MeAndMyDrum » Blogging

Contest Update

Mark Sierra — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 22:49:33 +0000

The response to my contest has been great and it’s not even a day old yet!

I wanted to bring you up to date on some things I’ve added to the prizes and methods of entry:

Ad placement on www.garryconn.com has been added to the Grand Prize Winner package thanks to Garry Conn.
A hosting plan at HostGator (the “Baby” plan) has been added to the First Prize Winner package, thanks to Louis.
Clarification to posting about the contest. In short, you can post to as many blogs as you like so long as they meet the qualifications I’ve outlined in the contest post. Please read them carefully and let me know if you have any questions before you take the time to post. Also, for those of you who have already posted about the contest, don’t worry about the list of prizes being out of sync. I won’t hold that against you. It’s up to you if you want to update your post with the list of prizes as they stand now.
Prize sponsors are ineligible to enter the contest.

I’ll continue to update you should anything else need your attention. Until then, thanks to everyone who has entered so far, and be sure to tell your blogging friends!

You've received information from my RSS feed but did you know I have a FREE newsletter where you can expect to find even more information? Signup now and start getting exclusive information I only send to subscribers.

Winners Of The Blogger’s Jackpot Okay gang, I’m ready to announce the winners of the...
Contest Announcement: A Blogger’s Jackpot I want to help you make money. So I’m holding...
My Contest Award Has Increased In Value I didn’t want to take the chance of this update...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Grab This Cushy Niche Now!

Mark Sierra — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 22:10:57 +0000

I received an email today from Pepperjam about an affiliate who sells pillows. That got me to thinking about what that niche looked like so I decided to run it through the “drum machine” to see what I’d find. The results were pretty cool, but instead of keeping it for myself I thought I’d share it with you and let you run with it.

First, I went to Google’s Keyword Tool and searched on “pillow”. I added the CPC column and sorted on it in descending order. I usually look for keywords or keyword phrases that have a respectable search volume, are not too competitive, and have an average CPC (cost per click) that’s worth going for. Of course, the higher the CPC the better, but my threshold usually sits around above a dollar and change.

Here’s a sample of what I found:

So we have “mattress pillow” with an average search volume of 74,000 and CPC of $3.15. Now, that doesn’t mean that you are definitely going to get $3.15 each time someone clicks on a Google Adsense ad, but it’s a good indication.

I then took that keyword phrase and ran it through Market Samurai (one of the prizes I’m giving away in my contest) to see what it had to say about “mattress pillow”. The steps I take in determining a niche evolves constantly, but for now, if Market Samurai tells me that something isn’t worth going for, then I typically just let the keyword go and search for something else.

Well, this time Market Samurai told me in its own way that the phrase “mattress pillow” might actually have potential. See below:

The image above is a portion of a screenshot using the SEO Competition screen. It tells me the backlinks and PR of sites that rank for the keyword phrase I’m researching. For those of you who don’t have Market Samurai, I can tell you that green colored cells are good or “less challenging to dominate”, amber cells are slightly less than good, and red ones are indicators that you have a lot of work ahead of you if you choose to tackle that keyword. In other words, it’s probably not a good idea to spend your time on something that has a red cell.

Well, as you can see, there’s a lot of green cells for this one. So if it were me, I would decide to either write a post that’s rich with the phrase “mattress pillow” and its ilk or I might even register a domain with that as the name or something similar and build it to contain other related keywords. You know, your basic search engine magnet.

Keep Your Cool When SEO Results Don’t Go Your Way This is a post written by Aaron Abber that I’d...
Cut Through The Competition With Market Samurai There’s a new product that I’m excited to tell you...
Garry Conn Is Not A Real Person You saw it here first, folks! Garry Conn, web publisher...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Contest Announcement: A Blogger’s Jackpot

Mark Sierra — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 04:34:08 +0000

I want to help you make money. So I’m holding another contest that provides you with the tools to do that. No matter if you already have a blog or want to create a new one, these cool prizes can help you in several ways.

But before I go any further I wanted to make a request to anyone wishing to participate. While I welcome everyone who qualifies to enter the contest and earn chances to win, my preference would be that they be serious about creating blogs to earn money and NOT to just win something. The more people we have who enter who want to make a go of earning money online, the more likely the prizes will go to someone who will actually benefit from them.

Now on to the prizes!

GRAND PRIZE WINNER
One lucky person will win the following prizes:
1) One year free of the Swamp (Business) hosting plan (valued at $179) — sponsored by HostGator.
This is HostGator’s top plan and is loaded with features like unlimited domains just to name one!

2) A FREE developer’s license to either the WP-Vybe theme (valued at $299) OR WP-Mag theme (valued at $279) — sponsored by Solostream
This is a “winner’s choice” prize meaning the winner will choose only one of the above themes. What’s a developer’s license? Having this license allows you to use ONE of the two themes on as many sites as you own. You can even resell those sites that use the theme, but you cannot sell the theme itself independently. This is a very feature-rich theme that I’m currently using on MeAndMyDrum. It’s easy to configure and provides several color choices.

3) A FREE license to AceMoney (valued at $30) — sponsored by MechCAD
It helps to have something that you can use to track the money you make. I use this software and think it does a great job. Very easy to use.

4) A FREE license to StoreStacker (valued at $97) — sponsored by StoreStacker
This a great way to capitlize on your affiliate product promotions. With StoreStacker you can build complete sites with commission-ready affiliate products PLUS help you include relevant articles and videos — something no other affiliate software does.

5) A FREE license to Market Samurai (valued at $149) — sponsored by Market Samurai
I’ve posted about this super niche finder before. It’s something I use quite frequently to help me find the niches I want to profit from. It’s many tools in one: keyword research, SEO competition, find content, promote content, and many others! This will help you shave hours and hours off your niche research and help you slice through the competition.

6) FREE iPod Nano 4GB (valued at $95) — sponsored by Shawal
Will this help you make money? No, but it’s definitely something you can use WHILE you build your sites that will make you money.

7) Ad placement on GarryConn.com — sponsored by Garry Conn
Garry Conn has generously donated ad placement on his very informative and highly-trafficked blog, www.garryconn.com. The dimensions are 468×60 and will run for two weeks. This is a great opportunity to give your blog exposure to a wide audience. Thanks, Garry!

First place winner
UPDATED 10/29/08
1) One year free of the Baby hosting plan (valued at $119) — sponsored by Busby SEO Test
Louis is a very generous person and offered to donate this hosting plan to my contest right after hearing about it. Thanks, Louis! It seemed only fitting to add it to the first place winner prize.

2) A FREE Premium license to either the WP-Vybe theme (valued at $199) OR the WP-Mag theme (valued at $179) — sponsored by Solostream
This enables the winner to use the theme of their choice on as many sites as they own, but not resell the sites as long as the theme is being used nor can the theme itself be sold.

Second place winner
A FREE Basic license to the WP-Vybe (valued at $99) OR the WP-Mag theme (valued at $79) — sponsored by Solostream
Yes, Solostream is a very generous sponsor. This theme of the winner’s choosing enables them to use the theme on only ONE site that they own and cannot sell the site they use it on.

So you’re probably asking yourself how do you enter to win these great prizes.

HOW TO ENTER
This is a points-based contest, meaning the more things you do to earn points, the more chances you have of winning.

1) Subscribe to my newsletter (60 pts)
This is an important way to earn points because I will be announcing additional ways to earn points exclusively to my subscribers. If you’ve already subscribed, then I’ll say first, “thank you!”, then I’ll ask that you please comment below to let me know you are a subscriber who is officially entering the contest. Please use the same email address you used to subscribe in the comment form.

2) Post about this contest on a blog you own. (30 pts + 10 pts if you include the list of prizes)
UPDATE 10/29/08: It came to my attention that it’s not clear about the number of posts that can be made. As long as the blogs you post to meet the qualifications I’ve outlined already, then there is no limit to the number of posts you can make.
The blog must be 60 days old and must follow these additional qualifications which are subject to my evaluation. The post must include a link back to two places: MeAndMyDrum and to this contest post. Doing just that will earn you 30 points. For an extra 10 points, include the list of prizes using this code (links must remain in tact).

3) Subscribe to my RSS feed via email (25 pts)
Already subscribed? No problem, but please comment below so that I can have your official entry confirmation. Please use the same email address you used to subscribe in the comment form.

4) Buy your points (50 pts)
Yes, that’s right. If you just don’t have the time to do anything else, you can buy 50 points for $5 USD via PayPal. Maximum number of points is 50. You can pay more if you like , but it will only buy you 50 points total. Please contact me for my PayPal address.

WHEN THE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED
The contest begins today, October 28, 2008 and will end 12 p.m. midnight Central, November 18, 2008. The winners will be announced shortly after.

CONTEST RULES
UPDATED 10/29/08

You must be at least 18 years of age to enter the contest. By entering yourself into the contest, you are indicating that you meet this requirement.
Prize sponsors are not eligible to enter this contest.
You are not automatically entered into the contest if you have performed any of the activities above prior to this new contest (like subscribing to the newsletter, etc.). Please follow the instructions to confirm you’re officially entered into the contest.
The blog(s) you post to that advertises this contest must be one that you own and must abide by these qualifications. If it does not, then points for posting will be removed from consideration and may be done so without notice to the publisher.
Since the grand prize contains a tangible product (the iPod Nano) that must be delivered to the winner, that winner must reside in the United States. The cost of shipping will be provided by MeAndMyDrum. If it is later realized that an address outside of the United States is the destination, the iPod Nano will be retained by MeAndMyDrum. All other digital products for the grand prize will be awarded to the grand prize winner.
With the exception of the iPod Nano, delivery of prizes to the winners will be arranged between the sponsors and the winners. The iPod Nano will be delivered by MeAndMyDrum, which will require a physical mailing address inside the continental U.S. This address will serve only to deliver the iPod Nano and will not be used for other purposes.
Winners will be randomly selected using random.org. All points from the participants will be tallied and will be listed that many number of times in a list. A number will be associated with each instance of the participant in the list. For example, a contestant earning 60 points will be listed 60 times in the list. Each row in the list will be given a unique number, so if the participant is listed first in the list, he/she will be listed 1 through 60. When a number is randomly generated at random.org, the resulting number will correspond to the same number in the list. The participant that the number corresponds to will be the winner of the prize.

Contest Update The response to my contest has been great and it’s...
Earn More Points To Help You Win A Prize Well, the day is almost here. I’ll be announcing the...
People Really Do Win Online Another blog I run is Darn Good Reviews. It’s where...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Broadcast And Track Your Tweets And Pings

Mark Sierra — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 05:50:55 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I love it when I get a response to tweets, comments or posts I make (hint hint ). But sometimes there’s no response. Not that anyone’s not listening or not reading, but sometimes people are just comfortable with reading such information and that’s okay.

I found a way (thanks to Paul Colligan) that enables you to obtain visible proof that someone’s actually paying attention. By using BudUrl.com and Ping.fm together, not only can you broadcast short messages to many social networks at once, but you can also track to some degree who is getting them and where they’re getting them from.

So I thought I’d send some link love for one of the posts at Masonworld. While viewing the post, I clicked on the bookmarklet for BudUrl which opened up a window providing me with a condensed URL already made and a box for notes.

Once I completed making the shortened URL, I then copied and pasted it over to my Ping.fm account where I had already entered login details for several of my social networks.

From that point, it was a simple matter of entering a small bit of text — just like a tweet — and off it went to ping my networks.

I then went back to BudUrl to check out the stats.

The page refreshed every 10 seconds showing me the IP address of the people who clicked on the link I submitted and when it was clicked on. And if it was possible, I was also shown the referring page or network in this case. It was pretty cool to watch the page fill up with data, which told me there really was somebody on the other end actually responding to what I had submitted.

Just think of the possibilities this could offer you. If you wanted, you could keep track of the pages referred most often, which would indicate the strong networks and the ones that you might not want to spend time on due to a lack of interaction.

Making Money With StumbleUpon Traffic More good stuff coming from Garry Conn. This one’s about...
A Christmas Song About Internet Marketers Last year I wrote a Christmas post called “Twas My...
An Easy Way To Earn $20 With Pepperjam I just received information from the folks at Pepperjam Network...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

7 Ways To Scratch Your Niche Itch

Mark Sierra — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 05:51:30 +0000

Got an itch for a new niche? Me too. Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time exploring new niche ideas to build blogs around. It has been quite a learning experience and a lot of fun. It’s the thrill of the hunt!

As I’ve gone through countless searches — and I do mean countless — I wanted to share with you some places you might look for niches that you might not have thought about. It’s surprisingly simple and soon you’ll find yourself getting hooked, too.

1. Just Brainstorm
Clearly, the most common method of searching for niches is just spending time thinking about it. However, it may be a little unproductive at times. Just like finding the inspiration you need to write your next post, so too can waiting for lighning to strike on that next money-making keyword.

But don’t fret. There’s something that will help. I carry a small notebook with me to jot down ideas. Sometimes I just create notes on my BlackJack II phone. Whenever I have an idea pop into my head, I jot it down. Whenever I see a product, name, object that might have potential, I write it down then and there to research later.

2. Google’s Keyword tool
A no-brainer, but I can’t tell you just how much this tool has helped me find more about what I was searching for. In fact, it has often been a waterfall of ideas for me. Not only does it tell me about things I typed in, but the other related keywords it produces have frequently spawned off other ideas, which I then investigate, and so on, and so on.

3. Google Keyword tool - Part 2
Don’t overlook the website content searcher which is the second radio button on the left! Let’s say you find a site that’s in a niche you’re interested in. You could brainstorm all day and hope to find untapped keywords, or you could let Google tell you what the related keywords are for that site. At the very least, you could end up with ideas you hadn’t considered before.

4. ebay Categories
Just like the previous two methods, ebay categories can help you avoid reinventing the wheel by showing you what someone else has already thought about. So if you’re interested in finding a product that has potential for you to create a niche blog on, I suggest you browse the categories to get your juices flowing. Making sure to check the “completed listings” will assist you in determining what are good sellers.

But don’t stop there. Still do your research on the products/keywords that show promise before deciding on which ones you should really go after.

5. Add pivotal words to your keywords
I call them pivotal words, words that can open up a whole new category simply by attaching them to your list of keywords. For example, let’s say you’re interested in the “real estate” niche. A pretty crowded niche, no doubt, but if you were to add some other words to it you might have something like “real estate software”, “real estate jobs”, “real estate supplies” you might be able to crack open a hidden niche.

6. Google Trends
Yeah, Google again. Using Google Trends can help you see what’s hot right now. What are people interested in at the moment? I’ve known people who’ve been able to capitalize on these hot topics, but you have to be quick and you’ll get better results if you respond on an established blog as opposed to building one for the sole purpose of what you find.

7. Resource sites
Probably not something that comes to mind for niche ideas, and personally, I’ve never used them for this yet, but I’ve heard that places like HowStuffWorks, eHow, Wikipedia even can help spark an idea. HowStuffWorks in particular I can see why because they have a “what’s hot” category.

What are some other ways that you use to generate new niches or keywords?

Cut Through The Competition With Market Samurai There’s a new product that I’m excited to tell you...
Grab This Cushy Niche Now! I received an email today from Pepperjam about an affiliate...
Keep Your Cool When SEO Results Don’t Go Your Way This is a post written by Aaron Abber that I’d...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

So Where The Heck Have I Been?

Mark Sierra — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:14:07 +0000

So where have I been for the past couple of weeks? Well, I’m still in the same place I’ve always been, it’s just that I have had a rather busy time with family matters and work at the office. (More on this latter topic in a future post.)

I’ve also been working on a few niche blogs. Three I’ve made with something called Build a Niche Stores, and another I created with Firepow. I also plan on posting about these two very powerful yet flexible tools in the future. But for those of you who haven’t heard of them, Build a Niche Stores (BANS) is a way for you to set up an ebay affiliate store and Firepow enables you to create and maintain blogs all from their interface. It does a lot more than that, but as I said, more on that in the days ahead.

And I also have some rather exciting news that you can expect very soon. I’ll be holding another contest with some great goodies to help you make money online. I’m hoping to hear back from one of the sources I’ve asked to donate a prize, and when I do I can move forward with it. Stay tuned!

I’ve Been Tagged - My Most Unpopular Posts My friend the Baron of Brown Thoughts has tagged me...
How To Make Money Until You Strike It Rich You’ve heard the adage, “You have to spend money to...
Making Money Online With FullTiltBlogging As I branch out looking for resources to help me...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

What Do Comments Do For You? For Your Blog?

Mark Sierra — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 06:01:52 +0000

For some bloggers, the Feedburner chicklet is worn proudly on their blogs. It’s a way of saying how popular their blog is. I must admit, I, too, feel this way and eagerly look at the number each day to see how much it has gone up. Bad habit? I don’t know.

But how many of you feel the same way? How many of you put importance on that number and use it as an indicator as to whether you should pay attention to a blog at all?

Another indicator of a blog’s popularity, even its interactivity is in its comments. I’ve recently come across a plugin that does just that called Liz Strauss Comment Counter WordPress Plugin. I found it on The Blog Herald (great content there, btw).

It displays a chicklet much like Feedburner, but shows how many comments you have on your blog overall. For me, the subscriber count is useful because it shows how many people think a blog is worth paying attention to. But a comment counter, wow, that says something more. It tells me that someone’s home and very active.

I like active. I also like responses to my comments from the blog owner. That’s why I was co-founder of the iReply Movement last summer. So when I see a number that’s high in comments, I’m thinking that my comment will have a strong chance of being accepted by the community that’s there. It’s a win-win.

I think I may give this plugin a try. What do you think? Do you find value in such a number?

My Blog Is Finally Talking To Me Again! Twice I’ve posted about easily configuring your blog to send...
Twas My Blog Before Christmas Twas the night before Christmas and all through the ’sphere...
Newly Added 7Social Plugin Since I upgraded WordPress to 2.2 I noticed the Share...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Cut Through The Competition With Market Samurai

Mark Sierra — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:00:17 +0000

There’s a new product that I’m excited to tell you about. It’s called Market Samurai and it will change the way you do keyword research and so much more.

I’ve been toying with it for the past few weeks to get a feel for it. It really does an incredible job aggregating all types of data:

On Page Analysis
Off Page Analysis
Domain Age
Page Rank
Alexa Rank
Page Backlinks
Domain Backlinks
and more

Plus, it does things like:

Synonyms based on Existing Site Rankings
Google Synonym Tool
Google Site Keyword Tool
Import existing keywords for analysis
Add keywords individually
Auto-filtering by Search Traffic data
Auto-filtering by Adwords data
Export Keyword List
Negative Keyword Removal Tools
and yes, more!

You start out with creating a project that you put keywords into. From there you have a choice of just having Market Samurai analyze those words, or have it suggest a lot more. You pick what you like and throw away the rest. Now you have a list of related keywords that you can start researching to find the ones that you can make money on.

Think about that for a moment. How often have you thought about a keyword, but struggled to find related words or searches? Well, this tool can help with that in a huge way!

The image above shows just a few words I threw in for example purposes. I then told Market Samurai to analyze them and selected what I was interested in it telling me: total searches, SEO traffic, trends, and Adwords values (see section highlighted in red below).

I could have selected more options for more information, but I decided to keep it simple here. What these specific items are will be for another time. Notice the export button at the bottom. If you wanted to, you could bring that information into something like Excel and do whatever it is you do in Excel.

You may have already noticed from the picture that there are quite a few more options in the left nav: SEO Competition, Find Content, Promotion, Publish Content, Monetization, and Adwords. Some of these are not available just yet, but they’re continuing to make frequent updates to not only bring you these new features, but also ensure you get the latest and greatest code to work with.

But Mark, how can I get this wonderful piece of software?

Honestly, there’s really so much more this thing can do, but I didn’t want to cram into one post. I’ll be doing future reviews, actually. So hopefully, this has generated some interest for you because there’s a way you can save money in the next few days.

This package is being offered as part of the 30 Day Challenge, which is about to come to a close (they’re at Day 26 as of this writing). It’s free to signup, and while you may be entering late to the party to perform the tasks in the challenge, you can still download this wonderful piece of software for FREE. Once the challenge is over, the tool will be disabled, but you can purchase it now for $69 (regularly it’s $149).

This is not a last minute attempt for me to score a commission on sales. They don’t even have an affiliate program yet! I like providing you with information when it can save you money. So why not try out the product and see if you like it. If you do, go ahead and buy it before the price goes up. I know I will.

7 Ways To Scratch Your Niche Itch Got an itch for a new niche? Me too. Lately,...
Grab This Cushy Niche Now! I received an email today from Pepperjam about an affiliate...
Just Two More Days To Enter My Contest There are just two more days left to enter my...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Earn More Points To Help You Win A Prize

Mark Sierra — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 04:10:18 +0000

Well, the day is almost here. I’ll be announcing the winners of my contest this coming weekend. Will you win the iPod Nano? The Garmin GPS? Or one of the many other wonderful prizes I have to offer?

How would you like to earn a few more points to help tip the scales in your favor?

Before I tell you how, I want to remind those of you who have subscribed to my newsletter that if you don’t confirm your subscription, you will unfortunately not be able to claim the 50 points for that type of entry. As of right now, there are six (6) unconfirmed subscribers to my newsletter.

And while I don’t know the number of unconfirmed email subscriptions to my RSS feed (at least right now), the same holds true for confirming your subscription there as well. So when I go to verify everyone’s points, if it turns out that subscriptions are not confirmed…well, you get the idea. Don’t miss out and confirm those subscriptions!

Now, here are a couple of ways you can earn some EXTRA points:

10 points: Follow me on Twitter AND twit (is that even a word?) my contest post. Leave a comment here with your username so I can keep proper track.
10 points: Subscribe to me on friendfeed. Leave a comment here with your username so I can keep proper track.

Of course, I’ll follow or subscribe to you as well.

BONUS: the first 20 people who do one or both of the above AND comment on this post telling me about it will get double points. So if you follow me on Twitter, for example, comment here telling me so, AND are one of the first 20 people to do that, you’ll get 20 points instead of 10. If you do both tasks, you could get up to 40 points!!

Contest Extended. Earn More Points. As I mentioned in my previous post, I started a...
About That Feed Train That Just Went By Regarding that post perhaps more than a few of you...
Lead Blogging: Turning Opportunity into Leads I joined Aaron Abber’s class this week where he’s teaching...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

An Easy Way To Earn $20 With Pepperjam

Mark Sierra — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 06:45:18 +0000

I just received information from the folks at Pepperjam Network that they are extending their bonus referral sign-up promotion where they are offering new members $10. So if you were to sign up now using this link, and your blog was approved by Pepperjam, then you’d get $10.

They are also still offering an incentive program where approved members are paid $10 to write about Pepperjam on their (the member’s) blog. It could be about anything you find particularly interesting about their service. You just need to send them your idea and have them approve them before you post.

Normally, the commission members would get for referrals would be $5. But Pepperjam wants to reward their members with a little extra. So, during the month of August, any new referrals you send them — and who are accepted into their service — you will be paid $7 per referral.

So if you’ve been sitting on the fence about signing up with Pepperjam, get off the fence and do yourself a favor by signing up using this link. As always, it’s absolutely free and you are at no risk.

Earn $10 Just For Signing Up With Pepperjam ...
pepperamNETWORK Keeps Growing If you haven’t already heard, the pepperjamNETWORK, an affiliate’s paradise,...
Boost Your Traffic With BlogRush I was reading ProBlogger this evening about something called...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.