This has been a hot topic in the SEO world for the past while now. I want to drop my bit of wisdom and share from experience what I have seen and heard. Many say that site wide links are extremely harmful and that search engines such as Google are now penalizing sites for this. Others say it is very profitable as a simple link exchange across one site can provide you with hundreds or even thousands of good links. So what to think for this?

I personally have many site wide link exchanges and from this I have learned a few things:

• Do not get to many to fast! The age of your site and the age of the linking site is of ultimate importance here. You do not want to exhcange links with every site out there just because you can. Be picky and choose sites that have been in existence longer than 1 year, sites that have good SE rankings, sites with a decent page rank, and sites with like content.
• Think before you act! Research the site(s) you plan to request a site wide link from. See how they stack up against their competition. Make sure your link won’t be #196 on the site. Does the site provide legitimate and helpful content? These are just a few of the factors to research.
• Don’t always seek after site wide link exchanges! Just like you don’t always order the exact same things at a restaurant, don’t ONLY go for site wide links.
• Try to get some links on specific articles pertaining to your site’s content, try to get a single link in a visible area on a high trafficed site, and so on.

I hope this clears up a bit of confusion. Site wide links can be a very good thing when used effectively and in moderation!

So I recieved an email from a friend the other day recommending I should start blogging about something relevant and useful, and I came up with nothing. Then he suggested paying me to write something useful, at which point I also refused… Finally he said that I should check out blog marketing because they will pay me to actually write content that doesnt even have to be useful, to which i scoffed. Could it be true? Was there actually a system in which I could be paid to write something people will find no use in whatsoever? SIGN ME UP BILLY!

Anyway to make a long gregarious story short, I signed up and this was my first assigned task once my blog was approved. (Yes they actually screen your blog for PR and Alexa rank) So now that I am a new “postie” as they call me, I get to talk about what i love best about PPP (PayPerPost), or triple P’s as I like to call it.

Well lets start off with the positives, I like triple P’s opportunity to make money. Did I mention that getting paid is nice? There are actually some crazies that blog so much they have earned over $20,000 with triple P… impressive. The system is easy enough, you just pick whatever niche you wanna talk about and you get anywhere from $5 to $50 per post, which may or may not be worth your time, but hey does it look like I care?

Either way, if you want to squeeze some juice out of your blog and write about stuff that may or may not be relevant to your readers, check out PPP, you may or may not be disappointed. I guess that really depends on how you look at it.

Heres the neat little disclosure button they get you to include in your posts, isn’t it cute?

So for this april fools, instead of rick rolling you fools into the next millenium I decided to do something different.

One of the best when it comes to April fools, has to be the internet giant Google. This year they decided they would let you search into the future with a neat little box that allows you to search for future sites, and the hilarity ensues.

And if you haven’t had enough Rick Astley for two lifetimes then Youtube made sure of that by forwarding all their featured videos on http://uk.youtube.com/ to the infamous video. Youtube also has the BBC documentary on penguins based off of the TV series “Planet Earth” im guessing.

Another winner has to be thinkgeek, who every year comes up with a selection of farcical products to enlighten their shoppers. Taking a look at their homepage today will show Super Pii Pii Bros, a game for the Wii where you would imitate urination, as well as an onslaught of other hysterical products. (ie. The USB pregnancy test.. lol)

ESPN also decided to join in the fun with a farce to play on the current political campaign, naming it “Election Deathmatch” whereas they poke fun at pretty much all political parties running for office, as well as the boneheads currently residing.

And if you still haven’t had enough April Fools jokes, you can signup with google’s latest venture to mars for sustainable development, coined “Virgle”.

Either way, enjoy the fun this April Fools day, and dont get sidetracked from all the jokes and forget about your real work!

So the time has come again where Wordpress decided to revamp their interface, and I must say this time I think it is for the better. The update comes with a much lighter feel to it, with an easier interface for navigation and even some nifty features added in. Be sure to check out a screencast of the new features.

Perhaps the most useful new feature is the customizable dashboard, allowing for you to see vital information about your blog including traffic stats, incoming links, and all the usual stuff you would expect to see on your dashboard. Another new feature that I like is the multi-file upload, combined with the new built-in galleries, makes for any gallery implementation for your posts a breeze. Other notable upgrades include one-click plugin upgrades, tag management, full information text feeds and of course faster load times.

So if you haven’t already upgrade now, and be sure your getting the most out of your wordpress blog.

So I was bored, and I happened across a killer domain using one of my elite domaining tools. Hence JamURL.com was born.

Basically a rip off of tinyurl and countless other short url redirection services, JamURL aims to shorten your websites for usage within either mobile applications or social networks.

It can also be used for hiding affiliate links if you are trying to promote something and dont want your surfer to see your affiliate code. Overall a simple service that I thought I would throw out there.

Well the RIAA isnt going to be happy about this one. A brand new service by young entrepreneur Justin Ouellette has just hit the net. The service or Muxtape as its coined, allows you to upload your favorite songs and have them saved for playback on the web whenever you want.

The site has only been live 24 hours and its numbers are soaring. (wonder if the servers will hold up) 8600+ users, around 20,000 songs and over 35,000 visits. Pretty impressive to say the least.

This site has a lot of great things going for it, and I have to say it looks promising if he can keep up with the server costs. The sign up page is 3 fields, so right off the bat your in love. Your alloted 12 songs, so they better be your favorites, and there is a cap set at 10mb per file, which is sufficient. From here you can pretty much play your songs directly from your browser or media device. Pretty cool.

I played around with it, uploaded a few tracks and it seems to work smoothly. Another great concept turned social media. What will be next? Video feeds?

For most webmasters and affiliate marketers, Google AdWords is their bread and butter, and rightfully so.  AdWords is a beast of an advertising system, and if targeted properly its earning potential can be great. If you follow some of these strategies then maybe even you can make money off Google AdWords.

1. The merchant or vendor site should have a professional look to it, in order to ensure the surfer that it is a credible product/service that they will be buying into.

2. Make sure to be able to maintain a level of communication between you and your affiliate preferably through an AM.  This will help you realize which ads convert better as well as keep you updated with new offers.

3. When you are paying for clicks, you need to realize the ratio between what will be a positive return and what wont be.  Try and promote affiliate products that will pay more than $15 in commission to get your ROI up. Clickbank is good for this.

4. The landing pages and sales sites need to be top of the line. If the customer is unhappy with the appearance of the page, it is more than unlikely they are going to invest their money into what your selling.

5. Same goes for the sales copy and actual marketing that is done ON the landing page.  It should include testimonials , and other key selling features in order to ease any hesitations the buyer may have.

6. Would you buy it? Ask yourself this when choosing a campaign for your affiliate program.  Chances are if you wouldn’t buy it, then most people wouldn’t be comfortable buying it either.

7.  Affiliate links are fine with your vendor as long as they are low key.  It can kill a sale if the user feels like he is getting scammed or bought into something.

8. The referring page for the vendor website should only have one product/service on it.  If there are multiple products the user can get confused by the sales messages and become hesitant to buy.

9. Tracking!  Keep a keen eye on your keywords and phrases. If any of them are getting higher than a 1:200 buy:click ratio, they need to be cut off.  A decent ratio to look for is around 1 in 50 creating a sell.  The higher the click-through rate, the better rankings you get on your niche.

10. Most affiliates will keep a record of email addresses for all your referrals.  This makes sure that you get credit for a sale even if the customer took 4-5 visits before buying… which is the case a lot of the time.

What is the next step up from addiction? Facebook Chat…

Well apparently people want to be able to feed their crackbook addictions in real time, hence Facebook Chat. A program that will be on the bottom of the page, allowing the user to see number of friends online, and allow you to chat with them in separate chat windows.

So if IRC/AIM/Msn/Skype/Gtalk/ICQ/yahoo etc. messengers/clients weren’t enough for you, you can now get your instant messaging fix on facebook as well. The program will boast such features as online/offline status’, similar to various messengers already in use. Users can also clear chat history and their chat status will appear sitewide for your friends to see, with the option to let everyone see, in case you like those creepers

On a scale of 1-10 (1 being mildly useless/10 being totally useless) I would have to give this a 20… but hey im a hater. Check out a demo video of the chat in use below…its kinda blurry.

Myspace Apps.. who knew?

Yes ladies and gentlemen, Myspace is trying to claw back at Facebook, with none other than their own version of applications in which you can soup up your profile with even more knick-knacks and paddy-wacks. This comes as great news for anyone (??) who still uses Myspace.

Now would be a good time to think about creating/outsourcing the development of your very own Myspace App(s) and take advantage of these viral applications.

Check out the Myspace Developer Platform & you might want to take a peek into Google’s OpenSocial API Specifications.

Also be sure to check out the current Myspace Apps that are being pumped out as we speak…dont miss this opportunity to create and monetize a Myspace App, we all have seen the viral power of Facebook Apps, and a lot of people (for some wierd reason) still use Myspace…prime real estate, so go get your own street sign.

Obviously you should be using firefox, and if your not, you most likely are a microsoft fanboy, or have simply been living under a rock the past 5 years.

The vast majority of extensions are available at Mozilla’s website but there are many hidden gems among their database, and sifting through it can become a daunting task, hence “The 5 Best Damn Firefox Extensions, Period!”

Yeah, I dont like those long stupid lists…so without further delay

Download Statusbar

Instead of that annoying downloads window that consistantly pops up everytime you begin a new download, the download statusbar will replace it with a neat bar in the statusbar of the browser which shows your downloads conveniently. I’ve been personally using this one since I first learned about firefox extensions, and you should too.

Web Developer

Provides for on the fly dynamic CSS editing, html validation and resizing. A must have for any web developer to work out kinks in your sites.

Google Toolbar

No affiliate link, but if you would like to click the Google for Firefox banner on the right. This is a must have to anyone who is a fan of google. You can easily search from your toolbar menu as well as check the pagerank on the go.

Adsense Notifier

Will display your adsense earnings in the statusbar, useful if you are using google adsense across your network.

Firebug

Useful for showing load times of your website along with session variables and other misc. information.

So there is my top 5 as of right now, but I will most likely come across even more useful extensions, at which point I will refer back to this post.. Enjoy!