Well, August is upon us, and although I’m not quite at my three-month mark (that will be on the 19th), I thought I’d see if I can solicit any feedback and comments about the blog. If you’ve been lurking, I’d be happy to hear from you. And even if this is your first time to the blog, or you never stay here very long, or you don’t like some of my posts, or this or that, I’d like to hear from you too (be nice, though!:)).

Some points on which input would be helpful:

• site layout/design: is this alright? I liked it because it’s a bit different than the usual 3-column blog, and it had a special appeal to me. Should I switch to something more conventional?
• small technical features: does everything work? is something screwed up in one browser? (there’s been a problem with re-sizing and browsers, and it’s because the columns are fluid, I think. If you know how to fix this, let me know). I promise I’ll try to fix this all up soon.
• content: while I’m not really a general all-purpose personal finance blog, but have my select topics, are there some topics you are far more interested in than others? or that you’d like to see me cover but I don’t?
• what works/what you like about the site: general or specific things.
• how you think this blog can best grow? its particular strengths? weaknesses?

Of course, any other comments and suggestions are welcome, too.

Shout Outs

I’d like to thank my referrers and others who have helped with the site recently, even if it was just something small:

Millionairewithadsense
Moolanomy
TopForeignStocks
Financial Ramblings
PennyJobs.com
Pushing Thirty: My Debt Deadline
A Million By 20
MoneyHackers Network
Snowflake Revolution
Beachgirl’s Budget Blog
The Money Gardener
Mrs. Micah
The Almost Millionaire
The Financial Blogger
Blogging Down Debt
Nine Circles of Debt
Investment Playground
The Debt Hole
Saving To Invest
NCN Network
PF Buzz
KeySilver

And, of course, everyone from StumbleUpon! Thanks for thumbing me up! Say hello sometime, too. I’d also like to mention some other sites that I’ve come to enjoy reading and/or look to as “mentors”:

Get Rich Slick - I share many of the same concerns, interests, points of view.
MoneyMonk - share some of the same points of view.
Can I Get Rich On A Salary - ditto. Inspirational for me.
Living Off Dividends & Passive Income - as with GRS, I share the same concerns.
Steve Pavlina: Personal Development for Smart People - hands down the most time I’ve spent on any one blog; thank you, Steve!
Brip Blap - “woke me up”; one of the blogs that finally got me blogging, too

I’m sure there are others; I’ll add them here as I remember:) Thanks for reading! Feel free also to email me any comments/ feedback you have: moneyenergy AT h0tmAiL d0t com. I love hearing from everybody.

I came home last night to find that some traffic had come in to my site from an unfamiliar host that had one of my article names in its permalink. (If you’re not reading this on getmoneyenergy.com, this post has been stolen too.) I followed up on it to find that one of my articles had been taken 100% and copied onto this person’s site with the byline saying that it was “posted by WebMaster” (I won’t put the person’s name in here until I figure out what really happened). To casual readers this appears as though he wrote it, not myself. At the bottom of the site are some ad links. I don’t know how much traffic his site gets, but in theory he’s making money off of my work. He never contacted me in advance about reprinting it. In my opinion it does not matter if the article, at the bottom, contains my name and a link back (to my homepage; not even to the article). This was done without contacting me in advance. It feels like theft. I cannot trust this person now, and I find that when I look at their site, many more questions arise for me about its authenticity. It looks like a content-rich blog, but it could be a scraper site in good disguise.

Now, I’m not talking about the “mashup”-type blogs that talk in terms of [...] and DaveBrin posted this [...]. My article was simply reprinted whole.

I’m still new to blogging, so you can smirk at my naivete. In my day job I belong to an industry in which plagiarism and content originality are the gold standard of all progress. As far as I’m concerned, stealing someone’s content is akin to falsifying scientific results, buying essays and stealing a degree, medical malpractice, counterfeiting money and other such crimes that erode at social foundations.

Plagiarism Tools For Your Blog

I’ve since spent several hours researching plagiarism and content theft detection, protection and prevention tools. While my researches are not over (and I’d appreciate any other contributions/suggestions), I’ve applied some already, but I think that Copyscape and Copyfeed are just initial steps in the right direction. I’d also like to point other bloggers out to this great post (one year old) by Jonathan Bailey at the Blog Herald, entitled “The 20 Best Free Anti-Plagiarism Tools.” Apparently two of the links are outdated, but the rest seem ok. Please let me know if you have others to share.

I’m all for someone wanting to reprint an article of mine if they thought it was great, etc. I like to hear compliments! But I’d like to be contacted first for my permission. If you’re just quoting a line or two of something I wrote, that’s fine if you do it according to standard attribution guidelines and provide a proper link back to me and include my name. I’m happy to have the exposure! But if I see another entire post stolen again - especially when I worked for several hours on it - I will take the appropriate actions (as I have begun with this case). It really makes me wonder how the blogosphere has managed to survive at all. Perhaps it hasn’t. It’s 70% junk. It’s quite saddening when you think of it. Not only is it theft, but it can also pull down one’s own site’s reputation, ranking, and general quality of content when search engines link up to the falsified posts’ sites. And things worse than that, too, I imagine.

Since this is going to be a site primarily about wealthbuilding and investing globally for cashflow, I don’t like to dwell on matters related to my blog or even blogging in general. The past couple of weeks I’ve done more of that than will be usual in that respect, primarily because I’ve moved to my own site and my head has been occupied with more twittery 2.0 sounds than usual. I’ve developed new interests in blogging (or at least, this business/financial corner of the blogosphere) as a form of cultural expression unique to our time and as a result I’ve been learning more and more about this wider world we live in. It’s fascinating, for example, to meet Angelo Romasanta, a 15 year-old boy from the Phillipines, hard at work on his new blog project:

A Million By 20.

Not only does Angelo seem quite mature and motivated for his age, but I won’t be surprised if he really does make it most of the way to a million by the time he’s 20. More importantly, Angelo’s story has re-inspired me to get motivated again about my own goals and about self-motivating in general. It’s easy to get stuck in our own patterns - even all the good ones - when we know we’re hard at work and plugging away on the paths to our own success. That’s what focus is all about. But to hear from someone like Angelo reminds me of what fresh vision and spirit are all about.

We begin with alot of energy and vision: who doesn’t have lots of creative ideas about how to change or improve this or that, or how you’d most like to help the world? But to get there we need a lot of help. There are obstacles along the way. We forget what we started aiming for. We get tired. We become convinced by others that we look up to that the right path instead is this, or this, or that. We need to find a way to retain that original vision or that original energy - to get it back. Or to create it anew. The challenge is to do this while integrating all the new information that we learn as we progress on our journeys.

Milestones worth a Million

In the spirit of all of this, I would like to thank my readers and fellow bloggers for all the recent support. I’ve only been at this not quite a month, but I’ve received lots of encouraging signs, tips, gestures. In particular, I’d like to thank:

Hank, from My Investing Blog;
Free From Broke;
Jason from Becoming A Millionaire With AdSense;
Pushing30 from Pushing Thirty: My Debt Deadline;
Roman from Financial Jesus;
Pinyo at Moolanomy; and
InvestorBlogger.

And of course everyone else for visiting, commenting and/or sharing feedback on my blog. I’ve made a couple of small gaffes as I learn the territory but I’ve been trying to improve as much as I can along the way and I’m always looking for more advice from the pros. I know that there’s something of a 3-month (5 month?) “probationary” period for new blogs (will they last?), so I thank everyone for coming back and reading and hanging in with me here. My subscriber count has gone up 100% in the last couple of days and, of course, my daily traffic is up quite a bit from even one week ago. I’ve had visitors from 47 states and over 30 different countries (including Ethiopia, Oman, Qatar, and Iceland!). That’s pretty amazing for a newbie like me. In less tangible measures, too, my own progress has been good. I look forward to moving ahead, meeting bloggers with similar interests, and moving towards my own investment goals. Hopefully you’ll come with me!