Is Facebook next on Turkish Internet Ban?

facebook-ban

Starting with youtube, Turkish Government is continueing to ban access to mainstream websites. These bans include Dailymotion, WordPress.com and the latest addition, blogger.com (or blogspot.com). If we look at these sites, they are all web 2.0 trend community sites where people can express their thoughts freely.

They all got banned because some individual went to the court about what people wrote about him or her and won the case. Turkish government suggests that all these websites set up a local page like Youtube Turkey that is moderated regularly.

Guess Who’s on Google 2001 index?

google-2001

Because of its 10th birthday, Google has created a nostalgic search page searching through the 2001 index. For example, if you search for Youtube or Facebook, it does not bring any results since they were created after 2001.

However, if you make a search for “turkhitbox.com” , you will get a result, which is like … awesome! I highly suggest that you visit Google 2001 search page and check if you are there. I bet some of you can make some interesting analyses.

My New Audi A5

my-new-audi-a5-01

Its been some time since my post titled “Selling My Audi A3 for an Audi A5“. I have received my car about a month ago, but couldn’t find any time to post the news here :) I know I said I was going to get a white car, but unfortunately there was no white A5′s left in Turkey. Well, most people say this color tops white anytime, so I am happy with my purchase. The color is pearlescent Avus Silver, an Audi exclusive color. Supposedly, this is the only one in Turkey, due to its high option price. I bought the car for 69,500 Euros including the dealer discount. Originally, the car is somewhere at 75000 euros.

JoeAnt.com Scam

joeant-scam

After some of my websites have been hit by the July 25th update of the Google Algorithm, I decided to submit them to couple of directories.

I prefer submitting to paid directories to free directories, since they really do have more value in Google. Eventhough I was successful in submitting my websites to many directories, I was unable to get my listing up on Joeant.com

Canliweb.com: Automated Money Making

canliweb haber

I love all things automated. If I could do it, I would put my body on automation so that I don’t have to do anything! I guess I am a little lazy. Canliweb.com is one of the sites I bought last year. I paid about 1000 US dollars for it, and the website returned it in just 4 months!

In April, this site made $769.49 and in May, it made $625.69 by itself with Google Adsense. It’s an incredible number considering I don’t have to do anything to keep it going. (maybe link building every now and then)

Selling My Audi A3 for an Audi A5

Audi A3 Final

Eventhough this is a “Ramblings” blog, I never actually made an off-topic post and since I am selling my car, I wanted to give it a shot. I bought this 2006 Audi A3 in January 2006, a year before I started this blog. I bought it for around €32,000. The car has 1.6L FSI which produces 115bhp. The car came with ambition package (sport package), bi-xenon headlights and Bose sound systems. Over the course of two years, I modified the car to my liking. But most importantly, I started the Turkish Audi Club, TurboFSI.net when I bought the car. My car became the first project car, attracting more people to the forums. Well this is another story so I will talk about it at some other post.

Finally passed the 100 RSS Subscriber Mark

I never thought I would reach it, but I have to say, I worked my ass off to reach it! At first, it was so hard getting the first 20 subscribers. I guess it has something to do with publishing a full feed. Although it pulls me away from my aim of earning 50$/day on this blog, i think it is worth it. However I didn’t do what all the others do!

Finally passed the 100 RSS Subscriber Mark

Shamus just killed me!

Yesterday, I talked to Shamus from Shamuswrites.com for a redesign for his blog for about 10-15 minutes. He doesn’t want a total redesign, but a modification of his own blog’s design which is made by him. So I woke today to check my emails. There were about 30! new emails all from the contact page of Turk Hit Box. I was shocked, because since yesterday, I only received about 10. First of all, I would like to say sorry for not replying to some of the emails since there are a high number of request. I will write back to everyone once I get things in order.

So I checked my logs only to see that my design give-away has been published in weblog tools collection and the author is Shamus himself. I didn’t know he was an author in weblog tools collection at the first place, so it was a bit of shock for me. This shows importance of keeping in touch with other bloggers. On the other hand, he just turned me into a dead person for the next couple of months. I will probably dehydrate and die in front of the computer screen while designing a theme :)

Don’t worry about it though! I will do my best each and every time. It doesn’t mean I won’t make a design for you if I didn’t send you an email. It just means that its not your turn yet, so please be patient. I would love it if you guys could mention this in your own blogs which will increase the chances of getting a design before others :)

Pushing for the Blograzzi Frontpage

Blograzzi is the largest Turkish blog directory that you can find. It has recently made a strategical business agreement (Turkish) with Technorati. Turk Hit Box has the number 1 place for the “English category“, but I am planning to get to the front page in a month. That should easily give me some exposure to step up my game among Turkish bloggers. Ranking as 21st, I only need to move 1 place up, and I need you to help me.

Pushing for the Blograzzi Frontpage

Can you reach your Blogging Dream?

Everyone has a dream when setting up a new blog. I personally want exposure and everything should follow afterwards. I sure would like to be Richard MacManus, the author of Read/Write Web. He lives his dream by running the 15th most popular blog in Technorati. He has an RSS subscriber count of 90551 as of today. He lives my dream and here is how I will reach him:

Can you reach your Blogging Dream?