You are Penalized, Now What?

There is a short video in Google Webmaster Central Blog for those who think that their sites might be penalized for whatever reason. Rachel Searles and Brian White of the reconsideration team made a video including some tips that will help you in your efforts of being listed again.

Obsessed with CommentLuv

Today, the idea of enabling CommentLuv natively in Blogger has haunted me again. For the impatient, the quickest and painless way of doing it is via JS-Kit commenting system but we do not want that because:

Symisun Blogger Template

Nothing went according to the plan. One accident after another and I had to stay home this Saturday. So I decided to create a template for blogspot users. Honestly this is my first.

Teach Yourself XYZ in 10 Minutes

I do not know why people give their books such titles. Does it help sales? When consumers see them, do they buy on an impulse? "Cool! I will be a PHP, JavaScript, CSS or whatever guru in no time."

Time to Update Referer Scripts and Plugins

In order to better capture outbound clicks, the referer path for Google search results will change from /search to /url. Google search result pages will link to a gateway URL before delivering a visitor to her final destination.

Related Posts Widget for Blogger

Related posts widget is one of the indispensable tools that every blogspot user must have. It increases reader engagement, provides on-site links visitors may be interested, and overall, despite the extra JavaScript cost it brings, is a valuable weapon in every blogger's arsenal.

Set Up Landing Pages

One trick you can borrow from affiliate marketers is setting up a landing page for your blog. Confused? Don't be. I very well know blogs do not have landing pages but the idea is good nevertheless.

Sending Pingback with Blogger

In addition to the trackback add-on of Greasemonkey + Firefox combination, one other interesting tool I spotted is Scott Yang's Trackback 'em All script. Despite the fact that it is more complex than the former, it has an advantage of sending pingbacks, a more modern version of trackback.

State of the Web, April-09

It is somewhat regrettable to see our focus shifting from the important to trivial much more than it is meant to be. I admit important is not as nice or entertaining as trivia and it is understandable for all of us to cheer up a little bit, but the balance is off, way off.

Mesh Clicks-and-mortar Communities

Now, what do you make of it? This is the phrase I was presented when I pressed the submit button of my horoscope generator. Investopedia defines click-and mortar as a type of business model that includes both on-line and off-line operations, which typically include a website and a physical store. A click-and-mortar company can offer customers the benefits of fast, on-line transactions or traditional, face to face service. This model is also referred to as "clicks and bricks" and Best Buy is cited as an example company following the click-and-mortar type of of business.

A Youtube Widget Test

I am trying to run a "classified" test for the YouTube widget. As I once explained, this blog sometimes serves as a test bed among other things. I am not doing the test because the widget is not working. On the contrary, it works perfectly fine, within the context of its purpose of creation. But when you have other motives and want the widget to work in unusual circumstances, a few checks can be, and are necessary. It will be run and rerun until I am satisfied. Meanwhile, you can just enjoy some videos if you like.

Ranking High in Search Engines

The topic of ranking high in search engines is widely discussed in the web. Just a quick search will yield a plethora of results. They have one common flaw, maybe not a flaw but a bias, though: they usually assume English is the only language. To some extent, they are right, English is the language of the world wide web.

Google Hot Trends Widget

Today I have added Marcel Maatkamp's Google Hot Trends widget. It is only visible in post pages just under the calendar archive. It is the least obstructive one I was able to find.

Marriage to Minors a Growing Concern

Just after Afghanistan's attempt (could have already been a law by now) to legalize spousal rape, arrived the news court refuses to nix 8-year-old's marriage to 60-year-old, and the dilemma US in particular and the West in general, once again surfaces.

Sending Trackback with Blogger

Sending a trackback or pingback with Blogger is a highly requested feature. Stephen Weber had once wrote a Greasemonkey script to enable trackback in both old and new versions of Blogger with the added benefit of Delicious tagging and pinging packed. It used to work sometime, and probably because of recent modifications to Blogger code, it simply stopped working after a while.

Caprica: A Bust or a Hit

I watched the pilot episode of Caprica last night. As you probably know, the series is based on Battlestar Galactica, and its time-line is set 58 years before the Cylon attack. Overall, I can say that it will be worth waiting for the first, or second if you count the pilot, episode.

Add a Short URL for Your Visitors

Adding a short URL for your visitors can increase your exposure in social networking sites like Twitter. Having a short domain name has obvious advantages, not to mention it is easy to remember. If you have a long domain name, as is the case with all blogspot (Blogger) blogs, have a link handy in your posts. I will be adding a Tiny URL link for all of my posts gradually.

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A Short Post for John Maddox

Sir John Maddox, the editor emeritus of the Nature magazine, died at 83 in  Abergavenny, Wales, on April 13, 2009. He was the driving and often relentless force behind, in turning the British journal into an internationally influential showcase for the most recent developments in scientific research. A fierce proponent of reason, rationalism, and science-based thinking, he ran the best publication of its kind in the world and gave those in his orbit permission to be great.[1] He had once said:

Blogger Calendar Archive Widget

My experiment to use the sidebar effectively continues. Although it is a bit heavy on the size (a few extra scripts), I have added Phydeaux3's calendar widget to the sidebar. What makes it different from his is the use of two separate archives, one for index and one for post pages.

A Few Template Tweaks

I have made some minor adjustments to the current template (whiteness). Although it contained a handful images, I was not pleased with the overall loading time of the pages. The culprit, believe it or not, was the blog list icons. Just to load a bunch of 16 by 16 pixel Blogger icons, several HTTP calls that took forever were being made. Removing the icons solved the problem.

Abruzzi Syndrome

Steve Rhoads, in his book The Economist's View of the World, tells the story of the Italian town of Abruzzi, which had a problem with too many vipers. To motivate citizens to kill vipers, the town fathers created a viper bounty to be paid for dead vipers. For every dead viper a certain amount of incentive was to be paid to the villagers.

Secret World: A Contemporary Dark Fantasy

That's how Ragnar Tornquist, director of The Secret World, the new massively multi-player on line role playing game (MMORPG) describes it. If you are into the occult and theories of conspiracy, religious or otherwise, there is a good chance that you might like this game and forget everything else. Dedroidify has a very good review of the game that goes back 100 million years and involves everything from the Knights Templar to Pandora's box to the Garden of Eden to the Fountain of Youth to the Freemasons, and just about every other myth that has ever been tied to a conspiracy theory or occult investigation.

Airbus Spies on Staff Bank Accounts

Now, that's wonderful! After governments, other governments, law enforcement agencies, parents, spouses, thieves and terrorists, companies have also felt the itch to poke their noses into people's private lives. Let us have a look at the shameless story first:

Consult Your Muse

When you're desperate and can't find anything to write. Sounds familiar? Many a blogger have faced it, you will, too. When that daring moment comes, let Internet's vast resources be your muse for inspiration. Consult her.

The idea is simple really. If you're the lazy kind, you can simply visit Addict-o-matic and type your magic words. It will do the rest for you. If you are persistant and hardworking however, you can set up a page like that and cook your own stuff. Either way, there will be enough inspiration to write about. If your muse still does not knock on your door and is nowhere to be found, take a pill and go to sleep. You need it, really.

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America's Dilemma

Robert Philbin wrote an interesting analysis of President Obama's new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, The New American Islamic War. He senses the solution as he says,

MQ9 Reaper, Salvation is Close

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), pilotless drones came to life as surveillance tools during the wars over the former Yugoslavia, were armed by February 2001, were hastily pressed into operation in Afghanistan after 9/11, and like many weapons systems, began to evolve generationally. As they did, they developed from surveillance eyes in the sky into something far more sinister and previously restricted to terra firma: assassins. One of the earliest armed acts of a CIA-piloted Predator, back in November 2002, was an assassination mission over Yemen in which a jeep, reputedly transporting six suspected al-Qaeda operatives, was incinerated.

Productize Revolutionary Eyeballs

That was the closing phrase of the week. Some people read their horoscope to enlighten the path to the coming week, I check my bullshit generator. You see my lucky words in the title of this post. Future really looks bright!

I used this lovely tool extensively in my business reports. I can certify that it creates miracles. Give it a try.

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Secret Copyright Treaty Leaks

A discussion draft of a secret ACTA International copyright treaty has been leaked to Wikileaks. Well done!

The treaty, between the European Union, United States, Canada, Mexico, Singapore, Australia and Japan was agreed upon in 2008, but despite requests across member nations, no government so far has released any of the details.

Keep Your Tobacco Humid

As all those who are addicted to the guilty pleasure of the flesh called smoking know, keeping your tobacco (be it pipe tobacco or cigars) at the right humidity is essential to enjoying your healthy dose to stay in top form.

There are several ways to properly humidify this sweet adult candy but Josh's jarmidor, the do it yourself humidor will be my preferred method of preserving tobacco products. Made with one sponge, scissors, two salt shakers, two flip top jars and a gel, it is cheap, reliable and utterly satisfying.

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Best Practices for Fast Blogs

If you asked me what turns most of your visitors off apart from pop-ups, unnecessary music on the page, excessive use of ads etc., I would definitely say slow sites. Attention spans of today's readers are very short. Although you may not have the technical know-how to apply them all or simply not have the means due to free hosting or similar reasons, it is imperative that you should have a passing knowledge of what makes web pages fast.

State of the Blogs

I feel like I am running behind my schedule. To date, I should have been operating (strange) ten blogs, but I only managed to run five and a half actively (the half one is on trial). Do not let the count confuse you as I have a completely different system of assessing which blogs will survive after my trials and not all of them are listed here.

Does Chocolate Equal Cocoa

Time and again I come across a news article mentioning of some research about how chocolate is good for your teeth or your mental health or improves mathematical skills. We see the word "chocolate" in the header or the first few sentences of the first paragraph, and it disappears into the abyss of useless junk while "cocoa" emerges slowly but surely. I wonder why? Does chocolate industry pour millions into advertising? Is there something I am not aware of?

Entrecard Economy

Several of my blogs are members of Entrecard, a social community. Overall, it is a good place to be with friendly bloggers and quality writing. The way the system is set up has problems, though. Members visiting each others' blog drop their card and earn credit. Credits then are spent on advertising on blogs and buying services from Entrecard market.

Mysterious Google PageRank

No matter how many times you explain, I am amazed to see bloggers getting confused by Google's infamous PageRank. I summed up the effect of pay-per-posts on Google PageRank and the potential penalty that you are likely to incur so I will not go into detail here again. Instead I want you, of course if you are a blogger, to consider this:

How To Write Your First Book

I once got the novel idea that I should write a book somehow. Countless days and nights later, with the irresistible help and encouragement of alcohol (a few shots really, not much), I posted a trial prologue titled Memoirs of a Ninja Byte in one my blogs.

Getting in Touch

Sometimes the comments section is simply not enough. Some of us are shy, a few can have a private and/or personal request or two, spammers may have an itch, I do not know. If you really think this is the case, you are reading the right post, excluding spammers, of course.

Although I read my mail quite regularly, I am notorious for not contacting my friends for months. You can ask them! So, I can not guarantee a prompt answer. Give it a try, nonetheless:

archiverDOTblogspotATgmailDOTcom.

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Changing Templates in Blogger

Sooner or later you will want to change the template of your blog. The Reasons are several:

• You will get bored with the current one.
• You will come across a shiny, adorable template.
• A more convenient template for the theme of your blog will come up.

Life has taught me a few lessons and one of them pertinent to blogging is not to plug and pray with the template of a production blog. So, it is good to have a place to scratch and try things before implementing them in the blogs you are running. Take my advice, you will not regret it.

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What is This Space About?

I have several blogs on Blogger. This place serves as a test bed for the templates I (will) use, try new things with them, usually modifications and additions. I will also post problems I encounter and the solutions to them, if any.

It is a free format, otherwise topicless -read general- weblog. From politics (often rough) to swinging (sweet), it is a blog in the true (original) sense of the meaning.

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