Seth Godin on Alpha Inventions

Well ... well ... well. Seth Godin's Blog is doing rounds on Alpha inventions. Can you believe it? He, whose blog is read by 1000's, if not more, is testing out Alpha Inventions.

Unless someone else has submitted it or Alpha Inventions has picked it up on its own, it definitely means Alpha Inventions has come of age and is earning respectability in blogging circles.

But this is something we regular users of Alpha Inventions always knew, didn't we?

See Two definite ways of increasing blog traffic and Are hits from Alphainventions.com for real?

One can expect a clever analysis of Alphainventions from Seth Godin soon.

Is your job meaningful?

It is obvious that any sensible person would do meaningful tasks as opposed to what could be called a drudgery. So what makes a task - your job, blogging, serving others - meaningful?

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book, Outliers, lists out three characteristics that make any task meaningful:

These are:

1. There should be a clear relationship between effort and reward.
2. The task should be complex. It should engage your mind and imagination.
3. One should have autonomy. You should be your own boss.

Now, evaluate your job satisfaction around these factors.

Hmmm... come to think of it, I now know why blogging is so hugely popular. It requires imagination and the mind is engaged. You are your own boss and most of the time there is a relationship between effort and rewards (readership, money, whatever). The more you blog, the more are the chances that you will be discovered. Or you can hop on to the Alphainventions gravy train.

10 Spectacular Blogs, so far

I started collecting spectacular blogs in the month of February. And now I have a collection of 10. Hence this announcement.

I have simple criteria of choosing spectacular blogs.

a) The blog needs to grab my attention by its neck and hold it there for at least 15 minutes.

b) "I wish I had thought of that," is what comes to mind as I read these blogs.

Check out my collection of Spectacular Blogs. Drop a line and let me know if you think these are any good.

Are the hits from Alphainventions.com for real?

Many of the Alphainventions users must be having the same doubt as I: How real are the hits referred by Alphainventions? Or are they just visitors passing by?

To find exactly this I a) recently installed Google Analytics in my blog and b) did not submit my blog to the alphainventions reading cycle.

Here are the results for the period 27th Feb to March 1st, both inclusive (basically 3 days)

No. of visits = 147
Pages / visit = 9.03 (note: repeated visit of a single page are counted)
Average Time on Site = 0:43:27
New Visits = 87.76%
Bounce rate = 23.13% (meaning, 1 in 5 visitor did not explore my blog beyond the page first visited.)

The answer to the question we all are asking is now very clear.

Yes, Alphainventions brings you new visitors.
Yes, the hits referred by alphainventions to your blog are real people.
Yes, the visitors stay on for a prolonged period of time exploring your blog.

Do you have similar statistics that can throw light on alphainventions?

Squidoo Lens in February

I envy those who have numerous Squidoo lens - so me have 400+ :-0. Isn't that amazing? Need to reach that goal asap. Meanwhile, here's what I managed in February.

Learn German with me - I have completely redone this lens. It used to list the free resources available on net. It now has (almost) all the German lessons I developed for this blog. Having all the lessons on one page makes so much more sense. I still have transfer a few more lessons before starting of on new ones. Meanwhile have a look and let me know if it is an improvement.

Created 2 lens dedicated to blogs.
The first one, Best on Indian Blogs, can be deemed a success. It is a list of blogs by Indians (including NRI's). Bloggers can submit their blogs and vote for each others' blog. As of now there are 81 blogs in the list. Check it out. If you are a blogger, feel free to submit your blog (listing your blog on a platform that has high Google visibility will not do you any harm) and if you are not a blogger, even then it is worth a visit to see what Indians blog about.

The other one, Spectacular Blogs, is a personal list of blogs that I really like. I gather these as I surf the Net. Let me know if you like my collection. It is still a small collection but will definitely grow.

And finally, I added 3 more what I call photo-lens (basically a Squidoo lens consisting mainly of photographs) to my repertoire:

Photographs of Intricately Carved Photographs of Hoysala Temple - part 2 (Halebid photographs); the part 1 of this series (Photographs of Intricately Carved Photographs of Hoysala Temple) is on the temple at Belur.

The giant of Shravanabelagola - Bhaubali

My memories of England and Northern Ireland

Let me know if you like the pictures.

Lens on Blogs

I have been toying with a cross-over idea: to combine the convenience of a lens on Squidoo and the blog world. At first I thought I would use the high search rank of Squidoo to promote my lens but then I was stuck by the selfishness of it all. So I decided to do something for other bloggers.

I have launched two new lens. One is called the Best of Indian Blogs. This is an attempt to build the list of best blogs by Indians. Indian bloggers can submit their blogs and vote for the blogs, their own and those of others. I am hoping that this will give Indian blogs a high-visibility platform. Squidoo is in the top 500 most visited sites in the world, and in the top 250 most viewed in the United States. So far about 50 blogs have been submitted. So, that is going well. So if you are an Indian blogger who has stumbled upon this blog, please feel free to submit your blog on this lens. Let's have fun.

As I scan the blogosphere I come across some fantastic blogs. Those that I am not capable of dreaming of. They are so good that I have spent hours browsing these blogs. So the second lens is a list of blogs that I find spectacular. This is my private lens and I do not allow others to add any blog on their own. But if you come across a blog that you think is worth including in the lens please feel free to leave a comment on the lens and I promise to look it up. The lens is called Spectacular Blogs (very original name!) Check out the blogs on this lens. Let me know if you too find these spectacular.

I haven't seen any other Squidoo lens quite like these. I am wondering if I can take a copyright on this idea :-)

Photo courtesy: Jaylopez

Attracting Traffic To Your Blog - What Works and What Does Not

Continuing my experiments with Blogging ... and Traffic ...

Commenting on blogs by others works. The most effective mechanism of guaranteeing at least one visitor. However, to truly use the power of commenting, try and add value in your comment. The best method I found was to leave a comment and indicating that my blog has more on this. This ensures all those who comment will look up your blog. Commenting on blogs that are on Technorati increases your authority rating on Technorati. So watch out for blogs that appear on Technorati.
But ... commenting on blogs that already has 100+ comments does not. Your comment just vanishes in the crowd. Unless the blogger responds to every single comments. Also commenting on blogs that has no similarity whatsoever with your blog also doesn't help.

Joining forum helps. Ensure that you do not only push your blog. Contribute to the threads in a meaningful way. People will look you up.
But ... joining any forum does not help. You need to join forum of like-minded bloggers. I generally read existing threads to check out if I like what I see.

Becoming a follower or subscribing to posts of interesting blogs help. It is likely that the blogger will return the gesture. Get a good avatar of yourself. Or use your photographs. Blank silhouette is no good.
But ... subscribing to or following a blog that already has hundreds of admirers does not help.

Blog surfing applications (for lack of better name) helps. Two that I know of: Alphainventions.com and Condron.us (Alpha gives you more traffic). You are assured of traffic.
But ... you need a great heading and relevant and good content to grab attention. Otherwise you will get huge traffic - each of less than a fraction of a second.

Photographs, pictures, cartoons, images, etc. help grab attention. Guaranteed. Stock.Xchng is an excellent source of free stock pictures. Subscribe to Stock.Xchng and you won't regret. Their search utility is excellent.
But ... the image should match the content of the blog. Otherwise it is a turn-off. It is better not to have any pictures than having something that is a total mismatch.

Blogging about blogging helps. Most of the bloggers are hungry for ideas. So I expect a good traffic here :-)
But ... repeating what is available on 1000's of blog does not. You need to be genuine. Hopefully this one is.

Blogging about "how to earn by blogging" helps. Huge number of hits is assured. Bloggers flock to such blogs.
But ... there is no quick way to riches.

Alphainventions - an update on paid subscription

Quite some time ago I blogged about Alpha Inventions. It is manna from heaven for bloggers. You get traffic and you get to see many blogs - both highly desirable.

Traffic in 100's is a given. However, if you want an explosion in traffic then you must try out the paid subscription of Alpha Inventions.

I used the AIID (Stands for Alpha Inventions IDentification, I think) subscription for two months.

Here’s what it does to you and your blog.

1) You are down by $10 per month.

2) Your blog witnesses an explosion of traffic. On days, I managed to get 2000+ visits with corresponding increased advertisement clicks (that sort of neutralizes point 1 above)

3) It reduces your effort to increase hits. Submit your blog once along with your AIID# and go do other jobs.

The Alphainventions team is prompt with dispatching your AIID#.

I benefited from the paid subscription. So this is something I would recommend trying out if HUGE traffic is your goal.

Caution: To capture the fickle bloggers' attention is entirely up to your content and attractiveness of your presentation. Most of the views on your blog actually represent a short term exposure of your blog to the numerous viewers who are viewing Alpha Inventions at any given time.

For those who are wondering if I will continue using AIID subscription ... I would have loved to continue but what I wish to promote using AIID subscription currently blocks the reading cycle. So till the Alpha Inventions finds a solution, I am off AIID subscription and back to normal free submission.

And yes, I do miss the 1000’s of visits already.

Big Increase In Page Impressions and Small Increase In Revenue - Blogging Experience

I have promised myself I will be blogging on my blogging experience as I go along. So here is an update ...

As I type, the page impressions stand at 121,886. Number of visitors are increasing and so are the earnings (no pay offs yet though) - though not at the rate I would like.

This is what I have been doing so far.

1. Blogging regularly. It is becoming a habit now. I have noticed that the more you blog the faster new ideas come tumbling. After a while, you own a style that is distinctive. Hopefully, I have a distinct style of my own by now. I have noticed that my hobbies are feeding off each other. I like to read and I like to blog. My reading gives me ideas for my blogs and my blogging success (?) gives me the push to read further.

2. Spreading my net wider. Basically increasing my catchment area. The idea is to get trickles from a wider area. Towards that I have started Squidoo Lens, which I kind of enjoy. I also am consistently leaving comments on other blogs of interest. This needs to go. I am not very satisfied with the Blog Directories. Not many visitors from these. However, the number of visitors are growing from the IndiBlogger forum, where I love to contribute.

3. I recently started building followers. Right now I have only three. This is on a reciprocal basis, which is a nice arrangement - I get to read some interesting blogs. I think this will give my blog more visibility. The subscription drive through mails continues. My subscribers are my captive audience, sort of.

4. I am paying more attention to catchy titles and attractive pictures. Internet surfers have notoriously short attention plan. Need to grab their attention at first glance. Not sure how successful I am. Will know shortly.

5. I am still reliant a great deal on Alpha Inventions to get me visitors, which it does admirably. There is another similar application on the Internet. It is called Condron. The flow of traffic is much less from here.

I have now decided to do measure the rate of increase of page impressions, rather than just page impressions. So my next update, perhaps next month, will contain better statistics.

The aspect that I am still not very satisfied with is the quality of advertisement. I have a feeling I know why this is so. The topics I write on are varied. This must be throwing the adsense algorithm off. I do not want to compromise on my reading pleasure for advertisements though. But if the visitors do not find relevant advertisements to explore then the success criteria I have set for myself is not met. So it is kind of catch-22.

Adsense offers a few tools to manage adsense advertisements. Need to explore this too.

Picture Courtesy: Ilker

Squidooing The Weekends

I discovered Squidoo a few days ago. Entirely by accident.
I purchased a Seth Godin book, The Purple Cow (Yeah! I still buy books!) and was intrigued enough to check out his blog.
There I noticed the strange set combination of characters S-Q-U-I-D-O-O.
So, I explored further and today I am a lens master.

I took me some time to understand how to get a hang of this Squidoo animal. Every time I thought of an idea for a lens on Squidoo, I found it more suitable for my blog here.

Since I do not give up on a possible future without giving it a shot, I have now decided to dedicate one day, either a Saturday or a Sunday, to making a lens. My repertoire of lens is slowly building up. I realize that the lens serves as a repository of my blog. And it works like this ...

I scan my blog for a common thread between different blogs and when I find one, I convert that into a lens.

Though the blurb says create a lens in 60 seconds (or something similar), I take at least 2-3 hours coming up with a suitable idea and executing it.

Have a look at the lens I created today: Photographs of intricately carved sculptures of Hoysala Temples

Let me know what you think of it.

And should you want to become a lens master yourself, click on my referral link here (You can become a lens master directly too; it is just that this would be your way to thank me ;-))

Blogging - 7 Things That Work For Me And 1 That Doesn't

Having blogged almost continuously for about 4 months now, I am getting a feel of what works for me. I haven't yet figured one that doesn't.

Here's the list of what works ...

1. Using a neat template ... Too much clutter is a no-no. The attention span of a visitor is short. Need to capture and keep the visitor for a long time.

2. Using pictures ... Pictures capture attention. Not too many of these. But definitely above the fold-line. And the best place to get royalty free pictures is Stock Xchng. Remember to leave a message for the photographer thanking him/her - that also ensures that one extra person will visit your blog. Also remember to credit the photographer in your blog.

3. Blogging My Mind ... I know it is good to focus, great for traffic, etc. I have other blogs which are extremely focused. But you got to have one for fun. Where you can blog your heart out. So that even when no one is visiting your blog, you are driven to blog continuously.

4. Being a Good Citizen of The Blogosphere ... It is fun to make virtual friends. It also means that people in whose blog I have left a comment visit mine. I make it a point to leave comments in at least 5 blogs per day.

5. Welcome Text ... I think my hit rate increased after I introduced a welcome note for my visitors. In any case, it is nice to greet strangers. I read somewhere long ago in Reader's Digest:

A stranger is just a friend you haven't met before

6. Non-linear narrative ... I get more visitors to the posts that do not follow a plain, straight line narrative.

7. Asking For Feedback ... Asking for feedback of like minded friends you met on a forum is a great help.

Here's the list of what I still need to figure out ...

1. How do I ensure quality advertisements on my blog that interests my visitors? Blogging is in my control. But how do I get my visitors to become interested in the ads.  I wish I had the creative control on the advertisement on my blog. Meaning, I wish I could design them.

But then that would mean that the advertisements would look exactly like my blog!!  Is that a good thing or a bad thing? You decide.

Note: The picture used belongs to jaylopez (See gallery)

In Support of Slow Blogging Manifesto

I am not exactly a slow blogger. My desire to blog something every day is overwhelming. And I blog like maniac. Recently I posted an Anti-SEO Manifesto. Today I googled 'blog manifesto' to search for like minded bloggers and I came across this amazing Slow Blogging Manifesto.

The focus is on content and rejection of the desire to be on the first page of a Google Search for generating traffic (though ironically, this site due to its relevance appears in the first page!).

Now why is Slow Blogging superior? Because by reacting instantly you are working on noise and not on substance. Have you noticed how an event makes much more sense a couple of weeks, months, or years down the like. It is called hind sight. Everything looks more settled hind sight. By blogging instantly one just adds to the noise and then herd mentality takes over. Substance is lost.

There are instances when instant reaction helps. The outrage and grief post Mumbai is classic case. Bloggers played a part too. And it helped. But does it help every time?

Every thing has a place. Fast food and food that is cooked with time and deliberation.

Blogging in general is seen as fast food. I am glad someone took up cause of slow blogging.

Posts that are deliberately written will have more relevance and be of value even many years after these are written.

Do you agree with the Slow Blogging Manifesto? If yes, you may also agree with the Anti-SEO Manifesto.