Internet Business Daily

As you can see, I have added a simple Facebook “like” button to my blog on article pages. It’s a very easy way for people to share articles they like and also helps drive more traffic to your sites. Since it seems most people have Facebook accounts now-a-days, there should be plenty of users on blogs liking things. Best part is, it’s really easy to add to your blog too. Here is the code:

<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=<?php the_permalink()?>&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:530px; height:60px"></iframe>

Simply add this on your single.php page anywhere you like. You can change the parameters to customize the link button however you want. I think this is an awesome little trick and will drive more traffic than any of those “share” buttons on most blogs (including mine).

I have launched a new site called GettingTheWin.com. It is all about tips to save money, being frugal, avoiding fees, finding free stuff, reducing bills, and everything else you need to know to have more money at the end of the month. I am writing all the articles myself but will eventually ask people to guest post on the blog. I am very proud of the site so far even though it is very new. Please check it out and let me know what you think.

It’s a new year and it’s time to get to business. I am continuing to consult for some clients for SEO and PPC marketing but have started researching new affiliate marketing products to promote as well. My goal for the first few months of 2010 is to build up a nice amount of passive income through a few steady affiliate marketing campaigns.

Last year, all of my affiliate marketing campaigns were very volatile. One month I would make 5 figures and another month I would make nothing. Although this is exciting and has the potential to make more overall money, having consistent income is more important to me right now. I will update IBD with my progress when I start.

I couldn’t think of an image to add to this post, so here is a picture of my new puppy.

I was just speaking with one of my readers and he mentioned that my comment relish plugin was emailing him every single time he left a comment.

Basically, the comment relish plugin emails people a “thank you” after they have left a comment. It is used to increase RSS readership because it includes links to my RSS feeds. Since it emails people every single time I can see how it would be annoying.

That being said, is it annoying enough for me to remove the plugin? Unfortunately there is no way to change the settings to make it email only new visitors, or only first comments, so it’s either on or off. What does everyone think? Leave it or kill it?

I see many other blogs that report their revenue each month. It is a simple way to give perspective on the size of a blog and potential of monetization. I was recently asked in a comment to share my blog’s income, so here is my revenue for October:

• Private Ad Sales – $250
• Reviews – $150
• Google Adsense – $149.49
• Kontera – $42.69
• TOTAL – $592.18

Although this was not one of my best months I still am very proud at where my blog has come. An extra $600 per month is nothing to laugh at, especially since I had virtually zero costs to run/advertise the blog. I didn’t do any advertising at all this month and server/maintenance costs are minimal.

I am hoping to get my blog’s revenue up to $1000/month within 6 months. I haven’t been good at posting consistently lately, which I need to change. One thing that is always true about websites is: content is king. The more content you have the more traffic you will receive.

A while back I wrote a quick post about a record traffic day I had. At that time (a little over a year ago) I was extremely happy with nearly 400 unique visitors in one day. Looking back that seems like nothing:). Since then I have had many more record traffic days but yesterday was my greatest gain so far. Here is what yesterday’s stats look like:

Yesterday (Tuesday), I had nearly 1800 unique visitors to my site!!! Amazing. So far today I am already at about 1000 uniques (at 4pm). I started this blog about 2 years ago and it has come so far. From being impressed by 400 uniques in a day and averaging a few hundred, to 1800 in one day and averaging 1200 uniques. I will keep posting as long as everyone keeps reading:). I get comments on almost every post now, which is my favorite part of blogging.

I just finished this site’s redesign a few days ago, and figured now would be a good time to throw up a quick post about it. I had been looking for a new theme for IBD for a few weeks now, and I finally came across one that I liked. There were a few common elements that I wanted to keep from the old design, and some new elements which I really wanted for the new design.

• Header Image – One element from the previous design that I wanted to keep was the header image. I absolutely loved displaying a beautiful picture of Santa Cruz, Ca at the top of my blog, sort of as a goal for myself (and others) to want to live in a place like that through making money online. The new design allows for a header image, but I decided to use a different image I took a few years ago. The picture is still of Santa Cruz, but it is one of the beautiful valleys rather than the beach. Do you like the image?
• 125×125 Buttons – One of the main reasons for wanting to change my blog design was that I desperately wanted to accommodate for 125×125 ad buttons. You see these buttons on most business/money making blogs, and there’s a simple reason for that: they work! When someone clicks on one of my buttons and signs up, I get a referral commission. Now I get to display these buttons to everyone who comes to my site.
  

• Easier to Contact Me – Something I really appreciate when visiting other people’s blogs is the ability to easily find/contact the webmaster. With the new design it is now very easy (and obvious) where and how to contact me. I have used visuals to draw reader’s eyes towards that section, so hopefully more people will feel free to contact me. I listed Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, and LinkedIn.
  

• RSS Readership – Another thing I wanted to improve with this blog is the RSS readership. On the old design I only had a small RSS button, that no one seemed to see. Now I have a great big RSS button that probably everyone will see:).
  

• Wider Margins – Lastly, I wanted my blog to have wider margins to allow for more content. I really think the new blog design looks much better, and is easier to use.

These are all very important features to me to have on my blog. Although it took me weeks to find a decent theme to hack up and make my own, it was definitely worth the wait. When you decide to redesign your own blog, you should make a list of features that are most important to you before you start looking for a theme. There are enough WordPress themes out there where you don’t have to sacrifice any feature for another. If you need help finding the right theme for your needs, feel free to contact me.

There are a lot of ways to make money on the internet, but sometimes it’s not about the money. This is one of those cases. I have a new goal for my blog, to obtain the number 1 spot for the search term “Matthew Berman.” I am currently #7 for my own name! This is not right. You can see how I am doing here. This will not be an easy task because I have something like 3 .edu domains to be and a .org. These will be very hard to take over.

I will implement all of the same SEO tactics that I use for any other keyword I am trying to tackle. You can see some of my SEO tips here. I will update everyone on how I am doing on this in a few weeks, till then wish me luck! Anyone who can help me with my goal will be greatly appreciated!

What is Anchor Text?
In my opinion one of the most important factors in SEO is anchor text. A link from another site to yours is like a vote of confidence from them to you. Google sees this and gives your site more respect based on that vote. There are two things associated with a link: the URL and the anchor text. The URL is the address to which the link points and the anchor text is what the link says. For example: make money online. The URL of this link is internetbusinessdaily.net and the anchor text is “make money online.” When Google looks at this they associate that keyword with the URL it is pointing to. There are many other factors that go into the Google calculation of links but this is generally how it works.

Why Anchor Text is Important
So when doing link exchanges or link baiting, you really want the other sites to use your most popular keywords. This will give you better SERPS and therefore more traffic. The surround content is also important. If the entire site and article you are being linked from is about cooking but the anchor text is about search engine optimization, it will not mean nearly as much. A great example of the power of anchor text is John Chow’s site. He had a link baiting contest where many bloggers linked to him with the keyword make money online. Within 4 days he was #3 SERPS for that keyword. So, get those keywords in the links!

** EDIT: The rules have changed, it’s now MUCH easier to win.

So I was thinking of different ways I could increase the traffic to my blog and had a great idea: a blog contest! I am somewhat going to copy John Chow’s review my blog for a linkback idea, but put my own little twist on it. Instead of only giving a linkback (which unfortunately doesn’t mean too much right now), I am going to give away a great pair of Gucci sunglasses to one lucky winner, but everyone will get a linkback who enters. The original sale price of the glasses was $250, but they are an older model so are probably worth a bit less now.

How It Works
The requirement to be entered into the contest is as follows. Create a link to the homepage of this site with anchor text “make money online.” The link must be up for 4 weeks and then it’s up to you if you want to leave it up:). The link must also be on your homepage. For doing this you will automatically receive a linkback from my site.

How To Win
I will let the contest run for 4 weeks after 20 entires have been submitted. At the end of the four weeks, a winner will be drawn! It’s that easy. The winner will also receive another linkback and a review of their site in a short post by me.

How To Enter
After doing everything stated above, you will need to comment to this post with a link to the page on your site containing the link. That’s it! Good luck to all and i’m very excited to read the reviews.