My Poetry Blog Experiment - Part 3: TRAFFIC...

img credit: Mike Kline

(you might want to read part 1 & part 2 first).


I've been on a traffic tip over the past few days. For some reason, I've been concentrating more on the name poetry blog than the sensuality one, so I'm just gonna let the first blog have its way and go with its flow for a couple more days. From next week though, I'm gonna work on each blog on alternate days.


What I've Done So Far For Traffic...

I know some of the things I need to do to draw traffic, but knowing and doing are two different things. I'm a relative noob when it comes to the doing, so any proactive steps I take is not only a learning process but a huge improvement on, well, doing very little.

My immediate plan is to do quite a bit of relevant blog commenting, forum/message board participating and twittering. I'm also going to use Xomba to create several links pointing to the name poetry blog. (i can't do it for the other one as Xomba doesn't allow mature content). I read that pointing links to a blog is like spinach for Popeye. The healthier the site the link's coming from, the better. Xomba does well on Google, so any links from there pointing to the blog is a good thing in Google's eyes. (well, erm, that's what I picked up from reading several blogs - makes sense to me).


I know there are other things I can do in terms of getting traffic --- and I will in time --- but I'd rather take my time and not overload myself into giving up. Another reason is I want to maintain a balance between enjoying (my) creativity and doing the footwork to monetise, get traffic, etc.


So far, for the name poetry blog, I've:

- browsed for and made a note of a handful of relevant blogs, forums and message boards (e.g., poetry, baby names, etymology sites). Started leaving comments on them.

- set up a Twitter account (@iwritenamepoems). Added/adding relevant twitterers to follow.

- stumbled the blog on StumbleUpon

- used Xomba to build backlinks to each blog post. Haven't backlinked all yet, but getting there.



For the other blog, I'll be doing more of the same.

Once I've gotten into a flow I'm happy with, I'll add other traffic-drawing methods such as article marketing (which I'm not really looking forward to) and submitting the blogs to blog directories and such.



I'm out...

ebele.

My Poetry Blog Experiment - Part 2: MONETISATION...

img credit: ebele

[you can read part 1 of this series here]


Right. Monetisation.

i) My Sex. Chocolate. Ice cream blog: I don't think Adsense would work that well on it, so I've taken the affiliate route. I also want the creative freedom to share what I want without worrying about whether Google's gonna close down my Adsense account 'cos of its content. I don't think the content's risqué, but because under Adsense's terms and conditions, it states that putting their ads on 'adult content' sites is a no-no, it's another reason to keep this one away from it as I don't know what their definition of 'adult content' is.

I've monetised the blog with Amazon links, Allposters links and an affiliate banner. The Amazon links are listed along with other links to other blogs; I think they fit in better that way. The Allposters affiliate links are behind the actual images accompanying some of the poems.


ii) IWriteNamePoems.blogspot.com: This has Adsense on it (positioned towards the top) and one vertical Amazon banner on the side displaying a book that I feel might be relevant to someone looking through my blog. 'Til quite recently, IWriteNamePoems was called TheNamePoet, but I changed the URL as I noticed several Adsense ads showing weren't relevant AT ALL. I went to the Google Keyword Tool, searched for a relevant keyword for my niche 'name poems' and changed the blog name to include that keyword. I also included 'poem' in all the blog-post titles. It seems to be working a bit better now.



I guess until I get a considerable amount of relevant traffic, I won't really know which monetisation method will work well. However, I did get my first little drop of Adsense pennies from the name-poem blog a week ago, so that's encouraging. With more of the right traffic, who knows, ey?



Excited...

Waiting for the bus yesterday, some people must have thought I was mad, high on something or that I'd died standing up 'cos I had this blank look on my face and I was hardly blinking. That was me in daydream mode. I know it's early days, but I'm kinda excited about this experiment. Haven't felt this excited in a while. My head's been buzzing with loads of other ideas too. When that happens, my blood quickens and I zone out. Makes me feel alive. It's a nice feeling, but can be dangerous when I'm driving.

Kidding.

I don't drive.

Unless you can count riding a bumper car at the arcade when I was 17 as driving.



Anyway, have a beauty-full week, people. Graffiti it marshmallow-pink.

ebele.

And Now, Ladies & Gentlemen, For My Next Experiment: Poetry...

img credit: ebele

It's not something I mention a lot on this blog, but I used to write quite a lot of poetry. I don't write much of it these days, but I do have a fairly large body of work just sitting on my desktop from years of writing.

My head's been in this whole make-money-online thing for a few years. I thought it would be interesting (for me) to see if it's possible to combine the two: poetry with making money online.

It's an idea I started last year, but didn't follow through. I wanna give it a proper go.


MY FIRST IDEA: Set up a poetry site/blog (or several poetry mini sites)...

I thought about setting up one site, then putting all my poems on there (in categories). But then I thought that maybe I should set up a variety of niche poetry mini sites.

I'm still not 100% decided on which way to go, but for now, I have 2 poetry blogs:

i) Sex. Chocolate. Ice cream. – an erotic/sensual poetry blog. This one is on its own domain and hosted there too. The expression 'Sex. Chocolate. Ice cream' initially started as a playful post on this very blog. Following that post, I decided to register something along those lines not really knowing what I was going to do with it. Once I bought the domain, I struggled with it, left it bare, put some content on, tore it down, left it bare again for months. But then the poetry idea came.

ii) IWriteNamePoems.blogspot.com – the theme of this one is self explanatory, I think. This one doesn't have an independent domain; is hosted on blogspot. Years back, I had an avid interest in people's names. I'd find out about a name and wrap it in a poem. I then set up a site for it, but took them off a year or two later. About 2 years ago, I joined Hubpages (a revenue-sharing content creation site). Thinking of what pages to create, I decided to do one about how to write a name poem. Doing that brought it all back and I decided to chuck the name poems back up.


I've set both blogs up so they behave more like static sites than blogs; I took most references to dates off - that way I don't have to update them all the time.


For now, I'm gonna concentrate on these two, experiment, tweak, monetise, work on attracting (the right) traffic, tweak, learn, etc. In time, if I can make money off either one, then I can use a similar formula for other poetry sites I might decide to set up in the future.


Wish me luck!

I Won £15.00!

img credit: lilit

Actually, to tell the truth, I knew about the win about a month ago, so that exclamation mark should be a semi-limp one. However, because it takes 30 days to receive it, I didn't wanna go sharing the news just yet, not 'til I'd actually gotten paid (I was still a teeny tiny bit sceptical up until that point, you see).

But as it is, it came through (yay!) so I can now tell the whole world and their Mama and their poodle.

The win came courtesy of a trivia game site called Triviala.


How it Works...

Right, I'm not a pro as I've only used the site for a bit, but this is what I've garnered in that time.

For certain games you complete (and answer correctly), you're rewarded with crowns. You can then use those crowns to enter cash prize draws. Simple as that. Well, not so simple, 'cos some of the games can be a bit tricky (could be me, though. It's still enjoyable nonetheless).

You can also get crowns for designing your own quizzes. Oh, and for completing surveys. There's also a loyalty bonus of 10 crowns for every crown threshold you reach.


Games you can play include...

- Sudoku, Crossword challenge, Pirate Wars (battle quiz), Celebrity Pedigree (celebrities are bred as dogs to get the optimum pedigree of dog. Don't ask!), and a range of quizzes covering different topics (music, entertainment, wine facts, movies, etc).

I don't quite get Sudoku and crosswords aren't really my thing. My favourite game on there is 'Rope a Word' where you have to search for a given sentence amongst a maze of letters. The proofreader in me loves that.

Some days I log in; some days I don't, but a typical routine for me when I do log in is:

- I answer the Question of the Day (for entry into the £20 daily draw)

- I answer the Jackpot question (I get 10 crowns for that if I answer correctly)

- I attempt the Triviala quiz (5 questions; 2 crowns per correct answer)

- I do the Rope a Word (20 crowns upon completion)

- I sometimes do other quizzes (pays 2 crowns per completion)

...and I'm done. 7-10 mins tops.


As well as existing games, Triviala adds new games from time to time.


You can obviously play any game on there that you like; however, if you're looking to gain crowns, make sure you look out for the games that have a crown reward and ones that don't. It'll usually tell you, anyway.


Cash Prizes Available...

- forty lots of £15 prizes (dished out every week)
- one weekly £500 Jackpot
- one daily £20 prize (via Question of The Day)

Each entry into the £15 prize draw requires 10 crowns on your part. There's no limit to how many times you can enter (as long as you have the required amount of crowns to enter it).

An entry into the £500 Jackpot requires 100 crowns. You can only enter it once per week. (update - 28/6/10: the Jackpot no longer exists and is apparently going to be replaced with something better!)

And for the daily £20 prize draw, you don't need any crowns to enter it; you just need to answer the Question of the Day for that.

One thing I've noticed is that you can't enter all your crowns into a draw. Triviala freezes 10 crowns in your account. I don't know why it does that, but that's what I've noticed.


Can Anyone Join Triviala?

Well, yes. Aaaaand no. Most countries can join, but a few countries and certain U.S. states either can't join or aren't allowed to play if they do join (read 'how does the site pay' below for more info).


How does the site pay?

If you're in the UK, Ireland or US, Triviala pays via Paypal or Click & Buy (you choose).

For some reason, the following US states aren't eligible to play (therefore Paypal isn't on offer to them): New York, Rhode Island, Arizona and Florida.

I don't know or understand why. Possibly a legal/red tape issue.

Also, for Click & Buy, I quote from Triviala's FAQ:

"Click & Buy offers an international payment service, and Triviala welcomes users worldwide. There are a few exceptions due to local laws over which we have no control: payments of cash prizes to Turkey, Israel and the U.S States of Arizona, Arkansas, Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Lousiana, Missouri, Maryland, Montana, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Vermont are not allowed."

Upon my death, I wish to bequeath my £15 to my beloved cat, PussyDohbele...

£15 ain't much in the grand scheme of things, but for the little I do on Triviala and the fun I have doing it, I'd say it's worth me sticking with the site for now. If I get a couple more wins over the year, then I'm good.


UPDATE - 7th Sept '11: How times change. Looks like Triviala ain't dishing out the cash prizes anymore. Prizes are now of the non-cash variety: t-shirts, memory sticks...

Ah well.


Ebele.

I'd Rather Own a Website Than a Home...

img credit: whitewall buick

I've never been one to want to own a home. It's never been on my list --- even as I'm getting older.

It's just never appealed.

I might not travel much (last time was over 3 yrs ago. New York), but in my mind, I've travelled a lot. Literally. When I sleep, I often visit countries. I once dreamt of a place I'd never been to and when I woke up, I told my boyfriend at the time what the place I'd dreamt of looked like. He told me I'd just described a place called Guatemala. I'd never been there, never seen pictures of it and didn't even know where it was.

As much as I've been in London for most of my life, NOT owning a home gives me the illusion that I can pack up and go any time I want. That illusion is good for my flighty nature.


The only time I'd consider owning a home is if it was in Spain. Never been but I'm fond of it. I'd make it a women's retreat, run workshops, invite practitioners over. And when I wasn't there, I'd rent it out, maybe get an estate agent to manage that side of things.

Ha!, here's me talking as if I can afford to buy a home. I couldn't afford to buy a home even if I wanted to.


While the idea of owning a home doesn't really appeal, the idea of owning a piece of the web does. It's not something I would have previously considered. When I've bought a domain name in the past, seeing it as an investment hasn't been at the forefront of my mind. It hasn't been something I've thought about.

But, lately, I have.

I'd like to have sites and blogs; mostly sites though --- sites that are fairly static (or blogs that are made to look like sites so I wouldn't have to update them regularly).

So far, I have a handful set up (listed – upper left); a couple of which I own (as in hosted on their own domain which I bought myself); others are on blogspot and weebly.


One of the things I do have to master is how to draw traffic. Actually, I take that back. I've read so many blogs on the subject that I have an idea on how to do it. It's the 'doing it' that I haven't done. So, take two:

One of the things I have to GET PROACTIVE about is drawing traffic to my sites/blogs. Without that, any monetising strategies I adopt are unlikely to bear fruit.


So, yeah, that's one of the places my head's at at the mo'; owning a stake in the digital world by setting up sites/blogs that bear fruit financially/residually --- and over a length of time.

One of the (several) futures I want for myself.


ebele.

January '10: Online Earnings...

img credit: meddygarnet

Since I moved on from freelance writing last month, I kinda knew it would make a whole lot of difference to my earnings, possibly for months to come. So it comes as no surprise to me that I made $17.15.

Breakdown is as follows:

- Private client: $10.00

- Cashle: $2.42 (GPT site. read review here)

- DollarClickOrSignUp: $2.18 ('nother GPT site. Open to all countries. Free to join. Low min. payout.)

- QuickRewards Network: $1.94 (yep, another GPT site! read review)

- CloudCrowd: $0.61 (you get paid to complete various short tasks - write, research, review)


TOTAL:- $17.15


I find this figure quite humbling, actually, and exciting too. It's a chance to start again, explore new/other ways to make money online. I have more room to do that since I won't be dabbling in freelance writing anymore.


Anyway, here's wishing everyone a fab, fab, FAAAAB February. Let's kick ass. (psst, i heard hairier backsides are a bit more lucrative. golden tufts of hair, i tell you, golden.)


ebele.