As bloggers, we should be grateful to readers who write thoughtful comments. One way we can show our appreciation is to remove the nofollow attribute in comments.
We can go one step further by sending out a short email to say thank you whenever they comment. So I’ve created the Thanks for Commenting plugin.
It’s really easy to use, and the plugin option lets you create your own email template.
Download Thanks for Commenting plugin here. (Version 1.0, 23 August 2007)
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Posted 23 August 2007
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Plugins
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I am a strong believer in transparent and ethical behavior in paid reviewers. Every reader should be informed clearly upfront if a review he is reading was paid. He shouldn’t have to wonder or ask this question in a comment.
People, it’s high time we make clear and upfront disclosure a priority.
I am starting a (non-violent) movement today to further this cause. The Support Paid Review Disclosures Manifesto has been crafted, along with badges you can use to tell the world at your websites.
So spread the word if you think it’s a worthy cause. Please give your comments below.
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I’ve just installed a plugin that removes the ‘nofollow’ attribute in comments.
My reasons are simple:
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I appreciate readers who write thoughtful comments. They deserve to get a vote of approval from my blog back to their sites.
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Askiment does an excellent job of catching comment spam. Since I check my blog daily, I can clear up whatever it misses out.
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Spammers will continue to spam anyway, and even when nofollow is enabled, the readers of this blog are going to suffer for it. The solution is to build a better trap to catch spam, and not penalize the good people instead.
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What useful purpose does ‘nofollow’ serve then? There is nothing deceptive about the remaining comments to require it.
I wonder why I didn’t do this earlier. 
The developers of WordPress ought to have an option to disable ‘nofollow’ in the default install. In fact, it should set this option to off by default.
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For the past 3 years, I’ve been running a side project called TicTap. TicTap started off as a free SMS service, so you could text us the ISBN of a book, and we’d return the Amazon.com information to your phone.
The SMS service has been shut down because it was unprofitable. Fortunately, TicTap is much more than an SMS service today. It is an Amazon.com associate and that means we carry Amazon’s catalog.
But TicTap tries to differentiate itself in a few ways:
- Searches Amazon.com products better than Amazon.com
This might sound like a boast, but do give it a try. The clustered search helps to group unique products together, and the results are often more relevant. Try this search for harry potter to see what I mean.
- Designed for mobile devices and screen readers
Yup! TicTap not only works on a web browser, it can be viewed on a mobile device too. It’s presentation is optimized for speed and clarity and is a lot simpler than the web version.
For visually-impaired users, we present TicTap for screen readers.
- Automatic currency conversion
For non-US users, you can set the exchange rate for your own currency to the US dollar, and all prices will be shown in your currency. This was something I needed badly because I wasn’t fond of multiplying decimals!
- Price alerts via email
Is an item over your budget? Not to fear, just set your budget and we’ll track it for you. If the price falls within your budget, you’ll be notified by email.
- Sales rank history
TicTap graphically shows the sales rank history of almost every product. This is a very popular feature with authors. Here’s the sales rank history for the Xbox 360.
- Clean, soothing layout
I’m often confused by Amazon.com’s cluttered pages. Maybe it’s just me, but this was one thing I tried to avoid with TicTap. TicTap tries to provide only the information that will help with decision making such as prices, reviews, similar products and shipping options. You might even say there’s too little data presented!
This is just an introduction to TicTap. To experience its richness, you’ve got to give it a go. Try these searches for the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and Playstation 3.
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The WPTA: Buy Ads plugin uses the WP Text Ads API to display an attractive looking link at the bottom of each post which encourages your readers to buy ads at your blog.
Just activate this plugin and go to the Options page to decide the text that you want readers to see.
All plugins built on the WP Text Ads API will only work if you’re using WP Text Ads 1.2 and above.
Download WPTA: Buy Ads here. (Version 1.0, 16 August 2007)
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The WPTA: Feeds plugin uses the WP Text Ads API to display your ads for every post in your RSS and Atom feeds! This greatly increases the benefits that advertisers gain by buying text link ads at your blog.
Just activate this plugin and go to the Options page to decide how you want to present those ads. You can decide how many you want to show, what types of ads to show and whether you want them to appear before or after each post.
All plugins built on the WP Text Ads API will only work if you’re using WP Text Ads 1.2 and above.
Download WPTA: Feeds here. (Version 1.0, 16 August 2007)
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It gives me great joy to announce the release of WP Text Ads version 1.2.
Besides some bug fixes and improved documentation on the plugin itself and on the website, this new version of WP Text Ads contains 3 new features:
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It works with WordPress MU
The installation is identical to any stand-alone install. Just activate and run.
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Sample ad
If your blog does not have any ads yet, a sample ad will be shown so advertisers know where their ads will be placed. You can change the default to anything you like.
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WP Text Ads API
This has me very excited. The current API is very simple, but the possibilities to enhance your blog’s value proposition to advertisers is limited only by your imagination.
To get the ball rolling, I’ve created 2 plugins built on the API. ‘WPTA: Feeds’ allows you to display your ads in RSS and Atom feeds, and ‘WPTA: Buy Ads’ lets you display a buy link at the bottom of every post, so that advertiser do not miss out on a chance to do so.
These plugins are available as separate downloads here.
What’s next for WP Text Ads?
I’ve been asked by users to create an affiliate program and it’s high time this is available. So that would be the top priority. But it’s important to do this properly, and affiliates should be real users. As for payouts, I’m thinking in the region of $27 to $47 per license. Is that too much? 
So go download WP Text Ads 1.2 and let me know what you think. Your feedback is so crucial to what it becomes in the future.
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I’ve been making some changes to the WP Text Ads Marketplace over the last few weeks.
User will find it easier than ever to submit to it as the server does most of the error-checking.
Today, I added Compete.com traffic data to the Marketplace!
So, advertisers have a buffet of traffic statistics to choose from - Alexa, Technorati, Compete.com and Yahoo. I’m hoping Quantcase will make an API available some day. Do you know of other services I ought to be using for the Marketplace?
One thing I’m dead set against is adding PageRank and backlinks to the Marketplace. It’s just not useful.
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In the 3 months since WP Text Ads was launched, there are 5 issues that crop up repeatedly. In this post, I will try to clarify them.
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The free version displays very few text link ads
The paid version of WP Text Ads allows you to display an unlimited number of text link ads.
The free version lets you show 2 blog-wide ads, 2 home page ads and 2 per-post ads. The last part is often misunderstood.
The limit of 2 per-post ads means you can display 2 ads for post A, another 2 ads for post B and so on.
In total, WP Text Ads Free Edition lets you display up to 2 (home page) + 2 (blog-wide) + (Total posts * 2) text link ads for free in your blog.
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You MUST pay to use WP Text Ads
Untrue. Such statements come from people who did not even bother to read the home page.
There is a free version, and will always remain free. The only difference between this and the paid version is the number of links that can be displayed.
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WP Text Ads doesn’t help bloggers find advertisers
Starting with version 1.1, the Marketplace was launched to connect advertisers with bloggers.
I welcome more WP Text Ads users to come on board. It is free and requires no registrations for either bloggers or advertisers.
All outgoing links from the Marketplace also contain the rel=”nofollow” attribute so that search engines do not penalize it as a spam blog directory.
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It’s too expensive
The price of a license is $127. The license allows for use on 1 blog.
This comes as a shock to many people who complain that they’ll never be able to justify the cost.
It might appear this way because they are not sure about the number of text link ads they can display with the free version. Once you understand that and see the savings you can reap without paying commissions, you’ll know that it doesn’t take a lot to recover the $127 investment.
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Google will penalize blogs that sell text link ads
I’ve been commenting on this issue in many blogs I’ve visited. To the extent that I’ve been rebuked for spamming
Google is not against sites that sell text link ads, as long as these links do not artificially change the PageRank of those sites. They are rightfully concerned about such practices.
Google recommends that you ensure all your text link ads contain the rel=”nofollow” attribute. All WP Text Ads links have this attribute by default. You can turn it off, but it’s at your own risk.
I hope this helps you and encourages you to try out WP Text Ads. If you encounter any problems using it, please contact me.
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I came across this amazingly inspirational speech by Steve Jobs. It reminds me of a similar and very funny commencement speech given by Guy Kawasaki a few years back.
Both men have really lived their dreams, and we ought to wonder if we have been living our dreams, or other people’s dreams.
I shall not say anymore, but let their speeches do the talking instead.
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