such a great deal!.
Ninja Affiliate is my favorite. I bought it a while back and did not install it…big mistake! Now I run all my affiliate stuff through Ninja affiliate.
I also love Subscribers Magnet. So easy to set up and use. Besides the easy instructions the support is super.
Ana,
I just have to say that I am a big MaxblogPress fan. And this is a super deal!
Ninja Affiliate is my favorite MaxblogPress tool. I bought it a while back and did not get it up on my site…..big mistake!
Subscribers Magnet is super. So easy and lots of choices.
Hi Ana,
I always thought the secret to success in any business was to buy low and sell high. Oh well, as you say, it’s usually not quite that simple. You definitely have to spend money to make money. One thing I’ve found in ventures in the past is that it’s necessary to keep pretty good track of your income and expenses. Otherwise, you can’t tell if you are making money or losing money. Besides, it makes it easier for you to give Uncle Sam his fair share. Maybe a lot of people don’t want to pay taxes, but as the Lord said, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.
Lou
You really can’t shotgun approach making money with blogging but have to gear your blog to which method of income you want to derive. Passive income like contextual ads will compete and conflict with affiliate sales, you can only drive a reader to so many ads or products before one suffers competing with the other.
Knowing how you want to generate income and gearing your business model toward that method is key. Note, one blog can be used for 1 income generation method while other sites can be used for different once, and you can switch back and forth if you can’t bring one site to where you want it to be.
Bottom line, blogging is one of those things were it is a minimal start up cost compared to other businesses, and if you put in the time, effort and have the patience you can see a decent ROI.
Google pagerank is already (somewhat) a thing of the past in Google’s vision. They are starting to rely less and less on it, but the concept of a high PR = great is still present in the minds of the great webmaster population.
I think that PR is something that some are still looking at is because of the myths it started several years ago, also Google itself said the the present PR is just something orientative and NOT that will influence your SERP.
They are now relying more and more on something called authority rank (or trust rank) and this rank is governed by rules other then the number of links that websites have. (they take in consideration the brand, if the business is legit, if it can be found in the real world, influence over the people and many more factors), but they are still perfecting it and so it’s not yet ready to be deployed fully.
At least this is my opinion
Hi, Alex - thanks for chiming in!
I don’t recall Google saying that PR didn’t enter into SERPs placement, only that it was just one of the over 200 factors that enter into it. Did I miss something?
Still, I think its importance in SERPs placement in diminishing, and I’m glad to see it. Authority ranking, while only once-removed from popularity ranking, is an improvement, I grant.
Thanks for the comment, Alex!
Oh, my bad it still counts but not as much as other factors and it certainly doesn’t count as much as it did just a few years ago.
P.S. I am searching for the post on google, google blog and matt cutts blog where it was mentioned that PR now is more a small factor and it’s more to orient yourself on the number of links you have/someone has.
Hi Ana,
I like your Christmaseey avatar
Stand out from the crowd! In a world of lemmings this is a toughie but if you can resist the urge to follow you will prosper.
The formula for making money blogging is simple. The implementation of the strategy becomes difficult because it requires effort. The time you spend on acquiring knowledge is obvious as you run a top-shelf blog. Most would rather not make the effort to acquire knowledge. They want to receive money; they don’t want to make it though
Thanks for sharing your insight Ana. Have a powerful day!
RB
It’s amazing how many people buy into “making money online is so simple, you’ll park a brand new Mercedes in your driveway within a month or two” mentality, Ryan!
I bet they wouldn’t think that about a brick and mortar business!
Business and business, no matter where you build it and outdoing your competition has always been the key to success.
Yeah, my new avatar… it’s a bit serious, but makes me smile looking at it every time!
Ana
Links in one form or another have been their true backbone since inception. To do away altogether would mean a complete SE overhaul…..doubtful.
I’m OK though and so are those like me. I have always and will always continue to write/link solely for benefits of readers.
As I see it, for all intents and purposes, I cannot get “screwed” no matter what is done to what.
Am I wrong?
Hi, Dennis… pleasure to see you here!
Absolutely, it would mean a major overhaul in the way we all think. But I think it’s time for an overhaul, and I’m betting that Google’s been thinking along the same lines for some time. Web 3.0, if and when it is finally viable, would totally negate the “need” for links, although I think they’ll always be around. Citations would likely replace them… just not for the purpose of establishing a nebulous “PageRank”.
As for writing and building for the users, I agree completely… you can’t get hurt!
Market solutions to your list is powerful, I started about a year ago that instead of “selling” to my list, I listened to what they needed and provided solutions, my traffic has gone up as well as my list, good stuff
With all the abuse that’s going on in email marketing, we might have to come up with even more ways to stand out of the crowd and make it worthwhile for our subscribers to open our emails…
You are becoming quite a regular on my blog, Ray - love seeing you around and greatly appreciate your comments!
Ana
Love the holiday pic! I am glad I found your blog, always looking to get better =)
Ana,
Affiliate links are fine…as long as you are promoting tools / products / services you have used and benefited from.
Andrew
No question about it, Andrew - building trust is the most important aspect of making money online and recommending junk just because you want to make some extra cash won’t get you there.
How’s the weather in your part of the world?
I bet it’s dreamy with all the Christmas lights out…
I love Europe in winter!
Ana
Ana,
The weather is cold and snowy! Hope it lasts until way past Christmas.
Andrew
I am in Arizona, so we have clear skies and temperatures in the 70′s.
I love it, but it’s nice to have white Christmas.
Going to Colorado this year to get some of the winter wonderland feel.
Ok, now please knock that off! Isn’t this stuff suppose to be complicated! Thanks for keeping it simple.
Thanks for the compliment Barry. I truly appreciate it.
Glad you came by,
Ana
Hi Devesh & Ana
I guess it’s the mark of a really good blog that the reason I came here this morning is not the reason I stayed for a few minutes longer
I came originally in response your e mail on are you good enough and the dilema the two voices create, we have all beaten ourselves up at moments of doubt and I think that’s a good thing, it helps to refocus us but our expectations can be way to high as well
However as so often happens I find myself being educated in yet another traffic generation post on the power of Social Media buttons, like many I have written posts including their value but haven’t yet set them up on my blog, something clearly I need to put right quickly
So once again thanks for providing such valuable information Tony
Really this information is very helpful me in my private business website and this through get the traffic… so thanks for the sharing this information… and every one use this information for buy targeted web site traffic….
Hello William,
I’m glad you find it informative. I’m sure it will help you with your own website.
Thanks for coming,
Ana
Sheldon:
Very well said. I agree with Heather as well…PR has been stuck since April and it makes it tough on those of us who have been diligently working towards increasing our PR. If indeed Google is getting rid of PR, they better make sure they get their new metrics out to the people, because like Heather said…alot more businesses want to give their business to the high PR sites. Great article!
Hello, Lisa. I appreciate you taking the time to comment, and appreciate the kind words, as well.
When it comes right down to it, Google is going to make the decision that is best for THEM, as they should. I think most of us would do the same. Frankly, if I were in their position, I might do it the same way, just for business reasons. Their revenue comes from ad sales, and they sell ads by serving relevant search results. Everything else is just noise, and I would expect them to handle it in the way that least impacts their business. They have an obligation to their stockholders, not to the SEO community.
Some, in fact, are of the opinion that Google sees those of us that practice SEO as the “enemy”. I don’t personally subscribe to that theory, but then, I don’t think they see us as “friends”, either.
I have to disagree with you there Doc.
There is no ad revenue for Google if people don’t use their search engine. In order for people to continue using their search engine they need to be providing the most relevant results to their users. If their user base leaves they can kiss their income goodbye. The “rest” is what makes them the money it’s not just noise
How do you serve the most relevant results? Well thats something your going to have to learn because Google isn’t going to tell you. Thats why people will likely need SEO guys now more than ever since they are openly valuing social media factors into the algo along with myriad other constant changes.
Links will always be important and will never go away.
Hi, Chris-
I guess I wasn’t clear, because you seem to have misunderstood me. I agree with all of your first paragraph, which is what I thought I said to Lisa, up until the last sentence. When I said “Everything else is just noise”, I was referring to everything that wasn’t relevant results (to keep their users) and ad sales (which are dependent upon those users). Beyond those, everything else is just noise for them.
As for how to serve the most relevant results, Google has some of the finest minds in the industry, that have already proven themselves capable of developing some mighty impressive algorithms… I trust they can do that, given some time and effort to implement RDFa, to assist in achieving some semantic capability.
Will that happen overnight? Obviously not. But I suspect that it will happen rapidly enough to shake up a lot of people. And given the number of “SEO is Dead” pieces that seem to surface after every new update, I think it’s safe to say that our industry is prone to being shaken up, even in the absence of cause. Give us a reason, and look out!
You say “Links will always be important and will never go away” - define important, and to whom.
I agree they’ll never go away. I just said that I think they’ll play a much less prominent role in SERPs placement. But face it… they’re only important to Google until they have a better metric. The function of links, from their standpoint, can be performed just as well by other means. Citations, RDFa/GoodRelations, even the very basic FOAF…. which are not as easily gamed. If Ctags are implemented, the only person a fella can spam is himself.
I just don’t think it’s realistic to make a pat statement about links being too important to lose their value in ranking. Anything can change.
I also think that Google is in trying to replace the page rank — at least, to replace the page rank algorithm. Page Rank is died when there are so many link spamming available.
Hi, Dana. Thanks for dropping in.
I’m glad the post made some sense to you.
Always enlightening, Ana. Thanks. Your blog will help me go up the leanring curve a bit faster.
Steve
BLog on green living niche: http://livinggreenandsavingenergy.com
I really enjoyed your post and I am now interested in reading some more of your posts on your blog and see what you have to say. Do you mind if I tweet your blog post out to my followers on twitter? I think they would also enjoy the blog post. Thanks.
Hi Chin,
Thanks for dropping by. I don’t mind at all if you tweet my blog, actually that would be a wonderful idea. It’s nice to know that you like my posts.
Have a nice day,
Ana
Hey Sheldon,
Very interesting post there. I think you’ve made some very valid arguments against having Page Rank. I think Google should get rid of PR totally. But I do appreciate your point on links. Link building should always be part of ranking but must not be the only means to rank a page higher. I see a lot of bad websites with PR of 5 with hardly any useful content. Spam sites like this is probably one of the reasons why Google is starting to devalue Page Rank.
At the end of the day, it’s the average internet user who is at a disadvantage when searching for something on the internet.
Hello, Bryan-
Personally, I think visible PageRank has created a lot of problems. Had it been an internal value, invisible to those outside of Google, it might have worked a little better. But when people know that they can increase that value by acquiring more links (by ANY method), some are bound to try to take the easy way out, and game the system.
PageRank helped make possible the phenomenal growth of the Internet is a very short time, but like anything else, it needs to be reevaluated periodically to see if it’s still beneficial. My position is that it had gotten to the point that it does more harm than good. Get rid of it, replace it with a near-Semantic capability and you’ll remove the incentive for link-spamming. That’ll be better for site-owners, SEOs, search engines and the users!
Thanks for chiming in, Bryan! Your comment’s appreciated.
Hi Julius,
SEO has been talked over and over again around the blogosphere. Although I do get a feeling that it has been talked to death already, somehow there are always new things coming out thx to Google (mainly) and the other search engines playing around with their algorithms.
I do agree that plugins don’t necessarily help you rank better. Even if a wordpress site does not run with All-In-One SEO plugin, if you know the basics of SEO, you will know what to do already. I think the beauty of plugins is that it makes things easier for you. You don’t have to manually key in descriptions, meta tags, slugs etc for your content. Despite the big talk on SEO, I do notice quite a number of bloggers not even doing the basic stuff. But I do know that, even if they don’t they could still rank quite high. I think this is mainly because of the “social status” of the website or content. Google does seem to rank websites higher with more social buzz even when their keyword optimization is crap.
Thx for sharing this article Julius
I don’t know what you mean by calculating relevancy on the fly - this is what is already done (OK, with the cache) in the counting link votes and relevancy. So my question is, what is the difference in what you’re proposing and what Google is already doing?
Sure, counting links is one way, but they already go deeper. There is a social component (talk of social media esp. Twitter and Facebook, at least on Bing’s proposal), there is a relevancy component (linking from like minded pages to like minded pages yields more link juice)…
So I’m not sure what you mean that’s substantially different.
Hi, James-
By on the fly, I mean the “rank” of a page - that which is currently referred to as PageRank - would be determined during the document retrieval process, much as SERPs ranking is currently performed. It would be based upon relevancy of the document to the particular search query, taking into consideration many factors that are already used, EXCEPT PageRank, which would no longer exist. In other words, the retrieval and SERPs ranking process wouldn’t really change that much (except for an increased utilization of Semantic technology, such as RDFa). The major benefit at the outset would be the elimination of any incentive for link-spamming, as the value of links would be greatly reduced. They’d still exist, in order to “connect the dots” between nodes in the graph, although citations could do the same thing, but their impact on SERPs placement would be minimal.
I hope that’s a little clearer. It’s difficult to go into very deep detail here.
Thanks a lot for stopping by and commenting, James!
Hi Ana,
I love reading Wayne’s blog and with your comments am sure he will make improvements over time that will strengthen his reach in the blogosphere.
I also really enjoy reading these audits as there is always something more to learn from your wisdom Ana. Thank you.
~Marcus
Me too Marcus. I love his blog because he provide valuable quality content all the time. I’m glad you learned something from this Audit
You know the most frustrating part of the lack of page rank update is for those of us who have just started blogging. I started in August and although I have decent traffic and a ton of backlinks…still a pagerank 0. It wouldn’t bother me much, but it keeps companies from working with me. They’ll take someone with less twitter followers, less facebook followers, less subscribers and a lower alexa score than me…all because I have 0 page rank. If google is going to stop updating it, companies need to get on board and stop using it as a way of qualifying who they will work with.
Hi, Heather-
I can hear the frustration in your voice, and believe me, we’ve all felt it at one time or another. Unfortunately, our clients are rarely as up to date as we are on what’s going on in the industry. That means it’s up to us to try and educate them. As I’m sure you’ve already noticed, some are willing to listen, and some aren’t. It just goes with the territory. You might want to consider writing a blog post about the topic. Link to a few other pieces, such as this one, or others on my site, to show credibility of your position, and then share it with your prospects.
Thanks for dropping by… best of luck.
That was a very interesting to read, new to most of this stuff that why I like reading these kinds of post. Thanks for sharing
I’m glad you found it interesting, Tristan. It’s mostly meant to provoke some thought.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
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