All About Blogging

Article Writing and Distribution for Traffic

2011-02-05T00:01:00.000-08:00

Writing articles and getting these published in websites like articlebase.com or freearticles.com etc is an effective way of driving traffic to your site. Being a tedious job, it is definitely not for those who want a quick fix solution for traffic boost and who cannot produce quality content. However, it is a great RESIDUAL traffic generator. I still get a number of hits from articles I have submitted long time, even years ago. Articles directories normally have better ranking, are more likely to appear on first page on google search. Once a reader lands at your article in article directories and he likes your article, it is very likely that he will visit your site. Also, every article you distribute to the directories could mean many potential one-way links back to your websites. Higher links means higher ranking in search engines and more traffic.

Improve Alexa Rank - Quick Fix Tips

2011-01-26T07:13:00.000-08:00

Alexa rank is calculated by calculating the geometric mean of historical traffic data and page views taken over a period of three months. The rank reflects the user traffic and number of website pages viewed by them. A blogger must strive to have a very low ranking number. The best one is “1”, which is already occupied by Google. Pity…… Let us try for the next spot, somewhere in tens of thousands will be good number for amateur bloggers. Here are few quick fix and effective techniques:

Get Alexa Toolbar: Get the Alexa tool bar installed. If you have more than one computers, you can install in all the systems to increase the effect and get good results.

Get Alexa Widget: Put Alexa widget on your blog or website. This will help you to get high rank. This widget is easily available and can be easily installed.

Regular Posts: Though not a quick fix tip, writing always helps. Quantity is good in short term; quality is best in the long run. My advise; Focus on quality.

Bloggers - Don't Copy If You Cannot Paste

2011-01-21T09:26:00.000-08:00

A popular speaker Said: "The best years of my life were spent in the arms of a beautiful woman who wasn't my wife!" Audience was shocked. The speaker added: "that woman was my mother!" (Laughter and Applause) A listener tried it at his home. He said loudly to his wife, "The greatest years of my life were spent in the arms of a very beautiful woman who was not my Wife!" Standing there for 20 seconds trying to recall the second Half of the joke, he finally said "...and I can't remember who she was!" and he regained his consciousness in a hospital bed. Moral: Don't Copy if you can't Paste!

Earning From Your Blog

2011-01-21T03:03:00.000-08:00

Guest Post

Earning blogging money is a lot easier than you might think. The most important thing you should realize is that you need a solid plan of action if you are going to have any hope of earning a good income from your blogs.

Let me add also that those 42% who are hopping to make money in the future really needs to start with a great plan if they want to succeed!

It’s not enough to just put a blog up and hope that the money will start to roll in!

So, how do you go about finding a plan of action so you earn as much money as possible from your blogs?

The first thing you need to do is find a mentor or model from someone who is already a successful niche blogger.

In fact, one the best source I’ve found is called “The Niche Blogger!” This is a complete program that was put together to help new people get their own start in blogging.

This will cut down on your learning time and help to ensure that you don’t make mistakes that will prevent you from making money.

When you join The Niche Blogger you are going to have to dedicate yourself to it.

One of the problems with trying to earn money blogging is that there are many different methods out there. Do yourself a favor and don’t fall prey to this.

If you choose a good model from the very beginning it will be easy to dedicate yourself to it because you know you will be able to succeed.

You should also realize that even though you can start earning very quickly, you won’t become rich overnight. Blogging is not a get-rich-scheme!

Blogging money will most likely start trickling in and then build upon itself over time. Before you know it, you can be earning a great part or full-time income from your blogs!

You need to put up a strong foundation for your blog. Set it up correctly.

One of the best things about blogging is that once you have your blog set up it is relatively passive income.

You may need to tweak things and add posts along the way, but for the most part they will be your 24 hours a day, seven days a week “salespeople.”

Earning money from blogs can literally change your life for the better. In fact, you might find that you can quit your day job and become a full-time blogger!

All you need to do is make sure you follow The Niche Blogger instructions, and that you dedicate yourself to it until you are successful.

The chances are very good that you look back on the moment you decided to become a blogger a year from now and know that it was one of the best decisions you have ever made.

Blogging money is truly the way to go for passive income!
Source: http://www.blogdemanila.com/blogging-money/

Choosing Best Threads to Participate in Forums

2011-01-16T02:00:00.000-08:00

Guest Post

Well, you have just started your first blog or website and you know that the next step is to drive swarms of traffic to it.

You have been told to participate in relevant forum threads (discussions), to establish yourself within the community. Other visitors to the forum will find your comments useful or your style likable and they will be interested in stopping by your site, through the links in your signature.

But how do you identify the best threads to participate?

There are two basic approaches when choosing the best threads for you to get involved in: when they are starting and when they are established.

Getting in when the thread is just starting. Join a fledgling discussion when the topic is about an area of your knowledge or when it is an opinion that is being requested. In this case, the amount of replies should be low (three or less, let's say) and the title of the topic should describe it well (this increases the chances of other people joining in the discussion and stopping by your reply).

Getting in when the thread is already established. Join a discussion where several different commentators have participated and options or alternatives have been clearly stated. Six or more replies, with the latest one no more than a couple of weeks old indicate the topic is of sufficient interest and that it maintains its momentum. You should also consider the amount of times the thread has been viewed; four or five times the number of replies is a good indicator.

In summary, join the discussions where you see the potential for the topic to generate or maintain interest through time, thus exposing the link to your site to the highest number of visitors!

Sources:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jose-Ricardo_Perez

Back Again

2010-11-21T04:05:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am back again. And it must be a great news for all those who were dying to see me come back. How many are they? Well, around zero. But who cares? My blog is a medium for self expression. And it contains some great stuff. And I am only interested in putting the stuff on the net. So, I'll continue doing that. One of my future topics will be oil pulling. Any body interested there?

Back, at Last

2009-05-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

So, after an absense of about 5 months, I am back. This is just a "I am back" mail. I'll come back with regular articles soon.

Till then, enjoy the week end.

My Post Has Ranked No 1 on Google Search

2008-12-19T03:43:00.000-08:00

The regular visitors of this blog know that I always emphasise on quality content for success of a blog. If the content is good, you'll get traffic as well as high Search Engine ranking.Today, while checking visitors of my other blog (letusgrow.blogspot.com), I found a visitor's link from Google. Tracking it back, I found that my article "Achieving Life Goals Daily Through Weekly Planning", which was posted on 7 Aug 08 has been ranked No. 1 at Google for search key words "daily planning and life goals". You can find the ranking at www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=daily+planning+and+life+goals&btnG=Search&meta...

The article and its title were never intended for Search Engines as I write for human beings, not machines. The article was an in depth description of planning process; how I plan my days and weeks for achieving life long goals and having a better, more fulfilling life. It's high ranking at Google is indeed, a great encouragement for me.

So the bottom line is "Quality Content is the King".

100 Blogging Tips – A Time for Self-Assessment – Part II

2008-12-15T07:57:00.000-08:00

Here are the next 10 (11-20) great blogging tips and my assessment of where I stand.

11. choose your niche wisely, not too big and not too small Guilty. Both my niche (personal development and blogging) are quite big.

12. proofread Qualify. I do proof read (though I am not a good proof reader).

13. proofread one more time Guilty. I can’t proof read again. If there are still a few mistakes, let there be. My aim is to communicate ideas, not to show my (non-existent) writing skills and vocabulary.

14. interact with other bloggers Qualify. I do, though not a great deal. Perhaps I can invest more time here. But expressing myself is more important for me, so I am not going to trade my writing time for interaction. YES ….. I know. It will cost me heavily, but at present, I don’t have time for both writing and interaction. So writing first.

15. leave meaningful comments Fifty fifty. I do. Though not a great deal. Rest as for tip No 14 above.

16. leave funny comments Qualify. I enjoy leaving funny, but encouraging remarks.

17. leave the first comment Guilty. Never cared about being first.

18. get rid of the sidebar calendar Qualify. I never had any calendar.

19. participate in online forums Qualify. I do it quite regularly.

20. put a link on your signature Qualify. It is really a great tip. It costs only 5 minutes and pays heavy dividends.

100 Blogging Tips - A Time for Self Assesment (Part I)

2008-12-05T04:39:00.000-08:00

I started my main blog LetUsGrow in Jun 08. While “learning the ropes”, I somehow became interested in “Making Money Online” and started another blog “Journal of A Money Blogger”. The goal was obvious; Make money while blogging. But soon, very soon, I realised that “blogging for money” does not resonate with me. Don’t take me wrong; I am not claiming to be a saint who does not want money. No. I like to have money, but price in terms of time and efforts that is required to be paid to earn money “honestly” (which I define as “to provide equal or more value than the money you receive”) from blogging is too much. There may be some quick fix methods, some of which I know. But I have never tested or tried any, as apparently, these do not provide sufficient value to people who are Paying the money. So I soon abandoned “Journal of A Money Blogger”. However, I was reading and learning a lot about blogging to improve my main blog “Let Us Grow”, so I thought to share my knowledge with others in this domain. This is how “All About Blogging” was born; to provide information to other bloggers, to share, to contribute. My primary blog, however, remains to be “Let Us Grow”.
Today, I am going to do a little self-analysis; to see if I have been doing the right things w.r.t blogging tips I have read over the period of time. I have a list of about 100 blogging tips to make a (new) blog successful. But in this port, I’ll discuss only 10. So here is my self-assessment.

Tip 1. if you are not, start blogging today Qualified. I am already running two (plus one abandoned) blogs.

Tip 2. write about something that you love Qualified. In Let Us Grow, I write about topics about which I am passionate. In “All About Blogging”, I write about topics in which I have interest.

Tip 3. if you are serious about blogging buy your own domain Guilty. I have not done it so far. But I am planning to have my own domain name within next 2 months. I have started the home work.

Tip 4. make sure your domain name is equal to your blog name Guilty. Yet to be done.

Tip 5. use a short and easy to remember name Qualified. I think both my blogs qualify this criteria.

Tip 6. use Wordpress Guilty. I have read a lot of recommendations for WordPress. However, starting a blog with blogger was more for convenience than a calculated choice. I am going to start a WordPress blog also. After experimenting with both formats, I will finally select one of the two and then, will implement tip No 3.

Tip 7. use Wordpress plugins ????? Since I am not using WordPress, so there are no WP plugins. However, I have other plugins, so as a technology, I am comfortable with plugins.

Tip 8. blog with consistency What is consistency? One post daily? 2 posts per month? In my case, I set the goal of having 100 posts in my first year, with at least 5 posts per month. So far, I am maintaining this (perhaps easy) target.

Tip 9. write at least 5 posts a week No. I never aimed at 5 posts per week, so I never posted 5 posts a week. For me, around 2-3 posts per week is perfectly OK. Being a full time worker, 5 “meaningful” posts per week for two blogs is a tall order.

Tip 10. backup your blog Good tip and I Qualify. I do it on weekly basis and strongly recommend every one to do so. After all, what it takes? Less than a minute and a few mouse clicks.

Thanks - My Top Entrecard Droppers For Nov 08

2008-12-03T00:55:00.000-08:00

Each month I start the blog posting with list of top 10 entrecard droppers for the previous month. There are four main reasons:

1. It gives me a topic to write about.

2. I feel connected with people

3. I provide a link to their site, without wanting anything in return.

And most importantly

4. I start the month with a thank you post.

Those who know the power of gratitude will understand the importance of starting the month with gratitude.

Here is my list of top droppers for the month of Nov 08:

Healthy Tips For A Healthy Lifestyle
LOL Celebs!
Reveries of simplyJACY
Cash Rules Us
chikkador
kramlo
My Investing Blog
Blogosauros
The Matthias Chronicles
Riding a Buttertub Down the Stream of Consciousness

I'll request you to visit my top entrecard droppers?

Thanks every one.

Content Is The King - Make Sure People See “Him”

2008-11-11T02:31:00.000-08:00

I am a strong advocate of good content. If the content is good, people will read it, refer it, recommend it. Your traffic will definitely grow. But it is neither that simple nor that quick that suddenly, your site will be indexed by google and you’ll start receiving thousands of visitors overnight.

So once you have a couple of decent posts, start off with some promotion. You have a good product, so there is no harm in telling the people about it. To start off, I recommend smaller steps. Don’t straight away jump at SEO and paid advertisements. Instead, for first couple of months, follow these small steps, while keeping focus on adding quality contents:

1. Participate in forums
2. Ask questions, start threads.
3. Post decent, meaningful comments that provide value to readers.
4. Post funny, interesting comments.
5. Read other blogs and learn from their strengths.
6. Be generous in commenting on other blogs.
7. Include a link of your blog in your email signature.

8. Take full advantage of services like entrecard and blogexplosion.

Just start with these small steps. Don’t overload yourself. There is plenty of time to learn about SEO. Remember, SEO is really valuable when you have sufficient high quality content.

Top Entrecard Droppers – October 2008

2008-11-05T01:13:00.000-08:00

Here is the list of top 7 EntreCard droppers for the month of Oct 08. As a token of thanks, I am giving their site’s link, with a request to my visitors to visit their blogs as well.

Abstinence Is Sexy (Sex is even more sexy. lol)
the Mom Buzz
win many contest here
Life With Roxxymetal
One Stop Shopping
Nice2All
Synchronicity Hosting

Thanks again, everbody.

EntreCard – Boost Traffic Instantly

2008-11-03T06:47:00.000-08:00

I intended to write on Entrecard from the perspective of my experience and quality of traffic it brings in. However, I just realised that may be, not every reader is familiar with EntreCard. Now this is a statement that no blogger on Earth will believe. Someone not familiar with EnntreCard? How on earth?????

But not all visitors are bloggers and some bloggers are new. And to be very honest, I started investigating and then using Entrecard after 3 months of starting my blog. I suspect there may be other cave dwellers like me who are running a blog but still have not tried Entrecard.

EntreCard is “New Blogger’s Life Style” to promote his/her blog and generate Traffic. Its working is quite simple. You register your blog with EntreCard (it is free). Next step is to get your widget code. Copy and paste it in your website. Then comes the important step; create an attractive card. If you don’t want to invest some time on it at the moment, use a ready made card from EntreCard, modify and submit it. Now you are all set to get EntreCard points.

How you get EntreCard Credits (ECs)? Here are the common ways:

Visit fellow Entrecarders’ blogs and drop your card in their Entrecard widget. You’ll get ECs. You can drop as many as 300 days per blog per day. The higher the number of cards you drop, higher number of reciprocal visits you can expect to receive, hence higher number of ECs you’ll earn.

Then there is a passive way. When other EntreCard members visit your site, they drop there cards (and trust me, they will drop their card). You earn ECs. The better your blog, the higher will be the traffic, and more will be the card drops and ECs.

Third way to get ECs is to run advertisements on your blog. Othet EntreCard members will buy advertisements on your blog by transferring some ECs to you. Don’t worry; you don’t have to do any thing except a mouse click to either accept or reject a card.

Another way of earning ECs, which is not so well known, is to post. Yes.. When you post an article, you get 25 ECs. Isn’t it great???

So you have earned lot of ECs; now what?????

Apart from getting traffic from EntreCard’s blog directory and reciprocal visists, you can advertise your blog on other EntreCard members’ blog by paying through your ECs. You can advertise your blog for a complete day on a member’s site for as low as 2 ECs or as high as few thousand ECs, depending upon site’s ranking and popularity.
In my next article, I’ll share my experience with EntreCard. But if you want quick traffic, don’t wait. Go ahead and grab your EntreCard membership straightaway at http://entrecard.com/

Blog Promotion and Traffic - Don’t Caught Up in Cosmetics

2008-10-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

Daily, I visit a number of new blogs at random in search of good reading material. I think, on average, I visit around 200 new blogs every month. Some of these are good, some are excellent and some just average or below average. I have observed one thing very interesting; the blogs, which are generally below average, have a lot of “fancy”, “new technology” “plug in” type cosmetics and gimmicks.

With “plug and play” and “drag and drop” options, it is no wonder that new bloggers get tempted to incorporate some of those hundreds of cool blogging plugs in, that are free. They assume that these plug-ins will make their site more attractive, more cool and will attract more readers. It is far from truth. People come to your site to “read” something interesting and to have information, not to see irrelevant stock rates, weather conditions or to listen to unwanted music etc. If you want to have a plug in, make sure it is either related to your blog’s theme or something about your blog itself.

So my suggestion to new bloggers would be:

Don’t bombard your visitors with irrelevant plug-ins, especially at the cost of content. No one visits your site for “reading” a plug-in displayed in the side bar.
Always remember, the core of your site is the content. Have some thing worth reading.

Want More Traffic ? Try Blog Explosion for a Traffic Boost

2008-10-22T02:09:00.000-07:00

"How can I get more traffic?"

This is the question all bloggers ask within a few days of starting their blog.

I have already mentioned a couple of ways to help increase traffic. Content remains the king for me, followed by consistency and participation in forums.

But good content takes time.

Is there a "quick" solution?

Yes, there are many.

One of them, which I have tested myself and using for this site is "BLOG EXPLOSION".

Blog Explosion has a simple philosophy " You visit other blogs, other bloggers will visit your blog".

Since I like visiting blogs and reading new content, the deal is perfectly win win for me.

I spend about 10-30 minutes daily reading various blogs through blog explosion. This I would have done otherwise also. However, I get additional traffic as a bonus.

Currently, about 10% of my traffic comes from blog explosion.

So if you are looking for a quick traffic build up system, try Blog Explosion.

It is free and simple to join.

Join by clicking the link below.

Becoming Rich with AdSense – Think Again

2008-10-17T06:44:00.000-07:00

Using Google AdSense is, apparently, a very simple approach for earning easy money.

1. Start a blog / website
2. Sign up with AdSense
3. Display Google AdSense ads
4. Add content to your site
5. Generate Traffic
6. Start earning

Theoretically, it is very simple, easy, and straightforward. That is the reason thousand of people start a blog everyday in search of easy money. Though you can earn money from Google AdSense, but let me tell you, it is definitely not easy money.

Consider these simple facts:

Though varied widely (0.01 to, reportedly, as much as 2.00 $ per click), let us assume that a click on an AdSense earns you on average 0.05 $.

Your site has 100 daily visitors (believe me, it is a high number for a new site, especially those created by novice bloggers, without any solid training/knowledge/guidance).

Let us assume average CTR (Click Through Ratio) is 1%. (CTR also varies widely and is high when you have focused niche and highly targeted traffic. But newbie bloggers have hardly focused niche or targeted traffic).

So daily, you earn $ 0.05 (1 click x 0.05 $ per click)

Your monthly income is $ 1.50.

Your annual income is $ 18.00.

Woooow. Great money????
Practically, many bloggers don’t get any click for days, even weeks or months.

Depressing ?????
YES.
And that is the reason Cyberspace has hundred of thousands of abandoned blogs.

Solution???

Forget about AdSense earning. Just focus on adding quality content, regular posts and quality traffic generation for first 6-12 months. Let those AdSense Ads sit quietly in the corner. Don’t check your AdSense account for the earnings. Try other MMO (Making Money Online) options.

Whatsoever you try, remember one thing.

Making money online is difficult, especially during first year, like any other business.

The key, again like any other business, is hard work in providing value to your customers (visitors).

ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?????

Adsense– Don’t Get Banned by Violating Terms of Reference

2008-09-22T08:49:00.000-07:00

Making money is the primary or at least secondary motive of most of the bloggers when they create their blog. New or potential bloggers find it very easy and especially, with Adsense, it can’t get any easier. All a blogger need to do is to create a website, generate traffic, apply for Adsense and insert Adsense code in the blog widget. Now start expecting thousands, if not millions, pouring in your Adsense account (overnight, preferably).

The reality is, more than 95% of the bloggers will earn very little, if any, in first few months. I have already wrote a few posts for this group of bloggers as to what to do to be successful. For those bloggers who have some success with Google Adsense, I have a word of caution; Don’t violate Google’s Terms of Service, because if you do, your account will simply be banned. Though in theory, Google allows you to submit a review petition, practically I have not seen revival of a banned account. I, however, often find blogs that complain about being banned by Adsense.

You can avoid banning of your account by reading and adhering to Google’s Terms of service. However, when focus is on potential revenues, rarely anyone reads the small print. If you are also one of those who have not read Adsense’s TOS, then please spare a few minutes, read the following common mistakes and make a note of avoiding these. These are, in fact, Simplified Adsense TOS.

1. Never click your own adsense ads. This is a sure way to get your account banned. Don’t ask anyone, friends, family members, office associates to click on your ads. Dontoffer incentives to your visitors for clicking the ads or use an automated clicking tool/software. If you want to check the ads that appear on your site, use Google Preview tool .

2. Never change the Adsense code. Google Adsense provides some tools to optimize an ad, such as changing the colour, background etc. However, don’t go beyond that, i.e., tweak the ad code. The code may stop working and violate the TOS, hence getting the account banned.

3. Do not place more than 3 ad units and 3 ad links or 2 adsense search boxes on any web page. This is the limit Adsense sets, so adhere to it. And by the way, additional ads are not likely to appear.

4. Do not send your ads by email. Though it is possible to send ads through e-mails if it is Html formatted. However it is not allowed and is easily deteced by Google.

5. Ensure your contents meets Google’s criteria. Google does not allow ads on sites having pornographic, hate-related, violent, or illegal content.

6. Adsense ads should open on the same page. Make sure that clicking the ad does not launch a new page. Google does not want new pages opening from clicked ads.

7. One Account for Multiple websites. If you open a number of accounts assuming that if one of your account is banned because of violation of TOS, the other will survice, think again. Google will close all accounts sooner or later. So just create one account for your multiple sites.

8. Avoid excessive advertising and keyword stuffing – Though definition of ‘excessive’ is a gray area and is subject to discretion, yet Google adsense with correct placement, focused content and high traffic will get you much more income than other programs, so excessive advertising is not required. Keyword stuffing does target better focused ads, but overdoing it is not required.

9. Do not confuse with adjacent images - It is possible to increase CTR by placing same number of images as the number of text ads, which falsely gave the impression that the text ads represented an explanation to these images. Make sure that the ads and images are not arranged in a way that could easily mislead or confuse your visitors.

10. Ensure you Language is Supported – Adsense supports a number of languages. Please ensure that if your web page’s language is not supported bu Google, do not use the code on such pages.

11. Do not alter the results after ad clicks or searches - Ensure you are not in any way altering the site which the user reaches to after clicking the ads. Do not frame, minimize, remove, redirect or otherwise inhibit the full and complete display of any Advertiser Page or Search Results Page after the user clicks on any Ad or Search results.

12. Be careful while displaying competitive contextual text ads/ search services on the same site which display Google Adsense ads. Google allows you to run contextual advertising like Yahoo ads, Chitika etc provided the ads do not resemble Adsense ads. Never try to create link structures resembling the adsense ads.

13. Do not disclose confidential information This includes information such as CTR, CPM and income derived via individual ad units or any other confidential information they may reveal to you. You may, however, reveal the total money you make.

14. Label ads as “sponsored links” or “advertisements” only. Other labels are not allowed by Adsense.

15. Place ads only on Content Pages. Don’t put ads on login, registration, thank you or welcome pages etc. This will get you banned. Remember, advertisers pay only for content based ads.

16. Do not mask ad elements. Do not block the visibility of ads by overlapping test, images, pop ups, tables etc. Do not alter the colour to mask the advertiser’s address/url by choosing a particluar colour combination.

Increasing Blog Traffic – 6 Golden Tips for New Bloggers

2008-09-19T01:11:00.001-07:00

Every day, hundreds of thousands of blogs are created on the net. Within three months, most of these are abandoned by their publishers. The No 1 reason for abandoning the blog is lack of traffic. Whereas experienced bloggers know how to attract traffic, the beginners struggle. Here are my tips for the beginners to have a few dozens or even hundreds of visitors to their site every day to keep them motivated for continuation of their blog.

1. Good Content. Sorry for not starting with a short cut, but this is by far the best way to have, maintain, and increase traffic. Add quality content to your site as often as possible to attract visitors to read and come back. Don’t aim for something super duper, something very intellectual. Not every one is interested in reading classics, philosophical and intellectual posts; come up with short posts that interest people.

2. Improve Blog Look. I visit a number of blogs every day and from my own experience I can tell the look and layout of a blog is a key to decide whether a first timer will stay and read or just leave. Selection of text colour, fonts, layout, ads and links etc on the blog is a matter of personal choice. However, make sure that your text is easy to read, add some relevant pictures, cartoons etc and optimise your blog’s layout, ensuring that it is not heavily cluttered.

3. Join Forums. No excuse for this one. If you are new blogger and want traffic, joining forum is the best and most effective way. Participate, reply to queries, start your own threads, come up with helpful hints and make sure you have your link at the end of your comments. This is bound to get you traffic.

4. Exchanges Visits and Sites. Once you have participated in forums, make cyber friends; owners of blogs that interest you. Visit their sites and comment. Ask them to visit your site and leave comment. Put their link on your site and ask them to do the same.

5. Use Blog Traffic Tools. I use google analytics and statcounter to monitor the traffic of my site. It shows the sources of traffic and helps me to invest my time for blog promotion accordingly. For example, I regularly post in blogcatalog as I have seen that this generates fair traffic from the forum. On the other hand, 125linkexchange programme has failed to generate traffic for my site so I am going to remove links for this service to make room for other service.

6. Use Tags Intelligently. Tag your posts with words that describe the post's content in a clear, concise manner. It will make it easier for your readers to find the content they're looking for and will help in increasing the returning visits.

And final word. Blogging may be easy, but generating traffic requires efforts. Except for the case that someone is blogging exclusively for himself/herself with out any consideration whether his/her posts are read or not, one will have to dedicate some time to promote the blog to generate traffic.

Make Money Online - What to Avoid

2008-09-07T23:52:00.000-07:00

I have just completed a series of articles on 30 ways to make money on line. If you are following one or more of the methods and are sceptical about your success, than here are the tips to make sure that concerns becomes a reality.

1. Expect to make thousands of dollars within days (or weeks).

2. Don’t advertise or promote your blog/website.

3. Don’t respond to your sponsors or even read their mails.

4. Don’t respond or respond rudely to your visitors comments.
5. Quit after a few weeks.
6. Become inconsistent with your posts / don’t update your website.

7. Keep spending your time looking for a better online business opportunity instead of developing the business you have.

8. Listen carefully to your friends/relatives discouraging remarks and get influenced by them.

If you are diligent in following all the above practices, you will be extremely successful in not making money online. Guaranteed.
On the other hand, if you just persist and produce good content, you have assured success, sooner or later.

30 Ways to Make Money Online – Part 10

2008-09-05T07:55:00.000-07:00

This is the last part of my ten part series which completes 30 ways to make money online.

28. Offering Consulting and Related Services

You can also make money by offering consulting and related services. If you are also the author of your blog, the articles and information that you will share will build your profile and possibly certify your expertise on that niche, making it easier to gain customers. One example is Chris Garrett , who created a highly influential blog on the blogging and new media niche, and then he started offering consulting services to clients with related problems and needs.

29. Sell photos online. If you are a good photographer whose pictures often make the viewers to generate aaaah sounds, you can sell your photos directly on your own site or some other sites. If you can’t put in the time and efforts to create your high traffic site for selling the photos, then you can market your pictures at Shutterstock, Fotolia, Dreamstime and Big Stock Photo.

30. Build and sell site / blogs. Start a blog around your favourite topic/interest, write articles, advertise your blog and generate traffic. Within a few months, you blog will worth thousands of dollars, depending upon traffic and earning potential. A blog’s value is generally calculated using the formula:
Blog Value = 2 x Estimated Yearly Revenue + Blog Premium - Running Costs
However, a blogs actual price may well be quite outside the estimate depending upon the very nature of the blog. http://www.flipyourblog.com/ is one site where you can put up blog for sale.

30 Ways to Make Money Online – Part 9

2008-09-01T07:16:00.001-07:00

25. Mentoring programs

Education is one of the biggest industries in the world, which will always remain IN. People are always willing to pay for knowledge and mentoring. Creating a mentoring program related to the niche of your website could be very profitable, provided you manage to structure and promote it adequately. There is a wide range of media and tools that you can use to deliver the information, from text articles to audio and video lessons. Brian Clark leveraged the success of Copyblogger to launch a mentoring program teaching people how to build membership and how to sell content online. The program is titled Teaching Sells, and it costs $97 monthly. Sounds expensive, but they have over 1,000 members. Yaro Starak is another example.

26. Creating a conference around the website

If your blog becomes really popular is considered as authority on its subject, you can giv presentations in seminars or can create your own conference. The event could attract thousands of people, depending upon the popularity of your site, and you could make money directly from conference passes and sponsors. One example is that of Search Engine Land, which created a series of conferences that visited several cities in US and other countries. Their conferences are called Search Marketing Expo, and the tickets/ passes cost thousands of dollars.

27. Premium Content

If you have a very popular blog and you are an authority on your niche, then you may give away part of your contents for free and charge for access to the premium content and exclusive tools. SEOMoz is one good example. This is a very popular blog that gives advice and information on wide range of SEO related topics. It provides access to premier content, guides, tools and other exclusive material to members only that pay $48 per month.

30 Ways to Make Money Online – Part 8

2008-08-31T01:34:00.000-07:00

22. Selling an Ebook/Digital Information

Using a website to promote a related ebook is a very efficient way to generate revenue and is one of the earlier money making approach on the web.You could either structure the website around the book itself, like SEOBook.com, or launch the ebook based on the success of the website, like FreelanceSwitch did we the book How to be a Rockstar Freelancer or Like Steve Pavlina launched “Personal Development for Smart People” after success of his website.

You can visit following sites for further tips:
Writing an ebook for your blog
How to sell ebooks
Processing payments for your ebook
How to sell digital products online
List of ebook selling software

23. Email Lists or Newsletter

Email lists and newsletters represent one of the most powerful marketing and money making tools on the Internet because these have a very high conversion rate and have the capacity to call people to action in a very efficient way. Creating a big list is a difficult task though, so if you have a popular website you could leverage it to increase the number of subscribers on your list. Yaro Starak is a famous Internet marketer, and if you visit his blog you will notice that right on top he has a section encouraging visitors to subscribe to his email newsletter. I have learnt that Yaro generates five figures in revenues each month from his email newsletters. This proves efficiency of the system; but of course, you have to have a high traffic website to make this system work.
Here is a list of software to manage email newsletters, if you intend to publish one:
AWeber
SendStudio NX
PHP Autoresponder
Constant Contact

24. Selling Templates or WordPress Themes

As more and more people decide to get on the web and have their own website/blog, market for website templates, blogger and WordPress themes is also becoming hotter and hotter. TemplateMonster is one example which sells templates while there are individual designers who design and sell their work independently. Unique Blog Designs is another example which makes money with the sales of premium and custom WordPress themes.

30 Ways to Make Money Online – Part 7

2008-08-29T01:32:00.000-07:00

19. Audio Ads

This advertising method, which is also known as, PPP (Pay Per Play), was introduce by Net Audio Ads. It works like this: every time a visitor enters into your website, the programme plays a small audio advertising (usually 5 seconds). The user is not able to stop it. This creates a 100% conversion rate. Though still being tested, some website owners have reported to earn from $4 to a $6 CPM. Word of caution; it is a very intrusive form of advertising. That is the reason many website owners, including myself, are not inclined to use it.

20. Selling or Renting Internal Pages

The concept is that the website owners sells for a single fee or rent for a recurring fee internal pages on their domain. Usually they have either high Page rank or high traffic, so that people purchasing a page will be able to benefit in some way. Million Dollar Wiki made this concept popular, but it was being used on the web for a long time around (e.g Pagerank10.co.uk).

Implementing this method on a small blog with low traffic would be difficult, but the concept is interesting and could be explored at later stages, once sufficient traffic has been built.

21. Selling the Website

Selling your website could be your last resource, but it has the potential to generate a big sum of money in a short period of time. Market places on online forums like DigitalPoint and Sitepoint are always active with website buyers and sellers. Keep in mind that they most used parameter to determine the value of a website is the monthly revenue that it generates, multiplied by a certain number (the multiplier can be anything from 5 to 30, depending on the expectations of the seller, on the quality of the site, on the niche and other factors).
Some people also make money trading and flipping websites. They either create them from scratch or buy existing ones, and after some revamping they sell them for a profit.
Related links:
How To Buy A Website And Flip It For Profit
How To Sell A Website - How Much Is Your Website Worth?
Where to sell a website? How to go about selling it?

Free 3- Column Blog Template for Blogger

2008-08-28T01:23:00.000-07:00

Blogger.com offers a number of ready made blog templates for beginners like me who do not have knowledge of HTML. If you use blogger.com for your blog, you must be knowing that all the standard templates have two columns. I had been using 2-column template for quite some time. However, I was not very happy with that. I thought that a 3-column blog would serve my requirement better. So I did some google to find a free 3-column template for blogger. I could not find any ready made, simple to download 3-column blog template. May be there are some available on the net, but I gave up after two days and decided to tweak the existing HTML code of my template and convert it to a 3-column template. I googled again; but this time for tips on tweaking the existing template. After a couple of hours reading information and tweaking the existing HTML code, I have managed to convert my blog to 3-columns. The results are not very great; there is room for improvement. But being a person who believes in action and follows “Ready – Fire – Aim” approach, I am happy with the results. I know I’ll be able to improve it over the period of time. The best part of whole exercise had been that it has given me a fair insight of HTML code as well as the confidence that I am able to modify the code to meet my requirements.

Very frankly, now as I am through with the exercise, I can say that it takes only 5 minutes to modify a 2-column template’s HTML code to convert it into a 3-column template. Though I spent couple of hours to accomplish this otherwise 5-minute task, I am happy that I did the exercise. The lessons learnt and the knowledge gained is worth the effort.

If you also wish to convert your 2-column blogger.com’s blog into a 3-column blog, I encourage you to do the exercise. It is worth your time. However, in case you don’t want to invest the time and are happy with the looks of my blog, feel free to leave your e-mail address in the comments. I’ll send you a copy of HTML code for this blog.

30 Ways to Make Money Online – Part 6

2008-08-27T15:20:00.000-07:00

16. Marketplaces

A market place is essentially a website that allows visitors to buy, sell and trade products. With increase in traffic and popularity, the blogger may start charging a small fee for new product listings. The problem with this method is that there are no standard software on the web, so a blogger would need to hire a coder to get a marketplace integrated into his/her website. Example of a marketplaces being used are Sitepoint, EasyWordpress and Mashable.

17. Paid Surveys and Polls

There services pay the blogger/website owner to run a small survey or poll on your website. One of the most popular one is Vizu Answers. The website owner needs to sign up with them, and select the kind of polls that he/she wants to run on the site. Most of these services operate under a CPM model.

18. Highlighted Posts from Sponsors

I have not practically applied this technique. Techmeme probably pioneered this idea, but somehow it has not spread to other websites. The tech news aggregator displays editorial posts on the left column, and on the sidebar they have a section titled “Techmeme Sponsor Posts.” On that section posts from the blog of the advertisers get highlighted, sending qualified traffic their way. I have read that monthly cost for one spot is $5000 and that they have around 6 sponsors at any given time; it must be working well for them.

30 Ways to Make Money Online – Part 5

2008-08-26T05:16:00.000-07:00

13. RSS Feed Ads

RSS technology has been adopted by millions of Internet users, enabling website owners monetize this new content distribution channel for more profits. The implementation is simple: The publisher displays the ads, which are either CPM based, PPC style or a combination of both. Links for affiliate programmes may also included in the RSS feed. Some bloggers sell banners or sponsored messages on their feed directly. Feedburber already has its own publisher network, and one can sign-up to start displaying CPM based advertising on his/her feed footer.
Available options for RSS Feed Ads are:

Pheedo
Feedburner
BidVertiser

14. Sponsors for Single Columns or Events

Bloggers may find sponsors for some specific columns or events (e.g., a weekly podcast, an interview series, a monthly survey etc) in their blog. This method increases the monetization options for website owner, while giving advertisers the possibility to target a more specific audience and with a reduced commitment. An example of this money making option is Mashable , which has several advertising options on the site, including the possibility to sponsor specific columns and articles. At times, Problogger also runs group writing projects, and before proceeding he publicly announce the project asking for sponsors.

15. Job Boards

All the popular blogs are trying to leverage job boards to make some extra income. Guy Kawasaki, ReadWriteWeb, Problogger are but some exam-ples. However, to create an active and profitable job board, a blogger need first to have a blog focused on a specific niche, and reasonable traffic. The advantage of this method is that it is passive. Once you have the structure in place, the job listings will come naturally, and you can charge anywhere from $10 up to $100 for each.

List of popular job board software:
JobThread
Web Scribe Job Board
SimplyHired Job-o-matic
Jobbex

30 Ways to Make Money Online – Part 4

2008-08-21T02:59:00.000-07:00

10. Sponsored Reviews

This option was pioneered by PayPerPost. This was soon followed by other companies, including Sponsored Reviews and ReviewMe, which refined the process and expanded the payment models. ReviewMe is service that connects companies or websites looking for buzz with bloggers who want to generate some cash from their blog. Joining one of these sponsored reviews marketplaces will give a blogger the opportunity to write sponsored posts on a wide range of topics. However, not all bloggers are willing to get paid to write about a specific product or website, as it might compromise their editorial credibility.

The sponsored reviews and paid blogging networks include:
PayPerPost
Sponsored Reviews
ReviewMe
BlogVertise
Smorty

11. Private Forums

Although majority of forums on internet are free, there is always the possibility to create a private forum where members are required to pay a one time or monthly/annual fee to join and utilise the services. SEO Blackhat is one example which charges $100 monthly from its members. The network has thousand of members. To charge such a price for a forum membership, a bloger must obviously provide real value for the members, which could be secret techniques, tools, offers etc. To benefit from this technique, a blogger must find an appealing angle that will make it worth for the members.

List of popular forum software include:

vBulletin
Simple Machines Forum
phpBB
Vanilla

12. Selling Books

Many authors and journalists leverage their blogs or websites to sell copies of hardcover books. Examples include Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin , and Malcolm Gladwell. While most of these people were already renowned authors before they created their website, one could also follow the other way around. Lorelle VanFossen did exactly that with her Blogging Tips book, while Steve Pavlina used his blog to help his book to rise to top ranking in Amazon’s list.
List of self publishing and publishing services:

Lulu
Self Publishing
iUniverse
WordClay

30 Ways to Make Money Online – Part 3

2008-08-19T02:58:00.000-07:00

7. Pop-ups and Pop-unders

Not one of my favourites: Pop-ups are a common yet annoying form of advertising on the Internet. You can use this scheme if you wish to increase your monetisation options. However, due to their annoying behaviour, I really suspect that these will affect youre traffic.
Ad networks that use pop-ups include:

Tribal Fusion
PayPopup
PopupAd
Adversal

8. Text Link Ads

After Google declared that sites selling text links without the nofollow tag would be penalized, this monetization method became less popular. Many website owners are still using text links to monetize their sites, though, some using the nofollow tag and some not.
The advantage of this method is that it is not intrusive. One can sell text links directly through his website or use specialized networks like Text-Link-Ads and Text-Link-Brokers to automate the process.
Text link marketplaces and networks include:

DigitalPoint Link Sales Forum
Text-Link-Ads
Text-Link-Brokers
TNX
LinkWorth

9. Monetization Widgets

It is a recent trend on the web that makes use of widgets to let you monetize your website. Some of these services operate under a PPC scheme, others behave like text link ads, others yet leverage affiliate links. Their main differentiator, however, is the fact that they work as web widgets, making it easier for the user to plug and play the service on its website.
List of companies that provide monetization widgets:

WidgetBucks
ScratchBack
SmartLinks

30 Ways to Make Money Online – Part 2

2008-08-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

4. Direct Banner Advertising

If you want real business, then selling your own advertising space is one of the most lucrative monetization methods. It enables you to cut out the middleman commissions as well as to determine your own rates. But on the other hand, direct banner advertising requires big audience to attract advertisers, and the blogger will need to spend time managing the sales process, the banners and the payments. If you wish to try direct banner advertising, you can start from:

Openads Ad Server
OIO Publisher Ad Platform
How to Find Advertisers for Your Website
Direct Advertising Sales for Beginners
Finding Advertisers for Your Blog

5. In-text Adverting

I will consider it as an extension of PPC scheme, though a frustrating one for me due to its intrusive nature. The publisher puts sponsored links inside the text. These links come with a double underline to differentiate them from normal links, and once the user rolls the mouse over the link the advertising will pop. Should the user click on it the site owner will make some money. Some people make good money with this method, but generally, bloggers and publishers avoid it. Two examples are

Kontera
Vibrant Media

6. Affiliate Marketing
This is one of the most popular money making approach on the Internet. It is also called CPA (cost per action) or CPL (cost per lead) based. The merchant lets the affiliates to sell directly or indirectly its products and services, in exchange for a commission. The affiliates send potential customers to the merchant using several tools, from banners to text links and product reviews. List of popular affiliate marketplaces and networks:

ClickBank
Commission Junction
Azoogle Ads
Link Share
Amazon.com

30 Ways to Make Money Online – Part 1

2008-08-12T01:10:00.000-07:00

This is part 1 of the series of articles on one of the most demanded and read topics on the web. The title says “30 ways”, which does not mean that there are only 30 ways to make money online. In fact, these are the ways I have researched and listed so far. There may be more. Within each list as well, there are other sources of revenue generation then those I have covered. So don’t get surprised if you see this list going beyond 30 ways and lists of options within each way growing over the period of time. If you know a method that is not listed below, just let us know and we’ll update it.

I want to clarify here that this list guides you to ways of making money, not the ways to optimise ways of making money. That I’ll cover separately. To highlight the difference between two, I’ll say that PPC is a way of making money, whereas optimisation of PPC programme (getting more traffic, getting more targeted traffic, improving click-through rate etc) are the ways to improve the rate of income generation.

Now why I am giving only five tips? Because if I give all 50 ways now, most of the bloggers will become overloaded by information and will be unable to act. So read the first 3 and let these 3 sink in. Wait for the next post to see the next 3. Keep on trying 1-2 methods (each method offers a number of options) every week. Different people get different results with different tactics. See which one suits you and your blog the best and delivers and then continue and optimise that one.

1. Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising Networks
Google AdSense is the most popular option under this category and almost every blogger know about AdSense. However, there are others as well. The implementation is simple: You have to sign up with the network and paste some code on your website. The network will then serve contextual ads (either text or images) relevant to your website, and you will earn a certain amount of money for every click.

The amount of money that you are going to make depends upon

traffic volume
Cost Per Click (CPC) and most importantly
Click-through rate (CTR)

The CTR depends on the design of the website. Ads placed abode the fold or blended with content, for instance, tend to get higher CTRs. The CPC, on the other hand, depends on the niche of the website. Mortgages, financial products, money making sites are examples of profitable topics, while technical topics tend to receive a smaller CPC.

The source of the traffic can also affect the overall CTR rate. Organic traffic (the one that comes from search engines) tends to perform well because these visitors are already looking for something, and they tend to click on ads more often. Social media traffic, on the other hand, presents terribly low CTRs because these visitors are tech-savvy and they just ignore ads.
List of popular CPC advertising networks:
Google Adsense
Chitika
Yahoo! Publisher Network (YPN)
Clicksor
BidVertiser

2. CPM Advertising Networks

CPM stands for Cost per Mille, and it refers to the cost for 1,000 impressions. The blogger gets paid according to the number of impressions (i.e., page views) that the ads displayed on your site will generate. For example, a blog that has 50,000 page views monthly and displays an advertising banner with a $2 CPM, therefore, will earn $100 monthly.

CPM rates vary with the network, the position of the ad and the format.

The better the network, the higher the CPM rate (because they have access to more advertisers).
If the ad is closer to the top of the page, the higher the CPM.
If you have bigger (in terms of pixels), the higher the CPM.

CPM generally ranges between $0,10 to $10, though may go beyond $10 in some special cases. CPM advertising tends to work well on websites with a high page views per visitor ratio (e.g., online forums, magazines and so on).

List of popular CPM advertising networks:
Value Click
Advertising.com
Casale Media
Burst Media
Right Media
Advertising.com
Tribal Fusion

3. Donations
This concept has gained popularity recently. Placing a “Donate” link or button on a website can be an efficient way to earn money, especially if your blog is on a niche where readers learn and gain value from your content. For example, personal development and productivity blogs tend to perform well with donation based systems. The blogger either asks for the donation directly or can use a new plugin called Buy Me a Beer. This WordPress plugin enables you to insert a customized message at the bottom of each article, asking the readers to chip in for a beer or, if you don't like beer, any drink.

Blogging for Money? Think Again

2008-08-11T06:01:00.000-07:00

If you are thinking about blogging to earn money, the first question is
Is it possible to earn a decent money from blogging?
The (good) answer is YES. It is possible.

The second question is
Can most people do it?
The answer is NO. A big NO. Many people start blogging to earn big money. They fail. In fact, it is said that about 99% of the bloggers fail to generate decent income (an income that may be considered as their primary income).

Getting depressed? You need not to be. Look around. In all businesses which have a low entry point (does not required very high skill/education level or money etc, for example acting, writing or music) the failure ratio is similar. Since the entry is easy, many people jump without much thinking and planning. But irrespective that how low is the entry point, success required skill and hard work. Those who are not willing to plan, sharpen their saw and work hard, will soon give away.

So my conclusion is that while most people can’t make a living from blogging, intelligent hard working people can. I believe you are one of them, so here are my tips to help you appreciate the requirements and plan better.

Blogging for (big) money is difficult. Blogging itself is easy; very very easy. It is free as well (blogger.com for example). However, blogging for big money is difficult. Just accept this point. It is not to discourage you but to make you aware of the reality and prepare you to plan and work accordingly.

Pick your niche wisely. Pick a niche you love and stick with it. Make sure that your niche is not very broad, but just big enough that you can build significant traffic. You must have some significant expertise in your chosen field. Think about what you love most, and find ways to make your topic attractive people. Consider what will provide genuine value to your visitors. It’s all about what you can give. If you choose a niche for money only, you’ll lose interest as well as run out of ideas soon. Choosing a niche for money only is a sure recipe for failure. So spare some time and brainstorm the topics that you care about most, then pick one and blog about it exclusively.

Start with one blog. What if you have expertise in multiple areas and you want to start a number of blogs? My advice is to start with one topic/blog. Don’t divide and dilute your efforts. In requires significant efforts and time to add valuable content to one blog. Once your first blog is has sufficient contents, you may start the second blog.

Test drive. Before spending some money or having a long term commitment with hosting service, test drive your blogging project. Try a starter blog on a free service such as Blogger.com or Wordpress.com. Have the feel of it for a few weeks. If after the initial period you find that you’ll be able to continue, go for long term commitment.

Become web smart – Blogging for fun is OK, just like basketball for fun. But for earning decent money from you blog, you must become web smart, just like a professional basketball player trains and learns the skills. You can start the blog using an existing template from blogger.com, but be ready to learn web technology. Including (but not restricted to):

blog publishing software
HTML
pings
search engines and search engine optimization (SEO)
blog carnivals (for kick-starting your blog’s traffic)
affiliate programs
traffic statistics
Ads
blog comments
RSS

Remember, the list is non-exhaustive; it is just the tip of the ice berg.

Contents (pots’ length and frequency) There is no specific rule about number of articles/entries that you posts and length of each post. Briefly, the length of each post depends upon the topic and how deeply you want to cover it. So it could be anything from 200 words top 10000 words. Also, depending upon your niche, you may be required to post 4-20 posts per week to make your blog a success. So considering that an average size blog takes 3 hours to write and you intend to post 3-4 articles/ports per week, make sure that you have at least 10-15 hours every week to spend on your blog.

Writing skills I have already covered web skills required for blogging. You also have to have writing skills to come up with good articles that will attract an audience. Blogging is not just about producing words and pasting these on your website with lot of ads around; it requires good content that provide value to people.

Blog for long term. Blogging will not generate you money in short term. That is the reason most bloggers that start blogging for money abandon their project within 3-6 months. The irony is, blogging starts generating money after around six months. So make sure that your blogging plans are sustainable over long period of time (1-12 months, to start with).

Learn monetising and optimising skills. Once you have started blogging, try to learn as quickly as possible monetising and traffic optimising skills. These include search engine optimisation, ads placements, affiliate programmes, click through rate etc.

Enjoy yourself. Many people try to blog for profit and fail. If you approach blogging with a mindset of enjoying it (writing on a niche of your choice and passion) you’ll be able to write about it months after months. If you combine it with realistic expectations, willingness to learn and good planning, you can definitely earn a decent income from your blog.

Blogging Helpline

2008-08-06T02:05:00.000-07:00

Bloggers.

What they really want?

They want strategies to increase traffic.
They want strategies to increase revenue.
They want tips to improve blog layout.
They want help to add valuable content to their blogs.
They need motivation to continue.

If you are a blogger, and you want all these, and much more, then you are at the right place. Here you will get all the information, strategies, tips etc to improve your blogging and to achieve your blogging goals.

So welcome to blogging world.