Blogging

I am so confused! I got sent this link = http://searchengineland.com/matt-cutts-stick-a-fork-in-it-guest-blogging-is-done-182147 = and now I’m just like “Huh?” Because obviously I have no idea what I’m doing.

I turned off Trackbacks and Pingbacks because of all the spam I was getting, but I guess I should be using the “nofollow” code on links? I thought my site did that automagically! I thought that’s what the no trackbacks/pingbacks was 🙁

I like the idea of giving people props where it’s due, but it was getting a bit ridiculous when I was finding my comment inbox filled with “Interesting site. Many great things to talk about. You haf affected my life in many great and wonderful ways. I have a good article …” and blah blah, bunch of spam. One look at the comment title and the site link “Buy awesome bags (dot) totally spam (dot) com” (but as a real, horrifying URL) and I can tell that people are trying to spam me. I never click the links I’m sent, and definitely not from some stranger off the Internet.

The worst thing? I don’t even use the WordPress comment system on my blog! I have Disqus installed, yet still those spammer people manage to cram their garbage into the built-in comment box and I have no idea how it happens. So I go through once and a while and delete everything, because any real comment would be in my Disqus, and not through some wily backdoor knocking system.

I thought I was the Master of My Own Life!
Beatrice the Biologist: Who's In Charge?

http://www.beatricebiologist.com.

But I guess when it comes down to it, we’re all just tools in the great machine. And there’s always someone trying to use us for their own purposes. Sad, but true.

So if you get an email from some random person on the Internet offering to write posts for your blog or site at no cost to you “… as long as I can include several links …” it might be a good idea to give them a side-eye and a “No candy” if they’re not someone you know. At the very least, you should be able to type their site into your browser yourself (don’t click their links!) and take a look around. If you’re running PeerBlock, WOT, and you’ve got an up-to-date antivirus you should be okay (there’s always a risk on the Internet).

And if you do offer guest blogging, they should be added as a “Contributor” and you can totally “Editor” their asses. What does that mean? Well, you have the power of veto over what they post before it goes live, and you can edit their links to remove any breadcrumbs or garbage they’ve added on the end.

Just because someone is guesting on your blog, that doesn’t give them the power in the relationship. It’s your blog. They have to play by your rules, including not linking to a bunch of awfulness and ruining what you’ve built up.

Be the master of your own life. Tell the wo phage to “Suck it. It’s my way or no way!”


Links of relevance:

Matt Cutts: “The decay and fall of guest blogging for SEO” – http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-blogging/. The post in question. He had to clarify some points after hundreds of comments, but basically boils down to: “Watch out who you let guest blog on your site, because the links they want to add in their post can make you look like a spammer.”

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Wikipedia: “Nofollow” – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nofollow. “nofollow is a value that can be assigned to the rel attribute of an HTML a element to instruct some search engines that a hyperlink should not influence the link target’s ranking in the search engine’s index.”

Basically, you add a “nofollow” to a link to keep whatever you’re linking to from gaining influence because of you. So if you link to some horrible site on the Internet featuring puppy torture, you can vent your outrage and call public attention to the atrocities committed, without giving them your tacit approval. You know, so puppy torture people don’t end up as the top result on Google for some kid looking for “cute puppies.”

nofollow jpg

You don’t need to add it to all your links, just the ones you don’t want to give a page rank boost. The sites still receive their hits, you still remain awesome, and spammy sites don’t end up at the top of search results. Otherwise, it’s not a big deal to leave links normal, but be aware that if you’ve got a lot of guest bloggers, you’re responsible for the actions they take on your blog.

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Wikipedia: “Trackback” – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trackback. “A trackback is one of four types of linkback methods for website authors to request notification when somebody links to one of their documents. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking to their articles.”

Basically, you write something about someone else’s blog, and when you post it, their blog receives a message saying “Hey, this dude wrote about you.” Then they can approve the trackback and have it show up in their comments “[… so and so talked about blah blah …]” and you get that warm glowy feeling of knowing that your site is mentioned on the site you talked about.

You have to have your trackbacks enabled and so does the site you write about to have this system work. Unfortuantely, spammers have figured out that if they mention your blog on their spam site — usually surrounded with a bunch of info and other links scraped off the Internet — then when they post their garbage, your site receives a trackback saying you were mentioned. And if you don’t know what you’re doing or you accidentally click Approve, all of a sudden there’s a link to their awful site on your blog, giving them a nice hit, and making you look bad as you send your guests to visit the dangerous depths of the Internet or some random porn ring. Unless you hit “Approve,” they shouldn’t appear, though they will clog up your comments page like nobody’s business.

I’ve shut off trackbacks because scrapers and spammers were hitting me so hard I just couldn’t take it anymore. They’re why we can’t have nice things …

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Wikipedia: “Pingback” – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pingback. “A pingback is one of four types of linkback methods for Web authors to request notification when somebody links to one of their documents. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking to, or referring to their articles.”

You want to know who’s mentioning your blog online? Well, a pingback is when one site writes about your site and sends out a signal saying “Hey, I wrote about you.” Your site sends back a ping to check if there’s a link in place, then gives you the message “Site name says: Hey, I wrote about you.” And now you know. You’re famous!

Witch King at Amazon

As anyone who knows me knows (I know, right?) I am one of those people that is always hunting for a bargain and a good deal. I don’t have much in the way of money and I’m desperate to see my stories out there for the world to enjoy. Just the thought that people are reading the things that I’ve written… it gives me this kind of deep sense of happiness and I hope that they’re enjoying it.

I like getting feedback as long as it’s constructive (or praising! Praise me, praise me!) and not too hyper critical. Someone telling me I’ve misspelled a word or my sentence came out wonky is one thing, but someone completely tearing my book apart… well, I’m very sorry you didn’t enjoy my story, but I won’t be responding to you and probably won’t do anything more than glance at your review on Goodreads. Have a great day! (Because I will. Fake it ’til you make it.)

I loved having Wendy beta read Echo because the minute she said something about there not being enough physical description, it was like a “D’oh!” moment for me. She made that story better with just a few words.

Which brings it around to what’s been going on at my blog recently. I’m still recording my audio posts, though I’ve got a lot of clip edits to do (I’m a stuttering, yawning, tea slurping, lazy, perfectionist. It’s my cross to bear.) There’s been a lot going on in my regular life (*sob*) but I’ve just got to take one day and listen to all my posts and record some other ones. (One day I will have my own recording studio and it will be so much easier for everyone involved.) So that all will happen as it happens, and I’m sorry to anyone that has been inconvenienced.

In other news,  if anyone has been to my blog recently, you ‘ll notice the fancy new iCopyright bar everywhere. That’s right, I’ve joined the clip & copy generation, everything must go, consume, consume, consume.

No, really, if you’ve been following my latest diatribes you may have caught my rising concern with copyright infringement. People buying my ebooks then brazenly listing them on torrent sites through a Google link. If you’re going to steal from me, at least be cool enough to do it from the shadows and not rub my face in it. But when your results pop up right next to my book in search… that’s where the line is completely drawn. Just like Terry Goodkind, my opinion is that you don’t come into my house and announce the fact that you’re screwing me over. I will not put up with it. And the Internet is my house (shout out to the peeps!)

I’m all for free speech and fair use and the first purchase doctrine and blah blah blah. At the same time, I owe people money and I’m tired of living in poverty. You might be thinking I’m being dramatic and I’m bitching about not being able to buy the next new thing and whatever, but no. I want to pay off my bills and have money to live off of, yet at the same time I don’t want to be a complete scrooge.

More than anything, I want people to be able to read the things I write. I’ve been poor for a long time, I know how bad it feels not to be able to have something that everyone else takes for granted. But I don’t really have anything big to offer the world — I’m not a farmer, I don’t make food, I don’t make quilts, whatever —  the only thing I’ve ever really been good at is writing. So that’s something I would like for people to be able to enjoy whether they have the money to pay for it or not. I just don’t like the idea of people stealing from me.

So that’s where the iCopyright comes in. If you’ve clicked it, you’ll notice that it offers all kinds of republishing options. The only options I’m not providing are ebook and print book, and that’s negotiable if someone is seriously interested, it’s just not available for automated licensing.

Most everything else is right there on the table. Printing, emailing, syndication, adding my posts to your own website, even making your own newspaper or newsletter. There’s plenty of free options as well as pay options of all levels. So you can just come in and read what you want, or if you want to have some of my stuff on your site you can and you don’t even have to have an awkward conversation with me first. With a system like that, no one has to pirate my stuff because they can just come in and enjoy it and no one has to feel like a criminal and I don’t have to feel like an angry cop.

You’re probably wondering what this all means. Well, it means that I can feel safer when I put stuff up on my site. If you’ve been keeping up, you’ll have noticed that I have several novels I’m serializing here and at Kimichee. They’re pretty rough at the moment, but you can enjoy the stories if you’d like and if you notice any big errors I’d be happy to hear about them and they will for sure be addressed in the final copies that will go in the ebooks and paperbacks.

So if you want to be involved in my writing process and immortalized in print when I add you to my books’ acknowledgement pages, the comments are always open. Or if you just want to enjoy reading a story before anyone else in the world… that’s open to you too. If you would like to serialize any of my content on your site, iCopyright handles all that — you just put the code they provide on your site and whatever you’re licensing appears in the frame. If I update a post, iCopyright will update it on your site, so you never have to worry that you’re showing a dated copy. When the content expires you can either renew your subscription or iCopyright takes it down automatically. At no time do you even have to talk to me at all if you don’t want to. Which relieves my social anxieties a lot.

At the same time, I will be self-publishing the ebooks and paperbacks, and I will not lie about a book having previously been serialized online. So if you just like buying books, you don’t have to worry that I’m going to try and cheat you. And anyway, the official ebooks and print books will have added content and all kinds of cool things just for them.

I’m hopeful that iCopyright will help me make enough of a living that I can offer more things for free. So if you can afford to pay, I would be really grateful, but if you can’t at this time, that’s okay too. You’re welcome to read what’s here. And feedback is always appreciated.

Witch King at Amazon

I reloaded ScribeFire Classic. The new ScribeFire was very unhappy making, and since WordPress changed their settings so Semagic doesn’t work, I had to find something that would 🙁

ScribeFire has never been my favorite, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices to what works, even if it is slow and ungainly and a pain to use.

Anyways, back to writing.