Hey readers. This is a great opportunity for you to increase traffic to your website. If you author a blog or run an e-commerce website, why don’t you grab this opportunity to advertise your presence on my blog.

Here is a great treat for the first 3 advertisers in July/August. You can advertise on my blog for USD 10.00 for 8 weeks. That is only USD 5.00 a month.

Click here to advertise.

In November 2007 I made a decision to move my blog from blogger onto a self-hosted platform and migrated all my blog posts onto WordPress. I made this decision after much deliberation. My objective was to grow my blog and provide better quality blogging experience for my readers. The first thing I had to do was to find a reliable web hosting plan and register a domain name.

It is not easy to decide on a hosting plan because there are so many to choose from. Web hosting is a very competitive business and you can easily find a plan that cost less than what you would spend for your lunch or your favourite CD. But would you choose a hosting plan simply because it is the cheapest? There are other elements of a hosting plan that you should consider.

1. Price
2. Bandwidth
3. Space
4. Free setup
5. No. of email accounts
6. Database install e.g. MySQL and how many can you install
7. Admin tools e.g. CPanel, Domain Manager, etc.
8. Ease or software installation e.g. Fantastico Deluxe
9. 24/7 Support
10. Reliability
11. Free domain name
12. Affiliate program
13. Web stats monitoring tool like Weblizer or AWStats
14. Other freebies like AdWord vouchers, Yahoo Search Services, etc.

The reason why I went with Bluehost is because of its popularity with WordPress hosting. I googled and found that many WordPress bloggers recommended or use Bluehost’s web hosting to host their blog. I also liked the ability to set up multiple domains, sub-domains and install as many instances of WordPress that I like. Also setting up WordPress is easy. Fantastico Deluxe does it for you from creating the folder for the php scripts and creating the database and setting up the login.

If you are considering changing your hosting plan or if you are currently using Blogger and would like to use WordPress instead (there are many benefits for using WordPress over Blogger which I will tell you more in another post), then I have a proposal for you.

I will be honest with you. I am encouraging you to consider signing up for a hosting plan with Bluehost because I am an affiliate partner but I am not only encouraging you to buy a hosting plan with Bluehost because I want your money. Instead I am making you an attractive proposal. If you sign up for a hosting plan with Bluehost.com, I will share my affiliate earnings with you. I will be paid $65 for every affiliate sign up. I will share $30 with you if you sign up for a hosting plan with Bluehost.com through me. I will not make this proposal if I don’t think Bluehost.com is a reliable web hosting company. I signed up for a hosting plan with Bluehost.com since October 2007 and I have been a happy Bluehost customer.

What will you get if you sign up for a Bluehost hosting plan through me.

1) A reliable web hosting platform
2) Easy Install and setup of WordPress, Drupal, Joomla or forums using Fantastico Deluxe.
3) It will cost you only $6.95 per month and you get a free domain name of your choice
4) And you get $30 cashback because I am sharing my affiliate/referral earnings with you.
5) You can sign up for the affiliate program and earn $65 for every referral.

Remember, if you are interested in my proposal, use only the link below to sign up so that I will receive the referral earnings from Bluehost and share $30 with you. Cashback will be paid by PayPal. If you don’t have a PayPal account, you can create one here.

SIGN UP USING ONLY THE LINK BELOW. IF YOU SIGN UP USING ANOTHER LINK TO BLUEHOST, I WON’T GET THE REFERRAL AND YOU WON’T GET $30.

If you wish to contact me, click here and include “Bluehost” in the subject.

This is a great resource from Entrecard.com. It contains all you ever wanted to know about Entrecard and it is now available for you to download for free. The ebook is excellent because it covers basic, intermediate and advanced topics. Some of the advanced topics that I found very useful are:

Download the Entrecard official ebook here.

If you have not signed up with Entrecard, you are missing out on free traffic to your blog and much more. Sign up here.

What is Entrecard?
Entrecard is a free social advertising network site for bloggers. It allows you you to create a 125 x 125 advert for free and the 125 x 125 advert is your online business card. You then place an Entrecard widget on your blog so others can see it and advertise their blog on your widget spot. If they find your blog interesting, they can drop their Entrecard by clicking “Drop Yours” on your widget.

The concept of “Drop Yours” is very much like exchanging business cards. All dropped Entrecards will appear in your Inbox on your Entrecard dashboard so you can take you time and look at the other Entrecard members profile and blog.

Read more about Viral marketing with Entrecard advertising network.

Entrecard’s latest feature – Add new blog

Adding multiple blogs to your Entrecard Account – the ability to add more than one blog to your account.

How to add new blog guide?

1. Login to Entrecard and go to your Dashboard and clicking “Linked Blogs” in your Dashboard navigation. If you have not signed up for an account yet, don’t wait, do it now at Entrecard.com.

2. You will be able to choose whether to link your account with another EXISTING account, or to register a NEW BLOG with Entrecard, and automatically link it to your account.

3. You can switch from one blog to another, and drop or advertise as either one, from the very top right of your Entrecard screen. Where your email address is displayed there will be a link to “switch” to another account of yours.

4. Add just one more blog to your account, and you’re automatically entered to win 15,000 credits!

What is Entrecard’s credit system?
The Entrecard credit system is called EC and everytime you drop your card or when other Entrecarders buy ad space on your blog, you earn ECs. ECs can then be used to buy services from the Entrecard marketplace. This is the gist of the Entrecard credit system. Here is a link to the Entrecard shop.

IF YOU ARE STILL CONTEMPLATING WHETHER TO DOWNLOAD THE ENTRECARD OFFICIAL E-BOOK, YOU CAN DOWNLOAD IT NOW.

If you optimize your blog using Chitika, read on to find out tips on how to use Chitika ads effectively on your blog.

1. Submit URL to Chitika

I came across a link today that allows you to submit your URL to Chitika staff and members to help optimize your site using Chitika products.

http://chitika.com/forum/index.php?topic=112.0

2. Learn from Problogger

LiewCF, Malaysia’s first problogger shares tips on Chitika optimization

Quoting LiewCF:

http://www.liewcf.com/blog/archives/2007/02/top-five-chitika-optimization-tips/

3. Use Chitika RPU

You get paid per click (PPC) with RPU. It is designed to work exclusively for blogs and news/article based sites. RPU brings related products right to the user reading a product-oriented story.

http://chitika.com/rpu_overview.php

Do you want to know an easier way to drop your EntreCard? Createlf has created an EntreCard browser. Createlf has create a simple and yet effective way for users to frequently drop their EntreCard.

What is the EntreCard browser?

The EntreCard browser is a website that lets you visit blogs with the embedded EntreCard widget without having to go open another browser. The blog will appear in a frame within the Entrecard browser and you can use the next button to view the next random blog (Something similar to what you get in Blogger where you can view the next blog using the feature provided at the very top of the browser window). It just makes it easier for people to browse blogs and drop their card.

EntreCard browser is created by Createlf (http://ec.createlf.com/)

Other post that might interest you:

Viral marketing with EntreCard advertising network

Recently I created an Entrecard account and I have been using the service for almost a week. I find the Entrecard business model provides an effective platform for small bloggers to advertise their site. For those of you who don’t know about Entrecard, here is a brief summary.

Entrecard is a free social advertising network site for bloggers. It allows you you to create a 125 x 125 advert for free. You then place an Entrecard widget on your blog so others can see it and advertise their blog on your widget spot. If they find your blog interesting, they can drop their Entrecard by clicking “Drop Yours” on your widget. The concept of “Drop Yours” is very much like exchanging business cards. All dropped Entrecards will appear in your Inbox on your Entrecard dashboard so you can take you time and look at the other Entrecard members profile and blog.

Advertising starts when you find an interesting site and you buy an ad spot on the site by paying in Entrecard credits instead of real money. You earn credits when you visit other blogs and drop your Entrecard using “Drop Yours”. Each Entrecard has a different advertising rate depending on their popularity. When you decide to buy an ad spot, the blog owner will have to approve your request to advertise. If approved, your ad will appear for 24 hours. If the ad spot is popular, you will be placed in a queue (FIFO) until you reach your turn.

From your dashboard you can look at stats in 3D, message another Entrecard member and look at your queues, e.g. who has dropped their Entrecard, people who have requested for ad spot on your blog, ad spots that you have purchase, etc.

According to the Graham Langdon, the founder of Entrecard, this concept of advertising on blogs using 125 x 125 ads have been quite effective at sending traffic to members’ blogs. (Read Interview with Entrecard’s Graham Langdon). Besides advertising, Entrecard is also an active social network, complete with a forum, messaging system and a marketplace (Entrecard Shop). The Entrecard Shop is the next step forward with the credit economy established by Entrecard.

Here’s Graham Langdon thought on Entrecard Shop:

“Cumulatively, our members are earning thousands of Credits every day, and while it’s nice that you can spend your Credits to advertise on over 1700 blogs, we have a bit of a larger vision. So we’ve opened a shop where bloggers can buy and sell blogging related products and services for Credits. We have people selling exclusive WordPress themes, Blog reviews, SEO consultations, Blog makeovers, unused domain names, and more. The benefit for the seller is that it dramatically increases the amount of credits you earn, thus increasing your purchasing
power as well. The benefit for the buyer is that now you can buy much, much more than network advertising with your Credits.”

Here’s a view of my stats since I joined Entrecard. The stats are conservative (I joined less than a week ago) but mind you I didn’t do much to receive the traffic. All I did was created by 125 x 125 Entrecard and deployed my widget on my blog.

My views on Entrecard – I think the business model works for small and medium sized blogs. It is another way to drive traffic to your blog. The 125 x 125 graphical image works because it does not take up too much space on a blog and it stands out amongst all the text. The down side of Entrecard widget is, people may visit your blog just to drop their Entrecard and move away without reading your content. If only Entrecard can improve on this but how? I think the widget should keep track of page views and allow people to drop their Entrecard only if they have x no. of page views on the blog.

Any other ideas from you?

You can get free traffic to your site by advertising on free ad sites. Trackforward.com has listed 5 best sites (with ad examples) to post ads for free.

Recently an influential business investor who has been in the information technology (IT) industry for decades said something that got me thinking. He said that in today’s IT world, the success of an IT company is not to just focus on the technology but to focus on distribution. He was referring to IT storage technology. I said to myself this also holds true for internet businesses. Whether it is e-commerce, blogs, video sharing, forums, software, etc., viral distribution is crucial to the success of the business. Your online target audience will not know about your online business unless you find a way to reach them through some form of online distribution channel.

There are two phases in any online business. Firstly you must get yourself recognized in cyber-world. Then when people recognize your business, you must convert them from visitors to fans. Hence, find a way to get them to stick around. Only then will you be able to get repeated sales and form a relationship with your customers.

The first phase – Getting recognized
Search Engine Optimizers (SEO) are specialists in distributing your business URL to online communities, search engines, directories, etc. They do the “Shout Out” distribution for you. They also optimize your site through keyword strategies to get your site seen up in the list of search engines results.

Then there is reciprocal link distribution where back links to your web site will push up your page rank. A page rank tells others how popular your site is. This is measured by the number of links back to your site. Online advertising is another getting recognized strategy used by almost all online businesses. You can advertise through Google’s Adwords, Yahoo or other online advertising companies, i.e. AdBrite, etc. Some companies are using game distribution channels to advertise their products using in-game advertising methods or social network distribution channels, i.e. Facebook, MySpace, etc. to advertise or “Shout Out”.

The second phase – Sticky fans
Once you are recognized online, the number of visitors coming to your web site will increase and you have to think of ways to keep them coming back. Hence, converting visitors to fans. If you have an e-commerce web site, you need a good shipping and supplier distribution. If you run a blog or forum, you have to provide good content. You have to build a good team of contributors and moderators. You may also want to keep in touch with your fans through email-outs regularly to remind them of your existence and to inform them of new content, products, etc.

This is on-going because fans that do not stick around will go elsewhere and become fans of competitor web sites. Nothing is set in stone. The online business is always open to new ideas for example in recent months, companies are creating API’s for developers to create sticky applications for their web sites, particularly social networks. Ideas for creating viral distribution is key because we already have a good internet technology infrastructure. It is how and what we add-on to the existing technology that will give online businesses the extra edge in the business.

Having said that, if you are looking for ways to get recognized, check out my reciprocal link exchange web site and start creating back links to your web site.

I received an email notification today from YouTube about a video created by Matt Dickman. It is a video about Facebook Beacon. In the video Matt gives a demonstration how Facebook Beacon works by using a real-life example showing how you can set up Typepad blog to send blog feed to your Facebook dashboard. You can control what data you would like to allow Facebook Beacon to send to your Facebook. The example is simple and clearly shows the integration process between the two sites (Typepad and Facebook). It is worth watching the video if you curious and like to know more about how Facebook Beacon works.

If you have a website, product or service that you wish to advertise on the internet, you can use Facebook Ads to create advertising campaigns to promote either your Facebook Application, website or Facebook page in Facebook. Facebook has over 50 million members and recently launched their advertising system and are drawing more businesses to use Facebook Ads to advertise. Advertisements will be targeted based on users interests. Here is a tutorial on how to set up an advertising campaign.