I've posted an article over at EzineArticles.com which is essentially a summary of my "Intro to Blogging" series, with some extra insight.

Links: Introduction To Blogging - How To Build Customer Relationships


Technorati Tags: writing, blogging, problogging, multiblogs, promotion, marketing, business

Last night, I discovered that Google Analytics had put the "add profile" button back on my account. I know from something I read earlier in the week that they are doing this to accounts in batches.

If you have a Google Analytics account and haven't checked in a while because of their resource problems, you may want to check to see if your account is one of the lucky ones. Google states that they'll keep upgrading resources until they get to the point that everyone gets 50 profiles.

Even if you prefer a different stats package, analyzing your blog traffic statistics is a must, if you intend to blog professionally. As I've noted in previous posts, I plan to decipher all of the Google features, and will also talk about general stats terms - hopefully in a manner that doesn't make you non-mathematicians cringe in fear. Keep an eye out for these posts.

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For those of you with new blogspot.com blogs to which you are posting from a blogging client (other than the Blogger.com browser interface), you may have noticed some problems. I did a little digging and here's what I found:

1. I had no problems posting to my blogs that are on my own domains but use the Blogger.com platform.
2. I had no trouble with my older blogspot.com blogs.
3. I couldn't post to my newest blogspot.com blog, which was created about 3-4 days ago. I use blogspot.com as a holding area during a trial period, before registering a domain name. I later usually move the blog to the private domain.

Let's focus on the third item. The problem isn't your blogging client. Google/ Blogger.com has implemented word verification on new blogspot.com blogs to fight spam, and accusations of harboring spam bloggers. They are essentially trying to prevent software that automatically posts loads of entries from splogging.

But if you have a legitimate blog, it's a very easy fix. Here's what you do:

1. Log into your blogger.com account in a browser.
2. Click on the "Create" sub-tab of the "Posting" tab.
3. Below the main textarea, you'll find a request to fill in a word verification. But beside the bolded text Word Verification, you'll find a little orange circle with a white question mark. Click on this icon and you'll get a new page or tab. It'll explain what's going on: "Your blog requires word verification. Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog...". Don't feel bad. Apparently they are working on their algorithms, so some blogs get classified incorrectly.
4. On this explanation page, there is a word verification field, plus your email address. Just fill in the field and click "submit". Once a human confirms that your blog isn't a splog, you won't have to do a verification on each post. After that, I'm guessing you should be able to use your blog client to post.

I haven't tested creating a new blog on a private domain. It's possible that word verification is required for such a blog, but I doubt it. The accusations levelled at Google/ Blogger.com are towards all the splogs residing as subdomains of blogspot.com, not at users of the Blogger.com platform per se.
Good luck. Hope this helps.

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In recent posts, I've written about the differences between some of the more popular blog CMSes (Content Management Systems). This post is an aggregate summary of them.

There are two main types of blogging platforms: (1) Those that create and serve up hard HTML files (i.e., with URLs that have a file extension of ".html" or ".htm"); and (2) Those that serve up files dynamically (i.e., with URLs that just have a directory name, or with a file extension of their underlying program code type - such as .php, pl, .cgi, .asp, or something of that nature). Which is better?

Both types of have their pros and cons. It's easier to give some examples. Free hosts such as Blogspot.com use blog platforms such as Blogspot.com, which generates hard (static) HTML files. OpenSource platforms that are installed on your own server, such as MovableType, WordPress, TextPattern, and Bloxsom generate pages dynamically, either from a database or a plain text file.

Some of the pros and cons of these types of blog CMSes are as follows:

1. Static pages are generally served faster than those pages constructed dynamically from a database. The more popular your site becomes, the slower it becomes if you use a dynamic CMS.
2. Posting to a static CMS is generally slower than to a dynamic CMS. This is because the entire blog's post pages have to be regenerated to show the latest post's hyperlink. The more entries you post to a static CMS, the slower the process becomes.

So which type of blog CMS is better? Well, it seems like a no-brainer, because you want to accomodate the readers before you accomodate yourself: a static CMS seems more suitable. Unfortunately, the drawback is that most static CMSes seem to be on free hosts, and they have performance bottlenecks at various times of day due to popularity.

Now that's not to say one of the OpenSource dynamic CMSes don't have a plugin that generates hard HTML, but I have yet to see this. Some of them cannot even generate URLs that use the title of the blog entry, let alone hard pages. So, the ideal solution would be an OpenSource CMS plugin that generates hard pages that live on your own web server. This would be the best of both worlds.

(c) Copyright: 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://blogspinner.countwordula/

Technorati : CMS, blog CMS, blogger.com, blogging, content management, movable type, multi blogs, pro blogging, wordpress, writing
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The question in the title of this entry is a very important one that all bloggers should answer. But any answer given can be refuted by another blogger. So how many posted entries should you display on the main page of your blog?

In yesterday's post about using a blog CMS to manage a regular website, I talked about setting the number of visible blog entries to zero - or one, if you are featuring the day's post. But for everyone else, the number should probably be: at least 5, with some exceptions.

If your blog is picture or graphics-heavy, for heaven's sake, don't allow for 50 posts. I used to read several dozen cooking blogs daily, until I got sick of the download time, waiting for pictures that I'd already seen. Take some time to learn a little bit about your blogging platform, or befriend a geek and beg their help.

If you have no graphics at all, or very few, you might consider 7-12 posts visible at any given time on the main page. However, consider that if your posts are relatively long, you may lose readers who only have time to skim. In this case, you should set up your blog to show only an excerpt of each post on the main page. Then you can probably get away with15-20 excerpted posts.

The excerpting method is pretty standard on platforms such as WordPress and MovableType. Blogger.com does have a tutorial on how to accomplish it on their platform; however, I implemented it and it did not work consistently on all browsers and I just gave up on bothering.

Another aspect of keeping the number of visible posts down is ad revenue. If you regularly write interesting articles (of course you do), then no doubt you are getting pageviews. By reducing the number of main-page posts, readers are induced into viewing more of your pages, motivated by your fine writing. If your blog is highly successful, you probably aren't reading this blog. But if you are heading that way, then consider that some advertisers pay for high volumes of legitimate pageviews.

Whatever the reason you're blogging in the first place, just don't let your main show more than 20 entries at a time, excerpted or not.

(c) Copyright: 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://blogspinner.countwordula.com/

Technorati : blog management, blogging, blogspinner, multi blogs, pro blogging, writing
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Last week, I came across a website where the author is a charging US$147 for an ebook and related software to show you how to use WordPress to manage a regular website instead of just a blog. Don't waste your money. I'll show you how to do it for free.

It's actually very simple. Most blogging platforms have an option where you can set the number of posted entries appearing on the main page of your blog. (Although I've only seriously tested this on WordPress and Blogger.com.) Now assuming that, under default settings, your blog entries appear both on the main blog page as well as on individual "post" pages (Blogger.com's terminology), you can simply set the number to zero.

If you do this, then your blog page template no longer looks like a blog. You can still have a "Recent Posts" list, or go with a standard navigation bar. Keep in mind that every single webpage on your site that has been created with the blog platform will have the exact same look and the same navigation.

You can manually edit a page, but as soon as you post a new entry and re-build the site, the manual edits will be wiped out. The only way to get around this is to create some webpages through means other than the blog platform - which of course defeats the purpose of using this CMS (Content Management System).

If you want to create a hybrid site - that is, what looks like a website but has a "featured article" - then design your page template to look like a web site, but with space for a "featured article". Now set the number of entries on the main page to be 1. I'll have an example of a hybrid blog/ site at http://webguru.mathgurusonline.com within a week of this posting. (There is nothing on the page at the time of this writing, but I've designed a template and am building right now.)

Hope this tip is of some use to you. If anyone wants to pay me US$147 for the advice, feel free :D

(c) Copyright: 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://blogspinner.countwordula.com/

Technorati : CMS, blog platform, blogging, blogspinner, content management, multi blogs, pro blogging, webmaster, writing
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It's been said that bad habits are hard to break. But it's also been shown that you can develop good habits by motivating yourself do something - a ritual, an exercise - every day for 31 days. You can use this idea to become a better writer.

Apparently, that is the magic number for developing a habit, good or bad. Now in practice, this has worked for me, especially in the area of writing. I used to push myself to write a minimum of 2,000 words every day, no matter how tired or sick I might have been. Some days I achieved as much as 10,000 words or more.

But unfortunately, bad habits have a way of over-powering good ones, and you have to start all over a gain. And the habit you will want to develop is writing every day. When you write on a daily basis, you'll find it eventually easier to express what you really want to say.

There's no rule that says you have to post everything you write to your blog, though. But when you have lots of content to choose from, it's easier to pick out quality content and either discard the rest or take the time in editing them.

Nevertheless, there'll be times when you can't think of anything to write about, beyond a topic. When that happens, use an SE (Search Engine) to find other articles and blog entries on that topic. Write a single summary that weaves a synopsis of 2 or 3 other articles, but add your own spin to the topic. Give the reader the benefit of your knowledge, some value-added, by interpreting what a few other fellow bloggers are saying.

(c) Copyright: 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://blogspinner.countwordula.com/

Technorati : blogging, blogspinner, multi blogs, pro blogging, writers block, writing
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On Darren Rowse's ProBlogger.net blog, he recently posted the results (link below) of a poll of his readers: How much did readers earn last month (November) from Google AdSense on their blog(s)?

While the survey's results are not definitive of the entire blogosphere, they support the idea that only a small percentage of bloggers are making "good" money monthly, on a regular basis, from their blogs. On the other hand, the from an ad network point of view, lots of small earners still bring in money. Unfortunately, for individual bloggers, pro blogging can be a disheartening experience - something Jason Lee Miller echoes in his WebProNews article (link below).

Pro blogging, for the first year or two - unless you are a prolific writer covering a popular topic - is a frustrating experience. It's disappointing, emotionally and physically exhausting, and even depressing. If you're blogging simply because you love to write, then try print instead. Or apply to one of the numerous networks out there.

If you have dreams of becoming a professional blogger - that is, to earn your living exclusively via blogs and blogging-related activities - don't discard them. But do be aware of the effort it takes. As many successful bloggers have said repeatedly, it takes a lot of effort and time to be successful. Are you willing to put in the time, the work, and the patience?

I look at pro blogging as having quantum levels of success. Remember your high school science classes? A great deal of energy has to be applied to push an electron from one quantum orbit to the next one. But it takes less effort after that to get to the next level. Blogging appears to be very similar. When you start out, you have to spend many months of long, long days. Then you achieve a new level of earnings. And with somewhat less effort - if the blogging addiction hasn't bitten you - the next level of earnings comes, and sooner.

Eventually, you reach a critical mass of daily visitors and making money starts to get easier. Yaro Starak of Entrepreneur's Journey (link below) says that while you can make "chimps change" with minimal hits a day, the critical mass is between 500-1000 unique daily visitors, "before you can start to make real money."

Now, this has to be qualified: If you've picked a topic that gets less than that in daily queries from SEs (Search Engines), then you need to also pick another topic that will earn you money. (With a bit of research, you can find a great number of popular topics.)

Case in point: after about 5 months of running my current set of blogs, I finally found a loosely-related collection of topics that I used to write about weekly in print magazines and had up until 2 weeks ago ignored. Without any Google Page rank for the new blog, and lacking any inbound links, I'm already making more on this new blog than all my others combined.

Now that's still not a lot, still peanuts a day, as I have not been maintaining my blogs because of redesign work. But it IS all a numbers game. If you want SE traffic, you need to "feed" the SE spiders: content, lots of good content, on a regular basis. And the good content will eventually accumulate links.

More specifically, in an older post, I quoted an O'Reilly article that said that if you can post at least 1 blog entry every day, in a year's time, you should be getting 500-2000 pageviews per day. That is not necessarily equivalent to 500-1000 unique visitors a day, but it sure is partway to that goal.

Push for 2-3 entries posted per day, and you'll be smiling. Or shoot for 10 quality posts per day, including several short summaries, and you'll eventually be in the blog stratosphere, with hundreds of thousands of daily visitors. Which will earn you money on both ad clicks and ad impressions, or allow you to sell your own advertising - which is what Jason Lee Miller is trying to say in his article.

Sources:

• Darren Rowser, ProBlogger - AdSense earnings survey results
• Yaro Starak, Entrepreneur's Journey - Making money from your website using advertising
• Jason Lee Miller, WebProNews - How AdSense lowers site self esteem.

(c) Copyright: 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://blogspinner.countwordula.com/

Technorati : ad revenue, adsense, blog revenue, blogging, blogspinner, multi blogs, pro blogging, writing
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I've got to hand it to Google, they sure have put out a lot of free tools this year. Their latest offering let's you see whether they've visted one of your sites or not, which pages they've indexed, plus more. The beauty of the Sitemap tools is that you don't even need to have a sitemap on your site. You can simply register your blog and website URLs and the Sitemap Account panel let's you see a variety of Googlebot crawl info.

What Google Sitemaps does is generate a unique filename for your account. You then need to create a file (empty or otherwise) with that filename and upload it to each of your webservers that you want to track (in the root directory). Once you've done that, you click "verify". Google's spider checks for just the filename, not the contents, to verify that you are the owner of the specified domain.

Once verified, you can see a great deal of Googlebot crawl statistics for your website, including page rankings, any errors encountered (i.e., missing files or incorrect links), and which pages have been indexed. If you are managing a professional blog or website, this tool is more than worth the while to get acquainted with. I'll try to offer insights into the tool in future posts.

Links: Google Sitemaps Account Beta.

(c) Copyright: 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://blogspinner.countwordula.com/

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Slashdot.org has a summary today that says that several blogging services including Typepad and Bloglines are having infrastructure problems, particularly with their ability to store the unexpected number of blogs and their content.

Other potential problems for blogging services include the regenerating of a blog each time you post a new entry. This is done to add a link to the new entry on each previous entry. However, this is only true for those blogging platforms that generate actual HTML pages instead of serving pages up virtually, on demand.

WordPress does not do this, at least not without some special plugin, if such exists. WordPress generates pages on demand using programming code and a database. On the other hand, Blogger.com does generate hard pages. So for every new entry you post via Blogger.com, it takes even longer to regenerate the entire set of post pages.

Another problem that appears to be occurring in the blogosphere is that there are service bottlenecks at certain times of day, especially in North America. This appears to be 11:00 am - 1:00 pm, 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm, and sometimes around 9:30-10:30 pm. Now, please note that these are my own observations, and only for Blogger.com.

As a result of these bottlenecks, I make a conscious effort to post at different, less busy times. If you're suffering through similar problems, considering using a blogging platform, such as WordPress and MovableType, that gets installed on your own webserver. This alleviates the blogosphere bottlenecks. However, most such platforms serve pages virtually. If your blog becomes extremely popular (many thousands of visitors a day), page serving can and will start to get slower.

Links: Slashdot summary, Typepad problems, Bloglines performance.

(c) Copyright: 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://blogspinner.countwordula.com/

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For those of you not familiar with all those extra graphics buttons you see on some websites and blogs (including this one), I've put together 4 web pages of introduction to content syndication and web feeds (RSS/ Atom/ RDF), what it is, and how it can help you increase readership.

Content syndication is the method; the formats are RSS and Atom. Web Feeds are the URLs that supply content in "headline" form, and which can either be read with a feeds-enabled web browser or with a special desktop application called a "feed reader" or "feed aggregator".

Please note the webpages are only a partial introduction. I'll be putting together a free ebook, "RSS Resource Guide". If you do have some experience with RSS (or Atom) and want to learn more about how web feeds can be used, please also visit these two blogs: RSS Diary and RSS Cases. The former is written by RSS author and marketing expert, Rok Hrastnik. The latter is written by yours truly and hosted by Rok. RSS Cases replaces my three older RSS blogs. It is has not officially been released live, but you can get a sneak peek at it.

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One of the things that I've noticed these past few months is that my multi-blog management techniques keep changing.

I used to go crazy trying to write and post all day long, every single day. Then I decided not to blog on Sundays. As my personal schedule changed, I found that there were certain days that I could not consistently blog on. I had to find a more manageable schedule, without forcing it on myself.

Now, 5 months into blogging "professionally", I'm finding my writing schedule has changed into something much more manageable. For example, I might write 1 full entry and 2-4 partial entries on Sunday nights. (But I don't post on Sundays, for the most part.) I'll post the full entry after midnight, so the post date is Monday.

Then on Monday, I might either write a new full entry or finish one of the partial entries. If my schedule allows me to write enough content that I think I can post several entries each day, I'll do so. Otherwise I'll hoard blog entries and try to average one posting per day. By starting some "sketches", I can often write more full entries per week than if I don't "seed" ideas.

I originally tried making up a big list of topics to blog on. But then I found myself not touching the list, intimidated by its size. It's much easier, I find now, to make a short list each week and write some sketches, then edit and complete them as necessary. I tend to complete more entries this way.

Truth be told, this is not the way to a successful blog. At least, it's only partly right. The general technique is fine. But a successful blog requires posting to several times a day, every day (or at least 5-6 days/wk).

It's not only a numbers game, but the more regularly you cause SEs (Search Engines) to index your blog (or site), the more visible you will be in the blogosphere via SEs and blog directories. (Primarily in the directories because they use "freshness" as a relevancy factor.)

In my case, part of my consulting agenda is to showcase a number of blogs on a number of topics as examples for my consulting clients. As such, I have more blogs out there than I can handle on my own. And right now, I am helping at least 2 people set up their own blogs.

The net result is that I cannot post every day to every blog, which means more than half of my blogs are "zomblogs" (zombie blogs). At least until I turn on the power and reanimate them with a new entry :)

(c) Copyright: 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://blogspinner.countwordula.com/

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Yesterday was the first time since the first two days of October that not one of my blogs or websites received ad clicks. What do I do about it?

In past posts, I've said that you shouldn't panic about such things, as fluctuations are normal. Unfortunately, despite this being Christmas season, I've had less clicks this month than in the same amount of time in early November. A quick look at my ad revenues and clicks spreadsheet shows that all of my short-term and long-term averages are down as of yesterday.

However, the good news is that, as of this writing, my revenues so far for today kicks my long-term averages back up again. Short-term averages are still down, but I almost never take them into consideration. The stock market always shows crazy short-term fluctuations. It's my opinion that ad clicks exhibit similar behaviours.

But let's say that my short-term averages continue to drop for a couple of weeks, thereby eventually affecting my mid-term averages. What to do? The first thing I do NOW, not later, is make a list of my standard blogging practices, then try to determine what I have NOT been doing lately.

For me, that's easy to determine. I've been spending a great deal of time designing or redesigning my blogs, or writing content for my main "hubsite" instead of writing loads of blog posts. I've dropped from my average of 8-10 posts per day (across all blogs) in late summer to down to 1 or 2 in total.

I mentioned in my last post that I recently moved several of my blogs to new domains. These domains not only don't have a Google PR (Page Rank), but that due to fewer postings than on the old domains, rank lower in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

I know that there are bloggers who don't like having those little button graphics that tell you where your blog ranks on some categorized directory, but for me they're a fast way to compare the health of my blogs today to yesterday. These graphics confirm that my rankings have dropped, compared to a few months ago.

As a concrete example, my old BlogSpinner V1.0 blog once achieved a ranking of #23 in the BlogTopSites directory under the "Internet" category. But as my number of daily posts to that blog dropped, my ranking dropped. When I stopped posting there and started this newer version, the old blog's ranking dropped out of sight. And this blog has never gotten very high because I haven't ever posted more than once or twice daily on a regular basis.

The fact is, and here's my main point, on those days that I do post 3 or more entries spread out over the day, I do enjoy higher traffic. Now if I could only do that for all of my blogs :D

(c) Copyright: 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://blogspinner.countwordula.com/

Technorati : ad revenue, blog traffic, blogging, google adsense, multi blogs, pro blogging, writing
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I originally started blogging over three years ago, but for reasons I won't get into, I had to stop until early this spring - at which point I started blogging professionally. (That is, blogging with the expectation of earning at least a part-time living from ad and affiliate revenue, as well as ebooks and blogging services.) I've learned some good lessons and some hard lessons. Here are some that you should consider if you are planning to move your blog from one domain to another.

Since starting blogging professionally, there isn't a day that goes by (okay, one or two :D) that I don't research, write, post, analyze. This is all essential to being a successful pro blogger. What's also essential is using all this hard work to gain high rankings in the SEs (Search Engines) if you intend to draw in enough traffic to eventually build a loyal readership.

One of the things that I've learned the hard way is that the Google page rank does make a difference to your traffic. There are any number of bloggers that will tell you that this isn't true, but they are wrong - at least for my blogs. Having also read numerous blogs saying that it was a bad idea to have your blog on Blogger.com's blogspot.com domain, I foolishly took their advice, registered several domains, purchased hosting, and struggled to redesign my blog templates - all while still trying to blog as usual. Bad move.

What I've since learned is that a good blog is a good blog, regardless of URL. An attractive page design is important, but so is posting regularly. A good domain name is helpful but not crucial. (Some of the top blogs, both in readership and in quality, are on free hosts.)

By posting regularly, I mean writing and posting everyday, if at all possible. But what's more, you do need to rank high in the SEs. There are many factors involved in ranking high in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), and regular, frequent posting is part of it.

If you have an existing blog on a free host and feel you have to move it, reconsider. If you have more than 10-15 posts, you've likely started to build some search engine results and possibly have a Google PR (Page Rank) greater than 0 out of 10. If you now move your blog, you have to start all over again. It may be 3-6 months before your new domain gets an updated PR. And in the meantime, your old blog URL will continue to drop in the rankings because you have ceased to post new content. (I don't recommend posting new entries to both URLs; some SEs will penalize you for this.)

Unfortunately for me, I recently moved several of my blogspot.com blogs to their own domain around the same time. And while my old blogs are dropping in traffic, my new ones are not yet gaining steady traffic. My rankings in a number of "top sites" lists has dropped significantly. Take this as a cautionary tale: on the Internet, quality and quantity of blog entries is more important than the URL you are using.

If you have already moved your blog to a new domain but are still maintaining the old blog URL, you can use a service like Feedburner's FeedBurner's BuzzBoost and/or Headline Animator to let visitors on your old blog know about the new blog. I've done this for a couple of blogs that I've moved, and it is has increased traffic to my new URLs. However, only steady, regular posting to my new blogs will ever increase traffic to the point of critical mass. And this point, posting 2-3 times a day may be the only remedy.

(c) Copyright: 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://blogspinner.countwordula.com/

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For those of you that are looking for some introductory background on blogging (albeit incomplete and in-progress), I've posted about 5 pages on my hubsite, Chameleon Integration: >>Introduction to Blogging<<.

Please note that these web pages are intended mostly for absolute beginners, as a precursor to reading this blog. I'll also be posting a intro to RSS/Atom/Web Feeds before the end of the week, followed by a list of revenue opportunities for blogs and websites.

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Yesterday, I came across a website called AdFusion, which provides an interesting way for website publishers to generate advertising revenues. I say "interesting" because I'm not entirely sure I support this idea. At least, I haven't warmed up to it just yet.

AdFusion supplies actual article content in a number of categories. The content is written by "professional editors", with hyperlinks to advertisers embedded right in the articles. Whenever a site visitor clicks on one of these "content links" (my term, not theirs), the site publisher earns revenue.

What concerns me about this idea is not that dozens of publishers might potentially have the exact same content. Rather, what's the legitimacy of such a method? Doesn't this almost seem like the text equivalent of an infomercial to you, no matter how well-written the content might actually be?

Let me clarify my viewpoint. Back in the mid-90s, I published a "fringe culture" monthly magazine called Chaos Review. The music labels loved us because we published an abundance of music reviews. At some point in the life of the magazine, I started getting a few requests to publish interviews (my own) with bands for a specific issue in return for advertising. I then made it a rule that if I was going to publish a major profile or interview with a band, I wouldn't accept advertising for that band in the same issue. The labels were fine with that, and I got to maintain some editorial integrity.

On the other hand, there are well written blogs like Woot, which are specifically designed to sell a particular product. Where's the line drawn? Woot.com is more like the blog version of a travelling salesman. My point is that I don't feel right about publishing content designed specifically to generate advertising clicks, which is different than if I am directly selling something myself. I'm not saying that it's wrong or that no one else should not do it.

I mean, it's true that I am pretending to be a professional blogger, and that my blogs are published with the intent of some day turning a profit. But my content is still written to be informative, not solely to generate advertising clicks for my own ad network. For my blogs, the advertising is hopefully selected as a supplement to the content, to help visitors who are looking for info on something specific. But merging content and advertising together? Not for me.

Links: AdFusion, Woot.

(c) Copyright: 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://blogspinner.countwordula.com/

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Several weeks ago, while I was toying around using the WordPress blogging platform for a test blog, I set