An extremely small percentage of expiring domains will have PR, which makes those difficult to find. Well, luckily, I have done the hard work and listed these expiring domains on my new blog…

Making the Web: Expired Domains, updated daily, lists domains which are expiring within the coming days. Instantly, you can see which domains are expiring, their PR and the status of that PR (valid/false).

If you are interested in buying expired domains with PR, please give the blog a go and see what you think…

Before you start, you may want to read this article which talks about buying domains with PR.

* Usually when the domain has multiple PR pages.

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It seems Google has decided to start placing the number of posts and last update, with other information, alongside forum thread results. (Or, at least for a selection of threads).

This information may be useful to some people, and it may represent a thread's popularity and freshness - leading to more "informed" clicks.

However, I think this meta information just breaks the "flow" and rhythm of the result's page, and is more a distraction than a useful assistant. If they placed this information in line with the title (as they do for blog post times/dates), it would be much nicer.

Here are some articles and pages I found which you may be interested in:

• Google include forum information in mainstream SERPS
• Google Enhancing Search Results for Forums?

What do you think about these "extra info" lines that Google seems to be throwing everywhere?

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What is a personal brand?  Well, it's you!  It's your portfolio, blog and twitter account, as well as your Flickr, YouTube, FriendFeed, del.icio.us, Facebook and other accounts.

Learn From the Experts

Take a look at Gary Vaynerchuk, who runs a multi-million dollar wine business, as well as a popular podcast. He is an expert at personal branding and has established himself as real guru when it comes to all things wine. Browsing through his website, you can't help but notice his name plastered everywhere, as well as links to all his social profiles. You could say that Gary is everywhere! Check out this video from Gary explaining some goods about personal brands.

You and Yourself

It's important to be yourself online. No one likes a phony and people seem to have a real knack at spotting the fake a mile off.  It's also important to know your talents, and shape your brand based on your skills. So if you're a graphic designer - be the best graphic designer you can be. Not a designer/podcaster/blogger/developer.  Although Gary has a podcast, he isn't known podcaster - he's a wine guru.

Get Profiled

I have been approached through Twitter to do the odd bit of development work, and I have also found some very talented freelancers there as well. So the value in having a "profile" is obvious. Having profiles on major social networks like Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, Digg, etc, will not only expose your brand to potential clients but will help you keep track of the intertubes and stay connected….

Get Connected

This is the most important point: no one cares about you!  However, if you show genuine interest in other peoples work, I guarantee that you will start getting noticed. Comment on blogs, reply to Tweets on Twitter, share other peoples posts on Digg. You might not believe me when I say this is way more important then any work you do.

So get out and grab a brand!

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I just wanted to quickly tell you about a recent article from Seth's blog, which I think you would be interested in.

Do you have 16 boxes? explains why having a pessimistic attitude when something goes wrong doesn't make things any better. It shows that you should work with what you have, rather than focusing on what you don't have. Personally, I think this is one of the best articles Seth has ever written. Here's an extract:

Your career is not a boat. Neither is your business.

A boat with even a small leak is going to sink. You, on the other hand, don't need to be perfect to succeed. Imagine that you have a 4 x 4 grid to fill with assets. If it's a business, it might be location, reputation, staff, offerings that are in high demand and a sector that's robust… if you're doing it for yourself, it might include your resume, your network, your skill set, etc.

Do you have 16 boxes - Seth Godin.

Enjoy!

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“Excellence is in the details. Give attention to the details and excellence will come.”

-Perry Paxton

Blogging is an extremely difficult habit to get into, and once you do, your blog will not be very popular for a long time. However, there is hope! If you follow these 9 easy habits (Alright, fine, some are characteristics,) your blogs popularity will boost up much quicker, and your readers will be way more loyal to you.

1. Frequency
Frequently posting in your blog will not only help boost up your blogs popularity– it will make your writing skill much better. This is the toughest part of blogging, as well. If you want your blog to succeed, you need to make a posting schedule, and almost religiously keep it. If you miss a day, be sure to make up for it by putting up a special feature, or something along that line.

2. Patience
Blogging requires a helluva lot of patience, which is never easy. Blogs can take months, if not years, to establish a solid online presence and a solid readership base. Because of that, at the beginning your blog will feel lonely; almost as if you are writing for nobody to read.

3. Usefulness
If you plan on gaining any readers at all, you need to write valuable and useful posts. If your posts are completely useless, and have no point at all, then not only will your blogs popularity will be hurt, so will your online presence. A good rule of thumb to use here is that if you didn't learn anything writing your post, then it isn't very important.

4. Proofreading
The best way to look extremely unprofessional is to write a blog post with typographical and grammar errors everywhere. Due to that fact, it is extremely important that you always use a spellchecker on your post, and read through it at least once, checking for missing periods, commas, capitals, etc.

5. Honesty
I'm not even going to bother going into details about this, but I will say that whenever I read "I made $60k today just by writing this post!" it doesn't actually get me to read the rest of the post.

6. Aesthetics
It's been said many times before that content is just as important as design. That said, don't be afraid to use stuff like italics, headings, bolds, and new paragraphs. If you have your posts looking half-decent, you will be amazed how much your readership loyalty will boost.

7. Linking
It's impossible to fit all the information related to one subject in a single blog post, series of blog posts, or blog. You can try if you really want to, but it isn't going to work. Because of that, you don't need to be afraid of linking to other peoples blogs! You won't lose any traffic for it, and if you give the other blog enough visitors, the owner may just be kind enough to fire a link back.

8. Commenting
Visitors love it when the blogger communicates with them, especially in the comments section. Nothing quite beats the feeling of your comment not being a one-way conversation, going in one ear and out the other. It is a hard habit to get into of responding to comments, but it is a great habit. A great technique is to put a question into your responses, to encourage further communication.

9. Reading Other Blogs
Like any writing tutor you will ever get says, you need to read other peoples writing to be a good writing yourself. Not only will it help you learn more techniques, but it will inspire. There is plenty of blogs out there, related to just about every good (and bad,) subject you can think of. Don't be afraid of straying into their territory.
If you enjoy the other blogs you read, you can also get into communication with the blog owners, and start up link exchanges and the works.

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Today, I have released "Stumble! for WordPress", a plugin which automates the process, in BETA. The plugin allows you to insert a button or link which will bring you to a random article, optionally giving preference to articles with more comments.

The plugin also pairs up with YARPP to enable the user to click "Show me a similar article" and be taken to a post produced by YARPP, selected at random.

Stumble! for WordPress also keeps track of visited ("stumbled") pages so users are never shown the same page more than once.

Please give it a go, and tell me what you think. Download Now.

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MediaWiki (the software behind Wikipedia) has a similar feature called Random Article. Visitors can click this link and be taken to a totally random page, which means they will spend more time on a wiki.

I have taken this concept and made a basic implementation in WordPress. Just click the "Random Article" link on the navigation bar, above, and try for yourself.

More efficient, feature-packed plugin now available! Download Now!

How I did it…

In all, it took me about 10 minutes to go from idea to actual functionality, in 3 simple steps. Here's what I did…

Step 1: Create a Page Template
Firstly, navigate to your theme's files (under wp-content/themes/THEME_NAME). Create a new, empty PHP file called random.php.

Now, just write/copy this code into the file:

<?php

/*

Template Name: Random Article

*/

query_posts('orderby=rand&showposts=1');

the_post();

header('Location: '.get_permalink());

?>

This small PHP script does two things. Firstly, it gets a random article using query_posts and loads the post information. And then, it redirects the user to the location of the article. I have used the permalink URL to redirect the user to the article.

The "Template Name: Random Article" allows us to create a new page using this template.

2: Create a New Page

In WordPress, go to Write, and then click Page. In title, write "Random Article". This will create a URL (permalink) which we can use to execute our script. For this blog, it is http://making-the-web.com/random-article/.

You do not need to enter anything in the content box.

(Press Save, if you haven't done so already)

3: Place Your Link
You can now place a link to the random article page anywhere in your template files. If you show a list of pages, the Random Posts page will show up there. And, it's that simple.

Note: If you do not want to have the page show up in the list, append this code to your theme's functions.php file:

function __random_list_pages_excludes($exc) {
global $wpdb;

$pageIdQ = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT id FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_name = 'random-article'");

array_push($exc, $pageIdQ);
return $exc;
}

add_filter('wp_list_pages_excludes', '__random_list_pages_excludes');

I hope to release a plugin soon which will add this function, rather than having to modify theme files. Please let me know how you got on with this…

Update: I have created the BETA version of this plugin. More information.

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There hasn't been any major changes to my sites. The only difference that I have noticed is PageRank for articles that I've written since the last updated.

How are you feeling after the update?

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In just 10 years, Google has dominated search, become the most visited website, and become the top global brand.

It seems everyday that they are introducing a new service or technology to dominate even more areas. Chrome nicely set Google up in the web browser market. Android is another step towards connecting Google's services and users - at any time, on their mobile phones. They have even extended AdWords to implement ads on television.

I am constantly using Google whenever I'm on the internet. Since January, 2007, I have made over 23,000 searches. How many searches have you done? (I got this stat from Web History)

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I am looking for a writer who is willing to write useful and relevant articles for Making the Web, alongside myself. I am willing to pay up to $10 per article, subject to quality, relevancy and popularity.

If you would like to write for Making the Web, about website development, then please contact me for more information or if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Brendon.

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In this article, I'll be discussing ways to increase the number of readers for your blog…

Is your writing engaging?

Express your opinion. Ask questions. Be critical.

Your blog should be full of your opinion. If you have an opinion about a topic, write about it, and make it clear! Most of the time, readers will come back because they like you, more than they like your content.

Do readers have an opinion, too? Yes, they do — and that's why you should ask questions. Questions, direct or indirect, will get readers thinking and they become more engaged in your article. Who knows, they might even leave a comment!

Talk to your readers

When a reader leaves a comment, comment back and maybe send them an email directly. That personal touch is what gives you that little bit extra. For a reader, there's nothing more frustrating than thinking: "Did he hear me? Is he going to write back? Does he even like me?"

Look at an article on Inside AdSense. So many comments and questions, but not one response. You'd think a company as big as Google could go to the expense of at least one comment. The only reason we subscribe is because it serves us with useful information, not because we like the writers.

Show off your work…

…and take the criticism.

Whatever you do, there will be at least one person who doesn't like it. Don't ignore this person. This person is significant: they are telling you there's room for improvement. 1 comment may represent the views of 100 other readers.

We can never satisfy the needs and wants of 100% of everybody, but we can try our best to approach this figure. Listen to the critics, and improve your writing and your blog to satisfy them (within reason, of course).

A little bonus

This one isn't really as significant as the others, but can help in a little way. If you use WordPress (which you probably do), you can use one of my plugins, Thank Me Later, to send a "thank you" email to readers when they comment. This has the benefit of "pulling back" one-time readers, and will prompt readers to engage further.

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Google Chrome by default

Google said they were going for simplicity, and that's what they provided. Google Chrome is a 100% clean and not-needed-not-implemented browser. I can't help but think that it's too simple, though. Under "Options", there are few settings that can be changed. There seems to be no option to disable Javascript or images! There is also no support for plug-ins or add-ons, though I suspect this will be implemented in the future.

I do like the "Most visited" page that comes up when you open a new tab. It offers quick access to some of your favourite websites, without having to put them on a bookmarks toolbar. And I also like the "incognito" window which allows you to browse without storing browsing history or cookies.

Oh, and closing the last tab seems to close the whole browser, a behaviour which seems crazy to me (???)

Here's a video from Google:

What are your thoughts?

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The guys at Google seem to be focusing on security and robustness: "By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites"…

…And performance: "We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers"…

…And simplicity: "We designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple"…

…And cross-platform availability: "We're hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too".

When available, you should be able to download the BETA version here: http://gears.google.com/chrome/.

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Ad Manager is a powerful, and equally complex application. It allows you to set-up ad slots and placements, manage orders for them, and display sales and performance reports. Correctly used, it can help you get the maximum revenue from your site's ads, and will automatically compete with AdSense to get you the best price.

The application allows you to set-up ad-slots, and package them in placements for advertisers. I'm particularly interested in "targeting", the ability to specify criteria for an ad's audience. This includes targeting visitors by geography, browser and language, and by custom criteria:

The "orders" tab allows you to take and manage orders, and check availability. "Check Inventory" allows you to determine whether your site can satisfy the number of impressions ordered.

Overall, the service is pretty much a hybrid between AdWords and Analytics and the interface is easy enough to get used to. I'd recommend you give it a try, even if you don't actually use it live. Check it out! There a nice video which will teach you the basics.

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Sending a "thank you" email to contributors is highly effective, as it reminds them of your blog and their relationship with the blog (however small that may be). It is especially useful for attracting "one time" users - those who read and post one comment, without subscribing to or re-visiting your blog.

Previously, there have been plugins which would send an email to the user instantly. While these were somewhat effective, they are often dismissed or ignored. It's highly unlikely a reader will visit your blog again just a few minutes after they left.

Thank Me Later sends a thank-you email in the future. So, for example, if a reader left a comment on your blog today, they would receive an email tomorrow. Because the "thank you" is sent later, the user is more inclined to see if there have been any updates or follow-ups. It also removes the "automated" feel from the process.

I believe Thank Me Later could increase the number of readers to your blog, and prompt readers to become more engaged in discussion.

The plugin features:

• Static and dynamic customisation of the from, subject and message fields,
• Option to choose when to send the message in seconds, minutes, hours, days and weeks.
• Option to limit how many time a user receives a message. Can be set to send emails to first-time contributors only,
• Option to limit how often a user is sent an email. For example, once every day, week, month, etc,
• Ability to use variable tags and PHP-code to create personal messages.

Please give it a try and tell me what you think. Download Now.

-Brendon.

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Planning

You might remember all those years ago at school, that planning was essential for any essay or piece of writing. Well, a blog article is also a piece of writing, and don't forget it! It is greatly beneficial to jot down all your notes about an article, and link them together, organise them, splice them, or even remove them.

Using this method may seem useless to some people, but it does work. Primarily, plans are not there to record information, but rather get you thinking about it. And, the more you think about articles, the better they will become.

Language

Language is a very complex concept. Just like any other writers, bloggers are judged on their ability to use and manipulate language. Your writing should be interesting and engaging, as well as informative. Read through your articles with an open-minded view to judge quality. Getting a second opinion is great, as it removes the possibility for "quality blindness" from the writer.

Getting the balance between informal and formal language is important. For most blogs, writing should have a sense of informality to make the writing more personal and "chatty". This should not, however, inhibit the article's ability to be useful and informative.

Strongly expressing your own opinion in articles is essential. It gives argument to the writing, and therefore engages readers and leads to discussion and debate.

Punctuation is a powerful part of language, and can completely change meaning in a piece of writing. If you don't get punctuation 100% right, your sentences will be ambiguous and reading becomes very difficult. If you feel you don't use the semi-colon, colon, dash, or even simpler marks as often or as correctly as you should, you should learn now. A reader recommended Eats, Shoots and Leaves, a fantastic book on punctuation.

(Oh, and using a spelling and grammar checker can identify many mistakes.)

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It seems they have "copied" Feedburner to feedburner.google.com (this happened some time ago, which I didn't know), and made some improvements. You can now "manage" your feeds from AdSense (in the manage tab), so you can change your feed ads using the same-old interface (for better or for worse). The improvement I like is the graphs similar to Analytics, rather than the plain-old vertical bars:

So it looks like we FeedBurner users will soon be switching to "Google's" Feedburner.

I've checked out the AdSense for Feeds feature, and it is quite customizable: You can change the frequency of the ads (every 2nd post for example), position (top/bottom) and only show ads on posts which are longer than 50, 100, 250 or 500 words.

Although I will probably never use them, I think it's good that Google have integrated feed advertising directly with AdSense.

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If you own a website or a blog, you can also add your own website to the system, and your hits will be counted on the homepage, and your very own map. This is the code you'll need:

<a href="http://www.populatetheweb.com/"><img width="50" height="50" src="http://www.populatetheweb.com/populate.php?b=3&s=_YOURSITE_" alt="Who's Populating The Web?" border="0" /></a>

Replace _YOURSITE_ with the web address of your site, excluding http://www. Once you've done that, live hits will be displayed on the "global" map, and you can access your individual site map via this URL:

http://www.populatetheweb.com/who_populates_map.php?s=_YOURSITE_

Again, replace _YOURSITE_ with your URL. It's a great service, and I'm sure you'll have lots of fun with it…

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The first change you'll notice is the header. Instead of just a solid colour (previously green), I have decided to buy a suitable stock image. This is the first time I've ever used stock photography in any website, but I hope to use it more often - it is easier, more than sufficient, and reasonably cheap.

I have also tried to eliminate the green colour from the website. Although green seemed like a good choice to begin with, I saw it as uglier every time I looked at it. Green also seems to be quite inconsistent across different displays.

And apart from a few font size and colour changes, that is pretty much it. Please tell me what you think, and tell me of any recommendations you may have.

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Also unfortunately, it is too often that these websites have a wonderful design and great content, and have a designer who has been considerate at every stage. I believe these websites should be known by everyone, and I will be bringing articles about unique and great websites in the "Great Unpopular Website" series. Number 1…

I found this website a couple of days ago, while playing a game called Doeo. This is the website of a musician who makes music with his face, and provides some wonderful soundtracks to the game Doeo (Look at "We Filled Nora" on the listen page).

But, the reason I am voting for this website is because it has a very unique design which made me shout "Wow!" as soon as I opened it*. I was surprised to find out that the website has a page rank of just 2, and no rank from Alexa.

* Metaphorically, of course

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