SevenToTen - Blogging About Everything

I still remember the first time I got a “trackback” on my first blog. I thought… “what the heck is this?” This initial reaction is exactly how 90% of bloggers view trackbacks coming from other websites to their blogs. The fact is: trackbacks can be good, trackbacks can be bad, and trackbacks can be exploited for money.

[...] I just stole your traffic! [...]

Money?! Really!? That’s right. Hitting trackbacks is an all too common blackhat SEO method to secure lots of traffic in a small amount of time. It’s quick and effective (when done correctly), and can really leech a good portion of your traffic. Because of this, I’d like to spend the day today to explain to all of you exactly what the function of a trackback is to your blog… and how you should go about deleting or accepting them to your website.

What is a Trackback Anyway?

Trackbacks were actually originally developed for the “MovableType” blogging platform. Since then, the technology has been adapted in WordPress and Blogger blogs to increase their functionality. The original creator, SixApart, wrote: “In a nutshell, TrackBack was designed to provide a method of notification between websites: it is a method of person A saying to person B, “This is something you may be interested in.” To do that, person A sends a TrackBack ping to person B.” So yeah, a trackback is essentially an alternative to commenting. Anytime you mention someone else’s post and link to it, they will receive a “trackback” notification (also called a “ping”)… basically letting the original blogger know that someone else is plugging them. This is a very useful tool, and it makes my Sunday Link Love all the more popular and useful. The only downside is that trackbacks make it quite easy to score a free link. It is an attempt to create a sort of “authenticity” to comments, but has been skewed (and even faked entirely) as a spammers tool in many cases.

The WhiteHat Use of Trackbacks

Trackbacks are the most useful thing since sliced bread, and make blogging so much more interactive than it would be ordinarily. So naturally, the WhiteHat use of trackbacks is two-fold. It is now possible that any time you write about someone else’s blog post, you will be leaving a real time link on their post back to your more recent article. The other side of the coin is that it creates a very authentic and friendly blogging atmosphere where people can get some attention where they wouldn’t ordinarily. Say I am writing about this or that (as I do) and someone comes along and writes about my post, recommending it (or bashing it!). Because of the trackback feature, I am going to notice that you wrote about and linked to my blog. Since you helped me out, I’m likely to check out what you had to say. This is a fantastic way for smaller bloggers to reach out to the big boys and gain some media attention for free. By being a bit generous about your linking, it won’t be long before you are getting friendly linking activity from other bloggers in your niche interest area.

The BlackHat Use of Trackbacks

A little disclaimer: I don’t do this, and do not advocate you doing this either. The following methods I am about to outlay are considered BlackHat and could potentially get you banned from Google or otherwise disciplined. This is why you come to The Net Fool, isn’t it? I am not going to pretend like everyone here is using WhiteHat trackbacks to be responsible bloggers. Not at all. In fact, there is a mass exodus of bloggers that use the functionality of pinging posts just to gain a traffic boost where it is not deserved for their sole benefit. Let’s talk about the other side of things, and how a lot of people are using trackbacks to make money. The beauty of trackbacks is that few people actually understand how they work. This is one of the reasons I am writing this today, to inform! Since nobody knows what a “ping” is, very few bloggers actually delete the trackbacks that come in… believing whole-heartedly that someone actually enjoyed what they wrote and linked to them! What fools! Using blog commenting to spam is out of touch, since people will always realize a spammy comment… but won’t necessarily pick up on a spammy trackback. Links created by trackbacks are two-way reciprocal links, and this is a problem that BlackHat folks have to deal with since two-way links do not hodl the same “link juice” that one-way links do. So, BlackHat’ers have had to devise a way to manufacture one-way trackback links to optimize their linkage. The primary program used to automate the task is “Trackback Spider,” while there are some other slower tools like the manual form on Wiz Bang Blog. After you find a blog with the trackback feature enabled openly, you could potentially generate a whole slew of trackback links that are one-way pointing to your blog. This is basically, well, cheating. Which is exactly why so many people doing this get busted.

Arm Yourself With Knowledge!

Obviously, now that you know what people are doing with trackbacks, it is going to be a lot easier for you to defend your blog from these traffic leechers. There are two ways to defend your blog from ping attacks… spam guarding and completely disabling your website. Obviously, option one would be to turn off trackbacks completely… which you can do in your admin panel options settings. I don’t really recommend this unless you are getting absolutely pounded by trackbacks on a daily basis and can’t keep up with your spam protection. As was implied, the other method is to install a spam plugin to blog any potentially hazardous comment or ping that comes in. I use Akismet, which works quite well! Bottom Line: Trackbacks can be a great blogging tool, or your worst enemy. If you are a BlackHat SEO kind of person, chances are you are using trackback pings to send big inflows of traffic to your blog for free… getting you lots of hits, which translates to lots of money in your pocket. I use trackbacks to send out link love to deserving bloggers, and I absolutely love the tool’s functionality as an emerging blogger’s best friend.

Blogs are designed to be a source of open communication between you and your readers.  To increase interactivity, you can run polls and directly ask readers what they are looking for.

The feedback is extremely useful as it can guide the direction that your blogging should go.  For example, readers may desire a different type of post than you enjoy creating, so some compromises must be made.

Benefits of polls

Polls help to link up the readers immediately. People find it much easier to answer a poll, although results may be swayed by the selections they are able to use.  They also don’t address on how your site can be improved unless you run multiple polls over a period of time.

Benefits of direct communication

Direct communication with readers (say, an open post) is quite distracting to those who are already used to the typical content you produce.  Comments or email will actually offer a better format for specifying exactly what needs to be done to better please the readers.

Do you connect often with your readers? If so, what method do you use?

Lately I’ve been pondering the part that social media plays in my blogging business. This post is an attempt to make some sense of it. I’d value your thoughts in comments to help me take these half thought through ideas to something more concrete. Those who have been following me for a while know that I not only spend a lot of time on my blogs but also invest significant time on sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn…. (the list could go on). What’s my strategy? Why invest so much time into sites that I don’t actually own? To be honest there are days when i wonder if I have a strategy at all. There’s so much I don’t know about social media and how it fits into what I do - some days it just feels messy. However in the midst of it all there are moments of clarity.

Home Bases and Outposts

Today I was watching a video of a presentation by Chris Brogan and a short segment of it resonated strongly and put words to the way I use social media. He talked about:

• Home Bases
• Outposts
• Passports

He’s used these concepts numerous times on his blog before (here and here for example) but today it got my attention a little more than previously - particularly the idea of the ‘Home Base’ and that of the ‘Outpost’. A home base is a place online that you own, that is your online ‘home’. For me I have two home bases - ProBlogger and Digital Photography School. For me my home bases are blogs but for others they will be other types of websites. Outposts are places that you have an online presence out in other parts of the web that you might not ‘own’. I’d previously being using the word ’satellites’ to describe this but I think ‘outposts’ works better. Outposts will mean different things to different people and businesses. Here’s how it looks for me as I think about my home base of ProBlogger. As you’ll see, most of my ‘outposts’ are social media sites - however for others an outpost could also include forums, other community sites and even the comments sections of other blogs. Each of the outposts that you see above are places that I have accounts and am attempting to grow my online presence (some better than others). These ‘outposts’ are sites where I:

• add content
• build relationships
• test ideas
• grow a profile
• listen
• experiment
• make connections
• try to be useful
• play

Out of this combination of activities many things come. Relationships, ideas, traffic, resources, partnerships, community and much more emerge from the outposts - much of it making my home base stronger.

Two Way Streams and Outposts Taking on a Life of Their Own

The outposts do drive some traffic back to the home base, but many of the benefits are less tangible and have more to do with building the brand and influences of my blogs. Also worth noting is that the outposts don’t just feed the homebase (it isn’t just a one way thing)- but the homebase feeds the outposts and sometimes the outpost seems to take on a life of its own and becomes the real place of action where without really trying a community emerges. For example this week I discovered that a small (but growing) group of ProBlogger readers had been interacting with my content and one another on my Facebook Profile - despite the fact that I’d not spent more than 20 minutes on Facebook in the previous three months. Just the fact that I link to Facebook and pull in my Twitter activity means that the ‘community’ there has sprung up (now that I’m aware of what’s going on I can participate and feed the community.

This Post is Half Finished

I laugh when people occasionally refer to me as a social media expert. You see while I’ve managed to grow a reasonable social media presence over the last few years there is still much to learn. As a result I’d love to here your thoughts on what I’ve written and how you see and use social media in your blogging and business. Your comments will take this post a step closer to completion - looking forward to how it ends!

It doesn’t happen everyday but when it does happen, I’m compelled to write about it to address the questions once and for all on the importance of choosing the right niche with the emphasis on the word ‘right‘. A lot of my readers emailed me with all the nicest words I couldn’t say it better myself and for the sake of this article, I pick two of the questions posed to me, Tom from Stand Out Blogger You have created an amazing blog in the blog about blogging niche and I think it would be great if you could write a little bit about why you decided to choose this niche for your blog. Junnette from Word Play Why “a blog for beginners” instead of a “make money blog,” just as you said in your About page?

Here’s What I Have To Say

In retrospect, I didn’t start this blog with any niche in mind. I discovered it later upon clear understanding what my audience’s needs were. thoushallblog.com was initially created with only one single purpose, that was to be my personal journal of all things I learned about the beauty of WordPress. Little did I ever expected that people actually appreciated what I did and have continued to support it till today. I attribute the continued support to the fact that I’m passionate about what I do. It’s the single most important key to blogging success if you ask me. I write about topics that interests both my readers and myself. Yes, myself. I couldn’t possibly continue to do what I do if it doesn’t excite both myself and my readers.

Why I Choose This ‘Blogging for Beginners’ Niche

Every minute a new blogger is born and they need a one-stop place to find all the elementary  blogging resources and I see the need to fill in the gap. The fact that I’m a beginner myself, I know what’s best for beginners and I make every possible effort to  speak in the language they could easily understand. Just in case you aren’t in the know, thoushallblog.com is not a blog that teaches you how to ‘make money online’. I simply can’t bluff my way into that MMO niche. What I’m blogging sharing here is what I have personally learned, experimented, applied and experienced first hand as a beginner. As such, everything is written by a beginner, for beginners and with beginners in mind and it will stay the same. I aim to be the best in the ‘blogging for beginners’ niche and I wouldn’t trade it for any other niche - at least for now. Also, this is the kind of niche I could stand tall among the pack and to be a stand out blogger. That said, I wouldn’t rule out  the possibility of sharing what I learn about ‘blog monetization’ at a later stage but that will only come in later when I have found greater success with what I’m doing. Yes, I did make my money through private ads, affiliate sales, sponsored reviews to have a decent living in the third world countries but that’s not the kind of stuffs my readers are interested in - I presume.

Choosing The Right Niche

It’s true that one of the first things you’ll be deciding when you start your own blog is the niche you want to be in.  What kind of target audience you’re writing to? A niche gives you a sense of purpose, yet many is good at failing to choose the right one. Sad but it’s true, a lot of new bloggers are happy to be part of the ‘make money online’ crowd without realizing that one has to go above and beyond the ‘average’ to succeed in such super competitive niche. In most cases, when the money is no where to be seen, they are quick enough to find the next exit door.

The MMO Niche is a victim of its own success. Here’s why Jason from TUK reasoned out that Make Money Online Blogs = Fail which makes an interesting read.

My Thought on ‘Make Money Online’ Niche

Let me hold your hands and show you how to be the next millionaire… Sounds familiar? Oh yeah, I’ll let you hold my hands once you decide to change your default WordPress theme. I could perhaps give a couple of good recommendation if you need one. If a million of people like you buy premium themes using my affiliate links, I’m on my way to be a millionaire. My point is ’stop telling others how to make money online’ when you are still a distance away from cashing your first adsense check. Switching out of the MMO niche will probably make you more money and how about getting off the Make Money Online bandwagon & make your fortune from John Cow who is considered the authority in the MMO niche. If that isn’t enough, please allow me to quote one of my favorite words of wisdom on the MMO niche

“Those who know SHOW while those who don’t TEACH”

You have to be seen as a master in your chosen niche to stand out from the crowd and aim to become “a big fish in a small pond rather than a small fish in a big pond”

Passion is The Key

Choose one that you are passionate about and it’s not time-sensitive, which stop appealing after a few months. Apart from MMO niche, there are still plenty of gold mines yet to be discovered. Once you have decided your niche and target audience, your blog should be a one-stop solution for them or at the very least, try to be one. That being said, if the passion and enthusiasm runs dry, it’s time to move elsewhere. You can’t excite your readers without a drop of passion in what you do or write. The key is being aware of who you are and what you are passionate about, and use it to leverage your success

….and be a winner.

I’d like to hear your thoughts on this and why you decided to choose the niche you are in. Are you a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond?

There are some significant changes in Entrecard which are supposedly good for the long term. These are listed below.

1. Buy credits for less

Entrecard is now selling 1,000 credits for $6.00. You can buy them at http://entrecard.com/r/buy_credits

2. More pricing increments

Instead of prices doubling every time, there are now a few more steps. The new price points can be found on the Advertising page in the wiki, here: http://entrecard.com/docs/doku.php?id=advertising

3. Members are not allowed to sell credits

This goes for ebay sales, posts in the Marketing forum, and posts on other forums. If you have references on your site to the sale of credits, please remove them immediately, as it is now against our terms.

4. Credit transfer limits

Members are allowed to make a maximum of 14 credit transfers a week, up to a maximum of 1,000 credits, whichever comes first. This means you can still run contests where you give credits away for free, and under 1k per week.

Note: This does not affect linked blogs, you can transfer unlimited credits between linked blogs.

5. Transfer tax

From now on, all transfers, including transfers made with our new payments API, will be taxed at a rate of 12.5%. The taxed credits will be sold to members (see #1).

6. Blogs cannot be unlinked

Once you link a blog, it’s there for good unless you ask us to delete the blog from your account. This prevents linking/unlinking to get around the credit transfer limits, and it also stops you losing access to a blog if you unlink it in error, which happens a lot.

7. No more coupons

You are no longer allowed to send coupons.

8. Shop closed

Except for Entrecard upgrades (Featured Status, Fast Pass) the Entrecard Shop is now offline until further notice. Please do not request a seller token until the shop returns. When it comes back, it will be bigger and better.

I believe such changes are necessary to put Entrecard on a stronger footing. Servers need to be upgraded big time and hopefully, they get more funds from selling of credits and advertisements.

For the time being, independent credit sales or credit transfers among members are prohibited, thus members who advertise heavily have no choice but to click 300 sites per day or fork out the $6 for 1000 credits.

I wouldn’t mind spending more on Entrecard if the end result is higher quality traffic, comments, and subscribers and better serps.

I see Alexa ranking being updated today and there is only a gradual increase for me. I know my blog does not have much traffic so I don’t consider this normal or abnormal.

A lot of people complain that Alexa’s new ranking system which was modified in April is still not perfect. These people saw their Alexa ranking crashing and has not climbed back to its previous high since.

It has been said that Instead of capturing only those who installed the Alexa toolbar, there is now a wider spectrum of users habits being reflected. Do you think Alexa ranking accurately reflects the interests and surfing habits of the broader population of Web users?

For me, it makes little difference as my Alexa ranking has been rather constant, meaning hovering around 750k.

Identity theft is a serious problem on the net and clearing up the mess requires lots of money and time. You have to extra careful with your passwords and personal information. Here are ten tips to help those who are negligent about password management.

1. Do not write down your passwords.
2. When the password is “password or a default that is assigned”, change it immediately.
3. Create secret questions and answers (whenever possible). Make sure the answer cannot be searched on the net.
4. Change your password at least every 2-3 months.
5. For new passwords, ensure they are totally different from the old one.
6. Avoid obvious words. Passwords must be more complex than a single word which can be hacked with a dictionary attack.
7. Short passwords are very dangerous. A strong password which consists of at least eight characters with a mix of upper case, lower case and numbers.
8. Don’t use password programs that store your information or provide auto password injection.
9. Never have your browser save or remember your passwords.
10. Always clear your cookies when you’re done for the day.

These 10 tips will help you properly manage your passwords and prevent anyone from invading your privacy. It’s important that we all practice proper security when it comes to our privacy.

earch Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art of optimizing your site blog to rank higher in SERP or Search Engine Result Position. Being on #1 or page one of Google is the ultimate goal of any blogmaster. It’s the key that separates the average site from the extraordinaire. Simply put, the higher you are on the search results, the more organic traffic you will get. Study has shown that most searchers don’t go beyond page three so if your site is found no where in the first 3 pages on your keywords, you have probably not done enough SEO, so to speak. Now the question is how do you know if you are doing the right thing? That’s where online SEO tools are available at your disposal to check and diagnose the SEO status of your site so you can take all the necessary steps to improve your overall search engine ranking.

The Best 15 SEO Tools for Beginners

PageRank Checker is a free tool to check Google Page Ranking of any site and its pages easily and instantly. Google PageRank or PR is a measure of any sites popularity based on Google kept-secret algorithm. The PR is an indication of certain authority to your site and how important it is in the eyes of Google. For the uninformed, here’s how Google calculates your PR. PageRank Search allows you to search Google using any keyword(s) you wish. It will then return, in order of Google relevance, the sites associated with those keywords. Each result displays a graphical bar with the PageRank of that particular site. Internal Pages PR Checker will check the page rank of all of your site’s inner pages index by Google and it’s useful to use right after the PR update. Link Popularity Checker is a tool that checks total number of pages in each search engines index that contains a link to your site, including your own website. It is used to measure your site’s online visibility. The popularity of your site is an important factor in your search engine ranking. The more popular your site is, the better it will be ranked on the search engines. Backlink Anchor Text Analyzer help you determine the backlinks of your site and anchor text (link text) used to link to your site. Link building is all about getting the quality backlinks along with the quantity. The truth is getting a few of the right links, from the right places can be more valuable than getting 100 links from the wrong places. It’s all about using the right keywords you are trying to optimize as your anchor text (link text) from the right neighborhood. Reciprocal Link Checker helps you ensure that your link partners are linking back to your site and determines what anchor text is used. Gone are the days when reciprocal links are considered important, the big G is now putting more weight on one-way (the best option) or three-way links (site A ↔ site C, site C ↔ site B and site B ↔ site A) Keyword Density refers to the measurement in percentage, the number of times a keyword or phrase appears compared to the total number of words in a page which needs to balance correctly. Too low and you will not get the optimum benefit, Too high and your page might get flagged for “keyword spamming”. This tool parses the most frequently keyword of a website and calculates its percentage share. Keyword Suggestion Tool will help you with choosing of the right keywords for your website and analyze which keyword combinations are more popular. Choosing the right keywords is critical for a success of your site. Target the wrong keywords and you have lost. There is pure gold hidden in less competitive keyword combinations and variations. Link Analysis of External and Internal Links - The link analysis display all internal and external links of a website with the corresponding anchor texts in a summary table. It’s one of the best I have ever used. SERP Position Checker is the keyword position analysis used to check on which position your domain is ranked for a given keyword and compare the first 100 results by Google, MSN and Yahoo. Robots.txt Syntax Checker is the simplest tool to check the contents of your site’s robots.txt against the search engines standard, along with providing warnings on the wrong use of syntax. In case you aren’t in the know, robots.txt file is the key to stopping search engines robots from indexing certain pages of your site which are deemed unnecessary to be included in the search results, yet many people still fail to get the syntax correct. Copyscape scours the net and finds sites that have copied your content without permission, as well as those that have quoted you. It is designed to protect you against online plagiarism and article theft. Search Engine Placement Check is a verification tool that checks if your site is in the top three pages of a search engine result for a specific keyword. It’s important to be in the top 3 pages of a search result because most people using search engines don’t go past the 3rd page. Bad Neighborhood Checker checks link pages and reports if there are links to bad neighborhoods. This tool will scan the links on your site, and on the pages that your site is linking to, and flag possible problem areas. This can greatly ease your SEO efforts. Website Grader is a free SEO report that measures the marketing effectiveness of your site. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how your site can be improved from a marketing perspective. Check out the SEO report for thoushallblog.com.

Last But Not Least

SEO is never intended to be seen as touch-and-go effort in much the same way no success can be achieved overnight. It really takes a lot of patience, commitment and the know-hows to succeed. All the above tools will not bring you to #1 in search results but it helps you to be aware of ‘where you are now’ and ‘where you should aim to be in future’.

Knowledge is the key to SEO success

Indeed there are no hard and fast rules to SEO, it all boils down to the right mixture of quality content and quality inbound and outbound links with proper keywords optimization and all these tools will tell you if you are getting the right combination to move you closer to #1. If you are in the mood for more SEO tips, here’s 15 SEO Tips for Beginners. Good luck with your SEO. Any opinions or feedback are welcomed. I’m all ears.

On Another Side Note

Congrats to those of you who have just gained your PR status on the recent update. It’s another milestone for you and I’m sure you are pretty excited about it. Well, getting the PR is the easy part, maintaining it is a different ball game altogether. I have just updated my PR list and if your blog (with Top Commentator) is not included in the list, drop me a line and I’ll put you in the list. Did I say that’s one-way backlink?

Similar Posts:

• 15 SEO Tips for Beginners
• Has Your Blog Been Indexed by Google Yet?
• Why Blog With IE? What You Can Do With Firefox?
• What Do They Say About Link Building?
• 15 Most Under-Utilized Plugins for SEO

Does this spell the end of a great community? Entrecard is up for sale as indicated on the Entrecard blog and sitepoint.com. Graham has previously indicated that Entrecard is not for sale, even to Google.

His vision for Entrecard is “so massive that it will take perhaps my entire professional life to achieve what I have set out to achieve with Entrecard.”

The reasons for giving up on Entrecard is that Graham has suffered immense losses, maxed out his credit cards and losing a multi-million dollar deal in the 11th hour. If this community is demoralized and on the decline, I guess it is hard to find any buyers.

Who want to spend a six-figure buying this site which burns up cash fast and the best members have deserted, leaving an empty shell or rather spammers? Graham owes all those who stick by Entrecard through all the broken promises, lack of support, downtime, a better explanation.

As one of the moderators Ben Barden said: “In all honesty I feel pretty let down by this. None of the mods knew anything about this before everyone else did, nor were we asked for views. We don’t know if a new owner would keep the current mods on board or not. The timing of this couldn’t be worse - we just signed up three new moderators. What message does it send to them?”

This was a surprise for the moderators as much as members. Bad timing and communication, Graham. With such a strong support team, Graham should persist and not throw in the towel so easily.

Graham’s response to Ben: “Ben, it’s not about the team. It’s about my credit card being maxed out and me about to be homeless with very very few options.”

Graham went on to say that he is only “exploring the possibility” -its still a long shot it will actually happen.”

A lot of bloggers depend on Entrecard as their main source of traffic, so if Entrecard collapses and all the Entrecard credits which are accumulated after months of hard work go to waste, it is really terrrible indeed.

This is a must-try plugin if your blog experiences heavy spamming.  WP-SpamFree is among the best plugin I have installed. It eliminates comment spam, including trackback and pingback spam and uses very low bandwidth.

It is better than Akismet which still gives me an average of 15 spam comments per day. The best features include:

* Virtually eliminates automated comment spam from bots.
* No CAPTCHA’s, challenge questions or other inconvenience to site visitors - it works silently in the background.
* Easy to install - truly plug and play. Just upload and activate. There’s an installation status on the plugin admin page to let you know if the plugin was installed correctly.

There are so many nice features that come with this plugin. You have saved me a lot of time and now I can put that spare time to blogging.