MediaWiki (the software behind Wikipedia) has a similar feature called Random Article. Visitors can click this link and be taken to a totally random page, which means they will spend more time on a wiki.

I have taken this concept and made a basic implementation in WordPress. Just click the "Random Article" link on the navigation bar, above, and try for yourself.

How I did it…

In all, it took me about 10 minutes to go from idea to actual functionality, in 3 simple steps. Here's what I did…

Step 1: Create a Page Template
Firstly, navigate to your theme's files (under wp-content/themes/THEME_NAME). Create a new, empty PHP file called random.php.

Now, just write/copy this code into the file:

<?php

/*

Template Name: Random Article

*/

query_posts('orderby=rand&showposts=1');

the_post();

header('Location: '.get_permalink());

?>

This small PHP script does two things. Firstly, it gets a random article using query_posts and loads the post information. And then, it redirects the user to the location of the article. I have used the permalink URL to redirect the user to the article.

The "Template Name: Random Article" allows us to create a new page using this template.

2: Create a New Page

In WordPress, go to Write, and then click Page. In title, write "Random Article". This will create a URL (permalink) which we can use to execute our script. For this blog, it is http://making-the-web.com/random-article/.

You do not need to enter anything in the content box.

(Press Save, if you haven't done so already)

3: Place Your Link
You can now place a link to the random article page anywhere in your template files. If you show a list of pages, the Random Posts page will show up there. And, it's that simple.

Note: If you do not want to have the page show up in the list, append this code to your theme's functions.php file:

function __random_list_pages_excludes($exc) {
global $wpdb;

$pageIdQ = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT id FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_name = 'random-article'");

array_push($exc, $pageIdQ);
return $exc;
}

add_filter('wp_list_pages_excludes', '__random_list_pages_excludes');

I hope to release a plugin soon which will add this function, rather than having to modify theme files. Please let me know how you got on with this…

There hasn't been any major changes to my sites. The only difference that I have noticed is PageRank for articles that I've written since the last updated.

How are you feeling after the update?

In just 10 years, Google has dominated search, become the most visited website, and become the top global brand.

It seems everyday that they are introducing a new service or technology to dominate even more areas. Chrome nicely set Google up in the web browser market. Android is another step towards connecting Google's services and users - at any time, on their mobile phones. They have even extended AdWords to implement ads on television.

I am constantly using Google whenever I'm on the internet. Since January, 2007, I have made over 23,000 searches. How many searches have you done? (I got this stat from Web History)

I am looking for a writer who is willing to write useful and relevant articles for Making the Web, alongside myself. I am willing to pay up to $10 per article, subject to quality, relevancy and popularity.

If you would like to write for Making the Web, about website development, then please contact me for more information or if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Brendon.

In this article, I'll be discussing ways to increase the number of readers for your blog…

Is your writing engaging?

Express your opinion. Ask questions. Be critical.

Your blog should be full of your opinion. If you have an opinion about a topic, write about it, and make it clear! Most of the time, readers will come back because they like you, more than they like your content.

Do readers have an opinion, too? Yes, they do — and that's why you should ask questions. Questions, direct or indirect, will get readers thinking and they become more engaged in your article. Who knows, they might even leave a comment!

Talk to your readers

When a reader leaves a comment, comment back and maybe send them an email directly. That personal touch is what gives you that little bit extra. For a reader, there's nothing more frustrating than thinking: "Did he hear me? Is he going to write back? Does he even like me?"

Look at an article on Inside AdSense. So many comments and questions, but not one response. You'd think a company as big as Google could go to the expense of at least one comment. The only reason we subscribe is because it serves us with useful information, not because we like the writers.

Show off your work…

…and take the criticism.

Whatever you do, there will be at least one person who doesn't like it. Don't ignore this person. This person is significant: they are telling you there's room for improvement. 1 comment may represent the views of 100 other readers.

We can never satisfy the needs and wants of 100% of everybody, but we can try our best to approach this figure. Listen to the critics, and improve your writing and your blog to satisfy them (within reason, of course).

A little bonus

This one isn't really as significant as the others, but can help in a little way. If you use WordPress (which you probably do), you can use one of my plugins, Thank Me Later, to send a "thank you" email to readers when they comment. This has the benefit of "pulling back" one-time readers, and will prompt readers to engage further.

Google Chrome by default

Google said they were going for simplicity, and that's what they provided. Google Chrome is a 100% clean and not-needed-not-implemented browser. I can't help but think that it's too simple, though. Under "Options", there are few settings that can be changed. There seems to be no option to disable Javascript or images! There is also no support for plug-ins or add-ons, though I suspect this will be implemented in the future.

I do like the "Most visited" page that comes up when you open a new tab. It offers quick access to some of your favourite websites, without having to put them on a bookmarks toolbar. And I also like the "incognito" window which allows you to browse without storing browsing history or cookies.

Oh, and closing the last tab seems to close the whole browser, a behaviour which seems crazy to me (???)

Here's a video from Google:

What are your thoughts?

The guys at Google seem to be focusing on security and robustness: "By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites"…

…And performance: "We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers"…

…And simplicity: "We designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple"…

…And cross-platform availability: "We're hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too".

When available, you should be able to download the BETA version here: http://gears.google.com/chrome/.

Ad Manager is a powerful, and equally complex application. It allows you to set-up ad slots and placements, manage orders for them, and display sales and performance reports. Correctly used, it can help you get the maximum revenue from your site's ads, and will automatically compete with AdSense to get you the best price.

The application allows you to set-up ad-slots, and package them in placements for advertisers. I'm particularly interested in "targeting", the ability to specify criteria for an ad's audience. This includes targeting visitors by geography, browser and language, and by custom criteria:

The "orders" tab allows you to take and manage orders, and check availability. "Check Inventory" allows you to determine whether your site can satisfy the number of impressions ordered.

Overall, the service is pretty much a hybrid between AdWords and Analytics and the interface is easy enough to get used to. I'd recommend you give it a try, even if you don't actually use it live. Check it out! There a nice video which will teach you the basics.

Sending a "thank you" email to contributors is highly effective, as it reminds them of your blog and their relationship with the blog (however small that may be). It is especially useful for attracting "one time" users - those who read and post one comment, without subscribing to or re-visiting your blog.

Previously, there have been plugins which would send an email to the user instantly. While these were somewhat effective, they are often dismissed or ignored. It's highly unlikely a reader will visit your blog again just a few minutes after they left.

Thank Me Later sends a thank-you email in the future. So, for example, if a reader left a comment on your blog today, they would receive an email tomorrow. Because the "thank you" is sent later, the user is more inclined to see if there have been any updates or follow-ups. It also removes the "automated" feel from the process.

I believe Thank Me Later could increase the number of readers to your blog, and prompt readers to become more engaged in discussion.

The plugin features:

• Static and dynamic customisation of the from, subject and message fields,
• Option to choose when to send the message in seconds, minutes, hours, days and weeks.
• Option to limit how many time a user receives a message. Can be set to send emails to first-time contributors only,
• Option to limit how often a user is sent an email. For example, once every day, week, month, etc,
• Ability to use variable tags and PHP-code to create personal messages.

Please give it a try and tell me what you think. Download Now.

-Brendon.

Planning

You might remember all those years ago at school, that planning was essential for any essay or piece of writing. Well, a blog article is also a piece of writing, and don't forget it! It is greatly beneficial to jot down all your notes about an article, and link them together, organise them, splice them, or even remove them.

Using this method may seem useless to some people, but it does work. Primarily, plans are not there to record information, but rather get you thinking about it. And, the more you think about articles, the better they will become.

Language

Language is a very complex concept. Just like any other writers, bloggers are judged on their ability to use and manipulate language. Your writing should be interesting and engaging, as well as informative. Read through your articles with an open-minded view to judge quality. Getting a second opinion is great, as it removes the possibility for "quality blindness" from the writer.

Getting the balance between informal and formal language is important. For most blogs, writing should have a sense of informality to make the writing more personal and "chatty". This should not, however, inhibit the article's ability to be useful and informative.

Strongly expressing your own opinion in articles is essential. It gives argument to the writing, and therefore engages readers and leads to discussion and debate.

Punctuation is a powerful part of language, and can completely change meaning in a piece of writing. If you don't get punctuation 100% right, your sentences will be ambiguous and reading becomes very difficult. If you feel you don't use the semi-colon, colon, dash, or even simpler marks as often or as correctly as you should, you should learn now. A reader recommended Eats, Shoots and Leaves, a fantastic book on punctuation.

(Oh, and using a spelling and grammar checker can identify many mistakes.)

It seems they have "copied" Feedburner to feedburner.google.com (this happened some time ago, which I didn't know), and made some improvements. You can now "manage" your feeds from AdSense (in the manage tab), so you can change your feed ads using the same-old interface (for better or for worse). The improvement I like is the graphs similar to Analytics, rather than the plain-old vertical bars:

So it looks like we FeedBurner users will soon be switching to "Google's" Feedburner.

I've checked out the AdSense for Feeds feature, and it is quite customizable: You can change the frequency of the ads (every 2nd post for example), position (top/bottom) and only show ads on posts which are longer than 50, 100, 250 or 500 words.

Although I will probably never use them, I think it's good that Google have integrated feed advertising directly with AdSense.

For a while, I've been looking into ways to get the community involved with contributing to Making the Web. I respect that readers will rarely contribute unless there is something in it for them (quite rightly). Well, with a lot of tweaking and modification of WordPress and various plugins, I've created the perfect solution:

You contribute to Making the Web, and I'll give you a share of the advertising revenue

All you need is a Google AdSense account…

OK, so this is what you need to do:

1. Register an account with MTW
2. Login with your username and password and go to your profile.
3. Under "Extra Fields", enter your Google AdSense publisher ID. This is the one that starts with pub-. Click Update.
4. Write quality articles for Making the Web.

Your articles are subject to review. AdSense ads on the single post page will be rotated between MTW's publisher ID, and the author's ID. The author's ID will be shown 50% of the time*

* Until February 2008 the author's ID will be shown at least 75% of the time!

There is no limit to how many articles you can write, and you can even re-publish useful articles from your blog.

Terms:

• Articles must be useful and relevant. Making the Web may remove any article it deems unsuitable.
• You must own your content and it must be original. You may not re-post content unless you own it.
• If you are re-posting content from your blog, we recommend you remove the article from your blog first. Although this is not required, it avoids a quality article becoming "just another" copy.
• We do not share revenue, rather we share advertising space. We only rotate the Google AdSense ads. Other forms of revenue (form Text Link Ads and other services) are not shared.
• You agree that Making the Web, or I, have no legal duty towards the service or scheme. We reserve the right to change or cancel the service or scheme at any time, with or without prior notice.

Your ads are never shown to you while you are logged in to your MTW account.

If you own a website or a blog, you can also add your own website to the system, and your hits will be counted on the homepage, and your very own map. This is the code you'll need:

<a href="http://www.populatetheweb.com/"><img width="50" height="50" src="http://www.populatetheweb.com/populate.php?b=3&s=_YOURSITE_" alt="Who's Populating The Web?" border="0" /></a>

Replace _YOURSITE_ with the web address of your site, excluding http://www. Once you've done that, live hits will be displayed on the "global" map, and you can access your individual site map via this URL:

http://www.populatetheweb.com/who_populates_map.php?s=_YOURSITE_

Again, replace _YOURSITE_ with your URL. It's a great service, and I'm sure you'll have lots of fun with it…

The first change you'll notice is the header. Instead of just a solid colour (previously green), I have decided to buy a suitable stock image. This is the first time I've ever used stock photography in any website, but I hope to use it more often - it is easier, more than sufficient, and reasonably cheap.

I have also tried to eliminate the green colour from the website. Although green seemed like a good choice to begin with, I saw it as uglier every time I looked at it. Green also seems to be quite inconsistent across different displays.

And apart from a few font size and colour changes, that is pretty much it. Please tell me what you think, and tell me of any recommendations you may have.

After having limited success with selling bitfilm.net, the domain for the older Making the Web, at Sedo, I have listed the domain on NamePros. Although the domain has deteriorated in ranking and popular due to some "neglect" since moving domain, it still receives up to 180 pageviews and 89 visitors per day with the existing articles on the blog.

The domain brings in about $65 per month with Text Link Ads, and has some popular articles. The homepage is currently PR 2 (due to moving domain), but some articles have OK ranking: 1 at PR4, 2 at PR3, 3 at PR2 and 3 at PR1.

I'm sure that this blog can continue earning with Text Link Ads and other advertising networks, and with a little bit of effort can regain its previous popularity and ranking. Prior to moving to making-the-web.com in March, bitfilm.net had a PageRank of 5 with some articles having PR of 6, 5 and 4.

I'm selling the domain in an auction, starting at $250. Articles currently at bitfilm.net can be purchased at $20 each, if the buyer would like to use the domain for the same purpose.

If you are interested in buying bitfilm.net, please see the NamePro's auction.

If you have any questions about the domain, please leave me a comment or contact me.

Also unfortunately, it is too often that these websites have a wonderful design and great content, and have a designer who has been considerate at every stage. I believe these websites should be known by everyone, and I will be bringing articles about unique and great websites in the "Great Unpopular Website" series. Number 1…

I found this website a couple of days ago, while playing a game called Doeo. This is the website of a musician who makes music with his face, and provides some wonderful soundtracks to the game Doeo (Look at "We Filled Nora" on the listen page).

But, the reason I am voting for this website is because it has a very unique design which made me shout "Wow!" as soon as I opened it*. I was surprised to find out that the website has a page rank of just 2, and no rank from Alexa.

* Metaphorically, of course

Although PageRank is updated every 3-4 months, or so, Google pretty much uses day-by-day statistics to generate "internal PageRank." This can not be seen by anyone, but does impact result page placement for specific keywords. I have noticed some improvement with these techniques, and expect to see more in the long term.

Backlinks

One of the main factors in determining your PageRank is to look at the PageRank for your backlinks. There are three general rules for estimating PageRank:

• 4 PRx backlinks will give you a PageRank of (x-1)
• 19 PRx backlinks will give you a PageRank of x
• 101 PRx backlinks will give you a PageRank of (x+1)

So, for example, 4 PR5 backlinks should theoretically give us a PageRank of 4. Of course, this is just a rough figure, and we'll never be able to tell how Google truly calculates PageRank.

Step 1: Get Natural Backlinks

Natural backlinks tend to have PageRank ranging between 0-4. This generally allows many pages, commonly blog posts, to achieve PR3 or PR4, with the homepage PR4-5. To get higher ranking backlinks, your content has to be of high quality and you site must be quite popular.

Pages which naturally get huge numbers of backlinks are called linkbait. To be linkbait, an article or content should be written by a unique point of view and be valuable information. This isn't really the time or place for a guide on how to write linkbait, so I'll leave that to someone else.

Step 2: Trade Links

One method of getting backlinks is to trade links with other webmasters. This is where you ask a webmaster to link to your webpage, if you link to theirs. The best thing is the fact that it is free, and all you have to do is ask. In the past, I've been "afraid" of asking for link exchanges, despite many websites being happy for such a scheme. Generally it is a win-win situation, but having too many exchanged links may have negative effects.

If you are thinking about asking, or have been asked, to trade links, then you have got to judge whether you will benefit. Their page should have a decent PageRank which is not extreme to your PageRank. For example, if your page was PR6 and theirs PR3, it would not be beneficial to exchange.

Trading links can also bring some good quality traffic to a page, so it is best to negotiate a good link positioning and only trade with sites on the same topic, and with a similar point of view and similar content.

Step 3: Buy Links

Another way of getting backlinks, which Google doesn't like, is to buy links from services such as TNX (aff) and Text Link Ads (aff). Although many people express their concerns about these services, they are pretty much safe in my point of view. Your link that is sold through TNX or Text Link Ads will have absolutely no associated with the two companies, meaning Google should never find out. So, in my view, it is worth the extremely minimal risk (if you have the money).

On the other hand, buying links might not give you the return you wanted. Some links can be expensive and offer little advantage to you. Traffic is a by-product of buying links for PR, so be sure you link has good placement. I would only buy links as a last resort, so be careful and do make rash decisions.

Step 4: Make your own luck

Many websites present the opportunity to link back to your site, often passively. The best examples are blogs and forums, where you can usually provide your website address.

Many blogs allow you to link your name to your website in comments, and you may occasionally have an excuse to place a link in the actual comment itself. These links often have impact on your PageRank and can bring a little traffic.

With forums, you can link to your site from your profile and in your signature. I believe this is less effective than blog comments, but it can still contribute to your PageRank.

These links may contribute to your PageRank. They will not affect PR if they are no-follow, so it is worthwhile to make sure they do follow before using any of your effort. SearchStatus for Firefox will tell you straight away whether links follow or not.

Step 5: Get Links from .gov and .edu Sites

PageRank is a measure of importance, so it makes sense to weigh official links when generating PageRank. .gov and .edu pages are highly regarded by Google because they are associated to the government, and education.

HMRC.gov.uk has a PageRank of 7, apparently with 64 inlinks. ProBlogger, a non-official website, has PR 6, with nearly 40,000 inlinks.

It is very difficult to get natural links from these official websites, as many of us have little association with the government. However, a lot of blogs, particularly from universities, exist with these extensions. Leaving comments, linking back to your site/page*, on these blogs can be very useful. Try searching with these queries for blogs, forums and guesbooks:

• site:edu inurl:blog computer security - replace "computer security" with a relevant topic.
• site:edu "powered by wordpress"
• site:edu inurl:forum
• site:edu guestbook

Replace edu with other extensions, such as gov, gov.uk and other international variants.

* By "linking back", I do not mean spamming. Just have your name link in comments, or reference and link to your page when relevant to the content.

See my notes in step 4 about no-follow links.

Let's get started

Thank you for reading. Lukily, Making the Web doesn't use no-follow links, so you can start with step 4 and leave a comment. Have you got any other ideas or suggestions? I'd like to hear them…

I've written this article to share the most common legalities which I have encountered. As I am in the UK, most of this article will be about the UK legal system.

1. Data Protection

The Data Protection Act is often oversimplified and misunderstood by many people.

You should have a privacy policy on all your websites, linked from every page. The purpose of the privacy policy is to tell users how you are collecting and using their information. This is essential as the DPA states that individuals are entitled "to be informed by any data controller whether personal data of which that individual is the data subject are being processed by or on behalf of that data controller". Look at section 7 for an idea of what you need to include in your policy.

Another important obligation of the act is to notify the Information Commissioner before processing personal information. Although this is important, many people do not notify and may be subjected to criminal charges.

2. Copyright

Copyright is a big and sensitive issue. I have been in a few situations of finding my content on other blogs and websites, without my permission and with no acknowledgement.

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, in the UK at least, means all literature, music, film and works of art are protected by law. Legally you need permission to use any copyrighted material (Permission can be granted personally, or through a general license). Most web content creators find it acceptable to let others re-use material (such as articles from blogs) as long as it is clearly acknowledged.

A copyright notice is never required, but is a good idea.

3. Disability Discrimination

Websites should be accessible to disabled users, in the same way that business buildings must be accessible.

Although it doesn't mention websites and services specifically, the Disability Discrimination Act does state that any "provider of a service" must ensure the service is accessible to disabled people, within reason.

You should make sure your website is accessible to those with visual or aural impairment, and to those who use alternative forms of navigation without the mouse or keyboard. You should aim to meet the guideless of the Web Accessibility Initiative's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

I hope that you've been inspired by the legal side of website development, and take actions to meet them in every aspect. If you've ever been on the wrong side of the law, please let me know.

I've just noticed that Google's PageRank seems to have been updated again. Overall, I'm OK with the updates. This is how it has worked out for me:

making-the-web.com has gone from PR 0 to PR 3.

file-encryptor.com has gone from PR 3 to PR 4.

And, bitfilm.net has gone from PR 3 to PR 2, since the blog moving domain.

Are you happy with you're PageRank changes, or have you seen an unexpected PR change on the internet? Please leave a comment…

Three founders are past employees of Google, and it appears they want to compete with the search giant. However, with its unintuitive interface, lack of features and search preferences, and constant errors, Cuil is unlikely to succeed - at least not today.

Although the homepage looks just like another search engine, the way results are presented is totally different:

It may be unique and original, but, put simply, I don't like it! It just looks too congested and it takes the element of simplicity that should be in every search engine.

What do you think?