Recently, I made a post here on "Saving Drafts". For that post I had to link to one of Darren Rowse’s old post, which he wrote pretending to be his 1 year old son. I knew that he had mentioned about saving drafts, in that post. Also, I vaguely remembered the post title. So I headed over to his blog and searched for "things you know about my dad problogger". Keep in mind that the post’s actual title was "5 Things You Should Know about My Dad the ProBlogger". So, where would you expect the result to be ? The first result ? No.. The first page ? No.. It was the 3rd result on the second page. That is the 12th result.

Now, to experiment, I searched for the exact post title now : "5 Things You Should Know about My Dad the ProBlogger". This time, the result was promoted from 12th position to 9th position. Wow.. What a great improvement ! Kudos to WordPress. Sorry guys, I don’t mean to insult WordPress or its developers. But, being the #1 Blogging software, WordPress should really consider having a good search functionality.

I really wish the WordPress works on their search functionality. But, till then, there are some ways to enhance your blog’s search functionality :

• Search Unleashed – A WordPress plugin that extends the inbuilt search functionality. Check out the plugin page for more info.
• Search Everything – Again a plugin that includes pages, comments, tags and more in your search results.
• Google Search Engine – Who can beat Google when it comes to searching ? Adding a Google powered search to your blog is the best solution. Check out : Plugin / Manual Implementation Tutorial.
• Sphider – For those who don’t know, Sphider is a search engine that is powered by PHP and MySQL. You can install Sphider on your server that indexes your blog. Trust me, its really good. The only thing is that this runs on your own server and Google CSE runs on Google’s server. Tutorial Link.

Do you know any other method or plugin to enhance WordPress’s search functionality ? Share with us in the comments.

• /year/month/date/post-name/
• /post-name/
• ?p=post-number
• /archives/post-number/

Also, you can create your own permalink structures too. Of all these, the first two mentioned above are the most widely used. Permalinks are one of the easily over-looked aspects when building a blog. They are important because, they are permanent links to your posts. You can’t change their structure later without losing your backlinks. Of course, you can set up 301 redirects. But, its beyond the knowledge of most bloggers.

Now coming back to the topic, which permalink structure to choose ? It comes down to the personal preference of the blogger. But, one must think twice before choosing, as it cannot be easily changed later. Almost 90% of the bloggers go for a permalink that has the post title in the URL. So, that has become a standard. But, a variety of opinion exists in whether to have the date in the URL or not. My personal choice is that I’d like to know when a post was made just by looking at the URL. I asked a few popular bloggers out there which structure they prefer. Check out their answers below :

Michael Martin uses /category/post-name/

Out of the two, I would probably go for /post-name/ now. (Simply because the long date isn’t necessary, and makes the URL look too complicated).

I’m using /category/post-name/ because when I set up the structure, I was thinking of categories as folders for the posts. One post went into one folder. It made sense, and showed the hierarchy of the site (domain/category/post).

If I was starting all over again though, I definitely wouldn’t be using /category/post-name/. The categories I set up originally were far too rigid, so I ended up with the majority of the posts being in 2 or 3 categories just. And now I don’t use categories at all because of that.

Garry Conn uses /post-name.php

I use the post-name.php for my permalink on my WordPress blogs. The reason I do that compared to /post-name/ is because a post is actually a file and not a sub directory on a server. I feel like it provides a very good balance in how I structure folders and files on my server (even though these are dynamic and don’t physically exist). Google and other search engines when they crawl my pages, they don’t know that my site is dynamic. They just see logical filing system I have created for my site.

Kevin Muldoon uses /yyyy/mm/dd/post-name/

If I am using WordPress for a static website then I tend to use /post-name/ as the site will not have any more than 50 posts. However, for blogs which I update frequently I usually use /yyyy/mm/dd/post-name/. Although /post-name/ may be slightly better from an SEO point of view, there is a chance you will start duplication post titles after a while (certainly after 1,000 posts). Also, I prefer to include the date in the post URL so that it is clear to readers when the article was posted.

Aibek uses /tag/post-name/

I think it depends on the type of blog. If it’s a news site, I’d go with /yyyy/mm/dd/post-name/. If it’s reviews/tips or anything that doesn’t really depend on time too much I’d go with 2nd one

Michael Castilla

I prefer to use /post-name/ as it’s simple, easy to remember, and cleaner. /yyyy/mm/dd/post-name/ is too complicated and has all the unnecessary junk!

Daniel Scocco uses /post-name/

/post-name/. Because it is shorter.

Now that you’ve read what they say, what is your personal choice of permalink structure ? Which one do you use now ? And, if you were starting over again, which one will you go for ? Share your opinions in the comments.

The result ? I now have a large list of ideas for posts in the coming weeks. Just that I’ve to spend some time in expanding each into an actual post. :) But, that doesn’t take as much time as it takes to think an idea for a new post.

Also, whenever I open my Windows Live Writer (it happens often), this list of drafts stand right in front of my eyes. So, I’m tempted to open them, motivated to write them. The serve as my goals. And also provide some real motivation. After all, that is what all bloggers need. So, if you are not already drafting, start doing from today. :)

PS : Even when writing this post, an idea to write a post about "Left align or Right align Images for Blog Posts". So, I’ve saved a draft for that. You can expect it sometime soon.

Most of you will not be upgrading your blog until the stable version is released. (yeah, me too). You don’t want to be stranded when you upgrade. So, it is nice to try it out before hand. Now that all WordPress.com blogs have been upgraded, you can try it out for free over there. Thats what I’m doing now. Getting used to WP 2.7. What about you ? Have you already tried WP 2.7 ?

But there is some other secret in commenting, that can bring you loyal readers and not just lurkers. The secret is to comment on fairly new blogs in your niche instead of on the big boys. When you do this, you’ll be one among a few who comment on that blog. So, this grabs the special attention of the blog owner and with interesting content on your blog, you can easily turn them into loyal readers at about 80% conversion ( :P hehe, my rough estimate).

The catch here is what I mean by fairly new blogs. When implementing this strategy, you do have to ask yourselves a few questions:

1. Is the blog that you are targeting, in the same niche ? Will the blog owner will be interested in your content ?
2. Content is king. Is your blog content good enough to convert our curious visitors into loyal readers ?
3. On the other end, are there too many commentators ? Too many subscribers ? Any chance your comment may go unnoticed ?
4. Is the blog owner paying attention to comments ? Is he responding to them ?
5. Do a little research about the blog owner ? Is he just blogging as a hobby ? Or, will he have time to check out your blog ?

Now, Where Do I Find Such Blogs ?

Now, the real question is where to find such blogs ? My first advice here, is to check out the list of competitors for Blogging Idol 2. There are many good, not-so-popular blogs in the list. You can catch up some friends there.

The other option is to go for the hunt on the bigger blogs’ comments section. For example, if you go through the comments section of John Chow’s blog, you’ll find a lot of new blogs in the same "make money online" niche. You can find some good friends there.

And I am saying all these with proof. Recently here, George Manty from Can I Make Big Money Online, used to comment on many posts. By comments, I mean comments that add value to the original post. Not just "Oh ! thats a great post" comments. Now I am an RSS Reader of his blog. And similar is the case with Flyer. I’m an RSS Reader of his blog and we even chatted. So, can I call you my friend, Flyer ?

This strategy gets you not just loyal readers. But may also lead to friendship, link exchanges, partnerships, Who knows.

Now, you can have your say in the comments. Have you tried something like this ? Or have you began to follow any blog because the blog owner used to add interaction to your blog ?

These are non-genuine, non-spam comments. Unlike spam comments, these do not  contain too many links. At most 1 link and at times no link at all. They try to get past Akismet by pretending to be genuine. They are mostly targeted at Dofollow blogs (includes GotChance).

I hope that was clear. At most times, these comments are also held by Akismet. Sometimes, they do evade it, when the comment is a very short and doesn’t contain any links.

Now, let me show you some examples from my own Spam Queue :

1) A very generic comment that can be used on any blog and on any post : 

2) Again, a generic comment. I received the exact comment on two different posts (click to enlarge) :

3) A comment made possibly by an automated program (see below). Note that they include text from the title of the post (click to enlarge) :

Regarding the 3rd example above, nowadays there are many softwares out there that automatically post comments to a selected list of blogs. I didn’t know about these until recently when I started receiving spam comments promoting them. If you’d like to see, take a look at post-comments.com or commentposter.com.

Coming back to my question, do you allow such comments on your blog ? For new blogs, they may be increasing comment count. But, for fairly established blogs, they are a nuisance when visitors go through the comments. My personal stance is that, whenever they are caught in the Akismet spam queue, I delete them. I let them stay, if they are not caught.

Vote on this poll (if you are reading from via RSS, click through to see the poll ) :

My vote is for the third option.

1. Name your child the unconventional way. Register the name‘s domain name before naming your kid.
2. Go grab a good digital camera. Take HQ snaps of whatever you eat and post them on your blog regularly.
3. Love Cars. Write about them. Post pictures of them. Have one in your header if possible.
4. 7 out of your ever 10 posts should be from ReviewMe, STRICTLY.
5. After all, your blog should be a make money online blog.
6. But, make only one post on making money online. Make all the others OFF-TOPIC.
7. You should dump your blog will all kinds of ads under the earth : Peel away ads, Stripe ads, 468×60 banner, 300×250 banner and what not.
8. Place a bunch of completely irrelevant links on your sidebar courtesy of Text-Link-Ads.
9. Get slapped by Google, banned by Digg and kicked out by Technorati.
10. Google Adwords is for advertising. But, you are John Chow. So, use it for sending IMs to other bloggers.
11. Be an evil Panda killer.
12. Eat Evil, Sleep Evil, Think Evil and be the Root of all Evil.
13. To become the next John Chow, you must first kill the existing John Chow. Yeah, the Nike-way, just do it.
14. Last but not the least, if possible, change your name to John Chow. You can still top Google for that name.

Note : This post was not written with the motive of hurting/insulting John or any of his great fans. After all, I am also one.

In online marketing a landing page, sometimes known as a lead capture page, is the page that appears when a potential customer clicks on an advertisement or a search-engine result link. The page will usually display content that is a logical extension of the advertisement or link, and that is optimized to feature specific keywords or phrases for indexing by search engines.

Now, that is a bit more complicated than required. In blogging, it is basically a page through which a visitor enters your blog. I did a quick search and found a lot of articles on “how to create a great landing page“, “how to create a landing page that works” etc… But, no article focuses on why one must put up a landing page. It may be simple to say “it gives more information to the visitor about your site”. But, there is more.

Visitors May Feel Deserted

Your blog may have the greatest of designs. But, still your visitor is new to it. He might find the place quite strange. It may be completely different from other places that he might’ve visited on the web. So, quite naturally he might leave your blog, adding to your bounce rate.

If you don’t want this to happen, you need to tell him what is what. You need to tell him what your blog is about. This will make him accustom with your blog…

Your Blog Is Too Crowded

Quite often I come across a blog that is very crowded. Crowded in the sense, a lot of links, banners, widgets and what not. I am used to visiting such websites. But, it may not be the case with everyone. With such a blog, you may “scare away” your visitor.

Well, not necessarily.. Just as above, if you teach him what is what, he’ll become better accustomed with your blog. Just do that in your landing page.

Your Blog Is Like A Big Shopping Mall

Consider your blog as a shopping mall and yourself its owner. A visitor enters a mall with a clear idea of what he wants. But, in a huge shopping mall, he doesn’t know what is available where. You need to tell your visitors about it. Shopping malls do it with “direction signs” and bloggers should do it with “landing page”. You get the idea, right ?

Convert Into A Potential Reader

RSS Subscriber count has become an important metric in the blogosphere. With a good landing page, you can convert most of your lurkers into loyal readers. All you have to do is, put an RSS Subscription Link and/or an Email Subscription box on the landing page, just like how I’ve done.

You don’t know what amazing effects “calling to action” can have, unless you try out.

Increase Visit Length

By putting links to popular posts on your blog (which you can easily do with a plugin) on your landing page, you can give some life to your old posts. Not only that, you can get your visitors to hang out on your blog for more time.

Now, that would automatically make your visitor accustom himself to your blog, your writing style etc…

I hope the post was useful for you. Do you have a landing page for your blog ? If so, what all do you have in there ? Any tips to make these page even more effective ?

1) Problems in your Feed

Your feed may not always work as you’d want it to be. Errors can occur without your knowledge and you’d definitely want to know about it before your readers do. It is a good practice to check your post in a feed reader after posting.

2) Email Subscriptions

Again if you offer Email Subscription options for your feed, problems can occur with it too. There can be issues with mail delivery or display of content. In order to be aware of all these, you need to remain subscribed to your feed via Email too.

3) What you see is not What others see

This is a common problem with feeds and feed readers. The format in which your post is displayed on your blog is never the same as how it is displayed in feed readers. For this reason, people suggest not to use CSS Classes within posts, as they work only on your blog. I’ll make a detailed post on this later.

4) Boost Your Feedcount

The feed subscriber count has become an important metric in the blogosphere. By subscribing to your own feed, you can easily increase your subscriber count without paying for it. (note : this method is illegal.. i don’t encourage doing this.. i’ve included this point here just to increase the post length :P )

Okay, now which reader should i use ?

That entirely depends on you and your audience. If you have time, you can do it with all the possible readers that you find. But, avoid this as this would increase the feed count fakely by a large number. My suggestion is that if you use Feedburner to manage your feed, login to your account and check which reader your subscribers most use. Then, subscribe using the top two. That would be enough. And if you provide email subscriptions, subscribe using that too.

I subscribe to my own feed using Google Reader and an Email Subscription. Do you subscribe to your own feeds ? If so, using which readers ?

Above The Header

This refers to the top most position of your blog. When your page loads, this is the area that loads first. Also, it is very much visible and suitable for throwing up your Subscriber count as well…

In The Header

The header is the most prominent area of your blog and also the most attractive, in most cases. Your RSS Icon will be noticed quickly if placed in the header…

SideBar

Almost every blog has a RSS Icon located on the sidebar. Many blogs even have an Email Subscription box on the sidebar. It is the place where many visitors look out for a Feed Icon…

Footer

After viewing a post or a page, a visitor normally ends up at the footer of your website. So, its useful to place a link to your RSS Feed over there…

After A Post

This is one of the most effective positions. When visitors see a “Subscribe” link right after they finish reading a post, they may be effectively converted into loyal readers. Many blogs have begun to implement such links…

Before A Post

Actually you can place RSS links above or below a post using the What Would Seth Godin Do plugin. I’m going to do a little experiment with this place, by showing a Subscribe link only to visitors from search engine. I’ll do a write up on it later…

Here on GotChance, I have Subscribe links on the header, sidebar, after the post and also in the a footer (which is less prominent). As a said above, I’m planning on a new experiment. Where all do you have your RSS Feed Links ? Is there any other possible place where we can push it in ?

Its true that majority of people still don’t know what are desktop blog editors. Just like how you use Outlook to send mails from desktop, just like how you post to Twitter from desktop, you can also post to your blogs right from your desktop. From a poll conducted by Lifehacker 2 years back, over 60% of the bloggers just use an online editor.

But, that was the situation 2 years ago. Now, with the availability of Windows Live Writer (WLW), many bloggers have switched to it. Still, I’m convinced that atleast 50% of the crowd still use online editors.

Why People don’t use Desktop Editors :

When we look at the reasons why people still don’t use Desktop editors, the first reason is that they don’t have the knowledge about the availability of one. When I started blogging 2 years ago, I just used WordPress’s inbuilt online editor, adjusting myself to the features available. But, after I came to know about WLW, I hop over to WordPress Dashboard only for things like comment moderation, plugin installation etc..

Why use a Desktop Editor ?

When you insist people to switch to Desktop Editors, you need to give them reasons, don’t you ? There are a lot of reasons to make the switch :

1. Manage more than just 1 blog. Almost every desktop editor gives you the ability to add many blogs. You can post to these different blogs from 1 place.

2. You can write offline. When you get a new idea for a post, but unfortunately, you’ve been disconnected from the internet. During such situations, you can still open your desktop editor, write down your post and save for publishing later.

3. You get more formatting options. Most online editors have limited formatting options. But, there are richer in desktop editors. Especially, I love the “Web layout” feature in WLW, which gives the look of frontend of your blog whilst you still write the post.

4. Enhanced Image Support. WLW lets you apply a number of effects to your photos like Drop Shadow, Sepia tone, Black and White, Watermark, Emboss etc…

5. Tagging Support… Most desktop editors come with either inbuilt tagging support or with the help of external plugins, for technorati, delicious and the like.

These are not the only features available in desktop editors. Its not just about listing down the advantages. Its the entire feel that you get when you use a desktop editor. The simplicity, the ease.. You don’t find these in online editors.

Now, if you are in look out for a desktop editor, I strongly recommend Windows Live Writer. But, if you want to look out for alternatives, I suggest that you take a look at this post.

Blog

WordPress was primarily developed to be a blogging platform and that is what it is being used for, widely. Almost every other blog that you come across today is powered by WordPress (includes my own blog). Also, WordPress.com hosts about 4,562,469 blogs (when I started writing this post) 4,562,720 blogs (when I finished writing this post) that are powered by WordPress.

Static Website

If you are not going to blog and you simple wish to have a static website, WordPress can still help you with it. Also, you can just have the static website or have a blog attached with it. You can do it without any external plugin. This feature comes packed with WordPress. You can check out this post and this for more knowledge.

Magazine

Are you a print magazine publisher ? Or, do you want to write a magazine online ? You can create your own E-Zine with wordpress. There’s a huge pile of magazine themes available for WordPress. In my previous post, I dealt with using magazine themes. There are some very popular e-zines out there, powered by WordPress.

Social Network

All of you would have probably heard of Facebook, Bebo or MySpace. They are what we call today as “Social Networks”. The cool thing is that you can create your own Social Network with WordPress. Either you can do it manually by editing WP’s code. Or, you can simple install BuddyPress over an installation of WordPress MU. Also, check out this live social network which uses WordPress.

Email Newsletter Manager : WordBurner

Most of the Newsletter Managing softwares out there are very expensive. But, luckily FeedBurner offers Emails Subscriptions for RSS Feeds for free. Combining that with a WordPress installation, you can create your own email newsletter manager for free. NetTuts has an extensive tutorial on how to create this software called “WordBurner” ;)

Gallery

“A Picture says more than a Thousand Words”.

WordPress has inbuilt Gallery support using the shortcode. But, there are numerous plugins available to convert WordPress into a cool gallery. You can check out the whole list, but NextGEN gallery is my favorite.

Forum

Though softwares like vBulletin, phpBB and SMF rule the world of online forums, WordPress has its own solution called bbPress. bbPress is plain and simple forum software, plain and simple. It’s easy to use, easy to administrate, fast and clean. It is also highly customizable just like how WordPress is.

Feed Aggregator

Simply put, A Feed Aggregator is one which gets the content from various sources and puts them all at one place. A very powerful plugin called WP-o-Matic is available to serve this purpose. The plugin converts your WordPress into a personalized feed aggregator. But, such plugins are also being used to STEAL content from other blogs.

MicroBlogging

Does that word seem unfamiliar to you ? But, I bet you’d have heard about Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Tumblr etc.. They are nothing but the so-called MicroBlogging platforms. Using WordPress, you can create your own MicroBlogging site, with the help of the Prologue theme. And, the good news is that, it comes right from the WordPress team themselves. You can also check out the demo.

Membeship Directory

Do you want to create a moderated membership directory that showcases your member’s information? Do you want it to be flexible, be very little work after initial setup, and use a world-class open source platform that you are already familiar with?

Check out this detailed tutorial on how to create your own Membership directory using WordPress.

Do you use WordPress for any other purpose ? Or, do you know anyone that does it ? Have any new idea on how else WordPress can be used ? Share your views in the comments…

Many bloggers who are starting up tend to get tempted by these designs and start using them. But, as the name suggests, these are aimed for magazine-style websites and not for general blogs. Of course, no rule tells you not to use a magazine theme for a blog, but still your writing need to satisfy certain basic qualities to get the best effect.

1) Many Categories

Do you tend write posts under a variety of categories ? Then, magazine themes are apt for you. Because, these themes help you manage them efficiently.

2) Images for Each Post

Most of these magazine themes have a thumb rule to display a small image next to each post on the front page. As I said, only little things like these make such themes look good. So, you must pay attention and add unique image for each post.

3) Video Blogging

Also, many magazine themes provide a separate area on the homepage for displaying video. Of course, you can add videos from Youtube and other video sharing websites. But, video blogging makes this space look much more personalized.

4) Update your Blog Often

These magazine themes give a very professional look to your site and thus users will expect professional content from you. They’ll like you to update your blog very frequently. “New Articles” on the homepage is displayed for a reason, and not to display the same articles for weeks together.

5) Less Interactivity

This is not a proven concept. But, my opinion is that, these themes give less priority to commenting. And the comments and the comment box are less visible to the user. Thus, it might affect the level of interactivity of your blog.

These are just my opinion. What do you think ? Have you used magazine themes on any of your blogs ? What is the effect ?

For those who are not familiar with a blog carnival, here is a small explanation. All the blogs that are participating in a carnival write a blog post on a common topic. After the carnival is over, the participant blogs write up a post linking to all the other carnival posts. Hope I’m clear here.

Now, the topic I choose is WORDPRESS PLUGINS. Now, that topic is wide enough to write all types of posts from list posts to “how to” posts.

And, I don’t want to run a carnival with zero participants. So, if you’d like to take part, post a comment below so that people will know how many are taking part.

Daily Blog Tips is running a contest called Blogging Idol. Its basically on increasing the number of RSS Subscribers. I just entered myself into the contest. Even if I don’t win, its not a problem. There is a lot of scope for learning new things by experimenting on my own.

As readers, I need your support to win this contest. Since, the contest starts in November, I’ll be taking more steps then. But, now as a first step, if you are reading GotChance from a browser, take time to Subscribe to my RSS feed. It not only does increase my subscriber count, but it also makes it easy for you to follow GotChance. If you’ve never heard of RSS, take a look at this page to know what is RSS.

If you don’t want to subscribe from a feed reader, you can also subscribe using your email address. Just enter your email address into the form on the sidebar and click “Subscribe” :

I read about this site on Ian Fernando’s blog. Something that caught my eye was that they have used my quote (from this post) about RSS Subscribers. Though i hate the service, i feel prestigious to have been quoted along with Mark from 45n5 and John Chow(:D).

There are some reasons why one would not use RSSXplosion :

1. If you are so much interested in raising feedcount, you can sign up yourself with many feed readers or many accounts with a single reader and subscribe to your blog’d feed from each of them.
2. A common way of faking the RSS Count is to use someone else Chicklet, but linking to your own feed. This is often found out. So, instead you can display someone else’s feedcount in plain text. (though i’m displaying in plain text, i’m not faking it. you can check out my chicklet here.)
3. If you feel that the above method is difficult, you can just put some Big number in plain text and link it to their feed. Like DeafMusician(.com) which claims to have 6.24 Billion RSS subscribers. The screenshot (in case it is removed) :
   
4. It hurts your reputation once people come to know that you have bought subscribers. RX isdefinitely not going to be profitable. So, if they close down, you’ll lose all your”bought” subscribers. Better to stay away.

And coming back to this quoting stuff, though the owner of RX has got the rights to use quotes with appropriate credits, what Ian Fernando says is right :

The owner of RSSXplosion is using popular authors and bloggers to associate with this pathetic service.

What do you say ? Would you buy RSS subscribers if your count is low, or you’d better be honest to your readers ?

UPDATE: Don’t ever bother to visit the two non-linked websites. RX is useless. DeafMusician does all sort of childish things like the faking feed count, using images without credits, disobeying copyrights etc…

1. Create a campaign
2. Add the ad codes that you wish to rotate and assign them a weight
3. Just place the one-line code, that Rotatee gives, on your website

For more details, check out the site Rotatee.com. The site is in closed beta. But, as the readers of GotChance, you can get a taste of our service before others do. Just enter “gotchance” as the invite code to Sign up. (This is not like the testing mentioned in my previous post. All data will still be there even after the site opens to the public). Hurry, it is only available for first 100 sign ups.

Looking forward to hearing your comments and suggestions…

Google has slapped many giants with its latest Pagerank update. But, it has surely turned out good for me. If you had been to my blog yesterday or the day before, you would have noticed that i have added an About page. To be specific, the Pageranks of all the sites that i have mentioned there have increased (or remained the same. but have not decreased). GotChance has become a PR5 blog and i’m very much happy with that. The pagerank’s of my other sites have increased as below :

• Templora – Did not change. Remained 4
• Clever Tutorials – Previous 1 – Now 4
• Kontactr – From 0 to 5
• VidSav – From 0 to 2
• Nitrogen Designs – Remained 4
• My Blog Contests – From 0 to 1

Let me know how this Pagerank update has affected your blogs. I’m planning to sell some links (of course, with rel=”nofollow”).

First of all, we all know that there is a limit for everything and ad placements on a site has limits too (though it is the personal opinion of the owner). Check out MyBlogContest.com. Recently i visited the blog and was shocked by the number of ads just on their frontpage. Besides these, they also have a “Links” page and page full of “Coupons” and a “Make Money Online” page full referral links. So, monetizing the site has begun just on the first line of the site. Next on the header there is an Adsense Link Unit. And a Google Search box. Everyone know that WordPress’s internal search facility is a lot better than Google’s site search. So the only motive for having this Search box is to make money.

Then, a set of 6 affiliate links. After that a 468 x 60 banner and a Google Text ads on the right (not seen on frontpage too). Now, lets see the sidebar. I’m not going to complain about the Featured Contests section. But, look at the other below it. Text-Link-Ads and then another bunch of Affiliate links under the title “Free Stuff” and a WidgetBucks ad box. I remember seeing a 250×250 Google Ad, which i think has been removed now.

Coming to the worser part, 50% of the central content area is full of ads. I’m not going to list them all here (a tedious job). But they include WidgetBucks, Google Adsense, Deal Dot Com etc… What is even worse is the Paid posts (or paid reviews). Being a Blog about “Blog Contests”, he should be writing about Blog Contests. But, his every alternate post is a review post to promote a product from Commision Junction. Also, i don’t know what “Finding a new home is UK (http://myblogcontest.com/finding-your-new-home-in-uk/)” and “Free Dating (http://myblogcontest.com/make-new-friends-at-friendsation/) has to do with Blog Contests.

To my knowledge, the number of Monetization Spots on their homepage were about 26 or 27 when i counted, excluding the top “Links”, “Coupons” and “Make Money Online” tabs. That exceeds the 21 ads on the No.1 Blog Engadget as pointed out by John Chow. So, what do you think about this ? If you are visitor, will you stay on the site after seeing so many ads ? If you ask me, i would, but only if there was quality content. On his blog, even Content is adulterated with Review posts. So, i’d just stay away.