Links

I do a lot of thinking about all of this during the week. One of the things I was thinking about was linking all my sites together. So I'm doing more research this morning, basically about links. I was thinking about how I could put links on all my Squidoo lenses, blogs and web sites -- all to each other. Apparently this can be good, but it can also be a useless waste of time, too. There is a lot of info that is just beyond my comprehension yet. Here's a good article (I think) that I found about links: Guide to Backlinks.

Now, if you understand all that, you're way beyond me! And it looks like it's written in "plain English", too... *sigh* I'm so out of it when it comes to all this!

When researching for links, I also found this article: Banned From Google AdSense

It has some good advice. I was also thinking this week about having friends clicking my AdSense links, but that's a big no-no!! The links in this article go to Google's site with the rules, and one of the rules tells about the software in place that Google has about monitoring the clicks to protect the advertisers and the people placing ads. It has parameters set to know if the clicks are legit or not based on patterning. And you can't say in your sites to click on the ads, either. So any thoughts about trying to inflate your clicks is out the window. It all has to be squeaky clean.

Which, in the long run, will make me feel better about all this anyway...

Today's projects:

Create the homeschool site on a blog plus a Hub page
Duplicate all Squidoo lenses on a blog and on Hub pages
Link all sites together
Submit new pages to search engines

How is anyone else doing? Do I even have anyone reading this? LOL! I've earned $0 so far... :(

Optimizing Keywords

Let's review: How can I do this? First things first Beginnings So far, my steps have been: 1. Sign up for Google AdSense 2. Build a blog 3. Find a free web site and build 4. Add Google AdSense to both blog and web site

Although my web site is not the best layout and needs work, I went ahead and
submitted both the web site and this blog to the search engines. I submitted to Google and also to Submit Express. The reason I went ahead and did this before both were "perfect" is because it takes awhile before the search engines actually crawl your site to index them. So I figure start now, and then I'll have "new" content each time I tweak or add or revamp each site, thus making them look good for the spiders that crawl the sites. Changing and adding to your sites apparently looks good when they are crawled.

The next step that I have been working on is optimizing keywords. The reason I am doing this first is because to get any kind of traffic I need these. Here's an excellent site I found that puts optimizing keywords into plain English for me: A Promotion Guide. Because I have no clue what I'm reading about search engine and keyword optimization, I need someone to tell me step-by-step what the heck it is and what to do. And this article seems to do it for me!

So onward to keyword optimization today, plus (if I have time today) reorganize the web site.

Beginnings

I've now got one free web site up that has Google Ad Sense on it (http://considerhomeschooling.weebly.com/). I used Weebley for the site because apparently they encourage trying to make money through ads. It was okay to set up, easy but awkward, but very simple. I may change the layout still because I'm not too happy about the layout.

But it was easy inserting the ads! Just drag to where you want the ad to show within certain boundaries.

The other drawback to using Weebly is that they take 50% of the earnings from your ads. This blog will give me 100% earnings, and this blog is set up through Google Blogger. A lot of the free web sites put their own ads on, so I opted out of those because I don't want their ads competing with mine. This may be a mistake for traffic in the long run, but we'll see. So that's why I went with Weebly. And I didn't want to pay a dime for a web site, not even a domain.

Okay, the web site is a beginning -- or rough draft. At least it's started. I have the basic content. My next step will be to work on the keywords to bring in traffic. Fine-tuning the keywords will be important because the keywords will not only bring in traffic, but will also fine-tune which ads appear. After I work on the keywords, then I will submit to search engines. Or maybe I should submit now? Anyone have any advice on that? I obviously do not know much about all of this! I hope to someday have enough knowledge about all of this to just be able to list the steps involved!

Which brings me to another point: if I set up a blog to do the same thing, I guess I need to work on keywords, also. I think blogs are submitted to search engines, too, but I'm not sure. That is something I need to still research. But my focus first will be the web site, then I'll do the same thing with a blog.

Google has a keyword tool that I'll be using once I figure it out. The tool is found under the Ad Sense pages for your account.

First things first!

First of all, I did all this research on the internet, googling terms such as "making money on the internet". That gave me some new vocabulary to learn, such as Google AdSense and Affiliate Marketing or Advertising that seemed to come up over and over again.

...of which I have no clue what those are...

Okay, Google is a reputable site -- in my opinion, anyway. So I learned about Google AdSense, first.

I had to create an account with Google. I already had one from Google Checkout (a way for people to make payments on my web site), and I had used Google Ad Words, too, to promote my web site. Plus I had an email account with them (g-mail). So I had to add an account for AdSense.

Of course, I still had no clue about what it is. So I did some more research while waiting to get approved for my new account. It takes a few days to get approved for the account.

I now know: it's all those little word ads that are on web sites that say "Google Ads". Apparently the ads are tailored to the word content in your web site or blog, so that the ads that show up are supposedly relevant to what you write about. You also have the option to tailor how the ads look: you can have boxes and banners, just little word/text ads, or a combo of both. I chose both. So that is what you are currently seeing on this blog here.

So that is my start.

How can I do this?

Okay, let's face it: I'm flat broke. The economy sux. My online business profits -- what there is of it any more -- are eaten up with web fees, PayPal fees, Google checkout fees, eBay fees, and leave nothing left to replenish my inventory. My nice little income, albeit very small, has disappeared. Which means, I had to get a J-O-B.

Now, getting a job here in our small town is just about virtually impossible. There just aren't any. I did find a job which seems to be the only one in town -- $8-$9 an hour, and it's horrible. The people are okay, but the job just sux. I should be grateful.

But I don't have TIME for a job!! Hey, I'm a hockey mom. My son is on the State Competition team, and he has dreams of trying for the NHL. Do you know what that does to a mom's time? There IS no "mom time", let alone time for a job!

Okay, so I make for a PITA employee. "I can't work this Friday and weekend; we have a 3-day tournament 1,000 miles away." "Can't work overtime this week; have practice 100 miles away." "I can't work past 11:00 today; hockey practice 50 miles away." Yeah, my employer loves me... and it doesn't bode well for my paycheck, either...

So I've been thinking... (uh-oh)

I've seen all these ads and heard about all these people making money on the internet. So I started doing research.

Now, there are all kinds of ads out there to pay for shipping and handling for books and info about how to do this. After spending a couple of months researching and reading about all of these, I finally figured out SOME of what they do to make money. But not enough info. I ALMOST clicked on a $2.99 buy-it-now ad, but then thought better of it. And you know why I didn't?

My job is in a call center for credit card fraud. And let me tell you, MOST of the calls are about "I was not supposed to be billed for anything but the shipping and handling for a sample!" Uh-huh, I went back and read the really super teeny tiny fine print on that $2.99 pay-only-for-shipping book/info. Yup, you guessed it! I would be agreeing to $87.13 PER MONTH SUBSCRIPTION once I would have clicked that button!! So that's how THOSE people are making money...

That is NOT what I want to do! I want to not feel guilty making money on the internet. I want to make an honest income and not scam people. And these so-called "free" books are mostly about Google AdSense and affiliate marketing.

...of which those are just not in my vocabulary...

What the heck are those, anyway? I know I've heard people talk about them, ads you place on your web site or blog and people visiting your site click on them and you make money from the clicks. But how EXACTLY does that work?

I had questions. Can we do this on ANY web site or blog? How do I put them on? Where do I get them? What ARE they?

I've heard stories that people can make a few dollars up to quite a bit of income from just doing this. One girl on a forum I used to read said she was making about $100 after about six months. I had no clue what she said how she was doing this. So my memory and now interest is heightened as to what she did. She said she was soley using Squidoo.

So I've got seven Squidoo lenses (as they're called), and haven't had even one hit in about three months. So there's got to be more to it than just creating lenses.

I'm not interested in getting rich from this; I just want to bring in some money to cover some expenses. If I DO get rich, well... like I'd refuse the money? LOL!

I have to get serious about bringing in more money, so I thought I'd start with this blog and use it as an experiment and record my journey about how I do this. Maybe I can help other people, too, who are in the same financial bind as I am -- if I am successful.