Weekend Reading: August 25, 2007

Here are a few articles, and a couple contests, from around the blog sphere (and my RSS reader) that I found interesting and that may be of interest to you as well.

Comment Relish Plugin Could Be Dangerous
Chris Garrett talks about how the Comment Relish plugin may cause problems for those blogs with a large amount of comments. An optimized version of the plugin is available from PatchLog which greatly improves load time.

Calculate Your Google Supplemental Index Ratio
A good way to judge the health of your site is by knowing it’s supplemental index ratio. There seems to be some debate as to the best way to find this ratio, but Daily Blog Tips says they have a more “stable” way of calculating your supplemental index ratio.

Take A Cue From Your Readers
Brian Heys reminds us that by paying attention to the commenting of our readers, we can judge how our blog is doing. Anything out of the ordinary could be a indication we’re doing something wrong.

Increase Affiliate Profits By Using Autoresponder Sequences
A number of blogs and websites collect email addresses from their users, however, not very many of them tap the full potential of their email lists. Derek Beauchemin gives a great example on how you can use autoresponder sequences to increase your affiliate profits.

Contests

10K Giveaway
In a blatant ripoff of “The Million Dollar Homepage”, Bryan Clark from One Man’s Goal, has decided to create a page where you can buy 10px by 10px squares for $10. Where this page differs is, one this page sells out Bryan will pick one of the squares at random and the owner of that square will win $10K for themselves and $10K for the charity of their choice. Bryan has even declared he will personally deliver the $10K check to the winner.

John Chow Banner Ad Contest
Tim Schroeder of eMonetized is giving four people the chance to have their own 125 x 125 banner ad shown on John Chow for free. Your can read more about his John Chow Banner Ad Contest Here.