AdesBlog.com

We all know that having a backlink from .edu domain names will increase your search engine result position (SERP) and possible your pagerank too. Because search engines assume that since educational websites are linking to you, your site must be of good value.

For this reason, some people are taking advantage, especially those who are the webmaster of .edu websites. Here is one such site www.pi.edu. PI.Edu is offering a service where you can create your own .edu based blog on their (edu based) domain name. Of course it’s not free, they are charging $50 a month for this.

I am not sure how much people charge for text-links on edu sites. But if you think you can startup a blog and make a popular on edu domain name. I am sure you can make a lot of money with it.

As for me, I barely have enough time to blog on this own blog, I wouldn’t be able to manage a new blog. What’s your thoughts on this?

URL to Blog Network: blogs.pi.edu/2008/04/09/own-an-edu-blog/

Do you remember those Hot or Not websites? Where you can grade people? Well, there is another similar website on the net now - Web Hot or Not. This one is for websites and blogs. Basically the same idea, you rate one website and move to the next one.

I think it’s good for well known websites to know their true rating. Because everyone knows them and people will rate them according to their content, quality of services offered, design…etc. For example, Google is rated 7.6 based on almost 500 votes.

On the other hand, it can be disadvantageous for the lesser known websites and blogs. Because there is a tendency that they will get judged by their look alone (i.e design). Therefore, newer blogs might get underrated. So don’t be disappointed if you get a low rank for your blog! ;)

You can submit your blog on the site’s homepage (right column), by clicking “add site” link. Don’t forget to rate my blog here.

Ray of WebAppers informed me that he released a web application icons set (full preview seen below). The set contains twenty 3D icons with glossy effect. The icons are free, you can use them in any way you like.

When I launched User Interface Icons project, Ray had promoted it on his blog. As a result, the site got tons of visitors. So now, I am returning him a favor. Lesson to be learned from this: make friends and make networks, help them out (preferably without expecting anything in return) and one day they might just return the favor. download icons

Do good and throw it into the water (story)

Regarding “helping people unconditionally”, why it’s better to not expect anything in return? Because, first of all, that’s the right thing to do. Secondly, when you expect and do not get back that thing, you will be disappointed. You will be disappointed in the person. And it’s highly possible that after few times of not getting back from other people either, you will stop doing good altogether. Why? Because you think that people won’t return the favor anyway. Because you have been expecting something from them and you didn’t get it.

So do good and forget about it! If you are a believer (mu’min), you will still be rewarded by God. If you are not, then it would be a good sincere and self-fulfilling act on your part. And since you do not expect anything in return, you won’t get disappointed. And (hopefully) will continue to do good.

WakeUpLater is a blog about freelancing, particularly in web design and development.

It has some pretty good articles for freelancers. I have been following it for some time now and I think it’s a blog that is worth to share. www.wakeuplater.com

Another blog is, I think you probably know it already… AnyWired by Skellie.

AnyWired is a blog about working online. It gives tips, tricks, hacks, guides, must-see links and reviews to help you work when you want, from where you want to be.

I think AnyWired is very similar to Skelliewag.org but with advertisements. I guess Skellie didn’t want to monetize Skelliewag, and decided to keep it as a profile blog. Nevertheless, AnyWired is a success now. Congratulations to Skellie. www.anywired.com

You can read Skellie’s guest posts on AdesBlog here.

P.S Is there any good blogs out there? Please share if you know of any, especially new ones. (do not promote your own blog here ;)

Affiliate guru Yaro Starak has came up with another project, BecomeABlogger.com. It won’t be useful to many of you, because most of you have your own blogs already. But for someone who is totally new to blogging, it will be a great resource.

Become A Blogger provides free video tutorials that will teach beginners how to start their own blog with WordPress. Here is the topics of the videos that Yaro will be covering:

1. Why You Should Use WordPress
2. How To Get Your Own Domain Name
3. How To Get A Web Host
4. How To Install WordPress With One Click
5. How To Upload Files To Your Webhost Using FTP
6. Choosing A WordPress Theme For Your New Blog
7. How To Install And Use WordPress Plugins
8. How To Create Your First Blog Post And Blog Page
9. What RSS Is And Why You Need It
10. How To Use Feedburner For Supercharging Your RSS Capabilities

He has put lots of hours into this project. And he has made it free. So how does Yaro benefit from it? Well, he will benefit from the traffic the site gets. I am sure he will also get lots of newsletter subscriptions since he is promoting it on the homepage, it will also bring more customers to his other paid project. So it’s all intertwined.

I am telling you, he is indeed affiliate guru, you should check his blog if you want to make money through affiliate programs (also through newsletters).

Popular blogger Leo Babauta has gone Open Source, he says it’s okay to steal my content now. He is allowing people to use his blog’s content in any way people like. After this, I am sure his blog posts will be popping up in many blogs throughout the internet (especially when people are out of ideas and have nothing to post about).

His ebook Zen to Done is very popular too, selling over 1,000 copies within two weeks. It’s an ebook about productivity that is created out of his blog’s content. Currently selling at $9.50. If you do not want to go through his blog’s archive, you can buy this book.

In the same post, he argues that going open source won’t hurt his PageRank and his eBook sales. As you know Google sometimes punishes for duplicate content, when people start copying his content, his blog might get punished. He also talks about other interesting issues regarding copyright, check out his post.

In my opinion, he will do just fine, I think going open source will bring only good things for him. He will get free advertising and his readership will jump many many folds in the near future (currently he has more than 36,000 RSS readers).

What’s your opinion on Leo’s move? Do you think other bloggers should follow his suit?