The thing I love about blogging is that so many experts are giving out great information free of charge. (And I mean experts that know what they’re doing, not the “gurus” who just want to scam you…)

I was hoping that with all this free (but useful) information, the fake “gurus” and their get-rich-quick scams would slowly get filtered out and forgotten.

But now I’m wondering if a new Wordpress plugin designed to turn your blog into a paid-membership website might cause some problems.

First of all, the plugin costs $25, so it’s one of the rare plugins you have to pay for. But then it makes it so if anyone wants to read your blog, they have to pony up and open their PayPal wallet…

If this company was venture-backed and had a huge marketing budget, they’d probably make a big stink like PayPerPost and (more recently) the BuyBlogComments comment spamming service. I just can’t imagine the true bloggers condoning these members-only blogs.

Fortunately, I don’t think any smart people will pay to read a blog, so I don’t see this making a huge impact. The useful blogs already out there will certainly remain free, because those smart people are happy to help others.

But the gurus on the other hand…

The “gurus” might just start getting into blogging if they can profit. The $97 ebook phenomenon might slow down, only to see a surge of $37/month membership blogs. This in turn will give blogging a bad name, much like the internet marketing industry as a whole.

I don’t want to read the “Make $16,298 overnight on autopilot just by stuffing a few envelopes” blog, but a total newbie might. And they might just get suckered in because of the marketing principle that says something like charging a price makes your product seem more valuable and/or exclusive, and in turn more people will go for it than if you were giving it out for free.

(You know those companies that charge $75 for a plain cotton t-shirt? It’s the same principle.)

Anyway, that price tag, coupled with a long sales letter, might just attract some followers. And once they get roped in, it will take a while for the experts and helpful forum members to get these innocent newbies back on track.

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Apparently I didn’t think this list through…

While I realize the importance of Site Maps (I use normal sitemaps along with XML versions for Google,) I never realized how powerful the Sitemap-generating Wordpress plugins could be!

I just stuck with my regular routine, but from now on I should probably put some more effort into the sitemaps. And for that, this sitemap plugin is great!

Next time I write a ‘best plugins’ list, I’ll include this one instead of mentioning two plugins that do the same thing (i.e. Digg This and Digg That.)

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RSS is a great way to distribute and syndicate content to your readers, but it also makes it easy for the spammers to steal your content. One way they do this is by setting up spam blogs, or “splogs.” These blogs have no original content; instead, they pull in your content via RSS and pass it off as their own.

They’re using your content without so much as a link back to your site!

Earlier this year, this very blog was included in one such site at adwhores.com. I wasn’t too pissed considering the blog had a PR5, and if I played my cards right, I could get some nice backlinks. But then I noticed the PR5 was faked…

The good news, though, is that the splog got shut down within 2 days. Even better, I learned a thing or two about dealing with this problem (other than a typical DMCA notice to Google.)

And it’s a good thing, because that splog is back online and stealing more content than ever! They’re even stealing Shoemoney’s feed!

So here are a couple things you can do to protect yourself from splogs, even if you don’t know they’re out there:

First, always link back to your previous posts when you mention something you’ve blogged about before. Or link to one of your category pages. Whatever you do, just be sure to have links to other parts of your site within the post itself. That way, anyone stealing your content is giving you backlinks, and maybe even traffic.

Second, you can put a little notice at the bottom of each post. Something like “this post originally appeared at mysite.com.” That should get you a little link love, too. You can even use Adsense Deluxe to automate the process.

Third, make use of all the Feedburner options. Feedburner allows you to place links in your feed such as “Email this” and “Save to del.icio.us” If those are in your feed, they’ll show up on the splog. So if someone decides to bookmark the post that way or email it to a friend, they’ll be saving your URL (not the splog’s.)

(Notice my feed URL in the status bar )

And if you do know about the splog, and it is totally worthless and spammy, just file the DMCA notice along with these tips from FightSplog.

[This post originally appeared at InternetMarketingSucks.com]

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If you’re running Wordpress like me and many other bloggers, you’ve undoubtedly had to choose which plugins to install. And you’ve probably seen a ton of the same posts out there called “The 10 Best Wordpress Plugins” or something like that.

So what am I going to do?

The same damn thing!

I mean, I have favorite plugins too. So why shouldn’t I have my own list?

Here’s my list of favorite plugins, some of which I use already and some I need to install!

First, two plugins already included in your Wordpress install:

Database backup
Backup your WordPress database without opening PHPMyAdmin. A real timesaver.

Akismet
Probably included, but you’ll need to activate it with a Wordpress API key from a wordpress.com account. It’s a lifesaver when it comes to comment spam.

Now, 19 good ones to add:

Redirect to Feedburner feed
Redirects anyone reading your regular feed to your Feedburner feed. That way you get accurate stats.

Related Posts
Displaying a list of related posts is a great way to keep people reading. If they finish a post and are immediately presented with others they may like, they are less likely to leave.

Favorite Posts
This allows you to mark posts as “classic” and then displays a list of these posts on your sidebar or where ever you wish.

Most Popular Posts
Check this out and look for the “popularity contest” plugin. It displays the most popular posts based on page views, number of comments, etc.

Permalink Redirects and Migration
The plugin from fucoder.com makes sure that each blog entry is only accessed from one URL. The one from deanlee.cn allows you to change your permalink structure without losing visitors at the old URLs. Both are important to keep your link structure search engine friendly.

Random Post
This one does not amaze me, but it can be a neat thing to have somewhere on your blog. Users click a “Random Post” link and go to a random post. (Coolness factor: It is used on TechCrunch.com and JohnChow.com.)

Encourage RSS Subscribers
This is the “What Would Seth Godin Do?” plugin. It allows you to insert a little box in each post reminding new visitors to subscribe to your RSS feed. It’s based on cookies and can be used in different ways, so check it out!

Digg This (and That)
It puts “Digg this” links on each post, and displays a real “Digg this” button once it detects an incoming link from Digg. Digg That was created due to the original “Digg this” being buggy, but now “Digg this” is top-notch.

WP-Cache
Cache your blog for better site performance and faster load times.

Adsense Deluxe
Easily insert Adsense (or similar ads) into each blog post. It even makes sure that a max of 3 ad units are displayed per page.

Subscribe to comments via email
Just like the name implies, it lets visitors subscribe to comments via email (instead of doing a separate RSS feed.)

Reply to specific comments
Lets commentators reply to other commentators. You’ve probably seen this used at ShoeMoney.com and JohnChow.com.

Show recent comments
Place a list of recent comments in your sidebar.

Show top commentators
Shows a list of the people who have commented the most, with a link to their site. A great way to encourage comments.

Let users rate your posts
Will show a rating (out of 5 stars) for each post based on reader votes.

Add ads before or after your posts
Allows you to display ads before or after your posts, even in your feed. Works fine with Adsense and plain html links.

Email your users
Email all your blog’s registered users.

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Looking for more plug-ins?

Try http://wp-plugins.net. It has a wide selection!

[This post originally appeared at InternetMarketingSucks.com]

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If you’re heading out to any Fourth of July picnics in the next couple weeks, feel free to use as much relish as you want. But if you’re blogging, be careful if you get into any Comment Relish.

Comment Relish is a Wordpress plugin that will send a welcome email to any new commenters.

I was considering using it myself, until it crashed John Chow’s blog for two hours!

I guess it’s pretty good for new blogs, but it could crash a blog with lots of comments.

See, it runs through all your comments to see if the current commenter has left a comment before. That way it can dispatch a welcome email to the new guys. Problem is, that query can really take a toll on your MySQL database!!

All is not lost though. The Patchlog made an edited version of Comment Relish you could try.

Hopefully there will be a new version of Comment Relish sometime without these problems.

Until then, stick with sweet relish!

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If you are sick of PayPerPost, Blogvertise, and the other services that let you buy blog posts promoting your site, I can understand. They definitely have some more bugs to work out.

But I recently found something new to try: Blogem Up

This site is similar, but it will hopefully sort the good blogs from the bad. I can’t say too much because it is still new, but I’ll hope for the best. I’ll post a full report once I familiarize myself with the service a bit more.

(But if you want to try it, now is the best time. The first 50 advertisers sign-up for free!)

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