I haven’t done an “Ask David” post in a long time. Mostly because since I switched themes a couple of months ago, I am no longer displaying that rotating banner that tells people they get a free link back by emailing me a question. However, I still have the Ask David page with information about the deal.

So anyways, I got one of my first questions in awhile like a week or so ago. It came from someone by the handle SLR, but he did not leave a link back. He asks:

If you only had a second to grab one of your network’s sites and lose the rest, which one would you grab and why?

Good question. Because my favorite sites are not necessarily the ones that make me the most money. Would I take a high revenue site, the site I enjoy the most, or the site that has the most potential? Very tough decision.

If I had to pick just one site from my network to save, it would probably be Gator Envy. Now, Gator Envy doesn’t make me a lot of money and is probably like 5th or so no my list of top earners, but I would choose this site because it means the msot to me. I’ve poured countless hours into this site I would hate for it to just be gone one day. And it’s not just about the time and effort I’ve put into it. Because Gator Envy has a forum with almost 800 members, I have had the opportunity to build relationships with the members and Moderators on the forum. A lot of people visit Gator Envy everyday and count on it as a resource for Gator news.

Gator Envy also has a lot of potential. It’s one of the few sites I have that has unlimited growth potential. There have been Gator fans for 100 years and there will always be new Gator fans born every day. That means this site has no end should it stay operational. It’s not a site built around a fad or a hot product that won’t be popular in a couple years. The Gators are here to stay, and with time, the forum will only grow up.

Remember, if you want a free back link to your blog or web site, feel free to email me and ask a question. You can ask anything… it doesn’t have to be internet related.

I had a couple of questions sent to me in the last week, including a message from someone in Sweden who may be a relative of mine. That’s pretty cool, because in America the only Lithman’s you will find are my relatives. But anyways, on to the real questions.

Question 1 comes from Nick of Whats the Fuss. How do you SEO a masked URL that points to a different URL?

This is a good question that I did not immediately know the answer to. I assume you build backlinks to it just as you qould any other domain. Because I don’t know exactly, I’ll point you to a thread on Digital Point that may be of assistance.

Question 2 comes from Greg of LoLLeR LAN. Do you think WidgetBucks will pay out a good deal of money for publishers since they do pay per click and will you think about using this type of advertisement on your websites?

I have never heard of WidgetBucks before you emailed me. I briefly looked over their website and was surprised to see their list of clients at the bottom: Best Buy, Wal MArt, Ebay, Target…wow. It looks pretty cool. I’ve opsted an image below of what the sidebar widget looks like.

I’m not sure if I will try this ad program because I don’t have any product review type sites. I imagine that this would be a nice compliment to other ad companies if you own a Tech site or something similar. If anyone here has used WidgetBucks, post a comment and let us know how it is.

Question 3 comes from John, who didn’t leave a URL. Do you have any secret projects you’re working on?

Of course I do. I always have something big I’m working on that I can’t tell anyone. Thanks for asking though :-) 

Well that’s it for this week’s edition of Ask David. Don’t forget that by simply asking me a question (any question you can think of), you will get a free back link.

I hope everyone enjoy’s Ask David, even though at time the questions don’t pertain to making money online. I received a couple of questions in the past week. So here we go:

Question #1 was asked by Kyle Stephens of Kyle M. Stephens - Using the Internet to Make Money. Why are people so reluctant to ask you a question?

That’s a good question Kyle. By asking me a question, not only do you get an awesome reply, but you also get a free link on my blog, as seen above in your question. Who doesn’t want free PR5 link love, plus some extra traffic to their website? I think in time, Ask David will pick up momentum to the point where I’m getting 1 questions a week. Anything more then that, and it will take me 2 hours o write this post. 

Question #2 was asked by Nomar of Seach Engine Ranking. What is your opinion about pagerank. Are you glad it is not updating ?? Or not?? Do you think it will ever update again?? and why??

I think Pagerank will update again, but I would not be surprised if Google didn’t update it in the future. If you think about it, Pagerank is really worthless. It’s used by webmasters to buy and sell links, which Google views as something bad. It doesn’t factor in traffic or content, just how many inbound links a site has. I have several PR4 websites that suck. They don’t get any traffic and haven’t been updated in ages, but they still rank PR4 becaue they have links pointing to them. I also have a site Gator Envy that is only ranked PR3, but this site is awesome. It gets tons of traffic and tons o new content. It’s way more valuable then some of the crapp PR4 sites… but just because it has lower PR it would have a harder time selling links or being accepting into networks like TLA.

Maybe the reason this PR update is taking so long is because Google is tweaking how it works? I really don’t know. I want the PR to get here just like everyone. It’s fun to watch your sites go up (and down). I’m hoping for PR6 on this blog. I’d give it another 1-2 weeks. hopefully we’ll see something by then.

Questions #3 was asked by Webmaster of PwnEm. What do you look for when you join a forum? And which of these elements influences you the most to post there.

Great question. There are so many forums on the web, it’s hard to decide which ones you want to join. A couple factors I look at before joining a forum include it’s activity and the topic of the content. Not many people will join forums that aren’t active. That’s the biggest factor in my opinion. If you join a forum to get help, ask a question, or talk to people… you’ll want to get replies to your threads that day, not in 3-4 days. I give a lot of props to the ery first members of a forum. They join knowing that the response time may be slow.

The second factor I take in to count when joining a forum is the content. I want to join a forum that interests me. I’m not going to join a forum about Coach purses, but I may join a forum about business or video games.

It’s rare that I join a forum just for fun. Seems like every forum I belong to is because I need it for help with something. The forum needs to provide a service other then entertainment. With all that said, I think the forums activity is the most important factor though, and would make me want to post there. You can have a forum on my favorite topic, but unless there is someone else to share that interest with, then I won’t join.

That’s it for Ask David Batch #6. If you want free link love, be sure to click the Ask David link at the top of this page and send me your questions.
 

If it seems like it’s been awhile since I’ve done an Ask David post, well…it has. That’s because I didn’t get any questions in my email box. This past week though, I received 3 questions that I can write about.

Question #1 comes from Sean. What hosting do you use?

I currently have 2 dedicated servers. One is with JetNetHost and the other is with Spry. While I have experienced server problems with JetNet from time to time (most of the problems are at the datacenter, so it’s not really their fault), their customer service is second to none. Anytime there is an issue, I get a personal response within minutes and the problem is solved. When they said 24 hour live support, they mean it. Spry, I have never had to deal with since purchase. The server has been great.

Questions #2 comes from Greg of LoLLeR LAN. Do you think the new website DealDotCom.com will be as successful as Woot.com?

I’ll be perfectly honest. I haven’t given DeaDotCom for then 3 minutes of my time. I briefly looked at it and signed up (only because everyone else was). Although I’ve never used it, Woot.com has been around for a long time. While I do think you can make money from both websites, I don’t think DDC will surpass Woot in popularity or be as successful. Woot just has too big of a head start.

Question #3 comes from Richard of Blogger For Life. A while back you made a post about if you need a privacy policy. My question is do you have anything that generates “Terms and Conditions”? I run a website for my wife where she sells Jewelry online and we need a TOS.

I don’t have any tools that automatically generator a T&C for you, but I did find a few samples you can download. One is from BusinessLink, and it’s a UK site so be careful using that in the USA. Another example from Webzonetemplates.

Something else you could do is browse other similar online stores and look at their T&C. Don’t copy it word for word, but adjust it enough so it makes it unique to your site.

 

As I promised, this edition of Ask David is being posted posted today rather than it’s usual Monday. I was on vacation yesterday and didn’t hardly touch the computer. I realize I could have just timestamped this post to launch on Monday, but I didn’t have time to pre-write it. So let’s get started…

Question 1 was asked by Nomar from Webmaster Forums. You said you were planning to make this blog into a revenue machine. I see you changed some things and I see more banners and ad space, nice job. But how are you going to continue?? just posting everyday? and also in weekends? or do you have some real smooth plans to get the revenue you want?

Very good question. Honestly, I’m going to test as I go along. There’s really only so much you can do to increase earnings. Add more content and sell more ad space. I plan to do both. I know I originally said I’m going to post more, and on weekends. I failed at that the past few days. I also want to try writing a handful of paid reviews each month. I think that will help my revenue increase tremendously.

Question 2 was asked by Jamie from Invention Reaction. When you make a new website, what are the individual steps you take to make the site a success? In what order do you set about these steps (plus more steps obviously) and what targets do you set for a brand new site?

When I make a new website, it’s generally because I have an interest in the subject. I don’t own many, if any at all, websites that involved topics I don’t enjoy. I may do some keyword analysis to see how a new site I create will rank, but I don’t always go into as much depth as others. I generally first start out with adding content to the new site. I don’t always monetize it from the get go. It depends on what my purposes are for the site. After adding content, I’ll head over to DP and get 5-10 fresh link exchanges. I’ll also interlink my old websites with the new one. That’s pretty much all the promotion I do.

The most important target I set for a new website is generally to turn a profit. Once that goal is reached, I can evaluate the site to determine more realistic goals.

Question 3 was asked by Joel from World of Joel. What would you consider the five
essential wordpress plugins to have for any blog?

Adsense Deluxe

Adsense Deluxe allows you to very easily integrate adsense or ypn into your blog. You can create several different channels, so adding any size ad unit it as simple as typing < ! --adsense-->

Related Posts

The Related Posts mod will show several related posts at the end of a single post. A great way to get readers to read more of your articles. I think I need to activate this one.

Optimal Title

You’ve got to install the optimal title plugin. This puts the title emphasis on your post title instead of the blog title.

Spam Karma 2

Spam Karma 2 gets rid of all those nasty spam blog comments. I use it here and have never had any spam comments.

Wordpress Database Backup

This plugin comes with Wordpress. You really should activate it and backup your blog often. The plugin makes it as easy as a single click to backup your blog.

Question 4 was asked by Richard from Blogger For Life. I was wondering if you know where I can get my hands on a good list of keywords?

Try using the Google Adwords Tool.

This was a very nice edition of Ask David. Remember, if you want free link love, then simply Ask me a question.

 

I only had one Ask David question since the last post. Readers, you do realize that you get a free link back from an authority PR5 website with targetted visitors right? By simply clicking the Ask David button up top, you can fill out the contact form with any question in the world. I’ll answer it in the next Monday’s post, and give you a free link back in return for the question.

Question #1 comes from Danny (who didn’t leave a link). You went on vacation a few weeks ago and talked about pictures. Do you have any?

Of course I have pictures of my trip to Amelia Island Plantation

 

This first picture is a view from our room. The condo was 3 stories, with like one or two rooms on each floor. We were pretty much right on the beach, you just had to walk on a little boardwalk through the dunes to get to the sand. Notice how small the waves are. You’d think I was on the Gulf.

The second picture is me getting ready to go tubing. Tubing gets fun when you get outside of the wake. It takes a lot of strength and body positioning to stay on the tube and ride the wake.

Picture 3 is me tubing in action. It doesn’t look like we’re going very fast. The picture must have been taken right after the boat started going.

Here’s a picture of Katie and I sitting in a couple of rocking chairs at the shops they have on propety. It was isanely hot that day. Man, I look like I’m only 5′4″ in that picture. Guess the rocking chairs were made for Paul Bunyan.

The last picture was taking right after lunch on Saturday. These guys had just caught this bull shark and we were watching them reel it up while eating. So when we finished we went to check it out on the docks and the captain let us get a picture with it. Thank God it was already dead and I might be typing this post with 1 hand.

That’s it for the pictures. I have a lot more, but just wanted to share a few. If I ever sign up for flikr, I’ll be sure to let you guys know.