I’ve been playing with another site and have been uploading some pictures to it. The site is about Colombia and my life here. If your interested check it out.

Do ugly sites make more money?

I saw an article not to long ago talking about how ugly sites can make more money than nicely designed sites. While this want work in any other market, it will and does work in the Google AdSense market.

Let me explain how to make money with Google AdSense.

1. No good content.If you give someone, that comes to your site, what their looking for then they will not click on your ads. It’s important to put enough content on the site to get it to rank but not give the end searcher what their looking for.

1. Trick the visitor.A good thing to do with a made for Google site is to trick the visitor with the navigations our banner ads. You can do this by blending the ads into the page or placing the ads right above your left hand navigation.
   
2. Placing ads.You need to place the ads above your text, in the middle of your text, at the bottom of your text and above your left hand navigation. The most important thing is to get the visitor to leave your site by way of a banner ad, so put them every where.
   
   
3. Build lots of these sites.The more sites you have the more money you can make. This means don’t worry or put a lot of time into the design or content of the site, put your time into building more sites.
   
   

This really sounder like a poor business model to me and I felt there had to be a better way of doing things. So I started asking around and was pointed in the direction of Danny Wirken.

As faith would have it Danny is a good friend and easy to get hold of. The conversation with Danny showed me that there was hope after all.

Danny Wirken has been able to make good money online while staying away from the ugly site syndrome. His business model is building good quality sites that are created for traffic.

He went on to say that he’s looking for repeat visitors and not just the first time visitor. His sites are built in such away that people want to return. He also said his click through rates is lower but he more than makes up for this in volume.

So the ugly sites don’t prevail.

Danny was kind enough to discuss some of the things he’s in the process of doing and even showed a sample site he’s working on.

The site he was kind enough to show us was a site about woman and having babies.

As I talked to Danny I was amazed at the time and effort he was willing to put into a site. The site is actually a blog and is translated into 11 different languages. He also has a graphic designer making custom pictures for each blog post.

Danny said the idea is to make each visitor a return visitor. He does this not by translating articles but by hiring writers in other countries to take his ideas and thoughts and write them in their own language.

Ugly Is Not Better

Rudolf Freidlander

If you've just entered the world of blogging or if you've been
blogginh for a short time and find that things are not working
out as you expected, it will be worth your while to spend some
time understanding the common mistakes that bloggers make,
mistakes that make it hard to enjoy what should be an
enjoyable, satisfying experience: Blogging!

The five most common new blogger mistakes are:

Diving in (rather than wading in)

Having unrealistic expectations

Losing focus

Plagiarizing

Ignoring the reader

Diving in! Many bloggers are so anxious to get started that
they dive in rather than wading in slowly — its a mistake in
an unfamiliar swimming pool or pond and its a mistake when
entering a new arena such as the 'blogosphere.' Consider these
things before you start your Blog:

Find a focus for your blog . . . a focus that reflects what you
know, what interests you and what you enjoy talking and writing
about. No topics are out of bounds: politics, religion,
science, sexual orientations, comedy, exercise, diet, diseases,
etc., etc..

Take the time to read dozens of different blogs: note the
colors, graphics and layouts to get an idea of what appeals to
you. Also note that some bloggers are long-winded and others
are brief and to the point . . . others are just chatty and
entertaining and have no particular point to make . . . this
too is a personal style you get to choose.

You need a host for your blog, some are free, some charge a
small amount per month for their service, some are simple to
use and some require more technical knowledge, some have more
features than others; choose carefully, once you've established
your blog and have a few regular readers you may not want to
change your address (your URL).

You may or may not want to use your real name on your blog,
this depends on many factors, not the least of which is your
stance on controversial issues and how publicly you want to be
identified with your opinions.

Unrealistic expectations! If you come to blogging expecting
instant results: a large readership and many complimentary
comments, you may be disappointed. There are tens of thousands
of blogs online vying for the same audience. Patience and
tenacity are essential on your part. If you write well, find a
unique niche to fill, have appealing titles for your posts and
tirelessly promote your blog the readership and comments (some
of which will be complimentary) will come.

Losing focus! When you started your blog you had a particular
reason for doing so; it might have been to express your views
on a topic or it might have been to just communicate with a
close circle of friends about your daily activities. Readers
will come to your blog for the first time and either be
interested in your subject matter or not, will either like your
style or not and, if they like your subject and style they may
comment and then come back later. Once you've established a
topic and tone for your blog you're free to change it but to do
so you're basically starting all over.

Be aware that you can have more than one blog, each one devoted
to a particular topic and each one, if you choose, under a
different identity.

Plagiarizing! There are some great bloggers out there and as
you surf through blogs you might find one who said something
really well, something that resonated with you and something
you want to put in your blog. DON'T just copy and paste
someone's words in your blog without giving them credit, making
it look to the world like the words are yours. If you write it,
write it in your own words and write it better, adding your own
thoughts and feelings and then be gracious, mention where you
got the idea and provide a link.

Ignoring the reader! Some of the people who read your blog will
leave comments; some readers will agree with you and some
readers may even praise your insights but most will pick a
point you've made and criticize it. People leave comments on
others blogs for the same reason they themselves blog, to
exchange ideas and express their points of view. Always respond
to your readers comments; thank them for reading and taking the
time to comment (even the severe critics) and then respond, as
appropriate, to their comment. If you ignore your comments your
readers may end up ignoring your blog.

About The Author: Discover How YOU - Or Anyone - Can Easily
Create Your Own Professional eCover In Just A Few Minutes
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hyperlink.

Author: James Brausch

I am constantly asked the following question:

“What should I put on my content sites?”

Of course they are asking about my traffic generation strategy
where I recommend creating content sites and pushing the
traffic to a product site.

Here are some possibilities to put on your content site:

1. A Resource Directory

Resource directories used to be a great form of content. Yahoo
actually got it’s start as a resource directory. They are now
the #2 most visited site on the entire Internet. The search
engine ranking data (http://www.RankingFactors.com) shows that
outbound links are still a positive ranking correlation factor
(even though so-called SEO “experts” moan about PR leak and
other such nonsense). One problem with resource directories is
the level that they have been abused lately with all of the
Adsense scraper sites. There are literally hundreds of
thousands of useless resource directories out there now that
have been created with automation.

2. Articles

Articles are my very favorite form of content for content
sites. They are perhaps the purest form of content. If you
think about it, a blog post can almost always also be
considered an article. In fact, you may see this very blog post
appear as a syndicated article soon via Artemis Pro. If you want
only your own articles on your content site, a blog is a great
content management system. If you want to allow others to
submit articles (and this is VERY POWERFUL!), then stay tuned.
I will be releasing a product very soon that makes this very
easy.

3. Product Reviews

A product review is really just a kind of article; isn’t it?
Normally I recommend using content sites for driving traffic to
your own sites. Product reviews can be a double-whammy though.
You can use them as legitimate examples of pure content on your
content site (to get visitors and push them to your product
sites) AND you can also include affiliate links in the product
review and make some direct income.

4. Surveys

It is difficult to get a survey to match up with the Ranking
Factors data, but these are a very nice way to have your users
add some content to your site.

5. Forums

Forums are also very difficult to get aligned with the Ranking
Factors data. They are also notorious for advertising blind
spots. The visitors really focus on the forum and will largely
ignore your attempts to distract them to your product site.
Still, they are a great way to get a large number of visitors
generating content for you. That concept of getting your
visitors to generate your content is important.

6. Blogs

I haven’t tried this, but I have seen it done. The idea is much
like forums, but you are providing hosting for other people’s
blogs in return for your ad being on their blog.

7. Downloads

If your market has anything to do with software, a download
area can draw a lot of visitors. There are other markets that
are also well-suited to downloads. The most common types other
than software are covered in the next three types of content.

8. Pictures

Do you have a travel site you are trying to promote? How about
a dating site? Or a photography site? These are obvious types
of sites where a picture content site can help drive traffic.
What about your topic? Are pictures something that will draw
your type of visitors?

9. Videos

Videos are quickly becoming mainstream on the Internet.
Although you will need to pay for quite a bit more bandwidth
when offering videos, this type of content can match up with
almost any topic of site.

10. Audios

Some sites can really benefit from audios. They will take less
bandwidth than videos, but only makes sense for some topics of
sites.

There are probably hundreds of types of content that I haven’t
covered, but that should get you started. Remember that the
point of the content sites is to provide traffic that you can
distract to your product sites. That means:

1. The content needs to be quality content that actually
provides value to the universe. You don’t want people arriving
at your product site feeling that they have been tricked by
some junk page generator.

2. You don’t need some huge variety of content. A site with 5
interesting articles about the topic of your product is just
fine. A site with 500 interesting articles is even better.
Don’t somehow convince yourself that 5 articles isn’t “enough”.
that somehow you “need” a forum, a blog, and a picture download
area. You don’t. Any single form of content in any quantity is
just fine.

3. A form of content that allows your visitors to generate more
content is most powerful. That way you don’t have to do the work
to get the traffic. your visitors do. It also adds interactivity
and a feeling of being a part of that site for your visitors
which will help retain repeat visitors and increase
word-of-mouth traffic. I highly recommend that you focus on
some type of content that is provided primarily by your users
(although you may have to “seed” it yourself).

OK; I hope that answers the question about what to put on
content sites. Go get to work generating some serious traffic
to your product pages from your new content sites now.

About The Author: James D. Brausch posts daily Internet
marketing how-to information to his blog at:
http://www.JamesBrausch.com