All Entries in the "Blogs and Online Publishing" Category

WordPress: To ‘Follow’ or ‘Not Follow’ Blog Comments? Now You Have a Choice

Wordpress by default “nofollows” all links within blog comments. While there are measures that can be taken to remove the rel=”nofollow” from links in Wordpress blog comments, it has typically been “all or nothing.”

Not any longer with a plug-in I came across that allows you to choose whether to follow or not on a case by case basis.

Secure Your WordPress Blog in 7 Easy Steps

I recently had the misfortune of suffering a series of Malware/Trojan virus attacks on this and some other Wordpress blogs we operate. I had been planning on taking measures to protect our Wordpress applications from potential attacks but like many other things, procrastination took first priority. The attacks are behind us now. And while the attacks ended up being completely unrelated to any Wordpress vulnerabilities, I thought it would be beneficial to list some measures that can be put in place to help prevent “attacks” on Wordpress driven blogs.

Why Netflix Using Blogger for Blogging Platform Is So Wrong

When commenting on Netflix’s blog regarding the 15% credit they were to provide to their customers, I basically scolded them for using Blogger as their blogging platform. Sorry, but I can’t understand why a company such as Netflix, a leader in mail order DVD rentals as well as a business who has no brick and mortar locations but is an “online” business, would use a free service provided by Google to run a most important function to their customers.

Common Excuses Companies Use For Not Having a Blog

A recent study conducted by Burson-Marsteller revealed that ONLY 15% of Fortune 500 companies communicate with consumers via blogs. This number was quite lower than I expected, at least as far as Fortune 500 companies go. It is not surprising to me however with regards to businesses in general. While any business that has an online presence should be blogging, a large majority of them are not. Read on for some common excuses they come up with along with reasons why those excuses are invalid.

Plug-Ins & Hacks I Use in WordPress Blogs

While plug-ins for the WordPress blogging platform are in abundant supply, I try not to depend on too many of them due to the fact that I don’t want to have to worry about them breaking every time a new version of WordPress is released. That being said, there are four plug-ins as well as one adjustment to the post template itself that I feel are essential in order to have a great WordPress experience.

SBM Unleashed: Building a Community

There’s no doubt the best endorsements come from happy and loyal customers. So what if there was a way to build a community around your web site? A community that helped keep your content fresh, your ideas flowing and the links ‘a coming. Turns out, there is. Find out the best ways to build up a loyal readership and how to get your visitors more involved from the queen of community herself, Wendy Piersall, Founder of Sparkplugging.com.

Should Twitter Be Used For Serious Stuff?

Stan Schroeder wrote a piece on Mashable questioning whether the popular micro-blogging service, Twitter should be used for anything important. He writes, “Here’s a simple rule: if it’s important, don’t say it on Twitter. If it requires a response, don’t say it on Twitter. If you actually care whether anyone will see what you’ve just written, don’t say it on Twitter. Twitter, however fun it may be, simply isn’t designed for it.” Sorry, I don’t agree.

If Your Site is a Blog Virgin – You’re Missing Out

Business owners reluctant to implement a blog may have their reasons but in this social media age, it is really becoming crucial for web sites to become more than stale brochures and static billboards only offering one-way communication. Users want to interact and they want to see a personal side to the company. A blog allows for that and so much more.

2007 Search Blogs Awards by Search Engine Journal

Nominations for the 2007 Search Blogs Awards conducted by Search Engine Journal are now open. They have hosted these contests for the last two years now so this is their third installment which includes even more categories than the previous years. To nominate your favorite blogs, simply comment on the original post.

Awesome Plug-In To Fight Comment Spam on Movable Type Blogs

I wish Movable Type had something better than Akismet which does a pretty good job filtering spam but still very quickly populates Movable Type’s junk folder. While this keeps junk comments from ever appearing on your blog, it still takes time to sift through them in order to locate any good comments which end up in there (which has happened). I have heard they have CAPTCHA support in version 4.0, however we are still running 3.2 and have not gotten around to upgrading yet. My thinking is that someone somewhere must have developed a plug-in that would allow me to install CAPTCHA or a comment challenge of some sort in the version I have right now. I can’t imagine everyone who uses Movable Type spending their valuable time sifting through junk comments to make sure that good comments are not accidentally deleted.

So late last night, with a little searching, I found an awesome plug-in developed by Jay Allen simply called Comment Challenge plugin.