Techie Problems, Issues and Blog Books/Self-Publishing:

  "Google Images"

Last night, I became alarmed.  About Google.  Where all my blogs essentially originate from.  I am no techie, but eventually I figure out the ins-and-outs on the programs that I use most frequently. 

Somehow, I was directed to "Google Images".  I think that I was Googling my blog name, and found it among the links under Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy.  I didn't know about that site yet until last night, but I assure you I don't appreciate it's ethics.  I don't use Photobucket or any photo sharing software.  I want everybody to see and enjoy my pictures when they visit my blog, but I don't willingly sharing them without permission begin granted.

I've always used "Live Images/Bing", which offers you a big variety of images under whatever subject you are wanting to find a picture for.  Google does a much more thorough job though.  Under my name, there were my very favorite photos for everybody and anybody to take.  Oh, sure, it says "These images may be copyrighted", and it does lead them to my blog.   Honest people will give me credit for using my photo, and perhaps even link back to me.  Maybe they'll ask me first, but I doubt it.  Dishonest people can print and sell my work for their profit, if the photos are good enough.  I don't care about the picture of the plate of taco salad that is under my "page".  I DO CARE very much about my Ft. Rock photos.  Some are watermarked, and some aren't.  I guess I'm going to have to watermark all of my photos from here on out, which I think distracts away from the beauty of a photo.  But it is too late to do that for the ones that are already on Google Image.

I feel like Google has pulled a Facebook maneuver, like when the privacy settings are changed on your profile page, and you have to figure it out on your own and then go and change it back.  I took my "good" pictures off of FB, and just share my family photos on there now for that reason.  Apparently, Google has a program that it has been working on called "Google Wave".  I just found out about it last night too, but it reminds me of a MySpace or Facebook kind of thing.  Are they just getting ready by posting pictures off of my blog (and your blog)?  I don't know, but I don't like it.  Try it yourself and see what you find under your name or your blog name, especially if you post a lot of photos on your blog.

I posted a question on Google Help, and they told me that I could opt out, but that the photos on there will stay unless I delete my post with the photos in question, and then it will take up to 6 months for them to be removed from Google Images.  It was suggested that in an HTML widget, I post either of these, so I posted both.  I don't know if they will work or not.  Just use these at the beginning and ending of each little sentence "<" and ">" (leaving out the #1 and #2).  (If I try to spell it out exactly on here with the lesser than/more than signs, Blogger makes what follows invisible.  #1) meta name="robots" content="noimageindex".  #2) meta name="googlebot" content="noimageindex".  You can also look up "Blocking images from Google" for help.

"Spikes and Possible Viruses"

This morning I was scanning my sidebar to see what was new, and found that Misha over at My First Book had a post titled "Warning: Virus Threat".  Intrigued, I went on over to check out her news.  When you are done here, you might want to do that too.  Bascially, Misha posted about another blogger's experience who noticed that she was having huge blog spikes coming from referring sites of people that she follows.  If you look on your "Stats" page on your dashboard, you might find the same thing happening.  It did happen to me too.  Well, anyway, the woman who wrote the original post ended up getting a virus.  Though it sounds now as if the virus that wiped out her computer may have come from another source, the comments on Misha's post are very interesting.  I didn't think that I was effected by spikes when I left my comment (they don't show up on Feedjit), but I got a bunch too. 

Google is improving their blog dashboards, and some test case people already have it, but I don't yet.  It is called Blogger in Draft or something like that.  Perhaps all the recent Blogger glitches are having to do with all the work they are doing on getting that going.  Many of you guys have had troubles with leaving comments.  Some suggested that when they installed Google Chrome, their problem was solved.  But then you have to get used to a whole other browser.  Others said that it is a very easy fix ... just unclick the box that says "keep me signed in" where you sign in to work on your blog and then you can leave comments again.

"Saving Your Blog Into Print"

I am totally invested on Blogger.  I have 49 blogs, (actually 20 more than that if you count my outline for the book that we are going to write about Cary someday.)  I have used WordPress, and it isn't as user friendly to me as Blogger is; but besides that, I don't want to remake a whole lot of blogs on a new program.  I'm wondering how many hackers that Blogger is constantly fighting off though.  I'm guessing that anything successful gets a bad following who tries to destroy it.  It is a good idea to back up your whole blog, and you can Google about how to do that if you want to.

Well, with all of that stuff above going on, and the fact that some peoples' blogs have totally disappeared forever through no fault of their own, it has me thinking about saving my all of my hard work into a hard-copy.  Plus, I have been doing all of this history/genealogy work, and I think it would be nice to pull them all together into one spot.

Blogger itself makes that very easy, though it costs between $65 and $130 to get a nice hardbound copy of your blog turned into book.  All you do is sign up, give them the date ranges, and with in 20 minutes or so you can proofread it and send it off to the printer.  Here is a great blog post about a mother who did just that, and she tells us about her experience, step-by-step in: "Bunch a Babies"  Here is the link to the website that does this all for you.  Shared Book.com   I'm not necessarily recommending it because I haven't used it, but it is an option if you are interested.  Blurb.com  also looks like another good option, and it looks less expensive.

I am a member of  "She Writes".  Though, up until now I've really been just a lurker.  It is more of a confidence thing, I'm finally seeing myself as an emerging writer.  Anyway, they have a great post going on this week about self-publishing ... for one book of family memories, or for something that may eventually sell as well as "Gone With The Wind".   

I know that there are debates raging on the subject of self-publishing, but I'm too new to worry about that kind of stuff.  There are several programs/companies out there that will make your dreams come true, and each book costs way less than $65.00 (but you do more of the work).  It seems as if many people writing on the thread below find CreateSpace, through Amazon.com a good way to go.  It is easy, cheap and your book is offered up for sale on Amazon.com and Kindle.  If you are interested in that, or other self-publishing programs, you might enjoy this post: She Writes: "I'm Thinking of Self-Publishing".

So, there you go.  I hope that this helps some of you, and that you have a wonderful week.


Kathy M.

BECKY said...All very interesting info, Kathy! I have to ask, though, what does Blog Spikes mean? I've never heard of that...so I don't know how to check it out! :)  Thanks for watching out for us!

Thank you, Becky!  I hadn't heard of that term before either.  I think it means that on your stats chart (on your blogger dashboard) it shows that you have gotten an extreme amount of hits on a certain day. 

Hart Johnson said...I think for photos, the watermarks are a very good idea. My photographer friends all do that. I am possibly bad about just finding pics on Google images. If it looks like a PHOTO I link back, but some stuff is hard to tell.

I had one of those blog spike things and through a link I made to another blogger, she said her 'pingback' (which I still haven't investigated) gave her a referral site and when I went, my entire blogs, words, pictures and all, were there with no reference to me. I started putting a siggie with a link at the bottom of my blog with a 'this post originated at'. I figured anything getting me readers was GOOD, but only if they could find the real ME. They stopped taking my posts though, after that. Also can't hurt to have an 'all content copyrighted' note. Technically it is copyrighted anyway, but the reminder might make people think twice.

Good luck!

Thank you, Hart!  You just gave us some very valuable information.  I'm so sorry that happened to you.  Dang, why can't people just do their own work, anyway?  I'll add more to my signature box below.  I started using it when I joined all the linky/meme parties, so people would hopefully go to my homepage and read more.

Kim, USA said...

Hi Kathy, I am curious how did you found your photos on line. How did you do it? I am curious too who knows my photos is already printed or use by other websites we don't know. And I knew one blogger, he discover that his photo was stolen and sold to a certain website, ain't that infuriating? But here is what happened to me I was a victim of plagiarism. This is what happened, the one who stole it got the nerve to message me to visit his/her blog, Our of curiosity I click the name only to find out that word for word my paid post was stolen. I was really mad!! I did blog about it but I didn't put his/her URL, what the heck he/she can get a lot of traffic double time from me on my expense?? I'd like to strangle who ever he/she was at that time lol!!!

So many crazy things happened in blog land I tell you. I was also told by a pro-photographer to watermark my photos, and just like you I don't want to ruin the beauty that's why sometimes I watermarked sometime I don't.

I checked my stats and yes I noticed it before that their is this significant spike on some days and saw URL's that I am not familiar with so I didn't check it. Now as I read your post it could be a virus career who knows. And it gets me curious and red flag raise up when I visit a blog that I don't see the face of the author. Do you have that experience? When I stumble that kind of blog I mentally note not to visit it lol!! It's like how on the world you are a blogger and I can't see your face? What are you hiding at, right?  GTG, got to do scanning and checking things in blog land. Happy week days ahead!! ^_^

Kim, that is horrible!  Sorry that happened.  That really took a lot of nerve of that person who plagiarized you.  If it happens again, take a picture of your work on the other person's blog, email it to them and tell them to take it off.  I'll find the article on what to do after that  soon; Grace @ Liberal Sprinkles and I were talking about that awhile back.  To find your stuff on Google Image is very easy.  Go to the "Google Image" site and type in your blog name in the search bar.  Other people's photos may be mixed in, but I did see some of yours.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.