Many new bloggers just don’t know how to increase their rss subscribers. It’s not that the content isn’t good, there just isn’t an audience yet. Blogs take a little bit of marketing regardless of who you are. We took a while to get rolling, but that was just due to inexperience. One tool that was vital to our success thus far, has been the power of giveaways.

Free Stuff Draws RSS Subscribers

When you subscribe to a blogs RSS feed, you do so because you don’t want to miss anything from the blog. Whether it be for the content or some sort of giveaway. Once you get a RSS subscriber chances are you should be able to keep them for a while. Sometimes I stay subscribed to a blog just because I’m too lazy to unsubscribe.

Our latest RSS boost came from just offering a few prizes for subscribing to our feed via email. The number went from 14 to 74 within about 2 weeks. Even with the contest over, our email subscribers remain at 74. I plan to have other smaller giveaways like our TNX points giveaway as well. Make sure you don’t miss them.

CyberStreet Proof

I have been subscribed to Cyber Street Report for a long time, when they had a completely different theme. When I subscribed their RSS feed numbers stayed at about 10-15. I hadn’t visited them in months, until the posts surrounded blogging reviews and entrecard.

With the entrecard craze surrounding the blogosphere, Cyberstreet jumped on board and promoted the hell out of it. They have even decided to giveaway entrecard points. Give the people what they want right?

In a few short days of offering free entrecard points, it has seemed that their rss feed count has doubled or tripled to 36 readers. While this isn’t that much yet, the growth is great. I’d imagine as the prizes continue so will the feed subscribers increase.

The great thing with this is that it didn’t cost them anything to give these points away. There isn’t any excuse not to reward and attract readers with the tons of opportunities out there. Pick a service and promote it!

There is Always Help

If you still haven’t been inspired as to what you can do, make sure to contact us with any idea you might have. We might be able to throw in a prize to make your giveaway that much better. To follow with Cyberstreet, I also plan on giving away some entrecard points. Give the people what they want… right?

Blatant plug warning! 🙂

WordPress and Firefox have something in common. They are both extendable by user generated add-ons – WordPress Plugins & Firefox Extensions.

I love finding and trying out new Firefox Extensions and WordPress Plugins. You can find all these in the official Firefox Add-ons directory or the WordPress Plugins directory. But, often times I have found useful plugins through someone else’s recommendation.

Top Firefox Extensions

So, I started out creating my Top Firefox Extensions list. This list serves as a reference for myself as well as anyone else looking for great Firefox extensions recommendation.

Top WordPress Plugins (65+)

With this list being the most viewed post in ShanKri-la, I decided to make a Top WordPress Plugins (65+ plugins) list where I could categorize and publish the plugins I try and use. I have just started creating more blogs and find myself going to ShanKri-la Admin Panel to find out what plugin I was using. This list is going to help me a lot and I hope for you too.

15 WordPress Tweaks for a (New) WordPress Blog

I have published my collection of WordPress Tweaks, tips & tricks at Techie-Buzz.com that I gathered and implemenred in various WordPress blogs over the months. I wanted this list to be an excellent resource for a new blogger on WordPress blogging platform to get the most out of this wonderful solution. Even if you have been on WordPress, I am sure you’ll find a few tweaks that you can implement.

Plus, when my friends or fellow bloggers ask me about a Firefox Extension or a WordPress Plugin I use, I can just direct them to these lists. Such a time saver!

I am not trying to create a link bait post with these lists by creating it once and leaving it to rot. The first two lists are to be constantly updated as I find new extensions and plugins. So, don’t forget to bookmark the lists to come back for new stuff.

Visit ShanKri-la for more tech tips | Subscribe to ShanKri-la Feed

Welcome to another edition of the Weekly Contest Roundup, courtesy of Contest Beat. With Christmas on its way the contest scene seems to be hotting up a fair bit – what better way to make the holiday season even better than by winning an Amazon voucher or cash for some gifts, or even winning a Nintendo Wii for yourself (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)? You’re going to definitely want to take a look at some of these contests so without further ado…

A $400 John Chow Review

A review from JohnChow.com would normally cost you $400, however Winning the Web has decided to give one away for free on his blog. You’ll need to do a little bit of work to enter though, here’s a quick rundown:

• Subscribe to the Winning the Web RSS feed.
• Look for letters at the end of upcoming Winning the Web posts.
• Unscramble the 11 letters to make a word/phrase.
• If you’re the first person to figure it out you win the free John Chow review

Sound a bit complicated? Trust me it isn’t – check out the full details here.

A Nintendo Wii

Last week I asked for websites and businesses who might be interested in sponsoring a contest on my blog to get in touch. Well CellforCash.com graciously offered to put up a brand new Nintendo Wii and I will be giving the console away on Christmas Eve. Entering is really easy and all you need to do is make a post about the contest and also include a link back to the sponsor. Once that’s done just comment on the post with a link back to your entry and you are locked in the draw. Check it out.

A 8GB iPod Touch

FileLime are running a bit of a marketing campaign at the moment and have decided to give away a 8GB iPod Touch to bloggers. To get in on the action you need to make a 100 word post about FileLime and link back to both their homepage as well as the contest page – then just submit your entry via the form you’ll find on their site. This one ends on December 18.

Lots of $100 Cash Prizes + More

Finally, I need to blog about the contest running right here at BAYB (like you already didn’t know!). Matthew is giving away a whole bunch of $100 prizes thanks to his sponsors NeverBlueAds, plus a whole lot of other bloggers have offered reviews and ad spots. Entering is super easy too – all you need to do is blog about the contest and include a link to BAYB and their sponsors. In my biased opinion, this contest along with the Contest Beat Nintendo Wii comp are definite musts to enter. 🙂

See you next week and don’t forget to check out Contest Beat for more contests!

Not too long ago I wrote a TNX Review. What would draw in any advertiser is the low cost of links. PR 3 links run as low as 200 points which is only 26 cents! Do you realize how little you are selling your links for?

Advertising is a Pain

This system would be great for advertisers to get tons of links for cheap, if it was easy. I’ve had a lot of problems, with a very unhelpful staff. Since there is no support system via email you must take it live or through the forum.

My problem (which can be viewed here) was that several of the websites I had purchased links from weren’t displaying them. Support kept telling me to wait and so I did. Before my monthly link expired I checked the websites again. Only 2 of 8 websites were displaying the links. Apparently I must be blind because the support said “I found pretty much all websites displaying your link.” I didn’t know invisible links existed. Now that my thread is closed “Alex” the support has changed his mind and said “all websites did display your link.”

Funny how things change.

TNX Points Giveaway

I did secure a refund and have no intention of using them again. I would have to be given a lot of free points and I don’t see that happening.

I currently have 2,400 points, but only 1200 available for transfer. I figure I could give 6 people 200 points, which means a free pr3 link. All you have to do is leave a comment about your experience with TNX. I am interested in hearing how you like them and would love your input on the support problem in question.

Black Friday is gone. But, great deals and savings on items you buy online are not limited to after Thanksgiving day sale. You can find them year round if you know where to find them.

ProBargainHunter is a great site for deal news and coupons. They are all about finding great deals from around the Internet.

So, you love frequenting popular deal sites on the Internet and love sharing those great finds with your friends and family. What if, you could get rewarded for sharing those great deals?

That’s where Buxr.com comes in and it is by the same folks I just mentioned. Buxr.com, just launched on December 3rd, is not only a way for you to find great deals, shop and save money, but if you had a blog or website, you can share these deals with everyone and get rewarded when someone makes use of the offers.

Quick facts about Buxr

• Hand picked hot deals
• Deals are tagged and categorized helping us to find similar deals by same merchant.
• Buxr widget is highly customizable and you can track clicks and conversions in the control panel.
• Widgets show the latest hot deals and can be narrowed down to show certain deals based on your niche.
• Referral program offers 10% of the people you refer’s commission for 12 months!
• I was offered a $10 commission just for signing up in beta but now that they have launched it, it may not be available.

Win a 8GB iPod Touch

Buxr.com has a contest running now that offers a 8GB iPod Touch to the person with the most referrals. They are also giving away a 4GB iPod Nano & a 4GB USB Flash Drive for the runner ups. You can periodically check the standings and you can keep promoting it until January 4th when they announce the winners. Even if you don’t win one of the 3, you can still win the 10% referral commissions.

Should I Join?

I realize Buxr.com might not look like a great fit at first look for every niche. But, the way I see it, everyone loves a great deal on the Internet. With Christmas shopping on top of the list for those celebrating Christmas, this is a fun way to find and share deals with your friends and family.

There are plenty of ways to make money online but I love this idea of trying to make some money while you can save some yourself finding good deals.

I am finding myself checking this widget everyday as they really do post some of the hottest deals on the Internet.

If you would like to show some referral love, you could sign up using this link for a Buxr Widget. (affiliate link)

Yesterday some of you experienced a bit of a technical issue here at Blog about your Blog. If you tried to leave a comment you were denied. It was pretty easy to find that Bad Behavior was the culprite.

I haven’t yet attempted to fix it, but I don’t think it would be worth the trouble. Has anyone else had Behavior problems?

Sorry about the problem, don’t be shy now. You can comment again.

I am happy to announce we teamed up with NeverBlueAds to offer you this great contest. I really wanted to get a nice cash contest launched before Christmas for some lovely spending money for our great readers. Have I buttered you up enough yet to enter? Along with our great sponsor NeverBlueAds, we got some other websites contributing what they can.

NeverBlueAds is an affiliate network where you can run their variety of promotions and earn money. You can read more about them at my post Affiliate Marketing with NeverBlueAds.

Rules

Before we get to the prizes let me tell you how to enter. The contest will be pretty simple and straightforward. All you have to do is mention the contest in a blog post, along with our sponsor NeverBlueAds. This will get you one entry.

Bonus Entry. The only way to get an entry is to post as I mentioned above. However to get a bonus entry in the contest, you can use your affiliate link when you mention NeverBlueAds in your post. The link should look like this http://www.neverblueads.com/signup?ref=aff_29231. NeverBlueAds is looking to gain more new members as well as get their affiliate service out there. By posting your affiliate link I will know that you’ve joined.

Deadline

Monday Dec 17th at Midnight PST

Prizes

First-Third Place 100$ Winners from NeverBlueAds
Fourth Place Website Review on this blog by Adsense Tracker
Fifth Place 25$ from Blogging4Everyone
Sixth Place Website Review from Nspeaks
Seventh Place Website Review from SelectIndex
Eighth Place Featured Blog Spot on A Links Blog

We’ve got a great list of prizes here, there’s no reason for you not to enter! I want to thank all of our sponsors for putting up some great prizes. A huge thank you to NeverBlueAds.