The 30 Day Challenge pre-season is in full swing. New “tools” are introduced on a regular basis. Some of these tools are not new to me yet I decided to invest the five minutes or so to view the videos. Amazing. Even though I thought I knew how to use these tools, I found something that I was not fully utilizing from each video! It's always good to review!
One tool however was new to me – Google Alert. This is different from Google Reader. It made sense to check it out so I registered for my Google Alert account.
What Google Alert does is send you freshly minted content on the keyword phrase you want to be kept up to date on. You can put as many such phrases as you want and Google will send you the aggregate list of articles on the topic within the time intervals you choose. What I like about this service is that I don’t have to go searching for fresh material on my topic. I also become better informed on my subject and therefore more of an authority on it. One of the phrases I submitted was blogging for money.
In this morning’s serving there was an article that I thought was very interesting ... talk about “niche” marketing. A blogger in the UK has decided to blog about his very unique house as a way to market it to buyers. The blog has been up for two months or so and already he has had 10,000 visitors and a few who expressed further interest in possible purchasing it. The article’s title is Sold to the Highest Bidder and you can read it on Times Online
The real point of this little soupcon on Google Alert is that if you want to get returns that are exactly what you are looking for then you need to put quotation marks around the phrase, like so: “blogging for money”. Clearly the article in question about the house for sale by blog, while it met the criteria of blogging for money, was of a different stripe than what I am looking for.
Now the dilemma. Do I go and manage my Google Alert and change the instruction by encasing my phrase with quotation marks or, do I leave it? Reads such as above are interesting.
To make my decision I asked these critical questions.
Am I looking to expand my general interest knowledge or am I looking for targeted information? Which choice takes me towards my objective of making money online?
The answer is targeted information. I am an easy pushover for good reads. It is one of my biggest “distractions.” I could easily lose myself in this type of activity and spend precious little time on the real activities that make a difference to my business.
What about you? Is the time you spend on internet marketing put to productive use or are you just visiting in your own business?
Happy Blogging!
Valentina Bellicova
Blogger for Money
Free download ABC’s of Blogging for Money
PS. The cheese is not in the wheel.
Quick Links:
30 Day Challenge
Blogging for money
Google Alert
Sold to the highest bidder
Sunday, July 5, 2009
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i am trying to keep my time productive, but it's not easy to do it. Too many distractions.
ReplyDelete...lol... it is a common problem amongst internet marketers ... I am working on it too!
ReplyDeleteHi there,
ReplyDeleteI found you site via Lee's at bloggersworkshop.com.
I will also be taking part in this year's 30 day challenge. I tried last year but didn't make my dollar within the month, however the site does make a few bucks each month in adsense so that's great.
I have learned so much since I discovered Ed Dale and the team last year so I hope my keyword skills are a little better this time round.
I am always looking for ways to make money online and if I can do it for free, then all the better.
I have google alert set up for a few things and it is a great help. It is amazing how much there is to learn but I look forward to gaining more knowledge and making good money.
I wish you luck and look forward to seeing you in the 30 day challenge forums.
ps. Wordpress is fantastic - I actually downloaded Caroline Middlebrook's ebook to get me through the whole set up process. I would definitely recommend the move.
Yes, I have Caroline's book as well ... I am just such a techie klutz I am afraid I will screw it up in the process. Nonetheless, it is in the works.
ReplyDelete