Today, I was on Plurk for a short while till I noticed someone mentioned Scour. So I said, you know what the heck lets check it out. So I took a visit. It asked me to sign up.

I signed up to Scour, and I got 250 points by default. Right now, I have no idea what these points are for. Then I read a little and saw that you get points to search, comment, and leave a thumbs up or thumbs down. The next part was that these points actually converts into actual $$$. 6500 points = $25.

Well now you are thinking that 6500 points is alot. Well not exactly. Considering for people like me who search Google, then Yahoo for multiple different reasons. I can just search the keyword here and it tells me the ranking of each term in the Search Engine. Not only that, if I like the article I can leave a thumbs up.

I get points. So if you are doing 25 searches a day. At the end of the year, you will have extra $25. Well you are thinking it is just $25. I think in terms of it is $25 that I am getting now which I wasn’t getting before.

Besides for bloggers like you and me who search for the sources while writing a post, this can be another great source of income. For someone like me who ends up doing over 100 searches a day, I get an extra $125 for a year. For doing the same thing that I was doing before.

I like this idea much better.

You are probably thinking it is something weird. Well Just give it a Try. Sign up at Scour and start making money for your searches.

Aravind has been a regular user at Balkhis, and if you don’t know I am running a link love session, where I am giving away free blog reviews and free text links. Aravind happened to be the first commentator on that post therefore I have decided to review his site first.

Anytime you visit a site, the first impression you get is from the look of the website. While the free template that is being used on that template is not bad, the customizations done to it doesn’t make it look any more attractive. Usually, custom logos are supposed to blend in with the design, but at AravindJose.com it is not the case. My recommendation would be that try to use .png transparent files to make the logo. Use a better font. Something that looks a bit more simple and elegant. Add Fresh Thoughts Inside as the slogan right below the logo.

Next thing, I will come on is the ad placement. This website have very good positions. It is not crowded with ads. The only suggestion is, make your google adsense banner blend in. So instead of using the white background, use that grey background, so it matches with the template.

I really like the way the content is organized. As well as the featured posts. A thing that I would suggest is having a pagination system for your Older posts like I have with Balkhis.

Sidebar looks well, but the Tags section makes it a bit crowded. Perhaps leave the tags for an archive page.

I will suggest not displaying your feedcount when it is low. Because it discourage other readers from signing up. A big psychology theory. When people see low count, they think you know this guy must be doing something wrong thats why he have a low count. But if you show high count or no count, it will get users to subscribe to your feeds.

Image in the footer for RSS Feeds is broken, so that needs to be fixed.

I like your style of writing, the only thing I will say is stay consistent. If you are writing one post a day, then do one post a day. Don’t do 3 in one day, and 0 in the next two.

Other than the few things I mentioned, Aravind is doing a great job on his blog.

Fellas, please go check Aravind’s Blog at AravindJose.com. Reply to this post with what your feedback on his blog. Remember that you giving feedback will result in good karma for you. Meaning you might be the next person getting reviewed here.

After my post that announces that my readers can get a free blog review and free text links here at balkhis, I have been getting some good feedback. This question was the first one that I recieved via email.

Angad Sodhi asks:

Will/Has the ‘recession’ affect the incomes of us bloggers?

This question is more targetted towards the bloggers in United States. U.S Economy has been in a recession and it got to the point that a bank in California closed down. But that is whats going on in the U.S Market.

Blogging is more of an international business. My advertisers, affiliate marketing companies have contracts with advertisers worldwide. I believe that blogging is spread out worldwide, the income of bloggers will not see a significant effect from the recession in United States.

You might see some U.S Webmasters pulling out on advertisement because they can’t afford it but you can always make up for the income. The tip is don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Spread out.

Key to be successful is don’t rely on one source of income. Spread it out.

Adsense – It is always good in the beginning and sometimes on tutorial posts.

Private Advertisers – They are always good, but you should not rely on them for all your income.

Affiliate Marketing – Market Leverage, Commission Junction, and Azoogle Ads are the ones that I am with. I run their campaigns. Not relying on one entirely.

Other PPC – That I have mentioned on my Make Money Online Page.

All to all the answer to your Question is that No I don’t think Bloggers will be impacted in the recession. Maybe and Maybe if U.S goes in depression, then it will be a different story.

Well, Yesterday I wrote a post in which I am allowing users to share their social media profiles. So all Balkhis users can add each other as a friend more importantly, I can add all my readers as friends on social media networks.

Well, I am not done giving back to my awesome audience.

I have decided that once every week for the next 4 weeks, I will be writing a review about the blogs of one of my readers. Well, how would I notice your blog?

Simple. Comment on Balkhis and have your blog’s link in it. If need be I might even do two per week. Depends on the contestants.

Another way is letting me know about your blog via Plurk. How would you do that? Add me as a friend in Plurk, and simply contact me via Contact Page. Once you have done that keep commenting here and I will write about you.

Not Just that, I am also doing a Question Answer Session. Send me all your questions and I will try to answer them in details. Either in one post all together, or separate posts. The best question will get a free text link on Balkhis under cool sites.

What are you waiting for. Lets spread the Love and start commenting.

Hola Balkhis Users,

I am thinking that I want to thank all of my readers who read this blog and give me feedback. I want to get to know my readers very closely. Therefore I am starting this thread so we can all be friends.

The purpose of this thread is to get you to list your social media profiles here as well as the link to your main site. I will go forward in the list and add all of you.

Blogosphere is more like a family. We should all help each other out and stay updated.

If you want more friends, and more visits to your site. Simply put a list of your social media network profiles in the post below along with your major site link. I will try to add all of you guys.

I will start with my profiles:

Plurk – I am here the most if you are not then Join Now

Twitter

Digg

Youtube

Revver

Technorati

Will be looking forward to see how many of you are actually looking for more friends.