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…

Creating an internet business website is just the first step to a long road of making money online. Once your website is up and you’re ready to do business (regardless of what business you’re engaging in), it is then time to market your online business.

The first part of marketing effectively on the internet is making sure your website looks professional. There’s no sense in spending time driving traffic to your site if it’s not appealing and people just leave right away. I recommend using Wordpress as your website platform and then buying a professional Wordpress Theme that you can customize.

Once your website is squared away, it’s time to get the word out. I’m a huge advocate of article marketing and is the primary marketing method that I use. The simple reason is that it works, and it works well on many levels. Articles bring in direct traffic, but they also add backlinks to your site and can be syndicated across the web by others providing even more backlinks and direct traffic.

Another effective marketing method is using videos. Now, I must admit that I don’t use this method near as much as I should, but I’ve noticed in the past that it has brought in traffic. If used correctly, video marketing can be used to generate leads for your business and bring in sales. Plus, videos can also provide backlinks to your content.

One thing you need to understand if you hope to rank well in search engines, specifically Google (which should be your ultimately goal), is that Google is looking for new and relevant content. What this means for your website is that it should be updated with new and relevant content on a regular basis. And, if you took my advice about using Wordpress, you’re ready to use your website as a blog, which makes it exceptionally easy to keep updated with fresh content.

Another component that your online business should have is a newsletter. This allows you to keep your visitors and potential customers up to date with what’s going on. This also allows you to market products and services that are relevant to your site and newsletter.

As you probably noticed when I covered article and video marketing, I mentioned about getting backlinks. Once everything is in place and you’re ready to get traffic to your internet business website, backlinks are the glue that will hold everything together.

Search engine rankings… Traffic… Sales…

Backlinks are the key to everything. I can’t stress it enough. Article and video marketing are just two of the many ways to build backlinks to your site. AND… building backlinks through many varying marketing methods is the key to marketing your online business effectively.

My next posts (I don’t know how many yet) are going to cover backlinks in much detail. Everything is going to be broken down into segments, starting with what exactly backlinks are and the proper use of them… all the way to how to get them and much more.

This was spurred due to an influx of questions in my email inbox from people reading my blog and asking about backlinks, Page Rank, keywords, etc. I figured there is a good change that maybe some of you have similar questions or concerns, so I want to address everything publicly so that you’re all aware about this stuff so you can apply it to your own internet business website.

Be on the lookout for the first installment coming soon.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below…

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

Be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed or get email updates so you never miss a future post.

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!

May is here, and I particularly like this month. Maybe because my Birthday is right around the corner? Perhaps… .

In any case, April has come and gone. It seems like with the passing of April that Spring as come and gone as well. The beginning of May has been a scorcher, and temperatures are still hitting in the low 80’s. Yes, Summer is very early this year for my area.

I can’t complain, though, as the weather has been beautiful. I digress.

If you’ve been following along here then great. If not, then you really should subscribe to my RSS feed. I recommend subscribing via Email so you don’t miss a single post.

If you’ve happened to miss a post or two from last month, then that’s what this “Roundup” is for. Neat idea, huh?

Without further ado, here they are…

Get Paid to Write Blog Review Posts

Laugh A Little – Get Free Daily Web Cartoons

Should You Pay for Reviews?

Internet Marketing – How To Build and Rank an Authority Site the Google Way

The “Holy Grail” of Guest Blogging Tips

If you haven’t left a comment on them, then what are you waiting for? That’s the whole point here, and I share the love (link love, that is) with my little community.

So… join in, we’re all friends here.

I promised another backlink building strategy if you read my post Proven Strategies to Increase Website Traffic and Generate Sales. If you were waiting in anticipation for it, the wait is now over… it’s here!

This strategy, if used correctly, can catapult your blog posts, web pages, homepage, etc. to the top of Google and other search engines. Once you’re sitting high and mighty at the top, the sales will follow (if you’re targeting the right keywords).

To get started, you’re going to need a blog post (home page will do just fine) that you want to get a lot of traffic to. This is especially if you’re promoting something big and want to earn commissions (affiliate marketing). For your home page, you’re probably promoting something, selling your own product or building your list. In any case, you obviously want traffic, so this will work just as well.

Assuming you’ve done all the on-page SEO stuff for your blog post or home page, you’re now ready to start building backlinks. But not just any backlinks will do here. While article marketing is still very effective (and I recommend using this method as well), there’s another link building strategy that works very well.

It’s called a Link Wheel.

You may have heard of it before…. or maybe not. It can actually be somewhat confusing to people, so I’m going to explain it the best way I can without confusing you.

If you’ve heard of this strategy before but just don’t quite GET IT yet, then pay close attention here. Better yet, the diagram above should do all the explaining that needs to be done. But, I’ll still do my best here to explain everything.

With the Link Wheel strategy, you’re capitalizing on free blogs/web 2.0/social sites. Take a look at the sites in the diagram, and you’ll notice one thing. They’re all free to use and post content to, and there’s a social aspect to them (this doesn’t really matter for the sake of this strategy). Simply put, Google and the other two major search engines love these sites.

So to get started, you need to write some articles. Anywhere from 6 to 8 articles will be sufficient.

There are some key requirements needed with these articles, though. They need to contain your keyword in the title and two or three times throughout the article body. If you haven’t done so already (you should have), your blog post should contain the same keyword in its title and content. This is very important!

The articles you write for these sites only need to be anywhere from 250 – 350 words long. You don’t need a novel here, just enough useful information to make the content relevant to the keyword you’re targeting.

If you don’t feel like writing the articles yourself, outsource it to someone else. I can get 10 articles written for $27 that do just fine. That’s actually very cheap, by the way.

Once you have your articles, you need to sign up for these free sites. Once you sign up with a site you won’t ever have to do it again. This is a one-time process.

Here are the sites I recommend. This isn’t an all-inclusive list, however. You can sign up for as many as you want. But for the sake of your link wheel you only need 6 to 8 sites.

1. Hubpages
2. Wetpaint
3. Blogger
4. Wordpress.com
5. Gather
6. Xomba
7. Quizilla
8. Squidoo

There’s a couple I didn’t mention that are in the diagram. Like I said it really doesn’t matter which sites you sign up with. It’s completely up to you.

Here’s where it gets tricky…

Each article you post on a site should contain two links… one pointing to your blog post and the other pointing to the article on the next site.

BUT… those links need to contain the keyword being targeted.

For example, if I’m targeting the keyword “golf swing” then I have that in the title of both the blog post and all articles for each site as well as in the content. Also, the backlinks will contain the same keyword “golf swing.”

Follow? Just look at the diagram again and this should make sense.

Each article will do this until you’ve completed the rotation and placed one article on each site. You now have a complete Link Wheel.

Doing this correctly will boost your blog post or home page’s rankings in the search engines dramatically. Of course, you still want to perform other link building strategies I’ve mentioned in previous posts because this is not the only way I build backlinks to my posts and home page, just to clear up any confusion you may have.

Any questions about what I’ve shared regarding Link Wheels? Still don’t quite get it? Feel free to leave a comment, and I’ll do my best to answer you.

This is a problem that all bloggers have to face, including myself. There’s a million different reasons why someone doesn’t like your blog or doesn’t like what you write. And, these reasons could even be causing some loyal readers to unsubscribe from your blog’s RSS Feed.

However, this post isn’t going to cover any of that stuff. Yes, that happens a lot, but there’s another reason why you may be losing blog readers. In fact, this problem could be hindering people from even reading your blog in the first place. And, I know for a fact that you want as many people to read your blog. Afterall, I feel the same way.

So, what could this problem be?

You may be l0sing blog readers because your blog simply takes too long to load. In this day and age, people are more impatient than ever. I happen to be one of those people, so if a page takes forever to load, I’ll just move on to something else. Well, good chances are there’s more people out there that do the same.

If your blog takes more than five seconds to load, you may want to look into speeding it up a bit.

This idea hadn’t even dawned on me until I read Sid Savara’s guest blog post on ProBlogger’s blog about 5 Plugins To Make Your WordPress Blog Blazing Fast.

The post covers 5 amazing Wordpress plugins you can use to speed up the load time of your blog. I highly recommend you check out the post, especially if you’re having problems with your blog loading slow.

This could be due to images and other factors, including the popularity of your blog and how much traffic it receives on a daily basis.

One plugin that is recommend is WP Super Cache, which I’ve installed on this blog. It’s only been a day so far, so I haven’t noticed a huge difference yet. But then, my blog doesn’t get 1,000’s of visitors a day.

This is something that all bloggers need to be aware of and take into consideration. You don’t want to be losing blog readers before they even have a chance to read your blog.

The creator of CommentLuv, Andy Bailey, has created another awesome plugin for Wordpress called TwitterLink Comments.

Basically what this plugin does is allow commentators to type in their Twitter user name. Once the comment is left, a “Follow Me” link will appear next to the commentator’s name. This allows readers to be able to follow them on Twitter easily if they find their comment useful.

If you look below the comment box you will notice a blue rectangular box with an input field. You can just enter your Twitter user name here once, and the link will show next to every comment you make from then on. Cool, huh?

To read all about the plugin check out the post: http://wpmu.org/twitterlink-comments-hassle-free-follow-me-links-for-your-commenters/.

I’ve installed this plugin because I know how popular Twitter is and hopefully this will be a way for you, my readers, to get more exposure and more followers.

With in that in mind, this means you need to comment! Yes, another reasoning to my madness is I’m looking for more of my readers to comment on my posts. Sounds crazy, right?

Hey, you help me, and I’ll help you get more followers. Commenting is a win-win situation. I even have Andy’s CommentLuv installed, too, so you can use your keywords as part of your name. If you find my posts useful, or even if you don’t, I’d love to hear about it.

So now there’s absolutely no reason not to comment.

Share your thoughts below!

It’s time for another blog post roundup. Here are July’s blog posts in case you happened to miss any.

Do You Suffer From Information Overload?

PPG 2nd Annual Marketing Contest

Proper Etiquette When Using Someone Elses Content

Free Contextual Link Partnership Wordpress Plugin

I Wrote My First Guest Blog Post

Contextual Partnership Wordpress Plugin UPDATE

Freelance Work From Home

Freelance Writing Opportunities – Blog Writing

Blog Writing Update

A week ago I posted about the new Contextual Link Partnership Wordpress Plugin and how it allows you to earn free and unlimited one way backlinks to your blog.

Since the plugin was new and I just installed it on my blog, I didn’t have any results to share with you. Of course my hopes were high as this looked like the ideal setup in getting relevant backlinks.

Well, I just received an email from the owners yesterday that pretty much fortifies what I’ve already been saying about this plugin. So far they are seeing tremendous growth in the network and have started distributing backlinks.

I still have high hopes and look forward to the potential that this neat little plugin will have for my blogs, including this one.

If you would like to learn more and read up on what’s been going on just head here: http://www.contextualpartnership.com/news/over-54000-places-for-your-links/.

I would recommend grabbing this plugin and utilizing it on your blogs. You have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain. And don’t worry, I’m not getting paid or anything to promote it. I just see a lot of value in this and hope all of you will too.