Continue reading » No related posts.]]> I have been using Build My Page Rank for three months now, I did not want to post this review any earlier as I wanted to reserve judgment as to how it works and its effectiveness, but having used it for some time on several of my sites I can now give you a review that is actually based on fact rather than first impressions.

I will start by saying that I will not be revealing any of the sites that I have used the  Build My Page Rank service on. I have not used it on any of my main sites (this or my company site), but I have used it on a variety of different Affiliate sites and blogs. I have tried to use it on a variety of sites, both new and old, content sites, datafeed driven sites and sites both with and without any page rank so that I can really see its effect.

What is Build My Page Rank and how does it work?

 Build My Page Rank is a service that effectively allows you to guest blog on any of their 1500 blogs that are page rank 0 to page rank 6. They allow you to add one do-follow link for every 150 words that you write. When you setup your site on their system, they ask you to select the category that best suits your site, Food, Technology etc. and then the posts that you write are placed randomly on one of the sites that  Build My Page Rank operate that match the category you have chosen for your site, giving those links greater authority than if they were on unrelated random sites.

Are the links detectable?

One great concern that I had was that the links created were not detectable as being paid links. We all know Google’s (and others) view of paid links and as such if the links created can be tied back to  Build My Page Rank then those links would be worthless to me.

I have monitored over 1000 links build using the  Build My Page Rank System, they are on a variety of different sites and I can see no way that those blogs could be tied back to  Build My Page Rank, the links are normal links, the blogs are straight forward blogs you would see anywhere else on the web and the domains are owned by a variety of different people.

I did a great deal of research before I signed up for their service and I never found anyone that claimed that the links could be tied back to a paid link building service. It is also my opinion after analysing the links I have create with the service that they are indeed undetectable.

How do you use Build my Page Rank?

Simple, just add your site and write content, including a link on yor chosen keyword or phrase. They provide tools to monitor the anchor text you are using so that you can both build around one phrase and vary your link building.

How Much Does it Cost?

Build my Page rank offer a 10 link free trial, which is well worth signing up for, just to try the service with no obligation to carry it on.

The cost of the actual service depends on how many sites or projects you want to work on at the same time:

Up to 5 domains – $59/month
Up to 10 domains – $79/month
Up to 20 domains – $99/month
Up to 50 domains – $159/month
Up to 100 domains – $275/month
Up to 150 domains – $360/month
Up to 200 domains – $400/month

Paid Writing Service

 Build My Page Rank also offer a paid writing service, for $2.50 you can have someone write your 150 word articles and include one of your links, you can elect to approve all articles before they are published, but this effectively means that you can get links for just $2.50, a bargain in anyone’s book!

My Opinion – Does Build my Page Rank Work?

Yes!

All the sites I have used the service on have improved in their page rank, many are now ranking in the top results on page 1 for searches on their keywords. The page rank of 75% of the sites I have used it on has improved by at least one point, many have increased by 2, and some by 3.

A great result in just 3 months of work.

I would recommend anyone who is wanting to build links for a web project to use  Build My Page Rank.

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Continue reading » No related posts.]]> I have today released a new version of my Datafeed Import Pluign for WordPress, this version includes some bug fixes along with some minor features that have been developed for users who have specific requirements. These features maybe useful to others so I have included them within the plugin.

More details about the new version can be found on the plugins website ‘Datafeed Import Plugin for WordPress‘

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Continue reading » No related posts.]]> Until recently I have been mainly working with Affiliate Marketers while developing the Datafeed Import Plugin for WordPress, however, it is clear that the needs and requirements of affiliate marketers are reflected by the needs and requirements of those involved in Drop Shipping.

I have established that the Datafeed Import Plugin for WordPress will work equally as well for Drop Shippers as it does for Affiliate Marketers.

Many Drop Shipping companies or networks provide Datafeeds in a similar way to affiliate networks. These datafeeds are in CSV, XML and RSS formats just like those that the datafeed plugin is designed to work with.

If you are a drop ship marketer, please do get in touch, we will give you a free copy of the plugin if you are willing to trial it in the drop ship environment.

It seems to me that Drop Shippers face the same task as affiliate marketers with a slightly differing end result. You need to create a website rapidly, without fuss and without having to code a website from scratch. In this way the WordPress platform is the most logical system to use. It allows you to quickly setup a fully functioning site, change how it looks and works and extend its functionality with plugins.

The Datafeed Import Plugin will then allow you to rapidly populate that WordPress site with data from your Drop Ship datafeed as long as that datafeed is in a well formed format (XML, CSV, Pipe, RSS).

This cuts down the time spent developing a site and frees up your time to market and sell your products and earn your commissions for your drop shipping.

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Continue reading » No related posts.]]> I just thought that I would post a little note to say thank you to everyone who bought a copy of any of my WordPress plugins yesterday 21st September 2011, it was a record day for sales, I hope that you all find the software useful and are able to make some great affiliate websites using it.

I am working hard to get a user forum sorted out, however, I want to make sure that it does not go the way of the last forum I setup that was overwhelmed with SPAM. I am working on making the new Forum User Only, it will use the username and password you already have to download updates to the WordPress plugins.  This way I will turn off all user registration to the forum so the only people who can access it are those who are existing users of the software.

I hope that this forum will provide you with an area where you can discuss best practices, help each other out, talk about your projects and create a steer to where you want me to develop the plugin in the future.

A Big thanks to all my customers, especially those from yesterday who made it a record day!

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Continue reading » No related posts.]]> I have today managed to add a CAPTCHA image to the Digitalquill Support Ticket system. Over the last month or so I have been struggling with SPAM messages on that ticket system meaning that it has been impossible for me to find genuine support tickets.

I have lost count of how many SPAM messages I have deleted manually, but today following this fix, I have deleted 467,893 support tickets from the support systems database, this unfortunately means that some genuine tickets have been lost, however, with such a volume of SPAM I have had little option.

If you have an outstanding ticket for any of my Digitalquill products please raise another one on the support system and I will do my best to help.

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Continue reading » No related posts.]]> There has been a great deal of press and concern in the WordPress community about a Vulnerability found in the TimThumb script whcih is used in many WordPress Themes. The script it’s self is not an issue but without being updated it does leave a cache directory open for people to exploit.

The fact that this vulnerability has been found is old news and the TimThumb script has been updated by its developers, however, some theme developers have yet to update their themes with the new more secure version of TimThumb.

If you are running a WordPress website make sure you install Timthumb Vulnerability Scanner a plugin that will look at your theme Directory and tell you if you are using the TimThumb script and if it needs updating it gives you the option to do so without any messing about with checking code or uploading new files.

I also Use WordPress Firewall and I have recently noticed heavy attacks looking for specific themes and the TimThumb script, so there are hackers that are trying to exploit this vunerability.

This plugin is a must… and while you are at it make sure you install WordPress Firewall 2 and Login Lockdown plugins, it is worth 5 minutes of your time.

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Continue reading » No related posts.]]> I have just release a new plugin to add to the growing collection I have for sale. This plugin, The category master plugin for WordPress, like the others has been built out of a real business requirement that we have had at Digitalquill, and one that I am sure other similar businesses, affiliate marketers, bloggers or WordPress site owners have all experienced.

The problem that it tackles is being faced with a WordPress site that for one reason or another has a poor category structure. This maybe because your blog has grown organically over the years and the category structure no-longer reflects the site you now have, you may have bought or taken over a site from someone else, or like us you maybe using Worpdress as a back end to an affiliate or ecommerce site where the raw data your are dealing with has poor categories.

We use WordPress for datafeed driven site using our other plugin the Datafeed import plugn for WordPress. Datafeeds are a great way to get masses of data into your site, however, the categorisation in datafeeds is often poor or simply reflects the merchants own website. This hardly ever suits what you want for your niche site so you are faced with the task of going through thousands of posts and re-categorising them.

This is where the category master plugin comes in. The plugin automates the process of adding posts to categories, it will work on both new posts as you publish or edit them or it can be run on the archive of your website. It can even to set to periodically ‘re-run’ on your site to ensure that the categories reflect what you require.

The plugin works by allowing you to create rules that it will follow, these rules are based around keywords or phrases that the plugin will look for in each post, if that keyword is found it will add that post to a specified category, a simple solution which saves a huge amount of time.

Here is a screenshot of some rules I have setup on one of my sites, you can see that the keywords have been setup to be added into the category of my choosing.

There are many reasons for your to improve the categorisation of your site, a major one is that it will improve the internal linking of your site which is of key importance, especially to Googles quality score, but it also allows search engine spiders and your users to easily find the content they are looking for.

As with all my software the Category master plugin for WordPress has its own website, take a look for more information and a live demo of how the plugin works.

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Continue reading » No related posts.]]> I am ashamed to say it has been over a month since I last posted on this blog. Things round here have been rather busy, although that should not stop me keeping up my blogging.

The honest truth is I have become a little disillusioned since the Google Panda update which seems to have had an impact on this site. My page rank was reduced by one and the result has been a halving in the visitor numbers, however that being said, this site still gets a good readership so I should continue with keeping it up.

I have considered why the site has taken a hit from Panda, all content on the site is totally unique, but one thing it does do which has been a concern of mine for a while with regards to ranking is that it covers a diverse range of topics, it looks at my Internet and software work and affiliate marketing which all fit into a little niche, but then it also looks at DIY, tools, gardening, cooking and family life.

I am not going to change that, this is my blog, about my life and if Google does not like that the raspberries to them!

So what have I been up to in the mast month?

Datafeed Import Plugin 3.1

As you will know I recently released a major update to my Datafeed Import Plugin for WordPress, version 3.0 has been a great success, as with all of these things there have been a  few niggles that I have been working on. I am about to release version 3.01 of the datafeed plugin for WordPress with some minor bug fixes.

I have also been having problems with SPAM on my Digitalquill Support system, literally hundreds of thousands of SPAM messages, and nearly 20k in one day, this has effectively killed the support system I used and made it impossible for me to find genuine tickets.

I am in the process of doing two things to combat this, I am trying to put a CAPACHA into the new ticket form on the ticket system, however, this is third part software which thus far has not liked what i have done to it so back to the drawing board.

I am also working on creating a user forum for all the software I have developed, I did have a forum in the past, but this was one where I allowed users to register and participate, this soon suffered the same fate as the support system and was overwhelmed by SPAM.

With this new forum I intend to make it user only, using the username and password provided to users when they buy the software, the same username and password they use to download the software. In this way I will disable all user registration and as such it will be a private forum where only users can post, that is unless spammers find a hole in the phpBB software and exploit it.

Category Master Plugin

I have just released a new plugin, which I will post more about here in the next few hours. The Category Master plugin allows you to automate the categorisation of your WordPress blog.

As with my other software, this has been built out of a requirement in my own business, it complements the Datafeed and Amazon import plugins as it allows you to automatically create your own categories rather then using the ones provided in the datafeed.

As I say I will post here about the launch of this new plugin and give you more details about what it is and what it does.

Family life

Family life has been busy, I am still finishing off the Orangery, we have had some delays due to electrics, but now the floor is down, skirting boards are on and about the only thing left to do is paint. We have even been looking at wallpaper and decoration for the dining room which connects to the Orangery so we must be nearly there!

Eva has not been at school over the summer so there has been some entertaining to do there, we went to a great place in North Lincolnshire last week called Elsham Hall, it was fairly quiet as it was the last day they were open before the winter, but Eva loved feeding the fish in the lakes and rolling down the hills. She has a real affinity with animals and stood for ages stroking the sheep and goats.

We will be on holiday soon, just a short 5 day break to North Yorkshire Moors, but it should be good.

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Continue reading » No related posts.]]> The Datafeed Plugin for WordPress has today become the first Third party software on the new DailyHandout.com service run by iDevSpot. We have introduced a 20% offer for this appearance, so it is a good time to buy or even better enter the competition to win the Plugin for Free!

DailyHandout.com is a site that offers you the chance to win a copy of software applications for free by registering (a 15 second process). It also offers you the chance to get that software at a discounted rate, so even if you do not win the competition you can still get a fantastic offer.

Take a look at DailyHandout.com

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Continue reading » No related posts.]]> I am pleased to announce that I released the much awaited Version 3.0 of my Datafeed Import plugin late last night. This is the culmination of a great deal of work whihc has taken quite some time and effort, but I feel all this time has been well spent as the new version of the plugin again leads the market with its new functionality.

Version 3.0 of the datafeed import plugin is packed with new features and improvements, this is a quick summary of those changes, but for a full list of the current plugins functionality please visit the plugins website

Supporting Custom Content in posts

The main new feature in Version 3.0 of the plugin is that the plugins automatic update engine has been rewritten, in the past this update engine updated the whole post created by the plugin, and although extremely useful for keeping your site up-to-date this meant that you could not add any custom content to any post. V3.0 handles those updates more intelligently, it identifies datafeed content and updates only that content, leaving the rest of the post unchanged.

This means that the Datafeed import plugin now overcomes the greatest problem with any datafeed driven website, that one of being peanilized for duplicate content. The plugin already went a good way to covering this issue with its ability to mix datafeed content with static control and allowing the user the flexibility to choose which fields they want to use from the datafeed.

The ability to add your own custom content to individual posts while maintaining the datafeed data means that you can add value to your site and rank well in the search engines. I believe that this makes my Datafeed Import plugin for WordPress the only SEO friendly Datafeed Import system on the market today, not only for WordPress but for all Datafeed Import scripts.

This functionality also allows you to use the plugin slightly differently. You can use it in your review site where the plugin only provides pricing and link information for example. You can use the filtering system to pick the product or products you require, make the plugin create a post with a link and a price and then add your own review of that product to the post. The plugin will then maintain the price and ensure that you always have the correct link for that post.

With this new functionality in mind I have added the facility to create draft posts rather than having them scheduled or published directly. This means that if you are using the plugin in your review site, you can write the reviews on the posts created by the plugin at your convenience and then publish those posts when you are ready. the plugin can still create published posts directly and also drip feed posts with its scheduled posting system as it always could.

Interface redesign and usability improvements

I have improved the layout of the interface and hidden away most of the less used features within an advanced section meaning that the interface is now clearer and easier to use. I have also introduced contextual menus to the template designer, where by you can right click your mouse and insert the field references to the template. I have also included a field on the WYSIWYG editor toolbar to help you build the references into the body of your posts template.

Rewrite of XML support

I have rewritten all the XML support within the plugin. It now supports feeds with deeper nested nodes, and handles XML more efficiently that it did in the past. This improves the plugins ability to import both XML and RSS feeds.

Performance improvements

A major improvement in version 3.0 are the improvements to the back end of the plugin to make it more efficient and improve performance. These are improvements that you can not see, but it is hoped that this will overcome some of the memory issues that some users have experienced especially with shared hosting. The work that the plugin does is very complex and inherently intensive, but there is still work to be done, and I will be working on these for future versions of the plugin.

New Website

I have also launched a new website to go with the new version of the plugin, this new website carries more tutorials and help files, step-by-step videos and integral support and customer login to allow you to get support and download the latest version of the plugin. Thate a look at the new website

Whats next at Digitalquill?

The work on the datafeed import plugin is by no means finished. Users of the plugin can now vote on what new features will be included in Version 3.1 of the plugin. This will mean that the plugin will be developed in-line with what the users want.

I am also looking at developing a stand alone version of the datafeed import script, this will be a system that can be used on non-wordpress sites. The ethos in its construction will be the same in that you will not need any detailed programming skills to use this script, but you will achieve the same functionality as you can with the WordPress Plugin.

In the immediate future, I am planning to spend some time getting a plugin I created some time ago ready for public release. I created my Category Master Plugin about 18 months ago due to a specific problem with datafeed marketing in that often the categorization within datafeeds is poor, thus I wanted a facility to be able to overcome this issue and move prost into categories without editing each post. I will post more about this new plugin in due course, but any datafeed marketer will find this new plugin very useful.

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Continue reading » No related posts.]]> Over the last two months I have witnessed the Page Rank of many of my sites going up and own. I do not mean plus or minus one point either, I am seeing a variance of +/1 3 on some sites.

I first thought this was to do with the new Panda updates (and probably still is) but this is happening to all sites, sites that have not been touched for months and sites that I am working on adding content to. There seems to be no pattern to this behaviour.

It is not just the reporting of the page rank either, the listing of the sites in the SERPs is also affected, which in turn affects traffic which on days where pagerank is low I am experiencing a 50% drop in traffic, whereas when it is high the traffic stats recover.

I am in the process of writing some software that will monitor the page rank of a site, I usually run this once a month, but I have changed it to monitor daily for the next month, I will see if I can record some of this behaviour.

I wonder if Google are testing something new…

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Continue reading » No related posts.]]> I am still working on Version 3.0 of the Datafeed Import plugin for WordPress, we are currently beta testing the new plugin and trying to iron out any issues before we release. I am having some issues with one of the new features of the plugin and want to get it right before I release.

I had hoped to get the release out to you all last week, but it is now looking like it will be the end of this week or even the beginning of next.

Remember you get free upgrades to all new versions of the plugin, so if you are lookign at buying the Datafeed Import Plugin, you don’t need to wait until the new version is released, you will get this automatically when it goes live.

I have also introduced a discount scheme for all current users of both the Datafeed Import and the Amazon Import plugins for WordPress, if you are a current user of one of the plugins you can get the other for just £15 a massive 40% discount. Just contact me giving the Paypal email address you paid with and I will send you a discount code and link.

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Continue reading » No related posts.]]> The shock news late yesterday that the News of the World was to close came as a surprise for many, however, this was clearly not news to some. I will not comment on the rights or wrongs of the owners of the paper closing it down, nor the alleged activity in that paper over the last few years.

It is interesting however from a journalistic point of view that, they claim the decision to close the paper is in response to the alleged activities and nothing to do with making the sun into a Sunday paper, and that this decision has not been taken. However, the domain name registration activity seems to show differently.

thesundaysun.co.uk
thesundaysun.com
sunonsunday.co.uk

These domain names (and perhaps others), were all first registered on the 5th July 2011, before any rumors or announcements had been made. They have all been registered either by proxy registration service or by withholding the registrants details.

It is also interesting to note that they have been registered as a UK individual, if this is indeed News Corp registering these domains, they are breaking the terms and conditions of Nominet, as a company they have to register a domain as a company, and indeed, as a company they can not keep their whois details private.

This raises the question, was the decision to close the News of the World a stunt, and we will see the Sun On Sunday very soon?

Here are some extracts from the whois records:

Domain name:
sunonsunday.co.uk

Registrant:
Mediaspring

Registrant type:
UK Individual

Registrant’s address:
The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their
address omitted from the WHOIS service.

Registrar:
Webfusion Ltd t/a 123-reg [Tag = 123-REG]
URL: http://www.123-reg.co.uk

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 05-Jul-2011
Renewal date:  05-Jul-2013
Last updated:  07-Jul-2011

Registration status:
Registration request being processed.

Name servers:
ns.123-reg.co.uk
ns2.123-reg.co.uk

Domain name:
thesunonsunday.co.uk

Registrant:
Mediaspring

Registrant type:
UK Individual

Registrant’s address:
The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their
address omitted from the WHOIS service.

Registrar:
Webfusion Ltd t/a 123-reg [Tag = 123-REG]
URL: http://www.123-reg.co.uk

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 05-Jul-2011
Renewal date:  05-Jul-2013
Last updated:  07-Jul-2011

Registration status:
Registration request being processed.

Name servers:
ns.123-reg.co.uk
ns2.123-reg.co.uk

Domain Name:            THESUNONSUNDAY.COM
Created Date:           05-Jul-2011
Expiry Date:            05-Jul-2013
Nameserver:             ns.123-reg.co.uk
Nameserver:             ns2.123-reg.co.uk
Registrant Name:        Identity Protection Service
Registrant Company:     Identity Protect Limited
Registrant Address:     PO BOX 1125
Registrant Address:
Registrant Address:
Registrant Address:     Guildford
Registrant Address:     Surrey
Registrant Address:     GU1 9LU
Registrant Address:     United Kingdom
Technical Name:         Identity Protection Service
Technical Company:      Identity Protect Limited
Technical Address:      PO BOX 1125
Technical Address:
Technical Address:
Technical Address:      Guildford
Technical Address:      Surrey
Technical Address:      GU1 9LU
Technical Address:      United Kingdom
Technical Email:        thesunonsunday.com@identity-protect.org
Technical Tel:          +44.1483307527
Technical Fax:          +44.1483304031
Administrative Name:    Identity Protection Service
Administrative Company: Identity Protect Limited
Administrative Address: PO BOX 1125
Administrative Address:
Administrative Address:
Administrative Address: Guildford
Administrative Address: Surrey
Administrative Address: GU1 9LU
Administrative Address: United Kingdom
Administrative Email:   thesunonsunday.com@identity-protect.org
Administrative Tel:     +44.1483307527
Administrative Fax:     +44.1483304031

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Continue reading » No related posts.]]> WordPress 3.2 has been released this morning, I hope that you are ready! As I mentioned in my review of the release candidate of WordPress 3.2, there is a change in the PHP and MySQL requirements for WordPress. Make sure that you check that your server is compatible with the new version of WordPress before you update. If you are unsure of how to do it then please read this article I wrote on how to check.

Thus far I have upgraded about 10 of my WordPress sites to 3.2, all without a hitch, one I thought was going to be a problem in the end was not, it seemed to take for-ever to upgrade, but I left it and it did upgrade, perhaps the WordPress Servers are busy with all the new downloads.

My advice is, check your server meets the requirements and then upgrade, you will notice a vast difference.

The good news is that the Datafeed import plugin and the Amazon Import Plugin both seem to be fully working with WP3.2. I need to take some time to test the new Version 3.0 of the datafeed import plugin, but all seems to be working nicely.

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We have secured a 25% off coupon code for HostGator, readers of this blog and Digitalquill customers can get this 25% discount by using the code ‘Digitalquill’ at the checkout. Although this can not be used for domain names it can be used for all other HostGator services, including WordPress hosting, Web and email hosting and VPS servers.

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Continue reading » No related posts.]]> Elegant Themes have just released another theme to their collection, as a member I get this WordPress Theme included, and, this one is a good one! I thought it was great when I had been a member for just a week and another theme was added, and now that I have been a member for just over a month we have the Boutique theme, which is stunning.

The Boutique theme is designed for an ecommerce shop. It includes support for the wp ecommerce, cart66, shopp, simple paypal shoppingcart and eshop plugins so that you can easily create a web shop without any need for programming knowledge.

Click the Image to see a Live Preview of the theme

What makes this even more special is that, as indicated above, this theme is included in the Elegant Themes Membership which is $39 per year. One would expect to pay nearer to $100 for this theme alone, but membership gives you access to all the Elegant Themes.

I am not sure that I have a use for this theme myself as I do not directly sell products from my sites, I am more into the Affiliate Marketing, but I can see that this is the perfect theme for anyone selling, boutique products, perfume, make-up, clothes or other similar items that would suit the sites design.

The Theme also comes with the standard features that all the Elegant WordPress Themes come with, unlimited colour schemes (meaning that you can custom this theme to essentially suit any products), user and author rating system, access to use many different fonts, automatic thumbnail resizing, advertising management, and even a blog layout.

Another great WordPress Theme from Elegant Themes

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Continue reading » No related posts.]]> About two years ago I wrote a script that would check the Google Page Rank of all my sites on a monthly basis and record that Page Rank so that I could look back over time at any particular sites PR history.

This is great tool because I can see the impact of changes I make, or efforts I put into the promotion or SEO of a site. I also have the site configured to alert me if a site loses Page Rank. Although much of the time one can not put a finger on why a site loses Page Rank, it is always good to investigate, significant changes to the Google Algorithm such as the so called Panda updates affect different sites in different ways, if after such a release the software alerts me to a drop in page rank for a site I can take action.

Today I have been looking at that script with fresh eyes, and have made some major improvements to it, it now records Google and Yahoo Back Links, Indexed pages in Google and Yahoo and Alexa rank.

I have plans to make this into software that I can release. I need to do some work on the interfaces and write an installer for the software, but I believe that others in my position will find this software useful. When I get a couple of days free, I will do this work and release it on my website, but for now my priority is getting Version 3.0 of the Datafeed Import Plugin Ready for its Beta testing and subsequent launch.

If you are interested in getting a copy of my Page Rank Monitor Software, please leave a comment on this post and I will get back to you.

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