If you can write to a niche, then you’re to be commended. I however, cannot. I have too many interests, and too many diverse and random thoughts which vary from day-to-day. As a result, I’ve rebranded my personal site, with a new url and a different atmosphere to accomodate that and my readers.

What will be different?

Well, I’m a Christian, so I’ll still be writing stuff that relates to my faith. I’m also temporarily living away from home in Australia, so I’ll still be writing personal posts concerning my experiences, with wildlife photos and videos which help keep my family up-to-date. But I’m also a blogger, with an interest in design and a few other areas, so I’ll be writing and designing too.

So please head over to ArmenThomassian.com, and subscribe if you’d like to make sure you don’t miss anything. Please also take time to check out my release of three free WordPress themes.

I’m looking forward to filling this broader horizon…

4 Comments

• At December 10, 2007, Chanya wrote:

  Armen:

  I just discovered your site and just read your post about shutting down this blog. Wow, you've got some great content here.

  I'll DEFINITELY check out your new site; I commend you on your choice to be a Christian preacher. Blessings to you, your family, and your mission to spread The Word.

• At May 26, 2008, Instant Messanger wrote:

  Nice blog I wish you luck in attracting new reader to your blog

• At July 6, 2008, American Silver Coins wrote:

  are you morman? are you away on a church mission?

  good luck!

• At July 27, 2008, BullishBankers wrote:

  Good luck with the new focus!

Well, believe it or not, I have been overwhelmed at the positive impact leaving this blog has had. No joke! You’ll remember in the announcement, I mentioned that one of my reasons for stopping, was because I want to make a difference in this world. Well, so that you can properly comprehend where I’m coming from, let me explain what it is I do at the moment. I’m a preacher; a Christian preacher. I’m not yet through Bible college, but under God’s strange workings, I find myself in the other side of the world pastoring two congregations.

The change in lifestyle (from an 8-5 job, where I did what I wanted at any other time), has been difficult to get used to. However, I have realised that it takes everything a man has, to do the job properly. Visiting people, travelling 700-1000km per week, and preparing 3-4 sermons each week isn’t easy for an untrained 24 year old. Therefore, this hobby had to go. The benefit even within one week, has been evident. I experienced more of God’s power as I preached on Sunday, and it was clear others sensed the difference. My wife also said very honestly to me, that ever since I stopped this blog, my preaching has been different.

So, I have no regrets whatsoever, and I’m only sorry that some of you are missing my articles. It amazes me that I did have an impact through this blog, it’s just not the impact I’m wanting to have right now.

Anyway, my main reason for posting, was just to let you all know where you can get me on my personal blog. I’ve had numerous people asking for this. Again though, I do warn you that it’s a strong mixture of my life and Christian themes. If this is your thing, then I hope you’ll enjoy it. If it’s not, I hope it doesn’t cause you to think any less of me. Visit the personal, online home of this Christian Preacher!

6 Comments

• At July 9, 2007, MrCorey wrote:

  Ever since you dropped your link ever so subtly on me, your blog has been in my feed reader. You were right, in that I won't likely be as active a participant at your personal blog as I would with a subject that I'm more familiar about. I do love the pictures of Brecca, though (and all the "God stuff" is good for the cobweb palace, known as my brain as well)

• At July 9, 2007, MrCorey wrote:

  Ever since you dropped your link ever so subtly on me, your blog has been in my feed reader. You were right, in that I won't likely be as active a participant at your personal blog as I would with a subject that I'm more familiar about. I do love the pictures of Brecca, though (and all the "God stuff" is good for the cobweb palace, known as my brain as well)

• At July 31, 2007, Average Joe Blogger wrote:

  Unfortunately I just found this blog. I guess I will just have to soak up all I can from the archives.

• At October 6, 2007, Lorna wrote:

  I know that you must have thought long and hard about making drastic choices like your job and this. As long as it makes you serve Him better, I say all the best and Godspeed.

• At April 5, 2008, Asia'h Epperson Fan wrote:

  Please stay writing! I just found your site, and you are inspiring me too!

  God works in mysterious ways and you have to trust how he works...just follow Him with your heart!

• At June 8, 2008, World Lifestyler wrote:

  The most important thing in our life is to be focused on the good things, and in that way we will pass that energy to other people! Enjoy in Your Life!

One of the most annoying aspects in the ‘blogosphere’, is coming across blogs where there hasn’t been a post in two months. You don’t know if the owner will ever post again. The blog may rot in cyberspace forever, or until the owner forgets to pay the host. Because of that, I hereby make the following announcement: as of now, I will not be posting any more on this blog for the forseeable future.

The reason is twofold.

Reason #1

Those of you who read Successful Blog, will know that Liz is always talking about making a difference in the world. In fact the other day, she was sharing her thoughts on what a Minister of Religion said at her son’s graduation. Recently, I have been really considering what I’m doing with my life. I have spent time in serious contemplation as to the legacy I’m going to leave upon this earth, and what I’ll be known as/for.

Now, in case you are not aware, I am a man of God. That is, I seek to live a life in godly fear, and in obedience to everything God has commanded. As a result of that, the importance of me living a life of strict purpose, is more important than it would be otherwise. I don’t want to do what I want to do, I want to do what God wants me to do, and there is a vast difference.

I want to make a difference in this world, and therefore I’m beginning a spring clean of my life, and it begins with this blog. As much as I have enjoyed giving (what I think has been) good, unique advice to help others with their blogs and blogging, let’s be frank, it’s never going to make a difference in this world.

Reason #2

At the beginning of last month, I laid out a test for this blog. I basically said to God, if I was to continue with this blog, then it would get ‘X‘ pageviews before the end of the month. If I didn’t get them, then I’d stop. I didn’t get them.

Is this goodbye forever?

I’m not sure. I have a personal blog, where I keep family and friends at home updated with what my wife and I are doing while in Australia, but I doubt it would be of interest to any of the readers of this blog. If it would be, leave a comment here, and I’ll give you the url.

A Final Note

I don’t expect most (maybe any) of you to understand where I’m coming from, and the reasons as to why I’m quitting writing on this blog for now. However, let me just say thank you to everyone who has read this blog over the past two months. I have really enjoyed helping you, being helped, and the discussions that we’ve had here. This blog, although very young, has had some great experiences. It’s best day had just short of 3,000 pageviews, it’s received a lot of respect from some great bloggers, such as Nate Whitehill and David Airey, and even a link from one of the largest newspaper websites in the world! However, it would appear that it’s not the right time in my life to be blogging in such a way that eats up hours in my week. I’ve really enjoyed it, but while I am young and healthy, I feel I should be putting my energy in something more profitable to the world around me.

So, a final thank you to you all. You’re welcome to leave a comment as to your thoughts on this news.

20 Comments

• At July 2, 2007, Liz Strauss wrote:

  How do I contact you?

  If you want to quit, quit. But read what you wrote. You're 24, maybe 25 by now. Read it again.

  If you want to change the world, you need to be able to see how you, yourself think.

  I'm ready to help you get a start.

  Liz.

  skype:lizstrauss

• At July 2, 2007, MrCorey wrote:

  I'd hate to see "the last of you", so, I'd love to know how to continue to follow your thoughts, Armen. I'm one of those strange people that will follow a writer by how s/he writes, rather than what. The content is important and is, ultimately, what brings you in, as yours did. But, if it puts you to sleep, then its a goner, IMO. Your writing does the opposite for me. I won't be removing iffect.net from my feed reader for some time, in case you change your mind about here...

• At July 2, 2007, Chris Lodge wrote:

  Well Armen, this is a big shame, but it's your life and your choice.

  I think the blog's a little young to be killing it on the basis of pageviews, but I know how much time it can take of your life.

  Don't delete it though (I know you haven't said you would, but...) just mothball it and maybe you can come back to it in future.

  Take care, and good luck with what you do.

• At July 2, 2007, Jake wrote:

  This was a great blog that I thouroughly enjoyed reading. I'm very upset to see it go.

• At July 2, 2007, Celebrienne wrote:

  I fully understand what you said about wanting to make a real difference and having a blog about blogging, but I think your decision was a bit over-hasty.

  And sorry, but your second reason sounds like one from a 8 year old. It's like a child who says "Dear God, if you do not ever want me to eat cookies again, then let a stone fall on my head." I know, it's not the best example in the world, but you get the point. People who do things like that upset me because they do not want to take the responsibility for their OWN decisions. "But God/Mr.X/Mrs.Y didn't want me to do that!" You put the decision on other "people".

  Let me ask you one question: If God wanted us to want what he wants, why did he bother to give us a free will?

  Live your life the best you can. That's the best advice you could possibly get now.

  P.S.: Please, don't be offended by my comment. It's not intended to hurt your feelings.

• At July 2, 2007, Neena wrote:

  Armen,

  Good luck to you - I hope you find what you are looking for. I will miss all the good info that you pass along. However I do understand that the time commitment is great. I, too, struggle with that dilemma.

• At July 2, 2007, Armen wrote:

  Liz - I don't like to word it as quitting to be honest, I'd rather say I'm prioritizing my life. Every moment of life counts, and I'm trying to discipline my life in a way that, although not easy, will be most profitable. This blog doesn't really display how I think with my heart anyway Liz, my personal blog is more like that (although not exclusively), I will continue to write there.

  You help people motivate people to make a difference, and it is honourable. However, I feel I will make more of a difference by engaging my time in other things. I don't use skype to be honest, but if you want to contact me, you should have my email address. If not, use the contact form.

  Corey - Thank you for the kind words. Unless you either know me, or are a Christian, I doubt my personal blog will be of interest, but I'll get the url to you just in case :)

  Chris - I know what you mean about pageviews. It was a decision I took seriously at the beginning of the month, but by the end of the month it became a secondary issue. I'll be leaving the blog online, as that was the reason behind this post. I could have just taken it off, but I wanted to leave something so people understood what has happened.

  Thanks for your support Chris, I appreciate it.

  Jake - I know you seemed to like some of my articles, and that is very encouraging. If I didn't feel so strongly about this, I would continue. However, I need to do this, even though I have enjoyed providing helpful material. Thank you for all the link love and support.

  Celebrienne - I am encouraged by your strong desire to try and make me keep going, not offended. It's a compliment. But you don't fully understand my position. What I asked God, is something that I have always found to work because I have a close relationship with Him. It would take an essay for me to fully explain the in's and out's of my past experiences, which have shown me that on rare occassions, it is right to throw out something to God, that will ultimately define what His desire is. This was one of those occassions. Gideon in the Bible, did the very same thing.

  "Let me ask you one question: If God wanted us to want what he wants, why did he bother to give us a free will?"

  If we automatically did what he wanted like robots, it wouldn't glorify Him. What glorifies Him is when people who have a choice, make the decision to live for Him, rather than for themselves. He delights in such obedience. I didn't want to do this, but a verse might clarify things better. I'm sure you've come across what Jesus said in Matthew 6:33 "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Does that help to clarify my position?

  Neena - You are another one who has been a great support in my writing. You're one of the few who make a point of encouraging a writer when their work has benefited you. Thank you!

• At July 2, 2007, David Airey :: Creative Design :: wrote:

  This is a surprising article to read, Armen.

  It has been a real pleasure reading your thoughts these past months, and regardless of what comes with iffect.net I do hope you'll keep in touch.

  Do you have skype? You can IM or call me at: d.airey

  I hope all's well mate.

• At July 2, 2007, Liz Strauss wrote:

  Armen,

  It's heartening to hear that you're not taking your voice away completely. Your voice is important. Those commented here have said a lot about your value. I see the same things they do.

  I want the best for you too. You know I'm in your corner. :)

• At July 2, 2007, Celebrienne wrote:

  Armen,

  I think there's no real point in discussing whether the reasons which've led to your decision to "give up" this blog are right or not because we're totally different and both see it our ways. Of course, it's YOUR life and you'll know what works best for you. I won't argue on that.

  You know, there's another point which came to my mind when I thought about the whole "free will" thing. Isn't God kind of a selfish "guy" if he wants us all to want what he want and do it his way? At least in my book. I want to live MY life MY way - and someone as "almighty" as God is said to be, should want it for me, too, and have the necessary trust in me that I'm rather living my life the RIGHT way and less HIS way (imo)! Anyway...

  Thank you for your commitment to this blog, I really enjoyed it. All my best wishes whatever path you'll take. :-)

• At July 2, 2007, Jon - SmartWealthyRich wrote:

  Armen, I understand the reasons why you want to quit blogging, and although we do not share the same passions, I have to say I respect your decision to the fullest. I have to say that you do bring a lot to the blogsphere, and you definitely make a difference, but if you feel you want to go another route and follow your heart, that is the best thing to do in my opinion. You are true to yourself and to what you believe in, and that is the only thing that matters. I hope all is well for you, and I will look forward to hearing from you once in a while. You can find a Skype button on my "about" page on my blog, feel free to add me. I really enjoyed reading your blog. All the best. Take care! :)

• At July 2, 2007, Armen wrote:

  David - I'll be keeping in touch my friend. Thank you for understanding.

  Liz - Being completely honest Liz, I have an 'all or nothing' personality. There are a lot of blogs with a similar theme as this, but I knew I could add something, because I when I give myself to something, I do my best. When people do their best, they usually add something.

  However, I'm now giving myself more strongly to something else, and I know if I do so, I can make a difference there too. I know you understand.

  Celebrienne - I appreciate the civil dialogue, and the mind to try and comprehend my heart. But allow me to say, there is not one character in the Bible, or in history who has said he/she loved God, but lived their own life and managed to make a difference. There are 'Christian's' who live their own way. Whether they are genuine or not, is not for me to say. But one thing is universal; the 'Christian' who lives their own way, will not make a difference.

  To say that God is "selfish", is a blasphemy. He gives us everything we have. As Creator, he has a right to demand that His creation live for Him. But, when Christ has also paid the penalty for our sin, then we ought to be compelled to live for Him.

  Jonathan - What an encouraging note! Thanks for such comforting words. I'll keep in touch.

• At July 3, 2007, Nate Whitehill wrote:

  Armen, it will be sad to see you leave the sphere. You are a a great writer with intelligent insights. Send me the URL If your personal blog if you don't mind and that way we can stay in contact. Hope everything else is well and good luck in the future, friend!

• At July 3, 2007, Terinea Weblog wrote:

  When I first saw this post I though your dog had died! Could you not use your skills to help religious blogs? Anyway it was good reading your blog in the short time ago I came across it. Your right in many ways

  Good luck for the future!

  Jamie

• At July 3, 2007, Armen wrote:

  Nate - Thanks for everything --- I really mean that. I'll get the url to you for sure, and I'll be keeping in touch.

  Jamie - lol...in some ways it may have been easier to announce that my dog had died!

  Whether or not religious blog owners would care enough to improve their blogs, I'm not sure. Some of them could definately do with some help!

  Thanks for faithfully supporting this blog Jamie, I've appreciated it, and I'm glad you found some of my posts worth reading.

• At July 5, 2007, Tom wrote:

  Sad...I'll really miss your site, it was the second one I subscribed to. But I do understand your reasoning and I expect your voice to remain a presence in the sphere somewhere!

  Please let me know where to find you in the future.

  Thanks and all the best to you!

• At July 5, 2007, Friday's Links - Volume V :: Jatecblog wrote:

  [...] one of the few blogs that has been featured in everyone of these collections, iffect.net, is now shutting down. Another blog I have really enjoyed, Linux and Open Source Blog, hasn’t been getting much [...]

• At July 6, 2007, Myo Kyaw Htun wrote:

  Armen,

  I wanna say 'Good luck to you' even I know this blog a few days. I'm still remembered is that I pointed out your wordpress theme layout problem at that time you published '5 vital elements of successful blogging'. You have published a lot of great tips those are not only about blogging but also about other things too. I'm still reading your posts in archives. Anyway, I'm waiting your coming back!!!

  Good Luck! Armen.

• At July 6, 2007, Tom wrote:

  Thanks for dropping by my site yesterday...I just posted a little goodbye to you, if you get a chance, I hope you get to see it.

  - Your Friend

• At July 26, 2007, Saman Sadeghi wrote:

  Oh man! That's too bad! :cry:

  I really enjoyed this blog!

Having said that, I’m going to let you in on a sneaky tip which you’ve probably never read before, that will most likely increase your visitors and comments (this blog has an above average visitor to comment ratio).

How Do You Visit The Blogs You Read?

This is an important question. Do you visit them through a feedreader, from your bookmarks, or type the url into your address bar? If you do any of these, then you could be losing visitors and comments for your blog.

“Huh?”

Allow me to explain. One of the most frequently checked stats that webmasters keep an eye on, is checking where their visitors come from, and no matter what, we all like the sites that refer the most traffic to us. But what does this have to do with increasing visitors and comments?

Rather than visit blogs from your feedreader, bookmarks, or typing in their address, I advise you to make a point of visiting them from your own blog. That is, if they are in your blogroll, on your links page, or (even better) have left a comment on your blog, click on the link on your site every time you want to visit their site.

What Effect Will This Have?

Well, when the other blog owner checks the referrals in his stats, he’ll be able to identify specifically that they received hits from your site.

How will it increase comments?

In two ways:

• i) If the referral has come through a comment they’ve left on your blog, they are more likely to go and see if there have been any significant replies after their comment. When he does that, you increase the chances of them leaving another comment.
• ii) Seeing that they keep getting visits to their site by leaving comments on your blog, they then value the opportunity to do so, and feel that it is benefiting them, so they make sure to comment on a more regular basis.

How will it increase visitors?

Again, in two ways:

• i) By them clicking through from their stats page, you’ve already got yourself at least one more page view, with a good chance of more if you’ve written a new post since their last visit.
• ii) Bloggers tend to scratch each others backs. If you support them, and send visits their way, they are more likely to appreciate you, and link to you, which will ultimately send you more visitors.

Final note - This is more likely to work with blogs that receive little - average numbers of visitors. It won’t effect the big blogs because a) your referrals will be drowned by hundreds of others, b) they don’t really need to scrape up visitors and comments this way anymore.

[Image source]

27 Comments

• At June 28, 2007, Pixel Head wrote:

  Hmm, you are so right, I never thought of doing going through my blog to blogs I visit on a regular basis...that is a brilliant tip thanks.

• At June 28, 2007, Armen wrote:

  Adam - I'm glad you found it helpful. I'm always trying to think outside the box, and I'm only too happy to share my ideas with my readers. Just don't forget to Stumble it (or whatever social bookmarking service you use ;)

• At June 28, 2007, Neena wrote:

  Armen,

  another good idea! In fact, I just reached you from my feedreader but next time I will take the door through my blog.

• At June 28, 2007, Jonathan-C. Phillips wrote:

  Hey good idea, I usually click in my feedreader or type in the address in my browser (although I clicked on your link in a comment on my blog to get to yours :) ), I'm getting quite a good number of comments already, but can always use more :)

  I think this is a brillant idea, will include your post in my next "smart posts worth reading" post on Sunday.

• At June 28, 2007, Jonathan-C. Phillips wrote:

  oh, by the way, stumbled :)

• At June 28, 2007, Armen wrote:

  Neena - lol...yeah, I don't own one of the huge blogs where your referral will get drowned by the hundreds of others!

  Jonathan - Thank you, and thank you!!

• At June 28, 2007, David Airey :: Creative Design :: wrote:

  I usually just click through from my feed reader, to save time.

  You do make a good point though, Armen.

  I'll stumble this for you too.

• At June 28, 2007, Armen wrote:

  David - Ah, but you see my friend, you're moving into the big blog category at a rapid pace. Such tactics would have pitiful results in comparison to the amount of visitors you're getting these days! ;)

  Thanks!

• At June 28, 2007, Jatecblog » Blog Archive » Friday's Links - Volume IV wrote:

  [...] The Ultimate Sneaky Tip to Increase Visitors and Comments - iffect.net [...]

• At June 29, 2007, Andrew Odlum wrote:

  This is another great tip. The best part about it is the fact that you would be going to the other person's site anyway so you are not even doing anything different from your normal routine. You can just do your thing and help build up traffic at the same time.

• At June 30, 2007, Armen wrote:

  Andrew - Thanks for the compliments. I like your use of humor on your site; some good tips too.

• At July 1, 2007, Smart Posts Worth Reading #6 | Smart Wealthy Rich wrote:

  [...] The Ultimate Sneaky Tip to Increase Visitors and Comments: Armen wrote an interesting post on how to increase comments on your blog. How do you usually visit the blogs you read? By typing the address in your browser, clicking through in your feed reader? Why not visit those blogs by clicking on the links in your own comment section? Most bloggers check their stats regularly, when you see hits coming from another blog, chances are you’ll check out that blog right? [...]

• At July 2, 2007, Andy Coates wrote:

  Damn! That's so oblvious now that you have pointed it out! Thanks for the post!

  Andy

• At July 2, 2007, Bret wrote:

  The point about bloggers "scratching each other's back" is very true. I found this blog because Armen left a comment on my blog and I thought, "Hey, that's a good comment, let me go check out his blog." -- and here I am. Once I got here I found good content and a well layed out blog. Conclusion, I'll be back to read more and participate whenever possible.

• At July 2, 2007, Ian is a Failure wrote:

  wow these are great - I will actually try these, even though they are simple

• At July 2, 2007, Steven wrote:

  Good article. I also Stumbled it.

• At July 3, 2007, A very sneaky way to increase traffic to your blog! at Learn tips and tricks on how to make money with: Andy Coates Dot Com wrote:

  [...] the blogosphere I came across this fantastic article via Smart Wealty Rich By Armen at iffect.net: The Ultimate sneaky Tip to increse visitors and traffic. And I must admit that this sneaky and brilliant tip is so obvious that I, and I guess allot of [...]

• At July 3, 2007, Bob wrote:

  I don't think this will increase traffic that much. 10-20 visitors a day perhaps?

• At July 5, 2007, Lior’s Blog » Welcome Our Guest Blogger: Jake From Jatecblog.com wrote:

  [...] post. Now this will be at least one referer that the author will see from your blog. This can be considered sneaky, but this may be the best you can do if you are still a beginning blogger with almost no readers. [...]

• At July 12, 2007, Robb Leuwaan wrote:

  Good post. My blog is a few week old and the technique you out line here has worked well for me. Also joining MyBlogLog.com has helped.

• At August 27, 2007, Suray - Suray's Words - SurayBlog wrote:

  Couple of times, I got my visitors lack to comment on my blog. I don't know why? However, the traffic doesn't go down. I hope as soon as I'm implementing your suggestion, I could get more comments on my post.

  suray,

  http://surayblog.blogspot.com

• At September 9, 2007, Traveller wrote:

  This is very useful. I do click from my del.icio.us account; need to click back from users' comments more often. Thanks!

• At September 24, 2007, decypher wrote:

  nice tip. thanks! :)

• At December 7, 2007, Michael Weir wrote:

  Great idea. Thanks.

• At December 8, 2007, Jason Pearson wrote:

  This is a great idea that everyone should try! Thanks for posting this wonderful information that is valuable to all of us.

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• At July 6, 2008, pinky @ Art Rubber Stampes wrote:

  great post.

  good luck in your ventures. i hope you can continue this blog at some point in the future!

Literally, you can ask anything; from asking for advice for your blog, to discussing what you think the next version of WordPress should have, to talking about something completely unrelated to blogging!

Let me get the conversation started (you don’t have to answer it, you can talk about something else completely).

I’ve been wondering over the past few days, should the blogs that have their comments ‘DoFollowed’ not have another field in their comments form entitled ‘Anchor Text’? I feel I should really write my name in the name field, but having a link with my name as the anchor text is useless. I’ve tried to mess around with the php in WordPress’s “wp-comments-post.php”, and the form in my theme, but to no avail. I can get the extra field no problem, and I can get the link to go to the new field rather than the name field, but I can’t get it to display when I hit submit.

12 Comments

• At June 27, 2007, Chris Lodge wrote:

  This is a tough one: I'm all for passing on the link benefits, and if regular commentators want to use relevant anchor text that's fine with me.

  But, when your one and only comment from someone is from 'make money online' it just reeks of spam.

  I use the link love plugin, which doesn't pass on 'dofollow' until a set number of comments have been made (in my case, 2) so they don't get the benefit any way :-)

• At June 27, 2007, Armen wrote:

  Chris - With very little alteration (I think), that plugin could work for what I'm talking about aswell. I just think it would make more sense to have an anchor text field.

• At June 27, 2007, Pixel Head wrote:

  The do follow movement is indeed a great thing. I find myself being a bit more selective with what comments I accept. I would like to use the link love plugin, but my theme is a bit of a PITA with updating. Got to get around to updating...

  I was thinking about using the Cutline theme, as I really like the job that Jonathan ofSmartwealthyrich did of updating his blog recently.

  Got any other favorite themes?

• At June 27, 2007, Pixel Head wrote:

  I have another question.

  I just made a comment, and wanted to be updated about the comments, but failed to click the notify box.

  I know that there is place in the dashboard to set it to be automatically clicked. Does anyone have any opinions on doing this or not doing this?

• At June 27, 2007, Armen wrote:

  Adam - First of all, congratulations on your recent marriage. I trust God will grant you a happy and healthy future together.

  If you tell me what you're after in a theme, then I'll be able to advise a little better. How may columns, whether you like a background, etc.

  As far as the email comments notification, I find it frustrates people if they forget to remove the tick from the box. So it's better to leave it unchecked by default.

• At June 27, 2007, Rebecca wrote:

  "do follow" ? I have no idea what you guys are talking about.

  Email notification on comments? That I understand. I wish I knew how to get it above the "submit comment" button, because I always choose it. That could change, I suppose, but I always expect people to respond to my comments and I would much prefer to have the response in my in-box.

  But it probably depends alot on the blog. If it's a huge blog, with lots of comments that are not really a conversation, then it would be an annoyance to get them all via email.

• At June 27, 2007, Armen wrote:

  Rebecca - By default, when someone leaves a comment on your blog with a link, that link carries no 'weight' with Google. They do not count it as a 'vote' for the site because it's not 'followed'. By removing the NoFollow attribute, the links your visitors leave in the Site' field of your comment form, will be followed by Google, and will give weight to them. It's just a little way of showing appreciatiion to those who contribute to the discussion on your blog.

• At June 28, 2007, Pixel Head wrote:

  Armen,

  First of all, thank you.

  Secondly, I am looking for in a theme:

  1. three column

  2. adjustable header image

  3. widget ready

  4.adsense ready or easily adaptable

  5.no background images

  6. prefer a white or lite colored theme

  7. I also like the newer wider themes.

  I believe that is it.

• At June 28, 2007, Rebecca wrote:

  Thanks, Armen.

  So how do you do it?

• At June 28, 2007, Armen wrote:

  Adam - I heartily recommend Brian Gardner's themes, and he has a few that could fit that bill. Not all of them may fit it straight out of the box, but I could give you a hand. His coding is easy to follow, and I could easily help you out with what you want (if you needed any help that is). HIs Vertigo theme is probably his most popular, but I used his Silhouette to design Dietriffic.

  They're all widget ready, and it's simple to reposition sidebars, and place Adsense. Have a look and see what you think.

  Rebecca - Read the open paragraph of 1 Stupidly Simple Tip... and see if that helps. There's a link to a plugin there, and a link to a post of Andy Beard's which might enlighten you a little too. Any problems, let me know.

• At December 7, 2007, Michael Weir wrote:

  Pixel Head,

  My website uses a modified version of a set of themes that fit your specifications. I'm offering the original themes at http://cashmachine101.com/InstantWordpressThemes/

  If you want I can give you (or anyone else on who's commented here) an exclusive discount.

• At July 6, 2008, Racing Schools wrote:

  Good content. However, is there something wrong with your css? The layout looks a little blend.

 This morning I read a sad reality addressed with power and authority by Daniel, as he looked at “The Abundance vs. Scarcity Mentality“. If you haven’t read the article, go and do so now. In fact, if you’re not subscribed to his blog, (as they say in Northern Ireland) ‘you need yer heed looked’. Now I understand that we’re all only human, and sometimes we make mistakes. We might forget where we read something, and not be able to find the source when we write about it ourselves. In fact, Daniel did this very thing with me, when he wrote about In-Text Advertsing (you need to read the comments).

The Reality

Allow me to make a brash statement, that I can’t prove, but I reckon it’s true: 99% of the information on the Internet is regurgitated material. It doesn’t matter whether you’re reading the top blogs, or ’splogs’, nearly every article has come from another source in some way or other; just like the one you’re reading right now. In some way, we’ve all probably been guilty of not giving credit to our sources, but we should at least make an attempt, and quit being so deceitful.

I haven’t regreted linking out to anyone yet. If I had never linked out to others, many of you wouldn’t be subscribed to this blog right now. Some of my articles where I gave out a lot of links (such as “Is Your Content King, or Queen?“) have received attention from some of the A-list bloggers out there. So if you’re not linking out generously, for fear of losing credibility, authority, or even [cringes] Pagerank, then really you’re probably hindering your progress rather than helping. It’s ok to admit that John Smith, with his otherwise useless blog, was the source of inspiration for a post, or that you have a few extra thoughts to add to a topic he has discussed. You might not gain him any subscribers, but you’ll probably gain a friend for life! Think about your blogging attiude.

Are you wrestling with every other blogger, or sharing with them the big piece of Internet Pie?

[Image source]

2 Comments

• At June 26, 2007, Chris Lodge wrote:

  Some very valid points there Armen.

  As you know, I like to link out, both to give something back (esp. credit if due!) and also because it attracts the attention of the person you're writing about, as you say.

  I'd love a PR 10 ;-) but not at the expense of interacting with other bloggers.

• At June 27, 2007, Armen wrote:

  Chris - Totally! That's how we should all be. It's not a cut-throat business, at least it ought not to be.

It’s a fact, our eyes prefer to follow that which is familar. Familiar fonts, sizes, weights, and contrasts. Now I don’t want to get into typography, as I don’t have much of clue. In fact, I recently discovered how little I know about it, when I read some typography advice. However, we’ve been brought up all our lives to read dark text on a light background; I’ve never read a novel that wasn’t.

Content driven sites

For the most part (except for photography, art, and video blogs), blogs are full of written material. So why then are so many designing light text on dark sites?

My personal answer to that is, I don’t know. Maybe it’s to be different, maybe it has more appeal, or maybe a designers life is pain, because people like me question why they do the things they do? Without a doubt, some of the slickest designs are dark, and they showcase beautifully crafted images and colours in their designs. But if a site is driven by written articles, shouldn’t it focus on being more readable?

At this point I’m thinking, maybe some of you don’t have a problem with reading light text on a dark background. Maybe you’ve never even known it to be a problem. I don’t have bad eye-sight or anything (although my left eye has degraded slightly over recent years), and I don’t wear glasses, but I definately find reading the more familiar dark on light a lot less straining. I even prefer dark grey on white, than black on white for some reason too, which is why I use it on my sites. Black on white is fine when you’re reading a book, as you’re looking at reflected ambient light. But for me, when the light is projected from a screen, black becomes too harsh. Am I just wierd?

More than contrast

Interestingly, if you must possess a dark design, there are a few things you need to be aware of. Having a dark background and light text, means you must increase the leading (line-height) and tracking (letter spacing). Basically, you need more s p a c e. [Source: Five Simple Steps To Better Typography]

This isn’t a call for everyone to change their site, far from it. But I do think we should be more alert to make sure the articles on our sites are as legible as possible. A big problem I see all over the place is leading that is too small, and it is so frustrating, as (in most cases) a ten second change in the CSS would make a world of difference.

Do you find contrast to be an issue in your enjoyment of visiting a site? Do you have a preference as to what you like? Maybe you’re not sure if your site is easy to read? Let’s discuss and help if required. I’d be interested if anyone knows if contrast and colours have an effect upon those with dyslexia, or any other disability?

 (Now does this go under usability, or accessiblity…?)

12 Comments

• At June 23, 2007, MrCorey wrote:

  I like what you have touched on here, Armen. I came up against this a while back when I had a light on dark theme. I will probably revive it for Halloween (I hacked the crapola out of Kashul Sheth's "fluidity" theme) but its not to my taste for the whole year. I had the same feeling about it - I wanted it to be a bit more readable. The computer that I use to write on is "experienced" and the monitor is getting darker as time goes on. So, if I cannot read a site on it, I don't want it to be mine. There are a few sites out there with awesome info on them that I cannot read on this monitor (such as the tutorial to create an AJAX "shelf" by MONFX, which is completely unreadable to me unless I "highlight" all the text) and this is their loss, as they won't keep a reader, unless they're determined.

• At June 23, 2007, David Airey :: Creative Design :: wrote:

  Usability and accessibility, Armen, and you're not weird at all. ;)

  There's so much info out there about reading preferences, and very good reasons why novels are printed on off-white paper, with black serifed text. Of course reading online is different, but it still holds many of the same values.

  One thing to add to your article about white text on black is an increase in text weight. When white text is surrounded by black or dark colours it becomes suffocated and appears thinner than it actually is.

  Thanks very much for the link to my typography article.

• At June 23, 2007, Anthony wrote:

  I agree with you completely. I much prefer to read darker text on a very light background. I've developed a couple of themes that have dark backgrounds because a lot of people seem to like them, and that's great. However, I'm not sure I've seen any "professional" blogs with dark backgrounds.

• At June 24, 2007, Armen wrote:

  MrCorey - I was going to mention in my articles, how different monitors can make a huge difference for good, or for bad.

  David - Yeah, I put it in both categories. You're only saying that because Northern Ireland may be the contributing factor to my 'weirdness'.

  I think that article touches upon that issue too. It's certianly not as straightforward as one might think.

  I find myself studying logos and typography all the time now, and I think you're partly to blame! ;)

  Anthony - Most well known blogs that consist of lot of reading material, appear to go for the dark on light, but Veerle's is a dark site, and it's fairly professional. Unless of course by professional you mean, corporate stuff and newspapers, which are mostly white with dark text.

• At June 24, 2007, Anthony wrote:

  My comment didn't come out exactly as I meant it. By "professional", I was referring to the big money making blogs like Problogger, Copyblogger, etc. Sorry for the confusion.

  Veerle's looks very professional.....very well designed.

• At June 24, 2007, That Was The Week That Blogged » Blog-Op wrote:

  [...] casually dropped off two superb tips on contrast and readability that I had not come across before, and are essential for you if you do, or would like to use, a [...]

• At June 25, 2007, This Eclectic Life wrote:

  Here's the viewpoint from an older woman with pitiful eyesight: I do not like the dark background with white text, and won't waste my time trying to read it, no matter how good the content. It's also easier for me to read black text instead of gray (but I don't expect you to change your font for me).

  I know it isn't practical, but I wish people used fonts that were a little larger (maybe as y'all get older that will become an issue you will consider). I know I can enlarge the fonts on my computer, but it still would be nice to be able to read without making changes.

• At June 27, 2007, Armen wrote:

  I have wondered about making my main content text larger. I'll maybe give it a try to see what I think. Your text isn't all that large though? Do you find mine too small?

• At June 27, 2007, David Airey :: Creative Design :: wrote:

  I found Shelley's type size on This Eclectic Life to be very similar to yours too, Armen.

  I like the less tall header image, by the way. Not too keen on the reflections as I think they're very over-done, but for me you've definitely made an improvement. Good work.

• At June 27, 2007, Armen wrote:

  David - Thanks. Believe it or not, it was starting to bug me a little :)

  I'm not sure about the reflections either. I'll leave them up for a while, and then try to look at it with fresh eyes. I'd be interested in other opinions too of course.

• At June 27, 2007, Powerful Posts - June 24, 2007 at My GotChance wrote:

  [...] iFFECT.net - Contrast and Readability [...]

• At March 20, 2008, Jason Pearson wrote:

  Interesting article. I definitely prefer "light" themes when on the web. I appreciate your site for this (along with the content)

Unless you’ve splashed out decent money for a professional blog design, the chances are you have, or you will change your theme at some stage or another, and as long as it doesn’t happen too frequently (a trap I can easily fall into), a design change can have a positive impact upon current, and new visitors.

As most of you know, I’ve just recently changed the design here, but I really hope to keep it like this for some time, except for very minor tweaks that may be necessary now and again. Changing your design too frequently can frustrate visitors very quickly. At the end of the day, 99.9% aren’t visiting to drool over your design, but to benefit from your content (which should therefore make content our #1 priority).

Allow me to cut to the chase though, as I want to warn you all that there is one aspect of your layout/design that you should never change. In fact, as soon as you begin to blog, you should make your choice and stick to it.

Quick, tell me what it is…

Put simply, never change your main content column width. This area where you’re reading this text right now should never change, even from one design to another.

But why?

Well, to be honest, the implications of changing your main content column width could be disasterous, or it might not have any impact at all. At best, it will look fine no matter what you change it to, because your posts contain no images, or ads. At worst, you’ll have to go through all your old articles and fix them, because any images you’ve used in past articles, are now either too small, or too big.

Take this blog for example. My main content width is 520px, and it always is on every blog I have. I don’t know why I decided on 520px, but I’ve used that width now for as long as I can remember. Because it never changes, the images I use in my posts never mess up, and I can use them across multiple blogs if I like, without having to resize them. If I changed the layout of this blog, and made the main content column 550px, I’d get text creeping up the side of my images, and it would just look nasty.

So, to conclude, choose a width you like, and stick to it!

3 Comments

• At June 22, 2007, Neena wrote:

  Because of you and so many others that recommend WordPress. I am starting to explore and experiment with this platform. There is a lot to learn and I am still not sure if I can pull off the technical side of having a WordPress blog. As I have commented before, you offer a lot of good advice and I am taking notes. I will let you know when I launch that first WP blog!

• At June 22, 2007, Armen wrote:

  What part of having a WordPress blog do you think you'd have difficulty with Neena? There is a lot you can learn, I'm constantly learning, and thinking of ways to improve, but the basic needs in order to get going and keep going, are very straightforward. I'd be glad to help you in any way I can if you need it.

• At June 29, 2007, Andrew Odlum wrote:

  Neena:

  I have found Wordpress to be a really easy platform for publishing my blog. I do have some technical knowledge in my background, however the tutorials on Wordpress's main site really make things pretty easy for a first time user.

  Armen:

  Thanks for this great tip. At some point I am sure that I am going to mess with my Wordpress theme. I will now be very careful not to change my main content width.

Here are five posts that have caught my eye recently, posts that make a difference.

Blue Print for a Brilliant Blog Launch - The fastest way to being the best, is to learn from the best. You may have launched your blog long ago, but this is worth the read.

Define: Blog - About the the best definition, and practical insight into what a blog (and blogging) is all about, that I have ever read. Nate’s testimony may make some jealous or frustrated, but I’m just trying to learn from him.

Web Typography: Line Spacing - SP Guest blogger Dan, takes a good introductory look at the importance of getting the line-spacing right on your web pages. I know personally, if your ‘leading’ is too small, I’ll leave before I get through the article, it’s just too painful, especially when mixed with high contrast between text and background.

8 Brick And Mortar Ideas That Make Great Blogs - If you’re mechanical in your approach to blogging, then you’ll either i) ignore this advice and go on to experience ‘blog-rot’, or ii) you’ll take heed to the master of the personal touch, and take steps towards achieving some level of blogging success.

Better Blog Branding: Is Your Brand Breaking Promises? - I love the way Chris introduces this article by getting into our minds, and seeing the various ways many people view some internationally known brands. For those who are taking blogging seriously, Chris gives solid advice on the importance of creating a positive brand; but remember, it takes a lot of patience.

10 Comments

• At June 21, 2007, Small Potato wrote:

  Thanks for the plug Armen, but that article was written by Dan Gayle. Currently, he's a guest-blogger on wpd.

• At June 21, 2007, Armen wrote:

  SP - Woops! Completely missed that my friend, but at least now you've got confirmation that you have a decent guest blogger ;)

• At June 21, 2007, Nate Whitehill wrote:

  Thanks for the link love, Armen! Really enjoying your blog! As we all know, blogging can be tough, but it can also be ever so rewarding!

• At June 21, 2007, Dan Gayle wrote:

  Thanks for the complement! I hope my writing style comes across as easy as SP's :)

• At June 21, 2007, Armen wrote:

  Nate - Too right! It takes persistance, patience, and sometimes a little innovation.

  Dan - I really enjoyed your article Dan. You maybe visit it already, but just in case, you'd probably enjoy reading David Airey's blog.

• At June 22, 2007, David Airey :: Creative Design :: wrote:

  Armen,

  I remember you recently mentioned comments in RSS feeds, and was curious to see that you've implemented it. You're the first person I subscribe to who has shown this, and I expect more to follow suit.

  Thanks for mentioning me to Dan (above). Much appreciated.

• At June 22, 2007, Armen wrote:

  David - Yeah, I'm wondering what people actually think of it? Is it pointless? It pushes the feedflares down, which might be a bad thing.

  Do any of my subscribers have any thoughts on this?

• At June 22, 2007, David Airey :: Creative Design :: wrote:

  Good point about the feedflares. If there are too many comments, people might be tempted to click the 'next article' button, and miss the flares altogether.

• At June 22, 2007, Armen wrote:

  Being honest, I think it would be far too easy to miss the flares. However, I'll let it run, and hope some others have thoughts on it before I deactivate it.

• At June 26, 2007, How speed linking can help you : David Airey :: Creative Design :: wrote:

  [...] Many top online publishers are using speed linking to add value to their own blogs, whilst at the same time giving some exposure to others. People such as Nate Whitehill who offers business, blog and web development tips, Darren Rowse who gives expert blog advice and Armen at Iffect who provides online ethics advice. [...]

In the WordPress admin panel, there is a tab dedicated to managing your blogroll, and it’s purpose is to,

“…link to the blogs you read frequently - a friendly way of acknowledging the good blogs out there. WordPress’ built-in Links Manager allows you to add and manage links effortlessly”

But lets be realistic, the main benefit of being on someone’s blogroll, isn’t down to the amount of visitors you’ll get from it, but to the increase in pagerank it will help to give, and a greater authority in the search engines. But what about your own blogroll?

The fact is, running a site wide blogroll on your site can have a very negative impact on your WordPress blog. One of my favourite bloggers Andy Beard, wrote some time ago about, “How A Blogroll Can Kill Your Pagerank” In the article he concludes,

“It is not rocket science, just simple maths.

If you have 100 external links on every page of your site, you need loads of internal links to retain some (hopefully most) of your pagerank…or stick them on their own seperate page so they don’t suck your own site dry.”

His final suggestion is what I’ve implemented on this blog. There are some blogs that I greatly respect and would advise people to read, and on that page lists a number of them.

So if I don’t use the blogroll to list my favourite blogs, what can I use it for?

Something that almost every blog should have in it’s sidebar, is a list of recommended articles for visitors to read. On my site I’ve entitled them as “Must Reads”, and I put that list together using the WordPress blogroll management. I know there are a number of plugins that can pull together your best articles by the number of views or comments, but I recommend you hand pick them. Just because an article has received lots of comments, doesn’t mean it’s your best work, or what you’d want visitors to read, and just because a article has had the most views, doesn’t mean it’s relevant anymore.

Or…

For those of you who are able to sell your own text link ads, you could manage your ads very easily using your blogroll.

So, put your blogroll to good use, and list your best articles for all to see, or manage your ads. However, don’t have long list of outbound links.

22 Comments

• At June 20, 2007, Andy Beard wrote:

  Now add this one to your list of must reads, because I have been meaning to suggest for a while that a top posts list should be hand crafted

• At June 20, 2007, Neena wrote:

  Your blogroll ideas are very creative. Thanks.

• At June 21, 2007, Armen wrote:

  Andy - Great minds think alike, eh? Thanks for the suggestion to place this on the list too, makes my life easier when readers decide for me :)

  Neena - No problem. I'm just glad when my readers get something out of what I write.

• At June 21, 2007, Jonathan-C. Philllips wrote:

  Really good advices here Armen!

  That post by Andy is really a great read also. I switched my blogroll to have it on a separate wordpress page, but will definitely changed some things on there, I also have the popular post thing, but using the blogroll function to display "must read" posts instead of the most commented on ones, is brilliant! :)

• At June 21, 2007, Jatecblog » Blog Archive » Friday's Links - Volume III wrote:

  [...] Give Your WordPress Blogroll A Beneficial Purpose - iFFECT.NET [...]

• At June 22, 2007, David Airey :: Creative Design :: wrote:

  Thanks for this, Armen.

  I should hand craft my own list and remove the 'most commented'. Even though I have a specific page for 'featured articles', you're right that some of the 'most commented' aren't particularly what I want first time visitors to read.

  Also, thanks for the mention on your links page. It's an honour!

• At June 22, 2007, Armen wrote:

  Jonathan - Good to see you round here, and I'm glad you found the article helpful. I see you've got something big up your sleeve. Any date for the launch?

  David - No problem, you don't even have to mention it. As for your articles, I couldn't help but think of you when I was writing the article, as I bet you have some informative posts that aren't displayed in your sidebar.

• At June 22, 2007, David Airey :: Creative Design :: wrote:

  Made a few tweaks to my sidebars. What's your impression now, Armen? Any improvement?

• At June 22, 2007, Armen wrote:

  Well it's definately cleaner, and the articles you've listed are of a high standard and more 'timeless'. You did well to just put in ten, you have so much there that interested visitors would benefit from.

• At June 22, 2007, Patrick Lee wrote:

  Ummm, where to start... Outbound links on your own site do NOT "suck your site's PageRank dry" at all. Your own PageRank is distributed to the outbound links on your site, but the number of links has no effect on your own PageRank. Your view is a common misconception.

  Here's a great post from Smashing Magazine that should be required reading on PageRank:

  "Google Pagerank - What Do We Really Know About It?"

  And here's the relevant snippet from the post:

  Links don’t give PR away, they are votes. “When a page votes its PageRank value to other pages, its own PageRank is not reduced by the value that it is voting. The page doing the voting doesn’t give away its PageRank and end up with nothing. It isn’t a transfer of PageRank. It is simply a vote according to the page’s PageRank value.”

• At June 22, 2007, Andy Beard wrote:

  Smashing Magazine = very little original research, just a collection of links to others.

  However your interpretation of what they are saying is incorrect

  All you have to do is play around with a pagerank calculator to see the exact effect of link distribution on pagerank, and that includes your own pages and how they pass on pagerank and other Google juice to the rest of your domain.

  With pagerank, you can vote for yourself, and it is better to vote for yourself more than others on each page.

• At June 22, 2007, Patrick Lee wrote:

  Here's another explanation of PageRank that includes the algorithm:

  http://pr.efactory.de/e-pagerank-algorithm.shtml

  Notice that among the terms in that polynomial, there is nothing subtracting from a given page's PageRank as you are hypothesizing. For you and Armen to be correct, there should be an additional term that subtracts from the PageRank an amount proportional to the number of outbound links on the page.

• At June 22, 2007, Andy Beard wrote:

  You are thinking about one individual page, not 1000+ pages on a typical website that could be passing on pagerank to other pages on the domain, but instead are passing out to external sites.

  I spend a lot of time working with linking structures, much more than it takes to link to other people's research.

  "WordPress SEO Masterclass For Competitive Niches"

  In the second half of the page you are referring to, they discuss the multiple iterations, it is very important.

  A page passes pagerank to internal pages, and they through good linking structure pass it back to the original page. With good linking structure it is possible to pass on the benefit of incoming links to your whole domain, or to specific pages.

• At June 22, 2007, Armen wrote:

  Nice to wake up to some lively banter this morning!

  Patrick - Great to see you here.

  I must admit, I'm not a researching SEO/PR expert, and I'm guilty of the exact thing Andy accuses Smashing Mag of; oftentimes I don't carry out my own research. However, I do read material from areas, and by people whom I trust, and have given sufficient evidence.

  Having said that, I do make some personal observations, and I conclude that for the most part, no one has a clue about PR. I mean, I set up a blog for someone just a couple of weeks before the last update, and it ended up with a PR4 and it had hardly any inbound links, or any with weight. I was completely stomped, and I still don't know how it happened.

  Andy carries out extensive research, and I respect his work. His conclusions appear logical, and as they say, "the proof is in the pudding!" Andy has proved his work over and over again in many ways, that's why I subscribe to his blog, and read his articles.

  Andy - Thanks replying to Patrick, I really appreciate it. I couldn't have answered as articulately as you :)

• At June 23, 2007, Patrick Lee wrote:

  Andy,

  I completely agree with you about the importance of good internal linking to pass PageRank around within a site. That was never an issue. The only point on which I'm disagreeing is the notion that outbound links can deduct from a page's PageRank. I've read a lot on this topic and I've never once come across this hypothesis. If it were true, then Armen would be committing the PageRank equivalent of "hari kari" by removing the nofollow on comment links. Death by a thousand cuts so to speak. His net PageRank would be zero, right?. ;)

  "I spend a lot of time working with linking structures, much more than it takes to link to other people’s research."

  Gee, thanks for twisting the knife a bit. I appreciate it. Sorry to ruffle your feathers. I think I'm done with this conversation.

  To everyone reading this discussion, take what anybody says on these topics with a large grain of salt (me included). Like Armen said, we really don't "know" exactly how PageRank works. Kind of like observing the wind by watching how the leaves move. Read a lot, do your own experiments, and use what works for you. Best of luck.

• At June 23, 2007, Patrick Lee wrote:

  Andy,

  OK, I went ahead and read your blog post on this topic and I think I've isolated the cause of our disagreement. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be talking about outbound links reducing the amount of PageRank that a page could be passing to other internal pages. That statement I agree with and it sort of turns the issue on its head relative to how I was looking at it.

  What I thought you meant was that on a one-page website (for a simple example), you could actually reduce the PageRank of your single page by having a lot of outbound links. Now I see that this is probably not what you're saying. Using phrases like "stealing PageRank" is probably what threw me off.

  Now my question is whether multiple outbound links to the same page within a site bleed more PageRank than one link. Google seems to say that each site (not each page) can only cast a single "vote" for a given external page. So if that's true, it wouldn't matter really if your blogroll was on every page or just one page... at least in terms of PageRank passed to the external pages. But the question remains, does having a blogroll on every page damage your own internal PageRank? Can a site cast multiple "votes" for its own pages through internal linking or does the "one vote per site" rule apply here as well? I honestly don't know, but I'd sure like to find out.

• At June 23, 2007, Andy Beard wrote:

  It is know that the major search engines discount the value of sitewide links, but I think they are generally looked on as passing more benefit to the receiving site.

  If they pass on more benefit, they must take more away.

  What I don't know is how many pages of content Google need to determine that something is sitewide, or to work out which part of a page is content, and which is navigation.

  Where in the calculation such discounting would take place is extremely hard to determine.

  Other major factors include how relevance and anchor text adds additional benefit to the links, whereas links in comments could well be negated a percentage just like the sidebar if they are not to relevant content.

  In regards to twisting the knife, remember that it was my original article was the one brought into question, and whilst it is quite old compared to most of my content, most of my SEO content is along the same themes. and is fairly unique.

  "hari kari" - it is totally true, but then Armen whilst not having a perfect linking structure (and I don't yet either, though at least I have mapped out what I want to achieve), has a good 50+ links to internal pages on the page, and discussion like this has proven in the past to bring him some decent links from outside.

  Good conversations also encourage more subscribers, and with more subscribers, you get more editorial links.

• At June 24, 2007, Armen wrote:

  Really appreciate the dialogue here guys.

  Andy - I noticed someone recently talking about removing DoFollow prior to the up and coming PR update. But surely if you're going to do that, there's not much point in having it in the first place. Am I correct?

• At June 24, 2007, Andy Beard wrote:

  I have seen it too. I am not going to say it has no merit, and there are other concerns.

  It is something I am planning a post on, but ultimately the people worried about it are not thinking about all the additional benefits, and generally have poor linking structure.

• At June 25, 2007, Patrick Lee wrote:

  Another issue to keep in mind (again this is something I read and not something I've gone out and confirmed) is that Google claims to update PageRank on a daily basis. It's just the public update that occurs once every few months. And the PageRank algorithm gets tweaked all the time.

  So even in a perfect world, we may be able to reverse engineer the PageRank formula from four months ago, but Google has already moved away from it and the new ranks that are released would probably contradict what we've learned. In other words, it's a moving target.

• At June 25, 2007, Judy Andrews wrote:

  I was happy to find this dialogue and what to do with the empty blogroll space since I moved my blogroll to a separate page after reading Andy Beards blog. Thanks for the insights from everyone also...Jude

• At June 27, 2007, Armen wrote:

  Patrick - It's a moving target for sure.

  Judy - No probs. Glad to help!