Blog Rush Widget

At Contest Blogger today I found information about, and links to Blog Rush. This is a free blogging service allows your links to be shown on related blogs.

This is what it looks like:
The one I installed here can be found in the sidebar towards the bottom of the page.

Here's how it works:

When you add the BlogRush widget to your blog, your post titles will immediately start showing up across a bunch of related blogs that have signed up for BlogRush themselves. If your blog gets 100 page views a day, your links will show up 100 times on other blogs. If it gets 1,000 page views a day, your links will show up 1,000 times.

And what’s even better is that if you refer another blog to BlogRush, your links will be shown even more based on the traffic they receive.

Remember: It is estimated that more than 20% of blog readers are also bloggers!

Blogarama

Today I pursued a link to Blogarama. A blog directory of sorts. I posted links to One Cool Picture After Another, Shirley Twofeathers, and this one. I don't know if much will come of it, but I'm hopeful, and since it is free, and easy to do, I don't think it could hurt.

Here are some highlights from their FAQ. It gives an idea of what is required in order to get noticed at their site.

• What is the 'Score' and what does it mean?
  The 'Score' that you see next to each listing indicates that listings overall score. Scores play a part in determining a listings rank in search results. A listing will increase/decrease it's score depending on users ratings, incoming traffic and outgoing traffic amongst other variables. Basically, a high Score is a good score!
• How do I get into The Top 100 Most Cool section?
  Blogs which have sent the most readers to Blogarama (incoming traffic) via our links will be listed first. The listings overall Score will also play a small part the ranking.
• How do I get into The Top 100 Most Popular section?
  Blogs which are visited most by Blogarama users (outgoing traffic) will be listed first. The listings overall Score will also play a small part the ranking.
• How do I get into The Top 100 Highly Rated section?
  Blogs that have the most amount of positive ratings will be listed first. The listings overall Score will also play a small part the ranking.

And here we have a variety of cool banners available to attract that incoming traffic that will give you a chance at that coveted "100 Most Cool" section:

A Million Pixels

I found this post at the Million Dollar Website.

Free Ad Space on a Million Pixel Website.
July 26th, 2007

Do you have a website, blog or affiliate program you would like to promote? How about promoting your site for free? If you do then you may have just stumbled on great offer here. I need help testing and promoting a “Million Pixel Website”.

Since starting this blog I have learned one of the hardest things to do is to get your site noticed. Most bloggers are on a tight budget so advertising a new site is usually left up to submitting to directories, so I decided to set up our own “Million Pixel Website” but the only difference is this one will be free (at least for a while).

Interested? Visit the post and get the details on how to sign up.

Here's a screen capture of what the page looks like. See the wierd dude with the bugged out eyes and the tattoos? Those are the pixels I grabbed. I think he stands out nicely in the crowd! I linked it to More Cool Pictures

Getting noticed

I found something cool today. Actually I found two cool blogs. The first one called Blog Dump. It is Blog directory...Featured blogs, not just text links.Video, Music and Picture Sharing too.

The main reason to do something like this would be to get link backs (which look good to google and technorati) and maybe a stray reader or two.

The other cool thing I found was Wrong Blog, Wrongblog is an open blog project.

Anyone can write a post on wrongblog. No porn or nasty stuff allowed though. Everyone is welcome add your latest post with links back to your blog. or just write it's up to you. Wrongblog has a google page rank of 4 so why not add your two cents today!

I signed up at both sites, and then I couldn't figure out what to post. LOL. As many blogs as I have and I couldn't think of something to post. Now that's just silly!

Getting a good ranking at Technorati

At Money Online, I found an interesting article about an auto fave program for Technorati. She says, "If you want to move up in Technorati there are 2 ways to get there: gaining massive amounts of links to you from other blogs, or getting the most favourites.

One way to do this is to add a lot of blogs to your "technorati favorites" and then hope that they (or ask them to) fav you in return. Obviously, if you do this, it's important to also return the favor. Here's a supercool autofave program from Eng Tech that does this automatically. If someone favorites you, they are automatically favorited in return.

Here's a diagram of how it works:

You can grab the program here [2.4MB].

Blog Catalogue

Today, I found this nifty little website - blogging service - called Blog Catalogue.

It provides yet another way to get your blogs out where people can see them, and it also has some nifty little blog enhancers like widgets that create a small image gallery of blog visitors, and a message board.

It's easy to customize the widgets to match your site colors, with a preview and a color box to click on, nothing complicated and you don't have to "know" html to use it.

It's free to sign up, and user friendly. It's even got a small "vote for my site" button. I installed one in my sidebar. Go click on it and vote for me!

Blidgets

This week I have been working on creating blidgets for my blogs. Sounds silly doesn't it? What is a blidget? A blidget is like a little mini blog that you can insert into a webpage.

Here is what Widgetbox has to say about blidgets:

What’s a blidget?
A blidget is a widget that contains your blog. Other people can place your blidget on their sites, increasing your exposure.

Why should I want a blidget?
A blidget drives readers to your site.
Many bloggers like to show support for the other blogs they read, and like to provide their readers with related articles they might like. Everyone who goes to their blog is instantly given a sneak peak into yours.
Some of our blidgets quickly gain hundreds of subscribers — that is, hundreds of people put your blidget on their site, providing their readers exposure to your content.

How do I know who’s using my blidget?
Every blidget comes with a metrics dashboard to track your blidget’s spread across the internet, see how many people are looking at it, and discern lots of other patterns.

There was a cool blidget in the sidebar, but it conflicts with the adsense ads. It looks like I can have one or the other but not both. I think this must have something to do with the template I'm using, because I have blidgets on other blogs and no problems at all. As far as I can tell, the main drawback to posting blidgets on blogs and websites is that it really slows the page down in terms of loading time. If you have a high speed connection, you probably won't notice, but if you have dial up it can be a problem.

I'd like to put my blidgets up here as separate blog posts, so you can see and enjoy them, but so far have not succeeded with that either. So, it looks like it's back to Widgetbox to surf the forums, reread the FAQ's, and maybe even email for some help.

If you want to see one in action, you can visit The Prosperity Project, there is a Question of the Day blidget at the top of the page on the right hand side.