Redesigning my Blog with a New Blogger Template
I Spent the afternoon redesigning my blog. I cruised around the internet for about half an hour doing some research and found many different Free blog templates. I was looking for a 3 column blogger compatible template in particular, because I like the way the 3 column layout looks.

There are some very nice free blogger templates out there. I selected a few that I thought might work and downloaded them, then proceeded to load them up on one of my test blogs. I decided I liked this template best and started the task of integrating it into my blog.

Warning: If looking at HTML code makes you want to run home to mommy, you may need to hire a professional to install a custom blog template, you need to at least be able to search through html code and replace some text and hyperlinks that may not be correct after you upload a new template to your blog. You don't need to know html, you just need to know enough to look through it for items that may reference links that have nothing to do with your blog.

Finding Compatible Templates
When searching for a blog template make sure the one you want to use will work for your blogging platform. There are some very nice wordpress templates, however they won't work on blogger without some serious modifications. Here are some great templates compatible with Blogger, some have been converted from very nice WP templates. Blogger Blog Templates

If you are looking for a professional level Wordpress Template, I recommend Theme Forest.


Backing Up Your Old Blog Template
Nothing like a good backup to save the day when you need it. Before you begin the task of integrating a custom template its a good idea to back up your current template. I also keep offline backups of my templates and all the articles I have written, just in case.

To backup your template go to:
Dashboard -> Layout ->Edit Html ->Download Full Template.
This will save your template in a state that you can reload in the event that you want your old blog template back, or you can load the saved template onto a different blog.

The easiest way to backup the blog articles you've written is to look at your RSS feed. If you click the RSS feed icon at the top of your blog you should see every article all in one long feed. Your blog articles should not be affected when you upload a new custom template, I just like to back stuff up to be safe.

In addition to backing up the template itself you may want to back up some of the Widget data, because you may have custom widgets that you will want to add back in after you upload a new custom template. To get the widget data go to:
Dashboard -> Layout -> Page Elements
Then click edit on any widgets you want to save, and make sure to cut and paste any custom html, or links into a temporary text file.

I like to keep temporary text files on my desktop which hold many bits of information which I use on a daily basis in my business as an affiliate marketer. On my computer desktop I keep little text files to organize and easily retrieve data like html code for widgets, account information for all of my different affiliate accounts, affiliate link codes, short descriptions for submitting to link directories, and little short ads I write up for submission to free ad services such as USFreeads.

Unless you know a lot about the widgets on your blog, it might also be a good idea to make some written notes of all the widgets you are using, so that you can replace them later. Especially the name and types of each widget.

Installing a New Fresh Custom Blog Template
Now your old blog is all backed up
Once you find and download a blog template you like, decompress it and unzip the .xml file into a folder that you can find easily. Then log into Blogger and go to Dashboard -> Layout -> Edit Html, click Browse, then find your xml template file, select it and then click Upload.

At this point you may see a warning that some of your widgets are going to be deleted. That is when you look at the list and double check that you have all of those widgets saved somehow. When you are confident that you can replace any widgets that might get removed, then it's ok to proceed with completing the template upload procedure.

Integrating the New Blog Template Design
Reload your blog front page and make note of all the things that may not be correct, like links that go to different sites than you want, or advertisements that do not have the correct affiliate codes. Many of the incorrect items can be changed through the widgets that are now installed under the Page Elements Tab.

Try to correct what you can through the widgets, be a little careful here, you may see some widgets that appear to be empty, but they are working from the template code. Sometimes with those 'empty' widgets you can input the desired html code directly into the widget and it will come out perfectly. For instance a widget that displays a banner ad in the top of your page.

After correcting what you can through the widgets and removing widgets you don't like or don't need, there may still be items in the template html code that need to be changed. To view the template html code go to:
Dashboard -> Layout -> Edit Html then check the box Expand Widget Templates.

Going through the Html Code
Look through the html code at least one maybe 2 times real carefully and remove or correct any items that obviously point to the wrong website, reference an affiliate id other than your own, or contain text or meta data that is not correct. I like to expand the widget temples checkbox, then I copy and paste the whole chunk of code into a local text file for editing, that way I can use my local editor's search functions to find little bits of text or links and change them to suit my blogs layout.

I keep one copy of the un-modified code in a local file in case I make a mistake, and edit the code in a second text file. When I've made a significant change, I paste the code back into the blog 'Edit html' page and click save template. Then I reload my blogs front page in another firefox tab to insure that each change looks the way I want. Unless you are very skilled, do not make a whole bunch of changes all at once, make small changes and test as you go, so you will know exactly where any mistakes that might be your fault are.

Redirecting Urls that Call Graphics
There may be references in the template code to little graphics that effect the way your blog looks. These images may be hosted on a third party free hosting server under someone elses account. You may want to redirect these url references in the template code to protect the look of your blog. That way your not hot-linked off of third party image hosting which you have no control of. If the image host stops serving a particular little .gif that your blog template relies on, your blog will look like junk until you fix it.

To redirect these little links, you must find them in the html code, if you look carefully you will find them, they look sort of like this:
'http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/8066/468x60xr1.gif'
(That one was actually a kind of space holder for a banner ad which I just changed to a real ad banner hot-link of my own)

Once you locate these little graphics urls, you can copy and paste the reference url into a browser window and save the little graphic with a "r-click save image as" operation. Sometimes its a little tricky as they can be quite small. Once you save the graphic then you can host it on your own image host where you will have more control over it, then change the template code to reflect the new location of the graphic.

Always a Better Blogger Template
I think I cleaned up this Blogger template pretty good, there are still some fairly minor things I still want to change. Then, naturally as I was doing a little more research to make this article complete, guess what, I found an even better template! It figures, now I'll have to do it all over again, maybe I'll just leave it this way, it looks pretty good, what do you think?

To make money on the internet you need either a product to sell or a website that informs or entertains people in some way. Today we will be focusing on the most straightforward approach to creating a profitable niche website, which is to sell a product. It requires less creativity, and the only real content you have to create is directly related to your product. You can get some great content ideas from the niche product website itself, as long as you present the product content in your own words.

First find a product that you would like to sell. A great place to start out with is Clickbank. Create an account, then browse through the marketplace and select several products that interest you or that you think you could write a good article about.

Choose your favorite products, then write down any keywords you think a user might search for related to your product. As an example, lets say we chose a weight loss e-book product. Keywords to search for might include: dieting, weight-loss, weight loss, getting fit, lose weight, losing weight, lose fat, fat loss, weight loss diet, etc...

Now take your keyword list and check it with the Google keyword search tool.

Set match type to "exact" and sort by global monthly search volume. Look for keyword and keyword combos that don't have a great amount of competition. Select keywords that have a fairly low global monthly search volume, I try to look for niche markets that are not under 1,000 or so searches per month. Stay away from the ones that are too big when you are just starting out, the keyword combos with a high monthly search volume will have too much competition, unless you are an expert niche product affiliate marketer you will have trouble breaking into those markets.

You will be able to utilize all the keywords that you wrote down, when you create your niche product oriented blog or website, but for the moment really focus on just a handful of keyword combos. Once you have made a selection, try to think of ways to include those keywords in a domain name. Write all of your domain name ideas down, so that you can do your domain name research.

Lets say you chose the keyword "quick weight loss tips" the most straightforward domain name would be quick-weight-loss-tips.com, you can get some indication of whether or not a domain name is taken by simply opening a fresh blank tab in your browser and typing in the url you just made up and see where it goes. Optimally you want a "page not found" type of error. That means that the chances are good it is not taken yet. If it looks good initially, then to be completely certain the domain name is free, use a service like Network Solutions free Whois search.

Once you have a good idea about what you want your domain name to be, and you know its not taken, it is time to get hosting and register your domain name. Hostgator is an extremely affordable and reliable service. You can get a hosting account for as low as 4.95 a month. Having your own hosting account gives you much greater flexibility about the type of content you want to have to promote your niche product. Another major advantage of having your own hosted blog or website, is that every inch of advertising space will be under your complete control.

Promoting affiliate programs can be lucrative....for the people you are promoting!

When you are ready to make real money you will understand the need to promote yourself and your own products. I know a lot of you don't have your own product yet. Don't let that slow you down. You can still earn a substantial income and become an expert in subjects like content creation, website promotion, and monetization.

My point here is to pay attention to what you are promoting. If you are spending all your energy advertising affiliate links all over the place for worthless clickbank ebooks or mlm schemes you will most likely fail to make a decent income. Those types of products tend to make money for the people who own the products. Especially MLM schemes, to be successful in Multi Level Marketing you need to understand how to be a great sales person, and know the intricacies of website promotion, and how to be a teacher so that you can teach your downline sales distributors how to duplicate your efforts. I could go on and on about Pyramid scams and such, instead I refer you to a document on squidoo that speaks about the problems with MLM.

The Truth about Internet MLM Pyramid Schemes



Promoting affiliate products can be a very powerful way to make money, I use it and it is a valuable aspect of my money making strategy. However, I want to show you that your true pot of gold at the end of the rainbow will be found when you have your own e-mail database and a product that you really believe in to promote. Try to keep that in the back of your mind as you create your advertising system.

Later, when you have a niche oriented blog or website, and articles that you've written spread around the internet, you can go back to many of those tools and redirect them and tweak them to promote yourself and your own products, or a product that may not be yours, but you believe in it and are willing to invest your time to bring it to other people.

Focus on creating an internet presence that will last, and that does not destroy your credibility.

There are several major drawbacks to promoting affiliate products from places like clickbank. As I mentioned I am not against affiliate marketing or clickbank, I think clickbank is awesome, it is just good to keep these limitations in mind as you work towards your goal of financial greatness.

When a potential customer follows your affiliate link to the product landing page, clickbank tracks the hop and if a sale is made at that moment you will recieve a portion of the profits, at least if it is a decent product and the customer does not demand a refund, in those cases you get nothing.

You will notice, that on any good landing page there is a place where the customer can sign up to a double opt in mail list. That mailing list is where 80-90% of the sales are made. Using auto-responders, the internet marketer who actually owns the product can keep in touch with potential customers and build trust and loyalty. Later, 6 weeks down the road, they finally make the big sales pitch and sell a $400 product. The clickbank affiliate who originally provided this lead to the affiliate marketer gets zip, zilch, thanks for the lead, keep trying I love all the traffic you bring to my landing page.

I wanted to bring these ideas to your attention. When I began to realize these things some time ago, it completely changed the way I look at how I want to use affiliate marketing to build my own residual income streams.

-Wealth Research

My extensive research on the subject indicates that the wealthiest, most successful individuals all have one thing in common. They have a mindset for success. Success driven individuals do not "try" to succeed, they "know" they will succeed. Failure is simply not an option.

To create wealth, you need to create in your mind a wealth mentality. Train your mind to focus on the positive. When you can truly visualize yourself as a healthy, successful person, the reality of that vision will inevitably follow.

Making money online is not a get rich quick scheme. People buy into many affiliate programs because of the promise of fast money and it gets them nowhere. Effective affiliate marketing takes time and effort. There is no doubt that the potential income of a successful marketer can be tremendous. Make no mistake however, it takes dedication and time to reach those kind of income levels.

While you are building your business, train your mind to hold the vision of success. Dedicate yourself to putting in the time and research necessary to create the residual income streams. With the right attitude anyone can succeed at affiliate marketing even if they can only focus on it part time.

Stay focused on the goal and never give up. Seek balance, do not sit in front of the computer 24 hours a day straining to make money online. Maintain your health as well so that when your income streams start flowing you have the health to enjoy all that wealth.


What is your motivation for increasing your wealth? To pay the bills, take care of your family, go on nice vacations? Write down the reasons you want to succeed. Print out a picture of that new Corvette you desire, or your children who you Love so much. If your resolve begins to waver, remind yourself WHY you are so determined to succeed.

Learning affiliate marketing can be daunting at first. There are so many aspects that need to be understood. Do not let it overwhelm you, take it one piece at a time. Give yourself time to succeed, it can take several months at the minimum to get your semi-automatic money machine off the ground.

I call my plan the Ultimate Advertising Machine because a machine is a device that makes your work easier. That is what we are creating, a machine that helps us make money. It will never be truly automatic, it will need to be created from the ground up, then tweaked, monitored, and directed. The goal is to create a system of money generating blogs, websites, articles, and e-mail database with built in redundancy and resiliency to withstand changes in the internet affiliate marketing climate.

Today I am going to join Twitter. I am looking for people who share my desire to achieve success on the internet and I know there are some really intelligent people in the Twitter community. My twitter name is @wealthresearch.

If you share my desire to create wealth lets collaborate and make some money.
Follow WealthResearch on Twitter


Feel free to drop me a comment I welcome all ideas and feedback. Please Bookmark my page I am going to be writing down and investigating the best of the ideas people share with me on Twitter.

Right off the bat one of my new Twitter friends clued me into this money making opportunity its totally free. Thanks people!




If you're one of my new friends from twitter, leave a comment on my blog and feel free to post the link you want to promote. I'm super busy sorting out the good ideas people are sending me and throwing out the bad ones.

-WealthResearch

My last article I was talking about how to make money on Hubpages. I joined the hubpages community and spent the past week for so reading articles from numerous writers in the community. There are some truly great writers over there and the forums are incredibly helpful.

I joined the 30 Hubs in 30 days challenge and proceeded to crank out one really good content hub each day. I did not even consider just copying some other article on the net and changing it and posting it as my own work. I know from past experience that quality original content is the key to success, and furthermore if you do your research on a subject and then write about it in your own words it is a valuable learning experience.

Each individual has his or her own experience with all manner of subjects that people would like to read about. You can write great articles on any subject that strikes your fancy. You do not have to write about making money on the internet like I do and most of the hubs I am writing are on subject matter that has nothing to do with making money on the web. I am just writing about things that interest me and that I have had experience with, or subjects that I just want to know more about.

What I have found is that spending time writing original articles called Hubs is a great way to improve your writing skill and increase credibility and visibility. The monetary opportunity definitely exists but I should mention that even if you write great content, not too many people will see it if you don't promote your links. I will be writing a specific article about promoting your website or blog very soon, because after writing great content, promoting it is what is going to take you to the next level.

During the past week I learned so much, just from reading other writers hubs, that I am still absorbing the large amount of information I gathered concerning making money on the web. I am constantly doing research about monetization and jotting down the good ideas and throwing out the bad ones. Really it just solidified my own plan for multiple residual income streams, I can see that I am absolutely on the right track, and now I am moving forward with the rest of my Internet Advertising Machine plan.

Hubpages has very much potential as a source of income, and although it will not be great unless you promote your work, it is definitely worth the time you put into it. Granted my hubs have only been around for a week or less, so I do not even know the full potential of earnings possibilities yet. Some adsense revenue has started to come in so that is a good sign, considering I have put very little effort into backlinks and promotion yet. I will keep you posted on future developments of that income stream and I will continue to work at improving my writing skill and building up an arsenal of context sensitive advertising hubs.

Bookmark my page and tell your friends who are interested in making money on the net, more helpful ideas to come as I lay out my comprehensive plan for building residual income from the internet...

Regards, Wealth Research