I finally installed a Wordpress plugin that allows my posts to be dugg, de.licio.us’ed, reddited, or Yahoo’d (or whatever you want to call it.) This plugin include 12 more social bookmarking sites which were included by default.

Despite all of the social bookmarking sites available, nearly all seem to have a heavy dork-appeal (with the notable exception of StumbleUpon.)

I have a few suggestions for you if you are planning on launching a social bookmarking site.

#1 - Appeal to geeks, but don’t target them. Use them for the links, and then high tail it out there. Figure out what its going to take to get the average Myspacer visiting your site daily.

#2 - Make a few social networking sites, each with a slightly different twist. Whats the extra cost once you have the code written?

#3 - New features are nice but don’t add them just to be cool. New features should either bring in new users or keep existing users addicted to your site.

There are different approaches to social bookmarking. The three most unique services I am aware of are Digg, Del.icio.us, and Stumble Upon. Forget semantics, they all serve the same general purpose: allow users to share web pages with each other.

Internet entrepreneurs have a perfect oppurtunity today to reach the mass market with new social bookmarking sites. What are you waiting for?

As has been posted on Jon’s affiliate marketing blog today, Jai Rajkumar of Azoogle has passed away. He was my affiliate manager until June of this year. More information in this thread on WickedFire.

Where does web site traffic come from? For veteran internet developers this answer is easy.

I created this illustration to help newcomers quickly bridge a few knowledge gaps. Have you ever asked if you should advertise your web site in a newspaper? Yeah, I made this for you.

Although this list is far from complete (adware, one example) it should give you a pretty accurate picture of what works well. Each of these traffic sources has minted many new millionaires in the past years.

Feel free to republish this illustration on your own blog or web site using the html code below. If your not a scraper you may even get a bonus trackback.

<a href="http://www.webpublishingblog.com/major-sources-of-internet-traffic.htm"><img src="http://www.webpublishingblog.com/traffic-drivers.gif" alt="Internet Traffic Sources" /></a><br /> <a href="http://www.webpublishingblog.com/major-sources-of-internet-traffic.htm">Major Internet Traffic Sources</a><br />

I never intended for this blog to have a mass market. I was only interested in attracting motivated internet property owners, both large and small.

Before launching this blog I took a hard look at what I saw as elements of success in other blogs and attempted to replicate them. This meant posting under my real name, interviewing others in the industry, and spreading my comments liberally on other related blogs.

Stage one was a success. Its given me an online identity, allowed me to network with some incredible people, and somehow I am now scheduled to be on a panel with Shoemoney and Jon (who doesn’t use his last name) at Affiliate Summit in January.

Unfortunately, stage two is not looking so successful. Honestly, my blog isn’t very exciting. I’m not a regular poster. Most of my new readers are coming in through industry forum sigs. Good interviews have been lacking for many months (no one commented on the Ari Shohat interview, but that could have been my fault.)

The two “model” blogs which I am looking at now are seoblackhat and copyblogger. These two guys know what they are doing. They are pragmatic about results and not afraid of criticism.

When I launched Web Publishing Blog in September of 2005 I knew what direction I was headed in. This being post #350, perhaps I’ve learned a few more things.

The question is — am I ready to take it to the next step? So many projects demand attention. The apocolypse for hobbyist publishers may be near. As a latecomer to the field, I’m hustling to be ready.

Jason Calacanis has written a blog post about something called “Advertising 2.0.” He asks if the recent spike in online advertising is a bubble. The answer — no, and the growth trend could continue for the next 20 years.

He is dead on when mentioning trends such as old media “audiences shifting from TV, radio, and magazines to the Internet.”

The fundamentals for the internet advertising market are solid. Short of a global recession (there is a slim possibility of that), things are looking very good.

However, just because the fundamentals of online advertising look good, it doesn’t mean everyone is in for a free ride. Just like the past stock market bubble, a bump in the online advertising market could create great buying oppurtunities for those who are prepared. And by prepared I mean people who have been banking their profits instead of bringing in VC.

..you don’t know how much money you will make.

Google changes their algorithm for search, Google changes their PPC algorithm (and then lies to everyone), Yahoo changes their whole Search Marketing system.

If you can’t make an accurate forcast for either your search rankings or pay-per-click rankings.. how do you know what next year will look like, let alone tommorow?

You just never know how much money you are going to make.. and worse, what you are going to do with it when an update nukes your competition and sends you to the top!

A little less than a month ago I made a post about ordering an Adesso ergonomic keyboard with touchpad.

I am happy to report this turned out better than expected. I no longer wake up in the morning with numb hands. I can sit down and work without thinking about wrist pain.

The first few days my hands were sore from the wierd typing position. Even then they were just sore — a big difference from pain. I can lift weights again and do pretty much anything I want.

No question, this was the best $100 I ever spent. One day I am ready to cash out savings for expensive surgery, the next I forgot I had a problem. If you are experiencing carpel tunnel symptoms this keyboard is your answer.

Since there was a little Google-hate yesterday, how about some Yahoo-hating today?

There is an interesting blog post by Jeff Molander over at ThoughtShapers.com about the Yahoo Checkmate PPC fraud lawsuit.

As I pointed out in August when I recieved a copy of the class action lawsuit, the definition of PPC fraud included some interesting additions: unwanted clicks, unqualified clicks, improper clicks, non-converting clicks, inadequately converting clicks.

I thought it was a case of lawyers being sneaky. It was, but not how I thought. Why would non-converting clicks be included? As any PPC ad buyer knows, the majority of your clicks don’t convert! This would be akin to saying my car spedometer says 120 mph but when I start it up, its at 0.

So why would they include all this rubbish in the lawsuit? Here is a possible answer: in my opinion, Checkmate Strategic Group included them to “bribe” Yahoo into settling this lawsuit quickly. Free money for Checkmate: $5 million. Even better, as Jeff points out, everyone was essentially opted-in in to the lawsuit. If you didn’t follow the directions to leave it, good luck.

For Yahoo, they’ve now slipped out of obligations on a broad range of non-PPC fraud issues. Altogether, they’ve paid a tiny price to wipe away a potentially expensive lawsuit.

This story isn’t really about Yahoo or Checkmate or even click fraud. Its about class action lawsuits. You get a few dollars. The lawyers get a few million. Not a bad business to be in huh?

There has been some buzz today about Google’s recent update of their Adwords algorithm. The rumours are that this has been done to squeeze the profit margins out of PPC and affiliate arbitragers.

Thinking back to some of Google’s past algorithm shakeups I wonder if it has really helped them. Radical shakeups have made internet-reliant businesses intently aware of search engine optimization. Is it really better to have an entire industry obsessed with gaming the system rather than a handful of “elite” fighting over gambling and prescription drugs?

Its no secret that Google is working hard to recruit the best and smartest candidates as employees. Is that good enough? Will they create a “god” algorithm or will this be a cat and mouse game for the next two decades?

I am happy with the cat and mouse game. Continual shakeups mean new opportunities. It also means that those who are well-diversified have nothing to worry about.

Here is one for our United States readers. A big election is coming up tommorow. With both parties ignoring your interests staying home has become the most attractive option for many.

CNet published an article written by Declan McCullagh ranking most internet friendly members of US congress (not all are up for re-election.)

I’ve always been of the opinion that past voting records should take precedence over any other factors in an election. If you are on the fence about the election perhaps these rankings will help you make your decision.

“Overall, we rewarded politicians who viewed Web sites and computer software as deserving no more regulation than, say, books and magazines–an approach that handed poorer scores to anyone clamoring for new laws. That principle led us to take a dim view of a call for a federal probe of “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” and a proposal to target social-networking sites like MySpace.com.”

Full article at News.com