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- Asking For A Link Exchange Doesn't Work AnymoreYesterday
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I've received a number of emails to not only my personal account but also to the email address assigned for Perfcast from individuals asking to exchange links. Each time I read an email like this, I get a nostalgic feeling because this is how links were exchanged 3-5 years ago. In this day in age, exchanging links in this fashion doesn't work anymore so please, stop wasting your time.Instead, create an awesome guest post for a popular site that is either within your niche or is on the fringe of a related niche. This technique is a win-win for both the publisher and the post author. Generally, the blog author will allow you to place a link to a blog of your choosing either at the beginning or end of the article. This means your link will be displayed within the content of the post and not in some obscure location such as the sidebar or the footer. This my friends, is how to exchange links in 2008.
If you don't feel like guest posting to get links, you could always create accounts on a wide assortment of sites and services with each account having a link pointing back to your own site. That way, you are in full control of your linking structure and you don't need to rely on someone to publish your content. In fact, if you are just starting a blog or have recently launched one, you would be smart to grab yourself a Twitter account and at least publish one
- Excluding Items From Your WordPress RSS FeedYesterday
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Ever find yourself in a situation where you need to publish a test blog post to see if something works or not but you're afraid to thanks to the post being seen by your RSS subscribers? I have, but that is no longer an issue thanks to a WordPress plugin called Simply Exclude.
Simply Exclude enables you to configure whether or not to include/exclude categories, tags, pages, and authors from the WordPress RSS feed. In fact, this plugin provides an entire level of inclusions and exclusions which also means that using the plugin is a bit complex.
After the plugin is installed and activated, browse to the plugin settings page. At the top, you should see four distinct tabs. Manage Categories, Tags, Authors, and Pages.
The top four settings are WP Actions made up of Front, Archive, Search and Feed. For example, if you don't want a certain category of posts to show up on the front page of your blog, you would select EXCLUDE from the top for the FRONT action name and then from the list of categories below that, you would find your category of choice and check mark the box for FRONT.
The plugins home page has a better explanation on how to configure this
- The Role Of Live Blogging And The Mumbai AttacksDecember 3
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I remember on the day before Thanksgiving, I was in my office working on a few blog posts when I looked at my notebook and noticed the large number of tweets that were appearing discussing the attacks that were taking place in Mumbai. A couple of people sent links out on Twitter of various live video streams covering the event, including one source which was streaming live from an local India news station. Later, I watched some mainstream news coverage through the likes of CNN.
NDTV has a great story which details the use of Twitter and live blogging during the attacks on Mumbai. According to NDTV, when the initial reports began to come in via Twitter, the tweets were filled with detailed information. However, once the attack was in full swing, there was so much information to digest, you couldn't tell which tweets were true and which were false.
The title of the article asks, is live blogging the future of media? Using the attacks on Mumbai as an example, live blogging still has a long way to go. One of the biggest problems with live blogging is that, readers ultimately have to take everything they hear on a social network with a grain of salt. In terms of mainstream media, they become relevant in the fact that they have the time, resources, and man power to ensure a greater degree of accuracy. NDTV makes a great point in that, as time went on,
- Movable Type 4.23 Now AvailableDecember 3
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Six Apart, the creators of Movable Type have announced that they have released version 4.23 of the software. This latest version is a mandatory security release and it's strongly recommended that you upgrade as soon as possible. On top of the security fix, there are also a number of bugs that have been squashed. The MT post does a good job highlighting the specifics regarding the update.
- Release Type: Security Release. This update fixes a potential vulnerability which has not yet been exploited in the wild.
- Mandatory? Yes, this is a mandatory security upgrade.
- Performance Implications: None.
- Plugins Affected: None. Your current plugins should continue to work as expected.
- Templates Affected: An update to the profile view template is required for those customers who use the community template sets and user profile feature.
- System Requirements: This release has no new or additional system requirements.
- Licensing considerations: None. MT 4.23 is a free update for users of any version of MT 4.x.
- Upgrade Fatigue: No further mandatory updates are planned for Movable Type in 2008.
By the way, there is a little editor's note at the bottom of the release post which states that there was no MT 4.22. The previous version of MT was 4.21 and now the latest version is 4.23. How weird is it that both Movable Type and WordPress
- Ask Performancing: Filing TaxesDecember 3
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Our Ask Performancing feature for this week is about filing taxes. The question was posted on the Hive by none other than my fellow contributor Jeff Chandler.
During the year, I received payments through paypal for contractual work for one site while receiving more payments from another site for contractual work. However, I am beginning to wonder how I am going to pay taxes on the money I am making through writing.
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My question is, how should I file taxes? Should I report the money that I have received through paypal from the various sites I have written for as income on my income tax filing or should I file a 1099 e on my own behalf? Or, should I not file anything and considering the payments through paypal as under the table? I've been told by others that I have asked that the money that goes from paypal to my account which is not taxes will eventually come back to haunt me if I don't report it.
The short answer here is that it's best that one consult with an accountant or the tax authorities in your country, state or locality. The problem with running a business that's not necessarily limited by geographic boundaries (like a blog network, and like writing for blogs) is that it might be difficult to determine tax jurisdiction or responsibility. And what applies to one person might not necessarily be applicable t