Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Increase Page Time with Apture
OK, so you have now got a blog with a decent number pageviews every month. Now, the next important thing you want to ensure is that your readers are actually reading the stuff you have spent so much time writing for them and are staying on your site for appreciable periods of time(like may be a couple of minutes!)
In other words, now that you have gained quantity, it is time to measure the actually quality of your site traffic. And are you managing to hold on to your visitors and make sure that they read through the post and click your ads and affiliate links? A person leaving your site within just a few seconds will usually mean one of four things:
But now that a program named Apture has solved the problem you just have to marvel at the simplicity of the solution.
What is Apture ?
Apture is a service that allows visitors to read stuff relevant to your content without ever leaving your site. All your reader has to do is highlight a piece of text on your article and then Apture will search through trusted sites like Wikipedia, search engines like Bing and even your own domain to pull out relevant excerpts, photos and videos, thus providing a ready reference for your readers so that he never has to leave your site to fill in the gaps of your content.
Apture can also sense if some words are generating more responses from your audience and then those become Hotspots, i.e.the Apture info box opens on mouse over.
Another, interesting feature on Apture is that it does not work on anchor texts so you may rest assures that your page links won't get messed up.
Additional Features of Apture
In addition to this enhanced value-added service Apture also offers the following services:
See Apture at Work
You can see Apture at work right here on this page. Simply select a piece of text and then click the Apture logo!
Read more »
In other words, now that you have gained quantity, it is time to measure the actually quality of your site traffic. And are you managing to hold on to your visitors and make sure that they read through the post and click your ads and affiliate links? A person leaving your site within just a few seconds will usually mean one of four things:
- You are targeting the wrong keywords and your domain name is irrelevant to your site content.
- There is something inherently wrong with your landing page (design, content etc) that is repulsive to your visitor.
- Your page is so clear cut that the visitor has found what he was looking for very quickly and has left.
- The visitor found something interesting in the top half of your article and has gone off to Google it.
But now that a program named Apture has solved the problem you just have to marvel at the simplicity of the solution.
What is Apture ?
Apture is a service that allows visitors to read stuff relevant to your content without ever leaving your site. All your reader has to do is highlight a piece of text on your article and then Apture will search through trusted sites like Wikipedia, search engines like Bing and even your own domain to pull out relevant excerpts, photos and videos, thus providing a ready reference for your readers so that he never has to leave your site to fill in the gaps of your content.
Apture can also sense if some words are generating more responses from your audience and then those become Hotspots, i.e.the Apture info box opens on mouse over.
Another, interesting feature on Apture is that it does not work on anchor texts so you may rest assures that your page links won't get messed up.
Additional Features of Apture
In addition to this enhanced value-added service Apture also offers the following services:
- You can use Apture to show Amazon ads and earn commissions through your Amazon Associate account when a purchase is completed.
- You can specify domain names (in addition to Wikipedia, Amazon etc.) from Apture draws relevant content.
- You can enable the trendy Apture side bar.
See Apture at Work
You can see Apture at work right here on this page. Simply select a piece of text and then click the Apture logo!
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Get Paid to Write Sites You Haven't Heard of 3
This is the third installment of my Get Paid to Write Sites You Haven't Heard of series (read Part I and Part 2) where I try to maintain an up to date list all the new and upcoming content sharing sites from which you can earn money (either upfront or passive revenue share) from your published content.
The main purpose of writing this series of articles is to empower the reader to think beyond the established sites like Factoidz, AC, Suite101, Helium etc which has a tendency of developing strategies and installing rules that can create issues for your work ethics, work flow and most of all creativity.
So, without further ado lets dive straight into the list:
Wizzley
Wizzley is a really impressive content sharing site developed by some of the Squidoo big boys (and girls). It has adopted the standard module based writer interface similar to Hubpages and Squidoo. Though it does not have as many module types as Squidoo (which quite possibly has several thousand modules), Wizzley does feature some very innovative modules like the Wikipedia module.
However, my favorite module there is the Download module which allows the writer to upload a file to the Wizzley server which the reader can then download. An absolute godsend people looking to offer freebies to their readers.
Minimum article length is 400 words. Editorial system is fairly strict but that might prove to be a good thing in the Post-Panda Cyber world. Wizzley allows you to place one promotional link per 50 words (approx.)
You earn through your adsense publisher ID and you get 50% of the ad impressions. You can also earn through Amazon Associates, AllPosters and Ebay.
DailyWiki
DailyWiki is another India based content sharing site that user the standard and super easy WordPress platform which means that if are familiar with this platform (ever owned a WordPress blog or written for Snipsly amongst other sites) then you can start churning out those articles in no time at all.
The minimum wordcount per article is a standard 300 words but you earn more points for writing longer articles. And 400 words articles have a better chance of getting search engine traffic. Articles must be unique. 2 Dofollow promotional links are allowed per article.
You earn points for various activities and win cash prizes of upto $100 every month in addition to adsense revenue!
RitePad
RitePad is a VERY new and slightly unprofessional (nothing bad, just amateurish) looking WordPress based content sharing website which offers 80% adsense ad impressions on your articles.
The main purpose of writing this series of articles is to empower the reader to think beyond the established sites like Factoidz, AC, Suite101, Helium etc which has a tendency of developing strategies and installing rules that can create issues for your work ethics, work flow and most of all creativity.
So, without further ado lets dive straight into the list:
Wizzley
Wizzley is a really impressive content sharing site developed by some of the Squidoo big boys (and girls). It has adopted the standard module based writer interface similar to Hubpages and Squidoo. Though it does not have as many module types as Squidoo (which quite possibly has several thousand modules), Wizzley does feature some very innovative modules like the Wikipedia module.
However, my favorite module there is the Download module which allows the writer to upload a file to the Wizzley server which the reader can then download. An absolute godsend people looking to offer freebies to their readers.
Minimum article length is 400 words. Editorial system is fairly strict but that might prove to be a good thing in the Post-Panda Cyber world. Wizzley allows you to place one promotional link per 50 words (approx.)
You earn through your adsense publisher ID and you get 50% of the ad impressions. You can also earn through Amazon Associates, AllPosters and Ebay.
DailyWiki
DailyWiki is another India based content sharing site that user the standard and super easy WordPress platform which means that if are familiar with this platform (ever owned a WordPress blog or written for Snipsly amongst other sites) then you can start churning out those articles in no time at all.
The minimum wordcount per article is a standard 300 words but you earn more points for writing longer articles. And 400 words articles have a better chance of getting search engine traffic. Articles must be unique. 2 Dofollow promotional links are allowed per article.
You earn points for various activities and win cash prizes of upto $100 every month in addition to adsense revenue!
RitePad
RitePad is a VERY new and slightly unprofessional (nothing bad, just amateurish) looking WordPress based content sharing website which offers 80% adsense ad impressions on your articles.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Adsense Revenue Sharing Site Seekyt : Review
Seekyt is an upcoming content sharing website where author's can make some some passive revenue through Google Adsense.
Vital Statistics of Seekyt
Home Page Google Page Rank : 3
Alexa Rank : 69,072
Overview of Seekyt
Seekyt only accepts unique content of length 2000 characters or more. Your 3 articles will be moderated before they are published to ensure that it is not spam. But, provided your article is unique and doesn't have too many spelling errors (don't forget to use the Seekyt spell checker tool) your articles should have no issues whatsoever with their editorial system.
You earn revenue through Google Adsense ads placed around your article, but you must have a verified Adsense account to earn from this site. Seekyt offers 70% Adsense ad impression to the author and is significantly higher than most of its more established competitors like Xomba (60%), Hubpages (60%), Triond(50%) and Bukisa (60%). In addition, you can also earn through your Amazon Associates account.In additon to this, Seekyt offers a whopping 25% referral bonus!
Seekyt also allows you to place a limited number of dofollow backlinks to your articles and so may be a good place to market your blog or website or even try and sell your products.
My Thoughts on Seekyt
The first thing that struck me about Seekyt is how active their network is. Your article is sure generate some nice comments and get tweeted, f-liked and shared within just hours of going online and that is a big advantage Seekyt has over many more established content sharing sites.
Seekyt is also one of the very few content sharing sites that actually allows you to chose your page layout (placement of adblocks etc.) and this makes the site very flexible for content writers.
However, on the downside Seekyt is a pretty new and site and so it might take a while before you actually start receiving tons of targeted search engine traffic or get a high page rank. But, the decent Alexa rank (for a rather new site) does prove that Seekyt has quite a bit of potential and it might be a good idea to get in the ground level of so promising a venture. Join Seekyt now!
Read more »
Vital Statistics of Seekyt
Home Page Google Page Rank : 3
Alexa Rank : 69,072
Overview of Seekyt
You earn revenue through Google Adsense ads placed around your article, but you must have a verified Adsense account to earn from this site. Seekyt offers 70% Adsense ad impression to the author and is significantly higher than most of its more established competitors like Xomba (60%), Hubpages (60%), Triond(50%) and Bukisa (60%). In addition, you can also earn through your Amazon Associates account.In additon to this, Seekyt offers a whopping 25% referral bonus!
Seekyt also allows you to place a limited number of dofollow backlinks to your articles and so may be a good place to market your blog or website or even try and sell your products.
My Thoughts on Seekyt
The first thing that struck me about Seekyt is how active their network is. Your article is sure generate some nice comments and get tweeted, f-liked and shared within just hours of going online and that is a big advantage Seekyt has over many more established content sharing sites.
Seekyt is also one of the very few content sharing sites that actually allows you to chose your page layout (placement of adblocks etc.) and this makes the site very flexible for content writers.
However, on the downside Seekyt is a pretty new and site and so it might take a while before you actually start receiving tons of targeted search engine traffic or get a high page rank. But, the decent Alexa rank (for a rather new site) does prove that Seekyt has quite a bit of potential and it might be a good idea to get in the ground level of so promising a venture. Join Seekyt now!
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Free Flash Games at Stick Sports : Review
Of all the hundreds if not thousands of free online gaming websites Sticksports.com is probably my favorite. As of present it offers the following five games and several variations/dervatives.
In order of preference (preference is of course subjective) they are:
1. Stick Tennis
This is my absolute favorite online game. It has probably got the best graphics of all the games in the Stickfranchise and as far as the game play is concerned it is in league with any of those EA sports games that you spent good money to buy. With all five grand slam scenarios (Wimbledon, US Open, Oz Open and Roland Garros) along with separate graphics (grass, clay or synthetic) for each of them and accurate players’ skill levels (Federer moves faster than Rodick but Rodick’s surf is faster than Roger’s) ensures that Stick Tennis stays head and shoulders above the competition, at least for the time being.
Further the game is sufficiently challenging so that you have to work for your wins and that makes Stick Tennis an even better game.
2.Stick Cricket
Up next is Stick Cricket–the very first game in the Sticksports family. With a descent game play and tolerable graphics this is also a damn good freebie. Like Stick Tennis this is also a very fast game and usually each match lasts no more than 10 minutes. However, if you’re very busy and can’t possibly spare 10 mins. there’s no need to despair–try the T2 mode, it hardly takes a couple of mins to complete a T2 match.
3.Stick Football
Sorry football lovers but this game is know where near as good as the two mentioned above. For one thing the graphic is absolutely pathetic (I can’t remember the last time I played a game where the characters glidedinstead of walked)
On top of that this game is so easy that you get tired of scoring goals even before the first half is over! A real disappointed!
4.Stick Baseball
The gameplay is very similar to Stick Cricket but can't really say much more as baseball is really not my sport
5.Stick Racing
The latest addition to the Stick Sports family is Stick Racing. However, this game is also very disapointing and rather boring with stupid graphics and a pathetic gameplay.
5.Stick Racing
The latest addition to the Stick Sports family is Stick Racing. However, this game is also very disapointing and rather boring with stupid graphics and a pathetic gameplay.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
How to Choose a Free Website Hosting Service
For first timers and casual webmasters (like myself) free services are particularly appealing even if they are restricted and lacking in features. These days there are hundreds of companies who offer free web hosting but most them of them have some sort of a catch in order to force you into opting for one of their paid plans to gain greater freedom on the net.
The following is a beginners guide to web hosting mentioning a list of features that are available for free and are particularly helpful to webmasters.
1. MySQL and PHP support.
MySQL and PHP are very important and you can run a very limited number of applications without them. For example even a basic WordPress blog requires a MySQL database and PHP support. Apart from this a lot of popular applications such as Movable Type require Perl for proper functioning.
2. FTP Access
FTP access is very important to maintain a website because every time you need to upload something you will be needing it. Even if you have browser upload facilities it is not always very reliable, specially when dealing with relatively large files, in which case FTP is the best and easiest method to achieve your end.
3. Bandwidth
Bandwidth is basically a measure of the maximum amount of traffic that your website can receive within a given frame of time (usually one month). Assuming that you are hoping to get at least a few visitors to your website apart from yourself and family you should look for a web host which provides bandwidth in excess of 200MB/month at least. For a very realistic estimate a text-based website which has received around 200 page views will expend 90MB bandwidth.
If you are considering photo blogs or Vblogs (video blogs) you should only consider web hosts providing over 500MB data transfer per month.
4. Advertisement
A lot of free web hosts monetize their service by forcibly placing banner or pop-up ads on your website. Some include a footer text like “Click here for free web hosting”. If it is a purely personal blog these advertisements hardly pose a problem. But otherwise it somehow seems to undermine the credibility and authority of your website, not to mention become tiresome to your readers.
5. Diskspace
Depending up on the nature of your site this may be either your most important or your least important concern. For most purposes a disk space of above 500MB should be quite sufficient and a lot of web hosting companies provide more than that. However, if you are planning on creating your portfolio and get your high resolution photos or HD videos online you might be a touch hard put to find a free host with sufficient amount of disk space. (the maximum I’ve ever heard of is 50 GB and that’s a bit rare).
6. PHP cURL and fsockopen enabled are two other important features for a web host but these are very rare in case free web host provider. I’m not sure exactly what purpose these two features serve, but I can guarantee you one thing: If you are looking to use any auto blogging applications chances are they won’t work without cURL and fsockopen enabled.
This is basically all you need to know in order to find yourself a descent web host. In case you get stuck, never mind, I’m planning to do another article discussing my experiences with some of the larger web hosting companies that provide free hosting.
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