8 Tricks You Can Use to Increase Alexa’s Traffic Ranking
July 25, 2007 by Gaman · 21 Comments
Yesterday I wrote about 5 tricks some people use to increase their Alexa’s traffic ranks. The point of the post is not to say that Alexa is totally useless but the methods I described do not usually help in improving the rankings.
To the general web surfers, Alexa’s traffic ranking means almost nothing. But many advertisers and ad networks use Alexa to gauge whether it’s worth spending money and pay the site owner to advertise on the site.
If you are a blogger trying to make money from Text Link Ads or ReviewMe, having a good Alexa ranking put you in the position to charge more on your ad inventory.
I’ve been repeating this point several times in my previous posts. If you want to make money from your website, putting some effort in improving your Alexa ranking will be worth your while.
5 Useless Tricks People Use to Increase Their Alexa’s Traffic Ranking
July 24, 2007 by Gaman · 38 Comments
For some site owners, getting a high Alexa traffic rank is more of an ego boost than a true reflection of their sites popularity. Others are trying to game Alexa so that they can command higher prices for their ad inventory among other things.
The recently released official Alexa toolbar for Firefox seems to re-ignite the obsession some people have over their Alexa ranking. I’ve seen several bloggers recommending tools and methods to game Alexa ranking.
Trying to cheat their Alexa ranks may be fun to some people but it degrades the value of the entire system and affects Alexa’s reputation negatively as it becomes less reliable as a traffic measurement metric. While I am aware that Alexa has its limitations, it’s essentially offering valuable service to webmasters and advertisers alike. Besides Google PageRank, I don’t know of any other universally accessible metrics for anyone when evaluating a site’s worth.
Is It Worth Spending $400 to Have Your Blog Reviewed At JohnChow.com? Here’s My Experience
July 23, 2007 by Gaman · 52 Comments
| I’d like to welcome those who have found their way here from my AdWords ads at JohnChow.com, BloggingTips.com and several others. I am currently running an AdWords campaign to see whether paying a ReviewMe is better than buying AdWords ads to drive traffic to your blog. Please subscribe to my blog RSS or via email if you’d like to see the result of this experiment when it’s posted later. Thank you! |
I had the privilege of having Sabahan.com reviewed by John Chow recently and I can tell you it has been an interesting experience for me. I know some of my readers have been waiting patiently for me write this post.
Wait no more, because I am going to dissect the result of the review as I reveal whether it’s worth forking out $400 (that’s a jaw dropping RM1360 in Malaysian Ringgit!) to have my blog reviewed by John Chow.
Official Alexa Toolbar for Firefox Released – What You Should Know
July 23, 2007 by Gaman · 7 Comments
In case you don’t know about this already, Alexa has released a toolbar for Firefox. What this means is that more Firefox users can now be counted towards a site’s overall Alexa ranking. This will effectively improves the accuracy of the Alexa ranking as more Firefox users decide to install the toolbar.
Previously, the official Alexa toolbar only exists for Internet Explorer.
Once installed, the toolbar sits quietly in your browser status bar at the bottom right showing a site traffic trend, reach meter and traffic rank. In addition, a new related links menu is added to your browser menu bar.
I feel the traffic trend information is too small to be useful. Unless I can see how a site traffic trend compares to others, I might as well visit Alexa to view and compare traffic trends.
10 Tips How to Write Blog Post Headlines That Hit
July 20, 2007 by Gaman · 11 Comments
One of the most important elements in your blog is your headlines. Some even go as far as to say they account for as much as 90% of the effectiveness of you blog.
Your main goal when writing a post is to get your readers to read your content, and before they go to your content they will have to read the headline first. Writing a poor and uninspiring headline could result in you losing 90% of your potential readers.
Some copywriters even recommend you to devote half of your time crafting the best headline when writing a blog post. If you want to get noticed you need to have headlines that not only work, but work extremely well.
You can write the best blog post in the world but if your headline fails to capture and stimulate the readers’ interest, you are doomed from the start.
10 Handy Tricks to Search Google Like An Expert
July 20, 2007 by Gaman · 5 Comments
If you are reading this, chances are, you are probably a fan of Google search. However, unless you are a tech geek, your typical search activity would probably involve entering a few words and changing them until you find what you are looking for.
While Google is getting better at finding the right information for you, there are a couple of tricks you could use to make your search more effective.
The following are 10 simple tricks that I’ve found useful in helping me find the right information quickly.
- Display Current Local Time Anywhere
To find the local time of a major city anywhere in the world, enter “time in city name ”Example: “time in kuala lumpur”
This is particularly useful when your website is targeted towards users from a different time zone. Use this query to check the time in any city to ensure that the important information on your site is published at an appropriate hour.
10 Time Management Tips for Busy Bloggers
July 19, 2007 by Gaman · 23 Comments
Blogging is hard work; it’s even harder if you are running multiple blogs and trying to maintain quality across the board. Ideally we would want to devote more time to blogging as much as possible. Unfortunately, not everyone is a professional blogger; some have a day job. Even if you are a professional bloggers, there are times when you need to be with your friends, family and yourself.
Many people feel overwhelmed by all the demands from their job, their family and their personal life. There just seem to be not enough time to do all the things that needs to be done.
I used to think that in order to improve productivity; I need to do more in less time. Wrong.
Effective time management is really about accomplishing more by working less, not doing more in less time . Ultimately this will lead to a more balance life by enabling you find the time on all the important areas of your life.
Kontera WordPress Plugin Update: Adding Invisible Links Is Now Optional
July 19, 2007 by Gaman · 6 Comments
I was contacted by Rodney Shupe the author of the Kontera WordPress plugin where he addresses my concern regarding the invisible link employed by his plugin.
He explained that it was done as a way of “compensation” for many hours writing and supporting the plugin. At the time he wrote the plugin he was unaware of the Google SEO guidelines pertaining to invisible link. The links were added as a suggestion from another WordPress plugin author.
In the latest update, he made those links optional and asked me if I could update the article and note that the link can now be controlled. Because I think using the previous version of the plugin could affect a blog’s search engine rankings, I think it’s better to write a new post to ensure the update gets some attention.
100Mbps Internet Access Is Coming to Malaysia
July 18, 2007 by Gaman · 12 Comments
That’s according to an article published in The Star Online today. Telekom Malaysia (TM) is currently testing a 100Mbps broadband access using fibre-optic connection and the electrical wiring in our house.
The first phase of the project will be rolled out in the third quarter of next year with an initial speed of 10 Mbps. Those living in high-rise building in big cities will get to enjoy the service first. Newer housing developments would probably be able to take advantage of this service as laying fibre optic cables become part of the development plans.
I don’t expect this service to become available anytime soon in my area though since I’m living in the interior division of Sabah (I give it 5 years). Anyway, I hope this is a sign that a speedier and better connection than the 1Mbps I am currently using is coming to town soon. I’ll be content with a cheaper 4Mbps connection.
How to Make Money from Your Old Blog Posts With Helium.com
July 18, 2007 by Gaman · 8 Comments
If you have old posts in your blogs collecting dust or perhaps you love to write, either way, you’ll be able to monetize your content and make money with Helium.com.
But before we go into that, let me explain what Helium.com is all about
Helium.com is one of the community based content generation sites cropping up recently to allow users write content in any topics they like . Some say it’s a combination of About.com, Q&A services such as Yahoo Answers, Wikipedia and Consumer Reports all rolled into one service. Currently the site gets around 8 million unique visitors a month and growing with 450,000+ articles published.
While you could write in any topics like pop culture or politics, I often find the articles incline towards advice, discussions and how-tos. Unlike Wikipedia though, your article will be published unedited by others.
