Okay, this one might be tricky. The system tries to automatically identify if blog posts contain links to downloadable files. Sometimes this is really obvious and sometimes it isn't at all. Some reasons why your freebies are not being picked up are:
1. Your blog feed isn't setup properly.
Have a look at your feed if you can (e.g. if you used Blogger then paste "/feeds/posts/default" after your blog name) to see what it looks like. This is all the system can see. E.g. you can see the feed for Molly & Max here. If your freebie links are not obvious here then the system won't find them. It's just a system after all.
If your blog feed isn't set to full then systems (including search engines like Google) can't see it properly. You can see your feed by clocking on the "Subscribe to…" button as below:
If you use blogspot.com you can correct this by reading this.
If you are worried about counters paste them into the "Feed Item Footer" as in the image on the right (see the M&M feed for an example). If you use Wordpress then go to OPTIONS>READING, scroll down to Syndication Feeds and make sure FULL TEXT is marked. Then go to OPTIONS>PRIVACY and make sure the "I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technorati) and archivers" is marked. (Thanks Bunny Cates for this description!) If you use a different blog type then I don't know how to correct it but look around at your settings.
Here are some examples of incorrectly setup feeds: example 1, example 2, example 3, empty feed example.
2. You put the links to freebies in the sidebar or title instead of the post body.
The system only looks at posts, not sidebars. Also, links in titles do not appear in RSS/atom feeds because the titles are modified in these to point back to your blog! So you need to put the links in the post body instead (and wrapped around a preview if possible). Computers are limited in understanding language ;-)
3. You are using a file server for your freebies that I don't know about.
If this is the case PLEASE let me know because other people might be using the same file server & not having their freebies listed either. Here is a list of fileservers.
4. Your blog is private and I don't have access to it.
If this is the case, add me as a user and then I can list you here. But remember that other people might want to join your membership.
5. Your freebie links are in a shop, gallery or other non-obvious freebie listing site.
This means that to a system they don't look any different to kits you sell or other images you link to. If this is the case then either: (i) put your freebies up somewhere else; (ii) make the links point directly to a zip or rar file rather than a query with a product id; or (iii) add the text "?digifree" to the end of your link - this should be ignored by the browser or the shopping cart system, but my system will pick it up as a signal to a freebie (e.g. modify http://www.pclayers.com/ to be http://www.pclayers.com/?digifree). If these don't work contact me and I'll see if I can easily do a work-around for your site. Note: If you abuse the "?digifree" on your blog, i.e., you use it to get people to buy things then I will ban your blog, no exceptions. For example, "get this grab bag free with a $10 purchase" means that the items is not free at all. Similarly "50% off all designs" is not a freebie. Freebie means 100% free, no money needs to be spent getting the item.
So why doesn't the system just look for the word "freebie" to list the blog posts? Because people talk about their old freebies, upcoming freebies and other people's freebies. The same goes for other words like "download". The most accurate way to identify a REAL freebie is to find a link that looks VERY much like one. Unfortunately this can still fail because people put TOUs or their photos somewhere for download. But it's not bad.
6. Right at the time the system checked your blog, there was an error on its server.
If this happens things should restore the next day. If your freebies continue to not show up let me know. With so many blogs listed I can't keep track of which ones may not have worked.
7. The system only looks for NEW freebies.
So it looks for blog posts that are new since the last run (which looks back 100 days) and/or have not been shown yet. Your old freebies (more than about a month old) won't show up here when you are newly listed. Of course you could always change their dates! ;-) But please don't abuse this…
8. There is a permanent error on your blog feed.
The most common error with feeds is that there are no dates attached to your posts. This is actually very important, because this is the only way the system can determine what is new. I'm sorry but I don't know how to fix this on your blog because it is different for every blog type. I'm not even sure why blog servers would do this - it's a pretty obvious problem. Other things that go wrong is that the feed redirects somewhere and the system can't "follow" this. But take a look at your blog feed as instructed above so that you can see for yourself.
9. Your blog is not a common type.
If this is the case, then it might take quite some time for me to get to your blog. I try to use the system to automatically identify feeds as much as possible because of the time involved in maintaining this blog. If you've waited a month then let me know the full path to your blog on the forum. This would probably be an ATOM or RSS path.
10. Your blog contains material which is not suitable for young children.
If your blog contains material which is not suitable for a 2-5 year old or a priest then I will not add it. Everything needs to be "G" rated, which means that no-one would take offense. In addition, once your blog has been added and I notice something that I believe might be offensive then I will ban it without notice. I don't think this is unreasonable given the demographics of the visitors to this site (more than 50% have young children). Some of the type of things which would result in a blog being banned include:
- provocative images of people showing a lot of skin particularly breasts.
- words which may be offensive,
- signs which may be offensive, etc.
In essence, if you wouldn't show it to a priest then it doesn't belong on a site which may be seen by very young eyes.
