And just like that July is almost wrapped up. Time seems to be flying by even faster now that we’re getting sunny weather up in Vancouver. When I’m not plugging away at my blog or working for my actual employers, I’ve been trying to get out to enjoy the weather. It seems there’s never a spare moment to just relax.
Lately I’ve been reflecting back on my blogging journey to this point. Monday will mark my 6 month blogging anniversary and I know I’ve come a long ways. I will get into that more with my anniversary post. For now I’d just like to remind everyone that I will be having a big giveaway starting Monday. So far the prizes include $150 in cash prizes and several ebooks. Thank you for everyone’s generosity in contributing to this contest. If you’d still like to contribute something, get in touch soon as I will need to finalize the rafflecopter widget and everything else this weekend.
Blog Commenting Scare
On Wednesday I had a bit of scare with my blog commenting routine. The night before I had been doing some marketing work for one of my employers and some of it was borderline spam, but nothing really bad in my opinion. I guess someone else had a difference of opinion though. Wednesday morning when I commented on some blogs my comments were blocked before even getting to moderation.
My first instinct was to blame the Akismet spam filter plugin since I know it can be triggered easily sometimes. That theory was blown out of the water when I tried commenting on my own blog without Akismet turned on. I couldn’t even respond the comments on my own blog!
Since the problem was affecting multiple web browsers, my next strategy was to try to get my ISP to change my IP address. Unfortunately they told me that I was basically stuck with the IP for months. I don’t know if that’s definitely true or if they didn’t want to let me risk contaminating another IP. So do I change to a new internet service provider just to get a new IP?? I’d hate to go through the hassle after getting hooked up with a sweet deal on my current internet/tv package.
I was really panicking about what to do about this problem. Was I suddenly going to be out of a major blog promotion strategy? Or was I going to be forced to do blog work from the library or a coffee shop? Or do I just give up commenting to focus on other strategies? The bigger blogs seem to get by with that focus, but what about responding to comments on my own blog?!
After a couple hours of trying to deal with that mess, it was time to go help my friends move to a new house. Finally the stressful situation was out of my hands for a while. Instead it was time to get a good workout in the sun with intermittent beer breaks.
Then yesterday morning when I got back to my commenting problem, I decided to test responding to comments once more. My eyes lit up as I saw that comment show up instead of the error. What a weight lifted off my sore shoulders!
Now I’m going to be a lot more careful with anything that might be borderline spam. Even if it’s not done on blogs, apparently it can still affect your ability to post comments. Lesson learned! Now can I have those 2 hours back?
UPDATE: The problem is back again today 
I guess I’ll go help my friend finish moving today and hope that gives me some good karma. So if I’m not commenting on your blog today it’s because the comment didn’t go through.
What would you do in a situation like this?
Modest Money Around The Web
Last week I asked everyone who cares if I split up the mentions & acknowledgments. Fortunately only 1 or 2 people preferred having it split up. Since that also saves me time, democracy wins. So here are the blogs that mentioned my posts recently:
The Round Table – July 20, 2012 Edition on Money Smart Guides
Blog round up for July 20, 2012 on My Canuck Buck
Droughts, Interest Rates, Posts and Some Random Thoughts on The Canadian Personal Finance Blog
Star Money Articles and Carnivals for the Week of July 16 on Free Money Finance
Personal Finance Friday! on Be Frugal
First Time Home Buyer Class and Posts of the Week on Young Adult Money
Updates: July 15 – 21 on The Outlier Model
Weekend Wind Down 7/21/2012 on My Money Design
Links Grow on Trees – Productivity Rules on Earth and Money
Weekend Ramblings & PF Blog Love: First Speeding Ticket Edition on Young and Thrifty
Weekly Wrap-Up and What I’m Reading On the Web – 10 on iHeart Budgets
Friends of the Family: Another Day At The Zoo Edition on The Family Finances
Lifestyle Carnival #12: Fifty Shades of Grey Edition on From Shopping To Saving
Places I’ve Been: Week Ending July 22 on Edward Antrobus
Carnivals, Mentions, & Weekend Reading #21 on Work Save Live
LAS VEGAS VACATION TIPS on Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance
Carnival of Retirement- 29th Edition on Master The Art Of Saving
Festival of Frugality #346 – Do Something for Yourself Edition on One Smart Dollar
Weekend Reading – Increased readership and great blogs on My Own Advisor
Thank you everyone who generously shares the link love. You’re all awesome! The people who regularly link, you’re seriously the best. I love you guys! lol
And to my blogging friends who don’t like my content enough to share some link love, do I have to beg? Or are you just going to give me more sleepless nights wondering why I just didn’t make the cut? Just know I’ll remember the exclusions when it comes time to send out Christmas cards 
So I’ve got begging, guilt tripping and threats covered lol. Next week I may resort to public shaming and name calling haha.
Favorite Posts On Other Blogs
Now get off my blog and go read some of these awesome posts:
Beginner’s Guide to Finance – Approaching Retirement on One Smart Dollar
Spy As You Go Car Insurance on Money Smart Guides
Buying A Home (Part 1) on iHeart Budgets
And I hit rock bottom on Bog Of Debt
Fast Food: When Buying to Get More for Your Money Backfires on Money Life and More
Should I Stay or Should I Go Now? (Or Do I Want a Promotion) on Edward Antrobus
We All Have Issues on The Family Finances
I splurged – and it was nice on My Canuck Buck
Overcoming Envy – Why Do We Hate Other People’s Success? on My Money Design
Good Debt? Not Bloody Likely on The Canadian Personal Finance Blog
Advantages of Owning a Home vs Renting on Young Adult Money
10 Reasons Why it’s Easier to Build Wealth Now on Street Smart Finance
Logo Design Contests and Marketplaces You Should Check Out on Zac Johnson
Spending & Saving: Money & Our Kid on Master The Art Of Saving
HOW TO GET OUT OF DEBT; TAKE THE FIRST STEP on Barbara Friedberg
Reader Question – Why don’t you just buy dividend ETFs? on My Own Advisor
Don’t donate to charity on The Outlier Model
Have any of you had any kind of scares with your blog so far? I know some of you have had your blogs hacked or have had to start again from scratch. Is there any point you felt like giving up?
You should look into a development website (just copy the WordPress database) and make your changes.
This has helped me in the past.
Steve @ Grocery Alerts recently posted..$50 Sobeys Gift Card Giveaway
I’m not sure how that would help in my situation. I could see it being pretty useful for anyone who is making changes on their blog without knowing what they’re doing. In my case, the problem is affecting my comments on many blogs.
No such scares for me yet. I don’t think I’ve done anything that would upset anyone enough to block my IP. Thanks for the mention and I hope you have an awesome weekend with the nicer weather.
Lance@MoneyLife&More recently posted..It Pays to Ask For More – Coke Zero Commercial “And…?”
No I don’t think I actually upset anyone, but probably some site owners end up reporting anything that is even borderline. Most blog scares are related to accidentally changing something you don’t know how to fix or leaving your blog unprotected from hackers.
Oh man, that comment thing SUCKS. What’s awesome is that it worked itself out. I had a problem awhiel back about no one being able to comment on my blog. It was cool that Prairie Eco Thrifter told me about it because I was just starting to think that people didn’t like me anymore, haha! Since I was a new blogger then it took FOREVER for me to figure out the problem. I just didn’t know the lingo and stuff yet, it took a couple days. Turned out to be just a stupid plugin. I had gotten a new plugin and it made my comments not work. When I ditched the plugin, everything was fine again. I admit to getting outside help from my sister on that one. I was lost!
TB at BlueCollarWorkman recently posted..An Ode to Beer — Blue Collar Roundup Style
Technical problems can be pretty rough for new bloggers. Most simply wouldn’t know how to fix any of that stuff. Outside help can be pretty crucial. Luckily in my case the commenting problem went away again today. I’m starting to wonder whether they’ll keep alternating these blocking days or what. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow.
That’s horrible about the commenting issue. Enjoy your sunnier weather! Have a great weekend and thank you for the mention!
bogofdebt recently posted..End of July’s Friday Link Lovin’
No problem. I was planning on enjoying the sunnier weather, but yesterday was a cloudy and today looks like more of the same. At least it’s not raining which makes for good weather for my friends to finish up their move finally.
As a temporary solution, leave comments using your smart phone. If you’re at home, turn off your phone’s wifi connection so you’re not using your the IP address that’s giving you trouble. Using the cellular network gives your device a completely new IP address. Because it IP different though, your comments might have to await moderation.
Bryan recently posted..Perfect Your Proofreading Posture with These Five Tips
Good idea Bryan. Unfortunately I’m one of the 5 personal finance bloggers that doesn’t have a smart phone yet lol. I’m getting so sick of typing text messages on that number keypad though. So maybe I’ll finally give in and get one for my birthday in a month.
Thanks for the mention!
Have a great weekend!
Thanks Eddie. I guess you’re not much for reading the extra stuff on these kinds of posts.
Oh man, that would suck. I’m curious tho, what kinda spam comments were you leaving?
Marissa @ Thirty Six Months recently posted..Life Should be Equal Parts Responsibility, and Fun.
Well that’s the surprising part, the borderline spam wasn’t even on blogs. I don’t do any blog spamming at all anymore. I would give more details, but I don’t want to give anyone bad ideas that might get them in trouble with the spam filters too. It really wasn’t anything bad though.
That comment drama has got be frustrating sir.. Hopefully it all gets sorted out. I can’t wait to hear the details of what you are cooking up for your six month anniversary. It sounds like a great contest is a part of it!
Jefferson recently posted..Help, I Can’t Turn the Water Off!
Yep it is frustrating, but at least it’s been on days when my friends needed help with moving. So it gave me a chance to get a good workout and lend a hand. It’s not too bad that it seems to go away the next day. If it happens again tomorrow though it’s really going to test my patience.
Yikes! One of the reasons I like it here is your religious commenting back!
Also love the Christmas card reference… when my friend is mad at her dog she says “Millie is off my Christmas card list.”
Anne @ Unique Gifter recently posted..4 Wedding Food Savings Tips (for guests)
I like to reply back to everyone too. I think it gives it a much more personal touch. When I comment on blogs where I know there will be no reply, it just feels a lot more impersonal. It’s a simple acknowledgement that takes very little time.
That’s funny about your friend using the Christmas card line with her dog. I have a feeling that kind of scolding wouldn’t be too effective
Dude, that really sucks you can’t comment again. I’m so ignorant with this stuff that I really have no idea what I’d do.
My biggest scare was when my site had a virus and malware pop-ups appears every couple times I’d try to login or visit my site. After contacting a few companies I was finally able to get the problem fixed, but it was definitely a little nerve-racking because I had no idea what to do.
Hopefully you figure out what the problem is and get it resolved. Wish I could be of more help!
Jason @ WorkSaveLive recently posted..Does Canceling a Credit Card Hurt Your Credit?
Well it’s back working again today. So knock on wood that it won’t come back again tomorrow. I remember when you had that malware problem. It is so frustrating when it’s a problem that you have no idea how to fix yourself. I guess that company took care of the problem and it hasn’t come back since. I think I may have even referred you to someone to help with that.
No scares yet, but that is a bit unnerving. Glad you enjoyed the home buying posts. It was fun to recount my home buying adventure with my wife. I had to dig thorugh some old emails to find some of the timeline on those, and it was cool to see the other houses we looked at, vs. the one we bought. Just reinforced our awesome decision.
Hope you’re comment blocking goes away soon. You may need to tether to your cell phone for a new IP address…but that means you’d have to buy a smart phone with a data plan.
Jacob @ iheartbudgets recently posted..Buying a Home (Part 2)
Nope no data plan for me yet lol. I’m building up more delayed gratification before I give in. Then I can annoy my friends by being on my cell phone all the time.
I did really enjoy your home buying posts. Since it’s something I will likely be facing in the next year or two, it’s helpful to get a first hand recount of the process in such an honest view. Also, you do a great job of making those story posts quite entertaining.
Thanks for the links! I will try to include yours sometime soon!
DC @ Young Adult Money recently posted..Would You Buy in to a $1 Million Poker Tournament?
No problem DC. I think you actually did link to me a little while back. I would comment more on your blog, but I’m not a fan of the livefyre commenting system. I made the mistake of signing up for an account on there and now it only links to my livefyre profile instead of my website.
That comment thing would suck, still sucks I guess. Sorry to hear about that.
Could it be a plugin issue?
I wish I knew more about code, html, plugins to self diagnose that kind of thing.
Hopefully I can count on some bloggers friends now and again to help me when things go awry
If I think of anything, I wil write you.
Thanks for the mentions and hopefully the issue will resolve itself soon.
Mark
My Own Advisor recently posted..Weekend Reading – Increased readership and great blogs
Nope not a plugin issue since it happens on other blogs and not just my own. I’m pretty sure it’s something tied to my ip address. As long as it only lasts 1 day at a time it is at least a little more bearable. I’ve also started keeping track of which ones block me and which don’t. So if it happens again, I can at least concentrate on the clear ones on those days and get back to the others later.
Well that sucks. Just don’t be a dumbass like me and get in over your head. Which I am sure you won’t do.
I hope you get your issues resolved soon. Have a good weekend, you deserve a break anyways!
Yes your blog problem was much worse than mine. I give you a lot of credit for keeping your blog going though. After losing almost everything like that I’m sure lots of people would just throw in the towel. It did make for some nice breaks, although both days I was busting my ass instead of relaxing.
I love the cats… and Vancouver
. I’ll be happy to contribute a $25 amazon gift card to your giveaway.
Awesome, thanks Barbara! I love my cats and Vancouver too. I’ll be in contact soon about the contest prize.
I’ve never had that happen before and I hope I don’t. Hope it gets resolved soon!
Cahse
Debt Free Teen recently posted..Beware: College Admissions Counselors
Well it’s resolved for another day anyway. I just won’t be home for long enough to really take advantage. Hopefully I can at least respond to all comments today in case it goes out again tomorrow.
Thanks for the mention Jeremy. And nice try making it sound like you are having commenting issues. I’m sure the real story is that you just want to enjoy the nice weather and don’t want to be inside commenting. I’ll let it slide this time!
MoneySmartGuides recently posted..Five Things to Know When Shopping at Outlet Malls
lol Don! That would be a good excuse, wouldn’t it? Ironically I had been getting overwhelmed by trying to take on too much commenting. So part of me was seeing a positive side to this situation where it would force me to concentrate on more effective link building. Then I would remember how much I’d miss on everyone’s blogs and I’d feel guilty for not reciprocating the commenting.
Thanks for the mention.
We’ve talked about the commenting problem on twitter. Are you able to reply to comments through the admin panel?
I’ve never tried replying to comments through the admin panel, but I doubt it would work. My blog can detect that I’m an admin when I’m commenting. So it should still ultimately be going through the same comment posting script.
Maybe, maybe not. I don’t use it often because CommentLuv doesn’t hook into it, but I’ve noticed that the commenting system through the admin panel has much different functionality than posting a comment from the front-end.
That is terrible about your commenting! I have never heard of such a thing happening before, at least not in that way. I wish I had some insight for you! Best wishes, please update when you get it all figured out!
Wayne @ Young Family Finance recently posted..Tips for Buying a New Car
Thanks Wayne. I don’t recall hearing about this happening to other people either. I have run into problems with comment spam filters back when I was doing shady marketing work last year. Well actually it was outsourced freelancers that was getting me blocked, but that was a lot more understandable. I did learn from those mistakes though. I don’t even leave weak comments on friends’ blogs these days.
Thanks for the mention, Jeremy. So, have you figured out the reason for the commenting problems you had the day before? I wonder how it got rectified on its own. Nonetheless, thanks for sharing this important experience we all can learn from.
Shilpan recently posted..10 Reasons Why it’s Easier to Build Wealth Now
I suspect they realized how minor an offense it was and were just giving me 1 day slaps on the wrist. If it was something more severe I’m sure I’d be blocked longer than 1 day at a time. It does go to show that any of your online marketing efforts can come back to haunt you, especially when you walk the line with what is considered legit.
No such scares thankfully. Moving sucks. For some reason moving other people’s stuff is easier. I’m not sure how that works but it’s been the case for me. Probably because you know you’re either eating or drinking for free? The only thing that sucks more than moving is having some technical issue with your site.
A Blinkin recently posted..What is Supply Trade Finance?
That’s totally true that it’s easier to move other people’s stuff. I guess it’s because you just have to do some lifting for a day or two. You don’t have to deal with all the other hassles of packing, cleaning, address changes, unpacking, etc. When it’s your own move, you don’t get the immediate satisfaction of it being all done because you know there’s so much more work to do.
That’s rough! I can’t believe that there is the power out there to blog IP’s that someone deems as spammy. I hope you get it figured out soon! And that you can read this comment at some point
Brian recently posted..Updates: July 22 – 28
It makes sense so that they can block extra spammy IPs or ones where their computer is taken over by a virus. It just sucks to get caught by it when I wasn’t being all that bad. The problem has been clear for 3 days now. So I consider it gone, but I will have to be careful now that I might have a red flag.
I’m so happy that you’re able to comment/reply to comments again, I would have freaked out.
I haven’t had that issue yet, but one time I messed with the .php stuff in Thesis and my site disappeared. No back-ups or anything and I was fairly certain the world ended.
Thanks for the mention, Jeremy.
Jen @ Master the Art of Saving recently posted..Spending & Saving: Money & Our Kid
I doubt most bloggers would have to deal with my specific problem. Messing up your theme can be scary though. If you mess it up enough you sometimes can’t even access the dashboard to change anything. So you’d be forced to fix it in the code itself via ftp.
You put together a roundup without including Studenomics? Really? Haha I’ve had lots of blogging scares. My blog just disappeared one time!
You must’ve dropped by the one week I skipped you Martin
Good to see you dropping by my blog though. I’d be freaking out if my blog just disappeared. I have backups of everything, but it would still be super stressful.
The same thing is actually happening to me! I cannot figure out why my comments are not even showing up on certain blogs. I’ve figured out that if I don’t include my website or a link in the comments then my comment will show up. But other than that, I’ve tried on a couple different ip’s and computers, but still having a lot of problems. I’m not sure what to do, because I get a pretty good amount of referrals from leaving comments on other blogs.
Harry @ PF Pro recently posted..Should College Students Start Using Credit?
It sounds like you might’ve triggered akismet somehow. That would be connected to either your e-mail address or url. I don’t think they block IPs with akismet. It can be tricky to get back out of their blacklist. With them it is based on past behavior. So you need to get some people to rescue your comments from their spam folders. I think you can probably even help things doing that on your own blog if you install akismet too.
Thanks for the mention etc – hope you get everything sorted out soon. And congrats on your 6 month anniversary!
mycancukbuck recently posted..My stats for the month of July 2012
Thanks. Everything seems to be sorted out. Then hootsuite’s tweet scheduling just had to break down today adding another small obstacle. Luckily I still had tweetdeck still installed, but it wasted some time finding out which tweets didn’t go out and rescheduling them.
Thanks for the love Jeremy!
I hope you had a great weekend, and stayed out of trouble!
The drinking was at friend’s house. So for the most part I stayed out of trouble. There were still some embarrassing photos that hopefully don’t end up on facebook.
Dude – Thanks for the link! How do you like that – a guy is just trying to make his way around the web spreading comments and love, and he gets shut down! I wish you good luck on getting that resolved!
My Money Design recently posted..Using Royalty Free Music and Stock Photos to Create Passive Income
I guess I was spreading too much love lol. The frustrating part is that I do things so legit with this blog compared to how I ran my older websites. So I didn’t really anticipate anything that could interfere with it. It’s a reminder that I need to behave when marketing other websites too.