Sunday, March 11, 2007

Earn Money Online: Spam Online


Really, it is a pity that we have so many spammers in Internet who are always trying to earn money at the expense of common people. The spammers try every way possible to earn some money. Sometimes, they use legitimate ways while often they use not so legitimate ways. Their only target is to earn money online. So, they do not develop content and they just develop spam. They do not care if others read or not read their spam. Rather, they just care to earn more money.

Here are just few ways that spammers try to earn money online:

  1. Send spam mails containing nothing but advertisements of different products. Their goal is to spread the message of a product to millions of people in Internet. Fortunately, most people have become smart now but still some people will buy their products.
  2. Sometimes, the spam mails contain adware or spywares and this way the spammers collect information about your surfing habit.
  3. Phishing is a great example of illegal activity in Internet. They just do not stop. I often get emails from phishers who pretend to be some big banks on which I do not have any account.
  4. Spammers make many worthless blogs and then fill up with garbage content that has no value to anyone. They do it to get ranked high in search engine results. It has become a big business. Fortunately for us who try to develop real contents, search engines are fighting back and trying to pinpoint spam contents.
  5. Cyber thieves would send you emails that they are very rich and have millions of dollars in Nigeria or another country and they want your help and transfer the money in your account and give you 25% of the money. This is a very dangerous game. If you get any email of this kind never ever go for it.
  6. Phony lottery companies send mail to you that you have won millions of dollars. The funny part is that they even do not know your address and even your name but they have decided that you have won the lottery. How it is possible unless they want to con you?

I really feel sad to see that the number of spammers is not decreasing in Internet. The worst part is that we live in a world now where money is the only important thing. It does not matter how you earn the money as long as you are earning it.

Earn Money: 7 Reasons Why Adsense is the Best?

Now in Internet, most people who want to earn money are familiar with Adsense. If you look at the explosive growth of professional blogging then you will find that Google Adsense is the key reason behind such growth. Thousands of websites and blogs earn money (monetize) through Adsense program. I do not need to explain in details about Adsense as I am sure that most of you are aware of it. I am trying to discuss here about the matter that Adsense is indeed the best source of earning money in Internet. Here are few reasons:

  1. You can easily get accepted in Adsense. In fact, Google accepts people from almost all the countries on earth. They do not bother if you are in Asia or America. They also accept almost everyone who apply provided that the applicant’s website or blog does not violate any ToS of Adsense program. Google also accepts a site within a day or two. So, you do not need to wait a lot.
  2. Implementation: Implementation of Adsense is very easy. You do not need to become a tech guru to insert Adsense codes in your website or blog.
  3. Relevant Ads: I think that this is the strongest feature of Adsense. If you write about laptops in your website or blog then your visitors will surely find advertisements related to laptops.
  4. Good Income: Many times, I have read in websites, blogs and even in forums that publishers earn highest amount of money by Adsense. Yes, there are some exceptions for some website, blog or forum owners but exception is exception- not the rule.
  5. Blogger: If you are using Blogger then you will notice that Adsense has great integration with Bloggers. I am a very big fan of Blogger and I love the way Adsense works.
  6. Great support from Google: Yes, I have to admit that Adsense has great support team. They response very quickly and effectively.
  7. Ideal for everyone: It does not matter how many visitors you have. You can always get accepted from Adsense whether you are small or big. It also does not matter what kind of topic your website or blog has. Adsense covers everything as long as there is any commercial value of your topic.

Well, this is surely my personal experience only but I know that I am right because most websites, blogs or forums that I come across the Internet, use Adsense for earning money. If Adsense was not the best then it would become so overwhelmingly popular.

Earning Money Online: How Easy is it?


This is a very attractive thing for all of us. We all want to earn money be it online or offline. Earning money in Internet is a great thing. You do not need to go any place and you are in the comfort of your home and you can work according to your wanted- any time you like. Many times, I find advertisements promising a fortune by working from home. Well, it is true that many of these advertisements are nothing but scam. The reality is that if you want to earn money then you should never look for a short cut.

Just think of real life. Can you earn money with a short cut? Have you seen any person working just 2 hours a day and becoming rich? It is impossible even in the illegal way. Anyway, I feel that earning money online is just as easy or difficult like earning money off line. Yes, it is true that you do not need to go out of home when you are earning money online. It is also true that you can set your hours and then work.

However, don’t miss the third reality. Earning money online is like being on your own. Most of the time, you have to work independently and then earn money in Internet. There are hardly any full time jobs you can find in Internet. I often feel that working in Internet is some how similar to the works of taxi drivers. They go out very early in the morning and then work until midnight and someday they have good income and in the next day not so good. However, they have to work everyday and they cannot afford to be selective.

In Internet, I have seen many times that people think that earning money online is easy and you can earn a lot of money very quickly without doing any hard work. From this idea, many people entered in to the world of blogging only to see their dreams to be shattered within a few months.

The reality is that just like a taxi driver you have to work for many hours a day and some days you will earn good money from your earning sources while the next day may become terrible. Earning money online is not just writing some articles and putting some advertisements. You have to promote your website or blog and at the same time attract Google. Believe me, it is tough and you have to give a lot of time and effort in the initial months.

Almost every week, I receive two or three emails by scam artists who promise me a fortune as they have no one to give their money. Or every week, some phony lottery companies send me emails stating that I am the winner of a lottery competition and I am entitled to get millions of dollars. Sometimes, people fall victim to this kind scam. Now, I really feel that people fall victim to the scams because they want to earn money quickly and become rich instantly.

Some websites ask you to create content and in return they offer you a part of the revenue. If you are a newbie in Internet then surely it will give you some good exposure but hardly anyone can become rich through this way. Actually, this way, you cannot earn the amount of a full time job. Of course, there are exceptions but exceptions are never rules.

I hope you don’t feel discouraged about earning money online after reading this post. In fact, I have to say that there was never a better time for earning money online than 2007. Now, there are many opportunities to earn money. I am going to cover some of them in the coming days in this blog. However, I have to say it again that there is a lot of way to earn money online but there is no short cut or quick way to earn money online.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Blogging: How many Entries Per Day?


This is a question I often come across in different blogs and forums. Some bloggers say that you have post frequently while others feel that you should not post a lot. Now, let us see the arguments of these two sides.

Those who feel that you post a lot of entries everyday argue that this is the best way of catching the attention of Google. I agree with this view. The more entries mean you have more pages for Google to index. It also helps you to cover more news items about a particular thing in your blog. For example, now World Cup Cricket is rocking many countries on earth. I am trying to cover it in my professional blog. I am trying to post as many entries possible everyday and it is really paying off. I have witnessed 3 times increase in the pageviews of the blog in just 30 days.

On the other hand, those who want to post less entries in their blogs argue that posting a lot of entries will only destroy your blog’s quality. I hate to admit it but I agree with this idea. It is a reality that everyday if you give 4 hours for blogging and if you write just one entry in these four hours instead of writing 4 entries in 4 hours then the quality of your blog will improve. Yes, it is true and good for the ideal world but our world is not ideal. Of course, if you are an outstanding writer then you will surely get your readers sooner or later but for the average bloggers it wont work well.

So, my verdict is for posting as many entries as possible everyday. However, I am not asking you destroy your quality in writing. I am just asking to make a balance so that you have some quality but at the same time you can post more frequently. I know that it will take time for your to understand and find out the right balance. So, do not be impatient and keep blogging.

Monday, March 05, 2007

10 Worst Fears of a Newbie Blogger

This march 22, I will celebrate my first anniversary as a professional blogger. So, I am not exactly an experienced blogger and I rather like to consider myself as a newbie blogger as I know that there are many bloggers who are in this field for 3-4 years or even more. Starting a new blog is a very easy thing. Anyone can do it anytime without spending any money. However, many newbie bloggers regret the decision of jumping in the blogging bandwagon and then stop posting within a few weeks or months.

In the last one year, I have come across many blogs and bloggers in the blogosphere. I have also visited many forums on blogging. When I started blogging, I had fear too and I am stating here 10 worst fears of a newbie blogger based mostly on my own experience.

1. Fear of a new Thing: Most of us are afraid of new things. Blogging is a new field and even 3 years ago, hardly any of us had any idea about blogs and blogging. About my own fears, I wrote in SouthAsiaBiz:

Getting some traffic was the toughest part for me and in my heart; I got totally frustrated and scared. What if no one reads my blog? What if I do not get hits even in 6 months? What if no one links me? What if I receive a lot of criticism for my entries? I wrote 15-20 comments in other blogs but some days I did not have even one comment in my own blog. My fear and frustration intensified because South Asian business is not exactly a very popular topic that would attract a lot of visitors.

Yes, fear can take away much of your energy. Getting readers is not as easy as many people think. You have to try a lot to get readers everyday.

2. Over expectation: We often read fantastic stories of ordinary people earning thousands of dollars by blogging. Just think of Darren Rowse’s story of Becoming a ProBlogger. He was a very ordinary person before becoming a successful problogger. Now, he is one of the richest bloggers on earth. Many newbie bloggers want to earn more than $5000 or $10,000 per month right away. However, 99.99% of the bloggers even cannot earn this money even after one year of blogging.

3. Shame: I really sometimes feel that blogging is not for shy person. You cannot satisfy everyone with your writing and often you will get severely criticized. It has happened to me often- especially when any of my entries could make into the home page of Fark, Reddit and Shoutwire. Some of the attacks were too bitter and personal to swallow. Sometimes, I felt much ashamed to be criticized in such a bad way. Don’t forget the fear of making a mistake.

4. Google: Yes, getting the attention of Google was a big fear for me for many months. Now, after one year, I know how to attract traffic from Google but in the beginning it was like an impossible task for me.

5. Blogging Daily: Well, blogging is supposed to be a regular work. In fact, bloggers have no holiday and at the beginning, posting regular entries was a big obstacle for me. I did not want to miss blogging even for a single day. I felt that may be some readers would come and would not see any fresh entry in my blog.

6. Adsense earning: Having less than $10 income in your Adsense income after the first month of blogging can scare you a lot. Specially, if you have entered into blogging with the idea of earning some extra money then it is a terrible feeling. I know that some bloggers get frustrated and even leave blogging.

7. Nothing to write: I did not have this fear at all but I know that some newbie bloggers have this fear. They are afraid that someday they may discover that they have covered everything on their field and there is nothing to write. Well, I do not agree with this fear. Knowledge is endless.

8. Getting lost: There are so many successful blogs in almost every area that it is not impossible for a newbie blogger to be afraid of getting lost in the blogging crowd. And, do not forget that it takes a lot of time before a newbie blogger can attract some traffic and comments in their blogs.

9. Blogging jargon: If you read some blogs about blogging and visit some forums then often you can find that many bloggers and visitors are talking in a language that you are not familiar with. They are talking about SEO, design etc and using many words that you never heard. Well, this is a big initial shock for many newbie bloggers.

10: Programming and Coding: For many newbie bloggers, design and programming may be a big fear- especially if you are using your own domain and hosting instead of a free blog host and software then it can give you a tough time. That is why, I always recommend everyone to use Blogger. Google has really created the easiest platform to blog.

Are you a newbie blogger? Are you afraid of anything? Then let us know in the comment section.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Nishabd: Jiah Khan making Waves in Bollywood

Jiah Khan can speak English very fluently as she lives in the UK. You cannot find a lot about her in Internet. Mehdi Hassan has written an informative article in this regard:

All about Jiah Khan: The latest sizzler of Bollywood in Nishabd

If you are a Bollywood fan then you can read this article. Jiah Khan can go only up from here.

Blogging: Covering a Sports Tournament

For the last few days, I am extremely busy about covering World Cup Cricket 2007 in my professional blog. It is not directly related to the topic of my blog but then, people in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are crazy about this event as their teams are participating in the tournament. Blogging about a big sporting event is really a very challenging work.

Hobby Economist