Antigua Web Solutions Blog

Update - Google Slapped

janet — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:56:56 +0000

I’ve moved all except one of my .info BANS sites to .com domain names. I’m leaving one to see if it ever comes back. So far, after 3 weeks, it’s still de-indexed. The .com sites are all indexed and I’m beginning to get traffic and bids from them. It will be interesting to see if the .info one remaining ever comes back. Many people are saying - it’s OK they’ll come back - just keep adding content and backlinks. ALL my .info sites had content and backlinks so I really don’t see how that can make any difference and I’m not prepared to waste my time increasing them. If it takes 3 months for them to come back (as I’ve seen quoted) I’ll make more than enough to cover the cost of the new domain names in that time.
So I’m using .com domain names in the future!

Quick Update - WordBay

janet — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:41:18 +0000

Quick update on my site Cordless Tool Batteries I’ve had 9 bids to date - 7 of them winning bids

The site has been indexed with Google since the 8th May so I’m pleased with the results.

Cordless Tool Batteries is a WordPress site using WordBay WordPress plugin 0.6BETA

Quick Update - WordBay

janet — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:18:39 +0000

I’ve downloaded and installed the latest update to WordBay WordPress plugin 0.6BETA

Easiest update ever! Just needed to replace the Wordbay.php file on the server. I’m pleased to report that all the bugs found so far have been fixed. The disappearing text, the “no dollars” bug and the problem in IE with the font size. It’s working well so go ahead and give it try!

Google Slapped!

janet — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:38:44 +0000

I have: 14 BANS sites with .info domain names
8 BANS sites with .com or .co.uk domain names
4 WordPress sites pulling eBAY RSS feeds with .info domain names
2 WordPress sites pulling eBay RSS feeds with .com domain names

In the last week EVERY ONE of my BANS .info sites has been deindexed by Google. Gone completely - not even showing up for the URL. NONE of the other sites have been deindexed. So! Is Google targeting BANS sites on .info domains? it certainly looks like it to me. I had trouble a while ago getting a .info BANS site indexed at all. It sat there for nearly 3 months until I transferred it to a new domain name, was indexed last week and now BHAM! gone again.

I’m not prepared to wait 3 months to see if they all come back, I’ll invest in some .com domain names and transfer the sites.

Anyone else having the same problem?

Yet Another Way to Add eBay Listings to Your Blog!

janet — Sun, 04 May 2008 22:06:46 +0000

As usual I’ve been experimenting! WordBay WordPress plugin 0.4BETA has just been released and is free! Some features are:

1. You can write a post (page) for every auction listing, just like a normal WP page, which means you can add additional unique content easily!

2. Dynamic listing heading which reflects your country locale, which can help with SEO

3. Automatic eBay signup link for your specified locale, which means more potential sign-up commission!

4. TWO panels, fully configurable, so you can simultaneously display listings from TWO eBay locales and potentially increase earnings! (note:not available in this version - coming soon!)

5. Dynamically-generated full-search link, so if the visitor doesn’t find the item they are looking for they can be redirected straight to an eBay search page, with your affiliate code, of course!

Also:

- built in link obfuscation, to get rid of “rover.ebay” links and help prevent the “footprint” problem!
- insertion of “nofollow” into product links, to prevent link-juice leakage - eugh! - and potentially stop robots nosing around to see what you are linking to.

It was extremenly easy to set up and supports eBay’s in different countries. To set up a page of listings make a new page, insert the code [wordbay]grand piano[/wordbay] where grand piano (in this case) is your search term and you’re done!

You can refine the searches to exclude certain items e.g. [wordbay]”piano” –(stool,seat,music)[/wordbay] – this will search on “piano” BUT will exclude “stool” and/or “seat” and/or “music”.

I’ve set up a test site at Cordless Tool Batteries. I did run across one problem which has been reported to the Wordbay author. Text on pages and posts doesn’t show when the plugin is activated. Hopefully this will be fixed soon. This is a beta version so use accordingly!

I’m still undecided which is the best method to use, BANS, PhpBay, WordPress plus RSS feeds or WordBay. All of the methods have advantages and disadvantages and it’s difficult to eliminate other differences in performance e.g. the niche, the no of backlinks, age of the site, Google being Google even the time of year, to decide on the most effective method. I’ll continue to monitor the sites and see if there’s a clear winner over the long term!

update: I’m having a problem with Wordbay and my theme in Internet Explorer. It’s causing text on my sidebar to be enormous! It’s fine in firefox. I’m working on it.

How To: Make a Clickbank Mall

janet — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 13:51:10 +0000

Would you like to easily make a clickbank mall to make a few extra dollars?

I found a free script that will do just that and is super easy to set up.

What is CB Boss?

CB Boss is written in PHP and operates like a directory of CB vendors, which includes your Clickbank ID in every out-going link. CB Boss can run as a custom Clickbank catalog, as a complete website, a sub domain, or as a (catchall) 404 site.

Some CB Boss Features

File driven for easy maintenance and installation.

Runs on your own server, leaving you full control (very important).

Easy to setup and use (for most…).

Template driven for easy modifications (no tutorial yet).

Two free quality templates (Darkened View - Golden View ).

Three custom positions for your own code output (no tutorial yet).

Templated category display. Easy to modify (no tutorial yet).

A few options to tweak the script (no tutorial yet).

Great when used as a catchall site.

Free to members and membership is free.

A free database file of more than 5000 vendors to get you started.

Add custom pages and menu items. There’s no tutorial at this time.

Add custom modules. There’s no tutorial at this time.

No revenue sharing with CB Boss. You keep everything your site earns.

Cloaked or non-cloaked links.

Sales tracking as of v0.9L.

A random vendor module as of v0.9L.

Search Engine Friendly URLs as v1.2LR - SEF requires Apache’s Mod Rewrite module.

More than 300 pages of CB vendor listings - right out of the box.

Free to use.

It comes with a database of advertisers and 3 templates. I set mine up in about 5 minutes! You can see it at Download eBooks, Software and Information

I couldn’t get it to work in a sub-domain but I didn’t spend much time trying to figuring it out.

How to : Check Your Keyword Ranking in Different Countries

janet — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 17:35:32 +0000

Google results vary a lot between countries. If you’re targeting countries other than the one you’re in how do you find out here your keywords rank? You could use the individual Google sites (e.g. Google.co.uk ) or you can use Google international SERPs Top 100 Rankings Checker to do the hard work for you. It checks for your keywords in 38 countries. just as a test I put in the keywords “Antigua Web Solutions ” Here’s the results for the UK.

very hot for the keywords search … Awesome SERP ! Excellent job!!!
rank # 1 ( http://antiguawebsolutions.com/myblog/ )
very hot for the keywords search … Awesome SERP ! Excellent job!!!
rank # 2 ( http://antiguawebsolutions.com/ )
very nice for the keywords search … Nice SERP ! but not good enough
rank # 21 ( http://yourcatshopat.familypetsitting.com/antiguawebsolutions.com )
very nice for the keywords search … Nice SERP ! but not good enough
rank # 37 ( http://www.rsshugger.com/antiguawebsolutions.com/myblog )
very nice for the keywords search … Nice SERP ! but not good enough
rank # 46 ( http://www.technorati.cn/blogs/antiguawebsolutions.com%2Fmyblog )

Hmm… http://yourcatshopat.familypetsitting.com is using one of my BANS templates

Here’s a snapshot of the complete results for 38 countries results.jpg

Have fun!

How To: Get more Backlinks with Quassia

janet — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:43:07 +0000

Yet another way to get some good quality backlinks to your site!

“ Qassia is a site to which you can add your websites. You can also add your knowledge, in the form of tidbits of information called “intel“. The more intel you add, the better your sites will rank, the more backlinks you get, and the more money you make (in quassia dollars!). Qassia is 100 percent free, and does not require reciprocal links. You can get unlimited quality backlinks to your websites from Qassia.”

Each piece of ‘intel’ you write has your website address attached. It also earns you Quassia dollars. The more Quassia dollars you earn the higher your ‘intel’ ranks in Quassia and in search engines. The intel can be anything, it doesnt have to relate to your site. Your intel must be screened by other users before it is published. You also earn Quassia dollars by screening other peoples intel. Other ways to earn Quassia dollars are through referring people to your Quassia page or displaying the Quassia logo on your website. There’s also an ad sharing scheme, so Google ads displayed on your intel page will generates income if you have n adsense account.

Quassia is still fairly new but looks like it’s gaining popularity fast. Check it out Qassia and gain some backlinks to your site for free!

The links on this page are to my Quassia page as that way I earn a few Quassia dollars!

How To:Track Visitors to your Blogger Blog

janet — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:06:03 +0000

If you have a Blogger blog did you know you can use Google Analytics?

You’ll need a gmail account to get started. If you don’t have one signing up is easy at gmail sign up

Setting Up Google Analytics

On the next screen click on ‘New Tracking Code (ga.js)’ and copy the code provided.

Setting Up Your Blogger Blog

Now go to your blog and click on layout. Click on ‘add a Page Element’ and choose HTML/Javascript.

Paste the code you saved into the content box and save.

That’s it! Now you can track visitors to your blog.

How To: Spin your Articles to Avoid Duplicate Content

janet — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:29:22 +0000

Do you submit articles to publicise your site? It’s a good way of getting your web site address out there and there are lots of directories that you can submit articles to. However, if you submit identical articles not only may they be declined by the directory, if they are accepted they’re likely to be relegated to the supplemental index by Google. I know the supplemental index is supposed to be no more (according to Google) but I know it still exists!

There is a way to make 100’s of unique articles from 1 article and it’s free!

I recently tried JetSpinner and so far I’m impressed. It isn’t instant however, you can’t just copy and paste your article text, press a button, and magically transform your article. It takes some work to set it up correctly but considering you’ll be able to get hundreds of unique articles it’s really worth the time spent. Now I have the hang of the syntax (which is reasonably easy) it takes me about 30 minutes to set up a 500 word article.

So how do you spin an article?

You need to give Jetspinner alternative words, phrases, even entire paragraphs to work with and Jetspinner will randomly pick from these for your articles. You use curly brackets {} to enclose words that you want to randomise and a bar | to distinguish between words. Like this {word1|word2}. Here’s an example from an article I recently published:

The {innovative|new} features and small size {should|might} appeal to the {discerning|discriminating|keen} photograp

You can also allow Jetspinner to choose the number of words like this:

{order:, :1:3:Word1|Word2|Word3}

This will give any combination of the words returning at least 1 word and at most 3 words. One word appears as “Word1″ three words appear as “Word1, Word2, Word3″.

It’s best to leave no sentence ‘un-spun’ for a unique article!

In addition both the title and the resource box can be ’spun’ so you can have lots of unique titles to go with your article!

Once you’re article is spun how are you going to submit it to 100’s of article directories? Jetspinner’s partner service Jetsubmitter is the answer. Unlike Jetspinner this service isn’t free but they have a $1 special offer to try it out. jetsubmitter will post your article to 100’s of directories automatically. They will also sign you up with all these directories and attempt to deal with the activation required. This worked for me for the most part with only about 4 directories requiring me to take action to activate. Once signed up you can use the articles spun in Jetspinner to be submitted by Jetsubmitter. They have a long list of directories for you to choose which ones to submit to. You can also choose for your articles to be submitted over time by choosing the number of submissions daily.

What were the results of Jetsubmitter?

I found that there were quite a few failures on submitting articles due to errors with contacting the directories. Some of the directories in the Jetsubmitter database appear to be defunct. However this is a small minority compared with the number that worked. I had 1 article declined, due I think, to having no summary. Also 2 were declined as ‘not unique content’ either through my fault for not spinning my article enough or because the randomness came up with too much duplication.

I succeeded in getting nearly 200 articles accepted.

So far I have ’spun and submitted’ 3 articles so I’m eagerly awaiting results! Have fun and let me know if you have success using these services.