Whilst it might appear that there was an increase of votes this time around, with 29 votes instead of 24, that doesn’t allow for the fact that 8 votes were added as a bonus. Thus there were only 21 fresh votes.

Again at least there were no rigged votes.

Here is the voting:-

The clear winner was Dofollow

I will be continuing the practice of carrying forward half the value of votes through to the next round.

I am looking for more nominations for Best WordPress Plugin, and hopefully next time round we will see more voting.

Proof of $100 Donation:-

Amount: $100.00 USD
Transaction ID: 81Y43496U4479182L
Subject: Donation For Top WordPress Plugins - Dofollow (April 2007)
Message:
This is a donation for Dofollow, which was both nominated
by my readers and subsequently voted for by my readers
as a Top WordPress Plugin.

I have more reviews to do, so there will definitely be at least one donation being made this month, possibly two if I get a couple more reviews.

While Matt focuses on the negative side of paid posts, I like to focus on the positive side, writing quality content that adds real value for my readers, and then donating the proceeds to WordPress plugin authors.
I wonder what percentage of WordPress theme and plugin authors sell links from their website, and how that compares to the amount of money they earn from donations?
When Robert Scoble announced that he was no longer going to speak at PostieCon, it gained a number of blog reactions, and even Michael Arrington from Techcrunch found time to leave a comment.

It is a shame simple solutions to disclosure which is the real issue with paid reviews don’t get coverage, such as adding a disclosure feed flare or my Disclosure Policy Plugin.

Donations are going to be made (if possible) in large chunks of $100

This poll will not work correctly in feed readers and email

[poll=3]

Voting will be open until sometime during the morning of Friday 4th May (EST) – hopefully that will give the winner some nice additional beer money for the weekend.

Earnings to date for paid reviews: $30 + $75 + $98 + $130 = $333

The one review I did during April was for iBegin Source Business Information, so they are effectively sponsoring this round of donations.

I am covering the shortfall this time around as I know I have 2 reviews in the kitty to do this week.

That means the second giveaway will be for $100 this Friday

As discussed in the comments of the previous poll, I am carrying forward half the value of votes from the previous round, rounded up, so that votes from the previous round are not looked on as wasted votes, but still giving new plugins a chance.

For new nominations, please refer to the Best WordPress Plugins nominations page.

I have checked the ballots and there doesn’t seem to be any scandals – rigged voting would have been news worthy and actually profitable, it just goes to show how honest people in the WordPress community are.

Here is the voting:-

I don’t want anyone to feel that a vote is being wasted, thus for the next round I will be carrying forward half the value of previous votes rounded up, thus those that receive some votes in previous rounds will have a slight head-start in the next round of voting.

I am looking for more nominations for Best WordPress Plugin, and hopefully next time round we will see more voting.

Proof of $100 Donation:-

Payment Details
Transaction ID:		8L9571889R560693X
Item Price:		$100.00 USD
Total:			$100.00 USD
Order Description:	Donation to UTW as voted on by my readers
Buyer:			Keedz Limited

I have read that tagging functionality is being brought into the core of WordPress, and UTW might evolve into a way of expressing that data.
Christine Davis has worked hard with UTW, and I was actually glad I could give some recognition for all the hard work she has done in providing tagging support to WordPress in such a comprehensive manner.

Hopefully the next round of voting will gain a little more publicity, and that I gain a few more product reviews so I can make more donations to more plugin authors.

I am going to finish with a quote from my “almost namesake”, Andy Beal over at Marketing Pilgrim

If you want something picked apart, Andy Beard is your man.

Donations are going to be made (if possible) in large chunks of $100

[poll=1]

Voting will be open until sometime during the morning of Friday 6th April (EST) – hopefully that will give the winner some nice additional beer money for the weekend.

Earnings to date for paid reviews: $30 + $75 + $98 = $203

That means the first giveaway will be for $100 this Friday

I decided to try using the WP-Polls plugin to run these polls for a number of reasons.

• WordPress Plugin Authors like their plugins being used
• It has lots of powerful configuration options
• It will add more relevant content to my site
• It doesn’t pull information from a 3rd party server, potentially slowing down loading

Admittedly I have been a little lax with my donations to other authors, though I have invested money in plugin development, only to publish the plugins myself under a GPL license, thus in my own way giving to the community.

What I have decided to do is to donate some of the income I receive from writing paid reviews back to the WordPress community.
I currently receive $130 for a paid review, and it is my aim to give 50% of my paid review earnings to plugin authors, probably on a monthly basis.

To ensure that credit is given where credit is due, I am only going to start the ball rolling with 2 of my own personal favourites. All other suggestions are subject to an “open mike”.

Only one suggestion per person is allowed, and you are not allowed to suggest your own plugin.
Once the list reaches 20 plugins, I will open a new post for this months voting.

Each month the list will be rolled over with new suggestions added. Though we will see how workable it is to include all the suggestions in each month’s list, I reserve the right to only include a certain number from the top of the list, or to bump plugins up the list if I personally feel they are worthy of being included sooner.

There is always a variation in how much I receive for writing a review, but my aim is to make each payout “visible” – more than just beer money, so typically around $100 seems suitable.