Quality Webmaster Blog

I am beginning to get an eerie feeling when I visit social bookmarking sites. The feeling is part nostalgia, part de ja vu, and part dread. It’s actually more than just a feeling. When SMO Bookmarking in Delicious, Magnolia or Mister Wong, I hear a voice that whispers: remember me… It’s sort of the same sense you get when you hear a new tune on the radio and recognize the guitar chord progression–”Hey that’s “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynard Skynard, but the band doesn’t even realize that they have subconsciously plagiarized those chords. They think they wrote the melody themselves!

Once upon a time, there only a few web directories. Moment of silence for Yahoo, DMOZ, Zeal (I miss Zeal), et. al. Then, over the years, we all know what happened. Directory scripts proliferated. Submission software blossomed.  These and the other original directories that remain have all been spammed into commercialization (paid directories), dormancy or death. I shut down submissions to my own directories quite a while back. Then Google deprecated web directories in search results.

Social bookmarking sites have cool features that traditional web directories never really incorporated. There are many differences. These are two very high level differences I see:

• Community  - I like seeing what my friends are bookmarking. I like adding friends to my profile.
• Organization - I am all but done with browser bookmarking. It’s unwieldy. Delicious will probably be around longer than my current PC hard-drive that I didn’t back up. I like tagging. I like checking out the highest rated sites.

Now, here we are in the Web 2.0 era with AJAXy social bookmarking sites showing off their frontends: clean rounded corners, gradient reflective logos, speech bubbles, rss icons like freshly waxed aerodynamic sports cars. And, unlike in the directory days, they are offering you more than a link. They offer a network of friends. They offer friends’ links to scour, bookmark and improve your Internet life. They give users a reason to come back (other than to submit another link, haha). But, look underneath the surface. Do you see what I see?

• Submit/Add Link = Save/Post
• Categories = Tags
• Comments = Notes
• Recent = Newest Links
• Auto Submit = Import XML File

Do you get the same eerie feeling?

It’s more important that you are ranking high with certain keywords than what your PR is. There are many websites that have lower PR and still are listing number one for certain keywords.

But if you are really worried and want high Page Rank, try the following:

1) fresh content like no other page out there on the internet. More you have, the better.
2) link other sites to that page(s), the more the better, they can be inbound or external links from other sites.
3) use a blog for faster indexing of those pages when a link is placed on your blog to your new content.
4) submit to article directories and place the link of the pages you want a higher PR on.
5) once your other pages have higher PR, strategically place other PR pages that link up to the new PR pages and force the PR ranking by using the term of revelance given from Page A to page B.

Website templates are very affordable and they save you a lot of effort and time when you want to create a new layout for your website. However, a lot of people make mistakes in the process of choosing and using a web template and end up with something that was unlike the image they had in mind. Here are some guidelines to help you avoid those mistakes.

The first obvious mistake you should be aware of is using a template that is very popular. If many people use the same template, your website will not appear unique at all and your credibility as a solid, different website will be tarnished. In other words, you will appear generic just like your next-door neighbours.

To whole point of using a web template is to save time and effort. You just change the title and appropriate details and you’re done. The biggest mistake one makes is to customize the template beyond recognisation. While that may be good in the sense that you’re creating a unique graphic, you’re defying the very purpose of using a web template — saving time and effort.

However, on the opposite side, if a template you purchase is suitable but some changes must be made to suit your site’s theme, then you will have to take some time to make the changes. For example, you can find a very nice template that suits your hobby site except the original designer has put an image of stamps in the header. You can find images of garden plants and spades to replace the stamps for your gardening hobby site. However, do only make the necessary changes and don’t redesign the whole template.

In some circumstances, some people simply make the wrong choice of templates. This is a very subjective issue but you have to be careful in selecting templates to suit your audience. Do not choose templates just because they are pretty, choose them because they serve your purpose.

CPC:
Cost per click - the cost or cost-equivalent paid per click-through.
Google Adsense
Yahoo Publisher Network (Beta)
Chitika
BidClix
BannerBoxes
Adbrite
AdSonar
Clicksor
Searchfeed
Revenue Pilot
Kontera
Adengage.com
CPM:
Cost per thousand impressions
Tribal Fusion
Casale Media
BurstMedia
RealTechNetwork
ValueClick Media/FastClick
Buds Ad Network
MaxOnline
24/7 Real Media
Bannerconnect
Mamma Media Solutions
Adtegrity
Ad pepper Media
Rightmedia.com
Advertising.com
Accelerator Media
AdSmart
AdAgency1
Interclick
Realcastmedia.com
CPA/CPL
Cost per Action - model in which payment is based solely on qualifying actions such as sales or registrations.
Linkshare
Commission Junction
ShareASale
WebSponsors
Advertising.com
Azoogle Ads
Maxbounty
Affiliateer

Sphere: Related Content

WidgetBucks is shortening the list of countries that pay on a CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions)

List of countries whose traffic continues to pay on a CPM

Australia (AU)
     Austria (AT)
     Belgium (BE)
     Denmark (DK)
     France (FR)
     Germany (DE)
     India (IN)
     Ireland (IE)
     Italy (IT)
     Netherlands (NL)
     New Zealand (NZ)
     Portugal (PT)
     Puerto Rico (PR)
     Singapore (SG)
     South Africa (ZA)
     Spain (ES)
     Switzerland (CH)
     United Arab Emirates (AE)
     United Kingdom (GB)

 only traffic from the list of countries above will earn CPM revenue. Site visitors originating from countries not on the list will result in zero payout