In this transcript from Episode 040, Mark records from hotel rooms in Taiwan and Singapore, covering outsourcing fears, WordPress plugin recommendations for new bloggers, and Google's brand-new Disavow Links tool. The episode captures the reality of building a side business while traveling internationally for a day job.<\/p>\n
Mark tackles a question from the Internet Business Mastery Academy forums about protecting business ideas during outsourcing. His answer is practical rather than legal (he is not an attorney): ideas by themselves are not worth much. Execution is what creates value. Many successful businesses were built by executing someone else's idea better than they did.<\/p>\n
He offers four strategies for mitigating risk when outsourcing:<\/p>\n
Listener John is heading to Costa Rica to teach English and wants to start a travel blog. Mark recommends five essential free plugins to start with:<\/p>\n
Mark also shares a useful SEO tip: when you publish a new page you want to rank, add contextual links to it from your existing pages that already rank well. Those pages have link authority that passes through to the new page.<\/p>\n
Mark covers the brand-new Disavow Links tool from Google. The tool allows webmasters to tell Google to ignore specific backlinks pointing to their site. The key takeaway: you only need this tool if you have received a notification in Google Webmaster Tools about unnatural links and have been unable to get the source to remove them.<\/p>\n
Mark notes that this tool also functions as a data collection mechanism for Google, allowing them to identify the spammiest link sources across the web by aggregating disavow requests from thousands of webmasters.<\/p>\n
Mark recorded this in late 2012. The outsourcing and blogging landscapes have evolved significantly.<\/p>\n
Outsourcing platforms have matured dramatically.<\/strong> Upwork (formed from the merger of oDesk and Elance) now offers built-in escrow, dispute resolution, and verified contractor portfolios. The trust and reputation systems Mark recommended using are far more sophisticated in 2026, making idea theft even less of a practical concern.<\/p>\n The WordPress plugin ecosystem has changed.<\/strong> Yoast remains dominant but faces strong competition from Rank Math and All in One SEO. W3 Total Cache has been largely superseded by WP Rocket and LiteSpeed Cache. Social sharing plugins have consolidated. The core principle of starting simple remains sound.<\/p>\n Google Search Console replaced Webmaster Tools<\/strong> and the Disavow Links tool is still available but rarely needed. Google has become much better at ignoring spammy links automatically, and the tool is now considered a last resort for severe cases only.<\/p>\n Listen to Late Night Internet Marketing on Apple Podcasts<\/a> or subscribe at latenightim.com\/internet-marketing-podcast\/<\/a>. Have a question for Mark? Call the digital recorder at 214-444-8655 or drop a comment below.<\/p>\nResources Mentioned<\/h2>\n
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