copyright © 2008 RichKidMedia – All Rights Reserved http://www.carlocab.com

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Kidblogger Greatest Hits

Volume I

Carl Ocab

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LEGAL NOTICES AND EARNINGS DISCLAMER The information presented in this report are just the own views of the author. The author can‘t promise that all of the information in this report would still be applicable years or even months from now. The author reserves the right to update this report at any time without prior notice. This report is for informational purposes only. While every effort has been made to verify the information provided in this report, neither the author, his associates nor his partners assume responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions or contradictory information contained in this report. The author is not engaged in rendering professional advice (and claims no medical, accounting, legal or scientific expertise). For such purposes, readers are hereby urged to engage the services of competent professionals. Responsibility for use of any of the information contained in this report is strictly and solely yours. The author is not liable for any damages or losses that could happen after applying the information contained in this report. While every effort to make this report as accurate as possible, the author cannot guarantee you any amount of money that you will earn. The examples or earnings, in case they are mentioned in this report, are not to be taken as a promise or guarantee, results will vary depending on the effort you made. The level of success claimed in this report depends on many factors such as the time you dedicate, knowledge, ideas and techniques mentioned, your finances, and various other skills.

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Table Of Contents

The Ultimate Blogging Checklist ……………………………………… 5

How To Sell Advertisements on Your Blog ……………………….. 11

Ultimate Guide on How to Stop Checking Stats …………………..16

3 Pick Up Lines to get your Girl ……………………………………… 19

Making High Profile Bloggers Reply To Your Emails ……….. 21

How to Make 3d Crystal Buttons ………………………………………. 25

How Do I Get .edu and .gov Backlinks Easily? ……………………. 28

How Powerful Words And Colors Influence You …………………. 30

My Best Blog Tip EVER Series - Seth Godin ……………………….. 34

Why Google Dropped Our Pagerank …………………………………. 36

How to Add AdSense to a WordPress blog …………………………..41

I Paid 12 Months To Learn These 32 Things ………………………..49

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The Ultimate Blogging Checklist - How to Start a Blog in 15 Steps and Live a Majestic Life out of it

June 9, 2007

First time to start a blog? Or just starting a new one? You might want should look at this checklist on how to start a blog and live a majestic life out of it. You don‘t want to do my mistakes again, right?

1. Determine what you will be blogging about

Just imagine a racecar driver without a map. Of course, he‘ll be lost right? It‘s the same as in blogging. You don‘t know what you‘re blogging about, you don‘t know your niche. Your blog will quickly die. So, start off by picking a niche but be sure it‘s a broad one that you can blog about for years.

2. Think of a catchy, entertaining and easy to remember title

Now, invent something that makes someone curious when they see it. Make it catchy, that will make them laugh. Invent a cool brand that‘ll make them blog about you.

Take this blog‘s brand for example. When you see a link that says ―Make Money Online‖ Will you click it? More likely, you‘ll not because there are tons of sites that talk about make money online but if I add little twist like ―Make Money Online with a 13-year old‖ Will you click it? ;)

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3. Buy a domain name that is related to your title

AND is easy to remember! Domain names matter nowadays because there are tons of sites swarming the web. How could a person remember your domain that says makemoneyonlinewithsomethingsomething.com? So always keep it short, the shorter the better. Try hunting domains with 2-3 words.

4. Choose a blogging platform

Try considering your needs and budget. For example you just need a simple blog and you don‘t have a budget for a cheap $20 web host try blogger :P It‘s easier to run and can be indexed by search engines much easier but if you‘re the kind of guy who needs a lot of plugins and themes. I recommend WordPress, hands down. If you‘ve chosen a free hosted blogging platform, ignore step 5.

5. Find a reliable web host

Who likes to visit a site that always gives you a ―sorry, can‘t connect messages‖ Its ok at first but when it hits a reader 2 or more times it gets irritating.

You might as well find a reliable web host. Ask forums for their suggestions. Review the web host first and remember that 99.9% uptime and 99.5% uptime is a big difference!

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6. Find a flexible theme and EDIT it

Your blog‘s design is part of your blog‘s brand. If you know a little bit of CSS and some html, try editing some cool themes or if you‘re not just in to designing. You could hire someone at elance.com. Just remember to be unique.

7. Sign-up for a Web Analytics

How can you tell if you‘re doing the right thing, if your marketing tactics is effective if you don‘t have stats? Web analytics is very important especially on a blog. Web analytics can tell you what‘s hot on your blog, what‘s lame, what most people like and what‘s the most useful post you got.

Another thing that‘s very important about web analytics is that you can track where your visitors came. Is it Referral? - Visitors referred by other sites. Direct? – Visitors who visited your website by typing your blog‘s URL in their browser and last but most importantly, Search Engine? – Visitors who found your blog through organic search. More explanations about Web Analytics >>>

8. Make a cool first post about what your blog is

Delete the old ―Hello World!‖. Make a cool first post about you and your blog. Nobody wants to see a lame first post and a test comment by old Mr. WordPress!

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9. Think about what you’ve done

Geesh! Steps 1-9 is hard work, it‘s time to recap all the things that you‘ve accomplished and review it all again if you missed or forgot something behind. Ask yourself these questions first:

Do I have a niche that I can blog about for years? Do I have the right website title? Is my domain easy to remember? Do I really like this blogging platform? Is my *hosting* reliable? Do I have a unique theme? Did I sign up for a web analytics? Did I make a cool first post? Are my answers to the above questions are yes?

If not, go back to number 1.

10. Start posting REAL content – The REAL Challenge

Right, it‘s now time to research and blog about your niche. Keep your promises, research and be sure about your facts and give them the REAL content. Remember that it‘s not that easy to blog like what most bloggers think. It can burn you out so be prepared!

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Also, a blog is for you to share your thoughts on a specific topic. Your not CNN, don‘t write like you‘re writing a book for schools. Pull off some jokes, catchy tag lines or some cool sayings maybe.

11. Socialize with other bloggers

Now you got the content, it‘s time to show them to other people. Start off by socializing with bloggers like you. Make friends with them but don‘t give too much trust. The internet is a scam world. Don‘t give personal data, passwords, or even your analytics report, but I do have one thing to suggest ―Be your self‖

12. Build readership

Cool! You drove hundreds of visitors to your blog in just a week! Are they coming back? Or they‘re just passing by and leaving like they haven‘t seen you‘re blog? Regular readers are your goldmine. They‘re easier to but from you and they‘ll even help you when you‘re down or losing! Be sure to give them special treatment. Like a linklove post for your regular readers.

Helpful Article: Don‘t let them get away! Convert them into regular readers with these 5 tips!

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13. Monetize!

Now, here‘s your reward. It‘s time to monetize! You should have the right niche, blog title, domain, blogging platform, hosting, theme and analytics program for now. You should have made your cool first post for now and posted some useful articles. You should have received a pretty decent amount of traffic and most of all you have built a couple of loyal readers.

Time to make money and live a majestic life out of your blog, but how? There are tons of ad programs out there, but we‘ll go to the most trusted and scam free sites first. Check out my list:

Google AdSense – Contextual advertising ReviewMe – Get paid reviewing websites. Sign up for ReviewMe Kontera – In text advertising! Sign up for Kontera Affiliates – I must say, this program made me the most money! You can find affiliate

programs through Clickbank, CJ, Paydotcom, etc.

14. Blog and blog again until your blog dies

Things go up must come down! So don‘t be surprised if your blog suddenly dies and gets too old. Well, at least you milked it very well through all the year.

15. When your blog dies, read carlocab.com

Don‘t want to lose all your hardwork? Then read carlocab.com, You can‘t be wrong on this!

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Just Sold 11 Text Links, 3 Banners and Reviews! - How To Sell Advertisements on Your Blog September 15, 2007

And oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that I also sold feed advertisements. All this happened in just a simple tweak that took me only an hour to do. C‘mon and find out how:

1. When You Have It, Flaunt It

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I can say that this is the most important thing that I‘ve done in my blog‘s life (Well, up to now) Just when I made that ―Big Sale‖ banner on the header, the next day I surprisingly received 1 banner advertiser and 2 review offers.

I also did it to my Text Link Ad description that sold out the ten text links that I have.

How cool is that?

2. Flaunt And Flaunt More!

And no, don‘t think this as a bad idea. Well maybe some might think that you‘re a too much show off, but heck, their just the ―jealous‖ ones that don‘t generate you ANY income at all!

How about if you take a look at my advertise page and look what I have to flaunt‖

1. carlocab.com is in the first page of Google in the keyword ―make money online‖ 2. carlocab.com has a pagerank of 4 3. carlocab.com averages 300+ feed readers daily. 4. carlocab.com is the top 2,000+ blog among 80 million according to technorati.com 5. carlocab.com receives laser targeted traffic from search engines daily. 6. carlocab.com is always up to date. 7. a lot of advertisers enjoyed the traffic boost when they advertised on carlocab.com

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1. Rankings – That took their eye and kept them reading, so show off your best at first.

2. Pagerank – If you got the 1, 2, 3‘s and most importantly 0 don‘t hesitate to be quite and not talk about it, telling the predicted pagerank will most likely ruin it more.

3. Feed readers – Pretty good for sponsored reviews. I‘d suggest not telling this if you‘re still in the 2 figs.

4. Technorati – Probably a good show off on how popular your blog is. But then again, technorati rankings can easily be gamed.

5. What kind of traffic – I‘m on first page of Google for the keyword ―make money online‖, so I‘m pretty sure that my traffic is laser targeted.

6. Is your blog still alive and updated – Of course, no one wants to advertise on a dead blog.

7. The finishing touch – Of course, include testimonials.

You can add anything you want here that you think is worth flaunting and would not ruin the advertisers point of view on your blog. Just put your feet on the advertisers shoes.

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3. Clear Out Some Ads First

People who advertise on blogs mostly just wanna join the bandwagon. If your ads are almost full and you offer prices that they can afford, chances are they‘ll advertise without even giving a thorough check on your blog‘s statistics, etc.

4. Assign Limited Ads

This tip comes with that one on the top. It‘s easier to sell something when it‘s limited (So that‘s why there are limited edition ipods!) By giving limits on how many the product can be, you give value to them.

After the limited ads are all sold out, offer another ―limited‖ ads on some part of your blog.

5. Give Discounts

Discounts can be by means of multi-month and or, discounts on some special deals.

Multi-month discounts are discounts that you can give if someone orders advertising for more than one month, let‘s just say an ad on your blog costs $50 and you give the incentive to sell it $80 for 2 months. Though it may depend if your blog is strongly growing and/or you want to be secure that all your advertisements will be sold.

Special discounts are useful if you want to clear out your all your advertising spots. It‘s good to do this on holidays, maybe Christmas. I call this a ―gimmick‖

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6. Be kind, and give private bonuses

I want my customers happy, if an advertiser didn‘t reach what they expected in your blog, it would be nice if you give them private bonuses, meaning you give something from your heart and ―help‖ the advertiser reach what they expected to get from your blog.

I know this wouldn‘t attract other advertisers but there‘s still a chance that that person will try your advertisement again and maybe give something in return of your kindness. Just don‘t expect big things.

Final Thoughts

These tips are based on my experience on what I did the last month, I currently sold 10 text link in text link ads, 1 feed advertiser, 3 private banner deals and currently 8 sponsored reviews for this month.

The change I did only took me an hour and surprisingly gave my blog another milestone in earnings. You can‘t just live on Adsense alone, I believe in multiple streams of income.

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Statsaholic? Here’s an Aspirin – The Ultimate Guide on How to Stop Checking Stats

August 16, 2007

Oh wait, I‘ll just check something, stay there.

…

OK, as I was saying. I‘ll teach you how to

…

Sorry, forgot to check my AdSense and CJ account.

What The Heck?!

First of all, being statsaholic is perfectly normal, all of us should have gone through to it. It‘s like experiencing puberty (Tell me if you didn‘t go through this). You discover new things, you learn what‘s this and what‘s that, etc…

Though I know seeing a new dollar or two when you check your AdSense every hour is rewarding, it‘s still not worth the time (Except if you have an experiment going on). Checking stats don‘t make you money, it‘s just wasting your time, do take note that I‘m not

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saying that don‘t check your stats. I just want to point out how much time you waste everyday just by checking your stats.

Let’s do some math here:

You check stats hourly = Let‘s say 10/day You consume = Let‘s say 10 min per check

So 10 x 10 = 100 or 1hr and 40min!!! Wow, you can make a blog post with that amount of time!

That‘s not how a productive person acts.

Some cures I’ve found effective:

1. Set Schedules

The most common solution to almost all problems, but also the most effective.

Last month when my blog REALLY started to grow, I was hooked at checking stats almost every 30 minutes, I have to stop writing an article just to check my stats, but I think I‘m not that dumb to not notice it, so I was looked for a solution and luckily it solved my problem.

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I stumbled upon this personal development site (Too bad I didn‘t bookmark it, all I remembered was it‘s design) that has an article about ―TV addicts‖? It showed how being addicted to something can affect our human mind, etc…

There he showed how ―the pros‖? manage to get over it. They set an alarm for let‘s say 3 hours. All you have to do is wait for the alarm to ring and check your stats. There‘s a study that if you do a certain thing for consecutively 15 days, chances are, you‘ll get used to it.

2. Work More

When I was chatting with my friend Nathan, he asked me if I have some ideas for him to do because he can‘t stop checking his adsense stats. Then it came to my mind that hey, maybe that‘s why I‘m not addicted to checking my stats anymore – it‘s because I‘m busy!

You cured stats checking, you‘ve been productive, you‘re making more $$$ ;)

3. If you can’t take it, use a tool

If those two didn‘t work, then here‘s something for ya. It‘s a firefox plug-in that let‘s you see your AdSense stats just inside your statusbar. Cool isn‘t? (Oh yea Get Firefox with Google Toolbar for better browsing )

Conclusion

If you don‘t give effort, you won‘t solve this problem. But you‘ll grow with it anyway.

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3 Pick Up Lines to get your Girl

February 13, 2007

1.If you just stand in a mirror and held up 5 roses, you will see 6 of the most lovely things in the globe. 2.Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I stroll across again?

3.I‘m so happy that I have my library card with me cause ―I‘m taking you out!�?

Remember these lines won‘t get you anything! This is just the start of our topic today about opening lines on the title of your posts.

The Object of Opening Lines

The purpose of the main title is to get the attention of the readers to read your content The object of the first line in your paragraph is to attract readers to read the next one The object of the second line in your paragraph is to attract readers to read the next one But how do we use opening lines?

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How to Use Opening Lines

Readers like me always judge the title of the posts. So opening lines are very important most likely your opening title. The title should be:

Attractive Not boring Interesting

If you have these three things in your title most likely your readers will continue reading and reading until he will finish the article.

I hope this would help. This would also work in getting your girl for valentines. LOL

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Making High Profile Bloggers Reply To Your Emails - With Example Inside!

October 29, 2007

Getting a reply from an A-lister is certainly not most of us can get, although we can‘t sue them for that because, even I at this stage gets around 15 emails a day so how much more for them? But of course, there‘s always a solution for every problem. Adnan of Blogtreprenuer commented on the Best Blog Tip of Seth Godin that gave me an idea for this post. If you‘re too lazy to click the link, here‘s what he said:

Awesome quote - and I would expect nothing less from Seth, especially after reading Purple Cow. Really motivational - well done on getting that Carl.

Actually I didn‘t expect a reply from Seth when I emailed him because I dropped it directly through his standard email where loads of people contact him (No contact forms, etc.). But after 20 minutes, there goes the tip. Quick reply much?

That made me think, I mean almost 70% of the emails I send to high profile bloggers get replies. I could be doing right things here… And yes, I did.

Here are some of them, take these as a guide and always apply them to every blogger you know:

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Emailing Them At The Right Time

I emailed Seth around 10+ PM here and that‘s currently around morning in the US (We‘re at +8 GMT). If you email a high profile person in the evening, the times were most likely he won‘t open his inbox, your message will go down and gets bumped by other people‘s messages.

Try sending them in the mornings (in their time of course!) and hit the time where they get up and check their inbox. I‘d suggest observe first what time they post on their blog. An hour or two before that time is the best moment to send your email because he probably checks his inbox before he posts. Like what most of us do!

Stand Out Like A Sore Purple Cow

Ok, the sore was just an exaggeration, be unique as possible. It would be better if you could find a way to send your email with a headline as you can play and experiment what works and what sucks.

Convert the ―I have a question‖ subject to something more challenging in their part because people/experts like to be challenged i.e. ―A Question You Can Never Answer‖ then just explain why you used the headline. Haha!

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Use Other Contact Options

As I stated above, I emailed Seth directly in his main email address. That gives me a lesser chance to get a reply. That address I bet gets hoard of emails everyday.

Try other options, like their MySpace or Facebook profile that only few people can see, Less messages and higher chance for a reply.

Don’t Hit Them Right To The Point

I hate it when people ask me ―Read this article and link to it, it‘s very useful‖ It‘s too hard for me to even click the link they gave me.

Hit them in a softer way. Introduce yourself, flatter them. Give something in return.

Be Personal, He’s Your Friend

One thing I‘ve observed about the people who email me is that they treat me like I‘m an A-lister, bigger & better than them.

There‘s nothing wrong with that but why not make it more personal? Stop using Sir‘s, use their name. Crack them up on something. Talk like he‘s your friend, because they‘re still ordinary people.

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There’s Nothing Better Than A Live Example

You can‘t learn basketball reading, neither Karate nor Baseball. That applies to almost everything too, so here‘s one for your email:

Subject: From A Laughing Fan – You Nailed Me

Hey A-lister,

How’s life doing there, I found your post about the dog who ate the cat, and man was that funny! My dog once bit my leg but ate a cat?!

Great work on your blog, you’ve been my number one inspiration from the start. Keep the great bites, err pots coming.

And by the way, I have a cat here that needs to be fed, can you help me with this?

Thanks for the time,

Cheers, Carl Ocab

Be Creative

For the last tip, and probably the best one. Be creative, that differentiates us humans from computers. We have the special ‗touch‘ per se. Don‘t limit yourself.

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Ask Carl: How to Make 3d Crystal Buttons - Photoshop Tutorial

May 21, 2007

Last week I launched the AskCarl feature thinking that it would be a great success. But I was surprised seeing nothing but dirt on my mail box this past week that wants to ask a question and participate to this new feature. Special thanks to Techzillo who dropped me a comment asking how did I make those 3d crystal buttons.

I didn‘t waste any time and made a tutorial (To keep the new feature alive! ). So, here it is, enjoy!

How to Make 3d Crystal Buttons - Photoshop Tutorial

1. Start, by creating a 125 x 125 image (Like the C Image right) and put it in an empty 142 x 142 square.

2. Then add drop shadow (Layer > Layer Style > Drop Shadow) to your 125 x 125 square image (NOTE: The 125 x 125 must have a transparent background for the drop shadow to take effect). You can copy what I did below (Click to enlarge)

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3. After that, add Bevel & Emboss (Layer > Layer Style > Bevel & Emboss) to your 125 x 125 square image. Follow what I did below and remember to also set your gloss contour. (NOTE: Blend the color of your shadow to the image)

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The Result

Drumroll please!

Viola! That‘s it! Easy as 1, 2, 3… If you have any comments or want to add something just drop me a comment below

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How Do I Get .edu and .gov Backlinks Easily?

June 7, 2007

This post is for the AskCarl feature. Question submitted by Mark. If you want to submit a question, Just drop me a mail and I’ll try my best to answer it!

Most search engines value .gov and .edu backlinks. These links are so called ―authority links‖ to search engines. That‘s the reason why most SEO‘s hunt for these kind of backlinks.

Even thought it‘s quite hard to get these backlinks. Here are some tips for you to start with:

First, go to Google and try to do the following search:

For .edu domains

―Your desired keyword‖ ―powered by wordpress‖ site:.edu

This search will help you find blogs that uses WordPress with a .edu domain.

―Your desired keyword ― ―powered by vBulletin‖ site:.edu

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This search will help you find forums that use vBulletin. Alternatively, you can replace the word “vBulletin” with your desired forum management program (Like Xoops, Phpbb, etc.)

For .gov domains

―Your desired keyword‖ ―powered by wordpress‖ site:.gov

This search will help you find blogs that uses WordPress with a .edu domain.

―Your desired keyword ― ―powered by vBulletin‖ site:.gov

This search will help you find forums that use vBulletin. Alternatively, you can replace the word “vBulletin” with your desired forum management program (Like Xoops, Phpbb, etc.)

That‘s about it. Just play with the search terms. Hehehehe, use your creativity to find some ―authority‖ links. You‘re missing something good if you wouldn‘t try this and you‘ll realize that it‘s all worth it.

Honestly, just about a minute ago, I found a .edu forum that allows anyone to register. Of course, I quickly registered and contributed some things. It‘s just a matter of luck and some good Googling

copyright © 2008 RichKidMedia – All Rights Reserved http://www.carlocab.com 30

Playing With People: How Powerful Words And Colors That They Influence You

September 25, 2007

This post is part of the “This Is Quick” case study:

Part 1: Why Capturing emails matter Part 2: Give It Away And Get Rich Part 3: The Power Of Words And Colors

More to come!

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If you have noticed, I‘m doing some changes in that big header up there. I‘ve been changing some colors, write-ups, placement, etc. It‘s not that it looks bad or something but I‘m just into some tests.

You see I‘ve read loads of articles, watched tons of videos about this NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming). NLP is about how language (linguistic) affects a person‘s thinking (Neuro) using different massive techniques. You can check out my post about it, I left a video there from Derren Brown, a popular guy from London.

I got so curious about it that it made me look for more videos from that guy and wow, I was deeply amazed how he can change almost all people‘s perspective and even their train stop.

Headlines Should “Suggest” Action And Time

―Buy one today, get it now, grab a copy today, etc.‖ You‘ll see those on almost all stores worldwide, and it‘s also here online. Check out my header for a quick example. No it hasn‘t degraded even after all the years that marketers used it.

I got proof, on my first try, when I first added the big header, I used the headline ―Your FREE Report‖. It worked nicely at first but let‘s not count it because there‘s always big conversions at first launch. After a week, conversions just suck! I got like 10-15 names from a blog that gets 500-1000 unique visitors everyday. After that, I didn‘t hesitate to change the headline and some texts and added the second one which is ―Grab (Suggestion of action) Your FREE Copy Today (Suggestion of time). I‘ve increased conversion rates to 15-20 (I‘m pretty sure it didn‘t go below the 15 line)

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For a curious kid, that wasn‘t enough, so yeah, I changed the headline again to ―Make Money Online Now‖ My traffic was targeted for that because if you still don‘t know, I‘m on the frontpage of Google for the keyword ―make money online‖. That‘s right! Conversions jumped!

Colors, Backgrounds and Fonts

If your headline is ready and you think it‘s enough, try experimenting now on how they look. Colors, backgrounds and fonts have a major impact on the headline. Let‘s just say that you have a great headline but it‘s just too dark that people can‘t see it. What happened? Well, unfortunately for you, nothing.

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So try experimenting on these elements, make headlines stand-out with other fonts. Set mine again as an example. You‘ll see that I‘m using a red font color for the main headline and a black one on the not-so-important ones. I also used a white background to highlight the texts in the headline (That explains those irritating yellow highlights in salesletters!) Also, some drop shadow will help, just to pop it out a little.

Share Your Experiments

All of these are for experimental purposes only, it may or may not work well for you because we may have different audiences. So all of these results are just from experimenting but with a little science on the side.

Anyway, I know I‘m not the only one who have been playing with people experimenting with headlines. What about you, do you have any experiences with these? mind sharing it?

copyright © 2008 RichKidMedia – All Rights Reserved http://www.carlocab.com 34

My Best Blog Tip EVER Series - Seth Godin

October 24, 2007

Today is one of the most exciting and honorable day of the ―My Best Blog Tip‖ series.

For today‘s guest is a very very special person. A demigod in the internet according to Forbes, the author of 9 best selling books and one of the most popular ebook in the internet ―The Idea Virus‖ Founder of Yoyodyne which was acquired by Yahoo in 1998 and the remarkable Squidoo where anyone can become a lensmaster and make a webpage for free.

Please welcome our guest to give his best blog tip EVER – Seth Godin

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His Best Blog Tip EVER:

Be patient. Do good work, keep doing good work and then do more good work. That’ll pay off.

I know, we know it‘s obvious. My parents have told me that LOADS of times and I bet their parents also told that to them too. We tend to overlook things which are right in front of us. We think that these tips are old fashioned that might not work anymore because we think that we‘re in the internet age where all things are advanced and techie. These are timeless principles, it will never be changed. It‘s the law of nature. It‘s the golden rule. It‘ll work work work.

And one last thing, I honestly expected a long one from this guy because he‘s the guru of the gurus. When I read his tip at first I was like very disappointed, but when I reread it several times. It was like yeah that‘s right, I get it. It‘s one of the best blog tip EVER.

copyright © 2008 RichKidMedia – All Rights Reserved http://www.carlocab.com 36

Dropped? A Detailed Hypothesis Of Why Google Dropped Our Pagerank

October 25, 2007

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First of all, I have to be honest with you that I don‘t totally care about Pagerank. I did a few months ago but when I realized that it was nothing but a number between 1 to 10, it stopped my obsession.

Think about a world without pagerank. No spamming, no blackhat guys, no linktrains, no linkbuying, no linkfarming and no stupid threads on DP people asking when the next pagerank update is. Well then here it is your long awaited pagerank update. It‘s not what you expected, didn‘t you?

It happened yesterday, October 24 when Google shattered the blogosphere. It was all around. Someone even made a comic strip about it.

Questions have been roaming around lately on what really happened and why did all these sites‘ PR dropped. No one really knows, but here are my theories about it:

Text Links

It has been confirmed, yet people just tend to ignore it – and I‘m one of those so here I am with PR 3 blog (from PR 4)

I understand why Google doesn‘t let people buy and sell links, it‘s for better results anyway. Just imagine if you search for something you really need and all you get are spammy sites plastered with ads and with no useful content, that would be hell.

So about an hour ago, I sent all my text link advertisers a confirmation email if it was ok for them that I add the nofollow attribute on their links. Although I don‘t really sell link juice

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because all my ads are for traffic purposes only, it will be essential to put the ―nofollow‖ tag in their links to be sure that Google won‘t have a second thought on my site.

Blog Network Interlinking

Engadget‘s PR drop down from 7 to 5, Autoblog‘s was from 6 to 4, Problogger‘s and Copyblogger‘s dropped down from 6 to 4 too. Yes, they don‘t sell links but in this instance what do they have in common?

Problogger and Copyblogger are all part of the b5media and for your info, b5media blogs are interlinked with each other. Though Problogger and Copyblogger don‘t link to any of them but the whole network does. Same anchor text, links and etc. I bet they‘re not doing it to game Google but who knows what Google thinks. Same with Engadget and Autoblog, it‘s worse on their side because they link with each other. Meaning they‘re giving reciprocal links which can be considered as a link farm.

Widget Bucks?

Shoemoney has a post about this. It started when a high profile blogger told him that one of the causes of PR drop on some blogs was the widget bucks. Due to the fact that you are not allowed to remove the Widget Bucks‘s link on the widget, you‘re considered linking to them – and they‘re currently penalized (give their name a search and they‘re nowhere to be seen in the SERP)

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I guess they really pissed off Google about their TOS that says you‘re not allowed to remove the backlink to their site on their widget

Back-links placed by Mpire in the HTML code must not be removed.

Haha… good one

Contests with Links

This could be one possibility. Launching contests especially if you have big prizes like what Darren recently did can attract hundreds of links. Google, as a robot will immediately flag you for that. You can be deflagged but it would be better if you inform them before you launch so no harm will be done.

Linkloves

In the Google webmaster guidelines, there‘s a statement there which says that a single webpage‘s reasonable number of active links is just below 100. Link loves, linktrains and group writing projects can be a little harmful if not moderated or posted with care.

Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number (fewer than 100).

copyright © 2008 RichKidMedia – All Rights Reserved http://www.carlocab.com 40

Google just hates us

Almost all of the ―make money online‖ blogs‘ PR dropped from the recent update, is it possible that Google just hates us? Nahh… Be optimistic. At least all of the blogs in your niche has low PR‘s, nothing changed. It‘s all equal :twisted:

copyright © 2008 RichKidMedia – All Rights Reserved http://www.carlocab.com 41

AskCarl: How to Add AdSense to a WordPress blog? In Various Situations

May 28, 2007

John e-mailed me a while ago asking me on how did I place AdSense to my WordPress blog. Too bad John didn‘t have a site to show me. Anyway I‘ll post here my tutorial on how to add Adsense into a WP blog.

Adding AdSense After Post Titles

Let‘s go on the basics first. For example: You want to add a 336 x 280 AdSense block below you post title. Open your index.php then look for the part that looks like this:

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copyright © 2008 RichKidMedia – All Rights Reserved http://www.carlocab.com 43

And if you want to wrap that block, like most blogs do. Add a div into the Adsense code that may look like the one below:

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Just adjust the margin that suits your blog design best and of course you could also change the float to ―left‖ or ―right‖.

Some have situations adding an AdSense unit on their first post but not on the second (I used to do this before ) to do that, open your index.php then look for something like this:

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We‘re not done yet! Look for this on your index.php:

Then place this on the part that says ―****Your Adsense Code goes here****―

See, piece of cake Special thanks to tamba2 for the code.

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Adding AdSense After Every Entry

If you want to place an Adsense block every after your entry ( Like what I have — for now ) You will need to open your index.php then look for this part:

And if you want, you can also add a center tag to make it look more decent.

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Adding AdSense to Single Posts

If you want AdSense only in your single posts. Open your single.php then look for something like this:

Actually it‘s the same as Adding AdSense After Post Titles (Above)

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Adding AdSense Before your Header

Lastly, if you want to add an AdSense unit before your header (Like b5media blogs, etc.)

Open your header.php and look for a code like the one below:

Easy!

But still if it‘s that hard for you to integrate AdSense units to your WordPress blog, there‘s always a plugins to the help.

If you have any comments or want to add or suggest something. Don‘t be shy to leave me a comment

Have any questions? Don’t want to waste time searching Google? just drop me a mail and I’ll try my best to answer your question!

copyright © 2008 RichKidMedia – All Rights Reserved http://www.carlocab.com 49

I Paid 12 Months To Learn These 32 Things

February 23, 2008

February 4, 2007 - Carl Ocab dot com was born. The 13-year old blogger made waves, gigantic waves in the blogosphere - up to now.

Err! Enough with the spiffy 3rd voice introduction.

So yeah, I‘ve just celebrated my first year anniversary, bought a cake and took a good glance of the past. I‘ll also be having a contest, but there‘s more than that.

Blogging has taught me hundreds of things since then. Today, I‘ve compiled them and picked the best to share it with you. I‘d suggest you bookmark it, print it out and save it in your desktop.

But before that, I would like to give a little plug here to those who have helped me succeed a lot of things online, blogging and in life. Special mention goes to the Lord God for guiding me, helping me and in all of these things. My parents who have supported me all the time. Lil‘ brother and sister for the laughs. Friends and classmates (Gloria, Audrey and Jean requested a special mention, hehe) for giving me few hits here and there and for taunting me for my outstanding english - that I rarely show in class. My online buddies (too many to mention) for helping me with their tips and updates and last but not the least, to YOU my readers.

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Alright, I guess I‘ve thanked everyone. Without further ado, here are the 32 things that blogging taught me in 12 months:

1. WIIFM or What’s In It For Me

The first question that pops out to all of us everytime.

Let‘s have a little question and answer here just to prove it to you:

Why do you work? - To make money. Why do you want to make money? - To buy the coolest car. Why do you want to buy the coolest car? - To impress my neighbor.

Ask yourself, you‘ll always find out that you do all things that give you a benefit.

Here‘s a totally different scenario where you want to help people in need. You try to do it anonymously as you can.

But what‘s in it for you? - you feel happy on the inside helping people and seeing them happy.

People need benefits. You can‘t just ask someone‘s shirt if it wouldn‘t benefit them, and you can‘t sell a product without giving a reason why the customer need your product. Show the benefits.

You won‘t be reading this article if you didn‘t have YOUR benefit right? Ask yourself.

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2. People Like To Be Fed, Spoon Fed

I added a follow up message to those who download my free report ―This Is Quick Money‖ asking them ―What have you done today that I taught you in the report you downloaded yesterday?‖ I got loads of replies.

They were asking me basic questions like ―How do I start my own freelance service?‖ or ―What is an autoresponder?‖ that can be simply answered by our little household friend - Google.

Look at it on the brighter side, what if you sell an ebook that spoon feds people on what they need. Wouldn‘t that make you a good sum of money?

3. Content Is Not King, Marketing Is

The internet is FULL and overspilling with awesome useful content. It‘s so many, you can‘t stay on a site for a minute.

If you generate more and more content, do you think your traffic will also increase? Nah. Well with the right marketing, it will.

Marketing without content is dumb. So I consider content, as part of marketing.

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4. Always Show BIG Numbers

What do A-listers have in common? (Preferably John Chow, Shoemoney, and Problogger)

They have BIG Numbers to show.

John Chow with his eye cracking monthly earnings, Schoe with his $180k AdSense check and Problogger with an astonishing amount feed readers.

5. Sleep Is Important

Here‘s a good one.

There was a time when I slept 1:30 AM on a Sunday night. Tomorrow is school so I had to get up 5:00 AM.

That‘s roughly four hours of sleep for me. My eyes was closing all day long. I even took a nap on our lunch break.

When I got home, I tried to write an article but I just can‘t. No ideas was floating on my mind. All I can think of is to sleep and forget all those things first. I can‘t even answer a single email!

I‘ve learned a lesson the hard way.

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6. Act Now, There’s No Later

You have this super idea that you know if you take action, would make thousands over thousands of dollars. After sometime, you forgot about it and you were surprised to see someone did it and got the cash you dreamed of. Has this happened to you?

When you have an idea, implement it now - before anyone does. If you have to stay up all night long, sure. Just act.

7. Log Your Achievements For The Day

Everyday I bullet point all the things I‘ve done. From writing a blog post to SEO stuff and etc, just so I can track my achievements.

If I did less the other day, then I would exert more effort the next day.

8. Blogging Is A Sport

You get better and better everyday. The more practice, the better you get.

Let‘s have this little article I wrote on my first month of blogging, compare it to this post ;-)

9. You Won’t Make Money Blogging - ALONE

Quoted from the Kidblogger‘s Master Plan leaked report.

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Yes, you won‘t make money blogging alone. Although you can get some coins but that‘s not money. It‘s not enough compared to the time blogging ate.

That‘s why, there‘s a system. With that in place, everything is completely duplicatable - Of course, you have the option to hire writers too.

So if you think you can make money off blogging by yourself now, STOP.

10. Blogging Is A Job

Writing an article everyday, sponsored review deadlines, blog commenting schedules?

What‘s the difference from your ordinary day job? Ah well at least, you‘re at home. But still…

11. Very Good Is Not Very Good At All

I owe this one to Seth Godin. Having read his Purple Cow (Still on the halfway) my perspective and goals change when doing something.

We see very good things everyday, when we walk down the street, everywhere. Very good is too saturated. When you‘re unique, you‘re just you, you stand out.

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12. You Don’t Have To Be Passionate About Your Niche

Our passion is to make money – not writing. So why do you need to be passionate about your niche? You can always hire writers who are passionate enough to write good articles for you.

13. Don’t Sell Yourself Too Thin

Have you encountered those $27, $17 or even $7 crap books? (No offense intended, most of them are really CRAP). They‘re selling their self too thin, why sell for $7 if you can for $97?

If you think you can sell a $97 product 100 times, do you think you can sell it for $7 1000 times – with the same people? No! Not a chance.

Why?

You see, some people are not buyers. They‘re there to see what‘s going on and skim over your site, but only small amount of real buyers are worried about the price.

So if you have 1000 prospects, 10% of them bought the $97, but not 100% of them will buy your cheap $7 product.

14. Monetize Now Or Die

The ―Wait for your readership to grow, before you monetize‖ saying just makes me laugh all the time.

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Let‘s just say you waited half a year to monetize your blog, then on the 7th month, your hosting crashes. All the back ups are gone – or your blog got hacked, the tables in your database ruined and you don‘t have a chance to fix it.

Wanna cry now?

Tip: Here‘s how I sold my private advertisements.

15. Blogging Is Communication

I‘ll let author Tom Peters speak to you ―Communication is everyone‘s panacea for everything.‖ In blogging, you communicate by writing informally. You write like you‘re talking to your reader. Informal is the best, even copywriter legend Gary Halbert (You are a homo habilis if you don‘t know him) uses it to sell!

16. Go Positive

Don‘t give clues to your readers for the things that you don‘t want them to do. Like say, ―Don‘t unsubscribe to my blog! I‘ll post tomorrow‖ (Darn, I said it! But with this post, I think you would stay subscribed, aye?) or ―Don‘t leave yet… *sales pitch here*‖

Even though that‘s a warning, it‘s still a command that might give your visitors a hint.

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17. Experiment!

Don‘t be afraid to make mistakes, take risks - the money is there. Here‘s one from me ol‘ favorite speaker Anthony Robbins ―There is no failure, there are only results‖.

18. Experiment! Be Careful Though

Just a word of warning, don‘t go below the belt. If it still urges you, don‘t forget to grab hold of your privacy.

19. Gurus Don’t Know Everything

Even though they make thousands or even millions of dollars online, they don‘t know everything.

I‘ve talked to loads of marketers who make six figures a month, but guess what - I still have something to share to them. Everyone has something good at.

20. Focus

Speaking of number 19, that‘s the number one reason why those guys are called ―gurus‖. They are good at a specific, very VERY specific sub niches of internet marketing.

In link building, we have Jack Humphrey. List building, Joel Christopher. Affiliate marketing, Ewen Chia and Chris Mcneeney. Traffic generation, John Reese. The list goes on…

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They boiled down so much, they tend to ignore other things not relevant from the niche they are focusing at.

21. Be Prepared For Legal Issues

I can‘t believe loads of people put legal issues as the last item on their list! Imagine with just one (yes, it‘s that serious that I have to put all the styles in it) flaw, you can lose your whole business - or worse, even your personal stuff.

I won‘t finish this as I‘m not qualified to do so. Just go get a lawyer now and let him tell you what to do.

22. Set Goals In Everything You Do

When I get home from school, I rest for half an hour before I go online. I never thought that that 30 minutes is one of the most important factors of success.

I plan my day strategically so I won‘t lose a single minute out of the blue. And these goals are not just for the sake of writing, they need to be done.

23. Shorter = Better

We are at the attention age era. People are surrounded by tons of information, we give too little attention to things as we have the option to just move on and click away.

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In that case, we have less time to tell people what we are really trying to tell them. And heck, it‘s actually harder to explain things shorter than the usual.

P.S. Yes, this article is shorter than the usual, I have 32 things to pin point so there. :-)

24. Design Is An Important Factor

Like what I said above, we are at the attention age - and one of the most attention grabbing part of a site is it‘s design.

Your website‘s design speaks for you. Connect your design with your niche. I guess my master plan is a good example.

25. Sometimes We Could Use Some Ramblings

Blogging is communication aye? (number 15) Why not give your readers a bit taste of your life and how you live?

Even though, yes, your readers are there for topics about your niche, but a post a month with updates of your current lifestyle won‘t hurt right?

Most people are curious cats and would always like a snippet of someone‘s life. That‘s one reason why gossip is a pretty wide niche. ;-)

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26. Mingle With The Big Boys

It has been said that if you add up all the earnings of the top five people you hang out most and get the average of it, it will be close to your current income.

That‘s simply true. When you hang out with poor people, they‘ll influence you to do what poor people do. If you hang out with middle classes, same thing happens. If you hang out with millionaires, they will influence you too on how to become as rich as them. Even if you have nothing in hand! They‘ve got the kicks, all you have to do is listen.

27. Under Promise, Over Deliver

I hear amazon.com does this nicely.

When I ordered my first books from amazon they gave me a rough date when will the books arrive, it‘s for three weeks I guess. Surprisingly it arrived in our frontdoor in only two weeks.

I‘m pretty sure that they knew they can give it in less than three weeks, they just under promised to make us think they have over delivered in service.

28. Protect Your Feed

Content aggregation is a big hit these days. You know those guys who scrape all your content and plaster big blocks of ads around it trying to make money?

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Yes, it annoys me too. One way or another, I see five to 10 duplicates of every article I post on this blog - luckily most of them links back to the original article, but some just don‘t get it. Some just copy pastes the whole post, leaving no trace behind.

However, if you place links inside your posts, it will be carried by the scraper because most of them still carry out the html.

29. Make People Feel Important

This I owe to my email list.

First of all, lead capturing is harder than you think it is. It takes three steps to make people subscribe to your list. They type their name and email, press subscribe and go to their inbox to confirm it. Sounds simple? NO! Tell you what (I guess there‘s no softer way to say this) people are LAZY.

Why do they have to spend their spare minute to subscribe to your newsletter (or whatever you are offering) when he can subscribe to the one next block?

Make them feel important, give them private access to your swipe files for example. Or maybe a beta access to your new site, etc.

30. People Love Lists

Oh c‘mon, you‘d never get this far if you didn‘t love lists! ;-)

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31. Leverage Other People’s Resources

In order to start making money, there are a lot of things you should consider. You need traffic, list, content, credibility and tons more. If you drill down those things and do it all by yourself, it will take years before you can establish a good online business. Notice, I only said good.

But what if you can leverage other people‘s resources? Other people‘s traffic, list, content and credibility? Wouldn‘t that skyrocket your business and your profits?

32. Read Then Implement

This is probably the best thing that blogging taught me after 12 months - read. Don‘t just skim, read. If you bought a book today, read it, finish it then implement it. Don‘t get another book if you still haven‘t implemented the principles taught in the first one.

Start this year right, buy a book now then read it and implement. You‘ll be mesmerized by your improvement. I guarantee it.

To Close This One Up

I‘ll let Henry Ford close this looong article with his infamous quote ―Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.‖

-End-