No, I am not on a blogging hiatus. I doubt if I will ever be on one. Though I haven’t been blogging on my two major sites lately, the thing is, the internet is such a vast space that if ever I’m not very visible here, for sure I am doing something wicked somewhere else.

Ok, I’m not really doing something nefarious this time but I am very much glued to the internet every day, working on another stand-alone yet on a subdomain blog. It’s been such a fan thing to do that my vaunted Alexa Rank in my major blogs have suffered. But I guess that’s alright considering that my new sub-domain blog has just been going up and up.

I’m talking about my very own blog about facebook cheats. Yep I’ve joined the bandwagon and you know what, there’s still a lot more seats in there! My facebook centered blog can be read at http://facebookcheats.thirdworldgeek.com. I just seriously started adding a lot of articles around the third week of December and the results have been really good. I’m up to an average pageviews of around 1200/day with unique daily visitors averaging around 400 in the last couple of days and still going up. I told you it’s so much fun!

This facebook blog is currently focusing on Ninja Warz Tips, Tricks, and the occasional cheat. So if you’re playing Ninja Warz this is a good resource for you to visit. If you’re not, THEN WHY THE HELL NOT? Where else can you play a game where you meet lots of people and you get to kill all of them? loll.

Anyway the site’s traffic is sourced mainly from search engine visitors. I’m just starting to realize the power of the Thesis Theme when it comes to SEO. Only a couple of minutes after publishing an article and it’s already indexed by Google. Freaking awesome! The blog is also featured heavily on Mahalo and some of those aggregator sites like zappafly and others.

Subscription to the site is increasing by the day as well, as of last check, my email subscribers have reached 171. Not a really big number in any case but still, with not much marketing, just pure unadulterated content writing, I’m very satisfied with it.

I’ll probably go back to posting the usual stuff when everything’s not so crazy anymore in the office but right now, this baby here is hogging all my time.

Hey visit the blog some time. Cheers!

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What I really like about blogging is that not only does it satisfy my writing cravings, sometimes it puts a little change in my pockets as well. I’m sure most bloggers already have adsense in their blogs as it is one of the easiest ways to earn money from. However, I would recommend adding another form of revenue stream to complement adsense.

My second favorite money maker would be Chitika. I love how unobtrusive it is. In fact, you can barely see it unless you would intentionally want to see it. So far, it’s been a consistent contributor to my monthly allowance.

Adsense is doing good but sometimes for newbies, a $100 payout limit can be a bit daunting. The good thing with Chitika is that you get paid with as little as $10 income that you’ve accumulated. Sounds really small right? However let’s see what $10 can get you on the internet.

1. You can already buy a domain name for yourself!
2. You can buy a decent customized blogging theme (check out Gabfire)
3. You can pay for a month’s worth of hosting.
4. Buy a few iPhone apps.
5. Buy your favorite eBook.

So if you’re still fixated on Google Adsense, you may want to rethink that and install Chitika on your blog as well.
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Blogger Conversations

As my interest in updating this blog started to wane, I had the good fortune of talking to two fellow bloggers who so unselfishly shared their blogging experiences with me. Over cups of the usual overpriced coffee, we talked about our attempts at making money (in my case, not making money) online. Bloggista is very excited about a couple of products that he will be launching soon. I can’t be very specific about these products at the moment but once he’s released those, I will be one of his rahrah guys and will blog about them here. Ceblogger is unflappable as usual, but as we go back a long time, we exchanged a few war stories (before Bloggista joined us) which only served to remind both of us how mellowed we have become over time.

I must say that talking to these two outstanding bloggers have, in a way, reinvigorated my waning desire to regularly update my site. Bloggista’s enthusiasm is just contagious! This post is a testament to that.

Small World

Who would have thought that Bloggista would turn out to be an old mate? One that I haven’t seen for ages! I couldn’t believe my eyes when he approached our table and introduced himself. I didn’t realize that he’s into blogging as well and that he’s actually the guy behind that very catchy domain name. What was supposed to be a first time meet-up with him turned out to be a reunion instead.

Cure For Burnout

I believe that having a conversation with our fellow bloggers is a salve to the blogging burnout that eventually every blogger will experience—considering that blogging is such a solitary activity. Conversing live in a language that every party to the conversation understands is very refreshing, a far cry from dialogues with non-blogger friends whose jaws tend to drop when you mention words such as dofollow, or phrases like ‘link baiting’.

If you’re in the same situation as I am, and you feel the strains of a burnout creeping in your blogging psyche, I would suggest that you schedule a meet-up with some of your blogger friends. After all, we are still human beings, and as social animals we have a primal need to connect with other human beings.

Sure, we talk to our cyberfriends and blog visitors all the time, but if you pause and think about it, all our instant messages and tweets and comments– these activities are poor excuses for actual dialogues where you can exchange smiles (not smileys) and laughter(not just typing lol). Remember, communications over the internet will always and forever be, just a conversation between you and your computer.

This post is my entry to a blog competition over at FuelMyBlog sponsored by Tsheets.com.

Given my predisposition to blog at all times of the day, one would think that the first 5 minutes of my working time would be spent hunched in front of the computer, checking the previous night’s blog stats. While this may be a likely scenario (after all, my computer is just beside my bed and is running almost 24/7), this is actually not the case 99.99% of the time.

My working day’s first 5 minutes is usually spent doing ceiling patrol. I scan my bedroom ceiling with my eyes, taking note of every crook and crevice while reviewing the previous day’s happenings and planning the things that I want to accomplish for the day. Of course at the back of my mind, I’m already itching to see if somebody has left a comment on my latest blog post, but I try to keep that urge under control.

Sometimes during these 5-minute reveries, I wonder if I’m not missing out on life with the kind of lifestyle that I lead. For most folks, a life lived 90% of the time in front of the computer is a terrible waste. But as we say in blogging, we have to find our niche, and this – blogging, being in front of the computer almost all the time – this is my niche. It may not mean much to some but this is where I believe I am happiest.

My daily 5-minute contemplation only serves to confirm that belief.

One interesting thing related to links is the idea of a PR leakage. The PR theory is that a single link to another site counts as one editorial vote. Editorial votes are the building blocks of Page Rank. Accordingly, the higher the PR of the site doing the voting the bigger will be the impact come PR upgrade time. This also has a bearing on a particular site’s SERP standing.

Supposedly, PR leakage occurs when a certain blog has way too many outgoing links. When this happens that site’s voting power becomes less potent compared with others of the same PR but with way lesser outgoing links. That’s the general idea behind this concept.

Now whether you believe this concept is entirely up to you. I have read about this in several authoritative blogs but I have yet to read about a concrete example of this. Although this makes a lot of sense to me, I still wonder how this actually pans out. Will a blog with too many outgoing links be downgraded in the subsequent PR upgrade?

It seems improbable however that a blog, not a directory, would have that many outgoing links, unless you participate in one of those viral blog link thing, or you’re engaged in excessive reciprocal link exchanges. Now that’s something that you don’t want to be caught red handed now that you know better.

This is a tired subject for anyone who has been in the blogging business for a long time. This has been discussed at least a hundred times in webmaster forums and in blogs all over the internet. But to those new in the game, especially those who have aggressively sought link exchanges, here is a Google policy to ponder on;

Link Schemes

Your site’s ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to you. The quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating. The sites that link to you can provide context about the subject matter of your site, and can indicate its quality and popularity. However, some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results. Examples of link schemes can include:

• Links intended to manipulate PageRank
• Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
• Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (“Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)
• Buying or selling links that pass PageRank

–source: Google Webmaster Help Center

If you remember your blog history, the last bullet point was what precipitated the first of many Google PR purges. But this is not the point of this article, the third bullet point is.

In the earlier days, the word ‘excessive’ was not included in the policy. Perhaps thinking that a puritanical view towards unnatural link development may be a bit unreasonable, Google added this term later on. Even then, the guideline is not that specific. There were no clear examples as to the application of this policy. A few quarters, for example, would have liked to peg a number to the term ‘excessive’.

Today, I see a lot of bloggers who would bloghop like crazy all over the internet in search for ex-links. Some can be quiet smooth about it while some can be really brazen. I am not privy to their motivations but some of these folks are only out there to increase their PR; link relevance be damned.

I have to a certain extent linked to other blogs that are not exactly related to the things that I write. Most of the time these are links to sites that I really like and/or whose owners are familiar to me. Still, I try to limit these instances to as few as possible.
Nevertheless, reciprocal linking is a tricky thing. On the one hand you have a surefire inbound link, something that every blogger desires, and on the other there’s the thought of violating Google’s webmaster guidelines on excessive link exchanges.

My opinion is that one has to exercise judgment when it comes to responding to those who would request for reciprocal link exchanges. The question that should come to everyone’s mind when deciding is – is this site relevant to yours, and would the site actually add value to what you offer your readers. If not (or even if it is, depending on your mood), then you can just flat out refuse.

Keep in mind that the best kind of links run on a one-way street, preferably those where the arrow point directly at you. Having good, quality content in your blog almost always ensures that you get a lot of these kind of link.

**Latest Update

And for some reason, my PR has now gone back up to PR4. lol. This is a rollercoaster ride I’m telling ya. :)

**Update

Looks like there’s some pendulum-swinging going on. Earlier today I got excited over the PR bump I thought I got from Google. I checked the PRcheckers around and the bump was confirmed. After a few hours however, I landed back to earth. With a thud. Looks like Google is still fine tuning its update so I’m now back to my curvaceous PR3 although some site checkers still insist that I got the bump. Oh well better not get too excited. Weh.

Forgive my immodesty dear visitor, but if you will kindly direct your attention to your google toolbar, the part where they show the page rank of this blog, you may notice that there are far more green there than you may have been accustomed to.

That’s right, google’s at it again. The PR ranking system has been updated and I am, proudly and unabashedly, happy to say that my little PR 3 was given a little bump in the posterior. I thought it was just one of those residual PRs from other far more significant blogs, but when I checked it at prchecker.info and domainpr.com, my hopes were confirmed. This blog’s page rank is now at sweet number 4.

Now what does this mean? Absolutely nothing. lol. Except when people start pounding on my doors wanting to advertise on my blog(as if that would happen) and in which case, I may be forced to provide premium pricing– this being a PR4 blog and all.

Oh well, this is wishful thinking but hey, it’s always nice to dream.

If you are looking for pinoy blogs that sport the commentluv plug-in, look no further. I have listed below some of these blogs for your convenience.

My criteria for including blogs here is of course, they’re pinoy blogs, they’re current, and they have the commentluv plug-in installed. I hope that when they see their blogs here, they would be moved to linking mine as well (I wish).

To the uninitiated, commenting on blogs with commentluv plug-ins is one of the easiest way to build backlinks for your blogs. Backlinks (in case you do not know yet) boost your rankings, higher rankings significantly improves your paid post opportunities, paid post opportunities lead to more money, and of course more money leads you to the dark side of the force. Kidding.

But seriously, if you are thinking of improving your traffic via a commenting strategy, then you might as well hit two birds with one stone by commenting on blogs with the commentluv plug-in enabled. You not only fulfill your goal of introducing your blog to others (thereby gaining potential visitors), you also get backlinks to your blog. What the commentlub plug-in does specifically is, when you comment on one of these blogs, it will seek out your blog and display a link to your last blog post right under your comment. Sweet isn’t it?

Aboutmyrecovery| Chuvachienes| Makimeji
Alphadf| Conradmiguel | Mawesadobo
Amorfrancis | Ebooktechie | Modpinoy
Annie-thejourney | Entrepreneur | Mon-bric-a-brac
Archon-digital| Fengguillermobrum| Naptimerocks
Atmaxplorer | The Quickstop Project| Niftygaloot
Babyface | Jaypeeonline | Noeesnook
Babyrambutan | Jessie-simbulan | Pinoybizblogger
Balutpress | Jpsimbulan | Pinoyconsole
Bendzg | Jrocas | Pinoyinsingapore
Blog2learn | Kabalyero|Pinoytechguy
Bloggingmix |Knoizki |Pinoytek
Bloggista | Laurganism | Pinoytux
Bluepanjeet| Leandroarban| Promdiliving
Chartherct| Lloydlopez| Radiantview
Raketscience| Sesantos.ph| Toni.marikit
Romelo | Silkenhut | Untwistedvortex
Sasha-says |Simplydeelytz | Websaytko
Serialgirlfriend | Techathand | Yevka

Just a friendly advise though, while the commentluv plug-in is one very cool widget, please do not comment just for the sake of making a comment. In other words, do not SPAM. Plain vanilla comments such as “Nice post!”, or “Nice article!” are too spammy if you ask me. Relate to the article, share a common experience, criticize! Don’t be a lazy commenter with your ‘blog hop’ or ‘was here’ comments. That’s ok when placed on tag boards or chat boxes, but when you pass these things off as comments just so you get a backlink, that’s just wrong. Most of the time, blog owners would just delete them so if you don’t have anything to share, move on to the next blog.

My Technorati Authority is slipping– why, why, why? Before we all go over the top and question the heavens for conspiring against us, here are the basics on Technorati Authority;

Your Technorati Authority is very much dependent on two things– reactions and time.

Reactions are the inbound links to you from other sites. The more inbound links you have, the higher will be your Technorati Authority. However, it is always about the number of sites/blogs and not the number of links; which means that even if a blog links to your site a million times, Technorati will only count that as one. The time consideration means that one inbound link will prop your authority for 180 days. After that number of days, that links power ceases and you can actually see your Technorati Authority slipping.

Thus, Technorati Authority is not always about forward movement, overtime, especially when your inbound links are not growing as much as you would like, you would see some setback in your Technorati Authority. To ensure that our Authority keeps getting higher and higher, we have to continue building those inbound links. Go ask for exchange links, comment on blogs with commentluv enabled, search those blogs with top commentator plug-ins.

Keep those inbound links flowing and your precious Technorati Authority will only keep on getting bigger.

As the name suggests this service gives you an alert everytime there is a news info or tidbit on something that you are monitoring, be it your favorite sports team, your celebrity crush, and yes—even your keyword.

Just today, my usually flat traffic is getting a lot of spikes after I created a forum somewhere about the Kizuna Satellite. I am very interested about this topic as I have a beef with lousy internet service providers. To ensure that I get a first whiff of whatever is written on the net about the Kizuna Satellite, I have placed this exact same phrase as one of my Google Alerts.

The process is a no brainer. All you have to do is go to http://www.google.com/alerts and then specify what specific search term you like, and all other info required to get you what you want. You then put in the email address that you want to receive the alert, and voila! No more crazy searching around the infinite corners of the web for whatever it is that rocks your boat.