fake traffic bots

Faking traffic to one's website is not done only for ego-boosting reasons ("look how many people read me, ma"), but also for profit. Here we try to show some examples and clarify some myths.

Moar Refreshments (mai multe piscoturi)!

The Romanian word “piscoturi”, loosely translated as “refreshments,” has become associated with the meagre price deontology or blogger ethics commands on the online advertising market (i.e., “piscotareala”) in that many are willing to sell not only their blog, but their soul and their mother’s soul for a few cookies and a coffee. Being a writer is a job everybody would love to have, except the writers themselves. Few other jobs (except maybe acting or singing) have as many people trying and so few succeeding. Being a blogger is somewhat less glamorous than being a writer, at least not in the traditional sense of the (former) word, as it combines traits of several other fields, such as IT, publishing, PR, but it still has a strong creative component. In this article, we take a look at the Romanian refreshment (piscot) market.

OSS WLW and quitter bloggers

As blogging is dying, those of us who still cling to this habit are occasionally baited by news we'd like to think will come true, only to be proven otherwise. One such news items suggests that Microsoft might release the source code of Windows Live Writer or WLW.

Add QR Codes to your Printed Blog Pages

This nifty trick comes courtesy of labnol.

Add Print and PDF buttons to your posts

I see more and more blogs with articles containing an invitation to print it. If implemented properly this can be a significant convenience for the reader and as such it is worth exploring.

Twitter – not a social, but a broadcasting network

A group of Korean researchers studied Twitter and concluded that it's not a social network, as it resembles more the broadcasting model. This has obvious implication for your marketing efforts.

DMCA takedown–Vali Petcu aka Zoso

Once again, I find myself at the receiving end of a bogus DMCA claim (I cannot even ascertain what it is about). This time however, I intend to fight it and document every step of the way, in the hope that others might find it useful.

Adding floating buttons (Facebook, Reddit, Pinterest, Twitter, GPlus) to Blogger

Sometimes, the Blogger provided buttons just don’t work. Here, rather than bother with that, we’ll just make buttons float to the right (though they can also float on the left.

Google Plus vs Disqus comments on Blogger

I have recently learned via an email from Blogger that it is now possible to integrated Google Plus comments with a blog such as this one. Unfortunately, as of yet there is no reaction from Disqus and there does not seem to be possible to have both.

Add Drag to Share to your blogspot blog

On Mashable and other sites, a message "Drag to Share" is displayed when hovering with the mouse on some images and other objects. You can now add this functionality on your Blogger blog as well.

AdSense, Chitika and advertising alternatives

Having covered recently how to modify a Blogger template (i.e., Layout) to add AdSense to your Blogger / Blogspot blog, we shall now look at a different way of placing said ads and also other advertisers, beyond Google’s AdSense.

The Big Freak Bloggers

Newsweek is having a look at the "the most notorious (and often successful)" bloggers. We could not resist the temptation to read this article..

Is buying followers or likes a good idea?

I've recently heard about a "big blogger" - if not in blogging, definitely in volume - who may have artificially inflated his twitter count with fake followers. Intrigued, I decided to take a look at the business of buying fake followers.

Who was Andrew Sullivan in Blogging?

I recently read about some blogger - Andrew Sullivan - announcing his retirement from blogging. I don't care much about celebrities, so I did not think much of it. And yet, this announcement has dominated a sizable chunk of news media, warranting a deeper look into it.

Join the BlogIdol Movimiento!

Paying annually for a domain name is a drag. Getting a free one chains you to your service provider. If you want a domain solution that will not cost you yearly and dearly but you can take with you, we have it right here: introducing The BlogIdol Movimiento (right now in Beta)