Image via Wikipedia
In recent weeks I have been focused on having mobile-ready blogs because there is so much traffic coming to sites from mobile devices these days. Mobile devices, smart phones, internet ready tablets , etc. are all gaining in popularity for web browsing, so it makes sense to have a site that is viewable by those devices. If your site is not mobile compatible, you are losing a ton of potential blog readers and customers.
I've added the Wordpress Mobile Pack plugin to
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Hey Blog Guru! Where's Your Blog?
Image via Wikipedia
There are many people who profess to being blogging gurus out there. They have all of the answers to every question and supposedly make tons of money with their blogs each and every day. Do they really make all of this money from their blog or is the main source of their income the blogging products that they develop and feed you through Clickbank?
I get proposals to be a Joint Venture partner on many blog related products and most of them I turn down. I turn them
There are many people who profess to being blogging gurus out there. They have all of the answers to every question and supposedly make tons of money with their blogs each and every day. Do they really make all of this money from their blog or is the main source of their income the blogging products that they develop and feed you through Clickbank?
I get proposals to be a Joint Venture partner on many blog related products and most of them I turn down. I turn them
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
With Wordpress, The Learning Never Ends
Image via Wikipedia
There are so many different options for Wordpress that learning every little thing about it and what it can do is nearly impossible. You may think you have everything mastered and then something comes along that is either new or you just have overlooked it in the past. Even though I have been blogging for six or so years and have been using the Wordpress CMS engine for at least four of those, I still learn new things about it everyday.
Plugins is one of the areas
There are so many different options for Wordpress that learning every little thing about it and what it can do is nearly impossible. You may think you have everything mastered and then something comes along that is either new or you just have overlooked it in the past. Even though I have been blogging for six or so years and have been using the Wordpress CMS engine for at least four of those, I still learn new things about it everyday.
Plugins is one of the areas
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Brand New Must Have Tool for Wordpress Bloggers – WPSyndicator
If you have a blog, you already know the importance of traffic. What if you had a way to syndicate your blog posts across an assortment of Web 2.0 sites, where interested readers could get a taste of your content and then click on a link to go to your blog? Well, guess what – now you do! It's a brand new plug-in called WPSyndicator, developed by Andy Fletcher.
WPSyndicator takes an excerpt of your blog post and posts it for you to 14 popular Web 2.0 sites plus will automatically tweet it for you to your Twitter account. Of course, along with the excerpt will be a link back to your blog for the viewer to read the rest of the post. Brilliant, isn't it? Not only do you get direct traffic but a very valuable backlink as well, if you use anchor text for the link.
You have the choice of what to set the excerpt to, with the default being 500 characters (around a paragraph or two). The key is to give the reader just enough to get them hooked and be eager to go to your blog to read the rest. You can easily adjust the length of the excerpt, depending on the content you are syndicating, so you'll always be able to have just the right amount out there as bait.
Andy does offer lifetime updates to WPSyndicator, which makes it even more of a bargain. He's already issued a couple of updates that incorporated features suggested by his beta testers and pre-launch customers. The latest update added the ability to syndicate pages as well as posts, auto-syndication capability and rate limiting so you don't get booted off the Web 2.0 sites for spamming.
The plug-in itself is very easy to install and activate, just like other WordPress plug-ins. It will take an hour or so the first time you use it because you'll have to set up all your accounts for the various sites that your content gets syndicated to. To make it very easy for you, Andy has included instructions right in the menu plus some helpful videos to walk you through many of the steps. He even built in the bit.ly connection so your links are automatically shortened for the micro-blogging sites like Twitter.
One of the favorite features for many of the early users is the ability to syndicate past posts. Once the plug-in is installed and set up, you will see a link that says “click here to syndicate” whenever you go to edit a post. You can syndicate old or new posts at the click of a button.
Do be careful not to overdo it as you will look like a spammer. Andy recommends doing just a couple posts per day, perhaps one new and one old. This will also give your readers time to see what you have to offer on the Web 2.0 sites instead of drowning them the first day out.
I've been using it on a couple of my blogs and the results are unbelievable... Check it out here.
WPSyndicator takes an excerpt of your blog post and posts it for you to 14 popular Web 2.0 sites plus will automatically tweet it for you to your Twitter account. Of course, along with the excerpt will be a link back to your blog for the viewer to read the rest of the post. Brilliant, isn't it? Not only do you get direct traffic but a very valuable backlink as well, if you use anchor text for the link.
You have the choice of what to set the excerpt to, with the default being 500 characters (around a paragraph or two). The key is to give the reader just enough to get them hooked and be eager to go to your blog to read the rest. You can easily adjust the length of the excerpt, depending on the content you are syndicating, so you'll always be able to have just the right amount out there as bait.
Andy does offer lifetime updates to WPSyndicator, which makes it even more of a bargain. He's already issued a couple of updates that incorporated features suggested by his beta testers and pre-launch customers. The latest update added the ability to syndicate pages as well as posts, auto-syndication capability and rate limiting so you don't get booted off the Web 2.0 sites for spamming.
The plug-in itself is very easy to install and activate, just like other WordPress plug-ins. It will take an hour or so the first time you use it because you'll have to set up all your accounts for the various sites that your content gets syndicated to. To make it very easy for you, Andy has included instructions right in the menu plus some helpful videos to walk you through many of the steps. He even built in the bit.ly connection so your links are automatically shortened for the micro-blogging sites like Twitter.
One of the favorite features for many of the early users is the ability to syndicate past posts. Once the plug-in is installed and set up, you will see a link that says “click here to syndicate” whenever you go to edit a post. You can syndicate old or new posts at the click of a button.
Do be careful not to overdo it as you will look like a spammer. Andy recommends doing just a couple posts per day, perhaps one new and one old. This will also give your readers time to see what you have to offer on the Web 2.0 sites instead of drowning them the first day out.
I've been using it on a couple of my blogs and the results are unbelievable... Check it out here.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Mobile Blogging is Happening Now
Mobile blogging is an exciting phenomenon that is sweeping the blogosphere. One of the reasons why a lot of bloggers are attracted to the medium of blogging in the first place is that they enjoy being able to make frequent updates and posts that keep all of their visitors up to speed with current situations. Mobile blogs, or "moblogs," take this to the extreme by allowing users to post things literally as they happen. This new wave of moblogs and mobloggers keep web surfers up to date with good and bad events of importance as they occur all over the world, helping to make international communication faster and more accurate.
Many people feel that the limitations of blogging have a lot to do with geography. After all, there is only so current that a blog can be when you need to run home and boot up in order to update it. However, mobile blogging marks the beginning of an thrilling new era when web-based communication can happen spontaneously from any location. Moblogging devices mean that there is almost nowhere on the planet that remains off-limits for bloggers.
Mobile blogging is still in its infancy because the technology that makes it possible has only recently hit the global market. The first moblog technology became available over a decade ago, but it is only the past two or three years that mobile web devices have become user-friendly enough to appeal to most consumers. As camera phones and other mobile technology become more popular, more and more bloggers are getting away from their desks and are hitting the streets. Moblogging is becoming much more widespread that it was even a few months ago, and mobloggers are quickly attracting a lot of attention with the blogging community. It is not yet clear whether moblogs will become the dominant kinds of blogs in the years to come, but the current trend seems to imply that moblogs are here to stay.
Mobile devices make it possible to blog from the sites where current events are unfolding, which is one of the reasons why mobile blogging has so much thrilling potential to revolutionize the blogosphere. A moblogger with a camera phone can post blog entries from, say, the foot of the podium at a presidential speech, or from the stands during the final moments of the world series. This enables bloggers to experience the same real time thrills that live television coverage provides, but in a more democratic medium. The combination of mobility and individual control that moblogging provides certainly places mobloggers on the cutting edge of today's communications technology, and it is hard to imagine that the number and prestige of moblogs will not continue to grow in the coming years.
You can check out more on mobile blogging here.
Many people feel that the limitations of blogging have a lot to do with geography. After all, there is only so current that a blog can be when you need to run home and boot up in order to update it. However, mobile blogging marks the beginning of an thrilling new era when web-based communication can happen spontaneously from any location. Moblogging devices mean that there is almost nowhere on the planet that remains off-limits for bloggers.
Mobile blogging is still in its infancy because the technology that makes it possible has only recently hit the global market. The first moblog technology became available over a decade ago, but it is only the past two or three years that mobile web devices have become user-friendly enough to appeal to most consumers. As camera phones and other mobile technology become more popular, more and more bloggers are getting away from their desks and are hitting the streets. Moblogging is becoming much more widespread that it was even a few months ago, and mobloggers are quickly attracting a lot of attention with the blogging community. It is not yet clear whether moblogs will become the dominant kinds of blogs in the years to come, but the current trend seems to imply that moblogs are here to stay.
Mobile devices make it possible to blog from the sites where current events are unfolding, which is one of the reasons why mobile blogging has so much thrilling potential to revolutionize the blogosphere. A moblogger with a camera phone can post blog entries from, say, the foot of the podium at a presidential speech, or from the stands during the final moments of the world series. This enables bloggers to experience the same real time thrills that live television coverage provides, but in a more democratic medium. The combination of mobility and individual control that moblogging provides certainly places mobloggers on the cutting edge of today's communications technology, and it is hard to imagine that the number and prestige of moblogs will not continue to grow in the coming years.
You can check out more on mobile blogging here.
Monday, July 26, 2010
All You Need to Know to Start Blog Marketing
Whether you are new to blogging or not we always want more ideas to drive readers to our blog pages. Marketing your blog the right way will give you the results that you are looking for. You are going to find that you can not just make a blog, post in it a couple of times, and then expect for the world to find you. That just will not happen how much you wish for it. However, you can market your blog effectively, and get the results that you are looking for.
To begin blog marketing you first need a blog. The next step is to ensure that your blog is updated frequently. Post content in your blog regularly for the best results. Some will post once a day and others once a week. Whichever it is, be consistent with it and know that it will pay off to continue posting as you should. This is a great way to get started with blog marketing. You wont have a blog to market if you do not post in it regularly.
While most free blogs all look the same, you can make sure that your blog design stands out. You don’t want your blog to look and feel like everyone else’s, so make it different. Having your own look is a huge plus in the blog marketing world. You will find that most blogs all look the same and you can have your own look by just using HTML and adjusting the code to suit your taste. You are going to see that this will truly make a difference with your blog as well as your readers. Try to get a theme that is going to match the market that you are promoting in your blog. Doing so will make it look even more professional. You don’t want your readers to confuse your blog with others do you? If this is something that you are concerned about, you will definitely want to make sure that you change yours to make more personable. However, if you are not worried about it or concerned about it in the least, you can leave the design as one of the free templates that you see so frequently used.
Something else that will help you with your blog marketing is exchanging links with authority blogs and websites that are in your same market is another great way to get the word out about your blog. The authority sites are going to have a higher page rank, and will also be listed high in Google’s search results. So do some searches and check those out and see if they are up to exchanging links. If they are not, you could always just add those into your blog roll. You do not need permission to do that if they are not into linking. However, in the world of blogs, most blog owners are thankful for all links, and are willing to return the favor. This is a great way to market your blog that some do not think about or use. If you use this technique to get your blog seen, you will not be sorry. It is a trick you can even use to market your website.
To begin blog marketing you first need a blog. The next step is to ensure that your blog is updated frequently. Post content in your blog regularly for the best results. Some will post once a day and others once a week. Whichever it is, be consistent with it and know that it will pay off to continue posting as you should. This is a great way to get started with blog marketing. You wont have a blog to market if you do not post in it regularly.
While most free blogs all look the same, you can make sure that your blog design stands out. You don’t want your blog to look and feel like everyone else’s, so make it different. Having your own look is a huge plus in the blog marketing world. You will find that most blogs all look the same and you can have your own look by just using HTML and adjusting the code to suit your taste. You are going to see that this will truly make a difference with your blog as well as your readers. Try to get a theme that is going to match the market that you are promoting in your blog. Doing so will make it look even more professional. You don’t want your readers to confuse your blog with others do you? If this is something that you are concerned about, you will definitely want to make sure that you change yours to make more personable. However, if you are not worried about it or concerned about it in the least, you can leave the design as one of the free templates that you see so frequently used.
Something else that will help you with your blog marketing is exchanging links with authority blogs and websites that are in your same market is another great way to get the word out about your blog. The authority sites are going to have a higher page rank, and will also be listed high in Google’s search results. So do some searches and check those out and see if they are up to exchanging links. If they are not, you could always just add those into your blog roll. You do not need permission to do that if they are not into linking. However, in the world of blogs, most blog owners are thankful for all links, and are willing to return the favor. This is a great way to market your blog that some do not think about or use. If you use this technique to get your blog seen, you will not be sorry. It is a trick you can even use to market your website.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Improve Your Blogs SEO Score
Bloggers who are interested in reaching a large audience with their blog should consider paying special attention to search engine optimization of their blog. Reaching a large audience may be a priority for a number of different reasons. One of the obvious reasons to attempt to generate increased traffic to a blog is to generate a profit. Bloggers who rely on high blog traffic for their revenue are obviously interested in increasing traffic. However, bloggers who create their blog to promote a cause may also be interested in increasing traffic simply to allow their message to reach a larger audience. Regardless of the reason to want to increase traffic, one of the best ways to do this is by optimizing the blog for search engines. This article will discuss the importance of search engine rankings and offer tips for optimizing a blog.
Why Search Engine Rankings are Important
The importance of high search engine rankings is they can contribute to increased Internet traffic to the blog. This is because Internet users who use search engines to find information on a particular topic are much more likely to visit websites which appear on the first page of the search results than they are to visit websites which appear on subsequent pages of the search results. The websites appearing on the first page of the results are likely to get the most traffic. However, Internet users are not likely to search through more than a page or two of the search results when looking for more information on a particular subject.
High search engine rankings essentially act as free advertisement for a blog or website. This is because many website users rely on popular search engines to assist them in finding useful information on the Internet. The search engines apply complex algorithms to evaluate websites and rank them accordingly for specific search terms. As a result Internet users put a great deal of value on the search results produced and trust these results to lead them to the best available websites relevant to the keywords they specified in the search.
Tips for Optimizing a Blog for Search Engines
One of the most common ways to optimize a blog or website for search engines is through the use of relevant keywords. Specifically the practice of applying specific keyword densities to the content of the blog is a common search engine optimization tactic employed. Blog owners and others who attempt to optimize their websites do not always agree on the optimal density for keywords but many believe a percentage of approximately 2%-3% is appropriate.
Another method for optimizing a search engine optimization is to place relevant keywords into the code of the website. This includes the title tags and META tags. This is important because search engines often consider the prominence of keywords when evaluating a website. This refers to the location in which the keywords first appear. Placing keywords early in the content of the website is helpful but it is important to note the search engines view the code first so keywords appearing before the body of the blog will be crawled first by the search engines.
Blog owners can also help to increase their search engine rankings by generating back links to their blog. This can be accomplished in a number of different ways. One way to do this is to find other websites willing to place a link to the blog on their website. This is beneficial because many search engines factor the number of links to a website into their ranking algorithm because these links are considered to be one website vouching for the validity of another website. Some website owners may be willing to do this in return for a link to their website on your blog. This is known as reciprocal linking and some search engines may not value this link as highly as a link which is not reciprocated. There are also some link exchange programs but these links may not be beneficial because many search engines consider the rank of the website linking to your blog. Therefore, if the website linking to your blog does not rank well, the back link will not improve search engine rankings significantly.
Why Search Engine Rankings are Important
The importance of high search engine rankings is they can contribute to increased Internet traffic to the blog. This is because Internet users who use search engines to find information on a particular topic are much more likely to visit websites which appear on the first page of the search results than they are to visit websites which appear on subsequent pages of the search results. The websites appearing on the first page of the results are likely to get the most traffic. However, Internet users are not likely to search through more than a page or two of the search results when looking for more information on a particular subject.
High search engine rankings essentially act as free advertisement for a blog or website. This is because many website users rely on popular search engines to assist them in finding useful information on the Internet. The search engines apply complex algorithms to evaluate websites and rank them accordingly for specific search terms. As a result Internet users put a great deal of value on the search results produced and trust these results to lead them to the best available websites relevant to the keywords they specified in the search.
Tips for Optimizing a Blog for Search Engines
One of the most common ways to optimize a blog or website for search engines is through the use of relevant keywords. Specifically the practice of applying specific keyword densities to the content of the blog is a common search engine optimization tactic employed. Blog owners and others who attempt to optimize their websites do not always agree on the optimal density for keywords but many believe a percentage of approximately 2%-3% is appropriate.
Another method for optimizing a search engine optimization is to place relevant keywords into the code of the website. This includes the title tags and META tags. This is important because search engines often consider the prominence of keywords when evaluating a website. This refers to the location in which the keywords first appear. Placing keywords early in the content of the website is helpful but it is important to note the search engines view the code first so keywords appearing before the body of the blog will be crawled first by the search engines.
Blog owners can also help to increase their search engine rankings by generating back links to their blog. This can be accomplished in a number of different ways. One way to do this is to find other websites willing to place a link to the blog on their website. This is beneficial because many search engines factor the number of links to a website into their ranking algorithm because these links are considered to be one website vouching for the validity of another website. Some website owners may be willing to do this in return for a link to their website on your blog. This is known as reciprocal linking and some search engines may not value this link as highly as a link which is not reciprocated. There are also some link exchange programs but these links may not be beneficial because many search engines consider the rank of the website linking to your blog. Therefore, if the website linking to your blog does not rank well, the back link will not improve search engine rankings significantly.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
SEOpressor Wordpress Plugin Review
When I first saw Daniel Tan's new plugin SEOpressor, I thought that it was just another Wordpress SEO plugin that did the same things that the better free ones did, so why would I pay money for it? But before I blew it off completely, I decided to take a closer look at it and am thankful that I did.
SEOpressor does do all of those things that the free ones do, but it does so much more. The main component that I like about it is that it will analyze each of your blog articles and give you an SEO score for them. It then gives you suggestions on how to make that score higher. Basically, it could be the difference in making the first page at Google (if you're pretty good at SEO already) and being in the number one spot on the first page.
Check out the video preview here.
SEOpressor, by far, is the best all around SEO plugin for Wordpress available, right now. I've tried and used most of the better ones out there and this one outshines them all.
Whether you are just starting up your blog or you have been at it for years, SEOpressor is worth taking a look at. I consider myself pretty good at SEO with the Wordpress platform, as I consistently get my posts ranked high in the search engines. I added this plugin to one of my niche sites and optimized the articles there with its suggestions and they are ranking higher than ever now... and still climbing.
Anytime that I can find something that will make my blogging easier and at the same time increase my SERP, I go for it. SEOpressor is one of those things. Check it out for yourself... I think you will like what you see.
You can also take a look at the Blog Meister's opinion on SEOpressor here.
SEOpressor does do all of those things that the free ones do, but it does so much more. The main component that I like about it is that it will analyze each of your blog articles and give you an SEO score for them. It then gives you suggestions on how to make that score higher. Basically, it could be the difference in making the first page at Google (if you're pretty good at SEO already) and being in the number one spot on the first page.
Check out the video preview here.
SEOpressor, by far, is the best all around SEO plugin for Wordpress available, right now. I've tried and used most of the better ones out there and this one outshines them all.
Whether you are just starting up your blog or you have been at it for years, SEOpressor is worth taking a look at. I consider myself pretty good at SEO with the Wordpress platform, as I consistently get my posts ranked high in the search engines. I added this plugin to one of my niche sites and optimized the articles there with its suggestions and they are ranking higher than ever now... and still climbing.
Anytime that I can find something that will make my blogging easier and at the same time increase my SERP, I go for it. SEOpressor is one of those things. Check it out for yourself... I think you will like what you see.
You can also take a look at the Blog Meister's opinion on SEOpressor here.
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