I did a post not all that long ago that’s turned out to be one of my top ten posts. I conducted a poll on that post in order to find out whether or not Disqus was actually stopping people from commenting on blogs. To date I’ve had 105 people vote. The question asked was Have You Refrained From Commenting Because It Was A Disqus Blog? to which 55 (52%) replied no and 50 (48%) replied yes.

I find that quite staggering. You can almost say that there is a 50/50 chance that people are not commenting on a Disqus blog. So, if you’re starved of comments at the moment and you’re running Disqus, then perhaps you should rethink your choice of commenting system.

Some like DiTesco commented that they voted no, not because he liked Disqus, but because,

there are too many blogs that I like and belong to friends that are Disqus powered and I am taking that extra mile to comment.

Unfortunately not everyone is willing to go that extra mile. There were a lot more comments that you may find interesting, both for and against, but when you consider those results I’m glad that I decided against Disqus and stuck with the one that comes with WordPress.

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The FlexSqueeze Theme gives my blog that professional look. I loved it so much that I bought the developers license. It's the easiest most customizable theme I've come across. See how easy it is to change your theme's appearance! Compare it to Thesis to see how much better it is! Check out some of the latest Latest Updates

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Hey guys, do you notice anything different about the blog? No? Well if you look again you may noticed that I have removed most of the ads. You know, I’ve lost track of the amount of people who have told me that my blog looked crappy because of the amount of ads I had placed on it. I reckon that if I had a dollar for every snide remark I could easily have purchased a carton of cold beer.

I’ve had them all, from newbies to A Listers, one A Lister even comparing Wassup to a Christmas tree. I’m not going to mention his name because I don’t want to be accused of link dropping for the sole purpose of getting traffic. Yep, I was actually accused of that when I wrote my post on why I no longer link to the likes of Problogger and John Chow, a post that didn’t link to either of them.

So, why did I remove them? It was because of a woman, and you all know how I love to please my women. Yep, I can still remember the time when I pulled out all the plugs just to please Holly, another of my female commentators. You can read all about that in this post on how to remove InfoLinks from your comments.

Still, that is another story and this one belongs to another amazing woman, Kimberly and her post 31DBBB – Day 4 – Analyze a Top Blog In Your Niche where she honestly reviews three blogger, yours truly being one of them, and guess what what? She refers to the ads on my blog as clutter! So what makes her opinion different from all the others? Was it because she’s of the opposite sex Well, all I can say is that her post moved me to the point where I just had to act, and if it made just one more woman happy then it was all worth while.

Seeing as how I’m talking about advertising on blogs I think it’s a good time to mention the OIOPublisher plugin, a plugin that automates all ad purchases on a blog, including text ads, banner ads, and paid reviews! Whats really good about it is that it frees up your time so that you can devote it to what is really important, writing good content. I think that because it’s completely automated it may allow potential advertisers to book a spot on your blog who may not have otherwise parted with their hard earned money.

While the plugin normally costs $47 you can get OIOPublisher for $37 by mentioning My Coupon: ‘SOLAR-WASSUP’ when purchasing it. This coupon is only valid till the end of August. There will probably be another coupon when that expires but I can’t say how much it will be worth. I know I delayed buying it for quite awhile and I admit it was a mistake because that decision probably cost me some sales.

If you decide to purchase the plugin I suggest that you create some sort of Advertise Here page where you explain to potential advertisers why they should purchase a spot from you. Don’t pay too much attention to my page as I put it together fairly quickly and it could really do with some major work. If you do a great job on this page the prospect of getting advertising dollars is greatly increased.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010

The FlexSqueeze Theme gives my blog that professional look. I loved it so much that I bought the developers license. It's the easiest most customizable theme I've come across. See how easy it is to change your theme's appearance! Compare it to Thesis to see how much better it is! Check out some of the latest Latest Updates

I highly recommend you to get your FlexSqueeze copy today!

In the beginning there was a great void and then a wise person started the first blog and all was good. In time more and more blogs came to life filling the great void with information, bad good and indifferent. Then people came to life who saw a way to use the blogs for their own purposes when they found that leaving comments with their url attached impressed the omnipotent Google who would then give them a high PR.

Over time this pissed Google off because it upset his algorithm and Google wanted all blogs to go no-follow. And yet there was a growing number of bloggers who said NO, stuff you Google, we want to reward our commentators and in defiance of Google’s wishes these bloggers went D0-Follow.

Things were going swell for a time but then an evil group of trolls was born who in time were known as spammers. These people were not content with leaving good comments in order to get a link back to their site. No, they would not even read the post and would therefore leave nonsensical comments. They would even fail to follow a blog’s comment policy by leaving a keyword instead of a name.

At first bloggers would delete these comments but there came a time when the spam grew to unmanageable amounts and bloggers were left in despair. Then came the great Akismet, a simple WordPress plugin that was able to detect the greater majority of spam sending them to Hades where they met their just fate. But Akismet was unable to detect all spam and so Akismet gave bloggers control over their comments. Akismet said to the bloggers; “Thou hath the right to mark as spam any comments that I miss in my spam busting mission”

Unfortunately there were some bloggers who used Akismet unwisely spamming some comments for the wrong reason. Then came a time when some people grew angry at the benevolent Akismet for spamming their comments. They jumped up and down waving their hands in the air demanding that Akismet was going too far, but Akismet was quiet for Akismet was not at fault.This upset them no end and they were forever unhappy with their lot.

But all was not lost for there was those who worshiped Akismet, for they appreciated all the work and continuous  upgrades that Akismet  supplied at no cost. They were also very thankful for Akismet for taking the great burden of spam off their shoulders, and they were happy with the blogosphere.

Who would have thought that something like this would actually come about, that there would be two groups of Akismet people, those who were happy with the plugin and those who were angry with it.

Personally I love Akismet because it does save me so much time, and not only that it is really pretty accurate and I hardly ever have to fish any comments that it’s picked up as spam. Another thing I like about it is that it allows me the option to mark comments as spam that it’s missed out. This virtually teaches Akismet so that next time it will recognize such comments as spam.

The trouble is some people may be marking comments as spam that may be legitimate, but do you blame Akismet for that? Nope, it’s not the plugin’s, nor the developer’s, fault if people abuse their power on how it’s used.

Wikipedia’s interpretation of Spam is;

Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately. While the most widely recognized form of spam is e-mail spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, online classified ads spam, mobile phone messaging spam, Internet forum spam, junk fax transmissions, social networking spam, television advertising  and file sharing network spam.

This is a rather broad description and the problem is that as far as comments go what one person finds quite acceptable another person sees it as spam. I can’t vouch for other blogs but I’m going to list some of the things that you may do on this blog that will cause you to be sent to Akismet’s spam hell.

1. Using Keywords instead of your name: I think this is a no no for most bloggers, especially if it’s listed as such in their comment policy. Personally, if it’s a good comment I will either delink it or remove the keywords from the url.  If the comment is of no value and the commentator obviously hadn’t read the post I will spam it.
2. Not following instructions: I will sometimes point out to people, either via email or withing a comment, if they are doing something wrong and if they continue on their merry way disregarding my instructions I will spam them. Honesty I have better things to do than deleting their comments.
3. Leaving stupid comments just for the sake of a link: While I normally delete these, I will spam repeat offenders.

A bit harsh you reckon? I don’t think so. I devote a lot of time to this blog and I cherish those commentators who take the time to not only read my posts but take the time to leave comments that add to that post. If you’re not willing to do that and I leave your comments then I am doing a disservice to those who do the right thing.

Why not just delete the comment rather than spamming them? Because that will not resolve the problem. People need to respect the fact that do-dollow blogs are there because bloggers wish to reward their commentators but that does not mean they have the right to abuse that bloggers generosity, and when you decide to ignore comment policy and other explicit instructions you are stepping out of line and have to wear the consequences.

In summation, if you do not want to be spammed do all the right things, behave when commenting and not only will you live a spam free existence others will come to respect you as diligent commentators.

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The FlexSqueeze Theme gives my blog that professional look. I loved it so much that I bought the developers license. It's the easiest most customizable theme I've come across. See how easy it is to change your theme's appearance! Compare it to Thesis to see how much better it is! Check out some of the latest Latest Updates

I highly recommend you to get your FlexSqueeze copy today!

Some time ago I did a post Defending A Blogger’s Right To Review A Product where I gave an example of a well renowned blogger who got it completely wrong when dealing with some negative feedback from a fellow blogger, his customer, who bought a reviewed one of his products. That posts showed my reasoning as to why his reactions were totally wrong and how he should of reacted.

This post will be dealing with another important subject for bloggers whether they are blogging for money or for the pure enjoyment of it all, something that is also true in the real world, that subject being honesty.

Most people already know how important it is to be absolutely honest when writing a post, especially when promoting an affiliate or a product. You don’t want to be telling people how good something is when you know it’s really crap, no matter how much commission it’s earning you. This is because once you are found out your credibility is shot all to hell and once people find out you will find that your online career will be short lived.

Now, while most people tend to behave when on their own blogs they tend to forget themselves, as in the above example, when commenting on other blogs. These are those brown nosing commentators who leave you lies just so do not delete their comment or to win some misconstrued brownie points. You’re probably wondering what the heck I’m talking about so I’ll give you some examples.

• Social Networking Liar: These are the ones that rave on about how much they love your post that they’re going to Tweet or Stumble it but never do. Would you say liar is too harsh a term? Perhaps it’s just a lapse of memory?
• Affiliate Liars: As above these guys tell you how they’re going to join an affiliate you’re promoting but never do.
• RSS Feed Liars: Yeah, they love your blog so much they’re going to subscribe to your feed. While you can check up on the former two, it’s harder to see if these actually subscribe or not. You can usually pick them out though because their comments usually suck big time.

I reckon you get where I’m going by now, and what these people are forgetting is that they’re only kidding themselves and there is every possibility that they may be ruining their online reputation. Personally I believe their actions may go beyond pissing off the blogger whose blog their commenting on. Say in the first example another blogger who tweeted a post and noticed that the person who said he tweeted it actually didn’t, what would they think of them. People talk and as word get’s around reputations get tarnished.

There is a very easy way not to get caught in this trap and that is to be completely honest when commenting on a blog. Don’t bullshit to people. If you’re telling people you’re going to Tweet a post, join an affiliate, subscribe to a blog or whatever do it! Whatever you do don’t promise you’re going to go through with any particular action if you have no intention of following through.

So, what do you do when you come across these guys? Personally, depending on the mood I’m in at the time, I reckon I’ll just delete the comment. What about you, does this sort of thing bother you and if it does what’s your method of punishment for the perpetrators.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010

The FlexSqueeze Theme gives my blog that professional look. I loved it so much that I bought the developers license. It's the easiest most customizable theme I've come across. See how easy it is to change your theme's appearance! Compare it to Thesis to see how much better it is! Check out some of the latest Latest Updates

I highly recommend you to get your FlexSqueeze copy today!

You may well remember the post where I gave MyLikes The Thumbs Up, well it seems that it’s time for a followup post because things are stirring in the world of MyLikes. That post explained how easy it was to make money with MyLikes but it seems that I wasn’t using it to it’s full potential. You see, I was only relying on the money that I could earn by tweeting a link, but as we all know the amount of people who see any particular tweet is limited to those of your followers who are online at the time.

Since then I’ve decided to put a small code in my sidebar, one that is adjustable so that it can fit most themes, which will display my latest MyLikes thereby increasing it’s exposure and consequently their earning potential.

I also found that I got paid for my first referral, a whole $4, which proves that they are true to their word. Although other people may have signed up using my link I didn’t get paid because they did not fulfill all the following requirements.

Detailed Rules: We only payout for influencers who satisfy the following conditions:

• They must be from the United States, Great Britian, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia or Canada.
• The number of Twitter followers must be more than the number of people they are following.
• Their Twitter account must be at least 120 days old.
• They complete the influencer profile on MyLikes.
• They create at least one Sponsored Like on MyLikes.
• Referral bonus reversed if the Influencer is found to be spam/fake twitter account.

The last two months they’ve been giving away an Apple iPad to whoever signed up the most influencers, and silly me never tried for it. Truth be told I don’t really have the time, but perhaps one of you have. Why not give it a shot, especially as how it’s absolutely free to join. Let’s not also forget the potential for adding to your income stream which is a nice little bonus.

Just so you know the team behind MyLikes arn’t your normal backyard newbie who don’t know what they’re doing. The dynamic trio consists of Bindu Reddy;

Before starting MyLikes, Bindu was a Google Apps product lead and was in-charge of various Google products including Blogger, Google Docs, Video and Shopping. Previously at Google, Bindu created Google Base and spearheaded the introduction of Quality Score into the AdWords bidding system. Previous to Google, Bindu was the Director of Product Management at Elance. She has a master’s degree from Dartmouth and an B.Tech degree from IIT, Mumbai.

Arvind Sandararajan;

Before starting MyLikes, Arvind was most recently in-charge of Google AdSense engineering. Previously at Google, Arvind led engineering teams for Gmail and Google Base. He was one of the very few people who received not one, but two prestigious Founders awards for his work on AdSense and Gmail. Previous to Google, Arvind held key engineering roles in BEA and Marimba. Arvind has a M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford and an B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Mumbai.

And last but not least, David Scacco;

Before joining MyLikes, David was an active angel investor and startup advisor. He worked at Google From 2000 – 2007 and holds the distinction of being the company’s first advertising sales executive. In his role as Director of the Vertical Markets Group David was responsible for building and managing an all-star team, which provided marketers with industry specific expertise. He and his team built successful advertising partnerships with many of the world’s best known brands and advertising agencies, as well as some of the fastest growing medium-sized companies. He also won a Google Founders award. Previous to Google he was a Director of Business Development at Ziff-Davis Media and Vice President of Marketing at Express Direct. He has a B.S. from Northern Illinois University.

Pretty impressive qualifications if you ask me, and with that sort of background you would expect MyLikes to grow as time goes on and as everybody knows, it’s best to hop on early if you want to get the best ride. If you haven’t joined yet it’s not too late to get in on the action.

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The FlexSqueeze Theme gives my blog that professional look. I loved it so much that I bought the developers license. It's the easiest most customizable theme I've come across. See how easy it is to change your theme's appearance! Compare it to Thesis to see how much better it is! Check out some of the latest Latest Updates

I highly recommend you to get your FlexSqueeze copy today!