Make money with blogs

Posted on January 6, 2007 by Andy Callaghan.
Categories: Google, Internet.

There aren’t many ways of making money solely through the internet, but one of the quickest rising and easiest methods is through a blog. Blogs are a great way to promote articles, discuss various ideas, and promote your website itself. However, there are several ways you can make money with blogs as well.

1. Sell advertising
The most common way people make money with blogs is selling advertising. If you build a large blog you can sell advertising space for people to put their ads on your manually on your blog. This generates the most revenue, as you can agree to show the ad for a set price, and not have the ad’s value based on clicks through that ad.
However, the majority of people use Google AdSense. It is free and they pay you per person that clicks their ads. Ads from the Google Adwords network which broadcast on the ‘Content network’ will appear on your blog along with some public service ads.

2. Sell your products
A blog is a great place to discuss advice and opinions on various subjects. It can also be a great place to promote your product and tell them how it can benefit them. Whether it’s your blog or someone else’s, look at it as an opportunity to fulfill peoples’ needs, not that you are just selling your product.

3. Affiliate programs
This is a great way to make money with blogs that hardly anyone even considers. By mentioning the product, the affiliate program will provide you with a clickable link to hyperlink the word with. This way if people are interested in your blog post and click on the product word, they are directed to the affiliate program website where you make commission on all products they buy.

4. Sell your website
It may seem a cliche because everyone sells their own website and business through blogs. However, it is your approach that can mean the difference of you making money with blogs or not. If you spend the whole time talking you will seem uninterested in others’ insight. If you incorporate others’ thoughts and opinions and strike up a conversation with little bits and pieces about your business, you soon will have them reeled in. By talking about their business and showing interest you will find that more people are interested in your business in turn.

5. Consistency
The more you post the more chances people have to see you and your website link. It is vital that you make one post a day or at minimum a few a week. This way people become accustomed to seeing your posts and hearing your advice or questions. This is a great way to build relationships, which will help you sell your product, share ideas, and promote your website.

Domain Names

Posted on by Andy Callaghan.
Categories: Internet, Site news.

Imagine life without the internet? No – everything these days is governed by its presence, so it is important that everyone has at least a basic understanding of the key to all this activity – Domain Names.

The advent of the internet brought several changes in the human beings lifestyle and to the society in general. And today, here comes the “domain name” as part of its system. However, despite the fact that many of the people are using the internet today for whatever purposes, the term “domain name” is not that well-understood. Many were using the internet, joining any sites on the web, but it turns out that they are not aware of the nature of the domain name. So what then is domain name?

Generally, when we say “domain name”, we are basically referring to a distinct or unique name that recognizes a site on the web. It is then considered to be a portion of the URL or address of a web site. This particular thing has simply two major components, and these components are typically separated by a dot.

For a concrete view of the nature of a domain name, it is then much better to show an example of this thing. So, one of the common and widely identified domain names on the web is www.google.com. I am sure that you are all familiar with Google, so it is then very interesting for you to know that the first part of the domain name which is the www actually stands for the host server, that is the World Wide Web where in the site is found. The second part then which is what Google identifies the company or the organization name. And finally, the last part which is the .com then mirrors the type of organization. Generally, this is known as the “top-level domain name”.

Even the simple choice of the extension (.com .co.uk .net .info) can have a significant influence over how search engines view it. Dot Com (remember the old crash in the late 90s ) is still the most sought after, and therefore the most expensive name to buy.

The next significant part is the use of 2 or 3 letter abbreviations. Names like IT.com DIY.com, IBM.com ACT.com. are no longer available in any shape or form, having all been reserved many years ago by forward thinking people when the internet first started to appear.

Many of these names were probably sold for thousands to willing and desperate companies wanting the abbreviations. There is no guessing who snapped up ibm.com. And of course, DIY.com was snapped up by B&Q, the massive UK-based do it yourself store.

Nowadays, with all these short names gone, the key is using relevant keywords in the domain name. This can have a dramatic effect on the effectiveness of locating a domain name in a search. Keywords built into your domain name usually mean you are found quicker, and higher up on search engine results.

Speaking of the top-level domain name, it is very nice to know that some of the common top-level domain names used in the internet comprise the .gov which stands for government agency, .org for an organization, .edu for education institution, and .net for a network service provider.

Many domain name experts have considered that one of the best and simple tricks for locating companies and organizations on the internet is definitely to enter the name with the appropriate top-level domain name.

An exact and concrete awareness of the domain name is the best key for finding the desired site. Remember that! Also remember, the more relevant the domain name to your product, service or organization, the more easily you will be found.

The end of Windows is nigh (for me anyway)

Posted on by Andy Callaghan.
Categories: Microsoft, Open source, Rant.

Hee! look at me using big words like nigh! Well okay, not that big I guess.

I have finally decided to scrap Windows forever… kinda.
I’m going to use Open Suse Linux 10.2 for all my files, word processing, browsing and everything.
I will only use MS Win XP for programming, and web development – this is because Reading Uni will still want us to use Visual Studio as our IDE, and not Sun Studio, or anything Unix based (yet).

I’m currently installing it on my home computer that my parents use to try and hoist them away from using Windows, and I am about to install it on my new shiny university computer.

Now… do I want to set-up my computer as a file server at Uni?….