Weekly Digest: WordCamp, Interviews, 070707, Content Theft, and The Usual

The Weekly Digest from Lorelle on WordPress this week features more guest blogging on Problogger, interviews, a little content theft, traveling to WordCamp, and more of the usual blog babble.

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Exciting Lorelle on WordPress News

I’m going to WordCamp! Space is filling up in the upcoming WordCamp 2007 July 21-22 in San Francisco and the deadline for registration is July 9. If you are planning to attend and you haven’t registered, registration is required. There is an amazing line up on the WordCamp Schedule, so I expect it to sell out fast, so get your tickets now. And yes, I’ll be one of the speakers covering “Kicking Ass Content Connections”, helping you connect with your readers and build your blog through your blog’s content. Any tips or hints you’d love to share or know about, let me know.

All the Copyright Information That Is: Smashing Magazine produced “Copyright Explained: I May Copy It, Right?”, an amazing collection of tons of information and resources on copyrights, copyright myths, and how to protect and defend your copyrights. I’m honored that they included my article, What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content, in their vast list. Wow!

After Thought: Within a few minutes of the Smashing Magazine release of the article, I got six trackbacks from other blogs that ended up being splogs, spam blogs that scrap other blogs for content, violating their copyright. It amuses and saddens me when articles educating others on copyright, and blasting away at content theft, ends up on splogs. No one on the splog is paying attention, but it gives us a thrill. Too bad they aren’t. Because their ignorance or abuse of the law doesn’t change it. Their actions could result in penalization and their blog being shut down.

Why do they risk it? Because you let them. Don’t. It only takes a few minutes to leave a comment or send a letter to Google to put an end to their copyright violations.

Guest Blogging: Recent guest blogging adventures included:

Found: The WordPress Blogging Bible: Some scraps of parchment from the long lost WordPress Blogging Bible have been uncovered and translated by Letters Home to You, revealing for the first time The 20 Blogging Commandments. One of particular note is number eight:

Be ye vigilant in consulting Lorelle on WordPress. Inasmuch as her Blog be full of wise Teachings, take ye not her entire Word for Gospel Truth.

Interviews and Features: Recent interviews and features include:

Greg Balanko-Dickson, Guest Blogging on Lorelle on WordPress: A dear friend and fellow blogger, Greg Balanko-Dickson published Business Blogging Strategy: Build Trust and Rapport last week on this blog and the response has been amazing. I highlight some of the input below in the Linking To and From section, but I wanted to point out the other great posts on this blog from Greg:

Essential Keystrokes Winner: Kim Dushinski won a signed copy of my book from Essential Keystrokes Blogging Birthday Gifts, a fun and exciting way to promote your blog and give something back to readers. Incorporated Subversion was so excited to get the book, James Farmer photographed it in front of window to prove receipt of the book, showcasing the Aussie bush countryside in the background.

Updating Popular Posts: I’ve been poking around updating many posts on this blog, especially in light of the research I did for my article on the Blog Herald, SEO Tips: Increase Page Rank By Revitalizing Your Old Posts. Of note, the following posts have been updated with new information:

A Tagging Bookmarklet for WordPress and WordPress.com Users helps you add a tag block and signature, like I have on this blog, to your blog within the post content area.
What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content has new links and information to help you deal with copyright violations and how to respond when someone uses your blog content without your permission.
Stop Content Theft Buttons and Badges has some buttons and badges called “Ask First” that I designed but failed to add to the post. They are there now.
When is the Best Time and Day to Post on Your Blog? I added some updated information since it has been a year since I published that post and my finding are basically the same. Publish your posts before your readers arrive on your blog, and keep your best posts for Monday or Tuesday to get the most traffic.
Secret Out – How Google Ranks Websites is still valid amost two years later. Google recently improved their algorithm, but the improvements improve what is discussed in this article, with a few new features such as TrustRank.

Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging: The reviews coming in are amazing for the book. Performancing says “It is immensely useful and comprehensive, and I highly recommend it to anyone serious about blogging.”

To order your own copy of the limited first printed edition with a reduced introductory price, order from SplashPress or the new Blog Herald Bookstore. For more information on the book, see the original announcement and a recent update with reviews and other information, as well as the Blogging Tips Book official page. Coming soon will be an ebook version and an audio version. Stay tuned!

What’s Your Blog Worth: A few years ago, I ran across the How Much is Your Blog Worth by Dane Carlson, a funny way of getting the value of your blog based upon the stock market, Technorati’s blog rating system, and a lot of other math computations to give you the estimate. Back then, my blog was originally worth $80,729.22 USD in October of 2005. Oh, Waily, Waily reminded me of this and so I checked it out. Today, my blog is worth $942,217.26. Want to help me spend all that money? 😀 How much is your blog worth?

Lorelle on WordPress Scrapped and Violated: Some wonderful blogging friends and fans have been alerting me to copyright violations and feed scrapers (splogs) of this blog. THANK YOU. If you find Lorelle On WordPress is being scrapped or the content stolen, please let me know.

What’s Happening with Lorelle on WordPress

This past week’s articles from Lorelle on WordPress included:

Most Popular Articles on Lorelle on WordPress

WordCamp 2007 Registration and Schedule and the alert that registration for WordCamp 2007 closes July 9th are attracting a lot of attention as people are excited about the upcoming conference and have been eagerly seeking information on the schedule and activities.

Will You Be Blogging in the July 28 Blogathon 2007? and on the Blog Herald with Blogathon Tips: Blogathon 2007 July 28 continue to attract a lot of attention as people start to think about this fundraising and blogging event. It’s 30 days away, folks. Get busy now if you are going to participate.

070707 got a lot of attention. I think people checked it out because of its odd title, but it’s also a novelty to have a special day and time like the 7th day of the 7th month in the 7th year at the 7th hour and 7th minute and 7th second. That’s fun.

Smashing Magazine’s coverage of copyrights has again brought a lot of attention to What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content. I’m so thrilled when people discover this article and learn that copyright myths are indeed myths and that we all have to work together to stop and protect our content from abuse. I believe that all content on the web should be approached with the first belief that it is copyright protected. Then the questions can begin on whether or not it is.

The most popular posts on Lorelle on WordPress this week were:

Linking To and From Lorelle on WordPress

In Lorelle on WordPress Is Reading My Mind, Marketing Pilgrim author, Jordan McCollum, does an interesting take on two posts involving me. On the first one, in reference to the interview with Daily Blog Tips, she challenges her readers on the issue many are focusing on, how long should you wait until you monetize your blog and if you should. The second point references my article in the Blog Herald about SEO and revitalizing your old posts, asking readers what they think of maximizing their old blog content to increase page ranking. Good challenges, both.

A while ago, Forty Plus Two was debating about which version of WordPress to choose, sticking with the full version or going for a WordPress.com blog. She found my articles, WordPress Versions – How Many and What’s the Diff? and I Hate My Web Host, helpful in making a decision on which way to go. It’s a tough decision to make, but thinking it through and making a plan for what and how you want your blog to be is the best route to take. Think long term.

Are You Building Trust With Your Target Audience? by Dawud Miracle Greg Balanko-Dickson and his article on this blog, Business Blogging Strategy: Build Trust and Rapport, saying:

Let’s face it, people do business with people – not with businesses. A business owner may like, want and need something that a marketing coach, for instance, offers. But the single biggest reason they hire the firm is because of the people they meet, talk to and build relationships with.

Why?

Well, people want to be in relationships.

Well said!

The article also attracted the attention of many others, including Confident Writing who says:

Writing with rapport requires you to put yourself into the equation. It’s about being real, sincere, competent, honest, congruent and last but not least: being there.

Having a good guest blogger not only helps the blog and the blogger, it helps make connections you might not otherwise make. Thanks to everyone for their wonderful welcome and links to Greg’s popular blog posts.

While the The Clutter of Dead Blogs on the Web was merely a newsy piece, it has caught the attention of a lot of people who are wondering about the blogs they left behind, as well as the blogs they intend to leave behind. Interesting responses.

Totally Trippin’ at Totally Trippin’ decided to use the article as a kick in the butt to make sure the blog got off to a big bang right from the start:

I was thinking about how to begin the first entry in this blog. I’ll bet most first entries begin with meaningless expressions such as “Welcome to my blog!”, exerting some kind of foolhardy exuberance about the being the first 99,476,389th blogger on the web (only to abandon the blog a few weeks later). Not me.

Even though this blog will probably be filled with useless entries about personal endeavors, grievances, and impulsive late-night brain farts in the long run, I insist this first post will be of some use. And what better use for the first entry then to follow the other 99,476,388 bloggers and explain what this blog will be about and what I have in store for you, the reader.

I like that kind of enthusiasm, whether it comes from a fear of becoming a dead blog or not. Good work!

I’m always stunned by who reads my blog. Recently, in an interview on Rembex Blog Fiesta, Rob Blake, noted for his real estate and mortgage blog, admitted that he enjoys reading this blog for his blogging and WordPress tips and information. You never know who is reading your blog, do you? 😀 Thanks for reading, Rob!

Popular destinations and recommendations from this blog elsewhere included:

Blog Herald Columns

Recently on the Blog Herald, I wrote about:

Lorelle’s Linkworthy Links

15 Feedburner Feedflares You Can Easily Use to Promote Your Content and Website is an interesting lesson in a Feedburner feature I didn’t pay attention to.
Pros and cons of changing a website into a blog is a great look at the issues of going from static HTML to dynamically generated web pages.
Score Adds New Online Resources for Entrepreneurs is a great pointer to one of my favorite business resources, SCORE, is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and offers amazing educational and training programs, along with financial advice and aid for small businesses. SCORE recently released some wonderful online resources for entrepreneurs which bloggers will definitely benefit.
On WordPress Security allows Matt to really respond openly to the issues of security, patches, and WordPress.
Smooth Harold – You Don’t Know Jack About Viral Marketing takes a very good look at how blogs are the ideal viral marketing campaign and how to maximize their effectiveness.

Blasts From the Past

This week, I thought I’d look back at some of the odd ball posts I’ve written over the past two years on this blog. These are odd ball posts because while the are related to blogging and WordPress, it takes a bit of leap to make that connection. In some cases, you had to leap an ocean.

Most of these were published in the first few months of this blog, which goes to show that a little trial and error helps you to tune your blogging voice better.

This is the Weekly Digest of Lorelle on WordPress.
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Copyright Protected and Reserved – If you are reading this post outside of your feed reader or Lorelle on WordPress, the usage of this content is a violation of copyright and the DMCA. Please report it immediately so action can be taken against them. If you are using this content illegally, and you know who you are, consider this a cease and desist order.
Lorelle VanFossen is a member of WordPress, WordPress.com, the 9Rules Network, and author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging.

12 Comments

letters

Posted July 7, 2007 at 1:41 pm | Permalink

Hi Lorelle,
Funny thing about the splogs. I just found in my comment box for moderation a link back to xour entry:
Weekly Digest: WordCamp, Interviews, 070707, Content Theft, and The Usual « Lorelle on WordPress

[…] of parchment from the long lost WordPress Blogging Bible have been uncovered and translated by Letters Home to You, revealing for the first time The 20 Blogging Commandments. One of particular note is number eight: […]

It looks like spam. What to do then?
cheers,
ian

Lorelle VanFossen

Posted July 7, 2007 at 3:04 pm | Permalink

Well, Ian, it’s not spam nor is this blog a splog. If you notice, I wrote again about your fabulous blogging commandments in my weekly digest. Nothing like two strokes of appreciation from the same blog. 😀

So it’s not spam nor splog nor scraping nor anything bad. Only me doing you another good turn.

The trackbacks are working like they should.

Also, I notice that you have no trackbacks published on your blog post. You should have at least two from me and possibly another on the Blog Herald. Where did they go?

Trackbacks are good. Spam trackbacks are bad. But showcase your good ones as they speak well of thy blog writing. 😀

Sam

Posted July 12, 2007 at 1:48 am | Permalink

I’m working on a wordpress blog, getting a lot of information here since I still new to wordpress, I love the flexibility and easy customization since there are so many plug-in can solve the problem. I hope my new wordpress blog to be ready soon, of course I will continue to use blogger course I already so get use to it.

letters

Posted July 12, 2007 at 2:12 am | Permalink

Hi Lorelle,
I guess I still have a lot to learn. I can’t tell the difference between a trackback link and a spam comment, it seems. I’ve been deleting the trackback links because they appear to be exactly like some comments that appear immediately after I post. I guess I should go to the forums or WP FAQs to sort this all out.

Lorelle VanFossen

Posted July 12, 2007 at 7:08 am | Permalink

Letters:

If you see trackbacks immediately after you post, they are found in the posts within your blog you link to, right? Those are natural. They connect your different posts together when you reference them.

When you reference any blog post on any blog that has trackbacks enabled, WordPress sends them the text around the link that says “Hey, I’m talking about you!” This is also an invitation to the linked blogger to check out what you had to say, thus is an invitation to visit your blog. Full circle. Makes connections. Builds your network. Builds your audience.

When you leave trackbacks (good ones, not trackback comment spam – you can tell the difference if it includes casinos, penises, or other ickies) on your blog posts, you are telling the world that others liked this well enough to have their link and say to the article. It’s like letters of recommendation to your blog post. Very good stuff.

I’ve written about this a lot but probably the simplest article would be The Magic and Fun of Incoming Links « Lorelle on WordPress. I hope this helps.

letters

Posted July 12, 2007 at 2:47 pm | Permalink

Hi Lorelle and thanks for that information. I’ll read your magic and fun link article tomorrow morning…meantime, is it too late to recover the trackbacks you sent me that I deleted?

Lorelle VanFossen

Posted July 12, 2007 at 4:32 pm | Permalink

It’s never too late. Okay, sometimes it is, but hopefully I was able to resend the trackbacks. Let me know if they aren’t there by tomorrow.

To see who you trackback in your articles, edit the published post and open the Trackbacks section below the Write Post area. It should show a list of your trackbacks.

To manually trackback someone, done if you want someone to know you published a post but haven’t included a link to them in your blog, you can paste a link to a blog post on their blog (not the blog alone), and it will appear on their blog post. If they are paying attention, they will come see what you have to say. What they do from there is up to them. So make sure you don’t use this unwisely. 😀

Kim Dushinski

Posted July 17, 2007 at 8:50 pm | Permalink

Lorrelle:

I am so excited that I won the copy of your book in the Essential Keystrokes Blogging Birthday Gifts. How fun is it that someone else’s blog has a birthday and *I* get a gift?!? FUN.

Can’t wait to get the book and dive in.

Lorelle VanFossen

Posted July 18, 2007 at 8:58 am | Permalink

It should be there soon! Thanks.

Liz K.

Posted July 24, 2007 at 9:23 am | Permalink

Lorelle – Good to know (sort of) that splogging is not just affecting me. At least it proves I’m not paranoid! This article along with another article on copied content got me here. I see you write that if anyone sees your material splogged they should contact you right away. What do you do next? Do you really mail Google a letter asking them to help out? Or have you tried a longer-term approach by modifying the wp-rss2.php file somehow? I know you have other articles on this, so I continue to read through them. I’m just wondering what longer term measures you can do to protect your site. The short-term actions seem like such an uphill battle. *sigh*

Lorelle VanFossen

Posted July 24, 2007 at 11:46 am | Permalink

Yes, I use the form Google requires to submit via snail mail and have also used the Report Spam Tool on the Google Webmasters Tools. If you report a plagiariser to AdSense or other advertisers, they may also only accept these via mail. Follow the instructions in What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content.

As for modifying core WordPress files, this is NOT recommended. I cannot do this on WordPress.com but it is not recommended as you lose any customization on the next upgrade. It’s smarter to ask them politely to stop, and then take the few additional steps to report them if they don’t. It’s not a big deal, so don’t make it one. It’s not an uphill battle, just something that must be done. Like paying your taxes. 😀

People often spend more time making a fuss over it than it takes to do it. I comment on 3 or more copyright violations a week of my blog and few force me to take greater steps. It’s a couple minutes.

Boudewijn

Posted July 29, 2007 at 4:29 pm | Permalink

Hey Lorelle. Nice of you to mention my first post on my new, and also first, blog (Totally Trippin’). I stumbled upon your comment through technorati when I was doing random searches for my own blog at different sites (Come on, you know I’m not the only one who does that :D). I’m just beginning to discover the many possibilities involved with blogging, including TB and PB (hence this comment ;)). I have to say, your site offers a good base for me to start learning more about this subject. So keep ’em coming!

~B

2 Trackbacks/Pingbacks

By What’s put on the Internet, stays on the Internet at Totally Trippin’ on July 29, 2007 at 5:21 pm

[…] of yet another blog on the web. But wouldn’t you know it? That very same entry got noticed by Lorelle from Lorelle on WordPress (scroll down nearly half way), who wrote the piece on dead blogs. I like that kind of enthusiasm, […]
By Weekly Digest: On The Road to WordCamp, Sponsored Themes, Selling Your Blog, NoFollow, and More « Lorelle on WordPress on June 11, 2013 at 2:11 pm

[…] Weekly Digest: WordCamp, Interviews, 070707, Content Theft, and The Usual […]