If you monetize a blog then you want the maximum blogging income possible. The one thing you don’t want is to waste the value of any clicks.

Let me clarify ’smart pricing’. Whilst Google does not say much about it, they will cut your income by 90% if you don’t have a site that is performing to their standards. Their standards equate to CTR of around 3% or better. If your CTR is below then Google will only pay 10% of the standard click rate. Instead of a keyword click being worth $0.50, it will only be worth $0.05. This is a huge drop - but it gets worse.

If you run more than one site then your return is based on your lowest CTR site. If you have three sites, one with a CTR of 5%, a second with a CTR of 4% and the a third with a CTR of only 1%, they will all return the value of the third site - 1%. This is known as ’smart pricing’. Is it fair, probably not. Whilst Google can tell you every thing about a user and about a blog, they cannot account for different web/blog sites.

How do you avoid ’smart pricing’? First, make sure you have good analytics on each of your ad units. Secondly, if any ad unit is performing at less than 3%, either reposition it or remove it altogether.

You can reverse ’smart pricing’. Simply remove the poorly performing ad units. Once you stats are showing a better than 3% CTR across the board your income level will return to full value. This can take from 3 to 10 days.

In brief. Your blogging income will fall across all ad units if just one of those ad units has a CTR of less than 3%. Keep good statistics on each ad unit. Remove any poor performing ad units. Another good tip provided to you by the best blog marketing journal around.

There are many blogging income streams available ranging from the traditional Google ads, Yahoo, affiliate marketing and PPC. The Rubicon Project on the one hand is no different to the traditional methods and yet it is in it’s own right a fairly new concept. It has certainly created a deal of hype.

The Rubicon Project has partnered with traditional advertisers like Google, Adbrite and Shopzilla to name just a couple. The concept is that you place advertising units on your blog or website in much the same way as you do now. You can specify banner, skyscrapper or box units of various sizes. You can also nominate which advertisers, which geographical area and even which demographics you want ads targeted towards. You can also nominate the ratio of ads from the different advertisers.

Once you have set up and placed your ad units, the Rubicon Project then goes to work to display ads according to your setup.  For the publisher, you no longer need accounts with each of the advertisers. The Rubicon Project collects all the statistic and collects your income on your behalf. You only need the one account.

The plus side. You get to publish ads from a wide variety of advertisers. Every time someone visits your site they will view a completely different ad. You only need to keep track of one ad company. Another plus are the comprehensive statistics that are available to keep track of your blog marketing efforts.

The down side. Not all ads will be targeted to your sites content. If you include Google Adsense you are still constrained by Google’s three ads per page rule. The biggest downside for me is that I have not been able to determine what percentage of revenue I receive from each advertiser.

As a blogging income stream the concept has merit. I have trialled it on one of my other sites and income from this ad stream is almost triple what I experienced before placing the ad units (similar ads units too). The Rubicon Project is still in Beta, however it may be worth a visit to see if it fits in with your blogs aims.

Yes - another blog plugin to create sitemaps - this one’s a little different. This is a plugin for WordPress that creates a  real sitemap, not an XML sitemap for search engines, this a sitemap for your visitors.

DD Site Map Gen is from Dagon Design and generates a sitemap that can be placed on a dedicated static page. As it uses dynamic code it is constantly being updated. The sitemap can be customized to sort all your posts, all your pages or both your posts and pages. The sitemap can be produced sorted by date and or by category. I find it useful to sort by category first and then date. This produces a very professional looking sitemap in the old list web page list style.

The plugin has language files for English, Albanian, Brazilian-Portuguese, Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. It is very easy to install, configure and use.

A good sitemap like this is one way to instantly produce an enormous number of internal links for blog.

WordPress tips:

If you file posts in more than one category then that post will appear in your sitemap under each category - file a post in three categories and it will appear three times in the sitemap.

Unless you have a large number of pages, by large I mean more than 300, then produce your sitemap on one single page.

Your old posts are a blog SEO goldmine if you know how to use them. These five tips will certainly make the most use of those old posts.

Tip 1: Whenever it is appropriate link a keyword back to an old post. This post relates to Blog SEO so I can effectively link to any of the older posts that relate to that topic. I am able to create three internal links just through this post.

Tip 2: I mentioned in a previous post that a lot of blogs waste their 404 Page Not Found error. Use the page to list your top posts.

Tip 3: Write a series of posts on related topics. This not only provides the opportunity to link each page, it has the added bonus of bringing your readers back.

Tip 4: Create static info pages that you can link to on a regular basis. Don’t forget to link to your About page when appropriate.

Tip 5: Make sure your sitemap is always up to date for search engines. Create a static site map for your visitors as well. While time consuming you can list every page which becomes another internal link.

Never underestimate the value of internal links. Whilst not as powerful as inbound links, internal links increase the value of the pages linked - a quick and easy blog SEO tactic.

There are many blog and website services that sell traffic. In fact, they offer traffic that is dedicated to your niche. The question is, is it worth the money? Let’s dispel a few myths first.

1 - Buying traffic is a useful blog SEO tactic that can increase your Alexa Rank. This may be so, but only if the traffic coming in has the Alexa toolbar installed. I also question why you need your Alexa Rank low. Generally speaking it is your PR that matters, not your Alexa and your Alexa rank will not affect your PR.

2 - Buying traffic is a useful blog marketing tactic that increases your income. Generally speaking, most traffic programs are either paid per visit or free traffic in return programs. The surfer often ’surfs in the background’. In other words they go about their normal internet business with the traffic program running in the background. They hardly see the page they are visiting let alone the contents. Those that do look at the contents are generally waiting for the timer to count down before moving on to the next page. They certainly don’t stop to buy or click an ad that takes them away from their click program.

3 - Buying traffic can increase your backlinks. I refer to my previous observation. The surfer is only interested in getting to the next page - not linking to your page.

Buying traffic can often be money down the drain. With few exceptions it doesn’t lead to any increase in revenue, links or Page Rank improvement. I can only think of one situation where I would consider buying traffic. That is if I needed to boost my daily visitor numbers sufficiently that I could obtain a higher price for my ad space. That really needs a campaign over several months - not several weeks.

If you are considering buying traffic, think carefully about the outcomes you are trying to achieve. Often there are far more economical ways of increasing traffic and with it revenue. There are many blog and website services that can help develop backlinks and effective marketing programs. Your dollars may be better spent with them.

This is an unusual blog marketing tip, but one that is probably not utilized by most bloggers. For the initiated, this may serve as a reminder, for every one else, you are probably asking - what is a 404?

You have probably come across 404’s before - it is simply a page not found error - and a very frustrating error. Think about it. You click on a link and get an error message. The page cannot be found. What have you done in this situation? Clicked refresh just in case; hit the back button; or just moved on? The majority of people just move on. If that was your page, you have just lost a visitor and every visitor is a potential customer.

How do you resolve the problem. For the big time bloggers, their 404 Page Not Found is a blessing - they use it to promote their main pages, their affiliate pages or their products. The easiest solution is to make sure that every link is unbroken and does not result in a 404. It is always good to have a backup for those times when you cannot repair the link, for example, a link that is normally unbroken is temporarily broken due to server errors.

It is very easy to redirect your Page Not Found to any page that suits. I will concentrate on WordPress, however the concepts are the same for any blogging package. Before moving on, a blogging tip for everyone - make a backup of the file you intend making any changes to.

WordPress normally has a file aptly named, 404.php. To redirect the browser to a page of your choice, open the 404.php for editing and add the following:

<?
header ("Location: http://your page url/");
?>

Replace the ‘your page url’ with the url of the page you want to have displayed. The best choice is either to redirect to your very best post or back to your home page. Even better, if you have the skills, is to have a dedicated page that advises the visitor that the page requested is not currently available, has a search option to find similar pages, at the same time promotes who you are, you current posts, products or services. This WordPress tip is very straightforward. For those using other platforms it is just a matter of finding your 404 file in your blog design and making the adjustments.

As a marketing tool, the 404 Page Not Found error should never be wasted - it is an opportunity to promote your business.

I have not seen this WordPress tip in many places, however I think it can be a worthy blogging tip to put into practice. If you receive a lot of trackbacks on your blog you will notice that they get mixed in with the comments. First, a simple definition of a trackback.

[source] A Trackback is one of three types of Linkbacks, methods for Web authors to request notification when somebody links to one of their documents. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking to, or referring to their articles. Some weblog software programs, such as Wordpress, Movable Type and Community Server, support automatic pingbacks where all the links in a published article can be pinged when the article is published.

So essentially a trackback is one blog advising another blog that there is a link connecting them and that the link comes from a particular article. The receiving blog pings back and it is that ping back that often ends up in the comments area. You have two choices, delete the trackback or leave it inplace. Trackbacks can be valuable for linking so it is often wise to leave the trackback in. However the trackbacks dotted through your comments make it look a little untidy. Follow these steps and our comments will not only look tidy, they will look professional. Before starting - make a copy of your comments.php file, just in case you make an error.

Step one: Open for editing your comments.php file and locate the following code.

<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?> immediately after this code place this:

<?php $comment_type = get_comment_type(); ?>
<?php if($comment_type == 'comment') { ?>

Step two: locate the following piece of code:

<?php endforeach; /* end for each comment */ ?> place this code on the line before:

<?php } /* End of is_comment statement */ ?>

Step three: locate this piece of code:

<?php else : // this is displayed if there are no comments so far ?> immediately before place this code:

<h3>Trackbacks</h3>
<ol>
<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?>
<?php $comment_type = get_comment_type(); ?>
<?php if($comment_type != ‘comment’) { ?>
<li><?php comment_author_link() ?></li>
<?php } ?>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ol>

All done. Save the file and go into any post that has a mix of trackbacks and comments. This WordPress tip is easy to put into place and provides a nice neat look to your blog software.

Blogging income can be derived from many options. If you are relying on Adsense then I suggest you keep a careful watch on any Google announcements. Over the six weeks or so Google have announced several changes to their publisher partnership arrangements.

The first change would probably not affect most small time or new bloggers. Google is discontinuing the Adsense Referral system generally for those living outside the United States. There have been a few modifications of the policy since the first announcement but the bottom line is that the number of partners eligible to receive income will be reduced. Not only that, the size of the payments have also been reduced.  The Google announcement stated:

[source] The changes to referrals promoting AdSense will now depend on where your users are located, regardless of your location as a publisher. You’ll earn $100 for every user you refer to AdSense who is located in North America, Latin America or Japan when they generate $100 in AdSense revenue within 180 days and they remove all payment holds. You’ll no longer be paid for users you refer who are located elsewhere. These changes will go into effect the last week of January.

The latest announcement from Google involves the Google  referrals programs for Google Pack and Firefox. The amount to be paid for these referrals is being halved. The statement from Google:

[source] Google Pack: Currently, you can earn up to $2 when a user downloads and runs Google Pack for the first time after being referred through your link or button. Starting the third week of February, each successful Pack referral will earn up to $1. This change will apply to all referrals for Google Pack and is independent of user location or publisher location.

Firefox: We’ll also be reducing payments for Firefox referrals from China during the third week of February. This specific referral payment change will only affect installations from users in China. Again, this is independent of your location as a publisher.

It seem that Google is going through a rationalization period and I would not be surprised to see more announcements in the future relating poor performing partners. Google has grown with a high percentage of blogs running Google ad units of some type. This is flooding the market with some partners taking a year to earn the $100 minimum payment. If Google is going through a rationalization stage then I expect these publishers to be the next target.

For bloggers to make some type of income from their blogs, the time may be right to start investigating other options. It would certainly be judicious to trial different ad types to determine which ones are most profitable. It should be remembered that some of the biggest bloggers receiving  a lot of blogging income without using and Google ad units. Perhaps you can too!

We are very pleased to announce that we just got picked as a Webbieworld Hot pick!

Thanks for the pick and we appreciate your support!

Blog marketing is a difficult task however it often a task that we make more difficult than it should be. A real trap with a blog site, or any web site for that matter, is to become blinkered in our view of marketing. We think internet therefore our marketing is through the internet.

There are so many blog marketing opportunities off line that are either not considered or are used ineffectively. Every document you produce, from letter head to envelope to business card should have your web addres and your blog address prominently displayed. I often see companies that have web and/or blog sites but the URL and details are in the finest print on their documents. It almost gives the feeling that they are ashamed or embarrassed to admit they have these sites.   Even with online communication, how well do you promote your web or blog sites in the footer of your emails.

You can become quite inventive when it comes to off line  promotion. I recently read an article regarding one blog owner who parked a vehicle with his URL plastered down the side near a busy highway. Considering there are probably over a hundred thousand vehicles using that highway, luring just 1% would be a significant increase in traffic.

If you can use every opportunity that comes your way, the off line opportunities are always going to be there. It is just a matter of seeing the opportunity, seizing it and capitalizing on it. Blog marketing off line can be just as successful as any on line campaign - often you are reaching a brand new audience. As the saying goes - don’t put all your eggs into the one (online)  basket.

Most blog software platforms have one deficiency in common, the inability to display an email link while hiding your email address.  There are a lot of email robots just touring around web sites collecting email addresses. The email addresses are collected into data bases and used to send out spam mail.

Some bloggers try to side step this by writing their email in long hand - you may have seen it - webmaster (at) domain-name (dot) com. This is very effective at stopping the email robot collectors, it can also deter readers from using your email service. We seem to live in a click society now - if I cannot click I won’t bother.

There are many services available that will enable  you to offer the one click email link while hiding your email address. These still rely on a piece of Java code which needs to be copied and pasted into a text box (for WordPress users). The code works by breaking the email address up into pieces that cannot be read by the mail bot. One such as service is provided by BlogFlux  - they are one of many. You simply type in your email address and they will provide you with the Java Script to place on your page.

They are effective at slowing down the incidence of email spam. Unfortunately you will never totally prevent mail bots and email spam - but the, blog software can only do so much  - a good email filter should handle the rest.

If you consider these four blogging tips when creating your blog and writing a post you will increase the chances of engaging your readers and consequently increase the number of return visits.

Tip One: Write with the intent of creating a viewpoint.

It doesn’t need to be controversial, however if your post leads to a viewpoint that can be argued, your readers are more likely to add their opinions. If you could also conclude by asking “what do you think?”

Tip Two: Respond to comments as quickly as possible.

When comments are left, respond to them - the sooner the better. Respond to them in such a way that it commences a dialog. People like to participate in a dialog. Be sure to treat the commentator with respect - allow them to disagree with you.

Tip Three: Provide a means to continue the dialog.

Use a plugin a that enables the commentator to either subscribe to the comments or to at least receive follow up comments on that post by email.

Tip Four: NoFollow DoFollow

Install the DoFollow plugin and advertise the fact. If readers know that their comments may gain a little PR juice they will more willing to comment.

If you use these four blogging tips, a visitor to your blog will read your article. You will have inspired them to create a response. They see that you use the DoFollow philosophy so they proceed to write a comment. They request a follow up email to any further comments. Half an hour later they receive your response to the comment, this prompts them come back again to add a bit more.

You have just turned a single visit into a repeat visit. The longer you can keep someone on your page, the longer they will be exposed to the content of that page.

BTW - How do you get your readers to leave comments?

Blog content is everything! At least that is what they tell me. Make sure you get a good quality post onto your site at least once a day. Some bloggers go into withdrawal if they cannot get at least one article posted everyday - sometimes two or three articles on the one day.

Content is “king”. If you do not provide the quality - you will not get the traffic. The question is - how often and how long? There are no hard and fast ‘rules’. You do not have to post ‘everyday’. You certainly do not have to post several time per day.

Obviously if you build a group of loyal readers then you do need to provide articles on a regular basis. We have started a new year and typical to the season many people have written about their ambitions for the year and what worked and what did not work during 2007.

There has been one common thread through out what did work. It seems that less and more are having positive effects. Confused. Let me clarify. Less posts per week. Longer more in-depth posts on a regular basis. It is making more sense now to post in moderation but ensure those posts are top quality. There are so many blogs in the blogosphere it it becoming impossible to visit each one every day. RSS and email subscriptions are growing. A good quality post four or five times per week is just as likely to maintain or grow your traffic and as a daily post.

Blog content IS king. Provide quality articles on a regular basis and your readership is assured.

Gotbanners is one blog plugin that has several applications. Written specifically for WordPress to counter the banner blindness that can occur when returning visitors see the same banners every day, this plugin is quick to install and quick to configure.

The plugin works by taking the assigned banners and rotating them. Whenever the pages is loaded (or refreshed), the banners are shuffled into a new display order. To configure Gotbanners, simply copy the banners code into the configuration panel, save, and place the widget into your sidebar.

Whilst designed for affiliate 125 x 125 type banners, I can envisage this blog plugin being used for any banner campaign. If you want to promote static pages, competitions, related sites, or any other link; create a series of banners and let Gotbanners do the rest. The plugin is also capable of handling double width columns to display two columns of banners. This WordPress tip will certainly help to avoid any banner blindness.

Blog Marketing is a tricky business that most bloggers handle through social networking, blog directories or through social bookmarking sites. There are a lot of bloggers that buy ad space through various agencies such as Google. You can however market your site by simply changing one line in your header.

I read with interest how some sites have great blog SEO strategies. So great that they often appear in the top four or five for search results. Yet they don’t actually receive a lot of traffic from that position. The answer lies in what the person doing the search actually sees in front of them. Do they see an interesting description of the site, or just a list of keywords?

The TITLE meta tag holds the information that will be seen in the search results. If your title tag has been written to gain good search engine positioning, then it is probably key word rich and information poor. This can be changed without dramatically affecting your search engine position. When crafting your title meta tag you need to do it in such a way that it delivers a message whilst also maintaining keyword integrity.

Write a short marketing blurb. Go through it and see where your keywords could be placed. Think of the searcher as a potential client or customer that you are trying to lure through your door. The end result should be a short blurb that will attract the searcher to click whilst still maintaining some of your keywords. This is one simple blog marketing tip that could make a lot of difference to your traffic.