)

Back in April the site was having PageRank 3. Back in Feburary the site was having PageRank 2.

Other blog also have their PR changed, such as Mixed Market Arts from PR0 to PR5, Yeepage from PR0 to PR2. It's not a surprise that John Chow is still at PR 4 because he is still publicly selling Text Link Ads. However, John Chow is an exception because he is getting $30,000 per month thanks traffic all from his RSS subscribers, not Google.

Those domains are not in Google index. So I would like to do a test and link to them from this post to see if within the next few days they will be in Google SERP.

The third domain is ModulinePro.com. I believe this to be Moduline Pro product site, which is now under my ownership.

The second domain is FlickrBuy.com. I made a temporary site Flickr Buy and I hope this one doesn't put me in problem with Flickr.com. Please keep in mind that it has no affiliation with Flickr.com whatsoever.

The third domain is AllGardensGrow.com and so I made a temporary site All Gardens Grow. This site has the potential to be a blog about gardening, or gardening products.

I hope this SEO practice is not against Google's webmaster guideline. Let's see what is the result within few days.

Do you have any SEO tips share about building high PageRank back links?

I guess the update just happened because it's end of Febuary in the US, and it's already 1st of March here in Asia. I'm not sure about this, but I'm sure about one thing, my PR increased.

Well, I am so glad to see my homepage is at PR 3. Most my pages and some posts are at PR 3. I still don't know how some post got PR3 for just a few external links to them. Previously, I was so disappointed because most my pages are at PR3 and posts at PR2.

I know it's nothing to brag about because most people have their blog at PR 4+ already. Seriously that's not what I'm bragging about. What I'm really surprise is to see the following blogs are at PR 0 (zero):

• MixedMarketArts.com (previously 4)
• Yeepage.com (estimated 3+)

I'm mentioning those because I'm their frequent reader. I guess those sites got some sort of Google sandbox or PR penalties for involving in selling text links.

Perhaps Collin (MixedMarketArts.com) is too eager to make money online by telling people some black/gray hat SEO tactics and so his PR got busted. Collin and Simon, if what I assume here is wrong please leave a comment on this post, and forgive me. I really hope you guys can get your PR back and grow bigger because I like your works.

Another surprise is that the following blogs have their PR dropped as well (or remain lower tha their potential) :

1. Johnchow.com still PR 3 and no where to see in search result for his chosen keyword, even his own name 'John Chow'. Did anyone mention his PR was 4?
2. Shoemoney.com still PR 5. Unfortunately for Shoe, the words Skills To Pay The Bills didn't return his blog on first position, but I believe he is happy being at first page. I still don't know what Shoemoney's targeted keyword is, or perhaps he is already too happy with the RSS subscribers.

But hey, there my be some error. The PR data centers might be in the progress of updating. The results for those rediculous low PR for those popular blogs might just be result of some lag?

How did I get all this results? If that's the question, then here is the answer: I use SEOBook's SEO for Firefox.

I used many online PR checker and all disappointed me. They worked for a while and then later on when I come back somehow they break up. I hope this SEO for Firefox tool can remain functioning longer because I really love it. It give me the PR for the pages on Google search results straight away so that I don't have to those lengthy URL again and again.

I'm eager to see your answer to my open questions. Especially I love to see you brag about your own PR here. So go ahead and start commenting

I like about BONTB is its short posts. Seriously, I hate to read long blog posts and I still don't understand why I wrote those lengthy ones. Short blog posts make it easy to read and the topic is clearer compare to composite posts. It's also easier for commenting and skimming.

I also like BONTB for providing free blogging help. Yes, you can Ask Bontb! This is a free service similar to what I'm providing right here on my blog. You can ask me for blogging help, or any type of help here. The difference is that BONTB provided the service as a contact form (private email) and he manually publish what he think worth saying. While my service is provided using the existing comment form (public message).

The greatest thing about BONTB is that he is very open minded and honest person. I still remember the last time thanks to him I bought a few PR4 and 5 domain names. Well, I still haven't make those domain active yet and actually haven't made any bucks from them. But if you need a cheap but high-value domain name you may consider to Ask Bontb.

BONTB blog provide many type of useful information. As a matter of fact, it worth visiting so much that I subscribed to his blog on my Google Reader couple of weeks ago. His category list is rather long and I haven't got enough time to dig trough all of those.

Oh, I shouldn't forget to mentioned that BONTB blog dofollows comment author link (no nofollow attribute) so it's a great place to discuss and get rewarded with Link Popuarity and PageRank juice.

I hope this icebreaker blog post will open my fingers up for typing more great posts. Meanwhile, I still am waiting for the new blog design to come out, so Brian, hope you do a good work over there.

Lastly, please ignore this test paragraph for spam links. Own domain name is very good for making blog. Internet Explorer is not as good a browser as Mozilla Firefox.

So far I've been holding back writing and promoting my blog and asked myself Should I Migrate to WordPress MU?. Since then I made the decision to Migrate to WordPress MU and then finally Successfully Migrated to WordPress MU.

I've been showing this Christmas Days theme since 21 Nov 2007 and believe me I really got itchy when looking at it now. Perhaps it is a good choice for a start up blog for a simple look and feel while giving people a clue that Christmas is coming. However, theme become obsolete now. The themes from 7 Free Christmas WordPress Themes 2007 are much better than this.

The New Design

New Year is coming! I need some theme that can meet some very strict requirements. Before continue reading, please open Copy Blogger and Daily Blog Tips in new windows so that you can understand what I mean without having a headache. I want to make my blog look similar to those.

Header

Header should include

1. the logo/site name,
2. site slogan,
3. search box (wordpress or Google)
4. RSS feeds (nofollow links)
5. A horizontal menu that show pages by slug, not full title.
6. Sub-pages should go in drop down, or not shown at all.
7. And other must-have features that the designer thinks fit.

The header should have at least the following characteristics:

1. be lower to save space and possibly allow some 728 banner ad under it. Perhaps 100px height?
2. uniquely identify my blog from others.
3. encourage people to subscribe to my feeds.

The Body/Main content

The body should contain:

1. The Page title
2. Whatever content a blog should have

The body should have the following attributes

1. be at least 468px to fit that size of banner ad and photos.
2. preferably 480px or 500px.
3. Blockqoute should be blockquote.
4. Minimal modification to default styles.

The Side Bars:

1. One sidebar on the left to display most relevant stuff like pages and categories.
2. Two side bars on the right to display relevant links or advertisements. Possibly 150px wide to display 150x150 buttons.
3. A side bar below those 2 sidebars, which is as wide as both of them, to display longer links.
4. Should look professional while saving as much space as possible.

Widgets

Who dare to take a big challenge with widgets? If I will definitely break my way out to design some extra widget place holders such as:

1. the sidebars,
2. the whole pane right below the header,
3. above the post title, OR below it but above the fold
4. below the post content, but before the comments
5. below the comments, before the footer
6. the footer, so that I can change footer

Why? I hate modifying the themes to insert additional content. Do you? Drupal, DotNetNuke and most other Content Management System (CMS) have those, why the most famous one WordPress don't? Too much limitation cause lots of suffering for bloggers.

Every day I waste time on searching for plugins to do very simple job for my blog, still couldn't get satisfied. Then, I need to modify the themes. Then, I need to modify the plugins. They say WordPress require little tech knowledge, my use of it prove the opposite.

Additionally if possible, the theme should have options in the WordPress back-end Options page.

SEO Features

I'm not yet an expert in SEO, yet. However I do have some basic requirements to meet elementary level of SEO:

1. The site name must not be H1 for any pages other than home page.
2. Every page must have a H1 title, including archives, tags, pages, posts, categories, search etc.
3. All styles should be in external CSS file.
4. The lighter the better, so no unnecessary class attributes, use the ID attribute and nested HTML default classes to format elements instead. Example: Don't define a class "PostContent" when in fact the Content is under <div id="content"> already.
5. The main content goes first, then the side bars. No excuses for putting right sidebar in front of the main content.
6. JavaScript for menu? Good idea, but the menu must be written in HTML and dynamic by JavaScript, not use document.write.
7. Ajax? yes another good idea, but please make sure only for sidebars.

The Styles

Technically knowledgable about CSS in advanced level, I would like to have to following styles:

1. The less classes, the better
2. Use ID and HTML element ID thoroughly
3. Smartly format image and objects depend on alignment (barely seen).
4. The less images the better, but must have enough to make the site look neat and nice.
5. The images need to be optimized over 10KB is not a good file size. Consider the dial-up users and the 10s effect.

Am I too tough? The list above is only half of my requirements. If you think you are good enough, go ahead and take the credit. If you up for the challenge?

Free Custom Blog Design

Thanks to Quan Quach from BlinkDagger for writing Win a Free Custom Wordpress Design! I come to realise that Brian Purkiss from plainBETA Design and Blogging is giving out a Free Custom Wordpress Theme

Do I meet the requirements?

Contest Requirements

1. Must be a Wordpress powered blog: OK
2. The desired layout must be a minimalist, web 2.0, like design: OK
3. The blog must be something that I like: OK, but does that mean your friend is reserved?
4. No logo design can be involved: OK, but does that mean you can't do graphic?
5. ‘Designed by’ link must remain in the footer: OK, if it is good then credit is reserved. After all that's the contest all about.
6. The blog already needs to be in existence: OK, you are reading it.

How to Enter

1: Write a post on your blog linking to this post ’selling’ your blog to me: Done

-Why should I pick your blog?

Answer:

1.1 Would you like to design some blog that set its goal to 10,000 subscribers? I'm thinking of expanding my blog to pagerank 6+. Wouldn't you like to get a link back from so high PR site? Then my blog is for you.

1.2 Would you like to design a blog of a fellow web developer and take some nice credit from doing so? Then this blog is for you.

1.3 Would you like to give a hand to someone who help other bloggers and web master live on his blog? Then this blog is foryou.

1.4 Would you like to take some high-requirements challenge and get well-known, instead of designing some simple blog just to throw your business card? Then this blog is for you.

1.5 Would you like to be recognized as a top WordPress designer and get known by the WordPress community? Then this blog is for you.

-What do you want the design to look like?

Answer:

As mentioned above. But I'd love to hear your expert advices if they work better.

-Remember, I have to like your blog in order to pick it. So what’s so special about it?

Answer:

At this stage it is not so special. I only help other bloggers to become better bloggers. I love to help others. So if you help me you are giving a hand to other bloggers, too.

I'm sure my requirements are higher than other bloggers, so will you take the challenge?

2: Contact me with a link to your entry.

Answer: OK, I will contact you after this.

What's Next

If Brian decide not to design my blog, I will end up spending some time choosing some free theme and customize it for my own use. Of course I will make it meet the requirements I set above. If I do, I will distribute it. If Brian does, I might ask him to let me distribute, too. So stay tune for the result.

Update 28/12/2007: I realize some requirements maybe too high for a standard designer, so I don't expect to find or get those immediately.

Meanwhile, Happy New Year and Holidays to anyone who have. If you don't celebrate New Year in your country, why not celebrate it online?

Why comment smartly?

Search engine relies on links to calculate link popularity and hence prioritize pages on the search results. If you have a website or blog you would like to have the search engines to recognize it.

One method of building link popularity is to include your home page address in the comments that you leave on other blogs. However, most of those blogs block search engines from seeing your address.

Fortunately, there are aware and open-minded bloggers who realized the issue. They use some plugin to remove the nofollow tag and open the search engine vision to those links. The links to your website on those blogs are search engine friendly and count toward your link popularity (hence PageRank).

It is white-hat-SEO if you really do participate on the discussions. Otherwise it is black-hat-SEO if you just spam out messages unrelated to the topic written on those blogs.

There are many lists of those blogs on the Internet. However those lists are very limited because you don't know how many blog you have to click before you find the one you like. But that's about to change.

Dofollow Search Engine

CommentHunt is search engine that let you search high PageRank blogs those don't have nofollow tag. Hence you can improve your own link popularity by actively participating in discussions on those blogs.

With this tool, now you can gain the benefit of searching, discussing, and building link popularity at the same time.

I found it by reading Commenthunt helps you build links to increase website traffic. I tried tried it out, it works.

What's next?

I will definitely use this tool to search for the things I need and discuss it on the way. I prefer a stone get 2 birds, to both have passionate discussion and SEO.

Please, don't be too greedy and hold yourself back from participating on nofollow blogs. You gain more benefit from commenting on the same topics of interest, especially related to your website, then dofollow but unrelated topics.

In fact, I like this brilliant idea, and I know how to do it. Wait for my version of similar search engine with more features.

• What is PageRank?
• Why do we need PageRank?
• Building PageRank
• How to check PageRank

What is PageRank?

Simply put, PageRank is Google ranking measurement for a page's popularity based on how many links pointing to that page. Generally, PageRank for your homepage normally is highest compare to other pages on your site.

Why do we need PageRank?

PageRank helps Google prioritize your page when showing it on the Google Search Result page. Note that it's Google only. For a blog or website builder we need to use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques for build better PageRank to be found by web searchers.

For the same keyword and relevancy, a page on a higher PageRank site would be placed on top of a page with lesser PageRank. That's why SEO people are desperately seeking ways to improve their PageRank.

Everyone needs to have good PageRank for their website, otherwise their pages will never be searched by Google.

Building PageRank

Building PageRank in No-SEO

People who don't know about PageRank depends upon other webmasters and their friend network to increase it naturally. This process is normally very lengthy, but more commonly used. Actually since it's no-SEO, there isn't a technique.

Building PageRank in white-hat-SEO

People who know about PageRank and SEO would actively builds their PageRank by building search engine friendly (SEF) links. There are white-hat SEO people who actively seek out for search engine friendly links.

The ultimate rule of thumb for building PageRank is:

"Put link to your site anywhere, anytime, any reason."

Building PageRank in black-hat-SEO

Many people are too desperate for PageRank. Those such as Internet marketers and affiliates have tendency to go beyond the limit. They would use text link ads and other ad network which offer search engine friendly links and pump up their PageRank to have much more exploited advantages over the other group.

Black-hat-SEO is explicitly prohibited by Google. Google would happily ban a website from their search index for violating this rule, if they find out.

How to check PageRank

After you know a little about PageRank, the next step is to try it out on your own page now. If you have Google Toolbar, then your PageRank is already visible there.

Otherwise you can use some web tools. You will need to copy and paste the URL of the page you need to check. You can use any of the following tools to check it:

• BlogFlux PageRank

Well I was about to put more but they all seem to broke since the time I wrote this: Special Days - PageRank for Google is 0. So BlogFlux is still the number one resource to check your PageRank.

Note: Don't cry yet if you see your page's PageRank is 0. Normally only your homepage have a noticeable PageRank. If your homepage has no PageRank, then cry.

What's Next?

This is only an introduction to PageRank from my own understanding. I will be writing much more about this topic in the upcoming posts. If you can't wait, feel free to read this PageRank by WikiPedia or this Pagerank Explained (very technical though).

This post is made thanks to my friend Haan. She asked me earlier: "Hey Binh, what is PageRank?". Please feel free to comment, everyone.

"What? How come my PageRanks are all 0? Did Google penalize me for something?"

Popular Tools Cause Surprise

It came to a calm-down when I check the PageRank for www.google.com, which also returned 0/10. Then I check PageRank for yahoo.com, johnchow.com, etc, all returned 0/10. The same results came from the following PageRank checkers:

1. Check Page Rank
2. Page Rank - whats my page rank

Here is the result from CheckPageRank.com:

Here is the result from WhatIsMyPageRank.com

Then I felt OK, that means Google is doing something at their base that cause all PageRank. Or there maybe a technical breakdown somewhere with their API.

Less Famous Tools Still Functional

Today, I check again and surprisingly found that out of the first tools found while Googling, this BLOGFUX pagerank tool works. Here is the result from their page:

SEOOpen's Check Google PageRank tool also is functional, here is their result:

Conclusion

After all the guesses and worries, what really happen here is that there might be some changes made at the Google PageRank API that broke all those tools. Any thoughts?