Yaro Starak - New Free Blog Report

I think that I don’t need to tell you who Yaro Starak is. If you have been in the blogging niche, then you have heard about Yaro Starak and his great guides how to make money online with blogging.

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that Yaro and teaming up with Gideon Shalwick has released a new free report and 10 new free videos about improving your blogging skills and make more money online !

I just finished watching the videos and reading the report, I must say wow, Yaro has did it again :). Anyway, if you want to check out the free videos and the report visit - http://www.BecomeABlogger.com

Some small updates for the blog !

Recently I changed the blog’s theme, and also got a new logo. But you just can always find something on your blog that needs to be changed or modified. Anyway, yesterday I was sitting, looking at my blog and thinking: “It is missing something, it really is, but what is it ?” And at the same moment when I opened my FireFox Bookmark list It just shot me in the head, of course, how could I forget - the almighty favicon !

Now really, some people would think it’s a really no big deal, but if you’re a wimp in coding/programming, just like me then it really is a big deal. And favicon actually plays a big role, believe it or not, but that small 16×16 little icon can actually drive you some traffic. When I yesterday opened my bookmark list of websites that I have added, 30% of them didn’t have any favicons, and I sure have forgotten what those sites were about, and I just didn’t want to visit them anymore. But now, if you got some decent favicon, then it just puts some brand awareness. I recommend you to put the favicon as your own blog’s/site’s logo, so people when they see it, they would already know what’s that site about and is it worth visiting. And of course a unique favicon also helps you to stand out of the crowd.

How to put your own favicon if you’re using wordpress

To change or add the favicon on wordpress platform, all you have to do is to click mouse for couple of times. I didn’t add my favicon trough coding the template/header file, it’s just too dangerous for me, I don’t understand anything what is written there, and yes, I am a wimp in coding, php, html, etc. So I used some simple yet effective plugin - Favicon Manager Plugin. The install guide is easy to understand

I also assume that you want to create your own favicon icon. To create your own favicon icon just download this freeware programm called Gimp - the small brother of Photoshop. If you’re a wimp also in designing (like me), then just use the Gimp tool to crop your original logo, and resize it to 16×16. That’s more or less it. And believe me that small 16×16 size sucker really makes a difference if many people have bookmarked you via Internet Browser’s Bookmark/Favorite list.

The 2nd thing that has changed:

I updated/modified my “About” page. And I have added a fresh, new, cool looking picture of me. Laugh or cry, but I am really not a photogenetic person, and that’s the best one I have (made it yesterday). So anyway, I hope this small favicon guide was useful for you, and that you like my new photo better than the old one :).

Do you blog naked ?

Elijah posted a great post over his blog about blogging naked, and I just want to contribute to his idea, and make my opinion in a more extended version…

Do you people blog naked ? I mean, do you sit at PC and blog, write articles or do whatever IM stuff at PC butt naked ? Well, I sure do sometimes. I just wanted to say that if you have worked at the PC naked, then it means you’re really passionate about what you do. Let me explain…

I have had times when I wake up at 4 in the morning, and nature is calling me. I just wake up, get out of my bed, and then a thought comes in my head -  a really great niche idea, article headline or whatever. Then I just forget about my nature needs, and sit at PC and write that article, after it’s done, somehow nature reminds me of my needs, and then I only go and take care of them. You see people, this is what I call true passion about what you do. I mean, what else could make you to forget nature needs ? Hunger - I don’t think so. Girlfriend - not always. Mother in law - not a friggin chance.

The point is that if you have a situation when you just screw everything and write your article, blog post, design a header for a website, it means that you really love what you’re doing. Of course some people could express their passion in another way, but this is just how I express it - screw everything, and do what I love. Of course, there could be some consequences if someone enters your office/room when you’re naked, sitting at PC in the middle of a night, and guess what is going to be the first thought in that person’s head…

So I want to know, have you ever worked at the computer naked ? Not because you were too lazy to dress your clothes on, or some other nature needs, but because you were passionate about what you do ?

This could scare some people off, but this post was made when I was naked…

Happy thanksgiving day everybody !

turkeyUhhh… crap, I almost forgot one really important thing - today is thanksgiving day ! Thank god my cousin emailed me today and reminded me. He lives in U.S. and as probably everyone knows then thanksgiving day in U.S. is quite big. People also celebrate it in Latvia, but for us there is just another name of it.

To keep this short - I thank my parents for showing support no matter what I do, or plan to do. I thank my friends - online and offline and all other things that have made me today the person I am now. It is good to have days like these, because in the daily rush we just sometimes forget to think about all the important things in our lives - parents, girlfriends/wives, friends, children.

Anyway, I would like to hear your thoughts about it. Don’t be afraid, I allow you to comment :)

Happy thanksgiving everybody !

BidVertiser is pissing me off seriously

Maybe you have spotted, maybe not, but I am running few BidVertiser ad blocks now for almost 2 weeks.  I put them in few of my posts to see how well it works, guess what - for me they have failed seriously.

1st Problem - I don’t know if you see the same, because maybe it’s IP related, but I set up my ad blocks like AdSense ad blocks. The design, looks, everything is like AdSense ad blocks, but guess what, at least what I see now that the “traditional” Pay Per Click ad blocks have turned into flashing ad blocks that you mostly see on ringtone websites. Now WTF does that mean ? I set up my ad blocks to look like standard Google AdSense blocks, but it somehow changed it to a spammy/flashy ad block which is offering Britney Spears ringtones, what the hell ? It changed by itself, even if I login to my Control Panel at BidVertiser.com and I change the size and colors of the ads, still they look like flashy/spammy CPM/CPA ad block that is advertising Britney Spears song “Womanizer”, tell me, are those relevant ads to my content ?

2nd Problem - Before joining BidVertiser I knew that there won’t be so much ads to show like for Google AdSense, because AdSense has much more advertisers advertising on it. But I thought that the MMO/IM/Blogging niche is so big that at least this niche is going to have enough ads to show on my blog - I was wrong. Now tell me, if even such a crowded/popular niche like MMO niche doesn’t have almost any ads to show, which niche has it then ? My only guess - loans and weight loss. I am really pissed off, because those ads are just making my blog to look like a spammy ringtone site that is offering ringtones, I mean what does B. Spears has to do with making money online and internet marketing  ? You tell me…

And of course due to that there are no relevant ads to show on my blog, I have had now like 1400 impressions and 0 clicks. Really, I didn’t think that BidVertiser is going to be that bad for me. Maybe for some people it works, but definitely not for me.

Have you had any experience, or you can recommend me some other PPC program such as BidVertiser or Google AdSense ? The reason why I don’t use AdSense on my blog (only few posts) is that it really takes a lot of time for the check to travel to my place, and cash it in a bank, so I prefer networks that use PayPal as payout method.

Share your experience with other ad networks, I would like to know your opinion