Archive for November, 2007

The Website Grader, 2 Months Later

Published at November 28, 2007 in Blogs and Blogging, Online tools and Simple Tips and How-To. 13 Comments

This planet was just barely one month old when I first used a free online tool called “The Website Grader” (owned by The HubSpot Company). The grader analyzed my site and gave it a grade. The result was expected: a low mark. Two months later — I’m posting my site’s grade again.

As of writing, this blog is graded 72%, still low if you base it on the “academic” grading standards; but allow me to brag a bit — that is a major improvement, considering that my previous grade was only 41%. My goal is to reach a grade of around 80%-85% before the year ends.

The rest of the post contains technical terms and blogging-related jargons, so if you are one of my non-technical and/or non-blogger readers, feel free to skip to the conclusion below.

What is Website Grader?

This is according to their website….

Website Grader is a free seo tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective.

If you are a new blogger, this is a good start to learn about SEO, internet marketing, and traffic.

A snapshot of my grade. Click for more details.
PlanetSaedel.com's Website Grade

What I Noticed

There are a few things I noticed. It’s normal to get a low score if your site is new. Your grade will gradually increase if you regularly update your blog. I learned this by checking my site a few hours after I post an entry. In simple words: More Content = Higher Score.

I also noticed that my Google PageRank (PR) went up to 3 from 0. I was kind of expecting it. New blogs/sites start with a 0 PR. If your site hits 3 months and Google updated the PR, you may be given a ranking, like what happened to this planet.

I also found out that the Delicious Saved Count remains at 0 even though I saved some of my pages in my account. The Subscriber Count is also reading 0, mainly because they are using the WordPress built-in feeder as the basis, not the FeedBurner, which is what I am using. It is minor, though, since I have access to that number.

Checking Out Popular Social Sites

Out of curiosity, I checked out some of the most popular social sites among bloggers. You will find below their scores as of this writing: (click on their names for full report)

CONCLUSIONS

My score is increasing simply because I am updating my blog on a regular basis. The more content I post, the better grade I get. But is that what I really want?

If you are a blogger, this grading system is a good motivational tool to improve your technical blogging skills and social strategies as it also reports your traffic ranking and the number of sites that are linking to your blog. If you want to be in the thick of serious bloggers around the blogosphere, then use this tool to find errors in your site and try to correct them if you can.

However, this is not the only tool available for learning. Broaden your perspective and read a lot. If you are serious about SEO and related topics, there are other good websites and blogs that offer excellent tips to increase your scores and traffic. Also, getting a high grade doesn’t mean you have to be complacent. Don’t jack up your blog with meaningless posts for the sake of increasing your score. Remember, quality content is still the champion in the hearts of your readers.

Popularity: 12% [?]

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Learn To Accept a Helping Hand [Video In Post]

Published at November 26, 2007 in Videos, Success, Attitude and Career/Work/Job. 8 Comments

Tiger WoodsTiger Woods is a winner. And saying that is an understatement.

I can not define in a single post what the man has accomplished in his life. So for the sake of discussion, let us talk about him on a topic that we are all familiar of: GOLF.

If you don’t know it yet, Tiger Woods has been extremely successful in golf. Do you know that he started swinging the golf club before he can barely even walk? People were already amazed by him. In fact, he was already doing guest appearances on TV when he was 3. But none of these would have happened without his parents. Tiger got the support he needed to be able to embrace his capacity at a very young age.

I want to share with you a clip* of one of my favorite Nike commercials featuring a very young Tiger Woods. I’m not a commercial critic or an expert in deciphering its meaning, but the message I got is that it is open for interpretation. So after watching it, I’m inviting you to stay and read the rest of this post for my own take.

Tiger Woods Wins British Open (Nike “Just Do It” Commercial)

While the focus of the video is Tiger’s supreme talent, in the background, you’ll notice his mother happily taking pictures and his father cheering. Both are extremely happy. Both joyous by their son’s success. Their relationship with Tiger can be felt.

I consider them the wind beneath his wings.

And Tiger? He is a willing student. His parents believed in him and supported him, and Tiger accepted it.

We can learn an important lesson from this twist: to be successful, we have to learn to accept a helping hand.

Some people don’t do this because of these primary reasons: 1.) They are too shy 2.) They are egoistic, thinking they are independent enough, and 3.) Both.

Sometimes, I fall into “both” category. Just last month, when I was struggling to find balance in my work, I confessed to a co-worker that I was finding it hard to update the school website. She offered help. Honestly, I was happy that someone was concerned, so I acknowledged her action.

But I politely declined. Because I was too shy. At the same time, I was driven to prove I can manage to finish the backlog on my own.

I did, but only after a month. I felt unproductive the weeks in between. Imagine if I accepted her offer, it could have saved me more days or weeks, thus giving me a peace of mind.

If you want a faster yet solid path to success, learn to utilize your support group, whether they are your parents, other half, co-workers, or your friends; because for them, your success is their success also.

So if you’ve enjoyed this post and want to offer me help build more traffic to this site, feel free to stumble, digg, zoom, or reddit this entry. It is my pleasure telling you that I’ve learned my lesson: I won’t be shy to accept a helping hand. ;)

By the way, you may have a different interpretation of the clip, so please feel free to post a comment. I’d love to hear/read what’s on your mind.

—–

*The clip is a “spliced” video, meaning the events really happened in different times and places, but was edited to make it look like it took place in one event. If you want to comment directly to the video, please follow this link. Otherwise leave a message below.

Resources: Tiger Woods Interview (CBS), YouTube Clip, Photo

Popularity: 27% [?]

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Don’t Let Your Diversions Take Over Your Job

Published at November 22, 2007 in Attitude, Responsibility, Blogs and Blogging and Career/Work/Job. 24 Comments

I used to be a workaholic, which meant I did my job not just efficiently, effectively, and productively but also going over and beyond expectations. It gave me a true sense of accomplishment. Extra-miling was one of my hobbies — sometimes I even brought my work at home to keep up or to be ahead.

I produced results. And by that, I meant awesome results that made my co-workers and I truly proud. It was a good scenario for me because it made me happy.

I have a weakness, though. When I develop new interests, they sometimes affect my priorities. These interests become diversions.

When I discovered blogging, it became my number one diversion and it interfered with my work.

I used to hone my technical skills.
Now I enjoy lurking in various websites.

I used to read books.
Now I prioritize blog-hopping and commenting in other blogs hoping to increase my site’s traffic.

I used to enjoy updating my school’s website.
Now it took a backseat because I prefer looking for themes and plugins to improve my blog.

Suddenly, I’m the man who can’t produce results. Because at the back of my head, I keep thinking my job can wait. I know I can always do it later.

Problem is, “later” never ever arrives because:

  • I look for and think of something to blog about instead of focusing on the real work at hand.
  • I check my site’s stats whenever I get the chance.
  • I leave my email open and check it every time I go near my laptop.
  • I visit social sites to learn more about blogging tips because I’m afraid to be left behind.

Other people love to malinger during work: extended coffee break, smoking, playing games online, shopping online, and many more. I know, because that’s what I’ve observed from others. Although I consider mine a lesser evil, it is still evil nonetheless, as far as my real work is concerned. Those activities I listed above are just a few examples of little things I insert during work. Little things that when combined, become a bad habit that holds back productivity.

And it has to stop now because that’s not the way I work. I am no fan of mediocrity.

There are reasons why I didn’t quit the 9-5 job (or 8-4 for me) for blogging. It’s because my day job is one of the biggest sources of my income and I enjoy it. Simply ignoring it means taking the risk of gradually losing it. And I can’t afford that. Without my job, this site will cease to exist.

This realization has led me to think that some things will simply have to be bumped down my to-do list. Since I enjoy blogging (or writing) and it makes me happy, I will continue to post and do the “blogging etiquette”, if they are within the boundaries of my priorities; or as long as I can do it while still producing results for my day job.

So how do I intend to do it?

Simple. Stop doing unnecessary things at work. It’s easier said than done, but that’s the responsibility that we all have to take. I’ll summarize it in two quick steps:

Step 1: Eliminate non-related activities during work hours - gradually, then completely. In this case, blogging has to be dropped from my 8-4 schedule.

Step 2: Every night, spend 1.5 to 2 hours at the most (not necessarily consecutive) for diversions. Since blogging is on the top of the list, I will have to settle doing it at night or when I get home. It includes “blog-rolling”, stats checking, commenting, social networking, and the like. I feel I have already built a connection with other bloggers and I don’t want to lose that. My presence will definitely still be felt. Doing Step 2, I will not have to worry about blogging during work hours.

In simple words, I just have to be more disciplined to live more happily.

How about you, do your diversions interfere with your work? If so, what do you plan to do to remain productive?

——

Inspired by:
Haiku Blogging @ ProBlogger.com

Popularity: 11% [?]

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BlogRush Censors Unfavorable Reviews?

Published at November 18, 2007 in Blogs and Blogging and Observations and Opinions. 13 Comments

*Note: Unless something controversial happens, this will be my final post about BlogRush.*

Based on my experience, it looks like BlogRush (I’ll call it BR from time-to-time here onwards) is trying to unexpose honest reviews that don’t favor them.

In my opinion, I think I wrote a fair analysis when I posted “BlogRush, Have You Forsaken Me?” last week (if you want to object, be my guest :P ). Did BlogRush intentionally block that post? I don’t have a clue.

Normally, BR would pick up the latest post a few hours after it was posted. However, after 2 days of observing, I noticed that BR was still using an old topic as a “flag-carrier” of my blog when it’s not supposed to.

Why did that happened? Was it a BR glitch?

Despite the curiosity itch, I exercised patience. I wanted to experiment a bit so I waited couple more days before I published another post (“You Love Writing, Does Someone Understand?”). As expected, few hours later, it was sent across sites that run BR widget. It has been syndicated a good 134 times in less than a day.

How come my BlogRush review never made the widget?

To get the clear picture of what I’m talking about, look at the two photos below:

PlanetSaedel November 2007 Archive
Above is a snapshot of my archives. I published my BlogRush Review On 11th of November 2007

In the picture below, notice that my Nov. 11 post was not even included in the report. Confirmed: BlogRush has forsaken me.
BlogRush Skippy

It never happened before. So last Friday, first thing in the morning, I wrote a short email to BR Customer Support asking for an explanation as to why. Even though I expressed my disappointment, I did my best to be polite and professional. When I didn’t get any response after a day, I followed it up. I am still waiting for their reply.

Is BlogRush really that busy to ignore my email? I believe they have people who filtered and purged 10,000 “low-quality” blogs, how come nobody from Customer Support even bothered to answer a simple query?

Personally, I think BlogRush is a good idea that will benefit both Mr. Reese and bloggers, and I really hope that the censorship is just a glitch. But if Mr. Reese and his team don’t even bother clearing up this situation, then it is like saying they really monitor and auto-block honest reviews against them. If that’s the case, then we don’t know what kind of posts they will block in the future. Next thing we know, they’ll control political issues (I know it’s a stretch, but a possibility).

For BlogRush members who are reading this, kindly check your BR dashboard and see if some of your articles got blocked - particularly the ones that have honest reviews about them. Make sure you are not filtering your own post, otherwise, it will not really appear in the report. :P Let us know if you had been censored without your knowledge.

My hope is BlogRush widget somehow picks up this post and sends this article across the blogosphere (I will know in the next few hours upon publishing). However, if BR censors this, I won’t mind. This post will still find its way out.

Mr. Reese is probably laughing his butt out, thinking how a small site like mine could hurt his project. All I can say is everything becomes bigger by the power of the internet. And with your help, we can send this message to the intended parties so they can avoid this kind of mistake again — whether it was accidental or intentional.

Popularity: 8% [?]

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You Love Writing, Does Someone Understand?

Published at November 15, 2007 in Blogs and Blogging, Personal and Observations and Opinions. 10 Comments

When you love something, you do whatever it takes to get it. Take writing for instance. As a blogger or a writer, you spend considerable amount of time writing, and A LOT of time thinking which is driven by inspiration.

And you don’t even notice it.

When you are taking a shower, and an idea suddenly hits you, you want to rush out of the bathroom and sit down in front of the computer and start typing.

Because when a writer starts to think, he feels his ideas are unique; or at least feels he has found a creative way of presenting old thoughts. It’s hard to pass it up. A passionate writer wants to finish writing in one sitting because he feels when he loses his grip, a big chunk of himself is gone. When that happens, the writer feels restless. I know. Because that’s how I feel.

That’s why sometimes, I feel I write better when I’m sleepy. Or should I say, “still sleepy”, because the only time I feel sleepy is when I wake up abruptly from a slumber. I don’t feel sleepy at night. I feel tired. And when my eyes feel tired they automatically close and I fall into sleep.

SunriseWhen I’m sleepy, the quietness of the dawn and the freshness of my mind combine to form a unique thought — at least to me. A thought that I feel could inspire others. Or teach. Or help. Or anything useful. A thought that I think could change the world. And wonderful thoughts deserve the best choice of words.

I always think I’m alone when I’m in this state. Is that weird or lonely? I don’t think so. I just think most people do not understand when a writer begins to dwell in his own world and why he has to do it.

So I did the logical thing. I asked the person who I think will understand me best. The person who I want to be with for the rest of my life.

“Andie?” I asked my girlfriend. “Will you understand me when I am writing?”

“What do you mean?” she asked. And I said, “when I’m like this.” and I described my state to her. She likes it when I am talking to her. I think most girls do when their guys open themselves.

She understands, and said. “Yes.”

I was happy, but I really do hope she does because writing is important to me. So I chuckled, and told her, “You know this won’t be the last time, right?” I didn’t expect or need any answer.

My fingers tapped the keyboard as my thought wandered in the quietness of the dawn, as the rainy morning of our 3rd Anniversary arrives.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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