You know what they say, if it sounds like it’s too good to be true, then it probably is…?

ContestBlogger alerted me recently to this “full of crap contest” scam. I love the title of this post, “I told you so Ashwin Kanna is full of crap”:

The reason this makes me so angry is because of the way he did it: by hosting a total sham blog contest and promising bloggers that he would give one lucky winner $2,500 if they would link to his pukebag blog.

Well, check out what happened over at Ashwin Kanna’s blog. No, I am not linking to this fool. Please type in the URL yourself if you wish to see what kind of disgrace he has pulled on the unsuspecting internet public.

Some of the blogosphere were sucked in by this nonsense. Thankfully, I was not part of the bloggers that gave this guy a link back. His blog has literally jumped in popularity from no-nothing status to up in the top 10k.

Evil, you say? Yes, it sure is. It’s also wrong.

He awarded a winner alright. Some blog called bloggerslogger that is hosted on wordpress.com. This “lucky” blogger only had one post as of the drawing date of the contest. Suspicious indeed.

If you’ve done a review of Ashwin’s blog, then I’d urge you now to delete the post that links to his site. He doesn’t deserve your linklove or your loyalty. And they say that there’s no such thing as bad publicity? If you don’t want to delete your link, please feel free to update the anchor text to “crappy blog” or something similar.

To say that someone needs to review a lesson in blogging ethics should go without saying.

Here’s what another blogger has to say about the contest sham:

AshwinKhanna.com is a disgrace to the hustle. Please remove all links to his site if you have any in your blogroll or posts, and spread the news so he cannot start another one.

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I wanted to share with you my top ten things I love about blogging. This may give you a little more familiarity with me and the things that I write about.

The things I love about blogging are (in no particular order):

1. I get to share with you the things that I’m passionate about.

This is a very important reason to blog. If you’re not passionate about turtles, then why write about them? Would your readers have any knowledge to gain from your expertise about the subject that you’ve chosen? If I want news on rock concerts, then I don’t want to read someone blogging about them if they’ve never been to one. It just wouldn’t make sense.

2. I have met a lot of really cool, nice people.
This is also an important aspect to blogging. The people. Your readers. You. If it weren’t for the readers, you, I would be basically talking to myself. Now, that wouldn’t be good, would it?

3. Blogging is a good outlet for my ramblings and my knowledge.
There is that knowledge thing again. Yep, it’s that important. I can ramble on and on about the trip that I took to Georgia or tales where people do stupid crap like steal content and order a review. I have an opinion, and some of you may share the same opinions, this is the perfect place for it.

4. You can make money online blogging.
Yes, it’s true. Who knew? Of course, you have to build an audience and get the traffic from loyal readers, but that’ll come if your blog is worthy. You may not start out making a fortune, but people will become hip to the fact that your blog does generate a good amount of traffic and the posts are well-written.

5. It’s easy to write here.
I can spill whatever happens to be on my mind at the moment, and some of you will relate. Heck, you may even comment. The more comments, the better, if you ask me. I love to wake up in the mornings and see that people care about what I have to say. That is definitely a wonderful feeling.

6. It’s an ego boost.
Yes, we all want to blog and be famous. It’s definitely something that we’re all in it for, one way or another. You can Google me and find out all kinds of nifty things about me. I used to blog for ClevelandBrew, BlogCritics, and now Earsucker. I blog here and at CreditNCollections, even though my name is nowhere to be found there.

7. You have your space and I have mine.
If we come together and share views and opinions, a friendship is born. These friendships are important, just as in real life. You cultivate that friendship and it spills into your friends’ sphere of influence.

8. Links.
Yes, I like linking to other people whose blogs have a wealth of information to share. May they be about games, making money online, or personal stories. It’s a great way to share and inform your readers of other sites out there that they can also check out.

9. The design of your blog says something.
If you know anything about CSS, PHP, or HTML, then you can really attribute your blog’s design to some aspects of your personality. Even if you don’t know any of those, picking out a nice shiny theme has never been easier.

10. Chances are.
Sometimes, blogging is a lot about luck and timing. I didn’t start this blog with the idea that it would become popular or get a ton of links and some traffic like it has. That’s just the way it turned out. It’s partly due to the Rockin’ Girl Blogger award that I started, but it’s more than that, as well. Sure, that may get people in the door, but does it keep people here, all by itself?

What do you like about blogging?
Do you agree or disagree with any of what I’ve put here?
What is your blog about? Personal stuff, inkpens, books?

[tags]Blogging, Blogging made easy[/tags]

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I really like this idea a lot. It seems like an out of the box way to get people to surf, search, and recommend websites. Check out iRazoo. It’s a cool site that allows you to earn points, which are redeemable for pretty nifty prizes.

I found this site through Wii-Contests, and you can earn points towards a Wii, PS3, or other cool stuff! Clicking on my banner will earn us both 10 points. Then, you can start referring friends of your own, earn points, and redeem them for cameras, gift cards, and more.

Why not try this in your spare time? I’ve earned 4 points just for clicking on something after searching for it, and recommending the site to other readers.

Want to earn a Camera, Mp3 player, or Gift card just for using a search engine? Click this link or the iRazoo logo above and get 10 points just for signing up. I signed up and put this link on my webpage. I want everyone I know to see what all the hype is about, so join me and sign up at www.iRazoo.com today!

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Woohoo! There’s a milestone I’ve passed today….yay!

Thanks to an email from Phil over at his romance site, I wouldn’t have known until later on today. Oh yeah, he’s having a contest, go check it out, it rocks!

I’ll tell ya, it was sort of unexpected for this blog to get so popular so quickly, but I have to definitely thank my readers and all who have linked to me, for the popularity. Thank you guys/girls, without you, this wouldn’t be possible.

It is all mainly due to the recognition that has been passed on from the girl bloggers out there. It all started with the Rockin’ Girl Blogger meme that I created in June. Traffic and links really picked up from there. The ladies are still passing the award on and on and on.

Next, join me as I take over the world! hehe

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Or, how not to be a complete moron with your $400.00.

Andrew of AndrewTalk, ordered a ReviewMe from John Chow. All of this was prior to scraping John’s content and then shucking out $400.00 for a paid review.

Instead of refusing to do the review, John takes this guy’s money and does it, and goes all out. To take this guy down, John rips him a new one, and rightfully so. Unfortunately, we cannot see the site now, because Andrew took it down. I guess it was how John explained it:

This is a blog about online business. It is presumably own by someone name Andrew. AndrewTalk is a good example on how not to do a blog.

Ouch, that had to hurt…lol

I can’t imagine not having your own content, then being dumb enough to order a review from someone you stole content from. This is a big no no. If you are trying to live in the “make money online” niche, then please be original. At least have some design skill and try to have some creativity. All kinds of traffic poured into that blog today, courtesy of the money spent for the review. Unfortunately for Andrew, no good came from it.

Money wasted from a ‘make money online’ blog. I guess we all have to learn the hard way? Or not. A good followup post would be about blogging ethics.

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Recently, I was meandering through my stats for this blog and the thought hit me, where are you going to when you leave my site?

Are you heading to one of the more popular sites, like John Chow, or Problogger? Or are you heading back to the site that you came from?

Were you here long enough to grab the link for or comment on the Rockin’ Girl Blogger post or are you an RSSer? My mind is wondering.

Do I need to put more links on my sidebar? Or, am I not linking to enough of the other blogs out there?

What do you think?

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Have you put up a theme that everyone else has or has been downloaded 80,000 times? Or is it a theme that you’ve taken the time to customize so that it doesn’t look like your run of the mill theme that’s on display at the blog next door?

If you’ve decided to carve out your own design, that’s the best option for those of us that know a little about theme design. Otherwise, if you’re looking to get a spiffy design and don’t have the PHP/HTML knowledge, then you may want to look into hiring a professional designer.

If you are more content focused and have no grudges against going with a design that’s been used a lot by other bloggers, then you can find a free theme that will suit your needs just fine. A lot of themes are good to go right out of the box and need little or no help from you. Except maybe to upload the theme, just activate it and you’re good to go.

People will be more apt to stick around on your site, either way, if the content is compelling. Be sure to write in detail about the subjects that you know best. If your content is that wonderful, people will read it and they will most assuredly come back to see what you have to say the next day.

What makes your site sticky?

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We got here yesterday afternoon at around 6:00pm. It’s a cute little place, but it’s hot in the afternoons. It’s not as muggy as Florida, but it’s just as friendly.

Steve is outside right now, helping his grandmother with the yardwork and I’m inside where it’s cool because I’m not used to that kind of heat. We went for a walk a little bit ago and saw the new houses that they’re building down here on Wilmington island. They are very nice, but I’m sure they’re expensive, too.

We’re planning to leave tomorrow morning sometime for Cleveland. We’ve got another long drive ahead of us. It should be another 12 to 14 hours for the trip home.

Last night, we went to this place called Carey Hilliards for dinner. It was good food, but the waiter offered us dessert before we had our food.

This hotness does indeed make you love the air conditioning inside.

It’s hot right now and I don’t envy those guys outside right now. It’s muggy and it makes you thank God for air conditioning…

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