Alright, this is rather a mini contest on Balkhis to keep the excitement going along with Pimp my Blog. Ok in this contest I have prizes for not just the Top Commentators, but it is for some random email subscribers and other users so keep reading.

Prizes will be given to the top 3 commentators.

First commentator will get 1000 entrecards
Second commentator will get 300 entrecards
Third commentator will get 200 entrecards

Prizes for the Subscribers via Email

One Randomly selected email subscriber will also get 300 entrecards
One Randomly selected email subscriber will get a 125 x 125 banner spot

Prizes for those who post about this contest:

People who blog about this mini-contest on their blog will get 50 entrecards by default and the chance to enter the draw of winning a Paid Review on Balkhis. Also another one will get a 125 x 125 banner ad on Balkhis.

Just send a trackback with your post, or you can post a comment here with a link to your post and You will be counbted in.

Alright I am hoping this mini-contest will bring excitement to every user at Balkhis. If anyone is interested in donating a prize and get some promotion from the contest, feel free to contact me using the contact form.

I will announce the winner on June 2nd, 2008….

Alright everyone, If you don’t know what IzeaFest is you are missing out on alot. It is one of the largest event being held in Florida for the year of 2008 by Izea Inc. This is exciting because it is in Florida, and I can attend it without any big issues. It took me a long time because I had certain questions for Izea Staff and as you know because they have such a big event coming, they were relatively busy, but I did got a phone call yesterday. Good to know that there is NO AGE LIMIT! So all bloggers can come, and I think you should because alot of the experienced bloggers such as Shoemoney, Chow and others are coming as well.

Some of the speakers that I am looking forward to hear from:

Jeremy Schoemaker (Shoemoney.com)
Merlin Mann (43folders.com)
John Chow (Johnchow.com)
Neil Patel (Pronetadvertiser.com)

This conference is a 3 day Conference starting on September 11, 2008 - September 13, 2008… Right in the middle of school year. Unlike most of the expensive conferences there are, this one is very affordable. $50 for the first 100 people who register. This was originally for the first 50 people, but I was notified yesterday on the phone that this has been extended for the first 100 people, and it will only last till May 14, 2008. You can get the tickets on normal price if you are waiting on other information like I am waiting on my classes for only $65. Which is not that big of a difference. You can also pay $14 extra and spend your sunday in Disney with other bloggers.

They have bunch of other hotels rather than just the Grand Bohemian, where the conference is being held at. You can pick a one that suit yourself by visiting here.

I will probably be making my reservation later on in August when I get my syllabus and see that I don’t have any exams that weekend. But I do recommend everyone to head over to IzeaFest.com and register themselves if you are interested in meeting me and meeting all the other bloggers.

See you in Orlando, Florida

Well what you know, the rumors are actually true. Last night, April 28, 2008, google has updated their measuring tool Pagerank (PR). As you know Balkhis was a PR 0 which means no green, but now Google has decided to give us a mere PR 3 for the first update. I have nothing to complain about because I am not a big fan of Pagerank. But alot of people are because I see numerous topics being created about this in Digitalpoint Google Section, so I have decided to make a list of sites that I visit daily for the most part and put down their pagerank update.

Title - Was > Now (This is the legend for the list below)

Balkhis - 0 > 3
Uzzz Productions - 0 > 3 (Some pages are PR 4)
Word Scrawl - 0 > 4
Shoemoney - 5 > 6
John Chow - 3 > 4
Problogger - 6 > 6
Aviva Directory - 0 > 4
Zorg-Directory - 4 > 5
Zac Johnson - 3 > 5
Brian Gardner - 7 > 8
Digital Point Forums - 6 > 7
TheWWWBlog - Unknown > 3

How do I know that this update is actually happening, and How can I get so many queries right now. Well I actually heard it from a friend of mine over the IM, and then started checking the Live Pagerank Websites. Most of them didn’t work, but here is the one that still works. I am not using any websites because I can see the updated datacenters on my toolbar.

Do you want to see live google pr update on your toolbar also? Follow the tutorial below: (Windows)

Open the Start Menu and click Run

Copy and Paste this into the Run box: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

Open the file Hosts in there with a notepad

Copy and paste the line below at the end of the page

209.85.139.101 toolbarqueries.google.com

Above is the IP that I am using to see the updates, Claims are that this IP is also working:209.85.139.104.

Well I have been seeing alot of increases in Pagerank, so I hope it went well for all of you. Feel free to share how the update went for you in the comments.

Well it is not long after the last Wordpress (2.5) release which was on March 29th. Not even a month after Wordpress has announced the release of the newer version Wordpress 2.5.1. This is a must upgrade version. Find out Why?

Wordpress has announced a very important security fix in this release. The vulnerability of the older version is not out in the public yet, but it will be shorty. According to the wordpress website everyone should upgrade to this release, particularly those who have open registration on their blog, so I am assuming this is a registration bug which is quiet major.

Aside from the security fix, there were number of other bugs that were fixed and several improvements were made in regards to performance enhancement. If you download this Wordpress 2.5.1, you will be getting over 70 bug fixes as well as improved perfomance. Just an overview of the update:

• - Performance improvements for the Dashboard, Write Post, and Edit Comments pages.
• - Better performance for those who have many categories
• - Media Uploader fixes
• - An upgrade to TinyMCE 3.0.7
• - Widget Administration fixes
• - Various usability improvements
• - Layout fixes for IE

Download Wordpress 2.5.1

Well what the heck are you waiting for? Upgrade your blogs…. I just upgraded mine because I CARE. Do you care?? You are still reading go on and upgrade.

OIOPublisher version 1.60 has been released, and It comes with a great discount. I have been recommending this software to everyone since the day I got it when it was $37. With the new version of this release, there were two coupons that were released, and sent over to all the existing members so they can share it with more people.

I have always been supporting OIOPublisher because I love the product, and I know Simon Emery, developer, for quiet some time. This script is hands down the best way to sell ads on your website.

Forget adtoll, reviewme and all the other places that keeps their own comission. Eliminate the middle man and keep all your profit. OIOPublisher for Wordpress actually make your life easy for the future in placing ads. You can use the plugin to actually track all your affiliate ads, and much more. If you are having issues selling ads. To cover up the blank spots, put adsense there. Once someone buys the spot, the adsense will go away and their banner will work. Very user-friendly interface in the admin panel. This plugin is a no brainer. After using the discount this product will only be $20.

I made my $37 within the first few days of the product installed on Balkhis. I don’t think anyone should have an issue with recovering their $20. If you can’t make this $20 back then you should quit this industry.

$5 off code: QWERTY-5 (expires May 21st)
$17 off code: QWERTY-17 (Expires May 5th.)

$17 off coupon is a nice one, but just incase if you missed the first deadline there is another one available for you.

Get OIOPublisher NOW