Archive for October, 2007
Macewan.org – A Great Review!
Oct 23rd
Robert MacEwan is the owner of macewan.org and if the name doesn’t ring a bell, I am sure you have seen him around some of the top blogs in the blogosphere and as an advertiser on JohnCow’s Blog. His blog discusses a wide variety of subject matters but surprisingly enough doesnt include a “Make Money” category. Considering Robert made a whopping $2,500 from PayPerPost alone, people should be flocking to see how he did it. Robert’s blog has a conveniently placed page named “Make Money Blogging” which is exactly what I was looking for.
Make Money Blogging
The best part about the page is the PayPal screenshot. I just love these and so do most other people because seeing how well others are doing makes you want to do just as good or even better than them. The idea that he made over $840 dollars within 5 days should be motivating enough for most readers. Robert began monetizing his blog in July of 2007, about 3-4 months ago and as of September last month, his earnings was in the $5000 range! You heard right, $5000. The second thing about Roberts blog is that its a PR6 blog so he must be doing something right! Seeing Robert make money through PayPerPost has made me want to jump on the bandwagon too and after you read his post, you will probably feel the need to do so also.
Design
Talking about Design on this blog was pretty easy. I give Robert a high five for picking a unique theme. I have seen a lot of blogs that used the “Misty” look but this theme is different from most and even though its not custom, I haven’t seen it around and that makes it just as good as being custom. I like the idea of the RSS button being placed at a spot where it is visible and yet quite classy in the way its positioned. I also like how the Search bar and the Recent Posts boxes are extended to both columns. Speaking of design, I would really like to see Robert change out the default About picture to a picture of himself. It will really help people identify better with him as a blogger in the long run.
Content
The content Robert produces is what I like mainly because its concise and to the point. He doesn’t beat around the bush just to make a post twice as long as it was meant to be. For example, in some of his posts he just writes a few lines about an article he found interesting and links to it, letting the original article be the source of information. I would really like to see Robert talk about making money online and although he claims he isn’t an expert in the area, it would still help his blog gain better rankings if people see the numbers he is pulling each month. I would like to say that content wise , Robert provides a nice variety of articles so that you aren’t reading the same thing every time you visit. Sometimes if family related, other times its product recommendations or even blogging related. Its good to have a variety and Robert provides that variety very well.
Things I Like:
1) Unique Design & Excellent Theme Choice
2) Variety in Blog Posts Helpful to Readers
3) Make Money Blogging Page well placed on top fold of the page
4) Nice set up of sidebars – makes it easy to navigate through the blog
Suggestions:
1) BlogRush widget – I would highly suggest to relocate the BlogRush widget to allow the categories to rise to the top so that the widget doesnt look out of place.
2) Archives Sidebar – The archives go from 2004 to 2007 and are quite long, it may be sufficient to only provide 12 months, however it may not be possible depending on the coding of the theme.
3) Ad Removal – There is an ad in the sidebar that you can see below that uses a scrollbar. It may be best to remove that ad if it isn’t performing too well, that way you more room can be made for other things.
4) Center Align Sidebar Items – Under the scrollbar based ad, there is some advertising, a TLA button and Alexa widget, it might look more appealing if those were center aligned and that could be easily fixed with a div tag or simple html code.
5) Feedburner Chicklet - I would really like to see the Feedburner chicklet move from the bottom of the page to the top where it is visible. The blog has more than 50 visitors and so it can be tempting for others to join!
6) TTZMedia Ads – I really like the TTZ Media Ads however in the affiliate panel i suggest that he should change the borders from black to white there by allowing the blog to flow better because the black border around the ad isn’t helping the blog flow as well. You can see an example of the border below.
Conclusion
Well, thats about it, I am positive that Macewan will be able to take his blog to the next level because his current statistics are in great shape. I really think that starting to bring in the aspect of making money blogging will help the blog too. I also think that making some of the changes as suggested would be useful to him in making the blog more appealing and thereby attracting more visitors. So, I hope you liked my review and I want to see what your thoughts are on this blog.
Get A New Cadillac
Oct 22nd
Cadillacs are the epitome of luxury specially when you can get a good deal in your neighborhood. If you are looking for a nice new vehicle then you should check out New Cadillacs Harrisburg PA . Their Auto Group is family owned and operated and has been providing service to Central PA for over 75 years! Some of their dealerships have been established since as early as the 1930s. Their Sutliff Chevrolet has been at 13th and Paxton St in Harrisburg since 1931. The Saturn of Harrisburg was the first Saturn dealership in all of the United States. There are now 5 area Saturn locations. Sutliff was also chosen to be among a select group fo GM Dealers to begin the HUMMER franchise in 2002 and its proud to present Cadillacs now. A Cadillac is a symbol of status, elegance and luxury and new Cadillacs of Harrisburg PA will provide you with that. They are determined and motivated to provide their customers with a satisfying experience and want to make sure that all their customers are completely satisfied with their purchase. So if you are on a quest to quench your thirst for a new car with that new car smell then head on over to your friendly local dealers in PA and get your hands on a lovely new Cadillac!
Is Your Blog Worth It?
Oct 21st
I recently had this as a guest post on Brian Aldrich’s BlogDuck and I liked it so much that I decided to repost it on my blog. So, have you ever though about how much money your blog could potentially be worth? Well, its an idea that most people don’t think about often and it is something that I have started to think about lately on my own blog. When you start a blog, you never imagine that you may have to sell it one day if it gets popular enough. For example, not too long ago Jane May from Jane May Blogs sold CareerRamblings for an impressive $20,000. That sounds like a good amount but was it really worth the time she put into it? Maybe it is, maybe its not. There are a few things that could decide the price your blog can fetch, so lets take a look at what some of those factors could be:
1) Google PageRank – Obviously, Google has been a little late on the PR updates for this go around but hopefully they will get to it soon. Either way, if your blog is PR3 then maybe your blog may not be worth as much as it would be if it were a PR5 or higher.
2) Technorati - As much as Technorati is fluctuating nowadays, it still plays an important role in deciding the price of your blog. Your Technorati has to be high enough to attract peoples attention enough to pay the price. Technorati actually sees the “blog reactions” or link backs you receive from other blogs and that helps in deciding how popular you are in the blog world.
3) Alexa – Alexa also plays an important role in deciding the price of your blog. It is probably a little more difficult to get your Alexa under 100,000 than it is to get your Technorati under 100,000. For my blog the Alexa is at 82,000 but it has taken 5 months to get it there however, Technorati has been under 20,000 for the past 2 months. Alexa is also harder to get added to but if you run the link report for your blog through Alexa, I have seen that you get added faster to Alexa if you aren’t already listed.
4) RSS Readers/Traffic – This is pretty important too as the potential buyer may want to know how much traffic the blog gets on a daily basis because traffic converts to money and if you aren’t already monetized, they want to know how much their possible earnings can be. RSS Readers and Traffic also are a signal of your popularity and usually people do not include the Feedburner Chicklet if the number of subscribers isn’t over 50. Either way, RSS Readers and Traffic are important to keep any blog alive because without readers, you dont have an audience willing to hear what you have to say.
5) Money your Blog Makes – This is probably the most important aspect if your blog is monetized. If it isn’t monetized then the potential buyer would need to assess how much money the blog can generate. The whole idea is that people want to know their “break-even point” and “Return On Investment (ROI)”. What do these mean? Well, break-even point is the time at which the price they paid for the blog is recouped. For example, if they pay $1000 for a blog that generates $200 a month on average, they would expect to have recouped their money within 5 months ($1000/$200 = 5 months). ROI is the percentage of return they earn on their investment in a year. Lets continue with the same example, in this case if their ROI would be 240% ( $2400 a year / $1000 initial investment = 2.40 or 240%). It may sound a little complicated but it is definitely something worth considering if you are going to purchase a blog.
Conclusion
Anyway, I hope you have seen some of the factors that can affect the price of your blog. It is essential to note that money isn’t everything and you could also be just as happy owning a non-monetized successful blog. However, considering most of the blogs out there are “Make Money Online” blogs, this information should be insightful to most of you. Hope you enjoyed this post and let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!
Experimental Blog Auction
Oct 18th
Well, its that time in the blog’s life where I have decided to see the price this blog can fetch. I know what you’re thinking “Another Blog For Sale”, well technically its not for sale. Let me explain. Some of you know that time is sometimes not on my side and I know that starting next semester, in about 2 months, I will have pretty much no time at all. I know its sad to say because this blog has been a big part of my life over the past 5 months and I would really hate to let go of it just yet but I need to find a good owner to transfer it over to and I think its time to start searching for a new owner.
This doesn’t mean the blog will be transferred over or that I will no longer be hosting this blog but I just want to see who comes forward to make an offer on this blog. So to clear it up, this is an experimental blog auction, the blog isnt actually on sale and it doesn’t mean that I will be selling it, I just want to see how interesting this will get based on offers and such. Here are some statistics to base your bid on:
Technorati: 19,110 (used to be 15,000 but Technorati is playing games with me!)
Alexa: 82,620
Predicted PR: 5
Avg. Monthly Earnings: $128.77
Okay, so you’ve seen the statistics, now lets take a look at some of the auction rules:
1) Auction starts at $50, which is considerably low but lets see where this goes
2) It includes the custom theme, the blog ofcourse, all the posts, the domain, the hosting account, etc.
3) Bid increments are preferred to be in multiples of $5, so for example you can increase bids by $5, $10, $15 and so forth
4) Please bid as though it was a real auction, do not make up imaginary bids!
Once again, this is just to see who comes forward to try and get ownership of this blog. Obviously, the blog has seen a lot of success in 5 months and I’m just curious to see how that translates into numbers. As part of the blog auction process, I would like to invite Prija, Ms. Danielle, John Chow, John Cow, Problogger, RomanDock, BetShopBoy, Life Is Colorful, TheKingKongBlog and all my readers to this blog auction event. I don’t think an experimental blog auction has ever taken place in the blogosphere before and I want to see how this turns out. You can bid on the blog by making a comment! Thanks for reading guys and lets see where this goes!
No More Analog TV For You!
Oct 17th
So, I dont know if many of you have heard of this or not but Best Buy, a major electronics retailer, has decided to stop selling Analog TV sets. According to them, consumers are buying more digital televisions and are moving towards high definition or flat panel tvs. Apparently, it is the end of the era of Analog TV’s and the sale of the tv’s has stopped starting October 1st of this year.
According to me, this is a smart move considering that beginning February of 2009, broadcasters will only transmit digital signals meaning that your old analog TV sets will no longer work if they arent connected to a cable or satellite service. There are about 60 million households that use analog cable and the government will be providing each household two $40 coupons to help those individuals buy the converter boxes.
What I think is interesting is that I feel BestBuy has started to remove the analog line of TV’s pretty early on and I do not know how much that will affect them. Considering the fact that sometimes you can get a cheap 32″ flat panel for around $500, it may be a good idea. I do not see anyone going in for analog sets anymore and more people preferring the projection tv’s or high definition sets. I think its a pretty interesting idea and I cannot wait for the day when LCD Tv’s become cheaper to buy because that is what I would like! Anyway, let me know your thoughts on this, is this a smart move away from old technology or is everyone just jumping the gun when it comes to getting rid of analog tv’s?
Source: MSN
