"Four Figure Income from The First Month"
- Hotlink Protect Your Images | 6 Comments
In my last post I wrote about how you can password protect your stats files in your Cpanel. Another often overlooked part is the hotlinking problem many face without knowing.
What is hotlinking?
Hotlinking also called bandwidth theft is using your images/video and link to it from your own website. Since this person doesn’t host this image on their server, they effectively steal your server juice. Just imagine that a stranger plugs his computer into your own electrical sockets without you knowing it? You still pay the bill mind you, but this person is cheekily stealing your electricity.
The same applies to bandwidth stealing or hotlinking. Some webmasters actually use funny images to tell others that their image was hotlinked to and display some “in your face” image instead.
Methods such as switcheroo bring this message across strongly.
To switch on your hotlink protection via Cpanel find the little icon that looks like this:
After clicking on the icon you’ll have a couple of options. If you are hosting several sites and want to use images between each one (share) you’ll need to list them in the box provided titled “URLs to Allow Access”.Below this you see a little box that lists all the extensions to protect. Common ones are:
jpg,jpeg,gif,png,bmp,pdf and video files
You can also allow viewers to view images in the browser by ticking the next box below. Alternatively just leave this unchecked.
Once you are happy with your choices, click on Activate. This is a quick and easy method to say goodbye once and for all to common bandwidth thief’s.
- Password Protect Your Stats Files | Leave a Comment
For self hosted WordPress users there is always the chance of getting hacked by nasty people. Often this happens because most bloggers have no idea on how to protect themselves and their blogs against misuse. WordPress has a security hole of which most aren’t aware of.
A friend of mine got hacked into the other day and this was all due to the prominent “register here” link in the sidebar of most WordPress blogs. He had forgotten that his blog was still open to general registration and never gave it a second thought. Until this happened.
Hackers use malicious software to spam your blog with unjustly links, most likely without you ever realizing that they are doing it. After they register they can gain access to your blogs files via a hidden back door and use this to place bad links throughout your blog. By un-ticking the option to allow anybody to register on your blog you will protect yourself at least one way.
How to protect your stat files
Another way is to password protect your stats files in your cpanel by going to
the icon that says “Password Protect Directories”
Within this you’ll see a list of files. To protect your stats files click on the folder that says “tmp“.
A new list will open and now you can protect each directory within this folder with a password. This will prevent hackers getting into your stat files and leaving unsavory links to some nasty sites.This can also be a potential problem for you as you might be penalized without knowing it in the first place.
To find out you can access your Awstats and if there is an unusual amount of incoming links from a site that doesn’t look right, check it out. It could be a hacker doing its work in the back end.
Downloading WordPress Themes from 3rd part sites is a big no no
For those of you who are used to downloading WordPress themes from 3rd party sites, think again before you keep doing it. You might want to read this post to understand why you shouldn’t.
CHMOD your files to the right specifications
If your files are open to abuse, hackers will take advantage of this situation. Don’t ever leave any files set to 777 permission as this is asking for trouble. Be especially wary of the config.php file and admin related files.
It is always better to smarten up and read/learn what you can before it is too late.
- Beware of Certain Plugins | 12 Comments
Yesterday I’ve experienced first hand on the effect an unsuitable Plugin can have on the operation of a WordPress blog. I was happily designing and setting up a new blog for a client friend of mine when suddenly I could hardly open up the site in a new browser.
What’s going on?
Even the admin side of WordPress was suddenly playing up going all strange on me. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me what was wrong, especially since it all worked just fine minutes earlier. After unsuccessfully clicking around looking at code I changed, etc. I couldn’t deal with it any longer and got onto live hosting support.
At that stage I truly believed that it was due to them for some reasons and figured that they might surely be able to help me.
10 minutes later I was still no further and after conversing with the guy from tech support for all that time via instant text he simply told me to send an email to support.
Building frustration!
….well hello baby!
Don’t you just hate it when this happens?
I wasn’t a happy camper to tell you the truth. Funny enough as soon as I closed down the live widget I had my inspiration that I should have had before.
Suddenly I realized that it could have been the last Plugin I uploaded and since I tried pretty much everything else by then I deleted it from the server.
Guess what…
Yep, it was all due to this silly little part of code that had for mysterious reasons messed up the whole functionality of the blog.
The moral of the story
Is simple really, be smarter than me and always double check your blogs working status after each Plugin you upload and change of code you implement. Normally I do this automatically but for once I got slack trying to take the fast way - only did it turn out the rather long and frustrating way instead.
- Do Web 2.0 Bloggers Use Web 1.0 SEO Tactics? | 9 Comments
What do the A-list bloggers and Web 2.0 advocators have to do with “outdated” web 1.0 SEO techniques like ?The answer is everything.
Do you think top “make money online” blogs like Shoe Money, John Chow, and Dosh Dosh would do something as “silly” as submitting their blogs to web directories? No?
The picture here shows otherwise. While submitting to web directories, I have come across all of the above mentioned blogs, and more, in various paid web directories. They hardly talk about directory submissions on their blogs, but they do it nevertheless.
“But..” you say, “…how did this happen?”
There are only 3 possible explanations for this:
- They did it themselves, submitting to a handful of high-ranking paid directories for valuable one-way links
- Their fans submitted for them, of out love for their content and value they bring to the market
- They outsource their SEO to an individual or company and pay them for their services
Considering these are paid directories, and that the actual act of submitting your blog to some of these isn’t easy, I would rule out possibility number 2. No matter how good your content is, I don’t think your readers are going to pay $20 - $99 to list your blog on a paid directory, when they could just list theirs!
I think it’s more likely that the A-list bloggers outsource SEO and linking to a third party, while they focus on building readership and content. Or, they can go to a handful of paid directories and submit it themselves. This is usually done when their blogs are fairly new, just to get some “SEO juice” flowing.
So why would they want to do something like this when there are super-cool and revolutionary web 2.0 stuff like social bookmarking, and that’s supposed to be the “right” way to get one way links to your blogs?
The answer is: Because it works!
One common mistake most people make is to listen to the SEO tip du jour. They blindly follow what the A-list bloggers say about marketing, SEO, , Google, and a whole lot of other things. But they never really do the research to discover the truth for themselves.
They continue to be led, influenced, and manipulated.
In my post about submitting your blog to 600 web directories, some negative commenters say “It’s a waste of time” or “It doesn’t work” or “Google will catch you and put your sorry ass in SEO prison if you do that”. How many of them speak from experience, and how many are simply regurgitating what they read somewhere else?
Here’s the truth about blog SEO according to Gobala Krishnan:
- Don’t bother with web 2.0 marketing and SEO techniques until you’ve done all the basic web 1.0 marketing and SEO stuff, including and article marketing.
- No traffic is as good as targeted, free search engine traffic obtained by getting high rankings in search engines like Google and Yahoo. Pay-Per-Click or PPC ads come second, but these can be costly in the long run.
- , but it works better when someone finds your content in search engines and then uses the social networks to share your site or pages. This is why the big blogs get more coverage from social media than your site does!
- The basic idea is to improve your rankings by getting more links, with your keywords as the anchor text if possible. Does it really matter if it’s web 2.0 or not, as long as you’re getting results?
I strongly encourage you to not take my words as the absolute truth either. I think you should do your own research, and what you discover along the way will guide you to the truth.
(Challenge: Go to any of the top directories found on directory rating websites. Type in the URL or name of an authority blog you visit often, and I bet you’ll find it listed in at least one)
- How Important Is Networking For You? | Leave a Comment
Sometimes I get so caught up in my work that I have to take a step back and remember what builds relationships. Networking is to bloggers like the breath is to humans. Networking is what builds connections and friendships and sometimes I’m guilty as hell to neglect this important part of blogging.
We can try really hard to visit other blogs, leave comments, stumble other’s posts, vote for them on BloggingZoom, Digg, Sphinn and the hundreds of other sites that allow us to vote. But what about interacting with our own readers on a more personal level?
After all, our readers are what we should be concerned about the most. They take their time to come and visit our blog, read what we have got to say and then comment. This in my eyes is often under valued by most bloggers, myself included.
Luckily enough for me I already know most of my commenter’s on my own blog. I’ve befriended them, whilst leaving comments on their blogs for weeks and month, or meeting them in certain forums. But sometimes I forget about the networking part because I’m too buys trying to do all the other things in my business.
Networking has a lot of potentials for all involved. The first thing that comes to mind is the community we build with like minded bloggers. Another aspect is the potential of future JV’s which should never be under estimated.
Since blogging is all about interaction, we should put a lot more emphasis on it. The trouble is, that we are all extremely busy and sometimes some things just have to give.
How do you feel about this? Is it important to acknowledge our readers and network with them, or does this happen as a natural evolution of our blogging journey?
- Use Directory Rating Websites to Find Top Directories | 4 Comments
Paid can be scary.
Unlike submitting to free directories, it’s way more stressful to send a Paypal payment to the owner of a directory and never really know if your site will ever be listed. Most web directories appear to be lifeless, and you don’t know if the webmasters that manage them are still actively accepting submissions.
So you fill-up their form, make a payment, and wait for a response. A week passes, then a month, and eventually you’ll forget about checking if your site is listed. Not to mention that by now you’ve already submitted to so many paid directories that you can’t keep track of them all. What a way to waste cash.
Isn’t there a better way to find directories worthy of your hard-earned money?
This is where directory rating sites play an important role. Simply put, these sites attempt to find, organize and rate the thousands of free and paid directories available on the Internet.
Here are two of them:
Directory Rate
DirectoryRate.com allows you to rate the top directories, so you can read other people’s ratings and experience before you decide to submit. It’s also easy to see which directories are active, and the overall SEO power of each. The site assigned it’s own rating system, and the active directories will display this rating on their sites.
Directory Critic
DirectoryCritic.com works the same way. When a directory gets listed high here, it’s providing social proof that they have an active submission process, and you can even get testimonials of how much traffic to expect from your submissions. It’s a win-win situation for the directory owners and for you.
If you submit your blog to a directory via these services and get good service, make sure you go back to the sites and submit your own rating or review. This would help other webmasters find good directories. You can also share your list via or other social bookmarking sites.
If you own a directory, consider listing your site in these sites and instantly improve your reputation and daily submissions.
- Advertise on Easy Wordpress Blog From Just $1.00 | 2 Comments
Now, you can place a 125×125 pixel ad on EasyWordpress.com starting from just $1.00Here’s how it works:
- There are 3x 125px banner ads spots that will appear on the blog, at the top right hand corner and each spot is sold differently
- Every time you see the image like the one you see on your right, you can click on it and be taken to the individual auction page
- You can register for the marketplace and make your bid on each individual ad spot or all of them if you want, there is no limitations
- You can also choose “BuyOut” to bypass the auction and grab an ad spot for the specified BuyOut price.
- You can place a banner ad to your own sites, products or affiliated sites, as long as the ads have nothing to do with politics, gambling, porn or sexual topics
- Each ad will be active for one month, after which they will be available again to new advertisers
Is it worth your money?
EasyWordpress.com gets about 200,000 unique page views every month, and about 90% of them go to the WordPress tutorials blog and the forum. On any other site with the same statistics, you can expect to pay between $90 - $200 per banner ad, so when you start at just $1 I don’t have to tell you it’s a good deal. Plus, unlike overpriced ad rates, our rate is 100% controlled by market demand, so you’ll always be getting the fair market value - or a “bang for buck” if you prefer.
All advertising revenue from these ads will be shared as follows:
- 50% goes to EasyWordpress.com to help us cover our costs and other expenses.
- 30% goes to any lucky EasyWordpress.com subscriber via our monthly cash giveaway. This will help the blogger to pay for some of his / her advertising and maintenance cost. Blogging isn’t cheap, in case you didn’t notice!
- 20% goes to any WordPress plugin developer in our WordPress developers list. There are a lot of WordPress developers out there who have developed fantastic plugins and they get get paid nothing for it, except for donations from users. It’s time we paid them for their efforts.
- Cool Hoodies for WordPress Geeks | 6 Comments
WordPress has recently released some cool hoodies for those who can’t bear the thought of stepping away from their beloved blogs. See for yourself how groovy they look.
Now you can go for coffee in your local neighbourhood and look like the geek you really are. The hoodies are ideal for keeping you snuggled up and warm on a cold autumn day.
The great news is that WordPress ships them worldwide so you can all rush to get your fingers on these. The hoodies are next in line from the fiery T-shirts WordPress released last July.
You can take these to the next level and brand them with you blog URL on the back. Any good printer can do this for you and before you know it you walk around as your very own advertising billboard.
Note: WordPress suggests that you order them one size up from your own.
- Are You Original Enough? | Leave a Comment
As a blogger it is hard enough to be noticed amongst thousands of others. Even for those who are active in the social networking environment it takes a lot of long hours and hard work to keep track of the blogs we read and comment on.
I have spent month doing exactly that, slowly building my brand and now I’m getting recognized by many A-list bloggers simply by my name. This was the exact purpose I started out on - to brand myself as a unique person being noticed amongst the pack.
My question to you is this, do you feel that you are an original? Do you need to stand out at all or are you just happy tagging along doing your own thing?
The human aspect is equal
Both of these examples provide equal value. I’m no better person for having branded myself than the person who hasn’t. The reason I persisted was to get established as a marketer that will open me doors later down the track. Doors to do JV projects, consulting and much more.
Since I don’t know what lies around the corner all I can do is aim at the top. Regardless of education, knowledge and race we all have the potential to aim at our very own top
… wherever this might be.
It doesn’t matter!
What matters is that you are doing all you can to be original in life and business.
I want to leave this world being remembered for my brilliance
Making a difference in people’s lives by helping them to become better is a huge goal of mine. Whether I will succeed is to be discovered but who knows what is around the corner. Life interferes in the funniest moments and all we can do as bloggers is to keep going and learning.
Having a plan and working it certainly helps - at least it helps me.
When I leave this earth I want to be remembered for years to come as having been a special person that has managed to excel her wildest dream. Why, I simply refuse to be a number, an everybody.
Originality starts in the mind
It doesn’t take a lot to become original. It all starts in the mind with a single idea. Originality has many facets, colours and voices. To find your own go back to the beginning.
What makes you happy,
… how would you like to spend the rest of your life?
- Create Beautiful E-Cover Designs for Your Blog | 10 Comments
I’m a sucker for packaging, and I’ve brought this habit over to the online world.
When I first got my Apple iBook in 2006 I was so in love with the beautiful packaging that I kept all the boxes. The same happened when I bought my iPhone in 2008. Apple Computer have obviously mastered the art of packaging, and it’s something we can all learn in our blogging and Internet marketing efforts.
When you talk about digital products like e-books, white papers, software and even website advertising, people tend to think:
“But it’s digital and I don’t ship it, so why should I create packaging?”
In marketing, good packaging adds the final touch to a great product.
Even when you’re selling intangible or digital goods, nothing ads realism more than “E-cover” packaging. It’s true that there isn’t any real cover or package, but make it seem like it does and your conversion rates will improve. E-covers add the “feel” to your product and lets your customers visualize it clearly.
In fact I would say a good e-cover is as important to a product as a good WordPress theme is to a blog. There are 3 ways you can create e-covers:
- Hire a web graphics designer to create a single cover or a complete package, and pay them
- Do it yourself manually in Photoshop - which isn’t really that difficult if you’re a design expert
- Get Photoshop “action scripts” that eliminate the know-how and learning curve, and do it yourself
I’ve hired people before, but after I got my own Photoshop action scripts, I never went back to them. In fact I created all these covers myself:
You can almost see the transition in design I’ve made for all my e-covers. Initially I designed my e-covers the same way the regular e-cover designers do, but more recently I’m trying to move to simpler, web 2.0-ish designs.
And you can do this yourself too:
- Get the Photoshop action scripts and install them on your PC (make sure you have Photoshop)
- Test out the scripts and see which type of cover (ebook, box, membership card etc) that you want to use
- Compare your designs with other e-cover designs that you fancy, and research their color combination and techniques
- Over time your designs will improve and you’ll save yourself a few thousand dollars in e-cover design, while creating a branding effect for your products
If you’re just after one cover, then don’t bother getting it. But if you’re in the business of creating and selling digital products, this is a must-have in your marketing arsenal.
More Info: E-cover Design Package
Gobala Krisnan is a direct-response marketer turned blogger who makes over $10,000 a month from his blog empire. If you want to make money online from blogs, he is the only person who can reveal the secret of merging time-tested direct marketing strategies with web 2.0 traffic. Read more about him >>
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