Thanks to the guys over at DirectGameCards I have a special code to give out to any of you who want to buy the PC version of Farcry 3: Blood Dragon on the cheap.
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is an ‘expand-alone’ game built from the Far Cry engine. This sort of set up is pretty new in the gaming industry (the last example I can remember was Red Dead Redemption Zombies) and it means you don’t need the original game to play the expand-alone. Basically you get a self contained campaign in a different setting to Far Cry 3 and it only costs a fraction of the price. It’s smart business for developers and us gamers get cheap ‘almost new’ games to play.
So here’s how you can get it even cheaper: Head on over to DirectGameCards using the link below:
Add the game to your cart and then type in the code “ZiggyDragon” without the quotation marks for an added discount off the price listed. For non Euros out there this works out to be less than $10 AUD.
Please note that this version is region locked to Australia, New Zealand or Europe. Unfortunately our US buddies miss out this time. Also the link above is my affiliate link, if you buy through it I get a small amount of the purchase price at no extra cost to you. So any purchases made after clicking that link help keep me doing what I love!
RIFT, the MMORPG from Trion Worlds, is one of my favorite games, but I’ve never made any actual videos talking about why it is as good as I suggest. I decided to start a video series introducing MMO players to Rift and all of the mechanics that separate it from the ocean of other MMOs on the market.
Today’s video serves to introduce players who are already familiar with modern MMORPGs to the main mechanics that let RIFT stand apart, Rifts and Invasions. Rifts serve as bite-sized dynamic, group quests, while invasions are like Rifts but on a larger, zone-wide scale. These mechanics serve as an alternate form of leveling, of which Rift has a myriad of options. They also help keep the game fresh, as you may run into an invasion while questing or sitting in town checking the auction house. Although these types of dynamic, group based content is not unique to Rift, I’d argue that Rift’s perspective on this type of MMO rises above the rest.
If you’re interested in Rift, feel free to check it out at www.riftgame.com and check out the Rift Lite, which allows players, new and old, to play Rift for free with characters from level 1 to 20.
I’m absolutely in love with the way residual earnings works. Whenever I make a YouTube video I know that if I optimize it right not only is it going to earn a nice burst of earnings when I publish it but I know that it’s also going to keep earning small amounts for a long time to come. The secret to this long term and often juicy earnings is search engine optimization, or SEO. In this article and video I break down the SEO of a very short and unassuming video I made a while back that has earned more than $220 since it’s creation – and it’s still earning!
In the above embedded video I break down the SEO of my $220 YT video, looking at what exactly made it successful. I highly recommend checking it out as visualizing the different points can help a lot.
The above video was published on August 26th, 2012 and is 2:42 in duration. I published it just after the new Paragon Level system was released for Diablo 3 and it’s style is half-guide and half-news video. At the time of writing it has attracted over 80,000 views and has an estimated watchtime of 120,000 minutes. These stats are pretty nice for such a simple and easy video but they are very achievable for someone who knows how to pick the right topic and SEO content for it.
Picking an SEO Friendly Topic
An often forgotten part of SEO is that you actually need to pick a topic or a niche that has a lot of people searching for it. Diablo 3 was a solid niche at the time and will continue to be very strong for years to come. Even more important than this, however, is that the niche-within-a-niche of levelling is extremely popular. When you become familiar with your niche you will begin to notice what things are popular search topics, the things that people constantly ask. Levelling is one of these and the new Paragon Level system in D3 meant for many more months of levelling which was a great opportunity for me.
Most of Your Income Will Come from Search Traffic
This is one of the most important lessons you can learn if you want to earn a living making YT videos. You can get a lot of views and earn a bit from promotional activities but search traffic is consistent, long term and just pays better as well. Your subscriber base is another consistent long term earner but it can take a long time to build that up to a level where you can support yourself. Good SEO, on the other hand, can take effect almost immediately.
Titling Your Video Properly
Your main keywords, the real winners, should be in your title.
All of the above are serious keywords and things I was pretty sure people would be searching for. There is a small amount of weighting towards the start of your title over the end, so I tend to lead in with the title of the game.
Keyword Placement in the Description
The first sentence should reiterate your main keywords! This first part of your description appears in search results and receives the most weighting in determining relevance. Don’t just list out your keywords though, make it an actual user friendly sentence.
“People are already starting to crack the one third mark for Paragon levels so I thought I would take a look at how long exactly it takes to reach Paragon level 100 in Diablo 3.”
As you can see in the first sentence I cover “Diablo 3”, “Paragon Level 100” & “Paragon Level”.
Your first paragraph is also pretty important, so use it to target some additional keywords.
“As a by-product of this I also discover the best places to farm Paragon XP to level up quickly.”
The above is the other main sentence of the first paragraph, I’m sure you can pick out the keywords by now.
Finally, don’t underestimate the value of the rest of your description. I like to include links to my social media and other sites at the bottom but sometimes I’ll also write out a few more paragraphs of detail. I didn’t do this in the video we are looking at today but I have noticed increases in search traffic on other videos I have done this for.
Learning How People Phrase Their Searches
While it’s not too hard to come up with a good set of keywords for a niche you know it can sometimes be hard to know all of the different ways people search for the one topic. Alternate keywords like “power levelling” instead of “XP farming” can sometimes be hard to pick up on. I highly recommend reading a guide I wrote on Latent Semantic Indexing, or LSI. Seriously, check it out. It seems simple but knowing how to come up with these different keywords can help you capture a lot more search traffic.
Keep on Making Content, Testing New Techniques & Reviewing Past Successes
I learnt a lot reviewing this older video, even if you only earn a few dollars a month going back over your videos that are earning can reveal a lot of info about how people search and what keywords you are managing to capture. Some of my best keywords have come out of looking at how people have found my older videos.
To see more YouTube Success Guides and Videos make sure to subscribe to RLZiggyD on YouTube!
Ever wonder how much money YouTubers earn? Ever wonder how full time YouTube creators got where they are? In these monthly earnings & strategy reports I document my monthly growth and earnings so you can see what it’s like to pursue YT as a career. I also share the strategies and tactics I used each month to get where I am!
I’m closing in on the 1 year mark on YT, I started seriously making videos around mid 2012 and with early 2013 starting to draw to a close things are getting pretty interesting!
My long term goal has always been reaching the $1000 a month mark in Adsense revenue (though of course I plan to set a new goal when I get there but I feel like this is the minimum for a successful career). I’m getting very close to my goals… so how much closer did I get this month? Check out the video below to find out!
Total Videos:
ZiggyDStarcraft – 47
RLZiggyD – 2
Views:
ZiggyDStarcraft – 392,289
RLZiggyD – 3,861
Total of – 396,142
Up from january’s total of 337,700
Net Subscriber Growth:
ZiggyDStarcraft – 2,068
RLZiggyD – 59
Gross Adsense Earnings:
$639.08 Australian from YouTube!
$8.55 from my various websites and online articles.
This is obviously huge growth from January’s total of around $390 and even Decembers total of $450. In terms of percentage growth it’s about 33% from December to February, discounting january as it’s the slow month in this business. If I see similar growth this month adding another 33% to Feb’s totals will result in around $800. In short I’m approaching my goal faster than predicted, which is very exciting.
What did I do this month (Strategy)?
Uploaded 1-2 videos a day consistently. Only one break for a couple of days where I couldn’t upload.
Prepared well for the launch of Path of Exile’s open beta. Strategy for this was to have as much beginner targetted content made as possible so I could capture that audience. A lot of the game’s newer players are now subscribers and seem to be enjoying the content I put up every day.
Still focusing on a smaller niche.
Ive also been networking a lot more than I used to. Out of it came a major podcast with Kripparrian, some co-produced videos with Happy Jack and even a giveaway deal with a gamecodes site.
The Goals for March are to keep up with being consistent to keep networking but more importantly to make my lifestyle a bit more healthy and sustainable. Working really hard can take it’s toll on your body and your motivation to do other things. A successful personal life is going to help with my YT success as well.
G’day ZiggyD here and welcome to my Beginner’s Quickstart guide series for the Action RPG Path of Exile. I have been playing in PoE’s closed beta for a number of months now and in preparation for the flood of new players coming at the launch of open beta (free-to-play) I have been putting together this series of video guides that cover a lot of the frequently asked questions.
The Path of Exile Beginner’s QuickStart Guide Overview
Path of Exile is a loot-based action RPG, a lot like the Diablo series and Titan Quest. You control your avatar from a top down perspective to smash enemies and grab excessive amounts of loot. People experienced with the genre will be able to jump right in and start playing but Path of Exile throws a few curve balls when it comes to the currency/crafting/trading system, the passive skill tree and the skill gem system. These deep systems can throw off even experienced ARPG players. In the above video I run you guys through most of these systems and give you a good idea of what to expect.
Diablo 3 vs. Path of Exile – Feature Differences
If you guys are coming over from Diablo 3 or if you aren’t sure of which game is better for you here is a comparison of the two games. I love both PoE and D3 so it’s a fairly unbiased look at the two games.
Choosing a Class in Path of Exile
This is the first step on your journey into Wraeclast and it’s important to understand the differences between the classes. PoE features a fairly interesting and non-linear class system where you can essentially do anything with any class but the choice is still important.
How to Plan Out Your Build in PoE (Theme, Passives & Skills)
The passive skill tree alone can be intimidating but when you have to start combining it with class choice and skill gems things can become pretty overwhelming in a hurry. In this guide I take you through the build creation process step by step trying to break it down as simply as possible.
Farming Guides (What to Pick Up & Where to Farm)
Every now and then you might hit a wall in PoE where it just becomes too difficult to keep pushing forward. At these times it pays to know how and where to farm for additional levels, gear and currency to strengthen your character. In this first video I show you what sort of things are worth picking up so you kn0w what to not waste your time on. Below are a series of ‘where to farm’ guides. The list is incomplete at the moment but the where to farm series will continue to grow over time.
Hopefully this series of guides gives you a good starting base of knowledge. There are many more things to learn and you will discover them over time as you play. Path of Exile is a difficult and deep game but it can be very rewarding if you take the time to learn it’s mechanics. If you are interested in seeing more of my video guides make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
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