Hey WebCrunch Readers,

Today, I found out that I won’t be able to keep blogging for at-least the next 6 months but expecting to be inactive for around two years!

I’m still shocked myself - but there’s nothing I can do other than wait till I get my chance back to start it again. So WebCrunch.info will be suspended indefinitely until further notice, I’ve contacted my website hosting staff and notified them too.

Before I leave, I would like to say thank you for reading this in the first place, and also like to thank the people over at DigitalPoint!

See you guys soon - hopefully

Regards

WebCruncher

Ahh, here’s something that should definitely go on the WebCrunch Unique list. I was stumbling and guess what I came across - WriteSomething.net. At first I was totally lost and didn’t know what to do, but soon did I realize it was sort of like an online chat but not really. You can write up anything and publish in less than 10 secs! No registration or anything! It’s pretty unique and hard to describe so why don’t you check it out for yourself!

I’m putting this up on the ‘unique section’ just because I’ve never come across such a service before, it’s something out of the ordinary

Regards

WebCruncher

You may ask yourself - Where do all those Adsense ads come from? The ads that Google places on your webpage comes directly from another Google program called Adwords. Many of you might already know that but just in case we have a few newcomers on the block. Adwords is where Google sells all the ads it places, both on ther user’s sites and on it’s own search results pages.

If you want to place an ad, I mean a “sponsored link” on selected Google search results pages, you need to sign up for the Adwords program. You purchase your space by selecting relative keywords; when you buy a keyword, your advertisement will appear on the results pages or searches involving that keyword - depending whether or not your ‘bid’ was high enough.

So, if your looking for targeted traffic for your website or weblog - don’t waste your time with worthless “traffic-exchange” programs and viral marketing because simply they require so much work for so little outcomes. If you have a few dollars to invest on your site - your best bet would be signing up for Google Adwords.

Just for the record - if your smart; like me What I do is I spend all the money generated from Google Adsense on my Google Adwords account! Obviously the prices vary and about 2-3 Adsense clicks will earn me a click from Adwords, so the ratio is clearly not in my favour, but it’s a nifty little trick to keep in mind!
.::
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Regards
WebCruncher

Continuing from my previous post about WHY you should blog - I’m going to cover part of the HOW section on this post! You may heard of Blogger.com and Wordpress but here is a list of the most commonly known blog hosting services.

• WordPress.org - Recommended.
• Blogger
• WordPress.com
• LiveJournal
• Blog.com
• ThoughtBlogs
• iBlog
• TypePad

Enjoy!

Regards

WebCruncher

Blogging - it’s been one of the most steadily growing aspects of the Internet and today we have millions of bloggers writing everyday! As many of you are probably blogging yourself here’s on little fact you might have not heard before - there are almost 20,000 blogs created everyday! If you are one of the very few that are sitting out - you should be asking yourself one simple question… WHY?

Blogging can be about absolutely anything, from a personal diary dedicated to your pet mouse to teaching folks how to make a reasonable income online. There is nothing you can’t blog about - if it’s a topic discussable in society you bet there’s a blog about it somewhere on the web!

Thinking about what to write, I came up with a “Top Ten List” on why I think you should start blogging before experimenting with other means of website development.

Countdown from 10…

10) Speak your mind & be who you want to be - Blogging allows users to speak their mind freely - because if someone else doesn’t like or agree with their comments, they’ll just have to bear with it. Bloggers can talk about almost anything and with given time - they will find a group of unique visitors who are interested in the topic. Just for the record - I’ve seen a blog about “How I built my swimming pool” that is considered very successful for anything blog on any niche!

9) Easy to set up - Blogs are extremely easy to set up and it is recommended that when you first enter the world of web-publishing - you start off with a blog, simply due to the simplicity of getting one online as soon as possible. It took me around 12 minutes to set up WebCrunch and get the theme and first few articles published!

Organization hasn’t been simpler - Many website owners struggle to organize and updated their content regularly but with blogging that wont’ be a problem, guaranteed. Blogging allows users to sort their content with tags and categories for future reference or search engine optimization.

7) It’s FREE! - I was deciding on whether or not if I should post this as the “number one reason” because you simply have nothing to lose! Most blogs such as Blogger, WordPress and LiveJournal are all free to use - so you can up and running with no costs involved.

6) It’s simple & It’s CMS - CMS stands for Content Management Systems and it is exactly what it’s name suggests - Helps you manage your content! Blogging makes it very easy for webmasters to write up their content and publish it on the internet without worry too much about HTML, JavaScript and other computer languages!

5) RSS Feeds made simple - If it’s anything that I love about blogging - it would simply be the ‘ease’ of implementing a RSS feed for your content. Many blog hosts come with pre-installed RSS Feed Systems and it can greatly help your readers keep track of the latest articles.

4) Helps SEO & SERP - Their are millions of malicious claims on the internet, but here’s one that might not have proof - but I strongly believe in. Blogs have a slightly better liking from search engines especially Google over normal websites. Why I believe that? I seriously don’t know but I think Google attaining Blogger couple of years back has a indentation on my thinking - let’s put it that way.

3) Uniqueness comes standard - The title is quite an oxymoron (Two concepts that do not go together). Using blogs you can really customize it according to your needs and skill level. Many free and premade themes allow you to bring a sense of uniqueness without knowing too much about coding - but with a little bit of background info you can personalize it to a great new level!

2) Unlimited Features - Plug-ins and Widgets are created almost every day by users like you and me all around the world! Widgets can expand many parts of your weblog and make the reader’s experience quite a remarkable one! Also you can optimize it for performance by incorporating plug-ins that help fine tune your weblog.

1) Make Money while Blogging - No matter what bloggers say, MOST (not all) started blogging with either this in the back of their head or as their complete and ultimate achievement - Earn Money Online. I mean, who can blame them? If you were paid to do something you love - the heck I’d do it and may of us - including me - are.

That pretty much summarizes why I believe blogging is the way to go - regardless of your skill and experience level. Hopefully it has given you an insight on blogging and will help you get started or simply keep you motivated with your blogging career!

Regards

WebCruncher

As your site continues to develop and you build a reputation in the online community, you’ll inevitably find invitations for cross-linking start to appear. The offer seems reasonable: link to their site and they’ll ink to yours. It’s a win-win situation, where you both get links and search engines like links since they help demonstrate a certain level of popularity.. at least it seems like that to the untrained SEO eye.

There are a number of reasons why you should be leery of these link exchanges. Many of these sites that offer to link to you aren’t at all related to your site (these are called link farms in SEO parlance) which means that while you do them a service by linking to them, they aren’t offering anything valuable to you. Usually - and I stress on the word - USUALLY, these pages have high amounts of outbound links and search engines don’t link to many of them either! Additionally, many of these sites automatically remove links a few days after they invite you to cross-link so you’re left pointing to them, while they’ve backed out of their half of the bargain - ADVICE Always check every now and then that your ‘affiliates’ still are linking to you!

Never off links off your homepage for link exchanges is a strong rule of thumb that I go by - and there are valid reasons for you to consider. Your pages, especially your homepage - are highly valuable real estate ad you don’t want to waste it on invitations for visitors to go elsewhere and leave your site. If you’re going to point to other sites, create a new links page and put all the links there. At least now you are warning your surfer and potential customer that they are about to be taken to an external link.

On the other hand, if the site looks interesting, is professional, attractive to your readers and only points to valid and related sites, then by all means swapping links is an excellent idea! Just don’t offer a link on your homepage to every Tom, Dick and Harry that comes past - review and revise every out bound link from your site and this will help you contain much traffic as possible!

Regards

WebCruncher

Shoemoney - as we all know is a big-time player in the world of blogging. So in retrospect I just sent him an email regarding a proposal of some sort of affiliation with me Since we got everything set up - the blog, the theme and the content is steadily flowing, I’ve started to look into real means of getting the word out about WebCrunch.

Places like DigitalPoint, Digg, StumbleUpon and De.li.cous have all contributed to our traffic but nothing too serious. Just for the record: WebCrunch has been online for nearly 1 week and we’ve had 1,116 Unique Visitors from over 50 countries - I guess that’s not TOO bad. Anyways like I said before I’ve sent ShoeMoney an email about us and maybe he can help us out

Hopefully he’ll take it into consideration - we know he’s busy but lets hope he tries!

I’ll post back when he replies and lets all pray its positive!

Regards
WebCruncher

Hmm, have you ever tried to create the perfect logo or type our an unique article - but just couldn’t find the right font? Well if you have, I’ve got good news for you! As you may have realized, I just upgraded the WebCrunch in to a much more ‘cleaner and simplistic theme’ hence all the logos and banners had to be remodeled. I was trying to edit the banner when I realized NON of the default fonts would fit the theme and most of them were horrible to start with!

But don’t worry - GOOGLE to the rescue! Well that’s at least what I thought at first. I searched up fonts on Google but most of theme were still choppy or crappy but have to admit “DaFont” was pretty good. Since Google had failed me for the first time, I started stumbling for Free fonts when I came across “Fonts 500” and “TypeNow.net” Oh boy, Oh boy! These two sites really did have what I was looking for and more!

Naturally, I spent the rest of the day playing around with them and now I’m sharing it with you Hope they do much good to you as they did to me!

Regards

WebCruncher

EmailCash is an online rewards program exclusively for Australians, where you can earn rewards and have lots of fun. I signed up for EmailCash roughly about 2 years ago - but never really paid any attention to it till recently. Watching TV on a normal Sunday morning - I was surprised to a see a TV Commercial advertising about an online program I joined ages ago! So, quickly I ran to my computer and signed in to see that without doing ANYTHING - I have accumulated $30! Simply, this is what had happened - After joining their program I took part in the ‘money making scheme’ which involves ‘points’. You get points for surfing the net, filling out surveys, reading emails, shopping online and playing games! It’s an ‘all-in-one’ experience! Nevertheless, I done a few of them and here comes the unique part - They have an ‘online bank’ where you can store your points and gain INTEREST! So in saying so, I had saved up 300 points and left it in my bank for two years and today it has matured to a amazing 3200 points! The minimum payout is 3300 points which equals $30 and $3 shipping fees!

The surveys can get you anything between 10-1000 points, where 100 points is roughly $1! The emails are 5 cents each and you get about 10-15 a week - so its not that bad. Their eBank has several plans with different interest rates and you can signup for an ‘Gold Membership” for additional features!

So, I’m expecting something for nothing over the next few days - and once I receive it, I’ll inform our readers over here at WebCrunch! So, stay tuned for further updates!

WebCruncher

The ChipIn widget is a simple flash application that allows you to c  collect money for your organization. It is completely free and has many customizable features.

“The ChipIn is a Web-based service that simplifies the process of collecting money from groups of people. We make this process quick, easy, and secure..” - Just as their “About Us” page suggest - they provide a unique and hassle free application service for you to gather funds from your website and for your cause!

The widget is a simple scripted code that has live updates to how much of the targeted amount is collected - with the ‘reason for collection’ and time details posted clearly on the screen. The widget is free to use, but most importantly it is safe and secure for transactions. I suggest you take a look if you are considering on opening up a donation service for your organization - just recapping my favourite feature of this widget - it’s so darn customizable!

Hope you make use of it!

Regards
WebCruncher

Being a webmaster myself - I know the annoyances of hosting a file that you need but it’s not so important on your own server! Simple because at times it can lag or even crash your website server! Believe me - thats every webmaster’s nightmare!

Anyways, I’ve been surfing the net for quite some time and I thought it was only logical to create a list of GOOD, RELIABLE and most importantly FREE online file hosts that I have come to use and experience!

The following lists are personally used by me and MANY, MANY other people around the world!

.:: Image Hosts ::.

• ImageShack.us
• TinyPic.com
• PhotoBucket.com
• ImageBam.com

.:: File Hosts  ::.

• Ripway.com
• Upload2.net
• DataFileHosts.com
• YouShare.com

.:: Video Hosts ::.

• Youtube.com
• Google Video (BETA)
• VidiLife.com
• SupLoad.com

Enjoy!

Regards
WebCruncher

AjaxLoad is least to say a simple - Web 2.0 loading GIF Generator! They have several images that can be inserted into the actual ‘loading phase’ and then the image can be easily downloaded - hassle free!

AjaxLoad has been verified to be virus-free and doesn’t get bunched with other nasty software! You can download it without any doubt - because I have personally tested it myself! We don’t need such a loading application here at WebCrunch but the second we do - I’ll be on that website in no time!

Regards
WebCruncher

IF any of you fellow webmasters out there are planning on starting your own website from scratch - well have I found something for you!

I was stumbling the other day and came across this website - coincidentally - “Web Design from Scratch.” Their name suggest exactly what the site is about! This simple website, with a Web 2.0 feeling to it is very handy even to the most experienced of webmasters - it covers the basics and takes you into deeper parts of Website Development.

When you visit the site itself, notice the clear and easy navgination panel on the left hand side! Starting from Basics to Resources with everything in the middle - Web Design from Scratch has the full package! The information itself is free and anyone can read it up front but has an offer they have a eBook which can be purchased for further information - but there’s a lot of free stuff to learn anyways!

Almost forgot to mention! They have an RSS Feed which you can subscribe and stay updated on their latest additions - so you won’t miss out anything!

Regards,
WebCruncher

The title pretty much speaks for itself! Snooping around the internet - I came across a few handy websites which can be beneficial for any webmaster! The very first addition to “handy websites” here at WebCrunch would be “DropSend” where users can send files up to 1GB in size and even store them online for further use! It’s a great way to host your external files without lagging your main server - and sign up is absolutely free!

They got several packages from FREE to the $99 per month package which includes 500GB OF ONLINE STORAGE! If you have a busy website or blog - personally I think it is much worth the investment.

Anyways, the free account has a 250MB online storage limit but can be easily upgraded! The file size per attachment is 1GB and you can send 5 files per month!

Hope you find use for this nifty little tool!

Regards,

WebCruncher

Many websites are developed sing software tools such as WYISYG Editors and CMS, the downside of this is that most of them hide the underlying details from the developer, file names can end up being quite unfriendly to SEO. Names like “112.html” or “music9.html” demonstrates this scenario.

It’s not that they’re inherently bad, but you’re missing out on another opportunity to reinforce the meaning of each file through its name. How much more logical and understandable is a file called “wood-frames.htm” rather than “wf001.htm”? However the biggest benefit is –Google likes it too!

Regards,

WebCruncher

As weblogs (website + blog) are pouring on to the World Wide Web - 19,000 new ones everyday - , it would be common sense to assume that there are hundreds of blog index sites and directories. Submitting your blog to directories and blog index sites can greatly help you generate organic traffic and also increase your Google PageRank.

WebCrunch has gone through the troublesome task of collecting these sites together into one collective article J Start with the ones listed here and then explore a bit to find more options. One excellent strategy for this is to look at what indices your favorite weblogs list at the bottom of their pages - you should show up everywhere they show up and beyond!

• Google Blog Search - www.blogsearch.google.com
• Technorati www.technorati.com
• Syndic8 - www.syndic8.com
• BlogDigger - www.blogdigger.com
• BlogPulse - www.blogpulse.com
• IceRocket - www.icerocket.com
• PubSub - www.pubsub.com

Hope this will increase your website traffic and ideally generate some extra cash! It may take up to 3-4 weeks for you to be listed on some of these websites so please be patient and don’t give up!

Regards,

WebCrucher

The Open Directory Project, known informally as DMOZ, is an excellent alternative website directory. Found at www.dmoz.org, it’s integrated into a number of different search engines, including Google, MSN, AOL and Yahoo. DMOZ is a volunteer project with voluntary editors; however, getting your site added to a given category depends on your approach and a bit of luck. I’ve submitted about 8 websites and only 6 have been accepted - the other two were my very first tries!

The submission process for DMOZ is typical for a directory site. Your first step is to choose the category best matches your website from the list of possible matches. This can be quite time consuming, particularly if you want to be specific with your listings. The click on “Suggest URL”

Every sub-category on DMOZ is listed along with the number of entries in that category show in the parentheses. For example, the DMOZ category Computers has well over 120,000 listings right now! If you have to choose between two or more appropriate categories, select the category with the least entries, so that your listing has a better chance of standing out from the rest and being noticed!

When you’ve establish in your head the best possible category, click the “Suggest URL” link at the top of the page, and you’ll see a long, wordy input form. Once you come this far you’ll have to enter a description - constructing a good and effective description is very important, and since you’re likely to add your website to other search engines and web-directories - I suggest you save the description for in a warm, dry place! It’s something you should save.

A quick point here, one good place you can include your well-written site description is on your “Link Exchange” page. Remember to keywords effectively when writing your description however make sure it is readable and literate, so that it won’t be rejected by the DMOZ Editors!

That pretty much sums up the use and effectiveness of DMOZ and hopefully this has given you a better insight on how you can use DMOZ to increase traffic, raise your PageRank and thus maximize revenue!

Regards,

WebCruncher

AdSense is the flip side of AdWords. It’s the mechanism whereby the ads purchased through AdWords are displayed on web pages. You’ll recall that when you bid a certain amount on specific keywords through the AdWords program, your ads are then displayed on various websites, ranked based on how your bid compares to other bids for the same keyword or keywords. When running an AdWord campaign, you can also opt whether to have ads displayed on the search network or the content network.

The content network is the network of millions of web pages across thousands of different websites that display Google AdSense ads.

What really differentiates AdSense from more traditional online advertising alternatives is that you don’t have to maintain troublesome ad-campaigns for your web pages. Google finds the ‘best’ ads for your site you with a simple-hassle free guide! This magic is done by the Google relevance formula, the same engine used to compute the best matches for given search.

Let’s make it a bit simpler - say for example, a page that discusses travel and finding hotels in foreign cities will automatically have travel ads included by the AdSense system. So it’s highly unlikely for ads about site about skateboarding, knee surgery, growing roses, selecting an interest-free credit card, or setting up an outdoor thermometer would come.

You get paid each time someone clicks the ad, not each time you display an advertisement on your page. Remember, AdWords prices are based on the number of clicks, not the number of people who saw the Advertisement.

Some keywords are extremely popular and advertisers can bid up to an astonishingly high, over $100 per click. This means that the payoff for AdSense partner who displayed the clicked ad also reaps a high pay off. Other keywords are noncompetitive and the AdSense payoff is only a small percentage of the $0.05 minimum AdWords bid.

Once you’re approved to join the AdSense program, log in and you’ll be able to be displayed on your pages and examine a variety of performance and revenue reports.

The biggest decision you’ll have to make regarding AdSense ads and draw more attention, but it’s also going to be more invasive. You need to pick advertising versus content, blatant versus subtle or perhaps even crass versus ineffective. It’s not always an easy decision but further blogs here at WebCrunch will help you significantly.

Regards,

WebCruncher

InformativePost is simple an online article submission website, where the writer (YOU) gets PAID! You post a 300+ word article on a category that best suits your article, there are six categories and in which each are paid slightly different rates. You’ll be told how much money you get for an article on each category.

BUT there’s more. You can earn up to $15 from traffic that your article brings in. So if you write about a gaming article and bring about 1000 visitors to your page - $20 RIGHT THERE! How easy is that!?

Payout is $25, on the first of every month, via PayPal. I got my first article reviewed and accepted, the very next day to when I submitted it and I got credited $3.31 - haven’t been paid yet because I haven’t met the minimum payout amount but looks very promising and we’ll keep you updated on this!

.:: InformativePost SignUp! ::.

Regards,

WebCruncher

Dear Guest,

• Internet marketing.
  
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
  
• Web development.
  
• Website Discussion.

Probably the most over-saturated niches on the market, abounding with stolen content, scraping, and more. Are you tired of all the regurgitated information?

Welcome to WebCrunch™, the only blog guaranteed to be exactly 64.7% more original than our leading competitors. If you’re out to learn about SEO, Web-Design Tips, and Web Development or simple read anything web-related look no further - we’ve got what you’re looking for.

WebCrunch™ will consistently update our blog with the latest news and reviews - what’s hot and what’s not on the World Wide Web. Our constant expedition to discover the coolest freebies or the latest bargain will guarantee your satisfaction in this ever-growing confusion and potential of the WWW.

Regards,

WebCruncher.