April's 1,000 Comment Challenge

1,000 Comment Challenge

Are you up to the challenge?  Can you make 1,000 comments on blogs or websites in just one month?  That means you will need to leave an average of 33 comments everyday.  If you think you are up for the monthly comment challenge then start making those comments.

Why bother leaving comments on other peoples blogs you ask?  Because, if you leave a comment you may get back much more than you gave.

Perks of Leaving Comments:

• If you leave a comment you might get a comment back on your blog.  
• If you leave a comment you might get a "do follow" backlink.
• If you leave a comment you might get other readers from that blog to visit your site.
• Free blog traffic.

Now this is not assured for every comment that you leave.  Just say that you only get a 10% return on your 1,000 comments, that would be 100, which could be broken down between the three perks of comments above.  Did I mention that this is a free traffic generation idea?  That means one more way for you to get free blog traffic and possibly make some blogging friends in the process.

*Of course I would like you to start off the challenge by leaving a comment on this blog post.  Look up toward the top of this blog post for the comments link to click on and then leave a comment.  Let me know that you are going to take the 1,000 Comment Challenge for the month and your blogs name.*

Free Blog Traffic - 31 Day Challenge - Week 2

Take the Free Blog Traffic Challenge with me:

If your blog needs more free traffic you can follow along with the 31 Day Challenge to increase traffic to your beloved blog.

To view the beginning week of My Free Blog Traffic Challenge click here.

Free Blog Traffic Challenge - Week 2:
1. Answer Questions at Mahalo for backlinks
2. Article to GoArticles
3. Hubpage Article
4. Press Release
5. Answer Questions at Blurt It for links
6. Get my blog Reviewed
7. 43 Things.com link

Another busy week here to get more free traffic to my blog.  I am also still blogging each and every day then pinging and doing 100 Entrecard drops daily.  Anyways, one week down and three to go for my free blog traffic challenge.  My free blog traffic has increased daily mostly from Entrecard but I am also getting some organic search traffic also.

I am not sure where to get my blog reviewed for free.  So I will be on the look out for a free blog reviewer.  If any one knows where I can find one please leave it in the comments, up above this post with my tags, and I will owe you one!

Free Blog Traffic Challenge - Week One FollowUp

Seven days ago I decided to try everything I know of to get more traffic to my blog.  Of course being a new blog I want to get some free traffic and I am willing to put in the work to get all of these backlinks.

Here is my report on how this past week has gone:
Free Blog Traffic Challenge - Week 1:
1. Sign up at Entrecard.com
2. Article to GoArticles
3. Squidoo Lens
4. Article to Ezine Articles
5. Blog Carnivals
6. Bookmark on Digg, Delicious, and Onlywire.com
7. Make 20 comments to like blogs

I think signing up for Entrecard (Free) was the best thing I could have done.  I am seeing a steady rise in traffic and most of it is coming from Entrecard users.  I have gotten some comments and feel like I am getting to know some of the bloggers in this community.  I am dropping 100 out of 300 cards, my bounce rate is up but I think at this beginning stage it is worth it.

The articles and squidoo lens are out there but as of yet have not produced anything for me yet.  Only one view from a GoArticles submission, hopefully this goes up because I don't think the time it took me to write the article and submit is worth only one click.

It is too soon to tell if the social bookmarking did anything, but it usually will not unless it gets on the popular list. 

I made 20 comments on other blogs and it was way more difficult than I thought it would be.  I have made a few comments here and there on some blogs that I like and that was easy.  But reading 20 blog posts so I could leave an intelligent comment that was related to the post proved a long somewhat boring process.  On a positive note I found a new blogger that I like and will go back to read.  This was not a task that I enjoyed and wish that I would not need to repeat it, but I probably will because it is good for business.

Tomorrow I will post next weeks challenging items in the hopes that it will bring more free blog traffic, you can follow along if you want more blog visitors.

Keep Your Blog Posts Archives Alive

How to Keep Your Blog Archives Alive:

Do you have blog posts that are Left 4 Dead?  If you have written many blog articles you will want to keep them from being ignored by your readers.  Most visitors to your blog will read the first one or maybe two blog posts on your home page.  Don't let all of those old blog posts that you slaved over get lost in the vast wasteland of old blog posts.

There are several ways to keep your old blog posts featured or highlighted so that new blog visitors will read these gems.

• Add a popular blog posts widget on your sidebar and feature some posts you believe your readers should read.


• Make your old posts into a series and link them all together.
• Use your Twitter account or Facebook page to add some of your old blog post links.


• Put links in your new posts to an old post that explains the topic further. 


• You can put up a new blog post just listing your favorite old posts.  Possibly a top 10 favorite blog posts list.


• Interlink old posts to one another.


• Post the top three posts at the end of each month.


• Have a related posts plug-in at the bottom of each post.

You can always find a new way to get those old blog posts some more love.  Try posting a follow up post about how the blog post topic worked or didn't work or is no useful to you.  Think about it for a little bit, maybe get creative, and you can breathe new life into your old blog posts.

Want Lots of Free Blog Traffic? Use Entrecard

Free Blog Traffic with Entrecard

You may notice the little widget in my sidebar that has a little bar that says Get One or Drop.  Well this is one way you can get a bunch of free blog traffic.  I just signed up with them yesterday as part of my 31 Day's of Free Blog Traffic Challenge.  

 

This is my Entrecard "card" one that I will use to advertise on other sites.  I know it needs some work but I thought it wasn't too awful for just throwing something up there.  I made a new advert card - the one on the right.  I think it is better in some ways and also harder to read?  It will have to do for now.

So I "dropped" in on 100 blogs last night and then another 100 blogs today.  I will say that it is very time consuming to do all one-hundred, but I will continue this rate for the full 31 days to see what kind of results I can get.  From these blog views I have gotten 24 visitors that I had also visited, and I expect this to continue to rise every day.  I have also gotten one comment and suggestion.  So far I am impressed and hooked, but we will see how it all turns out.

I was not sure about signing up for this Entrecard at first or not, I thought it might be considered black hat.  It may be somewhere in the gray area, because this is not targeted traffic and ultimately that is what you want coming to your blog.  When you start a new blog as I have you are some what desperate for any blog visitors so you are willing to go out there and try some interesting things. 

I have read a bit about Entrecard on some other blog's and here is what I have learned (not sure if any of it is true or not).  John Chow used to use Entrecard, so if it was good enough for him then it is good enough for me.  Google and the other search engines may lower my page rank because of the high bounce rate or the blog traffic from Entrecard visitors.  Many of the site visitors will just click on the "drop box" then immediately leave.

Well right now I am not concerned about my page rank because I don't even have one yet.  The problem of having some of the free blog traffic just clicking in and then right back out, well maybe a few will leave comments.  I might even get a small percentage of  loyal readers out of  the whole thing.

If your blog needs to get some free traffic you might consider trying out Entrecard.  You may not like the widget that must be displayed but once your blog gets approved I think you can move it down lower on the page, which may help your blog visitors see more of your blog and stick around to read something.

Day 20 - My Blogging Challenge Update

 Day 20 of my money making blog challenge.

 Here is what I have been up to in the last few days:

Because of my daily double posting I have not been spending enough time getting traffic to my blog.  I have definitely done a few things here and there, but not the big things that I had planned.  So now that I will only be publishing one blog post a day that will free up some time for me to work on getting all that lovely traffic that is needed to make money blogging.

•  I got my first comment, a result of making some blogging friends.
• Finally got my blog approved on Technorati.
• Working on a Blog Traffic Generation Course for myself that others can follow.

Still working towards my eventual six month goal of earning $300.00 a month.  I believe if I work on getting higher rankings and more traffic to my blog it will be a success and a money making blog in that time.

Good Blogging Habits

Do You Have the Right Blogging Habits?

If you make some daily blogging habits it can help you do have a successful money making blog.  The experts seem to agree that habits are made in about one month. So if you do an activity everyday for one month you can make it into a habit.  Likewise, if you want to break a bad habit you will need to stop doing it for one month's time.

Good Blogging Habits:

1. Blog Post Daily - If you get into the good habit of posting on your blog everyday it will become a habit and you may even begin to look forward to it.  If you happen to stop posting for a day because of illness, etc. you may have guilt because you have let yourself down or your readers down.  Take the challenge - Post everyday for one month.
2. Attract Traffic to Your Blog - This is an essential step that most people stop after only a few tries.  If you go around the Internet and daily try to get traffic to your site, you will be a step ahead of the competition.  Read:  5 Ways to Get Traffic to your Blog for ideas.
3. Build Blogging Connections - Leave comments on other bloggers blog posts and they might just return the favor.  If you make blogging connections with bloggers in the same niche in the future there may be an opportunity for a joint venture.

If you continue to make these three steps into daily habits no matter what you will succeed.  That means if you don't get any comments or make any sales and have no visitors then you still complete these good daily blogging habits.

To take a quote from the movie Field of Dreams, "If you build it, t(he)y will come."  If you post regularly and go out and actively try to get traffic and make blogging connections eventually they will come to your blog.

So make some new habits and commit to doing these three things each day for one month.  Then you will be set and soon will have even more traffic than before.

How to Make $300.00 a Month with Blogging

Monthly goal of $300.00 from Blogging

I recently read a blog post over at Problogger called,  "How to Make $30,000 a year Blogging."  posted by Darren Rowse.

The basis of the article was to realize what your money goals for your blog are, and then focus on trying to break that amount into monthly or daily goals so it does not seem too far out of reach.  My goal is to be making $300.00 a month in 6 months time.  Right now with only a little traffic that amount of money seems unattainable in that time frame. 

If I break down that monthly goal into a daily goal, I will only need to earn $10.00 a day from my blogging efforts.  Well - ten dollars a day does not seem like all that much.  Don't get me wrong it will take time to get to that point but breaking down the larger amounts of money into smaller amounts, it just appears to be more manageable.

So now I am going to focus on trying to earn just $1.00 a day.  That one dollar a day is not much but with a new blog it certainly would not be bad either.  Every little bit will add up and once I reach the $1 goal then I can move on to $5 and then to $10.

By breaking my money making goals down into smaller more easily handled chunks I can focus on the smaller more easily reachable goals and not give up so quickly because I am no where near my intended goal.

How to Make Money With Your Blog

There are only 2 things you need to do to make money blogging.  When you start a new blog those two things need to be done on a daily basis.  New bloggers or struggling bloggers will need to make a commitment to check these two items off each and every day.

OK, do you want to know what the 2 really important things are that bloggers must do?  You may be disappointed to learn that you already know the answer to the blogging keys to success. 

How to Make Money Blogging:

1. Make useful posts that help your readers.
2. Drive traffic to your blog.

Told ya that you already knew them.  These  items need to be part of your daily blogging routine.  Because if you have no helpful content people will leave.  If you don't have traffic they can't find your blog.

It seems so simple and in reality it is, but the traffic is extremely important and can be hard to attain.  That is why you have to work on getting visitors daily at first.  Later when your blog has taken off the traffic will come on its own.  For now though you must do some work.  So click on over to my post  5 Ways to Get Traffic to Your Blog and get busy getting your blog traffic.

Day 15 - My Blogging Challenge Update

Day 15 of my money making blog challenge.

My blog is already two weeks old and I have made improvements and done research and learned about new things and myself in the process.  Here is what I have been up to in the last few days.

Traffic to my Blog:
Technorati has still not completed my blog acceptance.
RSS Readership is up to 8 readers, Thank you!
Pinged blog again.
Submitted Traffic Post to Blog Carnivals.

Unfortunately I did not spend as much time on getting traffic to my blog this second week and I can see the results or lack of results.  My blog traffic was going up and then it went back down and seems to have tanked, so I can see this is an area where I am going to have to put more focus.

Money from Blog:
I have gotten 2 whole adsense clicks, while that is great it is an extremely slow progression.

Not sure if the Google Analytics are working or not.  I know that the reports are behind or not up to the minute but they conflict.  Very confusing and frustrating because I was told this was the most accurate reporting for unique visitors.

I changed my mind:
You may have noticed, or not, but I am now a .com.  I changed my domain from a blogspot to http://www.mybloggingfortune.com/  I was doing some thinking back to a past failure and I want to be sure that history does not repeat itself.

I was an eBay Powerseller then one day one of my competitors got jealous of my success and reported me to eBay.  I did nothing to break the rules but their decision is final and there is no appeal process and I was out of luck.

I realized that blogger who is owned by Google had shut down some blogs around the last presidential election and they probably did nothing wrong either, some of them got reinstated, but that is not the point.

The point is that I don't want to work hard for six months or a year and then all of the sudden have my blog locked because they think I broke a rule.  This way if that happens I will just go out and get my own hosting and will move all my posts there.

Just a little explanation of the recent change of heart or mind.  They want to protect their investments and I am going to do the same for me.  I did not want to spend the money until I had it to reinvest back into the blog, but I felt it was the right thing to do before I went any further.

New Blog Goals:

•  Publish 2 Blog Posts a day until March
•  Work on getting traffic to my blog daily.

Another 5 Ways to Get Free Traffic to Your Blog = 15 Tips

Another 5 Free Blog Traffic Tips

5 Ways to Get Traffic to Your Blog

5 More Ways to Get Traffic to Your Blog

And now: Another 5 Free Traffic Tips to drive targeted traffic to your blog to help you make more money from your visitors.   OK the title is a little different but I thought maybe it would get you to click on this blog post about free traffic ideas.  It worked right, you are here reading this.

So if you have already read the other previous 5 Ways and the other 5 More Ways for Free Blog Traffic Generation Ideas then you need more free blog traffic ideas.  Again the key to these ideas is to actually do them and if at all possible do them over and over again.  If you like you can set up a checklist of your traffic steps and do them all daily or weekly.  You will need to continue to get traffic to your site until you are popular enough that the traffic comes on its own.

Another 5 Free Traffic Tips:

1. Offline Promotion - Tell all your friends, email them the blog link, call all of your aunts and uncles and let them know about your blog.  Make up business cards with your blog's URL.

2. Blog Post Frequency - Minimum posting should be 3 times a week, once a day is better.

3. Answer Questions - Post your blog link on answers that you leave on questions sites like Yahoo Answers and Blurtit.  Make sure the questions and answers are related to your blog.

4. Press Release - Write up a press release about your blog and submit it to a distribution service.

5. Trackbacks - If you don't understand this there is a great description here: How Trackback Works.

If you have implemented the 15 ways to get free traffic then you should see some visitors trickling onto your blog.  You need to make sure that you continue to do these free traffic generating ideas to keep getting new blog readers. 

Each time you implement one of the ideas you should see a serge in traffic but then it may dip back down again.  Keep on putting your link out there and eventually you won't have to rely on these methods, but this is where you need to begin. 

Go Get That Traffic!