Get Traffic from FriendFeed

I’ve been using FriendFeed for sometime now. (I can’t track when exactly.) But it is only today that I’m planning to use it for promoting my content and, perhaps, getting more networks. According to a few well known personalities in blogging and socialmedia (I won’t be giving names but I think some of you know who the heck these people are who takes FriendFeed as the holy grail of their blog traffic), FriendFeed can give your blogs and socialmedia profiles better exposure and following hence converting to traffic, which I can’t be sure if monetizable or not. Besides the potential to promote my blogs better, I think I’m giving FriendFeed a try because it enables me to follow people and see their select online activities that they chose to share with FriendFeed, which I can look at and see if it has any use for me. Also it provides a nifty search function which enables me to search through community exchanges which Google can barely provide.

FriendFeed, basically, for those who aren’t aware of it, is a social aggregator that sucks in all your activities across different socialmedia services. People can then see what you’re up to online through these collected services and decide if they subscribe and follow your feed. Also called “lifestreaming”, there have been a bunch of other sites that provide the same service of which BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog are examples. What separates FriendFeed is that it provides better functionality than the rest, which enables you to manipulate a chaotic flood of noise into a filtered and organized content that’s more digestible.

Similar to other socialmedia sites out there, to get better exposure in FriendFeed’s system, you need to follow people and have followers as well. You need to have an active feed so that you won’t get buried by other’s feed. It’s often not difficult to get a constantly active feed since your activities from other sites, such as twitter or digg, will count inside friendfeed too, although you might want to do actual activity inside so that other users won’t brand you as a “poser”.

Ultimately, I’m writing this short FriendFeed article to get my profile some exposure. To see how much of a slacker online I’ve been lately, you can visit my FriendFeed profile. And maybe follow my feed so that I could also reciprocate. Additionally, I’m also looking at the possibility of having digg and stumble campaigns inside, although I’m not very optimistic that it will yield favorable results. Another benefit that I could think of from using FriendFeed is that I’ll be able to be updated with these people who’ve been inviting me in Twitter without necessarily joining Twitter. (I’m having second thoughts about this whole “microblogging phenomenon” because I see it as just another attention demanding tool that I have to struggle with.) It’s all just experimentation stage between me and Friendfeed for now. Hopefully, it’s going to be a worthwhile experience.

I know I haven’t covered FriendFeed enough to enlighten those who are new to it. I just don’t want to make any tips and/or recommendations to something that I haven’t tried and tested to a certain extent. If you want to know more about it, here’s a detailed guide on how to use FriendFeed. Alternatively, if you like to know more about how FriendFeed can enhance your web experience, here’s an article about FriendFeed’s great features.



technorati tags: friendfeed, socialmedia, traffic

Get More Comments, Technoratti Love, and StumbleUpon Exposure with these Links

Recently, I just installed the SezWho script for Entrecard. The adoption of this new entrecard program is basically to give my commenters, especially the entrecard users, a way to get some precious credits while commenting here. I’ll be ranking your comments, of course. I think using SezWho on your blog (through entrecard) will guarantee that you’ll get a comment or two for your blog (depends on how interesting your post is). I’m saying “a comment or two” because it’s not really the best way to get comments for your blog. If you really want to get comments, you have to focus on strategies and proven methods to make your readers speak up. I have a post just for that: How to Get Comments on Your New Blog.


One thing I don’t like about SezWho comment rating tool though is that it doesn’t provide any way for blogspot users to manipulate where exactly the ratings will nest in their blog. And it certainly affects how my blog template looks. Yes, you can customize how your stars and your profile size appear, but that’s just it. You can also manipulate its overall look through a long list of CSS codes which I have no idea where to start. I wish they can offer more ways for us to manipulate this tool much better. But if nothing changes within a month or two, I guess it’ll be bye-bye SezWho. For those who are not aware of it yet, here’s entrecard’s post about the SezWho and Entrecard Partnership.

Next in line is a blog carnival on recommendations for new and experienced bloggers about how they could increase the amount of visitors to their blogs with no financial investments. It’s Bringing More Traffic to Your Blog - July 18, 2008 - 6th Ed. There are about 43 articles for you to learn from about getting more traffic to your blog and an article from yours truly is one of it.

About the Technorati love, here’s Link Back Project. It’s basically a viral link train of the sort but it’s a whole blog dedicated for it (well, not so much now). You’ll get lots of backlinks to your blog when you participate which could fuel your Technorati ranking and authority. I’m just not sure about Alexa and Google; but theoretically all those incoming links should be able to make some significant changes in your blog stats, seriously. For more info about it just check out the project.

And then, here’s another Digg tool. It’s TINC. What it does is basically to show you who are digging your submissions and whose submissions you’re digging too. All you have to do is type your digg username in the search box provided and press enter. Results, which also include your latest ten submissions, will appear instantly. If you’re one of those who like to clean up their friends list if they’re digging your submissions or not, this tool is for you. But more than that, there’s another use for it which I’ll mention next.


You’ll be using TINC to integrate your Digg campaign to your StumbleUpon activity. Basically, what you’ll do is to find your digg friends in SU (StumbleUpon) then befriend them and/or vice versa. After that, use TINC to view your digg username’s results which you’ll then send to your SU friends via the send function of your SU toolbar. Your SU friends can then digg your post by clicking on the link from your TINC page and then head to your actual post and stumble it. It’s advisable to do this after you’ve submitted your/others’ content to Digg. Also, be sure to send it to your friends who know how Digg-TINC-StumbleUpon method works. Do you find my instructions hard to follow, maybe it’s best to get it straight from where I originally got the concept: Stumble Upon Digg Traffic.


technorati tags: technorati, stumbleupon, digg, comments

Naruto Shippuden – The Five Types of Blogging Chakra

In Naruto, ninjas were able to perform amazing feats that are beyond human because of their chakra. It’s something like a chi, or spiritual energy which ninjas can tap into to do special techniques. According to the story, a chakra is the resulting form of energy produced when Physical and Spiritual energies are mixed together within the body. Then to use it, Hand Seals are performed. This allows the user to expel it out the body in the form of an attack, and requires different Hand Seals for different attacks. Everyone is born with their chakra; but no body is born with the knowledge to use it to perform special attacks; except for a select few who can wield it through instinct or sheer will alone. To be able to use it, one should undergo rigorous and intensive ninja training.

Not all ninjas share the same type of chakra. There are five different types of chakra: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Lighting. It’s like an affinity to the elements sort of thing. When you have the Fire type, you’ll be able to manipulate the fire element and everything associated with it with ease. The same goes with water type and the water element; and so on and so forth. Here comes the interesting part. Although subject to one’s ideas about blogging, I’d like to believe that your blogging energies share the same type of affinities as the chakras used in Naruto. Your blogging chakra separates you from the others and at the same time helps you execute blogging techniques that keep your blog alive. It’s very much debatable or discreditable depending on your discretion; but let’s just assume. What if it’s so?

The Five Types of Blogging Chakra:

Fire type – This chakra is associated with the fire element, hot, burning, and spreads easily. Bloggers using this type of energy are fond of creating conflagrations in the blogging world, also termed as “VIRAL”. They like their ideas to be the center of attention or at least gather up as much attention as possible so that it spreads and makes its mark. Bloggers who have fire type chakras have a very dominant character and/or likes to initiate things. They often spend their blogging time crafting ideas that will get people to participate thus resulting to popularity and more profit. Their schemes involve contests, memes, viral link trains, viral social media campaigns and other programs that require mass participation and link building. These bloggers can be seen at the forefront of the marketing and promotional end of the blogosphere. Although effective at making buzzes, they often run short at making in-depth analysis and evaluation of the things they’ve started.

Water type – Water is associated with calmness, free flowing force and change. Bloggers with this type of energy are resourceful and knowledgeable at what they do. They have an analytical sense of things and are gifted with the ability to purge deep into a subject matter like water that can carve canyons and polish rocks. They blog with direction and often excel in their niche. They don’t easily catch attention but are always found meandering here and there. They can easily adapt to change because they know their way around most of the time. Their power lies in observation, analysis, and quick intuition or feel of things. These types of bloggers are better at tweaking things and using their tools to their advantage. They make better SEO and SMO experts. They are great in terms of information but can easily be drowned out by hype and new things.

Earth type – Earth chakra can’t only be found in soil but includes everything that grows and walks on it such as the flora and fauna. Bloggers with earth chakra can be categorized as good writers as they have a very unique and colorful content. They have the ability to inspire other people to start new things. They can also be informative but not as specific and complete as the water types. Although not as detailed, they seem to impress and enchant people because of the richness of their descriptions and the way they talk to them. People can easily relate to them and are always approachable. They are humble and they fuel their blogs with their desire to maintain connection with their followers/friends and share their achievements. They make perfect nurturers of start-up bloggers and most bloggers find their blogs filled with opportunities such as guest posting, rewards, and contests where it’s always a win-win situation for all the participants (unlike the fire types which conducts competition in the very real sense of the term).

Wind type – Always playful and violent at times, that’s the rule of their game. The wind element can be as pleasant as summer breeze and as destructive as a storm. You can see lots of these wind type bloggers doing tech, humor and celebrity blogs. They are quick at catching buzzes and gossips that they are newsy at times. They appear less committed to their blogs but many of them are serious about it (it’s just hard to understand them). They like things to have a touch of humor or something fresh all the time which makes it light and easy to understand. They are not fund of making analysis and quick observations always pass as good information. They are good journalists and comedians. They are also good at making judgments based on popular sentiments. Bloggers with wind type chakra draw their powers from quick conversations and scoop information. They can manipulate the information they produce to make or break others. Often, they can be found dwelling among the top ranks of social bookmarking communities.

Lightning type – The most difficult type of chakra to possess. It’s fast like the wind and searing like fire. They are electrifying in some sense. They are highly unstable and it’s hard to predict a pattern out of them as they appear random at times. They’re always updated like the wind types when it comes to the new things about blogging, especially social medias. They appear newsy too but the only difference is that they are more willing to try what they’re looking into. They are keen to bite all forms of opportunity and will experiment all the time to come up with a result that’s somewhat viral in nature which resembles that of the fire types. They are hard workers but they value quantity over quality. They are good at making experiments and gathering information in a short period of time but their problem is they spread themselves too thinly in what they do resulting in poor quality. A lot of spammers and blog spams in social bookmarking sites are lightning types; they are remarkable at gaming things and doing black hat techniques because of their bold determination and quick thinking. The best lightning types are effective at making huge improvements in their stats in a short period of time. Common characteristics of lightning types are having many domains and multiple accounts in several social media sites.

Most ninjas in Naruto can only control one type of chakra but some possess two types of it while the legendary ones can possess more than two. In the blogging world, I think we’re capable of possessing up to three types but, more often than not, there’s always that dominant chakra that will really stand out above the rest. I’m also in a position to believe that the more experience you acquire in blogging, the better you are able to manipulate several of your chakras to your advantage hence better blogging techniques.

Admittedly, I see myself as a water type but not a lot of you know that I’m also maintaining other blogs where I use other types of chakra as well. Sometimes, I could see myself using wind chakra as I’m trying to keep myself updated with several things but I guess it’s not that significant to make me a wind type. How about you? What type/s of chakra do you think you possess?

If you find this post interesting, how about reading another of my post related to this: Naruto Games.

technorati tags: naruto, shippuden, chakra, blogging