Mike's Quarter - technology and cool gadgets blog » Social networking

Best myspace blog layouts collection

Mike — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:57:30 +0000

Millions of people are using Myspace everyday. It seems that in US, everyone has a Myspace account, from politicians to lawn boys, from 80 years old grandpas to primary school kids. And even if Myspace’s traffic has gone a little bit down since last year according to this report from May, it still grabs over 70% of the social neighbourhood traffic in US and a big cut of this market on a global scale, too.

What bothers me is that, even if Myspace is so big, it’s kind of hard to get decent Myspace blog layouts these days. Most of them are just crap, full of sparkling and glittering pictures, moving images, popups, etc. Perhaps that’s what people demand, but come on, how hard can it be to find some good simple Myspace blog layouts?

With this question in mind, we started searching for the Holly grail.

And we’ve put here a collection of links where you can find what we think are some of the best blog layouts for Myspace. During this time, we found some interesting Myspace blog backgrounds too, but you’ll see them in a future post.

Now here we go. You can find good Myspace blog layouts here:

simply the best myspace layouts collection available on the Internet. And you can also find here themes, scripts, backgrounds and lots of other interesting stuff.
simple layouts. simple and decent looking Myspace blog layouts.
lots of myspace layouts . Some are better, some are a little worse, you just have to be patient enough to surf through them and find the blog template you want

Now, if you’re a power user and getting your hand dirty with HTML and CSS coding does not scare you, you should see the following two links:

a resource with a bunch of Myspace tricks you might want tor ead can be found here
how to hack Myspace blog layouts and make them exactly how you want them to be, from Mike Davidson
collection of Myspace codes: here . You just have to copy/paste them in your profile.

That’s about it. I’m sure there are other great places where you can find Myspace layouts, so if you know any of them, do share please. That being said, i hope you find our little post here useful and you really found some good Myspace blog layouts with our help.

Top Digg users domination at an end

Mike — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 09:00:16 +0000

I’ve written a couple of weeks ago an article about how to become a Digg Poweruser. All those tips still work, but now things have changed a little, as the new Digg algorithm came into equation.

Digg’s top users were the ones hit. Seems that their domination over the stories submitted on Digg came at an end, as the new algorithm wants to ensure that every person has a good chance of getting its submission on the first page, regardless of the number of friends he has, the number of popular stories submitted and so on. Since the beginning of Digg back in 2005, there have been many algorithm changes, trying to beat all those who intended to cheat Digg.

The victims of this update, Powerusers, didn’t hesitate to strike back with an open letter to Digg (what’s with these power letters these days…). They protest against the new algorithm and the rumours of secret editors, considering that all of these are against the idea behind Digg: users’ control of the stories. I doubt this letter will have any impact on Darren or Jay (you can read about their feedback here) , although these powerusers should have something to say, as they provide more than 50% of the stories promoted to Digg’s homepage on a daily basis.

Anyway, I’m not the biggest Digg fan but I’m looking forward to see if this new algorithm will succeed in favoring diversity to front page stories or not…

How to own Digg in 20 easy steps

Mike — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 09:56:28 +0000

Most of the stories published on Digg.com, the big content aggregator, never reach any exposure and usually don’t get more than one Digg (from the submitter). Why? Because it’s not that simple to get your story popular, regardless of the quality of the submitted content.

I had previous experiences with Digg, had a pretty good account… until i got banned. Now, i though I’ll put together a list of the things you should and most important, SHOUDLN’T do, in order to build a powerful Digg user and be able to get Digg Home page stories regularly. It’s kind of a thorough guide, so enjoy:

Create a Digg Account

It’s not that simple as you think. You have to go to Digg.com and create an account. But, there are a couple of things you should take into consideration when choosing your Digg User name, as it will be your own Brand for the site. So, make your username memorable. Think of something interesting, that will catch other people attention.

Also, i would recommend choosing an username starting with "a". Why? Because usernames are arranged by default in alphabetical order. So, let’s say you add a friend (more about this on chapter 5) who already has hundreds of friends himself. He will check the list of people who befriended him, and since your user will be one of the first, he might spot you, as long as you have a memorable name and Avatar. It seems things have changed since i haven’t used Digg and users are no longer sorted alphabetically but by the time they were last active. So, choosing an username starting with "a" is no longer needed.

Set up the Avatar and your profile

After you’ve created and confirmed you Digg account, you have to set up your profile. Click the My profile Button on top of the page. There are two things you should take care of:

The avatar – Press the Change Icon link in the right top corner and now you can upload your avatar. It has to be something sparkling, memorable, something that will make other users click on it. Also, remember, it will be part of your Digg brand name, so has to be related with your username somehow
Bio and Links – right bellow the avatar icon you’ll find the Set up Bio & Links button. Here you can write a couple of things about yourself, add links, instant messaging contacts, etc. I recommend completing them, with a special attention given to the About me box.

Don’t just start submitting things from the first day, Build up your account first.

One of the biggest mistakes any rookie Digger makes is submitting tons of stories right from the beginning. No dudes, a Digg account is just a like a baby. You have to take care of it, grow it, and then expect some results. The 6 most important factors for a successful Digg profile are:

Popularity Ratio – the percentage of your submitted stories which became popular.
Number of stories which became popular
Number of stories submitted
The number of stories you dugg
The number of distinct people who viewed your profile.
Number of friends (more about this on chapter 5)

Be active, digg and comment

Now that you’ve joined Digg and you know you must grow your account, it’s time for the first steps. Be an active digger: Digg the stories you find interesting and comment on them if you have something to say. This will get other people attention on you, and since you have an eye catching username and avatar, they might check out your account and even make you their friend if they like what they found. (That’s why the About me page is so important).

Try to comment first on stories you think will hit the front page

This is just a tip. In order to get more exposure, try to make relevant comments to the stories in the Upcoming list, that will have a great chance of reaching the home page. That story will be seen by thousands of diggers on home page, so if you post a good comment, a good amount of this diggers might end up on your profile page. And since we’re talking about good comments, Diggers don’t like ambiguous and elaborate responses. No, being short and funny is the receipt for a successful comment here.

Build the friends network

One of the most important criteria in becoming a power user is the friends network. There a couple of things you should know about friends on Digg. Having too many or too few hurts your chances of scoring a home page. I would recommend a total of 50-100 friends (users you add as friends). On the other side, you should have as many fans (people that added you as a friend without you adding them back) as possible. Also, your Digg friends should be persons with similar interests, people who are most likely to vote your story when they see it. You too have to vote their stories daily.

It is known that a vote from a poweruser (user with many friends that has submitted lots of pages that become popular in time) is more powerful than a vote from a small unimportant user. On the other side, a vote from a poweruser who is your friend is less important than a vote from one who isn’t. And also, since powerusers already have lots of people befriending them, it will be difficult to make them notice you…

That’s why I look for users meeting the following rules to make them my Digg friends:

people who are active several times a day
medium users with decent number of friends (up to 100)
people with a good popularity ratio, that don’t spam Digg with their own links and stuff like that
people with a habit of digging the same categories as i do (similar interests)
people with a habbit of digging their friends’ stories

So, be careful who you add as a friend, as they might spam you with hundreds of submitted stories everyday and even worse, spam you with Digg’s Shout feature. In the end, if you build up your friends network properly, every GOOD story you submit should be able to get like 20-30 diggs in the first hours from them alone.

Understand the audience and research what are the hot topics on Digg

In order to be successful on Digg, you have to understand the way it works. It’s known most Digg users like superficial stories. So, if you’re blogging about the latest physics research you’ve done in your basement, perhaps you should point your attention to Reddit or Slashdot.

As a Digg poweruser wannabe, you have to permanently research and keep track of what are the hot topics of the month. Submitting stories related with things people are looking for can increase the chances of reaching home page.

Know what do diggers like

In the process of understanding the Digg user, there are a couple of types of articles I’ve noticed to get along just great with this social networking service. How to’s, Guides, breaking news and controversial stories have always been successful on Digg. Corroborate them with subjects like Ubuntu, FireFox and Apple, and you might strike a gold mine

Have a pool of constant quality materials

When you think it’s about time to start submitting stories on Digg, be sure you have a decent list of sites in your RSS reader, a pool of constant quality materials where you can find digg worthy material daily. I have the big SEO, SEM, cars and gadget blogs in this list.

Start submitting materials

It’s now time to start submitting your own materials. Start with stories from places like reddit & stumbleupon to get an idea of how many initial diggs you are going to get. If you don’t manage to get at least 20 in the first 2 hours, that means you’re not ready yet and should take more time on digging, commenting and building the friends network.

Don’t submit stories written in French

It not that i have something with the French (:P), but you have to know Digg.com is an English-content site only. So, what good will it take to submit stories in French, Russian or Chinese since nobody won’t understand them and they are going to get deleted too. Not to mention that your account might get suspended or banned too. So, just stick to English!

Choose the subject carefully.

Are you really sure that the story you are going to submit is worthy? Cause unless your really think it’s so important as it could reach digg’s home page, don’t submit it. Every story you submit without becoming popular hurts your account more than it helps. So, choose really really carefully the stories you are going to submit

Plan the title and description carefully

It is said that a story’s title and description is even more important than its content. That’s why you have to give special atention to the Titles and Descriptions of your stories.

Nobody Diggs lame titles. Here’s a good article on to how to make the proper Digg titles for your stories. Even if the story does not seem too apealing, perhaps you could give it a push by throwing in some "Cool, Top, The Best, Awesome" words in front, to make it sound more intriguing. And this way, you might catch a little more of those so needed early Diggs to get your story launched. Because by the way the story reaches the upcoming section, the importance of the title diminishes somehow.

As for the description, you have to be concise, resuming the main idea of the story in a short paragraph. It’s not that easy as you think..

Also, remember, don’t stuff keywords in Titles and Descs, don’t use all capital letters. Just make the texts catchy and natural.

Share the stories

You might give a little boost to your stories by sharing them with your friends. You could Shout them to your network of friends on Digg, email to any other friends (but they will still need a Digg account for the vote) or even Blog about the subject on your own site. Just don’t abuse these features, especially the Shout one, as people might tag you as a spammer… And we all hate spammers!!!

Don’t create multiple Digg accounts to vote your stories from

Your stories are not getting enough votes? Hmmm, you think you’re smart and you can beat Digg by creating multiple accounts and vote for your stories? Well, just don’t bother. Even if you use proxies or different computers, you’re still going to get caught (speaking from experience here :d ) and all your accounts will get banned. Also, you can’t be sure your story will get popular anyway, since a bunch of Diggs from new users counts way less than a couple of votes from already established Diggers.

Don’t use methods for promoting your story that contravene the Digg’s TOS

Yeah, it’s against Digg’s TOS to request Digg exchanges. Although, there are a bunch of big sites and even bigger forums where people do that, but they do it on their own risk. Digg already banned most of the users requesting Digg’s on DigitalPoints a couple of months ago. And even though it’s all cool for now, you’ll never know when they’ll strike again.

Don’t use Digg as a self promoting platform

The purpose of Digg is not to be your self promoting platform, but to promote quality material. I’m not saying you should not promote your own posts from time to time if you have worthy content, but just don’t abuse it. I’d recommend submitting one of your own pages for every 20 other quality stories you submit. This might mean only 5 of your stories a month, but remember, if the content is good enough, it might get Digged by others too

If you promote your story, be prepared for the Digg effect

Well, most of the hosting providers out there (and all the cheap ones) can’t face the Digg effect. A massive burst of visitors lurking towards your site in just hours (up to 10.000 in the first hours or even more) that is. So, before you try to get your story on home page, be sure you’re prepared. This site for example, is not, as it has witnessed Digg effect before and failed heroically. Even though i use a caching system, which is a must for every Digg home page wannabe story, the site froze each time i was at least near Digg perhaps i should get a better hosting than Dreamhost…

On the other side, prepare yourself for some annoying comments on the posts, as Digg users are known for being some of the meanest out there and there’s no greater pleasure for them than to ravage stories and blog owners

Use Digg tools on your page.

Most of the sites out there have a social bookmarking toolbar. I too have one at the bottom of the post so don’t hesitate to use it if you want to (:d). There are some bigger badges than can be placed in the post (usually right at the end or at the beginning), like those provided by Digg, Reddit or Sphin. What’s the catch in using them? The avalanche effect. Hitting home page on Digg will cause hordes of readers coming to your site, and they are most likely to vote your article on Sphin, Reddit, Stumbleupon, etc if those tools are right before their eyes.

It is definitely possible to hit home page if the content your submitting is really really good. Besides that, there’s no clear guide for reaching Digg’s home page. So, Happy Digging.

StumbleuponAds? Oh really?

Mike — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:47:18 +0000

I just passed on an article today that speaks about an interesting way *(that’s what he claims) of promoting a new blog: StumbleuponAds. I’m sure you’re aware what StumbleUpon is… The social bookmark service, you know…

But, what’s with these Ads? For only 0.05 cents per visitor, you get some new visitors to your blog. OK, that’s cheap. All you have to do is sign in to StumbleuponAds and create a campaign worth at least 50$. And then wait for the visitors to come by(more after the jump).

The problem with stumble traffic is that it comes and goes right away. You get like almost no subscribers, no buyers, no Google Ads clicks, no nothing. Just a huge pile of uniques. So, do i really want to pay for this kind of traffic? No, i don’t. Not when i can get stumble traffic for free, by submitting quality content and wait for it to become viral, after other people have stumbled it too.

I’m going to write a more elaborate article about Stumbleupon and stumble traffic these days, so stay tuned. Till then, StumbleuponAds, not the way i would promote my blog. And it’s not cause I’m a cheapskate, is because i hate trowing money into the wind.

Other people who wrote about StumbleuponAds:

Social bookmark analysis: Fark.com

Mike — Thu, 31 May 2007 10:20:14 +0000

One of the best way of getting traffic online these days is using the power of social bookmarking and social networking. There are two categories of sites in here, the ones that allow you to bookmark your favourite sites and share them with your friends, like StumbleUpon, Furl, Del.ici.ous, and the ones that accept posts submitted by regular users, like Netscape, Digg or Fark. I’m going to take a look at all of them, and analyse them from my personal point of view. Today, it’s time for Drew Curtis’ Fark.com .

This site is a massive compilation of articles and news submitted by users all around the globe. All the submitted links are available for TotalFark subscribers, for just a mere 50 $ fee every year. Only the best stories reach the site’s top page, that is available for every user, and that’s every webdevelopper’s target on Fark.com . Submitting something to Fark is very simple: just create an account and start doing it. But be careful, don’t spam them, as it’s not ethical and it would get your banned. And try to keep you description short and concise.

From my experience with Fark (I had a couple of stories reaching home page, in Geeks section), the editors seem to love weird and unique stories. Posts about the new phone from Nokia or the latest Ferrari might do well on other social sites, but not here. It’s all about crazy stuff, that catches people’s attention right away. That’s why the title is the most important thing you have to take care when submitting to Fark.com.

Fark.com’s home page. That’s your goal!

Fark traffic

Getting on TotalFark might be OK for small sites, as it could get you up to 100 uniques right away. Regularly, the number is a little low. Getting on home page is actually the big break. Loads of users will come to your site in a couple of hours, depending on how interesting the story is and how many comments it gets on the site. This spike lasts only 1-2 days, with the peak on the day you submit it, between 16 PM – 04 AM. That’s because most of the Fark readers are Americans.

As you can see from the graph, my first Fark happened in April, with a tiny 2000+ visitors, but the latest one in May brought many more visitors, with a peak of 4500+ just in the first 4 hours. And most of the visitors come from USA

As for traffic quality, things aren’t so great. It’s true, Fark users aren’t so "ravaging" as the ones from Digg and Slashdot, but after all many more would come from those sites if you were to reach Home page there. I have to mention that i only had stories related to Technology and Gadgets on Fark, so all my opinions here are related to this domain.

First of all, Fark users don’t make page views. No, they just get to the submitted link, read what’s there and then go away. The graphs are a testimony to this. Without making page views, it’s almost sure that they won’t click your adds, not even contextual ones like those provided by Google’s Adsense. CTR would suffer a severe breakdown, depending on the traffic volume. Another thing you should worry about is the "Fark effect" : having many people loading your site in a short period of time might crack your server as long as you don’t have a good one, so be careful before submitting, you might cause your site a lot of damage.

Fark users make very very few page views

But does it worth the effort?

So, why should we submit to Fark.com anyway? It’s simple, for the traffic. Even if you won’t get any clicks, you will still get some (1% CTR if your regular one is around 5%). And the most important thing is exposure. People will find your site, will bookmark it maybe, will join your RSS feed and will even link to your articles if they find them good enough. And all these make the Fark effect great. Not as great as others, but still it worth 100%.

Mike's Quarter - technology and cool gadgets blog » Social networking

Best myspace blog layouts collection

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