You don’t have to be a financial adviser to start a finance blog. All you really need to do from the beginning is to have a passion or vested interest in it and share your views about finance. Better yet, if you have any tips or methods to improve your finances, then your blog will grow popular very quickly if you have a lot of value to offer.But how can you actually make money with a finance blog though? It’s really simple although there are several ways and variations of them.The most obvious way to make money with a finance blog is of course, selling your own services. If you are already a financial adviser or financial planner, then all you need to do is post some sort of content on your blog that showcases your credibility in the field. A lot of financial advisers or brokers offer consultations through their content as they get found easily through different channels online.This puts you at a huge advantage since the online world is vast and large which means plenty of opportunity to explore different segments of the market.There are other ways to make money through a finance blog even if you’re not a financial expert of any kind. You can post content and sell a course or a service offered by someone else and get paid some referral bonuses or commissions. This is the concept of affiliate marketing and is often used with other blogs in different industries such as food, fashion or even travel.You can even partner up or joint venture with a financial adviser and post content promoting them, while you take a commission from their referrals. It is just a simple concept really.Another very popular ways to make money from a finance blog is advertising. Ever wonder how a lot of magazine, TV or any other press or media entities make a lot of money? Well they simple get a lot of audiences to see their material while have a bit of advertising and commercials on the side. You can do the same with a finance blog if you have ads everywhere related to your niche.Google Adsense is such a method that is based on this concept. You basically allow Google to load up your blog with ads and then you get paid a little bit every time someone clicks on them. All you really need to do is drive traffic to your finance blog.You don’t even have to write your own content. You can always hire writers who are financial experts or at least knowledgeable in that area to write for your finance blog while driving traffic to your site and services. You can just as easily set up a simple WordPress blog and start posting content and promoting it via social media or search engine traffic.Once you have these things in place, all you need to do is get people to see your content and build a list through your finance blog and you’re well on your way to improve your finances at the same time!

Photography is a hobby of millions, but passion of a handful. Photography is not a profession or means of livelihood. It is not learning how to operate the best camera ever manufactured. It is not being taught the science of photography. It is an aesthetic experience that has to be self motivated and inspirational. The Photography Colleges in India aim at students’ learning theories that have a practical usage. They build up the skills required to be a good photographer without compromising the beauty of the art form. Photography has to be spontaneous and not just clicking; not setting backgrounds and searching for subjects. An eye for detail in combination with a creative mind are the requisites that photography colleges nurture and develop in those driven by it.The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), in Pune, offers a specialized course in photography – still as well as video. This institute is highly practical oriented and has the best faculty in the country. There is no strict admission criteria, but you have to clear the test and be focused and keen on the course to be a part of FTII. Thus anyone who has passed the 12th standard is eligible to apply for the full time diploma and certificate course in photography.St. Xavier’s Institute of Photography, a component of the St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai, is another very good option for students interested in taking up photography as a profession. This college concentrates on intensive training and field work. Any school pass out can apply.National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmadabad is a premier government institute in India. It is highly professional and competitive. This college lives by the survival of the fittest mantra. Getting through is difficult. It is not meant for those who mug and sit for exams. It tests your aptitude, skill and creativity, how good you are at experimenting and how fearless. The entire course is designed in a fashion that makes you a true professional. NID strives to make every student unique and not just follow the trend. The amateur photographer in you will find real world knowledge here.Bhopal Vishwavidyalaya comprises of various courses and levels of study. The course on photography forms an integral and important part of it. It is one of the sought after colleges of photography. There is no specific eligibility criteria, and any Class XII pass out can apply for the degree.In Delhi is a recognized specific photography institute, the India International Photographic Council. The academic requirements for admission is negligible, but the course highly professional and intensive. Jamia Milia Islamia in New Delhi offers a subsidiary course in photography. It is well known for its programs and the training.A course in photography in Andhra Pradesh is offered by the Sri Venkatesvara University in Chitoor and Tirupati, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in Hyderabad, and Jawaharlal Technological University in Hyderabad.In Orissa, a degree in photography is granted by the Utkal University, BJB College and the Bhubaneshwar College.Uttar Pradesh has a number of good photography colleges, the Allahabad University being a pioneer. Also are the Kashi Vidyapeeth in Varanasi, University of Gorakhpur, Deendayal Upadhyay College, National Institute of Design in Allahabad, and Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth.Kerala houses a couple of institutions for photography learning which are the Maharaja Technological Institute in Thissur and the B.C.L. Institute of Color Photography and Video-graphy in Changanacherry.Madhya Pradesh photography training institutions are the Barkatullah Vishwavidyalaya of Bhopal, Ravi Shankar University in Raipur, and Jiwaji University in Gwalior.The Academy of Photography in West Bengal is another choice of college available for photography training in India.Photography does not require learning or formal education. The photography colleges in India do not tutor you, but train you so that the talent in you can be utilized effectively. It polishes the skill that will make you a good photographer. The basics if learnt well will not only give you an edge over others, but also make you more creative, experimental and observational that is the essence of this profession.

The only hope: let’s go back to its roots.The best thing that ever happened to social media marketing was the hacking of the 2016 US election of Donal Trump by the Russians. Why? Because it laid bare what many in social media marketing has known for a long, long time: that social media platforms are a joke, their valuations are based on imaginary users, and their integrity lies somewhere between Lucifer and that guy who eats people’s faces in the movies.For marketing consultants such as myself, recommending existing social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram has been increasingly difficult, because -quite frankly- many of us don’t trust the metrics.And why should we? Facebook doesn’t.This is from Facebook’s 2017 SEC filing (emphasis mine):The numbers for our key metrics, which include our daily active users (DAUs), monthly active users (MAUs), and average revenue per user (ARPU), are calculated using internal company data based on the activity of user accounts. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates of our user base for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring usage of our products across large online and mobile populations around the world.The largest data management company in the world says it doesn’t really know if its numbers are accurate. Estimates? What marketing professional wants estimated results after the fact?It gets worse. Emphasis mine:In the fourth quarter of 2017, we estimate that duplicate accounts may have represented approximately 10% of our worldwide MAUs. We believe the percentage of duplicate accounts is meaningfully higher in developing markets such as India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, as compared to more developed markets. In the fourth quarter of 2017, we estimate that false accounts may have represented approximately 3-4% of our worldwide MAUs.Let that sink in. Facebook is admitting that “approximately” 10% of its monthly active users are fake. Interestingly, they don’t mention what percentage of their daily active users are fake.And that’s the problem with social media. You don’t know what’s real and what’s fake anymore.Social media hasn’t been real for a while.As marketers and advertisers, we pride ourselves on accuracy. In the olden times of marketing and advertising, we obsessed over rating numbers of tv shows, readership for print promotions, and delivery success rates for direct mail.In all cases, the platforms of the day were heavily audited. You knew, with fair certainty, was the audiences were for any particular medium or channel because there was usually a point of review somewhere for the numbers.Traditional media such as radio, TV, and print had been around long enough that there were thousands of case studies one could study the success or failures of individual campaigns. Because these mediums were part of the public record, it was easy to work backward to see what mix of media and budget worked and what didn’t.As an industry, we could quickly establish benchmarks for success – not just based on our personal experiences- but in the collective experiences of very clear strategies laid bare for everyone to dissect.Well, that all went out the window with social media.Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram’s numbers were always a joke.In days of yore, company valuation was based on revenues, assets, and human capital, and performance.That all changed when someone came up with the concept of “daily active users.”The race to gain users became the driving force for social media platforms in a way that we’ve never seen before. Now, the obsession with user growth opened the door to advertising and marketing fraud on a scale that just wasn’t possible previously.Let’s get something clear: any platform that allows for people to create thousands of fake profiles so others can buy likes, followers, retweets, or shares is toxic to advertisers and brands alike.Now, I understand that the word “allows” is doing a lot of work in that sentence, so let me expand a bit what I mean.I don’t think I’ll get many arguments when I say that -regardless of what I think of them- the most successful social media platforms on the planet are also some of the most sophisticated technological enterprises on the planet. They have -arguably- some of the best AI around, as their entire business models revolve around being able to crunch numbers, facts, and obscure pieces of data millions of times a second.They are also massive corporations, with an army of lawyers and IP bulldogs waiting to protect their brand against any hostile outside forces.So explain to me, how is it, that even after all we have seen in the news people can still buy Facebook likes, or Twitter followers, or Instagram fans?The reason: it was always a scam. And we got conned along with everyone else.If your company is valued on your number of users and the activity of those users on your platform, what do you care if they are fake or not? If you did, you’d hire an armada of auditors to ensure the integrity of your userbase. I don’t believe they ever did and will never do this.Social platforms deploy their honey trap.Initially, social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter lured brands and companies onto their platforms with promises of free marketing and advertising. The ability to quickly grow a fanbase and follower base, without the need of hiring marketing shmucks like me. Why waste time on hiring a professional when you can do it all yourself for nothing?At first, I was a supporter of this. I believed that marketing and advertising was often something that only larger companies could afford, and that small business marketing was being left behind. Social media marketing allowed for even a mom and pop shop to compete online.So many businesses spent countless hours and thousands of dollars in human resources to grow their followers online.Having lured them into their honey trap, social media companies then held followers and fans hostages. You had to pay to have access to the userbase that you built up and cultivated.Suddenly the numbers didn’t make any sense. You had to pay to promote or boost posts when previously it was free. The result was disastrous for many businesses. The ROI’s didn’t add up, but with so many of their customers on these platforms, they had little choice but to continue to try and get whatever value they could for them.Moreover, the move to such promotions opened up the Pandora’s box to further abuses. The drive for revenue seemingly caused social platforms to continue to look the other way on fake profiles and social media bots because they drove ad sales. Personal data was harvested and manipulated in ways that users could not fathom and did not agree to.Mostly, it did something to marketing that I’m not sure we can recover. For many digital marketing firms and marketing agencies, it forced us to down the Kool-aid with everyone else. People that should have known better doubled down on social media marketing for our clients when we knew -for most of them- it was unnecessary.Marketing and advertising agencies became accomplices after the fact.Like I said earlier, marketing and advertising agencies and consultants are supposed to obsess with accuracy. We want our clients to have the very best ROI available.However, like professionals in any business vertical, we’re self-serving.One of my favourite examples of how people who would know better will say anything for a buck is real estate agents.Have you EVER heard a real estate agent tell you it’s a wrong time to buy a house? In all of my days, I have never read an article by a real estate agent saying that people should hold off on a purchase. House prices going up? A great time to buy; you’ll make your money back immediately! House prices going down? It’s a buyers market! Lock in your savings now!Marketing and advertising professionals did something similar with social media marketing.We saw the platforms’ rise in popularity and didn’t want to get caught in a lurch. The buzz was building behind them, and clients were often demanding us to help them. So -even though Facebook and Twitter were mostly unproven with little to no actual case studies to speak of- many firms told their clients to throw money into the black hole of social.What was the result? The majority of social media campaigns are disasters. I only know of a fraction of companies that continue with any seriousness on social media compared to the rates companies did with traditional advertising or even SEO and non-social digital ads.You see it in the positioning. When digital marketers talk about social media, they discuss it regarding “reach,” “exposure,” “presence,” “awareness.” That’s code word for “throw your money away.” Do an online search of the effectiveness of social media, and you will find the results filled with SEO and social media marketers praising the platforms and the strategies.Real marketers talk about ROI. Impact on sales, and impact on lead generation. You can’t pay the rent on brand awareness. I’m saying this as someone who builds brands for a living.And it’s not just me saying this. One of the largest brands in the world, Proctor & Gamble, gutted their ad budget and walked away from a host of agencies because of digital advertising and marketing fraud.Social sharing has been automated to death:According to Buzzsumo, average social shares per article had declined by 50 percent in 2017 in comparison to 2015. Their data also shows how fast most hot topics become saturated with articles, leading to only a relatively few winners getting the majority of the societal shares and hyperlinks.Another found that, that bots automate nearly two-thirds -66%- of all HTML links posted on Twitter.Again, if social media platforms truly valued their user-experience and cared about social being social, they would have banned such practices years ago. No more social automation. If you want to engage with your fans and followers, you have to be there for them. You have to be live, online, ready to connect.However, bots are good for business. They boost their daily active user accounts; they make their platforms look more popular than they are. Bots post content, bots like content, bots share content, bots follow people, bots message people -it’s endless.Bots account for an ungodly 52% of internet traffic in 2017. That number is only set to rise further as social media continues to be an arms race. Caught in the middle of all of this are businesses who think their digital marketing metrics have any meaning.Your Influencer isn’t that influential.I’m a firm believer in influencer marketing because I believe it is a natural extension of relationship marketing. People will buy from people they trust and will accept the suggestions of people they like.However, with the growth of online influencers, things have taken a turn for the surreal.First off, many fans and followers of social media influencers are as fake as anything. Social media bots follow celebrities as a means to spam their pages and/or a means to scrape a list of people to spam later with content.Secondly, as marketers and advertisers, we are supposed to care about accuracy. But the ability to verify the fan base of an influencer is almost impossible within the platforms. You have to go to third-party apps to try and get any real understanding of the legitimacy. Moreover, even then, you are at the mercy of the third-party to provide you with accurate data. Should Instagram decide to shut down the API to these applications, you will have no idea how popular your influencer is.The future of social media: live, direct, and transparent.The way to solve the social media problem we’re facing today is simple: social media was great when it was social and personal. A return to the basics is needed.No more automationIf you don’t have the time or the energy or the interest actually to ENGAGE with human beings, then social media is not for you. What’s more, you’re not for social media.Automation should stop. Period. Let’s return to a more natural engagement between brands, companies, customers and leads. Human interaction is the most powerful driver of revenue and sales, as is the best metric for the real value of a platform.See and be seenThe use of live video to establish authenticity in an age where everything is anonymous will be a dominant driver of change in the next five years. Instead of hiding behind memes, and curated content, companies should leverage influencers and their employees to champion their brands. Reconnect with the basics: one-to-one or one-to-many communications.The revolt of investorsI genuinely believe that the majority of social media firms have fudged the books when it comes to their userbase, activity, and popularity. It’s time for investors to demand third-party audits of the data before the entire house of card falls on people’s heads.Look, I’m a marketing consultant. I enjoy using social media. It allows me to stay in touch with the people and the brands I care about most in the world. But at the heart of it is a flaw -a glitch in the Matrix- that needs to be sorted out.There’s a bubble out there, and social media firms that allow for fake profiles and anonymous users are at the heart of it.