I get this question asked occasionally: Why my website was penalized or banned by Google? So I thought to share some reasons. But before I do that I need to tell you how to distinguish between a penalized or a banned website.

Penalized Websites

Penalized sites are not exactly banned. They just do not rank for their own keywords. So if Balkhis was to be penalized then Balkhis would not rank for the keyword Balkhis on the first page at all, but it will rank for balkhis.com as a keyword. The site will still be in index when you type site:www.balkhis.com

Banned Websites

Banned websites will not rank for their own keywords, but they will not be indexed at all. So if your site is out of index then your website is banned.

Reasons why your website could be penalized or banned by google?

Cloaking – It is bad, don’t do it. Cloaking is basically when a reader see some other page and search engines see another thing.

Duplicate Content – Duplicate content on multiple pages.

Keyword Stuffing – When you stuff insane amount of keywords on your pages.

Buying Links – Buying links from irrelevant sites will get you in trouble.

Linking to Bad Sites – Any site that is not related to your niche is a bad site.

Hidden Text / Links – Sometimes free theme designers do this. They add links to the site and make it no display, so no one see it but the search engines. So make sure you check on that. This will get your site out of index.

Autobot Site – Sites that are generated by machines will kill your ranking because google is smart enough to detect them.

So now you have 7 reasons why your website can be penalized or banned by google. So don’t let that happen to your site.

I see too many blogs coming out that teaches you how to make money. Everyone is a self-proclaimed expert into Search Engine Marketing, and in the ways of making money online when these people have barely started. They don’t even have half the experience. Yet they are Bs’ing their way through blogging. They say they don’t blog for money, but is it true? I don’t know. But I am going to ask and try to find out with you guys. Would you blog if there was no money involved. What if there was no adsense. What if no one ever clicked. What if no one ever bought ads on your site. Would you still be motivated to blog?

I ask this question because I see people getting into this blogging industry and starting a make money online blog to make money. They think that is how money is made online. In all true honesty, if you think that you are an IDIOT. Yup you are. I have experienced and I am sure a lot of you guys will agree with me that blogs are not the direct source of income. It can become a main source of income but that is in a very long run. So what motivates you for the long run… It is actually a pain in the ass to get up and write daily or weekly. Why would you do it?

I would still do it if I make absolutely no money directly from my blog. And here is why:

Collection of Resource – I write multiple articles, multiple tutorials that I put out. A lot of wordpress tricks and tutorials are not originally by myself. They are extracted from the wordpress website from the codex section. I am making a resource for myself because just in case if I ever need this tutorial, I won’t have to search wordpress codex. I would just look into my blog. So it is a resource for myself. I put it out live, so other people can take advantage of this too.

Building Relations and Gaining Credibility – I feel very nice to see the subscriber count growing. I am glad to see that so many of you guys actually care about me, and I care about you guys as well. It makes me get to know my readers who email me. I mean when I went to Izea Conference, people came up behind me and said Hey Balkhis… I turned around and found it this person was one of my reader. I think I build good relations with people. I share good tutorials and my experience which makes me a credible source in those specific niche like designing and SEO. I think this credibility can help me if I ever decide to write a book in the future or so on. A lot of my readers like me and my work, so they recommend me and that is the advantage of good relations.

Indirect Profit – With good relations and credibility, people trust me, and they are more likely to buy my other products that I come out with. So even if the blog doesn’t profit me. It is promoting my other source of income like web design firm, and other products soon to come.

Sharing my life – Yes facebook, myspace and other services like these are nice. But having your own personal blog is just too much better. So I don’t have to personally send my pictures to everyone. All they have to do is watch my blog and see the pictures and the adventures that I am having. That is one of my motivation.

So now if there was no money from blogging would you still blog? And Why?

As I have been dreading since past week that I will post the pictures of the world’s largest knife shop that I visited in Tennessee. Well here are the pictures. I bought a dagger, duo sword, samurai practice sword for my brother, and couple pocket knives. It was one of the coolest places I have seen. Check out the pictures below:

There are 21 total pictures, to see all make sure you see the full post.

If you like these pictures, then check out their website. They have some very good deals. Very Cheap and very good quality.

Have you ever been a website which you love a lot, and then you suddenly found this one problem, and you want to contact the webmaster or blogger. Then you waste over 10 minutes searching for the contact page. Frustration is rising and you don’t know what to do? Yup it happened to me a multiple times. That is why I made my contact page, and I do so whenever I start a new website.

Why you should enable your readers to contact you

Some people want to keep distance from their readers. They think comment is enough. But I disagree. I think having your readers contact you is good. It’s not just good, it is great. Not for one reason but many. Here are a few:

• It opens up opportunities – Do you know that now I don’t even search for places to advertise my site because I have people contacting me. Giving me special deals. I choose the ones that I like. It saves me tons of time. Sometimes I can’t think what to write about. Then I get an email with a question. Having your readers contact you opens up opportunities.
• It creates trust – When you put a contact form in your website, it shows the reader that there is a human writing on this blog. There is someone accountable. They begin to trust you more. And that is how you get loyal readers. It shows to them that your blog is not spam because mostly spammers try to hide.
• It makes your reader feel valuable – I know for me as a reader, I like to contact people. Either to just say hi or maybe have a question. It makes me feel that I am valued when I get a response back from the blogger or webmaster. I know other readers like to see the same. Letting them contact you makes them feel valuable and they come back to your site over and over.
• Sense of Privacy – Comments are too public. Sometimes readers tell you security information about your website. Or something that cannot be discussed in public. This is how reader / blogger relationship get better.

Above are just a few that I can think of top of my head. There are tons of reasons why contact forms are helpful. I mean I contact fellow bloggers to report problems on their site etc etc.

I think every blogger should have a contact page. Here is how you can make a contact page with wordpress.

I understand some bloggers feel insecure by giving their main email address out to public. Well that is why you make multiple emails. You keep your personal emails separate if you are afraid of being spammed. Simply make an email like xxxx@yourdomain.com and use that. Add that into outlook or any other mail management program. Check your emails daily.

It is not a lot of work, and you are gaining readers. It maybe takes a little extra time, but each question you reply back to. That is how many loyal readers you are gaining.

Today we went back on the slope, but I decided to Ski. At first I had a hard time, but I got the concept, and I did well. I went down the Big Blue trail which is the second hardest out of all the slopes, and I did well. There were several kids on snowboard who did not know what they were doing. One of those kid fell right in front of me. So I had to make a sharp turn due to which I lost control and I fell on my face. I have abrasion on my face and a cut on my leg. That was a pretty hard fall. You will see in pictures. But after that fall I became a pro lol. I went down hard slopes and all. I had one heck of a time skiing. I am going to say one thing that snowboard falls are much easier, but it is harder to stay up with a snowboard. It is easier to stay up with Ski, but ski falls are real bad.

Anyways I am not going to ramble more check out the pictures and enjoy. I will post more pictures from the knife shop hopefully soon.