Oh, This Will Take Some Time….

I mentioned last week that I would be back and, yes, I am here. But only for a few moments. I am up to my neck with deadlines this week and next, but I also have to tend to a few simmering fires involving one web site and one blog.

Work Aplenty

Don't cry; it will all work out.

The website issue has to wait because my efforts to move one blog from URL A to URL B is taking me days, not hours to complete. I have discovered that larger blogs with many posts, categories, photos, tags, and what not can be more difficult to move even if you manipulate the .htaccess or php.ini files to import a large WordPress xml file.

Yes, I turned off the plugins first but even then the shrunken file is still quirky. So what I did was to break 47 months of blogging into pieces, sending bits over here and there. Even then, I discovered that some of the coding contained in various posts was presenting a problem which served to remind me to “go light” on the scripting on the new site.

A few of you have wished me well in the transition with one remarking that this sort of move can “cause more problems than what it’s worth.”

I agree!

But sometimes there are good reasons to make a move including several that I am up against:

Old theme – WordPress offers thousands of free themes, but as you might guess many of these do not age particularly well over time unless the designer keeps up with them. Few do, but who can blame them?

I am considering buying my next bunch of themes and using them instead, especially if they are being supported. I do not mind paying for something that is being looked after; Open Source has its benefits but you cannot expect people to do everything for free.

Wacky plugins – Just like themes, plugins do not always make the transition from blog update to blog update. Even when a newer version is released, I have found that they do not always work as well as they once did.

I have had the occasional plugin mess up a blog, only being able to discover which one it was by deactivating all of them en masse and then activating them one by one.

Lousy URL – When I initially started blogging in 2004, I did not have nearly the understanding I have now regarding search engine optimization and related matters. The blog I am moving sits on a site it once shared with another blog. That other blog is the one you are reading now, itself moved here two years ago.

The other blog making the transition will have its own URL which has been around for some time and was pointing to the blog until I started to make the transition last week.

Such Madness!

Confused yet? Welcome to my delirium! At some point everything will work out. Once the blog has been moved, then I will refocus my attention on the website issue and then maybe, just maybe, I will replace a few blog themes elsewhere.

Commenting? You Can Do Better Than That!

Right now, I manage six blogs all of which are updated at least once weekly. Two represent paid blogging opportunities while the other four are owned by me and are updated as I please.

Growing Traffic, Great Links!

The traffic numbers across my small, but tight blog network has been growing steadily as I incorporate the very best optimization tactics and seed each blog with helpful and relevant articles. Recently, I discovered that one of my articles not only went viral, but appears to have become the de facto reference for that particular topic (top SERPs for several keywords and phrases). Another article on that same blog regularly brings in 200+ unique visitors per day as it was linked to by a major corporation.

All that traffic means one thing: spammers love my blogs!

But, that means that I use Akismet and other tools to block unrelated and spammy comments, which also means that my spam folders fill up pretty quickly on a weekly basis.

Spammers I can handle as their comments never see the light of day. But other commenters can be annoying especially if they post unrelated or silly responses. Yes, all six blogs are “do follow” which means they are a magnet for lazy comment people, those type of bloggers who want the juicy backlink but aren’t willing to work for it.

Making The Best Use Of Commenting

I actually believe that some commenters really want to leave a decent response but they don’t necessarily know how. Believe me, I understand the importance of backlinks and trackbacks, but I also know that I will never let my blog network disintegrate thanks to an onslaught of Xanax, viagra and porn tags.

If you really want to benefit from leaving comments, then I suggest you employ the following tactics wherever you leave comments:

Stay On Message — The first thing I notice are those comments totally unrelated to the article. Off topic comments are immediately deleted. But, I’ll also delete comments that repeat, often verbatim, something I said in my article. Golly, if you can’t come up with something original to say then why should I show you the linky love? Bye!

Use A Real Name — In the “name” area of the comment section, I don’t want to see your business name, a sexually suggestive name or anything other than your real name. Please don’t tell me that your name is Payday Loans even if your comment is a really good one. Recently, I had someone leave a very good comment with that silly name, but instead of deleting it I edited their comment and changed their name to Bill. Get it? Bill?

URL — Please don’t leave a URL within the body of your comment unless it is directly related to the topic at hand. Instead, for whatever URL you want to feature put that link on the designated line to receive link juice. As long as it doesn’t link to a porn, hate or some goofball site it will get approved (yes, I often return the favor by visiting your site).

Do The Math — On one blog I’ve gotten so many spammy comments, that I decided to add the “Do the Math” plugin to try to gauge who is spamming that site. Guess what — if you get the answer wrong, your comment vanishes. So do the math correctly before leaving your helpful, relevant and erudite comment.

My Two Favorite Social Media Sites

Just to let you know I do appreciate most of the people I come across online. That is why I’m active on StumbleUpon and Twitter, sites where I’ll frequently leave a comment, a tweet or pass along helpful information to others.

Related Reading — StumbleUpon: A Whole Lot Of Fun!