Saturday, March 17, 2012

Who is Spandau Ballet!

This weekend I did a little fun hub.

We can just write so much about making money and pondering the forthcoming Presidential Election.

This Hub was pure fluff, vane of me and meant to show some fun. In my time I have been a "New Romantic", a wild party animal inside with a passion for nice suits and good shoes.

Try a look at this little fun hub.



Spandau Ballet; Bananarama; Rick Astley et al: My Favorite Five Hit Songs of the Eighties

The answer to the shocking question. Spandau Ballet was and is a band from England. Though formed in the late 1970's they were the core band for the "New Rommantic" movement in music.  Famous for their songs 'True' and 'Gold' my choice on the above hub is one of their lesser known song, 'Muscle Bound' but that may be due to the included Video for the song, which is possibly one of the worst song promo videos ever made.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Get "Expert" Backlinks to Drive Traffic.

One way to drive traffic to your hubs is to create backlinks.

So What are Backlinks?

Backlinks are permanent links from other sites, hubs, blogs, or websites.

A quick form of backlink to your hub would be a link from Twitter or Facebook.  These are ok to a point. You may gain short term traffic while the link is up, but they are only visible to a limited number of people, unleess your friends and followers have a habit of forwarding and re-tweeting.

Those links then soon disappear and you have enjoyed a brief moment of increased viewing.

Better Backlinks:

The best back lins are in the form of permanent links from "Expert" websites. These links are beloved of the search engines, but How would you get an expert website to link to your hubs?

Simple: Create your own expert website, in the form of a blog or website.

Create a blog or website which is very specific to one small niche group of viewers.

Post on this regularly, link to your hubs, also very tightly grouped to the main niche of your blog or website.

As your blog or website matures, after three months at least, the Search Engines see it as maturing and with so many links it becomes "expert".

So here is an example.

You write a hub on trainspotting.

Your hub gets a few views from friends and goes away down the ranks.

So you build a hub on trainspotting.

Here you post lots of information on trains, where a particular engine or train will be.

It is watched by Google and the other Search engines and you get some good views, a few dozen per day.

As you build this blog or website, you post more hubs on trainspotting.

You link your blog to hubs and vice verdsa.

The Search Engines see all this two way traffic and you can now after a month or two add a listing on Technoratti, the blog catalogue.

Traffic continues to build and you will notice as you add each new hub and link back to it from your blog the traffic between the blog and hub maintains a higher level.

This will depend on the topic but as long as you at first maintain a tight niche topic, you will see your "expertise" level keep your SEO rank higher, traffic higher and hopefully revenue higher.

Then as your original niche becomes too narroew, you might need to add supporting ideas, so a train spotter needs his "anorak" what is the best trainspotting anorak? Add a clothing niche. You need somewhere to stay as a trainspotter, add hotel reviews. All the time linking in to your trainspotting niche, your expertise you are building a wider network of connections.

Your traffic will increase and search engines will take notice of you more.

In a real world example, I have a blindness blog alongside this one. I posted a story on that blog about Glaucoma, an easily preventable cause of blindness, within three hours, because of expertise status on the blog, being within the niche and good use of keywords within the niche, the blog post on glaucoma reached number three on Google.  That also caused a spike in traffic on my blindness related hubs on HubPages.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Is this a Worthwhile e-book Proposal?


It seems that I am building the idea for a Kindle e-book in my mind.

Well it is 3:30am and my mind is fully awake and has been for over an hour now. Either that or it is a high from the cold medicine I took yesterday afternoon.

Anyway.

Would anyone be interested in a book about the last ten years of my life. It would start around 9/11 2001. That was a big day for me in many ways. It was a day when I think the first blood clot was forming which would take my vision in my right eye within weeks. It was also more famous for the events in New York City, Virginia and Pennsylvania. It was also around that time that the idea to travel the United States by train began to form. A decision that would dramatically change my life. Forever.

This is not a rhetorical question. Would YOU be interested in the story? Would you want to know a story of How I went blind? How I found my way through the red tape of the US Immigration System to become first a permanent resident then a citizen?How I fought blindness to gain a degree? How I met a wonderful group of people, and how one was so special that I had to fall in love with her and marry her? She has stood by me through many of the last ten years, sometimes praising me on to higher things, sometimes delivering the ultimatums that I need to pull me from the pity parties.

So be honest is there a book in here somewhere?

Friday, March 9, 2012

Thinking of a New Business Idea

I am looking at new forms of income at the moment.  While I am fully employed as a Graduate Student and working part-time, my part-time job is looking uncertain.

I work for a local government body and in California that is a dangerous place to be. With budget cuts and the like, being an at-will employee is never a secure option.

So, looking around what can I do?

  • It needs to allow me time to work on my MA degree.
  • It needs to be a low cost start-up
  • It needs to provide residual income
  • It needs to allow me to use present skills.
  • It needs to be something I can do as a blindman, no long distance trucking.

One of the most attractive possibilities is looking to publish e-books on the Kindle via Amazon.com.

Yes, I know that will be putting more eggs in the Amazon.com basket. Something I have said is not a good idea.  This however could be a real option.

I can write part-time even now. I do so with my blogs.

I have equipment such as Dragon Naturally Speaking with which I can write faster than I type. I am up to about 1,000 words per hour these days.

As to what I would write I am not too sure just yet. 

But I have bought some books on the subject.

If you want to try publishing e-books through Amazon.com I would recommend this book:






BUY IT HERE.

Buy It Today!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

How to Increase Your Hubscore: Keep Posting

So you have posted a few Hubs and your hubscore, that number on the bottom right of your  photo is rising and falling daily.

What do you need to do now?

The simple answer is to join in the community. Click on the Hubs tab, checkout the latest and best hubs there. Post comments to the hubs which add value to the hub. Put in real comments, not just "Good Hub" tell the author what you thought, any anecdotes which support or argue against a hub point of view. Yes it is ok to argue against a hubber, but make the argument honest and backed by facts, it is not a reason to FLAME a hubber.

Also go to answers, look for questions that interest you. Answer them, honestly. Show some humor if it warrants that. Hubbers see your comments and answers and they then may begin to follow you.

Writing to hybs or answers should be done for two to four hours per day.  That may seem a lot, it is if you then add several hours to produce a hub, but the best, most successful hubbers work at their success.  Time is money and if you want views and clicks, YOU need to work at your hubscore.

Don't worry about the daily ups and downs of your hubscore. Small moves do not mean too much. You need to stay above about seventy-five to gain additional traffioc from search engines.  You may in time reach one hundred, but to do so you must be active in all sectors of HubPages.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Placing Links in Comments. Should we?

A few days ago a question was asked, "Should you post a link in someone elses comment capsule?

It seemed to get a resounding yes from many of those who answered.

Personally I say, NO! You should not assume that the author of a hub will automatically accept your comment which is merely a possible plug for your own hub or website.  To do such a thing is plainly spamming the Hubber.

By all means you can mention that you have a similarly themed hub, a hubber may ask you to provide a link or may go to your hub and link to it themselves. If they do, be fair and reciprocate.

Do not though post a hub link into a comment capsule. HubPages doesn't allow it and it is not really proper etiquette for the site.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Internet Earnings: Internet Sites That Can Earn You Cash

I would like to draw your attention to a wonderful Hub by my fellow Hubber, kannanwrites.
Kannanwrites has looked at over 50 internet based services and article posting sites. There is a good list of some very good sites from which to earn a stream of cash.
Not all sites require writing skills, some require you to have knowledge to share with prospective customers.
If you are serious about earning money online, you should look through this list and select any that look promising to you.
Bear in mind not all services are available around the world and so you may be limited in your choices.
Also before giving up personal information, not all sites are vetted for the possibility that there may be a scam involved.
Keep a critical eye on any prospective income source online. If they ask for money upfront, it may be a scam. If their promises seem too good to be true they are possibly a scam.
Internet Earnings : 50+ Sites to Make Money Online For Free