If you use WordPress, you would be aware that they have got a new version now, which they advise users to upgrade to.

Like some people that I know, I was initially skeptical about going ahead to upgrade, not sure if I will not lose my files, including all my contents. But, after going through the tutorials Word Press provides to make the upgrade trouble free several times to be sure I understood every thing to the letter, I was convinced I could get it done without any problem.

You see, I have worked hard on this blog and it is beginning to increase in google ranking, with a ranking of 3, which I plan to get to six before this year ends. It will not be funny if I ended up losing it simply because of a mistake in upgrading my Word Press blog – this was why I was initially foot dragging on the upgrade.

Even after satisfying myself that I understood the set up tutorial from Word Press, I still called on a friend who is very knowledgeable about WordPress and blogging generally. Fortunately for me, he had recently successfully upgraded his blog to the new version.

He recommended I used Word Press automatic upgrade plugin, which was what he used.

The Process Of Upgrading My Blog To WordPress 2.7

I found the plugin when I made a search for it from WordPress plugin directory http://www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ and downloaded it to my desktop.

It was in a zipped folder, so I had to unzip it. Then I opened my ftp software. By the way, I use coreftp, which is an excellent File Transfer Protocol software. I have been using it for some months now and I haven’t had any problem with it. It’s very simple to understand and easy to use. So, even though I don’t have any affiliation with them I recommend it to you.

If you don’t know what ftp is, it is a software used to upload files to your hosting server. To be able to upgrade your blog to WordPress 2.7, you will need to use an ftp software. And like I’ve said, coreftp is excellent and you can download and install a free copy from their site, www.coreftp.com.

Using my ftp software, I uploaded the WordPress automatic upgrade plugin to the ‘plugin folder’, which is located in my WordPress folder. This is how I did the upload:

After opening my ftp software, I clicked on my www. folder which is my blog’s root directory, where there is the WP-content folder, among other folders and files. By clicking on the WP-content folder revealed the plugin folder. Then I uploaded the WordPress automatic update plugin to the WP- content folder in my hosting server.

After the successful upload, I found the automatic update plugin in the plugin section in my blog. I activated it and followed the steps it outlined to update my blog to 2.7.

They were simple and easy to understand instructions to follow. The plugin has the ability to backup your blog’s files and folders so that if something should go wrong in the updating process you will not lose your blog’s contents. It is important you don’t skip the step of allowing the plugin to backup your blog.

There were about three steps the plugin took me through in the process of updating my blog, before the final step, which was to complete the update.

From what I had read in the WordPress update tutorial, which is provided to enable people update their blogs successfully, I was expecting that after I had clicked on the last button to complete the update process, I would be taking to a page where I will receive further information to allow me log into my updated blog.

But what happed shocked me. A blank page came up instead. Initially, I thought my Internet connection had broken, but that wasn’t the problem, the Internet connection was working perfectly well.

I typed in the url of my blog in the browser, again, only a blank page came up. I rushed to another computer, typed in my url, and again, the same blank page was what showed up – no further instruction was given.

I was griped with fear when it dawned on me that I may have just lost my blog, a number 3 page ranking blog that I have laboured to build, a blog with great promise for the future!

I quickly called my friend to tell him what happened. He didn’t know what could have happened as he didn’t obviously experience what had happened to me. However, been a great friend that he is, he promised to look at it later.

But I was still terribly worried. The worry would have been less if it had also happened to my friend, for he would have easily known what to do. Again, it would have been less if I had manually backed up my blog, instead of using the plugin to do it, which I’m not sure it did.

Some time later, as I looked on my desktop, I saw a ray of hope. There was a backup folder of my blog on the desktop – it was really spirit lifting to know the plugin had actually saved a copy of my blog, and that I hadn’t lost it afterall!

Then I thought of looking at my ftp to see what had happened to my www. folder in my server. Again, to my pleasant surprise, everything was as it was before I started the upgrade, in addition to all folders and files remaining the same, there was also a zipped folder of the new WordPress version 2.7 saved there.

Quickly, I downloaded and unzipped it. There was a read-me file in it, which explained how I could go ahead to upgrade my blog, however, their advanced tutorial on how to upgrade to 2.7, which can be found at http://codex.wordpress.org/Upgrading_WordPress_Extended is more detailed.

I had to upload the new WordPress folder to my server in place of the old. But I had to be careful not to delete or overwrite certain files and folders, while deleting others.

The advanced tutorial spelt out clearly the folders and files in the old WordPress folder to delete and replace with those from the new WordPress, and the ones that must remain from the old WordPress:

DO NOT DELETE these folders and files:

* wp-config.php file;
* wp-content folder;
* wp-images folder–only older installations from 1.5.x days will have this folder;
* wp-includes/languages/ folder–if you are using a language file, and it is here rather than in wp-content/languages/, do not delete this folder (you might want to move your language files to wp-content/languages/ for easier upgrading in the future);.
* .htaccess file–if you have added custom rules to your .htaccess, do not delete it;
* Custom Content and/or Plugins–if you have any images or other custom content or Plugins inside the wp-content folder, do NOT delete them.

Delete these Files and Folders:

* wp-* (except for those above), readme.html, wp.php, xmlrpc.php, and license.txt; files; Typically files in your root or wordpress folder. Again, don’t delete the wp-config.php file.
* wp-admin folder;
* wp-includes folder; If you have a language file here, remember not to delete the wp- includes/languages/ folder
* wp-content/cache folder; You only see this folder if you are upgrading FROM WordPress 2.0.
* wp-content/plugins/widgets folder; You only see this folder if you previously installed the Sidebar Widgets plugin. The Sidebar Widgets code conflicts with the built-in widget ability.

Again, I met another challenge when I attempted to delete some folders that had items in them using ftp. Most ftps, including the one I use don’t allow deletion of folders that are not empty. To find a way around this, I went to their website, i.e., www.coreftp.com and from their Q & A page I found the solution.

I had to right click on the folder I wanted to delete. From the drop down menu that came up, I located Directory Command, then List Mode, and then I chose Advanced.

Doing that for each folder I needed to delete enabled me to delete them. And after uploading the required folders and files from the New WordPress version 2.7, my blog had been successfully upgraded to Word Press 2.7.

What a joy that filled my heart when my blog started showing immediately again after I pointed it to /wp-admin/upgrade.php!

That was my experience of upgrading my WordPress blog to the new 2.7 version. You can draw from my experience to upgrade yours successfully if you haven’t done so already.

Please leave your comment.

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Here is exactly how he puts it (I didn’t include his name because I didn’t get his permission to publish his mail to me in my blog)

“Good day Mr Innocent, I am xxxxx from Calabar, I am an Adsense publisher. Sir my earnings from clicks made at my website are always very low. Sometimes I get $0.80 for 5 clicks while people are saying that you can get $5 on one click. Sir I am not comfortable with my situation, please can you help me.”

And here is my response.

The amount of money you can make per click on Adsense depends on a number of factors.

1. How much advertisers are bidding on your keywords at a given time. Sometimes the bid can go high while at other times it can be low. It is never fixed.

2. The value of the keyword being bidded on. Some keywords are highly competitive among advertisers that they can bid very highly for them; some can even go as high as 70 dollars per click. Advertisers are willing to pay that much for a click if they are selling something very expensive and which there is high degree of tendency of purchase and of them making huge amount of money.

Now, do you go all out to target such keywords for your website or blog publishing so that you can make big money when your visitors click on them?

Well, there is absolutely nothing wrong targeting big money paying keywords, but the truth is that just as the money to be made is heavily attractive, so also is the fact that a lot of professional webmasters will sure be targeting such keywords.

The implication of this is that if you are new to how things work online, you may not be able to compete with the experienced webmasters who have professionally built and optimized websites and blogs. And that means your website or blog may not appear in good position on search engines, and so you may not have traffic. If you don’t have traffic, then you don’t make money.

The better thing to do to make money online with your website or blog as a beginner is to target less competitive keywords (which of course will pay less money on a click than the highly competitive ones), with relatively large market. However, by the time you get enough traffic to it, the total amount of money you can make in a day can still turn up big.

For instance, if your target keyword brings you, say 0.15 dollars per click on the average, and you get a good amount of traffic with 1000 clicks per day, that’s 150 dollars you have made in a day. And if you multiply that by 30 days, you will be making 4, 500 dollars in a month. I think that isn’t bad money to start with.

Really, the important thing about making money online from Adsense and affiliate program is to find a not too competitive niche with good market and gradually develop your website or blog in it to pull in large traffic. With good traffic coming to your site, you can make great amount of money from it on the long run.

It will amount to not if you target highly competitive keywords simply because of their money making potential and not been able to compete with the big fish in the industry.

3. Another factor that could determine how much money you make per click on your Adsense is where you place your higher paying keywords. It is advised that when writing your article, you should place your higher paying keywords in good amount at the top of your article, so that they can generate higher paying Adsense for your site.

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Only a couple of minutes ago before writing this article, I happened to discover a young man, name Rob Benwell, only 23 years old but has made over a million dollars from blogging. His claims are verifiable, and it all goes to show just how much money is possible to be made from blogging.

Today I will be sharing with you 19 ways by which you can make money from your blog or blogs as the case might be. And without wasting time, I will just get into it.

Making money with Google Adsense. You may already be familiar with making money with Google Adsense. However, for those that are not, I will quickly explain it. Google Adsense are contextual Ads that Google will display on your blog or website. The Ads are related to the content on your blog, and when your visitors click on them to get further information about what interest them, you will make money from it.

Making money with Chitika. Since January of 2004 when Chitika began offering its online-ads service, more than 20,000 bloggers and publishers are already using Chitika’s ads to make money monthly. With over 70+ power-packed revenue earning ad units, Chitika has the largest collection of revenue-generating solutions catering to bloggers and website owners of all sizes, and a lot of bloggers testify of making more money with Chikita than with other sources.

Chitika is an easy-to-use platform for earning daily ad revenue, and they pay through PayPal and Check [for those in countries that do not get PayPal service]. They make payment each month, minimum of $10 for PayPal payment and $50 for check payment.

To be able to make the most money using Chikita, you will need to read these ebooks: “Using Chitika with Google” 5 Tips from real publishers; “Deep Secrets of Successful Blogging” Learn from 30 Experts; “Chitika’s Publisher Revenue Guide” Ad Suite Handbook for your website.

Making money with The 2nd Tier. This is a platform with a difference. They not only give you the opportunity to make money from promoting their products, they also give you great training to become one of their “Overpaid Super Affiliate” absolutely for free.

And with their products, which are some of Internet’s hot selling Internet marketing products, it is not difficult for bloggers and website owners to make thousands of dollars monthly, with commissions on sales reaching 75% and more. Affiliates get their money through Check mailed to them in any part of the world. You can check them out here www.netriches.thesecondtier.com/

Making money with Text Link Ads (www.text-link-ads.com). Text Link Ads sell Text Link Ads off your website. What that means is that they get advertisers to post their Ads on your blog or website and in return they pay you 50% of what the advertisers paid.

This is not a pay per click system, but a system where you get paid a fix amount of money monthly from Text Link Ads as long as you have advertisers using your blog.

Blog or website owners can receive their money from Text Link Ads through PayPal, Check and Master Card.

Making money with Amazon. You can make money with your blog or website by becoming Amazon’s associate. That means you will be sending your visitors to Amazon products through links and banners from your blog. When visitors click on the links and banners from your blog you can earn up to 15% on all purchases made during their shopping session.

Many people think Amazon is only about books, but this is not true. There are lots of different products types apart from books that you can find to promote. Amazon also pays monthly through Check, among other means of sending money to their associates. To be Amazon’s associate, go to www.amazon.com and click on the Amazon Associate link.

Making money from Private AD Deal. You can make money with your blog by giving space to people who are interested to advertise their products or services using banners or text links on your blog. Depending on the topic of your blog and the traffic you are generating, this can be a huge money making source for your blog.

Making money with ClickBank Marketplace. Here you will have the opportunity to promote any of ClickBank’s more than 10, 000 digital products and earn up to 75% per sale. You select the products you wish to promote and Clickbank handles all the tracking, accounting, and payouts automatically.

However, ClickBank does not list some countries, including Nigeria to participate in its program.

Making money with PayDotCom (www.paydotcom.com). PayDotCom is another platform that offers bloggers the opportunity to make money by promoting its products. PayDotCom’s members area allows you to track stats such as clicks, sales, and conversions.

You can earn sales commissions from 5% to 80% by linking customers to your desired products or services in the PayDotCom marketplace. PayDotCom allows people world wide, including Nigerians to participate in their program, and affiliates will have to indicate whether they want to receive their money through PayPal or Check when signing on to promote any product.

Making money with Commission Junction (www.cj.com). This is another place where you can find products or services to promote on your blog or website and make money when your visitors make purchase. They have great banners and text links that can very well capture your visitors’ attention to visit them from your blog, and when they do, the sales letters waiting for them to read are professionally written to make them make purchase, and then you make money.

Making money with Hydra Media (www.hydranetwork.com). Hydra’s affiliate program enables blogs and website owners to make more from clicks, lead, and product purchase when from their visitors.

To sign up with Hydra, you will have to first apply, and if your application is granted you will then be able to start promoting their products.

Making money with Max Bounty (www.maxbounty.com). Affiliates with MaxBounty earn revenue from advertising sponsors on a pay-for-performance basis. International affiliate can receive their money through direct wire transfer and Check.

Making money with AzoogleAds (www.azoogleads.com). AzoogleAds is a performance-based online advertising network that delivers results for its Advertisers and easy to manage and profitable revenue stream for its Publishers.

Making money with The Joe Bucks Affiliate Program (now known as the Market Health Affiliate Program, www.markethealth.com). Here you have the opportunity to market and promote some of the world’s leading health supplements and beauty products online on your blog or website. On this platform you can make good money off the explosive sales of natural products industry.

Making money with MoreNiche (www.moreniche.com). You can product any of MoreNiche products or services and get good commission on sales. If you’re completely new to affiliate marketing, MoreNiche can provide you with a website, articles and all the advice you need – for free.

Making money with FreeIQ (www.freeiq.com). This platform pays affiliate commissions both for referring customers who make a purchase and Content Providers who sell premium media products on Free IQ for a year.

Making money by promoting your own product or service. If you have a product or service, you can use your blog or website to promote it and make money from it.

To round off this article, I need to state that though you have a wide range of ways you can make money with your blog or website, you don’t have to use all or many of them at once on one blog or website. Don’t promote too many products or websites with a single blog, else it will be looking too commercialized, and would probably repel your visitors.

Choose one or two good products at a time that relate to the topic of your blog or website to promote. That’s a more effective way to make sales and money with your blog or website.

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Here is how Adsense program works – how it makes money for its publishers. First of all you have to own a website, blog or forum. Then you have to post some contents on it. Your contents can be articles, reviews, definitions, etc. Whatever it is, it must be an informative or educative piece of writing.

After you have made about three to five posts on your site, you can then go to Google website http://www.google.com/adsense to sign up for their Adsense program. Apart from Google, Yahoo also runs an Adsense program which you can make money from, but that of Google is the most popular and reliable. For this writing, we stick to Google Adsense.

It can take a few minutes to a couple of hours in some cases before your website begins to show Adsense relevant to your content. When people visit your site, they see the Ads and might want to visit any of the advertised links. When they click on it, you make some money. You make money from each click on your Adsense.

Here is how Google and you as a publisher make money from Adsense program:

The adverts, also called Adsense are owned by advertisers who, through Google software use your website as a platform to reach possible buyers of their products or services. When their ads are clicked on, Google deducts some money from their account with them and pays you, the publisher a part of the money. That means you are sharing whatever money the advertiser is paying with Google.

However, the amount of money Google pays on a click is not fixed, it depends on how high or low Advertisers bid on a targeted keyword at that time. Also, some keywords make more money for publishers than others. In fact, there are keywords that can fetch as much as $70 per click for publishers.

You can request Google to pay you when your total earnings have reached a minimum of $100. Depending on where you are located your money can be sent to you through electronic transfer or by check. You will be able to choose your payment method from Google site after you have signed up. If your convenient choice of receiving your money is check, it will be sent to you and you will be able to cash it into your domiciliary bank account in a couple of days.

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