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Backlinks Or Spam?

The fine folks over at CatsWhoCode.com have put together a list of around 250 different blogs who have DoFollow links as well as blogs that use the CommentLuv plugin and the Top Commentators widget. The purpose of their article was to compile this list for those out their who are looking to gain backlinks.

I must give these guys credit. They did mention within their article about spamming blogs using their lists.

So, if you want to create a real visibility for your blog and not being called a spammer, always leave relevant comments when you have something to say.
Please do not use this list for spamming.

I use DoFollow on my own personal blog as well as CommentLuv as a means of rewarding individuals who contribute to the conversations that take place on the blog. I will admit, it seems like these two avenues have opened up even more flood gates in terms of the amount of spam comments I receive. Worst yet, the list of DoFollow blogs were compiled using software called Fast Blog Finder. So not only do I as a blog owner have to deal with automated spam, I now have to deal with human beings looking for backlinks through means of leaving comments.

You know, if you want to generate backlinks, do it the old fashioned way. Create a kick ass article. Create something that is link bait. It may not be as easy as commenting on a bunch of blogs but at least you’ll decrease the risk of your future comments being flagged as spam automatically from services such as Akismet. If you’re not sure on how to create link bait, check out the following articles from Performancing.

 

Fantastico 2.10.4 r18 Is Out

Fantastico De Luxe, the popular script installer has been upgraded to version 2.10.4. This means that you should keep an eye out on your cPanel to look for upgrade scripts if you are using any of the following:

Coppermine Photo Gallery: 1.4.18 -> 1.4.19

dotProject: 2.1.1 -> 2.1.2

Drupal: 6.3 -> 6.4

Joomla 1.5: 1.5.4 -> 1.5.6

Open-Realty: 2.4.4 -> 2.5.2

TikiWiki: 1.9.11 -> 2.0

WordPress: 2.6 -> 2.6.1

First Episode Of Perfcast Now Available

The first episode of Perfcast went off without a hitch. While discussing WordPress, Lloyd Budd, (who is NOT a core developer) called in. Be sure to tune into next weeks episode and participate live.

STORIES THAT WERE DISCUSSED –
Are You Trustworthy – CopyBlogger
Stop Blaming The WordPress Team – WeblogToolsCollection.com
Monetization Of Twitter – Peformancing
Blogging Internships – TheBlogHerald
Liz Strauss Comment Counter Creates Controversy – TheBlogHerald

LISTENER FEEDBACK – None – We love hearing what you, our audience, thinks of the show, as well as the blogging industry. If you have something to say, please contact us at (perfcast at gmail dot com)

Each week, David and I like to look at the jobs available in blogging and related industries. We cover jobs that catch our eye, and hopefully don’t pay too poorly. We will feature one of these jobs on each episode of Perfcast.

BLOGGING JOB OF THE WEEK – Business/Tech Satire Writer

BLOGGING CHALLENGE – Thank your top five commenter’s.

The blogging challenge is provided as a means of challenging yourself with a specific duty each week. David and I will be participating in each challenge and will be highlighting various entries from the previous challenge. To have your entry viewed by David and I, leave a comment with a link to your entry on this blog post. You may be the entry we review on the next episode.

LENGTH OF EPISODE – 59 Minutes

NEXT EPISODE – Thursday September 4th, 2008 at 7 P.M. EST

MISC STUFF MENTIONED IN THE SHOW:
WTF Blog Design Clutter Series By Lorelle Van Fossen
WordPress Plugin Called Podcasting
Jeff Chandlers Stats Page
WP-Stats – The Plugin Which Generates The Stats Page

LISTEN TO THE SHOW:

How To Participate In Perfcast Live

Our first episode of Perfcast will be airing Live tonight at 7 P.M. EST. Here are a few ways in which you can participate in the show.

Chatting:

There are two different clients provided by Talkshoe, the web client and the Talkshoe Pro client. The web client is accessed via a browser window or a tab and acts like an IRC channel. The text scrolls from the bottom to the top and the users who are in the chat room appear in a column on the right hand side. The call in information is presented in the bottom part of the window.

You can also chat by using Talkeshoe Pro but before you can use their software, you’ll have to install it. This is the way I access Perfcast and any other show on Talkshoe that I participate in. The interface provides a means of color coding the chat so you can follow multiple conversations at once. The client can sometimes be a bit laggy when compared to the web client but I think the pro client has a much better interface. The pro client also gives you access to something called ShoePhone which is Talkshoes built in SIP client. I don’t recommend using it because it produces bad audio quality but if you can’t call in through a different method, this will work.

Calling In:

You can call into the show a few different ways. The first way is by using a cellphone, landline or SkypeOut and dialing (724)444-74444. The talkshoe prompt will welcome you to Talkshoe and asks you for the Talkcast ID number. The ID number for Perfcast is, 24073. After you type in the number, hit the # sign. For some of you, you’ll need to enter in your PIN. Your PIN number is usually your phone number or whatever number you assigned during the account creation process. If you don’t have a PIN Number, you can still dial in as an anonymous user.

When you call into the show, you will automatically be muted. If you are calling in to discuss a particular news topic or have something to say, please press *8as this will initiate the Request To Talk feature which the host of the show will see. When you hear Talkshoe tell you that you have been unmuted, that means you are on the air.

Be sure to head on over to the Perfcast Talkshoe Page at 6:45 P.M. EST as that is when you’ll be able to enter the room.

2 Possibly 4 Political WordPress Themes

The other day, I was asked if I could provide some insight into some WordPress themes that were politically based that didn’t end up looking like crap. The theme must also do a good job displaying photo/video type posts. Here is my SHORT list of political based WordPress themes.

1. Probama

Probama is an elegant two column theme that features a large right-hand sidebar. The sidebar comes with two configured blocks for a featured video as well as recent images uploaded to a specific Flickr account. The only downfall for this theme is that you won’t be able to easily remove Mr. Obama from the header. So, this one is for the Obama fans.

2. Political Blog Blue (scroll down the page to find the download link)

Political Blue is a free WordPress theme provided by iThemes. This theme has a nice blue and white feel to it, contains two columns, and has a featured video block built in. iThemes also has an orange flavor of this theme available.

The End:

Welcome to the end of the list. I’ve been doing my research for the past two days and this is what I came up with. Granted, there are a few free, political based themes out there but they go against the rule of looking like crap. These two themes are the only ones which fit the criteria out of the box.

Bonus Themes:

Two themes which I recommend checking out that are not labeled as political but provide the elements that would easily turn them into one are the Structure WordPress theme and the Options Light theme. Both of these themes would fit the bill nicely as they provide a nice framework from which to display your political views. Both themes provide a way for you to feature Flickr images along with videos. The only downside to both of these themes is that, they are difficult to use if you are not a seasoned WordPress user. However, Justin Tadlock has done a wonderful job providing documentation on each theme should you find yourself in trouble.

Other than the themes I’ve listed here, there is not much in the way of selection in the WordPress theme world for out of the box political based themes. If you are a theme author, you may want to take a look at this area of theme development as it wouldn’t be hard to be king of the mountain.

The Future of Content Management Is Collaboration

Content management is becoming an increasingly popular part of technological advancement for the internet and for the people who will create, manage, and consume that content. Developers have long been exceeding in this area, but the future demands new collaboration features that have only recently been increasing with popularity.

Who Uses This Stuff?

Bloggers, designers, content producers, web surfers, and pretty much anyone who uses the internet will be constantly interacting with content management software. As developing countries catch up (China, for example), the need for these technologies to handle an increasing number of users is drastic.

Just as the website owners and administrators need better ways to handle this data, the consumers of this data also demand new ways to view, interact, share, and remix this content.

It is easy to imagine that a majority of the people between 18 – 30 will have blogs in the coming years.

Why Collaborate?

However, one interesting feature of the future is the ability to collaborate. The demand for collaboration services and software is outrageous with enterprises nowadays, and with time, small to medium sized businesses will demand this same functionality.

The ability to collaborate on documents is crucial to the development of online businesses. For bloggers, this means that bloggers will be able to create, edit, and share information with their fellow bloggers. This is possible today with the likes of Microsoft SharePoint Server and Alfresco, but it would be nice to see this same functionality integrated into solutions like WordPress, Movable Type, and Drupal.

Perhaps we will have this functionality in the future, but it will likely be awhile before developers realize the usefulness of this functionality. Granted, it would not be nearly half as useful as a blog with several hundred bloggers working together, but it could still find its uses. This could also promote more bloggers to join existing blogs.

It would be nice to simply assign articles to people, or add edits to article live while other users are editing, and even a check in/check out system would be quite useful. Create an open API that can interact with many existing text editors, then the world of collaboration will have just expanded greatly.

In the end, the world could benefit with these collaboration tools. Many tools already exist, and many bloggers could perhaps take advantage of these tools and integrate them into their workflow:

If you utilize any of these content management tools or have ideas for tools you would like to see, let us know in the comments section.

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