SezWho was launched in October 2007 to be a profile service that improves community engagement and enables content discovery.

The problem though, is SezWho could be much more. Realistically, they collect data from websites with the SezWho plugin installed. The amount of data they collect includes blog post titles, URLs, and ratings along with the comments associated with them. The potential the service could offer is great.

However, there lies the problem. SezWho’s service begins and ends with offering ratings and RSS feeds for users. The real use of the service is questionable other than seeing your own ratings for posts and comments.

Problems with SezWho

1. No directory of blogs that have SezWho installed.
2. No top commentators list.
3. Responses take forever on suggestions within their forum.
4. No real “goal” to be found on their website.
5. The plugin lacks features, any real changes to the features must be done internally.
6. Can’t merge accounts.
7. No “real” value to blog owners to have it installed.
8. No “real” features available.
9. No top voted posts.
10. Lack of communication.

Many of these problems could be solved by releasing an API and having a larger staff or an involved community. Getting the community involved is always a great way to help expand a service and its support group.

With a service like SezWho, the community should be involved from the start. What features the community wants is only part of it. The real involvement is getting them to use the service and become active within it. Give them something to come back for and use consistently. Allow the commentators to compete against each other and the ability to find more blogs to comment and rate by having a directory and top commentators list.

As we all know, SezWho only works if both the commentator and blog owner is involved. If a blog does not have the service installed the commentator does not benefit. Because of this, the blog owner must also benefit. By having a directory which includes all SezWho blogs, a top rated blogs list, an updated blog posts list, or some other way to involve blog owners would give blog owners and authors a greater reason to use SezWho than the current setup.

Please SezWho, get your act together; you could be much more with a little creativity. The data your system holds has amazing ability, use it. Your users will love you for it and so will your pocket book.

Blogburst has been a popular talking point for bloggers of late. If you haven’t heard of it, it is a company that allows you to submit your blog to their website, and if they accept it there is a chance one of your posts will be shown on a large media website such as USA Today, FoxNews, and Reuters.

At first glance BlogBurst looks like an amazing blog utility, but lets look a bit deeper, shall we?

What is the potential traffic?
Tens of thousands of page views, viewing the article that is. Generally 100 views or less daily will see an article, around 1-4% CTR to your blog.

How hard is it to get accepted?
The older your site and the more posts the better. BlogBurst specifically states they want blogs that have at least one quality post per week, so make sure your blog is updated regularly. They also put a high emphasis on full RSS feed, grammar, and certain niche sites. Posts should be between 100-400 words. You’ll know their decision within generally 48 hours.

How much will you earn?
BlogBurst pays its top 100 blogs from their leaderboard each quarter. The leaderboard is determined by headline impressions. The top blog will receive $1,500 and the 100th blog will receive $50.

What is the SEO value?
None. At least not directly. BlogBurst publishers use a javascript widget to show articles. This means search engines won’t give link juice to the original blog author. On the other hand, it doesn’t hurt either. Since it is javascript you won’t be punished for duplicate content if your post makes it to a major media outlet.

<script type=”text/javascript”>
var BLOGBURST_WIDGET_ID = “xxxxxxx”;
var BLOGBURST_TRACKING_CODE = “”;
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://api.blogburst.com/v1.0/WidgetDeliveryProxy.js”></script>

Indirectly, the SEO value is amazing. The more eyes that view a post the better. If your post is picked up, you have the potential of tens-of-thousands of eye balls glaring at your post. A few of them might own blogs. They might also click-through to your website and link to it.

Conclusion

BlogBurst is a quality service offered to bloggers and has the potential to offer thousands of visitors along with cold cash. To a blogger the amount of visitors available through this program is absolutely amazing.

Sign up if you meet the guidelines above. You won’t regret it.

I’ve been an admirer of Elite by Design’s template for quite some time. The theme doesn’t feature gradients or bright colors like other Web 2.0 templates but it is clean, beautiful and features unique colors.

Here are some of the features as stated by Elite by Design:

• If you are looking to make money from your blog via ad placement
• If you are looking for a fresh theme in the wordpress marketplace
• If you want a clean, ordered coding structure
• If you are in need of a clean theme to suit all of your wordpress needs

The blog really is good for making money via ad placement. The design comes with several areas which can easily be dedicated to advertising:

Like all bloggers you are probably wanting your RSS feed count to grow. Elite by Design comes built-in with a prominent location for RSS subscribers:

What About Customization?

Elite by Design is easily customizable. And although the original site features a text-only title, yours can easily include a logo with your blogs name.

Each upper field is also customizable. The “featured design” can easily be changed to a featured article, anything is possible.

Conclusion

The Elite by Design Theme is highly recommended. Usually themes of this quality can run from $200 to $500, sometimes more depending on the design company.

With Elite by Design you have three choices to choose from:

Single use with a credit link to the author: $65

Single use without a credit link to the author: $100

Multiple use (No resale): $175

This article is part of the series “Looking at Affiliates”.

With the last article of Looking at Affiliates, I thought I would give an overview of what each affiliate has to offer.

Overview of all affiliates mentioned:
MoreNiche – Small selection, but good payouts and good referral program.
Amazon – Tons to offer, small commission but trusted brand. Must use country-specific websites.
DealDotCom – Can’t review products, one product per day. Referral program.
PayDotCom – Decent sized selection, referral program.
WidgetBucks – Good signup bonus, CPM and PPA sucks.
NeverBlueAds – Good selection. Mostly only pays to US and Canada but also has some selection for other english speaking questions. Has some to offer to other developed countries.
Merchant affiliates – Large selections, can sell basically anything. Trusted brands. Direct affiliating has a higher payout.

Well, this ends the series “Looking at Affiliates”. I just wanted to go through a few of the most talked about affiliates currently. I’ll post more about affiliates as they come along.

This article is part of the series “Looking at Affiliates”.

The great news about affiliate marketing is the ever growing importance we as webmasters are playing. Merchants are slowly moving towards direct affiliate programs, especially the large corporate sites. In the coming years we will see the trend expand and finally trickle down to the smallest of businesses–allowing for a much broader affiliate choice than today.

Until then, here are some large corporations with direct affiliate programs you might have missed:

• Walmart
• Overstock
• Circuit City

Large companies with third-party affiliate programs:

• Apple (iTunes only as far as I can tell)
• Best Buy
• Dell
• Harrods
• John Lewis
• Karstadt
• Kays
• Laura Ashley
• Marks & Spencer
• Procter & Gamble
• Vodafone

Most companies using third-party programs can easily be found on Commission Junction (serving most of US/Canada) or Zanox (serving most of Europe). If not, they probably aren’t offering an affiliate program just yet.. In this case, contact their sales department and ask why they aren’t taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity to increase sales.