Links are harder to get this time. Link exchanges do not work, natural links are not that easy to obtain. As a result, link buying is probably the easiest way to gain link popularity (here it is also not that simple: Google states that it can detect the websites that sell links and promises to their ability to penalize them. As a result, those website that rent links from penalized resources will not get the benefits they pay money for).

On the other hand you can generate some extra income if you sell links (but there is a chance to be penalized by Google for this activity).

I was quite impressed with the information that Steve Pavlina generates about $600.00 and Matt does even better and gets about $700.00 per month from links sales through one channel. Yes, these two persons run well-known blogs on the Internet and at this time I will not dare compare my websites and online business with theirs. But I am still impressed and signed up with the service they both recommend: www.text-link-ads.com (aff link).

I have placed their code on three websites and I also joined their Affiliate Program (placed it’s banners and links just on this blog). Now one week later I can’t boast of any link sales. And referral program does not work. But I am sure that the service will generate me some extra cash.

1. Firstly, one week is not enough time to become visible.
2. Secondly, it is summer time, most people enjoy their holidays and will be back to their routine activity in autumn – I expect at that time more traffic and more opportunities.
3. Thirdly (probably, most important point), my websites are not as well established as the two I referred to.

Nobody wants to waste their cash inefficiently – I need to improve my websites first.

www.text-link-ads.com is also a good place to buy links. I have checked their competitors (LinkWorth.com, Linkadage.com), browsed webmaster forums and eBay.com and conclude that their service suits me best: selection, prices, security, reliability and convenience. I guess every webmaster approaches link purchase process from two points of view:

- buying links for PR boost and improvement of his website search engine rankings
- buying links for getting considerable targeted traffic

The best solution is, of course, to combine both aspects in one link, but it is unfortunately a rare case. So, expect to spend funds on a few links if you need to achieve both targets. Also, one-two months are not enough for your purposes. It is recommended to keep the links at least 6-9 months to get some result.

Summary: text-link-ads.com is a promising supplemental source of income generation for all types of websites. You can safely combine this type of adv with any other (including contextual adv from YPN and AdSense); the links do not annoy your visitors; they as a rule come from the website that operate in your industry; so one can say that it is an extra benefit for your visitors.

If you are going to spend some funds on link buying – it is also a nice place to start your tests.

[tags]text-link-ads, links buying, links selling, steve pavlina, myspace, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, blogs, content generation, news aggregator, ebay, google, make money online, work from home, home based job, wikipedia, del.icio.us, technorati, bloglines, duplicate content, links, earn your living online[/tags]

Despite the fact that all my websites are in the sandbox (except one) and do not get much search engine traffic I have just now found some time to explore and test social networking and popular news websites.
Yes, the saying ‘first things first’ sometimes does not work in my case. But as I know many website owners target this channel of traffic.

Well, I am quite happy with the results. It took me 10-15 minutes to register with the below listed websites and 5-10 minutes to submit one of my articles to all websites. No, I did not make Digg.com home page or anything of that type (though I wish I did), but I have got my first experience, discovered that it is a fast, easy and efficient technique. And I have got over 100 visitors to that page within 16-18 hours.

Websites I experimented with (in addition to del.icio.us that I use for a few months now):

www.netscape.com
www.boredatwork.com
www.digg.com
www.shoutwire.com
www.stumbleupon.com
www.shadows.com
www.i-am-bored.com
www.fark.com
www.boingboing.net

It is evident that one either needs good contacts with the regular users and members of the websites or you should submit something terrific to really succeed and get tons of traffic. I conclude this from the amount of posts that I could see submitted to the websites - virtually every second there were made new additions.

I do not expect much financial benefits from the traffic that these websites will generate for me. It is obvious that the greatest part of the users is web savvy people. They are not likely to click on my contextual ads or explore my CPA offers. The only way to make money with this traffic is CPM (get paid for adv impressions and using some ingenious ad blending techniques).

But it is also a good way to go for branding and getting some recognition in your niche – I think it is guaranteed if you submit something useful on a regular basis.

Summary: if you are unfamiliar with these services – just spend 30-40 minutes for fast acquaintance with them – they function more or less in the same way: it is a community of registered users that review submitted news and articles and decide to vote for it or not, if it is worthy information or just crap. If they decide it is valuable you are guaranteed a great amount of visitors to your website – be prepared to handle it.

I do not doubt that these websites are also a great place for learning what types of content and news gain most popularity on the Internet, what is the recent buzz, what consumers want.

[tags]netscape.com, boredatwork.com, digg.com, shoutwire.com, stumbleupon.com, shadows.com, i-am-bored.com, fark.com, boingboing.net, social networks, social bookmarking, myspace, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, blogs, content generation, news aggregator, ebay, google, make money online, work from home, home based job, wikipedia, del.icio.us, technorati, bloglines, duplicate content, links, earn your living online[/tags]

To help the customers become more secure and up-to-date, Internet Explorer 7 will be distributed via Automatic Updates (AU) shortly after the release for Windows XP (4 quarter 2006).

IE7 is going to possess lots of security features to help make users more secure, including ActiveX Opt-in, the Phishing Filter and Fix My Settings features. These are just some of the security enhancements designed to help protect users from malicious software and fraudulent websites, and Microsoft recommends that all genuine Windows customers install IE7. Automatic Updates will notify users when IE7 is ready to install and show a screen major options and choices to “Install“, “Don’t Install” and “Ask Me Later“.

Blocker Toolkit for our enterprise customers who may want to block automatic delivery of IE7 in their organizations will also be included. Enterprise customers will be able download the free Blocker Toolkit from the Microsoft Download Center.

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[tag] Windows, Internet Explorer 7, Blocker Toolkit, Microsoft Download Center, Active X [/tag]