Consolidate my blogs or maintain them all

First of all, I have 3 main blogs. Most of you would know that they are....

1. This blog: Parenting Times
2. My personal blog: Mumsgather
3. My exclusive blog for Mothers: Mothering Times

This is my very first blog so its my favourite naturally. However, my personal blog is my personal space so thats also become my favourite blog. The reason why I have 3 blogs and not 1 is for monetary reasons. However, due to the dearth of paid posts, its really not worthwhile to maintain so many blogs, well at least not for me. For those who are very very hardworking, its still worthwhile.

Still, I am too sayang to give up any of the blogs so I'm not sure what to do. This blog is my main Adsense earner. The other two are so minimal I might as well just remove the Adsense. They hardly count. I wonder why. In terms of comments, these days, I appear to be receiving more comments on my personal blog, so comments does not translate to $$$. lol. I believe I have more subsribers to this blog compared to the rest since its my first blog.

In terms of page views, I haven't checked in ages but I checked this morning and saw that this blog averages 250 page views a day, the personal one averages 150 page views a day whereas the Mother's blog averages 100 page views a day. All nothing to shout about. Still its interesting to note that this blog earns 98% of my Adsense income compared to the other two even though the page view is not 98% compared to the others. I still wonder why. I am technologically challenge and I'm too lazy and have no time to dig into the reasons why.

Sometimes I think I should go back to having just one blog but I sayang lah. Haha. So I guess I shall maintain them all for the time being. I don't write duplicate posts on them though some of the contents may overlap a little. So maintaining them still requires some work. Strange isn't it? I have 3 blogs for monetary reasons but now I maintain them for the love of it rather than for money because they don't make money.

Since Adsense is my only income generator these days, I might as well tutup the other two blogs. Previously I wrote more paid posts, several in a day, so one blog is not enough to write them all since we need to have interim posts between the paid ones. But you'll notice that I hardly write any paid posts these days.

I also have different readers for my blogs. Some of the readers from this blog or the Mother's blog don't read my personal blog at all. I'm not sure if they even know it exists. Haha.

What about the rest of you who have several blogs? How do you maintain them all? Tiring or not? ;)

Win a Dot.com blogging contest

As some of you know, I have 3 active blogs. Two of them are hosted on blogger and the other on my own paid hosting. I have been contemplating getting another dot.com because its really more beneficial and valuable than a blog on free hosting.

For those of you who are doing paid blogging or considering paid blogging, you need to go dot.c0m. Advertisers prefer those. Despite this blog having better traffic and stats than my dot.c0m blog, I am constantly getting more orders on the other blog. Dot.com is the way to go forward.

So, when I read that 5xmom is giving away free hosting and free domain names in a blogging contest, I jumped and immediately did an entry. Hahaha. I didn't realise that the contest was for those on free hosting thinking of going dot.com. This blog is on free hosting but I already have one dot.com. So do I qualify? Oops!

Please go to her blog and read up this blog post to find out more about the contest: Go Dot.com contest. - 5xmom is giving away 2 free one-year hostings and 7 domains. Closing date is 10th October, so don't procrastinate.

Since I have done up my "entry" for the contest, I will post it up anyway... whether I qualify or not. You are supposed to write one post of about 200 words on why you think blogging is beneficial. Make sure you read her blog post carefully so you understand the rules and criteria. Happy trying! Good luck!

THE BLOGGER'S POEM

I am a little blogger, only 3 years old
How did I start blogging?
This story must be told
I am here to stay, its not a passing thing

I started blogging in '04 September
Though I didn't know what its about
But then I can still remember
At the baby forum 5xmom gave a shout

To lets have fun blogging together
Now thats when I started having fun
To write about life or just the weather
I knew that the fun had just begun

We left comments on each other's sites
That motivated me to blog even more
I blogged through my days and nites
Now I'm hooked right to the core

Then she told us how to Make$ Money$
Blogging had suddenly taken a new twist
The timing was really uncanny
Blogging had slowed but this I could not resist

So blogging took on a new chapter
As I monetized my blog and learned new tricks
I learned to be an adapter
And so begun my new fix

Soon 5xmom said we should go Dot.com
If we wanted to give our blogs more value
It was as if she had dropped a bomb
It was hard work but then I did pursue

And now just as I am trying hard to slow down
She organised this contest on the benefits of blogging
But even as I begin to frown
My fingers begin typing

So what are the blogging benefits
There are so many I can't write them all
Its not just about traffic and getting hits
Its something that can really enthrall

Blogging is about love, laughter, tears and life
It makes me laugh, cry, rant and smile
To see how freely others share their strife
As they walk down life's mile after mile

It helps me focus and be more positive
About the things I want to achieve
It also helps me become more creative
Writing things down can really be a relieve

Our blogs are our virtual real estate
It grows with maintainance and good content
So how could I resist this free domain bait
I assure you 5xmom, your money will be well spent

I haven't written a poem in a long while but I enjoyed writing that. Hehe.

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This policy is valid from 18 December 2006


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My new "job" is to blog for money!

I've got a new "job" now. My "job" is to blog for money. Its the most flexible "job". I can work as hard or as little as I want and at anytime I choose to. I would definitely recommend it to other SAHMs too. Its legitimate and it pays. I won't need to extend my hand like a little girl anymore to ask hubby for money. Lol!

If you want to know more reasons why I love this new "job" of mine, go to my other blog where I've listed down the top few reasons why other SAHMs should consider becoming WAHMs and start receiving blog money too.

Its very simple. All you have to do is click on the little blue/green referral button on my sidebar which reads "PayPerPost - Get paid to blog about the things you love" and take it from there. BTW, I'll get paid US15.00 once your first blog posting is accepted. Hehe. Well, I thank you in advance but then you will be thanking me later too as you start earning more and more in your pyjamas!

Official opening of my virtual department store - Its not too early to start shopping for Christmas!

I have become a retailer, a virtual one that is. I signed up for the Amazon Associates Program and created an aStore. I had so much fun doing it! Its akin to playing with a SIM computer game. I really had so much fun deciding what to sell on my store. Lol! Building a store is so simple. You can build a store relevant to your site in minutes. You can restock anytime too or add any number of departments that you wish. In other words, you have a lot of control over what is sold on your stores.

I created a store for mothers and then since I believe that there is a vain woman lurking beneath the exterior of every mother, I created another store for women. (Sorry men, I have no idea what to sell in a men's store so this is strictly for women but you can visit this store for ideas on what to get for your partner.) I then added some departments in my virtual store. They are a bookstore and a Christmas Gift store. If I allow myself to be carried away, I'd probably create a children's department and a household department for my store. Lol! It was so much fun. Even if I don't earn money from it, I got a kick playing this "SIM game" and pretending that I'm a store owner.

Feel free to enter my store and browse around. (Christmas is coming. I've got some ideas for christmas gifts in there) Its ok if you don't buy. Lots of people do window shopping at real department stores. (But don't let your boss catch you shopping at work. Lol!) Thank you for shopping and please come again.

Enough of this silliness of pretending to be a department store owner, now on to something more serious. For those interested, the Amazon Associates Program allows you to build several types of links including text links (which is on my sidebar under the heading "New Hot Links". I added the links to the stores I created here as well as direct links to Amazon on items which I felt are relevant to the theme of my site). I also put in a recommended products link which I did on my Mothering Times blog (I recommended parenting books which are relevant to my page. Another reason why I put the recommended products link there and not here is because I didn't want to clutter up this blog. The text link ones are fine for this blog as they are less obstructive or intrusive. However, I felt the other blog needed some colours. Its so dull, all blue blue. Hehe).

So, what do you think of my store?

Adsense

It makes sense to me to participate in the adsense program. Afterall, I'm a professional SAHM whose only source of income is her husbands wallet and so I've got to do what I've got to do..... to earn some extra pocket money! :)

You may notice by now that I've put up ads on my blog. Perhaps it may be an eyesore to regular readers of my blog as it does add clutter to the overall look. (Just pretend you don't see it). I don't know about other behaviours but for me personally, I do not click on ad links in blogs I visit. Why? Because when I go blog hopping, I don't have time to read other links. Theres too much to read and too little time.

However, if I were to surf the net for information, then I do click on ad links to lead me to the info that I want. The ads are meant for those who are searching for relevant info who just so happen to be passing by or who has been led here through search engines. I figured out that it is worthwhile to put up the ads on my potential money generating machine blog rather than to let it sit idly somewhere in cyberspace.

I'm glad I did it. Its fun. Its fun to learn new things and terminology. Its fun to tweak my template to see what style would generate more clicks. And of course its fun to watch my cash register go up! Hahaha. Another statistics to watch apart from my traffic and refferer list. Yup! Its definitely fun! Why don't you try it too?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to check how much I earned today. Ciao!