Goodbye 2010 Goodbye Blogger

The year would be over in a few hours from now. It's always good to look back and reset our inner compass.

Though I was aware about blogging, it was through my eldest niece, about 2 1/2 years back, that I learnt about the possibility of making money through blogging.

I didn't have the knowhow and the resources at that point in time to get my own hosting and domain names.

Then a colleague told me about affiliate marketing. Finally, with my brother's help I was able to purchase hosting space and domain names in the January of this year. Been working full time trying to milk $$$ from the net for the last 11 months.

I realized posting on blogger was a distraction. Usually I jumble things up. I started blogging to make money but really wanted to post about my state in India - Uttarakhand. Long story. Search Engines like blogs and sites focused on a particular topic.

Have to tie up the loose ends and refocus my attempts on making a living writing on the internet. Thanx a lot to all the visitors.

Have a Fantastic 2011

Pen on Paper

I love colours. Though I am not a good painter - I like symmetry. There was a black out last night and didn't feel like sleeping. Created a random design. Hope you will like it.

Blog Post Ideas for 2011

I got this brilliant idea from Cranial Soup, who got it from Chris Whitely.

If you are a blogger in one of these niches, but struggling to come up with ideas for new blog posts - you may find these resources handy.

As April Russo wrote in her blog - "Don’t copy them word for word, just use them as your springboard to get you started".

Google to Buy Groupon for $ 6 Billion

According to Bloomberg - Google is about to acquire Groupon for $ 6 Billion.

This would be Google's biggest acquisition so far. According to the story, Google is under pressure to diversify because of Facebook's growing prominence.

Having worked as an affiliate with both Google Affiliate Network , erstwhile DoubleClick Inc. and Google's biggest acquisition so far @ $3.2 billion - and Groupon, I can say that big is not always beautiful.

Though GAN has lots of Merchant's the interface isn't the most intuitive and IIRC last month there was a tracking issue with Sears and Kmart links. I joined Groupon sometime back and wasn't really impressed. Maybe they are stretched for resources and looking for funding as they try and expand.

Groupon's performance has been impressive but according to experts - the model can be easily copied and Google's bid is over priced.

There are lots of discount coupon sites in India, though the market is in a nascent stage. Also saw a news story which said Chinese search giant baidu has launched it's own discount code site.

It would be interesting to watch the developments in this corner of the internet.

Related Posts :
Pfizer to Buy King Pharmaceuticals for $3.6 Billion : 12.10.2010
Centralization Vs Decentralization Context Innovation : 22.03.2009