I think it’s a pretty cool plugin…

Here it the link to download the pluging from Andy Bailey’s site…

http://www.fiddyp.co.uk/wp-twitip-id-plugin-add-a-twitter-field-to-your-comment-form-easily/

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I receive so much of it that I just went ahead & set this blog to moderation of every post. This makes it a pain for everyone. Because people don’t get to see their comments right away, and I have to moderate every comment. But, if I didn’t this blog would quickly disintegrate into a rolling male enhancement affiliate program. VIVA VIAGR... never mind.

I won’t go so far as to eliminate comments because I like the interaction with everyone. It’s nice feedback on what I’ve written. Plus, it’s fun to see what some people come up with.

Every once in awhile a spam comment lands in moderation that makes me laugh…

One that was hitting here a couple of months ago would go along these lines:

At first I didn’t agree with you, but at the end it really made sense.

Oh, by the way, check this out. I believe it will clarify what you are trying to say – (A link to some inappropriate site)

No brainer… Delete!

This next one falls under the category – Did You Really Read My Blog?!?

found your blog from a partner’s site and I have to say that I really like it. I was wondering if we could exchange links on your blogroll…

Slight problem… I don’t have a blog roll. Now what are we going to do?!?

Then there was this gem…

Great post. I completely agree, it seems there is one launch after another. You really need to pick and choose where you spend your time…

OK, you are thinking… what’s so bad about this comment?

Nothing, until you see the link to website is an affiliate link to the product being mentioned in the blog post. Thanks for including an affiliate link… because I’m here to let you siphon traffic off – SO, YOU CAN MAKE MONEY!

I guess if you throw enough of these against the wall… something will stick.

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Ryan Healy wrote a funny post this week titled You Know You’re A Freelance Copywriter if…

You go shopping and find yourself analyzing how the store could increase its sales.

You study great copy… only to wind up buying the product being advertised.

You save junk mail — and then proceed to critique it.

You flip through local ad magazines and mutter things like, “I can’t believe this. These guys are so stupid.”

This is a few of the top 10 list Ryan came up with, and really got a kick out of reading what he came up. As I read this Becky she laughed out loud, and said I do several of these things a lot.

Maybe this list could be expanded to include more than just freelance copywriters…

A blog I regularly read is called JT Pratt’s Blogging mistakes. It’s owned by… Who else JT Pratt. He wrote a very good post titled Should I Use A Blog Or A Niche Store. This one caught my interest because I just started using a Niche store software this past week. This software gives you the option of setting up a Niche store, or add a widget to your blog. It’s a very versatile program, and will give a review of it soon.

Anyhow, JT discussed the pros & cons of a blog vs. a niche store. Really great objective review I recommend you should read. Here is a quick overview from his post…

I’ve seen the discussions a thousand times in forums “should I use a niche store (BANS), or should I use WordPress”. Some say “static pages are best for mini-sites”. Some say – “I use a blog and an affiliate plugin”.

What I’m going to do in this post is explain once and for all the clear differences between those three things, including when to use them. My opinions may or may not be popular with some of the so-called “gurus” – but my advice is aimed at those of you still trying to build a monthly income over time, and it’s not to position myself to “sell” you something. When I use affiliate links on this blog, it’s because it’s a product that I use myself to build sites and generate income.

Hope you enjoy these two posts…

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A Twitter Widget

I found a new Twitter widget to put in the sidebar. You can see it at Widgetbox. Check it out below…

There are several things I like about this new widget:

1. I like the design of this widget. It looks clean, and easier to read.

2. It’s a little wider than the old one I was using. (or at least it seems like it).

3. There is an easy to find link at the bottom called “my twitter page”. When someone clicks the link, it opens your twitter page in another window/tab. It’s a nice feature because it doesn’t take readers away from your blog.

4. In the bottom right hand corner there is a scroll button. This is cool as it lets people click the arrows, and view your previous tweets.

Ezine Articles Widget

I found this widget while looking around inside the author’s area. Check out what it looks like…

I like this widget because it’s another way to show readers what your up to. It’s also a good way to help drive traffic to your articles.

This widget give you multiple display options.

It will be interesting to see if this helps getting more article views, and if there is any backlink power from this widget.

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Here is the story from his post: Has Your WordPress Blog Been Hacked…

What Happened To DeanHunt.com – By Paul

Here’s the technical side of what they did and what we did to get around it, plus a brief explanation of what I coded to try and give people the chance to check for themselves: -

WordPress uses calls to wp_head and wp_footer to allow plugins to alter the content being returned as the page loads, a good example of this working well would be the SEO Title Tags plugin. However this is the functionality that the spammers used to insert a whole raft of links into the footer.

This article WordPress: Exploit We Been Hit By Hidden Spam Link Injection explains the technique for anyone who likes headaches, but in basic terms they are using compromised theme files or adding in new files to your compromised server which act on the wp_footer call to insert their links.

They have been even smarter than that though as they have cloaked the links, so if you pop over to your own hacked site and view the source code you wont see the inserted links. Only when Googlebot comes along are the links shown, which is obviously a bad thing as Google suddenly thinks you’re linking out to a bunch of parasite hosted pills sites and will give you a penalty or remove you as a result.

Note: Dean’s rankings were virtually wiped out in Google

How you can check to see if you’re OK

Paul from SEOidiot is the person Dean turned to for help. Paul has written a free tool to check the links at your WordPress blog. It called CasheChecker, and is very easy to use. Head on over there to check your WordPress blog.

After you check you blog for this security leaks, you can do some preventive things for your own protection. I wrote a series of blog security posts a few months ago titled The Dark Side. It might be a good time to go back and review these posts now. Read Can Somebody Drive A Truck Through The Back Door Of Your WordPress Blog These tips are valuable steps you can take to shore up the security of your blog.

Also be sure to read 10 computer security tips, how many are you applying? to protect yourself online. There is more than one way to hack into your WordPress blog.

Make sure you are doing what you can to protect your blog… it would suck to have all your hard work wiped out by some spammers.

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Darren Rowse over at Problogger is reporting that a WordPress Blog owned by Johns Wu has sold his blog Bankaholic to Bankrate for a up to $15 million!

Here is what Darren had to say about the sale…

Bankaholic has a staff of 1 (Johns Wu) who will remain on at the blog.

If this price is true it’s a fairly decent sale for Mr Wu (understatement of the year) – the blog has an Alexa ranking of 42,168 and averages less than 20 comments per post. The blog does seem to rank very well for a lot of bank terms and I’m sure drives targeted traffic and would convert well with affiliate products – but this is still a fairly inspiring sale!

That is some major coin

I think this is awesome, and sheds a new light on Niche blogging. It goes to show that picking the right subject, added useful content and hard work can really payoff. The power of a highly targeted and high traffic blog is proving to be a priceless asset.

Woo Hoo!

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What’s the big deal with a link cloaker?

Affiliate marketing is a powerful revenue source for blogs. This platform makes reviewing and recommending products very easy. But, the big problem with affiliate links is they will get truncated by some when they click on the link.

However, that problem goes away when you cloak the link. Most people don’t mind clicking on an affiliate link, they just don’t like it flaunted in their face.

I finally found a plugin that works, and it’s free. It’s called WP-Affiliate by SEO Adventures. It only works on WordPress 2.5 or higher. I found it easy to install and use. This plugin works from the write page.

How it works

Once installed go the write a post page, and scroll down till you see wp-affiliate links. There you will see a form titled Add Base Category. This is were you add the name of the folder you want. I use “recommends”, and it will make the link look like this:

http://www.keithgoodrum.com/recommends

The next part is titled Categorical Listing Of Links. Here is where you add your affiliate links. You have 2 choices here: Add A Link, Add Sub Category and (Delete Category). Click on the link you want to perform.

To add an affiliate you would click on Add A Link. Add your affiliate link to the form titled Link. Next figure what you want to name your anchor text, and add it to… Yep, that’s right the Anchor Text form. Your link would link will look like this:

http://www.keithgoodrum.com/recommends/really-cool-product

Head on over to http://www.seoadventures.com/ and pick it up today.

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I’ve been playing around with it today, and have already posted a comment on the 30 Day Challenge blog. It’s easy to post a comment with this plugin. I also found it easy to setup in the blog.

There is a nice feature to this option. Video blog comments get added to the Seesmic public time line. That means you could grab some traffic from people searching Seesmic. Cool beans.

One thing I like about this plugin is you don’t have to have an account with Seesmic. Anyone can post anonymously. Of course to prevent morons from posting insulting or spam videos you can have them held for moderation. I’m doing that for the time being.

You can grab the plugin at Seesmic’s Wiki page. On the wiki page they show you how to install it & how it works.

I’ve added a video comment to this post, so you can see how it works.

How about posting a video comment yourself?

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Well sometimes I look so hard at the trees… I fail to see the forest!

Today I noticed while looking at the plugin directory that Akismet had been deleted. I did delete a few plugins Friday that I was no longer using, but I don’t recall deleting Akismet. Since no one else has access to the admin panel… theres’ no one to blame but me.

Bummer – It’s always funner to pass the buck.

Anyhow I reinstalled Akismet & made a few other changes to help combat comment spam. Akismet is a good comment spam plugin. However it does have one big drawback. It will occasionally mark as spam a legit comment. Therefore it requires me to go through the Akismet queue and make sure a legit one didn’t get caught.

There are some people who refuse to use Akismet for this reason. But like I said it hasn’t become that big of problem for me.

How to get Akismet

It simple… head over to Akismet, and download it. Unzip the file & upload it to your plugin folder. This is usually located in the wp-content/plugins folder.

Next you have to activate the plugin. Once you activate the plugin you should see a Akismet configuration. You will need to get an API Key from WordPress.com. At WordPress.com you will have to sign up for an account. Make sure you go to WordPress.com & not WordPress.org.

Once you are at WordPress.com click on the sign up now button. Fill out the information, check the Just a username, please button, and click next. They will send you a confirmation email. Once you confirm your account you’ll get your API Key.

The last step is to take your API Key & add it to the Akismet configuration page on your blog. Hit update & Akismet takes over from there.

I like Akismet because for me it’s pretty low maintenance. Head on over & get if you’d like to get some relief from comment spam.

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