Webmaster Tips & Tricks - The Webmaster’s Blog

We have moved the article on the new blog. Please read it HERE.

We have moved the article to our new blog.

Please read it HERE. 

We have moved the article on our new blog.

We have moved the article on our new blog.

We have moved the article on our new blog.

We have moved the article on our new blog.

We have mover the article on our new blog.

I am spending some quality time into working on the promotion of my 17 sites and also some projects I created for my clients. I also have 2 serious SEO jobs right now so I try to build some good links to all these sites. I won’t go into much detail about how I TOTALLY HATE THIS, but we’ll chat a bit about the fact good directories are actually scarce. VERY if we’re discussing Romanian directories.

Many have nofollow on the links, or other weird redirects that won’t make your link have any value, except that of the time you lost forever in that useless junk they call a directory. So many ask for a reciprocal link (mandatory) as if I wanted to put 150 links on my sites so that I can get listed. If I do put a reciprocal I CHOSE what site I link to. Usually it’s something better than a 1000 links general directory with a PR2. That would index my page in a PR0 page so that I can know I wasted my space forever.

Years ago (God how time passes) I created an article on Wtricks (the forums) in which I’d detail what I consider to be a good directory and the things I would have in mind when creating one How to create a good directory.

If I was to make a very short list in here:

1. I look at the theme (sorry, I am a snobbish designer after all)
2. I like a clear navigation system.
3. I want to submit my link for FREE, no account, no reciprocal
4. I like a simple submission, I just don’t have enough time for all kinds of tricks
5. Let me fill in as little details as possible. Let’s focus on my site and not on my personal life, ok?
6. Index my site fast. Don’t make me wait for 3 months. You’re not DMOZ
7. SEO friendly. If I see a nofollow on the links or a redirect I won’t even bother submit.
8. Have some sites listed there. I dislike empty directories.

That would be it. And now .. let me get back into finding those 20 directories that are really OK. I have to promote some international projects too .. oh, the horror. Other lists of directories, checking them, leaving in the list only those accepting links for free, with no account, no reciprocal and transferring PR.

I should hire someone to do this crap …

Today I spent quite some time into building some links and also learning more about my payment options. Since I am a Romanian I have no access to PayPal so I had to look for something else. I read in a forum about MoneyBookers and I tried to register there.

It looks like I was kinda lucky since it all went well. I can even chose the Romanian language, even if I am so used to English that Romanian doesn’t seem natural anymore.

I have a zero USD account so far, but at least now SOME of the people I might make some deals with will be able to transfer money to me. I will keep you all updated on how it’s going ….

There is a saying in my country, that would be loosely translated like this: “Don’t carry a huge sack when going to the praised tree”. And I am getting the feeling that the praised vBulletin script is like that tree that would leave me with an empty sack. But let’s write some more about this.

Many people from the webmaster communities know me for my big love for phpBB. I was “forced” by potential members to buy vBulletin since many complained that a site running on phpBB (even if with a unique theme, you see it now on our forums, and with over 50 hacks installed that gave the script EVERYTHING VB has and some more) is not professional. Some of them are not even able to change a colour in their CSS, but still when they noticed the “powered by phpBB” caption (after minutes of wondering what kind of a script is this one) would immediately diss the project as unprofessional.

Tired of this charade and willing to at least know this script, I made the big move to vBulletin. The moment I changed the forums (even if we did lost many features) some people started noticing the community, and joined because they like a VB script.

I was OK with this too. In the end it’s a good script out of the box, it’s paid, it gives the impression of professionalism (whatever that means to some people). Since I am very serious about this project I don’t regret making the move. Not because the script is outstanding (because it’s far from this), but because I can have more experience in it and can also offer skinning services (which pay well, by the way ).

Back to the issues at hand.

My journey in vB-land started with porting 300+ members and 15000+ messages from phpBB to vBulletin. It went almost OK. Of course the installation guide was hazy and I had to do the import 3 times to make it right. But in the end I managed it. We had a spanking new script to use and I got lost in the admin panel trying to see all the options. It’s huge indeed. So many things I still don’t understand after 1 year. But enough options and features to justify the steep price in the end. Solid script, good first impression.

The second day was a bit more difficult. I had to port the theme we used for only 2 weeks on phpBB. I think I worked for hours just trying desperately to understand why this script hates me so much. But I managed it .. in the end. The CSS system is horrendous for a person who likes a separate .css file, but I kinda got the “moves”. I was able to install a hack to show the right column and then I started changing icons and buttons … the usual work into making the forums not look as the default VB skin.

In the moths that passed new versions were released. I know it’s a good thing to upgrade the script, it’s a good thing to justify those 30 bucks I pay yearly for the updates, but honestly, I’d love less updates and better code when the updates are released. I know there’s a huge army of developers who should justify their wages, but having to upgrade the script almost monthly (or at least at 2 months time) is not the thing I had in mind.

When I was running on phpBB many complained they release too many updates. Well Hello … there have been 1-2 new versions in the last year and 5+ in the VB’s case.

I started being OK with this too, but the moment I wanted to make an upgrade I read some more and was shocked. Wait. You cannot make code changes (as I do in my phpBB sites). And some hacks might not work. Now that’s a problem. I think we have more than 25 hacks installed on the forums already and now I find out that IF I upgrade script I might kill some of them. And that would mean: install another test forum, import data, try an upgrade, see which hacks are dead, try see if they are supported in the new VB version, re-install, look for possible errors. I am contemplating hours and hours of work. The problem is that … I don’t have the time. How can I come up with new articles, threads and graphics, how can I manage clients and forums and still be in time with the updates? We are still on 3.5.5 and I am afraid we’re not moving that fast to any other version. And I just saw 3.6.5 was released

And now… to my latest issue.

As I already mentioned I am a hack freak. I like many features, I am in a constant look for new things to add into my forums. Many of the hacks I installed worked OK. Some were poorly explained in the read me file and I had to spend some extra time figuring out what to put and where. And that comes from someone who installed hundreds of hacks in phpBB forums and other scripts.

The straw that broke the camel’s back came with my attempt to install vRewrite - SEOed URLs for vBulletin.

I tried to keep up with the installation guide, read 100+ pages of the thread trying to amend the code to have results and still nothing. After everything failed I posted in that thread too looking for possible support. Well .. nothing so far for many many weeks. I was thinking of maybe buying VBSEO and some members here are preparing to donate money for us to have this. But now I am wondering .. can we make it work? Will I spend 150 USD for a hack that might not work? And get the same great support I got in the rewrite hack’s case?

And now to these days. After toying with the idea of installing an Adsense revenue share hack I finally made my move. Here are 2 such hacks for the 3.5 series.

vBAds: Sharing System

I chose this one since it had the supported badge. And I thought it’s a good one. Well, the problem is that it wouldn’t show the client ID and I was lucky to have a member notice this. I uninstalled it and looked for another one: Adsense Revenue Sharing 3.5.4 

I spent 2-3 hours to install it and read the installation guide and the thread dedicated to it. The installation guide was almost perfect, except for that it refers to a file that doesn’t exist, as some people mentioned in the topic. And in the code it refers to a file named admin_adsense.php when the file is adsense_admin.php. So if you’re getting a 404 page when trying to make the changes in the admin panel, now you know why.

in adsesne_admin.php you must change everything from admin_adsense to adsense_admin I think … check out the file you should see what is wrong …. and remember to use bob’s plugin and not change showthread file …. everything else is the same as in readme.txt (except editing showthread !!! ) 

This was the solution offered by a member in the vbulletin.org community .. and it works. So from the 2 versions I’d recommend this one. Read that thread with care anyway …
Hope this will be the last badly written code I see. The last problem I have with my VB. And if I have any issues in the future, I have my blog to tell you everyhing about it

Stumbleupon is one of the new “tricks” many webmasters use in order to get some more traffic to their sites. Similar to Digg, but more simple. The main idea is that you install a toolbar for the browser and when you see a site you like you hit the “I like it button.”

For a new site to be “stumbled upon” this means hundreds of visits in the first minutes and then .. silence. Some visits from time to time from people who referred it and that’s kinda all.

Still many use it and they make “deals”: “I vote for your site, you vote for mine” in order to tame this beast and make the traffic high for more than just hours. As in Digg’s case the visits (if too many) can really bring down a server, so this measure shouldn’t be used by people will small bandwidth account.

Now: why do I say I have something against it? Am I crazy? Am I just an outcast who likes to be against this new way?

First of all let me tell you that I USED IT! I was curious to see how it works and yes: for 1 hour I had hundreds of visits (over 100 people online at the same time) and other things that made me “proud”. But the problem is that once the effect was gone I was back to my normal traffic.

1. An artifficial increase

Stumbleupon is sort of a TrafficSwarm, but a bit different. What makes it similar to it in my eyes is the same “artifficial” way of working, and the same useless traffic is brings. I had many visits from it, but NONE turned into a member. And I am afraid to say that I don’t think there are too many returning visitors either.

Most of the people there are to promote their own sites and they move fast to the new link they see. I DID the same thing. I wasn’t interested in joining anything .. just seeing what others have and then close it. I got bored of Stumbleupon fast and disabled the toolbar.

2. Good to “heal some broken hearts”

It can be pretty frustrating to see 150 visitors each day on a new site. We have all been there and we all struggle with these numbers each day. I can understand why some people use StumbleUpon: sure it feels good to have your daily visitors number in just 1 hour. But as soon as the “heat” goes off you’re back to your small numbers.

More frustrated,  but at least you knew how it is to be “successful”. If success lies in these numbers, then go for it. Submit another page of the site (you can do this too) and see again many visitors and then the empty site again.

For a developer who’s not into such “cheap thrills” StumbleUpon is not the way. I have admitted I used this once. I agree: you feel nice, but then I was again with my normal traffic. If you’re working as you should on your site, update it frequently with good info and develop each day then TRAFFIC WILL INCREASE! Not 10 times over-night perhaps, but a constant increase.

You’ll have people to stumble upon your site (in the real meaning, with a link in a signature, a directory link a referral) and your good information might make them come back and even bring in their friends.

3. Possible server issues .. and maybe Adsense problems

If you’re not on an “hefty” hosting account, try not to use this too much. The increased number of visits might make your site use too many resources and get a suspended account. Something like the “digg effect” many people talk about.

Another roumor (never was able to see if it’s true or not) .. a huge amount of visits when you have little normally might make the good people from Adsense suspicious. I heard that it’s not safe to have huge traffic fluctuations. If you use StumbleUpon on a page with Adsense ads you might get some issues. If your page has 10 visits on a normal day and you get to 600 with StumbleUpon this might trigger some questions. Again .. I never had a confirmation of this, but I wouldn’t play with my account anyway.

Overall StumbleUpon is a nice project. I wished I came with this idea, but .. I am not an innovator. Still I am a webmaster who tries to increase traffic each day. I do this by posting in forums, even with this blog. But, even if I would like even more visits, I stick to the traditional ways. If my traffic grows each day bit by bit then I am pleased. I can controll my advertising campaigns better, I can know what works and what not.

PS: Illegal use?

Just got another idea: if I elect a site to promote my creations on or just buy it … don’t you think that it would be quite a problem to pay for the service or site a huge sum (the “inflated” stats would show me it’s “successful”) and then realise that these 1500 visits a day are 1400 from stumbleupon and only 100 real visits?

Did anyone get into this problem? I’m sure I’d be careful in the future when dealing with any site and make sure I ask them HOW much of their traffic is REALLY traffic and how much of it it’s just the nice StumbleUpon trick?

Please read the article HERE