Archive for March, 2009

Published by Patrick on 31 Mar 2009

WordPress Configuration; 10 Essential Steps

Have you just started your first WordPress blog? Are curious what settings you need to change to get it ready for the big time? Well, you’ve come to the right placed. I’m writing this blog post at the Breakfast Blogging Club in Oakland, California, and it’s designed for all the people sitting in the same room as me right now, and also to all of my readers on the internet. Let’s get started.

Make sure the directory is clean. Before you install WordPress, make sure the directory is clean. If you just registered the domain, this won’t be a problem. But if you had something here before, you want to ensure it’s all gone before you start building the new WordPress-based blog.

Ensure you have Linux-based hosting. WordPress works on both Linux and Windows servers but it’s well known to work better on Linux. This is usually an easy thing to change – at the beginning. Once you’ve started, it gets a bit more trickly. So if possible, make sure your on a Linux box at the beginning.

Install WordPress. These days, most hosting companies offer one-click WordPress installation, making it easy to get everything setup on your server. If your hosting company does NOT offer it, visit the WordPress website to get full instructions.

Select URL format. Your website address can include the “www” or not. It’s your choice. So decide up front if you want the “www” in your full website URL and then click on Settings and then General to make the selection. If you add the “www”, you’ll have to log in again after you click the Update button.

Change the permalink settings. One of the most important settings for your blog is called Permalinks. That refers to the URL format for the individual posts and pages you create. The default setting results in URLs that end in something like “SiteName.com/?page_id?=168″ – nothing could be LESS helpful from a search engine perspective. Instead, click Settings and then Permalinks and select Month & Name to ensure your post or page title is included in the final URL.

Change image folder settings. When you upload images to your new WordPress blog, it will automatically store them in specific folders on your server. The default setting is to store these images in folders sorted by month and year. That means an image uploaded in March 2009 would be stored in “wp-content/uploads/2009/03/image-name.jpg”. That’s a l-o-n-g URL. If your site is fairly small, you can change the setting to eliminate the year and month folders. You can change it in Settings and then Miscallaneous. If your site is big, you may wish to keep the folders for organizational reasons. Your call.

Upload themes. There are hundreds of themes available that will change the look and feel of your website. Visit the WordPress theme directory to find one you like. Download the theme to your desktop. Then, you’ll need to FTP (file transfer protocol) the theme into your server. Chances are, your hosting platform includes a File Manager where you can upload the files. If not, search for an FTP client and use that to get your theme into your wp-content/theme directory.

Upload plugins. There are thousands of plugins available to add functionality to your WordPress blog. Visit the WordPress plugin directory to find and download the ones you like. Again, you’ll need to get the files from your desktop (or laptop) to your hosting server. You can either use the File Manager on your hosting platform or you can use an FTP client. The files will need to go in your wp-content/plugins directory.

Update plugins. Plugins are updated all the time. In many cases, the plugins you upload to your server will be older versions. Click Plugins and scroll down to see which plugins have updates available. For those that do, click Automatic Upgrade to allow WordPress to deliver the latest versions to your server. Powerful, very cool and easy to do!

Set blog to Public. Depending on your WordPress installation, the default Privacy setting may be to block search engines from indexing your blog. You do NOT want that. Click Settings and then Privacy to ensure your blog is set to Public.

After these steps, there are still tons of things you can do. But for now, I think that offers some good first steps to ensure you blog is properly configured for online success. Good luck with your new blog. It’s an exciting world out there and having a blog is a great first step!

Website

Published by Patrick on 07 Mar 2009

Generating Website Traffic – Carnival 13

Welcome to the March 4, 2009 edition of website traffic.

Jack S. Keifer presents Being Proactive is Hard posted at Jack S. Keifer.

Andy presents Blogging For Fun Vs Blogging For Money posted at Personal Hack, saying, “Do you blog for fun or for money? When asked this question a lot of people are lost and often don’t know what to answer. I think many people try to blog for fun and money which is pretty difficult and here is why…”

Tim Grice presents Search Engine Optimisation and Outbound Links posted at Search Engine Optimisation, saying, “OK I was in a consultation with a UK client over the phone yesterday, he explained he had attempted to rank high on Google by learning SEO himself and had lost the will to live. (Fairly common problem :) )”

Kingsley Tagbo presents The Power of Requirements Analysis Part One posted at BUSINESS ANALYST BOOT CAMP, saying, “Software is everywhere in our lives today. From your online banking system to your microwave oven, software applications play a vital role in everyday life. Why do we rely so heavily on software applications? The reason is that they achieve a goal or solve a problem for us. In other words, they have properties that fill a need for the user.”

Andy presents How to Easily Get Tons of Free Targeted Traffic To Your Blog posted at Personal Hack, saying, “This is a great technique that I learned about from other bloggers.”

imjimmynice presents Internet Business Make Money Online With Welly Mulia » The Most Straightforward Way To Make Money Online posted at Internet Business Make Money Online With Welly Mulia.

Tim Grice presents Is SEO A Dieing Art? posted at Search Engine Optimisation, saying, “There has been a lot of talk recently in the SEO world about Google’s new personalised search and how it will affect the industry.”

Erika Collin presents List-mania: 100+ Web Tools for Editing, Maintaining, Remixing Lists posted at eLearning Gurus.

Erika Collin presents 50 Must-Have Firefox Extensions for e-Learning & Researching posted at The .Edu Toolbox.

Andrew Rondeau presents If WordPress Is Good Enough For Jeff Johnson Then It Must Be Good posted at We Build Your Blog, saying, “Find out why the big name Internet gurus use WordPress”

Sarah presents How To Add Meta Tags In Blogger-step by step posted at Miss Virtual Reality.

Jim DeSantis presents World’s Best Ebook On SEO Now Available! posted at Gifts From Jim DeSantis, saying, “If you want the world’s best free ebook about Search Engine
Optimization, here it is. This is no exaggeration. It’s information
packed and step-by-step. This is the information I used to boost
all my blogs to PR3 and PR5 in a matter of a few months.”

Steph White presents Writing Articles Quickly and Effortlessly… posted at The Smart Marketer’s Article Writing Success Guide, saying, “Laser-targeted, quality traffic is the lifeblood of any website or blog. There are many free techniques to drive visitors your way, but none more successful, than writing articles and submitting them to article directories and ezines. You may be thinking ‘I can’t write’, ‘my grammar is terrible’ or maybe English isn’t even your first language…
I’m about to reveal how anyone can quickly and effortlessly learn the art of writing articles, and by allowing them to be republished, watch your traffic explode!”

Heather Johnson presents Who Knows What About You? 25 Free Tools to Find Out posted at e-Justice Blog.

Nancy Miller presents 10 Best VoIP Web Hosts Compared – 2009 posted at WHDb.

Verna Morris presents The Ultimate Open Courseware Toolset: 60+ Directories, Search Engines, and Web Tools posted at The .Edu Toolbox.

Ziki presents Youtube Spam posted at Make Money with Youtube.

Tim Grice presents SEO – Clearly Defining Black-Hat Techniques posted at Search Engine Optimisation, saying, “As an SEO consultant there is nothing strange in speaking to a potential client who has never heard of black hat seo. This is slightly worrying as many unsuspecting online business owners may fall into the black-hat trap and find their sites banned.”

Andrew Rondeau presents How To Choose A Website Name posted at We Build Your Blog, saying, “Check out this short video to see and hear the do’s and don’ts of website names. Getting your website name right is crucial to your future website success…here’s how to get it right”

Todd Johnson presents Search Engine Optimization posted at Richard Lee.

Sarah Scrafford presents 10 Best Web Hosts for Hardcore Developers Compared ? 2009 posted at WHDb.

Heather Johnson presents 100 Computer Games Especially for Christians posted at Christian Colleges.

Ian Richardson presents Working on the road posted at Make Everything EzyAs123, saying, “An article demonstrating how easily you can operate a business from anywhere.”

Alex Newell presents Article Marketing for Babies posted at Expert List-building Blog, saying, “Article marketing is know to be effective and yet website owners fail to use it effetively out of fear of writing. This post breaks it down into baby steps.”

ListBuilderLee presents List Building – 3 Breakthrough Steps To A Responsive Subscriber List posted at Build Your List For Free!, saying, “List Building – 3 Breakthrough Steps To A Responsive Subscriber List
I’ve always been impressed with those people who could build a list of 5,000 subscribers then give up their day job. All because their list was so responsive to any offer they made them.
Then I figured out their secret and boiled it down into 3 easy to follow breakthrough steps.”

FizzSoda presents #1 Way People Find Local Businesses? Search Engines! posted at OrangeSoda Internet Marketing Blog.

FizzSoda presents Small Business Internet Marketing – Avoid Rogue SEO Companies posted at OrangeSoda Internet Marketing Blog.

Ian Richardson presents Important Financial Forcasts posted at Make Everything EzyAs123.

Sarah Scrafford presents 100 Most Useful Financial Sites On the Web posted at Earn Accounting Degree.com.

Sarah Scrafford presents 100 Free, Time-Saving Apps for Web Writers posted at Edu Velocity.

Margaret Garcia presents How to Use Recovery.gov: 7 Tips for Browsing the Bailout Bill Web Site posted at Bankling.

Jim DeSantis presents 4 Ways I Have Improved My Adsense Earnings posted at On Line Tribune | Internet Marketing Blog, saying, “Here are 4 easy changes I have made to improve my
Adsense earnings on the blog your are viewing right now.”

Tim Grice presents A Few SEO Issues posted at Search Engine Optimisation, saying, “After doing my usual SEO reading over the weekend (like a good SEO consultant should) I stumbled across a few things that a) I don’t agree with and b) provoked thought.”

Erika Collin presents 100 Best iPhone Apps for Personal Development posted at JobProfiles.org – Job Descriptions and Online Schools to Start Your Career.

Erika Collin presents The 50 Best Safety and Security Blogs posted at Forensic Science Technician.

Andrew Rondeau presents WordPress Blog – Which Plugins Do You Use? posted at We Build Your Blog, saying, “There are hundreds and hundreds of WordPress Plugins to make your blog easier to maintain and more ‘search-friendly’.
Here are some you may not of heard of…”

Effective Blogging

Leo D presents Take Back Your Life…How to Get More Traffic to your Site With Just One Post a Week.. posted at Strategic Internet Marketing Blog.

Gerry Walter presents How To Use Twitter.com For Increasing Website Traffic posted at Gerry Walter, saying, “Good Tips on Using Twitter For Traffic”

Samantha Fernandez presents The Most Efficient Hosted Exchange Server for You! posted at Hostedexchange’s Blog.

travelcat4 presents Latest Invention In Computers – Wordpress 2.7 posted at Latest Inventions.

Viraj Sawant presents How to do an Email interview posted at New-web-business.com, saying, “http://digg.com/users/gamebittk”

Rob presents 7 Easy Steps To Quick And Steady Traffic For Your Website! posted at Quickfire Blogging, saying, “If you want to ensure that you get a lot of traffic to your website, you need to follow a few simple directives. Given below are seven tips which will help you get more traffic:”

Raily Arena presents Tips That Will Get Your Home Sold Quicker posted at How to Sell Your Own Home.

Raily Arena presents How To Get An Ex Back: Steps That Will Lead You In The Right Direction posted at How to Find Phone Number.

Raily Arena presents DIY Home Selling Tips: No Need for Realtors Guaranteed posted at How to Sell Your Own Home.

Brian Terry presents Website Design vs. Website Design posted at Big Selling Website Design.

presents Reverse Cell Phone Lookup: What It Can Do For You? posted at How to Find Phone Number.

Isaac Yassar presents Keywords In File Names posted at Isaac Yassar’s Overture, saying, “Search Engines are great sources of traffic, that’s why we need search engine optimization (SEO). Keywords are very important parts of it, and they determine the visibility of a website in search results. However, most people do not understand the importance of putting keywords on their posts / page file names, though it is very useful in building search engine traffic. Here is why:”

Joe Manausa presents A Small But Significant Shift In The Housing Market posted at Really Better Real Estate, saying, “One key trend to pay attention to in any local real estate market is the movement of the sales success trend. What this measures is the total number of home sold divided by the total of homes listed (put on the market) during the same period of time.”

Other Strategies

Kelli-Ann Hopewell presents 4 Steps To Effective Forum Marketing posted at Internet Business Make Money Online With Welly Mulia.

Raily Arena presents Reverse Cellular Phone Lookups: Why Paid Versions Work Better posted at How to Find Phone Number.

Paul Gallion presents The Secret To Creating An Advertising And Earning System posted at Paul Gallion, saying, “Advertising your website and earn at the same time”

Susan Tatum presents How to Protect Yourself Against Click Fraud posted at Technology Marketing by Tatum Marketing.

Lynda Hill presents Free Traffic Bar Beats Instant Buzz Hands Down | Acme Websites Blog posted at Acme Websites Blog, saying, “Free Traffic Bar and Instant Buzz are both advertising toolbars which sit just above your browser window pane showing product ads from other people. The ad changes when you open another tab.”

Raily Arena presents Steps on How to Get an Ex Boyfriend Back in a Right Way posted at How to Find Phone Number.

Kathleen Gaga presents Teleseminars for Virtually Any Need and Any Market posted at Street Smarts Marketing & Promotions, saying, “When you ask many people online how many types of teleseminars there are many people stop at one or two. Actually, there are dozens of types of teleseminars and reasons to host one. Learn about the various types of teleseminars you can offer to your market.”

Raily Arena presents Reverse Cell Phone Lookup: Benefits posted at How to Find Phone Number.

Susan Tatum presents More Ways to Waste Money on Pay-Per-Click posted at Technology Marketing by Tatum Marketing.

Paul Gallion presents This will help you build your list while protecting your commissions posted at Paul Gallion, saying, “This will help you build your list”

Josef Benjamin presents 3 Steps To Being A Highly Effective Attraction Marketing Star Player posted at Josef Benjamin Online, saying, “How would you like to claim your stake in the grounds of the highly profitable attraction marketing oil wells? Would it excite you to know that if you followed a few simple a-b-c steps you could make a 5 figure monthly income online promoting yourself and a proven system?”

SEO/SEM

korprit zombie presents How To Make Money Online With Google Adsense Farms (Case Study Part 1) posted at How To Make Money Online: Case Studies.

Peter Jones presents Bauu Institute: Resources for website page rank building posted at Bauu Institute and Press.

Rob Edmond presents Search Engine (SEO) Basics posted at Blog To Great, saying, “Tips for new bloggers and a great SEO refresher!”

Niels Hoven presents SEO Keyword Analysis: How to Use Data Visualization to Make it Quick and Easy posted at Official Blog of Tableau Software.

marketer2409 presents 10x Method Video For YOUR Online Success In 2009 posted at Henry Zeng’s Internet Marketing Tactics, Tips and Reviews.

marketer2409 presents Acquire BASIC Skills in Your Online Business posted at Internet Marketing Tactics, Tips and Reviews by Henry Zeng.

marketer2409 presents Affiliate Marketing: How to Survive In the Long Run posted at Internet Marketing Tactics, Tips and Reviews by Henry Zeng.

marketer2409 presents 5 Surefire Tips to Boost Your Residual Income Affiliate Program Earnings posted at Internet Marketing Tactics, Tips and Reviews by Henry Zeng.

marketer2409 presents How to Get Accepted by CPA Affiliate Networks and The eBay Affiliate Network Truth posted at Internet Marketing Tactics, Tips and Reviews by Henry Zeng.

marketer2409 presents The Most *Dangerous* Obstacle of Making Money Online posted at Internet Marketing Tactics, Tips and Reviews by Henry Zeng.

marketer2409 presents Make Your First $100 Online by Giving Away Free Stuff – Part 2 posted at Internet Marketing Tactics, Tips and Reviews by Henry Zeng.

marketer2409 presents Make Your First $100 Online by Giving Away Free Stuff – Part 1 posted at Internet Marketing Tactics, Tips and Reviews by Henry Zeng.

marketer2409 presents Secret Revealed: How One Phrase Doubled My Sales Conversion posted at Internet Marketing Tactics, Tips and Reviews by Henry Zeng.

Rahul Agrawal presents How to increase website traffic by using SEO (search engine optimization) posted at The Palermo Project, saying, “A post about how website traffic can be increased by using some basic SEO technique”

Jamie Munro presents How to get indexed by Google in ONE hour posted at End Your If, saying, “An excellent technique to get your web site indexed by Google within ONE hour.”

Jamie Munro presents A Simple SEO Trick To Boost Your Rankings posted at End Your If, saying, “A simple technique that should not take more than 5 minutes and it will help you gain a high ranking in Google.”

Jamie Munro presents Top 5 SEO Tips To Achieve Top 10 Rankings In Google posted at End Your If, saying, “5 great tips on how to optimize your web site so it will be indexed in the top 10 of your targetted keywords.”

Peter Jones presents Bauu Institute: Successfully Building Links via Forums, Blogs, and Social Networks for Book Marketing posted at Bauu Institute and Press.

Social Media

Raily Arena presents Using a Reverse Telephone Directory Can Give You Vast Amount of Information posted at How to Find Phone Number.

Helen Trump presents Best in Social Media – February 7, 2009 posted at Social Marketing by Michelle MacPhearson, saying, “Blog about the compilation of the Best Social Media for February 7, 2009 issue”

Raily Arena presents Steps on Getting Back Together with Your Ex posted at How to Find Phone Number.

Helen Trump presents Social Media Optimization Interview posted at Social Marketing by Michelle MacPhearson, saying, “Great blog interview on Social Media Myth with Michelle MacPhearson”

Helen Trump presents Win a CrowdMountain.com Lifetime Membership posted at Social Marketing by Michelle MacPhearson, saying, “Interesting blog about the CrowdMountain.com Lifetime Membership”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of website traffic using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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