Make Money from Blogs

When you run a site, getting accurate information and statistics about your sites viewers is very important, and people use a combination of measures such as installing the Google Analytics Program, or using a conter program such as Sitemeter.com. Such information helps them to find out where people are visiting their site from (their users geographic location), which section of the sites are more popular, what are the top referrers that people use to find their site (through search engines, through links on other sites, and so on). I regularly use these programs to ferret out such information and have learned much. As an example:
- I discovered that Google Search is absolutely essential in order to get viewers to your site
- A number of referrers to my sites have been through email programs, which essentially means that people are forwarding the subscription mails they receive when a new post is made, and encourages me to get effective subscription tools in place
- I often get surprised about which posts are most popular, and this helps determine that users think differently from what we expect, and also reinforces the belief that using such analytics tools is a necessary part of running a site

Apart from these tools, I also use another tool for generating information about how popular the site is on several parameters:
- How has the performance of the site been in getting number of users over the last few months (have more people started visiting, vs. have a lower number of people started visiting)
- How many sites link to this site (important for generating a better result in search engine results)
- Identifying keywords (very important in terms of defining which keywords should be emphaized in posts)

So, which is this tool that I use ? It is a site, called siteinfo on Alexa, at the following link : http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo. Suppose you have a site about Indian politics called Indiapoliticalblog.com, and you wanted to find out its result on Alexa, you just need to add the site URL (without the http: //), so that you end up with the following URL: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/indiapoliticalblog.com

June 21st, 2009 | Tags: Analytics, Blog, Information, Site, Site Visits, Tool | Category: Analysis, Blog, Learn, Optimize, Search, Site Visits, Tips, Tool | Leave a comment

Digg is a very popular site that allows users to vote for the content that they want to make popular, in the sense, the editorial decisions are made by people, not by a separate team. And what is Digg ? If you have not heard of Digg by now, you should have ! Description from the people at Digg !
Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users. You won’t find editors at Digg — we’re here to provide a place where people can collectively determine the value of content and we’re changing the way people consume information online. How do we do this? Everything on Digg — from news to videos to images — is submitted by our community (that would be you). Once something is submitted, other people see it and Digg what they like best. If your submission rocks and receives enough Diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of our visitors to see. And as per Alexa, 0.5% of internet users come to Digg (which is a huge absolute number).

So, how do you ensure that your posts are added to Digg ? It’s fairly simple now, all you need to do is to read a bit about the options posted on the Digg Tools page (click here). This page gives you the code that needs to be added to your blog (or other web page). However, in a majority of the cases, you would want the code to be added such that it shows up automatically in all your articles / posts. You can do this by adding the code to the template ? You might ask, how do do that ? Well, now it gets a bit complicated whether you use Blogger or Wordpress.

For Blogger, if you are still using the older version of Blogger, then it is fairly easy to step into the code of the older Blogger interface, go to the Template option -> Edit HTML, and then go to the section of code where it says <p class=’post-footer’>. Add the code from http://digg.com/tools/integrate below this section, and you are good to go.

If you are using the newer version of Blogger, then you need to update your template, a bit trickier option. Remember, if you update your template, you should take a backup earlier. Here is this excellent post detailing how to modify the template (click here). However, you cannot just use the code as described in the blog, since the Digg code has changed and is much simpler. You need to find the section of template as described in the article, and then use the code for Digg from the http://digg.com/tools/integrate page.

if you using Wordpress (not Wordpress.com hosted blog), then you need to modify the Wordpress template for making this change. Login into wp-admin for your blog, go to the Design -> Theme Editor -> Single Post.
After you reach the line, php the_content(’Read the rest of this entry, in the next line, add the code for Digg from the http://digg.com/tools/integrate page.

You should be good to go with this. As to the question of which Digg to use from the http://digg.com/tools/integrate page, I recommend that you go with the first option, where it says “Digg This” with Submit Capability.

June 6th, 2009 | Tags: Blog, Blogger, Digg, Proliferate, Promote, Promotion, Readers, Vote, Wordpress | Category: Blog, Blogger, Digg, Promote, Readers, Tool, Vote, Wordpress | Leave a comment

In 2 previous posts where I described problems with my Wordpress account, the preliminary solutions prescribed were:
- Keep your Wordpress account updated to the latest release
- Keep spam to a minimum, including emptying the Akismet spam folder on a regular basis

These are just temporary solutions, given that Wordpress is supposed to be not yet including optimization code in it and as a result, takes more CPU than required (see a description of Wordpress optimization deficiences on this page).

What are some of the other things you can do:
1. Review the list of plugins that are in use. A number of users download a number of plugins and keep them active. Each plugin is a performance hit of some sort, and you should review your plugins to see which of these plugins are really necessary vs. plugins that do not add much value and are a performance hit.
2. Use some sort of caching in order to prevent each page hit querying the database and slowing down the server. You can use WP-Cache (link) or you can use Word Super Cache (link)
3. Using graphics. If you have a number of graphics, those are additional graphics that need to be served to your users. As an example, refer this calculation from Wordpress Codex:

For example, let’s say the front page of your blog calls upon 8 graphics to create the “look” of your blog’s design. Add to this number the various WordPress template files it takes to build your page. You’ve got the header, sidebar, footer, and post content area at a minimum. That’s four more “calls” to files on your site. For 100 visitors, those files get loaded 1200 times. For 1000 visitors, those files are accessed and loaded 12000 times. This increases your bandwidth and server activity.

4. Use spam filters such as Akismet to prevent comment spam
5. Try and get others to host your content. You have some great graphics or some analytics that need calculation which are done at run time. These also take server processing load, and is preferable to get content from elsewhere. For example, analyics information is also availabe at sites such as Google Analytics and all the calculation is done on those servers.

May 31st, 2009 | Tags: Cache, Content, Graphics, Hosting, Optimize, Performance, Plugin, Wordpress | Category: Benefits, Blog, Content, Hosting, Images, Optimize, Plugin, Wordpress | Leave a comment

In the last post, I mentioned as to how I was running into problems with my hosting service regarding some of my blogs having performance issues, and hence being shut down by Hostmonster as causing unacceptable risks to their hosting servers. Since these were standard Wordpress Blogs, I was flummoxed as to what to do. Plus, Hostmonster support could send me some traces of the calls that were causing performance problems, and they did so, but I recognized that they would not be able to offer me comprehensive advice that could provide me solutions. I was actually in a bit of panic for some time. However, soon, rationality prevailed, and I decided to do some research as to what could be the reason for these performance issues, and use the good old Google search engine to find possible solutions.
First, the traces provided by the support staff pointed to one specific blog, and more specifically to something to do with the Comments table. I read a lot on the net as to what could be done to improve the performance, and got a lot of leads, some of which I will publish in subsequent posts. This post is geared towards 2 steps that I took that helped the problem to a large degree, and because of which, I did not see the problem again.
So what were the actions that I took ? First of all, I got in touch with Hostmonster support and convinced them to enable my access so that I could make some changes to my account. They were pretty cooperative in this process, and gave me access. Next steps:
1. I used to leave my Wordpress blogs with older versions running, and not upgrade very often. However, reading of many Wordpress optimization techniques convinced me that frequent updates is the way to go, since a newer version contains fixes that typically includes fixes for performance issues.
2. Next step was to make sure that the Akismet spam table is emptied often. I used to leave spam unattended, not emptying the spam table often. One of my blogs (the problem blog) would generate upwards of 500 spam comments per day, and at one time, I would have upto 20,000 spam comments in the table. I used to depend on the time dependent deletion of spam comments, but no longer. Now I delete the spam comments every few days, never leaving many of them in the spam comments table.

Next post will carry some additional optimization techniques.

April 22nd, 2009 | Tags: Account, Comment, Hosting, Optimize, Performance, Problems, Spam, Wordpress | Category: Blog, Hosting, Optimize, Spam, Wordpress | Leave a comment

I run a number of Wordpress blogs and some other applications, and am hosted on Hostmonster for all these items. A few days back, I ran into a major problem where I found that suddenly my blogs and other photo galleries, etc, all had been replaced with a standard Hostmonster message that the account had been suspended for some time due to causing a risk to the performance of the servers. This is one area that a person needs to be really careful about, since these are servers where a number of different user accounts run at the same time, and the host cannot allow one member to have bad processes running that would affect the server or the performance of other users.
However, this was something that was scary to me - if the blogs shut down, then so goes the chance of using these blogs to develop money to the extent that I could stop from my current job. So I went to the Live Customer Support, and asked them about my problem. Hostmonster (and most other hosting services) do not offer free technical help in resolving problems, but I did get some transcipts from the logs that helped me to solve some of the problems. What was happening was that some processes in a Wordpress Blog that I host about Consumer Rights in India (link) were over-loading the server and causing Hostmonster to stop my account. To get my account back in line, I was supposed to make things better, and then could apply for getting my account back in operation.
I am out of touch technically with getting into the internals of Wordpress, and so was initially confused about what to do to solve this problem - however, I needed to get my account enabled again, else that would be the end of my blogging career (I can’t run all the accounts on Blogspot only, need to have some Wordpress Blogs). From the logs that I got from Customer Service, it soon became clear that this had somehting to do with the Comments section of the Wordpress Blog. This Blog of mine receives well over 1000 spam comments every day, and I have very rarely gone in and deleted these spam comments explicitly - Wordpress gets rid of them every month or so.
Now that I had some top level indicators of what I needed to do, and what the exact problem could be, I needed to drill down deep, search for solutions, and get my account and my blogs re-activated. The steps I took are outlined in the next post (due shortly).

February 26th, 2009 | Tags: Hosting, Performance, Problems, Stop, Wordpress | Category: Blog, Hosting, Optimize, Warning, Wordpress | Leave a comment

An important part of blogging is about having more content, fresh content for your blog. This is an important part of having regular content on your blog. You may feel that your content is enough, and that people are hanging onto every word that you write. Further, you are not sure about why should you let somebody else write onto your blog, what happens if the quality of writing is not good enough to match your blog, or you may feel that you have built up your blog with a lot of hard work, and why should you give that up ?
Well, all those reasons are valid to some extent, but there are several advantages of having people write on your blog. I invite readers to specify reasons if they can, but in any case, here are some reasons from my side on this subject:
1. You get to post different viewpoints. So, if you run a political or current affairs site, then other people also posting on your site may present an opinion that is different from yours. This attracts an increasing number of people to your site, many of whom can start discussions. All this is of great benefit to your site.
2. Somebody who writes on your site may also have a good chance of inviting a few more people to view what they have written, thus increasing the number of viewers.
3. A simple answer: More people means more content, this making your site more attractive to search engines, as well as other sites are more likely to link to your site.
4. You develop a circle of writers, many of whom may turn out to be good friends later
5. Somebody who writes on your site may also want to link your site to his / her own site, thus increasing the chances of you generating a higher page rank.
6. Your site may attract writers who have a much better command of the language and fluency in communication, improving the overall quality of your site.

February 4th, 2009 | Tags: Author, Blog | Category: Blog | Leave a comment

The default view for a Wordpress Blog is a page where you have multiple columns (depending on the theme you have selected, whether it is a 2 column or 3 column theme, or the more rare 4 column theme), and you have a list of posts, with the most recent post being at the top and so on. As you write posts, your previous posts recede to lower down the page, and eventually vanish off the first page. One byproduct of this is that you can customize the page in many ways, but you cannot modify the main content of the page.
However, there is no such thing as Never. It is very much possible in Wordpress to have a desired front page, and this page replaces the default posts page. This gives you the flexibility to add your own text, your own design, your own graphics, and so on to the page. The only difference in this case is that your posts page is one level away now.
So how do you do this - consider a Wordpress Blog such as http://info-about-cancer.com. Log into the Admin section of the blog, go to the Pages section and create 2 pages. One of these pages will be the default Home Page and the other is a page that will host the posts. You need to name the pages appropriately. Leave the posts page blank, and for the other page, add the content and design and so as you would like for the front page (you can name this page as ‘Home Page’) and then Publish the 2 pages.
Now, go to the Settings -> Reading section, and view the available options. Select the default option in the ‘Front Page Displays’ section to be ‘A static page’. For the Front Page, select the option to be the newly created Front Page and the other to be the Recent Posts page. And you are all set.

Caution: In some themes, the option is set to show all the created pages, and include one ‘Home’ page as well. With the above changes, the Home is actually the Front Page, and you would end up with 2 entries that lead to the same location. It is preferable to edit the code for the page display so that the entry for Home gets removed.

January 8th, 2009 | Tags: Customization, Learn, Wordpress | Category: Content, Optimize, Wordpress | Leave a comment

If you have a blog that focuses on stuff such as gadgets, books, electronics, movies, music, in fact any stuff that is also sold on Amazon, then you should explore the option of signing onto the Amazon affiliate program. Amazon sells literally anything, and is a trusted site that sells a huge amount of stuff.
Now, this is good for someone who is patient, and is able to wait for the time that it takes to start earning good revenue from such a program. Further, there is a lot of criticism about the program that it only pays out 4% commission (initially, since if you take the performance plan, then a lot of people jump to earning 6% or more). In real terms, this means that if you sell stuff such as cameras or movies worth $1000 from your site, you will earn $40. Now this may not seem like a lot (and in fact the commission rate is pretty small), but it all adds up if your visitors are high.
What are some of the compelling points of being a member of the Amazon affiliate program ?
- Amazon sells almost anything, so if a visitor from your site comes to Amazon and buys anything in the next 24 hours, then you earn the commission from there
- Amazon is a huge brand, and is fairly trusted, so people would be willing to buy stuff from there
- Amazon provides a number of different options to add to affiliate programs, such as direct product clicks, your own custom store, context specific items targetted to your visitors, banners, favorites, and so on
- Amazon affiliate program is useful where you are not able to find a relevant ad to show for your book / movie / gadget / other item post, and are still hoping to make money
And there are other reasons, but these are the most useful ones for me. Go ahead, try the program (link).

December 18th, 2008 | Tags: Ad, Affiliate, Amazon, Benefits, Blog, Free, Money | Category: Ad, Affiliate, Amazon, Blog, Money | Leave a comment

The web demands richness, and having images in posts and on pages is one way to ensure that the content is rich and attractive to users. However, for those users who are not good at using desktop imaging tools, the very thought of putting images into a page elicits the fear of alignment problems, about the size of the image and so on. How often has it happenad that a page that has been beautifully laid out somehow seems totally out of whack when an image is introduced ? Don’t you just hate it when that happens, and would prefer that there was a simple way of ensuring that your images are of the right size when you are putting them in the page.
Further, images can be large, and increase the amount of time that your viewers have to take to load your pages, and you certainly don’t want your users to have to struggle to load your site, because there is a chance that they would get frustrated and leave even before the page has been fully loaded.
Well, here is a free online tool that helps you do that.
http://webresizer.com/
And what all can you do with this tool ? You can:
- reduce image size
- crop photos
- sharpen
- resize - change width and height
- rotate
- adjust contrast, brightness, saturation
- convert photo to black and white
- add a border

November 26th, 2008 | Tags: Free, Images, Optimize, Tool | Category: Benefits, Free, Images, Optimize, Tool | Leave a comment