I finally added a favicon to my blog yesterday. It only took me 5 months to get around to it. I was making my rounds today and already visited a couple of hundred blogs. I made an interesting observation, only about 25% of the blogs had a favicon installed. I am wondering if they are also lazy and have not got around to it yet, or perhaps they do not realize how easy it is to do. I thought it would make sense to outline the simple steps to add a favicon to your blog just in case that is holding some of you back.
I am sure most of you know what a favicon is, but for thise that do not, it is the image that is displayed next to the url in the browser. This image is also shown next to your site in the bookmark section and if you open your browser to look at the most recenbt sites that you have visited.
To create a favicon all you have to do is:
That is all you have to do, it couldn’t be easier.
Of course, you do not need a favicon for your blog, but I feel that it does help set you apart and adds a professional, finished look to your blog.
Are you rockin’ a favicon on your blog? If not, why not?
The most common way by which people find your site is through search engines such as Google, Yahoo or MSN. All search Engines use different algorithms to determine the relevancy of the website to provide the user with best relevant results for search.
Google has carved a niche for itself in the field of search and because of that everyone moves around Google. Google is a brand name. Till date the most familiar search engine among common people is Google. Google has made itself very popular as far as search engines are considered. It has become so popular that businesses that deal with SEO are much more concerned about performance on Google rather than other search engines.
So does that mean, we have to optimize our websites only considering Google? In general, this may not be the case. SEO means optimization for search engines and not particularly Google. It is nothing but redeveloping or improving a website so that it will naturally attract visitors by gaining top ranking on the major search engines for selected keyword phrases. But after the whole days work everyone is concerned of their website performance on Google. This is due to the fact that, Google dominates search engines. If a website is optimized for Google all on-page and off-page aspects are taken into account. And it is probable that sites rank higher for Google may rank better for all other search engines too.
The main factor why webmasters consider Google is that it does not have a paid inclusion program and it provides many free services such as analytics, webmaster, etc, while in other case yahoo needs to be paid for its services and listing.
Google focuses mainly on off-page factors i.e., link popularity, and anchor text(s) while yahoo gives importance to on-page factors such as meta tags, keyword density, Headers, etc. which is overlooked by Google.
SEO is an ongoing process and to rank on Google one needs patience and white hat techniques are to be followed as Google follows strict Guidelines for ranking of a website and its time consuming as one cant build the trust with Google easily. Google emphasizes more on domain age. While on the other hand implementing the SEO strategies will result better and faster with yahoo or MSN. But Google is trusted more cause of its popularity and more relevant results.
Content is liked by most of the search engines. The content should be unique and impressive yet simple so that it can be easily understandable. Avoid keyword stuffing, and provide useful information.
SEO is not meaning of applying tricks to manipulate search engine ranking. SEO is about making a website search engine friendly and trustworthy, and building reputation to your website.
We all know that Digg is one of the biggest and most popular social bookmarking sites around. Why on earth would I not want to use that to help promote my blog. Well, I have come to the conclusion that tring to get traffic from Digg is a waste of my time. Like yours, my time is very valuable and I am seeking other avenues that will yield better traffic with less effort. After experimenting with Digg for the last 6 months, here are some of my observations:
Rather than continue to waste my time, I have decided that I rather be a big fish in a small pond and have started to embrace several other social bookmarking communities. Here are the top 3 that I am involved with right now
Mixx – If you want to be my MixxFriend- my username is tjs1
Blog Engage- my username is TycoonBlogger
Twittley- I have a very high karma rating and am more than willing to tweet you up, just drop me a comment and let me know you are using it.
Have you had any luck getting traffic from Digg? What other social bookmarking sites are you using?
Did I grab your attention with that heading?
A month ago I signed up with Social Spark as a way to gain an additional source of revenue for this blog. I am going to post my evaluation after spending 30 days with the company. For those of you that are unfamiliar with social spark, they are a website that acts as the “middle man” between advertisers and bloggers. They offer several services, including reviews and pay per click ads. I tried both of those from the blogger/publisher perspective.
I wrote two posts, one was accepted and one was rejected. Here is the link to the rejected post – MavenLink
I have no idea why the post was rejected as it met all the requirements and I think it is a decent write up. My only guess is that they did just not want to pay out. This is the only thing I can think of, I was hoping to get a real answer, but my repeated attempts to reach someone through “customer love” have gone unanswered.
I am obviously a little annoyed about that, but the thing that has me really ticked off is the cpc racket they are running over there. I have been (and still) running a 125×125 ad prominently displayed on the sidebar. First off, I have a hard time believing that this ad has only been clicked 14 times since it has been running. The reason I have a hard time believing this is because I am able to track the other ads, and they have each been clicked over 200 times in the same time period. Ok, so let’s say they have only been clicked 14 times, they go on further to say that 8 of those 14 clicks are invalid. I know I did not click on the ad, so how could they be invalid. I went to the site to see if I could find an explanation. All I found was a bunch of excuses about the program being new and they are working on it. I also found quite a few bloggers that are equally perplexed about the invalid clicks. Take a look at some comments:
“Why can’t we see what is a valid or invalid click. I’m getting really pissed at seeing all invalid clicks where I know that people have made valid ones because they have talked to me about the items they have clicked on. Why aren’t the results of click forensics “transparent” to the blogger. I’m pretty sure I’m getting shafted with the CPC campaigns.”
‘I was going through stats on valid/invalid clicks for a few CPC opportunities that I’ve taken recently. And it appears a majority of the clicks that I’m getting are being rejected by ClickForensics? Why is this so?’
Looks like I am not the only one who feels like they are getting shafted..
So I ask you, do you think Social Spark is ripping of bloggers? I can tell you based on my experience, I feel like I am/was ripped off.
I will update this post, if/when I hear from “customer love.”
****UPDATE*******
I am happy to report that a day after I published this post, I was contacted by the customer love at social spark and their parent company, Izea. My blog post was approved and I received a detailed explanation of the click activity. This was all I ever wanted, so thanks…
I am very excited about the start of a new series here on Tycoon Blogger. Every Saturday I will be featuring an outstanding blogger from the blog-o-sphere in a series called “Blogger Spotlight.” For the first installment I am delighted to interview an up and coming blogger name George Serradinho. I visit George’s blog daily as there is a great blend of blogging info, wordpress info as well as some personal stuff thrown in as well. If you have not been to his blog yet you have to check it out, in addition to great content, it is one of the most visually appealing blogs on the Internet.
Here is the interview…Enjoy!
Q. Please tell us who you are, where you are from and a little bit about your blog.
Well, my name is George Serradinho and I was born and raised in the beautiful country of South Africa. I come from a family of six with 2 brothers and only one sister, thank God for that, I currently work in the IT department for a huge telecommunications company as a contractor and just love it.
As some of you might know, my domain name Serradinho.com, which is actually my surname. When I initially started my blog, it was to be for personal blogging whereby I could express my thoughts and opinions like millions of others on the net. As my blog has evolved over time, I have branched out to try and help others as much as possible by supplying tips and tricks on different topics, but still posting on personal experiences.
Q. How long have you been blogging?
The domain Serradinho.com has been registered since January 2006, but I only started blogging in August of 2007.
Q. What was your first online project?
I had accumulated many hundreds of ebooks over the years and thought of selling them on the net to make some extra cash.
Me not having any website programming languages behind my name, I started to browse the internet for open source software. I eventually landed on osCommerce.com and this is where I started to learn MySQL, HTML, CSS and PHP. I eventually gave up on osCommerce as I had stumbled onto WordPress which would suit my needs more.
Q. What got you interested in blogging?
mmmmmm, I guess it comes down to sharing your thoughts, opinions, knowledge and getting to meet other wonderful bloggers. Since I started blogging, I have met many wonderful people who are like-minded and to be able to connect with others is amazing.
Q. Do you blog for money? If so, how is that working out for you?
When I started blogging, it was for absolute fun and pleasure as stated above in one of my previous answers. It was just something to keep me busy and to entertain my own ego, lol.
I have recently started to monetize my blog and the income is slowly growing on a monthly basis. I’m not making thousands like others, but I’m still learning what works for my site. Making money from one’s site is not as easy as most people think, it takes time and patience.
Q. Who do you think the top 3 bloggers are right now?
Me, myself and I, just kidding J There are so many around now days, but if I had to name 3 then it would be Jim Regan from TheNetFool.com, Alex from Blogussion.com and last but not least would be Darren Rowse from ProBlogger.net.
Q. What is the single best piece of advice you would give a new blogger starting out today?
Take your time and do things correct from the start. Know your short term and long term goals and strive to achieve them.
Q. What are your top three sources of traffic to your blog?
Currently it would be Google, referring sites and then direct traffic.
The referring sites traffic is from forums, blogs and other sites where I leave comments on. Some blogs have CommentLuv installed and that is a great resource of traffic as the user gets to see your last blog post title and he/she can then view it if they want.
Q. What is your best money maker for your blog?
That will have to be the Thesis affiliate program. I have just recently moved over to using the Thesis theme and it’s really not hard to promote it.
With the theme customizations that can be done and with the community support in place, I think it speaks for itself. The commission is great and all you need is to have a link on your site, they have reviews, video, articles and loads more.
Q. How many blogs do you own? What are your other blogs?
At this stage I only own one, and that’s Serradinho.com. Maybe in the near future I will broaden my arisen with a few more, you never know!
Q. How much time to spend on your blog each week? This includes writing and promoting.
Wow, this is a hard question for me to answer. If I have to put down a number, I would say it’s around 25 hours a week, give or take a few minutes. I use the word ‘around’ as I visit many sites and get great ideas or see great articles and go from there.
I spend 10 to 30 minutes per article that I publish, checking my grammar and making sure all is in order. There are some articles that require more time and research, but I guess that’s the case with all bloggers.
Q. Where do you see the future of blogging heading?
Blogging has been evolving for some time now and it will continue to evolve. They have made it so easy for both old and young to blog using different blogging platforms available today.
As we push the boundaries of technology, so we will continue to push the boundaries of blogging until it reaches its absolute limit. You always read about more and more people blogging every year and those numbers will continue to rise. Blogging will never die, it might change its appearance with time, but the basics of blogging will always be there.
Q. What else do you online besides blogging?
If I was a woman this would be easy to answer, SHOPPING of course (sarcasm). Sorry, I just had to say that. I shop around now and then for specials on electronics. I try my best to communicate with friends and family abroad and sometime play a few games although I’m not a big gamer.
Q. What social network are you most involved with? How can we connect with you there?
At this stage I use Twitter on and off, depending on my time and internet access. Users can get hold of me @gfserradinho; I would love to hear from some of your readers.
