In some freakish accident about 48 hours ago, the Alexa ranks were shuffled. As a result, my other blog now has a higher ranking with Alexa than this one.

I wondered how this would effect the Top 100 Make Money Online Blogs which Ryan Shamus painstakingly went through one by one and described recently. It’s well worth a look. As far as the list goes, I see a lot of same names, just in different places. I dropped about four places.

Also today would have been the day that Marcus Hochstadt’s Blog broke the Alexa 50,000 barrier. He was going to hold a contest to celebrate the occasion. Well, the contest is still on.

My contribution is The Confessions Of A Lazy Super Affiliate which I will be buying for the contest. I already have my own copy. I will also be writing my take on the book. An addition, so to speak. I consider this ebook the 4 Hour Workweek for Affiliate Marketers. It’s a gradual process of building automation and outsourcing into an affiliate marketing business, so you can work less and less.

But this is not a beginner book. This a blueprint that you will have to fill the blanks in with experience or research at some of the links the book suggests. But the book is not geared toward blogging. I think it can be. That is what the report I am writing will cover.

Here’s the contest details, over $7000 worth of prizes and 66,666 Entrecard credits.

Consultations, Products & Services

• Max from SiteHoppin gives 10 Beer Stock Pages worth $20-$100 each = $200-$1,000 PLUS 50 One Buck Wiki pages worth $20 each = $1,000, altogether making it to a whopping $2,000!
• Martin Russell from World of Mouth Magic gives 50 (!) accounts of 10 cards each at SendOutCards.com worth $25 each = $1,250!
• Gary Evans from Law of Attraction Secrets gives 10 of his Manifest A Miracle systems worth $97 each = $970!>
• Debbie Lane from Wisdom Hypnosis gives 7 of her Living The Lucky Life! audio CDs worth $23.77 each = $166.39 PLUS a personal 1.5 hour Hypnosis Session by phone worth $250, making it a total of $416.39!
• Marcus Hochstadt from Internet Business Guide For First Class Progress gives respectively 1 of each of his 4 DVD products worth $100 each = $400 PLUS one 2-hour Coaching Session worth $300, altogether making it to a $700!
• Pat King from FitnessLifeClub gives 1 month of his Premier Health Coaching Package worth $357.98!
• Keith Goodrum from On Becoming a 2%er gives 2 of his DVDs 10 Minute Blog Post worth $100 each = $200!
• Andreas from XavierMedia.com gives 5 one-year VIP memberships to CreateBanner.com worth $35 each = $175!
• Larry Brauner from Online Social Networking gives a personal 1 hour consultation worth $150!
• Jason from The University Kid gives two 60 minute Blogging Consultations worth $60 each = $120.
• Leisa Watkins from Dream Act Plan Believe gives 3 Robert G. Allan books that are personally signed by Robert (!), as well as 3 Richard Paul Evans books, also personally signed by Richard himself!
• Karl Gechlik from Ask The Admin gives a professional technical e-mail support session worth $50!
• Wayne from Ez DIY Electricity gives $50 in hard earned PayPal cash!
• Borzack from Making Myself Extra Money gives 5 of his Page Peel Ads scripts worth $8 each = $40!
• Stephan Miller from Stephan Miller gives one copy of Confessions of a Lazy Super-Affiliate worth $29.95 PLUS a Special Report he wrote specifically for the person who wins this e-book!
• Crystal from Ubiquitous gives a Site Review worth $20 PLUS a link on her Blogroll for one month worth $10, making it a total of $30!
• Sam Freedom from Internet Marketing Controversy Blog gives a 2-month membership to a large Private Label Rights (”PLR”) membership site worth $30!
• Kelly Naylor from Aerten Art gives one of her unique art work Acid Rain, an original water color painting worth $25!
• Dwayne from Pro Blog Reviews gives a Blog Review worth $25!
• Frank from Technology Blog and more gives a StumbleUpon advertisement campaign worth $20 (400 targeted visitors)!
• Kacie from Sense to Save gives a StumbleUpon advertisement campaign worth $10 (200 targeted visitors)!
• The Fool from Foolsville 2.0 gives $10 in hard earned PayPal cash!
• Lightening from Lightening’s Blogworld gives 2 Blog Reviews worth $5 each = $10!
• Constantin Codreanu from INconstantIN gives a one year .com domain registration worth $10!
• Iris from thebuzz gives a link on her Blogroll for one month worth $10!
• Layne from Reward Rebel gives 1 copy of Reward Rebel LOOT worth $7!
• Fitz Villafuerte from Ready To Be Rich gives 2 stumbles & diggs per week for one month!
• Theda K. Rogers from Crayon Writer gives a full-blown site review on her blog which will certainly increase the buzz for her winner’s blog!
• Mert Erkal from Search For Blogging gives an Invitation to the May issue of www.bloghology.com, which has more than 3,000+ subscribers!
• Alexys Fairfield from Soul Meets World offers to interview her winner (about his/her product, service, Web site, life, etc) PLUS providing a link from her site to his’/hers! (She used to interview celebrities, so this one is PRICELESS!)

Ad Space

• KiwiPulse from KiwiPulse gives 3 x 125×125 top ad space for one month worth $15 each = $45
• Deimos Tel´Arin from ahkong.net gives a 468×60 top ad banner box for one month worth $36
• Anna from My Cornerstone Trio gives a 125×125 top ad space for one month worth $35
• Turnip from Turnip of Power gives a 125×125 top ad space for one month worth $35
• Wayne from Ez DIY Electricity gives a top ad space (125×125 or 468×60) for one month worth up to $30!
• Caleb from environmentastic! gives a 125×125 top ad space for one month worth $25
• Kathleen from Entrepreneurs Only gives a 125×125 top ad space for one month worth $25
• Marty from Money Maker Times gives a 125×125 top ad space for one month worth $25
• Constantin Codreanu from INconstantIN gives a 125×125 top ad space for one month worth $15
• Mirjam from Me Myself and I gives a 125×125 top ad space for one month worth $10
• Lee Doyle from Lee Doyle – Contains Nuts gives a 125×125 top ad space for one month worth $10

Entrecard Credits

• Marcus Hochstadt from Internet Business Guide For First Class Progress gives 12,966ec
• Layne from Reward Rebel gives 5,000ec
• Caleb from environmentastic! gives 3,000ec
• Constantine Balbozar from Ideas and Money gives 3,000ec
• Kacie from Sense to Save gives 3,000ec
• Larry Brauner from Online Social Networking gives 2,500ec
• Joan Joyce from Making Sense, Cents and Scenes from the Phillipines gives 2,000ec.
• Tim from Yimto Affiliate Marketing Blog gives 2,000ec
• Crystal from Ubiquitous gives 2,000ec
• Lee Doyle from Lee Doyle – Contains Nuts gives 2,000ec
• Art from Article Specialist gives 2,000ec
• Jonathan from Archon Digital gives 2,000ec
• Jonathon from Tech News Source gives 1,500ec
• Gary Evans from Law of Attraction Secrets gives 1,000ec
• Suzanne from Dot Com Mogul gives 1,000ec
• Dwayne from Pro Blog Reviews gives 1,000ec
• Michael Aulia from Michael Aulia’s Tech Blog gives 1,000ec
• Stephan Miller from Stephan Miller gives 1,000ec
• Dave from Is A Man’s World gives 1,000ec
• Scott Main from Scott’s Space gives 1,000ec
• Kumo from Toast & Egg & Me… gives 1,000ec
• Mirjam from Me Myself and I gives 1,000ec
• Jasmine from Pixelated Thoughts gives 1,000ec
• Lincoln from Canucklehead gives 1,000ec
• KiwiPulse from KiwiPulse gives 1,000ec
• Lightening from Lightening gives 1,000ec
• Wangbu from Hulag gives 1,000ec
• Juliana from Juliana’s World gives 1,000ec
• Juliana from Juliana’s Lair gives 1,000ec
• Juliana from My Library gives 1,000ec
• Iris from thebuzz gives 1,000ec
• Anna from My Cornerstone Trio gives 1,000ec
• Wayne from Ez DIY Electricity gives 1,000ec
• Collin LaHay from Mixed Market Arts gives 600ec
• Shelia from Black Tennis Pros gives 500ec
• David Thorne from Media Morgue gives 500ec
• Stan from Fantasy Baseball gives 500ec
• Borzack from Making Myself Extra Money gives 500ec
• The Fool from Foolsville 2.0 gives 500ec
• Marty from Money Maker Times gives 300ec
• Fitz Villafuerte from Ready To Be Rich gives 300ec

Visit Hochstadt.com to learn how to enter!

This weekend I got off my butt and went down a list of things I wanted to get done.

• I built a list of blogs using the CommentLuv plugin over at my site Digital Product Review. I am just getting the final tweaks on the theme done and am ready to start getting a little more traffic. I figured this list would bring some. It only has 100 blogs on it now, but I have about 250 more links to go through, so look for updates. A large percentage of these blogs have an Entrecard widget, a second reason to check this list out.
• I put up another WordPress plugin project for bidding. It’s a simple one and I will be using it to check out developers. The plugin is a huge project, so I am getting it made piece by piece until it is finished, depending on my budget for hiring developers and my own time to add to it.
• I purchased and read The Lazy Affiliate Marketer. This is an awesome book for intermediate affiliate marketers. I finished reading it in a day. The blueprint I have used to make money through affiliate marketing is about 20% of the book. The other 80% is where I want to go. Plus I have some ideas to add to the book. So I will be writing a report expanding the book, adding a few more techniques and giving it away with future purchases. Look for the annoucement when I am done with the report.
• I did some work around the house.
• I came up with an awesome idea for my domain Dir23.com which is just sitting around collecting dust, but that is going to require some Drupal knowledge. The idea. I’ll wait until the site’s done.
• After my post about automatic related content, I have explored it more by playing around on my Squidoo account, just trying to find how many different feeds I could come up with to cluster around one concept. A laboratory of some sorts. The SimplePie plugin works great for WordPress, but it requires a little php knowledge. I have written some preprocessors for the plugin and noted all the code and will be writing a post about using it the day I make it live here, along with some ways to make money by using the plugin.
• That made me want to build a list of Squidoo-like sites: dofollow, the ability to add multiple feed and content sources, and no marketing haters. On the to do list.
• I have been questioning myself about post frequency for a while. The problem is that there is a lot of info on the subject and a lot of opinions. One thing I have noticed: work put in on posting and commenting on the weekends is usually less effective during the weekend. In other words, I get more mileage out of my weekday post. Another thing: I get a lot of comments on the post just before the last one I posted. I figured I will drop myself down to every other day posting for now, with a goal of 4 posts a week. I will have to discipline myself by timestamping post forward even when I can’t wait to publish. On the weekends, I will post a light post, most likely off topic. I write some long posts quite often. Those should be able to make it a couple of days and give me an off day for my other blog and projects. Plus, it’s close to the same amount of posts I have been getting in anyway. Might as well stop berating myself and make it the new rule. But I would like to hear opinions on the topic of post frequency because nothing has totally swayed me one way (daily posting or more) or the other (every other day or a few times a week).

And that’s about it.

I have been looking at the layout on my blog for a little while now, calculating what I wanted to change about it. But I didn’t make the changes right away. I just noted them and went on with other things. There was a lot of changes I wanted to do and a little more research needed to be done before I did any of them.

I signed up as a sponsor of the MoneyBites contest a couple of weeks ago. One of the things I gave away was ad space, which gave me a deadline for redoing my site a little. Well, that deadline was two days ago.

There is only a couple of changes that still remain to be done and I will cover those last. So here are the changes and the reasons I did them. I figure I need a technical post in here, every once and while. Disclaimer: my reasons may be total rationalizations, but it’s better than having none.

1. I shortened the length of the text box for my email subscribe form so it would fit on one line with the button. Reason: pure aesthetics.
2. I moved the Top Posts widget from the header section to the sidebar. This widget is the WordPress Reports Most Active Widget which uses the WordPress Reports plugin. Reason: A lot of people come my for my lists of sites and reload the page constantly to submit their site. This may throw off the numbers a little. It does show other popular pages, but there are a few posts that I think cover a lot of ground and I would like to emphasize them. So the Top Posts widget is still there but has less emphasis now.
3. I replaced that widget with a Featured Posts widget, which it really isn’t. It’s a category in my Blogroll. I spent a lot of time hunting for a featured post widget that would do what I like then I realized if I just used a blogroll category, I could use a browse to the post an use a bookmarklet.  It’s running inside the Executable PHP Widget, which is using this code:

   <?php get_links('1358', '<li>', '</li>', '<br />', FALSE, 'rand',

   FALSE, FALSE, 30, TRUE); ?>

   where ’1358′ is the category of the links. My other blogroll uses the same type code, listing only one category of links. Reason: Simplicity. This was easy to do. I can set the anchor text for SEO reasons and keep the title at a length that will fit on one line. I can also set the description for more SEO magic.

4. I removed the DoFollow image and added a link on the blank nav bar that links to the post where I write about DoFollow. Reason: It adds a link to my post about DoFollow, not only telling readers that I will follow their links, but that I also use the Comment Luv plugin.
5. I added the Accordian Widget to my sidebar. Reason: I wanted to free up some room. When I  was creating the theme for this site, I was actually going to put two sidebars on the right so that I could put more there. This widget helps out. The tabs hidden when you initially land on the page are really unimportant visually. They do not need emphasis. But someone may want to browse my categories, tags, and submission site lists every once in a while. They also help with the search engines. I opted to put excerpts of posts on my duplicate content pages instead of making links to those pages nofollow. This menu is on every page and effectively increases the amount of link juice I invest back into my site and the link juice sent out as a whole is lower.
6. I added the bigger Entrecard widget and removed it from the GotBanners widget Reason: The Entrecard widget is bigger than 125 x 125 banners. It made the banner layout look funky. Plus, for some reason, if I ran the Entrecard widget inside of Got Banners, it did not show it Internet Explorer. Don’t know the reason but I found what fixed the problem.
7. I added two Profilactic widgets. Reason: I wanted a widget to aggregate all of my communities. Others offered less options. If all else fails, you can add a standard link to your Profilactic profile widget or add any feed. This widget is at the bottom. On the sidebar, I have a LifeStream widget which lists by bookmarks, blog posts, etc. as they happen.
8. I moved the Top Commenters and my other Blogroll category widget to the sidebar. Reason: The footer was half of my hole page. There was too much down there.
9. I activated the HeadSpace2 plugin just to see what it looks like. Reason: It looks like it will be fun to play with. I have yet to see if it plays well with the All-In-One SEO Pack.

This all took about an hour because I had everything lined up in row for me. All the research was done and I had a list.

What is left?

1. I am going to decide on either a service to deal with my private ads or OIO Publisher. Update: DealDotCom deal of the day today was OIOPublisher for $15. For that much I can give it a try. They have a marketplace on the site to advertise your listing and the plugin itself will support banner ads, text ads, paid posts and even affiliates. It was too much not to pass up for $15. I will cover more of that later, as I get used to using the plugin.
2. I am going to investigate this. This is something I have been chasing for a while. I like the LifeStream concept, but I also like clustering. I want related delicious links in a block within my post like my related posts.

So that’s it for now. No visual changes. Just a little spring cleaning.

I had a surprise in my Entrecard dashboard today. The inbox has a feed of the last 50 people to drop a card at my site. I quickly added it to my bookmark toolbar, chose that folder and saw how long it would take Firefox to open 50 tabs by choosing "Open All in Tabs."

I have yet to write an Entrecard focused article yet, but I have noticed a few ways to speed up the process of dropping cards.

Let me say this first. Some sites I just drop cards on because I don’t have much feedback to give on any of the current posts. But a lot, I leave open, continue dropping cards and then come back and comment. I have easily been covering my quota of commenting on about ten blogs a day.

Now for the quick methods:

• Sitehoppin – An auto browser site. Jumps from one site to the next. Not sure about this one. There is an automatic mode that jumps every five seconds or so. Not really conducive to leaving comments.
• Chain Dropping – I use this most often. Open the last 10 people in your inbox, drop cards, click on their current advertisers, drop cards and repeat until you have no sites left.
• Mass site opening – I just did it with them method above. I might try again with a faster loading browser. My Firefox installation has a lot of addons.
• Use a fast loading browser – I went back to Internet Explorer or Opera a few times just for Entrecard, because, like I said, Firefox can get really slow with a lot of addons.