It’s all about intention, innit?

Posted by stuart as blogging, advertising, blog

Gary has an interesting post asking if you’re a friendly blogger, where he’s taken some of the blogs in his feedreader, and assessed how user friendly they are.

Whilst he’s certainly given me some food for thought, as this blog was one of the ones he assessed, I believe he may be a little off the mark with the assessments he’s made.

I can’t argue with the methodology Gary has used, it’s the assumptions he’s made before applying the methodology which have me a little puzled.

Gary’s working on the principle that the more content and navigation above the fold, the more “user friendly” a blog is for its readers.

Almost all of the blogs that I read are absolutely dire when it comes to navigation. It would seem that it’s becoming more normal to use some sort of monetisation rather than a good menu system.

For me, I like to see a header, some content in the left, and the menu on the right, all above the fold if possible. I don’t like to see too many blatant adverts in my face when I view a blog.

Firstly, allow me to adress the issue of navigation. It’s my belief that there are really only two navigation items which are essential to a blog: A recent comments list, and a functioning (not google site-search) and visible search function.

A recent comments list speaks for itself. If you’re a regular commenter on a blog, you want to be able to go back and see quickly and easily whether someone’s replied to your comment. The search function is one that I see a lot of blogs don’t have. This has me puzzled, as there are plenty of times where I’ll enjoy reading a blog, and wonder to myself what the blogger has to say on a certian issue, therefore want to search the archives.

Now let’s talk about the second paragraph I’ve quoted. There are two types of blogs - those that are monetized, and those that aren’t.

Obviously, osworld.biz is not a monetized blog, so navigation is really the only consideration when tinkering with the layout.

But what about those blogs which are monetized? Anybody who’s ever tried to turn a buck (or in Gary’s case, a quid) from their blog will understand the constant battle between providing exposure to advertisers or ad networks, and keeping the blog clean and functional.

If you are trying to make money from a blog, there’s little point placing a 125×125 AdSense square in the sidebar, below everything else, six or seven screens below the fold. You simply won’t get any clicks. Also, if you’re trying to promote another of your sites, or your RSS feed, to your visitors, visibility is key.

Whilst I think Gary has made some good points in the rest of his post (I think I probably swear a little too much in my posts!), I’ll take the issue of user friendliness “under advisement”.

A question to the punters about what podcasts you listen to.

Posted by stuart as podcasting

So I finally ponied up for a 2Gb Mini-SD Card for my Nokia 6280, to unleash the media playing monster hiding in this ripper of a phone.

So other than re-ripping all my DVD’s down to 320×240 pixel MP4’s, I’d also like to use the phone to listen to some podcasts while I’m out and about.

Problem is, I haven’t listened to podcasts for years. I used to listen to diggnation and WeHateTech, not even sure if either of them exist. Must go check out wehatetech, that one was piss-funny!

So, the questen to you, dear reader, what podcasts do you listen to?

Piss off spammer

Posted by stuart as adsense

Received an interesting incoming link in my Wordpress CP today, so as always, followed the link, and came across this post:

Here’s an interesting marketing strategy:

For the affiliate programs you joined, remember I had suggested you create a squidoo lens that will act as a landing page that points to your affiliate product link. Squidoo pages are highly respected and are much more easily ranked in SERP’s therefore the idea of a pre-sell page that gives credence to your affiliate links and can easily rank in the search engines.

And, now for the interesting bit, the list I provided below is for you to promote your Squidoo lens by visiting the websites and leave a useful comment between 20 to 30 words or about three to five short sentences along with a link pointing to your pre-sell page. This process can be easily automated by using special software one of which I have left a link to on this website. Please visit the sites below drop a comment, place a link to your affiliate products at the same time improving the strength of your Squidoo lens for more visibility in the search engines. The rest of the list is provided in Four parts in the subsequent posts that follows this one:

This post was followed by a list of blogs (including this one, and some other blogs I read)

I won’t link this asshole up, but that’s the kind of backlink I can do without.

I’d suggest you all be on the lookout for comments pointing to squidoo lenses.

Thanks for the link asshole……..

6 Comments »

A couple of things which are just not right.

Posted by stuart as stupid

I was at my local Target shop yesterday, shopping for toys for the kids, and came across a game called “Gallows”

Apparently it’s a take on the old “hangman” game, but I’ve gotta say, seing a game called “Gallows” promote itself as “fun for everyone aged 4 to 100″ made me feel a little uneasy.

Secondly, I received this email today:

We present Bullet Proof dedicated servers & Antiabuse hosting for direct mailing, all types of adults (child porn, rape), logs, fakes and other projects.

We have:
· 100 Mbit channel
· Guaranteed uninterrupted power supply
· Support service
· Anonymity
· Remote access to power supply (APC PDU)

Standard server configuration: Pentium 4 3.0G/DDR2 1024Mb/HDD 80Gb Sata2

Also, any configuration can be ordered.

After the server will be ordered setup is done within 24 hours.

All types of spam and porn is allowed.

You can pay us by:
- webmoney
- E-gold
- paypal
- wire transfer

Fucking sickoes!

Why bother with forum account validation?

Posted by stuart as stupid

I joined up a forum today. I’m generally not a forum posting kind of bloke, I just don’t have the time.

This forum is a rather large one in a niche which interests me, and I have a blog in said niche.

I dutifully signed up, giving a username, password, and email address. I was thus informed that the moderaters would consider my application, and I would receive an email informing me if I had been successful in my application.

“Strange”, I thought, “oh well, we’ll wait and see”.

I know that email verification for new forum accounts is pretty standard these days, as a way of deterring spammers, but this struck me as wierd all the same.

I received an email a few minutes later:

Your account must first be approved before you may use your account. You will receive another email shortly informing you of the admin’s decision.

Um, approved or denied on what grounds? All I’ve provided them with is an email address. How on earth are they going to decide whether I’m worthy based on my email address?

Why would you bother?