Building a Wiki Site
Last month I mentioned that I was looking into setting up a Wiki and that I had chosen MediaWiki to do so. Since then, I’ve set up my first wiki (it is a work in progress), a real estate wiki. The set up was really easy - like most scripts, the basic install just required setting up a php/mySQL database, a few configurations, and we were ready. Modifying the script and learning how to run and manage the wiki took a bit longer. I’m still feeling my way around, but I’m pleased with how it is turning out!

Creating My First eCommerce Website
Just to make things a bit more complex for myself, I’ve decided to create an ecommerce site - my first - as a complement to one of my other sites. I’ve made half-hearted attempts in the past to do this, but this time is different. After some initial research, I’ve narrowed my shopping cart script choices to OSCommerce and Zen Cart. I felt like they both had the largest support base and it appears like they are two of the most touted shopping cart solutions.

Now that I’ve got the initial first steps figure out, I’m totally lost when it comes to ecommerce. I’ve explored the forums at both Zen Cart and OS Commerce, and I’ve searched for tutorials / blogs that help walk you through setting up your own ecommerce site, but have failed to find anything halfway decent. If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know. Regardless, I will do my best to try and explain how to go about doing it, once I’ve got it figured out. Wish me luck!

While many of the experienced webmasters out there probably know about this, I wanted to share this with the newbies. There is a great plug-in for the Firefox browser that allows you to easily track your Google AdSense revenue without a lot of effort.

The Adsense Notifier simply shows your adsense stats on the status bar and will automatically update itself several times per hour. You get to see page impressions, number of clicks, click through rate (CTR), total revenue generated for the day and other information anytime you want, right in your browser. In addition, if you place the mouse over the Notifier stats, the tool will even show you when the next update will occur. If you’ve got several accounts with AdSense, the Notifier will show you the stats for the account which you logged into last.

I’ve found that this simple extension helps to keep me on task and stay a bit more productive, as I’m not out there logging in to Google every 20 minutes to see how well I’m doing for the day.

I found a great little tool earlier today on Modern Life is Rubbish, the AdCalc.

This simple tool allows publishers to calculate approximately they are getting paid per click. It will also let you “find out how much you’re making per week, month, and even per year - assuming your traffic remains steady and the bottom doesn’t fall out.”

The AdCalc is especially good for web publishers who run their own ad networks through programs like phpAdsNew. You can figure out what to charge your advertisers and give them better CTR, CPM numbers.

I’ve gone ahead and added this tool to our webmaster & blogger tools directory, ChartingyourWealth.com.

I just wanted to share a tool that I’ve known about for months, but just started to use. XML-Sitemaps offers both free and paid sitemap generation. I’ve tried the free service in the past, but it is limited by the number of pages it will crawl. On the other hand the paid unlimited service — for $14.99 — is fantastic. The software will provide XML and plain text sitemaps that you can submit to Google and Yahoo. If you’re looking to build a constantly updated sitemap for your website or blog, you should check these guys out.

It is funny how things work. I’ve been blogging for well over a year now, but I went crazy yesterday trying to figure out how to do the simplest thing to my new blog. I wanted to change the feed output from summary to full text, but for the life of me couldn’t figure out how. I looked online for almost an hour, but without success. After going back into my control panel, I had that aha moment, fixed it, and then kicked myself for being so oblivious.

Changing feed results from Summary to Full Text
This is a really easy process:

1. Log in to your WordPress administration page
2. Go to Options
3. Go to the sub-menu Reading
4. Under “Syndication Feeds” go to “For each article, show:” and select Full Text
5. Click on Update Options and you’re done!

Why make the change?
Now that I subscribe to well over 100 blog feeds, I don’t have as much time to read them all. While some claim that using a summary may be an incentive for people to actually visit the blog itself instead of the feed, I find that unless the article REALLY catches my eye, I’m going to move on. I’m more likely to go to and read an article that has a full text feed, because I can quickly scan it on my reader - there may be some interesting material that doesn’t make it to the summary that is a cause for reading the post.

The site that was promised to us from two influential people in the blogosphere, Andy Hagans of Text Link Ads and Aaron Wall of SEO Book, ReviewMe, is now live! The announcement came in a simple email:

“Hey Guys, Reviewme.com has launched. Go check it out now!
- Roy”

So what is all the excitement about the company?
Putting it simply, advertisers pay bloggers to get their products or services reviewed.

It is like product placement in the entertainment business . . . anytime you see a product that you recognize on TV or the movies, it was intentionally put there.

Bloggers who have better traffic will get paid more money then a blogger who is green - reviews start at $40 $20.

As Wall put it in his blog:

Four elements which will work nice in our network to filter out bad products and bad offers are

* bloggers will disclose their relationship with the advertiser
* bloggers only review things that are interested in
* we encourage brutal honesty
* the comment sections on popular blogs will help keep advertisers and bloggers honest

Fraudsters and advertisers with junk offers will not want to risk paying people to write reviews that may expose their business flaws. But, if you have a good product honest feedback and conversation about your business should only help you.

One of the greatest aspects of this new “network” is that there is no pressure from advertisers to make the reviews positive. The advertiser is relying on the viral buzz created by these reviews to get some attention.

It seems like a great idea for both the bloggers and the advertisers - there is definitely money-making potential here! I’m going to sign up as a blogger . . . I’ll let you all know how it goes.

If anyone is going to take you seriously as a blogger, you are going to have to have one key thing — your own domain name. While using sites like Blogger and Wordpress make it easy to blog, to put forward a professional appearance and have greater flexibility with your blog, you’re going to need to register the right name.

Before I cover that, lets look at the other steps you’ll need to take to get going.

Pick a Topic You’re Passionate About

Realize that blogging is a time intensive activity. While very addicting, it is easy to run out of material if you’re not passionate about what you’re writing about. With that in mind, it is important that you find a topic that you love. People are making money blogging about most anything you can think of, so narrow down your topic and find your niche.

Sit down and look at your hobbies, your interests, and those things that get you excited. If you can convey your sense of love of the topic, your readers will respond to that passion by coming back to your blog.

Pick a Domain Name

Now that you have a topic that you want to blog about, you need to pick a good name for your site. Since many of the easy domain names are probably taken by someone else, you’re going to need to do some work. In the past, I’ve used Register to do my searches, but I’ve found a site that is much easier and quicker to use, Instant Domain Search.

When picking domain names, I usually will play with words until I come up with something that is related to the topic I’m blogging about, which usually results in something quirky or obvious — like TimeforBlogging! I can’t speak for anyone else, but it usually takes me a few hours of brainstorming before I’ve found something I’m happy with.

Order Your Domain Name and Find a Host

Now that you’ve found a domain name, you’re going to need to register that name and find a host. For those of you that don’t know what a host is, it is a company that provides computers for you to keep your website on. Most hosts have packages that include domain registration, so you’re going to need to do some shopping around.

Starting out, you’re going to want to go with a shared hosting plan, which just means that your website is on the same computer server as other sites. Once your site grows, you may start to consider dedicated hosting, but I do not recommend this for beginners. For shared hosting, I have been very happy with the pricing, service, and uptime of LunarPages and Globat (both have great plans starting at $6.95/month).

It is Very Inexpensive to Start Out!
As you can see, it shouldn’t cost you more then $100 for a year of hosting and registration, so don’t let the costs stop you from moving forward. You can usually start uploading files to your new servers within a few hours, so get ready.

Find the Right Blogging Software to Power Your Blog
You’ve got your idea, domain, and host, and you’re ready to start blogging, but you first need to find the right software to power your blog. Without going into other packages, I recommend that you use Wordpress. It has practically become the industry standard, and for good reason.

It is extremely easy to set up, and there are tons of different ways you can modify the blog with this software. In addition, the software is secure and upgraded when needed. Since so many people use wordpress, there are many different skins that you can use to change the appearance of your blog. There are also many different plugins you can use to enhance your blog’s functionality.

Once you download and install your blogging software, you’re ready to start blogging for money. Of course, there is much more to cover, like where does the money come from and which plugins should I install, but we’ll cover those later.

Blog Passionately and Blog Often
This is it! You’ve taken things into your own hands and are now on your way to becoming a professional blogger. Get writing!