TheAnand

I think I just got over the writers block last week and I think I have some 10 posts in future timestamp for this month already. I have not been posting regularly since the start of last month. But all that is set to change this month. I am planning on some really solid posts and some of them are already in schedule.

The contest finally came to an end last week and I am putting up the winners and their winnings here. If you have been selected as one, get in touch at Yahoo! or Gtalk IM or use the contact form to claim the same. First, here are the participants.

• John
• Shypy
• Aravind
• Sreehari
• Tito
• Haroon
• Meldweny
• Bob
• Shareng

I had assigned each of you a number and used  the randomizer and (drumroll please)…the winners are:

Shypy – Gets the first domain Entersurf.info

Haroon Hameed – Gets the Freedombabe.info

With my own blogging celebrations coming to an end today by 18:00 Indian time, I was back to thinking about how contests can help gain more traffic to our blogs. I know at least 10 bloggers who usually put up contests on their sites and giveaways to make their blogging community active and interesting. But do you think its a viable means of increasing traffic over the long term? I would really appreciate your comments on this.

Sometime back I had done a small un-comprehensive case study on how blogging contests affect traffic metrics on blogs. But then this contest was not meant to be a traffic puller, but was in essence to celebrate nothing, yet something

Today I am in a mood of giving something back to the community. Today, I am celebrating the birthday of someone special with you my readers! For all you out there this is a small contest where you can win a few stuff and wish Happy Birthday to someone very special.

What is on the winnings table?

1. 2 Free domains – EnterSurf.info and Freedombabe.info
2. SEO consultation for your site – 2 hours.
3. 2 months of free link on my blogroll.

What are the advertising offers?

• 15% off on any advertising on my site. Check the advertising page for more information

As TheAnand.com matures with time, I think its time for a redesign again. Initially this blog used a free theme, then I got around making 2 custom themes myself and now I am in the process of getting a professional theme done.

As per the team behind the redesign, it should be up in another 3 days or so.. The main ideas behind the new design are better readability and professional looks and more nifty features. I designed the theme myself and it is being coded by pros now.

I was thinking of making this into a video of sorts, but my stupid digicam is on a riot since my vacation in August. So people, I am announcing the winner of my contest – Smilu!!! Consider yourself lucky to win this prize since it will just help you get out of that blogspot domain and host it independently. I picked this blog from a random number of the entrants. Smilu, I have sent you a mail now, please respond by tommorow otherwise the prize gets rolled over

I was thinking on the lines of a competition for my new top secret project: Shymz which led me to look around for fresh ideas. I found that a lot of sites are running new competitions for various prizes and stuff to be won.

With blog contests becoming a rage all over the blogosphere, I was wondering if it will help you in anyway to increase your statistics online.

By stats, I mainly refer to:

• Google PageRank
• Alexa Rankings
• Technorati

I am announcing the end of my $27.93 cash giveaway today. The response was pretty good and some more entries are in. I wanted to give everyone a fair chance before I closed this contest.

Also my server troubles meant that I could not give the needed attention to this contest. Nevertheless, the contest closes on 31st of August. The winner will be chosen randomly from the entries to win the $27.93. Here are the recent entries that I got:

ThePinkc.net entered the contest and has some nice information on reading skills which I enjoyed reading. I used to read a lot, but not much these days.

The promotion is going strong and as I promised, here are the first set of participants for the contest. If you are unaware, TheAnand is giving away $27.93 in a linkback contest. Besides the chance to win, you get a free from my blog too. Though the PR is not very decent, but the other rankings are good So people, keep them coming! and others, drop by these blogs and who knows what you will find?

• Jaxim has a blog which notes all the contest from blogosphere. It is a good resource for all those people who are looking for cool contests to enter! The latest one to include is a $2500 prize money!

Recently I won a contest from a fellow blogger Andreas Bard in a contest hosted by him. I promised to give away the prize money to another blogger in a contest. I won $30 cash from him, but due to credit card payment, paypal took a commision off it. So I am giving away 27.93, what I got from Andreas.

The rules are simple since the prize is not something to write home about. To enter the contest make a post about this blog linking to a inner post tell everyone about the contest and where the money came from. Here is a sample.

Going from $70.94 in April through $194 in May to the end of yet another month – June. Its really a learning experience, trying to make money, spending some and making some more. I was debating on whether to publish my earnings this month since I am supposed to take the focus of making money online from this blog, but for now, I will continue publishing my earnings till I think up of something else.

So what is the current standing of this blog monetarily? The June Earnings, ladies and gentlemen *Drumroll Please*

Adsense: $5.01

Sponsored/Paid Post: $268.85

MsDanielle, Can I have the Zune? Please..

I have been planning this post for some time now, but since I did not want to rush the post since I really want to win that Zune. So, Whats this whole Zune thingy? Read on.

Once upon a time….na, sounds boring I have no idea how many times I have been pressing the backspace to write this review of Ms. Danielle’s Blog, which is now officially 3 months old. The pink blog site has had some terrific graphs of improvement in terms of ranking. Its in no other way but up! I don’t remember from where I got to her blog, but after digging through the blog for a while, it got into my picky RSS reader.