more coming later
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Old notes for my MediaWiki installation.
See also:
Money/Income From Your MediaWiki Wiki ∞
Are you a writer, author or just a casual blogger who wants to make money writing? Are you a little more technical than the average, and concerned with not just articles but maintaining a large and organized knowledgebase?
A wiki engine is a natural companion to a prolific writer, but there are significant concerns with most wiki engines being self-supporting or even profitable. Wikis, MediaWiki in particular, have not traditionally been aimed at that audience. Blogs like WordPress seem to get all the fame.
I will change that. I will begin with a simple guide to adding all the little monetization features which weblog engines have but MediaWiki does not. Afterwards, I'll go into some of the more complex topics.
- New skills / best practices
These are things you'll have to read and judge for yourself. Perhaps your instincts are better for you or your circumstance, but I'm sharing what has worked for me. If you're a blank slate and have no thoughts either way, then just follow my advice until you find your own way.
I don't write on hard and fast rules because I can't know every situation, but I'll write on what I've tried and what I do.
Philosophy ∞
First and foremost this guide is a set of notes I have created for myself. The fact that I'm going to shape it to help others does not mean that it will be able to help everyone else. But if you wish to contribute your own stories or links, suggestions are welcome [ 1 ] was [{{SERVER}}{{localurl:Talk:{{PAGENAMEE}}&action=edit§ion=new}} suggestions are welcome] . I'll take the time to review and include your comments.
- This wiki is old.
It's in fact the second incarnation of an extremely popular wiki. This guide generally assumes that you have a mature MediaWiki wiki, but I'm trying to add as much advice for younger wikis. Still, a lot of these concepts might not work very well for you if you're starting a brand new wiki, because:
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A new URL is never as well-ranked as an old one without significant work, because..
- There aren't enough pages which have been linked-to by other websites.
- As I understand, there are limitations put in place to forbid new websites from dominating over old ones. I've heard all kinds of stories on this one, and I'll link to them as they come up so I can prove/disprove this story.
- A new wiki does not have a wide enough readership for advertising to be meaningful.
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A new wiki does not have enough actual content to allow an interested reader to "become lost in it" and "walk the wiki".
Some of these things you could overcome, but I can't really help with until I get all the basics done and make the most of what I have. Actual SEO-topics will come after my monetization research is done.
- I have spare time. I am a good study.
This guide assumes that, like me, you have a considerable amount of spare time to dedicate to research and development (and writing) and are capable of absorbing and experimenting with new ideas.
You'll be saved from a lot of the hassles that I will go through, but the most important thing about monetization is not the initial setup but the continued maintenance.
When you don't optimize how you make money and don't continually participating in the process when others do, your revenue will steadily decline from their direct and indirect competition.
Initial Setup ∞
These are the things that you'll have to do once and only once. These are created in as cut-and-paste a fashion as possible.
As I learn more I'll update these things, but if you're happy with your initial setup you won't have to return to re-read anything. If you do begin to see things which are new to you, then come back and re-read these pages or check if they've been updated.
I don't really want to keep any kind of permanent changelog just yet, but I do intend to create an RSS feed soonish to keep you updated. It's high on my todo list.
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- Read what others say about this issue. Get a more fully-rounded understanding of the issues before you spend your time going in any one direction. Never ever just one single source for advice or knowledge.
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TODO/TO PORT -- Monetizing MediaWiki - Basic Preparation
- Set up your various advertising and other accounts.
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Monetizing MediaWiki - Basic Wiki Setup
- Set up your wiki.
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TODO/TO PORT -- Monetizing MediaWiki - Hacking a Skin
- Insert advertising, analytics, social bookmarking, etc.
Continuous effort ∞
After everything else has been done, what's left is a kind of maintenance of industry awareness and content upkeep. In the early days (years) of a website, it's not enough to simply write.. unless you're popular there is no steamroll effect. So you must constantly stay afloat until you reach that "critical mass" when your writing alone will maintain your popularity and profitability.
- Regular reading -- Finding inspiration and staying aware of popular topics.
- Promotion -- When starting out, the actual work is with effective promotion and not just good writing. Includes SEO considerations.
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writing... =)
- Regular tasks like checking stats and tweaking ads.
- Using your GMail account
- Using AdSense / search
- Using AdSense / ads
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Google Sitemap
- I made a google sitemap repair script.
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Other search engine submission
Regular reading ∞
- https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/Inside-AdSense/join
- https://problogger.com/
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https://www.getnichequick.com/
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was https://amazonassociates.typepad.com/
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https://web.archive.org/web/20210213200511/http://www.bin-co.com/blog/
TODO ∞
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separate site setup (2)
- basic install, document it
- basic hacking, check/refer to documentation
- blog templating setup, check/refer to documentation. Consider revising it for the proper date format I had in mind originally:
yyyy-mm-dd and remove reliance on categories if possible or reduce the number of clicks to get the list of content. Possibly go back to manual lists.. - cut apart current weblog ideas and begin a day-by-day.
- one-time reading, borg the ideas
- prep a regular reading list, skim / review&judge and make a priorities list for later
- begin basic promotion
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begin basic reading
- shadow their early history, and rewrite those ideas.
- Add Facebook, myspace and traditional bookmark links.
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More...
Ideas / Notes ∞
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Monetizing MediaWiki - Content Accessibility
- How to organize your information.
- https://stevepavlina.com/site-build-it/
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- Analytics type stuff
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Google Gadgets (abandoned)
- "Creating a live survey for your site" (email) [ 3 ] Note to self: Does this mean I have an email regarding this, and I should search for that text?
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Video units
Articles ∞
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https://stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/05/how-to-make-money-from-your-blog/
- https://adsense.googleblog.com/2007/04/encouraging-clicks.html [ 4 ] was http://adsense.blogspot.com/2007/04/encouraging-clicks.html
- https://www.google.com/adsense/start/success-stories/ [ 5 ] was https://www.google.com/adsense/static/en_US/Success.html
- How to Build a Profitable Home on the Web (videos)
Footnotes
| ^ 1 | was [{{SERVER}}{{localurl:Talk:{{PAGENAMEE}}&action=edit§ion=new}} suggestions are welcome] |
| ^ 2 | Note to self: Does this mean I have an email regarding this? |
| ^ 3 | Note to self: Does this mean I have an email regarding this, and I should search for that text? |
| ^ 4 | was http://adsense.blogspot.com/2007/04/encouraging-clicks.html |
| ^ 5 | was https://www.google.com/adsense/static/en_US/Success.html |
ported some old links
ported a little more
ported maintaining monetization notes.
Ported and generally updated the main article. Sub-pages are still to be ported.
ported articles into this page instead of a sub-page
finished porting various other misc. things.