I was chatting with some fellow bloggers in the Blog Tips Google+ community (Ryan Hanley and Sarah Arrow) about how we spot spammy guest post requests. I had commented that a possible spam sign for me were guest post requests coming from a Gmail, Yahoo or MSN account and not from a real domain. Ryan responded that he uses his Gmail account the most and had never had a problem but probably due to him working to establish a relationships before requesting a guest post. I completely agreed with that.
This conversation got me thinking about how I work around this issue, because, like Ryan, I use my Gmail account the most as well. I have Gmail set-up so that I can use Gmail but send the email from any of my domain specific email accounts. I manage and use one inbox.
I have my Gmail set-up so that all domain branded email ids forward to my Gmail account. I can also have Gmail set-up so I can send emails using my domain accounts as well. I prefer to use domain specific email addresses for two primary reason, first and foremost: branding. Secondly to protect my personal email a little.
Using one Gmail inbox makes managing your email easy. Interested in how to set-up one inbox using Gmail? Read on, it’s really simple and only takes a few minutes.
How to set-up one inbox using Gmail
As I mentioned, I have various domain email accounts. I have a few for this blog and the other sites I run, along with email accounts for my Empty Cabin Media development business. All together, I probably have 15+ email accounts that I needed to check on a daily or weekly basis. Seems like a lot of email accounts to manage right? Well it was until I started using an often unknown feature in Gmail that gives me one inbox for all of my mail.
Setting this up is easy and involves two primary steps:
Routing all of your incoming email to your Gmail inbox
Setting-up your domain specific emails in Gmail so you can send email from them within Gmail.
Many people don’t realize you can do #2, but you can.
Forward all of your mail to your Gmail account
The first step in having the “One inbox to rule them all” is to configure all of your email accounts to forward to your single Gmail account. The way to do this is dependent on your hosting company, but generally there are email settings and the option to forward your email is in the specific email addresses settings. Here’s a screenshot of it on Media Temple.
After you’ve set this up, send a test email to make sure you you set-up everything correctly. Assuming you did, you should get your test email in your Gmail inbox. Step 1 towards email domination, complete!
One note: By default, if you reply to these emails in Gmail, the reply from address will be Gmail account’s email, not the email address the email was sent to. This can be a problem for a few reasons:
Since people sent the email to one address, they won’t be expecting to receive a reply from other email address.
You may want to keep your personal email priviate or restrict who has direct access to it.
For branding, it’s better to respond to emails sent to your blogs and business from the blog or business domain.
Responding from a domain branded email can be perceived as more professional
We’ll resolve this in the next.
Set-up Gmail so you can respond from your email accounts (the real trick)
To set-up Gmail so you can respond from different email addresses, do the following
Login to your primary Gmail account, the one you’re setting up to be your “One Inbox”
Click on the settings icon, just below your profile picture in the top right corner.
Select Settings, you’ll see a screen like this:
Next, click on Accounts and Imports. Where the green arrow is pointing in the screen shot above. You’ll see a screen like this:
Note the Send mail as section. This is where we’ll add the additional email accounts.
To add an email, click on the Add another email address you own link, pointed to by the green arrow above. A pop-up will appear. If you have pop-ups disabled, you’ll need to enable them to complete the remaining steps.
In the pop-up, enter the name and email address you’re adding. Note, the name will be seen by people you reply to. For example, on my newsletter email account for Side Income Blogging, I don’t put my name. I put “Side Income Blogging Newsletter” instead.
After entering the name and email, press the Next Step button.
On the Send mail through your SMTP server? page, just use the default settings and click the Next Step button.
You will then be prompted to verify your email address. Confirm that the email address you want to add is correct, and press the Send Verification button.
Assuming you set-up forwarding correctly above, you’ll receive a verification email in your Gmail inbox. Follow the instructions in that email, and you’ll be all set-up.
To confirm your email is set-up and working correctly, compose a new email in your Gmail account. The from section of your email will now have a drop-down containing all of the emails that you set-up in the steps above. Slick huh?
One catch though, and I personally don’t worry about this at all, but just in case some of you might.: Anyone that knows a little about how email works can view the raw email header and get your original email address. Most people wouldn’t even think to do this and if they do, it’s not a huge deal.
One Inbox = huge difference
For me personally, having one inbox where I can send and receive everything has had a huge positive productivity benefit for me. Before I had this set-up, I had about 10 different email accounts I had to keep track of. I had to check them frequently and deal with the often less than intuitive mail interface. The biggest issue for me was remembering to check them. I always forgot and would miss important emails.
But no more – Honestly this whole set-up is so seamless, I often forget I’m using multiple email accounts. Google is even smart enough to recognize where the original email was sent to, and when you reply it defaults to that same address.
If you don’t have this set-up, I would highly advise you do – You’ll thank me later when you’re spending more time writing great articles and less time managing email.
Today I have a special post, Quinn from CubicleFree.com and myself have both been building authority websites and sharing all the details of the process on our sites. We have been emailing back and forth some suggestions on how to improve each other’s site and learning a lot.
The information we were emailing each other we thought would have a lot of value and learning’s for other people building authority niche sites so decided to do a detailed review of each other’s site and post it for all to see!
You can see his review of my authority website here:
This post grew into a pretty long post and so here is a breakdown of the post…
Who Is Quinn
Benefit of a Cold Eyes Review and Publicly Sharing it
Monetization Review
Action Step #1
Action Step #2
Content Review
Action Step #3
Action Step #4
Web Design / Engagement
Action Step #5
Action Step #6
Action Step #7
Action Step #8
On Page SEO
Action Step #9
Action Step #10
Off Page SEO
Action Step #11
Action Step #12
Who Is Quinn @ CubicleFree.com?
Quinn has been making all his living full time online for the last 10 years. What I like about his approach is he is solving real problems and adding real value with the sites he builds. He has been able to make six figures per year and is continuing to build his online empire. I believe I have a lot to learn from him and am looking forward to seeing his thoughts on how I can improve my website!
In fact one of his websites made almost $400k in one year!
His review of my authority site is located on his blog – here
The Benefit of a Cold Eyes Review and Sharing it Publicly
When I launched my authority website in September I created this site to showcase my progress and keep me on track! However, one aspect of sharing my site I did not anticipate was the benefit of making contacts with other people at all different stages of growth in their online businesses. These contacts and discussions that have resulted from me publicly sharing my case study have been enjoyable and definitely rewarding.
Publicly Sharing For Others To Learn From – By sharing the review of each others site publicly other people will be able to learn how we think about improving sites and apply what they think is beneficial to their own website.
Cold Eyes Review – In my day job I work essentially as a project manager and one requirement is for a cold eyes review at several gates in the lifecycle of a project. The benefit of a knowledgeable set of eyes reviewing the status of your project/website/business is that they bring a different perspective and can add some suggestions I may have completely overlooked.
Review of Authority Website
In this section I will go through 5 aspects of his site and provide what I believe are his key strengths and what I believe are areas for improvement.
RSA Courses Online makes money by providing useful content answering questions about RSA courses online which results in visitors from search engines finding the site. Once on the site they are directed to the money pages which are in depth reviews of online RSA courses. If a visitor goes to one of the RSA online courses website and purchases the course Quinn makes affiliate income from the sale.
Monetization Strength
Website to Offer Match – There is very tight alignment between the topic of the website and the main affiliate offer.
RSA Courses Online is doing a great job of Website Topic to Affiliate Offer Overlap!
Monetization Improvement – Improve Conversion from Blog Posts to Money Pages
Improve conversion from the blog posts on the website to the money pages. There is one tool that can do this effectively…
ACTION STEP #1– Install the plugin QuickAdsense (free) and create 2 ads for all blog posts, one to go top left alignment and one to go bottom middle both of which are to direct people from blog posts to your money pages.
Monetization Improvement – Improve Conversion from Money Pages to Affiliate Sales Page
I believe this improvement will have the biggest impact by improving click through rate from money pages to the affiliate offer. The basis for my recommendation here comes from standard conversion advice shared by people like Derek Halpern from SocialTriggers and Peep Laja from ConversionXL.
“Remove all extra clutter – links, menus, buttons – that have nothing to do with the particular ad/campaign. The point is that the visitor cannot ignore your message by navigating away, and therefore focuses on only that page.”
Right now there is too much clutter on the money pages resulting in people that have made it to the money page leaving the site and going to other posts instead of converting into a sale.
Current Money Page:
Recommended Money Page:
See an example of the Landing Page – Here (quickly built with StudioPress Landing Page)
I believe this change will result in the biggest improvement for your site!
ACTION STEP #2 – Turn your money posts into landing pages – Since the site RSA Courses Online is built using Genesis/StudioPress theme this step will be easy…
Create a new page using the template “Landing Page”
Copy the HTML from the old post into the new landing page
301 redirect the old post URL to the new page URL using plugin “redirection”
Review Module 2 of 5 – Content
Content Strength
Quinn is a big believer in adding value to his visitors, his beliefs are aligned with my own when it comes to truly helping people with websites and that will result in traffic and income.
A lot of the content at RSACoursesOnline is truly helpful and provides valuable information about how to get your RSA certification.
Content Improvement –Add More Content
Right now there are 12 pages indexed in Google for RSACoursesOnline. Although the topic of RSA courses online doesn’t allow for a daily posting schedule due to the topic not being deep enough there are opportunities for creating more content to increase the number of daily visitors.
Action Step #3 – Add 1 to 2 Posts Per Week
Continue creating good quality content but increase the rate of posting to 1-2 posts per week. One option to get quality content created for a low cost is this strategy.
Even though RSACoursesOnline does not have AdSense on it I still think it is a good idea to build a website that complies with AdSense Terms of Service. The terms Google defines for its AdSense publishers is likely a good indication of what its search uses as part of its quality score when reviewing websites. Therefore I always try and make sure my websites have an About, Contact and Privacy Policy page.
Action Step #4 – Add Privacy Policy Page
I like to use the free tool here to generate my Privacy Policies. On the post I make sure to flag it as a nofollow noindex post since it is duplicate content. Place the link to the privacy policy page as a drop down in the contact page or create a new menu to go in the footer and place it there.
Review Module 3 of 5 – Web Design / Engagement
With the Web Design/Engagement module I will be looking at the current layout of the website to provide the user with a good experience and how well the site is set up to achieve the goals of the site.
Strength – The website is built using WordPress and Genesis/Studiopress which results in a very user friendly and attractive site.
Web Design/Engagement Improvements
Below are a list of all the action steps in the Web Design/Engagement module that I believe would improve the user experience on the RSA Courses Online website
Action Step #5 – Change Slogan
When someone comes to a website you have 6 seconds to have them understand what the website is about. When I first went to the website I did not understand “what is an RSA course” although most people that get there would understand what it is I believe modifying the slogan to be more clear would provide value.
Try one of these which more clearly lays out what an RSA course is and the benefit of it…
Best way to become a bartender in Australia
How to be a certified bartender in Australia
Fastest way to become a licensed server in Australia
Make more money by becoming licensed to serve liquor in Australia
Action Step #6 – Logo Modifications
Currently the logo doesn’t clearly indicate what the RSA Courses Online website is about. A logo that includes an aspect of Australia, Online and Liquor would help immediately convey the purpose and benefit of the website.
Current vs Suggested
vs.
The suggested logo is just an example of a more tightly focused logo (even though its very ugly and not recommended).
Action Step #7 – Modify Embedded Video to Fill Entire Area
Currently the video is the default embed code size and doesn’t eat up the entire area. By modifying the embed code to a custom size it will take up the space and look more “finished”.
Either center the video or create a custom embed code size to fill the entire space.
Action Step #8 – Modifications To “Welcome” Section
Based on many heat map studies the welcome section of the RSA Courses Online website is likely the most looked at section of the site.
Improving this area should result in lower bounce rates and improved click through rates from the homepage to the money pages.
The problem Google is having is determining what region your website is built for. Since you live in Canada and server is located in the US Google would have a hard time of telling what market your website is for. To correct this add relevant Australia keywords on the website. Currently on the homepage there is no mention of Australia.
Add “Australia” keyword naturally to the homepage (not there now)
Link to relevant Australia Bar/RSA links in the sidebar on posts
Review Module 5 of 5 – SEO Off Page
This is interesting since Quinn has clearly made a decision to not build backlinks…
“I will not be doing anything that is potentially harmful including fancy backlink strategies”
However, from my point of view the benefit of working to build some high quality relevant white hat backlinks outweighs the risk.
Current Link Profile:
From Majestic SEO the link profile for RSACoursesOnline is showing high trust flow due to a quality link from an existing website Quinn owns. Typically most sites have a higher citation flow than trust flow so to improve off page SEO Quinn could do well to increase the number of backlinks.
There is one simple strategy that can help build valuable white hat links and that is Blog Commenting + Guest Posting on relevant websites
Action Step #11 – Blog Comment on Relevant Sites
Using blog commenting to reach out to other relevant websites in your potential market is a great way to start building relationships and links.
Make a list on a Google document or hire a VA to make a list of all bar, server, nighlife forums and blogs for the Australia
Visit each or on a weekly basis to leave a value added comment
Action Step #12 – Guest Post on Relevant Sites
Once you have built a relationship with some of the request the opportunity to guest post on their site and receive a backlink from them
Identify websites from the list in the action step above that you may be able to guest post on
Build a relationship with the webmaster by emailing them and leaving comments
Approach them about potentially guest posting their website
Over the next month we will implement the changes…I will make the changes Quinn recommends on my site and he will do the same on the recommendation above. On Jan 7 we will share the results of what changes we can confirm worked and which ones failed or we couldn’t get enough data to measure.
Did I Miss Anything Obvious?
What Improvements Would You Recommend?
If there are any improvements to his site http://www.rsacoursesonline.com/ I didn’t include but should have please put them in the comments section below and I will update this post with the recommendation and who recommended it…
Action Step #13 – to be added from readers’ comments below…
With my first full month of monetization under my belt I have been happy to see a full month of earnings. For my site to be only 3 months old and generating the income it is I am very thankful. There is still a lot of work to do before it really achieves what I know it can but it is off to a great start. This month had set backs as well.
In this income report I will share in a TON of detail about what I have done to my site both on page and off page that has resulted in the income it has generated to date. (more…)
When my site was exactly 2 months old on Oct 8 a Google Page Rank(PR) update occurred and my the PR became a PR2 – Is this good, bad or does it even matter? PR used to be a key metric that websmasters talked about but most people have now come to realize that PR on its own means nothing. But what about my site, it’s 2 months old and is already a PR 2 – do I care? (more…)
During my first year of blogging in 2007, I watched my new personal finance blog grow from earning nothing for months to earning a little over $500.00. The whole concept of making money blogging was surprising to me and frankly I wasn’t really prepared. I kept emails from my advertisers, but I didn’t keep track of the financial details like I should have. This unfortunately bit me at tax time the following year. After spending almost a whole day doing my taxes, I decided I really needed to keep better track of my blog finances. I immediately put an initial tracking system in place that focused on simplicity. I’ll be sharing that system with you further down.
Tracking your blog’s income and expenses
An essential part of treating your blog like a business, is tracking your blog’s income and expenses. Tracking income and expenses not only provides you with an up to date perspective on how your blog is doing financially, but it will also prove incredibly useful at tax time. For many, the accounting work behind a blog or small business can seem a bit overwhelming, but in fact it’s fairly simple and doesn’t require a great deal of time. Of course for larger blogs, where there may be contractors, employees, advertisers, leased office space, and many different expenses, the accounting can get a little complicated and an accountant is recommended. I personally have been blogging and earning side income for 6 years, and haven’t felt the need to use an accountant yet.
Income tax on your blog income
I mentioned taxes, unfortunately our government wants their fair share. Income from your blog is taxable and should be reported on your tax returns. The US tax system is a “pay as you go system”, meaning you have to pay taxes as your earn income. For those of you working for a company, your employer does this for you. If you’re independent or run your own business, you’ll need may need to make quarterly tax payments to avoid penalties.
There are rules called Safe Harbor rules that may apply to your blog’s income and can help you avoid penalties. You can read more on Safe Harbor rules in this article at Bargaineering. If you aren’t sure, always consult a tax adviser. Trust me, I’m far from being a tax expert.
How I track my blog income and expenses
there are many different options you can use to track your blog’s income and expenses: from very powerful software to simple spreadsheets. As I said, I love simplicity and personally use a combination of the following:
I created a simple Income spreadsheet using Google Docs that tracks my income and expenses on a monthly basis. The top portion contains any revenue from advertisers, affiliates, and my consulting/development work. I put a line item for each advertiser and affiliate so I can see which income sources perform the best. I also have a line item for each expense as well. These are things like hosting, software services, domain names, internet, etc. Breaking these out is a big help at tax time. I keep my spreadsheets for each year as well, so I can compare prior years with my current year expenses and income.
I use Freshbooks to manage all of my consulting and development work. Freshbooks is used to track my projects, time spent on those projects, managing my client contacts, client invoicing, and for reporting. Freshbooks has proven to be an invaluable tool for my services based business and has the additional advantage of giving my business a professional invoicing platform my client’s appreciate. Highly recommended.
I keep my business and personal accounts separate. I actually have three accounts at ING Direct. One is a a Firewall account that where all of my electronic transfers or payments come from. For example, if I receive a payment from Paypal, the Firewall account is the account that actually receives the payment. I do this to protect myself in the event any of my payment services accounts get compromised. I also keep a checking account that I use to make payments or purchases. I also have a savings account where I keep excess funds. ING Direct is a really great online bank with exceptional customer service. I’ve been using them for about 5 years, and have absolutely zero complaints.
If you would like to open up an ING Direct account for your business or personal use, contact me and I’ll send you a referral. You’ll get $50 and I’ll get $10. I’ve been using ING Direct since 2007, and have been extremely happy with them. They offer some of the best customer service I have ever worked with.
I also use Paypal for all electronic payments. I’m not a big fan of them, but they are pretty much the defacto standard right now for electronic payment. I prefer to not deal with paper check and cash payments, and thus get all of my payments sent via Paypal. I track all Paypal transaction fees as expenses and write them off as such on my taxes.
Stay profitable
The other primary benefit of tracking your finances is so you can see how your blog or website is doing financially. We all want to be profitable, and keeping track of your income and expenses each month will let you see how you’re doing. Like most, I love income and despise expenses, so I minimize my expenses. I don’t generally pay for much of anything outside of hosting and I do pay a premium for that. With blog hosting, you get what you pay for and you can’t earn income from your blog if it’s down or slow. Don’t skimp here, you’ll regret it.
I also use my financial information to track which advertisers and affiliates are working for me, and which are not. I often change strategies, prune income sources and add new one’s frequently. My income and expenses spreadsheet is the primary driver for these decisions.
Wrapping up
Keeping up with income and expenses for my handful of blogs and websites literally takes only a few minutes each week. Honestly, if I spend more than 30 minutes I’d be surprised. I’ve found that spending a little bit of time each week, saves an enormous amount of time quarterly and at the end of the tax year. Tracking your finances does not have to be complicated, do what works for you. Just be sure you track everything that comes in and everything that comes out.
