I created a niche blog in September last year. After posting a few pages of content, I waited for the site to be indexed by search engines.

Upon checking the blog days or weeks later, I found something unusual. Something I had never seen in my other blogs.

When I checked in Google (using site:domain.com), there was only one entry. Even that, the listing was a bit awkward and it didn’t look like a normal search result. When I used the same parameter on Yahoo, there were no results.

I thought I might give it some time to get back to normal.

Not until recently, after busy with my other projects, I decided to do something about this weird phenomenon. My initial plan was to move the entire blog to a new domain – thinking the existing domain caused the problem (Google blacklisted it?!).

In the midst of moving the site, I predicted the same problem would have had happened after the move.

Somehow something triggered me to take a look at the source code (Ctrl+U). And this action brought this problem to light. I managed to find out the main culprit for this. It was due to the following code:

<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">

I knew why this happened, now I had to find out what caused this. I thought it was something to do with my settings in my Wordpress theme. After searching for it high and low, my efforts remained fruitless.

Leaving me with no choice, I had to go through every setting in Wordpress to find out the cause, one at a time – starting with General Settings.

When I reached Privacy Settings, I knew something was wrong. It was set to the second choice which is I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors.

I thought to myself, “Damn, who and when the setting was done?”

I really don’t know who did that. It could be me but I totally forget about that. Just because of this one radio button, my blog was under the radar (as far as search engines were concerned) for 8 months. Imagine the amount of sales I could have made if not because of this careless setting.

I quickly changed the setting to the first: I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technorati) and archivers

Thank god. Now everything is back to normal.  All my previous SEO efforts were wasted. I have to start all over again.

Don’t make the same mistake as I did. And don’t simply change the settings in Wordpress for no reason. If you are not sure what you are doing, just accept the standard settings. Otherwise, you efforts will be penalized… just like what happened to me.

Note: This post is applicable only to Thesis 1.7, not 1.5.1. When I was using Thesis 1.5.1, there was no such feature.

If you are not using Thesis theme (I ask you to seriously consider using it) for your blog, I will let you know of a plugin which does exactly this in a minute.

But first let’s talk about how to create a 301 redirect in Thesis 1.7.

301 Redirect is the best way to redirect any web page to another link (it could be internal or external link) because it is SEO friendly and you won’t be penalized by search engines for doing this. I usually use this for cloaking my ugly, long, and non-memorable affiliate links.

Follow these steps to create a 301 redirect page for Thesis users:

• Login to Wordpress Dashboard.
• Create a new page: Pages > Add New (or Posts > Add New). I prefer creating new pages.
• Enter the title of the page. This will become the URL of this new page. Make sure this URL is what you want by checking the Permalink. To change/rename, click Edit and then Save.
• Goto field 301 Redirect for this Page’s URL (scroll down a bit), enter URL of the destination page – the page you want this new page to redirect to. In this case, it can be your affiliate link, for example.
  Click Publish.

Easy peasy!

Now you can test it by entering the URL of the new page in the browser, and if it works properly, it will send you to the destination page – the URL you just entered in 301 Redirect for this Page’s URL field.

I used to create PHP files just to cloak my links. Then I used FTP software to upload the files to my web server. As you can see, it is a very troublesome process. But with Thesis, you can do this in a flash. No FTP is required.

Video Tutorial

Watch this video if you are STILL not sure how to do it. Hope the tutorial video can help:

For Non-Thesis Users

Here is what I promised you at the beginning of this article.

If you are not using Thesis theme, you can still configure 301 Redirect in WP by using a plugin. Try this: 301 Redirect Plugin for Wordpress. I have not tried it myself. But judging from the positive feedback, I believe the plugin works as promised. Why not you give it a try?

I was using Thesis 1.5.1 and I didn’t bother to upgrade it until today – as it was running smoothly before this with no hiccups. Why should I rock the boat?

But somehow, for some reason, I think it is now time for me to use Thesis 1.7 before I am being left out in the dust

Before I talk about the upgrade, let me share with you some new features found in Thesis 1.7 first. Features that I like are:

• You can do SEO optimization for every page and post individually – using the meta tag.
• The new Home Page controls.
• Cleaner and faster code.

Now back to upgrade. I did a Google search and found one nicely done article on upgrading Thesis 1.6 to Thesis 1.7, as well as from Thesis 1.5.x to Thesis 1.7. The latter was what I was looking for.

I just followed the instructions mentioned in the article:

Repeating above information as a first and crucial step: Backup your site’s database and its web files, using whatever tools are provided by your web host, before the upgrade. It is not possible to just ‘click back’ to an earlier version of Thesis after the upgrade to 1.7 without the possibility of losing certain settings. This is why backups are vital. It’s your responsibility as a site owner to know how to create them, and how to restore them.

Using your DIY Themes login info, access the Thesis Theme Download Area page. Click the link that says ‘Download Thesis 1.7 now.’

The file thesis_17.zip should be on your local computer in the area where downloads normally go. Move thesis_17.zip to your desktop (unless it’s there already).

Unzip the thesis_17.zip file to produce a folder named thesis_17.

Open the thesis_17 folder that is on your local computer’s desktop to find inside the folder named custom-sample. Now delete the folder named custom-sample.

Start your FTP client and access your web installation. Navigate through your web installation’s file structure until you can see the thesis_16 folder (which is located inside wp-content/themes). Open the thesis_16 folder to find the custom folder inside.

Download that online custom folder (from your 1.6 installation) to your local computer, and place it into the thesis_1.7 folder (replacing the custom-sample folder that you deleted earlier).

Use your FTP client to upload your thesis_1.7 folder into wp-content/themes on your server. (You will put the folder alongside your existing thesis_16 folder, the default theme folder, and the classic theme folder.)

Follow the by-now familiar steps of opening the thesis_1.7 folder and then the custom folder, setting permissions for layout.css (to 666) and the cache folder (to 775). Log into WordPress and go to Appearances > Themes, then activate Thesis 1.7. (If you click ‘Preview’ first, you may see a Thesis site with no content. This is normal for Thesis in preview mode; pay it no mind and proceed to activate.)

As for upgrading from 1.5.x to 1.7:

So far as upgrading is concerned, the difference between 1.5.x and later editions of Thesis is that the later editions have layout.css and the rotator folder inside the custom folder. That’s it.

What this means for the upgrade process detailed above is that in Step 6, when you place your 1.5.x custom folder into the thesis_17 folder on your local computer, you must make sure to put your layout.css and the rotator folder inside of that custom folder. Apart from that extra half-a-step (call it Step 6.5, if you like), the upgrade process for 1.5.x –> 1.7 is the same as for 1.6 –> 1.7.

When I did a preview of 1.7 in Wordpress Dashboard, I noticed the design was not as exactly as the old design. But I activated 1.7 anyway. When I checked out the live site (with 1.7 as the theme), it looked just fine. Phew!

The whole upgrade process was done in less than 20 minutes (including copying and checking).

Cool.

More often than not, by default, Wordpress blogs always display the latest posts on the home page. If your blog is located at the root and let’s say your domain name is domain.com. You will see the latest posts at domain.com.

Sometimes, we don’t want this. We want to display a static page as the front page. In other words, the content at the root directory (hence domain.com in our example) is always showing the same thing. It won’t change even though we have just posted a new entry.

[One of the examples of such sites is my PLR Articles site. I don’t want the home page to display the latest offerings of my PLR article packs. But instead the home page acts more like a mini sales letter.]

How do we set a page as our home page in Wordpress? It is easy and it doesn’t need complicated coding.

Just follow the steps below:

1. Login to your Wordpress Dashboard
   
2. Goto Settings > Reading panel
3. At Front page displays, select A static page and select the page you want to have as Home page from the drop down menu
4. Set Blog pages show at most to 1
5. Click Save Changes

Voila. That is it!

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Instead of using free PLR content that everybody can have access to, you can go for a PLR membership. After paying a fee for such a service you are allowed to download PLR article packs periodically. The fee for the membership is either a one-time payment or a subscription that will guarantee access for a limited period of time. However, PLR articles represent only one aspect of the membership. On some Web sites you are also given graphic packs, templates, headers, icons and other elements that are useful when creating your website.

It is best to obtain a PLR membership on an exclusive Web site. This assures that the articles that you purchase are not used by thousands other people. And even so, you are highly recommended to alter the content. By modifying the PLR articles, even slightly, you make sure that there is a difference between your content and the one of the other subscribers.

Before Subscribing to a PLR Membership, Do This

You need to pay attention before subscribing to a PLR membership. In particular, you have to verify that the provided quality meets your requirements. This means that the PLR articles should be grammatically correct and attractive. The graphical banners and the other PLR content will also be used for attracting customers, so it needs to meet high standards, as well.

Another risk that you may have to take is that the PLR content might not be that fresh. In order to find this out, you need to spend more time doing some research.  It is very important to know whether the PLR content gets renewed and if so, how often. Before paying for the subscription, make sure that the PLR content is not recycled instead of renewed. This could cause your business to fall behind.

Are You Ready for Recurring Fees?

The major downside of a PLR membership site is exactly its admission criterion – the fee that needs to be paid periodically. In most of the cases, however, becoming a member on such a website is cost effective, as the PLR content that is provided will bring you more customers and hence, more profit. Besides that, you have to make sure that you take advantage of your membership for the entire period that you subscribed for.

Read the Fineprint

Unlike free PLR articles, the content that comes with a PLR membership may have some restrictions. For example, you may not be allowed to resell the articles, e-books, graphical design elements and other content that you receive as part of the membership. More than that, some PLR content distribution Web sites may also deny altering the articles. This is acceptable only if the articles are given away to a very small number of customers.

Once you make sure that the quality is good and that you do not have to pay a fortune for being a member, you are actually recommended to join a PLR Web site. Provided that fresh content is provided periodically, you will be able to renew your blogs and Web sites, fact that will surely be appreciated by your customers.

For high quality PLR articles without the hefty membership fees, visit ReliablePLR.com. You only pay for what you need.

On the last day of my recent trip to Thailand last week, we were looking for a place to have breakfast. It was not easy to find something light to fill the stomach as the only things they serve are very complete. Such as noodles, pasta, or rice.

Finally we settled at one of the cafes. While waiting for the food, I looked around the café. One poster struck me. And the title was 22 Suggestions for Success. The word “success” was too big to miss.

I thought to myself: “This is weird. What has a success poster got to do with a restaurant?”

I made a quick scan at the poster and the content struck a chord in me. I felt that what it said in the poster was so true. And I believe everybody must have it as a manual for happy and meaningful life.

(While you read to the end of it, you will find the answer to my question above.)

Though you may find it humorous, the poster carries an extremely important message and reminder to all of us.

It sums up pretty well what really matters in our lives during our stay here on this planet… of course, except the last point.

Take a look at the poster.

One of the best investments you can make is knowledge. By picking up some books you can change your life like never before. Therefore making reading as part of your habit is very important.

I’d like to share with you here some of the books that have played a role in shaping my thinking and ultimately have changed my life forever.

1. How to win friends and influence people. (or direct link) By Dale Carnegie. In fact, get your hand on as many books as possible by Dale, they are gems.
2. The 4-hour work week. (or direct link) By Timothy Ferriss.
3. Rich dad poor dad. (or direct link) By Robert Kiyosaki. The best from Robert. However I notice subsequent books by the same author have deteriorated in quality over the years.
4. The secret of selling anything. By Harry Browne. Despite the low price, it’s the best book I have ever read about selling.
5. The power of focus. (or direct link) By Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Les Hewitt.
6. Now, discover your strengths. (or direct link) By Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton.
7. A technique for producing ideas. (or direct link) By James Webb Young.
8. Secrets of power persuasion for salespeople. (or direct link) By Roger Dawson. Not only for salespeople but for everyone who needs to get something for something. Powerful techniques are found in this book.

The list by no means ends here. Feel free to explore other books while you read the titles above. Who knows you might discover other powerful books as well.

Happy reading!

When I asked around, there was a unanimous answer that Google Analytics is the best web tracking software. And what else do you ask for when the service is free.

But I beg to differ.

Though I have installed it on almost all of my sites, I still find Google Analytics lacks something I really want. (Maybe it’s there but I find it hard locating it) I also find out that GA’s interface was not friendly enough and it has too many levels of drill downs – if I want to get more details on something.

That prompted me to embark on the journey to search for another web tracking software that can provide what I need… be it free or paid.

What is web tracking software?

Generally, web tracking software can achieve many things. It keeps track of traffic (how much and from where it come from) and visitors (their demographics). Some require you to install on your server, while others host the software for you.

The most critical feature for marketers

As a marketer the most useful feature a tracking software can provide is the conversion tracking and its corresponding source of traffic features. In other words, I want to find out what traffic converts best and where it comes from. With such stats, I can find out which source of traffic is most profitable.

(Of course, other information is useful as well such as keyword phrases visitors used to find your site, referral URLs, and so on.)

I have been searching for tracking software that gives me this feature but after investigating some of the more popular ones, I was disappointed to find out that most of them do not offer what I want.

The good thing about most tracking software is you can check out their live demo version before subscribing to it. Better still, you can try it out as many offer a trial period of two weeks to a month.

Here’s what I found

One day, while reading my emails in Gmail, one ad stood out. It was about a web tracking service called Web-Stat. To be frank, I hardly click on ads in Gmail but this ad got my attention and I decided to find out more.

After playing around with the live demo, the software looked like what I was looking for. I gave it a try by installing it on my site as I wanted to further confirm the features it could offer. Sure enough, Web-Stat has the feature I was looking for: conversion rate and its corresponding traffic source. This is what I am looking for besides other features like live stats.

Web-Stat has since got me as a new client. When the trial period expired, I gladly signed up for the service. I took up Web-Stat Premium which costs me $9.50 a month.

Another handsome feature that is included in the package is its watchdog feature. It will monitor your site if it is up and will send an email alert to you when your site is down. This enables you to know how reliable your webhost is.

A limitation that you must be aware of before using Web-Stat is – though you can do so – it’s not advisable to use it on more than a site as it can mix up your stats of different sites. But this is not a big problem as the fees are affordable enough for you to install one for each site.

To start tracking, it’s very easy. All you need to do is to install a piece of code (tailored to your account) on all the web pages you want to track. And the software will do the rest for you. To check stats, you just need to log in to its member page and all the information and stats are at your finger tips.

I like its no-frill interface. Web-Stat’s report layout is simple and easy to navigate. You can get the info with one or two mouse clicks. Personally, I find this more user-friendly than Google Analytics.

My final words…

I have been using Web-Stat for a few months now and do I recommend it? My answer is yes. In fact, I am very satisfied with the software and I have no regrets using it. The customer service is excellent too.

I don’t encourage you to sign up for the paid version without trying as you might not know if this is the one you need. To get a better understating of what Web-Stat can offer, there is no better way to do this than visiting the live demo. Or if you wish, you can take advantage of the 30-day trial.

For live demo, trial, or more info about Web Stat, goto:

http://www.abelcheng.com/webstat (my affiliate link)

OR

http://www.web-stat.com (the “naked” link)

Just yesterday, I noticed one of the members in a popular Webmaster forum, Digital Point, selling one PLR pack which looked exactly like the one I am selling here: Forex PLR Product Review Articles.

The title of the thread caught my attention as it was exactly the same to mine. Upon further investigation, the individual articles in the pack again bearing very close titles. What was even more amusing was the number of words for each article was a few words different!

What a coincidence!

I thought he was one of my affiliates. But the payment page told me otherwise. The payment goes directly to his Paypal account.

As I stated clearly in my Terms of Use that no one can sell any pack they bought from ReliablePLR.com as it is. In short, they can’t sell the PLR articles with the same private label rights to third party – regardless of whether they have or have not rewritten the articles. ReliablePLR.com is the ONLY place where I offer all my PLR articles. If you get it from anywhere else, you have been cheated and you are having a pirated copy.

(Note: Having said that, if you got any pack from somewhere else, you can report to me stating where you got the pack from and I will reward you with another PLR pack of your choice for free.)

What I did to handle this tricky situation

Sensing something was amiss, my first reaction was to post to the thread to warn the member of the infringement of Terms of Use of his purchase. And I further warned prospective buyers to be more alert and they might end up buying a pirated copy of the product.

To take it one step further, I notified the Admin of DP of this “scammy” thread and I hoped that they would take action to maintain the integrity of the Forum.

And when I did that, I didn’t know how effective it would be and what kind of action they would take. I just did what I needed to do.

A few hours later, the member replied in the thread:

“These are rewritted articles. Thanks for your concern.”

These were the exact wordings from him.

I retaliated by saying that the package looked very much the exact copy to mine. Even had he rewritten the articles, and as stated in my Terms of Use, he had no rights whatsoever to resell the articles. I further strongly urged him not to sell this package until the case is cleared and I challenged him, in order to prove his innocence, he should send me his articles for verification.

Surprisingly, he replied and sent a two-paragraph of one article to my Private Message inbox. Do you think I am convinced? Of course not! Two paragraphs out of 10 articles don’t mean a thing!

The cost of an unscrupulous act

While I was trying to cool off and think of ways on how to handle this situation, I checked back again the thread and the PM sent by the member.

But to my surprise, I was greeted with an error message:

Invalid Thread specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator

I further looked for the member’s member page and again I was greeted with the same message. Only then it dawned on me that the Admin could have deleted the username and all his posts from DP.

Fortunately for me as some form of action is taken by DP to maintain the integrity of the forum as it doesn’t take long for one to notice that there are many hanky-panky activities going on there. Things look different after DP has implemented its new forum rules recently and I am happy for them.

Now why am I telling you this unhappy incident?

The objectives are two folds.

The first one is to tell you that taking a shortcut is not a smart thing to do. You might let off the hook for some time but eventually you will be caught and the price is too much to pay when you are caught. Also, the reputation you have been building so far goes down the drain in split seconds. This is what exactly happened to this member. Ironically he has actually accumulated more reputation points than I have on DP (don’t ask me how he did that!).

When you build your business without integrity, you are always on the run… trying to avoid being caught and change your name to hide your real identity. After a while, you get tired of doing all this running and hiding… which is to me a total waste of time and a silly thing to do.

Here’s what you can do if this happens to you

Secondly, if you are a product owner, there are certain things you can do to stop piracy.

Monitoring what people do and say is one of them. Now you may ask this: How on earth do I come to find out this “scammy” forum thread out of millions of new web pages created everyday?

There’s one little free tool that I use to track what’s going on on the web and it sends me email alerts whenever someone mentions certain words. Google Alerts is what I am talking about. It’s a simple but powerful tool. A real time saver I must say. I received a Google Alert for this post with keywords “Forex PLR.” You may want to try Google Alerts out if you have not done so.

Then, informing the person of authority (in this case Forum Admin) is the next step to keep piracy at bay.

I am not sure why someone would do this. Maybe I should take it as a compliment as that also shows that my PLR pack is excellent and above par… if I want to look at it from that angle.

I understand that we can’t prevent this 100% but some effort must be carried out to stop this nonsense from spreading as I feel that it’s our responsibility to safeguard our intellectual property and business assets.