DISQUS

@Vlad: LOL.

Amy, Vlad's right. At $150 per year, the minimum should be able to do is decide whether to nofollow people, but it may be better to get your own hosting account/WP.

However, I can understand not having your own hosting account/WP installation if you don't want to worry about the management side of blogging -- in that event, as Andy already said, either contact TypePad or start walking. :|

As for your post, Vlad, I actually immediately modify my WP core files when I download it to remove all instances of nofollow. That means any subsequent installations of WP I do with those files will automatically have nofollow disabled.

Although I think pink is cute on the lips, it's not so much on the web.

~ Teli

(Admission: Some of my older blogs still have nofollow b/c they were installed before I started modifying installation files...but they're surely catching up.)

@Vlad: LOL.

Amy, Vlad's right. At $150 per year, the minimum should be able to do is decide whether to nofollow people, but it may be better to get your own hosting account/WP.

However, I can understand not having your own hosting account/WP installation if you don't want to worry about the management side of blogging -- in that event, as Andy already said, either contact TypePad or start walking. :|

As for your post, Vlad, I actually immediately modify my WP core files when I download it to remove all instances of nofollow. That means any subsequent installations of WP I do with those files will automatically have nofollow disabled.

Although I think pink is cute on the lips, it's not so much on the web.

~ Teli

(Admission: Some of my older blogs still have nofollow b/c they were installed before I started modifying installation files...but they're surely catching up.)

Hi Vlad,
Sorry it took so long to respond, but I had to step out of the office. I did receive your e-mail and you should be receiving a response shortly. :)

~ Teli

Hi Vlad,
Sorry it took so long to respond, but I had to step out of the office. I did receive your e-mail and you should be receiving a response shortly. :)

~ Teli

I say the same thing, Vlad. I'm always testing the limits of my literary license (to the chagrin of all my English teachers).

By the way, if you think I was pointing out the way you spelled honour, I wasn't. I'm just a freak who prefers the British spelling, but understand that both are correct. :D

45n5, I'm going out on a limb here and assuming that you're Mark, correct?

Anyhoo, you're welcome. I sincerely hope that marketers start realizing the benefits of permission marketing over coercion marketing.

Now, I should probably pop over to your forum, sign up, and post this, but I've actually created mailing list etiquette for myself. It's a list of rules/creeds that I will follow when sending *any* e-mail to any of my list members.

~ Teli

P.S. Vlad, last I checked 0 + 6 = 6, however, according to your plugin I didn't pass the math. ROFL

I say the same thing, Vlad. I'm always testing the limits of my literary license (to the chagrin of all my English teachers).

By the way, if you think I was pointing out the way you spelled honour, I wasn't. I'm just a freak who prefers the British spelling, but understand that both are correct. :D

45n5, I'm going out on a limb here and assuming that you're Mark, correct?

Anyhoo, you're welcome. I sincerely hope that marketers start realizing the benefits of permission marketing over coercion marketing.

Now, I should probably pop over to your forum, sign up, and post this, but I've actually created mailing list etiquette for myself. It's a list of rules/creeds that I will follow when sending *any* e-mail to any of my list members.

~ Teli

P.S. Vlad, last I checked 0 + 6 = 6, however, according to your plugin I didn't pass the math. ROFL

Hey Vlad,
You're honoured? Wow, that put a huge smile on my face. You have a great blog, I'm honoured to read it. :)

Shoot me an e-mail and we'll talk.

Hey Vlad,
You're honoured? Wow, that put a huge smile on my face. You have a great blog, I'm honoured to read it. :)

Shoot me an e-mail and we'll talk.

Building a good e-mail list is becoming increasingly difficult as more people realize that some marketers are just out to promote the next great thing -- I've actually just unsubscribed from 5 lists this morning alone.

People are realizing that they can sign up to the list, get the bonus, then unsubscribe. If your readers believe you have information of value and that you're upstanding, I do believe they'd subscribe of their own volition (i.e. no bonuses for signing up or whatnot).

Before long, the marketers are going to realize that there needs to be a shift in their marketing tactics when it comes to e-mail (I hope) and things will start leaning more towards quality over affiliate product launches.

45n5, I hope that your forum takes off. It's definitely a great idea and it may be the place where that change starts to happen.

~ Teli

Building a good e-mail list is becoming increasingly difficult as more people realize that some marketers are just out to promote the next great thing -- I've actually just unsubscribed from 5 lists this morning alone.

People are realizing that they can sign up to the list, get the bonus, then unsubscribe. If your readers believe you have information of value and that you're upstanding, I do believe they'd subscribe of their own volition (i.e. no bonuses for signing up or whatnot).

Before long, the marketers are going to realize that there needs to be a shift in their marketing tactics when it comes to e-mail (I hope) and things will start leaning more towards quality over affiliate product launches.

45n5, I hope that your forum takes off. It's definitely a great idea and it may be the place where that change starts to happen.

~ Teli

It's not just you Andy, sometimes I experience time out issues when I click through to read the TRB, but it only happens occasionally for me. I generally write it off as a hosting hiccup, but after waiting a few minutes, it will load up fine (in most cases).

~ Teli

Andy,
Thanks for the link love and compliments; you're making me blush. :)

Tony, you really should consider it. Diane Vigil has a nice conversation going about ditching the nofollow tag (make sure to read her first comment - #3).

~ Teli

I'll bite. :)

Shameless plug for my own free ebook to follow. LOL

Title: WordPress Quick Start Guide
Description: Overview of getting started with WordPress, including blog, theme, and plugin installation for the absolute newbie.
URL: http://www.optiniche.com/blog/195/wordpress-guide/

Not sure if this was published in 2006, but believe it was and it's darn good, too.

Title: Viral Copy
Description: Tips for producing viral content which results in people noticing, linking, and recommending your website.
URL: http://www.copyblogger.com/viral-copy/

Okay, that's my limit.

~ Teli

Aw, I hope you're feeling better and have a wonderful Christmas.

~ Teli

P.S. Thanks for being my copy editor and can't wait to see your 5 things; please don't hold it against me. :)

Gah!! Seems I have web design on the brain. Must remember to proof read before publishing LOL.

FTP -> FTC

~ Teli

I came late to this discussion, however, after reading through the various posts online and the FTC opinion, I believe Brian (Copyblogger) has a good point: this will most likely affect the more shady companies than anyone else.

If you're not making false claims simply to have someone click on your link and make a purchase, the likelihood of the FTC coming after you is probably slim.

It's ludicrous to treat everyone on the web like a child. People should be able to use their better judgement when someone recommends something. The FTC should only step in when someone is blatantly making false claims or promising the moon, sun, and the fountain of youth (bottled) which is already illegal.

On the positive side, it appears PPP isn't taking any chances with this. Some affiliate networks may take a similar stance, though I doubt it -- they may start cracking down on individual affiliates and enforcing what they are allowed to say/promise in their product endorsements.

My 3.72 cents :),
~ Teli

P.S. This is merely speculation. IANAL.

And another note, I completely agree about the ProBlogger set up. That coding - especially the use of the H1 tag - is brutal. It serves no purpose, not even SEO, and it was even styled with the CSS which indicates that it wasn't an accident or a momentary lapse in judgment...

Frankly, the date should have been wrapped in a paragraph tag, the blog's title should be in a heading level one and each of Darren's post titles should be in heading level 2. Again, just my opinion. ;)

~ Teli

It is semantically correct to have post titles H1, and subheadings H2, if you use a graphics header.

Depends on how you use the graphic, but yes, it is still semantically correct. It's important that you provide adequate alt text and an even better solution would be using some sort of image replacement.

I see your point where it concerns blogs that don't have keywords in the title, however, that doesn't absolve the blog from using a heading structure on the site.

What I'm trying to get at is there should only be one H1 heading on any page. It's the most important heading and the one that encompasses all others. Deciding to use an H1 tag for post titles simply because the title of the blog doesn't contain keywords won't cut it.

Of course, this is my personal view and there's no definitive documentation. But, it appears to be the accepted norm, especially for accessibility.

~ Teli

P.S. Thanks for the compliments on the templates. :)

It may not be logical for SEO purposes, but it is logical for semantic purposes. Heading tags should be looked at as a type of table of contents.

See HTML 4.0.1 Headings and Heading Elements.

H1 being your main, or overall topic (hence the title)
H2 being a main topic within the main topic (hence the blog post title)
H3 being a topic under the secondary topic (hence, used within the blog posts)

Personally, I've found that semantically constructed blogs do better in the search engines than those who use multiple H2 tags solely for SEO purposes.

Headings should be used to build a structure. Of course, this is still open to debate (and it has been debated a lot).

My personal rule of thumb is to look at the individual blog entry and develop a basic table of contents for it. That table of contents then becomes my heading structure for it.

~ Teli

I must preface this entry with IANAL, but from what I've read and understand, the WordPress trademark would cover the software and not any training material. Automattic, Inc. would need to file a separate application for such. Brandon or Sherman would be able to file their own trademark application for using WordPress in their training/education materials.

Whether they are spammy or not, their sites look *exactly* like the people selling “mass posting” to “thousands of niche WordPress and Blogspot blogs” software, which is spam.

Matt

It seems you're targeting various websites based on your own misconceptions. If you took a moment to contact Sherman and discuss the product he's providing, or even asking to review it, you'd quickly find it's the exact opposite of your assumptions. It doesn't sell "'mass posting' to 'thousands of niche WordPress and Blogspot blogs' software" and isn't spam. Though I can't speak for Brandon, as long as I've known Sherman, he's not condoned spam nor does he promote/teach anything spammy.

As for using 'wordpress' in the domain name, that's a toss up, but Andy raises a very good point in asking if you'd ask the various other WP community sites to remove 'wordpress' from their domain names. If you were vigoriously defending your trademark, logic dictates you would.

Echoing Dave Taylor's comment, your targeting of specific domains based on how they look is unfair and biased -- something that may play against you in the long run. If you plan to defend the trademark of WordPress and request websites not use 'wordpress' in their domain names, you should target all domains using WordPress (a lot more than 10), including the off-shoot community sites like WordPress Plugins, WordPress Themes, and WordPress Brasil, WordPress France et al -- not just a handful you feel look spammy. How a site looks is subjective, the law is objective.

I hope this situation can be resolved amicably by all parties involved.