Enkay Blog

Google Says “OK” To Some Link Schemes?

I read this over at BlogNewsChannel and it seems as though Google has had a change of heart when talking about linking schemes. Exactly a month ago I had started my “Jump Start Your Page Rank” train that turned out to be so popular that it is continuing till today.

Over the course of the link train, I received a few nasty comments and emails stating that the link train is going to lead to a Google ban. To be honest, I was a little worried whether or not doing so was okay but at the time the link train had picked up so much steam that it was speeding around the blogosphere. The main reason for having the link train was mostly to help my slouching Technorati ranking and meeting other bloggers. So far I would say that over a 100+ pingbacks have been received and I have a lot of batches for free link backs ready to go.

In this particular article mentioned above, Google has changed its Webmaster Guidelines to include the word “excessive”, so lets take a look how this affects us bloggers. Before the guideline change, the stipulation was as follows:

Examples of link schemes can include:
Link exchange and reciprocal links schemes (”Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)

After the change in guideline the word excessive has been added:

Examples of link schemes can include:
Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (”Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)

It seems that Google is opening up to the idea that link exchanges on the smaller scale aren’t as bad as massive, almost spam-like, reciprocal linking. Although the definition of the word “excessive” can be interpreted many ways, I think that Google is easing up on the more innocent link exchange schemes. This is good news for the blogging community because having small-scale link exchange schemes will now have to deal with Google’s more lenient guidelines. Either way, I think that after a certain point controlling smaller link exchange schemes might be considered as digging too deep but at the same time, the blogosphere is willing to accept the new policy change with open arms. Let me know what you guys think about this change in policy.

I also want to Thank everyone who commented on my earlier post regarding the theme update. I will be seeing what can be done and if I decide to proceed with it, the new theme should go in place tomorrow! Thanks again!

Opinion Needed! Calling All Readers!

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay and I know that most of you are wondering what Enkay has been upto but there have been a few things going on. I came to realize that I missed BetShopBoy’s party so I wanted to congratulate him on the big move to a self-hosted Wordpress blog. I recently went through a server move myself and even with the two days of downtime my Alexa seems to have been doing really well.

Possible Blog Update
With everything on the rise, I thought that it may be time for a small update to the blog. No, this isn’t a custom theme such as what John Chow has had however, it is a small update to clear up the sidebar for the blog in an attempt to make it more organized. More so this is would be an update to clear up the right sidebar, out of the two that I have on the blog. I have two designs that are already designed and I just wanted your opinion on them because this decision will affect my readers more than anybody else, so who better to ask! Let me show you the two designs for starters:

   

[Update]: The only difference between the two designs is that Style 1 has graphics that have a background in them and Style 2 has the same graphics without the background. Some may feel that Style 1 can be distracting because of the background and thats why I needed to see what works well for you!

I would refer to the design on the left as Style 1 and the design on the right as Style 2 and I want to ask you which one do you prefer. If you prefer the design the way it is then “Original” would be sufficient. I wanted to get your opinion on which design you prefer, so in your reply somewhere if you could please state whether you like Style 1, Style 2 or the Original, I would really appreciate it!

I was planning on releasing the theme midnight tonight as a surprise but after having an extensive talk with a few of my peers, I came to realize that it may be better to see how my reading audience feels. I will wait till midnight tomorrow before I finalize anything and will surely consider your responses in deciding what needs to be done.

Why The Update?
The reason for the update is to make my sidebar more organized to help make it easier for people to find things that they are looking for. Also, with the new setup, the right sidebar will be a little wider to accommodate expanded advertising options considering the blog has consistently seen great progress looking at the Alexa and Technorati ranking. Other than that, the content of the sidebar is not being modified in any form however, everything was adjusted keeping in mind what my readers would prefer. Also for the most part, the location of all the content in the sidebar is pretty much the same. Now it is all up to you to decide how you like each of the styles, or for that matter, if you don’t like either!

Thank you once again for your support and emails. I want to thank everyone who has helped bring this blog the progress that it has seen over the months and I am beyond satisfied with the results! If you have any questions or comments, please email me by visiting my Contact page!

BlogSpot Blogs Have TLA Advantage?

Lately I was wondering why nobody was taking advantage of my $15 text link ad through TextLinkAds considering that my Alexa was 152,000 and dropping on a consistent basis. Then I decided to see the prices and ratings for some of the blogs on TLA and realized that most Blogspot blogs had an Alexa of “14″ based on the fact that Blogspot.com is rated at an Alexa of 14.

There are some people that have had honest Alexa ratings such as BetShopBoy who had an original Alexa rating however there are many who seem to be taking advantage of Blogspots Alexa rank. Some may argue that Alexa isn’t the only deciding factor in how TLA decides the price of your blog but if you look at the listing in the Marketplace for TLA, you will realize that the only thing, other than price, that can be manipulated to decide which website you pick is the Alexa ranking. If you’re like me and want the best ranking then you will see that for anywhere in the range of $15 to $35 per month, you can buy a link on several blogs ranked at 14. Heres a screenshot below:

It got me wondering as to how many blogs there actually were that had their Alexa listed at 14, I went through the pages and came up with around 15.5 pages with blogs that were hosted on Blogspot and had their Alexa rank showing “14″. Considering there were 15 listings on a page that means there were approximately 232 listings that can be counted as being a little flawed. Most of those blogs also had ad spots filled and had Technorati rankings that were at the 4 million mark. Surprisingly, an average of 3 ads were sold among all the listings. I am not pointing a finger at the blog owners but at the Text Link Ads system for basing a majority of the listings upon the Alexa rank. In essence what I want to suggest is that TLA account for other things such as Technorati in ranking their listings so that everything can be fair. What do you guys think about this?

Friday Blogosphere Happenings!

There has been a lot happening this Friday and most importantly, there are contests taking place almost on a daily basis. Ofcourse, most of you have heard about my contest so far where I will be giving away 5 FlippingRich.com T-shirts but because of the slow response, I may decide to either end the contest by mid September or give out a shirt to one in every 5 entries. So far, the one shirt to every 10 entrants stands strong but depending on how things go, it may change. Either way, lets take a look at whats going on elsewhere in the blogosphere.

SweetHacks $50 Giveaway Contest!
Abdalla is running this contest and he is giving away either the Halo 3 Game or $50, you pick! I was the second place in his first contest and now that his site is finally back you can jump on this contest quickly. It ends in about a month, so lets see those entries!

iPhone Bonanza
I would love to have an iPhone on my hand and currently they are two placed giving them away! First one is by Buzz Patrol. They have a blog about celebrity news, celeb gossip and plainly entertainment news. There are a few methods of entry so go check it out!

The next person holding an iPhone contest is AskReaMaor and its pretty easy to enter her contest. She has all the rules laid out and the blog is actually well designed. I liked her humorous posts about “Hello, Tech Support, How May I Help You?” That post was pretty entertaining considering most of us have experienced the glorious days of staying on the line with Tech Support only to be transferred elsewhere to wait another half hour! Good stuff, specially because its really easy to enter. I promise that if I end up with 2 iPhones that I will be giving one of them away and I really hope I win this one from the AskReamaor blog!

$100 Cash Anyone?
Okay, who doesn’t like cash? Nobody, thats exactly what I thought. Once again, I love blogs that have easy methods to enter! So here we have WhassupJack giving away a $100 cash for just linking to them or subscribing to their feed along with commenting. I could really use the money, trust me!

Take a Bad Picture? How About A New Camera?
Mike from Stay At Home Dad, Geek Style is having a give-away where he is letting go of a brand new Canon SD750 Digital Camera. If you haven’t figured by the name already, he is a stay home dad who spends time with his daughter. He was also able to secure a sponsor, SmugMug, that is helping enhance the prize with a $150 value membership. DevDad has a great blog going and I think what really works for him is the design of his blog. I had checked out his blog when I first started blogging and the quality of his content has been maintained well, so go check out his Stay At Home Dad Digital Camera Give-Away!

24″ LCD Giveaway
In my other post, I mentioned about a 24″ LCD Giveaway by Prija but I just realized that JohnChow, the King of Blog Evil, is also hosting a 24″ LCD Giveaway. Here’s my entry! John Chow dot Com is holding another evil blog contest. He’s giving aw>ay a 24″ widescreen LCD monitor and a signed copy of the best selling book, The 4-Hour Workweek! Find out how to enter here. The contest is being sponsored byThe Million Dollar Wiki. Use coupon code JohnChow to save $10 on a page.

RomanDock’s First Contest
RomanDock or Nick has been a great contributor to the blog and I was just informed that he has a contest going on too. His blog talks about a little bit of everything but if you visit often you will see his love for Ham Radio. In his first blog contest, he is going to be giving away a book The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual, and a chance to win another $25 making the total prize value $50. The motive of the competition is to help someone get their Ham Radio license! I think its an interesting prize because it helps promote the concept of Ham Radio! Definitely check this one out because its not difficult at all to enter!

Darin Carters’ Wii Giveaway
Darin Carter is known to do things a different way, whether it is his Gmail productivity tips or the humorous oPhone video, Darin knows how to stick it to the competition. Similarly he has two contests going on and to make sure I enter both of them with one post, I figured I would kill two birds with the same stone, so here goes. Darin has a blog about search marketing and his style of writing and his generous way of handing out tips to fellow bloggers has helped him target a large audience over a short period of time. Darin’s blog has almost 200 RSS readers so he must be doing something right. Well for the first contest, Darin is giving away a Nintendo Wii which I would definitely love to win considering that its almost impossible to find anywhere.

Darin’s PS3 Giveaway
Second up, is his contest where he is giving away a Free Playstation 3 thanks to his sponsors over at IAWMD. Darin is an internet marketing expert and I actually discovered his blog a long time ago when I noticed that his RSS button has a white background located on a gray sidebar. I actually redesigned the RSS button for him and sent it to him because I am a perfectionist and that sort of bothered me. Anyway, I visited his blog again later only to notice that he never changed it! Darin, if you need it again just comment back and I will re-send it to you! I would have commented on the design but as some of you know, he is currently tweaking his new design so until that is completed I can’t say anything about that. The one thing I would say is that the background for GoogleAds is set to gray which can be a little distracting from the main content but depending on how well it earns, it may be a good idea to either leave it the way it is or change it to white like the rest of the page. Other than that, I can’t say much about the blog since its already being upgraded! Thanks for the opportunity Darin! I could give my fingers exercise by playing a few games every now and then!

Well, thats it for right now but check back soon for a little interesting find on Text-Link-Ads! Thanks for reading and check back soon!

Custom Themes, The Fad?

So, all of you already know by now that John Chow has a custom theme designed by none other than Nate Whitehill. Nate has done a fantastic job but I wonder how much the theme can help or hurt John Chow. For ever so long, JC was recognized by the sporty cars in the header and the simple “Misty” theme and although the download counter for the Misty theme may have doubled up during that time, JC followers may have a hard time copying his new theme.

All this commotion regarding a custom theme has lit a bulb in my head, “Why not me?” and even though some may argue that I have given the original “Vertigo Enhanced” theme quite a facelift, I have decided to work on a new design. I talked to Prija over at CashForComments and I mentioned a beta project of mine called “Chuck” which you can see here. Currently, the theme for Chuck is Redoable by Dean Robinson and I am working on taking it to the next level. My current theme was modified to a certain degree but I wish to see my beta project “Chuck” reach a new height of customization.The reason I am providing you with a URL for my beta project is so you can see me work on it as time passes. Either way, this brings me to my main point of what some of the advantages and disadvantages of having a custom theme can be:

Advantages:
1) You get exactly what you want - most of the times with anything custom, you can create something that will be exclusive to you. Custom means, tailored to your needs and in that sense JohnChow has been able to do exactly that.
2) More space - this could be more advertising space for JC, but in general most bloggers would agree that having a little more space would help them grow. For example, my theme was expanded by 25 pixels from the original to give it more room to breathe. With a custom theme, those minor adjustments can be built right in.
3) Custom panel/widget integration - what this means is that you can actually integrate new widgets directly into the theme. This gives you more flexibility in terms of creating a sidebar block to place ads or a block directly into the header for your RSS subscription.

Disadvantages:
1) Time Consuming - the process of custom theme creation for most bloggers is that it takes too much time. Nothing ever works perfectly on the first try and some of us have experienced that the hard way but the only way to be sure everything works well is through constant testing.
2) Can Be Expensive - we all know that time means money and if you aren’t customizing your own theme then you would have to pay someone to do it for you. I used to be a webdesigner and so the price for a design by Nate Whitehill wasn’t surprising to me. $800 could be expensive to some people and specially a start-up blog.
3) Too Jumbled - I don’t know about you but I feel that when some people create a custom theme for themselves, they include so much of the stuff they want that it actually takes away from the reader experience. You wouldn’t want that. Keeping your needs simple is the best way to go.

Sometimes with a custom theme people get so used to the original theme that the newer theme doesn’t ever fit well with them and that would be my main concern if I had a highly successful blog. But anyway, that should clear up a little bit of the reasoning behind creating a custom theme and although my beta project “Chuck” was just created earlier today, I will start working on it during my free time over the next month or so to see how it turns out. Wish me luck but at the same time, think about something that you wished was different in your current design. Basically, if there was something you could change about your current blog design, what would it be?