Using this space

It has been a while since I posted anything on this. Am going to re-start using this space to store notes for myself However if you want to read more regular posting do hop on over to - Dominique's Desk

Do hop on over to Dominique's Desk

If you are over here because I've used my blogger profile to comment on your site do hop over to my main site- Dominique's Desk  I've only use this blog to post on  selected topics and will not be updating it.

Regards,
Dominique

August Updates for Dominique's Desk

It has been about six months since I have implemented changes to the main blog- Dominique's Desk. There has been an increase in revenue as I've managed to secure some big  paying campaigns which last about 6 months each.

1. AdvertisingIve started using Nuffang ads after having shelved using that for a couple of years. The payout has been much better then Google Adsense as I've waiting for my first $50 cheque from them after cashing out in July. It took me 2 yrs just to accumulate $100 with Adsense.
   
2. Guest PostingI'm still doing guest posting over at different sites and it has helped to keep my alexa ranking quite steady. I've yet to go back to hubpages and hope to do a hubpage or two for August.
   
3. Sponsored posting/advertorials
   I'm doing more local campaigns then overseas one as the US market is currently still very bad. Certain advertising networks have zero sponsored posting opportunities. The local campaigns have been paying well and I have managed to purchase my DLSR camera much earlier then targeted. I'm quite certain by the end of the year I may even have some extra for new lenses for the camera.

I'm hoping to increase m PR ranking from a 2 to 3 at least but it hasn't been easy. I'm still working hard on it. Hopefully in time to come the PR ranking will increase to where I would like it to be.

Setting up a schedule

Over at Dominique's Desk I've been experimenting with a few different things.

1. Advertising
   I've put up some advertising slots on my sidebar and am reaching out to advertisers/sponsors. Hopefully everything will be running smoothly and recurrent income generated from it from March.
   
2. Guest postingI'm doing more guest posting on other sites and have accepted guest post on my blog. It has helped increase traffic tremendously and has reduced my ALEXA score tremendously.. now I'm hoping that in the long run it will increase my PR ranking too and bring in some long term clients. I'm averaging doing 3 guest post a month and have 3 guest post on my blog a month.
    
3. Sponsored reviews
   Jan has been good with a couple of reviews done for various companies. I've dropped all companies which have required do-follow links so Opps were not as many in Feb. Hope in days to come there will be more opps for me and add to my DSLR funding.

Building up Revenue

Since my last post here I've been signing up with many different ad networks and trying out new ways of generating revenue via the blog. 

Google Adsense hasn't been bringing it much money with the odd dollar here and there each month. I have yet to reach the $100 payout. The last payout I had was in 2010 and that's nearly 2 years ago!!

So far sponsored reviews have been getting me the most ROI for the amount of time spend online. I intend to pursue this further and generate a steady source of monthly income.

I'm too seeing if I will be able to branch out again and do some ghost writing or freelance writing I settle my schedule.

My take on Guest Posting~ A Lesson Learned

I've always been in favour to do guest posting on other's site in bid to increase the visibility of my site - Dominique's Desk.  A few months ago I jumped at the opportunity to do a guest post on a fellow high ranking parenting site.
In my haste to get the post settled and handed up on time I neglect to find out in detail the exact details as in when the post would go live and how my bio would be shown in the post.

I did e-mail the blog's administrator and asked her when she will be posting my post but she never did get back to me. A few month's later after I revisited her site looking for the guest posts I was surprised to see that the post went live a few days after I submitted it to her but there was no indication or byline to state that I was the guest blogger and a link back to my site.

Initially I was rather annoyed as it seems like she was "ripping me off" as she seems to be posting the article that I wrote as hers and no indication that it is a guest post besides being filed under the category guest post.

If it was a sponsored guest post then having a byline wouldn't be an issue as she would have then paid to use it but the fact that it wasn't.

It's not the first time that I have guest post for other sites and on all occasions prior to this I had my bio and a link back to my site stated on the article.

I sincerely hope that  it was an oversight on the site's owner's part and not a deliberate attempt to not give me my due credit.

Looking back at this episode. I learned that I should have done the following

1. Clarify with her exactly when the post will go live and how it would be published together with credits for me before actually submitting the post to her.
2. Find out about if it is necessary for me to answer the commenter's who post comments to that article. ( I did answer some of the questions asked in the comments section.
3. Drop direct links to my site within the article and not  just rely on putting the link to my site in the author's bio box. 
4. Write a post on my site to go live on the same day that the guest post is published to state that I'm over at that site with my post today and link to it..

Well... now I know better. 

Building Revenue

As you know my main site is at Dominique's Desk I'm been thinking of how best to build up revenue through  google AdSense. I've been reading about how people are able to cash out $100 a month and it seem like it's so easy to earn from a  CPM network. I'm earning a rather dismissal amount and it's taking like forever to reach the $100 before I can cash out.
I would certainly prefer a more regular income and even get some long term sponsors but am still loss at how to seek them out. I guess for now I'll be sticking to Adsense till something better turns up.