Most new bloggers have heard of the importance of search engine optimization (SEO), but not as many understand the how and why of it.

I’ve been studying this topic for some time now. Although I am no expert, I do understand how important it is to get it right. Nick La of Web Designer Wall does have an expertise in SEO for web designers. He has posted a great SEO guide called SEO Guide for Designers. This guide not only explains why you should learn about SEO, but it also explains the basics of SEO and includes a list of 9 SEO mistakes made by designers and developers.

I recommend reading this post for those of you getting interested in SEO and wanting to understand it better. As Nick points out, often a large percentage of your blog’s traffic is coming from search engines (one of his sites receives 40-45% of its traffic from search engines).

EntreCard has changed the way they determine their pricing.

The new model seems to double the pricing for a blog each time someone purchases an ad. But it also seems to cut the price in half for each day that no one buys an ad. It’s a crazy scheme, and I’m not sure that it’s a good solution to the problems of EntreCard’s previous model.

As a result, John Chow has accumulated over 18,000 credits. So he’s running a contest to give away 10,000 EntreCard credits. That’s a lot of currency in the EntreCard world.

I’m in.

I am continually surprised by John Chow.

I’ve already expressed my awe for his ability to take random pictures of the food he eats and post them on his site. His readers eat it up! Amazing. I did this little parody of pictures of food.

Well, now he’s discovered video. And, in a similar fashion, he gives us random video snippets of what seems like anything that pops into his head.

I find this humorous and amazing at the same time. So, I’ve decided to take his cue and begin a little video series based on spoofing John Chow’s videos. I will call this series Random Video Chow.

This first episode is a parody of this John Chow video.

Enjoy.

This is the debate forming in my head now.

It seems there are plenty of online models where content is given away free (or for the price of one’s email address) in order to drive traffic to the site and thus sell advertising. Up until very recently, I figured that this was a sound online business model. After all, John Chow gives away his Make Money Online ebook for free, and he ain’t doing too shabby. Of course, that guy is a marketing juggernaut and would probably be doing just as well even if he didn’t offer the ebook. Hell, the guy makes several posts a month that are simply pictures and descriptions of the food that he eats (see my spoof). You’ve got to have a pretty solid marketing and advertising machine already in place to get away with that.

So I’m beginning to wonder about this giving away free content model.

I’m beginning to think charging for the content I create (I’m talking about ebooks and other multimedia content; not blog posts) may be more profitable than using free content to drive traffic to my site. There is something to be said for perceived value. Generally speaking, folks are going to figure that they’re getting a value approximate to what they’ve paid. Getting something for free can diminish the perceived value of content that may, in fact, be very valuable. Granted, charging way too much for something will also backfire.

This seems especially true when you begin to think of content in forms other than the typical PDF eBook. For example, podcasts or video training material. The potential for using the viral effects of a well-done video tutorial is huge. Why not charge for it, and make some money on the front end. But make it good (very good) so folks begin to tell each other about it. Even if your material is copied and given to non-paying folks, you’ve achieved some level of viral distribution. If you brand your material well, you at least drive traffic to your site.

And who knows, you may end up making more money by charging for the content than you do on advertising revenue from your site.

Well, it’s happened to me.

In my zeal to take the new WordPress 2.5 out for a spin, I threw caution to the wind and did the upgrade without bothering to first backup my blog’s database. Big mistake. I’ve spent the last several hours attempting to retrieve previous posts from Google’s cached pages. That’s really not how I envisioned spending the last few hours. Fortunately, I was able to bring back most of the lost posts. Unfortunately, I did not retrieve the great comments you folks left on these posts. For that, I apologize.

On a happier note, the new WordPress 2.5 looks great. The new interface is fantastic. Apparently, the WP team consulted with Jeffrey Zeldman (of A List Apart fame) and others to come up with a beautiful and workable interface. Some of the notable features: customizable dashboard, built in galleries, tag management, multi-file uploads, and full text feeds. I could be imagining it, but it also feels faster. It’s a release candidate 1 (RC1), so it’s not officially considered a stable version.

I recommend checking out this new release. But for your own sake, please backup before upgrading.

I’m back after some reflection.

I’ve been looking carefully at several online marketing trends and schemes. It is both a fascinating and perplexing landscape. Some patterns are beginning to emerge.

I’ve been using EntreCard now for about 2 months. At first, I was excited about the “new paradigm” it offered and quite eager to make it work for my blogs. I diligently dropped cards and spent credits. I read several blogs proclaiming to have the “secret” to EntreCard success. I noted the common strategies like “Drop 300 cards a day, and buy cheaply on the Recent tab.” Or, “send an email to everyone who drops a card on your site, thanking them and inviting them to come back.”

And then there are the “meme nazis” who have the pyramid-scheme approach to EntreCard advancement.

In the end, what I realize is that EntreCard is mostly hype now. Sure, it can produce some impressive traffic if you are willing to spend some time working the system. However, that traffic comes quickly, and leaves just as quickly. The spikes are equally impressive for the steepness on both the front and back ends.

Early on, my goal on EntreCard was to get to the top tier in my category: Make Money Online. This is a category I share with the venerable John Chow. At my best, I made it to the first position on the second tier. I could never quite get to that top row. And I worked hard to get to that second tier.

I no longer work so hard on EntreCard, and my site traffic hasn’t really suffered. I’m realizing that it may not be worth all the card-dropping work. Even John Chow seems to have let his position slip:

I think John has realized that the EntreCard system has its flaws.

EntreCard can help your blog gain some traffic. But until the system corrects some very real problems about how credits are earned and spent, don’t put too much investment in this young online model. Keep to the basics of creating good content, and networking with fellow bloggers.

I’ve been blogging here for less than two months.

So, what have I learned so far about this thing we call the “blogosphere?” Well, the most important thing I’ve learned so far is that this is a very dynamic environment. The “rules” are changing at an accelerated rate. This is a realm where one must remain very alert if one is to succeed.

I know this, not because I have been particularly successful and made boat-loads of money. Because I haven’t yet. My earnings are meager. OK, in the interest of full-disclosure, I must be painfully honest here. My earnings have been dismal. Since I’ve started this blog on December 8th, 2007, I’ve made (on paper) a grand total of $37.48. I say “on paper” because several of my affiliate programs don’t actually pay out until I reach a milestone (typically $25.00). So, until I get to that milestone, I won’t actually see a dime.

I’m guessing that many of you are in a similar situation, and thinking “What do I gotta do to make this thing work?”

I wish I could give you the short and sweet answer now. I can’t. I’m still learning myself.

A few days ago, I saw a huge spike in my traffic. I went from around 400 unique visitors in a day to a monumental 11,000 vistors. Holy crap! I’ve hit the big time. Let’s get those brochures out for the 2009 Prius ’cause my gravy train has just come in. Then, the very next day, I’m back down in the 600 range. What the hell?

Google Analytics, that beacon of online reality, painted the picture for me. Apparently, someone StumbledUpon me and spiked my traffic. But these social-networking folks are a fickle crowd. They come once and leave. Like passing a heinous traffic accident, they slow just enough to catch a glimpse, but move right along. They create a bottle-neck that prompts your hosting service to send an email suggesting that you upgrade to the premium service to handle the increased traffic.

Life is cruel.

So, after less than two months at this game, the newbie (me) has only one (multi-part) piece of advice: Create real value in the posts you write. Put your heart, soul, and mind into your posts. Develop your own collaborative community and freely share your insights. Realize that there is great power in collaboration, and that success is attainable by all in such a rich learning environment.

If you think very carefully about it, there is no reason for us to wish to be in a world where some have, and others have not. Share your ideas, success stories, and failures so we can all figure this thing out. After all, isn’t that why we blog to begin with?

Well, it has finally happened.

Sooner or later, someone was bound to turn the EntreCard credit into cash. The folks over at Entrecash.com have done it. They claim to be buying and selling EntreCard credits for dollars (USD). I had heard some rumblings about folks on eBay trying this out, but this is the first site I’ve seen dedicated only to the exchange of EntreCard credits for legal tender.

I have no idea how they determine the going rate. Nor do I know if they ever actually buy EntreCard credits, because I have only seen the sale price listed. It will be interesting to see what happens with this concept. There are a myriad of issues around this, not the least of which is the issue of oversight.

All I can say at this point is: Buyer Beware!

Presumably, John Chow makes a lot of money from his blog.

But I’ve noticed that many of his posts are about what he eats, with pictures. What the hell?

He goes to some Vancouver restaurant and takes pictures of his meals and posts them on his blog and makes a freakin’ fortune every month. Is this what happens when you have such a following that it really makes no difference what you post, because people will read and follow no matter what?

So, for my little tribute to the “JC Effect” I’m offering my last meal for your review. I can’t afford to go to the 5-star establishments that John Chow frequents, but I can offer pictures of what I sit down to most nights. Here we go…

We’ll start with a lovely little cheese platter with a delicious ketchup drizzle:

Next, a light chicken salad a la créme and fork:

And for dessert, a fresh citrus duo, served al fresco:

I highly recommend this establishment and will come again soon.

Mashups are cool and powerful.

There have been a number of interesting articles about the notion of using the “Web 2.0″ technology to create affiliate mashups. The idea here is to create a page that brings together similar products from various affiliate sources into one page. For example, a common affiliate mashup now uses YouTube, Amazon, and eBay as sources. Mark Wielgus over at 45n5 has a post (with video) about this type of mashup.

The idea of a mashup is to create “new” content by creatively combining multiple occurrences of existing content. When you combine that with idea of online marketing of a product or service, it becomes very interesting and potentially quite lucrative. I will be experimenting with this concept over the next few months, and will report back here any notable highlights.

But my idea for a mashup for bloggers is on the backend. I want a mashup to help me manage the 10 or so affiliate sites that I must log into in order to see my daily stats and earnings. Why not have a mashup that lets me see these affiliate account summaries all in one place at one time? This would let me have a great overview about how each were doing. I could compare performances and earnings. I could weigh various campaigns against each other and see which were doing well.

I haven’t seen this yet on the web. Have you? All of you programmers out there, consider how many other bloggers are in the same situation as I, and would be willing to pay for an elegant solution.