Pinging pfblogs.org and Using Feedburner

Posted on October 29, 2020 by Webmaster

As you may know, Friends of pfblogs.org have the option of pinging the pfblogs.org server to let the site know when a new entry has been posted. However, when a blogger uses Feedburner, the RSS feed doesn’t always contain the new post before it is fetched by pfblogs.org.

Therefore, for those Friends who use Feedburner and ping pfblogs.org, the server will wait 5 minutes before fetching the RSS feed. If the blog also pings Feedburner, this should be sufficient. To avoid this 5 minute delay, contact us with the non-Feedburner address for your RSS feed. If you are using a redirection for local RSS requests, pfblogs.org servers should be excluded from the directive.

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Last Few Days of $2 Per Month Membership

Posted on October 20, 2020 by Webmaster

If you have not become a member of the Friends of pfblogs.org yet and you’ve been meaning too, don’t forget that the monthly price will be raising for non-commercial members on November 1. The link to your blog itself is worth $110 to $145 according to LinkWorth, and non-commercial Friends get the link plus a lot more for only $4.99 a month.

Commercial members of the Friends of pfblogs.org pay $50 a month, still much less than the state value of just the link.

If you join before November 1, you will have the lower price for the life of your membership. To join the Friends of pfblogs.org, read this information.

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Getting Listed on pfblogs.org

Posted on October 18, 2020 by Webmaster

Thanks to everyone who informed me of their interest in the pfblogs.org Advisory Panel. I’ll be contacting a bunch of you in the next few weeks to send you more information and get things started.

There’s now a simpler way to request listing on pfblogs.org. It’s as simple as filling out a form. The blog will still have to be reviewed of course. There are new personal finance blogs popping up every day. I’ve refined the “guidelines” of what we’re looking for… it seems like most people are trying to make a quick buck rather than developing content first. I’m not a fan.

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The pfblogs.org Advisory Panel

Posted on October 4, 2020 by Webmaster

I’m looking for a few good (and historied) bloggers to join the pfblogs.org Advisory Panel. Email the webmaster at this domain if you’re interested, and I’ll pass along more information regarding the plans for the Panel.

Posted in Admin | 6 Comments

Being a Friend of pfblogs.org is a Great Value

Posted on September 28, 2020 by Webmaster

Out of curiosity, I logged into LinkWorth to see how much a link on every page within pfblogs.org would go for. Take a look at the results and see for yourself: Continue reading →

Posted in Friends | 3 Comments

Ping pfblogs.org to Update Your Blog!

Posted on September 20, 2020 by Webmaster

This should be a welcome update for those who like to see their blog entries make their way to pfblogs.org faster than the normal 30 minute fetching cycle. If your blog software supports it, you can now ping pfblogs.org’s server to fetch your feed.

  • Get your numerical blog ID by finding your blog on the sidebar on pfblogs.org or through the full blog listing.
  • Configure your blogging software to ping http://pfblogs.org/ping/BlogID where BlogID is your numerical blog ID.
  • Post as you normally would (please, no “test posts”) and check pfblogs.org in the next minute or so. Your post should appear.

There are several reasons this might not work for you.

  • You may not have correctly entered the ping URL, which should be, for example, http://pfblogs.org/ping/20. Replace “20″ with your blog’s numerical ID used by pfblogs.org.
  • You may have your time zone configured incorrectly in your RSS feed or blogging software.
  • Some feeds generated by Blogger are incorrectly formatted.
  • You may have an invalid character in your feed.
  • The server hosting your feed may be unavailable for a short amount of time.
  • Your entry, or the summary in your RSS feed, is fewer than ten words long.
  • If pfblogs.org uses your Feedburner feed, there is a delay between the time you post and the time when Feedburner updates your feed.

If you believe there is some issue other than the examples above, email the webmaster who will have debugging information for all pings that hit the pfblogs.org server.

Note: This feature is available only to Friends of pfblogs.org and only one ping for a particular blog will be processed every 30 minutes. If you use Feedburner and pfblogs.org uses your Feedburner feed rather than your local feed, your ping may not be effective, due to the delay between the time you post and Feedburner’s update.

Posted in Admin, Blogs | 4 Comments

Server is Slow Today

Posted on September 11, 2020 by Webmaster

Sorry if pfblogs.org seems a little sluggish today. The server seems to be handling some database queries slower than usual. Hopefully the problem will take care of itself.

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Saying No to Splogs

Posted on September 6, 2020 by Webmaster

A splog is a blog consisting of spam. It’s often hard to tell splogs from true blogs, but splogs will not be listed on pfblogs.org and any subscriptions for membership in the Friends of pfblogs.org initiated by owners of splogs will be refunded. Pfblogs.org exists to serve as a useful tool for the personal finance, investing, and real estate blogging community.

The inclusion of spam blogs reduces the quality of pfblogs.org.

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Commercial Membership Price Increase

Posted on August 29, 2020 by Webmaster

On October 1, the price of Commercial Membership in the Friends of pfblogs.org will increase. The price for those bloggers whose blogs implicitly or explicity promote a product or products will see the monthly price increase from $35 to $50. Current Commercial and Non-Commercial Friends will not see this price increase. You still have the rest of August and all of September to subscribe as a Friend of pfblogs.org for $35 for your lifetime.

Note: this change only affects Commercial Memberships. On October 1, Non-Commercial Memberships will still be only $2.00 each month.

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The Community Patrol

Posted on August 19, 2020 by Webmaster

If you happen to come across a blog listed on pfblogs.org that is inappropriate for listing based on the guidelines listed in the FAQ (spam, not personal finance, etc.), please let us know privately. With almost 600 blogs included and more than one third of those posting new entries regularly, it’s a little difficult to keep track of the legitimacy of the entire group.

And listen: It’s currently $2 a month ($35 a month for “commercial” sites) to become a member of the Friends of pfblogs.org, which provides some neat features (and more to come soon!) for bloggers who are serious about promoting their blog. All current Friends are locked into this price, but the cost of membership will be going up in the future.

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