I was quite shocked reading a week ago some IT blog, and there was a research done, and the research showed that a big percentage of internet users don’t use RSS, because they simply don’t know what it is, and how does it work. So I will take this chance and explain to you guys what RSS is and how does it work. I understand that most of the this blog’s audience are sophisticated and  smart people,but then again there could be some people that don’t know what’s the buzz about RSS is all about.

What is RSS

First of all, RSS is free. Many people get confused by seeing “Subscribe to RSS“, as we are used to pay for subscriptions. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary”. Basically it’s an XML file that is made and sent by the blog or website. On most of the websites that provide the RSS Feed, the RSS Feed “button” will look like this:

How does RSS Work

RSS works really simple. Let’s say I am daily reading NHL playoff results, or I am reading a blog about barbecue recipes. Visiting these websites daily to check the latest articles and content would be time consuming. So all I have to do is to subscribe to the website’s or blog’s RSS Feed trough my RSS Reader (I’ll explain what’s RSS reader later). Let’s say I read daily 20 blogs, this would be time consuming to visit them all just to check the latest stuff they got there, but all I have to do is to open my RSS Reader and read the latest content of my favorite blogs in one place. And the RSS reader will only show the text of the article (and pictures if there are any), just simple and plain text, no banners, no website design or anything. Just pure content. This is also one of the reasons why people like to use RSS because they don’t see the annoying banners or the hard-to-navigate layout.

This is how the RSS works:

What’s an RSS Reader

An RSS reader is the software that you use to receive the feeds from the blogs or websites you have subscribed to. Most popular are BlogLines, FireFox RSS Reader (FireFox Web Browser has its own in-built RSS reader), Google Reader,Yahoo RSS reader and NewsGator. Choose the one which you like the most.

Why the blog needs an RSS Feed

For website and blog owners the count of people who use RSS is very important. This shows how many daily readers the blog or website has. The more, the better - it shows that the website or blog is providing good quality content and people like to read it daily. It’s something similar like you subscribe to receive a newspaper or magazine. The publisher knows how many subscribers there are, so they can plan their profit, and they can analyze how big share of the market they own and how popular their newspaper or magazine is. Just try to unsubscribe from a magazine, then you’ll see how they will try to get you back by offering you some “special” offers. Subscriber count for a blog, magazine or newspaper is very important.

I just want to remind that most of the websites or blogs provide the RSS feed by a text “Subscribe to RSS”. Many people get confused, as they think they will have to pay to read the RSS feed. Don’t be - it’s totally free.

If this is the first time you will use RSS, then start by reading this blog

Well, what can I say. The year of 2008 is gone, and the new one is here. My head and stomach is still reminding me what I have consumed yesterday, and the photos are reminding me that I was dancing naked outside in the snow, and this morning I woke up on a kitchen table next to a shot glass which had my sock in. But this post isn’t about that.

Where we were a year ago ? What we did ? Personally I had no idea that I will be making money online and doing what I love. A year ago I was still buying ebooks that promised me thousands and even millions of dollars. A year ago I wasn’t even sure what I want to do in my life. A year ago I was skipping school, had problems with police and always had problems with parents, I was on a really bad road. All my close people were saying “Stop Chris, Stop what you are doing right now”. My parents and other close people had no hopes in me anymore.

My parents now support me, and they have realized that I am mature and old enough to choose my own road, and this road has no stops saying “Average Office Guy”. And one of the best phrases what I heard in 2008 was from my dad who said “Chris, I am really proud with you, and I am sure you will end up living the life that you have dreamed of”. I was waiting for this moment for a very long time. I somehow have gained inner peace because I am on my own road, and I know what I want, all I have to do is to reach out and grab it. Where you were a year ago ? Have you become a better person during’ 08 ? I can answer this question with a great smile on my face saying “Yes”. I have become a better person, a more mature person and I sure damn love it.

The Reward

Oh, and one more thing. Like I mentioned earlier, I will now reward you every month ! This blog is my baby and I love every piece of it. You - gals and guys is the biggest piece that I love in this blog. Thank you for spending time to read my daily jabbering, thank you for spending time to leave a comment and share your experience ! I am maybe not the best blogger out there, and maybe I am not a guru of internet marketing, but I am trying to give you all the best that I can.

Anyway, I will now reward the best commentator of the month. Not the person who has commented the most, but the person who has added the most value to my blog via comments. And the prize is going to be - the person will have an free advertisement on this blog, a 125×125 banner on the sidebar of this blog for a month. It’s not much maybe, but I just want to reward my readers somehow, and this is the way how I am going to do it. For this month the free ad space goes to Felix Goh Wei Liang from abloggerblog.com. I will reward my readers each month, no matter how big this blog is going to be, even if it’s gonna be bigger than JC’s blog or Problogger I will still always keep a free space to reward you !

I just want to say thank you all ! Thank you all ! Without you this blog couldn’t be what it is now. You have added priceless value to this blog trough your comments, and I want to congratulate all of you in the new year. Let this year be better for all us, let’s love more, let’s share more, let’s give more and you will see that the world is changing around you according to your actions.

I just want to congratulate my top commentators and other bloggers:

Wei Liang from A Blogger Blog - Love your advice mate, keep them coming

Veronica and Elijah from The At Home Couple - I love your humor and ideas that both of you are giving out. Nice read.

Shanker Bakshi from Shanker Bakshi - Great Info and Great Tips.

Ben Pei from Pei Profit - This guy has inspired me to become a “commentniac”. Thanks for tips and guides.

Ardit from Blogict - Mate, I wish you to get out of that Pizza Delivery Job, and start making serious cash online !

Wesley from Improving the Web - I wish you that your blog gets bigger and grows faster than mine did. Cheers for that.

Dan from Race For A Million - Dan, Keep on running, I wish you that your race finishes as fast as possible.

Yan Susanto from Thou Shall Blog - Thank you for giving those great blogging tips. Without your tips, no doubt I wouldn’t be here today. Thanks for writing a “blogging bible” for us.

Erwin Tan from Erwin Tan - I have always liked your post ideas. Keep them coming in 2009 !

Simon from Otooo.com - Thanks for giving great tips and guides. If anyone wants to know about site flipping, then he/she should read your blog

I can’t name all the people that have inspired or helped me, the list is endless. If I have left anyone outside, then please - sorry, if I would name here everyone, then there would be no space on internet left.

Anyway, Happy New Year to all of you. Let our blogs grow, let our bank accounts grow, and let’s share more !

HAPPY 2009 !

Hi, my name is Chris. And I am addicted to stats. I have been using excessive doses of stats ever since I have been making money online.

Today I turned on my laptop, I opened FireFox internet browser. And just without any thinking I automatically entered address  - http://www.StatCounter.com . Yes, I have a problem.

This is what I discovered, my FireFox browser shows my most visited sites when I click on the address bar. And there it was - StatCounter. This made me thinking - How much of productivity I have spent looking at beautiful charts, graphs and diagrams.

I knew that I have been looking at stats quite a lot, yet never realized how much time I have spent doing it. I calculated that approximately I spend 20 minutes each day looking at stats. That’s 1 hour in 3 days, or about 10 hours/month.

Now I realize that how much time I have spent doing it. If I would spend only 20 minutes/week looking at stats, which should be quite enough then I wonder how much traffic I could drive to my websites and offers if I would spend the rest of the time writing articles, this would also mean more sales and that would result in more money at the end of the day.

The reason why I spend so much time checking stats.

The reason ? It’s quite simple - it is easy and fast. I am using StatCounter for fast traffic measurements. I mean it is fast, I just enter the URL in the address bar, I automatically login, and I can have a quick overview of my stats. The same is with Pepperjam network or with other “in house” affiliate programs. The reason why I spend so much time to look at these stats is that it is easy and fast to do so. I only check Google Analytics like 1 time per week, because it is little bit more time consuming to check those stats just for quick overview. I have to login my Google Account, click on Analytics, Select the website which I want to view, and only then I receive the report. This is what’s killing my time I suspect - the easiness of stat checking.

This got me thinking - Maybe I should start some “anonymous stat addicts” group ? A new niche

What about you ? Do you also spend a big chunk of your time looking at those stats ?

I think that I don’t need to tell you who Yaro Starak is. If you have been in the blogging niche, then you have heard about Yaro Starak and his great guides how to make money online with blogging.

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that Yaro and teaming up with Gideon Shalwick has released a new free report and 10 new free videos about improving your blogging skills and make more money online !

I just finished watching the videos and reading the report, I must say wow, Yaro has did it again :). Anyway, if you want to check out the free videos and the report visit - http://www.BecomeABlogger.com

Maybe you have spotted, maybe not, but I am running few BidVertiser ad blocks now for almost 2 weeks.  I put them in few of my posts to see how well it works, guess what - for me they have failed seriously.

1st Problem - I don’t know if you see the same, because maybe it’s IP related, but I set up my ad blocks like AdSense ad blocks. The design, looks, everything is like AdSense ad blocks, but guess what, at least what I see now that the “traditional” Pay Per Click ad blocks have turned into flashing ad blocks that you mostly see on ringtone websites. Now WTF does that mean ? I set up my ad blocks to look like standard Google AdSense blocks, but it somehow changed it to a spammy/flashy ad block which is offering Britney Spears ringtones, what the hell ? It changed by itself, even if I login to my Control Panel at BidVertiser.com and I change the size and colors of the ads, still they look like flashy/spammy CPM/CPA ad block that is advertising Britney Spears song “Womanizer”, tell me, are those relevant ads to my content ?

2nd Problem - Before joining BidVertiser I knew that there won’t be so much ads to show like for Google AdSense, because AdSense has much more advertisers advertising on it. But I thought that the MMO/IM/Blogging niche is so big that at least this niche is going to have enough ads to show on my blog - I was wrong. Now tell me, if even such a crowded/popular niche like MMO niche doesn’t have almost any ads to show, which niche has it then ? My only guess - loans and weight loss. I am really pissed off, because those ads are just making my blog to look like a spammy ringtone site that is offering ringtones, I mean what does B. Spears has to do with making money online and internet marketing  ? You tell me…

And of course due to that there are no relevant ads to show on my blog, I have had now like 1400 impressions and 0 clicks. Really, I didn’t think that BidVertiser is going to be that bad for me. Maybe for some people it works, but definitely not for me.

Have you had any experience, or you can recommend me some other PPC program such as BidVertiser or Google AdSense ? The reason why I don’t use AdSense on my blog (only few posts) is that it really takes a lot of time for the check to travel to my place, and cash it in a bank, so I prefer networks that use PayPal as payout method.

Share your experience with other ad networks, I would like to know your opinion