End of the Paid Blogging Era

S A J Shirazi

Paid blogging has been one of the most popular modules for bloggers to make some money by writing sponsored contents. Businesses and organizations from all over the world offer to pay bloggers for mentioning them, their products and or services in blogs in order to create an online buzz, get more traffic and better page rank. Many online services are serving as market places where bloggers and advertisers can meet and work together. The services manage growing demands by advertisers and arrange supply through interested bloggers.

I have been working with some of the services for sometimes. Paid blogging trend seems to be slowing down. It happened after FTC published their Endorsements Guides that rustics bloggers to endorse. Result, I see lesser number of opportunities for bloggers to chose from and write. The offer amount is also reduced. I see 200 words and a link opportunity being offered for $0.50 for page rank 3 (PR is still taken as a measure of the blog popularity) and higher blogs. The same platform was offering the opportunities from same advertisers in $25.00 some time ago. Ok, it is the bloggers’ choice to accept or decline but this may lead to quality deterioration.

I think the bloggers work should be valued and there should be some industry standard for the minimum offers. In the beginning, when paid posting started, analysts thought that this module will self regulate and clear ethics, standers and other rules will come up. That has not happened and this might mark the end of paid posting, or sponsored blogging as it is called sometime, era. What you think? Also at Logic is Variable

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Conversation

Marketing is a process and not a conversation. Hosting conversation on your blog is a valuable thing though. It helps you gather opinions and takes a decision and that is the valuable.
This morning while talking to Shi, I asked him a question below:
Instead of leaving our comments on other blog-post, what if we publish our comments on our own blog (as a new post) and give a link-back to that blog we want to comment on?

My reasons were:

1. Google spider, gives first priority to the blog post and second to a dialog / comments.
2. A blog-post that is mentioned / link-backed in various other blog posts is worth higher than a blog with 100 comments.
3. An article that has been published on a blog is worth higher than a discussion in a comment thread.
4. People mostly read blog-post the more as compare to comments.
5. Link-back receive more attraction, than in a blog.
6. Most bloggers doesn’t allow their commenter to mention their link in the comments.
7. Comments don’t help your blog to gear your blog page ranking, but link back does.
8. Blog post can be shared everywhere with search engine and blog directories, on the other hand comment cannot be shared.

So why we stress so much to comment on other’s blog and hope that they will comment back. But if you mention a post in your blog along with the link back, it is sure that the other person will at least respond in the form of both comments, and his blog-posts someday.

Have your say:-)

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What is blog to you?

New blog is born every second and it asks How You Blog? Internet is a lonely place without Blogging; a fine art, science, also economics. Blogs are different to different people and everyone blogs differently. How You Blog asks you to share your views on the phenomenon, blogging style and techniques that have worked well for you. You are invited.

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Blog Traffic [Useful Tips]

How to get more traffic is a million dollars question for bloggers and webmasters. Here is a list showing some of the steps you can take.  Also tell us if you have experienced useful. I'd recommend  to try one step a day.

1. If you Google your own blog post title, you will find many like-written posts in search results. Go there, and comment to them.
2. Post on trending topics. This means hot topics that people are currently looking for in Google. Checkout the sidebar on your twitter account, there are many trending topics listed.
3. Ping your blog to all the blog directories, search engines. Use Ping-o-matic that will ping your blog to almost all the top rated blog directories and search engines. Pinging helps your article to gain more visitors from these blog directories and search engines.
4. Share your post on social networks that you are member of, using ‘share’ button.
5. Ask for link-back from other bloggers, the more blogs links you the more ranking your blog will gain.
6. Comments on other blogs, at least 5 comments on a day on others blog.
7. Participate in Yahoo! Answers, to promote your blog link.
8. The key to getting more visitors to your blog is to post useful, original, well-written keywords oriented rich content. If you feel you’re doing that but no one is noticing, send a link to one of your great posts to blogs that write about similar things, and when they link it, you’ll see traffic, and readers will subscribe to your site. If they don’t link it—try, try again. A good blog is a large collection of posts, not just one essay.
9. Go to Google-Trends (another Google’s website), see what people are searching for in Google and what the hot topics are, and start posting about those topics.
10. Create a Directory: Search engines love directories because they can look to them to provide all the information needed on a given topic. You can find many directory scripts for free by searching thru Google.
11. Article Marketing: Another way to get search engine traffic is to write articles and submit them to article directories like ezinearticle.com. This is also a great way to get quality back links to your blog or website.
12. Offer Podcast Videos: Offering a podcast is a unique way to get people interested in your subject matter. You can develop videos that promote your site and then host them on sites like youtube.com
13. Back links: back links are a great way for creating traffic but it’s not just back links in general, it’s really all about where they are coming from. One way to get some great back links is to post legitimate comments on high ranking blogs.
14. Offer Free Articles or eBooks: eBook are great because they are also portable. you can use hand held devices to read eBooks or articles so give people the opportunity to download this content to heir devices. People love free stuff and they will appreciate your efforts.
15. Invite your friends-start inviting from your nose, first.
16. Be trendy... write posts that are trendy right now.
17. Put your blog link into your email signature.
18. Break and Announce news on your blog.
19. Be timeless... write posts that will be readable in a year.
20. Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
21. Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
22. Write short, pithy posts.
23. Don't write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids.
24. Mention your friend’s blogs, daring them to respond (with links back to you) on their blog.
25. Be sycophantic. Share link-love and expect some back.
26. Include polls, meters and other eye-candy.
27. Coin a term or two.
28. Do email interviews with the well-known.
29. Put your blog link into your email signature.
30. Use photos. Salacious ones are best.
31. Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current blog readers--like gadgets, web 2.0, Google, Blogging, social networks etc.
32. Comment on 5 differently blogs a day.
33. Write posts that each include dozens of trackbacks to dozens of blog posts so that people will notice you.
34. Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
35. Post on weekdays, because there are more readers.
36. Write about a never-ending parade of different topics so you don't bore your readers.
37. Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.
38. Don't interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
39. Dress your blog (fonts and design) as well as you would dress yourself for a meeting with a stranger.
40. Don't promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader's attention.
41. Be patient.
42. Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
43. Ping technorati Or have someone smarter than me tell you how to do it automatically.
44. Write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive.
45. Write in English.
46. Better, write in Chinese.
47. Don't be boring.
48. Write stuff that people want to read and share. 
49. For more please read this
    

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Pakistani Blogs [List-2]

LUMS Review	University of Gujrat	Lahore School of Economics
Fast-NU	The Class	CHUP!
Pakspace	Abdul Qudoos	Making Money for Dummies
Fine Art of Blogging	CFA-ACA	Corporate Trainers

NOTE: Please Let me know if your blog is not in the list, so I can mention it in my next post. leave your details in the comments. Thanks

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Pakistani Blogs

Jahane Rumi	Logic is Variable	Digitally Social
Kashi	Pak Tea House	Teeth Maestro
Doodh Patti	Light Within	Dolls Village
Watandost	Pro Pakistani	All Things Pakistan
Lahore Metblogs	Thatta Kedona	Pakistani Spectator

NOTE: Please Let me know if your blog is not in the list, so I can mention it in my next post. leave your details in the comments. Thanks

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Blogging for Bliss

1. Use numbers and bullets whenever you want to point-out or list something. REMEMBER: People don't read online, they merely scan [Seth Godin].
2. Give reference, link-back that gives authenticity to what you are saying.
3. Use a relevant picture that communicates large amounts of information.
4. Talk about latest and trending issues, not on dead or repeated issues.
5. Use keyword oriented wordings in a post that drives traffic from search engines.
6. Do request for a feedback, opinion, suggestion at the end of each post. 

Feel free to add some more tips in the comments :D

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This Happens to Every Blogger

This happens to every blogger: They start a blog and wait for people that they will come and visit. A few people might show up their faces because they’re your friends or you invited them to visit, but mostly you’ll just be waiting.  So what can you do? You might try what some blog scammers do: Go to blogs, and leave comments that basically indirectly say, “Visit my site,” and then hop away. Avoid short and irrelevant comments.

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Again: Why You Blog

I am just not interesting to monetize my blog or the content I am producing here. I fantasized being a blogger. I dont do it for money, or for any other financial gain. I explore things by putting in to a discussion here. Thats what I blog for.

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Blogging is Not Poetry

As I said in my earlier post that blogging is continuously growing in every culture, race, discipline and society. Politicians, celebrities, brands, individuals, students, schools, universities, Government, NGOs everyone seem to have a blog now.

Blogging is not poetry any more. You may be having a cat blog or boss blog (as Seth Godin writes in his eBook); still you have to work hard to run them. Some of the bloggers have taken upon them to change the world by blogging. They determine and then research global issues and address them in a positive manner to help people around. Research is essential for economic growth, imperative to educational excellence and intrinsic to the development of community. Research is pivotal to national and regional growth as the means to diversify the nation’s economy, enhance educational offerings and develop areas that affect the community, such as health, education and environment.

The blogger under reference shall not write about personal things but identify and write on such issues (like international issues, democratic problems, education, men and women issues, economy, current trending technology and human behaviors and the like) to help and improve the quality of life. This hopefully, will on the one hand broaden our approach and outlook by viewing existing social issues from different angles and on the other hand contribute towards grooming of future policy planners and executives.

By organizing research before blog posts shall not only produce a corps of social media scientists but also develop among them policy planners and better executives. Today’s blogger may undertake research on behalf of civil society organization and or private sector so as to assist them in the core areas for their institution work. By incorporating research in to their daily blog posts will setup an archive for international data-base in order to provide data sets for researchers and students in higher classes (post-graduate, M.Phil, PhD). Thus the search engines will become an online institution or class rooms for online users as currently the search engine results are not as resourceful as it need to be. What you think?

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The Purpose of the Internet

Blogging is continuously growing and raising in every culture, race, discipline and society. Politicians, celebrities, brands, individuals, students, schools, universities, Government, NGOs everyone seem to have a blog now.

The Blogsphere is becoming increasingly participatory, currently 184 million bloggers are exist world wide. The number one thing to blog about is personal life and family (Universal McCann Report).
11% of Internet users report visiting blogs written by others. Between 2% and 7% of adult Internet users in the United States keep their own blogs. Of those, only about 10% update them daily, the majority doing so only once a week or less often. (Pew).

Asia bloggers are creating more contents than any other region. Companies are now increasingly thinking about leveraging blogs to spin the truth about their product, services, and branding. Due to massive variety of contents, Blogsphere is an accurate barometer of customer opinion.

People want to spread their content around the world through their blogs. Whether the blogger is an individual or a corporation, government, or other institution, the idea is the same: establish and spread a presence. Establishing a presence through blog can be gratifying, but presence is often a means to an end. Once one has established a presence, a blog can serve as a marketing tool or a research tool. A blog can also serve as a pulpit or promote a cause (David Rothman’s TeleRead blog).

Every blogger expose his or her own personal approach to success—techniques for creating good content, finding subjects to write about, keeping the right attitude, and attracting a huge readership.

Your blog is your unedited version of yourself. Your blog is what you say when there is nobody standing over your shoulder telling you what to do (Lorelle).

The heart of blogging is linking...linking and commenting. Connecting and communicating - the purpose of the Internet (George Siemens).

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Blogs are The Cottage Industry

Giving voice to millions and enabling individuals to spread their presence across the world, blogs—or at least writing and editing blogs—are the cottage industry of the 21st century. Drove of people make their living as bloggers. Some sell products and services, but it is becoming more and more common for bloggers to earn a living by creating content. Example are Shi and bingkee.

Interestingly, the majority of bloggers being paid for their writing are not preoccupied with search engine optimization (SEO)—held by many to be the “secret” to making money online.

A blog can help you establish a voice and identity online, can help you position yourself as the authority in your marketplace, and can give you a great avenue into learning more about what makes your customers tick.

What kind of blog you have, would you explain a bit about your blog here.

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You Know Why I blog?

If you are willing to share your experience, expertise, and insight into your own industry, you will gain readers and fans, and they will spread the word. Sharing my own insights and thoughts on business news and company offerings has significantly raised my visibility in the international business community and commensurately grown my consulting practice.

The people who say, “Thank you so much: You solved a problem I’ve had for a long time.” And I get that on a daily basis on my blog. This is why I blog and love blogging.

BTW: Why You Blog?

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The Beauty of Blogging

The beauty of blogging is in the eye of the beholder. There’s a lot of noise and a lot of dribble out there. There are people who are just writing to see their words on the screen. And reading blogs can be like driving down the highway and looking at billboards—none really stand out, and the next day it’s difficult to remember what you saw.

But you know what? That’s fine! The forum for debate that blogging provides is matchless, and blogging is the only outlet that many people have. In the future, I think the concept of blogging as a distinct entity will blur.

TIPS:
Don’t force yourself to write every day? Write when you’re inspired, and write more than you need. Set up the extra material to post at later dates. From the reader’s perspective, it will look as if you’re posting regularly. Example is Shi

To bring readers to your blog, go to other blogs and engage in discussions. Don’t just leave quickie comments so you can post your blog’s URL. Don’t write about what you’re trying to sell—write about the people what they are looking for. Learn from Barry Feig.

A specific focus or mission is necessary to sustain a blog. For example see this

People will return to see what else you have to say, and they will take note of what you’re selling.

I'd love your comments....

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