It has been 8 months since I last updated My Blog Log and I have almost given it up for dead. However, out of the blue I received an email from a social bookmarking site - SocialMatic that my site has been featured. Naturally, I was dubious. How can a blog that has been stagnant for 8 months be suddenly featured in a website? I visited SocialMatic and my doubts were proven true.
On first look, the website is littered with Google Ads and the all familiar box asking you for your name and email address. It's not difficult to guess that it's just another site trying to squeeze as much advertising money as possible. I did a search for my site and I couldn't find it. Before jumping to any conclusions, I'm waiting for Jeanette (from SocialMatic Team who notify me on the inclusion of my site) reply for the URL link that shows my site.
While registering for an account, the site seems distinctively local. It's not hard for a Singaporean to spot his fellow country man and I decided to do a quick check. The results were right. SocialMatic is registered in Singapore under the name Alvin Phang. If you have not heard of him, simply do a quick search on his name. Hats off to him, Google rank him #1.
It's getting obvious that SocialMatic is nothing more than another tool for Alvin to make more money online. I've nothing against SocialMatic since my blog is also about making money online. In fact I'm pleased that he's probably one of the first few locals to start a site like this. However, the presentation of his site and the manner in which I was contacted makes me feel that he is more interested in making as much money as possible rather than building a quality site that can really help improve bloggers' traffic. Nevertheless, I will still like to thank SocialMatic for rekindling my interest in this blog.
Monday, June 2, 2008
The Return of My Blog Log
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
My BlogRush Account
I got my BlogRush account approve within 48hrs.
Below is an abstract of their email to me.* We have already rejected a lot
Sounds like boasting to me but I do believe that many blogs have registered to be part of BlogRush network. "Free" is indeed a very attractive factor.
of blogs (several thousand) that do
not meet our strict quality guidelines
and we will continue to enforce our
detailed criteria in order to protect the
integrity of our network.
Some comments:
- Their Dashboard is still under construction.
- I tried clicking on the links in BlogRush and some of them took a very long time to load - maybe its a sign that that the site is swarming with traffic or that there's a problem with BlogRush.
- As for the relevancy, it's still alright but I'm beginning to think that BlogRush uses the Blog Category that you select rather than your content for matching.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
BlogRush
Everyone has been talking about Blog Rush - a FREE service that will enable your blog to reach out to a wider range of audience never before possible. It may sounds too good to be true but since it's free, I've nothing to lose. I have just registered for My Personal Finance blog and I should be hearing from them within 48hrs.
Below are some tips for Using BlogRush to Generate Traffic for Your Blog. (Courtesy of ProBlogger)
1. Optimize Your Titles - there are a number of things that will increase the chances of getting someone to click on a link appearing in someone else’s blog - but the title of your post will be most important. You have around 40 characters only to play with (before the widget cuts off your title) so think carefully about what you’re communicating about your post - particular in the first few words.
2. Choose the Right Category for Your Blog - when you sign up you’re given a list of categories to assign your blog to. My hope is that BlogRush will add more (as the more focused they become the more relevant ads will be). If your blog spans a couple of categories run with one for a few days and then swap to the other. I suspect that some categories will out perform others significantly due to the type of readers that they have and their tech savvyness.
3. Promote it Early on - this system is one that will be most beneficial to early adopters. While some are already spamming their referral links out to other bloggers via mass emails - one way to promote it and possibly pick up a few extra referrals is simply to place it in a reasonably prominent position on your blog and even to draw attention to it in a post. If some of your readers have blogs they’re likely to check it out too - which will exponentially increase the benefits for you. Just be aware that if you get spammy with your promotion of this (or any) service you could actually do more harm than good to your blog.
Like the author, I suspect that BlogRush will be using more of the title then your content to match the relevancy to your blog. It's still in its beta stage and is too early to say how good it is. I believe BlogRush future plans may to add in Ads or some form of affiliate marketing.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
My Review On Advertlets.com
I took down my Advertlets Ads from my blog last week as I do not think that it will be a useful monetizing tool for my blog. However, I receive an interesting mail from Josh Lim of Team Advertlets and it got me excited again.
SGD 8800 for 300 Singaporean Bloggers!
I know what you are thinking. Nope, it's not SG$8800 for each blogger. If the payout is really that good, chances are that it is a scam. Here's the breakdown:
My blog is still relatively new. Getting 100 unique visits or more may be out of the question but with the support of my friends in the community, 10 unique visits a day is an achievable target.
Why Sign Up For Advertlets
"Advertlets is a blog advertising network. Bloggers make money doing what they love by selling advertising space on their blogs. Advertisers get to connect their message to the right audience through the use of demographics."
The use of demographics is something new and you will need to have at least 50 people to participate in the demographics poll.
Will the Ads be as relevant as contextual advertising like AdSense?
Only time will tell. One of the reasons why I took down my Adverlets is due to limited ads. Maybe it's because I don't have 50 pple to take the poll, maybe it's because I don't have 50 unique visitors per day or maybe Adverlets just don't have enough advertisers. I will doing another update in 1 month time and I hope to have an answer by then.
How much money can I make?
"We can’t give you a figure right now, obviously. But how much you make would definitely be determined by:
- how much traffic your blog gets.
- how many Malaysian visitors come to your site
- how relevant your blog content is to a wider audience
- your visitor participation rate "
Another reason why I took down my Adverlets - Everything seems so vague. Most glaring being "how many Malaysian visitors come to your site". I believe it must be a mistake but it reflects badly especially when it appears in their FAQ page.
Advertlets Compared With Other Online Advertising Services
"A note: Why have we removed the comparision chart with our nearest local competitor? Simple. We’re taking on bigger competition soon, and bigger challenges. Our network exclusivity level has grown tremendously, and we are now ready to compete in an entirely new space. Stay tuned. Q2-Q3, 2007."
The obvious competitor for Advertlets is Nuffnang - another Advertising company from Malaysia that has recently expended to Singapore. I have not tried it yet but at least they have a more definite answer on their payout. Read it here.
I have decided to give Advertlets another go. I like their novelty and it will be an honor if I could be the one of the first 300 Singaporean blogger to write a review on Advertlets. I have added Advertlets Ads on the left column of my blog. I will greatly appreciate if you could take part in their demographics poll.
Lastly, I wish Josh and his Advertlets Team the very best.
Recommended: $120,000 Per Month With Google AdWords.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Can I Run Google AdSense With Bidvertiser?
I've received a reply from Bidvertiser. I'm glad to announce that you can run AdSense with Bidvertiser. However there are some guidelines.
Reply from BidVertiser
Dear customer,
Your ticket concerning 'Hi, I would like to know if there a ...' has been responded: Dear sir/madam,
Google allows to run BidVertiser ads along AdSense on the same pages, as long as a few guidelines are kept, were the most crucial one is to apply a different color scheme. Please see below the official response from Google:
"We´re asking that publishers use good judgment on how much they change the colors or formatting of the ads to ensure users don´t confuse third-party (BidVertiser) ads with Google ads. Proximity plays a role as well - if you´re placing the ad units directly adjacent to one another, we´d ask that you use clear borders and offsetting colors to indicate where one network´s ad unit ends and the other begins. If the ad units are on opposite sides of the page, using different backgrounds colors and/or a different color scheme for ad text and borders should be fine."
Best Regards,
BidVertiser Support Team
There you go. As long as you differentiate your BidVertiser Ads, it will be fine.
Recommended: Wordpress Adsense System : Blogging For Profits
Monday, May 28, 2007
My Review on Bidvertiser - An Alternative to AdSense?
Bidvertiser is a Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising site that competes directly with Google AdSense. Its main advantage over AdSense is its low $10 payout. Yep, that's ten times less than Google's $100 payout. This effectively slash your waiting period from months to weeks. For small time bloggers, this is particularly attractive.
Sounds too good to be true?
I did a quick search on Bidvertiser comments and they were pretty negative - ads were completely irrelevant or their $10 payout never arrived. With that said, I still went ahead creating my Bidvertiser account. After all, what's there to lose?
A quick run through of Bidvertiser:
Registration: Pretty straight forward and fast. I got my activation code within 5mins.
Mode of payment: Paypal ($10 Min.) Check ($50 Min.)
Ads Format: Very similar to Google AdSense. However I don't quite like the ad customization. Unlike AdSense, Bidvertiser uses only one code. Changes has to be made in your Bidvertiser account. It will need some getting used to.
No. of Ads: Bidvertiser allows me to show the ads that is displayed. I did a quick estimate and I have about 200-400 ads available for each of my 2 blogs.
Other Features:
You can get to choose which ads you want to display - meaning you can choose ads with the highest CPM. Though this may mean that you can earn more per click, the drawback is that ads may be limited and totally irrelevant.
Just when I decide to implement it into my site, a important question pop in into mind -
Can I use Google AdSense with Bidvertiser?
Google AdSense Program Policy
In order to prevent user confusion, we do not permit Google ads or search boxes to be published on websites that also contain other ads or services formatted to use the same layout and colors as the Google ads or search boxes on that site. Although you may sell ads directly on your site, it is your responsibility to ensure these ads cannot be confused with Google ads.
If you have any non-Google ads on your site that resemble AdSense - even if they are not contextually targeted ads - they will now put you in violation of the AdSense policies. i.e. If they look like your Google ads, even if they say "Ads by Bidvertiser " or whatever, you cannot use them on the same site.
Bidadvertiser can be a good useful montizeing tool but only if it works concurrently with other contextual text ads. Most popular contextual text ads in the market today like Google AdSense and Yahoo Overture have strict guidelines, thereby limiting its usage.
If you’re thinking of joining, please consider joining under me. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I’ll do my best to answer them.
Sign up for Bidvertiser
Recommended: Blogging To The Bank - Zero to $1,018.15 in Two Short Weeks