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KetTarma posted:I've made about $7 from display ads and $0.24 from affiliate links this month. I guess that covers my maintenance fees.
How much did you pay for the theme if you mind me asking? How configurable is it? How many plug-ins do you have running? What are they? I find when people start blogging they can get a plug-in happy. When I started I had over 20 because everything looked so cool and would make my blog work so much better!
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Jan 16, 2014 19:33
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KetTarma posted:Here's my site: https://www.wirebiters.com Feedback: * The tags in black really stand out - too much so compared to the articles. I don't think that's where you want the reader to focus. Move it, change the color so it's less prominent, or drop it altogether. * Have a look at some resources around headlines (Copyblogger, etc) and work on your headlines. "5 Reasons You Should Switch to LED Lamps" is better than "Why should I switch to LED or fluorescent lights?" * Get a better profile picture. One where you don't look like you loving HATE having your picture taken, and you're just counting the seconds until the deed is done and you can get on with your life. * The black bar below Wirebiters and above the story dialog needs to go. * Fiverr yourself a bitchin logo in place of the text title. * Too many social buttons at the top. There's no way you're maintaining all of those regularly - especially if it's just you. Twitter, Facebook, G+, Pinterest, RSS, YouTube (If you've got a decent camera to use, a decent Lavalier mic, etc. - I think your subject matter would lend itself really well to doing video (which is an additional revenue stream), if you're willing to put in the effort to learn how to make GOOD videos) * Categorize all your posts. "Uncategorized" will never, ever be clicked, and I think it makes blog authors look a little lazy - but that's just me. "Uncategorized" is fine for a personal blog, though. * Finding your voice: This is something you'll pick up as you write more, but for now, I'd recommend that you go back through what you have after it's been published (or let it sit in Drafts) and you haven't looked at it for a few days, and look again to see what you can cut, and where you could expand more. Here's an easy example: The Lead - As Written posted:In an earlier post, I mentioned how I save electricity by reducing the phantom loads (also called vampire loads) in my house. Someone almost immediately messaged me asking what that meant. Since it’s an interesting question to answer, I decided to to make it my next topic. Plus, I’ll talk about how to reduce your electricity bill as a bonus. The Tight Lead posted:After my post on Phantom/Vampire Loads, I got a message asking what in the world I was talking about. Right. Let's talk about what they are, why they're costing you money every single month, and how to put a stake in them! Kenny Rogers fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Jan 16, 2014 |
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Jan 16, 2014 20:04
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jabro posted:
I'm using this theme which was 45$. I was kind of afraid to go diving into the php files to try to disable the social media stuff. I disabled everything I'm not using. I'm going to make a github account (people still use that, right?) and g+ account (is that worth the effort?). I just dont have any code that's really notable other than C++ schoolwork. I have some VHDL that's kind of neat and am learning assembly right now so I'll have some of that eventually. I cant delete the Uncategorized category without messing up my theme. I can, however, change it to Announcements which sounds better. I have a youtube channel but I havent done a very good job of setting it up. My camera gear is... my cellphone. It's not very good. I used to teach so I know I can at least present topics well. I just need something better than aiming my cellphone at what Im doing. I decided to just drop the tags. I'm not entirely sure what they're there for anyway. I'm going to hire a graphic designer I know to make a logo eventually. I just have no clue what to go for. Plugin-wise: All in one Rich Snippets Google Analytics Google XML Sitemaps Jetpack Symple Shortcodes Pinterest Automatic Wordpress SEO Edit: I already had a mail plugin installed (Jetpack does everything) KetTarma fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Jan 16, 2014 |
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Jan 16, 2014 22:37
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Embedded responses.KetTarma posted:...G+ account (is that worth the effort?). Had a look just now at what you've done. I like it a lot! It's MUCH cleaner looking and way less busy than it was. EXCELLENT JOB! 
Kenny Rogers fucked around with this message at 23:33 on Jan 16, 2014 |
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Jan 16, 2014 23:04
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KetTarma posted:I'm using this theme which was 45$. Looks a hell of a lot better. Have you thought about a background image instead of the grey? A circuit board or an electrical field related would go perfect with this. Something like the below image but work it so your blog is in the middle and the electricity from the wires are energizing it. Or something like a Tesla Coil. Make the blog eye-catching even before someone starts reading they know what the blog is about and are interested in reading what you have to say. People are very visual.  Yes, I know that image is lame but it's the best I could find quickly to get my point across.
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Jan 16, 2014 23:30
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Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I'm going to look at getting a logo soonish. I'm sure I'll have more newbie questions in the near future. I made 34 cents today at least :3 After spending more hours than I care to mention doing all of the suggestions you guys had, I think I might hold off on writing an article for tonight haha. My Google MultiScreen rating just went from 5 stars to 1 star. I have no idea why.always something. KetTarma fucked around with this message at 02:17 on Jan 17, 2014 |
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Jan 17, 2014 00:51
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KetTarma posted:
Have you checked your site on a mobile device? Likely candidates would be breaking your responsive design, bad HTML, or including media that wouldn't display on a mobile device.
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Jan 19, 2014 20:42
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snagger posted:Have you checked your site on a mobile device? Likely candidates would be breaking your responsive design, bad HTML, or including media that wouldn't display on a mobile device. Mine went from 5 to 4 and then back to 5 about a week later.
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Jan 20, 2014 00:46
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Well, somethings come up. A little while ago someone approached me to put a not-very-detailed-and-blatantly-paid-for post (plug for some optics company at the end) up on my site (https://www.astronomyaggregator.com) . I said no thanks, thats not what I'm looking for, if you want to write an astronomy article that isnt a marketing plug go right ahead. I had another email from the same person asking if I would name an article title that they would write to - I didnt reply to this since Ive had a bunch of university exams going on. I've just had an email from the same person asking how much I would charge them to have one of their articles on my site. Is there something that I'm missing? Has Astronomy Aggregator suddenly, strangely, shot up some search results somehow? Or is this person just trying to get as much of their crap out there as possible?
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Jan 22, 2014 16:31
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I have another question about social media. So far I've typically just been using facebook, google+, twitter, and pinterest to put links to my blog posts. I was reading about social media optimization and how you need to build a community in your niche. Is it considered poor form to post links on my social media pages to other blogs in my niche that I haven't authored. Say I see an interesting recipe on my twitter feed and then use it to create a post or pin on my facebook/google+ or pinterest. If this is encouraged, where is the line so it doesn't appear "spammy". I've been reading on this subject for the past couple days and realize authorship is important, but I haven't found any resource that addresses this directly.
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Jan 23, 2014 19:52
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DoctorJones posted:I have another question about social media. So far I've typically just been using facebook, google+, twitter, and pinterest to put links to my blog posts. I was reading about social media optimization and how you need to build a community in your niche. If I'm understanding your question correctly, then what you're talking about is considered one of the necessary cornerstones of website growth, outreach, and marketing. Sharing content from other similar sites in your niche on your social media pages is a huge way to connect with others and grow followers and trust, which in turn will help your own content as you start publishing more. The line for spam appears when you start reposting all these things without adding any of your own commentary to it. For instance, posting a half-dozen links in a row on your Facebook page to blog posts you found interesting might turn people off and doesn't really add anything. But putting a short sentence or two about why you found those useful, or who might benefit from them, etc is considered much better and will help you network. You doing that for other blogs, and they doing it for posts of yours that they find interesting, are how you grow backlinks and new readers in an area that is so dependent on good social marketing. Some people overdo it. The service Buffer has helped people really start posting links to content that isn't there's very easily on Twitter, because it allows you to mark any blog page you find interesting and will automatically tweet it for you at a scheduled time, it takes no effort. So I follow some web marketing blogs that literally fill my feed with 100 tweets a day that are nothing but links and a quick blurb to articles they found interesting on similar sites. Don't do that, try and add something to the conversation and your followers will take notice and you'll start getting more attention. I hope that all made sense, it turned out longer than I meant. EDIT: and it goes without saying, always give credit. Don't disguise a tweet and link as something that's yours only to have the reader realize it's a totally different site when they click it. Include the author's twitter handle in the tweet, mention the page in the Facebook post, etc.
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Jan 24, 2014 14:32
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I started my first monetized blog on Monday. It's been going well so far. I've been hammering social media, getting some organic traffic from google, and have also posted some paid ads on bing because I had $100 in coupons there, so it's free traffic. I get about 20-30 unique visitors a day. Average time spent on my site today with 15 visitors so far today as been 1m 10s. My problem is that no one is clicking on my google ads. I have a top banner ad and then a large square ad at the top of my sidebar. I have the banner set to picture ads only, and the sidebar ad is pic and text ads. I've had 15 clicks on my affiliate links, but no one has purchased anything. Is this something that just takes time/requires more visitors? I have seven posts so far and about 1-2 affiliate links per post. I'm considering adding an in-post text ad from google, but don't want to appear too spammy, especially while I'm still trying to grow my audience. It's a dog blog where I post tips for dog owners, how to advice, and my own personal experiences with my dog if that helps for context. EDIT: DoctorJones posted:I have another question about social media. So far I've typically just been using facebook, google+, twitter, and pinterest to put links to my blog posts. I was reading about social media optimization and how you need to build a community in your niche. Try stumbleupon as well. I get some traffic from there, though not much yet. As warheadr mentioned, it's fine as long as you add some commentary of your own. Maybe provide some additional insight, or your response to the post. I haven't reposted people's posts on my social media other than retweets, but I do try to reply to people's posts on their blog with my website attached to my post. I also read that adding the #RT hashtag increases retweets by something like 70% according to some small study. I'm trying to find the source again. I also post pictures of my dog with something funny/cute with a link to my blog/post if you're able to do something similar. People retweet them way more often, and I've gained a bunch of followers that way. I Am Hydrogen fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Jan 24, 2014 |
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Jan 24, 2014 17:46
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I Am Hydrogen posted:I started my first monetized blog on Monday. It's been going well so far. I've been hammering social media, getting some organic traffic from google, and have also posted some paid ads on bing because I had $100 in coupons there, so it's free traffic. I get 1,500-2,000 uniques a day and still only get a few clicks. It just takes a ton of volume to make anything off adsense.
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Jan 24, 2014 19:13
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Omits-Bagels posted:I get 1,500-2,000 uniques a day and still only get a few clicks. It just takes a ton of volume to make anything off adsense. Ah ok. I'll have to focus on affiliate some more then. Thanks! EDIT: Just checked my adsense again. Got my first two clicks. Hopefully it picks up. This thread has been extremely helpful, by the way. Still working my way through. I'm sure I'll have some more questions in the coming weeks. I Am Hydrogen fucked around with this message at 23:06 on Jan 24, 2014 |
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Jan 24, 2014 20:06
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Im worried that my affiliate links are messed up somehow. Amazon says that 50 people have clicked on them so far. One person bought something a while ago. Yesterday, one of my regular readers told me that he bought something through an affiliate link (though it wasnt the item I had posted, he bought something else). I havent seen it show up on my feed yet. Does this indicate something is wrong? I'm not worried about the lost revenue so much as having it misconfigured for so long.
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Jan 25, 2014 13:39
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KetTarma posted:Im worried that my affiliate links are messed up somehow. Amazon says that 50 people have clicked on them so far. One person bought something a while ago. Yesterday, one of my regular readers told me that he bought something through an affiliate link (though it wasnt the item I had posted, he bought something else). I havent seen it show up on my feed yet. Does this indicate something is wrong? Amazon has a link checker tool thingy that will tell you if your affiliate link is phrased correctly.
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Jan 25, 2014 19:03
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Does Amazon only pay you for someone buying the exact item that you linked? Because I've had several people recently click on an affiliate link then go on to buy something totally unrelated.
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Jan 27, 2014 14:58
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KetTarma posted:Does Amazon only pay you for someone buying the exact item that you linked? Because I've had several people recently click on an affiliate link then go on to buy something totally unrelated. It pays you for anything that is purchased after clicking the link. It doesn't have to be the exact product. I probably sell more stuff that I don't directly link to.
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Jan 27, 2014 16:34
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Amazon affiliate cookies are good for 24 hours. If someone clicks your affiliate link in the morning and then comes back to the site later that night and buys something unrelated you still get credit.
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Jan 27, 2014 16:53
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Can anyone recommend a good social media plugin for following/liking posts for the major social media sites? I've been using social sharing toolkit but for some reason whenever it's active, my sites go offline/time out due to a memory leak, so I need something that works without having my host throttling my CPU. Thanks!
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Jan 29, 2014 20:55
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I Am Hydrogen posted:Can anyone recommend a good social media plugin for following/liking posts for the major social media sites? I've been using social sharing toolkit but for some reason whenever it's active, my sites go offline/time out due to a memory leak, so I need something that works without having my host throttling my CPU. Thanks! Jetpack has a feature for that. It lets you share posts to Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Reddit, G+, etc. I have not figured out a way for it to let you Like posts, however. Since I might as well ask, has anyone had any experience with Outbrain.com ? They're the ones that make the article lists you see on CNN and other major sites. I find myself always clicking on those ads yet never clicking on Google ads. KetTarma fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Jan 29, 2014 |
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Jan 29, 2014 21:26
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KetTarma posted:Jetpack has a feature for that. It lets you share posts to Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Reddit, G+, etc. Thanks. I ended up going with Social Media Feather after reading a bunch of reviews on different plugins. I like it so far.
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Jan 29, 2014 22:30
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Great info in this thread. I'm trying to monetize my blog and i've made a couple bucks through adsense so far. I'm not trying to shove ads down anyone's throat so i'm being somewhat conservative. I write about how I am personally saving money and making money in creative ways that most anyone can do. I get good feedback from my (mostly facebook) readers but building an audience is slow. I started in July of 2013 and try to write something new each week. Google tells me that if I continue to write quality content the readers will come. If anyone wants to check it out and provide feedback please do. Also can the OP add this to the main post? Thanks! https://www.doitfrugal.com (money saving/making)
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Jan 30, 2014 02:11
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^^^ Nice looking site! One nitpick though...your copyright is out of date  Not a big deal, just a pet peeve of mine (and something I almost always look for)
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Jan 30, 2014 19:40
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For anyone trying to build up an audience on facebook, I would definitely recommend starting an ad campaign. I started a campaign last week because I had a $50 coupon through my host, and have had 107 paid likes as far for a total of $12.17, and have also had another 30 likes that I didn't pay for. Pretty good results. bEatmstrJ posted:Great info in this thread. I'm trying to monetize my blog and i've made a couple bucks through adsense so far. I'm not trying to shove ads down anyone's throat so i'm being somewhat conservative. I write about how I am personally saving money and making money in creative ways that most anyone can do. I get good feedback from my (mostly facebook) readers but building an audience is slow. I started in July of 2013 and try to write something new each week. Google tells me that if I continue to write quality content the readers will come. Site looks good! I like the name as well.
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Jan 30, 2014 23:28
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Haha blogging is silly as Hell. I am your quintessential start up blogger. I did it for three months, got stupid busy with work and stopped caring about blogging. A couple days ago I get a ping from Google yelling at me for not completing my bank information so they could send me website money. Hey OK sure I'll take $10 for whatever. I check, it's more than $10 and now I'm really confused so I start checking Google Analytics. Turns out CBS Chicago linked to my site because apparently there's a guy who wrote a book that pretty much matches my URL, and they had some interview with him. Instead of, I dunno, asking him what his site was they just smashed his book title into the browser and decided my site must belong to him. Now I'm spending time going through emails and linking people his blogspot and apologizing for the confusion but also keeping all of their clicking money. I can't wait to hear from his lawyer, which the internet has taught me is inevitable.
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Jan 31, 2014 06:54
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FAN OF NICKELBACK posted:Haha blogging is silly as Hell. If his book is on Amazon you should get an Amazon affiliate account and slap your affiliate ID on there. Maybe you could earn some commission.
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Jan 31, 2014 14:43
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Yeah, do this. You didn't do anything wrong and should have no problems doing this. I don't know if the lawyer statement was just a joke because there is nothing the guy can go after you for.
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Jan 31, 2014 17:30
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FAN OF NICKELBACK posted:Haha blogging is silly as Hell. That's a pretty cool quirk of fate, capitalize on it and make some money.
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Feb 2, 2014 05:17
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Sleepstupid posted:^^^ Thanks for the heads up. Updated.
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Feb 4, 2014 02:23
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Does the TLD matter at all when it comes to search engines? Would the readers be suspicious of an odd looking TLD like .us or .es?
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Feb 12, 2014 05:28
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Yes and yes. Top-level domains (like .com) are the extensions associated with domain names. For best ranking results, avoid uncommon top-level domains (TLDs). Like hyphens, TLDs such as .info, .cc, .ws, and .name are spam indicators. When a webmaster registers a domain name, they will be given the option to buy additional TLDs. In order to maximize the direct traffic to a domain, it is advised that webmasters should only buy a domain if the .com version is available. Additionally, it is not recommend that SEO-conscious webmasters purchase low quality TLDs such as .biz, .info, .ws, .name, etc. as a means of increasing traffic.
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Feb 12, 2014 13:52
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Why are they considered low quality, is it because of where they are hosted or simply the perception that people have? Thanks for the answers. A lot of the domain names I'm looking at are taken for .com which is why I was going after .es and us. What about .org.au? I'm from Australia and what I'm thinking about blogging will be directly targeted to australias
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Feb 12, 2014 14:23
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My understanding is that non-traditional TLDs are given higher scrutiny and lower priority due to their use by spammers and scammers. Traditional TLDs are more likely to be legitimate businesses whereas https://www.face-books.es is probably a phishing site. I would imagine that .au wouldn't be penalized as heavily as a .cs or something.
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Feb 12, 2014 15:09
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Where are you getting this information? I can't find anything official from Google, but everything I've read says they DO NOT penalize for non traditional TLDs... and I've ranked with a .us domain for a long time. They do give priority to country specific domains, so searching Google.fr will result in mostly French sites, but that's it. If you're targeting Australia, absolutely consider .au. That being said, KetTarma is right in terms of perceived value. A lot of users will be more wary of anything besides a dot com. I would only get a dot com if I was running an eCommerce site. For just a blog though, especially one where you're depending on organic traffic, I wouldn't worry about it so much. Also the type of people that click on ads, don't really pay attention to the URL they're visiting. They're too distracted by headlines, descriptions, etc.
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Feb 12, 2014 15:37
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I copy pasted from http://moz.com/learn/seo/domain I really need to figure out how to get more people to click ads. I've had nearly 2000 visitors and about 7 clicks. WELP
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Feb 12, 2014 20:39
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KetTarma posted:I copy pasted from http://moz.com/learn/seo/domain Get rid of the ad at the bottom of the pages and put a horizontal large link ad below your menu instead.
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Feb 12, 2014 22:00
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I dont really know how to do that. I read that directly under the title for a post is the most ideal place for getting clicks so I did that. Is Google going to poo poo on me for having 3 AdSense ads, an amazon ad, and the occassional text link that leads to an affiliate? Also, Google is only showing 2 ads at once. Third one is blank. Is that bad?
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Feb 13, 2014 00:51
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Are there advertisers for what you're blogging about? I mean if you blog about the terracotta army in that dudes tomb in China you might get lots of interested readers but no one is advertising about. Also, google might be confused and serve up ads about say, terracotta plant pots thinking its related cause you use the word terracotta a lot, but how many people looking for the army will then think, yeah a plant pot would be nice!
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Feb 13, 2014 09:15
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Its a hobby electronics blog with a bunch of articles on science-related stuff. Here's my traffic from midnight til just now: www.wirebiters.com posted:Home page / Archives 13 It's kind of all over the place sometimes since I get most of my ideas for stuff to write about from Facebook or Twitter conversations.
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Feb 13, 2014 13:29
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