The web biz can do strange things to your sleep and social schedule
Working online presents a novel scenario for schedules and sleeping cycles, and with the bombardment of modern technological stimulants like artificial lights, televisions, and lolcats, our internal clocks might not know how to process all of these variables. While there are some advantages to alternate sleeping patterns, there are also some health and social concerns that have to be address to achieve a high level of happiness and productivity.
300 posts in retrospect, and hoping for a happy new year
A look back at the ups and downs of my blogging experience over the last 100 posts, and some New Year’s resolutions to put in the time this project deserves!
New content – stale until proven otherwise?
Fresh content used to be a great way to give your sites some attention in the search engines, but these days it seems to be stale by the time you’ve hit publish.
…and the damn RSS feed is back too
A common Wordpress RSS feed error had been plaguing this site for way too long, but it seems to finally be fixed.
Limits of Inactivity
A blog can continue to make money for long after it has become inactive, but to maximize your revenue you’ll have to keep it at least somewhat up to date – and make sure those new links are flowing!
New WordPress theme and some reorganization – thoughts about the blog
Theme Foundry has taken the freemium model to Wordpress themes, and even in the demo file you can get a high quality look for no cost.
Finally invested in a camera
It is good to be cheap and frugal when you’re running a business or blog – but only to an extent. Don’t be too much like me though, because blogging is a whole lot easier with a nice digital camera on hand!
This website building experiment is a huge success
Looking back on the last three years of building websites and doing business online, I have to confess that I love where my life is at.
The worst part of spam…
Other than general annoyance, what is it that truly makes spam more of an evil than an inconvenience? I’ll let you in on the most frustrating behaviors I’ve seen and the downsides of an otherwise effective SEO strategy.
Modern 2.0 WordPress Theme – Updated with dynamic sidebars and homepage
Ever found a great Wordpress theme, but it was too old and outdated to put to use without major edits? Well, if you’re a fan of Modern .9, you’ll definitely want to check out this 2.0 version of the Modern Wordpress Theme, ready for 2010 with dynamic sidebars and a home page that mixes static content with the excerpts from your latest posts.
Blogging is dead – long live blogging!
Blogging isn’t quite as easy as it used to be, but the online economy still provides a ton of opportunity to those who truly love to write and produce content on a regular schedule.
Firefox 3.6 killed the link properties option
If you like to know the properties of links on the sites you visit, Firefox version 3.6 is a bit lacking unless you add a link property plugin that recreates the function many of us used to take for granted.
Obliterating Scrapers pt 5: The Hosting DMCA
If all else fails, there’s one final step you can take to ensure your scraper’s website is taken completely offline, as soon as possible.
Fighting Scrapers Pt 4: DMCA and Advertisers
If scrapers are still making money off your content at this point, you can take your issue directly to their advertisers and hit back in the bank account.
Fighting Scrapers pt 3: The Search Engine DMCA
And if your scraper parasite is still in the search index, a few letters notifying your writes under the DMCA can help ensure the search engines know who is the original and who is the copy-cat.
Fighting Blog Scrapers Pt 2: Poison the Bait
If the initial emails and private messages don’t get your scraped blog posts removed, there are other more damaging (and entertaining) ways to strike back at content thieves.
Fighting Scrapers Pt 1: The Email Request
When blog scrapers threaten your reputation in the search engines, you’ll eventually have to fight back just to protect yourself. Since we’re feeling like generous and nice people, we’re going to start off with some polite email requests before we start doing damage or publicly mocking the offender.
Escalating Against Blog Scrapers
Its easy to ignore most scrapers, but once in a while they get their act together and figure out how to rank with stolen content. Here are the basic steps to fix that kind of mess.
Another Perfect Example of Blogging SEO Don’ts – Too much of a Good Thing
Increasingly, the search index’s reaction to your posts is quick and revealing. The other day I managed to learn that the hard way while doing some “clean up” posts.
The fight against SPAM never ends
I love promotion – even self-serving marketing efforts! But that doesn’t mean I’m willing to tolerate a bunch of noise on my sites, especially at the risk of losing reputation and authority among readers and search engine ranking algorithms.
As bad as it gets, it gets worse
I won’t hesitate to write some personal junk here, because it seems like I won’t be able to get back on topic until I get over the personal problems.
200 Posts and Stuff for the Readers
A look back on the last 100 posts and 11 months. Comparisons of the site’s revenue, traffic, and SEO statistics between now and after the first 100 posts.
On Broken Windows and Blog Comments
Once spammers get their foot in to the door of your comment section, they will attract more of their kind and give confidence to those who think they can score a spammy link from your blog. One way to cut down on the noisy submissions is to ensure that they never show up – not even for a minute!
FTC: Big Threats and no Guidance
The FTC is making a whole lot of waves, but the ruling is symbolic and unclear. Not only will enforcement be next to impossible, but the guidelines themselves seem to ignore the realities of online marketing.
Scraper Keeps Affiliate Links – Should I Even Care?
I have a hard time hating on scrapers – I usually end up thinking about how I benefit and feeling sorry for them instead.
How to Earn a Trip to Akismet’s Spam Land
I try to be patient with comments and even reward valuable ones, but when the line gets crossed, Akismet is there to spare myself AND other legit bloggers from the annoyance of awful comments.
Plagiarized Blog Comments as Negative SEO
Comment factors other than external links can still hurt the search engine status of your popular blog posts.
Avoid Bad Links in Blog Comments
Bloggers need to keep a close eye on the comment links they allow to be published. Bad links can reflect poorly on your sites, for both surfers and search engine bots alike.
Brothers and Sisters, Can You Spare a Link?
Economic and generational cycles have impacted the world of blogs significantly in the last few years, and we seem to be building walls around ourselves in an attempt to protect the remnants of a faded ecosystem.
Nofollow does not Conserve Pagerank
Not only is nofollow unable to fight spam and messing up the value of links on the web, its not even conserving pagerank like most webmasters thought it was. Matt Cutts recently shocked the SEO world by announcing nofollow destroys link juice rather than conserving it and keeping it internal.
FTC to Regulate Blog Posts?
The Federal Trade Commission is talking about blogs – specifically paid posts, free incentives from product producers, and how the government fits into protecting the consumer from their own lack of research.
Intellectual Property Law – Does it Help Writers and Bloggers?
Everyone who writes or publishes works to the internet has to deal with content theft, scraping, and plagiarism… But is modern American intellectual property law an effective defense or an unnecessary burden?
100th Post – Blog Statistics
100 posts is a great milestone, but there’s a lot of ways to measure success. Let’s take a look at the evolution of Website Building Biz and where it stands today
Blogging is Serious Business (Seriously)
Blogging is often the target of jokes, derision, and scorn – but in some academic circles, blog posts can rise to the level of literary works.
Politician Runs Out of Excuses – Blames Bloggers for Low Popularity
Blogging is a great way for people with political opinions to reach their target audience and engage a discussion – so why are unpopular politicians blaming the technology instead of embracing it?
Brainstorming to Beat Writer’s Block
Feel like you’ve run out of things to blog about? Writer’s block can be a big problem for bloggers as it threatens to disrupt the flow of new posts, new links, and new traffic. Also, the subscribers of your RSS feed may get bored at seeing no new updates and free up some space in their readers.
Use these brainstorming tips to beat writer’s block and get back to the content creation this internet business requires.
Blogging Trends – Micro and Live Blogs
The latest trends in blogging – microblogging and lifestreaming – what does it mean for your business model and marketing strategy?
FriendFeed or LifeStream?
Why I’m avoiding FriendFeed and promoting LifeStream.fm instead. A little bit about liveblogging from a marketing perspective and why you can’t afford to ignore the development of this newest form of social media.
Why Blogs Conquered the Internet
It should be no surprise that blogs came to dominate internet activity and search results. In the originally popularized blog form, they were a source of link and personal networking with no rivals – and a method of interaction that was information and easy.
Nofollow is Bad Enough – What’s the No Link Trend About?
Sitepoint thinks there is a problem with the blogging link economy – and they publish this on a blog that doesn’t allow pings, trackbacks, or comment links.
Blogging – The Quickest Way to Build a Website
Want to build a website but you think it might be too hard, confusing, or just time consuming? Blogs are the quickest and easiest way to build a new website from scratch. Don’t worry about the technical issues too much – just be sure you have some fresh and unique content to offer.
The Benefits and Problems of Blogging
Why build a blog for your website? Or why should you build a blog as your main website like I’ve done here? Learn more about blogging by reading the benefits here.
Three Quick Ways to Promote a New Blog
Here are three quick and simple steps you can take to promote a new blog. Combined with some unique and interesting content, you could see some buzz almost immediately.
Another DoFollow Webmaster Blog
WebsiteBuildingBiz has gotten rid of the nofollow attributes, so here’s another webmaster oriented blog for you to get some backlinks from. Just make sure to add useful comments! Everything that doesn’t really contribute will be marked as spam and moderation is always enabled.
Mashable Goes No-Follow; Awkward Silence Follows
Mashable goes no-follow and the conversation gets strangely quiet, very quickly
Write for the Love of (fill in the blank)
Write about your interests if you want to write well. The internet isn’t a good get rich quick plan, but if you work for subjects you care about, you might not realize its work at all.
Tracking the Internet Conversation
Using trackbacks to keep track of conversations that you’ve started or entered. How the Link command in search engines can be used to make sure you don’t miss out on a discussion that you’ve already been a part of. Hey, I’ll take all the ways I can to keep track of this stuff!