Getting support calls for news sites?
Been an odd morning - it’s only 10am, but I’ve already had two phone support requests because of news sites I operate.
On HomeMove I wrote an article about NHBC certificates - a form of guarantee that a new build property is built to proper standards. It also ensures the builder/developer will correct faults (snagging issues) [...]
Netscape hit with porn spam
Damn - it looks like the porn spammers are hitting Netscape, with a whole set of categories based on adult and related keywords, promoting the sex videos on the site ebloggy.com:
Sex
Sexy
Lesbians
Love
gay
movies
humor
stories
Not sure what Netscape’s policy is on adult content, but I strongly suspect it’s not necessarily going to be welcome.
What’s a shame is that I [...]
Rediscovering link building
Since Threadwatch closed it’s killed off my social respite time, forcing me to concentrate more on work.
It’s sad to lose that social connection with the SEO world, but since then I’ve found myself being creative again with link building, and discovered some interesting new solutions.
Some I know other SEO’s are already using - some I [...]
Archive org - actually useful!
Normally I find archive.org something of a curiosity - it’s fun to see how sites looked years ago, but aside from that, not much use?
Or so I thought.
Recently I’ve figured on setting up a few blogs outside of commercial niches, just to document my personal interests as I see them.
I’m always reading up on [...]
Learning from experience and turning failure into success
A lot of business/marketing/webmaster blogs are filled with speculation - sales-speak which defines success with a subject in generic terms.
Success is nothing more than working hard and focusing on your subject. Apparently.
I disagree - success with anything comes from experience, and a big part of that experience comes from doing things *wrong*.
That means wasting [...]
How long before citizen journalism is faked?
The BBC lauds the contribution of user generated media - photos, video, etc, not least in the recent spate of flooding to hit the UK.
As a viewer, it was brilliant being able to access images of places I knew, photographed by old neighbours and published on the BBC website.
But here’s the stark stark warning - [...]
10 reasons why my sites suck - do yours?
It gets just a little intimidating when I read of publishers earning over $1000 a day for a single site, and other sites generating hundreds of thousands of visits per day.
Especially as I’m doing nowhere near either with any of my sites.
So what am I doing wrong?
Just a cursory examination of some similar sites in [...]
Some more great Wordpress Plugins
Writing on the fly here - but in an attempt to help make my sites more useful and professional looking, I’ve just applied a couple of key Wordpress plugins for some of the sites, and will finish the rest later:
Daily Top Posts - allows the display of most popular posts today, and of all time
WP-Email [...]
Wordpress: Images with excerpt in categories
So bloody annoying - you run a news site, include images with the post, then set up excerpts in your categories a) because it’s easier to read, and b)to minimise duplication of content.
But the image you post with your story doesn’t display with the excerpt…
Just spend a while this evening trying to crack this (or [...]
Tips for brainstorming for a brand
If there’s one thing I’ve really gotten wrong in the past, it’s registering domains on a keyword basis.
I don’t mean anything obviously spammy, and I’ve only ever registered a single domain with more than one hyphen in it.
But otherwise, while the domains have been good for getting a keyword in there, they really suck as [...]
Consolidation vs Niche Targeting: Pros and Cons
I’m currently in a conundrum, so I’m going to think aloud for this post.
The problem is one of Generic vs Niche targeting - especially with regards to consolidating a number of niche sites into a larger generic one.
If you have multiple sites in the same generic vertical covering different niche elements, should you consolidate them [...]
Google News - getting harder to be syndicated?
For some reason, for the past two years I’ve taken it on board to develop a whole string of news site.
I figure it’s partly because I have a closet desire to be a newspaper publisher for real - it was one of my dreams even before I’d heard of the internet.
The other reason is that [...]
Simple vbulletin SEO tips: The Title Tag
We covered SEO titles for Wordpress in the last entry - now let’s optimise the titles for popular forum software platform vbulletin a little better.
As before, we want our site name to actually be the forum index page name. That means moving away from the generic titles to something a little more specific.
There are a [...]
Some Simple WordPress SEO Tips
Here’s a neat little tip for all you Wordpress users out there…
Really, it has to be said - WordPress titles suck. “Blog Name > Post Title”.
That’s not what we want to see.
So go here and copy/paste the code for dynamic titles Paul provided in the Platinax forums - Wordpress titles without the junk - [...]
Revenue Share - the next webmaster economy?
Recently I’ve noticed an emerging new trend online - revenue share as a business model applied to forums, blogs, and news communities.
The idea is simple - whatever advertising revenues the site earns is split with the active community members.
The most common way this is set up is via contextual advertising accounts, such as Google Adsense, [...]
Targeting your audience
Over the past couple of years I’ve been quietly developing a series of small and unambitious news sites.
Even before I’d heard of the internet I’ve toyed with running an independent press, and while my current endeavours at targeted in commercial marketplaces for potential future leverage, I’ve never really sat down and focused on who [...]
Passion - the great asset online
If I look at my sites, the most successful are those where I’ve had a real passion. Not simply for the subject matter, but also in promoting them.
The least successful are those where I feel little enthusiasm and make only token promotional efforts.
The best websites I think communicate that passion from the start - in [...]
Paid blog posts - a closing window of opportunity
I’ve tested out the ReviewMe service previously, but after they opened their campaign marketplace I’ve been tempted to try them again and run a few campaigns - especially after Shoemoney’s recommendation and decent quality of some of the paid for reviews.
Anyway, results have come in from the weekend - so far variable as expected.
There’s a [...]
The Portalisation of the Web
I’m increasingly finding myself portalising websites.
Sure, I have lots of online communities - but by themselves they are looking increasingly weak.
So now I’m looking to develop those communities into portals - that means building around the community element to provide news, article, and blog services.
By doing so, I see portalisation adding increasing value to visitors [...]
Paid links - no argument, just dealing with it
Matt Cutts is asking for spam reports on link selling, and doesn’t receive a warm welcome from SEO’s regarding Google’s newest economic policy.
Let’s look at what Matt’s actually saying:
1. Google thinks paid links really impact Google
2. Google is testing at least two new algos to spot and devalue paid links
3. Matt wants reports on live [...]
