So I was checking my “Recent” incoming links in my Wordpress Admin area, and I saw that one was a trackback from a blog hosted on Wordpress.com. So, I clicked the link to see how they had linked to my article…

It turns out that a person had scraped the article that I wrote and the track-back was to a post that I had linked to in the article! Everyday is something new at Bradblogging.com.

I had two emotions as I read my own post on another website - Annoyance and Happiness:

Happiness because that meant that the article that I wrote was actually worth copying to another blogger’s blog, which means that people would consider your article “Good Enough” to scrape off your website.

Annoyance because now I have to ask them to put a link to the original article, or file a D.M.C.A. Takedown notice, which takes valuable time out of my day.

We’ll just have to see how this plays out I suppose.

Have you encountered content theft before on your blog? If so, how did you handle it?

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So the whole “Blogging” concept is a great thing. You write articles and then hopefully, if the reader gains something from it, you most likely have a return visitor/subscriber.

But when’s the right time to start introducing advertising? A personal tip that I have learned is that it really doesn’t look good when you have around 3 subscibers in your Feedburner Feedcount with the average hits of 10 per day. Then comes the factor of how much you actually make off of the 10 people… Probably less than a pack of gum’s worth.

Quite honestly, I have tried not to show advertising on this blog because I really want to provide minimal distractions from the content that I so vigorously write :). So the point of the post is to make you question when the right time to start the P.P.C. machine/private sales on your blog. Will you wait for 1000hits/day? or will 100hits/day be “enough” for you.

Posting content to satisfy your readers is a lot different than posting a blog post. Let this diagram explain:

Not every post is going to shine on your blog, that is something that can only be learned with experience. However, by taking simple steps in order to make sure that the posts aren’t a blunder on our blogs, we can ultimately make it look better to anybody that decides to pay a visit.

I really enjoy creating websites and it is a hobby of mine. So much infact, that I have created a “Web Design” firm over at www.freshneverfrozendesign.com to show a tidbit of what I can create. Have a look if your interested.

Alright time to get to the point, which is asking the readers of the blog if they would be interested in a “free” custom wordpress theme that I would design and release. It would be simple enough to not distract your readers from your content, but elegant enough for them to notice the aspects of the template. I have a couple of good ideas, but it is always great to have more.

If you like the idea and are curious as to what the template would look like, comment below and throw in what makes a well-designed blog template. It’s just another thought that I had to benefit the readers of Bradblogging.com

I have finally been able to bring out the second part of my series which is putting prizes in your contest that are worth joining /blogging about. Since we already know how to create one that is easy to read and join, we can now start to brainstorm some of these prizes that will definitely draw attention.

There are three different types of prizes that a blogger can put inside of their contest. Low budget, Mid-budget and you guessed it, High Budget. Many different situations arise when obtaining prizes as some bloggers have been in the business longer, making money along the way. They can then use this to fund a contest which could present a problem for a newbie blogger that has just started out.

So in order to balance all three “classes” of contests, there will be a list for each. Without further adieu, here is prize ideas for any type of contest.

Lower Budget Prize Ideas

• Sidebar or banner advertising on your blog (Cost-Free).
• Blog/Website Reviews (Cost-Free).
• The “Overused” contest prize (Even we are guilty on that one) - Entrecard Credits (Cost-Free).
• Project Wonderful Accounts - You’d be surprised at what $5 can buy worth of advertising on that website ($1-15).
• Asking around fellow bloggers for prize donations: Reviews, Advertising, Cash? (Cost-Free).
• Life-Time Subscriptions to the $5 Theme Club @ Wpdesigner.com.

Mid-Budget Prize Ideas

• Cash Prizes ($10-100).
• Subscription To Seomoz.org - All about SEO which could be useful for bloggers.
• Magazine Subscriptions: PCWorld? Electronic Gaming Monthly? Or let the winner chose (Cost Varies).
• 1 Year Domain Name and/or Hosting (Varies By Host).
• Premium Blog Templates - Free of links to the creator and sponsors (Premium Theme “Revolution” - $99 for single use license, Cost Varies).
• Problogger’s Guide to Blogging “6 Figure Income” E-book (Cost: $29.95).

High Budget Prize Ideas

• 100-1000 Manual Directory Submissions (Varies by provider - Rough Estimate $99).
• Marketing Campaign guaranteeing the winner 500 ads on various websites and blogs for 1+ month(s).
• Yahoo Writeup & Director

Feedburner is a great system to track your R.S.S Subscribers. It shows statistics, hits, email subscriptions, and offers more customization than many of their competitors. (Being Google owned also offers a distinct advantage for new projects )

Anyway, The point of this post is not to tell the readers how good this service is, rather to discuss the issues that a blogger can face when displaying their R.S.S feed subscribers. Lets break it down in terms of Pros and Cons:

Pros

• Great way to show readers that people are reading your content.
• Shows first time visitors that this blog has good enough content to attract X amount of subscribers.
• Could influence a new visitor to subscribe to your feed as people usually like to follow the numbers rather than initially start a trend.
• Makes you not have to sign into your feedburner account to see how many subscribers you have

Cons

• If the numbers are small, you could deter subscribers from subscribing to your feed because of the point outlined above (people like to follow a trend rather than start one)
• What is the magic number to influence a first time visitor to subscribe? (Eg - Hundreds? or Thousands?)

I know I have posted about this previously, but when you keep seeing your rss subscriptions increasing, this question plays tricks with your mind

What are your thoughts about Feedburner Feedcount? Will you display it once a certain number of subscribers have subscribed to your feed? Or avoid the problem entirely, and not consider it.

If I emailed you today and said, “I’ll give you $1000 dollars for 6 permanent links on your blog - Not on your homepage” would you accept it? That is the exact thing that happened to Darren Rowse over at Problogger.net (Story) and he declined the offer. Obviously a blog of his magnitude would not accept such a low payment for 6 life time links.

A long story short, the “Underground Text Link Seller” offered Darren $400 a link totaling $2400 and he still denied it. Anyhow, until all of us bloggers get to that stage of 6 figure blogging, we can look at the link sellers first proposal. $1000.

Pros:

• You get $1000 to spend on whatever you want! (Wooo!!!!)
• If the links are written well, people barely notice them.
• You make a estimated profit of x50 on your domain name (perhaps + hosting?)

Cons:

• Google will slap you across the face in their search engine results.
• Lower traffic because of first point, lower Alexa ranking and perhaps less advertisers.
• Shows that you can be bought for the “Right” price.

I’m actually teetering on the whole prospect just because of the numbers that are involved. Unless you actually know how to make money online with blogs, this could be a major payday that could be used to help you in all sorts of life’s situations.

Then again, they are getting the best deal on the internet because over time, the cost of that text link for the buyer decreases with each passing month. Since you agreed to the terms, it would be dishonest and negligible to take the link off or charge them more.

What would you do if the situation arrived with you and your blog?