Higher Money

Well tomorrow I am back to school. My posting will probably slow down since I am away for most of the days of the week. I definitely not looking forward to it. I will quickly run through why I don’t want to go back to school:

1. Accomplished all which I require - My grades last term are easily good enough for pretty much all university courses.
2. Getting up early - I got up at 2pm today and that will soon change to 7 am.
3. Being in classes with younger people. One of my classes would be with about half the class from a year below, most of which are neds (pugnacious ignoramuses).
4. Stupid, uncomfortable clothes -I wear baggy shorts and a t-shirt if im not at school. At school that transforms into a shirt, tie, blazer and suit trousers.
5. Takes up my time which I could be using for more beneficial purposes.

Since I have compiled the list I think I should instead seek employment. Internet is not an option as my parents would object. I am reasonably open minded about work so will have a look for a job. Hopefully it will be a job where my internet experience comes in use. All suggestions are welcome. I live in Scotland by the way.  Any of you readers want to add me to facebook or bebo please find my profiles here (I don’t use them often but may start to):

Bebo - FaceBook

Well I don’t usually follow the page rank situation nowadays but I read a couple articles on other people’s blogs claiming the page rank update had been delayed because the way page rank works is o be changed. Supposedly the new “WebRank” will concentrate more on the content of the website.

The change is going to try to stop links being bought on sites purely for the page rank. Instead links will be bought on traffic details for the website. This means the page rank may show nothing on the google toolbar if the claims are correct. I am currently ignorant as to what the situation is. I will just be waiting to see what happens like the rest of you. It does however seem like a new revolution for the website development world. Instead of boosting our page rank we may be working out ways to fast track the system to get good webrank. All will hopefully be revealed soon. The article which I read can be found: at this website.

This is something I only recently started to do but already it seems to be increasing my earnings slightly.

Using ad filter to stop MFA and low paying websites.

MFA websites are a huge problem for some adsense earnings. If your clicks are getting paid a cent or just a few cents the ad is likely to be for an MFA site. MFA means - made for adsense. Basically they are auto generated websites packed with ads. They pay for ads on adwords for a cent. To stop the MFA website you will need to add the URLs to the competitive ad filter on the google adsense admin area. To get the URLs its best to download theadsense preview tool. You can use the tool to look at the ads displayed on your webpage and see which urls each ad is for.

To use the adsense preview tool you simple go to you website and right click on the page. Then select adsense preview tool. You can click the ads in the frame which pops up and see whether the site is a MFA website or not. You can tell if its an MFA website if its packed with ads and no high quality content. If they are click the box next to the ad then click show selected ads. You can then copy the URLs from there into your ad filter on google adsense admin. The result of blocking these websites should be an increase in CPM.

Using the ad filter to make the ads more relevant

To do this simply follow the same instructions as above but instead of selecting the websites which are MFA also select the ads which are for irrelevant things no related to your website’s content. For example: my other website was for website templates. I was getting ads for excel templates and family tree templates. These aren’t related to my website so I filtered them. Doing this should make your ads more relevant to what your readers and looking for and are therefore more likely to click them.

To get designing using photoshop you will need some resources to help you. I will quickly run through some different resources which will help you:

Tutorials

Great for people new to designing to get the basics. Also good for some new tricks which people use. Websites I recommend are www.good-tutorials.com and www.pixel2life.com.

Stock Photos/Images

Everyone needs good photos from time to time to use on their designs. Some good free ones which I use are: www.sxc.hu and www.deviantart.com.

Free Photoshop Brushes/Shapes/Patterns

These really do come in use when you are designing. You can download a variety of patterns/ brushes and custom shapes for photoshop. The place which I use for this is deviantart.com. You must check the details about each that you download as they are designed by users of the websites and sometimes require link backs.

Free Renders

Renders are images which have been cut so they have no background. Often people use renders of celebrities or characters from computer games. They really do come in use if you know how to use them. A nice site for free renders is www.planetrenders.net. There are also many more so just search around if you can’t find a render which you like from there.

This is a follow up to the get a paid domain post. If you are new to the internet, you read the previous post but still aren’t willing to spend any money then this one is for you. All you do is sign up to the website (free and no credit cards or details) complete a few tasks (only surveys/sign ups etc) for free and you have your own .com domain. The website:

You can also refer you friends to the website (like I am doing if you click the banner) to receive further points to go towards a free domain or ipod/gadget.  If you haven’t tried these websites or are still skeptical just test it out because this is the website I used to get my first domain: webmaster-files.com.  Also if you sign up using the banner link you are doing me a favor

The blog is developing nicely at the moment - at least in terms of traffic. Alexa has updates their graphs for the site and show how the traffic has grown since it was opened. At the moment I have been getting around 800-1000 uniques a day. This is good but requires a lot of work to maintain. I have recently been busy with different designing things but I hope to get back to writing some tutorials.

The rss reader count have also grown (shown on right column under buttons) which is encouraging to see. Part of the increase is also thanks to MrWonton I believe who prompted me to add the subscribe to the rss links under each article.

In terms of of revenue the website isn’t generating much at all (about $4 to date from adsense and nothing from textlinkads) but I hope this will improve. All revenue generated in currently profit since I have zero expenses for the site - which is great!

Well I have been working for a business doing some design work. I can choose to receive my payment via an agency which holds the money and handles any arbitrations. Its pretty much guaranteed to give you security so if you do the work you get paid. The only problem is sites like these charge 15%!!. The project I am working on is with a respectable business which I have worked for before and received $150. The new project is worth £600. If I go with one of the agency sites then I would lose £90 which seems a bit much. I then think I should just get it through paypal and lose less money.

On the other hand. If I use one of the sites I get positive feedback (hopefully) which could result in more work. I am also sure that I will get payment and any problems will be sorted out. Which one to go for? Security or money? I currently think paypal since I feel I can trust the people I am working for. What are your thoughts?

One of the websites which I use and am reffering to is: rentacoder.com

Well I have been working on a design for a company application lately and have been working for my biggest pay checks to date. When you are a designer or coder doing work for people on forums or contacting you from your portfolio you will be lucky to receive $150 dollar for your work. That is because there are lots of designers around and people are aware of this and take advantage.

My tip is to try to target businesses. People offline such as small businesses in your local area or people looking to set up a website for some reason are more likely to pay more. Another advantage of targeting people offline and businesses is also gaining a contact. Picking up contacts from people you work for can later pay dividends. You can also be referred by them to other businesses.

To make sure you are referred make sure you are professional in the manner you deal with your clients, you keep in contact with your client and you work to deadline. My latest project has taken up most of my time but I have recent secured more work with the same company.

I will post some tips to finding bigger business soon.

I have been working today on a new design for freecss.info. I have been working on a different style. A more old school template with fewer gradients. So far I have come up with the following. I will probably work on it a bit more tomorrow but I also need to get back to promoting and writing on this blog.

Preview

I am thinking of doing a redesign for my website freecss.info. My plans are to develop the site into wordpress and add a new section for css navigations. I also plan to release free wordpress themes from the site and some more css templates.

At the moment I can’t get a design for the new look which I am happy with. If you have any suggestions for the redesign please post a comment. I am finding it difficult because I want a design which implements adsense well and also something unique and colourful. I have been designing a lot of the day and its really beginning to bug me. When you get sick of designing its always best to have a break.

My favourie design which I think I am going to go with is: Preview Here.

Also in consideration was an unfinished concept: Preview Here.

Another design so far was: Preview Here 

Your opinions are welcomed and appreciated.