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You may remember my post about the 125 x 125 banner exchange program I joined a few days ago. This is a follow up post to that as I have some results to share with how the program has worked for me thus far (about 5 days into it).

First off I want to thank the 125 x 125 exchange program, upon showing them the post I created about their program they gave me a couple thousand extra impressions for my ad to be displayed around the blogosphere in niche blogs pertaining to me.

Before I get into to much detail I want to first show you the ad I used to obtain the following results. The results I got were not that bad, not GREAT but decent considering I just uploaded one ad when I could have put up 3 different ones to test the waters early!

As you can see the ad is colorful and relays a decent message about my blog and what I do. With this one banner I received over 10,734 impressions and got 37 clicks out of the deal. You may be saying to yourself whoa that’s a lot of impressions but not that high of a CTR what went wrong? Nothing went wrong, while I may have only gotten 37 clicks that was at a CTR % of 0.37!

Most advertisers are fine with those types of numbers and I am as well. All 37 clicks were from relative websites to mine, how can I complain about that? Besides when I purchased a review on JohnChow for my BzImage webmaster forum it cost around $500.00 and I only got maybe 300 visits out of the deal. That’s still a low CTR considering the price tag, advertisers understand that you will not be able to deliver a 100% CTR rate its simply not possible so don’t waste a second thought on it.

One thing this program has done is spark my interest to create several different ads and upload them to the program. Then I can watch and see which ad is clicked on the most giving me real life stats to find out which ad type works the best. This will show me what banner ad draws the attention best, if for nothing else (although I still love and recommendthe whole program) it will allow me to easily discover what ad delivers the best CTR rate.

For that factor alone its worth signing up to the program and doing it right away. I believe that us early members will get some goodies along the way for being the early birds, stay tuned to my blog as I will be doing more posts about this program and the ads I create for better CTR %!

This is a guest post by Amino Zawawi of Freelancer 2.0 - Making Money Sans The Early
Mornings

During the six years I’ve blogged, I’ve seen all sorts of fears echoing in the blogsphere crawling and intimidating bloggers. Like any problem in the world, it’s easier to solve it when you’ve got it written down. Here are 5 fears that have grown over the years into a nightmarish obsession for bloggers.

Am I Doing It Right?

I’ve previously discussed this phenomenon and it’s probably one of the most dangerous on the list because of its grave consequence: most bloggers quit blogging because of this fear.

To dissect this fear, we notice that bloggers start wondering why X blog has grew into a superblog during the last year, while their 6 month blog is still struggling to keep its two loyal visitors. The blogger starts asking “Am I doing it right?”

How can you get rid of this fear before it grows into an obsession?

1. Understand that different blogs have different traffic, visitors, and revenue.
2. Try to educate yourself on SEO, ranking, traffic, etc.
3. Work on your website both content wise and networking wise. Don’t expect people to read your blog if you’re not a blog reader and commenter yourself

Will I Ever Be On Digg’s Main?

As far as I can trace, the Digg fear started in 2007. More people were concerned about getting their stories dug after the news spread about an unbelievable traffic surge for those featured on the main page. Suddenly, everyone started dreaming nonstop of the famous main page. This only led to shout spam, unknown friend requests, and digg vote sales. Bloggers began to feel frustrated after some time, since their stories did not get past the 20 diggs.

How can you get rid of the Digg fear?

1. When it comes to social networking, you have to make friends and network in order to get the results wanted.
2. Try to mingle with people in your field via forums, groups, etc. You’ll be surprised by the number of diggs you’ll get once you feature it on your forum or add your new group friends to your digg list.
3. Post interesting, controversial, or useful content. No one loves to digg a story about how your second cousin Willy got a nose job.

Is It Because I Don’t Have A Domain?

This is once of the most widespread fears in the blogsphere. The debate between free hosting and hosted blogs has been only growing larger nowadays. You’d probably wonder whether your blog is not faring well because of its free hosting. You might start to feel inadequate between all those hosted domain; you will start feeling nauseous every time you login via the main blogging platform you’re using. Not to mention feeling utterly humiliated when that famous bloggers wouldn’t even consider a guest post by you.

How can you get rid of the free hosting fear?

1. Consider buying a domain and a hosting package. Why is that? I’ve explained this before using a company office analogy, you won’t get as much customers with your office located in a 120 generic offices building. Considering a domain will not only end your fear, it will pay off later on with all advertising you can embed.
2. If you’re not up for a domain, remember that content is still king (though some have valid points in claiming it’s not anymore). Your guest posts, comments, and features aren’t based on design as much as they are on content. No one would want an empty post from a fancy domain!

Is My Blog Being Scraped?

Blog scraping, or duplicating blog content for advertising revenue, has been on the rise lately. Many bloggers started fearing this incident will rob away their readers and advertising revenue alike. Splogs, or spam blogs, fetch your content using copying bots and make your life a living nightmare.

How can you stop your blog from being scraped?

1. Since most splogs are free hosted, one way is to constantly monitor your content by googling it and reporting splogs copying your content.
2. Including local links to previous relevant posts inside your post will turn the tables, since the visitors will be instantly redirected back to your website.
3. Including a copyright note in your feed is yet another way. There’s a useful plugin that can do this for you (http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/wordpress-plugin-to-automatically-add-copyright-message-to-your-rss-atom-feeds/).

Will my blog ever make money?

More bloggers are becoming concerned about their modest Adsense revenues. If you google Adsense, you’ll notice there’s at least 12 websites giving you the latest secret recipe for Adsense profit. Not that it’s not helpful, but this is only making bloggers fear that they’ll never be able to monetize their blogs.

How can you assure yourself that your blog can make profit?

1. Review your optimizing techniques. More optimized, naturally keyword saturated posts tend to garner more profit than artificially keyword stuffed content.
2. Try blending your Adsense with the design of your blog. Odds are no one would click if you use the default Adsense format (with the border and blue links). Opt for harmonious colors that won’t stand out.
3. Network with other blogs and create readership. You cannot monetize your blog if no one is visiting.

Those were the most common blog fears, feel free to add more fears you’ve come across. Whatever happens, remember that blogging is about passion: don’t let anything come between you and your blogging.

Some of you may remember my adsense article that I wrote entitled run away from adsense. If you don’t remember it its worth reading. However I am starting to have some… well (Deeper Thoughts) about adsense and how it can or cannot help you earn money with your blog.

I don’t usually change my mind about things and I have prominently made it known that I am not a fan of adsense. Although after some recent changes adsense has made including their new scrolling ads adsense doesn’t seem so bad anymore. Let me explain…

First off, I am still against adsense in most blogging cases, but if you read the review I did of MonkeyBlogger the other day you will see that I love the way he uses adsense in his blog. This made me think, how and why do I like his adsense while hate it everywhere else?

Its actually so simple I am kind of mad at myself for not seeing it before. See back when I had the orig InfectedByBugs.com skin which you can now get for free the adsense was just stuck on the skin. It had no real purpose and for good reason, I simply didn’t know enough about adsense for it to matter.

Now that I have worked with it more on smaller sites and other blogs I own I can see its potential for earning. There are a few things to keep in mind if you want to use adsense on your blog and here they are!

• Code the ads to look like your blog!
• Place them in the content of your posts, not out of the content where they look ugly.
• Make sure they are displaying relative ads, no sense displaying hot dog sites on a baby clothes resource blog.

I believe if you follow those simple 3 rules you will be successful with adsense, I never got big into adsense. Maybe someday I will but as for me and my blog we will sell direct adverts because that’s what works for us. Remember, every blog is different and has different needs, learn to find the strengths your blog already has and exploit those fully! Its the mark of a real business man who is willing to learn more for continued success, not a one time stand.

Have you ever had bloggers block for a few days or even weeks? I think at one time or another we all have, today’s post is going to cover one technique I use every single day when blogging here on InfectedByBugs.com

Basically I stockpile blog posts, when I am in a writing flow mood I can knock out 5-10 posts easily in 1 hr that are ready to be put online. Rather then just post them up onto the blog however I save them stockpile them for later on in the weeks to follow.

I do this for one simple reason, writers block is going to happen I stock pile posts as a precaution for a few reasons. I believe if you take my stockpiling idea you will thank me later down the road. I did not need to start stockpiling till well after my 100th post here on InfectedByBugs. The block takes different time for every one, each blog niche may be different as well. If you can learn to stockpile now even if you don’t believe its necessary you will be set for later. If you don’t want to stockpile then perhaps this can change your mind?

• I do it so the blog will never run dry without at least 1 post per day.
• I have posts ready to send to other bloggers for guest posting at any moment.

By stockpiling I am on top of the blogging game and can keep things flowing every day. Since I am never in a 24/7 posting flow mood I know sooner or later I will need these posts I am stock piling. A dead blog even for 1 day can put a nasty taste in your readers mouths. Learn to blog smart and hold off on some of your really good posts, stockpile them and never lose a day of blogging for your readers later down the road.

For an example right this second I have 15 full keyword rich user grabbing post stock piled into my wordpress drafts just itching to be posted. If I cant come up with a good idea to post about tomorrow I am not worried as I have many stored up and ready to go.

Like I said earlier “I have posts ready to send to other bloggers for guest posting at any moment.” if you emailed me today asking for a guest post on your blog I could send one to you asap! A truly great bloggers knows he will become stale with ideas at times so we take precautions to avoid it at all costs.

Technorati is growing like no tomorrow, it has been a huge success on the net and for good reason. Technorati is the first blog search engine that searches through blogs for who is the most linked to blog allowing advertisers to easily find the best blogs to advertise on.

While it may seem like a easy task to some and daunting to others technorati is one stat that sells your advertiser spots on your blog. The potential advertisers you contact will be looking at your technorati rank / authority.

Do the smart thing and begin to learn about technorati and begin developing your online presence through it. Its a proven fact that those who get in on these breakthroughs early (like me) have a better chance of becoming great in the long run. With that said you should go and signup to technorati today, after you sign up for a free account you need to claim your blog through your account.

By doing this you let technorati know what blogs you own, you may already have a high ranking and don’t even know it yet, try it out for yourself and see how many people you get linking to you!

Be sure to read my other technoarti article as well for more info into this blogging search engine world!