I’ve launched yet another new website - this time a web directory. The name may be familiar, Poker Sensei, as it was previously a poker blog that I really lost interest in. I still loved the domain so I used it for this new project.

So why a web directory? Well, to be perfectly honest, I’m hoping to launch a few different niche directories to help funnel some backlinks to my other sites while also seeing what kind of money a directory can make. Initially, all my directories will be completely free to submit sites to (that also means no reciprocal links required), though I may add a pay option at a later date.

If you’ve got any poker sites you’d like to submit to Poker Sensei, you should go ahead and do it now since it really is 100% free. I’ve built this directory in a way that should allow me to easily create more for whatever niche I’d like, so expect more once I see how this one goes.

Another month has come and gone. As such, I present to you my September earnings breakdown. While August was a fairly slow month for me earnings wise, September proved to be the best month so far. A few key things contributed to this, first, the redesign of Wii Play included better positioning of ads and proved to bump earnings a bit. Second, Amazon actually ended up being a decent earner for me for once - partly because of the positioning and usage on Wii Play, but also because of the Blade television series dvd being released. Last, traffic to most of my sites was up, thus bringing in more people to click and follow affiliate links.

1. Google Adsense - 51% of my September earnings came from Google Adsense clicks - up 1% from last month and the highest actual amount ever.
2. Text Link Ads - Text Link Ads accounted for 31% of my earnings which a huge dip down from last month’s 44%. This is mostly due to the other programs doing much better than normal more than Text Link Ads doing worse.
3. CJ and Amazon - The biggest surprise was that the combination of Commission Junction and Amazon brought in 9% of my earnings last month (up from the pathetic 1% in August). This was mostly due to Amazon and the placement adjustments mentioned above.
4. SIAB GEAR - SIAB GEAR was up a little bit to 7%. I need to get off my butt and make some updates to the store… some day.
5. Chitika - Chitika, while down at the bottom spot, earned 2% for me (up from 1%).

This month was probably the biggest shakeup of earners for me that I’ve seen. I expect the actual amount I pull in to steadily increase these next few months as we head into the holiday season.

To help drive some traffic to a few of my sites and to add some potentially valuable backlinks, I’ve created 3 Squidoo lenses. A Squidoo lens is basically a page that you create with links, pictures, and other information about a specific topic. Still confused? Well, check out the three lenses I created below to get a better understanding of what Squidoo can do.

The Home Poker lens features useful information on running and attending home poker games. Wii on the Web pulls together popular websites and information dealing with the Wii. The Office Humor lens is just that, a lens featuring office pranks, jokes, and other office humor.

Ok, so I’m mostly using these lenses as feeders to my other sites. If the prove to be fairly popular, I’ll spend some more time building them up and seeing what they can do.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I’ve been working on revamping the Wii Play site. Well, the bulk of the changes are now online for your viewing pleasure. The biggest change is the design, though the layout itself is fairly similar. There are a few formatting issues with IE7, so hopefully I’ll have those fixed soon.

There have been other changes (namely the front page) but it all still functions pretty much the same as it did before. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it right? I do still have a long list of features I’d like to add to the site, but I can roll most of those out separately when I find the time to do them.

The next big step for the site is to start a marketing push. Hopefully I can light the spark just enough so that the place can really take off and be a great Wii community driven site.

It’s time I slow down on creating new sites and take some time to go back and update/remodel/fine tune some existing sites. There’s a huge list of modifications and additions for just about every site and I’ve been neglecting that list too much lately.

First on the list is Wii Play. That’s the site with the most pending features as well as a site that I’ve come to realize needs a better design. I’ve already gotten a good amount of the design done and I’m starting to implement key new features. The site will still function as it does, it’ll just look nicer, work better, and provide more information. I also am going to get off my butt and actually start marketing it a bit so that some more people will sign up and start contributing.

After Wii Play, I’m likely to start working on a redesign of Watermark Tool. I’m constantly surprised by how much use the site gets as I’ve done no marketing at all for it. It’s also pretty ugly right now and really deserves a much cleaner design. I do have some pretty cool features planned for the site, but I’m not sure how involved I’m going to get with those on this next pass-through.

The last big update project will be… Ok, I have to keep some things as a surprise!