Trapped Ideas and Laziness » Note on Blog Hiatus Status

I’m busy saving the world (I mean my own personal world) that is why it’s been weeks since my last post and you might think I abandoned blogging, but hell no – this is not yet a zombie blog. Weather can automatically switch me on and off to lazy mode and [damn!] this rainy season puts me on hiatus status. Although, yeah I’m naturally lazy, I admit that.

Work is also eating up lots of my reserved energy and giving me a taste of hell for the past few weeks. It’s work and I already stripped myself the right to complain – because it’s my choice – but hey, I still have the right to rant and I got this blog.

Also, I got this personal project which has something to do with having my own permanent home address (that means I’m getting old and planning to settle down) and that keeps me preoccupied.

Hmmm, excuses, excuses.

I’m monetizing this blog, so I just want to post this note to let the crawlers know this blog is still breathing. For the regular lurkers here (as if there’s any, he he) I’ll do my best to pop up from time to time to share my thoughts and starting next week I want to end yodisphere’s hiatus status (**raising right hand)

You will also notice that this blog is recently focusing on travel posts. I’m thinking of making Travel as my niche but still I don’t want to get stuck on one specific subject (and Travel is quite an expensive niche), although most blog gurus are advising that a niche blog is way better for monetizing and SEO.

Trapped Ideas

Anyway, here’s the list of pending posts sleeping on my drafts folder, which hopefully I can finish before our trip to HK on midweek of July.

» Ilocos Tour Last Part – Batac and Vigan (Calle Crisologo) Tour

» Review: Ace Water Spa Pasig

» Pahiyas Festival Mobile Phone Photography

» Agawan Festival in Quezon

» Sidetrip to Kamay ni Hesus – Quezon

» My List of Top Ten Emerging Influential Blog

» Conquer Mt. Pinatubo

» Book Notes

Voila tout! - That’s all for now and I better get working.

Here I am, here I remain.

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Image Source: 

» Zen by gabrielnardelli via DeviantART: Digital Art / Photomanipulation / Surreal

Blogroll Makeover » What do you do to improve the quality of your blogroll?

When was the last time you do a blogroll makeover? Ok, when was the last time you checked your blogroll for dead links and abandoned blogs?

As bloggers, we know that a blogroll is supposed to be a collection of links to other blogs that we recommend to our readers. Therefore, the usual expectation is that, if you have a niche blog, your blogroll will link to bloggers that cover topics related to your blog, not just any random blog you happen to find cute. However, in my case I don’t consider this blog as a niche blog yet, yodisphere.com is a whatever-is-interesting Pinoy lifestyle blog, so you will find the links in my blogroll are kindda random. Those are the blogs I often visit - bloggers I met, groups I support and blogs that keep me entertained and updated.


Blogroll linking errors and etiquette

When I am on a blog-hopping mode, I find too many blogrolls became link exchanges to the point of being obnoxious. Zombie blogs usually have an annoying note on their sidebar headline saying “Link to me and I will link to you.” Of course, it is an unwritten rule in the blogosphere that if a blogger puts a link to your blog in his or her blogroll, you should reciprocate and add that blog's link in your own blogroll. Since it is unwritten, I often violate it. And I do link blogs even if they didn’t link mine: no hurt feelings. 

Bloggers who are using these link-listing strategy usually has five-page long scroll-down blogrolls – making the page cluttered and messy. I find such lists intimidating rather than inviting, and I usually ignore it – not click on the list.

I committed that link-exchange error during my early blogging years – until I happen to find my link listed beside a gay porno blog. WTF! SEO gurus say it is good for SEO. Yes, blogrolls equate to publicity and exposure across the blogosphere, but I don’t want my blog to become a copy-paste-SEO-zombie listed beside porno sites.

We approach this with our own blogging goals in mind. Sometimes I may not like a blog that links to me through its blogroll and there are many reasons why I may decide not to reciprocate a blogroll link. But as a good blogging etiquette, at least I review each blog that links to me to determine if I’d like to add that blog on my own blogroll or not.

My blogroll makeover

I lost my blogroll links during my blog transition and currently I’m looking for those blog links again. I consider my blogroll not only as reader recommendation but also as my personal weekly-sites-to-visit.

Here’s the makeover I did on my blogroll:

• Remove the long list on my sidebar (it’s like crazy long laundry list already) and transfer it on a dedicated page

• Retain a short list on sidebar (Yodisphere’s Radar) which serves as my “recommendations”

• Now, my blogroll page (via blogger pages) serves as my personal blog link list and blogs-to-visit, which could also serve as link reference for blog-hoppers.

To monitor who’s updating their blog on my blogroll and monitor abandoned blogs, I’ve added a few RSS code tweaks to show their latest post-with date and time under the blog title (you can automatically do that on sidebars via Blogger's Blog List gadget, but not on separate blogger page.) I’m thinking of doing a separate post for that trick.

Alright, that’s all for now folks! Should this blog got a space in your blogroll, let me know. 

Any blogrolling experience you might want to share? Thoughts… comments?
Do you really click on blogrolls?

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External Related Links

» What is a Blogroll and How Bloggers Use Blogrolls to Boost Traffic to Their Blogs

» It’s Blogroll Cleaning Time

» The Importance of a Blogroll

» What Type of Blog Hopper are You?

Notice: My Blog is In Transition

I recently decided to take this really cool hobby of mine into the next level - by having my .com domain without a blogspot. I really like writing about random things, and luckily, search engines are noticing it, so I thought why not get a little serious about it. I'm not really into hardcore SEO, and I'm not planning to write only for SEO. SEO-obsessed blogs tend to lose the blog's personality and credibility. Because their main purpose is to generate traffic,

they tend to do every SEO tricks available and jam their homepage with ads, links, dizzying and unnecessary widgets, etc. etc. I tagged them as "zombie blogs": alive for the crawlers, dead for the readers.

By the way, this blog is currently in transition - meaning, I'm moving from yodi967.blogspot.com to my very own domain name www.yodisphere.com which according to blogger will take two to three days. So please bear with the messy widgets and links during the transition. 

Here's the message I received from blogger:

I just hope the transition will run smoothly. I'm expecting a drop in traffic but they say it's normal.

I'm also thinking about a niche blog but currently I can't decide which specific category I'm really in so I decided settling for a Lifestyle blog in the meantime. This way I will not be limited to a specific topic.  

Well, I never thought blogging could be this fun, rewarding and educational. 

By the way, what do you think about the name of my new home "Yodisphere?" It's from my name Yodi.

I can't think of a better tagline now so I used "bringing balance to the blogosphere." But I was first thinking of using Yodisphere.com -  "the dark side of the blogosphere" to give it some character. 

Watyathink?

Horray!! I Won the Best Blog Category for the Enervon Hapontukin Contest

Wow, I guess I’m really lucky today – Friday the 13th. I thought this day will gonna be a usual boring Friday. However, when I checked the Nuffnang site, I saw my name on their latest announcement – my blog post “The Rise and Fall of the Hapontukin » 7 ½ Tips on How to Avoid Snoozing on the Job” won the Best Blog Category.

The prize – The Spa Volcanic Rock Massage. Really cool eh?

This is my second time in joining a blog contest – the first is my entry “The School of Life and My Shoes” for The Red Shoe Blog Contest. Unfortunately I failed to beat other bloggers on that one. Nevertheless, I love that post and the comments I received on that one really inspired me to write more.

I never thought blogging could be this fun – and rewarding!

Thank you Nuffnang and Enervon for the appreciation of my humble blog. Congratulations also to the other two winners – Richard & Marvin

Here’s the link to the official Hapontukin winner announcement: Hapontukin Contest Winner 

I will update this post after the mini Awarding Ceremony on August 24, 2010 at the Nuffnang Office.

The Only Sign That You Maybe A Blog Addict

Can you guess what is he blogging about?

Well, that is not me okay, I haven't gone that far. But I want to share some signs of my mild blog addiction. Here it is; 

• My google reader is constantly open on my desktop,
• Always excited to check my e-mail for new blog comments,
• I periodically dream that I am blogging,
• In order for my family and friends to keep up with what's going on in my life, they have to read my blog,
• I'm feeling a little disappointed when my favorite blog isn't updated when I expected it to be,
• I want to read more books and watch more movies for blogpost ideas.

But I think when you're blogging while taking a shit, that's a different story.

How about you, are you a blog addict?Do you believe there's really such a thing as Blog Addiction Disorder?

yodz

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Image Disclaimer: Source: Forwarded by a friend via e-mail. If you're the owner of the image please contact me.to give you credit, link it to the original source or remove it on this blog.