Just want to wish everyone a happy new year and I hope that 2011 turns out to be the year you finally ”make it.”  I am still waiting for that turning point, myself. But what I have discovered is that the closer I am to finally making it, the farther I place the goal post. In other words, can one really stop at some point and say that they are satisfied? I think this is a human trait that most of us experience and, in some cases, feel guilty about. In fact, if we could actually say that this is enough, and stop, I don’t think the planet would be in such bad shape. But we are conditioned to want more. Sadly, this may eventually be our undoing. Read the rest of this entry

There is no doubt that article directories are taking a more aggressive position when it comes to ads and revenue. Gone are the days where you submitted your work and you could expect a 40% CTR without too much trouble. Today, you are lucky if you break 20% after your reader navigates through the barrage of ads designed to attract their attention, sell them something, or get credit for an ad click. It is too obvious the last thing the directory owner wants is for the reader to click the link in  your resource box.

I miss the good old days when there was a little respect for the author. Sure, you had ads, but they were also fair about it and they gave you a fighting chance to persuade your reader to click on your link. Today, just about every article directory throws whatever they can in front of the reader before they hit the resource box. Read the rest of this entry

There is no doubt that you are taking a chance when you sink a lot of time and effort into building web pages on sites that you don’t own. This post is not going to be so much a rant as a warning that you can lose your income in a second if you don’t take the time to diversify. And one of the smartest things you can do when it comes to spreading your real estate around is to try and get as much of your content on your own site first.

I just experienced a $400/month loss when Squidoo decided that my lens on “Cheating Husbands” went against their terms of service. It was 3 years old and was really creating some major traffic for the keywords “Cheating Husband” and “Cheating Husbands.” Read the rest of this entry