Reaper-X » Opinion

Why forcing user registration to view a single article on forum is bad …

Reaper-X — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 09:18:17 +0000

Did you know that forcing people to register on your forum just to see a single article on your forum is bad ? If you don’t know about that already, here are the top reasons on why you should make your forum available to search engine and at the same time also allow normal visitors to read some articles on your forum without registering first …

1. Most people are just lazy, and in the end you’ll risk losing potential returning site visitors

I’ve to admit that sometime i don’t really like when i have to register a username first just to check a forum, even for a big forum that has incredibly large userbase such as Webmasterworld, but in my case that’s because i just love to read without registering first (eventhough i have automatic web-form filler in place and ready to use) although that may change depending on the forum itself (if i see lots of friendly people there, of course i’ll join the discussion too) … and you know what ? most people also think that way

2. Say goodbye to search engine, and any search engine traffic

Eventually you’ll realize that your forum can’t be found anywhere in the search engine although you have some good content in your forum that is created by your regular visitors, and that’s all thanks to your decision to prevent search engine from visiting your forum by forcing user registration

3. Forget about monetization

Although making a forum can be considered as an easy task, but paying your monthly hosting bill and other bills can not be considered as an easy task, and that’s why you should monetize your site at least to pay your monthly hosting bill and your internet bill, but because you didn’t allow search engine to crawl your forum, you just missed another opportunity to monetize your forum. Simply because even though those visitors (read: lurkers) are just reading your forum without registering, your statistics still counts. And just in case you didn’t know, those statistics can be useful especially if you’re going to monetize your forum later

Now … the question is … are you going to force user registration after thinking about it carefully ?

0x87485B96 | Tags : Opinion, Website

Microformats for casual / normal internet surfer, useful or useless ?

Reaper-X — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 18:06:24 +0000

I’ve been thinking on using Microformats on this blog for a while after reading Lorelle’s post about this topic on her blog. Although implementing microformats on wordpress theme can be considered as an easy task, but i’m just wondering whether using microformats on this blog is really that useful, considering most of this site visitors can be considered as normal internet surfer. Other than that, currently enabling microformats on your website doesn’t really give you benefit from the SEO point of view (and SEO is important to drive people to your site via search engine)

Based from what i’ve read so far, it seems that currently Search Engine doesn’t really care whether you use microformats on your site or not, and like most of you already know that most casual or normal internet users use search engine to find your site. And when i’m saying about search engine they just using normal search engine such as Google, Yahoo, Live, Ask, and some small search engine (although those big 4, plays the important part on driving traffic to your site) …

Well, I’m afraid to say that this answer is very simple. Currently microformats affect SEO the same way content on your website affects it. From a web crawlers perspective there is currently no distinguishing factor between a microformat and standard content on your website. Why is this? Well, microformats are composed of common XHTML attributes and tags of information that are used in a standardized way, therefore engines such as Google and Yahoo treat it as exactly that, standard information.

Though it may change in the future …

So the question is … do microformats useful for normal internet surfer who’s not using Del.icio.us, know nothing about Digg or similar website ? i dont think so …

0x87485B96 | Tags : Opinion, Personal

Indonesian paypal users now can withdraw funds too

Reaper-X — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 19:48:44 +0000

I just noticed today that paypal now allowed Indonesian paypal users to receive money using their paypal account (previously Paypal can only be used to send money only)

While this can be considered as good news especially to those who’s participating in online business (read: making money online), but if it’s for me … i’m still not sure if i can use that withdraw function yet

Based from the description on Paypal website, they says that you’ll need US Bank account in order to withdraw funds from your paypal account, and when they says a US Bank account, a bank account located in United States :(

As you can see from the above image, the country name can’t be changed … so that mean the withdraw paypal funds to US Bank option can still be considered as useless as for now (at least for me)

But what about the withdraw to credit card option ? … since i’m still not sure whether i can use my credit card to receive funds from my paypal account or not … i can’t really talk to much about it … my best option for now is to contact my local bank where i get my credit card, and ask them directly about it

0x87485B96 | Tags : Blogging, Opinion, Personal

Sorry folks … i’m back to using summary feeds …

Reaper-X — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:08:16 +0000

So today i just found out that some of my popular articles got scrapped again by other website, and what makes it worse is … that scrapper website is stealing this site article (although they put a link back to this site) but … with a nofollow tag attached to the link ! and of course they also use adsense to monetize their site

To be honest i do not have problem with automated content scrapper (read my site terms of use), as long as they give me credits and in this case by simply putting a link back here without the nofollow tag … simple isn’t it ?

Using automated scrapper tools, and combining it with the nofollow tag is just the same as stealing the article without giving the author a single credit plus without doing any work at all, if this site is at the same level as other big website then i don’t have problem with it simply because many people know the original source of the article (but most people simply won’t bother to click on it)

But things i hate most is … they try to monetize their site by placing adsense ads all over their page and don’t even bother to give the original author a credit

I guess that’s all for today rants, i’m going back to use the summary feeds only …

0x87485B96 | Tags : Journal, Opinion, Personal

What’s wrong with Akismet ?

Reaper-X — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 19:21:34 +0000

I just don’t understand … how come i’m as the owner of this blog / website get marked as spam whenever i tried to reply to the comment(s) posted by this site visitors …

Another case is … when i’m trying to test posting a comment to my own local server which is obviously can’t be accessed by anyone, by simply using Test as nickname, with test@test.com as it’s email address and http://test.com as the url address .. it’s still being marked as spam ! and with 192.168.3.1 as it’s ip address !

At first i thought that the ip address that i’m currently using (i’m on dynamic ip address) already marked as spammers ip by akismet, but if local ip address gets marked as spam, i’m sure there’s something more to it (like user agent detection, referer, etc)

I know that you can mark yourself as not spam, so that Akismet can learn to fix it’s mistake … but perhaps it’d be better if Akismet check if the user already logged-in or has administrative privilege and automatically bypassing the spam checking mechanism for that user

Perhaps … it’s just me … but after getting marked as spam and need to unmark myself for about 4 – 5 times today, and that’s not including yesterday … i feel kinda bored about it … beside when i gets marked as spam, i didn’t put any links on my comment

0x87485B96 | Tags : Opinion, Personal, Wordpress

Adware maker sues Anti Spyware maker

Reaper-X — Sun, 20 May 2007 02:38:29 +0000

I just never thought that Adware maker can also sues Anti Spyware maker because of their product (Spyware Doctor) helping people to solve their adware / malware problem on their computer (Full Story)

Zango Inc. v. PC Tools Pty Ltd.

5/15/2007 07-2-15844-8 CBC

Complaint for injunctive relief and tortious interference with business expectancy. The plaintiff’s software, which “has been consensually installed by millions of users,” is being destroyed by the defendant’s “Spyware Doctor Starter Edition” application. The application does not give users specific warning that Zango’s software will be deleted. The defendant’s product has been distributed as part of a “Google Pack” of software tools, causing the plaintiff “irreparable harm.” The plaintiff seeks at least $35 million in damages – via Spamnotes

They says that Spyware Doctor does not give users specific warning that Zango’s software will be deleted ?

Based on my experience when repairing or configuring someone else computer. I always ask them first if they want me to configure the anti spyware / antivirus product to automatically delete all kind of threat without warning / prompting the user first … all of them are saying “Yes” to that question … and i think you can guess why

But this ??? …. well … i think i’ve said enough ;)

0x87485B96 | Tags : Computer Security, Internet, Opinion, Personal, Tech News

Do what you love and money will follow you ?

Reaper-X — Fri, 18 May 2007 19:11:20 +0000

Lately i’ve been thinking about this after i read Problogger review with Gina Trapatani recently. And here’s what Gina Trapatani said in her review with Problogger :

What tips would you give someone just starting out in blogging if they wanted to build a profitable blog?

First, pick a topic you love, one that you can’t wait to write about every day. If I wasn’t truly obsessed with productivity, I would have never lasted at Lifehacker. Second, center your site on the reader, not yourself. Provide useful, informative, entertaining material that readers will come back to over and over again. Third, measure your success by your readership and the response you get from others, not your Adsense checks. Once you build your audience, the money will follow

And because i always interested looking for another opinion about this, i tried searching for similar keywords using Google and came across an interesting post about this :

Mark Albion cites a study by Srully Blotnick :

A study of business school graduates tracked the careers of 1,500 people from 1960 to 1980. From the beginning, the graduates were grouped into two categories. Category A consisted of people who said they wanted to make money first so they could do what they really wanted to do later after they care of their financial concerns. Those in category B pursued their interests first, sure that the money eventually would follow.

What percentage fell into each category?

Of the 1,500 graduates in the survey, the money-now category A’s comprised 83 percent or 1,245 people. Category B risk takers made up 17 percent, 255 graduates.

After 20 years, there were 101 millionaires in the group. Only one came from category A, 100 from category B

Found at John Kwarsick Blog via George Ambler Blog

And after finished reading it (including it is moral story lesson), i think the above story has a truth in it because most successful (if not all) bloggers i’ve ever seen, does the same thing too on their blog. They think about their site visitors first not the money

0x87485B96 | Tags : Blog, Blogging, Journal, Opinion, Personal

Matt Cutts Blog got hacked ? Fact or Fiction ?

Reaper-X — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 09:11:58 +0000

Well .. It seems that i can’t trust anything which is flowing around the internet for today .. even if it comes from trusted source from Apple buying Sony, Google going bankrupt, Webmasterworld placing adsense ads on them, Matt Cutts Blog got hacked, and more

But which one is giving me the truth ? about Webmasterworld placing adsense ads .. well .. if WMW truly placing adsense ads on their website .. i do not really care about it simply because i did not see those ads. So i think it’s not really a big deal for me

As for Google going bankrupt and Apple buying Sony Corporation .. hm .. everyone knows that it’s a fake. Simply because there’s no way Apple are going to buy Sony even if there’s someone says that Microsoft are going to buy Sony .. i still can not trust them .. and i’m sure you already knew the reason

Now what about Matt Cutts Blog got hacked by Black Hat SEO team ? it’s really hard to tell the differences if it were true or not. But in my own opinion, the Matt Cutts blog are hacked. Because every page of matt cutts blog are showing the same defaced message from the Black hat seo team. Even someone at Webmasterworld are saying the same thing

Screenshot :

Beside if it were true if Matt are playing april fools, i’m pretty sure that he doesnt want to leave link to the black hat seo team (or he’s using the nofollow tag on the link) .. and so the conclusion is Matt cutts blog got hacked

Well .. i do not know what is the actual problem is, but if it’s not an April Fools and Matt already back and i’m interested on reading his post about this hacking for sure

0x87485B96 | Tags : Hackers, Hacking, Internet, Opinion, Personal

Three out of every four Blogspot URL’s were spam

Reaper-X — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 14:37:16 +0000

Now this is a good reason on why you shouldn’t choose Blogspot to blog if you’re serious about blogging :

Three out of every four unique Blogspot.com URLs that appeared in the top 50 results for commercial queries were spam, the study said. Blogspot is the hosting site for Google’s blogging service. Blogs created for marketing purposes are sometimes referred to as splogs

Also, one domain – topsearch10.com – hosted many other redirection domains that were responsible for 22 percent to 25 percent of the spam detected during the researchers’ tests, the study said – Full Story

If you’re serious about blogging without thinking about anything else maybe you should consider using free wordpress.com service rather than blogspot because of their strict spam policy, other than that they also restrict you to put ads on your website (i know there would be different opinion about this but if you’re really serious, you should try to get a domain name and get real webhosting instead) or using any redirection technique which results in less spam

0x87485B96 | Tags : Blog, Blogging, Internet, Opinion, Personal

Is it necessary to use Adsense click tracking program ?

Reaper-X — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 12:28:29 +0000

I think most of you have already heard about various site which is using adsense as their monetization source getting banned from Google adsense because Google suspect them of click fraud activity even though they’ve done nothing wrong although only God knows who’s telling the truth. And because of it, there are various site that’s offering service to track your adsense click, or if you really care about privacy or dont want to share your adsense click info, you can also use open source adsense tracking program called Adlogger

But is it necessary for you to use those services or using various adsense tracker script out there ? if it’s for .. the short answer would be .. no, it’s not necessary to use click tracking software or services for adsense. But why ?

If you’re installing the adlogger to track your adsense clicks :

It’s not accurate even if you use Google Analytics to track your adsense click with the help of a javascript. It’s not going to report the actual stats, and only Google know about your detailed adsense statistic even for the click fraud activity if there’s any

Why it’s not accurate ?

There are various forum topic about this, and here’s what they said about adlogger :

From Webmaster World – 16 February 2007 :

Adlogger is kinda useless. First in firefox if you go over the ads it count 1 click. Also its no very compitable with ie7 and hundreds of other bugs
In firefox a “hover” counts a click

From DigitalPoint Forums – 11 March 2007 :

Adloger is worthless…i wouldnt bother with it. It doesn’t track clicks it tracks mouse position over your adsense code

And the conclusion is adlogger also counts mouse hover a click. But don’t get me wrong, adlogger can be useful for you especially if you want to block specific ads from appearing on your site by adding the url that’s displayed on your adlogger statistic into your Google Adsense account under Competitive Filter List. And this could be useful to block those MFA (Made for Adsense) site

The alternative way to automatically generate various MFA site for you to use by one click is by using AdsBlackList

What about various 3rd party site that’s offering to track your adsense clicks ?

Although i’ve never used 3rd party click tracking service for my adsense ads, personally i do not recommend you to use them. Because if you use it, they can also track which keyword is best on your site. And in the end you just help them to make more money. So in this case i’d suggest you to use adlogger instead. But this is just from my own opinion

Is there any good adsense click tracker script out there ?

I do not know much about this, but from my point of view there’s no need to really track your adsense ads. Just leave it to Google (trust them in this case), beside there’s nothing you can do if you’re clicking on your adsense ads and got banned from Google Adsense or violating adsense guidelines .. and you might also interested on reading this topic from Webmaster World about click fraud

Other than that you also might be interested on reading this topic from Google adsense Help Center

0x87485B96 | Tags : Google, Google Adsense, Income Sources, Making Money, Opinion