An Introduction to On-Page Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Factors
August 8, 2007 by Gaman · 14 Comments
The on-page factors form part the hundreds of criteria used by the search engines to rank a page. In the absence of significant off page factor advantage, a good on-page SEO practice will help your pages to rank better than your competitors.
On-page factors are elements on a web page that the search engines weight differently when deciding where to rank your page in the search engine result pages.
These elements include the page title, headlines, alternate image descriptions, anchor text, keyword density and so on.
It’s estimated that Google alone uses over 200 ranking factors. As to the exact factors used to rank a page, nobody knows except the search engines themselves.
The following are page elements identified by most search engine optimizers to have some influence over your search engine rankings. The term “keyword” below refers to one word or a phrase containing more than one word.
5 Quick Tricks to Create Thousands of Memorable & Secure Passwords
August 8, 2007 by Gaman · 13 Comments
Perhaps, the easiest way to ‘remember’ all your passwords is to use password manager software like RoboForm. Alternatively, the built-in password manager in most browsers should suffice most for most people.
However if you are after something more natural that involves the use of your memory, here are some tips to help you out.
Using your memory has its advantage in that you can still login to any website even from a computer that doesn’t have access to your password manager data.
The following are five quick tips to help you create a secure and easy to remember password. Most of the tricks involved coming up with a general rule and use it to generate a password that appears to be random.
Consonants & Vowels
6 Things You Should Know When Exchange Links With Other Blogs or Sites
August 7, 2007 by Gaman · 7 Comments
There’s no question that having tons of links pointing to your blog will not only increase your traffic but also improve your search engine rankings. It helps users discover your blog from other places too.
However, before you begin exchanging links with other sites, there are several things you need to consider whether it will provide value that benefits you in the long run.
The following are six issues that could affect the effectiveness of your link exchange practice.
Which One Is More Important – A Blog Design or Its Content?
August 7, 2007 by Gaman · 27 Comments
I’ve been using this current theme called “What’s your solution?” by GFXedit.com. While it’s not the prettiest in town, I like it so much I’ve never really bothered looking for an alternative since this blog went online.
The original version has a corporate feel to it. But I dislike the small font so I increased its size. Other than that I’ve changed the colour of the links to make it closer to a standard link colour and tweaked several details to suit my needs.
This is how it looks like in its original form.
I am a fan of a fixed width, two column theme. It’s even better when it’s combined with minimal and clean design. That’s why I use this theme.
While a blog design is important, it shouldn’t get in the way of conveying your message as I always believe bloggers should put more emphasis on the content.
Find out How Many Subscribers a blog has Even When Its FeedCount Is Hidden
August 6, 2007 by Gaman · 11 Comments
When you visit a blog, chances are it’s probably using FeedBurner counter to keep track of its RSS feed subscriber counts. Most bloggers display the FeedBurner FeedCount chicklet quite happily; others choose to hide it for several reasons.
I hide mine, at least temporarily, to see whether this could speed up the subscribing process.
The argument is that visitors are more likely to subscribe to a feed if they see a higher count because it tells them that you are an authoritative voice in your niche. From the poll I conducted recently, that seems to be the case where most of my readers say they are more likely to subscribe to a blog if it has a higher subscribe counts.
For blogs with a hidden FeedBurner chicklet, it’s still possible to view number of subscribers provided that the blog owner has the FeedCount activated in his FeedBurner account. It is inactive by default in any feed you create on our system.
Do I Really Think It’s Worth Paying John Chow Dot Com $400 for A Review?
August 6, 2007 by Gaman · 14 Comments
As most of you know, the other day I ordered a ReviewMe from John Chow Dot Com.
Then I did a review of the ReviewMe experience to answer a question many people may have, which is whether the review worth the 400 bucks. At the end of the article I concluded that the ReviewMe was worth the $400.
Seriously, did I really think the 535 visitors, at $0.75 each was worth $400? Well, if that’s the only thing I get out of it, obviously it’s not worth the price.
I got the idea to write this post after reading some of the comments in the ReviewMe review.
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Lucia writes:
What this proves is that a full review John Chow can’t drive as much traffic as a modest inconspicuous link almost hidden inside the text of a long post by a knitting blogger.
Are You More Likely to Subscribe to a Blog With a Higher Subscriber Counts?
August 3, 2007 by Gaman · 20 Comments
I came across a blog post that said having your FeedCount displayed when you still have a low number of subscribers can prevent potential subscribers from subscribing to your feed.
The argument is that visitors are more likely to subscriber to a feed if they see a higher count because it tells them that you are an authoritative voice in your niche.
If everyone is subscribing to your feed, surely you know what you are talking about and they should subscribe to it too. In order words, some people use your subscriber counts to judge the quality of your blog.
So for the past few weeks I’ve decided to hide my FeedBurner counter to test this theory. I can’t remember exactly when I started to hide it but it was definitely a few days before my John Chow ReviewMe was published.
Affiliate Marketing – 5 Tips for Success
August 3, 2007 by Gaman · 15 Comments
Joining an affiliate program is easy, making money from it isn’t. The following tips will help you plan your journey towards affiliate marketing success.
- Focus In A Few Products and Sell Them Very Well
When it comes to selling products from their websites, some affiliates have the tendency to try to offer everything under the sun.
A website with tons of products and services to offer is tricky venture to succeed with, unless you can direct targeted traffic to a specific product page.
And unless you have an ecommerce website like Amazon.com, you’ll do better if you focus on a few products and sell them very well. Then follow up to offer other products and services.
My Internet Income Report for July 2007
August 2, 2007 by Gaman · 58 Comments
Everyone (well more and more bloggers anyway) seems to be revealing their blogs’ income nowadays, following a trend started by John Chow Dot Com. If there were others who had chosen to reveal their blogs income before John Chow, I am not aware of them. Those that I know of didn’t go into as much details as what John Chow is doing.
I know how much you make is your own business so many bloggers prefer not to reveal their earnings.
They prefer to keep quiet about it for several reasons including the fear of being copied by others, or they don’t want to be perceived as bragging, or they don’t want to attract competitors which will affect their own income in the future.
Sometimes being discreet can be more intriguing as people are drawn to you, waiting for you to spill the beans.
How to Setup AdWords Site Targeted Campaign in 5 Minutes or Less and Start Attracting Traffic to Your Blog
August 1, 2007 by Gaman · 14 Comments
Setting up an AdWords site-targeted campaign is a good way to promote your blog either to a large audience or to a precise audience without burning a hole in your pocket.
While AdWords can be a good source for high quality traffic, for the uninitiated it can be a frustrating experience especially if you continue to get low CTRs for your ads while spending more than what you’d like.
Getting the right results with AdWords campaign doesn’t have to be a wild guess as long as you know how to do it correctly.
As promised in my previous post, I am going to share some tips how to setup AdWords site-targeted campaign the right way.
For a site targeted campaign, you’ll be charged by the impressions (CPM) your AdWords ads get rather than by the click. You can handpick any sites in the Google content network where you want your ads to appear.
