Unluckily, the weekend is over here… however, had a good day with some interesting football games to watch so not all’s bad.

Anyways, time to answer another question - I’m picking random ones off the original post and chose today’s because it seemed easiest to answer I thought you guys might be able to get something from it.

Otooo asked:

When you started off (and still now), how much time each day did u spend promoting your blog? What type of promotion did you do?
What would be a reasonable amount for a high school student like me to spend each day in promotion?

Well… as the question was about this blog, I’ll answer it in relation to this blog.

First, let me warn you that this is completely a social blog; if your goal is to make money, do not start out with one of these, as it is crap for making money relative to time put in.

If you are interested in networking, making buddies online of different levels (which WILL indirectly make you money), a social blog is a great thing to have. The thing is, I meet little / none people when I’m flipping websites on my own for example, whereas I get at least 5-10 instant messenger adds a day through this blog, through which I’ve met quite a few entertaining and helpful people (and some considerably less so ).

When starting this blog, I was a bit caught up in the hype of the whole make money online thing… I was making around $2,000 - $3,000 a month then, give or take a couple hundred, and by studying blogs that were ‘big’ in the niche, I thought that one had to have a ‘Make Money Online’ blog to succeed more. How wrong I was.

Anyways, as I thought I needed this blog to do well, I spend quite a bit of time on it - around 5-10 hours a day (yikes!) starting out, and then 3-4 hours a day for the first month and a half. Of course, after it started making around $200 a month for all that work, I decided to look at doing other things

Funnily enough, at the beginning… I put in a lot of work trying to build this - guest posting on other blogs, running monthly (and sometimes weekly) contests, commenting on 30 - 50 other blogs a day, dropping shitloads of Entrecards, posting like mad on related forums… the blog grew steadily, but progress was slow.

What’s funny about it… is that the days I’ve worked least on this blog, growth has been pretty huge. For example, I leave maybe 1-2 comments on other blogs a day these days… not to promote, but because I thought the post was an interesting one or I felt differently on one of the points raised. I honestly can’t remember the last guest post I did, but don’t think it was for some time, the forums I use have no mention of this blog on them and I dropped Entrecard from this blog a month or so ago. Yet, the metric which everyone looks at to measure blogs - RSS count - has shot up to around the 1,000 mark (even if it doesn’t want to stay around that level too strictly ).

What have I learned about promoting social blogs? Work smart, not hard. I’ve said this a few times, but if you had to work hard to succeed online… I’d have stopped doing all this ages ago.

Anyways, what ways would I recommend promoting your social blog?

- Contests. Love them, hate them, they work. Give away cash, electronics, even technically worthless things like advertising space or consultation… people will lap it up. Contest Arbitrage works for social blogs too, you know

- Be different. There are a tonne of blogs in every single niche, even the small ones… it’s not different here. If you’re saying the same thing as Marketer A, B, C, D and E, I’m not checking you out. Sorry.

Offer solid content, and be different… try out some viral marketing. For a direct example, see the password protected post I offered a few weeks ago, or think about the eBook I offered to email subscribers that were subscribed before X day only…. you get the idea. Don’t copy everyone else and try and do your own thing… you’ll get people interested.

The time spent promoting differs on each person and his / her goal. Do you want your blog to be ‘A-List’, or do you just want a place to express yourself and make some friends? If the former, you’d have to put in more time daily than I did starting out; if the latter, a couple hours a day maximum will be enough. Social blogging is fun, but ultimately unless you pitch a shit load of products and services to your readers - something I’ve tried not to do (and hopefully not done!)… there is a lot more money in other areas.

Hope I answered the question

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Want to make money online without having to work hard at it? ShannonLilly of InfectedByBugs.com will show you how if you subscribe to his RSS today! Check it out if you have the guts to learn!

If you are considering the possibility of blogging on a professional level then here are a couple of tips that you will need to follow for the best possible outcome!

Leave WordPress.com / Blogger.com- I am sure you have heard it before but it never hurts to bring back up a subject matter that well “Matters!”. Sites like wordpress.com and blogger.com are great when just starting out but using them for a professional level blog will never work. If you read any of these free blog providers TOS you will see that they are very strict in that you may not sell adverts yourself on the blogs.

You are allowed to list Adsense but forget that until your blog is booming with traffic, your just wasting time! Not only do they have a strict TOS but they actually enforce it, no joke! If you disobey any of the TOS your blog may be taken down and deleted permanently.

The rotten thing about that is “YOU CAN’T GET IT BACK ONCE ITS GONE”, this is why its vital to get off these sites!

Get A Unique Domain Name To Blog On - When it comes to blogging its important to stand out from the crowd. You need to present yourself in a unique way that others will understand and know but one they can differentiate from any other blog on the net.

Here are two great examples of blogs that are doing things right in the make money online niche.

As you can see both have taken a unique approach, TylerCruz.com has taken his already cool name and associated a mascot character along with his name. While on the other hand JohnCow a spin off of JohnChow.

It makes for a interesting read because they keep things fun and laid back. It really comes down to your choice, I went the more laid back routine and it has done fairly well for me but every blog can and should be different.

Learning To Speeel - Yup you guessed it, if you want to become a successful blogger you need to know how to spell words. If you can’t spell or if English is not your first language then you may find it difficult to gain consistent readers. People want to read a blog that presents itself in a professional manner to a certain degree.

Create Engaging Posts & Titles - The final tip I want to share with you is all about your content, I look at blogging as a way of life its not a if I get around to it sort of deal. I try my best to make posts daily and it becomes tougher and tougher the longer you go.

One thing I have learned is that engaging your readers on your blog is the single best thing you can do to get readers and loyal fans! First lets talk about your post titles, the rest will follow…

The title of a post is so vital, if you don’t get the right title you might as well burry the post because nobody will ready any further then the title unless they have a LOT of time on there hands. Here are two examples, the good title and the bad title.

• Bad: My Trip To San Fransisco
• Good: The Golden Gate Bridge Is BIG!

Both accomplish the same thing however the good example is a better way to catch attention.

You may also want to consider breaking up your posts by asking questions with a title something along the lines of “How Big Do You Think The Golden Gate Bridge Is?”. Questions tend to get a great response on a blog, especially if you have a poll plugin installed to go along with the title question and post.

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I’ll be busy the whole of today so thought I’d create today’s post in the morning rather than later when I might not have the time. Today is the last day to enter the site flipping contest - there are already around 40 people up and I don’t want to take on too many. After that’s done, I’ll create a post with rules, draw groups etc.

Anyways, yesterday I celebrated reaching 1,000 subscribers - it’s likely this figure will fluctuate slightly above, slightly below over the next few weeks but on the whole it’s been an upward trend. The domain was registered on October 14th, 2007; since then I’ve written over three hundred posts, made hundreds of friends and quite a decent amount of money too.

Enough of the fluff - here’s how I got to 1,000 subscribers, and I hope that this post helps you guys out.

Content. This blog started out a little vile to say the least… I used to swear a lot online at the beginning, although this has lessened (unless I come across someone really annoying). Of late though, which is the last few months, I started trying to put out good, useful content that would help people in all aspects of internet marketing - there wasn’t really a place that I thought people could go to, as I found blogs completely useless while I was learning to do, so I wanted to become that blog - the one people would recommend to friends that had helped them positively.

If you want to run a blog, good content is key. What is good is subjective, as people see different things as good, however what you want is content that appeals to your niche, that isn’t too long or too short and to be as honest as you possibly can.

Contests. No matter how small or how large your blog, you’ll always be able to get contests sponsored if you approach advertisers well. In the beginning, I had to contact people myself… but these days all I have to do is put up a post and people will be willing to sponsor something - as well as the emails offering various sponsored items.

Forum Marketing. When I started promoting this blog, it was getting 3,000 or more uniques monthly through forum marketing alone. Choose a large forum, stick up a catchy signature link and post stuff that adds value. This works for any niche, btw.

Aweber. It’s easier to get people to opt in to an Aweber list than Feedburner - however, for me everyone that opts into the former gets the latter. Offer an incentive for people to subscribe (in my case, I offered an eBook); whenever people sign up to my list they get a list of posts every ten days. If they like the posts, they can subscribe through Feedburner for daily updates.

Why Subscribe. I added a page that talked about why people should subscribe to the feed, and it’s getting a decent amount of visitors (that I’m assuming convert) monthly. Presell visitors to your blog - remember, you’re trying to ’sell’ them on subscribing to your blog and offering reasons is a great way to do so.

Testimonials. People always want to check these out on a site - it’s always good to see what others are saying. I’ve a testimonial page that offers people a backlink in exchange for a couple sentences about the site, and it benefits everyone.

Creative marketing. Two, maybe two and a half months ago this blog had something like 400 subscribers (just before the beginning of Blogging Idol - I honestly can’t remember the date that started) - now it is 1,000. Around 250 - 300 of that is because of the Aweber integration, but other than that I’ve done some creative marketing - the password protected post (which I’ll talk in depth about) added another 200 odd subscribers over the course of that week. I do little to no active promotion of this blog nowadays, that is promoting it on other sites.

Guest posts. Unique, interesting guest posts win. Put out something that gets people to think on another blog and they will visit your site. I don’t do guest posts these days, although I’m thinking of submitting a few just to shake things up… we’ll see.

Comments. Comment on other blogs like you would write guest posts - I comment not for exposure, but because I like the blogger or the post. Comment enough when you start out and people will comment back.

Competition. I had a competition with five bloggers a while ago, which I won - seeing who could increase their RSS the most in a month. I also am currently running a site flip competition, which will start soon - people subscribe because they want to be updated on that kind of stuff, as it’s interesting (think how many people were interested in the Top Affiliate Challenge, even though it was shit).

Controversy. I’ve never been scared of ‘outing’ people that annoy the hell out of me or are doing stuff I don’t agree with, no matter how big - as with the above, people love a lil drama.

Interaction. I’m a guy you guys can ask questions, as long as I’m not busy, tired, drunk / stoned and you’re not annoying. I’ve helped quite a few over the last few months that have come directly from the blog, and I’d hope most of that help has been useful. Although I haven’t really replied to many emails of late, as I’ve been busy going out and stuff, I do try and follow up with whatever I can.

Anyways, hope these tips helped - I’ve gotta run, so laters

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I’ve been busy over the last few days - although I bought my new desktop ages ago, being on holiday I’ve only recently gotten around to using it; the screen is 5″ bigger which is pretty sweet and I still have to install a load of things like one or two or twenty games.

I also installed Pidgin, which is a multi-messenger chat client - in the past, I’ve been annoyed with the amount of popups from various messengers (MSN, Yahoo, GTalk, Skype, AIM). I didn’t have AIM but will be getting it now that I can manage everything from one place (feel free to add me on any kind of IM if you haven’t ).

It was an exciting month - the first edition of Blogging Idol went well I thought and it ended up with those that towed the line being kicked out and a worthy winner emerging. However, I did not reach my goal of doubling my feed count - I had big plans to do so but I was busy with two things, first other big projects (one of which will be very beneficial for you guys… those that know about it will realise why) and second just relaxing because it is the holidays.

There were two strategies revealed in Blogging Idol that just brought out that sense of awe in me - the first, something basic (adding Aweber subs to Feedburner - done by Gyutae Park of WTW) but it definitely worked; he finished just 8 subscribers behind the winner. Personally, I’ve got an Aweber subscriber list nearing 500, so if I’d have done the same I probably would have won the thing. Sadly, I did not think of doing so.

The eventual winner was someone I know personally - Abhijeet of Stock Market India (I’ve sponsored a competition of his before as has he for me and I’ve got him on GTalk) - his strategy was pretty simple but insanely effective, and I cannot believe I hadn’t thought of it before (will be trying it out on my niche blogs). What he did was email related niche groups offering them advice on the topic and passing on his email subscribe link; in the finance market, that worked very well and he took the prize with a near 600 increase. Not bad for a month! Speaking of which, TUK is nearing 600 subscribers… maybe we can have a party of sorts to celebrate when I do reach the number

I did promise you guys that I’d link to everyone which commented on this post if I didn’t reach the number and I didn’t, so guess I’ve gotta follow through

Agent 001 runs a review blog.

Vinny VT runs a poker blog, with his thoughts and ideas on the game.

JK Swopes runs IM With Joe, a blog talking about Internet Marketing. He’s a familar face this end.

Germz runs an ‘Make Money Online’ blog… you can read a review about him here.

ChiQ Montes runs a WP theme discussion blog, and smoked the recent PR update by getting a PR5 at the first go. High quality Wordpress themes + designer links = profit!

Jim runs a stock market / blogging tips blog, with a theme that looks like this one (I wonder why, buddy… ). At the moment he’s running an easy contest giving away a Flip Mino.

Emma runs ‘Gettin’ Personal‘, a blog that talks about her personal experiences online and offline. Her theme looks familar too

Narendra runs Tech Treak, a blog talking about - you guessed it - tech. He’s always up for a contest, so let him know you’re having one and he’ll dominate it

EGK has been a regular here, and doesn’t run a blog (despite numerous proddings… ). He does however run forums talking about a pretty cool brand of car, the Mercedes Benz.

The Anand recently got a new theme (which he created himself) so check it out.

Elroy runs Living 2 XL, a niche site talking about living healthy.

Aleks runs a humour blog and some of them were pretty hilarious, so check them out to be amused.

Rob @ Iron Blogger has one of the sweetest designs in the blogosphere - it cost a chunk but would have been worth it for the level of branding he’s getting.

Jay @ Dat Money is a professional link spammer of this blog, amongst other things. He’s having a contest too, giving away a Wii (although it’s damned hard to enter).

Rajaie recently started Rajaie Talks, a blog where he talks about blogging tips and other entrepreneurial things. He’s 14 or 15, but custom designed his own theme which is pretty sweet.

Nathaniel is dedicated to TUK and BP, and was top commentator last month. He talks about personal things and blogging tips at Green Flamingo.

Hendry Lee talks about Blog Building. I like him because this is the second last mini-review I have to write…

Last but not least, Ryan @ Smarter Wealth recently found the blog and has become a dedicated commenter. One of his recent posts was titled 30 things to do before you’re 30 and was not a bad read, so go have a look.

After this roundup post, one things my PR4 juice is dead (couldn’t be bothered to nofollow the links). Some of the sites above are decent, some slightly less so, some slightly more so - check them out and you’ll be sure to find a couple you like.

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I know a lot of you are involved with Blogging Idol, and I did promise I’d try and get you content that would help. Whether you are involved in Blogging Idol or not, all of you (probably) are interested in boosting your online income, and one of the easiest ways to make some income is by flipping blogs with active visitors. Apart from say… writing a guest post, one of the biggest things a visitor can do to become active is subscribe to your blog - with this, they are opting in to receive your content every single day (or how often you post).

The more subscribers you have, the more valuable your blog is - that is something that is pretty simple. How do you increase subscribers? Below, I’m going to list a few ways - ranked by how useful they have been for me.

My own contests - by far the best way to boost metrics. Some say it is ‘bribing’ your readers to follow you, but I’ve got to disagree - if they do not like your content, they will unsubscribe. A contest is a great way to get people to know about your blog, people that wouldn’t have prior as they see posts on other websites and the best thing is, all you have to do is ask around and you’ll get plenty of sponsored prizes. Don’t forget to promote your contest after you start it!

Great posts - funnily enough, this comes second in the list - the reason for this is that great content alone will not get you subscribers, marketing it will. There are plenty of bigger blogs with content that is to put it lightly… utter rubbish, and the main reason they are big is because of the marketing they have done (which includes weekly, or sometimes even daily contests). As is the common speak in sales, a mediocre product with great marketing will do far better than a great product with mediocre marketing.

Guest posts - guest posts allow you to expose yourself to a whole new audience and they don’t cost you anything except time. Time that plenty of us have too much of - seriously though, it’s one of the best ways to promote a blog and I will be doing a few of these over the next month, so watch out for them - if you’re interested on seeing a guest post on your blog, send me an email

Others contests - sponsoring someone else’s contest is a great way to get the word out, especially the ones that require people linking to a list of sponsors etc. You don’t even have to sponsor much - I’ve sponsored 1,000 copies of an eBook that is about 3,000 words long and took me a couple of hours to write for quite a few contests; in return, it’s built me more than 1,000 backlinks to the blog over the last month or two. How’s that for return on time?

Paid advertising - paid advertising is at the bottom of the pile because it is in my eyes worthless; you should only pay for advertising if you like the blogger and are not doing it for the exposure, as there are plenty of ways to get the word out, free (top commentators, guest posts… etc).

Mini Contest

I’m competing in Blogging Idol and want to boost subscriber count - now, I’m not offering cash as you can’t sponsor your own contest with money, however I am offering links for everyone that subscribes.

Here’s the deal - subscribe to my feed via email, and once you’re done send me an email with the one you used and your link with anchor text. I’ll confirm and add your link to my Links page, which gets a few hundred uniques monthly. This is only applicable to new subscribers, but if you are already subscribed you can always do so again - by email.

Edit: Idea taken from Tom @ Stand Out Blogger. You can subscribe to his blog at his site to help him out too

If you want more exposure, write a post mentioning three reasons people should subscribe to my RSS feed and link to my RSS page and you’ll get a one month link under ‘Blogging Friends‘ in the sidebar, with the best post getting a 125 x 125 ad for one month. You’ll also get an (extra) entry into a sponsored contest I’ll be running later this month with (hopefully) decent prizes. For inspiration, you can check out my ‘Why Subscribe‘ page.

I’ve been making updates to the blog - added the above page and updated my ‘About’ page, will be reworking other things too. I rewrote my about page because there was a bit too much slang used, wanted it to seem more professional; I added my Skype contact as well as a mailing address (I get a couple requests a week for it so why not). If anyone wants to mail me something, feel free

Two bits of news that I have for you guys;

a) I’ll start the article marketing case study soon, thanks for all those that reminded me; I’ve been busy with offline stuff so not really had time for it.

b) The winner of the Creative Vado has been chosen, without me knowing - anyways, you can check out the post on Derek’s website. For all those that ask - I had no input into selecting the winner, nor was i asked - so I do not know how it was chosen. Just had to update as a few people were asking about it.

Over and out!

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