What is Advertlets?

On Advertlets webpage and portal, this is what the company claims to be:

“Advertlets.com is an Asian blog/weblog advertising network that offers the remarkably sensible proposition of targeted, unintrusive advertising that benefits the online advertising and blogger community, as well as their readers… Advertisers make their message count. Bloggers make more money doing what they love. It all makes sense at Advertlets.com – Asia’s Better Blog Advertising Network.”

From my personal observations, Advertlets is a company with significant presence in Malaysia and Singapore. Their main competitor appears to be Nuffnang, another Malaysia-based online advertising network. Both advertising networks have a substantial blogger base in the two countries. The business model is basically to attract advertisers who are willing to pay for exposure on regional Internet blogs, and to attract bloggers who would like to earn a side-income while blogging.

Is Advertlets Reliable?

But why should I avoid Advertlets? Well, the reasons are pretty well-documented over in Wayang Times:

Advertlets is a Scam Advertising Network? Advertlets Not Paying? I Hate You Advertlets?!

Advertlets Payment Made in 24 Hours! Advertlets is Not a Scam for Wayang Times!

When Advertlets Owe Money, Will They Ever Pay Money on Time?

Did Advertlets Lie to Me about Paying Me My Previous Months’ Earnings?

Given that there are quite a number of bloggers such as Wayang Times who are not getting paid on time, and often with significant delays, I would recommend that bloggers avoid Advertlets till they prove themselves.

As for Advertlets, perhaps the company should consider publishing their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or Service Level Agreements (SLAs), specifically with regards to their ability to pay to let the public judge for themselves.

Or at the very least, answer your emails.

Related posts:

1. 100% Legitimate: How to Win and Get a Free iPad Online
2. 4 Tips for Free Singapore & Malaysia Traffic in 2010: Simply Blog About Jack Neo, Wendy Chong, Irene Kng, Lee Kuan Yew and Gopalan Nair

If you are living in Singapore, Malaysia or even Indonesia, there is a high chance you would have heard of the two latest and hottest news in Singapore. The first news involved an expose by Wendy Chong the number Jack Neo mistress. The story is now evolving to became the scandal of the year about Jack Neo, a successful Singaporean celebrity comedian turn film director, and Jack Neo’s bevy of alleged mistresses and potential mistresses or girlfriends. The second news involved a Singapore dissident Gopalan Nair’s blog hoax which claimed that Singapore’s highly respected Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew was suffering from a massive heart attack.

Take a look at the Google Hot Trends for the last 3 days below.

7 March 2010 Google Trends Hot Searches in Singapore:

8 March 2010 Google Trends Hot Searches in Singapore:

9 March 2010 Google Trends Hot Searches in Singapore:

I summarised the key terms which many Singaporeans are using on their Google search in the last 3 days below:

Key search terms for Singapore Jack Neo’s Mistress Story:

jack neo, jack neo affair, wendy chong, zhong jia yan, wendy chong jack neo, jack neo wendy chong, irene kng, george yeo blog, foyce le xuan, 梁智强, 钟佳燕, 乐轩, etc.

Key search terms for MM Lee Kuan Yew Heart Attack Hoax by Gopalan Nair:

lee kuan yew heart attack, lee kuan yew, lky, mm lee heart attack, minister mentor, gopalan nair, gopalan nair blog, gopalan nair hoax, etc.

What Should You Blog About to Attract Singaporean or Malaysian Web Search Traffic in March 2010?

Tip #1 – If your blog is orientated towards the Singapore or Malaysia audience, the easiest free way to attract traffic in March 2010 is probably to blog about the 2 hottest topics at the moment.

Tip #2 – When writing your blog posts, you should remember to use the key words highlighted in the key search terms section for the respective news items.

Tip #3 – There are already tons of newsy and factual blog posts and web pages created in the last 3 days alone. To stand out from the crowd, you should consider writing opinion pieces to share your unique thoughts on the topics. By now, readers may not be really interested to read about “news” which can be found in other top websites and the local tabloid newspapers.

Tip #4 – If your blog is a niche or specialty blog which focuses on topics such as food, traveling or cars etc, you may want to write about the above trending topics with a twist that is relevant to your blog’s focus and regular readers’ preferences.

Blog Topic Example #1 – If your blog is about cars, you may want to talk about the car which Jack Neo used when meeting Wendy Chong, his first mistress.

Blog Topic Example #2 – If your blog is about relationship advices, you may consider writing about the top reasons why men such as Tiger Woods or Jack Neo cheat on their partners.

If you follow the four tips for free traffic I mentioned, you will be able to start getting some quick traffic very soon. But act fast, before these topics are no longer hot. Share your thoughts, blog posts with link back and how much extra AdSense or other earnings you make from these topics below in the comments.

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Want that cool looking Apple iPad product that has gotten the whole world buzzing and talking? Well, you can get one for FREE now. Transcendent Innovations is a company that focuses on online marketing that collaborates with major brand names. And they have developed this cool website that will allow consumers like us with easy access to the free iPad.

Why It is Possible to Earn a Free iPad

In exchange for users registering with an advertiser, the company is compensated for sending advertisers new customers. The company is then able to offer you a free gift in the form of an Apple iPad from a portion of their revenue. Examples of advertisers’ offers include a variety of free trial offers, advertised products for purchase, credit cards, and subscriptions to membership services. The costs vary by offer. Some are absolutely free and can be discontinued without any further obligation while others may require a small purchase.

How to Get a Free iPad Easily

There are two methods to obtain your free Apple iPad gift.

Points
With a points account, you obtain your free gift by obtaining credits through trying the advertisers offers. Upon fulfilling the requirements of each offer, you will receive the advertised point amount for that advertiser. Once you have accumulated enough points for your desired item, you may place your order and your chosen item will be sent to you! Example, a 16gb Wifi iPad will require 1200 points.

Referrals
When participating with this method, you are required to complete at least one of the advertiser offers and refer a couple others to do the same. Example, a 16gb Wifi iPad will require 10 referrals.

Sign-Up for a Free iPad

To take advantage of this free iPad offer, you can find out more and sign up for a free account here.

Disclaimer: You must reside in the United States or Canada to participate in the free iPad promotion. Wayang Blogger do not gain from this promotion as I do not reside in the US nor Canada.

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1. How Not to Earn Money Online in Singapore and Malaysia – Avoid Advertlets

When choosing your blog name, never make these mistakes!

10. webone.com.au

http://webone.com.au

I’m very happy for you but the ladies don’t really like it when you say you’re boning…what’s that you say? Web One? My mistake.

9. potsofart.com

http://www.potsofart.com

Oh, Pots of Art… people do like artsy pots more than pots full of farts.

8. daleshitchinstation.com

http://www.daleshitchinstation.com

Poor Ol’ Dale. Stuck with the worst nickname in history and he goes and names his station after it. I’m not even gonna ask how he got the “shit chin”.

7. teacherstalk.co.uk

http://www.teacherstalk.co.uk

Remember that hot drama teacher from High School? Ever wonder where she is now? Do you want to know what she’s wearing and whom she’s with at this moment? Then seek help…this is a website for teachers who want to talk. No stalkers allowed!

6. wtf.org

http://www.wtf.org

WTF indeed! I had no idea there was a World Taekwondo Federation. Please don’t kick me.

5. goredforwomen.org

http://www.goredforwomen.org

There are a lot of things I’d do for women but goring is at the top of the list of things I won’t.

4. mp3shits.com

http://mp3shits.com

I have a lot of downloaded music but why would anyone want to listen to bowel movements?

3. accesstherapist.com

http://www.accesstherapist.com

Not sure why I’d want to access the rapist, in fact I would like to stay as far away as I can, thank you very much.

2. dollarsexchange.com

http://www.dollarsexchange.com

Sounds like a good deal for a sex change but then again, you get what you pay for.

1. gotahoe.com

http://www.gotahoe.com

As a matter of fact I don’t but thanks for asking Mr. Pimp. Oops, I mean Tahoe is very nice this time of year.

Source: Top 10 Kid

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Choosing a good name for your new blog is more an art than an exact science.

1. Naming My Blog with My Own Name

Many new bloggers like to use their own name as the name of their blogs. This will result in a URL domain name to the effect of www.your-own-name.com or some other similar permutations.

Some experts say that this is a mistake especially if you plan to earn money from your blog.

Personally I think that there is nothing wrong with this approach if you are trying to brand yourself as an expert in your field. There are many successful bloggers such as Kenny Sia from Malaysia whose blog focuses on sharing his life and opinions with a humorous take, and he is reportedly earning a decent amount that can be more than MYR$10,000 a month.

This approach to naming your blog is useful if you intend to show your face to the world. It adds a personal touch and help your readers and potential advertisers to put a face to the blog. It is also easier to do advertorials, or paid blog posts, showing yourself promoting some brands that you would like to be associated with. Having a blog or website with your name is also a nice ego-boosting move.

2. Naming My Blog with Relevant Key Words

Building your blog’s traffic takes time. One of the best way to promote your blog is to actually attract readers from the search engines such as Google. If people are coming to your website by the search engines, it means that they are looking for information online and actually think that your blog is relevant. It also helps your readers who surf-by to quickly understand the main purpose of your blog.

To help the search engines to show your blog to potential readers, one technique is to name your blog with at least one relevant keyword. This is the reason why I named this blog as Wayang Blogger as my website is all about blogging.

3. Naming My Blog with Irrelevant Words

For some reasons, there are many new bloggers who prefer to name their blogs with totally irrelevant and sometimes not meaningful words. Examples of such blogs include “pink-fairies”, “redchilli”, “i-love-dogs” etc. when the blogs do not write anything about fairies, chilli, or dogs. While the names may be cute, they will not serve much purpose and may confuse surf-by readers who will probably never return.

However you finally plan to name your blog, never make these funny naming mistakes in the next post.

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You heard about all the money that can be made. You get excited after reading about the opportunities. And than you decided that you will earn your first big bucks from the Internet by blogging. But wait, what do you blog about? What should your blogging be about?

Blog About Your Passion or Anything that Interest You.

You could start by blogging about your passion. And it can be almost anything. Your blogging topic could be all about funny cats, your food reviews, a travelogue, interesting stamp collections, etc.

For me, I like to read about funny stuff on the Internet and that became the main focus of my very first blog at WayangTimes.com.

Starting on a topic which interest you will be more motivating and can help you to write for the long term. Besides, the blog can serve as a diary or online scrapbook to capture all the information about your passion, other than helping you to earn some money.

Do Your Blog Topics Have Sufficient Depth?

You may have heard about niche blogging in your research and readings. The key idea is to find a niche topic and focus your blogging on a rather specific and narrow topic of interest.

When deciding your topic, you need to find a topic which have sufficient depth for you to continue your writing for months and years to come. If the topic is too specific, you may find it difficult to sustain the blogging.

Take for example, you like to drink wine and decided to start a blog that is related to this passion. You may want to setup a niche blog by focusing only on red wine, and will not write anything about white wine and dessert wine. By my estimate, this topic is unlikely to run out of inspirations for you for a long time even if you blog every other day.

However if you decide to write only about Australian red wine produced in 2009, the danger is that the blog may not be sustainable as you will run out of things to write about pretty soon.

Related posts:

1. Why Do People Blog? What Motivates You to Blog?
2. Will I Grow Rich by Blogging?
3. 4 Tips for Free Singapore & Malaysia Traffic in 2010: Simply Blog About Jack Neo, Wendy Chong, Irene Kng, Lee Kuan Yew and Gopalan Nair

Before you try to become a Semi-Pro Blogger, it is important to determine first and foremost, what motivates you to blog?

There are probably as many reasons as there are people who are actually blogging, but most of the reasons for why people blog can be summed up into the following categories.

1. Blogging for a Passion

Many of the top bloggers in the world did not start out to try to earn money from blogging. But they became very good at what they blog about and were able to build a loyal following after a period of time. Bloggers who are passionate about their favourite subjects often write in a sincere manner to share their knowledge. They could be writing about computers, fashion, politics, food, etc. or they could be writing about their personal lives. They feel the need to show-off their passion and knowledge to the world. Very often, these bloggers are also able to write well though not necessarily grammatically-correct. They are able to engage their readers with their sincerity, in-depth knowledge, humor or pure sarcasm. Some realised that they could start to monetize their blogs, i.e. to earn money from blogging, and would go ahead to do so. But they remain dedicated to their own ideals of sharing information in their own way.

2. Blogging for a Cause

Thomas Friedman explained in his book The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century that the digital revolution in our “flat” and “connected” world has made it possible to almost anything instantaneously with billions of other people across the planet. There are scores of people and organisations who are currently making use of this wonderful opportunity to setup blogs so as to connect with people around the globe in a way that was not previously possible. This has allowed them to promote their causes and connect with like-minded people easily. Take the example of the recent tragic Haiti earthquake, some estimates put the amount collected electronically via online blogs and websites to be in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

3. Blogging for Fun

Blogging is fast becoming the “in” thing to do among the Internet-savvy youngsters. Many of these people blog for “fun” because their friends are doing it, they are bored, or simply because they want to experiment with blogging. Many times, there are half-hearted attempts to monetize their online diary but this is seldom their focus. These people are usually more inclined to rant about their daily life and post tons of random photos of themselves, their friends, their dogs or their lunch.

4. Blogging for Corporate or Brand Exposure

Quite a few companies are jumping on the blogging bandwagon. These companies usually embark on such endeavours as a result of the top-down push from the top executives who were eager to tap on Web 2.0 after attending some conferences. Or it could be due to the bottom-up push from the younger, net-savvy employees who truly believe in the power of social networking for corporate gains. The types of blogs can range from “personal” blogs of top executives sharing about their companies, to micro-sites masquerading as blogs to promote a new product. Even newspapers are catching on with a few companies renaming their regular columns as blogs.

5. Blogging for Money

Greed motivates many people in all aspects of our life, ditto for blogging. There are top bloggers who succumb to the money and would become less ethical by secretly embellishing sponsored reviews as part of their blog posts. There are also new bloggers, both young and old, who just started out are blogging because of all the fairy tales they hear about how easy it is to become a millionaire through blogging. Ultimately, many of these people just want to make a quick buck from this Internet tool. Alas few bloggers would actually succeed and many would be left disappointed because they are not equipped with the right knowledge to achieve success.

So tell me, by voting and dropping me a comment, what motivates you to blog? Spend some time to think about this. It is important to determine your motivation upfront as blogging can be laborious. And if you are planning to blog for cash, it is good to make this clear for yourself so that you will not be discouraged or distracted during those days when you feel blue and want to give up. Once you determined your motivation, than you are ready for the next step, to start blogging.

Related posts:

1. What Should I Blog About? What Should My Blogging Be About?
2. How I Earned US$415.94 from Google AdSense in 15 Days and Became Top 1000 in Alexa
3. How Much Do Semi-Pro Bloggers Make from Blogging?

In my previous article on “Will I Grow Rich by Blogging?“, I discussed how much money bloggers are actually earning from their blogs in a typical month and suggested that most of us will never become the type of pro-bloggers who earn big money from blogging.

But we can still try to become a Semi-Pro blogger. The question is than how much should a semi-pro blogger aim to make from blogging?

First, let us take a look at the median household income for selected “richer” countries obtained from Wikipedia. The chart below shows that a typical household’s median income could range from US$30,000 in Singapore, US$39,000 in United Kingdom, US$44,000 in Canada, to US$50,000 in the United States of America. This implies that the monthly median and average income ranges from $2,500 to about $4,200, or more.

Now, let us assume that being a pro-blogger means that the blogger can now quit his day job since his earnings from blogging is equal to or more than his monthly income. Being a Semi-Pro should thus earn at least 50% of his monthly income.

The Wayang Blogger formula is:

Pro-Blogger earnings from blogging = Monthly income from day job
Semi-Blogger earnings from blogging = 50% x Monthly income from day job

Therefore depending on where you live, you should at least aim to earn between US$1,000 to US$2,000 per month from your blog to qualify as a Semi-Pro Blogger.

Related posts:

1. Will I Grow Rich by Blogging?
2. How I Earned US$415.94 from Google AdSense in 15 Days and Became Top 1000 in Alexa
3. What Should I Blog About? What Should My Blogging Be About?

According to Daniel Lyons from Newsweek, growing rich by blogging is probably a high-tech fairy tale.

“For two years I was obsessed with trying to turn a blog into a business. I posted 10 or 20 items a day to my site, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, rarely taking a break…

My first epiphany occurred in August 2007, when The New York Times ran a story revealing my identity, which until then I’d kept secret. On that day more than 500,000 people hit my site—by far the biggest day I’d ever had—and through Google’s AdSense program I earned about a hundred bucks. Over the course of that entire month, in which my site was visited by 1.5 million people, I earned a whopping total of $1,039.81. Soon after this I struck an advertising deal that paid better wages. But I never made enough to quit my day job…”

Alex Iskold who writes for ReadWriteWeb did some analysis and shared that,

“At best, 10% out of 1,300+ respondents made decent money. And likely most of the people who indicated they made over $15,000 are likely blogging in one of a handful of lucrative niches. A quarter of the voters made no money at all. Of those who attempted to make money, most did not make much.”

These are indeed sobering statistics. I believe many of you who chanced upon this blog post might by now be very disappointed. But all is not lost!

If the numbers provided by ReadWriteWeb is true, it implies that will be quite impossible for most of us to join the pro-bloggers to become the top 10% earners in the world. But what we can do is to avoid becoming the bottom 25% who do not earn any money from blogging. I believe with the right methods and strategies, many of us can earn a decent living from blogging.

But how much is enough? Will you grow rich by blogging?

The thing is, the measurement for “rich” is actually relative.

To someone who is earning $50,000 monthly but spending more than twice his income on credit will probably feel quite poor. In the same vein, a mother working from home and earning $2,000 per month from her part-time blogging venture may feel quite rich as otherwise she may not have any other income. A struggling undergraduate who pays his or her own tuition fees totally from his blogging AdSense earnings will probably feel very relieved compared to their peers who graduated with a huge tuition loan but without a good paying job offer.

So to answer your question, no, most of us may not be able to retire from our day job and become a millionaire from a home business such as blogging unless we are very lucky.

But you will be able to generate a comfortable sum of money from blogging and become a semi-pro blogger just like Wayang Blogger as long as you put in effort. With this additional stream of income that you earn from the home Internet business that is over and above your salaried income, you will be able to leave a more comfortable lifestyle as compared to your peers.

Related posts:

1. How Much Do Semi-Pro Bloggers Make from Blogging?
2. How I Earned US$415.94 from Google AdSense in 15 Days and Became Top 1000 in Alexa
3. Why Do People Blog? What Motivates You to Blog?

AdSense is an ad serving application run by Google Inc. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image, and video advertisements on their websites. These advertisements are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis.

Google uses its Internet search technology to serve advertisements based on website content, the user’s geographical location, and other factors. Those wanting to advertise with Google’s targeted advertisement system may enroll through AdWords. AdSense has become a popular method of placing advertising on a website because the advertisements are less intrusive than most banners, and the content of the advertisements is often relevant to the website.

Many websites use AdSense to monetize their content. AdSense has been particularly important for delivering advertising revenue to small websites that do not have the resources for developing advertising sales programs and sales people. To fill a website with advertisements that are relevant to the topics discussed, webmasters implement a brief script on the websites’ pages. Websites that are content-rich have been very successful with this advertising program, as noted in a number of publisher case studies on the AdSense website.

The source of all AdSense income is the AdWords program, which in turn has a complex pricing model based on a Vickrey second price auction. AdSense commands an advertiser to submit a sealed bid (i.e., a bid not observable by competitors). Additionally, for any given click received, advertisers only pay one bid increment above the second-highest bid.

Source: Wikipedia

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