Blogging

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Make money like the top bloggers – in one easy download

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10

The Brief Intro’

Too many great blogs to read everyday? Struggling to keep up with the John Chow’s, the John Cow’s, the Ades, etc. of the world?

In one easy download, you can now just download one simple zip file, unzip it and import it into an OPML compatible reader. Why waste any more time, just find the …

Top 20 Money Making Blogs Download

More Details

About ten posts or so ago, I released a download (my first). It was simple in concept: just create an OPML file of my favorite blogs, zip it and upload it to my website.

Well, the file is still there, and I’m thinking of updating the feed to include 8 more blogs. Have you any favorite blogs for money making that you can recommend?

What is OPML?

It is a file that contains the data for 12 top money making feeds. Download the file, then open it your favorite OPML supported reader: online and offline. Google Reader, RSS Bandit, Bloglines, and more all work well. This is an image of the file.

image of opml file

Now in a recent comment, Mark @ TheLocoMono asked me a simple question: “Pardon me if I sound dumb but what is OPML? Do you have this on the blog right now? The only feed I can see is the Making REAL Money but I am not sure if it is the same thing you are talking about.”

OK. Mark, thanks for the question. OPML is a file format that allows data to be read between different applications, esp. as a way to exchange details about feeds between feed reading programs and sites. Read Wikipedia for more information.

Import that file, boy!

So, the feed is a file that you can use. But it’s not active in MY blog, because you need to import it into a feed reader. Open your Google Reader or Bloglines Reader, download the file to your desktop, then import it to your preferred application/online reader. It’s a widely supported format.

Once imported, it will look something like this view of the actual feeds:

top feed subscriptions

And the posts are now visible in your individual feed window (wherever that is).

feed details

Who’s in?

There are currently 19 blogs in the OPML file. I’m looking for a good 20th entry but haven’t found one.

  • AdesBlog
  • Blogging with Cents
  • JohnChow dot com
  • John Cow
  • EMonitized
  • Dosh Dosh
  • Andy Beard
  • Blueprint for Financial Prosperity
  • Caroline Middlebrook
  • Consumerist Commentary
  • Genius Types
  • Grace Cheng
  • Carlo Cab’s Blog
  • NetBusiness Blog
  • ProBlogger
  • ShoeMoney
  • SuperAffiliate
  • Tyler Cruz
  • InvestorBlogger dot com (of course!)
  • Timothy Sykes*

One EASY download

So now you can keep up with your favorite money making blogs (and mine!) in one easy download. It’s virus-free, but you will need to unzip the file first. But you can do this easily in Windows XP, Mac and Linux.

And thanks, Mark @ TheLocoMono, for that question. Do comment any further questions here!

2nd Update

I’ve added a couple of new entries to the list, and updated AdesBlog feed which stopped working probably when Ade switched his blog hosting company.

3rd Update

I’ve added all 20 feeds now! *marks the last added.

Best Wishes
Kenneth

Four solid reasons to start a blog: audience, content, skill and a feel for business

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A couple of months ago I got together with Steve Sutherland, one of my friends in Taipei, who was wondering if he should start a blog or not. If you remember from earlier posts, he runs the Education Agents website, AgentsChat dot com. He was thinking about installing the WordPress software on a separate domain, and starting a blog about the World of Education Services. So should he run a blog? That got me to thinking: should he?

I can outline four reasons (and two caveats) why I think he should consider starting blogging:

1. He has an audience: His community already has 1500 members and it is growing constantly. In the forum, there are ample opportunities for writing post like articles, and in fact, Steve has already done some writing in the forums. It’s quite clear that while forums are good for chatting, longer articles are often the backbone of a good community as they allow writers the space to expand their ideas, develop their content, and write top quality articles. With an audience already present, he’s got an easy start, and by integrating SMF with WordPress, he’d be able to take advantage of the strengths of both applications.

2. He has something to say: As you’ve seen, Steve is already well capable of writing good pieces that his audience would enjoy reading. I’ve spoken to Steve on many occasions, and I think he has a lot of incredible ideas about his industry that would easily find an very specific niche. In fact, I have a strong sense that with his insight into his industry, his blog would quickly establish itself as a top blog because of its first-mover chance. I amn’t aware of any blogs that would be competing for his space.

3. He has the technical skill to manage a blog: Learning WordPress can be a little daunting at times for new users, but in general the principles of managing a blog are similar to, and easier than, managing an online forum. By fine tuning the operation of the blog, you can be left with the primary task of just focusing on writing. He’s also familiar with many of the Internet resources that he would need to develop a blog properly.

4. He has the business skill to run it well: Many bloggers (myself included) started blogging without much concern for the business side of it. For the most successful ones, monetization almost came as an afterthought to the blog itself. This isn’t necessarily the best way to build a business. Steve’s got a rich experience, and knowledge of, running businesses, advertising, marketing, etc., all of which would serve him well to get started. Combined with an established audience, advertisers, and networks, he’d likely have a solid foundation for the blog to be successful in the long term.

So I believe that these four “Winds of Blogging” are all blowing now and it could be the perfect opportunity for him to start. But I also know he has reservations about blogging, especially on the commitment side; and the confidence side.

So, let’s deal with the confidence issue first. Most people, when confronted with the idea of ‘having’ to write, react in a similar way – with HORROR! And, rightly so.

Your words, ideas and organization are all going to be read by dozens, possibly hundreds of readers, are you good enough? Is your writing good enough? Do you really have something to say? To which I have only one thing to say: blogging is pretty much an adventure… as such, you’re allowed the space to develop as a writer (hey, look at my posts a year ago, and you’ll see what I mean!).

Too often to new writers, the goal is to write the perfect piece of writing with the best organization and best content. Well, it isn’t going to happen any time soon. So quit worrying! Once you quite worrying about your writing, you’ll really begin to enjoy the process, the adventure of blogging.

To progress as a writer, and as a blogger, you DO have to make a commitment: with yourself, with your blog, and with your audience. What the nature of that commitment is can be totally up to you! If you want to post daily, then you can. If you want to post weekly, or even monthly, then you can. Obviously, you’ll experience different results whichever method you choose. But there’s no obligation to post on a daily basis. But like most skills, the more you practice, the better you will become.

So, in short, to people who are considering blogging, and can’t decide. Perhaps this post will help to clarify what it is that is holding you back. For me, though, it was a nexus of different things that helped to get me posting regularly: I already had a blog and a hankering to write something, I also had a strong motivation in my content area, then I discovered BlogDesk, and later Payperpost. Somehow all of this coalesced last year, when my daily posting schedule came about.

What helped you to get started blogging? When did it happen? Share with us in our comments section below.

Security in WordPress: Are you still showing YOUR plugins?

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Michael Kwan’s blog was recently hacked by a clever hacker who managed to hide his visit neatly. Michael will tell you all about the story at his blog. This event plus a couple of other events has got me thinking about blog security . I’ll be doing a fuller post on my own experiences, ideas and suggestions.

It’s going to be a long post, so it will take some time to put all the pieces together. In the meantime, why don’t you sign up for my feed… so you don’t miss it!

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For more interesting articles on running a business, making money, operating your blog, , and so on…, subscribe to the RSS feed or email newsletter. There’s a lot more in the Random Walk to Wealth on InvestorBlogger dot com.
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Apart from the obvious tactics of keeping your blog software, themes, and plugins uptodate, several bloggers have suggested ways to make it more difficult to find out which version of the blog platform, and which plugins, you are actually running.

The typical solution is to add a blank html file to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory which will show a blank page, or in John Cow’s case a Moo! But I was surprised to learn that this technique fails to stop an easy way around this. It is possible to discover quite easily any plugin that you can guess is installed and retrieve the directory listing for that plugin even though the higher level directory is masked. Take a gander:

johchow

(This image was taken from one of my other blogs with the WP-Cache plugin installed and active.)

I found the directory for the wp-cache folder for another blogger who had otherwised masked his plugins directory with the standard blank HTML file. Unfortunately, a determined hacker will be able to figure out which plugins you likely have, rifle your directory of files to see which files exist in the subdirectory of plugins, and perhaps hack your blog… I could see the contents of this wp-cache directory, plus all the other ones I knew this blogger to have been using. Mmm! I didn’t think that was particularly secure.

What alternatives are there?

Standard .htaccess

Yes, you could simply use an ‘htaccess’ file to secure the plugins from display but you would have to manually write and upload the file to each and every plugin directory that you already have. This could be done more than ten times on my blog, I think. It would look something like this:

Redirect 301 /index.html http://www.your-domain.com/
Redirect 301 /index.htm http://www.your-domain.com/
Redirect 301 /index.php http://www.your-domain.com/

But I realized that with the most commonly suggested solution to prevent viewing plugins, namely a 301 redirect, it is still possible to view the contents of any directory of any plugin below the directory in which the htaccess file is placed. So even if you place the htaccess in the directory of any particular plugin, some plugins also contain subdirectories (for images, etc.) that will still be visible. Tiring work…, so…

IndexIgnore

If you have a lot of directories in the plugins folder, the simple and easy solution is to create an htaccess file with the following command: “IndexIgnore *” and place it in the /wp-content/plugins folder. This should prevent anyone seeing the listing in that folder or any folders below that level. It generates an error like this:

investorblogger

It’s not very pretty but it’s effective so browsers won’t display the contents. It could also be an opportunity wasted. Why?

HTML file

The standard blank HTML file mentioned above looks something like this:

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Blank Page</TITLE>
<META HTTP-EQUIV=”Content-Type” CONTENT=”text/html; charset=utf-8″>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
</BODY>
</HTML>

Then Michael Kwan suggested adapting it to a page redirect in a chat we were having. He wrote: “…i’m thinking that it’s also possible to do a index.php and then put in a redirect… if you keep this file handy then you can upload it each time you install a new plug-in…” I began to think: What a good way to turn a problem into an advantage! I’m using an HTML file, though, not a PHP file.

The blank HTML file doesn’t show anything, and inadvertent visitors will not know what’s wrong. And the 404’s only show that a page was not found. So why waste the opportunity? I’ve adapted some simple code that I use, and it should work a treat. I would like to attribute this code, but I can’t remember where it came from!

Page Redirect

With this page redirect, it’s easy to redirect visitors quickly and conveniently to the most recent posting or indeed any specific page you want:

<html>
<head>
<title>Your Domain</title>
<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,nofollow”>
<script>window.location=http://www.yourdomain.com;</script>
<meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”1; url=http://www.yourdomain.com“>
</head>
<body>
<p align=”center”>You are going to Your Domain Name now…
<br>If the page does load after 5 seconds or if you are (like me) impatient,
<a href=”http://www.yourdomain.com“>just click here</a>.</p>
</body>
</html>

The only downside is that you’d have to add this to every plugin directory the first time. But you could easily keep a copy somewhere and copy it to any subsequent plugin directory before you upload the plugin.

Thanks to Michael Kwan, and others for providing information that helped to write this blog. I’d appreciate any updates on security, so just drop me a line, especially if I got something wrong.

(Post edited for language, clarifications, and so on.)