Our Blogs Are Worth $254,000.00!
Tuesday, October 25, 2005 
According to Dane Carlson's blog value calculator, the combined value of our blogs is $254,043.00. A quarter-of-a-million dollars, not bad I suppose.
Though, that calculator only counts inbound links from other blogs. It doesn't count them coming from websites.
Though, that calculator only counts inbound links from other blogs. It doesn't count them coming from websites.
Strange New Products Mentioned in NY Times
Monday, October 17, 2005
The New York Times mentioned our blog, Strange New Products, in their Technology section on October 15, 2005.
Scroll down to the last paragraph in the article...
Scroll down to the last paragraph in the article...
CHRISTMAS-LIST FODDER The blog Strange New Products (strangenewproducts.com) delivers on its promise. Examples: chocolate-flavored toothpaste, a baby-bottom drying fan and vodka in a bottle shaped like a machine gun.
New Blog Network Forming
Thursday, October 13, 2005
For the past few years, I've been co-owning some websites with my good friend Dave Podmajersky. These are all affiliate marketing websites, pretty much pure copywriting in content. But the venture proved to be quite successful, leveraging both of our talents, and developing a series of websites that have blessed us both quite well.
Continuing on this success, Dave and I wanted to see what we could do with blogs. We launched our first one about a full year ago, Genealogy and How. We then launched Political Dogs as our entry into the over-crowded world of political blogging. Then came Scrapbooking and How, and then came Girls Fastpitch Softball, where Dave talks about the trials and tribulations of being a softball dad.
Today, we officially announce the launch of our newest blog, Weird News Today, our offering into the genre of "odd news".
So to provide some kind of brand identity for this venture of ours, we present to the world, Smoking Dogs Media.
The name Smoking Dogs Media came from the logo on Political Dogs, which depicts two dogs smoking cigarettes and drinking booze. Smoking Dogs combines together all of the websites and weblogs that Dave and I co-own.
Most of the content on Smoking Dogs' websites are written by myself and Dave. Only on Genealogy and How do we have other writers, three of them.
What's up for the future of Smoking Dogs? Well, look for us to explore some new ideas for monetizing blogs. Right now, you're going to find AdSense on our blogs, just like with many other blogs. But we're going to be getting into other revenue models, including affiliate marketing programs, sponsorships, and who knows what else.
We're also going to be looking for new ways to generate content. No, we're not going get into splogs. We want to find ways to minimize our content costs and maximize our publishing output, all without clogging up the search engines with spam.
Smoking Dogs Media will be a platform for us to explore and experiment.
Continuing on this success, Dave and I wanted to see what we could do with blogs. We launched our first one about a full year ago, Genealogy and How. We then launched Political Dogs as our entry into the over-crowded world of political blogging. Then came Scrapbooking and How, and then came Girls Fastpitch Softball, where Dave talks about the trials and tribulations of being a softball dad.
Today, we officially announce the launch of our newest blog, Weird News Today, our offering into the genre of "odd news".
So to provide some kind of brand identity for this venture of ours, we present to the world, Smoking Dogs Media.
The name Smoking Dogs Media came from the logo on Political Dogs, which depicts two dogs smoking cigarettes and drinking booze. Smoking Dogs combines together all of the websites and weblogs that Dave and I co-own.
Most of the content on Smoking Dogs' websites are written by myself and Dave. Only on Genealogy and How do we have other writers, three of them.
What's up for the future of Smoking Dogs? Well, look for us to explore some new ideas for monetizing blogs. Right now, you're going to find AdSense on our blogs, just like with many other blogs. But we're going to be getting into other revenue models, including affiliate marketing programs, sponsorships, and who knows what else.
We're also going to be looking for new ways to generate content. No, we're not going get into splogs. We want to find ways to minimize our content costs and maximize our publishing output, all without clogging up the search engines with spam.
Smoking Dogs Media will be a platform for us to explore and experiment.
September Recap
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Overall September was a great month for Clear Digital Media. It was the highest month so far this year in terms of gross income. This was largely due to an abnormally high earnings from the Ancestry.com affiliate marketing program, resulting from the launch of their 2006 edition of Family Tree Maker software.
Sex Offender Registry continues to impress, experiencing a solid flow of traffic from Yahoo and MSN, and remains our fourth highest revenue generating property. Considering that we haven't updated the site in nearly two years, it's effectively labor-free income. We're seriously considering launching a companion blog on the same domain to generate some additional traffic, and perhaps improve our Google referrals.
Interment.net saw an increase of traffic in September also. We're undertaking a measure to implement a new template design for the index pages, which unfortunately is a slow painstaking process. But the great news is that Interment continues to publish a high volume of new content daily, thanks to the folks submitting material to us, and the dedication of our editor, Maggie.
September also saw the launch of our newest blog, Junk Food Blog. Food blogs seem to be generating some interest, so we decided to jump on it. We didn't want to do a "general interest" food blog; we wanted some kind of specific angle, so we elected to do junk food, trying to lean more into humorous commentary, than connoisseur. Perhaps the next blogger we hire, will be working with this blog.
Menifee 24/7 continues to be an experiment. It's our only entry into the field of local news. The problem is that I'm not a news reporter, and don't have the time to sniff out news on what's going on around our home town. I've attended a few mixers at our local Chamber of Commerce, and recruited several local citizens and businesspeople as bloggers, and yet am unable to get much in terms of material. I've even attended a couple area chapters of Business Networking International to give an overview of Menifee 24/7 in an attempt to provide local business people an avenue to promote their businesses in exchange for news leads. I think the concept of Menifee 24/7 will work, but will require a lot of investment in time and networking, which I just don't have.
One thing that Business Networking International (BNI) has revealed to us is that there is a large pool of untapped content sources in field of real estate, mortgage, personal finance. The real estate and mortgage agents I've met at these meetings are eager to provide their insight and data in exchange for getting their name out into the industry. For the most part, they're willing to work with us, so long as we can find a way for them to contribute without costing them too much time. I'm meeting with a mortgage broker tomorrow to discuss how he can contribute to our Real Estate and How blog. Meanwhile, we've completely redesigned REH, and have refocused it as a news source to the industry professional.
DoggieNews is doing better in terms of earnings. It's traffic is slightly down from August, which was also slightly down from July. But its CPC earning increased steadily throughout the month of September. We put more emphasis into product blogging, namely stuff like new dog food, dog toys, dog clothes, etc., as opposed to pet legislation, animal rights, and animal health, which are topics that run rampant on the other pet blogs. The nice thing about blogging pet products is that it allows us to do more affiliate linking with PETsMART.
Finally, Strange New Products continues to be our flagship blog, and demands a lot of my time. It's a compliment to see the number of other blogs linking back to SNP, mainly because SNP is still largely a creative outlet for me. The last few days of September saw SNP earning a high CPC rate on AdSense, about five times higher. This CPC rate mellowed out in the following days, but still continues to be about double the historical CPC rate SNP earned throughout September and August.
Sex Offender Registry continues to impress, experiencing a solid flow of traffic from Yahoo and MSN, and remains our fourth highest revenue generating property. Considering that we haven't updated the site in nearly two years, it's effectively labor-free income. We're seriously considering launching a companion blog on the same domain to generate some additional traffic, and perhaps improve our Google referrals.
Interment.net saw an increase of traffic in September also. We're undertaking a measure to implement a new template design for the index pages, which unfortunately is a slow painstaking process. But the great news is that Interment continues to publish a high volume of new content daily, thanks to the folks submitting material to us, and the dedication of our editor, Maggie.
September also saw the launch of our newest blog, Junk Food Blog. Food blogs seem to be generating some interest, so we decided to jump on it. We didn't want to do a "general interest" food blog; we wanted some kind of specific angle, so we elected to do junk food, trying to lean more into humorous commentary, than connoisseur. Perhaps the next blogger we hire, will be working with this blog.
Menifee 24/7 continues to be an experiment. It's our only entry into the field of local news. The problem is that I'm not a news reporter, and don't have the time to sniff out news on what's going on around our home town. I've attended a few mixers at our local Chamber of Commerce, and recruited several local citizens and businesspeople as bloggers, and yet am unable to get much in terms of material. I've even attended a couple area chapters of Business Networking International to give an overview of Menifee 24/7 in an attempt to provide local business people an avenue to promote their businesses in exchange for news leads. I think the concept of Menifee 24/7 will work, but will require a lot of investment in time and networking, which I just don't have.
One thing that Business Networking International (BNI) has revealed to us is that there is a large pool of untapped content sources in field of real estate, mortgage, personal finance. The real estate and mortgage agents I've met at these meetings are eager to provide their insight and data in exchange for getting their name out into the industry. For the most part, they're willing to work with us, so long as we can find a way for them to contribute without costing them too much time. I'm meeting with a mortgage broker tomorrow to discuss how he can contribute to our Real Estate and How blog. Meanwhile, we've completely redesigned REH, and have refocused it as a news source to the industry professional.
DoggieNews is doing better in terms of earnings. It's traffic is slightly down from August, which was also slightly down from July. But its CPC earning increased steadily throughout the month of September. We put more emphasis into product blogging, namely stuff like new dog food, dog toys, dog clothes, etc., as opposed to pet legislation, animal rights, and animal health, which are topics that run rampant on the other pet blogs. The nice thing about blogging pet products is that it allows us to do more affiliate linking with PETsMART.
Finally, Strange New Products continues to be our flagship blog, and demands a lot of my time. It's a compliment to see the number of other blogs linking back to SNP, mainly because SNP is still largely a creative outlet for me. The last few days of September saw SNP earning a high CPC rate on AdSense, about five times higher. This CPC rate mellowed out in the following days, but still continues to be about double the historical CPC rate SNP earned throughout September and August.
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