Disqus - Latest Comments for Mike - Twenty Steps

Re: Top 32 Forms of Linking Payola

Mike - Twenty Steps — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 17:35:16 -0000

On the whole I link out because I believe it adds value to the article I've written. It either reinforces what I'm saying or adds some background. Sure, a little bit of link love back never goes amiss but I don't remember ever linking out to someone purely with that intention in mind.

However some of the other points definitely pricked my conscience and you've made me think about how I link out in the future.

Re: Top 32 Forms of Linking Payola

Mike - Twenty Steps — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 17:35:16 -0000

Re: PayPerPost Receives $7M Additional Funding & Launches Direct Marketplace

Mike - Twenty Steps — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 20:54:56 -0000

OK well here's a thought. PPP reviews could be viewed by Big G as being paid links under their more clearly defined guidelines regarding link policy. Tagging the "nofollow" rule would alleviate that problem but, as a fellow believer in the power of DoFollow, how would that affect things?

Re: PayPerPost Receives $7M Additional Funding & Launches Direct Marketplace

Mike - Twenty Steps — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 20:54:56 -0000

Re: PayPerPost Receives $7M Additional Funding & Launches Direct Marketplace

Mike - Twenty Steps — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 19:54:11 -0000

I know they haven't made it that much clearer but they've now spelt it out on their official guidelines rather than just on Matt's blog so it's pretty obvious that it is now a lot higher on the Big G Agenda for world domination .

As you say in your linked post, they're on a slippery slope with this particular train of thought but by adding it to their webmaster guidelines it's obviously not something that is going to go away.

Did you ever get a response from them?

Re: PayPerPost Receives $7M Additional Funding & Launches Direct Marketplace

Mike - Twenty Steps — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 19:54:11 -0000

Re: Jason Calacanis & The 4 Little SEOs Podcast

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 07:23:52 -0000

This is the second Calacanis Cast that I've watched (the first being the one with Ted Murphy) and, again, I've come away with an overwhelming urge to punch my monitor. There is just something about the smug, smarmy way he conducts himself that makes my blood boil.

Mahalo will fail. By the time it's got the draw it will already be too late. It's not the SEO/search engine buster that JC promised. It's nothing but a rehashed version of DMOZ.

The scalability issues have not been looked into. I enjoyed the part where JC squirms as it's pointed out to him that each and every page will need constant review to prevent SEOs from buying up the "trusted" sites.

Does he really think that he's got some kind of bomb proof product here? His stock answer was that if he found that one of his editors was being paid a sweetener to include results, he's fire them. Great, JC, and just how many people will be queuing up to slog away building your pages for $15? So you're going to have reviewers to check the reviewers? Do you really think that will work?

Did anyone believe him when he said that he was unaware that aged domains have more weight in the SERPs? Come on...

Thanks for flying the flag on this one, Andy. Shame those pesky Americans didn't let you speak more ;)

Re: Jason Calacanis & The 4 Little SEOs Podcast

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 07:23:52 -0000

Re: Important Tips On Using Feedburner Pro – Now Free

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 08:05:37 -0000

Thanks for the heads up about the link clicking option. I was just going to click everything on the basis that it was now free!

Re: Important Tips On Using Feedburner Pro – Now Free

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 08:05:37 -0000

Thanks for the heads up about the link clicking option. I was just going to click everything on the basis that it was now free!

Re: Will The FTC Investigate Google & Matt Cutts For Paid Links? (updated)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 07:15:18 -0000

Anyone who thinks that Big G's hard line approach to paid links is because they want a pure search engine is deluded. It's all about protecting their own cash cow - AdSense.

The TLA move to TinyURL is for their own internal links only and not for advertisers links so it's not being done to combat Big G.

Re: Will The FTC Investigate Google & Matt Cutts For Paid Links? (updated)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 07:15:18 -0000

Re: Blogrush Testing and Tracking (Updated – John Reese Quote)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 12:09:01 -0000

It's nice to see a reasoned article about BlogRush rather than the hysterical "it's crap/spam/against Google TOS" rubbish that I've seen over the last few days. What did people honestly expect? Receive tens of thousands of visitors every day?

You mentioned keyword filtering in your original post about BlogRush and mentioned it in the comments above. Just how many of the gloom and doom merchants currently have a BlogRush article as their most recent? How many people have blocked "BlogRush" as a term? Hmmm...

Re: Blogrush Testing and Tracking (Updated – John Reese Quote)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 12:09:01 -0000

Re: 2 Reasons DealDotCom Is Going To Be Truely Massive

Mike - Twenty Steps — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 12:32:17 -0000

Well I've just signed up through your link and I'm looking forward to seeing how this pans out. I'd seen it in a couple of places including the Blog That Dare Not Speak It's Name (I think you know the one I'm talking about) so thought it was time to have a play.

How's it gone for you so far?

Re: 2 Reasons DealDotCom Is Going To Be Truely Massive

Mike - Twenty Steps — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 12:32:17 -0000

Re: Digg Favorites Slapped By Google

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 09:57:55 -0000

There's no doubt in my mind that all of these changes to PR have been applied manually. This is no algo change.

Re: Digg Favorites Slapped By Google

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 09:57:55 -0000

There's no doubt in my mind that all of these changes to PR have been applied manually. This is no algo change.

Re: Google PageRank: Joke Of The Blogosphere?

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 08:19:56 -0000

Great round up, Andy, and thanks for the link back.

When Jaan told me he'd submitted the pic to Matt for consideration for his Halloween costume, my initial reaction was "aww crap" but now I think "What the heck. What's the worse thing that couple happen? A little slap never hurt anyone".

At least that what my local Tory MP told me, anyway...

Re: Google PageRank: Joke Of The Blogosphere?

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 08:19:56 -0000

Re: Real or Fake PageRank Update In Progress (round 3)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 20:29:42 -0000

Mine is anywhere between 0-4 depending on which data centre you believe. In addition Everton over at Connected Internet has just had his collar felt and dropped to from 6 to 3.

I've given up trying to second guess what's happening. My gut feeling is that there is a slap happening and it's going to take a couple of weeks for the dust to settle.

I also wonder, as Maki did over at Sphinn, whether or not Big G have noted the furore over this and are perhaps adjusting the manual penalties dished out to the higher profile or more vocal sites.

UPDATE: Just noticed one of my other sites has dropped from PR6 to PR4 in the last couple of hours :(

Re: Real or Fake PageRank Update In Progress (round 3)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 20:29:42 -0000

Re: Real or Fake PageRank Update In Progress (round 3)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 22:07:27 -0000

Well according to a thread on Digital Point and according to iWEBTOOL, You Tube, a Google owned company, has dropped from PR8 to PR3 so maybe the whole thing is a data centre issue and Matt and all the boys are laughing their socks off at us right now.

You know, it would make sense. AdSense data has been screwed through all of this too.

Re: Real or Fake PageRank Update In Progress (round 3)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 22:07:27 -0000

Re: Real or Fake PageRank Update In Progress (round 3)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 23:44:36 -0000

Shaun - it's not a canonical issue at all. I double checked it before I posted it earlier.

Either the data centres have gone FUBAR or PageRank has left the building. Google slapping everyone else I can understand but self flagellation? Surely not...

Re: Real or Fake PageRank Update In Progress (round 3)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 23:44:36 -0000

Re: Real or Fake PageRank Update In Progress (round 3)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 00:00:33 -0000

Just checked a dozen or so of my sites. Most of them have dropped two points. None of them have ever been involved in paid linking or dubious linking policies. These include some of my client sites. I've been very clean with my client sites.

My own? Bollocks. Reap the whirlwind and all that but I'm not prepared to play games with other peoples livelihoods.

Ladies and gentlemen, PageRank has left the building.

Re: Real or Fake PageRank Update In Progress (round 3)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 00:00:33 -0000

Re: Real or Fake PageRank Update In Progress (round 3)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 08:42:46 -0000

Oh stop it! You'll make me blush. All I did was leave a comment on your site. I mean it was a nice thing to do but legend? Please. That's too much.

Oh. Wait. I get it now.

Ackk....

Re: Real or Fake PageRank Update In Progress (round 3)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 08:42:46 -0000

Oh stop it! You'll make me blush. All I did was leave a comment on your site. I mean it was a nice thing to do but legend? Please. That's too much.

Oh. Wait. I get it now.

Ackk....

Re: Google Toolbar PageRank Fluctuations (Round 4)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 22:01:44 -0000

I'm no Nostradamus but I reckon visible PR will not be here Jan 1. In addition I will say that the next round of paid link/sponsored post/hell we just don't like you (delete where applicable) penalties will be applied in January and these will be serious penalties - drops from the SERPs.

We'll wait and see. I must admit that my F5 button took a pounding earlier today when I hit Digpagerank after Court's post and then I went off to do something more productive. Like watching my fingernails grow.

Re: Google Toolbar PageRank Fluctuations (Round 4)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 22:01:44 -0000

Re: Important – Take Specific Actions Today

Mike - Twenty Steps — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:32:30 -0000

Duly added to the feed reader provided by the company that dare not speak it's name ;)

Re: Important – Take Specific Actions Today

Mike - Twenty Steps — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:32:30 -0000

Duly added to the feed reader provided by the company that dare not speak it's name ;)

Re: ZeroRank – More PageRank Carnage (Round 5)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:04:42 -0000

As the response by both TLA and Izea suggests, the cull is being conducted manually. I've got not doubts about that. It's also not being done particularly scientifically either. A lot of my squeaky clean client sites got slapped for no other reason than association.

Let's face it, if Site A is committing the heinous crime of displaying TLA on their posts, it's not too difficult for a $10 an hour intern to look at the Webmaster Tools console for Site A and then apply an across the board slap to all the other sites without looking.

I'm pretty certain that's what they've done because some of my sites that weren't associated with my Webmaster Tools account escaped the slap totally.

Re: ZeroRank – More PageRank Carnage (Round 5)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:04:42 -0000

Re: Google Broke My Christmas * (Supplemental Result Query Changes)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 20:54:17 -0000

As I said in my post (thanks for the link, by the way), I don't think the supplementals have gone anywhere. All they've done is repackaged the previously unpopular mechanism for publicly displaying them. The idea behind it, in my opinion, is to stop SEOs whining about the number of pages they've got stuck in the SI by not just removing the old SI tag but to publicly declaim the index.

The fact remains that the internal G quality scoring metric will still be in place. That won't have gone anywhere in a hurry despite the public "we'll index anything, us" statement.

It's funny the way Big G work. A couple of days ago they launch, without much public acclaim, the changes to the Webmaster Tools section so that you can see things like duplicate meta tags but, within 48 hours, they remove a far more visible method of seeing how your site ranks within their index.

I really can't see that the internal forces at G are talking to each other because they seem to give with one hand and take away with the other.

Re: Google Broke My Christmas * (Supplemental Result Query Changes)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 20:54:17 -0000

Re: Google Dictating Nofollow For ALL Links From Compensated Content

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 20:49:42 -0000

An utterly brilliant observation of the situation, Andy, and one that I'd like to see Mr Cutts and the guys respond to. I'm not going to hold my breath, though...

The last data I saw suggested that Big G have a 65% market share in search. I would suggest that most publishers would probably add another 20% on top of that when they look at their search referral traffic. Whether we like it or not, Big G own search. If it were as simple as saying a big FU to Google and continue to make websites and blogs for our readers benefits, life would be so much easier but it's not. Without a Google presence, a website will wither and die and it seems that Google want to dictate how we operate online.

Doug Heil is one of the most vociferous fans of G over at Matts blog and he constantly refers to the "free traffic" from Google. Crap! There's no such thing as free traffic. You basically have to lube up and take whatever they give you from the Plex because without that 65%/85% of traffic, you have nothing so what choice do you have?

The woolly areas are, as you say, borne out of G's algorithmic deficiencies. There is no way on Gods earth that they can generate an algorithm which accurately detects all paid links. It's impossible. So what they do is put into place the "Report a paid link" option within Webmaster Tools and spread the biggest FUD campaign in living memory. A downside to this is that innocents get caught in friendly fire as we saw in the October Bitch Slap Fest. A further downside is what you highlight here. A fear of linking at all.

An Andy Beard post without a single link? Unheard of.

So does this mean that Google have won? That basically webmasters, bloggers and content publishers become so paranoid about linking out for fear of a Big G Bitch Slap that they don't link at all? Well FU very much, Google. Congratulations on shafting the Internet!

I'm in no doubt that the visible TBPR reductions were the first part of the "penalty". The next step will be removal from the index for the heathens that dare to link out without a Google condom.

I've been following Google since the late 90's and this is by far and away the most f*cked up piece of brand degradation that I've ever seen. They were once the geeks champion. They're now the biggest bullies in the playground.

Sorry to ramble in your comments section, Andy, but as you know, this is a subject close to my own heart and you've reopened a can of worms that I'd put to one side for the festering...I mean festive break.

Re: Google Dictating Nofollow For ALL Links From Compensated Content

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 20:49:42 -0000

Re: Techcrunch Now Nofollow Sponsor Links

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 14:12:03 -0000

Patrick Gavin confirmed on my blog that TLA have no intention of using nofollow on any of their links or changing their business model. Adding nofollow would be against TLA TOS so it would be interesting to see if Pat and the guys pulled Arrington up.

I have to say that I was shocked when Patrick said that they weren't looking to make any changes. As I pointed out, they have a duty to protect both advertiser and publisher but it seems he disagrees...

Re: Techcrunch Now Nofollow Sponsor Links

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 14:12:03 -0000

Re: Google Adsense Referral Hydra Had To Be Clobbered

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:22:36 -0000

I understand where you're coming from on this one, Andy, but I'm not convinced that large scale fraudulent use from Eastern Europe is what sits behind this. I'm not denying that what you've outlined is not only possible but also very probable but would that really be the sole reasoning behind these changes?

I'll say now that apart from thinking that they're a bunch of clueless numpty megalomaniacs, I have no other answer but the timing of all this post PR slap combined with more publishers complaining about smart pricing seems odd to me and, as TzuVelli points out, the DoubleClick deal.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, the deal has been approved by the FTC (i.e. it'll be OK for US publishers) but not by the EU. Coincidence?

Ackk...maybe I've been reading Graywolf too much ;)

Re: Google Adsense Referral Hydra Had To Be Clobbered

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:22:36 -0000

Re: Lowering The Google Red Flag – Sidestep The Cash Hungry Bull

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:22:34 -0000

Well this is one that I definitely want to watch! Absolutely hats off to you, Andy, for taking this stance.

Ultimately links can always be redirected to a followup review which refers to the first, and that followup isn't a paid review.

Too right. This is something that I advocated last year as a work around. Ultimately how can the Big G penalise you for that especially if you've robots.txt'd them off the original page?

I look forward to hearing how things work out with this.

Re: Lowering The Google Red Flag – Sidestep The Cash Hungry Bull

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:22:34 -0000

Well this is one that I definitely want to watch! Absolutely hats off to you, Andy, for taking this stance.

Ultimately links can always be redirected to a followup review which refers to the first, and that followup isn't a paid review.

Re: Lowering The Google Red Flag – Sidestep The Cash Hungry Bull

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:26:31 -0000

And there's the thing, Tim. Make a link human friendly via the anchor text or title and you've probably made it search engine friendly too.

Of course what they define as a company is pretty woolly but that's for another day ;)

Re: Lowering The Google Red Flag – Sidestep The Cash Hungry Bull

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:26:31 -0000

Re: 7 StumbleUpon Problems I Would Love To See Fixed

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:48:04 -0000

Without doubt the two things I would like to see StumbleUpon improve on are

1) The ability to search my own Stumbles by tagging and context. The old interface was actually easier to do this.
2) Your point #3. This frustrates the Hell out of me.

Hopefully the good people at SU are aware of this and doing something about it.

Re: 7 StumbleUpon Problems I Would Love To See Fixed

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:48:04 -0000

Re: Advertising Firesale (experimentation)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:49:55 -0000

Hope everything works out well on the adoption, Andy. Timothy looks like an absolute diamond.

I laughed out loud when I checked DomainTools and saw that you'd already registered the domain name! It got me thinking about whether in years to come parents will dispense with the traditional baby names books and simply do a whois search...

Re: Advertising Firesale (experimentation)

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:49:55 -0000

Re: Why TrafficJam.com really…

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 10:19:59 -0000

I've been waiting for this post since you mentioned it the other day and I'm not disappointed. What a great alternative spin on the whole BlogRush/TrafficJam thing.

Gonna have a proper look at Pawans plugin over the next couple of days with a view to reintroducing BR.

I'm still not convinced, though, about the quality of the traffic BR sends through. I found it didn't really hang around as long as other traffic sources to the same articles (i.e. StumbleUpon, Digg, Sphinn, etc.). How does it perform for you, Andy?

Re: Why TrafficJam.com really…

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 10:19:59 -0000

Re: PageRank Update – Beware Of Link Exchange Offers

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 21:09:18 -0000

Yup. One of my sites went from a PR6 to a PR4 with the last round and now dropped to a big fat zero with this one. I noticed it a couple of days ago and thought that maybe it was a temporary glitch but it looks like they slapped me good and proper this time.

Ho hum...

Re: PageRank Update – Beware Of Link Exchange Offers

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 21:09:18 -0000

Re: Surviving Google: A New Milestoe- PR0

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 09:48:44 -0000

I have to say that I admire you tremendously for taking this step. I'm going to be watching with great interest to see how it works out.

Really keeping everything crossed for you, fella!

Re: My Advise: Don’t Do It

Mike - Twenty Steps — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:38:30 -0000

Disappointed to hear you took this step. Looking at your linked posts you're admitting that Google won.

Linkbait?

Re: Surviving Google: A New Milestoe- PR0

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 09:48:44 -0000

I have to say that I admire you tremendously for taking this step. I'm going to be watching with great interest to see how it works out.

Really keeping everything crossed for you, fella!

Re: My Advise: Don’t Do It

Mike - Twenty Steps — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:38:30 -0000

Disappointed to hear you took this step. Looking at your linked posts you're admitting that Google won.

Linkbait?

Re: Google Pagerank Penalties A TextLinkAds Killer?

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:46:40 -0000

It's an interesting point, Jim, and one that I put to Patrick a couple of months ago. Sadly he decided not to respond other than saying that they had a number of initiatives in the pipeline. Now whether that means they'll be abandoning TLA and focusing on AuctionAds or Shopping Ads remains to be seen.

Re: 11 Ways to Lose Friends and Followers Online

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:05:39 -0000

Genuinely good advice not just for online relationships but also offline ones too.

Too many of us find ourselves wrapped up in the online safety blanket that we forget the "rules" that govern real life.

Loved the post hence the Stumble and Twitter RT.

Re: OK - let me have it!

Mike - Twenty Steps — Mon, 07 May 2007 11:05:36 -0000

I'm a bit confused because it looks like the out-of-the-box version of the theme allows you to comment directly from the home page so I don't understand why your version doesn't allow it.

Personally I see it as an improvement on the old style but I'm surprised you didn't customise it a bit more.

Re: Blogger Investment Advice

Mike - Twenty Steps — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:32:31 -0000

Judging by the hangover I have today and the number of cans in my recycling bag, I think I'm well on the way to being a millionaire...Is beer tax deductable?

<abbr></abbr><abbr>Mikes last blog post..You’ve Lost That Blogging Feeling</abbr>

Re: Ten Tips for Buying Paid Links

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:59:55 -0000

Loving this on two counts. Firstly the Matt gag and secondly the dig about Google knols. Spot on!

Re: WordPress: Two SEO Plugins for Meta Tag Creation

Mike - Twenty Steps — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 08:55:08 -0000

Agree with you about combining the two plugins, Douglas. I recently installed All In One on one of my sites and it's a great plugin but, as you say, the keyword element isn't the greatest. That having been said the likes of Google don't put too much weight on the keywords and focus on the title and description instead.

Re: Amazon Associates Central Sucks as bad as the Commission

Mike - Twenty Steps — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 09:03:05 -0000

Re #5 - The easiest solution is to break the Amazon link down into the physical link and the image link and then simply post the 1x1 tracking image at the end of a paragraph. That's what I do to avoid the gap :)

Re: Trick to Get on Google Front Page !

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:05:46 -0000

Thanks for the mention. Glad you liked the post!

Re: GoDaddy Unfairly Acquiring Domains

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 10:02:48 -0000

I've not had a problem with GoDaddy so far but I'm going to be paying more attention to the search/parking issue Thilak has mentioned.

Re: Creating A WordPress Robots.txt To Improve SEO

Mike - Twenty Steps — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 08:02:44 -0000

One of the reasons why you'd want to use a robots.txt file is to prevent Google from indexing content twice and potentially marking it as duplicate content. If it's listed in monthly archives, category folders and on your front page, for example, you might end up with pages in the supplemental index.

Re: ‘Commuter’ Skis Down London Tube Escalator

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 07:30:09 -0000

I saw this the other day and couldn't get over just how dumb it was. I'm a regular visitor to Angel tube station and that escalator is seriously long! A friend of mine tried sliding down the handrail a few months back and only succeeded in mashing his face up as he hit the deck...

Off to Angel tonight, strangely enough. I think I'll avoid anyone with skis, though ;)

Re: Only 300 Users Last Month Had More Than One Article On Digg….

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 08:33:13 -0000

Another sure fire sign that the Digg Mafia are still at work, methinks...

Re: ISPs Are Going To Hate Joost

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 09 May 2007 08:55:14 -0000

I downloaded Joost last night and I'm scared...There are enough things that distract me from what I should be doing without TV on demand.

Damn you, Joost, and your easy to use service...

Not looking forward to my next ISP bill either :(

Re: The Seven Habits of Successful Bloggers

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 09 May 2007 09:00:52 -0000

I'm with you on the passionate thing. I registered some domain names last year with a view to creating a few new blogs and they're still sitting there gathering dust as I have little or no interest in the topics.

The one thing that frustrates me with blogs and that will see them disappear from my feed reader is bombarding me with loads of posts every day. To my mind posting 2-3 times a day is normally enough. Any more than that and I start to get frustrated with trying to keep up. There are some exceptions but, generally, anything more than 3 a day tends to mean crappy content which has been posted just to say "Hey - look at me - I post 10 times a day! Aren't I clever?"

Re: Permalink Migration Plugin – Great Plugin For SEO

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 30 May 2007 11:36:37 -0000

I was just about to start manually rewriting my htaccess file when I remembered I'd seen something on here ages ago about a WP plugin!

I've had a look at it and tested it out on one of my development sites. It all looks to work OK but I thought I'd see how you were getting on with it. Any adverse effects in terms of spidering? Has it had a positive impact on your search traffic?

I'd love to hear your feedback after 4 months of using the plugin before installing it.

Re: New Logo Design For London 2012 Olympic Games

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 13:25:14 -0000

I really hate the new logo and, to top it all, can't look at it without thinking that it looks like Lisa Simpson performing a lewd act on her brother...

Re: Have You Signed Up For ‘U Comment – I Follow’?

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 13:26:23 -0000

I've just switched to DoFollow and it feels so liberating!

Re: I Love Facebook!

Mike - Twenty Steps — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 19:48:41 -0000

Warning: It's horrendously addictive, Everton! I recently lost best part of a day catching up with old friends, searching and chatting. By the end of it my eyes were pretty much bleeding and I fell asleep dreaming of the Facebook interface!

Re: Why Do Printer Ink Cartridges Cost So Much?

Mike - Twenty Steps — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 10:33:40 -0000

My weapon of choice is the HP 2575 - it's an awesome piece of kit for it's price. Made even better now I've found a cheap place to pick up cartridges!

Re: Is WordPress Getting Stale?

Mike - Twenty Steps — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 10:38:04 -0000

I'm with Martin on this one. I can't think of any tweaks to WordPress that would make love it any more than I already do.

My ultimate wish list from WP is that they make it an all encompassing CMS system but for the moment I'm most certainly a happy customer.

Re: Poll: How Much Do You Make From Text Link Ads?

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 11:16:57 -0000

TLA have been a much better performer for me than AdCents or whatever it's called...The great thing about it is that it's confirmed money in the bank regardless of impressions, clicks, etc.

My only concern is how their model fits in with Google's policy on paid links. I've emailed their support team and am waiting on a response.

Re: BuyBlogComments.com: Blog Comments And Backlinks For Sale

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:02:59 -0000

I'm disappointed to see the likes of Wendy Piersall dropping DoFollow and even Chris Garrett considering doing so purely on the basis of this new "service". I won't be dropping DoFollow unless it has an adverse affect on my site. What I may do, though, is review my comment policy so that I will only accept comments where people use their real name or a non-product/site related handle.

Re: Open Post: How Do You Make Money From Affiliate Schemes?

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 20:52:10 -0000

I have a couple of sites which generate regular money through CJ affiliate programs. They're very much laser focused on a niche and so you know that when the visitors come that they're looking for something very specific and, as John says, you do a bit of pre-selling on the landing page before selling the product.

Slapping CJ banners into your site simply doesn't work. Text links do but only if it adds value to the reader.

Re: FIFA 08 More Songs Added To The Soundtrack

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 23:21:16 -0000

I'm guessing you already knew this but according to 901am, there's going to be a 10 player online option with the new FIFA 08.

Personally Sensible Soccer on the Commodore Amiga was as good as it got ;)

Re: WordPress Blog Housekeeping

Mike - Twenty Steps — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:30:20 -0000

A timely reminder that I need to do some housekeeping on my blogs. I looked at the plugins installed on one of them the other day and wondered WTF half of them did. Seems I'd installed them on a bit of a whim and never got round to removing them...

Re: Blog Rush – Get Your Posts Promoted On Other Blogs

Mike - Twenty Steps — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:12:08 -0000

I can't see how BlogRush is in violation of TOS. It's no different to any of the slew of content aggregators out there which comply.

Re: What On Earth Is Going On With The Latest Google PageRank Update?

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:38:12 -0000

Whatever their motivation behind doing it, they're rattling a heck of a lot of cages at the moment and they're not publicly explaining their reasons behind it. Another case of Google FUD.

Let's put paid links to one side, if, as has been suggested, that it's down to an aggressive outbund linking policy, why not say so?

Re: $100 Site Logo Competition – Batch #5

Mike - Twenty Steps — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:20:30 -0000

21 is the winner for me. Really liking it :)

Re: Google Page Rank Fallout – Possible Legal Action?

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:07:37 -0000

The fact that the news coverage went mainstream won't have pleased Big G shareholders, I wouldn't have thought. I think Google underestimated just how much flak would come their way as a result of these changes. I'd not considered the legal avenue before but you're right. It'll be interesting to see if anyone takes them on, though.

Re: Connected Internet Drops 3 Belt Sizes to Page Rank 3

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 20:21:55 -0000

Everton - it'll be you, your mum and me because I'm not gonna let them dictate to me either. I thought for a while about taking TLA down on all my sites but, you know what? I can't be bothered.

In the last 3 months, StumbleUpon has driven more traffic to my site than Google (29.1% - 27.7%). The visitors have stayed longer and more of them have subscribed so if, for whatever reason, Big G kick me from the index then I'm not going to cry myself to sleep over it.

They've chosen a bad time to do what they're doing. Social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon are getting more popular and people are relying less on search engines than ever before.

They've bitten the hand that fed them for the last 10 years and we won't forget.

Re: Permalink Migration Plugin – Great Plugin For SEO

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 11:55:35 -0000

Part of the problem may well be that the manual updates on the .htaccess are now conflicting with the plugin so my thoughts are that you strip the .htaccess back to bare minimum, create and submit a new sitemap to Google. It could take 3-4 weeks for all the changes to filter through.

Re: Do You Pay Taxes On Your Blog Earnings?

Mike - Twenty Steps — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:57:34 -0000

Yeah I include my income on my return. It was funny when my accountant had a look at the income sources and saw Google. I had to explain the whole affiliate marketing thing to him. After I'd finished I think he'd decided to give up accounting after 20 years and start running websites!

Re: Looking Up Sk*rt – Digg for Women

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:06:38 -0000

Digg? For women? Just how many websites are there about ironing?

Re: Blogosphere Donates Over $3000 To A Blogger In Need

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 13:11:32 -0000

It truly has been an amazing reaction to RT's original post. The number of bloggers who urged him to add the PayPal button. His initial reluctance. The coverage and, of course, the generosity of those who contributed.

Re: Blogosphere Donates Over $3000 To A Blogger In Need

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 13:11:32 -0000

Re: Blog Hosting for only $10/Year: Blokester Blowout

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 17:53:21 -0000

Kathy - What sort of permalink problems are you experiencing? I tried to figure it out from your previous comments but got a little lost :( I'll see if I can help out.

Re: Moving Blogger Over to Wordpress: The Good, Bad and the Ugly

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 18:21:51 -0000

Bloke - Regarding spam, I personally recommend Spam Karma as an alternative to Askimet.

Kathy - Two issues here as far as I can see - the displayed TITLE tag and the permalinks for your site.

TITLE tag - the most effective way (and most search engine friendly way) is to include the following code within your header.php file

—

This will display just the post title on the individual pages but display the name of the blog on the home page.

Permalinks - The most SEO friendly way of constructing your permalinks is /%postname%/. Remember that you'll need to have write access to your .htaccess file to make any changes to your permalink structure.

If you're absolutely laser focused with your categories and the titles might help your search engine listings then make your permalinks /%category%/%name%/ but this will only really assist your search results if you have very specific categories.

One thing you need to remember is that any changes made within the WP dashboard for permalinks will not be retrospectively applied so, for example, if your page was called domain.com/widgets/blue-widgets/ because you used /%category%/%name%/ but you've now changed your permalink structure to read /%name%/, the old link will no longer work.

Fortunately, and this is where WordPress kicks Bloggers butt big time, there is always a plugin to solve most things. In this instance I heartily recommend the Permalink Redirection Plugin.

After any changes you make, ensure you update your sitemap within Google Webmaster Tools. The sitemap generator Debbie mentions earlier is excellent and, again, heartily recommended :D

Re: Moving Blogger Over to Wordpress: The Good, Bad and the Ugly

Mike - Twenty Steps — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 18:25:01 -0000

Ackkk.....for some reason the embedded code didn't work...grrr. OK well here's a link to the code you need to include in your header.php file.

Link

Re: Moving Blogger Over to Wordpress: The Good, Bad and the Ugly

Mike - Twenty Steps — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 14:10:01 -0000

OK let's have a look at this with my tired and hungover brain.

The Permalink Redirection plugin is suitable for when your internal WP permalinks have been changed. It won't help with the legacy links from Blogger. I didn't realise that you needed the .html for the legacy links to work. How very odd...

I'll have a play around on one of my test servers and see what I can come up with. I do recall reading about a way to make the WP posts .html so I'll see if I can hunt it down.

Regarding the naming issues, you should be able to change the post slug for any imported pages fairly easily.

Manage --- Posts --- Edit --- Post slug

Hopefully this will overcome any problems there.

Finding WP version - You can find this within your WordPress Dashboard - it's at the bottom of the page.

WordPress version - The current one available using the Fantastico installer with BlueFlur is 2.3.1

301 redirects do work OK. The problem here is that the 301 would need to be placed in the .htaccess file on the Blogger server which isn't possible.

So, to recap, my understanding is that legacy Blogger URLs haven't been imported correctly using the WP import script. What specifically is wrong with them? I'm sure the answer is above but my alcohol addled brain is struggling to function today!

Re: Moving Blogger Over to Wordpress: The Good, Bad and the Ugly

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:25:19 -0000

Kathy - My advice would be to change around the order of your title tag to POST TITLE --- BLOG NAME.

The reason I suggest that is only the first 65 characters of your page title are used for SEO purposes. If you're writing your titles with search engines in mind and are creating keyword/keyphrase rich titles, you're currently reducing your hit rate because the first 13 characters of your TITLE are the name of the site.

Just my two cents :)

Re: Moving Blogger Over to Wordpress: The Good, Bad and the Ugly

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:36:08 -0000

BB - Have you submitted a new sitemap for blogbloke.com? Also are all your internal post links formatted:

a) instabloke.com/2007/10/random-post-title.html

or

b) blogbloke.com/the-random-post-title/

I'm still trying to get my head around the way the import has screwed things up...

Re: Moving Blogger Over to Wordpress: The Good, Bad and the Ugly

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:56:25 -0000

Scratch the second part of the question - I've just found a couple of practical examples on your site and can see the problem.

Crap :(

It seems like it's caused by Blogger removing certain grammatical phrases as suggested by Debbie and WordPress isn't able to decipher what Blogger has sent over.

Double crap :(

OK so there's no easy solution to this as far as I can see. I was hoping I could work some SQL magic on your database but it seems like there are a number of factors here including some which would need to be manually applied.

Re: Moving Blogger Over to Wordpress: The Good, Bad and the Ugly

Mike - Twenty Steps — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:15:37 -0000

Manual manipulation? I'm not sure that's going to help at all although it might take your mind off the problem ;)

Re: Happy New Year 2008 Blokesters!

Mike - Twenty Steps — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 13:53:37 -0000

I have the hangover from Hell so I'll type this slowly and quietly...

Glad to see the new Blog Bloke up and running. Look forward to seeing the site developing over the coming months.

Re: The Secret to Modifying, Debugging Your Blog and other Technical Issues

Mike - Twenty Steps — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 10:24:48 -0000

James and Lee both make very good observations especially regarding cross browser compatibility. I only ever fire up IE these days just to see how something looks. I can't remember the last time I actively used IE to browse.

I've got tons of WP themes on my computer. The vast majority of them I'll never use but I've kept them because the author has done one thing in the theme that I really like. It might be the way they format their comments. It could be a dynamic navigation system. There's something in there which I might consider using in later themes.

As you suggest, BB. Why reinvent the wheel?

Re: Top 10 Podcasting Mistakes of All Time

Mike - Twenty Steps — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:29:46 -0000

I didn't know you used to be a producer. Well there you go. You learn something new every day! Maybe I'll get you to sit in on my next audio book session :D

Re: Migrating-Redirecting Blogger to Wordpress: The Complete Guide!

Mike - Twenty Steps — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:04:50 -0000

Great tutorial, BB. Duly Stumbled :)

Actually it's come at a good time because I'm thinking of moving my final Blogger site across to WordPress so I'll be keeping this guide handy.

Cheers!

Re: Migrating-Redirecting Blogger to Wordpress: The Complete Guide!

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:32:56 -0000

I will get round to writing one soon. Promise!

Re: This Is The End My Friend … The End of the Blog that is

Mike - Twenty Steps — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:17:23 -0000

I've certainly noticed a number of previously prolific bloggers either slacking off or stopping posting altogether. Folks I've been subscribing to for the last 12-18 months have closed their sites or sold them off. I guess with blogging there is always going to be a fairly high churn rate so I wonder if this is just a cycular thing or a sign of the future.

I know my personal output has been down over the last few months but that's because of real life getting in the way of my writing. It's not because I've fallen out of love with blogging it's just that I've not got as much time to blog as I used to.

Mike's last blog post..LTNS

Re: This Is The End My Friend … The End of the Blog that is

Mike - Twenty Steps — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:32:11 -0000

Hmm...dunno if the last comment was swallowed up or not so, just in case, sites like Marketing Syndrome and Modern Life Is Rubbish haven't updated this year and Neil Patel used to update Pronet Advertising on a daily basis but has only posted half a dozen times this year.

Plenty of sites I used to subscribe to have sold out to new authors who simply don't cut the mustard so I've unsubscribed. Ultimately I subscribe to people, not sites.

Mike's last blog post..LTNS

Re: This Is The End My Friend … The End of the Blog that is

Mike - Twenty Steps — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:19:54 -0000

I remember him saying that he was laying off the blogging for a bit but it seems like Modern Life is definitely dead in the water.

Another example is 10e20.com - sometimes a couple of posts a day and now nothing since Feb 15th.

Others have just given up the ghost and simply not posted for months (Rory at Clean Cut Blog) or have said they're giving up (Chris at BlogOp).

As I said, I guess it's all part of the natural churn.

Mike's last blog post..LTNS

Re: This Is The End My Friend … The End of the Blog that is

Mike - Twenty Steps — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:05:24 -0000

He's up in Scotland so it's a fair old trot from London!

Mike's last blog post..LTNS

Re: The End of the Road for Blog Bloke

Mike - Twenty Steps — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:27:00 -0000

Hehehe...Nice work, BB. Set it up with the rant and then deliver the killer blow :)

Mike's last blog post..LTNS

Re: How I got 300% More Blog Traffic in just One Week, Part 1

Mike - Twenty Steps — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:45:27 -0000

Good to see you back, BB. It's kinda tough to come back after a long break - I should know! - so glad to see you've resurfaced and hope the renewed passion for blogging fires you up to write some more of your inspirational posts.

As for the other blogger you reference, it's only jealousy because you have more hair ;)

Mikes last blog post...No Online TV For UK Firefox Users

Re: Best Blog Host OR Scam - Which is It?

Mike - Twenty Steps — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:57:55 -0000

Is there a reason why you're not mentioning your current hosting company, BB? Are you keeping your powder dry until you've found a new host?

I had two different accounts with them, both of which I've now cancelled.

They 'upgraded' the server on account A which led to my sites being unavailable for a month. They insisted it was something I'd done despite the fact I'd not logged into the control panel for several months. Eventually they fixed it but no apology.

They then suspended account B - my main account with them with a very active site hosted on the server - for non payment of account A. They got very snotty with me when I pointed out their error - that they'd suspended the wrong account. They got snottier when I pointed out that they'd never invoiced me in the first place which might go some way to the non-payment issue. How can I pay an invoice I don't know exists?

Eventually the rectified the problem but, again, no apology.

Then, after paying the invoice, they sent me ANOTHER invoice with an accompanying snotty email telling me that they were going to suspend the account.

Needless to say I cancelled my PayPal subscriptions, moved the sites to another host and deleted all the files off their server.

After cancelling the accounts, I received yet another invoice from them...They really are clueless.

I also pointed out to them that their original offer was based on a heavily discounted price 'for life' but, oddly enough, the T&C's on their site had been changed.

I found them to be possibly the worst company I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. I won't name names at this point because you might have your own reasons for not outing them but I think it's only fair that people get to hear about what an appalling company they are.

Someone mentioned DreamHost earlier. I do have an account with them but, in all honesty, I've not used it in anger. I have 3-4 sites with them, not had any downtime in nearly 2 years and not had need to contact their customer services. Would I recommend them? Well I guess so but with the disclaimer that I've not been a heavy user.

I have two VPS with different companies (ServInt and Future Hosting) and just find that running a VPS makes more sense. Sure you pay more but if, like me, you run a number of sites, it makes sense. Both ServInt and Future Hosting provide a managed service and take care of OS upgrades, hardware, backups etc. I simply log in to my control panel, add my new domains and away I go.

One VPS provider that I urge your readers to avoid is WebFusion. Awful customer service and over priced. I'm now paying less for a managed VPS than I was with their offering which I had to fully manage. The one time I had their support people do some work on the server, it fell over and kicked its legs in the air for over a week before they fixed the mess they'd made.