Do you have an undeveloped domain name just sitting there gathering dust? Personally, I have a couple that were purchased based on the "it seemed like a good idea at the time" principle. I'd tried parking them, but that wasn't working out for me.

So now I've decided to use one of the domains to create my own search engine, at least until I have time to develop the domain further. Keeping in mind that I literally spent 47 seconds on this, take a look at my uber search engine, you can check it out at VikingIdiot.com.

Whilst it may not look like the pinnacle of web design, you shouldn't expect too much from 47 seconds of hard labour, besides that, it's also bringing it some extra cash, from what would otherwise be a dormant domain. Want to know how I did it? » Read the rest of the entry..

When it rains it pours, so here's an interesting way to make a little extra cash. Freebies4Webmasters.com will pay you £5 per month (which is almost $11 AUD) via paypal for displaying a banner ad on three individual pages on your site.

You will receive your free £10 payment for joining when your first banner is live on more than three pages of your site. After that you will receive monthly £5 payments by email if the banners are still on your site.

You can choose the pages you want to have the banner displayed on, and the only criteria seems to be that you need to have the banner on at least three separate pages in order to get paid. What does this mean? Well, if you're trying to monetize a site, chances are you're not making too much money from you "Contact Us" page or your "Disclosure" page, so now you can whack these banners on those pages and you can start earning around $10 per month, plus the £10 (around $21.50 AUD) sign up bonus.

My recommendation, head on over and jump aboard the gravvy train before it is no longer taking on new passengers.

Go join up Freebies4Webmasters.com now.

Edit: Here's a live example (see below) of the banner ad you are given to display. Basically, so long as I display this banner, plus two others (which are on other older posts), I'll get £5 per month. How easy is that??

Just a heads up for any reader looking to make a quick back. I wrote about MoreNiche a few days ago, but in case you have signed up yet, now is the time to do it. Currently, when you join you will automatically be awarded with a $15 sign up bonus. You then earn a further $30 for learning about online marketing via their unique Cash Activated Bonus System which is designed to motivate you and to provide you with starting capital to promote their merchants.

Go join MoreNiche now!... please

For what it's worth, here's a screen shot of the money I've made via MoreNiche having done nothing more than registering (that took all of 20 seconds), logging into their forum and reading some of their 'how to' guides (which are actually worth reading I might add).

So there you have it, that's $25 I didn't have a week ago.

Well July 2008 came to an end all too quickly. Not exactly sure where the month went, but what I know is that in terms of the goal project, it was a month of ups and downs. I also had to spend a lazy afternoon revising my excel spreadsheet so I can keep a better track of what's going on.

1. Develop Swollen Pickles into a website that can generate $350 per month.

June was a pretty solid month with $306.81, however, July, was not so great. Revenue was down to $215.10. In terms of top earners, there was no standout program. The eBay Partner Network, Shopzilla, LinkWorth, phpBayPro affiliate program and ClickBooth all brought in between $25-40 each, and then there were a few others in the $15-$20 range, including Share-A-Sale.

2. Develop Swollen Pickles to the point where it receives 30,000 unique visits per month.

Another below par performance, well under my target. There were 22,862 unique visitors in the month of July. Down from a nudge over 26,000 in June.

3. Develop Digital Burn into a website that can generate $150 per month.

Digital Burn didn't exactly set the web on fire in monetary terms at least. July was a slow month, raking in $69.36. The drop was noticed largely in the eBay Partner Network, which was well down for the month.

4. Develop Digital Burn to the point where it receives 15,000 unique visits per month.

Traffic as hit a plateau, with 11,297 unique visitors in July. There were 11,228 unique visitors to DigitalBurn in June, so as you can see, not a lot changed there. To be fair, I don't think I posted on there once during July. Lazy!

5. Develop Motor Dude into a website that can generate $50 per month.

This site smashed its previous record. July was relatively huge, bringing in $197.05. A good chunk came from LinkWorth, which is proving to be more than handy in bringing in the coin.

6. Develop Motor Dude to the point where it receives 7,500 unique visits per month.

Record earning month, yet a dismal traffic month, with only 1,769 unique visits. Really need to sort the traffic situation thing out if I want to keep the site viable longer term.

7. Achieve my goal weight of 85kgs.

96kgs.

So there you go. Only a quick update this month. I got to go do the vacuuming. Damn that sucks!

WOLVERINE 1st DEADPOOL Marvel Comics 25 cgc 99

1 Bid

US $9.99

1d 12h 58m

The New Mutants 98 CGC SS 94 Liefeld 1st Deadpool

3 Bids

US $32.05

1d 20h 16m

DEADPOOL Marvel Comics Presents 10 cgc 99

0 Bid

US $9.99

3d 20h 6m

If you've wanted to sell ad spots on your blog but weren't sure where to start, stop worrying and check out Etology. Did I mention it's FREE?

It's quite commonplace these days to see blogs selling 125 x 125 pixel ad spaces in the sidebar. These ad spots can represent great value for advertisers looking to get the word out, as well as being a great source of additional revenue for bloggers. I'd been toying with the idea of selling ad spots here for a while, however the prospect always seemed a little to daunting for me. I didn't know how to manage the spots themselves, or the buying and selling process. It wasn't until I discovered Project Wonderful that I was able to start selling 125 x 125 banner spots. They handled all the hard work and it worked out fine.

Today I discovered a company that takes this concept one step further. Etology allow site owners sell their ad space directly to advertisers. Advertisers can place ads directly on sites. Etology serves text ads and banner ads in all types of standard ad units, including banners, skyscrapers and inline ads. They do all the work, all you need to do is add a couple of lines of code to your site where you'd like the ad units to appear.

Etology allows for the publisher to set their own price based on either a flat rate (daily, weekly and monthly), desired CPM or markup percentage. This allows for greater flexibility and for publishers to tailor their pricing based on what they think will work best in attracting potential advertisers. As you can see from the screenshot below, Etology offer a range of set up options as well as tracking statistics to help you identify what is working and what isn't.

Having started up with Etology early this morning, I can honestly say the whole process, sign up, to displaying an ad spot, took no more than five minutes. If you can cut and paste, you'll be able to get moving quickly. The biggest drama you'll have with Etology is figuring how much to charge for your ad spots!

Start selling your own ad spots now!

If you're looking for more information on setting your ad pricing, check out "Adspot Pricing For Blogs Exposed!". It's a great, well researched, article. Highly recommended.