Comment Spam Detective Trick

Today’s “Quick Tip” should be pretty quick, but I think beneficial to many of you bloggers out there. I HATE Spammers and I am sure most of you out there do as well. One of our many goals is to try and keep spam out of our comments section of our blogs. To help with that goal… many (if not most) WordPress bloggers use a plugin called Akismet which is designed to filter out spam comments. For the most part it does an AMAZING job of catching a large percentage of the spam that comes through each day. But it is not 100% perfect, so you need to occasionally check  the spam folder and make sure no legitimate comments got put in there. I usually find at least a few comments every few days that mistakenly got pushed into the spam folder… so I just need to go in and approve the legitimate comments.

Not only does legitimate comments get wrongly put in the spam folder, but occasionally a few spam comments make it into the “Pending Approval” folder where you decide if you want to approve the comments or not.

So how do you tell if a comment is spam or if it is a legitimate comment? No one wants to lose a potential regular visitor to their blog and if someone writes a legitimate comment and you do not approve it… there is a good chance they may never come back.

Well there is no exact science to this, but some spam comments are much more obvious than others and they are usually very easy to spot. But what about the ones that aren’t so obvious?

Many times you will see comments like these:

“Great post. You really know what you are talking about!”

“Interesting concept. I have never thought about that before. Thanks for the great advice.”

“Hi, good post. I have been wondering about this issue, so thanks for writing. I’ll definitely be subscribing to your blog.”

Would you approve any of those comments above from someone who has never left a comment on your blog before? I definitely would not. I have one #1 RULE when it comes to approving someone to be able to comment on any of our blogs…

“I need to know that you read the post by something you say in your comments!”

Those 3 comments above are so generic that they could be used in almost any post on any subject, and you have no idea if they read the post at all.

Well I came up for the idea of this post tonight when I saw a Pending Comment in my WordPress admin. As soon as I read it, I knew it was SPAM, but it didn’t get filtered into my spam folder… and I wondered how many of you out there would approve the comment. I know there are some, as I will show you in a minute.

The image below is a copy of the comment that is in my Pending Approval folder. Here is what the comment says:

“Thanks! You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your blog. It will greatly help me in my activities. Thanks though, I’m glad some people share good stuff like this! It will greatly help me in my activities this is one of the most extensive articles I’ve read on the subject of making money from blogging”

Let’s be honest… if we didn’t know any better, that actually sounds like a pretty good comment, wouldn’t you agree? I definitely think so. The one problem is… it is in direct violation of my #1 Rule, and I will not break that rule.

So just for fun, and to prove to YOU that it definitely was a SPAM comment I performed a simple test. I took the text from the comment below and highlighted it and copied it…

and then I pasted the text into Google’s search box and clicked the “Search” button. Below is an image of the results.

I found pages and pages of the exact same comments on dozens (if not hundreds) of blogs. That just shows you that not everyone knows what to look for when it comes to SPAM.

Hopefully this simple little test can help you too!

The Ultimate WP Affiliate Sales Tool on Sale

A few weeks ago I showed you a simple way to cloak your affiliate links using a simple line of php code to accomplish it. It still works fine, but it has some major limitations. I am still planning on using that system on many of our sites, but I am definitely making the switch to Ninja Affiliate (which I bought today on sale) for all our WordPress blogs starting right now. If you are serious about making money with your blog, you should definitely think about doing the same.

If you are not familiar with Ninja Affiliate, it is an extremely powerful WordPress plugin that helps turn your blog into an affiliate sales machine. I could go over all the benefits here, but they do a much better job explaining everything this plugin does on their site.

I have always wanted to buy it, but just kept putting it off for one reason or another. Well they definitely got my attention this week, as they are having a sale on Ninja Affiliate. For 4 Days Only (Aug. 18 – 21st at Midnight) they are giving a $30 Discount on the plugin.

(SALE has ended… but still a great piece of software at the price)

So instead of their regular price of $97 (which it is still worth), you can get Ninja Affiliate for ONLY $67.00… but only until this Friday night (Aug. 21st) at midnight! Then the price goes back up.

For me the the $30 DISCOUNT was the tipping point for me making the purchase. I knew I was eventually going to buy it, so when I saw it was on sale, it just made sense to buy it now and save some money.

I know there are many of our readers that already use Ninja Affiliate, as many of them have recommending it to me. If any of you are reading this, I would love it if you could tell us how you like it in the comment section below.

Adding Videos Can Liven Up Your Site

Adding video to your website or blog can be a challenge, but it can also take your site to the next level. We tried to modify one of our popular features from one of our other websites by adding video content. Easier said than done, if you ask me. Although I don’t think our first effort will be winning any major awards anytime soon, we did learn a few things:

1. Not everyone should be in a video. I learned this from watching other videos, and people have often told me that I have a great face for radio (that’s the joke, get it?) I still like to talk to people, and don’t have a problem facing the camera. Remember the music artist Rick Astley? Never gonna give you up? He sold tons of records before people actually saw what he looked like (the face just didn’t match his amazing soulful voice) and his career hit the skids. Point well taken.


2. You may have a lot of information to get across, but remember to use the K.I.S.S. method when doing your presentation: Keep It Simple Stupid. If you can’t get your message across in a few words, give up (anti-Rick Astley reference).
3. Make it entertaining and you will get a positive response. My first video was packed with information, and one of my personal friends (and supporter of the website) sent me the most helpful response: You Suck.  The video didn’t capture my humorous nature, or as she put it “You weren’t yourself”.  By all means, be yourself, just don’t suck.
4. Keep it short. We tried to do a 30 second spot, and it took several hours and several takes/editing sessions to get it down to 30 seconds. Our goal is to have a continuing segment that keeps  things brief, funny, informative and worth waiting for each week.  If you build it, they will come but if you make it funny they will bring their friends too!

Have you made a video and posted it to your website/blog? There are many different ways to add video content  for free (youtube, vimeo, etc. ) or you can upgrade to premium packages that include HD (we chose to upgrade our Vimeo package and are happy with the results.)

We also use Sony Vegas Pro 8 to edit our raw footage (shot with my HD Flip Video Camera which is all too easy to transfer. I love my Flip Video! ) This sounds like another topic I can exploit in the near future, so I will just share with you what we use.  What about you? Are there some must use applications or software that you can recommend? Extreme John always has video worth watching, so hey big guy, what do you use? You don’t have to have his advertising budget to get your images out there, and that is what we want to share today.

Make Your Blog More Interactive

Today’s “Quick Tip” is another simple way to increase commenting on your blog, as well as make it much more interactive. Again, this post is not for everyone, as lots of you are already doing it… but MANY blogs I visit do not, and I am not sure why they don’t.

From what I have noticed on this site, as well as on other blogs that I visit is… you get many more comments, and COMMENT INTERACTION if your blog allows for “Threaded Comments”. That is where you can “Reply” to individual comments in the comment section and your comment will appear right below the comment you replied to.

If a site doesn’t have this feature and you want to reply to someone that may have left a comment at the very top of the comment section, you have to get the commentor’s attention somehow to let them know you are replying to what they wrote. A lot of times I see people do this by writing something like “@THEIR NAME – ” and then leave their reply comment. I am sure if a particular post receives a lot of comments, there is a good chance the commentor may never even see that reply and there will be no more interaction between the two of them on that post.

So here are a couple of reasons I think blogs should use, “Threaded Comments”:

1. Much more organized comment section – Allowing nested comments makes reading the comment section much easier, as comments and replies are grouped together in a nice organized fashion. That also allows readers the ability to easily skip over reply conversations that do not interest them.
2. Encourages more interaction with your readers – This is probably the most important reason to do it. It allows readers to comment on your blog, and then allows you or other readers to comment directly to what they have to say. Without nested comments those replies could get lost in the mix and the person (or persons) you are replying to may never see your reply and the conversation dies. With threaded comments your readers can carry on their own conversation and you and/or other readers can easily jump into that conversation making your blog much more interactive, which I know we want with this blog.

So how do you allow for threaded comments in your Blog? Well over the last few years there have been several plugins that have come out that allows you to accomplish this. But now you don’t even need a plugin anymore, as WordPress has added this functionality right into their latest versions. You just need to go in and adjust your settings… which can be done in your WordPress admin (wp-admin/options-discussion.php).

Not only can you activate and adjust the threaded comments there, but you can also choose if you want the comments to display the newest or the oldest comments first, as well as… you can break the comments up into pages allowing a maximum amount of comments per page. You can read more about these functions on the WordPress website. One note though: Some older themes or custom themes may have to be updated for this feature to work.

So what about you guys, do you think Threaded Comments encourages more commenting? Also, we don’t do this, but do you think it is better to show the newest comments at the top of the page or the oldest comments first?

How to Create a Gravatar

Today’s “Quick Tip” was inspired by a funny post I read over at Misc Bytes. As I was reading the post it reminded me of the Gravatar I am using and where I got it. When I first started leaving comments on blogs I never used a Gravatar, as I never even thought about it.

But when we started Making Money Online we decided we needed some cool Gravatars so people could relate the name to a face. Well I have always liked those cartoon looking cariactures I have seen around the net, so I searched around for different companies that created them. I ended up finding an AWESOME company that not only does a great job, but they only charge around $5 to create one for you. The company is called CartoonMe, and not only do they do a great job, but they have a fast turnaround time (less than 72 hours) as well.

I have actually used them several times now, but when I first ordered one… I didn’t have any recent photos of me or Mark that I liked. I did have this photo of us from several years ago on St. Patrick’s Day (when our wives use to let us party) at one of our favorite bars. So I scanned it and here is the original photo. (I am on the left and Mark on the right)

Then I cropped each head and made them their own image, as CartoonMe will only do one face at a time. The ordering process is beyond simple. You give them your email address, select the photo you want to use, crop the photo right there online and make your payment. Then within 72 hours (but we got them back much faster) you are emailed your cartoon.  Here are the results from our first order…

As I mentioned that photo was from several years ago (I think around 7) and I have probably gained 20 to 30lbs since then.  So I have been using that as my Gravatar… since it is a more flattering image of me. I am planning on losing weight by the end of the year, so I will update my Gravatar then . You can see a more recent image of us on our About Us page if you like.

So, if you are looking to get a fun cartoon-type image for your Gravatar, or just want to have one for something else, I suggest you give CartoonMe a try.

And for any of you Graphic Designers out there… since our site is about making money online, you might want to consider developing this skill yourself and offering this service. It could be a good lead-in to offering your clients other services you provide.

Now if anybody decides to get one, please let us know… as we would love to see the finished product!

How to Get More Comments

Today’s weekly quick tip on Making Money Online Dot Com is not for everyone, but it could help you in the future. As you probably know I love comments and I also love to comment on other bogs. One thing I like to do to help build our online presence is to leave comments on the blogs of the people that comment on our site. I also like to visit the sites of the people who comment on their blogs as well and leave comments. The reason is simple… you already know these people leave comments on blogs, so there is a good chance if you leave a comment on their site, they might return the favor and comment on yours. Even though this is a “Great Tip”, this is not the tip of the week.

One thing I have noticed when following commentors (which is not a real word, but should be) to their sites is that some people use the URL to their main site versus their blog and wonder why they are not getting more comments. A good example of this was my buddy Brian Bell. He was leaving lots of great comments on our site and I wanted to return the favor, so when I would click on his URL… it would take me to his BlogEngage site, which at the time I had NO IDEA what it was, so I would usually just leave.

Then one day Brian left a comment on our site on the post “Hey Bloggers, Scratch Our Blog and We’ll Scratch Yours” saying that he should try that method, as he wasn’t getting any comments on his blog. So I suggested that he use his Blog URL in the comment box instead of BlogEngage… which he started doing and is still doing today.

After he made that SIMPLE change I personally started visiting and commenting on his site all the time. Not only because he was commenting on our site, but because SEOMkt.com is a GREAT BLOG and has lots of great information on getting more high quality traffic to your site. Also from reading his blog I actually learned what his BlogEngage site is actually about and I started submitting my blog posts regularly to it. I even added his BlogEngage Voting widget to our blog so readers can actually vote for our posts right on our site. It is an awesome tool and I suggest everyone gets it for their blog.

Okay… so we have learned that making that simple change (using his blog address versus using his main website address) that he has at least received a lot more comments from me personally. But did it make any difference to his overall commenting results? Well I decided to ask him 24 days later…

As you can see the answer is an overwhelming success! Now I am not saying everyone is going to experience these kinds of results, as everyone’s business models are set-up differently. I do think though… that there is a much better chance of getting more comments on your blog if you send people directly to your blog versus to another section of your site (or a completely other site like Brian was doing) and making the visitor have to search for your blog.

What You Can Do With PLR Content?

Today is a follow-up to the post I wrote about Private Label Rights content, which I basically described what it is, as well as the other type of “rights” that are available like “Reseller” and “Master Reseller” rights.

In this post I am going to talk just a little bit about some different ways you can use PLR content to; help build your subscriber list, help you create awesome sales pages and helping you with making some money online.

But first I want to say again to all you bloggers out there reading this… I DO NOT RECOMMEND THAT YOU USE PLR CONTENT FOR POSTS IN YOUR BLOG!!!

Also, I am just going to go over a few simple ways here to use PLR content. If you want to really learn lots of different way to utilize it… I strongly suggest you sign-up for our FREE COURSE. It is a 2-week course where we send you a new chapter each day with lots of useful content. Okay… enough with the free sales pitch.

As I said in the previous post, PLR content comes in many forms nowadays like; articles, ebooks, graphics, software, audio and videos… and each can be used in different ways. I have never personally used any PLR audios or video yet, but I can see where they have their place.

Since I don’t want to make this some monstrous post I am just going to go over 3 different ways you can use PLR content to help you with making money online…

Create an eBook as a gift for subscribing to your newsletter. If you read my previous post, “5 Best Bribes to Build a Subscriber List” you know that offering a free eBook is a great way to get people to subscribe to your mailing list. Now finding good PLR content is a great way to create this type of gift. There is literally tons of great PLR content out there on every niche imaginable, so finding content for your eBook shouldn’t be too hard.

You probably can find an already completed eBook on whatever niche you are in, but I would never go that way. It is much better to find many different articles that you like on your desired  subject and save them in a folder. Then when you find all you need… take them and lay them out in an order that would make sense to your readers.

Next comes the fun part of the process. I would then go through each article word-by-word and change them up as much as needed. I would reword them, add to them, and take away any text that was not needed. I would add links where needed, as well as affiliate links to hopefully generate a little extra cash. That is basically what I would do.

Next I would create an eCover for the book. Fortunately, I can do that myself, so I don’t have to hire anybody. But if you don’t… it is easy to find someone to create you a good one for $20 or less. Then just turn the project into a PDF file and you are done.

Create an awesome sales page – Not all, but many PLR providers that offer eBooks often give you complete sales letters along with graphics for each eBook they have available. The cool part about that is all the sale letters come with private label rights too. That means you can take your favorite parts from each sales page and create your own. I can honestly say that I have almost zero copywriting skills when it comes to creating a sales page, but I have hundreds of PLR eBooks with sales pages on my external hard-drive to grab from.

Now most of the copywriting that you get isn’t as high quality as paying someone 10K to create for you, but they do the trick. When I have a project that needs a sales page I can just grab a line or two from one source and maybe a few from another and slowly build myself my own unique sales letter. Unlike a swipe file where you use it mainly for ideas… with a PLR sales letter you can take a sentence word for word if you like, but I always think you should modify it a little.

Making money online with PLR content – There are unlimited ways to make money online with PLR content, but I will quickly go over a few of the ways I have made money over the years with it. Again, if you want more details you should sign-up for our course.

- Create an eBook and sell it. Follow the instructions I mentioned above on how to create an ebook… just make sure you really give it your own unique touch.

- Create 2 or 3 eBooks like above, but instead of selling them, offer them as FREE bonuses for purchasing a product through your affiliate link. This is an easy way to sell a lot more affiliate products.

- Create niche information sites and earn money through Adsense. Again, you definitely need to change the articles up quite a bit to make them more unique for Google and the other search engines, but I have made a TON of money from Google Adsense with a few of these type sites over the years.

- For more ways… sign-up for my FREE COURSE! *** NO PLR CONTENT WAS USED IN CREATING THAT COURSE ***

Here I go making my post way too long again, so I should stop. I was going to tell you how you can get a ton of PLR Content for FREE, but I will have to save that for tomorrow

2 Simple Fixes that Could Increase Comments on Your Blog

Lately I have been doing lots of “Blog Surfing” to not only see what people are writing about, but also to comment on blogs to get our name (Making Money Online Dot Com) out there. Now I am definitely not one of those people that just say something like, “Great Post! Keep up the good work!” I like to read each post and if I have something I think I can contribute… I try and leave a useful comment. Sometimes they are quite lengthy and sometimes they could be fairly short, but I always try to add to the conversation.

While visiting all these blogs lately there are a couple of things that I have come across that has kept me from leaving comments on posts where I usually would. Here are the 2 things that keep me from sometimes leaving comments:

1) Comment boxes that don’t auto-fill. This one probably bugs me most of all. The first time you go to a blog and leave a comment you usually have to leave at least your name and email address. Most sites also let you add your web address and many nowadays let you add additional information like your Twitter ID and more. Most sites require that your first comment be manually approved by the blog owner before it appears to the public, which totally makes sense. Another thing that is common in most blogs is once you leave your first comment… your information is stored on that site so when you go to write another comment you don’t have to fill out your personal information again. There are some sites that I have found where each time you leave a post you have to fill in that information again.  I absolutely hate having to do that each time I comment on the same site and I am sure there are many others that feel the same way.  So if your site does not have that “Auto Fill” feature I think you should fix it!

2) Captcha in the comments section. This one really bugs as well. I understand that nobody wants to get a bunch of spam posts on their site (me especially), but that is what the plugin Akismet (which comes with every WP blog) is for… right? It catches almost all the spam comments we get on our sites. It’s true, we have to check the spam folder each week to make sure it didn’t grab some legitimate comments, but for the most part it works great. I hate it when I leave a comment on a blog and then I come across one of those Captcha codes that are really hard to read. Then I have to refresh it until I can read it clearly or it takes me several attempts until I type it in right. It makes me want to just leave the site and abandon my comment. Now I can definitely understand having Captcha on your contact form, as you really don’t expect too many contact emails each day. But having it in your blog comment section is really not needed in my opinion. Why even risk lose visitors to your site?

Of course these are just my personal feelings. Maybe I am the only person this bugs. All I know is having those 2 things on your site might be costing you some comments from me.

How you guys? What do you think about my opinions… do you agree? Please leave your comments below.

Our First Meetup.com Experience

I was searching for a local internet entrepreneur group in my area, and I found one called Meetup. I asked Doug if he knew anything about it, and he thought it was a networking group. It did sound interesting, so we talked our wives into letting us go out to do some research. Research usually means a few beers, so we packed up the laptop and headed out the door.

Our Meetup group was held in a quaint coffee shop (quaint meaning small) and the room was packed. The host charges a minimal fee (only $3 in our case) and he provides a one hour presentation from a well outlined series of topics. Our host was very welcoming, entertaining, and we felt like we fit right in. He wasn’t selling anything, which I liked, and Doug asked several questions during the presentation that were quickly responded to. I am the internet entrepreneur virgin, but I like to talk a lot. Doug has the knowledge and experience, but he prefers to let me handle most of the verbal duties. We work well together in this way. My motto is “Ignorance is bliss” and I usually live up to the task. Take this short story for example:

I used to go to a nightclub hypnotist with a group of friends for the entertainment of it. While I was always a willing participant during the show, my skeptical friends could not allow themselves to get hypnotized. I enjoyed being a willing volunteer rather than a witness to the volunteer’s stupidity. At the end of each show, the Hypnotist would thank his audience for attending, and especially those who allowed themselves to follow his “Power of suggestion” which is also known as hypnosis. Then he would tell us that each show is only as good as his subjects, and this is also true with each Meetup group.

Nice segue, huh? I hope I didn’t lose too many of you with my story, but it does prove a point. You get more out of life when you participate in it. I hope that by reading this article, you look up your local meetup group and give them a try. Try different topics, and you may just meet some very interesting people. That is what we are all trying to do in the first place, isn’t it? Making connections, sharing thoughts and business techniques. If you have a great idea, share it with us and our viewers.

We are definitely not the first people to mention Meetup, but we do want to share it with you and hope you give it a try. What have you got to lose? You should go in prepared with a list of questions, and also bring an open mind. You find some of the brightest things said are not the ones that you bring with you. I am usually reminded that I talk too much, and I don’t let others into the conversation. I am working on this one, really I am. My father used to tell me that God wanted me to listen and not to speak, that’s why he gave me two ears but only one mouth. So here I sit quietly, but I can type pretty fast with my two hands! Always trying to out smart the fox!

Have any of you been to a Meetup group? What was your experience? My dad also said it is nice to share, so let’s have it!

Quick Tip – Simple Affiliate Cloaking Method

The last 3 days have been super hectic around the office, so I have not had much time to write. My business partner Mark has been on a 2 week vacation and will be back to work on Monday, and in his absence I have had to do everything around here, so I am a little behind. Plus, my kids just got out of school Tuesday for summer break. So today is going to be one of the first of what I am calling “Quick Tips”. It will just be a quick tip on how to do something specific. I am thinking about making this a once a week type post, but we will see how it goes over.

Today I am just going to show you a quick way to “Cloak” your affiliate links. There are a many reasons to do this, but probably the best reason is it helps keep people from hijacking your affiliate links and stealing your commissions.

There are lots of different ways and services out there with which you can cloak your URLs. Simply do a Google search for “URL Redirection Services” and you will see lots of different options.

For this post I am just going to show you a really simple PHP script that you can create in seconds and works great for a simple redirection.

Here is what we use on a lot of our sites. Now this only works if your server is running PHP. Again, there are probably lots of ways to do the same thing, but this is what we have always used.

1) Open up a text editor like Notepad and paste the following code onto your page:

—————————————————————-

<?php

$URL=”http://www.PUT_AFFILTIATE_URL_HERE.com“;

header (“Location: $URL”);

?>

—————————————————————-

2) Change http://www.PUT_AFFILTIATE_URL_HERE.com to whatever your actual affiliate link is.

3) You have 2 different options on how to save it and I prefer the 2^nd method (which takes an extra step or two), but both work fine.

• Give the file a name and end it with .php extension. For example is you were promoting an affiliate program for guitar lessons, you might want to call it “guitar-lessons.php”. Then you just upload the file to your server and you are done. Then whenever you are promoting that guitar course you would use the address www.YOUR-WEBSITE-URL.COM/guitar-lessons.php.
• With this one, you are going to need to create a “folder” with whatever title you like. For the guitar lessons example, you will probably want to call the folder something like “guitar-lessons”. Next you want to save the file you created above as “index.php” and save it in the “guitar-lessons” folder. Then you just need to upload the entire folder to your server and you are done. Then whenever you are promoting that guitar course you would use the address www.YOUR-WEBSITE-URL.COM/guitar-lessons. Another option you see nowadays using this method is;  create a main folder entitled “recommends” (or whatever you like) and they upload all the affiliate folders into that file, which also helps organize the folders on your server. Then whenever you are promoting that guitar course you would use the address www.YOUR-WEBSITE-URL.COM/recommends/guitar-lessons.

So let me show you step-by-step real live example. I will create a redirection URL for an affiliate link to Jamorama.com, which is one of Clickbank’s top selling merchants for Guitar Lessons.

Step 1) I pasted the following into a blank Notepad document:

—————————————————————-

<?php

$URL=”http://www.PUT_AFFILTIATE_URL_HERE.com”;

header (“Location: $URL”);

?>

—————————————————————-

Step 2) I changed http://www.PUT_AFFILTIATE_URL_HERE.com to my actual affiliate link:

—————————————————————-

<?php

$URL=”http://mrdomains.jamorama.hop.clickbank.net”;

header (“Location: $URL”);

?>

—————————————————————-

Step 3) I created a main folder called “recommends” and then a sub-folder called “guitar-lessons” and I saved the file as index.php in that folder.

Step 4) I uploaded the folder “recommends” with everything in it to MakingMoneyOnline.com and I was done.

Step 5) Now, whenever I want to promote Jamorama, I just point people to: http://www.makingmoneyonline.com/recommends/guitar-lessons and it takes them right to Jamorama via my affiliate link. Give it a click and see it works.

After you have done this once, from then on all you need to do is create the file and affiliate folder and upload them into the “recommends” folder and you are done, which literally can be done in less than one minute.

This method also REALLY WORKS GREAT when you create eBooks and eCourses, or even offline affiliate marketing. I have even used this method on business cards.

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