John Chow is following Enviroman @ Peter Chen 0 comments

I received an email announcing John Chow is following enviroman at Twitter. Should I be happy? I don't know. Years back I remembered John Chow's blog was given a very high valuation and he is very well know. When I got that email, I did some checking and found these - John Chow vs. Google - Guess Who's Winning and 4 Lessons From John Chow Google Bombing Experience. What did they say? Essentially, John chow did some SEO and link building for the phrase "Make Money Online" which Google didn't like. Seems Google called it Google Bombing. Looks like John Chow's has dropped from his high flying position from Google's perspective. It seems that Google is 'manually' punishing John and has dropped him to the 51st result for the term "John Chow," and his "make money online" campaign has been dropped to 57th. And now googling John Chow doesn't turn up in page 1 of Google's SERP (Search Engine Result Page).

However, I wonder if John Chow really minds because it seems his earnings in 6/1/07 jumped to $12,569.61 from $2790.05 from in 12/1/06, I assumed because of his "Google Bombing".That is, his monthly income increased by $9779.56 which is a hefty 350% increase. John Chow also claimed that his income is not highly dependent on traffic from Google.

Now I checked John Chow's Twitter profile page. Wow, he is following 22,948 and has 21,759 followers on Twitter. That is, he is following more than he has followers. I suspect he is using the tactic to increase Twitter followers by following others in the hope of others following him when they get the email announcing John Chow is following them. Should you copy John Chow's strategy? I don't know. But I myself will probably not for the time being.

Delete blog or change URL: What happens then? 0 comments

Previously, bloggers are strongly advised against deleting blogs and what happens to the blog URL blog URL if you delete the blog. For reasons, see Why you should not delete a blog and what to do if you change the URL of a blog.

However, because Blogger has been informed of spammers grabbing deleted blog URL for spamming purposes, the practice of releasing a blog URL the moment the blog is deleted has been discontinued. Now if any Google Blogger blogger delete his or her blog, the blog URL is no longer released for others to register, but is kept for the original creator to claim back later.

The reason for this post is because of many questions and requests for help related to the above, and rather that repeating the same thing, if I ever get another question related to this, all I need to do is to point them to this post.

The most recent one is about a very fortunate blogger who wanted a particular blogspot URL which had already been registered by someone else who didn't do anything or didn't do much with the blog and the blog had been left neglected. In this particular very rare case, the blogger was able to contact that blog owner who is very cooperative. The blog owner deleted the blog so the intended new owner can claim it. As expected, she could not do so.

However, not all is lost provided the previous owner is willing to cooperate. All she has to do to to contact the previous owner again, requesting him or her to register that deleted blog again, and then invite the intended new owner to become co-author via Dashboard > Settings > Permissions. Once she has accepted the invitation, the cooperative old owner can make her administrator, and then remove himself or herself. Once this is all done, the blog have found a new, loving owner.

Google Account Deleted - What to do 0 comments

Blogger account is associated with a Google account. It is not rare to hear a blogger screaming for help after he deleted his Google account for that deletion will affect the Blogger account. So what should one do if one accidentally deleted the Google account? One should immediately report to Google Account Contact Form. There is a window of about a week to appeal, after which the Google Account will be permanently deleted.

Add Your Blog To Facebook. 0 comments

Facebook is a social networking website. Previously it was used by students of Universities to network. The name of the site derives from paper facebooks showing members of the campus community that US colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff.


This year they launched the Facebook platform allowing developers to create little applications which you can add to your profile. Since it has now become one of the top most visited sites adding your blog to your profile will give it more exposure.


There are several ways you can add your blog to your Facebook profile...........


Firstly you will have to create an account if you do not have one. Anyone can join Facebook. After registering with a valid email address you can join the networks you are interested in to connect with people of similar interests. You can customize your profile to show only what you want and keep the rest private.

PUT BLOG IN PROFILE

Flog your blog on Facebook. To do this go here. Add your blog Feed URLs and set how much of your blog posts you want to display. Save the settings and now your blog posts will be seen by everyone looking at your profile on Facebook.

PUT BLOG LINK IN PROFILE

New applications are being developed everyday. To promote your blog and search for new applications type in the word 'blog' in the search box above the 'Applications' link in the sidebar. Click on the application you want and then click 'Add Application' to set the settings and add it to your profile. There are applications to add a screenshot of your blog as well.

PROMOTE YOUR PROFILE

Put a Facebook badge on your blog to promote your profile. Visitors to your blog can click on it to visit your profile and check out your networks and interests. To do this click on the 'Create a Profile badge' link in the bottom frame of your Facebook profile. You can design your own badge or use any of the templates to show off your photos or your contact information. After customizing your badge copy the code given and paste it in a Html page element in the sidebar.



MAKE YOUR OWN FACEBOOK APPLICATION

Facebook also allows you to create your own applications and distribute them. The startup costs for developers are extremely low, and the potential is high.


To start add the developer application to your Facebook account. Then download the client library of your choice, open your favorite development environment, and you're ready to go.


After you've added the Developer Application and downloaded a client library, use these resources to learn more about building a Facebook application.

* Platform Documentation
* Anatomy of a Facebook App
* Code Samples
* Step-by-step Guide to Creating an Application

To Insert a Banner Link to your blog you must first...............

have a banner ready. You can create your own banner in an image editing program like I have done or go to an online banner generator. To find an online banner generator just type 'free banner generator' in Google's Search Box and hit Enter.

Once you have made a banner upload it to a free host like GooglePages. At present GooglePages offers 100 MB free space for hosting your files. After uploading it copy the Url of the image.

You can even upload the banner picture to Blogger. To do this click on Create Post and click on the Add Image icon in the top frame of the Post Editor.

NOTE :THE ONLY FILE YOU CAN UPLOAD TO BLOGGER IS A IMAGE FILE.

Choose the picture in your PC by browsing to it and upload it to the post. Now click the Edit Html tab in the top frame of the Post Editor. There you will see the code for the picture which will look like this :






You can extract the URL of the picture from the above code like this :

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_J2kVk3AKsXA/RXcetyx4o6I/
AAAAAAAAAAw/khphtkWwAMY/s400/PIC_NAME.jpg


Copy this and use it later. You can now save this post as a draft so that it is not seen by viewers.

Log in to Dashboard of your blog and click on Layout. Click on Edit Html tab next to Page Elements tab below the Template tab. Do not put a check in the Expand Widget templates box. Scroll down in the Edit Template text box till you come to :

Replace the second line above with this line :



Save Template. Click on Page Elements tab. On Page Elements view you will now see a link to Add Page Elements has been added to the Blog Posts section.

CHOOSE TEXT PAGE ELEMENT TO CREATE A PERMANENT MESSAGE ON TOP OF YOUR POSTS.

Click on this link and a popup window will open with 12 choices. Choose the Html/Javascript option. DO NOT choose the picture option because that will only add a banner and not a banner-link. In the content section of the Add Html/Javascript window add the following code :

Your Blog Title

Substitute MYBLOG with name of your blog, URL OF YOUR BANNER AT GOOGLEPAGES with the link of your banner you uploaded to Googlepages in Step 2 and YOUR BLOG TITLE with the title of your blog. Save Changes. Refresh Cache. View Blog.

See the banner I have created at the top of this post.

How to Analyze Site Traffic with Google Analytics 0 comments

To analyze web site traffic with Google Analytics you will.....

first have to add the Analytics code to your blog template. To do this go to Google Analytics and register with your Google account. It is free and has no limitations. On the Analytics Settings page click on '+ Add Website Profile' link in the top frame of the Website Profiles box. This takes you to the ' Create New Website Profile' page.

Paste the URL of your blog/site in the text box under ' Add a Profile for a new domain '. Select the timezone of your country and click on Finish. A new page opens where you are presented with the code to be pasted in your template. Right click in the text box and Select All and then left click in the shaded section and select Copy. Go to Edit Html under Template tab in your blog after logging in to Dashboard and clicking on your blog name. Scroll down in Edit Template text box and paste the code copied from Google Analytics at the very end of the template just before the tag. Save Template Changes. Republish.

Go back to Google Analytics main Settings page and you will find your site/blog listed. Click on the confirm link to confirm that you have added the code to your blog and Google Analytics will start receiving data.

To see the reports go to Google Analytics Settings page click the down arrow in the text box 'Click to select Website Profile' next to 'View Reports' in the orange bar running across the top of the page. Select the blog url for which you want to view reports. The default 'Executive Overview' page of Reports of your site opens. The page is divided into two main parts : A

sidebar and a main column titled Executive Overview. Click the image alongside for a bigger view. The sidebar contains the Dashboards where youcan select the views you want to see, the All Reports section showing optimization for Marketing and for Content and lastlya Date Range section where you can select a date range for which to view reports.

The main column of Executive Overview is divided into four parts. The top left rectangle show Visits and Pageviews for the last week. The top right rectangle show how many visits were by New and how many by Returning visitors as a percentage of the total visits that week. The bottom left recangle shows a Geo Map Overlay showing the international distribution of your visitors that week. The bottom right shows the Visits by Source that week showing the sites your visitors came from.

Some other useful site counters can be found at :

http:/www.statcounter.com
http:/www.clustrmaps.com
http://sitemeter.sitetoolbox.com/
http://awstats.sourceforge.net/......Free

How to Get People Visit to your blog 0 comments

The following is a list of pointer to get people to read your blog or,at the very least,visit it.


1:Make your blog address part of your e-mail signature.An e-mail without a signature is a like a phone call without a message or a letter without a return address,so go ahead and include a link to your blog.

2:Visit other blogs and "accidentally" leave your blog address in the comments of the latest posts.

3:Make sure that you have somehow bring the subject of blogs and,eventually,your personal blog,into the conversation with each person you meet,every day, even if it happens to be the first rendezvous.

4:Just as people send an e-mail address change notification to their friends and acquaintances,you can send a "blog created" notification.After all,the two aren't that different.

5:Threaten your friends to visit your blogs at least once every day.Employ emotional blackmail or say things like:"Don't expect me give you an autograph when i become an acclaimed blogger."

6:Try to influence your friends into blogging.It is mostly your bloggers who read blogs as well.

7:You can also pester friends who blog to add you to their blogrolls - a personal lists of favorite blogs.

8:Thinking of new nick for MSN? Just put your blog address in the personal message.

9:If you also like to write for magazines,make sure that your next published article has your blog address alongside your name.Or,better yet,write an article on blogs.Even if you have not been a writer till now,writing one article just to plug your blog won't hurt.Above all of these techniques for generating traffic to your blog,you could just start writing a good blog to begin with.

25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog 0 comments

With so many blogs being created every day, it’s a mystery to many bloggers how to make their blog stand out. There are many types of blogs or purposes for blogs and a certain number of tactics are applicable to just about all of them.Some companies choose to hire a blog consultant, but others like to try things internally. For those “DIY” companies and individuals interested in practical tips for marketing and optimizing a business blog, try out the following list of blog marketing and optimization tips:

1. Decide on a stand alone domain name www.myblog.com or directory of existing site www.mysite.com/blog. Sub domain is also an option blog.mysite.com. Avoid hosted services that do not allow you to use your own domain name!
2. Obtain and install customizable blog software - WordPress and Moveable Type are my favorites.
3. Customize blog look and feel templates - aka design.
4. Research keywords and develop a glossary - Keyword Discovery, WordTracker, SitePoint, SEOBook Keyword Research.
5. Optimize the blog:
* Template optimization - RSS subscription options, social bookmark links, HTML code, Unique title tags, URLs, Sitemap
* Add helper plugins specific to WordPress or MT
* Create keyword rich categories (reference your keyword glossary)
6. Enable automatic trackback and ping functionality.
7. Create Feedburner Pro account and enable feed tracking.
8. Setup a Google account for Sitemap, validate and prep for future submission.
9. Identify authoritative blogs, web sites and hubs for outbound resource links and blogroll.
10. Format archived posts, related posts.
11. Enable statistics for tracking - Google Analytics, ClickTracks.
12. Submit RSS feed and Blog URL to prominent RSS and Blog directories / search engines.
13. Engage in an ongoing link building campaign.
14. If podcast or video content are available, submit to Podcast and Vlog directories.
15. Submit blog url to paid directories with categories for blogs - Yahoo, BOTW, bCentral, WOW, JoeAnt.
16. Optimize and distribute a press release announcing blog.
17. Request feedback or reviews of your blog in relevant forums, discussion threads. If you have a resourceful post that will help others, point to it.
18. Research and comment on relevant industry related blogs and blogs with significant centers of influence.
19. Post regularly. If it’s a news oriented blog, 3-5 times per day. If it’s an authoritative blog, 3-5 times per week, but each post must be unique and high value.
20. Monitor inbound links, traffic, comments and mentions of your blog - Google Alerts, Technorati, Blogpulse, Yahoo News, Ask Blogs and Feeds.
21. Always respond to comments on your blog and when you detect a mention of your blog on another blog, thank that blogger in the comments of the post.
22. Make contact with related bloggers on AND offline if possible.
23. When making blog posts always cite the source with a link and don’t be afraid to mention popular bloggers by name. Use keywords in the blog post title, in the body of the post and use anchor text when you link to previous posts you’ve made.
24. Use social networking services, forums and discussion threads to connect with other bloggers. If they like your stuff, they will link to you.
25. Remember when web sites were a new concept and the sage advice to print your web address everywhere you print your phone number? The same advice applies for your blog.
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26. If your blog’s goal is to promote you as an authority, interview other prominent bloggers in your industry. Your own credibility will improve by association.
27. Build out your online networks through services such as MyBlogLog, Twitter and Facebook and leverage them to promote particularly useful content on your blog.
28. Once your blog has 1000 or more subscribers, show your Feedburner badge
29. Host images with Flickr making sure to include an anchor text link in the image description back to the post where the image is used.
30. Use your blog to gain press/media credentials at relevant industry conferences and use the event to create content, connections and increase your knowledge.