Category Archives: blogging101

Spam Catcher

Posted on December 17, 2007 by greenbucks| 1 Comment

Why is installing a spam catcher in a blog a good step? A spam catcher catches spam comments that would otherwise be caught in your comments section which you have to delete one after the other. These either contain nonsense words, key words that bloggers wouldn’t want to be associated with or videos about the different anatomical parts of the human species 😉
Our main blog, TeacherJulie.com blog had to swim through a lot of spam emails/comments that go through the posts’ comments. The task of removing thee cuaght spam comments was tedious, to say the least. I had to select/approve those that are legit comments and delete those that were not. Wasted time, wasted resources.

The task was daunting and tiring. And time-consuming too. As of today, there are 31,000+ spam comments caught by the spam catcher installed.

Update: there are 54,000+ spam comments caught by my spam catcher.

There are two or three that slips through the spam catcher daily but we are not complaining so far. Such as there are also two or three legit comments that are caught as spam but since these bloggers are kind enough to tell me that they have been considered as spam, we try to retrieve their comments.

Even if we have to scan through hundreds.

What is your Spam Catcher called?

Mine is called Akismet.

Posted in blogging101, File and data management, web tools

Writing Sponsored Posts

Posted on December 15, 2007 by greenbucks| 1 Comment

As a blogger, I am not ashamed to say that I do sponsored posts.  I do this and I earn a little here and a little there. Not bad since this extra cash has been helpful in more ways than one.

So, how am i able to write these posts without seemingly compromising my niche, specifically pertaining to the main blog?

  1. I choose my topics. If I don’t choose my topics, I would have earned more but I can’t be too greedy and compromise my blog.
  2. I read the website first. I read the pages contained in the website. I try to understand what the content is all about before I write my post.
  3. I just don’t write, put the key words and the link and click publish. I re-read, edit, read again and edit again if I must before I publish the post. Why? I don’t want to be labeled as a “spam” or whatever it is called by misrepresenting facts and using incorrect spelling and grammar.
  4. I try to be sincere when I write the post. How? I place myself in the position of a person looking for information on the articular topic I am writing about. Then I write how I would want to read about this particular topic.
  5. I try to follow the rules given with regard to the posting and using of key words and links.
  6. Before I used to use “I” in my posts but I have turned more objective and tried to write using a third person.

If you, as a blogger feel that writing paid posts is demeaning, then don’t go for it. If you feel that you don’t have a technical and/or writing capabilities to do sponsored posts, then don’t.

But definitely do not look down at others who do this kind of blogging. After all, some of these bloggers who do sponsored posts like me work harder at writing more relevant posts so as not to lose their “readers” who see paid posts in between.

I definitely don’t want to put “trash” posts nobody would want to read in between my paid posts. Now, that would be a different story and it takes out the fun in being able to reach out and touch the hearts of others who happen to come by my blog for a good read.

I would be disappointed in myself too if that happens.

Posted in blogging101, making money online

Comments

Posted on December 12, 2007 by greenbucks| 1 Comment

Commenting is a way for bloggers and non-bloggers alike connect and communicate with each other. Opinions are exchanged, thoughts are shared, greetings are given and even the occasional how-have-you-been-doing-its-great-to-know-about-what-you-have-been-up-to are written.
Commenting in blogs can be done even if the person writing down a comment does not have a blog. Yes, this is possible.

Comments are feedbacks that bloggers receive from others  which can be immediate or even if it is not so immediate, that make the blogger feel that he/she was able to reach out to others, whether positively or negatively.

Writing comments is a behavior where utmost respect should be observed. There are no specific rules when commenting and if there are,  these are unwritten rules, if I may say so, depending upon the commenter’s set of real-life values and online behavior.

Some of the rules I observe whenever I write a comment to other blogs or reply to comments sent to my blog:

  1. Be respectful. A little respect goes a long way, not just in the blogging community but in inter-personal relationships with other people.
  2. Choose words that would not offend. Be in tuned to the blog writer’s writing style. No, not really to match words with words but be able to see the level of writing, the words used, before writing your comments.
  3. Re number 2, it doesn’t mean that people who comment should be deceptive and not be themselves. No, I don’t mean that. One has to be “natural” and true to one’s self but able to adjust to the level of the other writer’s style. (i know, I think maybe I made this a little confusing)
  4. If you disagree with a writer’s point of view, you can present counter arguments or your point of view but with respect.
  5. If you saw some “mistakes” or misconceptions about a written post, state the corrections (with sources to back up your corrections) but not in a gloating manner.
  6. Read the post properly, note the details and be able to understand some points there that needs further reading on your part before making a comment.
  7. Read the other comments as well, especially if questions were asked and have already been answered by the blog author to avoid repetitions.
  8. If statements are made with the blog author’s opinion which you disagree, state your own opinion if you must but do not say that the writer is wrong. No, that is not fair to the author.
  9. Mind your spelling. You wouldn’t want to read smthng spelldlyk this, ryt? Its rtating.
  10.  Last, if you don’t have anything to say, well, don’t anything,or in this case, write.

After all, it is still the blog author’s prerogative to delete comments he/she finds demeaning or blatant disrespect of his/her opinions. Would you like your comment to be caught as a spam the next time you write another one?

There are those who comment for the sake of commenting.

There are those who comment just to annoy the writer.

There are those who are sincere in making their comments.

There are those who comment for the sake of arguing and making a ruckus.

Which one are you?

Posted in blogging101

Memetag

Posted on December 10, 2007 by greenbucks| 2 Comments

A memetag is a blog tag in a blog post that is comprised of tasks including answering random or associated questions. If a memetag asks the tagged bloggers, meaning the bloggers who were sent the tasks, to “Name your top five pet peeves” then that is what the blogger would do. After doing the task, the blogger would then recognize where the memetag came from by including the link of the blogger who tagged him/her.

It is important to include and recognize the blogger who invited the other blogger to participate in the task. It is also important to recognize the initial creator of the meme. Why? Because the initial creator of a particular memetag has a purpose in creating the meme and he/she should be able to track how the meme has grown and recognized, and how many players participated.

So how would the initial creator would be able to do that? By participants linking their posts back to the blogger who asked them to do the memetag and participants linking back to the blog of the initial creator.

Sadly, the initial creator somehow gets lost along the way because a lot of bloggers do not follow the particular rules included in the memetag.

These tips below are mostly what I have learned by doing several memetags. I try to do all these tips listed below but sometimes I get lost in number 4 especially when the memetag given to me has been revised already.

Some tips in doing memetags

  1. Recognize the blogger who tagged you by linking to his blog or post url.
  2. Recognize the initial creator of the link.
  3. If modifications are deemed necessary by the tagged blogger, these should be in relation to the tasks of the memetag.
  4. Follow the instructions.

Some examples of memetags, just click on the titles:

Five Things

Christmas Tree Blog Parade

Sunset/Sunrise Photo Meme

7 Things About Me

What Does Christmas Mean To Me (the instructions here were not followed, I have to say)

Posted in blogging101, Memetag

Tagging and Tags

Posted on December 5, 2007 by greenbucks| 1 Comment

What is a tag? What is tagging?

A relevant keyword that is associated with information like a blog entry, video, map and/or photo is called a tag. To be able to classify keyword-based search of information, tagging is used.

Creating tags to categorize contents according to the key words is one of the more popular  ways to index important topics. Tag clouds are often used to be able to visualize the contents in a certain site. Tagging makes it easy to have posts found by other people who either made thee posts or found by people looking for these key words. Finding related content is now easier with the use of tags.

Examples of sites that use tags are

del.icio.us

technorati

flickr

Is it any easier to find relevant information by tagging?

Web-based communities, mostly blogs, are able to label, tag and share information with others who may have written about the topic/tag. Even those who do not blog but read blogs, searching for particular topics/posts/keyword/tags would be able to see the posts categorized, if there is a system of categorization made.

Next topic: Memetag

Posted in blogging101, File and data management