Time and time again in my email, I see blog posts that highlight interesting posts from other blogs on Sunday. I just took a moment to think, “How could that help somebodies blog?”. I mean sure it gives back-links to other blogs, but theirs no real benefit to doing it for yourself. Then the answer suddenly hit me.

Why Linking To Other Articles Benefits You:

2 reasons come to mind after thinking of reasons why this is good for your blog.

• The first one is that it gives your readers something to read on your blog while you think of more content to write about. You could also call it a, “A filler post” until more original stuff gets written. That way, you can choose what you link to and provide the readers with articles that are related to what you blog about.

• The second one is that being a blog owner and getting a link from other blog is unexpected and pleasantly satisfying at the same time. Obviously, when you see a new link in your blog dashboard, it only gives around 20 words where you link was used. So then the owner will likely want to see where and why his/her link was created, generating traffic and perhaps a, “Thanks for the link!” comment. I like to think that what “Goes Around Comes Around“, so it never really hurts to give it a shot.

Is there other reasons why you would post some links for your readers to read on other blogs?

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If I emailed you today and said, “I’ll give you $1000 dollars for 6 permanent links on your blog - Not on your homepage” would you accept it? That is the exact thing that happened to Darren Rowse over at Problogger.net (Story) and he declined the offer. Obviously a blog of his magnitude would not accept such a low payment for 6 life time links.

A long story short, the “Underground Text Link Seller” offered Darren $400 a link totaling $2400 and he still denied it. Anyhow, until all of us bloggers get to that stage of 6 figure blogging, we can look at the link sellers first proposal. $1000.

Pros:

• You get $1000 to spend on whatever you want! (Wooo!!!!)
• If the links are written well, people barely notice them.
• You make a estimated profit of x50 on your domain name (perhaps + hosting?)

Cons:

• Google will slap you across the face in their search engine results.
• Lower traffic because of first point, lower Alexa ranking and perhaps less advertisers.
• Shows that you can be bought for the “Right” price.

I’m actually teetering on the whole prospect just because of the numbers that are involved. Unless you actually know how to make money online with blogs, this could be a major payday that could be used to help you in all sorts of life’s situations.

Then again, they are getting the best deal on the internet because over time, the cost of that text link for the buyer decreases with each passing month. Since you agreed to the terms, it would be dishonest and negligible to take the link off or charge them more.

What would you do if the situation arrived with you and your blog?

This question has been brought up on many other websites and blogs and all have different points to ponder. For example, Jakonrath.blogspot.com says the first point is “Content Is King”, while Problogdesign.com says that “Better Looking Blogs, Grow Faster”.

My personal spin on it is that both of those blogs are right and wrong at the same time. Jakonrath is right at the fact that a large portion of how you judge a blog is the content when you actually read it. If the design is annoying with ads and the entire lot, then chances are you won’t even get to the content.

Problogdesign does fight a good argument saying that the design of a blog grow faster.. but they can’t grow fast if the content is just sponsored ads, or R.S.S feeds from other blogs. Even if the design was so unique and you WOULD not find it anywhere else… Who would stick around for another terrible post?

So I think I’ll be the first person to say that a good blog has the following:

1. A Easy-to-Use Interface & Content that is original. (Hah! 2 points in one!)
2. An uncluttered sidebar only showing what is necessary for the reader to have a better experience.
3. A Nav Bar with at least: Home and Contact links

What did I forget? Nothing in my opinion, but thats only one of the 6,798,093,473 people on earth. Whats yours - What makes a good blog?

Well its that time of year again, when the bunny will come hopping around to everyones houses and leave little chocolate eggs all around so that you can find them. So can this subject be related to the way you write articles for your website?

No it cannot. Have a good long weekend everyone. Expect to see:

• 3 useful Wordpress Plugin (As part of the series that I am writing) posts +
• A Free Weekly Website Review +
• Quality Articles - That are not forced just because of a time limit

in the next couple of days.

March break is a great time to relax and take a nice “break” from everything.

I have decided that I am going to travel in Europe for this week and hence will not be able to post as often..

I will be posting some pictures of all the great sites that I saw, just be paitent!

Thanks for understanding!!

See you later

Hello faithful, wonderful, terrific, (ahh you get the point) readers! I broke the chain of the “Unique Plugins” series to give you this special update!

After an afternoon of visiting other peoples blogs and leaving comments, I was delighted to see that my Google Pagerank went up to 2 today!(Well technically its not 2 months, since this domain was bought on the 25th of December..But that will be our little secret) It was at 0 for the longest time!!

My friend over at Datmoney.com (Jay… Some of you guys might know him) had his Google Pagerank increased to 4 recently, which he was very delighted to see as well. Not all the news was jolly for this Pagerank update, as penerjemabbashasa.com [Edit - Link was incorrect, sorry Tnerd!!] experienced a major drop (PR - 4 to a PR - 0 ). To point out that hes not the only one, He created a list of major bloggers that also experienced a drop (http://www.penerjemahbahasa.com/stories/…).

So what does this mean on a long term scale? Nothing is going to change.. Its just nice to see that Google puts a positive value towards my blog as a whole.

Now your probably thinking, “Wow.. This guy brags to much. Whats Up with him.” Not to fear, I’ve developed a history of what I’ve done to make this blog up to that ranking…

• Submitted to Link Directories under the CORRECT Categories
• Used the same name in all of my comments on other blogs (Some of which have No-Follow Removed which would help the link-Building)
• Have NOT bought links, Paid reviews, etc. (Why buy stuff, when you can do it yourself, organically)
• Created useful posts for the world to read
• Have given free weekly website reviews for 4 weeks, which often result in a link back, comment, or R.S.S Subscription

If you follow these steps, I would be very surprised if you didn’t get at least a Google Pagerank 2 because thats what I have done and have received. If you want to get higher, you’ll have to turn to another source..

Alright. You have a blog and want to make some cash. Maybe to fund your domain name + hosting, buy some ads on other websites, buy a sponsored review.. Whatever. Thats not the point here. You’ve maybe done a couple of sponsored reviews and made a little bit of money. If you would like some money for selling links, TNX.net offers just that.

The setup is ultimately complex, good luck completing the steps to get an account..

1. Visit the website and Register your information
2. Verify your email
3. Submit Your Site
4. Paste the code on your site!

If your website has half decent traffic, you should be getting your first “TNX points” (which is just as good as cash) which you can either convert to money, or use to buy other links. The coolest offer they have going right now is that they will give you 5,000 free links by following the instructions on their Digital Point Forum Post. Not bad for just getting started!!

Their referral program also offers 12.5% of all of the TNX points your referrals make, so if you don’t want to do heavy linkage on your websites, you can advertise your referral URL and make points that way.

http://TNX.net  seems to offer a lot and seem like the easiest way to get inbound links.. The only question now is.. Will they deliver?