As many of you know I am not so much fond of the publishers adsense but I am going to try to do the Adwords for Advertisers. I’ve started very low because I am not a millionaire. I have 3 ads in rotation which are TheBlogWorld.net, Namenova.com and Templatescene.com

I have put them in rotation and I’m going to tell you how well I do and give you the complete lowdown of an average joe’s experience. I put 10 dollars in but to sign up it was a $5 dollar charge so right now my balance is 5 dollars. I do prepay make it easier.

I know a lot of you know how much I dislike it but, My newest project TemplateScene needs promotion, and I figured this is cheap and easy. I’ll be checking into various other paying promotions but that are also built for people who are on low funds. I haven’t gotten paid for my consulting so I cant exactly put in the amount of money in the promotion department I would like to for my websites.

Namenova I’ve never had to, its always promoted itself. However for my readers sake I am taking a risk! I’m going to start trying to pay for advertising and see if it really makes a difference!

I apologize for my original post the typo read Adsense.

I have to say I’ve only been doing Kontera for a little while and 5 people have clicked my Kontera links and I’ve already made about $2.00 Not bad off of 5 links I must say. I wanted to tell you the success I’ve had with Kontera because its a great little program, the only draw back is you must make $100 dollars before you are paid!

I’ve got a wee bit of a way to go but hopefully I’ll get there soon!

As from what I’ve seen on there, I’ve yet to locate an affiliate program but instead they have Partnerships. You have to create a partnership with them and people sign up from under you. JohnChow created a partnership over 400 people signed up only about half implemented the ads into their website. I’m assuming because he’s a big man on campus they’ve constructed it with him to promote their program but maybe even a little guy can get in there if not now but soon!

I’ve been working on my consulting services and I decided to offer people an option to my customers make it easier and for everyone else. I now sell templates! I wanted to let everyone know because I hope those who wish to purchase templates go through me and offer my clients a little more variety.

I purchased one of the themes for my client, and it worked beautifully.

TEMPLATESCENE.COM

If you like a theme and say hey I am going to buy it and maybe some more.. Sign up for the affiliate program you’ll make about 10 dollars off the layout!

It’s a new resource I’m offering. Once I make a certain amount of sales I can discount the price so I hope I make enough sales to offer a cheaper price! I offer an affiliate program, so you guys can make money as well!

Randa Clay is a designer and marketing consultant providing a complete package of services that includes custom web site design, blog design and template customization, as well as custom logo design, print design and production. You can find her at any of these websites: randaclay.com , randaclay.com/lumps , printables4scrapbooking.com, freestuff4kids.net

5 ways to find out what your readers are interested in reading

There is a quote by Alice MacDougall that says “In business you get what you want by giving other people what they want.” I would say this goes for blogging as well. Bloggers want readers. The way to get and keep your readers is to consistently give them the information they’re interested in. How do you find out what they’re interested in? Here are 5 ways:

1. Do you have a search form on your page? (you should) What are readers searching for? For example, I have a kids site where I have coloring pages, word searches, etc., and when I see in my stats that someone has entered something like “play money” in the search form, I make some printable play money and post it at the next opportunity.

2. What are your most popular posts? What posts have gotten the most comments? Write more like that.

3. Do a WordTracker trial or a search on Overture’s keyword tool around your main keywords. What are people searching for the most? Write posts around the items you find that are within the scope of your site.

4. Install MyBlogLog on your site and use the member pages to find out what other blogs your readers frequent, along with other things about them such as what they’ve tagged on del.icio.us, for example.

5. Where does your target audience hang out? What forums do they participate in? What problems are being discussed there? What are the topic areas in the forum? These should give you ideas about what your readers are interested in and what problems they’re trying to solve.

Now, I’m not trying to say if your blog is about underwater basketweaving, that if you find out a large number of your readers are interested in claymation that you should suddenly write lots of posts about claymation (you could start another blog about claymation and cross-promote them though). What I am saying is that if you find out that your readers are most interested in the different materials to weave their baskets with, spend more time writing about that than methods of drying out the baskets when they’re complete!