Hotlinking - Stealing bandwidth and violating copyright
Posted on March 27, 2008 by Rose DesRochers
Hotlinking, also known as bandwidth theft is direct linking to a web site’s files. When you link to an image on someone else’s server instead of saving the image to your computer and uploading it to your blog you are stealing that websites bandwidth.
Most websites have a limited amount of data transfer (or bandwidth) allowed. If they go over this limit, it costs them. Stealing bandwidth therefore unnecessarily increases the cost of hosting. Also, with many hosts limiting the amount of bandwidth a site can use monthly, their site could be shut down for exceeding bandwidth quota.
Though it is the webmaster’s responsibility to prevent the unauthorized remote loading of images from their site by uploading an .htaccess file to their server, anyone hotlinking is doing something that truly is unethical. As a webmaster, hotlinking is certainly not something that I appreciate.
If you wish to republish an image, the proper thing to do is to save the image to your computer and upload it to your blog or a free image host. Make sure that you obtain permission from the original author before you upload it and before publication to your blog takes place.
The solution for webmasters dealing with hotlinking is to use an .htaccess file. It’s very simple to implement and it works beautifully!
If you are using Wordpress, there is a hotlink protection plugin that you can install which fights bandwidth theft.
A word to the wise, please don’t hotlink. Hotlinking is definitely not proper Internet etiquette.
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Optimizing your blog for search engines
Posted on September 17, 2007 by Rose DesRochers
By Rose DesRochers
Blogs are naturally search engine friendly. Optimizing your blog for the search engines is really no different than optimizing your website.
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Writing Poetry: Find Your Poetry Style
Posted on September 1, 2007 by Rose DesRochers
As a free verse poet, I wanted to broaden my writing, so I decided to take a look at the different styles of poetry. There is a time in every artist’s life when he or she must develop new knowledge. Poetry is pretty diverse, and there are many different styles, and many different ways to teach those styles.
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Seven Benefits of Submitting Articles to Ezine Article Directories
Posted on August 31, 2007 by Rose DesRochers
Bloggers are always on the lookout for ways to market their blogs effectively. One key way to market your blog is to write articles and submit them to various article directories for maximum exposure. In addition to traffic there are other benefits to writing articles. Below is seven good reasons why you should be writing and submitting articles to ezines.
10 Blogging Mistakes You Should Avoid
Posted on July 8, 2007 by Rose DesRochers
By Rose DesRochers
I have come across a number of blogs where beginners bloggers not yet familiar with blogging have made these ten common blogging mistakes.
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