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New Post has been published on http://www.geekmom.net/blogging-and-taxes-2016.html

Blogging and Taxes 2016

It’s that time of year again! I know, it seems to happen so quickly and yet we always seem not ready for the taxman. If you are collecting money on your blogs in any way then you are most likely liable for taxes, especially federal taxes. Now, I believe some cities and states do not consider a blog a business if you are just selling items like you might as a garage sale, but then I’ve heard stories where some cities consider even hobby blogs as businesses.

What do I recommend? I suggest you visit a tax accountant and possibly a small business or tax attorney to get your answers. Then, visit your city website and ask about home business taxes and a home business license. If you plan on running any kind of blog where you ask people to advertise or purchase products from your blog then you should ask your local authorities if they consider this a business.

Once you have established your business, then put away money for self employment taxes. Yes, we are taxed on self employment. I know, I don’t like it either. These taxes are going toward your social security that would otherwise be split between, your employer, and other employees. It doesn’t seem right that as the small business owner you are burdened with the whole amount, but remember that you also have tax write offs that can offset this amount.

What can you write off? Any equipment, utilities, and office space that you use solely for your business. I personally have an office space that I use at home. It is roughly about 150 square feet. So I enter this amount as well as the square feet of my home to get an estimate of what I’m going to pay or save on my taxes. You can also write off your cable Internet, phone, and other utilities, but be sure to calculate how much is used for your business. If most of the amount goes toward a cell phone shared as a home phone then you cannot write off that phone. Also, if you have a landline without a second phone then you cannot write off your landline because it is assumed this is your house phone. Never assume what I put here as accurate because it can change at any time. Always check with local and federal laws.

You can also write off advertising and office supplies such as pens, pencils, paper, printer ink, etc. Save all of your receipts and write down what you spend. You will be surprised at the end of the year how much you might have spent on your business without realizing it.

Did I mention this before? I think I did. Get a tax accountant to do your taxes. Talk to one before you start the new year to find out what the new laws are. Never assume that you know everything because the tax laws constantly change.

Also remember to save for your taxes and pay them quarterly. You can make an estimate and if that is wrong at least you will most likely get back what you paid. I know it would make more sense to keep this in a savings account and make money off of it, but since we are forced to pay a certain amount then it is better to be safe than sorry.

New Post has been published on http://www.geekmom.net/searching-for-something-on-craiglist.html

Searching for Something on Craiglist?

Searching for anything on Craigslist can be a daunting task–especially if you are doing a national search. Telecommute jobs are usually listed per city which means you need to visit each and every city to find one. Until now!

You can search all of craigslist by clicking right here. The downside is that you will also need to enter the city and state to narrow in your search results, but it makes it so much easier for you to go see what is available. With this site you can search all of Craigslist which includes jobs, for sale, wanted, homes, commercial sites, etc.

New Post has been published on http://www.geekmom.net/easy-automatic-tweets-using-buffer.html

Easy Automatic Tweets Using Buffer

I have to admit, some days I just don’t have time to tweet. With a schedule like mine, one might wish to be able to auto tweet when you know you’re not going to be around. Many new online marketers are looking for the same kind of tool.

Recently I found buffer. For the frugal person with only one site, buffer is real easy to use. Simply login to your twitter account and then open buffer.com. Allow buffer to use your twitter account and then setup a schedule to use. Buffer will attempt to setup a schedule for you which will include the most active times during the day.

Then start putting in a status. Buffer will simply schedule every tweet you enter into a queue. With the free version you can up to 10 queued tweets at a time. So, if you have your tweets schedule to release 2 times per day then you will not need to tweet for another 5 days. If you have it set to tweet 3 times per day then you will not need to tweet for 3 more days.

The professional version has a little more power. For just $10 per month you can tweet a lot more per day and have multiple accounts. It makes life so much easier for those who have multiple affiliate marketing blogs because you only need to log into one buffer account and then update all of your twitter accounts. With the paid version you can add multiple images to tweets and set a special schedule for yourself.

There are plugins for both Chrome and Firefox where you can add the page you are viewing to buffer and you can also buffer retweets.

Buffer is real easy to use for the beginner WAHM and also supports facebook posts, pages, and groups as well as G+, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. When using buffer all you really need to think about is what to say to your audience.

New Post has been published on http://www.geekmom.net/add-your-instagram-feed-to-your-wordpress-blog.html

Add Your Instagram Feed to Your WordPress Blog

I know Instagram isn’t the most compatible product in the Internet and phone app world, but there is a plugin that makes it so much easier to get followers. I just installed the Instagram Feed Plugin on this blog which makes it easy to add your Instagram pics to a page or sidebar widgets.

It was real easy, just login to your Instagram via the web then add the plugin using the install a plugin instructions. Next, grab your secret key and user ID from the Instagram Feed settings and choose your options. Place the proper code in a widget and you’re done!

If I still have it installed by the time your read this article then you will see my feed on my sidebar. It seems fast because it grabs thumbnails and includes a follow me button. Check it out. I’ll probably keep mine on here for fun.

Let me know if you install it and show case it by adding your blog link. (Please, no adult blogs on this family blog. Thank you.)

New Post has been published on http://www.geekmom.net/turning-your-logo-into-an-animated-rss-feed-banner.html

Turning Your Logo Into An Animated RSS Feed Banner

Do you love it when people come to look at your blog? I know I do. Driving them to your blog can be a little difficult sometimes, but I know of a way where you can show people that you have fresh new content on a daily basis on a simple animated banner without you having to recreate the banner every time you update a post!

Take a look at the image below. This is my logo displaying the last 5 blog posts posted to my blog. I can put this gif file on any advertisement that accepts gifs. I can create different sized banners using my branding, even the ever so popular 468×60 banner commonly used in most advertising.

How? By using feedburner to create the animated gif file. All you need to do is have a banner ready with your logo or preferred style and a space where you will want people to see the rotating text. Then log into your feedburner account and then click on the Publicize tab. Click on Headline Animator which can help you create almost any type of animated banner you like. Upload your gif file to your webserver and then, when you create the new banner select “Provide your own background” in the banner popup menu. A new field will be displayed where you can paste the URL to your gif file. You will not be able to uplaod the banner to feedburner, you must enter a URL from your own hosting.

Next, scroll down and select the style of your text and position on the banner where you want the blog posts to be displayed. When it is ready, activate and grab the code for the banner and past into any of your websites or just grab the banner URL and post to sites that accept gif files for advertising.

There you go! Easy. Simple. Fun. Let me know how you it worked for you!

New Post has been published on http://www.geekmom.net/creating-an-animated-banner-listing-your-blog-posts.html

Creating an Animated Banner Listing Your Blog Posts

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

I’ve mentioned Feedburner a few times and now I’m going to tell you about a really fun marketing tool they have created for bloggers. It is the Headline Animator in their Publicize section.

As you can see by the banner at the top of this post that my most recent posts are shown in an animated banner. This banner is created by feedburner. It is really easy to use and setup. They do all of the hard work for you.

To create a banner, simply follow these instructions:

Choose the feed you want to work with.

Click on the Publicize tab.

Click on “Headline Animator” on the left side.

Choose from the various formats, sizes, and colors of the banner. You can even add your own background if you like.

Confirm the look and feel of your banner and make changes accordingly.

Click the Activate button.

Next, grab the code at the top of the screen. You will need to choose which platform you use. I always just grab the actual code so I can make any changes needed to fit the style of my blog.

#banners #feedburner

New Post has been published on http://www.geekmom.net/make-money-using-these-apps-on-your-tablet-or-smartphone.html

Make Money Using These Apps On Your Tablet or SmartPhone

Did you know that you can make money using apps on your tablet or smart phone? Of course you did! How did you know? I’ve reviewed a couple of them already like swagbucks and ibotta. I’m going to keep a running list of the ones I join right here. I have a few favorites like swagbucks that I use on a daily basis, but there are others out there that I’m even learning about right now that are really cool.

You’re not going to become an Internet millionaire using these, but why not save a few bucks while shopping and make some extra grocery money? Can’t afford your web hosting? Do a few of these apps and it will pay for your webhosting. They really only take a few minutes of your day.

Swagbucks: Make money searching the Internet. Watch videos, shop, do surveys, whatever you do on swagbucks you’re going to earn points toward giftcards. I use mine to buy office products for my business. You can do whatever you like with them.

ibotta: This app is more like a coupon app, but you get cash back for purchasing deals offered through ibotta. So if you’re going to the grocery store and you’re going to buy it anyway, then why not use ibotta to make sure you get the best deal?

I have a few more to add, but I’m real busy today with other contracts. Once I get payout on others I will add them here.

New Post has been published on http://www.geekmom.net/how-to-make-a-free-email-list-with-feedburner.html

How to Make a Free Email List With Feedburner

Start a Mailing List with FeedBurner

One way to attract your bloggers and keep them coming for more information is by keeping them updated by providing a way for your readers to subscribe to your posts via an email list. There are many different ways to create an email list, but probably the fastest and the least expensive is to use feedburner by google.

With feedburner you can put a subscribe widget on your blog using the text that feedburner provides or by using a widget designed by them. Personally, I like to use the html/text method because it is easier for me to customize what goes into the box.

Once a subscriber joins your list, he or she will receive all posts that you post to your blog through the email address used in the subscription form. In order to protect you from a SPAM problem, all email subscriptions are confirmed by the user.

There are many different features to add with the feedburner rss feed subscription, but this simple tutorial is just to get your setup so your readers can subscribe to your posts. We will discuss other ways of getting them on multiple lists and other features of feedburner in different posts.

Setup Feedburner

Start a Google Account

Feedburner is owned by Google. If you do not yet have a google account, or your want it to be on a different google account then create a new account at google. Once your account is created or you have logged in, then visit http://www.feedburner.com.

Claim Your Feed

First, find your rss feed for your site. This is usually yoursitename.com/rss or yoursitename.com/feed. I personally used http://www.geekmom.net/rss for my feed.

For blogger it will be similar to

http://telecommute.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

For wordpress it might look like this:

http://www.geekmom.net/feed or http://www.geekmom.net/rss

Next, log into your google account and then enter feedburner.com in your browser window.

Paste your feed link into the box labeled “Burn a feed right this instant” then click next.

Pick a feed. Rss is probably your best bet.

Give your feed an easy to remember URL then click Next

You have now created your feed!

Click next again to go to step 2.

Pick the type of stats you want. I choose most of them because I am an analytics nerd. Now click next to move on.

Don’t worry, your stats will not show up right away so just get rid of the next warning.

Click on the Publicize tab.

From the left side menu, click on Email Subscriptions.

Click on Activate.

If you don’t want to make any changes to the box, just select the text in the box and then paste it to a widget on your blog.

Poke around and see what type of changes you can make. A word of warning, to fight SPAM Congress made it a law that any email added to your list should be able to unsubscribe at any time and should include your mailing address. The unsubscribe can be added to the Welcome message in the Communication Preferences tab. There really is no place to put your address.

Now people can subscribe to your email list at any time. I personally check the box “Send me an email when someone unsubscribes” in the Subscription management area and I keep a record of that person unsubscribing just in case I ever need to restore my email list and I can confirm that the person is no longer on the list.

In Conclusion…

That is pretty much it. It is very easy to setup and put on your blog. You can add verbage that you can add to other lists then people will just probably just ignore that and subscribe to all of the rules you have setup. Then you might be able to legally add them to other lists. This would be one reason to receive an email when they unsubscribe so you can manually remove them from other lists when they leave the email list. Before doing this, I would check on your states rules and regulations on email SPAM.

#feedburner #mail lists

New Post has been published on http://www.geekmom.net/adding-google-analytics-to-your-blog.html

Adding Google Analytics to Your Blog

If you’re a blogger who wants to keep track of where your hits are coming from then you should install the Google Analytics code to your pages. Google Analytics will analyze your traffic and tell you several important details about your data:

Where your hits are coming from

How many hits you’re receiving per hour or per minute–even seconds!

Demographics

Behavior

Technology

Your social networking impact

And so much more.

If your blog does not use a technology that allows you to share code on every page then you will to add the analytics code manually to every page, preferably in the header, of your site.

If you are using Blogger as your web host then adding the code is real easy. You do not need to actually add the whole snippet of code, you just need to copy and paste the tracking ID from the google analytics website and paste it into the Settings on your blogger blog. Specifically in the “Other” section of the settings page where it says Google Analytics / Analytics Property ID. Only paste the Tracking ID. This ID starts with UA-. Save and then wait for hits.

For personally hosted wordpress blogs the process is very similar, but you will need to install the Google Analytics plugin yourself then copy the Tracking ID. I would go into details on how to add the code here, but since there are many different plugins I will save this for a specific plugin review. Just search google analytics on my site.

Remember, do not copy and paste the whole code to the Tracking ID field or it will not track your hits.

New Post has been published on http://www.geekmom.net/turn-your-old-android-phone-into-a-spy-cam.html

Turn Your Old Android Phone Into a Spy Cam

I think I just found the coolest little app ever. Security systems and IP cameras can run a bit expensive and are sometimes difficult to setup. I also know that many of us have quite a few old cell phones laying around the house taking up space and doing nothing. What if you could turn one of these phones into a streaming IP phone?

I installed the app IP Webcam from the Google Play Store on an old Samsung Admire phone. This phone is way outdated and no longer compatible with the network I use. There isn’t much else to do with this phone except turn it into an Instagram camera, but why? So, I installed the IP Webcam app on my phone and now it is laying casually in a room watching the outside of my house.

It’s really easy to install. Just search for IP Webcam in the Google Playstore and install it. Then set it up so that when it restarts the streaming starts again. This is important because if the phone overheats it will restart to cool it down. Also check where you can externally access the phone from the web. The phone does allow you to use the LED flash, but unfortunately this means the light will be on all of the time. There is a night vision feature, but my extra phones do not support this.

Now you can open your video using the server IP address and the port 8080. Use the username and password you have setup and BOOM! you now have a security system that you can watch from within your network. I suppose you could somehow setup port forwarding on your router, but that is beyond the scope of this simple post.

From the computer console you can tell it to take snapshots and record whatever it is that is going on. So if you have an annoying ex-husband who won’t stop coming over, get it on cam. Robbers? Get it on cam. Neighbor tossing stuff in your yard? Get it on cam! Dogs getting into your garbage? Get it on cam! You get the idea.

New Post has been published on http://www.geekmom.net/how-to-install-your-wordpress-blog.html

How to Install Your WordPress Blog

I think it’s great that you are about to embark on a journey of the multi-million dollar web blogging industry. While it is true that many people create blogs just for their day-to-day journals, others create them to become newsletter and information sites that customers can use to get information on products or help in their daily lives.

Whatever your reason for wanting to create a blog, these are the simple instructions on how to create a blog on this network. It’s extremely easy to do and very little technical knowledge is needed.

I recommend reading this whole page before starting your new blog and making notes.

Summary

Think of an idea.

Create a domain name.

Write up some articles.

Install your blog.

Add your articles and images to the blog.

That’s it! It takes 4 main steps to get a blog going. I recommend getting the blog started and obtaining readers and subscribers before finding a sponsor or affiliate program. Get some readers going. Google won’t even think about giving you an adsense account until your blog is noticed and in their database.

Creating Your Blog

Create your domain. I use namecheap for this service because the prices are low and I prefer to separate my domain name service from my webhosting service. For some, this is the most difficult part. You should make your domain relative to your site. Many people use search terms to create their domains, and that is fine, but google changes its mind every few years on whether or not this is relevant. Yes, I have a love/hate relationship with google. Just make it easy to remember, not too long, and relevant. geekmom is a horrible search phrase, but it has described me since the 1990s and I’ve always used geekmom for my computer work. For more information about getting a domain name, click here. It will open in a new window and instruct you on how to create and add that domain name to the DNS on the hosting service.

Wait about 72 hours for your domain to propagate. Sadly, it takes this long to his all of the domain name services in the world. If you’re on a big network it might take just a few minutes. Don’t gamble that it is available elsewhere.

While you’re waiting for your domain name to become live, write up some articles in your word processor that are related to your blog. How many articles really depends on how many times you update your blog. I have started blogs where I only post once per month and created 12 articles right off the bat and scheduled them to release. Kind of like a set-it-and-forget-it machine. As long as you are consistent on the time and date the blog releases an article should be fine.

Next, you will want to start an account at a webhosting company. You may choose any company you like, but the instructions on this page include AmericNOC which is my hosting company. Different servers use different products to get WordPress installed. Plans on different servers run anywhere from $2.95 per month to $29.99 per month depending on how big of a site you want and what kind of site. Also, when you buy in bulk, say 1 to 3 years instead of monthly, then you will get a discount which is usually up to a third of your costs. Note that all of the instructions here are for my hosting company and anything outside of this hosting company might not work exactly how the instructions are read. Signup here for webhosting.

If you have chosen AmericNOC as your company, login to your Client Portal. The link is located at the bottom of the AmeriNOC screen. Other services are outside of the scope of this blog post.

From the “My Products and Services” screen, click on the domain/web hosting product you are updating.

Scroll down to the bottom and click on “Login into Direct Admin”

In the DirectAdmin window, click on your domain name.

Here is where it gets really easy. It’s almost a no-brainer. In the past we would need to go install a database, install wordpress, etc etc. Yet AmeriNOC has graciously given us access to the Softaculous Auto Installer. Scroll down and click on it.

Here you will find many free scripts to install on your server. Being that WordPress is the most popular, it is most likely the first one on the list. Click on it then click on the install tab.

Leave “choose protocol” alone, it should be at http://

Select your domain name from the popup list.

The default directory is the home directory of your WordPress blog. If you want your blog in a directory, then name it appropriately such as “blog” instead of the default of “wp”. Otherwise, if you remove “wp” and leave this blank, it will install everything at your domain’s webroot diretory and will load immediately for your customer.

Give it a site name, usually your keywords.

Enter a description for your site. This should be just a tag line. Think of something catchy.

Do NOT check WPMU

Give your admin account a username. Personally, I like to create an admin account and then a Contributor. The login names are readily available to anyone who wants to see them as long as the users are making posts. If you keep your admin account and top contributor separate then your admin username is harder to find and people cannot login and install plugins with your top contributor account.

Give it an email. Make it a side email that no one uses and remember it. You should have a personal email and a system administrator email at this point anyway.

Be sure to check limit login attempts. This is simply a plugin that will stop unwanted users from trying to login to your site. It will block you as well, so be sure to write down your login details.

Click on Advanced Options

Name your database something obscure.

Change the table prefix. This is important. We don’t want it wp_. Make it your your child’s initials or something else short but different and put the underscore _ character after. The reason why is because people will try to break into your database and change your site using the table prefix. I know, it’s ridiculous.

Leave everything else at default. We will talk about themes and plugins on another post.

Click install.

Once the process is finished, your WordPress site is installed!

Google may or may not archive your blog right away. Instead of focusing on getting into the first pages of google, share your blog on the social networks. Some people create new twitter accounts, G+, and facebook pages, or they simply show off their blog to the current subscribers. If you don’t have a twitter account or a facebook page, I recommend creating one. Many of the web gurus these days don’t even rely on google because google has changed their algorithms so many times and completely destroyed some bloggers. Just do what you can do and build your list. People who like you will like your blog. People looking for your content will find it. Just put it out there.

New Post has been published on http://www.geekmom.net/creating-a-domain-on-namecheap.html

Creating a Domain on Namecheap

I use namecheap because the names are cheaper than other places. I also use them because their customer service has been wonderful and they are fast at working out issues–if any. I have only needed to contact them on a couple of items and those were my fault.

It’s really easy to get started. When you have your domain name selected, just click here and a new window will open. Enter your domain name in the field and click search. As of this post, all domains start at $5.88 per year and will renew at the normal price of $10.68 per year.

Once your domain name is purchased, you will be in your back office. From your domain list, click on the name you just bought and then click manage. You want to use custom DNS servers of ns1.amerinoc.com and ns2.amerinoc.com for your primary and secondary servers, respectively.

It will take up to 72 hours for your domain to propagate through the domain name system. Please be patient and work on your blog articles until it is finished.

New Post has been published on http://www.geekmom.net/why-you-should-never-host-your-domain-on-facebook.html

Why You Should Never Host Your Domain on Facebook

Why You Should Never Host Your Domain on Facebook (Or any other 3rd party service!)

I’ll tell you a story. A very horrid story that begins with facebook’s crazy rules. I had a facebook account which used my real maiden last name and a nickname as my first name. I had my nickname since birth yet it wasn’t on my birth certificate.

Now, there are several reasons why I do not recommend putting your real name, birth or married, on facebook. The first major reason is because the Internet is a crazy place where there are many identity thieves. I find it completely insane that anyone would actually put their birth name on facebook. What I personally suggest doing is getting a business name that is close to your real name so others can recognize you, but criminals cannot copy your identity.

Unfortunately, facebook doesn’t like this approach. After they disabled my account, that I have had for years with literally tons of friends and family since I was a baby, I sent in my birth certificate to them. This wasn’t good enough. Facebook wanted to put my birth name on my account with my nickname in parenthesis. This is insane!

Fortunately, I had another facebook account with admin access to my main business page so I still have control over it. I suppose now I will need to give control to a close friend just in case they ever decide to close my current account.

My business is my name. My personal name where all of my loans, drivers license etc are found is PRIVATE. No one can have that information unless they know me personally. If you know me personally then you will also know my nickname.

I don’t know if it is a random, periodic check they do or if someone who was maybe a little jealous of my business reported it, but because of their crazy idea that I must put my real name online makes it a little crazy. They already have my IP address from when I login and my email. If I ever did do anything illegal, which I won’t, it should be easy enough to find me because I’ve had the same friends since grade school and I post pictures of my kid’s football games on facebook.

I do believe the reason why children must be over the age of 13 to even use facebook is because demanding private information from children without parental consent is illegal according to the federal COPPA rules. Maybe think about that when you’re kids are registering on the site as well. The children cannot be forced to show any identity because that would be against the federal rules.

Anyway, think hard about your personal identity on facebook. Is it something you want everyone to know? I don’t think they will allow you to put a business name change because then they will claim that is what business names are for.

It is really none of Zuckerberg’s damn business what my name is.

New Post has been published on http://www.geekmom.net/having-fun-with-wpmu.html

Having Fun With WPMU

I have been wanting to try this for quite some time and I finally got my chance to play with the WordPress Multi User option. It really wasn’t all that difficult to install and figure out. There were only a few hiccups, most of them relating to the DNS and themes.

First, collection all of the information you need such as if you would rather run your site with subdomains or directories. Ask your host provider if they support wildcard domains if you want to run the subdomains. The only reason that I see where subdomains might be better than directories is because you run the risk of duplicate content. If your DNS is setup properly, this shouldn’t be an issue because the subdirectory will simply point back to the domain.

Get your IP address. You will need this with the domain mapping app.

Figure out how to point your domains to your new site using your host panel. It’s different for each host panel so check with your hosting provider. If you are converting older sites over then be sure to back them up before deleting your webhost directory. Also, sites over 1 to 2 mb are going to have a problem. Your PHP installation has a max default of file size to upload. If your wordpress backup file is bigger than this then you will need to find another way to chop up and backup your site.

Installation was very easy. Since the MU is built into the new versions of WordPress, all you need to do after backing up your site and database is enter the following line into your wp_config.php file:

define(‘WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE’, true);

Above where it says “/* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */:”

Doing this will tell WordPress to turn on the multisite option on your blog. You will then need to log out and log back in again if you are not forced to do so.

Next, WordPress will generate a few lines and instruct you where to add them in your wordpress config file wp_config.php. The lines will look similar to:

define(‘MULTISITE’, true); define(‘SUBDOMAIN_INSTALL’, false); define(‘DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE’, ‘geekmom.net’); define(‘PATH_CURRENT_SITE’, ‘/’); define(‘SITE_ID_CURRENT_SITE’, 1); define(‘BLOG_ID_CURRENT_SITE’, 1);

Do not copy the lines above as it will be different for your site. Use the examples in your WordPress settings. You will also be instructed to modify your .htaccess file. Copy and paste exactly what WordPress tells you to copy and paste.

You might also need to install the WPMU Domain mapping plugin as well. I will write more on that later.

PS: Don’t ever try and upload a file larger than 1 or 2 mb into your wordpress site as a backup. I know this from horrific experiences ;)

New Post has been published on http://www.geekmom.net/do-you-need-a-google-sitemap.html

Do You Need a Google Sitemap?

What is a Google Sitemap?

A Google sitemap is tree of documents that map out all of the pages on your site in an XML format. It can be created manually or generated by software such as the WordPress plugin Google XML Sitemaps. It basically tells Google where to find all of the pages on your site through a detailed xml type index.

A sitemap isn’t required for Google to search and index your site, although it is handy. While Google does not guarantee a sitemap will get your site crawled and indexed in the search engine, it does claim that it is helpful in getting your documents sorted out, especially those documents that are not internally or externally linked. For example, if there is an html file all by its lonesome then Google may or may not find that document, but it will for sure if it is listed in the Google sitemap file.

If you don’t want that individual file to be shown in Google, you can easily create a robots.txt file and tell the search engines to ignore it. This doesn’t mean that it will not be accessible on the Internet, it simply means the search engines will not (or should not) include that file on searches.

If you are using WordPress for your blogging or site CMS software and you don’t want anyone to search the site, simply select “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” on the Reading page in the Settings option. This, unfortunately, will block your whole site from potentially being indexed in future search engine runs.

If you just one a few pages or directories hidden then create a file called robots.txt in your website’s root directory and add the following text:

User-agent: * Disallow: /foldername/filename.html

where the arguments to Disallow including the directory or filename you want hidden.

Remember, this does not hide a file or directory from the web. If you want something completely hidden, then use the proper owner permissions or setup a password on the directory using .htaccess. I will create further instructions on how to create these because they both have their own caveats. To be honest, if you don’t want a file on the Internet then don’t put it up there. Nothing is safe as long as it is outside of a firewall. Even inside a firewall you could run into problems. The safest file is on a machine that is NOT connected to any kind of wires or wireless device or is written down on paper.

#blogging #plugins #tech help #wordpress

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Stop Blog Comment Spam

What do I loathe almost more than people trying to wipe out our Bill of Rights with unconstitutional amendments? Comment spam! I have blogs out there with thousands of unapproved comments that nothing stopped. I have tried captcha codes, IP blocking, etc etc etc and nothing seems to stop these trolls until now.

The coolest plugin ever is the least memory and process intrusive plugin yet. All it asks is one simple question and the comment spammer must know the answer. It’s called Comment Gatekeeper. It can be any answer you want to add. Since most comment spammers are bots, the answer could be something really simple on your site that your readers could figure out in an instant, yet a comment spammer would need to actually take some time out and look to see what is stopping the process.

I have not yet had anyone crack this yet. I have tried the hidden field and that was manipulated in a day. I have tried captca codes, images, etc and all that does is frustrate people because most of the time they can’t read the code because we’re trying so hard to stop ridiculous spammers that we even make it difficult for our readers!

I realize it would be kind of a pain if you pick a really difficult question to answer, but so far the spammers haven’t even caught on to really easy questions. I have yet to try something like “how do you spell horse” and then type horse in the box, but if they’re just relying on math and random words, then you could put anything in the box and fix the whole problem.

You could also turn off the comments and use other forms of comment tools like facebook, commentluv, or discuss, but so far for just a simple way to stop the built in feature of commenting on a wordpress blog, this plugin has been a life and stress saver.

I wish we could just sent a bolt of electricity through the phone and shock the crap out of them, but a comment spam blocker will have to do for now.

#blogging #plugins #wordpress plugins

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