Avoid Looking Like a Wordpress Beginner Even if You are One

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Author: Cindy King

Some starting WordPress hints. Change you login name to the name you want people to identify with the site. Don’t use the default name ‘admin’ to post articles unless you really want to get into the admin niche. Seeing your name makes it more personal and professional.

Create a Category

WordPress has the default category called uncategorized. Having any articles uncategorized is bad SEO and similar to calling a Word document ‘Untitled’. If it is called Untitled, it actually does have a title and if you put a post in the category uncategorized, well, it has been categorized. Hasn’t it?

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The Best Way To Create Profit Pulling Sites

Blogs are one of the most effective ways for you to start making money online.  Installating your blogs is very quick, get indexed in a couple of hours and then turn your attention driving traffic to your blog.

Many people turn to the free blogging platforms to host their blog, not realising they are putting the fate of their business in the hands of another …

Whereas it may never happen to you, it has happened to other people.  Your blog could get deleted at the drop of a hat if the free blog companies think you are violating their terms of service in any way.

This can be a massive problem – you could get up one morning to discover your business has been decimated.

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How to Organize Your WordPress Blog Content

Pages and Posts

A good understanding of the difference between Pages and Posts is necessary when setting up any new WordPress blog.

Most WordPress sites will use a combination of Pages and Posts with a much higher emphasis on POSTS.

What are Pages? – Pages are mainly used for the “static” content on your blog, or content that does not change frequently. Pages are NOT included in your RSS feed.

Examples: Contact, About Us, Privacy Policy, Products, etc…

Should you use Pages? Yes, you should use at least 2-3 Pages on your blog. Static pages help to establish credibility in both the eyes of your readers and the search engines.

What are Posts? – Posts are where you will write the majority of your day-to-day content. They are the core reason for creating a blog. Posts are included in your RSS feed and are the main attraction for your readers and search engine spiders.

Categories, Tags and Basic Blog SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

When setting up a new WordPress blog it’s important to have a basic understanding of Categories and Tags and how to use them.

What are Categories? – Categories are the main keywords you use to structure/categorize your blog Posts. Having a well thought out category structure makes it easier for your readers to navigate your blog and find the content they are looking for.

What are Tags? – Tags are used when you actually write your blog Posts and most often appear at the end of your posts. Tags are to bookmarking sites, like Technorati and Delicious, what keywords are to search engines. In other words tags are a way to flag specific keywords in your post telling bookmarking sites, and your readers, what your blog is about.

Here’s where it can get a bit confusing. Tags can link out to bookmarking or tag directories, such as Technorati and Delicious, or they can link internally to your own blog posts grouping or “categorizing” posts that contain the same tagged keywords. (The later is actually the WordPress default) Therefore, Tags, as far as search engines are concerned, can be “seen” as categories.

Let me explain further…

There are three ways of organizing your Posts. They are Categories, Tags or a combination of the two. The best practice is to use a well thought out combination of categories and tags based on your target keywords. It is important though, to never use the exact same keyword as a Category and a Tag. This could be viewed by the search engines as duplicate content and cost you high search engine rankings.

Here’s an example of what a good category and tag structure would look like on a blog about Dogs:

Category = Dog Breeds

Tags used in posts under the “Dog Breed” category = Dachshund, Min-Pin, Poodle, etc…

NOTE: Don’t get too bogged down in all of this Category and Tag business. If you use the structure outlined above and the posting methods I’m going to show you later, you’ll be just fine. However, the better you understand and apply this the better your blog will do in the search engines.

TIP: Use no more than 3-4 tags per post.

Here’s a must read article on the differences between tags and categories and ways to use them: http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2005/09/09/categories-versus-tags-whats-the-difference-and-which-one/

Good Blog SEO also includes the proper placement of keywords in your post copy, post titles and descriptions, which we’ll talk about in future posts.

Install Your Wordpress Blog In These Easy Steps

Install Your Wordpress Blog In These Easy Steps by Mikael Peters

Blogging is becoming popular these days. In fact, there are several websites that offers blogging. Blogs can be use for different purposes; others would use it as an online diary, while others would also use it for web marketing. For this reason, setting up a perfect blog for your own purpose is very vital. I will provide you the things that I believe would surely help you on setting up your own blog.

I will teach you how to setup a blog in wordpress. Now, why wordpress? I prefer wordpress since wordpress is already tested through time and wordpress has many viewers, millions around the world. This is the best site if you would want your blog to be read by countless individuals.

Before we get started, it is important to know that a blog script is very important to make your blog controllable. For this matter, I will provide you the best PHP codes. Moreover, please do ensure that your host supports PHP and MySQL database. The minimum requirements are PHP v4.1 and MySQL v3.23.23, but I would prefer up-to-dates.

After assuring that your web host supports PHP v4.1 or higher and MySQL v3.23.23 or higher, you can download WordPress script from developer’s website for free. Save the script in your hard drive. Mostly, these scripts are zip files. You could just extract it with the use of winzip or winrar and open the file with the use of Notepad.

Input or edit the name of your MySQL database, your username and password and your MySQL server. After you have done these, upload all of the files to your web host. Click /wp-admin/install.php and follow the instructions carefully. After the installation, you will be provided an admin password. Never forget the password because you will need this information later.

Signing up an account on a quality web hosting will make things easier for you. Most of these web hosting offers a preinstalled PHP scripts. If this is the case, then simply go to your control panel and go to preinstalled scripts and select Wordpress. All you have to do is select the appropriate script for your own wordpress which is obviously much easier. After the installation, simply go to wp-login.php in your wordpress and login with the username admin and the password that has been generated. You could change the password anytime you want, just edit your profile.

I know you are now concerned with the looks of your blog. You could simply apply a template and change the layout of your blog. This feature is free from charge. But before that, surf the net and look for wordpress themes that would fit your blog. If you found the appropriate theme for you, just go to wp-content/themes/your-new-layout-name folder and upload the theme.

Setting your wordpress blog should never be a problem for you. If you want more help regarding wordpress installation, feel free to visit http://wordpressmadeeasy.net for more tutorials and tips.

Article Source: Install Your Wordpress Blog In These Easy Steps

Blog Wars – Blogger vs. WordPress

There’s a war going on in the blogosphere, and it has nothing to do with bloggers dissing each other on their respective websites. The war is about control of the blogosphere by several great, many good, and tons of terrible blogging platforms. The average newbie now has “too many” options to choose from, and the battle for blogging supremacy is hotter than ever. Read more

5 Essential Tweaks for All New WordPress Blogs

WordPress is without a doubt one of the most powerful, yet easy to use blogging systems available. Here are a few tweaks I make to all of my new blogs to make WordPress even more powerful.

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WordPress Auto-Installer Saves Users Time and Tons of Frustration!

Do you need to create lots of Wordpress blogs, fast?

Would you like to be able to upgrade your existing blogs automatically?

This is truly one of the most useful set of WordPress plug-ins we’ve seen in a long, long time.

Check out this short video to see how they work… Read more