Egonitron.com - Part 3

Archive Page 3

About Sponsored Posts on Egonitron.com

Published December 6th, 2007 in Blogging, Money and Sponsored Post. 1 Comment

sponsored reviews Every once in a while I’ll get on a Sponsored Post kick in which every few posts will be sponsored from various sources. Hey a blogger’s got to eat, right? Well I’ve cut back on this a bit, partly because of Google’s Page Rank drop, partly because I’m going to be changing the format of Egonitron.com a bit.

Regardless, I may still do sponsored posts here, and I’d like you to know what my stance on them are.

I take sponsored posts from various 3rd-party companies as well as direct. My favorite places to take sponsored posts: PayPerPost, SponsoredReviews, ReviewMe, and LinkWorth (LinkPosts.) It’s a good stream of revenue, but they’re still too reliant on Page Rank. Fortunately, Izea (PayPerPost) is working on RealRank which has already been implemented in response to Google dropping the PR of a lot of blogs in their system to Zero (including mine,) so be careful.

Anyway, I don’t have anything against sponsored posts unless the advertiser requires a positive review, or no in-post disclosure. I believe it’s very important that for your blog to remain trustworthy, you need to be transparent. That means not recommending something that you don’t like just because you’re getting paid for it. Tell the truth. If the advertiser doesn’t like it, maybe they need to listen, and change the service. You did them a favor; companies pay tons of money for real customer’s opinions. Why would this be any different?

I once got a request to review a financial services company on an old blog of mine. I did the review, but there were a lot of problems with the site that I not only said was a problem in the post, but offered a good way to fix each issue. The advertiser didn’t like the fact that everything in the review wasn’t positive, so they didn’t pay me. I “nofollow”d their links, and never took another post opportunity from that post broker.

But I digress. My point is that I believe sponsored posts are great, as long as they’re honest and fully disclosed as sponsored posts. Each of these that I do on Egonitron.com is included in the Sponsored Posts category and also have a disclosure inside the post, usually at the beginning or end.

How do you feel about sponsored posts? Are you OK with not disclosing them as paid, and why?

Egonitron Minor Redesign

Published December 5th, 2007 in Design and Misc. 1 Comment

You may have noticed that the look of Egonitron.com is a little bit different than it was about a month ago. Although my design skills are less than admirable, I spent a few hours trying to redesign my header with my new logo. For my low design skill level, I think I did a pretty decent job, but there are still a few things I would like to change.

In addition to this, I’ve added a Google Custom Search box at the above-right. It only searches articles here on Egonitron, so it’s no different than a regular site search. The results load here in an iFrame in the main content, give it a try!

If you notice any bugs or problems, something you would like changed, or a suggestion, please contact me.

GMail Adds Colored Labels, Still no HTML Sigs

Published December 4th, 2007 in Google and Internet. Closed

GMail colored labels Google: colored labels in GMail are cool, I’m glad you took a hint from Lifehacker. While definitely an improvement, I’m still waiting on HTML signatures. Every email client in the world gives you HTML sigs, please just allow the damn things already.

Using TNX.net as an SEO Stategy

Published November 28th, 2007 in Blogging and SEO. 5 Comments

You may have seen TNX.net ads around some blogs; they’re attractive little 125×125 graphic blocks hanging out on the sidebars of some popular “blogger-blogs.” But what exactly is TNX.net, and why would you want to use it?

TNX.net is another link-back solution aimed at bloggers. So what makes it unique? it’s based on a credit system. Instead of purchasing links (which you can also do if you choose,) you earn credits by displaying other’s links on your site. The process is completely automated, all you have to do is place in the code on your sidebar or footer, and it takes care of itself.

Blogger

From a blogger’s standpoint, you’ll just have another link or two on some of your pages, depending on your preferences. Each page will have a different link on it, and you can view the links from your control panel at TNX.net. To see an example of the links, browse my archive and click on some of the posts. Look at the bottom of the right sidebar for the links. Some posts have them, some don’t. The links on your pages will earn you points based the Google PageRank of that page (which may pose a problem,) and Yahoo Backlinks, which you can then use to place your own links or sell them for cash. They don’t offer much in terms of cash, so you’re better off using it for your own links; they’re cheap.

After you place the code on your site, you’ll want to keep an eye on what links are being placed there from the TNX control panel. I noticed a lot of unrelated links, which I delete, along with the whole campaign for that advertiser if it’s spammy. Google does penalize you for linking to low-quality sites, so make sure to keep an eye out. Continue reading ‘Using TNX.net as an SEO Stategy’

Get Your Networking On with Blogger Business Cards

Published November 27th, 2007 in Blogging and Sponsored Post. Closed

Thought about getting business cards for your blog? It’s a great way to network, promote your website off-line, and get a few (possibly many) more readers. Having a business card at BlogWorld was invaluable, and I’ve received a lot of follow-up from folks who I otherwise wouldn’t have heard from again. Even though the cards were just quickly thrown together and didn’t look too great, they had my info on it, and that’s the important part.

Well now, ooprint.com came up with a great idea to design business cards specifically for bloggers – tag cloud and all: Continue reading ‘Get Your Networking On with Blogger Business Cards’

NoFollow Link Train Contest

Published November 27th, 2007 in Blogging. Closed

Prija over at Blogging the Movie started a new link train, but with one twist: you must have “nofollow” tags on each link. Interesting idea, hopefully it will show us all some benefit. Plus it’s a contest, so there’s nothing to lose! Here’s how it works:

***** Start Here ******

3rd Contest

Prize

1. Free 4-Hour Workweek Book.
2. A chance to have a permanent link on front page of Blogging The Movie dot com.
3. Sign the Records Book as it travels to 10 different winners.

Contest

This contest is sponsored by BloggingTheMovie – A featured documentary about Bloggers. This contest contains no-follow links. So it is Google friendly and by creating an original introduction you wonâ€™t be dinged for duplicate content. This is an ongoing marketing campaign. There will be 10 winners at which each winner will be able to host their own contest which will be sponsored by Blogging The Movie. 1st Winner: Susan Suarez | 2nd Winner: Investing Adventures | 3rd Winner: Can be you!

Rules

1. Write an original short snippet introduction to avoid duplicate content.
2. Just copy the section between the start and end.
3. Add your 3 favorite blogs with rel=â€nofollowâ€ in between the link on the code page. i.e. <a href=”http://www.url.com/” rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” title=”url name”>URL.com</a>. This is extremely important to ensure that Google wonâ€™t ding us. Make sure you contact the bloggers and insist they participate so they can keep this going.

4. Email your URL of your blog post to Free4hourWorkweek@gmail.com
[Deadline: 12/31/07 ]

Favorite Blogs

If you were not tagged, you can still copy the list and add yourself on. No worries, itâ€™s a win-win for everyone. So lets get ready. Get on the list to become the 3rd winner on the Train Contest

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