Tip #17: AddtoAny bookmark and subscribe buttons are practical and professinal looking

There are many bookmarking and RSS subscription buttons and services out there. I have tried quite a few, but the one that has won me over is Add to Any because their buttons are practical, effective, and they look professional and integrate well with the content, without being too loud or distracting the readers from your content.

The buttons expand when you mouseover, and show some of the most popular bookmarkign and RSS subscription services. You can also search for any other services that were not included in the initial list. They also have a text-based version of the buttons. I will be using them in this blog, and also showcasing them as an example right below.


Social Bookmarking buttons
This is the button for social bookmarking services, such as digg, del.icio.us, reddit, stumbleupon, facebook, Google, My Yahoo, etc, etc.

The same functionality is available in a text link instead of a graphic button: Add to any service



RSS Feed Subscription buttons
Similar buttons are available for your RSS subscriptions, offering a variety of services such as Google Reader, Bloglines, NewsGator, NetVibes, Windows Live, My Yahoo, Pageflakes, and a lot more:


This is also avaiable in text format: Add to any service

Tip #16: Add some fun widgets to your blog

This of course depends on what type of blog you have, what the subject of your blog is and what your audience is. Some blogs are more ideally suited for "fun content". If your blog falls into that category, then adding some fun interactive or eye-catching widgets may be a good idea.

Here is an example, a widget that determines what reading level is needed for people to read your blog. Of course take the results with a grain of sea-salt, but that's why it's fun! The widget is offered at the Critics Rant blog. Here is an example of what the widget thinks about this blog:

Tip #15 :The Inevitable Monetize your blog post

The following are based on my own experience, and results and opinions will vary from person to person and blog to blog, so with that in mind, here are my thoughts on blog monetization. I am dividing them in three categories.

Highly Recommended

Amazon Associates (affiliate): With a low minimum for a payout ($10), and a variety of linking options, from simple text links to web 2.0 widgets and even software API, Amazon Associates is almost a must for every blog and website. The text links are simple and direct to the Amazon website which make them a lot more trustworthy. Statistics are updated overnight.

Google AdSense (advertising): A higher minimum ($100) should not discourage potential users. While it has its share of restrictions, it can be a steady money earner for your blog if you have some traffic or if you have a vertical market blog that will generate a higher click through ratio. Statistics are updated throughout the day.

Widgetbucks (pay per click): This newcomer is promising with its Flash-based widgets. One downside is that it uses Flash, which may put off some webmasters and bloggers. This appears to be ideal for product-based blogs, so if you have a consumer electronics blog it will probably do a lot better there than if you try it on a philosophy blog. Widgetbucks has a promotion running. If you sign up, you receive a $25 bonus. You get paid when you accrue $50 in your account. So you only need to accrue $25, and you will receive your first payment of $50. Statistics are updated throughout the day. They also have an affiliate program that can help you earn more. Speaking of which, take a look at WidgetBucks using our affiliate link :)

Auction Ads (affiliate): This is a shell over the eBay auctions affiliate program, providing an easier to use alternative to the webmaster/blogger. How well it does will probably depend on the content of your blog and how much time you spend creating appropriate ads for your content. It is a very lightweight program to join, so even if it won't be a big earner, it doesn't hurt to use as a fill-in the blanks, or fill-a-particular-niche type of program. Statistics are updated throughout the day. They do have a promotion where you receive a $25 bonus for signing up, and your first payment is when you make $50 or more. So you just need to generate $25 more and you get paid! They also have an affiliate program when you refer other users. Speaking of which, here is the affiliate link to Auction Ads.


Chitika (pay per click and more): This is a versatile program that offers a number of different options. The most famous are perhaps their pay per click eMiniMalls. This is a versatile program that you can use either in a primary or complimentary fashion, depending on your content, traffic and blog design. This is more product-oriented, so it's likely to do better in blogs that discuss products. Statistics are updated overnight. They also have a referral program, and you can check Chitika out using our affiliate link. As far as I know they don't have a bonus program, but they have just a $10 minimum for PayPal payments.


Kolimbo/Kowabanga/MyAffiliate (affiliates): This is an affiliate conglamorate featuring some big and some small players. One of its benefits is that the urls point directly to the retailer's website, which increases reader confidence in clicking on them. The url structure is very simple as well, another plus. Statistics are updated throughout the day. Check which retailers are listed there and if you find any that are related to your blogs, join up.


Direct Ads (advertising): If you have the time, the infrastructure and the experience, you can solicite and manage advertising campaigns on your blog directly with the advertisers. This is not an easy task especially for someone who is not familiar with the whole process. But if you are familiar with the process, or if you are brave enough and want to learn on the spot, it doesn't hurt to give this approach a try!

Recommended with reservations

Linkworth (advertising middle-man): I haven't spent a lot of time with Linkworth, so I am listing them in this category for the moment. They have blogger-friendly revenue sharing, where you (the blogger) gets 70% and Linkshare gets 30%. You can set the prices of your ads, and you have five days to decide whether to approve an ad. They also have an affiliate program. Check Linkworth out using our affiliate link.


Commission Junction (affiliates portal): This is an affiliates portal with a large number of big name companies participating, including Dell, Best Buy, TiVo, eBay, Sony, Panasonic, HP, Apple, Kodak, etc. The problem with CJ is that the HTML links generated are using intermediate urls that look spammy or junky to the web-savvy internet user. Good luck convincing those users to click on a CJ link. They also offer Javascript links instead of HMTL, but not everyone is comfy with letting 3rd parties running scripts on their websites or blogs. Statistics are updated throughout the day. I would move them to Highly Recommended if they provide direct urls to retailer websites.


Linkshare (affiliates portal): Similar to Commission Junction in many ways, their links look less spammy/junky (they point to a clicksynergy website), but web-savvy users are less likely to click on that, than a direct link to a manufacturer's website. They also offer some name brand affiliates, including Chase, American Express, Microsoft, J&R World. They have an affiliate program where you can refer other members. Speaking of which, here is our affiliate link to Linkshare. I would move them to Highly Recommended if they provide direct urls to retailer websites.

Avoid

Text Link Ads (advertising middle man): I put them in this category for a number of reasons, the most important being that someone can publish an ad on your website without your consent. Text Link Ads (TLA) gives you 24 hours to decide if an ad goes on your website. If you don't approve or reject the ad in 24 hours, it automatically appears on your site (TLA claims that their staff reviews the ad and approves/disapproves - they approve). TLA notifies you of a pending ad via email, but in my experience, emails are not sent/received every time there is a pending ad. So why is that an issue? Imagine if a gambling, betting, guns and ammo, hate speech, fringe site, bad neighborhood site, or marginal porn site decides they want to advertise on your blog. You are out of town for the day, your email server is down, you are busy with other things, your internet connection is down. You wake up the next day and you find an ad that violates the terms of all the other programs and services you are using sitting pretty on your blog. This is bad! I understand that TLA's goal is to provide advertising and match as many publishers with advertisers as possible, and that they are on the wrong end of Google's latest policies, but pushing ads down a publisher's throat like that is a bad practice!. They can easily resolve this issue by allowing the publishers to chose to have ads appear on their blog only if they manually approve them. They do not currently offer this option. Other issues: Revenue is split 50-50 between the publisher and TLA, there are no detailed advertiser statistics on their website (you have to keep track of them on your own), and more that they conveniently made confidential.

Tip #14: Create PDF articles and e-books fast and free!

If you are reading the blogs of some of the most successful bloggers, you may have seen the new trend of offering e-books of some of their best content.

While there are many ways to create a PDF file, there is one very quick, easy and free method to do so using Google Documents. This is so simple it's not even funny! I have to use buffer material to make this post more than a paragraph long :)

Here are the steps:
1) Upload your document to Google Docs
2) Save it as a PDF file
3) Download it to your PC and then upload it to your website

Obviously if you want to have more control over formatting and add interactive features and such you may need to do more than just a simple conversion, but for a lot of bloggers, this may be a quick and easy way to convert some of your posts into PDF articles or e-books!

Tip #13: Participate in Blog Carnivals

This is a live example of what I'm talking about. One of our posts was just featured at the Blog Carnival hosted by the Positive Success blog. This was the Carnival of Inspiration and Motivation with more than 30 bloggers participating. If you are not sure what a blog carnival is, be sure to visit the one I just mentioned as a good example.

We would like to thank the Positive Success blog for including one of our posts, Tip #6, in their blog carnival. And this is another tip: Thank the people who are hosting and organizing the blog carnivals. It takes a lot of work to plan, organize, host and administer a blog carnival, so they deserve our thanks!

Thank you Blog Rush network!

We would like to thank the Blog Rush blog syndication network for adding our 1001 Blog Tips blog to their network!

If you are not familiar, Blog Rush is an innovative web 2.0 idea, where a global blogger's syndication network is created, getting individual blogs exposure on other blogs in similar areas of interest. Blog Rush is a new idea and we are excited to see it grow!

Be sure to check out our Blog Rush widget in the right column of this blog. There you will find interesting content from other blogs on the net!

If you have a blog (or blogs) and you are interested, check BlogRush out using our referral!

Tip #12: Add a Suggestion Board and widget on your blog using FeVote.com

While there are many widgets out there that look really cool but offer very little practical value, Suggestion Boxes and Boards are actually both fun and very practical. You can engage your readers and get their feedback, opinion and suggestions on your blog and site.

It's much easier to do that with a dedicated tool rather than using blog posts and polls. I highly recommend FeVote.com, it is very practical, lightweight and simple to use.

There are two basic steps to get set up: Create a Suggestion Board page for your blog at FeVote.com and then claim ownership of the board. Claiming ownership gives you admin priviledges over the FeVote.com board for your blog. This is done to protect blog and website owners.


There are two ways you can use the FeVote suggestion board after you create it:

1) Add a link from your blog to the FeVote.com suggestion board. Name the link something like "Suggestions?" or "Make a suggestion" or something along those lines.

2) Add a Suggestion Box widget on your blog that is inter-linked with the Suggestion Board at FeVote.com. This allows users to make suggestions and vote on suggestions directly from your blog, without leaving your site. The nice thing is that the widget size is fully customizable, so you can fit it in thin or wide sidebars, or even the header or footer of your blog.