There are many reasons that I am blogging for breast cancer this month, and one of them is the fact that breast cancer awareness and PINK has been marketed to me by some very savvy professionals.

The ribbon campaigns, walks, runs, benefits, these all help to raise money. But more than ever, I have been seeing PINK PRODUCTS. Campbell’s and M&Ms are two names that come to mind. The Hudson Bay Company here in Canada has a huge line of pink products available this month from all kinds of sources. And while many of these will only give a minimal 10%, I have no doubt that people will buy them. Ten percent does add up, after all. It utilizes the idea of the purple cow discussed by Seth Godin. Where brown cows are very boring after you look at them for a while, but throw in a purple cow and it’s exciting again. Take the normal can of Campbell’s soup. How many tens of years have we been looking at that red and white background!? Now, all of a sudden: Pink? The fact that it is Campbell’s is what makes it so unique. It was a superb idea. And M&Ms, well they have been around the colour block so many times but it’s still cool. ;)

Everyone Loves Coupons has a great post relating to pink products being sold to raise awareness for breast cancer. Andrew graciously invites us all to Shop For A Cure. He also points out how you can click to provide free mammograms.

At Totally Fabulous, find a list of many bloggers who have taken it upon themselves to raise money and/or awareness for breast cancer. Check out her post reminding you to Think Pink this month.

So far, I have raised 0 monies for breast cancer. I will donate $25 so I have raised 25 monies. :) Yay! I wish I had some pink soup to sell you all then I would be rolling in monies.

Ladies:

Please check out this online breast self-exam resource from Susan G. Komen for the Cure

Please remember, I am currently offering paid reviews on my blog. All monies from reviews and ads in October will be donated to a breast cancer research and awareness building charity.

Posted: October 13th, 2007 under Blogging For Money, Random Stuff.
Comments: 2

During the month of October, I will be blogging in support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. October 2007 is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and be sure to check out Finding Hope, the CBCF blog. Yes, they’re blogging too. In any case, I got a few good suggestions and I would like try a few things to raise some money this month. All monies made on the Pink Internet Marketing blog will be donated to the CBCF.

Donate Button at the Bottom of Each Post

For the month of October, each post will include a donate button. I will of course indicate with the button that the monies are all being donated to this Pink Cause, the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. I am not sure how well this will do, but perhaps I can garner a few donations. Any small contribution counts, am I not correct?

Review Blogs or Websites

During the month of October, get your blog or website reviewed here at Pink Internet Marketing by making a donation to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. If you are interested in a review here on my blog, please email me at technophelia [at] yahoo.ca. I can provide you with a good thorough review, and can even comment on ways to maximize the potential of your site in search if you are not inclined to that sort of thing.

All Donors Will Get a Link On This Post

If you would like to have link here on this post, leave it in the special notes space when you donate, along with the anchor text of your preference (I will not link to porn or drug sites, sorry). If you prefer to remain anonymous, that is okay too.

A Few Awareness Raising Posts

During the month of October, I plan on posting a few times about Breast Cancer Awareness month, to remind people and continue to raise awareness. Hopefully these can draw some attention and garner some attention for donations.

Other Ways To Help

Spread awareness about Breast Cancer Awareness month, and about the Pink Cause. As October 2007 is Breast Cancer Awareness month, bloggers can raise awareness by blogging about it! ;)

Posted: September 30th, 2007 under Projects, Blogging For Money, Random Stuff, Blogging.
Comments: 4

I recently reported on AdSense Referrals 2.0 being out of beta, and as I have explored this new feature I have come to realize that this is a perfect tool for bloggers in particular.

Referrals 2.0 differs from traditional ads in that here you can actively encourage clicks and endorse that which you are referring. Google’s tips for using Referrals are much different than the contextual ads, and they even suggest the following:

Treat referral units as site content rather than traditional ad space. By integrating text links or buttons into related content on your page, you can improve the experience users have on your site, enabling them to easily find the referral buttons you discuss in your content.

This means a lot for bloggers in my opinion: Instead of doing review for a site from PayPerPost or the like, why not do a review for a site listed in AdSense Referrals. You get paid for every lead you generate and thus increase your site revenue, as well as your site’s content. And since you can select which advertiser to discuss, you can find something that is in line with the theme of your site.

Some tips for using AdSense Referrals 2.0:

• Find ads that you would actually endorse.
• Try to get the reader excited about the site you are referring. You want to generate a lead after all. :)
• Ensure that this is still a quality content post. The better the post is, the more traffic you will generate, the more traffic you generate, the more opportunity for new leads.
• Check back often as new sites are added. This is a good source for content ideas too.
• Customize your links to match your blog.

Posted: August 1st, 2007 under Blogging For Money.
Comments: 9

Though most of the blog earnings are on other blogs, here are my blog earnings for July. I

added Bloggerwave, and increased my ReviewMe and Blogsvertise profits. It has been helpful to have a few blogs with PR to do reviews on for different topics. I am not sure how much longer I will continue to do that, but I am enjoying it for now, so I will continue to do so.

I like that the number goes up each month. And I was surprised that I had managed to do that since I “launched” this blog at the beginning of July. July Total: $169.77 :)

Posted: August 1st, 2007 under Blogging For Money.
Comments: 13

Recently Google AdSense introduced Referrals 2.0, which allows AdSense publishers to select which ads they will show on their sites. As well, there is a much greater profit margin to be had as they are referral ads that require conversion for the advertiser.There are many different categories of ads and so it is not difficult to find some that match your site content. You can select up to 15, and these will rotate based on your most profitable ads.

Read more »

Posted: July 25th, 2007 under Blogging For Money.
Comments: 2

You may recognize the name Matt Huggins, and if you do not, I am sure you soon will. There are many make money blogging blogs you can visit, but what makes Matt’s blog unique is that, unlike so many I have read over the past few months, he is a really nice guy who works hard to provide extremely high quality content for his readers.

While playing around in Alexa, I decided to check out how he has been doing, as I know he has recently had some great posts get noticed around the blogosphere. And what I saw shocked and amazed me. He has a bunch of other interesting projects as well, and I am kind of glad that I have gotten to know Matt Huggins as I know his success is impending and inevitable. Matt’s blog is about the “vision and progression of an internet entrepreneur“. I have viewed the progression over the past few months, and it has been interesting to watch as very well-written and informative posts about what he is doing to make this happen have launched his blog into the spotlight. Though I don’t see myself as an internet entrepreneur, I like monetizing my blog to a small extent, mostly out of interest in the process. Plus money is kind of nice, I can buy stuff with it, such as poutine and new dresses.

Some posts that really stand out:

55 Essential Articles Every Serious Blogger Should Read

A Definitive List of Social Networking Websites to Help You Succeed

So, thanks again Matt for all the support and help you have given me over the past few months in my SEO and blogging projects, and I look forward to watching your “inevitable success”. :)

Posted: July 17th, 2007 under Reviews, Blogging For Money, Blogging.
Comments: 4

While I officially started blogging in mid-June, prior to that I was experimenting with Adsense ads with little success. However, I have learned some things over the course of the past few months, and though I am not ready to retire on my riches quite yet, the amount I am making is increasing monthly. I am hopeful that with a little luck, I might eventually make it to the minumum $100 payout, which is my ultimate Adsense goal. :D

MAR - $0.03
APR - $0.02
MAY - $0.87
JUN - $6.12
JUL - $6.50 (and the month is not over yet!)

While I am clearly not “making a killing” the amount of small funds I am making has increased and seems to be on an upward turn. Don’t tell John Chow though, he might get jealous of my ridiculously lucrative Adsense endeavors.

So here is what I have learned then about Adsense thus far:

1. Put ads on every page - if you are just going to have ads on your home page it is almost not worth it. And put more than one ad unit on each page.
2. Make the ads coordinate with your own blog colors. Not only does it look better, but people are more likely to click on the ads.
3. You can still make money with Adsense even if you do not have a very high traffic blog. Blogs such as John Chow’s make money just from having people view the page, but you can still make money even with a low traffic blog - so long as they click on your ads.

Google Adsense does have some guidelines that must be followed, keep in mind, and these are very important to ensure that you do not get your account closed suddenly. Here you can view their program policies.

Now, clearly since I am gloating about the approximately $14.00 I have made over the course of several months, I am no expert on monetizing my blog, so here are some information relating to making money with Adsense that I thought I would consolidate for your personal perusal or study:

• Google Adsense Tips, Tricks and Secrets from Graywolf’s SEO Blog
• Google Adsense Tips and Tools Collection from Quick Online Tips
• Adsense Tips for Bloggers from Problogger (8 part series)

I have heard talk that you should not put up Adsense ads until you are getting a lot of traffic. Well that is one rumour I would like to dispel. Think of it this way - you can put up ads even if you are not getting traffic and this will not deter people from visiting, and eventually you might start making a bit of money. Or you can wait until you are getting a lot of traffic, and then put up the ads, and watch as people get a little peeved that all of a sudden there are ads. Devise a monetizing plan early on your blogging career - and people will expect it. Do it later in your blogging career, the outcome might be shocking to some.

P.S. Not only does Google have content ads, but they now offer referral ads… and for some reason I find the mannequin one funny (don’t tell Adsense I am making fun of this :P):

So if you want to start monetizing your site with Google ads, and you have not done so already, then just

Good luck! And remember, John Chow is considered evil by everyone, so don’t do whatever he is doing and get all greedy pants!

Posted: July 17th, 2007 under Blogging For Money.
Comments: 9

I think this is a blogging omen: I have done several successful reviews over the past few months with ReviewMe and it was seemingly going quite well. I recently reviewed two other sites for them, and to my surprise they were both rejected because of spelling and grammar quality. Say again?!?

This is surprising to me - my browser has spellcheck and if there were grammar rodeos in my town, I would be the rodeo queen! I pride myself on my spelling and grammar.

What really upsets me is that for one particular post I really had to search to find something positive to say. I don’t like giving negative reviews, and though I will make suggestions, this one was tough. Now since both reviews were rejected, I also got a 3rd email from ReviewMe saying that my account was being threatened with suspension if I did this again. Did what?!? Well, they gave me the chance to correct the problem, but I already wasted my time doing two reviews that were rejected, so I am not going to further waste my time trying to correct mistakes or problems I am incapable of seeing.

But just when I was feeling super low about my “rejections” I got an email from PayPerPost and an email from Blogvertise both saying: You are now accepted, and I have picked up some reviews task from them, and I will make even more! So I am going to try this out, even though I am still absolutely baffled by my “rejections”. But I figure that this must be an omen - I was destined to do reviews for PayPerPost and Blogvertise and not ReviewMe… ?

Now, there seems to be fewer opportunities to fit my “niche” (whatever that may be) but I don’t mind - this blog is about everything and anything already, right. Now I don’t plan on reviewing any bust enhancement sites or anything, but I hope my few readers will not mind the minor random reviews I will do here. This is to pay for my hosting and for other little internet projects. Not that I can’t pay out of pocket, but I can’t support the whole family (of blogs) by myself. They need to work for their money.

I will try them out and let you all know how it goes. PayPerPost has many opportunities available, whereas Blogvertise I must wait to be assigned tasks… and I have my first one already!

Posted: June 26th, 2007 under Blogging For Money.
Comments: 3

Considering I need to make $100 dollars to make money with AdSense… exactly how long do you think it will take for me to actually see any money from this? That is one thing that bothers me about all these content link providers and many other money making opportunities online. You always have to make a minimum amount before you get paid, and by that time you could be dead or the internet will not exist anymore and information will be transmitted telepathically. ;-P

Posted: June 21st, 2007 under Blogging For Money.
Comments: 1