Inspired Epiphany Blog » Blogging

Earn Revenue and Promote Your Blogs at YouSayToo

Epiphany — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:38:34 +0000

I’m often asked how to make money blogging, especially within the last year because of the state of the economy. There are a few answers to that question. That’s because blogging affords you the ability to make money online in a few different ways.

My favorite way to make money blogging is by leveraging the power of affiliate programs. You earn affiliate commissions for any sales that result from your affiliate links. I also love Google Adsense, mainly because of its simplicity. You simply add your Google Adsense code to your blog and then you earn money when your visitors click on the ads.

I recently found a website called You Say Too that offers a unique way to earn money blogging and it allows you to promote blog at the same time! The way you make money from this site is not a new concept, they use a revenue sharing model. What makes them a little different is that they don’t just share Google Adsense revenue like most other websites, they also share Amazon affiliate commissions too. It’s 50/50 split on both, which is pretty generous.

Another thing that makes this website unique is that you don’t just share your written content, you can upload flash games too. That’s pretty cool for anyone who’s interested in gaming. Oh and did I mention that you can add your own blog? Yeah, you can add all your own blogs so they are centralized in one place and you’ll be promoting your blogs all at the same time.So, if you’re interested in blogging for money check them out at YouSayToo.com.

How to Cre8buzz for your blog

Epiphany — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:41:51 +0000

Last weekend, the exclusive blog community known as Cre8buzz became open to public. Previously by invitation, it’s a community where bloggers can gain exposure to their blogs, network with other bloggers, make friends, and more.

Cre8buzz is similar to Myspace in that you get a profile page you can completely customize, you can add friends, comment on other pages, and meet new people. But that really is where the similarity ends. Cre8buzz has a genuine community feel and you can join smaller communities within that align with your interests. Since Cre8buzz is aimed at bloggers, you get to add your blogs to share with the whole community. They also have a “buzzranking” system where you can showcase yourself, post pictures, share your videos, and more. All of this helps create a following for your blog and helps generate buzz about you. Really active members have even seen a ‘Buzz effect in their traffic stats.

I decided to post about the ‘Buzz today because I’ve personally find the community to be one that is warm, welcoming, and fun. I’ve met some amazing new friends there and discovered some really fabulous blogs that I now read regularly. So, if you’re looking for a new community to get involved with and you’re also trying to promote your blog, check out the’ Buzz! Oh and don’t forget to add me as a friend!

Must Have Blog Comments WordPress Plugins

Epiphany — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:15:25 +0000

Since I got a pretty good response from my recent post on Maximizing Your Blog Commenting Potential, I thought I’d continue with the blog comments theme today. In my opinion, if you’re using blog comments as a way to build backlinks and traffic to your blog, you should also share the Link Luv on your own blog and make it as comment friendly as possible. I’ve tried my best to make my blog a place that invites comments and to make it worth your while to comment here. So, as a confessed WordPress theme and plugin junky, I thought I’d share my list of favorite blog commenting plugins with you.

1. Do Follow Plugin – This is probably one of the most important plugins. It removes the dreaded “no follow” attribute from your comments. This is important if you’re using blog comments because although you may get some traffic from a “no follow” blog comment, it won’t help you with your link building efforts because the search engines won’t follow that link back to your blog (so, it basically won’t count for SEO purposes).

2. Comment Luv Plugin – I love this plugin! And the great thing is I’m seeing it on more blogs, so I really get to make the most out of my blog comments. This plugin automatically detects and adds the commentors last blog post title and link to the end of their comment! It’s like a free blog advertising bonus for everyone who comments on your blog.

3. Subscribe To Comments Plugin – This is got to be my favorite plugin! This gives your commentators the option to subscribe to the comments on a post, so that they will get notified via email of any replies. I appreciate other bloggers who have this plugin installed because sometimes I’ll ask a question or leave a witty comment and instead of having to check back over and over for a reply, I simply get an email! I can then head back to that blog and continue to engage in the conversation, if needed. If you ever ask a question on my blog, I always respond so remember to make use of this plugin so you can be notified easily of my response. I highly recommend this plugin and I’m a little surprised that more bloggers aren’t using it.

4. Top Commentators Plugin – This is another great way to reward commentators. You can use this plugin to add a widget to your sidebar that displays the name (or anchor text) and number of comments of the Top Commentators on your blog. Pretty cool!

5. Related Posts Plugin – As it’s name suggests, this plugin displays posts that you’ve written in the past that are related to the content of the post that is currently being displayed. The list of related post links shows up right under the comments area, so it’s a great way of keeping your visitors on your blog and helping them find topics that they can dig deeper into.

6. Threaded Comments Plugin – If you like things neat and orderly, this is a great plugin for you. It basically keeps the posts inline when commentors respond to other commentors so that you can easily follow along with the conversations.

There are so many great plugins out there, so I certainly can’t list them all. I recommend using all of the above as a way of enhancing your blog and giving it more of a community atmosphere. Anything you can do to encourage comments is great as well. With that in mind, do you have a favorite plugin? Is one of the above on your list of faves? Leave a comment below and tell me what you think!

Maximize Your Blog Commenting Potential

Epiphany — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:41:55 +0000

It’s no secret that I’ve found keeping my commitment to post here three times a bit of a challenge. (Hey, what can I say? I’m still workin’ my day job and I’m a single mom.) I have managed to get a bit more active in my blog communities though and I’ve gotten pretty good about commenting on other blogs too. I’m always looking for better ways to keep my commitments while balancing my other obligations. So, I’m pretty excited about the new blog commenting tools that have come out recently. Today, I’m gonna give you the low down on the three blog commenting tools I’ve been checking out.

Most bloggers have already been made aware of Comment Kahuna (brought to you by the guys at Portal Feeder). This software is great for building backlinks by way of blog comments because it helps automate the commenting process. It does open the door for spam commentors, but if someone is going to go that route they’ll go there with or without Comment Kahuna. I like that CK allows you to set up your profile, which includes the basic info needed for each of your comments (i.e. name, URL, and email address). You can then make each of your comments unique (be sure to provide useful information), and then end each of your comments with a saved signature pre-loaded in CK.

Another very cool blog commenting tool I’ve been trying is Fast Blog Finder. I’m using the free version, but they also offer an upgraded version that increases the number of blogs it finds for you. This tool focuses more on finding quality blogs, rather than automating the process of commenting on them. They’ve got a nice video tutorial that shows you all about it. One thing I like about this tool is that Fast Blog Finder can detect which blogs have “Do Follow” tags, which is obviously preferred for SEO purposes. The other great thing about this tool is that you can export reports on your commenting efforts and it has a great backup/restore feature so you won’t lose your keywords and blog lists.

The latest blog commenting tool I’ve found is called Comment Sniper. I have to admit that I’m very excited about this one! Comment Sniper differs from the tools above because it focuses on helping you generate traffic from your blog comments, instead of just backlinks. Basically, it monitors your chosen blogs and then notifies you when the bloggers make a new post. This gives you the opportunity to be the first to comment, which is the best position to be in if you want to get traffic from your blog comments. You can even configure Comment Sniper to notify your mobile phone via text message if you want! This tool gives you a real edge over relying on your RSS subscriptions because there’s always a time delay with RSS and if you’re not in the top ten blog comments you can pretty much forget about gaining traffic from your comments.

Blog commenting is growing in it’s popularity as a way of building backlinks and growing your site traffic. These three blog commenting tools give you an edge by making using this strategy easier and more efficient than ever. Since all three blog commenting tools are free, there’s really no reason why you can’t start leveraging the power of blog comments today.

Download The Blog Commenting Tools Free Below:

Comment Kahuna Fast Blog Finder Comment Sniper

Business Blogger $500 Cash Prize Contest

Epiphany — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:26:29 +0000

Business Blogger is having an awesome blog contest. So, I had to share it with you. The fabulous prizes being awarded are $500 cash and a BFG NVIDIA Graphics Card. Pretty sweet, right? Well it gets better. To enter all you have to do is give away free stuff! How cool is that?

Let me explain…

As part of their new site launch, Business+Directory is running a special promotion – free reviews through the end of February! Their directory reviews usually run about $50 per year, so it’s a fabulous way to get some free links for nothin’. I already submitted mine and I have to say that I was pretty impressed. You’re getting a real value with this directory listing. Your submission includes two description sections for your site – one brief description (just a few lines) and a second, more detailed description that can include up to four links! It allowed me to add a few deep links to the inner pages of my site which you know the search engines really love.

You have until the end of the week (2/29/08) to get your free links and enter the contest, so don’t delay. The official rules of how to enter the contest are:
1. Link to the contest page (explaining to others how to join).
2. Link to Business+Directory by telling your readers about the February promotion.
3. Your original post must come from your blog and should be at least 250 words using your own unique writing style.
Good luck to all!

MyBlogLog’s Future & Your Blog’s Traffic

Epiphany — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 22:46:43 +0000

MyBlogLog is a great blogging social community that offers bloggers the ability to interact with other bloggers, join their communities, and gain exposure to their own blogs. It’s one of my favorite blog communities and it looks like they’re on their way to getting even better in light of their plans for the future.

This past week, Yahoo (the service provider) notified MyBlogLog users of their plans to make their profiles even more dynamic. A new feature called “New With Me” will be launched in the next couple of weeks that will aggregate your latest activity on sites such as Twitter, Flickr, Last.fm, Digg, and YouTube. Not only will this make your profile appear different, it will also make publicly available updates from the services you have listed. Your latest Diggs, YouTube videos, Flickr photos, and Last.fm tracks will all be in one place! The notification email from Ian Kennedy (MyBlog Log Production Manager) included a note on members ability to remove the new feature if it did not suit their sense of privacy, but was mostly colored with excitement as in the following quote:

Your MyBlogLog profile, About Me widget, and Email Signature were the first steps in distributing your Web identity. New with Me is the next, pulling together a unified picture of who you are on the distributed social Web. We have lots of cool things planned for this feature — I hope you’ll use it to help build the next generation of the Web.

Sounds like the place to be, doesn’t it?

MyBlogLog has already been a favorite among bloggers for sometime. They provide several great services in addition to the lively community, such as site stats, click tagging, and the ability to add your MyBlogLog visitors faces to their comments on your blog. The recent visitors widget has been recently updated with a whole new look and now offers a new “flyout orientation” that has the ability to show even more detail on your recent visitors. You can see this feature in action by checking out my widget in the sidebar to the right.

If you’re anything like I was, you may not be getting the most out MyBlogLog yet. Eric White just released a new guide called MyBlogLog Traffic Secrets that gives some great recommendations on how to maximize your traffic just by being a part of this blog community. He takes you through the sign up process, setting up your profile, tells you how and what features to use, and shares his secrets on how to get a flood of traffic to your blog. I have no doubt that with the “New With Me” feature rolling out in the coming weeks and by incorporating Eric’s useful advice, I’m sure to see an increase in traffic from MyBlogLog in no time!

All Aboard The Technorati Train!

Epiphany — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 05:39:02 +0000

Technorati is probably the largest, most widely used blog directory around… because it’s so much more. You can keep find the best blogs on just about any topic and track your own once you’ve claimed it. My favorite part is logging in to view all of my favorite blogs in one place. But Technorati is also a great way to increase your blogs exposure simply by using the great features they provide.

Since I’ve been actively looking for ways to promote and grow this blog, I was excited when I happened upon a post about the Technorati Train! I found the post on a blog I like by a “Supermom in NY” called Getting Out of Debt. Her blog includes ideas of how to pay off your bills and offers easy ways to making money online. She has so many great ideas that just about anyone will find something they like there.

The great thing about this train is that it will allow me to show some luv to a few blogs that I’m really loving right now. You’ll find them under “My New Favs” below. If you’re included in this train or are adding your URL to the comments, be sure to take full advantage of this traffic opportunity! Stumble this post, tag it on delicious, Sphinn it, Plug it, Digg it, smack it, flip it, and rub it down too! LOL

***Start Copying Here:***

Here are the rules:

1) Write a short introduction paragraph about what or how you found the list and include a link to the blog that referred you to the list.

2) COPY the Rules and ENTIRE List below and post it to your blog. To avoid duplicate content and increase the amount of keywords your site can accessible for, go ahead and change the titles of the blog. Just don’t change the links of the blog.

3) Take “My New Faves” and move them into the “The Original Faves” list.

4) Add 3 Blogs that you’ve just added to your Technorati Favorites to the “My New Faves” section. Remember to also add the “Fave Me” link next to your new blogs (i.e. http://technorati.com/faves?sub=addfavbtn&add=http://www.yourfavesdomain.com)

5) Add Everyone on this list to your Technorati Favorites List by clicking on “Fave the Site.” Those who want good kharma will fave you back. If not, you will for sure get the benefits of faves from the bloggers who continue this list after you.

My New Faves:

Bliss In Bloom – Fave This Blog

KiwiPulse – Fave This Blog

Momisodes – Fave This Blog

The Original Faves:

Inspired Epiphany Blog – Fave This Blog

FREE fab STUFF – Fave This Blog

Bobs [ReformatThis] – Fave This Blog

Everyday Weekender – Fave This Blog

Armen’s Blog – Fave This Blog

Gary Lee – Fave This Blog

Dosh Dosh – Fave This Blog