When is the best time to start your blog? If you are asking yourself this question, you had better get cracking. Anyone who starts before you will have an advantage over you, as age is one of the factors involved in getting your blog recognition. The longer the blog is online, the higher it is ranked by search engines. Of course there are other factors such as in-links and uniqueness of content among others, but the earlier you get in, the better.

Why haven’t you started as yet?

I am passionate about something and I just love to read about it: What about your personal expression on the subject?  Trust me, no matter what your interest, there will be millions of people interested to read your side of the story.

It is too difficult: It is quite simple to start a blog, just go to WordPress.com and try it; a simple point and click process.

Don’t have the time: you can write posts according to your schedule. The length of the post depends on you. Once you get started, you only need a few minutes to post.

I just love Social Networking. I can’t get myself away from Facebook, MySpace, etc.: Social Networking sites are now some of the best sources of traffic for blogs. I use Facebook to highlight my latest posts and generate interest in my blogs. Post your blog link to these sites and get free traffic.

Don’t need a blog, I use email to communicate with lots of friends: This is another huge source of traffic. Start a blog and notify friends. Put a Signature in each email so that each subsequent person you communicate with can see the link to your blog. You can use the email and notify friends of new posts. You will now get traffic from your friends and the rest of the world.

Why WordPress? It is the most popular blogging software and has a thousand other advantages I can’t list in this post. The hundreds of free plugins and inherent adaptability of WordPress means it can be used for almost any type of site from blogging to membership sites to web stores. the possibilities are almost endless.

I started my first self-hosted WordPress blog in March 2008. I decided to start with my favorite hobby: photography. The site Amateur Photoblogger got (and is still getting) lots of views. In July, I started Blog To The World and it has done extremely well. Since then my list of WordPress sites has grown. The diverse uses for WordPress can be seen in my list of self-hosted sites :

• AmateurPhotoblogger.com - Photoblog
• Blog To The World - Blog
• Find Your Web Host - Hosting Store
• Right Price Camera - Digital Camera & Accessories Store
• Tips 2 Make Money - Make Money Online Blog
• WiseOffers.com - Online Coupons
• OfferReview - Review site for promotional offers
• Healthy-Natural-Weight.com - Weight Loss Blog
• Caralluma Supplements - Caralluma Appetite Suppressant

You may want to read my previous article: Which is better, self hosted WordPress or Wordpress.com?
If you make the wise choice and choose self-hosted WordPress (you cannot use ads to make money with a free WordPress.com site), you can get hosting from Blue Host. They have one click install of WordPress and one of the highest customer satisfaction of any web host.

If you want to start with a bang using step by step training and tips you can’t get for free, do like me and get Super Affiliate Blogger. It will break down the process as simple as A-B-C.

What are you waiting for? Start blogging! Now is the best time to start your own WordPress blog.

Syndicate Kahuna
Time is precious, and it is even more so online, especially if you are in some make money online business. You may be extremely busy and have little time to spend blogging or better yet, you may have several blogs and not enough time to post to each one regularly. At times you may get lazy or demotivated. Whatever the reason the service I am about to describe can really come in handy.

I had those problems until I came upon a free service from Syndicate Kahuna that allows automatic posting of fresh content to blogs. You tell them what content you want and they will start sending posts in as little as 2 minutes after a quick setup. You have the option of having it auto-posted or saved as a draft in your blog admin. This way you can edit the article before posting.

How does it work?
It all begins with a simple process of adding a file to the root of your blog (It only works for self-hosted blogs) and then adding your blog(s) to Syndicate Kahuna. You can then choose up to 10 Categories from which to get content. Next you can choose up to 10 Keywords with the added features of being able to exclude specific keywords and URL’s. You can then specify how many posts you require per day (maximum of 10).

A few minutes after submitting this information, you will see your posts coming in. Are these posts 100% unique? No, but they are unique enough to be accepted as original content by the search engines. The articles are run through some kind of article submitter software that changes up some of the words so they can pass off as original. There may be a few grammatical errors, which is why it is a good idea to proof read before publishing.

A neat feature is the ‘Sites Needed’ link on the homepage. These are articles available at Syndicate Kahuna but with little or no demand. You could start a blog and be one of the few persons in that niche. You can also apply to contribute YOUR articles to Syndicate Kahuna.

Getting Paid
Finally, and most importantly, you may earn money from the service. Once you refer someone to join Syndicate Kahuna, they may want to submit content to the Syndicate Kahuna network. When they do and sign up as a paid member, you will receive a 50% commission every month.

Also, if anyone who you refer decides to join Syndicate Kahuna’s big sister (called Traffic Kahuna), you get paid every month on that as well. To make things even more exciting, they are introducing a few more (paid) services in the next few months. If anyone who you refer to Syndicate Kahuna decides to join any of these upcoming services, you get paid every month as a result!

This service is so convenient, you’ll soon be wondering how you ever lived without it. The best thing is: It is totally FREE! Try Syndicate Kahuna.

It has been a while snce i posted here, but I have been concentrating on my online money making site. I have started a blog to post all my make money online articles on one site. The name of the site is Tips 2 Make Money located at http://tips2makemoney.com.

I’ve joined PPC-Coach.com which is proving to be a necessary and valuable investment in my online money making plans. Right away, I have seen numerous things I was doing wrong. The right way however, is a little bit more difficult but can be extremely rewarding. Learning ppc advertising with ppc-coach.com and maintaining the site is proving to be a handful, but hopefully worth the effort.

Your Blog to The World is on its way to fulfilling the orignal aim of admin, that of creating a general, super blog with posts from several authors. The blog has grown and thankfully, there are now several subscribers willing to post to Blog To The World. This will give me sufficient content to continue getting good traffic while giving me time to continue pursuing my money making goals on the internet.

What I have to do though, is find another theme. I changed from Barthelme theme as I had outgrown the two-column theme. I have been trying Zeke 1.0, but it takes a long time to load, so I’m look for an attractive 3 column theme that loads quickly.

My first store, Right Price Camera, built using a portal called Datafeerdr, is open for business and is currently being promoted. It is a digital camera and accessories store. It is in a competitive niche, but my love for photography has spurred me on. Datafeedr allows me to have a blog alongside a store, using the blog to promote the products. You may subscribe to the RSS Feed of Right Price Camera or look at the right sidebar for blog content. Visit the store.

My second project, Find Your Web Host has also progressed steadily. It is also in a competitive field, but Datafeedr allows me create unlimited web sites, so I decided to start with the harder ones first. Find Your Web Host is a web hosting site that offers the best web hosting packages for sale. The blog will be full of quality posts that will assist anyone needing information to help in their purchasing decision. You may subscribe to the RSS Feed of Find your Web Host, look at the right sidebar for blog topics or better yet, visit the store.

This is a follow-up evaluation article on building my first site, Right Price Camera using Datafeedr.com, an affiliate data feed program that pulls affiliate feeds from affiliate sites (like Commission Junction) and allows you to create your own online store by utilizing WordPress (the most popular blogging software in the world).

1. I have chosen a different template, Blue Shadow.
2. Removed empty categories.
3. Re-arranged the front page, displaying more items in Random Products and moving it above the categories.
4. Added Google Sitemap to assist Google in crawling my site.
5. Used the ‘drip’ feature so posts will be made automatically about the products. This will help in improving positions in search engine results.
6. Used Datafeedr’s Ad Rotator to randomly display ads from google, some affiliates and the two free advertising networks, adleaf and adgridworks.

The result is an improvement in the attractiveness of the site has been than was the case with the the default WordPress theme and I can now make my official store opening announcement. That was the easy part. The next stage is the challenging one of site promotion so people online will want to buy.  I’m already working on that using two free advertising networks adleaf and adgridworks and getting hits without an advertising budget but, that will be next. I’ll have to exhaust all the free ways to advertise so I can increase hits to the website before I start a spending plan.

By the way, I started another store this evening. It is so easy (even a caveman can do it). It is at http://findyourwebhost.com. It is a work-in-progress but will soon be good to go. I had to leave it before reaching the ‘finishing line’ because of family commitments.  I still need to add more web hosts and fine tune it for release. It is a little more difficult as most of the items had to be added manually (they weren’t available with the feed).

I am happy with Datafeedr.com so far. It does the job really well, leaving you time for what can be the most demanding, time consuming and frustrating task of finding the right web promotion method (s).

PS Some keywords for this article was provided by a free Keyword Generator from Web Rank Info. I’ll have to see if it will prove to be a ‘traffic master.’

Turn Datafeeds Into Beautiful Affiliate Stores!

There is a lot of money to be made on the internet and we hear the stories everyday. Many are lies, designed to trick the unaware person into buying worthless products which sometimes help the perpetrators to get rich. On the other hand, there are still increasing numbers of web entrepreneurs who make “crazy” money online. I want some of that money.

I have been studying various means of online commerce and realized that the easiest way for me was through affiliates. I wouldn’t have to do anything except promote their products and if successful, receive a commission. I wanted a site to promote these affiliates but couldn’t find the right way to do it. I thought about writing a WordPress blog reviewing and promoting each product but that would take too much time. Finally, I came across a line that said:  Building Affiliate Stores Was Never So Easy! It was Datafeedr, a new web application that allows you to make a site to sell products from different niches. What got me sold on the product is that it works with “good old” WordPress! This is perfect for me (and will be for other WordPress users), as apart from the heavy programming aspect of it, WordPress has almost become second nature to me. Beginners should not have much of a hassle either.

Datafeedr takes the feed from several affiliates (including the big ones: Click Bank, Commission Junction, ShareASale, NetShops and Link Share) and allows you to sell your chosen items for a commission. The site looks professional and only needs promotion. This is my first attempt at a Datafeedr/WordPress site, http://rightpricecamera.com. People who know me would of course know it would have to be something to do with photography. Anyway, installation was a breeze as Datafeedr.com comes with detailed text and video instructions. My new site needs fine tuning and I need to find the right template for it, but you’ll get the idea of what you can achieve. The time Datafeedr saves in inputting thousands of products makes it well worth a second look. I did everything for this site including the planning, setting up a new WordPress site and choosing the product categories, all in less than 2 hours on my first attempt. Now, to the fun, albeit more difficult stage of promoting it to get sales.

The best thing about Datafeedr is that you are not limited to one site. You can make unlimited numbers of sites, as long as you have the time and an idea for a niche. In this way, even if some of your sites don’t do well, cumulatively you stand a good chance of still making a profit by the sheer numbers of stores you can put up.

The worst thing is that the service is only available as a monthly subscription. A monthly fee starting at $27 is quite reasonable and should not be a deterrent.

The monthly subscription, plus the fact that this is a relatively new product, means that it is a golden opportunity to become an affiliate and promote this product. Promoting digital products online is like a pyramid scheme: the newer the product, the greater the chances of selling it. Datafeedr offers residual income from commissions. That means for every month that a member you referred stays an active member you get commission from the subscription.

Here is the commission structure. The default commission is 35%. Refer only one more new member and they immediately increase your commission with 5%. Refer another 5 and they increase your commission with another 5%. Refer 10 new members and your commission will be increased to 50% for all new members you refer after that. After a while,  you can keep collecting a fat check and never have to do any more promotion, unless you want to.

Datafeedr is a wonderful opportunity to make money from your online stores and also from being an affiliate. The high price is a bother, but the possibilities of eventually having 200 or so niche sites up and running, coupled with the attractive commision structure for promoting the product has me sold. Aren’t you? FIND OUT MORE!

Site Build It! may be a better choice, but the major difference is that Site Build It! lets you build one site, but build it really well. Datafeedr lets you build an unlimited number of sites, but you’ll have to do more work in promoting it. Datafeedr costs $97 per month. Site Build It! has a one time fee of $299 for each site. Site Build it! really concentrates on building a business and getting traffic by utilizing traffic pulling keywords on the pages. It is one of the most successful website building tools on the internet with many pleased users and may be used for all types of businesses. Check out the video here. See how Site Build It! can help in affiliate marketing.

If you looking for a hosting company to host your new site(s), get Free Domain Name, Free Setup and Host Unlimited Domains for only $6.95 at Host Monster, my favorite, reliable hosting company renowned for unparalleled customer service. By the way, there is a special promo now on for only $5.95 per month! Better yet, try this super deal, Top Rated Web Hosting - $3.95/mo from IX Webhosting.

AdRotator is a WordPress plugin that allows you to rotate ads on your site so the same ad doesn’t appear at the same spot everytime a post or page is opened. The plugin homepage  is located here and the user manual here.  I had difficulties installing AdRotator until I  found out that the problem was the input code. I had to use the code in the following format to get it to work:

““

In case anyone is having problems getting AdRotator to work, you may want to try this code input format first.

If you own a blog and would like to drive more traffic to your site, you might want to check out SezWho, a social networking site that rewards you for participating and commenting.

It works in 5 stages:

1. 1 The contributor creates content (such as a blog post).
2. The community votes and comments on the quality and relevance of the content.
3. The comments and reputation of each contributor is carried with them across all sites in which they contribute and the more they contribute, the more their reputation is enhanced.
4. Readers can follow contributor to different sites and communities.
5. This enables discovery of new content and communities.

Dancehall Divas in Concert, a live reggae dancehall event at Club Naz in Falmouth, Jamaica took place last night.It showcased the leading female artistes in Jamaican dancehall. Miss Thing, Diva, Sasha, Spice and D’Angel were there, but missing were Macka Diamond, Patra and Lady G. The undisputed Queen of dancehall Marion Hall, aka Lady Saw was not billed, but gave a surprise appearance and as expected, stole the show and made us forget about the two absentees. Here are a few of the photos I took, but the full photoset can be viewed here on my photoblog, amateurphotoblogger.com.

The rest of the photo set can be viewed here

It just dawned on me that I have a relatively unused Panasonic GS-90 in my drawer. I bought it 2 years ago at Abe’s of Maine with an extended life battery, all the accessories anyone could need and hardly ever use it. I’m so in love with still photography and my Nikon D40, that I sometimes forget I have this camcorder. Yesterday (Independence Day), there was a wonderful civic ceremony that included a marching band made up of teenagers.

Drummers perform at Independence Day Ceremony in Falmouth

The band did a really good job, especially playing the National Anthem and there was no video camera there to preserve that exceptional rendition. I took still photos and they will be uploaded to Amateur Photoblogger.

The importance of the camcorder became more evident to me today when going over some old DV tapes used last year, I saw a brief but absolutely priceless clip of a close friend who was killed earlier this year. It was really touching and made me realize that if I  had not used it that day, I would not have such a precious memory preserved.

I will have to start using my camcorder again and upload videos to YouTube as a motivator so that I can preserve and share all those memories. Learning YouTube stuff like editing, outputting and uploading video to the web should be fun.

The day in Falmouth was a memorable one, starting with a civic ceremony (that was poorly attended as usual) and then a Street Dance and concert featuring L.U.S.T. (Tony Curtis, Singing Melody, Thriller U and the 4th member that I can’t recall right now ) and Turbulance. I finished the night at the local hot spot, Club Nazz, ending up at Donna’s till daylight. Incidentally, there will be a live concert inside Club Naz on Friday called Divas of Dancehall featuring Macka Diamond, D’Angel, Patra, Lady G and Sasha. I should be there taking some photos which I will post to Amateur Photoblogger. Well, got to go catch some well needed sleep!