6 Things Problogger Doesn't Have

If your reading this blog you are probably a reader of Problogger. Being a blogger and not reading Problogger is like trying to play Beethoven’s' Pathetique on the piano, from memory, with out ever hearing it or reading the music. It’s impossible! It is therefore clear that Darren Rowse has great power at his fingertips. He tries to help us with words of wisdom, with his slogan 'helping bloggers earn money' and for all intents and purposes he does. But what doesn't he have on Problgger that he should?

A way to make money directly with Problogger.
There are no products to sell and no affiliate program to join, although he recommends several. Ultimately though Problogger is Darrn Rowse and there are other ways to make money using his sites. Namely Text Link Ads of which he is a co-founder. You can spend money there or you can make money as a publisher or affiliate. So there goes my first idea out the window.


A forum!. Bloggers could discuss the latest Problogger post and Darren could watch over them, occasionally sending a cryptic message from heaven, otherwise known as The House that Google Bought.


sounds like the land of milk and honey doesn't it?
No, sadly not. It doesn’t take much thought that this probably wouldn't work very well. The main reason is that I’m sure Darren is busy enough, without moderating and regularly posting on what would be one of the most popular forums on the net. However, he could always recruit a team of Probloggers to help him do this/do it all for him, which I could see working....


An official Problogger charity!
Rather than The House that Google Bought and I'm a six Figure Blogger, there can be posts about, 'The houses for the homeless that Google bought' and 'six figure African-saving' (if I can say that). I'm not asking Darren to just give all his money to charity, but with so many readers Problogger would be a great place to raise money for charity and raise awareness about certain good causes.


A directory of blogging niches?!
I would go into more detail but this is an idea of mine, which is currently 'in the pipeline'. Believe me it will be more useful than it sounds with what I have in mind! (Darren if your interested I’m sure we can negotiate me telling you everything...i.e. if you ask I will tell you :p).


Tutorials for template/theme alteration/design.
We all know the importance of layout and having and original look to our blogs. What a lot of us don't know (including me) is how to design a brand new template from scratch. However this is such a major task a whole new site would be needed and Darren often says this techie stuff isn't his forte. Anyway, I would love a section on 'theme/template alteration', where there are posts on nifty yet simple things we can to do personalise our blogs. There would need to be posts covering the different types of blogs, i.e. a section for Blogger blogs, Wordpress blogs etc. It’s a pretty big task but I think Darren would be up to it. It is also relevant because the quality of the layout is directly related to earnings potential.


A precise earnings report each month.
Ok so this isn't exactly Darren's style, but actually knowing how much a successful blogger made from what company is a great inspiration to everyone isn't making that much. Just look at JohnChow.com, he has been an inspiration to thousands of us because of is open display of his earnings. (I couldn't exactly write an article about Problogger and blogging for money without mentioning John Chow could I!). I'm not demanding to know about personal finances, but it's just something to think about.


So those are the 6 things Problogger doesn't have, apart from a couple he shouldn’t anyway. Pick which one you think it should have the most and start making unreasonable demands for it to exist. On second thoughts don’t do that, but who is with me on the official Charity idea?!

Text link Ads have a new Homepage Layout

Text Link Ads' new Homepage layout doesn't really affect anything, I mean its one page, on one site. So why am I even bothering to mention it? Because I strongly believe thatText Link Ads is going to get big, well I am it's a bit late for that 'belief' because they are already pretty massive.

They probably changed the Homepage for a number of reasons. On the old page their was some info about it's founders and not much about what Text link ads actually did. The plan behind this was to create trust with the early advertisers/publishers by showing some friendly faces including that of the co-founder Darren Rowse who is well known among the blogging community. Now that they have built up thousands of users they can rely on the strength of the brand name and they now boast about the number of users by saying"Join over 10,000+ publishers monetizing their sites.".

They have also maximised their income streams by starting up "Featured Publishers" who presumably pay to get on the homepage. The new Homepage also displays a new-found sense of confidence in their product e.g.

"Advertisers: Improve your traffic and search engine rankings.
Only TLA can deliver an ad that does both."

"Publishers: Make more money by selling text based ads.
Join over 10,000+ publishers monetizing their sites."

So as I said at the beginning, Text link ads are on the way up and we can learn from the techniques they used to become successful.

John Chow and Darren Rose Sitting in a Tree...

.... looking down on us and throwing us bones to keep us happy as we bark up at them.

Blinggest* def:
- Combination of biggest, most bling and blog e.g. 'I am the bliggest!'

Two of the blinggest* bloggers in the 'blogosphere', John Chow and Darren Rowse were seen passing AdWords messages. Darren (arguably the MOST blinggest of the two on the blogosphere) has hardly mentioned the subject. Perhaps he feels he doesn't need the feisty Canadian, after all he is currently ranked number 43 in Technorati, as opposed to John Chow has a 'mere' rank of 561. John seems adamant to keep the relationship open and proudly proclaimed it to be a "love fest". Google are apparently thrilled with the news and so am I. I am hoping Google with send them both a token gift, perhaps an 'extra-large' domain name where they can consummate their relationship.



I am a regular reader of both their blogs and feel they have taken on the role of 'idols' and are greatly admired by many 'wannabees'. In my humble opinion, bloggers who become idols should be made understand the power that is in their dextrous hands. If all they write about is how to be successful, we will end up with an entire generation of bloggers thinking that is the only important thing in life. Both John Chow and Darren Rose should have to satisfy the other needs of bloggers. I.E. they should learn to sing and dance (don't worry John your already halfway there!) and tell us stories about the 'olden days' of the Internet and teach us about the founding fathers of the blogosphere. After all, is that not what we demmand from 'offline' celebrities?

I just hope I’m not barking up the wrong tree.