Saturday, 3 November 2007

Making money online

So much rubbish is spoken about making money online, but it is possible to make some money if you ignore all the crazy schemes that promise $1000 a day. After all if you could make $1000 a day, why would you bother to market your ideas of how others could make that money when you could put your energy into making revenue yourself if you were genuinely able to???
However, as I said, a certain amount of cash can be made online through various means, my own personal favourite being 'paid to post'. I have recently gained pagerank on this and my other blog, so you will see more paid posts here, but I hope readers will find them well-written and informative.
For more about genuine ways to make money online, please see the Livewyre.NET article. I will talk about some of the schemes I have used in later posts on this blog, but you can read about these schemes over at Munny4Hunny too.
In my experience so far, I would have said that it is possible to make about $200 a month with one blog with a PR2, but hope to find out this month, how much can be made with a PR3 blog AND a PR4 blog with paid posts.

Friday, 2 November 2007

Favourite destinations

When I think about going on a touring holiday, my favourite destination without a doubt is France. France has it all from the sophistication of Paris, the rural beauty of the Loire valley and the French Alps, to the bright light and freedom of the Cote d’Azur and Monte Carlo. France is full of contrasts, I have visited four times and have experienced something different every time.

One trip was our first wedding anniversary to some paris hotels where elegance was the watchword, We dined on the River Seine and climbed the Eiffel Tower, walked along the Champs-Elysees, visited Notre dame, Louvre Museum and experience the buzz of Paris in Springtime.

On another occasion, we visited nearby Versailles and took a trip to Monet’s garden before travelling south to experience more france hotels. In the south, we stayed in Cannes and Menton and Nice where the nice hotels were pleasant and full of character.

The south is my personal favourite, Paris is all very well, but I love the countryside and quaint historical towns (and wineries) of the south. I was caught by surprise by some of the medieval towns that are prevalent around Orange, Avignon and the quality of the Roman remains in those areas. If you are planning a trip to Europe, allow yourself extra time in France to take in all the different aspects that make up one tremendous country. (and that from an Englishman!)

Smorty - paid to post

If you are looking to monetise your blog, then I have found that paid to post programs are more profitable than most other forms of advertising. One such service is Smorty, a scheme that offers upwards of $6 per paid post and allows you to write honest opinion on a range of websites and products. Registering is simple and quick, and you will quickly hear back from them if your blog is acceptable. You are then ready to get paid for blogging. You may register multiple blogs, and each opportunity offered will be for a specific blog. Smorty also operate a points system called a smorty score which helps advertisers to identify good members of the scheme.
The greatest reason for using Smorty is that they pay up within a week of your post being approved and there's not many schemes that payout that quickly - For that reason alone Smorty is definitely worth considering as many other schemes take weeks and weeks to pay out.

My new blog...

I have used some new blogging principles and developed a new blog which I am unleashing on an unsuspecting public....
My new blog seeks to follow the progress of the England football (soccer) star David Beckham as he carves out a career in the MLS at LA Galaxy.
I enjoyed designing the new blog and was able to approach the project in a very different way than with previous blogs as (I hope) I have more of an idea about what I want and how to achieve it than I did when I started blogging a little under a year ago.
There are a few things I need to work on, but I am happy with where it is at right now - take a look and let me know what you think...

Thursday, 1 November 2007

Holiday time

It's about this time of year when the chill starts to kick in, that thoughts turn to Summer Holidays and warmer climes. Lazy days by the pool, reading a good book, or hiring a car and seeing the sights. A vacation means different things to different people.

For some, it’s a hotel with all the amenities, for others, it’s staying with friends and family. I like the idea of the freedom that comes from renting a place and a car for a week or two where you can really relax and feel at home. I really enjoy exploring the surrounding areas and especially trying out the local food.

A location that suits the whole family is important too. I would be more in favour of sight-seeing in San Diego with San Diego vacation rental homes whereas the rest of my family would no doubt be happier relaxing on the beach with Newport Beach vacation homes Whatever floats your holiday boat, you may well find the answer at vacation rentals.

Maybe you own a place that you would like to have promoted at 'Goin2travel' vacation rentals, they have properties from all over the world, pay them a visit, rent out your property and maybe even sort out your own vacation at the same time…

Wednesday, 31 October 2007

Makeover for Livewyre.NET

I have been meaning to give Livewyre.NET a face-lift for some time, but designing can be quite arduous when there are so many factors to be taken into consideration. Now, buttons and banners I am fine with because there is a physical limitation EG. 125x125 pixels, and usually just a name and possibly a small strap-line. Complete website design is a bit of a headache because it has to work on so many more levels. I had settled on a design for Livewyre which I was reasonably happy with. However, it came in for a bit of criticism so I tried to patch it up, but was never really happy with the result... Now I am much happier with the new look of the site, it won't suit everyone I know, but then you can't ever hope to do that...
The current Web 2.0 design thinking is to use a clean template based around a white background with a dynamic graphic header. I used the same principle, but have gone for a black background to complement my black-based header design. I anticipate that some people might feel this is altogether too aggressive and masculine-looking, but at the end of the day you have to satisfy your own judgment first...

Monday, 29 October 2007

Page Rank definitely on the move...

Yes, this time PR all over the web has been rising and falling leaving in it's wake alternatively saddened or elated webmasters...
I am pleased to report that I am one of those who has been elated. I had many discussions about PR in May 2007 when I seemed to be one of the few who was singled out for particularly harsh treatment - I lost the PR2 on this blog entirely and was knocked down to zero.. My other blog dropped from PR2 to PR1, not that dramatic you might think, but I was honestly expecting to get a 3 at least... Most webmasters I spoke to had not experienced any change at all during May, so I did feel a bit miffed to lose rank on two sites where most people I know experienced no change at all. I maintain that it was probably due to the excessive linking that took place when I got involved in some viral linking - I am sure the sudden rise in link-backs flagged me up as a dodgy link-spammer... Anyhow I persevered, and am glad that I did now as my rankings have been not only restored, but boosted. This blog is now ranked 3, and my other blog is a 4 which has opened up some good opportunities for the future.
I started a thread over at mmmtalk when I first dropped rankings, and have followed it through to it's happy conclusion, take a peek if you're interested - if you want to know your own PR, check out this link...

Thursday, 25 October 2007

Waterproof Memo Boards

Need to take notes out of doors or where you expect to get wet? – What you need is one of the new waterproof memo boards from waterproofmemoboards.com. They come as an A4 sized board in clear or bright yellow, with a waterproof pencil for taking notes. You can secure the board via holes drilled in the top, and you can write on both sides. Perfect for schools, sports clubs, swimming pools, construction sites or the home kitchen or bathroom.

Why not ‘splash’ out on a waterproof memo board as a birthday gift or Christmas present for the gardening enthusiast, sports trainer, bird-spotter or busy Mum?

If you have your own blog, maybe you'd also be interested in the blogging competition for prizes ranging from $5 up to $25

Tuesday, 23 October 2007

Some Blogging advice

I am going to try some ideas that other bloggers have revealed, namely creating a new niche blog for a subject that I am interested in, and has a newsworthiness which will mean that there will be new stuff to post almost continuously. The beauty of breaking news is that any significant keywords could be new and you have as good a chance as anyone of getting a search engine slot for a brand new keyword.
I will start this on a free host and then see whether I can pick up traffic for it - I will monetise with adsense though I am considering Auction Ads/Amazon as well. It's under wraps for now until the site is properly up and running, though it is quite refreshing starting a completely new blog (something I haven't done since January). It's a lot easier now that I am a bit more experienced at it, and the site should look a lot better than my previous unplanned efforts.

Tuesday, 25 September 2007

DON'T submit your website to Google!

That's right, the current consensus is that if your site is indexed (and as long as you have valid inbound links it will be...) there IS NO NEED to submit your site to a Search Engine EVER!
Although periodic submission is practiced by many, the likelihood is that these well-meaning folks are wasting their time and risk being identified as spammers if they go over the top and submit too frequently.
Submitting to Directories is a whole different story...
I have written an article about this over at Livewyre.NET - please visit to get the full story

Wednesday, 5 September 2007

Competition

Why not enter my
Competition?????
There's $35 up for grabs for bloggers everywhere and anywhere, click on the RED button...

Thursday, 16 August 2007

If you like this, you'll love.....


MY NEW SITE !!!!
Finally up and running and in 'pre-launch' for beta-testing (official launch 20th August 2007)
Please visit and browse around - there's stuff about SEO like on this blog (VERY like what's on this blog...) and other stuff on making money online and reviews and links to free software - something for everyone....
There are other sections planned, but they're under wraps for now. Future developments will be posted here - never mind the pagerank..... ( I think I have been penalised for my viral linking...ha ha)
If you have any comments about the site, leave them here or mail me via the site itself - let me know if you think there are topics that you think Livewyre.NET should address in the future.
LiVEWYRE.NET - Bringing the internet to life - catchy huh?

Monday, 6 August 2007

Labelling posts

In an effort to make this blog more user-friendly, I have tidied up the post 'labels' and installed the blogspot label-list at the bottom of the right-hand sidebar.
If you want to search using the labels that I have used for posts on this blogs, try the label list (a relatively new widget offered by blogspot). If you want to do this on your own blogspot blog, then go to 'edit template' from your dashboard and then 'add a page element', the label list is an option offered here.
My advice would be to tidy up your labels before using this widget, removing or replacing labels that only appear once.

Thursday, 19 July 2007

Lack of postings

Now if this was supposed to be a dynamic blog, it would have failed in it's objective - I should explain what I set out to do and why this blog is relatively static..
The intention was to fill a blog with a lot of helpful pointers for SEO and general website hints and tips. I haven't been researching the subject as much as I would like, and when I have, I tend to post at my more active blog
- What I have been doing though, is gathering information for my new domain which will carry a lot of the same sort of information, but will be hosted as a 'proper' website. I am not ready to launch yet, but will certainly post here when it is....
I will probably take some time to tidy up this blog and hopefully make it easier to navigate - please treat this site as more of a static resource rather than expecting a load of fresh material. If you have any comments, I will respond usually within 24 hours....

Sunday, 8 July 2007

reviewback - Aaaai Tal

One way to help to raise the popularity of a blog is through review exchanges, reviewback.com is an exchange forum that pairs up reviewers who are willing to trade reviews to increase back-links. That is how I came across the 'Aaaaai Tal' blog. This blog has links to a series of short films made by the authors and posted on YouTube. The video-makers are Portuguese, but their English is excellent - the videos are comic in nature though they might lack a little finesse...
Why not take a look at their blog and rate their videos?
What's more... they even use the same blogger template as me!

Thursday, 14 June 2007

Viral Linking debate

I have a feeling that Google will take note of the popularity of this type of linking and will devise a way of stopping automatic page rank improvement via this system. Nonetheless it will certainly provide good results from social bookmarking and community sites, and may be worthwhile just for that alone...
If you want to get in on the act, take a look at this scheme from Founders Cafe...

========= Copy and Paste below this line ==========
Instructions:
Important Update - Please read here!
1.) Copy and paste the matrix of “ViralTags” below courtesy of Founders Cafe (to support Jimmy’s quest of launching his own Internet Startup with a shoestring budget, please consider subscribing to his Full RSS Feed to see his triumps and struggles in real time).
2.) Substitute the Host Tag and one of the “Viral Tags” in the matrix with your anchor text of choice with your blog’s URL. Please keep anchor text to a max of 3 words to keep the matrix size manageable.
3.) When you get a ping back from someone that has your link in one of their “Viral Tags”, practice good karma by copying his/her Host Tag’s anchor text (automatically the associated link will also be copied) and paste it over one of your “Viral Tags” below.
4.) Encourage and invite your readers to do the same and soon this can grow virally.
Host Tag: SEO Blog
International City Travel | Asian Celebrity News | One Million Shirts | Tech at Hand | Rich Minx | Internet Marketing Austria | Ageless Beauty | Web 2.0 Tutorials | Technology Music Life | infokarir jobs | Manila Mom | Link Love | Blogging Money Secret | Internet Startup Blog | Web Design Blog | Daily Life Technology | Make Money Blogging | Steve’s Tech Blog | Agloco Internet Marketing | Daily Bulls Investing | Tech Gadgets Stocks | Affiliate Program | Computer Seventy-Five | Learn about e-Learning | Tech Hack Ramblings | Jack Book | Screen Writer Guy | Overseas Filipino Worker | TechCruser | Startup Entrepreneur Money | Adsense | ForumFinderBlog | Earn Money Online | Really Smart Guy | Earn Income Online | Day Mind Xpression | Entrepreneurship Internet Web | Make Money Blogging | Create a Blog | Pie Hole | start a blog | Make Money Blogging | Marketing Made Simple | Tech Startups Web2.0 | Music Videos | ViralTags | Build Rankings Fast | Mrs Sparrow | Hot Buzz | Weight Loss | Really Funny Jokes | Best of Blogs | Heroin Addiction Codependence | Internet Marketing German | German - USA | Domain Development Blogs | Sundhed og Helbred | Giving Link Love | Business Blog Web | Photoshop Tutorials | Anitokid Chronikos | Klapkids Chronikos | esofthub’s web finds| Everything iPod | Jason’s Random Thoughts | Fun Web Development | Monetize Your Blog | Yung Silent Whisper | Stratz’s Blog | My Journey | ViralTags | ViralTags | The Sankey’s Stories | Blogging for Money | Wealth Blog | Yi JianLian NBA | Gadgets & Technology | Make Money Home | NFL Cleveland Browns | The Broken Bow | Pop Stars | Celebrity Gossip | Fanatic Space | Cheezmizan with Chuva | Catepol | Wolly’s Weblog | Profitable Productive Blogging | Cat on my Head | Bloggointestinale | 2012 Movies | iMod | Lorad Zarcon | Instruzioni | Sid05 Weblog | Bayle | Random Access Life | Mario’s Weblog | Acchiappasogni | Dietro e a Casa | Make Money Online | Anchor Text | Alex 2000 | My Life | Personal Finance | Hanneng.net Tech Blog | Business Twins | Pixie Tail | Gold Rushing’s Blog | Trade CDs | Business Chats | Paid to Blog | beijing olympics 2008 | Beijing Hotels | Beijing Travel | Sexy Celebrities | Stock Trading | stock option | LifeIsRisky.Com | Monkey Wong | Useful Blogging Tips | Sexy Celebrity | Global Tips and Tricks | Mariuca’s Perfume Gallery | Make Money Online | JLS Cisco Networking | Humor Jokes | Mik3 | Web2.0 Founder Interviews | Political Social Media | Master Engrafter | Making Money Online | GoldyWorld Fun | Static Thinkbox | Mariuca | Investing Women Online | Tech Lock-Rahul| The Poor Mouth | Daves Blog | Huma B~ | It’s a Miracle | Visit Egypt Online | Butterfly Feelings | Tell no Lies | McBilly’s Making Money | Earn Money Online | RideIt Like you StoleIt | yoeru | Make Money Online | Revellian | EZ Profit | Make Money Blog | TeamKyoudo | Chew on That | Bad Girls Diary | Chronic Headache | El Commentario Diario | Social Media Munching | Good Jokes | Social Networking Mother | MSU Spartan Sports | The SOHO Quest | Make Money Online | Caribbean Travel Blog | Jehzlau Concepts | Nonsense & Tears | Time Clock Software | SEO Blog | Anything and Everything | Father of One | Web Comic Artist | Justice Investmets | Terrible Horrible Evil | Russian Jokes Videos | Personal Development Blog |

Important: Once I get a ping back from you (I promise to do the best I can), I will add your anchor text and the associated link you designate as “Host Tag” here, replacing one of the “ViralTags” from the matrix above. As more and more bloggers copy and paste this matrix, the more backlinks you will have with your anchor text. If everybody who copy and paste from your blog does the same, pretty soon this will spread and go viral. So, the sooner you participate, the more links with anchor text you will receive.
======== Copy and Paste from Above this line ========

Wednesday, 30 May 2007

SEO - linking via mini-banners

Linking or off-site SEO is crucial for gaining page rank, and a popular way of doing this is to exchange banners. There is a kind of accepted standard for these mini-banners which are both attractive and unobtrusive.
Munny4Hunny is running a promotion offering free custom-designed mini-banners for links - why don't you take a look at the rules of the promotion and have a banner made up for your blog or website.
Below are a couple of example banners:
Stratz's blog Livewyre
You can also click the following graphic to take part:

Free Mini_Banner

Tuesday, 29 May 2007

Adsense pays out...

For all you skeptics out there.. I am pleased to announce receipt of my first ever Google Adsense payment directly into my bank account his morning. I had heard so many people doubting the Adsense scheme, and I have received a warning for using a traffic exchange program (I had no idea that this was against Googles' TOS...) - so I was wondering whether I would get booted before the long-awaited payout. I am very pleased to say that my good behaviour has been rewarded...I should make it clear that the adsense is not for this blog (though a very small part of it did come from here). Read through my posts if you are interested in finding out more about my website...

Sunday, 20 May 2007

Have a little patience

I noted that when I first had my website indexed, a google search only got me on the first page if I was really specific ie: 'Livewyre studio' the title of the site (unconnected to the URL www.cassette2dc.co.uk). Just using 'Livewyre' got me nowhere. Time and traffic has rectified all that and if you do a google search for 'livewyre' now, you will find cassette2cd occupying slots 3 and 4. Slot 6 is a free Lycos account that I use, slot 7 is this blog and Slot 10 is me on 'Bumpzee'.
That is a whole lot more satisfying than my first forages into searching for my sites in google... This just serves to demonstrate that the internet is fluid and changes from day to day, week to week and month to month - if you work on SEO, you can get your rankings to the top of the tree. Of course Livewyre is not an important keyword for me as it will not bring new visitors in itself as the word is meaningless, however proof that your site can be on the first page for SOMETHING is a reward in itself.
(Of course, the internet is so fluid that this may all have changed by the time this is published....)

Wednesday, 16 May 2007

SEO - What's the big deal?


Search Engine Optimisation is talked about that much, I wonder if I forgot to explain WHAT IT'S ALL FOR....??


Well, it's like this - we all treat the world wide web like a massive library conducting search after search until we find the information we require. The search engines are the library assistants who will find the information for you, because I forgot to say, in this analogy, you are blind!


Now some of the library assistants are sponsored by Virgin and Sony and Microsoft - they have football-style shirts with advertising on the front (which you can't see 'cos you're blind..). These guys will try to push you towards their sponsors, but all the librarians are really well-read and have their favourite books. They will point you towards the books that they like because of the way they are written.


Newer books take a while for the librarians to read and categorise the information, but eventually your new book (website) will stand alongside everyone else's.


OK I'm bored with this rather bad analogy now, but the point is that the search engine be it google, msn yahoo etc.. is the means by which most visitors will find your site, and SEO is all about making your book popular with the librarian - get it? (Wow, I used google image search and look at the image I found....!!)