Ask and you shall receive! Does that phrase sound familiar. Yup twitter works just like that. I have seen many different retweet guides on the web, but this is the simplest and by far the most effective technique in my books. The best way to get retweets is by simply asking.

Here let me give you an example:

Take this article that we wrote at WPBeginner – 55+ Most Wanted WordPress Tips, Tricks, and Hacks (has 944 tweets)

This was the example text I wrote 6 days ago when I first tweeted it:

55+ Most Wanted #WordPress Tips, Tricks, and Hacks – http://bit.ly/7EfP1W (Pls RT)

You see the magic word at the end. Pls RT, got the article tweeted many times. Now because it was a quality article, it took off and people started retweeting it left and right. I cannot emphasize enough how important the content really is.

But I did not just stop there. I have some very close friends on twitter which everyone should. There is no way that you can follow 3000 people. I have a group of 40 friends that I really keep track of and chat with. I sent out messages to each of them asking them to retweet this. It got retweeted more times.

Again, all I am doing is just ASKING. It really depends on how you ask because some of these top guys get hundreds of requests daily, so you have to be smart. Don’t make your article spammy, always ask nicely, and acknowledge them in your tweets. You absolutely CANNOT go ask someone you do not have a previous relationship with. If you do you will just come off as a spammer.

Use twitter the right way and you will have plenty of friends that actually know you, and you actually know them.

But all to all, it is a really simple formula.

Quality Content + Ask = Tons of Retweets

So if you haven’t notice, I was not blogging at Balkhis for a while. Yeah, I keep saying that I will blog and I barely do it anymore here. The sole reason for that is lack of balance. I am still trying to find balance between school, clients, social media profiles, and sites. I didn’t even get a chance to update you guys about the presentation that I gave earlier this month at WordCamp Atlanta 2010.

WordCamps are just events for WordPress users. I have been attending a lot of WordCamps lately. Since Novemeber, I have been to three WordCamps and I spoke at Atlanta. I will be attending WordCamp Miami and I am a confirmed speaker there as well.

So you guys are probably wondering how was my speaking experience. First thing I will say is that it was pretty cool. I consulted with many clients, talked with some known names, but I have never really stood in front a lot of people at a conference and gave a presentation. I was giving a presentation on WordCamp Security and as soon as I looked up, I saw one of the lead developers of WordPress sitting in front of me. Yup, it was Mark Jacquith.

Have you ever had a feeling when you are trying to explain something to somebody and all of the sudden you see the person who actually built that something. Well its not very comfortable when you see someone in front of you who probably knows a lot more about this script than you do because he is the lead developer. Anyways, I have talked with Mark on my past events so it was not that big of a deal. I stood there and gave a pretty decent presentation.

You can check out the presentation slides below:

Now till that day there was something I was doing wrong. Removing WordPress version number. I knew many security tricks but I didn’t know that WordPress also sends out the version number in the feeds. So now if you remove it in the header its ok, but if someone really wants to get it they can just go to the feeds and get it.

After talking with Mark, I wrote an article on WPBeginner how to correctly remove WordPress Version Number.

I hope you guys like the presentation. It was scaled for a beginner session, but there are a lot of stuff that you can use, so definitely go through this presentation.

There are times when you come across a feature in a blog, and you just start thinking to yourself: How can I get this in my WordPress blog/site as well. Everybody have experienced this feeling. Sometimes you know you want it, and don’t know where to look for, or even what to look for. In this article we will be sharing some of the most wanted WordPress Tips, Tricks, and Hacks that you will definitely find useful.

2009 has been a big year and it is now that time, the time when I post what I wish to accomplish in the year to come.
1. Redesign Uzzz Productions
The past year has been filled with projects, but surprisingly the company that launched it all has been neglected. In 2010 I will implement a [...]

I realized I did not update Balkhis in a while and I got plenty of emails from you guys when Black Friday came by asking me what I am getting and if I saw great deals or not. Well here is the update. Thanks Giving was great. I actually got to take a break with family. Most of my vacations are like work from another location, but this time it was actually a real break and no work. It felt good.

As you all know that I am still a student and week after thanks giving is the last weeks of school and exams are on my head, so it is pretty crazy along side with the clients and campaigns, it become really hectic. Yes I did go black friday shopping, but the best part about this year was that everything was online. I got a WD Passport Portable HD with 500 GB because it was $59.99. I was going to get a laptop from Best Buy because they put out exclusive offers to their Silver Premier members that we could get a head start on Black Friday deals by ordering online. But too bad Best Buy’s staff ruined it for them.

This awesome laptop was only $450 and I was dialing the phone. The girl picked up, told me to hold on and hung up. Called again, transferred me and no one ever picked up. I wrote an email to Best Buy and the best they could do was give me a 750 points in my reward zone. For those who want to know that is $15 worth… That is not how you treat loyal customers Best Buy. From now on, I will be looking for other alternatives before I go shop there.

Another thing that I realized on this blog is that a lot of people are using long keywords as their name while commenting. To all old and new users, it is getting really annoying. And I am sending every comment that does not use their name to SPAM. If it gets really worst, I will begin blocking IPs. I offer do follow top commentator list in the sidebar so don’t abuse it. I am getting keywords like NJ SEO Guy, India’s SEO Company, Business Cards etc. If need be, I will close down comment, or require user registration to cut down spam and worst of all, remove top commentators and make the blog nofollow links. I can now understand why Vitaly Freidman of Smashing Magazine removed the concept of links from the comments. They do not allow users to add links of their website both in the comment, or in the form at all. I might take that route. So take this seriously.

I am attending WordCamp Orlando this weekend and hoping to have a great time. So those who want to come join me, feel free to do so.

For the New Years, I will be going to Tennessee again to Ober Gatlinburg because we had a great time there last year. So a lot of fun coming soon, but right now it is tought times.