Endless Idyll

I sense an Online Presence

2007-11-29T09:11:00.000+08:00

Online Presence is PR4 blog mainly on the techniques of making money online. Anuj Seth created this site from Feb 2007 and has been consistently chunking out informative posts about monetizing your blog. I especially like the tab-based navigation tool on the sidebar which managed to fit in it's popular post and top comments.

The post I like best is : Increase traffic on your blogs

I have a small blog, so any tips to increase traffic to my blog is welcome.

Anyway, Anuj is holding a THE NO EFFORT $100 CONTEST right now.

All you have to do is write an original review of Online Presence. Then, just paste the link on the comments and you are in.

The contest ends on the last day of the year (31st Dec 2007).

And that's a potential $100 for you.

If you like my post, you can subscribe to my feed here.

You were a rookie once, too

2007-11-01T10:08:00.000+08:00

Well, if you are a blogger, you will still remember how tough it is when you started out. The Rookie Blogger certainly is starting out and is looking for more comments on his blog.

To add an incentive, he is holding a contest where he will randomly select a comment on his blog to win $50 payable by paypal. The contest will end on the last day of November.

So go help him build up his comments.

(I just wonder what will be his domain name after he graduated from being a rookie. Hehe.)

If you like my post, you can subscribe to my feed here.

Another chance to win $100 smackers from Contestblogger...

2007-11-01T09:49:00.000+08:00

This time the contest is sponsored by Making Sales Making Money blog. The entry requirement is just SOO easy.

All you have to do is to use the anchor text home based business opportunities. This is to link back to the Making Sales Making Money blog.

Next use the anchor text "sweepstakes" to link back to the Contestblogger homepage.

That's it. 2 simple conditions. But there is more...

If you subscribe to Making Sales Making Money RSS feed, you will stand another chance to win the $100.

The winner will be announced on the 5th of Dec. Remember to set a reminder.

If you like my post, you can subscribe to my feed here.

Psst....it's a secret

2007-11-01T09:34:00.000+08:00

ContestBlogger is holding another contest where he will give out the mega bestselling book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. Here's a quote from the Secret website:

The Secret explains with simplicity the law that is governing all lives, and offers the knowledge of how to create—intentionally and effortlessly—a joyful life. This is The Secret to everything—the Secret to unlimited happiness, love, health, and prosperity.

All you need to enter this contest is to write a blog post about it and link back to Contestblogger hompage. It's so easy.

So hurry, head over to Contestblogger now and stand a chance to win a Hardcover copy of the Secret.

If you like my post, you can subscribe to my feed here.

Love, love and more love...

2007-10-16T22:40:00.000+08:00

Do you want to know about love? AND do you want to win some money while doing so?

Well, Romance Tracker is holding a love contest with a prize of $100! You only have to link back to the homepage using the anchor text "Love" or subscribe to the feed to earn an entry into the contest.

So hurry! the closing date is on the 16th Nov 2007.

If you like my post, you can subscribe to my feed here.

Write a poem to win $50 from SimplyMoroccan

2007-10-15T21:13:00.000+08:00

Wow, first time I try to write a poem. Hope it sounds okay. This is my competition entry for the “SimplyMoroccan’s Competition”. This can be found on the website SimplyMoroccan. The sponsor for this contest is SpeakMoroccan.
The prizes for this competition are very good with 3 prizes of $50 each payable to paypal. Now that's Fantastic!!

My aunt came today on a Bâbbôr named Grandeur,
She moves around like a pretty farasha,
unlike my uncle gross and qrzâz,
Wîlî wîlî! hate him like khnôna.

Want to see me expand my literary skills? Subscribe to the BlogMunch Feed.

Need insurance for your automobile?

2007-10-13T00:36:00.001+08:00

It can be a hassle to compare prices for different automobile insurance. There are hundred and one insurance companies to choose from, so how can you get the best rates?

Advantage Auto Quotes can do it for you. With its network of insurances companies, you are sure to get the best rates. They can even advise you on coverage for your sports car. Now that's good service.

Insurance Quotes Online

You can now get your quotes directly online through Advantage Auto Quotes. You just have to choose the state (sorry, US only) and then a quote will be send to you. What I like about the site is the amount of information provided so that you can make the right choice on your auto insurance.

So what are you waiting for? Hurry over to Advantage Auto Quotes to get the best rates now.

Brought to you by your friends at http://www.advantageautoquotes.com/

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ContestBlogger Forum - A new way to post your contest.

2007-10-12T17:25:00.000+08:00

If you want your contests to get the most exposure, then you got to submit to the ContestBlogger. Now the whole contest submission is greatly simplify and you just got to post your contest on the forum.

Its that EASY!

And Contest Blogger is going to give away $25 to a lucky winner to encourage everyone to post in the forum and tell their readers about it. So go and post now.

If you like my post, you can subscribe to my feed here.

Blogsvertise - A new PayPerPost?

2007-10-12T10:56:00.000+08:00

I found Blogsvertise while surfing on the web looking for alternative to Payperpost.

The rules are the same. You register with Blogsvertise and submit your blog to be approved. Once it is approved, you will be emailed tasks/new assignments to write about in your blog. New blogs will normally earn between $5-$15 per post. As stated here:

"You do not have to endorse the website's products or services, just mention it, discuss it, or relate to it somehow in your blog/journal entry."

I think this is quite flexible as it does not interfere in the way you write your post. That's good.

There is also an affiliated program for you in refer new advertiser to Blogsvertise.

You will be paid 20% of what your referral spend. That's a great deal.

So sign up for Blogsvertise and start making money now.

Click Here to Advertise on My Blog

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Give me $100 and I will tell you a cool prize!

2007-10-12T08:47:00.000+08:00

Over at ContestBeat wants to squeeze your creative juices and come out with a cool prize under &100. The prize for this? Two winners, as quoted from ContestBeat:

"First, $50 (via Paypal or Amazon gift certificate - winners choice) will go to the person who came up with the best prize, in my opinion. This will be based on both the contest prize suggested and the reasoning to go with it (so two or more people who suggest the same prize can be differentiated).

Secondly, and because I don’t want to disadvantage those of you who might be a little less creative than your counterparts, $50 (via Paypal or Amazon gift certificate - once again, winners choice) will also go to a randomly selected entrant."

So you can win by your creative juices or lucky stars.

Now, what prizes would I want under $100?

As I am from out of US, any physical prizes would not be attractive to me, as there will be the hassle of delivery and delivery charges.
I would also want something that can benefit my blog.
To further ease prize sending, I think a digital prize will be the easiest to transfer.

So with that said, my choice will be:

If you can find a programmer or coder as a sponsor, how about a free custom application? It can be a desktop freeware or a simple Web2.0 app or even a facebook app. It could even be a collaboration between the winner and the coder where one provide the idea and the other code it.

Now that's what I call a cool prize. Your very own freeware!
(Donationcoder.com have lots of great coders, maybe you can contact them)

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Win Advetisment space from Gadgettastic.com!

2007-10-11T21:45:00.000+08:00

Do you want to advertise your blog/site on a site with over 225,000 page views and 85,000 unique visitors per month?

Do you know how much it will cost you? $50? $100? $600?

Well, now is a chance to win a premium 125x125 ad space at Gadgettastic.com. They are holding a contest where one lucky winner will win the ad space for three months. According to them, that is worth $1800.

You just need to link to their contest and write a few words about the contest. It's that simple. The closing date is 31st of October 2007. The winner will be chosen randomly.

If you like my post, you can subscribe to my feed here.

You seem to like haunted places, Jeff

2007-10-11T11:24:00.000+08:00

Jeff from "Everything you want to know about california, and more!" seems to like writing about haunted places. For the past 2 weeks, he had written about haunted places in places like Long Beach and San Diego. My favorite piece from him is the one about haunted Disneyland. I have always wanted to go to Disneyland but now had second thoughts.

Ha, even his picture looks like an agent from MIB (Men in Black). Catch any aliens lately? (no offense, Jeff).

I guess if you are going to tour California in the near future, visit his blog to know more about it.

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Announcment

2007-10-11T11:12:00.000+08:00

Dear All readers who have not converted to Blogmunch.com,

Please do so now. As I am going to convert Endless Idyll into a different type of blog. I will use this blog for all my contest post and affiliated programs. So if this topic is not to your taste, please switch over to my regular blog for more internet related reading.

But if you are interested in contests around the internet and the affiliated programs that I use, feel free to stay for the ride.

If you like my post, you can subscribe to my feed here.

Win $25 from Yentoo.com

2007-10-11T10:01:00.000+08:00

Yentoo.com is a site about personal development, health and family. And as a parent, I couldn't agree more about his summary about parenting in the post Parents - 5 Things You Need To Do For Your Kids.

Anyway, Yentoo is running a contest on his blog for 25$ cold hard cash. Just give a quick review on your blog about Yentoo.com and you qualified. Unless you are from Mars or Venus. (inside joke)

So like the man say, start "Living a healthy, happy, fulfilled life".

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Welcome New Visitors from Problogger...

2007-08-20T14:35:00.000+08:00

Hello, if you have swing by from 31 Days to Building a Better Blog Project, I would like to give you a warm welcome to my blog. Please make yourself at home and read some more of my blog.

Here are some of the most popular posts from this blog:

Thanks for coming over and I hope you can find something worthwhile here.

If you like my post, you can subscribe to my feed here.

Dear All...

2007-08-17T00:30:00.000+08:00

There some admin stuff to settle after my shift to wordpress.

For those who came to my blog through sleepyidler.blogspot.com, please change your bookmark to point to blogmunch.com.

For those who previously subscribe to my feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/endlessidyll, please resubscribe @ this feed address.

I would like to thank all of you who have read my blog and subscribe to it. I wish you would follow me to Blogmunch, so that I can entertain you with more of my post.

This should be my last post here at Blogger (unless there are more admin announcements). I have a wonderful time here and now I must move on.

GoodBye...

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Shifting to Wordpress and paid-hosting

2007-08-15T16:20:00.000+08:00

I have finally took the plunge to go for paid hosting after encourging comments from fellow bloggers. The site will be down and I am not sure when it will come back on. So stay tuned and I will keep updating within Blogger until Blogmunch.com is up again.

[edited: Hmm, it seems that although blogmunch.com is down, www.blogmunch.com is still showing the blogger site. You can continue to surf here.]

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Do you click on ads?

2007-08-14T18:21:00.000+08:00

No, I am not calling you to click on your own ads. It's illegal. Ads are important to pro or semi-pro bloggers as they are a source of income. I am just wondering when you are surfing around the blogosphere, do you click on ads that interest you?

For me, I am adverse to clicking on ads. It might be due to previous bad experiences for flash banner or pop up ads at spam sites. Now, before I click anything, I always check the link address on the status bar. Sometimes, when I see links with referral id, I will note the address and type in the address myself. Yes, I know I'm bad. (must kick this habit)

Basically, the reason I am posting this is that I know how tough it is for a small site/blog to earn some cash, even for maintenance of the site/blog. So, I will be changing my surfing habit. If I look at a blog and like what I read, I will click on their ads to help them a little. How can you expect others to click on your ads if you are paranoid about it?

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Sticky Post in Blogger

2007-08-13T15:19:00.000+08:00

I have put a sticky post on my home blog for welcoming new visitors from Problogger. To make a sticky post, you can just future date your post. So simple.

If you are using a calendar widget like mine on the sidebar, don't future post it too far in the future, or else your calendar will only show the sticky post. One week should be enough.

If you want to make it a permanent fixture (and to avoid the mess above), you can follow the instructions here to make a "New Page Element" above your main body.

If you like my post, you can subscribe to my feed here.

Related Posts:
Three column template - part 2
Tip of the day...

How are my Ads performing for my blog?

2007-08-12T00:21:00.001+08:00

This site monetized by Google AdSense and various other advert programs right from the start. I want to tell you what ads I am using and what are their performance like.

Google Adsense

Google Adsense is familiar to everyone of you reading now, so I won't talk too much about it. Basically, I am using Adsense PPC, Referral and Search. The results are as below:

[picture removed: It seems that I am not allow to display my CTR or eCPM according to Google TOS]

Anyway, current earnings $1.14.

Pathetic, isn't it. I am not too worried about it but I hope it will get better soon.

Text Link Ads

I am still not qualified for the text link ads program. According to the website, my blog doesn't have enough traffic for them to approve. I like text links as it is easily integrated into a post, so I am looking forward to having this blog approved. I am now using its referral program. Current earnings = $0.00

Amazon affiliated program

Of all the Ads program, this is the one that I like most. You are able to introduce and recommend products that you have known or used. Frequently, the text links will be added within a review. Readers who like what they read in the reviews can proceed to Amazon to purchase the product. This is more proactive and not have to rely on clicks to earn money. Problogger Darren explain it better than me on why Amazon affiliated program is a very good program.

I also set up an aStore to let me put up items I love within Amazon for others to browse. Its like having a shop for the Amazon franchise. Current earnings = $0.00. I just use it for 2 weeks, so this might need some time to get running.

AuctionAds

Below is from the FAQ of AuctionAds.

"How do I earn money with Auction Ads?

When your site's visitors click on an Auction Ad listing and take an action on eBay you earn cash. Actions are defined as a Winning Bid, a Buy-it-Now or a confirmed user registration. AuctionAds is committed to paying out a minimum of 100% of eBay commission revenue. See eBay's affiliate program for details on the payout."

I have not done much with it. I put it on the footer and forget about it. Currently my largest earner as it gives you $5.00 when you sign up. As for actual Ads performance, yes, its $0.00. Current earnings = $5.00

So my blog is not earning much. No matter, I love blogging and I will continue to blog until my mind well goes dry. To all 6 months and below bloggers,

How are your ads performing for you?

Send me a comment and discuss.

Technorati Tags: adsense, blog earnings

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Blogger template links - part 2

2007-08-11T12:20:00.001+08:00

Blogger template link is a very popular post on my blog. That why I will try to hand out more links that I can find on the internet. As always, remember to back up you blogger xml template before you upload these free template.

6 free SEO friendly blogger templates

Dark Blogger Template, Slined Mod 2.0 by Dandyna

Web 2.0 Blogger Template Dark

Blogger Template: Gemstone

"Butterfly": a new girly 3 column Blogger template

Colibri: a beautiful template for your blogger

Pink Classic Swirl - free blogger design

Folder Blue Blogger Template

Below is a easy way for adding your Google reader subscriptions to your blogger template as blogroll. I currently using it on my sidebar.

Improve my blog navigations

2007-08-10T18:05:00.000+08:00

The first time I find that my blog is a bit clunky in terms of blog navigations is when August 1st rolls in. That's when I find the calendar from my sidebar only shows this month's post. So if there is only one post on the calendar, it will only show one post on the sidebar.

To find my previous posts, I would have to click on the July at the top of the calendar. That requires an additional click and furthermore not intuitive. Although you can use the search functions to search for the post you want to read, I want to make it easier for my readers to find what they want. That's when I decide to tweak my blog navigations.

I decide upon a three pronged attack:

Clean up my labels - include limited broad categories
Add Popular Posts to sidebar
Add Related post to bottom of each post

Clean up my labels
I find that the labels on my sidebars are too haphazard. They are single word labels that don't mean anything without the context. I will decide on some broad categories like Blogging or Writing Contents that will describe a range of posts. This will also help in my third point about related post. Currently, I have not done so and plan to do this on the weekends. Alternatively, if I can find a script for tag cloud, I might use them.

Add Popular Posts to sidebar
I will add some of my popular posts as determined by statcounter. Currently, I am doing everything by hand (ie. copy/paste). I plan to update this once a week. as this is quite tedious, I need to search for a script or a widget to do this for me. Any suggestions?

Related post at the end of post
I have started to add in related post so that after reading current post, you will be able to see post that is related to this topic. Again, I am doing this by hand. My disorganized labels doesn't help too. Makes it difficult even to look for my own post.

I know that the self hosted Wordpress.org have plugins that can help tremendously in this area. You can read Lorelle's blog post about related wordpress plugins here.
I wonder if I am reaching the bottleneck for the free hosted Blogger and move on to hosted server and Wordpress.org.

If you like my post, you can subscribe to my feed here.

Related Posts:
Blogger.com vs Wordpress.com
Blogger posting woes

Have you blog with Windows Live Writer?

2007-08-09T23:10:00.000+08:00

If you have been reading my blog regularly, you would know that I have been searching for a desktop blog client after a accidental deleted post at Blogger. Well, I settled on Windows Live Writer (WLW).

You can say that this is the Microsoft Word of blog publishing. Once you set up your account (Blogger, Wordpress, etc.) , you will be able to write a blog post in web layout view (WYSIWYG).

I had complain about Blogger's autosave feature being to helpful, while in WLW, you will be able to set the minutes before it autosave. That gives me a bit of allowance in case I made a mistake.

What I love best about WLW is how easy it can retrieve draft post from my Blogger and also the ability to save draft to Blogger. That is so useful to me as I don't need to copy/paste from my draft to WLW to start writing. By posting draft to your blog, you will always have a copy online so that you can start blogging anywhere. That's sweet.

Some of the other features that I like include:

Image manipulation - you can add in effects like color pop, B&W, sepia and even your own watermark.
Create and edit tables easily
Add categories - in Blogger terms = labels
Add tags from Technoratic or del.icio.us
Use fonts from your own computer - you are not limited to Arial or Times Roman
Ping server (eg. Ping-O-matic) when you post
Easy hyperlinking using the link glossary
50+ plugins from Live.com

WLW has really simplify my blogging process so much that when I use the Blogger editor, it feels so clunky. As it is still in beta, I wonder how good will it be come full version. Let's hope it is still free then.

Technorati Tags: windows live writer, blogging

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Writing a draft

Do you blog every day?

Blogger posting woes

National Day 2007

2007-08-08T12:11:00.000+08:00

Tomorrow will be Singapore's 42th birthday. I would like to wish this grand dame a Happy 42th birthday.

Happy Birthday To You,
Happy Birthday To You,
Happy Birthday Dear Singapore,
Happy Birthday Tooo Yoouuu!!!

Every year, the National Day Parade (NDP) is the main event for celebrations. This year, as our National Stadium is undergoing renovations, we will be having it at the Marina Bay. I wish I could attend this NDP but the tickets are even scarcer than the new Harry Potter books. Well, better luck at the NDP lottery next year.

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My domain names

2007-08-08T12:01:00.000+08:00

As regular readers will know, I got quite interested in domain names. After going for a shopping spree, I currently own about 20 domain names. They are now parked at either SEDO.com or Bodis.com. I have put up all my domain names on the left sidebar on this blog. Anyone interested in buying them, you can left a comment below or email me at reko10@gmail.com.

Related Post:
My way of searching typo domain names
What I read about domain names in a day
Estibot.com - Domain name valuator

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