June is underway, and I’m excited to announce the first ever comment contest on this blog.

It’s been a long time coming, and I believe it’s time to start rewarding my faithful readers who take the time to comment and leave their feedback on my posts. Of course, I hope to bring in new readers as well and keep them coming back.

Contest Prizes

Prize winnings include (in no particular order):

1. $25 cash prize offered by Dennis Edell.

2. One-month banner ad (125X125) provided by Peter Lee, plus 10 free .edu backlinks package.

3 & 4. One-month free membership to David Hurley’s Internet Marketing Articles PLR site, offered by David Hurley and myself.

2 separate winners will each get one month free membership access. The membership fee will be refunded to you in full through PayPal by myself after your purchase. More details will be provided to the winners.

5. One-month link or banner ad on the home page of ReplaceYourSalary.com. Link will be “do follow.”

Contest Rundown

Winning is very easy and only requires that you comment regularly on this blog to have a chance to win.

Simply put, be on the “Top Readers” list at the end of June, and you’ll win one of the prizes mentioned above. The first-place winner will get to choose his/her prize. The rest of the winners will be awarded the remaining prizes in the order listed, as well as the order in which you won.

To know if you’re on the “Top Readers” list, you can find it on the right side-bar between NetworkedBlogs and Useful Links. It lists the top 5 commentators throughout the entire month, so as long as you’re on the list when I check it on June 30th, you’ll win.

Don’t quite understand how it works? Leave a comment below.

BONUS:

Now, here’s where it gets really fun. Everyone has a chance to win the bonus, so listen up.

Since this is my very first comment contest, I’d really like to get the word out about it, and I need your help.

Anyone that spreads the word about the contest and provides proof of doing so, you will receive a permanent link with your chosen anchor text on the winning results post that will follow the end of the contest.

It doesn’t matter how you go about spreading the word, just make sure that any and all links point back to this post.

Comment Rules

Unfortunately, my blog gets quite a bit of spam and useless comments. Many never see the light of day.

I don’t quite have a comment policy in place yet; although, I’ve been implementing it since the beginning, and I’m going to be cracking down even more now that the contest is underway.

In order for your comments to count, you’ll need to follow these 2 simple rules:

1. Use a REAL name. I have KeywordLuv installed so that you can use your “name @ keywords” in the name field when leaving a comment (first name is fine). I ask that you please respect this.

Or…

You can leave your name at the bottom of your comment. Either way is fine, but you must include your real name. If I don’t see your real name, your comment will be deleted without thinking twice. Sorry, but like I said, I get a lot of comment spam.

2. Provide value. Along the lines of comment spam, if your comment provides absolutely no value whatsoever, then poof, your comment will be deleted without warning. This will be heavily enforced, maybe even more so than rule #1.

I can’t stand stupid little “hey, nice post” type comments. Most of you will know what I mean by this. What I’m looking for are comments that add to the discussion in some way, provide your own thoughts on the issue, etc. Actually taking the time to leave a meaningful comment will go along way and only benefit you.

OK, that’s it! You have the details, now start commenting.

Note: if you want to make sure you never miss an update on my blog, you may want to subscribe to my RSS Feed. Just sayin’.

Thanks!

If you’re a blogger and/or affiliate marketer and you live in the United States, then you’re probably aware of the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that will go into affect December 1, 2009. That’s in less than 4 hours from now, by the way.

Here’s the official release of the new regulations on the FTC website: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

I’m a blogger (obviously) and an affiliate marketer AND I live in the U.S., so I needed to listen up to these new changes and how they were going to effect how I do business.

When these new regulations first came out, there was a lot of confusion and not many people knew exactly what needed to be changed to be in compliance. I’ll be honest, I was very confused myself, and I still am, kind of. Maybe you were in the same boat, or still am. If you are, that’s good because I’m going to provide you with everything you need to know. Well, I’ll provide you with the links that will provide you with everything you need to know.

I wanted to get the facts about what I needed to change, if anything, so I wouldn’t become non-compliant and get in trouble with the FTC. That would be a very bad thing. I want to avoid this at all cost because it can be costly if the FTC comes after you.

After reading Peter Lee’s blog post on the New FTC Guidelines, I was just left with a million questions because everything was left up in the air. There weren’t any definitive answers, and that wasn’t Peter’s fault by any means. No one was sure at that point.

After a couple weeks or so, I finally started getting answers. I found a couple of resources that I found very helpful in getting some concrete answers. The first resource is an interview that Jim Edwards did with Mr. Rich Cleland, Assistant Deputy at The Federal Trade Commission. I took the time to listen to the interview. It’s lengthy but worth every second of it.

Listening to this FTC Interview is a must if you want the facts about what these new regulations entail and how they’re going to affect you as a blogger and affiliate marketer.

Another great resource I found through Twitter is: http://www.clicknewz.com/?s=ftc

Here’s one more from Mike Young’s Internet Law blog: http://mikeyounglaw.com/wp/2009/10/16/testimonials-federal-trade-commission-ftc-websites/

These resources should give you the information you need to stay FTC compliant in your blogging, affiliate marketing or online business venture.

What do you think about the new FTC regulations? Do you agree with them? What do you like or not like about these new regulations? Share your thoughts below…

If you run a blog I’m sure one of your many goals is to create content that brings in a large readership. Afterall, your content is what matters the most when it comes to getting to gaining readers and having them continue to come back for more. A problem you may face is coming up with ideas on what to write about that’s going to attract a readership.

I’ve put together 3 tips that you can put into action right now to create blog content that gets noticed.

So, without further delay, let’s get right into it…

Tip 1: Find content to write about with YouTube videos

Videos are the new medium on the internet, and there is a TON of information in the form of videos, not just on YouTube, but on every other video site. Videos are great for spreading content in a more personal way. However, there’s no actual content, or text, about what is being talked about.

This is where you can benefit. Find a video that relates to your blog content, and create an article based on what the video is about. It’s just like transcribing an audio file into print form, but with a video instead.

This will be completely unique content, and you can do it for any niche or subject. There’s really no limit as there are a massive amount of videos on literally any subject you can think of.

Tip 2: Use Twitter and other Social Networks to find hot subjects to write about

This strategy will take a little more work, but it can be very effective. With this technique you’ll be blogging about current, hot topics that everyone is buzzing about. This should no doubt get your blog some exposure.

If you’re on Twitter I’m sure you’ve seen a particular subject that everyone is talking about. This could be true for any number of social sites. Start blogging about that subject, if it’s suitable for your blog, of course.

On Twitter, an easy way to find the most talked about subject is to go to the home page, and on the right-hand side, you’ll see Trending Topics. These are the topics that are most talked about, and this will save you a lot time to find them.

Tip 3: Read other blogs to get ideas for your own blog

Most bloggers are subscribed to RRS feeds of other blogs that they find interesting and are related to their own blogs. Sometimes a blogger you follow might write about something that really perks your interest.

One particular blog I follow is Peter Lee’s Work From Home Blog.

When this happens, what you can do is expand on what they talked about or even create a spin on the subject. You can even get a little controversial if you have a different point of view. This is another way to get exposure and a lot of comments.

When going this route, just be sure you don’t copy the post, as this is stealing. It’s okay if you want to quote a portion so that people reading your post can understand what you’re talking about. A link back to the other post wouldn’t hurt either.

What do you do to create blog content that gets noticed? Share your tips in the comments below…

I’ve been running Google Adsense ads on my website for well over a year now. I’ve made a decent amount of money from it so far, but not enough to get overly excited about. I know many who make a living from Adsense alone, but there are those who would rather use an Adsense alternative.

If you’re currently using Google Adsense, or perhaps Google banned your account (read this post by Peter Lee to find out how to prevent it from happening to you), and you’re looking for an alternative to Adsense, you may be interested in Yarie.com.

Yarie doesn’t automatically generate content related ads like Google Adsense, but instead, the ad categories are pre-chosen for you based on the niche of your website. For example, my site is geared towards the work from home and make money online niche. The categories that they choose would revolve around the niche, sort of like a sub-niche, if you will.

The best example of this would be on this site. If you go to my Replace Your Salary home page, look at the top right sidebar, and you’ll notice the heading “Real Online Jobs.” Below the heading are online job categories, which are the ads.

There’s not as much customization available to you as there is with Google Adsense ads, but so far I’ve seen good results. I’ve been running these ads from Yarie for two months now, which have actually made me more money than my Adsense ads.

Check out the screenshot below of my earnings for the past two months of using Yarie:

It’s not a whole lot, but consider the fact that this is completely automated, and I do nothing extra.

Setup is easy as well, although a little more complicated than with Adsense. You’ll have a piece of code to place anywhere on your site that you want the ads to show up, just like with Adsense. The difference is that you’ll also have to create another web page and upload it to your server. Details will be given to you and are easy to follow.

Once you’re setup, you’ll want to place the ads as close to the top of your page as possible. The closer to the top, the better the click-through-rate you’re going to get.

Right now I only have Yarie ads on my home page, and as I said, they’re performing better than my Adsense ads that I have on many different pages. I believe Yarie is a very good Google Adsense alternative, and I will continue to use them.

**UPDATE**

Moments after writing this review, I got a check in the mail in the amount of $43.20 for July’s earnings. See scan below:

Are you looking for an Adsense alternative? What do you think about Yarie from reading this post? Leave your comments below…