1. The Benefits of Keeping a Private Journal – A post by Dosh Dosh about developing habit of a private journal as an aid to build your personal life and your online empire.

2. Caroline has released a revision of her Wordpress Niche ebook.

3. Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Professional Blogger? – By Yaro Starak

4. Gyutae Park from Winning the Web has explored 5 types of bloggers.

5. Using a WordPress Page as your home page by Blogging Experiment

As I said, do not miss anyone of them. They are all good.

Weekend Talk – Thoughtful Posts I came across this week

I have read a lot of lists of ways to build links. Most of the ways have not worked well for me or just did not apply to my websites. However, I have tried a lot of different methods, and I will tell you some methods that have worked well for me.

Article Marketing – Basically, article marketing means you write articles and submit them to article directories. With the articles, you include an “about the author” section with a link or two back to your website. This can also be a good way to get traffic directly, especially if your articles get picked up and republished on a popular website or ezine. The disadvantage is that search engines will not value the links that much if the content is not unique. In other words, it does not help much to publish the same article to multiple directories.

Forum Posting – Most forums will allow you to have a signature, in which you can put a link to your website. Most of the forums do not add nofollow to the link, but some do, so you may want to check that. The trick to forum posting is to make high quality posts. Be helpful and informative. If people like your posts, then they will be much more likely to check your signature link.

Blog Commenting – Almost all blogs put nofollow in their comment links, so the links do not have much direct SEO value. However, if you subscribe to relevant blogs, you can read there posts and regularly post helpful comments. By doing that, you can build relationships with the bloggers, and the bloggers may post about your website or add a link to it in their blogroll.

Great Content – The number one way to get links is to have great content on your website. If you have great content, people will decide to link to you on their own. If you have bad content, then you will find it very difficult to build links. If you have a video site, you need to post great videos. If you have a website with jokes, then you need to have lots of great, very funny jokes. If you have a website providing information about a certain topic, then you need to provide lots of helpful information about it. Basically, if you have great content, your website will promote itself.

Those are just some ways that have worked for me. Feel free to experiment with other link building methods too.

Link Building Tips from My Experience

Nevertheless, Dewald got back to me 2 days back. He has a setup a coupon code system where you have to enter the code BLOGREPRENEUR or blogrepreneur and you will be entitled to a 20% discount. I guess this should encourage you to go ahead and buy the product.

Here is the link to buy WP SEO Sniper again. Just so you know, when you go through the discount route, I lose my affiliate commission. Dewald explained to me the complications involved while giving a discount and retaining affiliate commissions. I decided to skip the affiliate commission. I am more happy to get you the discount rather than the affiliate commission.

Don’t miss, the coupon code box is on the bottom of the sales page.

Weekend Talk – An Update on WP SEO Sniper

What happens is this – When you write a post and click the PUBLISH button, Wordpress pings all the service you have listed in the Admin panel and informs them of your new post and each of these services in turn crawl your blog and index your latest content. While this is good, there is also a serious problem. If say, 10 minutes later, you go ahead and edit the post and then click PUBLISH again, Wordpress goes ahead and pings all the service again, as if you have published a new post.

This can pose a serious problem if you edit a post multiple times in a day. It can actually be considered spam by the Ping services and can eventually end up in your blog getting banned.

As Wordpress has done nothing about this flaw, the author has come up with a neat solution. The solution comes in the form of a Plugin called Ping Optimizer. What it basically does is restrict Wordpress from pinging a post already pinged as well as those posts that are time stamped. Yes, Wordpress also pings those posts that are time stamped for a future date. Ping Optimizer solves this problem completely. It is an Out-of-the-Box solution that requires you to only install and activate.

So, right away download Ping Optimizer and install it on your blog.

Weekend Talk – Wordpress Blog and Ping

I decided it was time for some action. I fired up a mail to them hoping for a clear cut reply. 2 days later, the reply was at my inbox. I read it. I was happy. They were pretty clear. They did not have a problem, but had certain conditions. They always have. Here is the question and answer session, straight from the horse’s mouth.

Hello,

I have a very important question. Is it okay for me to place Google Adsense and Bidvertiser.com ads in the same page? Bidvertiser said they are fine with it. I want to know what Google says.

Please answer at the earliest

Thanks
Al

Google Responds –

Hello,

Thank you for your email.

I understand you’d like some clarification on our competing ads policy.

AdSense publishers may display third party advertisements on sites and pages showing Google ads as long as the formatting or color scheme of these ads is sufficiently different from the layout of the Google ads. In other words, if you choose to place non-Google ads on the same site or page as Google ads, it should always be clear to the user that the ads are served by different advertising networks and that the non-Google ads have no association with Google. If the formats are naturally similar, we’d ask that you use different color schemes for the competing ads.

For additional questions, I’d encourage you to visit the AdSense Help Center ( http://www.google.com/adsense_help ) or the official AdSense blog ( http://adsense.blogspot.com?utm_source=txft ). Alternatively, feel free to post your question on the AdSense Help Forum (

http://groups.google.com/group/adsense-help?utm_source=txft ).

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

All those of you, that were in doubt; you shouldn’t be anymore. I am positive the above has cleared it all. So, make changes if you have to and follow the rules if you wish to be in Google’s good books.

Great Weekend
Al

Weekend Talk – Google Adsense and 3rd Party Ads

It is called the Automatic Wordpress Upgrade Plugin. Initially after I uploaded and activated it, I was worried. I really wasn’t sure if I wanted to push the automatic upgrade button. What if messed up my database? I then decided to take chance by backing up all my files.

I have to tell you, it is a wonderful Plugin. Really wonderful. It did exactly what it promised. I take my hats off to the author for making a Plugin as this one. It cuts down the time that takes to upgrade the Wordpress edition manually.

Pick up a copy of the Wordpress Automatic Plugin at this link.

Weekend Talk – Wordpress Automatic Upgrade

Recently, I had to reformat my Hard Drive due to slow performance of my machine. No amount of tuning and junk deletion helped. So, with a heavy heart, I set to format the HDD and re-install the OS. It took about an hour to finish the task and another hour to organize the contents, install the necessary components, restore backed up files, etc.

In the midst of all this, there was one element I couldn’t find after repeated search. My IDEA Notepad. It was gone. Poof! I had deleted it during the HD formatting. I had not backed it up. My brain was on fire. There were ideas in it to cover blogging for the next 2 months at least. It was all gone.

There was of course no point crying over spilt milk. After a day of consoling myself over the loss, I decided to take action. I Googled for an organizer software and came across some. Then a thought struck in me. I changed my Search parameters to Wordpress Plugin. Guess what, I found my favorite Notepad in the form of a Plugin.

Its called Khan’s Instant Notepad. It is a neat Plugin that, once installed sits in the main menu of your Wordpress admin panel under the name “Notepad”. When you click on it, a new page pops up with Notepad features. Take a look:

The tool even has the Author option for Multiple Authored Wordpress Blogs. Every author who jots down ideas can save it under his/her name and retrieve it later. All in all, it definitely is a great tool for lazy bugs like me.

Give it a try. Download Khan’s Instant Notepad Plugin and let me know how it worked for you.

Weekend Resource – Using a ThoughtPad to Store Blog Topics

Then it all changed.

I decided not to pay anymore. I wasn’t really happy with the performance reports, coupled with errors and database downtimes. I decided to explore the free world. In a matter of couple days, I found what I was looking for. The perfect statistical companion(s).

Let me share them with you.

Before I proceed, here is a piece of advice. Never rely on any one Analytics tool. It is important to have at least 2 different logging tools to gather vital information about your blog’s performance. That said, I use 3 different tools to satisfy my statistical needs.

1. Google Analytics
2. Open Web Analytics
3. Blog Stats from Auttomatic

Google Analytics: This is my favorite tool, no doubt about it. But I use it a bit differently. I login to my Google Analytics just about once a week. I do not use it to see how many visitors I have received on a given day. Instead I use it purely for the purpose of analyzing the incoming traffic, the quality of the traffic, their sources, the keywords used to arrive at my blog, the different locations people have arrived from, the bounce rate, the duration of their stay and more.

I am sure you want to know more about how to use and benefit from Google Analytics. Go to my homepage and download my book “ABC of Google Analytics. It is free and comes with zero strings attached.

Open Web Analytics: My absolute favorite for real time visitors statistics. It was founded by Peter Adams about whom you can read everything here. This tool has the look and feel of Google Analytics, while providing feature rich real time analytical tools. What disappoints me is the fact that this Web Analytics tool hasn’t received the exposure it really deserves. The first time I installed, I was really amazed at what I saw in the Dashboard. Here are a few screen shots.

Auttomatic Blog Stats: Blog Stats is the third Analytics package I use. This is something I refer daily, for the purpose of finding out if there is something that OWA has missed or not tracked. At the end of the day, I cross reference both of them and study both the data in brief to conclude the average figures. I definitely like this a lot, but do not trust the figures as much as I trust OWA. OWA is number 1 in my book for real time web analytics. Here are a few screen shots again for Auttomatic Blog Stats.

The above 2 packages come in the form of Wordpress Plugins. You have to download them and upload it to your Plugin directory. For information on how to upload a Plugin, refer to my post here. Again, the Plugins mentioned above are free and have no strings attached.

To conclude, you do not really have to shell out money on Analytics packages. They all have one or the problem and none of them are perfect. I have to add this briefly. My recent experience with pMetrics was pretty bad and depressing. I do not want to go in detail about it because the guys behind pMetrics are solid individuals with excellent morals and dedication. They are striving hard to improve pMetrics. So I am positive, in a few months it will emerge out a winner. Until then, it simply sucks.

Try the above combination and let me know. I can tell you for a surety you will love them and also that you won’t look back again at any paid packages sold in the market. Do share your experiences in the comments section. I can’t wait to hear them.

Do you pay for your Analytics package?

The tool is available inside your Adwords account itself. You can check it out by signing up for an Adwords account. Adwords account signup is free and unconditional. I have uploaded a video by Google in the Video section on the right. The video runs you through the basics of Website Optimizer and how to use it effectively for maximum ROI.

Content Robot has released a Plugin by the name “Google Website Optimizer”. The Plugin was created for Wordpress bloggers who use Adwords to promote their blog. In their own words:

“The Google Website Optimizer Plugin integrates the Google Website Optimizer into WordPress blog posts and pages. It allows WordPress bloggers who are already enrolled in Google’s Adwords program to insert the tracking codes required to run headline and copy tests to determine which blog copy/content drives the best conversions”.

Should you really use this Plugin?

Yes, you should. If you are an Adwords account holder, then you should. I personally do not have an Adwords account, so I may not use it, but I will definitely consider it when I go with Adwords for my PPC campaigns. I have no intention to waste my money on campaigns that do not produce good results. Using this tool, I can easily narrow down to the best ROI producing copies.

Here are a few guidelines before use this Plugin:

• Make sure you have a valid Google Adwords Account
• Determine the copy you will be tracking (this can be a headline, image, or paragraphs of text)
• Write alternative copy for your test
• Make sure the WYSIWYG editor is disabled in the WordPress administration area under “My Account” – uncheck “Use the visual editor when writing”. Switching between the “Visual” and “code” tabs in the 2.1.x WYSIWYG editor won’t work – it needs to be disabled.

Lastly, click on this link to download the Plugin. Do not forget to watch the video I have uploaded to your right.

Weekend Resource – Google Website Optimizer Plugin