Archive for » 2007 «

31
Dec
Updating To WordPress 2.3.2 Using Fantastico On BlueHost
Barbara Swafford

UPDATE: As of today, 1/24/08, BlueHost customers can update to WordPress 2.3.2 using Fantastico.

WordPress has announced another update. The new version is 2.3.2.

Today’s Lesson

Apparently, the WordPress 2.3.2 update, will fix a bug that can be used to expose your draft posts, plus limits and stops some information leaks in the XML-RPC and APP implementations, etc….

To find out more about this update, please read the section titled “WordPress 2.3.2″ on your WordPress dashboard.

I use BlueHost, which includes “Fastastico De Luxe”, to update my WordPress blogs.

Upon checking Fastastico, through my BlueHost account, as of today 12/31/07, Fastastico does not have the information ready for the update.

As soon as Fastastico has the update information, by clicking “Fastastico”, then “WordPress”, the update will be posted in the WordPress section, in red ink.

At that time, by following the simple instructions, you can use Fastastico, and have your WordPress blog, updated to the new 2.3.2 version.

By the way, Fantastico De Luxe, can be found on your BlueHost “C panal”, under “Software/Services”.

Last month when I updated to WordPress 2.3.1, I began receiving an error messages. By reading my post titled: Error Message With Upgrade To WordPress 2.3.1, you can find out what I did to easily correct the problem.

It’s important to keep current on WordPress updates, therefore, make yourself familiar Fantastico, and update your WordPress blog, with ease.

Today’s Assignment

Are you keeping up on WordPress updates?

Does it intimidate you to do an update?

Have you had problems, in the past, when updating?

If so, how did you solve the “problem”?

Category: Archives, New To Blogging, WordPress  Tags: , ,  7 Comments
31
Dec
Help! Getting Your Blog Discovered
Barbara Swafford

Probably the most difficult part of blogging, is getting your blog discovered.

Often, you will read that blogging is easy. You write a post, hit “publish” and your writings are sent to cyberspace.

But, if you are new to blogging, you may begin to fear that your blog has gotten “lost” in cyberspace. Search engines don’t discover it, and even you can’t find it.

Today’s Lesson

Search engines may not be finding your blog, due to the subject matter, being in a saturated “field”.

If you are writing about a topic(s) that thousands of others are writing about, the competition is high. If you post doesn’t end up on the first few pages of the search engine results, the chances of your blog being found, decreases drastically.

Therefore, if your expertise is in a saturated “market”, you may need to begin by picking a “segment” of your niche, and concentrate on that.

Let’s say, your niche is “organizing”. Begin by dissecting the subject of “organizing” into smaller segments.

If you do a search on Google for “organizing”, you will get millions of hits

However, if you do a Google search for “how to organize a garage”, you will only get 145,000 +/- hits.

Look at the first 10-30 results and ask yourself:

Do the articles utilize keywords and/or keyword phrases?

Take time to read what your “competition” is writing.

Can you write a better post?

Could you expand on what they have written, and then create a link to their post?

If you can get several posts into higher positions, the chances of getting your blog found, will increase dramatically.

Today’s Assignment

Are you having problems getting your blog found?

Have you been utilizing keyword density?

Are you intimidated by your “competition”

Has dissecting your subject matter into smaller “segments”, helped to get your blog discovered?

Category: Archives, Blogging Lessons, Keywords, New To Blogging  Tags: ,  One Comment
27
Dec
Affiliate Marketing – Please Pass The Cookies
Barbara Swafford

If you blog, sign up for an affiliate marketing program, and become an associate/publisher/affiliate, you may notice, in the terms and conditions for advertisers, the term “cookie”.

Some advertisers say they offer a 10 day cookie, others may offer a 120 day cookie. With some, the “cookie” is only good for one day/session.

Today’s Lesson

A cookie may be referred to as a HTTP cookie, a web cookie, or just a cookie, and it tracks a particular browser’s activity.

A cookie, in affiliate marketing, refers to the length of time the advertiser will honor an order from someone who clicks on a link that you have created on your blog, and completes a transaction.

Obviously, the greater the length of the cookie, the better.

So, what this means is, if someone clicks on a link you created today, surfs the website of the advertiser, and them a week from now, goes back to that particular website and places an order, you may get credit for that order.

Although unlikely, if a “potential customer” disables the cookies on their computer, or their spyware deletes cookies, unless they sign up for “whatever”, immediately, through your site, you may not get credit for the sale, at all. The length of the cookie, may not even matter.

With that being said, although some claim to make good money being an associate/affiliate, it’s truly dependent on the customer who is clicking on the ads.

LinkShare.comreports that their patented tracking methods do not use cookies, which results in greater accuracy in reporting sales information.

To read more about cookies, see the definition posted by Wikipedia

Today’s Assignment

If you use affiliate marketing programs, have you checked to see the length of the cookies?

Should you avoid using an advertiser if their cookies are only good for a short period of time?

Have you even considered this to be a factor when signing up for a specific advertiser?

If you “believe” in an advertiser, would you sign up as a publisher, no matter what?

Category: Advertising, Archives, Blogging Lessons  Tags:  4 Comments
20
Dec
Phishing Emails Regarding PayPal
Barbara Swafford

If you blog, and have a donate button or a “tip jar”, chances are you are using PayPal as the “collection service”.

Today’s Lesson

I have been receiving emails from what looks to be PayPal.

Some say I need to update my account. Others say, if I don’t “take action”, my account will be terminated.

A link if provided to what looks like could be PayPal.

Because I am aware of phishing, I avoid clicking on the link, and logged into my PayPal account. My account was intact and no update or action was needed on my part.

I delete the emails.

Today, I received a similar email. I again believed to be a phishing email.

I logged into my PayPal account and found an area on PayPal’s site, where a person can “report” possible phishing emails.

It’s really quite easy. All you do is forward the email to: spoof@paypal.com and PayPal will check into it. They advise you to then delete the email.

Shortly thereafter, spoof@paypa.ciom, sent me a response, via email, stating that it was, in fact, a phishing email and their security team is working to disable it.

Phishing emails are an attempt of others who are trying to steal your identity. These “people” hope you will give them personal data, passwords, or other information that could help them to not only steal your identity, but to gain access to your financial records.

Ian, a cyberspace friend, and owner of Multi Solutions, Ltd, , wrote a great post on phishing, titled: Small Business IT Threats – Phishing Fraud Investigated and how one of his colleagues “took the bait”. It’s a great read with an interesting twist, at the end.

Today’s Assignment

Do you ever get emails from PayPal or Amazon, that you think may be legitimate, but aren’t sure?

What do you do?

Click on the link provided?

Category: Archives, Blogging Lessons, Security  3 Comments
15
Dec
What Are Paid Links
Barbara Swafford

For some time now, there has been a debate going on about Google decreasing the page rank of a website or blog, if it has “paid links”.

Today’s Lesson

So, what are paid links?

Not knowing for sure which links Google considers as “paid links”, I decided to go right to the source.

In a “must read” article, written by Matt Cutts, of Google, How to Report Paid Links, he addresses the issue of paid links, affiliate marketing, Pay per Post, submitting to directories, buying and selling links, plus several other issues. The post also includes links to others articles that provide more detailed information on these subjects.

In short, paid links are any text links, which are purchased (paid for), with the intent to try and increase page rank with search engines.

Following up on this subject, on December 1, 2007, Matt did another post on Selling Links That Pass Pagerank, that is also well worth reading.

Today’s Assignment

If you are curious about paid links, and if your blog/site is affected, please read the above mentioned articles.

Make time to read the comments also, as this issue is quite controversial.

Do you think Google should decrease the page rank of blogs or websites that contain paid links?

Do you think this move on Google’s part will affect your rank?

Do you care?

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Category: Archives, Blogging Lessons, Increase Traffic, Linking, Page Rank  Tags: , ,  2 Comments
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