Nearly two weeks ago I set myself a deadline to have my latest site done by the end of October. Well… that’s today and I have failed miserably in my task. But setting the deadline was good for me because I worked my arse off. I think I underestimated how much I actually have to do because I’ve barely stopped working since then. My new deadline is Monday and it’s coming out, ready or not. I might not unleash the fury across the internet but I’ll post the link here to hopefully get some feedback from you guys.

Putting so much work in lately has got me thinking about how many hours I’m committing to this and I thought it might be interesting to attempt to get a figure for many hours of work I’ve actually put in. Because I’m working on a site that hasn’t been launched, none of the work I’ve done has directly affected my earnings but I’m still curious to work out a very rough hourly rate.

So I’ve tried to look back through the month and remember how I’ve spent my time. I spent 10 days up in Glasgow where I know I only worked about 5 hours during the entire time. I had one massive weekend when the rugby final was on and that was a write off and my other weekends were all spent working pretty hard, usually much longer than 8 hours a day. After I get home from work I go to the gym, eat dinner, watch some crappy TV (Hollyoaks!) and then do at least 2 solid hours of work unless I’m lured out to the pub after work or have something else on.

So all up my guess for number of hours worked in October is 73. That’s with 5 hours while I was on holiday, two hard working weekends of 20 hours each (sad but true), one weekend where my liver wanted to revolt and my brain didn’t want to work, and 14 weeknights where I did around 2 hours of work each. I usually work more than 2 hours a night so this is a pretty low estimate but it’s a good start.

I’ve conveniently forgotten about the thousands of hours I’ve put in over the past several years but there’s not way I’d be able to figure that out so I might as well make fresh start. I’m going to start a little spreadsheet next month to keep track of the hours I work in November to get a more accurate picture. I’m pretty curious about it myself!

Oh ya, happy Halloween! I can’t believe I’ve become one of those misers who turn all the lights off and try to hide from the kiddies… I am so ashamed.

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I’m about two months away from landing in Manila on a one-way ticket and at the moment I know absolutely nothing about the Philippines. I only recently learned how to spell it! I was bored at work earlier and I thought today would be as good a day as any to get cracking with some travel planning.

I spent most of my time this afternoon looking at maps and Googling things I read about on message boards. I wouldn’t say I’m planning some sort of crazy trip off the beaten path and I’ve noticed lots of gaps in the information that’s available for some pretty basic things. Once I realised this, my travel planning quickly changed gears and became website planning. Instead of jotting down names of hotels and the best places to buy ‘happy’ shakes, I started making a list of the places and things I can’t find anything out about.

It’s not going to help me much when I touch down in Manila without a clue and find myself sleeping in the gutter, but it will give my overall trip a purpose. The plan is to try to fill in as many information gaps as I can while I’m on the road and I think making a list in advance is the best plan because I won’t assume that people will know things, I’ll know exactly what sort of info people will be after because I’m after it as well. But then again if nothing comes of it at least I’ll be able to recommend all the coziest gutters in Manila.

This probably won’t work for places like Paris or the Queensland coast or anywhere with a path that is well worn but for anyone planning a trip that’s a bit off the typical tourist trail then paying attention to what you can’t find out should leave you with some pretty good ideas for websites. When you’re searching for something and mighty Google doesn’t come through, look at it as an opportunity to develop something of your own.

I don’t intend to spend all of my time as a researcher of obscure parts of the Philippines but it makes sense to make little notes here and there since I’ll be going there anyways. If I can pull a bunch of useful bits of information together into a good resource then I could be onto a nice earner.

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I’ve never been one of those people who researches keywords and traffic stats to find a new niche. I tend to just build sites based on my interested a vague idea of what keywords I’d like to target and hope for the best. Picking keywords is a science to some people and there’s plenty written on the subject and plenty about it that I don’t know. One thing I do know, though, is that getting as many keywords as you can into your domain name (within reason) will go a long way towards a good ranking with Google.

The longest domain name I have is four words and a whopping 29 letters long. At first I thought it was a ridiculous choice but each word in the domain is one I wanted to target and I figured if it didn’t work then I could always register something else.

The result? After about six months of nothingness, the site now ranks number three with Google for those very competitive keywords plus comes up high for various combinations of those words. The site is very targeted and aimed at selling stuff and I’m finally starting to see some results. The words aren’t searched for a lot but when people find the site, the traffic is targeted and they tend to be in the mood to buy.

The domain name is a bit spammy looking but the site itself provides quality information, provides value to the user and just happens to have a bunch of affiliate links lurking within the content. There’s no way of knowing how well my site would have ranked without stacking the domain with keywords but I have a hunch that it’s been really helpful.

I guess a bit of proof that this might work is another site I have that has a long domain name made up of four keywords as well. This one only consists of one page and has zero inbound links. Despite having virtually no content and nothing to offer the reader except outbound affiliate links the site does well for the targeted keywords and ranks number 3 with Google.

As usual I don’t have anything concrete to back up my mad theory except for my personal experience. I don’t want to encourage people to start registering 10 word domains or anything but, so far, I’ve had some success with domains approaching 30 characters and, though long, Google seems to still like them and I like to keep Google happy!

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I’m currently working on a new version of my Working Holidays site and I need a serious kick in the arse or I’ll be working on it until the end of time. I’ve been talking about launching this site for what seems like an eternity and it’s starting to get to that point where I’m sick of looking at the thing and I want to get it out of my face so I can work on something else.

So, with that said, I’ve decided to set myself a deadline. I am going to aim to have this thing up and running by October 31st. There, I said it… now hopefully I can do it. I work well under pressure and I usually do what I say so here’s hoping setting the deadline will help me get myself into gear.

Here’s a list of the major things I still need to finish:

• Edit the blog’s theme - The blog is only a small part of the site but I want it to fit seamlessly with the look of the rest of the site. I expect I’ll be spending many hours of frustration tweaking CSS and pulling my hair out.
• Add a forum - I plan on buying a vBulletin forum and I need to sort out how to add it to my site. I haven’t even looked at this yet so it could be easier than I expect or it could be a total nightmare.
• Finish writing the major stuff - I’ve pulled together loads of information on working holiday visas so far but there are lots of things I can’t find answers to online which means I need to call and email people. I could get away with leaving gaps but I want this to be as thorough as possible from the start. I need to add a few more articles about working abroad too.
• Create a header image or logo - At the moment there’s a gaping hole where a wicked logo or great looking header image should be. I always have big expectations of myself in this area but usually settle for something that I scrape together at the last minute. This time I want to get it right.
• Draw more cartoons - If you looked at my old site you probably noticed the moose cartoon that changes based on the country. I’m attempting to do this on a major scale for the new site and need to whip up a few more toons.
• Tweak the CSS for the text - My fonts and headers look like poop at the moment. My initial aim was just to get the content up and worry about the look later so now I need to spend that time worrying about the look.
• Meta tags - At the moment they don’t exist and I’ve got to write them and do some basic SEO.
• Little annoying things - All that boring, painful stuff like proof reading, spell checking, link checking yadda yadda yadda.

Most of the stuff that needs doing isn’t totally essential for the site to be functional but I’m being a perfectionist with this one. I’m really happy with the navigation and layout and want the rest of the site to live up to what I’ve already finished. I love that feeling when a new site is launched and I can’t wait to get some feedback. I have some big expectations of this site.

Here’s hoping giving myself a deadline will motivate me!

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I spent a bit of time yesterday checking out some blogs I haven’t read in awhile and I came across a post over at Self Made Minds (which is an excellent blog and should be read by one and all) about what sorts of people are attempting to make money online.

He basically breaks it down into four main types of people:

• The Ideas Person
• The Backend Coder or Programmer
• The Marketer
• The Opportunist

I would definitely say I’m an Ideas Person. I’m rarely short of ideas… although whether or not they’re good ones is up for debate! Having lots of ideas is great for the little sites but it can be really frustrating when I want to do something a bit more complicated. Without any background in programming I can’t implement most of my grander schemes without someone else’s help. This does give the option of outsourcing but not understanding how my own site works would be a bit annoying, I’m sure. So far I’ve kept things on my sites pretty simple because of this lack of behind the scenes knowledge. But then again it’s a lot easier to buy a programmer’s time than it is to buy a good idea.

Despite my lack of programming knowledge I’m still hopeful that, given enough time, I’ll be able to teach myself some of the backend type stuff. I’ll never be able to whip up amazing applications or hugely interactive websites no matter how many books I read or how long I stare blankly at my computer screen. It would be nice to learn enough though for it to make enough sense to me so that I’m less afraid to tinker with things. Programmer types are lucky because, even if their websites flop, they can still sell their services and work from anywhere for a good wage.

I’m no master marketer but I’m sure if I made a concerted effort to market my sites I’d do ok but never come up with anything great. It really is an eye opener when I come across a site that is obviously well marketed. I think this is something that can be learned with time, a bit of trial and error and by watching the masters at work but it still takes a certain instinct that I’m not sure I have.

I think the opportunist is an interesting one. I’ve always begrudged those people who buy stacks of domains and then park them only to sell them on later. I don’t have the foresight to be able to come up with the next big thing and am happy working hard on my sites without keeping on top of the next major money making manoeuvre. I sort of see this group as the ones doing dodgy deals in the back alleys but fair play to anyone who can pull it off.

The post has made me wonder how many of the success stories out there come from people who are the complete package and how many have to bring other people on board to compliment their own skills. I think that knowing where your weaknesses lie and when to ask for help is important.

So… which one are you? Are there any programmers out there who want to team up and take over the world with me?

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Steve mentioned in a comment on my last post about the huge learning curve involved with this whole webmastering thing. Shortcuts can be taken, things can be outsourced, and sorftware can be purchased to make everything a bit less painful but I’m a firm believer that if you want to earn a good amount of money online you have to learn as much as you can about what it takes to get a website up and running and, more importantly, earning.

I thought it might be a good idea to make a list of everything I’ve learned so far as an example of how someone can go from knowing nothing to earning a nice monthly sum from their sites. It’s taken me seven years to get where I am now with a few years of not doing anything and a few years of working really hard but I’ve enjoyed the journey and look forward to learning more down the road.

• Basic HTML - My very first step was learning HTML. I’m not sure how I got into this whole thing… I think it started with me making a cheesy ‘about me’ type page with the one image I’d scanned into my computer. I logged onto an online tutorial, followed the steps and built my first webpage.
• FTP - Now that I had my very own shitty webpage I had to find a way to add it to all the other shitty webpages that made up the internet back in 2000. I’d never heard of Geocities or other places that hosted free websites but I did have some free web space with my ISP. So I downloaded wsFTP and spent a few days (maybe even weeks) extremely frustrated as I worked out how to upload my site’s files.
• Tables and More Advanced HTML - I’m an artist at heart and love a good design. My first website was not a shining example of a good design given that it looked like a Word document with an image in the middle. By looking at the page source of websites I liked I was able to figure out how tables worked and achieve the sort of layouts I wanted.
• Adobe Photodelux - I guess this is some sort of dumbed down version of Photoshop. It came with my printer and it was all I had so I learned how to make some basic images and how to manipulate photos.
• Animated GIFs - Yep, I was one of those people who went a bit crazy with the ol’ animated GIF. I took the images I’d created in Adobe Photodelux and downloaded some animation wizard program and created a seizure-inducing medley of online animation. My first ever site was called ‘All Things Canuck’ and was about, well, anything that was Canadian. I pimped that sucker out with enough spinning maple leaves to make a reader nauseous. I wish I had saved those files… it was so bad it was awesome.
• Domains & Hosting - It was about this time when I discovered that travel was my true passion and having just returned from a few weeks in Ireland I started Travoholic.com. I registered the domain name in 2001 with Network Solutions for an obscene $35/year. I was actually paying that up until two years ago because I didn’t think it was possible to change to a cheaper company. Oops. My first hosting account was with a company called Hostway and everything was pretty straightforward with that whole side of things.
• Affiliate Programs - Once my travel site was up and running, I signed up for Amazon’s affiliate program and have made $0.00 since that day. I also signed up to Commission Junction and am unhappy to report that I have also made $0.00 with them. I also added Hostelworld.com and I still remember my amazement when I made my first few dollars with them. I had to wait about two years to get my first $200 cheque but I was so excited about having made money from my site.
• Forms - The whole idea for my travel site was based around accepting hostel reviews from other travellers. At the time, if you can believe it, there were a few sites listing the names and addresses of hostels but nothing offering up opinions and that’s what I was looking for. Since nobody else was doing it, I decided I should and to do this I came up with a form for accepting reviews. I still use the same form I created five years ago and, to be honest, I don’t even check the email address the reviews go to because I get so much fake, spammy reviews. I’ll have to revisit this area at some point and sort the form out to filter the spam.
• Adobe Photoshop - After graduating from university in 2001 I went travelling to Australia and completely neglected my site. When I moved to London in 2002 I bought a laptop and it had Photoshop on it. I decided to overhaul my site and add an Australia section and spent a lot of time fiddling with things in Photoshop. I could definitely stand to take a course or buy a book on it, but for now I’m able to do most things I want to do.
• Google Adsense - This was the most important thing in getting me to take building websites seriously and was the spark I needed to start working hard again. The program itself is easy to use but there is a lot to it as far as tracking stats and maximising earnings by putting ads in the right places and there’s still a lot to learn.
• Server Side Includes (SSI) - My site by this point had grown to nearly 1000 pages and was extremely unruly. Every time I wanted to make a simple change to any part of the header, navigation or footer I would have to open each HTML file, make the change (or sometimes several changes), save it and upload it. Needless to say, this was a nightmare and I wanted to throw my laptop out the window on many occasions. I think there are ways to make templates with Dreamweaver but I couldn’t be bothered to learn how to use it. Then I stumbled onto SSI and life was about to become a lot easier. I spent weeks adjusting all my pages to include SSI but it was worth it. Now if I want to make a change I only have to alter one file instead of 1000. Saves some time. Just a bit.
• Search Engine Optimisation - Now that I was getting more serious about my websites I started visiting webmaster forums regularly and devouring information. I had never heard of SEO before but it seemed to be what everyone was talking about. I’d never paid attention to my search engine rankings and didn’t even have a stats tracking program. I made some changes to improve my SEO according to what I read on those boards and everything tanked! My site’s traffic nosedived and, to this day, I still have no idea why. I’m a bit wary now of fixing things that aren’t broken but all my new sites use any SEO tricks I’ve learned.
• Stats - I put the code for Add Free Stats onto my site and then switched over to Google Analytics later. I’m sure that I’m not using this program to anywhere near its potential so there’s still a lot of learning to do.
• CSS - Cascading Style Sheets are the devil. I have tried to get my head around them but to no avail. The stylesheets I’ve come up with so far are huge and unruly but I guess they get the job done in a very roundabout way. What I’ve learned so far though has done a lot to improve the look of my sites.
• Link Sales - Discovering that people want to buy space on my sites was another huge wakeup call. I explored Linkworth, Text Link Ads and selling links directly to companies and learned what space on my site is worth to other people.
• Paypal - There’s not much to it but I had to learn how to set up a Paypal account to start getting paid. I’ve managed to set up automatic incoming monthly payments which is handy.
• Google Maps - I love these suckers and have built a few myself by looking at examples on other sites. I think there are websites where you can have it build a map for you but I like to have full control and an understand of what’s going on so am willing to deal with some seriously confusing stuff to get there. The people over at the Google Maps API forum are amazingly helpful.
• Wordpress - Blogging is something I’ve avoided for a long time but with Wordpress it makes things easy and I’m loving it. Adding plugins and uploading themes was tricky to start out with but I’ve got the hang of it all now. I’ve also started delving into altering themes to suit my needs and it’s been frustrating at times but nothing a bit of trial and error can’t solve. If I had better knowledge of CSS I’m sure I’d be making quicker progress.

I’ve probably left some things off this list but for the most part that is my seven year learning curve laid out for you. I had long breaks in between doing nothing and I have had, and continue to have, some pretty frustrating times but I’m glad I’ve spent the time to learn everything for myself rather than taking shortcuts.

There are still loads of things I want to learn. Top of my list are Adobe Illustrator, more advanced CSS, and enough PHP to be able to tinker with behind the scenes stuff without the constant fear that I’m going to make my website implode with one false move.

When I think back on how far I’ve come I’m amazed. When I see a complete newbie just starting out I know exactly how long the road will be and how many obstacles there will be along the way but I would still tell them to stick with it no matter what because none of this is rocket science, it just takes a lot of desire and determination.

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I graduated from university in 2001 with a business degree but somehow managed to avoid learning anything. I scammed out of taking calculus altogether and couldn’t draw up a balance sheet if my life depended on it. Come to think of it, I’ve forgotten pretty much everything I learned in school except maybe how to mix some lethal cocktails and how to sleep in for an obscene amount of time.

I might not have absorbed much useful information in my years at uni but I did learn a bit about revenue and expenses. Based on this alone I can see that website publishing is a great business to be in.

My operating expenses consist of hosting and domain registration. I suppose I could factor in my laptop cost and yearly depreciation and all that complicated stuff but let’s just assume I’d have a laptop whether or not I was running a business and conveniently forget about it. I have, in the past, paid for links but let’s forget that too so I can stick to the minimum cost of keeping my websites running for a year:

• Domains - At the moment I have 15 which cost $10 per year for a total of $150.
• Hosting - I host all of my sites with Dreamhost which is about $150 a year.
• Internet - At the moment I pay £5 per month but when I start travelling I’ll be relying on free wiFi.

So my total yearly costs come in at around $300. My hosting is paid up until mid 2009 and most of my domain names are locked in until 2010 so I’ve got no operating expenses to worry about for awhile which is pretty sweet. Even when the time comes to pay the bills again, they’re not really that much when compared to the revenue this gig brings in. Actually, at the rate I’ve been going lately I’d able to cover my yearly operating expenses after one week.

If the internet collapsed tomorrow I would only be out of pocket a few hundred bucks but the earning potential is virtually unlimited. I don’t need a degree to know that publishing websites is a good business to be in!

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Back when I started building websites I sort of struggled through most things, never sure if how I was doing things was right or wrong. Nobody handed me an instruction manual at the beginning of all this and I’ve never known if the way I do things is similar to most people or completely out of whack.

One thing I’ve always wondered about is whether to write from a personal point of view, using the ‘I’ word, telling stories and giving opinions. Or whether it’s better to write as though the site is run by a company, using ‘we’ even though the site is run by one person and writing in a more professional manner. I’m not talking about blogs which are mostly personal but regular websites which seem to have a good mix of both styles.

Overall, I find corporate sounding sites pretty dry and uninspiring. I’m sure this style suits many topics but I’m not sure budget travel is one of them. I find the most useful information to be first hand and reading a personal account of someone’s travels complete with all their feelings about what’s going on is a thousand times better to me than the same information written in a guidebook format. The internet offers a great forum for people to tell their stories and offer first hand advice and giving a site a personal touch lets the reader feel like they’re a part of the adventure rather than feeling as though they’re looking in from the outside. If I want information in that form I can buy a guidebook or look up Wikipedia.

However as I start to treat this website building thing more and more like a business I’m wondering if I should lose the chatty writing style and perhaps become a bit more professional. The personal approach is great for getting my thoughts across but I wonder if people are more likely to trust advice from a random backpacker who knows how to build websites or a corporate sort of site with a nameless, faceless type setup.

I prefer sites with a bit of personality and I think I’ll stick with that approach for now because that’s how I prefer to write. What do you think… or am I the only freak to wonder about these sorts of things?

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I built websites for years because I loved sharing info I had, helping people out and being creative. I had attempted unsuccessfully to make money through Amazon and made a few sales through a hostel booking system but it took me years to start earning any decent money. Here are the ways I monetise my websites:

• Google Adsense - This program has been around for years and has been the cause of much frustration. When I first started out in late 2004 I was amazed to be getting paid more than pennies per click and my $30 in my first month was what opened my eyes to the possibilities of earning online. Adsense is something that I can count on to be pretty steady each month. There’s not a lot of fluctuation in my earnings at the moment and things are steadily rising but it’s a long term commitment and should only be one piece of the web earnings puzzle. Putting all your eggs in the Adsense basket is risky because Google can boot you out at any time with no explanation.
• Affiliate programs - I’m no expert on affiliate marketing but I do know that that’s where the money is! Finding programs can be time consuming and frustrating but when you get a good match it will pay off. Before I’d made my first decent sale with an affiliate program I could have sworn the whole thing was some sort of scam made up to taunt me. But I tried a few different programs and eventually I made a few sales and then a few more and now I’m all about affiliates! If you’re not getting any sales at all then try something else. Keep trying different things because something will work eventually.
• Link sales through Digital Point - This forum is a goldmine for link sellers even if your sites are crappy. Money flies around this forum like crazy and it’s a good place to come to top up your Paypal account. I’m trying to phase this out because I find the links to be a bit spammy but it’s served me well in the past. Finding this forum is what kicked my earnings up to the next level.
• Approach businesses to sell ads - This is something I’ve done twice and been successful both times. If you’ve got a site that is aimed at their target market and can manage to get in touch with the person who deals with their marketing then you’ll be in with a chance. If you’ve got a good website with a clear target market that is in line with the businesses you approach then you’ve got something to offer.
• Text Link Ads - Getting into this program should set you on your way towards earning some seriously easy money. Once you’re accepted and place the code, TLA do everything for you and the links appear automatically once they’re approved by you. The problem is that they’re a bit picky about which sites they let into the program. I’ve had a few sites turned down. They say they review the rejected sites once a month to see if they’ve changed their mind but I’ve yet to hear back from them. I think the problem is that the sites are only PR2. I would suggest waiting until your site is a PR4 before you apply to protect against getting stuck in no man’s land like me.
• Linkworth - I was doing well with Linkworth for awhile but then they dumped all my links! Little buggers. But they work for a lot of people so give them a go as well. They offer a bigger payout than Text Link Ads at 70% and you can set your own price but the process isn’t automated so you have to add new links manually. It only takes a few minutes though so not really a big deal.

If you’re totally stumped about how to monetise your site, have a browse around sites that are similar to see what they’ve done. Scroll over their links to see which affiliate websites they use and then head to the affiliate site for a browse around.

There are plenty of other ways to earn a buck like selling ebooks, doing paid reviews and… uh… other stuff that I can’t think of at the moment. I’m still relatively new to all this and will keep you posted on any new money making methods I come across.

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Promoting my site is something that I’ve done in the past without really paying much attention. I’d do little things here and there but I’ve never sat down and made a conscious marketing plan or anything. I think it’s something I’ll focus on more once I have my sites all up and running and am doing this full time. But for now, here are a few things that I’ve done to promote my site or try to get it higher in the search engine rankings.

• Link to new site from my other sites - The first thing I do once I finish a new site is link to it like crazy from my existing sites. My budget travel site has had a lot of Google love in the past and links to my new sites from it have always gotten me listed pretty quickly. Once you have a network of similar sites linking between them is, I think, a great way to keep them all ranking well.
• Link exchanges - I don’t really do link exchanges much anymore. If I’m approached by someone wanting a link on Travoholic.com then I’ll sometimes agree but ask them to link to another site of mine instead of linking back. This creates a three way link and is supposed to be better for search engine rankings.
• Buy links on related sites - If I’m targeting some competitive keywords then I might consider buying links on another site. At the moment my focus is more on selling them, but if I see a bargain over on the Digital Point link sales forum I will scoop it up. Whether it helps with my site’s rankings though is anyone’s guess.
• Submit to search engines - The search engines will find you once you have some good inbound links but it doesn’t hurt to stalk them a bit.
• Post to relevant forums with the URL in the signature - I wouldn’t recommend that you go out and post to loads of forums just to promote your site because I think the time spent doing this won’t be worth the traffic you receive. But if you’re going to be posting to forums that interest you anyways, make sure you put your new site’s URL in the signature.
• Comment on blogs - Same as above. Bloggers are more likely to be interested in reading other blogs so instead of putting a link to one of my websites, I put one to this blog.
• Submit articles to other sites - I’ve heard lots of people singing the praises of article submission sites but I’ve never had any results. I think a better method is to create an original article and then contact a fellow blogger or website owner in the same niche about submitting your article or guest posting on their blog. I would happily accept unique articles for any of my sites and give out a bit of link love as payment and so will a lot of website owners. I guess it comes down to deciding whether it’s worth the time to write an article in exchange for a inbound links - I think it is. I write occasionally over on Brave New Traveler which brings in a bit of traffic, good one-way inbound links and $20 to boot!
• Google Adwords - I built a site awhile ago that pretty much exists solely to sell stuff. I wasn’t getting much traffic at all to the site so decided to use Adwords as an experiment. Didn’t seem to help much but didn’t cost me much either. There are people who use Adwords with a lot of success but I am not one of them.
• Contests - I’ve never run a contest before but I have an evil master plan in the pipeline that I’m hoping will bring attention to a new site I’m working on. The idea is to hit up people who run travel blogs, tell them about my new site and offer them an entry in a draw for some prize if they post a blog entry about it. No idea what the prize will be or if this will fly but I see a lot of money making blogs doing this sort of thing so it’s worth a try. I’ll post about it all in detail once I get things underway in a few weeks. The only way to see if it works is to try it out!

If your site’s content is good and unique then will make an impact on Google eventually. If it’s excellent then people might start linking back to it without having to be asked. Getting your site’s search engine rankings to rise is a complicated game and nobody really knows for sure what works but it’s sort of fun trying out lots of new things. I will definitely be taking a more pro-active approach in the near future and will keep you posted on whether my ideas turn out to be super successful or total flops.

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