BlogSlavery

Play Games Against Your Friends on Your Blog

2006-04-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

I have forgotten which Internet related blog I found this site on, but if you are reading this give me a shout.

This is one of the most exciting blog add-on sites I have come across yet. Not only can you get the caption game below, but there are 26 other games and fun 'tools', such as chat boxes and virtual pets, Pacman and Bat vs. Ball v1.0.

The site works in a slightly different way to normal. This is what BunchBall themselves had to say about it:

Other gaming sites start with the games and then match you up with strangers to play against. Bunchball flips it around - you create a buddy list of the people you like to play with, and then start games with them!

Not always online at the same time? No problem! Games at Bunchball can be played live and in real-time, or players can make their moves whenever they're online. So a game can last minutes or months - it's up to you.

Although I have had one or two problems adding stuff to this site (using Blogger), the site is in beta and I got a lot of help from Rajat over at BunchBall.

I am going to check out a few of the add-ins separately, here in my blog and then come back with a definitive review with ratings for the whole site.

In the meantime, get over there and give it a try! If you have any trouble, there is lots of useful info at their blog and you can ask for help at their forum here.

Add a Poll to Your Blog - Find Out Info About Your Readers!

2006-04-02T04:51:00.000-07:00

A poll on your blog is an idea that can be both interesting and useful. You can find out what type of people visit your site, you can entertain with silly or strange questions and finally, you can find out useful information that can help you make your site better.

Go along to blogflux, fill out the usual account details (Have you got Roboform to fill out forms?), and then enter your blog information. Once this is over, you will be told that you need to wait for your site to be approved. At this point, you can, in fact, go off and find the poll page and create one without waiting. The approval is for your site joining the Blogflux directory.

This is all a little bit messy, but when you do find the correct page, the poll set-up itself is easy enough and the customization features are pretty good. Finally you are given the HTML to put in you template or blog. You end up with something like this. Give it a try:

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://not-a-real-namespace/http://polls.blogflux.com/poll-1162.html"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Take the poll&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://not-a-real-namespace/http://polls.blogflux.com/"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Free Poll by Blog Flux&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

All in all, quite a useful feature to any blog, but maybe there is a place on the web where you can do it easier.

Features: 6
Effort: 3
Interface: 7
Usefulness: 8
Overall: 6

How to Blog! - A Compilation of Blogging Tips

2006-04-01T11:18:00.000-08:00

Originally I was going to write a collection of 'how to' tips on blogging from my own experience. I then realised that I am still only a blog baby myself, having only discovered the illicit joys myself a couple of months ago.

I then thought, why not collect together tips from the best, the pensioners of the blog world. I could link back to the lists I steal from, giving back to the community.

.....and it's easier to let other people do the work!

So here goes:

1. Write every day. busblog

2. If you think you're a good writer, write twice a day. busblog

3. The average person only comprehends 60% of what they read. How much do you comprehend?. To ensure your reader 'gets' what you're saying you need to make it clear. LivingRoom

4. Stay informative. If you are attempting to create the impression that you are knowledgeable about a specific industry or sector, be sure that you stay current on news. FeedForAll

5. People will forgive misspellings and typos as long as they’re finding value in what's being written. But if you're not doing it consistently, traffic will trail off. Netguide.co.nz

6. Determine your purpose. Weblogs are used to filter information, organize businesses, share family news, establish professional reputations, foment social change, and muse about the meaning of life. Knowing what you hope to accomplish with your weblog will allow you to begin in a more focused way. Rebecca's Blood

7. If you want to make money...AdSense will run the ad that has the highest probability of earning the publisher the best price if it's a choice between a CPC and a CPM ad on your blog. Problogger

8. Promote you blog ceaselessly....not only on search engines etc, but get involved in the community. Build a Better Blog

9. Quantity matters. In order to attract the attention of search engines, you will need to develop content and substance. A headline or simple sentence is not going to generate the interest of readers or help with search engine ranking. Be sure to archive old blog posts to develop a large portal of similarly themed content. McDan

10. Steal from other bloggers. Catch another blogger just as he or she posts a new post. Then steal the whole text and post it with the date saying you posted it even earlier. Then accuse that other blogger stealing from you. IMAO

P.S. When compiling these tips, I was amazed at the number of times that sites had stolen other peoples work and claimed it as their own. What does that tell you about the world today ;-)

Add a Game of Video Poker to Your Blog!

2006-04-01T06:12:00.000-08:00

Got nothing to blog today, but still want to keep the visitors coming. BlingJam have the answer. Simply go along to the site, find the game, click the 'create the code' button and paste away. Simple as that.

It is all very simple, but the features are very limited. A review will be coming soon from the new site at bunchball. This new site provides features that are a bit more complex, but more interesting to boot.

Video poker is here.

Features: 4
Effort: 9
Interface: 9
Usefulness: 6
Overall: 8

How Do You Rate Your Blog, Is It Hot or Not?

2006-03-27T09:47:00.000-08:00

We can all check our ratings with Varb, but there are rumours that there may be some abuse. Also, that is all you get, a rating.

How about trying a site that runs on the old AmIHotOrNot principles (and is in fact run by the same people) and on top of that shows extra information about the number of people that have viewed your site over time (from 1 week to 1 year).

Go to BlogHotOrNot, enter your details, give a few keywords for your blog, add the obligatory image and off you go.

The site is very simple to use. Navigation is limited to four or five options and these are easy to use.

Having said that, there are a couple of major limitations. Having set myself up I decided to try and rate a few sites. The only problem was that I couldn't find a way to do it. There is no way to do this from the site unless you go via the latest hot keywords and then select a site from a listing. The way people find your site is by clicking the link from your blog. The other disappointment was that once a site has been voted for, no more sites appeared. I was expecting to get a bit of free traffic, but that will not happen. These seem like major flaws to the system.

Having said all of that, a few minutes of your time and a tiny link on your blog and you have a free and easy to use rating system set up.

Give voting a try and see how it works (Hint: Bloggers like ratings of ten the best!).

Go to BlogHotOrNot to give the service a try.

The service works well for what it is and after a few days, 6 people had rated my site, so some people do use it. I changed my logo box as I only had a rating of 5.25/10. It can't be my content......

Features: 4
Effort: 7
Interface: 6
Usefulness: 5
Overall: 7

Click My Chat Box! - Testing of a Blog Tagboard

2006-03-24T11:39:00.000-08:00

Take a look on the left of my blog and you will see my shiny new Tagboard. Leave me a comment or are you scared. As the folk at Cbox say:

Get a cbox tagboard for your website or blog and let your visitors leave you messages and even chat with each other. Getting started is easy, simply paste a few lines of HTML into your site!

The Basic cbox tagboard is absolutely free, but if you need more features you can upgrade simply and easily for only $2 per month

The feature list, taken from the web site include:

Ease of Use
Scalability
Security
Customization with skins

Here I am testing the free version, which has a few features missing and has adverts. Later I will give the paid service a go.

Setting up the box was quite easy. A few details and a skin selection (I chose Slate) and a quick and excellently documented HTML copy and I was away.

Once this was done, I was given extensive set-up options, with the ability to change the colour of everything, set up the smilies and quite a lot more.

Give it a try! Send me a message.

You can find it here.

Overall, it has been a positive experience using a shout box. I think it makes my blog look a little more professional and people who might not have left a comment otherwise, are using it because of the ease.

Features: 8
Effort: 8
Interface: 9
Usefulness: 7
Overall: 9

BlogAzoo - A review! Another New Blog Traffic Site Given a Test Drive

2006-03-23T10:13:00.000-08:00

BlogAzoo - A Review

First impression, a nice site with a clean interface. Easy to join, although I had a little difficulty adding my blogs as the error messages it gave did not specify what I had done wrong.

Taking a look around the offered features I found that the site seemed to be almost the same as BlogSoldier which I reviewed yesterday. It has contests (although none were up and running), the buy credits feature, referrals and banners.

Due to the lack of things to look at, I was soon into the surfing. The surfing features were quite nice , which, as I have said before, is the most important part of a blog traffic exchange. They included the standard affair surf bar, which was pleasant to use. There was also an extra bar added which allows for information on the site you are surfing. A 20 second waiting time and 1 view for every 2 of my views were OK, although it will need to get better if they want to compete with BlogMad A blog vote system would have made things nicer.

The community feel to the site was lacking. This was probably due to the young age of the site. There was nobody in their chatroom when I visited and there seemed to be a lack of entries in the forums. Why don't these sites put a chat box on their main pages. That would get people on the blog talking. There were also only 2 people online, me included, and 62 registered users!

Overall a nice site, with some good feature which I expect will get much better as time goes on. Give them a try in 6 months and I believe you will find one of the top exchanges. Maybe you should be giving them a but of your custom now to help them get the numbers up.

Features: 4
Community: 3
Effort: 8
Interface: 9
Overall: 8 ... with potential

BlogSoldiers - The Third Blog Traffic Site Review!

2006-03-22T12:26:00.000-08:00

Blog Soldiers - A Review

The site was easy enough to join. A few details and an e-mail verification and I was in. The learning curve was quick and easy and I quickly added an extra blog and was surfing.

The site is 2 views for one, but has a very quick blog waiting time of only 20 seconds. This seems good, but it may mean that viewers don't look at your site for long enough. Is 20 seconds to short a time to capture someone's attention? The surfing box was easy enough although it was basic with no way to rate the sites you see. One good feature, missing from most surfing boxes, is a credit counter. This simple feature is very welcome.

The main place that BlogSoldier falls down is with its features. There are no games to speak of. There is a "Contest" link, but there were none available when I checked. There was no community of any kind either.

Of note is the fact that the site allows credits to be purchased. You can get 1200 credits for US$10 and US$27 will get you 5000 cedits.

Overall, the site is quite good, but a lack of features makes it hard to recommend.

Features: 3
Community: 3
Effort: 8
Interface: 8
Overall: 7

Blog Explosion - A Review! Can This Site Increase Your Traffic?

2006-03-22T11:56:00.000-08:00

Blog Explosion - A Review!

(Blog Exlposion seem to have blocked this site - Is it because of this review - comments?)

BlogExplosion was started in October 2004 and is certainly one of the biggies. It has lots of interesting features, 50,000 members and over a million listings on Google.

When I first looked at the site, it was a quite difficult to join due to the requirement of adding a link to this blog (top left). My first impressions weren't favourable due to the complex and confusing menus.

This said, the games on BE are very good. Firstly there is an arcade featuring loads of different games such as Mario, Counterstrike and the usual set of classics. The only thing is that these games do not allow you to gain credits. There are however, a number of other games including Sudoku, Battle of the Blogs and Scratch Cards, that do give out winnings.

Another interesting feature on BE is "Rent My Blog". I have set this up on the left of the screen to show you an example. I will update this if anything happens.

Other nice features I should mention: You can get your blog reviewed by other members, there is a section for Podcasts and a there is a "Knowledge Directory" where you can ask others for help and information.

In the end, it is the surfing section of the site that is the important bit and this is where BE is let down. Firstly, you only get 1 view of your blog for 2 views of other blogs. On top of this, you have to wait 30 seconds on each blog. The interface is a bit lack-lustre and amateurish as well. There is no apparent grading system and I could not find a button to click to get back to the main page (although I am sure there must be one somewhere).

Overall then, BE seems to be a mixed affair with some very good points and some very bad.

Comment from member:

I think BE has some of the best traffic and features of all the blog exchanges - Croaker72

Features: 9
Community: 3
Effort: 5
Interface: 6
Overall: 7

BlogMad - A Review! A New Blog Traffic Site!

2006-03-18T10:43:00.000-08:00

N.B. You can link to this site in the box on the left!

BlogMad

BlogMad is a new and exciting site that is to be launched in a couple of days. It is quite easy to join, has a fresh and easy to use UI.

Features include 4 games to gain view credits, messaging, forums, a favourites list, counters, random credit gifts and a site grading system. Surfing the blogs was a delight! For each site I viewed, I got one view from another user. On top of that, I only had to wait 25 seconds on each site.

Overall I found BlogMad to be an excellent site, with a very friendly and buzzing community, good features and a very good click ratio.

Comments from users

"the games here are really good and a good, quick source of credits.....i also think the 'quick view' thing is really helpful" - Lydia

"We got MF'n Snakes!!!" - Tickles

" i specially love the fact that if you don't feel like surfing you can still win some credits by playing games" - akhater

Another view here.

Features: 7
Community: 10
Effort: 10
Interface: 9
Overall: 9

A New Blog Looking at the Services Available to Bloggers

2006-03-18T08:27:00.000-08:00

This is an entirely new blog whose aim will be to examine and compare the different services and tools available to the blogging world. Please check again on a couple of hours for the first real blog.

Contact me at bubbablog@googlemail.com