Teen Blogger

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed.

Have you ever wanted to decide which host to choose? Perhaps, you’ve wanted to check which host costs less and which one costs more. Well, here is a site that gives you all the information relating to web hosting. Web Hosting Rating is a site that reviews the best hosts around.

The way they review a host is really good. Its based on pricing, bandwith/traffic and the software/scripts that are available. Web Hosting Rating also has articles dealing with choosing domain names and the various platforms for web hosting. While I was browsing through the site, I saw that that there were a few helpful tips on selecting your web host.

Overall, I’d rate Web Hosting Rating as a rather good site. I recommend you go there first before selecting your host.

Its been a long time since I posted on this blog. I was totally busy with school and my other blog. I recently started a new blog, Blog Smartly which gives smart tips for better blogging. I hope to sell this blog soon. So if anyone out there wants to buy this blog, then contact me.

Hey there fellows! I haven’t been blogging the last few days much. My time was taken up by school and other secret projects ;). Recently, Google updated its Pagerank. So, whoever worked smart or hard for their site in the last quarter got a juicy Pagerank. And guess what Pagerank I have got? A PR 3! I was actually surprised. So, I did work hard for my blog.

What about other blogs?

Almost all of my blog buddies got a PR update. Tom from StandoutBlogger got a PR 2, same for Melvin. Rajaie from RajaieTalks got a PR 3. Jason from The University Kid got a PR 4.

Looking at the top A-listing blogs in the blogosphere, I can say that some of rankings were not fair. John Chow got a PR 3! Hehe. John and me are same. Jim from The Net Fool has done a fair value analysis of the Pageranks given to different blogs.

How you can increase your PR

Google will most likely update its Pagerank after 3 months or so. So, till then, here are some tips for you to improve your blog’s PR:

1. Kill outgoing links - You need to do this first to ensure that your PR doesn’t get affected by this. Although linking to other sites is not bad, there are a few spammers that try to take advantage of this. If you link to shady sites, then there is a sure chance that your PR will take a hit. So enable nofollow on all your comments.
2. Comment on other Blogs - I have been emphasizing on this point since the beginning of this blog. Comments are the biggest source of traffic for my blog. If you are smart enough, comment on blogs that are dofollow and have CommentLuv enabled. But be careful, don’t just go and spam those blog.
3. Use a smart way to get PR - This chart shows how many links you need to boost your Pagerank. Use it smartly. Instead of getting 3055 linkbacks from PR 1 sites, you need just 18 links from a PR 4 site to get a Pagerank 4. Isn’t that smart?
4. Write quality posts - This is the most important tip. Write quality posts. Only this will ensure the survival of your blog.

Follow these tips and you’ll surely get a PR update in the next 3 months :). Tell me what you think.

Free, a word that can make your blood run wild. We are all interested in getting anything for free. But in the case of blogging, you should be a little careful. Today’s post deals with this question : whether you should choose a paid hosted blog or go with a free one like Blogger.

The Blogosphere is a humongous place. There are already millions of blogs out there. And thousands more are added everyday. So, you see, the competition is pretty tough. You want to make sure that you’re blog stands out. Having a free blog makes you look cheap. Whereas, if you have a paid hosted blog, it shows that you are a bit dedicated to your blog.

Reasons why a Free Hosted Blog is not good

• Difficult to brand - This is not the right platform to build your business. You cannot create a brand for your blog.
• Less control - Free hosted blogs don’t offer much flexibility or customization. You can’t make your blog look the way you want.
• Gives less returns - Suppose, if you start a Blogspot blog, build it, get a lot of rankings and traffic and wish to make money from it. Its very difficult to monetize it. There are too many rules and restrictions. You won’t be profiting from your blog.

The Cost Problem

If you have been thinking that hosting expenses are too much, think again. Hosting today is very cheap. Plus every web host has an affiliate account. Join the affiliate program and use your own link to sign up to that service. For example, HostGator pays an affiliate $50 for every sign up. So, just sign up to HostGator using your affiliate link(use this link to sign up) and pay $0.01 for hosting and make $50 for referring yourself! How’s that?

If you want a free domain name, you can use the DNTemple forums to get one. Each post you make there earns to some points. You can exchange these points to get a domain name of your choice. On an average, you can make enough points for a domain name within 4-5 days.

So, all in all, opt for a paid hosting blog. How did you like this post? Tell me in the comments below.

Sorry for not posting for a long time. I had no internet connection for the last 10 days, so I was unable to do anything. Anyway, here are the contest winners.

First Prize Winner

• Narendra.S.V

Second Prize Winner

• ProTycoon

Third Prize Winner

• Melvin

Those are the prizes. Congratulations to the winners. In the mean time, make sure you subscribe to my feed and help me win the Blogging Idol contest .

This is the first post in the series of Better Blogging, a series of posts on blogging tips that can make you a better blogger. Make sure you subscribe to my feed so that you don’t miss any of the posts in this series.

Traffic is what makes visitors come to your blog. Traffic is what makes people like John Chow rich. Isn’t that true? So today’s post deals with how you can get more traffic to your blog.

Ways to increase Traffic

• Use Entrecard - Entrecard was the first source of traffic for this blog. In the first month, Entrecard contributed the majority of traffic to my blog. Keep dropping your cards on other blogs and you’ll get plenty of traffic. Here are my stats for the first month of my blogging. You can see that most of the traffic came through Entrecard.



• Comment on other Blogs - Comment on other blogs in your niche to receive more traffic. My real traffic came one month after starting the blog from comments. Target blogs that have dofollow comments. You can search for a list of blogs that have dofollow comments using DoFollow Diver Here is how comments increased my blog traffic.



• Participate in forums and message boards - Forums like Blog Premiere and Bloggeries are good places to do some promoting about your blog. Participation in discussions at BlogCatalog is also a great way to get more traffic.
• Use the power of Social Bookmarking - Hitting the front page sites like Digg and StumbleUpon can generate massive amounts of traffic to your blog. However, the main disadvantage of these sites is that the traffic is generally not targeted and visitors will stay on your blog only for a few seconds. Carl has written an excellent (and humorous) post on how to game the Digg system. You can also read Tom’s post about StumbleUpon traffic. Bryan has written a post about social bookmarking.
• Create a fantastic linkbait - Do you remember that John Chow asked everyone to review his blog in exchange for a link in his blogroll? That was a very clever idea. Suddenly hundreds of blogs started writing about John Chow. The root of all evil, John Chow received a lot of traffic from this. Just like that, think of some ideas, start a contest. Go use your imagination.

Those are some of the ways for driving more traffic to your blog. What do you do to get more traffic?

This post is to inform you that I’m not feeling well. I am suffering from Wheezing and fever. I have not gone to school today :(. I guess it is due to getting wet in the rain and due to the pressure of blogging and school. Spending almost 10 hours at school and 4 hours in blogging everyday gave me a lot of strain. I have to form a timetable for everyday from now onwards. Wheezing is very uncomfortable and painful sometimes. I wasn’t able to get any sleep at all yesterday night. I’m feeling rather weak now. Hope I get alright soon.

The Blogging Idol contest started about a week ago, and yet I’ve not finalized my plans for winning the contest and gaining more subscribers. Here are the methods through which I will gain subscribers:

1. Ask Every one I know to Subscribe

   Although it is a bit unprofessional, I’ll still ask everyone of my friends and family to subscribe to my feed. This will increase the number of subscribers a lot.

2. Participate in Blogging forums

   I’m going to participate in blogging forums which would promote my blog. I’m currently part of Blog Premiere, Bloggeries and BlogCatalog.

3. Comment on Blogs

   I hope to comment on blogs more from now onwards. Not spammy comments but thoughtful and good ones. I’ll try to be the first to comment on all the blogs, even the A-listing blogs.

4. Contests and giveaways

   After the present contest, there will be another contest and bonuses for the subscribers of the blog. (Psst. One more prize has been added to the list, go check it out here)

Those are my plans. Give me your opinions and suggestions on this matter.

Did you remember the contest I had a few days ago? Well, now there is another contest on this blog. Here are the prizes:

First Place

• 1000 Entrecard Credits
• A free copy of the Atomic Blogging ebook
• A free 125×125 adspot for one month on my blog
• A free backlink to your blog

Second Place

• 500 Entrecard Credits
• A free copy of the Atomic Blogging ebook
• A free 125×125 adspot for one month on my blog
• A free backlink to your blog

Third Place

• 500 Entrecard Credits
• A free copy of the Atomic Blogging ebook
• A free backlink to your blog

How to enter

The contest is based on tickets. The more tickets you get, the better chance you have of winning. Here are the ways you can get tickets:

1. Subscribe to my this blog via RSS or email. And post a comment below mentioning that you have subscribed (Compulsory). One ticket.
2. Drop your Entrecard on my widget and mention in the comment that you have done so (Compulsory). One ticket.
3. Write a post about this contest on your blog linking to my feed and blog. Ten tickets.
4. Stumble this post. 5 tickets.

The contest ends on July 13, exactly one week from now. The winners will be picked on July 15. Best of luck!

This month you can expect a series of posts called Better Blogging. You can expect the following posts and more:

• Free and self-hosted Blogging platforms : Which one is better?
• Promote your blog using Entrecard
• A list of Wordpress Plugins that you must use
• and a lot more..

So make sure you subscribe to my feed because there is going to a lot of posts this month and there is going to be one unannounced bonus to all the subscribers.