Being a Dork Pays Off: Cashing In On Uncool!
It’s near the ending of the first week of “build a blog a week.” I’ve actually decided to not build a new blog each week but to instead create a blog and then work on developing it until it is making a consistent $5 per day. I know that to some of you big bloggers this really doesn’t seem like much, but to us rookie blogger an extra $150 per month is freakin awesome!
So the first blog in this project was a revamp of a blog that I had already but was not really doing that hot: Top Warcraft Guides. I actually started revamping this blog on Wednesday so it hasn’t been a full week working on it.
I did all of the standard things you would do with a new blog (ie find a template and tweak it, install plugins etc) . I found a great checklist over at Blogging Badly to help you set up a new blog. With this blog I am focusing on 3 major issues in getting started:
1. Ranking for keyword phrases
2. Monetizing with great Adsense positioning
3. Monetizing with ClickBank
1. To start off I am working for the whole blog to be ranked for the keyword phrase “wow gold farming” which according to word tracker has 69,400 competing sites and the number 1 spot in Google gets around 160 hits per day. As of writing this I cannot find my blog in the top 100 of Google. I am also writing post that are individually targeted at other keywords besides “wow gold farming” For example the phrase “wow enchanting guide” which I currently rank 14th in Google which puts me on page 2. A pretty good start I think. I really don’t know all that much about SEO, but I found a great post that has help me a ton in getting ranked in Google
2. Monetizing with Adsense was my biggest focus as I do run an Adsense Blog, and I’m you would like to hear about how I use Adsense on my other blogs. I tried to keep it simple by using a 728 Leader Board bended to the background right below the banner, as I watched in one of the videos for Adsense Decoded that this is one of the best position and sizes for an Adsense unit. I still have no navigation for this blog, and it seems like I may not as this make the Adsense seem like the navigation. I also have integrated a 250×250 square floating to the right of the post text. It took some playing around but I finally got it to “float” to the right of the text. I used some simple CSS to create this effect.
<div style=”margin-left:40px; padding:5px”>
<adsense code>
<div>
And then I stuck the code on the Index template for my theme. As far as I can tell every template seems to be different. All I do is find a place in the template code where I think the Adsense code should be and then I check out the blog and see if the Adsense is in the right spot. If not I try again. Good ole trial and error.
3. I also am using ClickBank to make some money. There are a ton of Warcraft related items available on ClickBank. I am still trying to figure out the best way to promote these items. Right now I have the a tower banner in the sidebar closest to the post. I am still playing around with positioning and what spots will work best. I’m going to add a few other affiliate programs besides ClickBank, such as Tshirt Hell which has a two-tier program that pays out $4 per Tshirt sold.
So this is blog number 1 of the $5 per day project. I would love to hear some feedback, so if you have a few moments head to my blog about WoW Gold Farming and let me know if like what you see or if you have some suggestion for improving it.
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Comments
@Skolor: Yeah this way seems more realistic! ‘Different Goals’? are you talking about the blog flip happening with some of the Bloggeries crew?
@Tom: I’m sure I could figure it out, but it’s working for me so: If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!
So far my WoW Gold Strategies site has made around $50 in week 1 of the revamp which is 100% more than it did before the revamp. It may almost be time to head off to blog number 2
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Yeah, thats my main concern right now, so its about all that I’ve been thinking about.
I did download that eBook you were talking about. Is the paid version that much better? I may have to look into that, it looks like a good idea.
Skolor’s last blog post..What’s in a name?
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@Skolor: The paid version is more so the philosophical side with a few little tidbits. The free one is much more practical
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THIS is the kind of posts people want to see! Practical examples of stuff in action, that we can go look & see what you are talking about and learn from.
Very useful for a beginning blogger.
I think some before & after screenshots might have been a useful addition, though.
I am really looking forward to seeing more posts like this one.
app’s last blog post..BDO tracking software idea
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@app: I really want to continue doing these types of posts after the ‘re-brand’ but more so from the beginning. I started this project months ago but never gave it the proper attention.
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Drinking while posting again?
Sounds like a good plan. I was wondering how you would do $5 a day in just a week. I’m hoping for $5 a day after a month, if then. But we’ve got slightly different goals.
Skolor’s last blog post..The Grind- Entrecard style
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