Are you a blogger, copywriter, journalist… or just someone who enjoys writing online? If so, then content discovery is likely VERY important to you – even if you didn’t realize it already. On Thursday, November 18th, I will be co-hosting a webinar with my good friend Jake Ludington called Chris Pirillo University (CPU): Writing for Google. Between us, Jake and I have more than 25 years of combined online publishing experience. We are prepared to bring you the best tips, tips and secrets we have to help you write for Google.

How will people find what you’re writing? Sure, there’s the social media outlets – but, chances are, Google is the primary gateway to your intended audience. How do you rise above the competition? Forget about buzzwords and busywork – we’ll show you how to do things right the first time so that you don’t have to hire anybody else to help you make things work for yourself in terms of writing for discovery on Google (and other search engines, vicariously).

Prepare yourself to learn:

• How to write titles that rank
• How to do effective keyword research
• How to use keywords without stuffing
• How to make the most of your 300-500 words
• How to link for maximum impact
• How to craft better file names for your pages
• How to integrate rich media with your text

And get your questions answered, like:

• Do “meta tags” matter?
• Are there tools to make writing easier?
• Where do I find great article titles?
• Can images help my articles?
• Should I link outside my blog?

All registrants will receive a copy of the webinar – so even if you can’t interact with us live, you can still learn on your own schedule! You have nothing to lose (especially since you’re likely already writing online and wanting to optimize your time).

Tickets are only $97.00, and they won’t last long. Be sure to sign up before it’s too late.

Chris Pirillo University (CPU): Writing for Google

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This caller is wanting to set up his own web site and make money with it. He has a lot of questions as to how you get paid from advertisers, and how the process works in general. There’s a lot more involved than simply buying a domain name and slapping AdSense on it, trust me.

He’s thinking of making a web site with different types of art and wallpapers. He’s an artist, and wallpapers are in great demand if they’re unique and of good quality.

The first thing you have to do is think of all the ways you can drive attention to your site. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts are very worthwhile. You have to engage your community and keep them interested in what you’re doing before you can begin to make money. Without anyone to visit, ads won’t do you a lick of good.

On a web site, there are multiple ways of generating money. There are the traditional means such as with AdSense or Kontera links. You could also potentially land a sponsor who will pay you a set amount of money per month or quarter. That, however, tends to tie directly in with your website traffic.

As I already said, driving traffic to yourself is the key behind any form of advertising. Your best bet is to start the website and then get out there and network your rear end off. Visit other blogs with similar themes and leave comments – along with a link back to your own site. Don’t write something insipid or spammy. Leave a thoughtful message, one that may promote further discussion. People will naturally want to check out what else you have to say!

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Web Site Advertising Options

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*GASP* What? The Internet could go down? What will we do? How will we survive? Unfortunately, it happens to all of us at some point. Here are some interesting ideas to keep yourself busy during the “Intarweb’s” downtimes.

• Clean out and categorize your bookmarks. I don’t know about you, but I tend to just click ‘bookmark this page’ and call it good. Yesterday, when I hit the little ‘down arrow’ on Firefox to let the bookmark list scroll down I counted. I didn’t count sites, I counted seconds. 11 seconds worth of scrolling bookmarks is way too many. If you haven’t visited a site in a month it’s not important. Create categories and organize the list of bookmarks after you’ve eliminated all those links you don’t need. Do not create a miscellaneous category. Catch-all categories do exactly that and soon become difficult to use.
• Uninstall programs you don’t use. Why delete them when you have plenty of space on the drive? Because it makes things like Scandisk and Defrag run faster. It might not make your PC run any smoother, but you’ll feel good knowing you aren’t wasting space.
• Unplug your PC, take the cover off and clean out the dust. Invest in some canned air. Heat is a PC’s enemy and even in a clean environment, cooling fans suck dust through every opening and it builds up fast. If you have pets, do it once a month. I cleaned out enough dust to build a rabbit hutch to keep all the dust bunnies in.
• Write your next blog post. If you use a blog client like BlogDesk just write and save. If not, write to a text file and format it after your connection is live. Not being connected may force you to write about something different, like say, five things to do when you have no Internet connection.
• Run any maintenance programs you don’t have auto-scheduled. Reclaim your drive space and allow your PC to run smoother.

And now for number six, the bonus item. This is something I put off for a long time because it’s time consuming and no one really likes to think about what happens to the ones we love should something happen to us. You may need connectivity to accomplish this one, which is why the title isn’t six things to do with a PC when you have no Internet connection, but this one is important.

• Write down your logins and passwords for all your sites, blogs, email accounts, Adsense, affiliate programs, where you purchased your domain names, etc. All that information is the key to your business. If something should happen to you your spouse or significant other will need that information. When you’re done, put the information in a safety deposit box or keep it in a fire resistant safe at the house and let the people that may need that information know where it is kept.

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How to Keep from Getting Bored if the Internet Goes Down

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People ask me every day what I do for a living. I create content… lots of content. I am only able to create this content thanks to my sponsors, of which Google is one. I have long used AdSense, and now help others use it, as well. As a small token of appreciation, Google sends out thank you Christmas gifts to certain AdSense partners every year, who have reached a particular threshold.

A couple of years ago, I received a cool little cube that glows. Now, I love glowing things… just look at my Tix clocks! Not only does the cube glow, it also is a radio! It runs off of a couple AA batteries. I can choose to have it just glow, glow and play music, or just play the music. I keep it here in my office on the shelf, with it glowing. I love glowing gadgets! They just rule.

Last year, Google sent me a very cool mini digital picture frame. Not only does it display photos on the screen, I can also listen to .mp3s on it, or watch .mp4 videos! It has a USB port, of course. It also accepts SD cards. Since I already have a digital photo frame in my office, I keep this one down in our living room. It has our favorite pictures from our wedding on it, constantly rotating.

This year, Google sent me this card. It’s just a flat little card with the Google name on it. No, it’s not a credit card. Watch as I pull this tiny little square piece apart from the rest of the card. Do you recognize what that is? You’re right… it’s a USB drive! It holds up to 2GB of data, and fits right in my wallet. That is very cool. Now if I’m out somewhere and don’t have my keys with me, I still will have this one in my wallet.

I don’t know if others have ever said so, but thank you, Google. I really do appreciate the little gifts you send. They are thoughtful, handy and fun!

What kind of trinkets do you like receiving at Christmas? What about those neat items you pick up at trade shows? Send me a comment or an email, and tell me your favorite little toy you’ve received.

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Google Gifts

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http://live.pirillo.com/ – For quite awhile, I have embedded sponsor ads into my videos, as well as mentioning them. Today, YouTube will begin their new program, where you can embed any Partner video into your own site, and make money!

According to the NewYork Times:

The Internet search giant is expected to introduce a service on Tuesday to allow Web sites in its ad network to embed relevant videos from some YouTube content creators. A Web site or blog specializing in hiking, for instance, might choose to embed hiking videos from YouTube.

Google will share ad revenue with the video content creators. The program is in its earliest stages and only 100 companies are set to offer their video as part of the program. Given the millions of videos on YouTube, that figure is likely to change soon. The service, which represents the first major combination of a Google product with YouTube, will give video creators wide distribution beyond YouTube via Google’s network, known as AdSense. Since the videos will be surrounded by ads, the service is another way for Google to cash in on the huge number of video clips stored on YouTube.

Google said it would share revenue from the ads with the creators of the videos and with the Web sites that embed them, though it declined to specify what percentage of the revenue will be kept by each party.

While many Web sites already embed YouTube clips in their pages, this system would allow them to make money from the clips. They would not, however, have the same level of control over what clip gets embedded.

I don’t see how this cannot be a “win-win” situation for everyone involved. YouTube will make money, I’ll make money… and YOU will make money. What’s negative about that? Yes, you may not like ads. But seriously, how can you not like making money simply by embedding videos?

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Google YouTube Ads

A few months ago, we did a short video on YouTube that covered Google AdSense tips:

It may be due to my doubled traffic and a digg frontpage hit, but your suggestions on ad optimization tripled my income on AdSense. It’s still not a lot of money, but it’s three times a little amount of money which is good.

Digg users seldom bring with them an increase in AdSense revenue for quite a few reasons: (a) they’re largely underage, (b) they’re largely idiots, (c) they’re largely underage idiots, (d) they block ads in their browsers, (e) they hold no staying power in terms of your audience, (f) they have attention spans shorter than a nanometer, and (g) they’re quite predictable.

Digg has power because it drives traffic, not because it drives intelligence.

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