Add pfblogs.org Popular Feed to Your Blog’s Sidebar

Posted on February 22, 2021 by Webmaster

For a limited time, pfblogs.org is offering free membership in the Friends of pfblogs.org for six months. In order to qualify, a blog should include the pfblogs.org popular articles feed in a prominent location on the page’s sidebar. For blogs using the latest version of WordPress with a compatible theme, it’s very easy to add the feed. WordPress includes the “RSS sidebar widget” which will allow you to plug in any feed to easily display the latest items.

These are the valid feed addresses:

WordPress blogs not compatible with widgets can include RSS feeds using WordPress’s internal PHP functions. Check the user manual for instructions.

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Follow pfblogs.org on Twitter for Popular Links

Posted on August 23, 2020 by Webmaster

We’ve created an account on twitter, pfblogs_pop, that will provide you with an occasional link to a personal finance article on pfblogs.org that readers have visited often.

As you already know, you can view a rundown of the most popular article over the past 24 hours. You can view all popular articles or just the ones in the real estate, investing, or personal finance categories.

We’ve also created RSS feeds of each so you can subscribe to pfblogs.org and receive updates of just the popular articles.

By following pfblogs_pop on Twitter, you will receive occasional updates whenever an article “makes the list.” The updates are not frequent; only a few per day will be broadcast over Twitter. The rules for making the popular list on Twitter are a little different. The threshold is higher, so you’ll need more visits to be included on the Twitter feed.

Additionally, this is a feature we are extending only to Friends of pfblogs.org. If you want your articles to be included for consideration, become a member of the Friends now.

Posted in Admin | 2 Comments

Our Policy Against Spam

Posted on May 18, 2020 by Webmaster

If your blog contains anything that the pfblogs.org Advisory Panel believes is spam, a blog will not be eligible for membership in the Friends of pfblogs.org. If the spam is not removed or resolved, the offending blog will be removed from all listing on pfblogs.org.

Or policy on spam, or anything that could be construed as spam, is absolute zero tolerance.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Technical Difficulties Resolved

Posted on May 12, 2020 by Webmaster

For those who noticed that over the last day or so, only Friends of pfblogs.org were listed on the front page, please be assured that this was not intentional. It was a result of a programming mistake. The problem has been fixed and the front page listings have returned to normal. Thanks to everyone who commented or emailed to notify me of the problem.

To express my gratitude for the whole of the community, I will offer a special for new yearly subscriptions. If you subscribe to be a new Friend of pfblogs.org before June 30 with an annual subscription, I will drop your rate to $50 per year.

You must use this l ink to receive the special yearly price.

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pfblogs.org Now Indexes 1,000 Blogs

Posted on December 27, 2020 by Webmaster

We added the 1,000th blog to the pfblogs.org aggregator today. Wow, the blogosphere, and the personal finance niche in particular, has certainly expanded in the past two years. There are some new features that I’ve been working on, and some already exist that you may not know about. For example, you can use the RSS tools built into WordPress to publish a list of the top popular articles on your blog. This is already implemented on FiveCentNickel (on the center bottom of every page) and Consumerism Commentary (on the bottom of the right column of every page).

You don’t have to be a Friend of pfblogs.org in order to take add this feature to your blog. For example, to pull the most popular personal finance articles into your blog, use the URL http://pfblogs.org/pf/pop/feed/ with your RSS tools. The links on these feeds are redirected through pfblogs.org so we can count any visitors towards an article’s popularity ranking.

Posted in Blogs | 15 Comments

Moving to a New Server

Posted on November 21, 2020 by Webmaster

Increased instability at DreamHost, even after upgrading hardware, has forced us to move pfblogs.org to a virtual dedicated server elsewhere. You should no longer have any problems accessing the website once the changes have fully propagated throughout the Internet. This will also improve viewing the pfblogs.org feeds and using the blogroll on your website. Thanks for sticking with us. You can expect the development of new features to start picking up again.

Posted in Admin | 2 Comments

pfblogs.org Financial Literacy Challenge at DonorsChoose

Posted on October 8, 2020 by Webmaster

You may have noticed a conspicuous thermometer gracing the pages of pfblogs.org and a number of personal finance blogs. This thermometer is measuring donations within a campaign to fund personal finance lessons in public schools.

HC at One Big Mortarboard has organized a campaign to raise a total of $1,500 out of about $1,900 remaining to fully cover four projects focusing on bringing money management skills to the schools. Teachers have personally submitted these projects to DonorsChoose to find funding. Here are the details on the four programs searching for funding, which have been selected by personal finance bloggers. Four more programs are waiting to take the place of this first set once it is fully funded.

For more information, see the posts on Consumerism Commentary, One Big Mortar Board, Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge, and An English Major’s Money.

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Install the pfblogs.org Blogroll

Posted on August 18, 2020 by Webmaster

One of the best ways for Friends of pfblogs.org to share links and ensure they are getting the most out of their small membership fee is to install the pfblogs.org Blogroll on their blog and encourage others to do the same. Chances are you already have links to blogs you like. The Blogroll uses JavaScript, so if my understanding is correct, you won’t be spreading your PageRank any thinner by adding the Blogroll or risk sharing your PageRank with sites not controlled by you.

The Blogroll is a great way to see who has updated their blog recently, with priority given to Friends of pfblogs.org. The more we encourage use of the Blogroll, the more valuable membership in the Friends of pfblogs.org will be.

Starting today and for the next two weeks, any current blogger who currently has or adds permanently the pfblogs.org Blogroll, will receive a three-month extension to the end of their membership. If the blogger is not currently a Friend of pfblogs.org, they will receive free membership for three months. Just leave a comment here with a link to your blog or blog post where you mention the Blogroll. Though no specific post about the Blorgoll is necessary, it is encouraged.

Please note. This offer is only valid for non-commercial blogs, those blogs not designed to sell or in support of a product or service.

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Further Improvements

Posted on August 16, 2020 by Webmaster

In the last week, I’ve made some programming improvements to pfblogs.org which should improve speed when viewing the site directly. I’m still looking for a MySQL “expert” to assist. If you know of anyone, please send her my way. More enhancements will be on the way in the next few months.

There is one issue that Friends of pfblogs.org must be aware of. If you have a subscription through PayPal, make sure you keep your information updated with your latest credit card. If your credit card expires, PayPal will cancel your subscription, likely without warning. This has happened to a few people over the last few weeks, and for those who have a yearly subscription, you may not even notice until it’s time to renew several months from now.

Please check your credit card on file with PayPal if you have a monthly or yearly subscription for the Friends of pfblogs.org.

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Server Stability

Posted on July 16, 2020 by Webmaster

This weekend, our web host, DreamHost, moved pfblogs.org as well as a number of other servers to a new location. Since that move, the fetching software has become unreliable. I’ve devised a temporary work-around until it is feasible to move the aggregator to a new location.

If you have the ability to help with this project, it would be greatly appreciated.

Update: The server is now as stable as it was before the move, and blog posts should be fetched as normal. If you have any problems in the future, email the webmaster. We’re still looking for anyone willing to assist with getting pfblogs.org onto a dedicated server or two.

Posted in Admin | 1 Comment