Article Categories

SiteProNews Blogs

Configuring Wordpress: How To Optimize Your Wordpress Blog

08 2008 Friday

By Richard Taylor in Featured

Wordpress is free to use content management software that publishes your content in blog form. A blog does not have a static homepage like conventional web sites, instead all new content appears on the homepage and then finds it way in to folders and archives as more new content is published.

There are two big benefits to publishing with Wordpress:

It’s FREE to download and use
The Search Engines, in particular Google, love Wordpress blogs

Wordpress is open source software, which means it’s free to use. When you choose a hosting account, try and choose one that uses a control panel called “CPanel”, because installing Wordpress becomes as easy as clicking a handful of icons, it really is simple!

So you’ve bought a domain name, found a hosting company with CPanel and installed Wordpress on your new domain! In theory you’re ready to make your first post! But before you do, read on!

Before you post, you need to configure your blog and optimise it for the search engines, doing this before you post makes life a lot easier for the future.

As Wordpress is open source, developers around the world have written literally hundreds of plugins that enhance the functionality of your blog, and again the majority are free to install. Take a look at Wordpress.org where you’ll find hundreds of free plugins. Ones I recommend are:

Installer (install this one first, simplifies plugin installations)
All In One SEO Pack (optimises your posts)
Adsense Manager (adds Adsense blocks to your posts)
Google XML Site Maps (creates a site map for your blog)
Ultimate Tag Warrior (essential plugin for managing tags)
Sociable (assists with social bookmarking)

Next, within your dashboard, select Options in the menu and then Permalinks. You need to modify the settings on this page to improve the seo of the url’s Wordpress produces so that your keywords appear. In the Custom Options box, type and save the following:

/%category%/%postname%/

Typing this will optimise your posts, but you must be careful only to ever select one category per post in the future, and not change a post’s category after you’ve published it!

When you post with Wordpress, it automatically notifies (known as pinging) blog directories of your new content, they index it based on the tags you assign. The search engine robots regularly visit these directories, and as a result your new post will be indexed by them very quickly. Rapid indexing is one of the huge advantages of blogging!

Within your blog set up, you need to add a bunch of directory sites to “ping” to in addition to the default. Simply search on the web for “ping list”.

Finally, you need to optimise the appearance of your site. You don’t want to use the basic template that comes with Wordpress. There are lots of free themes available on the web for download, take a look at Wordpress.org again in their themes directory. Whilst there are hundreds of free themes around, I never seem to find one that perfectly meets my needs, so I often end up buying one!

Once you’ve installed the theme of your choice, activated all of your plugins, and made the configuration adjustments I’ve recommended, you’re ready to post, so what are you waiting for!

Richard Taylor - To learn a whole lot more about optimising Wordpress and to get a copy of my “ping” list, visit my blog at: http://www.essentialseotools.com/seoblog/category/wordpress/. For some great Wordpress Themes that I use on my blogs, take a look at these: Instant Wordpress Themes

How to Write or Create Your Own Articles

08 2008 Friday

By Woon Sung Liang in Featured

As you would surely be aware after some time in the Internet marketing business, submitting your articles and getting them re-published on others’ websites and newsletters/ezines is one of the most powerful Internet marketing strategies. Your articles will start working as a free advertisement for you forever. And you do not have to pay even a dime for such advertising space. You will continue to enjoy free traffic driven to your website for a long, long time!

Assuming you have decided to venture into writing your own articles, the following checklist should offer you as a very useful guide to help you overcome some common problems all beginners find in writing articles:

1) Decide on a Specific Objective

Always begin with a clear objective of writing an article. Is it a solution and answer to a particular problem faced by many? Is it an article expressing one’s experience in certain field? Or is it an article to attract prospective customers.

2) Target Your Audience

Before writing an article, ensure that the targeted audience is big enough to make your effort worthwhile. Ensure that this target is relevant, meaning they would find your article beneficial. For example as I write this article the target audience is the Internet marketers who want to drive or improve traffic to their sites by submitting articles to directories etc and are looking for a good guidance to do so effectively.

3) Give a Brief Description of the Article

With a quick glance the reader would immediately know the gist of the purpose, the important points and benefits of this article.

4) Create an Attention Grabbing Title

Perhaps we need some tips from the Advertising experts. One has this to say : “People that sell products to help you stop smoking don’t sell the “stop smoking” part. They sell the part about making your breath better, improving your health, living longer, getting better-looking dates, having whiter teeth”

Hence your title must grab the reader’s attention and prompt them to start reading at least the introduction of your article in order not to miss the benefits by ignoring your article!

5) Write as if You Are Talking to Somebody

There is no need for big and bombastic words and jargons that only would lead to confusion to some. You must write with simple English and in a manner that the reader feels that you are actually talking to him or her.

6) Re-read and Re-Write Your Articles

After you have finished writing, safe it and put it away for one day or two. Open it and read again. I bet you would find some weaknesses or mistakes that need your correction and amendments. Repeat this once or twice at least. If possible get somebody with experience of the same subject to proofread for you.

If with all this and your initial enthusiasm of an eager beaver, you still failed to become a writer, do not despair. Although you are ready to resign to the fact that you just don’t have the flair for writing and may be writing is not your forte, there are ways you could create your “own” writing with your name as the author in the “resource box”……………without having to write. In fact there are three ways from which you can choose one or use all of them:

1) Hire a Ghostwriter

You could hire somebody to write on your behalf on any subjects of your choice and he does not even take any credit despite his effort hence he is called a “ghost” writer. However a ghostwriter could be expensive. If you could afford this, it might be the best and easiest thing for you to do.

Visit http://www.elance.com/ where you can search for a writer who can help you create your own articles.

2) Buy Private Label Rights to a Collection of Articles

You could get hundreds of pre-written articles for a small enrollment fee. From these you could choose articles discussing subjects related to the content of your website. These are referred to as the “Private label articles” which you have full permission to use and also put your own name to the resource box as the author.

Although this method also costs money it is less expensive than ghost writing. The obvious disadvantage is that if the Private Label Articles are being sold in large numbers, there could be many purchasers using the same content at the same time unless of course you are good enough to do a considerable amount of editing.

3) Get Someone Else to Write for You Through an Interview!

This is a free method. You get someone else to create the article for you through an interview. Very often, interviewees are put in the limelight that would improve their image as experts in their fields. Hence people are glad to be interviewed, even if it’s free. If you know of any experts, a face-to-face interview in person can be conducted. Otherwise interviews through phones and e-mails could also be carried out. The article cold then be sold and distributed either as a text or audio format!

In conclusion, whether you are cut out to be a writer or you hopeless as a writer, you now know how to get the articles you require and distribute them to articles directories, e-zines to start driving traffic to your websites. Getting your own articles published on the Internet is one of the very best Internet marketing techniques in existence.

John Woon (Sung-Liang Woon) is a Rubber and Latex Consultant with about 30 years of experience. He is now also earning handsome income from the Internet working from home. Check this fantastic website to find out how he has ventured into Internet business: http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-9747 … Learn more about his website and blog at: http://www.johnwoon.com and http://healthysite.blogspot.com

SEO is Not The Only Solution

08 2008 Friday

By Jeffrey Smith in Featured

Search engine optimization is not the only solution, SEO, like a tool, serves a very specific purpose and function, which is to increase exposure for your website. However, just because you gain exposure and drive traffic to a page or a website, does not ensure success alone.

Factors such as usability (navigation, image placement, font selection, color choice), having a clear call to action, having impeccable content and using the right triggers to engage your target audience are all part of achieving a successful online marketing campaign.The tendency to rely too heavily on one marketing medium is a crutch that must be balanced and evaluated for its overall performance, it either works or your attachment to it prevents you from letting it go and finding other alternatives.