To Ad or Not to Ad?

How do you feel about advertising on blogs?
Is it an issue that divides the community?
Do you understand the other side's point of view?
What irritates you?
What do you like to see?
Is the financial gain worth the downside of having ads on your blog?
What's the difference between professional and non-professional blogging?
Discuss...?


This Post was written by Sam by request from Kitty. (see previous post's comments)

Ad Free and Proud of it?

You might then be interested in adfreeblog.org



By using the above icon and link on your website you are stating...

1. You are opposed to the use of corporate advertising on blogs.

2. You feel the use of corporate advertising on blogs devalues the medium.

3. That you do not accept money in return for advertising space on your blog.

For more information read the FAQ.

This is intended as an informational post. If anyone would like to debate the issues associated with it further then I suggest it would probably be a good idea to start another post specifically for that conversation.

This Post was written by Sam from Becks & Posh with thanks to Amy for bringing it to my attention.

Facebook Profile

Hi Everyone,

I'm trying to integrate all of my various profiles and personas online, and I'd like to have a single Facebook account that connects to two different email accounts. That is, I'd like to include both email addresses in my Facebook profile and/or settings. That way, people who contact me through different email accounts can find me at one place online. But I can't figure out how to do it? I'd be delighted to get some advice.

Happy New Year!


This Post was written by Emily Stone from Chocolate in Context

Not All Posts Shown in Label Filter

Anyone knows how to show all posts or have a 'older posts' link to see more posts once we click on filter to see posts of a particular label?

E.G. when i click on my label "What's Cooking", it only shows 20 posts, but there are actually more posts under this label, same goes for every other labels. I am using blogger.

Any help? Thanks in advance!

This Post was written by rokh from Tham Jiak

Blogrush?

Anyone had positive or negative experiences with Blogrush? I just added it to my blog (You can see it near the bottom of the left hand column on Herbivoracious.com.) It is one of these blog syndication deals where in exchange for showing their widget with other bloggers posts, they will show your headlines at other blogs and send traffic your way. It seems reasonable to me so I thought I'd give it a try, but am curious about other's results or problems. I'll post an update in a few weeks and let you know how it is working for me.

This Post was written by Michael Natkin from Herbivoracious.com.

Has Anyone Else Noticed This???? Custom Headers Now Easier in Blogger

I was playing around with a test template yesterday and noticed that Blogger users with the "new" style Blogger page element layouts can upload custom headers very much like any other image. (no need to have your photo or graphic hosted elsewhere) No fuss, no muss, just be sure you've got the size and cropping you want.

Go to customize your template, page elements, then your header and then edit. A "configure header" box will pop up with the customizing option.

I think it's a fairly new feature and don't recall seeing anything here at FBS on it. Of course, it could be real old news and something I just missed, but in case it is not, I wanted to share.

Faith from Blog Appetit (which still features its regular old rounders4 uncustom header)

PS: Blogger is doing that thing with showing every draft it auto-saved. If you've posted recently to FBS you may want to delete your unneeded drafts from the posts page.

Question on Resizing Photos:

Hi all,

I've noticed that when I resize photos to 500px (the size of my "post" column in my blog), they lose a lot of the quality of the image and tend to look more pixelated. I've been trying to crop the photos to 500px rather than resizing them, but I'd like to solve this problem (sometimes I like the whole photo)!

Would it help if I was using Adobe Photoshop (Elements, probably, for price reasons). I'm currently using Picasa or the Microsoft photo editing software for my (very minimal) photo edits, but I wonder if it's the quality of those programs that is messing up my pictures.

Thanks in advance for any advice!


This post was written by Katy from Sugarlaws

Losing Post Photos When I remove Drafts...

I recently decided to clean house and deleted drafts sitting in my posts list.
The result was I lost the all the uploaded photos in the published post.
Please take a look -
THE RITZ Paris? ? ?
I'm not aware of any information on this drafts thing but I'm wondering what happened and what to do in the future.
Has this happened to anyone else?
HELP!
again...

Carolg
Paris Breakfasts

Comment spam advertising food sites

I have been having a rash of these comments. I'm not letting them publish on my blog, but I've seen them on other blogs:

____________
Maybe you can help me out with something…? I want to order all of my food online from now on because of various reasons, but I don’t know where to go for quality food. I have tried 2 companies so far, xxxxxx, and and xxxxx, but I wanna get others I can try out. Do you know of any? The main thing I’ve ordered so far is steak. I guess you can say, I’m a steak junkie. LOL!!! From what I have found out (from what I have ordered so far) I think I am able to regulate the quality of beef I buy. I hate going to a store and getting that crappy slab of beef that I have to cut down until there is like nothing left. Hahaha!!!! (its so true though) Anyhow, sorry that I made this comment so long. If you can help me out or point me in a direction where I might find more quality foods online, I would greatly appreciate it. Have a good day or night! (depending on when you read this) LOL!!!! ______________________

This is nothing more than advertising for the sites whose names I've removed. I know that one of these sites has been receiving a lot of bad press due to customer complaints. Please don't fall for this and let this type of comment publish on your blog. (This type of thing makes me glad I went to comment moderation.)


This Post was written by Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen

(Misc) Just a suggestion or two...

Now that the finalists for the Food Blog Awards are up and we can breathe a little, just wanted to make a little suggestion. When combing through the hundreds of nominations we received this year, and verifying their eligibility, there are a number of sites that a) don't have visible contact information and/or b) don't have accessible or visible archives. When I discover a new site, I like to go back through the archives and see what I missed. As far as contact information, I know that spam is sometimes an issue, but what about a contact form? Just a suggestion. :)

Cate from Sweetnicks, Well Fed and Mad About Martha.

Local Copyright Issues

Hey everyone,

Hoping you could help me decide the best way to deal with a copyright issue that popped up recently with a local restaurant. The restaurant used a photo from my Flickr account in an emailed newsletter. The photo is copyright protected under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic License. I really don't know if this falls under commercial use or not since they don't charge for their newsletter, but they were using it to promote the restaurant. In either case, it was certainly lacking attribution.

How do I bring this up with the restaurant without seeming like a jerk?


This Post was written by Derek from Gastronomic Fight Club

Has Blogger got the bugs - AGAIN?

Hi folks,

I was wondering if any of you were noticing an irregular notification of your comments via email. I have realized that today I am not receiving many of the emails notifying me that there have been comments left on many posts. I really rely on this as when comments are made on older posts and questions are asked it gives me a chance to respond. Does anyone have any ideas if Blogger has the bugs or the blues?


This Post was written by Meeta from What's For Lunch, Honey?

Thanks -- Made the switch!

I just wanted to say thanks for all the advice I got on my post about switching from blogger to wordpress! I made the big jump this weekend, and after probably 18 straight hours of a self-imposed crash course in css, I'm thrilled with my new self-hosted blog!

Thanks so much to everyone who responded to my earlier post!

This Post was written by Katy from (New and Improved) Sugarlaws!

Switching from Blogger to Wordpress?

So, I started my blog on Blogger a few months ago and I think it's growing steadily. I think that I eventually want to move to my own domain name and publish on Wordpress, rather than using the blogger website and having the ".blogspot.com" address. So, a few questions:

1. Am I right that in the long run, I'll do better with my own domain and wordpress rather than using blogger? i.e., am I just putting off the inevitable if I continue to use the blogger platform for a few months? I am decent at understanding/writing html, so I've been able to customize the blogger site to some extent, but I want to be able to have separate pages for a recipe index, blogroll, etc!

2. Am I better making the switch now, when my blog is still new, rather than when it's been around for a while and I'll be disrupting a larger number of readers (hopefully!)?

3. Am I going to lose readers if I make the switch, or is it pretty seamless?


This Post was written by Katy from sugarlaw.

(General) Ideal Posting Frequency?

Hi everyone -

What are your thoughts on posting frequency and how it affects your traffic/readership? In other words, let's say I get three full stories drafted. Should I post them all the same day? One a day for three days? One every other day? Does it even matter?

Looking forward to your comments!

This Post was written by Laura from The Fro Fro Blog

Blogger Formatting

Hi Ev'body...

I am super frustrated at Blogger and hoping one of ya'll can help me out.

Every post I have written lately has been automatically formatting as double or triple spaced.

When I write a phrase, then hit "enter" ONCE it naturally goes to the next line, but when I look at the HTML the word "div" appears in brackets at least twice before and twice after every word.

I end up going back and manually deleting the "div", which is taking ages and getting me all grumpy.

Does anyone know if I somehow set this up to happen in formatting? Can I UNDO that? What are my options.

Thanks so much all!

Rachael


This Post was written by Rachael from Fresh Approach

(Misc) 2007 Food Blog Awards

Just a note to let you know that we have put the first of many announcements up this morning re: the 2007 Food Blog Awards. We have moved up the schedule slightly this year, to keep it away from the holidays as much as possible. Let the fun begin!

Written by Cate of Well Fed Network and Sweetnicks.

It's a great feeling...

...to go into work at a restaurant that's just been awarded its first Michelin star. So excuse me for feeling really chuffed this morning. Thanks to all my friends in Food Blog S'cool who gave me so much encouragement over the past year or so.

This Post was written by Trig from Aidan Brooks: Trainee Chef.

Invitation to be a Fo*dBuzz.com "sponsored" blog

Hi everyone-

I recently received an invitation from Fo*dBuzz.com to be a sponsored blog (replace * with an O, obviously). I want to find out if any of you received such an invite, if any of you have chosen to be sponsored, and what your experience has been. I'm nervous about this... I have mixed feelings about my posts being syndicated on other sites, namely I worry that it might cut into the actual traffic to my site and that someone else is making profit by running ads on what are essentially my posts hosted on their site. Yet it could be a good way to get some new readers. The site looks legit, though I've never heard of it before. It looks potentially really interesting, actually. Still, I'm nervous about this. Any feedback or suggestions?

Here is part of the original e-mail:

Foodbuzz would like to sponsor your blog, and invite you to join other food bloggers as a Featured Publisher in our Foodbuzz Publisher Program.

The basic benefits include promotion and exposure of your blog on Fo*dbuzz.com, above-competitive compensation for ads, community networking, and ad campaign management.

What are some questions I should ask or things I should look out for to make sure this is worthwhile for me?

This Post was written by Tovah (aka Isaiah) from Gluten-Free Bay

Just a guy named Yuri

This morning I woke up to the following comment on one of my recipes:

IP Address: 193.239.152.85
Name: Food for Heaven. Cooking recipes
Email Address: sally@foodforheaven.com
URL: http://www.foodforheaven.com
Comments:

I've made this soupe today and was really impressed. It was perfect!
Thanks for your tasty recipe!

Cooking is also my hobby, so we are kind of tasty-friends :)

I almost always check the URLs of comments before they post, and sure enough, this one turned out to be an aggregator, using content from my site and Kalyn's.

The nerve! First throwing up a Wordpress site with our feeds, and then leaving comments on my site to promote it?

When I demanded that Sally take down my content, I got this from "Sally Moore":

Hello, Elise.

I thought it would be great for you to have your recipes on my website. I added link to your website after every recipe, so people could read the whole entry at elise.com
But if you don't want to promote your website this way, it's your choice. Food for Heaven is becoming a great portal.

I won't post your materials anymore. I thought you're kind of woman who prefer friendship and collaboration. I was wrong.

Yeah, right. Turns out in the long header of the email, it was actually sent by a guy named "Yuri Zakharov", confirmed when I got another email from Yuri himself with the same IP address.

So, just a warning to everyone, the sneaky aggregators are trying to promote their stolen goods on our own sites, leaving happy, friendly comments from people with happy, friendly names.

If you've received any comments recently from FoodForHeaven, you should know that it's just a guy named Yuri who thinks we are stupid enough to buy into it.


This Post was written by Elise from Simply Recipes