Why is it wrong to start a "popular at the moment" blog?

Bloggers are of many types, Some are the argumentative type and some are stickers, but recently one more type of blogger has crept up. The opportunist Blogger. Such people are not a rare sight on the web nowadays. 

Their creations are not hard to miss. Even you might have seen some of their creations. Okay lets see, a blog on the recent chess tournament, or on certain hot political topics, or on current trends, infamous actors, musicians, or famous personalities, award functions, high profile parties and even viral videos.

The opportunist blogger seems to find the most intriguing and the most happening idea at present and converts it into a highly talked about website with a lot of agglomerated content from different sources. One more thing worth noting about opportunist blogger is that their websites might, at one point of time, be swarming with visitors, filled with seemingly unending comments and discussions. Little do people know the PERILS OF BEING AN OPPORTUNISTIC BLOGGER!!

The Process

Let us first see the process of Opportunistic blogging. A person (The opportunistic Blogger) sees a trending topic. Lots of users discuss about the topic and forums are filled up with discussions on why one side is better than the other. The blogger takes up the topic, Finds and collects as much information as he/she could and spends the rest of the day churning the information.He then spends the rest of two days preparing the blog and publishing the information so produced. Then it is just simple work of maintaining the blog with small pieces of gossip that he finds in the foreseeable future. He does not care for a blog posting schedule, or what would happen if he stops the posts, just because he/she has the content, he thinks he can enslave the search engines and control the flow of visitors.

The Brighter Side

Let us see the bright side of Opportunistic Blogging, The person receives a lot of visitors during the time the trend is hot. The sudden surge of visitors often surpass the number of visitors a well to do blog manages to sustain. The blog becomes one of the most talked topics on the web (Of-course after the phenomenon it was made on). The blog manages to gain visitors in six digits with bounce rate as low as 25%. It garners back-links from the most respectable of websites and gains the trust of most cautious of webmasters.

After the advantages, I bet you must be feeling nauseated and green with envy, I felt it myself as we spent hours working on topics churning concepts, creating beautiful and marketable designs, but he takes all the credit? Why? 

The Dark Side

Webmasters, control your heat, cause here comes a string of disadvantages. A popular at the moment blog as the name suggests, is just popular at the moment. There comes a time when the water dries off and the merriment comes to an end. Since the popularity has been diminished why would someone in their right mind would want to come at such a blog.

In simple words, the blog would have lost nearly all his visitors. Bounce rates would first increase of-course (As people would come to revive a dying trend but would return due to lack of content) but then the values wouldn't matter. Pages per visit would decrease to 1 or zero and then the blog (after a long struggle) could have said to finally rest in peace. What use would such a blog cater, when the fame is short-lived? 

"What is glory if not eternal?"

The missed call

How ever there are moments in internet history when a blogger does not have the time to capitalize on the situation. This situation can be known as the "missed peak" situation. This is because by the time, blog is prepared and made, peak has ready passed, public interest has already reduced. It is worth noting that sometimes blogger do gain some advantage from the peak by forecasting the peak in advance, but that is not common and hence cannot be replicated by most.

Consider the case of a very popular Indian Song "Kolaveri Di", The song was released two weeks prior to its actual release and became a hit instantly. Take a look at the graph from Google trends. It is conspicuous from the graph that it was next to impossible for a regular blogger to capitalize on the situation. A potato blogger however, would obviously miss the peak.

So, when should you start a popular at the moment blog? When you are looking at a trend which you know would die. When you are looking for some quick money and quicker fame. Now, when you decide and know the risks, you can go an buy a domain for 3 months, 6 if you're optimistic and just crack-on.

Top Image Credit VR Marketing Blog

This told you about,

Read More

Why is my blog still not growing?

It has been over a year since you started blogging seriously, you’ve written scores of articles and blog posts. According to you, as you keep on writing articles the content and the pages on your blog will increase leading to more places visitors will be attracted to. So, as a cumulative effect, you should be getting more and more visitors every day. But, none of the things are happening and you find that however hard you’re trying nothing seems to be enough.

At this point of time, bloggers often second guess their own blogging techniques or even interests. ‘Maybe I’m not good enough.’ Or ‘Maybe, I should stop writing on such and such topics’ or ‘I think I’m losing my charm, better move on.’

Now you might have tried all sorts of techniques to technically improve your blog. Like:

1. Making your blog, visitor centric (level1, level2, level3)
2. SEO tactics
3. Keyword researches

Now if you’ve taken all these precautions, and still not getting results, This article will help.

The only thing you’ve forgotten until now is the analytics part of a blog. Small business owners and amateur bloggers use web analytics to test their website but the only thing which attracts their attention is the number of visitors coming on their websites. Some even go to the extent of finding the source of visitors (country) or web browser. But that is not enough, in a cut throat competition of ours when blogs miss higher rankings by just a few points, it is very important that you do something better than the others and something more than the others.

Is your content curing insomnia?

Blogging atmosphere is all about helping people in your own language. As I have rightly said before, a typical blog is no place for lengthy formal discussions. One must find it in himself to avoid boring people. When a person reads an article on your blog and finds it utterly uninteresting, The same person would refrain from browsing through other articles on your blog. This would lead to visitor bouncing, which means visitor not going through your articles once he has gotten inside. If this process is applied for a large number of visitors it is visitor bounce rate, which means the number of visitors moving out of your website once he/she has read a particular article on your website. You can try to increase your bounce rate and everything in the books from SEO to SERP, then try something fundamental like your content in the visitor’s perspective.

Trust issues, anyone?

Your readers might have some trust issues if they do not know who’s writing the article or who’s teaching them. Usually people do not have the time to check out the author of the content and they just believe whatever is written, just because they have to as they’re busy and just came here for a quick fix. But not all people are like that. Many of the visitors who come to your webpage might have time on their hands and are just browsing for fun. Now listen, such people should be seen by you as gold encrusted diamond hatching hens that poop silver. Why? Because it is those people who have the time to comment increasing user interface with the website. It is those people who have time to check you out on the social networks like facebook, twitter or foursquare. They are the most loyal visitors because they would bookmark your website if they find it useful; they would send friend requests to you if they are interested by way of your writing. So try looping in such visitors.

What should you do to handle their trust issues? Create an ‘about page’, many bloggers are shy and refrain from writing about themselves. But in this world of cutthroat competition you must write about yourself. This will help users know about you and this will add value to your product. Visit this page to know how to create an awesome about page.

Banalities

A widely read blogger is one who has taken the pains to research and present his findings in a marketable way. But there is one thing that is innate in every successful blogger, originality. Such blogger just reads some material at some post, find it interesting, copies it to his blogging platform and starts changing the language, hoping it would lead to an awesome blog post. Such techniques do work but only up to a limit. You will receive visitors on the blog, maybe many at some posts because of the change in the keywords of the particular URL. But it all stops right in front of a line before you can say ‘I am a successful blogger!’, Google will touchup its algorithm and you’ll be back from where you started. Create new content, something unique, something original, but never cross your content policies.

Smooth posting

The following Idea was completely ignored by me while writing this article until I came across Rahul Kuntala’s post on why your blog is not growing argued that erratic posting frequency also leads to a halt in the progress of the blog. When a person posts two articles a week, he must maintain the speed and not go for 4 articles in the next week. Some bloggers have discussed an urge to post something at some time which they cannot suppress. A very nice trick to this is by using a scheduler (i.e. schedule blog posts in blogger and wordpress). To know when should you post an article, read here.

No Comments

How many times have you seen actors and actresses mouthing ‘No Comments’ to the eager reporters and papparazi swarming in their direction. What do you feel at that time? Obviously down, What kind of crap is he filled with, walking around with that big attitude of his? The exact opposite reaction is of visitors coming to your site finding no comments. The first impressions are as follows :

1. The post is not good enough so people are not commenting
2. The Blog is not good enough so people are not commenting
3. The Blog does not get enough visitors so people are not commenting
4. The Blog administrator must be stingy, moderating the comments very closely

Jacob Klein at SEOmoz explains clearly how you can get more blog comments,

This answered your question

Read More

What comes after writing Quality content?

It is indispensable to write content that is brief and dense.  As is always said, a good quality content is like buying a car, if you've done your research, you’ll reap its benefits for years to come. 

But one question must have been bugging the minds of people who already have shining medals of honor on their websites, with contents filled with keywords and densely packed information. What do you do now? 

The obvious answer is keep on writing great content and you’ll be rewarded with visitors, But I beg to differ; what if there is still something remaining? What if I tell you, this is not the last stop or even better, there is no last stop?

Guest blogging

After writing many articles on a subject, a time comes when you become an authority on the subject, Now it is time to help other bloggers. There are websites like, sitepronews.com or webpronews.com, who allow bloggers and enthusiasts to write articles for them. The bloggers are then rewarded by a link back from such respected and highly venerable websites. This helps you a lot if you need fast growth.

Modifying and adding Keywords

When writing posts, bloggers often face situation known as writer’s block and they limit their writings, as a result keywords do not come to mind and certain well deserved keywords slip out. When reviewing the article again, you view it from second person’s eye and you find the keywords and the labels you’re missing.

Update your previous Articles

Yes, there is no last stop for webmasters who want quality content. The definition of quality content itself means content which contains quality. An article might be outdated after a few months and an outdated article is not quality content. It is just a mixture of words and cleverly placed sentences which had value in the past but is now just a history. So the main idea here is that you should never stop updating. I would quote a very famous saying we had in our institute, ‘When you stop growing, you start dying’. Unless you start updating your previous articles, they will always face danger of being marked outdated. What do you mean by updating? Here is a list:

1. Correcting grammatical errors you might have created in your starting phases.
2. Removing excess images from your article
3. Linking and citing External websites
4. Linking your own webpages or Intralinking
5. Add more value to your article
6. Correct SEO faults if possible
7. Remove pages giving error messages

Market your previous posts on social networks

Some of the best and the most read bloggers use this technique. Here, they dig out an article written quite a long time ago and read comments, take suggestions and update the article. This article is again posted on social networking websites (like pinterest, foursquare, facebook and others) as a new article. The viewers at the social media platforms, see the article and mistake it as new, thereby applauding the blogger’s dedication. The search engines reward the website because it is updated, the viewers  reward the website and the blogger by visiting and clicking on ads and the blogger rewards himself a piece of cake from the refrigerator because he is happy, So it’s a win-win-win situation.

Communicate with your fellow bloggers,

Communication is the key to success in blogging. Talking to your visitors, commenters and even blog mates is important. Collaborate and communicate within bloggers in your community. When you do so, you’ll find even more ideas and more methods to improve your blog.

For More information, try out codemakit's The SEO and content Guide e-book in pdf.

This was all about,

Read More

Professional networks for small online business

For monetized web developers and small businesses it is always better to be connected via a social media. 

For once it is also good to publicise your feeds. By publicizing your feeds, you will be taking one extra step to ensure that large search engines like google, yahoo etc, give you higher ranking in their listings. Also, may even gather more audience using this way.

For this purpose, a website known as oGoing.com has taken the initiative to bring closer small businesses together, an opportunity which must be tried. Ogoing is founded by Sanjay Dalal , serial entrepreneur & innovator, silicon valley veteran, business coach and community leader. After a small sign-up Procedure, you're ready to go. You can even link your Facebook or Twitter account, such that, your updates are directly featured.

According to the website, 'Small businesses can instantly promote their products, share their latest deals and services, post their news and events, and make new connections with customers.'

This was about

Read More

Advantages and Disadvantages monetizing your blog

When and why should a blogger monetize his/her blog or website? A question which baffles many developers still now. 

Some prefer, their creation must be monetized right from the start, to churn out as much money as they can. While some believe to wait for traffic to come and then monetize after they have reached a decent traffic of nearly 1000 visitors per day, however since a 1000 may take a while longer than you think, some even start from a menial 100.

Here are some of the Advantages and Disadvantages of displaying ads on your blog or website.

Advantages :

•     Displaying blinking banners may help people notice your sites design.
•     Advertisements prove to your visitors that you're an established blog.
•     If your blog is blessed with huge traffic, banner and thumbnail ads would only help you get money to maintain your blog.
•     For point number 2 people will start developing trust in your website and the products you offer.
•     There will never be negative cash flow.
•     You could also sell Ad space on your blog, It will also fetch you good money.

Disadvantages : 

•     People who believe in waiting, might loose the money they might make during the period their traffic rose.
•     During the period in point number 1, you still have to keep writing and spend time and energy on your creation.
•     To think about money in the starting stage of a blog or website, is a dangerous blunder.
      When you think about money, you will start looking impressions, click through rate, etc. this will finally lead to neglect in the quality content building, which is the first and the most important rule in content building.
•     If you do not get traffic, you might get discouraged from writing.

This was all about

Read More

Online tools to calculate your Google adsense earnings

Here are a few examples of websites equipped with tools to calculate your Adsense Earnings,

Though for perfectionists, the google Adsense can be estimated through formula too.

Though there are a few offline options available one of them is the free adsense calculator

However most website owners and bloggers rely on good old online tools for the job.

Here are some of them :

Google Adsense Calculator - 

 Adsense Calculator Tool SEO Chat-

Google Adsense Calculator by WebKeet - 

Another Adsense Calculator -  

These are your options, i.e.

Read More

Estimate your adsense earnings

Learn to predict or anticipate your Adsense Earnings. 

Adsense earnings can be calculated through both manually and online tools.

This post here is to calculate and predict your Adsense earnings manually through formula. You will also know about the keywords and jargon used by website developers all over the world while talking about SEO.

The Google Adsense concept is very transparent and clear. The skill required for estimating it is even simpler. the Formula behind any Google Adsense structure is given below.

However the actual Google Adsense formula is given bellow

Impression - An impression or page view is a request made by the user to the server to load an HTML type file of a website. usually made by just clicking on the link on a search engine or aother website. Just to clear any confusion, a 'hit' is basically a request made by the user to the web server for loading any type of file. So there can be many hits on a single website, since it can be made of many number of files.

CTR - Click-through rate is defined as the number of times a user clicks on an ad as a percentage of the number of impressions of that particular page.
For, Example if  an ad is shown on your page which recieves 100 page impressions for the duration for which the ad is shown, and during that duration the ad is clicked for 10 times, then you have a click through rate of 10%.

CPC - Cost per Click is the amount of money, advertisers are willing to spend on the ad on your website,per click. this ususally is a small number.

There are two methods for determining cost per click

1. Flat-Rate - This is a fixed amount of money decided by the advertisers for recieveing a visitor from your site. 
2. Bid-Based - This is usually applicable to search listings, where all the bids for the are compared based on location, website, and bid and finally the winner is determined.

This is how you manually

Read More

Earn with Google Adsense

Bloggers and website owners, do wish, that they earn too keeping their passion alive. Google Adsense lets you have that luxury of earning through your blog or website. 

Here are some of Adsense FAQ answered.

Why Should you choose Adsense ?

1. First and the foremost, you are getting paid for displaying Google ads on your site.
2. Secondly, you do not have to pay anything for the setup.
3. On the third view the ads may beautify your site's look and feel.
4. Finally you can always track your success with online reports.

What type of reports ?

The reports are of two types

1. Performance reports

• Where you can keep an eye on Earnings by specific day or date range
• Earnings by page, domain, or ad unit
• know about your Clicks and CTR

     2.  Google Analytics reports

• See your Earnings by user visits
• Earnings by user location, browser type, and referring source
• Know about your traffic by AdSense impressions, clicks, and revenue

How does Google Adsense Work ?

Contextual targeting - Here the Ads on your page are related to the content of your page.
Placement targeting - Google can show the ads from advertisers on the basis of your blog's Geographic location, URL, category of your blog etc.
Interest-based advertising - Google through its trackers keep track on your whereabouts, which links you click, which sites you visit, so it can show ads related to your interests and previous interactions with that advertiser.

For more Information you can always check out the regularly updated adsense blog
If you feel you've got a grasp of it, you may sign up for google adsense.

This is how you

Read More

Create a nokia application for your Blog

Though android applications are fast and ever increasing in the market, lets not forget, the applications for symbian phones are still the greatest. To bag the opportunity, web developers around the world use apps to build loyalty for their app and increase unique visitors, to their website.

With Nokia’s Ovi Store app builder, a person with zero programming skills can also build an app in minutes. All they need is a website or a blog with an RSS feed. There’s no fees involved and your app created can be published and downloaded on almost all Nokia devices.

The Nokia app builder lets you build your own app in minutes just like the landing page says.

 

Here is a 5 - Step process of Creating a Nokia app for your blog or website.

Step 1 : Enter your blog or website address.

You will be blessed with a preview just then on the right hand side of the screen, as the app builder picks up your RSS feed.

Step 2 : You will then be asked for design settings, including your app icon, small banner, color combinations etc.

   

 Step 3 : You will need to give some information on your website or blog, your app and its creator.

 

Step 4 : Finally, Nokia OVI app builder will ask your credentials, and personal information, which will be stored as the developer information. without this information provided, the app will not go online.

Step 5 : The website finally asks your formal permission to submit the app, you've just created.

Finally After a few days wait, Your app will be published and It will look like this.

 

The app is now published at nokia store, Codemakit

This is how you

Read More

Convert your blog to book in pdf

When you have enough posts to your credit, and you need to convert them to store them as pdf, to your computer. You need to look in the following online ebook creators.

1. > Zinepal
2. > Pothi.com aka booksmith

We will first use Booksmith in this post

1. > Using booksmith is easy

2. > Click on 'Start Now'

3. > You will be redirected to bellow page

 4. > Enter Your Blog address and select post options

 5. > Booksmith will fetch posts and ask you to select the posts you like

 6. > Customize your book

7. > Click on 'Create my book'

8. > And its done !! You'll have a preview of your book plus a chance to save it or download it

This was all about,

Article Number UAN#029CMKT

Read More

Get started with your paid website (an overview)

How to get started with your own website (for users willing to pay an extra dime).

The following chart shows a proper view of the transcend of interest among google searches on website creation.

If you want a better host and better services and do not mind spending some cash, then it is better to take a look at the following review on different non free webhosting services available with the amount charged by them.

it has huge functionality and may need you to install some plugins with the latest adobe flash player to view it, But trust me, the headache is worth it.

Article Number UAN#003CMKT

Read More

Setting up of a website, Separate mail for your website interaction

If you aim at creating a website for the long run, then you'll definitely need an email account to go on.
Now personally I feel that, at this point of time, gmail is the best mail service I've ever got.

Usually I would encourage people to use it, as it would provide an  excellent platform to collect news about web development, subscription to websites and web blogs, etc.
But the main problem with that is, If you want some one visiting your website to be contacting you, then providing them with an email address as websitename@gmail.com would shatter your reputation. You cannot give your email Id as your personal email address would prove unprofessional.

So the choice comes to you, whether you buy a custom domain from some web service provider or pay google to give you a custom email Id with a custom email address.

But since we're not gonna discuss that, so we'll have to find out some way or the other such that you get a funky or a professional email address that is free.Now there are many different email service providers. You may get a detailed review on the topic from these links

http://free-email-services-review.toptenreviews.com/
http://email.about.com/od/awards/ss/The_Best_in_Email_2010_The_Reader_s_Choice_Awards.htm
http://www.consumersearch.com/webmail-reviews

The emails which would stand in the parameter of address and functionality can be ranked as etc.

Though in.com suited best in address and gmail suited best in functionality, you may also use a email forwarding service, Best one among many is Zoho.com
Other email service providers are
care to email, hotpop, Zapakmail, Myspacemail, facebookmail, fastmail, aimmail etc.



If you find some mail useful enough and want a break then you may also nominate the mail you've found good  at http://email.about.com/library/users-choice-awards/bl-readers-choice-awards-nominate-your-email-favorites.htm. Didn't find your perfect email? go to the part II of this series where more discussion will be done on emails.

Article Number UAN#002CMKT

Read More