Since Wordpress 2.5, I could never get posts to publish articles at a scheduled timeframe. For whatever reason, all posts would just miss the schedule and not show up on the blog. For a few months, I had to manually change the time to get the posts to show up (or just write posts and immediately schedule them to go out).

I’m happy to say that after months of research and frustration, I finally found the solution to the Wordpress scheduled post problem!

Here’s a brief explanation of the issue I was having:

• When it came time to publish the scheduled posts in WP, the post wouldn’t publish and time would start counting backwards (for example, if it’s 2 minutes past the published time, it will say “2 minutes to post”
• Researching it seems to indicate that it was related to wp-cron.php

Solution to the Scheduled Post Issue

The way WP handles scheduling is that whenever a page is loaded (either from your blog or in your control panel), the file wp-cron.php is loaded.  So, in order to troubleshoot the scheduling issue, log in to your server’s temrinal (via SSH or others) and type

wget http://yourdomain.com/wp-cron.php

Obviously, you need to replace yourdomain.com with your own domain (in fact, you need to use the actual URL of where your wp-cron.php is located).  For example, if your blog is within a sub directory called “blog”, it will be at yourdomain.com/blog/wp-cron.php.

If everything is normal, you should see an “OK” message buried under a bunch of other junk.  If you get a 404 error or others, then that’s the first problem you should solve.

The most common problem for many server configuration is the 404 error, so here is a quick way to get this fixed.

1. Open your /etc/hosts file (this is a text file so use a text editor to open it)
2. Look within the file to see if your domain is pointing to a different IP than it should be (mine was pointing to 127.0.0.1)
3. Change the wrong IP in the etc/hosts file to your domain’s public IP address
4. type the wget code again to see if you get an OK.  If it does, you should be able to schedule your posts from now on!

If you get a write permission error, then you need to make sure wp-cron.php is writtable.

This solution only works if you have terminal access to your server.  If you are using a shared hosting where many of the steps isn’t possible, use this information to talk to your host about the scheduling problem.  They should be able to fix it for you based on this article!

October marks the last month that I’m doing all this part time as I will be giving up a very well paying job for this! However, I’m happy to report that it’s been another record setting month on the income end! Hopefully with more time, I will earn more money as I will be experimenting more, writing more articles and spending time marketing my blogs (something I desperately need to do).

Blog Income

• Market Leverage - $228.85
• Rocket Profit - $578.85
• Neverblue Ads - $20.50
• Commission Junction - $35.00
• Pepperjam Network - $90.00
• Private Ads - $3014.72
• Text Link Ads - $942.64
• Link Worth - $392.52
• Adsense - $491.22
• Ebay Network Partners - $50.30
• Newstex - $10.09
• Blog Consulting - $47.75
• ADSDAQ - $30.76
• ValueClick - $14.16
• Total - $5,947.36

I’m one happy guy right now! Let me give a breakdown:

Affiliate Marketing - $953.20
This month was a little weak in this area as expected because I didn’t really spend much time on this. I did have many things to take care of before I leave my job but there’s no excuses. It really shows that hard work pays off so I will try to spend more time in this area this month!

Private Ads - $3014.72
This totally exploded this month as many people contacted me for ads etc! This area is totally tied to the popularity of the industry and my respective blogs so I really look forward to more growth in this area!

Ebay Network Partners - $50.30
This was a nice surprise since I didn’t update the blog that had all the eBay links at all. I believe that the increase (from less than $10 every month) comes from the fact that people are just buying more during the holiday seasons.

CPM Ad Networks - $44.92
I’ve had it with Value Click. While I still made some money with them, I stopped using them mid month because I’m fed up with the system automatically adding low cpm ads (think less than $0.10). On my blogs, I currently run ADSDAQ (where I set my own price) and have affiliate ads as backup for times when the spot isn’t sold.

Final Thoughts
Every month when I prepare this post, it feels like a dream because I would never think that something like this was possible. The interesting thing with the Internet is that unlike the real world, you are rewarded with your brain (your writing, your dedication, your hard work) instead of your looks, your race, nor your sex. As long as you put in the effort, you will have a great chance of succeeding!

Like everyone else, I changed the permalink of my articles to reflect the title of my posts for SEO reasons. In the newer versions of Wordpress, the editor automatically updates and shows you the URL as soon as you leave the editable box (as shown below).

Unfortunately, I found this super annoying because I often change the title (sometimes I even leave the title blank until after I finish writing the article) and the permalink doesn’t update! So if I ever change the title after I start my article, I have to click on edit and then type in the url myself.

In fact, I spoke to the Wordpress team at Blog World Expo and the lady there thought it was a good idea to add a reload button beside that url to reset it to the title (she did say she had to think about it but I was hoping that it will be in v2.7).

Today, I accidentally found the cure for this. I was so happy I found it because I will finally be able to get rid of this annoying “feature”.

To reset the permalink url to the current title, all you have to do is:

1. click “edit” to bring up the editable url.
2. Erase the url (the part where you can change)
3. click save

Saving a blank url seems to trick wordpress into generating a new url based on the current title.  Ha!  Finally, I’m happy again.

The title says it all - add Adwords credits as a payment option for Adsense simply to keep more of our money.  Currently, many people (myself included) have Adsense on our websites but buy ads on Adwords so why not make things simple for everyone by having Adwords credits as reward for our Adsense dollars?

What’s In It for Google

For Google to decide doing this, there must be a reason for action. Here are a couple reasons for Google to think about:

Creates a Higher Demand for Ads
Once it becomes an option, more people will be willing to try this form of advertising which is only a good thing for Google. On top of that, people like me who already advertises with Google will probably be more encouraged to use it since the credits are already in our Adwords account!

Higher Ad Prices
One side benefit of having more demand is that each ad will naturally have a higher ad price! More ads with each ad having a higher price, isn’t this Google’s dream?

Keep Money From Leaving Google
Are there any other stronger reason? If I transfer $500 worth of credits from my Adsense account to Adwords, Google is guaranteed that they won’t have to pay me $500!

What’s In It for Us

Why am I pushing this? Here’s why:

Tax
Google’s legal department can probably come up with a workaround so the US folks don’t have to pay taxes for the Adwords credits they earn, so there will be some benefit for those that are US residents.  Sure, when we buy an ad, we can deduct the taxes right back but our tax accountant really doesn’t care too much about the extra paperwork, especially when there are 100 Adwords payments to deal with whenever she gets our expenses history.

Freedom
I want more freedom and having choices give us that. Whether many people will adopt this or not remains to be seen but the more control we have, the better!

Incentives
Since it makes so much sense for Google, I’m hoping that they will give an incentive for Adsense publishers that adopt this payment method. This could be an added bonus, gift, or something else which will benefit us.

It Would Be Cool
Not all reasons are for everyone. If Google actually adds this because of my post, wouldn’t it be cool?

Wow another record month!  I’m so excited and feel fortunate of the progress I’ve made this year with everything that’s happened to me and my blogs.

Blog Income

• Market Leverage - $294.60
• Rocket Profit - $649.35
• Commission Junction - $62.00
• Pepperjam Network - $60.00
• Private Ads - $1996.63
• Text Link Ads - $1029.60
• Link Worth - $456.08
• Adsense - $398.60
• Ebay Network Partners - $3.88
• Newstex - $9.31
• Blog Consulting - $358.65
• ADSDAQ - $31.81
• ValueClick - $16.29
• Total - $5,366.80

As I inked a couple multi-month private ad deals, this month was amazing!  Here are some of the highlights.

Affiliate Marketing - $1065.95

This is pretty amazing as I had $0 just 3 months ago.  The CJ and pepperjam income was very surprising as all I did was put up some banners on my site when the cpm networks didn’t fill that particular ad spot.

Rocket Profit and Market Leverage was based on hard work promoting the sites but this month’s projection is going way down because many of the offers I was promoting expired and I haven’t had time to work on this much.  Once I truly quit my day job (starting in November), I will definitely be focusing more effect on this end as this can grow much quicker than all the other revenue streams.

Adsense - $398.60

Google ads continue to perform and it is going up month after month.  It helps that the traffic to my blogs are growing but the main reason for the increase is because of higher paying ads.  I hope that this keeps up as some of my fellow bloggers are getting even higher eCPM than what I’m getting so there is definitely room for me to grow!

New Additons - $57.41

As you can see, I started adding CPM networks into the mix (ValueClick and .  So far, they aren’t performing that well but it’s like free month so those will probably stay.

Final Thoughts

I’m extremely pleased with September’s income!  Even though I doubt that October will be as high as September, I really hope that it will continue to make new highs month after month!  I will keep you posted!

One of the difference between an average blogger just starting out and another who has set blogs up numerous times is the amount of content they have starting out.

When most bloggers first start out, they install wordpress and immediately try to promote it.  They want everyone to know about their blog as they are all excited about this whole concept and start emailing other bloggers in their niche, telling them to check the blog out.  They ask for links, they tell everyone the URL of their blog but they don’t realize that the blog doesn’t even have that much content!

With like 3 posts, what impression does that give an establish blogger? What did you expect readers to feel when they go to your blog and see an empty blog?

Compare this with an established blogger who launches a blog with 50 posts.  Although the blog might be brand new, it will immediately bring value for the visitor once they decide to click pass the first page. Whether it’s the about page, the interaction of the poll or other pillar articles, a blog with established content can potentially capture visitors into readers from day one.

There’s also the reputation and brand to consider.  If we were to build a brand based on a blog, it wouldn’t be good to have people associate the brand with an empty blog.  We want the brand to be associated with something successful and positive, and a brand new blog with 3 posts absolutely doesn’t relate to anything positive.

If you are going to start a blog (or another one from scratch), seriously consider writing a bunch of articles first before making it public.

Q: This is all great but how do you have established content on the blog without it going public?

A: There are many ways to do this with Wordpress.  Stay tuned for the next article.

One of the greatest benefit of the web is access to information.  Back in the days, there was IRC and Usenet (anyone remember those?) which were fantastic. Google then gave us relevant searches and revolutionized the way people perceived the web. These days, there’s twitter for us to ask questions and blogs which added personal opinion.

These tools are great to find information on pretty much any subject, but with lots of information most definitely comes with conflicting ones!  Just to give an example, I was at the blog world expo the other day when Jeremy from b5 media said:

advertising clients now believe unique visitors are much more important than page views

Then within a few days, Skellie’s guest post on Problogger start out by saying:

When selling advertising spots on your blog the metric that advertisers value most is page views, or ‘impressions’.

I’m not even talking about two “no name” bloggers making conflicting statements. These two people are credible sources in the blogging world who we naturally listen to. So who should we listen to?

Why This Happens

To help us figure out how we should handle these conflicting messages, it will help us to discuss why this happens.

This is What I Encountered
As with any advice that anyone ever gives, it is usually based on personal experience. Jeremy probably talked to several advertisers who gave him the feeling that unique visitors were the most important while Skellie looked at all her revenue sources and came to a different conclusion.

You Can Go Your Way, But I Know That Way Leads Me There Too
As with anything else in life, there is no right path to success. What worked for problogger might be different than what’s worked for me or you. As it is impossible to make a 100% fair comparison of going both routes, different opinions will naturally arise.

Making Sense of All This

If you are still trying to figure out who is right, then stop now because it doesn’t really matter. Here are more things to consider:

Do Both
In the above example, unique visitors and page views are both important. Do as much as you can to drive visitors to your blog and then work on increasing the page views per visitor by keeping them from leaving your blog!

Test, Test and Test Again
Become an expert yourself and form your own opinion. Test out all the methods and come up with your own assessment of who’s right. Whether you end up driving more visitors or increasing the page views per visitor, it will only help your blog anyway so test out every method out there!

Takeaway
There’s always some merit to what everyone writes about, so try to absorb the lesson behind the actual words. Rather than reading the words and follow the statements that someone makes, try to figure out the blogger’s mindset through the words and learn that instead. Once you have the same type of mindset as other successful bloggers, you will make more money. This I guarantee.

I got an email today from someone who wanted to find a network of 50 people who will intentionally click on each other’s Google Adsense ads.  My first reaction was to email the person back and kindly decline, then let him know that it is against Google’s terms and conditions and wish him good luck.

As I read on however, I was shocked by what he wrote:

… I have already clicked on you ten of your Google ads. You can check your Adsense acct.

This was definitely something I did not appreciate! I logged into my Adsense account and sure enough, the click rate was on the high side. I immediately went to the help center and emailed support of what I noticed in my account and I will await their resolution.

Something I also noticed was that although it shows more clicks, my earnings were actually lower than usual.  Perhaps Google’s automated system already flagged those clicks but hopefully my account won’t be disabled because of this person!

Tips to Keep Your Adsense Account in Good Standing

1. Don’t click on your own ads!
2. Don’t ask anyone else to click on your ads.
3. Don’t show a popup at all for your site that asks users to download or run special software.
4. The pages with Google ads should never be showed on a popup from anywhere.
5. Only show Google ads on sites without prohibited content (check out the program policy for details).
6. Google trademarks cannot be tampered or altered, nor can it be shown to artificially build your site’s credibility without Google’s prior consent.
7. Don’t change the Adsense code
8. Sites with Adsense should provide value for the user in some way.
9. Anything Google deems deceitful for the user is prohibited.
10. The site should be presented in a way that advertisers will want to place ads on the site
11. Publishers should be responsive to emails sent by the Adsense team (this is a little funny because the Adsense team is not always responsive to our emails :))

This is taken from Google’s help center.  For the original list, click here.

For those that are new to the blogging world, I strongly advise not to try gaming the Adsense system!  At the end of the day, this is just a waste of your time as Google is very good at catching people who violate their guidelines.

Just the other day, I decided to spend a few hours writing at the pier.  It was a beautiful day of fresh air, peaceful atmosphere and of course, no internet.  I’ve never been to this part of town, and I was pleasantly surprised by the surrounding and more importantly, what it did for my blog content.

When I sat down and gazed upon the body of water in front of me, I immediately felt energized and wanted to write.  Content just kept flowing out of my brain and eventually translated onto the laptop screen.  The couple of hours I spent was extremely productive, and although I usually get distracted quite easily, I was pretty happy writing at the pier where there are tons of people walking by.

What I experienced was an energy boost from the change of environment.  Being in the same desk everyday, it’s sometimes hard to bring out the creativity within me.  All the new surrounding at the pier stimulated my mind and allowed me to write longer, faster and better.

I was actually amazed what the difference changing the environment did to my writing that day.  From now on, I will periodically go around town to write my article to see what that will bring for the content.

Next time you are stuck writing content, try to go out and do it in a coffee shop, mall or the park.  Seeing something visually different will give you the needed boast to write a better article.

Since I will be in the Blog World Expo in Las Vegas next week, I’m beginning to get ready for the event!  Hotels are booked, transportation set and event admission taken cared of.

I will be meeting Darren of problogger.net on Friday during the b5 blogging summit for the first time and I am definitely excited!

If you are going to the trade show or will be in Las Vegas during September 18 - 21, definitely contact me as I love to meet all my readers!

Once I’m there, I will report back with more information and let you know what I learned!