If a picture can tell a thousand words, then a video can be even more effective on your blog.

Adding video to your blog post is pretty straightforward. Just copy the HTML shown below to insert a YouTube video into your blog.

<object width="425" height="350">
<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/suM0UzkWfrg"></param>
<p><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/suM0UzkWfrg"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"></embed>
</object>

Each YouTube video has a unique video identifier, which is the number after the v/ in the YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/v/suM0UzkWfrg. Just change this ID with the ID for your video, and past the HTML into your blog article.

You can also change the height and width of the displayed video rectangle by changing the values shown in the object tag and embed tag above (width="425" height="350").

If you're using Drupal for your blog tool, then you'll want to watch this video that walks through adding a YouTube video to your Drupal blog post:

http://s5.video.blip.tv/0560000198258/Roland-EmbeddingAYouTubeVideoInADr...

Basically the trick is to use the "Full HTML" input format instead of "Filtered HTML".

It was in June of 2006 that I really started investing time and effort into Internet Marketing.

My Internet marketing experience actually started about 10 years ago with a single web site for two shareware programs I wrote back in 1996. They've continued to sell a few licenses a month and altogether have brought in about $23,000 (that's spread out over 10 years though, which is only about 2 grand a year).

Hoping to spread my wings a little wider, last June of 2006 I converted that web site into a software download site with about 25,000 software vendor listings. Most of them were signed up with Regnow and were offering about 30% commission on sales.

I figured I'd make a killing due to the sheer number of titles on my site, but I was very wrong. I only made about $300 in the remainder of 2006 on affiliate commissions from that site, even though I threw almost twice that at it in PPC advertising.

Fortunately my own software sales increased significantly due to some major upgrade work I invested on them, and I also decided to start several other web sites and blogs (including BlogBelt). So far in 2007 I have averaged $700 in profits each month from these sites, and already have over $600 in profits secured for next month (I've already made that much this month, but won't receive the payouts until next month).

I'm pretty excited by those numbers! I started out by setting some very clear goals and I'm right on track with those goals.

Here are a few lessons I've learned over the last year:

1. There are no silver bullets

When I first signed up with Commission Junction last June, and was accepted by Adobe, I thought I'd make a fortune with their beautiful banner ads. I placed them on my software download site and emailed all my friends to tell them about it. They all though it looked super cool and we all figured I'd be quitting my day job the next month.

But as I wore out the keyboard and mouse checking sales statistics on CJ's site over the next couple of weeks, I started to get a sinking feeling that there must be a LOT more to it than just throwing a banner ad on the site.

This is a common point of discussion on many affiliate-related forums that I participate in, particularly ABestWeb which is my favorite. The only silver bullets are a lot of hard work, persistence, patience, and more hard work.

I get up every morning at about 5 a.m. to check on my web sites, post articles, advertise those articles, read other people's blogs, and try to learn something new that day along the way. I head off to my full time job at about 6:30, and often work another hour or so in the evening after the kids are in bed.

That's a lot of hard work, but it's starting to pay off. In another two years I hope to be in a position where I'll be able to quit my regular job and focus primarily on Internet marketing. I know it won't happen from any silver bullets.

2. Don't try to sell

I used to think that the goal of an article I'd write was to sell the reader on the product I was recommending, or convince them with fancy talk that they should purchase something right then and there.

Now I try to just provide information and alternatives, and let them make up their own minds. It's called Preselling, not selling and I still have a lot to learn about this concept.

I'm starting to get a glimpse though and it's working on a few of my pages, where I've provided several solutions to a known issue or problem. I get between 20 to 50 clicks a day on this page, and between 3 to 5 orders a day as well. One of the solutions is even "just do it yourself manually", and I literally give the reader instructions for doing it manually and not using one of the software programs I'm describing.

My goal with this approach is to build trust, not to make the sale. If trust is built, and the reader needs a solution, then he/she is in a position to click one of my links and make a purchase. That kind of trust won't be built by just trying to sell the reader on a particular product or service, no matter how good my sales talk might be.

3. Personalize, personalize, personalize

One of the reasons I converted my software site into a full-on download site was that in May of 2006 I decided to start advertising about 10 hand-picked vendors on the main page. I wrote a brief description of each program, and the benefits it provided. I made $150 in sales that first month, and figured if I had more programs to sell that I'd make even more money!

That turned out to be a blunder. When I switched over to an automated database-driven web site with over 25,000 titles, sales dropped to almost nothing the next month. I threw Google Adwords at it left and right, and submitted it to every search engine I could think of.

Nothing worked. It wasn't personalized. It looked like a cookie cutter operation. It looked like a sales trap and a banner farm mixed together. Visitors hate those kinds of sites, and they move quickly on to something better.

Recently I started personalizing all of my sites... even the software download site. I added a "Rick's Picks" section on the main page of the download site, with a link to a review of the program or a blog post that related to a user-experience I had with one of them. Presto, sales started coming in again. I've sold 5 copies already after implementing those minor changes just 2 weeks ago!

People want to know that there's a real person behind the web site - someone who cares about their problems and has legitimate solutions for them. They get enough SPAM every day, and sales phone calls during dinner. They don't need to stumble onto one of my sites and be hit by 4 flashy banner ads and a sales pitch.

I'm very pleased with the results of my first year as an internet affiliate marketer. I know I have a lot more to learn, and I'm looking forward to applying what I've learned over the last year.

I'm actually in the process right now of waling away from a few of my web sites and focusing on the 4 or 5 sites I'm most interested in, and that are the most profitable. Pruning away the time wasting sites will give me more time to focus on the good sites, and should make the rest of this year even more profitable.

Ever visited one of those web pages that's just a bunch of sales links related to the keyword you entered while doing a Google search? Those pages piss me off because they're a waste of my time. They have no actual content, and most likely they'll take me to a site full of annoying popups, ads, or spyware.

What do people think when they visit your blog? Are they presented with a several flashy banner ads, or directed to a post that they thought was going to be informative and interesting - only to discover that you're trying to sell them something?

I have to raise my hand at this point and plead GUILTY.

I have too many blog posts on various sites that are way too pushy, or even just a little too pushy. And that's really all it takes to lose the sale. It doesn't matter whether you're way too pushy or just a little too pushy. Your reader is going to feel like you're trying to sell them something, rather than connecting with them and providing them some useful or entertaining information.

It's all about the PREsell, not the sell. The Affiliate Masters Course has an excellent ebook on the subject of preselling vs selling. It's a free resource in pdf format: Affiliate Masters Course (1.5 MB)

I was handed this ebook about a year ago, but only hastily skimmed through it... thinking I knew everything and didn't need any help. After reading through it again last week, I realized that I really did need help, and I recommend it for anyone hoping to make money from their blog.

Here's my challenge to you:

Start reading through a few of your blog posts from a couple of months ago. Don't start with the recent posts, because your perspective will be too recent and you most likely won't see any problems (it's the same reason developers need quality assurance engineers to test their work, because they often don't see any bugs in code they've looked at over and over).

While you're looking over your older posts, try to put yourself in the position of someone visiting your blog for the first time. Now imagine that visitor is a little suspiscious of your site to start with, and probably wondering if they've stumbled upon yet another link farm.

Do your blog posts sound like they were written by a used car salesman?

Do they provide any valuable information? If you quickly answered "yes" to this question, let me slow you down and ask again: "Did you provide at least one or two other alternatives to the product or service you were recommending?"

If you only discussed a single product or service, then your blog post will most likely be perceived as yet another sales attempt. Your visitor will most likely be moving on. Even if they stick around, and even if they click one of your ad links, they'll be heading to your affiliate's site with distrust and negative feelings. All that means is a wasted click, and very few of those will convert to an actual sale.

I asked myself these same questions about several of my web pages, and went back and yanked a lot of the sales talk. I added discussions about alternatives. I informed rather than pushed.

The results were very noticeable. Click Through Rate on one post went up to 50% that same day, and I landed a sale. That page went from getting a small handful of clicks a day to literally over 50 clicks a day!

I have a lot of other pages that need the same kind of facelift, and I'll be focusing on the PREsell from here on out - not the Sell.

Last week I signed up with Shoutwire and started posting a few links to some news-worthy articles I have written. Friday I log in to shoutwire and receive a notification "Your IP address has been banned!" Has this happened to you?

Many social bookmarking sites I'm signed up with welcome self-promotion, but several do not. Shoutwire definitely does NOT, and they even have a forum so people can tattle-tale on whoever they think is spamming (jeesh people - get a LIFE).

Updated Sept 9, 2007: in fact, they're over there freaking out at Shoutwire about this article today in their Entertainment section, yet I can't comment on it because I was banned... and they're not providing much by way of constructive criticisms either.

Shoutwire let me post about 10 links (which each received several votes by other users who liked them) and then pulled the plug on me. Digg, Netscape, Reddit, Ma.gnolia, StumbleUpon, and a few others have let me post numerous links with no problems. In fact, Netscape emails me every week with a list of my articles that were voted on by other Netscape users, with an encouragement to keep up the good work!

What's your opinion about self-promotion on social bookmarking sites?

I think it should be allowed provided the articles being promoted have some useful content for the reader. Someone posting a link to their "buy viagra" landing page should be banned - that's blatant spamming. But posting a link to a good "how to" article, or even a book review or informative product review, should be fine... even if you're making money off the article. I mean, what's wrong with that anyway?

[Begin Rant]:

Is it wrong to get compensated for your hard work, especially when it doesn't cost your readers any more than they'd already be paying? Say someone clicks one of my links and makes a purchase. I get a commission from the merchant, not the customer, and often times I'm able to give the customer a discount coupon code or other discount link. Does that sound like such a bad thing? I don't think so, but I guess some people feel there's only so much money in the world and so if anyone else but them gets some of it, then it somehow takes away from their own little piece of the pie.

I think that's why some people won't click on Google ads. It doesn't cost them anything to click, yet they won't because somehow they feel that gives someone else money out of their own pocket. Well, it doesn't, so get over it.

[End Rant]

Here are a few articles that I've submitted - judge for yourself and let me know whether you think these should be acceptable to post on sites like Shoutwire, Digg or Netscape:

• Free J2EE Course - JavaServer Pages: This free online course will teach you how to create a JSP page, and how to use the Model 2 Design pattern to build extensibility and scalability into your J2EE web applications.
• Look at my Sidis - pedals and footwear review: Cycling is all about "maximixing your comfort in your discomfort", and you don't want to skimp on technical footwear. This article discuss the unique features of the LOOK bicycle pedals, and the Sidi handmade Italian road shoes.
• Two ways to get a free RAZR phone: Here are two ways to get a free cell phone direct from Cingular or from an authorized wireless service provider.
• How to transfer pictures from a RAZR phone to your PC: Three ways to transfer pictures from a RAZR phone to your PC, that actually work.
• Book review: Babyproofing Your Marriage: This book's subtitle "How to laugh more, argue less, and communicate better as your family grows" is definitely living up to its claim. My favorite part so far is how it helps dads understand literally what the hell happened to their wives once the kids arrived, and explains who is the strange person now occupying their bodies.

Each of these articles contain affiliate links to related products and services, and there are advertisements on each of these pages from which I make money. So they're definitely self-promotion. But they also provide the reader with some valuable information.

Take the How to transfer pictures from a RAZR phone to your PC article - it's received over 11,500 views in the last two months and several comments from visitors about how helpful the article was. They've been trying to find something that works and my article gave them the answer. They might not have found my article if I had not submitted it to Shoutwire, StumblUpon, Digg and other bookmarking sites.

Readers get to see screenshots of the program and learn how it works before buying it, and I make a small amount of money from affiliate commission on the Motorola PhoneTools product solution recommended in the article. They also find it for $10 on Amazon instead of paying Motorola $50!

I think that's a great combination; a true win-win.

If you have news-worthy blog posts or articles, and would like to boost traffic to them (who doesn't?), then here's a list of hundreds of them: All Things Web 2.0

Just don't post to Shoutwire, ok?

I started to write a post this morning on dad-eblog about my date last night with my wife, and how my parents have the kids overnight. I included it at the end of this post, but I decided to hold off on posting it to dad-eblog.

I mean, do you think dad-eblog readers really want to listen to me ramble on about stuff like this?

Most of the posts on dad-eblog are focused on something related to parenting or fatherhood. I try to keep the information relevant and interesting to my readers, and this just didn't seem to fit.

What do you think? Would you post something like this on your blog?

Here's the post that didn't get published:

My wife and I are very fortunate to have my parents close by and eager to spend time with our kids.

I asked them to babysit last night so I could take my wife out on a date, and they offered to take the kids overnight. We happily accepted, and had a good time together at the movies and dinner... sans the kids (it's nice to have a break every once in a while - in fact, we need to do this more often).

We saw Perfect Stranger with Halle Berry and Bruce Willis - a great flick with a completely unexpected twist right at the end.

It's 8:15 a.m. and the house is completely quiet. My wife's sleeping in, and I'm on the computer doing my thing (can't sleep past 5 a.m. anyway thanks to RLS).

YAWN...

I'd like to think there's more to blogging than just journaling about one's day-to-day activies. There needs to be an information exchange that gives value to the reader... maybe teaches them something, solicites their opinion, expresses my opinion in my area of expertise, or entertains them.