This post is divided into 3 sections:
I. The geeky, stat-and-research section
II. The emo, personal yet still SEO-related section
III. The brighter side of (SEO) life

I.
I’ve finished my rounds reading digg, engadget, uncrate, pingmag and other sites I frequent, as well as bloghopping over 70 blogs and now I’m bored. Trying to be productive and not waste my time playing Neopets, I’m reading up on some SEO stuff right now so I can hopefully save my PR from going down (or my blog getting banned by google) in the next PR update. Black hat SEO is really tempting because it’s really easy to do with no frills. I guess I’m in for grey hat because I can’t really position myself really doing white hat due to using do-follow, adding my blog to blog rollings and multi-base keywords watchamacallit. Plus, I’ve bought off some links just in time for the recent PR update so that might also count out as a factor. Also, my Alexa ranking’s still going up but it really slowed down at the 300k rate the past two weeks. The daily reach plummeted down the past few days.

I’m really scared of Google banning/lowering my PR because of my sponsored posts (which now account to roughly 8% of my total posts). I can’t find something to stop me since it’s my only source of actual income while staying and doing my college thing. If I’m not going to ‘utilize’ these opportunities, I wouldn’t find progression in my life. I think I’m better off doing this than downloading movies all the time not learning about something that could make my life easier and better in the future.

II.
I also find it bizaare that there aren’t really much commenters on my blog ever since its setup back in 2003/04. One of the reasons might be accounted for that I use Multiply and Livejournal much more frequently to post my personal life so I’m getting more comments there. Way more. Another reason could be because I never really comment much on posts in the local/international blogosphere to which I’m not getting reciprocated on - doesn’t pay to be a daily lurker much, I guess. Third, I haven’t really established a niche for this blog. Or probably I don’t really have much to talk about, or something to spark conversation for the most of the time. Hard to pinpoint. The last time I had a blogwide survey to fix my targeted audience articles was last year I think, when I actually had an actual stable readership unlike now which tends to fluctuate up and down - something that could put the Philippine stock exchange to shame.

I really miss photoblogging and as much as I’d want to incorporate it here, I still haven’t bought a new camera because I’m waiting for the 400D my Grandpa’s giving us as a ‘family camera’. I think that was one of the main factors I lost my readership (pre-PayPerPost). People have also probably outgrown my emo rants and posts, and I guess there’s not much drama going on in my life which could have been a factor as well.

I’ve also lost points-of-conversation with this SEO shift with my friends IRL and some were complaining that they used to visit my main blog but they couldn’t be bothered with it so they resort going to my other two blogs instead to check up on me.

IV.
On a brighter note, Google indexes this blog on the top 18 spot for keyword ‘aaron‘ from 20 last month. Just a little more push until I make front page! It would be really amazing if I’d beat Aaron Wall, SEO god at his #4 google rank for his name. Now THAT’s an accomplishment.

Tama na nga, I’ll save other stuff for another day.

Comments, suggestions? I need some loving. I have the urge to be an attention whore recently. Or maybe this is just the product of insomnia sinking in. Don’t mind me. Or do mind, whatever.