Continuing on from my bookmarking post a few weeks ago...

When do you bookmark and when do you NOT bookmark? Well, this is a question many bloggers usually face. Do you add your own content to sites like StumbleUpon and Digg in order to receive some instant, artificial traffic, or do you avoid submitting your own work for various reasons? There is reasoning to either side of the story.

There are quite a few negatives. The first being, your accounts on these sites may get tagged for spamming, as well as get your blog automatically banned from being submitted on these sites. Your content appears better to those very strict Stumblers who carefully examine your posts, submitters, and votes given to determine if you are abusing the site. A possible outcome for abusing this is a permanent ban from the site itself. Definitely not good. :(

Your content will also do better. If you aren’t the one submitting it, that means somebody else actually liked it enough to submit it. It’s obviously of some good quality. It’s more likely to be popular even if you haven't gotten your first +1 feedback. It’s a great benefit to let others submit articles of their own.

However, remember that there are positives that you can get out of submitting your own unique and special content. Obviously, if your site needs RSS Subscribers when you submit your own content, then you will have a free and somewhat targeted traffic coming to your site (depending upon which social bookmarking site). Having 300+ visitors to your site increases the chances of having somebody subscribe to your RSS feed. While it is a long shot, if you use the right tags, over time you may manage to snag a few.

Adding content to certain sites also puts your link in the user's feed, giving you a link back to your own site. I’ve found backlinks from www.username.stumbleupon.com before. Even though it may not be much, it’s a free and easy backlink! This can be extremely helpful for certain bloggers.

Last but not least, there is the traffic factor. To some, it may just be the desired encouragement. Nobody wants to blog to a blank audience (as I have stated before). If there is nobody to read your content then you may get discouraged. Adding content to these social bookmarking sites gets you some traffic, and maybe some feedback even if it is positive or negative. It doesn't matter, as long as it is traffic and feedback! It can help clarify exactly what you are doing well and what you should plan to do, as well as what you may want to change. The users of the bookmarking sites can get very harsh at times with their constructive criticism, so make sure you are willing to receive it. Don't start arguments, fights, etc. It will only make your blog look worse.

To bookmark, or not, it's up to you.

-Aud

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Comments and feedback are one of many factors in determining a blog's popularity. They have numerous benefits to both the commenter as well as the author of the blog. By commenting on a blog, you can affect future posts that are more geared towards your needs.

There are several positive outcomes that can result from commenting on a blogs post. If you are in the same niche or of the same type of blog, you can try to add on to the blogger's knowledge by informing them of additional information. Not only does this increase their knowledge, but it helps you show your knowledge and experience to the blogger and anybody else who reads the comments. If you comment on other blogs you will also receive a link back to your own blog by filling in the URL. You will be noticed by the blogger, and he may even head over to your site. Lastly, you may even be targeted and recognized by the blogger as a long time

Likewise, there are also advantages for the blogger. Their blog appears popular because people are commenting on it. This can tell new visitors that the blog is an extremely popular blog, even if it isn’t it may give this impression. Comments and views will also encourage the blogger. Myself and any other bloggers out there included do not enjoy the feeling of publishing to nobody. We blog, at least partially, to share our knowledge and put out our thoughts, expressions, and feelings for your benefit. Comments can help us learn from you, help encourage us, and they make it more fun to blog.

To give a a bit more motivation, anybody who reads this post can earn a free backlink to your blog by simply posting a comment. I will recognize you in an upcoming post to show my gratitude. Include the phrase ‘benefits of commenting’ or something relevant in your comment that is at least two sentences long and you’ve got yourself a backlink. I enjoy doing this myself as well. :)

-Aud

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At times when a blog is just starting out, even the artificial bookmarking traffic can be beneficial in picking up a few subscribers. I’m not really into submitting my own articles to these sites, and usually wait for one of my readers to present some feed back if possible, but that doesn’t always happen. If you are in desperate need of traffic and subscribers, then you may want to look into these social bookmarking sites.

Digg is one of the biggest out there. It started off as more of a tech-computer geek site, but has since turned into a place for users to submit all kinds of content. If your blog is more of a computer oriented site, then you will probably have great success here. Either that, or sites with pretty amazing posts. Honestly, the posts on this blog aren’t really suited for Digg simply because it is regarded as simply another spam addition (unsurprisingly) to the list of sites labeled "Getting Rich".

StumbleUpon is probably the easiest to use for several reasons. The biggest of which is, they don’t have to be caught by your title to be sent to your site. They only have to have the content area you submit it to in their interests to be sent to your page. This will have deadly effects on your bounce rate, but traffic is traffic. Basically any kind of content is suitable for StumbleUpon as long as you submit it in the correct category.

There are many negatives that come with adding your sites to social bookmarking sites, but you can outweigh these with the positives. All of these sites will become more effective as your account status is raised by constant quality additions to the site, as well as careful critiquing of content submitted by others. I find that feedback is key to success in whatever you do with your blog. Good luck!

-Aud

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So you’ve decided to start a free blog over hosting your own. Unfortunately, there are some instances when this is the only option for you. When choosing your free blogs domain name there are many things you need to keep in mind. It can help or hurt you in the long run depending upon the name you choose.

First you have to discover the point of your blog. Is it an extremely tight niche blog purely focusing every post on one word? Sometimes, the more specific, the better. Other times, it may be the other way around. If the majority of your posts are going to focus on one main term or if you would like to receive traffic primarily from only one designated group of people then it’s rather easy to pick a name. Your search engine results will be much better for the term ‘make money blog’ if your domain name was, makemoneyblog.com. That’s just the way it is with the search engines. Obviously, domain names can be costly and might not be worth it. Make sure you identify some keywords that people can use in order to tell your blog apart from others. The more unique, the better.

Secondly, the free domains available on your blogging platform and actual domains available for self hosting are different. You may find one that is available on Blogger or WordPress, but you may not be able to ever register it by yourself because somebody else has taken the domain for self hosting. You want to have the option to be able to move it into your own domain, yet retaining your site's original name. So after you find one you like, check godaddy.com to see if it is available. This will prevent you from having somebody snatch your desired domain name. :)

After you’ve found a couple of keywords and somehow incorporated them into your domain name that is available both on your free blogging platform and your godaddy, you are ready to create your free blog. There are many other things that you will need to do to start in order to efficiently use this keyword advantage, but you are off to a great start. Many people are sometimes forced to restart their blog due to the fact that it is not attracting enough viewers. The fact is, some of their keywords just aren't right for their type of blog. Keep this in mind before starting your own.

-Aud

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Sometimes, many of us will get tired of blogging, researching, marketing, and everything else you do on the computer. Why not take a break once in a while? Believe it or not, there are games out there in which you can make money. It’s not going to be huge amounts unless you get very skilled or lucky, but it could cover the cost of a few domains. These sites are similar to GPT (Get Paid To) sites, except that they are more entertaining.

One such example is a site called Moola. If you look in Wikipedia, it is rated the 11th best site to waste your time on :P . The point of the site is to take the free penny you can get at any time and double it. Doubling a penny 27 times earns you a million dollars. The maximum being 30 times. Obviously, you’ll settle for a payment before you get that high. Doubling it 10 times and you’ll make $10.00, and doubling it 15 times and you’'ll make $300.00.

What you do is you take the penny, and select a game you wish to play. You will then view an ad in which you must answer a basic question about it (this is how they fund your penny). You will then be matched up with an opponent and you can play it out.

There are two games which in my own opinion, I think have the best chances of winning. The best would be high low (Hi-Lo). You get a card, you guess higher or lower. If you are correct you will move on, you will start over. It’s pretty easy to learn, and yet, fun to play. The other game involves some skill and a bit of luck. It’s a mining game where you and your opponent each start out with 6 gold nuggets labeled 1-6 as their weight. You and your opponent each put one nugget on the scale at the same time. The person using the heavier nugget wins the combined weight in points. The person who has the most points wins and doubles up. :) There are plenty of other games; some are worth more than others. The minimum payout is $10, which won't take a lot of time to accumulate (depending on your luck).

Even so, if you are looking to take a break from all of this blogging or whatever you are doing, and instead test your luck in earning a free domain name or a free hosting plan, then this would be the way to go. You can have some fun and earn a bit of money while you're at it. Maybe cover up some expenses here and there. Have fun. :)

-Aud

P.S. Earn your first 32 cents by signing up for Moola under my referral link HERE.

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Few of you have probably thought "I have no time to blog, I have this and this to do". Well, usually, that's not the case. When you're blogging, you usually do it when you DO have time. That’s one of the good parts about blogging, whether you're making an income from blogging or not, you get to make it on your schedule. Nobody out there is forcing you to do anything. In fact, if you wanted to (which I don't think many of you would :) ), you could leave your blog for a few days, weeks, or months! At a normal day job, you have to work when you are told to work, and usually do what you are told to do.

While this freedom does result in a high percentage of failed blogs (yes, indeed), it can also be a positive thing to those of us who do succeed. If you have something important to attend to (party, meeting, any sort of social gathering), then just leave your blog for a day. It's not like you have to blog every single day. Sometimes, one has to know when to stop blogging and when to resume blogging.

Blogging lets you work on your own schedule. If you set goals for yourself, this can be one of the best aspects of blogging, but if you like to procrastinate (we all do, haha) and then working whenever you choose to without being told what to do...then blogging may not be quite as successful. Hope this advice helps.

See you soon!

-Aud

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