Also, I should probably say, “Hi” again and reintroduce myself, since it’s been about 10 million years since I posted here. I’m guessing the tens of three rabid fans that would tireless refresh this site, waiting in anticipation for my next post have probably moved on. If not: Glad to have you back. If you’re new: “Hi, I’m Lee, pleasure to meet you.”

My InfoBarrel Backlink Experiment

In case you missed all the media coverage, I recently dedicated 10 weeks of my life to outsourcing backlinks to an InfoBarrel article (what are backlinks?). I’m about half way through the ‘run,’ and am actually seeing some decent movement in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Why am I running this experiment? Because I’m a glutton for punishment and wanted to publicly subject myself to your ridicule. But also because I wanted to see if I could rank an InfoBarrel article for a couple of fairly competitive keyword phrases. And if I crack the first page, I’m guessing I’ll make a decent chunk of income, too.

I went into plenty of detail of this experiment here: Outsourcing Backlinks To InfoBarrel Articles: A 10 Week Experiment. Feel free to check it out.

Here’s the plan in a nutshell:

Week 1: Submit a press release to several press release sites. I even splurged an extra $5 for a freelancer to write the press release itself.

Week 2: Edu and Gov links.

Week 3: Social Bookmarks.

Week 4: Mass Article Distribution. I found a guy who used Unique Article Wizard, and set the articles to publish at a rate of about 50 per day.

Week 5: Directory Submissions.

Week 6: Social Media. Twitter and Facebook blasts never hurt anybody, except Myspace.

Week 7: Link Pyramid.

Week 8: Forum Profiles.

Week 9: Blog Comments.

Week 10: Web 2.0s. Other articles and such.

As of the time I’m writing this article, I’m about half way through. Last week I outsourced the directory submissions (week 5) and tomorrow I’ll find someone willing to blast my article’s URL to their Twitter, Facebook and whatever other social media accounts they have (week 6).

Why InfoBarrel?

Because I like it. How’s that for an answer?

Actually, I’ve been writing articles off-and-on over there for more than a year now, and actually really like it. I never thought I’d be happy writing for a shared revenue site instead of my own, but it actually offers several advantages. Maybe I’ll write up an entire post about it in the near future.

But my real motivation for trying this experiment was to see how far I could push an article that wasn’t on one of my own sites. Crazy? Perhaps. But I like experiments, remember?

If you’re interested in learning more about InfoBarrel and it’s shared-revenue system, I’d encourage you to head over and check it out.

If you decide to sign up, I’ll get a referral credit if you follow this link (which won’t affect your income at all).

Or you can go the non-referral route here.

You know what I hate about article marketing? The crazy amount of articles you’ll write until you strike gold with just one awesome article.

Article Marketing, for those of you who don’t know, is a really simple system.

Here’s how it works:

1. You write an original article (or have it outsourced).
2. You submit it to an online article directory.
3. When approved, people find your article.
4. People smile because your article rocks so darned hard.
5. These people click through your resource link(s) and come to your site.
6. Other people love your article so much they they publish it as-is on their own site, complete with your active links.
7. More people find your article on these sites, then click through to your site.
8. You smile because your article rocks so darned hard.
9. You also smile because your links are peppered throughout the Internet, giving your site some serious link love and, hopefully, a huge boost in the Search Engines.

It Seems So Easy…

Article marketing isn’t difficult. At least in theory. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a best-selling author to write up a couple hundred words, add a few hyper links to another site and then submit it to one or several article directories.

The reality: Creating that “magic” awesome article takes experience, skill and luck.

I’ve written plenty of articles in my time, and in the process I’ve learned quite a few little tricks I’d like to pass along to ya’ll. I’m not saying these are the end-all, be-all strategies for total article marketing domination (I’ll leave that claim to the big gurus who don’t even write their own articles), but they’ve helped me out tremendously as of recently.

Article Marketing Strategy #1: Write Clever Articles And Title

Don’t hang yourself up trying to create the next “War And Peace,” but you’ll need something captivating enough to entice readers to click your links. What would you do if you came across an ill-written article? Click the back button, right? That’s what the readers will do as well. And if people won’t read it, they won’t click your links.

Article Marketing Strategy #2: Don’t Stress Over Keywords

Yes keywords are important. Yes they can make a huge difference. Yes proper keyword research will help. But what it won’t do is actually get your articles written. I’d rather write three articles than slave over keyword statistics. Besides, after you’ve written a few, you’ll get a sixth sense for what’ll go over well and what won’t. I’d recommend getting out there, writing 10 or 20, check the statistics, then evaluating the commonalities of the best-performing ones rather than getting hung up on proper keyword analysis.

Article Marketing Strategy #3: Write Lots Of Articles

That’s write (get it? Little play on words there). Get out there and write. In my experiences, only by putting up a metric ass-ton of articles will you start getting some loverly traffic and backlink PR boosts. Unless you get lucky and score an amazing performing article on your first try (roughly the equivalent of Democrats and Republicans telling each other they are right), your real advantage is in sheer quantity.

Article Marketing Strategy #4: Focus The Best Performing Article Directories

You’ve no doubt noticed the hundreds – maybe thousands – of article directories out there, and you’ve likely read about why it’s important to send stuff to each and every one of them. In my experiences, this doesn’t do any good. I stick with two:

Ezine Articles. The search engines LOVE Ezine, and they almost exclusively out perform every other directory on the Net. That means your backlinks are heavier-weighted, and because more people find them, the traffic value is much higher.

InfoBarrel. I like InfoBarrel because, unlike most directories, they’ll share the profits they make from your hard work. Every directory monetizes its articles (you are effectively free labor in that sense), but very few share the profits. InfoBarrel actually inserts your Google Adsense code into 75% to 90% of your articles. Pretty cool, eh? Why not get paid for creating your own backlinks?

Article Marketing Strategy #5: Track Your Performance

Don’t just keep track of how many views your articles get, but also the Click-Through-Rate (CTR). You’ll probably hear plenty of people arguing about which of the two is actually more important, but I like them both. Ideally, if you can figure out what your most read articles get read, and why your highest CTR articles get the highest CTR, then combine their powers, you’re set.

Article Marketing Strategy #6: Build Backlinks To Your Best Articles

When, through utilizing my 5th strategy, you notice some great-performing articles, why not give them a little link love and help them help you? Build backlinks to articles the same way you would any other web page. Heck, you could even write articles to support other articles. Since Ezine and InfoBarrel give you two self-serving links, why not link to your “money” site AND one of your awesome articles? It’s worked for me on several occasions…

In Conclusion…

Go out there and start writing. You don’t even need to use your real name, if that’s an issue. Almost every directory allows pen names, if that’s your major hang up, which means you can hone your article writing chops without worry.

I’m sure many of ya’ll have some great success stories with article marketing, I’d love to hear them.

Why “Mayday?” Because it happened in May. And probably also because Internet Marketers by the thousands watched in horror as their thin, janky, horrible sites fell completely out of the Search Engine Results (SERPs), thus costing them untold millions.

Google Cracks Down On Crappy Sites

It seems as though the math wizards at the Google corporate offices finally grew tired of people trying to game the system for their own personal (usually monetary) advantage. Previously, it was almost so simple to land in premium SERP spots that many of the actual quality sites were being squeezed out by these little micro sites that really didn’t provide any information other than half-assed, rewritten spam.

I can’t say as I blame the company at all. Google is, after all, a business. And its business model relies entirely on people using its search engine. If that engine doesn’t provide the searcher what he or she wants, that person could go somewhere else, such as Yahoo or MSN (Bing). And if that happens, the advertisers will bail too, as there’s no point in throwing ads in front of a small, insignificant audience.

And as a person who uses the Net for things other than making money, I’m stoked that I can actually start getting real information again, not a bunch of spun PLR articles or autoblog crap.

Internet Marketers = Crybabies

If there’s one thing I’m sick of reading about in the forums and even on some of the big name SEO blogs it’s the complaining. These folks are upset because the dungeon master decided not to allow cheating any more. Okay, perhaps “Cheating” is a bit harsh, but the point is that the little tips and tricks that allowed Internet Marketers to sidestep the natural SEO process stopped working.

And they’re sad.

My advice: Don’t cry about it, go out there and figure something out! I’ve always been a big advocate of authority sites over the little Adsense sites (though admittedly, I had a handful of the latter that did bring in a decent amount of change every month), and it seems that Mayday proves that Google is, too.

So instead of bawling about how the system isn’t working for them anymore, they should be out trying to figure out what does work. Test different ideas, try new strategies… but for God’s sake either learn to roll with the punches or get out of the ring.

Holy cow, I’m getting a bit worked up. Breath… Breath… All better!

Collateral Damage

Anytime a search engine institutes a major change, as was the case with Mayday, there’s bound to be some innocent bystander sites that get the raw end of the deal. I’ve had a couple of those. Granted they’re not booted entirely out of the SERPs (deindexed), but they did take a big hit. And these are sites that have lots and lots of quality, well-written original pages/posts.

And I’ve got some that actually improved in the rankings.

When you drop an atomic bomb on the SEO system, you’re bound to get a bunch of innocent bystanders caught up in the action, too. Like some of my sites. But I’m pretty convinced that as long as I keep working on them, they’ll re-emerge as the Big G realizes the error. Hopefully. But if not, I suppose it was a small price to pay for a much more effective Internet experience.

What Do You Think?

Has Mayday affected your bottom line? Are you stoked/upset about the recent changes? You’ve heard my take, but I’d love to hear how you feel.

Before I get started on this rant, let me point out a few things I’ve learned over the past few days:

1. Always Back Up Your Data. You never know when your unfathomably-expensive laptop (you know the one you paid extra for so it would last longer… wait… I said I’d get to the rant later… sorry) might crap out on you like a bad light bulb.

2. Apple computers are stupid expensive. They don’t just cost more on the front end, each little piece of hardware costs roughly 4 million times more than a PC counterpart.

3. Never buy a Macbook Pro off Apple’s refurbished list. I’ve had more problems with this machine than BP has had in the Gulf Coast.

Now that I’ve got the moral of this story out of the way, allow me to explain…

The Apple ‘Clique’

Yes, I have an Apple, just in case you haven’t already inferred that. I bought it a little more than a year ago, primarily because ‘they’ say that Apples handle multimedia applications better than PCs. And I’m a decently active musician and aspiring film guy, so it made sense to shell out the extra cost for a machine that supposedly handled these tasks with ease.

Let me reiterate: I didn’t purchase my Mac to be part of the Cool Kids Club. Those goofy “I’m a Mac, You’re a PC, and my film career has taken off while nobody knows who the heck you are” commercials had no influence on my decision. None.

But sure enough, the instant my computer came in the mail, I was inundated with the Cool Mac Kids asking me “How you like that Mac, bro?” and “Once you go Mac, you’ll never go back.” Fed up, I’d ask these guys “So, you must run some pretty intensive multimedia applications?” They’d say, “Nope.”

Long story short, people love spending three times the money for something they only intent to use for Internet Surfing and Microsoft Word. And when it comes to these applications, Mac doesn’t do them any better than PC. Different, yes. Better, not necessarily.

There’s a term in the financial circles for people like these: Dumbass. Actually, that word is in every circle. And square and triangle.

If It’s So Great, Why Doesn’t It Work?

First thing I noticed with this computer was that the keyboard and mouse would freeze up randomly. Sometimes it would happen five times per day, other times only once every few weeks. I called (harassed) the Apple Care folks nonstop, but every time I took it in, it acted fine – like taking your car to the mechanic, it runs fine. And because they couldn’t reproduce the problem, they couldn’t fix anything.

But this machine was a nuisance. I eventually stopped trying to record music and edit video on it because it would freeze up. And to recap, the whole reason I spent way more than I should have in the first place was because I wanted to put together some music and video. See where I’m going with this… ?

Eventually, with only two weeks left on the warranty I plead with the local Apple guys to do something before the Apple Care Plan expired. They begrudgingly replaced the “Top Case.” I don’t know what the heck that is, but my computer hasn’t frozen up since, so I’m thankful. On the other hand, it did take almost a year to get it fixed… Argh.

Which brings me to  the whole point of this post:

An $80 Power Cable? You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me

Yup, my power/charger cord died. Which meant I only had sporadic Internet access for the past few days. I tried a couple “tricks” like cleaning the terminals with rubbing alcohol, blowing in it (like the old Nintendo games) and swearing. But it was shot. So yesterday I popped into my favorite place in the whole world (that’s sarcasm, just in case it didin’t translate) – the Apple Shop – to buy a new cable.

I knew it wasn’t going to be cheap. Nothing with that goofy little Apple-With-A-Bite-On-It logo is, but I never would have guessed it’d clock in at darn near $100 bucks. Eight bucks plus sales tax. Wow. Versus the last PC power cable I replaced for $30 – and even then it felt like I was paying more than I was getting.

But That’s Not All

The tech guy thinks my battery is failing, which is why my power cable burned up in the first place. And what’s even better, he says I might as well count on my hard drive failing within the year. A battery is $130. I don’t even want to know what a hard drive costs, or how much they’ll charge me for the labor of installing it.

Back Up Your Data

That’s what I’ll be doing over the next few days, backing up everything I’ve got onto an external hard disk. I don’t know when this thing is going to crap out for good, but I don’t want to get caught with my pants down. Again.

What Are Your Thoughts?

I’m sure I’ll take a lot of heat for this post, as the Apple Cool Kid Club is pretty hardcore, but my experience has sucked from day one.

Do any of you guys run Macs? How do you like them? Have you had similar problems, or was I lucky enough to get a lemon?

Or maybe you’re a PC person? Regardless, I’d love to hear your thoughts on computers crapping out at the most inconvenient times.

Think AC/DC rocks? Wait till you read these blogs...

Have you ever watched that crazy TV show about flipping houses? Where people buy or build properties for less than their market value, then sell them for what seems like enough money to fund the world’s major oil companies for a decade? Did you know that many people make huge livings doing the same thing… with Web Domains?

This week’s Rockstar Blog tells you everything you’ll ever need to know, and then some.

(For those of you who are new, at the end of every week (or two) I dedicate a post here on Search Engine Viking to something amazingly awesome that I’ve found on the net – it’s my Weekly Rockstar Blog Series.)

Without further ado…

FlipWebsites.com

Ran by a killer cat with a great mug shot, Travis Van Slooten, FlipWebsites.com is dedicated entire to the process of… wait for it… Flipping Websites (bet you didn’t see that one coming, did you?).

I’ll be perfectly honest: I’ve never bought or sold a website in my entire life. I buy brand new domains frequently and then build them up into full-functioning websites, what most would consider “starting from scratch;” but I’ve never bought a website/domain that someone else has already owned. So my personal experience in the flipping process is limited to that of mosquito.

What I really like about Travis’s site is that he says upfront that he’s not a full-time flipper. He’s just an “Average Joe” Internet marketer who focuses on affiliate sales; he only dabbles in flipping when, as he says:

“I primarily only BUILD and then sell websites. And when I sell them, I only do so after I’ve made money from them for at least six months. Even then I will only sell them if I’m bored with them or I just don’t have the time to dedicate to them – or I need an infusion of cash.”

Why do I think this is so great? Because he’s not some so-called “guru” trying to make himself sound like an authority. Sure he knows a heck of a lot more than I do when it comes to site flipping, but he never professes to have Ph.D. in the stuff. He knows quite a bit because he’s gone out and done it (not all “gurus” have done that, just keep that in mind); he’s figured out what works well, what doesn’t, and is constantly learning – and subsequently passing his results on to his readership.

What Caught My Attention

Honestly, I wasn’t searching for a site flipping blog when I ran across Travis’s gem. Instead I was surfing through my usual favorite bloggers’ newest posts and found several shout outs to an interview Travis recently conducted with a guy named Cary Bergeron, who makes more money with Adsense in a day than most Fortune 500 CEOs make in a lifetime… well, at least the part of their lifetime before they go to jail for embezzling.

It’s a pretty sweet interview, you can check it out here: How To Make Money With Google Adsense.

His Free Guide

Travis offers a free guide on flipping websites, which I honestly have yet to download. But if you have, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

My view last week

A funny thing happened to me about 10 days ago: I went on a vacation and turned my brain off.

Did I intend to do so? Not really. Did I have every intention of firing up my laptop to continue working feverishly? Absolutely. Did I actually do that? Nope. Do I feel guilty. Not at all.

For those of you keeping score at home (and I noticed a few of you were, which is really cool!), I’ve been gone for about a week and a half. Ventured on down to Southern California to enjoy the beach, the weather, Disneyland and a crowded commuter plane with a broken air conditioner. It was a GREAT trip, and part of the reason it was so awesome was because I stayed away from my computer.

Why You Need An Occasional Vacation

I could go into an academic tirade about the benefits of shutting your brain down every once in a while and reconnecting with the inner self, but that would require way more descriptive adjectives than I’m willing to write. So instead, I’ll sum it up with a little metaphor:

Remember cramming for college exams? The coffee, the Red Bull… whatever you could do to keep your eyes open and the information pouring in. That’s what I realized I had been doing with my Internet Domination strategy for quite some time. I had been focusing so much on hard work that I lost sight of darn near everything else. Honestly, I can’t even remember the last time I’d gone out and sat in the back yard during an exceptionally nice day. Just sat. Not thinking, not evaluating, not contemplating new Internet schemes.

And what made matters worse was, just like cramming for a big test, I wasn’t operating at peak condition. Kind of like a high performance race car sputtering and wheezing because of bad spark plugs.

I literally forced myself NOT to jump online. It was hard for a day or two, but after that it felt great. It was like the world was lifted off my shoulders… almost like I was on a vacation or something.

The result: I’m more energized, more focused and more determined than ever. And now that I’m refreshed, I’m already noticing increased productivity on my end. Not that I’m working harder, it’s just that I’ve got a fresh set of spark plugs, so I’m operating more efficiently and getting five times as much accomplished in the same amount of time with, from what it feels like, no difference in the amount of effort I’m putting into it.

Technically I did get online twice. Once to check the local movie times, and once to check on an acting gig I had been waiting on. And while online I perused my comments and replied to a few of them. But nothing super crazy. No 2,500-word posts, no new websites, no popping in on forums.

Have You Noticed This?

My vacation rocked. I loved it. And looking back on it I love that I stayed offline as much as possible.

But have you noticed the same effect? Do you force yourself to take a ‘recharge’ break every once in a while and let the laptop – and your brain -  cool down? Do you have any great stories about it? I’d love to hear them; it’d make great motivation, as I’m a workaholic when it comes to my Internets, and your stories might be what I need to make vacations a regular part of my strategy, rather than a once-every-three-years (don’t laugh, it’s really been three years since my last vacation) foray.

A good blogger friend of mine, Alex Whalley, needs your help. Well, actually his mother needs your help; and when a mother is in need of assistance, you can bet your bottom bootstraps that a good son (I’m assuming Alex qualifies, he seems like a decent chap) will come running to the rescue.

Who Is Alex’s Mom & How You Can Help.

Her name is Wendy Whalley, and she’s working her ass off trying to get a new business off the ground after getting the surprise layoff following years and years of faithful employment. Unlike most folks who lose their jobs, Wendy isn’t laying around moping and feeling sorry for herself; instead she’s going toe-to-toe with the corporate world and saying “You want a piece of me?”

Translation: She’s starting her own business.

Actually, she’s doing some preliminary marketing to determine the viability of starting her own business. And that’s where you can help. She’s put together a very short questionnaire, and it only takes 30 seconds to fill out. I know because I just downloaded it (it’s in Word format), filled it out and mailed it back in – all in less time than it normally takes me to take a leak.

Go check out Alex’s post HERE and help her get started!

(FYI: This isn’t some weird affiliate scam I’m pulling, I’m getting absolutely nothing in return for this other than the warm, fuzzy feeling of helping out).

I love my mother. Not only is she the person who brought me into this world, but she’s also the single greatest human being ever to walk the planet. Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Lincoln, Axl Rose… wimp stuff compared to my own mom. I’d do pretty much anything for her, and chances are you’d do the same for yours. So let’s band together and give Alex’s “mum” the support you’d want for your own mother!

This list is an ongoing list of blogs that don’t use the “NoFollow” code in their comment forms, which means you can get some serious SEO/backlinking benefits simply by leaving your own comments and entering your URL into the form.

What Is “DoFollow”?

There’s an ongoing semantics debate regarding the term “DoFollow” as it relates to blogs, primarily because there is no DoFollow code, only NoFollow – hence, the lack of NoFollow tags has given rise to the term “DoFollow.”

Confused yet?

Don’t worry about it. All you need to know is this: The sites included on this list don’t use the NoFollow tags, and therefore offer a huge advantage when it comes to boosting your site’s reputation with Google. And a better reputation with Google is like a better reputation with the world’s biggest mafia kingpin – Google will take care of you, put you higher up in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), make you happy, not let rival families fit you with cement shoes, strong-arm your enemies… maybe I’m getting too carried away with this simile.

Make This List Work For You

Building backlinks (check out What Are Backlinks? for more info) is a fundamental goal for anyone trying to dominate the Internet. In the simplest terms, the more backlinks you have from reputable sites (that are related to your site), the better.

I implore you to browse this list, find a couple of blogs that relate to your own, visit the site, READ through the posts, leave some insightful comments (with your URL entered into the form) and then visit again regularly. Worst case scenario, you get a couple of great links back to your site; best case scenario, you find a couple of gems that you really love, and become a part of their community.

There is no downside.

Please Don’t Spam

Want to make instant enemies with a blogger? Leave a bunch of “spam” comments (I’ve struggled with this myself, hence my Blog Commenting Policy). Spam sucks. Big time. Nothing is worse than sifting through hundreds of alien-language dribble pointing back to sites selling discounted Viagra, or those annoying “This blog is great, keep posting” canned responses.

If you really want to get the most mileage out of your Blog Commenting efforts, I strongly recommend you follow these simple steps:

1. Read the entire post.
2. Leave comments that PROVE you read the post (reference one of the blogger’s points, for example).
3. Check back from time to time and respond to any replies to your comments.
4. Be nice.

More Than Just Backlinks

Building backlinks is a great strategy, but it’s only one aspect of leaving comments on other people’s blogs. There are a whole crap-ton of good reasons, but instead of going into them all, I’ll just suggest you check out my post Why Blog Commenting Rocks.

The DoFollow Blog List

Remember, this list is ongoing, meaning I’ll be adding more as I find them, so check back often.

Alex Whalley: Keyword and Niche Site Marketing Blogger.

Brandon Connell: Make Money Blogging.

I Gotta Think: Vacation Spots.

Mike Roosa: An Internet Marketer.

Mr. Definite: Tips on Making Money Online.

Nine95: Building a Profitable Online Business.

Scott Barron Online: Website and Blogging for Beginners.

The Wax Blog: PR, Marketing and Social Media.

Winesworld’s Blog: All about Wine.

Want More Links?

I know this list seems small now, but quite frankly, I didn’t have much time to put it together. That’s where you come in…

Know of a great blog that doesn’t use the “NoFollow” tags in its comment section? Let me know and I’ll include it in this list.

Maybe YOUR blog qualifies? I’ll be glad to include it here, provided it’s not an automated junk “splog” (spam + blog = splog).

Think AC/DC rocks? Wait till you read these blogs...

And today is certainly no exception, as I’ve rounded up a serious GEM. It’s got everything you could possibly ask for: Killer Content, Awesome Design, Valuable Free Information and, perhaps best of all, an Attractive Gal Running The Show.

(Note to my girlfriend: that last bit was a joke… Mostly.)

Also, before I launch right into it, I wanted to give yet another crazy awesome shout out to Moon from ExperimentsInPassiveIncome.com, as it was her post (read it HERE) that first acquainted me with this week’s winner. If you haven’t read her blog yet, you should. And then you should give her some awesome Backlink love like I just did, because she deserves it.

Drum roll please…

Erica.biz

Why is Erica Douglass (who runs the blog, just in case you missed the blog title reference) so darned cool? Let me count the ways:

1. She sold her first online business for $1.1 million!… at age 26.
2. She made nearly $4,800 through her blog alone in March, 2010.
3. She gives away one of the best free informational PDFs I’ve seen in a long, long time.
4. She has thousands of RSS subscribers.
5. She has an Alexa rating of 53,693 (compared to my most recent 1.2 million).

The list could go on forever… well, at least for another couple of bullet points – I did only “meet” her about an hour ago after all.

But the point is that she has a really cool blog. It’s chalk full of great information, and it’s always nice to hear advice from someone who has actually been there; someone who is actually walking the walk, so to speak.

I’d also highly recommend downloading her free PDF “Blog Success Manifesto.” She’s got some killer ideas that I hadn’t even thought of, and I’m sure that even the most seasoned blogger could get something useful out of it.

If you don’t read any other post on Erica.biz, read this one: How To Make Money Blogging.

Then thank me later.

If you’re unsure what I’m even talking about, check out Three Dollars Per Day Adsense Challenge: Intro.

A Strategy In Place

I’m about as focused as a drunken Exxon captain when it comes to getting work done. Without a to-do list, I bounce around all day, working a little bit on one task, then a little bit on another. By the end of the day I haven’t accomplished much of anything, even though I’ve worked my ass off.

The solution: A weekly Strategy

I’m finding pretty good success following this model. Keep in mind that I only list absolute minimums, and try to get much more done than I list here. But in the event of a worst-case scenario and I only meet these numbers, I still feel like I accomplished something. Oh, and you’ll notice that I take weekends off. I don’t have to, but when I run out of town on Saturdays and Sundays, I don’t hate myself the whole time.

So here’s the general system I’ve got in place:

Monday: At least three new pages/posts on Site 1

Tuesday: At least three new pages/posts on Site 2

Wednesday: At least three new pages/posts on Site 3

Thursday: Build/add content to my purpose-built backlink sites

Friday: Blog Commenting

This is working out so far, as I’ve got at least 10 pages/posts on all sites so far, and have already started building a crazy network of linking sites for each project.

Money Made So Far

That would be a big, fat goose egg. Zero. Nada.

But I’m “testing” some new Adsense block placements. I knew right at the start that they’d be pretty abstract, and that they probably wouldn’t convert. But you never know until you try, right?

While I’m inclined to change back to formats and placements that I know work pretty well, I told myself I’d hold fast on this test for at least a month. So I guess what I’m saying is that I’m prepared to make nothing during May, so long as it’s in the name of testing… Best case scenario I discover a system that makes more dinero than my old one… Worse case scenario, I make nothing. Which is what I’m making now.

Long story short, I’ll probably switch everything over early next month. Unless the cash starts pumping in hand over fist.