I have recently agreed myself and other bloggers to collaborate with ThinkTraffic to create a $1,000,000 blog. I am passionately following the project and willing to give up my best to perform myself while creating unique master piece that anyone can benefit out of it in future dates. I’ve been reading many successful blogger’s story so far and determined to create my own legacy.

It might sound bit crazy but I am confident that it is possible to build. If you have been following $1MBP, there are two goals to be reached.

1. Creating Million Dollar collectively in 2 years,
2. Creating my own Million Dollar Blog over its life time.

The first goal should be relatively easy to hit the target compare to the second one, as there will be many bloggers working that way. But I am committed and willing to give my best effort to contribute to the revenue figure for this project. I believe this will be the path to create my own million dollar blog over its life time.

Decision Making

“If I cannot do it, I cannot do it” I cannot just stare at blogs thinking I might’ve or haven’t succeeded this million dollar blogging game before even actually trying it. Putting full efforts to make it happen is far too away. Here I mean it and really mean it for you. If you haven’t started yet blogging, you should start today, just think about it. Like I have made my decision and went open about it.

If you have already started a blog you might find this $1MBP series very handy for references. One of the reasons behind this million dollar blog project is to record the important stages, keeping in mind of people who will be in a position, where I am today. I aim to publish all these important steps and stages to catch up where I am today. You could always get updates as I progress.

 Where am I today?

Today is September 14 2011 and I am at my home. Not Kidding.:)

I am not that far if you’re reading this post recent to that date, but if in after long time I have already promised to let you know, and you should catch up.

Today I am going to tell you what exact stage I am at. I have already told you I am not a pro-blogger in my announced post, but I am a better blogger today. Life is a learning curve and I wish to develop every day. And I have chosen to learn and understand blogging more in-depth.

I am Tourism and Hospitality Graduate, a Restaurant and Bar Manager in London by profession but I have left that job as I had to travel for long time and couldn’t get a long leave. I always wanted to create my own website have an independence and freedom to learn and explore my life more in my way. I have some other projects coming up as my developers are working on it, I will revel that in coming days. However, I am looking to do some part-time work as till date I am not living out of online income:(. It is frustrating at some points of early days like this, but I have confidence on me because I have learned a lot over the period and knowledge is the queen:). I can utilize it now.

But hey, Couple of days ago I received a mail from PayPal, my very first $50 affiliate commission. I was over the moon and did twit about it. I found out the commission was from my hosting company, I was kind of surprised, I analysed my sales deeper and found out that someone had clicked my link 3 months ago in my Facebook Page probably that person bought the product recently. This is a clear example that happened to me very recently, I know it is not a big amount but kind of interesting in many ways. That sale has given me much more confidence, which any start-up bloggers will desperately need in early days like this.

That’s about today. That means I had done something yesterday. To tell you fact, I haven’t done much in terms of blogging itself. As I told you I am a Tourism Graduate, I had absolutely no idea on coding, CSS or more in so a basic WP set-up. I have been heavily investing my time and done so many researches independently. Many were just time consuming but few really informative and will make me keep going for a long time.

If you are in a stage where you think you do not know coding and stuffs, you should not worry; at the same time you should not just waste your time hanging around. I used to spend loads of hours just to find out how to use basic CSS and HTML. I found this site called W3school where I learned so much of stuffs that have been a real help in my early days and still visit often.

I do not want you do the same mistakes that I had done, or will make during or after this series. I will do my best to inform you step-by-step as I go along with this huge project that I have destined.

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How I bought this domain name: What I have learned?

If you are in a stage of buying a domain name for the first time, it could easily be overwhelmingly exciting. Even if I enlighten you to calm down, you won’t listen to me if you are person like me. I had learned few things here and there about buying domain name and using keywords in it for optimal performance. You could find those resources everywhere again some information are useful and many are there just for basic contents. {This post is not about how to choose domain name}

As I am really interested in tech, trends and media I wanted to create a blog on my own. I went to GoDaddy, tried www.techtrends.com it was not available. I tried www.mediatrends.com it was not available too. I searched www.toptrends.com not available as well, I searched then was www.TechTopTrends.com it was available, also mediatoptrends. That’s the point when I got really excited. I went much deeper and deeper, when I found domain that interested me, kind of.

I had done keyword research on my initial “tech” “trends” and “media” I was happy with the search volume in Google. I went back and did research on “TopTrends” then it started the whole new dimension and anxiety, which I think many new domain registrants, carries.

I went back to GoDaddy and used its bulk registration service and ended up buying whopping 12 domain names all with ending “TopTrends”. Thinking to create a Super Branded Blog. I haven’t spent time developing at all not even monetized those site with parking and stuffs, that’s just mine to say:) To let you know I bought:-

1. www.TechTopTrends.com
2. www.GoogleTopTrends.com
3. www.AppleTopTrends.com
4. www.SEOTopTrends.com
5. www.iPhoneTopTrends.com
6. www.AndroidTopTrends.com
7. www.iPadTopTrends.com
8. www.GadgetsTopTrends.com
9. www.MediaTopTrends.com
10. www.DesignTopTrends.com
11. www.StartUpsTopTrends.com
12. www.BloggingTopTrends.com

What I have learned?

I do not have any regrets or anything what so ever but I have learned that, I didn’t had planning and strategy on place for my entire domains. I initially wanted to buy just one domain, and I was easily carried away. I had interest on blogging but hadn’t analysed my personal situation, if I was technically and financially ready for the TopTrends project that I had in my mind initially before buying all those domains.

But I have learned today, if I hadn’t taken that small step to buy those domains, I wouldn’t have gained this information and knowledge what I have today. There’s nothing to lose now, there’s just opportunity to create, develop, or sale.

My advice to newbie would be to do a research, plan and understand basics about the topic you want to blog about before buying a domain. It is fairly easy to get a domain name and won’t cost you much, if not planned it could just be waste of your time and bit of money.

 But I have chosen the right hosting

I do not have any complaint at all getting my Baby Hosting package form Hostgator with the code[HostGatorHQ] which gave me [still gives] 25% discount. I paid only £… for this package. Hostgator has so much support and information out there which are designed especially for bloggers.

This hosting package gives me unlimited domain names to host without any major terms and limits. If you are planning to get one I recommend Hostgator strongly. Don’t forget to use the code that will save you some bucks on checkoutJ. Also I think baby hosting package is the best one as it encases you to host another blog.

Have I Chosen the right theme?

I have multiple thoughts on my premium theme that I am using. To tell you the fact, this theme could easily be tweaked to appear like Mashable, and that’s the type of super-blog I originally wanted to create. You can check the demo of my theme here.

I am happy with it as there are so many resources in the support forum which helped me understand more about designing and tweaking themes.

If you are planning to create a blog, I would recommend only investing on domain (one) and baby hosting package. There are plenty of free themes available for wordpress which you can tweak or twist to your taste.

In terms of blogging platform, I have only used, blogger.com, wordpress.com, wordpress.org and little bit of Joomla. Personally I find wordpress.ORG much easy and helpful open-source community. I have been trying many plugins and other stuffs in wordpress, which I will publish it in future dates what exactly I’ll be using to run my $1MBP stay tuned for that.

[Keep Connected:- RSS, Facebook, Twitter, Email]

The Million Dollar Blog Project: Fulfilling Requirements

If you would like to follow the $1MBP you will need to full fill simple requirements. The requirements are set to help track the progress of the overall project; however these steps are basic necessity for any bloggers willing to take the blogging to the next level.

I have almost everything set-up and ready to go rock now. I’ve been eagerly waiting for $1MBP’s nominated topic where we had to nominate 5 topics out of 80+, I had nominated:-

1. Eco-Tourism
2. Blog & Website Design for Non Designers (How to make your blog look incredible without spending a fortune)
3. 30-day Expert Blog: Chose one topic for a month and learn how to be the best at it.
4. Become an Expert Slowly (a site devoted to those people who take on worthwhile goals, huge goals, where they face years of failure between them and achieving mastery, skill, or success.)
5. The best “places” around the world & do they live up to the hype? 

ThinkTraffic announced the topic and is going to be Blog/Website design in a broad level, but still curious what Corbett and Caleb will come up for their project. But, in my case I have to decide what topic and domain I will be using, keeping in mind that bloggers could choose their own topic if they do not want to use the nominated topic as long as the requirements are fulfilled. I’ll let you know soon on that.

Long story short, the requirements are:-

1) Your site needs to be a blog, and need to allow comments:-  Well I do not have much to say on this. I love comments and please feel free to do so; I’ll reply back to all of your comments and notes. Where ever you want this blog, facebook, twitter or email me.

2) You may start a new blog OR use an existing blog for the project: It will really depend on my topic what domain name I’ll be using to challenge $1MPB. You’ll know it soon.

3) You have to install Clicky analytics on your blog and Google Feedburner (both free services).

This blog is set. I’ll have to do the same if I use different domain.

Feedburner:-FeedBurner is a free service by Google to burn the RSS feeds. All major blogs use this service and of course you do not want to miss out. FeedBurner tracks the statistics of how many people subscribes. FeedBurner is pretty straight to set-up just head to www.feedburner.com all you’ll need is a Google account to claim your feed for your blog. If you have confusion here is essential feedburner answers.

Clicky:- Without a doubt Clicky analytics is awesome. You can really see where your visitors are coming from in a real-time. In a long run, to achieve $1,000,000 you’d need to know where your sales are coming from, if you do not know you’d be flying blind.

I particularly find it powerful tool because it could analyze all the traffic and breaks down geographic views, time spent on page, conversion, bounce rates and much more. It is user friendly and Clicky comes free for an account. What can you expect more?

4) You have to keep an accountability journal to document your progress.

According to Think Traffic’s requirement, there should be a journal for $1MBP. And journal can be kept anywhere online, as long as it is public.

I have decided to use this blog to include the journal for $1MPB. Here you will find all my updates for the project. I’ll be using this site to publish other resources apart $1MBP so you could expect more here.

5) You have to tell us a few details about your blog.

I’ll be submitting my details as soon as the registration opens.

These will be filled:

• Blog name:                 _______________
• URL:                             _______________
• Author name:           Kalyan Shrestha
• Monthly visitors:    _______________    
• Subscribers:              _______________
• Total Revenue:         _______________      
• Progress log link:     _______________

[Keep Connected:- RSS, Facebook, Twitter, Email]

Do you think I will achieve success?

Success might mean but is not limited to a level of social status, achievement of an objective/goal or the opposite of failure.- Wiki

Success for this project, I would limit it to the target that is been set to achieve for$1MBP. There’s no set rules on what techniques could be applied in terms of blogging and I know there are plenty of ways to go forward. Choosing the right topic would be something I will be planning for couple of days from now. I’ll be using all those techniques that I have learned over the period.

I always used to enjoy reading sales and marketing back in school, and I know I am good at it. I’ve developed marketing plans for restaurants and tourism field but I am really looking to develop, design and implement on my blog project ($1MBP).

I have already mentioned, one thing I didn’t do before for my domains was creating a strategy. I am actively working on to create a strategy that will help me lead to the whole process. I am putting things together from scratch, definitely it is challenging task but I am determined to create a freedom out of it. I am putting the resources together, better say recording my steps. I usually have unique approach and fresh ideas. I love to work on Microsoft Words, Excel and Notebook. I’ll be sharing these on email because it will deserve some interest; otherwise it is going to bore you more here.

Content is the King: - A famous and important phrase, all blogger should embrace and I have truly understood the power of it. I’ll definitely strive to create unique articles, never though I have ever actively participate myself into blogging so much. You should know by now I like to learn and develop at every opportunity. I shall write better content next. I have few interesting articles lined up. Please do subscribe to my RSS or get instant Email updates. Please do let me know how you find this post below on comments.

I’d also love to hear from you,how’s things are on your side. The topic for the project seems to have been of a major debate what’s your point? I think there is still a space to choose our own topic and make use of the community that is going to introduce me to you or vice versa?

Let’s get the ball rolling.

Thank You

Kalyan

The Million Dollar Blog Project:- Build Profitable Blog Collectively

Image Courtesy: PageTutor.com

Think Traffic team announced The Million Dollar Blog Project that is going to promisingly make the million dollar blogs collectively.We have seen successful Million Dollar Experiment which was manifested by Steve Pavlina’s effort back in days; recently we all have seen the success of Niche Site duel by Pat and Tyrone. Now the trends are towards The Million Dollar Blog Project.

Corbett Barr and his team are the real people behind the Million Dollar Blog Project. I bet Corbett is feeling the heat with his analytic reports, which has already generated 364 comments on this million dollar blog project announced post. I can see lots of bloggers using twitter to show their interest and are joining the Project to create a million dollar blog collectively.

Introduction to The Million Dollar Blog Project

The ambitious and challenging idea behind “The Million Dollar Blog Project” is to build a profitable blog on a topic that is not directly related to make money online. The whole process is going to be a collective approach where everyone can learn from each-others efforts from the very beginning, step by step to turn the blog into profit.

“The Million Dollar Project” is a target set to be reached within two years, to generate the total value of “million dollar” collectively. Think Traffic says:-

If we help 100 people create blogs that earn $10,000 or more each, that’s a million dollars in value this project will have created. Whether it’s 10 blogs that earn $100,000 or 1,000 blogs that earn $1,000, either way we’ll be happy.

Joining The Million Dollar Blog Project

I have been reading Corbett’s blog for a while now; summer is definitely over here in London and winter are going to be chilled and rather boring. I just found something that would keep me engaged, and the challenge is accepted.

I am not a Pro-Blogger but have read many blogs on how to make successful blog in last 10 years. I am not programmer or a designer, but I know, one do not have to be that geek to create a blog like this.  I am supporting The Million Dollar Project and would like to inspire you to join the project, telling you that you do not need to know programming or coding to start a blog. I started learning myself from w3schools.com

See the full part of the image above. [Trillion Dollar Visualization]

Credit to: morn1415 [YouTube]

 My name is Kalyan. I am planning to create a special section for “The Million Dollar Blog Project” you can follow my series via RSS, I will be updating it as we go along.
So far it is still unknown on what topic will be nominated for the project; however it is known that bloggers can blog on the topic of their choice. I am quite excited and really looking forward to see the further progress of the project itself. One thing we know is, it is not going to be small niche site.

The Million Dollar Blog Project is for creating Authority Blog.

Tips for a Successful Adsense Site

Everyone knows what Coca-Cola is and what Google is. I do not like hot Cola as much as I dislike scattered Google Adsense which is like a dump of trash. However it doesn’t have to be that way to make most out of each. I would rather drink warm water and use other monetization methods. But the problem is either bloggers do not care or do not know the importance of design aspect of monetization.

Adsense is not the only monetization techniques for blogs, but definitely it is one of the most trusted and respected one. Here are important tips to run a successful Adsense monetized site which every bloggers should consider.

You need to understand at least why and how your visitors come to your site. Regardless if your site is a niche blog, static website or forums, there is a reason why people visit your site.

It is very essential to know that people do not come for the advertisement to your site. Which means people are looking for specific, good, unique content? If you have great unique content across your niche, that simply could be the reason why your visitors visit you again and again. Now Traffic means money remember!!

Secondly understanding how you are getting visitors is important too. You can get traffic from various sources. One of the main sources of traffic for your blog should be from Search Engines. This is why you see many bloggers talks and works on Search Engine Optimization. Traffic means money remember!!

Now you have unique contents in your site and are getting many searches engines results. Now optimizing your Adsense units is something tricky to get most out of it.

Blog Theming and Location for Adsense: -

Location for Adsense unit is very important if you are willing to monetize your site with Google Adsense. Make sure you locate these units in prominent location. It is always good to use professional looking theme which looks clean and Adsense is blended. Certain ads locations tend to be more successful than others. However the best location always varies depending blogs, you can always check the heat map to generate in-depth information about your pages.

The above diagram is from Google ad Implementation help article, you can dig in for more helpful information there.

Short Unique Content Juicing for Adsense

If you are willing to make most of the Google Adsense, one thing you can test is tightening your content. I am not telling you not to create unique article though. Content juicing is scattering the information but presenting it in user-friendly manner. The best part of content juicing is you have the unique to point articles which are beneficial in many ways.

To successfully execute this you can divide your topic in small snippets posts. Creating series of posts on same topic and linking form one to next is important. This not only helps your page views but also keeps your users more encyclopaedic resources.

1. First, your readers get what they are looking for to the point.
2. Second you can create multiple article posts rather than writing on multiple topics on same post.

Ultimately you have unique targeted multiple resource pages and of course your Adsense slots which are most likely to be relevant to that content. Remember relevant ads means opportunity to gain more click through.

One tip to take away is to create single post page numbered link, like I have created for this post. If optimized properly it will help your blog grow quickly in many ways.

Optimized Adsense Palettes Formats: -

Designing Ads colour and choosing the right Adsense format is the key to success for money making with Adsense blog. If you really want to make money this is something could not be ignored. Usually or Google Image ads, Google automatically displays according to the colour of you blog, but not for text advertisements. But you have to opportunity to choose the colour how you would like it to be appearing.

Again there is no hard and fast rule for choosing the right colour but usually using the same colour that you have in your blog is optimal.

Google recommends blended ads within content and contrast colour to adjacent locations. Below is sourced from Google you can test this in your blog and check your heat map if it is working well for you.

 Track your Adsense Slots for better performance:-

One of the key is to understand which of your Adsense location is performing well is by naming your ads lot according to the location where you have set to appear on your blog. Understanding if those ads are performing well or not is important, if certain ads are not performing well it is best to move to other location and try it there.

You should always track and do a bit of research. To track your Adsense performance the best place is the Google Adsense Dashboard itself, on your research you should combine the heat map report of your blog, and of course the Analytic. You can use Google Analytic but I prefer Clicky, which comes free version too.

Ask the Adsense Builders:-

If in any cases you are confused and need some help you can always check in the forums, Google it, or of course ask the builders.

Adsense teams always respond to my questions. Trust Me. Here are their two email addresses for you to use, if you need in-depth assistant depending to your needs:-

Adsense-tech@google.com

Adsense-support@google.com

Understanding Affiliate Payment Structures

I have already discussed what affiliate marketing is, here in this post I will looking into the payment structure of Affiliate Marketing on publishers/bloggers point of view. There are many different Affiliate networks and other independent affiliate advertisers who advertised their product to get more traffic or sales.

Advertisers and Businesses marketing to get the final sale are very common and very obvious. This type of affiliate promotions is called Pay Per Sale. One of the best examples for Pay per Sale programs is Amazon.com’s affiliate (associate) program.

As you know it is one of the most popular affiliate programs but Pay per sale is not only structure for affiliate payment. There are mainly three affiliate payment methods, those are broken down below. They are Pay Per Lead, Pay Per Sale, and Pay per Click.  

Pay Per Lead: Pay per Lead is a type of affiliate marketing payment structure where affiliates gets paid by advertisers based on set targeted action. Pay Per Lead affiliate target could be anything from sign up for newsletter or trial offer sign-ups to software download. Pay per lead do not have any set rules of standard, however for much clearer vision, Lead is just like an action that is expected to be carried out where payment is based only on qualifying leads.

Pay Per Sale: Pay Per Sale is very much similar to Pay Per Lead. It is more inclined to closing the Affiliate transaction to final Sales of the product or service. Commission payment could however vary either on percentage basis or a set price.

Pay Per Click: Pay per click is different to Pay per sale and Pay per lead model because advertisers pay the publishers when the advertisement is clicked. Pay per click is highly popular with Search Engines. The rate for PPC usually depends on Cost Per Click that is set by these search engine network operators which itself operates on bidding model and varies according to the competition of the keyword phrase.

Executing and optimizing all three methods on blog is highly profitable and many bloggers are being able to successfully implement it side by side.

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Affiliate Trends Spots:-

e-junkie:- http://bloggingtoptrends.com/go/e-junkie/
Start You Email Blogging:- http://bloggingtoptrends.com/go/Start-Your-Email-Blogging/

Get Your Statistics on Real Time:- http://bloggingtoptrends.com/go/Get-Your-Stastics-on-Real-Time/
Secrets to Money Making:- http://www.bloggingtoptrends.com/go/SecrectstoProfitsMakeing/

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Blog in very plain English is an online log of personal expression. It is more like a diary that you could publish online and make it available for anyone to read. In simple words it is a media where anyone can publish their thoughts, in most cases anything.

Blogs comes for personal expressions and are important source of information. You do not have to be an expert to blog, a view/news/expression telling is a blog. If your views/news/information is great  other people will find it interesting read.

Lets look into other definition of Blog available online:-

Oxford Dictionaries

Wikipedia Definition to Blog.

A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world…… In simple terms, a blog is a website, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what’s new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not. – Blogger.com

“Blog” is an abbreviated version of “weblog,” which is a term used to describe web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information. A blog features diary-type commentary and links to articles on other Web sites, usually presented as a list of entries in reverse chronological order. Blogs range from the personal to the political, and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects. – WordPress.org

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Affiliate Trends Spots:-

e-junkie:- http://bloggingtoptrends.com/go/e-junkie/
Start You Email Blogging:- http://bloggingtoptrends.com/go/Start-Your-Email-Blogging/

Get Your Statistics on Real Time:- http://bloggingtoptrends.com/go/Get-Your-Stastics-on-Real-Time/
Secrets to Money Making:- http://www.bloggingtoptrends.com/go/SecrectstoProfitsMakeing/

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• If you are looking for basic knowledge on Affiliate Marketing, you are on the right page. Affiliate marketing have vast descriptions, however all has the same core meaning. Affiliate marketing has grown rapidly after late 90′s and it has become one key part of marketers and online publishers to make profit out of Affiliate Marketing programs. I will be explaining the term Affiliate and Marketing separately and combining both definition together like I did on Social Media Optimization.

What is Affiliate?

Affiliate is simply a term that describes a person or company that is associated with another person or organization. Affiliate itself is a broad term.  Affiliate is used in various scopes. Affiliate does not only associate with Marketing. The term Affiliate may be used with School, University, institution and many other organization. The most popular Affiliation practices are:

• Affiliated School
• Affiliated Institution
• Affiliated University
• Affiliate Network/platform
• Religious Affiliate
• Trade Union/Political Affiliate
• Affiliate Marketing.

What is Marketing?

Marketing term itself is huge and mature to describe it here. Big meaning for small understanding, Marketing is a practice that involves various process to determine the right product to right place at the right time.

Marketing definition from Wikipedia:

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments.

Let’s define  Affiliate Marketing:-

So combining Affiliate and Marketing together, we get:-

Affiliate Marketing is a practice that involves multiple individual or company in an association for mutual benefits to get the right product to right place at right time. Affiliate Marketing could be referred to both offline and online marketing practice. Affiliate marketing is very cooperative effort between merchants and an affiliate’s website. It uses the marketing excellence of merchants to The most common form of model is online affiliate marketing and I will be talking more to this model of marketing.

Online Affiliate Marketing:

Online Affiliate Marketing is marketing practice that is automated mostly uses a software to determine the goal that is set to target. The program could be on incentive basis but mostly works on commission basis.

For example, if you sell someone’s product or service that you do not own, just by promoting online/offline without purchasing actual product or service and you get certain commission for selling that product/service. Here you are called affiliate and product/service owner is called merchant affiliate.

Basically those are the 2 key model when it comes to become an affiliate. That is,

1. Merchant Affiliate : Sell your product through your affiliate programs
2. Advertiser/Promoter Affiliate: Sell someone’s product or service and get commission.

[READ:- AFFILIATE PAYMENT STRUCTURE]