Over the last few months I have published articles 5-6 times weekly. I normally write three of the articles during the weekend and two more early the following week allowing the other days to be free so I can work on my other sites. This is all about to change.

An important part of any blog is comments. Comments allow for an exchange of ideas and discussions far and beyond what any blogger can achieve alone. Because of this, I must sacrafice a small part of my writing to allow discussions to continue and expand further. I feel that by posting a new article, it pushes the other articles down disallowing new members eyes to view. Henceforth, I will no longer post 5-6 times weekly, but 2-3 (within the web-development category), depending on the levels of activity.

This change is only temporary and link love Thursday will continue, but will instead be published on the weekend.

Hopefully this change will benifit all readers, and myself. Although it saddens me that I will not be able to express all my ideas, I will be more able to market this site and work harder to write the articles I do publish.

These changes will go into effect the next week.

To hold you over until then, here are four amazing blogs:

TheMadHat
Performancing
DoshDosh
Problogger

One of the most important decisions you will make when creating a website is the domain name, which is possibly even more important than the niche you choose.

Why the domain is important

Every top website on the blog receives a large portion of their visitors from direct traffic, aka type-in traffic. This is when the user types in the domain (URL) within their address bar and presses enter (or the go button). This is due to the domain being easy to remember.

Photo by moriza

A real-life example:
Everyone who has ever searched the web for more than a day has heard of Google. But did you know how the Google name was chosen? Google was chosen due to a misspelling of the word googol, defined as 10 raised to the 100th power. The boys realized their mistake, but the name was available, easy to say, easy to remember and had meaning. It was perfect.

How does this relate to you?

The domain name is important, but just how important you’ll soon find out.

URIs are used as keywords by search engines. When you search for this very domain [impnerd] on Google you’ll see the domain is highlighted, which specifies the keywords used by the search.

If search engines didn’t exist and you heard the name impNERD spoken between two friends, you would remember it. This is why domain names are important. The number one rule of a domain name is ‘easy to remember’. If it isn’t easy to remember, you can kiss any thoughts of becoming famous from the site goodbye.

The question isn’t always whether or not to use keywords in your domain or use something easy to remember, they can just as easily be together. A great example of this is ProBlogger–easy to remember, yet has a keyword within the title, whether it be blog or blogger.

A non-Internet example:
Jenna Marie Massoli chose the name Jenna Jameson to start her modeling and later porn career. She originally chose the name “Jennasis”, but it didn’t quite work for modeling. For stripping, she needed a name that was short, yet exotic. For modeling she needed much more. She needed something easy to remember, sexy, and most important, matched her first name.

Choosing a domain that is right for you

Now that we’ve established the importance of keywords within the domain and the ever more significance of recognition, we can start choosing a name.

We want something to remind people about our site, so when they hear the domain name they know exactly what it is about. It must be easy to type-in, so no exonopyrophysicist domains. If you are opening a site about you, your domain should be your actual name or something resembling it.

Jeremy Schoemaker chose Shoemoney because that’s his nickname and tons of people misspell Schoemaker. The site is about making money online, so it fits perfectly.

Choose a name that defines your site. If it is about cats, LOLcats is taken so think again. If it is about Sunflowers, what is a name that defines sunflowers but is unique enough to not only remember, but can define the site? Remember, this name will stick with the site for as long as it exists.

It is a tough decision, and the only way you can choose a domain name is through tough consideration, time, and a ton of effort.

Last week I ran a StumbleUpon ad campaign for the article 34 Ways Sex is Like Internet Marketing.

Since I only wanted to test the service I used the smallest amount possible, $5. StumbleUpon sells their service at $50/1000 visitors, so $5 will only bring 100 visitors but it will still be enough for me to get an idea of what the service will bring.

Note - $50 for 1000 visitors seems pretty steep, but you must keep in mind how StumbleUpon works. The 1000 visitors don’t just see an ad, but see your entire page. If the visitors respond well to your page it will bring more visitors. The more people that like it, the more people that see it.

Once signed up to StumbleUpon Ads, you are able to choose whom will see your ads. You are able to select between male or female, age range, and country/city. Once your campaign begins, you are able to view and change your choices:

After setting up your ad, you must wait until the page is accepted by the StumbleUpon staff, which took around 36 hours, so time sensitive pages are out of the question.

Once the page is accepted it will begin serving to your specified audience. For my ad, I chose technology/web development serving to all sexes around the world aged between 18 to 99. Although I felt bad for the 100-year-olds, I felt like I was in business.

I set my daily budget, and I was underway.

After a few hours, I went back to see how my advertising was going. I’m able to see how many visitors came and what percent they thumbed up or down.

Not too bad, at least no one thumbed it down.

Digg is arguably the most popular social news site on the web. The site covers topics ranging from Macs to Bush bashing with rarely anything in between. But beware oh new member, your article will likely be buried with the servers pounded by the overwhelming audience the beast withholds.

Before using Digg, you must remember these simple rules–both advanced and beginning users should consider all actions taken before it is too late.:

99% are pompous assholes
- Digg has something special about it that will grab anyone over the age of 16 by their balls (or nipples in case of the one female who uses Digg, whom is reportedly Kina Grannis). The witty commentary such as “Pffft”, “Wow” and “Amazing” with the every too often, but guaranteed to make you LOL “I nailed your mom.” is certain to make a grown man cry (sorry Kina, we aren’t entirely sure you are female, please get naked).

80% stolen from other social sites
- I love spending my day browsing through stories on Reddit, then browsing through them again the following day on Digg. It is something I find close to my heart, and will never give up. When I visit Reddit and see a popular story or picture I just know it will be on Digg the following day, and if it hasn’t been submitted I do it and smile knowing the people of Digg will love me for it.

The friends system sucks
- Friends o’ friends of mine, do you help or hurt me so? To get or not to get. I will never know.

The comment system is buzzerred
- Collapsed, not collapsed, the newest, the oldest, top votes or… wait, what? Did they fix it AGAIN? Hell…

Submitting during high traffic is Digg suicide
- Everyone wants their article to be front page Digg material, but when to submit? Diggers never sleep… and that is because they don’t breathe. It is probably because of the pizza and Ron Paul porn (a picture of Ron Paul with an iPod).

So there’s this guy, Saphrym, aka Michael, who runs a “dieting” blog. He posts daily about different subjects and updates us on his diet plan. Sometimes, he leaves a few gold nuggets of information.

Scam Protection

One example of these ‘nuggets’, is his article Link Protection and Remote Control Linking. This article was originally written in 2000, but it still holds true today.

Quite simple. Imagine placing the actual link in your newsletter, on forums, in your eBooks, etc. Now, imagine that link changes. What do you do?
You plan. You put a redirect to any page you think may change in the future (for example, I probably would change my newsletter software when my subscriber list becomes much larger, which will in turn change my archive location). Then, when the page actually does change, you change it only in this file, and it automatically changes everywhere else. REMOTE CONTROL LINKING! Lovely, isn’t it?

Although somewhat a simple task, the idea is great and something most never bother thinking about. Protect yourself at all level. You can easily create a “fake” link, and just redirect it somewhere else to throw bots off.

Inspiration

Ever since finding Michael’s blog I have been a fan. I found him one day while browsing through Entrecard and stepped over to his site and begin reading. His site made quite an impression, so much so I had him write a guest post.

Michael’s inspiration doesn’t end at his dieting tips, but it is just the beginning. He prides himself on being a father first, husband second, and a teacher third (through his blog and in real life), and even has a tagline as father, husband, teacher, thinker, reader, and writer.

Money

This is where it gets good. Michael is offering $250 and 1000 Entrecard credits for a little something in return, a link. He’s ending the contest on the 27th, because it is his daughter’s birthday and wants it to be “festive” for everyone. To that I say, kudos Saphrym, kudos.