Smart commenting can bring traffic to your blog

What do you and the rest of the world prefer - two steps or one? Human beings are smart creatures, and lazy too - they prefer the elevator to the stairs, the easy path to the tougher. And a smart marketer keeps that in mind - make things even slightly difficult and the response rates will go down.

If you are a blogger trying to promote your blog, you are essentially a marketer - and you will have to think like one, if you are to succeed.

Keep that in mind when you are leaving nice little comments on other blogs with the 'honourable' intention of getting some traffic from them coming back to your own little space on the big bad world wide web.

When you are posting a comment on a blogger/blogspot blog, the comments page gives you 3 identity options:

- Google/Blogger

- Other

- Anonymous

Chances are you are a Google Blogger and you sign in with your user name and password, as most people do. It might be the right thing to do, but doesn't help much.

When the comment is published, if someone clicks on your name, he or she is then taken to your 'Blogger Profile' page. Surely your objective is not increase views of your profile page. Now, the fellow has the option to search for info on your blog on that page and make his/her way to your blog, but that's the long, tedious path - it's the staircase route which human beings don't really care for. Then why not give them the faster elevator?

Instead of the previous way, choose the "Other" option. This is what you will now see:

Just type whatever name you fancy to appear and right below put in the URL of the page you want the traffic to be directed to. Next time someone reads your pretty little comments, they just need to click on your name to come straight to where you want them to!!!

Get that coveted inbound link to your blog

One of the biggest problems faced by a new blogger is - 'How do i get quality inbound links?'. While every blogger is looking to acquire links, established bloggers will not be keen to give link to a newbie. After all, while your Google Page Rank is 0 or 1, they have a higher Google Page Rank and don't see much value in exchanging links with you. How then should a new blogger go about getting quality links pointing to his blog from relevant sites. ( Relevant site = Sites which have content that is similar/relevant to your blog. For example - If you have a cricket blog, Google will be happiest if you get links from cricket blogs or sites).

The solution to this conundrum is: Go out of your way to acquire that coveted link. Follow these steps:

1. Shortlist 1 or 2 blogs from which you want to get links to your blog.

2. Start paying them a visit often, leave comments on their blog and please make sure that they are meaningful comments. Spend time on writing your comments. Your objective is twinfold: a)catch the attention of the blog owner and b) your comments should provoke/encourage return comments from other visitors to the blog. The blog owner should realize that you are adding serious value to his blog. Everyone, including veteran bloggers likes attention !! Give it to them.

3. Make special efforts when providing links to these 1/2 blogs that you have shortlisted. Give them a relevant link from your post/s. Send them some traffic.

4. When you visit their blog, make sure that you are clicking on the link in your blog. That ways they may notice the traffic coming from your blog on their statcounter report sheet.

If this doesn't elicit a favourable response, try sending an e-mail to them asking for a link. Bloggers are nice people - and if you have already softened them, chances are they will melt!!!

More Traffic on Your Blog = More Money

After you have done your first few posts, all excited about your new project, the reality of nothing 'real' happening begins to creep in. You keep checking statcounter all day long and the single digit graphs depress you no end. You get that sinking feeling of 'talking to the wall'. It's now time to get the world to somehow make their way to your blog pages. After all if no one is visiting your blog, who is gonna click on those nice Adsense ads that you have so carefully put around your posts! So here are a few handy tips to get some traffic for your blog.

1. Submit your blog to as many blog directories as possible. While you can submit to blog directories of all sorts, make sure that you do add a link to your blog to all the Indian Blog directories. This can be a bit of monotonous and time-consuming process. Two tips will help you: Write a short description of your blog and save it to word-pad so that you don't have to type it time and again. Secondly, don't waste time finding out what the best directories are. Simply submit it to all and sundry. Surely an extra submission can't do any harm.

2. Increase traffic for other bloggers!! Yes, start paying a visit to other blogs - other Indian blogs and blogs from your niche. Leave a nice comment there and see other bloggers sniff all the way back to your blog. However selfish your intentions maybe, don't make it too obvious. Try and write something genuine about the blog - strictly no spamming. We don't want you earning a bad reputation in the blogosphere, do we?

3. Write frequently: The google spiders love fresh content. If they see that the content on your blog is frequently updated, they will visit you more often. More content means more keywords and strings of words for google to pick up from. While your blog will not be ranked high on google for general keywords, you will be amazed that for some strange keywords you are ranked very high. People type vague and weird things on Google - when i had just begun i used to be amazed to see people making their way to my blog after having typed some vague cluster of keywords and more interestingly my blog used to be on the 1st page of Google search for them.

Also, if you write regulary, other bloggers will have more reasons to visit your site often. As a thumb-rule, do atleast one post a week. However my advice is: more the merrier. But do watch out for quality - don't compromise quality for quantity;at least not always.

4. Make the most of social networking/bookmarking sites: Do you see the 'Digg it' button on the side of this post? That's an attempt on my part to make it easier for readers of my blog to submit my site to Digg. The more people digg a post, the higher it goes up on the Digg rankings. Higher rankings will mean more people are likely to see it, come here, increasing my traffic. Not all of them will click on the Adsense ads but more traffic means i become more saleable for Text Links and I get more chances to do a review at PayPerPost and i qualify for better paying reviews.

If you are on Orkut, add your blog as your webpage. Surely a few of your friends are going to click on the link - a few of them may like your blog and become regular visitors. They may even end up recommending your blog to others. If you are not on Orkut, join.

On Orkut again, join blogger communites. Join the community of Indian Bloggers - tell other members about your blog through the forums there.

There are many other social networking/bookmarking sites like Delicio.Us that you can use to your great benefit. For Indian bloggers, HumSurfer is a great place. They send tons of traffic to my cricket blog.

Also join Technorati, for sure.

Earn your blog money through Text Links

If there is one most hassle-free source of making money from your blog, it's Text Links. Have a look at my MBA/CAT 2008 Prep Blog and note the links on the top of the right side-bar. (marked under "check them out"). This innocuous looking text-links earn me a tidy sum every month - not a huge sum but I don't need to do anything except let them be!

Why is your blog paid for Text-Links?

Because of Google!!

The most important source of traffic for most sites across the world including blogs - indian or otherwise, is search enginge traffic. And when is it most likely that someone will arrive on your blog? Of course, when you are ranked high on Google, Yahoo and other search engines - preferably on the 1st page or atleast in the first 3 or 4 pages. Rarely does someone go beyond the first few pages.

Google ranks search results based on a number of parameters - and one of the most important one is "Inbound Links" to your blog or webpage. Every inward link to your blog is a vote by a fellow blogger or website administrator for your blog. It counts all the more if the inbound link is from a relevant page - a page with content related to your blog.

Can your blog make money through Text-Links?

Yes, but you need to put in lots of effort first. When someone buys text-links on your site, it's for two primary reasons:

1. As explained above: more inbound links raises the 'Google Page Rank' of your site. If you have a high 'Google Page Rank' you are more likely to be able to sell text-links on your blog. Secondly, the higher the page rank of your site, the more you are going to earn per link.

So you need to put in effort to get more and more links pointing to your blog, so that your Google Page Rank goes up and your blog becomes more saleable.

2. The second reason why someone may buy text-link on your site is actually simpler. He simply needs more traffic directly - this are people who will place links on blogs or sites with an overlapping target audience.

Text-link buyers of this kind would prefer higher traffic blogs over others. (Alexa serves as a good indicator of traffic rankings here)

Register your blog with Text Link Ads and get ready to earn more from your blogs.

Sponsored Reviews can earn your blog big money

Have you heard of PayPerPost or ReviewMe or Smorty? These are the guys, especially the first one who are bringing a new revolution in the 'media' or 'advertising' world - creating thousands of sellable media options for advertisers and marketeers. If you have a blog and it's read by someone, you are ready to kick some ass with Sponsored Posts. Here's the dope:

Do you know what an advertorial is? Never mind, if you don't. You surely know what an advertisement is and you also do know awhat an editorial is - now combine the two and what have we got: An Advertorial. Basically an advertisement that looks like it's not - it rather looks the editorial part of the newspaper or magazine.

I read the Hindustan Times and the Times of India and i have been doing it for years, and the cells in my brain have by now configured where the ads are placed and where they are not. My brain knows that at the bottom right corner of the front page there is an advertisement and it has learnt to ignore it completely. I may read the entire story right above the ad or to the left of it, yet I may not even the ad even once. And this ad, referred to by media planners as the 'front page solus' is supposed to be the newspaper's supreme ad position and costs a bomb. What a waste! So, what does the smart media planner do next? He tries to put the ad into the editorial matter, so that my devious mind can't ignore it. Got it?!

Blogs are no different. When you visit a blog, you know that the 'juice' is in the centre or in the 'widest column'. The left and the right columns contain ads, links and thousand others things that you are not looking for!! That's where guys like PayPerPost come in. They will pay you for writing a sponsored piece as a post. PPP or ReviewMe are simply mediators - the advertiser places their orders with them and they connect with bloggers like you and me.

How does PPP work?

First thing first - register your blog with PPP. This guys are not the quickest in the world in terms of approving your blog, but once they do, you are immediately ready to make some money. PPP lists all opportunities available with them - but you may not qualify for each one.

Your blog will qualify based on one or more of the following:

1. Google Page Rank - this, by far, seems to be the most important parameter. (and this is because besides the ad the value of an outgoing link counts - higher the PageRank, the more valuable you are.)

2. Alexa Ranking - This is a worldwide ranking of websites, based on the traffic to your webpages. But don't get too worried. Lots and lots of opportunities don't ask for this criteria and secondly, there are quite a few who are ready to go even for the guy ranked 9,99,999. That's quite a bit, and if you make a concerted effort that's quite a reachable number.

3. Tack Rating - This is PayPerPost's internal rating system. Advertisers will give you positive or negative ratings depending on the quality of your previous posts.

The minimum payout is 5$ ( after subtracting the PPP commission) and the highest goes upto 500$, but that's a rare thing. However there are a good number of available opportunities between the 5$ to 50$ range. The highest i myself made on an individual post was 125 $ and i have averaged about 30$. Not bad money that, what say! PPP is not very surprisingly my biggest source of revenue, though Adsense ain't too far behind.

ReviewMe works on a similar basis, but with one important difference and it makes a hell lot of difference. At PPP, you choose the posts you want to do. At ReviewMe the advertiser selects the blogs - you are however free to accept or reject. Unless you have a good traffic blog, you are unlikely to get too many invites from ReviewMe, though their average payout is better so there ain't any harm in registering.

Smorty is akin to PPP, however Smorty is a comparatively newer entrant and the number of opportunities are far fewer. The good thing: their response rate is faster and the best thing: the money trickles into your account quicker. While PPP pays after 30 days, Smorty pays you next week.

All of them are currently paying through PayPal.

PPP has geographical segregation in place, but barring the rare opportunity which might be reserved for bloggers in the UK or North America only, most are open to the globe. And what with the internet penetration exploding in India, i won't be too surprised if very soon you start seeing a number of opportunities reserved for Indian Bloggers only. PPP currently allows you to take up 2 opportunities in a day. Even if you do two 5$ ones, that's about 300$ for the month. Convert that to Rupee and you got almost 12,00o bucks. Not bad at all! Raring to start making money right away? Click on the image below:

Adsense for Indian Bloggers: How Good?

Even if you are the newest kid-on-the-Indian-blogstreet, you would have heard of Google Adsense before anything else. Barring a tiny percentage of Indian blogs, most employ Adsense in one form or the other. Let's try and understand Google Adsense and see if adsense makes sense for Indian Blog Sites.

What is Google Adsense?

It is an advertising programme managed by Google, wherein Google acts as an intermediary between the blog/site owner and the advertiser. Google places advertisements on your sites in the places designated by you. Revenues are shared between Google and the blog owner.

Within Adsense, there are 3 primarily different options:

1. The most popularly used form of Adsense is Content Based Ads or Contextual Advertising. It is also sometimes referred to as PPC or Pay Per Click Advertising. Essentially you are paid only when someone clicks on the ads on your site. It is called contextual because the Google software will serve ads that are in context to your site - for this it will mainly use the text matter you write.

Within this there are 2 variations:

a) Direct Ads on your site - someone clicks, you make money.

b) Links on your site - someone clicks on the link and is taken to another page with ads. If he clicks on them you make money.

2. Add a Google Search Box to your blog site: Someone searches through this and if he then clicks on any Google ad on the next page, you make money.

3. Referral Ads: You refer your users to certain products or websites. He will then be asked or motivated to perform a certain action - it could be to fill up a form or to purchase a product or service or something else. If he does that, you earn money. This is the most difficult one because you need your reader to make an 'extra' effort here, so the conversion rates are low. However you typically earn more than the regular PPC route whenever the conversion happens.

This is what the main page of Google Adsense looks like, with the 3 earning options for you to choose from.

If you haven't started using Google Adsense you can do it now by clicking here.
All the very best.

Now to the most important question: Does Google Adsense work for Indian Blogger?

Yes, it does. I have been using it myself for a year now and have seen it work. You need to be patient with adsense - You may not see any results or poor results in the first days or months. Look at other blogs that you think may be doing well. See how they have placed their ads on their blogs. Sometimes copying a successful format is not a bad idea. Else you may have to experiment with various permutations and combinations to arrive at your right format.

In certain cases, Adsense doesn't deliver as well for Indian bloggers as it will for bloggers in some other countries. For example - the referral ad for Firefox. While the US blogger may end up making a dollar for every conversion, you may end up making a measly 10 cents. But Google has now come up with lots more referral products. There are quite a few products and services specific to India and will deliver best for Indian bloggers. Spend some time searching for the right products. Do factor in the 'action' required. Indian net users are not as likely to purchase a product on the web as their counterpart in Europe or US. Realising this aspect, I don't refer products where the 'action' is purchase. Go instead for a 'form filling' or a 'sign up' action. However the final decision has to be yours, depending on the nature of your blog and the demographic and psychographic profile of your readers. Of course, it is also not necessary that Indian blogs will be read by Indian only. You may have a high percentage of NRI readers or even pure non-Indians. That can affect your decision completely.

( To be continued )

Specialized Site for Money Making for Indian Blogs

Hi and Welcome to Monetizing Indian Blogs.

While there are many sites - good, bad and ugly telling you about making money through your blogs, unfortunately the good writers all seem to be based in the United States and as such, it's often not possible for Indian bloggers to connect to them. While there are guys like John Chow and Darren Rowes at ProBlogger who give out excellent information and will be invaluable resources to all bloggers, we will try and have a focus on India and Indian bloggers here. So while there will be the general principles and truths which you will get here as well, we will look at the blogosphere in India specifically.

Do write in with your comments, suggestions and ideas from time to time - Let's make money together!