Category: Wordpress Articles

If you use WordPress to power your websites, there will be times you need to upgrade. Luckily WordPress lets you know this right in the back office of your website. You will get a notification that WordPRess is ready to be updated, and a handy link you can click on to do it. Should you click it as soon as you see it? I am not so sure about that, here are some things to think about:

1. Is the release brand new? If the latest WordPress release is brand new you might want to hold off for awhile. They do a great job of testing and re-testing their releases. Going live always brings up a hiccup or two, it is just the nature of the beast. If you hold off a week or two that will give the WordPress development team time to address any bugs. So for example, instead of upgrading to WordPress 3.0 maybe wait a couple days and see if WordPress 3.1 is going to come out.

2. Backup! Yeah i will admit I have upgraded WordPress before without backing up, and nothing happened. Why tempt fate though? Why take the chance. I know I never want to be the guy on WordPress support forums saying “I didn’t back up my site but…” Make sure you back up your site before an upgrade.

I usually use the cPanel of my host to create a database backup. You will have to figure out how your host handles back ups. I also back up my wp-content folder by downloading it via FTP. I zip it and create a copy to store a couple different places. Lastly, I do an export from the back office of WordPress. I navigate to Tools and then Export. This way I get a small XML file that will cover all of my pages, posts and comments.

3. Plugin Compatibility – One of the best reasons for waiting to see if a release is stable is that it gives plugin developers a chance to catch up. When you upgrade there is always the chance your plugins won’t make it. If you have a certain plugin that you find indispensable, you might want to monitor it to see if it gets updated to match the WordPress upgrade. Some plugins will work fine anyways, and if you keep an eye on the plugin homepage or forums you will find that out as well.

If you remember these three steps or rules, you will have no problem with your WordPress updates. The biggest key is to back up! Years of hard work can be flushed down the toilet if you don’t! Enjoy your WordPress site and may all your updates be smooth and trouble free!

Inspiration. Some say it is the key to great art. I think it is the key to a great many things. Most of our greatest successes and most tragic failures were sparked by inspiration. Why should our blogs be any different? What inspires you to create content for your blog? I don’t mean how do you get ideas, I am talking about a higher level here. What inspires you to post? The topic doesn’t matter, the feeling of wanting to post does. What gives you that feeling? A couple things that make me want to post to my blog are:

1. Music: I am a big fan of music (who isn’t?) and it is one of the my top inspirations. One reason it works for me is because I blog about music a lot. When I hear a great song, or great album, I instantly feel like blogging about it. Even if I wasn’t blogging about music, I would still be inspired by it. Music is really all about emotions. Certain songs can effect our moods, and sometimes those emotions will inspire us to create. Even lyrics without the music can inspire you if they are well written. Anything that effects your emotions can inspire you to create a blog post. If you are feeling down or uninspired, fire up your itunes and you might find yourself writing a blog post in no time.

2. TV: I know it is cool to hate TV these days – but besides the internet, this medium is one of the most all encompassing ones we have. You can see just about anything on TV, and anything you see can be possible inspiration. I was watching an old TV show the other day that reminded me of a certain part of my childhood, instantly I wanted to blog about it. When I watch the news, and see a topic I am passionate about I want to post my thoughts instantly. Even watching something as banal as realty TV can inspire you. Watching people react to each other under the pressure of the camera, can stir up a lot of emotions that lead to a great blog post.

3. Life: Everyday life can inspire as well. I am not talking about helping you think of blog ideas, I mean the inspiration to post…about anything. Whether you are inspired by positive factors, or negative ones – your life will throw enough of both at you. You will see beautiful things that make you want to post, and horrible things that will make you want to post. That is the reality of life. This is a good reminder for those people who are always connected to the net – sometimes going out and actually living your life will make your online work that much more effective.

Blogging regularly isn’t always thinking about content or topics. Sometimes you need to be inspired to post anything. By using music, television and living your life to the fullest you should be able to find reasons to post as often as possible. Next time you are struggling to produce content, leave the internet behind, and check out some of the above inspirations.

If you are looking for blog writing tips, then look no further. The following five tips will help you transform your blog from boring to brilliant!

1. Write Like You Talk: This is not advice that you will hear in Journalism 101, but when it comes to blogging it is an entirely different story. If you write like you talk you can engage readers quickly, because they will feel connected with you. It also helps for editing purposes, when you read over your blog post, do it out loud and you can hear if it flows naturally.

2. Edit, Edit, Edit: This goes well with the above point – read over your blog post at least three times before you publish. Yes, spellchecking software is great, but it won’t catch all the mistakes. It will miss grammar mistakes, punctuation and words that are spelled properly but used wrong. If you value your readers then you will want to make sure you present your best possible work.

3. Avoid Overkill: For the most part, I don’t think people are into 9000 word blog posts. A lot of people will scan a blog post without really reading it, if your post is short and simple it is more likely to grab their attention.

4. Don’t Be A Wimp: Do not be a wimp – stand up for what you believe in. Take a controversial stand or two, yes some people might get angry, but they also might send the link around in their anger. Getting people talking and engaging you (even negatively) can help your blog’s exposure. For every person you anger, there will be someone who agrees with you. Stick to your guns in comments as well. I used to dread negative comments, but now I view it as a way to interact with my readers.

5. Your Work Isn’t Over When You Hit Publish: You can write as much as you want but if people don’t read it, who cares? Market your posts every time you make one. The average person has a couple hundred friends on Facebook so share it on there. Share it on Twitter if you use it. Email it to your friends if you don’t use social media. You can also send it out to bookmarking sites like Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit. None of these strategies cost you anything!

Now that you have these five tips to work with you should be able to consistently create quality content. Remember to use each tip every time you write a post and you will undoubtedly notice your comments, traffic and opt-ins climb steadily!

I am very passionate about WordPress. It is an open source web publishing tool that is completely free and flexible. Out of all WordPress’ benefits, the fact that Google seems to love it so much might be my favorite.

What is up with Google’s love affair with WordPress anyways? Why do WordPress sites seem easier to get to the top of Google with? From my experience I think it comes down to a couple of factors:

1. Power of Posts – Every time you create a post on WordPress you have the chance of getting another web page indexed in Google. The way WordPress works is that it creates a separate page with it’s own link (permalink) when you make a post. If you are posting regularly that means you are getting more pages indexed in Google.

When people had old HTML sites they might have a handful of pages, with sub pages they might have a couple dozen. WordPress makes it easy to have hundreds and even thousands of pages indexed in Google. The more pages you have indexed in Google means more authority in Google’s algorithm.

A real life example is a business directory my team and I created. At first when we added our businesses they weren’t showing up at top of Google for very low competition local terms. We ended up buying a database of local businesses and adding them as posts. After we added the hundreds of posts we noticed that any new company we added would now be on first page of Google for the local search terms..and quite quickly.

2. Dynamic Content – WordPress makes it very simple to add content. This is another big factor for ranking well in Google. Google loves fresh content and WordPress makes that easier than any other web publishing platform. If you are constantly adding new contenet to your WordPress site – Google will notice this.

In Google’s eyes fresh content is important for two reasons. First off it means a site isn’t stale and possibly outdated. Secondly, fresh content seems more relevant in Google’s eyes. This is especially true now that they update their index in almost real time. To Google a fresh new post will be weighted as more relevant because it is closer to what is happening right now.

3. Plugins – WordPress has so many handy plugins that are deisgned for search engine optimization. Plugins like All-In-One SEO will cover most of your on page optimization. This plugin will cover all your meta tags at the very least. There are also other plugins that will make sure your internal linking structure is favorable to google. Google XML Sitemaps is a plugin that will create a sitemap of your site and submit it to Google. If you use Google Webmaster Tools you know that this is important, because Google says so! It is especially important for dynamic sites like the ones that can be built on WordPress.

These three facts ensure that WordPress is and will probaly always be one of Googles favorite web publishing platforms. The google love is only one of the reasons why you should be using WordPRess but IMO there are few factors more important. The best traffic creation techniques you can do is to rank in Google for your keywords – and WordPress makes that task even easier. Why not give it a shot?

About a year ago a friend of mine started his own home based business. I can’t go into the details (upon his request), but he essentially took his favorite hobby and wanted to make some extra cash.

He is not a very technical guy so he asked me about a website. I told him he should blog and he replied with laughter. I took the time to break down how easy it would be using a platform like WordPress. That intrigued him. When I broke down how WordPress would let him have a blog and a traditional site wrapped in one – he was almost sold. I eventually convinced him by offering to do the initial set up. The next day I easily set up his blog and it was up to him to provide content. Provide content, he did! He was a voracious blogger. He actually posted twice a day. He posted once in each of his categories: starting a home business and another category related to to his product.

It didn’t take long for him to call me. Just about 2 weeks later he was excitedly telling me about a guy that contacted him wondering about a custom project. I would classify the blog as a success at that point. Over the next year we documented the advantages the home based business blog had meant for his business. Here is a list of some of the real life tangible benefits of the blog:

-He sold the custom project mentioned above

-A local newspaper got word of his blog on twitter and did a story on him

-A related industry quarterly asked him to contribute – getting his name out to thousands of potential customers

-He met 2 local (relatively speaking) tradesman who were in his field and offered him great advice and opportunities for collaboration

-He ranked on Google for a number of long tail keywords that eventually meant he was getting substantial traffic to his site that even led to some sales

-The home business category was great for motivation – it kept all of his triumphs and mistakes in a neatly ordered online diary that allowed him to reflect. It also helped him make sure he didn’t make a mistake twice.

A home based business is the perfect match with a blog. As you can see above, it is a great networking tool that you can be used for personal motivation as well. If you want to give your home based business a jolt, harness the power of the internet and blogging.

I have been running a number of successful blogs for years. I have been pulled aside at many social gatherings and asked questions by people who are interested in what I do. These people are completely new to blogging and they always ask the same couple questions. Instead of repeating myself over and over again I will use this article to answer those beginner questions…

Do I need a blog?

Well really this is up to you. I think if you have a business or a business website then yes you definitely need a blog. It gives you the chance to communicate with potential customers, build brand recognition and get traffic to your website. It is the proverbial “no brainer”. If you aren’t self employed and just want to hobby blog there are benefits there as well. Blogging about your passions can be very therapeutic.

Does it cost much?

Blogging can be successfully done for free. There are hundreds of sites that will give you the software, a domain name and they will even host your blog for you. You could start a free blog tomorrow and never pay a cent. If you want to take it to the next level you can buy a domain name for about $10 per year and pay another $10 a month to host it. With a hosting package like that you could even run five or ten blogs. Blogging for free is very possible and even if you want your own set up it is still quite reasonable.

Can I make money?

Yes you can. If you have a blog that gets decent traffic there are numerous ways to monetize it. It would be another article to go deep into how to monetize your blog. On a high level you can sell advertising on your blog, offer affiliate products, sell your own product or even ask for donations. Not every blog will make money but every blog has the potential.

Where do I get started?

You can look for free blogs on Google or you can just jump in with the two most popular free blogging platforms; Blogger and WordPress. Simply visit their sites, sign up, follow the instructions and away you go. It is that simple to become a blogger.

Is It Easy?

Sure it is. There is no one to judge you so it is super easy. Setting up a free blog is simple, you just follow the instructions. As for the act of blogging, it is as simple as using Mac Pages or MS Word. There is a learning curve if you want to become a power blogger. The great thing is, anything you need to learn is easily found on the internet, and it is usually found on a blog! The only thing you really have to work on is being consistent and thinking of what to write.

These were definitely the five top questions people interested in blogging asked me. If you are thinking about starting a blog, you now know the answers to your most pressing questions. I wish you good luck in your journey, and remember content is king!

WordPress is a pretty simple platform. There isn’t a lot of danger or ptifalls associated with it. I don’t want to scare anyone but there is one issue that can be quite dire. WordPress may infect you and your site with a disease…Plugin Fever. This plugin fever will start before you know it and will have you mindlessly activating plugin after plugin until the inevitable happens…plugin fever! Symptoms include;

lethargic response time

on page confusion

ugly design lesions

In some rare cases – outright fatal errors.

Chilling, I know! Luckily this disease is easily avoidable and fully curable. You just need to protect yourself with these steps:

1. Self Analysis – Take a step back and think about if you really need a plugin. Plugins add a lot of great features to a site but do you need to have each one that tickles your fancy? My guess is no. Take a look at your installed WordPress plugins and really think about if you need them. Does your plugin help generate traffic? Does it help keep people engaged? Does it offer a feature you need on your site? If you say no to all of these you might want to think about deleting that plugin. When you start adding plugin after plugin you are risking slowing your site. You also risk a possible conflict between plugins or a plugin and your theme.

2. Eliminate Redundancy – One of the quickest ways for plugin fever to set in is to have multiple plugins that do the same thing. Go through your plugins and see if any of them offer you the same functionality. If they do, then one of them is redundant. You don’t need 4 SEO plugins. You only need one XML sitemap generator. There are plugins that will help your visitors submit your site to social bookmarking sites — one will do the job. Every redundant plugin you have has a chance to break or slow down your site. Instantly remove any redundant plugins.

3. Upgrade – Once you have trimmed the number of plugins you use, make sure all of your plugins are upgraded. This is an easy process and should be taken care of quickly. Plugin upgrades will usually address security and any possible conflicts. You can do this in your back office easily so there are no excuses. Everyone has some plugins, and they need the same care you give the rest of your site.

These three steps can help ward off Plugin Fever. It is up to you to ensure your site is in perfect working order, and these three steps can help optimize your plugins. It is easy to get carried away with plugins since they can do just about everything. You need to remember that too many plugins can slow down or break your site. They can also conflict with each other and your theme so be very selective.

One last piece of advice. If you ever notice serious issues with your WordPress site – then deactivate all plugins and see if that fixes the issue. If it did, reactivate each plugin until you find the one that caused the error. Remove the error causing plugin. This will come in handy at least once in your WordPress days, that I can promise you. Good luck and may all your plugins run smoothly!

If you run a wordpress powered website you have probably wanted to embed a Youtube video at one time or another. Video can add interactivity and excitement to a blog post. Luckily, WordPress and Youtube make this a very easy process. Centering your Youtube video can be a tricky process though, especially if you don’t know any coding. There is a very simple fix though, that will ensure you can center any youtube video, or any object for that matter.

First you have to get the video into your post. You go to Youtube, click embed (under video), choose your options and copy the code. You then take that code and paste it into the WordPress HTML editor. Remember you have to set to HTML, using the button in top right corner. Then you simply paste in your Youtube embed code. Now you have the video in your post or page.

Once you have that done you can switch back to the visual tab on the WordPress editor. You will see your video (or object) as a large yellow box. Ideally, you could simply click on that box and click the center button on the editor. That doesn’t work. I am not sure exactly why, but it is probably because the center command in WordPress inserts html code that the object doesn’t recognize. Even if you wrap the object yourself in < center > tags it won’t work.

The fix is pretty simple though. You just have to navigate back to the html part of your editor. You won’t see the yellow box now you will see the embed code for the video. Right before the embed code, enter:

div style=”text-algin:center;” (in between html brackets of course)

And then after the end of the embed code:

/div (also in html brackets)

When you switch back to your visual editor you will notice the yellow box is centered! Now that you have learned this code you can center any youtube video or other object in each of your posts. Use it often enough and it won’t be long until you have the code memorized. Try it on your next blog post and let me know how it works.

If you are an active blogger, you are probably doing everything you can to drive traffic. Those of you new to the game are probably building backlinks, blog commenting, on twitter, building facebook fan pages, social bookmarking etc.. This is all great and is something I take part in myself. Ever so often though I take a step back and look at what I am really accomplishing. All of these things take time, could your time be spent better elsewhere? I think so, I think it is time that people rededicate themselves to content creation.

It is easy to get caught up in something like Twitter. It is almost like a video game. Your quest is to engage people and get them to follow you. The only problem is I have seen people use it so voraciously that they forget they need content to direct their followers to. What good are five thousand followers if you have nothing to offer them? Next time you find yourself spending an hour on twitter, think about how much more effective a new blog post might be. You don’t have to keep up with every tweet, just log in when you can and join the flow. Make a deal with yourself; don’t log into Twitter until you have a new blog post up, then when you jump into the conversation you will have something to share.

Social Bookmarking is another potential time sink. I know people that will submit to every bookmarking service you can imagine. Digg, Stumbleupon and Reddit I totally understand. I even get why people use Mixx and other semi-popular services. It is when people start getting into sites like Nujij, BobrDobr, Mr. Wongs and etc… that I start to wonder when diminishing returns sets in. In the time it takes you to do all of that social bookmarking could you be creating more content? Instead of submitting to every single social bookmarking site, maybe it is more helpful to submit to just the big guys. Then you can spend the rest of your time creating content that you can once again submit to them.

I really think people sometimes lose site of the important things. Promoting your blog is without a doubt an integral part of being a blogger. Traffic rules, right? In my opinion, the quickest way to traffic is through more content. More content means promoting your site is easier because you simply have more to promote. Instead of five articles receiving Digg traffic, you can have 50. Every blog post you make has the chance to go viral or rank in the search engines as well.

Take the time to reevaluate the results you are getting with your promotion. If you have hit a plateau then it is time to up your content, not your promotion. Give it a try and see how effective rededicating yourself to content creation can be.

Using WordPress is a smart choice for anyone who is looking to build a web presence. One of it’s best “selling” points is that it is free. Their .com site will even provide hosting for you. There is one downside to this though – there is no one to call when something goes wrong. For the most part you are on your own. It is usually up to you to fix your own problem, but luckily there is some help out there:

1. WordPress.com/WordPress.org Forums: Whether you host your own site or use the .com service, both instances have an online forum. This is probably the first place you should look for any issues you are having. If something is wrong with your WordPress site there is a good chance that someone else has dealt with it.

Before you make a post asking your question, do a search on the forums and you might find a thread with your answer. If you can’t find an answer that addresses your issue, then you can make your own thread dealing with it. Titling and tagging your post properly will be a huge help in getting the answer you need. Make sure you describe your issue in detail, including your website URL never hurts.

2. Paid Theme Support: This is only helpful if you have paid for a WordPress theme. Most of these premium WordPress themes will have their own support. If you come across an issue, this should be the first place you look. Either email your theme provider or use their support forum (they should have one). The reason this should be your first stop is that there will be people there that know specific issues with your theme. The WordPress.org forums won’t have access to certain details about your theme.

It will also be hard to find support elsewhere, because paid theme providers make sure that theme specific support info is only shared by them. This ensures people aren’t just stealing their theme.

3. Google: Google is your friend. Just today a friend of mine upgraded to WP 3.0 and had an issue. His admin panel was all of a sudden full of error messages. We had no idea what to do, and no idea what the error meant. I simply took as much of the error code that wasn’t specific to his site and Googled it. I got a couple different results but the fixes didn’t work. I then Googled the error code with the name of his theme, and instantly got the fix from a blog. It was as simple as changing a tiny piece of code. Google is the world’s leading search provider for a reason – it works.

By using the above methods you can probably address just about any problem you come across. The toughest part of fixing your problems is properly explaining them and only with practice will you get better. The more times you use a support forum means the better you will be at using it. The same goes for Google, once you have spent some time hunting down answers you will get a knack for stringing together the right search terms. Good luck, and I hope you find the answer to all your probelms quickly and painlessly.