How much to spill?

[Aldo]

I was just about to start a blog on the project I'm working on but I am in two minds about it. I had a nasty experience with my last project where a professional I got to do some work on the house decided to try out a similar venture targeted at the same niche. I increasingly saw this chap advertise in the same places I did, use the same marketing ideas I had taken so long to research. It would not have been so bad, had it been an accommodation based elsewhere but it was in the same city.

What I have decided is that, were I to write a blog about the experience, it would need to be so oblique, it might be of no use whatsoever marketing wise.

Has anyone had a similar experience, and what would you suggest?

[A-two]

If he's tracking your projects, I wouldn't publish a blog telling him how to do your next project. You could create a private blog, by invitation only, and block it from search engines.

[Aldo]

Excellent idea, A2. I can at least target past guests at VGH. Is it simple to block a blog from search engines?

[Cassis]

In theory the instruction

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

in a robots.txt file placed in the root folder

or

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">

in the head of each page should block all robots.

[Martha]

If you do it in Wordpress, it's just a check/uncheck box option

[Aldo]

Thank you Cassis and Martha