On Posting Frequency

This is a common question for new bloggers: How often do I need to post? Are lots of content necessary to make money online?

Again, it depends. What kind of blog are you running?

If you are running a niche blog, you do not have to post on a regular basis. In fact, I know a few bloggers who post five (5) topics but they are still making huge amount of money off their blogs. For a niche site, there are techniques necessary in order for the search engine to index your site. Your post should target specific keywords and you must concentrate on those. Also, bloggers who run niche site focus on establishing backlinks. Reason why they rank so high on google and other search engines.

However, if you are running a general blog like this, and planning to write Paid Reviews in the near future, I suggest you should have a posting frequency. You have to keep your site updated.

Set a number of post per week. Twice a week with not a long interval in between will work. Before you get accepted by Paid Review Company such as PayPerPost (PPP), you should be able to meet the minimum number of entries. In PPP, you should have at least 20 posts before you get approved.

Also, Paid Reviews do not like bloggers writing consecutive sponsored posts. Meaning, if you write a sponsored review now, your next entry should be an original post.

So having known this, have you set your posting frequency already? Are you committed to post at least 8 times a month, probably more if you are planning on writing paid reviews?

No Google AdSense On This Site

If you happen to land on this blog, you might ask: a blogger not running Google Adsense, how come? If you are a long time internet lurker, it's probably a common knowledge to you that almost all bloggers run Adsense as their one major stream of income online.

Well, I'm not one of them.

To be able to generate money by blogging using Adsense, you have to know exactly what you are doing.

It's hard to make money off of Adsense. You probably have tried it, and witnessed the famous .01c per click. It's disappointing, because you've heard bloggers like reaping money with Adsense.

So you ask: Why only .01 cent?

Because Adsense does not perform well on a personal or generic blogs (such as this). Adsense can be maximized on a niche blog.

A niche blog is a site that runs on a specific subject or topic only. For example: A blog about Injury Lawyers in New York will not post something about TV.

Therefore, in order for your Adsense to succeed, you must have a site that offers something a visitor is looking for. You should have a way out. And that way is the Adsense advertisement.

Think about it, if you have a general blog that has various subjects, Adsense will be confused as to which Ads are going to be shown. As a result, the rate of ads will be very low. If that happens to you, it means you are getting smart-priced.

If you got smart-priced, the rates will affect all your sites that run Adsense -- whether it is niche or general. To solve this, immediately turn off Adsense in all your sites, wait a few days (one week is better), and put back Adsense only on your niche sites.

I am running AdSense on my other sites, and the rate of click is reasonable. Putting Adsense here will just destroy it.

Flickr Pro: Good Deal?

Flickr is an excellent online picture storage. It is free and it allows you to organize your photos in an efficient manner. However, being a free online tool, it has a major disadvantage: LIMITATIONS. You can only upload picture up to a certain file size limit.

Which I hated, because I love flickr.

Fortunately, there's an option to upgrade to PRO service. Which means your photostream (or simply photos) can be unlimited! Of course there's a fee of $24.95 for a year.

Is it good?

Well, you have to consider your usage. Do you upload pictures almost everyday? Is taking photos part of your job? Is it a hobby? Do you want your pics available to all your friends online? Do you want to know photographers who use the same camera as yours?

If your answer is a staggering YES, then go for it! It will make your life easier!

Think of it this way: are you willing to shell out $2 a month to improve your digital photography storage? I think it is not a bad deal. What is $2, right? I signed up for a PRO and I never regretted it.

Flickr PRO took a huge burden out of my back and now, I never worry about making photo albums for my sites. Flickr does the work for me.

Should You Submit Your Post to Reddit?

One important aspect to make money online is the traffic -- which means the number of visitors that go to your site. It is also known as "hits."

Heavy traffic means potential loads of money. If you are running sponsored ads, pageviews definitely go up if you have higher traffic.

So where do you go to increase your traffic? How are you going to do it?

One way of increasing traffic is to submit your post to reddit. Reddit is a site where you can post a link of an interesting news and stories, and other members vote if they like (upmod) it or not (downmod). Either way, you increase traffic and hits as people click on the link and look at your site.

But beware. Redditors are not fond of members submitting their own blog, and you can be accused of spamming. Worst, you can be reported and search engines might flag your site as a spam.

Having said that, do you think it is worth submitting your entries to Reddit?

Personally, I wouldn't do it. Reddit is addicting. The submissions range from political to funny ones and it is easy to forget more important things. Do not waste your time trying to convince people that your entries are good and worth their time. Establish more backlinks.

If you want more readers, then write good content and consider social blogging. People will come to your site on a regular basis the natural way.

On reddit, people are expecting "news" not "personal" experiences. You might be able to sneak in one or two posts, but I consider it a one-shot deal. Start thinking long-terms for a successful blog.

Do You Tip Your Barber?

There are several barbers or parlors here in Journal Square, that's why when I want to get a haircut, I know where to go.

The question is: Do you tip your barber?

I think you should, even if you don't like the haircut. In my opinion, the barbers are expecting it also.

Last night, I told my barber Mohmed to cut my hair "real short." Worried that he might not be able to picture what I wanted, I kept explaining him the cut I was expecting. Mohmed nodded before I even finished my sentences, gesturing he knew what to do and I shouldn't worry.

So he continued his work. He was courteous, asking me if the length of my hair was still long before cutting it again. Other barbers are timid.

Anyway, hair cut costs $13 in Hollywood Salon. Kind of expensive compared to other stylists in the area. But I liked the cut. When I gave $20, Mohmed went to his cash box looking for change. I told him to just give me $5, leaving the $2 as a tip for him.

Is it too low? Do you tip your barber or stylist? If so, how much?

Is Social Networking Beneficial to Blogging?

What is Social Networking? Simply put, it is a human interaction through the use of technology (blogging). People with same interest group together and talk about things and exchanging blogsites. Is it beneficial?

The answer is in your objective in blogging.

Ask yourself.


Why do you blog? To gain friends? To be famous? Is it just a past-time for you? A place to rant?

Or do you blog with the intention of financial gain? Do you want to make money off your blog?

If you happen to answer YES in the first set of questions, then social networking is for you. Social networking is simply making friends. Blog-hopping, visiting other sites, surfing more to get blogging ideas, commenting, so on so forth. Majority of your time is spent being "social". Sure you can make money, but only minimally.

If your MAIN intention for blogging is to make money, then set your priorities. Lurk less, establish your site(s). Get backlinks (your sites that link to your blog) as much as you can. That's how you rank high on search engines. More backlinks, higher ranking.

To answer the topic question, social networking is only beneficial if you are blogging to make friends. If you blogging to make money, social networking is the least of your concern.