In those 5 years I’ve earned and learned quite a bit. The largest contributing factor to my online writing success was the decision to transition from up front to residual earnings.

The Changing Seasons

If you’ve been writing online for longer than one year, you know how much things have changed in that short period of time. I’ve witnessed even bigger changes over the past 5 years.

The one underlying constant is quality content works and people like to be told what to do. So much of the Internet is either providing information to help people make a decision or telling people how to make the decision. We are a thirsty bunch for being told what to do and how to do it.

Switching Gears

Regular NJFM followers may have noticed the decline in posting frequency. As I look at the evolution of the Internet, the evolution of my interests and changes in my off line life, I’m finding that NJFM holds a different position in my list of priorities.

While I still enjoy blogging here, I’m finding my enthusiasm is waning. There’s nothing worse than placing uninspired content on a blog just to keep things going.

What am I Saying?

I’m not quite sure. It’s like this. I like to blog, but I like to be inspired when I blog. There are times when the inspiration is hot and on fire and there are other times when it’s not. It seems that I’ve temporarily lost my enthusiasm for writing about writing. I haven’t lost my enthusiasm for writing, it just writing about writing has lost its luster for the time being.

This is not a “RIP” post for the demise of NJFM. It’s an “I have to follow my gut” post because the one thing freelance writing has taught me is to follow my gut.

I’ll continue to post here from time to time, but not as frequently as in the past. Call me crazy, but I think you would much prefer to read inspired content instead of prattling drivel about writing online.

When converting a site from Joomla to WordPress (or changing platforms), do not change the category structure or the file naming convention. In other words, don’t do what I did.

Old School

When the site was hand coded, there was only one way to access any page on the site. All a reader had to do was type in the static URL and boom…there was the page! With content management systems such as Joomla and WordPress (yes, I call WordPress a content management system), it’s different.

It wasn’t until after I received over 600 “File not found” errors (started at 90 a day and has now trickled to only 10 or 15 a day) that I had a V-8 moment.

My old school thought process of accessing each page via one URL was outdated. With content management systems, pages can be accessed in a variety of ways. I won’t get into the whole relational database structure reasoning for why that is, but take my word for it.

Changing with the Times

In the past when I changed platforms all I had to do was insert a “change of address” line from the old webpage to the new. Now, with at least 10 ways to access any one page from my old Joomla site, the redirects seem endless. You see, something as simple as including or excluding the forward slash (/) at the end of a URL can generate a “File not found” error if things aren’t redirected correctly.

So, this Redirect Queen has been putting out redirect fires as they happen. I was pleased yesterday when I only received 11 crawl errors.

How do I Find the Errors?

There are two ways to track errors. The easy and not so thorough way is by checking my Statcounter stats. When I see “Page not found” in the log, I know I need to address the problem.

The other more complete way is by signing into my Google Webmaster account. There they list all of the errors Google encounters when the bots crawl my site. Some of the errors are because of redirects but some of the errors are a result of incorrect link backs. I see some of the sites linking to Tidbits were incorrectly coded.

Additionally, I’ve found that Joomla created a few pages that made absolutely no sense to me, but I’ve redirected them anyway.

When will it End?

The way I calculate it, I fully expect to be resolving redirects for a couple of months. Fortunately, each day there are fewer and fewer redirects and I’ve got it down to a science. I can now complete my daily redirect duty before I finish my first cup of coffee.

BTW, if you find yourself with the same problem (hopefully you won’t), there’s a plugin that helps to make the redirection process a little easier. The plugin is appropriately called Redirection .

Ya gotta love this stuff or else you wouldn’t do it.

From time to time I experiment with different plugins to enhance my blog’s functionality (functionality…such a tech writing word).  Anyway, I use a plugin that is supposed to help detect hack attacks.

After having a couple of my blogs hacked some time ago, I’m a bit sensitive to hacking.

The plugin I use is called WordPress Firewall 2.  Recently I had been receiving notification emails initiated by the plugin telling me a certain IP address was attempting to insert malicious code into my site by attacking a certain file.  After receiving 20 such notification emails in a short period of time, I decided to take action.

A Little Research

I looked up the IP address and it seemed to be a Google bot.  Not being 100% sure that it was, I did a little research.  My research left me on the fence.  It could in fact be a Google bot or it could be a hacker redirecting an IP address to make it look like a Google bot.

After being online for several years and never having this happen before, I decided to err on the side of caution and ban the particular IP address.  I did so by modifying my .htaccess file and inserting the following code:

order allow,deny
deny from XX.XXX.X.XX  (x represents actual IP address)
allow from all


Sit Back to See What Happens

The world didn’t come crashing down after inserting the code and the annoying emails stopped.  Whew, dodged a bullet.

Several days later (about 3), I noticed the traffic for that particular blog dropped significantly.  Hmmm, what’s going on?  So, I searched for my site in Google and found it. The site was there in a great position on page one of the search results but beneath the site’s URL were the words “You are banned.”

Yup, I dodged the bullet when I should have employed fancy footwork.  Instead of getting shot in the upper body, I shot myself in the foot.  The IP address was actually a Google bot.  So, I immediately removed the code from the .htaccess file and temporarily deactivated the plugin. Fortunately, the “banned” statement was removed within seconds and the traffic returned.

Better Safe than Sorry

When I originally received the email notifications, my first line of action was to contact Google to see if it was really their bot.  The problem with contacting Google is contacting Google.  It’s not easy finding the right department, email address or even forum thread in which to post a query.  Instead I took matters into my own hands.

Bottom line, I lost about half a day’s worth of income, but I’d rather that than have lost several weeks or months worth by fighting hackers.  Another online lesson learned.

Many moons ago I created my online playground, Tidbits and Stuff. You guys know the story. It was a hand-coded site, then a WordPress site, then a Joomla site and now…I’m converting it back to a WordPress site. I expect the process to take a month or two.

I learned a lot since March of 2006 when I first created the site. This site, as you know, has been beat down, picked back up and then Pandalized. It has been ignored, plagiarized and the object of constant experimentation. Tidbits has been one of my greatest teachers.

Paid to Learn

Over the years I’ve earned a bit of money from the site. Some years more money than others, but it consistently earned each month (earnings have dropped since being pawed by Panda).

When I first created the site I didn’t know I could earn money from it. It was a labor of love. Then I learned I could earn money from it and took the  “let’s add as much content to the site as possible” route. Sound familiar?

To populate my site with fast content I used free article directories. Not knowing any better, I used Digg and Reddit to gain quick traffic. I was brand new back then and didn’t realize I was spamming the social media sites.

My efforts gained results. I received record traffic and my earnings increased. All was going fine until one day, while on vacation, I checked my stats and the bottom fell out. Traffic dropped and so did the income. Tidbits was nowhere to be found on Google. My heart was sick (not to mention that Digg kicked me to the curb)!

When You Know Better…

To use Maya Angelou’s phrase (as spoken several times by Oprah Winfrey), “When you know better, you’ll do better.” Now as I look back at my major blunders, I understand why Tidbits never holds on to Google favor. If I were a search engine, I would Pandalize it too.

I stopped using article directory content on the site, but I’ve got hundreds of old articles that need to be removed. Additionally, the site is visually unappealing, which brings me to another lesson: When you find a tool that works for you, work it. Become an expert on it. Spend time learning the nuances and the quirks. By mastering a tool, you’ll reduce your effort and maximize your results.

Playing with Joomla was fun, but non productive. Joomla was too much of a tool for my needs. WordPress, on the other hand, is a nice comfortable fit.

Closing the Circle

I’ve returned to my first online love and am in the process of revamping Tidbits and Stuff. The difference this time is I’m approaching it with a different philosophy. I’m applying the philosophy that I’ve been developing over the past 4 ½ years as an online writer (online writing has transformed my life in many ways).

Slow, steady and honesty wins the race. I want long-lasting results. If I had taken this approach initially, Tidbits would only need a few nips and tucks. Instead I’ve got to perform major surgery in order to transform it into the site I want. Don’t read that as a complaint. It is a learning experience and I love playing around with themes, colors, images and of course, creating content.

I’m back to where I was 4 ½ years ago; playing with a site that I created out of love and taking it to a new and improved level. If I’m lucky, I’ll have it done by January. However, with the holidays upon us February seems to be a more realistic target.

I can’t help but understand why you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. The old dog has been around the block enough times to realize the tricks aren’t new. They just have a new façade. Why spend the time trying to master a new trick when the tricks only work for a short time?

In 2011 my word for the year was focus. My goal was to focus on residual income instead of up front pay. My word for 2012 is sustainability; only work on projects that have a long and enjoyable shelf life.

BTW: If you don’t have an online playground, I strongly suggest you create one.  It will teach you more than any guru can.

A couple of days ago Kristine’s comment got me to thinking. Her comment was in response to my post about the 3% increase in revenue as a result of making a few changes to my Google AdSense ad block. She mentioned that repeat visitors would eventually grow accustomed to the ad and eventually ignore the change.

Fortunately, most of my blogs don’t get repeat visitors. For the type of blog writing I like to do, the majority of my blogs provide information. They’re not warm and fuzzy and do not generate repeat business. NJFM is an exception.

Cause for Analysis

Her comment made me stop and analyze my properties. NJFM is the one blog with repeat business and it earns very little. If ad blindness occurs on any of my blogs it would be here. Let’s face it, if you come here regularly, you’re not interested in ads and you no doubt ignore the same old ad blocks. I do the same thing with blogs I follow.

I then thought “Gee, wouldn’t it be nice if I could rotate the ads and break up the monotony of having the same old ads in the same place.” I did a little research and came across the DataFeedr Random Ad plugin. When you visit their site, ignore the big “Buy Now” ad across the top of their website. The plugin is actually free.

About DataFeedr

With DataFeedr you can place rotating ads anywhere on your site. Check out the video to get a feel for what it can do.

With DataFeedr I get to reclaim some of my blog’s real estate. The ads will get less face time, but with a variety of ads displaying in one spot, it not only provides variety for the reader but also allows me to display more in less space.

The more I think about it, the more I realize this plugin will work well on some of my other blogs. It will reduce the number of ads displaying at any one time, which helps to reduce the spammy look/feel to a blog.

I’m still experimenting with the plugin, but so far I like what it’s able to do.