Internet Strategy Blog

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While I was looking for a spam filter to block off the large number of spam comments every day, I came across this free Wordpress plugin – reCAPTCHA

reCAPTCHA works just like any other CAPTCHA filter. Readers have to type in the distorted word shown in the generated image before they can have their comments submitted. Since computer program cannot read distorted text as well as a human, a CAPTCHA filter can prevent abuse from “bots”, or automated programs that are written to generate spam.

Helping the World while giving comments

The difference between reCAPTCHA and a normal CAPTCHA filter is that the distorted words generated are taken from old books that were scanned but not recognized by the OCR properly.

These old books are written before computer age. To archive human knowledge and to make information more accessible to the world, these books are being photographically scanned, and then transformed into text using Optical Character Recognition” (OCR). The transformation into text is useful because scanning a book produces images, which are difficult to store on small devices, expensive to download, and cannot be searched. The problem is that OCR is not perfect.

What reCAPTCHA does is to send words that cannot be read by OCR to the Web in the form of CAPTCHA for humans to decipher. What you see below at the comment form is an instant of the reCAPTCHA at work. When you type words from the generated image, you are actually helping to decipher the words that are not recognised by the OCR.

It also comes with an audio challenge that allows blind people to freely navigate your site.

Try it out and have fun!

reCAPTCHA Wordpress plugin: http://recaptcha.net/plugins/wordpress/
reCAPTCHA home page: http://recaptcha.net

Being a blogger, there is always the challenge of writing original content every single day (at least for me). There is a tendency to “report” what is happening than to “make” thing happens. Just like what Yaro Starak said in Reporter vs. Expert - Why Most Bloggers Are Stuck Reporting,

“There’s nothing wrong with reporting of course and for many people it’s a necessity at first until you build up some expertise. Unfortunately the ratios are pretty skewed when it comes to reporters and experts - there are a lot more reporters than there are experts, hence reporters tend to struggle to gain attention and when they do, they often just enhance the reputation of the expert they are reporting on”

It is really easy to be an echo chamber since there is no need to crack the brain to come up with new juicy content. For someone who is blogging for leisure and just wanted to share news update with friends, then there is really nothing wrong with being an echo chamber.

Why it is not a wise thing to become an echo chamber

Continue reading »

I have just finished reading the ebook, Social Media Daily by Michelle MacPhearson and I was truly impressed by it. While there are many Web 2.0 sites out there, no one has actually come out with a definitive guide on how to leverage on the Web 2.0 phenomenon. In this ebook, Michelle created a daily checklist that she used to generate traffic from various Web 2.0 sites such as video sharing, blogging, social bookmarking, classified, social networking etc. I was overwhelmed with information.

You can download “Social Media Blueprint” here.

Rule 1: Know how to write

Rule 2: Know what to write

Rule 3: Know when to write

Rule 4: If all the above fail, know who you should pay to write for you.

Enough said. Enjoy blogging.

Scratching your head over how to monetize your website? Or you simply want to know the various options you have to make money online? Check out this list for a quick reference:

1. Contextual advertisement such as Google Adsense, Yahoo Publisher, Text Links Ads
2. Set up a shopping cart and sell your products
3. Get started in affiliate marketing
4. Sell Advertising Space
5. Ebay Auction
6. Write And Sell Your Own Ebooks
7. Write And Sell Software
8. Create Membership Site
9. Get Paid To Blog
10. Get Paid To Review
11. Sell Your Leads
12. Freelance Ghost writer
13. Freelance programmer
14. Web designer
15. Graphics designer
16. Buy/sell website
17. Sell private label right products such as articles, software, photo etc
18. Be a coach
19. Setting up a shop in SecondLife
20. Buy/sell domain name
21. Start a web hosting business
22. Participate in paid-to-read email, surveys, discussion groups
23. Gold farmer
24. Dropshipping
25. Create a networking site like MySpace

This is only a short checklist and serve as a quick reference for you. For more details, Experienced-people.co.uk does have 101 ways to make money online.