Marketing my blog

Lot of people ask me why I blog and to be frank, I don't have a clue. Loved reading other people's blogs and finally decided to start one of my own. It was more of a diary, my observations, my rants and so on. Slowly but steadily, the number of visitors to my blog grew. I guess you really get a nice buzz when people leave comments in your posts.

At that time, making money from my blog was the last thing on my mind. In fact, I didn't know that you could actually make any money from a blog. I started wondering, "Can bloggers actually make money from their blogs?" only after my wife's comment, "its not like you can get any money writing a blog" retort. Read my old post here.

I added Google adsense but the fact is that I am still waiting for my first cheque. There are not enough visitors (or people are simply not clicking the links). I had already joined up with the online Malaysian community, Project Petaling Street, a blog portal of Malaysian maintained blogs. It bought me a fair number of new visitors to my blog but that was not enough and I went out and joined up with other blog portals and directories including Rice Bowl Journals and Blogflux. Claiming my blogs on Technorati was another step.

Going through Internet Marketing sites taught me a lot of new things. I now realise what I have been doing wrong. Wish I had come across it earlier.

So, I have been blogging for more than 3 years now (my first post here on Monday, September 08, 2003). However, I truly started marketing my blog only about a year ago. Now realise that I was not only marketing my blog but also myself and my writing skills. I have recently joined Payperpost and other advertising networks. Though I have started earning a bit, it's not enough to take up blogging as a full time occupation - not yet. I have a lot to learn and a long way to go.

Updated: I deleted a link, which I had recommended earlier. 12 Jan 2007.

Tags: Adsense Marketing Money

Bebot - Generation One and Two

Found this while going through YouTTube.

"Bebot" Generation One and Two by the Black Eyed Peas.

It's the type of song that gets you dancing without even knowing the language (Tagalog here).



Tags: Bebot Black Eyed Peas YouTube

TiddlyWiki for Newbies

TiddlyWiki, is a wiki-modeled client-side application which looks very much like a blog. It is published under an open source license and anybody can download and use it for free.

Click the link to read my article "Creating websites the easy TiddlyWiki way"

Tags: Open source Tiddlywiki software Website design

Slimming HP

I am really into digital photography and while surfing the web, I came across the HP digital camera buying guide. I wish I had come here before.

They have such a wide range of cameras to suit different requirements and of course, wallets. I was going through their technologies and innovations page when my wife came into the room. Now, she's not that crazy about cameras or other electronic stuff but I saw a glint in here eyes when she noticed the link - HP slimming effect. After reading it, she straightway said "I want that!"

Anyway, one of the things you do when friends drop by your house is to show them your photographs. Unfortunately all the pics we have are all stored in our computer. So whenever we want to show people our photographs, we would have to start up the computer and do a slide show. And I can tell you, it's not very comfortable when there are more than 3 guys around a computer with heads bumping into each other.

We always plan to print out some of the pics but never got around to it. I shudder to think if the computer would crash somehow and I would lose all the images. A photo printer should sure be useful.

When I read that Ted, (the founder and CEO of Payperpost.com), just got a shipment of ten awesome new 6 megapixel digital cameras and photo printers from HP AND he is giving them away, I was jumping around with joy. I might be one of those lucky guys.

Ted, I really want need a Camera and photo printer. That would be the perfect gift this Christmas. BTW, this post was brought to you by HP.

Tags: Digital camera HP Photo printer

Classics: Popular posts

Given below is a list of my classic blog posts, in other words, the most popular posts on my blog. These will be regularly updated. It was previously on my sidebar.

How did they get into this category?

Well! They were the top landing pages.

I also added others based on the number of comments, feedback and link backs. Those were the posts I really enjoy reading again.

Updated 8th of September 2010

1. Freemasons in Malaysia
2. Top 5 Malaysian Ecommerce Companies
3. Consumer vs customer
4. Letter from a Petronas employee
5. Melayu Boleh
6. Everyone is wearing a Tissot
7. Ladies Toilet
8. Designed for Men
9. My favourite pizza
10. Long Marston car boot sale

Updated: 18th August 2009

1. Freemasons in Malaysia
2. Melayu Boleh
3. Ladies Toilet
4. Asia Petroleum Hub commencement of works ceremony
5. Letter from a Petronas employee
6. Celcom scam
7. Top 5 Ecommerce Companies
8. New UK immigration rules update
9. Online grocery shopping - Tesco vs Sainsbury's

Updated: 9 July 2008

- Melayu Boleh
- Letter from a Petronas employee
- Freemasons in Malaysia
- Ladies Toilet
- Top 5 Ecommerce Companies
- Celcom scam
- Asia Petroleum Hub commencement of works ceremony
- Malaysian-Indian identity
- DIY metal pent shed

Others:

- Get reviewed for free
- James Cameroon challenges Christianity
- Newbie in the UK
- Malaysian Companies and Marketing
- Datuk Nicol
- Simply Not Enough
- 2 Years Blogging
- Money From Blogs

Tags: Classics Popular Controversial

Information about humidifiers

It's really cold today and there is a heavy fog. I can hardly see our neighbour's house. Just going outside the house to push the rubbish bins outside was a chore because of the biting cold. We keep our doors closed and cranked op the radiator temperature.

This has given rise to some noticeable problems. All of us are suffering from dry skin and sore throats. My daughter has been having a cough for about a week now and it gets worse at night. It doesn't seem to be very serious but we are quite worried. I found out that this may be related to the dry air in the house.

It is clear that we are not the only one having the problem as I found other friends complaining about the same. One of them recommended keeping wet towels on the radiators to alleviate the problem and we tried it out. It helped to some extent but what we really needed was a humidifier. There are several types of humidifiers in the market and frankly I was quite confused.

Found a great website and this is a sponsored review,. It provides useful information about humidifiers and I found their page on the desirable features we should look for, particularly useful.

They also have a page which compares the different types of humidifiers. Before this I didn't know that there was a difference between a warm or cool type of humidifiers.

The site also lists some popular brands including the Holmes warm mist and cool mist humidifiers.

I should point out that Humidifierinformation.com is more of an information site and you can't buy humidifiers there. Maybe that's their future plan.

Tags: Health Humidifier Sponsored Posts

Do you have Mujo

My wife received this forwarded mail from one of her friends. It's a good one and I only edited it a bit and for the benefit of my visitors who don't speak the Terengganu dialect, an English translation is provided.

Mujo or mujur (not Mojo) in Standard Bahasa Malaysia means "fortunate" or "lucky".

In Terengganu it means more than that. Mujo is an attitude, a testament to the optimism of the Terengganu folks. I believe that Terengganunese are optimistic.

I haven't heard of any suicides there yet. No news whatsoever of people jumping down from coconut trees or drinking expired budu (preserved anchovy thick sauce) neat in order to expire themselves. You must remember that Terengganu people lived with ferries, morning papers that came in the night and without other things people in the West Coast take for granted. In spite of doing without 4D shops, discos, malls or Hot Spot-enabled coffee houses, they are surviving well without any mental hospital in sight. All because they have mujo.

Like I mentioned previously, mujo encapsulate a philosophy in itself. It means one should thank God that it is not worse.

Time for an illustration.

(Cut to a scene of 3 kampung (village) ladies in their kemban, washing clothes by the village well)

Mok Long Selamoh: Guane doh adik mung Mek? (How is your brother Mek?)

Mok Teh Som : Bakpe pulok adik dia? (What happened to her brother?)

Mok Long Selamoh: Laaa! Mung dok tau ke Som? (You don't know Som?)

Mok Teh Som : Dok tau setarang kita. (I don't know anything)

Mok Long Selamoh: Adik Mek ni kena langgor lori kemareng. (Mek's brother was knocked down by a lorry yesterday)

Mek Beso : Bukang lori Mok Long, beng ikang! (It wasn't a lorry Mok Long, it was a fish van)

Mok Long Selamoh: Mujo bukang lori! (Lucky it wasn't a lorry)

Mok Teh Som : Pah tu? Terok ke? (Then? Was he seriously injured?)

Mek Beso : Kaki patah sebelah...... (One leg was broken)

Mok Teh Som : Mujo dok patoh dua dua (Lucky both legs weren't broken)

Mok Long Selamoh : Tu pong mujo dreba beng dang brek. (It was lucky that the van driver braked in time)

Mek Beso : Mujo beng tu dok laju.. (Lucky the van wasn't going fast..)

(Fade to black.)

If both legs were broken, the response would be "Mujo dok pecoh pala"(Lucky the head wasn't broken). If the head WAS broken, the response would be "Mujo dok mati" (Lucky he didn't die). If the worst happened and the brother died, the mujo would still surface. "Mujo lah bukang adik kita" (Lucky it wasn't my brother).

You get the drift.....

Mujo. A nice word. Adopt it. Embrace it. It will preserve your sanity.

Tags: Humor Mujo Terengganu