Enkay Blog

Are Top Bloggers Cheap?

Think about it, do we all get rich just because we save more than others do? Its a true fact and I think that some of us do get rich because we just manage our money better or is it because we don’t really pay full price for everything?

Let me give you an example, recently John Chow mentioned that he asked and received a free Macbook Air. He even stole a $100 after losing the Market Leverage cashinator challenge because he didn’t want to pay out of his pocket. I mean, don’t you think a blogger making close to $400k-$500k a year can afford that? Sure he can, but why do you have to spend your money when others are willing to give it to you or better yet, you can save a ton of money when you buy something.

Recently a post by Balkhis got my attention where he talks about how he saves money and gave us situations in which he gets free stuff or a lot of discounts and its funny to picture bloggers who make a good amount of income to be even doing that but then again, we all do it.

Consider me for example. I know that I get my way with a lot of things such as free drinks, free food, it just happens. I never even ask for it. I recently saved 40% on a laptop just because I asked around. I saved 25% when I bought my car. I even saved 50% on books that I bought for school that usually never go on sale. After doing a little bit of thinking, I wonder if others do that we do.

Aside from all that, its a known fact that Balkhis and I have asked Market Leverage for more shirts because we love them. Sometimes John is right, you ask and you receive and that even comes down to the advertising on this website when I talk to advertisers and even negotiate CPM rates.

First of all, do you think that saving money by being cheap can help you become rich? By cheap, I don’t mean that you ask for free food or that you don’t do good things once in a while but I mean that if you are able to stay away from the cost, you would. Secondly, do you really believe that top bloggers are cheap?

I dont know but I do think so. I think being cheap to a certain extent is not bad as long as you don’t start pinching pennies. I wonder if you guys deal with such things and attempt to pay lower prices for whatever you can.

What It Takes To Write An eBook

So I recently released my eBook, that honestly took a lot longer for me to write than it should have but, its mainly because I had taken a hiatus from writing it in the middle. I decided to re-write it beginning in August and about 40 days later it was ready to be published on the blog. I know quite a few bloggers that have an eBook and most of them are under a 100 pages, like mine, however, its really not as easy as it sounds. Theres a lot that goes into writing an eBook so I wanted to share some of the things that writing an eBook involves.

Research
Writing an eBook requires research no matter what topic you are writing about. Whether its monetization or blogging or even fitness for that matter. You will have to spend quite a bit of time confirming your facts and researching the topic to avoid skipping over key points or even avoid publishing wrong information.

Time
The time input is tremendous. The research, the actual writing of the book to even editing the book later requires quite a time commitment. You have to realize that you cannot churn out an ebook 50 pages or greater within a week. You could if you have done it before but if you’re a first time eBook writer then it will be a different scenario. It takes time and a lot of effort.

Reviewing
As part of my eBook, I had to review a lot of monetization techniques, blog publishing softwares and even hosting companies. Most eBooks will require you to review products and services and this also contributes to the amount of time you’ll need to write the eBook. Think about it, for a topic like monetization, you will have to look at affiliate marketing networks and several other monetizating sources such as Adsense, InfoLinks, ReviewMe, etc. Even for something like Gardening, you will need to review different plants, plant foods, fertilizers, etc. So basically you will need to review a lot of different products and services to provide the best information to your readers.

Writing Skills
This is probably one of the key points in writing an eBook. You need to make sure that you write your eBook with proper grammar, punctuation and most importantly spelling. This is required because you cannot seem unprofessional otherwise you won’t be taken seriously. Skipping prepositions or using the wrong spelling could not only look unprofessional but could change the meaning of what you intended to say.

Explanation Style
Explanation style basically means that you write your eBook in a manner that will make it easy to understand for your readers. You have to understand that although you and several others will know what you are talking about, there are lots of people that may be new to the topic. This means that you will need to go step-by-step and explain a lot of things in detail to avoid leaving out a segment of your readership.

So, I hope that this information helps you realize what goes into writing an eBook. I will try to do more posts like this as time goes on but I feel that this is a good one to get started with to help you realize what actually goes into writing an eBook. If you want to write an eBook or are currently writing one I’d like to hear from you. Also, those of you who have an eBook, I would like to see whether you agree with the points I’ve mentioned. Hope you guys have a great week ahead!

Enkay’s Free Ebook

Yes, its true! I have an eBook of my own now. I have been writing this eBook since December of last year and because of school, I never got around to completing it. Well, over the summer I decided to completely re-write what I had and today is when I will be launching the free eBook. Before I get started, you can visit the eBook website at http://www.enkayblog.com/ebook or you can download it by clicking on the image below:

What Is It About?
First off, about 90% of the eBook content is written from scratch, so a lot of the content has been written specifically for the eBook and you won’t find it on my blog. It is 62 pages long and its a guide for all bloggers specially new bloggers. It helps you get started with blogging by picking out your options and then it provides you with tips about blogging, Alexa, Technorati as well as other topics such as Social Networking, Video Blogging and even Monetization. Its a very comprehensive guide to blogging and I really hope you like it.

Why Free?
Well, I figured that if people are unhappy with the book for some reason, then they can get their money back, which was zero to begin with. At least thats what one of the reasons was. The main reason why the book is free is so that I can help a charity.

I want everyone to read the book and once you’re done reading, and you like it, I want you to think what the amount would be that you would be willing to pay for this book and then I’d like you to donate that amount to the Save The Children Foundation. For those of you who don’t know what the organization does, I’ve created a small video below and have provided the narration for the video. I hope you can understand what this money can do for people who need it more than you and I do.

Hopefully the video will encourage you to support such organizations and foundations. For those of you who are wondering, yes, that is my voice as part of the narration and this video was created specially for the eBook. I would really like to hear your thoughts on the fact that the eBook is free and can really make a big difference in the lives of children who are truly deserving of help.

Win A Free iPod Nano

I have a brand new 4GB Silver Ipod Nano that I have to give away and so I figure that right now is the best time to do so. Theres only three ways you can get an entry.

1) The first is to subscribe to my blog using the form below (2 points):

2) The second way to get an entry is to blog about the book and link to this post using the words “free blogging ebook” or “blogging ebook” or anything you find fitting. Be sure to let me know what your url was so that I don’t miss it. (5 points)

3) The last method is to just let me know that you’ve downloaded and read the ebook (1 point). This is based on the honesty method so there isn’t any way that I can check on this but please be honest about it.

Once you’ve subscribed and downloaded and read the eBook or blogged about the book, just leave me a comment or send me an email and I’ll put your name in the mix. Also, I would like to offer more prizes so if you’re an advertiser and you’re willing to sponsor a prize, do let me know. I will be picking the winners October 15th so its less than a month away.

Hope you enjoy the eBook and I’d love to hear your feedback. This is the first eBook I’ve ever written so if you find any errors, do let me know. I also want to thank Rebecca Mercurio for helping me pick a date to launch the ebook. Since last night I have read it about 10 times to avoid any embarrassing errors but after a while you seem to think that everything looks good. So, in that case, do let me know if you find any errors and what you think! I look forward to hearing from you.

How You Should Market Your Blog

There are many ways that you can gain readers and visitors and I like to think that over the time that I’ve blogged, I have come across some great ways to get traffic when you need it. This isn’t about link bait posts or anything of that sort but other ways that you can market your blog to help gain readers and visitors.

1) Market Yourself In The Blogosphere - One of the best methods that works for me is when I go around the blogosphere and check out other blogs and leave comments. This helps me in getting out there and helps people recognize who I am. Be careful though, the type of comment you leave is a first impression as it indicates what someone can expect when they visit your blog.

2) Writing On Universal Topics – If you have a MMO blog there are ways that you can gain extra traffic by going a little outside the box. For example, if you talk about a particular ad network that blogs of other niches can use or if you talk about certain video blogging techniques that other bloggers can use, then you’re writing on a universal topic. A topic that is not confined to your particular niche will help you reach a larger audience specially through search engine results.

3) Responding To Advertiser Emails - A lot of times I get emails from individuals asking me to check out their website or try out their product and by checking out their website and leaving a comment or by trying out a product you can gain a new audience. The advertiser may link back to you or mention you in one of his posts and it can help you gain more readers. This is different from commenting on other blogs because it involves being contacted by an advertiser or a new venture blogger first.

4) If You May, Offer Your Help – If youre the giving type then offering your help to bloggers and helping them succeed can play to your advantage. Its not that you have an ulterior motive but its an added benefit of being helpful and friendly. Most of the times when I help a blogger they mention me, become a committed reader and link back to me. This helps me maintain a relationship with the blogger as well as have them help in improving my traffic from time to time.

5) Interviews, Sponsoring, etc – I recently did an interview with Market Leverage and I have even sponsored a contest recently but doing things such as interviews and sponsoring contests can help raise your awareness in the blogosphere. Most interested individuals will decide to check out your blog if the contest you are sponsoring includes a great prize or you come off as natural and approachable in an interview. It can definitely boost your traffic.

I would like to know what are some other unconventional ways that you use to gain traffic. Its common to see things such as hosting contests, link bait posts or anything of that sort. What are some of the things you do that seem to work for you?

Are You Portraying Yourself Well?

I think its an interesting concept, you know, the concept of human perception. Sounds complicated but it really means how people view you or how people see you when they see you online.

I recently ran into one of my readers and they said, “Are you that guy that has the blog?” and I replied “Yeah, sure am” and they even remembered my name. We talked for a little bit and as she left, she said “You’re exactly like what I would have thought when I see you online” and that is pretty much what I wanted to hear. Its a great feeling knowing that I meet the expectations when I meet someone in person considering I create those expectations as an online personality.

The idea is that you should know how to portray yourself. Sometimes you have the occasional individual who attempts to be something who he/she isn’t and thats not really helping you. So point #1 would be, Be Yourself. I can’t say it any simpler than that. You have to show people who you really are and not what you can become online. I understand that becoming someone else online can lead to more profits but when someone meets you then that bubble is about to burst.

One of these guys that I know is true to himself is Normal Joe from ImWithJoe. I know that if I meet him in person, I’d know what to expect and he makes himself very real online and thats why hes been progressing ever since he started.

I also see some guys who are discrediting themselves and thats not a good way to go. If you’re going to leave a comment or write a post about something make sure you know the topic well in order to show off your strong points. Its usually not a good idea to talk about something you don’t know. For example, its somewhat like being good at Science yet writing papers about Mathematics. It just doesn’t flow and its not a good way for you to get attention.

In the blogging world, its when new bloggers talk about making hundreds of dollars a day with minimal work. I mean, if its that easy, why aren’t you doing better? It just doesn’t add up. Make sure you have experience about what you’re talking about and stay true to what you know.

So bascially, stay true to who you are and make sure that you show off your strong points in order to get yourself noticed. Its good to see bloggers like TheNetFool, Balkhis and many others that take advantage of those points and thats why they’re doing a lot better than others. So that concludes this post which was somewhat of a rant based off what I’ve noticed lately but do you think you’re portraying yourself well or are you content with the way things are?