Technorati Rank: In the Top 100K blogs

Assess My Blog is currently ranked by Technorati in the Top 100,000 blogs. To be precise, it is ranked at 99,658.

I have not followed my Technorati rank very closely. Initially, I did notice that Technorati rank could be easily manipulated by link trains or viral links. I had been taken by surprise when I saw a pretty average blog in the Top 10 Technorati blogs sometime ago. In spite of this, I could not contain my excitement when I saw my blog in the Top 100K blogs.


How does Technorati work?
Technorati uses two terms primarily to describe a blog, Technorati Authority and Technorati Rank. I will explain both terms.

Technorati Authority defines the number of incoming links to your blog in the past six months. Only one incoming link from a blog is counted. That means, even if you have two or three links from one blog, it will still count as one. If a blog has linked you about 180 days ago, then that link will not be counted. So, the more number of blogs linking to you, the more will be your Technorati Authority. This blog currently has an authority of 72.

Technorati Rank is a little bit more straightforward. If you have Rank 1, then you are the number one blog according to Technorati. As far as this blog is concerned, Technorati considers this as the 99,658th best blog in the world.

Since Technorati takes into account only links created in the last six months, your blog should be regularly updated and linked by others to keep the ranking. Let me see whether I can sustain this ranking.

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Digital Photo Frames: Modern and Elegant

Do you still have your analog camera? Probably not, most likely you own a digital camera by now. Similarly, it is time to get away from bulky albums that contain printed photographs. Digital picture frame is the latest addition to the gadgets you would like to have. It would look like a normal photo frame on your table. But, instead of being static, it will display all your digital photographs. You can store pictures and photos and play them back as a slideshow on the digital picture frame.

The digital photo frames come in assortment of styles, colours and sizes to suit all needs. The digital photo frames are available in various sizes like 6.5”, 7”, 8”, 9”, 10”, 12”, 15” and so on. Similarly, they are available in various resolutions like 480 x 234 pixels, 640 x 480, 720 x 480, 800 x 480, 1024 x 768 and so on. Please remember that bigger size does not mean better pictures. Picture quality is associated with pixel resolution and a higher resolution produces better picture quality.

You may consider some of the following factors in your decision to purchase a digital photo frame:

• Excellent picture quality


• Nice clean interface


• Reliable


• Internal storage


• Supports for various card types, like SD or MMC, for expansion


• Support for video or audio


• Transition options for pictures

Go ahead and get a modern and elegant digital photo frame that will look awesome on your table.

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Web Hosting Tips

I am hosting my blog for free, thanks to Blogger. You can also host for free with Wordpress or similar services. But, there are obvious advantages of hosting a blog yourself. It is highly recommended by internet gurus to buy a hosting package and register your own domain name. It gives complete control over your blog and in the long run it could be beneficial too. If you setup your own blog and could obtain a decent Google Page Rank, then you can sell your blog for good money after one or two years.

If you decide to host your blog, then you need to make a decision on whom to host with. The decision on the web hosting provider depends on few factors as listed below:

• Customer/ Technical Support
• Disk Space Available
• Uptime
• Statistics Tools
• E-mail Accounts
• Data Transfer
• Database, Script and Extension Support
• Cost of hosting

Kaushal Sheth has compiled a list of the best web hosting companies. The post compares some of the most popular web hosting companies like HostGator, HostMonster and Yahoo. The author also shares his own experience in hosting the blog. Read the review if you are interested in hosting a blog yourself.

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Top Commentators Widget for Blogger: Update

I wrote a detailed step-by-step instruction to install the top commentators widget for Blogger/ Blogspot about two months ago. The widget was based on a feed from Yahoo Pipes. Since then, this remains as the most popular post from my blog. It has also attracted the most number of comments, positive and negative, and many trackbacks. In fact, the pipe did work very well except for some minor bugs. In this post, I have attempted to address some of the issues, thanks to some excellent work from other fellow bloggers.

Problem #1
The RSS feed did not work properly, as Blogger’s default feed widget tried to sort the feed according to the date. This has disrupted the already sorted version from Pipes and we had duplicate names and names that are not properly sorted. This has been pointed out by CyberPenguin in his/ her post The Top Commenters Feature Glitch Needs A Fix! Will You Be The One To Save The Day?!.

The Solution
This problem has now been resolved and I should thank two bloggers who came out with similar solution to this problem. These bloggers have come out with a Javascript code, which requires just one-step for you to install the top commentators widget in Blogger. Here are the links to the posts:

• Top Commentators For a Blogger Blog from GoogleSystem


• Top Commenter's Widget for Blogger Blogs! from BloggerBuster

Problem #2
Some readers have asked about how to remove their own comments from the top commentators list. In fact, my original pipe did have a filter to remove the author’s name from the list. But, strangely, when you clone the pipe this filter is not available any more.

The Solution
I thought of writing a post on this, but BloggerBuster is quick enough to complete this in his blog. So, I will redirect you to his post to learn how to remove your name from the list:

• Removing your name from the Top Commenters Widget

Problem #3
Many readers have highlighted that the top commentators list is just linking back to the last comment made by that particular person. They felt that it would be nice if we could link to the commentator’s blog/ website instead.

The Solution
Unfortunately, there is no solution to this problem yet. Blogger does not provide the commentator’s blog/ web site URL in the RSS feed and hence we could not resolve this problem. But, let us see if Google will notice this and give us a way to work around. Until then, just be content with the names.

Finally, thanks to all the bloggers who made the effort to feedback, comment and improve the top commentators widget. Please subscribe to my feed if you like this post

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Play Casino Games with Self Control

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It is holiday time for my school-going kids and I decided to take them for a short overseas trip. I could just manage two days off from my full-time job. I realized that Genting Highlands in Malaysia was just right for my budget and time.


Genting Highlands, also known as City of Entertainment, is a place that keeps you engaged and entertained for 24 hours a day. It sits at about 6000 feet above mean sea level and is about an hour’s drive from Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. It is a different world altogether and even the shocking changes in the recent elections did not seem to have any effect on Genting.

Its scenic beauty, cool climate, thrill and fun filled theme parks and appealing casinos provide a complete range of entertainment for people of all ages. Combine these with world-class accommodation, mouth-watering restaurants and glittering shopping centers; you have everything perfect for a happy trip. It is no wonder that me, my wife and kids all came back home with pleasant memories.

I have to admit that I am not a great fan of gambling or casinos. I stopped with some video games and nothing more. Fresh from the trip to this casino city, I stumbled upon an Online Casino site. I browsed the site with some curiosity. This site is specifically catered for women. This surprised me, as I always had associated gambling with men. The site has a pink background to the liking of ladies. The site offers games like gold cup horse racing, pontoon, arctic adventure and football shootout.

Anyhow, if you are interested in gambling/ casinos, please ensure that you have self-control and discipline. It is fine as long as it is considered as fun and not a money-making venture. You need to also check whether it is legal in your own country to play online casino games. Be responsible and have fun.

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Build Traffic With Entrecard

Entrecard provides a platform for bloggers to network and benefit from each other. I heard of Entrecard sometime ago, but I was reluctant to join them. I was of the opinion that the business model of Entrecard will not succeed. My experience with BlogRush was still fresh in mind. But, after reading many discussions supporting Entrecard, I decided to jump in and try it out myself. So, I signed up with Entrecard yesterday.

Concept of Entrecard
The concept of Entrecard is simple. If you visit a blog from their network, you get credit points and the owner of the blog you visited also gets credit points. These are called Entrecard Credit and shortly known as “ec” in the network.

What can I do with the Entrecard Credit?
The most important thing you can do is to use the credit to advertise on other blogs in the network. You have to sell your credit points to earn the advertising space in the blog of your choice. Depending on the popularity of the blog you would like to advertise, the credit points would vary. The higher the popularity, the more points you need to transfer. The same goes if someone wants to advertise on your blog. They have to transfer credit to you to buy space from your blog.

Where is the advertising space for Entrecard?
The advertising space comes in the form of a widget that resides on your sidebar. You have to install the code supplied by Entrecard to activate this. You will receive a notification if someone would like to advertise on your blog. Once you approve a request for advertisement, the widget will display the image/ text of the requester. A click on to the widget will lead you to the advertiser’s blog.

What is the first impression?
Looks good. In about 24 hours, I got about 35 visitors through Entrecard. I am not sure whether this is just an initial burst or will continue. As of now, I am getting some good traffic which is certain to boost my Alexa Rank, if not anything else.

If you are interested, please sign up with Entrecard for free. Please subscribe to my feed if you like this post.

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