I noticed on Prerna and Kidgas’ blogs they had a neat little linking tool that linked to other posts within their blogs.  I didn’t notice it at first, but as I continued to visit their blogs, I thought the tool was pretty cool.

The tool, as you can see at the bottom of this post, is the LinkWithin tool.  It’s a plugin that works on Blogger, self-hosted WordPress, TypePad and other types of blogs.  The installation is pretty straight forward and simple.

Installing LinkWithin

Visit the LinkWithin site and insert your email address, blog URL, number of posts you’d like linked and click “Get Widget!”  For those of you with dark-background blogs, let LinkWithin know and they’ll modify the code so your links show up with light text and dark backgrounds.

Once you click the “Get Widget!” button, LinkWithin displays the appropriate code for the platform selected.

Leaving Well Enough Alone

Of course I could never leave well enough alone.  After installing the code, I realized there weren’t many customization options. The links aligned to the left at the bottom of the post and that was it.  It also displayed the default text of “You might also like:” prior to showing the post links.

That’s not a problem for most folks, but because of my anal retentive nature and my inability to leave well enough alone, I had to look under the hood for a moment. According to the LinkWithin FAQ sheet, you could modify the display location and the default text, but that was pretty much it.  So, I modified both.

Centering the LinkWithin Display

Until I dedicate sufficient time to look for a replacement blog template, I’ll continue to limp along with this one. So, in accordance with the instructions on the LinkWithin site, I inserted the code “<div class="linkwithin_div"></div>” where I wanted the links to display.

To center the display, I embedded it within an HTML table. I tried using <span align=”center”> and <p align=”center”> and any other simple HTML code that I could think of to center the display, but it didn’t work (I think my blog template prevented it from working). So, I ended up placing it in a table that was center aligned.

Modifying the Default Text

Modifying the text was a piece of cake. According to the LinkWithin site all you had to do was insert  <script>linkwithin_text='Your custom text:'</script> into the HTML template.  To accomplish this, I went back to the original code and placed the revised text smack dab in the middle of it so it ended up looking like this:

<div class="linkwithin_div"><script>linkwithin_text='If you have time, check out these posts too:'</script></div>

Now that I had my code in the middle of my center-aligned table, I was relatively happy with the results (although, I believe there is too much dead white space around the plugin, but there’s nothing I can do about that).

Many moons ago, I wrote a post about learning basic HTML. With today’s WordPress, TypePad and Blogger templates, it’s not an absolute necessity to learn basic HTML, but it does come in handy.

The other day I came across the Newsroom 101 website.  It’s a site that will put your grammatical and writing skills to the test.  They have thousands of free exercises, tutorials and general helpful information for anyone looking to make a living as a writer, especially journalistic writing.  There are grammar, usage and punctuation exercises, AP Stylebook quizzes, Newsroom exercises and more.

Just for grins I decided to take a few of the Newsroom tests.  I never took journalism in school and never had a desire to work in a newsroom but I thought it would be a hoot to see how much I’ve learned over the years.

Time to Get Back to Learning

After taking a couple of the tests, I’m fully amazed that I earn as much as I do writing online.  I’m still licking my wounds from the assault I took in trying to get through a few of the exams.  I’m not a quitter, but I think I need to do a little more studying, reading and learning before I go back for round two.

The site is a great resource and I recommend it to everyone looking to earn money online.  As a matter of fact, I think one or two of our favorite CEs from a site that I won’t mention might learn a few things from Newsroom 101 as well.

To end this post as I began it…don’t take writing advice from me!

Some time ago, I wrote a post about switching one of my Google-step-child-sites from a hand coded site to a Joomla site. I made the switch because I originally hand coded the site several years ago and things have changed since then (and I’ve learned a lot since then).

Not to belabor the point (for the folks who have heard the story before), but I originally created the site when I was new to the world of the internet, used content from free article directories plus my own content and started making money. Back then I didn’t know that original content was key and my earnings and traffic eventually plummeted along with my Google rankings.

Not wanting to give up on the site, I decided to use Joomla as the back end platform because I had great ideas and visions for the site. Joomla (WordPress on steroids) seemed to be the right tool for the job. A website with about 400 pages and a set menu structure seemed to be too complex for WordPress. Although converting my site to Joomla was a large task, I felt it was the platform that would best serve the site…until now.

Recent Observations with the Site

I’ve let the site sit dormant, sort of, over the last few months. I would add a discarded eHow or Demand Studios article to it, but pretty much let it sit. I still get a few hundred hits a day on it, but the traffic is way down from its heyday.

One of my recent observations is that each of my WordPress blog posts, whether its here on NJFM or on other less popular blogs, are indexed by Google within 10 minutes or so. My new articles on the Joomla site are indexed in a week or so, if ever. Go figure.

I’ve got a blog that I started a few months ago, and it gets indexed more quickly than the Joomla site. The Joomla site has been around for about 4 years. I added new articles each day last week and only 3 of the seven have been indexed. Hmmm…..

A Wonderful Joomla Plugin

Last night when I originally wrote this blog post it had a different ending. It’s amazing what comes to you in the quiet hours of the morning before your brain is fully up and running.

Like a bolt, the thought entered my mind “Ping.” Yep, ping services, that’s why the WordPress blogs are so quickly indexed by Google. Joomla needs a ping service to let the whole world know that new content had been added to the site.

Lo and behold as I did a search this morning I found Easy Ping  for Joomla. It’s simple to install and configure. I downloaded, installed and configured it in about 3 minutes. This little plugin saved me from converting a 400 page site into a WordPress blog.

Only Time will Tell

Over the next few weeks I’ll continue to add content to the site to see if the extension is the answer to my problem. If not…I guess I’ll have to begin the conversion process.

In the meanwhile, I’m working on switching yet another old hand coded site that I created back in the late 90’s to a WordPress blog. There’s always something to keep me busy.

Maybe it’s my age, maybe it’s because I no longer feel the need to prove myself, or maybe it’s because it took me too many years to find my authentic self. What ever it is, it’s amazing that I earn anything online.

Dredging up History Again

Once upon a time, when I first started this online writing stuff, I wrote for up front pay. As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, I wrote 300 word articles for $5 each. A mere pittance, but my lack of confidence, inexperience with the new internet media and being brand new to freelance writing all contributed to my accepting such a low pay rate.

It All Happens for a Reason

In my first freelance writing gig I was given a few keywords and was instructed to write 300 word articles incorporating the keywords. They didn’t use the term ‘keywords’ but now as I look back, I realize they were keywords (Back then I didn’t even know what SEO was).

I had to complete the articles in batches of 5, submit them, and once they were approved I received $25 in my PayPal account. They paid once a week. After the first two batches they decided to give me a huge spreadsheet of keywords and asked me to submit articles in batches of 5 as often as I could.

Oh Those Boring Keywords

Initially I was thrilled because someone was willing to pay me to write in a non 9-5 environment. After a few batches they increased my pay to $6 an article. I continued to spit out 5 articles at a time (the topics were boring so I only wrote 10 articles a week). They liked the work and asked if I would write more, but I pretty much told them that the topics were so boring that I couldn’t stomach more than 10 a week.

Lesson# 1: If I don’t like it, I’m not going to do it, no matter what the price.

Spin, Spin and More Spin

During this time I learned about spin. No, I’m not talking about the spin that newscasters and politicians put on a news story. I’m talking about spinning the same tired keywords several times to make anywhere from 5 to 10 completely different engaging articles. I hated every minute of it but I learned another lesson.

Lesson #2: No matter how unpleasant, I learned the knack for spinning tired keywords over and over again (kind of like reinventing leftovers).

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1, 2, 3 Which Shall it Be?

Before landing the ‘lucrative’ $5 gig, I had my own websites. I never made money with them because I didn’t know about Google AdSense and placing ads on the sites.

Since the sites were mine, I wrote in a very relaxed fashion, usually first or second person. I wrote about anything and everything that was interesting to me. I’s and You’s were all over the place. That came to a screeching halt when I signed up for Suite 101. At first I wrote in the second person but later found that they required third person articles.

It took me longer to write in the third person, but I did it and continue to do it. I figured that if I could write about tired keywords for $6 and spin the same keywords until they begged for mercy, I could also adapt to writing in the third person.

Lesson #3: If there were a 4th, 5th and 6th person perspective, I’d master that too.

More Boring Keywords

My stint with Suite landed me a somewhat lucrative writing assignment. All I had to do was write 10 articles a month on the topic of insurance and I would earn $80 per article. That’s an additional $800 a month writing on insurance.

My desire/need for money said “Do it, do it,” but my stomach said “Just say no.” So, what did I do? Well, my mind said yes and my stomach said no. I ended up having to bow out of the assignment because every time I sat down to write an article I got knots in my stomach (the same knots I got when I wrote the $6 articles…as a matter of fact, they were the same knots I had in my stomach when I had my last high-paying 9-5 job).

Lesson #4: Same as lesson number 1. I guess if I had truly learned my lesson back on # 1 I wouldn’t have to list lesson # 4.

Residual to the Rescue

Residual writing saved me. The ability to earn residual income has done much to eliminate the stomach knots.You see,  I have a strong case of work-aversion-itis and am mentally unemployable .  That means I have a difficult time with deadlines and writing on topics that are forced upon me.

Up front pay is wonderful, and when I can stomach it, I do it. However, in reviewing my many years of work experience, I find that I seem to be allergic to work, deadlines and those awful money making keywords. It’s amazing that I make any money at all online as a freelance writer. I guess if you stick with anything long enough, the money will come.

Lesson # 5: When you set it up right, you’ll be able to work with nature, not against it.

Before I go into DoFollow and NoFollow backlinks, I need to back up just a bit and do a little explaining about backlinks.

What are Backlinks?

Backlinks are links back to your site, blog, article, or anything you have on the internet. If someone likes your work and links to it, then you have a backlink. The right backlinks are good, bad backlinks are not so good.

What is a good Backlink?

A good backlink is a link to your blog/site/article from a reputable site on a related topic. For example, a backlink to NJFM from a site on how to improve your golf swing isn’t as good as having a link from another freelance writing or work from home site.

Quality and Authority

In addition to being backlinked from related sites, backlinks from high quality sites is also a plus. In other words, having a backlink from a high quality, authoritative site holds a lot more weight than receiving backlinks from brand new blogs with no ranking or no following. Imagine receiving a backlink from CNN or Oprah vs. a backlink from your Aunt Mary who is still trying to figure out how to add an image to her blog.

One Way or Reciprocal

Another plus with backlinks is whether or not they are one way or reciprocal. If you write great content, people will link to you. If you are trying to build links and offer the “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” type of link, that’s called reciprocal linking and they don’t hold as much weight.

All in the Anchor Text

There’s also the anchor text to be considered. Anchor text are the words used to link to the site. Keyword anchor text holds more weight than non keyword text. For example, I could link to Grandma’s site by saying, “Here’s Grandma’s site.” Yes, she gets a link, but she would get more benefit if I were to say something like, “Check out Grandma’s site if you want quality website content.” To use Dr. Oz’s phrase, “Make sense?” (I’ve been watching too much TV lately).

Finally, to get back to the topic of this post, there’s the Do and NoFollow backlinks.

A Little History

Many years ago, when blogging was a mere pup, links were generally DoFollow.  So, when Google indexed/spidered any given blog, it would also send the spider to follow any links it found on the blog. This worked pretty well until spammers realized they could get some of the blog’s link juice by placing as many spammy comments on blogs as possible. As a result, Google developed the NoFollow tag. It doesn’t penalize the link; it just doesn’t give it any juice.

The Do Follow tag gives back the Google link juice that NoFollow took away.

Pros and Cons of DoFollow

The pros of DoFollow links are obvious if you are the recipient of the Google juice. Just imagine getting some of the Google juice if one of your articles was directly linked to by Google itself. Google has a PR of 10. Or, even Oprah, whose site holds a PR of 7.

Getting some of the link juice is great. However, DoFollow link juice goes both ways. If you have a ton of DoFollow links to spammy sites, it reflects poorly on you and your site may take a hit.

Is a Link DoFollow?

There are lists on the internet of DoFollow blogs, websites and social networking media. Since things on the internet change often, to truly find out whether a link is DoFollow, check out the HTML code. Visit the webpage and view the source. If you see

rel=’external nofollow’ it’s a NoFollow site and
rel=’external dofollow’ is a DoFollow link

If you use Firefox as your web browser, there’s a NoDoFollow plugin that will do the work for you.

My Opinion

Personally, I’ve never spent much time thinking about Do or NoFollow links (that’s why when Crystal asked, I couldn’t give her an answer). However, I’d like to hear your take on these types of backlinks.

Oh, A Shout Out before I End This Post

Speaking of backlinks, I’d like to give a shout out to Crystal’s sites. She’s got a couple of good ones. I especially relate to her The Best 50 Years blog (since I’m considered chronologically mature, but the jury is still out on my mental maturity), and her new blog Rugged Canyon Jewelry. Although, I think I first “met” Crystal through her Rock Climbing Jewelry site right after I wrote a review about a recent indoor Rock Climbing experience.

Thanks, Crystal, for asking the question.