Are You Linking To Me?- Better Take Those Links Down!!!

Date October 24, 2007 Comments

Well, I am not surprised. Evidently Google has decided to punish me as well. At least this may be looked as a consolation to other bloggers out there. Noticed I said consolation not justification.

The drop in page rank from PR4 to PR2 is significant I would say. So am I a bad neighborhood? I wish Google would put out a list of websites that are qualified as “bad websites to link to”. There are about 500 blogs out there that link to me, some have a site-wide blogroll links pointing my way. If you are one of those please consider to remove your link to my website. I am very serious about it- no offense will be taken.

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Disappointing Third Time: WidgetSucks

Date October 23, 2007 Comments

I hate to disappoint a friend and a fellow blogger, but some bloggers will write more that twice on the subject. I wish I had it in me to approach every possible angle when writing first time on the subject. But when it comes to this WidgetBucks, there is also an element of being bewildered at how easy some us will jump all over a guy who dared to call Google evil yet in the same breath create promotional frenzy around a widget that is as sneaky as it can be.

Yes I have a HUGE problem with that hidden link. No matter where do you stand on paid links, in the light of what WidgetSucks has done to paid links not only more ethical approach to SEO, paid links indeed are noble.

But there is something more that bothers me about WidgetBucks. Since every one had read TOS by now and realized that he or she can not talk about CTR and earnings- it opens a way to suspicious claims that WidgetSucks is out performing both AuctionAds and Adsense. It is very easy to make such claims now that you can not don not have to prove by backing them up with some hard statistics.

WidgetBucks seams to take lightly your integrity. Do you???

I had in mind to link to few blogs, but I really hate to give away any juice that will eventually help WidgetBucks. If you followed the events you know what I am talking about without links.

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Did WidgetBucks Just Got Yanked From The SERPS?

Date October 22, 2007 Comments

As I was going to write a follow up on my initial WidgetBucks post, I was surprised to find out that TechCrunch and Problogger ranking in the first and second places for the term “WidgetBucks”. Did someone at Google actually noticed that WidgetBucks was hiding links?

This definitely puts an interesting spin on things. It may be just one day episode where not all of the Google’s data centers indexed WidgetBucks, however it can very well be another John Chow case.

Now the question would be if Google would see WidgetBucks as a bad neighborhood and what about all bloggers linking to it?

But do you really think Google punished WidgetBucks for hidden links?

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Speedy-Slow: Linking Out

Date October 22, 2007 Comments

Being subjected to the latest linking kindness by The Fantastic Lord Matt, reminded me again that I can do a better job linking to other bloggers.

In the past I have have attempted to do so via speed linking or as some may call it slow linking. Not finding a way to link out in a manner that not only would please the ego of recipients of such links but also would provide some good insight to my readers, I have completely abandoned such attempts. I t should be mentioned that the fear of doing nothing else but writing these “speed/slow linking” posts kept me from attempting to find my own way of linking out to other bloggers. So todays post is an attempt for me to (re)discover my own way of linking to other bloggers. So there we go…..

  1. Do You Have An Amazing Affiliate Program?- Scott lays it out for every one for easy understanding that some affiliate programs along with their incentives a are bunch of crap. If you are an affiliate manager this is definitely one of those articles you can not afford to miss.
  2. Top 11 Reasons NOT to Link an A list blogger- the title says it all. Don’t waste your time and effort to link to blog that is more known and popular that your own, even if it has some relative information that your readers may find useful. Great job Lucia!
  3. ReveNews Goind WordPress- Welcomed announcement that affiliate blog of affiliate blogs is switching to WordPress. Movable Type really stinks when it comes to commenting/trackbacks/pingbacks if youa re considering it for a platform for your own blog learn from other’s mistakes.
  4. Another BlogRush Post- Don’t Puke- In the attempt to cut down the spam on BlodRush 10,000 bloggers were kicked out. Unlike Josh I have signed up for BlogRush, only to get nauseous when the “Shocking Changes” were announced.
  5. Jason Calacanis Under Fire By A Supper Affiliate- Jim asked Jason some tough questions, I hope there will be a Q&A session with Jason at Affiliate Summit.

These are not the only blogs I read but for some reason I really enjoyed the posts above.

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Is Digg Spamming You?

Date October 19, 2007 Comments

I have been banned from Digg few months ago, however Digg for some reason decided to hold on to my e-mail address. I have received about ten e-mails to day like this one:

Another Digg user, XXXXX XXXXXX, has sent you a shout. You can read it at the following URL:

http://digg.com/users/VladTheGreat#send-shout

Cheers,

The Digg Teamm

Control what emails you receive from Digg here:
http://digg.com/settings/email

If you think, even though I am banned, but still for some reason am on the list of your Digg friends please delete me. If you are by any chance connected to Digg or it’s development please help me to get my info removed from your database.

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WordPress v2.3

Date October 19, 2007 Comments

So, WordPress 2.3? Hmm, where do I begin? I think I would advise you if possible to wait for the version 2.3.x, which is probably around the corner.

I think taking the regular precautions an backing up your data is always a good idea no matter to what version you are updating.

When updating to WordPress 2.3, there are few plugins you may need to upgrade- without the latest versions you are likely to get database error every time you try post or edit content on your blog. The same error can be shown to you or your visitors when commenting.

I think one of the best things that happened to me is that I discovered Maintenance Mode Plugin- which allows you to show your visitors a splash page telling them that you are doing some maintenance related things while at the same time, if logged in as administrator, you will be able to access your blog’s front and back ends. Really cool plugin.

The biggest disappointment was saying good bye to Ultimate Tag Warrior and of course to good number of plugins that depended on UTW. I think the new tagging is not even close to match what UTW was offering- but I guess this will keep plugin developers busy and I am sure that we will see some great solutions soon.

Right after installation I was pleasantly surprised to see that WordPress had finally stopped relying on Technorati to report the incoming links- my wish came true. It would be interesting to see if it will affect Technorati in terms of traffic once WordPress users begin migration to the new version- I am guessing good amount of traffic that Technorati received in the past was straight from our dashboards. Not a good sign for Technorati if you ask me.

There also some improvements in rich editor- now you can underline and chose colors plus some other cool formating features.

I guess I’ve survived the upgrade just fine this time around. Probably just in time for another one which we know will be here in no time.

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WidgetBucks- Don’t Waste Your Time

Date October 19, 2007 Comments

I did not want to write about the WidgetBucks without actually trying it myself. As you can see from the title of the post I am not swept off my feet by it.

There are two major reasons why I dislike the program:

  1. Although it is easy to configure and place it on your website, but once its on your website or blog it may take really long time for the widget to load, while preventing your website from loading completely.
  2. I have a problem with the fact I forbidden to remove html links by Mpire.

Don’t waste your time! You can make better money with AuctionAds and even Amazon.

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