I am actually disappointed by the techniques people use for link exchange and stuff. Firstly, i don’t believe much in link exchange, yet i constantly get emails regarding the same. The most irritating thing is that all emails have the common tag line that says “We found you website on net and we see it as a highly related niche. We would request a link exchange and we have added your link already to our site. We expect the same from you”. Huh? Firstly, these people should notice that sites like AllyDirectory and few others do not have a single homepage or a sitewide link. So it should be a complete waste of effort mailing such sites. Secondly, when i check their sites, it turns out that both the sites have no relation by far. For my directories, sometime i get emails from fishing based sites, some from golf, some from Malaga travel and so on. Frankly, i am very disappointed with them.

However, this time around i got a unique email for the link exchange which actually made me very very angry.

Here is the copy of the mail:

Hello,

Recently I visited your website AllyDirectory.com ; while visiting your site I noticed that you link to WebDe.biz at this address: (Had the AllyDirectory’s link here). As we are closely related to them, I would love to exchange links with your website, currently there are about 5,000 – 7,000 people per day that go to my site and search for information, Therefore I would to link to an excellent site like yours.

I have taken the liberty of adding your site to my home page: (His Site’s Address) to determine if it is of any benefit to you, if you have a stats program you can check it and let me know. By looking at my stats, it looks like today I have sent you 33 visitors but it may change by the time you receive this email.

Some website owners do not like when other sites link to them so I thought I might ask first. I think the information on your website could be useful to my visitors; and maybe you could receive some extra relevant traffic if you want. Please get back to me when you have a chance to let me know if its ok to link to your website like this.

Have a good week,

Mark (Cannot reveal his full name as i respect his privacy)

The mail technique is surely very unique. But hell no. I haven’t had such stupid mail in long time. Firstly, AllyDirectory and WebDe are both sites owned by me. So his relation technique failed miserably. Secondly 5000-7000 visitors a day, well i had a in depth look at the forum and honestly, i do think he meant 500-700 visitors. Then he says i sent you 33 visitors, well i use awstats and webalizer and i didn’t receive a single visitor from that site. So another failure in the technique. Amazingly in the same mail he contradicts his own sating. First he says that i have taken the liberty to add you link to my forum And in next paragraph he says that some website owners do not appreciate linking this way, so he thoughth he might ask me first. Lol. Please, some one pinch me as i cannot believe this stuff.

What really fumed me is that the concerned site of his is actually a poker forum. That’s right. A gambling forum. And my Ally Directory is right up there, linked sitewide from his forum and that too without a “no follow” attribute. How can someone do this to me, specially when we have never talked even. Now you all know Google. Their stupid algorithms and bots are going to visit that poker forum, see my link over there and penalize me for purchasing link on that forum. nd a link to a good site, from a gambling site is never good. They are considered bad neighbours. Another problem is, that i received the mail on 4th March. Very likely the link was added on the same day. Ten minutes after receiving the mail, i replied him back, politely refusing for the link exchange and requesting him to remove Ally Directory‘s link from his forum. After 48 hours i still see my link there

I am not sure what to say. Sometime i do feel powerless because of such marketing techniques. Google already has made our life pretty miserable. Last i wanted to see were guys like these. Shame on people who use such techniques for their success and killing my site in the process.

Right back in February this year, i wrote something about my new web host “BlueHost“.  The experience has just been okay. I’m somehow not fully satisfied with BlueHost or HostMonster for that matter. Both seems to be owned by the same company. But really who cares about the owner!

So What Problem Am I Facing?

I’m not fully satisfied with the two webhosts i mentioned. I was lured into the deal by the prices they offer. Honestly, i prepaid for two years in advance. Saves me heck lot of amount and other things. But see the irony of it. Looks like i cannot get my money back even if i close them down. So i have to continue using them, just being careful about what sites i decide to put on them. But i am not very happy with them. Also, both of them are little on slower side and they are definitely not giving 99% uptime.

So I Talked To A Friend

I was chatting with a friend of mine, Stuart! He is the owner of Site-Sift.com directory along with many other popular websites to his name. I said i needed some change. A new web host. Someone which can offer me what i really want. So he just popped a site called “McKremie“. He didn’t say much. But at the first look at the site, i noticed that they have something i need. Two Hosting plans, dedicated IP’s, 99.9 percent uptime, and best of all, 100% moneyback guarantee! So if i am not satisfied with it, i have nothing to lose.

Later on, my friend, Stuart told me he owns this web host. Now that’s the reason he didn’t say anything about McKremie in first place. You see, all great businessman never brag about their sites. Or their benefits and stuff like that. He waited for me to give my true opinion first and then he told me about the ownership.

McKremie Web Hosting Solutions

So about McKremie. Well it has good prices/plans. I would call it easily affordable. If you go through the about us page, you will find the true reason why this web host was started. It’s because of frustrations from other web hosts that Stuart used in past. Understandable! It even does have Fantastico, which is the basic condition for me, whenever i look for a web host. The other major point, it does accept Paypal. A must must have option, as far as my requirements go.

So i think i have found my new web host. If you are looking for some new web host, then maybe you would like to consider “McKremie“.

P.S. If you are on McKremie’s website, try finding “Top Ten Signs You Need A New Web Host” article via Sitemap. Some point are really hilarious

I am sorry i haven’t been blogging, lately. As i see it, there hasn’t been a post this entire month. So i thought i would summarize the whole of September in one go. So bear with me.

Rock On!!!

Early September : I somehow made it possible to get second day first show ticket of the movie “Rock On“. I must admit, it’s a great concept, brilliant story, good acting and a fantastic movie. It’s a story about 4 guys who started a rock band in their college life (As we all probably did at sometime in college life). Anyways, the college life was good. They thought they had the world on their feet dancing on their music. I am sure every college going chap must have felt that one time or another. However soon they grow up. Realize what hard and cruel world has to offer. So they start their own businesses/ find jobs, etc. Only to go their separate ways forever. Until after ten years of separation, rock star Purab (known as K.D in movie) thinks of a reunion. Two of the four had some differences between them coz of the past things. But who cares. Eventually they get back, talks over their life and finally decides to start the rock band again. So they did. And it’s a movie, so you can expect success for them eventually. But i won’t take away any credits from the stars of the movie. Specially Purab, Farhan Akhthar and dashing Arjun Rampal. Arjun is a guitarist in the band and he is a hunk. I am not mentioning much about Luke Kenny or Prachi Desai, because hey, you guys had a very less role to play. So wasn’t much impressed. Anyways, the movie was great and if you haven’t watched it, i insist that you please do! You can visit their official site : Rock On!!

I had a serious laugh at Purab’s beard style in the first half. Nice going. Purab! You are the man!

8th September : WordPress comes with yet another update. Now, I am not even surprised that there is a new wordpress version. As if i am used to it. This time it’s WordPress version 2.6.2. Some bug fixes again. But hey, don’t be excited as WordPress is planning to bring out WordPress 2.7 very very soon. And that would be lot interesting as they plan to put in some kinda of Navigation column. Humm.

14th September : It was my Dad’s birthday. He is a doctor and he is the best guy i have ever met. He is my inspiration, my idol and no one can ever take his place as “The Most Important Man In My Life”. Thanks for being there for me always Dad.  I love you! A very very Happy birthday dad! God Bless you!

23rd September : It has been a month since i reported Dr Stephen Baker, MD and TopSeom as the people who robbed me of a small amount. But robbery is a robbery. i don’t care about the amount. But it’s always good to let the world know about people who don’t deserve to have good name!

So how do i punish them. Well, as my friend Amit Bhawani does it. Start ranking high for their name. So that world can know. Now eher am i for their names? Well, if only Google can stabilize their search engine ranking algorithms i could precisely tell you where i rank. Sometimes i am number two right after their official sites. And sometime i am lying somewhere in second page of the search results. In anycase, i am sure i am doing some help in someway or the other by letting people know about them. I hope Google can give good rankings to my blog in time to come.

Google PoorRank

27th September : That’s today. Well, Google PoorRank is updating again! and as you can imagine, i am very disappointed with the results. For all my hard work and ample amount of information i put all day on AllyDirectory.com, Google has been kind enough to grant me PR2 instead of the previous PR3. I wonder if there is anything i could do so that Big G can fix their PR determining algorithms and for Christ Sake, can they stop punishing the sites which actually have better things to offer than their competitors running just a simple directory? I saw a simple tag cloud site today, showing up PR7 on toolbar. Earlier it was PR6. Is that what you call informational content? It’s just a paid links and keywords on the whole site. What’s the point in that? He will now earn more by selling paid links on even better Pagerank. i, on the other hand, put so much efforts, so much content, just to make my site become more of information bookhouse rather than just a simple ordinary directory and this is what Google gives in return. Google is Bloody Demoralizers on the net, when it comes to Pagerank!

At least the Ally Directory’s sitelinks are still there, but then i never said Google is bad when it comes to anything except Pagerank.

In September : Well, i love free templates. Iam launching ten free phpLinkDirectory templates in September itself. You can check AllyDirectory’s PHPLD Templates section for those ten templates. At this point of time, three templates have been launched already. Rest all will be launched by 30th September. Hopefully

Well, i guess that was little about September. Obviously i have missed lot of things i did this month but maybe they are not good enough that i can even recall them!

P.S. : I almost forgot. No matter how much you hurt us webmasters with your Pagerank stuff, we would still like to wish you Google, a Happy Birthday. Many happy returns of the day. May God bless you with lot more success and some BRAINS in pagerank department!

Happy 10th Birthday Google

It’s been a long time since AllyDirectory.com and SharatJaswal.com have been online. I have been waiting long enough for Google results to show up correctly!

Now, as many of you must have noticed, when you search for particular word and mis-spell it, Google automatically adds a red line just before the search results saying “Did you mean….”. It’s called the spell check. It corrects the mis-spelled word and asks you if you wanted to search for the right word. And so far it works great.

The only problem i face is with some particular n personal search words. For example:

"Ally Directory" Search At Google

Google has been kind to give “Ally Directory” some sitelinks. And it’s been months now. Yet when i search for “ally directory”, Google returns the results with a red line in front saying “Did you mean alley directory”. Well no buddy, i did mean to search for Ally Directory.

Similarly with “Sharat Jaswal”. This is equally amazing. I exist on most of the social networks. I have a personal blog that is just my name. But Google search will still return “Did you mean Sharad Jaiswal”

"Sharat Jaswal" Result In Google

Argggghhhh! Who is Sharad Jaiswal? Why not when we search for “Sharad Jaiswal”, we get the spell checker saying “Did you mean Sharat Jaswal” ????

Anyways…there is a simple answer to this. Google, being such a vast company and such a huge search engine takes care of billions of sites or even might be trillions. It’s not gonna look specifically at the word “Sharat Jaswal” or something. They have brilliant algorithms and it’s all working great. So how do i improve the results and spell checker?. Simple! Let Google know about it.

When you search for a particular phrase or keyword in Google, go to the bottom of the page. Google asks you if you are Dissatisfied with the results. If Yes, click on that link to help them improve. And they are not just saying it. They mean it too. It’s true, Google does listen to you, No matter what many webmaster’s say about it. Yes, i do wish it was great in three more niche: Soft Corner for Directories; If they could forget the paid links things and continue as it always was and if they can have better algorithms for calculating PageRank. Just a dream. Internet shall be a better place once again.

I have just been to Matt Cutts blog.  He says the new pagerank values shall be visible in few days. So that’s a good heads-up from a very trusted source!

Though i have been against pagerank updated since last 3-4 times. I am a little keen on this update! Just for the reason which Matt himself specified. Matt says that Google will be expiring penalities on few websites. Now that should be interesting. I am not sure if by the word “websites” he meant “directories” as well. So keeping my fingers crossed, i hope the update is good for everyone in every niche! Good luck guys!!!

By the way, apart from Google Pagerank update, i have seen some more changes! Google has changed the style of the cache page now! It’s pretty “formal” now. And it looks a little better than what it was before! Now, it seems like Google is off to do some improvements overall. I hope it’s more webmaster friendly this time!

P.S. Latest rumor: Google out to buy Digg.com