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- Why does Michael Arrington hate freedom ...- WordPress and plugins for a new blog
- Christmas present from WidgetBucks
- Google launches customized results
- Bashing bloggers without a cause
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Google launches customized results
By Alex on November 20th 2008 - 0 comments
While searching Google tonight, I notice a couple icons next to every one of my search results. An green "up arrow", and a red "x". Google says "When possible, Google will customize your search results based on location and/or recent search activity. Additionally, when you're signed in to your Google Account, you may see even more relevant, useful results based on your web history".
So if you search for "Weed Pictures", and you scroll down and see the 5th result, ChronicFile.com, and you think that should be your first result, just hit the green up arrow.
If you hit the green up button, it will move that search results to the number one spot. Then when you search for "SEARCH" in the future, your search results should be the same. If you "delete" a search result, it will fall to the bottom of all the other search results. You can always un-delete any results you've deleted in the past.
Remember, these are personal customized results, and as far as we know your votes will not affect the search results of anybody else using Google. Although Google might use that information to tweak SERP int he future.
Bashing bloggers without a cause
By Alex on October 11th 2008 - 3 comments
I was going through my RSS feeds today and I found an interesting blog post from Shivanand Sharma as BinaryTurf.com. He went into a rant about how Darren Rowse from ProBlogger.net is basically scamming his visitors and putting out ... bad advice just to make money. He complained that there's no about page (lie), no vision for his website (lie) and no frontpage (lie). I mean it only took me 30 seconds to find these links so I'm not sure how Shivanand missed them.
He also said he was going to remove the bloggeries post within 24 hours "for obvious reasons", which I have a real problem with. If you're going to bash somebody like this, either have the balls to keep your opinion up, or shut up.
Right after I tried to leave a comment on his blog, the post was removed. Luckily there's this cool "cache" feature in most browsers that let me retrieve his post and share it with you. Click the picture below to see the full screenshot.
As far as his claim about taking advantage of unsuspecting visitors, how is this any different than any ad displayed on any other website? Bloggers are trying to make a living doing what they love, and Darren is no different. If a user happens to buy a camera through his website, why shouldn't he get a cut? If this truly was a spam website, people wouldn't keep coming back to visit his blog, but they do, and Darren isn't forcing them to come back.
Not every website on the internet has to be exactly the same. Give Darren credit for coming up with a unique design that keeps his readers interested.And if you're going to post something like this, don't get scared and remove the post. Have the balls to stand by what you said and what you believe.
Update: The post is back online.
A one year review of WidgetBucks
By Alex on August 16th 2008 - 2 comments
I was going through some of my old writing and I found a few stories I never posted, and this is one of them. A sort of "guest post" by the old me. I am expanding on it as well to include current and relevant information.
WidgetBucks is a new advertising company that was launched back in October of 2007. They've exploded onto the scene faster than any advertising company in recent memory, so much so that they exceeded their 6-month goals in less than one month. At a time when AdSense is reducing their clickable areas, webmasters are looking for new sources of income. The question is, will WidgetBucks live up to the hype?
Like most people, I was hesitant to replace AdSense and private ad sales for WidgetBucks positions. I didn't know if they would actually pay better, or if I would even get paid. I replaced one ad unit with WidgetBucks half-way through October, and a week later I had replaced two or three AdSense units with WidgetBucks units on a few different websites I run.
I heard a lot of people complaining in the first two months. They said things like "they pay too much per click, I bet nobody will get checks, it's a scam" and "They banned me for earning too much money and now they won't pay me, scam". Needless to say, this didn't make webmasters feel very secure in switching over to WidgetBucks. I had my doubts, but I was never worried about not getting paid. Two months after I joined, I got my first WidgetBucks check for over $1,000.
The reason people were complaining about WidgetBucks being a scam and being banned and such, is because they abused the service. AdSense would have banned them for using the same tactics. These webmasters probably knew that, but decided to go black-hat with a new advertising company. Then they complain and call it a scam when they get banned.
My personal results for October were a lot better than I expected. The clicks and the CPC were high, and usually very steady. And even though I started using WidgetBucks halfway through October, I still earned as much as I earned with AdSense the entire month of October. This means I now had the potential to (at least) double my income.
Unfortunately, as the months progressed, WidgetBucks made changes to their algorithm. Clicks that earned me 50 cents in October were only earning me 30 cents by January, and those same clicks continued to fall in value over time. Three months ago, I finally started replacing my WidgetBucks units with CPM advertising companies. I still have one WidgetBucks unit on every one of my websites, but I only earn about $100 from WidgetBucks today, down from over $1,000 just a year ago.
If you've never tried WidgetBucks before, there's absolutely no reason not to try it. The widgets tend to do better on certain websites, and you might just have one of those websites. When I signed up I thought I might make an extra $100 or so a month, but it started at over $1,000 a month. But even if it was only $100 a month, that's money you wouldn't have made with AdSense.
My suggestion is to sign up with WidgetBucks and add one unit to your website. Test it for a month and see if the extra income is worth the extra ad. Don't let my lack of results discourage you. If you have a niche website related to WidgetBucks advertising categories, this could be a gold mine for you.
Sign up for WidgetBucks, just click here.