It took me 2-3 months to understand the actual meaning of niche blogging when I was very new in internet marketing.

This is just a concept to blog on very specific topic as compared to very broad ones. Like blogging on “Gold chains for dogs” as compared to “chains for dogs.”

As you can see writing on “chains for dogs” will need much broader research and articles as compared to “gold chains for dogs” because here specifically we are talking about gold chains.

As all other fellow bloggers, I was also very excited to start my own niche blog. So I started looking for high CPC keywords and the very first monetization came in my mind was AdSense (obvious for a newbie).

So I finalized following few keywords.

1. Raid Recovery (CPC – $100+)
2. Cloud Hosting (CPC –  $50+)
3. Dedicated Hosting (CPC – $55+)

So I decided to write on dedicated hosting and it was very easy for me to write on this topic.

I finalized keyword Dedicated Hosting Services (CPC $55+) and finalized my domain www.HQDedicatedHosting.com.

So the next task was to decide the keywords which are easy to rank and have good CPC and I finalized following keywords.

• Best Dedicated Hosts
• Cheap Dedicated Hosts
• Application Hosting Services
• Dedicated php Hosting
• Windows Server Host
• Dedicated Server Solution
• Web Server Hosting Companies
• Web Server Providers
• Data Server Hosting
• Linux Server Hosting Services
• Best Dedicated Server Hosts
• Best Web Hosting Companies
• Dedicated Web Hosting Services

I made my blueprint to write-down the articles on these topics.

I made my routine to write on one topic each day and my work was just for 15 days at max.

Steps taken to rank this blog.

As I told you that I decide to rank this blog on keyword “Dedicated Hosting Service” just because the CPC of this keyword was very high. But today I am seeing that this keyword is having 210 local searches and 320 global searches (I was not aware about these things at that time).

So ranking for this keyword is not going to give any good money even if people will come at my blog.

1. Blog Commenting

The very first step was to comment on blogs and rank this keyword.

Today I am laughing with that silly mistake, as I used anchor text as “Dedicated Hosting Service” while commenting and the result was; only 3-4 people approved my comment (very silly step and mistake).

2. Article Marketing

Article marketing is very good way to take good backlinks from article directories and I selected Fiverr for this work, as I myself could not do this task.

They delivered my work in 4-5 days and all the links they provided were very good.

3. Web 2.0 Submissions and Bookmarking

As few of my articles were indexed on Google so I started doing web 2.0 submissions and bookmarking for this blog.

Result

As I kept tracking my keywords using premium service of SEOMoz and saw up-down of the keywords in Google SERP.

Maximum place I got was 3rd place for keyword “Dedicated php Hosting” and 9th place for “Dedicated Hosting Services.”

Soon I lost the interest in this blog and started looking for other projects, as this was not giving any money.

Traffic on this blog.

As you can see, traffic is still coming on this blog but this is not giving any money.

Lessons Learnt

Learning is a process and we should keep learning ad we learn from our own mistakes.

1. Do proper research

I was very lazy when I did research on this keyword (even I spent 3-4 days on it).

I selected the keywords which were very high in CPC but very fewer people were searching for that keywords.

2. Wait for the results

You might be thinking that if I got 3rd and 9th place for 2 of the keywords then I could occupy the first spot also.

Here come the patience.

And I think I failed here too.

I quit this thinking that this is no more going to work for me.

So patience is the key to get success in internet marketing. If you will lose it, you will lose many things.

3. See your competitors

I was not aware about the fact that it is hard to compete high authority, long age high PR sites if you want to rank for any keyword.

So do proper research about your competencies and see everything about them.

Final words

If you are going to start niche blog then do proper research and check each and everything about the main keywords.

I came to know about all accurate things once I started using Long Tail Pro. This tool is such a great tool that you can save tons of your time and do proper research about the keyword competitions, CPC, searches and you can check your competitors also.

This tool cost just $97 as lifetime payment and you will get all latest upgrades at free of cost.

But with my link you can buy this tool in just $77 as they have given special discount for blogging cage readers.

Buy this tool in $77 here.

All the very best for your niche blogging projects.

photo credit: Alex E. Proimos

Participating in any contest need courage and you know very well that all people don’t have that much courage.

So first of all many congrats to all the participants to make this contest a great contest.

You all deserve huge round of applause.

Idea to organize this contest was running in my mind from last 6-7 months and I was very much excited to host it on my blog.

I started this guest blogging contest with total prize $650 but soon more cash was added and this became contest having $775 as prizes.

Many many thanks to all the sponsors who believed in me and contributed in this contest to make it more successful.

How this went?

This contest was running like crazy and every forum, groups I was checking, I was finding people promoting their articles.

I got huge exposure and great traffic on my blog those days and added many awesome readers.

Statistics

I got around 40+ awesome articles.

1500+ superb comments.

I added 500+ subscribers in my list during this contest.

I got 300+ Facebook likes on my Page.

200+ twitter followers

and huge exposure which I cannot express in figures.

What went wrong?

This was first big guest blogging contest on my blog, so I was not aware what to do and what not.

Even some good blogger friends didn’t suggested anything to make to more authentic.

The points to win this contest were as following.

1. 1 Like – 2 points.
2. 1 Tweet – 5 points.
3. 1 Stumbleupon – 5 points.
4. 1 Google Plus – 10 Points.
5. 1 Comment – 20 Points.

I gave these points to make it easy for participants to get such social shares and they will get their article more open for readers.

Contest was running awesome in first 20 days and all people were using only genuine methods to get likes, comments, shares on their posts.

But as I caught with Cervical Pain, so I was on bed rest for 3-4 days and doctors suggested to not do any sitting work. Even I was not able to sit otherwise I might have tracked each and every thing in this contest.

I failed to note down all the latest stats and see what is going on.

People used wrong methods to get more like, shares on their articles (which I could see very clearly).

I was very much sad and disappointed after seeing such movement from these bloggers.

I consulted with good blogger to cope up with this situation and many people suggested many things.

So I decided to put capping on all social shares.

In this contest I have given points for 1000 likes, tweets, shares, StumbleUpon only.

Because this was the only solution I found.

Bad for me as well as for you too.

Here are the winners

Good news is, final three winners are the participants who really deserved this place and efforts made by them were clearly seen to me.

Even they took some wrong steps, and they are very well aware about the thing what I am talking about.

Congrats to these 3 great bloggers.

First Prize – Zion Amal (Bullet-Proof Methods to WIN Any Guest Blogging Contest)

Second Prize - Thejas (7 Out-of-the-Box Ways To Get Thousands of Twitter Followers)

Third Prize - Avi Jit (Here’s Why a Blogger Shouldn’t Help Everyone)

They scored 19,592, 16,854, and 16,286 points respectively.

It’s time to celebrate now.

Special Note:

Don’t get disappointed if you are not in the list of winners.

I am going to organize another contest in July-August and this time the points will be based on genuine comments only.

You can subscribe us to get notification about the contest because this time it’s going to become $2000 guest blogging contest.

After subscribing us you will get my FREE Blogging Domination Guide which will help you to start you blogging career and take right steps to make money online.

See you soon.

If you are connected with me on Facebook, then you might be aware that these days I am learning more about affiliate marketing and spending most of my time on it. I am learning the basic of it, and getting in touch with many good marketers.

First of all special thanks to Zac Johnson, Karan Labra and Subhash Chandra Choudhary who are helping me in big way to learn it quickly.

So with the intention to learn more about it, I decided to interview one of the expert from this field. Because this is the easiest way to know the secrets of experts.

Here we have Mr. Ricky Ahuja today, who is very successful in affiliate marketing and his company Affiliate Venture Group helping people all across the work to make good money. He shared some of his life experiences and very awesome tips to get into affiliate marketing as well as to get success in it.

Thanks to Mr. Ahuja who instantly said ‘YES’ when I asked him for the interview on my blog.

Let’s get into it.

1. Hello Sir, Please introduce yourself and your story to become affiliate marketer.

I am a serial entrepreneur, have been in the online marketing industry since 1998 and serve as the CEO and partner in Affiliate Venture Group, a privately funded performance based network located in the Washington DC area. Affiliate Venture Group has quickly become the go to network for some of the hottest offers. One of the most accessible guys in the industry, I call it like it is and continue to develop a loyal following with my various groups and through my blog at RickyAhuja.com.

2. When you realized that you can make money online and how you started?

I actually got into this industry by accident. I used to own an internet café in Chicago and some of the patrons who frequented the café needed a website and search engine optimization done and I happened to have some contacts in the space which truly enabled me to find out the benefits and rewards of Internet marketing and haven’t looked back since.

3. Tell us about Affiliate Venture Group. What is this and how this is going to help people to make money?

Affiliate Venture Group located is composed of a team of experienced and long-term, online marketing professionals. Our affiliates enjoy our unique and exclusive offers, the highest payouts and amazing payment terms.

Affiliate Venture Group’s experienced and dedicated Affiliate Managers can help you optimize your traffic to gain the highest possible earning potential. This type of specialized attention is rare and unique in this industry. We stand by our affiliates and make sure you are paid on time! We pride ourselves in being available to meet your needs via phone, instant message or email.

4. Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money online. But becoming a good affiliate marketer we need too much time as well as many skills. How true is this and how we can enter in affiliate marketing?

Thick skin, persistence and perseverance are critical to becoming a successful affiliate. What may be working today may not tomorrow (thanks Google), what may be hot one day may not be the next (we can thank the folks at FTC for this). Odds are you will lose money when starting out, but to truly become successful – you have to test, re-test and then test some more.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best, “Our greatest glory is not in never-failing, but in rising up every time we fail.”

5. Almost all people who are into affiliate marketing use automation tools and some sites to outsource the work. Which are those tools and those sites?

Being in the space for over 15 years now, I have learned to develop numerous internal tools and access to various resources. While I will not recommend any particular one – I will say that Fiverr and Elance have been quite handy.

6. What are basics which a newbie should have to make money with affiliate marketing?

Simply put – here is what one needs to do: Research, Follow your passion, Quality content, Outsource, Keep learning, Test, Analyze and then Test some more.

7. What are the products which you love most to promote as affiliate?

Our leading verticals have been: penny stocks, horoscope offers, downloads, auto insurance zip submits.

8. How you are promoting your company to make it more viral and help more people for generating online income?

We rarely do much advertising at all – over 90% of my business is through word of mouth, referrals or people who have come across my blog, my guest posts or trade shows. Brand is very important to me so we are very very selective with whom we work.

9. How was your experience to attend Affiliate Summit? How this helped you to boost your business?

My experience for the most part has been extremely positive. However, you have to go there with an agenda and try to follow that to the extent you can. There are a lot of distractions and unless you are going there to get drunk and party – you will not have accomplished anything. You can check out one of my articles about Affiliate Summit Failures to get an idea (http://performinsider.com/2012/08/affiliate-summit-failures/ )

10. How much time you are spending online and what you love to do when you are not online?

In my free time I like to go visit the family, travel or just hang out with some good friends. We routinely get together monthly and have an all night poker (teen pati) games. If there is any time remaining, I like to work on my blog and some other side projects.

11. What are your future ventures and how they are going to help people?

Great question – the most exciting one relevant to your readers will be our expansion into India. We have seen a lot of short comings with the current networks there and would like to shake up how business is done there. India is our 2nd largest publisher base and as a result we want to be able to fully monetize that.

12. Affiliate marketing message for my readers.

My friend Evan Lovett said it best: Success in affiliate marketing takes an indefatigable spirit, an endless reservoir of energy, an immense appetite for multi-tasking and a short memory. Intelligence, mental sharpness and inventiveness, cleverness, problem-solving & mental acuity, adaptability & agility are tantamount, but the ultimate factor is the willingness to work hard through all obstacles. Every challenge is surmountable, all partnerships are possible and business is yours if you want it enough.

In the event anyone would like to get in touch with me: gsahuja@gmail.com or on FB: www.facebook.com/RickyAhuja

Just see around yourself and you will see many of them.

But the questions is – why we call them great/best/top bloggers?

There must be something which they are having, but we don’t.

We all have strong desire that we want to become top blogger and want to make huge income online. We are continuously putting ourself to learn the jargon on online marketing and moving one step ahead everyday.

The bloggers, whom we call great bloggers, are not made in single days or single year.

They are on the internet from last too many years.

As an example you can recall any good blogger and you will see he/she is on the internet from last 2+ years.

In short

You need atleast 2 years to reach at very good level in blogging.

let’s come back to the point.

Why they are great blogger?

I have tried to find some of the characteristics of great bloggers and hope this article is going to help you integrate atleast 2-3 of them in your blogging, and you will see very good improvement in your blog.

Here are the characteristics of great bloggers.

Note: Here I am not going to include the things like writing post daily, promoting content etc.

These are the characteristics which they develop as a good human being and make this internet world much better place to surf.

1. They make their presence in the articles they write

I have seen that we are missing this thing in our blogs.

They always write as fresh content as they can. Every time you will land on a great blog you will find new content filled with lots of information.

They include themselves in the article, and you will always feel that they are sitting with you and telling you the things.

This not only give us personal touch but we feel more happy to read such articles.

2. They write what they know

You must write what you know. This will increase authenticity of your blog and this will lead more loyal readers. People want to see the results and read about the things which seems real.

e.g

1. You are writing how to get too much twitter followers and your own profile have only few followers.
2. You are writing how to boost pagerank and your blog have PR 0 only

And you will find too many other such things also.

So always write good tutorial and tips for your readers so that they can implement them easily. In case of they will need any help then you can help them very easily.

3. They learn from each other

They keep doing Google hangout and Skype chat to share the strategies and their outcomes.

They are very smart in doing networking with people and interact with them. They share their problems with their friends and ask solutions.

Personally I haven’t seen any kind of competition between them and they all are busy in building their own blogs only.

4. They never miss seminars/meetings

Meeting and seminars are the best way to interact with like-minded people. Shaking hand in real is much much better than meeting 10 times on Google hangout.

Such meeting will always help you to find the person which you are searching and you can learn a lot from that person.

I keep reading great blogs and most of the times those blogger mention in their post about other blogger whom they met in meetings, and finally became partners.

5. They are active in Forums (Helping mode)

We are missing this opportunity badly. We are putting too much of our time just to write content or promote it. We have completely forgotten about the importance of forums and the potential of them.

Great blogger are always in helping mode and you will always see great reply from them in forums.

Final Words

I have found these awesome characteristics of Great Bloggers. If you have found anything other than this then please share with us so that we can learn more from these bloggers.

To get a best job?

But think upon it once.

Are jobs really good/best to live an enjoyable life?

If you will ask same question from me, I will say ‘BIG NO.’

Why?

Because I know what we will be doing when we are in job.

One of my friend got job in a great MNC as verification engineer in 12.5 lakh per annum package. After a long time I called him and I was very excited because I knew he is getting great salary. So as per my assumption he must be the most happiest person in the world.

but what?

As we talked on phone he told me how he is going from FRUSTRATION phase of life.

He said that he is spending 12+ hours in office and they even don’t allow him to take proper rest on Sunday also.

So this frustration was obvious.

Note: Here I am not saying that you don’t go for job or my aim is not to discourage you regarding job. I am just telling you the truth and sharing the real life incident which just happened with me.

I know that our parents don’t allow us to do blogging and they don’t know what we are doing with this idiot box. For them we are just wasting our time by chatting with our friends and just opening any websites to pass the time.

Here I am sharing some great points which are more than sufficient to convince your parents.

#1. Show them great blogs

Show them best blogs and tell your parents how these blogs are helping people in the world to solve their problem. Show them the number of article that blog have published (you can check this from archive of blog) and how this blog is attracting millions of people every month to read their amazing tips.

-> This step will make their mind to understand the power of websites.

#2. Show them income proof of great bloggers

If you will be able to do this step wisely then your parents never going to discourage you for blogging.

Biggest example you can show them is income proofs of pat Flynn from SmartPassiveIncome (I love this blog very badly ).

Tell them the potential of making money on internet and tell them how you are going to do this with your blog.

-> This step will convince them to understand that there is big potential on internet to make money.

#3. Show them the potential of internet

Internet have turned into giant platform in last 3-5 years and have filled with lots of information.

Give them example of ATM machine and tell them how this is running on internet and how internet is almost everywhere these days. You can show them Top Earning Websites and amount of money those people are making online.

These companies are making such HUGE income just because of internet and how this world is converting into e-Commerce these days.

-> This step will help them understand that you are doing right activity on internet and in coming years you can become like these peoples.

#4. Show them the amount of fame which you will get once you are a blogger

Fame is such a thing which cannot be explained in words.

Show them owner of great blogs and interview of them on big blogs.

Getting fame on internet is not so hard if you are following steps very carefully and learning the things.

-> Who are the parents who don’t want to see their son/daughter as a successful person? So this step is going to make you parents feel proud.

#5. Show them the satisfaction which you get when you blog

If you feel satisfied playing cricket then I will suggest you go and play it, soon you will be great player.

If you are feeling satisfactory by reading books then go and read them and soon you will be a great writer.

So if you feeling more satisfied doing online work as compared to job then do it.

Tell your parents that this is my life and I am going to live it in this way only. I am feeling very very much satisfied doing this.

-> This step will help your parents understand that you are very much passionate about the internet. So they are never going to stop you in future.

#6. Show them your online presence

If you are having a blog then there must be a good number of comments on your blog and you must be having Facebook page, twitter profile and other social media presence.

Show them comments on your blog and show them how people are getting benefits from your article and how they are encouraging you in comments. Show them you social media profiles and interaction with people there.

-> This step will help your parents to understand that you are in helping mode. And giving is always BIGGER than taking.

Final Word

I tried my best to convince my parents and it is your turn now if you are facing any kind of discouragement from your parent and they don’t know what you are doing.

These worked for me and I guarantee that these are going to work for you also.

Don’t forget to share your awesome comments and let me know how you are going to do this.

I would love to see your encouraging comments so that I can produce more quality content in future.

All the very best.

Keep blogging. Keep rocking.

photo credit: david-gilmour