Happy Friday everyone. Yesterday’s video about why you fail was a big hit. I’m thinking that I’ll do more motivational stuff like that in the future. Today, however, I’ve got a guest interview.

If you’re at all into the business of online advertising, or “making money online”, like I am, you should watch this video interview (below) with Michael Buechele of 11|15 Media. We talk about how to find a niche and where to look for industry trends, and Mike gives his top picks for ad networks. If you want more of Mike, listen to him on Sam’s Affiliate Fortune Cookies podcast. The guy gets around eh?

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Also watch at:
Metacafe, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, Veoh and Viddler.

If you want to make money online as a publisher, then one of the best ways to do it is to build a “ask the expert” site. In today’s Daily Flip (video below) I talk about why ask the expert sites work, and how they make money. I also give examples of expert sites you can visit to learn how it’s done.

In the video below I reference a presentation (Good to Great, Blogging & Profit Potential) I did that talks about how to make money online. You can download that presentation by clicking here. As a matter of fact, I need to redo that presentation into an audio/video recreation. I will do that in the next few weeks.

The bottom line is, Google LOVES highly-relevant expert-type niche information. Which means that Google will value those sites higher and give them preference in organic search results.

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Referenced in this video.
AsktheBuilder.com
AskDaveTaylor.com
AsktheBlogger.com
Read/Write Web article about expert sites
List of tutorial sites

Also watch at:
YouTube, Google, DailyMotion, Veoh and Viddler.

Ever wanted to run ads on your blog, but you don’t know how? Most likely you’re not a marketer, and you’re not technical, but… you’re a blogger that wants to make a few bucks by putting ads on your blog. Previously there wasn’t an easy way to serve and sell ads on your blog. Not anymore.

I talk with Mark from ShowYourAdHere.com, which is a self-publishing ad tool that anyone with a website or blog can use to sell and manage ads. You could also put up a nice fancy tip jar too. :)

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Did you know that YouTube offers a partner program that you can apply to join? If you become a partner you get special features like being able to modify your YouTube channel page with custom graphics and colors. You’ll also be able to share in the profits on advertisements that YouTube serves on your videos. Watch the video below for more details, and hey, subscribe to my YouTube channel page.

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Also watch at:
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It’s finally ready for eyeballs. In case you are new to my blog, you’ve heard me talk about my new online system called ScratchBack.com for months and months. Well, it’s finally open and ready for you to try it. Register for free and give it a run.

You can see a live TopSpot widget in action on the left of this page under my logo. Go ahead and tip me $1.00 for a place in my top spots!

I’ll be blogging about SB mostly over at the ScratchBack blog, so rather than me writing a giant blog post about it here, I’d much rather let you listen to what others have been saying about it.

Here’s a video that Shawn Collins did about it. He’s running the TopSpot widget over at the Affiliate Tip blog.

I’m not making it up. Darren, and a bunch of his commenters, say it loud and clear. Bold emphasis is mine.

I’ve been running it in a ’split test’ with Chitika ads in one position (ie 50% of the time I display a Chitika ad unit and 50% a WidgetBucks unit) and to this point the WidgetBucks ad is earning more on a CPM basis than the Chitika unit (it’s still early days on that test though). The CTR is higher on the WidgetBucks ad but the click value is higher on the Chitika ads.

I’ve also done split tests with AdSense and found that WidgetBucks out performed them also.

As a result of all this – I’m earning more with WidgetBucks than I would have with ads in the same positions as with either Chitika and AdSense (and considering that they are my two biggest earners that’s pretty good).

Wow, that’s amazing to hear and great news for my friends at Mpire. Congrats guys! More about high performance over at my buddy Zac’s super affiliate blog.

Today Adbrite has unleashed a new full-page ad feature. Here’s a sample.

The Full Page Ad replaces our previous Active Interstitial product and now enables brand advertisers to bring the same kind of full page advertising seen on newspapers and magazines over to websites… We believe that the Full Page Ad will take online advertising to new heights.

Sometimes I really wonder if some companies really understand online readers or the online ad model? No offense Adbrite, I am a fan of your services in the past, but this move is way off the reservation. Who exactly is this for? What publisher in your space is going to use this? I don’t get it.

Adbrite is a company I have kept a close eye on because I thought they had potential, but they’ve never delivered the knock-out blow with any kind of creative or solution that truly differentiated or solved problems for publishers/advertisers. The InVideo thing was about as close as they got to that, and still may pan out. But full page ads?

Where’s the innovation in the online ad space? Why are companies so focused on selling “ads” and “making money online” when they should be focused on other things like better user experiences and fun?

If you’re using this full page ad system, and it works, tell me and prove me wrong. I’d be more than happy to eat this blog post.

I think I need to do a series of blog posts about the players in the online ad space. In my spare time!

It seems that finally everyone is starting to come clean about making money with blogs. The reality is that I’ve known for years is that most people can’t make a living off of a blog, and will never be able to. But because there are so many “make money online” sites out there nowadays, there seems to be some perpetual brand growth that everyone can make this professional blogging thing work monetarily.

It just isn’t true. This is hard, hard work.

Look, I’m not saying don’t try, because you CAN do it. I’m saying that most of you won’t get there (making a ton of cash off ads), that’s all.

Look at what Henry Copeland said this week. Henry is the CEO of Blogads.com, the first blog ad system from years and years ago.

…Only “dozens” of the 1,500 sites he works with can can sustain their sites solely with ad revenues.

Wow, if that isn’t social proof that I’m right, what is? Dozens of sites out of 1,500 make enough income to sustain solely with ad revenues?

I hate to preach, but c’mon, we all know this to be true as I’ve been saying for about 3-4 years now…

I wonder if anyone will have a solution to this problem soon??? Hmmm….

Game on for video publishers. There is officially no reason to not get into the video business. In another HUGE move by GoogTube, they have announced that they’ll begin showing videos as ad on “other” websites. What does this mean? Let’s examine it.

With the new twist, websites participating in AdSense now can sign up to specify the kinds of YouTube videos they want shown on their pages. A website focused on automobiles, for instance, might want to display YouTube videos about cars and other vehicles.

Why is this big bucks for YouTube partners? Because imagine this. If you are a selected partner, and you have let’s say 100 high-quality videos about auto repair, all kinds of car sites can now choose to put an Adsense formatted video ad in their sites, distributing your video to possibly millions and millions of their viewers.

Do the math. Let’s say you have hundreds of videos in a niche and you’re one of only a handful of trusted partners of YouTube. Your videos have the potential to be pushed to thousands and thousands of websites instantly, of which you share in the profit of the ads with the website publisher.

Take a YouTube partner like Tim Carter of Askthebuilder.com. How many home improvement websites are out there now? 100,000 or more, right? Probably. His videos can now be served to all of those websites (if they choose it). So now Tim has to only focus on creating high-quality videos, and YouTube will distribute them over, and over and over and give him his cut.

Read/Write Web is right…

It’s a simple story, but if it is true it is going to blow the world of online video and advertising wide open.

It’s true, and it WILL blow the doors off the video industry.

Start making those videos, and figuring out how you’re going to get on the YouTube publisher/partner list. I can already tell you how to do it.

Make high-quality videos. That’s it. Make a lot of them.

More at Techmeme.

I really don’t want to keep harping on Blogrush. I don’t hate it at all, and I’m not trying to scare anyone… I just think it won’t work for the majority of my low-traffic blogging brethren.

Time will tell. But rather than keeping bitching about my opinion of it, I’d rather help you, the low-traffic blogger who isn’t making any buck with your blog, with a few better ways/ideas to make some money with your blog.

Here’s my first idea, put to you in steps you can/should follow. Give it a try and let me know how it goes. In my opinion, this is a much better use of your prime real estate to generate profit for you down the road.

The problem for you? You have a low-traffic blog. You’re not a marketer, or do you wish to be one. You just know you like blogging and you wish that you could make a few extra bucks a month from your efforts. You’ve tried Adsense, didn’t work. You’ve tried Chitika, didn’t work. You’ve tried them all, they didn’t work. So you thought, “why don’t I sell some ads on my blog?” But you don’t know how to do that because you’re not a marketer. Plus, you have hardly any readers, so why would anyone want to buy an ad on your blog? So what do you do?

Step 1 To Selling Ads On Your Blog: Make Some Room!
The first thing you have to do is make some space on your blog for some ads. I suggest you work 2-4 ad spots into the top of one of your sidebars. Pick a standard ad unit like 125×125 and reserve that space on your blog for those ads.

Step 2 To Selling Ads On Your Blog: Explain Yourself!
Now build a page on your blog discussing ad rates. Make sure to include your monthly traffic stats (even if they are low) and also write a paragraph about what your blog is and why people like to read it, and who those people are. Advertisers want to know who they are reaching.

Step 3 To Selling Ads On Your Blog: Track Advertisers Down!
The next step then is to identify some advertisers to pursue. Go to the more popular blogs in your niche and see who is advertising there. For example, if I wrote a tech blog, I would go over to Techcrunch.com and see who is buying ads there. Make a list of the top 10 companies to contact.

Step 4 To Selling Ads On Your Blog: Pitch Them!
Send an email, or phone call if you can, to those companies telling them you’re giving away a free banner ad on your blog for 3 months. All they have to do is send you a 125×125 banner and you’ll post it up for free. Send them your ad rates page and explain to them that you’re simply trying to get noticed and that your blog is a good target for their potential customers. Be honest with them. Let them know that you’re giving them the free ad in hopes that in months time they’ll be interested in buying an ad from you, but will not be required.

Step 5 To Selling Ads On Your Blog: Report & Track!
Now hopefully you’ve gotten some advertisers to take you up on your offer. Set their banner ads up and closely monitor how many clicks and impressions they are getting from your blog. At the end of every month, send a quick note to the advertiser letting them know how the free ad is doing. Make sure you’re using a tracking program if you can, like Openads.com which is free, but kinda complex to setup. Not totally necessary to use, but helpful.

Step 6 To Selling Ads On Your Blog: Close Them!
At the end of the 3-month free ad, or right before the end, send your advertiser a summary report. Make your case. Ask them if they’d be interested in purchasing that spot now on your blog for a very low rate. Make it $100/month or something, whatever. Even if only one of them goes for it, you’re now making $1200 a year more than you were before.

Summary: This, in my opinion, is a much better use of your prime real estate than something like Blogrush, and is hardly any work really. Give it a try.