Fighting Eric Jones: How reCAPTCHA and Maspik Saved My Sanity

I despise Eric Jones. Like medieval-level despisal. Like tar-and-feathering, branding-with-a-hot-iron, pouring-boiling-oil-off-the-castle-ramparts kind of despisal. Eric Jones – a pseudonym for a well-known SEO spambot – has sent me over 2,000 emails. Most of them come from a Gmail account, like eric.jones.z.mail@gmail.com or something like that. They promise lead magnets, SEO

Don’t Forget to Disable Ads on These Pages!

Programmatic advertising is becoming the new status quo. But with auto ads comes the danger that the computer will place ads where you don’t want them! Because no one likes a webpage where Adsense just vomited all over the HTML. If you allow ads to overrun your blog, your Reader

I Turned Down a $300 Sponsored Post. Sorry Not Sorry.

A monkey put his hand into a jar of cookies.  He grasped as many as he could possibly hold, but when he tried to pull out his hand, he was prevented from doing so by the neck of the cookie jar.  Unwilling to lose the cookies, and yet unable to

Is Blogging Passive Income? I Say No.

Is a blog a purely passive investment? I say no. Before you burn me in effigy, let me be clear – I think a blog is a wonderful source of income. Unlike wages, it doesn’t trade time for dollars. If you do it right, a blog can multiply your return

Siri Is Coming for Your Longtail Keywords!

Blogging has a list of deceased tactics longer than the French Revolution. Micro niche sites, autoblogging, affiliate sites, and keyword stuffing – they’re all blue and cold.  Ours is a gelatinous industry. It’s constantly shape-shifting and oozing into new territory. It’s a short hike from the future to the past.

Google Betrayed Me. I Lost 40% of My Traffic.

Google has betrayed me. I have a site in the Outdoor Travel niche (called “the Site”) which recently got the stuffing taken out of it.  You can see the carnage yourself. This is a 14-day snapshot of the Site’s Google Search impressions and organic clicks. September 20th was my Black

Why This Blog Doesn’t Allow Comments

Until today, I didn’t allow comments on this blog. And to be honest, that hurt me.  I wanted to allow comments. I wanted to foster intelligent discourse, witty bantering, and the occasional compliment like “Wow Andy, you’re so smart, I’ve learned so much from this blog, can I cite this

Stop Wasting Your Time Comparing Web Hosting Providers!

Want to get bogged down in quicksand? Ask the question, “What is the best blogging hosting service?” Type this search query into Google, and you’ll immediately sink into a quagmire of affiliate marketing posts comparing the best web hosts for bloggers. Every review has a Buy Now link. Every list

Don’t Name Your Blog After Yourself! (The Remix)

In November 2021, I wrote a post titled “Don’t Name Your Blog After Yourself!” In that article (which you should read, print off and pin to your fridge), I argued that most entrepreneurial bloggers would be better off not naming their blogs after themselves.  Three months later, Sara emailed me.

Reverse Engineering AdamEnfroy.com – Secrets of Blogging Success

If you want, you can read Adam Enfroy’s opinion on two ERP software systems, SAP vs Oracle. Or I’ll save you some time. In his introduction, Enfroy (or one of his ghostwriters, most likely) says:  “By the end of this article, you should have a good understanding of the main