Download the plugin via the WordPress site or search from your Plugins section within the dashboard.

The plugin shows a chart of all the visits by Google & other major search engines to your site for any time period you want and also shows crawl information for specific pages. We’ve added the ability to see number of pages crawled per day as well as number of crawls.

Any feedback please leave either in the comments or on the WordPress site.

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WordPress Crawl Rate Tracker Plugin Upgraded & Re-released

One of our web design clients does online backup for large companies, financial institutions and the UK government and they have just released an Online Backup for WordPress plugin which backs up all your blog data to their secure servers (mirrored across two datacentres in the UK). Bloggers get 50MB of space for free and when you run out of space the older backups get deleted to make way for new ones.

Losing data from your blog is a disaster waiting to happen and anybody who is using WordPress simply has to have some kind of backup solution in place. Relying on your web host isn’t a wise solution unless you are specifically paying them a lot of money for a backup system.

The plugin only launched today so if you have any feedback or suggestions please post in the comments over on the plugin page. If you have any clients with WordPress sites please get them using the plugin too.

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Secure Server Online Backup for WordPress

This brings up a whole raft of questions about the status of bloggers and those who pay or give them products to write posts in the UK. One of the main issues goes to heart of what blogging actually is. Is it journalism or advertising? And if it’s neither it falls between industry regulation in the UK.

Traditional media

Journalists are paid by publishers. Those publishers have an obligation to separate advertising and editorial content. (one that the Daily Express doesn’t always take seriously)

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) challenged the Daily Express, suggesting that features it had published were in fact controlled by the advertiser – not Express Newspapers – and that the paper had not made this clear by labelling the content an advertorial. The ASA also challenged various claims made about the effectiveness of each product.

The Press Complaints ComissionPCC  has a voluntary code governing journalistic ethics. It is only loosely adhered to in some quarters ( I’m thinking the Sun and News of the World) and doesn’t specifically mention the subject of journalists being influenced by cash or gifts, but does stress the importance of journalists not abusing their position by printing misleading information.

The truth is that while journalists are given quite a lot – press trips to exotic shores, healthcare products, consumer gadgets, etc – there is only a tacit understanding that they will ever write about what they are given, a sort of gentleman’s agreement. 

Journalists aren’t paid by third parties because it is considered that such payments would affect their impartiality. Advertising departments do occasionally put pressure on them to consider writing about certain products or companies, but cash isn’t paid to them directly.

A blogger’s integrity

As we all know bloggers self publish – making money if they can and want to from advertising, affiliate schemes, sponsored posts and selling links.

While the FTC’s guidance leaves a lot of question marks (read here for a good look at some of its essential problems) for the blogging community it seems no one is particularly concerned as it currently lacks the clout to police what it is proposing.

There are effectively no rules that affect blogging in the UK in the same way that the ASA polices advertising or the PCC patrols journalism.

So? you may well ask, does it really matter?

The community regulates

Well yes and no. 

It matters to some more than others. If blogging and social media is democratising the media – allowing anyone to publish their own thoughts or news – then we all hope content is trustworthy and transparent, as we rely on it to shape our world view.

In some senses it doesn’t matter how bloggers are paid as long as their blog stays true to its subject matter. If it doesn’t and quite clearly becomes a mouthpiece for marketers then it will lose readers, comments, links and ultimately value.

So it’s not how bloggers are remunerated that matters, but what they say and whether readers trust them that counts. As this blog’s very own Patrick Altoft tweeted:-

If a blogger has credibility they just chose the right things to write about and keep that integrity intact.

Blogs sit on a scale somewhere between advertising and journalism. Each one at  a slightly different point on that spectrum attracting a different audience who are well aware of  their approach. If you start to go off topic or post on products or issues your readership has no interest in they’ll soon let you know.

So bloggers aren’t just self-regulated, but also checked and balanced by the communities they attract and inhabit – which is perhaps more powerful than any official code.

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Does it matter how bloggers are paid?

As you can see in the screenshot below it brings Google Analytics data into your WordPress dashboard and overlays your blog posts on top of the data. Clicking on the orange dot brings up details of the blog post and number of page views that day.

According to Joost you can use this in conjunction with his Google Analytics plugin to track RSS readers using the utm_source parameter (make sure you also use the All In One SEO plugin with rel=canonical turned on before you start URL tagging).

What do you think?

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Amazing Analytics360 WordPress Plugin

Lots of bloggers do paid reviews and even more make money from affiliate links so this is a major issue. However it’s not just bloggers who are at risk here – advertisers and merchants giving the affiliate commissions are liable for anything a blogger writes about their product.

The practice has grown to the degree that the Federal Trade Commission is paying attention. New guidelines, expected to be approved late this summer with possible modifications, would clarify that the agency can go after bloggers — as well as the companies that compensate them — for any false claims or failure to disclose conflicts of interest.

It would be the first time the FTC tries to patrol systematically what bloggers say and do online. The common practice of posting a graphical ad or a link to an online retailer — and getting commissions for any sales from it — would be enough to trigger oversight.

The UK has some similar regulations called the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 which require disclosure on affiliate links and sponsored editorial content. So far these don’t seem to have been enforced which begs the question, why were they created in the first place?

Are affiliate networks being asked to force affiliates to disclose all links? Not as far as I know.

How can a merchant be held liable for the actions of an affiliate? Some have thousands of affiliates all writing 1 blog posts a day – who is supposed to police that?

Below is an example from the proposed FTC regulations:

Example 5: A skin care products advertiser participates in a blog advertising service. The service matches up advertisers with bloggers who will promote the advertiser’s products on their personal blogs. The advertiser requests that a blogger try a new body 70 lotion and write a review of the product on her blog.

Although the advertiser does not make any specific claims about the lotion’s ability to cure skin conditions and the blogger does not ask the advertiser whether there is substantiation for the claim, in her review the blogger writes that the lotion cures eczema and recommends the product to her blog readers who suffer from this condition. The advertiser is subject to liability for false or unsubstantiated statements made through the blogger’s endorsement.

The blogger also is subject to liability for representations made in the course of her endorsement. The blogger is also liable if she fails to disclose clearly and conspicuously that she is being paid for her services.

The FTC is offering advice to advertisers suggesting that to reduce liability they provide training to bloggers and monitor all blog posts to ensure that they are accurate.

What do you think, will you disclose affiliate links?

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Proposed FTC Guidelines & How They Affect Affiliates & Bloggers

Commenting on blogs for free evidently seemed the right move for the digital marketing firm Pancentric (in London) for its client, Beswicks Solicitors of Stoke-on-Trent. It targeted my blog on 16 April with a comment about a story entitled “A breath of fresh air”, about ozone.

“The idea of generating the ozone inside the sealed package is pretty inspired, really interesting,” the comment said, along with an email address for a “Paul Adkins” at Pancentric. But the comment author’s name was “selling a business” with a link to Beswicks’s website.

Pancentric turned out to be using a list of 500 blogs, The Ultimate DoFollow Blog List, put together by Stephan Miller in the US. This takes advantage of blogs that don’t use the Google-inspired “rel=’nofollow’” attribute created in 2005 to discourage spammed links (all the search engines’s algorithms now ignore any link with “nofollow” attached).

Every decent sized SEO company makes mistakes with link building & quality control, it’s impossible to manage campaigns perfectly every time and mistakes do happen. However the thing to do is hold your hands up, admit the mistake and promise to improve quality control in the future.

In this case the agency involved is trying to defend the strategy by saying that “blog commenting is a standard and widely practiced link-building technique”. I doubt many other UK agencies would agree.

This case also highlights precisely why you should never use dofollow blog lists. How many other journalists and Google employees blogs have made their way onto there?

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Blog commenting is not an SEO technique

What Ryanair seems to think is that bloggers are somehow separate to the mainstream media which is clearly not the case as the story is covered in the Times and Telegraph today.

Ryanair can confirm that a Ryanair staff member did engage in a blog discussion. It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy in corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won’t be happening again.

Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel.

The row started when Jason Roe wrote a blog post and Ryanair started leaving strange comments.

It’s fine to have a policy of not engaging with bloggers but it seems unbelievable that the first time they break this policy it’s to call them idiots and lunatics.

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Ryanair calls bloggers “idiots” and “lunatics”

Aaron Wall was first to spot the changed calling Twitter Corrosive to Online Marketing:

In the past when you did something quite cool and attention-worthy people would reference it on their blogs. But now in the age of Twitter, many people mention your stuff on Twitter.

This can be good if they have thousands of Twitter followers, but if most the people mentioning a topic are all in the same small tight knit space then you are only reaching a fraction of a fraction of the potential distribution you would have before the age of Twitter.

The way blogs become popular is by being mentioned lots of times on other popular blogs. It’s very hard to become popular using social networks alone. If blog readers are deciding to spread interesting links via Twitter instead of blogging about it on their own sites then new blogs will struggle to gain readership.

To try and gain more market share on Blogstorm I installed a button at the end of each post to allow people to easily share the story via Twitter. It works great to get people sharing the post but the displaying of Tweets part isn’t working at present.

What has been very apparent since the plugin was installed is that comments have dropped significantly. People would prefer to click a button that sends the same Tweet everybody else is sending than leave a comment in the normal way.

I guess there is a decision to be made – more people Tweeting my posts or more people leaving blog comments. As somebody who very rarely leaves comments on blogs I suggest Twitter is more important.

What do you think?

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Twitter Has Changed Blogging Forever

One thing I’m surprised about is that Brewdog has yet to send samples to the UK’s largest bloggers. If you want a sample from them why not leave a comment below with your blog URL and we will see if James Watt from Brewdog can oblige

Soon after starting up, Scottish beer business Brewdog was struggling to sell its product until its co-founders hit on the idea of using the internet to market their distinctive beers.

“It was a hard sell locally at first,” said co-founder James Watt. “People had grown up with lager, and a lot of the pubs in Scotland are tied. So we decided to see if we could interest overseas beer enthusiasts online. We could see an opportunity in places like Sweden and America where specialist beers are popular,” he said.

Watt found the most popular bloggers in each country and sent free samples to them. Having built a following, they convinced local importers to sell their beer and international orders took off. Today exports account for 80% of sales.

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Brewdog: Blogging your way into the big time

Organised by 6th Gear Driving Experiences the day involved myself, Al Carlton, Dave Naylor, Kieron Donoghue and Chris Garrett.

We arrived at 10.30 and started off being a passenger in a Range Rover so we could get some tips and get a feel for the track.

Next I was let loose in the 191mph Lamborghini Gallardo which was super fast. After the instructor had told me to stop changing gear at 4000 rpm and take it to 7000 rpm it got even faster. Being 4 wheel drive you could take corners at ridiculous speeds.

Next up was a few laps in an Aston Martin DB9 and the V8 Vantage. Both cars were fantastic but not quite up to the Gallardos standard.

To give us an indication of how things should be done were were taken round the track for 2 laps in a Caterham driven by an ex touring car driver. Nothing feels as fast as the Caterham because it’s pretty much just an engine and 4 wheels. The driver takes you right to the limit and is fighting to keep the car under control at all times.

Finally we had another fast lap in the passenger seat of the 640bhp BMW M3 CSL. Probably the fastest saloon car you can buy. The driver had it going nicely sideways at one stage and we couldn’t decide whether it was intentional or not.

The whole day was pretty much perfect and we will certainly be going back. It’s the end of the season now but 6th Gear are planning another bloggers day in March so keep an eye out.

If you are looking for a Christmas gift then 6th Gear do driving experience vouchers for £89 – a perfect present for anybody who likes cars.

More photos to follow later in the week. Other peoples write ups are below:

• 6th Gear Supercar Driving Experience Days – thankyou!
• Supercar Driving Experience – Lads days out
• Driving supercars
• Supercar Driving Experiences – Ultimate gift for petrol heads

PS – I’ve now sold my car to the nice guys at buy my car.

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Bloggers in Supercars – 6th Gear Driving Experiences