![\"site](\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/Traffic-TechnoPulse.png\" "\\"Traffic-TechnoPulse\\"")
<\/h3>\nHow much did I invest?<\/h2>\n\n- Only $10<\/strong> for a custom domain & considerable amount of time (approx 7 months – part-time). For everything else viz. hosting, blog theme, etc I used free resources available on the Internet.<\/li>\n
- I don\u2019t think any investment can give you almost 900% returns (ROI<\/strong>) in 6 months.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Tip:<\/strong> No matter which platform you start with; do invest in a domain name. It\u2019ll empower you with immense freedom and prevent platform lock-in. With your own domain name, you won\u2019t lose your reputation and credibility; in case you feel you are successful and ready to self-host your blog.<\/p>\nSelection of Blog Platform<\/h2>\n
As usual, it started with a Google search \u2013 common-man\u2019s best consultant for anything new! For the 1st time I used it to search about making money online. My searches lead me to links with blogging, blogging platform, AdSense, Affiliate Marketing etc.<\/p>\n
Surprisingly for every MMO and blogging-related keywords, I use to consistently land at ProBlogger, DailyBlogTips,\u00a0 StevePavlina and\u00a0of course QOT<\/strong>. I skimmed through 20 posts on a daily basis for 2 weeks or so. Now it was time to choose the best blogging platform.<\/p>\nAfter many days of reading the pros and cons, and self-brainstorming, I decided to go for the Blogger\/Blogspot. In mid-September 2009, I created my blog. I took one of the best decisions of my blogging business – to go for a custom domain on Blogger. Hosting was absolutely free and offered almost similar functionality as any other platform.<\/p>\n
The obvious reasons for the selection:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Since I was not sure of the returns I decided to have something decent with minimum or no investment at all.<\/li>\n
- Who says the Blogger is not SEO friendly? How come 40 articles are fetching approx. 4500+ unique visits per month and it’s increasing by almost 30% per day?<\/li>\n
- Every month you\u2019ll find the Blogger platform adding cool features to make it more user\/SEO friendly. Which other platform offers you detailed inbuilt blog stats?<\/li>\n
- I am a Google fan. I trust Google and now I am of the view that Google is providing one of the best hosting solutions. Till now I\u2019ve no complaints. If the online tools to be believed, my blog has a better uptime and load time than most of the self-hosted blogs!<\/li>\n
- You can always migrate to a better service, say on a self-hosted WordPress blog, whenever you are confident about your earnings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
First Article: Copyright issue<\/h2>\n
On 21st September I registered my domain name through Blogger (Google Apps). I was spinning my first article for weeks. I drafted it to my satisfaction but to make it more interesting and authentic I wanted to quote a few lines from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology website.<\/p>\n
I was so anxious about copyright that to quote a 4 lines paragraph, I explicitly send a mail to MIT News Office. Fortunately, they responded on a positive note. Even the images used were photographed or drawn by my wife. Gradually, I learned that all these extra efforts were not required.\u00a0 A link with a credit to the respective website would\u2019ve been enough to take care of the copyright issue.<\/p>\n
Lesson 1:<\/strong> Be honest. Offer credit to the source wherever it is due.<\/p>\nArticle Length and\u00a0Quality<\/h2>\n
The first post was a long post and was indexed on the same day by Google, though at that point in time I was not at all aware of SERP and Google Page Rank etc. For a few keywords, it ranked well at #4 or 5th position on the 1st page. Well, a good beginning!<\/p>\n
Lesson 2:<\/strong> Write descriptive posts with your in-depth analysis. Search engines love content-rich pages.<\/p>\nAfter writing an article I did research to add value to every paragraph I wrote. As I have a full-time day job, I can write only 1 article in a week, sometimes even this becomes very difficult. A few bloggers may opine that it\u2019s not a good frequency. But I never compromise the quality of my posts and most of my articles are longer than 750 words.<\/p>\n
Lesson 3:<\/strong> The quality of the post is more important than the number of posts.<\/p>\nMonetization<\/h2>\n
After approx. 2.5 months, I had the following stats:<\/p>\n
\n- No. of posts: 14<\/li>\n
- Total no. of visits:\u00a0 2200 (Total during October to mid-December, Google Analytics)<\/li>\n
- Google PageRank: 0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
I was reading about monetizing. Like any newbie blogger, I was thinking about Google AdSense. Somewhere in mid-December 2009, Blogger announced seamless Amazon affiliate integration. Without wasting any time I jumped on to the opportunity. My request was approved.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, till today I haven\u2019t made a single penny from an Amazon affiliate!<\/p>\n
Lessons 4:<\/strong> Affiliate marketing is not everyone\u2019s cup of tea.<\/p>\nBut the Amazon affiliate approval gave me the confidence to apply for AdSense. There was only one hurdle though. I read somewhere on Google\u2019s official website that bloggers\/website owners from India and China must wait for 6 months before they can apply for an AdSense account! I had completed nearly 2 and a half months.<\/p>\n
Take a chance, I thought. On December 23rd my AdSense account was approved within 3 working days. I\u2019ve shared this AdSense approval experience about When is the Right Time to Apply for Google AdSense.<\/p>\n
Lesson 5:<\/strong> Don\u2019t lose opportunities. Every blog is unique; guidelines are in place only to filter out the junk.<\/p>\nAssociation with Good Brands<\/h2>\n
End of December 2009, there was a Group Writing Project at DailyBlogTips. I wrote an article after a week of research. I published the article on my blog and sent the entry for the said project. DailyBlogTips published the link of my article (along with approx 90 other links, who participated in the project). Fortunately, the article was received well and it generated 5 or 6 backlinks along with some traffic.<\/p>\n
The Google PageRank was updated on New Year’s eve and after approx 3 months my blog\u2019s Home page PR was 2 and the above-mentioned article was at PR 4! That article is still one of the best-performing articles in terms of traffic! I\u2019ve also written Guest Posts for QOT<\/strong> and EzineArticles.<\/p>\nLesson 6:<\/strong> Look out for an opportunity to associate yourself with good brands on the web. Google will trust you more if you\u2019ve references from those good old established brand.<\/p>\nBlog Promotion and\u00a0Stats<\/h2>\n
I was getting smart now as I was gradually learning about blogging viz. SEO, SERP, Digg, Comments, Directory Submission, Backlinks etc. Quite literally, I lost my mind! Now I almost forgot about my posts and\u00a0was concentrating more on Promotion, SEO and\u00a0blog stats etc. It was a mistake though.<\/p>\n
Lesson 7:<\/strong> It\u2019s quite natural to get obsessed with Promotions and Stats during the initial days of blogging.<\/p>\nA new blogger has to work really hard for the first 6 months. It\u2019s important to have unique content and your blog link spread over the Internet. Once you\u2019ve built credibility you should concentrate more towards delivering quality content. The time you lose in Commenting and Promoting on social media can be best utilized to have better productivity. Moreover, any traffic other than organic traffic from Search Engines is not so Ad friendly.<\/p>\n
So, subscribe to 5 or 6 of the top bloggers of your niche along with 2 MMO blogs, to keep yourself updated. Write your opinion (comment) only if it adds some value to the post. Adding a comment for the sake of a backlink doesn\u2019t serve any purpose. But do communicate with established bloggers; most of them are humble enough to help you.<\/p>\n
Finding a Niche and\u00a0Reaching Out to the World<\/h2>\n
Till 5 months I was writing broadly about web technology. I was already using Google Analytics to analyze the traffic. I realized that articles on a specific topic were attracting more number of hits than any other topic.<\/p>\n
Lesson 8:<\/strong> Find your niche as soon as possible. With a little experience and patience, you\u2019ll definitely find your niche calling you. Fortunately, my domain name was descriptive enough to accommodate my niche.<\/p>\nThe traffic was increasing and it was reflected in the AdSense earnings. After 6 months I was confident that I have decent content. Now it was time to seriously think about reaching out to the world and announce \u2013 look I\u2019ve something to offer are you interested?<\/p>\n
I contacted to a few CEOs \/ CTOs of small start-up companies in my niche (Cloud Computing) for an e-mail interview. Fortunately, most of them replied positively. This exercise helped me to build a good relationships with some known personalities in my niche. Also, as a bonus – a few strong and relevant backlinks for my blog (one from Wikipedia as well)<\/p>\n
Lesson 9:<\/strong> Reach out to the world. Take advantage of the web as it has made the world virtually small. Also, unlike 5 years back, everyone is instantly reachable through social media.<\/p>\nShock and\u00a0Awe!<\/h2>\n
Suddenly, one day in the month of May I noticed my blog was displaying PSAs (Public Service Ads). Ohhhh\u2026 what happened? The very first thought in my mind was that how come my AdSense got suspended? I had already crossed $70. I logged into my AdSense account. Thank God! It was NOT suspended, was on hold due to nonsubmission of PIN (address verification).<\/p>\n
After drilling down a bit in my AdSense account I discovered that Google had sent a postal mail through standard mail service (a simple mail without any registration etc for tracking) in the month of January. Like many Indian publishers in the past, I too had not received it.<\/p>\n
I made a second request for a PIN. I didn\u2019t receive it. I submitted scanned copies of my document to the Google AdSense support team. Finally, the hold was removed. My account was on hold for 30 days. I lost approx. $25. You can read the whole story here at QOT in the following articles:<\/p>\n
\n- My Biggest Mistake with Google AdSense<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
- How My Google AdSense Hold Got Removed<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Lesson 10:<\/strong> Check out for PIN notification once you reach $10. In case you\u2019ve not received the mail, request again at Google AdSense account. You can request twice. If you don\u2019t receive even after 2 requests, Google will activate – Update your document link. Scan your Address and\u00a0Identity proof; upload them. Also, don\u2019t lose your patience as in blogging there are more surprises than any other career, keep on moving.<\/p>\nEnglish is not my 1st Language<\/h3>\n
Bonus Lesson:<\/strong> As per Google Analytics stats most of my blog readers are from US, UK and\u00a0Australia. I guess they\u2019ve accepted the way I write. Perhaps people across the globe are getting used to different styles of writing. They certainly don\u2019t mind if you\u2019ve at least your basics right. After 1 month of removal of my PIN hold, I achieved the payment threshold. I\u2019ve received my 1st AdSense Check as well. With these lessons in mind, you may earn your 1st Google Check sooner than me.\u00a0Follow your heart, act now<\/em>.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Only $10<\/strong> for a custom domain & considerable amount of time (approx 7 months – part-time). For everything else viz. hosting, blog theme, etc I used free resources available on the Internet.<\/li>\n
- I don\u2019t think any investment can give you almost 900% returns (ROI<\/strong>) in 6 months.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Tip:<\/strong> No matter which platform you start with; do invest in a domain name. It\u2019ll empower you with immense freedom and prevent platform lock-in. With your own domain name, you won\u2019t lose your reputation and credibility; in case you feel you are successful and ready to self-host your blog.<\/p>\n
Selection of Blog Platform<\/h2>\n
As usual, it started with a Google search \u2013 common-man\u2019s best consultant for anything new! For the 1st time I used it to search about making money online. My searches lead me to links with blogging, blogging platform, AdSense, Affiliate Marketing etc.<\/p>\n
Surprisingly for every MMO and blogging-related keywords, I use to consistently land at ProBlogger, DailyBlogTips,\u00a0 StevePavlina and\u00a0of course QOT<\/strong>. I skimmed through 20 posts on a daily basis for 2 weeks or so. Now it was time to choose the best blogging platform.<\/p>\n
After many days of reading the pros and cons, and self-brainstorming, I decided to go for the Blogger\/Blogspot. In mid-September 2009, I created my blog. I took one of the best decisions of my blogging business – to go for a custom domain on Blogger. Hosting was absolutely free and offered almost similar functionality as any other platform.<\/p>\n
The obvious reasons for the selection:<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- Since I was not sure of the returns I decided to have something decent with minimum or no investment at all.<\/li>\n
- Who says the Blogger is not SEO friendly? How come 40 articles are fetching approx. 4500+ unique visits per month and it’s increasing by almost 30% per day?<\/li>\n
- Every month you\u2019ll find the Blogger platform adding cool features to make it more user\/SEO friendly. Which other platform offers you detailed inbuilt blog stats?<\/li>\n
- I am a Google fan. I trust Google and now I am of the view that Google is providing one of the best hosting solutions. Till now I\u2019ve no complaints. If the online tools to be believed, my blog has a better uptime and load time than most of the self-hosted blogs!<\/li>\n
- You can always migrate to a better service, say on a self-hosted WordPress blog, whenever you are confident about your earnings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
First Article: Copyright issue<\/h2>\n
On 21st September I registered my domain name through Blogger (Google Apps). I was spinning my first article for weeks. I drafted it to my satisfaction but to make it more interesting and authentic I wanted to quote a few lines from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology website.<\/p>\n
I was so anxious about copyright that to quote a 4 lines paragraph, I explicitly send a mail to MIT News Office. Fortunately, they responded on a positive note. Even the images used were photographed or drawn by my wife. Gradually, I learned that all these extra efforts were not required.\u00a0 A link with a credit to the respective website would\u2019ve been enough to take care of the copyright issue.<\/p>\n
Lesson 1:<\/strong> Be honest. Offer credit to the source wherever it is due.<\/p>\n
Article Length and\u00a0Quality<\/h2>\n
The first post was a long post and was indexed on the same day by Google, though at that point in time I was not at all aware of SERP and Google Page Rank etc. For a few keywords, it ranked well at #4 or 5th position on the 1st page. Well, a good beginning!<\/p>\n
Lesson 2:<\/strong> Write descriptive posts with your in-depth analysis. Search engines love content-rich pages.<\/p>\n
After writing an article I did research to add value to every paragraph I wrote. As I have a full-time day job, I can write only 1 article in a week, sometimes even this becomes very difficult. A few bloggers may opine that it\u2019s not a good frequency. But I never compromise the quality of my posts and most of my articles are longer than 750 words.<\/p>\n
Lesson 3:<\/strong> The quality of the post is more important than the number of posts.<\/p>\n
Monetization<\/h2>\n
After approx. 2.5 months, I had the following stats:<\/p>\n
- \n
- No. of posts: 14<\/li>\n
- Total no. of visits:\u00a0 2200 (Total during October to mid-December, Google Analytics)<\/li>\n
- Google PageRank: 0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
I was reading about monetizing. Like any newbie blogger, I was thinking about Google AdSense. Somewhere in mid-December 2009, Blogger announced seamless Amazon affiliate integration. Without wasting any time I jumped on to the opportunity. My request was approved.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, till today I haven\u2019t made a single penny from an Amazon affiliate!<\/p>\n
Lessons 4:<\/strong> Affiliate marketing is not everyone\u2019s cup of tea.<\/p>\n
But the Amazon affiliate approval gave me the confidence to apply for AdSense. There was only one hurdle though. I read somewhere on Google\u2019s official website that bloggers\/website owners from India and China must wait for 6 months before they can apply for an AdSense account! I had completed nearly 2 and a half months.<\/p>\n
Take a chance, I thought. On December 23rd my AdSense account was approved within 3 working days. I\u2019ve shared this AdSense approval experience about When is the Right Time to Apply for Google AdSense.<\/p>\n
Lesson 5:<\/strong> Don\u2019t lose opportunities. Every blog is unique; guidelines are in place only to filter out the junk.<\/p>\n
Association with Good Brands<\/h2>\n
End of December 2009, there was a Group Writing Project at DailyBlogTips. I wrote an article after a week of research. I published the article on my blog and sent the entry for the said project. DailyBlogTips published the link of my article (along with approx 90 other links, who participated in the project). Fortunately, the article was received well and it generated 5 or 6 backlinks along with some traffic.<\/p>\n
The Google PageRank was updated on New Year’s eve and after approx 3 months my blog\u2019s Home page PR was 2 and the above-mentioned article was at PR 4! That article is still one of the best-performing articles in terms of traffic! I\u2019ve also written Guest Posts for QOT<\/strong> and EzineArticles.<\/p>\n
Lesson 6:<\/strong> Look out for an opportunity to associate yourself with good brands on the web. Google will trust you more if you\u2019ve references from those good old established brand.<\/p>\n
Blog Promotion and\u00a0Stats<\/h2>\n
I was getting smart now as I was gradually learning about blogging viz. SEO, SERP, Digg, Comments, Directory Submission, Backlinks etc. Quite literally, I lost my mind! Now I almost forgot about my posts and\u00a0was concentrating more on Promotion, SEO and\u00a0blog stats etc. It was a mistake though.<\/p>\n
Lesson 7:<\/strong> It\u2019s quite natural to get obsessed with Promotions and Stats during the initial days of blogging.<\/p>\n
A new blogger has to work really hard for the first 6 months. It\u2019s important to have unique content and your blog link spread over the Internet. Once you\u2019ve built credibility you should concentrate more towards delivering quality content. The time you lose in Commenting and Promoting on social media can be best utilized to have better productivity. Moreover, any traffic other than organic traffic from Search Engines is not so Ad friendly.<\/p>\n
So, subscribe to 5 or 6 of the top bloggers of your niche along with 2 MMO blogs, to keep yourself updated. Write your opinion (comment) only if it adds some value to the post. Adding a comment for the sake of a backlink doesn\u2019t serve any purpose. But do communicate with established bloggers; most of them are humble enough to help you.<\/p>\n
Finding a Niche and\u00a0Reaching Out to the World<\/h2>\n
Till 5 months I was writing broadly about web technology. I was already using Google Analytics to analyze the traffic. I realized that articles on a specific topic were attracting more number of hits than any other topic.<\/p>\n
Lesson 8:<\/strong> Find your niche as soon as possible. With a little experience and patience, you\u2019ll definitely find your niche calling you. Fortunately, my domain name was descriptive enough to accommodate my niche.<\/p>\n
The traffic was increasing and it was reflected in the AdSense earnings. After 6 months I was confident that I have decent content. Now it was time to seriously think about reaching out to the world and announce \u2013 look I\u2019ve something to offer are you interested?<\/p>\n
I contacted to a few CEOs \/ CTOs of small start-up companies in my niche (Cloud Computing) for an e-mail interview. Fortunately, most of them replied positively. This exercise helped me to build a good relationships with some known personalities in my niche. Also, as a bonus – a few strong and relevant backlinks for my blog (one from Wikipedia as well)<\/p>\n
Lesson 9:<\/strong> Reach out to the world. Take advantage of the web as it has made the world virtually small. Also, unlike 5 years back, everyone is instantly reachable through social media.<\/p>\n
Shock and\u00a0Awe!<\/h2>\n
Suddenly, one day in the month of May I noticed my blog was displaying PSAs (Public Service Ads). Ohhhh\u2026 what happened? The very first thought in my mind was that how come my AdSense got suspended? I had already crossed $70. I logged into my AdSense account. Thank God! It was NOT suspended, was on hold due to nonsubmission of PIN (address verification).<\/p>\n
After drilling down a bit in my AdSense account I discovered that Google had sent a postal mail through standard mail service (a simple mail without any registration etc for tracking) in the month of January. Like many Indian publishers in the past, I too had not received it.<\/p>\n
I made a second request for a PIN. I didn\u2019t receive it. I submitted scanned copies of my document to the Google AdSense support team. Finally, the hold was removed. My account was on hold for 30 days. I lost approx. $25. You can read the whole story here at QOT in the following articles:<\/p>\n
- \n
- My Biggest Mistake with Google AdSense<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
- How My Google AdSense Hold Got Removed<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Lesson 10:<\/strong> Check out for PIN notification once you reach $10. In case you\u2019ve not received the mail, request again at Google AdSense account. You can request twice. If you don\u2019t receive even after 2 requests, Google will activate – Update your document link. Scan your Address and\u00a0Identity proof; upload them. Also, don\u2019t lose your patience as in blogging there are more surprises than any other career, keep on moving.<\/p>\n
English is not my 1st Language<\/h3>\n
Bonus Lesson:<\/strong> As per Google Analytics stats most of my blog readers are from US, UK and\u00a0Australia. I guess they\u2019ve accepted the way I write. Perhaps people across the globe are getting used to different styles of writing. They certainly don\u2019t mind if you\u2019ve at least your basics right. After 1 month of removal of my PIN hold, I achieved the payment threshold. I\u2019ve received my 1st AdSense Check as well. With these lessons in mind, you may earn your 1st Google Check sooner than me.\u00a0Follow your heart, act now<\/em>.<\/p>\n
- How My Google AdSense Hold Got Removed<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- My Biggest Mistake with Google AdSense<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
- I don\u2019t think any investment can give you almost 900% returns (ROI<\/strong>) in 6 months.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n