1) Make a Top 10- It is very important especially if you are beginning a new blog, that you dedicate a post on Top 10 in anything regarding your niche. It enriches your content and generally if constructed well can be very useful to your readers. Google also loves it, if that helps.

2) Optimize Keywords- Use the keywords in the niche of your blog to your advantage. Make sure to optimise these keywords by using them in your posts. However, don’t fill up your post with a lot of “keyword” as Google might blacklist your blog as spam. Generally, an inverse pyramid usage of keywords is very effective.

3) Keeping a Title- The title of the post is of utmost importance, I have seen that most results that turn up are because of the title that the post has. Make sure the title is something that is similar to the words that a user is most likely to search for.

4) Broaden Spectrum- Broaden the spectrum of your blog. For example, if you like football and are an expert in it, then maintain a sports blog with special emphasis on Football instead of a dedicated to football only site. Like I began Myfray as a personal blog, but I dont only blog about my life. I broaden my spectrum by writing about the sports, celebrities etc. that I like.

5) Ad monetization- My biggest mistake, while I tried to monetize my blog I tried to keep my ads to a minimum and preferred a small box of ad somewhere in the corner of my website. But, it doesn’t work that way. If you want to earn money from ads then the user has got to see it, there is no use keeping it “hidden” in a corner.

6) About Page- Make a very genuine and personal “About” page in your blog. Google analytics on Myfray suggest that about 50% of my viewers always read the “About” page after reading the content. It is important because it helps connect with the reader personally and secondly, it lets the reader know why anyone should read the content on your website.

7) Other Blogs- Respond to as many discussions on other blogs as you can. Leave your site URL linking to the name, you are assured to get at least one visitor sooner or later. If you respond to a 100 blogs, then it is 90 viewers approximately (consider all blogs dont send a hit) over a period of time. Of these, even if 20 like your content then they will surely return back to the blog.

Idol Blog- Emulate quality blogs or blogs that you like to read. Analyse these questions- Why do you like the blog? How does the appearance feel? Is the writing captivating? Where are the ads placed? How regularly is it updated? etc. Try to fit in the improvements on your blog.

9) Post Word Count- Make sure that your posts are decently long, 300 words is preferred and 200 words should be your average in topics where you run out of content. But be sure to avoid dragging your posts unnecessarily to reach the 300 words mark. It dilutes the quality of the content and ultimately affects readability.

10) Discussion- The crux of blogging and the whole point why a blog runs- for discussion. Always reply to the reader with the best possible answers. This will also ensure that your visitors return and build up a strong readership base for your blog.

• Dailyblogtips.com     (founder- Daniel Scocco)                            Theme- Blogging Tips
• Problogger.net            (founder- Darren Rowse)                            Theme- Blogging Tips
• Perezhilton.com         (fouder- Mario Lavandeira)                      Theme- Celebrity Gossip
• Arstechnica.com        (founder- Ken “Cæsar” Fisher)                 Theme- Technology
• Huffingtonpost.com  (founder- Arianne Huffington)               Theme- Current Affairs  
• Stevepavlina.com      (founder- Steve Pavlina)                               Theme- Personal Dev.
• Joelcomm.com           (founder- Joel Comm)                                    Theme- Blogging Tips

Of the above, it is easy to see what sells for the readers. Most readers are scouting for information on how they can improve their blog and basically monetize their website, most of the people in the highest earning blogs are the one’s who talk about SEO’s, traffic building, blog tips etc.

That is the Question…

Ever feel the fear of the blinking cursor on the blank screen as you rack your brains on an interesting topic that you could blog today. Well, MyFray did some thinking too. Here are a few suggestions on the topics you would probably find interesting to blog on.

• Like a website? Do a review!
• Maybe its time you paid a tribute to your mentor.
• Watched a movie last night? Do a review!
• Seen some wierd trend on the internet? Why dont you post it…
• You solved a friends problem? Great! Share the problem and your solution!
• Did you just earn a buck here and there? Post it, link it, share it. You even get referrals that way.
• Whats your favorite food? Got any personal suggestion to improve it? Tell us.
• Use a favorite brand? Type out its history, founder and what its known for best.
• Anything you search an awful lot on the internet? Pour out your search findings.
• Do you pack your luggage optimally? Blog effectively? Help improve others too.
• Share your creative writings such as poems, short stories etc.
• Are you a science geek? A lot of people need a whole lotta’ help with it. Write on topics that interest you.
• Make people laugh? Share your anecdotes and jokes.
• Photography blogs are popular too! Rings a bell? Click!
• Your relative scared the hell out of you with a haunted story? You think netizens dont like a good scare!!
• The most popular posts are those that make a simple thing feel special, like everyone knows to blog. But does everyone know to make their content interesting?
• Share the latest email forwards that you have received.
• Many dudes and dudettes love to see their music bands featured, do a feature on them.
• Write your own analysis of the Champions League match you saw last night. Its your blog.
• Attended a seminar from a prominent speaker, tell us all about it. We are all ears.

Well, about the cheesy heading of this post. I don’t know how many of you have seen this blog but, by all estimates from Time.com’s recent top 25 blog index, this blog is considered in the top 10 most popular blogs of the planet.

The blog is icanhascheezburger.com.

photo: icanhascheezburger.com

This blog is further evidence of decline of the western civilization. It lets you upload cat pictures and add funny captions to it.

1. Nick Frind earns $3 million/year

2.Kato Leonard earns greater than $1 million/year

3. Jason Calacanis earns above $1 million/year

4. Tim Carter earns $500,000/year

5. Rosalind Gardner earns $500,00/year

6. Steve Pavlina earns $40,000/month

7. Matther Daimler earns $40,000/month

8. Joel Comm

9. Jose Ribeiras

10. Sharon Maguire earns $250,000/year

Money is important, everyone knows that. It pays for my internet connection, my computer maintenance, electricity- anything that I require to blog and sustain it on the internet. So I just figured that the blog should pay for it’s own running. I am giving my most precious thing to it, my time. 

Then I have seen, bloggers who put a small ad box at the corner of their page, they half-heartedly commit to the necessity of monetizing their blog. I suggest either you put-it-all or don’t do it at all. Moreover, I consider that the advertisements that might come up on this page atleast one of them has got to be of your interest. Now if I had ads about something irrelevant, then your criticising would be accounted for. 

I always maintain a personal connection to my readers, like I am doing now and they must understand that earning money is not bad and doing it through a blog is not bad at all. Simply because blogging is almost full-time for most people. Considering that one has to convert his passion into bread.  

A quality blog can never run purely for the want of money, the real passion and the efforts are always transparent to the readers. I believe in this fact and that is the main reason why you may want to read this blog again because you find that, it’s not only about the advertisements. Ads are just hanging out with you, they are not affecting your browsing quality. It might even help you someday.

Britney Spears

The vulgar hackers have posted Adult-only messages on Britney Spear’s official site on Twitter.com.   ‘Hi y’all! Brit Brit here, just wanted to update you all on the size of my vagi…‘(incomplete due to Adult nature), We all know where this message is going.

The compromising security situation of the Twitter only brings us back to the topic of how safe is really this new means of communication. This technology will always have it’s loop holes for those who really want to find it. Britney Spears may not be even knowing about this recent development. Until more recently, Britney Spears has also been linked to Sandip Soparkarr from India. He is a choreographer, Britney Spears was apparently impressed by his dance moves.

However, rendering of online services has seen a downturn. As far as the affiliate advertisers are concerned, such as myself, the onslaught of recession is clearly visible in the Adsense dashboard as the advertisers get stingy on their pays per click, not that they were any less stingy earlier but they have beat themselves this new year.

An affiliate advertiser owning the  website Sportz Forumz, the owner claims, “I usually get my cheque by new year but this time, the way things are going it looks like it may take a lot more to make things look up.”

Apart from that the webmasters are also slashing their advertising prices for private advertisers with the slackening demand for space on popular home pages. Charging almost $600 a month for a 250X250 banner to be put on her webpage earlier, now Sanndra has reduced it to a little short of $300. 

During recession time I indeed find the Domino effect rather amusing to watch and the way the cookie crumbles.

Trust me, all you readers who may not have blog yourself. It is indeed a very tough task to maintain a blog and even more so when you have almost very few readers. But, I must confess those readers for me are way more precious than maybe the readers who may soon become a part of this blog in the nearing future.

The Passion Behind My Blog

I have been scoring in English for the past five years in high school, I graduated and went to college. Presently, in college there is no English as a subject in Engineering. Unless you consider English as in written in the text books of subjects like Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics (God forbid.). Anyways, I really don’t think I am in the right line of profession so I figured Blogging as the only route for me to perhaps express myself and I always liked to entice people with my writing and it is really a great exhilaration when people appreciate your work. My work in college leaves no scope for that so I began a blog. And to be frank, I am worried sick about again leaving back to my college in a couple of weeks as my winter holidays are coming to a close.

My advice to people, unsolicited of course, if you really have that flare to write a blog, Go ahead, you can get great free blogs at wordpress and blogger. Initially, you will be irregular but keep up no matter how rarely you post on it. You should consider the blog for yourself and not the world! It will definitely keep you running.

Now there are a few people who readily consider Blogging as more of a profession rather than a passion or a hobby. I don’t know if this news is too stale for you but surely it would not be cold tea for everyone who reads it. Unfortunately, it has only met my eye now. Egypt has caused a great deal of hysteria following the arrest of the blogger Abdel Kareem Soliman, 22 which is a news dated as February, 22nd, 2007. He blogged under the name of Kareem Amer!

 Please don’t be put off by my extremely delayed writing on this topic, many of you may have moved over it, I know! But it’s time to bring it up again.

For those who may not be aware, he had used his blog to criticise the country’s top Islamic institution, al-Azhar university and President Hosni Mubarak, whom he called a dictator.

Still Two Years to go!

He was tried in the court and handed out a four-year conviction for the ‘offense’. The court session that lasted five-minutes, handed out Soliman three-years for insulting Islam and one year for insulting the President.

Talk about the professional hazards of a blogger!! How wrong of me to think that blogs were one platform where one can say anything they want. Indeed, it was a highly unitellingent move, personally. 

Presently, WordPress is accepting donations for Kareem Amer’s freeing and many Human Rights community support him. His second anniversary under imprisonment is due this February.

Read the BBC News report dated 02/22/2007

Click here to see what WordPress is upto on the Kareem issue (Free Kareem!).