Story Theme From Performancing

As they do each month, Performancing released another WordPress theme and it looks pretty good from the live demo.

As you can see from the picture it has 3 columns and one of them is dedicated to 125×125 ads, though you can easily change that with widgets if you wish.

Demo here

Download here

Plugin Central

Plugin Central is a WordPress plugin that allows you to install new plugins without using FTP, just by using your WordPress dashboard. To use it you point it either to the URL where the zip file is located or you write the name of the plugin if you can’t remember the URL. Looks great so far and I intend to give it a shot.

• Install plugins directly by typing the name of plugin or the URL to zip file!
• Multiple-plugin install feature allows you to move your plugins from one blog to another
• Displays status of plugins in need of update on the Dashboard
• Option to update all plugins at once!

Download here

There is quite a difference between the 1st and the 2nd place, when it comes to the number of visitors you’ll get. If the numbers in the photo below are right, then visitors to the site that ranks first are four times as many than those that go to the site in the second place.

If you’re curious about the higher percentage for the 10th place, it’s because it’s closer to the Next page link.

Remember though, provide useful information, don’t just focus on keyword focused articles. In the next few days I’ll write an article about the benefits of doing a site for users, not for search engines, and providing real value.

This week’s list is related to the keyword "Bluetooth".

First column is the keyword, second column says how many searches per day that keyword has in Google and the third column says how many results there are when you search for that keyword combo with quotes in Google.

Download Excel File - Bluetooth Keywords

The number of searches per day is the one indicated by the GTrends keyword research tool, based on Google Trends data.

Want to receive updates when we add more keyword lists? Subscribe by RSS and be the first to know.

Below you can see the PPP popularity dropping since Google started punishing bloggers that used them:

In 2006 and 2007, writing projects and carnivals were all the rage for bloggers, and where are they now?

For those trying to make money online, it’s a constant battle to adapt and come up with new strategies that will grow a new blog to the point where the link building is taking care of itself, based on its popularity.

Personally, I’ve never used PayPerPost back when it was truly popular, mainly because PayPal wasn’t available in my country. I gave it a shot about two months ago, on a blog where I don’t post regularly, to see how it works and to make a few quick bucks.

Guess what, from a PR 3, it dropped to PR 0 in 24 hours after I posted the "I signed up for PayPerPost" review. Got the $20, but the PR is gone, not that it was worth anything anyway. I got a strong feeling that Google has some good filters by now, to deal with blogs that go on this path.

If anyone wants to give PPP a shot, you might want to avoid the I Signed Up For PPP intro post, and do some reviews instead. I’d be curious to know if the filters are triggered just by that title, or by the tracking images that you have to insert in the review.

I’m guessing the first variant, since there are people still making good money with PPP.

My conclusion from all this is that you can’t start a business that is monetized with selling links, paid reviews or other schemes that are against the guidelines of the search engines. Eventually, they will have to react, and ban those sites.

What Is A Niche?

A niche, simply put, is a group of people with similar interests or needs. They are usually quite passionate about that topic and they can be persuaded to subscribe to your blog if you truly have something to say on the subject.

When you think of niche markets, you can take this example as a guide:

Motorola is the large market, with all kinds of equipment. Motorola Phones is a large niche, a large part of this market. Now, you can break it down even more. Motorola Satellite Phones is a smaller niche, and the same goes for Motorola Phone Games or Motorola Phone Adapters. How much you want to digg down until you find a niche that you’re comfortable with is up to you.

Below, we take a look at 5 things one should consider before starting a blog in a new niche:

1. Do You Enjoy Writing About It?

Before you start a blog on a topic, take into consideration how much you actually like the subject. Keep in mind that you will have to write on it for at least a few months, if not years, so it should be something you enjoy talking about.

If the interest you have in that niche doesn’t warrant starting a blog around it, you could always build a site, that needs to be updated much less often after it’s launched.

2. Is The Market Small Enough To Be Able To Surpass The Competition, But Big Enough So You Can Make A Good Profit?

If you want to start an auto, technology or gadget blog for example, know that the competition is simply staggering. It would take you a long time to become an authority in this field, but you can make good money once you get there. This is the kind of market that isn’t worth going into with a general topic.

Instead, pick a niche and work hard on owning it. For example, you could make a blog that talks only about LCD monitors, and build up your authority on this topic. Every computer needs a monitor, and people do research online before picking an LCD, to make sure they get a good picture quality.

3. What Keywords Are Searched And How Strong Is The Competition In The Search Engines?

Keyword research is a definite must when picking a niche. Otherwise, you might end up trying to compete with powerful sites, with old domains and a lot of links behind them, or even worse, with university (.edu) or governmental (.gov) sites, which have extra authority in the eyes of the search engines.

You can use WordTracker, Keyword Discovery and the SEOBook Keyword Tool to find out what kind of traffic different keywords have.

4. Are There Enough Money In This Niche?

You want a niche where people are looking to spend money, coming from the search engines with cash burning in their pocket. A product niche is great, because you can use affiliate links and get a percentage of the sale. Niches where companies are looking to spend money online are also great because you can sell ads on your blog.

Take the LCD monitors niche that I previously talked about. People are coming from search engines looking for a review on a specific product or for general advice on how to pick an LCD. If the article is good and you have links pointing to different online stores that sell those LCD models, people might just buy from them, after arriving via your affiliate link.

An example: you get 30 daily visitors from the search engines, looking for reviews on a specific LCD monitor. They read the review, and some might go to the suggested stores, while others might not. If one in 60 people buys that LCD after using your affiliate link, you get a percentage of what they spend. So, for a $500 LCD, you might get 2%, or $10 commission. 15 sales in a month mean $150 in your pocket, from just 900 visitors that wanted to spend.

Just an example and simplified quite a bit, but it shows you why you should look for a niche where people want to spend money.

5. Is It A Permanent Niche?

I’ll take as an example here the Fallout 3 game, due to show up sometime this year probably. There is a strong audience here, that will be interested to read about it, but most people will get bored of the subject eventually. In addition to that, the ads that show up on game related articles are not paid well.

It’s a great topic for a site that has a blog on it, but not that great for a single blog where you have to write for years to come.

There they are, 5 things to consider before picking a niche and putting months or years of work in it to make it big. Got comments or things to add? The comment section awaits.

If you have an idea on a WordPress plugin that you would like to see made, let us know on the Contact page, and we might make it happen.

Custom plugin will also be one of the services offered on this blog. If you want to offer a plugin on your own blog but don’t know how to code, you will be able to pay us to do it for you, and you can offer it for everyone, ask money for it or use it as a promotional tool.