To help me keep focused, I’ve set a target. To get £10 a week in Adwords revenue.

This doesn’t seem like much but if I achieve this it’ll add up to £520 in a year. It’s also an incremental target, an additional £10 per month. Adding up to £3376 per year. Subsequent years this effort will add up to – £6240 for very little additional input.

I feel it should be a realistic target although I’m sure it’s not going to easy.  I need traffic and I need good clicks. To achieve this I’ve got to put effort and time in to three areas.

1. Traffic for AdWords revenue - I need good quality content and links to it from good relevant sites. With quality content, not selling anything in particular, sites and forums tend to be willing to carry links. It’s very involving and time consuming on forums but informative. I keep getting ideas for content from the questions folks ask.

To get sites interested it a bit hit and miss so far – More work to do on this side. 

I also need to look into the world of feeds and ways of encouraging links to be passed on.

2. Content for AdWords revenue - More writing but making sure it will attract good high paying ads. These adwords need to be relevant to subject and the readers.  Before I go in to any subject in depth I’ll be looking in to what adverts and interest potential there is.

3. Format for AdWords revenue – Although I’ve done some work on this I’m sure I could do better. I might be overloading the pages at the moment. It’s hard to tell with the traffic I’ve got but as the traffic builds I’ll be able to see which placements and styles work best.

At moment half way through January 2010 I’m averaging  £6.22 .  I’ll see how I do.

After writing about using a wood-burning stove and looking at how much gas we are saving , I realised some simple steps were needed to stop some of the heat loss from our house.

Draughty door

I’ve draught proofed our problem front door. I had tried in the past without much success due to a wonky door, frame and floor.  After putting my mind to it, I came up with an easy and cheap way of draught proofing.

It might not be for everyone, some simple wood work  is required along with access to a router.

Have a look at details HOW I DRAUGHT PROOFED MY DOOR on the cheap

This Guide and Analysis is for anyone looking to purchase a wood burning stove.  My views are totally independent and give a balanced opinion of the realities based on personal experience.  It’s the kind of information that  manufacturers and suppliers don’t focus on.   

If you are thinking about buying a wood burner or multi fuel stove then this is worth a read.

We’ve been runing a stove now for over 2 years.  From our experience, I’ve reviewed and analysed the choice we made to Live with a Wood Burning Stove.

I’ve tried to answer the question.  Is Living with a Wood Burning Stove worth it?

Looking at the money side, the environment aspects and the lifestyle change in some detail leads me to answer “YES it’s worth it”.

Have a read through and see if you agree with my conclusions. Please leave me any comments, suggestions or queries. 

<< Read - Wood Burning Stove – Is it Worth it?>> Includes my wood burning stove running costs.

<<Leave a response>>

And..  Feel free to link to the article if you think others out there may find it interesting. 

Thanks,

Andy

Now I’ve got a few pages of content up and a tiny trickle of traffic.

With some Traffic I should eventually get some Clicks on the AdWords BIG BUT…The Adverts that AdWords is putting up don’t relate directly to the content. So they are not relevant and won’t get clicks.

The content is about “Buying Timber” <view it here> so I thought I’d get adverts from timber suppliers. I’m getting more for timber windows and joinery companies.  I needed to figure out how the AdWords are targeted.

But first, I did a check to see if there are any relevant advertisers out there. I did some searching directly on Google and found there are a few.  These are the few I want to get next to my content.

So how does Google decide which adverts to put up?

It’s keyword based, with some kind of adjustment for the the value of adverts. By this I mean, if  Google and myself can make more per click using a less frequent Keyword, then that advert will come up first.

To try and get the right AdWords up I’ve done two things.

1.   Used Section Targeting

I’m getting adverts for timber windows. This must be been picked up from a navigation link to my Sliding Sash  Window Blog. I’ve now used section targeting so the AdWords robot will put more weight on the intended page content.

To do this Ive added the following to my page template in the HTML code (to modify all the pages)

<!– google_ad_section_start –>     This placed before the text

<!– google_ad_section_end –>    This is placed after the text

There is another command that can be used.

<!– google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) –>  I might add this in as well before the navigation menu

I also need to see if  I know need to but the start and end around the meta data in the header. To get that looked at.

2.  Tweaking Content

I’ve gone through the content and attempted to increase the Key-Word density. Concentrating on “Timber Merchant”.  This is tricky as I want the text to get clunky, to has to easily readable.

The crawler robots put more emphasis on Headings, bold text and italics. I’m going to have another sweep through and see what difference it makes.

So far there has been a slight improvement in the advert relevance but it’s not good enough yet. Google states it can take up to two weeks for the Section Targeting to take effect.  In the mean time I’ll keep tweaking but I’m going to need patience.

This is where I’m starting to get serious. AdWords is one thing but if I can find the right advertisers with the right products I should be able earn good commissions on the introductions.

So, maybe a beginner at woodworking  will be looking for a supplier of tools and equipment. I have to find the right suppliers with the right offers and advertise them alongside my content.

To this end I’ve been looking at various Affiliate networks and I’ve signed up to a couple.

Note of Caution: The terms and conditions need a good read through. I spotted a point about an inactivity charge. If the adverts don’t work then after six months I’ll have to start paying the affiliate network a monthly charge.

However I have total confidence that this will work out well. There’s no point bothering otherwise. It gives me a stick as well as a carrot to make sure it works.

I’ll be doing some more research, picking some affiliate programs and adding them in.  With careful monitoring and adjustments planned I’ll be learning a lot as I proceed.

It’s OK having quality content but if no-one finds it then no-one will be clicking on the AdWords.

So far I’ve got a two pronged strategy.

First – Organic “Google” search traffic. I’ve read up about optimising pages to improve search.  I’ve done a bit of that. Including:

• Giving the pages individual titles.
• I’ve still got to add tags in to meta data. 
• The Site-map has been and submitted to Google Webmaster
• The text is written with consideration to possible Keywords
• There’s a few inbound links already in place

Second – I’ll be changing my profiles on forums and spending some time chipping into threads when I’ve got something useful to contribute. I’m going to be looking for like minded folks where we share common interests and could share links. 

I’ve yet to get my head round feeds, twitter, facebook etc. but I’ll be getting around to it.

With the Home page in something like a reasonable format, I’m ready to start adding some content/pages.

I could just copy the home page, rename it and change the content. With dream-weaver there is an easier way.

Dreamweaver Templates

Saving the home page as a template allow me to click on New, pick the template and just change the content I’ve specified as editable.

This has the advantage that I can change the template and all the pages based on it will automatically change. This will be a big time saver when I’ve got loads of pages.

With this in place I quickly created 18 pages of content from text I’d written in Word.  Simple text links then give the navigation.

Now I’ve got something that looks Like a proper Website.

Well I don’t think it will be turning many heads yet but it’s a start. I’ve got some adwords on and after many hours, got them on in the right place.

It might seem like a simple thing to do, I dare say it is now I know how to do it. Getting to that stage however involves getting to grips with the very basics of CSS scripting.

There’s a million and one tutorials out there but non I can find address the needs of novice like me. I think they are mostly written by experts who assume your vocabulary is the same as theirs.  I found my self skipping around having to research particular words used in different contexts.

If I can remember what its like for a beginner when I’m an expert. I should have a go at a tutorial.

In the mean time I’ll just jot down how I got the adwords to be positioned correctly.

I had a  problem positioning  the Adwords banner it in the header.  

I eventually defined a new “div” (that’s a division or as I like to think of it a “box”) this is done on the CSS style sheet. Using the code:

#header_ad1 {
 background-color: #99F;
 height: 60px;
 width: 468px;
 position: absolute;
 top: 15px;
 right: 0px;

The HTML page then calls the division up with the code:

<div id=”header_ad1″>_______</div>

And then I put the Adwords in the “box”  (where the line is)

Simple really!  After 4 hr’s research. 

Dream weaver can automate the code creation and addition to CSS Style sheet.  Making the right choices is a mystery though, unless you know what its actually doing.

I’ve put this guide together to help beginners, just like I was a couple of years back. It covers the kinds of questions that can be embarrassing to ask as they seem so basic.  If you are starting out on some serious wood working, carpentry or joinery, it will help you avoid some of the mistakes I’ve made.

The kind of questions covered:

• What timber / wood to buy?
• What is Redwood?
• What is White wood?
• What grade of timber to buy?
• What do timber grades mean?
• What is rough saw, PSE, PAR?
• What Timber sizes are available?
• What to look for when buying timber?
• Where is the best place to buy timber?

When you’ve got your wood you don’t want to dive straight in and make something. The timber needs preparing and acclimatising properly. This is another area that doesn’t seem to be covered in an easily available format so I’ve covered the basics:

• Preparing timber for final seasoning and acclimatising
• Acclimatising timber and How Long for?

The final stages gets the timber flat, straight square and true using a bench / table saw or band saw and planer – thicknesser.

• Cutting and planing timber to final sizes
• Cutting and planing warped and distorted timber
• Planing twisted, winding, bowed, springing and diamond timber

I hope you find this guide useful -

 < Beginners Guide to Buying and Preparing Timber>

Please use the responses / comments below to let me know how the guide works for you, suggest additions, corrections or criticisms.

Thanks

Andy

Quick background to this little project.

We’ve had an idea for a Trike for a few  many years now. A friend has bet me £20 he will finish a wooden bike before I’ve got the Trike done. So now the race is on.

The Trike is unusual as it’s bike based but will carry 3 passengers. It’s also going to have suspension!

Here’s a quick look at how my working  wooden model of the Trike suspension works. Bungee and beer can shocks. Hee Hee.

Thanks Dave for the rough road simulation.

With my friend concentrating on “Safety First” I think I’ve got a good chance.

Wooden Skid Lid

I plan to put more details up, let me know if you want to know more. I need some encouragement.