Making this website a success takes more than just me writing content every chance I get. It requires readers who are active and enjoy the content enough to share it with other people they feel it might be beneficial for. A major part of this involves other similar websites linking back to me and vise-versa. I recently had the privileged of being featured on a few posts from other blogs over the past month and figure it would only be fair for me to give those places a shout out.
In addition, this site was recently featured in several blog carnivals. A blog carnival is a single post or article containing links to several posts of relation or at least within the same general category. Almost like a mini-magazine for blogs. Many of these carnivals offer links to a lot of really good websites and articles I feel are worth looking at.
Carnivals
Mastery of Meditation, Yoga, & Zen: Twenty-Eighth Edition - This is an extremely extensive carnival that features content within the categories of Yoga, Meditation, Spiritual Growth, Health and Well being, Personal Development, as well as many other very well written articles.
FitBuff: Total Mind, and Body Fitness: Blog Carnival Ninety-Four - This carnival had so many categories it was almost impossible for me not to find something i found interesting. It's a carnival with established, and quickly growing popularity from what I can see. It discusses topics under the category of "Brain Power," Dating, Exercise, Family, Grooming, Money, Nutrition, Sex, Stress, and Work.
I was also featured in FitBuffs Total Mind, and Body Fitness: Blog Carnival Ninety-Five. The same information as above applies.
Book Thirsty: Book Review Blog Carnival, Fourteenth Edition - This is fairly self explanatory. It's a carnival containing book reviews of all kind. You'd be surprised at how entertaining a good book review can be, especially if any of you are a little book happy like myself. It's really interesting to see another persons perspective on a book you have read yourself, and see their take on the subject. This carnival contains reviews in Special Interest, Children's, Middle-Grade & Young Adult, Fiction, Science Fiction, Fiction, and Non-Fiction.
Your Metamorphosis: Blog Carnival, First Edition - This carnival is primarily about living a healthy life. it features a lot of articles about the right foods to eat, disease information, financial issues, as well as articles geared towards your spiritual well being.
ThatsBlog: Blogging Blog Carnival, Fortieth Edition - This carnival is a great stop for any fellow bloggers or website owners out there. It has a lot of really helpful information on things like Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Content Management, Optimization, and essentially anything else that involves blogging or running a successful website.
Mind Mart: Carnival of Healing, Edition 183 - I noticed this one a little late but really appreciate being included in it. This carnival has a large variety of different articles to choose from about the topic of Healing, both physically and spiritually, and it's definitley a carnival I'm going to try to participate in again.
Features & Shout-Outs
Kikolani: Fetching Friday, A Mash up of Resources - I was really surprised to have been mentioned in this post. It's from a very good, well written, and popular website. It's very well written and an excellent design. It's not within the general category of this blog as a whole, but it includes a lot of my personal interests, like; Poetry, Blogging, and General Personal Growth.
Occult of Personality - while looking through my stats one day I saw this site and honestly i must say, i was confused. after the confusion of how my link ended up on this site faded i was extremely honored to have been included. I think this site offers a great deal of excellent content and because my blog is still new and i only have time to write a few posts a month right now, the fact that i was given a link back from this site was really cool.
There was another blog who mentioned a post of mine they had found by using stumble upon. Unfortunately that blog is no longer in my stats so I can't feature it in this post. If anyone has seen a post with a link back to this blog on any other sites last month, don't hesitate to let me know so that I can add it to this list. Or if any of my posts are significant or related enough to mention in an article or post that you write, and I'm featured in it, please let me know by using the contact form or leaving a comment on the actual post. I typically can locate any website that links back to this site but sometimes my stats aren't as accurate as I would like, so be sure to let me know so I can give you a shout out at the end of the month.
Here is a list of my Entrecard Top Droppers for last month in order from greatest to least.
2 Witches Blog - "Mama Kelly and Lady Rose (best friends for over 20 yrs) share their wit and wisdom, the ups, downs and silliness of their daily lives as witches, moms and wives, sharing recipes, tips for frugal living, arts & crafts, including their cauldron full of information and insights related to Neo-Paganism, Wicca, Rituals, Tarot, and everything else under the moon." (15 Drops)
Denford Magora's Zimbabwe Blog - "Daily breaking news, commentary and analysis from Zimbabwe's leading on-the-scene analyst. Everything from Mugabe to Zimbabwe's economy." (13 Drops)
Cromley's World - "Cromely's World is random rants and raves about business travel, politics,TV, technology, and Star Trek." (11 Drops)
Faith and Facts - "Exploring the intersection between personal faith and public life. Blogging about Christian faith, politics, the media, culture, the bible and just about anything else that pops up on my radar screen." (11 Drops)
A World of Progress TeamZine - "The online magazine for the progressive human. Covering politics, economics, GLBT issues, historical context of current events, progressive living and international news." (11 Drops)
AsTheCrackerheadCrumbles - "The purpose of this blog is to help clear-up much of the confusion that now exists concerning our Heavenly Father and the righteousness of all of His most awesome ways." (11 Drops)
Triple A - "Life is tears and fun." (10 Drops)
Self Improvement - "This blog is about self improvement, self help, overcoming fear and shyness, and becoming a stronger, more fulfilled person." (10 Drops)
The Transparent Hypnotist - "It's about the reality of living, sleeping, eating, breathing, and working as a hypnotist." (10 Drops)
RagingRev - "My blog covering my journey from Christian Minister to Atheist...debates, theology discussions, etc" (10 Drops)
Subscribe
I was recently trying to help a friend get their blog off the ground, just basically get it up and running. I suggested that they use Entrecard for networking, and building some traffic early on. A system that I felt was fairly self explanatory, and if not, didn't require too much investigating to figure out how to work it. Little did I realize, Entrecard may be easy for a lot of us using it NOW, but for someone who has no idea what an Entrecard is? Well, things can get slightly complex. As if the initial idea weren't hard enough to get across, actually using it effectively was much harder to explain. So I felt the need to write this post up for the complete beginner, or for anyone who doesn't fully understand Entrecard, or how to use it to their advantage. My original and far less in depth post on Entrecard can be found Here.
To start with, what exactly IS Entrecard? Entrecard is a web based community filled with bloggers for networking and advertising purposes. The actual card is seen as being an electronic business card that you pass around (advertise) to other blogs. Both the website and advertising are completely free. So how does all of this exactly work?
Let's Get Started
After joining the website most people are sitting there wondering what in the world to do next. The first step is to create your own 125 by 125 image for your website. Honestly, I wouldn't advise you using what the website offers. A random thrown together string of text is not very attractive regardless of what you write on there. If you do decide to use that at first, make sure you create another image later if you are expecting any serious clicks from visitors.
After you have whatever image you plan on using for the time being for your Entrecard, you'll want to install the widget in a visible location on your blog. The easier it is for other Entrecarders to find the better off you'll be.
Earning Entre Credits
1. Dropping
If you plan on earning a lot of Entre Credits you're going to be doing a lot of "dropping." Dropping is when you go to another blog that has an Entrecard Widget and you click (while logged into Entrecard) the button under the advertisement that says "drop." This earns you 1 Entre Credit that you can see and keep track of in your dashboard, as well as at the top of the website to the right of your e-mail address. You earn one credit per drop, meaning drops on your blog as well as drops you do on other blogs. You can only drop on a particular website one time in a 24 hour period. This means that if you find the people who seem to be active droppers, then you can expect around 2 credits for each individual blog you drop on. Just that alone can get you potentially 600 credits daily.
2. Become A Skilled Dropper
DROP, and DROP A LOT!!
Now, dropping is one thing, but dropping effectively is something completely different. If you want to promote your blog the right way on Entrecard and get some readers while doing it you're going to need to know how to drop the right way. First, ensure that your blog is listed under the correct category. This is important because, if like me, your blog is under the "Religion and Spirituality" category, you'll want like minded individuals visiting your site. It's more likely that you will network with someone or gain potential readers like this, as opposed to me going to the "Make Money Online" category and dropping 300 times on those blogs. Yes, it is important to drop on more blogs than just in your category, but it depends on your goals. Do you want to grow your blog, and it's readers, or get drops? Personally, I'd rather get both.
Secondly, you're going to want to first drop on the more popular blogs. Often times these blogs will be active and more often than not reciprocate the drop. When I was first really getting into Entrecard I dropped on the first page of popular blogs within each category. I did get a lot of drops back but it wasn't until I focused more attention to my general categories (religion and spirituality/personal development) that I really began to get more consistent traffic of readers, not just droppers.
This very tip will help you succeed in getting more traffic to your blog and if you're lucky, some committed readers. It doesn't end there, however.
3. Advertising Efficiently
When I first began, I did what many other people have and continue to do. That being to advertise on the cheapest widgets I could find. It's really exciting to see your ad show up on other websites fresh out of the gates, but I've learned that this is probably the worst way to promote your blog. More often than not the "cheap" blogs are either from not active members, or the blogs themselves don't gain enough traffic or visitors to even get you any clicks from curious readers. This is not the way to go. I personally went through well over a 100 ad purchases with 0 clicks to my website before I got the hint.
If you want to advertise correctly using Entrecard you're going to need to advertise first and foremost on blogs within your category. Most of the time people will hop around different sites within their category to drop, and if they see a blog they are interested in being promoted, will click forward to check it out. This is what you want, because not only is someone genuinely interested in your blog, but they might drop on your widget as well as potentially become a regular or subscribed reader.
4. Join Drop Lists
Joining a drop list, or creating one of your own is a great way to not only increase the interest of your site to other droppers, but it allows you to keep a regular group of people in tact whose blogs you are interested in. There are other things floating around out there that you will run across, such as the "Free Traffic Generator" button I have on this site at the time of writing this post. That's just something I use when I feel the urge to increase my drops for the day if I haven't already reached my 300 mark. It just gives you a list of peoples blogs to drop on who are also using it. I'd recommend something like that for someone just eager to get their first 300 drops, but not really for anyone truly interested in promoting their blog.
5. Always Reciprocate
ALWAYS, and I repeat, ALWAYS reciprocate your drops. If someone drops you and you didn't drop them prior to that, do them the courtesy of dropping on their widget. You can keep track of all of the people who drop on your blog by viewing the most recent droppers at the top of your dashboard, or more effectively clicking on the RSS button to the far right of the thumbnails. I'd suggest the latter because sometimes more people drop on your widget than can be displayed with thumbnails.
This is just common courtesy and it won't go unnoticed. Eventually people will drop on you more and more, and in doing so the price to advertise on your blog will increase. Which is another way to earn credits you can use later.
Tip: If you drop up to the 300 mark that day, and notice that people are dropping on your widget that you didn't already drop on that day. Ensure that those are the first people you drop on after your drop limit is reset 24 hours later.
6. Write Recommendations
I don't mean to just go out there and write up a recommendation to every blog you see. If you do that, chances are it will go noticed by the blog owners and your recommendation will be denied. Take the time out to look around another blog, leave a comment or two and actually get a feel for it. if you do like it, write that blog a recommendation. In doing so it will help that bloggers Entrecard success, as well as increase their interest to your site. I've yet to write a recommendation to a blog that hasn't been reciprocated back. It increases your sites visibility within the community as well.
7. Become An Active Community Member
The Entrecard website has a forum on it. If you are interested in networking first hand, joining this forum and leaving meaningful comments or asking questions is another great way to get noticed by fellow bloggers. If, like me, this doesn't interest you as much then you can always send messages to blog owners that interest you. Or leave comments on blogs and start a level of communication between you and other bloggers. If there's one thing Entrecard and it's members supply, that's support.
8. Did I Mention ALWAYS RECIPROCATE?
Yes, I believe I did mention this already, although it can't be stressed enough. Not only do I mean reciprocate drops, reciprocate comments. I noticed that my comments slowly increased once I added the "U comment I follow" badge under my Entrecard Widget. Where you can also see my "U Drop I Follow" badge so nicely placed. Getting these badges allow your fellow Entrecarders or anyone who runs a blog know that you are serious about it. Don't get it and then not live up to it, as it will just give you a bad name in the long run. You can pick up one of these badges a a lot of different websites right now. I'd list some but there are so many, all you really need to do is a small Google search on "U Comment I Follow Badges" or "U Drop I Follow." If you're too lazy to copy and paste. Here:
U Comment I Follow - You will also find information for bloggers to turn off the inbuilt "nofollow" code that's naturally installed into many of the templates offered. This is a good idea overall because it makes your blog more friendly to fellow bloggers by sharing the link love. We all know how important link love can be.
U Drop I Follow
Conclusion
I can guarantee that if you follow just the tips listed here, you will see your Entrecard success increase. Entrecard is an amazing site overall, and one of the most discussed things to hit the Blogosphere lately. I'd recommend it for anyone interested in their blog or it's success. Especially those just starting out. There are many other tools out there to help you as well. I recently ran across a post from a blog I can't find at the moment, that gave the great idea of listing your Entrecard widget URL to an older blogpost that may have been forgotten and you want people to see. There are so many resources and tips out there to help you succeed that success with Entrecard shouldn't even be a question.
If you have your own tips I failed to mention feel free and leave them in a comment. Or if anyone knows the blog I ran across with that last tip, please let me know so that I can post a link back to them. Good luck, and Happy Blogging!
Cashlagoon is another very popular Get Paid To (GPT) site circulating right now. It carries with it the same general principals as most other GPT sites out there, but also has some very significant differences I have always found interesting. Unlike the typical minimum payout requirements of $20+ this website allows you to request payment at just $2. (you can request a payout with just a cent earned now). This was somewhat motivational for me when I first found the website because it allowed me to test the site quickly and gave me something to play around with. Unlike the other sites I could reap the benefits of my work almost instantly, as opposed to waiting a month.
Minimum Payout: $2 Anything
Payment Methods: PayPal, Check, Obopay, Visa Gift Cards
Pay Period: Whenever you request it.
Age Requirements: 13+
Credit Card Required: No
Besides the pay types this website is pretty much just like any other GPT site. It offers a pretty large variety of cash offers and surveys. They do offer other prizes other than cash too, which is another thing that makes this site pretty unique. You can essentially just use your points to redeem other gifts, unlike other sites that rather give you points along with the cash you earned.
This site is one of many "Lagoon" sites that are ever growing in popularity. Upon joining the site and requesting your first payment you are sent an e-mail giving you an opportunity to bring in an extra few dollars just by leaving a testimonial of your received payment. Over all of the other GPT sites out there this one is probably the best one to use if you are looking for a quick penny. Especially now considering you can literally request payment even if you just have a cent earned.
The Referral Program isn't bad either. It's actually one of the better one's I've seen. It's not as good as Cashcrates but it's definitely up there. The CashLagoon Referral program works by paying you 20% of everything your first level referrals make. This isn't out of their income but a complete separate payment given to you by the site. From here you can receive referral commissions on up to three levels. Explaining this can get slightly confusing so I'll just quote it directly from the site:
1. If you refer Bob and Bob has an offer approved for 10 points you will earn 2 points. (20% of 10 is.
2. If Bob refers Mary, and Mary does an offer worth 10 Points, Bob earns 20% of 10 which is 2 points. You would earn 20% of 2 which is 0.4 points.
3. If Mary refers Sally, and Sally does an offer worth 10 points, Mary earns 20% of 10 which is 2 points. Bob earn 20% of 2, which is 0.4 points, and you would earn 20% of 0.4 which is 0.08 points.
The website is very giving to their users. They offer a daily coupon that you can redeem for points if you are the first one, as well as contests. If it weren't for my finding Cashcrate first this site would probably be the one that I devote all of my time to. If you are looking for some quick cash I would definitely advise it. As far as website design it's not as user friendly as Cashcrate but I've seen worse and only takes a little bit of getting use to. All in all I'd definitely recommend it, so Check It Out, you won't be sorry you did.
Entrecard is a free advertising program that can be extremely helpful for any blog, especially a website that is just starting up. I have run several websites in the past and I always use Entrecard if possible.
The system it functions by is very effective and constantly being updated to make things easier for the blogger. It works by an automated pricing and point system. Essentially when you first join your blog will cost 1 Entrecard Credit to advertise on, and as the demand for advertising on your blog or website increases, so too will the price for advertising.
Making Entrecard Credits
Dropping
There are numerous ways to actually earn credits besides the obvious one, which would be hoping people decide advertise on your site. The best one of these is "dropping" on another blogs Entrecard Widget.
When you first join Entrecard you are asked to create an account, where you set up a personalized image that will be displayed when you advertise on another website. Once an advertisement is put up, underneath the image will be a small yellow bar with the word "Drop" on it. For other Entrecard members this is a very useful tool. Every time you "Drop" an Entrecard, you earn one credit. Likewise, when someone drops on your widget, you earn one credit.
The more dropping you do, the more credits you will eventually be able to earn. You might even get lucky and pick up a few regular droppers, which is important. It's also very important to other bloggers if you return the favor of them dropping on your blog. It's almost like an unwritten rule, You Drop, I Follow. Considering we are all in this together, doing something we enjoy, no harm in helping each other out.
Buying Them
You are able to pay for Entrecard Credits, this is an option I have never actually considered doing, though, for those of you looking to get a head start and aren't of the patient persuasion, this could potentially be for your. The pricing for purchasing Entrecard Credits is as follows:
1000 Entrecard Credits - USD$6.00
5000 Entrecard Credits - USD$29.00
10000 Entrecard Credits - USD$56.00
25000 Entrecard Credits - USD$125.00
Increasing Advert Purchases
Your best bet to increase the number of people eager to advertise on your blog is to position your Entrecard widget strategically on your website so that it takes minimal scrolling to locate it, and it's in plane sight. The easier it is to locate the more potential clicks to someone else' blog you may generate. The more clicks you are able to generate the more people are going to want to advertise on your website.
This can become difficult at times though, because not everyone's Entrecard advertisement appeals to visitors. That's more of a personal situation that you should try to avoid happening to you. Making a unique and eye catching advertisement is a great way to increase the amount of clicks you receive.
Added Benefits With Entrecard
Entrecard is very useful. They allow you to select who can advertise on your blog, and you can decline any Ad you are not comfortable with displaying. They show you the statistics of your own advertisements, as well as other peoples you may be considering to advertise on. The Blog is updated fairly regularly with new and useful information pertaining to SEO, creating income from your website, and furthermore your progress with Entrecard. The service is entirely free and I've seen no harm ever come from it's use. I would definitely recommend using it.
More Information
If you are interested thus far here are a few resources you might consider reading. There really is no point in me just recycling information that can already be found:
What Is Entrecard
Frequently Asked Questions
Join Entrecard
Enjoy! and Good Luck!
First of all, what IS a Favicon anyway?
A Favicon is a small symbol that appears next to the URL of the website you are at, and near the title of your website in a tab. They can actually do a lot for your website, despite some others' adverse opinions on the matter. If you are serious about your website you might take making one into consideration. They help brand your site to a certain image, like the Golden Arches for McDonald's.
Making Your Own Favicon:
To make your own favicon you want an image that is clear and distinct. This image is going to be reduced to about 32 X 32, so a big image with a lot going on will prove to be very difficult to make out once it is resized. The image also must be changed into the .ico file type. Once you have your image you can go ahead and reduce the size yourself, or you can go to one of the many free resources out there that will do it for you free of charge. One such website is MyFavatar, who will also host it free of charge, as well as automatically convert it to .ico for you.
I personally prefer using an original image, but there are resources available that offer pre-made favicons. For those who find this more appealing here are a few resources you might be able to put to use:
http://tango.freedesktop.org/Tango_Icon_Library
http://www.exploding-boy.com/2005/09/13/explodingboy-pixel-icons/
http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/preview.php
Using the Favicon
Once you have in mind exactly what image you wish to use, and it's resized, you're going to want to host that image. You can host it on your own server, but if you're using blogger you will have to find free hosting elsewhere. MyFavatar will host it free of charge, Photobucket is a good source, as well as Flickr.
Once uploaded you need to make a small addition to your code. Back-up your template and then go to Layout > Edit Html. Type Ctrl + F and search the code for /head. You can insert the code anywhere between that and "head" but I prefer to do it right before /head, just in case I get an error. Doing this makes it very easy to locate and remove the code if something goes wrong.
Once located copy and paste this code, don't attempt to retype it or you may introduce some new spaces or characters without even knowing it.
Of course change the exampled URL to the one where the favicon is located. Now all that's left is to check to ensure that it's working. Visit your website and see if it's up there, but note that even if it's not showing right away it may still have worked. It can take anywhere from one to three days before it will actually show up, but I usually see it working pretty quickly whenever I alter mine.
The state of our economy doesn't help our pursuit of cash very much either. Now, to be fair, money is not always required to have fun, it's just unfortunately a very important aspect in building your credit, paying off loans, bills, etc... it's pretty much a necessity in our wonderful country to live a somewhat "normal" and comfortable life. So after work, play, and bills, how can we find an extra source of money that is not going to drain us of our oh so deserved down time? I asked myself this same question not too long ago and so I began my quest on the oh so vast internet!
A Get Paid To website (GPT) is a website that pays you for a service of some form. Typically the most popular of these are the survey sites. There are also a pretty huge amount of scams out there that will snatch you up the second you put your guard down. I know, trust me. Out of all the GPT sites out there, I have experimented with a few myself. Some of which have been completely excellent, others haven't been so amazing. Luckily I have been able to locate a few sites that are atleast up for checking out. The one I'm reviewing in this post is CashCrate. It's a pretty popular website and more importantly it's reliable.
This website is by far one of the best GPT sites I have ever come across. It is the primary one I recommend to everyone and the one I spend the majority of my time at. You can actually make money from this website in multiple ways. These ways being Daily Surveys, Cash Offers, Contests, Referrals, and Bonuses.
The Daily Surveys offered at CashCrate pay you $0.80 per survey. Each survey usually takes around 10-20 minutes. The only issus is that I have horrible luck getting approved for these surveys, which may be attributed to my location, income, etc... They ask you to input some general demographic information about yourself, and then they proceed to taking you to multiple surveys you qualify for. If you are lucky enough to qualify then you just do the survey, and wham, there's your 80 cents.
For those with concern, no, you do not take 20% of your referrals income. The money you make is simply extra money CashCrate gives you for what they make.
CashCrate has multiple referral levels with different rewards that go along with each one. I am still on the Bronze level, but my referrals still make enough money for me to get paid on a regular basis. I just haven't had the time to go out and put up more fliers or the like.
