By commenting on other blogs, you will put down a digital footprint that opens back a link to your own website, allowing you to reach out to hundreds and thousands more than you usually would just by driving traffic to your website.

When a popular post on a different blog is made, people will comment on the post. And if the post is interesting enough to have received comments, chances are there will always be interested viewers who will read your post. On most blogs, when commenting, there is an option to ‘link back’ to your website, and this will be one of the crucial keys to success when commenting on other blogs.

By writing comments that make sense and are not considered as spam, you will also be appreciated by the blog owner and they may even return the favour. This works two ways as blog comments show activity and if your website appears often in that blog, you may receive additional exposure and receive more backlinks which are crucial to your page rank. If you have something that you want to promote, increasing your online presence by commenting on blogs is a good way to start.

If you do not have the time to comment on your blogs, there are plenty of people online who are ready to do the grunt work for you. This is an effective way of promoting your product, because the more comments that you leave the higher your chances are of somebody clicking back through your link. Every targeted visitor could be a new customer, subscriber or even potential advertiser. Don’t underestimate the power of blog commenting.

Aside from receiving links back to your website, commenting on blogs whether new or reputable, leaves an impression on you. Not only will you learn more about what others have to say and how they write, you will create a name for yourself if you are constantly seen posting on blogs as it reflects on your dedication to the subject.

Blog commenting services range depending on who you can find for the particular job. You generally want someone who is creative and with good English, and depending on the given time frame blog commenting may cost anywhere from 10 – 30 cents a post. If the job is done properly, you will likely have an enormous amount of quality backlinks to your website coming back from other blogs.

Blog commenting is used as a means of advertising. There are many webmasters online who have used blog commenting services to promote their own blog and create a community. When it comes to blogging, there is always a feeling of community spirit and other interested bloggers may find that they like to spend a lot of time on your website reading the content as much as you do on theirs.

The benefits run two ways, and the process of blog commenting can be described along the same lines. Comment on a blog, and they’ll find the time to give you one back.

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When getting started in affiliate marketing, one of the biggest problems new affiliates is deciding on which network to use – there are dozens of choices, all with hundreds of reviews of the service… and when faced with so many options, new affiliates can get too confused to even start their affiliate marketing journey.

That’s where helpful websites like Affiliate Tips come in. Affiliate Tips is a website that aims to teach you all about affiliate marketing, including reviews of networks as well as tips and tricks on how you can take your efforts to the next level.

No matter what your niche, you’ll find something for you at affiliate tips – be it health, dating, ringtones or finance, you’ll find the website handy as it has some very useful tools and articles you can use. The frontpage has a monthly revenue calculator, so you can estimate how much you’re going to make… you can also compare affiliate programs to see the pros and cons (and a review) of each one.

Like a specific niche above all others? Affiliate Tips has special pages for different niches so that you can see the best ones rated by the website. For example, check out the page for dating affiliate programs – there are seven, ranked in order each with details on how much is paid, a score and whether it offers lifetime commissions or not. There are also reviews linked to, so you should really make Affiliate Tips your number one destination before you decide to start.

The website design is very professional and it is easy to navigate, and it looks to be one of the best resources on the subject out there. If it were to be improved, perhaps a forum could be added for more interaction… but it is fine the way it is just as a blog.

What are you waiting for? Head on over to Affiliate Tips and get started with affiliate marketing today!

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Some time ago, I had a question and answer post on this blog. Anyways, one of the questions was what web hosting people should use.

My premier recommendation is Hostgator. Hostgator is what this blog is hosted on, and Hostgator has thousands of very happy customers all around the world.

The best thing is, that you can get a shared hosting account at Hostgator for just $0.01 for your first month if you use the coupon code wordpress or jury. Meaning that you pay ONE CENT for a whole thirty days, and if you don’t like it you cancel without losing anything. If you love it (and you will – I do! – you get to continue at only $9.95 per month – how’s that for a bargain?)

Here’s the specs of the Hostgator plan:

- 600 GB space

- 6,000 GB bandwidth

- Unlimited domains

- Fantastico (one click install of Wordpress!)

I have been using Hostgator for months and am extremely happy with their services… I have a few shared hosting accounts as well as a reseller account with them and have never had any problems.

Sign Up For Hostgator Today

Remember to use the coupon code wordpress or jury to get your first month at $0.01!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will try and answer

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Today is September 9th, which brings to an end the contest at DaBlogger. Thanks for entering, and we will have future contests due to the success of this one. Make sure you subscribe by email through the form in the sidebar, as you will be automatically entered in any contest we have!

Winners have one week from today to claim their prizes. If you do not claim your prize, it will be forfeited. Please do not email me one month from now and ask about your prize.

Winners

Paypal cash

$50.00 sponsored by DaBlogger – swalkertime [at] hotmail.com

$10.00 sponsored by Yenny Girl – cahkontes [at] gmail.com

Entrecard credits

2,500 sponsored by DaBlogger get2it [at] lilmissprocrastinator.com

2,500 sponsored by IndoContest – qwekelly1 [at] yahoo.com

1,000 sponsored by Random Blog – kiley [at] lenstrom.com

500 sponsored by Theme Lib – internationalfreebies [at] gmail.com

One Month Advertising

125 x 125 ad on WP Beginners – guptas08 [at] gmail.com

125 x 125 ad on Random Blog – donace007 [at] googlemail.com

125 x 125 ad on DaBlogger – betshopboy [at] gmail.com

125 x 125 ad on DaBlogger – bunnybox9 [at] lycos.com

125 x 125 ad on Another MMO Blog – epic3031 [at] yahoo.com

Text link on Rajaie Talks – kharapatta3 [at] gmail.com

Text link on DaBlogger – krancjarz [at] yahoo.com

Text link on DaBlogger – mitchteryosa [at] gmail.com

Text link on Theme Lib – ohnofreakout [at] gmail.com

Paid Reviews

Free review on Thou Shall Blog – sjukun [at] gmail.com

Free review on DaBlogger – reycovirt [at] gmail.com

You can collect your prizes by sending an email to dablogger.com@gmail.com

Thanks for participating!

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If you’ve been following DaBlogger, you’ve known that contests are a big reason that this blog has shot up so quickly. Already, this blog has almost 200 subscribers, which is more than most blogs get in a year! Also, I spend less than an hour or two weekly updating and answering email, and this blog has started to bring in money too.

The problem people have is getting prizes. How do you get prizes for a new contest? If your prizes aren’t good, no one will enter, so you’ll be wasting your time. Here’s how you can make sure your contest is a success.

Self sponsored. Of course, you can put something forward by yourself. In DB’s contest for example, I’ve sponsored $50 through Paypal, along with some ad spots and links in the past.

If you have prizes already sponsored, it is easier to get others to sponsor your contest as you will create a sense of urgency.

Fellow bloggers. By just sending an email personally, you will find other bloggers willing to sponsor your contests. Make sure you give them ideas of what they could sponsor – an ad spot, some consultation, some links, maybe a paid review… in the case of bloggers with products, you could ask them to sponsor it if you like it, be it an eBook or even a premium theme.

Forums. Forums (and similar communities like Entrecard) are a great place to find sponsors. So many targeted people all in one place, and you’ll not just find sponsors for your contest, but also be able to promote it when it starts. By posting it publicly, you are not just getting exposure but also building links to your website / blog (if the forum is dofollow).

There are more ways to get sponsors, but the above are the easiest. By using the above I have gotten together a contest with more than fifty entrants, and I had to do very little work to get it there. Have you had contests in the past, and if so what did you do to get prizes?

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Sorry for not updating guys, I was away on a short holiday so didn’t have access to a computer. Now that I’m back though, we can kick off DaBlogger’s second blog contest – the first one was a success, so let’s make this one even better!

First off, the prizes

Paypal cash

$50.00 sponsored by DaBlogger

$10.00 sponsored by Yenny Girl

Entrecard credits

2,500 sponsored by DaBlogger

2,500 sponsored by IndoContest

1,000 sponsored by Random Blog

500 sponsored by Theme Lib

One Month Advertising

125 x 125 ad on WP Beginners

125 x 125 ad on Random Blog

125 x 125 ad on DaBlogger

125 x 125 ad on DaBlogger

125 x 125 ad on Another MMO Blog

Text link on Rajaie Talks

Text link on DaBlogger

Text link on DaBlogger

Text link on Theme Lib

Paid Reviews

Free review on Thou Shall Blog

Free review on DaBlogger

As you can see, there are lots of prizes. And this contest is just as easy as the last one!

The more points you get, the more chance you have of winning. This contest will end September 8th, 2008 – and winners will be drawn using Random.org.

1 point – comment on this post. All you need to do is comment and you have a chance to win!

2 points – subscribe via email. If you are already subscribed, you are automatically entered.

5 points – refer a friend to subscribe to Da Blogger Dot Com via email and make them comment on this post saying you referred them

10 points – mention this contest in a post on your blog

20 points – blog about this contest with all sponsor links intact

So what are you waiting for? Comment and win!

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Sorry for not updating so much these days, I have been busy reading other blogs and getting prizes for the contest together.

So far we have more than $60 to giveaway along with more than 5,000 Entrecard credits, and some advertising and paid reviews on pretty big blogs. If you want to sponsor something, just send an email to me using my contact form. Also, about the free reviews – I have been emailing people but they have not responded, so they will be skipped. As soon as someone responds after being picked, I’ll write up a 500+ word review analysing their website and sending them some traffic.

Of course, reading blogs means that I have some nice blog posts for you guys to read. A lot of people were reviewing Performancing Ads, Triple.com and various other websites, but this week was a good week for blog content.

Sly from Slyvisions talked to us about 30 ways to increase your website traffic. Anyone with a website would love more traffic to it, and now you have thirty ways to get those people to visit you.

Lucas at Net Strife told us how he’s making a fortune with Wordpress themes… I’ve done this in the past, and it is indeed profitable – read on to find out more!

Pro Tycoon is running a little series at the moment, about making money from your blog, something all of us are interested in (bloggers at least). His latest post was about selling ad space.

Desmond blogged about the chicken and egg theory, relating to websites. Which comes first, backlinks or traffic? Find out in his post.

Melvin asked if blogs can make you money. Pretty simple question, but it’s one to think about. I think they can, personally

Blog Smartly, run by Ganesh announced the winners of their first contest. I won two things just for commenting and subscribing!

That’s it for this week. These blogs may not be the biggest, but I love the content on them. Did you read any good posts this week, and if so what were they? Let me know via leaving a comment.

DaBlogger’s second contest will start on August 27th.

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The first contest was a success, so I will be holding one more to celebrate.

This time though, I will accept reader contributed prizes. There will be the same prizes contributed from my side – cash and Entrecard credits, as well as free ads to increase your website’s exposure. It will also be just as easy to enter.

You can sponsor anything from consultation and money to ECs and advertising place and eBooks. It’s really up to you.

Just contact me today to sponsor something! Thanks all for participating, and I hope all of you will enter my newest contest when it is out. I’m hoping for it to start one week from now.

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Sorry for not posting yesterday, I was out working.

DaBlogger.com’s first contest ends today – for me, it was a success with more than 170 comments on the contest post and a lot of entries. To win $50, all you had to do was comment, and I see a lot of people liked the ease of the contest and so commented (and subscribed and posted).

In total there were ten prizes. The winners are below, drawn by Random.org; they will have 48 hours to claim their prizes.

1. $50.00 Paypal

plhawk42 @ gmail . com

2. 1,000 Entrecard credits

nickthrolson @ gmail . com

3. Blog review

wgmontanaro @ gmail . com

4. 125 x 125 banner

enews @ dennisedell . com

5. 125 x 125 banner

muhammed_saad73 @ yahoo . com

6. 125 x 125 banner

sjukun @ gmail . com

7. Text link

paidfromthenet @ sbcglobal . net

8. Text link

generalhospitalfever @ gmail . com

9. Text link

hyemunar @ gmail . com

10. Text link

subscribe @ angadsodhi . com

Banners and text links are for one month duration. If you do not have a 125 x 125 banner created for your website, you may get a text link instead.

Thanks all for participating, we will be having a new contest soon. If you want to sponsor, look out for tomorrow’s post!

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One of the easiest ways to promote your blog when starting out is social traffic – make a few friends on the social networks and you can easily start seeing hundreds of visitors a day if not more. The problem with social traffic… is that it’s not that great if you actually want to make money. Social visitors don’t tend to stay around for long and if they do, it’s pretty rare that they’ll buy something.

The ‘holy grail’ of social marketing is hitting the Digg frontpage – it guarantees you a truckload of exposure, with tens of thousands of visitors coming to your blog if you’re prepared. However, it’s quite likely that you’ll see none of them the next day.

My personal experience with Digg resulted in one of my other blog crashing multiple times as I was on shared hosting and someone decided to Digg a blog post of mine without me knowing – I lost all revenue I would have made that day. The blog crashing multiple times when on Digg probably did more bad than good.

As for retention, I did see some decent statistics – about fifty more subscribers than I had prior and comments on the post as well. However, as mentioned earlier – revenue made was nil.

Would I recommend social marketing? Yes. Despite my experience, I’ve recently followed up with more social marketing and you are putting your blog in front of eyeballs that had probably never heard of it before.

Make sure you’re prepared for the social traffic by installing plugins like WP-Cache and install a plugin like What Would Seth Godin too to increase conversion rates (visitors to subscribers). Remember that something like hitting the Digg frontpage increases your blog value as a whole, as traffic = exposure and you’ll likely get more advertisers interested after they’ve seen you hit the frontpage.

As for monetization – you could always try a CPM program (cost per mille / thousand impressions). Most CPM programs tend to range anywhere between $0.5 – $1+ per thousand impressions so although you will not get rich, you might just make enough to pay for next month’s hosting.

If your story does hit the frontpage it will likely rack up a lot of comments, especially on Digg – reply to as many as you possible to make sure that people know your blog is interactive; do not be rude even if you come across a few haters (as always exists on social networks).

Although it probably won’t make you money, going big on social networks is always an entertaining experience – especially if it’s your first time – and you should definitely try it out.

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