So I logged in my Entrecard account to check out who has been dropping cards on me, to deliver shop items, and see what others have been up to on the forums. Little did I know that in the mean time, Entrecard's staff has been working on implementing new features. And let's see what these are:
1) The upgraded dashboard. You can't miss that. The Inbox sidebar has conveniently been transformed into an horizontal strip displaying the last 15 drops. I'd personally like to see more than 15 as I would try to drop the card back as much as possible. Also it would be cool to spot
somehow those droppers which I have already dropped on today.
2) The News Feed. Remember Facebook's feed about your friends? Well you can see here what your favorites are doing. When and where too. I don't know how much I'll actually use this but it's good to know the guys are working. It's good to know they are taking the time to invest in this community and that they are developing the resources offered to Entrecard users.
3) The dropper status is really cool. I just know now who to drop
on and especially if that person is going to return the drop. It will improve my traffic even more than it has already did.
What about the new forum? And the ranking change? Well the new forum hasn't been done yet. I hope they will actually remodel it. And the ranking change has been announced before but it hasn't happend yet. From the pictures above I'd say they are on the right track. I don't see Entrecard dying like BlogRush has. All this changes are meant to offer us an even better experience. Let's see what's in the works for the near future!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Entrecard Is Out There Working for You
Are We Blogging Way Too Much?
I was wondering today how to increase even more the visibility of my blog. Where to submit any articles I would be writing, what other communities to join, what forums or search directories to look for. Why all that? Well I am still going for the 1 million visitors in about 365 days or so. Therefore I have to be researching for ways to develop my traffic flow, to increase my RSS subscribers, to better promote and advertise my blog.
And then I started thinking from the consumer point of view. After all I am the provider in this case, I am giving away words, sentences, phrases about what I find interesting around and about my quest. And you are the consumer. You found my blog and stopped to read these lines.
Well I, as a consumer, have around 30 blogs I am reading on a regular basis and I am subscribing to more blogs and news feed I find relevant. So if each blog has about 2-5 new posts a day it means I am reading anywhere from 60 to 150 posts a day. Now if an article has from 200 to 400 words, that means I am reading about 12000 to 60000 words a day. If I would transform these numbers in book pages it means that I am reading from 12 to 60 pages a day. I am not actually reading everything I am skimming articles and focus on what draws my attention. So it would be fair to assume I am reading at least a third of all those words.
So I am my own consumer, would I add my blog to my RSS? Probably yes I’d give me a trial period to see what I am all about, what, how and why do I blog. But I would be tough and expect a lot. I would expect decent content from any blog I would subscribe to. I don’t want to waste my online time reading junk left around when I could be doing something else.
Are we really blogging too much? I guess we aren’t. At least not now. As long as there are at least 13 theoretical readers to go through all those words we are safe. Maybe there would come a time when the internet will be overflowed with information, but I don’t think that will be happening soon! If it will ever happen. Mankind has always been in need of more information, regardless what the topic was. That hasn’t change yet and it never will. This must only mean that my quest of getting that million unique visitors still stands provided I do my blogging seriously.
Apparently I have blogged too much in this post and will stop now. But there’s a lot more from where this came from.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Blog Review - Eco-Hacks
Blog Name: Eco-Hacks
What I have seen: How many of us bloggers out there are thinking about how important the environment is? How many of us would stop blogging if we would know how and why we are slowly destroying the planet with our computer?
Today’s review is about an eco-friendly blogger. This blog is fairly new and has only about a handful of posts so far. Unfortunately I haven’t seen the about page. I’d like to know who the writer I am dealing with is whenever I am reading a blog. Even if it’s just a little bit of info.
The chosen 2 column theme is of course green and white with a slight brown touch, and it suits the proposed topic very well. There are only a few ads in the right side bar. What I have noticed here is a donation widget. The readers can donate $5 through Paypal or 500 Entrecredits. They get back a blogroll addition and an Eco Hero badge. Any profits will go into Bamboo planting. I’d like to know more about this if I’d make any Entrecard credit donations.
My favorite: As I said before, this is really a small blog so far. More difficult to review due to the lack of posts and visitors. And therefore harder for me to choose a favorite post. I didn’t choose a post describing ways of saving the environment as I preferred the haiku for bamboo. This blog has some good ideas, I’d only like to see how they are going to make them happen.
Entrecard widget: The widget is above the fold for now but it’s likely to drop if the blogroll increases following donations. Should you be interested in advertising here, you might want to take into account that Eco-Hacks is unranked, so no PR here and it has 918,469 Alexa Ranking.
Wednesday's Movies - Movies Coming Out in 2008
In my quest for getting that traffic up towards the 1 million visitor, I still have time to watch movies, and I do that on a regular basis. With the 2008 Oscars coming in fast, I already have some movies I am waiting for this year.
I'll be also starting a regular movies-preview series of posts called Wednesday's Movies and each Wednesday I'll be talking about what movies I am waiting for. And I will get the previews right here.
We're starting with:
21
If you want to see Kevin Spacey teach a bunch of university smart kids to count cards and win big at blackjack you shouldn't miss this. Lawrence Fishburne is in it too. This story based on real events will be coming out on March 28th.
Vantage Point
Did you see who is in it? Denis Quaid, Oscar winner Forest Whitaker. Add William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver and you just might have a great thriller recipe. Coming out on March 28th.
Drillbit Taylor
And we are ending today's sneak peak with a comedy. Owen Wilson steps up for the role of a hired bodyguard. Who is he going to protect? We'll see that on March 21st.
movies previews
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Blog Review - Vubx.com
Blog Name: Vubx.com
What I have seen: What we have here is a cool gadgets blog. If you are into electronics and accessories, computers and cell phones, digital cameras or unusual items, here’s the place to get a quick view. See what products the author recommends and where would you be able to find them or when and where they are supposed to be finally released.
The chosen theme is a very user friendly one. It’s simple and discrete. Dominant colors are orange and white. There are a few ads including AdSense blocks, conveniently located around the posts. Personally I am not disturbed by ads as long as the article keeps my eyes and mind busy.
What I suggest is better updating for Vubx.com. If you are into gadgets, you will find lots of them waiting around to be discovered and promoted. There’s some serious competition out there and if you want to make it as a new blog, you should boldly go for it. And did I miss the about page?
My favorite: I am a gadgets fan. I think I’d overbuy them if I had the chance. So it was hard to pick a favorite, but wha
t I found really cool is the color changing sofa. It seems to be a cool gift for Valentine’s Day. That’s of course if you don’t mind sleeping and cuddling while illuminated from underneath. That’s right, the sofa changes colors. Imagine all the fun!
Entrecard widget: The widget is just above the fold and it’s placed in the right sidebar. If you are interested in advertising here now, Vubx.com has a PR2 and Alexa Ranking of 291,610. With lots of promotion, including Entrecard, more reviews and constant updating, this blog has great potential for development. Gadgets, unlike diamonds, are not forever! They keep changing so if there’s a blog keeping track, I’ll be checking it and I’ll be also advertising on it using the Entrecard community.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Online Financing Solutions
In my quest of getting to that 1 Million viewers in less than 365 Days with a blog started from scratch and with absolutely no budget to invest, I constantly find new blogs and sites, internet businesses. I am researching various advertising solutions as well as means for paying for any advertising. I naturally discover cash advance sites which could prove to be helpful at a certain point for anyone.
Do you need some fast cash for your online business? Shopping online for Valentine's Day but there's no money in your old bank account? Or do you simply need a payday loan?
If you answered yes to any of those questions, you might give this site a try. Find out more about payday loans. See how that works for yourself and see what others have to say about it. Rank those sites if you have already used any of them.
Although they are a fast way of getting that advertising money, I prefer not to use any of them right now. I have started without a budget which means that although these can be fast and secure cash advance solutions, with low interest rates and a really easy approval process, they are not what I am looking for right now. However they could prove to be an useful tool to have and be informed about.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
How to Make Mozilla Firefox Run Faster?
One of the most used Internet Explorers around the globe is Internet Explorer of course! For all others that still don't appreciate its windowish concept, God got someone smart enough to invent Mozilla Firefox. At any point of your life as an internet user you might have found yourself hating Internet Explorer. And after going through several other browsers you ended up installing Mozilla right? At least that happende to me too and my browser of choice while going for the 1 Million Readers in 365 is Mozilla Firefox.
I am not going to tell you what Mozilla can do and other simply dream about. You can check that in dozens of reviews - or click the image. Spotted it? But Mozilla can be bothering sometimes. Here's my 3 tips on making it run faster and smoother.
1. Get a new computer! Your desktop or notebook must be too old. Don't upgrade! Just buy a newer, better version. They are so cheap these days and you don't even have to get out of the house to do it!
2. Get a faster internet connection! Mozilla doesn't bring the Internet to you. They just browse it. It's up to you to do that. Sometimes Mozilla loads slower simply because your internet connection sucks.
3. Get Disconnected! If you are staying so much online that it seems to you and only to you Mozilla loads a millisecond slower than yesterday, then you need to do something else. Get out of the house. Don't order your next generation laptop online, but go look for it.
I actually started this post as a joke. My Mozilla works just fine in 95% of the cases. All I had when I started typing was "Buy a new computer"and then it grew into this. However if you really feel you need to pimp your Mozilla, consider using these tips and tricks here!
In the mean time, I'll be working on opening 1 million pages of my blog on various browsers around the globe. Mostly Mozilla Firefox I believe.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
How to Remove the Blogger Navigation Bar?
I started this blog to prove that if you really want something it's achievable. Or at least that no one should quit trying when they come up with something like getting 1 Million in 364 Days. From scratch. With absolutely no money to back it up.
So besides creating content to keep my increasing traffic, I am also tunning up this blogs design, rearranging widgets. I added a 3 column footer more than a month ago but what I was thinking about for a while was to somehow hide the Blogger default Navigation Bar. What is that? It's that blue thing above your blog. Wh
y you ask? Well first of all it' unaesthetic and it doesn't go well with most of the Blogger templates. Then it has the search blog box and even worse, the next blog button which can drive some of my traffic away.
How do you remove the blogger navigation bar from your blog? Well that's really simple. You just have to log in and go to the Template tab in your Dashboard. From there choose the Edit HTML tab. You don't have to be an HTML/XML/CSS guru to do that, but just to be safe, export your current code before making any changes. Just to be on the safe side.
Next, simply insert this line:
"#navbar-iframe {display: none !important;}"
Where do you insert it? Well you just have to look for this line:
"/*
Variable definitions"
and insert the code just above it so it all looks like this:
"#navbar-iframe {display: none !important;}
/*
Variable definitions"
Save your template and there you have it. It will look like mine looks now. There is no Navigation Bar left and any blog can look like a site now. And don't worry, jus
t in case you were wondering, you will still be able to log in to customize your blog even without that bar up there.
I didn't write the code in case anyone asks, I found it too. You can pretty much find anything you want these days. Google... Can't live with them, can't live without them. Here's the link.
Blog Review - Musings ê¿ê…
Blog Name: Musings ê¿ê…
What I have seen: Here’s a blog with a cool title. It is a collection of ideas reviews and trivia as the author tells it. It an almost 1-year old blog, with lots of categories to chose and read from. I like the theme chosen and the ads are hardly noticeable, not that would make me turn away from reading a blog.
My favorite: Check out how the Bush administration has lied and for how many times they did so prior to the
Entrecard widget: Up there above the fold.
Blog Review - Bendz - Chronicles of a Pinoy Blogger
Blog Name: Bendz – Chronicles of a Pinoy Blogger
What I have seen: This is a blog from The Philippines. Inside you will find various posts on a lot of topics. It’s a blog about everything the author finds interesting in real and virtual life to blog about.
My favorite: My favorite is a Tips and Tricks post on Entrecard. It will show a fellow Entrecarder how to jumpstart his dropping abilities.
Entrecard widget: Up there above the fold.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Blog Review - Comments Are Open
Blog Name: Comments Are Open
What I have seen: This is another original idea. Here you have Blog Starr telling you what’s happening in the Bloggers World. A Gossip Girl of the blogs without the movie stars and rich characters.
My favorite: Tell him what happened and they will go find these punks and beat them up. Gotta stop and wonder what it’s about.
Entrecard widget: Up there above the fold.
Blog Review - The 1000 Push Ups Club
Blog Name: The 1000 Push Ups Club
What I have seen: This blog will show you exactly what you need to do to get to 1000 push ups. It takes both physical and mental power to achieve anything like that.
My favorite: I particularly like this blog because it started from an idea like mine. So my favorite post is the first one, the one that describes how it all started. Find out for yourseves.
Entrecard widget: Unfortunately there is no Entrecard widget on but way too many adboxes.
Blog Review - Neo Blue Panther
Blog Name: NeoBluePanther
What I have seen: Here’s a blog about life among other things. You will find posts on writing, on blogging. Find out how the novella ends and see what this blogger is going to do with this blog
My favorite: There’s a series of post called “The Bank Robbery”. If you are into literature tune in to see how this series ends.
Entrecard widget: Up there above the fold, right on top of the sidebar.
Blog Review - Investing Adventures
Blog Name: Investing Adventures
What I have seen: If you want to know what’s up with the market and the Dow here’s where you want to go. There’s a graduate student analyzing what’s going on financially speaking.
My favorite: Wall Street isn’t something I am good at so my favorite post is the 2008 resolutions. See here what this blogger wants to achieve this year.
Entrecard widget: It’s just under the fold in the right sidebar.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Facebook Can Drive Traffic to Your Blog
One choice of a dream could be getting "a million readers in about 365 days or so..." for this blog: http://mi11ion.blogspot.com/ Dreams and the way we pursue them since birth represent what we... (read more) This blog's goal is reaching 1 million readers in 365 days, and my traffic is growing from day to day. I have added Facebook as an engine of driving traffic towards me. As you all know, Facebook is growing so fast. As we speak it has left Hi5 so much behind and it is now chasing Myspace. Myspace seems to have been the favorite but people are logging in to Facebook now to see what's going on there.
Facebook has lots of applications to add to your profile. Maybe too many, but they can all be fun
and you can check out how your friends are doing, what are they like, what they score in those test and more.
One of these applications I have chosen is Facebook Causes. You just add your cause and start recruiting people. You have to enter the basic description and your positions. In case you are raising money or donations for any organization, you can do that too at Facebook. You will find in italics below what my cause looks like and a link to it to join in!
One choice of a dream could be getting "a million readers in about 365 days or so..." for this blog: http://mi11ion.blogspot.com/
Dreams and the way we pursue them since birth represent what we actually become in every way. Having dreams and goals is what makes us unique as a species. It is the motor that drives our body. Whether they are long or short term they make us grow, make decisions, get engaged and many others.
One of the most important human rights is the Freedom of Speech. Whether is verbal or written, one's point of view has to be allowed to be expressed at any time by any individual. Preventing any basic human right is illegal and should be immediately dealt with.
Everyone should be entitled to being happy from every point of view. And that can be obtain by simply respecting one's freedoms and letting them follow their dreams and what they stand for.
As long as there are writers to leave their impressions there should be readers close by. Don't forget writing as a speech expression is one of the first disciplines of art.
We are actually encouraging uniqueness and the importance of one's decision, actions and personality in a world that is going global. We are not raising money we are raising awareness! Don't be one of the crowd, but be yourself and follow your dreams whatever they might be!
- Pursuing one's dreams should be the basis of one's further development as a human being.
- Freedom of speech and the right to having a different opinion should never be taken away to any individual.
- Restraining one's happiness should not be allowed to.
- Uniqueness as a human being should be encouraged and promoted at any level.
- Reading should be insisted on for as long as there are any form of writers around.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Blog Review - Techie Portal
Blog Name: Techie Portal
What I have seen: It’s a blog filled with tech and software info. Learn how to tweak your PC and your favorite applications. Stay tunned for Entrecard tips and tricks.
My favorite: There’s an easy to use tool developed by the owner, meant to increase the effectiveness of your card dropping. I am not using it now but others might want to give it a try.
Entrecard widget: Right under the fold!
Blog Review - Antibarbie.net
Blog Name: Antibarbie.net
What I have seen: It’s a blog with attitude. Browse through it for more than just looking for the Entrecard spot. See what this mom/hellbound scribe of nightmares has to say.
My favorite: I liked a short post in which commentators were invited to post any question and they will have their answer. Reading the comments here is so much fun!
Entrecard widget: In no man’s land. Neither above neither under the fold!
Blog Review - The Scholarpreneur
Blog Name: The Scholarpreneur
What I have seen: This is a pretty new blog, judging by the number of posts. There are lots of topics to chose from and I hope they are all going to be updated frequently.
My favorite: Thinking out of the box can help you cheat on an exam using only your coke bottle. Not that cheating is supported here!
Entrecard widget: At the top of the right sidebar.
Blog Review - iMod – Thought Promotion
Blog Name: iMod – Thought Promotion
What I have seen: Here’s a very organized blog with lots of useful information on different topics. The main focus appears to be internet, website building and Entrecard too.
My favorite: I actually did post a link to this post earlier. It’s a Entrecard link love collection which can help out a new Entrecarder or the heavy dropper.
Entrecard widget: Clearly visible above the fold.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
The Joker Died Today In New York City
28 years, that's how old the new Joker was. Heath Ledger died today. He was found by his masseuse in his New York apartment. Around him the police found sleeping pills and they will be waiting for the official coroner's report on the cause of death.
Movies are and will be very dear to me. I watch them all. I was waiting for The Dark Knight (watch trailer bellow). The Batman Begins sequel will be released this year and what I was especially waiting for is the new Joker character. I am sure Ledger's performance will undoubtedly make an impression. Jack Nicholson's Joker will be reloaded and updated. Too bad he won't be able to attend the premiere.
I am sure you've seen Brokeback Mountain a role which brought an Oscar nomination.
Other movies he has starred in and I am recommending are: 10 Things I hate About You, with Julia Stiles, The Patriot along side Mel Gibson, The Brothers Grimm with Matt Damon, Casanova with Jeremy Irons or A Knight's Tale. Why commit suicide when you have all that and more?
Ironically today they have announced the nominations for the 80th annual Academy Awards. We will see later who gets what Oscar, but for now, the movie world has lost a great actor.
Blog Review - MG's Blog
Blog Name: MG’s blog
What I have seen: I will definitely come back here for updates. This blogger’s tips could be useful to me to in my quest chasing. If you want to know more about design and wordpress here’s the place for you too.
My favorite: Join RSS directories for increasing your RSS feed subscribers. These post comes right on time as I was looking into this lately.
Entrecard widget: It’s barely there above the fold.
Blog Review - Use It Play It Test It
Blog Name: Use It Play It Test It
What I have seen: This blogger reviews whatever gadget, game or software equipment that he is interested in. Find out what’s hot and what not. It could prove to be a good blog in the future if it will be updated regularly.
My favorite: The cheapest car I would never buy gets a review here. It’s interesting but is it possible?
Entrecard widget: It's located above the fold.
Blog Review - Lee Doyle - Contains Nuts
Blog Name: Lee Doyle – Contains Nuts
What I have seen: Everything Lee Doyle is writing about concerns his life and his kids. You can find out who he is, what he is doing and why he is writing a blog. Among different posts you’ll find his poems waiting to be discovered.
My favorite: Is a post about one of the most famous news footage. The man against the tank(s) in
Entrecard widget: It’s up there above the fold.
Blog Review - An Ordinary Life
Blog Name: An Ordinary Life
What I have seen: Kristin shows us tiny bits of life. Do you recognize any of them? Check out her reviews and giveaways. I liked the custom theme she is using. Perfectly suitable for reading a blog.
My favorite: There’s a post about this guys that are trying to get a million readers in 365 days! A must read for sure!
Entrecard widget: At the end of the left sidebare. You can’t miss it!
Monday, January 21, 2008
Writing Blog Reviews Can Be a Challenge!
As I told you the other day I updated my shop items at Entrecard and now, for 1 credit per word I am writing my first blog reviews. That's another item I wasn't expecting to sell so fast but I did as people were rushing in for almost free backlinks and deep links to their blog.
I sold 16 reviews in less than 24 hours which means I will be averaging 3-5 blog reviews a day in order to get my regular posts in. So if you purchased a blog review, it will show up here by Thursday if lightning doesn't strike me down! I know what you might ask yourselves. Yes there is a limit of blog reviews per week I have set up and that's 20. And there's another limit, one review per blog so people will not be able to sign up for another one soon.
For now everyone has chosen 50 words reviews and that's so much more challenging than writing a regular longer post. I have developed a post structure for these reviews. The Blog's Name and the rest of the words in this structure don't count. So writing 50 words reviews is really like writing up a recommendation and I am basically following my own advices. But it also feels like I have to censor and leave out stuff to meet the requirements. I am thinking about increasing the minimum word limit for next weeks.
The good thing is that I am spending more time on a blog to get a feel from it. Remember that I do that anyway as I am continually researching to meet my number 1 goal. Get 1 Million in 365 Days!
As always I am waiting for your comments and suggestions. And if I made you stop your chain-dropping, then go ahead and subscribe for my full RSS feed to get more.
Blog Review - Blog About Your Blog
Blog Name: Blog About Your Blog
What I have seen: Lots and lots of tips and tricks, money-making solutions, affiliate ideas for your blog are waiting to be discovered. Its growing RSS Feed foresees a bright future for this blog. The Comment Friday is really cool here.
My favorite: I found Firefox add-ons to supercharge my blog. See for yourself and you can increase your blogging experience.
Entrecard widget: At the end of the right sidebar. Look for it!
Blog Review - Chemist2dio Labs
Blog Name: Chemist2dio Labs
What I have seen: It’s a blog dedicated to designers and to freelancing work. It has a cool design but the last post is more than a week old. It needs better update.
My favorite: The tutorial for creating a snowman is a 3-day post and it’s interesting to follow.
Entrecard widget: It’s way down, but you shouldn’t miss it.
Blog Review - My Thoughts, Ideas and Ramblings
Blog Name: My Thoughts, Ideas and Ramblings
What I have seen: Here’s a full time work at home blogging mom. But watch out. She is more than JUST another mommy blogger. You have to respect that and learn from it!
My favorite: I liked the road sign! You will have a laugh too if you are a football fan.
Entrecard widget: It’s above the fold, under the first blocks of ads.
Blog Review - Push a Pixel
Blog Name: Push a Pixel
What I have seen: Making art and artists out there heard, seen, read is a must. If you are one, the author will help you out. The clear design lets you navigate through posts easily without being hassled with ads.
My favorite: Find out where the internet is going here. I was suspecting that too!
Entrecard widget: Loads up fast and it’s above the fold.
Entrecard Shop Items Update
In my quest to 1 Million in 365 Days I have stumbled upon Entrecard. It's impossible not to do that if you are blogging today. If you Google it, you get more than 200,000 results, which is pretty impressive for something started about 4 months ago.
And for almost a week now I've become an Entrecard seller. I started with selling 125x125 banner ads and did so more successfully than initially estimated. And now I have added a new item. I am reviewing your blog. You choose the length, from 50 words to 300 words. You get a link to your home page, a link to my favorite post on your blog and your Entrecard widget displayed. So basically 3 links. Right now these links aren't worth that much from the PR or Alexa Ranking point of view. But just you wait and see!
I will be reviewing up to 3 blogs per day, and each blog is entitled to just 1 review for now. Check my shop for more info on that!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
8 & 1/2 Tips on Writing an Entrecard Recommendation
I showed you in my previous post on Entrecard, 13 Ways to Get Your Entrecard Going, simple and effective means of making the most out of Entrecard. For a new blogger it can be a cool tool to increase traffic and to get your blog noticed. It works so much faster than other web 2.0 communities, and it's funnier to use too.
I was going to write about recommendations and what can they do for your blog or site as someone 
else suggested it too.
Why do recommendation benefit your blog? Well that is actually simple. They are short previews on your blog, impressions of other fellow bloggers. People are more likely to check your site more often if it has recommendations from others. It means that others have seen it and they approve it for a certain characteristic. It also will determine more people to get in a queue to advertise with you.
What a recommendation brings? You are right, more traffic.
While I am pleased to have some recommendations (check above) I am also writing them. I am not only a receiver but also a giver. How can you do it?
1) Don't be afraid! If you feel you have to recommend a blog, don't be afraid to be the first person recommending it. Even if that blog is new and it has a low Entrecard rating. If you liked it recommend it.
2) Don't ask for recommendation exchange! It is against Entrecard's rules. However you can return a recommendation but don't feel pressured to do so. But do thank those that wrote one for you. I am thanking by mentioning them later in this post.
3) Be personal! Write what you liked about a blog, what you learned from it. When I'm checking out a blog I go through what people have said about it so I know what to expect.
4) Be specific! Write in clear, short paragraphs. They are easier to read and there's plenty of space left for others to leave their mark
5) Recommend your favorites! There's a recommend tab now in Entrecard. You can take your time to write a recommendation for your favorites. Don't just use that tab for getting first in line at a certain time at a certain blog.
6) Be positive! If a blogger did you wrong, there's no point in writing a bad recommendation. S/He will not publish it anyway.
7) Be original! Your recommendation is a shorter version of your blog. It gets noticed, it gets published, it gets read. It can lead to more traffic. Don't forget Entrecard is about having fun as well. If original means funny then 7 & 1/2) be funny!
8) Proofread your message! You don't want silly mistakes under your name. You can always ask the blogger to remove yours so you can correct it. You can use Mozilla. With its default spell check you are almost safe.
I would like to thank those who have recommended my blog and here's a free backlink for you guys:
How to Start Up Financing With EZUnsecured?
All business out there need a financing solution at the beginning. Unless you were born on a huge pile up of cash, chasing banks and loans will be definitely one of the first things you will be doing when getting ready to open-up shop.
I am on my way to the 1 million visitors in 365 days and I am constantly checking out all sorts of sites and blogs looking for traffic and means to increase it.
Well EZUnsecured will not give anyone traffic but it might offer a blogger some start up financing solutions. I am not currently paying for any advertising for my blog. But so many online business are doing that and they are doing it successfully.
If you need fast money, here is where you have to sign up. It's a fast funding idea. The sign up process is really easy. You will be contacted by a representative and you will get start-up financing tips. Where to lend from, what the interest rates are, are some of the questions you will find answers for.
It's sure no solution for my endeavor as my blog is purely a hobby. I don't have any fees to pay, there's no need to cover expenses so I basically don't require any startup financing. But who knows what future might hold! In the mean time if you are searching for good quality finance advice, check them out and find out for yourself if their service is as excellent as they say.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Have Computers All Over the World Gone Crazy?
What did you think about the Macbook Air? Wasn't that cool? It's rather large for an iPod right?
But what did your computer have to say about it? I guess Apple didn't think about those.
Here is what actually happend:
My Entrecard Shop
My Entrecard shop is performing quite nicely. It's even better than I was initially expecting. I signed up for it in the 11th hour, and I was accepted the next day.
I am trying to sell cool and funny items. What I had in mind are Featured 125x125 banners on my blog. Placed above the fold, for a certain period of time.
The prices for them are actually what I thought it's really funny, but apparently it's not that obvious. For 1 year you get a 125x125 banner for 125*125=15125 credits. For 1 month you get a 125x125 banner for 125*12=1500 (I took out a 5 from 125). And of course, for 1 week you get the price of 125*1=125 (I took out the 2 from 12).
My first 4 items sold in 6 hours or less. They were all 1 week banners. Today I though I'd set up 4 more places as those were really popular and fairly priced. At the time (this Thursday) 1 day on my blog was priced at 80-98 credits. So 125 for a week long is a really good deal. Today I average 142 credits. And I opened 4 more spaces of which I have 3 more available at this time.
Seeing that I had an increase of traffic for my blog I think that those ad prices will go up and they will not be funny anymore! I'll have to come up with new original products for the shop, as it's a really cool feature of Entrecard.
I am sure some of you are wondering why I am not selling those spots for advertisers? Well that's what I am doing. Sure it's Entrecard Credits for now, but later on, as traffic grows I will be switching from Entrecredits to money. It is also a very cheap way of advertising for others like me. We are only investing some time in Entrecard to get some traffic out of it
So come check my store, maybe in the mean time I have found something cool for you. It's only Entrecredits!
Stupid Bitch Gets What She Deserves
Well I mentioned before that porn is not something I am advising people as means for getting traffic.
But on YouTube is also getting some traffic from porn, wouldn't have seen that coming right? Anyway, I found this cool video called "Stupid bitch gets what she deserves" and I though I would share it with you. It made my day, I am still laughing. Enjoy!
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
An Apple Just Got Fresher, Can You Feel the Air?
Yesterday I got all excited about becoming an Entrecard Seller and I postponed this post for today. For all you sports' fans out there and by sports' fans I mean all of you guys who are blogging from a MacBook Pro, for all you guys who just both an iPhone, for all you guys that just iTunned your 4th iPod, for all you guys that aren't afraid of a Leopard, for all of you guys that Think outside the Box, they have created Air now, Macbook Air.
Yestarday Steve Jobs did his usual. He put on a 90 minutes show which I was going to pretty much translate into words describing what Apple is going to do in the following months, but then I found the clip at the bottom of this post which does all that. It translates my unwritten words into moving image. Imagine that!
I can't go back in time and write the post yesterday. I am using the sucky yucky Windows XP. Didn't upgrade to Vista, and I hope I won't have to. So I just have to tell you that the guys at Apple are thinking really outside the box. I mean they are so far out of the box that you can hardly see the box. I am sure they don't see the box anyway.
What is Microsoft doing about it? Hmmm... Rumor has it they had a presentation at the same time with Apple's Steve Jobs. I guess they were simply covering that and showing those 2 people that attended what they are going to try to run against next. Did I say copy anywhere?
I am making fun of them but then again who isn't. I am an Apple fan as they are going forward. They are like kids with colored dreams. And they actually get those dreams going. It's like I am dreaming of getting one million readers in a year starting from scratch.
Anyway the thing that impressed me the most is Apples' Macbook Air. I was waiting for some major desktop/notebook changes but this Air is so fresh that I need it. Dare I set another goal for this blog? Get the Air?
So all in all sports' fans from all over the world, from my almost three year old Dell (and the poor thing doesn't even know he is running on Windows) I have shared some Air with you. Feel refreshed?
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Check Out My Entrecard Shop Products
I was telling you the other day how to profit from entrecard in terms of getting free valuable traffic. After I finished that post I got another look Entrecard and went through the last posts of the blog. The very last one was saying how today is the last day for requesting a seller status. I sent my mail saying what I will sell if selected and here we are.
I have just been approved and I have received a seller status. But what am I selling you ask? Well for now I am starting with 4 125x125 Ads which will be placed in my right sidebar and above the fold for featured Entrecarders.
I have 1 spot for a whole year. The price is 125*125=15125 credits. As for the 3 left they will go to buyers for 1 month or 1 week depending on what they choose. The longer the period of time they chose, the higher the ad's posotion. And the higher the price. For 1 month you will have to pay 125*12=1500 credits and for 1 week the price is set at 125*1=125 credits.
These 3 spots can't be occupied more than 2 times for any distinct blog at any given time. If the demand is higher and I will get more requests, then I might add two more spots under the fold. How are these good deals? Well my current price is from 80-98 for a day. So I guess you would better get my deals then?
In other Entrecard related news I wrote my first recommendation today and I have gotten 3 recommendations as well. They all came one after the other MarketingDeviant, Fam5 Blog and Cardelios Digital Thank guys! Things are moving according to plan.
And for all those interested I found a cool widget which displays your latest droppers thanks to TechiePortal. It works both in WordPress and Blogger and from now on I will have displayed the last 5 Entrecard droppers right beneath the last comments section in my left sidebar.
I am waiting for you all to click the tiger! Drop a card, drop a line, get noticed!
13 Ways to Get Your Entrecard Going Faster
Entrecard is the newest hip around. Everyone is talking about this phenomenon. It all started from a brilliant idea based on the real business cards. What it turned into was a cool, free advertising method, but also into a pool of strategies, speed card-dropping, www arguments and funny ideas.
What everyone agrees with is that Entrecard gives all of us the boost of exposure we need daily. New bloggers will immediately profit from this free traffic. They will increase the stats that matter, Google PR and Alexa rank. It is also true that this traffic is artificially increased. Speed card-dropping is what causes this. I have lots of new visitors daily but only some of those actually stop to read a post and check other pages. Most of them drop the card and move on. They will read a post somewhere else. But I am ok with that. It's understandable and I do it too. Everyone does it as it's the only way to get fast credits but I am getting away from my point.
Let's start again. What do I want? 1 million readers for my blog. How will I do that? Lots of advertising. How much am I paying for it? Right now nothing.
What do I want from Entrecard? Lots of exposure. How do I get that? With Entrecard Credits. Why? Because if I have enough credits I will buy more ads and more expensive ones. How do I get traffic from that? Well 1) I get traffic from those sites where my widget is displayed. 2) I get traffic from those other blogs I have dropped my card from and 3) I get traffic from those people who are only checking Entrecard's collection of cards.
I get credits every time I drop a card or I receive one. At first I got credits mainly from dropping. then I got some traffic and the credits from the droppers have increased. I purchased more add space and continued the game.
Like me so did others, and others are signing up each day. But this whole Entrecard deal isn't perfected yet. It is nice and neat but there are those who complain. Just two days ago John Cow announced he is dropping Entrecard as it is not a fair system. He doesn't appreciate how a guy like Saphrym with 22 subscribers at the time can have a higher price than him. But this is yet another cool feature of Entrecard. It allows small and big blogs to compete head to head.
What John Cow didn't seem to understand is that not all bloggers are competing to get Saphryms spot. I mean I will not pay 400 EC myself when I can buy 4X100 EC spots from bigger blogs. What I will do though is check those high priced blogs to see what they are all about. I will do exactly what, in this case Saphrym wants me to. Check his blog. If I am interested in what I see I will return. If not then I go further. Either way I won't pay that sum yet. So it's a good thing that Entrecard isn't yet another tool meant to help only big blogs.
So what are the 13 secrets of successfully EntreAds?
1) Go chain-dropping! Whenever you are killing time online, browse through some blogs, get EC
2) Advertise, advertise, advertise! Dont't pile up credits for the top blog in a category. Go for more. Smaller can be better. You will get piles of cards later.
3) Call back! Check who dropped a card to you and return it. It's cool, it's polite, it can start a relationship between 2 blogs.
4) Check forums and see what the buzz it! Find out what other bloggers are doing with EC and Entrecard
5) Stop and read! There are so many interesting blogs out there. It's the biggest online source of info and you will stumble upon things you like. Comment where you want to, sign up for RSS feeds, be active.
6) Join contests and organize contests. Whether you are giving away credits or winning them you will still get traffic, linkbacks.
7) Write a recommendation! Write it where you think you should. It will get you link love back.
8) Exchange/Sell your EC! There will come a time when you will have too many credits. Why not make a profit of them. Get a banner on a site or sell them on eBay (that's something I am thinking about right now and I will tell you all about later), buy something from Entrecard's sellers
9) Learn the rules of the game! Do you know why my price is currently 93? Do you know how many drops I can make a day?
10) Don't overlook anyone! One trend popular right now is getting lists of blogs with widget placement above the fold. Well I don't do that. I am also looking for above the fold placements. These are blogs who are getting less traffic right now, but they are more likely to check back my site as they might have a shorter inbox, especially if they are new bloggers.
11) Never get angry at your neighbour! I don't care if Seraphym has a price of 400 EC . Good for him. He is applying the sistem. He is thinking for his blog and that's a good thing.
12) Be creative and have a life! That will get your blog on. It will inspire you to write. It will make you seek advertising. It will make your EC account rise.
13) Have a decent internet connection and a good hosting package! You will want your blog uploaded fast and you will want to be able to have other sites working fast enough
Is this my personal recipe? Well, yes for now it is. The points above aren't necessarily a secret and that's not an order of applying them for you. I have more advice about Entrecard and there are lots of things left unsaid, as this is my own experience so far with them but I will cover them in the future.
In the mean time I am waiting for your cards and your ads to display.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Dell Home Starts Days of Deals January 15th
Starting tomorrow, January 15th Dell launches the Days of Deals. From what I hear here for about 9 days or so you will be able to get huge discounts on Dell products.
My writing tool is an almost 3-year-old Dell Inspiron 9300 which is still running smoothly, well apart from a tiny sound card issue which needs some work done. So I would recommend others a Dell laptop anytime.
At Best Coupons Online you will find deals on other products too. As long as you are looking for cheaper new electronics you will find there some sort of a coupon or a promotion to get youtself a better deal.
How Is Alexa Toolbar Monitoring Your Blog?
I was talking earlier about Google’s PageRank. It is clear for any blogger that having a high PR will drive more traffic to their blog. While I am trying to get that million unique visitors in a year and I need to know where am I standing.
Another interesting tool, both popular and unpopular is the Alexa traffic ranking. What it does is pretty simple. Alexa is counting the number of users of a certain site and the number of page views. Based on this numbers it shows stats, graphs and rankings. Alexa Toolbar is an easy to setup toolbar for Internet Explorer. There’s a plugin you can use to install it on Mozilla Firefox too. From there you can monitor whatever site you want, including my own.
I went ahead and checked their site to get an update for my traffic so far and here’s my stats. Alexa can show you detailed graphs with your traffic and compare with other sites. All this info is free and anyone can check out what the competition is doing out there. You also get to check out what countries your traffic comes from and what your Alexa ranking in those countries is.
I am not yet in the top 100k but I am getting there slowly but surely. The 3 months average is higher than it should be as I have been inactive for more that a month.
I will get back with updates on my Alexa ranking and on Alexa.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Golden Globe Winners Announced
The 65th Golden Globe Winners have been announced in a press conference. No red carpet, no thank you speeches, no expensive dresses, no show. I wonder if we will have any Oscars this year? Will they be announced too? Is anyone going to solve the writers issue?
So without further ado, here are the winners of this Golden Globe 65th edition:
Best Motion Picture – Drama
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
Cate Blanchett – Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie – Away From Her - winner
Jodie Foster – The Brave One
Angelina Jolie – A Mighty Heart
Keira Knightley – Atonement
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama
George Clooney – Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood - winner
James McAvoy – Atonement
Viggo Mortensen – Eastern Promises
Denzel Washington – American Gangster
Best Director - Motion Picture
Tim Burton – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen – No Country For Old Men
Julian Schnabel – The Diving Bell And The Butterfly - winner
Ridley Scott – American Gangster
Joe Wright – Atonement
Best Screenplay - Motion Picture
Atonement
Written by Christopher Hampton
Charlie Wilson's War
Written by Aaron Sorkin
The Diving Bell And The Butterfly
Written by Ronald Harwood
Juno
Written by Diablo Cody
Written by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Saturday, January 12, 2008
When Is the Internet Going to be Called Google?
I was explaining a bit the other day what Google PageRank is. I have to mention one important thing. Google has updated the ranks as of this week. I guess there are many sites and blogs disappointed or excited about this update depending on what that did for them. There are those sites that will have a lower PR and those sites that will have a higher PR. No change for me. I am moving from unranked to unranked waiting for the next Google PR update. In the meantime I will be raising my PageRank as my unique visitor count is rising too.
In other news, Google has personalized the iGoogle webpage to fit the more popular and popular iPhones. So now we have an iGoogle that perfectly fits the iPhone. I guess Google will get involved into anything that's hot and anything that's hot will want to show up in Google's searches.
So are we slowly getting under Google's dominance? Is Google going to take over the Internet? Are our children going to surf the Google and not the internet? Is that a good or bad thing happening?
Friday, January 11, 2008
How to Spot a Blogger From Earth's Orbit?
Well well isn't that a really cool picture? Isn't Earth beautiful at least until you get down here?
This picture was taken up there, on a clear day at sundown over Western Europe and North Africa. As the night takes over, bloggers light up their working space whether they are discovering Web 2.0 or whether they are setting up a new online campaign. Can you see yourself down there?
It would be really interesting to see other pictures from the skies like this one. Here's where I found this one, but if you find more of those lying around, leave a note so I can enjoy it too.
Earth looks good for a change doesn't it?
What is Google PageRank?
I am a blogger that seeks traffic, no surprise there. Every single web page desperately wants to be viewed by someone. There seldom are site owners that do not wish traffic to steadily increase over a certain period of time. Add to that wish internet trends, search engines, communities and not only do find competitors but also resources that can be used to your advantage. That's why I am trying to get those 1 million unique visitors as I think it can be done in a dynamic environment like the world wide web.
It was important for me to understand how Google works as long as Google is the most used search engine out there. Google among other things has developed Google PageRank, a tool meant to judge sites and their importance.
How does Google PageRank work? Well it seems pretty simple actually, but it's rather complicated as there are lots of variables taken into account. Google checks the quality of your site, what traffic it has and it ads to this the total number of backlinks from other sites to you. Backlinks are coming from everywhere and they show how popular your site actually is. It is not only important to have so many sites linked to yours but it is also important that these site have good PageRanks and lots of traffic. So the better sites linking to my blog for example, the better the PageRank I will build up.
Not only Google determines what your link count is, but their ranking system, which is far from perfect or flawless from what I have learned so far, is the most used one. If you want to check where your links come from just type link:yoursitename.com. There's also the Google Webmaster Tools that can tell me how many external links I have pointing to other sites and how many internal links pointing to my blog's pages there are.
My Google PageRank right now is 0. I am new in this blogging world, but this baby is growing. And this is how I monitor its growth. I am not saying that Google's rank is always fair or that there aren't ways to beat it around, to inflate it and take advantage of it thus getting better traffic. There are also ways in which Google is fighting, fairly or not, spamming and artificial page rank growths, but I have yet to discover them.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Cool Tools to Boost Your Entrecard Link Love
So far Entrecard has been one major source of traffic for me. It isn't necessarily clean traffic as one is simply building up their Entrecard credit by dropping lots of cards a day. In the process you can loose sight of some really cool blogs/sites.
I am trying to get as much as possible from the community point of view. I am leaving comments where I find interesting stuff and I try to have my card showing up there. I am also considering getting some credit to give it away in my future first contest. All this increases my daily traffic.
In the mean time for those of you who are dropping cards like crazy out there, here are some good card collections to help you do that faster:
Homer Takes a Photo of Himself Every Day For 39 Years
A while back I showed you how Noah Takes a Photo of Himself Every Day for 6 Years. Apparently I have neglected another famous character that went through this experiment! And I am talking about Homer Simpson. I guess in his own way Homer is too an artist!
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
How to Win Free Diamond Stud Earrings Worth $1500?
In my quest for getting traffic for my blog I have encountered so many blogs so far. Soon I found different contest being held on some of those blogs. Taking part in a blogger's contest is really fun and it can get you some cool prize. And if you don't win, you still get involved in your community and drive some traffic to your blog.
I am working on my very first blog contest but in the mean time I found a cool contest by Goldsmith Jewelry. This is not a blog about jewelry but it's an online store. You will never guess what they are selling right?
So basically Goldsmith Jewelry is offering a free pair of diamond stud earrings worth $1500. How do you enter? Well as simple as I am doing it right now. Write your post about Goldsmith Jewelry, tell your readers who they are and link to them and you are in. Don't forget to let them know that you are in!
Goldsmith Jewelry has been in business for more than 30 years in Orlando and I guess they know what they are doing with those diamonds right? They have just launched their official site so now I can order online the diamond stud earrings worth $1500 if I don't win them now! After all, diamonds are forever!
Anyway after getting to be favorites for the viewers of Channel 2 News in Orlando, these guys have launched their site, secured it and tweaked for over a year now and they are ready for serving your diamonds at a great price straight to your home.
Good luck to all those going for this earrings giveaway and here are some pictures of those earrings.
How to Make Money Online? – Take 1
I showed you before my traffic stats for last month. I am a long way to getting to 1 Million unique visitors. It has come clear to me that without any advertising I won’t stand a chance. I am not waiting for Google, Yahoo or other search engines to cache my content and get some traffic eventually. I am jump starting the traffic and then I am keeping it interested in what I have to say. Simple right?
One way to advertise which requires some money is through sponsored ads offered by various services: Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, BidVertiser and more. When I got the idea of this blog I didn’t exactly have a clue of how some of these work. I didn’t even know all of them to begin with. What I did know is that they require some money. To get featured on the net I would need a budget. This blog is my part time hobby right now and it’s not a making money blog. Despite being a hobby I am determined to make it pay for itself.
How will I do that? Well at every corner there is a money blog or a money making scheme inviting you to follow its directions, to apply the highly engineered and profitable method it is using to get $3000 overnight. Of course you would have to CLICK HERE and for a mere refundable $45.95 you will get these secrets via a trustworthy download link. This is not the way I am going.
Here’s what I am considering now as viable solutions:
I have shown you what Google Adsense is. Signing up for it is really easy and setting the widget up and running is even easier. The trick is that you need a fair amount of traffic to get any commission from it.
BidVertiser
Bidvertiser is an alternative to Goggle. Both for publishers and advertisers. Again it’s good if you have some traffic. And now it works for your RSS feeds too.
AuctionAds
I have been running their widget for almost a month now. What it does is monitor eBay auctions and it displays some of them along with the last bids on them. All this is based on your designated keywords. Right now I have Apple products showing in my left sidebar. Any revenue is a percentage of a sale.
Widget Bucks
I have recently discovered them and added their widget on my right sidebar. It displays a list of good deals that can be found at various online stores like eBay, Amazon, Bestbuy and more. This list is generated so it matches the blog’s content. The cool thing is that it’s also showing trends for that category of products.
Earn $$ with WidgetBucks
Affiliate commission
What I will do is sign up as an affiliate with (hopefully) close to top online business. Their products advertised on my site will give me a commission for all sales I will drive to these products. I will have to get back on what an affiliate means and how this could be profitable for me.
Blogging for money.
Lots of bloggers post online for money. There are lots of blogger communities that offer topics, products and businesses to be reviewed for a good price. I will give pay per posting a try.
This is basically what I have signed up for until now. I am aware there are other possibilities out there and whenever I will discover better choices for my blog I will write about them. As soon as this blog will start paying for itself I will get together a report to show you explicitly what works and what doesn’t. Up to now my blogging is making almost $2 from Google AdSense.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Road to One Million in 365 Days
It is January 2008. I have started this blog in October 2007 with the mission of getting 1 Million unique visitors in 365 Days or so. I haven't posted anything in November but got back strong in December. So bellow are some stats for December and then overall stats up to date from Google Analytics.
December 1st - December 31st 2007
Most of these stats have steadily gone up and will go up from month to month. I have advertised the blog through Entrecard, BlogRush, Technorati and most importantly other blogs. I haven't started any AdWords campaigns or any other kind of paid online advertising as I am doing this without a budget. I have also started prospecting participating in bloggers' contests and I will be holding my first contest in the following weeks. I am looking for more blog communities which I will join therefore increasing visibility and traffic. I am also offering full RSS feed for all those interested and the subscribers are coming in slowly but surely. Subscribe and find out more about my journey from 1 to 1 million visitors in 1 year!
I am currently running Google AdSense on my blog, Auction Ads and some other ads. I have also signed up with BidVertiser. What are all these? For all you guys that don't know exactly what they are, I will be getting back with detailed information about How to Make Money Online later on today. I will also recently came across some Pay Per Post services for bloggers. Find out how they work by following my posts
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Are the Golden Globes a Sneak Peak at 2008 Oscars?
When I am not doing anything else I am definitely watching a movie. And I try to keep up with new releases, especially with those box office hits that everyone is waiting for. I actually wouldn't have time to review all the movies I watch as I would turn this blog in a movie blog, and that's not my intention, at least for now.
On Sunday January 13th the 65th edition of the Annual Golden Globe Awards is going to reveal its winners. Will those winners prove to be future Oscar winners?
Well here are the nominations for the most important awards to be won:
Best Motion Picture – Drama
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
Cate Blanchett – Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie – Away From Her
Jodie Foster – The Brave One
Angelina Jolie – A Mighty Heart
Keira Knightley – Atonement
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama
George Clooney – Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood
James McAvoy – Atonement
Viggo Mortensen – Eastern Promises
Denzel Washington – American Gangster
Best Director - Motion Picture
Tim Burton – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen – No Country For Old Men
Julian Schnabel – The Diving Bell And The Butterfly
Ridley Scott – American Gangster
Joe Wright – Atonement
Best Screenplay - Motion Picture
Atonement
Written by Christopher Hampton
Charlie Wilson's War
Written by Aaron Sorkin
The Diving Bell And The Butterfly
Written by Ronald Harwood
Juno
Written by Diablo Cody
No Country For Old Men
Written by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Apparently Atonement is supposed to be this year's big winner and that's my next Must See movie. What I personally like is the fierce competition for the Best Motion Picture - Drama. No less than 7 movies are competing for this spot. I didn't tell you what the Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy nominees are neither because I don't like those genres nor because these wouldn't be worthy of a Oscar this year. The Golden Globes Drama awards could predict the outcome of the Oscars for this year so I guess people will be watching closely. There is room for surprise yet and I'll be waiting for the Oscar Nominations which are supposed to be announced on January 22nd.
Friday, January 4, 2008
What Contests Can Do For Your Traffic?
One really successful and incentive method of increasing visibility to my blog could be organizing periodical contests for other bloggers out there. How do contests work? Basically I would offer a person a prize for leaving a comment, subscribing to my RSS feed, reviewing my blog or any other action like that. What prizes can I offer? Well I can start with lots of backlinking to those bloggers, offer free reviews, offer add spots on my blog., offer Entrecard credits and even money or objects. That all depends on the traffic you have and on the budget.
Here is a contest I will be participating in at Blogging Straight Forward. All I need to do is mention this blog, then link twice to it and to the contest post and then leave a comment saying I did all that. The deadline for entries is the January 20th. Six lucky winner will get their ads promoting their blog displayed on BSF’s right sidebar.
2008 - America Is Voting
2008 has just started and people are getting serious about it. January 3rd was the date of the 1st caucus held like usually in Iowa. As the presidential elections are getting closer and closer, the world's eyes stumble upon American candidates for one of the most powerful positions in the world - if not the most powerful.
Democrats had Barack Obama winning at 38% over John Edwards with 30% and Hillary Clinton at 29%. If the Democrats win the presidency this year, we might see the first African-American president or the first woman-president in history. If Hillary Clinton gets to be president we will have the first married couple in the world to take turns at leading a country. Will Hillary be as good a president as former President Bill Clinton? Will she need a sex scandal if elected?
Republicans had Mike Huckabee winning at 34% over Mitt Rooney with 25%, Fred Thompson and John McCain 15%. Former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani had only 4% of the votes coming in. Religious Huckabee seems to get the confidence of his Iowa voters. Wonder what will happen next?
The world has gone crazy Chua Soi Lek, the Malaysia’s health minister has resigned after being involved in a sex scandal. A sex scandal tape showing Vivica Fox has been apparently released. She will not be resigning from any position. Publicity is good. Sex sells.
In other news Pakistani President has allowed a special British task force to investigate Benazir Bhutto's assassination. It feels like deja-vu. It's not exactly following the script of The Kingdom but it's getting there.
And Britney Spears apparently was disturbed by some of these things happening in the world today as she felt like being transported again to a hospital. Wonder what exactly happened there? 6 police cars, an ambulance and some disoriented squirrels were there at Britney's home to handle the situation, and convince her a hospital ward would better suit her.
How do news affect bloggers? Well if you want to be in the news you have to know what the news are. Checking all sources of information might prove to be very useful if you run out of blogging ideas. I am not a particular news fan, but when there's something worthy happening I will bring it up here as well.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
How to Make Money Online With Porn?
I started researching How to Advertise My Blog when I came to the conclusion that for proper advertising I need proper funds. When I got the idea of getting 1 Million readers for my blog I imagined I will need some kind of marketing strategies to “sell” my product as I don’t have that million friends that I need.
My main marketing idea is getting involved and freely advertise as much as possible this blog in bloggers communities and not only. But besides this I will surely need a budget for minor tweaks here and there. In the last couple of months I have seen lots of blogs with lots of themes and discussion topics. Among those there are the Make Money Online blogs can be a major resource. Some of them are blogs with lots of readers, blogs that actually make money online. Some of them are just wannabes that simply drown their blog in ads and hope to make a steady income.
If you went ahead and googled porn, you would end up with more than 225 million results. And there are many sites out there that are making lots of money out of porn. Online subscriptions and what not are there because the market for them is there. As long as there is demand for a product the product will be there.
By now you must have realized this is not a Make Money With Porn post. But the title is catchy and will get someone’s attention. It’s the first step in getting that attention. Have strong titles and good content to back that title up. Make the visitor curious to see what you have to say. That’s what I did with this post. I got someone to read this and I am closer to my million reader. I also made an impact with BlogRush or Entrecard. If one of these two widgets made you read these lines, then my plan is accomplished. I am not encouraging anyone to pursue such an endeavor like making money with porn, especially with blogs.
This is also my first post in a new category I am setting up. Make Money Online. I will continue to explain in my following posts how I think I can make just enough money to be able to fully advertise this blog and I will show you how to do that. No matter if you are a new blogger or an old experimented one, I am sure I can bring something new to the table and I am waiting for your comments and mails.
I will be returning with news and facts about what affiliate marketing means, what marketing engines are out there, and how I will make some money without any porn what so ever!
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Why is Entrecard Better than BlogRush?
I ended up 2007 by signing up for Entrecard. I didn't exactly know what it was but after browsing around the dashboard I quickly realized it might be good for my traffic. Remember I am building up my traffic, raising my stats, and not spending a dime for doing so. At least yet. I am 9 months away and there's plenty of time for achieving my goal - getting 1 Million in 365 Days!
I also had a BlogRush sign up. I showed you How Does BlogRush Work? but does it really work? I have the BlogRush widget on my site and it's been there for two weeks already. Of course it is not relevant yet because of the little traffic over a small amount of time but I am not feeling the love coming from BlogRush.
As a way of advertising my blog, Entrecard has certainly did it's part. After only 5 days of using it my traffic has significantly improved. Genuine traffic is mixed with artificial traffic. What I mean is that with Entrecard, some people are just card-dropping. They don't care about content or about what that particular site is. But this is a good thing after all. Getting their cards, while dropping my cards to others, will increase my credits. I will be able to "buy" better ads on better blogs, and more people will buy my spot, as it will get more expensive.
With BlogRush I have to passively wait. Well not passively. I am actively growing my blog and improving my content. But passively check my stats and hope I am getting displayed. Problem is here with the displaying itself. My posts' titles will compete with at least 5 other titles on the BlogRush widget. So my chance of getting clicked and read is so much lower. With Entrecard that doesn't happen. My little banner is displayed all day long on someone's blog without having any other competition.
With Entrecard you actually feel like taking part in your development. You get to start advertising campaigns, there's a forum for discussion, you have the option of e-mailing to all other users. I can do all that. Further more I have others interested in an appearance on my blog, and there's a line already.
BlogRush' dashboard is boring and I don't exactly do much. I already have a referral, but that's not saying much. I can control where to have my titles shown, the performance reports really simple.
Will I take BlogRush down? Well not yet. It's not as good as Entrecard from my point of view. But if I run both of them they will do better together than alone. With Entrecard I have more hits, more pages viewed. Logically this will get me a higher rank with BlogRush and my titles will show up more often. Traffic driven from BlogRush might drop a card. So all in all these programs will be best friends if I handle them together.
So although Entrecard is more user friendly and will get your traffic up faster, I will still run BlogRush untill I have replaced him with something else. And it's funny how this post will show up in BlogRush despite the fact BlogRush is getting a beating right here.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
How to Deal With Authority Issues?
Well Hello 2008, are we all in? I guess so.
For those of you who though this is a rather serious post, well you are wrong! I am starting off the New Year with something funny about authority. And what better authority examples than the International Police Force could I offer you?
Bellow you have quotes with what police officers around the world have said on the record!
It's nice to know authority figures can come in a funny package. Here are my favorites but you have more of them on this funny blog.
"You know, stop lights don't come any redder than the one you just went through."
"Relax, the handcuffs are tight because they're new. They'll stretch after you wear them a while."
"If you take your hands off the car, I'll make your birth certificate a worthless document."
"If you run, you'll only go to jail tired."
"Can you run faster than 1200 feet per second? Because that's the speed of the bullet that'll be chasing you."
"Warning! You want a warning? O.K., I'm warning you not to do that again, or I'll give you another ticket."
"The answer to this last question will determine whether you are drunk or not. Was Mickey Mouse a cat or a dog?"
"Fair? You want me to be fair? Listen, fair is a place where you go to ride on rides, eat cotton candy and corn dogs and step in monkey crap."
"Yeah, we have a quota. Two more tickets and my wife gets a toaster oven."
"How big were those 'Just two beers' you say you had?"
