Yes there has been a flood of posts on forums and other blogs about the recent page rank update which has just started to reflect on Google tool bar . Some have got better ranks while some have seen a drop in their rankings .
Lets see what this blog gets when the page rank update is over.
How many links you have in a your blog Roll ??? 10 ,30 ,50 or even more ? Today I was surfing the web and I came across a blog that took a long time to load . Not surprisingly the blog posts were filled with high resolution images and videos and to add to the delay, the blogger has made all the posts appear on the front page of her blog. I left a comment for the blogger advising her that you better arrange the posts properly on separate category pages and also show few of the recent posts on the front page. The reply I got was really shocking . She told me that she had done it on purpose and that was because she had over 200 links in her blog roll (each with one line description) and she wanted to show the content along her blog roll so that the content on her page looks distributed . For me even 20 links in a blog roll is enough and I have to think twice before putting them on my blog.
I wonder how many people will look into the blog roll and take their time to visit some of those URLs. For some reason this whole arrangement looked very messy and I didn't like her idea and the statement she made also didn't justified her 200+ links in her blog roll. Now how many of you would click a link from a dozens of links in a blog roll ? The answer is very few. How many will click a banner from few of the 125x125 banners placed on sidebars ? More than the ones clicking on the links. And if the banner has a unique design and the tag line is attractive and eye catching then the click through rate will be high. Have a look at the following two images and decide yourself which one looks better in terms of getting a visitor attention .
Of course your answer will be the banner ads (if you agree to this), if you are looking for traffic for your site. Now the question is where can we get to display those banner ads on other blogs and sites and that also for free . There are dozen of blog communities like MyblogLog and BlogCatalog which you can join and search for relevant blogs and when you find some, send the blog owner a banner exchange request and tell him/her that you want your banner to be displayed at some location on their blog and you will be placing their banner on your blog. Usually 125x125 banner size does not take much space and I am sure the blogger if agreed will exchange a banner with you. The key is to keep them as few as possible . Four 125x125 size banner seems to be decent amount . If you are finding it difficult to search for relevant blogs then you can also join banner exchange networks that will do this for you and you only need to provide them your banner and the category your blog belongs to and they will show relevant banners on your blog provided that you have placed their widget/code on your blog.
Well no blog is perfect and there are definitely some areas of improvement and its all about knowing every aspect . Remember the greatest dangers lie where you are not looking for them so concentrate on every aspect of your blog and leave no area unattended .
Few days ago I joined one of the blog traffic exchange networks called Blog Soldiers . Well they turned out to be traffic thieves as they owe me a lot of traffic (which I don't see coming my way) because of the credits I earned by surfing various other blogs in their network . But my this step to getting some extra traffic turned out to be a mistake due to which I lost some of my valuable time.
It has been almost a month now and I have surfed nearly 400 pages on blogs in their network but what I got in return is pretty much obvious from the screen shot of my stats .
As you can see the above stats from my blog soldier account says the story itself . I have earned a total of 280 credits . As per their rules , 1 credit is equal to 1 visitor .Of those 280 credits I assigned 166 credits to this blog and that happened almost 3 weeks ago . So for the past 3 weeks they sent me 10 visitors which I am pretty sure that they only visited to get credits so that they can use them to get traffic for their blogs.If you visited this page intentionally then I assume that you want to know what RSS really is . Watch the following video to know about RSS and also find out why everyone (Bloggers) is urging others to subscribe to their RSS feeds.
Web directories play an important role in building back links and giving more visibility . When we start submitting our site to web directories the first question that comes in our mind is how many directories shall we submit in a day because people have a misconception that too many links at a time can severely harm the reputation of a site and can be subjected to Google's slap by penalizing the site in terms if is ranking . This is not true when it comes to directory submission because directories take some time before they approve any inclusion . It varies and depends upon various factors . For example a paid inclusion will be listed with in 2-3 days as compared to non-paid or free submitted links.
So now back to the question on what is a reasonable number of directories that one can follow as a guideline . For me even 500 links in a day will not harm your site because not all those 500 links will be accepted by the directories the same day as they will have different approval durations with they will follow . The other factor is the most important one and it is when those 500 links will be indexed by search engines . So you do not need to worry much about the numbers unless they are growing at an alarming rate because not all the links will be indexed the same day . Many webmasters might be thinking by now that how the heck are we going to submit to so many directories in a day . Well I so far have not used any automatic directory submission tool because I do not trust them at all . Instead I use RoboForm which does remarkably great job when it comes to manual directory submission. You better get one free copy for yourself since it is a much needed tool if you are going for safe directory submission.
Made a website or blog but no one knows about it except for those that you have sent a link of your site .You are desperate to see people floating to your site from search engines but with a new born site it takes some time for the search engines to index it and then show it in their search result pages . Few things you can do is wait until search engine spiders recognize your site and index it. The other thing you can do is that you can slightly aid the indexing process by submitting your site manually to different search engines.
According to recent surveys , in most of the cases 75-85% of website traffic comes from search engines and that also is free traffic for which you do not need to pay a single penny . So you better start from day 1 by submitting your site to different search engines . Below I have compiled a list of some of the major search engines that you can submit your site / blog.
Clicking on each link with take you the the "Add Page/URL" of its respective search engine which has instructions that you can follow to successfully submit your site . 
Google
Yahoo! Search
Microsoft Live Search
Alexa Web Search
Baidu (Chinese search engine)
ExactSeek
SearchSight
Scrub the Web
EntireWeb
Gigablast
Exalead
SearchKing
whatUseek
AnooX
Splat Search
Walhello
SearchIt
email Mozdex
Jayde
Infotiger
Abacho (European search engine)
Submit-one
TowerSearch
HotLaunch
Shoula
The-search-site
Websquash
Unasked
eVisum (educational resource)
DinoSearch
SearchRamp
SearchtheWeb
SearchWarp
Mixcat
BestYellow
Beamed
After you have added your site to all the above search engines, it will take few days before your site gets indexed so be patient and do not forget to keep building one way links for your site . If you do not know what is link building or why it is important then you better read Why links are important for your blog . You must also keep in mind some basic principles for link building , in order to have better results and more exposure for your site.
Today I was browsing Widget Box site when I came across a cool little game . Thought it might be a nice idea to share it with you . Many of you might have played it before . I played it several times and my highest score was 17. Want to give it a try and see how many sequence you can memorize :
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Today I checked for a dot com domain for this blog . Lucky for me www [ dot ] kashifblog [dot ] com is available and I will be getting it very shortly . Then I will link it to this blog so no more [ dot ] blogspot [ dot ] com for my blog.
This domain will cost me $7.15 / year (inclusive of 20 cents ICANN fee).
I got a discount of 30% ( nearly $3 ) for using a promo code for this purchase from GoDaddy. You can also get a discount just like I got it and you know exactly where to ask for a promo code .
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Alright now its quite a long time since I posted a video in this blog . Here is one now. Here are some quick stats for this video upload by NeilCicierega on Youtube :
Stats till 11th April ' 08
Views : Over 40 million times ( an average of over 110,000 daily views )
Rated : Over 163000 times
Comments : Over 87000
Video Responses : Only 1
There is nothing interesting or funny in this video but still it has got lots of views . This gives a clear indication what most of the users are looking for in video sharing and social bookmarking sites.So next time you promote your stuff on video sharing sites make sure it has some puppets and other stuff that does not makes any sense at all.
Whats your name ? I am sure everyone knows the answer to this question . What if someone wants to call you by reading your name like taking attendance during school or college . What if your name is not written on the attendance sheet but you are a student of that school . You are there but no one knows that because you are not listed there . Same is the case with your blog . Now you have created your blog just like others millions of bloggers and webmasters but the problem is who knows that you have !
Without links a site is like a person without identity . Many bloggers complain about not getting traffic and readers for their blogs. They do get some peanuts on daily basis but that also trough their own efforts by emailing their friends and family members a link to their blog.
They are missing the basic ingredients and that is "Links" . Links are nothing but your blog URL that can be found at different places on the world wide web . Those are permanent links ( or Backlinks ) unlike those that you send through email messages . Links are used by search engines to judge the popularity of any site . The more links for a site , higher the chances that a search engine is going to rank a site high. There are various methods one can build links for their blogs . Some of them are :
- Directory submission (If you do not know where to begin then read my previous post about directories importance in building backlinks)
- Other Blogs
- Social networking / bookmarking sites ( By sharing your links with others )
- Forums ( forums are the easiest means to get links for your blog )
There are various other strategies as well that one can adopt for link Building . The ones that I have listed above are very simple and easy to implement and if you are a beginner then you better start with these methods to get links for your blogs .The earlier you start the better it is for your blog.
I was reading on one of the blogger's post in which she has emphasized on commenting on other blogs and leaving your blog link in those comment . What made me shock was that she was encouraging others to search for blogs that have no posts for the last one year so that you can bombard those blogs with your links in your comments.
To be very honest this is the funniest thing I have ever read on any blog that is related to link development . Now why I call this dirty ! You are spamming other blogs (that are dead) just for the sake of gaining more back links . Even if the comments are published without moderation and the blogs are do-follow blogs still I call it dirty and not worth the time you put in for getting those links .
There are many disadvantages in getting links like the method described above by my fellow blogger .
- You are wasting time for getting links from dead blog .
- Even if your comment is published without moderation , still do not expect it to be indexed by search engine spiders since spiders do not show much generosity to the blogs that are not updated frequently .So those links are not counted as backlinks if they are not indexed !
Instead I will advise to comment naturally on other blogs . Just comment if you find something interesting and have got more to add to the post . If you follow these guidelines then I am sure that most of your comments will be published and they will be worth the time you spent as they will not only give you back links but will also be visible to a larger audience and if you sound well then you will get traffic from those comments .
For instance I participate in various forums (Since forums can provide more backlinks) and I only post when I have something different to add to the discussion. Many will find my response helpful and they end up following me to my blog here. So use some common sense and think for a longer term. You can spam the system and get away for a while but in a long run you are in no mans land.
