How does CMF Ads work?

You can see the CMF Ad slots in my sidebar – there are various combinations to choose from, ranging from one Ad spot to a 4 in one block. The Ad widget runs in iframes so as not to slow your page load time.

You set your own price for the cost of advertising on your own site; so there is no being priced out of the market, as with Entrecard. You can change your price to suit your current situation. Ads, which last for a month, are rotating so you can accept multiple ads at a time. I currently have 5 ads running between the two ad spots, at a cost of 3 credits each. If you have more than one blog then you can manage these all from the one account.

Dropping in on other sites is not necessary as you get to know other members through the CMF forums. These have proved to be very friendly and helpful. although I am not surprised considering the bloggers who have spent a great deal of time to set the service up: coming up with the idea to begin with, coding the site, refining and testing it. I was fortunate to have been accepted as a beta tester, although, to my knowledge, everything was running smoothly even at that stage.

The forums, as well as providing help and support on CMF, allow you to join groups to promote your other social networking profiles (Stumbleupon and Twitter so far). A post of the week competition, decided on by a poll of members, allows you to submit your posts to gain some extra recognition. A blog critique forum will give you feedback on your site. The Marketplace section allows you to offer services in exchange for buying an ad on someone’s site or to offer/request guest posts, site design or paid blogging jobs.

CMF Ads Control Panel:

| CP Home | Find Ads | Manage Ads | Ad Stats | Balance | Buy Credits |

Statistics show you the number of page views and how many clicks have been made on the ads on your own site and how many have been produced by your ad on other sites. Individual profile pages show a rank and the number of unique visitors to a site over time. These tools help you to place your ads to the best effect and a categorization system allow you to target your ads to a selected audience.

Who created CMF Ads?

So who are the people behind CMF Ads? – Three bloggers who were heavily involved with Entrecard..

Firstly, Ben Barden, a banana loving, Dr Evil look alike with diabolical vision, who has been an honorary Aussie for the last year or so. We will be sorry to lose you back to England, Ben. He is the author of Ben Barden (not surprisingly), Top Ten Blog Tips, Zen Working and the developer of Injader. If you are not familiar with Injader, it is a CMS system, which provides blogging features like WordPress with the extra CMS features of a Joomla/Drupal type system (without the steep learning curve}.

Joining Ben is turnip and Stan. Turnip of Turnip of Power is a wonderful source of knowledge with tutorials and balanced reviews on blogging, advertising networks and the best social networking practices (he puts the latter into practice well himself too). I did not know Stan until I joined CMF, where is he very helpful in the forums- nothing to do with his blogging ability rather his blog topic Fantasy Baseball – I am not a baseball fan.

Joining Up

If you join up (by registering with the forums) please let me know here – I have some credits available for advertising and if I advertise on your site then you will gain credits yourself.

Out of all the ‘extra curricula’ blogging activities I have participated in, being active in these forums has been the most satisfying and rewarding. It is a true community, where I feel right at home. I know I will always get an answer to any questions I may have because of the wide range of experience and knowledge of the members and their friendly, helpful attitude. This has been a pleasant surprise to me after searches for information have taken me to so many forum messages over the years that have no answers or responses that are downright rude and unhelpful.

Because it is not all serious blogging talk there is an avenue to get to know others better. The general chat forums are always buzzing, the Random Thoughts and How Was Your Day threads being particularly lively. Out of the blogging specific forums Blogging in General, WordPress and Promote Your Blog have attracted the most responses.

A new feature on the Aussie Bloggers site announced today is the “Lazy Bloggers Post Generator” – give it a try when you are short of ideas or need to explain why you have not been posting:-)

The Aussie Bloggers Forums Blog is being launched today!
I highly recommend you visiting the blog regularly. Judging by what I know of the sort of upcoming content, this promises to be a wonderful resource for bloggers; with a wealth of information and knowledge behind it, largely being drawn from experienced blogging members of the Aussie Bloggers Forum.

Blogging advice and tips, guest authors and interviews are on the upcoming agenda.

I included the official forums launch video in a prior post which had the Men at Work “I Come From a Land Down Under” as background music. This time I am including Men at Work’s video of the same song.

Not that I want to suggest that our Aussie men ‘chunder’ (no more than from other nations who drink anyway – although I will stand to be corrected on this!). I just like the song.

I can hear you groaning now as you think that there is enough to do, peripheral to your actual blogging, without adding another element to your work load. Do not dismiss the idea out of hand though, remember moderation is the key. If you take time out to work out which blogging promotion tools and resources are the most useful to you and ditch the rest, then adding a forum or two to your ‘to do’ list will not be quite so bad.

You may have noticed that I have been going through a culling process myself; my sidebar is shorter and the page is loading faster.

Why use Forums?

Participating in forums is a valuable means of getting you and your blog known as well as a great source of information, tips and help; whatever your blog topic.

Promoting yourself and your blog:

• Show your site off – there are often sub forum topics specifically for posting your site details.

• Find people interested in your blog topic.
• Answer and post forum questions, show your expertise and get yourself known.
• Participate in link exchanges
• Develop contacts

Learning and research

• Ask for reviews and feedback on your blog
• Get advice, tips and information
• Find templates and template Help
• Find scripts, blog add-ins and coding help
• Tutorials – offered by some forums
• Ask questions and/or find answers.
• Learn about the latest news applicable to your topic

Other Uses

• Learn about making money online and blog marketing.
• Making friends and participating in general chat for leisure purposesm
• Learn about video blogging and podcasting.

Forums related to Blogging

Here is a list of just some of the blogging forums I have come across myself or had recommended to me:

There are a multitude of forums out there so it is a matter of having a look round and working out which ones would be the more valuable for you and your blog. Most forums allow you to read posts without registering but usually require you to register to post. You can have a look round before you decide whether or not to join up. You could also ask other blogging friends what they use or look for lists of recommendations similar to the list above.

Please let me know if you know of any forums that you find useful or interesting as I am planning to compile a directory listing.

Traffic, Social-Networking, sueblimely alexa