Best Way To Increase Your Twitter Followers

It is just over six months since I wrote my post on Free Twitter Tools To Grow Your Followers and it is time for an update.

Quite a lot has changed since that post, both with Twitter and with the tools you can use to add followers. Most of the tools and techniques either no longer work, or have had restrictions placed upon them that greatly reduce their effectiveness by removing the bulk follow and bulk unfollow features, requiring much more time and effort on your part to grow your list.

Why You Should Grow Your List

As of January 2010, ComScore put Twitter.com traffic at 75 million people, 11 times as many as it had at the start of 2009. This number is only for twitter users on twitter.com. It is estimated that fewer than 50% of twitter usage is through the site, so the true number of twitter users may be closer to 150 million.

That’s a lot of users, but what does it mean for you and why should you try to increase your number of followers? No matter what your business is, the answer can be summed up with MBM, marketing, branding and money. This post will focus primarily on how to increase your twitter followers with the intent of generating income.

If you are unsure of the potential for making money on Twitter, you need look no further than Jeremy Schoemaker who reports making $15,000 from advertisers through Ad.ly and Spnsored Tweets in October and his twitter earnings keep rising, now getting $5000 for a single tweet.

While Jeremy has a profile that enables him to get such high prices, the average person can also make hundreds, or even thousands of extra dollars by simply tweeting. However, unless you are a Jeremy Shoemaker, you won’t generate any large advertiser income unless you have a large group of followers, the higher the better; if you can engage directly with an active group, you will increase your earning potential enormously.

How To Increase Your Followers Quickly

As I said in my previous post, getting more followers is not difficult, you simply need to follow more people yourself. The problem with this is that, Twitter has limits on the number of people you can follow each day and adding a couple of hundred people manually takes time, a lot of time, even more if you are looking to add people with particular interests. Once you begin adding a couple of thousand people each day, you really have no option, you have to automate the process.

There are still a few free ways to gain extra followers, but most of the services and tools are limited and/or scammy. There is one tool that stands head and shoulders above all the others out there.

Tweet adder The Best Tool For Getting Followers

Out of all the methods I have tested, Tweet adder is simply the best tool for automating your twitter activities and the ultimate tool for quickly growing your twitter followers.

Tweet adder has every feature you could want to fully automate your twitter activities, including:

• Multiple Twitter account management
• Fully auto follow and auto unfollow
• Ability to unfollow ALL except your VIP SAFELIST
• Keep track of people you have unfollowed so that you do not re-follow them.
• Auto Follow Twitter Users — Fully Control Twitter following with Follower Ratio, Max # of follows per day
• Auto Follow Stop Feature : Automatically stops when Twitter follow limits are reached
• Auto Unfollow Twitter Users: Unfollow by #, follower to follow ratios, users who do not follow back with time frames
• Random Time Delay Settings- You choose what time intervals between follows, unfollows, tweets, and direct messages
• Safe VIP List: Create a list of twitter users to never unfollow
• Full Twitter Stats and graphical historical viewing
• Automated Tweet Posting and Direct Messaging
• And much more

Tweet adder is unparalleled for rapidly growing your twitter followers; the sooner you start to grow your followers list, the better your chances of increasing yoru earnings.

Free Twitter Tools To Grow Your Followers

UPDATE: Since this post was written, Twitter has made changes to its service and terms of use. Due to this, many of the techniques and tools described in this post no longer work. To see what works now, read my updated post on the Best Way To Increase Your Twitter Followers.

I see a lot of links posted on Twitter for software and services to help you grow your Twitter followers list, so I thought I’d give you the rundown on some free alternatives as well as some of the paid offerings.

Whether you are new to Twitter or not, many of you are probably wondering how people get so many followers to their Twitter accounts so quickly; surely they can’t be that popular? The truth is, outside of having a celebrity profile, or being a Webstar, the majority are using tools and techniques that help them grow their follower list faster and larger then would happen organically.

There are many reasons to develop a large followers list, the majority of them being gaining more exposure, allowing you to attract more people to your site, or simply earn more money through advertising. Some people may think that this makes your group of followers less authentic and to some degree it is, but it has also allowed me to meet some people and get information, products, etc that I otherwise would not have heard about. I should also say that I have only been using these techniques for about one week on this account and in that time I have more than doubled the number of followers.

Whatever the reason, if you want to grow your follower list, there are several free options available to you that will allow you to grow your list fairly quickly and relatively easily.

The one caveat to all this is that you should not become a spammer. People wont listen to what you have to say and there is also a good chance that your account could be flagged, which will kind of defeat the purpose of growing your follower numbers.

How To Get More Followers

Put simply, the basics of getting more followers is to add more people. The problem with this is that, Twitter has limits on the number of people you can follow each day and adding a couple of hundred people manually takes time, a lot of time, even more if you are looking to add people with particular interests. This is where the automatic tools come in handy.

There are tools you can buy that cover almost every feature you could want, but these range in price from $55 – $197. Luckily, there are free tools available that will give you most of the features you require.

Using Firefox

The first tool is a simple Firefox Greasemonkey script. If you don’t know what Firefox is, it is a free Web Browser that offers many more features then Internet Explorer. You can download your free copy of Firefox here. Once you have FireFox installed, download and install the Greasemnkey plugin. Once you have added this, just download the free Twitter Friend Adder.

With all this setup, you are ready to start adding friends automatically. To do this, find a big name you want to follow, to begin with preferably in the same niche you are in. For example, if you are in the tech niche, then you might go to Chris Pirillo’s profile and click on his followers (see image below). In the top left you will see a button saying “Add All Followers”. Clicking this will automatically start adding one of his followers every 2 seconds until your follower limit is reached. In theory, you are permitted to follow 1,000 people each day, but there are some constraints to this number, which you can read about in my post on Twitter Limits Explained.

Finding Followers

If you are stuck for profiles to add, just got to wefollow, where you can find a list of the top Twitter users across a range of niches.

Another tool I use to add users is a service called twittgeek, which allows you to add users based around specific keyword. You provide a list of keywords that you’re interested in and twittgeek scans profiles to find who uses those keywords in their statues and automatically follows the.

Deleting People Is Important

Remember before where I said in theory you can follow 1,000 people each day, well that would be true if each of them followed you back. Unfortunately, in reality, that rarely happens, so it is important that you delete people that don’t follow you back, otherwise you will quickly be hammering at your Twitter account limit.

The other reason you will want to delete people is because, is that your following to follower ratio is important for several reasons. If you have lot less people following you then you are following, you will not make you look very popular. Like many aspects of life, people want to associate with popular people, so it is important to keep this ratio in check.

You should automatically unfollow everyone who doesn’t follow you back, so you keep your following to follower ratio in balance. You should only do this every couple of days, as you want to give people the chance to follow you back before you delete them.

One script that allows you to automatically unfollow people is Twitter Karma. Using it, you the option to unfollow everyone not following you in one action. Once your list begins to get large it does take a while to load though. Another tip you may want to use is to unfollow those who do not tweet very often. Untweeps is the tool to use for this. The reason for unfollowing those who haven’t tweeted for a while is that the lack of tweeting means that they aren’t really active on the service and so do not really lose anyting by unfollowing them. The other advantage to this, is that if they aren’t active on the service, then there is a good chance that they wont know you have stopped following them. Untweeps allow you to set the number of days since a profile has been updated, but personally, I would choose something around the 14 – 30 day mark.

Pro Twitter Tools

As I mentioned earlier, there are paid tools that provide the functionality I have detailed in this article and much more. If you are serious about using Twitter for marketing or some other purpose, using a professional tool will greatly simplify your tasks. I will gove a full review in a later post, but in the meantime, you can check out what I feel is the best of the current tools, tweetadder.

This really is the complete tool for taking your Twitter marketing to the next level, go and check it out now.

Make Money with Sponsored Tweets on Twitter

I recently signed up with Sponsored Tweets, a new Twitter advertising platform from Izea that provides a market for advertisers and Tweeters to connect.

The program has been out for a little over a month now and today has rolled out some new and much needed features, that should make it even easier for advertisers and Tweeters to connect.

The concept of Sponsored Tweets is simply to provide a marketplace for advertisers to leverage the millions of Tweeters out there and at the same time allow Tweeters to make money from their tweets. As you can see, the concept is simple and so is the process.

Sponsored Tweets is not the first service to dip its toes into the paying Tweeter pool, but it is the best funded and backed by a proven company, which helps to guarantee a great deal more success. Add in a bunch of celebrities and big name Web stars and you have a product that has a lot more legitimacy.

How Sponsored Tweets Works

Setting up an account with Sponsored Tweets is very simple, you just create your account, and login automatically on the SponsoredTweets site with your Twitter account. You can see how simple the account setup is in the image of the setup screen below.

You can choose to be notified of advertiser offers by Direct Message or email. Once an offer comes in, you login to your Sponsored Tweets account and approve or deny the tweet. The advertiser has the choice of writing what they want you to tweet, but the majority I have had, leave it up to you to tweet. When you write the tweet, it is sent to the advertiser for approval. Once approved and tweeted, the money is deposited into your account.

You can choose to charge per click, or charge per tweet. How much you charge is entirely up to you, but Sponsored Tweets will give you a suggested price, but you are not goverened to use this amount. Several factors are involved in estimating hos much you can charge for a tweet, but generally, the more followers you have, the more you can charge.

Is This Sanctioned By Twitter?

To dispel any concerns about this being allowed by Twitter, the answer is YES. Twitter has no problem with Sponsored Tweets or Tweeters using the service.

The question of ethics is also covered, with each tweet having full disclosure about it being an advertised, or sponsored tweet.

Can You Make Money With Sponsored Tweets?

Now the question you are all probably interested in, is whether you can actually make money with Sponsored Tweets. The answer is a definite YES. I have already made money from the service and many others are doing the same as well. The good thing is that it really doesn’t take long to earn the money, you spend a couple of minutes writing the tweet and the rest is automatic. Easy money.

I am still doing some testing with the service, regarding price settings and I will pass on my findings once I have more data. Until then, why not go and sign up yourself  with Sponsored Tweets and make some extra money while you tweet.

Will Keyword Elite 2 Work For You?

By now you have probably heard that Brad Callen’s Keyword Elite 2.0 has been released and you may be wondering what all the hype is about and whether it is warranted.

The previous version of Keyword Elite was a very successful and full featured product that delivered on its promise of being the best keyword research tool available and it helped a lot of people make a lot of money, but will the new version offer the same to new users and past alike?

This tool is geared for people wanting to make money by targeting buyers in hot niches. The key, no pun intended, is not just to blindly drive traffic to your site, but to drive buying traffic that covnerts into sales, earning you the big dollars. Driving traffic is not enough to make serious money. I have one site that gets over 300,000 visitors per month and over 600,000 page views, yet makes far less money than another site with less than 1% of this volume of traffic, so I can definitely say that traffic alone is not the key.

The Advantage Of Keyword Elite 2.0

With Keyword Elite, you get are 8 tools, including:

1. Keyword Surge
2. Market Research Sleuth
3. Adwords Time Machine
4. Search Engine Dominator
5. Adwords Competition Sniper
6. Advanced Adwords Site Targeter
7. JV Diamond Miner
8. CPA Magnet

Probably its biggest advantage is that you get information that you simply can’t get any other way, as Keyword Elite gives you all the tools at your fingertips and saves you so much time. If you do your keyword research the traditional manual way, you will appreciate the power and speed of the tools in Keyword Elite.

Keyword Elite 2.0 is a very powerful application that delivers on its claims for those serious about making money online. It isn’t a push button system, you still have to do some work, but you will be able to target your efforts on what works, rather than wasting your time and money on things that don’t.

As I said, this is a serious application, for those who want to make serious money. If that wasn’t enough, Brad is throwing in SEO Elite and giving a massive 8 week, 100% guarantee. Try it for 8 weeks and if, for some reason you are not happy, Brad will give you all your money back, no questions asked.

Don’t just take my word for it though, take a look at the Keyword Elite 2.0 site and see for yourself. Brad has 8 videos that you can watch and see just how powerful and effective Keyword Elite is.

FTP For Beginners

I have had a couple of queries recently about ftp and other aspects of Internet technologies. After helping some friends with various computer problems over the weekend, I realised that it is pretty easy to forget that many people learning the ropes about earning money online don’t come from a geek or tech background; while they can pick up many of the techniques to get them started to earning money online, they may not have sufficient knowledge, or the underlying technical skills necessary to understand many of the terms and techniques they learn.

With this in mind, I thought it time to devote some posts to explaining some of the standard skills and tools you will need to master. This is aimed at the beginner to intermediate user, who will each learn from this post. To begin, I will detail something you have probably heard of called ftp.

What is FTP?

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is simply a protocol for transferring files over the Internet. Using ftp, you can send and receive files between computers located anywhere in the World. If you have a Website, or are hoping to create one at some stage, you will be using ftp to transfer files from your computer to the Web server hosting your site

FTP uses a URL (the address of the site) that is similar to what you are familiar with from your Web browser. To load Webtrepreneur in your browser, you enter the address: http://www.webtrepreneur.net/.

The ftp address looks very similar: ftp://ftp.webtrepreneur.net.

This post will only detail connecting to your host server (where your Website is hosted) and the basic commands and details you will need for uploading your files.

There are numerous ftp programs available for all of the major platforms, both free and commercial. The selection comes down to your preference. Some of the basic terminology you may encounter is listed below:

Profile Name:- A name for you to remember the profile you created for a connection.

Host / Server Address:- This is the server your computer will connect to, e.g. ftp://ftp.webtrepreneur.net.

Port:- This is the port on the server you will connect to. The default port is 21 and this should work on most servers

Login / Username:- This is your username for your account on the remote server.

Password:- Likewise, this is your password for accessing your account on the remote server.

Initial Path:- The first directory that will be opened on the remote computer.

Attempts:- This is the number of times the computer will try to download (or upload) a file if it is interrupted.

Retry Delay:- The time between each retry.

Download Path:- The directory on your computer where files will be downloaded to.

You don’t have to know all of these, as you may not have to be concerned with all of these commands, depending on the application you select.

Connected

After choosing your ftp application and entering the settings relevant to the instruction above, you simply connect to the remote in order to transfer files. Once connected, depending on your application you will be presented with a window similar to the one above, with the remote server in the left or right hand side and your computer in the opposite.

Transferring files is simply a matter of dragging them to the appropriate location on either. If you wanted to copy a file or directory from the server to your computer, you simply select the file and drag it from the server window across to the window representing your computer. Don’t be worried, this action will not delete the copy from your server, it will simply copy it across to your computer.

Be aware though, that if you already have a file with the same name, you will be prompted whether you want to overwrite. Make sure that this is what you want, as it will overwrite the file, so proceed with caution if you are unsure and place the file in a different directory if needed.

Permissions

Something else you will come across when transferring files to your server is that on occasions you may read about things called permissions and / or CHMOD. CHMOD stands for CHange MODe.

I wont go into too great a detail here, as you don’t really need to know all the Unix idiosyncrasies behind CHMOD, what you do need to know though is that the server needs some details about who and what can do certain actions on and with your files. Basically, you are setting permission about who can do certain things to your files. For example, on a blog, you want visitors to be able to read posts and comment on them, but you don’t normally want them to be able to access your scripts and change them and damage your site.

That is basically what you are telling the server through you CHMOD settings. It does this by assigning numbers to each file. These numbers set the actions that can be preformed on the files. There are only 3 actions, so it is not too daunting. The actions are:

READ

WRITE

EXECUTE

You can set these permissions on most ftp programs, either by a tick in a text box or by writing a combination of numbers, or both.

To give you an example, a standard WordPress installation will have permission similar to the ones below:

Directories should have permissions of 755. Never use 777.
All files should have permissions of 644.
If you do want to use the built-in theme editor, theme files should have permissions of 666. Once again, never give them 777.

Once you get your ftp program up and running, you will be able to see this by experience and get a better understanding of it.

WordPress 2.7 Review

Earlier today, I uploaded and installed WordPress 2.7 Coltrane. This is my first post with the new and from appearances and features, greatly improved WordPress.

As usual (for me anyway), the upgrade was a painless process. It was actually quicker than the last one I did a few weeks ago.

The first thing you will notice is the completely new interface. The developers have spent a lot of time listening and have made usability improvements in every area.

Dashboard

When you login, you are greeted by a completely new Dashboard. In the upper right corner of the screen is a ‘Screen Options. button that allows you to select the options to display in your dashboard by checking or unchecking the various modules.

Another cool feature is the ability to move the items in your dashboard into different positions that suit your workflow. It is a simple matter of grabbing the top of each modules window and dragging it to your position of choice. Now you have complete control of the features you want and the location of them on your screen.

Vertical Menus

One of the most prominent new features is the inclusion of vertical menus. This is a great improvement, as navigation is greatly simplified, with each section using Ajax to display a list of options for you to click.

This provides a major speed improvement, as it means you have far less screen loads to get to the section you want to edit. As an example, the Appearance menu option already has the current theme listed, making it possible to go directly to the theme options in one click.

Top level navigation items are Media, Links, Pages, Comments, Appearance, Plugins, USers, Tools and Settings. If you prefer not to have the vertical menu taking up valuable screen space, you have the otpion to minimise it to the side. Mousing over each icon provides the menu item subset. A very nice feature.

Plugins

Plugin management just got a whole lot better, with the ability to search for plugins directly from the dashboard. Do a search for a specific term, such as twitter and you get a rated list of the available plugins from the WordPress plugin repository.

Installation can now be done directly from the dashboard; you no longer have to FTP your plugin files to the server. This is another great improvement for those new to the technology.

Likewise, future upgrades of WordPress itself can be done in the same manner, so no more uploading and overwriting files.

Threaded Comments

Threaded comments is a welcome addition to the core functionality of WordPress. Many blogs already have the feature via plugins and services such as Disqus. I personally use Disqus on another blog, so this will give me a chance to compare that over the inbuilt system.

Sticky Posts

Another little feature that people have been requesting for a long time, is the ability to make a post ’sticky’, i.e. keep it on the home page no matter how old it is. Making a post ’sticky’ is just a matter of checking the box.

Take a look at the video below and then go ahead and try it yourself. As with all things though, be sure to make backups, just in case you have some problems…..

Make Easy Online Money

Make Easy Online Money. That is a claim made by many online affiliate programs, but only delivered by some. Below is an honest review of one such program, what you have to do to make easy online money with it and whether it actually delivers on its claim.

Blogging to the Bank 3.0

As nearly everyone who uses the Internet is aware, blogging is huge, with over 200 million online. But how many of the people behind those blogs are trying to make money with them; and out of the ones that are blogging for money, how many are actually making anything beyond a few dollars?

While I can rattle off a few names of people using blogging to make money, the majority are not making what you would call massive amounts. Sure, some of them are doing better than average, but only a very few are approaching real wealth from it.

Rob Benwell, the person behind Blogging to the Bank 3.0 is one of the few exceptions. Rob has made over a million dollars using blogs. Rob first wrote about his technique in 2006 and, as the Internet moves very quickly, techniques need to change to keep up, hence the rewrite and new release of Blogging to the Bank.

For those who don’t know Rob’s story, here is a quick summation:

Back in 2005 he was struggling to make any profit online, had dropped out of college and was getting deep into debt. He was trying all the techniques the gurus tell you and wasn’t getting anywhere fast. All of that went in the bin and he started using his own techniques and started making more and more money using simple blogs. In early 2006 he shared this with the world and had a great ebook called blogging to the bank. Tons of people got rich from using these techniques. He then spoke at Online Marketing Legend Yanik Silver’s underground Seminar where he revealed even more of his underground strategies. Then July 2007 he released Blogging to the Bank 2.0 which showed users his new methods to creating online wealth using blogs. In total both versions have been read by over 50,000 people across the world.

Blogging to the Bank 3.0 is a completely revised version of the previous offerings, covering all the new techniques Rob uses to maintain his blogging riches. Blogging To The Bank 3.0 teaches you Robs new step by step blueprint to creating highly profitable long term niche blogs using the newest optimization techniques. There’s even a section on advanced Search Engine Optimization, which he makes easy to understand. You wont have to wade through pages and pages of detail and come out none the wiser. It really is explained well and in plain English.

So what is his secret?

Basically, the technique Rob applies is very similar to one I use myself. Rather than going for a single blog and slowly building credibility and a following over time, he uses a multiple blog approach, building blogs in several areas and leveraging them for money.

Once you know the strategies, the system is quite mechanical and involves:

• Build your blog.
• Produce content for the blog.
• Market your blog to build traffic.
• Monetize your blog with adsense, advertising and affiliate programs.
• Rinse and repeat.

That is essentially what Rob does, but in order to make it work, you need to know how to do each detail correctly and follow each step. Blogging to the Bank 3.0 explains each step and guides you exactly through what you need to do in order to start earning a huge income.

In truth, you can honestly start earning money very quickly by following these techniques and once you have built one site, which should only take a half hour at the most, you can move onto the next and so on.

I can actually vouch for these techniques. As I said, I do something very similar myself and wish I had this book to guide me when I got started. I had to stumble my way through like Rob did before I found this way of doing things.

The other great thing with this type of program is that once you have setup one site, you can bascially forget about it and move onto the next. Each one will bring in passive income, without you having to nurture them or anything else. Once built, it really is a case of set and forget. The more streams you have coming in, the more money you can make.

To give you an idea, say you have one blog that you slave over and count the 50 cents a day you make from google via adsense. How about having 100 blogs that you write on once that get an averaged earning of $5 a day, without having to do anything. And this is conservative. I bet you can see the potential now.

If you are serious about getting on your way to wealth and making easy money online, you really should get Blogging to the Bank 3.0.

Real At Home Jobs

Have you been searching for Real At Home Jobs? Chances are you have, but where do you start?

You may have been stumbling your way around the Web looking for ways you can make money, while staying at home, but are totally confused by all the offers available. There are so many options, that without some guidance, it can be very daunting to get started.

You are also probably thinking that it would be good to get some advice on what to try, or at the least you are searching for some idea to get you pointed in the right direction.

This is the first in a series, where, I will provide a list and review of the various programs, systems and niches that are available so that you will have a better idea of where to begin.

Where To Begin

As I have stated above, it can be very daunting knowing where to begin. With this in mind, I have compiled a list of some of the hottest jobs you can do at home, while keeping your setup costs to a minimum.

As this site’s focus, is on creating online wealth, for this series, I am going to concentrate on working online, more specifically, building your own online business. Working online really does present the easiest and quickest way to wealth.

I am sure you have heard the stories of people making untold wealth online and wishing that you could do the same. Well the truth is, you can and very easily, if you do it correctly. If you think that it can’t possibly be that simple, you’d be wrong. It actually can be very simple and you don’t have to be a computer expert to be able to do it.

There are many individuals who have already become multi-millionaires from doing business on the Internet. There are more still who are just starting out and while not millionaires yet, are making stable incomes online, allowing them to have given up their day jobs and work from home.

You may think that all this talk of untold easy wealth is nothing more than hype; surely it can’t be that easy? Well it can be, if you follow the right techniques and/or programs.

I have searched the Web to find the best information to get you started on your own path to having your own real at home job and so, without further ado, I will show you a simple system to get you started.

The Home Cash Course

The Home Cash Course is a system is designed more for the total newcomer, than the experienced Web marketer. Saying that, if you are experienced and want an automated system that you can apply your own expertise to, than this system is still a valuable tool for you to use and increase your online wealth, as many satisfied users are doing today.

What the Home Cash Course gives you is a complete system, Website, training and tools for getting you started as quickly as possible and on your way to earning. Below is a list of some of the things you get in this product:

• Instant access.
• A stack of training material.
• Award winning members area.
• Bonus material.
• A well designed, Website.
• Resources for growing your business.
• A simple system that is easy to use.
• Tons more…
• Money back guarantee.

The money back guarantee is brilliant with this package, not that you are likely to want to use it, but if you get it and for whatever reason do not use it, there is a huge 8 week money back guarantee, so you really can’t lose.

You can get started straight away, with your own ready-to-go business-in-a-box that includes your very own money making website and step-by-step training materials. The good thing about this product for the total newcomer to Internet marketing is that you don’t have to have any technical knowledge, as everything is provided, literally ready to use, so you can get started straight away.

The training materials have been specifically designed to help beginners and advanced marketing professionals alike. They are so straightforward and effective that a large percentage of our members have been setup in as little as 10 minutes and have started earning profits in the next 30!. Now that is hard to beat.

It is as simple as the 3 steps in the image below.

Click her to find out more if you are serious about a real at home job and get started today.

WidgetBucks Update – My Thoughts

It has been just over a month since I put WidgetBucks on this site, so I thought I would do a followup post about my thoughts.

When WidgetBucks appeared on the scene, it was pretty comprehensively covered by a lot of the blogosphere. Not long after, a few people found out some little features (since rectified) that were not really expected. The main problem was that WidgetBucks code contained a link to widgetbucks.com; Hari has a good description here.

This little hidden link appears to have resulted in WidgetBucks getting slapped with a Google ban for a while.

So what does this all mean, well for one, at the least it makes them appear rather foolish, as the worst, it makes their intentions seem quite dubious. Either way, they seem to be out of favour with many people.

How does WidgetBucks perform as a means for monitizing a Website?

It should be noted that these kind of widgets work best on sites that are focussed on products themselves. I never expected the ad widget itself to perform overly well, but it is difficult to review it without actually giving it a fair go.

Since placing the widget on the site, I have had some very large amounts of traffic through the site, yet I haven’t had one single click on the ads since the first week of the ad widget going on the site. As I said, this type of ad widget works best on product/gadget sites, but I would expect to receive better results then this; perhaps the bad PR earned by the hidden links has had an effect on the overall acceptance. Needless to say, I have removed WidgetBucks from this site.

On a side note, I notice that one of the ‘A’ list bloggers has a similar post and then plugs a rival product, without mentioning his involvement in the service. This is exactly the type of practice I was referring to in my post “Would you Buy A Used Car From An A-list Blogger?“.

Stats For Bloggers

What’s the point in all this blogging if you can’t see how popular your content is. Sure the wealth and adulation is good, but what you really want is stats, damn stats….

An essential tool for any blogger is a good stats package. Without statistics and reporting, you are pretty much blogging blind.

I use various packages, depending on the type of information I am looking for. The good thing about many of the available packages is that there are free versions that provide a good amount of information. My host provides Awstats as the stats package that comes free with the hosting. It is pretty good for a detailed overview, but only updates once every 24 hours.

Google Analytics is a free and very complete package that provides an abundance of graphs and allows you to drill down through the traffic data.

This week I started using Performancing Metrics (pMetrics)and I have to say that I like what it offers. What I particularly like is the ability to see the stats data in real time, as the users are on the site. There is none of this having to wait for 24 hours to see how many visitors are on the site or what they are viewing.

The Dashboard

The Dashboard is where, at a glance, you can see a nice overview of your traffic data, including the number of visitors, their actions, and what content is popular. You also see the percentage variation of your traffic and the time spent on your site.

Read more

Next Page »