I have to admit it, bloggers are getting a lot better at promoting their contests. They know that a contest doesn’t do them much good if no one knows about it and what better way to get people talking about your contest than by ordering a ReviewMe review from John Chow dot Com? Well, that is exactly what Sabahan.com did.
Win a Free Domain & Free Hosting for Your Wordpress Blog
Sabahan.com is holding a contest targeted towards bloggers. The winners will get free domain names and free WordPress blog hosting for life. That’s right, for life!
To participate in the contest, write a review of Sabahan.com and post it to your blog. For every five entries Sabahan.com received, one winner will be selected at random to win a free domain name. Once they have five domain name winners, those winners will go into drawing for a free WordPress blog hosting for life. The draw will be repeated for every five new domain name winners. Those are actually pretty good odds when you calculate it out.
Your review must be at least 200 words long and link to the Sabahan.com home page, the contest page and at least one other post. When linking to the other post, you should use the post title as the anchor text. That’s actually a really smart way of doing it. I doubt Google will try to slap Sabahan.com the way they tried to slapped me (which doesn’t seem to be working since my traffic is as high as ever).
Who is Sabahan.com
Sabahan.com is a blog about computers, the Internet, blogging, marketing and interesting stuff. The blog is the work of Gaman (no last name) who has been working part time on the Internet since 1997 and went full time in 1999. Gaman started Sabahan.com last January to give out tips and help bloggers make money online. Some of Garman’s moneymaking posts include:
- 10 AdWords Split Testing Ideas for Better CTR
- How to Make More Money from AdSense with Fewer Ad Units
- 10 Tips to Help You Make Money With Google Referral 2.0
- 10 Reasons Why Your Blog Isn’t Making Money from Text-Link-Ads.com
- Can Your Competitor Really Sabotage SEO Rankings?
- Digg Traffic vs Google Traffic - An AdSense Click Through Rates Analysis
- Read This Before You Attend Any Internet Marketing or Blogging Seminar
- Which One Is More Effective - Long or Short Posts?
- Display Targeted AdSense Ads Behind Password Protected Areas On Your Site
- The Top 6 Questions You Need to Ask If Your Blog Isn’t Making Any Money
Sabahan.com is updated multiple times per day and offers a full feed RSS.
Recommendations for Improvement
Sabahan.com needs to improve his about page. The page tells more about the state of Malaysia than it does about its author. It would be nice if we knew Gaman’s full name. This helps to build trust and brand the blogger. The about page should tell the blogger’s story and not give a geography lesson.
Garman doesn’t show the full blog post on the front page. Instead, only the first 100 words or so are displayed and readers must click a read more link to read the rest of the entry. I don’t think Sabahan.com does enough post per day to justify doing this. When you do click the read more link, you’re greeted with 300×250 Google ads taking up the left side of the post. This is really distracting and I wish he would move it to the right. In my tests, there isn’t a big difference in click rate between having the Google ad on the left vs. having it on the right.
Other than the distracting 300×250 Google ad, Sabahan.com has done a good job placing the other advertisements on the blog. He displays his link sponsors near the top and I would be interested to find out how the Google AdLink is doing for him. I also really like his integration of the Google search box into the blog.
Overall, I like Sabahan.com enough to add it to my feed reader. I guess this post also enters me into his win a free blog hosting for life contest. If I do win, I’ll donate it to a needy blogger.
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(14 votes, average: 2.14 out of 5)
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Is there any difference in having the adblock in the left or right side of a post? I’ve often wondered that.
What I meant to ask was, has anyone tried doing a legit study on ad placement within a post?
well, as we all read from left to right, so naturally when you go to a page you’d start from the left and if you see a block of ads, you might be put off by it. i think that’s what john meant
On the flip side, if the ads are well written, having them in the readers face might mean people are more inclined to click on them?
Yeah but usually you don’t have any control over how well the ads are written. it’s a crap shoot
Yeah. I find that true about ads too. It’s a hit and miss.
Atuk oi Gaman Oh Bulih kono! Bulih Tahan.
(dusun dialect)
Combining JohnChow review with a blog review contest. That surely will generate alot of traffic
definitely
i wish i had the money
May be we all should select one commentator/month and John does a free review for them.
John this is my blog post idea. donot be evil about it.
Vijay
I thought being evil was John’s job?
This is a pretty cool contest, and the odds are really, really good. Most of the time it is 1 our of 100, well at least the one’s I am in, and this one is 1 out of 5, that is awesome.
Very catchy contest mechanics, definitely. In case you do win, John, I’d gladly take that prize off your hands.
Is this Sabahan from Sabah, Malaysia? If yes, I am proud of him.
wow sound interesting.
i’ll join the contest
This was a really good idea. I might be doing this myself in the near future
[...] you read it right. That’s what John Chow said on his blog. He did a review for Sabahan through ReviewMe. And according to the sidebar, a ReviewMe on JohnChow.com costs [...]
John, you mentioned that you’d recommend him to move the google ads to the right. but then you had this sentence immediately after that:
“In my tests, there isn’t a big difference in click rate between having the Google ad on the left vs. having it on the right.”
should it be “there is a big difference…” instead?
I am a feed subscriber to Sabahan.Com and he is good. That’s why I check his site daily for new stuff to read about. In fact, I learnt much from him. I did a review for the contest but did not win the round of 5
I read Sabahan.Com daily through feed subscription and must say that he is good. Learnt much from him. I even wrote the review but did not make it in the round of 5
Sorry for the double posting. The first did not show up after I clicked the “Add comment” button. I thought my comment was caught in some spam net or something
A free-hosting contest, you say? Count me in!
i adore him since i know he did the digitalborneo.com which makes him one of the most popular tech prenure in malaysia
gaman ko jugala yang mantaps!
i wish i have to budget to get you to review my site
Unfortunately I have reseler hosting plan so I can have as many domains as I want.
That is unfortunate.
After my recent experiences with MidPhase i’m in for a bit of free hosting.
Who’s life time is the hosting for?
Nice cowpetition. Nearly as cool as ours
I’ve noticed you always say “we” or “our,” Cow. How many ARE you behind the evil John Cow site exactly?
[...] I had the privilege of getting John Chow to review Sabahan.com and I’d like to welcome all the readers who have arrived here from John’s review. [...]
I’m a greenie at all this and I’ve been trying to absorb some of the stuff here, fast as I can. But it’s mind-boggling. And it really takes time.
John is amazing! Are you actually able to have a life?
What does he mean by “life”. My life, his life, his website’s life?
“The free hosting will remain as long as I am able to retain my dedicated server - meaning as long as I am in business :)”
Apparently it’s the crappier of the three.
That’s quite reasonable don’t you agree?
While the blog is just over one year old, I’ve been in business since 1999. So the length doesn’t coincide with my “website’s life”
Ain’t it great dude, thx and lets see how much reviews you get, I hope same as the questions posted here.
Good Luck Gaman
, I heading towards your site.
Vijay
Anything free sounds good to me, well almost anything.
This site is interesting but not remarkable to me. Anyway I am gonna write my review. A free hosting for life is a free hosting for life! :))
Free hosting for the author’s, the blog’s or the the server’s life?
So what happens to the winner and their prize when this Gaman fella decides to sell his site or stop blogging completely?
woooo…. that’s a damn good question dude!
Yeah, but hardly any answers.
That lies in the very nature of good questions.
Good question, but so many questions for free….
Awww…I proposed to John but my trackback didn’t get through.
Oops, maybe I forget to pay my monthly fees.
Good Review
One Man. One Year. $100,000 online.
http://www.oneyeargoal.com
One golden glance… of what should be!
why are there so many ads? every other button on this website is an advertisement or a paypal quicklink to pay john chow money.
hi,
john i want to be a successfull blogger like u,
I am beginer in blogging, so i think u r a king of this world of blogs,
I definitely will be getting ur guidense. can u look at my site and plz tell me your suggesions..
1. http://onlinemoneymaking4u.blogspot.com
2. http://inspiration-for-success.blogspot.com
waitong eagerly for ur reply…
regards
Hi, I’m obviously not john, but I really think your blogs suck. and btw: it’s not a good idea to host your personal success story at a free bloghoster… guess why.
Yet another contest idea. I love the contests that offer non physical items such as hosting, free domain reg, etc…
This paid review needed a paid proofreader.
wow…you actually gotten this news too…cool….he is currently in the last phrase already…this contest will end fast
Thanks for the good news! I love contest and free stuffs.