Several networks have recently dropped incentivized CPA offers while others are beefing up theirs. Is this the beginning of the end?
The very nature of incentives invites fraud. While you can definitely pair a very relevant freebie with a sale item to push someone over the edge and into the buy, you can also offer freebies [...]

Several networks have recently dropped incentivized CPA offers while others are beefing up theirs. Is this the beginning of the end?

The very nature of incentives invites fraud. While you can definitely pair a very relevant freebie with a sale item to push someone over the edge and into the buy, you can also offer freebies that have little to do with the actions people have to take to get them. And they’ll take them anyway, and what good is that to anyone but the affiliate?

Maybe some niches see less fraud than others, and that’s why some companies are getting out while others are jumping further in. Or maybe some have better fraud control? It’ll be interesting to watch where this goes.

I’ve been saying a lot lately that there’s more to a link than its pagerank, and it’s a bad strategy to buy links in the hopes they will pass on PR. SEOmoz explains it much better than I possibly could, though. The post itself is highly detailed and useful:
This comment, too:
the original PR formula has [...]

I’ve been saying a lot lately that there’s more to a link than its pagerank, and it’s a bad strategy to buy links in the hopes they will pass on PR. SEOmoz explains it much better than I possibly could, though. The post itself is highly detailed and useful:

This comment, too:

the original PR formula has so little to do with rankings nowadays that I’m inclined to largely overlook it. Besides that, the very, very slow rate of PR updates, the intentional inaccuracy in the toolbar and the high benefits of anchor text and links from trusted sources make me question the value.

These things are happening because Google is trying to protect pagerank as their own metric. I still won’t be shocked if, at some point, they simply stop making it public. When and if that happens, do you know how to tell where you need to get links?

And will it matter if you got them free or paid? Let’s face it: some of us can’t launch sites without some form of advertising. The world is blind to AdSense. We’ll be blind to contextual ads shortly, too. Banner ads can work on some sites, but not always. Paid links - done smartly - will always be a viable part of online advertising.

I found a plugin today that very easily lets you create a horizontal drop down menu in the header of your WordPress template, with links to all your archives, categories, blogrolls and meta. It works very well just out of the box, but it’s pretty customizable, too. If you want to get that stuff out [...]

I found a plugin today that very easily lets you create a horizontal drop down menu in the header of your WordPress template, with links to all your archives, categories, blogrolls and meta. It works very well just out of the box, but it’s pretty customizable, too. If you want to get that stuff out of your sidebar and have it look good, too, it’s a great option.

It would be nice if you could customize the titles - the only options I found were either “Blogroll” or having the first item in the list be the title. UPDATE: my mistake. You can customize the titles:

Yup, you can customize the titles.
In the menu options, under each individual menu is a text field called “Title”. Change the value and presto! new title LOL

You do know that what you earn online is taxable, right?
It’s different in different countries - here’s a good summation of US tax laws - but people who work for themselves can get into very complicated tax situations. The comments on that linked post also contain some interesting insights - and a couple of very [...]

You do know that what you earn online is taxable, right?

It’s different in different countries - here’s a good summation of US tax laws - but people who work for themselves can get into very complicated tax situations. The comments on that linked post also contain some interesting insights - and a couple of very good questions.

In addition to all that, I’ve heard that I may need to pay estimated taxes on a quarterly basis. I’m still looking into that.

Here’s a neat little tool: Website Grader. It actually assesses my sites pretty much like I would, and gives you a lot of hard data while you’re at it.
If like me you forget to put meta tags into new themes and do other various silly things like this, Website Grader will point that right out [...]

Here’s a neat little tool: Website Grader. It actually assesses my sites pretty much like I would, and gives you a lot of hard data while you’re at it.

If like me you forget to put meta tags into new themes and do other various silly things like this, Website Grader will point that right out to you. It’s a very nice tool, particularly for the semi-conscious webmaster.

Young Go Getter has a great step by step tutorial for solving this problem:

You’ve got a new plugin you’d like try. Or maybe you’d like to play with your header image. Or maybe you want to see how that colour would look. That doesn’t sound too hard. But there’s one problem. Any changes you apply [...]

Young Go Getter has a great step by step tutorial for solving this problem:

You’ve got a new plugin you’d like try. Or maybe you’d like to play with your header image. Or maybe you want to see how that colour would look. That doesn’t sound too hard. But there’s one problem. Any changes you apply to your blog will be seen by your readers.

The Preview Theme plugin lets you be the only one to see the changes. Get the full instructions over at YGG.