I love blogging but in order to blog I need a domain and a hosting service. I do not like free blogging platforms such as Blogger because I just don’t like it and it does not like me too and I am not kidding. I also need an internet connection to blog at home and all of that needs money.

So, traffic means money. More traffic means more money. People often said you need contents to get traffic and then you make money. Well, I said, that is true. But I also want to say that you need money to have a blog so that you can put in your contents. In the end, it would be a chicken and egg situation.

Before chicken and egg becomes omelet with chicken meat, and this post become irrelevant, let me go back to this post about getting traffic to your blog.

There is a new program in the blogging world and it is called Adgitize. If you are familiar with Entrecard, then this is something almost similar in the sense that it is about getting traffic to your blog. Some people said that it would be competing against Entrecard but I said it would just complement it.

There are some differences between Adgitize and Entrecard but the differences that I want to highlight are:

1. You need to pay to advertise in Adgitize but you use credits to advertise in Entrecard.
2. You advertise on specific blog on Entrecard but your ads will go to all blogs in the Adgitize network.
3. You only get traffic while using Entrecard but you can get traffic and money while using Adgitize.

Those are the main difference that I know or want to know and if you need further details, just go to Adgitize.

Well, since this is about traffic, let me update you on my Mission Alexa. My rank has taken a little dip and this could be related to some busy time at work as well as unexplainable laziness during the weekends that caused me to be less active online. The Alexa ranking has dropped from 124,364 to 125,308 as of today.

However, the good news is in the chart below:

The ranking in Malaysia has gone up from 3,805 to 3,479! Anyway that’s the only good news as the other rankings have gone down especially the United States.

Hey, has this got something to do with the financiial crisis over there?

Kisahberuang.com has sponsored another big contest on the internet. Another 1000 Entrecard credit would be given as prize to the lucky winner. For details on this contest, please visit New Media Super Contest Launched!

Look at the amount of prizes to be won! That means there would be lots of chance to win there. So, what are you waiting for? Hurry up and make your way to Joetech.com and participate.

All entries must be in before 1st January 2009 to be eligible!

That’s enough about the great contest and now we move on to another award given to Kisahberuang.com and this time it is from Aku dan Duniaku.

Now for a short award acceptance speech:

Thank you Ummu Hanis for this award even though you always find it difficult to understand some of the things that I wrote here and causing you to lost your way around this blog sometimes but for the spirit of friendship, you have given me this great honor to accept the award that you have given!

Thanks and may the best be with you!

It is a great honor for a blogger to have visitors to his or her blog and it is an even greater honor if the visitors left some comments after reading the posts. However, many visitors would just come and go and only a few would really read and comment.

Due to that, I have been looking around the blogsphere for ways to reward people who took the trouble to read and leave comments. I have seen many ways from different bloggers but I am impressed with they way Bonoriau rewards his first commenter. He would put up your banner on the spot dedicated to the first commenter.

So, based on that, I looked around for a nice spot to put a 125 x 125 banner on this blog. I needed a spot that provide good visibility to others who read and comment on this blog and I found one. The spot is right below the shoutbox and next to the Google Adsense ads and right above the Entrecard drop box. I could not have any better space to give away at this time.

So, my visitors, from now on you are going to be rewarded for your comment. The first commenter to the latest post will get his or her banner (125 x 125) displayed on this blog for FREE! You may put your own ads or whatever you want there for as long as there is no bad stuffs.

So, here is a short FAQ on how this reward works.

Do I need to have my own 125 x 125 banner to get the reward?

No. If you are a member of Entrecard, I will use your Entrecard banner for that spot. If you are not an Entrecard member, you can include the link to your 125 x 125 banner in your comment and I will put that up. If you are an Entrecard member but wish to use a different banner you may also include the link to your other banner in your comment. If you do not have or do any of the above, I will take a thumbnail shot of your blog and put it on the spot.

How long will it take for my banner to appear?

I can’t promise you the time. I am doing this manually in order to avoid spammers. My time is GMT +8. If I received your comment and I am still on my blog, you banner would be up within a short time. If I am already asleep when you put in your comment, it would take a longer time for your banner to be up. So, try to comment when the post is still hot.

How long will my banner be displayed?

For as long as there is no new entry posted on this blog. The total time displayed would be between the time I put your banner up and the time I posted a new post. For your information, I normally update my blog with a new post on daily basis. Sometimes, during weekends, I do not post and you may get a longer time for your banner.

Is there any catch to this reward?

None! This is free and you will not be asked to do anything. All you need to do is be the first commenter.

What if my question is not answered here?

Please contact me by filling up a form here.

Kisah beruang.com loves to sponsor high profile contests and this is one of those contests that offer lots of interesting prizes to the winners.

I have sponsored 1000 Entrecard credits out of the total 76000 Entrecards credits offered as prizes.

Among the other great prizes to be won are blog templates, banners, logos, reviews, e-books and ad spaces for you to advertise your blogs.

The contest is titled Lets Win This Contest Together – Season 2 by Shanker Bakshi dot com.

The contest will run throughout November 2008 and the winner will be announced on 1st December 2008.

If you love participating in blog contests and want to win any of the prizes that are being offered, click here for details. All the best to all of you!

PS: Need Entrecard credit sponsor for your blog contest? Contact me!

Are you looking for some ways to get some side incomes from your blog? Project Wonderful is an excellent program where you can sell your ad space to people for them advertise their products or sites.

Advertisers would bid for your ad space and the highest bidder wins the spot and you can decide whether to get involved or just let the system handles it for you while you are sleeping or doing other things.

I have just got my second payment from them and one thing that I noticed so far is that payment is processed fast and you will get your money in your PayPal within one or two days.

Let me tell you something about this program. Firstly, there are many ad types that you can choose but the most popular size is the 125 x 125 box. You can see this on my side bar just below the Nuffnang ad. I have put it into 2 rows by 2 columns and this layout can be controlled and decided by you. If you scroll further down my side bar, You can see that I have also used a 300 x 250 ad size just above the Adsense.

Then you can also decide whether yo want to approve all ads before they are displayed, or only approve those ads from advertisers that you have not approved before or automatically approve all ads. I choose the auto option since I do not want to miss any ad request from my potential advertisers.

On top of that, you can set your ad rating so that the system will filter the advertisers and their ads. For example, if you do not want to accept NSFW ads, then you just simply set that option and the system will do the rest for you.

So, if you have some space to rent on your blog and your other ads not giving you the money that you want, give this a try and who knows, this might work for you as it is working for me.

Related post: Wonderful