When new bloggers start out writing about their favourite topic, they are excited and just writing away. They then start to investigate why they don’t really have much traffic, and they start learning about search engine optimization (SEO). So, they start targeting their main keyword. Let’s say it’s a blogger writing about his debt, and how he hopes to end his debt through blogging. he start to target the keywords “debt management.” After doing some SEO basics, and maybe a little bit of link building, he still is frustrated by not being in the top few pages on Google for “debt management” so he starts to give up. Instead of giving up, he should aim for long tail keywords.

His problem was that he was trying to blog about a keyword that many people are competing for. When there’s a lot of competition, it’s harder to rank higher in Google, therefore less visitors from Google. So, how can this problem be solved? By using long tail keywords. Long tail keywords are groups of keywords that are not too common when they are by themselves, but when they are grouped, they will be able to draw more customers to your website. Also, since those groups of keywords aren’t as popular, then it will be a lot easier to rank higher in the search engines. And since you’ll be targeting a fairly specific set of keywords, the people searching for those keywords will be more valuable customers since their search results will be laser targeted.

So how do you find long tail keywords for your site? The first step is to dive into your site statistics. Most statistics programs show you the keywords that were used to find you in the search engine. Start looking at some of the longer phrases that were used to find your site, and then write an article about that topic specifically. Also take a look at where you stand in the search engines already for those phrases. That will give you an idea if you really need to target that phrase with a few pages, or if one page will do. Make sure that you link to this new page from a couple of your other pages, using that long tail keyword as your anchor text for the link.

Another way is to use a free online tool called Wordtracker. You can search for the generic term that you want to use and it will often give a nice long list of popular searches, with a rough estimate of how many searches a day. Try searching the term “debt management” to get an idea about long tail keywords.

The thing to remember when targeting long tail keywords is the value of small things when multiplied. Sure, it’d be awesome to rank first for a keyword that gets 300 searches a day. But, that will be a little bit harder. If, instead, you focus on 10 long tail keywords with 30 searches a day each, you’ll still get about 300 visitors to your site, but it’ll be a lot easier since you’ll probably rank higher for those keywords since they are long tail, and therefore less competitive.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

If you’re like me, the first reaction when you see any kind of paid review on a blog tends to be a groan. You see, I don’t believe much in paid reviews… there are better, and there certainly are more cost effective (think sponsoring a contest) or even free (think guest posts) ways to get your name out.

However, there will always be people interested in buying paid reviews, and if you are interested in earning money you’d be foolish not to take it. The downside is that paid reviews tend to annoy readers, especially since they’re usually for unimaginative, boring projects that no one except the creators could care about.

There are some things that you can do to make paid reviews that your readers actually don’t mind reading… let’s look at them below.

Only take interesting websites to review.

Although money is a big part of life, it certainly isn’t everything… and as a blogger, you can usually afford to turn down the odd review down. If the advertiser wants to spend a truckload of money on a paid review, by all means take it… but if you’re getting the standard rate and you’re not short on funds, make sure you turn down reviews that don’t interest you.

As people that read a blog tend to hold similar ideals to the blogger that runs a blog, if you aren’t interested in the project… your readers probably won’t be either.

Also make sure you don’t do reviews so often that your readers get annoyed… no matter how interesting the reviews are, people subscribe or visit a blog for its content, and should it be lacking they will unsubscribe.

Use proper formatting and images.

In the past, my reviews of websites tended to be a block of text… with nothing else. Something I’m almost certain my readers hated.

Space out your review into a series of short paragraphs, bold titles of different sections and make sure you use images… a combination of the three makes your review easier to read (and therefore more likely it will be read) and allows your readers to skim over it.

You can easily get free images at stock photo websites or simply use the logo of the company you are reviewing; it is up to you.

Although the advertiser will want the most possible for his dollar, remember that the longer the review, the less likely someone is going to read it… do not make it only a paragraph or two, but do make it of a length that is long enough to explain what the advertiser is about but concise enough to grab interest.

Add opinion and involve your readers.

No matter what the company, a review that is entirely factual based is boring. No one wants to read 500 words or more of plain facts, so add some opinion to your review.

No review should be all positive, as everything has room for improvement… make sure you offer constructive criticism for the advertiser and give reasons why changes are needed when you find issues.

Also involve your readers in the review – you can ask them to lend their opinions in the form of a question or two and this will not just be appreciated by your readers, but also the advertiser as s/he’ll be getting more feedback. A simple question asking what my readers thought about the website reviewed has lead to one or two reviews showing up amongst my top commented posts on other blogs.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I started a question and answer session yesterday, and I’m going to use those ideas to answer questions in posts. Rather than talk about things no one cares about on this blog, I’m going to answer questions people want the answers to. If you want to see a post on a specific topic, ask a question today!

Goofblogger asked:

For making money online in the long run, is it better to have numerous blogs or numerous smaller html websites ?

Now that is a tricky one.

You can setup blogs just as you can setup HTML websites, however in this case I’ll take you to mean a ‘normal’ blog - updated constantly and focusing on getting readers.

In this case, I’d recommend people getting standard niche websites to make money online long term.

You see, it is easy to get a niche website making $1/day through Adsense, just by putting good content and attacking the search engines.

You can setup a niche website within a few hours.

Just get a template from OSWD.org and create five pages with articles that are around 500 words long. There, you now have a niche website you can monetize.

Put a large (350 x 250) Adsense block above the content (under the title) on each page for maximum CTR.

Next, you want to build targeted links with your anchor text. You can do dofollow blog comments, forums, article marketing, it is up to you really.

All you need is around 20 - 100 visitors (depending on your niche) to make $1+ per day.

Once you have one site making $1/day, you build another one.

And another one.

And another one.

Rinse and repeat until you get tired. Ditch the sites that aren’t doing well and occasionally sell websites if you want to bring in more revenue to spend.

Of course, you should also have a couple blogs, because blogging is fun. But don’t expect to make a lot of money on it unless you are really creative or really lucky.

Having a personal blog is a great way to network with others and learn about blogging, and then you can work on other ways of making money online (affiliate marketing, product selling for example).

So there you have it - out of the two, long term… niche sites are better than blogs to make money online.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I have seen a lot of bloggers do this and think it could work okay on DaBlogger.com

How it works is you ask a question and I’ll answer it. Can be anything on making money online, internet marketing or blogs.

I have quite a bit of experience so will probably be able to help you out.

Everyone that asks a question will be linked to. You can ask about whatever related topics that you want.

I will give the best question a month long 125 x 125 banner in the sidebar. At the moment, this blog is receiving a good amount of traffic so you should get some exposure that will help you. Remember, all it takes is two minutes to ask a question.

Who wants to get started?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

If you’re a blogger, one of the easiest ways to make money online is to use the power of contests.

How, can you make money by running simple contests?

It’s pretty easy, really.

There are two ways… the first, is entering other people’s contests… the second is starting your own.

In the first case, I’d advise you setup a specific blog to enter contests. The more you enter, the more you can win! I’ve won stuff like a Flip Mino from Market Leverage and Paypal cash just for posting blog contests. Posts can take maybe twenty minutes or even less to write and you’ll not just win things, but also maybe have people interested in your blog (as they want to be updated on contests they can enter themselves). You should aim to find one contest daily that you can enter.

The second way to make money is by running your own contest.

As you can see, this blog is running a contest right now… allowing you to win $50 in Paypal cash and other things.

Now, $50 in Paypal cash has gotten me more than 100 subscribers. If I wanted to, I could sell this blog for around $200 - $300, making quite a good amount of profit. All you need is a good prize and an easy contest and people will enter.

Another thing you can do is run a contest that requires people to sign up for a CPA offer to enter. For example, Gyutae Park had a big contest a while ago… and in it, he had around 40 people sign up to Pepperjam, netting himself $230. You can make this whatever you like - paid signups, free signups; you can ask people to buy advertising on your website - it’s up to you.

People will only do harder things if your prizes are huge… and worth a lot of money or are attractive. If you’re giving away $10, don’t expect people to spend thirty minutes signing up to some crap for you.

Have you ever won, or had your own contest? How did you find it went?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I couldn’t get the script to work so here’s a direct link. Thanks to all for subscribing, and hope it helps.

This eBook reveals a simple way you can make $100/day with CPA. It will not be easy, but it is definitely doable.

Feel free to sell, or giveaway this eBook; all I ask is that you do not tamper with the links. To your success!

Download here. ( I couldn’t get the script to work so here’s a direct link. Thanks to all for subscribing, and hope it helps.

This eBook reveals a simple way you can make $100/day with CPA. It will not be easy, but it is definitely doable.

Feel free to sell, or giveaway this eBook; all I ask is that you do not tamper with the links. To your success!

Download here.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions, or don’t understand something. I tried to keep it short & sweet.

Your Friend Da Blogger.
)

Feel free to ask if you have any questions, or don’t understand something. I tried to keep it short & sweet.

Your Friend Da Blogger.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I’m having problems with the emailing script, so could not send it out today.

Will however send out the method to make $100/day through CPA to all verified subscribers tomorrow.

If you’re not yet subscribed through email, now is your chance!

We have a contest going on, as well as free blog reviews for subscribers. You get these kinds of benefits at no other blog!

I’ll also be letting people know some of my favourite blogs in this niche tomorrow.

After this contest is over, I’m thinking of having a larger one to celebrate the fast growth of Da Blogger - as always, I like to prepare in advance.

If you want to sponsor something of value - scripts, Wordpress themes, custom designs, anything, send me an email at dablogger.com@gmail.com

You can do Entrecard credits, but please make it so that it’s a larger amount.

Thanks again for staying behind the blog. I want to know what posts you guys want to see, so if there is something specific you’d like to see covered, let me know.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

If you want to make money online, you need to set goals.

Without goals, you’ll find that your tasks start to get difficult, as you’ll not know when to stop, whether you’re successful or not and how hard you should push yourself.

When setting goals, a good formula to follow is the S.M.A.R.T formula.

What does S.M.A.R.T. stand for?

Specific

Measurable

Ambitious

Realistic

Time Bound

What would be an example of a BAD goal?

“I want to better my website”

That tells you nothing. How do you want to better your website, which metrics, when by?

Here’s my goal this month for Da Blogger:

I want to increase my RSS subscriber count to 200 before August 30th, 2008.

It tells you exactly what I want, when I want it by, and is both achievable without being too easy.

I know that the above goal is definitely possible.

I also know that I will not do it unless I put in some work.

I have not really worked on promoting this blog the last few days, but it continues to grow. Mainly due to you guys.

However, I have a lot planned over the next few weeks, and I think this will make it easier to reach my goals.

What are your goals, and how do you plan to reach them?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

This is the first of our free blog reviews. To be in with a chance of getting your blog reviewed, all you have to do is subscribe via email. We will review one blog every week. If you have been reviewed before, you can sign up with another email for a new website. Here’s why you should subscribe to Da Blogger Dot Com.

The Net Fool is a blog created by Jim Regan, a nineteen year old student teaching you how to make money online.

It was created only a few months ago, but from what I can see it is coming on in leaps and bounds. With near 600 subscribers and traffic and other revenue metrics constantly shooting up, Jim is establishing a foothold in his niche.

The main focus of the blog is the Stock Market and GPT (Get Paid To), however it also talks about making money online with other methods.

Here’s some of the best posts of TNF:

Make Money Bum Marketing

Make Money Begging

Three Ways To Create Artificial Demand For Your Blog

Make Money With Landing Pages And CPA

Use Images In Blog Posts

As you can see, there are lots of tips to make money online - something everyone loves to learn about.

The Net Fool currently uses John Cow’s Milk It theme, however it’s customized in a blue / grey colour scheme. I like the look, as well as the brandable header, as it really helps his blog stand out. He tends to blog every 3-4 days - I’d like to see more posts from him as most of his posts are pretty good.

At the moment, I think TNF is in the second tier of blogs - and I think it has the potential to join the top tier, if Jim promotes it and markets it a little more. They have had contests, but perhaps too many - I’d like to see some creative marketing more, as with the right type of viral marketing I feel that the blog could be taken to the next level.

The best thing about the blog is that the simple things are taken care of.

Most people haven’t really customized the theme, but Jim has taken care of everything - the favicon showing a die, the email subscription box showing a backdrop of buildings, a custom $$$ orientated RSS feed button and even the small buttons next to the links in the footer have been changed.

The Net Fool also uses a lot of video, something that could be done by a few other bloggers more. Video makes things easier to understand and his video walkthroughs have helped me quite a bit in starting out this blog. Another thing used are a lot of images (high quality stock images) in blog posts, making them easy to read, even if they are long.

I’d rate The Net Fool at a 7.5/10, due to some serious link bait like his Google Pagerank post. I’m sure the rating will increase if he continues to improve at the rate he has been doing.

Keep up the good work Jim. We’d love you to send us some love too - let your readers know about this review! More success to you, hopefully.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!