Wordpress users, if you use the plugin About The Author Box, this plugin inserts a hidden bit of text to promote some spam site. It does this by inserting a noscript javascript tag so that users won’t see it but search engines will.

It appears on line 25 of the file ‘about-the-author-box.php’. Here is what it looks like:

<noscript><a href=”http://yourherbalcare.com”>Your Herbal Care</a></noscript>

That gets added to the code of your site and while you and your users won’t see it visibly it’s in the code. Google could ban you for doing it too, because it’s considered cloaking. They are doing it this way so only search engines see it and it counts as a back link for them.

Please be aware when downloading plugins. Read over them and look at the source of your site after the plugin has been installed. That’s how I found this sneaky bastard’s tactics.

I’m so happy 2009 is gone. To be completely honest with you, I’m glad 2000-2009 is gone. It was a tough era for me and my family. A time we are just now seeing the end of. I really don’t want to dwell on the past too much, but it was rough. I lost my mother, my step mom and wife were both diagnosed with cancer. I was forced to sell my sites to pay for medical bills and ended up deep in debt helping ourselves and my family. But that’s the past. 2010 is going to be our year.

Though 2010 didn’t start off so hot. I got sick around Christmas. At one point I ended up in the ER. Great way to start the new years off right. But there’s plenty of good news too. My wife Aeryn finally got the all clear we’ve been waiting for. She had a series of tests and one of them showed “signs” that her cancer may be back. So they had to do a PET scan, which is the definitive way to look at the human body. We didn’t tell anyone about this because we didn’t wan anyone else to have to worry with us.

So we wait through the holidays, mostly sick and mostly unable to work or even help ourselves. So we waited and we worried and we got behind. But thankfully, good news was on the way. Aeryn’s doctor called yesterday to tell us that there a no signs anywhere that she has cancer. The spot they were worried about was scar tissue from the radiation treatments. She has to visit her cancer doctor one more time and have a bone density test (side effects) and then she goes back to the regular doctor just like the rest of us. Things are definitely starting to turn around.

Aeryn is now in school. She’s going for her CIS degree and wants to do web development. I can’t wait to help her out when she gets to those classes. I never got to go to college so I’m so proud of here for going. I’m not working on my own sites and doing some freelance work again. Just enough to help chip away at our debt.

I’m going to be changing the focus of chrispian.com one final time. It probably won’t be for a few weeks a I have to launch a couple other projects first, but chrispian.com will be more focused on my thoughts regarding my work and focus on my skills in the web dev field and try to promote myself and my expertise. I’m going to start a new business card style site at chrispian.me which may have a small blog with some random personal thoughts, but probably just links to my work around the web. I’ll make sure to post when these things are live, just in case you two fine folks want to check it out.

This weekend I’ll be launching my first blog in a while and I’m totally stoked. I’ve got some minor design work to do, but mostly working on content. I’m also working on some guest posts for other blogs to help promote that I’m back and have a new project to promote. I have 4-5 more sites along the lines of the one I’m launching, and I will launch at least one more of them in the next 3-6 weeks. After that, I need to get a feel for how much time it takes to run these two and market them. At some point I hope to make enough money to pay for some extra writers as well. I’ll have more details when things are closer to finished.

So, 2000-2009, goodbye. I’ll do my best to remember only the good times, like meeting many of my online friends, many I’ve known for more than 10 years, in person for the first time. And many times since! Even with all the bad, Aeryn and I have made it through 10 years of marriage and I couldn’t be happy to be married to my best friend. We also had a ton of nieces and nephews born, all of which are adorable and amazing kids. Especially when they go home with their parents. So, indeed, Goodbye 2009.

And hello 2010. At first I thought I knew you pretty well. But you were holding out on me! I was so afraid you’d be like all the other years but I think, just maybe, you’re the one. I’m looking forward to spending more time with you. 2010, lets you and I make it happen this year.