Blogs For Bucks: I Got 99 Blogs But Male Enhancement Ain't One.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Blogs For Bucks: I Got 99 Blogs But Male Enhancement Ain't One.

Rocks: Dec 30, 2011

I started a dumb blog about podcast reviews because I like podcasts. Yes I'm probably 10 years too late to start a blog but better late than never I guess. Feel free to criticize or whatever!

https://www.thepodcastnerd.com

Also I have exactly one post so there's not a wealth of content. But looking forward to adding a steady stream of content without burning myself out. Wish me luck!

# ¿ Sep 2, 2016 09:05

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 16:46

Rocks: Dec 30, 2011

fuf posted:

You have an issue with your SSL cert

how do you know? how do I fix this? i should also note i don't actually have an SSL certificate for the page (at least I don't think so). it's literally a cheap godaddy domain, i installed wordpress and added a couple plugins (Yoast, Thesis and a misc. Lightbox one). The rest of the plugings are disabled.

What's your thoughts? I just spoke with godaddy customer service, they can't see my issue so it's driving me nuts. thanks a ton.

edit: can you try again? i disabled a couple plug ins. Thanks.

Rocks fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Sep 2, 2016

# ¿ Sep 2, 2016 18:08

Rocks: Dec 30, 2011

I called Godaddy and I asked another forum about this issue. I still can't find out what the issue is? Sorry I sound like an idiot right now.

Absorbs Smaller Goons posted:

The browser tells you as you hit the URL. It's either because you haven't published your site yet, or some elements that are being referenced are not secure (such as displaying an outside image).

The browser tells me what as I hit the URL? what does that mean?

What does it mean that I haven't "published my site yet" - you mean via Google? I've set up sitemaps and done all the verification via Google Webmaster and Search Console.

Thanks. Your help is really appreciated.

# ¿ Sep 3, 2016 01:39

Rocks: Dec 30, 2011

it seems like sometimes browsers point to https://www.thepodcastnerd.com instead of http://www.thepodcastnerd.com. Is this a wordpress setting? Or is it more of a Godaddy/DNS issue with the domain?

Or should I make my site so it's only httpS? I heard it's better for SEO anyway.... is there a free way to do that?

# ¿ Sep 4, 2016 00:12

Rocks: Dec 30, 2011

Moniker posted:

Yes you want it to only point to https. You could probably set up a 301 redirect to redirect everything to https.

doesn't this require me buying an SSL certificate though...? any recommendations for cheap and easy ones

# ¿ Sep 4, 2016 20:51

Rocks: Dec 30, 2011

fuf posted:

letsencrypt.com do free SSL certs but the negligible SEO boost is probably not worth you putting in the effort to get it all set up.

The http version of the site works fine so just make sure you link to that version when you're promoting. Browsers won't switch to https unless your site tells them to so you should be fine.

Noticed you have some PHP errors here:
http://www.thepodcastnerd.com/about/

You'll prob need to open boxes.php (either in Wordpress using the theme editor, via the file manager in your hosting control panel, or via FTP) and see what's going on on line 557. Post it here if you want.

e: if you're worried people might still end up trying to visit the https version for some reason then you can redirect all https to http by adding this to an ".htaccess" file in your site's root directory (where index.php is). Wordpress might have already created the file for you.
code:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteRule (.*) [url]http://%[/url]{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

Wow this is awesome help. This is exactly what I was looking for (to no avail). Thanks so much.

# ¿ Sep 6, 2016 06:41

Rocks: Dec 30, 2011

fuf posted:

letsencrypt.com do free SSL certs but the negligible SEO boost is probably not worth you putting in the effort to get it all set up.

The http version of the site works fine so just make sure you link to that version when you're promoting. Browsers won't switch to https unless your site tells them to so you should be fine.

Noticed you have some PHP errors here:
http://www.thepodcastnerd.com/about/

You'll prob need to open boxes.php (either in Wordpress using the theme editor, via the file manager in your hosting control panel, or via FTP) and see what's going on on line 557. Post it here if you want.

e: if you're worried people might still end up trying to visit the https version for some reason then you can redirect all https to http by adding this to an ".htaccess" file in your site's root directory (where index.php is). Wordpress might have already created the file for you.
code:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteRule (.*) [url]http://%[/url]{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

I fixed the .htaccess and am in the process of checking the PHP errors.

One other question though, how do I remove the words "COMMENTS - X COMMENTS" as shown below?

Pretty much my last bit of tinkering before I just need to start adding content. Much appreciated!

# ¿ Sep 6, 2016 18:45

Rocks: Dec 30, 2011

KetTarma posted:

One thing I'll say that others can provide their insight on:

I found that any barrier to leaving a comment is likely to prevent most people from commenting. If they can just enter in a name and post, they'll do it. If you ask someone to log in with Facebook, make an account, or anything like that, you may never get any comments.

Not going to disagree with you on that... maybe I'll switch back to the regular Wordpress setting. Once (if ever) it ever gets unmanageable from that, I'll make the switch.

Thanks all for the feedback. Made a bunch of tweaks today otherwise, I'm pretty happy with it, and it functions on my phone and iPad well too. I want to get it to the point where I don't have to worry about any coding/tweaking whatsoever, I can just concentrate on writing a couple articles out a week (less than a few hours/week) and grow the site organically.

Approaching this from a monetization standpoint, what's the consensus on Adsense with adblockers these days? I'm thinking the way to go will be getting a newsletter up and running and getting that sponsored. Again, this is all very far down the road on my lovely blog, but I think it's good to have a plan regardless.

Rocks fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Sep 7, 2016

# ¿ Sep 7, 2016 02:01

Rocks: Dec 30, 2011

As someone who has just started, I can tell you my advice is to make it a hobby or habit that you don't get burnt out doing. I'm trying to only post a couple times a week, and to not get too focused on page views or anything yet. Just concentrate on making content, content, content!

# ¿ Sep 9, 2016 06:41

Rocks: Dec 30, 2011

Twitter has flagged my site https://www.thepodcastnerd.com ever since I started it. I can't post direct links (or even url-shortened versions) to my blog, which makes it incredibly frustrating to share. I can't even post the URL in my Twitter profile! What's the deal, is it just a probationary thing for all new websites? Facebook, google, bing have no issues with the site, so I don't know where this is coming from.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2016 18:37

Rocks: Dec 30, 2011

Doesn't make sense though. Other websites don't have SSL and are fine on twitter aren't they? It's not like I take a credit card or anything, it's just posts. So every website in the world that doesn't pay for SSL is automatically flagged as malware now? Even a site like The Verge doesn't have an ssl certificate so why are they ok?

I added the .htaccess code another goon recommended earlier, and then I just added this into wp_config (found this on another site)

define('FORCE_SSL_LOGIN', false );
define('FORCE_SSL_ADMIN', false );

is there something else I'm missing that I should do?

Rocks fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Sep 11, 2016

# ¿ Sep 11, 2016 21:33

Rocks: Dec 30, 2011

peepsalot posted:

quit putting https in all your links

I'm not...? how do I switch that off...? I don't understand what I'm doing wrong

I have htaccess making all links into http (not https).

# ¿ Sep 11, 2016 22:15

Rocks: Dec 30, 2011

is this something i need to fix in my DNS settings maybe? i'm kind of at a loss of what to do.

godaddy doesn't see the error. facebook works fine. google works fine. bing works fine. but twitter says I'm malware and you're saying that I've got some https/ssl error... really need and it's much appreciated. thanks.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2016 22:33

Rocks: Dec 30, 2011

peepsalot posted:

quit putting https in all your links

Can you maybe post a screenshot of what you're seeing so I can track this down... Thanks.

EDIT: I went through all my posts and deleted any external link that included an https (changed to an http). I also took down the twitter feed since that redirects to https. There's a few more in my source code but I don't know how to deactivate them. None of the links are to any images or pages on my own site though. Think that will have fixed the issue now?

Rocks fucked around with this message at 06:53 on Sep 12, 2016

# ¿ Sep 12, 2016 06:13

Rocks: Dec 30, 2011

Moniker posted:

OP wasn't saying to fix any old links, they're saying link to the HTTP version of your website and turn off any forwarding of http -> https on your website. Are your Wordpress settings correct? (Settings -> General) do those URLs say HTTPS or HTTP?

Forwarding is off. The URLs in the general settings are set to http, not to https.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2016 16:49

Rocks: Dec 30, 2011

That's why I was hoping someone could post a screenshot. Driving me crazy as no other site is giving me issues.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2016 17:10

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 16:46

Rocks: Dec 30, 2011

I finally got my site to be working properly through Google and Twitter FYI (just an update). It turns out that the IP address that I was on through Godaddy was on a blacklist as another domain on the same IP had a bunch of malware on it. I had Godaddy switch the IP and it's now working fine.

loving finally!

Thanks to everyone helping me out through this...

# ¿ Sep 14, 2016 19:23

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Blogs For Bucks: I Got 99 Blogs But Male Enhancement Ain't One.