Recently, I added a PayPal Donate Button to the right panel of The Ultimate Blogging Toolkit.  My thinking is that if the information contained in “the kit” is of value to you, you may throw a bone this way.  Pleasantly, even after the test I had a friend perform, I’ve actually received a few “tips.”  (No, not “stay out of the stock market!”)

What do you think?  Back in February of last year, I weighed in with Donate Buttons: Classy or Trashy.  At that time, I had only advertising on the site and posed a number of questions relating to monetization in general, appropriateness and if “donate” can or should coexist with “ads.”

I want your opinion.  Over this past year, I have become more confident in my blogging skills and decided to test the water.  Your opinions are important to me.

Thanks,

Dave

Updated "Above the Fold" Lists

Bloggers who pay attention to widgets from Adgitize and Entrecard have many reasons for doing so.  One, of course is convenient “dropping.”  We can debate the impacts on bounce rates vs. the exposure to new blogs.  However, in this regard, the best blog real estate for any sort of advertising is “Above the Fold” on the opening screen without the need for scrolling.

With a new monitor used to maintain the Ultimate Blogging Toolkit comes the need to refresh the Above the Fold lists – and add a new one.  To appear on the Ultimate Blogging Toolkit’s Above the Fold lists, the widget must be identifiable and clickable in the first 984 pixels on the screen.  In the spirit of sharing the tools I’ve developed, this is what works for me.  I hope it is beneficial to you.

The lists are now:

• Adgitize and Entrecard
• Adgitize
• Entrecard

This is the sequence in which I use my lists and what appears to have the best value for me.  I would appreciate your comments on your experience with Above the Fold drop lists (or new sites to add to the various lists!)

Hint:  When using Google Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer, hold down the CTRL key when clicking the links on the list.  Each click will open a new tab but will keep you right on this page and allow you rapid clicking through the list.  As the list gets longer, it will of course take time to load them all.  However, this is a very efficient way to get many easy-to-drop blogs served up in tabs.

If you find these “Above the Fold” lists beneficial, feel free to link directly to this or any of the pages.

Enjoy!

Dave

Molly Lee Cards

Prolific blogger. Creative genius. The most unique, fun and interesting cards the likes of which you’ll not find anywhere else.

That’s Molly Lee Cards.

Molly Lee’s blog is an exciting and energetic lens into her creative card business.  Through her ETSY store (an online “crafters mall), she sells animated cards that are terrific. While I could go on and on about the cards (I’m a previous customer), the purpose of this post is to review her blog.  You can visit for yourself and have all the fun I’ve had with her creations.  One important note: as you can see from the screen capture, she has broken into Powell’s Books in Portland.  (Not literally – her work is so good, they’ve given her a chance to sell her cards in their retail setting.  An excellent endorsement of her work.)

Back to her blog.

Molly Lee Cards is housed on Blogger and is a simple, yet very effective design.  In previous discussions with her, I know Molly has previously dabbled with advertising on her site, but has simply focused on her work (which is great!) and the art and science of the blogging itself.  I might suggest that she reconsider.  Here’s a couple reasons why:

Molly Lee Cards is a PR 2!

First, Molly has achieved a Google Page Rank of 2 according to PR Checker.  This is no small feet, caused by consistent posts over a good period of time, inbound links and a significant following.  With 25 followers registered on her site (and who knows how many more check in regularly) she has a community following on which she could capitalize.  Since a Page Rank of 2 includes a fair amount of traffic, Google’s Adsense may make, well, sense.

Secondly, Google has improved Adsense for Blogger users with a more integrated design and more ad placement options.  This has made it easier to insert ads between posts and more flexible throughout the layout.  One of the topics I’ve posted about on the Ultimate Blogging Toolkit has been to Diversify Your Monetization Strategy.  This would be a good time to take advantage of increased visibility and diversify her revenue stream.

In addition to the wonderful cards discussed on her blog, Molly has promoted a Crafty Space Makeover Challenge.  Here, she has applied her creativity (and her Industrial Engineering background) into re-engineering her personal work space.  Her crafting skills are now unbridled.  Look out.  But in doing so, she invited some of her crafter colleagues to join her.  She inspired them to improve their own work spaces and in doing so, helped them improve their own operations.

It is a treat to see someone who is passionate about what she does, produces a very high quality product of enormous creativity, and inspires others to do the same.  I wish her continued success.

Dave

Grow Your Blogs

As I’ve explored many different blogs in a number of varied categories, I have found instances where the same apparent author has created multiple blog properties. They are all monetized and in some cases, look very much the same. The topics within those families vary to different degrees, but one thing seems to be common: they are all owned by the same person.

Why is that significant? I’ll take a run at it from a couple of different angles.

First, frequency.

As I’ve indicated before in Frequent vs. Relevant, frequency plays a significant role in enticing readers to return. Post too often and people may not want to keep up with all the posts in their blog reader. Post too infrequently and they get bored. Multiple blogs allow frequent posts (for those prolific bloggers) to be shared across each blog, keeping an “every few days” cycle for each one.

Next, relevancy.

In the same post, I suggest that knowing your audience and staying on target is also important.  Multiple blogs allows those of us with some A.D.D. tendencies to explore a wide variety of topics, but channel those topics to the appropriate venue.

Finally, monetization.

With an understanding that the “basic blocking and tackling” of frequency and relevancy must be performed on each blog property, casting a wide net allows a wider monetization coverage. We still need to post at the right frequency with relevant content. However, multiple sites means multiple Adgitize ad sets, more Google AdSense boxes and a greater chance that a blog will “take off.” More saplings planted means a better chance of a large, healthy tree – or maybe a whole forest.

OK, I’m about out of cliches.

But I’ve begun to take my own advice. In addition to the “business” blog of the Ultimate Blogging Toolkit, I have previously mentioned my “casual” blog the New Blogged Word. Last week, I just launched Energication to satisfy my passion for education and renewable energy.  Energy Education. Energication.  Get it?  Sorry.  Had to play the game.  No monetization on that last one yet, but watch for it!

As humans, we have no end of opinions and perspectives. What better way to channel that energy than through multiple blogging channels. The only requirement is quality. A large number of bad blogs can’t compare to even one great one. But multiple good blogs gives us the best chance for monetization success.

Dave

Spring Cleaning the Layout

After adding my Entrecard widget and my new Adgitize ads, I decided the Ultimate Blogging Toolkit needed a bit of a layout clean-up.  Taking a queue from a blog I recently began following, Cromely has shaken up his design and it has inspired me to do the same.

With ads in one panel and support tools in the other, it should make it easy to find what you need and not be distracted.  Does it work for you?  If so, please share why.  Even more important, if it doesn’t, please share that perspective!

In spite of the site not being overly crowded, it was important to me to keep a simple, orderly design.  I’ve seen too many blogs that have so many toys, gadgets and widgets that I’m erring on the side of conservatism.  Many of these sites have so many “do dads” to load, the page bogs down and I close the tab – and bypass the Entrecard drop and the experience that may have been.  There’s not enough hours in a day.

Many of the excessive “noise” on overly widgetized pages are simply annoying.  Scrolling ad boxes, in-line links that pop up an ad box when you inadvertently move your mouse across them, interstitial pages that come up when the page loads – requiring you to close it before proceeding… ENOUGH!

Sorry for shouting, but you get the point.

What about you?  What are the most annoying irritants that you see on blogs?  Which ones should we stay away from to keep our valued visitors coming back?

On the other hand, which one’s can’t you live without?  Which ones draw traffic to your site?  Which ones actually further your traffic and monetization goals?  In two words, “what works?”

Share your ideas – we’ll all benefit.

Thanks,

Dave