I know I promised a series of posts about backlinks, keywords, etc., but before I get into that I wanted to post my income from July and also update you on some new projects. First, let’s get to the earnings…

Income from ReplaceYourSalary.com

• ClickBank: $69.14
• PayDotCom – $140.85
• Angela’s Backlinks: $45
• Paul’s Backlinks: $12
• Yarie: $16.18
• Google Adsense: $33.61
• SFI: $17.54
• Project Payday: $13.50 (commissions earned from promoting the program, not actually using it)
• AdFish – $29.40
• ResponsiveData – $24
• Ads – $90
• FlexSqueeze Wordpress Theme – $38.10

Total = $529.32

Income from Internet Marketing Services

It’s been a pleasure to be able to work for a highly successful internet marketer. I’m able to learn from and apply the same strategies to my online business, all of which I’ve blogged about here at one time or another.

Total = $120

Income from Proofreading/Re-writing/Editing Services

As I said previously, I’ve gotten a decent amount of freelancing work last month. It’s great to be able to provide a high quality and much needed service, and it’s been an honor serving my clients. You can learn more by visiting the link below.

• Proofreading – $63

Total = $63

Income from Re-writing Service via David Hurley’s PLR Article Service Membership

It has been an honor to be able to partner with David, a good online friend of mine, and provide the re-writing portion of his article membership. To learn more about his PLR article service, visit the link above.

Total = $75

Total online income from all sources…

$787.32

July is my best month yet. Getting closer to my goal of $1,000 in a month. I know that if I spend more time marketing that I could get there quicker, but I’ll admit, I’m sometimes lazy. It happens.

Anyway, I have some updates for you on some new projects I’m working on.

I have entered into the niche Adsense site arena and got my first site up. I won’t link to it here for multiple reasons, but it’s a niche that has potential to bring in some decent money from Adsense. I’ve only begun building backlinks to it, but it’s already on the first page of Google in the #4 position.

I hope to get it to the top spot shortly so that it will get more traffic and start to get clicks. Testing and tweaking will most likely be necessary. I’ll keep you updated on the performance of that site each month.

Also, I’m planning on entering another niche once my micro niche site starts bringing in some revenue. This niche won’t be micro and I won’t be using Adsense to earn money, but it’s a niche with barely any competition and a lot of hungry buyers. I’ll promote a single Clickbank product and create a funnel for visitors to get them to the order page.

That’s about it for now. As always, feel free to leave your comments below…

Spending your precious time on your blog should be compensated in some way, right? I mean, why put forth all of that effort if no one cares to read what you have to say and just leaves right away?

Notice in the title I used “visitors” and not readers. You first have to convince your blog visitors to stay awhile and actually read your blog before you can call them readers. Makes sense… I hope.

Getting people to stick around and become a reader, which in turn provides comments on your posts, involves a few factors. These factors can include your blog design, the content (what you write) and the style of your writing.

This certainly isn’t the all-inclusive list to go by, but these are some of the main factors you may want to consider if you just can’t seem to get anyone to take notice of your hard work.

I wrote a guest post on HowToSpoter about 3 Tips to a Better Blog where I go more in-depth regarding these three factors and what you can do to turn that sucky blog of yours into a masterpiece worthy of readers.

Be sure to read the post and comment. You’ll see me over there as well replying back.

What have I done to improve this blog?

One of the major updates I made to this blog was installing a new blog theme. Granted, I didn’t think my blog sucked (hopefully not), but it certainly was due for a face-lift, I thought. The new FlexSqueeze Theme is definitely way more modern than what I used to have and allowed me to customize every aspect of the design.

The content on here I think is pretty good, but I’d love to hear what you have to say about. I try to be as personable as possible and provide a relaxed reading environment, something I hope you all enjoy. Of course, there’s always something to learn here, so let me know if I need to clarify/expand on anything. Afterall, I try to write for you, my readers.

I took the weekend off (3 day weekend) to celebrate Independence Day and enjoy being with family and friends. It was great to just put business aside and relax and enjoy myself. The fireworks show in State College at Beaver Stadium was amazing; one of the top ranked shows in the nation. It was a blast… no pun intended.

I took pictures throughout the show along with a 40 second video of the finale. If you would like to check them out, just add me as a friend on Facebook. Otherwise, one of the pictures I took is to the right.

As much fun as I had, it’s time to get back into the swing of things. June was a rather busy month, and I’m excited to see just how many posts I had last month. If you happened to miss any of them, you can find them below…

June Comment Contest – Win Cash and Prizes!

An Unforeseen “Benefit” of 3-Way Link Exchanges

It’s Official – Alan Mater is an EzineArticles.com Expert Author

How Blogging About Internet Marketing Can Make You Money Online

New Blog Theme – I’m Using the FlexSqueeze Wordpress Theme

Why You Should Incorporate Exercise Into Your Work From Home Routine

May 2010 Income Report

Why Good Keyword Selection is Essential for Home-Based Business Success

What a Man, a Dog and a Leash Have to do with Internet Marketing

Transcription Crash Course Review – Become a Home Transcriptionist Today

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I can barely hold my excitement in as I’ve been looking forward to this for quite some time now. For about the last week or so, I’ve been playing around with a new blog theme, completely in the background and undetectable to anyone.

Thanks to the plug-in Theme Test Drive, I’ve been able to install a new theme and customize a good portion of it behind the scenes. You’ve all been seeing the current theme while this was going on.

Missing the old theme already? Here’s a farewell snapshot…

In my excitement to roll out the new theme, I forgot to get the snapshot before enabling the new theme, so I had to find a cached version with the old theme… LOL.

As you may notice with the new theme, there is still a lot that needs to be done, most notably the footer area. I’ll get to that in a minute.

This new theme is a customized version of the FlexSqueeze Wordpress Theme, which is a completely customizable theme that allows you to create your own unique blog theme. I bought this theme on a recommendation from Dennis Edell, and I couldn’t be happier.

This theme had everything I wanted, and then some. The main thing I wanted was better navigation, and if you’ll notice, the page links are now below the header and to the left, rather than above the header and to the right.

The next thing I wanted was a feature area, which is right below the navigation. I can add whatever I want here, and I may be changing some of the offers over time. The newsletter opt-in will most likely be permanent.

You’ll also notice I now only have one sidebar (a big one at that) on the right-hand side. I also have two sub-sidebars below the main sidebar to add additional content.

Within the next week you’ll see changes being made to the sidebar. I already have plans for it, and once I get everything finalized and the way I want it, it shouldn’t change much after that. So, don’t be alarmed if you see random stuff disappear or appear over the course of this week.

At some point, I’ll be adding a custom header to replace the plain, boring one you currently see. It’s okay as-is, but I think I can make something that stands out a little better.

I’ll also be adding additional pages to the blog as well. Not sure when this will happen, but I know for sure that I’ll be adding a Comment Policy, Disclaimer of some kind, a Write For Us page, and a Resources page that contains tools that I use and recommend.

I Need Your Help

As with any new theme installation, etc., there is always the chance for some bugs/errors to occur. I haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary yet, but if you come across anything, please make me aware of it so that I can get it fixed.

And lastly, as mentioned above, there is a feature section at the footer. I had played around with this, but I couldn’t come to a conclusion as to exactly what I wanted there.

So, I’m asking for you to recommend what I should do with that space.

What should I include in the footer area? Should I remove it altogether? Should I add the newsletter opt-in form there also?

I’m open to any and all suggestions.

I’m very excited about the new theme, and I think it looks more professional than the old one. I look forward to the new changes to come, as I hope you are too.

I appreciate and thank you for sticking with me and helping to make this blog what it is. I couldn’t have done it without all of you!