One of the joys of blogging is taking part in worthy causes and making others more aware of RSS is definitely worth a post. Not a day goes by that I do not explain what RSS is to someone. I was amazed at how few people knew about RSS, until I read that only 5.4% of internet surfers use RSS feeds over at rssday.org

Spread the Word

I want to ping 4 of the bloggers I have interacted with contribue to the RSS Awareness Cause.

So what do you say:

David over at pureblogging.com – who is busy launching a new techy blog
Jay over at onlineopportunity.org – who is sharing the Limitations Of Keyword Research
MsDanielle over at msdanielle.com – who just turned 31 – Happy Birthday
And Enkay over at Enkay Blog – who is in Recovery Mode – Hope it is going well

I know you 4 could spread the word to several folks who like us all discovering new ways to let the web help them.

Featured Site: Online Opportunity When you want to know about making money online

Trying to get my blog back into shape to handle comment and thus comment spam, I am was thrilled to read Michael Martine of Remarkablogger post Create a Comment Blacklist in WordPress – Download My List of Spam Words over at pureblogging.com. In his post, Michael shares his SPAM keywords for you and I to use in our comment blacklist and comment moderation inside WordPress 2.5.

Defensio – Kind of sounds like me trying to speak a foreign language

Michael also bring to light an alternative Comment SPAM defense plugin to the Wordpress included Askimet. Defensio boast that it defends against 99.77% SPAM. More importantly other bloggers,both 1pixel [power by wordpress] and ActiveReload not powered by wordpress, are posting that Defensio is also not as likely to give you that false negative(i.e. trap a non-spam comment).

Full on Defensio Review

Holly over at Woman Tribune wrote a very in depth review of Defensio. If your curiostiy of this new SPAM smacker has been piqued, then I suggest you read her post. But before you do that, go grab that keyword list and add another layer of protection to your blog without consuming many resources from your server.

For those of you just discovering Some Make Money, Welcome. You probably do not know, and judging by the number of entries you don’t, that I am hosting a humble 50 Dollars for 50 Linkbacks contest. This contest is open to anyone and everyone and will be a random drawing at the end of the contest. All you have to is head over to my Google Page Rank Contest post and follow the rules, which basically entail writing an intro paragraph and then some ctrl-C to the ctrl-V action[that is cutting and pasting to you normal people].

Huge Opportunity to Win
And win in more ways than 1. SpareMoolah had a Technorati Authority of 0 when they entered the contest back on July 31st. Now their Technorati Authority is up to 18 in which this contest has contributed 11 of those Authority points. What is Technorati Authority you ask?

Technorati Authority is the number of blogs linking to a website in the last six months. The higher the number, the more Technorati Authority the blog has.

Source: Technorati FAQ

So you see not only do you have a chance at $50 dollars you also will garner some linklove. This is because with each new entry I add that entrant to the list of links a new entrant must copy. Linklove is what helps boost that Google Page Rank.

Current Contest Entries
If you read my John Chow dot com posts dissected – Part 1:Length of Post you know I am a fan of charts and graphs. Here is a simplistic chart of the number of entries per day.Unfortunately there are way to many days with goose eggs. Currently there are on 14 of the 50 require entrants. I am giving 2 entries into the contest to bloggers with a 50 or better authority. With 14 entries and only 4 meeting the 50 or better Technorati Authority rating that projects to a 1/78 chance of winning the 50 dollars. Come on, enter today!

As you start reading this, you might wonder where I am going with it, just go with it – I am in a rambling mood.

I was doing my usual RSS feed-me session when I was introduced to Google Local Business Referrals by John Chow. Now, I enjoy looking into anything and everything Google so I started some due diligence on the LBR opportunity Google is trying to convince everyone to take. Through an infamous Google search I found a post over at Small Business SEM discussing the weaker points on said Google opportunity entitled “Why Google’s Local Business Referrals Will Fail” . The post and the commentors provide great quality information that I did what anyone addicted to quality information would do, I subscribed to their RSS feed (grab my Full RSS Feed if you feel I am providing you quality info).

I started looking over their RSS feed and found some Friday Night Link-o-rama about Chloe Spencer

the 16-year-old daughter of Stephan Spencer. Chloe passed on babysitting and paper routes and instead started a blog about Neopets, and is now pulling in $700-plus per month(which equates to doing 26-30 hours a week at a minimum wage job in revenue.

$700-plus per month equates to doing 26-30 hours a week at a minimum wage job, as I discussed in a previous post, getting your blog to minimum wage earning potential is a fantastic goal. This highschooler has learned that you make the web work for you, not you working for the web.

This is what I look for, information about people blogging about what they love and making money. Here is a 16 year old girl who has taken her passion and is making 20-30 dollars a day. You should head over to Stephan Spencer’s Scatterings and check out the full article on his daughter’s success. Her site is The Ultimate Neopets Cheats Site and it is nice site, with adsense and some affiliate links to neopets being the obvious dollar earners. For those of you who have not hear about Neopets, I cannot clue you in more than a solid google search can – but I have heard it is a very in thing with the young teens.

What I want blogging newbies and those who have tried to start blogging but just do not know what to blog about to take from this, is that it is not about finding the best niche. It is about taking what you love and providing others who are interested in it great information. I am curious what her RSS feed readership is, but just by demographic of the audience, I would venture to guess that most do not take advantage of the RSS feed. Another thing that stood out was the frequency of post, which appear to be 2-3 a month. Here archive goes back to February of 2006, and I would venture to guess that as long as she post 1-2 times a month with the same quality information her previous post contain, she will continue to make that $700 plus. So, all you to-be bloggers waiting on the fence, jump in to the blogosphere – you never know how much fun you will have or how much money you will make, until you hit the Publish button a few times.

I just want to give big props Chloe. It is awesome to see success like this.

Ok, you made it through the post. I just wanted to share the whole experience of finding this success story with everyone.

You know, sometimes you just have to give the reader what they want. Actually you always give the reader what they want, and I know I enjoy full RSS feeds because I use Google Feed Reader to catch up on my blogging heroes. Well, this evening I was catching up on what was going on over at Ms. Danielle and she was feeling unmotivated so she flipped it and decided to write a post entitled Wednesday Motivation which was inspired by the eMoms(I also subscribe to eMoms, because this dad does everything he can to understand mom thought processes) feature Monday Motivation.

Well in this motivational post, Ms. Danielle ask her readers what they plan to do today. Well, one of her reader wants to turn his RSS Feed into a Full Feed, you know not just an appetizer, but a 5 course meal. So, I figured instead of e-mailing the reader, I would give everyone who wanted to know how to do this a screen shot and how to turn on full feeds. Your readers will appreciate this, trust me.

All you have to do to turn on full feeds is go to Options in the WordPress Dashboard, then to Reading in the submenu. In the area title Syndication Feeds, select Full Text. After you have done this, just make sure you do not use the MORE denotation in your post(it will cut off the feed)

I hope this helps.

Well, it is that time of the year, kids are seeing their summer slip away, baseball teams are trading for either prospects or talent right now(depending on standings), and football players are going to court to defend themselves from federal indictments, and bloggers are anticipating new google page ranks.

First in Line
The only way to come out of this process in a better position from what you are in now is to get to do something about it, much like the scene in Empire of the Sun(starring Christian Bale, way before he began Batman) where they bring out the huge, I mean huge, potato pot to feed the all the prisoners. People are fighting their way to the front. You can do the same by grabbing this Linkback train and holding on tight. This train is brought to us by Enkay in an attempt to raise Google Page Rank.

$50 for 50 Contest

We all know how important getting link backs is and with this chain, you can get the ball rolling! You don’t have to be an established blogger to take part in this chain.

Here are the rules:
1. Copy this post from the point where it says “Start Copy Here” to the point where it says “End Copy Here”

2. Add yourself and 5 of your favorite bloggers to the end of the list.
3. Post this on your blog

Enkay Blog | Ms. Danielle | Cash For Comments | BetShopBoy | JohnCow | Mr. Gary Lee | Jon Lee | Dosh Dosh | Some Make Money | The King Kong Blog | RomanDock | Michael Kwan | Ed Lau | Jane May | Sam Breadstone | Windows Tips, Tricks and Hacks | ProBlogger | The Beef Jerky Blog | The Prize Blog | Online Coupon Codes | Jamaipanese | Rugjeff | ShadowScope | The News Press Net | JohnWaraas | Online Opportunity | Sara | Gaje Master | Graphic Design |romandock dot com |RevieWOW | Drunken Housewife | Sparemoolah | antonolsen | blogitude | joeymoggie | alltheinfo | Sugar Queens Dream | cricketdesi | Average Joe Blogger | International Freebies | Fracas |Jibber Jabber|Turn one pound into one million|MyBlogContest|Your Name Here|

Contest Rules

1. Write a unique introductory paragraph 2-3 sentences [gotta avoid that duplicate content]
2. Copy the required text and links above into a post on your blog. (I will only count blogs that use my list)
3. Comment back to me that you have made the post
4. Wait to be randomly selected.
5. Contest ends after the 50th post has been confirmed.

Bonus Entry: If your blog has an authority over 50 at Technorati then you get 2 entries into the contest.

After I confirm each post, I will add that person’s link to my list. So my list will continue to grow. This means that if you get in early not only will you have a chance to win $50, but you will also have me driving to get your link onto more sites.

What do you think? Post right now, the worst chance you have of winning is 1 in 99 and the best chance might have is 1 in 50.

UPDATE [9/05/2007 12:46 pm (CST)]: Contest Entries – 15 | 35 left

Some of you know I am the father of 2 children. I am fortunate enough to have both flavors of kid in my life. My daughter just turned 4 this past April and my little boy will have his 6 month well check doctor’s visit next week. Even though I have been through a baby’s first year once before, I am still amazed at all the really cool stuff that happens during this first, event filled year. There are fantastic events that happen everyday, and this time around I get to watch a big sister’s amazement with her new found love.

To go along with a new baby, I started blogging in May. I have been off to a slow start, but I think I am finding my place in this vast blogosphere. I have learned a lot from many different people, but I still have a lot to learn. My goal with this blog is to share what I learn with everyone that visits.

Today’s Share
Since I am experiencing baby and blogging year one almost simultaneously I felt I would do a Tale of the Tape on Having a Baby versus Blogging.

• Freaked-Out Fathers – Pete keeps you laughing and thinking.
• Mom Squawk – These ladies run a class site
• hamelife – Always a great read

Do any of you have a favorite parenting blog? Maybe a funny kid story? Can you think of another category to add to my list? IF you have an answer to anyone of these questions, comment and share it with everyone.

Just the other day Jay at onlineopportunity.org posted an article about getting backlinks. Jay spoke of different methods to employ in getting backlinks. I have not tried any strategy or employed any common method of getting backlinks, until now. The fun folks over at JohnCowdotCom start a backline train and I am all aboard.

Special shout out to Enkay at Enkay Blog for placing me on the train.

If you want to jump aboard, just follow the instructions below and enjoy the ride.

The idea is simple: You want readers and you want link backs too because that’s all us bloggers want, it’s more precious than milk for some

So how does it work?
Simple! You just copy the list down below on your blog, hence creating link backs for your blogging friends and then click the RSS feed link to subscribe to all of them. Then you add yourself and up to 5 other bloggers and their feeds to the end of the list before you publish it on your own blog. Show your friends some link love

Just imagine if just 10 people would do this and then 10 more after them. That would get your blog 100 extra link backs and 100 extra feed subscribers!

The Original List:

• Subscribe to JohnCowdotCom
• Subscribe to BobmeetsWorld
• Subscribe to LifeisRisky
• Subscribe to TheKingKongBlog
• Subscribe to My New Hustle
• Subscribe to GadgetTastic
• Subscribe to Life of Browie
• Subscribe to Disregard Me
• Subscribe to Everybody Go To
• Subscribe to Brian Vaughan
• Subscribe to Fuery
• Subscribe to Sam Breadstone
• Subscribe to Enkay Blog
• Subscribe to Ms. Danielle
• Subscribe to BetShopBoy
• Subscribe to Cash For Comments
• Subscribe to Some Make Money
• Subscribe to Link Building Blog
• Subscribe to Online Opportunity
• Subscribe to Juggling Frogs
• Subscribe to Pure Blogging
• Subscribe to Alex Noriega Sketch Blog
• Subscribe to Make Money with a 14-year old
• Subscribe to Blogtrepreneur | Entrepreneur Blog

If you do not find yourself on the list, please just follow the above instructions. I will get a pingback from you and when I do I will be happy to add you to my list for others to copy.

And to help you fully get on the this train, enjoy this song and video from 1996.

Working on my commitment I made to grow this blog through commenting on other blogs everyday I ran across an interesting post over at MsDanielle.com. The post discusses Associated Content and some concerns Ms. Danielle has with said company, she also discusses what they pay one particular writer, Chris Bibey. Chris caught Ms. Danielle eye because he is nice enough to share with all of us his Associate Content Recent Results. It turns out that Chris receives an average of $6.47 for each post he provided. Chris joined the comment conversation and provided more insight on the fact that he usually published in batches of 5 that take 1 hour to put together. So he is making ~32/hour. He says that kind of money is not bad, if you are able to do it full time. This is what caught my eye and leads me to this post.

I agree that $32/hour is good money, but it is not a guaranteed wage. It is sporadic, besides I feel that you build your blog so it works for you while you are off playing or enjoying Groove Armada at the Hollywood Bowl.

Having your blog make money for you around the clock is what all bloggers determined to make money struggle to develop. But, just how much money per hour should you hope to achieve? This is where goal setting comes into play. And after some thought, I hope that my blog achieves minimum wage someday [5.15\hr]. Now that might not sound like a lot of money, but remember there are 24 hours in a day – so your daily income would be $123.60. Giving you a total of $3708 a month, so if you worked on your blog 2 hours a day that would be ~$61.80/hour. Not to shabby.

I believe that it will take more than 2 hours a day in the beginning phases of building your blog and community around it, but I believe there is a critical mass that you achieve then2 hours a day should suffice. In creating milestones to get to my $5.15\hour goal, my first milestone is $.25\hour, or roughly $180 a month. Last month I was able to amass $72, primarily through referrals to godaddy.com.

What do you think? How many hours a day do you spend creating posts, trying to generate traffic, and networking with other bloggers?

Did you ever think you would hear someone’s goal was to achieve minimum wage?

I have been traveling and have not kept up with posting like I should. I do find time to review other’s blogs and comment, but I have not been able to post. That is a shame because I received over 170 visits when I was ’stumbled’ in Weekend Links 07/13 by David Culpepper who dispenses blogging tips over at www.pureblogging.com. In honesty, I started commenting over at David’s blog when he was hosting a contest to win $100 for providing the 1000th comment(I posted the 1001th comment), but with this recent link to my blog I plan on continuing my commenting at Pure Blogging. Matter of fact I am going to start a new activity tomorrow and dedicate time to read new post and provide a worthwhile comment on 5 blogs(to start with).

The 5 blogs you will find me surfing are:

• Pure Blogging by David Culpepper – [Grab RSS Feed]
• msdanielle – just another ego blog site by Ms. Danielle – [Grab RSS Feed]
• Online Opportunity by Jay – [Grab RSS Feed]
• Enkay Blog by Enkay – [Grab RSS Feed]
• Daily Web Ideas by Jane [Grab RSS Feed]

If you are so inclined, join me in reading and commenting on the 5 blogs I listed above. The RSS feed links are provided to you can subscribe to them and read in your feed reader of choice. If you know of another blog that I should add to this list, leave the link in a comment. I think can allot time to read and comment on 10 blogs daily. What I see myself doing is having these as a base then rotating 5 other blogs in and out.

Oh, if you are interest in having Jay at Online Opportunity submit an E-Zine Article for you:

The prize will be an original article published on Ezine Articles, linking to two of your URLs with anchor text of your choice.

Then just head over to www.OnlineOpportunity.org and start commenting. The person who has commented the most at midnight August 1st will win the article. Please refrain from 2-3 word comments, because A)that’s lame and B) Jay will delete those anyway.

I look forward to seeing you in the comment section.