Some bloggers make the mistake of wanting to make money much too early in their blogging career.  As a result, no one wants to read their blogs because they are just filled with money making advertisements.  Take time to grow the content of your blog with useful information, humurous anecdotes, entertaining trivia, videos, music, what have you.  Find your voice before you plunge into making money.  It will probably only take a few months and you will have a much more solid blog, with a real following and the money will come for a much longer time than a hit and miss blog.

If your intention is just to let your family and friends read your blog, then you probably wouldn’t be reading this. Yes, we can read your mind. Great minds, think alike after all. Seriously though, if you’re a blogger who wants his or her voice heard, don’t expect people to just flock to your blog without any work. Joining social networks is essential to get more traffic for your blog.

Here are some networks you definitely should join:

1. Pinoy Wordpress- “if you’re a Filipino and own a Wordpress blog… SALI NA!” is the battlecry of this site.  There are less than 1,000 members right now but its sure to grow.
   
2. StumbleUpon – if your post gets picked up by the uber stumblers, your server will crash from the deluge of people stumbling onto your site. It is important to tag correctly and not to just stumble a handful of sites (like yours and your friends). As your stumbles get stumbled, your status also moves up as a stumbler and will get more notice.
3. Reddit – post your articles and get rewarded for quality content.
4. Digg – don’t digg your own posts or you’ll get banned. If people dig it, more will come.
5. ShoutWire – post worthy articles and watch the traffic come.
6. MyBlogLog- a community of bloggers where you need to work to create a network. The time invested is a lot more but is less of a crapshoot than digg, reddit, and stumbleupon.
7. Blogcatalog- similar to mybloglog, only lots better. Suggest you join both.
8. Entrecard- you sign up to get a virtual business card which you can then drop on other people’s blogs (who also have EC). In turn, they will also drop their cards on your blog. All this dropping equals EC credits which you can then use to advertise on participating blogs.
9. OnlyWire – a great all in one service that allows you to add 15 different social networks into 1 ID. What a great time saver!

IMPORTANT WARNING:

REMEMBER, social networks were designed so that users can share blogs or specific posts they like with each other. If you spam a network with your own posts, or often post unrelated content, your blog will end up getting blacklisted. So DON’T think short-term, make a quick buck without having to work for it type of thing which is what most people will do. Think long term gains and really establishing your blog for residual earnings well into the future. Contribute not only your own posts but also other blogs related to your niche that are meaningful for the whole world.

According to Wikipedia.org; New media is a convergence of previously separate media- such as photos, text, audio and video. ‘The idea of ‘new media’ captures both the development of unique forms of digital media, and the remaking of more traditional media forms to adopt and adapt to the new media technologies.’

Introduction

Until the 1980s media relied primarily upon print and analog broadcast models, such as those of television and radio. The last twenty-five years have seen the rapid transformation into media which are predicated upon the use of digital computers, such as the Internet and computer games. However, these examples are only a small representation of new media. The use of digital computers has transformed the remaining ‘old’ media, as suggested by the advent of digital television and online publications. Even traditional media forms such as the printing press have been transformed through the application of technologies such as image manipulation software like Adobe Photoshop and desktop publishing tools…more

Traditional Media Effectiveness

Conventional marketing methods; ad campaign, media mix, sales messages, sales aids and brochures … all these are the various methods to get information across to the potential customers trhough traditional media, TV advertisements, magazines, broadcast and print ads but how what’s next after all these information gathering?

They need confirmation and verification.

Confirmation from independent sources that the claims are valid. Verification that the product will do the job it promises to do in their particular situation. And where else can they get all these to move them to the buying stage? Through someone that they trust with Word of Mouth to assure them that it is the right choice.

Statistics

- Nearly half of those online in Asia Pacific region have a blog
- 74% find blogs by friends and family to be most interesting
- Young people and women dominate
- 50% believe blog content to be as trustworthy as traditional media
- 41% spend more than three hours a week blogging