There are sever peer2peer news sites that will allow for anyone to submit articles. They all have slightly different ways of rating articles. If you want to get more traffic to your site, you should submit your postings to all of them.
Here is a list of other sites you might consider posting to: http://shii.org/tech/digg
I found this comprehensive list of offline blog editors:
http://emergens.net/2006/03/18/blogklienter-til-offline-blogging/
Tomorrow is October 1st, and I have a challenge for the next 31 days. I will try to earn at least $100 in ad revenue from this blog in the next 31 days. At $3/1000 page views, that will mean that I need 1000+ hits a day. I have only been able to get around 400 hits on any one day with the average being around 15 hits a day. That one day I got 400 hits was from posting an article about Google and Microsoft on Digg.com. This is going to be a challenge, but I have a plan.
1) Create a list of 31 topics to write about over the next 31 days.
2) Begin writing all 31 articles today.
3) Really polish the articles as best I can. Go through at least 3 edit cycles. Each article will be between 500-1500 words. They will be about topics that should spur a lot of interest.
4) Publish one article per day. Put links on digg.com, reddit.com, slashdot.org, any relavent newsgroups, one web groups, and any other sites we can find.
5) Try to write at least 5 other pieces a day about various subjects.
So, let’s see if we can do it. $100 in ad revenue in 31 days. (We will not be including donations or affiliate revenue. Only Google Adsense will count.)
Steve Pavlina says that he earns $300/day from his site. Last month I got about 1000 hits and about $3 in ad revenue. So to get $300/day would mean 100,000 hits per day. This is an unbelievable increase from the current traffic, but I do not think it is impossible.
There are several ways to get there. First off, better content and more of it will allow me to get more hits through searches like Google (60% of current traffic). Second, some well written, relavent articles with posts from Digg.com (9% of current traffic), Reddit.com, and Slashdot could cause traffic to ballon. I posted a simple article yesterday about a tutoring service in India. It was a short and poorly written article. The headline and description on Digg.com and Reddit.com was not all that good. Yet, that was an instant 100+ hits. Third, if I could develop focus areas with interested people around those areas that visited regularily (12% of traffic, mostly me, I think) could really increase the traffic. There are several blogs that I visit almost daily such as Thomas P.M. Barnett’s blog which is focused on geo-politices/economics/military and Engadget which is focused on all the latest gadets.
There are several focus areas that I would be interested in including “learning Hindi”, economics, and programming. I might need to create several subsites focused around these areas. Learning Hindi is focused enough. Economics is a little too large. I need to narrow the focus on a particular area of economics such as development economcis or labor economics or perhaps a region such as Texas or India. Programming is also broad, but I think I could focus that on productivity plugin and tools. How to do things quicker in Outlook, Visio, etc.
These are just some ideas. I am still searching for a $300/day plan that I can commit to and implement. If you have some ideas or suggestions, please leave them in the comments below.
Another great article from Steve Pavlina that I just found, How to Make Money From Your Blog. It has several ideas for generating traffic and generating money. One is called a blog carnival. I had to do a search to see what this was.
A blog carnival is a regular “themed” posting that is hosted by various bloggers in participating weblogs. Usually, the frequency of postings in blog carnivals is once a week.
Here is a list of some blog carnivals that you could consider participating in:
http://weblogs.about.com/od/blogcarnivalsindex/index.htm
The Carnival of the Capitalists
It covers a lot of other details and information including the fact that 99% of blogs that try to make money do not do so.
Some other pages you should look at from Steve Pavlina’s site:
How to Build a High-Traffic Web Site (or Blog)
Steve Pavlina has a post 10 Stupid Mitakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed that lists several pitfalls that you should avoid when starting your single person business. The article is worth reading, but I will summarize it here.
1) Be yourself - don’t try to appear to be a big business when you are just you. Don’t try to give up being you. Don’t try to be “business like” and leave your personality behind. Successful business is built on successful relationships. This means being open and honest about who you are, what you can do. It also means dealing with people that are willing to accept you.
2) Spend money correctly - Don’t buy fancy stuff; Don’t over invest. But at the same time don’t be afraid to spend money on things that will improve efficency.
3) Actually create value - Make sure that you are actually offering a product or service that is worth something, that actually contributes. If you are not offering value, then you will not, and should not be in business for long.
4) Don’t accept or chase every deal - Some customers and deals are not worth it. Be sure it is worth the time and effort to get that customer or maintain a business relationship. You might be squandering the resources, time, and energy that you need for the “gold deal”
Steve Pavlina has a post 10 Stupid Mitakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed that lists several pitfalls that you should avoid when starting your single person business. The article is worth reading, but I will summarize it here.
1) Be yourself - don’t try to appear to be a big business when you are just you. Don’t try to give up being you. Don’t try to be “business like” and leave your personality behind. Successful business is built on successful relationships. This means being open and honest about who you are, what you can do. It also means dealing with people that are willing to accept you.
2) Spend money correctly - Don’t buy fancy stuff; Don’t over invest. But at the same time don’t be afraid to spend money on things that will improve efficency.
3) Actually create value - Make sure that you are actually offering a product or service that is worth something, that actually contributes. If you are not offering value, then you will not, and should not be in business for long.
4) Don’t accept or chase every deal - Some customers and deals are not worth it. Be sure it is worth the time and effort to get that customer or maintain a business relationship. You might be squandering the resources, time, and energy that you need for the “gold deal”
The traffic has really dropped down. I believe that the big upswing was a result of the article that I posted on Digg.com and Reddit.com. It seems that the traffic from that site really peaks on the next day and then tappers back down the day after that.
My plans at the moment are to post an article to those sites weekly with the goal of trying to get an article on the “popular” page.
Get paid for recommending things to your friends and readers. Amazon has an associate program that you should sign up for.
If you are using WordPress, then you should download two plugins:
Now-Reading - This Plugin will maintain a list of all the books that you plan to read, are reading, and have read. You can post reviews and give ratings. The books show up in your sidebar. Also, it creates links to Amazon using your associate id so that you get a commission if anyone buys the book.
WP-Amazon - This adds a “Insert from Amazon” link below the article edit window. It allows for you to search for products on Amazon and to insert links to those products in your articles with your associate id.
I broke the default WordPress layout when I tried hacking it to put the Google ads and Google search into it. I have found several layouts that either support Google AdSense directly, or have spots open for it. Here are some links to them:
ProBlogger Clean theme for WordPress
Here is the one I am currently using:
Doing Business in India For Dummies (For Dummies (Business by Ranjini Manian
In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India by Edward Luce
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