blogging novice - please help

[Mike_M]

Im completely new to blogging, but I've just created one with wordpress, Finance-Affiliate.co.uk. The site is barely a day old and I'm getting 'pingback waiting for your approval' emails already!

I don't even know what pingbacks are - should I approve them, delete them, or mark them as spam?

Thanks

Mike

[benfriedman]

Hi Mike,

It depends where they are from. They may be spam or they may actually be people linking to you. I'd see what each one is individually before deciding what to do about them.

Ben

[kcheung]

Ping backs come from when a site links to your article or site. Some can be spam some can be genuine...as mentioned, they are useful if they are from genuine sources as they can have relevant sites linked to you and vice versa, however if they are spam, don't approve them.

seeing as your using wordpress, may i suggest checking out some of the plugins - the plugins by maxblogpress.com are really good and I use a few on my sites. Make sure you activate Askmet spam blocker, and add all-in-one-seo, statpress, SEO friendly images and cformsII i find these the most useful plugins.

don't forget to change your permalink structure - thanks to Grounded vertigo for that tip!

[benfriedman]

Akismet is very good. definitely worth installing to block spam

[Mike_M]

Does anyone know how to place advertising banners above the menus on the right hand side?

[confuscius]

Take a look at this plugin - WordPress › AdSense Manager « WordPress Plugins - lots of options!