Many of my friends have asked me how to get a start making an income online, and my recommendation to them is always the same; blog about something that you are interested in, and add Google Adsense to the blog.

This is easy to do with Google’s own blogging software (blogger), although I strongly advise buying your own domain (which can cost as little as $0.60) and using WordPress. There are many reasons for this, but my main ones are that:

• Your blog belongs to you. You are creating value in your domain which you own (and are free to sell if you wish). If you use blogger and a blogspot subdomain Google own your website address.
• WordPress is customisable and upgradable; checkout some Adsense ready WordPress themes.

Read more about making money with adsense.

I needed a neater and more time-effective solution, so after having a look at the various available scripts I decided that a hacked up version of freekrai’s ASM2 would better suit my needs, especially as it is written in php.

The modified script isn’t a true plugin, it simply pulls in the active WordPress theme. This can lead to occasional problems if the theme hasn’t been coded correctly.

Installing the script is simple. Upload the files to your server and set a couple of values in the config file and that’s it!

Some small bug fixes to the original freekrai script have also been implemented.

WordPress sites running the Amazon plugin include:

Astral Health, (view store)

BlogMeDo, a Beatles fansite

Soul Trekker, a Star Trek fansite (view store)

Just booked a ‘business trip’ to the Hyatt Regency, Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. Should be good. Putting together an affiliate site along the lines of ‘Egyptian Luxury’ – and hopefully gonna teach Anne a thing or two about the business! (note to self – buy a new camera before the trip!)

Beginning to get a grip on CATIA V5. Something I needed to do. Just got back to my old desk next to my mate Brazie after a week or two in the naughty corner.

Pete is expanding my affiliate sites nicely. We have just put up a new pregnancy site, a tattoo site and a baby names site within the last couple of weeks. Pete also tied up the lasix content & template. Got some good writers on board at the moment.

Buying a site is usually plain sailing when you are dealing with someone reputable, like Honey says. A couple of things I do before buying a site …

Run a linkage data check using SEOBook’s LinkHounds
Use the Neat-o backlink tool from WeBuildPages to find anchor text on inbound links
If linked from the Yahoo! directory, is it a recent addition with a recurring annual fee
Is it in DMOZ.org?
Does it have any .ac.uk / .edu / .gov links?
Ask about existing reciprocal links, will they stay up?
Ask if there are any paid links, if so what do they cost per month?
Establish the history of the domain using Whois.sc
Does the site rank in Google / Yahoo! / MSN? If so, what are the phrases?
Does the current owner buy traffic using PPC?
Get screenshots of income and traffic stats (Forget about Alexa)
Chat with the vendor
Check out their history on other forums by searhing for their name

I tend to concentrate on getting a solid picture of the site’s foundation because this is what will make you the money in the month’s ahead.

Once you are satisfied, go ahead and make the deal. Settle on a price and a timeline. Most buyers accept PayPal for smaller transactions. However, if you would feel more secure using an escrow service then go for it.

Good job, Andy Boyd. One of the best posts I have ever seen on Digital Point, and a real help to newbies & some of us more ‘experienced’ types too.

Well, I couldn’t wait till after my holiday to buy WordPress Elite. I just had to buy it and have a poke around to see if it is as useful a tool as I was hoping.

The purchase can be made using card or paypal (I used paypal, the transaction was handled by paydotcom). Once payment was complete I was transferred to a page asking for my email address for the updates list, then to an account signup page where the extra freebie/bonus downloads can be collected. The extras included with WordPress Elite are:

Also there is a link to a private forum for WordPress Elite users.

Gary has been good enough to include links to various resources of use to WordPress Elite users including WordPress videos, WordPress tricks, RSS to blog and keyword discussion forums.

There is a helpdesk for WordPress Elite linked off this page. You can tell from the presentation that a lot of thought has gone into this product, Gary really wants users of WP Elite to succed!

WordPress elite account signup is verified with the usual respond-to-email process. I also entered the WordPress Elite forum – it looks pretty bare so far, but I guess it is a fairly new piece of software.

Read more about WordPress Elite.