Where to place your email sign up form and RSS subscription badge is an interesting topic to me. I see a lot of variations and each solution seems to have it’s own set of mertis.

Regardless of style and arrangement, the one most important piece of advice I could ever give a new blogger is to put their email and RSS subscription boxes above the fold, preferably at the top of their blog. If you want people to find it, then put it where they can see it.

Here is a great example of placement from ReadWriteWeb. In this example, they’ve placed their RSS subscriber badge directly inline with their email subscription form. Not only does this make them easy to find, but it bring immediate attention to the fact that there are multiple options for getting information from the blog.

Perspective

Don’t be shy. Ask for the sale. If you want readers to add you to their RSS reader or subscribe to your email updates, then make it easy for them to do so.

Idea seeking,

Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com

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Recently I came across yet another spam blog trackback in my moderated blog comments. I’ve tried to ignore these as they’ve continued to increase. But enough is enough and now I’m looking at ways to simplify the abuse reporting process.

There are two simple steps you can take to hit a splogger where it hurts. You can report them to their web hosting provider, and you can report them to Google.

The host will most likely suspend the splogger’s account until they remove the content or they may terminate their account entirely. For the most part, this is simply a short term deterrent because they can always re-establish their site with a new hosting company. But it gets the point across.

In most cases Google AdSense is used on spam blogs. If you report AdSense policy violations to Google they will suspend the splogger’s AdSense account.

Which approach you take is entirely up to you. In my opinion, having someone’s hosting account suspended is a lot less aggressive than having their AdSense account suspended. You might want to assess the degree of the offense before you decide which approach is best.

If the spam blog was their first attempt at experimenting with the idea of generating revenue then at least they can take the hosting suspension as a lesson and decide to move on to something more productive.

However, if you hit them at the AdSense level then they’ll be affected on a broader scale because it could get their whole AdSense account banned. To me this is much more aggressive and it depends on the situation to determine which route you may want to go.

If you want to take both routes then I recommend reporting the site to Google first, wait for their ads to come down and then report them to their host and get the entire site taken down.

To me this is the full meal deal of fighting sploggers, but just keep in mind that it’s going to take your own valuable time to step through the process and depending on the number of spam trackbacks you get, it might take more time than it’s worth.

That said, I recommend you use a combination of form letters and software to cut down on the time spent in the communication process.

Here is a simple email template that I used recently to request that a host remove my original content from a splogger site:

- - -
A website on your server is stealing my blog content. This site is scrapping my original content for their spam blog.

[Insert Offending Spam Blog URL Here]

Please have them remove the content from their site. The original content can be found here if you need to verify ownership.

[Insert Your Original Content URL Here]

Thank you for your attention in this matter.

Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com
- - -

This simple email received an immediate response and the host took the website down immediately. The communication does not have to be complicated or lengthy. Hosts and Google know what’s going on and all you have to do is provide them with the basic details and they will follow their own processes to handle the problem quickly.

I’m currently using this form letter along with macro software that lets me assign short cuts to just about anything. I assigned a short cut to this form letter and when I type in a key phrase the letter appears and I complete the url sections and send it off to be handled. Overall the process takes under thirty seconds and I’m done.

If you’re using a PC, I recommend using a text macro tool like PhraseExpress. It’s inexpensive and you can use it to create macros for starting applications, pasting blocks or text, form letters, website addresses, you name it. If you use a Mac, then I recommend TextExpander. It’s basically the same type of application, but it’s made for the Mac OS. I use TextExpander for email signatures, social networking greetings, support responses, blogging code snippets, and now splogger form letters.

Combine the form letter with either one of these macro tools and you’ll be able to gain an edge on spam bloggers and protect yourself from content theft.

What tools do you use?

Splog smashing,

Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com

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How many times do you bookmark websites and then forget to submit them to StumbleUpon? I know I forget all the time. So, I have a big list of Del.icio.us bookmarks, but my StumbleUpon profile suffers from lack of love. But all that changes today thanks to the urber geekls over at GreaseMonkey.

If you haven’t heard, Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension that allows you to customize the way webpages look and function. There are hundreds of scripts available for free. And if you like to tinker, you can also write your own. These scripts are fantastic and they can easily add days back into your life by making you more productive online.

My most recent discovery is the Greasemonkey script, Delicious Stumbles. The script adds a link to your del.icio.us page that helps you submit links on the page to StumbleUpon.

The great part is it takes what you’ve already written as Del.icio.us comments and it submits them to StumbleUpon. It does the same thing with your tags. So all you have to do is click the link, verify the info, and then submit the link to StumbleUpon. I’m telling you, the thing is genius. You can hammer out a few past bookmarks in seconds and keep your StumbleUpon profile well nourished.

Productivity is an important topic for me because I am easily distracted and I already have a lot that needs to get done. So anything that speeds my work and keeps me on task is worth it’s weight in gold. Greasemonkey is free, and the time these scripts will save you is almost like getting paid to do what you have to do anyway.

What’s your favorite productivity tool or Greasemonkey script?

Monkeying around,

Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com

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Starting today I’m going to be posting to my blog on a regular basis. I know what your thinking, “Show me the money.” Well, I certainly intend to do just that.

As part of an effort to post to my blog every day I’m starting a series called, Microtweens.

Microtweens will be short blog posts that link to one new daily resource that I find on the web. I’ll include a short note about any possible marketing angles and a related thumbnail image.

Mainly I want to ensure that you’re getting regular updates from me as I find new tools for you to consider. I already have a stack of Del.icio.us bookmarks and emails that I’ve collected with the idea that I’d eventually write about them and tell you. The reality is I like to give a lot of detail, maybe too much detail, in my regular articles and that means it takes me a while to hammer out a final post.

So Microtweens should solve that problem because I can sit down and create a months worth of short posts, and then as time allows, I can slip the longer full calorie articles in between the Microtweens.

Obviously you’ll experience the result from your end as you get the updates, but I’ll be sure to update you on how the plan is actually working for me on the blogging end.

If you have a better suggestion, leave a comment and tell everyone about it. I’m sure I’m not the only one looking for ways to make sure their blog stays active while they work on other projects.

Oh, and here’s today’s Microtween:

Resource:

“SocialSpark is a Social Marketing Network that connects advertisers and bloggers through an online advertising marketplace. Advertisers are able to target blogs based on conversational topics and make cash sponsorship offers to the bloggers who publish them. Bloggers can make money by either placing display advertisements on their blog or by writing sponsored content. The sponsorships offered through the SocialSpark marketplace allow advertisers to build buzz, generate traffic and maximize social media exposure.”

Perspective:

Paid blogging is a touch subject for some people. I’m not one of those people. I do believe there is a right way to do it and a not so right way. Overall the market is still maturing and to me the most important aspect of the concept should be ensuring quality, providing value to everyone involved, and giving the blogger the freedom to choose what they right about.

Social spark looks like it’s moving heavily in that direction by creating a social network of advertisers and bloggers that can interact and do business openly.

I haven’t fully explored this resource, so I’ll reserve my full comments for a later date, but I do suggest that you go take a look at what they have to offer.

Be sure to post your feedback on the Open Source Marketer Community and let us know what you think.

Microtweening,

Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com

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Here are a few notes from John Pozadzides at OneMansBlog.com. He’s giving the presentation on 45 Ways to Power Up Your Blog at WordCamp Dallas 2008.

I’m not going to list all 45 tips in this update, but here are a few interesting ones for you.

1. Use English Names for Images
2. Descriptive and accurate titles are essential
3. Use title elements on every hypertext link
4. Pick the right theme (SEO over Eye Candy)
5. Web hosting affects your traffic - google traffic is affected by site performance (google could flood a slow server). StumbeUpon stops sending traffic to slow sites
6. Serve images from your own server and not Flickr or risk sending traffic to Flickr and not your own site. Images searches will go to where the site is stored.
7. Use a sitemap to tell Google where everything is on your site. Get the WordPress Site Map Plugin.
8. Post regularly, no less than 2-3 days. Post in advance. Keep 2-3 post buffer at all times, a week or two is even better if you can.
9. Always show related posts.
10. Use Print style sheets to make it easy for people to print your content.
11. Use deep linking by using keywords in the link text.
12. Have your own domain name. Don’t use typepad, blogger, or other sub-domain.
13. Create a podcast and/or publish a video to connect with your audience and make yourself real.
14. Pick a theme that loads quickly
15. Use wp super cache plugin to survive a digg front page appearance.
16. Use the link attraction factors plugin to find out if your post title is digg worthy.
17. Always include at least one image per post, period.

These are all great tips, but the grand finale was the best tickler and that was the Layered Technologies real-time analytics reporting tool from Woopra.com. I’m getting a beta account today as part of being an attendee of WordCamp Dallas 2008, so I’ll update you on all the yummy coolness once I have a chance to get in and use the tool.

Updating from WordCamp Dallas 2008

Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com

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