My first ever post at this site was titled “The Ark Is Now Ready To Sail!” I pictured out myself as an ark carrying worry-free thoughts and now ready to sail into a new world… a world of making money online.

At first, I was a bit skeptical asking “How can a web site particularly one focusing on blogs attract at least 2,000 visitors and make at least $20 per day?” I have read various success stories but could not help myself wondering if I can also do it. I realized that in order for me to find out, I should try it. From those stories, I found out that search engine optimization (SEO) is the key. I should optimize my blog posts in such a way that I rank high in the search engine results pages (SERPs) for specific keywords.

You see, visitors coming from the search engines are the ones who will bring you money. Since they arrived at your site looking for something, they are the ones who will have the tendency to be interested and click the ads displayed on your site. And we all know that every legitimate click converts into cash.

After finally getting my first pay-out of $159.58, I feel it’s time to share where I learned SEO.

There are many FREE SEO eBooks available in the internet. But these three are the ones that really helped me.

1. Guerilla Blogger’s Strategy and Tactics on How to Make Cash Online by Marhgil Macuha and Zigfred Diaz

I have always been a fan of the Prince of Philippine SEO, Marhgil Macuha. I am a subscriber of his web site and regularly posts comments there.  I like how he is being unselfish as he often shares his techniques and plans… and even his keywords. So when I decided to monetize my web site, it was his ebook co-authored by Zigfred Diaz that I first read. I even printed it and have it soft-bounded as my picture below shows:

Their “guerilla blogging” approach encouraged me that I can make money online even if I have a regular day job. Marhgil himself is working as IT analyst while Zigfred is a lawyer. Having a niche is also not necessary. And the most important thing I learned is about “keyword hijacking”. To have a steady stream of traffic to your site, the secret is to make posts about high-traffic low density (HITLOD) keywords. Meaning, make posts about keywords that has a high incident of people searching for them but has less competition in the SERPs. The authors cited various examples in this ebook.

This ebook is a must-read for every Filipino who wants to make money online as the authors are Filipinos themselves and as such, you can easily relate to what they are trying to say. The tips are presented in a very organized manner and they made sure that your non-geeky ears will not be having trouble understanding the various terminologies they presented.

You can download it for FREE at macuha dot com or at zdiaz dot com. I also suggest that you visit their sites and subscribe to their feeds to be always updated whenever they post some interesting tips.

2. Make Money Online With John Chow dot Com (How I Went From Zero to $27,000+ a Month By Blogging and How You Can Too) by John Chow

I tried to find out what Wikipedia has to say about John Chow but was amazed to know that there’s none! Considering that he is one of the most successful bloggers ever, I think he warrants a Wikipedia entry. His first post tells a little about him.

His web site has a tag line of “I Make Money Online By Telling People How I Make Money Online”. Every month, he blogs how much he earns and how he did it. His ebook was released on December 31, 2007 and its title is actually already outdated as he now earns around $40,000 per month. Wow!

John Chow’s ebook is very comprehensive but is pretty much easy to understand. He shares his recommended money-makers, tips for beginners, blogging mistakes to avoid, good habits to maintain, linking strategies and what he does when he has a writer’s block. He is a wordpress user and also gives his plugins preferences. His how tos on content creation, increasing subscriber count, encouraging comments, doing affiliate marketing and optimizing your Google Adsense ads are very useful.  He even shares his “evil” ways which caused him to be banned by Google.

You can download his ebook for FREE at john chow dot com. I also suggest that you visit his site and subscribe to his feeds.

3. Search Engine Optimization Made Easy by Brad Callen

Brad Callen is an SEO expert and the author of the best selling software SEO Elite and Keyword Elite. Although his ebook pretty much advertises the benefits of using his software, the tips he provide are presented in such a way that even if you don’t actually buy his software, you can still make it at the top of the SERPs.

His ebook is much more technical than the two previous ebooks above but his step-by-step tutorials are easy to follow. It focuses on keyword research and the onpage and offpage optimizations you must do in order for you to rank high in the Google SERPs and how to outrank your competitors. It also talks on how to get listed in Google within 24 hours, how important Page Rank (PR) is and how to avoid being banned by Google.

You can download the FREE ebook here.

I have not actually read these 3 ebooks in one sitting. On my free time, I read them and try the tips presented little by little.

After applying what I learned from these ebooks, I’m proud to say that my personal achievements were getting my first $100 from Google Adsense in 5 months, getting a PR of 2 after 3 months and having a subscriber count of 201 as of today.

If you are still wondering how you too can duplicate what I did, you might as well try these ebooks. However, I don’t guarantee that you will get immediate results. Just be diligent and couple that with patience.

Remember, hard work and determination always pay off. Good luck!

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Tags: adsense, ebook, google, keyword, SEO