Hint to our Riddle Contest #2

So.. it was a bit tough? because most of the people couldn't figure it out, the second hint to our Riddle contest#2
You need to follow link

You may visit source

Hope this makes it all the more clear

The winner will get an exclusive free blog review {including linkback}

Webtalks Contest #2

As I promised, here's the second contest. The winner of course gets a free blog review on Webtalks with a linkback.

"You need to go to the link page on my googlepages"

Hint:You can find my googlepages account in my templates post

Then follow the instuctions
Another interesting info, we have got into the top 10,000 Tchnorati Blogs and are currently ranked
5,000
cool? .. looks like template business is gaining popularity
But we are hungry for more

Buying/Selling Links? Google May ban you from their indexes

This is true, a wake up call for all those who are earning by selling or buying links. This all those participating in Advertising Programs like Text-Link-Ads. This is an effort to stop buying Google Pagerank which is mainly based on incoming external links. The paid links reporting form is directly available in the dashboard of Google Sitemaps

How will Google punish?
A complete exclusion from Google´s SERPs is only one possible consequence of a spam report. Google might also choose to give a site a "yellow card" so that the site can not be found in the index for a short time. However, if a webmaster ignores this signal, then a "red card" with a longer-lasting effect might follow. So it's possible that Google is already aware of an issue and communicating with the webmaster about that issue, or that they have taken action other than a removal on a spam report.

Are you the first to be punished?
You can still send your Application for reconsideration

But you can still sell links by-

• Adding a rel="nofollow" attribute to the anchor tag
• Redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file

But that purely violates the Terms and Conditions of Advertising Programs like Text-Links-ads and PayPerPost, so some difficult times ahead for those who are participating in such programs.

How can you be "extremely" safe?
Follow all their Webmaster Guidelines.

Remember, some signs were seen on sites like John chow dot com when their homepage was back listed from Google Web Search for some period.

Check your back links in Live Search, Yahoo Web Search

Google recently updated its site links Google Webmaster tools{Sitemaps} which it does monthly.Not surprisingly my back links were some 1043. I had a quick look on Yahoo Site explorer results.{Backlinks 789}.


But according to Google Web Search, my backlinks range around 50 thats because Google Linking Index only displays those pages which are previously having a Page rank. I was pretty excited about viewing my back links in Live{MSN} Search. But unfortunately, Live search have disabled the old "link:" operator due to abuse of their technology and Yahoo Web search automatically redirects you to the Yahoo Site Explorer when you use "link:" operator

I received an anonymous tip in my mailbox that we can also view back links in Live Search by just changing the keywords.Have a look at this

Replace Link:webtalks.blogspot.com with webtalks.blogspot.com -site:www.example.com


Where webtalks.blogspot is your blog/site.Don't change example.com
Now view your results in Live Search and view your back links

You can also play around with Yahoo Web Search by Replacing
Link:webtalks.blogspot.com with "webtalks.blogspot.com" -"www.example.com"
Remember quotes are necessary.


Other Search Engines normally permit the "link:" operator but if you find any that doesn't leave back a comment

The riddle is Solved

Today is the day for me giving you the second hint for solving out the riddle in our first riddle contest. But the riddle was already solved by the webmaster of tech4novices 24 hours before. If you missed it, here’s how to solve it
Thecash.fino
The three repeating alphabets were from my name{Post Author}
Ashwini
Now give numbers to alphabets
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
T h e c a s h . f i n o

Now arrange these alphabets in order
5 6 7 1 3 4 2 9 10 8 11

Which Gives Ashtech.info
Cool?

But may be you lost a golden opportunity. But don’t lose heart. I will continue such contest(s). And the next being on 25th of June .So make sure you visit Webtalks on regular basis.

Now as per promise the blog review…

Tech4novices

Tech4novices,authored by Nauzer Elavia is a blog published via FTP and hosted on a custom domain.With

• Good use of Feedburner Roatating Headlines
  
• Started on May 20


• Using Minima white HTML template which suits 800 x 600 Screen Resolution
• Possibly using Google Apps.
  

Suggestions

Adsense above the posts is of half banner size. You can stretch it a bit which makes it of banner size and banners support image ads too which in turn can give better CPM{Cost Per Thousand Impressions}

On the main page of your site, there are two current posts lists[one in sidebar using the mainpage conditional tag].one is enough

Organize yourself well. On the footer of your blog, Much space is wasted between a Text link and an image. Only Creative Commons Icon will make it look better{You can shift rest to sidebar}

In my rules, I declared that only one person would be rewarded but as this was the first contest, the runner up {gets a free link} is Shiva from crazyblog

Wait-Wait this is not the end
Another special prize:

I received ~ 15 answers which pleased me so here it is your reward. You all will get a review just like the one above on special discount price. And I mean a real discount. Revieme won’t let me do reviews less than 60 $. Well I think the price is just too high
So here it is 60$- 55$ = 5 $.

I think 5 $ is a reasonable amount for a blog review{Includes link back, Adsense placement, Content..}.
But this offer is only valid till 2 July after which my Summer Break is getting over. So hurry !
I am accepting payments through paypal.{If you have a credit card but no PayPal account, you can sign up .Its free!}
So if you are interested, Click on Get Reviewed button right below, or wait some days, when I’ll put up a link the sidebar.

Webtalks Riddle Contest

Marking the 500 Technorati blog reactions, I have to give you something in return.So here it is.. my first contest.
There will be only one winner who wins,

• A free Blog review from Webtalks{Adsense postionaing,Design,Content..}
  
• A link from Webtalks{PR 3} with Anchor tag of his choice
  
• If he wants, a guest post on Webtalks

So whats the contest?

I have bought a domain from Godaddy.All you have to do is to solve the riddle below which indicates the URL of that domain.

thecash.fino

Hint:three alphabets are posted in every post

If nobody is able to solve the riddle by 13 June.Next Hint would be given

If you have solved the riddle.Go to my domain.There you will find a five digit code,Gmail it to me with your details or leave back a comment.The one who solves it first wins

Is Google the only source for your Search Engine Traffic?

SEO, everybody is running after it. But does the Search Engine here referred is only Google? In recent days, I have got lot of visitors from Google Search looking for blogging tips. My site is well ranked in Google. But my next concern was that I am getting traffic only from Google whereas my site is indexed by almost all reputed search engines like Live Search and Yahoo.

I knew that both Yahoo and Live Search gave most importance the blog age. Webtalks now is almost 4.5 months old. I knew crawlers index content when we have got in-links. An interesting observation I made that despite getting some 600 Inlinks according to Yahoo Siteexplorer, only the homepage of blog was indexed by Yahoo Search. Yahoo Search crawlers were for some reason not following links on the root page of blog.

Then I tried a method called Deep Linking.I tried to link to previous posts of mine through related links using different keywords. Also then I encouraged bloggers to link to full post URL instead of home page. Slowly it showed up. But My ranking in Yahoo Search Index was still not stable.More links, more authority, more days.... My blog finally got a stable position in Yahoo. Search and got some 13 indexed pages, also my site showed up in top spot for some keywords.

It was during this time, I got my first visitor(s) from Yahoo Search.And hopefully many in future

I don't know much about MSN search. After I tried Deep linking, I was satisfied to know that all blog posts of my blog were indexed separately.Although I'm still waiting for my first Live Search visitor.

Remember, Live Search and Yahoo Search are very widely used Search Engines. You'll always win if you have grip on these SE's too.

Related:How to get website added in DMOZ Web Directory

Using Conditional Tags with New Blogger Templates

You might have noticed a strange thing in my new template. If you visit the home page of this blog, then there aren't Adsense Ads between post title and post body but when you visit Itempage { Page with one Post }, you get an Adsense Ad rectangle between the post title and post body.




I have mentioned an introduction in Display your backlinks with New Blogger templates but now I’ll be giving you a in depth analysis of Conditional Tags in New Blogger{Blogger beta} templates

Understanding Conditional Tags
The old blogger also used to support the conditional tag ,i.e, itempage. Anything wrapped inside these tags will be displayed only on the itempage.

& now we use the New Blogger which also supports conditional tags, a bit different though
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
</b:if>

A bit complicated? We’ll make it easy.
Lets have a sample if else condition
If john studies, he passes else he fails

Now lets have a second look on the code
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
Stuff
</b:if>
We are using the if condition to command that the lines wrapped inside it would only be displayed on itempages.

We haven’t used any else tag as it would be understood as there only two kinds of pages.{item & Main}
We have also used the end tag as all tags in XML are container tags.

Now just play around with the widgets using the “if” condition. A sample widget coding for an HTML/ JavaScript Element looks like this

<b:widget id='HTML5' locked='false' title='' type='HTML'>
Stuff
</b:widget>

Now just wrap it such that it displays only on Itempages

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>

<b:widget id='HTML5' locked='false' title='' type='HTML'>
</b:widget>

</b:if>

Now the contents of this code would only be displayed in itempages. You can also switch from Item{page} to Main{page}

Based on this functionality, I have just wrapped my Adsense inside it. It looks something like this:-
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>

<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-XXXXXXXXXXX";
google_ad_width = 336;
google_ad_height = 280;
google_ad_format = "336x280_as";
google_ad_type = "text_image";
google_ad_channel = "";
google_color_border = "FFFFFF";
google_color_bg = "FFFFFF";
google_color_link = "333333";
google_color_text = "000000";
google_color_url = "6C82B5";
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>

</b:if>

You can have further reference from how to place ads between posts inside blogger xml templates to make your ad position more relevant in order to place it between post header line without any Xml errors

Display your backlinks with New Blogger Templates

Some comments,some Emails asking me how to display backlinks with new blogger templates that my site offers. By default, I have turned of "links to this post" in my templates, if you want to just make it visible {whichever template you may be using}, follow these steps..
1.Goto Page Elements Section of your Layout and then click on the link which edits your blog post widget


2.Mark the "Links to this Post"as checked.

Remember you can also drag your "Links to this post" link across your sample blog post according to your relevance


3.Save changes, and then view your template.

Again there would be a bit confusion.On the main page of your blog,there would only be a "link to this post" line after each post.

Wheras if you view only those pages with one post{Itempage}, It will also give the Post titles and link to the linking posts.This feature is used by conditional tags


in old blogger...
Itempage

in new blogger..
b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"

Another feature "Blog This" was added on 7 Jan to both new and old blogger template,by which bloggers can directly link to your post from their own blog post..

How can a small/new blogger earn instantly?

My inbox was overloading with mails from small/new bloggers asking can they make money out of their new/small blog.As we all know Payperpost requires a blog to have a decent pagerank, but that is so not possible for a blogger who has just started.


If you are one of the blogger who's site is read by a wide audience despite the fact that your Alexa score is high and PR still 0, you can still get paid for blogging by a service called Smorty.

Smorty is a blog advertising service from where advertisers can advertise on blogs via sponsored posts but pay the blogger only when they find it of decent quality .The best part is that its still a new organization, so there isn't much flooding of bloggers and competition is not that stiff as on PayPerPost.Your blog can easily make most of out it.You do a honest sponsored post, your post is approved and then money in your PayPal account.Price of an average post is 6$.That means for one sponsored post you get 6 $ within a week and you are free to use that E-money for anything you like.

Unlike Adsense,
There is no minimum paying amount which is beneficial for small bloggers who's Adsense earnings take months to reach the 100 $ mark.Another interesting thing is that your blog is approved within hours.Now no need to wait days for getting blog approved.So what are you waiting for? blog for money!

Note - Sponsored Review| To get your service reviewed..

We are looking for "Good" Writers

Hi everyone out there.Over the past few days I was burdened with my template change.I spent nearly 3 hours a day for it only.Now as it is Webtalks has got some popularity in the past few days:

-Got the Blog of the day award
-Featured at Indian Blogger List at Digital Inspiration by our very own Amit

So an idea of guest blogging suddenly ticked my mind.If you think you are an able person to write for Webtalks, come forward. You should be having a established blog and the blog post topic can be any of the following::

Internet: Burning Topics
Blogging tips/hacks
Software reviews
Web application reviews
... Any thing from the Tech Side

For participating in this guest blogging, simply leave behind your details as a comment or simply Gmail me,i.e,
Name
Blog URL
Blogging experience{passion/hobby/full time}

In return, you will get a backlink and an oppurtunity to place your Adsense ad on the main page of this blog.

Webtalks is changing

If technorati can have two design makeovers, Google simultaneously testing its Web 2.0 Design why can' your {expected} favorite blog, Webtalks have something special ? Today, 2 June Webtalks have gone through its first design makeover.

Possible Reasons

• I felt embarrassed when I used to design templates for others and keep a simple one for my blog
  
• I was terribly bored with it
  
• Sidebar continued to drop despite efforts in IE 6
  
• Too messy!
  
• My Summer break has started !

So now don't be shocked to see some mind-blowing or some rubbish{depends on point of view} things

New features added

• A rating option for each post
  
• Planned: Summarized posts
  
• IS a New blogger Xml Template.
  
• No Buggy ads between posts { in main page]
  
• A bit neat and no sidebar dropping in IE
  

Don't worry, you too can have a new blogger Xml template like this, or even more cool from here