Six More Upgrades to Supercharge Your Wordpress Blog
Awhile back I posted this article covering some of the best wordpress plugins I use on a few of my sites. I’ve been playing around with a few more and figured it might be a good time for a quick update. So here are a few more great plugins you might want to take a look at for your own Wordpress blog.
Blog Carnival Basics – Why Not Using This Strategy is a Competitive Weakness
I recently posted an article about getting the most from your blog carnival submissions and I was surprised to find out through many of the comments that quite a few folks hadn’t heard of blog carnivals. That being the case, here’s a little primer on what blog carnivals are and how you can use them to get traffic and backlinks to your blog. (more…)
Blog Carnival Strategies – 5 Tips for Getting the Most From Your Blog Carnival Submissions
If you’ve been reading any of the blogs out there on internet marketing or online business, you probably know how valuable blog carnivals can be as a way to promote your site. Here are a few quick tips to help you get the most out of your blog carnival submissions. (more…)
First-Class Blogging: 12 Perfect Upgrades to Power Your Wordpress Site
There were a few posts here and there about different Wordpress plugins last week. I thought I’d post a quick list of some of the more useful ones I use here on my site. Each of the links takes you right to the plugin’s page if you’re interested in any of them. (more…)
DoFollow, KeyWordLuv and Backlinks…Oh My
First of all, hat’s off to Steven Lohrenz for finding this great little plugin. He posted about it earlier this week but I’m just getting around to adding it thanks to a little Wordpress upgrade SNAFU. So here’s the deal…
Search engine optimization (SEO) 101: Links to your site from other sites (i.e., backlinks) are good, especially backlinks that have text that include your keywords. You DO know what keywords you’re trying to rank for, right? Comments on Wordpress blogs are one way to get these sort of links and are particularly good since you can control the text that’s used, unlike some sites.
Problem #1: By default, Wordpress automatically uses the commenter’s name as the text for the link to their site. That’s great if I want to rank for “Kenton Newby”, but seriously, how many could there be? 
Problem #2: By default, Wordpress adds “nofollow” tags to the links used in comments. Nofollow tags basically do you no good from an SEO standpoint, although people might still click the links and visit your site.
So up until now, if you left a comment on this site, you’d get a not-so-useful link to your site using your name instead of something targeted.
Solution:
I installed two plugins. One is the plugin Steven recommended which you can find at his Internet Business Systems site. That solves Problem #1.
The other is the “Do Follow” plugin, which gets rid of that pesky Problem #2 mentioned above.
So give it a shot. Leave a comment below, but instead of the usual “name only” in the name field, use something like this:
Kenton Newby@Online Business Blog
Fill in the rest of the comment form like normal and you’re all set.
We’ll see how well this works and if things go all SPAM crazy here. But for now, seems like a better way to run things.
P.S. – Another great comment plugin is this one: WP Ajax Edit Comments
It allows users to edit comments they leave for a specified period of time. Ya’ know, to fix typos and stuff like that.
Harness the Power of Wordpress Future Posts By Installing This Plugin
One of the most powerful features of Wordpress is that you can load up a bunch of posts and set the publish date to sometime in the future.
In fact, I just got finished adding a bunch of posts to this site for the next several weeks.
But as I was about to get started, I thought it would be great if there was a way to see which dates already had posts scheduled and which ones didn’t. You know, just in case you schedule one for the wrong day or want to see which dates down the road you already have covered.
So a quick search on Google led me to this resource, a future posts calendar plugin for Wordpress that allows you to see when future posts are scheduled.
Of course, you can see this on your dashboard or in your Manage –> Posts menu, but it’s so much more useful to see it right there on the calendar, with several weeks worth of posts scheduled, all highlighted in green on the calendar. Good positive feedback.
It’s pretty simple to install and use. Just follow the instructions on the site or check out the readme file that comes with the download.
6 Surefire Strategies for Writing Better Articles or Blog Posts
Writing articles and blog posts is one thing. Getting them read is a whole other animal! Here are 5 quick tips for writing better articles and blog posts. (more…)
Why Every Business Owner Should Have a Blog
The idea of business blogging has been around for quite some time now. I’m totally convinced that every business owner can benefit from having their own blog and that such a site can become more valuable than the typical "online brochure" type website used by most businesses. Here are just a few of reasons why…
Blogs are Easy to Setup
Blogs are probably the easiest type of website to setup, making them perfect for the novice webmaster or busy business owner who doesn’t have time to learn all the "web geek" stuff. I would suggest having your own domain name (rather than hosting your site on Wordpress or Blogger) and getting an inexpensive web hosting account. The good news is that domains and web hosting are CHEAP and just about any web hosting service worth paying for will offer "Fantastico" which allows you to 1-click install a wide range of programs, including my favorite blogging software, Wordpress. Starting from scratch, you can register a good domain name, sign up for hosting and have a basic blog installed and ready to go in about a day, and most of that is waiting for the information on your new domain to make its way around the Internet so your site can be found.
Blogs are Easy to Manage
One thing you don’t want to do as a business owner is add additional complexity to what you already have going on. That’s one of the reasons I prefer Wordpress – because it’s easy to manage. In fact, if you can type up something in a word processor, you can run a Wordpress site. And once you get the hang of it, you’ll pick up some additional tips and tricks along the way that make it even easier.
Blogs Help You Build and Maintain Contact With Your List
No matter what business you’re in, one of the primary goals for your business should be building and maintaining a list. That means being able to keep in contact with interested prospects, existing customers or others who are potential customers. This is extremely easy to do online, especially if you have a blog. With features like RSS or by building a list of email subscribers, you can provide useful information to your website visitors and continue to build a relationship with them even after they leave your site. Since most visitors will likely visit your site and then leave without returning, this is an important method for increasing repeat visits to your site.
Blogs Can Help You Establish Your Expertise
Being viewed as the expert in your field has obvious benefits for any business owner, regardless of what your core business is. But you don’t have to be on TV, radio or have a best-selling book to establish yourself as an expert (though those things would certainly help). By simply providing good, quality information that your prospective customers, existing customers and other website visitors can use, you’ll automatically put yourself in the position of "expert".
For instance, say you’re interested in buying or selling a house. You search online and find several real estate websites. Most look exactly the same – search for properties, get a free market analysis or buyer’s analysis, etc. But one site features a local REALTOR with month’s worth of articles and posts on the changing market, why prices are changing, how to determine if it’s a good time to buy or sell, a free report for buyers on how to find the perfect home, a free report for sellers on how to sell for top dollar fast, etc. On this site, you almost get to know this agent – his/her personality, their area of expertise (specific types of properties or specific areas of town) and other great information that leaves you completely HOOKED!
This is just one example of how a business blog can help you establish a better relationship with your market. And the best part is that it’s not something you have to do everyday. With only a few quality posts per week, you can turn your new blog site into your most effective marketing tool.
