Member since:
March 28, 2007

Promoting Your Online Work

September 05, 2009 07:29 PM EDT

views: 70 | comments: 34

Whether you blog, write on Helium, Associated Content or even if you are just Gathering, I am sure that you try to promote your online work in some way or another.

When I first started working and writing online more than two years ago, it was as if I entered a whole new world. Since then I thought I had become rather knowledgeable, but when I entered the blogging world I received an abrupt awakening.

In June I finally started my first blog Frugality is Free, but it took me about a month before I actually figured out how to connect Google Adsense to my account. After that I finally began figuring out the blogging thing, and I recently started my second blog FrugalMom's Favorite things, which is kind of like a sister blog to Frugality Is Free.

I knew that starting a blog would take time, and I have been told that it takes quite a while, before I can actually earn on blogging. Call me ambitious, but I am eager to learn, and I certainly am curious about the blogging world. One thing I have learned is that promoting your online work takes time, but hopefully it will all be worth it in the end.

So far I am trying to get the hang of the SEO key word thing, but it sounds easier than it is in my opinion. I have signed up for Redgage, but it does not seem to do much, and I have submitted some posts through pingomatic.com. Whether it works or not I am not sure yet, but maybe one day it will.

In regards to Gather posts, I do know that the keywords and posting to Gather Essentials help, but I still wonder how some people manage to get more than 200 views within a few hours of posting. These views are certainly not coming from Gather members, as there are usually only a couple of comments (if any at all), but where are they coming from? Even more importantly.....how do I get some of them???

How do you promote your online work?

Do you blog, and if so are you actually earning something by blogging?

Tags: blog, blogging, online work, promote, promoting online work

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Comments: 34

Sherry W. Sep 5, 2009, 7:33pm EDT

The views probably come for them for one of a few specific reasons: 1 - They have lots of friends or are connected to 'important' people who pimp their links around the internet. 2 - The SEO was really good, and lined up well with search terms people were using in the moment. Try looking at trends.google.com to get an idea as to what's popular in the right-now. 3 - Luck. Sometimes lots of views are just the result of nothing more than dumb luck.

j - Frugal Mom - r. Sep 5, 2009, 7:54pm EDT

Sherry my only problem with the SEO is that I rarely write about current issues, celebrities etc...

Sherry W. Sep 5, 2009, 8:01pm EDT

But you don't have to write about current events to use good SEO. Eg, if you go to Good Trends and enter some search terms, you can find out what's been popular with regular old internet searchers in the past. As an example, you'd probably be better off using the term 'cheap groceries' in an article a few times as opposed to the term 'groceries for less', merely because fewer people search for 'groceries for less' than 'cheap groceries'. It's not about writing about popular things (though that certainly doesn't *hurt*); it's about knowing your audience and getting inside their heads well enough to know what terms they'd enter into the Google searchbar and look for.

Sherry W. Sep 5, 2009, 8:01pm EDT

Sorry, that should say 'Google' and not 'Good'.

j - Frugal Mom - r. Sep 5, 2009, 8:10pm EDT

Thanks Sherry, I will definitely have to check out google trends.

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Rae M. Sep 5, 2009, 7:36pm EDT

Google adsense is so confusing. I am so glad Factoidz stopped using them. I never made a cent on there when they were using Google Adsense now I at least make a dollar or two every month on there.

I promote usually by reading other people's content and commenting on what ever site I happen to be working on at the time. My hopes are they will in turn read somthing of mine. This is time consuming, but if I find someone who never returns reads I won't waste my time on them anymore.

I also cross promote. I might write an article for one site, and reference an article I have written on another site and provide the link. Redgage has helped me a bit too. Every little bit helps.

j - Frugal Mom - r. Sep 5, 2009, 7:55pm EDT

Rae, what is Factoidz? I started using Google adsens in July, and I just reached the $10 mark today.

The reading other people's blogs and commenting is something I am trying to get into as well.

Rae M. Sep 5, 2009, 8:18pm EDT

Factoidz is a paid to write site.

Here is one of my articles on there: http://factoidz.com/how-to-clean-and-unclog-with-salt-ammonia-vinegar-and-baking-soda/

See I just shamelessly self promoted. LOL

They pay per view.

j - Frugal Mom - r. Sep 5, 2009, 8:23pm EDT

Promoting is one of the ways we make a living, right?

Rae M. Sep 5, 2009, 8:24pm EDT

For sure. I am going to go view your blog, and I will be sure to click around.

j - Frugal Mom - r. Sep 5, 2009, 8:37pm EDT

Thanks Rae, I viewed all your posts there. You only have 8, right? Do you earn much there?

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Marsha S. Sep 5, 2009, 7:39pm EDT

gather essentials...guess I need to go see what that is all about
I have some of my gather posts in the traffic exchange at piepoints.com...other than that I don't do the other traffic exchanges that I used to do.
I do twitter some of my posts.

I wish I knew how to make money with my blog. I put on coupons.com I put clickables to the selling sites that I do....I put banners to my favorite paid to clicks....
when I do posts I link to my latest squidoo lenses or updates and posts here...

any other ideas?

I put in google adsense but was kicked out within a week....they said fraudulent clicks (what it really probably was that I had my blog in the traffic exchanges, which is against google terms, but I have no idea why since the chances of someone clicking an ad in a traffic exchange knowing it will break out of the frame is very unlikely)

j - Frugal Mom - r. Sep 5, 2009, 7:56pm EDT

Marsha the problem with the gather essential groups is that your post actually have to be related to one of the topics. Health, news, food, family, moms etc.....make sure you are a member of them though.

How do you earn from putting coupons.com on your blog? Do they pay you for clicks?

Marsha S. Sep 5, 2009, 9:31pm EDT

I don't know what you earn for them printing and redeeming coupons printed through your link.
you know we earn at mypoints for printing from there and we earn 1 cent for each one we print and use at quickrewards....
no one's clicked through and printed from my blog...and I believe it's against the terms for myself to

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M. Bradley McCauley McCauley Sep 5, 2009, 7:43pm EDT

Good info. I use Squidoo a lot, I have 34 lenses there and cross link between them and my several blogs. If I post something here from any of those places, I place a link if people want to read more similar to what I did with my article on here, Hormones and Aging

Good luck.

j - Frugal Mom - r. Sep 5, 2009, 7:58pm EDT

I never figured out the whole squidoo thing Mary, it seems like I am already trying to juggle too many things at once. I do try to link to my blog, if I write a post that's relevant.

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Marianne R. Sep 5, 2009, 8:25pm EDT

A few people I am connected to here seem to have a decent following from Twitter and Facebook. That's where a lot of those views come from.

j - Frugal Mom - r. Sep 5, 2009, 8:34pm EDT

See that makes sense Marianne. I'm not on any of those:)

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April H. Sep 5, 2009, 9:22pm EDT

When I really want an article of mine to get some decent views and I think it is a quality article I bookmark the article everywhere I use redgage, facebook, delicious, Digg, Bzz,Squip, Propeller, Mixx, Twine, Diigo, friendster, technoraiti, Myviewin & I also add the link directly to the google search engine myself here bookmarking to all of these sites only takes about 5 extra minutes because when I am ready to add/bookmark articles I have all of these sites in separate windows and I go tab by tab and copy & paste the Url etc. When I take the time to do this my views usually increase within a day or two to over 100 views and usually by 3 or 4 months time the same article has views over 500. IF it is one of my book reviews I also post the article to library thing and and amazon.com, IF it is a product review I cross post to BZz, Kraft First tast or PSSt and Shespeaks, thus increasing there views. My Bzz postings get alot of hits because I post it as a URl link in the specific bzzscape so I can generate hits very quickly. Occassionaly I cross post to hubpages or going going gone a travel log .

April H. Sep 5, 2009, 9:30pm EDT

By the way I treat my online time as a job about 8 hours a day for everything I do, which includes sending for freebies and entering tons of contests photos, writings, blogging etc. plus gatehr , librarything and all of my other sites. I usually average an income of around 600. per month but 400 of that is usually in products. Which is why I am now venturing into blogging too so I make more spendable money. Redgage has also worked for me as in 2 months timer I have made 233.72 but I worked the competition part of the contest. I also discovered that if I promote the content I submitted to redgage at other bookmarking sites and it gains lots of views even after several weeks have passed since I submitted something to redgage several of my past submissions are now getting featured.

j - Frugal Mom - r. Sep 5, 2009, 11:00pm EDT

You are really awesome April, and I always admire all of your wins. I really hope the website turns into a success, but somehow I have the feeling it will. Thanks for posting all of this, I really have to read over it a couple of times to make sure I get everything down.

CyberGwen ! Sep 6, 2009, 5:56pm EDT

The treating it like my job is what I REALLY need to start doing April. I tend to just do it when I feel like it and my bank account shows it.

Starting tomorrow, I am going to set a timer. I can't get up or start random surfing until that timer goes off.

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Kjersti W. Sep 5, 2009, 9:46pm EDT

The main way I promote my online writing (mostly blogs) us on Twitter. I use bit.ly to shorten urls and then tweet announcing my new posts. It seems to work pretty well, especially when I starts using # to tag words and began to gain more followers. I also use digg some.

Kjersti W. Sep 5, 2009, 9:53pm EDT

Forgot to mentin what I earn blogging. I average about $10 a month on adsense, althogh I have consistently been cashing out at $100 every 8 months, as some months I earn more then $10, but rarely less than $9. I also earn about $10 a month from sponsered posts from PayPerPost and SocialSpark, but some months I get nothing and it is nob like 2 years ago when I easily made $50 a month from sponsored posts. I also used to earn almost $200 a month writing for a blog network called 451 Press, but they laid us all off suddenly last month. I had been doing that for 2 years and was a big let down, especially since they kept the blogs up, but took our names ff of them so I cannot ven use for portfolio. At least now I have more time to focus on my own blogs and traffic has really increased to my gaming one because of that.

j - Frugal Mom - r. Sep 5, 2009, 10:59pm EDT

You really are a pro at this Kjersti. I'm sorry to hear that the blog network laid everyone off, that must have come as a surprise.

j - Frugal Mom - r. Sep 5, 2009, 10:59pm EDT

BTW can you have the PayPerPost, SocialSpark and adsense on the same blog?

Kjersti W. Sep 5, 2009, 11:12pm EDT

Yes, you can se then all on the same blog. PayPerPost is a little harder to get accepted for, but I think anyone can sign up for SocialSpark and there is usually some CPC and affiliate opps although the posts are few and far between for me. However it really depends on the blog category.

j - Frugal Mom - r. Sep 6, 2009, 7:06am EDT

Thanks Kjersti, I'll have to take a look at those two sites.

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Dagmara H. Sep 5, 2009, 10:13pm EDT

I keep my gathering for myself. I don't like to share things about myself, I am very private, shy person so no one really knows I on the Gather. Only my husband would sometimes brag about me earning some gift cards , so that's the only time I share with a people, when they need help finding the right website where to earn extra $$$.

j - Frugal Mom - r. Sep 5, 2009, 10:58pm EDT

I know what you are saying Dagmara, I have had to change my gathering up a bit, since my family and friends found out about it:) Now, it is no longer "my" gather.

I don't do facebook, twitter etc. because I do not want my "real" name or my family's name out there in cyberspace.

Lune Wolfsong Sep 6, 2009, 7:20am EDT

J - I don't put my real name or my family's name out there either, but use facebook, twitter, and similar sites using my online name (the same one as here). It does still work that way. I use facebook a lot less, but pick up twitter followers who I know from various sites, and new ones who are either hoping I'll follow them in return or searching for the topics I tweet about. It can definitely be done while preserving your privacy.

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Mrslisae Photography E. Sep 6, 2009, 12:48am EDT

I link it to redgage and twitter it..hard to keep private and promote...I wouldn't know what to tell you there

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Sue * Sep 6, 2009, 12:41pm EDT

I'm just leaving a comment so I can find this and come back. Too much information here for me to take in right now.

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CyberGwen ! Sep 6, 2009, 6:00pm EDT

I use twitter and don't have my name attached to it. Since I was starting it to drive traffic to Murphy Grace Home, that is the name I use.

I think that the biggest help in getting the word out has been by joining in blog carnivals. There is one called Works for Me Wednesday at, I think, 5 Minutes for Mom that some of your posts would really fit in.

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