WordPress 2.5 released
March 30, 2008
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WordPress 2.5 has been released. Before writing about the release, I thought it would be apt to first upgrade this blog to the latest version.
The new Admin Dashboard is very impressive. The interface has been given a significant overhaul. The upgrade itself was done using the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin, and it was a breeze. The Plugins page detected several plugins that needed upgrades, and all of them were upgraded using the new auto upgrade feature. Very impressive indeed!
If you haven’t yet had a look at WordPress 2.5, check out their screencast.
My first impression is a big THUMBS UP! for the release.
Popularity: 20% [?]
30% increase in earnings from AdBrite
March 29, 2008
This is a follow-up to my post regarding changes introduced by AdBrite to make their ads more visible. I had mentioned that I would do a follow-up a week later to see if there is any changes that I see in the daily earnings.
I’m happy to mention that I do see a 30% increase in earnings over this 1-week period. Whether there is any link to the changes introduced by AdBrite, or its just the cyclic nature of earnings from CPC networks, I don’t know. The bottom-line does remain that I’ve seen a sizable increase in earnings.
Thanks AdBrite!
Popularity: 15% [?]
New project being launched shortly…
March 28, 2008
I’ve been missing from this blog for a while this month. This has primarily been due to two reasons:
- YPOPs!, my open source Yahoo! POP3 server, needed some attention, and will continue to need it for the next few weeks.
- Secondly, my excited to announce that I’m about to launch a new project shortly. It will be a mix between popurls and alltop, with a host of new features. The initial “alpha” launch will be a no frills version which might look a lot similar, but over a period of time, a host of new features will be introduced. The domain has been purchased, and initial alpha code is already being tested out internally. I’ll provide more details as we move along with the project milestones.
Popularity: 14% [?]
Wow! Over $12,000 in prize money…
March 22, 2008
WinningTheWeb has one of the Craziest Internet Marketing Contests You’ve Ever Seen.
The prize money is in excess of $12,000 and 100+ people will be lucky winners when the draw is done on March 31st. Participating in the contest is easy. There is no need to do fancy stuff. Simple things like subscribing to RSS feeds, mailing lists, or blogging about the contest. It’s that simple. Each action provides you with some points (entries) for the contest.
This post not only lets you know about the contest, but is my entry to it as well!
Popularity: 11% [?]
First Payment from Project Wonderful
March 22, 2008
I made my first payment withdrawal request from Project Wonderful yesterday, and received the money into my PayPal account in less than 1 business day.
I’ve found their system easy to use and customize. The infinite bidding system is interesting and works quite well. For today, I’m glad to see some additional money coming into my PayPal account!
You can read my previous posts on Project Wonderful as well.
Popularity: 11% [?]
LinkXL: In-text ads with a difference
March 22, 2008
LinkXL enables web-based publishers and marketers to sell and purchase text link advertising within existing content using a fully automated system. In some sense, this is similar to what is offered by Kontera ContentLink, but with a difference. LinkXL links look completely similar to other links you’ve inserted on your own. There is absolutely no visual difference. In fact, there is no way for someone to figure out that there are paid links on the page when using LinkXL. It works completely behind the scenes. If you’re using a WordPress powered blog, all you need to do is to use their plugin, that’s it! Links will be inserted auto-magically!
LinkXL takes 40% as commission which is lower than what others typically take, which is basically an equal share of the earnings. I am not too sure right now, but I am assuming that you cannot use Kontera ContentLink alongwith LinkXL, as that might violate the Kontera Terms of Service.
Sign-up now for LinkXL.
Popularity: 15% [?]
AdBrite makes some ads display changes
March 22, 2008
AdBrite sent out a communication that they have made some minor changes to the way text ads are displayed by their system. Excerpts from their email:
We’ve recently made a change to our system which allows users to see the URL for text ads running in your standard zone sizes. It will improve click-through rates by showing users exactly where they’ll go when they click on an ad. That in turn will drive more revenue for your site.
With the visible URL, you’ll also notice an “Ads by AdBrite” tag appended to each zone with text ads. This is part of our drive to make AdBrite-powered advertising as transparent as possible.
Whether the click-thru rates improve or not, time will tell. I use AdBrite on some of my sites, so I will be in a position to let you know in a few weeks if this has indeed improved my earnings or not.
Popularity: 12% [?]
WordPress 2.5 sneak peak available
March 18, 2008
Matt Mullenweg has a post on the WordPress blog about the availability of a sneak peak into WordPress 2.5 which is due to be released in a few hours from now.
For the adventurous, a release candidate is already available. WordPress 2.5 introduces a completely revamped Administrator Dashboard, along with several changes to the “Manage” and “Write” sections.
You can read more about the upcoming release at Mashable.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Is bux.to a scam?
March 18, 2008
I read a post yesterday on TechCrunch, which called bux.to a scam. Their source for the news is a Twitter update from Chris Pirillo, who has claimed that he has not been paid over $3000 till date.
I am not the right person to say if bux.to is indeed a scam or not. All, I’ll do is mention a few points based on the TechCrunch post:
- TechCrunch called bux.to a “Pyramid Scheme” . This is completely inaccurate. You get paid for only one level of referrals. Not more than that. This does not make bux.to a pyramid scheme where those at the “top”, make all the money. Its another story that pyramid schemes are not sustainable.
- I don’t know if Chris has a standard or a premium account. I say this because, bux.to typically pays after 60 days for standard accounts and after 30 days for premium accounts. Based on his Twitter post, I guess he has a premium account, but I am not sure of that.
- To call bux.to a fraud based one just one Twitter post, might be too harsh in my opinion.
Well, I am a little biased towards bux.to, because I too have a lot of money yet to be encashed from them! A lot of readers from Online Presence signed up under my account, and I have been averaging a minimum of $20/day to highs of over $35/day on some occasions. You can imagine, that that is quite a bit of money every month.
I’m hoping against hope, that TechCrunch is not right this time! ;-)
Popularity: 24% [?]
Speed Linking: 6th Mar 2008
March 6, 2008
In today’s edition of Speed Linking:
- Two useful posts from BlogWell, titled 100+ Resources for Web Developers, and 100+ Resources for Small Business and Non-Profits, would be of interest to many. It is a treasure trove of useful links. In fact, the resource list gets even better when you read the comments which has a good contribution of links from readers.
- Do you plan your blog posts in advance? If you are not good at planning your articles, read this article to get a good insight on how you can improve your skills in this area.
- Internet Explorer 8 has finally arrived. Rather than opening up a debate on IE8 Vs Firefox 3, what I would like you to do is to see how your blog renders in IE8! There are several changes introduced in IE8, and it would be good for all us bloggers to ensure that nothing is breaking on our blog with the release of a new browser version. Do note that IE8 is still in Beta.
More later…
Image courtesy: Darwin Bell
Popularity: 13% [?]
