webrampage

From time to time, my brain stops working and I can’t think of what to blog about. Its not exactly writer’s block. I try to think of something unique to write about. Well I was thinking (for a change) and I realized something important. Its about social bookmarking sites and how obsessed I was with it.

I tried so hard to get on Digg‘s front page, but I failed. I don’t know what’s wrong. I tried my best. I guess Digg hates me or something. I got around 250 diggs on a few submissions too. Its not like I got the basics wrong or something. I’m just not lucky enough.

I submitted my second last post to Digg and someone else made a submission about the same topic. It was about all the CAPTCHAs on Digg. Well the other guy was a power digger and his submission made it to the front. Mine didn’t, of course. I was really pissed off.

Now just a few minutes ago I was thinking of trying to game Digg. No more being a nice guy. Thinking of gaming Digg, SU, etc and grabing some traffic that way. But, then I asked myself what the fuck am I doing? Why am I so fucking hooked on traffic from social bookmarking sites? It was completely messed up.

I forgot that I can get traffic from search engines, backlinks, etc. There are other ways to promote my blog. I can comment on other blogs, talk about it in forums, promote it on micro-blogging sites like Plurk, etc, etc. I was obsessed. Obsessed with the traffic from social bookmarking sites. It was like everything to me. It was as if my blog’s success depended on that traffic. But, the good thing is that I snapped out of it.

I’m hoping that I could help a few people snap out of this obsession. Open your eyes and think about it. Don’t go crazy for the traffic from social bookmarking sites. If you don’t go popular there then its not the end of the world. Build a great site, have quality content, and be optimistic.

Before you get me wrong, let me tell you that I’m not saying that you should stop using social bookmarking sites or anything. Think of the traffic from social bookmarking sites as a gift. Don’t fight for the gift. You’ll get it if you’ve done a good job.

YouNoodle is a new site that can predict what your startup’s value will be in future. I’ve gotta admit that it is truly a…piece of shit! Or maybe I’m wrong. I guess they’ve made a site that can time-travel and tells you how your startup will do in three years.

Okay this site is being worshipped by TechCrunch. I read about YouNoodle on TechCrunch and it looked interesting. Well it was in private beta and it had a signup form. I wanted to take the prediction thing for a test drive. So, I entered my email address feeling confident that I won’t be spammed since it was referred by the holiness, TechCrunch.

Well guess what? The title of the post says it all. I’m being fucking spammed by YouNoodles. They sent me 21 emails within 5 minutes about their stupid launch. Like WTF? But, wait that’s not all. I’m going to get my ass spammed more because they sent everyone an email by CCing.

Just take a look at this screenshot. See what I mean? Now someone can just copy/paste all the email addresses and start spamming us. Plus it shows how professional YouNoodle is. Couldn’t they do something less “noobish”? Like c`mon, this is how little kids send emails to all their friends.

Now the point is that you can see how much bullshit TechCrunch posts about. They’ve got it all wrong. It should be quality over quantity. I’m surprised how they managed to get 862K readers. Lucky bastards!

TechCrunch please check things before actually posting about it. And YouNoodles can you please stop spamming me now (and you gotta nice name for a noodle company).

Update: Okay I contacted YouNoodles a few minutes back and they apologized for this. Well I don’t know if their predictor actually works because its not a perfect world. Its like trying to predict when you’re gonna die. But, I love their attitude and that’s something you need in order to be successful:

Hi,

Huge apologies, our mail transfer agent malfunctioned and batched
messages together.

You were among a small number of people affected and thanks to your
message, among others, we were able to catch this quickly.

Today we rolled out Startup Predictor to a massive audience with very
minimal technical problems of which this was one.

Thanks for your interest in what we’ve built, look forward to your
feedback. Again, apologies for this.

- Kirill

YouNoodle, cofounder

http://younoodle.com

Does Google AdSesne have double standard? What do you think? The answer would be yes. A bit surprised? I am.

I noticed this a few months ago and I forgot about this. Last night I was just surfing the web and I saw this. I saw AdSense ads on milw0rm (a site that shares exploits). Last time, I checked it was against AdSense’s policy to put ads on a hacking/cracking related site.

Accounts get closed (and sites even get banned) if they have a bit of hacking/cracking content. No exceptions. You can’t hide. They’ll find out sooner or later. But, why the fuck does milw0rm get to use AdSense (take a look at this screenshot)?

Now this is just crazy. Its a bit unfair, don’t you think? milw0rm has been using AdSense for years now. I’m just mad at AdSense. They treat low-traffic sites like shit and let the popular ones do whatever they want. Oh sorry, I forgot high-traffic sites make them money. So, its okay to bend the rules for them.

So, do they have double standards? Its a rhetorical question. What can we do about it? I don’t know. Contact them if you want.

I’m glad that I’m not using AdSense anymore. Plus its not like you even make a lot of money. Few dollars a day. Who cares. Do you?