Update On Events

Such a busy week. More so busy with things at home compare to the good old dot Com world. However, there are quite a few things that I wanted to touch on before entering into yet another busy holiday weekend.

• Top Page Ads: Wow.. this program is doing great. I am excited to have the opportunity to display so many wonderful sites in my Top Page Ads section. I have tons of space for more people. The current rate to advertise your avatar with a direct link to your site is only $5 dollars per month. At this time, I am offering the first month free! If you have been considering joining… don’t wait too long, as the space is pretty limited for the $5 dollar deal. If you lock in at $5 dollars, your price will STAY at $5 dollars regardless of what the current rate may be.
• Text Link Ads: I love Text-Link-Ads.com these guys have an amazing program. I use TLA for most of all my blogs across the board. If you want to make an easy $100 dollars, you should sign up for Text-Link-Ads. It doesn’t come to be too difficult to find yourself with an extra $100 dollars in your pocket with participating in their program. People can advertising their link on my site using TLA for $30 dollars per month. However, I am created my own service that allows people to take advantage of the same service for only $10 dollars.
• Brand New Blog Contest: If you are looking to increase your traffic and reader base. You will want to participate in my latest contest. If you win, your most recent posts titles will be syndicated and displayed on my sidebar linking my readers directly to your home page and individual post pages. This is a super huge contest to try to win!
• Blog Authors Organization (BAO): Things are going well with the BAO. We have applications being sent in daily and we are working hard to get a lot of our system and policies in place and we should be going live very soon. If you would like to make money blogging, visit www.blogauthors.org for more information.
• Blog Authors Network (BAN): The BAN goes hand in hand with the BAO. However, if you would like to take full advantage of a FREE offer, the BAN is accepting submissions into the directory. If you are looking for a great directory to add your blog to, take advantage of BAN and the BAN free listings!

That is all for now… I think the above should keep people pretty busy over the weekend (if you are not already busy with the holiday). I’ll be back with a new post on Monday or Tuesday. I’ll still be around to answer email, comments and get people set up on any paid advertising. As always drop me a comment… tell me what is on you mind! Have a great weekend! If you want cheap and affordable advertising, consider my Top Page Ads service. I am getting quite a few people to sign up, space is limited and this super low price won’t last much longer!

Cost Effective Advertising

There are a few things that I have learned very quickly in the world of blogging, and one thing is for sure… Not many people want to spend money on advertising. It’s true, and to be honest, I don’t either!

But, I have learned that there are a few places on the Internet where it is actually worth the money to pay for advertising. And to be quite frank, I would safely bet that I am probably one of the cheapest and tightest bloggers with my money in the blogosphere. Now having that all said, I want to tell you about an advertisement program that I have created. My program is called, Top Page Ads (aka The Site Supporter Program) and it is designed to give you the most “bang” for your advertising dollar. I wouldn’t have created it if I didn’t feel that it was effective. And if someone else had launched the exact same program, I would have honestly listed around 10 or so of my blogs immediately.

The Top Page Ads program is quite simple. I take your avatar from MyBlogLog or BlogCatalog copy it and upload it to my server. From there I display it on the VERY TOP of EVERY PAGE within my entire blog, and point a link direct to your web site or blog. I have made the Top Page Ads section one of the FIRST things anyone sees when they visit my site or individual post pages.

My blog traffic is very diverse and that is my goal. I have tons of regular reader traffic coming direct to my home page and I have tons of search engine traffic coming direct to my individual post pages. Everything is spot on and running according to plan.

Do you want to advertise dirt cheap and get the most BANG for you advertisement dollar? My Top Page Ads program is only $5 dollars per month. And for a very limited time only, you can sign up now and immediately advertise FREE and pay NOTHING the first month. 30 Days free, you pay NOTHING for one month. No contracts to sign. Cancel anytime.

There is a very popular Wordpress Plugin called, Buy Me A Beer. It puzzles me why so many people are willing to “Buy People Beer and Coffee” and not expect just a little something back in return. Yes, people donate to blog authors to reward them for publishing great content… and I love that. Just as the picture shows you here, I have donated money to other contributing authors, up to $10 dollars at times. But wouldn’t it be nice if the person donating the money got rewarded as well? And that is where my Top Page Ads program is different. I want readers and advertisers to help support me by throwing a few dollars my way. But, I also want to provide a reward system for doing this. My Top Page Ads program allows me to accept very small donations but it also has an awesome “Reward System” for the people that donate to me.

Instead of buying me a beer or coffee, buy yourself an awesome spot on Garry Conn dot Com and help support my writing efforts, while at the same time support yourself by having something extremely powerful to show for your donation!

• Your Avatar with direct link to your blog on the top of every page.
• First month is totally free!
• Only $5 dollars per month there after.
• No Contracts to sign. Cancel anytime!

Buy Now!

Drop me a comment whether you join or not. I would love to hear from you!

Blog Contest To Increase Traffic

With my latest contest proving to be a success for both myself and the winner, David Cooley, I have created another brand new contest. You will absolutely love this one! Being blog authors, we are always looking for excellent ways to increase our traffic and our reader base. My latest contest does this both for you as well as for myself! This is a contest that will increase your traffic as well as my traffic. Here is how it works:

Contest Description

This contest is going to be a blast! I am offering to display your most recent articles on my sidebar. As we all know, most blogs syndicate their content. This gives other bloggers the ability to easily provide excellent sources of information to their own readers. Blog authors can easily with a click of a button display the titles of the most recent posts from any blog they want. Some blog programs, such as Wordpress, even include special widgets to do it. The end result is that the blog author who displays the external links enhances their site while the original blog author gains more traffic and links back to their blog. And in short, that is what makes RSS Syndication cool! And that is what will make this contest a total success! I want to display your most recent post titles and link them directly to your articles. The above image on the left is an example of what you will win! In this example (and live on the site) I am displaying the most recent posts from Aaron Wall’s SEO Blog and the most recent posts from Lisa Sabin-Wilson’s Amazon blog that promotes her brand new Wordpress For Dummies book that will be released this fall.

Contest Details

You are competing to win a premium sidebar placement of your most recent posts. The placement is site wide and above the top fold within my entire blog. Here is an actual screen shot of the position that is live on the site:

Contest Rules

• I will make a beautiful blending graphic which will replace the default one that says, “Win My Contest… Display Your Posts Here”. This graphic will blend your existing blog logo into my sidebar seamlessly. If I can’t use your existing graphic, I will make a brand new one.
• I will be displaying your TEN most recent posts at all times. This is done by way of utilizing your blogs RSS syndication feature. As you write and publish new articles on your blog, they will instantly update on my blog.
• Your most recent posts will be displayed for one month!
• You must uphold content that is not offensive to others. Basic rules apply such as no profound language in your titles. I will have the final approval on displaying your syndicated post titles on my site.
• If you win the contest but your content doesn’t meet my minimum quality standards, I will simply reward your winning with a $10 dollar Payment via PayPal.com.

How Do I Participate?

This is the easy part! My contest couldn’t be any easier to participate in. There is one thing I know about bloggers, we don’t have a lot of time to participate in contests. They are fun, challenging, etc… but time is always a factorization. I have considered this and made participating in the contest so simple it will make you silly!

Blog contests are typically designed to help other bloggers while helping yourself achieve a goal. I’ll be completely honest with you… I want more traffic! Who doesn’t? If you didn’t want more traffic, you wouldn’t be interested in this contest.

This contest is designed to give you more traffic and give myself more traffic. I am interested in having more traffic so that I can do what I do best: Convert Traffic Into Regular Readers. To participate, all you have to do is send me traffic. And this can be done by using my special link so that you can get credit for the hits.

In your blogroll, posts, link pages, etc… use my special link to send more people to my site. The more people you send to my site the more chance you have of winning. The special link is easy to use and its unique for everyone who wants to participate:

http://www.garryconn.com/?reader=yourname

Lets use my friend Kyle Eslick as an example:

http://www.garryconn.com/?reader=Kyle-Eslick

Kyle would create this link and add it to anywhere he wanted to try to get people to click. These clicks are tracked and if he sends me the most traffic, he will win!

* Kyle, if you participate, please use a different URL such as
/?reader=Kyles-Cove

• The contest is going to run for about two weeks to a month. Depending on the number of people who are participating and how well the results are going will reflect the time frame of the contest.
• The contest will run no later than Sept. 26th. 2007.
• I will be using Google Analytics to track the amount of clicks being sent.
• I will also comment frequently with updates and let you know which people are leading in the contest.

If you want to participate in the contest, drop me a comment below just to let me know that you are playing. Let me know what the special link is that you created. Again, you can create the link using this format:

http://www.garryconn.com/?reader=Your-Name

Use your name, your site name, it doesn’t matter. However, when you choose your special link, stick with it and don’t change the link.

If you should have any questions, please feel free to drop me a comment. I am here to answer any questions. Good luck, and remember to drop a comment if you would like to participate.

Where Do I Add The Link

Here are a few suggestions on places you can add the link. Be creative and add the special link in places that you think people will click. You can start playing immediately. Drop me a comment and let me know.

• If you already have my blog in your blogroll, you can easily update it with the new URL.
• If you don’t have my blog in your blogroll, add it using the your unique URL.
• Do you need something to write about? You can write a post about my contest and ask your readers to help you win!
• Submit your post to DIGG and include your special URL.
• When you leave comments on other blogs sites, substitute your URL with the special URL that links here.
• This is just a few creative ways you can get more clicks in order to win!

Oh! I Forgot To Mention!!!

This contest has a KICKER BONUS!!! In addition to having your most recent articles featured on my sidebar, I am also offering a money matrix! The money matrix is offered to the winner of the contest. The amount of money you win depends on the amount of traffic you send me. Here is the money matrix breakdown:

• 1000 clicks = $10 dollars
• 5000 clicks = $20 dollars

Don’t cheat. I am also logging IP addresses and I can easily detect to see if you are running an auto linker or clicking the link yourself. Cheaters will be removed from the contest without warning.

Good luck and have fun! Don’t forget to drop a comment and let me know you are playing. Also let me know the URL that you created for the contest.

Internet Knowledge Contest Winner

Everyone please congratulate David Cooley from CyberCoder.net for winning the Test Your Internet Knowledge Contest with a clean sweep, scoring 100%! Wow… nice work David.

David’s answers:

David Cooley on August 19th, 2007 at 7:06 am
1= 1 Yahoo
2= 1 Blogger
3= 3 Netscape
4= 1 Network Solution
5= 2 Amazon Associates
6= 1 eBay
7= 2 GIF
8= 1 HTM
9= 3 RBSE
10= 2 Oct. 25th, 1994

For participating and winning in the contest, I will be featuring his banner on my site for one month! Here is what the banner looks like:

Congrats for winning the contest David! Everyone be sure to drop a comment and congratulate him for winning! Also, if you would the first hand opportunity to participate in my next contest, take a moment to subscribe to my newsletter.

A List of Blog Portals and Directories

I spend a lot of time talking about Google. Even though Google is my favorite place to get my content indexed, there are many other places that you might be interested in submitting your blog to. Below is a pretty decent list of blog portals I have put together. Check them out and add your blog to them. Most of these portals make it very easy to submit your blog and take less than a minute to do so. Getting traffic from the popular search engines is important, but also getting your blog listed in the smaller portals is important too. Many of the major search engines crawl the smaller ones and if your link is found, then your blog will get credited with a great quality backlink.

• BAN - Easily search for blog authors that write about the topics that interests you. Add your blog for free.
• Blogarama - Get free traffic and exposure when you list your blog on Blogarama.
• BlogHop - Get vast exposure, amaze your friends, and prove your parents wrong. You, too, can amount to a listing on BlogHop, the Internet’s most infrequently updated blog portal.
• Globe of Blogs - The web’s first comprehensive weblog directory, online since 2002.
• 2RSS.com - One stop for your RSS daily news. No software to install. Online news from most read RSS sources: Yahoo, BBC, Wired, Reuters, Moreover, ESPN, Variety and more.
• BlogDigger - Enter the URL to the RSS or Atom feed of the blog you would like to add to Blogdigger.
• BlogLines - The Bloglines directory lists blogs that our users have subscribed to. So to add your blog to the directory, all you have to do is become a Bloglines user and subscribe to your blog. The directory is regenerated nightly, so once your blog is added, it should appear within 24 hours.
• DayPop - Currently, Daypop indexes over 59000 of the best news sites and weblogs on the net every day. If you know of a site that should be included in the Daypop index, feel free to submit it.
• GeoURL - GeoURL is a location-to-URL reverse directory. This will allow you to find URLs by their proximity to a given location. Find your neighbor’s blog, perhaps, or the web page of the restaurants near you.
• GoldenFeed - Enter the URL of a blog or RSS feed and get listed instantly in the Golden RSS Feed.
• NewsIsFree - NewsIsFree currently features 26912 news channels, ranging from high profile news sources, to very specific topic sites, to weblogs. Sources are gathered either from their syndication feed or by analyzing the actual web pages.
• Read a Blog - ReadABlog.com is an RSS feed search engine which indexes thousands of publicly syndicated RSS feeds that are published by users on the Internet. All feeds indexed by ReadABlog.com are submitted by users.
• RDFTicker - Maybe you have created a new RDF/RSS-feed and want other users to find it here, so this is the place where you can do so.
• RSS Feeds Directory - add your feed to the most appropriate category and subcategory to help with marketing your blog and rss feed.
• WeBLog Directory - Enter the URL of a RSS feed you want to add to our database.
• Search4RSS - Started 2 years back as a regular RSS Search engine website and now we are giving our domain a new direction. Add your site is in their top right corner.
• Syndic8 - This is the place to come to find RSS and Atom news feeds on a wide variety of topics.

Bookmark or save this page to your favorites, etc… from time to to I may update it. Also, if you know of any other places to submit your blog, be sure to drop a comment below and let everyone know.