You see them when you are buying online products and are signing up for various forums.. Although recently they have started appearing on Wordpress Blogs!! Could this be slowing down your readers opinions?

Think about it. Your viewers are on your blog and have to enter a stupid captcha form that tests their visual skills before they can submit their opinions. Why should they even bother? With a blog being created every second* (*According to BBC and Technorati’s statistics), there surely must be another blog that offers the same type of content that you do.

Instead of trying to screw spam-bots using the Captchas, why don’t you just install Wordpress’s default spam filter.. Askimet? Then you don’t hassle the “Real” commenter’s that have said their piece on your article, and the ones advertising free viagara are blocked. (Note: For putting the word Viagara in this post, I have no doubt that I will recieve hundreds of bots commenting on this post, trying to obtain links through my keyword choice)

So just a warning to everyone that uses the image captchas.. not the ones that ask “Is the sun hot or cold?” - those are all fine and just require a 3 letter answer, don’t expect me to leave my opinion on what you wrote. I just don’t have the time to figure out the screwed up words in your annoying spam filter

Don’t Hassle Your Visitors!!

While reading one of my commenter’s blogs (Archie @ SomeExtraPennies.com), I stumbled across a small 125×125 advertisement that advertised a product called “Website Auditor”. I don’t usually click ads, but I made an exception and did. What I found will change the way I create websites from now onwards.

The product is called Website Auditor and displays more information about onsite search engine methods than most SEO firms would tell you.

Instead of trying to tell you about all of the information it tells me, I’ve generated a report about my blog and where it ranks for the popular term “Blog Tips” - at 60.3% optimized, I’d say that some work still needs to be done!

The Full BradBlogging Report - See What This Tool Can Do

Who would use this SEO tool?

• Bloggers (who doesn’t want better search engine exposure?)
• Webmasters (why not make the site better than it already is?)
• Affiliate Marketers (useful for those landing pages, getting them higher in the search results to make more money )
• “SEO Firms” (if there is such a thing.. )
• Anybody that has a website

Pros of the software:

1. Displays more information about my website, and more importantly, about my competition than I could ever ask for.
2. Dead easy to use.. Its a mere fact of filling in your website URL and typing in the term you want to rank for.. The software does the rest.
3. Incredible amount of search engine support.. Choose Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, and more.

Cons of the software:

1. The Scoring Algorithm might be a little off - In the website review, it says that “Icon” and “Set” are worth more than “Blog” and “Tips”.

All in All, I was very lucky to find this product, and hopefully you will take advantage of this great tool and increase your search engine rankings. I always try before I buy, so here is the link to the Free Trial Version.

Have you ever thought of using SEO Software to boost your rankings? If so, do you have a specific tool that you use?

Website Auditor - The Invaluable SEO Tool For All Webmasters

The Mindless Following Mentality Of The Internet:

Want to know why its so hard to start up a new blog, taking months to grow the site as well as increase traffic? It’s because your a nobody, at least, not yet in the eyes of the average internet user. It just drives me crazy the amount of people that won’t even consider reading your blog or website, if you don’t have the credentials of some of these “SuperBloggers” that are on the internet today.

The only exception to this is search engine traffic, as they are clicking over to your blog to read an article about a specific topic.

To give you a better idea of what I’m talking about, heres an example:

Site #1 - Newly started blog, has no comments on any of their posts, has 5 RSS Readers indicated by the RSS Chicklet in the sidebar and puts a couple of “advertise here” boxes to try and generate some revenue.

Site #2 - Has been around for 2 years, has over 50 comments on each post and has 20,000 readers. They do not have any “Advertise Here” squares due to the amount of advertisers that are interested in buying ad space.

If Site #1 sees the success of Site #2, they will most likely work a little harder to get to the success level that Site #2 has, but what they don’t realize is the fact that the average internet user isn’t interested in a “Newbie’s” blog content. Why go to Site #1 when you can go to Site #2?

Which brings me to the conclusion of the mindless internet swarm that won’t give anything new a chance until they have the numbers to show that they are an authority in their niche. Being a blogger, this mentality just defeats the purpose of trying to start a new blog due to the amount of time it takes to grow it into something worthwhile.

In conclusion, RSS Inflation may not be that bad of an idea. Although most bloggers and webmasters can easily detect the inflation (due to the subscriber to comment ratio), the average internet user might see that and give your blog a second chance.

What are your thoughts on the average internet user, and the way that they stereotype blogs?

(I’m really curious as to what people think about this, as this is just one side of the countless views that people have.)

The Mindless Following Mentality Of The Internet

The first 3 seem natural, however, the other two are obviously spam comments that got by Akismet. Now, the interesting thing about the comments by John Taylor is that they seem like they could of been written by a human. Although, the bot owner is obviously too stupid to set a delay for each spam comment, and two of the same comments were dropped on two different posts - in the same minute.

The first one seemed legit, and I almost pushed “Approve”, however, When I don’t know about whether a comment is legit or not, a quick search on Google usually clears the confusion up.

Results for: “I follow your blog for quite a long time and must tell you that your articles always prove to be of a high value and quality for readers.” - 189,000 results.

What do all 5 of these spam comments have in common?

• They all got past Akismet’s spam filtering plugin, which means that spam isn’t as easy to detect anymore. A nice, warm fuzzy comment about how high quality your blog is might just be a way to get a backlink to a spammers site.

Conclusion:

• It doesn’t take that much of a genius to figure out which ones are spam and which ones are not, just make sure that the comments being said are actually intended.
• If you use a “Top Commentator” or “Recent Commentator” plugin, make sure that the comments you approve have URL’s that aren’t spammy looking. Failure to do this may result in loss of rankings in Search Engines and a loss of trust in your blog’s audience.

What are some of the ways that you combat blog comment spam? Does it prove to be effective?

Blog Comment Spam Is Getting Smarter…

Thanks!

Still Looking For Beta Testers

Be one of the first people to try out the “Secret” project I’ve been working on. Although it still needs some final touches added to it, I’d really like some people to try it out.

Oh! I almost forgot - You have a very good chance to make money off trying this new website… All you need is a blog

Let me know if you are interested through commenting below (don’t forget to include a valid email address in the comment form so I can send you the URL). Limited to 20 bloggers!

Thanks, have a great weekend!

Looking For Beta Testers

I recently found a really unique program called the “Backpage Ad Auto Posting Software” made available by http://backpageautoposter.blinkweb.com/

Anybody that has used Craigslist, Backpage, EcoWeb, etc, will know that posting an advertisement, job offer or position is very time consuming. With this program, I can easily post numerous advertisements in much less time than doing each one manually! Here is what I liked and disliked about the program:

Pros:

• Fills in the advertisement for you, and then automatically submits the ad, redirecting to the next page.
• Once the captcha is filled in, it automatically (I would say within a couple seconds) goes to the confirmation page, then redirects to the next city category. This sends the confirmation email to your email account, allowing you to post the ad.
• Backpage doesn’t delete very many advertisements as compared to Craigslist, which recently cracked down on most people posting in multiple categories (ghosting their advertisements, or completely blocking their IP address).

Cons:

• Doesn’t fill in the captcha for you. Thats one of the main drawbacks of this program, but then again, it would be a very hard task to accomplish as you would need to continually update the program for the new words that have been scrambled.
• Would of been great to be able to select more than one city (rather than editing the urls.txt) to post on.
• Original software developers offer no more support for the product - The site returns a 404!

Overall, For $39, this program is a steal for the amount of time it saves when posting an advertisement to Backpage to more than one category. I’m surprised they aren’t charging more for this… You could easily purchase this and start marketing a product, make new clients to your business, and even more.

Once again, the link is http://backpageautoposter.blinkweb.com/ and I would highly recommend this to anyone that posts advertisements on Backpage.com

Friday Software Review: Backpage Posting Assisstant

Today, I’ve searched high and low for high quality icons that make website design and blog design look professional and enhance user experience. I’m going to be posting each set of icons, along with a picture and description of the license requirements.. Don’t worry, they will all be free, and jam packed with quality.

Enjoy! To download the icon’s, simply click the image and you will be taken to the page.

6150 High Quality Icons for Website Design and Blog Design Usage:

FamFamFam’s Silk Icon Set

700 awesome looking icons that are easy to look at. Great job, Mark James.

License - Creative Commons 2.5 (Requires Linkback)

Everaldo’s Crystal Project

1300 amazing icons, I’ve personally used them on this blog on the sidebar, and the footer. These high quality icons are something else.

License Restrictions: None (LGPL)

WeFunction’s Free Icon Set

I’m speechless… These 128 icons are so great, I’d probably be willing to pay a fee for these, but Liam decided to give it away for free. He is selling another icon set, but looking at these, I’d much prefer to use these ones.

License - Requires Linkback to Blog Post

Pinvoke’s Fugue Icon Set

These 1473 icons look nice and there are ones for just about anything that has to do with the internet. I really like the error message icons in the center, very crisp.

License - Creative Commons 3.0 - Requires Linkback

Pinvoke’s Diagona Icon Set

Although not as good as the first set, Pinvoke definitely took some time into creating these 400 icons. I’m sure you designers can find a way to use these ones somehow

License - Same as previous

WebApper’s Web Application Icon Set

I like the shadow on these 20 high quality icons and it would be quite simple to find a use for these.

License: Creative Commons 3.0 - Requires Linkback

Tango’s Icon Set

There is about 2000 total icons, in different sizes that look professional and could be easily implemented to any web project. Download the “tango-icon-theme-0.8.90.tar.gz” file and the icons will be inside.

License: I couldn’t find one, but I’d just linkback to give credit. After all, it look like it took a while to make!

Dryicons.com’s Coquette Icon Set

These icons are very matte, almost have a blurred effect, but look very calm and soothing nevertheless.

License - I don’t really get the difference between the “Free” and the “Commercial” aspects of the license.. so I think you should read it for yourself. (In the free version, it says you can use it for commercial projects..?)

FastIcon.com’s Web 2.0 Social Icon Set

Now they look pretty slick, and can be applied to almost any blog or website!

License: None Available

FastIcon.com’s Circular Web 2.0 Social Icon Set

If the ones above weren’t enough for you, check out these circular ones! Nice. Facticon’s really made a name for themselves when it comes to high quality icons.

License: None Available

Monofactor’s Free Vector Icon Set

Simple, yet elegant. I really like that dollar sign icon, which might help me with my new project that I’m working on…

License: Free for personal use, $50 for commercial use. (CC License)

Chris Ivarson’s “Goodies” (Icon Set)

These are the best app icons I have ever seen before, Chris, You are a magician. These high quality icons are simply something else.

License: None Available, but comon guys, give this guy a link! He deserves it.

Starfish Web Consulting’s Free Ecommerce Icons Set

Now, I know I can find a use for these in my upcoming project, but these look absolutely great. It’s even got a chili in there for the “RED HOT DEALS” - lol!

License: None

Titan Icons Ecommerce Icons Set

Well, theres only 3, but they are nice for checkout areas.. too bad there isn’t a paypal one!

License: None

Additional Resources:

Want even more icons? Feel free to check out some of the sites that have even more icons awaiting your download:

• http://www.problogdesign.com/…/30-best-free-icon-sets-for-bloggers/
• http://webdesignledger.com/…/21-best-icon-sets-for-designing-web-apps
• http://speckyboy.com/…/96-best-ever-free-icon-sets-for-web-designers-developers-and-bloggers/
• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/…/35-really-incredible-free-icon-sets/
• http://www.thewebsqueeze.com/…/50-free-icon-sets.html
• http://sixrevisions.com/…/40-beautiful-free-icon-sets/

User Contribution:

Is an icon set missing from this list? Feel free to leave a link in the comments below and I’ll do my best to add them to this list. Thanks for reading!

6150 High Quality Icons for Pratical Website Design / Blog Design Usage

At least if you were to say something like that, you should make a decent attempt to come through on it.

Oh well. Have a great Friday everyone.

Secret Project Update:

Its coming.. Slowly but surely. The programmer is doing an excellent job with the PHP backend of the application and I’m designing the entire site - We make quite a team

Friday Confusion - John Chow + Twitter = Errrr… Come Again?

The Updates:

1. Problem wasn’t caused by German Hackers (my allegations were stemmed from the spam comments that were left - I apologize.), rather by an American code who’s plugin went crazy.
2. If your running “Comment Relish” and you get this error, disable the plugin and reinstall Wordpress as thats what worked for me.
3. It was a great plugin, but I’ve now deactivated it due to the troubles it causes.

I found this out when I went to activate all of the plugins from the re-installation!

So if you get the following error message:

Error: The Email Could Not Be Sent

The Host May Of Disabled The ()mail Feature!

Simply disable the Comment Relish Plugin!

Fix Your Blog - Error: The Email Could Not Be Sent - The Host May Of Disabled The ()mail Feature!