How Not to Blog
My own foray into blogging started with the Self-Reliant Post. In my particular crash-course process of learning how to blog, I also learned about the things I shouldn't do. So, for those of you that want to blog in support of your sites, here are some things you should avoid doing, either accidentally or on purpose. Or, you can do them anyway, annoy the blogosphere, and get blacklisted.
Splogging
Spam Blogging, also known as splogging, is using your blog solely to generate links pointing back to your site and/or optimize content for ads. To get content, a splogger either machine-generates keyword-rich gibberish or steals content from another blog feed, article, or web site. Then they load it up with links and post it.
Don't do this, really. If you're going to blog and put links back to your site, be original. Answer e-mails from your visitors. Write about your thoughts. Respond to comments. Spin off threads related to the content of your web site or your chosen topic. But don't post a massive quantity of quick-and-dirty garbage text just so you can hang an ad off some optimized content. It will get you blacklisted, and in the case of plagiarism, possibly sued.
Spinging
Spam Pinging, or spinging, is when someone unnecessarily pings to force spidering by a search engine. This is usually machine generated to the tune of hundreds in order to trick a service into believing a blog is fresh all the time. This is extremely abusive, and the services that do ping are taking precautions against it now to insure pinging automation doesn't occur.
To avoid this one, only ping once when your content has changed. It's that simple.
Spam Commenting
Blogs come with comment links underneath their articles for the placement of comments by anyone who visits. Spam Commenting is when someone leaves a comment for the sole purpose of tacking a link onto a blogging page to benefit from its rank. This is rude to say the least, and another thing upon which services are cracking down. You can't even get away with this on the hosted blogs, because their web masters have control over whose comment gets left intact.
If you read a blog and want to comment, show some class and don't spam. If you have a real comment, post it. If you don't, don't just leave a link.
Yes, this is the Net. If something has been invented to legitimately make use of the Net, it's all but certain that someone's found a way to abuse it. This doesn't mean you have to be one of them. Blog abuse will hurt you in the long run, so don't do it.
Other links of interest
If you want to look into the ways to abuse blogging so you can avoid them, Wikipedia can tell you more about splogging, spinging, and spam commenting.
Ryan Ambrose is the web master of Financial Self-Reliance, a site about how to actually make money online. The section about how to blog for money can be found here.
Splogging
Spam Blogging, also known as splogging, is using your blog solely to generate links pointing back to your site and/or optimize content for ads. To get content, a splogger either machine-generates keyword-rich gibberish or steals content from another blog feed, article, or web site. Then they load it up with links and post it.
Don't do this, really. If you're going to blog and put links back to your site, be original. Answer e-mails from your visitors. Write about your thoughts. Respond to comments. Spin off threads related to the content of your web site or your chosen topic. But don't post a massive quantity of quick-and-dirty garbage text just so you can hang an ad off some optimized content. It will get you blacklisted, and in the case of plagiarism, possibly sued.
Spinging
Spam Pinging, or spinging, is when someone unnecessarily pings to force spidering by a search engine. This is usually machine generated to the tune of hundreds in order to trick a service into believing a blog is fresh all the time. This is extremely abusive, and the services that do ping are taking precautions against it now to insure pinging automation doesn't occur.
To avoid this one, only ping once when your content has changed. It's that simple.
Spam Commenting
Blogs come with comment links underneath their articles for the placement of comments by anyone who visits. Spam Commenting is when someone leaves a comment for the sole purpose of tacking a link onto a blogging page to benefit from its rank. This is rude to say the least, and another thing upon which services are cracking down. You can't even get away with this on the hosted blogs, because their web masters have control over whose comment gets left intact.
If you read a blog and want to comment, show some class and don't spam. If you have a real comment, post it. If you don't, don't just leave a link.
Yes, this is the Net. If something has been invented to legitimately make use of the Net, it's all but certain that someone's found a way to abuse it. This doesn't mean you have to be one of them. Blog abuse will hurt you in the long run, so don't do it.
Other links of interest
If you want to look into the ways to abuse blogging so you can avoid them, Wikipedia can tell you more about splogging, spinging, and spam commenting.
Ryan Ambrose is the web master of Financial Self-Reliance, a site about how to actually make money online. The section about how to blog for money can be found here.
Affiliate Landing
Landing On The Right Affiliate Program
In my entry about how a site could make money, I have discussed a little about affiliate programs. And with the feedback I received from WomenXtra, requesting for some recommended sites on affiliate programs and banners, I thought I should discuss the two further on separate articles.
The first discussion would be on affiliate programs. I have mentioned before that this kind of programs work by “recommendation”:
1. You send a visitor/buyer from your site to an affiliated site.
2. Then your affiliated site will pay you.
3. And you earn money through commission basis.
All affiliate programs work the same, only that there are some that really pays well. However, you should also take extra precaution because there are also a lot of frauds on these programs.
Even though you do minimal effort on this kind of program, you could lose everything--- money, time, and traffic----- if you have been victimized by a fraud program. To avoid such loss, you should be properly informed about affiliate programs.
Here are the extra information you should know:
1. There are many affiliate programs out there---- some are free and some ask you to pay for membership--- but, just to stay out of risk, choose your affiliate from the roster of free-from-fees affiliates.
2. Join more than one affiliate program. This will enable you to compare one program from the other, and will very much track those who are frauds.
3. Analyze the affiliate’s system of payment:
- What is the mode of payment?
- When will the payment be issued?
- What is their minimum (traffic/visitor) requirement before they issue the payment?
4. Know the tracking system of the program and how long will your referrals stay on the program.
5. Be able to look for a program that offers a detailed statistics, which should be available for your viewing.
6. Know the people behind the “billing system”. If it is run by some billing company the better. Often times, if the billing system is handled by a third party, there is no fraud in the system compared to only two people who handle the system.
7. Find out more about the retailer and the products/services they are offering. It is better if you could also look for ways on how credible they really are by looking through their content, awards gained, other sites that link to them, testimonies and news about them, etc.
8. Know the percentage of your commission. Be able to compute all figures first before you sign up for them.
9. Rate your affiliate site from its contents to its navigation. Be able to see if the site is worthy for a visit and if it easy to use.
10. Know the hits per ratio of the program and if they also pay you the hits besides the commission.
http://onlinepr.gbwatch.com gives updates on the ins and outs of public relations and marketing within the Internet. It helps various companies of all sizes to become competitive entrepreneurs, and to focus on building good publicity, promotion and higher sales. It aims to teach businessmen to be witty, confident, and strategic in whichever industry they hope to build their dreams upon.
In my entry about how a site could make money, I have discussed a little about affiliate programs. And with the feedback I received from WomenXtra, requesting for some recommended sites on affiliate programs and banners, I thought I should discuss the two further on separate articles.
The first discussion would be on affiliate programs. I have mentioned before that this kind of programs work by “recommendation”:
1. You send a visitor/buyer from your site to an affiliated site.
2. Then your affiliated site will pay you.
3. And you earn money through commission basis.
All affiliate programs work the same, only that there are some that really pays well. However, you should also take extra precaution because there are also a lot of frauds on these programs.
Even though you do minimal effort on this kind of program, you could lose everything--- money, time, and traffic----- if you have been victimized by a fraud program. To avoid such loss, you should be properly informed about affiliate programs.
Here are the extra information you should know:
1. There are many affiliate programs out there---- some are free and some ask you to pay for membership--- but, just to stay out of risk, choose your affiliate from the roster of free-from-fees affiliates.
2. Join more than one affiliate program. This will enable you to compare one program from the other, and will very much track those who are frauds.
3. Analyze the affiliate’s system of payment:
- What is the mode of payment?
- When will the payment be issued?
- What is their minimum (traffic/visitor) requirement before they issue the payment?
4. Know the tracking system of the program and how long will your referrals stay on the program.
5. Be able to look for a program that offers a detailed statistics, which should be available for your viewing.
6. Know the people behind the “billing system”. If it is run by some billing company the better. Often times, if the billing system is handled by a third party, there is no fraud in the system compared to only two people who handle the system.
7. Find out more about the retailer and the products/services they are offering. It is better if you could also look for ways on how credible they really are by looking through their content, awards gained, other sites that link to them, testimonies and news about them, etc.
8. Know the percentage of your commission. Be able to compute all figures first before you sign up for them.
9. Rate your affiliate site from its contents to its navigation. Be able to see if the site is worthy for a visit and if it easy to use.
10. Know the hits per ratio of the program and if they also pay you the hits besides the commission.
http://onlinepr.gbwatch.com gives updates on the ins and outs of public relations and marketing within the Internet. It helps various companies of all sizes to become competitive entrepreneurs, and to focus on building good publicity, promotion and higher sales. It aims to teach businessmen to be witty, confident, and strategic in whichever industry they hope to build their dreams upon.
Choosing The Right Affiliates
Affiliate Program - The Right One For YOU
Affiliate programs are a dime a dozen on the Internet these days. Everybody and their grandmother has one and each one promises more riches than the one before it. With all the hype that's floating around, it's impossible to know just what's real and what's just that, hype. So, how DO you find a good affiliate program? What should you look for? Hopefully, after reading these few tips, you'll be on your way to finding an affiliate program that is just right for you.
The first thing you want to do is find an affiliate program that fits into your budget. Some are free to join but then there are those that require you to actually join the company as a paid member before you can promote their product or service. If funds are tight, you may want to go with a program that is free to join and then after that you simply promote your affiliate link to sell their product or service. This way, if you don't make any money, you're not out any money, unless of course you've spent money on advertising. But that's a different subject altogether.
The next thing you want to look for in an affiliate program is what it actually pays for each sale or sign up. You don't want to promote programs that pay very little. The reason is because your efforts aren't going to justify the low pay. So you want to look for something that comes with a hefty price tag. The downside to this is that you won't make as many sales selling a big ticket item because it won't appeal to as many people. You might want to consider a mid ticket item that will appeal to more people.
When looking for an affiliate program most people, unfortunately, look for the hottest new thing on the Internet. This has its pluses and minuses. On the plus side, you will probably make more sales since it is a newer item. On the minus side, you will probably have more competition because it is new and also there is the possibility that the program will go belly up sooner than with a program that has been established. many new programs fail in their first year or sooner. So promoting a new affiliate program is always a risk.
Finally, there is the ethical side of finding an affiliate program. Many, if you just read their sales page, are blatant pyramid schemes. Most of these programs will eventually collapse or be shut down. You have to go with your conscience on this one. You may make a lot of money on these programs at the start, but you'll be doing it at the expense of others coming in later on just before the wheels come flying off and many people end up losing their money. You really want to try to find a program that has a viable product or service that you can believe in. The program itself will have a better chance of surviving.
By following the above tips, you have a decent chance of finding an affiliate program that is just right for you.
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs are a dime a dozen on the Internet these days. Everybody and their grandmother has one and each one promises more riches than the one before it. With all the hype that's floating around, it's impossible to know just what's real and what's just that, hype. So, how DO you find a good affiliate program? What should you look for? Hopefully, after reading these few tips, you'll be on your way to finding an affiliate program that is just right for you.
The first thing you want to do is find an affiliate program that fits into your budget. Some are free to join but then there are those that require you to actually join the company as a paid member before you can promote their product or service. If funds are tight, you may want to go with a program that is free to join and then after that you simply promote your affiliate link to sell their product or service. This way, if you don't make any money, you're not out any money, unless of course you've spent money on advertising. But that's a different subject altogether.
The next thing you want to look for in an affiliate program is what it actually pays for each sale or sign up. You don't want to promote programs that pay very little. The reason is because your efforts aren't going to justify the low pay. So you want to look for something that comes with a hefty price tag. The downside to this is that you won't make as many sales selling a big ticket item because it won't appeal to as many people. You might want to consider a mid ticket item that will appeal to more people.
When looking for an affiliate program most people, unfortunately, look for the hottest new thing on the Internet. This has its pluses and minuses. On the plus side, you will probably make more sales since it is a newer item. On the minus side, you will probably have more competition because it is new and also there is the possibility that the program will go belly up sooner than with a program that has been established. many new programs fail in their first year or sooner. So promoting a new affiliate program is always a risk.
Finally, there is the ethical side of finding an affiliate program. Many, if you just read their sales page, are blatant pyramid schemes. Most of these programs will eventually collapse or be shut down. You have to go with your conscience on this one. You may make a lot of money on these programs at the start, but you'll be doing it at the expense of others coming in later on just before the wheels come flying off and many people end up losing their money. You really want to try to find a program that has a viable product or service that you can believe in. The program itself will have a better chance of surviving.
By following the above tips, you have a decent chance of finding an affiliate program that is just right for you.
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Affiliate Programs
