I was corresponding with the author of Smart Startup Guide today. Having been through multiple startups myself I was obviously interested in his guide.

His startup manual is 210 pages, a well thought out guide.

Reading The Smart Startup Guide is akin to spending a week with the founders of successful fast growth companies. Imagine being able to pick their brains and learn how they formulated their strategies for fast start-up and growth.

The guide points out that finding venture capital is not an easy task, and most never do. But hope is not lost, with this guide he explains how you can start without venture capital.

The Guide’s Smart Start-up Model distills the lessons of America’s most successful start-up companies for you to use in your venture. You can use the model as a screen to evaluate your current strategy for viability. If it doesn’t pass the test, you can use the model to deconstruct it and formulate a stronger new strategy.

To learn how the author stopped waiting for investors and started building companies, read more about the Smart Startup Guide here
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Below is a list of the top advertising networks for you to use when looking to publish ads on your site to generate revenue.

• Google Adsense
• AdBrite Ads
• Yahoo Publisher Network
• ValueClick Media
• komli
• Blue Lithium
• Burst Media
• Advertising.com
• Tribal Fusion
• Casale Media

It is tough to say who you should use as it really depends on your site traffic and what they would be most interested in to make the advertising successful.

A great tool is offered by PubMatic, which allows you to login to the above networks (once you join) and it serves the ads for you. PubMatic rotates the ads to determine which network will make you the most money.

Learn more in our PubMatic Article or sign up for free here.

First, I have to say that PubMatic is a great tool to rotate multiple advertising networks on your site. Take a look at a previous post discussing how they work here.

Determine where to place the AdSense code
The test, and I am only 2 weeks into this test, is to determine where best to place advertisements on your page. I had originally identified two places to put the AdSense code, on the right navigation as a 300×250 rectangle (although more common are the skyscrappers) and at the bottom of each post. Recently I added the code to the top of the page.

Three common places to place AdSense
I wanted to compare the following placements.

• Top of Page, 728×90
• Right of Page (in Navigation), 300×250
• Bottom of Each Post, 468×60

Results of Placements
Results below are shown as a eCPM which is an “effective” CPM or Cost Per Thousand. In other words, for every 1,000 advertisements shown what is the total revenue (on average) of the Google AdSense ads.

• $.22 eCPM : Top of Page, 728×90
• $.02 eCPM : Right of Page (in Navigation), 300×250
• $.15 eCPM : Bottom of Each Post, 468×60

Therefore the top of the page is 10 times more profitable than the right of the page. Obviously part of the reason is that the Top of the Page ads are the first a visitor sees. Influencing these tests are where on the page is the 300×250 placed, in the top fold or not. Top fold is the first area of the screen that a visitor can view without scrolling down. The reasoning for the bottom of the post is that a visitor will hopefully read the full article and when coming to the end will see relevant offers presented by AdSense.

Conclusion
Test multiple placements, for me the top of the page is by far the most profitable. However, some may view ads at the top of the page distracting so you will need to balance your desire for ads there.

I ran across and interesting script for maximizing your eBay affiliate earnings. This script is very well thought out, with excellent documentation and features.

The script creates an entire website for you and pulls in eBay listings while using your affiliate ID. The listings are updated in real time and therefore the content (eBay listings) of your site is automatically changing for you. After visiting eBay you choose the category you would like the site to focus on and all the subcategories are automatically pulled in as well.

You may choose from a couple templates and if you would like, you can even modify the templates. You are also able to add code to pages easily using their admin tool and templates. For example, I added advertising code using the PubMatic tool I wrote about.

The sites are search engine friendly and you may add text and other content to every page of the site. You may also enter unique meta tags and descriptions for the search engines as well.

I bought the script and am testing installation, usability, and whether the site is indexed on search engines and whether any money is made.

After an hour I have the site up and running, take a look at Purchase the Script Here.

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You can past code onto your website to show Google Ads, AdBrite Ads, or any other ad network. Determining which will be most profitable for your site is next to impossible. Therefore let someone else do it for you automatically. PubMatic does just that, they determine which ad network is the most profitable for any advertisement size you choose.

PubMatic aggregates ad networks and optimizes to provide your site with the best performing ads. PubMatic allows you to place code on your site once for a particular size and receive the benefit of multiple ad networks filling that advertising space.

You simply join PubMatic for free and then link the account using your names and passwords to other ad networks such as Google AdSense, ValueClick, Advertising.com, BlueLithium, and others. You then place code on your site for your advertisements, standard sizes such has 300×250 728×90 and more, just as you would for any of the ad networks above. The difference is that you are placing PubMatic code and PubMatic will serve ads from all the ad networks you are a member of.

PubMatic will then optimize by placing the ads from the best performing network. Awesome technology and wonderfully executed. I have created an account and am testing their technology on this site. I find their interface to be easy to use, intuitive, and was up and running in minutes.

Sign up for these Ad Networks, then PubMatic:

• AdBrite Ads
• Google Adsense

Then take a look at PubMatic here and join for free.

Many individuals realized that after paying for a domain they were not using they certainly did not want to pay hosting fees. Therefore they parked their domain, typically at the registrar where they bought the domain. The hosts website would then typically have an advertisement for the host and possibly a link to inquire about buying the domain from you. There is no real benefit in this scenario other than the lack of hosting fees.

Next, some services and registrars began to offer a revenue share wherein you could park the domain with them and they would place advertisements. They would then share the revenue with you. You may make some money, however all the pages they have look and feel the same and lend very little value to anyone.

I have found a service that solves many problems. Here are the benefits:

• 1. You keep all the revenue, you do not share with the parking service
• 2. You pay a one time flat fee of $99.95
• 3. Content is created automatically based on keywords you choose
• 4. You can host up to 100 domains for that one time fee, much cheaper than hosting

To sign up for this program Click Here!

Any referred traffic that results in a new paid client or new publisher will earn you $25.00.

This is the December monthly summary in the quest for $10,000 a month in revenue, part time. We will be tracking the site growth both in traffic and revenue here on the about page. This site is unique, we show you exactly what our progress is towards $10,000 a month, in your spare time. We discuss what we tried, what worked or did not work.

Of most interest is the marketing tests category, detailing tests and how they performed.

The first month was September when the site launched on 9/4/07.

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SITE STATISTICS	Launch	September	October	November	December
Alexa	2,712,399	408,377	237,610	194,131	212,169
Quantcast	NA	6,083,285	5,950,003	1,883,550	1,906,217
Technorati Ranking	NA	640,383	550,426	317,977	246,538
Technorati Authority	NA	10	15	26	26
Feedburner	1	25	113	132	132

* Alexa is a 3 month average

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REVENUE	Launch	September	October	November	December
Advertising Networks	$ 0	$ 0.48	$ 5.18	$ 2.96	$ 30.18
Direct Sales	$ 0	$ 0	$ 0	$ 18.80	$ 57.32
Affiliate Programs	$ 0	$ 0	$ 0	$ 25	$ 160
TOTAL REVENUE	$ 0.00	$ 0.48	$ 5.18	$ 46.76	$ 247.50

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EXPENSES	Launch	September	October	November	December
Reviews	$0	$50	$20	$0	$77
Advertising	$0	$0	$180.65	$0	$0
Development	$0	$470	$0	$0	$0
TOTAL SPENT	$0	$520	$200.65	$0	$77

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This month we increased revenue over the previous month as affiliate programs began to kick in. Site traffic was around the same as November, no large changes. I will post what the plan is for December shortly, stick to it, and determine if we can increase traffic and revenue.

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LinkShare is an affiliate program that allows you to have one common interface to multiple affiliate programs. LinkShare powers many companies affiliate programs, and allows affiliates to join and earn commissions. You can join for free, see the banner below.

Since 1996, LinkShare has been a pioneer in online affiliate marketing, and today runs the largest pay-for-performance affiliate marketing network on the Internet. LinkShare is a trusted third-party that brings together both merchants and affiliate. They track and report on every ad or placement in their network, send monthly payments to affiliates, and provide services and tools that help merchants and affiliates optimize their performance.

The benefit of joining a free program like LinkShare is that you have one common source of payment. LinkShare keeps their merchants honest and when you hit the threshold for payments in aggregate you are paid out from one source regardless of how many merchants you may be representing through LinkShare.