eMoms at Home

Although I love connecting with all of you while you are here on my site, I love connecting with you in other neighborhoods as well. With that in mind, I’d like to share with you my profiles across several social networking sites in the hopes we can ‘be friends’.

So add me as a friend, request a connection, or whatever! I’ll do the same!

LinkedIn

Digg - Username eMom

StumbleUpon - Username wendypiersall

MyBlogLog - Username eMom

BlogCatalog - Username eMom 

CafeMom - Username eMomsatHome

Sk*rt - Username eMom

del.icio.us - Username eMom

Netscape - Username eMom

BusinessMom - Username eMomsatHome

Reddit - Username eMom

FaceBook - Username WendyPiersall

Twitter - Username eMom

Comments: 28 Comments

When I first took off the “NoFollow” tags in this blog’s comments, I was thrilled. What better way to say “Thank You!!” to the wonderful friends who have contributed to the conversation on this site!

I expected to start getting comments from new readers as well - and I did, and made some great friends by being an early adopter of the “DoFollow” movement.

After a few weeks, I noticed that I really needed to start paying close attention to the people who left new comments on the site. As the DoFollow movement grew, more and more people were leaving comments that left me wondering… well, whether my generosity was being appreciated or abused.

Now, I really don’t have a problem with good friends leaving keywords in the name field, although some others are getting a little ticked off by it. And of course, those of you who really add to the conversation earn not only a link, but my undying love and affection.

But here’s where it’s getting slippery. People are now using the huge DoFollow list meme to target blogs on their own SEO campaigns. They just go from DoFollow blog to DoFollow blog, leaving one or two sentence comments with good keywords in the name field as a free and easy way to build up their SEO juice.

Quite frankly, I charge my advertisers $70 a month for this kind of advertising. And at least then I can promote products and services I can stand behind, because a link on this site puts my name on the line.

Worse yet, spammers have gotten smart. They realize that if they can get one comment approved, most bloggers will let the rest of the comments through. Imagine my horror when I realize this happened to me and one spammer had built up 10 outbound links on my blog to different non-blog sites over a month, using a different name each time - but by using the same email address, they all slipped through unnoticed. Each comment said something about the actual post, but when I did a search and took a look at all of their comments together on one page, it was obvious the system was being gamed.

And my domain is the one that Google will penalize for linking to a spam site.

So Where Do We Go from Here?

Again, quite frankly, I don’t know. The majority of commenters on this site are people I’m thrilled to be able to help. But I am also running a business here. And my life savings is gone and invested into this blog and my business. 

I love you guys and all, but it’s scary to think that the countless hours of time and energy (and dollars)  spent on building this site could be wiped away in one Google Heartbeat because of the actions of a few people who want to abuse the system.

Ideas? Thoughts? Solutions?! I’m all ears!

Comments: 67 Comments

This guest post was written by Susan Driggers from Life is Risky.

Ok for those of you who might not know, deep linking is when you link directly to a post versus simply linking to the front page of a site. For instance if your blog is called TheItBlog.Com and you have a post with a URI of http://www.theitblog.com/my-awesome-post/ people who link to you have two choices.

1. They can link to the main page of your blog by using the link
http://www.theitblog.com

2. They can link to the exact post they are interested in by using the
link http://www.theitblog.com/my-awesome-post/

Now if they use the first option when referencing your post or site, anyone else who wishes to read your original post will have to click over to your site, do a search for the mentioned article, click to the article and read it. That is an excessive amount of clicking and time wasted just to read your article. Experience shows that more often than not, users will simply click off your main page versus going through all the steps necessary to locate your post. The result is a lost reader and potentially lost revenue.

Of course all is not lost, should your site be referred to only through your front page versus a deep link to a particular article. You will still receive a link in Google and other search engines “eyes” but that is where the path potentially ends.

If they use the second option, the likelihood that a potential reader can find not only your site but the direct post that was mentioned is greatly increased. A simply click on the link and they are taken directly to the article. No excessive clicking, and less chance of a direct click off to find something else. You have the reader’s attention, hopefully the content is worth their click.

So the question becomes, how do you know if people are deep linking to you and vice versa. If you have ever seen a comment to a post which looked something like this and used the title of a post and a blog’s name versus a person’s then that is a deep link in action:

[…] LifeIsRisky Midlife Musings Utterly Geek Whatever I Feel Like My Dandelion Patch Surviving NJ GeekySpeaky Simple Kind Of Life 3DayMom BuyMeBlog The Hockey Dad […]

This particular type of comment is the result of the deep link pinging your original post or sending you a trackback. If you are using trackback aware blogging software such as WordPress then it will show up in your comment section. There are usually no special actions required on the deep linker’s part, other than the actual deep link, or the receiver’s part if the software is configured correctly.

Ok so I understand what a deep link is you say but why should I care?

Excellent question. Deep linking and the resulting pings and trackbacks help on numerous levels. For one it builds a relationship between your post and other posts that reference it or are used for reference. For another it potentially builds traffic for all linked sites as users click around to follow the conversation or learn more about the subject. Also, it builds additional links in Google or other search engines, which is always a good thing.

Perhaps it’s largest asset though is that it allows the author of a blog to see who is actually reading and referencing their posts. If you are like me, you really like to get to know your readers. Some people make it a special point to communicate with their readers and visit their respective sites, if they know about them. This helps with networking, relationship building and overall cohesiveness.

Now deep linking alone won’t make your blog outstanding, only outstanding content and a wonderful marketing plan can do that but they certainly help. Plus deep linking can be used within your own posts to reference a previous post on your site making it easier for your users to find other items that might interest them. A win win situation all the way around.

So now that you know what deep linking is all about why not start using it? It only takes a few extra seconds and can reap lots of benefits for both sides.

—-
Susan Driggers blogs at LifeIsRisky.Com

Comments: 8 Comments

Today is the last day of school for my kids. I”m armed with my 94 activities for kids list as well as Char’s and Randa’s new Kid’s Printables books (which my kids literally fought over), I think I just might survive.

Today I also get to go to my 12 year old’s graduation from grade school IF I can get out of traffic court in time (how’s that for the ultimate in crappy timing?!).

So today’s Monday Motivation is done on the run (and I don’t miss this ‘on the run’ stuff at all).

How to Get Motivated on Mondays

It’s a simple plan - tell us what you are going to do: Today, this week, whatever. Then tell us what will motivate you to get it done - a reward or consequences.

Today I will:

1. Go to traffic court
2. Read one chapter in Joe Vitale’s Hypnotic Writing
3. Read some more of Susan Payton’s 101 Entrepreneur Tips
4. Write 4 posts for Shoestring Smarts
5. Clean out inbox (I’m extremely proud to say there are only 54 emails sitting in there right now!)

For the rest of the week I will

1. Meditate 3X
2. Scratch 10 things off of my ongoing To Do lists

If I don’t get this stuff done I will send $400 to a Kiva entrepreneur!

So what are you going to get done?

Comments: 12 Comments

Ever feel like Cuba Gooding in my favorite movie of all time, Jerry McGuire? I sure have been lately. Both my husband and I seem to have some kind of cosmic money dam in place - and we’re both owed a combined $10K on back commissions, outstanding invoices, and the like. In the meantime, as we wait, and wait, and wait, we’re constantly “coaching” each other to stay positive and stay focused on our outcome instead of the current situation.

But just when I thought I had it bad, an email from an entrepreneurial friend today put it into perspective - and she’ s probably about to lose her home because of a business she sold more than a year ago.

And I’m whining because we can’t go boating - shut me up now, please.

I wrote about it all on Inspired Business Growth yesterday and today. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Comments: 19 Comments

Last week I shared the hilarious comment thread on the sign-that-should-never-have-been.

I think I may may this a Friday tradition - a roundup of all the things that distracted me during the week! (Oh, that could be a L-O-N-G Friday post - jeesh!!)

On that note - here’s a very funny video about an enthusiastically hungry cat who, well, is just plain enthusiastic.

Comments: 8 Comments

Did you know that today is Jeremy Schoemaker’s Birthday?

Go visit him and tell him he’s getting OLD!

Comments: 1 Comment

Yesterday was the day before my husband’s payday. He had a client meeting all the way out in Rockford, which is a 3 hour round-trip drive. He only had $40 to fill up the tank - and almost didn’t make it back to the office after paying $3.75 a gallon!!

When you think about some of the expenses you incur for working outside of the home, it can add up rather quickly:

• Gas/Train Fare
• Daycare
• Dry Cleaning
• Suits/Clothes (that don’t have juice stains from the kids)
• Lunches

When I quit my job last year to work from home again, I figured I automatically had a new base pay of about $30K because of what we saved on day care, clothing, dining and train fare.

But this post was really an excuse to share this super-cool link with you from MSN. If you punch in your zip code, you can find gas prices at all of your local gas stations on one page. In our town, the per-gallon price ranged from $3.47 to $3.75, which is a pretty significant jump when you’re filling up a whole tank (especially in the SUV I wish I didn’t own!). But it’s not as bad as you poor people in Melvindale Michigan who are paying the highest price in the nation of $4.12!

Find out where to fill up in your town.
(Sorry to my non-U.S. friends, but this one is only for U.S. stations! )

John has passed along a similar link for those of you in the UK - THANKS!

Comments: 16 Comments

Do babies need a social network and a blog? Well, I’m not sure that they do, but I know their mamas sure could use the fun!

BabyChums is a fairly new social networking site for moms and dads - but the twist on this one is that the babies take center stage. Now, I luuuuuuuuurrrv social networking, and I have to say that I think this site is clever, fun and offers a unique twist on mommy/daddy social networking that I haven’t seen anywhere else.

Basically, parents don’t create profiles - it’s all about the babies. So even if you didn’t want to socialize with other people on the site, you could very easily create a mini-website for your baby to share photos and news with distant family and friends. But they also have a live chat feature, forum, groups, event board and classifieds so that there’s plenty of reasons to get social.

There’s even a smackdown section where you can vote for the best photo - and a rating section. (Uh, I must admit that I can’t imagine anyone giving ANY baby less than a 10 out of 10… )

I was wondering why I hadn’t heard about the site earlier, but I see why - they got their start in the UK, and seem to finally breaking out into the states and Canada. The only drawback that the site has thus far is that they seem to need more members. The forum area is kind of sparse, but they certainly seem to have enough momentum to ensure that will kick into gear in the coming months.

BabyChums is all free and started by a dad. He won’t even take donations from users, instead funneling any offers to his favorite charity. Although this was a sponsored review, I’m always happy to spread the word about great people doing great things for parents online.

I know a lot of you have little babies, so if you check it out please let me know what you thought of it, as I always want to hear from you about the stuff you like.

Comments: 2 Comments

Great eMoms reader Nathania Johnson and her husband recently started a new site to pair up authors and new bloggers with guest blogging opportunities at Guest-Blogger.com.

Sign-up is a snap and you can go now to check out the blogs with guest writing opportunities (such as here!!). The site JUST launched, so they could use a little help building up the blog opportunities.

Since I know many of you are interested in doing more guest blogging (and finding guest bloggers!!) hopefully you’ll head over there now and register - it’s free!

Comments: 6 Comments