I'm new at this game and want to make an effort to monetize TopCommentator.com when I get it up and running. It's more of a learning curve for my first look at online advertising than a money making plan. I just want to use it as a platform initially experiment the different types of ads and affiliate program available and how I can use them on the site. Maybe this isn't the best way to it but everyone has to start somewhere. At this point I'm still at the stage where I'm looking at advertising terminology and what it means. Here's a list of 3 basic types of advertising:

CPM: Cost per 1000 impressions
CPC: Cost per click
CPA: Cost per action

Yes at this point this is as far as my knowledge goes but I'll learn as I go. This blog has a long long way to go, there's millions of people more knowledgable than me and lots to learn but if I want to make some money online this is one of the areas I need to gain experience in. My goal is to create 'at least' one good/popular website in the next 2 years and I'll need to have the skills to generate some revenue from it when the time comes so it's time to start looking at these things now!

This is the 14th day of this blog and for anyone reading thinking of starting their own blog that doesn't already have one my advice is to go for it! It's not easy posting every day but so far I feel that I'm learning something new each day. I'm looking at other blogs thinking how focused they are on very spefic areas and thinking mine is lacking in direction and quality to date but it's all a learning curve. If I keep learning then my posts will get better and better and with some luck I'll get 1000 visitors in one day some time soon. For the time being though I'm enjoying the experience and coming up with different ideas all of the time. Watch this space

I'm hosted on a Windows server and already I'm thinking of switching to Linux. The reason for this? Simply due to the fact that I struggled for a few hours today trying to implement sef (search engine friendly) urls for my permalinks. I found a few different solutions and tried them all but with no luck. When I get one that works i'll link to it then. I don't like having the '/index.php/' in all of my urls but I'm gonna have to run with it for a while as I just couldn't sort it out. There's lots to learn here and I'll probably make a million mistakes but sure that's not a bad thing if you learn as you go.

Just looking at the default Wordpress theme that I installed, I definately need to push myself to get up to speed on updating this. I have thought about downloading a different theme that's more pleasing on the eye but I rather play about with the layout myself and learn a bit about about Wordpress. I want to add a menu bar to the header in the next few days for starters to get me off and running.

I've also been thinking about how to evolve this blog in terms of what I'm going to write about. Most successful bloggers reccommend finding a niche topic and sticking to it. I can see the advantages of this in the long term but for now I'm just going to go with the flow and see what comes out I'm thinking if I complete my 30 days in a row challenge (see previous post) I'll develop my own style and direction.

Anyway, in other news (yeah I said I'd just go with the flow) watched Middlesboro V Man United this morning. 2-0 to United so I was happy with that. I also had a decent punt (not normal for me) on United so won a few bucks. I backed a 0-0 draw in the Wigan - Bolton game and that came in for me too. I wonder can I count that as online earnings as I did use Betfair It's my blog and my rules so I think I will! I'm making money online already, great! That could be a potential direction I can take my blog in, my interest in poker and sports betting. I can take into account any online wins AND losses (lost $5 on a horse called Wyeth Earp) for today is $100 approx. So I'm on target for $36500 for year one If your wondering why I'm talking in dollars it's because I've been in contact with a couple of guys regarding a partnership in a new website and they are talking in dollars. This will hopefully be my first big project so I'm deciding this will be my currency of choice as regards the web earnings I will have. That's all for today, need zzz's here.. so I think I'll have to give the Ricky Hatton - Manny Pacquaio.