Submit Your Site to Google

So you've just created this really great site. You've packed everything you've ever wanted in a website into your page, but you have a problem. Nobody knows your site exists! All that time making the perfect site for nothing... You could harass a bunch of friends to check out your site, but you'll more likely harass your friends into not answering your calls for the next month. So what do you do?
Google has been the number one search engine for quite some time. It refers browsers to billions of pages a day and, believe me when I say that it could care less about yours... Unless you, ask nicely? Theres two ways to get your page added to Google. The first way, I gotta say, probably won't do you too much good. It is the quickest and easiest way.

Step 1) Go to Google's add URL site and fill out the form.

Congratulations! You may or may not have successfully added your site to be crawled by Google. Yes, you heard me correctly. You may not have added it. Just like with most companies, Google helps it's members before anyone else! So how do you become a member and successfully add your page to Google's search engine? Its not as easy as the last method, but I guarantee you it works.

Step 1) Fill out a few forms to sign up for your Google Account.
Step 2) Sign in! Under My Services, click Webmaster Tools.
Step 3) Add your site at the top of the page. Make sure to add http:// to the beginning.
Step 4) On the Diagnostics tab, under settings, click Verify your site. It should be highlighted in yellow with a light bulb above it.
Step 5) Under Choose Verification Method, pick Add META Tag
Step 6) Copy the tag and sign into your Blogger site*
Step 7) Go to your Dashboard, Choose the Template tag, then click Edit Html.
Step 8) You may want to download your template at this point. In case you screw up something, you'll have a back up.
Step 9) Use your browsers "Find" (ctrl+F) and search for body>.
Step 10) Paste the code provided by Google right before the body tag and save.
Step 11) Go back to the Google Verification page and press Verify.
Step 12) In Google, click the Sitemap tab and press "Add a Sitemap" (found in top left corner).
Step 13) Under Choose Type, click Add General Web Sitemap.
Step 14) Skip Google's Steps 1 + 2 (Blogger does this for you) and type http://yoursite.blogspot.com/rss.xml into step 3. Obviously change yoursite to the name of your website.
Step 15) Press Add Web Sitemap and your done!

Good news - You've finished the nice long road to getting your website into the Google Database.
Bad news - Its going to take a while. Google has many, many websites to go through before they get to yours. Don't get impatient. Your site should be on Google soon!

Agloco - Browsing for Bucks?

Theres a lot of controversy over whether or not Agloco will deliver. Make money while surfing the internet? This is something we've seen before, most recently with SlashMySearch, but this is something different. Remember the days where web browsers had ads attached to them? Not only did we have to develop tunnel vision to read through web pages, we had a constant stream of ads at the top of our screen. God knows this was annoying, when most people had enough they payed extra to switch to a browser with no strings. But what if you got paid to keep the ads on your screen? What if for every page you visited, your earnings grew? Agloco is offering what we've just gotten over. They offer you the opportunity to place a "Viewbar" on the top of your page, and in return you get paid for doing what you do every day. While websites,blogs,etc. are usually the only ones getting a piece of the "ad-pie", they want to give earnings to the people that deal with the ads as well.
Agloco makes money in a number of ways:

1) Searching - Search engines pay an average of .10 for every search with the "Viewbar".
2) Commissions - When you click on an ad and buy an item, a percentage of the purchase is paid.
3) Software Distribution - Some companies pay services to offer trials of their software.
4) Recruiting - Companies sometimes pay for a service to refer new members to them.

Each advertisement is relevant to the website being viewed, so its not a complete waste. The money earned by Agloco is then distributed among its users. Users can make money in a few different ways as well.

1) Use - Earn a monthly share depending on the amount of time the "Viewbar" is used that month.
2) Shares - Depending on how many hours you use the "Viewbar", you earn shares in the company.
3) Referral - Refer other people to the program and get paid as much as they make.
4) Commission - Get paid a slice of anything purchased from an affiliate link.

My favorite part is how money you can make. According to Agloco, if you refer 5 people, who in turn refer 5 people, and each person spends 5 hours a month online; you will make a whopping $4886.25. Now think about it this way. WHO SPENDS 5 HOURS A MONTH ONLINE? Most people I know spend 5 hours a DAY online. Change it to 25 hours a month and just think of the possibilities.
A lot of people are saying that this is just another pyramid scheme. They're saying that the people who heard about it first are the only ones that will make any money. What may prove this wrong is... drum roll please... The company has barely started! The website is up and running and gaining members, but the "Viewbar" is still under development! So those saying that they aren't even going to try it are missing out. The more members Agloco gets, the more money it makes, so every participant is a worthwhile affiliate. I'm not going to tell you what to do. I personally decided to put my two cents in and see where Agloco gets me, but I fully respect anyone who doesn't want to support "yet another" advertisement company.

AuctionAds - Ebays Answer to Adsense

AuctionAds is a new advertising program from our favorite auction site, Ebay. AuctionAds works just like Adsense or Chitika. The only difference is the ads are made up of live auctions on ebay. Once you sign up you have the option customizing your advertisement to fit your sites theme. Not only can you change the color, but you can add keywords so that the ads displayed better suit your market. They give you the html code, and you paste it on your website. Its as simple as that. Now, if your anything like me, you'll want to know how you make money and how you get paid. For every person that clicks on your ad and then wins an auction, you will make up to 65% of ebay's commission on that item. For every user you refer to AuctionAds, you will make 2% of everything they make for 6 months. Also, for every user you refer to Ebay, you'll pull in between $12 and $22 for each new active user. There is a $10 limit before they pay you, which is a lot less than the $100 Adsense limit. Once you pass your $10 limit, they forward your money to your PayPal account on first of every month. AuctionAds isnt bad for yet another ad program.

PayPerPost Review

Want to make real money fast? Haha, I feel like an advertiser when I say that. I'm not though, I'm just telling you whats worked for me so far. PayperPost is an amazing FREE program, and there are a few ways to make A LOT of money. First is by clicking the link on the bottom of this page. If you sign up, you can review this blogpost and we both make $7.50 in the process. Second is by blogging, writing on your website, whatever it is you do. Once you sign up for PayperPost you have access to an entire list of advertisers who are looking for reviews for their websites, services, etc. Each advertiser has a set amount of money they are willing to pay you for writing about them. Just looking now, there are approximately 80 open opportunity ranging from $5 to no joke, $500... Usually the only requirement is that you write 100 to 300 words. So far writing this I've already fulfilled the lesser of the requirements. It's really an easy way to make money! Now heres the part that I'm excited about. Writing blog entries (while maybe paying for that new guitar I've been wanting), is chump change compared to this. Once you sign up, for FREE let me remind you, your allowed to "recruit" new users. For every blogger that you refer to PayperPost, you make $15... For every advertiser you'll make $25... If I had never heard of this before, it might sound too good to be true. Thankfully, for my wallets sake, it is.

Hack: Hide Navbar (hide/show button)

Once again! A quick note before we start... Because the Navbar is a form of advertising for Blogger, it may be against your terms of service to manipulate it. I haven't found anything to document this, and I'm personally using a Navbar hiding tecnique myself, so I'm not saying that it's going to get you into trouble. What I am saying, is if you do get in trouble and your blog happens to get deleted; I told you it was a possibility and I am in no way responsible... Yey Disclaimer!

Ok, this code will allow you to hide the Navbar when you want to, and show it if your editing your site. The navbars pretty helpful, so this may be better than just getting rid of it. Use your browsers "Find" (ctrl+F) function and search for <head> right below, paste the following.
<script type="text/javascript">
var showHeader=false;
function ShowHideNav()
{
showHeader=!showHeader;
var nav=document.getElementById("navbar-iframe");
if (showHeader)
{
nav.style.visibility="visible";
nav.style.display="block";
}
else
{
nav.style.visibility="hidden";
nav.style.display="none";
}
}
</script>
<style type="text/css">
#navbar-iframe {
visibility: hidden;
display: none;
}
</style>

Ok, that should hide the navigation, but to get it to click on and off, you need to paste the following code in a Page Element. I put mine in a regular html section.

<span style="cursor:pointer;" onclick="ShowHideNav();">
Show|Hide
<a style="visibility:hidden;" href="http://bloggingforsoup.blogspot.com"></a>
</span>

Remember to exchange the link to my website with yours and you should be all set! Enjoy hiding your new Navigation Bar!

Hack: Hide Navbar (permanently)

A quick note before we start... Because the Navbar is a form of advertising for Blogger, it may be against your terms of service to manipulate it. I haven't found anything to document this, and I'm personally using a Navbar hiding tecnique myself, so I'm not saying that it's going to get you into trouble. What I am saying, is if you do get in trouble and your blog happens to get deleted; I told you it was a possibility and I am in no way responsible... Yey Disclaimer!

*Note - This is the easy way to hide your Navbar. If your looking for a Navbar that you can use and then hide when your done, click here. Alright, Go to the Edit HTML portion of you dashboard and use the "Find" (ctrl+F) function of your browser. Search for #header-wrapper and paste the following code directly above it.
#navbar-iframe {
height: 0px;
visibility: hidden;
display: none;
}

Horray! No more Navbar!

Hack: Add a Picture to Your Header

Use your browsers "Find" (ctrl+F) function to search for <div id='header-wrapper'> . Underneath, you will see the following.

<div id='header-wrapper

<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='1' showaddelement='no'>
<b:widget id='Header1' locked='true' title='blogtitle (Header)' type='Header'/>
</b:section>
</div>

To enable yourself to add a picture to your header, your going to need to change the maxwidgets number to 5, shadow element to yes, and locked to false. Now you can add your picture, just go to Template, choose Page Elements, and click on the header at the top. You can now upload your picture to the page. while editing your header, you should also make sure to check the placement option so that it says "Instead of title and description", and your all set. You should now be able to drag your header anywhere you like on your page!