Here at SeanSEO.com we get our fair share of spam!  Thankfully, we have Askimet. Askimet is a plug-in for WordPress that’s free to use and simply requires you activate it using your API.  If you don’t know how to find your WordPress API, go to your global dashboard and you’ll find it easily.

Askimet doesn’t stop everything and it can occasionally catch non-spam but it works very well at minimizing the amount of blog spam you get.

What’s Wrong With Blog Spam?

A lot of site owners are trying to buy quality backlinks to their sites.  Unfortunately, some of the services they use in order to try to buy those links will resort to very spammy measures.  A lot of spam includes links to pornography sites with non-sensical comments that are filled with obscene links.

Not All Links Are Good Links….

In terms of SEO, you want to be associated with sites that will help you instead of hurt you.  Sites that have good page rank and that are about relevant topics can boost your own site’s rankings.  Some sites allow pingbacks automatically so when you link to them in your site, a link will turn up on that other site.  Some website owners prefer to moderate these links to be sure that the site will add value to their on page and off page SEO.  While moderating takes a bit of effort, it is a good idea to do it otherwise you might not be getting all the attention from search engines that you want.

In your blog, you can decide if you want to moderate comments and pingbacks, allow them openly or block them entirely.  The choice is yours.  While different internet marketers and pro bloggers have varying opinions on the matter it’s important that you do take the time to make a decision because ignoring spam could cause it to spiral out of control and penalize your site’s reptuation.

Have a most outstanding day.

Dana Prince
Internet Marketing Blog
www.SeanSEO.com © 2008

The more links you have pointing at your money making websites, the better.  Why not utilise some free services to give yourself some link love and positively impact your SEO?  There are loads of ways to use free services to your advantage and today’s post will give you some great linking strategy ideas.

Write blog posts or articles with appropriately anchored keywords and long tail phrases on free sites. These sites that get human and internet traffic and can be very beneficial to you. Here are some examples of tools you can use:

1. Open a MySpace account and use the blog on it.  You could even open two if you have more than one e-mail account.
2. Open a Blogger account
3. Open a Wordpress account
4. Write HubPages and Squidoo Lenses
5. Try Tumblr and post regular updates with links to your work and articles
6. Add websites to community forum signature lines and free online profiles

Ping and social bookmark your posts on all the above sites!

Not only can you anchor keywords to your other sites within these free services but don’t forget to put your many sites (free and paid sites) on all the blogrolls.  Consider making a list of links to your free sites, hubs and other online pages so you can use the same blogroll wherever you go. This way, you create a big network of your own work which can positively impact your search engine optimisation and if people like what they see one of your blogs, chances are they’ll visit other blogs too so if you work in multiple niches you can refer people to your other sites ,especially where services are complimentary.   Happy linking!

Have a most outstanding day.

Dana Prince
Internet Marketing Blog
www.SeanSEO.com © 2008

Spam on your blog means a few things. On a positive note, people are finding you and that’s a good thing. It doesn’t sound like such a good thing when it becomes a pain to manage but one thing is for sure, your blog is valuable enough to make spammers want to utilise your site. They’ll post trackback spam and bogus comments filled with hyperlinks to their adult websites. You can’t let it go on but there are things you can do.

But what is an internet marketer to do?

If you are using Wordpress for your blog, consider using the Askimet plug-in.  This will catch a big portion of your spam and save you considerably on moderating time.  You can also set your your comments as moderated only which will stop the spam before it’s published. You can quickly view the comments and manually approve the ones you want to let through. You can set up some blogs so that commenters are approved automatically after they have one approved comment but be careful about this because some crafty spammers can take advantage of this loophole and post one useful comment only to come back later and try to post spam on your site. You might need to de-approve some commenters.

All in all, you want to be choosy about who is allowed to link to your site because association with certain kinds of sites can bring your own search engine ranking down. The good news is that search engines seem to be finding your site and people think it’s valuable enough to try and capitalise on your success!

(Image courtesy of sxc.hu)

Have a most outstanding day.

Dana Prince
Internet Marketing Blog
www.SeanSEO.com © 2008

There are loads of reasons to blog and plenty of free blog options out there. Whether you choose to do a free blog or host your own or do a combination of the two is up to you. Today’s post explores the pros and cons of each option. I choose to do a combination of these things for my own purposes mostly because in my early online days, I didn’t realise the benefits of having my own blog on my own domain and didn’t realise just how inexpensive it could be to do it on my own and be able to have just what I wanted.

The pros of free blogs include that there are no costs and that they usually have an easy interface or template for you to use so you don’t have to be at all technical to figure out how to use them.

On the con side, you have no control and they can be very simple so they may not have all the functionality you’re looking for.

With a free blog, there may be some advertising that you cannot control. With a blog on your own domain, you have much more earning potential and power over the layout of the site.

How Much Does Having Your Own blog cost?

You can typically get a domain registered for $10 or less for a one year period and hosting is often less than $10 a month when you want a basic package that hosts a blog. Wordpress is the most popular and most versatile option and you can install it for free. Your own host might even have Wordpress built into your hosting control panel making it that much easier to get up and running quickly.

Benefits of Blogging

In terms of money making potential, blogs can definitely help you. Not only do they do great in search engines because of being continuously updated but they create viral marketing for you because people will link to you in their blogroll and on their site as well. Whether you’re planning to blog for profit or add a blog to your existing site to enhance search engine optimization, you can definitely benefit. If you’re not yet blogging or not yet using this to your full advantage, it’s definitely worth looking into.

Have a most outstanding day.

Dana Prince
Internet Marketing Blog
www.SeanSEO.com © 2008