For those unfamiliar with Antisocial, these are the differences

• All links have nofollow added – this might sound strange coming from someone who strongly supports the removal of nofollow from comments, but there is no logical purpose having a followable link to a social bookmark site that just points to a submission form
• TwitThis Support – for those that like Tweeting
• StumbleUpon Fix – The original has a bug in the StumbleUpon link
• New support for Sphinn – lots of people are going to use it, so I am sure it is a welcome addition

I am aware that Eyefall previously posted a modified version of the original to include Sphinn, but it doesn’t include the other necessary changes, and who really wants to use a plugin that sucks for SEO, especially the primary users of Sphinn, most likely SEOs.

Another valuable note, very few people will actually take action and use patched files, or even files presented as phps which you have to copy and paste.
If you don’t distribute plugins in an idiot proof zip file, very few people will use it.

I learnt this from experience by offering initially instructions on how to patch Sociable, and how many of my readers didn’t take action.

If you are still unsure about why you might want to use my version of Sociable, you might appreciate this “blast from the past” about how many blogs can retain as much as 50% more link juice internally.

For more information on the plugin itself, please visit the main download page.

For those that know all about it, here is a quick download link for Antisocial

Note: As always, no version number change though I have updated the notes within it – I still look on this as not being a branch of the original, just a hack for SEO minded individuals.
It still contains the sociable bug with WordPress 2.2.1 as I recently mentioned

When you save options, the following error is encountered

Warning: implode() [function.implode]: Bad arguments. in /home/andyeu/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sociable/sociable.php on line 659

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/andyeu/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sociable/sociable.php on line 770

The display of all the draggable icons is severely messed up.

From what I can see in the code (as a tinkerer, not a programmer), this does not prevent the options from being saved, and the correct saved settings appear to be reflected when the page is refreshed, and on the blog itself.

The error appears to be in a section of the code that is related to the default icon set, but I haven’t spent too much time trying to fix it, as I would hope this will be fixed in the original.

I don’t look on my version of the plugin as a branch, I have left all default options “as-is”, thus I will await an official fix, and then update my slightly modified version.

Many thanks to Edwin De Jong and Mindy Koch for making me aware of the problem so I could test it out with WP2.2.1

p.s. I did try to coax a website out of Edwin to link too, but he declined

The culprit is TwitThis, that seems to be using Amazon S3 to store images.

Here is the standard TwitThis code:-

<!-- Begin TwitThis (http://twitthis.com/) -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://s3.chuug.com/chuug.twitthis.scripts/twitthis.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
document.write('<a href="javascript:;" onclick="TwitThis.pop();"><img src="http://andybeard.eu/wp-content/uploads/twitthis_grey_72x221.gif" alt="TwitThis" style="border:none;" /></a>');
//-->
</script>
<!-- /End -->

What you need to do is host the TwitThis logo on your own server to speed things up.
Here is the image used that you can save to your harddisk and then upload to WordPress or other blogging platform.

Then all you need to do is insert it into the code

In my case this is what I am using

<!-- Begin TwitThis (http://twitthis.com/) -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://s3.chuug.com/chuug.twitthis.scripts/twitthis.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
document.write('<a href="javascript:;" onclick="TwitThis.pop();"><img src="http://ndybeard.eu/wp-content/uploads/twitthis_grey_72x22.gif" alt="TwitThis" style="border:none;" /></a>');
//-->
</script>
<!-- /End -->

Actually I have listed a broken URL above, I don’t want people just copying the code and trying to use the image from my server.

As an alternative to the TwitThis button, Jemmille has created a modified version of my hacked Sociable plugin Antisocial that includes a “TwitThis” button, and a fix to StumbleUpon.
I will probably update my distribution with Jemmille’s code in a few days, but you can get it directly for now.

Update: This wasn’t a total fix because the Javascript was still being loaded from Amazon S3 and was causing horrendous page load times. TwitThis has been removed until I can hack a version that doesn’t use javascript.

WordPress SEO Tips & Hacks

Subscribe to Comments Hacks – I am including this at the top of the list because it is highly important. Emails sent out from your domain could cause you problems with email delivery or spam complaints, and the plugin by default doesn’t comply with CAN-SPAM if you or someone else (a spammer) includes a marketing message in your emails.
The danger of overloading your server with emails being sent faster than your host allows is also worth thinking about. I know multiple blogs that have problems delivering all subscribed comments and I am sure the owners are not aware of this.

Just imagine you have 20 people comment on a post, and then you get 5 new comments in the space of one hour – that would put you over the limit on most shared hosting.

Mine are set up to be delivered by Gmail by SMTP – which email host is going to block Gmail totally?

Spam Karma latest release, and I also speculated that I get less spam using it than if I was using Akismet.

My Ultimate List of Dofollow Plugins first published in February still gains links on a daily basis, and has helped convert 100s of people into removing nofollow from their comments and trackbacks.
I have a followup project planned that I will launch within the next week that will provide a way of highlighting blogs that wish to be highlighted as supporting DoFollow.
The page also now includes information on how to remove NoFollow from blogs using Blogger and I hope to be able to include detailed Typepad and MoveableType instructions (I know of 3 people working on this)

How linking to social media and bookmarking sites could affect your search engine performance. The discussion that followed on is just as informative as the post.

Tagging and How Tagging Can Help SEO is one of the primary topics of this blog. I have written a lot of posts regarding the benefits of using Ultimate Tag Warrior (that is a link to the tag).
My analysis of the Google BlogSearch Patent didn’t gain a lot of links from SEO blogs, but then most SEO bloggers don’t understand the benefits of tagging and are too worried about duplicate content (another tag link)

Do you get linked to by the press? I also highlighted how bad some press agencies are with linking.

My attack on Top Commenters plugins caused some uproar. It is great to provide a way to thank the people who comment on your blog, but I prefer to do that by using DoFollow.
If you can understand my milk bottle analogy, you will go a long way to improving the SEO profile of your blog. If you do use a Top Commenters plugin, at least include it using some WordPress logic functions such as is_home() and is_single()

Top WordPress Plugins

I will be opening up the voting for the first round of my cash donations for best wordpress plugins later today (I need to decide which plugin or service to use). I am giving away real money in large chunks to help support WordPress Plugin Development.

Monetization & Blogging Tips

Warning about using Amazon Contextual Links

PayPerPost vs Jason Calacanis turned into an in depth discussion regarding ThisNext vs PayPerPost on Disclosure (you really have to read the comments)

Performancing Metrics Is a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing for Niche Website owners and why I recommend Clicky instead.

I write a lot about disclosure in affiliate marketing and blogging. Whilst PayPerPost is constantly being highlighted, the people doing the highlighting are actually as guilty of poor disclosure and unethical practices themselves.

Maki asked a number of bloggers why they display a feed counter and I gave what I believe is the most in depth answer. There are some good tips there for those people who already have an existing mailing list to jumpstart their blog subscription for an insane amount of social proof.
Why don’t Aweber and Getresponse offer a decent email subscription to RSS feeds that reports numbers to Feedburner? Anyone who uses their services misses out on the social proof benefit.
They should also offer their own social proof icons for email subscriptions.

In some ways I hate product launch formula style marketing of services. The scarcity factor makes it hard for a potential buyer to make an informed decision despite all the proof.
Sometimes the materials left over are of huge value, and I recommend you watch the videos from Rich Schefren.

Product Reviews

Stampede Traffic

Sponsored Reviews – with this service you can negotiate with me for paid reviews :)

Volusion Shopping Cart – was I too harsh on them?
Auction Ads

Web 2.0

Is this the Future of MyBlogLog when we finally get an API? Smart internet marketers should already be planning on how the data could be best integrated into other applications.

Tips on using Reddit and Stumbleupon. The StumbleUpon post lists my membership details to a number of social networks… lets be friends. I really should include those in my sidebar.

Sometimes it is amazing the knock-on effect of what you blog about.

My How To Use MyBlogLog post sent Cord some traffic, but the important factor is the quality of traffic sent. Eric from MyBlogLog saw the post, read Cord’s 2 part guide, and then listed it on the MyBlogLog blog, along with some more tips.

I wrote a fair amount about Twitter, partially because it was the talk of the blogosphere, and partially because as with all emerging technology, there were a lot of ethical problems in using it for commercial use. The best way to read full coverage is to use my Twitter tag.

I love Technorati, but they really have problems coping with all the new kinds of RSS and micro blog services such as Twitter, and co.Comment

I had some Digg success earlier in the month, with a story I submitted to Digg actually reaching the front page. The discussion is well worth reading with some insight from Michel Fortin and others.

I have been using a hacked version of the popular sociable plugin for months. The hack consists of just adding 14 characters that are very important to the well-being of your website (if you use Sociable)

rel=”nofollow”

I have discussed providing this hacked version, or a better one in the past and just didn’t get around to it. I am not going to sell the advantages of making this change.

I just get sick of visiting the blogs of friends and not being greeted by pink boxes.

I have created a special download page on this domain for hacked Word press plugins

Note: I did offer this as a suggestion to the author before the last release to include by default or as an option, and he declined.

I will most likely be providing a few more hacked plugins as a distribution, but please understand I do not regard these plugins as a branch from the original.

Goto WordPress Plugin Hacks

Sociable has been due for an update for a long time. In popularity I am sure it is among the top 20 plugins in use, maybe even top 10 – it is certainly very visible on blogs, more so than the very discreet Share This plugin.

I contacted Peter a couple of weeks ago asking if there was an update coming soon, and he said to me that he was back working on Sociable, and an update was imminent.

You can currently download beta4, it is quite possible that the plugin will go final today.

It hasn’t changed a huge amount, other than adding a lot more bookmarking sites, so you can choose which sites are popular with your audience.

I have just sent Peter a small update which he can hopefully include:-

• Adding the nofollow tag to the links
• Inclusion of a Plug IM button
• Inclusion of a Bumpzee Button

You can see the new buttons as I am currently testing them on this blog with version 2.0 Beta4

If you are wondering about PlugIM and Bumpzee, PlugIM is a growing site similar to other social bookmarking sites, but with an emphasis on Internet Marketing (where you are allowed to plug your own posts), and Bumpzee is a new social network for Affiliate Marketers that picks up your feed content automatically for other people to vote upon.

Yesterday the big news was about Technorati adding some kind of Digg clone (Technorati WTF), but in many ways Bumpzee might have similar functions, because you can find content based upon tags, and vote on the ones you like. They don’t have the massive amount of content yet, but it could be a very useful service or script within vertical markets.
In fact from what I read on Niall Kennedy’s blog, WTF grew out of an internal notes tool, and is more a way of explaining news on Technorati, a social feature, rather than a voting system. Technorati votes for sites with blog posts, which generally take more than 3 seconds to write, unlike Digg, so the top stories might actually be more news worthy.