*Exclusive makes everything look better. I don’t think it was actually exclusive. But maybe it was.

Shiny and spotless, all thanks to the great BlogCatalog team. The only thing it lacks is not enough Blog Badly on the front page.

BlogCatalog is a social bloggers network with a bunch of awesome features, great blogs, and an amazing community as well. If you’re a blogger, it’s one of the two places you NEED to be (the other is Blog Badly, but if you’re reading this you probably have that covered too). I can’t really say anything sly or funny about it because it’s just THAT good. Even gooder than MyBlogLog! So much gooder that it makes you forget about basic grammar techniques!

Still, such a website cannot exist on its own without a dedicated, committed team. In fact, BC’s lead programmer Daniel was so committed to his job that he took time off of it to speak to me about BlogCatalog:

Max: Okay. So, you’re the lead programmer - what does that mean? What do you do every day?

Daniel: I do so many things: answering e-mails, moderating the forums, and working with my brother Nine on new features for BlogCatalog. Most of the time, though, I’m just digging through messy code fixing things or adding new things.

Max: Ooh, new features? Any cool new stuff you’re working on at the moment or is that some secret classified info?

Daniel: We’re hard at work finishing our Dashboard right now. We have a few more communities to integrate as well as some sharing tools that we’re building into our Dashboard News Feed to help our users promote each others content and just things they like.

Max: What have you worked on at BlogCatalog that you’re most proud of?

Daniel: The whole site is really quite an accomplishment for me. After we bought the site in January 07 we pretty much rebuilt all the code from scratch. I’m the only programmer at BC so having built this entire site is still a bit unbelievable to me.

Max: Quite an achievement! Has it been frustrating at times, though? What are some of the major roadblocks you’ve faced along the way?

Daniel: Yeah, there have been plenty of frustrations along the way. We had a lot of server issues in the beginning that really stole a lot of my sleep as well as some data loss that made a big mess. There have also been a few troublesome members that have made things unpleasant. But overall it has been a very positive experience interacting with all you bloggers and working with a great team.

Max: Well, the effort that you and the BC team have put into making such a great community shows. Thanks, Daniel!

Daniel: Thanks to you too, Max.

Max: Anything else you want to add?

Daniel: What’s YOUR favorite part of BC?

Max:  Haha, flipping the interview around, are you? Well, I’ll definitely have to say it’s the community. The discussion boards at BC are definitely some of the most beneficial (and definitely the funniest). Overall, BC is just a great well-oiled machine that has a bunch of awesome features jutting out of it. Actually, when you think about it, that sounds pretty grotesque… But it isn’t! It’s pure AWESOME.

Daniel: Haha, I totally agree.

Max: Yup.

Daniel: Well, it was nice talking to you

Max: You too - thanks for spending your valuable BC-managing time on a fledgling blogger.

Daniel: Anytime, man. Happy blogging!

Posted by Max Miroff | 2 Comments »

The great thing about Wordpress is the abundance of customization options it has. Plugins, themes, widgets - it’s got everything! Sadly, most of the plugins are completely useless and don’t really add anything to your blog. That’s why Blog Badly is here to offer you Useless and Cool Wordpress Plugins, starting with Random Redirect!

WHAT IS RANDOM REDIRECT??
It’s like StumbleUpon for your blog! Except without all of the cool features, social aspect, or fun.

Basically, it creates a link (yourblog.com/?random) which automagically transports your reader to a random page on your blog. In fact, Blog Badly has one - click on it to be delivered to another masterpiece of a post. But only after you’re done reading this one!

HOW DOES IT WORK?
How would I know? These fancy schmancy plugin makers have lots of tricks up their sleeves. Like magicians. Magicians!

WHERE CAN I GET IT?
Right here.

Have fun extorting more pageviews from your readers!

Posted by Max Miroff | 5 Comments »

Yes, you read that title right. You should copy content to get the highest results from StumbleUpon. Sure, original stuff is great, but who really wants to put in the time and effort to create something popular? 99.596% of “Making Money Online” blogs are based on the premise of regurgitating content and they show no sign of stopping.

OKAY, BUT HOW DOES COPYING GET ME TRAFFIC?
Well, it’s not really copying per se. It’s more of taking things and putting your own spin on them. Take the following image, for example:

Badly-drawn stick figures are amongst the most popular things on StumbleUpon.

As you can see, simply changing around a few things and adding some features creates a wholly new piece of content that eager StumbleUpon users can explore.

THE STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS TO COPYING CREATING POPULAR STUMBLEUPON CONTENT

1. StumbleUpon various sites until you come upon one that you feel is popular.
2. Check how many “Thumbs Up!” this item has in the review page. If it has over 20, it is suitable for your uses.
3. Copy/paste the content into either Photoshop (images) or Wordpress (articles).
4. Make a few changes. Try to add humor. Remember - StumbleUpon users love cats, funny videos, humorous quotes, new technology, and wit.
5. Put it on your site!
6. Wait for the traffic to pour in.

So remember - if it worked the first time, it’ll probably work again.

Posted by Max Miroff | 11 Comments »

Posted by Max Miroff | 7 Comments »

Why is the “a” purple? We may never know.

Looking for more random code to put on your website? Quantcast offers just that - site analytics. You can get the same thing from Google, a much more reliable company, but that doesn’t have nearly as many graphs as Quantcast.

WHAT EXACTLY DOES QUANTCAST DO?
Quantcast can tell you who your visitors are, where they come from, their average age, income, and more - all through the use of code you can put on your site and “panel estimates,” which I assume is the fancy word for “wild guessing.” But hey, come on, they have GRAPHS. Lots of graphs. Just take a look at these statistics from some random website:

Who doesn’t love graphs? Especially multi-colored ones. Graphs make everything better.

Seriously, it just doesn’t get any better than this. Quantcast can be used to give advertisers a true look into your site.

Or you can keep lying to them. Whatever works for you.

Posted by Max Miroff | 3 Comments »

Does free blog advertising float your boat? Actually, because free blog advertising doesn’t have the physical attributes to actually make a boat float, it doesn’t, but… you know what I mean.

Anyway, that’s why I’m offering three 125×125 ad squares right at the tip top of Blog Badly that you can use free for a whole week! Here’s how it’s going to work:

1. Write a post about this contest [preferred] to get 5 entries, or just add a link anywhere on your blog/site to Blog Badly and receive 3 entries.
2. Subscribe to the Blog Badly RSS feed to get 1 entry or subscribe by e-mail for 2 entries.
3. StumbleUpon Thumbs Up! this post to get 1 entry
4. Write a comment on this post saying what you did
5. The first three people to write posts or add links will automatically be given a week of advertising
6. You will be assigned a number and I’ll use random.org to pick winners weekly

As an additional incentive for writing a post, there will always be an ad spot dedicated to those who wrote posts or link to Blog Badly. That gives you a much greater chance of winning!

This contest will be ongoing, so even if you don’t win the first week you can still get the free advertising. Your points carry over from week to week!

REMEMBER! YOU MUST COMMENT ON THIS POST TO GET AN ENTRY! OR ELSE.. WELL… UHM. ALLIGATORS WILL EAT YOU.

UPDATE: Due to me being on vacation, the first drawing will be on the 24th. Sorry!

Posted by Max Miroff | 50 Comments »

What a clever play on words. Get it? NASDAQ -> ADSDAQ? Like the stock exchange? No? Yeah…

Does no one ever click your Google Adsense ads anymore? Is your 0.000138% CTR bringing you down? Then try ADSDAQ, the CPM program with a bunch of awesome features that will definitely bring you mad moneyz.

WHAT IS ADSDAQ?
ADSDAQ is a CPM (cost per mille [thousand for you Latin illiterates. Which is pretty much everyone]) ad program that lets you set your own price for the ads shown on your website. Want to charge a $2 CPM? You got it! Are you insane? Then set your CPM to $99 and let the money not pour in. The ability to set your own CPM works because ADSDAQ have advertisers that are willing to pay a certain amount of cash for ad spots.

WHAT’S THE CATCH?
Well, ADSDAQ doesn’t pay you for all of your impressions. Depending on how high you’ve set your CPM, you’ll monetize about 40-50% of your hits - which isn’t that bad, considering the secret weapon ADSDAQ has up its sleeves:

BACK-UP AD TAGS
ADSDAQ allows you to use other ad programs in conjunction with its own without breaking any rules! You can add in tags for any ad program you’re already using and whenever ADSDAQ can’t sell your own ads, they’ll perform a switcharoo and use the back-up ads instead! You can even set the ad rotation for your back-up ads.

Overall, you should definitely try ADSDAQ. Set a high CPM so that when you get paid you get paid well and add some backup tags to monetize every visitor.

Posted by Max Miroff | 13 Comments »

10. Jealousy Of Other Bloggers
Why does John Chow make so much money? Why?!?!?!? All he does is eat at restaurants and take pictures!

9. Google Hates Us
You want to make ten bucks from your blog by writing a review or selling a measly link (or 20)? Too bad!

8. Digg Hates Us
Unless you spend four hours a day making connections on social media sites, that post of yours that got Dugg will be smothered under thousands of others in the same situation.

7. Link Building Takes Too Much Time
Believe it or not, you’re most likely not going to write a post that goes viral and gets linked to by millions - but you can keep dreaming (and commenting on no-NoFollow blogs).

6. All The Good Ideas Are Already Taken
What do you mean someone’s already writing a blog about making money online? Preposterous!

5. All The Good Domain Names Are Already Taken
I guess m-a-king-mon-e-y-onl-in-e.com would work…

4. It Costs Money
Web hosting, domain name registration, contests, ten cups of coffee per day…

3. It’s Too Hard To Make Money
Today’s Earnings: $0.00194

2. Getting Readers Takes Time
Because two hits per day just doesn’t cut it.

1.Writing Quality Content Requires Effort
If only I could make an awesome blog and only spend ten minutes a day on it…

Posted by Max Miroff | 7 Comments »

ADSDAQ, an advertising company I use, apparently employs paid imps to do their bidding. Interesting.

Posted by Max Miroff | No Comments »

Your World Gallery doesn’t really have a logo, so here’s a handy picture of the website.

Your World Gallery is a blog with art in it - at least, that’s what its “Welcome Message” implies:

“Welcome to the new Your World Gallery. Where you can discover new art works and the artists who made them. We cover a wide range of topics here on this blog as we are active with in our community and want to contribute in any way we can.”

I say implies because it states (directly after the fragmented sentence [+1 point] that tells you it’s an art blog. Welcome messages are the most important things as they are the first a visitor sees - don’t mess them up!) that it covers a wide range of topics. So I suppose it isn’t really a blog about art at all. Imposter!

SO WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT, THEN?
My first impression of Your World Gallery was that it was just your average “blog-about-blogging” blog due to the fact that it had a few posts about contests, Wordpress themes, and the obligatory “post” about credit card refinancing [+1 point]. After further inspection, I actually found some art on the site! Not a lot, mind you, but what was there was… interesting. Most of the content is related to web development, although the content ranges from family to blogging. Your World Gallery definitely isn’t a niche blog - it’s more of a melting pot (the polite way of saying “a bunch of random stuff”). The posts it does have are written conversationally (always a good thing) but do have some minor spelling and grammatical errors which really detract from the blog [+1 point].

IT LOOKS NICE, THOUGH.
It’s true! Your World Gallery looks good - the author, Collin, adds images to most posts and overall the theme has a sleek design that is quite Web 2.0 [-1 point]

BUT THE LAYOUT…
Your World Gallery has a few problems regarding what’s going on in its sidebar. Apparently, Collin loved his categories so much that he included them not once but twice [+1 point]. He also has that weird Wordpress “meta” tab that I’m pretty sure no one ever uses, much like their appendix. But, hey, perhaps he’s found a use for it and is in fact a medical blogical blogging genius. At least he has an RSS button near the top of his page.

THE FINAL VERDICT
Due to Blog Badly’s complex and time-consuming system of tallying points based on 2nd grade mathematics, here’s a recap of what Your World Gallery is.

• The welcome message is messed up! [+1 point]
• Credit card financing. Need I say more? [+1 point]
• Grammatical and spelling errors. [+1 point]
• Looks nice! [-1 point]
• Two categories tabs? [+1 point]

Your World Gallery has potential, but it lacks polish. If it were carefully proofread, the layout improved, and the content a bit more focused, then it could be great. Until then, it receives three thumbs down from Blog Badly (comparatively, this is slightly better than average). Congratulations!

Posted by Max Miroff | 4 Comments »