Everyone of us start with small steps. Everyone of us needs a helping hand. Everyone of those Adsense Gurus had someone help them start their online empires. And everyone of us could use a blogger friend.
One of those helpful bloggers and which I am privileged to interview is “Berry” (am not revealing the name, I do not have permission to do so hehe). And as her nickname implies, she is berry berry helpful as mentioned by Gumer!
As Gumer testifies, Berry has helped him a lot in taking the first step to making an internet blogging empire. Naturally then, we would want to know more about Berry and that is what we are going to look into now so grab a beer (or whatever you fancy drinking…) and read how our interview went below…
Paolo: So thank you Berry for accepting this interview, so how are you doing?
Berry: Right now, I want to say that I’m okay. Dizzy for these past few days, but still doing fine I guess.
Paolo: How long have you been blogging?
Berry: I started my blog about December 2005. It’s a private blog that only a good friend knows about it. Until something bad happened to me on November 2007. I was pregnant and I bleed. I had to stop working for a few months. But I need money, even extra money online. I was searching for PPC (pay per click) opportunities. Instead, I saw PPP on Google. Lucky me! So It’s December 2008 that I started my very
first public blog that earns money from blogging. It’s the http://www.berryblog.net/
Paolo: Other than blogging, what do you do? Do you have a full-time job?
Berry: I am a programmer. I work Mondays to Saturdays, 9:30am to 6:30pm. But I usually arrive super late at around 10:00am to 11:30am, and I work for around 9 to 11 hrs a day.
Paolo: Do you have any plans to taking this online earning venture to the next level (full-time)?
Berry: I would want to. But right now, my online earnings went down. But I’m trying some things experimenting) to earn more. It’s not easy to earn online. I think I’m not as good as others. But I try. I also do PTC. I’m earning more and more cents on it because of referrals. If I can earn a little here and a little there, some here and a few more on online opportunities, it wouldn’t be bad to leave my job and be serious on what I do online. I’m not so serious on the online money making right now. It’s still considered “extra money”, and if only I have extra time and strength, then I can check on my blogs and sites and earn more.
But with my current situation with my job, plus me taking care of my baby, and some more errands, I want to quit my job.
Paolo: How long did it take for you to earn $100 in Adsense?
Berry: Hmmm… I got this anime site. Mind if I share it? It’s http://www.kaitousainttail.com/ and it’s my first website. I just got my own domain for that site. It’s previously hosted free on Geocities. And we know that Geocities is shutting it’s free hosting. That site is running since year 2000. I first installed my very first Adsense code on year 2003 on that anime site. I thought that it’s that easy to just put the code and earn. I’m wrong. So I just leave it there. Until I created my public blog. And on year 2008, about March I think, I got serious with earning on Adsense. After about 14 months, I earned my first $100 in Adsense. I’m slowly learning and experimenting on ad placements. And I know, I should learn SEO. I’m starting to learn a little.
(Ok now to the meaty part of the interview)
Paolo: No need to give the exact figures but how many digits of income do you earn from Adsense(dollars/peso)?
Berry: Sad to say, I only earn a digit per month. I still need to learn SEO.
Paolo: How many blogs do you have to create that income?
Berry: Only three blogs.
Paolo: Is the profit shared evenly between the blogs? Or is there a main blog that you get the majority of your income?
Berry: My main blog that is Berry Blog got the most earnings on Adsense. I also earn from sponsored posts there the most.
Paolo: As Gumer’s ‘mentor’, can we know what tip you gave him when he first started?
Berry: Err, I guess he’s good at gasping things that he reads. I share where I earn money online on my blog. I share how I got an Union Bank Eon Card after I got mine. I share a few tips on my blogs on earning money online. Gumer happens to be a newbie on those. I am happy he learned from my posts. I guess I’m one of those blogs he’s got into checking about earning money through blogging.
Paolo: For those starting to blog, what niche do you recommend them take?
Berry: Go with what you are good at. If you are good at Computer Graphics, you can share your knowledge online through your blog. One thing I had learned, your personal blog is a “personal blog”. Don’t put personal or unrelated posts on a blog with a certain topic theme. It’s also best to have a certain topic interest for each of your blogs.
Paolo: How do you look for a profitable niche?
Berry: Hmmm… I’m not sure. Right now, I do want I love, and that is blogging. I’m just lucky I can earn through blogging. It’s like hitting two birds in one stone. But seriously, it is really difficult to earn a decent money from the Internet. One got to have patience. And I know, I still got a long way to learn more.
Paolo: Do you only do pure seo or do you use PPC as well?
Berry: I’m a newbie on SEO. I need to learn from Gumer =)
Paolo: So how many hours do you allot for SEO per day?
Berry: With my lifestyle, I don’t actually time to optimize my blogs. I did a little on my blogs. But as serious as other on SEO, I’m not there yet.
Paolo: When you say you do SEO, what exactly do you do? Or is this a secret =P?
Berry: I’m learning a few SEO, only the basics. If you search basic SEO on Google, those are what I do, like the h1 tag, the alt tag. Just only a few basic SEO. I should learn more.
Paolo: How do you optimize for a keyword?
Berry: But it as a title of the post =) Just make sure that your title is still reader-friendly.
Paolo: Do you think content is King?
Berry: Yes. And unique contents can increase visitors from search engines.
Paolo: To the newbies (like me), what do you think is the best step we can do to increase our Adsense incomes?
Berry: Hahaha I don’t think that you are a newbie. I am the newbie when it comes to SEO and Adsense money making. First, one got to experiment on the ads placement. Try to check other sites and see where others usually put their ads. Blend the color of the ads with your site. If blending doesn’t work, maybe your ads looks like an unclickable text, instead of a link. Try to experiment. And to know which of the ads
got more clicks than the others, add channels on Adsense. Link each of your ads on the Adsense set up with a unique channel. Just imagine that the channels are simply like names. You would be informed which of the ads got clicked. Like what channel got clicked a certain number of times.
Paolo: What mistakes do you often see newbies doing in their Adsense campaigns?
Berry: I’m not sure if this is a mistake, but I often see blogs with the Adsense ads placed under the title “Sponsor Ads” or “My Sponsors”
Paolo: Who is your Adsense mentor? Do you have one?
Berry: I got no one to teach me. Hopefully next time, I would learn the right way of optimization and Adsense
Paolo: How about Infolinks, how did you come to know about it?
Berry: I had heard about it before. But I still hadn’t registered for it..
Paolo: I often see a lot of newbies get discouraged quite easily when they only see cents in their daily earnings, what message do you have for them?
Berry: Everything starts with a cent. I see a lot of people who thought earning online was as simple as that. Those cents would one day become a $100 just like my situation =)
Paolo: Would you like to thank anyone for helping you when you were a newbie before?
Berry: I got none to thank when I was a newbie. But now, I would like to thank Gumer of http://www.technotechniques.com/ and Gem of http://www.theladyprogrammer.com/ for sharing their tips.
Paolo: Any additional tips for anyone wanting to earn an income online?
Berry: Be patient. Do some simple research. And try to read other people’s tips on online money making. And also, be careful of scams. Try to search first if the one you are eyeing on is a scam site.
