Retargeting is the process of serving ads to a visitor after they have left the advertiser’s site. This means that the ad agency serving ads on behalf of the company is able to track visitors as they move around to other sites, and push the same ad in front of them again.

This is important because any online seller is only able to capture 2% of first-time visitors.

The other 98% move on to other sites and sellers. Retargeting gives a seller an opportunity to put targeted ads in front of this other 98%.

The way it works is that the ad serving agency puts a cookie into the browser when a visitor first enters the seller’s site.

Now, when the visitor opens up another publisher’s site or blog that is also being served ads by the same ad network, the visitor will see ads from the seller visited previously.

Note that retargeting is smart enough to filter out the 2% of visitors who have already purchased the company’s product. So it only targets (retargets) the other 98% that have shown an interest but not made a purchase yet.

Also, the kind of ad shown to retargeted customers depends on the type of product. For example, a visitor who just left a travel site has to be retargeted immediately because those doing travel research will likely buy a travel product very soon. On the other hand, a luxury item buyer can be given some time and then retargeted, which often works better.

How is this useful to the blogger? Well, for starters, the visitor is known to be interested in the product and company behind the ad being retargeted. This means there is a greater chance for a click-thru and/or conversion than an ordinary visitor. So the blog revenue and conversion ratios from retargeted ads are much higher than ordinary ads.

The second important question is how does a blogger get or activate these retargeted ads? It is mostly just a question of providing enough space for all the major ad networks on your blog. Also make sure to enable both image and text ads for each ad network.

So, if you have a blog and are serving ads using Adsense and a few other networks like Adroll and Kontera, then the retargeting from these networks may already be enabled automatically. They may have an opt-out option for those who do not want to participate in retargeting visitors.

But note that retargeting can boost blog revenues from each network by about 20%, so as a rule very few bloggers will disable retargeting.

Knowing when to take a rest was a really hard lesson for me to learn.

Knowing when and how often to post is also a hard lesson.

The good and bad of blogging is that the more you do it the more and better results you get for your efforts. Read = you get more traffic.

Of course, that means you can fall into the temptation of more, more, more!

I did.

The Blogger's Sabbath Day

At one point I was writing 15-20 articles a day, every day. Every every day. Day after day after day. Month after month after month. While also teaching a double full-time load online and teaching in the physical classroom as well.

And I noticed, that the more I wrote, the more and better results I got. So, I wrote more and more. Addictive to say the least. Compelling. Not to mention physically exhausting. But still I did it.

When I was desperate for a day off – to attend a swim meet, or a concert by my sons, I wrote double the day before or after but still got online to do the social bookmarking thing as necessary. It was hard.

Then one day while attending worship services (I am a Christian so you will ALWAYS find me in a worship service on Sundays – then working before or after), the preacher said something in his sermon that hit me hard.

“You know. You can do more work in 6 days than you can in 7. Give God his due.”

Ouch! But from the very next week, I resolved to take 24 consecutive hours off at least one day each week. And I did. And, and … things got even better!

Sure as shooting, spending less time, I could get more done. What do you know?

So, here’s my question – When is your day off from blogging? And how do you spend that time?

Want to make money online? Start by reading this series – How to Blog for Money and Traffic.

This guest post is by Brant Carrion

The thing about a blog is that it has a personality, style and focus on specific topics given to it by the author that attracts a certain kind of audience. Those wondering whether and how to outsource your blog should first understand that it is important for the blog to retain its personality.

The lack of personality and a consistent opinion is why 60 to 80 percent of new blogs end up abandoned within the first month.

In three months, 95 percent of all newly launched blogs are orphans floating on the net.

Does this mean that only the author can write posts and it cannot be outsourced? Not by a long shot, because some of the most successful blogs are those that have managed to grow up adding more authors.

When the audience grows beyond a certain point, it becomes difficult for a single author to manage expectations and do all the work required to keep a blog updated.

Outsourcing can take care of key blog management issues, including design, SEO, comment moderation and responses, and platform updates or plug-in management. It is quite easy to find separate freelancers or contractors to handle each of these tasks at a very low rate. Some, like design and SEO, can be limited to a one-time fixed rate.

A developer can be hired on a monthly rate to handle administration tasks, including blog platform updates and migration to a new content management system, if required. These are all aspects that will not affect the blog’s main content, writing style or focus on specific topics.

You can place an ad on classified sites like Craigslist, or post your requirement on a talent marketplace like ezdia.com etc.  The reverse bidding process in these marketplaces brings down the rate you have to pay as a buyer of services.

Most of the functions and time spent on a blog can be outsourced in this way, freeing up the author’s time for content creation. If required, even post creation and publishing can be outsourced. But care has to be taken to match the provider’s talent and writing style with the author’s own style.

Take your time and find a writer willing to blog on your behalf at a low base rate. There are many such “pro-bloggers” who offer their blogging talent for hire. The important thing is to go through all the applications and ask for writing samples. Do not hire anyone unless you find a ghost blogger who can whip up posts you’d be proud to call your own.

Of course, outsourcing content creation is easier with blogs that focus on breaking news, product reviews, trend analysis and niche-specific blogs that provide how-to type posts and tips. Readers tend to focus on the subject matter rather than the writing style, and any change in style and tone when outsourced posts are published goes unnoticed.

• • This is an exchange with one of the members of TheTrafficProfessor that I thought worth sharing (with minor editing). It will definitely save you time (if you are doing your own writing) and money (if you’re outsourcing content).

    It answers one of the most basic and important questions a blogger will ask.

    What is the optimal length for a blog post?

    ————-

    

    December 22, 2011

    Sue Anderson LaPointe

    • Hi Bill
      Hope you’re doing great, and getting ready for a wonderful Christmas.

    Got into a bit of a blogging conversation/debate and was telling another writer about how much I’d changed my blogging process since your course. He’s got a mentor ….., who’s swearing by 2000 word posts, which seems nuts to me.

    I told him about your idea of frequency, and he replied: “If Bill Belew built his sites in 2005+ era, that strategy would have worked. And now that his sites are *already* authority sites from before, it doesn’t matter what he posts because it’s already an authority site. But he’s mistakenly projecting past Google conditions onto today. A new site won’t rank with that same strategy that way have worked even just 5 years ago. So the question is, did Bill Belew start these sites back then or did he start them very recently?”

    I think your sites are more recent, but didn’t want to answer incorrectly. Also, figured that might be a great question to answer on your blog! and in the marketing.

    Hugs and all warm wishes -
    Sue

• 

  December 22, 2011

  Bill Belew

  • I started back in 2006. Still…2000-word posts are great but they are not for Search Engines. Ask yourself how many times you have searched for something and found it in the 400th or 1000th or 2000th word section of an article. Doesn’t happen. SEO = a balance between what appeals to a real person and what appeals to a search engine. 2000 word articles don’t have much appeal to readers either. Invariably when you do a search, find the link you want and click on it, the very next think you do is scroll down to find out how long the article is…if it is too long, you go away, right? This is called Bounce. And the higher the bounce rate, the worse the SE findability. The ideal length for a blog post is something that will fit above one click of the scroll. Make sense?

• 

  December 22, 2011

  Mike Maunu

  • In addition, not all the blogs were started then and many of Bill’s students only started in the last 18 months and they are getting the same results based on the lower word count.

• 

  December 22, 2011

  Sue Anderson LaPointe

  • THAT is fantastic news, then… because I’m getting totally hooked on these little 200 worders  Totally makes sense for readability – If I want to read 2000 words on something, would rather read 10 posts on it than one post. I’m in the process of creating blogging packages for my writing clients based on this and was SO hoping/then glad to find 200 words will get it done!
    Thank you guys for getting back to me so fast.
    HUGS!
    Sue

• 

  December 22, 2011

  Bill Belew

  • 200-300 words will suffice. Each blog posts generally answers one question. It never takes 2000 words to answer a question unless you are a preacher…. 

• 

  December 22, 2011

  Sue Anderson LaPointe

  • Lol. True that!!!!! I’m loving how much easier it is to blog like this. It’s actually getting done rather than languishing months between posts!!!

    ———

I am a Christian and totally unashamed of the fact. I do not welcome controversy but sometimes it finds me. And, I will not shy away when it comes to defending my faith. That’s not the point of this post, however.

I wrote an article – The ABCs of Evolution.

Wilby reciting the ABCs of Evolution

And, oh my goodness, the atheists came out of the woodwork. Traffic for the post zoomed and with that income as well.

The atheists (they hate me. This puzzles me because I do NOT hate them. I just think they are wrong about a few things.)

Many people commented at the above post – I reckon they were atheists because of the content of the comments. They then posted a link in “we hate fundies” and “Christians are do dos” and other such sites. So much so that those people came to yell at me, too! They even blamed my (more…)

This guest post is by Denelle Garcia

There really is no way to fully monetize a blog without using Adsense. But, the really tricky part is maximizing revenue from Adsense. It needs a lot of experimentation and tracking of the results to find out what works and what doesn’t.

There are more than 2 million publishers who get paid by Google’s Adsense program. It’s so popular because publishers get a higher CPC (cost per click) from Google than on other ad networks.

Google earns 28% of its total revenue through Google Adsense

Advertisers flock to Google because of the heavy traffic volumes and ROI, and Google itself earns 28 percent (nearly $10 billion) of its total revenue through Adsense.

Publishers still need to experiment with the adsense code, create channels for different ads or blogs, and find out what types of ad formats works best. There are six basic aspects or ways that need to be tested and tracked.

The first is the ad position, since the best place to put the ad code will change based on the type of template and the widgets used. As a general rule, ads surrounded by content tend to do well. Ads placed at the end of each blog post also attract more clicks because the reader needs something to do.

More ads won’t always bring in more revenue, in case you’re wondering why ads can’t be placed in every possible slot. The number of ads is also an important aspect that needs experimentation. There will be a point at which putting in more ads actually reduces clicks because users start getting turned off by all the ads.

The design of the ads also needs testing, because the natural tendency for most bloggers is to make the ad blend in with the content on the blog’s design template. But, it’s also important to focus attention on the ads by changing colors, fonts and font size to find out which ones attract clicks but don’t spoil the look and feel of the blog.

The ad size has to be tested since Google offers plenty of options, from the 336×280 large rectangle to the 160×600 wide skyscraper. As a rule, wider ads tend to work better because readers can take in the entire ad without having to read from left to right and move down to the next line many times.

The performance of ad formats is another thing that varies from blog to blog. It’s not necessary to stick only to text or image banner ads. Thin and streamlined link units sometimes work better because they can be squeezed into small empty spaces and surrounded by content. Many bloggers also earn extra revenue from referrals, Adsense for search, feeds, etc.

Use the channels that can be created in the Adsense control panel for serving different ad types to visitors on different blogs. This allows bloggers to figure out which ads in what position work best on which blog.

This is the first of I don’t know many blog posts I will write to tell readers what I know about how to blog for money.

Controversy is Good for Traffic and Income at Blogs

I have been blogging for money (I will explain what I mean by this in a moment) for almost 5 years.

I consider myself a professional blogger. By that I mean I pay my sizable Silicon Valley mortgage through income earned from blogging.

The resourceful reader can easily enough look up my address and go to Zillow or some other such site to find out how much I owe (more…)

This guest post is by Alicia Stuarts

Nowadays, we can see the incidence of people revealing their monthly or weekly income earned through their blogs. When we consider making money online as a business, it is essential that we should consider all the expenses spent for earning a specific amount through blogging. Even though there are free ways of making money through blogging most of the people are not following the route.

Sharing income without expenses – Is it a false statement?

If you are a person thinking of ways to make money online and you are coming across a blog saying that they are making a certain amount of dollars each month, or they list among the Top 10 Earning blogs, this statement makes it seem super easy, right? However, the fact is that many people are attracted into starting up blogs with the anticipation that they can start earning money right away and finally they get discouraged to find that they are spending more than what they are making through their blog.

Expenses to be considered when calculating income from blogging:

Blogs dont make money, Businesses makes money

Now, let us consider that you have started to earn some income from your blog, you have succeeded to some extent and learned how to blog for traffic and you are trying to develop your online reputation. However, you might be having a doubt as to what are the expenses to be considered when calculating the actual income earned from blogging.

Here are the lists of expenses to be considered:

1. Domain name and web hosting expenses
2. Website themes and templates
3. Education expenses for learning about some techniques in making money through blogging
4. Networking
5. The SEO expenses of your blog that will drive the actual traffic

Of these services, even though website themes and templates are being offered free of cost, the functionality and design of custom-made themes would be more better as compared to free themes and templates.

Then, how about networking? if you want to develop your reputation online, it helps to make some associations offline at seminars, conferences and other major events in such a way that your audience and customer base can attend and these might cost you more particularly when you will have to travel.

Therefore, consider the aforesaid expenses and prepare a true income statement from your blogging and if you are really satisfied, you can continue to enjoy your business of making money online!!!

This is a guest post by Mark Franco

Adsense program by Google is one of the widely used online tool to make money trough advertisement. These are scores of users who have made thousands of Dollars and at the same time, there are others who are yet to earn anything from it.

For getting more insights, read Revenue Shares for Adsense for Content & Adsense for Search.

Adsense still is a very powerful tool for someone who is new to the world of making money online.

Here are a few tips for both first time as well as old bloggers to make money with Adsense.

1. Ignore keywords that promise you big bucks: Overall evaluation says that advertisements that promise 3$ per click for 4 times a day make less money than Advertisements that give 0.20 $, but get 100s of clicks every day. Don’t go for the Gold rush. Have patience and work systematically.
   

   Websites like Weblogs Inc increased their Blog Ad Revenue from $200 to $3000 a day.

2. More the Content, the better it is: Though the doors of Google are open to all, Google is highly partial to websites that have lots of content in them. SO go for sites with 4 different categories rather than going for 4 sites with 5 pages each.
3. Strike a balance between Ad’s and content: Don’t put only the advertisements on your website. Allow sufficient place for the content as well. Experts say that nearly 70 percent of the space should be given for the content. The remainder of the space is sufficient for placing more advertisements.
4. Place your advertisements smartly: Experts believe that link Ads should be placed near the navigation menu of the website and block ads should be placed near the content. Vertical ads should be used near side bar and short ads should be placed near the space for comments and feedback. Learn more by reading 4 keys to good Adsense placement on your blog. 
5. Test Google Algorithm: Many users test Google Algorithm and exploit it to attract more subscribers. However it is only a temporary solution as Google is frequently changing its basic Algorithm. In one of his previous posts, Bill has mentioned that 75% of the blogs are abandoned by Google after 3 months.
6. Search Engine Optimization: One can also take help of Search Engine Optimization and make a keyword based effort to increase traffic.  Continuously optimize your website with newer and fresher content.

The above tips and tricks are time tested and should help new bloggers to increase more traffic and monetize their website.