Google to rival Paypal?
Being a keen and regular user of Paypal myself, I thought I should bring to attention some great news that I heard that Google is set to be challenging Paypal with their own internet payment service.
Although Paypal continues to earn eBay more than $200 million dollars in a quarter, I’ve still seen many people complain about account blocking and money problems associated with Paypal. Check them out (beware there are quite a few):
www.paypalsucks.com
www.paypalwarning.com
GBuy, is set to be the latest development from The Mountain View in California with owner Eric Schmidt saying that Google Inc. were about to introduce a “person-to-person, stored-value payments system”, which apparently is the same description Paypal gives to itself!
I have had a good experience personally with Paypal. All my eBay auctions rely on Paypal, so I shouldn’t really be grumbling. Has anyone had any experiences that they would like to share about Paypal?
I think that with Google the way they are, leading the Internet forward, Paypal are no competition to them, who knows GBuy could be eBay’s next associate!
Blogging builds Self Esteem
March 26, 2006 by Adam
Filed under Blogging, Personal Development
Found this article on Blog Business World, and I thought it was actually very informative so I will share the key points about it with you…
Blogging builds self esteem.
Self confidence and a more positive outlook on life is a seldom discussed aspect of blogging. Because bloggers are often thought by many people, to be reclusive and typing anonymous posts into the blogosphere, without any human interaction. While that stereotype may be true of some bloggers, many more blog writers have gained self confidence from their blog postings.
Personal bloggers have found writing their posts to be powerful therapy. Putting their thoughts and ideas to keyboard, and then presenting them to the world is a courageous act. For many people, the personal blog might be their first entry into the internet community. That first step can be very frightening for many people. Once that initial hurdle is cleared, however, the blogger can continue posting with confidence.
Business and professional bloggers gain confidence as well. For many business people, the idea of writing anything can be a daunting task, and the idea of posting to a blog can be doubly worrisome. One those initial fears of rejection, by current and potential clients and customers is overcome, the business blogger discovers that her ideas are welcomed warmly and with enjoyment. The first step to building an ongoing business relationship has been taken in a positive way.
When a business blogger enters an offline networking event, a new sense of self confidence is brought along from the blog. The business person knows the ideas expressed in the blog posts are usually very well received. As a result of that previous positive experience, the effect carries over to other aspects of business life.
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How RSS and Blogs can Increase Traffic for you!
Welcome back to Blogtrepreneur, where today I will be focusing on RSS and blogging.
Well firstly, what’s the difference?
Let’s make this clear…
Blogs are frequently updated web pages that a person must GO TO in order to read the information. RSS feeds actually COME TO YOU, containing the new information provided by the publisher. Blogs simply are posts made by a publisher in an attempt to express opinions, give advice, or market their products and services. RSS is a delivery channel that actually sends either a portion of your blog entry or the entire post to your RSS subscribers, giving them immediate gratification, as well as giving them reason to return to your site.
I think one of themain benefits of using RSS feeds to notify subscribers of your new blog postings is that your information can be immediately devoured by those who are hungry for what you have to say. Using RSS and Blogs together, your subscribers can access your new blog posts immediately through their RSS reader, or aggregator, within minutes of you submitting your post, and could be quickly revisiting your site as a result!
What if you DON’T use RSS with your blog? Let’s say you have a blog set up on your site, but you don’t have an RSS feed that delivers your new blog posts to interested subscribers. You just made a new post that you feel will really excite your target market, so you decide to shoot an e-mail off to them, telling them that they just have to visit your blog to get the juicy details of your new message.
That’s great, and I recommend that you still take action by doing this, however, your message may either get intercepted by spam filters, the recipient may not check his e-mail for a couple days, and so on.
Or…
Maybe you intend to send out an e-mail to your list about your post, but because you have entrepreneur’s A.D.D. like I do, you get distracted and forget, or put it off for a couple days. As a result, the only traffic you’ll receive for your blog will come from those who either decide to visit out of the clear blue, or just happen to stumble upon your site through some other avenue.
How RSS and Blogs Increase Traffic For You!
Of course, if you create good, keyword rich content in your blog, and continue to add new content on a consistent basis, search engines will spider your site, and your search engine positioning should improve as a result. But there are many other things you can do…
In addition to making your blog available via RSS feeds, not only should you mention your blog in every email sent out to subscribers, prospects, and clients, you should consider creating a monthly “best of” email newsletter of your best blog posts of the month that proactively directs people to visit your blog. Many people still haven’t warmed up to RSS technology (oh, but they will), so even though you must consistently battle the evil “spam filter empire”, creating a “Best Of X Blog”-type email each month is an excellent way to drive traffic to your blog, and thus to profitable links on your blog.
Here are some other tips:
-
1. When you use an RSS feed to promote your blog,
other web sites can publish your blog by pulling RSS
feeds automatically from related web sites (yours)
according to certain targeted keywords or content.
2. You can submit your RSS feed/blog to RSS and
blog directories. This site will give you a nice list of
places to submit your RSS feed:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55.
3. If you already have a blog, but haven’t
implemented an RSS feed,
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Battle of The Blogs: Blogger vs. WordPress
Hey Guys.
Well, I thought I should better start writing an article of the best blog around, as Im thinking of changing blogs. Anyone have any recommendations? As you know, I am currently using Blogger made by Google to write all of my articles, however, I found out through forums, that other people had started to talk about other blogging software, like Wordpress. Well, is it really any good? I’ll try and outline the main pros and cons of having Wordpress compared to Blogger.
1)Both Blogger and Wordpress are free! However, with the full (and recommended) version of Wordpress, you need to have your own hosting on which to place your blog. Therefore, you also would need your own domain name, which costs around £6-8 for a .com name, with the hosting which starts off at about £3 per month. Blogger 1-0 up!
2)One of the main things which made me want to try out wordpress was categories. Blogger doesnt have a category feature! Therefore, for all you people out there reading my blog, it probably takes you ages to try and find a topic which you prefer. Wordpress back to 1-1!
3) It is very easy to use Blogger using the WYSIWYG editor, with previews available before you have to publish the article/template. Wordpress, although easy to write articles, does require amateur knowledge of HTML/CSS, which is one of the reasons which I was more inclined to using Blogger. For all you pro’s though who can handle the messy stuff Wordpress is the way, but being realistic, most of the population doesnt have a clue about CSS, and WordPress has no preview, so Im afraid that one will have to go to Blogger, 2-1 up!
4) Blogger has few themes. Most of these although 3 column (with room for adsense, affiliates), are pretty similar, and so you cant get any real personalisation. Wordpress on the other hand now has over 400 to choose from, massive choice! Although these dont have the customary 3 columns, they still look pretty damn good, so WP is back on level terms at 2-2!
5) The FTP connection on Blogger is really poor. Although at the moment I only have 10 or so articles, I’ve heard that if you have 100 articles, it doesn’t connect 99 times out of 100, or if it does, it takes an age to upload! WordPress is instantaneuos which another good thing I like about it! 3-2 WordPress Wins!
I think overall, I now prefer WordPress over Blogger mainly because of the customization that’s possible, the amount of plug-ins are endless! But now, Im in a dilemna over which one to choose, what do you think I should do? Please reply to this post, or email me using the link in the “About Me” section.
How I make money on the Internet - Part 2: Google Adsense
March 8, 2006 by Adam
Filed under Adsense and Affiliates, Business
Hello all on this rainy March day here in the UK!
Hope you have all been blogging you heart out.
Anyway, as promised here is Part 2 in my series of How To Make Money on the Internet.
Click here if you missed Part 1: eBay, as it will show you valuable tips on using the ever-growing auction site.
Anyway, in this issue, I will focus on the ever growing phenomenon of Google Adsense. If you are new to this though you may have a few questions which I will try and answer:
1) What is Adsense and how does it work?
Google AdSense is the programme that can generate advertising revenue from each page on your website - all you need to do is add a snippet of code, and hey-presto, your ads appear!.
AdSense delivers relevant text and image ads that are precisely targeted to your site and your site content. And when you add a Google search box to your site, AdSense delivers relevant text ads that are targeted to the Google search results pages generated by your visitors’ search request. So basically, if you have a site on Golf Clubs, then Adsense will show ads from other companies who also specialize in Golf Clubs.
To get revenue, someone must click on the Google Adsense link, and in return, you will be rewarded with a fee which can range to a few cents to a few dollars if you use the right keywords. Most programs like Adsense operate on a CPC (Cost Per Click) scheme, however there are some which also use CPM (Cost per 1000 impressions or views).
2)What are the advantages/disadvantages of using Adsense?
If you have a site which has a high amount of traffic, then Adsense can be very beneficial. Getting a six-figure sum from the program is not unheard of if you have a large amount of people coming to your site daily.
However, there are a few drawbacks: Google only sends your accumulated money once you have reached the $100 mark, so if you don’t reach that, then you don’t get your hands on that hard-earned cash!Also, by placing content relevant ads on yor site, you may be attracting people to buy items on competitors sites, which is never a good thing in business. Also, if Google finds any trace of malicious clicking (you clicking on your own ads), then your account can be indefinitely suspended…probably for ever! Finally, your site must not have anything of illicit nature (I hope you wouldn’t have a site like that anyway!)
Now for the real business, my tips on how you can make money using Google Adsense:
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