I did a blog redesign a few months ago and took the opportunity to try the native WordPress commenting system, because I had been using Disqus on my blog since way back when it was on Blogger (several years ago now). One reason why I was excited about using the native WordPress comments system was I wanted to give the CommentLuv plugin a try.

What is CommentLuv?

CommentLuv is a plugin that adds a link to a recent post from a commenter’s blog, if that commenter inputs a blog URL into the comment form. It’s a nice thing to do, in that your commenters can gain back-links to their blogs, which helps their SEO. It also encourages people to leave comments, so they get those back-links. Supposedly, people have also seen an increase in blog traffic after installing CommentLuv.

My Experience After Installing CommentLuv

I had the CommentLuv plugin installed from January 20th to March 20th of 2014, a total of 2 months. Here’s what I observed:

Comments – I only saw a minimal increase in people leaving genuine comments on my blog. And by minimal, I mean 2-3 per blog post…maybe. Nothing to get excited about. I have noticed an overall tendency in the blogosphere of people to leave comments in other places, such as Twitter and Instagram, instead of on a blog post, so the CommentLuv plugin didn’t do anything to increase post comments in my case.

Traffic – I saw absolutely no increase in blog traffic after installing the plugin.

Spam – I saw a HUGE increase in the amount of spam comments that inundated my blog. I have the Akismet plugin installed (a spam filter plugin) which filtered out most of them, but I had to empty my blog’s spam folder daily because the numbers would be upwards of 1,000+ spam comments a day.

Server speed – When my spam folder was teeming with over 1,000 spam comments, I noticed my blog starting to run slow…slow…slow. Even though those comments had been filtered out and weren’t showing on my blog posts, they were sitting in my database and taking up precious space. Also, every time a spam comment was made, WordPress had to work to process it, Akismet had to work to flag it as spam, and all those things took up energy from my server. In short, having to handle and store all those spam comments was slowing down my blog, and could have crashed my server if it got worse. Yikes! Every time I emptied my spam, I saw an increase in site speed and performance, so I became aware it was causing a problem.

Here’s a look at the increase in spam comments my blog experienced since installing CommentLuv:

Conclusion

In short, I saw no marked increase in comments or traffic to my blog, but did see a huge increase in spam comments that only put stress on my blog and server. For me, CommentLuv was not a good option and I’ve since deleted it. Unfortunately, the spam is still rolling in several months later. I hope it will decrease over time.

If you are, or plan on, receiving products from brands and PR firms for review or product placements on your blog, then you may want to consider renting a mailbox for your fashion blog.

What is a Rented Mailbox?

You can rent a mailbox from companies that provide mailbox services, which is essentially a personal address that can receive mail and packages for you. It is similar to a P.O. Box, but you can receive packages from all carriers as well as the Postal Service (with a P.O. Box, you can only receive packages from the postal service). Some common mailbox franchises include Mailboxes Etc. and The UPS store.

Why Would You Need To Rent a Mailbox For Your Blog?

• It’s generally not a good idea to send your personal address around in the first place.

• If you show personal possessions in blog posts, such as designer handbags, you should strive to keep your personal address private to prevent your home from becoming the target of thieves.

• When you send your address to brands, your personal information is not secure:

• it can be stored in email accounts that can be hacked.
• it can be stored on computers that can be hacked or stolen.
• a lot of blogger outreach is handled by interns, who may make less-than-professional choices regarding passing around your personal information, or using it for malicious purposes.
• even if you trust your PR contact, if she/he leaves for another position, your personal information may not end up in as safe hands with the next PR person.

How to Rent a MailBox For Your Blog:

• P.O. Boxes are generally not a good idea, because UPS, FEDEX, and other major carriers can not deliver to them.

• Search for mailbox services or centers in your city, and compare based on amenities, convenience, security, and price to find one that works for you.

• Make sure the mailbox center you’re looking into can receive packages from all carriers including the postal service.

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I recently received an email asking how a blogger decides to own their own domain name.

What does is mean to own your own domain name? Free blogging platforms like Blogger, Tumblr and WordPress append their own domain onto your blog URL. For example, if your blog is called My Blog, your Blogger URL would be myblog.blogspot.com, your Tumblr URL would be myblog.tumblr.com, and your WordPress URL would be myblog.wordpress.com. Owning your own domain name would mean your URL would be simply myblog.com.

I think a blogger should own their own domain name as soon as they realize they enjoy blogging and want to stick with it for a while. Here’s why:

• When we put URLs into our browsers, through force of habit, we usually enter the .com URL. We are very conditioned to expect every website to end in .com. So if you tell someone your blog name, or one of your readers tells their friend about you, chances are when they get to a computer they’ll try going to myblog.com. If your blog isn’t there, those potential readers may never find you.

• A .com URL looks more professional to brands and media than a .blogspot.com, .tumblr.com, or .wordpress.com URL. You’ll look like you know what you’re doing and that you mean business.

• Anyone can buy your domain name if you don’t, so even if you have myblog.blogspot.com, someone can purchase myblog.com and start their own blog on it. Then there goes your brand, and maybe even readers (readers can get confused, and most people search for a .com domain before they search for a .blogspot, .wordpress, or .tumblr domain).

• Even if you don’t end up using it for your blog, you should still buy it so no one else takes it and uses it for their own website. In fact, you may want to look into buying the domain names that are similar to yours in order to protect your brand. Just take a look at the mess caused when The Coveted (now known as The Coveteur) purchased and started using thecoveted.com when there was already an established blog called The Coveted on the-coveted.com.

So, if you realize you’re enjoying blogging and want to keep it up, there’s a good chance you’ll want to use your own .com domain, so it’s best to just secure it. Buying domains is very cheap (usually about $10 for a year), so it’s a worthwhile purchase.

What is Google Friend Connect (GFC)?

GFC is a widget usually placed in the sidebar of a blog that allows readers to “follow”. Readers that “follow” a blog via GFC see that blog’s posts in their Blogger Dashboard and Google Reader (after July 2013, Google Reader will be shut down), as well as have their avatar show in the blog’s widget.

GFC used to be a fun little widget that any blogger could place on their blog, no matter what platform they were using. Bloggers love growing their “followers” on GFC because it’s an indication of how popular a blog is and how many readers it has.

Last year, Google changed GFC so that only blogs on Google’s Blogger platform could install and use the widget. That’s fine if you only intend to keep your blog on Blogger, but if you decide that you want to move your blog to WordPress (a very common thing for bloggers to want to do after blogging for a few years) or Tumblr, you won’t be able to bring your GFC followers with you.

Case study: A blogger friend emailed me recently with a few questions about having recently moved her blog from Blogger to WordPress. One of the questions she had was about a drop in readers she saw after the move. After some troubleshooting, we realized the drop in readers was from the loss of her GFC followers. She had spent a lot of effort in getting readers to “follow” her blog by GFC in the past, and now she had lost all those readers because there was no way to import those GFC followers over to WordPress. She just has to hope that those readers find her again, and follow her blog in another way.

So…

• If your blog is on Blogger, and you think you may move your blog to another blogging platform in the future, it’s best not to invest too much time or effort in growing your GFC followers. If you move your blog off Blogger, you’ll lose those followers, and will just have to hope they follow your blog again in another way.

• If you know for sure you’ll never move your blog off Blogger, then it’s safe to go ahead and grow your “followers”.

Here are a few interesting ways I’ve heard in which brands have discovered bloggers:

Bloglovin’

One major fashion brand picked four lucky bloggers for a project that included styling, video, and a celebrity host. How did this brand decide which bloggers to choose for the project? On Bloglovin’! The brand literally went on Bloglovin’ and picked their favorites from the “up and coming” category.

Google

Another major fashion brand invited a group of bloggers to an exclusive event where they had the opportunity to meet the brand’s designer. When one of the bloggers asked an organizer of the event how it came to be that they discovered her blog, the answer was, “we Googled ‘(insert city here) fashion bloggers'”.

Your Archives

I received an invite to an event hosted by yet another major fashion brand that had never reached out to me before. In the email I received, I was thanked for previously writing on my blog about a related promotion the brand had held the season before. The brand found my old post, which prompted them to extend an event invitation my way.

I’d love to hear what other surprising ways you’ve heard of brands finding bloggers in the comments!

One year during fashion week, a blogger acquaintance of mine built a relationship with a major brand through their public relations team, and scored an invite to the brand’s fashion show. In the hopes of furthering the relationship with the brand, she kept in contact with their PR, but by the time the next fashion week rolled around, the brand’s PR team no longer had a relationship with her or her blog. So, what happened?

When working with a brand, chances are your contact is going to be someone in public relations. But building a relationship with a brand through their PR team can be short-lived if the brand outsources their PR to a public relations firm. Here’s why:

Lots of brands outsource their public relations, social media, or marketing to firms that specialize in these areas. The employees of these firms are not brand employees. They have been hired to come up with, and implement strategy that the brand may not be able to do in-house.

If the brand doesn’t feel the PR firm is representing them well, is too expensive, gets sweet talked by another firm into using them instead…just to name a few…the PR firm’s contract will not get renewed, and the brand moves on to a new firm.

So, if you’re working with the PR team for a brand, no one at the actual brand may even know who you are, since you’re working with the PR firm, and not the brand directly. Thus, if the brand switches PR firms, your relationship with the brand goes out the same window as the old PR firm.

This is precisely what happened to my blogger acquaintance. The brand she had built a relationship with changed PR firms, and her relationship went with them.

So, if brands want to build lasting relationships with bloggers, should they really be outsourcing that to PR?

On the flip side, building relationships with PR firms isn’t all that bad. If a firm has a portfolio of fashion brands under their management, they often leverage their good blogger contacts for opportunities within the rest of their client list.

Not sure how to tell if your PR contact is working for the brand or for a PR firm?

• Check the footer of your contact’s emails. Are there links to the brand’s website and social media accounts? Or are there links to a PR company website?
• Check the email address for your contact. Is it “contacts.name@brand.com” or “contacts.name@PRfirm.com”?

Up until recently, I took photos for my blog on my own private property or inside my home. Aside from a few nosey neighbors who peeked at me from windows or while walking their dogs, I never had to deal with any of the setbacks of doing photography or videography in public.

Which is why I was shocked by a conversation I had with a blogger friend of mine, who’s blog is known for spectacular photography and creative video. After chatting with her about how she overcomes the embarrassment of taking photos in public places, she mentioned how the worst is when she and her photographer get asked to leave the property by security.

Hold on…you get chased out by security?

Turns out, a few other bloggers I’ve met (all who have amazing photography on their blogs btw) have dealt with being harassed, scolded, and asked to leave property by security guards. It’s a part of taking photos or video in public that I’ve never heard mentioned before, but makes complete sense.

Bloggers who have some of the best and most interesting photos on their blogs, actively search out locations that are designed or landscaped in ways that photograph well. Often, great photography venues are private property, such as outdoor malls, retail centers, or corporate office parks. Most private property owners don’t allow photography on their premises for a number of reasons, but most notably:

• Owners of any kind of public entity or brand like to control how their brand is seen and/or represented to the public. A photographer could circulate unflattering photos, or represent the property/brand in a less than company approved way.

• Property owners don’t want anyone to profit off their brand or space. It can be easily assumed that a professional looking photoshoot (with a photographer, using a professional looking camera, taking photos of a well styled subject) are for profit. Most people will agree they would not be happy with someone trying to make a profit by using your property or brand for free.

In an effort to improve the photography on my own blog, I’ve slowly moved away from my tripod self-taken photos in my backyard, to location scouting with the newly anointed boyfriend/photographer. The result has been much better photography, and the results and response on my blog have been so positive, that I’m happy to keep going in this new direction.

But, wouldn’t ya know it, we got harassed by our first security guard yesterday.

Be warned new bloggers…if you want to take those beautiful photo shoots in interesting locations, dealing with unhappy security guards may be one of the major drawbacks.

image source: imdb.com

This was a great PR email that crossed my inbox recently. Apparently my dog has been traveling to fashion conferences and making PR connections without me.

If you use commission earning affiliate links on your blog (the ones that pay you a commission of a sale made through an affiliate link), you may not want to promote Ebates, Mr. Rebates, Fat Wallet, or similar cash-back sites. Why? These sites can cancel out your affiliate links. The same applies to coupon code sites like RetailMeNot.

How your blog affiliate links work:

Using commission earning affiliate links on your blog is very similar to being a virtual sales associate. You get paid a small commission for any purchases made on items you like, wear, and recommend to your readers. A tracking cookie embedded in the affiliate link gives you credit for any purchases made by your readers, and you earn a commission of the sale. For a more thorough explanation, see my post about commission-earning affiliate links.

How cash-back sites work:

Cash-back sites are companies that have affiliate relationships with lots of brands and retailers. They are an affiliate of a retailer, just like you, and their affiliate links contain the same tracking cookies and work in the same way.

The big difference is they give users a cut of the commissions, as long as the user clicks through the cash-back affiliate link to make their purchase. Cash-back sites are making the same commission off a purchase you are, or sometimes a little more if they have negotiated special commission rates with the retailer. They then give the shopper a percentage of the commission and keep the rest for themselves. So, in a way, they are paying people to purchase through their affiliate links.

Why your blog affiliate links are canceled out by cash-back sites:

A major affiliate network employee offered me insights on the subject:

Cash back sites such as Ebates use affiliate links to promote merchants they work with if they are part of a merchant’s affiliate program. A consumer can click on an affiliate link on your site, go to RetailerX, then decide to go to Ebates.com, then click on their RetailerX affiliate link and make a purchase. If this were to happen then Ebates will earn the commission, not you. It’s essentially last click that matters most of the time. Cash back sites have a competitive advantage in that they usually split their commission 50/50 or 60/40 with the consumer.

The affiliate link that gets credit for a purchase is the very last one a reader used to go to the retailer site before making a purchase. If a reader clicked your affiliate link and made a purchase, great! You get the commission. If a reader clicked your affiliate link and decided to make a purchase, but then went to a cash-back site and clicked the their link before purchasing, the cash-back site gets the commission and you get nothing.

What can you do?

• Do not promote cash-back sites on your blog. Promoting such websites encourages your readers to use the cash-back site’s affiliate links, which will then cancel out your affiliate link, and can dramatically affect your blog’s earning potential. This is a catch-22, because while you may want to share great cash-back sites with your readers to help them save a little money, you also don’t want them all using the site’s links, which will cancel out any commissions you might be able to earn off your blogging. Of course, many of your savvy readers may be using cash-back sites already and canceling out your affiliate links anyways, regardless of whether or not you promote the sites on your blog.

• Use “pay-per-click” affiliate programs. If you want to promote cash-back programs on your blog, you might want to use affiliate programs that pay you by the click. These types of affiliate programs pay bloggers by the number of clicks their links get, but don’t pay commissions for sales. You’ll get paid when a reader clicks, no matter if they purchase or not, or if they use a cash-back site to make a purchase.

It should be noted that pay-per-click affiliate programs make money off commissions, while they pay you by the click. They may lower the amount of money you get paid per click if they don’t make any commissions off your links, such as if your blog readers often go to cash-back sites before making their purchases.

New developments:

I recently received a promotional email from Ebates about their new browser toolbar which automatically creates an Ebates tracking cookie (essentially turning on the Ebates affiliate link) for users if they visit a retailer site. Great for the shopper who likes cash-back sites and doesn’t want to have to remember to visit Ebates before making their online purchases. Bad for bloggers who earn an income off the commissions made through the affiliate links to products we share, review, and recommend. This toolbar would automatically cancel out your affiliate link by replacing it with the Ebates one. If many people take advantage of the Ebates toolbar and similar products, this can be bad news for bloggers using commission earning affiliate links.

Let’s talk about what’s cool to do and what’s not with your affiliate links. The bottom line is, you’re making money off those things, and money can be a touchy subject with a lot of people. When it comes to links that make you money, think about how you want to yield that power, and what feels right and wrong to you. Here are some things I’ve seen bloggers doing with their affiliate links with some thoughts on etiquette.

Here’s something to think about: your readers are savvy and will notice if you’re getting greedy with your links. Dirty affiliate link practices will get noticed, so only do with affiliate links the things that you would feel comfortable explaining if someone calls you out on it.

Disclose how you’re making money

FTC regulations (opens as PDF) state that you must disclose relationships between advertisers and endorsers. This means you can’t get paid to talk about or endorse something on your blog without telling your readers. This includes receiving a product for free (the free product would be your payment for promoting it on your blog), and promoting a product that earns you commission sales (being affiliated with the brand). The laws are still sketchy and not enforced, but being transparent about how you’re making money on your blog is only a good thing. Readers generally appreciate it, and don’t feel like they’re being duped into making you money.

How you disclose on your blog is up to you, and I’d suggest looking at some of the bloggers you enjoy and admire, and see how they disclose on their blogs for ideas. Some bloggers put a small disclosure statement in their sidebar, while others disclose in every post that includes an affiliate link or free product. Some bloggers have dedicated an entire page to their disclosure statement, going into in-depth explanations. For my blog, I choose to be as transparent as I could without getting technical, by listing all the ways the blog makes money in a separate blog page, which is linked in the footer, as well as on affiliate link heavy posts. You can read my disclosure statement here.

Keep your affiliate links to yourself

In legal jargon, websites are called “properties”. If you place your affiliate link on someone else’s website, you’re essentially trying to make money off of someone else’s property. Don’t do it. It’s rude and greedy, and the owner of the other blog or website won’t be happy about it. I know because I’ve had other bloggers try to do it to me.

This also goes for referral links that earn you money or bonuses (like sample sale sites), pay-per-click links that pay you by the click (like Shopsense), and “stylist” links that earn you commissions off company products you promote as a business (like Avon or Stella & Dot).

If you think a link that earns you any kind of reimbursement would be a really wonderful thing to leave on another person’s website, it’s always a good idea to ask the owner of the site if you can leave the link first.

Getting sneaky with pay-per-click affiliate links

It’s easy to go a little link crazy when you’re getting paid by the click (like Shopsense), and you start seeing all those pennies add up in your account. More clicks, more money, right? So you add more links and start to come up with clever ways to make (or force) your readers to click them.

Experimenting with how to earn money off affiliate links is fine, but keep it honest. Tempt readers to click your links, but don’t trick them. Give them an idea of what they’re going to get on the other end of that link, so they can choose if it interests them or not. Peppering posts with cryptic links attached to non-descriptive words like “this” or “that” in a sneaky way to get more clicks may work, but it will also get noticed.

I know, because I got greedy with my Shopsense links, and you know what? Commenters called me out on it. And I felt bad. They were right and I learned my lesson. Your readers are the reason why you’re even blogging (after all, what’s a blog if it doesn’t have readers?)…don’t make them feel used.

Affiliate links and social media

This is a weird one that you’ll have to feel out for yourself. A lot of affiliate programs are encouraging it, and it’s up to you to think about how you feel about earning money off your social media accounts. Some things to think about:

• If you tweet or post to Facebook an affiliate link that earns you commissions (like RewardStyle), should you disclose in your tweet that it’s an affiliate link? How about if it’s a pay-per-click link (like Shopsense)? Is one type of affiliate link more honest than the other?

My thoughts: I feel better about (and currently do) posting commission earning affiliate links (ie. RewardStyle) on social media accounts. Since it’s a product I’m loving or recommending, and I only make money if someone agrees with me and decides to purchase. It feels more honest to me than posting pay-per-click (ie. Shopsense) links, which feels (to me) more like tricking the readers who like you enough to follow your blog on social media into clicking links for pennies.

• If you pin an item to Pinterest, should you link it to your affiliate link? If you do, should you disclose it? Currently, RewardStyle has encouraged this by integrating the Pin-It button to their product feed. But does that mean you’re making money off of someone else’s website? Or are you creating content for this website, making their website more valuable, thus making affiliate earnings a small payment for your activities? How about only pinning affiliate links exclusively to a specific board, so users can choose to follow it or not? Should you disclose there are affiliate links in the board description?

Some reading for you: Pinterest tried to monetize using Skimlinks, only to take it down after users get angry (further proof that people don’t like feeling “used” to make you money), and an Amazon affiliate user who “spams” Pinterest with products linked to his affiliate links. By pinning items linked to your affiliate links, does that make you a spammer? Why can’t Pinterest make money off it’s own website, but you can? Interesting stuff, huh?

Tip: by placing the price of the product in the description, Pinterest adds the little price banner to the pin.

My thoughts: Once again, I feel better about (and currently do) posting commission earning affiliate links on Pinterest pins than pay-per-click affiliate links. But I’m conflicted. I’m trying to make money off Pinterest, but when they tried to do the same thing, they got in trouble with their users. Seems a little unfair doesn’t it?

What are you thoughts on affiliate link etiquette? Any others you’d like to see discussed?

image source