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As the title of this book implies, the author delivers a concise description on setting up a professional blog – using WordPress – without wasting time convincing the user of the reasoning for creating a blog. The approach is “quick and dirty.”

In his foreword the author does not conceal the fact that all information in this book in freely available through the Internet, or through many, more detailed books, but reading this book and following the instructions will save the user a great deal of time and, after all, aggravation.

This book will provide a crash-course in setting up a web site that goes beyond a basic blog. In this sense, the author added many exciting features such as slide shows, cool navigation tools, social network connections, integrating videos and cartoons, and even an e-commerce system. He also puts an emphasis on search engine optimization (SEO), creating web traffic, and protecting the blog from being spammed. In addition, the author shares his experience with creating income through blogs without promising a “new path to riches.”

Note: The information in this book (PDF Download) refers to an old version of WordPress, and the author has decided not to update. The information herein is, nevertheless, helpful for everybody starting his or her new blog.

The download is, in fact, FREE, and it will NOT require the submission of additional information. No questions asked; just click on the image and download!

More information on Professional Blogging

For additional information not covered in the book, please see our section Insights Into Professional Blogging With WordPress on this website.

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Book One of the Darklife Saga by Ronnie Massey

Two Women Hunting A Rogue Vampire

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CRIMSON DAWN by Ronnie Massey is not just another vampire novel. Yes, the story line includes the favorites of all young adults – plus those who stayed young-at-heart – such as vampires, werewolves, witches, and fairies, but they represent a framework that is seamlessly incorporated in a captivating story that is well worth to be characterized as extraordinary. [Read More...]

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With all the Tweeting, Facebook Liking, and LinkedIn connecting going on, it’s easy to forget about blogging and finding the time to do so. Blogging, however, can be extremely useful for more reasons than just populating your website with content (although that’s important too). Let’s look at some reasons why you must blog and why it should matter to you!

Blogging gives “voice” to a website: In an age where there are millions of websites and millions more coming online each month, how can you stand apart from the crowd? One way is to get a great-looking site, but as we all know, sometimes budgets allow just the basics. A blog can then step in and (through your voice) give content and character to any website, regardless of how fancy or plain it might be. In fact, some of the best blogs have carried the success of many a less-than-spectacular website.

Content marketing: We all know that we need to create content and lots of it, but who has the time? Well, now you can use your blog as a content-creating machine. You can develop original content there and push it out to different areas. For example, I will sometimes use my blog posts for Twitter updates, Facebook updates, and article syndication.

Search engine candy: Blogs are great optimization tools. Search engines (especially Google) love sites that are updated frequently. One easy and quick way to do that is via a blog. Each time you update your blog it pings the search engines and tells them the content on your site has been updated.

Social media must: If you’re going to tweet, or want to be liked on Facebook, there’s no two ways about it, you must have a blog. That’s the site you send them to for your complete content, where they can comment, become a follower and help you grow your tribe.

Blogger friendly: If you’re going to pitch bloggers, you must first have a blog. Love bloggers? Be a blogger first. Similar to the step above, you can become active on other blogs, commenting and sharing ideas, and attract them back to yours where they can return the favor. By the time you pitch them, you’re not just another email in an inbox, you’re someone they know and like.

Be an industry leader: It’s hard to be a leader in the industry if you don’t have a voice. A blog can give you a voice. Also, by blogging on your market, you can stay in touch with your market and hot topics much easier. Stay dialed in, stay current: a blog can help you do that.

Media, speaking: I’ve gotten media interviews and speaking gigs from my blog. If you blog enough and on interesting, relevant issues, you can gain some serious momentum for not only your website, but your career as well.

The competitive edge: No matter what category you publish under, there is always a lot of competition. Yes, you can compete with a better cover, a better book, but on your website a blog will help define you as the author in a unique way that a book category can’t. When you’re in a cluttered market, like dating, dieting, or finance, a blog can really help to define and refine your message.

Credibility: Blogs are great credibility builders. Getting on topic and giving your opinion (and yes, being different) can really help to build your footing and credibility in the marketplace.

Site traffic/SEO: Aside from what a blog can do for your site as it relates to Google, an active blog can also help to increase site traffic and help further optimize the site. It’s a fantastic tool for getting your site better links, traffic, and a higher ranking in search engines.

So now that I’ve convinced you to blog, I want to refer you to another piece I’ve written on blogging called “How to Become a Powerhouse Blogger in 15 Minutes,”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/how-to-become-a-powerhous_b_765327.html. I hope that this piece, along with the tips provided above, will help you launch or reinvigorate your blogging campaign.

Good luck and Happy Blogging!

E-Mail response from Bluehost.com

Welcome! I am glad you found this page, because these days, while my website is still hosted by Bluhost.com, getting into my website is like playing the lottery. And I apologize upfront for a negative attitude, but seeing your visitor numbers dropping by margins of over 50% is frustrating.

In short: During the last four weeks I twice noticed that my website’s responses became increasingly sluggish. Twice I contacted the Bluehost tech support. Twice I was blamed for poor website management. Twice I spent days to optimize my website. Twice the server was shut down due to “performance issues” not caused by my website.

BlueHost.Com, in their own words, is an “affordable, reliable web hosting solution.” And yes, I agree that their service is affordable. However, you get what you pay for.

BlueHost.Com provides “shared server hosting,” meaning you share a server with a number of other people and businesses. Nothing wrong with that… as long as you have a small website (which FrogenYozurt.Com isn’t anymore), and you don’t  share the server box with users utilizing an inordinate amount of system resources, and that’s exactly what happened to FrogenYozurt.Com.

As a background information: I have been working on this website for over two years. It started off, innocently, as a personal blog and grew into something much bigger than just that. At the time of this writing (while I’m still running the website through BlueHost.Com) I have roughly 30,000 unique visitors a month (Well, not this month). My blog contains roughly 50 static pages and 2,300+ posts.

There are a myriad of factors that play into a website’s popularity and, ultimately, its ranking. Some of most important factors are relevant content (Check!), frequent updating and extending (Check!), good SEO support (Check!), and speedy loading of the website (Uncheck!).

For several months by now I noticed a very sluggish loading of the website. At times I could not log into my own website (I use WordPress), or even the BlueHost.Com control panel. The worst side effect is that I can see my visitor numbers drop every day when the server is not up to the task. Let me say upfront that the problem was only partly with my website, and I have learned to optimize the loading speed – I will follow up with a detailed post on optimizing WordPress blogs under Bluehost. Nevertheless, the most annoying feature is Bluehost’s “CPU Throttling.” It makes sense for their operation as a hosting service, but limiting the response time of my website is something I cannot afford in the long run.

Okay, prior to the last learning curve, first item of action was to contact tech support. The best BlueHost.Com feature is their service chat connection. However, nobody at tech support is able to detect a problem. They load the website without problems. After insisting that there is, in fact, a problem they gave me a list of actions to adjust my WordPress blog for better speed. That took several days without noticeable difference in speed. In the meantime the website was down(!) during frequent periods in the day.

Then I received a message from the Bluehost Support Team, apparently somebody who actually has physical access to the servers.

We are waiting on one database check to finish which will bring us back up to full functionality. We’ve also disabled one user on your box that was utilizing an inordinate amount of system resources. It does have an admins full attention and they’ll continue to tweak the server to speed it up until it’s back to 100%.

I didn’t feel any satisfaction in a “I told you so,” so I didn’t. The speed was okay the next day after weeks of frustration, so I just send a grateful “Thank you.”

Nevertheless, as you already may suspect, the problem re-occurred quickly, and I was thinking about ways to bypass regular tech support. I understand their dilemma with separating the serious from the stupid service requests, but I was not into the harassing mood anymore. The question is, how can you elevate the problem to the proper channels?

I called the Bluehost sales, waited ten minutes on the phone listening to music interrupted by motivational talks about their excellent service and “Did you know, you can contact tech support through our website?” Yes, I did know, and I am just calling to annoy you.

It took another ten minutes to discuss the situation with the sales rep, who, of course, is just a regular guy doing his job. Finally, he understood what I wanted, and he gave me an e-mail address, you know, the one you can’t find on their website.

Here is what I wrote:

To Whom It May Concern;

I am running and maintaining my website, FrogenYozurt.Com, through your hosting service, and I have encountered continuing problems with your service during the last few months. There are times when my website loads slow, sometimes up to a minute per page. At times I can’t even access the Bluehost control panel or my WordPress log-in.

I have been in touch with your technical support, but all they can do is checking my website and telling me everything is okay. However, namely on February 21, 2011 Bluehost had a server failure that affected my website. According to Michael Stevens of your support team, “We are waiting on one database check to finish which will bring us back up to full functionality. We’ve also disabled one user on your box that was utilizing an inordinate amount of system resources.” In the meantime I had adjusted settings on my website as recommended by your support team, however, without noticeable differences.

The day after the failure everything seemed to back to order, which also indicates to me that my website was not the problem. However, the same problems as described before re-occurred.

I am sorry, but at this time I am sick and tired of going through your tech support and harassing them before they take actions of looking into the problem. Also, you cannot ask them to move my website to a different server box.

The sluggish loading of the website has a solid impact on my visitor numbers. As a matter of fact, you can point to sluggish loading days in the website statistics. I am ware that website traffic depends on a number of factors, but loading speed is one of them. Fluctuations of more than 30% between one day to another are highly unusual.

The reason I am writing is to make you aware that I will switch my service to another provider offering dedicated server hosting. I will send my cancelation at the proper time.

Regards,

Wilfried F. Vos
FrogenYozurt.Com

What I got back was a response per e-mail – black background, light-green fonts… Naturally, the problem was with my website. The basic answer was, “You should monitor your CPU throttling, and pay attention to the database error reports,” continuing with a tone of blaming me personally for non-relevant WordPress adjustments. The rest was filled with some techno-babble that is only useful for a server specialist, not for a regular blogger who just wants to write.

Again, I have learned a lot more since yesterday, and my website loaded much speedier. The actual problem is, you are fine when your website stays small, but if your WordPress grows and grows, you need to engage into some serious adjustments, especially when you run it with a shared server. Again, I will follow up with another post.

Yet, I will still switch to a dedicated server service, which will cost me more, but in the end it comes with a piece of mind. My website rankings are worth it.

Oh, and by the way, yesterday morning the website was gone for the second time in less than four weeks! This is when you check the Bluehost server status, and it showed:

Saturday – March 19, 2011 [7:03:46 AM] We apologize for the inconvenience, but one of our admins currently has your server down investigating a performance issue. He has noted the server should be back up in about 15-30 minutes. If he encounters additional complications he will re-note the server with a new time frame. We appreciate your patience as we resolve this issue. The following link may have additional status notes when there are such issues http://serverstatus.bluehost.com.

And yes, the sluggishness of website loading continues…

Supplement March 21, 2011

Ah, he comes excited. Sir, my need is sore.
Spirits that I’ve cited my commands ignore.
- The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Der Zauberlehrling) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

After a weekend with less than 50% of the usual traffic I decided, out of a hunch, to disable my WordPress Cache plug-in, and guess what… the numbers are back to normal! Caching your WordPress website is highly recommended when you experience a sluggishness in loading. It was recommended by the Bluehost support with the words “It will make a huuuuuuge difference!” After a weekend of trying it, no, it does not make a “huuuuuuge” difference. Yes, the website loads somewhat faster, but what does it matter when web traffic goes down significantly? Why do I have to go through hoops to compensate for inferior server performance?

I used the very effective and powerful WP Super Cache plug-in, but the “very effective and powerful” attribute comes with a serious side-effect, meaning if you don’t understand the settings you can damage the performance of your website significantly. And, think about it, I don’t have the time to do all the research to compensate for a problem I didn’t cause, and, after all, as long as the Bluehost server is actually working, things are fine.

Also, I am not sure how a cache software handles other features (= plug-ins) I use for my website, especially those for SEO support. The WP Super Cache documentation hints at possible problems with plug-ins. After all, you cannot expect the creators of WP Super Cache to test their plug-in with the hundred of thousands of other available plug-ins. For instance, I use a plug-in to inform Yahoo, Google, and other search engines of updates immediately. After reading how WP Super Cache handles search engine requests, I suspect these plug-ins didn’t work as they did before.

If you ever decide to use a cache plug-in I strongly recommend WP Super Cache, though. I had used other, similar plug-ins before, but they would not update the cache when you posted new posts or pages. WP Super Cache allows you immediate updating, which is important when it comes to prove to search engines that you update frequently. A very long cache update interval can hurt your rankings. And yet, frequent caching requires good system resources and can hurt your ranking because loading times can be effected. Which raises the question, what good is a cache when you update frequently? Every time you post, the cache will be built again, which takes time, especially with large websites.

As a result, no, I will not write an article about tuning your WordPress website under the Bluehost Shared Server Service. I have come to the conclusion that my website is fine and that all problems stemmed from poor hardware performance.

As long as your WordPress website/blog is small, you should not experience any problems with the Bluehost Shared Server package. And even if it reaches larger dimensions you might be in good hands with them. I was just unlucky to end up in a bad box (= server). Nevertheless, if you run a serious business and need the piece of mind, you should sign for a dedicated server package. I myself signed up with 1&1, and I am going through another learning curve. However, the first three months are free. The 1&1 technical support is, at times, as snotty as Bluehost, but not on a regular basis. I just like the idea of not having to deal with “CPU Throttling” and sharing my box with a myriad of other users.

Supplement March 27, 2011 – Migrating WordPress Sites to 1&1

The sluggishness of the website continues despite continued efforts to keep a clean and small database, optimizing plugins, etc. Needless to say, but web traffic took quite a hit.

Today I tried to transfer several domains away from Bluehost.com, but their Domain Manager crashes on an almost regular basis due to timeouts. I can re-enter the cPanel by logging to the website, but the Domain Manager is not accessible. I can’t even log out of the Bluehost cPanel.

As of today I have managed to transfer only one website from Bluehost to the 1&1 dedicated server. The dedicated server is lightning-fast compared to Bluehost! Pages load in a flash. No more trip to the kitchen to pour another coffee while the post is being published. As a matter of fact, managing a WordPress blog is almost disturbing. Under Bluehost you are used to take a break between updating posts and pages. Under the 1&1 dedicated server you turn your eyes away from the screen for only a short moment, and the updated page or post is already done.

Migrating a WordPress website/blog can be a pain, but then I found BackupBuddy, which promises to make migrating a breeze. For more information see: http://pluginbuddy.com/purchase/backupbuddy/. Well, it works when you migrate to another ISP like Hostgator and GoDaddy. It fails miserably(!) when migrating to the 1&1 dedicated server, which is not the plugins fault. Under the 1&1 dedicated server service things work a little differently when it comes to accessing WordPress databases. Here goes another $75 I wasted on licenses for 10 websites.

The actual problem is that FrogenYozurt.Com is the main domain with a number of sub-domains attached to it. I have to transfer 4 more sub-domains before I can tackle ForgenYozurt.Com. Add to this the time it takes before the DNS settings take effect, not mentioning the tiring process of transferring domains from one ISP to another.

Supplement March 29, 2011

As if I needed another confirmation to switch services… Bluehost server status: 03/29/2011 08:41am: Updating to Postgresql 8.4.5 and PHP 5.2.17. ETA 30 minutes. 8:41 am at the actual Bluehost location means 10:41 am EST representing the phase of highest traffic not only for my website. During those estimated 30 minutes my websites were down, meaning zero traffic! I might not have noticed had I not been trying to add posts; there was no notification per e-mail.

In the meantime I am learning more than I ever cared for… However, the result of my research is not as misleading as the recommendations by the Bluehost tech support when it comes to sluggish websites.

1. Maintaining a WordPress Database: Get the WP-DBManager plugin. It allows you to optimize/repair databases and, most importantly, backup/restore your WordPress database from within WordPress. No need to invoke phpMyAdmin. No username and password required, either, to get in. See the corresponding documentation for more information. The backup/restore feature might be helpful when it comes to migrating to a new server. I will follow up on that later.

2. Memory Usage: The biggest restriction of running a WordPress installations comes with the default memory limit, which is not suited for larger websites with high traffic. First, if your WordPress website/blog seems to slow down, check your memory limits by installing the TPC! Memory Usage plugin (There are others, but this one worked fine for me). It shows you, among other data, the peak memory usage compared to the WP Memory Limit. I found out that my WP Memory Limit was 32M, while the peak usage was almost 40M. So, here is one reason why the website doesn’t respond at times.

The next question is, now that we know what the problem is, how do we correct it? Easy enough: Using your FTP program download the wp-config.php from the WordPress root directory. Use a regular text editor to add the line define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ’64M’); and upload it back to the website. If necessary you can increase the limit to ’128M’. It may make sense to check the amount of RAM on your server by asking your ISP tech service. In my case I saw an immediate improvement by going with the 64M setting.

If you have more than one website/blog accessing the same WP database (like under Bluehost) it makes sense to increase the PHP Memory Limit. To do so look for the php.ini file, download and edit it. Find the line that starts with memory_limit = and change it to a higher value. For instance, from memory_limit = 64M to memory_limit = 128M. However, be careful with that setting. I crashed my websites and changed it back to 64M.

Note: On the 1&1 dedicated server I don’t have direct access to the php.ini file. When I called tech support the guy told me that this was outside of tech support, indicating he knew what to do, but wouldn’t tell me. However, the PHP Memory Limit is at 128M. The next problem is the Maximum Upload of 10M, which might restrict importing my 80M file. I have found tons of article on migrating WordPress from one server to another, but none of them describes the process comprehensibly for someone who is not a server specialist. Yes, as a ‘professional’ WordPress blogger it helps to have a technical background (which I have), but procedures like migrating a WordPress blog to another server should be much better documented than it currently is (or not).

Supplement April 4, 2011

I am migrating further websites away from Bluehost. This next one is critical, since the domain is attached to my e-mails. As a test I tried to access the Bluehost webmail, just to make sure I can access my e-mails in case something fails, and I get the following message:

Click to enlarge...

There were continued problems with retrieving e-mails the entire day.

Supplement April 12, 2011

Click to enlarge...

Oh joy! Website down. No E-Mail.

On the bright side, switching to the new, dedicated server is scheduled for Friday, April 15, 2011.

Supplement April 15, 2011

The saga continues… We are now on the 1&1 Dedicated Server! I had planned for a long Friday night to make that switch, but after the Bluehost server had already crashed three times (!) before lunchtime, I decided to take the hit – in terms of web traffic – and go ahead. Fortunately, the DNS settings came around pretty fast, and I started the migration. After roughly one hour all settings were done.

A few remarks in regards to the migration:

First a hooray to the snotty 1&1 tech support! These guys need some training on human interaction! I needed to modify some settings in the php.ini file, but for reasons unknown to me you can’t just download the file, edit and upload it. It took several phone calls, during which I pulled the information piece by piece out of these guys’ brains. You need to start an SSH connection (luckily, my Mac is prepared for that), log in, and work directly under UNIX. If you don’t know what that means, it’s like communicating with a dinosaur. I remember a training I had about thirty years(!) ago. That training now paid off. I was able to use the “vi” editor and accomplish the necessary changes. You open the php.ini file, you type “?” to find a string. You move the cursor above the character you need to change. Then you type “r” for replace. Then you type the new character. And you do this with EVERY character! All I needed was to increase the PHP upload file size.

My WordPress XML export was roughly 30 Mbytes in size, and the system was set up to only 8. I did not go the route of exporting the WP database and importing it through the phpAdmin. I had found tons of information on the process, but it is very cumbersome, and the documentation is not always clear. So I went the way of documenting all plugin settings and exporting posts and pages to XML. I copied the “upload” folder per FTP. I also used FTP to copy themes and plugins. The downside of this method is that Media files are not visible anymore, but that can be rectified by using the “add from server” plugin. Yes, some experienced webmeisters may shake their head, but guess what! The migration went smoothly without major problems.

Also, my method decreased the database size from 60+ Mbytes to roughly 20 Mbytes. Adding new plugins increases the database size, and some of them are worse than others. What I learned is that not all uninstalls actually clean up their database entries.

In summary:

As I mentioned before, you are fine when you use shared hosting and your WordPress blog stays small. I had reached 2,500+ pages and 4,000+ images, which put a burden on the server. There are certain measures to improve the WordPress performance by increasing the PHP and WordPress memory as described previously, but the next limit will be the shared hosting. I noticed that the so-called “CPU Throttling” set in during periods of highest traffic, which makes total sense. However, that throttling prevented my website from handling more than 1,000 visitors per day. I have read articles where a user claimed he had more than 4,000 visitors per day on a Bluehost shared server. I have come to believe, that his statement is misleading. First, he used WP-SuperCache, which, in my opinion, causes more problems that it solves. Secondly, that guy has no information on the actual server load, and maybe he was lucky to be on a server with only few other users. Maybe he was just bragging. My experience is different.

Nevertheless, I am thrilled to have my websites on a dedicated server. The speed is sometimes even irritating…;-) Yes, a dedicated is more expensive to operate, but, as always, you get what you pay for.

When developing characters and getting “in the mood”  for your writing, I find that it’s a great idea to listen to music.  Music creates moods in two minutes (give or take a few seconds) that makes writing flow out of oneself easier.

Here are a list of suggestions for artists/bands to listen to for certain genres:

Fantasy and Thriller:  Two Steps from Hell (band that plays epic classical music)

Horror and Dark Genres: Evanescence (“heavy” metal with thought-provoking lyrics that are easy to understand)

Rite of Passage: P!nk (voice of the young people of this era.  She captures our spirit fairly well)

What artists and bands do you find are a great help for your writing?

Ariel Ceylan

Ariel Ceylan is the author of The Assignment and The Power of a Vision, two fantasy novelettes for middle school children.   She is currently studying Philosophy.

If you want to know more about her, click any of the below links:

http://ceylanthewriter.wordpress.com

http://www.youtube.com/users/ArielCeylan

http://twitter.com/arielceylan

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ariel-Ceylan/170866596257289?sk=info

Before throwing a new WordPress update on all of us every few weeks, would you please test more thoroughly?

And yes, I do update as soon as a new version is reported, but lately updates are coming more and more frequently. I’d rather see that updates, as much as I appreciate some of the new features, coming not as fast and better tested.

The current problems I am having are:

1. Formatting problems

I find that, as soon as I add an image into a post, WordPress places the HTML code for a blank character ( ) before the image and after the paragraph following the image. As a result, the final page includes two unwanted empty lines, and I have to switch to HTML view to remove the code.

2. Hyperlink copies

I copied text from an associated website, which included a hyperlink. I was unable to edit the hyperlink.

3. Hyperlink modification

A guest contribution to my website (submitted in a Word file) included a mistyped hyperlink. Instead of “http://” the link started with “html//:”. WordPress automatically added the login address of my website in front of the link, and, since I didn’t pick up on the typo immediately, I was unable to remove the login URL.

4. Control Issues

At times I was unable to toggle out of the fullscreen edit mode. It usually happens when I insert an image and click immediately thereafter on the toggle button. The only solution is to click on the text portion first, then the button.

I do understand the potential of bugs in a program the size of WordPress (I myself started off as a software programmer), but I would expect a bit more care especially since the bugs affect millions of users.

Now it’s time to report the bugs at WordPress.Org.

Scam - The Google Profit Library

Maybe you have noticed, but I don’t run Google ads on this website. During the time that I ran the ads I have come to the following conclusions:

1. Despite 30,000+ unique visitors per month I created less than $30 in revenues per month.

2. Most of the ads as shown on this website were sponsored by known Internet scammers.

3. I create more revenue promoting my own products.

Let’s start with the quality (or lack thereof) of the Google AdSense system:

Vanity Publishers

Most of my posts address literature and writing. As we all know, Google picks up the keywords and displays ads according to the content of the individual page. Unfortunately, most of the ads are sponsored by the sharks in the publishing business, i.e. so-called vanity publishers who take money from the unsuspecting author. The author, in turn, never has a chance of creating noticeable sales other than to friends and family. The price range of these self-published books is way beyond average and puts the books out of a competitive range.

Another side effect is that these vanity publishers are only interested in profit and not in the quality of the product or talent of the writer. They make their profit through fees they charge to the author, and, consequently, they publish everything they can get their hands on, which, in turn, floods the literature market with hundred of thousands of low-quality books.

This situation makes it even harder for the traditional publishing industry to promote their products due to the increased “competition.” It also affects customers who, once burned, will apply extreme caution before they buy again. There are many more aspects, but let’s leave it at that.

My dilemma is that I write posts about literature. I also fight vanity publishers and their despicable morals by writing posts about them, while Google displays the vanity publishers’ ads beside my posts. Well, there goes my reputation…

Internet Scams

Some of my posts address the current overflow of scam activities on the Internet, especially those ads referring to Making Money From Home, weight loss programs, wrinkle removal, etc. It is paradox; I write about these scams, and people thank me frequently for saving them, because they found my posts before they signed up. Others, who fell for the scams, find advice on what to do (The best advice still is: Cancel your credit card a.s.a.p.).

On the other hand, the Google system picks up the keywords on my website and displays exactly the ads of the scammers I am attempting to fight (Not the main purpose of this website; call it a hobby). Again, I say these ads are scams, yet I display them on my website. I found this somehow conflicting.

So, the logical conclusion could be to make people aware of the situation and ask them to click on the ads without, however, signing up and submitting any credit card information. I would make some money per click (about $0.02, which would help to pay for my grandmother’s heart surgery… Just kidding!), but, most importantly, Google would charge the scammers for the clicks. The people who followed my advice would do a good deed.

However, if somebody took my advice literally and clicked numerous times on these ads… Google would kick me out! Rightfully, I may add. Google has been accused of allowing too many “click factories,” i.e. there are “organizations” who hire people in low-income countries to click and make money for them. Google is working hard to polish their reputation by eliminating invalid clicks; on the other hand, they’re losing their reputation, because the majority of Google ads cannot be trusted.

The majority of Google ads cannot be trusted

So, here may be the reason why this website created such a very low click rate. The majority of Google ads on this website were sponsored by the sharks in the publishing industry and known scammers promising easy income through the Internet. In all consequence, the Google Adsense system is counterproductive to the purpose of my website.

And yes, there are other, much higher-ranked websites like mine who allow ads of the most despicable nature. Take, for instance, online newspapers like The Washington Post or The Los Angeles Times. They seem to be in such dire need of online revenues that they lowered their standard of good taste significantly.

You, too, can help The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, and it won’t cost you a dime!

Just click on these weight loss, Internet income, and other fraudulent ads, but don’t sign up for services or products! The click will create revenue for The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, and the scammers will be charged. You are doing a good deed!

Naturally, I need income like any other guy, but 1. it is just not in my nature to sleep with the enemy and 2. I believe, I am better advised to place my own ads promoting my own products.

The only effective method to create income online

In summary:

1. I have been working hard to build up this blog, which, in all consequence, is now much more than just a personal blog. Currently, I see 30,000+ unique visitors per month with increasing tendency. The average earnings through Google Adsense were less than $30 per month. The click rate was minimal, even though I put up the maximum allowed ad space in premium locations. See also my post Does The Google Adsense Get-Rich-System Work?

2. The Google ads you see lately are mostly of despicable nature. Again, they are about making money from home, weight loss, wrinkle removal, and other scams. Add to this the numerous ads by vanity publishers (my website is mainly about literature and publishing), i.e. those publishers who take money from authors and publish any possible crap as long as the money is right. The authors in turn have no chance of earning royalties, because vanity publishers overprice their products. I deem these ads as damaging to my website’s reputation.

3. The best way to create sufficient income through a website is through selling products, and my core product are books. Consequently, I replaced Google ads with the ads from my own publishing business, Copperhill Media. I have been thinking about taking this step for a while, and it was time to make that switch. I believe, I will create more income that way. Google Adsense, the Amazon Affiliate program, and Infolinks have been a small contribution to the income of my business, but the main purpose should be the promotion of my product line.

On a side note: I have tried a number of other Affiliate programs, but the fact remains that Google is still the best in the business. Other programs did not produce an income that would come even close to Google, and, in most cases, the ads were of minor quality; some of them were outright disgusting.

The biggest disappointment was Chitika. Chitika is another affiliate program where the ad publisher needs to fulfill certain, stringent requirements before they are accepted. Too bad that Chitika couldn’t fulfill my requirements. Most of their ads had titles in the nature of “Looking for FrogenYozurt.Com?”, “Need info on FrogenYozurt.Com?”, “Make more money with FrogenYozurt.Com,” etc. It really doesn’t make any sense. See also my post Affiliate Programs: Chitika Is A Waste Of My Resources.

I will continue to use and trust the Amazon.Com Affiliate program, because it is scam-free per default. You get only paid when a visitor clicks and buys.

My advice to Google is: Get in touch with the U.S. Department of Justice (see section below). Pick their brains to determine who these scammers are and eliminate them as AdWords customers.

How Can I Report Mass-Marketing Fraud?

If you have a complaint about any type of Internet crime, you can file an online complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). The IC3 is a joint project of the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C). The IC3′s key functions for federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies will be (1) receiving online complaints, (2) analyzing them to identify particular schemes and general crime trends in Internet fraud, and (3) compiling and referring potential Internet fraud schemes to law enforcement. In addition to FBI and NW3C personnel, the IC3 will include agents and analysts detailed from other law enforcement agencies.

If you have a complaint about any type of consumer fraud, including any type of mass-marketing fraud, you can file a complaint through a toll-free Consumer Help Line, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357) or online with the Federal Trade Commission

Source: U.S. Department of Justice - http://www.justice.gov/criminal/fraud/internet/

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Queen of Misfortune

A Lady Jane Grey Novel by Peter Carroll

Queen Of Misfortune is the fictional story of Lady Jane Grey as told by her beloved tutor, John Aylmer. At the time of her execution a stranger is recorded to have assisted her when, blind folded, she lost her way upon the scaffold. Was it the same ‘stranger’ who was also recorded to have visited her when she was imprisoned in the Tower? Little is known of this unfortunate girl who was beheaded for treason in the 16^th Century. She was only 16. She is omitted from the list of monarchs but was actually queen for nine days. Author Peter Carroll, in his novel, follows John Aylmer’s close relationship with Jane as her tutor and later, as she grows up, her lover. [More...]

Available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

The New York Times – February 10, 2011 (Excerpt)

The Huffington Post has hired veteran journalists to beef up its news coverage. But a significant chunk of its readers come instead for articles like one published this week: “Chelsy Davy & Prince Harry: So Happy Together?”

The two-sentence article was just a vehicle for a slide show of photographs of the couple and included no actual news. But “Chelsy Davy” was one of the top searches on Google that day, and soon after the article was published it became one of the first links that popped up in Google’s search results.

It was an example of an art and science at which The Huffington Post excels: search engine optimization, or S.E.O. The term covers a wide range of behind-the-scenes tactics for getting search engine users to visit a Web site, like choosing story topics based on popular searches.

Because Google is many Internet users’ front door to the Web, S.E.O. has become an obsession for many Web publishers, and successful ones use the strategies to varying degrees. But as newspapers, magazines, blogs and online-only news sites increasingly compete for readers, they are making it more of a priority than ever and adopting new techniques, like trying to maximize pass-alongs on social networks.

The Huffington Post’s skill at using these tactics to increase readership and revenue was one of the ways it made itself worth $315 million to AOL, which acquired it this week. And Demand Media, which runs sites like eHow and Answerbag.com and values search engine optimization perhaps more than any other publisher, raised $151 million in a public offering in January.

Models like these could pave the route toward profitable journalism in a postprint world, some analysts say — or, others worry, drive online media to publish low-quality articles that are written to appeal to search engines instead of people.

S.E.O. is “absolutely essential,” said Rich Skrenta, chief executive of the search engine Blekko. Still, he said, it can turn into a “heroin drip” for publishers: “They had this really good content at the beginning, but they realize the more S.E.O. they do, the more money they make, and the pressure really pushes down the quality on their sites.” [Read the full article...]

Demand Media

This very interesting article on search engine optimization refers several times to Demand Media, which, through its Demand Studios division, hires freelance writers to write articles based on popular search keywords and phrases. The Demand Studios operation is somewhat of a controversy due to its promise of creating a sizable income for freelance writers. In their words, they offer “writing careers,” which represents a gross exaggeration of what the average writer may accomplish. The matter of the fact is that more than 90% of their writers don’t create even enough income to pay for groceries in a month. Demand Studios is also known as a so-called content mill, which is widely considered the lowest level of “journalism,” if you can call it that.

For more information on Demand Studios see my post The Truth About Demand Studios and especially the comments made by numerous writers and editors working for them. Another post, Tossed Salad And The Indoor Gun Range, points to the at times ridiculous “articles” (because based on popular search topics) that come out of a content mill such as Demand Studios.

Queen of Misfortune

A Lady Jane Grey Novel by Peter Carroll

Queen Of Misfortune is the fictional story of Lady Jane Grey as told by her beloved tutor, John Aylmer. At the time of her execution a stranger is recorded to have assisted her when, blind folded, she lost her way upon the scaffold. Was it the same ‘stranger’ who was also recorded to have visited her when she was imprisoned in the Tower? Little is known of this unfortunate girl who was beheaded for treason in the 16^th Century. She was only 16. She is omitted from the list of monarchs but was actually queen for nine days. Author Peter Carroll, in his novel, follows John Aylmer’s close relationship with Jane as her tutor and later, as she grows up, her lover. [More...]

Available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

We hear it all the time: “Do you have a blog?” and maybe you do, or maybe you’ve thought of it and haven’t been ready to take the plunge. The biggest complaint I hear is that it takes too much time and authors don’t know what to write about. But there’s an easy way to start, grow, and manage your blog. Let’s look at a few ideas along with some tips for blog optimization and some headlines that will make readers beat a path to your virtual door.

Why Blogging (still) Matters

First off, does blogging even matter? Yes, it does. In fact, many SEO experts cite that a blog (when used regularly) can increase website traffic by 25%. Yes, blogging still matters. So if you haven’t jumped on the blog bandwagon, now is the time.

Blogging Brainstorm

The following is a list of post ideas that should help you get and keep the momentum going. Also, you’ll note that I have given special consideration to our fiction authors. Being a fiction and non-fiction author myself I know that when fiction is your primary focus, it can be a tough topic to blog on:

1) Plan your blog posts: if you’re looking for a month by month analysis of what to blog on, check out the following posts, broken down by month (with more scheduled for the months not currently listed) and packed with ideas on what to blog about. Trust me, it will really make a huge difference if you plan ahead:

http://www.amarketingexpert.com/blogging-ideas-for-march/
http://www.amarketingexpert.com/blogging-ideas-for-april/
http://www.amarketingexpert.com/blogging-ideas-for-may/
http://www.amarketingexpert.com/blogging-ideas-for-june/
http://www.amarketingexpert.com/blogging-ideas-for-july/
http://www.amarketingexpert.com/blogging-ideas-for-august/
http://www.amarketingexpert.com/blogging-ideas-for-september/
http://www.amarketingexpert.com/blogging-ideas-for-october/
http://www.amarketingexpert.com/blogging-ideas-for-november/

2) Time yourself: allocate 15 minutes a day to blogging. Once you have the ideas down pat, it should be much easier to sit down and write a post. The key is to plan, plan, plan. Once you know what you’re writing about, the rest is easy.

3) Don’t worry about long posts: you don’t have to post long blog posts. If it’s a relevant message it doesn’t have to be long. In fact, I’ve posted blogs that are 50 words in length and gotten great results!

4) Have topic ideas ready to go: I keep a file on my computer that has a list of blogging ideas or prompts if I get stuck. Here are a few of them to consider, you can use one or all of these to blog on: Industry trends, Industry news, Writing tips, Personal stories of your success, Review a book.

5) How-to: never underestimate the power of a how-to blog post. Develop a series of how-to posts. Even if you’re a fiction writer, remember that 83% of Americans want to write a book so it’s likely someone reading your books (or a potential reader) is interested in this topic, too.

6) Ask questions: ask your readers questions, grab some of the top-of-mind issues that are relevant to your market and address them on your blog.

7) What sparks your creativity? I mean really, really sparks your creativity? It could be sitting in a coffee house or watching it snow. Whatever it is, share it!

What book have you just read that inspired you? Or perhaps you would like to do a review of a book you just read.

9) What’s the worst writing mistake you’ve ever made?

10 If you could pick one ideal spot to write, where would it be and why?

Optimizing your blog

It seems that optimization is the “word du jour” that everyone seems to be throwing around. But when it comes to blogging what does it really mean? Well, it’s actually easier than it seems. Check out our tips below to quickly, and easily, optimize your blog!

1) Create great headlines (see below for headline tips)

2) Make sure that your blog is sharable on Facebook and Twitter! If you don’t know what this is, ask your webmaster for “share this” buttons on your blog.

3) Create PowerPoint presentations, add them to SlideShare and then add the embedded links from SlideShare to your blog.

4) Always make sure and promote each blog post you write through your Facebook Page and Twitter.

5) Add photos to your blog. Not only are visuals a great way to capture and keep the interest of your reader, but they will also show up in Google image searches, which will get you an additional way to capture more traffic!

6) If you’re using WordPress, make sure that the SEO pack has been installed on your blog (ask your web person).

7) Comment on other blogs in your market, with links back to your own site. This is a great way to network and get to know other bloggers in your market. Not sure how to do this? Here is my article called Social Networking on Blogs, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/social-networking-on-blog_b_408165.html.

Headlines that Pop

So, what about a great headline? Is it important? You bet. Since most of your readers will see your blog through an RSS feed, you’ll want to pay special attention to your blog headlines. Check out the following idea generators to see if it doesn’t spark something!

· 10 Secrets to
· 7 Myths Exposed
· 10 Inspiring Ways to
· 10 Funny Things That Happened to Me on the Way to Publishing My Book
· 7 Cool ways to
· 10 Tips for the best
· 10 Shocking reasons
· 5 Amazing Blog Sites You Must Read, and Why
· How to increase your success
· 10 Simple things you can do right now to

See? You get the idea. Pique your reader’s curiosity with a tight and highly benefit-driven headline. You don’t have to use these headlines all the time, but every once in a while it’s great to throw one of these in there.

The point is that it’s more than just having a blog. You have to work the blog, and work the audience to help them find you. The problem with blogging has always been that it seems like it is so much work to first just create a blog, let alone market your blog so people will find you. However, I hope I’ve made it clear that a) it’s not that hard to blog at all, and b) it’s even easier to market your blog. All you need is a staple of ideas, a few hours a week, and the willingness to promote yourself.

Regardless of who you hire to help you promote your book, and your message, you should still be engaged in your own success. You can be engaged by getting on your blog and talking to your market.

Reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques.

Thanks to HARO (www.helpareporter.com) and similar media leads services, there are media leads out there for everyone, all the time.

Media, media, everywhere! The key, however, is to maximize these leads. Often, we think that as long as we respond to them, and give them our information, the hard part is done. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact it’s really just the beginning. How can you get better exposure for your pitches? Here is a quick guide to pitching these media leads services that will provide you with insight and guidance for better placement and better stickiness to the stories you pitch.

Pitching the right lead: First and foremost, you need to define the right lead to pitch. But really, it’s more than that. Keep in mind that for a variety of topics such as finance, dieting and parenting you might find a lot of leads but not all of them are appropriate to your topic. Some people think that you shouldn’t pitch anything that isn’t 100% spot on. If I followed this way of thinking, I wouldn’t have gotten myself into a variety of publications, including Entrepreneur Magazine (issue forthcoming).

So what’s the goal? The goal is to go after as many leads as you can within the appropriate market. For example, if you have a diet book that is focused on a soy-based program and you see a lead about getting ready for summer, you might think it seems off, but the idea here might be to pitch them your topic, to help people get ready for summer. The same is true for an article on the high divorce rate and you have a book on making divorce a smoother transition. This could be a great opportunity for you to pitch a sidebar idea on creating a gentler transition for families of divorce.

The idea really is that, to the degree it’s appropriate, pitch yourself to as many on-point topics as you can. When I do this, however, I will always address the issue of the topic they pitched and then ask if they are interested in perhaps taking a sidebar angle to the piece or offering an extended insight into their topic. You’d be amazed at how often this gets a response.

Response time: Basically, as fast as you can. You should never, ever, ever sit on a lead unless you need to gather additional data before responding. Don’t wait. Period. Remember that you aren’t the only person seeing that lead, many of these reporters and journalists get hundreds of responses per lead they send and generally, the first who respond get the most attention. Ignore the deadline and send it right away, if you wait until minutes before the deadline you might get buried in the hundreds of other leads that have flooded the recipient’s inbox.

Responding: Short, sweet, and to the point. While I suggested in the above tip that you take some liberty with some of your leads and responses, I still recommend keeping it on point and short. In fact I’ll often highlight some key points, send the response off and indicate that I’m aware they might be sitting with a flooded inbox and if my response has piqued their interest, I am happy send as much additional data as they need. Also, if appropriate, cite or link to any current articles that you’ve been featured in online so the media person can see the breadth of your knowledge. Oh and one final note, please, please, please spell check your emails. You’d never send a resume to a potential employer with typos in it, right? So it baffles me that anyone would send an email that wasn’t spell checked.

The media are your customers: Remember to always treat media like your customer, and like a consumer, they probably have a lot of choices. Serve them as you would a new client. Give them what they need in a timely fashion and don’t under deliver. Ever. Don’t embellish, don’t alter the facts and be ready to prove every single point you are making in your pitch.

Managing the responses: As you get responses you should be ready to act immediately. In fact if you are pitching yourself to *any* media you should be checking your email regularly – several times a day in fact. Depending on the story you are pushing for, you should really be on top of your email all the time, so you can be prepared to respond immediately.

Follow up: Unless you’ve been tapped by the media person to be in the article don’t follow up on a lead you sent, ever. Why? Because if they need you they’ll let you know; if they don’t, a follow-up email is just annoying. Keep in mind that even if the media person doesn’t respond, you might still see some activity from them down the road. This happened to me with an INC online piece. They didn’t need me for the original story I had responded to but kept my information on file and used it later. Had I followed up a few times this might not have happened if I had gotten labeled as a “pest” – be careful the impression you make in email!

You’ve got placement! Great! Congratulations! So, what now? Well now it’s time to promote, promote, promote the lead you were just featured in. Post it to Twitter, list it on your blog and Facebook Fan Page and oh, don’t forget to thank the media person too!

How to find great leads: There are a number of great resources out there for finding leads. Here are just a few of them!

* Help A Reporter Out: http://www.helpareporter.com

* Reporter Connection: http://www.reporterconnection.com

* Blogger Link Up: http://www.bloggerlinkup.com

* Pitch Rate: http://pitchrate.presskit247.com/index.asp

Media leads are a great way to get yourself in front of media who need your expertise. I have found media lead responding to be a fantastic way to gain media attention for our authors. Get on the media leads bandwagon and start responding. You never know where you could land a story!

Good luck!

These days, everyone talks about free content. “Give it away!” they say, but does this really work? Well, yes and no. As with anything, there has to be a strategy.

Recently I was on my morning run through our neighborhood and I noticed a number of garage sale signs (that’s tag sale for those of you back east). One of the signs had a sign beneath it that read: We have free stuff! As I ran though the neighborhood I passed that house and noticed they put all their free stuff in the “Free zone” and already, even at that early hour, hoards of people were migrating there. I passed the other garage sales which were doing OK, but not great. Clearly the one with the free stuff pulled more people, but did it actually sell more paid merchandise? Yes. I checked in with the sale after my run to find most of the good stuff gone (note to self: shop first, exercise later). When I talked to the homeowner they said that the free stuff went fast, but as I noted each time I passed by, it wasn’t junk stuff, it was actually good enough to make the garage sale shopper feel like they got a real deal. If it’s junk and it’s free, it doesn’t really matter.

What’s the lesson here? Free stuff can help you sell more of the paid merchandise, but you have to be careful, because some people just want freebies and that’s fine. But they are not your customers. Here are some tips to help you maximize the use of free:

1. Why free? The first question you should ask yourself is why are you doing this? If you aren’t sure, then free might not be right for you. Free content should be offered to help further your message, build a list, and get new people into your marketing funnel. If your model isn’t set up this way, maybe it should be. If you aren’t interested in this kind of a marketing model, then free probably isn’t your thing.

2. Define how free can help: Figure out why you want to give free stuff. As I mentioned above, getting clear about your model will help determine if a free product is even worth your time. If it is, then you need to figure out how it will help you. As an example, we have a lot of free stuff on the Author Marketing Experts, Inc. site (www.ameauthors.com) but the free for us is designed to build trust. Distrust is rampant online, and in particular, in the book promotion and publishing industry. There are a lot of scams out there and so trust is important. Our free stuff builds our mailing list, yes, but it also builds trust.

3. Make sure it’s really free: A lot of people have content that is purported to be free when it’s not really free. What I mean is that you get a sliver of it, not even a piece really worth mentioning, but the stuff you want is something you have to pay for. If you want to do free, make it free. Find something of value and give it to your customers.

4. Make it something your end user wants: As I’ve mentioned a few times, make sure the free is something people want. If it isn’t you a) won’t bring in the right crowd of people (you’ll end up just getting the freebie hunters, and b) you won’t build your mailing list as fast. So, for example, give your readers something really substantial like an e-book or tips, or a workbook. Virtually any electronic product is easy to create and deliver. When I changed our freebie on the Author Marketing Experts, Inc. website, we quadrupled our sign-ups. So, what was the freebie? 52 Ways to Sell More Books. Now, as an author, isn’t that appealing to you? Exactly my point.

So, what if you’ve written a fiction book? Well, consider this: 83% of Americans want to write a book, so what if you gave them a free how-to guide? You don’t even have to create this yourself, you could partner with someone who has already created this. If you don’t like that idea, consider (for those of you in the historical fiction market) doing a did-you-know piece on the history you’re referencing in your book. The idea here is to a) give value, and b) give your readers something they will care about. Also, whenever possible, give your readers something they need to keep so it will remind them of you and your book: tip sheets, workbooks, reference charts. All of these things are pieces that your consumer may keep, which can keep you top of mind.

5. Take names: You should never give free away without asking for an email address. I see people do this all the time; they have a ton of free stuff but never collect emails. If that’s the case, the freebies you are offering may be of great value to your end user but they won’t matter to your marketing. Get emails. It’s called an ethical bribe. You get something (their email) and give them something (the free stuff).

6. Make it easy to get: Don’t make free difficult. What I mean is make it easy to get your free stuff. If people have to jump through hoops, they won’t do it and the free stuff won’t matter. For example – put your free stuff on your home page, or at least have a link to it, though I recommend using free stuff as an ethical bribe (as a way to get sign-ups for your newsletter). When you ask for their email, make it easy. A simple click or two is all it should take. Then, don’t ask for too much information. If you ask me for my address, birthday, and whatnot I doubt I will want your free stuff that badly. Shorten the staircase. If you make it complicated, it’s not really free. Just bait. If you bait your consumer in this fashion you’ll lose them.

7. Make the free stuff work for you: If you give away something, make sure that it works for you. What I mean is that when you get our free stuff, we always make sure and remind folks of who we are and what we do. For a while we had a free Twitter e-book that always went out with our product catalog imbedded in it.

8. Call to action: Make sure that your free stuff has a call to action. You are collecting names and email addresses and building your list, that’s great. But what do you really want people to do? Define what you want them to do, and then include your call to action in the free stuff. Let’s face it, it’s a good piece – designed to help your reader – but it must also help you. It’s ok to promote your book on the last page, or encourage folks to do a consult with you if that’s what you offer. You can also offer specials and change these periodically in the giveaway.

9. What will you give? People often ask me what you should give away, and I say, it depends: Who is your market and what do they want? Now, on our site you’ll see 52 Ways to Sell More Books, which is an e-book we offer when you sign up for our newsletter. Do our folks want that? You bet. Why? Because they are authors and authors want to sell more books. A special report or e-book always makes a great freebie, maybe you have a white paper that you did on the industry; if so, offer it as a freebie.

10. Follow up! The best kind of free stuff is, as I like to call it, the gift that keeps giving. Auto responders are a great system but often underutilized when it comes to marketing. If you are collecting names and then never contacting your prospects again, what’s the point? Our 52 Ways to Sell More Books is delivered over several weeks, and then when we’re done, we deliver more quality content. People need to be reminded, and reminded again. Now, you can also funnel folks into your newsletter as I mentioned earlier. I do both. We have the auto responder and the newsletter. Think it’s too much? Maybe, but our market wants information. Define what your market wants and then give it to them. If a newsletter and an auto responder is overkill, then scale it back. No one knows your market like you do.

The real key here is that free stuff can work well for you in so many ways, but free stuff without a goal is just free. Great to get free stuff, right? But then how is all of this hard work going to pay off for you?

If you still aren’t a believer of free, try it for 90 days and see if it doesn’t change your life. If you do it right, free will monetize your audience like nothing else will. The biggest reason is that in an age of pushing things on consumers, your audience really wants to sample what you have to offer before they buy. Free is a great way to do that. It’s also a great way to stay in front of your audience, build trust, and develop a loyal following.

Before you start blogging, have a long talk with your favorite shrink or best friend.

As of today my personal website, FrogenYozurt.com, is rated by Alexa.com (an Internet monitoring company) to be in the top 1.6% of all websites in the world. While the number may not necessarily be an exact representation, it is, nevertheless, a valuable indication of a successful marketing strategy. While I am psyched by the excellent rating, I also had to learn that success may include some unexpected downsides.

I started this website as a personal blog to write about everything I love and hate, hoping that somebody in the outside world would read it, and afraid that somebody in the outside world would read it. Blogging is a never-ending learning process, especially when success is attached to it.

Let me quote from my bible on blogging, The Huffington Post Complete Guide To Blogging – See my post Oprah, Statue of Liberty Praise FrogenYozurt.Com:

“Before you start blogging, have a long talk with your favorite shrink or best friend. … You can respond to each comment individually or in bunches, which is one of the merits of blogging. But do not expect that you will win over all your critics.”

Steven Weber, actor and Huffpost blogger, wrote about the difference between being a humble and charming actor and a truthful, not-so-humble blogger:

“People are usually pleasant but rarely critical, at least to my face. Rover [Weber's blog] has changed that. People fucking hate me. Hate me. … What a schmuck. Again, not being humble. Being truthful. I am potentially biting the hand that feeds me and my family. … So essentially I have learned, as a blogger, to be truthful and humble, but to pay careful attention to the possibly labored technique of my little forays into social commentary, rather than worrying about offending people with the content.”

Source: The Huffington Post Complete Guide To Blogging.

The Huffington Post Guide may explain all aspects of blogging, the good and the bad ones, but while you may read the words, it still hits you unexpectedly, especially the negative experiences.

People f@#$@# hate me. Hate me. What a schmuck. Not being humble. Being truthful.

I admit it, diplomacy was never my strong suit when it comes to a face-off with bigotry and hypocrisy, and as of lately I have seen way too much of it where I live. Unfortunately, it reflects in my posts, creating a negative, unhealthy atmosphere. In addition, I never expected that, besides the majority of regular readers, the “bigots and hypocrites” would read my posts as well and even spread the word. Compliments to my writing, though. It seems the shoe fits, and I got them thinking. That feeling is part of the power trip, which is enhanced by the fact that the “bigots and hypocrites” as well as the local newspaper maintain only a very limited web presence.

The danger lies in the potential abuse of the power by going overboard. I have learned that I need to apply more journalistic responsibility. My website is not a private outlet anymore.

Nevertheless, I will continue fighting bigotry and hypocrisy in Greenfield, Massachusetts, by carefully using the power of the written word. Everybody who wants to join me in that effort is welcome to comment or even write an article to be posted here.

See http://www.frogenyozurt.com/contact/article-submission/.

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Vampire Ascending is now available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

Reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques.

“I had a fortune cookie the other day and it said: ‘Outlook not so good’. I said: ‘Sure, but Microsoft ships it anyway’.” – Author Unknown

These days, you can’t go into a coffee shop, bookstore, or turn on your television without hearing about social networks like Facebook, and Squidoo. These sites have exploded in recent years with members and an influx of money that’s kept them growing.

The idea behind social networks isn’t a new thing, but the concept of socializing online developed and morphed as more and more people spent time in front of their computers. The idea being that you could socialize, network, gather, communicate and meet friends in an online venue, rather than, let’s say a coffee shop. Years ago, before social networks, we met people in clubs, organizations, bowling leagues. We may not have had “profiles” like we do on these social networking sites but the concept was still the same: like attracts like and similar interest-based people gathered in places that supported these common interests.

As we continue to delve into this Web 2.0 world, you’ll start to see more niche social networking sites like those built for wine lovers, car lovers, and book lovers. The more focused a site can get, the more the network expands. And how many sites should you be on? As many as are appropriate to your message and you have time to manage. If you’ve got a book about cars then by all means, join the car lover’s network. Got a book about travel? There’s a travel lover’s social network as well (we’ve listed a few of these niche networks further in this article).

Social networks, also referred to as social media, are places where people can join and become members of an online community. And why does this matter? Well, for a few reasons. First off, consider the Internet one big networking party. As such, you really want to participate, right? So you show up at the networking party (in this case Facebook or Squidoo) and you network. Meaning you connect with others who are interested in what you are doing. And much like a real-time networking event, you give first and ask for the sale later. In fact, in most cases you don’t even ask for it. If you give enough, eventually you’ll make the sale.

People join social networks for a variety of reasons: to socialize, share and/or self-promote. The one caveat to this is that social networks are not receptive to marketing messages or sales hype, but those sitting on these sites are looking for answers and advice. In fact your presence on a social networking site should be 80 percent education and 20 percent sales. Users on social networking sites want friends, mentors, experts and guidance. If you can offer this to a social networking site or sites, you can certainly grow your list.

The Right Way to Approach a Social Networking Site

There’s an old saying that goes: fake it till you make it. This is not true of social networking. You can’t fake anything. The best sites are those with an authentic voice. Social network members can sense an individual who is pretending to be just an “average Joe,” but is really just looking for a quick sale. The worst thing you can do is constantly promote your book.

Users join social media sites to socialize, learn and get to know what you’re offering. Be helpful or be gone. That’s the motto of the social networks. Remember that social media (much like anything on the Internet) is a trust-based model. You gain trust by helping, advising, educating, or enlightening your readers. Seth Godin, who started one of the best social networking sites out there today (Squidoo.com), is a great example of what to do when promoting yourself. He offers helpful advice, tips and insights but rarely promotes his book. Does he sell books? You bet he does, but he’s helpful first, and a sales person second (sethgodin.typepad.com). The point is, gain someone’s trust and you’ll probably gain a sale, too.

Tips for Social Networking Sites

The first piece of this is to figure out what your message will be online. If you’re going to expose details of your brand, book, business, or life, figure out what you want to expose or, I should say, what’s necessary to expose in order to get your message across. This is important because once you start branding yourself on the ‘Net via social networks, you want to be consistent.

Next, remember that the first word in social networks is “social,” that being said, these networks only work if you interact with them. Whenever appropriate (and this will vary from network to network), join groups, be sociable, be interactive. Participate. You can’t just show up at a party and sit in the corner. Well, you can, but you probably won’t get asked back.

If you can spend a half an hour to an hour or so a day on your networks, that’s great. Don’t overdo the time you spend on them or you’ll burn yourself out. If you can use the social network feeds to have them syndicate your blog to the site, the updating of your social networking page will be done for you. To a greater degree, anyway. You’ll still want to get in there and tinker, update content, add friends, etc.

Fan Pages and Facebook

Since Facebook is the dominating force out there, let’s talk for a moment about Fan Pages. Why would you want one? Well first off, you’re in the business of marketing and as such, Fan Pages are business pages, so you’ll really want to consider pulling your book followers off of your profile and sending them to your Fan Page. Also, Fan Pages are indexed and searched by Google so you’ll get great ranking with a Fan Page, more so than you would with a Profile.

Fan Pages, once you know your focus and message, are easy to create and update. You just want to stay on message and know what your followers want.

Tips for Effective Social Networking

Leverage other social media: If you have a strong presence on another social networking site like Twitter or YouTube, then I recommend that you use that to promote your Facebook Fan Page. Let folks know where to find you and never, ever forget to add “Follow Me” buttons to your website pages and your blog.

Tagging: You can drive more interest to your page by tagging an author or a popular Facebook page to a status update, photo, or video. It’s easy to do this in Facebook, you can also tag an article that a high profile member ran on their page.

Step outside of your social circle: Try getting away from your inner circle and migrating out to other people who might be good networking opportunities. While it’s fun to stay connected to all your college buddies, that’s not the main focus of your Facebook page.

Selling on Facebook: Facebook now has an application that can add a Store page to your Facebook Fan Page. What this means is that you can start selling your books and products from your Fan Page.

Slow and steady wins the social media race: The best Facebook pages (and this is true for any social networking site) are built over time. Slow growth is best when it comes to social networking sites, so don’t force a sudden surge of growth. This will also keep you from getting booted off if you add friends too quickly. Facebook watches for people who are adding hundreds of friends at a time and will lock your page if they think you’re over-promoting yourself.

Don’t be shy: The purpose of Facebook is to connect and interact with other members, so don’t be shy! Interact with people on your friend list by commenting on their news, and pictures, and/or wishing them a happy birthday. Doing all these things will help others to get to know who you actually are instead of just knowing your name.

Content, content, content: Remember that it’s important to add content. You can do this by uploading a video, adding the RSS feed from your blog, and a variety of other things.

Keep updating your Page or Profile: Don’t let your profile get stale. Update your status, add photos, and answer wall messages and emails.

Add your Facebook page to your blog: Make sure and add your Facebook page to your blog. You can have your web person take care of this for you; it’s a simple widget that gets added to let people know you have a Facebook profile.

Social media is a great way to market yourself and your book. When Facebook is integrated with other social networking platforms like Twitter, YouTube, and Squidoo, it can be an enormous boon to your inbound marketing campaign. Just remember, your website needs to convert the folks you’re sending there. Next time we’ll talk websites, so stay tuned!

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A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
- 2 Timothy iv. 7

The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]

The Bleeding Hills is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Nobel, and any other good bookstore.

Now that my blog gains more and more popularity, I also have to deal with an increased number of spamming attempts. Naturally, my blog is protected against automatic spam attempts by all kinds of programs scanning the Internet and attempting to leave hyperlinks to dubious websites.

But this is only one side of the picture. More annoying are the attempts by human beings, because their comments look like regular responses to my posts. They leave comments with the intention to place hyperlinks to all kinds of distasteful websites.

It’s the old story: Search engines like hyperlinks. I do, however, read all comments to my posts and these comments need my approval before they are published on my blog. Even if the comments look legitimate I do check out the hyperlinks in case they are posted. If I determine that a message is spam I mark it as such, and I add certain catch phrases to my blacklist settings. For the record, there’s nothing wrong with leaving valid comments and attach a hyperlink, but the comment should refer to the post and the website should not serve yet another scam.

So, my question to all spammers is, why do you waste my and especially your time with useless messages?

It is not my intention to point out all aspects of spamming and how it effects our society; I just would like to share some stupid entries I filtered over time. You may notice that most spam attempts come from people claiming to have a gmail account.

Spam Entries

bidbana@gmail.com

It’s really great to post my comments on such a penny auction news blog. I would like to appreciate the great work done by the web master and would like to tell everyone that they should post their interesting comments and should make this blog interesting. Once again I would like to say keep it up to blog owner!!!! I am glad that the blog owner has chosen a very interesting matter in order to spread huge knowledge among people. I would like to congratulate for this hard work to the blog owner and would like to be part of his blog by submitting.

Note: This response was posted on my article on the penny auction scam. The link in the response leads to another scam called bidbanana.

Tuberville@gmail.com

I really like your post. I found it really usefull. I will have to go to your website again some day.

adenoma43640@googlemail.com

I definitely must to get out of my house a little more as well as give up wasting a large percentage of of my daylight hours learning poker on myspace or facebook on the grounds that of late i have been unable to ready with regards to this. Despite the fact that I find it difficult to declare that I undeniably go along with every single term, its good to browse some intelligent posts in place of the popular crap I uncover floating all over the net.

aojudy@gmail.com

I think that to receive the mortgage loans from creditors you ought to have a great reason. However, once I’ve received a car loan, because I was willing to buy a bike.

aojudy@gmail.com

Some time ago, I needed to buy a good house for my corporation but I did not have enough money and couldn’t order anything. Thank heaven my sister adviced to get the mortgage loans from trustworthy bank. Hence, I acted that and was satisfied with my auto loan.

Ellie30vn@unique-papers.com

Lots of organizations can propose the buy dissertation service and thesis proposal just about this post for all people’s success. Hence, don’t loose your time, see the thesis writing services, buy dissertation online and be satisfied.

Geena25@yopmail.com

In this moment people order essay writing and buy term papers selecting writing service but very frequently the students buy an essay referring to this good topic. It is really important article, thank you a lot!

jennifer.bond46@gmail.com

People in the world take the home loans in various banks, just because that’s easy and fast.

Halyk83@gmail.com

thanks, very well written post, found it through a random google search and i shared it on my facebook

Seems legitimate? Well, think again. The URL this person posted leads to yet another Viagra website.

phrenologically53025@gmail.com

heya terrific little blogging site ya have right here  I work with the very same theme on my website yet unfortunately for whatever odd factor it looks to load a lot quicker on this blog although yours features significantly more content material. Are you employing any individual plug ins or widgets which will speed it up? If you could possibly write about the programs so I can use these on my internet site so twilight eclipse users could watch twilight new moon online trailers and clips more easily I would always be grateful – kudos ahead of time 

Note: I received the same entry with exactly the same wording on another one of my business blogs. The e-mail address was a different one, though; the claimed names did not match.

Google Webmaster Guidelines

Following these guidelines will help Google find, index, and rank your site. Even if you choose not to implement any of these suggestions, we strongly encourage you to pay very close attention to the “Quality Guidelines,” which outline some of the illicit practices that may lead to a site being removed entirely from the Google index or otherwise penalized. If a site has been penalized, it may no longer show up in results on Google.com or on any of Google’s partner sites.

Read more…

Google Image Guidelines

With image search, just as with web search, Google’s goal is to provide the best and most relevant search results to our users. Following the best practices listed below (as well as our usual webmaster guidelines) will increase the likelihood that your images will be returned in those search results.

Read more…

Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

This document first began as an effort to help teams within Google, but Google thought it’d be just as useful to webmasters that are new to the topic of search engine optimization and wish to improve their sites’ interaction with both users and search engines. Although this guide won’t tell you any secrets that’ll automatically rank your site first for queries in Google (sorry!), following the best practices outlined below will make it easier for search engines to both crawl and index your content.

Download the PDF file…

Nevertheless, we all strive to use our resources (i.e. our website or blog) and earn a little bit on the side. The combination that works for me is Google Adsense, Amazon Affiliate Program, and Infolinks. See also my post Blogging – Creating Income Through Affiliate Programs.

So far, I had not been able to evaluate the service provided by Chitika. Chitika works very similar to Google Adsense, but their ads are much closer targeted to users who find your website through search engines. If you write about, for instance, automobiles, and somebody finds you through searching for Toyota, you can bet all your ads refer to Toyota and ONLY Toyota. Very effective targeting, you might think. In addition (and this is a very nice feature!) they allow you to display Google ads when a user did NOT find you through a search engine.

My website (the one you’re looking at) was finally, after an evaluation period of four months(!), approved, and I was excited. I had read a report where somebody said that Chitika produces more income than Google. Well, if they are as picky that it takes four months to be approved, they must be good. Right? WRONG!

After a period of testing them for roughly ten days I made a whooping US$2.31! Be aware that this amount is still “unaudited,” because they will re-evaluate all clicks. They are much better than Google when it comes to prevent charging their customers for random clicks, which is good for the advertiser, but not so much for the publisher.

My website, FrogenYozurt.com, creates good web traffic. This month I will have roughly 17,000 unique visitors. According to Alexa.com that puts me under the top two percent of all registered websites (latest rating: 1.82%). However, for Chitika that’s not quite enough. FrogenYozurt.Com was only good enough for their “Silver” program. Apparently, the “Gold” program will give you access to higher-value ads, but you need to go through yet another evaluation process. In the meantime you’ll lose money!

As of yesterday, I switched back to Google Adsense and made more than US$2.31 in one day. Also, I get what I call high-quality ads. Most of the Google ads on this website are occupied by only one ad in form of a full graphic. Every click on these ads will create more income than on a regular box with a number of links. Apparently, Google is more appreciative of my website than Chitika.

The Chitika”Silver” program ads are of very poor quality, and I don’t blame anybody for not clicking on them. In the last seven days my website produced 10,000+ impressions without a single click, at least according to their online reporting system. Their reporting system is sluggish, and maybe I am making a mistake by removing their ads. I doubt it, though. I can’t afford to wait several weeks for their system to catch up. As a business man I need to know quickly what works and what does not.

Also, as a business man, I am concerned with appearance and quality of my website. The cheap looking Chitika ads (hyperlink texts are cut off, images don’t load) are definitely not helping in either direction.

If you have any experience with Chitika, let me know. It could very well be that I am mistaken…

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We’ve all heard this: capture email addresses on your website so you can market to them again. So we capture email addresses and then we wonder what to do with them. What if you don’t really have news? Do you mail the list anyway? How can I monetize my list and how much is too much?

We’ve had The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter for over eight years now and the newsletter, bursting in content, is one of the best promotional tools my company has. We’ve never done a single piece of advertisement for my firm, all of it has come from word of mouth, online, and our newsletter.

The key to a good newsletter list is simple really and the biggest piece of this is you’ve got to have something useful to say. While your friends and family might enjoy hearing about your latest book signing, people who happened onto your site and subscribed to your ezine might become bored with this information and unsubscribe. If you have a list or are considering starting one, consider these tips to get you going and help you maximize your newsletter.

1. Timing: How often you send the newsletter will really depend on your crowd but I don’t recommend anything less than once a month. I know some people who send a quarterly newsletter and that’s fine if you don’t really have much to say, but if you’re looking for content so you can send the newsletter more, then read on, I have some ideas and ways of maximizing the use of content for your newsletter.

2. Distribution: How will you send your newsletter? If your plan is to email it forget it unless you have less than 100 subscribers. Anything over that and you should consider using a service like Aweber or Constant Contact. These places will handle your subscribed and unsubscribes for you. If you start mailing to a list larger than 50 from your email service, you run the risk of getting shut down for spam.

3. Easy Opt In: Make it easy for people to sign up. Make sure there’s a sign up on your website, preferably the home page and then a mention of it again on your most popular page which, for most of us, is our blog. The opt-in will take new subscribers to your welcome page (which we’ll talk about in a minute) and handle sending your new readers right into the mailing list.

4. Ethical Bribe: So what will you give readers to get their email? It might not be enough just to tout that you have this fabulous newsletter, in fact often it isn’t. Having something that they’ll want, a key item, e-book, tip sheet whatever will entice readers to sign up for your newsletter. Here’s a hint: give them something they’ll have to keep referring to again and again so that your name and book stays in front of them.

5. Free: There are some folks in the industry who try to charge for their newsletter. Listen, I get it. A newsletter is a lot of work but if done properly, it is a key promotional tool and therefore, should be free. Magazines can charge for subscriptions, you can’t. Make it free. Don’t even put a value on it. I know folks who do this too. I think the value of the newsletter should be evident in its content, not in the price you chose to put on it.

6. Welcome pages: After someone signs up for your newsletter, what will they see? A simple thank you page on your website is a waste of an opportunity. Make sure there is a welcome page that shares their freebie (the ethical bribe) and tells them about one or two of your products. It’s also a great idea to offer a special on this welcome page as a “thank you” for signing up to your mailing list.

7. Check your facts: The quickest way to lose subscribers is to publish a newsletter full of factual mistakes. Do your fact and link checking prior to it going out. Seriously. It’s important not just to the credibility of your newsletter, but to you as well. I mean who wants to buy something from someone who can’t even be bothered to check their facts? Also, please get your newsletter edited. I’ve seen some newsletter with a disclaimer that they are unedited. If you aren’t an editor and can’t afford one, see if you can get it done for free and then blurb the person in your newsletter as a way to reciprocate. Remember, everything is your resume. Would you send a CV to a potential employer that was full of typos. I didn’t think so.

8. Promote: This is key because once you decide to do a newsletter you’ll want to promote it. You can do so by adding it to your signature line in email (sign up for my newsletter and get something), you should also never go to a book event without a signup sheet, and add your newsletter info to the byline of any article you write that gets syndicated online.

9. Collaborate: If you’re strapped for content and time, why not open up your newsletter to other collaborators? Our newsletter, The Book Marketing Expert, is a collaboration of a lot of voices. We have publishing tips, web site tips, social media tips, and the main article. It’s a great way to let others have a voice in your newsletter which helps to promote them and the best part of this is that if you have a collaborative newsletter you can all promote it to the different people you touch in your travels. This will help increase your sign up exponentially because you’re hitting that many more people. Your collaborators should be in the industry, but specializing in different areas. This will give your newsletter the flavor and interest it needs. Don’t worry about sharing your newsletter space with others, we’ve done it this way for years and it’s a great way to build lots of useful content.

10. Be generous: Give lots of good information. By giving away good information people will want to read it, when they read it you will build a readership and loyal following, not just for your newsletter but your books and products as well.

11. Balance: The key to a good newsletter that will not only get read, but passed along is balance. By this I mean balance giving with selling. My general rule of thumb is 95% helpful information and 5% selling, while that number may seem low trust me, this is a great balance and yes, you can offer specials, and offers to your readers but that’s the 5%.

12. Content creation: While it may seem daunting to have to write content for a newsletter every month or every two weeks, you can use and reuse this content because not everyone will find you in the same place. What I mean by this is that some folks will find you on your blog, others might find you on Twitter and still others will find you by searching online and happen on an article you’ve syndicated. Once I create content for The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter that content is then redistributed and reused in places like our blog, my Twitter account (@bookgal) our Facebook Fan Page http://www.facebook.com/bookmarketingame?ref=ts or on my page at The Huffington Pos thttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri. Use and reuse your content, though not too much. I generally will use my articles in one or two other places and that’s it, but the point is they can be used again.

The idea behind a good newsletter is one that not only brings your readers in but keeps them in. It’s the marketing funnel we marketing people love to talk about so much, once you get someone to sign up, stay on their radar screen with helpful content. Once you do, you’ll find not only loyal readers, but loyal buyers as well.

However, spam is not the only threat. In fact, a hacker attack, for instance, targeted to add unwanted content to your blog, can be disastrous for your blog. Not only may you lose all your work that you accumulated over years; the impact on your credibility can be profound.

There are a few, initial and easy-to-accomplish steps you can take to protect your blog:

1. If you use admin as the username to log in, replace it immediately!

We are all creatures of habit, and we all accept the default username admin. Using admin makes it easier for hackers to find access to your system. In this case they can just concentrate on hacking your password. Create a new user account and give it administrator rights. Use a strong user name and password. Log out, and log in as the new user. Delete the existing admin account.

2. Remove the WordPress version information

Hackers may look for known security issues in specific WordPress versions. In the WordPress dashboard click on Appearance->Editor. Look for the line <meta name=”generator” content=”WordPress <?php bloginfo(‘version’); ?>” /> and remove it entirely. It is apparently used for statistical purposes, but doesn’t do any good to protect your blog from hackers. To finish the change click on Update File.

Alternatively, if you prefer some convenience, you can use the Replace WP-Version plug-in. See http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/replace-wp-version/. This plugin comes in handy when you replace your WordPress theme.

3. Upgrade to the most recent WordPress version

It may sound obvious, but it is nevertheless very important. WordPress does not release bugfix patches, all fixes are incorporated in the next full version release (which causes frequent new releases, to stay current with the latest security issues).

4. Backup your entire blog

You should  back up your entire blog, including databases and web site files, at least once a week. This will allow you to revert back to an older version if the blog is hacked. You will, though, lose the new posts and any site changes that you made since the last backup. Check out whether or not your ISP offers a backup feature. There is also a WordPress backup plugin available at http://wordpress.designpraxis.at/plugins/backupwordpress/.

5. Copy .htaccess to /wp-admin directory

Use the FTP program of your hosting server’s file manager to copy the .htaccess file in your root directory to the /wp-admin directory. This sets the same access permission to your blog admin panel as your server login access, making sure that only the server owner/user can access this directory.

6. Drop empty index.html file in /plugins directory

Create an empty “index.html” file in your text editor (make sure to set the file type to “All files”), and upload it to the wp-content/plugins directory. This will hide the content of this directory, and hence the plugins used by your blog, to any snooping outsider. Hackers may information on vulnerabilities of certain plugins, and use them against you.

7. Avoid sponsored themes

An easy way to get spam links in your blog is by installing an unknown 3rd party theme, instead of getting it from reliable sources (such as the WordPress theme repository). Advertisers often pay theme developers to add outbound links promoting their sites, which can have all sorts of bad effects on your blog. See also http://weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2007/04/12/on-sponsored-themes/.

8. Check all links in your blog

One way to know if your blog has been hacked is to check all outbound links for any spam redirection. You can do this by searching for “http://” in the source file of every page in your blog, making sure there is no funny link lurking anywhere. Firefox makes this job easy with Tools–>Page Info–>Links.

More Information

For more detailed information on WordPress security topics see also the post on WordPress.Org: http://codex.wordpress.org/Hardening_WordPress

However, upgrading to version 3.0 can have quite some downfalls. As soon as I installed it I lost my Twitter connection. So far I have been using the “WP to Twitter” plugin, and it actually still functions under the 3.0 version. Nevertheless, I am now unable to modify the plugin parameters, which hurts especially when I add new categories.

While I liked the plugin, it was most annoying that you need to specifically allow new categories to be twittered. So, right now I am unable to automatically twitter posts in new categories.

I checked out the plugin’s website, and the guy who wrote it is considering discontinuing it, since Twitter will release some new requirements. As a result, I am now on the search for a new Twitter plugin.

Anybody out there with some advice/recommendation…?

Supplement:

Just found the “Post to Twitter” plugin. It doesn’t have as many options as the “WP to Twitter” plugin, but these numerous options were somewhat annoying. “Post to Twitter” works just fine, and it automatically shortens the hyperlink to your post. The conversion to short URLs is offered with the “WP to Twitter” plugin as well, but, due to the many parameters offered, the setup was cumbersome.

Advertisement

The Bleeding Hills

A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
- 2 Timothy iv. 7

The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]

The Bleeding Hills is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Nobel, and any other good bookstore.

The WordPress community’s growth over the years has been tremendous, and we want to reinvest in it. So we’re taking the next two months to concentrate on improving WordPress.org. A major part of that will be improving the infrastructure of the plugins directory. More than 10,000 plugins are in the directory, every one of them GPL compatible and free as in both beer and speech. Here’s what we have in mind:

We want to provide developers the tools they need to build the best possible plugins. We’re going to provide better integration with the forums so you can support your users. We’ll make more statistics available to you so you can analyze your user base, and over time we hope to make it easier for you to manage, build, and release localized plugins.

We want to improve how the core software works with your plugin and the plugin directory. We’re going to focus on ensuring seamless upgrades by making the best possible determinations about compatibility, and offer continual improvements to the plugin installer. And we also want to give you a better developer tool set like SVN notifications and improvements to the bug tracker.

Read more…