Working at Home on the Internet » Linking

Broken Link Checker Plugin for WordPress

Joe Hauckes — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:34:26 +0000

A MUST HAVE if you run a Blog Carnival (or just link a lot)

As most of you already know, I run the Working at Home Blog Carnival every week. Actually, it’s coming up on the 100th Edition in two weeks.

Now, even with weeding out all the Spam submissions and unrelated articles, I still end up with somewhere between 20-30 participants each and every week. Each of those blogs (sometimes websites) have at least two links associated with their submission.

20-30 x 2 x 100 = 4,000-6,000 links.

That’s A LOT of LINKS

That doesn’t even include the Weekly Helpful Reads, Blog Tipping posts or reference links I put within individual posts. At last count, I was well over 12,000 links over three years of Blogging. Not all of which continue to be viable due to a multitude of reasons, ie. the blog was moved, they changed their URL configuration, they just deleted the post or just closed shop. Any number of reasons can cause a link to go bad.

The point is, if you run a Blog Carnival or just link out a lot to your friends and associates, you will eventually end up with some (or a lot) of broken links. If you are just starting out, you can do as I did in the beginning, just check them one at a time. That’s all well and good until you start to run into the hundreds and then thousands of links. You don’t want your readers clicking a bad link because you recommended a site and they get an error on that page because it is no longer there. That is not a good thing.

For the past year or so, I have been depending on Xenu, a link checker that is quite good. As a matter of fact, it is one of the main reasons I have been able to keep up with the myriad of bad links that have plagued me since starting the Blog Carnival. Even though it is downloadable to a desktop and easy to use, it becomes quite cumbersome when you start hitting the number of links with which I have had to deal.

I have been able to keep the broken link problem to a minimum using that program, but I still have to remember to run it, have a different Tab open while being logged into my Blog and accessing each link individually, unlinking them manually and saving the original post. Lots of steps for something that should be nice and simple.

Luckily for me, I found the Broken Link Checker Plugin written by Janis Elsts. (I wish I remembered where I first saw a reference to this plugin, I would have put a link to them without a doubt.)

It is an easy to install WordPress Plugin, standard installation, simple to use. It will probably take a little time to run the first time if you have never checked for bad links before, but after you have a handle on the broken link problem, this plugin will be there for you whenever a link goes bad.

My Recommendation ***** Stars

When the Reality of Linking Too Much Hits Home

Joe Hauckes — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:28:07 +0000

I was going over my statistics over the weekend and noticed I started losing RSS and e-mail Subscribers recently. I have Text Link Ads in my sidebar, they allow eight (8) ad links and I had maxed out until recently. Now I’m down to Five. I had Hundreds of visits and pageviews per day, now they’re in the 2 digit realm. Everything was going really well on the Blogging Front for over two years, increasing all along the way, then…

PLOP!

I couldn’t figure it out. I was getting busier in my consulting business as a result of what I was doing here. Writing, saying and sharing my experiences while Working at Home on the Internet. Anything that could be useful to others trying to run a Home Business was on the agenda. So, why were things starting to take a such a drastic down turn?

I was going through some of the links that I was getting and checked out all the Blogs that were linking here and came across something by J.T.Dabbagian with a list of 5 Websites for Being Productive and I quote:

Working at Home on the Internet – Another Web-Worker based website that seems to act more like a hub for productivity on the net. Its main feature is its Blog Carnivals, which are links to even more cool stuff. It seems, however, to be more of a linking blog then an site with real original content, but you should check out The Blog vs Website writing project to get something if you win. (Emphasis mine)

Now, I Really do appreciate the link and the Plug for the Blog vs Website contest, but it still hit me like a ton of bricks. Did you notice the “however” part?

With almost 1100 posts, 95% of which are original content and the remaining 5% being Carnivals and Weekly Helpful Reads, I could almost feel forgotten or worse, unread. Providing Work at Homers with helpful information has always been my objective, but it seems I haven’t been doing my job of late. At least not giving my readers enough original content of my own and giving them different and new ideas to try to enhance their Work at Home Business through experiences I have faced.

So, what does this tell us (me)?

The old adage of “Content is King” is just as valid, if not more, than ever.
Link Blogs don’t get (nor do they deserve) the respect that they crave.
Blogs that don’t provide Real Value to their readers with originality and good content won’t last.

Being busy with the Consulting part of the business is no excuse. There are plenty of other people out there who are far busier than I and still find time to write for their readers, because it’s important to them and their community.

I am going to strive to be more on the ball and provide all of you with interesting and informative information. I will still use links, but I hope to provide you with more of my own successful and even failing endeavours so that we can learn together what it takes be a Successful Work at Homer.

Joe

Your thoughts?

I Was Forced To Write a Comment Policy

Joe Hauckes — Sat, 05 May 2007 14:56:27 +0000

Â Did you notice the little icon in the sidebar?

It’s been there for about 2 weeks. I thought I would quietly reward all of the people who contribute to the Blog by Commenting. And I intend to keep it there for as long as I own this site.

I never really got the reason behind “no follow” other than as a tool for the SE’s in the Fight Against Spam. Since I have Akismet, that is not really a problem any longer for me, so allowing links to get credit as a link back to the commenter is not a problem either.

However, there are always Some who try to take advantage of the kind-hearted nature of Bloggers and people that have a community built up over time by trying to get link backs for things that are Totally Unrelated to the Content of Posts or the Intent of the Blog Itself by posting Totally Irrelevant Comments just for the Sake of a Link. (sorry for the run-on sentence).

Therefore, I Have Been Forced to Write a Comment Policy. I never wanted nor did I find the need for one before, but I feel it has become a necessity. So, I will have a link to the page in the sidebar for those who have questions if I Deleted Their Comment(s).

Sorry for the inconvenience to any and all of the regulars who visit. Please don’t be discouraged from commenting. We are still a strong community and the “Do Follow” will Stay as Long as I Own This Blog.

[tags]do-follow,comments,spam,splogs,Comment Policy[/tags]

It’s That Time of Year Again

Joe Hauckes — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 10:44:46 +0000

It’sÂ Time for a Good Spring Cleaning

Every Spring people get a sense of renewal and want to start as fresh as a Bright New Spring Day. I am just like everyone else when it comes to wanting to clean things up and try to brighten up my Blog a bit.

But this time, I want to do more. Not only do I want to change the look of the Blog, but finally set things right. It has always bothered me that I had that stupid “WP” after the Domain. Almost as if it were an afterthought.

Ever since I bought the Domain “workingathomeinternet.com” I have been contemplating putting the Blog as the Main Site. I just didn’t want to cause too much confusion. Not only with readers finding the Blog and incoming links being broken, but with Search Engines finding my Blog as well. And what about Advertisers through TLA and the like? These have been the Main Reasons I have never really gone any further than thinking about fixing it.

It will be a lot of work to do all the changes that I have in mind, but I need to know if itÂ could/would be worth it inÂ the end. (Did I mention that there is a Webpage on the .com addy that would be moved to .com/web?) This isn’t as much about redesigning as much as knowing if it is the right thing to do.Â

I know I can put redirects on the Blog and Website, but what does that do to SEO? Will it be more or less difficult for people searching for Work at Home information to find me? Is it worth all the effort?

If you would be so kind, I have a Yes or No Poll to get your opinion about moving the Blog. (Of course, there is a non-committal for those who don’t have an opinion.) You can either vote below in this post or in the sidebar, but you can only vote once.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Thanks for your help. The poll will be open until next Saturday (4/14). And if you don’t like polls, you can always voice your opinion in comments. You know I always answer comments.

[tags]spring cleaning,blogging,changing domain names,polls,opinions[/tags]

The (Brief) Blogger’s Guide to Getting Links

Joe Hauckes — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:30:47 +0000

Guest Writer: Lara Kulpa from Anubis Marketing

So if you’re a good little RSS follower, you might notice that there are tons of people who talk all the time about linking. Linking out, getting links, sharing links, spreading links… it can get overwhelming and sound like it’s a ton of work, when in reality, all you need to do is remember a few things all the time. You know your alphabet offhand, don’t you? Human beings are creatures of habit, and when we do things over and over again, the same way, it becomes second nature where we don’t have to think any more.

Basically, regardless of the way you try to get links, it’s really simple to keep the following in mind:

Don’t be annoying. In other words, if you decide to send a comment or an email to another blogger tipping them off to your latest post, don’t fill the email with things like, “Please link to this? I’m really trying hard 2 get noticed and ur blog is SOOOO kewl and u have TONz of readers and u shud share this wit dem so that I can get TONNNNzez of readers 2. C’mon, U no u want 2 linkorz 2 mii! Itz relly good stuff I wrote, and evry1 will think ur cool for linkng to meee! PUHLEEEEZ!?!?!!!!!1?!!?” Okay, so that was a little extreme, but you get my drift. Yes, I’ve received link requests like this in the past, and they not only get the “big red X” but they likely get made fun of on my site.
This also means that you can’t beg for links right on your site, unless you do it creatively, and only occassionally. Seems a trend of late is to offer a chance at some sort of “cool” gadget in return for writing a review or otherwise linking to a page or site. Again, it’s creative and unobtrusive.
Write link-worthy content. Yep, this one still eludes many bloggers. No one’s really going to care enough about the photo you took of your cat eating your tuna sandwich to link to you. But let’s just say you happen upon a certain fast food chain and after taking a bite of your grilled chicken sandwich, you find it to be raw inside. Well then my dear, you’re practically guaranteed a few dozen links (or more) for this one! Provided of course that you take pictures of said raw chicken sandwich – WITH the bite removed and spit out upon your napkin – along with a detailed story of how it grossed you out.
Submit yourself to directories, or find a marketing firm to handle it for you. I have a couple posts on this sort of thing, but the bottom line is pay for what you can afford and get what you don’t have to pay for – but ONLY if it’s relevant and related to your niche. There’s a few things you need to check for, like whether or not the link is a direct link or a cgi redirect (scripted cloaking of your link – gives you NO link juice at all), and making sure that there’s no “nofollow” tag.
Explore other bloggers’ sites, and COMMENT! – I know for a fact that I have a minimum of 30 people subscribed to one of my sites via feedburner at this very moment. I also have many other RSS subscribers using some other method, and a handful of email subscribers to the same site. All said, there’s likely over 150 people getting my content every day for that one particular site, yet I get probably 2-3 comments a week, if that. I have sites that get less, and many that get more, but the bottom line is that there are a few niches out there where I KNOW I’m not the only one blogging on it (if I were, I’d be rich!) yet people aren’t sharing their sites with me. I’d love to see others who are interested in the same things I am! And I’d likely link to them too, if only I knew where they were.
Offer your readers someTHING to link to. Be it a report you wrote, a cutting edge article, photos of an event, a referral link, free tools, anything! Just give them a reason – they’ll take you up on it.

So there you have it – a few things you need to think about when trying to get more links to your site. They’re everyday things – nothing major, but all little things that could add up to a mess of relevant incoming links to your site. The more links you get, the more the search engines take notice. The more that happens, the more readers you get. And it circles around over and over again until you become one heckuva popular blogger!

~ Lara Kulpa

(Joe should be returning to his regular posting schedule tomorrow. I know that all your warm wishes and prayers were awe-inspiring to him, and I’m positive that sometimes when you don’t know how much you need it, the best support can and does come from “strangers”.)