Drew Bennett, better known as ‘Ben’ or ‘BenSpark’, has become one of the most well-known bloggers in the industry through his Photo-A-Day blog, BenSpark.com. I had the pleasure of meeting Drew at several industry events                                       where we discussed everything from blogging  to Drew’s new social media course, and his photography newsletter Behind the Lens.

You can check out Drew’s blog, or find him on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

An Interview With BenSpark

How did you get started in the industry?

In 1995 I taught myself HTML and created a website on my college’s network. I quickly ran out of space and made the IT department very upset with me. From there I worked as the college webmaster and then with an independent web design company. But I didn’t actually start blogging until 2003 with my girlfriend (now wife) Allison. We named the blog BenSpark because my last name is Bennett and hers was Sparks. I think Allison posted about 10 times and I posted much more. 2003 and 2004 were spotty at best, but I tried to post regularly. I really hit my stride in 2005 when I decided to take and post a Photo-A-Day and my purpose for blogging was solidified. Each and every day I took a photo and posted it. Sometimes with commentary and sometimes without. In 2006 Allison saw Ted Murphy on one of those morning TV shows and told me that I could make money from my blog. I joined PayPerPost in the early days and through that I was hooked. I started making some extra income which I funnel back into my blog to upgrade hosting and buying my own domain name benspark.com. I also bought cameras and equipment to enhance my ability to take more photos. In 2007 I attended the first Blog World Expo as well as Postiecon and I got a chance to talk to a large group of bloggers. There I became much more involved in the blogging community.

Is social media your main business, or just an extension of your main online efforts?

Social media is compliment to my blogging efforts. New posts go right to Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook. I respond to every comment, tweet and facebook wall post because I feel that builds a stronger community. I love engaging in conversations with people online.

What is your favorite social network?

It is a tie between Facebook and Twitter. Twitter is great for sharing fun things, but Facebook allows people to get into the conversation and be able to say more than 140 characters.

Why do you think it has more value than the others?

I think that Facebook is better because through it you can funnel all of your other social networks into one place. This way people who are not following your Friendfeed could still see updates, or if you share something on Google Reader, it can also go directly to Facebook.

When did you get started in social media?

I got started in social media in 2006 or early 2007 with Twitter. Although I think I was on MySpace earlier than that, I can’t remember.

Why do you think people consider you an expert in the field?

I don’t think that people consider me an expert in the field although they do ask me many questions. I have a decent following of fantastic people and I have rubbed elbows with some of blogging’s elite. I just find that if I offer to help people I get more positive response from everyone.

Who do you consider a social media expert, and why?

I consider Ted Murphy a Social Media expert because he went from zero to hero on Twitter in record time. Ted know how to promote himself and keep people engaged. Of course, Chris Brogan is an expert and one of the most prolific Twitter users I have ever seen.

Do you think sponsored conversations have their place in the industry (Paid posts, SponsoredTweets)?

I do think that sponsored conversations do have their place in the industry. I have participated in a lot of these and I love them. Not only do I make money from it, but I also engage an incredible new audience with each of these. The ones that work best for me are the contests for fun products. I love writing about a product that I receive and then can give away. I’ve gone out on my own to contact companies and do contests with them directly. This has worked very well for me over the years.

How do you balance professional v. personal?

My blog is a very personal one. I put out my real self. When you meet me in person you will already know me pretty well if you are a reader of my blog. For my professional life, I say as little as possible because I do not want to reveal much about my 9 – 5 job. I want to leave that job behind but the security of it is very important to this small family. I am the single earner of the family. I want my wife to be able to spend as much time as possible with our daughter Eva. Many a blog post has been written while we are on the couch watching shows on the DVR.

Do you make money directly from your social media efforts?

Yes, I participate in Sponsored Tweets, Sponsored Conversations and some affiliate marketing.
If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you?

Christian Slater. I really like him and my favorite movie is Pump up the Volume. I would love to do a blog like that pirate radio show.

OK, now who would REALLY play you?

Jason Bateman.

Is where you are now where you thought you’d be…10 years ago? A month ago? Why/ why not?

No. I never realized where social media would take me. I’ve worked on a movie, won contests for vacations and spoken in front of my peers at many social media events. I never thought I’d be flying all over the place meeting so many people that I knew only from their online presence.

Explain social media so a child would understand it.

Imagine a playground with 5 children on it. Eva knows Sally and tells her that she just got a new Barbie and Sally would really enjoy it. Sally knows Jen and Ellen. Sally tells those girls about Eva’s Barbie. Jen tells Eva that the Barbie is sweet and she has it, too. Eva becomes friends with Jen because of that connection. Jen likes Eva and she introduces Eva to Ellen. Ellen likes Eva and introduces her to Nancy who is over on the swings. Suddenly Eva has 3 new friends because of word of mouth.

Is it about quality or quantity? Do I want more followers or more RTs? Lots of connections on LinkedIn or a few excellent recommendations?

It is certainly about quality. I have a ton of followers but there are quite a few core people that I interact with every day. If someone follows me and then does nothing, no RTs or no messages then do you think I will interact with them? Probably not. But, when someone RTs one of my tweets or responds to it, then I will look for them to more messages and will want to interact.

What services do you use to monitor the social media stream?

I use Tweetdeck, Google Reader and that is about it to monitor.

If you reached a certain level of success, would you ever have someone manage your social media accounts for you? Why/why not (ie Barack Obama)?

I would not have anyone manage my social media because then I would not be real at all.

Do you think celebrities belong on Twitter?

Yeah I think that they should but it pisses me off that they don’t follow their fans. With tools like lists and Tweetdeck they can filter out the people that they really want to listen to but if they followed their followers, then I’d actually feel like they cared somewhat.

Provide the best social media tip you can think of in 40 characters or less.

Be Real, Be Nice and Be There.

Thanks for doing the interview with eMonetized, Drew! For additional tips and stories from BenSpark, here’s a full list of his blogs and resources:

WiredKayaker
ReadToMeDad
GoogleisNotGod
ImNotaFamousBlogger
15MinaDay
FortunateBluFrog
BenSparkles
MehCats
CompetentDads
Droid.Benspark.com

In the past I’ve had some really good success building niche product blogs using WordPress. In a previous post I talked about How I Make Money Blogging. I recently sold my personal finance blog for $12,000. I also plan to start a new niche blog about “saving money” later this year but most of my other blog projects have been put on hold.

The nice thing about building niche product blogs is that total RSS count does not really matter. It’s about building several blogs around small micro-niches and using search engine optimization and some PPC to drive traffic. It’s not your traditional blog that need frequent updating. The only time you would update it is to add a new product review or make some SEO updates etc…

Speaking of Building Niche Websites with WordPress, Caroline Middlebrook contacted me today to let me know that she is offering a new eBook on building niche website with WordPress and it’s 100% free. The eBook download page is here. I have not had time to read her new ebook myself yet but the reviews are positive and I have no doubt that it’s a great read.

Thanks Caroline.

I discovered Derek Beau‘s Make Money Online blog through a comment on this blog.

What attracted me to his blog was not only the quality of his posts but also that he is an already successful affiliate marketer who was starting a new blog. In other words, he was in the same boat as me. Derek has certainly started his blog on the right track. He started with an attractive blog design (I think I need more color here) and he offers clear and solid advice. I have no doubt his blog will be a successful one.

Some of my favorite posts by Derek include 17 Ways To Expand Your Affiliate Campaigns & Increase Your Profits, PPC Affiliate Marketing: How & What To Promote, and Promotion Goals For A Low Maintenance Niche Blog.

Again, none of my “in the spotlight”post are paid reviews.

If you have not been reading Derek Beau I’d start today.

Keep up the great work Derek!

Do you what to get “In the Spotlight?” While I make no guarantees, here is a not so subtle hint…

I like comments, I like links and I like good blogs.

I discover Super Affiliate Mindset written by Amit Mehta about a month ago and the blog has been in my RSS reader ever since.

If there ever is a bloggies award for the most inspirational affiliate marketing blog, I’d have to vote Super Affiliate Mindset as the winner.

While people have different opinions on what defines a “Super Affiliate,” there is no disputing that Amit is one of them. What’s cool about his story is that once he really “got” affiliate marketing he went on to making about $10,000 in affiliate marketing income in just four short months! Today his affiliate marketing websites generate a whopping $90,000+ a month in profits. Hey Amit, lets be friends!

Amit makes in one month about what I make in one year! I’m very pleased with what I have accomplished as an affiliate marketer but he has opened up my horizons to a whole new level.

Amit is one of the main reasons I decided to jump into PPC marketing full steam ahead.

Some of my favorite Super Affiliate Mindset posts include his current series on Why 2% of Affiliates Rake in 95% of the Profits. Also be sure to read Amit’s post about Keyword Research Secrets to Explode Your Affiliate Business.

In case you are wondering, this is not a paid post. I’ve just thoroughly enjoyed reading his new blog. In fact, I have so many questions I’d like to ask him so I’m planning to send him a list of questions via email. If I get a reply, I’ll share the interview with you.

If you have not been reading Super Affiliate Mindset I’d start today. I don’t think you will be disappointed.

Keep up the great work Amit!

In my previous post about How I Make Money Blogging, I wrote about what some of my existing blog projects are and about some possible future blogging projects. I’m hoping it may have helped sparked a few new ideas for yourself!

I’m continuing this series on different ways I’m currently making money online with:

HOW I MAKE MONEY WITH FORUMS:

While I mentioned in my last post that I consider blogging one of the quickest and easiest ways to make money online, I’d consider making money by creating forums one of the hardest.

If you are creating a forum as an “addition” to an already successful website it might be different, but making good money from a new stand-alone forum will be a difficult task.

One problem you may face if you are trying to start a new forum is entering an already saturated niche. For example, if you start a new broad topic webmaster forum you are going to be competing with Digital Point, Webmaster-Talk.com, SitePoint.com etc… Why is someone going to want to join your new forum when there are already dozens of similar forums with high traffic and a lot of activity? If you are entering a competitive forum market then you will have to offer some sort of competitive advantage. Speaking of activity, getting a new forum off the ground is by far the hardest part because people usually like to “go” where the others are. It’s kind of like a herding effect. It’s the same with blogs. Getting a blog from 100 to 500 RSS subscribers is more difficult than going from 2000 to 3000 subscribers (if you show your feed stats).

I’m by all means not saying that you should not start a forum because with some hard work, they can be very successful and rewarding. However, I’d strongly recommend doing a lot of research and shoot for finding a new niche. Think about what’s missing? An example of a couple successful niche forums could be www.vonage-forum.com (which happens to rank number 4 for “vonage”) or www.sprintusers.com/forum/.

Consider creating a forum based on a specific product, service or group of customers.

Once you have created the forum, you then have the daunting task of getting traffic and activity. For this, you might have to try and find some quality hired “ghost” posters to help kick things off. Here is a recap and some other recommendations:

1. Find a New Niche – If there are already 10 forums just like the one you are about to create then it’s probably going to be a very difficult market to crack. As you have heard a million times, “think outside the box!” Also be sure there is enough people searching for help or support on the topic.

2. Use vBulletin – The vbulletin software is by far the best forum software on the market.

3. Use vBSEO – This script will make you URLs search engine friendly and it also includes many advanced features.

4. Visit vBulletin.org – This is a great forum for vbulletin mods, plugins and hacks.

5. Hire Ghost Posters – While this is not something one would want to have to do, it might be necessary to help get topics going. Also consider registering yourself with a few different usernames and post using all of them to create the appearance of more activity. Remember quality is key so read some reviews and do your research when trying to find a good paid posting service.

6. Considering using Adwords – You might be surprised at the quality of traffic you can get at just 5 to 10 cents a click. For example, there are not a whole lot of people bidding on keywords such as “php forum” “asp forum”, or “link exchange forum” etc…

I’ve probably left out a few things, but let me move on with my personal experiences with making money with forum.

The first forum I ever created was the Webmaster-Talk.com Webmaster Forum and to this day it is by far my most successful forum. This forum was started in early 2004 and it has slowly grown to be one of the top general webmaster forums. Yes, I know that there a few bigger and more active forums out there but being a success does not always mean you have to be number one. While I don’t want to give specific numbers on Webmaster-Talk.com’s revenue, the forum makes a few thousands dollars a month through a mixtures of Google Adsense, Text Link Ads, Kontera and a SitePoint partnership. Revenue on this forum could be increased by selling premium memberships and possibly featured marketplace listings etc.

A couple others forums I still own included the Webmaster Ads forum and the Green Earners Forum. I plan to put both of those forums up for sale again shortly since I simply don’t have the time to manage them. Neither of the two make much money but I could probably squeeze a couple hundred dollars a month from them total by selling several cheap text link spots. I also co-own The New Tech forums.

Two forums I used to own include the www.seo-talk.com and www.devboxforums. Both these forums had PR7s at the time. It used to be fairly easy for me to get any website to a PR7 but now it’s become much more difficult. SEO Talk was started from scratch and DevBoxForums was purchased and then resold a couple years later.

Do I have any new forum projects in the works?

That’s doubtful. There are quicker and easier ways to make money online. Webmaster-Talk.com alone takes up a considerable amount of my time but I’ll be keeping this forum unless I get an offer I can’t refuse. I think we will hold on to TheNewTech forums and have that one slowly and organically grow for long term potential. The other two forums I will likely eventually sell.

Nevertheless, you can see that there is good long term potential to make a decent amount of money from forums and if you find the right niche you could create yourself a little goldmine.

Do You Make Money With Forums? Share your experience below.

If you are enjoying my series on different ways I am making money online, please consider Stumbling this post and using the other social bookmarking icons found below this post.

With so many different ways to make money online, it’s sometime difficult to keep focus and to decide which projects to tackle first. Should I start another blog? Should I continue with my new Direct PPC affiliate marketing experiments? Should I work on a deep content SEOd website? Should I start some landing page PPC experiments? Or how about affiliate marketing with Squidoo, Hub Pages, or Ezine Articles?

While I have not completely decided which new projects to focus on first, I’ve decided to start a little series on different ways I am currently making money online including a sneak peak into several of my websites. I’ll also talk about up and coming projects I eventually plan to work on.

I’ll start the series with blogging.

HOW I MAKE MONEY BLOGGING:

Blogging is one of the quickest ways for a beginner to begin earning small amounts of money online. By small amounts, I mean a few hundred dollars a month in revenue. You can by all means make thousands of dollars a month from one blog but that’s not the norm. That takes experience, finding the right niche, a lot of hard work and sometimes a little luck.

On the other hand, creating a blog that makes a couple hundred dollars a month is not very difficult to achieve. If you can do this and repeat the process on a few additional blogs you’ll be bringing in a couple thousand dollars a month before you know it. You don’t have the time? That’s where outsourcing comes into play. One place I’ve used often is Rent A Coder.

The only other active blog I currently own is this Personal Finance Blog. The posts on this blog are almost 100% outsourced at the moment. The blog makes about $750 a month through Text Link Ads, affiliate programs such as Emigrant Direct and Adsense after expenses. That’s not a huge amount of money but it requires very little of my time. I believe I could bring the income on this blog up to around $1000 to $1,500 a month with some additional work. The blog needs better SEO with the use of the nofollow tag on certain links etc. Many of the pages have also gone supplemental because of poor overall page structure. I also had planned to add a new resources section with CPA affiliate offers. I could also use those resource pages in PPC marketing.

I also have SEO Outline, and the Webmaster-Talk Blog sitting around but have not done much with them yet.

About a month ago, I began buying any decent Alli Diet Pill related domains that were left and I picked up: AlliPill.net, AlliShop.net, AlliStore.net, DietPillAlli.net, LowCostAlli.net, MyAlliPlan.net, Buy-Alli-Online.com and Alli-Blog.com

I think the Alli Blog will be my next blogging project because of the current hotness and trends of the new pill.

What other blog projects were /may still be in the works?

In the past I was considering starting a small “HelpYour…” blog network so I purchased the following domains:

HelpYourMoney.com – Active. The personal finance blog I mentioned above.

HelpYourPC.net – Active. But a scraper site picked up the content and screwed things up at the moment.

HelpYourPoker.com – Not Active. Blog for poker tips and tricks.

HelpYourSavings.com – Not Active. Blog for tips on saving and growing you money.

HelpYourTravel.com – Not Active. Blog for travel tips deals.

As you can see, just in the blogging category of making money online, there is an aweful lot of work I have planned and an aweful lot of money to be made.

Do You Make Money Blogging? How is it going for you?

Guest post by Steven Bradley of TheVanBlog

Yesterday I mentioned building relationships with people as a way to generate natural links into your site. Just as all links are not the same, all the people you get to know will not be the same either. Some will be much more likely to link to your site than others. Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz coined the term ‘linkerati’ to refer to these people. Today I’d like to talk a little about who the ‘linkerati’ are and how you can attract the attention and build relationships with one subset of the ‘linkerati,’ namely bloggers.

Who are the Linkerati?

Since Rand coined the phrase why not let him give the definition. The Linkerati

encompasses virtually anyone whose goal is to find external content and link to it, or whose own content creation on the web naturally means that they will create and/or share links.

So anyone who typically links to external content is part of the linkerati. A rather simple definition, though also one that may not give you a clear picture of who these people are. How about a few examples?

Journalists are part of the linkerati. They create content that often points to other content via a link. Not only might they give you a link, but that link likely comes from a very trusted and authority source. Even if a journalist doesn’t link to you, but does mention your site, they can still bring awareness of you and your site to many people who will link to you.

Social taggers, the people who post links to content at sites like Digg and del.icio.us, are part of the linkerati. They don’t create content on their own, but they post links to content at sites that get a lot of pageviews and can help drive a lot of traffic to your content. With social taggers the actual link they post is generally of secondary importance as the links will come from the traffic these social media sites send to your content. Appealing to these people and getting them to tag your content is one aspect of social media optimization.

Bloggers are perhaps the easiest of the linkerati to get to know and get to link to you. I’ll talk about them more in a minute, but bloggers write consistently and have loyal readers who trust the links posted. Bloggers are nearly always looking for sources they can cite and as a community are typically generous with links.

I’ll let you read some of Rand’s posts on the linkerati to understand them better, but I want to make one more point about them. The linkerati is a different audience than the visitors you hope to turn into customers or have subscribe to your newsletter. The two groups can overlap, but it’s important to understand that you’re creating content for two distinct groups of people each with their own agenda when visiting your site. You need to create different content for those you are trying to persuade to become customers and those you are trying to persuade to link to you.

• Identifying the Linkerati
• The Secret to Ranking at the Search Engines (that’s really no secret at all)
• Creating Content that Appeals to a Link-Savvy Audience
• Video – “The Linkerati Kid”

Because the linkerati have so much potential for building links into your site it’s a good idea get yourself in front of them. If a blogger knows who you are and knows and trusts your content she will think of you the next time she is looking for content to link to. So how do you gain the attention of bloggers?

Building Relationships with Bloggers
(blog comments, linking out, and trackbacks)

As I said bloggers like to link out to other content. Look no further than this post for an example. There’s a lot that could be said about the linkerati, but instead of making an already long post even longer I chose to link to other content that explains the concept further. Linking out is much simpler than being all inclusive in a single post and hopefully makes this post a better resource for those who come across it.

One aspect of blogging that differentiates it from static content is the comments at the bottom of every post. Blogging is a conversation and one of the best ways to get to know a blogger is by commenting on their blog. It’s a chance to talk to the person you’d like to link to you. Bloggers notice and respond to comments and if you consistently make intelligent comments they will click on your name out of curiosity. So will readers of the blog, especially if you happen to be one of the first to comment on a particular post. Some of those who visit may end up subscribing to your rss feed as well.

Bloggers also know when another site links to them. They check their stats and naturally want to know what someone else might be saying about them. I’m often amazed at how quickly some bloggers have visited my site after I publish a post with a link to them. I’ve received comments, emails, and links from other bloggers simply by linking to them in one of my posts.

Most blogs also accept trackbacks which will place a snippet of your post (usually the paragraph containing the link) as a comment on the post. Trackbacks can also drive traffic to your content, particularly if you’ve linked to a popular blog and your trackback is one of the first to appear.

Putting it all together say you’d like to gain the attention of a blogger in your industry. You’d start reading their blog and consistently leave well thought out comments and questions to engage them in conversation. You’d also look for posts that you can expand on or take in a new direction, writing your point of view on your blog making sure to link back to the original post. If you’ve done it well and carried the conversation over to your site it’s possible you’ll find the blogger has visited and left a comment and maybe in a day or two followed up on your post with one linking to your post. At the very least you will have gained their attention and through continued to commenting and linking you will build a relationship with them.

The other day when I talked about article marketing and seeking target sites to submit to, I mentioned that you may not want to start at the top. The same is true of which bloggers you try to get to know. The more popular the blogger the more comments and links they will get and the more difficult it will be to gain their attention. Until you can drive a lot of traffic to them through your links it may be hard to get them to notice you.

You might find it easier at first to connect with other bloggers who appear to have a similar amount of traffic and visitors as you do. Even better aim for blogger who seem to be one level above yours in readers and traffic. They’ll be easier to get to know and more appreciative of the attention. Think of it as a bootstrapping process where you gain links from someone with a little more authority than you. As your own authority increases you start looking to build relationships with the next level up on the chain.

Links are clearly important to your success with search traffic, but remember it’s people who give you links. If you want the linkerati to notice you and link to you you need to create content targeted specifically to them, which may be different than the content you create for your customers. When it comes to the linkerati there’s perhaps no other group easier to get to know and get to link to you than the community of bloggers around your industry. Take the time to get to know them first and contribute to their sites through comments and links and in time they will begin to do the same for you.

I’m very pleased with the amount of RSS subscribers eMonetized has received in a little over one month of existence. Here is a thanks to you if you are one of them! A lot of it also has to do with the awesome first batch of Review Me’s I ordered.

I’m not going to post the exact amount of current RSS subscribers until I make a one month recap post. I’m going to be away most of the first week in July but will have someone doing a few great guest posts during that time. When I return I’ll make a post sharing the growth of this blog in terms of traffic and subscribers and also be ordering up some new reviews! Now back to the topic at hand….

Here are the ways I’m currently increasing the RSS subscribtions for this blog:

1. I Include a Nice RSS Subscription Image.

As you will notice there is a large but not overbearing RSS feed image on the top right of the sidebar. The nice thing about this is that it really catches your eye. If I would have only used the text link subscription options it would not stand out nearly as well.

2. I Offer Multiple Subscription Options.

This includes both the traditional RSS subscription option and also the option to have every blog post sent straight to you email. I’m using Feedburner for both options.

3. I Offer a “Full” Feed RSS.

It might reduce total pages views to the website but it’s what most RSS readers want. So give them a full feed.

4. I Placed a “SUBSCRIBE” Link in the Footer of Every Page.

I made my subscription link in the footer all caps and bolded. I also made it NoFollow so it doesn’t leak additional PageRank.

5. I Installed the Feedburner Redirect Plugin Called Feedsmith.

This was done based on Andy Beard’s Recommendation in his WordPress SEO Masterclass.

“…Tim offers a full content feed that is worth subscribing to, though only half of the subscribers will currently be registered by Feedburner. Those that use the auto-discovery link are not currently being redirected to Feedburner.” I fixed this issue with Feedsmith.

6. I Ask Again for the Subscription at the Bottom of Every Post.

For example, at the bottom of this post you will see:

“Did you enjoy this post? Please Subscribe via RSS or email.”

This code to do this was added to my single.php WordPress file just under <?php the_content(); ?>

———————

<?php the_content(); ?>
<div style=”padding: 5px; border: 1px double #CCCCCC; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.65em; margin-bottom: 10px;”>Did you enjoy this post? Please Subscribe <a href=”http://www.emonetized.com/feed/” rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” title=”Click to subscribe to this blog”>via RSS</a> or <a href=”http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=905986&loc=en_US” rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank”>email</a>.</div>

———————

7. I Installed the Comment Relish WordPress Plugin.

This plugin developed by Justin Shattuck sends an e-mail message to users who comment on your blog. It offers nice personalization features and most importantly, you will only receive the email once. It’s a great way to thank readers for making their first comment on your blog and give a friendly reminder about your RSS feed.

8. I Ask for Your Subscription at The End of the About Page.

If someone is taking the time to read your about page and like what they read, there is a good chance they may want to subscribe. Give them that option at the end of your “about” page.

And here are 2 more things I am thinking about doing:

9. Give Away a Freebies to Feed Subscribers.

For example, I have resell rights to a fairly good ebook on Bum Marketing that I might give away to all feed subscribers.

10. Add a Dedicated Landing Page for Subscribing.

This page would also explain what an RSS feed is and how to go about subscribing for those unfamiliar with it.

Do you have more recommendations? Please share them!

A lot of the posts so far on eMonetized have more to do with internet marketing than affiliate marketing but there is a reason for this. I want to experiment with different methods of advertising that I have not used in the past and share the results. I also want you to see how I am building traffic to this blog. Another reason is that I can also help you with affiliate marketing tips all day long but if you don’t have a good grasp on how to get traffic to your website, it really does not help a whole lot. If you are good at internet marketing then you should be good at affiliate marketing. The two really do go hand-in-hand.

In the previous post, I shared a couple tips about how Commenting on High Traffic Blogs can bring in a nice amount of traffic to you own website or blog.

In the past, I have done very little commenting on other people’s blogs. My bad excuse for this is that I’m usually to busy working on my own websites. However, this is only partly true because I have about 30 blogs in my feed reader and spend a hour+ a day reading though other various blogs. If I am taking the time to read them then why not take a few extra minutes and begin placing some comments if I have something to say!

So this brings to my Blog Commenting Case Study 1.

I’ve created a list of 10 A-list bloggers including:

1. Copy Blogger

2. John Chow

3. ShoeMoney

4. Problogger.net

5. Pronetadvertising.com

6. QuickSprout.com

7. eMomsAtHome.com

8. DoshDosh.com

9. AndyBeard.eu

10. 37Signals.com

I’m going to set aside at least 30 minutes a day for the next couple of weeks and begin contributing comments to each of these blogs. I won’t be commenting on a post unless I have something meaningful to add. This isn’t a SPAM campaign. Anyhow, I’ll keep track on how many total comments I’ve added to each blogs and then use my Google Analytics stats to track how many referrals from each website are being sent back to eMonetized.com

It should be an interesting little case study to see just how much traffic commenting on high traffic blogs can send to your website and which of those 10 blogs send the most traffic my way. As always, I’ll share with you the results in a week or two.

It will begin on Monday.

Today I added a new DoFollow WordPress plugin by SemioLogic.com

WordPress by default adds the Google nofollow attribute to all outgoing links in comments. This nofollow attribute is intended to reduce the levels of comment blog SPAM from untrusted websites. The Akismet WordPress Plugin I’m using does a pretty darn good job weeding out SPAM on its own.

The DoFollow WordPress plugin I just installed to eMonetized removes this tag. You will now not only get some traffic from your comments on eMonetized but I’ll also be sharing the link love.

Do You Want To DoFollow on Your WordPress Blog? You can follow the link to the script I’m using above or check out Andy Beard’s Ultimate List of DoFollow & Nofollow Plugins.