Making Money From A Blog: Mistakes To Avoid

October 13, 2008

Are you one of those people whose aim is making money from a blog? If so, you’re not alone. There’s tens of thousands of folk out there who hope to turn their blog into a business.

But making money from a blog isn’t easy. And you could be blogging for a long time before you make a single cent. Also, there’s a few mistakes that could stop you from making any money from your blog at all. I should know – I’ve made a few.

Mistake 1: Listening To The Interior Designers of Blogging

These are the folk who tell you that you must create an aesthetically pleasing blog. You should have no clutter, or ads. And as for colour – white is best. Plus each of your blog posts should have at least one pretty picture. And these bloggers usually have a massive following, who take on board ever bit of advice they give. I know I did.

Most of the interior designers are lovely, helpful people. But they’re usually making bugger all from their blogs. They may know how to make stuff look pretty. But they don’t have a clue how to make money.

Check out Steve Pavlina’s blog. Even I can tell he doesn’t have a clue about design. There’s a lot of blue and green – probably the worst colours you can mix. And the only picture I’m seeing in today’s post is an adsense picture ad at the top.

But the guy is raking in a fortune from his blog. Last I heard, he was pulling in $40,000 + a month. Which would you rather have – a pretty blog, or an amazing money making machine?

Mistake 2: Trying To Turn A Nunnery Into A Brothel

If you were running a nunnery, you wouldn’t start selling the same stuff as the brothel next door would you? And I’m guessing you wouldn’t be trying to flog ad space, in your monthly newsletter, to the same folk either.

But the trouble is, many bloggers do exactly that. They hear about blogs making heaps of money, from affiliate programs, or adsense and try to do the same, even if the blog they’re copying is on a completely different topic.

When we begin blogging, we hear all these stories about how other folk are making heaps of money through Google Adsense, or advertising and we assume we can do the same. But different products, services and ads work better on some blogs than others. Do some research and find out which is best for your blog.

Mistake 3: Doing What The Little Preachers Tell You To Do

If you read blogs regularly – you’ll probably know that there’s lots of little preachers out there telling you how you should blog and what you should not be doing under any circumstances.

They’ll tell you things like “Don’t be mean to commenters”. That one really gets on my tits. Sometimes I get assholes on here. If I want to tell them they’re an asshole – that’s my choice. Heck – I even had some idiot show up on here once claiming that blowing up the Twin Towers was an entrepreneurial act. What was I supposed to say? “Great idea – I really admire those entrepreneurs who blow up buildings and murder innocent people.” ??

You will not make money from a blog by being nice to assholes. Assholes don’t visit you to buy and even if they did, you wouldn’t want them as a customer. And the little preachers don’t really have a clue about making money from anything – let alone a blog.

Mistake 4: Listening To The Amateur Probloggers

There’s the odd few sites out there that give good advice on making money from a blog but there’s also thousands of misleading ones.

When I first started blogging, I tried doing some of the things I learned on those blogs. But none of it worked. And I quickly realised that most of those “make money bloggers” weren’t making a bean. They were simply regurgitating the crap they’d read on other blogs.

But you don’t need to struggle like I did. There’s now a wonderful course available: The 8 Week Power Blog Launch. I’ve reviewed it and it will help you avoid the mistakes I’ve mentioned and many more. You can check out my review of The 8 Week Power Blog Launch here.

What other mistakes have you, or other people made that have stopped you from making money blogging? Do you have any advice or ideas to share with others?

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Mistakes

Comments

58 Responses to “Making Money From A Blog: Mistakes To Avoid”

Hunter Nuttall on October 13th, 2008 7:30 pm

Mistake 5: Apologize for making money from your blog.

Hunter Nuttall’s last blog post..MBTI Trial Week 1: Extraversion (Recap)
cathlawson on October 13th, 2008 7:39 pm

LOL Hunter – I’ve seen lots of people do that too. You also getting folk telling you that you should be honest and say you have an affiliate link in your post and you might make money from it.

Personally, I think that’s crap too. If you’re selling something the last thing you want to say is – I’m telling you about this cos I might make some money from it.
John Hoff - eVentureBiz on October 13th, 2008 9:28 pm

I like both yours and Hunter’s comments.

I agree there’s a lot of crap blogs out there trying to dish out information and how-tos authored by people who really don’t know. I came across a website the other day of a guy who guest authored a post on Problogger. His last post on his blog was “Why Business Plans Are Bullshit.” — and this is a blog about how to start a business.

Obviously, this is a guy whose never really thought long and hard about creating a successful business. He basically says, “just dive in.”

I left him a polite comment disagreeing with him but boy I felt like telling him “And this is a blog about starting a business!!!”

I wrote an article on my blog about the best kind of affiliate marketing, however, I freely admitted I haven’t made much money in affiliates and instead I focused on what I do know about marketing – focusing on what your visitors are looking for.
cathlawson on October 13th, 2008 9:51 pm

Hi John – that is totally shocking. Even me – who is unorganised as anything has always had a business plan. And I love messing about with figures and changing them.

That makes it look bad for Darren too. I guess he probably checked out a couple of the guy’s articles before he OK’d the guest post but I bet he had no idea he was going to come out with something as careless as that.

Re: Marketing – you definitely know what you’re talking about – and I read all your articles. With some additional traffic you’ll make a whole heap more.
Marelisa on October 13th, 2008 10:04 pm

Hi Cath: I agree that content is much more important than design, but I think that looks do matter. There’s a lot of blogs out there and when someone lands on your blog they make a decision in a few seconds on whether to stay or click away. If you have a well-designed blog people are more likely to read what you have to say. Of course, if you have nothing of interest to say, they won’t stick around simply because you have a great design. But if you have the great design to draw them in and then the great content to get them to want to come back for more, then you’re golden.

My biggest mistake so far was to keep the default wordpress theme on my blog for about 6 weeks of blogging (hideous). Now I’m thinking about taking the next step and getting the Thesis Theme, and then perhaps having it customized.

Marelisa’s last blog post..14 Tips to Stay Young
cathlawson on October 13th, 2008 10:17 pm

Hi Mare – definitely a customised theme helps – but you don’t need to keep it totally clutter free and ad free. I think it just makes your blog a little more memorable somehow. I had a heap of free themes before Men With Pens customized this one.

This is Revolution theme. And I don’t know which version it is but I know that one of the versions is free now. Mind you – the thesis theme is pretty awesome too. I sometimes regret not choosing that one. Oh well, I’ll probably get a redesign once I’ve had this theme for a year.
Vered - MomGrind on October 14th, 2008 12:15 am

I don’t think I can add anything. This was informative. Thank you (and stumbled

Vered – MomGrind’s last blog post..Women Who Say No To Photoshopping
cathlawson on October 14th, 2008 1:03 am

Hi Vered – thanks for the stumble.
Jim Gaudet on October 14th, 2008 1:41 am

Excellent info, and great line;

“That one really gets on my tits”

stumbled for content!

Jim Gaudet’s last blog post..The Secret – Do you believe?
chris on October 14th, 2008 2:14 am

I love raw honesty in a blog…Hey, does anyone have an idea how much Leo from Zen Habits make? He has over 70K subscriber. Does John Chow really make at least 30K a month?

chris’s last blog post..My Back
cathlawson on October 14th, 2008 2:43 am

Hi Jim – a lot of the time I write like I speak. I don’t know if that’s always a good thing. I’m glad you liked it though and thanks for the stumble.

Hi Chris – thank you. I did a quick check for you now, but as I suspected – Leo doesn’t seem to have discussed his earnings. And I wouldn’t like to guess. He does thing very differently to other bloggers. Look how he managed to give all his content away, yet he still managed to sell heaps of copies of his book.

John Chow is another interesting one isn’t he? He’s exceptionally good at marketing. Because of his naughty link tactics, he no longer even ranks number one on Google for his own name. Yet he still has heaps of visitors. Even when other sites go through quite spells, he doesn’t seem to suffer.

In his recent earnings report, he said he likes the type of programs where he keeps getting paid when folk he recruits earn money – not just the first time. It’s a bit like network marketing I guess. Here is the link to John’s latest earnings report:
http://www.johnchow.com/blog-income-report-september-2008/

Also, I notice he has a post on his front page showing that he’s managed to raise over $6000 for the homeless in only a few days – half from his readers and he put in the other half. I think that is even more awesome than his earnings report.
Evelyn Lim on October 14th, 2008 3:35 am

i’d agree with Hunter. There is no necessity for guilt. If we are really intending to pay off some bills to keep our site running, why apologize? The only thing I disagree with is if our site becomes too sales-driven, just to get readers to click on affiliate links.

Evelyn Lim’s last blog post..Can The Artist See The Big Picture?
Barbara Swafford on October 14th, 2008 3:37 am

Hi Catherine,

I think the biggest mistake I made was putting ads on a blog about blogging. After months of not getting any clicks, I realized bloggers are not ad clickers. We have to know who our audience is before we start putting up the banners.

Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..A.S.K. Darren Rowse of Proglogger – How Do We Increase Our Readership
cathlawson on October 14th, 2008 3:57 am

Hi Evelyn – Too right. Bloggers do deserve to make some money. As you know, a lot of effort is put into our blogs for a long time, before we even make a single penny. But I totally agree on too much selling. I’ve visited blogs where every post was just a sales pitch and I wasn’t inspired to go back.

Hi Barbara – Did you have a good vacation? It’s very much trial and error isn’t it? When we first start out, we don’t really have enough traffic to know if something is going to work.

I guess most of your visitors are bloggers, or folk who want to start a blog. Maybe you’ll do better with your own product or service than you will with ads. I know when you asked the question a little while ago, a lot of commenters said they don’t click on ads. Also, a good while ago, Darren Rowse said that he didn’t do so well with adsense on Problogger.
Jim Gaudet on October 14th, 2008 4:33 am

I have to say this. I cannot believe how many people click on ads. I never used to, I have always hated them. I never click on the “sponsored links” in google, or anything like that.

Now that I have a blog and see how random people click on ads, I now start to see ads. After reading a lot of blogs, and Writed Dads to be specific, I think I should not put any ads in the text of my posts, but on the sides I do not mind. I never got any clicks anyway on my personal blog, more on my financial blog.

Now that I know the value of ads and if someone is putting one on their site then they probably want a click or two, I try to help. If I am on this blog, Writed Dad, Matthew Dryden any of these I will try and click on an ad if it is interesting. Only for people that I really like reading their blog.

Maybe that is wrong, maybe people think I am screwing with the system, I don’t really care though. I would rather someone I like get the ad money, then doing a search and going the way I used to go.

my 2c

Jim Gaudet’s last blog post..The Secret – Do you believe?
Davina on October 14th, 2008 4:42 am

Hi Cath. LOL! I’d advise bloggers to visit wordl.net to get a realistic picture of their blog and it’s keywords based on current content. I’m on day 10 of Kathy’s course and I THOUGHT I wasn’t doing too badly. Here are some keywords that wordl picked out from my blog?

… free, blogging, loving, reading, feet, marvel, pulse, page…

Sounds like I’m blogging about reflexology or pedicures or something… and for free! MInd you, “free” might drive some traffic my way.

Back to the drawing board

Davina’s last blog post..Thanks, It Means The World To Me
cathlawson on October 14th, 2008 8:02 am

Hi Jim – if there’s a product I’m interested in and it’s advertised on a friends site, I always click through. Mind you, I’ve accidentally clicked through on my own site a few times when I’ve seen a really interesting ad.

Google are pretty good about that though – they don’t pay you for it but they understand that some folk click through by accident.

Hi Davina – Free always seems to attract loads of people doesn’t it? That’s a weird mixture of keywords. I wonder if there is such a thing as feet reading, instead of palm reading?

I must admit, I’m addicted to Wordl since I began Kathy’s course too. I must have looked up the Wordl for half the blogs on the Internet.
louise on October 14th, 2008 8:46 am

I agree with you about a site not having to be pretty to make money, I have a one page f* ugly site that has one link out and it makes me a couple of hundred every month. It works, so I have not tried to fix it.
I loved adsense before I got banned, people give up on it too fast and they need to play around with placement.

louise’s last blog post..Keeping up with paperwork & Job loss impacts on our family.
John on October 14th, 2008 9:31 am

I hate to admit it, but I own one of the ugliest e-commerce websites ever (no not my blog) yet it still far exceeds the industry averages – why fix what isn’t broken!

John’s last blog post..50% Of New Businesses Launch Without Any Marketing Budget
Lance on October 14th, 2008 10:11 am

Good stuff Cath. I also have to agree with Barbara – know your audience. I started out thinking “adsense will make this thing pay for itself”. I have quickly realized this wasn’t working for me. And I’m ok right now with doing this for the personal enjoyment it brings me. Money, that would be nice. but for now I’m happy where I’m at.

Lance’s last blog post..Regrets
Kathy @ virtual Impax on October 14th, 2008 1:05 pm

ROFL!!!!! (It’s been a long time since I’ve used that!)

Trying To Turn A Nunnery Into A Brothel

THAT is priceless!!!!!

I can’t promise you that I won’t steal that!!! (I’ll always attribute it to you, so it won’t be stealing – it will be PIMPING!)

Again, thanks for the kudos. You and your community are the best – probably because you’re not afraid to call it like it is!!!! After all, this blog is YOUR sandbox. If you don’t want cats doing their thing here – then tell them to get out!

Kathy @ virtual Impax’s last blog post..Strategic Marketing Is Like Planning a Vacation
Kelly@SHE-POWER on October 14th, 2008 1:34 pm

Great resource here, Cath. I don’t really have anything to contribute because I’ve never tried to make money from my blog. Maybe there’s a lesson in there though because i assume the nature of my blog means it can’t be a money maker. That could be a wrong assumption. In fact it probably is in that I’m sure if I wanted to I could find appropriate stuff to be an affiliate for or flog information products or something. So far nothing has ever appealed to me and I’m limited for time so I spend it writing, not blog planning. Who knows what next year will bring though.

Off to check out your review of that blogging course now.

Kel

Kelly@SHE-POWER’s last blog post..Birthday Reflections & The Voices in my Head
Ellen Wilson on October 14th, 2008 3:24 pm

Hi Cath,

I agree with Kathy, you just crack me up. I like your tell it and call it like it is approach. Why don’t you come over here and run for president? ha!

Oh joy, I have made a whole dollar from my blog. And nothing from the affiliates. You know what though, I did find my RSS numbers went up when I put ads on my blog. I thought that was pretty interesting. I think people think ads are “professional” and that you’re not messing around.

I do have one free blog left so maybe I’ll try this. I could have a pretty blog and a ugly money making blog.

I think Louise is right too, you can’t give up too quickly.

Ellen Wilson’s last blog post..Retreat
Ellen Wilson on October 14th, 2008 4:04 pm

AND you get to read a chapter for FREE before you buy the book. That is very groovy.

Ellen Wilson’s last blog post..Retreat
Ellen Wilson on October 14th, 2008 4:26 pm

Alright, I’ll quit bugging you Cath. I’m totally convinced and am buying this book.

Ellen Wilson’s last blog post..Retreat
cathlawson on October 14th, 2008 5:21 pm

Hi Louise – I know what you mean. I just improved one really ugly site and now I’m not making a bean on it. How come you got banned from Google Adsense?

Hi John – that is brilliant. I’m beginning to think that ugly sites are better. Erica at Erica.biz says she had the worst designed webhosting site ever and she still managed to make money and sell the biz for $1.1 million.

Hi Lance – I know what you mean. I added a few ads in the beginning but I took them down as I didn’t have enough visitors to work out what worked. Plus – waiting gave me time to try out plenty of different products to promote. It’s nice to be able to display ads for something we’ve used and like.

Hi Kathy – thank you. You’re welcome to use it as much as you want. I agree – this is a great community. I’ve had a few complete nutters drop by. Mind you – you get those in the real world too.

Hi Kelly – I’m betting there’s heaps of stuff you could promote on your blog. But as you say – it’s getting the time to find the stuff and test it.

I was on Tina Su’s ThinkSimpleNow.com before and I was thinking some of the stuff she promotes might also work well for you.

LOL Rita – thanks. I wish you’d been around when the entrepreneurial terrorist guy showed up. It was totally unfuckingbelievable.

You deserve to make cash through your blog – you write some brilliant stuff.

Hi Ellen – Thanks. It would be a great laugh running for President. How long would I have to live in your country before you do that?

The free chapter idea is great isn’t it. You will love the course – it’s fab. Davina is on day 10 already and she seems to be really enjoying it. And you can run the ad what ever week you want – just let me know.
Hunter Nuttall on October 14th, 2008 7:49 pm

@ Cath, sorry, you not only have to be a citizen, but you have to be born in the USA to be president. In the movie Demolition Man, Arnold Schwarzenegger managed to become president because he was popular enough to have the Constitution changed. Mind you, this movie was made in 1993, 10 years before he became governor of California!

Hunter Nuttall’s last blog post..MBTI Trial Week 2: Sensing
Jamie Simmerman on October 14th, 2008 8:28 pm

Oh! You so just made this week’s Wisdom from the Net! Great post.

Jamie Simmerman’s last blog post..For Sale: Ran Great Yesterday
Ellen Wilson on October 14th, 2008 9:30 pm

Unfortunately you have to be born here. I think it’s so you can become properly indoctrinated by saying the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag everday in grade school.

Now I have to come up with a nice ad like Davina has. I’ll see what I can do in Photoshop. It may take awhile.

And thank you.

Ellen Wilson’s last blog post..Retreat
Andrew on October 14th, 2008 10:13 pm

Hi Cath,

Thanks for sharing this information.

As someone who is relatively new to blogging, and relatively early on in my second blogging attempt, I can relate to the feeling of their being many web punters out there with differing and occasionally conflicting advice – it can be hard to know who to listen to.

I, too, would not have been polite to the individual who made the comment about the terrorists. Basic blogging etiquette dictates that commentators not only read and comply with your comment policy, but also that they act in a manner which is courteous and considerate of other readers.

I am curious, what do you think is the best way to handle someone like that. Could you respond directly on your blog, perhaps requesting that all future comments are consistent with your comments policy, or would you perhaps email them and request (in strong language) that they refrain from future comment?

Cheers

Andrew

Andrew’s last blog post..Do borrowers share responsibility for the financial crisis?
Melissa Donovan on October 15th, 2008 3:47 am

I was initially interested in making money from my blog but that’s changed a lot. Maybe once it’s aged a bit, I will revisit the possibility, but for now, I use to reach an audience and promote my services and that, for me, is the best way to make money from my blog. Sites like Problogger are really helpful in learning how to generate blog revenue, but you’re right — that all depends on your niche (and what works for you).

Melissa Donovan’s last blog post..Novels, Blogs, and Poetry – Oh My!
10/14/2008 Writing Jobs and Links » PoeWar on October 15th, 2008 4:01 am

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James Chartrand - Men with Pens on October 15th, 2008 3:10 pm

My quick two cents:

I disagree with your opinion of saying not to listen to those skilled in web design and usability. You don’t *need* a nice-looking, user-friendly site to make money via the web, but you can be damned sure that it gives you a far better shot at success than some crappy-assed site shot together when someone doesn’t know what they’re doing.

In fact, doing so can cost you money. I’d say 75% of our work comes from people who’ve spent money on shoddy jobs, didn’t see results and come to us to improve it. We don’t work for free, of course, so that’s more expenses for the poor bugger trying to make a dime online.

It’s a good thing that our work accomplishes positive results and doesn’t put that bugger back where he started – with a half-assed site that doesn’t do crap to change his life for the better.

James Chartrand – Men with Pens’s last blog post..Recessions are the Best Times for Business
cathlawson on October 15th, 2008 3:20 pm

Hi Rita – I would but he went in the spam folder a long time ago. And he posted anonymously with no email address.

Hi Hunter – that’s a shame. If I did something outstanding like capture Osama Bin Laden, do you think I’d be in with a chance?

Thanks Jamie – I’m glad you liked it.

Hi Ellen – I could practise doing that at home – even George Bush must have managed it.

I would help you make the ad but design isn’t one of my strong points.

Hi Andrew – Difficult question. With someone like that guy – I would tell him to get lost and ban his IP address from commenting. And if I got tired of seeing his comments in the spam filter, I’d ban him completely using the WP-Ban plugin.

If it was just someone who was being irritating – I’d let them rant as much as they wanted, then go back and delete their comments later. But definitely, is someone was persistently annoying, I’d just ban their comments – they’re not worth the hassle.

Hi Melissa – I agree completely. If you’re advertising your own service on your blog any other ads can get in the way of what you’re offering.
cathlawson on October 15th, 2008 3:24 pm

Hi James – I completely agree – using a professional designer has it’s advantages, although I’m not saying everyone needs to. Steve Pavlina didn’t – but who knows, he might be making even more money if he did.

But I wasn’t referring to professional designers – I was talking about the bloggers who rave about the simple, white, ad free blog.
James Chartrand - Men with Pens on October 15th, 2008 4:18 pm

@ Catherine – Ha, well, last time I checked, a pristine white site was pretty much the death of branding, and since we promote branding in a big way, you wouldn’t see us build one like that!

I think that using Steve Pavlina or any other big A-lister who got in the game a few years as examples isn’t realistic, though. They leaped into the game when there was room to do so and already had a stable following and established credibility before the Internet started getting crowded.

I’m not so sure that they’d have the same results today if they started over under a brand new unknown name. Do you?

James Chartrand – Men with Pens’s last blog post..Recessions are the Best Times for Business
Cath Lawson on October 15th, 2008 10:44 pm

Hi James – all white is too clinical really isn’t it?

That’s an interesting question about getting in early. I guess it’s definitely more difficult to get seen nowadays as there’s so many websites.

When I had my first site, it was so easy to get ranked on the search engines – there just wasn’t so many websites. Traffic was a thing you just took for granted and every single website was ugly.

I guess with Steve Pavlina and Problogger is that it would be harder to compete for two reasons – they have better PR, more pages, better technorati rank etc, so it’s harder to compete against them on keywords. Mind you, I did find one phrase I beat problogger on yesterday but it probably won’t be for long.

The other thing is – they were probably the first in their niches. Anyone who blogs about blogging is going to be compared as a kind of Problogger copycat – same with Steve Pavlina in personal development.

But that doesn’t stop us from doing our own thing and standing out as well as we can does it? And I suppose a lot of it has to do with time as well – the longer we’re around, the more folk visit us.

Cath Lawson’s last blog post..YOU Have Never Been More Powerful
Ellen Wilson on October 15th, 2008 11:17 pm

Cath,

I’m hoping we get more political parties in the future.

Anyway, I’m not too bad with the design and can probably manage it. I don’t know exactly when I’ll get to it because I’ve got some heavy duty thinking to do if I want to sell stock photos from my site or not. One of the reasons I bought the book. Great read, too. Realistic.

Ellen Wilson’s last blog post..Retreat
Ellen Wilson on October 15th, 2008 11:23 pm

One last thing, how do you find out how much money someone is making from their blog, Cath? Through the grapevine or is there an actual site to visit?

Ellen Wilson’s last blog post..Retreat
Patricia on October 16th, 2008 12:21 am

Cath,
Thank you for this information and good suggestions of reading material….I guess I should buy another book.

I just finished the workshops in Hawaii, made no money – lost money again – did great work and don’t want to do all the hauling, hard work of doing this again. I am covered in bedbug bites, coughing, sneezing, can’t sleep, and sick of 10 days of eating peanut butter and crackers in my too hot room. Internet connection was $8 an hour….and Hawaii is in a world of hurt ecomomically (all their eggs in the tourism basket – they forgot about growing their own food, using their home grown resources)

I need to get serious and get my plan going….I made $3.72 cents in August from my blog – my kids all bought their books for college and grad school from my site – oh yes! and my birthday book!..

Wow, I needed to read this blog today…(insert blow nose and wash hands)
I am so happy a few people are commenting on my blog, as it still feels lonely out there and I have read Liz’s book and Problogger and am not moving in the right direction.

Patricia’s last blog post..American Ingenuity – or Crisis Intervention to Discover Success
cathlawson on October 16th, 2008 12:31 am

Hi Ellen – the book is great isn’t it? Don’t worry about when to run the ad. I’d rather you got your blog how you wanted it first, then you can benefit more from the traffic.

I just Google to find out blog earnings and stuff. Folk like John Chow share what they make on their blog. Some other bloggers won’t disclose their earnings but a lot of the financial experts can guess it based on what traffic they get etc.

This is an interesting post. They’re actually estimating the values of some blogs too: http://www.247wallst.com/2008/03/the-twenty-five.html

Hi Patricia – You’re welcome. At least you can read it on your amazon gadget – bugger, I forgot what you call them.

Did you have a fab time in Hawaii, despite the bed bugs and crackers? I was wondering how you were getting on.

Liz’s book is fab isn’t it? I didn’t read Problogger’s yet – but I’ll get round to it. Kathy’s course is definitely practical and there’s stuff in it I still haven’t tried yet. She’s really done her research.

$3.72 is a start. Amazon isn’t the greatest payer though. I think it took me about 3 years to be able to afford to buy one book with my commissions when I first joined it.
Patricia on October 16th, 2008 1:17 am

KINDLE from amazon…if folks buy it off my site I will make money!!!
Thanks for you comments…I have to go watch the Presidential debates for a write up for pay…

I had a nice time in Hawaii…way too hot for me..and I learned so much i will be writing about…the canary has already died in Hawaii…they are in a world of hurt…not even growing their own food…and dependent on oil…mostly they are in the blame it on Washington DC stage, but have to move through it quickly…their own basket of income is tourism and they only have 13 days of food on the islands at a time…so now they have received the curse of Walmart….

I don’t think I would want to go to Hawaii to live or work…but possible a vacation…if I could afford it…Wow is it expensive

Patricia’s last blog post..American Ingenuity – or Crisis Intervention to Discover Success
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louise on October 17th, 2008 7:59 pm

Hi Cath, I wish I knew why I got banned from adsense!

They won’t tell you the reason and they keep the money for that month so there’s about $300 I missed out on.so the message is basically ” you did something wrong, we won’t tell you what it is but you can lodge an appeal explaining why you did it ” ???

confused? me too!

louise’s last blog post..Investing in the share market: Getting ready.
Ari Herzog on October 18th, 2008 6:47 am

Wow.

I’m amazed Rita is the only commenter (unless I missed someone) who said she has no desire to place ads on her blog because I agree with her 100 percent.

I also 100 percent disagree with your Mistake #1 because I follow the KISS method and prefer minimalism than clutter.

And when you mention the inability to compete with the Probloggers of the blogosphere, might I point out that it was only a few months ago when I changed the optimization of my blog to focus on being *the* expert in social media advice. As of a second ago, my Google juice for those three words is #7. Not a Google Blog search either; plain old google.com and I’m in 7th.

If I can do it for my keywords, you can do it for yours.

Ari Herzog’s last blog post..New Media Communications Firm Misrepresents Itself
cathlawson on October 18th, 2008 12:39 pm

Hi Louise – Have you tried appealing. Just explain that you don’t know what you’ve done wrong. Did you place an ad beside a picture? That hasn’t been allowed for some time. Also, if you were advertising to local people and folk who live near you clicked a lot on your ads – that will have made Google suspicious. I would definitely appeal. Since they’re keeping your cash – you have a right to know what you’re supposed to have done at least.

Hi Ari – Are you saying that everyone with a blog should avoid placing ads on their blog? They may not have the same aims as you, or the same type of blog.

Re My comment to James – I never mentioned “inability to compete” – I said it is harder for newer blogs to compete. I wouldn’t get ranked number one for any of my keyphrases if I was unable to compete. For harder key phrases – your length of time blogging does matter – Aaron Wall said it took him 2 years to get on page 1 for some keyphrases

For “social media advice” – you are halfway down the second page of Google.com on my computer. That is one of my pet hates with Google – you will often rank well to readers in the same area you are from, regardless of whether you are marketing to them or worldwide.

But someone in another state, or country may look you up on Google.com and you don’t appear in the same position.

Try getting someone from another area to look you up and see how you rank. Barbara Swafford did that for me. Before I changed themes – I was on page one of Google.com for the name “Catherine”. But when Barbara looked it up from Oregon, I was on something like page 7. We are not all getting the same Google results.
Ari Herzog on October 18th, 2008 2:05 pm

I don’t foresee placing advertising on my blog, but I can’t predict the future. People can do whatever they want to THEIR blogs; I’m merely stating my thoughts.

Ari Herzog’s last blog post..New Media Communications Firm Misrepresents Itself
Weekly Wrap Up: Take Three : Blue Duck Copy on October 18th, 2008 2:37 pm

[...] “They’ll tell you things like “Don’t be mean to commenters”. That one really gets on my tits. Sometimes I get assholes on here. If I want to tell them they’re an asshole – that’s my choice. Heck – I even had some idiot show up on here once claiming that blowing up the Twin Towers was an entrepreneurial act. What was I supposed to say? “Great idea – I really admire those entrepreneurs who blow up buildings and murder innocent people.” ?? You will not make money from a blog by being nice to assholes. Assholes don’t visit you to buy and even if they did, you wouldn’t want them as a customer.” Cath Lawson http://cathlawson.com/blog/2008/10/13/making-money-from-a-blog-mistakes-to-avoid/ [...]
cathlawson on October 18th, 2008 3:54 pm

Ari – commenting on several recent posts of another blogger to say that you “100% disagree with what they’re saying” is pretty lame.

If your opinions are so different to begin with, why comment at all? Why not do more constructive things to try to get more folk to read your own blog.

I certainly don’t need people like you on here, so I’ve banned your IP. I suspect you have an opinion on banning folk from a blog too but please take it elsewhere. Have a nice day.
cathlawson on October 18th, 2008 7:51 pm

Hi Rita – no worries. I’m used to the types who try to lump innocent folk with them to give weight to their argument. But you saying you choose not to carry ads on your blog is not the same as someone coming along and telling me I’m 100% wrong.
Oktober Five on October 20th, 2008 8:59 pm

You definitely say it how it is…. I wonder if posts should have ratings?

Anyway, that’s besides the point, because I think we should milk our blogs for all they’re worth–slap ads all over the place. I especially like the ones that tell me I’ve won a free ipod. “Congratulations, you’ve just won a free ipod! All you have to do is complete a few* sponsored offers and we’ll ship you your free** ipod!!!”

*We’re lying
**We’re still lying
cathlawson on October 20th, 2008 9:06 pm

Hi Oktober – Those free IPod ads suck don’t they? And the free car ones too. Ads can definitely be overdone. And the pop up ones should be banned altogether – especially the ones that try to stop you leaving the site.
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