Pakk-Hungama

Blogging for a Target Market

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:21:00 -0700

Blogging is an effective way to earn an income while writing about something you are passionate about. It is sometimes too easy to let your blog run astray so make sure you always have your target market in mind.

The most effective blogs stay true to their main focus and primary target market. Your ability to keep your blog’s focus on your target market will be result in greater loyalty from your readers as well as greater opportunities to earn money on or through your blog.

You should try to get as specific as you can when determining who your target market is. For example, the criteria you may consider when determining your target market may include:

Children or no children

Ethnic background

Gender Geographic area

Income bracket

Marital status

Religious background

Sexual orientation, etc.

These are just some of the characteristics you can consider when identifying your target market.

Identify Interests of Target Market

Once you have identified your target market and described them you need to start to determine what interests them and what does not. You can use social media sites like Facebook to gain some insight into your target market.

Remember, your target market will have diverse interests so you want to try to identify trends and similarities. Try to stay as close to your blog’s primary purpose as possible. Identifying their interests will enable you to make appropriate references in your blog rather than add entirely new subjects that have little relevance to your primary subject.

Invite Feedback from Target Market

You can invite feedback about your blog from your target market on your blog or on social media sites. Input from your target market is a great way to make sure you are on point and will help you make sure your blog is serving your target market well.

Blogs should be viewed as conversations not monologues. Your readers will feel more loyalty if they can contribute to your blog and start dialogues with you and other followers of your blog.

Do not get in the habit of thinking you are the only one that should offer commentary on your blog or you will have very few followers.

Identify your target market, focus on their needs and welcome them as part of your blog and you can be well on your way to successful blogging.

Monetizing Your Blog -Make Money Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:07:00 -0700

Some people blog for the pure pleasure of blogging about something they are passionate about. Some people blog with the goal of making money. There are a number of ways you can monetize your blog. You can choose one or more of them depending on which is the most appropriate for you blog’s topic and your blog’s followers.

Making Money with Affiliate Arrangements

Depending on the topics of your blog you may be able to make money through affiliate relationships. If your blog is on a topic that relates directly to products you can almost assuredly make money by placing affiliates’ ads on your site.

For example, if you have a blog about accessories you can sign-up for affiliate programs from retailers of accessories. You can place affiliate ads on your blog as well as add affiliate links in your actual blog postings.
The affiliate relationships may even drive some of your content. If you can earn money by mentioning a new product or service on your blog and provide a link (with the affiliate tracking code) to a retailer offering the product you can earn a percentage of the sale.

You can also contact retailers directly and request that they offer your readers a coupon code. The coupon code would give your readers a discount and earn you a commission for every sale. This way both you and your readers benefit from the affiliate arrangement.

PPC Ads on Your Blog

You can add Google, Yahoo and Bing ads to your blog as well. You will earn some money every time someone clicks on the link from your blog. If you are going to do this it is important that you use ad filters so you can make sure that the ads that appear on your blog are appropriate for your target market.

You do not want ads for the sake of having ads. You want ads which are relevant to your target market. The more relevant the ads are the more likely the ads will be clicked on by your readers.

A high-traffic blog can make considerable money through PPC ads though perhaps not as much as if done through the right affiliate relationships.

The bottom line is you can monetize your site with affiliate relationships and PPC ads. If you are taking the time to write compelling content you should reap the rewards of your effort. Go ahead and monetize your blog in one or both ways.

How to Manage Comments on Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:15:00 -0700

Comments by readers of your blog can be moderated by you in a number of ways. Your decision on how you will monitor comments will have a large impact on your overall blog. It is important that you keep in mind the pros and cons of your decision.

First and foremost, blogs that invite comments from readers are generally more popular than blogs that do not. Web 2.0 is all about participation on the web and people like to feel part of a blog community rather than just a reader of a one-sided blog.

For some businesses it may make sense to disallow comments, however, for the majority of businesses and personal blogs you should consider allowing comments from your readers.

Unrestricted Commentary

One option you can have on your blog is unrestricted commentary. This allows anyone to post comments on your blog with no moderation. Though this is the most open form of blogging it is also the most dangerous. You will undoubtedly find inappropriate comments and SPAM on your blog which can lead to problems with the search engines.

For the most part it is not a good idea to allow unrestricted commentary.

Registered User Commentary

One small but effective way to restrict the commentary on your site is to require the person interested in commenting to register for your blog with a valid e-mail address. This will prevent most spammers who want to post quickly and move on. It will also help prevent people from posting ridiculous comments on your blog. Some SPAM and ridiculous commentary will still get through.

Once someone is registered you can monitor their postings on your blog and ban them or block them if you find them posting inappropriate comments.

Approved Comments Only

Most bloggers choose the option of allowing only approved comments to appear on their blog. Basically you set up the blog so you are notified anytime someone posts a comment to one of your postings. The comment will not appear until you have reviewed it and actively approved it.

Requiring comment approval is a good way to both allow comments and protect the integrity of your blog at the same time. Most people familiar with blogging expect to have their comments reviewed before being visible.

Allow commentary on your blog in order to keep your readers active on your blog but choose the level of protection that works the best for your needs.

Blog Set-Up – Plug-Ins

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 5 Oct 2011 11:24:00 -0700

When you are setting up your blog you will have the option to add plug-ins. There are many add-ons or plug-ins to choose from. Some of them can be quite useful and some of them can be quite useless.
Since WordPress is the most popular blog choice we will focus our examination on plug-ins with WordPress blogs.

Blog Plug-In: Akismet

SPAM is a serious issue on the web including on blogs. Akismet is a plug-in option for WordPress blogs that helps eliminate SPAM before it can appear on your blog. This free plug-in is essential and is considered by many bloggers to be their most important weapon against SPAM.

One of the first plug-ins you should add to your blog is Akismet. Make sure it is up to date and properly installed on your blog.

Blog Plug-In: Add to Any

Social media marketing has transformed the Internet. The vast majority of bloggers also have social media accounts. Bloggers are typically quite actively engaged in social media sites and social bookmarking. Add to Any is a plug-in for social media marketing.

Adding this plug-in to your blog makes it easy to add blog postings to your social media sites as well as to bookmark your postings.

Off Blog Feeds

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 5 Oct 2011 11:12:00 -0700

When you set up your blog you will have the option to arrange a blog feed that other people can pick up and add to their site. Basically your blog postings will be displayed on any site that adds the feed to it.

A blog feed can open up new traffic sources and revenue streams with no additional effort on your part. You should also add your blog feeds to directories and other resources that people search in order to add fresh content to their site.

Remember, fresh content is a key to success online. Your blog can become a source for content for other websites which means your blog and their website wins. Link your blog to your social media accounts and blog feed resources for maximum impact.

Linking Your Blog and Social Media Marketing(SMM) Accounts

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 10:49:00 -0700

Your blog and your social media marketing (SMM) accounts should be linked together. You want to create a network of resources that bring together your various marketing efforts. Linking your blog to your social media accounts is essential.

Blog Postings on Facebook and Twitter

You can set up your social media accounts including Facebook and Twitter so that they automatically show a link to your blog postings. This automated technique makes it easy to update your Facebook pages and Twitter account with your new blog postings.

One of the goals of all social media marketing plans is to keep content updated and fresh. If you update your blog frequently you will be automatically updating your Facebook and Twitter account as well.

Make sure the titles of your blog posting are eye-catching and you can drive traffic from the social media sites onto your blog. A short, catchy title will capture the attention of someone you are friends with on Facebook or who is following you on Twitter.

Add Social Media Links to Blog

People who find your blog may not know that you also have social media accounts and pages. Make sure that your blog prominently displays an invitation for them to become a fan on Facebook and a follower on Twitter.

As a blogger you want to give people a ample opportunity to learn more from you and about you. Linking your social media accounts to your blog creates these opportunities.

Web 2.0 is all about users participating on websites and networks. A blogger needs to think about inviting participation on their blog and beyond their blog in order to create an overall user experience that builds loyalty.

Top Mistakes of Bloggers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 09:59:00 -0700

Knowing the most common mistakes made by bloggers can help you avoid making them. In the end you have complete control over your blog. You can choose to do or not to do anything you want. Knowing the repercussions of certain actions or inactions can help you make better decisions.

Blogger Mistake #1 – Ignoring Comments

Ignoring the comments posted on your blog is a big mistake. Some bloggers never read the comments posted on their blog. This is bad for two reasons. First, you will gain no insight about your followers. Your followers are essential if you want to have a popular blog or a blog that you earn money from.
Think of your blog as a conversation not as a monologue. Never ignore your readers. If you ignore them they will eventually ignore you.

Additionally, the comments section is where most SPAM will appear. Even if you install SPAM blockers there will be a certain amount of SPAM that is able to make its way through. SPAM can hurt your blog’s reputation and even cause problems on Google and the other search engines.

Blogger Mistake #2 – Infrequent Posting

Infrequent or irregular posting on your blog can lead to you losing followers. Even if you do not think anyone is reading your blog you want to set a schedule for blog postings and stick to it. It is important to have consistency on a blog, especially if it is a corporate blog or a blog intending to create revenue.

Depending on the focus of your blog you will need to determine the minimum frequency you can post on it. Some blogs can do quite fine with 3 or 4 blog posts per week while other blogs need 10 or more postings per day.

Your followers will start to expect to see postings regularly so do not disappoint them.

Blogger Mistake #3 – Taking Things Personally

Do not fall into the trap of taking criticism personally. You can expect to see your share of negative posts, perhaps even flaming (flaming is when someone viciously attacks another person online). Do not retaliate with a personal attack of your own. Simply delete the offending comment and move on.

These are the three biggest mistakes bloggers make. The key to succeeding with your blog is to review popular blogs and see what they do well. Try to focus on the positive aspects of blogging while keeping an eye out for common mistakes.

Blogging – How Often?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:57:00 -0700

You need to blog regularly. Depending on your goals you may have to put blog postings up daily or perhaps only weekly. You need to stay on top of your blog. If your blog readers see a lull in your postings they will lose interest.

A good rule of thumb is to post at least 4 times per week. Anything less than that would be ineffective for most purposes.

Ask yourself these questions and be honest and realistic with the answers and you will determine whether it is time to blog or not to blog.

To Blog or Not to Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 04:36:00 -0700

To blog or not to blog that is the question website owners should ask. Many people rush to create a blog with little purpose in mind, and others assume blogging is a waste of time and never try.

The truth is that some businesses would benefit from a blog while some would not.

Blogging – Do You Have Something to Say?

The first question you should ask yourself is whether or not you have something to say that will either inform or entertain your target market. You need to feel confident that you can sustain a blog.

If you have “some” information but not enough to sustain a blog you may consider writing and distributing articles rather than writing a blog.

If you think you have enough to say then you are past the first step in the decision making process.

Blogging – Identifying the Target Market

It is important to identify your target market. Who do you want reading your blog and for what purpose? This will help you start to determine whether or not this target market is likely to find and read your blog. You do not want to waste resources in writing a blog no one reads.

Determining the goal of your blog is vital. Is your goal to create a revenue stream through affiliate marketing? Is the goal to introduce consumers to products and services on your website? Is your goal to enhance your search engine rankings?

Once you know your goal or goals you can start to determine how likely it is for you to reach them. For example, will you be able to find affiliate advertisers who would appeal to your target market? Do you have enough information to post regularly about your products and services without being repetitive?

You need to know who your target market is and what your goal is.

How to Name Your Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 06:01:00 -0700

Shakespeare asked if a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. The importance of choosing the right name for your blog should not be overlooked. Remember there are two different names for your blog. First, there is the name you choose for the actual blog. Second, there is the URL you reserve to host your blog.

Naming the Blog
People can sometimes try to be overly cute or a bit too creative when they name their blog. Though it is a way to show your creativity you run the risk of no one knowing what your blog is actually about.

A blog’s name should immediately convey the central purpose of your blog. This will be helpful in gaining followers who often look on blog directories or search for blogs by category online. If someone is looking for a blog about luxury handbags they will want to see a blog with a name that includes any of the following:

Bags
Clutches
Handbags
Hobos
Purses
Satchels, etc

Though you may want to be more creative and use a term like arm candy, not all of your potential readers will be able to identify the focus of your blog based on the name.

Try to be straight forward with your blog’s name and use your creativity with the design of the blog and the actual content on it.

Blog URL
If possible you want your blog’s URL to be the same as the name of your blog but this is not always possible or even desirable. If you want to be creative with the name of your blog then try to be straight forward with your URL. For example, if you choose the name Eye Candy Blog for the name of your blog, as mentioned above, you may want a URL that has handbag or purse in the name.

Typically people see both the blog’s name and URL when looking in a blog directory. Though ideally you are straight-forward with the name you give your blog and the URL it will be placed on, you can choose to be a little more creative with the name of your blog as long as your URL contains the keywords in it.

Take time to think about the best name for your blog. Try to choose a name that will strike a chord with your target market. Often less is more and simple is the best way to go.

How to Set Up a Blogger Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 05:47:00 -0700

Setting up a blog on Blogger is quite easy. The first thing you want to do is to set up a Google account for the blog. You can do this by going to Blogger.com and then following the link in the resources section.

It takes about 2 or 3 minutes to set up a Google account. If you already have a Google account you can use it if you wish.

After you have set up your Google account you should go back to Blogger.com and sign-in using your Google account username and password. Your username is typically the e-mail address you used when creating the account.

You can set up your account so it remembers your username and password. Only do this if you are on a non-shared computer.

Look for the “Create a blog” option on the dashboard of Blogger. The dashboard is the page you go to every time you log onto your Blogger account. You can manage several blogs from the same dashboard if they were all created with the same Google account.See in picture below:

You will be asked to name your blog. You want to create an easy to remember, easy to find name that makes it clear what your blog is about. Try not to have a blog name that is too long. It will be the first part of the web address of your blog. For example if you name your blog “pakk-hungama” your URL will be: http://pakk-hungama.blogspot.com

The next thing you need to do is to choose your template. Blogger has a number of templates to choose from. You do not have to agonize over which template to use because you can change the template at any time.

Write your first official blog post using the template Blogger provided. Feel free to add a picture, etc. Once you submit that first blog posting you will be able to view your new blog, edit the posting, etc.

At this point you can personalize your blog so it stands out. Many different aspects of the blog can be changed, moved around, etc. Click on the “Layout” option and start to make your blog stand out from the other blogs out there. You can undo virtually anything that you do so do not be shy to experiment with different layouts for your blog.

Once you finish your layout you are done. Happy blogging!

How to Set Up a WordPress Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 05:39:00 -0700

Here’s how you set up your WordPress Blog on your URL (domain). The first thing you need to do is to make sure you have a hosting account created. Your hosting account must include:

PHP 4.3 (or higher)
MySQL 4.0 (or higher)
Mod_rewrite Apache module

You do not need to worry about what these features are, it is just important that you make sure you have them. Try to get hosting at the same place you set up your domain.
In your hosting account you will find a control panel. In your control panel find the Databases option and create a new database. You will be asked to give the database a name and create a username and password. Keep this information in a safe place. This is your MySQL database that will store all of your blog postings.

Installing WordPress
Once you have the hosting set up and the database created it is time to install WordPress. Some hosting companies have a quick install option. If they do not all you have to do is download the latest software at: http://wordpress.org/latest.zip (for Windows or Mac).

Unzip the files on your computer. They will be unzipped in a folder called “Wordpress”.

Within the unzipped files you will find a file called wp-config-sample.php open it the file (it will open in any document editor). You will find instructions in this document. Change the text as needed in your editor (you will be adding the name of your database, username and password. Save the file and rename it “wp-config.php”.

Move each folder and file within the “wordpress” unzipped folder you created (do not copy the folder itself) onto your website host company’s server (your hosting company will give you directions, it is very easy).
If your blog is the entire site put it in the root directory. Otherwise you will want to create a subdirectory for the blog. You may want to create one like: http://www.mydomain.com/blog or blog.mydomain.com.

After the WordPress files are on the server go into your web browser and type www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php (or if you did it on a subdirectory you type www.yourdomain.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php.

The software will then guide you through the last few steps to installing your blog on your server. WordPress makes it quick and easy to install a blog. Take your time and go step-by-step and you should have no problem installing and starting your blog.

Post Feed Redirected url

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 02:34:00 -0700

Many people get confused when they heard about Feed. Oh..! What is Feed..? What is Feed redirected url..? How i get feed url..?? What is advantage of feed..? And bla bla bla......!
Don't worry here are some simple answers of these questions.

Actually there are Two things:
1-One is that we can digest easily.
2-And other is that computer or your operating system can digest easily.

You see your blog and is very easy for you to digest. There is another copy of your blog that is created for computer to digest. So your posts or content of your blog can be easily tracked by other blogs or site. So here is another benefit of feed that it is also a source of targeted traffic.
Actually in feed your all post are written in XML. So that computers can reach to your posts and process data easily.

How to get Feed redirected url:

Here are some simple steps to get feed redirected url.
1-Click on Setting tab on your dashboard.
2-Under Setting tab click on Site Feed. And following window will open.

3-Click on FeedBurner. And login to FeedBurner.
4-Enter your Blog name.
5-Click Next. And then again click Next.
6-Select your favourite setting. Now yor Feed is ready for Web World.

Now in "Post Feed Redirected url" option, as you can see in above picture. Type:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/Your_Blog_Name
And save Setting.

How to Add Page Title in Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 04:16:00 -0700

Always always design your site or blog Search Engines friendly. And everybody wishes that his site or blog ranks high in Search Engines. Here are some Tips that how could you perform this.

When we click on our Blog pages or posts one thing you notice that always blog tittle appear on the Tittle Head. However if we design our Blog such that it always show page Name in Tittle Head then it will be Search Engines friendly. And also Search Engines can find our posts more frequently and also Ranks our blog on top.

So the steps are very simple.
1-Click on Design tab.

2-Under Design tab click on Edit Html.
3-There you will see this code

<title><data:blog.title/></title>

4-Replace this code with the following code:

</b:if>
<b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "index"'>
<title><data:blog.title/></title>
<b:else/>
<title><data:blog.pageName/></title>
</b:if>

5-Save Template. Now you are Done.

If You like this post do Comment below and also Share it wit your Friends.
Feel Free to ask any Question.

How to Split your Blog sidebar into Two Columns

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 02:21:00 -0700

Many People wants to add more Gadgets to their Blog. And to save space they often want to Split Sidebar into two columns so they can add more gadgets to their blog. But they don't know how to to do this job..:(
Don't worry it is as simple as to play Pinbal game..:)

Follow these simple steps.
1-Click on Design/Layout tab.

2-Under Design tab click on Template Designer.
3-Now click on Layout. Following windowill appear.

4-Select the Third Layout which is mark as Tick. Or You can select any Layout that you want.
5-Click on Apply to blog on top Right and you are Done..:)

You can also Split your right sidebar into two columns in the same way. You can also split bottom bar into Three columns.

If You like this post do Comment below and also Share it wit your Friends.
Feel Free to ask any Question.

Earn More with Adsense for Feeds

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 04:43:00 -0700

Adsense for feeds also helps also helps people to earn money by placing Google ads in their feeds. Adsense for feeds works is same as the other Adsense program are. Where you can deliver ads that are relevant to your content and your viewers.
As like other Adsense ads, feed ads can also be paid in 2 different ways.

1- Just by click.
2- Or just by impression.

Like other Adsense ads Feed ads can also be targeted in 2 different ways

1-Content in your feed is targeted contextually.
2- Advertisers targeted your specific feed when you set up an ad placement.

As i have told that like Adsense for Content, ads in feed are also contextual in nature. So I am expecting nice revenue from this AdSense for Feeds program. I guess this will offset my 10% AdSense revenue loss due to retirement of Adsense referral for products program.
In feeds you can control the positioning , appearance, and frequencyof Google ads.Size of ad is determined automatically based on where your feed is appearing in blog.

But putting AdSense ads in feed will take time . Even Google brought FeedBurner, there is no automatic way to integrate AdSense and Feedburner. AdSense support team done it manually.

According to my point of view bloggers with full text feeds will get more traffic because their posts will have more text to target.
Hope you start thinking on making money with Adsense for feeds. Best of Luck..:)

Earn Money Online With Alternatives of Adsense

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 04:13:00 -0700

Many Publishers get banned by Adsense. After getting banned they don't know the exact reason. Although many of them again apply for adsense but their reques often Diapproved. But you don't need to be worried.

If you ever been banned by Adsense and don't know what to do. Don't worry!!! There are huge number of adsense alternatives to earn money online available in this world of web.If you want to do better with something other than Adsense?

I have now collected the list and offering the same for the benefit of my visitors.Do you want to see whether you can do better with something other than Adsense?
Please do see the following list-

1. AllFeeds
2. Burst Media
3. Clickcent
4. AffiliateSensor
5. AdBrite
6. AzoogleAds
7. BidClix
8. Yahoo Publisher Network
9. Buds Media Network
10. Advertising.com
11. adagency1
12. ValueClick
13. Claxon
14. Kanoodle Bright Ads
15. Clicksor
16. ContextCash
17. TargetPoint
18. contextWeb ContextAd
19. Nixie
20. Enhance Interactive
21. Fastclick
22. Hurricane Digital Media
23. ContextClick
24. Mamma Media Solutions
25. MIVA AdRevenue Xpress
26. Revenue Pilot
27. Quigo AdSonar
28. RealCast Media
29. RealTechNetwork
30. Vibrant Media IntelliTXT & SmartAds
31. Right Media
32. Searchfeed
33. Bidvertiser
34. Traffic Marketplace
35. Tribal Fusion
36. DynamiContext (Kontera)
37. Veoda
38. Chitika eMiniMalls

If anyone of you has experience about any of these programs, please comment below so that other people can also know is it would be good to start earning from these sites.