Video Round-Up of the past 30 days, I hope everyone continues to visit each day; as I will continue to post daily and will soon be moving across to the WordPress platform.
Weight Loss Challenge
I have been dreading this post.
After taking a personal weight loss challenge to coincide with Ed Dale and Dan Raines' 30 Day Challenge - today is day 30 and the final day, so it's time to reveal my beast of a body after a month of reduced sugar, less fast food and some light exercise.
While the pictures don't show a dramatic change in weight, I have reduced my weight from 108kg at the start of August to 99kg as of 30 August. My belt size has dropped 2 spots, and things are fitting slightly better.
I will be taking the good habits into next month and trying to keep the health diet happening moving forward.
Thank you to all the Thirty Day Challengers that supported me with motivational comments and some positive thinking! (Thank you Nello!) And to those that have visited my Blog daily thank-you too, I hope you plan on staying and continue to visit the blog.
(Red Briefs = Day 1, Dark Briefs = Day 30)
Front on Shot. I have found that weight around my neck/face is reduced and the upper thighs. (Love handles and pecks need work!)
Love handles are only slightly reduced. Tuck shop arms have dropped away a little. Mid section still needs plenty of work!
Side on probably shows up better than the others, flab from stomach, sides and upper thighs has dropped slightly.
Stay tuned tomorrow for a great post on a secret Google searching trick. I was shown this last night and was simply blown away. A video tutorial will walk you through how to use Google for super powerful direct file searching. See you then!
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Winning the Lottery
Ever dreamed of winning that big competition, huge prize or even winning lottery? Hmmmm 'winning the lottery' sounds very nice!
I am sure many of us have stopped to dream for a few seconds about winning that lucrative competition or a free overseas trip giveaway. You are certainly not alone! Last night I stumbled on a website by a lady who has not only been winning competitions for years, she now runs a business teaching others how to win as many competitions as they can.
ContestQueen is her name and identity online, and now famous Carolyn Wilman has not only written a successful book on how to enter and win competitions - she now offers a course for willing participants to learn her trade and take their winnings into overdrive.
An amazing story, Carolyn Wilman rose to fame a few years back when she won three major contests in a single week. Winning a car, luxury cruise and other items - she quickly earned the name ContestQueen - declaring her contest entering as an addictive hobby, it has paid off big time for Wilman and she now is set to earn even more from her self written book and the offer of courses for interested contestants.
Now I have entered quite a few contests over the years and occasionally dabble in the lottery draws - however, I've had little or no success! I am very interested to find out more about Carolyn Wilman and how she does it, she talks about luck, persistence and knowledge of as many competitions on offer as possible. It's a good story and worth a look!
NB - For those of you who have been following my 'Thirty Day Challenge' weight loss challenge, stay tuned! I will be posting final pictures and results from my 30 days later today! Here's the original post for those that missed it, be warned photos my turn some people off their food! haha.
Who clicks your Blog ads?
It's a question not enough regular bloggers ask themselves. Who clicks your Blog ads? Why are they clicking certain ads? Are you targeting the right market with your blog ads?
Seriously, I don't think enough bloggers or marketers take this into account before throwing an ad program on their site. Of the blogs and sites I visit daily, only 1 or 2 have advertisements that appeal to me or would make me click. By my calculations, 80% of the blogs I read are displaying advertisements that I wouldn't be interested in clicking on.
Advertisement clickers fall into the following categories;
'Newbies' they are new to your site and click advertisements because they are lost and can't find anything else interesting.
'Drive-By' users that don't find your website interesting and simply click an advertisement to exit your site and rarely will come back.
'Supporters' these users find your site interesting, visit regularly and will sometimes click advertisements purely out of 'good faith' to reward you for your efforts. Personally I have done this a few times at blog sites where I have read a good article or found their information helpful.
Many of the more experienced readers will rarely click your advertisements. They either subscribe through a feed reader (many feeds don't contain advertisements) or they visit your site and read the content and then leave (many 'regulars' are virtually oblivious to your advertisements, as their eyes are trained to look directly at the content only - making them blind to the ads)
Its different and easier for the major Blogs written by the big boys. The larger and more popular sites are able to sell their ads directly for a monthly or weekly fee. They put the onus on the advertiser to develop a catchy banner that will attract clicks - so the blog owner gets his money and doesn't have to rely on Pay Per Click (PPC).
For upcoming blogs or sites, don't make the mistake of throwing up HTML code from every available advertising company. I strongly resisted going overboard with advertisers, I visit some blogs and sometimes see up to 20 or 30 advertisements all over the place - something which is a massive turn off.
I've also seen some negative comments about Google AdSense by some commentators. Google AdSense is the largest and simplest advertising network, while it has been tarnished by some newbies and spammers alike - the content matching system from Google is unrivaled in my eyes by other networks. AdSense might not pay quite as high as some others, by if placed correctly the chances of users clicking AdSense content is much higher than others in my eyes.
You may have noticed some other advertising additions here on my blog. I investigated both PerPerPost and Smorty for their opportunities to make money from Blog posts. Smorty seemed a little bit small time and took a long time for a response from their administrators. My blog took quite some time to get approved and the available opportunities and payouts weren't extremely high.
Personally, I have seen the PayPerPost program on many impressive blogs, I now understand why. PayPerPost uses a simple interface, they are very active and will offer you many opportunities to make money from reputable products. They also offer the 'Hire Me' direct advertising scheme which you will see on the right hand side of my blog. Anyone can sign-up, pay $10 and have me write a specific post about a desired topic, your blog site or your point of view. An interesting concept, I look forward to seeing how this works out.
I understand many of the readers here are Immediate Edge and TDC participants and focus many of their efforts on affiliate marketing. While affiliate marketing is powerful and brings plenty of high earning potential - the ability of PPC when done right, can turn a steady stream on low effort income.
Just make sure you pick the right advertising program, place them strategically and think about 'who' will be clicking the advertisements - when done right, the reward is obviously much greater. $$
Want to be the first to take advantage of my 'HireMe' option? For $10 you can ask me to review your site or blog, ask me to write about a topic of your choice and either way you secure exposure and a back-link from a PR4 domain. Click on the image below to get started:
Quit your job
Ever wanted to quit your job? It's a subject talked about regularly on-line and for good reason - estimates show that close to 60% of all workers dislike their current job and would like to do something different. Of course there is always exceptions to the rule, you hear stories of 'Joe the Janitor' who wouldn't trade his job for the world - but Joe is certainly in the minority.
Many of the on-line references to 'quit your job' refer to get rich quick schemes or exaggerated stories by webmasters in order to get their readers to buy something from them or paint themselves as a web guru.
I wanted to talk about this topic from a real world, personal point of view.
I am 29 years old and have been working full-time for over 10 years. After leaving school I immediately entered the workforce and began a trainee position in the telecommunications industry. While always enjoying computers after hours, initially dabbling with BBS's (Bulletin Board Systems) and the early 'text based' Internet in the mid 1990's - I found that turning computers and the internet into a full-time, decent earning job was a little tough.
In early 2007 my wife and I decided we would temporarily relocate from Sydney, Australia to a small town in Southern New Zealand for a year or two. My wife is originally from New Zealand and the opportunity to spend time with her family and take our young baby to a 'quiet little town' for a few years and experience a sea change was very inviting.
To prepare for the move, I quit my full-time job and began planning for the relocation. In the time I stopped working - I decided to spend my days working on-line, establishing some regular revenue. So I began channeling 95% of my efforts and daily activity into earning revenue on-line.
Through my Blogs; pay per click, backlink and affiliate programs have turned some small but interesting revenue. I have also been trading on eBay quite frequently, turning a handsome profit with minimal effort there and finally I have been buying and selling things like Domains and established Websites.
While the revenue earned won't allow me to retire just yet, the potential is certainly there and it has opened up my eyes to the power of 'making money online' - something usually thought of as impossible, but the opportunity is seriously there! Choosing to focus 'full-time' on earning money on-line made things so much easier and certainly within reach.
So in summary, I think so many of us can get caught up in the habit of: "Too busy making a living to make any money" - In other words, too busy working 8 hours a day in a job you don't like just to make ends meet - when really if you took a chance and focused all your efforts on-line, the potential to earn good revenue and enjoy doing it is certainly on offer.
Got a good story of successful on-line earnings? No matter how small, I'd like to hear what you've been able to achieve and the potential for the future.
Keep Blog Traffic Interested
Want to know how to keep your Blog readers attention for the whole post?
From daily blog posters to niche content publishers you need to follow these basic guidelines to ensure the traffic you get to your website or blog stays interested and keeps coming back. It's great to have thousands of visitors come flocking to your website on the back of a good post, but if the majority don't return you may as well go back to talking to yourself.
On average a staggering 80% of visitors will not only shy away from your site forever, but walk away after the first paragraph - if things don't grab them immediately.
We all know a powerful title or headline is critical in initially getting traffic to read your post, the title is also critical for search engine spidering - ensuring your post or article is picked up by search engines and listed correctly. Once you get the traffic through the doors with a good blog headline what next?
- The first paragraph is critical, ask the readers a question to engage them actively straight away. Somewhere in the first few paragraphs drop in some humor or a funny quote that relates to your story. The quick touch of humor helps hold the readers attention in the critical transition period as they begin to look more deeply at your content.
- Paint a picture, any good public speaker or copywriter will tell you they want to 'create the image' in the mind of their audience. Using words such as 'imagine' or 'picture this' - allows the reader to turn your words into a picture. Personally I like to attach a relevant picture to most of my topical posts - this instantly gives the users a feel and visual picture of the topic.
- Shock factor, don't be scared to be controversial in your view. This creates healthy debate, also use statistics to grab your readers attention and get the facts across. The more shocking the statistics the more power you are possessing.
- Smooth ending, the best way to finish your post is to tie it back into the beginning of your topic. A summary helps reinforce the main points of your post and allows the reader to finish with the critical thoughts fresh in their mind.
So in weighing up all these important parts to a Blog post - how successfully have I employed these tips in writing this article?
Facebook: Power of Networking
The power of networking in any industry is unquestioned. Most especially in the blogging world, networking can assist your marketing reach and bring a wave of industry insiders to your blog or website.
Even networking with your competitors is a smart move that can help you gain valuable information and bring attention to your work. Fortunately for us folks who work with the internet the amount of free tools available to assist networking is simply astounding.
We have massive amounts of tools available to us from email, to instant messaging, VoIP and now the social networking phenomenons such as MySpace and Facebook.
While MySpace was the early leader in social networking, the exploitation of this platform by spammers, hackers and predators - has seen many shy away from the website in favor of newer more secure frameworks such as Facebook.
There are various levels of networking, from initially 'introducing yourself' to friends to eventually speaking verbally on a regular basis - once you gain the initial trust of a new friend, try and keep regular contact and where possible leverage your relationship to speak through an IM client or programs such as Skype. Any verbal time you can get with an internet VIP is pure gold. The recognition and ideas exchanged will really help you in your ventures.
Personally, I find Facebook a very powerful tool for getting in touch with people on the Internet I wish to converse with. From very public and powerful identities to the average internet browser - Facebook allows you to introduce yourself and establish a relationship with anyone.
Where the true value lies for industry players is the 'access all areas' type of setup - allowing anyone to track down and get in touch with VIPs or successful internet identities. Using Facebook you can quickly search and 'touchbase' with the real influential people in the internet world.
Once you begin establishing relationships with your targeted personalities on Facebook, you can then extend your marketing arsenal by creating 'Facebook Groups'. Creation of a group on any topic is simple, free and the creation notifies your contacts and instantly gives them insight into the topic you are launching.
With any internet venture, especially a 'blog' - you naturally want to give yourself an edge and employ marketing techniques that are unique, powerful and not too time consuming. Maybe take some time off Google optimization for a few hours and put some effort into growing your Facebook network and direction - if you haven't already.
If anyone has some good unique ideas the are employing with Facebook, feel free to reply below - any quality examples will receive a free back-link from me.
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