Well it’s the end of another week and that means that it is time to give some Entrecard credits to one lucky email subscriber. This is the 4th week of this contest and it’s also the last. I will have given away 4,000 Entrecard credits in November (which kind of makes my first blog contest seem pretty small) but I’m going to be giving away a lot more than that in the DotComDud Thanksgiving Contest, which still has a couple of weeks left to go. That contest will end on December 10th but right now it’s time to announce today’s winner so…

The winner this week is…

Momma Wannabe

Momma Wannabe is a blog all about the journey towards motherhood, as always be sure to check the blog out and see what you think. Unfortunately due the transaction limits set by Entrecard, I have to wait until Tuesday to transfer the credits but don’t worry, I’ll make sure they are sent as soon as I can.

I’ve been considering continuing this weekly giveaway, as it has certainly achieved some good results. However, with the DotComDud Thanksgiving Contest still running, where you can win several thousand Entrecard credits plus cash and other prizes, I think that will be enough to give away for now. Once the DotComDud Thanksgiving Contest is over, I might start giving away Entrecard credits again regularly. Although I have a couple of new contest ideas as well that should be a little different from the standard blog contests you see around the net.

Blogging Idol Update #4

This will most likely be the last Blogging Idol update, at least until Blogging Idol #3 is launched. I’ll do a Blogging Idol Wrap-Up post next week though to analyse how the whole thing went. As for this week, well it has only been a few days since my last Blogging Idol update but the good news is that DotComDud.com broke the 100 subscribers barrier!

I was very pleased to see my blog reach this milestone, now I just need to make sure the numbers stay in the triple digits and keep on increasing. It will be interesting to see if the next 100 subscribers come quicker and easier than the first 100 did.

I am currently sitting at #25 on the Blogging Idol Scoreboard and with today being the last day of the contest, I don’t see my position changing much overnight. It’s not quite #1 but it’s still a respectable result. Once again, I’d like to say a big thanks to everyone who has subscribed to DotComDud.com and I hope you enjoy reading what this blog has to offer!

The first DotComDud.com Reader Challenge got a pretty good response and I feel like the concept has great potential to help out other bloggers, so I’ve decided that it’s time for the next reader challenge to begin. For those who missed the first Reader Challenge here is a quick reminder of what the Reader Challenge is all about; basically I post a challenge that is designed to help improve your blog’s content and exposure and set a timeline for everyone who wishes to take part to achieve this goal. The aim of this is to do more than just provide the same old advice about blogging and actually encourage readers to set practical goals that will get them genuine results.

This time around I’ve decided to focus the Reader Challenge on guest posts. For those who haven’t heard the term Guest Post before, it is simply when you write an article for a different blog or when someone else writes an article for your blog. Usually you’ll get (or give) a mention and a back-link or two in the post, so guest blogging can help boost your traffic, make you more well-known amongst other bloggers and expose your content to brand new readers.

Guidelines: The goal this time around is fairly straightforward. Simply make a guest post on another blog and have someone else guest post on yours. You can make and receive as many guest posts as you’d like during the challenge, one of each is just the minimum you should be aiming for.

Time limit: I thought that for this challenge, the time limit should be longer than last time (which was 1 week). This time, the Reader Challenge will run for 3 weeks. That means the due date will be December 10th (which is also the closing date for the DotComDud Thanksgiving Giveaway). I will then post a Reader Challenge Round-Up post on Friday, December 12th. I’ll look at my own results as well as any feedback the Reader Challenge gets.

Tips for Guest Posting: I am new to guest posting myself, so I can’t give expert advice on it at this point but here is how I’ll be approaching it and the strategies I’ll be using. To find blogs to guest post on I’ll be contacting some of my favourite bloggers, as well as bloggers in my niche that already have a big audience that I could tap into. I’ll be looking for blogs where I think I will be able to contribute a great guest post that will make the readers want to come and check out DotComDud.com.

When you are making a guest post, the contest itself is up to you but keep in mind the results you want from the post. Content that really appeals to the readers will increase the chances that they’ll click through to your blog. A great guest post will also help you getting accepted if you want to make more guest posts in the future.

Finding Guest Posters: Attracting guest posters is probably more difficult than making a guest post yourself, at least while your blog is still small. Again, I’ll be contacting other bloggers directly, specifically bloggers who produce content that I really think is of a high quality. I’ll also be asking my readers to contact me if they’d like to guest post. If anyone has any other tips on finding guest posters, I’d love to hear them and I’ll be posting about any new strategies I come up with during the challenge.

When you are accepting guest posts, remember that they should offer something valuable to your readers. They shouldn’t detract from the quality of your blog’s usual content. Also, managing to get a well-known blogger to guest post can always be great for publicity, especially if they are happy to mention the post on their own blog.

Just recently there was a great post (a guest post actually!) on ProBlogger called Do You Make These Mistakes in Guest Posting and I’d recommend reading it for some great advice on the best practices of guest posting.

What Else? Well I’d really like to see the guest posts everyone makes and receives, so be sure to leave a link to them in the comment section (or contact me with the details). I will be highlighting a few of the best guest posts made during the Reader Challenge in the Round-Up post on December 12th.

Finally, if anyone is interested in guest posting on DotComDud.com then just contact me and we can discuss the details. I’d like to feature a few guest posts on DotComDud.com during the challenge that will help highlight some other great bloggers.

I know this post is a bit behind schedule but I have been waiting to hear back from the winner of the 1,000 Entrecard credits with their details so I could announce them. I’ve now sent them the credits, so without further delay, here is the announcement.

The winner this week is…

Net Bucks blog

Net Bucks is a fairly new blog where you’ll find some other great contests they have posted about, so check out the Net Bucks blog and support them if you like what you see. Remember, there is still another chance to win at the end of this week, so remember to subscribe if you haven’t already.

Blogging Idol Update #3

Things have been going well as far as DotComDud.com gaining subscribers goes. In fact as of today, my FeedBurner count is sitting at 96, so that’s just 4 subscribers away from 100! So if you haven’t already subscribed, help me out so I can reach triple digits. I’ve added the FeedBurner count widget to the subscription area in the sidebar, so everyone can see how things are going from day to day.

I am currently in position #34 on the Blogging Idol Scoreboard, although it hasn’t updated in a few days (even though it’s a “live” scoreboard) so that will probably change again soon.

The open voting has started on Blogging Idol but I realise that at this point I probably will not win. Unfortunately I didn’t get all my plans together in time to send my strategies in, which is what most of the voting will be based off (I would think). I’m fine with that though as the whole experience of Blogging Idol has obviously had a positive effect on DotComDud.com with subscribers already tripling over the past 3 weeks.

I still plan on doing a few new things that were originally going to be part of my Blogging Idol strategy, so the competition has definitely given me inspiration to push DotComDud.com forward and I still plan on gaining as many subscribers before December as possible. I wish I had of found out about the contest earlier, so I could prepare my plans for it better but I’ll just have to remember to keep an eye out for Blogging Idol #3 instead.

New Contest Sponsor

I was also contacted by another site wishing to sponsor the DotComDud Thanksgiving Contest so I’ve updated the contest post. The new sponsor and prizes are;

1 month 125×125 ad @ Anything Goes

If you’d like to become a sponsor of the contest and get some exposure on DotComDud.com just contact me and let me know.

Today is another milestone for DotComDud.com as it’s been 3 months since the first post was made on this blog. I’d like to thank everyone who has visited DotComDud.com in the past 3 months and supported the site. The blog will continue to grow thanks to all it’s reader and the next 3 months should be even better!

I thought I’d take a look at how things have gone over the past 3 months and what some of the highlights have been.

Click to Enlarge

Traffic

As you can see from the Google Analytics graph for the past 3 months, traffic has had it’s highs & lows, with the most noticeable dip between mid-September and mid-October when there were no posts made on DotComDud.com at all. Luckily traffic has bounced back but still varies from day to day. Overall monthly traffic is continuing to grow steadily.

Income

I’ve made 4 income reports so far, in fact the very first post on DotComDud.com was an income report. Income started off low at only $0.84 and was followed up by an even more disappointing $0.46 but things have been on the rise ever since and will hopefully continue to rise until I am making some respectable money online.

Highlights

This is the 37th post published on DotComDud.com and of those 37, some have naturally been more popular than others. My most commented post has been My First Blog Contest which was a big highlight on this blog as it helped increase my subscribe numbers significantly. It will be interesting to see how well my new contest does.

My most visited post has been my Weekly 1,000 Entrecard Credit Giveaway but that is because Entrecard links directly to that post, never the less it has still received a lot of comments and has helped boost my subscribers count also.

My first Reader Challenge has also been very popular, probably helped along by being mentioned by other blogs. It got over 20 comments and some decent traffic as well, so I’ll be announcing my second reader challenge next week. This time it will run a little longer so that more people can get involved and it isn’t going to be about blog commenting this time either.

Timeline

Here are some of the significant events over the past 3 months that helped shape DotComDud.com into the blog it is today!

21st August The very first post was made on DotComDud.com

9th September After building up several posts on DotComDud.com, my 7th post was my first contest. This contest was a big help to DotComDud.com and helped my subscriber count hit double-digits.

17th September - 12th October This was the period where I made no posts on DotComDud.com and it’s what I’d like to call the “Dark Ages” of this blog’s development.

13th October I started posting again and DotComDud.com was now a PR2 blog as well!

November 5th This is the day my FeedBurner subscriber count went over 30 and never dropped below again. Blogging Idol was the inspiration for my increased marketing towards gaining subscribers.

Today, November 21st Just a few days after announcing my second big contest, DotComDud.com has reached the 3 month point. The blog currently has 75 subscribers and has just about reached 2,000 page views this month already.

In Closing

So that’s how things have gone over the past 3 months. I’m as keen on making this blog a success as I was on the day I launched it. It looks like I’ll soon hit triple digits and reach 100+ subscribers, so things are definitely looking up for DotComDud.com. Thanks again to everyone has read the blog so far and a big welcome to everyone who is just discovering this blog for the first time!

P.S. I’ll be announcing the next winner of the weekly 1,000 EC tomorrow instead of the usual Friday announcement, as well as an update on Blogging Idol.

I’ve been talking about it a lot lately and finally here it is! The next big contest on DotComDud.com is now open for entry. This time there are cash and prizes up for grabs, so enter quick for your chance to win! I’ve called this contest the DotComDud Thanksgiving Contest as it’s that time of the year (in the US) and this contest is also my way of giving thanks to all of my readers.

What?

Here is a list of the prizes being given away and who they were provided by…

Cash

3 x $25 from DotComDud.com

Blog Design Package

A free template from buytemplates.net

A free icon set from IconGalore.com

A logo from LogoAngel

Ad Space Package

1 month 125×125 ad @ Better Interpersonal Communication

1 month 125×125 ad @ Free Famous Quotes

1 month 125×125 ad @ Gift Reviews

1 month 125×125 ad @ Anything Goes

1 month 125×125 ad @ DotComDud.com

Entrecard Credits Package

1,000 credits from Idiot Box

1,000 credits from Random Detoxification

1,000 credits from DotComDud.com

Thanks to all the sponsors of this contest. If you are a DotComDud.com reader then make sure to check them out, as they are supporting the site and helping me give more back to my readers, so help me support them too!

Which?

The prizes are split into 3 packs. If you win, you will get $25 cash and a choice of one of the prize packages! First place will naturally get first choice, then second place can pick from the remaining packs (as well as getting $25) and finally third place will get the remaining prize pack and $25.

Note: To receive the cash, you will need a PayPal account.

When?

The contest is open for entries right now and entries close on the 10th of December, 2008! The winners will be announced the next day.

How?

Entry into the contest is easy. To be eligible to win, you must subscribe to DotComDud.com via email. This will autoamtically get you an entry into the contest. Just click on this link or use the form at the bottom of this post to subscribe! All existing email subscribers are automatically entered as well.

It’s as simple as that, no blogging or links are required but if you would like to make a post about the contest on your own blog, go for it! Good luck to everyone who enters!

It’s time once again to take a look at my traffic stats from the previous month and try to learn what methods of driving traffic have been effective and what to avoid in the future. During October I made 13 posts on DotComDum.com which isn’t too bad considering I didn’t start posting until the 13th. The start of the month was quiet, due to my lack of posting, which meant traffic started out very low at the beginning of the month. It climbed back up though once I started posting and promoting again and has managed to rise to higher levels than previous months!

Again, I didn’t manage to reach the 2,000 page views I had hoped for. Again I blame the lack of posts during the first half of the month. Once new posts were made, traffic shot back up and there were a few 100+ visit days, so reaching 2,000 visits in a month should be easy to achieve if I stay consistent with my posts, as I plan to during November.

The 1.52 pages per visit is a little disappointing and I have a feeling that the high bounce rate of Entrecard is starting to show it’s effect.

Entrecard was clearly the top source of traffic in October, this is probably because I saw it as the quickest way to boost traffic after my lack of posts. StumbleUpon traffic seems to have dried up, hopefully I get more Stumbles and votes from readers in the next few months.

There weren’t many other great performers for traffic in October. Bloggeries again wasn’t too bad but I realise that I have to start looking for other traffic sources if I want DotComDud.com to really grow.

One other thing worth mentioning about traffic sources is that I also got around 50 visits from blog commenting. None of them show in the top 5 because those 50 visits came from more than 10 different blogs. I made a lot of blog comments as part of the first Reader Challenge and would have hoped they’d send more traffic my way, perhaps I need to increase my commenting efforts to see a really good result.

There were no big surprises when it came to the most popular posts in October. The Reader Challenge doubled the traffic of the next most popular post, which is most likely because it got mentioned on a couple of other blogs. Thanks to everyone who linked back to the post! Otherwise no particular posts got much attention. I have noticed that the main page makes up the majority of the traffic and I see two reasons for this.

1. Entrecard and most other links (such as blog comments) link directly to the main page.
2. Posts are displayed in full on the front page, so people most likely only click on a single post when they need to make or read comments.

I could try and change this by sending links to specific posts and only showing partial posts on the front page. However, I’m not sure if I will do either of these as I don’t see the high percentage of front page traffic being a big issue. I’d love to hear any thoughts on this from my readers though.

So what do these statistics tell me?

• The quality of Entrecard traffic may be decreasing
• I need to find more sources of traffic instead of relying on existing ones
• Getting mentioned in posts on other blogs could be a great way of getting more traffic, so I should make more of an effort to get these links in the future

October was only a small improvement over September. Any improvement is always good but I need to make bigger steps in order to grow this blog and achieve the goals I have set for it. November is looking like a better month so far and I’ll be making a bigger effort to take this blog to the next level than I have previously.

It’s that time of the week again, time to draw one lucky reader’s name out of the virtual hat (thanks to random.org) and give away 1,000 Entrecard credits. Last week’s winner was Wiehanne from simplywp.net! Who’ll get the credits this time?

The winner of the 1,000 EC this week is…

chethStudios.blogspot.com

Congratulations! I’ve sent the credits to you on Entrecard, I hope you enjoy them!

For everyone else, remember there are still 2 more weeks to win as well as a few other surprises worth sticking around for!

Blogging Idol Update #2

As I will be doing every Friday, I’ll give you all a quick update on how I am going with Blogging Idol. Things have improved this week and I am now at #30 on the list. If you take a look at the scoreboard, you will see that I have gone from 27 subscribers to 57, giving me an increase of 30. That means I have doubled my subscribers in 2 weeks, so I’m quite happy with that but can still do better. My numbers are increasing almost every day and with the competition not even at it’s half-way point, there is still plenty of time to climb up the leader board.

The open voting starts next week, so it will be interesting to see how that goes. The voting makes up the majority of the points in Blogging Idol, so if I want to stand any chance of winning, I’ll have to make my strategies stand out from the crowd! I still haven’t rolled-out all of my strategies yet, so hopefully I can get things moving real quick so I don’t miss out on any votes. I think it would have made more sense to have the voting at the end of the contest but rules are rules and I don’t see them being changed at this point.

Thanks again to everyone who has subscribed and for those who haven’t then there is no time like the present!

It has been a bit quiet on DotComDud.com so far this week but that doesn’t mean things haven’t been going on behind the scenes. I’m still working on Blogging Idol and have already hit a small milestone which I will write about at the end of this post. More importantly though is that I have been getting ready for my next big blog contest. I’ve mentioned this upcoming contest a few times recently and I had planned on announcing it by now but promoting for Blogging Idol has taken up more time than I thought it would. That being said, I now plan on announcing the contest early next week and it will be my top priority!

I’ve already found some sponsors for the contest who will be providing the lucky winners with some great prizes! I will also be rounding up a few more sponsors before the contest is announced so you can expect plenty of stuff to win this time around! I thought it would only be fair to see if any readers were interested in stepping up and sponsoring the contest also. As a sponsor, you will get plenty of publicity right here on DotComDud.com as I post updates throughout the contest. I’ll be promoting the contest sponsors every chance I get.

If you are interested in sponsoring the next DotComDud.com contest, please contact me to discuss it further.

In regards to the kind of sponsorship that can be offered, I am open to all prize suggestions. Some great prizes that could be put up are advertising space for the contest winners or maybe some blogging services (cash is always good too :D).

In Other News…

I mentioned at the start of this post that DotComDud.com has reached a small milestone. Just recently (two days ago) I reached 50 subscribers! I’m pretty pleased with reaching that point and I think I can hit 100 before the month is over if I keep up the promotion! Thanks to everyone who has subscribed and for reading and supporting DotComDud.com as it has grown, I really appreciate it.

Also, don’t forget that I will be announcing the week 2 winner of the 1,000 Entrecard credits tomorrow, so if you haven’t already entered, now is the time to do it!

It’s the first Friday in November and that means it is time to give away 1,000 Entrecard credits to one of my subscribers! Just in case you missed it, you can read about the contest here. So without further delay, the winner is…

Wiehanne from simplywp.net!

The 1,000 EC have been transferred and should have appeared in your account by the time you read this post. Congratulations SimplyWP.net! Don’t forget to take a look at the SimplyWP blog where you’ll find free WordPress themes and tips on getting the most out of your blog. They are also running a pretty awesome contest too, so check it out, I’ve already entered!

Remember, I am giving away 1,000 Entrecard credits every single week this month, so keep reading as you could be the next winner! Also, don’t forget to confirm your email subscription if you haven’t already, to be in the running for next week’s draw. If you never received a confirmation email, try checking your junk mail folder.

How did I pick the winner? I thought I would answer this question for anyone else running a contest who is confused about how to randomly pick a winner. I use the list randomiser at random.org which randomly sorted the list of DotComDud.com email subscribers (from FeedBurner) and numbered them accordingly. If you are running a contest and need to pick a winner at random, I suggest checking out Random.org.

Blogging Idol Update

I’d also like to include a quick update on my performance so far in Blogging Idol #2. I am currently in equal 32nd position after gaining 11 subscribers within the first week. That’s not bad but I can do a lot better. So far I haven’t done a whole lot to increase subscribers (apart from this give away) but in the following weeks I am going to expand and diversify my strategies, so at the very least I can reach my goals for RSS subscribers I have set for November.

Thanks to everyone who has subscribed so far, I really appreciate it. Good luck to everyone who didn’t win this week, you have plenty more chances to win here on DotComDud.com during November!

I’ve decided to set myself a fresh set of goals for November. My attempts at settings goals in the past have produced mixed results, so I think I need to go about setting goals in a different way if I want to achieve success. When it comes to setting goals, there is all sorts of advice out there. Some will say you should set your goals high while others think setting small, achievable goals is the best. What do I think? Well, like choosing between having soft and hard tacos, I say “Why not have both?”

So this month, I am going to add a bit more structure to my goals. Basically I am going to look at an area of my blog that I wish to improve and set 3 different levels for each goal. Let’s take a look at the levels, they are pretty simple but I will explain them anyway.

Easy: This is the absolute minimum I should achieve this month, if I don’t reach these goals then it will show that I haven’t made an improvement in that area. If I don’t achieve this level, I will regard my efforts as a failure.

Medium: These are the results I think are possible if I concentrate on a goal and put in some hard work.

Hard: If I reach this level on any of my goals, I’ll be very happy. I see these as possible but not without some real effort and a bit of luck too! Anything above this is just awesome!

My Goals for November

RSS Subscribers

Easy: Increase my subscribers by 30. This is one for each day of the month.
Medium: Hit the 100 subscribers mark. I think this is a great milestone for any blog but I’ll need to add almost 70 subscribers to get there!
Hard: Win Blogging Idol. I know you only get 1 point (out of the 7 awarded) for having the biggest subscriber increase, but I’d still love to be #1 and get that point!

Income

Easy: Double my last month’s earnings (of $16.25) and make $32.50 in November.
Medium: Keep increasing my earnings at the rate I have for the past two months. In September my earnings increased by 473% over the previous month and in November earnings rose by 745%! If I can increase earnings at those rates, I’ll make between $76.86 and $121.06, so that is my goal.
Hard: Make over $150 from blogging this month, I’d be very happy if I could do that.

Posting

Easy: Make at least 10 posts, this shouldn’t be a problem at all.
Medium: Make 20 posts, as long as I stay consistent, I can certainly reach this goal.
Hard: Make 20 posts, including some new types of posts. I’d like to make some “Pillar Posts”, which will be informative and timeless, great reference posts that my readers can come back to again and again. I’d also like to try some guest posts and maybe even a couple of Make Money Online humour posts!

Traffic

Easy: Reach 2,000 visits this month. The last few months have been close but fell short to due to inactivity, November will be different.
Medium: Jump to 5,000 visits, with the right promotion this is possible.
Hard: 10,000 plus! If I want to achieve this, I’ll need some great content and some crafty promotion. I’ll have to get creative for this goal!

Expansion
I’d like to launch another blog, where I can focus on improving my SEO skills.

Easy: Launch a new blog and make at least 5 posts during November.
Medium: To be honest, I have a couple of idea for blogs. So this goal is to launch 2 blogs, both with 5 posts (minimum) this month.
Hard: Make some money from my new blogs. If I can launch 2 blogs and make at least $10 from either in their first month, I’ll consider them a success.

So they are all my goals that I am going to set myself in November. Sure, I could add more but I think these are a good start and I don’t want to have too many or I will overlook the important ones. I’ll report at the end of the month to let everyone know if I reach my goals and to what level I achieve them. Have you all set your own goals for November? Do you think I will be able to reach mine? All feedback is appreciated.