I can't work out if this tech column in the Bangkok Post is a joke or not. It was published yesterday and it appears to have gone in the newspaper. It's a review of Twitter. That's the same Twitter that's one of the most popular social networking sites in the world. The same Twitter that's been around since 2006. The review begins:

I've recently spent a few weeks playing around with Twitter. No doubt you've heard about it and maybe you're wondering what it's all about.

Dude, we know what it's all about.

Twitter is basically what we used to call newsgroups. A closer analogy would be a messageboard, like the ones that the folks over at thaivisa.com offer. Unlike a Newsgroup or a messageboard, your Tweet can only contain 140 characters – a few short sentences. So, not much gets said.

He ends with this:

Twitter is part of what's being defined as "Social Media". Next time, we'll look at Facebook, another part of the Social Media arena, one which I think is far more valuable.

Is the Bangkok Post stuck in a timewarp? Are we actually in a pre-coup era? Is Michael Jackson going to make a comeback?

The list of the top 100 Thailand blogs that I set up a year ago continues to grow. On the list at the moment are 180 blogs about Thailand. I update the rankings as and when I remember and add new blogs if they are suitable (i.e. if they are actually blogs).

At the moment, the header isn't showing up for some reason. I may have made some changes and then messed up the code a little. I've tried to fix it but have failed. It shouldn't affect the page — everything still works — but there's no header image as there was before.

I think it's been like that for a couple of weeks. Suffice to say I will try and sort it out in the coming weeks, which will probably mean paying some chap in India to look at it.

The top 100 is one of the most visited pages of this blog with a steady stream of traffic stopping by from one day to the next. The top Thailand blog, according to my list, is still New Mandala while down at position 180 is Thailand Moment.

A little while ago I sent up a make money online (MMO) blog called World of Angel. (MMO blogs are written on the subject of how to make money with a blog.) It was my “big idea” and was supposedly going to make me rich. It didn’t because make money online blogs are just about the dumbest type of blogs you can launch in the current market place.

The reason for this is that blogs about making money online or making money blogging generally don’t make any money. The big guns like John Chow and Darren Rowse make a fortune because they started doing it before everyone else.

There are a few, like Yaro Starak, who do make money online with these blogs, but those guys are experts in their fields – and I mean experts. They know this blogging game inside and out.

My make money online blog made me a little cash here and there, but it certainly wasn’t worth the time and effort I put into it. There are far better avenues to explore when it comes to blogging. If you want to make serious money blogging, you need to have a niche and you need to be doing something that stands out from the crowd.

On my blog here I’ve compiled a list of the blogging services that I’ve used to make money online. If you have a blog, especially one about Thailand, and you want to start using it to make money, it’s relatively straightforward and there are a number of ways you can go. You probably won’t get rich any time soon, but a little extra cash flow never hurt anyone, and you will more than likely do much better than if you just have Adsense on your blog.

I have used and made money with all of the services I recommend. Overall, I’ve made a few thousand dollars through blogging, but there is always room for improvement. What I’ve learned over the past couple of years has taught me not to waste my time with stuff that I don’t enjoy and that isn’t profitable.

I’ve been experimenting with creating Squidoo lenses recently. The theory is that Squidoo lenses can help you build links and traffic for your blog or website. I’ve yet to see any positive results from the Squidoos I’ve created, but some people swear by these things so there must be something in it.

A Squidoo lens is basically a page you create filled with content and various modules, such as photographs, videos, guestbooks, text and so on. You write some content about whatever subject you feel like, throw it into your lens with a bunch of images and other bits and pieces, and then publish the lens for the world to see.

These lenses can help a blog or website because you’re free to link out as you please. What’s more, the links are all dofollow, which means they pass Page Rank. If you make a lens that becomes popular, you’ll get traffic from it.

I created a number of lenses about Phuket. They’re nothing groundbreaking and were designed to help build links. You can see them here:

• Phuket hotels
• Phuket nightlife
• Patong Beach
• Phuket beaches
• Phuket girls
• Phuket restaurants
• Patong girls

Groundbreaking stuff, right? I also made one about acai “free trial offer” scams. Thus far, my lenses have received very little traffic. I’m hoping this will change over time with a bit of work. If anyone else has been using Squidoo, I’d be interested to hear if you’ve seen any positive effects as a result.

If you have a blog about Thailand that you no longer want, then you may as well sell it to me. I can pay money and such things. I'm not expecting a flood of emails about this. I also don't have a huge budget. But if you don't want your Thailand blog any more, I can find a use for it, so contact me.