Welcome to the second JournalXtra newsletter of the year where you will learn what’s new, what’s hot and what’s not at JournalXtra. February was an incredibly busy month for me. I invested a lot of time adding and updating many articles. Here’s a brief recap of what those articles were:
New Articles
How to Split a Website Across Multiple Servers
Have you ever in your wildest dreams thought, I wish I could use my domain name on more than one web server so that I can use it with multiple white label sites. No? Yes? Probably? Sometimes white label and co-brand sites just do not provide as much server space, site customization or products needed to build a successful website. Thankfully, what one sponsor doesn’t provide another might and, if not, your own definitely server will. This short EasyGuide explains exactly how to configure a registrar to re-route traffic for specific sub domains of a website so you can have site1.mydomain.com and site2.mydomain.com on different servers.
10,000 Backlinks in 1 – The Best URL Submission You Will Ever Make
During February I discovered a new plug in for Wordpress. Called the BungeeBones Remotely Hosted Directory, it aims to provide a remotely hosted and managed directory for Wordpress blogs. It works similarly to a webring but with a difference – it displays as a directory and not as a sidebar advertisement billboard for other people’s blogs. It has a lot of potential and will, eventually, provide thousands of backlinks to its members as more and more webmasters take to using it. I highly recommend the use of this plugin. You can see JournalXtra’s standalone version of the directory here.
Rant About the Amazon Affiliate Program
Yes, I finally killed off the Amazon ads that littered the sidebar. They were ugly, didn’t generate any income, slowed down the site’s load speed to an unbearable level and Amazon’s we-only-pay-you-if-people-click-the-right-ad-for-their-location ad system is much too fiddly to implement and check (my stats didn’t match their stats). Plus, Amazon has made changes to their contract that’s too overbearing for a small site like JournalXtra to cope with. If you wish to read more about my decision to remove Amazon’s ads then please follow the link.
Happy Songs to Keep us Smiling
A few of my friends felt a bit low at the beginning of the month so I thought I’d add some sunshine to their lives by pointing them to a few uplifting happy songs. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find happy songs on the Net. It’s ridiculous. Eventually, after a few hours of searching, I came up with, and you might want to sit down before you read this, are you ready? Sure??? I found four. Yes, four (4) happy songs. Amazing. I know. I couldn’t believe it myself. I was so caught up in the excitement I nearly forgot about you guys. Luckily I didn’t and I posted them here for you to enjoy too.
Ebooks Directory List
Everybody who uses a computer knows what an ebook is so I won’t go into detail about them but suffice it to say I have added 85 ebook directories to the Webmaster’s Toolbox. Ebooks are a fantastic way to advertise and get targeted traffic to websites, landing pages and sponsor sites. Best of all, good ebooks go viral. So, what are you waiting for? Get writing, save it as a pdf and submit it to an ebook directory.
How to Check for Dead Links within a List
This is a must read article for every URL collecting surfer or webmaster with a list of links in a file that need to be checked for life signs. The process is simple – download the right script, properly format your links, run the script. Easy. Even easier when the instructions for using the script and formatting the links are provided in an EasyGuide. Need to check the links on a website? I’ve answered that one too.
Find Hot Current Search Terms and Keywords
A couple of years ago I stumbled upon a website that listed real search terms in realtime. I thought I’d revisit the guide and update it. I was shocked, the website listed in the original article had changed. It no longer provides realtime search terms, it is now an advert for a web design company. It appears the site’s designers played a not too uncommon trick on us – it had used the domain name to provide a service that would gain lots and lots of backlinks while it matured. Once the backlinks were in place, they converted the site to its real function of advertising a web design company. One has to respect the cunning of its architects; nevertheless, I was a little pissed at it but it did give me the impetus to re-write the whole article instead of just updating it. The new article lists several sites that provide near realtime and historical search words and phrases entered into search engines by surfers. I hope you find it useful.
Brand New Download Section
JournalXtra now proudly boasts its brand new, all shiny and sparkling, download section. No, don’t go looking for movies and music ’cause ya ain’t gonna find any in there unless I’ve created them. This new part of the site is home to all the free downloads linked within other parts of the site along with other goodies I decide to give away. It is still under development and already has a few GIMP plug-ins, scripts and brushes ready for download. The download area is part of a new strategy I’m using to attract traffic so expect to see it fill up with all sorts of free stuff over the next few weeks and months.
Updated Articles
The Suffusion Review has been updated to show off the theme’s new admin panel and its ever increasing list of widgets and config options.
The GIMP guide has had another script repository added to it and the scripts download zip file has been replaced with a larger one (it’s better to grab this from the download section than the guide). The guide will be re-written over the course of March so expect a surprise if you view it in April.
The Webmaster’s Toolbox has had a lot of updates. To name a few of them, there are more links website and product review sites, more ping services and an ebooks directory and syndication site list. All the links have been re-checked for activity. I am aware that some of the links still point to sites other than their intended targets, I apologize for that and promise the offending URLs will be weeded out over time; you are welcome to help me there by pointing them out (use the contact form listed in the menubar).
March will be just as busy as February. I have several articles half started and several more lined up to be written. I’ve hinted at what some of them are above but I can’t say too much because other webmaster might steel my ideas. I hope you had a good February and I wish you a brilliant March.
To my readers and friends who are in Chile, I sincerely hope you have not been too badly affected by your recent Earthquake and Tsunami. Those of you who have been affected by it, I can not imagine the devastation it has caused and will not pretend to understand what you might currently be suffering. All I can do is pray that you get all the help you, your family and friends need to get through it and get passed it. I am here if you need to talk.
