Culture Shiok asked me to review his blog. Although, I am in the middle of preparing an unsolicited review of the blog of one of the members of our community (the one I mentioned here), but because Culture Shiok is very much intersted of my review, so I decided to review his blog first.

Again, this review is worth $100 but is given free to Culture Shiok.

About The Blog

Obviously, Culture Shiok is a personal blog of the an OFW who called himself “Culture Shiok”. It only started last January 2007 and as of the time of writing this review, the blog has already 56 blogposts which ranges from his experiences as OFW to places he went by, food he ate and had seen, and everything he found in Singapore. However, from time to time, he also posted some Techno-stories and other topic that got his interest.

Just like the blog of Carl Ocab, this blog is much newer compared to this (SELaplana) blog which is already celebrating its 1 year and 2 months of its existence, but then Culture Shiok is already ratified # 18 (current as of writing this review).

Making Money Scheme

I understand that this blog is created in order for him to share his experiences, ideas and the things came into his mind, but then he also monetizes it with Adsense ads.

And my question is: Is he earning from Adsense? I am asking like this because the way he placed the Adsense ads is very much strange for me. The Adsense ads are placed at the bottom of the page.

Lessons from this blog

1. Adsense Ads. Based on my experiences in dealing with Adsense and other affiliate ads, the hottest part of a blog like this is the upper portion of it, within the blogpost or right after the blogpost. Culture Shiok way of publishing ads is, I think generates a very low earning. Maybe his CTR ranges from 0.1 to 1.0. I think, Culture Shiok must utilize the header part of his blog. He can still place a 468×60 banner ad there. However, if he doesn’t want to annoy his visitors and has no concern of making money online, then the current placement of the ads is very much okay.
2. Ratified Rank. We need to learn something from the Ratified Rank that Culture Shiok blog currently has. Remember that this blog has just started last January 2007, but then he is already ranked 18 by ratified. Why? This is because, Culture Shiok earns Authority: 416 · Rank: 7,942. Culture Shiok posts few blogposts per month but is very much active in visiting, and commenting other blogs, especially those blogs of his fellow OFW and fellow Filipino bloggers. He’s even active in asking favor from other bloggers who are reviewing blogs, just like what he did to me just to write a review for him.

Last Words

For now, that’s enough for Culture Shiok. We’ll just post updates about the blog when we’ll notice something blogable.

Want your blog to be reviewed?

Well, frequent visitors of this blog which eventually became member of my community are already qualified for a $100 worth of review. And if you’re really interested of my worth $100 review, then mention me frequently at your blog, create a link to this blog and email me about it. Or if you want me to review your commercial site, visit this page.

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