Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Submitting Your Blog to Bloggertizer; a Handy Guide
Upon reviewing blog submissions, I tend to see the same sorts of (inappropriate) things repeated. So here's your handy guide on how to submit your blog to Bloggertizer.
Once you're registered and logged in, you can submit your blog.
The first rule is this: if it's not a blog, don't submit it. I look at submissions and I'll inactivate it if it's not a blog. This is Bloggertizer, not Generalwebsitertizer, or Forumtizer, Classifiedadvertizer, or any other tizer. If you pass this first hurdle and you actually have a blog, the submission form is pretty simple:
blog name: Enter the name/title of your blog. Do not use all caps. If you use all caps, I will deactivate your blog because it looks like crap. Treat it like the title of a book. Rule of thumb: If a word is longer then three letters, capitalize it. Here's an: Example of how to Type a Title.
url: do I really need to explain this? Caveat: it needs to go to the blogs home page, not a sub page. URLs that aren't to the home page will result in your submission being deactivated.
blog description: Describe in a sentence or two what your blog is about. Be accurate. User proper grammar and punctuation. Don't use all caps. Don't put "My great PR 4 blog" as your description. Play this game: You're at a party and a smokin' hot gender-of-your-choice asks about your blog and you want to impress them. Use the answer you would give as the description you type here.
will accept: Use these choices to indicate the type of advertising you will accept on your blog. If you CHECK it, it means you accept that type of advertising. If you UNCHECK it, it means you don't. Yes, I felt the need to explain that for some of our more challenged bloggers.
tags: Probably the most misunderstood. You get three tags, each a max length of 25 characters, to describe your blog. When the form loads, it loads with an example in the tags field: example: windows vista, windows xp, windows os. This is an example only! If you submit your blog with these tags (and your blog is not about windows vista, windows xp, or the windows os) I will deactivate it. The game again: if said hot gender-of-your-choice person from the above party were to ask you to describe your blog using three key phrases (or less), what would you say? Type those here.
Now hit the "Submit my Blog" button. Bloggertizer pings the URL you entered to make sure it's live. If it is, the blog gets added and it immediately shows up on the home page.
Some indeterminate amount of time later, I will show up. I will look at your blog with a cynic's eye. I will go to your blog. I will decide if your description is accurate, if your tags are accurate, if the site you entered is actually a blog. If you fail any of these assessments, or if you didn't adequately follow the Handy Guidelines above, your blog will get deactivated.
If your blog disappears, that's what happened. Want to talk about it? Feel free to contact me. Include the title and URL of your blog and your email address, and I'll tell you why I deactivated it. Maybe you can fix it.
Once you're registered and logged in, you can submit your blog.
The first rule is this: if it's not a blog, don't submit it. I look at submissions and I'll inactivate it if it's not a blog. This is Bloggertizer, not Generalwebsitertizer, or Forumtizer, Classifiedadvertizer, or any other tizer. If you pass this first hurdle and you actually have a blog, the submission form is pretty simple:
blog name: Enter the name/title of your blog. Do not use all caps. If you use all caps, I will deactivate your blog because it looks like crap. Treat it like the title of a book. Rule of thumb: If a word is longer then three letters, capitalize it. Here's an: Example of how to Type a Title.
url: do I really need to explain this? Caveat: it needs to go to the blogs home page, not a sub page. URLs that aren't to the home page will result in your submission being deactivated.
blog description: Describe in a sentence or two what your blog is about. Be accurate. User proper grammar and punctuation. Don't use all caps. Don't put "My great PR 4 blog" as your description. Play this game: You're at a party and a smokin' hot gender-of-your-choice asks about your blog and you want to impress them. Use the answer you would give as the description you type here.
will accept: Use these choices to indicate the type of advertising you will accept on your blog. If you CHECK it, it means you accept that type of advertising. If you UNCHECK it, it means you don't. Yes, I felt the need to explain that for some of our more challenged bloggers.
tags: Probably the most misunderstood. You get three tags, each a max length of 25 characters, to describe your blog. When the form loads, it loads with an example in the tags field: example: windows vista, windows xp, windows os. This is an example only! If you submit your blog with these tags (and your blog is not about windows vista, windows xp, or the windows os) I will deactivate it. The game again: if said hot gender-of-your-choice person from the above party were to ask you to describe your blog using three key phrases (or less), what would you say? Type those here.
Now hit the "Submit my Blog" button. Bloggertizer pings the URL you entered to make sure it's live. If it is, the blog gets added and it immediately shows up on the home page.
Some indeterminate amount of time later, I will show up. I will look at your blog with a cynic's eye. I will go to your blog. I will decide if your description is accurate, if your tags are accurate, if the site you entered is actually a blog. If you fail any of these assessments, or if you didn't adequately follow the Handy Guidelines above, your blog will get deactivated.
If your blog disappears, that's what happened. Want to talk about it? Feel free to contact me. Include the title and URL of your blog and your email address, and I'll tell you why I deactivated it. Maybe you can fix it.
Labels: Bloggertizer, Getting Started
Friday, August 1, 2008
Paging Fix and Changes to Tagging
I found a mistake I'd made in the paging function: fixed.
After careful thought, I decided to limit the tags used to describe a blog to three. IMO, bloggers weren't being succinct and accurate enough with their tagging when submitting their blogs. Many bloggers were using multiple tags, sometimes a dozen or more, to describe their blog. It seemed to me upon review, that after the initial few tags, the remaining were peripherally associated to the blog at best.
So now tags are limited to three. You can enter more, of course, but only the first three will be used. So when you submit your blog, give careful consideration to the tags you use to describe it. More accuracy in the tagging will be good for everyone.
The change affects only new blogs: existing blogs will retain the tags they already have (unless I decide to go through and trim, which I might do for some of the more egregious offenders).
Blog on!
After careful thought, I decided to limit the tags used to describe a blog to three. IMO, bloggers weren't being succinct and accurate enough with their tagging when submitting their blogs. Many bloggers were using multiple tags, sometimes a dozen or more, to describe their blog. It seemed to me upon review, that after the initial few tags, the remaining were peripherally associated to the blog at best.
So now tags are limited to three. You can enter more, of course, but only the first three will be used. So when you submit your blog, give careful consideration to the tags you use to describe it. More accuracy in the tagging will be good for everyone.
The change affects only new blogs: existing blogs will retain the tags they already have (unless I decide to go through and trim, which I might do for some of the more egregious offenders).
Blog on!
Labels: Bloggertizer
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Appearance and Paging Changes; Cleanup
First the most noticeable - I made some changes to the appearance of the blog listing page; it had begun to look crowded/cluttered to me, and the gray background wasn't working. So I changed the background to white, took out all the borders. It definitely opened it up....
Also moved the TradeRating a bit to the right and made it bold. I wanted it to stand out more. If you have interaction with a Bloggertizer member, either as a buyer or a seller, make sure you use the TradeRating to rate the experience. It's the only way we have to police ourselves and make sure the good people get noticed. Please note you can sort blogs by the owners TradeRating. It's an easy way to find bloggers with positive reviews.
With over 1,100 blogs now registered, the paging was starting to get ridiculous, so I revamped it into a simple << Previous : Next >>. Also added listing numbers. That did a lot to clean up the presentation as well.
After all that, I scrubbed the database and deactivated inappropriate entries. For the record:
A Squidoo lens is not a blog
A HubPage is not a blog
An article at eZineArticles (or any other article bank) is not a blog
An author page at Author's Den is not a blog
All this can be summed succinctly: if it's not a blog, then IT'S NOT A BLOG. If you don't know what a blog is, learn.
Two Hand-Dandy-Bloggertizer Tips:
#1 If you contact a blog about getting a link or article, make sure you also click 'save'. It's an easy way to keep track of blogs you contacted (or tried to anyway)
#2 Make sure you aren't filtering emails from webmaster@bloggertizer.com. All alerts from Bloggertizer, including alerts about new messages, password recovery, and EVERYTHING ELSE, comes from this email.
If you have any suggestions for Bloggertizer, please let me know.
Also moved the TradeRating a bit to the right and made it bold. I wanted it to stand out more. If you have interaction with a Bloggertizer member, either as a buyer or a seller, make sure you use the TradeRating to rate the experience. It's the only way we have to police ourselves and make sure the good people get noticed. Please note you can sort blogs by the owners TradeRating. It's an easy way to find bloggers with positive reviews.
With over 1,100 blogs now registered, the paging was starting to get ridiculous, so I revamped it into a simple << Previous : Next >>. Also added listing numbers. That did a lot to clean up the presentation as well.
After all that, I scrubbed the database and deactivated inappropriate entries. For the record:
A Squidoo lens is not a blog
A HubPage is not a blog
An article at eZineArticles (or any other article bank) is not a blog
An author page at Author's Den is not a blog
All this can be summed succinctly: if it's not a blog, then IT'S NOT A BLOG. If you don't know what a blog is, learn.
Two Hand-Dandy-Bloggertizer Tips:
#1 If you contact a blog about getting a link or article, make sure you also click 'save'. It's an easy way to keep track of blogs you contacted (or tried to anyway)
#2 Make sure you aren't filtering emails from webmaster@bloggertizer.com. All alerts from Bloggertizer, including alerts about new messages, password recovery, and EVERYTHING ELSE, comes from this email.
If you have any suggestions for Bloggertizer, please let me know.
Labels: Abuse, Bloggertizer
Monday, June 9, 2008
When a Blog not a Blog, More Cleanup, More Advice
A blog is not a blog when it's nothing more than a blatant advertisement for some new construction condo in Brooklyn, complete with phone number and email listed in the title and description. 'Blog' removed and user blyuma deactivated.
The blog 'Prdanag' is a goner too, for tag abuse. Please be descriptive and accurate with your tags, accurate being very key here. In this case, since I don't think it's a truly blatant abuse like the previously mentioned example, I left vothanhnien's account active and just deactivated the blog. If you're vothanhnien and you want the blog to be active again, email me and ask. Be sure to include the new tags you will use that accurately describe what your blog is about.
I also went through and deactivated blogs with totally inaccurate descriptions. I want to keep hands off as possible, but at the same time I want visitors to Bloggertizer to get the impression that there is some sort of quality control. So if you put as your blog description your blogs stats (PR, Page View, etc), or if you put something so generic as to be worthless ('general blog', 'anything'), guess what? If you guessed your blog as been deactivated, you guessed right!
DO NOT put your blog's PR in your title or description. Bloggertizer checks the blogs PR when it is submitted and updates PR values once a week. You know what? PR's change! And when you brag about your blog being a PR 4, and it's not, it sort of makes you look like a liar.
I recently wrote a post about some things a blogger should do to increase the chances of a drawing the interest of an advertiser. One of the main things I mentioned was using proper grammar. Yes, I'm going to pick on someone. The description for the blog titled 'unik':
Think of your blog listing as an ad. Be concise, be accurate, and be enticing. You are trying to get advertisers interested, not give them a reason to stay away.
Tips:
Use proper case
Use proper spelling
Use proper grammar
Be descriptive and accurate
Just these things alone will set you apart from the majority of listings and raise your chances of attracting the interest of a paying advertiser.
The blog 'Prdanag' is a goner too, for tag abuse. Please be descriptive and accurate with your tags, accurate being very key here. In this case, since I don't think it's a truly blatant abuse like the previously mentioned example, I left vothanhnien's account active and just deactivated the blog. If you're vothanhnien and you want the blog to be active again, email me and ask. Be sure to include the new tags you will use that accurately describe what your blog is about.
I also went through and deactivated blogs with totally inaccurate descriptions. I want to keep hands off as possible, but at the same time I want visitors to Bloggertizer to get the impression that there is some sort of quality control. So if you put as your blog description your blogs stats (PR, Page View, etc), or if you put something so generic as to be worthless ('general blog', 'anything'), guess what? If you guessed your blog as been deactivated, you guessed right!
DO NOT put your blog's PR in your title or description. Bloggertizer checks the blogs PR when it is submitted and updates PR values once a week. You know what? PR's change! And when you brag about your blog being a PR 4, and it's not, it sort of makes you look like a liar.
I recently wrote a post about some things a blogger should do to increase the chances of a drawing the interest of an advertiser. One of the main things I mentioned was using proper grammar. Yes, I'm going to pick on someone. The description for the blog titled 'unik':
its about reference and health information for the profesinal at the medical expecialy for the medcal doktorLooking at the blog itself, I see it isn't an English language blog. That being the case, I think the user made a mistake by not mentioning that, and the description he wrote, while entertaining, is unlikely to generate any business.
Think of your blog listing as an ad. Be concise, be accurate, and be enticing. You are trying to get advertisers interested, not give them a reason to stay away.
Tips:
Use proper case
Use proper spelling
Use proper grammar
Be descriptive and accurate
Just these things alone will set you apart from the majority of listings and raise your chances of attracting the interest of a paying advertiser.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Spam from Ganesh
User Ganesh sent a bunch of spam recently, where he was offering to place a link on his site in exchange for payment.
Look, if you have a well-ranked blog about widgets, and you see another blog about widgets on Bloggertizer, and you want to send the person a message offering to place a link on your site in exchange for a link on theirs or a payment, that's OK. Sending a canned, spammy message out to dozens of users with blogs that aren't even related to yours is not.
Ganesh, your account is deactivated. If you got a message from Ganesh, don't bother replying; he won't be able to log in to get it.
Hi friend. I would like to add your site link in my site. If your interested means Contact me and send me the payment.In other words, he's not looking to buy, he's looking to sell, and while I don't have a problem with being proactive, I do have a problem when the message is spammed out to dozens of users.
Look, if you have a well-ranked blog about widgets, and you see another blog about widgets on Bloggertizer, and you want to send the person a message offering to place a link on your site in exchange for a link on theirs or a payment, that's OK. Sending a canned, spammy message out to dozens of users with blogs that aren't even related to yours is not.
Ganesh, your account is deactivated. If you got a message from Ganesh, don't bother replying; he won't be able to log in to get it.
Labels: Abuse
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Clean Up, Update, and Advice
I went through the blogs today and did some pretty stiff deactivation for sub-par submissions. Most of the 'blogs' I deleted weren't even blogs, they were regular (albeit spammy) sites or false submissions, i.e.: Entertainment News title that led to a web cam site. All in all, I deactivated about 20 sites.
I try to keep my involvement in submissions pretty minimal. I rely on the community to let me know when a blog is inappropriate. If you come across a blog submission that doesn't belong, please click the 'Report' link and let me know. I review all reported submissions and take pretty swift action.
I got an email the other day from a blogger wondering if anyone is getting any business through Bloggertizer. The short answer to that is yes, some bloggers are, but most bloggers aren't.
The better ranking blogs are getting business. There also seems to be a lot of link exchange activity going on as well. But all the activity, both for links and posts, seems to be limited to the better ranking blogs.
If you, as a blogger, want to see more business through Bloggertizer (or any other pay-per-post service), there are some things you need to do.
First and foremost, you need to increase your blog's popularity. Not many people want a link or post on a blog that has a zero (or none) when it comes to PageRank. Same thing goes for indexed pages or Alexa rank. The prevailing thought is "What good is a link on a blog ranked 7,000,000 in Alexa, or with no pages indexed in Google?" The answer? Not much.
So as a blogger, if you want to earn with your blog, you need to increase its popularity. Write more original articles, do some link building, syndicate through FeedBurner or some other aggregator.
More Traffic = More Exposure = Better Ranking = More Opportunities to Make Money
It's simple in theory, but difficult in application.
No one wants a post or link on your 'blog' where all you do is 'review' different credit card application sites. Everyone coming to you blog knows it's bullshit and you're an affiliate driving traffic to credit card sign ups. Same goes for 'dating site reviews' and 'product reviews' and 'breakthrough medical miracle' and all that other crap. Everyone knows it's fake. So don't be fake.
No one wants a post or link on a blog where the author obviously doesn't know proper English grammar (or the grammar of whatever language they are writing in). Sorry, but that's the way it is. If you want to make money blogging, you have to be able to communicate clearly and concisely in whatever language you are writing in. Does you understands what am writing too you about?
No one wants to read about the newest and greatest Make Money plan you just 'discovered'. If your blog is one big advertisement for some bullshit scheme, don't count on making any money with it. Visitors can spot your 'infomercial', fake-ass blog a mile away.
Write well, write often, be original, and be credible. That's how you build traffic and links, and that's how you can get your blog to the point where someone will pay money to be on it.
I try to keep my involvement in submissions pretty minimal. I rely on the community to let me know when a blog is inappropriate. If you come across a blog submission that doesn't belong, please click the 'Report' link and let me know. I review all reported submissions and take pretty swift action.
I got an email the other day from a blogger wondering if anyone is getting any business through Bloggertizer. The short answer to that is yes, some bloggers are, but most bloggers aren't.
The better ranking blogs are getting business. There also seems to be a lot of link exchange activity going on as well. But all the activity, both for links and posts, seems to be limited to the better ranking blogs.
If you, as a blogger, want to see more business through Bloggertizer (or any other pay-per-post service), there are some things you need to do.
First and foremost, you need to increase your blog's popularity. Not many people want a link or post on a blog that has a zero (or none) when it comes to PageRank. Same thing goes for indexed pages or Alexa rank. The prevailing thought is "What good is a link on a blog ranked 7,000,000 in Alexa, or with no pages indexed in Google?" The answer? Not much.
So as a blogger, if you want to earn with your blog, you need to increase its popularity. Write more original articles, do some link building, syndicate through FeedBurner or some other aggregator.
More Traffic = More Exposure = Better Ranking = More Opportunities to Make Money
It's simple in theory, but difficult in application.
No one wants a post or link on your 'blog' where all you do is 'review' different credit card application sites. Everyone coming to you blog knows it's bullshit and you're an affiliate driving traffic to credit card sign ups. Same goes for 'dating site reviews' and 'product reviews' and 'breakthrough medical miracle' and all that other crap. Everyone knows it's fake. So don't be fake.
No one wants a post or link on a blog where the author obviously doesn't know proper English grammar (or the grammar of whatever language they are writing in). Sorry, but that's the way it is. If you want to make money blogging, you have to be able to communicate clearly and concisely in whatever language you are writing in. Does you understands what am writing too you about?
No one wants to read about the newest and greatest Make Money plan you just 'discovered'. If your blog is one big advertisement for some bullshit scheme, don't count on making any money with it. Visitors can spot your 'infomercial', fake-ass blog a mile away.
Write well, write often, be original, and be credible. That's how you build traffic and links, and that's how you can get your blog to the point where someone will pay money to be on it.
Labels: Blog Advertising, Bloggertizer, Getting Started, Writing
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
SPAM From User business33
A user going by the user name business33 recently sent a message to dozens of Bloggertizer members using the subject lines:
Bloggertizer is intended for use by legitimate bloggers and advertisers seeking to exchange services. Bloggertizer allows anyone with a legitimate email address to register. This means the community will get that occasional 'bad apple' who will abuse Bloggertizer's free service.
Whenever you get what you consider to be a spam email, use Bloggertizer's contact form to let me know and I will take action.
Thanks-
Edit: Seem business33 got in again and sent some more spam. The login function wasn't screening for active versus inactive due to my commenting out that section while testing. I've fixed that....
CashBlasterProMessage:
Web 2.0
Hi,I've deactivated this individual's account. If you received a message from this member, please ignore/delete it.
Heather Tollison here... You have got to see this - WOW!
I found this new FULL INTERNET UPGRADE technology that is about to upgrade THE ENTIRE INTERNET to Web 2.0 standards and IT'S FREE! FULL Social Networking functionality on EVERY WEBSITE on the internet with a click of a button.
This is going to change the entire Internet OVERNIGHT.
Plus, they are giving away ONE MILLION DOLLARS to spread the word about it - and you can get a share for helping - NO COST!
Check it out at:
http://www.web2wow.com/business33
http://www.web2upgrade.com/home/site.html
Let me know what you think or if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Heather Tollison
Bloggertizer is intended for use by legitimate bloggers and advertisers seeking to exchange services. Bloggertizer allows anyone with a legitimate email address to register. This means the community will get that occasional 'bad apple' who will abuse Bloggertizer's free service.
Whenever you get what you consider to be a spam email, use Bloggertizer's contact form to let me know and I will take action.
Thanks-
Edit: Seem business33 got in again and sent some more spam. The login function wasn't screening for active versus inactive due to my commenting out that section while testing. I've fixed that....
Labels: Abuse
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