Posted 4/30/08 - Kellex

Is it really possible? It sure is! Our NBA blog, Le Basketbawl, just received its first Google PageRank today after the updates took place and Google stuck us with a 5! This is a very exciting time for us and we were wondering when all the hard work we put in would pay off. Well folks, today would be that day.

You’ll probably notice that the first post on the site was back in December of 2007 which may bring you to the question of “How the hell do you figure less than 2 months?” Well our blog started in December but the actual switch to the domain of lebasketbawl.com didn’t’ happen until 3/10/08. Basically when a blog switches domains, it is starting back at zero. (Our friends over at ReclinerGM.com know what I’m talking about.)

How did we manage this feat? Love your topic.

Le Basketbawl is definitely our baby. This was the first blog we started and will always remain our #1 priority as we’ve watched it grow without knowing a single thing about the blog world. When we started this blog back in December, we were looking to jump into the blog world to let our opinion out on the sport we’ve followed since we were children and to hopefully make a few dollars from it. Basketball truly is a passion to us, and I think it shows through the work we’ve put out there. So if you ask us the main reason we’ve seen success and received this PageRank, I’d have to attribute that to actually owning the topic of the blog and putting real ideas and love into it.

What else did we do? Content my friends.

I think you've all been drilled enough with "comment, comment, comment" and that's fine because we aren't going to tell you that we are comment pros. In fact, we rarely commented on other basketball blogs except the ones we had become friends with. What we spent most of our time on was writing great content. Many of our early posts hit the big time by making SI.com's Extra Mustard or Yahoo's Ball Don't Lie. (Ex: 60% of NBA Players are Broke After 5 Years) By making these heavily trafficked sites, we gained a ton of exposure that carried us through and onto this nice ranking with plenty of high ranked linkbacks from more than a few major sites.

And then...? Links and Blogrolls.

Being brand new to the blogging world, we didn't actually know what a PageRank was and how we were supposed to obtain one. We read the rumors on the effects of a blogroll killing your PR and then ignored them. Our blogroll is actually quite large and from what we know now, Google did not penalize us for it. We may have more outgoing links than SEO pros would ask for, but Google didn't seem to mind.

Our goal was to get every NBA blog out there to recognize that we were linking to them and hope they would return the favor. Since we decided we didn't have time to comment like crazy, we went with the link or blogroll method. We also ran a daily post titled "LINKBAWL" that was your regular old link list but still let other blogs out there know that we existed and we were reading their material.

Finally? Domain time!

We'll have to assume that the final switch to our own domain really impressed Google. We had lebasketbawl.blogspot.com for 3 full months and never saw a thing happen with our rank. Then we switched, and within 2 months we had a rank of 5! For a site the size of Le Basketbawl, and the fact that it was our first attempt at blogging, we must have made some pretty good moves.

Building a blog and achieving that decent PageRank is not rocket science people. These other money making, marketing, or SEO blogs will tell you it is, but I think we've just proven them wrong. If you really take the time to write great and meaningful content, you will be just fine.

Posted 4/29/08 - Kellex


The Player:

Triviality of Basketball


The Stats:

Alexa: 994,468
Compete.com: N/A
Google PageRank: 2


The Niche:

A NBA basketball minded blog that looks into the triviality of the sport by asking some very entertaining questions.


The Story:

Triviality of Basketball is a very entertaining NBA basketball blog run by a 17 year old from the Philippines. This is also an NBA blog I was unaware of until Melvin, the author, approached me. You can tell from reading one paragraph of his work that he truly loves the game. Isn't that something we hear over and over again about the success of a blog? You must genuinely love or be passionate about your topic?

Well the Triviality of Basketball is definitely about love and passion. Melvin looks at the game the way I try to at Le Basketbawl. Rather than reporting average recaps and box scores, he takes a game and forms a questions from it to keep his readers answering. He also takes the time to form original thought that you won't see many places around the NBA's blog-o-sphere. I will always gives "props" to a blog run by a young and driven entrepreneur that will do whatever it takes to succeed.

I have two simple critiques for this blog and that would be for Melvin to watch his grammar just a little closer. At times, you can tell he is young and has not yet completely owned the English language. (Not that we are all grammar pros here!)

The other thing would be for him to purchase his own domain. Right now Compete.com is registering blogspot.com's numbers instead of his actual numbers. (Plus, advertisers tend to shake their heads at blogspot.com or wordpress.com addresses.) I can see the work he has put in, and making the switch earlier will save him much time and anxiety.

Overall, this kid has got a lot of great ideas and skills that should make Triviality thrive. I can't wait to see where Melvin will be in a year from now! Please stop by and drop him a comment; his threads live by reader participation!


Remember to order your free blog or product reviews from the Sports Dollar today! This service may not be free much longer suckers!

Posted 4/28/08 - Kellex

As many of you know, we ran a post on Saturday called “A Blogger is Like…” which we thought was a great idea to get some involvement on the blog and shell out some links to participants. Well, the post started out great and we saw immediate reactions from people so we threw it up on Digg to see how it would do. Sure enough, it took off and within the first couple of hours was Dugg over 40 times, so we shouted it to friends and the thing started growing even more. (Stumble Upon too, which was actually an added bonus.) Before long we had a ton of comments that we added to the post, we shelled out some links and then Sunday arrived.

I woke up after a night full of IPA’s and noticed it was up to around 80 Diggs and wasn’t really growing anymore. I thought, “Oh well, if it doesn’t make the front page it was still a lot of fun!” However, once I looked at the comments on the actual Digg thread, I saw a comment from another user.

“Someone trying to make a buck by getting Dugg. Buried as blogspam.” -Rotzooi

In other words, we were crashed by a Digg elitist. You know what I mean by that? You know the guy that doesn’t actually have a blog or any of his own work, but thinks he’s really special because he’s Dugg over 1500 stories. After all, he can tell quality because he reads Digg all the time!

So instead of this reaching the main page of Digg and growing our participation and everyone having a ton of fun with this post, it was buried as “blogspam.” I love internet/Digg elitists that can destroy another person’s work by a couple of clicks of their mouse. It’d be one thing if these types had their own blogs or websites with quality content so we could at least give them a little credit as a critic or understand if they didn’t like our work, but for someone to shoot down a piece like this just because it is from a blogger is absurd.

The tip of the day…don’t rely on Digg…EVER. You should always work on building long term traffic rather than making the front page of a social networking site to get a quick blast of visitors.

And of course, this is going on Digg. (I guess I’ll just hope they don’t “John Chow” us and ban us for life!)

Posted 4/27/08 - Kellex

• Colin King running the "Be a Fool for $100 in April" contest. You only have a few days left to join!

• Daily Blog Tips (one of my personal favs) has moved its way all the way up to #2 on the big 100 board. Very nice, and much deserved.

• Know a ton of celebrity gossip? Want to get paid to write about it? Hit up Gary Conn and he'll see if you are qualified to fill one of his positions.

• Using Linen N Things as an affiliate? Probably not for long...

• Can I Make Money Online is also frustrated with the lack of quality amongst the MMO blog world.

• Derek Semmler looked at PredictAd as a new source of income and it didn't really work out. You might want to give it a try though!

• SlyVisions with some great tips for optimizing your YouTube videos.

• Even freelancers or bloggers need vacations don't they?

• CashTactics tells you how to create dozens of CPA polls in minutes!

• Dazzlin Donna thinks that now is the time to start that internet business especially with the economic disaster we all know is coming.

• Randy Brown with an interesting story on having his PayPal account banned and then still managing to get his remaining funds out. (Most of them anyway.)

• A nice discount on hosting if you are in the market.

• Lost Art of Blogging has 22 essentials habits towards blogging success.
  

Posted 4/26/08 - Kellex

A toilet: You got it, we’re all full of sh!t most of the time aren’t we?

An apple: You know that saying “an apple a day…”? Well one of the critical rules to blogging is consistency and writing a post or 3 posts per day can be a key to return and future readers.

A Diet Pepsi Max: It’s a fairly new profession that runs at all hours of the day and gives you that “invigorating” feeling every time you post or have a big hit.

A Samsung Juke: A blogger tends to stay up on hip/new/cute technology.

A Uni-ball Signo Pen: Quality rather than quantity is the better method in most cases.

A set of keys: A blogging career can open doors to many things and the time is now to look for them.

A Nalgene bottle: Indestructible? Not quite, but a blogger should be able to fend off nasty comments or worthless spam.

A Kleenex: A blog is a great place to blow all of the junk out of your head and display it.

An id badge: A blog is like a blogger’s online identity. It can grant you access to things not available to everyone else.

A pair of Diesel jeans: Many bloggers come off as elitist and they definitely use blogging as a way to show off.

A cubicle: Sometimes we all find ourselves trapped in a little world. Opening our minds and channels once in a while could produce great benefits.

A piece of Orbit gum: The new version of a blogger is clean, neat and refreshing. The days of the kid in “Mom’s basement” are over.

An Emergen-C: We may not fix all the problems in the world, but we definitely think we can.

A flash drive: “On the go” doesn’t do a blogger justice, but the times of working from wherever you are in the world are here.

A Sharpie: A blogger’s mark on the internet is essentially permanent. Now that your work is out there, expect it to be there for a long, long time.

A garbage can: Some times we’ve got more garbage on our blog than actually quality work. Something I think we all need to work on.

A sticky note: Like taking a note and posting it on a bulletin board, only “internet sized.”

A Ford Focus: Starting a blog can be fairly cheap with low maintenance costs, but many out there lack overall long term quality.

An LCD TV: We’ve spent all this time and money and think we are the next big thing, but on the same tolken we’re a little scared of what could replace us sooner than later.

A yellow notepad: We’re not your standard pad or website but we’re also not re-inventing the wheel here.

A conference phone: At any time you could be working 3 articles, responding to 15 comments, and digging/hyping/reddit-ing 20 favorites.

A binder: It’s very easy to maneuver and allows us to easily remove or add material to it.

A rubber band: A blogger’s post can bend just about anyway depending on his/her feeling that day. Sort of like this post. J

A piece of Glad Tupperware: Blogs are used to store information, but they are a much nicer, disposable version that other websites.

A pair of Converse All-stars: Because we all want our blog to be customized to our own style or color scheme.

Reader Added Section:

(The Sports Diva) A mirror: Reading back our own blog post can help bloggers find out who they are.

(Sports Tsar) A cigarette: Once you start, it's hard to kick the habit.

(Juiced Sports Blog) CNN's Hardball: Someone with no training is allowed to have a format to disseminate to the masses and express opinions on topics of which they aren't trained to and not experts.

(Web Design and Development) A hollywood actor: Every blogger thinks they hame some great unique talent and will be recognized and make money from amongst the 200 million other competeing blogs. But in the end, we all still work day jobs.

(Cuzoogle) A cardboard bar coaster: Always attempting to steal someone else's property.

(Blue Workhorse) TNT's NBA in-studio crew (Charles, Kenny, Magic & Ernie): Three people that are full of nonsense who are occasionally funny to one person with any actual information.

Wondering where all these random thoughts came from? I simply looked around at my desk, surroundings and self and spit it out onto a blog. The possibilities are truly endless with this idea. Give me some of yours! Write your idea down in a comment with your backlink and I'll add it the list, linking you!

Posted 4/26/08 - Kellex

Darren of ProBlogger ran a "Speed Post Day" yesterday where he answered reader questions in just a short couple of paragraphs. I actually enjoyed the hell out of it because it wasn't some drawn out blogger self-promotion, deep though piece. He actually got right down into the details and took on questions that most of us are always looking for a simple answer on.

Here are the highlights from the day that I thought would be useful to you! Make sure to check out the full bits as these excerpts are just little teasers.

1. How do I get more relevant readers to my blog?

"The key is to identify where these ‘relevant’ readers are already gathering. On almost every topic you can think of there are people already gathering online - so it’s a matter of identifying these ‘hot spots’..."

2. How to build your blog's readership.

"Outside of hard work (and a bit of luck) there are many techniques you can use to grow readership to a blog. I’ve summarised some of the many articles I’ve written on the topic here on my How to Find Readers for your Blog page..."

3. Blog Design - Does it matter?

"Lastly - in terms of how hard a decision is it to change design. I personally find it a difficult process. While I appreciate good design I’m not a designer at heart so finding someone that I connect with to do it for me takes time..."

4. When self promotion tips into spam.

"The problem with this approach of self promotion is that you can do more harm for yourself than good. If you comments are allowed on your blog the reaction from others who see it can actually hurt your brand..."

It actually looks like he is still doing it, so make sure to jump over to ProBlogger and check it out. (This actually could be a "Speed Weekend".) Enjoy!

Posted 4/25/08 - Kellex


The Player:

Juiced Sports Blog


The Stats:

Alexa: 199,183
Compete.com: 332,205
Google PageRank: 0


The Niche:

A general sports blog with some extra hatred for Stephen A. Smith plus a weekly money making post.


The Story:

According to its banner, Juiced Sports Blog has been up since 2007, but without an archive I couldn't find which month it actually started. (Compete.com started registering it in June of 2007 so we'll go with that.)

My first impression of this blog in one word would be, "hmmm...". I think its main goal here is to advertise every inch possible in order to make maximum dollars. This is not always a bad thing but navigating the site became a little awkward as I was trying to maneuver through by clicking on content rather than ads.

Once you get to the content though, you can tell that its author Mitchell, is a solid writer with a tremendous passion for sports. I love the sections dedicated to "Stephen A. Smith" and "Sports Humor". One thing that bothers me with many sports blogger is their lack of a lighter side. You can tell right off the bat that Juiced Sports is here for pure entertainment, which I like.

One section that appeals to the Sports Dollar is the weekly "Money Making" section Mitchell puts together. Each Saturday you are hit with a new tip for social networking, building traffic, or monetizing your site. As a sports/money making blogger, I love to find a different point of few towards the money making field especially when it has sports related references.

Also, don't forget to check out their forums! This is a great place to share blogging success stories or just chat up some friends about current sports topics.

Overall, the Juiced Sports Blog is off to a great start as a general sports blog with their light-hearted approach and humorous content. The addition of their money making section and forums should add to their early success if maintained and promoted. However, if you are scared to death of advertisements, you may want to wear shades or pick up an ad-blocker.

Remember to order your free blog or product reviews from the Sports Dollar today! This service may not be free much longer suckers!

Posted 4/24/08 - Kellex

Sir Obnoxious...err John Chow decided to join the rest of the blog world by running an Entrecard Credit giveaway/contest. Basically just by posting about his contest your are entered. (Wow original huh?)

An excerpt from his post:

For the past few months, I’ve been letting my Entrecard credits build up. Currently, I have 18,817 EC credits sitting in my account. I’ve decided to give away 10,000 credits to a lucky blogger so he or she can try out the service.

Entering the contest is extremely simple. Just send a trackback by making a blog post about this contest on your blog. If the trackback doesn’t work, then leave the URL to your blog post in the comment. At the end of this month, I’ll draw a name from all the entries received and transfer 10,000 Entrecard credits into that person’s account.

OK, so I've done my part which has entered me into the contest. I'm not exactly sure what I would do with 10,000 credits seeing as I have about 5,000 in my account right now. Maybe we should run another contest to give some away?

I went through 2 Entrecard advertising campaigns and saw varied results. I tried the "purchase on the big dogs" approach and also the "ad-whore buy everything" approach and neither saw much success. I'm not really into purchasing anymore but more into building my popularity to see where that can take me. (Yes, I'm sure I'll give up on Entrecard someday, but there has got to be some good use to it right?)

Well, if we win, we'll most likely figure out a way to give them back away to one of you! Could be a prize worth 15,000 credits?

Posted 4/24/08 - Kellex


The Player:

Michael Aulia's Blog


The Stats:

Alexa: 201,106
Compete.com: 94,212
Google PageRank: 1


The Niche:

"Tech news, reviews and geek ramblings." A personal blog from Australia with a heavy influence on gaming reviews, Entrecard and life.


The Story:

Before Michael had asked for this review I already knew who he was through Entrecard. You see, if you need a jump start into the world of Entrecard or some tips, Michael Aulia is your guy. His face and 125 card are everywhere and for good reason, he knows what he is doing.

When you visit this page you are not blown away by flashy design and extra wingdings flopping around. (Thank you!) This site is kept neat, clean and purposeful. Michael has really bought into the idea that "content works" and has not wasted his time tricking readers with Ferraris or photos of his Google earnings.

Aulia has been blogging since October of 2007 and according to his last month's stats, has come a long way in just a short amount of time. As you can see the biggest boost in his stats was through StumbleUpon which is something everyone should consider. Many of you need to get off the Digg bandwagon and realize there are others out there that can give you just as good or better results. You may want to ask Michael for some tips!

What don't I like about this blog? You can tell he has read some Adsense tips books because he has some very strategically placed ads that blend into his content nicely. (Wait that is probably not a bad thing is it?)

There is one thing and that is the "Read the rest of the article..." option he uses. I know that many blog use this idea but as a personal preference, I'd rather read the whole damn article on your main page!

Overall I really like what Michael does with his blog. You won't find anything over the top and that is a nice change from most blogs out today. He's not trying to be something he is not with this site and he gives his readers plenty of updates and interesting material. What more could you ask for?

As a techie or gamer, you should be all over this one!

Remember to order your free blog or product reviews from the Sports Dollar today! This service may not be free much longer suckers!

Posted 4/24/08 – Kellex

This is the second in a two part segment from someone I would consider an "Entrecard expert." Stan from the fantasy baseball site Razzball has been on top of Entrecard ever since I can remember. He's an amazing guy and shared with us this piece on how you can get to the "popular" page on Entrecard and stay there for good. In case you have seen this before, he also posted this as an Entrecard blog. It's incredible. If you missed part one or the "Razzball" Guide to Entrecard Pt. 1, please read that portion first.

3. “This all seems pretty doable.”

Well, it is, but we’re not done yet. Next step, pick a side in an Entrecard forum debate and argue it. That’s not to say, belittle other members and threaten to Google bomb them. Agree or disagree, and state your opinion. If you’re wrong, concede to the other side. After you’ve participated in a few threads, start a sticky thread of your own. Make sure it’s in the right forum. (Entrecard Forum or Community Forum only. Promotions Forum is a mess and don’t bother at all with the Introductions Forum, it’s a waste of space.)

Your forum thread should never be about your posts or your blog. People can find your blog if they want. If you think you can grab people’s attention with your blog, then starting a forum thread shouldn’t be that hard.

A good first thread usually is, “Is my Entrecard image good? Do you think it can be better?” People will gladly chime in and they will also be seeing your card and thinking about it. This is very good. Also, if your card’s lame, there’s some great Entrecard members that can help you with it and this will help you forge a possible friendship.

(Tip: Another thread that works well is one along these lines, “Reciprocating Drops…. Why is it that I drop on so many people and they never drop on me back?” This says two things, “You drop a lot of cards and if someone drops on you, you know what’s up and you will reciprocate a drop.” Caveat: You absolutely must reciprocate drops after saying something like this. This will annoy people if you’ve said something like that and don’t actually reciprocate.)

4. “Am I going to advertise anywhere?”

Actually, you’re going to advertise everywhere. Take $20 and buy yourself 2000 credits. With those two thousand credits, advertise on the Popular and “Top Three” sites you’ve been hitting every day. Put an ad on every site that is available.

If you’ve struck up a friendship of some sort in one of the forums, advertise on their site. If you want, advertise on some Most Recent sites. Go into your category and advertise with some sites that are now below you. Advertise with sites that are right in front of you. Advertise absolutely everywhere.

Take another $5 and advertise on Project Wonderful Entrecard sites. (When looking for sites in Project Wonderful, search the tag, “Entrecard.”) Blanket Entrecard with your image. Make it impossible for people to be unaware of you.

(Tip: Advertise on other people you notice moving up the ranks. They’re trying to do the same thing as you so their price is going to go up. Get it while it’s low. Secondly, they’re dropping a lot if they’re moving up, so your card will be seen by more people because of their activity. Caveat: Don’t be annoyed when someone rejects you. Turn into a positive. Message them and say it’s no big deal that they rejected you. Their site is probably out of your niche anyway. If you don’t want to message them, at least drop a card on them. Life’s too short to hold grudges.)

5. “I’m almost to the Popular Page and for the first time in my life I feel alive!”

That’s great, but you’re not there yet. You’re about to put everything you learned to the test. When you first reach the top of your category and feel like you’re about to swell over into the Most Popular page, stop dropping 200 cards in the morning. Simply open your Drop Inbox and hit everyone that has dropped on you so far in the day, that should take you to about 50 to 75 cards already.

Now check your Inbox once every hour or two and hit the sites that are dropping on you. This shows them that you are on top of reciprocating. Now around the half way point of the day, start dropping cards on sites that you know usually drop on you, but haven’t yet. This will stimulate activity to your site.

Finally, the Promotions Forum. Go in and start a thread that says, “Ten Credits to drop on me.” This usually gets people dropping on you just to drop and they say keep the credits. If they want the credits, send them along. Finally, towards the end of the day and you’re just about to reach the Most Popular page, start a forum thread in the Community Forum with the title, “I Can’t Believe I’m on the Most Popular Page…” Then inside the thread, you thank me.

First, you’re welcome. Now that you’re at the Most Popular page, immediately you ask yourself, “Do I really wanna stay here if it’s going to involve so much work?”

This reminds me of my uncle who is on dialysis. He says everything can go to turd as long as he maintains the torso. Once you are on the Most Popular Page, all you have to do is “maintain the torso.” You advertise here and there and reciprocate every drop. As long as you reciprocate every drop, you should “maintain the torso” of your advertising price. You no longer have to seek people out, because now they seek you out.

Stop making friends? Not unless you’re a xenophobe. When someone new comes along, welcome them. If they want to drop on you – great. Just make sure to drop on them, because you know firsthand the work they’re putting in. Before you know it, they’ll be sitting between you and Joan Joyce on the Most Popular page.

A giant thanks to Stan again! Please stop by his site, Razzball for all your fantasy baseball needs. Hell, just stop by to say "Hi" to the guy; he has a ton of knowledge that I'm sure he would love to share.

Posted 4/23/08 - Kellex

As I was driving into to work this morning listening to Colin Cowherd (That’s right, I actually like him even though I blog.) when I realized these goofball radio hosts are exactly like bloggers. I know there has been beef after beef between radio personalities and bloggers but that isn’t surprising to me at all. When you categorize them as a “blogger” it is just like another blogger flaming up another blogger. This happens all the time, but when a syndicated radio host does it, then all hell breaks loose and the blog world binds together to form this ridiculous blogsexual anti-radio host war. Other than being on a major live radio network, the similarities are limitless.

What about content? Radio hosts are all market driven and touch on the specific hot topics for the day that they feel their listeners will tune in to just like we do people! Depending on the niche, they attempt to be the first to break news and give you tips and insight into relevant topics each day. They also ask for responses via email or phone to add to their content but also to show other listeners that participation is encouraged. Don’t we all do that every day? Don’t bloggers continually ask for comments, Diggs, e-mails, and RSS subscriptions? Our reader participation is no different than the participation a radio host asks for accept it’s via telephone.

What about interviews? Many radio shows thrive on the big time athlete interview. Their listeners all love to hear from the star athlete, coach or commentator on their feelings towards a topic or another. Are blogs any different? Not at all! Bloggers are obsessed with interviewing people! Bloggers are also looking to get the biggest name they can whether it be a star athlete or the biggest hot shot blogger in their niche. And what is the overall goal with an interview? To drive a ton of traffic of course! Radio shows are looking for the same thing when they interview a guest. If they can pull in a few thousands more listeners during a Tony Romo interview, then they have just boosted their ratings and probably made everyone some more cash.

What about advertisements? Each day I hear Colin or Jim Rome spamming off their own commercials for GoToMyPC.com, GoToMeeting.com, Clearly Lasik, Salonpas, Stamps.com, and Homedics Shiatsu Massager. (Those were just off the top of my head.) Not only do they run their own ads, they also say, “Sign up by clicking the orange ‘Try it Free’ button using to get a free trial!” Don’t bloggers do this as well? I’m pretty sure you could click on over to John Chow dot Com and find 3-4 posts within his first two pages that are related to an affiliate which he will get a commission from. He will even use special promotional codes with companies like Kontera to get users to sign up for their service.

What about the lifestyle? Bloggers have the freedom to basically work wherever they want which is one of the greatest bonuses to doing this. Radio hosts are no different I would argue. Every other month you hear of radio hosts broadcasting from different locations for the Super Bowl, Final Four or even just for a big college football game. Dan Patrick left ESPN last year and now works out of his own home in a radio studio he had built. When he’s not there, he’s traveling around the country to different studios while promoting the new show he has.

Hopefully that just boosted everyone’s ego for a minute! You can officially call yourself a radio host! Ok, maybe not but the next time some radio host argues with you or throws a fit and calls bloggers “losers who sit in their parent’s basement,” you can throw a ton of ammo back at their mug.

Any other similarities you can think of?

Posted 4/22/08 - Kellex

I stumbled across a unique opportunity on Sunday from a guy looking to spread the word on his new website. He was asking for takers that wanted 1000 unique visitors to be delivered to their website or blog. Well with The Sports Dollar being so new, of course I was up for that sort of deal!

The website is called Winive and evidently is some sort of online bidding/gaming site where visitors participate to try and receive prizes. The benefit to people like me is, we are able to sponsor a game which has referring banners and links to our site. From there you don't have to worry about sending the prize or dealing with details. Instead you just sit back and watch the traffic steadily flow onto your site. Did that make sense at all? Go to his site to take a look and it will seem to make a little more sense.

The site is based in Hungary or at least generates a ton of Hungarian visitors so the traffic does not exactly work for my niche. He did mention to me today though, that he is looking for more international participants so if you are interested, you may want to give him a shout.

He asked that I write up a review on the traffic and his site in exchange for the the visitors he was sending. Here are the traffic results:





As you can see, he wasn't lying! I talked to him on Sunday and the traffic started immediately for 2 full days and a little into the third.

Make sure to check the site out and see if Hungarian traffic is something you can monetize!

If you are interested or would like to contact the site owner, please drop me an email. If I just straight give out his info, you suckers may bombard him!

Remember to order your free blog or product reviews from The Sports Dollar today! This service may not be free much longer suckers!

Posted 4/22/08 - Kellex

I just needed to brag for a minute and show off my new toy!


My new baby is an incredible 42 Inch LG 1080P LCD! I wish I could say that a new sponsor or something gave it to us to write a review on, but that would just be foolish. Instead I'll just admit that I got a killer deal and couldn't help myself. NBA Playoffs here I come! (And NFL season which is right around the corner!)

Posted 4/21/08 - Kellex

This is the first in a 2 part segment from someone I would consider an "Entrecard expert." Stan from the fantasy baseball site Razzball, has been on top of Entrecard ever since I can remember. He's an amazing guy and shared with us this piece on how you can get to the "popular" page on Entrecard and stay there for good. In case you have seen this before, he also posted this as an Entrecard blog. It's incredible.

How to get on the Popular Page.

I wrestled with whether or not to share these secrets, because, frankly, it will probably do me more harm than good for everyone to know. It’s the golden goose. Bilbao’s magic ring. The secret. But then I think about how great it’s been to be on the Most Popular page and I couldn’t help but share. I’ve forged friendships (Cecilia, Deimos, Bendz), had an Entrecard member help me switch from Blogspot to a self-hosted site (Turnip) and dozens of other perks too numerous to mention.

Since I joined Entrecard on 12/26, I’ve spent a majority of my time on the popular page. Does this make me an expert? Yup. Is there any set course to get onto the popular page? Nope. However, the following five directives will do the trick in a mere two weeks.

1. “What do I do with my 300 drops?”

Good question, that’s a great place to start. Drop two hundred cards as soon as you can in your day. But not 200 random sites. The worst mistake you can make it “card surfing.” This is haphazard and won’t get you anywhere. When you “card surf” you’re not dropping on necessarily people who reciprocate, you’re simply dropping on some people who have advertised. Also, by dropping on the same exact sites, there’s a good chance you will get backlinks when their “Top Dropper” lists come out at the beginning of every month.

Go to the Most Popular Page and drop on every site there, then move to the category page and hit every “Top Three” site that you’ve missed. If you need whys, I’ll explain. The Popular Page and the top three in each category are the best collection of sites that are active on Entrecard. These are people that will, more than likely, reciprocate your drops. This is the key. Every directive will be making sure you get drops back. Your drops are only used to get drops back or to reciprocate.

If you wanna tip someone, just send them some credits. They’re about a cent a piece. You do the math. Are you following? Great. Now at the latest possible moment in your day (before Entrecard ends its day at 12am EST), drop on everyone that has dropped on you that you haven’t already dropped on. At first this might not be that many, so you should have cards leftover. With the leftover cards, go into some of the categories you’re interested in and drop on the first three sites after the top three. Then take twenty cards and drop on the last few people to post in a forum thread. Take another twenty cards and blanket your category. Once you start moving up your category, you’ll need more of your cards to reciprocate, but by that time you should have a pretty good handle on who reciprocates, so only drop on those.

Do not drop on Most Recent sites. Nine times out of ten they don’t understand what a their inbox is or how to drop a card. By the time they figure it out, you’ll be on the Most Popular page and they’ll be dropping on you.

(Tip: Many people on Entrecard are also on BlogCatalog using the same 125×125 image. So when you come to a site that shows the last five or so people from BlogCatalog, check to see how long ago they were they were dropping. If it was recently, go to their site and drop on them. They are probably doing the rounds, as well. Caveat: Don’t join any bookmarking cliques/lists. If you do this organically, you’ll be better off. Full disclosure: I recently joined a drop 50/day list and I regret it. Probably by the time this is posted, I’ll be out of that. Why I regret it will be for another day.)

2. “Dropping and running? That’s lame. I wanna help the community.”

Well, aren’t you the giver? Okay, next step: sincerely comment on some blogs. If you have nothing to say, that’s a shame and you probably shouldn’t be writing a blog. Some sites will be completely out of your comfort zone. Here’s an idea, don’t comment on those blogs. i.e. Sometimes I see a site where they’re talking about computer “stuff” and I haven’t the foggiest idea what’s being discussed. You know what I do there? Don’t comment. Seriously, don’t pester people with lame comments. Sincere comments on blogs; that’s it.

How many comments a day? There’s no set limit, whatever you feel comfortable doing. You should be able to muster fifteen comments a day.

(Tip: Spread your comments around. There’s no reason you can’t comment again and again on the same blogs, but you should try and spread your net wider. Caveat: Don’t comment and run. Follow-up on old comments to show your gratitude that the blogger commented back to you. You’re building your Entre-foundation. Please try and walk before you run.)

Part 2 will run later this week. Stay tuned!

Posted 4/20/08 - Kellex


Time.com released its first ever top 25 blog rankings! They tried to grab as many of the blogs that actually have meaning to them and put them in some sort of order that you may or may not understand.

One thing that really irritated me with the list was the fact that you couldn't look at it in "list" mode. They make you click through each little blurb about each blog to find out the next one. (This was obviously done on purpose, but it's freakin' annoying.)

We thought we'd take the time to list them all out and link to them for you so you don't have to deal with Time.com's version.

Your welcome!

Time.com's Top 25 Blogs

1. Huffington Post
2. LifeHacker
3. Metafilter
4. Treehugger
5. PostSecret
6. Blog di Beppe Grillo
7. Engadget
8. Freakonomics
9. Gigazine
10. Ace of Spades HQ
11. Radosh.net
12. Gawker
13. The Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan
14. Velveteen Rabbi
15. Boing Boing
16. TechCrunch
17. Web 2.Oh...really?
18. The Sartorialist
19. Daily Kos
20. The Consumerist
21. Indexed
22. Wired's Threat Level Blog
23. Regret the Error
24. Bad Jocks
25. The Reverse Cowgirl


The Most Overrated List

1. Slashdot
2. Jim Cramer Blog on Realmoney.com
3. Ars Technica
4. Nicholas Kristof on the Ground
5. I can has cheezburger