New blogs are popping up left and right. There are thousands of blogs that claim to teach you how to make money online. There are hundreds of bloggers that are self-proclaimed web experts. Each blogger is trying to get the most traffic, most backlinks, and the most credibility. There are certain popular figures like Darren Rowse, Shoemoney, and others. At the same time there are new coming in the industry. So you get to ask a question how do new blogs get famous? Well they get links from other bloggers and that is how their reader base increases. I have been started to receive this sort of emails quiet a lot, so I have decided to mention here on my blog how not to ask for a backlink to your blog.

Here is what these emails sound like:

My name is XXX XXXX and I’m a great fan of Balkhis! Balkhis inspired me to create my own blog. I would like to share my knowledge as an entrepreneur with other entrepreneurs. Since linkbuiliding is very important, I want to ask you if you want to trade links with me. If so, please answer me and I will put a link to your site on my homepage, so you can link back to me!

Never ever ever ask a blogger to trade links with you if you are starting a blog. Specially one that is already well known. You know why? Because he or she will turn you down. Before you ask for trading links you need to consider:

What do you get if they link to you?

What will they get if they link to you?

Who is getting the most benefit?

If the benefit is not mutual, then you will not get a link. But it will prove one thing for sure. That you are an idiot for asking. You want to start a web developers blog claiming yourself an expert and then begging for a link? Doesn’t really sound like an expert.

Another thing wrong with the email above is Kissing Ass. No one like Kiss Ass except for another Kiss Ass. I obviously won’t consider you as a special case if you put you are a great balkhis fan. So never ever start of saying that you are a big fan of them. Because by saying that you already put yourself below them.

Even though you need a link, you do not need to make yourself inferior. Try to stay on same ground.

Never ask a link for your main site. Because only idiots will link to your main site without knowing you. Blogroll links are usually bought or linked to special friends. If I don’t know, I won’t link to you.

These are the few things that I can think of right now of how not to ask for backlinks. Keep updated with my blog because in the next post I will show you how to ask for a link.

Another Monday is here. Woot Woot. Glad to say that today Balkhis is 1 year old. Yeah no special party for that. I will do one though when it turns 5 year old. Anyways, Life is going good so far. I made a digg account, hit the FP the first day then ended up getting banned. Digg said that I obtained false diggs or some BS which was lame because I only had 47 friends and only 38 were mutual. So I couldn’t have obtained fake diggs. I didn’t submit my own article either, it was some other article from cnn.

Aside from that we are looking for sponsors for a Break Dancing event in Gainesville, that will be attracting over 5000+ audience. I know I am sponsoring it. Red Bull is sponsoring it. I have sent emails to few other companies and waiting to hear from them, but if you guys want your logo in a pamphlet that is being hand out all over University of Florida then contact me. Donations of a large amount also get to put their banner on the stage. We are looking for either cash prizes, or materials equivalent value that will interest Hip Hop Industry.

Pittsburgh Steelers won their 6th superbowl most ever by a single franchise. Amazing game.

I have been doing some reading lately.

Designs of 404 Error Pages

10 Seriously useful Photoshop Tutorials

Website and Social Media Metric that you should monitor

Why Blogging is an Undisputed Culture

Posts you should’ve read on Balkhis

Feedburner to Google – The earlier you move, the less you will lose

Case Study: Authority Status in Google Boost your Search Engine Ranking and Traffic

List of Wordpress Plugins being used on Balkhis

So people ask me, Syed which plugins are you using on your blog. Why my blog is more SEO Friendly? That doesn’t really have a whole lot to do with my plugins. Well not entirely, but I will make a list for all of you guys just in case you were curious. So after this post, do not email me asking me about what plugins I am using. I will list the plugins, hopefully with the download link and I will provide you some tips if I have any, and the reasons why I use them.

Balkhis in total use 16 Wordpress Plugins

1. Akismet – A plugin that comes with all wordpress blogs by default. I suggest you use it. Get an API Key, and get protected against Spam. Recently I wrote about Another Spam Technique You should be Aware of. So make sure you read that.
2. All in One SEO Pack – This is one of the MOST important plugin for your blog’s SEO. This is one of the plugins that is giving me an advantage in my Search Engine Ranking. It is also one of the most popular plugin on Wordpress. It has reached over million downloads. I have written a post on what settings to use in All in One SEO Pack. Those are the settings I am using on Balkhis. I will recommend you to use a different title, unique keywords, and meta description for each post and each page. This plays a key role in your blog’s SEO.
3. Author Highlight – This plugin makes my comment look different than the rest. So I can put my different css settings or a different background image. It just helps the user identify if the comment is by me. Advantage of this plugin is that if you have a lot of comments on a post a new reader can easily find what you wrote in the comments.
4. Breadcrumb Navigation XT – This plugin basically creates a path that user has been visiting. So if you open up a post of mine. Right below the title, it will show it is in which category and the path. It actually helps in Search Engine Bots Crawling because the bots know how to get to each place. So if they come to one of my post, they will eventually go around the whole site. I think this plays an important role in SEO. But maybe its just me.
5. Brian’s Threaded Comments – Threaded Comments explains it all. But if you don’t know what it is talking about. Basically, it lets your user have a conversation within their comments. Usually by default wordpress will let you reply, but not in a threaded way. This way people can easily who replied to their comments. I personally like Brian’s Threaded Comment. There are tons of other ones, but I prefer this one. If you want more tips on how to pimp your comment area read my post.
6. Comment Relish – You want to get more subscribers? Well this is one of the ways. You get a new user who leaves you a comment. You approve it, and this plugin will send an automatic email to them. More of a personal note thanking them for their comment. You can add your subscription link in there and you will get more subscribers.
7. FeedBurner FeedSmith – This plugin basically make your wordpress default feed and redirect it to your feedburner feed. So this way your subscribers aren’t lost, and all of them will be counted.
8. Limit Post – You see on my home page that featured post is just a summary. Well not even a summary, just an excerpt. Well this plugin lets me do that. Good for magazine style themes.
9. OIO Publisher – The best plugin to maintain your ad space. I have been using it since I started this blog. I will tell you that I spent the money to buy it because it is a paid plugin. But I made my money back two times the amount within the first week. So this is the one that is well worth it. Saves all your trouble for making separate subscription for your advertisers and more. I use it because It is versatile and very handy.
10. Show Top Commentators Widget – You know what encourages commentators? Rewards. You notice them and reward them, they will comment more. Pretty simple. You list your top commentators as a do follow link from your site, and they would want it. Because it is free. So go ahead and get this plugin now.
11. Subscribe to Comments – Well you want your readers to come back. I certainly do that is why I offer this option. When a reader comments, there is a check bar that asks if they want to subscribe to the comment. So basically on that post, if any one else leaves a comment after them, they will get a notification in their email. It is an excellent thing to have if your readers ask you question. Because this way they can know whether you replied to their comment or not.
12. Wordpress Database Backup – Basically this keeps me on the safe side. Every day there is a backup emailed to me. So I have one in record just in case if I make a mistake or get hacked, I have something to rely on.

    Check my other article on How to protect your blog from hackers?

13. WP-ContactForm – This is what enables me to have a contact form and let you guys contact me. This is a very important plugin to me because I value my reader’s opinion. Here are the reasons why you should enable your readers to contact you.
14. WP-Page Navi – Do you see the cool pagination on my blog. Well it is from this plugin. I don’t like the default wordpress way of Next and Previous. This help me make it a little bit more cooler
15. WP Security Scan – Just another plugin that I have on my blog that tells me whether my blog is secure. If you want to be on the safe side get this plugin.
16. WP Super Cache – Do you know why my blog even though after being such a big size loads very fast? Well it is because of this plugin. This plugin have actually saved me multiple times. When I got insane amount of traffic from Stumbleupon and Digg. It just caches the post and shows the user the same version, so it saves a lot of server load. Get this plugin if you want to decrease your load time.

    I wrote a post about Killing a Giant Lion Turtle with your site’s load time

That is my list of plugins that I use. Hopefully this have helped you guys. There are tons of other great plugins out there that you can use. These are not the only ones. Always look for additional ones as your needs require. Do not email me this question again because I swear I got so many that I thought that I must make this, so I don’t answer the questions individually.