Death Records, which is an affiliate marketing website owned by Smoking Dogs, received a makeover last month.

The homepage was modified to incorporate a blog. It still maintains a similar "flavor" as before.

The idea was to use the blog to improve search engine optimization from Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Note that we made this change on February 19, 2006. On March 9, we noticed traffic had doubled, and has remained steady since. The increase appears to have come from Google.

Coincidence?

We think this is evidence that a blog (or at least one from Blogger), can make a significant impact towards boosting traffic to non-blog website. I'd like to believe that Google is smarter than that, and that's probably the case. However, there's something about integrating a Blogger blog into a plain-jane website that seems to boost its credibility.

Smoking Dogs had a good month in November, both in terms of traffic growth, and revenue growth.

Political Dogs

PD saw traffic growth of 20% from the previous month. In fact in October, it saw traffic growth of about 40% from the month before that. December is looking as if PD will continue the growth trend, thanks to Dave's consistent output of content.

Revenue-wise, PD does very poorly. Google AdSense is just not a very good way to monetize political commentary. PD is a conservative-based political opinion blog, and a lot of the AdSense ads are pro-liberal. We'll, be looking at other revenue models as soon we can reach higher traffic levels.

Scrapbooking and How

SAH continues to be our most successful blog in terms of traffic and earnings. Traffic was up 20% from the previous month, and 20% again from the month before that.

Earnings was up slightly by about 10%.

Earlier this month (December) we redesigned the look of SAH.

Genealogy and How

GAH saw a traffic increase of about 15% from the previous month, and about another 15% in the month previous to that. So, traffic increase continues to be consistent.

GAH is the only one of our blogs that is mostly written by other businesses. These businesses publish genealogy-oriented content on their respective websites, and use GAH to publicize their newest content offerings. GAH is largely a vehicle for these businesses to promote themselves, while genealogists use GAH it to keep track of what's new in the industry.

Earnings was up slightly by about 10%.

Girls Softball

GS saw a traffic increase of 20% from the previous month, with a 30% increase from the month before that. Consistent traffic increase continues to be the story with our blogs.

Earnings was up by about 15%.

Weird News Today

WNT was launched mid-October, so there isn't enough stats available to show any reliable trends.

Summary

All of the blogs are showing consistent traffic increases over the past several months. November is actually the first month Dave and I gave a name to this partnership we've been running for the past few years.

I'm making a more concerted effort to make Scrapbooking and How the premier blog in the scrapbooking world, while Dave is trying to make Girls Softball the leading blog in that sphere (actually I think it's only blog in that sphere right now!).

I finally redesigned Political Dogs.

It's now in the more traditional two column format, instead of the three.

Old PD Design

New PD Design

Here's the deal. We used the previous format for about six months, and in that time, we've seen mediocre progress in terms of traffic and earnings. Traffic to PD has grown, though grown modestly. Prior to that six months, it was in yet a different format.

Considering the slow traffic growth, any change is an improvement. Actually, what I wanted the most is a design that showcases the content really well, and makes it very readable. I opted for the Georgia font, because I wanted to use a serif font, and I didn't like Times New Roman. I think it's looks pretty good!

The Lady Liberty image you see off to the left was actually our original logo, from the first design, though it had been orange. So, it's back!

Honestly though, political blogging is perhaps the toughest blog niche to get established in. Dave and I never expected to become the next Charles Johnson or Michelle Malkin, though we've kept our fingers crossed. But considering the amount of content Dave writes for PD on a daily basis, we gotta do better.

Smoking Dogs Media wants to make sure your private life is secure when visiting any of our websites. Take a look...

Committment to Privacy

We're committed to ensuring the privacy for all persons:

• We are committed to ensuring the privacy of our visitors



• We are committed to ensuring the privacy of any persons described on our web properties



• We are committed to ensuring the privacy of any persons who communicate with us

We do not exchange personally identifying information to any outside or associated parties, without prior authorization from the identified person(s).

We do not conduct business with any person or organization that cannot meet the promises set forth in this privacy policy.

Collection of Personal Information

We do not collect personally identifying information from it users of any kind, without the user's knowledge, with the exception to the following:

• The web servers which our web properties are hosted on collects each visitor's IP address. This information is used solely to identify how many unique visitors are using our web properties. We do not make any attempts to trace the IP address to any specific person. Moreover, we do not provide this information to any parties outside of Smoking Dogs Media.



• The advertisers who advertise on our web properties will place cookies on our users computers, if those users click on an ad. No cookies will be placed simply by visiting one of our web properties. These advertisers have made assurances that these cookies will not be used to send unsolicited communication, will not be used to personally identify our users, and any information collected by these cookies will not be shared with us, or with organizations outside of these advertisers.

We do not place any kind of "spyware" or "adware" or malicious software, or any kind of unauthorized material on its users computers.

Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)

While we realize that persons of any age are capable of visiting our web properties, we do not publish material intended for persons aged 14 years or younger. All material we publish is intended for adult audiences.

Correspondence

Anyone contacting us can be assured that their communication and identity will kept in strict confidence, unless authorized otherwise.

If you happen to tell us that your company's website is down, don't worry, we won't blog about it.

Inquiries, comments, ideas? Send us an e-mail!

Looking for a job as a professional blogger? Send us an e-mail, let us know what you'd like to do. If we don't have a blog for it already, we might build it!

Dave Podmajersky - taxpod at yahoo dot com

Steve Johnson - steve at cleardigitalmedia dot com

Smoking Dogs Media is a partnership between David Podmajersky, who publishes DistantCousin.com, and Steve Johnson, who publishes Clear Digital Media, Inc.

The duo had been friends since the Summer of 1999, when the two traded e-mail threads on affiliate marketing. They launched their first website together on December 3, 2003 with Death-Records.net, an affiliate marketing website. In the months following, three more affiliate marketing sites, Marriage Records, Death Certitficates, and US Census Records, were launched.

On November 3, 2004, the two guys launched their first blog, Political Dogs, the day following the Presidential Election, after witnessing the effect bloggers had on the campaign process.

Up until October 2005, the partnership had been operating without an identity. Thus, the name "Smoking Dogs Media" was coined, after the logo used on the Political Dogs website.

Business Philosophy

Smoking Dogs Media was originally founded on the idea of combining talents to achieve exceptional results, and will continue on that theme, either by finding new ways to get more performance out of blogging, explore new topics for blogs, find new ways to leverage affiliate marketing programs and advertising networks.