Blogging


All about "blogging." How is blogging different than normal websites, what are the advantages, disadvantages, and how can you play on the strengths of the software and format while managing its weaknesses? Blog software like Wordpress and Blogger can help new webmasters set up and build websites quickly and effortlessly. It doesn't even have to be about what you had for dinner last night or what you plan to wear to work tomorrow. People blog the economy, politics, right now I'm even blogging about blogging (whoa, meta!)

Obliterating Scrapers pt 5: The Hosting DMCA

February 7th, 2010 No comments

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

February 4th, 2010 No comments

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

February 4th, 2010 No comments

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

February 1st, 2010 No comments

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

January 31st, 2010 No comments

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

January 30th, 2010 No comments

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

January 29th, 2010 No comments

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

January 18th, 2010 2 comments

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

November 25th, 2009 2 comments

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

November 14th, 2009 7 comments

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

October 12th, 2009 3 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

October 5th, 2009 1 comment

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?

October 4th, 2009 No comments

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

September 23rd, 2009 1 comment

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

September 10th, 2009 5 comments

Comment factors other than external links can still hurt the search engine status of your popular blog posts.

Avoid Bad Links in Blog Comments

September 10th, 2009 No 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?

July 21st, 2009 No comments

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

July 20th, 2009 No comments

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?

May 27th, 2009 No comments

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?

February 20th, 2009 1 comment

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

December 15th, 2008 3 comments

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)

December 4th, 2008 2 comments

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

November 5th, 2008 No comments

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

November 4th, 2008 No comments

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

November 2nd, 2008 No comments

The latest trends in blogging – microblogging and lifestreaming – what does it mean for your business model and marketing strategy?

FriendFeed or LifeStream?

October 31st, 2008 No comments

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

October 28th, 2008 No comments

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?

October 22nd, 2008 1 comment

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

October 21st, 2008 No comments

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

October 18th, 2008 No comments

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

October 11th, 2008 No comments

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

October 8th, 2008 3 comments

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

May 8th, 2008 No comments

Mashable goes no-follow and the conversation gets strangely quiet, very quickly

Write for the Love of (fill in the blank)

March 26th, 2008 No comments

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

January 17th, 2008 2 comments

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!