Several ways to generate traffic to your blog

I am creating a list of traffic generating strategies for a blog/website. I will continue to update this list in real time and keep it updated. Please add your comments if you have any more suggestions.

1. Pay-Per-Click
2. Banner Advertising
3. Ezine Advertising
4. Text Links
5. Leads (co-registration)
6. Offline Marketing
7. TV, Radio & Podcasts Advertising
8. Newspaper Advertising
9. Word of Mouth Referrals
10. Paid Inclusion
11. Traffic Packages
12. Classified Ads
13. Cost-Per-Action
14. Search Engine Optimization
15. Article Marketing
16. Affiliate Programs
17. Press Release
18. Directories
19. Forum Marketing
20. Email Signature
21. Shopping Sites
22. Shareware-Download Sites
24. Traffic Exchange
25. Banner Exchange
26. Link Exchange
27. CPA Networks
28. Affiliate Networks
29. Desktop Messaging
30. Contests & Races
31. Tele Seminars & Conferences
32. Write Testimonials
33. Surveys
34. Create a Product
35. Expired Domains
36. Exit Traffic
37. Myspace
38. Google, Yahoo & AOL Groups
39. Facebook
40. Social Bookmarking
41. Blogging
42. Video Sites
43. Podcasting
44. Content Sites
45. Wikipedia & Wikihow
46. Yahoo Answers
47. Return traffic
48. List Building
49. Viral Traffic
50. Joint Ventures
51. Product Launches
52. Cross Promotion (Integration Marketing)
53. Giveaway Events & Bonuses
54. Freebies For List Owners

Make money with Google ads in suggest search results

Starting today, when you start typing in the search box, the suggest drop down is populated with a number of interesting things including direct links to pages, personalized results and even sponsored ads. Today Google opens the door to do something potentially much more interesting. With hyperlinks now in Suggest results, Google can also start serving ads in the results drop-down. And it’s already experimenting with it for a limited number of sponsored links.

Another nice feature new to the drop-downs is personalized results. If you use Google’s history feature, you can see sites or results that you’ve used in the past get populated at the top of the drop-down. And if those aren’t actually relevant to what you’re looking for, there’s a “Remove” link to kill them. I expect the correct ads will get a good click through since they will be the shiniest things on the main site.

How long will it be before the suggestions themselves are ranked?

Final Note to update AdSense to Google Login

Google has issued warning to link your Google AdSense account to a Google account. Google is now making it official. A reader says that he received an email saying that he will have to do it soon or else. His reason for not doing it beforehand is that it wasn't broken and it's just kind of pointless for Google to fix what ain't broke.

Meanwhile, in our previously mentioned blog, a few updates and clarifications have been made. First, Ashley from Google says that once your account is migrated, you will have to use that Google email address to log into your AdSense account. Second, she says that if you have another Google account that is not a login for your AdSense account, it can be deleted without disabling access to the AdSense account (but it will disable access to other services associated with that login).

Of note: one member is having difficulty performing the actual merge. Maybe it will still be a few weeks while Google irons out the technical problems with this. The discussion related to this technical issue is at Google Groups and additional forum discussion can be posted as comments to this post.

Major Traffic Loss from Google

This weekend I read about a thread reporting dozens and dozens of webmasters noticing a major traffic drop due to Google. Some of these webmasters reported traffic declines in the 90% range.

Many of the issues seem to be that Google has dropped hundreds or thousands of pages from these webmaster's sites. But it isn't only large sites.

There are several theories on which sites this may impact. I won't list them all, but if you were impacted, you might want to check out for similarities.

Again, this issue seem to have cropped up over the weekend and many webmasters seem to have been hit. This site did not notice a 90% reduction in traffic from Google, I have not looked at my other sites yet.

Data center transformer blow up at Qassia

You may have noticed that Qassia, the powerful and free SEO tool for feeding backlink oomph to your websites, was not available for about 24 hours over the weekend.

This is because a transformer at the data center blew up, taking down 7000 servers. Qassia always did refer to itself as an explosive and dynamic startup, but didn't quite mean it in a literal sense. Anyway, more about the explosion on Qassia Updates page.
http://admin.qassia.com/updates

The outage occurred, typically, just after Qassia released two new and crucial features, Alerts and the Watchlist. Check 'em out, they're in your dashboard.

Qassia has a major announcement scheduled soon. Meanwhile, Happy SEOing!

Drive traffic with duplicate content

ShareAPost.com, is the new service from Jonathan Leger for sharing blog content, and has been a huge hit so far, but the question keeps coming up about "duplicate content." My eyes roll around and around every time I hear somebody say that Google won't rank duplicate content.

Leger has posted the reasons why Google DOES send traffic to duplicate content, as well as ROCK SOLID PROOF from just the last 24 hours that Google does so, at his blog:

http://jonathanleger.com/why-post-duplicate-content-to-your-blogs/

After you read it and see the proof you'll probably go nuts republishing other people's content.

Automated link exhange and fav exchange platform

1rstLink is the newest link exchange and fav exchange platform that lets you automate your favs with very less effort.

Within few seconds of registering my links, I got a dozen of favs for my sites shown below. I highly recommend you to join 1rstLink to get a decent number of backlinks to your blog by clicking here. Note that with every active user you refer you will increse your incoming vote limit.

As of now, 1rstLink lets you add your user profiles on Digg, Technorati, Reddit, Stumbleupon and Propeller.

favs	url	type
9	http://technorati.com/faves/?add=http://ghostrider30.blogspot.com	technorati
2	http://reddit.com/info/631yv/details	reddit
2	http://money.propeller.com/story/top-5-phrases-to-raise-adword	propeller
1	http://cschwabs.stumbleupon.com/	stumbleupon
1	http://digg.com/business_finance/Generate_Satellite_Blog_Income/	digg
0	http://reddit.com/info/631yv/comments	reddit

1rstLink by itself is now a comunity of bloggers who are helping each other in getting more traffic to our blogs.

The next thing that will be released soon is an email module to remind users who left out of credits to come back and do more tasks.

And this will send some statistics to users about how many favs they got in exchange.

How I improve my Alexa Ranks

Alexa.com is a subsidiary of Amazon.com. It is a website which provides information on traffic levels for websites. The Alexa rank is measured according to the amount of users who’ve visited a website with the Alexa toolbar installed. Alexa toolbar is an application developed by Alexa Internet. Its primary use is to measure website statistics. This toolbar collects as well as gives some valuable information. Once you install it, the Alexa toolbar monitors all your surfing and collects information about what domains you visit. They use this data to rank web sites. The traffic rank they assign to websites is based on 3 months of aggregated historical traffic data from millions of other users and is a combined measure of page views and users. Webmasters, advertisers and ad networks use your blog’s Alexa rank as a gauge to determine the worth of a link on your website. If you depend on link or site selling as a form of monetization you’ll definitely want to increase your Alexa rank, because it’ll increase your bargaining power when it comes to ad pricing.

The ranking in Alexa shows the total traffic being generated in your website. There are various steps involved in improving ranking in Alexa. First of all it is suggested to download the alexa toolbar. Then the content, which is written, should include write-ups on Alexa search engine. But a low ranking on Alexa does not indicate that the traffic is not being generated on Google, Yahoo and MSN search engines. Given the fact that Alexa ranking for a site is calculated on the basis of how many visitors with the Alexa toolbar installed have visited that particular site, the results can be inaccurate most of the time.

How to fix pesky javascript errors on your blog

You might have noticed those javascript errors on your blog one time or the other. In most cases these errors turn your visitors away from your blog as it gives a bad impression that you dont have a quality blog. It is very critical to fix these javascript errors to retain your visitors.

Some of the causes of these javascript errors are:
1. Invalid script or a coding problem
2. A domain that has closed
3. Improper syntax used in blogger while pasting the code

I recently had this IZEA script bomb on me, and after doing a post-mortem on it, I came up with the fix which was relatively easy.

Here is the script that was causing the problem:
< script type="text/javascript" src="http://izearanks.com/itk/31134">< /script>

Solution for IZEA itk code script fix:
1. Remove the IZEA itk code from your blog
2. Save you blog
3. Make sure that there are no javascript errors on the blog
4. Add the script again

500th Post on Personal Finance Blog

This is my 500th Post on Personal Finance Blog. My Blog is only 200 days old and is growing speedily to catch up with the John Chows or ProBloggers. I've decided that after every 100 posts I will summarize my blog statistics encompassing my kingdom in blogosphere, so is this post. So far I have 531 feedburner subscribers, and as a token of appreciation, I will give away a free ad spot to the 600th subscriber for a whole month.

1. Feedburner RSS feed

2. http://feeds.bidvertiser.com/PersonalFinanceManagementAndPlanning

3. http://www.pheedo.com/f/personal_finance_management_and_planning

4. Feedblitz RSS version

5. Free Blog Counter


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26. Google PageRank on current page


27. Google PageRank on homepage of http://ghostrider30.blogspot.com


28. IZEA Real Rank


29. Alexa Rank

New Optional Benchmarking Feature Available in Google Analytics

If you have logged into your account recently, you may have noticed that you can now choose to share your Google Analytics data.

By providing data sharing options, we hope to provide you with transparency, control, and new services based on your preferences.

Industry benchmarking is the first new feature available to those who opt to share their data.

Benchmarking lets you compare your metrics against industry verticals.

To enable this optional new feature, an administrator on your account will need to make the following selections on the Google

Analytics data sharing settings page:

1. Log into your account. You'll see the yellow data sharing settings box on the Analytics Settings page.

2. Click the "More data sharing options" link within the yellow box.

3. Select the second checkbox to specify that you want to share your data "Anonymously with Google products and the benchmarking service". You can also choose to share your data "With Google products only" to take advantage of advanced Google advertising products and services as they become available.

The industry benchmarking feature is currently in beta. Once you have enabled benchmarking, it may take up to two weeks before the categorized, aggregated and anonymized benchmarking data shows up in your reports.

In addition to the new benchmarking service, opting to share your data will also enable you to take advantage of new advanced Google products and services as they become available. These services will offer greater insight and sophistication to users who have opted to share their data.

However, if you would prefer not to use these services, simply specify on the settings page that you don't want to share your data.

Improved Ranking at Alexa

The folks at Alexa have announced that their ever so popular (but, many might argue, often inaccurate) ranking system for web sites has been altered. The official word on the changes is slightly vague: Alexa claims “better rankings,” and “improved methodology,” but doesn’t go into detail.

One change, however, is definitely a big one: Alexa is now using several sources for its rankings. So far, Alexa has measured rankings of web sites according to the users of their Alexa Toolbar, and this was the main source of users’ and experts’ criticism. For one, the Toolbar is not available for all platforms (you can’t get it for a Mac, and that’s why Mac-oriented sites have always ranked poorly on Alexa). Secondly, the Toolbar was reportedly mostly used by the tech-savvy demographic which are interested in rankings, and therefore various technology and SEO sites were perhaps unfairly well ranked.

Now, the Toolbar is not the only source of data anymore, although Alexa doesn’t elaborate on what exactly these other sources are. While this certainly sounds like an improvement, until we get the details about these mystical new data sources, it’s hard to assume that Alexa is more or less accurate. What do you think? Has the Alexa ranking for your website changed? Please let us know in the comments.

Update: if you’re wondering why the “max” setting shows only the last 9 months, it’s because the old data is no longer available. This is a big drawback, as one of Alexa’s biggest strengths was the fact that they had data for several years back. Luckily, the change is only temporary; nevertheless, they can expect thousands of emails from angry users who’ll want their old data past the 9 months range.

Earn "6 Times" More With Your AdSense Very Easily

Many might have said this and many of you are using this trick too, but for those who still did not gave it a try and think that Google AdSense does not pay well, read on and DO TRY IT!

The publishers bid in Google AdWords to get to the top in your blog pages where Ad Units are displayed. The theory is simple. The one who pays out more has more chances to be displayed at the top in the pages running ads. So the first Ad unit in your blog page will display the advertisers which pay the highest for clicks, the second Ad unit pays out lesser than the first and so on.

So what I want to suggest you here is to "use only one ad unit" in your blog page. Yes! I used to have two ad units in my pages. One below the header (728x15) and other below the heading of the article (300x200). Now all the Ads which were relevant to the article I published were displayed in the 728x15 Ad unit and other Ad units would publish non-relevant Ads. I removed the 728x15 Ad unit and "for the same number of clicks and visits" my AdSense earnings were raised by 6 times than the initial earnings!

So do this experiment right away. Use just one Ad unit in your page and I can assure you that you will be payed more for clicks than what you are being payed.

And if you are not using AdSense then do me a favor and click on the referral link below the video unit on the right side of my site and register for AdSense and start earning dollars.

Make money with private advertising for your blog

As you may have noticed, many make money online blogs are slowly moving away from advertising networks like Google Adsense and moving toward the much more lucrative strategy of private advertising. This is a fairly simple transition for a blog of this size, but if you don’t have the audience size of John Chow — most of us don’t — then it can be pretty difficult to solicit private advertising. What can you do?

To address this very need, PlaceMyProduct.com was created. It’s described as an online auction site for product placement, sponsorships, and ads. They work as an intermediary, but unlike other networks, PlaceMyProduct takes a cut that’s much smaller than 50%. This is the eBay For Web Publishers and Advertisers

The major difference between the PlaceMyProduct online auction site and other advertising networks is that the pricing is not set in stone, but you have the scope to make more money with the higgest bid for the advertising space on your blog.

Just in a matter of few hours of creating my auction, I got a $10 bid for a 125 X 125 banner ad on my blog. Here is the proof, click on the widget and see for yourself.

I think this is a great platform to bring private advertisers and bloggers together in the marketplace for a win-win situation and maing more money online from private advertising media.

Two $40 Coupons for Digital TV switch set for early 2009

It's almost official: Starting one year from today i.e. Feb. 18, 2009, millions of televisions in American households will go black unless they're outfitted to receive all-digital broadcasts.

The word about the digital television switch-over seems to be getting out to the masses, and the Federal Government has started to accept voucher applications for the digital converter boxes you'll need on February 17, 2009 if you have an analog television set.

They will issue up to two $40 vouchers per household towards the purchase of an digital-to-analog converter.

Will you need a converter?

If you purchased a television after March 1, 2007, probably not. Federal mandate orders that sets manufactured after that date must come with digital tuners, standard.

If you subscribe to a cable or satellite service, definitely not, as your over-the-air broadcast channels are being sent via coax or fiber.

Who will need a converter?

Homes with older analog television sets, those using rabbit ears, or those without a subscription to a cable or satellite service.

For more info and the voucher application, follow this link.

What consumers will get with Digital TV?

More capacity, more channels, more content.

Technology and entertainment stay winning.

FREE Blog Reviews

If you cannot afford a review from ReviewMe then Review Back may be useful to you. The boys from AdGridWork have came up with a system which I am suprised hasn’t been done before now.

In short, Review Back is a review exchange system whereby you write a review of another blog in exchange for a review of your blog on theirs. By browsing the bloggers listings you’ll see they have close to 100 blogs who have signed up to use them already. I can see this surpassing 1000 blogs within the next 2 months.

Clearly, Review Back are targeting the lower end of the Blogosphere however, I really think this will prove to be a popular service on the whole as it’s such a simple concept and one which will fill a void that a lot of bloggers can’t afford to fill.

FREE Contextual Advertising with AdGridWork

Internet marketing and advertising is always easy when you paying for it. To get more traffic for a site, you can purchase advertisements or text-links through programs like Google AdWords. What if you don’t have the money? Fortunately, you can have this free version of contextual adverting with AdGridWork.

The service, called AdGridWork, is focused on giving you free ads for quick backlinks to your site. All you really have to do is submit your blog to their network, and you’re ad will be shown on other blogs that are displaying AdGridWork Ads. It is free, which is nice, but you won’t benefit from it unless your blog itself implements the ad code. So it’s a win-win situation for bloggers.

You help blogs get traffic, they help you with yours. The more visitors you give them, the more visitors you will get. Take a look at an active advertisement below.
Online Advertising
Free Annual Credit Report

After signing up, you’ll be asked to enter your website details in terms of what you want your ads to look like. Put in some contextual keywords and your ads are set. Remember, your ads won’t show on other blogs if your own blogs don’t use them.

How to Earn Extra Blog Revenue with PayPerPost

PayPerPost, get paid to blog about products and services. The sentence is very attractive and it seems to be easy-money-making program. It is simple, write posts on opportunity available, get approval and get paid.

PayPerPost pays minimum of $5.00 per post and allows 3 posts per day. If you are hardworking, you can make around $450.00 per month from PayPerPost. Before you can make money from PayPerPost, you need to know some simple tricks and blog ethics.

1. Blog Submission
Only submit your blog which is 90 days old and your blog must have at least 20 posts. The step mentioned is important to make sure your blog get approval from PPP.

Make sure your posts are good quality, correct grammar and use correct punctuation. Don’t simply create 20 posts and try to cheat. Quality is important.

2. Post per page
Make your blog to show at least 5 posts in your main page. This is to make sure your blog get approval. At default, Blogger.com shows 7 posts per page. So, if possible, do not make any changes to it.

3. Posts Layout
Make sure that your posts show in the FULL READ layout. Try not to use the short layout with “Read more…”. Make the posts show the full article.

4. Getting more traffic
Getting traffic is the most important factor. So, you can use some pinging services and social bookmarking sites to help you get some traffic. Personally, I recommend using Digg and Reddit. Both of the sites are quite good.

5. PayPal
Make sure you have your PayPal account. If you don’t have 1, apply for paypal or else you will not get payment from PayPerPost.

Follow all the steps mentioned above properly. It might help you to get approval from PayPerPost. After you submit your blog to PayPerPost, you will need to wait for 3 to 4 days. Once your blog is approved, you can start to find opportunities in PayPerPost and make money.

Start making money from PPP, Turn your blog posts into your money making machine.

Click here to learn how I make $200 per month from PayPerPost

FREE Online File Conversion Tool

Zamzar, a free online file conversion tool, allows any web user to convert any file type (videos, images, or documents) online without downloading anything. Not satisfied ? Well, other than converting file types, you can use Zamzar to download YouTube videos to your desired file type.

Say if you want to download YouTube video for your iPod for example, then Zamzar will do it for you in 4 easy steps:

1. To download a YouTube video, all I did was enter the URL of the video,

2. I chose the desired converted format (.mov), put in my email address, and clicked Convert.

3. I got a result saying that they will email me my download link as soon as possible, depending on how large the file is.

4. The download link will was sent to the email address I entered in. I clicked on my download link, and there it was downloading my video.

After the download I opened the file. It played perfectly as if it was converted with any professional $100 application for streaming video conversion.

How to Hack an Elevator

Here’s a cool video which was actually in the #1 spot for Digg. This person from the video shows us an elevator hack that will bring you straight to the floor you desire. Very helpful if you’re late for a meeting.