Internet Ads: Can You Really Make Money With Internet Ads On Your Blog?

Blogging About Blogging/ Blogging To Make Money Online

2010-02-15T14:58:00.003-05:00

I've been blogging for a little over a couple of years now. This particular blog began as a journal of my quest to make money online by following suggestions from other more successful bloggers. Successful in the art of making money from Internet ads. I've since learned this from reading other blogs. Not all bloggers make money. Not all bloggers try to make money from selling Internet ads on their site. Most bloggers who try to make money online don't succeed. Not every successful money making bloggers advice is true, accurate, and doesn't always work for everyone. So we sometimes end up back at square one. That's where it really gets tough, because if you don't have the drive or perseverance to move on you'll fail.

Social Blogging
Social bloggers love attention. They relish in their RSS feeds and Twits or Tweets (whatever you call it). Their readership is mostly return visitors. Social bloggers don't make money with Internet ads because their visitors don't click ads. They might make a few bucks from selling some worthless e-book or software to an unsuspecting reader. Another money making scheme of the social blogger is to lure their readers to join a forum for a monthly subscription. The forum consists of other devoted readers (who aren't making any money) talking about how to make money on the Internet. Don't waste your money. I don't read these blogs.

Make Money Online (MMO) Blogs
These are the blogs that I read, but only from a handful of authors. These folks have proven that it is possible to make money selling Internet ads, and usually have some sound advice. Their advice and tactics don't always work for everyone because it is sometimes geared for the MMO niche. There are hundreds of thousands of other niches out there. This blog is the closest thing that I have to the MMO niche, but I don't advise or claim that I know how to make money online. I just tell you of my personal experiences. These folks often tell you to steer away from MMO because it's too competitive, which is true but sometimes you can fall through the cracks with hard work and a little luck.

MMO blogs can be confusing. They suffer from Google paranoia, and keep a constant eye on Google with a microscopic lens. You would think that big G would want for you to make money, but I read of horror stories of people losing their AdSense account for minor deviations or ignorance of their rules. What was good advice two years ago is bad advise now. Nothing is consistent in the MMO game. They tell you how to get backlinks to your site. They tell you how to link to other sites. They tell you what the good links are. They tell you what the bad links are, worthless links..on and on and on. What was a bad link two years ago is now a good link. Confusing. MMO blogs experiment constantly. Maybe that's the reason for the confusion.

Internet Marketers
You could call these folks a combination of social and MMO blogging. They have a following and also make money on the Internet selling Internet ads. An Internet marketer has several to hundreds of different web sites and blogs. Their primary purpose is to make a living from the Internet, weather selling click on ads like AdSense, or selling affiliate ads like Commission Junction and others. Their network of sites help each other out by providing links to one another. They don't have to do an e-mail campaign to beg for links from strangers (who rarely respond anyway).

The Bottom Line
Read other blogs. Try to learn something. Just be aware that they aren't always right. Avoid buying anything. Don't spend too much time reading about others successes and use that time getting links to your own site. Find a blogger you can trust and leave comments on their articles. Make friends with other bloggers, usually through the comments section. That's a good way to find link exchanges.

Speaking of link exchanges, I have a few questions built from frustration. Do people really want to do the ground work to get their site ranked high in the search engines? Do they not know that the fastest way to rank high is from embedded text links pointing to their site? The reason I ask is that I joined a link resource site. I got a few enquiries from people requesting a text link exchange. Three way links, one of the most powerful types of links. I e-mailed them back that I was interested. Never heard from them again. Makes me wonder if some people are really serious about making money selling Internet ads

Bloggers Are Self Centered Jerks

2009-11-18T17:08:00.006-05:00

What the hell is going on? Kind of a bold intro isn't it? I have a reason for it. Gotta get away from talking about Internet Ads so I can do a little light hearted venting.

I've spent two years building blogs, learning how to blog, learning how to monetize blogs with Internet ads, learning SEO, and getting backlinks, to hardly any avail. Bloggers are self centered jerks.

I've got several PR3 blogs out there and don't mind giving backlinks to others, even if they're one way links. I just want to help other bloggers. It doesn't cost anything to give up a link. Why do people think that by helping someone else would devalue your own web site? It doesn't. It looks like basic greed to me.

I've given links to other sites that offer link exchanges that I'm not going to repeat on this post. You'll have to look them up. I praised these sites as THE place to go to network and make friends. Guess what? I was wrong. Most of the other bloggers are either "Newbies" that are too stupid to know that any link would help another, or they just don't want to help another blogger reach the top of the SERPS.

Would you rather go back to e-mailing the top 10 on the search engines and beg for a link? These guys who provide free services with backlink programs are doing you a favour (for my Euro friends).

These programs are invaluable for sites that sell Internet ads and should be utilised in the most serious of webmasters. In other words, you take, you give. For instance: One particular link exchange site has tens of pages of people seeking backlinks. Are they offering any? Hell no. They only want for you to put their sites on your sidebar (which isn't much juice anyway).

The serious bloggers, and the bloggers that are making real money are helping other bloggers and not worrying about competition. OH!, I just realized the problem. COMPETITION. Who exactally are you bloggers competing with? I have the answer. Your own selves. You'll never make any money that way.

Smart Pricing for AdSense Internet Ads/ Do Your Own Research

2009-09-06T14:58:00.004-04:00

What is Smart Pricing as defined by Google AdSense? I don't know. I've never even heard Google use the term. I've only read other bloggers use this term. As people like me try to gain as much knowledge as possible to make money online by using Internet ads on our blogs, I go to other web sites and MMO blogs to suck in as much info as I can. Sometimes this helps. Sometimes I waste my time by reading worthless crap from someone who doesn't even make as much money online as I do, which isn't very much.

I gave up on the notion of Smart Pricing just by watching my own stats. Prices fluctuate in any endeavor whether it be the stock market, local economy, or your own AdSense clicks.

I've seen my clicks go from $.60 to 1 cent many times. I've seen them remain steady at $.60 and then occasionally drop to below a dime. I really don't believe that the reason is a flaw in my character, or that I'm doing something wrong at the Blogger Dashboard.

The answer is that no one knows why Google charges and pays the way that they do. I've followed advice from other blogs by removing Internet Ads from less performing sites to wait and see if the rate will go up. It has never worked. I'm beating a dead horse.

I can't manipulate the pay rate by constantly changing all of my sites. It's an exercise in futility, so I stopped doing it. I've also stopped waiting for traffic to appear on a new site, or three months, which ever comes first to put Internet ads on the site, AdSense in particular. I have always been in good standing with Google and have never tried to game the system. I just added AdSense to a one month old blog. Whip me with a wet noodle.

My AdSense clicks remain from $.15 to $1.50 and rarely go below or above. The more that I've tried to manipulate the prices the more that I've had payout fluctuation problems. If you play by the rules, you won't get burned. Google will pay for conversions, so you have to use your key words carefully to get relevant ads.

Google's Interest Based Advertising
Anybody know what happened with that? Does your site use it? How can you tell? It was supposed to put ads on your site for readers, based on their previous Internet habits. Has any ones ad sales gone up? I can't tell.

Blog And IM Mentors
I have a few mentors who do an exceptional job for the love of it. Notice that I didn't use the word Guru. They are not Gurus. That's an overstated term and doesn't apply in the real world. They are people who have more experience and success than me, so I will refer to them as mentors, and they give advice for free. Griz at How To Make Money Online For Beginners, Court and Mark at The Keyword Academy, Vic, at Blogger Unleashed and now Allyn at Blogger Illustrated Yes Allyn, I'm drinking a beer right now. Bud Light. I haven't started reading Ben yet, but I will. I have a music publishing business, I'm a guitar picker and a songwriter. I'm also writing songs with some Nashville types right now. Check out my music site at Folk Music By Ben Willis. I also have a small lawn care business in Florida which I'm doing physical work for (and getting in shape), so I don't have a lot of time to read blogs. I'm busting my ass, so time is precious.

I love these guys and they all have helped, but I do have one problem. They are inconsistent. Some of these guys promise things and don't deliver. I don't mean that in a bad way, because they obviously get thrown off track sometimes, and please don't think that I expect something for nothing because they do this stuff for nothing. They tend to make promises of future projects which don't come to pass, then forgotten. I like to follow up on anything that I get involved in, and at least report progress occasionally. They may very well be making progress, and it might just be a long process to get it done. I would like to know anyway.

In summary, Do it yourself. Don't depend on the successful to do it for you. Write long posts (hi Grizz), and don't let words like "smart pricing" scare you.

Selling Internet Ads And The Art Of Getting Backlinks

2009-05-25T11:10:00.000-04:00

By far the most difficult job of SEO is getting relevant anchored backlinks pointing to your site to bring in search engine traffic that will click your Internet Ads. It seems like a tedious job but there is an art to getting those backlinks that you need.

When I started blogging seventeen months ago, I knew nothing about SEO (search engine optimization), keyword authority, or backlinks. I thought that I could charm my way to the top of Google and other search engines. You can't charm a robot. You need help from other web sites and bloggers.

The first method of gaining backlinks that comes to mind is to find the top ten sites for your keywords on Google and start sending out e-mails asking for link exchanges. Chances are that you will be ignored by the high PR (page rank) sites because they don't want to waste their precious "Google Juice" on a start-up site like yours. That's fine, go to page two, three...etc.

Another tactic is to submit articles to sites like Goarticles or Ezine Articles to have a link pointing back to your site. I used to do that but I stopped because I don't like rewriting my articles to avoid sending out duplicate content. I may write a review of my site to introduce it with a backlink, but I stopped rewriting my posts.

ConnectContent

ConnectContent is a site dedicated to providing you with relevant backlinks from similar sites. These are one way anchored links, the best kind. Not side bar or blogroll links but written into the article. As a member, you are required to send out links to others. It is a give and take method that works very well. The cost is $12 per month. I have a link to Connect Content on my side bar if you want more info.

Griz's Nich Support

This is a free site loaded with people like you who are offering link exchanges. It is not automated like ConnectContent and requires more work on your part by e-mailing prospective link exchange partners. Most of the links are two way, but you can work out one way links with your partner.

The Honest Way Forum

This is a forum of like minded bloggers and web site owners making money with Internet Ads. They have a link exchange message board where you can request links with other members. I believe that you have to contact the board owner for approval to join.

After using all of these methods I'm now getting backlinks from sites that I have never contacted or even heard of. It's a popularity contest and I'm glad that I did the ground work to get things rolling. My Internet Ad sales are up and I'm getting a check from Google next month. Yes there is an art to getting backlinks.

Internet Ads: You Gotta Have Friends

2009-03-26T10:41:00.003-04:00

As you can tell, I don't update this blog that often. My last post was in January. I felt compelled to post because of some recent activity on the Internet between several bloggers, so I have to add my two cents.

First an update on my own activity and my quest to make money online by selling Internet ads. Things are good but not as good as I would like. My earnings are getting better slowly which reinforces the fact that this is a long drawn out process. You spend a lot of time waiting for backlinks to go through and a lot of time moving up in the search engines. My main blog is now #5 on page one of Google for my targeted key words and on page five for a very competitive key word. I'm also #1 on page one for several long tail key words.

Let's get to the subject of this post. Recently an online friend named Lissie wrote a review of a software product called "Site Build It" titled Site Build It Scam. Site build it is software that promises to help you build and monetize your own web site for an annual fee of $300. I've never bought an e-book nor have I ever bought MMO software so I won't write my own review because I don't know much about it. That's not the point of this post. The point is friendship between bloggers and sticking up and supporting your friends. I didn't know about Lissie's review until I read about it on my friend Grizzly Brears blog How To Make Money Online For Beginners. She wrote a negative review and was inundated by nasty comments and threats from Site Build It supporters that seemed to be called to arms to discredit her. It was her opinion and she has every right to publish it. I'm not the only one defending her and helping her to stand up against the mob mentality.

I've been playing the blogging game for 16 months now and only recently became aware of the importance of friendships between fellow bloggers. You need them for backlinks. You need them to post comments, and you need to return the favor. That's how you rise in the search engines. I mean personal friendships and not necessarily through social sites or forums, but real people that you exchange e-mails with or maybe even make phone calls with. There is plenty of room for competitiveness, even between friends. Reading nasty comments on a blog makes for good entertainment, but are you really getting anywhere selling Internet ads or anything else by being that way?

The Site Build It supporters scheme backfired this time and Lissie came out on top only because her own friends came together and quashed their attempt to isolate her views.

Internet Ads: ProjectPayday Not Worth The Hassle

2009-01-24T15:12:00.005-05:00

I had to remove ProjectPayday's Internet ads from my blog. If it shows up on a Google Internet ad on this blog then that is beyond my control. Yes I know that I could use the competitive ad filter, but I won't.
Why the change of mind when I more or less suggested using ProjectPayday as an alternative to Internet ads as a way to make money online? Because my life has become a living hell after using ProjectPayday for a short period.

The ProjectPayday people can call me stupid if they want, but my experience wasn't covered in their training guide, and I admit that I only tried method #1, but that was enough for me to turn and run, because the other methods are very similar to method #1 and I don't need the hassle involved.

If you don't know what I'm talking about then I suggest that you read my last post "Make Money With Internet Ads, Freebie Sites And ProjectPayday". I was critical of ProjectPayday, but concluded that it was a pretty good program to make free cash online, if you want to do the work involved. What I didn't anticipate was the never ending e-mail spam and phone calls that I am now getting because I signed up for several "Offers", which is the crux of the program. I had to cancel my debit card because some less than ethical "offers" attempted to take more money from my bank account. This is not included in their training guide. I am still getting phone calls from "offers" that I cancelled.

When you join a forum and join freebie sites, the word "cancel" is taboo and can get you banned if you use it, but is used with a wink and a nod, so that should give you an idea of the phoniness of the system. As an honest person, do you really want to be involved in that? I think not.

Make Money With Internet Ads, Freebie Sites and Project Payday

2009-01-13T18:05:00.011-05:00

I recently ventured away from concentrating on Internet ads to try my hand at "Freebie" sites by joining projectpayday. If you don't know what that is, it is a free program that teaches you how to make money through the Internet without having to own a blog or web page. The concept is very simple. You join one or more of several online forums that they provide, to have access to the many "Freebie" sites that are out there along with ways to get in on cash paid surveys. A "Freebie" site is just what it says. They give away things including cash for free. It's an advertising gimmick that's been going on for years. Thousands of people take advantage of these sites every day.
You make money through the forum by answering a request from a poster who is looking to buy "Greens". They may be offering to pay you anywhere from $5 to $90 for a "Green", but the average is $20-$25. A "Green" is a credit issued to you by the "Freebie" site in exchange for signing up for any of several offers from an advertiser, for example Video Professor or E-Fax. The offers are for a short time period from seven days to thirty days. After you answer the poster on the forum and agree to a trade, you are sent to the "Freebie" site with a reference number from the poster (Your trading partner). You sign up for enough offers to equal the required credit. Once the credit is approved you contact your trading partner and they send you your money via PayPal.

Sounds easy. Here are a few things that I didn't know about before joining and taking part in this "easy" way to make money. I did plenty of reading on this subject but still, a few things slipped by me, so I'll let you in on my experience.
First of all no one plans to keep these offers that they sign up with. That was one thing that I already knew going into it. So before your offer to E-Fax expires, call them up and cancel it. You got your credit, sold your "Green" and your free and clear. Or so you think. I'll get to that in a minute. Some of these offers charge $50-$100 per month after the trial period. What is the incentive for signing up for these offers and keeping them just to make a quick $25? You have to cancel them to make any money. You have to keep a record of all of the offers that you signed up for and when to cancel.

Read the terms of service of everything that you sign up for. The Internet ad may say that the offer is free but the fine print will say that they charge a $6.99 set up or shipping fee. Yes, clicking on the ad is free but sign up isn't. Some offers even put your first months service on hold for a few days after sign up.
So let's say that you sign up for two offers valued at 1/2 credit each to equal 1 credit. These offers cost you $2.99 each. That's $5.98. Your trading partner will pay you $25 for 1 credit. You make $19.02. That still ain't bad. Now you have to retrace everything you did for that $19.02 so that you can cancel those offers later on.

Use a credit card. That was my biggest mistake. I used a debit card with very little on it. You can use a debit card but I wouldn't advise it, especially if you're nervous about someone getting their hands into your bank account. Remember the thing that I said that I would get back to? I got a call from my bank telling me that someone tried to charge my account. Yes it was one of these "offers" trying to get some more money. I had it blocked and now I have to get a new debit card. Luckily they weren't successful. They do have "no credit card required" offers, but they are mostly online surveys and credit card offers. The surveys are a good way to clutter up your e-mail box with spam and you must be approved for the credit card offers. These offers sometimes don't give you credit for a "Green" and aren't worth your time and trouble.

I am not bashing projectpayday or the "Freebie" sites. If you want to work at home for a modest income this may be for you. It is work, but it's from home and that's what most people are looking for. The experience that I described was from method 1 of ProjectPayday or the "get paid to complete offers for others" method. They have a method 2 " get paid cash directly from IFW's" (the "Greens" buyer) which is much more profitable. There's where you need the credit card. For example, you need five offers completed to make $300 from a "Freebie" site. Fill out one offer yourself, post on the forum that you're paying $25 per credit. Pay four people $25 each and make $200 profit.
I'm sorry that it didn't work out for me so I'll just keep Internet ads as an income.

Selling Internet Ads With A little Help From My Friends

2009-01-05T13:42:00.005-05:00

Well I guess I'm an Internet marketing pro now since I broke through my first Google AdSense earnings requirement and will be paid this month. Just kidding about the pro thing, I've got a long way to go with selling Internet ads. This is only the beginning. My goal is to get a check every month, and it won't be easy because now I'm fighting with either "Smart Pricing", low conversions, or economic downturn payments. I haven't figured it out yet.

My main blog is now on page three at Google (it was on page two for a couple of weeks) so I still need plenty of backlinks. The traffic has gained considerably and so have the AdSense clicks but most of them are low paying. "Smart pricing" is when you have a blog or website with Internet ads, particularly AdSense ads that is either not optimized using key words or has a low conversion rate. If it isn't key word optimized then the Google bot cannot pick up the key words from the page and you end up with irrelevant or PSA ads on your page that can affect all of your blogs if you have more that one. A low conversion rate means that people are clicking the ads but not buying anything, so in turn Google charges the AdWords advertiser a lower rate and you get pennies on the click. The economic downturn is self explanatory so I won't try to explain that.
I'm not complaining, it's just another hurdle to jump over on my quest to make money selling Internet ads.

I've learned a lot in the past year, but not without the help of four guys who deserve a mention. I found Grizzly Brears very soon after I started blogging and can say that he saved me some money because I most likely would have bought an e-book or some kind of over priced software that would have taught me the same things that I have learned from reading his posts. I've mentioned his Blogger blog before but now he has a newer blog called Make Money Online With Grizzly. Griz turned me on to Terry Didcott at How To Make Money The Honest Way which is a web site that includes articles on SEO, a blog, a forum and even directions on how to build a web site.
I started reading Courtney Tuttle at Court's Internet Marketing School a few months ago along with Court and his colleague Mark Butler and their site The Keyword academy. All of the above mentioned are excellent resources.

The old saying "Don't try this alone" certanly applies to me because chances are that I would have given up long ago if not for the honest and straightfoward advice that I've gotten from these guys. It's a long journey and you will not get rich overnight like some e-book will tell you. You can make money selling Internet ads but it takes time and patience.

Reached A Milestone Selling Internet Ads

2008-12-14T14:01:00.003-05:00

I've finally reached that elusive $100 mark this month for a certain Co. by selling their Internet Ads. I am actually a little over the $100 mark and have the rest of the month to go. It took me about a year to get this far and I'm making way too little to call this a major source of income while I'm trying to make extra money.
I am getting new backlinks every week and hope to have my sites near the top of Google's search engine soon. I haven't posted any new articles lately because I have been concentrating on backlinks and other SEO tactics. I just read an article in The London Telegraph that G is hand picking sites instead of using the algorithm. Anyone heard this? Let me know. I don't know what to think about it yet until I hear more about it.
I also sold my first two affiliate Internet Ads this past month so that makes me feel pretty good about starting this venture. I haven't been doing this on my own. There is plenty of free help out there for work from home jobs on the Internet and the worst mistake that you can make would be buying a make money online e-book or software without checking it out first. You can find most of that information free if you know where to go. I mentioned three of these web sites in a previous article titled Three Good Blogs. I have been using them during the whole process and finally getting results. It does take time, patience and perseverance. There are people who can start a site, get indexed and monitized pretty quickly but I'm not one of them, yet.
Just wanted to give you a quick update on my little journey to make money with Internet Ads, so back to the behind the scenes work.

Internet Ads: Eleven Months Later

2008-10-04T12:17:00.007-04:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been concentrating on another blog, trying to get it on page one of the search engines and that's the point of selling Internet ads. UPDATE: I'm getting closer to my first $100 with Google AdSense, mostly from the other blog that I spoke of earlier. It's been almost a year. I've heard of others that have taken two years to make the first $100 so I ain't complaining, just wishing that it wouldn't take so long.
I'm too far into this Internet ads thing to give up now especially considering what I've learned in the last eleven months. It's in my blood now so I can't be anything but successful regardless of how long it takes. They say that persistence beats resistance and I've always believed that.
I need more traffic and to get more traffic, I need to be on page one of the search engines particularly Google. To get to the top, I need backlinks which I have found to be the most difficult job of all. I mean natural backlinks and not "paid for" or generated by software. That's why it is so important to network, make friends with other bloggers and gain others trust. That's another slow process but I'm moving along albeit at a slow pace.
The blog that I spoke of earlier is bouncing between Pages one and seven at Google and with a little shove from some new backlinks should finally settle onto page one eventually. It's not a highly popular niche and I don't expect to get rich selling Internet ads from it but it is a good learning tool. I have several other blogs out there waiting in the wings to blossom whenever I get this thing down. I have Internet ads on some and I haven't put ads yet on others but they are all indexed. I've been using free Blogger sites and so far haven't spent a penny on other blog hosting sites. I may start buying domains in the future, but let's see what I can do for free for the time being.
If anyone wants to exchange links, e-mail me at bwillismusic@gmail.com and let's help each other out. No need to be competitive because there is plenty of room out there for everyone to sell Internet ads.

Internet Ads And The Honest Way

2008-07-26T17:26:00.003-04:00

Well it's been eight months now since I started putting blogs out there with Internet ads. I finally passed fifty dollars of earned revenue from Google. Maybe I'll break a hundred in four months. Still no bites from my affiliates. One of my blogs has a PR3 but I just don't get enough traffic to make a difference.
As you know Google is all over the place these days and most people that I know of who are more knowledgeable than me think that they are cleaning house of link farms and other easy ways of getting indexed. That's fine with me. Getting back links is hard work but it can be done. I often get frustrated by not getting return e-mails when I request a link exchange but that's the nature of the business I suppose.
I've added a couple of new niche blogs since my last article. One I just threw out there without monetizing just to see what happens. It's still too soon to tell.
I found a new useful site through Grizz called The Honest Way that has been a real help. Thanks Terry.
So since I aint' making much money with my blogs, I invite you folks to check out my music web site and buy a download or two. I wrote the songs, play all of the instruments and do the vocals. I also recorded everything at my home studio. Will report back when things pick up.

Internet Ads And Back Links: Not So Easy To Get

2008-07-08T09:40:00.004-04:00

I have been trying to make money online with Internet ads for eight months now. I am a musician and songwriter and have a website showcasing my songs and selling downloads of my music along with some Google AdSense ads. It's not doing so good, but of course I never expected it to do well because I am not famous or well known. It's just there for me to send music industry people to who might happen to spark an interest in my music.
I now have eight active blogs on various topics all with AdSense ads and a couple of affiliate ads. My oldest blog which is music related has a PR3 and only gets around one thousand visits per month. This blog that your reading now is almost as old as my music blog and might get ten visits on a good day. Of course it just came out of Google's sand box last month and is finally on the search engines.
Here is my problem. Getting back links. I will not buy them and I try to stay away from link farm sites. I want honest relative links which is a tough row to hoe for me. Some related websites offer back-links on their link page and even have a box to fill in that sends them an e-mail notifying them that you have requested a back link. This has worked best for me. The other alternative is to send them a direct e-mail requesting a link exchange. This is the most frustrating because I rarely get a reply.
My friend Grizzly Brears at How To Make Money Online was nice enough to link to me for writing an article that linked to him. I just did it again. Thanks Griz.
Like I said, I have eight blogs so if you want to exchange links, let me know as I continue to try to make money with Internet ads.

Internet Ads: Slow Traffic

2008-06-23T20:49:00.005-04:00

If you've never read this Internet ads blog before, I want to let you know straight out that this is not a Make Money Online blog. It was never intended to be. I am only reporting my personal experience while trying to make money online for myself. I have a music website and six niche blogs all using Google AdSense ads and a couple if affiliate ads. I sell downloads of my original music on my website.
In my last post I reported that I had made $21.00 so far from AdSense after about six months. I'm now up to $40.00, not so good huh? I can't expect a lot of clicks from my website because people who visit are going there to see me, and are not usually surfing the net, but I have a few ads up there anyway. I've had it up to here with SEO and have tried everything that I can think of without having to spend any money. I'm just not getting the traffic. My flagship blog has a PR3 and is high on the Google search engine. It could be a bad niche because it doesn't get as much traffic as I think it should.
I still have faith that things will work out in the end and am working harder then ever to get this thing rolling on a steady pace. I need to get some links for my two newer blogs. I've got to open my mind up and think of a subject that will sell a product and draw a lot of traffic.
Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions about getting more traffic and selling more Internet ads.

Internet Ads: Three Good Blogs

2008-04-30T19:29:00.009-04:00

It's been about six months now since I implemented Internet ads on my web site and four blogs. So far I've made a little over $21.00. I now have some affiliate ads along with Google AdSense on the various sites. Remember, this is not a Make Money Online blog and that is obvious. I am only giving you one persons opinion and sharing what I am learning about how to make money online.

This is a real learning experience that is taking more time than I anticipated, but what the hell, it may pay off in the long run. I talked in previous posts about all of the junk Make Money Online sites out their written by people who can't make any money themselves. They find free articles and plant them on their blogs to fill space while their only intention is for people to click on the AdSense ads that they have splattered all over the page. If and when some of these parasites do write their own material it's so full of misspellings that you would probably click anything to get away from there.

This brings me to the only three blogs out there that I have found that helps. How To Make Money Online for beginners by Grizzly Brears, Blogger Unleashed by Vic Franqui, and Learn Internet Marketing/ Strategy & Services by Courtney Tuttle. All three of these guys are no-nonsense experts on making money with Internet ads. They also have other tricks up their sleeves concerning ways to make money on the Internet. Please don't let the small amount of money that I've made sway you from checking these guy's out because I have only been reading their articles for a short time. The good thing about it is that they are not trying to sell you e-books or charging for their advice.

I stumbled onto Griz's blog which led me to the other two. They all employ different methods but are teaching you the same thing so it is best to check out all three. Making money with Internet ads is a learning process to me and that's why you will not hear me whine about the small amount that I'm making right now. The more I learn the more I'm going to make and I truly believe that.

Still Chugging Along With Internet Ads: Not Getting Rich Quick

2008-03-19T17:44:00.007-04:00

Okay, It's been a while since I posted anything about internet ads because nothing worthwhile has happened. My web site and three other blogs are monetized and running on the major search engines. I've spent hours getting backlinks and tweaking the key words and ads.
I am beginning to notice increased activity on the one blog that I pay the most attention to (not this one) but it's nothing to brag about. I'm looking at around $12.00 in AdSense earnings since late October. A long way from the $100.00 mark. Google notified me that my PIN number is on the way so at least they notice me.
There's a new Internet ad co. out there called PayPerPlay Media that pays 25% of the advertisers cost every time someone visits your site or blog. They use five second audio ads that play when someone enters your site. They say that the ad only plays once and is so short that people won't get annoyed but we'll have to see about that. I put one on one of my blogs but it's not up and running yet. They're still tweaking their system. I'll try that one ad out for a while and see what happens.
I think I'm getting ready to dump Auction Ads, they're just taking up space. I signed up with them when they were offering a $25.00 sign up bonus but I'll never see that unless someone buys something and my account reaches $50.00.
Maybe I'll have some better news on my quest to make money using Internet ads on the next post. Please visit my music web site at benwillismusic.com.

Make Money With Internet Ads And AdSense. Or Not!

2008-01-16T11:04:00.003-05:00

I'm sure you have seen this before, "Make Money With AdSense". Yes it's all over the Internet. Blogs and web sites that can explain how you can work at home on your computer. Some sell software to help you set up your own blog or web site while most offer free advice while monetizing their own site with Adsense ads.
I don't offer advice. All I am doing is reporting my progress since I added Adsense and other Internet ads to my personal web site and several blogs. Progress up to now? Not good. I've made over $4.00 in almost three months. The minimum payout amount is $100.00. At this rate I will be a senior citizen by the time I make the $100.00 mark. I am still working on search engine optimization and getting page rank so hopefully my traffic will increase soon.
I mentioned in my last report about these "Make money with Adsense" blogs and of the blatant phoniness of their content. Mind you there are legitimate blogs out there that offer sound advice but I am not talking about those guys. I am talking about people who don't have the creativity to write their own content. They create blogs and fill them up with other peoples articles about making money on the Internet and slap some ads on the page and publish it. In my last article I talked about these "experts". If you go to the Adsense help forum on their website you will find several questions by people asking "Why am I not making any money"? They usually leave a link to their blog and if you click the link sure enough the blog is about how you can make money on the Internet that's full of "borrowed" articles and "getting paid to do surveys ads". It's hilarious.
If you are thinking about monetizing your site there is free sound help out there. You just have to distinguish it from the phony help. Start by reading the leading text of the site. See if it looks professional, check for misspellings. If the blog looks like it was thrown together with other peoples articles than all it is is an attempt to make money from Internet ads. They can't offer real advice because they are clueless themselves. You will know real advice when you read it and yes the real guys are making money with Adsense too but at least they are giving you something solid in return for the time that you take to read their articles. Please visit my web site at http://benwillismusic.com

Internet Ads "Experts"

2007-12-31T15:58:00.002-05:00

Another report on my quest to get rich with Internet ads (sarcasm). It's been over two months now with ads on my web site and on a few blogs. My grand total so far? $3.09.I love this internet, we can all get rich. Seriously though, I knew that it would be slow hence the title "Internet Ads/Slow Starting". I mentioned in my last post that I started monitoring the Google Adsense forums and maybe I could pick up a few pointers. They have been quite helpful at times but mostly humorous. So you ask, how do I make money online? The bottom line is this, like they say in real estate the secret is location, location, location but it seems that the secret here is traffic, traffic, traffic. No matter how fancy your web site or blog is, or what a great writer you are, people are not going to click on your ads unless they are there to do it. Most of the questions on these forums are about getting more people to your site. Others are of people asking why they were dropped by Adsense. Now let's get to the humorous part. I know that a lot of non English speaking people are with Adsense but that is no excuse for poor spelling and diction on their sites. I can only guess that they are non English but maybe some of them are English speaking people. When I read their enquiries on the forum I could barley understand what they were saying so I had to check out their site. Sure enough the content is written the same way. As you might guess, there are a lot of people out there writing "Get rich with Adsense" blogs. They are the funniest. The blog is full of articles taken from other blogs just to fill up the page and the remainder of the page is filled with Adsense ads. Then these same people log on to the Adsense forum and ask "How can I make money?"It is hilarious when an "expert" doesn't know enough himself but wants to use others material to bring people to their site only in the hopes that they will click on the ads. I wonder what these "experts" do when people comment or have a question?
So I'll just keep chugging along. I will never claim to be an expert because I am only learning. That's what this is all about. I have been working pretty hard for more traffic and SEO and hope to see some good results soon especially with internet ads. In the mean time I'll just hang on to my day job. Please visit my web site at http://benwillismusic.com

Internet Ads: The Penny's Are Trickling In

2007-12-12T13:20:00.002-05:00

Just thought that I would give you an update on my quest to monetize my web site and my blogs so that I can run an honest Internet business with Internet ads , and let you know how things are going from the stand point of a beginner in this field. In my last report I said that I was working on SEO optimization and leaving links on social web sites etc. to bring more traffic to my initial web site. In turn my web site has links to my various blogs that visitors can access from the web site if it interests them. The web site has three types of internet ads. Google Adsense for content, referrals and search ads. I also have a Youtube video ad and some Auction Ads. All internet ads other than Auction Ads are managed through Google Adsense so that is convenient. I also have 8 blogs with Adsense and Auction ads.
I downloaded free software to help join some directories and have so far registered to about 50 different directories. They take time to be accepted or rejected so that one is still up in the air but I have already been accepted by several. I joined a few forums and I leave a link in my signature whenever I visit and make a comment. As a result of my attempts I had 200 impressions on my Adsense pages two days ago which is the largest number that I have had so far. To no avail I also had 0 clicks on my internet ads. I thought that it is about time to ask for help so I joined the Adsense help forum and posted a question and invited the more experienced to visit my site. The first two respondents said that they didn't see ANY internet ads on my site. I think that the problem was either I had the internet ads placed below the opening page so that you have to scroll down to see them or that they were slow in loading and the viewers didn't stick around long enough to see them. I then moved the internet ads closer to the top of the page. I got another response that said that they see the ads but they are on a bad area of the page. This was a problem for me because of the template provided by my web host. It doesn't allow much room to move around but I did find another template that allowed me to place internet ads on the right side of the page so I made that change.
I know what you big money Adsense users are saying, "200 impressions a day is nothing, you need at least a thousand to make any money." I know that but this is a project in the working and I am up about 400% from two months ago. The pennies are trickling in. I have made $.20 so far today, $.3 yesterday and $.12 the day before. I started adding as much content text as possible to my web pages and keep adding more as I get new ideas and my template allows. I am a musician and this is a music web site. The only products that I sell are music downloads of my copyrighted material. I also offer physical CDs of my music. If you would like to visit my web site I am open to suggestions to improve internet ad selling performance. My e-mail and web site are bwillis@benwillismusic.com http://benwillismusic.com

Internet Ads: Slow Starting

2007-11-30T14:01:00.004-05:00

I would like to share my experiences with selling Internet ads and the slow process that I am going through to make online profits. I am not a knee jerk person and do not wish to demean or criticize web site ad providers, I simply want to let you know that this is becoming a long drawn out process for me personally. As a singer/songwriter/guitar player I decided to start a web site on the internet last July to showcase and sell downloads of my music, and be able to work at home. Last October I decided to try to make money with pay per click ads along with my music as a source of extra income. I signed up for Google Adsense ads and installed a variety of content, referral and search ads. My web site was only three months old at the time and I didn't know much about referrals and search engine optimisation so as a result for the month of October I had a total of 1730 hits and 181 visits. Google recorded 71 impressions and 0 clicks.
I decided that it was time to get serious about this and started reading blogs and visiting web sites devoted to internet ads. I am slowly learning how to optimise my site for ads and to use search engine optimisation. I started leaving links on social networks, and have applied for numerous directories which may take quite awhile to bare fruit. In the mean time I have added a video internet ad through YouTube and recently added some AuctionAds who offer a $25 sign up bonus to prime the pump. My stats for November went up to 4202 hits with 560 visits, 626 impressions and only 1 click. A total of $.37. I e-mailed Google and asked for an average visit/click ratio but was told that it varies. Not much help.
I am not ready to give up as you can see there are ads on this blog. I only want to assure people in the real world that yes you can make money with internet ads but like me, it may take some time to generate traffic to your site and/or blog. If the past increase in my stats is an indication of a trend than I may be in good shape for future visits because if I am figuring this right, I have had a 300% increase in visits from October to November. If I can figure out a way to get people to click the ads I would be OK. I am a stick with it type of person and am convinced that if others can be successful selling internet ads than so can I. I must remember that my web site is a music web site first and try to keep it tasteful. If you have any questions or comments please e-mail me at bwillis@benwillismusic.com and visit my web site at http://benwillismusic.com

Privacy Policy

2007-11-29T12:47:00.005-05:00

Updated April 2009
This website/blog uses third-party advertising companies to serve ads when visiting this site. These third parties may collect and use information (but not your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, you can visit Google's Advertising and Privacy page.

If you wish to opt out of Advertising companies tracking and tailoring advertisements to your surfing patterns you may do so at Network Advertising Initiative.

Google uses the Doubleclick DART cookie to serve ads across it's Adsense network and you can get further information regarding the DART cookie at Doubleclick as well as opt out options at Google's Privacy Center

I respect your privacy and I am committed to safeguarding your privacy while online at this site internetadsslowstarting.blogspot.com. The following discloses how I gather and disseminate information for this Blog.

RSS Feeds

If a user wishes to subscribe to my RSS Feeds, I ask for contact information such as name and email address. Users may opt-out of these communications at any time. Your personal information will never be sold or given to a third party. (You will never be spammed by me - ever)

Log Files and Stats

Like most blogging platforms I use log files, in this case Statcounter. This stores information such as internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring, exit and visited pages, platform used, date/time stamp, track user’s movement in the whole, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Cookies

A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s computer tied to information about the user. This blog doesn't use cookies. However, some of my business partners use cookies on this site (for example - advertisers). I can't access or control these cookies once the advertisers have set them.

Links

This Blog contains links to other sites. Please be aware that I am not responsible for the privacy practices of these other sites. I suggest my users to be aware of this when they leave this blog and to read the privacy statements of each and every site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Blog.

Advertisers

I use outside ad companies to display ads on this blog. These ads may contain cookies and are collected by the advertising companies and I do not have access to this information. I work with the following advertising companies: Google Adsense. Please check the advertisers websites for respective privacy policies.

Contact Information

If you have any questions or concerns please contact Ben Willis at bwillismusic@gmail.com