review plugin for wordpress
Nov 03

Rip out your F5 button

Blogs, Doodling, Fire and Forget, Internet Marketing, Mind over Pixels, Moniez, Noobs, RGBhat, WebWriMo challenge, Who? Me?, mAdsense 4 Comments »

You need to stop refreshing your stats.

You all agree right?

You need to stop refreshing your stats.

Got it?

No seriously, STOP REFRESHING YOUR STATS.

Part of the shift to the businessman way of thinking means maxing out the “fire and forget” motto. Emphasis on forget, and it literally means forget. Fire up that campaign, make sure it works, all links go where they are supposed to, and then forget about it completely.

Set up that splog farm, make sure all crons fire, all rewrites work etc etc.  Then forget about it completely.

Buy that domain for the great new project you have in mind, set up a slow splog with relevant keywords on it to let it mature, and forget about it completely.

Why do I keep telling you this? Because you have to train yourself to fire and forget. Remember, fire and forget does not mean neglect, it means set everything right, make sure it works, then work on something else without refreshing the stats every 2 minutes. If the visitors come, they will come. If the product sells, it will sell. Keeping an eye on it makes no difference at all.

That is the big trap for newbies with Adsense. Adsense is a great and easy way for noobs to monetize their site, and they sit there and refresh the stats page instead of working on the site to make it more profitable. But, ok, the noobs are noobs, they have a reason for getting excited for making money online. What reason do you have? Is it your first check? Is it your 100$ milestone? Your 1000$?

Oh it is? Then why not spend your time working on the next milestone, instead of watch the first one come towards you slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowly.

Here is what being an expert means:

  • You know the lay of the land.
  • You have the techniques mastered.
  • Your experience tells you what works and what doesn’t in different situations.
  • Your guts show you the opportunity.
  • You research the idea.
  • You make the investment.
  • You set up everything the right way.
  • You make sure everything works as it should.
  • You forget about the whole deal.
  • You go to your next project, while casually keeping an eye on the first.

Of course you are not an expert, because then you wouldn’t need to read this. Read the above steps, and fill up whatever aspect of them you are lacking in. Yes, it’s that simple. You don’t know the playground? Learn it. You don’t have the techniques mastered yet? Practice more. No money to invest? Make more! You d… etc etc.
Someone might ask here: “But I can’t leave the first project alone, it needs constant tweaking and monitoring!“

Why oh why my dear friend have I been yelling all this time about the 80/20 rule? Make the project NOT need constant tweaking and monitoring. How? FIGURE IT OUT!
Keywords are: outsourcing, automation, cron scripts, moderators, user contributed, useful tools, viral growth.

Keep on generating assets. As soon as something becomes stable and profitable, let it work and focus on your next project. Don’t try to squeeze out the first project for a few extra cents. Yes, optimize, but learn to recognize when it is time to stop and focus on the next one.

Only if you are an expert on anything will you understand what I am about to say below.

Experts see, evaluate, adjust, squeeze the trigger and walk away before the bullet hits the target. Why? Because they have already seen the bullet hitting the target in their mind. A veteran basketball player turns his back before the ball starts coming down. He knows if he will score or not. The actual physical event of the ball hitting the net is just a confirmation of what he already knows.

An expert plays all scenarios in his mind, the possibilities rush through his thoughts. The techniques are already mastered, it’s the strategy that matters now. He even invents new techniques all the time, his understanding of his craft makes him a pioneer.

An expert is never lucky, he sees that opportunity coming from a mile away and when it approaches in his trap he grabs it hard and rapes it till its dry.

An expert teaches, because through teaching you force your mind to sort through the endless amount of data on your craft, and categorize, analyze, prioritize in order to feed it to the student in manageable chunks. Through the act of teaching he goes through the basics again, and sees them with a wholly different eye, resulting in more skill and experience.

If you really want to become an expert on something, go read the above list again. It is the only guideline you really need.

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Popularity: 27% [?]

written by Glowleaf \\ tags: , , ,

Nov 03

PhpFox, an out of the box social network

Cybertowns, Doodling, Heavy construction, Mind over Pixels, Social abuse, Web 2.0 Cutesy Bullshit, WebWriMo challenge 7 Comments »

EDIT: I have written a short post on how to make an xml sitemap for phpfox here.

I have gotten a lot of experience lately using PhpFox, so I will continue my earlier post on PhpFox SEO, and do a full review.

  • As I said already, the default installation sucks for SEO, but the pages get easily indexed. You have to keep in mind that the engine is huge, the empty installation is 2500 files alone.
  • RSS feeds are not validated, and cannot be feedburned. They do work on readers though.
  • Sitemaps are text based, and cannot be submitted to Google Webmaster Tools.
  • Meta descriptions are all duplicate…
  • Internal url structure gives you this ugly thing: http://www.simeioseis.gr/blog/view/id_2/title_/

But, if we ignore the SEO issues (honestly I had no trouble ranking the site), we are left with a very powerful tool.

The built in features are amazing.

  • Video module allows you to embed, share, rate, feature videos, and lets members comment on the video page.
  • Gallery can automatically watermark, slideshow, rate, comment and show thumbnails for browsing.
  • Events mod allows you to set up happenings related to your niche, festivals etc.
  • Forum despite being too empty featured, it works fine. I will elaborate on that on the next PhpFox post.
  • Blogs are crap.
  • Polls are fun.
  • Classifieds is useful for any community.
  • Pm system simply works.
  • Groups can keep subniches busy for a long time.
  • Integrated social buttons are a great feature. If only they were more easily manageable…
  • And there are a million other mods, most paid, to expand its features.

As I was saying, for a newbie webmaster it is a great solution. As soon as you install it, you have a powerful mini myspace in your hands, with many more features than you really need.

I honestly prefer it when compared to Joomla community builder, or any other social script for that matter… You can get most features to work just the way you want them using the mods, and the script itself has more features than you can think of, to keep your members busy and happy.

On a different note, I have noticed a lack of information on social webmasters online. I googled for hours trying to find the info I needed, and I found only bits of segmented information on fora.

I will try to gather up as much as I can in these posts, with a focus on Phpfox, because the script simply works.

Monetizing your community is not always easy. PhpFox was initially built to host dating communities with paypal subscription, the features are wired in and enabled by default. One way is subscription based, but I was always a freebie fan. Monetize with ads.

PhpFox has 5 ad spots by default, a top right small banner, a wide skyscraper, a large leaderboard footer, a large box for the homepage and profile pages, and a rather useless logout large box.

I found out that PhpFox generates A LOT of pageviews. No, I mean A LOT. A TON. On my community, the total visitor count up to now is 5k, and the pageviews are 340k. That is a lot.

Make sure to get either the footer banner or the header, a cpm ad to utilize the pageviews. I use Adbrite, but there are other networks as well. I mention those banner spots, because they can be seen in every page.

As for the rather useless logout banner, a pathetic attempt at “exit traffic monetization”, I suggest that you do not put an ad, and rather put in a banner for a site you own that is of general interest. Seems to work better. It will get few views anyway.

You can also throw up a quick McJiffy eBay store at another domain, and link to it from your forum, products within the niche of course. Put it up on a sticky, link it, and forget about it. Might work, might not, who cares.

A fantastic feature of PhpFox is that every module allows the users to add content.  That is great, because those few who contribute to the community, will contribute a lot, and the engine lets them do that in many ways. My members already created groups, quizzes, uploaded videos and started threads for introduction and site features discussion.

A serious lack is the forum module. It works fine, but is too basic. Vbulletin has upped the standards so much, that any other forum engine seems like it came from 1996. The best way to fix this is to install Lightweight, a forum mod that does the job. It has many useless features, ironically making it less of a lightweight, but it works, and keeps the ball rolling with ease.

I also worked on a sister site, a music concert related site with a friend. There, we wanted to utilize the events mod, and thankfully found the Aitoc advanced events mod, which pimps out the events module. Actually, it simply replaces it, you install the new and disable the old. The module adds images to your events, adds recurring events functionality, removes the requirement for “address” so you can schedule online events.

A google maps box shows below the event page, showing the address, which is amazingly recognizable automatically! It allows the members to opt in for event change notifications, and also invite not only their friends but any other member to the event.

The point here is that you can use Phpfox for almost any social site you can possibly think of. The blogging platform kinda sucks though… Increased features on blogging would really make this engine a must.

Well, this is my PhpFox review, after having created a community with it. I will post soon some technical issues with Phpfox, as well as some modification information that I think some people will find useful.

Popularity: 35% [?]

written by Glowleaf \\ tags: , , , , ,

Nov 02

Branding your way to success

Doodling, Internet Marketing, Virtual War, WebWriMo challenge No Comments »

How strong is your business’es brand name? Does it create emotions when people gaze your logo? Is it memorable? Do people recognize it?

To understand how importand branding is, take Google for example. Google has managed (through an amazing service) to become a habit. Habits rarely change. A new search engine might show up, bigger, faster and better than Google, but the latter will still keep its market share simply because people are used to typing www.google.com and hitting enter…

The same goes for Coca-Cola, Intel, even Post-it.

Maybe all your business really needs is some work in its branding to take off. I discovered some experts online, specializing in branding your business. Their whole concept and mindframe seems to suit my ideas, about making your business and product remarkable. The site is www.brandidentityguru.com, and they offer services ranging from search engine optimization, logo design, marketing strategies, branding strategies etc.

A funny page is their Brand Strength Test, where you rate a few factors of your brand, and the tool measures your brand strength in different areas.

Brand Identity Guru will show you what people really think about your current image, what needs changing or enhancing, and the exact steps for that. They will research the niche you are in, and compare your brand against a couple of competitors.

Knowing the lay of the land, knowing your own and your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses can give you a powerful competitive advantage.

I love their way of thinking, and a page that really got me thinking is this one, on what is branding. No, it seems that branding is not just your logo…

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Popularity: 11% [?]

written by Glowleaf \\ tags: , , ,

Nov 01

How to create your first online asset Part 2

Blogs, Doodling, Heavy construction, Internet Marketing, Mind over Pixels, Moniez, Noobs, WebWriMo challenge 2 Comments »

As I wrote in Part 1, you need a blog that has ~30 pages of unique content, Pagerank, indexed pages, ~300 deeplinks. The videos and photos are just for show, indexed pages count, and to snatch some social traffic.

Keep updating, and submitting every page of content to social sites.

Why is your first blog an asset? Because one, you will make money from it, and two, you can leverage on it.

How can you leverage on your blog? Simple, post and write about every new website you make! Link to it from the blogroll. The initial boost is not much, but its much more than a big fat zero. Start your second website a step higher, and leverage on both your third website etc etc. That is the concept.

If you manage to create some loyal readers, they will be glad to check out your new sites, or become members in your new forum etc. You can also leverage your social bookmarking profiles, by sending your new site to your friends there to check it out.

As I said, at first the difference is small. But learn to leverage, and someday you will be able to launch a new site in a single week.

How to make the blog an asset? Monetize it. No matter your traffic, you can monetize it with text link sales. These will be hard to get, but once you do, they will become your solid money-makers, unlike ppc ads. Of course, you will put ppc ads as well…

I suggest that you put up both TLA and TNX. TLA might not accept your site if it has no visible links and PR, that is why I said in the first post to let your blog mature a bit. Just signup at everything, and submit your blog to all of them. Whichever passes, and relist after a month.

For ppc ads, put up Adsense or Adrbrite, but don’t sweat it. Don’t sit there and refresh your stats every 10 minutes to see the next 0.04$ click. Keep building.

The next great moneymakers are paid reviews. Who would pay you for a review, you might ask? Well, plenty of people. 2 ways to find people paying for reviews are digitalpoint fora and Reviewme.com

The first is simply the biggest, loudest, noobiest and lamest Internet Marketing forum in existence. Go to the Buy and sell section, and start selling paid posts, blogroll links, and ad spots if you are lucky to find someone that stupid.

The second, ReviewMe.com is a great marketplace for paid reviews. The system shows you what reviews are available for the tags you selected, and you accept the offer, and write a review for the buyer, usually a site with a service of some sort.

The tough part is getting your blog accepted in Reviewme.com, because they seem to have pretty high standards for inclusion. I think, the blog needs to be at least pr2, have around 500 yahoo linkdomain, and ~100 visitors per day. They also factor in your Alexa rank. Those numbers are a rough estimate of mine, from my blogs that got in, and those that didn’t. They are not accurate, just there to give you an idea.

As soon as you manage to get into Reviewme.com, you will have a constant stream of reviews available, for 20$-40$ each. Those reviews are an easy 60-70$ monthly income alone.

Even if your blog does not make it into the services I list above, try to make do with digitalpoint until your blog grows enough to get into them.

Once you get the hang of it, you will be able to earn ~50$ passively, ~80$ actively, and have a PR 2-3 blog + traffic to leverage from for your next site/asset. Even more of course, the only limit is in your mind.

Each step will be easier, in each step you will learn more, and become more experienced.

In each step you will slowly shift from the worker mindset, to the businessman mindset, always trying to find ways to make the sites work with little or no maintenance. Ways for users to generate traffic, content and links. Ways for users to moderate themselves. Ways to earn money on autopilot, with you only keeping an eye on things.

But in order for those things to happen, you need to work your ass off first. Sorry, but it is the truth.

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written by Glowleaf \\ tags: , , ,

Nov 01

How to create your first online asset

Blogs, Doodling, Heavy construction, Mind over Pixels, Moniez, Noobs, WebWriMo challenge 7 Comments »

To continue the businessman way of thinking posts, and to give some actual advice rather than fuzzy “way of thinking guidelines”, here is the way to make your first online asset.

What is an asset? It is something that gives you money. That means, that we need to create something that gives us money.

The easiest “something” to create is a blog. What is a blog? A site about a certain topic, with chronological based hierarchy. Or its a web journal, whatever definition you prefer best.

What can we blog about? The answer is, what can you not blog about? You can blog about blogging, you can blog about shitting, you can blog about working, about sleeping, about fucking, anything.

Pick a subject that interests you, something that fascinates you personally. Screw the guides that tell you to do keyword research etc. Keyword research is for optimization, what you need is a kick in the ass to get started!

And no blogspot or wordpress free blog. Pick a cheap hosting plan, I suggest this one. Grab a brandable domain, one that is easy to remember, and work on setting up your blog. Even if the idea alone frightens you, you will learn a lot from working on your own site. Many online moguls started with no computer skills and a crappy website.

And no, I will not write down a step by step guide on everything, there are thousands of guides out there, and the first skill you need to develop is called “Just fucking Google it“.

Install a wordpress blog, set it up right, and pick a theme. And simply start writing. Set up a Google alert on your topic, 4-5 keywords. Check your gmail every day, and write about the current things in the niche. Also, find the other blogs in your niche, read them, and subscribe to their RSS feeds.

Around 10 Google alerts in your gmail every day, and a subscription to 30 blogs are more than enough to keep you filled up with topics. Also join the niche’s largest forum, and put your link in your signature.

Don’t worry about how the site looks, how your writing is, all that will develop over time. Practice makes perfect. You will change your site’s look a dozen times anyway…

Anyway, your goal is to get up at least 30 pages of unique content, ideally 100 of them. As you write the content, whenever you post a page, submit it to social bookmarking sites. Go for Digg, reddit, stumble, delicious, mixx. Create accounts in all of the above, and put the buttons on your browser for easy submission.

Social bookmarking coupled with the Pingcrawl plugin can get you around 20 deeplinks on every post. Those are more links than you really need. And yes, forget the directory submissions. Also, link to other blogs everytime you can, and remember to link to a post, not the homepage, to utilize the trackback.

So, the min 30 pages will get you easily a 500 yahoo linkdomain count from the start. Of course, it will take time for the links to pop up, but they will. Forget about them for now.

Install the NextGen gallery plugin, and start downloading and gathering pictures related to your niche. Upload them to the blog, make a new page, add the tag gallery=1 in ][ and you have a gallery of pics. These will get indexed in Google images, and hopefully bring in some more visitors. Stumble the image page, this is a must.

Then go to youtube, and pick videos related to your niche. Gather up 20+, embed them in a post, with or without your comments, your choice. Social bookmark those two.

This will take a variable amount of time, depending on your web design skills, your writing skills, any set-backs etc. Lets assume that it takes 2 weeks (I have done it in a day. Yup… Nuts, I know)

Now you basically need to forget about your blog, posting occasionaly, every 2-5 days. You are waiting for the next PageRank update basically. As soon as your blog gets PR, you are on for the next phase.

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written by Glowleaf \\ tags: , , , ,

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