Successful Blogging.com

Technorati Pinging

"Ping" is a utility used in a TCP/IP environment to determine if a given IP Address exists or is reachable. Typically, Ping is used to diagnose a network connection problem. Many times you will be asked, "Can you ping that address?". That means, does the Ping utility return a success message trying to reach the "problem" IP Address?

To use a ping service or to "ping" means to let others know that your site has been updated. Within the WordPress interface, "ping" is sometimes used to refer to Pingbacks and Trackbacks.

Here is an example.

You can manually Ping technorati.com by entering your web address.

Some popular web hosts make pinging automatic with posting. That is, when you post a ping notification is sent to someone who may be interested, such as technorati. This helps to promote traffic to your site.

You can set your blog software up to ping Technorati automatically by entering http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping into your blog's configuration.

Pinging Technorati in Blogger

Technorati receives alerts from the Blogger servers whenever a user updates his or her public weblog. To mark your Blogger weblog as public please follow the instructions below.

Log in to your Blogger account.
Click the "Change Settings" icon for your weblog.
Add your blog to Blogger listings.
Save your settings.

WordPress users can install pinging by doing the following;

Ping Technorati using WordPress

Log in to your WordPress weblog.
Select "Options" from the top menu.
Select "Writing" from the sub-menu.
The last option on the page is "Update Services." Add Technorati's ping server as a new line within the Update Services text box.
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

If Ping-o-Matic (http://rpc.pingomatic.com/) appears in the text box you are configured to ping Technorati as well as many other ping locations via a relay service. We recommend pinging Technorati directly with every new post and update.

Other blogs that can do pinging;

Click here to build your own.

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Making Money From Your Blog

There are people who blog to let the world know what they are up, to keep in touch with others or to share an experience or knowledge. Then there are those who blog because they want to make money.

While your primary intent for starting a blog should resemble the first set of people, it isn't always a bad thing to be compensated for it. Here are some ways that you can monetarily benefit with advertising.

The biggest thing that you can do is advertising. It use to be easy to do this in the days of AdSence and cost per click. However, the cost per click companies are becoming few and far between. The trend now is to get paid for actions. Actions can include signing up for a service or a list or having someone actually purchase something that was advertised on your site.

To get the actions you need to have;

Traffic to inspire the clicks
The proper layout to get the ads noticed
The proper ads that people want to take action on.

To actually get paid;

You need to reach a certain monetary point with the middle man handling the ads and you, the publisher.
You need to conform to rules and regulations of the middle man.

Where to get the ads
It use to be easy in the days of AdSense to say start with Google. However, since the announcement of the retirement of AdSense, things have changed.

Other sources for Ads

WidgetBucks actually has cost per click advertising. They have some good products, not as many as Google. On the downside, sometimes their widgets can slow down a load time.

Amazon is the granddaddy of advertising for bloggers. They have a good variety of widgets to choose from. On the downside, check their payment policy before you sign up to make sure that it is something that you want.

Other cost per click- The Knot and Marchex.

Sell your own spots

When you get consistent traffic, you can sell your own advertising spots. The easiest way to do this is to use one of the standard sizes for ads to make a box, say 120X90, and inside the box state "your ad here" with a link to you. What to charge is up to you but, consider how much you would be normally be making with an ad from a middle man in the same spot.

Other sources for advertising-

Product reviews on your blog.
Advertisement trades with other bloggers.
Affiliate program through single companies (check out the bottom of their websites )
Advertise for product reviews and advertisements in your newsletters
Don't rule out the local small business if your blog is a locally focused one

Warnings about advertising;

Limit the amount that you have obviously placed on your site. Too many is a huge turnoff to visitors and an instant cheapening to your site and authority.
Read and abide by policies from the advertisers and affiliate programs. Take note of whether or not your action and purchase or one from your ip address counts or if it can get you booted.
Also, what is their payment policy? Do you need to reach a reachable amount of money to get paid and can it be from multiple advertisers? What is the payment form?
If you do a product review, actually try and test the product. You can have negative repercussions if you promote a crummy product.

Blogger Buzz....

In case you haven't read this. It was posted on some blogger dashboards.

Spam Fridays

August 1, 2008 — permalink

While we wish that every post on this blog could be about cool features or other Blogger news, sometimes we have to step in and admit a mistake.

We've noticed that a number of users have had their blogs mistakenly marked as spam, and wanted to sound off real quick to let you know that, despite it being Friday afternoon, we are working hard to sort this out. So to those folks who have received an email saying that your blog has been classified as spam and can't post right now, we offer our sincere apologies for the trouble.

We hope to have this resolved shortly, and appreciate your patience as we work through the kinks.

Be Careful What You Post

If you are one of those people who cannot live without social networking sites, take some advice. There can be all kinds of people looking at your profile. Whether it is a prospective emplyer (yes, they check you out here!), a coach for a team (yep.) or even a deranged individual, you should be cautious.

According to CNN, Online hangouts like Facebook and MySpace have offered crime-solving help to detectives and become a resource for employers vetting job applicants. Now the sites are proving fruitful for prosecutors, who have used damaging Internet photos of defendants to cast doubt on their character during sentencing hearings and argue for harsher punishment.

"Social networking sites are just another way that people say things or do things that come back and haunt them," said Phil Malone, director of the cyberlaw clinic at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. "The things that people say online or leave online are pretty permanent."

The pictures, when shown at sentencing, not only embarrass defendants but can make it harder for them to convince a judge that they're remorseful or that their drunken behavior was an aberration. (Of course, the sites are also valuable for defense lawyers looking to dig up dirt to undercut the credibility of a star prosecution witness.)

Prosecutors do not appear to be scouring networking sites while preparing for every sentencing, even though telling photos of criminal defendants are sometimes available in plain sight and accessible under a person's real name. But in cases where they've had reason to suspect incriminating pictures online, or have been tipped off to a particular person's MySpace or Facebook page, the sites have yielded critical character evidence.

At many colleges and Universities, coaches will check out team members as often as daily to make sure that they are not violating any policies. While it may be in vogue to some to be seen with a "cup" or "bottle" in a picture, it can cost you a spot or a scholarship.