Three Simple Tweaks to Your Wordpress Blog for Better SEO

January 1st, 2008
wordpress plugin
There are three easy things you can do to improve the optimization of your WordPress blog. You will want to do this because it will improve the speed your blog gets indexed and help you to rank higher for your keywords. The first is adding the proper plug-ins, the second is to change the permalinks, and the third is to claim your blog.

Adding plug-ins

There are a couple plug-ins that you should use on every WordPress blog. One of them is All-In-One-SEO.. You also need to add the Google-XML-Sitemap plug-in along with a tagging plugin. There are multiple tagging plugins and the pluses and minuses of each would be a complete article by themselves.

All-In-One-SEO plug-in allows you to change the title tags for each post. Individual title tags will cause a huge improvement in your rankings over the default WordPress uses of using the same title tag across the whole blog. The site map plug-in creates a compliant site map and updates it automatically for easier indexing on all of the major search engines. Finally proper use of tags will allow you to categorize your posts and get multiple rankings within the search engine rankings..

Change Permalinks

It is easy to change the permalinks on a WordPress blog. Login to your dashboard, click settings, click on permalinks. This will allow you to change your permalinks from a URL of http://yourdomain.com/?p=123 to something more SEO friendly, Using a URL like http://yourdomain.com/category(with your keyword)/post title(again with your keywords there). You can do this by using the custom url with these tags ” /%category%/%postname%/”.There are also other tags available to allow you to create what works best for you.

Google Webmaster Tools and Technorati

You should be using both Google Webmaster Tools and Technorati. Make sure that you submit your blog through the Google Webmaster tools and claim it properly per their instructions. This will be done either by FTPing a special file or creating a special post. Google will now tell you any problems they have indexing your blog when you check back.

Claiming your blog at Technorati also is important. This will allow you to link your tags to Technorati and have them show in your account. This allows you another way to track any problems with the way your blog is being indexed.

In summary, these three steps can improve the optimization of your blog for all on page factors. For me personally, these simple changes have sped up the indexing of my blog significantly and have helped to improve the ranking of the posts too.



By: Mike Paetzold

About the Author:

Mike Paetzold is an avid blogger and recognized expert on using WordPress. You can find even more tips on making your WordPress blog search engine friendly in “7 Tips To Make Your WordPress Blog Search Engine Friendly



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One Hour Complete SEO Implementation on a Wordpress Blog

December 26th, 2007
wordpress plugin
There are a couple of good resources your can manipulate to optimize your website for search engines as effectively as possible:

Meta Tags:

Meta Tags contain information that describes your site’s purpose, description, and keywords used within your site. The meta tags are stored within the head of your header.php template file. By default, they are not included in WordPress, but you can manually include them and the article on meta tags in wordpress takes you through the process of adding meta tags to your WordPress site.

The WordPress custom fields option can also be used to include keywords and descriptions for posts and pages. There are also several WordPress Plugins that can also help you to add meta tags and keyword descriptions to your site found within the Official WordPress Plugin Directory.

Robots.txt:

Search Engines read a yourserver.com/robots.txt file to get information on what they should and shouldn’t be looking for, and where.

Specifying where search engines should look for content in high-quality directories or files you can increase the ranking of your site, and is recommended by Google and all the search engines.

Feed Submissions:

WordPress comes built-in with various feeds, allowing your site to be viewed by various feed readers. Many search engines are now accepting feed submissions, and there are many site which specialize in directories of feeds and feed services. Simply Google “submit blog to feed directory” to generate a list of all the top feed directories available on the internet. Some of the are free, while some ask for a fee to add you links within their directories. I recommend manually submitting your blog to free directories, and just give them time to add your links.

Technorati Tags:

 

Technorati is a “real-time search engine that keeps track of what is going on in the blogosphere — the world of weblogs.” According to the site, “Technorati tracks the number of links, and the perceived relevance of blogs, as well as the real-time nature of blogging. Because Technorati automatically receives notification from weblogs as soon as they are updated, it can track the thousands of updates per hour that occur in the blogosphere, and monitor the communities underlying these conversations.”

Permalinks:

Permalinks are improvements to your existing URLs which can improve search engine optimization by presenting your post, page, and archive URLs as something like http://example.com/2003/05/23/my-cheese-sandwich/ rather than http://example.com/index.php?p=423.  

 

 

As search engines use links and the title as part of their information gathering, links to posts and articles within your site gain importance with Permalinks.

Sitemaps and Google Sitemaps:

As of June 2005, Google is now accepting sitemaps of your site as part of their website submissions. Google needs to have this sitemap formatted in a special way using XML. You can use the Google Sitemap Generator Plugin for WordPress to generate a sitemap for your Wordpress website quickly and easily.

A sitemap or “site map” is a single page listing of all the posts on your website. It is intended for your visitors to get a good overview on what your site is about and to find a blog post quickly but it also has great benefits in the search engines as a good link is always pointing to all your blog posts. By having a link to your sitemap on all your sites pages both visitors and search engines will easily get to it and find all your posts. Also, a sitemap is automatically updated each time you edit or add new posts. This will save you alot of trouble if you have a large website with over 500 posts.

 

 

 



By: OML

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How to Select a Wordpress Theme

December 7th, 2007
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The first thing that will come to one’s mind, when decided to write a blog on a topic they are interested in, is selection of the theme or template for their blog. There are number of blogging platforms like WordPress,Blogger,Typepad ,etc. If you do a search on google for the blogging platforms, you will get a list of those. Among all, WordPress is most popular and has thousands of blogs built using this platform. It is Open Source project and is free to use. 

In this article, I will tell you how to select a WordPress(WP) theme. A WP theme is nothing but a piece of software used to build your blog. It contains various templates or files which work together in the background to give you the desired look and feel for your blog. Following the below tips help you to select your blog theme easily and efficiently. 

1. Category: This means what is your blog all about. It defines the kind of audience you want to target your blog to. For example, if you want to write a blog about dogs, then your blog comes under the ’Pets’ category. Or if you like to target to the people interested in cooking then you category would be ‘Food’. Finding your category helps you to find the right theme and thus saving your time and energy in the process of setting it up and later correcting it. There are themes in every major category ranging from Travel to Music to Business.  You can find these at the WP Theme directory and also at number of websites like Free wordpress themes, Daily Blog tips,themestudio.

2. Colors and layouts:Some people like to have their favorite colors to their blogs. So, try getting your themes in those colors as much as possible but this may not be possible always although there are hundreds of WP themes which match every desire.  Also there is another advantage in using a theme of your favorite color as you do not need to change a lot in the theme to get your color. But I recommend not to focus much on this aspect because it is not that difficult to change it later once you are comfortable with the code behind it. Rather concentrate on the layout of the theme. Decide on what type of layout you want. Browse through the list of themes you have at WordPress.org and other websites sited above. This will give you an idea of how it looks and then you can easily make a decision. There are number of layouts available, but popular are:

 Single Column

Two Column (With Sidebar)

Two Column (Without Sidebar)

Three Column

Four column

Fixed width

Fluid width 

Also there are some layouts specifically designed for Photos centered and Videos centered blogs. I feel you have to select a theme which you can live with it for long term as you are the one who visits your blog the most. Experiment some themes with some test posts and pages. Comment them, categorize them and see how your selected theme looks. This is the best way to ensure you have the right theme. Do not see the blog theme from your own point of view but from your reader’s point of view. 

 3. Purpose of your blog:This is important as this will help you to select your theme for the long term. If you are going to write a blog only for you to vent out your emotions and thoughts, you do not need to give much importance to many other aspects of your blog like advertisements, widgets, etc. But if you blog to help others like this one you are presently reading, or to make money out of it, then you need to also consider few other things in addition to the above ones.  Some things you need to consider are, if that theme supports advertisements without much tweaking and turning the code, does the theme supports the widgets or plugins, like RSS, Protection from Spam comments, Search engine optimization, etc. By default when you have signed up for a Wordpress blog, you will be provided with default themes. You can use them or select your own from visiting the WordPress’s own free WP themes or other Paid WP theme websites like Revolutinary Themes, StyleWP, BlogOhBlog. These websites provide professional looking themes with excellent support. If you are serious about blogging or making money from blogging, you should use one of these Paid WP themes. 

 Following this tip helps you to achieve the goal you have set before starting to blog, more easily and efficiently.  

 4. Support: Ensure you will get the support you needed while using the theme from the theme author or website owner. I have seen many times, that the site owner from where the theme is downloaded could not able to help the user who have downloaded and used it for their blog because they are not developed by himself but somebody else and he is only promoting them. If this is the case when you need the support most, then it would lead to frustration and waste of time for you. 

 Happy Blogging.



By: Praveen Kumar Tumma

About the Author:

I am a IT consultant in the Customer Relationship Management(CRM)domain. In my blog Bizknowledge.net I share my knowledge gained through out my career and life’s experiences which will be powerful, useful and ready to implement. You will find many interesting articles and tips related to Blogging, Marketing and Business at my blog.

If you have any comments on this article or suggestions, request you to provide the same on my website given below.

Visit now: Bizknowledge.net



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Essential Wordpress 2.3 Plugins

December 6th, 2007
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With the addition of the Plugin Update Notification into WordPress 2.3, it is now more important than ever before that plugin authors maintain and update their plugins on a regular basis. Failure to do so may see their plugin dropped from wordpress.org while user’s migrate to other more up-to-date plugins.

Some of the most popular WordPress plugins have already been tested and listed as WordPress 2.3 compatible plugins. Sadly many will never be compatible as their authors have given up development.

Developing a successful and popular blog or website is made easier by using WordPress, even more so now that canonical redirection and update notifications are included by default. Bloggers wishing to grow their site, increase traffic, manage content, and monetize their pages will however need to install some of the excellent plugins available. Here’s a short list of must have plugins:

“Akismet v2.02″, without this many bloggers quickly become bogged down in dealing with spam. The Akismet plugin sends a query to the Akismet servers with every comment posted and checks the users email address and their comment for spam. Akismet will automatically reject spam giving webmasters peace of mind and restoring ‘blogging innocence’.

“Backup WordPress”, the easiest and quickest way to backup your entire WordPress install, including database, themes, uploads, in fact even the entire site with core files. We all know operating a popular site requires time and effort, and when a site goes down its good to know you have a backup.

“No follow case by case”, for webmasters who really don’t want comment authors getting any link juice from their hard won efforts to build their PR. Linking to potentially bad neighborhoods or sites that aren’t in your niche can damage our site’s SERPs, luckily the no follow tag is honored by most major search engines. No follow case by case allows you to select any comment link that shouldn’t be followed, or leave the default setting which automatically applies the no follow tag to all comment links.

“Google Sitemaps Generator”, designed to work with Google, Yahoo, Ask.com and MSN Search, this plugin will generate your sitemap in plain text and compressed format, then ping Google, Ask.com and Yahoo when you update your site. The generated sitemap will also include a priority rating for each entry based on the number of comments received.

“Mint Popular Posts” utilizes Mint, one of the best tracking packages for complete analysis of your website traffic. Find out which pages your visitors are reading, which links they’re clicking, which ad’s they’re clicking, and more.

Did I miss important plugins? Yes, what about Advertising plugins? for plugins which support AdSense, there are 2 plugins that are listed in the plugin compatibility list at the time this article written, they are “AdSense Deluxe” and “AdSense Manager”, but here is another new plugin but it’s not free (although it’s pretty cheap), “DynamicAds”, it’s compatible with WordPress 2.3 and one of the the plugin’s features allows you to control how you want to rotate your ads in various locations on your site.

Those are the essential plugins that need to be firstly installed to your WordPress website.



By: IC

About the Author:

This article was written by DynamicAds, DynamicAds is an Ad Placements Rotator plugin for WordPress that is fully compatible with WordPress 2.3, it allows you to control how you want to rotate your ads at various locations on your site. Visit us at http://www.articleecho.com/



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New Plugin Turns Wordpress Into Instant Membership Site

December 2nd, 2007
wordpress plugin
Now WordPress site owners have the ability to roll out full-featured paid membership sites by simply adding the WP-Membership plugin from Synergy Software Group. It’s easily configured using built-in forms and settings along with multiple payment gateways.

Recognizing the rising demand for paid membership sites, as well as the popularity of the WordPress platform, Synergy Software Group developed a plugin offering the most-requested membership site requirements including the ability to process recurring subscription payments through multiple payment gateways/processors.

WP-Membership ships with a PayPal® payment module that interfaces directly with PayPal’s Instant Payment Notification (IPN) application interface. This provides the site owner with the ability to set up multiple subscription levels, with various length of subscription and pricing options, using the Internet’s most popular payment processor. Optional merchant/payment gateway add-ons are available for Authorize.net®, and YourPaySM, with support for additional payment gateways under development.

WP-Membership is used to control access to the membership site either in its entirety, forcing everyone who wants to access site content to enroll as a member, or on a page-by-page basis. This provides the site owner with the ability to develop teaser content to attract visitors, while still being able to monetize the site by requiring membership to access the protected areas.

Like most WordPress plugins, WP-Membership is easily configured using built-in forms and settings. The site owner simply chooses from among the various membership settings, configures their payment processor, and goes live with a complete membership site.

WP-Membership is available for $29.97 for a single domain license from: http://www.wp-membership.com  Lifetime FREE upgrades are included.



By: kathleen Ward

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Top Wordpress Plugins to Help You SEO Your Blog

December 1st, 2007
wordpress plugin
WordPress first appeared in 2003, is now on thousands of websites. This is a simple open-source blogging tool that in two ways, both hosted option or download free software option.

WordPress offers many additional features that might otherwise know as a WordPress plugin. This WordPress plugin allows you to create your blog to both the public and the gender of your site.

There are many WordPress plugin to choose from, if you are new to blogging is not possible to know what is best for you. Here is a list and explanation only to some of the most popular WordPress plugin available.

Top WordPress Plugin:

? All in one SEO - WordPress this thorn in optimizing for search engines, and automatic generation META tag. It gives you the opportunity to cancel the licenses and all the META description and keywords you want. Depending on the version of WordPress that you are using 2 / 3, you can simply install this plugin for WordPress and it works now.

? Akismet - this is a fantastic tool that helps in resolving the confusion of spam. Once installed, this WordPress plug-examine all of your comments against the Akismet web service to analyze whether or spam look like something real, which then allows you to check what has been found in the “comments” section of your blog in WordPress so that you can we decide whether you want to delete or not.

? Statistics WordPress - although there are many ways to acquire data and statistics about your site, most also offer many details, especially if you are new to blogging. The statistics WordPress system was specifically designed to get more information “needs a popular blogger.

? Twitter tools - this plugin integrates your Twitter account to your WordPress blog. Twitter is a micro-blogging and social networking service.

? Get Recent Comments - This plugin gives you full control over the appearance of excerpts of comments included in your sidebar. You can determine the order, the number of tracks and duration.

? DMSGuestbook - The guest book can be easily customized, which allows you to change not only color, but allows you to set mandatory fields, in which a user must provide a range of information. You can completely manage user entries and edit / remove the bodies before they are displayed.

? Video All in One Pack - This plugin for WordPress offers all necessary functions for video and rich media. It allows you to record / upload videos and import directly to your elected post.

Each of WordPress plugin has its unique advantages and can really help your blog to something easy to use. With so many to choose from plug-in value of spending some time searching through the offer and the selection of the plugin will benefit both you, your website and your readers.

New additions are constantly being added and developed to ensure that you control, so you do not miss something that could be beneficial.



By: Gen Wright

About the Author:

To learn more about the world of internet marketing makes sure to visit our site to get all the Blog Promotion Tips you have been looking for and need to succeed, visit us at: http://www.blogged-out.com



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Are You Using These Wordpress Plugins That Will Monetize Your Blog And Generate Web Site Traffic?

November 14th, 2007
wordpress plugin
Did you know there is a new open source community project underway called the WordPress Plugin Database, located at wp-plugins.net, which is a user-friendly web site with about 2,500 WordPress plugins and counting?

“The WordPress Plugin Database is a categorized list of WordPress plugins, complemented by a WordPress Plugin Manager that allows one-click installs,” say the database developers. “For users, wp-plugins.net provides a browseable list of plugins, and RSS feeds you can subscribe to in order to get notified of new plugins and updates. For developers, wp-plugins.net makes it easy to publicize your plugin and keep users informed of new versions.”

As for us everyday non-developer WordPress fanatics who are constantly searching for cool new plugins to make our site attract visitors and earn some money, the WordPress Plugin Database is populated with plugins that can help generate web site traffic to your blog, sell your ebooks, share web site links, podcast your message, offer a public forum for returning visitors, and fight spam in the process.

Below is a short list of free plugins I discovered in this new database that can drive traffic to your blog, sell terrific products, and keep visitors on your site for a while - the perfect monetization strategy for every blogging entrepreneur.

Would you like to add a Public Forum to your blog? Simple Forum is a free plugin that is described as a “simple and straightforward forum that does the sort of stuff a forum is supposed to.” Simple Forum currently has 71 features you can use to develop a growing community of returning visitors who are encouraged to speak to each other, and who share common interests with you, the brilliant blog owner and forum manager expert. Search engine spiders love the fresh content provided by a community forum. Simple Forum can support your forum member’s comments in 17 languages: stuff.yellowswordfish.com/simple-forum/

Would you like to monetize your blog by selling your products and services with a WordPress shopping cart? The free WP eCommerce Lite shopping cart plugin is described as “an industrial strength, elegant, easy to use, fully featured shopping cart application suitable for selling your products, services, and or fees online.” You can upgrade to the eCommerce Gold plugin for just $15. If you don’t have any products to sell, you can set up this shopping cart to sell products offered by Amazon.com, Art.com, and so on: instinct.co.nz/?p=16

Reciprocal link directories create backlinks to your site that helps improve your site’s search engine ranking, and most shared link directories are not free. Plus, most blogs don’t offer a shared link directory. The free WP Link Directory is described as “the first and the only one link directory plugin on the Internet for WordPress admin to store and maintain a set of links in classified categories.” This link directory plugin can match your blog theme: alectang.com/wordpress-link-directory/

Podcasting is a web site traffic generation phenomenon that has seen over 6 million people download MP3 podcasts. That’s not including the millions of people who prefer to listen without downloading. Here’s an idea. Why not record your blog articles as a podcast, and then submit your articles to podcast directories? Even if you don’t like the sound of your voice, there are software programs online that you can use to speak your written words with a more pleasing sound.

PodPress is a free plugin described as “a dream plugin for Podcasters using WordPress,” and “a full-blown Podcasters Plugin for WordPress.” With Podpress, you can post a podcast along with your article for visitors to download, or listen to without downloading. Why not interview an expert in your niche by telephone, and post your conversation as a podcast with your article? mightyseek.com/podpress

And finally, every high-traffic blogger would love to find a way to eliminate spam. Spam Karma 2 (SK2) is a free spam fighting plugin developed by the WordPress Plugin Directory guys. SK2 is described as “an anti-spam plugin for the WordPress blogging platform. It is meant to stop all forms of automated blog spam effortlessly, while remaining as unobtrusive as possible to regular commenters.” wp-plugins.net/doc/sk2/

By the way, don’t forget to upgrade your WordPress blog to the latest 2.3 version released in September of 2007. WordPress 2.3 offers new article keyword tagging features, which means improved search engine ranking and more web site traffic for you: wordpress.org/download/



By: Jefferson Hennessy

About the Author:
Jefferson Hennessy is a feature article journalist, Webmaster and article marketer. Add affiliate anchor links automatically to your WordPress blog posts: http://jeffersonhennessy.com/wpaffiliate.htm Automatically post your articles to Web 2.0 sites: http://jeffersonhennessy.com/wpsocial.htm



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How To Use Linknotes Plugins

November 10th, 2007
wordpress plugin
When users complained about inline links that are becoming way too obtrusive, someone was bound to find the answer. Jeremy Curry has created the WordPress Plugin Linknotes. These are like footnotes, only with links.

Plugins

WordPress is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform that focuses on aesthetics, web standards and usability. Plugins are the tools to extend the functionality of WordPress. The core of WordPress is designed to maximize flexibility and minimize code bloat. Plugins provide a way to offer custom functions and features that will enable each user to tailor their site to their specific needs.

As the purpose is to extend functionality, not all WordPress users require plugins. At best, some may only require a few and not every plugin that is available. The choice list is long thus it is up to the user to determine what is required based on his/her specific circumstance.

WordPress plugins are designed by volunteers and are available for free to the public. However, plugins are the responsibility of the author and the user. They are all works-in-progress as WordPress continues to grow and expand.

The creators of plugins are the people who saw the need and came up with the solution. Many needed the solution for their own site thereby providing the opportunity to see the plugin in action. Others develop plugins for someone else when they had the time to do it.

Not all plugins are easily installed but authors and developers try to make the process as easy as possible. There are a few things one needs to know before installing any plugin. Since there are several versions of WordPress currently available, different plugins are likewise available for the different versions.

The first thing to do is to get the correct information before installing. This can be done by reading through the readme files and web pages including any comments regarding the plugin on an author’s website. Installation is much easier when equipped with the right information. Plugins require downloading and uploading to install.

Plugins may also require modifying WordPress files and templates thus familiarity with PHP, HTML, CSS and CHMOD may be necessary. Make a note in the code of any changes done to the files or templates by using comments before and after the changes and also in a text file saved to one’s site and on one’s desktop to serve as reminder of any additions or modifications to default files or templates. This will assist the user if there is any need to repeat the procedure in case of any future problems with the site.

Before installing any plugin that will result to dramatic changes, frequent backups of database and files should be made. Some plugins work independently of a blog’s content and file and only adds a little something special to the page. Others would require modification of content and file, including changes in database. The user should make sure that the plugin will work in his/her existing version. Upgrading is an option to consider when a plugin cannot work for a particular version.

Troubleshooting Plugins

Problems arising from plugin installation or one that stopped working after upgrading would request some steps to remedy. The user should check whether the author’s instruction has been followed to the letter. Any plugin tags or usage within the template files should be checked for correctness, right spelling and appropriate placement. The file should be uploaded to the plugins folder under wp. content. When a new version is being uploaded to replace the old, the old version prior to uploading should be deleted.

The user should check whether the plugin has been activated in the Plugin Panel of his/her Administration Panels. Deactivating and reactivating the plugin would verify if it makes it work. Visiting the plugin author’s website which is typically linked from the Plugin Panel will show if there are other people having the same problem and if an answer has been posted. It also updates the user whether a new version has been released.

The plugin authors can be directly contacted through their website or email requesting assistance. It is possible that someone else might have found the answer to the same problem a user is experiencing. Searching the Internet for the name of the plugin and the trouble being experienced can provide the elusive solution. Another way is to visit the WordPress Support Forum and post a clear question about the plugin and the problem. If the problem persists and there seems to be no solution in sight, the user should check other similar plugins to use.

Some plugins may become outdated and may no longer work with the newer version of WordPress. Most authors will upgrade their plugins to accommodate the newer version. Others will not thus the plugin becomes obsolete with the improvements in WordPress.

The Linknotes Plugin

This plugin allows the user to make links in his/her blog posts appear like footnotes. Installation is very easy as in other WordPress Plugins. However, the text should be formatted appropriately for usage. Normal links would simply need to have the Link. quicktag clicked in the Write Post page to enter the URI.

Jeremy Curry, the developer of Linknotes has added quicktags to the plugin. This addition would no longer require the replacement or editing of any files just by downloading VO.3. Linknotes is considered by many as the blog version of footnotes. Linknotes only affect the post content and pages but not excerpts or any other body of content.

Curry developed this plugin when he read that someone was in need of such as a solution. He went off to the WordPress Support Forums and couldn’t find anything that was exactly what he wanted. He then proceeded to work on it.

Since it was difficult to do it from scratch, he used the Textile Plugin as the base. He removed some features from it and added a bunch of modifications. He came up with the Linknotes plugin which was more customizable, bloglines- friendly and has quick tag buttons which can easily be turned on or off in the plugin file. This answers the requirement of making a link to open in a new window.

The quicktag also adds a superscript number beside the word or phrase which was hyperlinked. This would tell the reader that there has been a Linknote added which he/she can refer to after consuming the whole post. This plugin hopes to do away with the disruptive practice of having hyperlinks in the middle of the sentence.



By: Danny Wirken

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4 Things to Look for in Wordpress Adsense Templates

October 21st, 2007
wordpress plugin
If you want a blog and want to make money with your blog quickly, then you should look into wordpress adsense templates.

Blogs are very popular today and the search engines especially google love wordpress blogs. You can go to wordpress.com and set up a wordpress blog for free on their site, but I suggest that you get your own domain name and web hosting to set up your own wordpress blog. This way you have total control of your blog.

After you get your domain name, look for a quality web host that allows you cpanel access. Once you are logged in to to your cpanel, click on the fantastico button and you can install wordpress in a matter of minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse. Yes, it is that easy and even a caveman could do it.

You are all set up with your own domain name and web hosting and have wordpress installed. Now you need a professional looking theme so you have a professional looking site so you can start earning an income.

One great way to monetize your blog is with google adsense. Adsense is great because they will show ads that are relevant to the content on your page and you get paid when someone clicks on an ad.

To help with the learning curve you should invest in wordpress adsense templates. Here are 4 things to look for in a good wordpress adsense template.

1. Easy Customization

Most people do not know how to read or edit a php file. Look for a wordpress template that has already added the adsense for you. All you need to do is open a couple of files and add your publisher id number. An added bonus is if a video tutorial is included that shows you exactly how to add your publisher id.

You also want it to be very easy to add your own unique content to your blog without having the template graphics move to change the look of your blog.

2. SEO and Navigation Features

Here is a list of features to look for:

• Wordpress search

• Archives listed in navigation

• Categories listed in navigation

• Blogroll or links

• Adsense links units at top

• Commenting and discussion possible

• Compatible with wordpress plugins

3. Professionally Designed Headers

You want your blog to look professional and grab the visitors attention. A good header will make the visitor stay and read the content on your blog.

4. Earn income from multiple streams of income

You want to make sure that you are not depending solely on adsense to make money online. Make sure you are able to add items like an opt in form for list building, affiliate products that go along with your niche and other streams of income.

Blogging is a great way and one of the easiest ways to start making money online with adsense. So get started right now and start making your share of the google money pie.



By: Peter OBrien

About the Author:

Now you know what to look for a quailty wordpress adsense template-wouldn’t you like your own set of 100 wordpress adsense templates complete with video tutorials and a complete traffic starter kit? Get these adsense templates in profitable niches by visiting: http://www.professionaladsensetemplates.com/



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How To Eliminate Wordpress Blog Comment Spam

October 20th, 2007
wordpress plugin
One of the most serious problems with any blogging system, including WordPress, is that the comments area is wide open to that scourge of the Internet, spammers. In this case, it’s comment spam.

Comment spam is created by people seeking to boost their Google rankings by having lots of links pointing to their own websites. This causes a wide variety of problems:

• When Google detects content spam, they will often block the site it’s coming from because it messes up their ranking system.

• It takes up your valuable time and bandwidth to eliminate these posts.

• If the onslaught of spam is heavy enough, it may result in a denial-of-service attack, intended or not, which is a situation in which the server tries so hard to post bad information and/or deliver notification emails to you that it denies service to the legitimate requests. In at least one case, a blogger received over two thousand email notifications of comments that needed approval; as he dealt with these, he continued getting more, ultimately crashing his mail server.

As you can see, even if you have your comments set to post only upon approval, this can be a serious problem. One solution is the Akismet plugin for WordPress.

Akismet Plugin and Other Plugin Options for WordPress

Akismet is designed to help you filter out those nasty spammers, and it’s not hard to get it installed into your WordPress system. Download the plugin, and upload it to the blog directory on your server in the plugins subdirectory under wp-content. Activate from the WordPress plugins menu. If you have a notice that you need the Akismet API, go to the WordPress website and look or ask for one.

Here’s the magic: the only instruction in Akismet is “forget that spam was ever a problem.” You don’t have to do anything else at all - the spam will simply be bounced. You will not receive a notification, nor will you have to go out and delete spam.

Another plugin for eliminating spam from bots is the “Did You Pass Math” plugin. This one makes the user perform a simple math problem before submitting a comment. As most humans can handle this and most spambots can’t, it’s pretty likely that a comment posted through this is a legitimate comment. You should add a note of caution that your comments will be deleted if you answer the math wrong, though; a wise commenter will use an offline composition tool, not post directly to the comments area.

If This Still Doesn’t Work

If you still can’t eliminate spammers with these plugins, you can eliminate them by denying them access to your comments area. This does not mean you have to disable your comments section, only that you need to set up a filter.

It’s not usually as simple as just blocking their IPs. Serious spammers use random IPs, while blocking IPs may get rid of them for a short time, it will ultimately prevent legitimate comments from being posted. Spammers are also notorious for hijacking other people’s IP addresses. But as a short-term emergency solution, you can try it. The IP address is included in the information packet for the comment; it’s similar to a traceable phone number. Look for clear patterns in your IP numbers.

Use the .htaccess file to block unwanted IPs from even seeing your blog. For instance, these lines can be added:

order allow,deny

deny from 123.123.123.123

deny from 456.456.456.*

deny from 789.789..

allow from all

IPs are four-part numbers, such as 192.168.0.1. Typically, if you see a pattern with the first two sections being identical, you can block all IPs of that type by simply listing them as 192.168.., as you see above. This screens out all these IP numbers. Blocked IPs will get a 403 error page; customize yours so that your contact details are listed in case you’re blocking out a legitimate user. Don’t use your regular email; a spammer can harvest that too, for a whole new set of problems. Instead, encode your email so that it’s not automatically readable.

When you think you have your problems addressed, you can remove the block from your .htaccess file. If it still doesn’t work, or if you don’t see an IP pattern, it’s likely that spambots are hijacking someone else’s machine to attack your site. In this case, do not use the IP block.

Again, if you don’t have an IP pattern of attack, this may not be worth doing. Remember, too, that with IP addresses, the first numbers affect the largest number of computers, like a reverse address: USA, California, Sacramento, X Building, Ste. 101, Joe Schmo. An IP follows roughly the same pattern, with the last of the four sections referring to the specific computer it is attached to.

Google’s Nofollow Attribute

Of course, if it’s a waste of their time to spam you, spammers may just skip you altogether. For this reason, you can use the Google Nofollow attribute for links: . This attribute is embedded automatically by modern versions of WordPress.

It does not eliminate links, which is what spammers are working on adding to your site. Instead, it makes those links irrelevant to Google. The end result is that it doesn’t hurt your rank in Google, and it doesn’t help a spammer to send data to your site. It also marks you, for spambots looking for an easy target, as a waste of time.

This is not an immediate fix. But it is a way to make your blog resistant to spammers in the future. If you’re already a target, you’ll have to work with it slowly, incorporating all these fixes. If you aren’t a target, the very least you should do is turn on the nofollow option in your WordPress system; this will deter any hungry spambots. Upgrade your version, or look for one of the plugins that provides this service for you.



By: Danny Wirken

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