Blog updates

So I have decided to change my tactics with the Blog. I am trimming the ads and concentrating on initial impressions and improving content. The basic theory will be before I go on a huge promotional campaign, I want any visitor to get a good impression and valuable information so as to attract them back again.

I will worry about compensation after I get something resembling a readership.

More Expense Reductions

I moved away from my land line phone and DSL provider to Comcast. I got their Cable Internet and Cable TV package at $66.

I dropped our land line with DSL in favor of our cellphones.

Was:
Land line and DSL: $120/mo
Cable: $45/mo

Now:
Cable/Internet: $66/mo

We increased our cellphone plan to include international long distance and extra for an extra $30/mo to account for the extra dependence upon the cellphones.

Savings: $66/mo



In the Save a G game, I now need to reduce my costs by $918. Savings so far $82/Month.

Checking in with Google

It appears that in order for Google to find my new shiny Blog, I needed to register myself at the Google Webmaster Tools Section and verify my site.

I then added a sitemap by simply selecting "add" under the sitemap column, selecting "General Web Sitemap" from the dropdown and adding "atom.xml"

This enables the crawler to find my Blog and all the juicy search terms.

This is, I'm sure, is a big deal.

I also added my Blog to a syndication service called Blogrush. This, apparently, will send traffic to me. Some people seem cynical of that on the internets but we'll give it a shot. You can see the widget on the left side of the Blog.

Cheap Flights

I have to go on a flight to Europe. Have been checking around for the best airfares, here is what I found.

Since I was pretty much tied in by 2 factors, the time Feb 2008 and I have a 3 year old and no way I am not flying overnight when he is sleeping and I don't want to travel much longer than a direct flight would.

I checked all the usual sites (Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity etc.) but found the site with the suspect title of Cheapoair to be the best. The load times were very good on the site, decent control and the prices were the best but note that the final price is what you shop by (the fees and taxes are quite large)

Cheaper, not super cheap but $100-$200 with the options I needed.


One caveat, It had some suspect reviews online by some and great by others so I am hoping for a happy ending, not a sad tale.

UPDATE: A little more investigation found that Economytravel beat Cheapoair (These names inspire confidence, don't they) by over $100 for the same flights.

My First 46 Cents

Well folks, here it is ...

PENDING PAYMENTS FOR "NETWORK ADS"
Transaction Date	Total CPC	Your 75%	Payment Date	Number of Clicks
01/01/2008	$0.51	$0.38	Approximately on or after 03/01/2008	4 click(s) recorded
12/31/2007	$0.10	$0.08	Approximately on or after 02/29/2008	1 click(s) recorded
Total:	$0.61	$0.46	2 record(s) found

Adster came through with my first blog earnings. I just got Adsense set up fully yesterday so I am not saying Adster won but I will say it is delivering with less than optimal (at least per the online experts) placement. I have some concerns about the ad matching that adsense is doing to my core topics but it is getting prime placement so we will soon see.

The reason this is significant is that I have done little to create heavy promotion or optimization of advertising. This blog is effectively a baby with little useful content or linking to it. I might be on to something here.

"Creating a new Blog" topic has dominated a little lately but that is just while I implement the core subject of the Blog which is improving your finances. Real content should be showing up with some real results to promote over the coming month. That said, it may be very valid if it can produce new income at some considerable level (say $300 a month to start).

Starting Some Expense Reductions ...

I am attacking my utilities and phone bills first.

I will be moving to energy efficient light bulbs and fixing a few draughts in my apartment and watch my bill.

On the phone side, I will be evaluating Fring to see if it can dramatically reduce the phone bills and remove the need for a land line. We use the land line for international rates.

Not much to report until the first bills come in.

More Blog Promotional Activity

I listed my beautiful baby blog on Technorati which, from investigation, is a major method of increasing visibility. I also used a site called Pingomatic to automatically get me onto several blog search engines.

Checking out the various adsense competitors but details on that to follow.

Need to concentrate on content now .....