Well, I’m getting fat, Marc, thanks for asking.  Also, I’ve been having some pretty weird dreams lately.  I’ll tell you about them next time.  This is just a general State of the Spartan address.

I’m a little stressed, but you know what helps?  Listening to Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie.  The song speaks to me, brother.  And of course, Freddie Mercury’s really something.   David Bowie was in Zoolander, so he’s cool in my book, too.

Basketball’s been helping a lot.  I’ve been shooting baskets almost everyday, just around my backyard.  I’m actually getting really good at it.  I guess all that shooting, whether rain or shine, really hones your game.  It also doesn’t hurt that I see my brother playing in his varsity games.  There’s always a competitive vibe in me that just won’t quit.  He’s getting better.  All that training he’s getting.. wow.  Makes me wish I signed up for varsity before.

As you probably can see, I’ve sort of sold out my blog.  Well, a guy’s gotta do what a guy’s  got to do, right?  So far, I’ve doubled the initial investment I made on the blog.  That’s pretty good, I think.  I’ve got this idea in my head for another Adsense experiment, but it’s tough.  There’s just too many things going on, and I can’t really focus.  Bad attitude.  I just have to keep my head down, soldier on.

Isn’t it weird how I never post videos on this blog?  It’s not because there aren’t any videos out there.. it’s because for the life of me, I can’t figure out how to post videos here in WordPress.  That’s the first thing I’m going to ask when I get to WordCamp.  Can any of y’all players help me trick out my blog with some videos and sounds (and rims, yo!)?

That’s it for now, Marc.  It was nice talking to you.

..and no, I’m not getting fat.  I’m probably hotter than most everybody you know.

I just realized that I have so many blogs and so many passwords and account names for them for different blogging services, that it’s a wonder I can keep up with them at all.  I’m amazed I can even still log in to this blog right here.  It’s crazy.

Just imagine how many opportunities pass us by while we’re looking for passwords and accounts?  So much time and money wasted, just because we weren’t organized.   The solution?  Well, a lifestyle change would be nice.  Or you can write down all your passwords somewhere.  I don’t really know.

Organization is a skill.  One I unfortunately do not possess.  But it’s never too late to start, right?  If it brings in the dough, then I’m GO GO GO.

I recently came across a blog that had a PR of 5, and I asked what it had that I didn’t.  The layout was nothing special.  Neither was the content.  It wasn’t exactly very SEO or very niche at all.  But this woman was making a killing with paid posts.  (Yes, I recognized them).

She was a make money online fiend.

I looked at the blog, and realized I wouldn’t link to it.  It was just like any other blog out there.  But apparently, a TON of people HAVE linked to it.  That’s why it had a PR of 5 in the first place.

So I did what any jealous blogger would do.  I technocrati’ed her ass, and I found her secret.

The woman designed free Wordpress Blog Templates.  Now this isn’t an act of goodwill.  She put in a small link to her blog at the bottom of the templates.  The templates weren’t anything special, but she got enough people to use them, effectively giving herself links.

So the moral of the story?  Learn to create Wordpress templates.  I’ll be trying to.  I think.

Here’s the thing:  I need to make some serious dough, fast.  But I don’t really want to sacrifice my PR.  Or at least I don’t want to sell myself short by sacrificing it too soon before I’ve made a decent profit.  (Yes, I’m talking about this blog).  A quick suicide would net me around $30.  But I paid $45 for this thing, so I’ve got to plan this through.  This make money money online business is crazy.

Ever since Google’s battle with (insert devious backlink marketing company here,) I’ve been getting the short end of things.  I’ve been looking for ways to get around it, though.  I gotta be honest, it’s tough.  There just might be a way, though.

I’m not going to say anything just yet, because I don’t want to spout my mouth off and get everybody all excited.  In fact, I probably won’t say anything at all, unless it works.  I guess we’ll find out in a week or two.

I’ll admit it.  I’ve always figured Adsense to be the domain of big time bloggers.  I just haven’t figured out a way to make money from it.  In fact, it’s gotten so bad that I’ve started calling it Adcents.  Get it?  AdCENTS?

That’s why I went the path of sponsored posts and reviews.  Now THIS was really blogging for money.  There are a lot of companies out there that are willing to use and abuse the small-time blogger.. for  a fee.  I’m good with being used and abused, as long as I get paid.  The question is, how far am I willing to go?

I used to handle a couple of blogs that made quite a bit of money from working with –company censored to protect page rank-.  Basically, I wrote reviews for products and services that ranged from mainstream to obscure, depending on the “opportunity”.  I made quite the pretty penny for my efforts too, compared to my non-existent earnings from Adsense.

But recently, I noticed I haven’t been getting many opportunities as I used to, for BOTH those blogs.  I didn’t know what I was doing wrong.  I was updating regularly, and I still had the same number of inbound links I had before.  Both my blogs went from PR3 to PR0.  The cash stopped flowing, and I was left wondering what the hell just happened.

A month or so later, I found out.

Seems the Big G punished the blogs who use  –company censored to protect page rank-, not merely lowering their Page Ranks, but reducing them to PR0.  It hurt the blogs, and it hurt  –company censored to protect page rank-.  Google didn’t like having the integrity of its search system being compromised (read: jerked around) and you don’t mess with the Big G.

I was going to sign up for the same service again for BlogMarc.com, but I’ve decided against it after finding out what really happened.  There’s got to be other ways to make money.  I’m exploring a couple of options right now.. one more promising than the other, but every little bit helps.

Marc, n00b blogger trying to make money online, just thinking out loud.

(This is my not-so-subtle way of saying I’m going to try a keyword sniping experiment.)

It used to be that nobody had any idea what Page Rank was.  Now, even my grandma knows about it.  In today’s MMO (make money online) world, PR counts for a lot.  That’s why the Google (henceforth referred to as the Big G) put into effect some changes in how they determined PR.

Now, you can’t beat the Big G.  To do so would be equivalent to suicide on the web.  The best thing you can do is to play its game, and play it well.  Here are a few things you might not know about Page Rank.

1. One way inbound links are the only relevant links.
2. Links from pages related to your website matter more than links from unrelated pages.
3. Link juice is also an important factor to consider.  If a website with 100 outbound links link to you, it’s not going to be as worth as much as a website with 10 outbound links linking to you.
4. Search engines look at webpages, not websites.  You may have different PRs for different pages in the same site.
5. Reciprocal links carry almost no weight.

So far, BlogMarc.com has a Page Rank of 2.  I’ll be trying to get it as high as possible over the next month.  Hopefully, things work out for you as well.  Good luck to us!

If you’re serious about making money by blogging, then you must be a little loopy.  It’s not your blog that makes you money.  It’s the marketing of your blog that does it for you.

I don’t have an issue with bloggers who just love to blog, and figure that they might make a few extra dollars doing it.  That’s all well and good, and a win-win situation.  But if you want to make some real money online, the way to do it is by internet marketing.  That’s where SEO comes in.

They say the oily wheel gets the grease, and that’s a pretty good metaphor for the issue of blogging v.s. internet marketing.  One thing that no one will argue with, is that for a blog or a site to be a successful money-maker, it has to be noticed.  While I agree that great content and a fancy layout will have your friends telling their friends about your fantastic blog, it simply cannot compare to the millions of people online that you can reach by employing SEO techniques.  The greatest blog in the world is of no value to advertisers if only 50 people read it, while a mediocre blog which generates hundreds and thousands of traffic hits is a gold mine.

This is a business.  There are two paths to take.  You can either make a small profit by putting in a few advertisements in your blog, OR you can slap some internet marketing on your advertisements.  It’s all about priorities, baby.

You’ll notice that I gave the blog an overhaul. My primary reason was to look more professional, which would ideally bring in more traffic, which would bring in more money. In theory: nice layout = more readers = more money.

But will that really make you more money? The Mona Lisa of blog layouts? I’m not so sure.

I think that your online income (specifically from Adsense) is directly related to how much traffic your niche blog gets. Now the question you have to ask yoursef is:

Do I want the hundreds of readers that offering a fancy looking layout with the content to match would offer? Readers you can build a community around?

OR

Do I want the hundreds of thousands of random readers that search engines will be delivering to my website, many of them game to the idea of clicking anything?

(Hint: 100 < 100,000)

To put things as bluntly as possible, if you’re serious about making money online, you’re going to need the big G’s help with generating traffic. That’s where SEO comes in. Here are some facts to consider when designing your blog layout.

Understand how the Google Bot crawls your page:

The bot will crawl your page from the top left corner, then down the left column, then top second column, and will end at the lower right corner. It’s trying to find out just specifically what your page is about.

Make it easy for the Bot to figure it out!

It’s Search Engine Optimization, not search engine confusion. Most blogs have too much fluff in them. They have their header images and their javascripts and their lengthy, fancy welcome notes.

Well the Google bot doesn’t care about that stuff! It doesn’t even recognize javascript and images (unless they have the alt tab). As for the welcome note, the bot doesn’t care how old you are, and what you do for a living or what your hobbies are. You’re just confusing the bot.

Take this as an example. Let’s say somebody wants to rank well for the niche keywords “vintage guitars”. This is what the bot will encounter on most pages:

Welcome to Marc’s Super Guitar World Blog!

I am a law student with a passion for British rock. This is going to be my blog about vintage guitars! Rock with me on my journey!

..or something like that. The bot will read guitar, blog, British rock. This isn’t so bad, because you’re still hitting your targeted keywords. But wouldn’t it be so much better if you nixed the welcome note all together and just structured your page like this:

Blog Title : Vintage Guitars

Blog Description: Gibson Les Paul | Fender Stratocaster | Telecaster | Pro-Martin | Ovation | Rebuilt Guitars | Classic Guitars

Make sure your sidebars have Vintage Guitars in them.

Use the keyword in your Post Title.

Make sure your posts have long-tail keywords (keywords related to your targeted keyword).

So how does this SEO magic work? Imagine the order the bot will crawl your page.

1. URL
2. Blog Title
3. Blog Description
4. Post Title
5. Post itself (with long-tail keywords and comments)

By the time the Google Bot gets to your comments, it should know exactly what your page is about. If it doesn’t, then you should get to work on applying all the SEO you’ve learned here today.

Now if you’re looking to attract social traffic, then by all means, disregard this post. But if you’re serious about getting serious money making online traffic from Google, then follow my advice, and SEO your blog today.

So I’ve been away for a month with some quarter-life crisis issues, but I’m back!  While I was gone, I did a little soul-searching and decided that this blog needs a new direction.  I’ll still be trying to make money online, but BlogMarc.com is going to be so much more from now on.

This isn’t only about making money by blogging and totally whoring out my blog.  This is about BUILDING A LIFE.

If you know what that means, then mad props to you.  If you don’t, I’ll explain it in tomorrow’s post.   Yeah, that’s right, tomorrow.  I’ll be updating daily again, like I said I would.

I’ve recently started a niche blog about healthy weight loss and I’ve been trying to figure out ways to get backlinks to it.  So I do what I usually do when I’m at a loss online.  I search other blogs for the answer.

Court’s got a really informative post on how to get backlinks.  Among the 102 ways he suggests, I’ve decided to go with using articles.  The way it works is you submit an article to an article directory like ArticleDashboard.com or GoArticles.com and they distribute for free to higher volume of readers.  In the article or in the about the author section, you can add a hyperlink to your own website.  Can you imagine 5,000 people reading your article with a single click?  Now you can.

Hopefully, you’ve worked as hard on your blog as you have on the article, which will encourage the readers who visit it from your article to become regular guests.  If that doesn’t work, at least you’ll still have driven a lot of traffic to your blog.  And hey, more traffic never hurt anyone.