This post will serve as an official notice to all who are subscribed to my blog, either through an RSS Reader or by Email.

It is with great regret and sadness that I have changed the RSS feed to only show a summary, or excerpt, of posts rather than the entire post content. This means that rather than being able to view and read a new blog post from your favorite RSS Reader or by email, you will now have to actually come here to the blog to read new posts in their entirety.

Why Have I Done This?

Honestly, this decision was not made lightly. If you’ve been subscribed for more than a few weeks, you will know that all posts were shown in their entirety on the feed. I originally started this blog that way, and I truly wanted to keep it that way.

Sadly, it had gotten to a point where I could no longer jeopardize my blog and its content by keeping the feed as it was, so I was left with no choice but to change it.

You see, out there in the great distance of the internet, there lies a few dishonest, unethical people who like to outright steal legitimate blogger’s RSS feeds and use the content as their own on their blogs. Through plug-ins or other methods, the content from the feed can be published to a WordPress blog just as a normal blog post.

Their blogs, if you even want to call them that, are basically the result of multiple RSS feeds being scraped for content. These scraper/farming blogs are completely worthless and usually never rank in search engines.

The problem, however, is that my blog posts are showing up on sites like this, sometimes instantly after I publish a new post. This bugs me, alot.

I have links pointing to my site and blog that I DO NOT want on those kinds of sites. If a search engine like Google were to find my scraped content and index it, I can only imagine the consequences. Perhaps nothing bad will happen and Google would deem those sites useless like everybody else does, but really, why chance it? I can’t take the risk.

I realize this is a huge if, but I do not want to jeopardize my blog and everything I’ve worked so hard on to be penalized based on the actions of an unscrupulous few.

What This Means for You

I fully realize the inconvenience this puts on all of you, and I sincerely apologize. Believe me, I would prefer to keep the full content shown in the RSS feed. As a reader of many other blogs in the industry, I prefer to read entire posts through email.

I guess what I’m saying is, I understand the hassle. Really, I do.

From now on, if you want to read the entire post with all content included, you’ll be required to visit the actual post page. A link is included to make this step convenient for you, however.

There’s a slight chance I could change it back to showing full posts. More on this later.

Previous Steps I’ve Taken to Avoid This

Implementing an RSS Footer

If you notice on the feed, I have a footer in place that links to the home page, the blog’s home page, and the page where the specific post is located. I implemented this RSS Footer a long while back to serve a few purposes.

• Provide links to you for quicker access to my site and blog.
• “Thank” you for being a reader. I really do appreciate the support.
• If someone did steal my feed and use my content as their own, the footer would be included, making it obvious that my content was stolen.

Blocking Specific IP Addresses

A neat little tool I get with my web hosting is an IP Blocker. It comes handy when I need to block certain people for spamming or other mischief, based on their IP address. This can also be done through your .htaccess file if you don’t have an IP Blocker available.

Since the beginning, I have blocked the IP addresses of those I’ve known to rip my RSS feed and blatantly steal my content and use it as their own. This is usually done when I see that it becomes a habitual act. Comments in the form of Trackbacks from the offending sites show up in the comments waiting to be moderated, so if I see multiple Trackbacks originating from the same site, I block them so they can no longer pull my feed and steal my content.

What Now?

What will happen now is that whenever a scraper/farming blog does steal my content using the RSS feed, they will only get a short summary of the post, along with the RSS Footer attached.

My goal in doing this is that it will deter offenders (I’m not holding my breath), and that it will also keep my content in its entirety along with any links off of these types of sites (This I know is true).

Now that this is said and done, I want you to chime in and let me know what you think. I would appreciate any feedback or experience you can provide in how to deal with this issue, and if you can answer any or all of the questions below, I would greatly appreciate the help and support.

1. Will this have an impact on whether or not you read my blog? Be honest, please!

2. Do you agree with my decision based on the circumstances I presented, or do you feel I’m being too irrational?

3. Could you provide any cold-hard evidence to suggest that this isn’t necessary and that it is ‘OK’ to keep full posts in the feed?

I’m really curious to see who has an answer to that last question. Seriously, if you can provide evidence to show that this move isn’t necessary and that I’m just being silly about this whole thing, I’m all for changing the feed back to showing full posts.

Okay, let me know below in the comments, and thanks again for being a reader!

** Find this post useful or entertaining? Then please consider subscribing to my full RSS feed or have new posts sent directly to your email. Thanks for visiting! **

I follow quite a few blogs, and I like to comment on posts I find interesting. What irritates me, though, is that some blog owners don’t utilize any sort of “threading” within comments. No “@” replies utilized, either. This can be very annoying.

Not sure what I mean? Here’s an example:

Notice my reply is indented in and is contained within the original comment. This is considered a threaded comment, and any new replies act the same way, getting indented even further in. In this way, the replies are obvious and aren’t mistaken with new comments that aren’t a reply to a particular comment.

Also notice that my reply begins with “@author” and then my reply follows. This lets the commenter know that there is a new comment specifically in response to them. They also receive an email letting them know (more on this later).

What I see a lot on other blogs are new comments that are meant as replies to other people, but the reply is separate from the original comment, and no “@” is utilized. This can make it really, really difficult to determine if the comment is in reply to you, another commenter, or if it’s even a reply at all or a brand new comment from another reader.

Since I make sure I receive emails with any new comments on the posts I comment on, bloggers who don’t take advantage of any type of threaded system make it frustrating for me, and most likely others, as we don’t know if our comment is getting any replies. What this leads to is me having to go to the actual post and check my comment and any new comments to be sure I’m not missing any replies. It wastes time.

There is a much better way to manage comments and replies, both as a blog owner and as a blog commenter.

WP Thread Comment Plug-In

What I recommend doing is installing a very handy plug-in called WP Thread Comment. This WordPress plug-in will save you and your readers a ton of time by eliminating any confusion when it comes to replies and new comments left on your blog posts.

No coding required. No changes need made to your current theme. Just download, install, activate and adjust the settings as you see fit. That’s it. Your blog is then equipped with threaded comments.

Here’s what this powerful little plug-in can do:

• Edit Reply Text & Cancel Reply Text – This is for both you and your readers (Shouldn’t need to be changed)
• Edit Comment HTML – Only change if looks funny.
• Edit Comment CSS – Same as above.
• Edit maximum nest level – This is the amount of replies aloud for one comment thread. I have mine set to 15, although I doubt I’ll ever see it go that high for one comment thread.
• Email notify the parent commenter when there is a reply – This feature is HUGE. I would highly recommend choosing the “default checked” option, so this way, commenters will receive an email when there comment has a new reply, even if they would forget to check the box, as it’s checked by default.
• Edit the subject of notification email – I wouldn’t change this unless you want to.
• Edit Notification Message – Only change if you want to.
• Reply in WordPress Admin Panel – This feature saves me a ton of time. You can reply to comments directly from your Admin panel and automatically have them “nested.”
• Add author in reply comment – I highly recommend enabling this option, so that your replies begin with “@author”.

By now you should see just how vital this plug-in can be for your WordPress blog. If you’re not yet utilizing threaded comments, you should really start. A better way to manage comments will only benefit your blog and your readers.

Imagine for a moment…

You’ve spent hours and hours, possibly even days on end building backlinks to your website. And, not just any backlinks. These backlinks are on high Page Rank and authority sites. Maybe even on blogs and forums you visit regularly.

But…

Days go by. Your website’s position in Google hasn’t increased a bit, or has gone up very little. All of that time and energy spent building those links seems worthless.

Does this sound familiar?

I, as many others, deal with this issue all the time. It’s not entirely our fault, but it’s not all Google’s fault, either.

I’ve been getting asked lately how I get Google to index my new backlinks, as well as any old links that still may not be indexed and counted. I thought it would be helpful if I wrote a detailed, step-by-step guide on exactly how I go about it.

How I Get My New (and Old) Backlinks Indexed by Google

Google is limited in the fact that it’s spider can only index links that it comes across. If your newly created link(s) isn’t on a page that is being linked to from an already indexed page, then how is Google supposed to know that your link(s) exists?

For example, if I create a brand new profile page on a forum, my profile page may be set to public, meaning anyone can view it, but right now no one is linking to it. I may have a link or two on my profile page that I want Google to find and count towards my total backlink count.

So what can we do so that Google finds those links?

Here is my personal step-by-step approach to ensure that any new link I create is found and indexed by Google.

Step 1: Create a Blogger Blog

Go to blogger.com and create a new Google account. Even if you already have one, still create a new one. Trust me on this.

Give your new blog a generic name. Don’t make it anything specific… you’re not going to be promoting your blog or trying to rank it well in search engines, so just keep it basic.

Step 2: Add Your Links to Your Blog’s Sidebar

Any backlink you have that you want to get indexed by Google should be added to the blog’s sidebar.

Blogger makes this super easy to do. Simply click the little edit icon next to the links section, and a new window will pop-up to add your links.

When adding your links, you want to include the entire URL of the link you want indexed. The Title of the link should include just the main domain of the site. DO NOT use keywords in the Title of the link. See picture below to understand what I mean…

Step 3: Get PLR Content

You’re going to want to post to your blog every day, and multiple times per day. This is more important towards the beginning since your blog is brand new.

The easiest and quickest way to do this is to get your hands on PLR content. It doesn’t matter where it comes from or what kind of quality the content is. As long as the quality is half-decent and makes sense, go with it. I would recommend doing a Google search for “PLR content,” “free PLR content” or something similar.

Start posting articles on your blog, 30 minutes apart between each post. If you can’t post that often, don’t worry about it. Just post as often as you can.

Don’t worry about re-writing the articles. It doesn’t matter if it’s duplicate content. As I said before, you shouldn’t be worried about the quality of the content. You really don’t want your blog ranking in search engines, but if it happens, let it happen naturally.

Step 4: Ping Your Blog Posts

Every time you publish a new post to your blog, you’re going to want to ping the actual post. I’m not going to go into detail about what pinging is, but basically, it lets other sites know that you added new content to your blog. Those sites then send out their own spiders to collect information about your post, including the URL.

The easiest way that I know to ping a blog post is to grab the Ping-o-matic bookmarklet and save it to your bookmarks toolbar.

Once you’ve done that, every time you publish a new article to your blog, view the new post, and click the Ping-o-matic button on your toolbar. It will instantly ping your post, which should take all but 2 seconds.

After that, just head back to your blog and wait a little bit before you publish another new article from your PLR collection.

Step 5: Confirm Google is Visiting Your Blog and Posts

By now you should have 10 – 20 links in your blog’s sidebar that you want indexed (no more than that), and you should have been posting new articles to your blog for about a week now. At this stage you’re going to want to start checking to see if Google has indexed your blog yet. At this point, only your blog needs to be indexed.

To check if Google has indexed your blog, do a Google search by entering your Blogger blog’s full URL address in the search bar, with “site:” in front of it. See example…

If your blog shows up in the results, you’re good to go. The links currently in the sidebar have most likely been visited by Google. If you want to double-check, do a search as exampled above, using that link’s URL instead.

Step 6: Rinse and Repeat

Now that Google is visiting your blog and has indexed your first set of links, it’s time to update your link list with a new set of links you want indexed. Go ahead and change out all the links, keeping sure you follow the example as outlined in Step 2.

Once your links have been updated, follow Steps 3 through 5. Keep track of the title of the article that you post as well as the date in which you posted it. For Step 5, you’re now going to check to make sure Google has indexed your latest post. This is the post that should have been published immediately after you updated your list of links.

If that post has been indexed, you’re ready to change out the links again.

Keep repeating these steps over and over again for any new links you want to get indexed. After a while, it’s not uncommon for Google to index your new posts within a matter of hours. It happens to my blog all the time.

Let’s Recap

Now that you have my step-by-step guide on getting your links indexed by Google, let’s just quickly go through the entire process again.

First, you want to start a new Blogger blog. Then, add your non-indexed links to the sidebar of your blog. Publish articles to your blog as often as possible, but at least 30 minutes apart. Ping each new post you make using the Ping-o-matic bookmarklet. Check to make sure Google is indexing your blog and posts. Once your current list of links are indexed, change your list, adding new, non-indexed links. Repeat the entire process over and over again.

It really is this simple. This doesn’t take a whole lot of time at all. It takes me less than a minute to publish a new post (just copy and paste) and ping it. Adding new links takes the most time, but usually no more than 10 minutes or so at a time.

There you have it. Everything you need to get your links indexed by Google quickly. If you have any questions, leave a comment below and I’ll be sure to get back to you.

Are you using guest blogging to promote your business? If no, then you might be missing on something really big as far as your marketing effort is concerned. This article will provide 5 ways that you can benefit from guest blogging.

Here they are…

Reputation Building

The first advantage of guest blogging is that it can help you build your brand on the internet. Indeed, by publishing content on some authority sites you can help other people become acquainted to your brand and hence build a reputation online. But, for this to happen, you will need to make sure that your articles are really useful and that they really add value for your readers. After a short while people will begin to consider you as an expert in the field.

Massive Traffic

Another advantage of guest blogging is that it can help you get some really good traffic without relying solely on the search engines. Normally if your post is good enough, people will be interested to visit your site in order to learn more about you. And, if you published your post in some related sites you will be in a position to get some targeted traffic that may boost your sales. This benefit of guest blogging can be really useful for new blogs that have yet to get a ranking in the search engines.

New Market

Guest blogging can also help you target a market that you may have thought impossible before. By guest posting on some other blogs, you may be able to place your product in front of people that you would not have considered before. This can help you generate some new ideas that may be helpful when it comes to developing your business.

SEO

If you are a seasoned internet marketer you will know that the whole SEO game revolves around backlinks. Backlinks from real blogs that have real traffic can be really useful when it comes to boosting your site in the SERPs. This is why it might be useful that you look for blogs that have high PR and Alexa rank in order to get the most benefit.

Guest blogging can also be a useful alternative to article submissions. Following the Google Panda update, article directories have lost some of their effectiveness, and guest blogging can be a capable replacement when it comes to link building.

Social Media Benefits

Another advantage associated with guest blogging is that it allows you to take advantage of the host blog’s strength in social media. In the majority of cases, your article will be shared to the host blog’s Twitter followers or Facebook Fanpage, thus allowing you to take advantage of the site’s strength with social media sites. One idea will be to make it easy for visitors to share your content across social media sites. Place your Twitter and Facebook button in a visible position to encourage the sharing of your site on the different social media sites.

New Contacts

Guest blogging can also be instrumental when it comes to making new contacts. This can indeed create some opportunities for you to meet new people – not only fellow webmasters but also some readers of the host blogs. This can be a great opportunity for you to meet some other business professionals that might be interested in a possible joint-venture.

Guest blogging can be really effective when it comes to promoting your business online. It can help your site get instant traffic, break into new markets, improve your SERPs and also allow you to increase your social media reach. Whatever your business might be, you are definitely going to benefit from guest blogging.

About the Author

Robert Bellarmine is the writer behind Visitask.com where he covers topics related to project management and other management topics.

At the beginning of every month I do a recap of last month’s blog posts. I also include a few of my favorite blog posts from other bloggers I follow. This gives you a chance to catch up on any posts you may have missed here, and you also get to check out some awesome bloggers that provide valuable content that’s worth reading.

I always recommend leaving a comment on any posts you find helpful. Comments are also great if you have a question you’d like to ask. Either way, they let the blog owner know you appreciate their time and that there are people who actually read their content.

With that said, let’s take a look at last month’s post on this blog…

July 2011 Blog Posts on ReplaceYourSalary.com

Most of these are guest posts, so be sure to show the authors some love by leaving a comment.

Giving a Gold-Standard Web Service for Your Clients

7 Tips to Avoid Being Isolated when Working from Home

An “Outside” Perspective on Self Employment: 7 Outdoor Home Business Ideas

Getting a Foot In: Freelancing to Open a Career of Opportunity

10 Social Media Applications to Help with a Job Search

Earn $750 A Month With Your Blog?

Overcoming Your Fear of Isolation When Working from Home

Marketing Makeover: Taking Advantage of Technology to Supplement the Traditional Business Card

Blog Posts Around the Web

Here are some blog posts I’ve found from other bloggers I follow that I hope you will find helpful. Take some time to read these as well.

Daniel talks about a woman who makes over $8,000 a month. The idea isn’t new, but the way she goes about it is just plain sick (in my opinion). This is definitely a must-read, if for nothing else, to see what people are willing to spend money on. I would suggest maybe finding a different approach to what this lady is doing, however.

Garry brings up an interesting topic, asking what you would do without Google. Honestly, I rely way too much on Google. If Google didn’t exist, I’d be forced to tackle other marketing strategies and use a different search engine. I can’t imagine doing either, so I’m glad Google is available.

Alex talks about the advantages of publishing your blog to Kindle. This is definitely a cool method to earn a little extra passive income from your blog. Check out the post if you want to learn how to do this, all for free.

That’s all for now. This month I’ll be discussing some Google topics as well as providing some tips for WordPress bloggers, so stay tuned for that. You’ll also get to read content from more awesome guest authors as they just keep lining up!

See you soon!

I know, I know, it’s been live for a little while now. And, don’t worry, I’ll spare you the boring details about Google’s new social button that’s supposed to be the arch-rival to Facebook’s “Like” button. You can read all the intricate details about it here, straight from Google’s mouth.

+1 Blog Posts

This post is an announcement to let you all know, my readers, that I have decided to implement the Google +1 button on this blog. It is now LIVE on the blog. You can find it at the top of each post, on the home page as well as each individual post page.

Why?

Because it’s new. I like to try new things and see how they perform. Also, it’s Google we’re talking about. They’re the biggest search engine, period. If they implement a new change that could affect website rankings and overall website traffic, I think it’s best to pay attention and play their game.

Social Search and Impact on SEO

Will their new introduction to Social Search take hold? I really don’t know. Should we care? Yes! At this stage it’s only an experiment, but it’s possible it could be here to stay.

There’s a lot of hearsay floating around as to how this is going to affect SEO and the way personalized search engine results are served. I really don’t want to get into all of that here as plenty has been said about it elsewhere. But, if you want to learn more about the Google +1 button and the future implications it could have on search, I recommend you check out these links:

• Google competes with Facebook Like button
• Everything you need to know about Google +1
• How Google’s +1 button may change SEO

That should provide everything you need to know about the +1 button.

Now, if you’re interested in adding it to your own site or blog, it’s actually real simple.

How to Add the Button to Your Site or Blog

For those of you who run a static (non-Wordpress) site:

Log-in to your Google Webmaster’s Account and follow the simple instructions: http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/

For those of you who run a WordPress blog:

Garry Conn offers simple to understand instructions to add the button to your posts and pages: Google +1 Button.

Now you’re set. You’ll be able to invite your friends and website visitors to click and +1 your sites, blogs, and blog posts.

And, if you found this post helpful, I’d appreciate some +1 love from ya if you have some to spare. *hint, hint*

I thought I would so something different in this post and give you a different kind of flavor here on the blog, and most likely some laughs, too. I’m into music and videos, and I spend some time on YouTube every now and then. It wasn’t until I came across a post on Daily Blog Tips that included Daniel’s Top 6 Geek Parody Videos, which inspired me to do something similar.

Don’t worry, this is completely on-topic and related to entrepreneurship, as my title suggests.

I added a couple of Daniel’s favorites here as I also enjoyed them, and I did some digging on YouTube to uncover some other great videos as well.

I hope you enjoy them!

My Top Funny Entrepreneur Music Video Picks

There are numerous websites and blogs related to working from home. This blog is just one out of the thousands, so the fact that you’re reading this really means a lot to me. You could just as easily stumble on one of the other work from home blogs instead.

Would that really be a bad thing, though?

I mean, every blog is different and provides their own unique perspective, so reading more than one blog is by no means a bad thing. In fact, I encourage it!

Yes, I recommend reading other work from home blogs as well. It will help you to get a more rounded perspective and overall picture on working from home.

With that said, I want to point you to a resource that showcases other blogs in this industry.

MastersDegree.com recently posted their Top 25 Work From Home Blogs picks, and I’m honored to say this blog is among them.

Also making the list are some other blogs I follow, including the SmartPassiveIncome blog by Pat Flynn, making the top of the list, which is well deserved in my opinion.

Somehow my blog managed to come in at number three on the list. Not sure if that’s deserved, but I’ll take it.

I encourage you all to go check out the post and read some of the other work from home blogs that are out there. You can learn a lot of awesome tips and advice from other experts in the industry. And I, by no means, consider myself an expert. Just throwing that out there.

I want to thank Amanda from MastersDegree for making me aware of this post and showcasing my blog. I appreciate it!

See you all soon.

It seems like time is just flying by. Where are the months going? I need to try to slow down and enjoy each day, as I don’t get a chance to do so as often as I would like.

What about you?

Anyway, March is already here, so that means it’s time for another blog post roundup of last month’s posts.

Let’s take a look at them…

January’s Blog Posts on ReplaceYourSalary.com

Win Over $2,300 in Cool Gifts in the TechChunks Giveaway

How To Create An Ergonomic Home Office

January 2011 Income Report

3 Tips to Utilize Your Blog’s RSS Feed

5 Tips for Financial Planning

Blog Posts Around the Web

My good friend Dennis Edell asks an intriguing question regarding guest bloggers being responsible for their own SEO when submitting an article for possible inclusion on a blog. Since I allow guest posts on my blog, this is a subject worth taking the time to think about, as I never really did before.

David Leonhardt talks about Google’s new Chrome extension that allows users to block “evil” domains. This is a bit scary when you think about it. Hopefully not too many people use the Chrome browser, or know about this extension!

Patt Flynn provides some cool Facebook Page and Landing Page Codes and PSD files for those wanting to expand their brand onto the most popular social networking site. Definitely worth checking out.

Oni shares the benefits of guest blogging to grow your blog. I absolutely love guest blogging and encourage it here on my own blog. It’s a great way to gain new readership and become an authority in your field.

Daniel Scocco talks about Facebook comments on your blog. This can be a very powerful feature, as it shows comments left by Facebook users directly on your blog post. I have yet to utilize this tool, and I’m not sure yet if I will. What about you? Do you have Facebook comments on your blog?

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more guest posts from some great authors!

The following is a guest post by Maria Rainier. If you would like to write for this blog, please check out the guidelines.

Although it really depends on what you want to accomplish with your blog, chances are that you’re better off blogging with a team than solo.  Sure, you can do it alone, and plenty of people do—the blogosphere is the ultimate Athenian democracy.  If you’re looking mostly to rant and rave and have personal reflections, you may be better off keeping it a solo venture.  If, however, you’re looking to offer advice, guidance, or anecdotes, or in any way build a community, you and (your audience) might be missing out by playing this game alone.

Here are 6 reasons to have a blogging partner…

1. No Man is an Island

Think of your favorite singer or band.  Well, if you have a favorite band, there’s no need to ask yourself this question: does he or she do it alone?  (The correct answer is no, because someone’s on the drums, the guitar, the violin, break dancing in the background, etc.)  Even solo artists have crews and roadies.  The point is that even though you can manage a blog alone, your blog probably isn’t as big or effective as it could be if you had a team or at least a partner.  Lady Gaga wouldn’t be anywhere without her makeup artist.

2. Get More Done

With a partner, you can accomplish more.  For example, you can both look for post topics, guest post opportunities, marketing opportunities, commenting on others’ posts, keeping your blog up to date with technology and worldly goings-on, and the like.  You can even divvy up responsibilities 50/50.

3. Twice the Talent

More people means more talent.  If one of you has a better grasp on the English language and the other has a knack for computers and web design, you can have great content and a good-looking website.

4. Four Eyes are Better than Two

Another pair of eyes to proofread content before it’s posted never hurts.  A partner also means having someone to watch your back when it comes to copyright, old content, social media monitoring, and the like.

5. The Bert and Ernie Effect

If you don’t mind relinquishing half of the power and the attention, both of you can post content (as long as both of you read over what the other intends to publish; this avoids conflict).  It can have a sort of Bert and Ernie spin on a single blog which, as long as content is not repeated, conflicting, or in any way confusing, can work in your favor.  Varying opinions on one site can also catch the attention of that many more viewers.

6. Someone’s Always Driving

Don’t go on a cross-country venture alone; you get another driving partner to drive while you’re catching up on sleep.  If one of you is feeling down or uninspired, there’s always someone around to pick up the pieces and get you back on track.  That’s what friends are for, right?

Admittedly, some bloggers are lone wolves and that’s fine.  Partnering up isn’t for everyone.  If you’ve ever felt like you could use a helping hand or a fresh brain to pick, however, you may want to look into finding a co-blogger.

About the Author: Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education and performs research surrounding online schools. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.