Saturday, June 14, 2008

Update on SocialMatic

In my post last week, I talk about SocialMatic who claimed that they have added my blog into their site but till now I still could not find it in their site. The funny thing is that when I first replied thanking them for my blog inclusion, they replied in 3 days. However when I query about not being able to find my site, they become silent for almost 2 weeks. Hence, I can easily say that SocialMatic is a dud. I have pasted their email to me. I wonder how many people receive the same email and not have their sites included.

Hi Mr. Decarn,

I'm Jeanette from SocialMatic Team. I'm pleased to inform you that your site http://myblog-log.blogspot.com/ had been featured and submitted to SocialMatic.com. Your site was submitted for the useful and interesting contents that you have posted at your site, and we would like to share it with other users online through SocialMatic.

SocialMatic is a Social Bookmarking site which not only allows users to submit and share their bookmarks but also help them to submit their bookmarks to 13 more popular bookmarking sites. In another words, it actually help to drive more traffic and exposure for your site, and save your time from submitting to other social bookmarking site. Hence, I would like to invite you to join SocialMatic Network for free.

Therefore, do visit www.SocialMatic.com to find out more about us, and sign up a free SocialMatic account to join the SocialMatic network. Feel free to contact us if you have any doubts or question by sending a mail to Socialmatic.team@gmail.com and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Hope you to hear from you soon.


Thank You for your time.


Yours sincerely,

Ms. Jeanette Tan

Marketing Executive, Team SocialMatic


Submit To 13 Over Social Bookmarking With SocialMatic Today!
Sign Up For Your FREE account at www.SocialMatic.com

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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

PremiumThemes.net Contest

I guess it must be pretty weird for a premium wordpress theme to be feature on a blogger platform but to me it doesn't really matter because everyone benefits - the owner gets more exposure, I stand a chance to win a theme for my finance site and the readers get to know of a quality site that sells wordpress theme.

Get a free copy of any Premium Theme

As a part of the promotion of more than 25 themes listed on this site, I am glad to announce a competition wherein the winner will be given a free copy of any theme of his/her choice, listed on this site. Here’s the quick details.

What’s the competition/rules? : To win, all you have to do is, to post an article in your website letting your users know about the PremiumThemes.net website (feel free to include the picture above) and post that link here in the comments of this post. Your site could be on any topic, in any language. It doesn’t matter. Once done, please don’t forget to post that link in the comments below.

Prize on offer: The winner will get personal version of any theme of his/her choice listed on this website.

When the results will be announced? : The competition will be open from June 1, the winner (chosen randomly) will be announced on June 30, 2008 .

So, what are you waiting for? Get started now.

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Sunday, June 8, 2008

Content Architecture

I was talking to my friend who's a web designer on revamping my finance website - http://thefinance.sg. Besides improving on my layout, she shared with me on what else I should do.

Step 1: Content Architecture
This means re-organizing my information and links. As I'm using the older wordpress version, migration might be a problem if the information is not organized properly.

Step 2: Information Architecture
I currently have about 20 categories in my finance website which is too many. I need to reduce that further. In addition, I will have to re-label my categories into something more 'user-friendly'.

Step 3: creating wireframes
This will also set a structure for my friend to start on my blog's design. Most importantly, it sets the content and the way that it is presented and how my displayed content can retain my readers and authors.

Last Step
Designing my blog according to step 2 & 3.

While I'm always constantly searching for good content/authors and link exchange, I will have to firm up my internal stuff first. Building a solid and reputable web presence is important to attract and retain both readers and authors.

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Thursday, June 5, 2008

Think again before you dump your old blog

I was comparing My Blog Log's traffic statistics when I was actively blogging against the time I was non-active and the results were very surprising.
My first blog entry was in 22 May 2007 My traffic hit a peak in June 2007 partly because I was actively promoting my site. Traffic begin to decline thereafter as I updated my blog less frequently before completely stopping on 9 October 2007. This results were expected. However, I have expected my traffic to fall even further after October but to my surprised, it actually begin to increase steadily.

I did a quick calculation: during my active period from May 07 to Sep 07, I had a monthly average of 375 page views and 284 unique visitors. During my non-active period from Oct 08 to May 08, my monthly average page views and unique visitors are 371 and 304 respectively. While The number of returning visitors drop, the page views remain constant but the number of unique visitors actually rises!

This made me ponder. There must be something in my blog that I'm actually doing right. As of now, a smart guess is my URL (it is very similar to the mybloglog social bookmarking website) and the other could be some of my articles must be really sort after. I will have to investigate further but a simple manner to identify my most popular posts is to check how many comments I received.

If you have any old blogs that you have been neglecting for a long time or simply forgotten about them, my advice is to dig them out and take a look at them. It won't take you much time or effort but the results in discovering a gem among them is priceless.

And if that isn't enough incentive for you, here's my current page rank now. :)
Free PageRank Checker

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Monday, June 2, 2008

The Return of My Blog Log

It has been 8 months since I last updated My Blog Log and I have almost given it up for dead. However, out of the blue I received an email from a social bookmarking site - SocialMatic that my site has been featured. Naturally, I was dubious. How can a blog that has been stagnant for 8 months be suddenly featured in a website? I visited SocialMatic and my doubts were proven true.

On first look, the website is littered with Google Ads and the all familiar box asking you for your name and email address. It's not difficult to guess that it's just another site trying to squeeze as much advertising money as possible. I did a search for my site and I couldn't find it. Before jumping to any conclusions, I'm waiting for Jeanette (from SocialMatic Team who notify me on the inclusion of my site) reply for the URL link that shows my site.

While registering for an account, the site seems distinctively local. It's not hard for a Singaporean to spot his fellow country man and I decided to do a quick check. The results were right. SocialMatic is registered in Singapore under the name Alvin Phang. If you have not heard of him, simply do a quick search on his name. Hats off to him, Google rank him #1.
It's getting obvious that SocialMatic is nothing more than another tool for Alvin to make more money online. I've nothing against SocialMatic since my blog is also about making money online. In fact I'm pleased that he's probably one of the first few locals to start a site like this. However, the presentation of his site and the manner in which I was contacted makes me feel that he is more interested in making as much money as possible rather than building a quality site that can really help improve bloggers' traffic. Nevertheless, I will still like to thank SocialMatic for rekindling my interest in this blog.

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