Web 'U' RSS Feeds
Posts Tagged ‘blogs’
6 RSS Steps to Syndicate Your Feed
1. Apply Feed Reader Syndication
Some notable feed readers are Google Reader and MyYahoo!. All you have to do is, add a subscribe button on your blog and personalize it for the common types of readers available.
2. Include an Email Subscription Box
This is one of the quickest ways to get all the updates and latest information. Feedburner and Feedblitz provide email subscription capabilities and metrics. Visitors can simply enter their email address in the input box and subscribe to your blog’s RSS Feed. All the latest news and articles will be directed to the specified email.
3. Submit RSS Feed Directly To Major Search Engines
All the major search engines have made it really simple to submit your blog’s feed. All you need to do is log into Google, MyYahoo! and MyMsn and submit your blog feed to them. This is also one of the easiest ways to get your blog indexed by searchbots.
4. Ping Search Engines
There are a number of pinging services available online where you can enter your blog or feed URL and ping the search engines. A pinging service like Ping-O-Matic gets your blog indexed at multiple websites like Technorati, Feedster etc.
5. Use PHP Syndication
It is commonly known that searchbots cannot index JavaScript. So, if you want your feed links to get indexed, JavaScript Syndication is not a favorable option. Here, PHP syndicated code has the upper hand over JavaScript syndication. It provides backlinks and helps in indexing web pages.
6. Provide JavaScript Code for Syndication
JavaScript syndication is used to display a third party RSS feed on your website. There are a lot of JavaScript syndicators online, which provide code. Simply put the code in the sidebar of your website or blog and visitors can copy and paste it onto their website.
Statistics prove that RSS Feeds are useful in pulling a large number of visitors to a blog. Today no blog is complete without an RSS Feed option. Even Twitter, the micro blogging site provides an option to subscribe to individual RSS Feeds.
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Create Professional RSS Feeds
More and more companies are using RSS as a means to communicate, so having an RSS feed that is professional and well polished will help differentiate your company from your competition. What makes an RSS feed professional? Follow these simple steps to polish your RSS feed and take it to the next level…
1. Feed Image
Add an image to your RSS feed. The image will be displayed by many feed readers each time your feed is displayed. This will help build and reinforce your brand or image in the minds of people who read your RSS feed. Adding an image to an RSS feed is relatively easy, and adds a level of professionalism.
2. Images And Links
Add images and links within the RSS feed. The process of adding images and links to the description field of an RSS feed is really quite simple if you are using software to manage your feed, while it may be somewhat complex if you are hand-coding your feed. Incorporating images or hot links in the feed’s content will allow your readers to explore further and dig deeper into your content. The added benefit, of course, are the additional web links back to your site from any sites that choose to syndicate or display your feed’s contents.
3. Validate
Properly formed code is important, in order to ensure that all RSS readers can read and display your feed. But it is also very important for another reason… nothing is more embarrassing or unprofessional than an RSS feed that is broken or stops working. Use software to manage your feed creation, and validate your feed on a regular basis.
4. Easy To Subscribe
Make your RSS feed easy to subscribe to. Include the traditional RSS icon, or an indicator site-wide, so that website visitors can easily locate and subscribe to your RSS feeds. Include basic directions on how website visitors should subscribe to your RSS feed.
5. Auto Discovery
Add “auto-discovery” code to the HTML header of your website. Many RSS aggregators include an auto-discovery feature, which allows them to automatically detect when a website offers an RSS feed. So, if your website visitors are using one of those aggregators, they will instantly know that an RSS feed for your content is available from your website.
Instantly create auto discovery code – http://www.feedforall.com/autodiscovery.htm
6. Favicon
Add a “favicon” to your website. Favicons (short for “favorite icons”) are typically a tiny version of a company or Web site’s logo, and appear in the URL bar of the user’s web browser. When a user bookmarks a specific Web page that includes a favicon, that Web page loads the customized icon into the user’s browser. Because the favicon is usually displayed next to the web site address, it can act like a small logo or an icon that visitors can use to remember the web site or the site address. Feed directories and RSS Search Engines will often use a favicon beside an RSS feed’s listings. So be sure that you have one on your website; otherwise, you’ll have nothing but a generic icon beside your feed. Webmasters can establish branding by creating a favicon for their website. Here is a free service from HTMLKit: http://www.html-kit.com/favicon
7. Subscribe To Your Own Feed
Always subscribe to your RSS feed, so you can see what your website visitors are seeing.
While it is not essential to incorporate the above elements in your RSS feed, the additions will result in a more professional and polished RSS feed that stands apart from competitors in news aggregators and RSS directories. Spending a few extra minutes here could easily draw more attention to your feed.
RSS Revisited – Why You Still Need RSS On Your Site?
One of the very first articles I ever wrote on Internet Marketing had to do with RSS and it was entitled “10 Reasons To Put RSS On Your Site.” That was in 2004 and RSS was somewhat new and many webmasters were just beginning to place blogs and RSS feeds on their sites. If you do a search in Google, you can still find that article on around 2,000 sites.
Most people now refer to RSS as “Really Simple Syndication” – although it originally stood for “Rich Site Summary” and was a very simple way of summarizing and syndicating your content in real-time to all interested parties.
RSS had its early beginnings with Netscape in 1991 which introduced the first version of RSS (RDF Site Summary). Later versions would be introduced and made popular by Dave Winer of ScriptingNews and Userland fame who is considered by many to be one of the major founding fathers of RSS.
Most people today associate RSS with blogs and blogging. You can read RSS content by using an RSS feed reader or “aggregator” which can be desktop or web-based. Some common feed readers include FeedDemon, My Yahoo!, iGoogle and Firefox (Live Bookmarks). You subscribe to your favorite RSS feed by clicking the small icon on your favorite blog or site and then when fresh content is published via RSS your reader can immediately retrieve and display it for you.
RSS is a very simple way of keeping up to date and in contact with your favorite site or topic. It makes staying informed easy to do and it provides site/blog owners a simple way of distributing their content.
* One can’t but wonder has RSS lived up to all that early hype?
Perhaps that question can only be answered by looking at the popularity of blogging and the role it now plays on the web. No one can deny blogs and their accompanying RSS feeds carry tremendous weight, no matter which way you measure it. Can anyone now imagine the World Wide Web without blogs?
But the importance of RSS goes beyond just blogging, we tend to forget how important it is for all the new social media sites like Digg, Technorati, Reddit… and not to forget fast growing applications like Twitter.
People also forget RSS feeds play a major role in online retail and affiliate programs. For example, you can get an RSS feed of all the latest Amazon products to place on your site. Many major online companies now have these product feeds to help promote and sell their wares.
XML and RSS have blended so seamlessly into many browsers and operating systems most users are blissfully unaware they’re even using RSS. Maybe that’s how things should be; with RSS, the ever-present workhorse, quietly doing its job behind the scenes.
RSS is just as important now as it was five years ago – actually its influence and presence has only grown stronger over the years. If you have not fully embraced RSS and placed it on your site and in your online marketing you’re missing out on one of the best opportunities to spread your message on the web.
RSS is here to stay and even has its own advisory board to help with the technical and programming side of RSS. They also list a very handy “RSS Best Practices Profile” for any webmaster wishing to create their own XML-based RSS documents. http://www.rssboard.org/
* Why should you use RSS?
Well, the list of reasons is quite long but RSS can help you: syndicate your content in real-time, sell your products, build your list, gather fresh content, promote your company and boost that one vital element everyone needs more of on the web – traffic. For those who have taken full advantage of RSS it has delivered in more ways than one for it has truly turned into that Golden Goose with the Midas complex. RSS has simply proven beneficial to those users who have fully embraced it.
Publishing Your RSS Feed Internet Wide
So you’ve created an RSS feed and it contains current cutting edge information in your field of interest. Now how do you get the word out to other webmasters who might be interested in putting the content from your RSS feed on their site?
Just how easy, or hard, is it to publish your feed and have other webmasters pick it up and publish it on their site?
If you’ve created your feed and validated it then most of the hard work is complete. Now you’re going to get the word out about it being available.
* So what should be your first step?
I think I would first give the search engines the easiest path to find your feed and index it. To get the search engines to do this you should add this short piece of html code to between the tags on the webpage that has a link for your feed.
Be sure to replace http://www.yourdomain.com/rss.xml with the URL to the RSS feed.
Next, I would be sure to display the Feed on your website using a graphic. The basic RSS or XML graphic in bright orange rectangles, will lead people visually to the feed.
Here’s an RSS graphics tool that will allow you to customize a graphic for your site:
http://www.feedforall.com/public/rss-graphic-tool.htm
Now that you have it on your site I would begin submitting your feed to all of the RSS directories and search engines you can find. The last time I reviewed them there was well over a hundred (that I could find).
There is a large list of RSS directories located here: http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm
By submitting to directories and search engines you will be helping to increase the link popularity of your feed and your site.
You can also use email to promote your RSS Feed. Simply include the feed url in your sig file on all outgoing mail. If you have an ezine be sure to include it in each issue. I would also go so far as to provide a link to a either or both a desktop RSS reader and a website reader for those webmaster who may want to use your content on their site.
Another way to promote your feed is to include the feed on a personal my.yahoo or my.msn home page. This is probably the fastest way to have your feed spidered by Yahoo and MSN. If you don’t already have an account and a personal webpage go to each site and create one. After you have created your account add your RSS Feed. In Yahoo, go to your personal page click on Add Content, then add the URL of your blog RSS feed into the Find Content box.
A good point to keep in mind is to have content available in your feed before you add it to either of your personal webpages on the SE’s above.
To keep the search engine spiders coing back you can implement a simple strategy to let them know you have posted new material and it’s time to come back. This strategy is simply called ‘pinging’.
You can let the main RSS/blog directories know you have placed new material by “pinging” them. Now you could go to each of the directories individually or you could automatically ‘ping’ all of them at once by going to this site:http://www.pingomatic.com
You type in your rss/blog URL, Click Submit and Pingomatic will send your ping to all of the large directories available on its page. Doing this will bring the spiders back to your site almost immediately!
Be sure to add relevant content to your RsSS feed as often as you can as the more often you add new content the more likely you will be to develop more traffic.
Once you’ve started implementing these ideas and strategies you should be well on your way to getting more recognition for your RSS Feed.
Pros and Cons of Using RSS Feeds
If you are struggling with the decision of whether to implement RSS feeds or not, consider the following pros and cons for webmasters who use RSS feeds as part of their content and communication plan…
A) Benefits (Pros Of Using RSS)
The benefits for a webmaster who opts to implement RSS feeds on their website are numerous:
1. Saves Time
RSS feeds save time. RSS subscribers can quickly scan RSS feeds, without having to visit each and every website. Subscribers can then click on any items they are interested in, to get additional information.
2. Timely
RSS feeds are timely. RSS feeds will automatically update themselves any time new information is posted, so the information your subscribers receive via their RSS reader or news aggregator is timely.
3. Spam Free
RSS is free of spam. Subscribers don’t have to worry about wading through huge amounts of spam in an attempt to get to the information they are actually interested in.
4. Opt-In
The RSS subscriber chooses what they want to see, and what information they wish to receive. Knowing they have full control, and that they do not have to provide any personal information to subscribe, they will be more likely to opt-in.
5. Unsubscribing Is Easy
It is also easy to unsubscribe from an RSS feed. If they do not like information contained in an RSS feed, they can simply remove the RSS feed from their RSS reader or news aggregator in order to unsubscribe.
6. Alternate Communication Channel
RSS provides you with an alternate communication channel for your business. And the more channels you provide, the more opportunities you have to connect with your customers and potential customers.
7. Expands Audience Through Syndication
The very nature of RSS is that it is designed specifically for syndication (i.e. publication by others). And wide-spread syndication can expand a company’s reach and strengthen the company brand.
8. Can Increase Backlinks
When an RSS feed is syndicated, it can increase the number of links back to the original website. And additional incoming links will often help a website rank better in organic search rankings.
9. Increases Productivity
RSS increases productivity, allowing people to quickly scan new posts and headlines, and only clicking through and spending time on the items of interest.
10. Competitive
Whether you decide to implement RSS feeds or not, your competitors likely will. So one way to remain competitive is to implement RSS feeds and other web 2.0 technology, and not allow your competition to get ahead of you.
B) Negatives (Cons Against Using RSS)
1. Not Widely Adopted Yet
Outside of technical circles, RSS has not yet been widely adopted. While it is becoming more and more popular, it is still far from being a mainstream technology.
2. Content Can Easily Be Copied
Content contained in an RSS feed can easily be copied and replicated, regardless of whether you want it to be or not. Few aggregators respect the copyrights of content contained in an RSS feed.
3. Tracking Subscribers Is Difficult
It is very difficult to accurately track the number of subscribers who read an RSS feed or the items contained in an RSS feed. This is due in part to the fact that at its heart, RSS is all about achieving the widest syndication possible.
4. Source Origination Difficult
It is sometimes difficult to discern the origin of an RSS feed item. When an item is syndicated, the source is not always indicated. The metrics available are not always reflective of the traffic received.
Weigh the pros and cons of implementing an RSS feed as a communication channel, and determine whether the benefits outweigh the risks in your own situation.
7 RSS Traffic Tips for Small Business Owners
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, August 4, 2011
7 RSS Traffic Tips for Small Business Owners
If you have a blog, you have an updates feed, most likely in the flavor of RSS feed, but quite possible in Atom feed. This is the file that’s linked to the weird-looking orange button you see on many frequently updated websites, such as blogs. These tips apply to both types of feeds.
Your feed’s job is to talk to other machines about your site on your behalf. Those bot to bot conversations increase your traffic and help more people see your site, either directly through feed reader subscriptions and listings, or indirectly by helping your search rankings. Do at least these basics to take care of your feed.
1. No one loves RSS, okay? I never actually liked it much, but I always understood that it was necessary to grow my site. Stop trying to hug it, and start having a basic understanding of how it helps your business.
2. If you don’t have a site newsletter, you can use RSS to make your blog posts into email newsletters, then put the email subscription box at the top right of your site, or otherwise unobtrusively remind people to subscribe. Aweber will create both the newsletter and the web form for you automatically.
3. About once a week, make sure your feed is validating. Sometimes all it takes is a rarely used character in the title to break your feed. FeedValidator.org will help you with that for free.
4. Submit your feed to the top RSS search engines and directories. There aren’t hundreds of them as there once were, but for the good ones remaining, like Syndic8, the links can’t hurt you.
5. RSS is what helps your site speak to social media sites automatically, but what if you aren’t sure what is helping and how often? Try FeedBurner. It’s my opinion that the service has been on the decline since Google took it over a year ago, but before you judge by that, take into account the height it was at when the fall began.
It’s still does a pretty decent job of tracking your traffic, and there’s no need to direct ALL your traffic through FeedBurner if you don’t want to, just use it to track sites that you give permission to repurpose your feed, like Twitter and Facebook.
6. Google Reader. Yes, that’s the whole tip. Of the minority of people who use a Feed Reader to follow blogs rather than email, Google Reader is the top choice. Stick the button on your site, glance over your headlines in Google Reader now and again. Wouldn’t hurt you to share some items over there too.
7. Should you use full-feeds or partial-feeds? It’s a controversial issue. I won’t go into as much detail about how my private findings differ wildly from conventional wisdom, just suffice it to say this. My solution with new sites is to offer both, and let readers choose when they come to your site, and allow the short feed to be syndicated by anyone, with a link at the bottom of each short feed post letting readers know you offer full text as well.
Learning about RSS may not be as big a deal as it once was, but don’t forget that your site’s feed is instrumental in helping your site grow.
Using RSS Feeds to Increase Website Traffic
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Using RSS Feeds to Increase Website Traffic: Guaranteed Results!
RSS (real simple syndication) feeds provide online business owners, bloggers, and marketers the opportunity to connect with members of their target market in an ‘ongoing fashion’. While it is still essential for a website to feature valuable content which interests others to be successful, RSS has the ability for a site owner or blogger to send out notification of new content or promotions to interested subscribers. Thus, allowing them to stay in contact with previous visitors like never before.
Visitors who find a site or blog useful and entertaining could easily subscribe to the RSS feed and receive notification and have and easy access to any future site updates. This adds to an advantage of being able to keep in touch with past visitors, and in this way, would increase repeat business for a site. There are a couple other reasons why businesses are now embracing the use of RSS feeds:
1.Feeds increase your chances of others linking to your content, mentioning your site, and spreading your business around by word of mouth.
2. Having an RSS feed to your site aids in your ranking with search engines.
3. With RSS feeds, you could be able to get your content indexed with search engines much faster.
4. It is possible to attract traffic to your site which does not come from the search engines results pages, if you have RSS feeds installed on your site
5. Since your content is distributed to all subscribers, there are chances of your content catching on and “going viral” as it spreads from one person to another.
When you have RSS feeds operating with multiple sites, you could essentially get free marketing and traffic for your business! Some websites which operate RSS feed directories receive thousands upon thousands of visits every single day.So, you are listed with them, you get to benefit from this tremendous business exposure. The result is a constant flow of traffic which you do not have to pay for!
Most people do not realize how powerful RSS feeds can be, and are not using this tool to its greatest ability. They use it to some minor extent, but they do not understand or know how to get the back links that they should be receiving from the usage of RSS feeds. Most, as well, do not understand that RSS feeds can improve their page ranking. All in all, if you could grasp the concept and understand the application of RSS feeds, you could take a huge leap ahead of all your competition!
If you want to see substantial increases of traffic to your site and watch your business explode, you really can’t afford to pass up on RSS feeds.
The Forgotten Method of Marketing: Forums
Forums are a great way of marketing alongside articles, email and blogging – there is no real way to compare all of these, they are just a different way of communicating. The big difference however with forums is that many many more people will see you and get to know you which builds trust as you interact with the community.
Forums have been around in many forms since the dawn of the internet, they provide a means of conversation with like-minded people in a community-driven atmosphere of helping one another with problems. If you don’t know how they work, let me just tell you a bit about them.
First off, you have to find your forum in your niche, the best way to do this is type in subject forums as the keywords (replacing subject with your topic) into a search engine. Once you have found one in the topic you’re interested in, with a nice community going on, registration is the next step.
Registration is pretty simple, its just a case of filling your details in and perhaps entering a captcha (one of those funny sets of digits and numbers that tell the site that you are not an automated spammer!) You may have to click a link in your email to register the fact that you own the email address you registered with.
There usually is many sub-forums, i would reccomend finding one that usually reads something like “introduce yourself” and post a brief overview of what you are about and say hello. I would advise against just registering and posting “buy my product now” or “come to my website” etc. type comments as you’ll end up with a flame war – if you dont know what that is please do a search on it as its not a nice thing to happen to you!
Get involved in the forum, post replies to people’s problems to help with any questions that you can – its a community-type feeling that you will enjoy. Forums which are busy have the advantage of many more people in the nich you are targeting, so you can find out about some really exciting new widget thing in your niche that is very important to you, and also reply and ask more.
Some forums have a specific buy, sell or trade section where you can sell your products, this is the place to be if you want to directly pitch your product. Another way of pitching your product is to enter links to your website in your signature, this is shown directly under each post that you make and is updated automatically – be careful however, some forums dont like this and will ask you to remove them. Some have rules on the size of images or links allowed, please read these before adding it.
Some of the more advanced forums that run vbulletin have private messaging which can be great to directly carry out business to people privately on the forum, i’ve bought many websites and domain names using this – some sites like digital point have itrader which is also a way of showing how trustworthy the user is in terms of buying and selling, similar to the ebay feedback system.
One last thing to remember, forums are a great place to communicate rather than a place to pitch-fest – if you want to advertise on a forum, but you cant find any other method other than the ones i’ve outlined, contact the owners of the site and ask for banner rates, this is a great way of getting in front of these people, then you have the right to freely talk about your product or service which is a huge bonus compared to advertising on a static site!
“Generate Backlinks To A Weblog In Natural Way”
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, June 11, 2011
“Generate Backlinks To A Weblog In Natural Way”
One of the toughest areas of gaining publicity for a weblog is ranking in nature for targeted key phrases. If you have only started your weblog newly, you are likely competing alongside weblogs which have been around for many years, with countless entries already listed and ranking high inside the major search engines.
It may be daunting in the beginning – a thousand-entry disadvantage right from the beginning – but with the proper blogging tactic it is potential to outrank any older competitors with only a fraction as numerous posts and backlinks.
How? It is all about quality, and the tipping point. If you maintain a very high quality weblog, your posts are picked up much more often than the ones of a relatively high quality weblog. The online audience is discriminator for that last 10% that bridges the gap between the good and the excellent.
Good content? It will go for miles, making the best way through social media sites plus perhaps several social bookmarking services.
Excellent content? You will rapidly see good – high quality articles and blogposts rank at the frontpage of social bookmarking sites, attracting much more traffic than their mildly successful competitors. Building natural backlinks is about that one thing: quality. Like several search engine optimization pursuits, it is potential to increase your way to the top spot with low quality work, but it places you in a position that is very difficult to maintain.
Low quality work just goes so far, particularly when it is spread sparingly. Give it some thought when it comes to a highly trained group of troopers facing off against an untrained military. One has influence in numbers, but is rapidly spread apart and controlled. The other is powerful not only in mass but in relatively small quantities.
While the massive military can manage ground, it is rapidly pushed away by the good – high quality troopers. Take care of your content in the same way. Whenever you are looking to get backlinks, concentrate on using good quality content to achieve your target. While countless low quality weblog posts spread over various weblogs can provide your site several linking power, they are rapidly brought down by one well-targeted opponent.
Utilize a direct, high quality method. Generate backlinks through the work of others; submit high quality content to social bookmarking sites and allow the users spread it for yourself, all through their enthusiasm.
One well written article will spread 100 times further than 10 low quality written ones, and is definitely the better backlink tactic. So next time you may need to build backlinks for your weblog or site, concentrate on the 10% content gap that actually matters. Low quality content can only be spread through brute force and ridiculous quantities of work, and is rarely a cost efficient option.
Good quality work goes far, but often falls short with regards to climbing to the top spot.
Good – high quality work may travel through social media sites, social bookmarking sites, and eventually through sheer word of mouth. That is the kind of content that builds weblog backlinks, and that is the kind of content that you need to be focusing on.
More than Micro in Helping your Online Business
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Microblogging: More than Micro in Helping your Online Business
Microblogging; it may sound small due to the “micro” word; but I tell you; it’s one of the giants on the internet when it comes to traffic, promotion and sales for your blog. You must know which microblogs can give you the best benefit.
Without even visiting the web-page, a good Keyword Analyzer will have a module that will tell you whether or not links on the page use “NoFollow” tags. This lets you avoid you from wasting your time on building links from sources where you receive no search engine benefits. It’s otherwise known as Follow or No follow.
Let’s proceed to what makes microblogging so attractive, not only to marketers, but also to customers. The fact that the fewer words make them easier to read, understand, and digest. Another is that readers get to be curious about the microblogs, since its brevity only allows for teasers and promotions. If done right, microblogs can attract large traffic into your site.
Let’s look at the top 5 giants when it comes to microblogging:
1. Twitter
Tweeting is now the trend. And no, it doesn’t mean making bird-like sounds. Twitter is a microblog which allows people to post status messages, called Tweets. Twitter’s interface was made to be user-friendly.
2. Plurk
Plurk is a new player when it comes to microblogging but it’s faring well. It attracts many people, especially those that would like a visual representation of their microblog posts, which Plurk provides.
3. Jaiku
Obtained by internet storm, Google, Jaiku was first obtained in 2007, and has since been closed to users first to start with the beta testing.
4. Pownce
Another one that’s very similar to Twitter in the way it presents its microblogs, is Pownce. However, unlike Twitter it has a 140-character limit.
5. Spoink
Crazy name, lovely microblogging platform. Spoink allows microblogging from mobile phones. While this may not be considered an innovation since many microblogging sites are already ahead of that, but Spoink is one up above the rest because it allows podcasts to be featured from everywhere.
Now, affiliate marketers should seriously consider going into microblogging. Before you proceed with microblogging; first weigh your options whether it’s important for you and your business and whether you’ll target the right audience.
For affiliate marketers and the like, microblogging is one of the things you would want to get into. With the certain age groups that it targets, the customers might probably be into microblogging sites. So just from there, you can already see what a big prospect market, microblogging sites can be. Aside from that; it can help build up your site’s awareness and also add up to your credibility.
Also, if you are too busy to scout for updates about the other sites that are relevant to yours, you can also get generous updates from microblogging sites too. Given though, that you do take time to do the search required to do just so. Aside from that, microblogging sites help expand your business and gain some contacts or followers.
So now that you have seen and read the importance of microblogging; you ask yourself where you can get more information?
A Flaming on Your Blog
Flaming is something that every blogger will see from time to time. Basically flaming is when someone viciously attacks you or someone else that posts something on your blog. Typically a flaming is very personal and quite vicious.
It is important that you handle flaming, in fact you probably want to have a written policy about inappropriate behavior on your blog including flaming.
How to Handle a Flaming on Your Blog
First and foremost you want to make sure you address any flaming or other personal attacks that appear on your blog. This is especially true if someone is attacking another reader of your blog. Your failure to handle these types of postings will make it appear as if you condone them. You want your readers to know that you value them and will make sure they are not attacked for participating on your blog.
The first thing you should do is delete the flaming post. Once it is deleted you should contact the person who was flamed and apologize for the behavior or the person who flamed them and let them know the offensive posting was removed.
After contacting the person who was flamed you need to contact the person who posted the inflammatory posting. You should let them know the offensive posting was removed and that you do not tolerate that type of behavior on your blog.
If their post was extremely offensive you can immediately ban them from your blog. The alternative is to warn them that if they post anything in the future that violates your blog policies they will be banned.
How to Handle You Being Flamed
If the personal attacks are directed at you, it is important to take action. Just as you would protect any member of your blog you need to protect yourself as well. Though you should always invite feedback and commentary, including negative commentary, you should not accept flaming.
Remove any inappropriate comments and provide a warning to the person or persons who posted it. You can even invite them to post an edited version of their comments if appropriate. Most will probably not take you up on the offer but some may.
If you protect yourself and your readers from flaming you will be promoting a healthy environment where topics can be discussed and heated debates can ensue without rising to the level of inappropriate flaming on your valued blog.
YouTube DMCA Ruling is Good News for Blog Sites
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, April 3, 2011
YouTube DMCA Ruling is Good News for Blog Sites
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides a “safe harbor” from strict liability for copyright infringement to online service providers that satisfy its requirements.
A June, 2010 ruling by a U.S. District Court in New York in favor of YouTube established an important precedent for blog sites for avoiding strict liability for copyright infringement by blog posters.
- The DMCA
Online service providers such as blog sites are vulnerable to claims for copyright infringement if visitors post infringing material on their websites, even if the service providers are unaware that the material is infringing. This unfortunate result – that’s often quite surprising to blog site webmasters who are unfamiliar with copyright law – is due to the strict liability principles of the U.S. Copyright Act.
Signed into law in 1998, the DMCA protects online service providers from strict liability for copyright infringement by their users if they:
* Post a specific DMCA notice prominently on their websites,
* Register with the US Copyright Office, and
* Promptly block access to, or take down, allegedly infringing materials if they receive a notice from a copyright owner claiming infringement, or if the service provider has “actual knowledge” that it is hosting infringing material or if the service provider is aware of facts or circumstances that should make it “readily apparent” that there is infringing activity.
This protection by DMCA is known as a “safe harbor”; it completely protects the service provider from vicarious liability for copyright infringement.
- The YouTube Case
YouTube’s online video sharing service permits users to post videos to the YouTube site which then can be accessed and viewed by anyone who visits the YouTube site.
Viacom International sued YouTube alleging that YouTube was liable for copyright infringement of numerous videos for which Viacom owned the copyrights. Viacom argued that YouTube was aware that some of its users posted infringing videos on the YouTube site and that this awareness disqualified YouTube from the safe harbor protection of DMCA.
The YouTube case involved the third bullet point above – whether YouTube’s general knowledge that some of its users post infringing content on the YouTube website can amount to either:
* “Actual knowledge” of infringement, or
* Qualify to make it “readily apparent” to YouTube that there was infringing material on the YouTube website.
The court rejected Viacom’s argument and ruled that YouTube was not disqualified from the DMCA safe harbor. Specifically, the court found that YouTube’s general awareness of infringing activity by some of its users did not rise to the level of “actual knowledge” or knowledge that would make it “readily apparent” which videos were infringing. The court noted that YouTube had removed allegedly infringing videos promptly after receipt of notice sufficient to identify specific infringing videos.
Finally, the court ruled that YouTube had no general obligation to police its website for infringing videos and to determine whether specific videos were infringing.
- Conclusion
In general terms, the key rulings of interest to blog sites were that:
* YouTube had no general obligation to police its site for infringing videos, and
* That YouTube’s general knowledge of infringement, but not of specific infringing videos, was insufficient to disqualify YouTube from the DMCA safe harbor.
Blog site webmasters should be aware, however, that there are specific requirements that must be satisfied in order to take advantage of the DMCA safe harbor. It’s essential that these specific requirements be satisfied in order to qualify for DMCA?s valuable protections.
How To Set Up a Blogger Blog?
Setting up a blog on Blogger is quite easy. The first thing you want to do is to set up a Google account for the blog. You can do this by going to Blogger.com and then following the link in the resources section.
It takes about 2 or 3 minutes to set up a Google account. If you already have a Google account you can use it if you wish.
After you have set up your Google account you should go back to Blogger.com and sign-in using your Google account username and password. Your username is typically the e-mail address you used when creating the account.
You can set up your account so it remembers your username and password. Only do this if you are on a non-shared computer.
Look for the “Create a blog” option on the dashboard of Blogger. The dashboard is the page you go to every time you log onto your Blogger account. You can manage several blogs from the same dashboard if they were all created with the same Google account.
You will be asked to name your blog. You want to create an easy to remember, easy to find name that makes it clear what your blog is about. Try not to have a blog name that is too long. It will be the first part of the web address of your blog. For example if you name your blog “Teds Tidbits” your URL will be: tedstidbits@blogspot.com.
The next thing you need to do is to choose your template. Blogger has a number of templates to choose from. You do not have to agonize over which template to use because you can change the template at any time.
Write your first official blog post using the template Blogger provided. Feel free to add a picture, etc. Once you submit that first blog posting you will be able to view your new blog, edit the posting, etc.
At this point you can personalize your blog so it stands out. Many different aspects of the blog can be changed, moved around, etc. Click on the “Layout” option and start to make your blog stand out from the other blogs out there. You can undo virtually anything that you do so do not be shy to experiment with different layouts for your blog.
Once you finish your layout you are done. I wish you Happy blogging!
WordPress software was launched in 2003 and since then, it has piled up enough fame and recognition. It is a wonderful content management system which allows you to manage, edit and update the content of your site conveniently. It has a template system. It allows you to re-arrange widgets without editing PHP or HTML code. You can also install and switch between themes.
WordPress is an award winning CMS. It won Packt open source CMS award in 2007 and best open source CMS award in 2009. It is an open source project which means hundreds of people are working on it.
If offers thousands of widgets, plug-ins and themes. It is completely customizable and can be used for almost anything. It is an affordable software since most of the themes are free. When it comes to deployment, WordPress can be deployed using various methods on a hosting environment.
It provides users with the option to download the current version of WordPress from WordPress.org. WordPress can also be installed via Packet management system. You can also deploy a ready to use Turnkey WordPress appliance which does not require any manual set up.
Features of WordPress
- Local Install: WordPress is designed to be installed on your own web server, or shared hosting account, which gives you complete control over the web log. You can easily access and modify everything related to the web log. This is not possible in third party hosted services.
- Portable Core: It allows you to have the tree of WordPress related files. This forms the back-end of your publicly displayed web log.
- UTC friendly: It allows you to define your time as an offset from Universal Co-ordinate time (UTC). This allows all the time-related elements stored in the database to be stored as GMT values. It also helps you to display the correct time on your web log, even if your host server is located in a different time zone.
- User management: It uses user levels to control user-access to different features. This gives you the ability of allowing individual users to create or modify content in your web log, by changing their user-level.
- User profiles: Every user on your website can define a profile, with details such as their email address, instant messaging aliases etc, if they want to. Users can also select the way in which their details are displayed on the web log.
- Easy installation and upgrade: It hardly takes five minutes to install WordPress and it is extremely simple to do that. Also you can easily upgrade to the latest version of WordPress and it takes even less time to install.
- Dynamic page generation: With WordPress you do not need to rebuild all your pages every time you update your web log or any other feature. Whenever a viewer request a page from your web log, all pages are generated using the database and the templates. This makes updating your web log, or its design as fast as possible, and required server storage space usage is minimal.
- Internationalization and Localization: WordPress allows you to create a web log which is localized in a way you want with a language of your choice. To localize the WordPress, get text method is used.
- RSS feeds: WordPress fully supports RSS1.0 and RSS 2.0. It provides feeds for the latest posts, for categories, comments, well, like we said earlier, for anything you want. If you have more options for your readers to keep track of different sections of your web log, the easier it is for you to spread the word around the world.
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How To Automatically Install WordPress Plugins?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
How To Automatically Install WordPress Plugins?
WordPress plugins give you an amazing ability to extend the power of WordPress. You can easily install and start using any of the thousands of plugins to bring a wide assortment of functionality to your website. There are plugins for e-commerce, SEO, banner ads, Analytics, managing your users, integrating with email lists, showing galleries of images, embedding audio or video, and on and on and on.
Check out the repository of free WordPress Plugins at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/. There are also a number of premium (paid-for) plugins that you can by searching Google for “WordPress plugin” plus a keyword describing what you are looking for.
But they don’t do you any good if you aren’t using them! The good news is that finding and installing WordPress Plugins couldn’t be easier. In this How-To article, we’re going to take a step-by-step look at how you can find and automatically install plugins directly from within WordPress. Let’s get started.
Step 1: Log Into WordPress
Go to your WordPress Admin Center just like you would if you were going to add a new page or post and login as an administrator.
Step 2: Go To the Plugins Tab
This will bring up a list of all the plugins that are already installed. You may find a couple in there called ‘Hello Dolly’ and ‘Askimet’ even if you never downloaded a plugin before, those come pre-installed with WordPress. At the top of this page you will find a “Add New” button that you can click to start searching for the plugin you want to include.
Step 3: Find Your Plugin
If you are looking for a specific plugin, then you can just search for the name of the plugin. You can also search more general terms to try to find a plugin for a particular need you have on your site. For example, let’s look at the Exclude Pages plugin. This simple, but endless useful, plugin lets you create pages that do not appear in your typical navigation. This is great for creating pages such as a Thank You page (for after someone submits a contact form for instance) where it doesn’t make sense to have visitors navigating directly to. To find this plugin, just search for “Exlude Pages” and you it should be at the top of the list.
Step 4: Install the Plugin – Automatically!
Under the “Actions” column you will find a link called “Install”. Click that link to see more information about that plugin and to install it. You’ll want to make sure that the plugin is compatible with your version of WordPress, though plugins will generally work fine for later versions as well. You’ll also want to check that the Average Rating is pretty decent, that the plugin has been downloaded a significant amount of times, and that they plugin author updates the plugin somewhat regularly. These are all good signs that the plugin is still actively maintained and should work without any problems.
When you are ready to install the plugin simply click the Install Update Now button. This will automatically start the process of downloading and installing the plugin into your WordPress. You just need to click the “Activate Plugin” link to start using the plugin.
Step 5: Use the Plugin
Different plugins are controlled in different ways. Most of them will create a new option under Tools or Settings to control the plugin options, others will create their own tab in the Admin Center, and some just add a new option somewhere within the Admin Center. In our example using the Exclude Pages plugin, we can navigate to a page via Posts > Edit (or Add New) and see the new Panel called ‘Exclude Pages’ where you can click the checkbox to either include or exclude that page from the general navigation. Simple!
It’s that easy. You can now search through the thousands of available plugins to add all kinds of functionality to your WordPress site. Did in and have fun!
How to Get the Maximum Number of Links to Your Blog?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Monday, March 28, 2011
It is every blogger’s dream: to be read by as many people as possible. But it’s not as simple as it sounds. Several things have to fall into place to capture that wide audience.
First is to get the word out that your blog exists, second is to hold visitors’ interest in what they are reading, third is to make them return for more, and fourth is for them to start referring you to others.
That is why when SEO marketers sit down with blog owners to talk about increasing audience viewership, one of the strategies they instantly recommend is to build as many links to the site as possible.
Just how does link building equate to a wide captive audience?
The equation goes something like this: links to your blog from other sites generate referral traffic and increase your blogs’s Google page ranking.
The former is possible when users go to another site and click on the link from that site to your blog. The second is when Google’s search algorithms consider the links to your site as a vote of referral from the other sites, taking that to mean that you are a site of substance, thereby elevating your page rank. The higher the page rank of your blog means that when users search via Google, your blog will be one of the first ten sites listed on the first page.
Sources of Blog Links
When you commit to link building, there are many sources where you can get these links. Below are a few of them:
- Common-niche blogs, websites, forums, and communities. Visit these sites and drop a comment or two in forum messages and posts. Be helpful by answering questions or offering information. Sign your posts on these sites with a link to your blog site. As your presence in these sites is established, so will your blog site generate more traffic.
- Social networking sites. StumbleUpon and Digg have proven track records in generating traffic to sites, so take advantage of this. Consider other sites such as Facebook and Twitter as well.
- Directory submissions. This technique is still good for link building, but you have to be careful to submit your site to quality directory sites only, because there are many directories out there that turn out to be mere link farms.
More Tools and Tips for Link Building
Link sources may be there for the taking, but the key to success is in actually keeping in mind the following rule-of-thumb:
- Link building takes time. Many sites require webmaster’s approval for links to be established. And with Google suspicious of a sudden increase in links, a slow but sure approach gets the links in the long run.
- Link building means never having to give up. Not all link-building efforts strike gold – moderators and webmasters may disapprove of your posts, or remove your link signatures, or worse, consider you spam. Continue your link-building and don’t get discouraged.
- Link to quality sites. Although they are more discriminating in whom to give their links, links from quality sites are worth more than low-ranked sites.
- Create quality content. Interesting and useful content gives your link requests a higher chance of being accepted and your blog linked to by other sites.
Successful link-building for your blog generates referral traffic and increases your blogs’s Google page ranking. The result? A bigger blog readership than ever before.
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Relationship Marketing: 101 Blogging and Inbound Marketing
One of the most effective inbound marketing strategies available for businesses, online and offline, both in terms of cost of implementation and in overall return on investment (ROI), is blogging. Why has business blogging become so important as an inbound marketing strategy? There are a variety of reasons. Blogging is conversation, it’s personable, and it’s informative. Blogging is attractive for both online and offline (i.e., brick and mortar) businesses because consumers (i.e., customers, clients, and patients) feel they are being told a story rather than sold a product or service; and, no one wants to be “sold!”
Significantly, clients and prospective clients become part of the conversation by reading the blog posts and leaving their thoughts and feelings in the form of comments.
Who doesn’t like being asked their opinion?
And, what business owner wouldn’t pay big money to know what his target audience is thinking, as well as what they react to and why?
A blog is a great way to show the world your expertise, thus establishing authority and demonstrating your competence in the marketplace and to your target market. People like to do business with business people they know, like, and trust. Prospective clients are drawn to businesses and business people who are experts in their field. Demonstrating competence enhances your image and makes the prospective client feel confident about their decision to purchase from you…you, as the expert in your field.
When properly constructed and implemented, an effective business blogging strategy is an incredibly valuable asset. Blogging for business is crucial, whether the business is entirely online or a combination of both, as is the case with most brick and mortar businesses today.
When organized and well written, a blog conveys the ultimate Internet image, an image that announces:
“This business is well run, this is a business I can do business with!”
A well thought out, well constructed blog, combined with an effective overall inbound marketing strategy, conveys a message, an image if you will, that this business owner is knowledgeable and cares enough to seek feedback about products and/or services offered from his or her clients and prospective clients.
A wise business owner values feedback, realizing there is always room for improvement, both in sales and service. Why not ask for feedback from the very people who use the product or service day in and day out? A blog can accomplish this for a business, creating a link both valuable and, ultimately, profitable. The feedback a blog offers is an often over-looked advantage; and yet, it is an incredibly powerful resource.
Significantly, the proper blogging strategy will provide a window into the thinking of your client-base and create a vehicle you may then use to improve your products and/or service.
The feedback from your business blog will also provide ideas and strategies for new products and services. Interestingly, you may even be able to gain a competitive advantage by learning what your clients and prospective clients like and dislike about your competitors, their products and services. Perhaps it’s a product or service you don’t provide but should? Perhaps it’s something to do with price? The blog provides the vehicle, the opportunities are there; and, it is up to the individual business owner to take advantage of them. A well constructed inbound marketing strategy, one that has at its center a well-thought-out and appropriately implemented blogging strategy, will put your business on track to accomplish all of the above and more.
One last word about inbound marketing, blogs, and blogging for business: photographs, audio recordings, and short videos are worth their weight in gold. If you aren’t the greatest writer, and don’t have the money in the budget to hire a good copywriter, also worth their weight in gold, a photograph or short video can help you tell your business’ story. With today’s technology, a photograph, audio, and/or video is easy to create and it’s often the first item to catch the attention of a visitor to your blog.
It’s worth taking some time each day to blog. Think of it as going out to talk to the man on the street. Think of it as time well spent. You will find it to be a great investment in time and effort, the ultimate in ROI.
Have your Traffic to Old Blog Posts and Overlooked Pages Still Draw Traffic
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Have your Traffic to Old Blog Posts and Overlooked Pages Still Draw Traffic
There is little doubt that if you have had a blog for a long time, you have hundreds and perhaps even thousands of blog posts. Over time, your blog readers change. You get new readers, you lose readers. You are most likely writing about similar topics, but your style of writing has changed and/or your opinions about a topic have changed. However, instead of deleting your old blog posts, use them to draw new traffic to your blog. Here are some ideas about how to use old blog posts to draw new traffic:
A) You’ve learned more
Blogging is a learning process. The time when you wrote about a topic does not really matter, for the fact that once and for all, you really have learned more about a topic than when writing about it the first time. Haul up your old posts from the archive instead of removing them and make it serve as a foundation to create a new post. An example of this would be if you did a software review for a new package you just started using then after using it for a few months you found some features that were additional bonuses (or on the other side features you just hate). Take advantage of that old post and start your post off by saying “on (xdate) we talked about (xproduct) and we said (direct quote and link to the old post). One of the features we discussed as you can see by reading the post….” etc.
This does two things:
1. It gives you the chance to write about the same topic with no pressure at all and
2. It allows you to share those older posts with a new set of readers.
B) Nothing stays the same
The rules for blogging change from time to time. Just think over of what the FTC ruling about bloggers on some blogs can do. You can refer back to prior blog posts where you may have endorsed a product or service and point out why it is in compliance with new rules, regulations or where information has changed.
C) Great ego check
It’s really a plus if your readers know that you are keen to accept the fact that you don’t know everything. It isn’t really wrong to admit that you are learning something new even if many readers really look up to someone who is an expert on their chosen topic. Actually, this should have the opposite effect of letting your readers know that you are also learning like them and this can additionally boost the credibility of your blog.
* Summary
Bloggers like any other committed business person continue lifelong growth and learning. A blogger need not be embarrassed of old blog posts and let alone, leave them hiding in the archives of your blog. Instead, drag them out, dust them off and make your new knowledge a shining example of your growth.
Two Free WordPress Themes That Can Quicken Your Blog Setup
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, March 25, 2011
Two Free WordPress Themes That Can Quicken Your Blog Setup
WordPress themes are also known as layouts or templates. These are files that create the look and feel of your blog content. WordPress themes can be very simple, like the one that comes standard with every install, to the complex. Bloggers can choose from free and paid versions of templates. When choosing a template, you should choose one that will give you a lot of ability to easily customize the template to fit your branding needs. This article discusses 2 templates (or themes) that have a lot of customization features which are relatively easy to a create unique brand.
All WordPress templates allow you to customize them by going into the Edit page of the Appearance tab. If you are not comfortable with PHP and HTML code, then you may have some trouble in customizing your appearance. One benefit of the themes mentioned in this article is they are customizable through a special theme options page, which means you can get your WordPress site up and running much more quickly.
1) Atahualpa Theme
This theme is a free theme that was created by ‘Bytes for All’ and can be found at http://bytesforall.com/ where you can ask questions and get community support for this theme. Once this theme is installed, you can customize the theme in the Appearance >> Atahualpa Theme Options page. Once here, you will find a host of options to highly customize your theme. Webmasters can configure special CSS styles for things such as the header, the layout, and page features such as headings, links and menu bars. Users can easily upload header graphics that can rotate through the header graphic. Other options that can be customized include the number of columns you want on your blog (technically you can have from 1 to 5 columns), which side you want you sidebars to be on, or what you want your widget boxes to look like. The look and feel is highly customizable and is a great start to quickly getting a professional look to your blog.
2) News Magazine Theme
The free News Magazine theme was created by http://antisocialmediallc.com. This theme gives you several easily customizable options that can be set in the Appearance >> News Magazine Theme 640 Options page. The News Magazine theme doesn’t have quite as many options to set up as the Atahualpa theme, but you can add code for site tracking (can be done through the use of plugins), ad rotating and just adding text or java script code to parts of your template.
One nice feature of this template is that you can easily take featured categories and spotlight them on your blog through simple drop-down selections. One very nice feature is that you can control the excerpt length of your blog postings on the index page. On 99.9% of the WordPress blogs out there, the home (or index) page prints the entire text of the blog post. A better format for visitors is to have a post excerpt and they can click a link to read the entire blog. Currently there is no function in WordPress that allows you to display excerpts of your blog postings. This blog theme allows you to display excerpts with their ‘Blog Mode Excerpt Length’ setting.
These two WordPress themes are varied enough to get you started and well on your way with your first (or second) WordPress blog. The ease of these customizable settings should greatly reduce your setup time while creating a fairly well customized blog. To make the most advantage of setting up your blog for more traffic and more automation, taking a WordPress training class will speed up creating a decent blog following.
Top 10 WordPress Terms You Should Know
My new WordPress clients are often confused about some of the terminology of WordPress. This makes it more difficult to communicate effectively with them about what they want from their WordPress sites and blog. So, I’ve decided to list the top 10 WordPress related terms everyone who uses WordPress should know.
* Term 1: Themes
A Theme is a collection of files that create the visual look of your WordPress website or blog. Themes are kinda like ’skins’ that you can easily download, install and start using on your site. Themes also can include some custom features to give you greater control over the presentation and functionality of your site. In general, only one Theme can be used at a time.
* Term 2: Templates
In WordPress, templates are one of several specific files that control how a particular page on your site is displayed. For instance, your theme may have multiple page layouts, perhaps one with a sidebar and one without. There are also templates that control the top of all your pages including navigation, called a “header”, the bottom of all your pages, called a “footer”, and “sidebars” (see below). Templates can also be created for a specific page or post, category, and much more.
* Term 3: Plugins
Plugins are a collection of files that you can download and install to add some certain functionality to your site. For instance, there are plugins for e-commerce, Search Engine Optimization, to create specific features like a calendar, or to modify how you control and operate your website. There are 1,000’s of plugins, most of which are free.
* Term 4: Sidebar
A sidebar is a section of your website that generally displays the along the left or right side of your pages, but can also appear in other places, such as the footer. You can also have multiple sidebars in your site based on the templates you have.
* Term 5: Widgets
Widgets are the individual blocks of content that go into a sidebar. You can easily add, delete or rearrange Widgets in your sidebars by dragging and dropping in the WordPress admin center. Many Widgets can also be edited to give you extra control over how the Widgets appear on your site. Some common examples of Widgets are simple text, recent posts, advertising such as AdSense, etc.
* Term 6: Pages & Posts
Pages vs. Posts are a bit confusing and could have its own article. In general though, you want to use Pages for any single pages of content that remain in the same place on your site. Pages generally have their own navigation in WordPress and are good for pages like ‘About Us’, ‘Contact Us’, etc. You can easily select different templates for pages and they are not categorized.
Posts on the other hand are used when you will be creating multiple entries about a particular topic. You can put Posts into various Categories. WordPress will then automatically handle creating various Category pages, which will list all of the Posts in that Category, generally showing only an Excerpt of the Post and putting the Posts in chronological order. For instance, if you had a blog on Hollywood happenings, you would use Posts each time you write a new entry about some celebrity doing something stupid.
* Term 7: Admin Center
The Admin Center is where you control everything about your WordPress site. To access the Admin Center you will go to a specific URL on the internet and enter your username and password. From there, you will be able to add/edit/delete Pages and Posts, control Plugins and Widgets, manage your users, and much more.
* Term 8: Permalinks
How your URL’s are formed is very important to Search Engine Optimization and making your pages more memorable and understandable to your visitors. In WordPress, you can easily create Permalinks, which are a particular structure to your site. Instead of using meaningless URL’s like yourdomain.com/?p=8, you could have yourdomain.com/my-page/. You can control the permalinks for each Page and Post in WordPress.
* Term 9: Tags
Tags are similar to Categories, only they are less structured. For instance, you may have a Post about your favorite Football team, which perhaps you are putting in a “Sports” category. You could also use some tags like ‘Football’, ‘Cincinnati Bengals’, and ‘Carson Palmer’. Using the tags makes it possible to have a list of Tags in your sidebar where people can click the different Tags to bring up all the Pages and Posts that have those particular tags. If you have a Search box, then the Tags are also used to retrieve results for the users specific search.
* Term 10: Custom Fields
WordPress includes a way to create custom values that you assign to a particular Page or Post. Your Theme, or WordPress developer can then use those fields and values to create custom functionality on your site. For instance, you may want to be able to have a rating system for whatever you are writing about. A developer could set-up a custom field where you just enter your rating and then the system takes that information and makes a pretty display feature based on the rating you assigned. The possibilities are endless with Custom Fields and are a powerful feature of WordPress.
I hope these terms help you to better understand WordPress and how it operates. Even if you have a professional helping you with your WordPress site, you’ll be better off understanding some of the basic principles so you can be on the same page when communicating with your developer.
Understanding The Big Picture!
So, is your blog generating any traffic yet? Probably not… at least not yet!
Your primary objective should be to generate leads on a daily basis and to convert those leads into customers and distributors. So, I’m going to share with you what you need to do to achieve this.
1) Create Valuable Content
If you don’t create content, people will not find you and you will not be able to build a successful business online.
Many people ask me this question, “How often should I write on my blog”? And my answer is, 2-3 times a week or daily if you can. Having a consistent schedule is the key here. When you write “killer” posts, your readers will keep coming back to your blog for more! Write about boring stuff, then you’ll lose your audience!
Your goal should be to write the best content so that your blog can stand out among the rest and have more readers. You also want people to share your posts with their friends and followers because they are great.
You can also outsource your blog content inexpensively to fill the gaps, if you are busy with the other things. A word of caution: you should always check the content before publishing, because your blog is about YOU and the content represents YOU!
2) Generate Social Traffic
You need to integrate your blog with the social media sites so that you can drive massive, free traffic to your blog and ultimately into your business.
a) Twitter
* Make your blog your primary website link on Twitter. Top tip: Use a link to a capture page on your blog. * Use a greet box plug-in to greet and welcome visitors from Twitter. It makes it more personal. * Use tools to automatically tweet about your new blog posts when they get published. * Use a comment system to get more viral traffic as the commentors’ followers get exposed to your content – very powerful!
b) Facebook
* Link to your blog from your Facebook profile. Top tip: Use your blog as the only link on your profile. * Use a greetbox plug-in to greet and welcome visitors from Facebook. It adds a personal touch. * Use tools to update your status each time you publish new content. * Import your blog RSS feed into Facebook as “Notes”. Top tip: Use “excerpts” in order to send your readers to your original posts. If you don’t do that, people will read the full content on Facebook and leave comments there. Remember that your goal is to drive traffic to your blog! * If you have a Facebook group, send your members a message about your new posts, in order to get more visitors and readers. * Use a comment system to get more viral traffic as the commentors’ friends get exposed to your content.
c) YouTube
* Link to your blog from your YouTube profile. * Create short videos to promote your new posts. Send your viewers to the relevant blog link for full content, from the video description.
3) Generate Search Traffic
You also need to take advantage of the traffic from the search engines such as Google. The most important piece of the puzzle when it comes to search results is keywords.
It’s important that you do a keyword research before writing your posts so that people can find your content as well as ranking high in the search engines.
Once you have decided on your keywords, there are factors contributing to where your blog could show up in the search engines.
a) On-Site Factors refer to things that you do on your blog that can affect your search engine rankings:
* Domain name – having the keywords that you want to rank for in your domain name is very powerful. Also, the age of the domain has some impact on Google, believe it or not – old domain will rank better than the new one. * Title and meta description – having your keywords in the blog title and meta description helps with your blog ranking. * Keyword density – pay attention to how often your keywords are used in your posts. Don’t overuse them! * Blog structure – having your content organized and linked together internally helps your blog to get ranked on each of the categories or sections. * Outbound links – every link from your page to another site, causes it to lose a little rank. Don’t use a lot of outbound links.
b) Off-Site Factors refer to things that do not happen on your site but make a big difference:
* Inbound links are a very important part of your blog linking strategy in order to attract more traffic to your blog. Quality and quantity of these links are important. * Anchor text – use the relevant keyword that you want to rank for instead of words such as “click here”.
4) Share Your Offer
The above process is intended to get people to opt-in your list. So, it’s very important that you pay attention to your opt-in box. It will allow you to capture your readers’ information so that you can follow up with them and share what you have to offer with them. Then that will mean more money in your pocket!
If you ever wanted to have a good blog in place for your business, the time is now. Implement these strategies and take your blog and business to the next level!
How To Pick The Right Business Theme
If you want a blog for your business then you need a professional looking theme. The right theme can make your blog look professional. The wrong theme can make it look like a kid put it together.
The right theme can get people reading through your site. If you get your theme wrong you may not be found in the search engines. To start with just look at the overall appearance of the theme.
This should give you an overall feeling of whether a theme may work for you or not. You need to decide how many columns you want, what colors you want, and any features that you might want.
A customizable theme can provide you with even more options. Start with the free themes available at WordPress. If you can’t find one you like you can look for premium WordPress themes. It’s generally not advisable to go with free themes away from the WordPress site.
These may have no support, or even worse, viruses embedded in them. Make sure anything you choose comes with support. The support forum is usually sufficient. Check to make sure that it is active and the moderator responds in a timely fashion. Additionally, positive reviews are a good sign.
Once you have a few good-looking business WordPress themes, you want to check the specs. It’s important that they’re compatible with all the different browsers online. Also, they should be quick to load. They should also be widget friendly and search engine optimized
The easiest way to go to install a theme is to go to appearance on the sidebar of your WordPress control panel. The first link under there is themes. Click on it, then click add new at the top of your screen. This will take you to an area where you can browse all sorts of free WordPress themes.
You can choose any of them you want to use on your site.
Look for one with good reviews. Also, choose one that is widget friendly, search engine optimized, compatible with all browsers, and fast loading. Some of them will list these features bright in the description.
If you can’t find a theme you like then you may want to consider buying one. There are a number of these available all over the Internet. Again, you want to look at the reviews make sure you are getting a good product. The theme should come with support. Most of the time, this is the support forum.
Make sure that it is active and the administrator responds quickly to any problems. Also, look for one that is easy to adapt. As you become more experienced you’ll want a more unique blog.
3 Ways Small Business Owners Confuse Their Prospects
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Monday, March 21, 2011
3 Ways Small Business Owners Confuse Their Prospects
Small business owners are smart, savvy and creative. This is, oftentimes, what causes more confusion with prospects. Let’s use an example to make it clearer.
Imagine you’re at a networking event and you’re talking to someone who could be an ideal client. You’re really focused in on them. You’re listening carefully to their every word. You begin to realize they’re not talking about their business, but about their life. You may think to yourself, “Yeah, yeah, we’re all really challenged economically right now in our personal lives, but how’s your business doing?”
And before you know it, you’ve let that slip out and their eyes kind of glaze over. You wonder, what just happened here? This, after all, is a business event, so why are you talking about your personal life.
Well in case you missed it, for a lot of small business owners, their business is their life. That’s how they support themselves financially and spiritually! And this points to the first reason you can confuse a prospect!
#1 You don’t understand their problem
If you’re not “hearing” the problem and the pain it’s causing them, you may address the symptoms and not the underlying cause. Here’s an example. Let’s say you are an expert in providing health and nutritional products. A prospect complains they’re not feeling well and is in need more energy because they’re balancing work, family, etc. You “hear” the possibility for “supplements” could be helpful to boost their energy. What you may miss is their lifestyle may require an “overhaul” meaning diet, exercise, valuing who they are, etc. So the “supplements” will only give them the energy to stay out of balance!
#2 You don’t understand your comprehensive solution
So you focus on the supplements, however your “comprehensive” solution might include an overall plan for this person. An approach that includes “wellness” of which supplementation is only a small part (even though it’s you’re core business). But you have to know your full repertoire, i.e. all of your available solutions in order to be effective in solving the prospect’s problem. And if you don’t offer it directly, who could you partner with to address the prospect’s problem?
#3 You can’t help the prospect bridge the gap
Continuing with this example. If you were focused on listening for the “business challenge” and not asking the questions that help you see the connection between their lack of business clients and the lack of life balance, you will overlook how the two are, in fact, affecting each other. Your role is to help the prospect clearly see the connection; you have to help them bridge the gap. Otherwise, your prospect will not see how your solution will help both in their personal and business life and the opportunity is lost! And they walk away confused as to what you do or offer.
The moral of the story is? Truly listen to all aspects of your prospects “being” because it will serve as a rich source of information. It will also help you determine if your solution will solve their problem. And after all, isn’t that the business we’re in? And remember, a confused mind never buys.
The Art of Podcasting
A common 21st century phrase is ‘podcast’ an odd combination of the words iPod and Broadcast; the iPod being, Apples market dominatingly popular portable MP3 player. This expression is used to define a technology that lets users routinely download available audio files for listening to later, and is no longer exclusive to the iPod as many other software and hardware combinations now be used for the very same thing.
The roots of podcasting most likely lie in the blogging world as it is the natural progression to broadcasting information via the written word. I’m sorry for chucking another buzzword in the form of ‘blogging’, but with technology suddenly becoming cool there are dozens of new ones making their way in to our vocabularies. A blog, for those of you that don’t know, is an online journal that is frequently updated and intended for the general public. I should also just mention a technology known as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) which provides a continuous feed detailing updates that have been made to a particular data source; a podcast site for example.
The conventional media sources like TV, radio or streaming Internet media offer minimum control with regards to when the recordings are heard. Podcasting lets users get their hands on the downloaded content automatically carted over to their compatible player so they can listen to it later. In my opinion this is key to the technologies success and why it became so popular, so quickly similar to the way most technology is going success relies upon on demand content, tailored the users lifestyle, not vice versa.
For arguments sake let’s say, that I get the bus to the office and I want fresh and exciting content to listen to on a daily basis. If I head over to one of the many online resources available (for example www.podcast.com), I can subscribe to as many podcasts as I want from the thousands available. From this point on when I plug my iPod (other MP3 players are available) in for it to synchronize with my PC the latest available from my podcast list will be downloaded for my listening pleasure. The topics covered by podcasting in general are incredible and include everything from the music to technology, gaming, religion and world news.
Assuming you don’t want to individually move podcasts onto your MP3 player upon release, you will require specialist software such as the excellent free download Juice to make the rather tedious job automated. When the software is all setup you can go about adding as many podcasts as you like (and will have the time to listen to) and Juice will make sure it keeps you up to date. Fortunately there are versions of Juice to run on Windows, Linux and Mac OS ‘ it is very much a cross platform compatible application fits nicely with the podcasting ethos of access for all.
A subject as diverse and with as much content as Podcasting cannot really be convincingly covered in one article so the best tip I can give you is that if you are at all interested then download the software, visit the directories and take some time to see what’s out there.
Yes, there is a load of absolute rubbish but all you ever have to do is hit the unsubscribe button; as with many things in life you have to sift through the chaff to get at the wheat.
I do have one last tip I feel I should share – Subscribe to the Chris Moyles podcast; it’s fantastic!
How Often do I Post?
Many bloggers, especially new bloggers wonder how often they should post on their blog. Do they post at a furious pace until their fingers bleed? Do they post only when the spirit moves them? The answer is somewhere in between.
Bloggers need to have a general idea of how often they plan to post. Consistency is more important than volume when it comes to posting. If you start off with great passion and post 5 or 10 postings every day for a month then suddenly lose steam your followers will recognize this and wonder if you are losing interest in your own blog. If you lose interest so will they.
* How Often to Post – Gain Momentum
You are always better off gaining momentum rather than losing steam. Start off your blog by adding postings at a pace you know you can keep up with. On days that you are feeling particularly prolific you should create extra posts and save them in your admin panel without actually publishing them.
You can build a stockpile of posts that can be used on days you have nothing to say or are unable to sit down and focus on your blog at all. This is a good way to make sure that you are prepared for any unplanned writing absences.
How many posts you start off with per day will depend on your blog’s focus. If you are a corporate blog you can likely start with one very good post per day. If you have an entertainment blog you probably want at least four or five short postings per day.
* What is my Starting off Point?
The best way to determine your starting off point is to look at the competition. See how often they post and how long their postings are. You do not have to duplicate their effort but you do not want to be too far below it.
You must also consider quality. Quality should not suffer for the sake of quantity. If you find that some of your posts are not good enough for your blog because you were focused on getting out extra posts you should consider scaling back a bit and sustain a volume that is comfortable for you.
The bottom line is you need to keep your blog updated and current with content but you do not want to become a slave to it. Try to find a realistic pace that can grow over time.
Article Marketing Vs Guest Blog Posting
Since economic resources are scarce and not limitless, one has to make choices according to one’s scale of preference in order to allocate scarce economic resources amongst competing alternative uses.This is the genesis of the comparison between Article Marketing and Guest Blog Posting.
From basic economics, opportunity cost is the real cost of anything in the sense of the alternative forgone.
In the light of the above, since resources, in this case time and money to be spent is not limitless and has so many competing uses, the internet marketer has to schedule these resources between Guest Blog Posting and Article Marketing amongst all other internet marketing strategies.
The comparison becomes more relevant since both aim to achieve almost the same objectives of building backlinks and generating traffic and so are effectively substitutes.
The question often arises as to which of these two strategies is a better option.
My answer to this question is very simple. Start by identifying which objectives each of these options aim to achieve and identify which of the two achieves these objectives better.
Guest Blog Posting usually require very original but shorter articles.
Secondly, the guest blogger quite often gets one or may be two links for each article he gets published on the host website. In most cases, guest posts reside majorly on the hosting website and are not usually syndicated widely.
Some guest blog posting is done free but ironically? some sites require you to pay before you can guest post.
I say ironically, because as you will see in my analysis and final conclusion to this article, I would even consider greatly whether it is worth my while to guest post not to talk of being asked to come and make payment to do this.
They call them by different names to cover up the true intent of such schemes e.g. link building mechanisms.
Such schemes only end up being of greater benefit to the hosting website since content is being supplied to them and being paid for at the same time.
Now to a comparison with Article Marketing
In Article Marketing, the major snag is that you have to write a longer article of about a minimum of 400 words.
Ordinarily, the article should be original. Note that I use the words “ordinarily should be original” contrary to when i was referring to Guest Posting when I used the words “very original.”
This is because article spinners and article leverage tools are now the “in-thing” in article syndication such that it is questionable to refer to such articles as “very original.”
However, once written and syndicated, each article can be distributed to the entire network of article directories of an article syndication service or an article submitting software and with each article entitled to have about two backlinks each pointing to the author’s website, then you can multiply out the number of backlinks each article will produce in comparison to the just one or two, of the Guest posting.
These backlinks and accompanying traffic generated through article marketing now even goes viral when the articles begin to be republished from the original article directories the article syndication service or article submitting software syndicates the articles to.
Do you now see why I made the earlier statement that I will even think greatly before accepting to guest post for free not to talk of being asked to make payment to guest post.
To me, except the hosting website is a very high traffic website and/or high authority website (with very high PR), I do not think it is worth the while, depleting scarce resources of time and sometimes money on such strategies (Guest Blog Posting) given their opportunity cost in terms of the alternative foregone (article marketing) since one will definitely impact the other in terms of the volume you are able to churn out.
Five Reasons Your Blog Needs a Ghostwriter
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Five Reasons Your Blog Needs a Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is any writer who creates content for a project that will be presented under another name. As you are traveling in a bookstore, you might marvel at the sheer volume of works certain names such as Tom Clancy put out. In many cases, these books weren’t written by a single writer but rather many and then published under the big name. This arrangement is a good one for many writers, as it allows them to get work and valuable writing experience, while also benefiting the larger name by allowing more work under their aegis to get out.
Your blog might just benefit from hiring a ghostwriter for the same reasons. Every blog needs a writer to direct it, and blogs do best when guided by one or two voices in a consistent direction. Sometimes, however, the originator of a business or idea isn’t the one who can best capture that direction, and that’s when you should turn to a ghostwriter.
In no particular order, here are five reasons that many blogs choose to hire a ghostwriter for their content.
Reason #1 – They Can’t Write Appropriately
This isn’t referring to whether their content is polite or not, it simply refers to whether the “idea man” behind a project can generate content that fits the aim of the blog. Suppose, for example, you have someone who knows all about the world of competitive cooking as seen in Iron Chef. He knows the competitors’ ranks and accomplishments and wants to use the blog to promote interest in competitive cooking – even, perhaps, in his own cooking school.
The problem is, he can’t write in a way that catches the eye. His writing might be too technical, or rely on obscure factoids that don’t really do much to inspire the reader’s imagination. A ghostwriter, on the other hand, is all about the writing, and one of the best talents a writer can have is the ability to take someone else’s ideas and rephrase them in exciting, evocative language.
Reason #2 – Lack of Time
Many of the big blogs seen on the web weren’t start-up ventures, but rather grew out of a company that already existed. Many companies have seen the success of blogs in other ventures, and have chosen to add one to their own site, much the same way they chose to add a website to their business when the web first got popular. This is a natural evolution and response to a changing market, and is not a bad idea. On the other hand, the owner is usually concerned with other issues and does not have time to devote to writing a blog.
In such cases, the natural step is to hire a ghostwriter. You want the articles to continue to go out in your company’s name, since the idea of the blog is to promote the company, but don’t have time to do it yourself because you are justifiably busy. A ghostwriter can build a solid blog post in about an hour of work, and then move on to their other projects.
Reason #3 – Intermediate Perspective
There is a great deal to be said for being familiar with your product and your brand. You get to know subtleties and rhythms of the business that no outsider could appreciate. The problem is, your perspective is entirely different from that of your customers. They can’t get into the nitty gritty of your brand in a way you can.
In cases like these, the value of a ghostwriter lies in linking the outside views of your audience with the inside views of the company. You can communicate your passions directly to this writer, who can marry them to a perspective of those on the other side of the glass. Their intermediate presence crucially bridges the gap between brand and audience.
Reason #4 – Brand Protection
Writers are a notoriously prideful lot. Some of the fiercest legal battles are over intellectual property rights, and justly so. Creating a written body of work is a tremendous effort, and having it stolen or infringed upon is a terrible offense. On the other hand, a branded blog is not about the individual writer, it’s about the brand and what the brand represents.
By definition, a ghostwriter doesn’t take credit for their work. The work is put out in the name of the brand, or the site’s owner, as a means of projecting the brand forward. The ghostwriter is willing to take their pay without putting their own creative name on the work, which will benefit your brand because there isn’t an intermediate step. If you let one ghostwriter go, either because they move on to new things or you decide you need a new creative direction, there isn’t necessarily an indication of this to the outside world, and the brand’s voice continues.
Reason #5 – Flexibility and Freshness
Ghostwriters in the plural sense can do a blog good, too. If you maintain more than one at a time, you can ease the wear and tear that is associated with writing on the same general subject. Writers are like horses; you don’t want to ride them to death on the way there if you expect to get home. And since writing can be done anywhere, by anyone, anytime, you can cast your net far and wide in search of the two or three writers you need to best communicate your message.
How Wikipedia Defines Branding Success?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Building Brand Identity: How Wikipedia Defines Branding Success?
It is instructive and inspiring to take a look at the people who have succeeded in your field. Whether it’s an attempt to learn from their mistakes and victories or just a pause to reflect on the admirable accomplishments of another, studying the work of those who’ve set the benchmark can inspire reflection and spur us on to greater heights.
The world of branding success stories is one of the most fickle, given the rise of the web. Every day, there is more new information generated and discarded than has existed for most of human history. Trends and fads come and go with ever-increasing speed, and things considered hilarious and exciting baffle people just a few months later. Then there are successes that fundamentally change the way the world sees things. They become so ingrained that everyone wonders where they’d been the whole time.
* Wikipedia
There is not enough good in the world to say about the Wiki project. Those who would criticize it for lacking accuracy and scholarly rigor have totally missed the point. Wikipedia is the spirit of what the web is meant to be. It is cooperative, self-correcting, open to interpretation, controversial and dynamic. Ever changing and yet extremely distinct, it represents the purest expression of what the web can and is meant to do. People are talking about Web 2.0, but it’s honestly already here in the form of the Wiki.
Wikipedia is a simple idea, one so straightforward that it could be imagined it shouldn’t work – an encyclopedia free of charge, open for anyone in the world to edit. It shouldn’t continue to exist, by all logic. The internet is full of trolls who will eagerly fax sheets of black paper to people they’re displeased with, over and over until the receiving machine runs out of ink and seizes up. What in the world is to stop them from vandalizing the heck out of every Wiki page they come across, a fate that many other Wikis indeed have succumbed to?
The answer is that Wiki has taken its audience seriously, appealing to its sense of pride and self-interest.
For every troll who hops onto a Wikipedia or Wikiquote article and scrawls quotes calling the moral and social behaviors of the editors into question, there is someone else who is incredibly well-informed about that page, backed up by both a number of authoritative sources and a deep pride in their work. Vandalism is steadily defeated through pride and reversion, and the sheer scale of people who want a good, quality resource.
In allowing anyone to edit, and treating those edits as matters worth discussing on cooperative terms, the Wiki project has ignited a sense of pride in people. Now they want the articles to succeed; they want to see their hard work displayed on the front page as a featured article.
Additionally, the Wiki project chose an iconic visual aesthetic for itself: White background, clean lines, plain text and simple images. Yes, anyone can edit a page as they like, but the project rewards pages that comply with its style guides and presentational standards. So whenever someone says “Wiki,” people imagine that little puzzle-globe logo, the way a page is set up and the little blue edit tabs in the corner.
Of course, one of the best ways to judge the success of a project is to judge that of its emulators. So for comparison’s sake, let us consider a relative newcomer even to the open-source editing style: TV Tropes.
* TV Tropes
A trope is a rhetorical device. The damsel in distress is a trope, as is the idea of having just one bullet left in the final sequence of an action film. They aren’t exactly clichés, though they can become so. Rather, they are patterns that people have learned to recognize in conversation, argument and entertainment that form the basis of all communication.
TV Tropes is a website based on two ideas: First, tropes are awesome things that deserve discussion, admiration and study, and second, everyone has something to contribute. The site does not use the Wiki format, but does have an open policy on allowing people to comment and post about the tropes they find interesting.
Pages on the TV Tropes site range from those discussing a specific trope to those showing a film or book and listing the tropes present in it. All are freely editable.
The success of the TV Tropes project may not be measurable monetarily like Wikipedia’s or other more commercial ventures. However, the project has become intensely popular all the same. It has the same “well, I’ll click one more link” popularity that Wikipedia had cornered for itself, and the same “I can talk about what I like here and be taken seriously” appeal as all open source projects. People reference tropes in casual conversation on message boards, and it’s creating a communal language.
That really is the key behind these two projects – brain extension. They’ve taken a good idea and brought it into the common discourse, allowing people to communicate with each other. People can discuss differing myths from literature, and realize they’re talking about the same trope, even if it’s not the same story. People automatically click to Wiki for information if they need some quick discussion material. For those who want to take a lesson from the Wiki style of success, remember that it emphasizes not the product, but the way the audience is using and sharing words, language and information.
Blog Commenting Marketing Strategy: 5 Reasons You Should Be Commenting
* You become known within your niche
When you are out in the community interacting and commenting on people’s blogs it is going to quickly build a reputation for yourself and who you are. It is a good thing to have a reputation online because then people will start to think that they know you and are comfortable with you. Participating in discussions on blogs also makes you better known throughout the online community. When people see that you are in the community on a consistent basis, it will show them that you are serious about your business and what you are doing.
When you are out commenting and building your reputation, it is important to be yourself and also be positive. If you have a negative attitude towards others, then it will push people away from you. Another thing to remember as well, is to always be yourself because people can sense if you are being fake.
* It is great for networking
Interacting on people’s blogs within your industry is a great way to network and build relationships. If you are commenting on someone’s blog, they are going to get to know you if you comment on a consistent basis. People who blog will love your comments because it will encourage them to keep putting out good content. Commenting also lets bloggers know that someone is actually reading the content they are putting out, and liking it.
Just like anything else that you want to excel at, it is important that you are consistent. If you go out an comment on someone’s blog one time, chances are they will not remember you or get to know you. If you comment on their blog consistently for a month, then they will usually recognize that and look to find out who you are.
* It is good Karma
Commenting on blogs is also very good for you karma. Meaning, if you comment on other people’s blogs you will most likely get people commenting on yours. When you leave positive comments on blogs throughout your industry you will begin to notice that people will return the favor. When someone does something nice for us, it is in our nature to want to return the favor.
You will get exactly what you put out, so remember to stay positive and encourage other bloggers if you want the same treatment.
* It gives you backlinks to your site
Not only is it good karma to comment on blogs in your niche, but it is also an awesome way to build backlinks to your own website. Every time that you leave a comment on someone’s blog it is going to give you a link back to your site. This is huge if you are trying to rank your content in the search engines, because backlinks are key to a getting your content ranked.
When you are commenting to get quality backlinks there are a few things to look for. Look at how Google ranked the blog. Any blog or website with a Google Page Rank of 3 or better is going to give you a high quality backlink. If you comment on blogs with a high PR then your backlink will be of higher quality.
Another thing to look for is if they have a Top Commentators widget on the side of their blog. You want to check this out because if they do then you could potentially get 2 quality backlinks every time you comment, if you are a top commentator.
* It builds your knowledge
On top of all of these other benefits, commenting also gives you an opportunity to be educated about what is going on in your niche. When you comment you are going to have to actually read the content that the blogger puts out, so you will be gaining knowledge at the same time you are getting backlinks. Plus when you are out in the community it will give you a better idea of where you stand in the marketplace. You will see all different skill levels of bloggers out there and it will help you to become a better blogger as well.
Overall, I hope that I have convinced you that it is definitely worth your time to be out there commenting and adding value to your community. Remember to stay positive and create win win situations for everyone involved.
A Review of the PopUp Domination WordPress Plugin
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, March 12, 2011
A Review of the PopUp Domination WordPress Plugin
The PopUp Domination WordPress Plugin is the newest, and first, plugin released by Michael Dunlop, a young online entrepreneur who blogs about making money online and generating your own wealth.
- What the plugin is for
It’s for WordPress bloggers who have an email newsletter and wants to increase their subscription rate.
- What it does
Once the plugin is installed and activated, it’ll pop up a subscription box whenever a person visits your site, however, you can configure how often it’s shown to the same person. Some people like to pop up the box every time someone visits your site, returning or not.
Personally I don’t like to do that, mainly because as a blogger, I have many returning visitors who like to comment on my blog and they don’t need to keep getting hit with my pop up. My preferred settings are to show the box to everyone at first and then show it to them again after 7 days.
I also prefer to wait to show the popup until after they’ve been on my site for at least 20 seconds. I do this because a really successful niche marketer told me once that’s what they’ve found works best for them. The reasoning behind it was that the people who stay longer than 5 seconds are probably interested in what you have to offer.
So why does the popup domination plugin work so well?
I’ve definitely seen an increase in subscriber rate to my newsletter since using this plugin. The plugin seems to work so well because the popup templates which you are supplied with are high quality and are visually pleasing to your visitor.
- PopUp Domination Options
As of the writing of this article, the plugin has the following settings available:
* 4 different pop up templates to choose from
* Multiple options for the template and button colors
* Easy embedding of many of the popular mailing list services (MailChimp, AWeber, etc.)
* Customization of text shown on the popup
* Allows you to add quick bullet points
* Schedule how often it appears to visitors
* Advanced settings where pros can edit the template and CSS files
How to Get More Web Traffic by Adding Free Tools to Your Blog
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, March 11, 2011
How to Get More Web Traffic by Adding Free Tools to Your Blog
What’s the one thing that any blog just can’t survive without? Traffic. Whether you blog is a hobby blog or that’s designed to make you money, they all need traffic. However, if your blog is of the money making variety it’s probably much more important that you get as much traffic as you can.
Personal blogs also need a steady regular flow of traffic.
But that is purely optional. On the other hand, if you are running a blog with a business mindset, then it’s nothing without a non-stop stream of traffic.
Just typing the phrase “how to get more web traffic” into any of the popular search engines will reveal a host of links to all sorts of traffic driving schemes, from the free and legal to the paid for and sometimes of questionable legality. But before jumping to any of them, you first need to understand the working methodology and benefits of using such free tools in your blog.
RSS reader: This can be one of the best tools to make it easy to keep your readers updated and visiting your blog. When you use this tool in your blog, you give the readers a chance to get latest updates from your blog 24/7. With this in place it is one of the real proven tools for traffic creation.
Technorati: Technorati is a must for any blog owner. It’s one of the topmost social bookmarking sites. Once you insert the required code, a button with the name of Technorati appears in your blog. Moreover, when you submit your blog to Technorati, it’s pretty much guaranteed that a lot of fresh visitors will be automatically arriving at your blog through the Technorati platform.
Digg, Facebook etc: When you add these free buttons to your blog, then you can you can feel pretty confident that you’ll get a slow but steady stream of web traffic. If someone likes the content of your blog and Diggs it, and it spreads, then you should get a nice little unexpected boost to your traffic.
Twitter: The growth of Twitter as promotional tool for blogs has been nothing short of sensational. To say that the user base of twitter is on the rise would be quite an understatement. By the simple act of adding a Twitter button you can unleash an avalanche of traffic. Moreover, promote your blog posts on a regular basis via twitter to ensure maximum web traffic.
Use a ping service: In the simplest terms, pinging means informing the search engines like Google that you have added new content to your blog. There are several free ping services available over the internet, which can be used free of cost. By signing up for any of the ping services your site will get more traffic as a result of the more frequent indexing of you blog pages.
So, rather than wondering how to get web traffic for your blog, you first need to understand the basics of getting web traffic. This will allow you to make effective use of various online tools and promote your blog the way you want.
The Do Follow Blogs Movement
Don’t you just love blog commenting? I definitely do. And it’s not simply because I want to get backlinks from Do Follow blogs. It’s really good to learn from other bloggers, and get valuable information from other blog commenters too. It is always beneficial to participate in an interactive community. Eventually, the internet today is all about building relationships, and the sharing of valuable content.
Notice how I place emphasis on “do follow”. This is because if you’re commenting to attract backlinks to your own blog, if you’re doing it on No Follow blogs, you are not getting any backlinks.
* Do follow vs. No follow blogs
Do Follow and No Follow attributes comes into play whenever you leave a comment on a blog that has your link.
Do Follow blogs tell the search engines to follow the link left together with the comment. NoFollow blogs, on the other hand, tell the search engines NOT to follow the link that is left with that comment. That is to say with the former, you can get link juice in the form of backlinks; in no follow blogs, you don’t.
By default, a WordPress platform is a No Follow blog. But in order to increase visitor involvement, a lot of bloggers (like me) have turned their blogs into Do Follow blogs. If you’re new to blogging or if your blog is still set to the default No Follow, you may want to consider turning yours into an interesting interactive community.
Here’s what you should do: identify what plugins you will need, and let your visitors know you have joined the DoFollow movement.
* How to Do Follow your blog
Simply do a search for Do Follow plugin. Select one, install it and activate it! This will remove the NoFollow feature in your comment section. You can install plugins to prevent spam comments when you do this as well. Always keep in mind to let people know that you are a Do Follow Blog.
Some visitors may have no idea what that means, but those who do know will often times leave a comment on your blog!
* One last thing
When you are on a DoFollow blog, make sure you leave quality comments. Well, one liners are okay, but if you can ask some questions or add valuable content, then that’s really great! Search for Do Follow blogs that are in the same niche as yours and have good traffic flow to make blog commenting really work for you. This will allow you not only to leave a great comment and get more traffic, but gain a backlink as well.
Top Notch Athletic Performance With Truth About Quickness
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, February 6, 2011
The Truth About Quickness Insider’s System is the combined knowledge of two speed training experts: Alex Maroko & Kelly Baggett.
Alex is a young trainer who is also the creator of the Effective Ball Handling Program. Kelly is somewhat of a legend within the sports activities coaching community, and his most well-known work is the Vertical Jump Bible.
Kelly is extremely educated as well as experienced in relation to speed training, but he’s not that good at communicating his ideas. Alex makes up for his lack of expertise with superb communication skills. Combined, they deliver a terrific training program.
I am not saying that Kelly can not communicate or that Alex does not know speed training. In truth, they each do that better than ninety nine percent of the coaches around. What I am saying is that what one lacks, the other one makes up for, and more.
The Truth About Quickness program is very easy to grasp and simple to follow. It also helps that the exercises are actually short, and you can literally finish every exercise in roughly 10 minutes. You also get videos of all of the workout routines so you understand precisely the best way to do them, plus the charts show you how to keep track of your exercises.
The only liability that I might uncover with the program is that the video quality appeared low. It was taken in a rugged fitness center, which seems like it has been utilized by a number of athletes. However, simply because the videos were not taken in HQ doesn’t do anything to diminish from the truth that the Truth About Quickness is a superb speed training course.
Listed below are 3 of my favorite basketball training workouts for blazing on-court speed:
1. Low, On-Off Box Jumps
To do this training, find a low stair or box about 2-6 inches in height. Subsequently, stand in front of the box, and hop on and off the box as easily and rapidly as possible. Do that for 2-4 sets of 10 reps (hopping on top of the box after which off it counts as one rep).
2. Lateral Line Hops
To accomplish this exercise, draw a straight line on the ground or use a piece of adhesive tape. Next, stand on one side of the line and hop horizontally forwards and backwards across the line. Perform the jumps as rapidly as you can. If you would like more bounce in your step, jump slightly higher above the line and concentrate extra on timing and smoothness than simply speed. Do that for 2-3 sets of 20 repetitions (1 jump across the line is counted as 1 repetition).
3. Pogo Jumps
To accomplish this training, you’ll want to leap as high as you can, but concentrate on getting all of your hops out of your plantar flexors (ankles). To do that, maintain your knees and hips almost locked, and just use your ankles to propel yourself into the air. Really concentrate on bouncing off the floor, and reduce your ground contact duration. Do that for 2-3 sets of 15-20 repetitions.
ABC’s of RSS
Implementing RSS (Really Simple Syndication) can be aided by an understanding of the terms relating to RSS.
Learn the ABCs of RSS:
A – AutoDiscovery
Auto Discovery is code that is inserted into the header of an HTML web page, which then indicates to readers that an RSS feed is available for the content.
B – Blogs
Blogs are web logs that are updated regularly, usually on a daily basis. Blogs generally contain information related to a specific topic. In some cases, blogs are used as daily diaries about people’s personal lives, political views, or even as social commentaries. The truth of the matter is that blogs can be shaped into whatever the author wants them to be. While initially thought of as diaries or online journals, blogs have evolved into the latest fresh web content.
C – Cache
Cache is a temporary storage area for frequently-accessed or recently-accessed data. Having certain data stored in a cache area speeds up the operation of the computer. Using a cache with RSS feeds will help minimize bandwidth and display an RSS feed’s content quicker.
D – Display
RSS Many webmasters post the content of an RSS feed on their website. They use either PHP, ASP, or javascript for such purposes. If done properly, the feed’s content will dynamically update as the content of the feed changes.
E – Elements
Within an RSS feed, there are various feed elements. The elements of an RSS feed are defined by tags.
F – Filter
Many RSS feeds contain duplicate or similar content. Publishers can filter RSS feeds so that they only see content that they wish to see, by filtering out duplicate postings.
G – GUID
GUID stands for Globally Unique IDentifier. The RSS specification strongly suggests that each RSS feed item have a unique GUID. If you are creating feeds, a GUID is important because GUIDs are often used by feed readers and aggregators to determine if a feed item is new or simply an existing item that has been updated. Each item in the RSS feed should have a unique GUID.
H – HTML
HTML, which is the acronym for HyperText Markup Language, is frequently used to design websites.
I – iTunes Namespace
The iTunes Namespace allows the user to add the information necessary to have a podcast listed on the Apple iTunes Music Store (ITMS). J – JavaScript Javascript can be used to display the content of an RSS feed.
K – Keywords
Keywords should be integrated into the RSS feed to help search engines determine what the RSS feed is about.
L – Links
Links are used to direct RSS readers to the original webpage containing information that directly relates to the feed.
M – Mashup
A mashup is a combination of multiple RSS feeds that have been merged together to create a new, single feed.
N – Namespace Extensions
The RSS specification allows you to create and use your own custom elements (tags) in any RSS feed by declaring your own namespace. Doing this is 100% in line with the RSS specification and the feed will validate. However, you should have a specific and well-planned reason to do so. No RSS readers, or other RSS processing applications, will be able to use your custom info for any purpose. Adding elements (tags) would typically be used only in an in-house situation where both the writing application and the reading application have prior knowledge of the new tags.
O – OPML
OPML, or Outline Processor Markup Language, is a file format standard that can be used to exchange subscription lists between programs. OPML is used as a standard to import or export groups of RSS feed subscriptions. OPML was initially designed by Radio UserLand as a file format for outlines. The purpose of this format is to provide a way to exchange information between outliners and Internet services. OPML has since been adopted for other uses, the most common being to exchange lists of RSS feeds between RSS aggregators. OPML is an open format, allowing other services to extend the format. While OPML was not initially designed as a vehicle to share RSS feeds, it has become the de facto standard. OPML, like RSS, is based on RSS, and because of the similarities, those familiar with RSS have embraced OPML as a way to share RSS feed collections
P – Podcasting
Podcasting is online audio content that is delivered via an RSS feed. Many people equate podcasting to “radio on demand”. However, in reality, podcasting gives the listener far more options than radio does, in terms of content and programming. In addition, podcast listeners can determine their own time and the place for listening, meaning they decide what programming they want to receive, and when they want to listen to it. Listeners can retain audio archives to listen to later, at their leisure. While blogs have turned many bloggers into journalists, podcasting has the potential to turn podcasters into radio personalities.
Q – Query
Webmasters can create RSS feeds based on search queries for their websites.
R – RSS
RSS is a standard format for syndicating content on the Internet. The content can be anything! Information contained in an RSS feed is often syndicated on other sites, which expands its reach. Website visitors love RSS because they choose which feeds they wish to subscribe to. If at any point they are unhappy with the content contained in the RSS feed, they simply unsubscribe and no longer receive notification of feed updates. RSS is really a win-win for both subscribers and publishers. In order to get a better understanding of how RSS works, download an RSS reader or use a web aggregator and subscribe to an RSS feed (they are usually indicated by a small orange icon).
S – Syndication
Syndication is the supply of material for reuse and integration with other material.
T – Template
Many webmasters use templates to layout the contents of their RSS feed and make it match there website.
U – URL
URLs can be embedded into the description of the RSS feed items, so that when the feed is syndicated, the content originator gains backlinks.
V- Validate
Feed validation is important. If a feed is not properly formed, it will not always be valid for reading.
W – Website
Updates RSS feeds can be set up to notify visitors when a website changes.
X – XML
RSS is a subset of XML, or eXtensible Markup Language.
Y – Yahoo Answers
Yahoo’s interactive system of questions and answers can be tracked using RSS feeds. You can create keyword or category feeds for anything in Yahoo Answers.
Z – Zero Feeds
Not having RSS feeds for your website puts you at a competitive disadvantage. RSS feeds bring traffic and help the stickiness of your website.
Tips That Will Help You Easily Locate The Best Netbook Sleeve For You
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, December 17, 2010
Tips That Will Help You Easily Locate The Best Netbook Sleeve For You
Having a netbook sleeve to protect your computer is a smart idea, but locating the best one is not always easy. There are some tips that you can use to help you easily find the sleeve for your netbook that will make your search easier and less time consuming.
The following are the tips that you have to know, remember and use to find the best sleeve without wasting a lot of time:
1. Cost
This is one of the first things you need to consider. It is important to know how much you will be able to afford for a sleeve. Everyone these days is on a budget, so having an idea of what yours is before shopping is definitely smart.
This will prevent you from wasting your time on sleeves you can’t afford, which will cut down on your search time.
2. Your computer or the sleeve
There are many different styles of sleeves these days. This means that one of the first things you need to decide is if you want the design and style on the sleeve, or if you want to find one that is clear that will show of the style and design of your computer?
Sleeves come in many different colors, designs and styles that knowing what you are searching for will save you a lot of time. Many people like the sleeve that you can easily see through so that they can display their computer and also provide protection for it.
You have to decide what you are searching for because this will make it much easier to locate exactly what you want.
3. Take advantage of the internet
Going online to do your search to locate the best sleeve will save you a lot of time. Plus, you can shop from the comfort of your own home when you have time for it.
By using the internet, you will be able to look at your different options for sleeves. So that you can easily choose the type that you want the most, this will help you get a sense of what is available.
Just be sure you look at all your options so you are happy with your final choice. Also, be sure you find one that will protect your computer the best, since that is the main function of these sleeves.
Now that you have these tips in mind, you will not have a hard time locating the best netbook sleeve for you. Start your search now and before you know it, your computer will be protected and you will have a sleeve that fits your personality the best.
Blogging: What Is It All About?
Blogging is hard even if you’re a natural or trained writer. It’s difficult to write and write well on a consistent basis, let alone every day. It is all about sharing knowledge and experience. Thus it is important, that you must have lots of knowledge relevant to your blog niche.
Blogging is an art form in its own and is a valuable resource in this day-and-age. Print media simply CAN NOT keep up with the digital world (or the public’s demand) and for a company that, as the author has pointed out, has tons of money invested in blogging, it’s pretty damn stupid to go and insult that which gives you money. It is still the center of the social media universe. Now you could easily argue I am a bit biased on that point but the facts support the argument. Blogging is much closer to the informal discussions you have in the hallway or via email than it is to peer-reviewed papers. We have to convince faculty members (and other people involved in science) that blogging is the new email.
Blogging is the perfect small business marketing tool. If you’re selling and gaining leads via the web, then the web is also your main marketing super-channel. It isn’t just a hobby, it’s a way of experiencing the world. Blogging isn’t dead in my eyes. I think a person’s first instinct is to give up if their blog isn’t popular, but all it means is that they have to get better.
Blogging is often taken as informal writing. While this may be true, it does not mean that it is okay for a blogger to disregard writing rules. It is about not following a form, but making your own form. To all those bloggers out there who say you “have to be a niche blogger” in order to be successfull I say . Blogging is not for the faint of heart!
Blogging is one of those things which has inserted itself into American culture whether we like it or not. According to the BlogWorld site, of the 147 million Americans who use the internet, almost 40% of them read blogs. Blogging is a GREAT way to achieve that level of communication. Blogging is a reflection in the mirror of what we want to show to the world. For the most part, blogging is about us.
Blogging is not a unique concept, its simply one of the oldest concepts applied to HTML rather than pen and paper. In this matter the buzz word blog and ever possible tense there of are nothing more than keeping a journal and using HTML rather than Pen and Paper to do it.
The Ebook Revolution
Electronic books or ebooks as they are commonly known, are “books” published in digital format. Files that you can immediately download to your computer or just save on your desktop. Green publishing. Instant information. Now any author can publish! You can shop virtual book stores at any time of the day or night and have the information you need instantly.
You might be wondering “Why would I buy information when everything is available for free somewhere on the Internet?” Well why would anyone buy a paper book? Simply value! Your time is valuable. Yes, almost any information can be found somewhere on the Internet…but you have to do the hours of work. Searching, Sifting, then compiling all that information and that takes a lot of time and effort. After all that work you may not find exactly what you’re looking for anyway. You buy information, whether digital or on paper because of value. Exactly what you’re looking for when you need it. Someone else has done the research, the writing, and organizing of the information you need now. That’s value!
Another big plus for ebooks:
Ebooks can be multimedia! If you’re looking for lessons, like guitar, voice or even cooking, you will find ebooks that incorporate audio, video and pictures in addition to the written part of the book. Think of the possibilities! For example, if you’re a parent or a teacher…
A teaching program has been created, lets say math or reading lessons for young children using multimedia. You buy the ebook or eprogram and use it to teach your child or students. Now kids who don’t learn as well from audio lessons, have visual help too. If the student learns better through reading, there it is. All learning styles are supported. Yes, a teacher might have the ability to create their own ebook, but if they don’t have the time or inclination to make videos, create audio, and write the ebook, the one time purchase of an ebook or program already done will be a godsend and can be used year after year for one low cost! That’s value!
Music lessons are another perfect example. Audio, video, print. All combined to help you learn. Sure, if you want to learn the piano you will no doubt find free videos on YouTube, or posted somewhere on the Internet, but how good are they really? Or you can pay $40. (or more) for each private lesson. However, if you can get a beautifully put together, comprehensive, structured lesson plan that will take you through the process of learning with audio, videos and printed lessons that you can review again and again for under $50 bucks…well, that’s value!
There are ebooks written on every subject imaginable. From cooking to home remedies. Lessons, directions, information.The information you need when you need it. Another great thing about ebooks is, when purchased through a responsible third party such as Clickbank your purchase is always guaranteed and can be refunded if you find the information is not what you need, or you feel it’s not useful. It’s much harder to return a printed book to a major bricks and mortar bookstore if it can be returned at all.
Ebooks are an exciting new way to learn what you want and need to know. Epublishing is opening up amazing possibilities to writers looking to publish. A wave of creativity and knowledge is coming our way!
How to Get Your Blog and List Building Working in Harmony to Build Your Internet Home Business?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, November 12, 2010
How to Get Your Blog and List Building Working in Harmony to Build Your Internet Home Business?
For anyone who gets involved in an internet home based business, one of the first things that they are taught to do in order to build a successful online business is to get a website, a blog and an auto-responder. In fact these three things are the most important tools when starting an internet business.
What we are going to discuss here is ways to get your list building and blogging activities to synchronize in such a way that your marketing efforts will support both these activities at the same time. In other words, your blog will support your list building and your list building will support your blog.
Let’s begin by looking at how you can use your blog as a way to build your list.
When setting up your blog make sure that you add an opt-in box to your auto-responder and place it in a prominent position where your visitors will see it on arrival at your blog. Near to the top and either on the left or right hand side is good. You could offer a free report or e-book as an inducement to sign up to your list.
Whenever you make a new post to your blog, sign off with your name and a link to your squeeze page. Encourage your visitors to sign up to your list so that they will be notified every time you make a new post on your blog.
Another way that you can promote your blog is by inviting people to comment on your blog posts. The advantage for them is that their comments can link back to their websites when they enter the URL field on the comment form.
If your business is internet marketing then make posts about this and teach your subscribers about the benefits and etiquette of commenting and linking back to their sites from the blog comments. Make sure that they understand that spamming is not an option.
Whenever you make a new post about something controversial or a review on a product or service, email your list and ask them to give you their opinions on whatever you have blogged about and include a link to your blog post.
You should see a significant increase in traffic to your site from your email list if your post is well targeted and also a big increase in the number of comments that you get to each article.
Offer your readers the opportunity of using your posts on their own blogs provided they include a link back to your site and acknowledge you as the author of that post. Also submit your articles or posts to other peoples’ blogs for possible inclusion on their sites. Invite your email list to submit articles for possible inclusion on your blog with a link back to their sites and inform them of how guest blogging will help to increase their own profiles on the internet. This will help to keep your blog loaded with fresh content at all times.
By adding these tactics to your list building and blogging efforts you will be creating a well synchronized and effective marketing strategy for your internet home based business.
Directory Assistance: How Can I Help
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Directory Assistance: How Can I Help
Blogging can be a deeply satisfying, intensely personal experience. Generally simple to use, blogs allow the household mom, the serial author, the political activist and the high school poet to publish and archive their best efforts and satisfy the creative muse in all of them. Whereas, in the past, publishing was a privilege for the elite few, it is now open to anyone with the time and the means to access a computer.
But if no one is reading the blogs, they can become a disheartening and frustrating experience. A lack of audience can even cost a blogger money – there are numerous blogs on the web that are intended to be significant sources of personal income, between advertising programs and personal product sales. A key step in getting a blog read, therefore, is the use of a specialized web directory known as the blog directory.
* 3 Superb SEO Plugins for Your WordPress Blog
Search engine helps you to generate traffic, but consequently Search Engine Optimization is very complicated, which beginners and expert bloggers dismay in joining such a strategy for achieving traffic. Starting a wordpress by default is pretty suitable at letting search engines see what’s happening. Fortunately, there are wide varieties of plugins accessible to keep you attain a good ranking for your blog, lessen that the stress of typing the code of your blog to obtain results of the search engines.
Here are some very beneficial SEO plugins to help you build a better wordpress blog:
a) Redirection
In improving our wordpress blogs, we cannot avoid our permalinks to be broken. This happens when you make changes to an old post, or maybe in upgrading or improving your wordpress blog also when you make changes on your permalinks. These changes can break up your entire wordpress blog.
Ill explain what really happens behind these changes, each post has its own URL this is what we call permalinks. When it is broken, those visitors won’t find your blog post. The redirection plugin helps you to redirect the visitors to follow the new permalink. So that your traffic will work efficiently.
features include by John Godley:
- 404 error monitoring – captures a log of 404 errors and allows you to easily map these to 301 redirects
- Custom ‘pass-through’ redirections allowing you to pass a URL through to another page, file, or website.
- Full logs for all redirected URLs
- All URLs can be redirected, not just ones that don’t exist
- Redirection methods – redirect based upon login status, redirect to random pages, redirect based upon the referrer!
Existing features include:
- Automatically add a 301 redirection when a post’s URL changes
- Manually add 301, 302, and 307 redirections for a WordPress post, or for any other file
- Full regular expression support Apache .htaccess is not required – works entirely inside WordPress
- Strip or add www to all your WordPress pages * Redirect index.php, index.html, and index.htm access
- Redirection statistics telling you how many times a redirection has occurred, when it last happened, who tried to do it, and where they found your URL
- Fully localized
b) Robots Meta
Robots Meta plugin allows you to point specifically to the search engines which sections of your blog to crawl. This means that you’ll gain more respect from search engines, and likewise more traffic.
This plugin by Joost De Valk makes it possible to:
- Prevent indexing of your search result pages, while still allowing the search engines to follow the links on them, by adding noindex, follow robots meta tags.
- Disallow indexing of subpages to your homepage, category pages, author pages and tag pages, to prevent duplicate content.
- Prevent indexing of your login, register and admin pages by adding noindex robots meta tags.
- Add noodp an noydir meta robots tags, allowing you to opt out of DMOZ and Yahoo! Directory descriptions.
- Prevent Yahoo! and Google from indexing your feeds by adding a meta tag to their head-section.
- Prevent indexing of just your comment feeds.
- Disable author and date-based archives.
- Prevent attachment pages from ranking in the search results over your articles.
- Enforce a trailing slash on archives.
- Edit your .htaccess and your robots.txt from within WordPress.
- Assign robots meta tags to individual posts & pages.
- Verify your site with Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo! Site Explorer and Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Add noarchive tags to your blog.
c) SEO Smart Links
Internal linking structure is the prime subject of SEO. If you have more links it just convey how well your website structure is. The problem with this is that if you had to manually go and create links to relevant and important posts you’ll spend hours and hours doing it.
Here are some advantages by Vladimir Prelovac:
- SEO Smart links allows you to specify a word, like ‘SEO’ and then link it to a post on your site. Then each time the word SEO appears on your site, it’s automatically turned into a link you specified.
- SEO Smart Links provides automatic SEO benefits for your site in addition to custom keyword lists, nofollow and much more.
- SEO Smart Links can automatically link keywords and phrases in your posts and comments with corresponding posts, pages, categories and tags on your blog.
- Further SEO Smart links allows you to set up your own keywords and set of matching URLs. Finally SEO Smart links allows you to set nofollow attribute and open links in new window.
- It is a perfect solution to get your blog posts interlinked or add affiliate links to other sites.Everything happens completely transparent, and you can edit the options from the administration settings panel.
Why You Need Static Blog Pages
WordPress offers bloggers two choices in publishing their material. They can choose to publish it immediately as a blog post, in which case it will appear as the first post on your homepage with others following suit.
Or, another choice is to publish it as a ’static page’…a page that stands on its own…meaning it is literally a separate page with a separate address from your homepage. Your readers access these pages by clicking on a link that you have provided on your blog.
Most often you will find these navigation links listed in the sidebar, on the top near the header and sometimes even at the bottom of the blog page. (Make sure these pages open in a ‘new window’ so that your customer can easily navigate back to the home page…you don’t want to loose them.)
An example of some ’static’ pages that should or can be included on your blog are:
1) About Page
This is probably the most common page used among bloggers and the first place I head to after I’ve read a post I like on a particular blog. Use your ‘About Me’ page to allow your reader get a more personal view of you. This page gives your new readers a glimpse or snapshot of the person behind the posts. You can and should include a picture of yourself. Additionally, you can explain a bit of why they should subscribe to your blog on this page.
2) Contact Page
Many times your readers will have questions after reading through one of your posts…or maybe something captured their interest and they would like to partner with you on a project. Whatever the reason, you should have a page dedicated to contacting you. Without this page, you will never know how many opportunities you may have missed with your readers and potential partners. Someone may even have been impressed enough to want to advertise with you. Make it easy for them to locate this important page…don’t test their patience by making it difficult to locate…they may walk.
3) Disclaimer Page
With the new FTC rulings about bloggers that came out late 2009, it is imperative that you inform your readers what you ‘get out of your blog.’ If you make money from your blog through affiliate associations or ads, you must inform your readers of this fact or risk big trouble from the FTC. You can balance this revelation by explaining to them some of the costs associated with your blog.
4) Service Related Pages
Any kind of services that you may offer your blog readers such as coaching or consultation services should be given their own page. Your readers will be more likely to buy your services from a dedicated page that you have set up than a flash in the pan mention in one of your posts.
5) Best of Page
Also referred to as a ’sneeze page’…not squeeze page! All your most favorite or most popular blog posts can be included on this page. Use this page to highlight anything about your blog that you want front and center or you know your readers will enjoy because of its previous popularity.
6) 404 Page
Most bloggers are aware of their 404 Error page. This error page is what someone sees when they navigate to a broken or deleted link or a link that is not working for some reason. What most bloggers are not aware of is the fact that they can customize this page to their advantage so that readers are directed to what they are looking for. Additionally, it provides the reader with something else to keep their interest. A blank 404 Page is a wasted opportunity.
7) Unique Projects
Should you participate in any kind of event…charity or otherwise, it is always a good idea to create page dedicated to this particular event. This gives the event much more importance and allows those with interest a place to follow up on any dates or updates that they need be aware of.
Testimonial Page
Selling an item or even selling yourself can be much more impressive if you include testimonials from others that have used the product or service and can provide their details. Once again, there are new strict rules concerning using testimonials so make sure you understand the new FTC rulings before placing any on your blog.
Although there are many more choices for pages in your blog, the choices listed above should be included in most blogs. Beyond those, there are no hard core rules on what pages to set up as each individual blog offers something different. You are only limited by your imagination.
Once you have settled on a blogging subject, visit other blogs with similar interests/topics as yours and check out their pages and how they have set up their blog. Great way to get ideas for your own.
Blogging is a platform that is growing by leaps and bounds. It is here to stay. The more you understand what elements are important to your blog the quicker and easier it will be to be successful at blogging.
5 Things Bloggers Shouldn’t Do
There are a lot of articles and blog posts on the web that will present a list of things you should do in order to run a successful blog, this is not one of those articles. I want to discuss some of the things you shouldn’t do, opinions may differ but most of these you will likely agree with.
1. Don’t call yourself, “An Authority” or, “Expert” on your blog’s subject
If you run a great blog and seem to have a great answer for everything, then yes, you are likely an expert or authority; but the minute that you announce to your readers that you are, you become a jerk instead. Think about it, the people who we admire the most are those that are modest and in denial about their own talents, whether they fake the denial or not, it is the cool thing to do. Same thing goes for heroes right? When was the last time some guy pulled a kid from a burning building, and when the reporter calls him a hero he says, “Yup, absolutely, I am incredible, aren’t I?” Never, that’s when. Anyone in that position knows that they have to say, “Hero? Nah, I was just doing what anyone else would do, I ain’t no hero.” Otherwise, he would be a jerk.
2. Don’t argue with your readers
It doesn’t matter if he is the biggest idiot in the world, and you are right as rain; you are the only one with something to lose: your readers. If you think that your content is so good that you can say whatever you want to whoever you want, then people will go out of their way to ignore your blog and tell all of their friends to do so also. Treat everyone with the same respect that you would want, even if they are wrong, it will make you look like the better of the two.
3. Don’t fail to remember your theme
This may seem like a no-brainer, but there are so many blogs that ramble on and never recover. Please do not get the wrong idea here. If you write a blog about playing baseball, then each and every one of your posts do not have to be about baseball, but if the last twelve posts are about your mother-in-law’s divorce struggle, then you seem to have lost direction. Yes, people want to understand that you are a real person, with real problems, but unless your blog is specifically about those problems, then stick to the subject.
4. Don’t alienate the “majority.”
Now this is a big one I see continually. Please don’t think that just because two or four people want your blog to go a particular route, that All of your readers want it to go that way. Keep in mind, a successful blog is about pleasing the majority of your readers. Just because you have a few people who Love a particular type of content, it doesn’t mean that all of them do. Remember, you likely have many readers whom you will never hear from on your comments, but are extremely in to your blog. So how are you supposed to know which direction they want you to follow? Well, try using the poll feature in Blogger or WordPress, and ask your readership what they like best; you may be surprised. Also, keep a mailing list that is up to date, and ask your members for their view; most people jump at the chance to offer their voice in a matter that concerns them. Plus, it will make you look great that you are asking for their input.
5. Please do not be a rolling billboard
Look, everybody understands that advertising is what pays the bills for a full-time blogger, but when you jam ad copy down their throat at every single turn, it gets annoying. Take care of the most vital thing, the content, and the rest will take care of itself. Yes, ads are significant, and you should optimize your ads and put a ton of work into it; just don’t be overbearing with them. They are there, people see them, and if they are interested, they will click.
How to Get More Blog Traffic
How to get more blog traffic is the question of the hour. The number of websites in cyberspace has increased exponentially since the advent of the blog. Blogging itself is so easy, even many children host their own mini-sites! We’re talking more than a billions sites pushing and shoving for space. So how do you stand out in the crowd and actually attract a crowd?
First, determine the purpose for your blog and stick with it 100%. If you’re writing about homeschooling, then don’t deviate from the program and throw in your opinion about the economy or the latest Hollywood or political scandal. Keep your posts targeted to your niche, and you’ll attract folks who want to search your site for tips, tricks, ideas, and to see what you’re up to.
Secondly, write with all the personality you can muster. Don’t be boring. If you absolutely go brain dead one day and can’t think of one thing to post, find an inspirational YouTube video to share. Give folks a reason to come to your blog. Think of your visitors as real folks who might come to your home. Shine for them. Don’t allow them to snooze on your site!
Thirdly, post regularly. Put it on your calendar. Every Monday and Thursday, or once a week – whatever is best for you. But post consistently. It’s that discipline and consistency that will draw folks in over the long haul and keep them coming back.
Fourthly, consider how to get more blog traffic with sites like Twitter. Sign up for an account that’s only for your niche. Start off following others and you will gradually amass a following of people. The following isn’t good for anything though, unless you’re actually posting some good info. If you’re serious about getting traffic from Twitter, then log in to your account daily and make at least one helpful post. Never post wasteful information like “going beddy-bye”. Think in terms of giving, serving, being of assistance. That’s what will attract a crowd from the get-go.
Finally, link up your posts with your social networking sites like Facebook. You can set up your blog so that when you post, a notice goes out to your Facebook friends. I will often visit blogs of my friends, just to see what they’re up to. Many people, in an effort to gain more traffic, think of amassing thousands of visitors right off the bat and overlook the eager folks right in their own backyards!
Everyone wants to know how to get more blog traffic, but few actually take the time to put forth the effort to make it happen. You don’t need to invest a penny for quality traffic, but you do need to keep your blog hospitable and targeted. Reach out to the folks you already know and encourage them to share your posts on Facebook. You’ll find your traffic stats increasing within a few weeks!
7 Ways to Encourage More Blog Commenting
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, November 6, 2010
7 Ways to Encourage More Blog Commenting
Interactive blogs are the most successful and plenty of quality comments is a good indication that your blog is healthy and that it will be successful. There are many reasons why people may not make comments on your blog posts and we will cover a number of ways to make it easier or more attractive for people to leave comments on your blog. Of course this is assuming that you do have a steady flow of traffic to your blog and perhaps even a following of people that appreciate the valuable content that you share.
Let’s get started on the 7 ways to get people to leave comments on your blog:
1. Ask for blog comments
Sounds too easy but a lot of bloggers don’t ask for comments and people are not sure they should comment, no one wants to be the first to comment or there is no value in commenting. We will talk more about making commenting valuable for people more in the following points. The end of your post include text or a blog comment icon to stimulate blog commenting or something else that will indicate the desire for leaving comments.
2. Attract numerous people with request
The way you request people to leave a comment will encourage or discourage people from leaving a comment. For example, people love to be a pro and let people know they have something to share because of their ego. Give them the opportunity, ask them to share and let them know when they do share that you appreciate their comments. You can try to leave text like, “What do you think?”, “Do you agree?” or “Are you for or against?” can encourage people to leave comments.
3. Dofollow blog comments
Not all links on the Internet are equal. There are “nofollow” and “dofollow” links. Dofollow links have more value to webmasters because dofollow links are backlinks that search engines will count as popularity to your site and will increase your page rank. On your blog you can change the code so that the links in the comments box are set to “dofollow”. This will attract people to leave comments to get the backlink. This will also attract spammers but if you have something like Askimet or other spam blocker you should not have any problems. The blog software will also allow you to set the criteria on comments so they will only be approved by keywords or other criteria.
4. Get the ball rolling
If you have a friend that follows your posts you can ask them to “get the ball rolling” by making the first comment on your blog post. Once people see the blog post comments they are more likely to leave more comments. Many people don’t want to be the first to leave comments on blogs.
5. Incomplete post
If you are so thorough to cover everything with your post then there really is nothing to share except to say, “Good job” or “Thanks for the post”. Leave something for someone to fill in. Develop the desire to share information and experience. Consider your post subjects as well. Some topics are not the kind that people have opinions about. Choose some hot potatoes in your niche to write about to get people commenting.
6. Blog comments hidden
Is your comments box obvious or do you have to hunt to find it. The layout of some blogs is counter-productive in this aspect and should be corrected.
7. Register to leave comments
If you force registration in order for people to leave a comment you may not get comments. People like to be free to comment and not comment to a registration. With so much spamming online people are hesitant to comment if they have to register.
Implement some or all of these ideas to increase commenting on your blog. Visitors really like to socialize and interact with each other and this will help. I wish you success.
Hitting Your Stride: Four Keys to Timing Your Blog
There are a number of important factors that go into the production of a first-class blog. Quality of content, the layout of the page, how best to integrate video, formal versus informal tone, each of these is a decision that must be made during the creation of the project. That all comes before more esoteric concerns, which include the integration of meta tags, link building, traffic generation, and keyword/SEO implementation.
Yet underlying these important issues is one that many people wrestle with: How often should the thing be updated? Innocuous as it sounds, post frequency is actually vital to the success of any content project, and especially to blogs. Equally, it is a surprisingly complex decision that can involve numerous factors. Time, place, and availability of content all have parts to play in determining just how often you need to update your blog.
* Finding the Right Frequency
Blogging is an extension of the principles of marketing. You want to get your content the exposure you feel it deserves, so you market it as best you can to cultivate an audience. This involves doing the legwork and research necessary to act on good information, and testing your ideas while allowing room for adjustment as you work and grow. Chances are you will not hit the right rate of posting immediately, and that is all right as long as you’re prepared to adjust when it’s required.
No single article can cover every eventuality of course, but we can break down a few core principles to get you thinking in the right direction. The key is to consider these ideas and extrapolate from them, using the other lessons you’ve learned, to build a solid, whole-picture approach:
1 – Make content king.
More than almost any other community, web users are keenly attuned to fluff pieces that don’t really say much. This isn’t true for 100% of the community of course, but those who can pick out an airy, pointless piece will almost invariably be sure to point it out, leading to some word of mouth you probably didn’t want. Don’t pick an update schedule that can’t live up to the content you have available. Stick to a schedule that you know you can provide a quality post for, every single time you sign on.
This has a twofold effect. One, it keeps the ‘pressure to post’ at a minimum. Content drives the posting, and you aren’t struggling every third day to come up with more information, or worse to rehash the information you’ve already posted. Secondly, it shows you have respect for the community, and keeps them interested and coming back.
2 – Set the time and day.
Even though the web never sleeps, a great part of the world still functions on a Monday to Friday, 9-5 schedule of sorts. Taking these rhythms into account can help you build the ideal web traffic for your project. For example, a blog focusing on home and family concerns and selling books related to it might not find as much of an audience during traditional business hours as during the time when people are at-home with their families. Granted this is only a rule of thumb, as many people surf the web for their favorite blogs during lunch breaks.
Another part of this element is the Monday-Wednesday-Friday cycle. Many business blogs and publications settle on a three-a-week update schedule, and the MWF routine works out very well for this. They’re all business days, and the schedule covers the start, middle, and end stretches of a workweek.
Of course since this ends up being something of the default, it means that Tuesdays and Thursdays end up with comparatively little content for people to peruse. Sundays suffer a lack of content as well, for the obvious related reasons. If you find yourself preferring less frequent, longer posts, consider a T-Th routine to take advantage of the ‘gap’ between other updates.
3 – Have a conversation.
One of the most interesting contributions to modern marketing is the blog comments section. Every blogging software out there has some feature for allowing or disallowing comments. As we’ve discussed before, consumer input can have an incredible effect on any brand, and blogs are no exception.
Taking advantage of this resource requires a certain amount of patience. Conversations develop in the comments section as people discuss, dispute, and debate the merits of what you’ve posted. In short, you need to not just let this happen, but cultivate the effect. Allow reasonable discussions to grow, and comment yourself on the more relevant points. Let the consumer know their input is being seen, and that you care enough to respond to it. Posting new blog posts too frequently overruns this tendency, and could rob you of vital feedback.
4 – Be nimble.
As we’ve mentioned, you are not likely to get it right just out of the gate. You may bite off too much to chew, or update too infrequently for people to care. Evaluate the data, ask your consumers questions, and be prepared to change as needed. Flexibility is the ultimate survival tool on the web, and your blog will benefit if you approach the affair with an open mind and a willingness to try several approaches. Pick an update schedule, observe it, and then experiment with others until you have the one that best fits your needs.
Blogging Tips for Your Business
Want to be seen as an expert in your field? Starting a blog will help you do just that. Use your blog to build a reputation and reach customers at the same time.
As you begin to blog, start simple since you do not want to announce that all of this is new to you. By simply beginning your blog and adding to it daily, you are creating the foundation for a great, online marketing tool. As you are writing for your blog, remember to keep your content interesting, professional and on point.
If you become frustrated building your blog, keep it to yourself. You do not want to get in the habit of ranting on your blog, nor do you want to be talking sales on your blog. Instead, you want to talk about important developments in your field or niche. So even if you only have one follower, write like the whole world is reading your blog.
Look at other blogs in your field to gain ideas. Then take a look at your site, and see where you need to make improvements. Look at things like your graphics, layout, presentation, content and the actual writing. Is your site interesting, or is it just taking up space? Good content is the key to gaining a blog readership.
* Get Creative with your Business Blogging Tips
You can find ready-made templates and hire a writer to give to give your blog a professional polish. So take the time to develop your own look and feel. If you find a blog that you like, do not simply clone it. Look at what other blogs offer, and take the best parts of the design to use on your own blog. Always be on the lookout for things that you can use to improve your blog, and then you will create a blog that is better than any of the ones that you used for inspiration.
If you simply cannot come up with your own idea, then you can start with someone else’s idea and customize the heck out of it. Try to find a customizable theme so you can give your blog its own identity. Change the colors, the proportions and even the font to get it to be as unique as possible. You want your blog to look professional and individual, so you can save time starting with a free theme template, but then make it unique.
Whenever you start a blog, no one will be looking. You can start letting people know about your blog, and in time you will build a readership. It is probably not a good idea to post stats on your site until you actually have at least a few hundred followers. Keep adding content. There more content you have, the bigger your readership will be. There will come a day when you have created a huge body of work, and you will probably also notice that you have developed quite a readership as well.
Changing your stats on your own will hurt your reputation. Let them develop naturally. If you want to build up your numbers and comments more quickly, simply join a couple of forums on your topic, and invite readers to review your blog and leave comments. Offer to do the same for them. This way you may even get some good feedback on ways that you can improve your blog as well. As you begin to get comments, make sure to respond to them where applicable, because you will frequently start a conversation that will keep that reader coming back to check in on you.
Another great way to increase the comments left for your blog is for you to leave various comments on other people’s blogs. Using links will get people to visit your blog. More often than not the owner of the blog will be curious enough to check out your blog, for many of the same reasons that you are visiting their blog. This is a process rather than a one-click solution, however it is very effective. As you are leaving comments, just know that once they are posted they are permanent, so always be professional with your comments
Once your audience is established, you can cut back on your comments, but you should still continue to interact with your blogging community, because it is a synergistic system.
A few simple rules can help you with blogging:
- Never alter stats. It is dishonest.
- Showcase your achievements.
- Always be positive and professional with your posts and comments.
- Always respond to reader feedback and thank them for it. Then invite further comment by asking a question.
- Building a blog is a slow process so keep going even when it seems like nothing is happening.
- Keep making regular posts. Even if you do not get comments, eventually you will build an impressive body of work, and visitors will find you.
Blogging is a great way to connect with your customers and readers. It starts out pretty slowly, but if you follow these business blogging tips, in time you will have a full community of followers who look forward to your regular posts.
5 Blog Post Styles to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
5 Blog Post Styles to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing
Keeping your blog interesting and fresh isn’t just a case of posting regularly, you also need to mix things up and use different styles of posts to keep your readers engaged. Here are five different styles you can try out to make your blog more interesting.
1. The inspection post
One of the easiest ways to make money with your blog is to review products that then pay you a commission for any sales that you make. The inspection post is one where you take a closer look at a product and review it for your readers.
An effective inspection post will cover the positives as well as the negatives. People want to know what’s good and bad about a product before they buy it and the more honest you are the more likely they are to buy the product through your affiliate link.
2. The insights post
Offering insights to your readers is a great way to write an engaging and interesting post. Sometimes you might have a great tip to share that doesn’t warrant a whole article but would make a great short post. Say you blog about cake baking, a useful insights post could be as simple as instructions on how to grease a muffin pan so that the muffins turn out easily. You can add even more interest by making a short video to show your readers how it’s done.
3. The index post
Readers love lists. It doesn’t matter whether it’s 15 Great Ways to Build Traffic to Your Website or the Top 10 Kitchen Utensils Every Baker Needs. Whatever niche you are in you will be able to compile a useful index post. These resource lists are popular because they are easy to scan and can help people find the information they need quickly and easily.
The other great thing about index posts is that they have the potential to go viral. People love to share index posts with their friends via Facebook, Twitter or the other social networking sites, compile a useful list and before you know it you will have a whole new set of visitors.
4. The interview post
Interviews are a great source of interesting and engaging content for your blog. You could offer to interview an expert in your niche, or the author of a useful book. It will take some work to set up the interview as you will need to contact prospective interviewees to ask them to take part. Once they’re on board you simply need to compile an interesting list of questions and ask them to complete the answers by email for publication on your blog.
5. The instruction post
People turn to the Internet when they want to know how to do something. So instruction posts can be really useful. Spend some time in the forums and see what problems people have and then create a blog post walking them through the solution step-by-step. Including screenshots or images can help to get your message across, and videos are even better.
Most Common Blogging Mistakes You Need to Avoid
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Monday, November 1, 2010
Most Common Blogging Mistakes You Need to Avoid
Promoting an online business can be easy if you know the tools and techniques to use. One effective way used by internet marketers is blogging. How can you make your online marketing through blogs more effective? Below are ten blogging mistakes you should know to help you avoid committing them:
1) Not being committed
If blogging is just your past time, then you can get away with blogging whenever you feel like it. But if you’re blogging is part of your online marketing technique, commitment is important. See to it that you give time to blogging on a regular basis.
2) Not getting any help
If you’re maintaining a blog for marketing online, consider getting some assistance. Trying to update and optimize your blog alone can a difficult job especially if you have other tasks to attend to. Have another person, or better yet, a team to help you attend to your blogging tasks.
3) Not targeting an audience
Niche blogging is surely the way to go. If your blog is not targeted to a particular niche or audience, it would be too difficult to get the traffic you want.
4) The lack of passion
In reality, if your main purpose for blogging is just to sell your ads, then this won’t take you very far. People will instantly see right through you if your blogs are all about commercials. An Adsense ads on your blog without quality content cannot give you a more positive result.
5) Not being original
Some bloggers rely solely on news feeds from other sources. However, if people can read the same content in your blog that they can find from other places, they will not be convinced to subscribe to your blog. They may not even bother to re-visit you.
6) Not analyzing your website traffic statistics
Your web stats can tell you a lot of information. It can tell you which page of your site most readers like, it can tell you which days you receive more visits, where you hits are coming from, what type of readers go to your site and other important details.
7) Not making the needed changes
Don’t be contented with just the same layout, the same content, and the same structure on your blog. If something’s not working, then have the initiative to make some changes. The adage “there’s always room for improvement” also applies to blogging.
Not editing your posts
If you don’t have time to do the editing or you don’t have the editing skills, it is best to hire an editor to do it for you. The role of an editor is to make sure that your posts are free from grammatical errors, typos and punctuation mistakes. It will make your blog more credible and professional.
9) Not using RSS feeds
RSS feeds allow people to get updates from your blog. There are many free feeds on the web that you can use. Make sure that your blog has RSS feeds buttons that your readers can simply click on.
10) Not using keywords on your title tags
Without keywords on your titles, it would be more difficult for search engines to find you. On the other hand, keywords on your title tags allow search engine spiders to crawl on your page and categorize your content easily.
WordPress Features
The online world is constantly shifting and changing, from the introduction to blogging software like WordPress to the advent of social media marketing. Our entire way of interacting with each other as people is changing as a result of the Internet and its ever changing software platforms.
* The Evolution of WordPress
As blogging has become more and more popular, new, web-based, free software like WordPress has appeared on the scene. The WordPress code is accessible by any developer who wants to build a product that works with WordPress. The original platform b2\cafelog has evolved well past the simple blogging functions that it originally encompassed. Since all of the code is open source it has evolved even more quickly than it would otherwise have.
WordPress has turned into a content management, CMS, system, which is software that makes, manages and edits content for a website. The website can be a blog, or it can be any type of website, and WordPress can power the site. One of the great things about using WordPress to update your site content is that you do not need any special programming skills like HTML or PHP. It is the ultimate system of templates, and it is highly customizable.
The website owner can rearrange the site at will, and can easily add pages, logos, shopping carts and most importantly content. It is easy to build entire, functional websites using WordPress at the core. The website owner can easily update copy and add function to their page without redoing the entire site.
* WordPress Highlights and Features
The underlying base of WordPress is a system of themes that makes it incredibly easy to build a site whether it is a blog or a retail site. The site creator can update the look and feel of the website as frequently as the wish quickly and easily. It also offers link management, article indexing, blogging, text formatting filters and multiple author support for blogs. It works with services from other blog sites, and it supports Pingback and Trackback. You can also import your content from another blog.
It also offers security like spam checkers and blacklist for user registration and visitor comments, and it also offers password protection for some of the posts. Not only does it offer a wide variety of basic functions, but you can add on literally hundreds of plug-ins that are compatible with the software.
* WordPress Goes Professional
Even though WordPress began as an individual communication tool, it has demonstrated that it also has a lot to offer the business world. Because it is simple to use, and it makes content management so easy, a business has lower overhead with less time being spent on the maintenance and creation of a company website. WordPress’ roots are in blogging and this feature gives businesses a way to engage their customers.
Blogging also lets companies hear from their customers, and feedback can be worth its weight in gold. By being able to keep content fresh with easy blogging capability, WordPress lets companies keep their search engine rankings high because the website is always being updated with fresh content.
So if you have an idea of a website that you would like to launch on the internet, but you do not have any technical skills, you may want to consider starting your own WordPress blog. It is easy to use, easy to install, and easy to customize for anything that you want to publish on the web.
How To Automatically Install WordPress Plugins
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, October 30, 2010
How To Automatically Install WordPress Plugins
WordPress plugins give you an amazing ability to extend the power of WordPress. You can easily install and start using any of the thousands of plugins to bring a wide assortment of functionality to your website. There are plugins for e-commerce, SEO, banner ads, Analytics, managing your users, integrating with email lists, showing galleries of images, embedding audio or video, and on and on and on.
Check out the repository of free WordPress Plugins at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/. There are also a number of premium (paid-for) plugins that you can by searching Google for “WordPress plugin” plus a keyword describing what you are looking for.
But they don’t do you any good if you aren’t using them! The good news is that finding and installing WordPress Plugins couldn’t be easier. In this How-To article, we’re going to take a step-by-step look at how you can find and automatically install plugins directly from within WordPress. Let’s get started:
Step 1: Log Into WordPress
Go to your WordPress Admin Center just like you would if you were going to add a new page or post and login as an administrator.
Step 2: Go To the Plugins Tab
This will bring up a list of all the plugins that are already installed. You may find a couple in there called ‘Hello Dolly’ and ‘Askimet’ even if you never downloaded a plugin before, those come pre-installed with WordPress. At the top of this page you will find a “Add New” button that you can click to start searching for the plugin you want to include.
Step 3: Find Your Plugin
If you are looking for a specific plugin, then you can just search for the name of the plugin. You can also search more general terms to try to find a plugin for a particular need you have on your site. For example, let’s look at the Exclude Pages plugin. This simple, but endless useful, plugin lets you create pages that do not appear in your typical navigation. This is great for creating pages such as a Thank You page (for after someone submits a contact form for instance) where it doesn’t make sense to have visitors navigating directly to. To find this plugin, just search for “Exlude Pages” and you it should be at the top of the list.
Step 4: Install the Plugin – Automatically!
Under the “Actions” column you will find a link called “Install”. Click that link to see more information about that plugin and to install it. You’ll want to make sure that the plugin is compatible with your version of WordPress, though plugins will generally work fine for later versions as well. You’ll also want to check that the Average Rating is pretty decent, that the plugin has been downloaded a significant amount of times, and that they plugin author updates the plugin somewhat regularly. These are all good signs that the plugin is still actively maintained and should work without any problems.
When you are ready to install the plugin simply click the Install Update Now button. This will automatically start the process of downloading and installing the plugin into your WordPress. You just need to click the “Activate Plugin” link to start using the plugin.
Step 5: Use the Plugin
Different plugins are controlled in different ways. Most of them will create a new option under Tools or Settings to control the plugin options, others will create their own tab in the Admin Center, and some just add a new option somewhere within the Admin Center. In our example using the Exclude Pages plugin, we can navigate to a page via Posts > Edit (or Add New) and see the new Panel called ‘Exclude Pages’ where you can click the checkbox to either include or exclude that page from the general navigation. Simple!
It’s that easy. You can now search through the thousands of available plugins to add all kinds of functionality to your WordPress site. Did in and have fun!
Relationship Marketing 101: Blogging and Inbound Marketing
One of the most effective inbound marketing strategies available for businesses, online and offline, both in terms of cost of implementation and in overall return on investment (ROI), is blogging. Why has business blogging become so important as an inbound marketing strategy? There are a variety of reasons. Blogging is conversation, it’s personable, and it’s informative. Blogging is attractive for both online and offline (i.e., brick and mortar) businesses because consumers (i.e., customers, clients, and patients) feel they are being told a story rather than sold a product or service; and, no one wants to be “sold!”
Significantly, clients and prospective clients become part of the conversation by reading the blog posts and leaving their thoughts and feelings in the form of comments.
* Who doesn’t like being asked their opinion?
And, what business owner wouldn’t pay big money to know what his target audience is thinking, as well as what they react to and why?
A blog is a great way to show the world your expertise, thus establishing authority and demonstrating your competence in the marketplace and to your target market. People like to do business with business people they know, like, and trust. Prospective clients are drawn to businesses and business people who are experts in their field. Demonstrating competence enhances your image and makes the prospective client feel confident about their decision to purchase from you…you, as the expert in your field.
When properly constructed and implemented, an effective business blogging strategy is an incredibly valuable asset. Blogging for business is crucial, whether the business is entirely online or a combination of both, as is the case with most brick and mortar businesses today.
When organized and well written, a blog conveys the ultimate Internet image, an image that announces:
“This business is well run, this is a business I can do business with!”
A well thought out, well constructed blog, combined with an effective overall inbound marketing strategy, conveys a message, an image if you will, that this business owner is knowledgeable and cares enough to seek feedback about products and/or services offered from his or her clients and prospective clients.
A wise business owner values feedback, realizing there is always room for improvement, both in sales and service. Why not ask for feedback from the very people who use the product or service day in and day out? A blog can accomplish this for a business, creating a link both valuable and, ultimately, profitable. The feedback a blog offers is an often over-looked advantage; and yet, it is an incredibly powerful resource.
Significantly, the proper blogging strategy will provide a window into the thinking of your client-base and create a vehicle you may then use to improve your products and/or service.
The feedback from your business blog will also provide ideas and strategies for new products and services. Interestingly, you may even be able to gain a competitive advantage by learning what your clients and prospective clients like and dislike about your competitors, their products and services. Perhaps it’s a product or service you don’t provide but should? Perhaps it’s something to do with price? The blog provides the vehicle, the opportunities are there; and, it is up to the individual business owner to take advantage of them. A well constructed inbound marketing strategy, one that has at its center a well-thought-out and appropriately implemented blogging strategy, will put your business on track to accomplish all of the above and more.
One last word about inbound marketing, blogs, and blogging for business: photographs, audio recordings, and short videos are worth their weight in gold. If you aren’t the greatest writer, and don’t have the money in the budget to hire a good copywriter, also worth their weight in gold, a photograph or short video can help you tell your business’ story. With today’s technology, a photograph, audio, and/or video is easy to create and it’s often the first item to catch the attention of a visitor to your blog.
It’s worth taking some time each day to blog. Think of it as going out to talk to the man on the street. Think of it as time well spent. You will find it to be a great investment in time and effort, the ultimate in ROI.
How to Get the Maximum Number of Links to Your Blog
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, October 28, 2010
How to Get the Maximum Number of Links to Your Blog
It is every blogger’s dream: to be read by as many people as possible. But it’s not as simple as it sounds. Several things have to fall into place to capture that wide audience.
First is to get the word out that your blog exists, second is to hold visitors’ interest in what they are reading, third is to make them return for more, and fourth is for them to start referring you to others.
That is why when SEO marketers sit down with blog owners to talk about increasing audience viewership, one of the strategies they instantly recommend is to build as many links to the site as possible.
Just how does link building equate to a wide captive audience?
The equation goes something like this: links to your blog from other sites generate referral traffic and increase your blogs’s Google page ranking.
The former is possible when users go to another site and click on the link from that site to your blog. The second is when Google’s search algorithms consider the links to your site as a vote of referral from the other sites, taking that to mean that you are a site of substance, thereby elevating your page rank. The higher the page rank of your blog means that when users search via Google, your blog will be one of the first ten sites listed on the first page.
* Sources of Blog Links
When you commit to link building, there are many sources where you can get these links. Below are a few of them:
1) Common-niche blogs, websites, forums, and communities
Visit these sites and drop a comment or two in forum messages and posts. Be helpful by answering questions or offering information. Sign your posts on these sites with a link to your blog site. As your presence in these sites is established, so will your blog site generate more traffic.
2) Social networking sites
StumbleUpon and Digg have proven track records in generating traffic to sites, so take advantage of this. Consider other sites such as Facebook and Twitter as well.
3) Directory submissions
This technique is still good for link building, but you have to be careful to submit your site to quality directory sites only, because there are many directories out there that turn out to be mere link farms.
* More Tools and Tips for Link Building
Link sources may be there for the taking, but the key to success is in actually keeping in mind the following rule-of-thumb:
1) Link building takes time
Many sites require webmaster’s approval for links to be established. And with Google suspicious of a sudden increase in links, a slow but sure approach gets the links in the long run.
2) Link building means never having to give up
Not all link-building efforts strike gold – moderators and webmasters may disapprove of your posts, or remove your link signatures, or worse, consider you spam. Continue your link-building and don’t get discouraged.
3) Link to quality sites
Although they are more discriminating in whom to give their links, links from quality sites are worth more than low-ranked sites.
4) Create quality content
Interesting and useful content gives your link requests a higher chance of being accepted and your blog linked to by other sites.
Successful link-building for your blog generates referral traffic and increases your blogs’s Google page ranking. The result? A bigger blog readership than ever before.
Fatal Webinar Mistakes That Cost You Money
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Fatal Webinar Mistakes That Cost You Money
Webinars have become a low-cost way for people and companies to promote their products and services. I have certainly used them and attended many webinars on a variety of topics. However, I have noticed that many webinar organizers, hosts and panelists, create a variety of mistakes that reduce the effectiveness of their program.
1. Requiring too much information. I don’t mind giving my name, email address, and company name when registering for a webinar. However, I don’t like giving my address, telephone number, and five other details. I know that you want to collect data but the more information you ask for, the less likely I will register for your program.
2. Ask mandatory questions. Most technology allows the person hosting the webinar to ask registrants several questions when they register. However, making these questions mandatory can work against you, especially if the question is irrelevant. Many people will refuse to answer these questions and will chose NOT to register for the webinar. Carefully consider which questions should be mandatory.
3. Unfamiliar with the technology. A fatal mistake many people is to familiarize themselves with the webinar technology shortly before the program begins. I admit to include myself in this category. A few years ago I agreed to deliver a series of webinars for a client and unfortunately, my contact person was unfamiliar with the technology. As a result, we had several glitches and problems that reduced the overall effectiveness of the program.
4. Using a speaker phone. I recently attended a webinar and it appeared that one of the panelists spoke from a speaker phone or computer microphone. This created a vacant echo which became distracting whenever she spoke. It is critical that you have a good connection to the call and many companies suggest that you use a landline to ensure that you have a good connection with minimal interference.
5. Poor PowerPoint slides. Death by PowerPoint! My belief is that webinar slides should reinforce your key point, not make them. Too many people use too many bullet points or try to cram too much information on a single slide. Improve your effectiveness by creating a better PowerPoint show. Check out Slide Share for some great examples on how to create an effective presentation.
6. Taking too long to get into the program. I have attended countless webinars where the first five to seven minutes is absorbed by self-promotion, introduction of the presenter or guest expert, or information that was irrelevant to participants. Although sponsoring companies want adequate airtime, it is essential that you manage their expectations and keep the introduction brief and concise.
7. Too much promotion. Many of the webinars I have attended have been a thinly-disguised attempt at selling a product or service. I certainly understand the importance of generating sales but if your webinar is promoted or sold as an “educational” session and you spend most of your time talking about your product or company, I am going to quickly disengage.
8. Failure to deliver high-quality content. A webinar should deliver value for attendees. Unfortunately, too many programs give “here’s what you need to do” information without explaining how to actually apply the concepts. It is better to delve deep into a topic than offer three dozen ways to improve without providing substance.
9. Failure to deliver value. This ties in with the previous point. A successful webinar provides high value to the participants, regardless of the price point. Enough said.
10. The webinar is too long/short. The length of webinar is irrelevant. What’s important is the value that is delivered
during the program. You can’t stretch a short program into a long one and an intense, lengthy session cannot be condensed into a short webinar. Whether you are the host, organizer, or guest expert, make sure that you allot the appropriate amount of time for your particular program.
11. Not allowing questions. Many people who attend webinars have questions and they want to have the opportunity to ask them. Increase the value of your webinar by giving participants time to ask questions and allot time for these questions so that you don’t have to race through the last five of six minutes of your presentation.
Webinars can be an effective marketing vehicle and a great way to generate sales leads. Improve your results by avoiding these common webinar mistakes.
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