You may know that I have been working on a side project called deez.io for a while now. It is a domain monitoring service offering free and paid accounts.

The idea was to implement a free user system similar to what Dropbox is offering, meaning that users get a certain number of domains that they can monitor when they sign up, and can get more if they invite other users.

Paid accounts get a couple of extra features such as Whois monitoring or a fix amount of SMS notifications per month.

We wanted to use PayPal for all payment processing. This included monthly subscription payments for pro accounts as well as one-time payments, for instance to add more SMS to the account.

One would think that recurring billing should not be a problem for one of the larger online payment processing companies.

Apparently it is, at least if your company is based in Germany.

Why? Because PayPal is not offering recurring billing here.

Before they told us about that, we were asked to fill out a Word document containing 36 different questions about the business and project ranging from its location and average estimated payments per user to a statement of financial conditions.

If the business would be younger than two years, we’d have to submit our business plan as well.

Only after we have filled out the form and a processing time of a week we were told that Recurring Billing is not available for German companies.

PayPal’s solution? Create a new company in another country, create a new PayPal account in that country, and repeat the same process again once all of that is done.

I do not know how this sounds to you, but I think it is ridiculous that a company like PayPal is not offering subscription payment options in Germany.

Our solution? We are moving to Stripe.com. Account creation has been easy and the information that Stripe wants are also not as extensive as what PayPal requested.

While we need additional time to add Stripe as a payment processor to our service, it seems far easier to work with both in terms of services that the company offers and payment processing API.

So, bye bye PayPal, hello Stripe. I’m pretty sure we won’t look back..

The post PayPal and Recurring Billing in Germany appeared first on Martin Brinkmann.

I did not have any experience with .io domain names before, and ordered it from nic.io, the Indian Ocean domain registry and network information centre.

Everything went well until I had to set proper A records for the domain name to use the web server that I set up for it.

The problem is that you cannot do that on the nic.io website. There you can only redirect the domain to an existing website, or use third-party nameservers.

That’s a problem if you can’t use either option.

There is however an alternative that I discovered that I used instead.

GoDaddy Off-Site DNS

I have some domains over at GoDaddy, and while the registrar is controversial, I never got to the point to move domains to another registrar.

Anyway, GoDaddy supports a feature called Off-Site DNS. This enables you to use GoDaddy DNS nameservers for domains that are not hosted by the company.

As you can imagine, this is ideal for nic.io domain names as you can use GoDaddy’s DNS service to set A, Cname, MX and TXT records.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Since we are using GoDaddy, you do need an account at the registrar. Other registrars may offer a similar feature which may be worth checking out before you create an account.
2. Visit the GoDaddy website and sign in to your account.
3. Select My Account > Manage Your Domains from the top menu.
4. Select DNS from the top menu, and then DNS Manager. This link should take you there directly.
5. Select Off-Site in the menu at the top of the domain listing and there Add Off-Site.
6. Enter the domain name that you want to manage using GoDaddy’s off-site DNS feature and click next. Do not check the “This domain will be transferred to GoDaddy.com…” box.
7. GoDaddy displays two nameservers for you to use.
8. Go to the nic.io website and select administer domain > Change DNS or Web/Email forwarding.
9. Sign-in using the domain name and password.
10. Select Name Server Information and replace the primare and secondary server with the information that GoDaddy provided you with.
11. Enter the password again, check the Select to agree box, and click continue.
12. Go back to GoDaddy and refresh the DNS Manager page. You should see the new domain name listed here.
13. Click on Edit Zone, and fill out the records that you want to use.

And that is the whole process. It may take up to 48 hours before DNS propagates on the Internet.

The post Nic.io: how to configure nameservers properly appeared first on Martin Brinkmann.

For the past couple of days, spam seems to have increased. I’m not sure why but it can be that the spam plugin lost some of its effectiveness along the way, or that spammers found means to pass the checks.

Anyway, this post is about the spam that I have received recently, and why it does not make sense at all to send it to my blog.

It may work well on blogs that auto-allow any comment, but that is madness if you ask me.

So, lets take a look at some “how not to spam” examples:

Foreign languages

This one not only uses a language that is not used on the site, it also contains a list of dozens of urls afterwards.

It won’t even pass the most forgiving comment moderation due to these two factors.

These languages do get mixed up sometimes, for instance with Japanese link texts but a German comment as seen below.

• Foreign language
• comment not relevant
• too many links

The Thank Yous

These spammers try to make their comments look natural. They usual post thank you followed by another meaningless phrase.

• foreign language
• unrelated comment

The Charmers

Closely related to the “Thank You” group are the Charmers. Instead of just writing thank you as the comment, they charm you by stating that your post was the best that they have ever written, or something like that.

• unrelated comment
• keyword link

Technical issues

These commentators try to get on your good side by pointing out — bogus — issues that they claim to have experienced on the site. They may state that the site does not work in a browser, or that they could not use the social sharing buttons, or the contact form, or something similar on the site.

• unrelated comment
• keyword link

The “Lets Make it Look Natural” spammers

These spammers post one or two paragraphs of text as a comment that looks natural on first glance.

You find several links in it usually, and more often than not, it is totally irrelevant to the blog post or the site the comment has been posted on.

• unrelated comment
• keyword link
• too many links

The “Spinning Gone Wrong” Spammer

Spinning has been around for some time. It aims to make texts unique by selecting synonyms at random. In the example above, you see that the comment may use surfing or browsing for example, or webmasters, site owners, website owners or web owners.

The issue with this comment is that the spinning did not take place, likely due to a configuration error. This means that the comment including the syntax was placed.

• spinning
• keyword link
• unrelated comment

The bold ones

These spam types use bold text, usually to put emphasize on the main keyword that they target.

• keyword url
• unrelated comment

The Overdoers

Instead of posting one or two links, these spammers post dozens of them all lumped together.

• too many links
• unrelated comment
• keyword links
• screams spam

 Lets paste a novel

The more text, the more natural a comment looks like, right? Wrong! The example above takes up two entire pages. It is a copy paste job that has nothing to do with the article it has been posted on.

• unrelated comment
• keyword url

Syntax gone wrong

This spammer tried to use syntax that is not supported by the site the comment was posted on.

• unrelated comment
• syntax errors

The “I need advice” spammer

These spammers try to exploit the “helpfulness” of many webmasters. It is usually a question about technology, for instance WordPress or monetization, but recently also about web browsers such as Firefox.

• unrelated comment

The post The errors spammers make appeared first on Martin Brinkmann.

If your website gets popular, or if you plan a project that involves multiple writers and authors, then you face a tough challenge: finding writers that fit perfectly.

There is an abundance of writers available on the Internet. You can hire one on Fiverr to write as many 500 word articles for $5 as you want. While that is great in terms of volume, it is usually not great in terms of quality.

There are exemptions to the rule. I have hired a very talented writer on Fiverr, and while I quickly decided to pay her more for her work, it shows that you can get lucky on that site as well.

Anyway, a search for writer on Fiverr returns more than 15,000 results, and that is only one site that you can use.

There are specialized agencies out there, Textbroker for example, and also freelancing websites, where you find an abundance of writers.

But that does not keep you from doing your homework. Here is how I handle the hiring of new authors for one of my websites.

1. Requirements

Always start with your requirements. This not only includes the topics that you need content for, for example technology or web design, but also the following criteria:

• How many articles do you need per day / week / month?
• How long should those articles be roughly?
• How will you compensate the writer (money for sure, but a flat fee, by impressions, ad revenue sharing, or something else?)
• Specific personal criteria, e.g. male or female, age, background, location, native language, availability, expertise and experience in the topic, or location to name a few.
• Specific content requirements, e.g. topics, things to avoid or do (formatting, pictures..)

I always require passion for the topics I need content for. While professional journalists can write about anything, or nearly anything, it usually shows that they do not have experience in the field as articles tend to be bland.

Once you have made up your mind about the requirements, it is time to go hunting.

I do not require knowledge of a blogging software or other online editor. It is totally fine if I get the articles by email or file hosting services.

If you do require authors to write on the platform you are using, you want to add the requirement to the list.

2. The hunt

You can start wherever you like, but some methods have higher returns than others.

I do not like to use specialized writing services or freelancing sites, as you find many “I write about anything you want” type of writers here.

While they are usually able to produce a lot of content in minimal time, it is rare that you find someone here with a passion for the topic.

My suggestion would be to either start searching on Fiverr, or use a direct approach and contact writers of blogs and websites that you personally like.

On Fiverr, I do order one sample article from the author to evaluate the quality and originality of the writing.

It goes without saying that I filter out writers that do not fit the profile at all, writers who have spelling or grammar errors on their profile pages, and writers who have that many orders that it will take weeks before my order would be processed.

It is a bit different if you want to hire a blogger or writer who is actively writing on another website.

If I can find an email address, I do use it to fire off a quick email to find out if the writer is available and interested. Since I already read writings, I know about the quality and originality of the writings.

If you already have a blog or website, you may want to consider looking for writers on it.

Maybe you have some readers who leave great insightful comments at all times. Or, you could write a new post to find new authors on your website.

Questions you may want to ask include:

• Which blogs (in the niche) do you read?
• Do you know how to optimize contents so that they are found better?
• Do you have a proofreading process?
• Describe your research process

3, The hiring

Once you have found one or several candidates for the job, you need to negotiate the compensation and your requirements.

Make sure you make clear what you require of the writer.

One thing that I usually do is ask them to run story suggestions by me, so that I can give my ok — or not.

This prevents frustration if they spend time writing a story only to find out that I won’t publish it on the website because it does not fit for whatever reason.

While that means more work for both parties initially, it prevents unnecessary issues about contents and irritation on part of the writer.

You can remove the requirement later on when it becomes clear that the writer has a good grasp on what you require in terms of coverage.

You may also want to make your policies in regard to citations, linking, and the copying of contents clear to the writer.

Another thing that you need to make sure is that it is clear that you own the content that gets published on your site. At the very least, agree on non-exclusive rights for life.

The post How to find and hire the right authors for your website appeared first on Martin Brinkmann.

It is a tech blog that is highly popular, covering Windows, Android, how-to guides and Internet services mostly, with the occasional development, SEO, or hardware review or article thrown in to the mix.

The blog, ever since it was first created on October 3, 2005 had a sole source of income, and that was advertisement.

The main issue here was — and still is — that you depend on traffic for that. If you get 10000 visitors per day, you can earn a living from that. If that drops to 1000, you cannot anymore, at least not in most countries of this world.

So, this made the site highly dependent on search engine traffic — mostly — but also other traffic sources. And while direct traffic and referrals remained at the 20% to 30% mark throughout the site’s existence, several ups and downs in regards to search engine traffic were experienced throughout that time.

A subscription based system would ensure that I could keep the site up even if I’d lose all search engine traffic, as I would not be dependent on that anymore.

That’s the theory, and it would only be true if enough regular visitors would support me and the site.

Anyway, I did check out existing solutions for WordPress in that time, but they were either too complex for my taste, or did not provide me with what I wanted to achieve.

I made the decision to create a project plan for a custom made WordPress plugin.

Here is what I wanted it to do:

• Automate the process of subscribing as much as possible, including sending out welcome emails, reminders and of course creating user accounts for subscribers on the site.
• Support PayPal and Bitcoin payments.
• Support one-time and recurring subscriptions.
• Block all advertisement scripts from running on the site.

Especially the last point was important as I wanted to give something back in return.

Now that I had created the project plan, I had to find someone to do the heavy lifting — coding that is — for me.

I decided to use Freelancer for that, and since I knew that it would cost me some money, decided to make the plugin available to the public as a commercial plugin afterwards.

The idea here was to make some of the development money back by selling it to other webmasters.

I spend half a day on the Freelancer website looking for suitable candidates, and for the creation of the project description that had to reveal information about what I wanted the developer to do.

I decided to make the project public, and to invite select developers that I thought were suitable to it as well.

It was not my first project on Freelancer, and I have developed a method over the years to sort out good developers from those that I would not consider using for the project.

You see, some developers and companies on Freelancer respond to a lot of projects. Sometimes, they start with a very low offer which they raise once they have you on the hook.

Others put in an offer without thoroughly reading through the project description. It was easy to spot some of them directly, as they responded to my project in a matter of minutes. Reading through the project description alone should have taken longer, let alone calculating work hours and such required for the project.

To filter those quickly, I decided to ask each developer to describe the project to me.

This would not only sort those out who had no real interest in spending time reading through my project plan, but also to sort out any misunderstandings before I’d select a developer.

Many would not provide a sufficient summary at all, which made me sort them out at once.

I looked at factors such as experience, past work, the timezone, suggested development period and price on all other offers. In addition, I wrote each and everyone a message to check out response times among other things.

The developer I picked was the most suitable candidate in my experience. He had WordPress plugin development experience, was located in the UK, which meant just one hour time difference to Germany,  and did ask questions of his own about the project.

Barely anyone else did, and while his offer was not the cheapest, it appeared to be the best overall package.

We agreed that development would be completed in a month’s time, and that he would offer two months of additional tech support to sort out bugs and other issues that would only come to light after the initial development phase.

Development ended in December, and I have been running the plugin on my site ever since.

There are still some bugs that need to be sorted out, but for the most part, it is working just fine.

I have not made it available publicly yet, but will do once those bugs have been sorted out.

The post How I created a WordPress Donation plugin with no coding experience appeared first on Martin Brinkmann.