The Bloggerazzi

Image is Everything

2008-02-03T11:19:00.000-05:00

These pictures are business networking cards, listed on Entrecard. They are suppose to represent their blogs category. One card is listed in gaming, one in careers and the others in making money online. I can decipher the marketing behind using a hot girl to influence a click, but nevermind how degrading and humiliating it must be to have to use that image in hopes of clicks. What about the guy pics? Do those images really say "click me, I know the way to make money online?" Your image represents you, your blog and what you have to say to the blogosphere. Do we really take these blogs seriously upon first looks? Are you clicking out of curiousity or do you believe they have the answer you're searching for? I'd be surprised if they were pulling in hundreds of visitors because the image told me it's a waste of time to visit these make believe blogs. And those blogs might have the answer; Originality and fresh perspectives.

Image is everything. It's your first impression or your last introduction.

John Chow Controversy Is Good Marketing

2008-01-28T00:41:00.000-05:00

Everyone must know the comment John Chow made about Entrecard credits. How many people mentioned it in their blog? How many devoted an entire article about it? Well Kudo's once again to John Chow for hyping his name and getting everyone to talk about him. This marketing genius made one controversial comment and spun a web that touched thousands. The JohnChowlogist were upset that you were talking about their leader and tried to clarify his Entrecard comment; The antagonist wrote articles about it, therefore providing free advertising and tons of traffic back to his site; And his pseudo-followers, who have no interest in him, other than replicating his success, took a back seat and commented on everyone’s site looking for a backlink.

At first, I didn't understand why everyone was in an uproar over this comment. I visited John Chow dot com, read the article and continued onto several sites that wrote about this Entrecard comment. There were so many write-ups that I wondered if John Chow would rebutt, and he didn't. He watched everyone talk about him; mention his name and give him attention. He thrives on his name being thrust into the blogosphere. But the question remains, is John Chow's comment accurate? And did bloggers dislike the comment or the commentator?

The Big3 Review

2008-01-24T13:12:00.000-05:00

Today, I'm pointing out the Big3 to visit. CK Marketing, MakeMoneyOnlinewithEJCooksey, and ImpNerd.

EJ Cooksey recommends information to help build and monetize your blog. Affiliate Marketing to Link Love and Traffic, you’ll find a wealth of information to help you. Now, as you already know, all of the marketing and money making blogs will offer you the same basic information. It's about different perspectives that you should look for. Each person has their unique way of building their site, so while the idea *may* be the same, you want some different concepts and different research methods to help you. Colin King, aka CK Marketing offers up advice and recommendations on things we've forgotten, such as "Deep Linking Comments" and “Social Networking.” I came upon ImpNerd’s website and love the easy flow and design. Simple and easy to read, no overbearing advertisements and the articles are fresh and new. Although, he is a typical Wordpress lover, I did enjoy the article “3 Easy Ways to Create Templates.”

So why do I recommend these 3 sites? Because all 3 offer help to make life easier for the novice to the more advanced. I give all 3 of these sites a Wink and a Nod. They all deserve a rank of 4.

I’m begging for someone to please add some tips for the “Blogger” AND the Wordpress sites. I know you’re a lover of Wordpress but hey guys! Many newbies use blogger! Cumon! Please!

Bloggers Magazine...Visit this blog!

2008-01-19T21:17:00.000-05:00

One of the best up and coming blogs you must visit is the Blogging Magazine. His categories range from Making Money to Increasing Traffic and everything in between. It's definitely a journey you want to take to help build your site.

The home page jumps out at you with his impressive lists of 26 Wordpress tools to help build your blog. But I must admit, my one concern is that he leans solely towards Wordpress. I'm sure there are many "Blogspot" readers that would enjoy learning tips and tricks. Next, one of his articles that stand out is the "11 Tips for Leaving Comments on blogs Which Get Noticed." He provides something new and different to read and shows that he is thinking out of the box. I thoroughly enjoyed this site. You can see how much effort he puts into this blog. The design is sleek, no overbearing ads and flows nicely. While this site is too new to get pageranked by Google, I suspect the site will grow dramatically in the next 30-90 days. He is Worthy of a Wink and a Nod. I give this blog magazine a rating of 4 and look forward to some tips for "Blogspot" users that will complete this site.

Forgotten Blogs

2008-01-19T15:16:00.000-05:00

These blogs have not been updated in more than a year, and the domain names are not available.

Last year, I wanted to start a blog called, "BloggingforDollars", but the name was already taken. This happens to the best of us and we move on to our next creation. But lately I began to wonder, what happens to those forgotten blogs that we become disinterested in and leave behind? What becomes of the domain name? It's much different when you purchase your own domain because you get a notice informing you of expirations. However, the free blogger systems don't expire the domains you choose. So although you have forgotten that first blog and sadly left it behind, the name continues on. The problem? Unless you delete that blog, no one can use that domain name. What a worthless effort to have a great idea and the name you intend on assigning your new blog is being held hostage; What's worse is to find out the blog that bears the name you desire has not been updated in years. The last entry is from 2004? The easy route is to see if any email address is listed and send a message to the owner. And finally, try emailing the host system and see if they can help you free that domain and make it proud!

How Now John Chow?

2008-01-19T05:07:00.000-05:00

The Bloggerazzi stalks hundreds of blogs per day, separating the worthy from the wannabe’s. But blogging is big business where traffic rules. Affiliates will back crappy sites with the hopes of clicks and forget good content. Our blogging evangelist, John Chow encourages his disciples to create cookie-cutter sites, throwing up ghost-written articles and monetizing. Is that the expectations for today's blogging preneur? What about instrucing them to write quality content that they didn't cut and paste from another blog? Darren Rowse once quoted the internet being a place for elitists; however, I believe that message was lost in translation. For the founding bloggers whom became successful, it's about content and serving as a resourceful authority. The message becomes cynical when the evangelist, John Chow can get comments from his disciples after reviewing a restaurant. And more and more idiots bow and follow him, and he laughs all the way to the bank. Most of these newer blogging preneurs are nothing more than wannabes, serving no function other than advertising mirrored rip offs, all in the name of the Benjamin’s. Blog after blog delivers a "money making, traffic building" message that we clearly understood during our visit to the first 5 blogs we ventured into. And how many sites must I visit to understand that I can make money writing reviews from PayPerPost, SponsoredReviews and ? So I ask, How Now John Chow? Your disciples need wisdom to thrive with new ideas.

BlogZenith.com

2008-01-18T10:37:00.000-05:00

Another site where your expectations are met. BlogZenith.com taglines says it all. “Blogging Essentials for the Beginning Blogger.” Several articles caught my attention, but one that stood out was “Bad Neighborhood,” which includes a link to a text link checker. Pay attention to this article. It’s worth reading. It details which sites you are linked to and which ones are detrimental to your page rank. A bit of humor or perhaps intervention is well mixed into the site and you should check out “How Addicted to Blogging Are You.”

My only apprehension is that the site leans to WordPress users and doesn’t incorporate more information to other free blogging programs. If you are providing the essentials for beginning bloggers it should represent a broader audience or change the tagline to include for WordPress. For example, in the article “What are WordPress Permalinks,” it obviously instructs only WordPress users how to benefit from their permalinks; however, I would like to see a mirror article for those using Blogger.com. This would present this site to become an authority for beginner bloggers. Overall, BlogZenith.com contains useful information and links to many blogging tools. The articles are easy to read, short and to the point. The design of the site flows nicely and boasts some healthy traffic numbers. This site is Worthy of a Nod. I give it a rank of 3 for now.

NiggyBuzz.com

2008-01-18T09:44:00.000-05:00

This title bothers me. It doesn't represent the blog and what is the meaning of NiggyBuzz? The first thing I notice is the site is full of grammatical errors. What’s ironic is there is an ad on this site for an English Writing tool that check’s for spelling and grammatical errors. Why doesn't he use it?

I began reading all of the articles posted on this site and it appeared there were multiple authors supplying content. The articles read differently. For example, I enjoyed reading 7 Days to Better Blogging and Start Trading in Less than 5 minutes but then I read Earn Money with Clickbank and the flow of these articles tickled my Spidey senses. The first two articles are clear and concise and the last one mentioned is disjointed. Aaah...Reprints! Start Trading in Less than 5 minutes is a pay-per-review write-up. The author should either use the product or do some research before the write-up. Skilled and talented writers can get away with promoting a product with any real knowledge. You must practice one or the other in order to be believable and promote the product. With some digging, I found the same article with the same exact wording located in Hubpages.com and several other websites. This author took snippets to create this write-up. Now, while this is not unheard of, it is only fair that you notate another author’s work or you simply summarize your research, as he does on his other re-printed articles. Therefore, the Forex Trading write-up did not present an honest opinion or first hand knowledge. It is a junk write-up but affliates don't seem to check these things out.

While some of his articles do contain useful information, any written by him contain grammatical errors and this hinders the message. I found many paragraphs were redundant, which will frustrate any reader and the site loses any appeal quickly. Ironically, he writes in one of his articles about throwing up a site, placing free content and the loss of effort in your blog. This is exactly what he’s been doing. The author needs to re-evaluate the style and flow of his content. This author is a Wannabe! I give this site a rank of 1.

Blogging4Cash.com

2008-01-17T22:17:00.000-05:00

My first visit to Blogging4cash, had me thinking, “Oh, no. Not another car header. I hoped this would not be one of John Chow’s devotees,” then I continued to examine his site and my impression immediately changed. His articles are insightful, providing useful, new information. I learned of new affiliates and advertising venues, like Focial and PepperJam Network and he captured my attention with the easy flow and design of his site. Blogging4Cash.com began this site almost 3 weeks ago and is destined to be a significant contributor in the Blogosphere. Read his Two Week Report, which tracks his progress and if nothing more, should motivate everyone that with hard work you can accomplish an outstanding blog. I recommend you visit this blog and use some of suggestions. This blog deserves a Nod and a Wink! I give it a rank of 4 out of 5.

Digital Filipino.com

2008-01-17T21:45:00.000-05:00

We chose Digital Filipino to kick off the Bloggerazzi reviews, eager to see their list of Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs. The title leads one to believe there is much in store for the visitor; however, it’s misguided. The portrayal of this blog does not match any of the articles and I’m at a loss for their target audience. The design is very simple; nothing that stands out and grabs your attention, yet they boasts a Google Page rank of 4, which at the time of this posting was untrue. The page rank was 0. The title of her blog has the potential of massive traffic but for the disappointment of her articles. And, her blog was found in a Celebrity category on Entrecard. I tend to think she should target the blog towards Careers. While this blog is not a Wannabe, it is not Worthy of a Nod. I give it a rank of 1 out of 5.

Reviews Morph from Honest Critique to Paid Flattery

2008-01-16T11:24:00.000-05:00

Over 100,000 new blogs are created every day. Some for personal journaling and others to provide a resource to the blogoshere. But with the influx of paid reviews, we’ve lost our ability to tell the truth skillfully. Reviews have morphed from an honest critique to paid flattery. What should the critic’s role be? Providing glistening reviews and let the over-inflated contender continue to be a sham? Or do you ridicule, point out the flaws, and watch them struggle or revitalize? We serve the community and just as any other reviews, you take it or leave it.

Bloggerazzi Rating System

What are we looking for? Value, Service and Good Looks. Do you provide quality content or copyright infringement? Are you a Wannabe, plugging your blog with someone else's hard work? Does your blog flow nicely? Easy to read or hindered by overwhelming ads? Our system works on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being a star among many. Will we retract or change our review? With a good argument and enough community votes, we will review our critique.