April Updates

It’s been a fun filled two weeks since I last made an update and there is lots more fun to come!

ComicPress & Manager

The excellent ComicPress theme, sub theme and manager plugin has now been added to the system for supporters. It really is an excellent bit of kit, not just for running a Comic blog but it can also be used as a daily photo blog or scrapbooking diary.

To activate the theme and plugin, you need to be a supporter. It costs just 5$ per month or a lot less if you buy 1 year in advance. (either option is a LOT less than hosting fees for a self installed wordpress and it includes priority support!)

You can read about the ComicPress theme here : http://comluv.com/news/comicpress-and-manager-added/

Global Moderation Links

There are over 2000 blogs on ComLuv and it’s quite the job to manage the amount of spam that gets created. Personal blogs are fine! it’s the constant barrage of information or link sites that keeps me in the dashboard far longer than it should every day.

I have now added a moderation plugin to the network which adds a ‘report this’ to each post and blog. Any visitor to any post on any blog can report the site or article for being spam or rude or x rated. As soon as the post has been reported, it will appear in my admin dashboard and I can check it out.

You can read about the moderation plugin on comluv here : http://comluv.com/dev/site-updates/global-moderation-links-help-keep-comluv-spam-free/

Eventually, I will ask some comluv members to become paid moderators and they’ll be able to check the sites and even remove them if necessary. If you’re interested in becoming a paid moderator then let me know and maybe we can work out how much needs to be done and how much you want to get paid for doing it. Make me an offer!

New sub blog

I believe that the ComicPress theme and plugin is a very powerful system and by having it on ComLuv, it opens up having a comic blog to anyone and not just those who know their way around an FTP program and how to configure the zillions of options.

To show how easy it is to have a comic blog (even if you can’t draw), I have started a new blog called The Comic Blog Kit and it’s my journey on how to open and run a comic blog for fun and profit.

There’s going to be interviews with comic artists (2 already) and contests giving away books and software packages that I use to create the comics and learn the skills. It has commentluv and twitterlink installed and I’d love it if you could come by and let me know what you think.

It’s already at number 1 on google for ‘comic blog kit’ and I plan on giving it a lot of exposure over the coming weeks, so now’s the time to get your last blog posts added to the comments there! (seriously, come and say hi!)

I’ll be putting up how-to’s and instruction videos too explaining about marketing and getting traffic to your site, even if you don’t have a comic blog or want one, by subscribing to the email feed, you can read some really some of the really useful things I have found to get my blogs and this network up to PR6 and under Alexa 14,000 ranking.

Visit the Comic Blog Kit here to find out how to make a comic and publish it to the web.

API updates and Friendly(er) errors

I’ve updated the API to send back much nicer errors and try to explain what caused it in the pull down box below the comment form. I no longer put the bad juju message or ‘banned for having 3 feed errors’ with a red exclamation next to it. It seems that was causing panic attacks among the non-blogging community.

A big thanks to Growmap for suggesting that. It makes sense.

CommentLuv updated to 2.7.6.8

To coincide with the API updates, I had to update commentluv. Only to add the nothing.gif that went missing on a recent update so that should be an easy dashboard update option.

You can download commentluv here : http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/commentluv

The big expire

It’s nearly 30 days since I switched on the free 30 days before having to pay to have a comluv blog (commentluv membership is still free for users of the plugin) so I am expecting a lot of requests for free blogs to come in to my dashboard over the next few days.

If you’re submitting a request for a free blog then please be patient for your reply, it may take a while to sift through them all at the beginning.

There will be a huge number of blogs that expire and don’t get enabled or requested as free and I will need someone to become a moderator as soon as I can get some code together to list all the blogs in order of longest expired.

New advertisers

A big thanks to the following how purchased ads on ComLuv.

• Kennewick Real Estate
• Web Development Blog
• Twitter Dummy

Click here to get an advert on the ComLuv site. All links are dofollow and do not use forwarders.

Sponsored bit

If you play the lottery or you promote anything on your site then give elottery a look, watch the video and hear what it has to offer. I’ve been involved in it for 5 years and it constantly brings me in winnings and commission (my syndicate even won over 80,000GBP!). Anyone can be an affiliate and earn 20% of their referrals spending for the life of their membership.

Like any affiliate program, you only get paid if you put some effort into promoting the product and/or recruiting new members. Luckily, all the training and tools are provided and there are regular online conferences and meetings where you can talk to real people who are earning and winning real money so support from those who know (that includes me!) is always available.

If you join as a player and affiliate under me then you get a free supporter account for as long as you are a playing member! you also get priority comluv support and probably lots of other freebies too…

click here to visit the site and watch the video to start your own lottery business.

Feedback

If there’s anything you would like to see on the site or in the plugin, please leave a comment and let me know. I listen to all suggestions. I may not do them, but I do listen!