Tolanic's Personal Blog

Number of Buffered Earnings vs CTR

tolanic — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 15:53:48 +0000

After few years blogging with Nuffnang, finally I break the highest personal record and right now my blog is currently running 9 campaigns (buffered earnings).

Sometimes I was wondering what’s the point to have so many campaigns running but the Click-through Ratio (CTR) is still below the average industry standard which is less than 0.2%. Many unique visitors visit my blog every day. At least half of them are from Malaysia.

Lately, there are a few bloggers show their ‘buffered earnings’ in their blogs. Most of them earn a high CTR in every campaign. Normally 1% and above. One of the bloggers (Hildamilda25) that I know can earn her CTR up to 7.14%. That is totally fantastic. For sure she earned a lot of income too. How she and other bloggers can get a high CTR? Why I cannot? What is their secret? What about you? Do you mind to share the secret?

Top keywords from November 5 till November 13.

Most of the visitors are from Malaysia.

My iPhone4

tolanic — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 02:51:08 +0000

Finally, I got an iPhone4 on the second day after it first launched in Malaysia. I have waited about 8 hours to get the phone at Maxis Sunway Pyramid. That was crazy. The process is a bit complicated. There are 5 steps before I can officially get the phone.

Frankly speaking I prefer to get the iPhone4 without contract but I got no other choice. I have to subscribe their plan. I chose Maxis because DiGi only offer 24-month contract. Even though I still prefer DiGi line than Maxis but I have to sacrifice it because I want to settle the contract as soon as possible. The best solution now is Maxis because they offer 12-month contract. I took the iValue1 iPhone4 32GB plan. For this plan, I paid RM1990 for the phone and RM200 for prepayment of monthly fee. The total is RM2190. The monthly fee for this plan is RM100. The grand total for the whole 12 months contract is RM1990 + (RM100 * 12 months) = RM3190.

Not much review I can write regarding the iPhone4 because I am not a gadget reviewer. Based on my first impression, the box looks very cheap. The manual too! I also need to change the normal SIM card to Micro SIM card. Very hard for me to swap with other SIM cards after this. The only major thing I dislike about touchscreen phone is the keyboard. It is very tiring to type the SMS and also chatting on MSN. It is also not suitable for those who have big fingers. Overall, I love this phone. It suits all my need.

Chinese Domain Name Scam

tolanic — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 06:48:38 +0000

A Chinese IT company from China was trying to steal your domain name. Beware! Lately, I received an email from a Network Service Company from China regarding Tolanic. Tolanic is a unique name. I am truly sure this name founded by me. As a sole owner of this name, I feel sad when someone try to steal and use it as their trademark. It is like trying to steal my intellectual property.

Tolanic is my nickname for more than 15 years. I have built this brand name as a dotcom for at least 5 years. I have put a lot of efforts to build the brand name and reputation. Nowadays my website can easily found on popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo. If they successfully steal this name, it might confuse my readers and also my clients.

After I did some research about YG-Networks the whole night, I found out this company is a scammer. I was not the only victim of this case. Based on the email (please refer the screenshot), the sender was from “ygnetworks.org” where this domain name is not exist. The date written is also in the wrong format. She wrote “August, 24th, 2010” where the correct format is “August 24, 2010”. There are also several mistakes can be found in this email such as there is no space after the dot in the end of sentence. Asia was written in full capital letters and no capital letter for China. In their website (yg-networks.com), there are a duplicated address between Beijing branch and Hong Kong branch at Contact Us page. These prove they are not serious in this business. If it happens to you, you could just ignore the email.

The Alexa Rank for their official website is far away lower than my website. My secondary website is also better than them. That’s a big shame especially for an internet consulting company.

Duplicated address in Contact Us page.

YG-Networks Official Website.

The new theme for my travel blog

tolanic — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:47:59 +0000

Tolanic’s Travel Blog has a new layout design. The theme color for my travel blog is blue because this is my favorite color. I chose the light blue to make the blog look neat and relaxing. At the same time it will reduce the distraction when reading the contents. I love simple. That’s why I didn’t put too much fancy things.

All the things in my design have meanings. I put the buildings to portray the writer loves traveling around the world. The aircraft is a symbol of my passion. The clouds are the symbol of freedom. I am still thinking where to put the rainbow.

I have spent up to 4 hours to finish up the new theme. I start it from the scratch.

The new look of Tolanic’s Travel Blog.

The old design.

I have designed it using Adobe Photoshop.

And code it using Adobe Dreamweaver.

What do you think about the new design? Is it better than the old one? If you have any comment, do not hesitate to leave a comment. =)

Feed Reader

tolanic — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 03:48:46 +0000

As you all know Alexa Rank of my blog is improving drastically and the traffic is getting higher. Currently I am adding people’s blogs into my Feed Reader. For those who are interested in link exchange. Do not hesitate to contact me. My Feed Reader has three categories which are Travel Blog, Personal Blog and Other. So, don’t forget to tell me which category are you in.

Link exchange is very important to those who are serious in improving their Alexa Rank.

Grab the opportunity and your blog will be listed in my Feed Reader which is automatically will help to increase traffic to your blog too!

http://links.tolanic.com

This is how I going to spend RM1000 monthly income from Nuffnang

tolanic — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 16:42:06 +0000

Every bloggers have goal including me. Goal can be many ways, from traffic to money. Some people don’t mind about money. That’s why they didn’t put any ads. Most of Malaysian bloggers out there put Nuffnang ads in their blogs because they want to earn side income while they blogging. Earning at least few hundred from Nuffnang is very important especially those who have their own domain name and webhosting. It is to make sure the blog stay online. For my case, I need at least RM455 yearly to breakeven. In business world, if the income is below than the cost, we call it as making loss. No one wants to make loss. Every bloggers want to make profits from their blogs. Setting a goal is very important to give motivation. We will work extra hard when we have motivation. It is okay if you having a big dream as your goal even though it hard to reach. Anything is possible if you believe it.

This is how I going to spend RM1000 monthly income from Nuffnang.

My goal is to earn at least RM1000 per month from Nuffnang on next year. Yes, some people might think that I have a big dream. Don’t worry. I’m cool with that. I believe my dream can become reality. I have target why I need to earn that amount. It is to fund my further studies. To go for further studies is my dream since I was little. I already have few sources of income, but I really hope with this income it can reduce the burden while I am doing my studies. I already have a few strategies to improve my travel blog to become one of the top travel blogs in the world.

Not many working adults choose further studies because the main reason is they have commitment. I also have a lot of commitments too. It is not easy to stop working to continue full-time studies. When stop working means no income. Without income, I don’t think can survive in this modern world. That is why I need to have a stable passive income. Sorry, please don’t offer me MLM. It is not my cup of tea.

Making a critical decision is very important if you want to continue your studies. It is very risky and cannot guarantee for a better future. If you dare to take the risk, don’t need to think twice. Just go. You won’t regret. It might be a different story if you are really rich.

So, how about you? What’s your goal? And what is your plan to do with your income from Nuffnang?

Why TOLANIC is one of the top travel blogs?

tolanic — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:29:06 +0000

TOLANIC.com is a travel blog based on my experience traveling around the globe. I am a young traveler from Malaysia. My main objective having this blog is to share the information about the places that I have visited as much as possible to help the travelers to do some research before traveling. Do not hesitate to leave a comment if you have any question regarding the place I have visited. I am glad to help my readers as much as I can.

Why TOLANIC is one of the top travel blogs?
Ever since the travel blog was born on November 24, 2007, it is already attract a lot of visitors from different countries. Mostly are from Malaysia, Singapore, United States, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Philippines. From the Google Analytics report on June-July 2010, 41.06% of the unique visitors came from popular Search Engines such as Google and Yahoo. Referring Sites took the second place about 39.35% and the last one goes to Direct Traffic 19.54%. This blog can easily be found in popular search engines with popular keywords especially related with travel.

The current Alexa Rank is 592,449 on July 18, 2010. It increased about 1,007,551 from 1,600,000 (June 18, 2010) in a month. The rank is getting higher drastically from day to day. The lower the number the higher the rank is.

Why advertisers should choose this blog?
TOLANIC’s Travel Blog can easily be found in popular search engines with popular keywords especially related with travel. This will added an advantage to market your product. This blog is very suitable for small-medium enterprise and big company to advertise their products and services because most of the readers are travelers who are also big spenders.

* Competitiveness rate of keyword depend on the total results.

TRIP MEDINA

Keyword: trip medina
Rank: 1 from 9,140,000 results
Page: 1
Search Engine: Yahoo
Link: Travel Blog

OCEAN PARK BLOG

Keyword: ocean park blog
Rank: 1 from 6,440,000 results
Page: 1
Search Engine: Google
Link: Travel Blog

HONG KONG TRAVEL BLOG

Keyword: hong kong travel blog
Rank: 12 from 59,500,000 results
Page: 2
Search Engine: Google
Link: Travel Blog

UMRAH MEDINA

Keyword: umrah medina
Rank: 1 from 390,000 results
Page: 1
Search Engine: Yahoo
Link: Travel Blog

LONDON BAYSWATER

Keyword: london bayswater
Rank: 46 from 1,530,000 results
Page: 4
Search Engine: Google
Link: Travel Blog

BANDUNG SHOPPING

Keyword: bandung shopping
Rank: 17 from 591,000 results
Page: 2
Search Engine: Google
Link: Travel Blog

MALACCA TRAVEL BLOG

Keyword: malacca travel blog
Rank: 13 from 259,000 results
Page: 2
Search Engine: Google
Link: Travel Blog

PENANG WAR MUSEUM BLOG

Keyword: penang war museum blog
Rank: 1 from 15,800 results
Page: 1
Search Engine: Google
Link: Travel Blog

ETIHAD KLIA HEATHROW

Keyword: etihad klia heathrow
Rank: 4 from 10,700 results
Page: 1
Search Engine: Google
Link: Travel Blog

ETIHAD KLIA LONDON

Keyword: etihad klia london
Rank: 2 from 31,300 results
Page: 1
Search Engine: Google
Link: Travel Blog

HONG KONG STANLEY

Keyword: hong kong stanley
Rank: 14 from 3,700,000 results
Page: 2
Search Engine: Google
Link: Travel Blog

ADU DHABI TRAVEL BLOG

Keyword: abu dhabi travel blog
Rank: 10 from 284,000 results
Page: 1
Search Engine: Google
Link: Travel Blog

SENTOSA ISLAND BLOG

Keyword: sentosa island blog
Rank: 4 from 177,000 results
Page: 1
Search Engine: Google
Link: Travel Blog

TANGKUBAN PERAHU

Keyword: tangkuban perahu
Rank: 12 from 153,000 results
Page: 2
Search Engine: Yahoo
Link: Travel Blog

TRIP UMRAH

Keyword: trip umrah
Rank: 10 from 580,000 results
Page: 1
Search Engine: Yahoo
Link: Travel Blog

SENTOSA ISLAND TRAVEL BLOG

Keyword: sentosa island travel blog
Rank: 6 from 660,006 results
Page: 1
Search Engine: Yahoo
Link: Travel Blog

NUFFNANG

SEO is one of main reasons on how I can get 6 buffered campaigns. If you want to know more on how I did it, do not forget to frequently follow my blog to catch the update.

[Visual Effects Tutorial] How to add 3D Objects into Still Image

tolanic — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:38:46 +0000

In this visual effects tutorial, I will guide you on how to add 3D objects into still image.

Software:
1. Adobe Photoshop
2. Maya

Original Image

Step 1

Firstly, you need to create a new Scene in Maya. After you have done the first step, please select the Perspective Viewport as your primary workplace. Then, assign the image (original) to the Perspective Camera Image Plane. Then you need to play around with the camera Focal Length, Translate and Rotate until the grid perspective is blend to the image. Don’t forget to lock it after that to avoid accidentally adjust the camera angle.

Step 2

After you have done the Step 1, you can put the 3D objects that you have modeled previously into the workspace. The arrangement of the objects is depend on your own creativity. After you have rendered, you can save the image as PSD, PNG or GIF (anything that have Alpha channel).

Step 3

Then switch on the Photoshop to do some editing.

Step 4

This is the rendered image that have you done in Step 2. This image is going to combine with the original image. So, you need to open this rendered image in Photoshop.

Step 5

The result looks a bit unrealistic after the combination between 3D objects and original image. It’s due to the 3D objects look very perfect. To fix this, you need to put some shadow. To add some shadow, you can use Burn or Paint tools. Then, you can use the Blur tool to add some depth of field mood to show the perspective.

Result

The final result after have done some touch up. How is it? Easy? I believe you can do much better than this. So, what are you waiting for? Go give a try now! Good luck!

Thanks for reading my simple tutorial. If you got any question, do not hesitate to ask in here. I am happy to guide you.

Are you making the right choice by choosing Advertlets?

tolanic — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:33:47 +0000

Planning to migrate to Advertlets? Are you sure they are reliable?

Who are they?
First of all, Advertlets Sdn Bhd (774851-T) is a Malaysian small private limited company specializing in blog advertising network. They are focusing in Malaysia and Singapore. This company was founded by J L. Their office located at ….? Aha, do you know the address? Where to find the address? Anyone know? Can you find it? Of course you can’t. You cannot find the office address in their official website and even at the brochures for the advertisers. This is clearly stated how unreliable this company is. Why you are so scared to put the office address if you are honest in doing the business? For those who still cannot find their office, I will give you a clue. Their office is located somewhere in Plaza Damas.

What is Advertlets?
Advertlets is a platform for bloggers to earn money from their blogs. Advertlets act as a middleman between bloggers and advertisers. They will pay bloggers based on impressions (CPM). They charge about RM15 / 1000 impressions for image banner ads (CPM) to the advertisers.

What is their history?
On early 2008, this IT-related company created panic among bloggers because Mr. J forgot to renew the domain name. Many of bloggers including me have removed the ads since then. They also failed to make the bloggers HAPPY because the support team was extremely poor. Most of the bloggers until now still haven’t received the payments. Don’t forget bloggers are clients too. The key success to any business is maintaining a good relationship with clients. If clients are not happy, highly chance you might failed the business. As a blogger, we are deserved to get the payments because you have already put your ads at our blogs.

The amount I was going to cashout.

Confirmation window pop up after I clicked submit.

After cashout.

Check the date I took the screenshot.

A year later, the status is still processing.

The earning power is ONLY nice to see.

I joined Advertlets on November 2007! This screenshot was taken before I requested for cashout.

This page is coming soon since 2007?

Almost 3 years this page is still under construction.

After few months I kept sending emails to them, finally they replied. A hope?

No, it was just a false hope. This is the last email from them. After that, no more update already until today.

As a conclusion, I hope my readers don’t get cheated by them. Anyway, it’s up to you to decide. Good luck and happy blogging!

* To Mr. J, I think you are not suitable to hold the entrepreneur title. Maybe you are more suitable to work under people as an employee.

Manchester United vs Malaysia XI (2-0)

tolanic — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:24:03 +0000

Last night my brother, cousins and I went to Bukit Jalil Stadium to watch the football match between Malaysia XI and Manchester United. We bought the ticket at the Green Gate about RM58 each. It’s can consider quite cheap if compare to the first game on last Saturday evening. The spectator on second game is less than the first game. Roughly is about 40, 000 fans. Maybe it was due to this game was held on weekday which is on Monday. Working day for sure! I’m a bit disappointed to Malaysian team. I don’t mind weither we lose or not. As long we can score one goal should be more than enough for me. I do feel the Saturday’s is game much better than this. Overall, I see a lot of improvement on team Malaysia, especially the junior’s line-up. Good game, guys!

*Sorry, the photos are super poor due to I was using a compact camera.

This is me!