Being in the web hosting & domain name registration industry, I have been asked this many times over by people from various backgrounds - novice bloggers to seasoned experts. Not because its my business, but due to many good reasons I recommend it. The most prominent advantage & reasons being the following which I will elaborate upon in my later posts:

• It gives you your own identity.
• You are not on the mercy of the blogs provider and fear of getting your blog deleted or suspended because of something you did or didn’t do!
• Having your own independent blog site gives you more options to make money and earn online.
• The best blog software packages are open source and hence free and totally customizable! Your cost towards the same is next to zero.
• The cost involved towards domain name registration and web space is very less, that too can be recovered within a month or two by a basic blogger! (PS: Ask me for all such requirement you have!)
• You have the freedom to add a forum, shopping cart, create a community or do nearly just about anything you can think up from your own domain or blog!
• You can customize just about anything on your blog, the look, feel etc by themes & plugins, which are available free and again open source for you to modify.
• And finally as Mike put in “if you are actively working to get back links (and you should be) you will want those to go to a domain that you control. If you create a high PR site you have an asset you can sell.”
• A few more advantages, I cant think of now as I have started sneezing due to dust allergy!

Well, anyways if you get more advantages on having your own blog to add please feel free to put it in the comments for the community. Questions and controversies are welcome too!

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Patient: Doctor, I have an ear ache. 2000 BC: Here, eat this root.

1000 AD: That root is heathen, say this prayer
1850 AD: That prayer is superstition, drink this potion.
1940 AD: That potion is snake oil, swallow this pill.
1985 AD: That pill is ineffective, take this antibiotic.
2000 AD: That antibiotic is artificial, here eat this root!

This is one of the first witty & humorous things I found on herbal products. Please feel free to add more from the comments!

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Not long ago, a lot of businesses would think a zillion times before plunging in to an ad campaign. The choices were very few and costs were very prohibitive. After the dot com bubble burst, a lot of sensibilities have crawled in to the online world. Companies such as Google, Yahoo, Discount click etc are offering good & affordable deals to the advertiser.

Discount click for example deals in Search engine marketing, Link management and Banner ad serving; all of which are pretty important for any advertiser. One needs to explore newer and customer friendly service providers rather than blindly go in for the most popular services. Any ad campaign done with due diligence is bound to bring good results.

Do let me know if you have had good or bad experiences with smaller players in the market; for sometimes David can outdo Goliath!

• This is a sponsored article.

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Here’s good news for all bloggers and webmasters! DclickAds an internet advertising services agency is all set to woo you with their Advertiser and Webmaster programs. Publishers are free to set their own rates for ads on their sites. As per DclickAds website “What sets dclickads apart from other forms of internet advertising services are 3 distinct features: Any Ad Types, DirectLink Technology, SmartCache XML Distribution.”

As an advertiser one gets to choose on which site or category they want to advertise. Click frauds can be eliminated by purchasing weekly or monthly ads! The advertiser has full control on the setup of ads be it banners, text links or the highly targeted embedded text advertising.

Publishers visit here. Advertisers visit here.

• This is a sponsored review.

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When I started www.sharmasblog.com, there were a lot of things going on in my mind. What to write? When to write?! et all. As I write this tenth blog post, I am encouraged by a few things:

• A small amount of money I made!
• I finally got something creative to do apart from my business!
• Got an informal place to catch up with my customers and friends.
• I get to help people to make money online, genuinely.
• Interact with a band of bloggers and be called one!

There are a lot more advantages I find out of blogging, but I wouldn’t want to pump all of them here in one go and take a toll on your patience! In fact I am planning to go full steam with what I intended to do part-time. Me thinks I should start a section on the city I live & love - Bangalore! Also in the pipeline is a section of forwarded mails and SMS! Generally, they are an annoyance, but some of them are really good, encouraging or just entertaining!

Cheers!
Vikas Sharma

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Hi all,

This one is interesting! I had though, it would take a while to make some money out of my blog, but as luck would have it; here is my first earning report… exactly 10 days after my site was launched! I am writing this to show that serious work does pay - sooner or later.

Money earned online since 10 days of launch: USD 10.14
Cumulative amount earned by sharmasblog.com : USD 10.14

I have not yet optimized my site for ads! Will do it soon. My best advice at this time to anyone is to keep the focus on good original content. I will try to update more about my blog’s earnings every month. Any suggestions?

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• Courage doesn’t always roar; Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying…
  “I will try again tomorrow“

I liked the above quote put up by my friend Karthik A on his blog. But both of us do not know the person who said it! If you know it, please put it in the comments. Thanks!

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Click here to Make Money with Text Link Ads Now!

Yes! You can Publish Text Link Ads and make money off your website!! I do and I will let you know the figures and more tips on optimization soon. Keep in touch!

1. Submit your site to be approved into the publisher program.

2. Insert the ad code provided on your website. You need not be a web programmer for this!

3. TLA sells Text Link Ads off your website that look like the ones here under the ‘Good Links’ section on your rignt.

4. YOU can choose to approve or deny any Text Link Ads sold prior to the links being published on your website. This ensures that only quality and relevant links appear on your website.

5. You make money. Sales, invoicing, and customer service are all handled by TLA. You can receive payment via check or PayPal. Payments are sent to publishers the first of every month with a $25 minimum payout.

More Information

• You receive 50% of the sale price for each text link ad sold off your website through the TLA system.

• The ad serving technology currently supports websites that use server-side processing. This includes any site that uses PHP, ASP, PERL, Ruby on Rails, etc. Most forum and blog software packages are compatible with the technology.

• YES, you can display Text Link Ads on the same page with Google AdSense, Yahoo! Publisher Network, and other contextually served ads. The Text Link Ads product is not a pay per click or contextually served ad system.

Sign Up To Publish Text Link Ads

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Dr. Subha, a fellow ‘orkut-tan ‘ happened to ask me about the Ayurveda companies listed on our site. The conversation may be useful to a lot more people. Here it is:

Subha:
Hi Vikas, thanks for your reply. I browsed both the web sites. I feel you should get the medicine list of some more standard companies also, like AVP, Coibatore and Kotakkal Arya Vaidya Sala, SNA Oushadhasala, Vaidyaratnam Oushadhashala, etc. These are some companies whose medicines are really excellent and have their own standards and patent preparations also.

My Reply:

Dear Subha,
Thanks for the genuine concern about Ayurveda companies. You will be happy to note that we have invited over 200 such firms to join hands with us including the firms mentioned by you! But as you can understand, we can put up only those companies which have responded to us! In fact there is no charges for listing and sales of any GMP certified company’s products on our site; still the response is slow. I personally attribute it to the lack of ‘technology awareness’ in this industry! Anyway do re-send regular invitations to the firms and some of them respond late. Once they do, you will surely find them on our site!

For the commercial aspects of our business, we need Ayurveda companies to respond and for the non-commercial and seva aspects of our business we need the support of Ayurveda doctors and the public to stand by us!

regards,
Vikas Sharma

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Can you imagine getting paid to receive sms on you mobile in India?! Yes, it is possible now from a company called mGinger.com Check it out!

• Earn money for reading ads on your mobile
• Get SMS ads of only those products that you want to buy
• Get ads at your convenience
• Save money through discount coupons and offers
• Earn much more money by inviting family and friends
• Get 20 paisa for every ad you receive
• Get 10 paisa for every ad your friends receive
• Get 5 paisa for every ad your friend’s friends receive
• Accumulate Rs.300 & receive a cheque

Check it out and Join Now!

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