thoushallblog.com – A blog that helps Beginners to blog better has finally made it into the 45n5 Top 100 (#96) – the most popular of its kind that shows you how your blog rank against every other blog in the universe blogosphere. 45n5 Top 100 is sort of a benchmark to measure your progress against the others.
With Technorati Ranking standing below 40K and Alexa (on its way to) reaching below 140K, the month of August has been quiet a successful month for me. Traffic has averaged about 300 Uniques in a day and 1000 Page Views. It has surpassed all my personal expectations, except that I’m yet to reach my goal of 150 subscribers for the current month.
OK! I’m done with my not-too-shameless blog promotion. Is this the kind of post you write when you have nothing to write on a good Sunday? Probably. Weekends are those times when I take time off to connect with other bloggers on their blog and my family off the blog. I don’t usually write on weekends as I think it’s just a complete waste of time if you ask me.
However, you might have noticed the trend of writing link round up at every corners of the blogosphere on weekends. One notable example of this is by Jim @ The Net Fool, a strong advocate of Sunday Link Love Edition and one of my good friend, Peter @ Work from Home who just finished his Links Round Up No. 2.
Though this is the one trend that I haven’t been following but if you do notice, I make every effort to link out to other bloggers every now and then on my post. It’s a no brainer to count how many links I give out on this post alone.
Christmas Comes A Little Earlier This Year
None the less, there are just a couple of blog errands I need to do here. The first thing is the update on the participants’ entry points since ‘It’s Christmas in August‘ Contest is going to end pretty soon in a couple of days.
First thing first, thanks to all the contestants who have shown interest (in winning the prizes) and participated and secondly, thanks to all the sponsors who have helped me in making it possible. A big “Thanks” to everyone.
So without further ado, here’s all the contestants and their respective entry points. (Edited: I think I’m going to change my mind in publishing the names of the contestants here so what I will do is I’m going to comment and update it on the contest post itself.)
Plagiarism At Work
Jay from Datmoney.com wrote an interesting article, How to Get Free Content for Your Blog through the Art of Plagiarism and quiet unfortunately it was what exactly happened to me not too long ago. Someone probably thought so highly of my article and copied & translated them words by words into Spanish through the creative use of Google Translator.
Here’s the act of plagiarism for your reading pleasure
- 20 Razones por las que yo elegí WordPress
- 20 Reasons Why I Choose WordPress
- 5 posibles formas de aumentar la velocidad de tu blog
- 5 Possible Ways to Speed Up Your Blog
What an ingenious way of copying someone’s else article off internet and publishing it in different language as his own without much of a proper credit due to the original author. I guess this is one of those unavoidable thing in this borderless online world. Unethical? You bet. Inevitable? I doubt so..
Anyway, I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Johan Mena and Pitonizza who have informed me of this creative work of Copy-and-Paste; without you I wouldn’t have been aware that “I was Plagiarized” but then isn’t plagiarism the highest of flattery?
Contest Around The Blogosphere
A buddy of mine, Michael from Michael Aulia’s Tech Blog is running a little contest over at his blog where you can expect to win some domain names and hosting plan courtesy of LunarPages, Hightek Hosting and Think411. All you need to do is to make yourself as noticeable as possible in his blog throughout the contest period. Stroke his ego if you wish too as some has successfully done so.
And…
Unique Blog Design, the creative people behind the likes of John Chow, ShoeMoney, Courtney Tuttle, Entrecard, and now, Yahoo! is celebrating its 1st Year Anniversary with a contest for the remainder of August (until Sunday, August 31st).
Grand Prize – Brand New 8GB iPod Touch ($299 value) and One (1) Copy of our New UBD Citrus WordPress Theme and three (3) runner-up prizes include copies of our new UBD Citrus WordPress Theme.
The winner will be randomly chosen Monday, September 1st, 2008 via streaming video from the UBD office. For more contest details on what you are required to do, click over to UBD’s 1st Year Anniversary Contest and shout it loud your best birthday wish.
The End
That’s it ladies and gentlemen and thank you for dropping in and taking the time to read my first weekend rambling. If you like it, please do let me know but I can’t guarantee and I’m not too sure if I were to do again the following weekend.
Anyway, if these are Darren Rowse’s Weekend Strategies, what’s yours?
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{ 74 comments }
It’s always great to hear other bloggers’ success stories! It keeps me and others motivated to blog (whatever the reason is – money or passion)
Keep it up and hope that we can always stay in touch, Yan
Michael Aulia’s last blog post..Husband and Wife Joke
congrats for being in top 100.
Hussein | Random Blog’s last blog post..Sunday Link Love #5 and Updates
@Michael Aulia – Thanks, Michael. You know I’m always around your blog. Don’t you notice yours truly? OMG, I could have probably lost the contest then…:-)
@Hussein | Random Blog – You are pretty fast, buddy. I think I push the “Published” button not too long ago. Not even long enough for you to finish reading this post.
Congratulation mate for being in top 100.
indocontest’s last blog post..New Way to Market Your Web Site
Hey Yan,
After your PR3 in 3 months’ success, I was wondering what would be your next best thing to happen. Congrats on this top 100 achievement and yes I am now again wondering what’s the next milestone coming from you. I don’t know what that is but I do know going by statistics, it won’t be long. Oh BTW thanks for the mention. Yeah I really like doing Link Love posts. It’s a nice way to end the week doing this.
Peter
Congrats on your 45n5 Top 100 rating. What do you attribute your success to? Anything that seems to get you the most results?
Kermit@Realtor Websites’s last blog post..Do You Use Wordpress Plugins? Dont Bite the Hand that Feeds You!
@indocontest – Thanks, bro. Glad to see you around. Actually, you are doing pretty well in your niche if you ask me. With a little makeover on your blog design, you are well on your way to be the best in your niche. I’ve already placed my bet on you.
@Work At Home Ideas – You know, Peter, the funny thing is I don’t focus on the destination, I just make sure that the road to it is well built upon one step a time. Put simply, I am not too sure where would I be next but I kinda know what I should do next.
@Kermit@Realtor Websites – When money is not your primary motivation, you are driven by the motivation to provide more value to your readers than to yourself. I hope it does make sense.
Welcome to thoushallblog.com and I hope to see more of you around here.
Congrats on breaking the top 100.. Hopefully you will break the top 100,000 with Alexa in the next coming weeks!
Domain Structure’s last blog post..Top 3 Reasons To Register On A Forum
@Domain Structure – I hope so, it’s pretty close to 100k and thanks for your support, Brian.
Congrats on getting into the top #100. Its a nice place to be ;)
Contest Live’s last blog post..CSC Giveaway: Wiggle Giggle Learn
Congrats Yan, You deserve it.
I dropped a little in alexa rankings by taking some time off.
But recently updated my theme. Let me know what you think.
Later Buddy
Larry’s last blog post..5 Simple Tips to Help out Your fellow Blogger
I never knew about the top 100 list. Thanks.
@Yan – Traffic Rank for Thoushallblog.com: What’s This?
Alexa traffic rank based on a combined measure of page views and users (reach)
Yesterday 1 wk. Avg. 3 mos. Avg. 3 mos. Change
76,3260149 72,271163502 141,9685212 up 116,107,029
Looks like your 1wk average broke top 100,000 :)
Domain Structure’s last blog post..Top 3 Reasons To Register On A Forum
Why not pat yourself on the back when you have accomplished what you set out to do. Anybody who tells you to be more modest is probably wishing he could have done what you did with your blog. I started a blog not to long ago and although I have great content and link partners it is far from a success as I only receive a handful of visitors a day and frankly it is a bit depressing. So at any rate good for you and i hope you do write some more next weekend;)
@Domain Structure – Thing is I have no idea of what an average is in much the same way how important this kind of ranking is. All I know is that my Alexa is at 141K as we speak now.
@Botox Rox – Well, I click over to your blog and it leads to a landing page. I presume you aren’t talking about this site of yours, are you? If it is, then it’s pretty self-explanatory why you aren’t getting the kind of traffic.
Anyway, thanks for your comment and I’ll see you around.
@Larry – Hey buddy, you want my honest opinion? I don’t think this theme may suit you well (it breaks on my FF2). I can say how great this theme is but I don’t do that to you; that’s just not my style.
Have you seen the theme from WP Remix? Go ahead and take a look.. email me your opinion.
Congratulations, i am inspired to blog more and strive harder! You should be proud.
cebu’s last blog post..Foresight, Circumspection and Caution
@Yan – LOL. I usually not read posts. I just browse it and read the part that is interesting :D
Hey Yan, congratulations man, very well deserved too!
Oh yes, and the Google translator thing, it’s also been proposed as a re-writing trick to post copied (scraped) content to make posts which pass the ‘duplicate content’ test.
The idea is to put the post through several different languages on the translator then bring it back to English (or your own language) again and it should be different enough to pass the ‘copyscape test’.
I have tried it with some of my older posts on different blogs of my own, to see if I can re-publish them again ‘as new’. Didn’t work too well for me though, but some say they have had success with it. I’m still to be convinced…
Must go off and read the Spanish version of your post now. Anything which helps my mastery of my country’s language you understand… :)
Wow, congrats Yan! :) Work is finally paying off, eh? Although I’m not a fan of 45n5’s list (simply because I believe a lot of blogs there are crap), I still salute you for making it to the top 100. Keep up the great work!
Lucas’s last blog post..Fantastic Ways to Increase Affiliate Sign-ups
@zania – Hey, what a pleasant surprise! I haven’t been seeing you around here lately. Must be busy, busy, busy, huh?
Oh yes, I was really impressed with what GT can do, it’s close to 80% accuracy when I tried it the other day on Pitonizza.com. I’m going to test your method of translate and re-translate back to English on my older post and see how thing works.
Thanks for your input, Zania. By the way, are you fluent in Spanish? I mean you aren’t Spanish, are you?
@Lucas – Oh gosh, you aren’t saying that my blog is crap. are you? :-) Anyway, thanks, buddy…
I see that you are doing pretty great over at Net Strife. Good flow of articles and great community to be in…
Well the translate idea works okay for some… I think I’m too concerned about the post reading well for this method to work for me without spendiong as much time tweaking it myself as it takes to write a ‘real ‘ post.
But that’s just me. And why I’m always so busy :)
No, I’m not Spanish – I’m a ‘Brit’. But I’ve lived in Spain for a while now and I am still struggling with the intricacies of the Spanish language. But I try my best…
zania’s last blog post..Does Being A Cynic Make You More Depressed?
Congrats Yan! I cannot wait for the day you surpass John Chow and win the race and I am sure you will. The case going for you is that you seem to care about your readers whereas he does not seem so at least to me. Regarding the plagiarism you experienced, I have experienced similar behaviour by a couple of people taking my content word to word. That is simply gross abuse. Anyway, thank you and I enjoyed your post.
@Yan – No way I’m saying your blog is crap. :) It’s one of the best I’m reading so far! :) I’m just saying a lot of the ones in the list are either outdated or contain content with little to no substance at all. ;)
Lucas’s last blog post..Fantastic Ways to Increase Affiliate Sign-ups
@zania – Well, I’m not surprised at all after reading some of your great articles. Perfectionist? I don’t think you are but you are pretty close to being one… simply writing ordinary articles is just not your cup of tea.
If I guess it correctly….
@Raj Krishnaswamy – Hey Raj, you have always said the nicest words I couldn’t possibly say it better. Now I don’t know much about John Chow or how he chooses to handle his readers. The truth is contrary to the norm, I don’t follow his blog at all.
I appreciate your support but I think it’s still a long way to go before I could be as popular he is, albeit less notorious. I don’t maintain this blog with what others call, ‘ambition’. I take it one day at a time and when I feel the desire to write, I write. When it’s time to connect with my readers, I talk to them.
I’m glad you drop by to check on me, if there is anything you think I could do better, please throw your feedback my way. I’m all ears.
@Lucas – Cool, buddy. Somehow, I’m missing that humor gene in my DNA if you know what I mean…:-) Well, I think Mark from 45n5 knows what he is doing…
Hey Yan,
I know this is probably not the place to do this, but would you share some quick tips on how you did it, not specifically the top 100 but your success in getting so much traffic and good alexa and Technorati ratings. An inkling on how you did it will suffice for now. The interviews, spotlight, drumroll can take place later.
Peter
@Work At Home Ideas – Peter, I wish I could be really specific and details here but I’ll have nothing more to write on in future if I were to be.
Just a quick one here:
1. Alexa – Stumble Upon, they don’t stay but it’s counted as visits.
2. Technorati – Contest Sponsor & ‘what they don’t teach you about linkbuilding’ if you still remember..
3. Traffic – It’s been my practice of not only replying to all the comments here, I visit the sites of all the commenters and reciprocate the same, irregardless of their niche.
I think at the end of it, the old adage of ‘first impression’ still rules the day. Having a unique and not-too-common blog design makes all the difference in engaging the first-timers to stay longer and eventually subscribed.
Did I say that content is just as important? Take a look above at my response to @Kermit@Realtor Websites…
Hope it makes some sense to you, Peter.
Congrats… I think I’ll learn a lot from you
@John Doro – Welcome, John. I think we can learn a lot from one another. Hope you enjoy your stay here and thanks for dropping by..
How can I get my blog notice in 45ntop?
Paul U’s last blog post..Getting a car insurance? [Digg]
Congrats on your achievement!
Susan’s last blog post..Realty Trac
Congrats Yan! Wishing you to get to Top 10.
Thanks for sharing your success with us. Each time I read a success story, I am like “Wow, shouldn’t I be saying this too someday”?
Things like plagiarisms will only cause you some pain and too much time if you want to give it too much importance. But again, I can’t stop asking myself “How does it hurt to give credit where it is due”?
az blogginng’s last blog post..Free Registered Domain Name for Your .blogspot.com Blog
Yan,
Congratulations for getting into the top 100.
Finally you hardwork is paying… It will make me also charged up to write more posts…
Wow, comgrats yan…. Im hoping to get there soon too…. ;-)
Melvin’s last blog post..The PepperJam Bloggers Incentive Program
@Max@Viliat-Blog – Thanks, Max for dropping by. I hope I’ll see more of you around here.
@az blogginng – Hey Uncle Zhe, glad you check on me. I’m pretty sure you will be there one day. You are doing pretty good on AZ Blogging with quiet a no. loyal followers.
About the plagiarism thing, I’m cool about it. At least I knew my articles are worth the effort to copy and paste..:-)
@Nihar – Thanks, Nihar. Let’s do it better together. Appreciate you dropping by….
@Melvin – You kid me not. You are in the list, aren’t you? Anyway, thanks for checking on me. Yours is one of the blog I do visit regularly. If only I could subscribe to my comments on your blog…..
I have no idea what ‘top 100′ means, but good going! I don’t actually check how high I rank on things, haha. (lookit me being naive!) I apparently have like 33-34 technorati authority, so, go double digits.
On the weekends I do a lot of networking, emailing, and of course, design work. I might also write a post in advance if I’m being particularly organized. A lot of my great ideas come over the weekends but I force myself to wait until monday to go for them. Keep up the momentum and minimize the burnout.
Corey Freeman’s last blog post..Blog Engage – Social Networking for Bloggers
@Corey Freeman – Well checking on your rankings somehow gives you an idea where you are right now and whether you are doing the right thing. Being in the top 100 doesn’t necessarily ring the cash register, it’s just a number per se.
On the subject being organized, I’m not. I write when I have the inspiration to write; I connect with other bloggers when time permits. I don’t keep a tight schedule as such I avoid myself from being burnout in the process.
Thanks for sharing your weekend strategy with us.
Hello Yan bro,
1st off hands off to you congratulation . I think your doing a great job maintaining your readers and keeping your blog posts updated and clear to the subject . I am much of a rowdy type blogger . I really don’t focus on the aspect clarity but yea i get my way around it somehow ! . But yes as you can see i have been busy for the past few days and wasn’t able to keep up.
B/w i needed to know a few things i am trying to get my blog at google page ranks how do i do that . Means i have applied on thier application form tons of times till now . But still no response but yea i am getting a lot of readers through good SEO’s I would like to recommend you to check my SEO post on olympics . I think you will get an idea how to name your blog title . I am not saying the current style is not worth but if you imply this i am sure you will go closer to No.1 .
Best of luck . Do stop by some time
Thanks ,
Asim
@Asim – Hey, Asim. It’s been a while since the last time I heard of you. It’s everything, OK, buddy?
Anyway, I don’t quite get your question. Are you saying that you are trying to contact Google about your Page Rank? What do you mean by applying on their application form?
Now being #1 on less competitive keyword is the easy part but SEO alone is not enough to get you #1 on competitive keywords, i.e. blogging tips, make money online, etc.. there are other factors we need to take care of.
Still I’m glad you are doing it well on your chosen keyword. Best of luck to you, buddy…
Actually if you do notice, I write the title here for both the robots and my readers…
Congratulations on making the top 100!
Also, what’s your RSS Feed count at now? I’m just wondering how far off you are from hitting your 150 goal. I don’t think it should be hard, especially the fact that I see you networking and getting your name out there a LOT! LOL!
- AnotherMMOblog
Another Make Money Online Blog’s last blog post..Questions Answered and Free Backlinks Given
@Another Make Money Online Blog – Thanks, pal. You are right, I do network a lot as much as you do. In fact, I write less nowadays..
Anyway, my feed count is right at the front page. It’s 18 more before I reach my goal. No, actually 17 if you subscribe now…
Grats for entering the top 100 boundary. All the best to your 150 subscribers goal for the month
Wei Liang’s last blog post..Articles Archives
Good on you Yan for making the Top 100 as it shows that if a blogger does all the right things and blogs diligently then great things can with time and effort be achieved.
It is also nice to see a blogger replying to other peoples comments as many fail to see the nicety if this as well as the reciprocation of comments.
Sire’s last blog post..How To Make A Monthly Income With Your Blog
congrats mate :) You are doing really well…wish you even more greater success…
@Sire – You are absolutely right! Many fail to see the need to connect with their readers beyond their own gates. It’s good to know that you are practicing what I have always believed in – that is to visit your commenter’s site and reciprocate the same.
Thanks for dropping by, pal and I hope to see more of you around here.