Which is better ?

With the social media getting popular and search engines scoring values to social media links and traffic, it’s become increasingly relevant these days. There are websites being built purely to cash in on social media traffic. They dish out “resource lists” and stories tailored precisely for the social media crowd. And the traffic growth on Alexa are really impressive for these sites.

And comparing this with the search engine organic traffic, I can’t think of a good reason why a webmaster should  not try the social media. After all it’s a good exposure giving you new clients and readers.

But let’s look at how the social media traffic and search engine traffic are different and what is preferable to a website.

Social Media Traffic, the bad, bad side -

• Requires tailor made posts or exclusive stories to make an impression
• Requires a network of social media enthusiasts to help promote
• Is not predictable – it’s quite possible that the crowd will bury/thumb down your story
• Is not completely sustainable, though a part of it remains
• Is possibly less converting if you are into business/service

Social Media Traffic, the bright side -

• Gives you all time highs on your traffic stats
• Give you exposure to new readers/viewers/clients
• Sometimes also gives and increase in revenue

And Organic Search Engine Traffic -

• Is sustainable, gives you equal doses time and again
• Is more converting, though less in number
• Gives you “plateau traffic” (look at the illustration)

I wouldn’t dare to compare both the channels, because both of them have their own powers and significance. I’m not going to say that a website should completely focus on Social Media. In fact, there are a lot of websites I come across daily, which are basically lists of “101 photoshop effects”, “101 jokes” and things like that. I would definitely share them with my network, but wouldn’t want to come back to it later. There isn’t anything I can take back home unless it’s a super-awesome-extravagant post.

And I love the idea that social media traffic can be a life saver some times.Say, you have a dying blog and a single social media article can deliver you stars ! Doesn’t mean I’ll have them everyday but that’s a push, one would enjoy.

Search Engine traffic on the other hand is like a long term strategy which gives you comparatively smaller doses of traffic, more converting and healthy subscribers on a daily basis. Search Engine Organic traffic really counts how successful you are.

It would be a dangerous thing to completely focus on either one of the channels. Ideally, I’d say one should focus on Organic Search Traffic by publishing search engine friendly content on a regular routine and try out the social media channels in between, to give those booster shots. A healthy combo of both search engines traffic and social media traffic would be the key to a successful site/blog.

Damn, I should’ve re-written this post as the “12 Reasons Why You Should Not Ignore The Social Media”. Next time.

Yahoo Answers is an interesting place to get quality traffic from. Have you been using the service yet?

Well, it’s a nice service they’re running out there and is the only service (apart from flickr) that I regularly use from Yahoo.

On Yahoo Answers, people ask all sorts of crazy questions. Yep, really crazy ones. I’ve seen some one ask - “Where are my car keys?” But that’s an interesting observation. It could be a meaning less one now, but 10 years from now, similar questions would make more sense.

Now, how is Yahoo Answers a good tool for generating traffic?

The modus operandi is like this.

- You enroll as a member at Yahoo Answers. This means that you can ask and answer questions. There are no criterions that screens if you are a qualified authority or not (which is both good and bad.).

- There are different categories in which people ask many questions. You select the one/ones that you are more interested in, and think you can answer.

- Go through the questions asked there and answer them.

You earn points for each question answered. And if the person who asked the question like your question, he may select your answer as the best one and you could win extra points for it. And you have a ranking system based on the total points you earned, where you get to jump levels as you score more.

Now, why Yahoo! Answers? 

- There are lot of novices over there, who are genuinely looking for quality information.
- Yahoo has an option to provide a link (nofollowed) to your site while answering a question that serves as a reference to the answer. 
- Lot of people are asking questions - while only some of them are answered completely.

I think this is a place where lot of potential subscribers come. A novice or a person who is genuinely interested in solving a problem is more likely to subscribe to your feed than a learned guy (who you found on another blog.)

So, if your site has good and informative content, it’s a great model that works.

Find your target audience —> Answer their queries —> Invite them to the source of information —-> Get them subscribed.

Aren’t you misusing the service Mani?

Not really. Well, the idea of Yahoo Answers is a meeting place for knowledge seekers and knowledge providers. If you do it the right way, obeying the staff guidelines, it is a great place to gain knowledge.

Here are some suggestions that will help you earn a good reputation.
- Answer only relevant questions, that you think is within your knowledge level.
- Be specific to the question and give in all the details and sources that is relevant to the question.(Not everything that you know)
- Never give your site link if it doesn’t have any information about the question asked.
- If some one has already answered before you, don’t repeat the answer. Probably give the guy a thumbs up.
- Appreciate efforts from others, never get into arguments.
- Feel free to give the link from another site that you think has the information the questioner is asking for.
- Obey the staff guidelines.

Essentially, Yahoo Answers is a good tool to generate some quality traffic, if you spent the right time on it, answering some quality questions. Don’t expect a huge traffic but it will trickle down slowly as you build your reputation. And, whatever comes in would be quality traffic and the conversion ration will be excellent. Try it out setting a goal on Google Analytics. 

Last day, at a seminar,  I was about to give a presentation on SEO, and to break the ice, I asked a question - “Which is the one website that you can’t afford to visit a day.” As obvious, I was expecting someone to answer - Google. But he came up with an answer that stunned me. I’ll never ask that question again. :D

What happens when you overdo things? You reach the dead end. Sometimes you get stuck just because you have too many ideas in your head, sometimes because you just had too much of what you were doing. All of us need a break at times, from blogging, from researching, from calculating and coding. Luckily, there are lot of junk sites available on the net, that will help you wile away your time, just like the guy who answered me.

Just managed to create a list of those sites which will help you get a break from your chores and at the same time give you that extra juice to be more productive at work. Whenever I face a readers block, I visit these sites and all the time, I manage to get an idea or two to blog from each of them.

	Windows Live Search Now this could come as a surprise right? The reason why I select Windows live search is that it throws up weird results unlike Google, so it’s kind of fun to play around with it. Type in whatever comes to your mind, hit search and it will give you the weirdest results.
	Digg It’s interesting to see the top stories on Digg. What I personally like is to study the pattern of the top dugg stories. Doing a search to find the top stories dugg, and the top stories buried itself will give you great insights on how to create popular articles on your blog.
	Go Daddy This guy is my favorite. When I search for a particular domain, it throws me the synonyms, the antonyms and everything in between. Most of the times, just to see the results, I do a interesting domain name search.
	Seth Godin Of course you know what the man is all about. But what I admire at his blog is his writing style and how he manages to inspire you with his outstanding persona. Read a few posts from his yester years and you’ll get some awesome ideas to blog.
	Smashing Magazine These guys rock! If you ever wanted to learn what “Digg oriented stories” are, you better learn from them. They have enormous list of the coolest stuff on the internet, that you can’t deny bookmarking them. A reference point anytime.
	Mashable Pete Cashmore, does it best! One of the top websites in the world, with a traffic any website will envy for. They have all the upcoming web 2.0 stuff with them and no one misses their radar. One stop shop for all the trendy and coolest stuff online.
	ProBlogger Everybody knows him. What I’m more interested in the site is it’s archives. A read at the archives provides you with insights on how to write articles the popular way! Reading the archives is like taking a tonic !
	Gizmodo Ever felt guilty of not being able to track the latest arrivals in the technology front? Just visit gizmodo and the next day you’ll be the winner at office chats and discussion boards. Valuable information, every first time. all the time!
	Stumble Upon Another favorite of mine,perfect to wile away your time, if you are running out of creative juices. One look and a few stumbles can rejuvenate you just like an ayurvedic massage !
	Flickr We all know this guys cool ! What I’m personally interested in is browsing the flickr collection through the flock browser. If possible I favorite a couple of pictures that I could use on the blog. Good one to wile away time, productively!
	Blogging pro Everything for wordpress is here, widgets,themes,plugins,tweaks,hacks and what not? Blogging pro has links to all the resources here, perfect for bloggers, who want to spice up their template every single day.
	Lifehacker Tips, tweaks and news on technology. Gina manages to put in every information possible, on the above updated daily. Perfect if you’d like to learn how to write a technology blog.
	Digital Point forums Got a domain to sell? Have doubt on installing a software, Got Adsense doubts? There are guys here waiting to answer you. It’s like the song by scorpions - You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!
	Yahoo Answers A great place to check your proficiency in any selected category. People ask questions there, if you take the role of an advisor, people rank you for the quality of answers you provide. A great place for knowledge sharing!
	Deviant Art Great place to rejuvenate yourselves with some art. Got loads and loads of stuff you can stare at and feel the awe! If you had enough reading text stuff, this is the place to be. A visual treat for your eyes.
	Ouch My Toe Another personal favorite of mine. This guy knows what’s comedy to you and what’s not. I can bet that he’ll make you laugh in the very first read. A good place to start your day or  escape from that stressful day.
	Google Blog Search Another great place to find interesting blogs. If you’d like to read a bit more on your niche topic and see what the competition is like, you better go here and search for related stuff. No no technorati here!
	Wordpress plugins database If you are on wordpress, you’d want to visit this place too often. Because this is the official place for all the plugins and latest arrivals. If you love to tweak your template too often and play around installing new plugins, go for it!
	A list apart No idea what’s CSS? Bad design skills? Then it’s high time you visited this site. You don’t need to know CSS deeply, but this guy will help you get a taste about it the standard way. Can get a bit boring after a few visits, but worth a visit in a while.
	Web master world One of the oldest forums around. They have both amateurs and professionals as members so you might want to indulge in. What I like personally is the conflicts and debates there. You gain yourself some knowledge being involved in it.
	Lorelle on Wordpress If you are looking for quality articles on blogging then this is the place to be for some inspiration. There could be some repetition here and there, but overall a great place to be when running out of ideas to blog.
	Facebook My favorite social networking site. With it’s rich applications and great network of members, it’s a great place to network with professionals. Yes, there are lot of junk applications available but if you know how to maintain a professional and serious profile, this is the place to be.
	Top youtube videos If you’re looking for some fun, this site is the best choice. It lists the top videos on Youtube, under various categories and it’s updated regularly.
	Download Squad This is a blog about computer related stuff. There are lot of software review and download sites available but this one stands out because of it’s quality. A visit will give you access to some cool softwares and tools which you will miss otherwise.
	Webware This is a great site for updating yourself on web 2.0 application and it’s tweaks. If you don’t want to be lost out on the web 2.0 front, you better grab these guys feed. If you are running out of ideas to do review applications, this guy can help you.

It’s easy to scrap your friends in Hindi. With the Indic  Transliteration technology combined with Google suggest, it’s even more easy now.

Go to the Indic transliteration technology page here and type in your hindi words in english.

Hit space and the word shows up in hindi.

If you want to get more suggestions on the word, then double click on the hindi transliterated word and a drop down list (like Google suggest) shows up with the possible variants.

Copy down the text in hindi and scrap your friends on Orkut.

Picking a wordpress theme can be tricky especially when you have with one million options to chose from and another million of websites offering the same theme in different shades. I thought I should have a list of them for reference so that I don’t have to go around trying to find the best one whenever a client needs one. Here are the best of the best free wordpress themes available on the net that are SEO friendly, Free and cool at the same time.

Prior to that, here is an expert opinion on - Why your theme should be SEO friendly?

Web Site Theme- Is your sites theme search engine friendly?
by: Dawn Rowlett

Your websites theme is very important to its success. When your site is indexed by search engines, they actually review your sites theme as well as other content. The theme must be carefully planned. Here are some tips for developing a proper web site theme that will make search engines happy as well.

Choose a design that revolves around keywords and keyword phrases. For example, if your sites keywords are sporting goods, choose design elements that are associated with sporting goods. Use bright colors such as red and yellow. Use elements that are high impact and exciting, similar to thoughts associated with sporting goods.

Focus on the types of products, services, and information you seek to promote. You are selling sporting goods, not bedding. Focus on sporting goods and stay on that approach. Don’t get side tracked with a certain color theme you favor. Make your keywords the main focus of your theme. Make them bigger, and make them stand out against all the other content.

Search engine spiders review website theme as to how it relates to keywords. It is a complicated algorithm, but it takes into consideration the use of keywords and links. Search engines look for lots of content related to the main theme throughout the site, so it’s a good idea to have lots of information written for your site.

Lots of work should go into choosing the perfect theme for your site. Make sure you are truly representing what you wish to provide. If you get bogged down with too many keywords or keyword phrases, you may need to consider additional websites that focus around this theme, instead of flooding your own site with too many products.

Remember, the theme of the website should be appealing to users as well as the search engines. Once a theme is finalized, there are many more steps to make your site optimized for search engines. A theme is only the beginning. But it should be a strong foundation from which your site will grow and develop.

This article was written by Dawn Rowlett of Web Submission Services as an informational piece for website owners. Please visit Web Submission Services for more information about web site theme and search engine optimization techniques

	Template/theme name	Screenshot
1	Your blog 2.0 theme
2	Cutline 3
3	Sodelicious black 10
4	Pop blue
5	Lose my mind
6	Procut 1
7	Big blue
8	Shopaholic Fashionista
9	Fresh Apple
10	Tech 9
11	Limau Orange
12	Modern Paper 1.0
13	Gangway 1.0
14	Blue Earth 1.0
15	01 Dragee 1.0
16	Redie 3.0
17	Magazine 1.0
18	Fleurdelys 1.0
19	Ice 3.17
20	Wp Inspirat
21	Arrow 1.0
22	My journal hypereal
23	Blue Pix
24	Simple la Bob
25	Upstart blogger modicus
26	Box set 1.0
27	The ideal website 1.1
28	Blue Bird 1.0
29	Modern blue Green
30	Colors Idea 2.1
31	Fastway 1.0
32	Unthemed Clean Blue
33	Blue Meanie 1.1
34	Spotlight 1.3
35	Breaking News 1.0
36	Prosumer 1.4
37	Stardust 1.0
38	Techozoic 1.2
39	Classy 1.0
40	A screen near you 1.0
41	Drikattruu 1.1
42	TM Clear N1 1.0
43	QWILM
44	ADReu Theme 1.2
45	Ambient Glo 1
46	Book idea 1.1
47	Genki Theme
48	Shinra house blu
49	Cresto 1.0
50	Deep red 1.0
51	WP Zilla 1.0
52	Emerald 1.0
53	Ajax Berlee 1.0
54	Red Dodo 1.0
55	Simple Theme 1.1
56	SB Blanc 1.0
57	Minus 19
58	Freedom Green
59	PS3Ku 1.0
60	Firstd 1.0
61	Light Col 1.0
62	Mc Mac 1.0
63	Rojo
64	New Yorker 30
65	Liquid 2.0
66	Basic Concept 1.0
67	Patriotic 1.0
68	Natheless 1.0
69	DS Rosa 1.0
70	Non Zero Green
71	Durable 0.2.5
72	Tree V2
73	Cat sitting on a wall
74	Zen minimalist
75	Blue Zinfandel 1.0
76	Bloody gray 1.1
77	Simply Basic 1.5
78	Livingos delta 1.2
79	Insomnia Reloaded
80	Vertigo Squared 1.0
81	FH Freedom Blue 2
82	Karma fruit 1.0
83	Tranquility 1.0
84	Kiwi 1.0
85	Rale 1.0.2
86	Scroller Brown 1.0
87	Clementine
88	New typo 1.0
89	Barracus 1.0
90	Dipdolt white
91	Sammy 1.2
92	TM 3 0.7
93	KISS 1.0
94	Fauxed 1.0
95	Newsday 1.0
96	Orange scale Laila butterfly
97	F nice 1.0
98	Plain text blog 2.0
99	Descent Green
100	Dixie Belle
101	Yakuter Tema

Hope you enjoyed the collection.

The robots.txt file is used to control the crawlers activity on a website/blog. It will help you to keep some directories away from crawling while allowing some. For example if yu have two folders 1.Articles and 2.Javascripts - and if you wish to exclude Javascripts from crawling by robots, then you can command it on the robots.txt file.

A few basics about what the robots.txt file is -
- It is found in the root folder, Ex:-www.google.com/robots.txt
- It’s a text file and can be edited
- It is used to command the robots what to crawl and what not
- It is used to help the crawlers locate the sitemap on your site

If you are on blogger platform, then you can’t upload the robots.txt file. Panic not - there is another option which you can utilize. I’ll discuss it towards the end of this article. First let’s discuss a normal robots.txt implementation on a hosted site.

Implementing the Robots.txt file on a web-hosted site(Wordpress)

Pre-requisites - I assume that you have a wordpress hosted site with Cpanel/FTP access.

- Find the file at your public_html folder. If it isn’t there, create a blank text document.

Excluding a folder from crawling by SE bots.
Suppose you don’t want Google to index one of your folders.
In the robots.txt file, you have to specify two things - which crawler agent(Google, Yahoo, MSN) do you want to keep out and - which folder/folders you want to exclude.

The general syntax to be written in the Robots file is this.

User-agent: *
Disallow: /yourfolder/

Here, user-agent:* means all search agents(Google,MSN,Yahoo etc).
/yourfolder/ restricts that folder from crawling. Note that the sub-folders will not be crawled too.

In order to keep all agents away from crawling ALL folders, use this code.

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

You can specify individual crawler agents with their names(replacing *) like google bot,lycra etc.If you are following a general command to all search engine crawlers, keep the * in the user-agent line.

Specifying a sitemap with the Robots.txt file
Due to the recent agreement with the major search engines, they have come up with a common command that they will follow to detect sitemaps from robots.txt file. The command is -

Sitemap: Sitemap url here

Robots.txt for Blogger users.

Blogger users cannot upload the robots.txt file instead, they can use the robots meta tag to control the crawling of bots on particular files.

These codes should be included in the HEAD section of the particular page template.(Enclosed in arrow brackets)

META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOINDEX”

This command will not index the current page in which this code is included.

META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOFOLLOW”

This command will not follow/parse the links present on the particular page where this code is present in the head section.Blogger users can use this option to their advantage when making posts.If you want every new page to be crawled by the bots, include the following code to head section of your blogger template.

meta name=”robots” content=”index, follow”

Happy driving the robots.