RL Digital

Replace Askimet with Defensio

Robert — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 04:22:50 +0000

What’s up with Askimet these days? This well-known WordPress plugin has been letting foul comment spam through on two of my blogs including RL-Digital. To solve the problem, I ditched Askimet and replaced it with the Defensio plugin.

Unlike Askimet, Defensio at least has some adjustments. And, it is an adaptive filter, which will improve with time. You may need to give it a few days to learn, but quite quickly you should see spam eliminated that is sneaking by Askimet.

To help Defensio learn, restore good comments that were incorrectly marked as spam, and mark errant spams as spam. Also, if you do not agree with a comment but it is not spam, make sure to delete it instead of marking it as spam.

You will need an API Key to activate the plugin. You can get one for free by registering on the Defensio site. To see your stats, login to the Defensio site and go to ‘Statistics’. To use the plugin on multiple sites, make sure to generate a unique API key for each site.

Google Chrome Theme by Ericulous.com

Robert — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 01:02:43 +0000

Genkisan, the webmaster at Ericulous.com, has just released a free lightweight WordPress theme based on Google’s popular Chrome browser. There have been several Chrome themes released by other developers. However, this is the best one that I have seen so far. The combination of a full width header and fixed width body looks great without allowing page elements to re-arrange in smaller browser windows.

Features

2 columns fixed width
Fast-loading
Widgets ready
Gravatar ready
Works on Wordpress v2.5 and above
Tested on IE6/7, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and of course Chrome
XHTML & CSS Validated

For more information and a download link, head over to the Chrome Theme page.

New Amazon Movie & TV Show Preview Widget

Robert — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:25:15 +0000

Amazon has added it’s new movie & TV streaming service to it’s Associates Program. Associates will earn a 10% referral fee on all movies, TV seasons, and TV episodes such as The Office, House and Law & Order. The widget shown below allows Associates to add movie trailers to their websites.

The first two minutes of videos automatically play at no charge to customers inside the widget. At any time during or after the 2-minute viewing period, customers can choose to purchase or rent the title to watch it in its entirety. The preview serves to drive higher conversions and increased referral fees for Associates.

Amazon.com Widgets

The minimum widget width is 510px. It won’t fit in the sidebar of most blogs. If Amazon wants this widget to be widely used, they will need to squeeze it down to at least 300×250px. That way, it would fit nicely into sidebar widgets.

Google launches AdSense for Feeds

Robert — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 08:56:51 +0000

After several years in beta test, Google has just launched the much anticipated ‘AdSense for Feeds’. When you next visit the Setup tab in your AdSense account, you’ll notice a new ‘AdSense for Feeds’ option.

Features

Optimized CPC and CPM ads
Ads specifically design for RSS feeds
Wide range of customization options
Detailed stats on your feed audience and distribution
Manage monetization of your feeds through your AdSense account

To activate a AdSense for Feeds, you can either burn a feed directly in your AdSense account or migrate a feed(s) from your Feedburner account. I recommend burning your feed in Feedburner first as you have more choices of options and stats.

Migrating FeedBurner Feeds to Google AdSense

In order to activate AdSense for Feeds, you need to migrate your FeedBurner account into your Google Account. To migrate all of your feeds, and your account from feeds.feedburner.com to Google, email adsense-support-aff@google.com and provide the following information:

* Your FeedBurner account username
* The Google Account email address you use to sign in to AdSense

Google will migrate your account and contact you with specific steps for you to follow once migration is complete.

WidgetBucks launches Pre-Designed and Custom Ad Widget Skins

Robert — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:43:54 +0000

WidgetBucks has introduced pre-designed and custom ad skins for their well-known WidgetBucks widgets. Publishers have two choices - choose from a gallery of over 125 pre-designed skins to apply to new and existing ad widgets or use the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) tools to add their own unique look-and-feel to ad widgets

The gallery of off-the-shelf skins map closely to WidgetBucks’ product categories, including entertainment (Batman, celebrities), tech and electronics (iPhone, GPS devices, XM Radio), fashion (handbags, flip flips), sports and outdoors (basketball, baseball), video games (Halo), and more. They are can be applied to six IAB standard sizes. The new skins only show up on WidgetBucks’ CPC widgets. CPM display ads will run without the new designs.

DIY design tools include two basic applications — MS Paint and Notepad, both standard on PCs (one Mac Paint equivalent is open-source software Seashore). These tools give publishers powerful customization ability to enable very integrated look-and-feel delivery of their WidgetBucks ad units on their sites.

Shown above is a 160×300 WidgetBucks ad widget as it appears on TechCrunch.

Sign-up and Earn $$ with WidgetBucks.

WidgetBucks launches CPC Ads in Europe

Robert — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:43:12 +0000

WidgetBucks has just announced that is expanding its CPC (cost-per-click) network for Western European traffic. Starting July 15th, when publishers serve WidgetBucks ad widgets on their sites, visitors based in the UK will see a short-duration CPM display ad followed by a CPC shopping widget featuring UK-based merchants and products listed in British pounds.

The CPM/CPC hybrid ad gives publishers two revenue streams from the same ad widget instance. Before today, only CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) ads were served to visitors outside the U.S. and Canada. Additional Western European countries, including Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden will come online over the next two weeks.

Changes to publishers reports will be seamless. In addition to current CPM impressions, additional impressions will automatically be added into CPC roll-up and daily totals, as well as resulting revenue. At this time, WidgetBucks is not breaking out CPC impressions and earnings by country. You’ll have to track that via the site URL.

Shown above is a 160×300 WidgetBucks ad widget as it will appear in the UK.

Sign-up and Earn $$ with WidgetBucks.

Update July 30th: Today WidgetBucks added Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Sweden and Denmark to the UK. This means that site visitors from those countries will now see the double-revenue ad widgets.

Automattic Releases WordPress 2.6

Robert — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:36:14 +0000

It’s not just for blogging anymore! With static frontpage options and easy-to-setup permalinks, WordPress is a great choice for CMS sites.

Watch the video, see the changes below, and then upgrade!

Version 2.6 fixes approximately 194 bugs. Plus you get:

Word count (no need to guess how many words are in a post anymore)
Image captions
Bulk management of plugins
A completely revamped image control to allow for easier inserting, floating, and resizing… fully integrated with the WYSIWYG
Drag-and-drop reordering of Galleries
Plugin update notification bubble
Customizable default avatars
You can now upload media when in full-screen mode
Remote publishing via XML-RPC and APP is now secure (off) by default, but you can turn it on easily through the options screen
Full SSL support in the core, and the ability to force SSL for security
You can now have many thousands of pages or categories with no interface issues
Ability to move your wp-config file and wp-content directories to a custom location, for “clean” SVN checkouts
Select a range of checkboxes with “shift-click”
You can toggle between the Flash uploader and the classic one
A number of proactive security enhancements, including cookies and database interactions
Stronger better faster versions of TinyMCE, jQuery, and jQuery UI

Amazon introduces Bill Me Later® payment option

Robert — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:17:41 +0000

Amazon.com has introduced Bill Me Later®; an alternate way to pay for Amazon.com orders without using credit card.

Instant approval is available when first choosing the Bill Me Later® option during a purchase¹. You simply enter your birthday, the last 4 digits of your Social Security Number, and then accept the terms. For future purchases on Amazon.com, you just select Bill Me Later® on the payment page to complete your purchase.

Orders are shipped as usual; then you receive a bill from Bill Me Later® in the mail. You can choose to pay in full or over time (finance charges apply if paid over time).

Promo

Buy Now, Get $10 off purchases of $50 or more Pay with Bill Me Later® and use promo code BMLSAVES at checkout (subject to credit approval). Offer limited to items sold by Amazon.com between July 14, 2008 and July 21, 2008. One per customer account. See promotion terms and conditions for details.

Bill Me Later® cannot be used for the following items on Amazon.com:

Gift Cards
Amazon Fresh
Amazon Prime
Digital downloads
Subscribe and Save
Items offered by Amazon Marketplace sellers

Amazon has introduced the program to give an alternative to people still leery about using credit cards online.

Two banners are available for Amazon Associates to promote the program on their sites.

¹ Bill Me Later® is subject to credit approval as determined by the lender, CIT Bank, Salt Lake City, UT and is available to US customers only who are of legal age in their state of residence.

WordPress for iPhone coming soon!

Robert — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:58:58 +0000

Here’s a preview of the soon to be released WordPress for iPhone application from the team at Automattic. The new application will let you blog and edit articles on your iPhone. It supports WordPress.com blogs as well as self-hosted WordPress blogs running version 2.5.1 or newer.

The application is necessary because blogging using only the iPhone’s Safari browser is nearly impossible because of the keyboard layout. The ability to insert photos into posts directly from the iPhone camera will come in very handy.

The WordPress for iPhone application is Open Source and will be available from the iPhone App store for free.

ASE Adnet - New CPC Ad Network

Robert — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:11:31 +0000

ASE Adnet is a new CPC ad network that is a direct competitor to TTZ Media. What’s the same? The ads look remarkably similar to TTZ Media Ads. What’s different? ASE Adnet is using a percentage based system rather than the tiered EPC structure offered by TTZ Media. The ASE Adnet system opens the door for higher (and lower) earnings per click.

Here are the key features:

Reports Updated Hourly
Simple and Advanced Ad Code Generators
Select Products via Keywords or PIDs
Multiple Campaign Tracking
US$25 minimum payout via PayPal
Fast Support

ASE Adnet has another big advantage over TTZ Media - a completely customizable ad layout via an Advanced Ad Code Generator. You can make ads of any size, using any colors, and placing different parts of the ad - like the product price, image, and store - in different places within the ad box. All you need is a little bit of CSS knowledge. If you don’t know CSS, you can always use the Simple Ad Code Generator.

Also, ASE Adnet gives you the ability to pick which product(s) you want showing in your ad. A product or products can be selected by keywords or by PID number. Multiple products can be rotated or show together.

Rather than geo-targeting or geo-filtering, ASE Adnet filters by browser language. This allows wider visibility for ads. However, they only pay for USA clicks. All clicks are audited before payouts are made.

How much can you make per click for ASE Adnet? I don’t yet. However, TTZ Media pays only a flat $0.15/click until you rack up 1,000 clicks. After that, TTZ Media pays $0.18/click maxing out at $0.25/click for heavy traffic sites. Aron Schatz, the owner of ASE Adnet, thinks smaller publishers can achieve $0.25/click.

ASE Adnet payouts are through Paypal with a minimum payment of only US$25.

Sign-up for ASE Adnet.

You can see the ASE Adnet ads running here and here at the end of the posts.