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DoFollow Search Engine

The other day while traversing through my blog referral links, I noticed a search query coming from a site that had DoFollow in the domain name. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the site was a DoFollow search engine that allegedly indexes thousands of blog posts from 400 or more blogs.

I still feel as if having the DoFollow attribute enabled is another magnet for comment spam. However, if you feel the need to only comment on blogs that pass along a few drops of Google Juice, this search engine might be of help to you. Let me know if you perform a search of your blog or blog posts and come up with any results.

Although in the past, I have stated that I use DoFollow on my own personal blog. However, I have since changed my mind and have disabled the DoFollow plugin.

Today Is BlogActionDay – Poverty

BlogActionDay is a day set aside for thousands of bloggers to unite to discuss a single issue with this year being poverty. The organization aims to raise awareness, initiate action and to shake up the web. BlogTalkRadio is hosting a 12 hour talkathon today starting at 12 P.M. EST. Notables such as Chris Garret, Easton Ellsworth, Liz Strauss and others will be appearing at some point during the 12 hour broadcast. Those blogs who are participating in the BlogActionDay event that are mentioned on air will have one hour to call into the show to claim prizes donated to BTR by sponsors.

To take part in this event, I am donating $100.00 on behalf of Performancing. The money will go towards a charity of the winners choice who is fighting poverty.

BlogActionDay is a shining example of how the web can be used to raise awareness surrounding a particular issue. Thousands of individuals will be working together, publishing their thoughts, ideas, and solutions to fight poverty. Will you be one of them?

WordPress 2.7 Now Frozen

Ryan Boren, one of the lead developers of the WordPress.org project recently announced to the WP-Hackers mailing list that WordPress 2.7 is officially feature frozen. What does this mean? No more new features will be added into the core. The focus will now be on cleaning up the code, ensuring things work the way they are supposed to and then getting a beta out to the public to hammer out as many bugs as possible. According to Ryan, the visual design is not yet complete and there are still a few sections remaining that need some work such as the categories and tags screens.

I’ve personally set myself up to REALLY participate in this round of version testing as I have not contributed in this aspect of the project since I’ve started using the software. Here are the features in 2.7 that need testing:

Core Upgrade
Plugin Browsing/Installation
Threaded Comments
Comment Paging
Back End Overall

For those of you wondering, here is what WordPress 2.7 looks like as of October 14, 2008. This look could and possibly will change before the official release.

A couple things to notice in this screenshot. The VIEW SITE link that used to display to the right of the blog title is now an image that resembles the same icon you would see in software menus in Windows. Also, take a look at the left hand navigation menu. Those double arrows can be used to either hide or show the menu enabling users to maximize their screen real estate if need be. The PAGE OPTIONS when clicked on slides open a window where you can select what to hide or show on the dashboard. For instance, if you don’t want to see QuickPress or the Recent Comments sections of the dashboard, simply de-select them.

This is a sample of what the comment moderation area looks like in 2.7. The QUICK EDIT link opens the comment editor inline which saves time editing comments. One other link worth noticing is the REPLY link. Similar to how the WP COMMENT REMIX plugin provides the ability to reply to comments from the backend, WordPress 2.7 will now have this functionality out of the box.

The WordPress theme repository has not yet made it into the core of WordPress. Considering 2.7 is under feature freeze, it looks like we won’t see that until possibly, WordPress 2.8. These two areas of WordPress are just samplings of what may be awaiting us come November 10th. (Tentative release date). If you’d like to take a look around and play with WordPress 2.7 before it’s initial release, check out the WordPress Demo site headed up by Chris Johnston. The site is reloaded every 15 minutes with a fresh install of the latest bleeding edge version of WordPress. Instead of installing it locally on your server or messing with subversion, you can use this demo and not have to worry about breaking something. Login information is as follows: Username: admin Password: demo. If you notice that the login information is not working, point your browser to http://wp.chrisjohnston.org/wp-admin/ and run the upgrade script. Then try logging in again.

Overall, I’m pretty stoked about WordPress 2.7, how about you?

Improving WordPress Navigation

John Pratt recently published a guest post on HackWordPress.com entitled, 10 ways to improve the navigation within WordPress. Some of the tips include: Adding breadcrumbs, bold pagination on single pages, multi paged navigation, and related posts. The list even includes links to plugins which you can use to put some of the tips in action.

On my own WordPress blog, I am using tips 2, variation of 3, 4, and 6. Have you worked on improving your WordPress blog navigation lately?

Don’t forget about the Exclude Pages plugin as that can help you improve navigation as well.

What Comment Spam Are You Seeing?

Over the past two weeks, I’ve seen a large increase in the number of spam comments that look similar to this one:

Just wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same sort of spam? The good news is that Akismet has done a great job catching the messages before they go live.

Soccerlens 2008 Writing Competition

For the next two weeks (11th to 26th October), Soccerlens.com will be accepting new article submissions for the contest. Your entry must meet the minimum criteria. Articles will be published on Soccerlens and will be considered part of the contest. During the last week of the month, the Soccerlens team will evaluate all published entries and pick a winner which is to be announced on Friday, October 31st.

Click here to read the rules and criteria for the contest.

Soccerlens.com is headed by Ahmed Bilal, a past contributor to Performancing.

Performancing Job Board 10-12-08

Another week has come and gone and with it, more blogging jobs. Here are the latest entries on the Performancing job board.

Feature Writer for Flagship web sites – Wired Rhino, Inc is looking for a few excellent free lance writers to write flagship content for our various websites.

Tech bloggers for mobiletopsoft.com – Mobiletopsoft.com is looking for new blogger/s. If you are familiar with latest trends about windows mobile, symbian, palm and android powered mobile phones and devices and want to turn this knowledge in money feel free to apply.

Seeking Photography Enthusiast and Pro Bloggers – PictureMyCamera is currently hiring PictureMyCamera editors for a variety of topics of interest to phographers and enthusiasts. Official PictureMyCamera editors receive a 50-50 share of Adsense revenue like all PictureMyCamera writers do, but they also get some great fringe benefits such as a free banner ad in the sitewide rotation and access to demo items to review.

If you are looking for a blogging job or you’re an employer looking for somewhere to place your job ad, be sure to check out the Performancing Job board. There are no fees for publishing jobs.

Podcasting As Easy As 123 With Talkshoe

Talkshoe.com is an online web service that enables anyone to easily create, join, or listen to Live Interactive Discussions, Conversations, Podcasts and Audioblogs. The service has been around since 2005 and since then, has continued to make it as easy as possible for users to create their own podcasts. Membership to Talkshoe is free. Besides being free, what else do they have to offer?

The Host Page:

Although there are many other podcasting services around that provide similar functionality as Talkshoe, I have yet to leave the service based on a number of circumstances. For starters, show hosts can schedule episodes at any time they’d like. There are no specific time blocks which limit when you can produce a show. Talkshoe gives hosts the ability to manage an email list that is used to invite people to your show as it is scheduled. You can either maintain your own mailing list or direct Talkshoe members to click on the FOLLOW button that is registered to your show. This will automatically place them on the INVITATION list. Anytime you schedule an episode, an email will be sent out to these people providing the necessary information regarding the next episode.

Each host on Talkshoe receives their own dedicate show page. This page highlights a countdown to when the next episode will air, a media player for specific episodes that can be embedded into blog posts, various subscription options, and a list of scheduled episodes on top of a list of past episodes. This page also gives listeners a chance to review and then comment on your show.

Unfortunately, show hosts can not manage the FOLLOW LIST. If someone on the follow list ends up changing their email account or fails to remove themselves from the list, sending out invitations can result in bounce back messages polluting your inbox. This issue has been brought up to Talkshoe in the past but has yet to be corrected.

Maybe you’re not too keen on the audio quality Talkshoe provides but you are content with their distribution system. The good news is, you can upload MP3’s to Talkshoe which will take the place of your recorded show. This means you can use Talkshoe as a distribution channel while staying in charge of the podcast audio quality.

Interaction:

Talkshoe provides a myriad of ways in which people can interact with shows. The first method is similar to AM Talk Radio where listeners can call into the show via SkypeOut or a landline/cellphone. Talkshoe provides one central number to call but provides each show host with their own unique call ID. The call ID is used to differentiate the large number of shows being hosted on Talkshoe. Users can opt to configure a SIP Client as well such as Project Gizmo or my favorite, X-Lite. This allows me to call into Talkshoe with my PC similar to using SkypeOut, but for free. The last way of interacting with the show is through two different clients that Talkshoe provides.

There is the Talkshoe Pro client which requires installation on an end users system while the web client can be executed through a browser window. The pro client contains features that the web client does not such as color coded conversations, easier show administration, and more. However, the web client is fast to load and provides an IRC like chat interface. Those who are brand new to Talkshoe hate the fact that the chat in the Pro Client scrolls from right to left. However, after getting used to it, people begin to see why it’s setup that way.

The major difference between the web and pro clients is that the pro client has a built in SIP client called ShoePhone. However, anytime I have listened to someone call into a show using this SIP client, they have sounded terrible. It sounds as if the caller is speaking through a fan. Based on what I have heard through the grapevine, Talkshoe is going to be reworking the Shoephone from the ground up. Almost anything you can think of would be better than using the Shoephone, even tin cans and string.

Show Administration:

As show host, you contain access to some options that no one else does. Show hosts are not able to join their room until 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start time. Once you are allowed in the room, hosts are then able to click on a START button which will initiate the recording. Keep in mind that Talkshoe does not automatically start a recording, this is a manual process. Show hosts contain the ability to mute a persons audio while also being able to block someone from chatting in the room. Talkshoe does not contain the ability to ban users from entering a specific room. So although you can block their chat, and their voice, they can still sit in the room and listen to the show but I can only imagine how boring that must be.

When hosts are done recording a show, they can press the STOP button which will stop the recording but not terminate the call. This is great because after the recording stops, you can keep the show open for an after show where people can still call in and congregate. Only after you hit the TERMINATE button will the show and the room be terminated. Termination will hang up any caller that may still be on the line. You can still chat in the room however.

The Bad

While I am a big fan of Talkshoe, not everything is as great as it seems. For instance, Talkshoe has been known to suffer major outages from time to time thanks to power outages and other mishaps at their data centers. This can screw things up if your show happens to be scheduled during the same time Talkshoe goes offline. I must admit though, Talkshoe did a good job of getting things back up to speed in no time flat. Also worthy of note is that Talkshoe supports anonymous callers. A great idea at face value until you realize that there is no call screener. I’ve participated in a number of shows which have had a (podcrasher) or two show up and try to destroy the show. This is why I really don’t accept calls from anonymous users.

Talkshoe like many other web services that have a chat server appears to suffer from the same problems of connections timing out. This leads to increased frustration by everyone as you have to refresh the browser if you’re using the Web Client to reconnect or, you need to close the pro client and reopen it. This issue has seemingly become worst as time moves on.

Last but not least, you will not receive studio quality sound from your podcasts if they are produced on Talkshoe. But, calling into Talkshoe.com via X-Lite has enabled me to have great audio quality, at least thats what the listeners have told me. You can’t control an individuals audio quality so although I might sound great, the callers may sound terrible. However, if the show contains great content, I think there are many people who are willing to forgive the audio quality.

Conclusion:

I have been a member of Talkshoe since early 2007 and have never reached a point where I got up and left the service for something else. I have given BlogTalkRadio a look through but I am not pleased with their host page layout. Talkshoe has plenty of things it can do to improve its service as well as the site itself but only time will tell if they put these improvements into place. If you are looking for a service that practically does everything for you minus the talking, give Talkshoe a try.

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