And it is a good one.
Actually, it is an important one - one that I have been wrestling with trying to figure out a way to solve a “problem” without making you have to do anything else.
The Problem
I would like to thing everything is going to work they way it should right out the chute.
Experience suggests that rarely happens.
In hindsight, I should could have spent a lot more time developing and debugging Linkingpress before making it publicly available.
For better or worse, that’s not what I did.
As a result, some issues have shown up with the way people have used Linkingpress. Like,
- not displaying the links page
- shutting down their blog
Regarding not displaying the links page, I doubt that most people are doing this maliciously, the result is that people are getting a number of inbound links while not showing outgoing links (or showing a limited number of outgoing links).
Tsk, tsk.
Regarding shutting down their blog, I did a little surfing around today and found a few people’s sites that have their hosting account suspended for whatever reason. Why should those sites continue to receive links to their sites?
They shouldn’t.
The Solution
The solution I came up with for people not displaying their links page was to require them to verify on setup that their links page was linked from their blog - somewhere.
Then I thought about how I would not want to have to verify my links page. Yuk! So I thought, and I thought, and I thought.
Then I figured it out.
Side note: I did NOT figure it out in front of the computer. Here’s a dirty little secret. I never figure out or come up with great ideas in front of the computer, never. By best thinking is done when I am taking a shower, a bath, or when I am running or bike riding. Maybe that’s a little more information then you cared for …
Simple, give a few free links away, but stop when those blogs fail to return the favor to other sites using the Linkingpress plugin. The idea being that if people’s blogs are not showing any links (or not many relative to the amount of backlinks received) to other Wordpress blogs, then cut ‘em off. Stop distributing links to those blogs.
On the flip side, blogs that have significantly more outgoing links then incoming links will stop distributing links until their ratio of outgoing to ingoing links is more in balance.
You like that?
I’ll hold back how “significantly more” and “relative to the amount” is quantified and how I implemented this, but over time, you should notice that the number of outgoing links from your blog and incoming links to your blog are closer to parity.
There’s More
Some more “housecleaning” type changes coming up in the near future and also the implementation of deep links and premium placements.
So there you go, the latest and greatest … and it doesn’t even require you to download the plugin again!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Does this plugin work for wordpress mu?. i saw you video on youtube.
Steve,
I have not tested it on mu … I’ll assume “no”.
Dave