Archive for » August, 2007 «

If you’re new to blogging, you may be overwhelmed with all of the blogging language. You did find out that blogging has it’s own language, didn’t you?

My best advice to new bloggers, is to take it, one step at a time. There is no way, you’ll learn all there is to blogging, “overnight”.

Once you have your blog set up, start by posting according to the schedule you set up for yourself. If you find your schedule was too aggressive, step back and reduce the number of posts you had hoped to publish on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

With blogging, the main two things to maintain, are great content (what you write), and a consistent posting schedule.

If the time you can dedicate to blogging is limited, concentrate on your posts.

As time permits, add plugins or widgets to your site. If you want to incorporate Google AdSense, or other ads to your site, add them one by one, based on your “comfort” level. You may be required to insert HTML code onto some of your theme’s pages. If you’re not comfortable doing so, either wait until you are, or have a friend help you.

As far as add ons, the first one you should add is a spam killer. I use Askimet, and am very pleased with it. It’s easy to activate, and if you’re using WordPress, it’s “preinstalled”. Just go to your “plugins”, hit the “activate” button, and follow the instructions. (You’ll be asked to insert an API key – you’ll receive this “key” (a series of numbers and letters), during the activation process.)

If you want to see statistics for your blog, WordPress.com Stats is the easiest to install. There’s no coding involved. Like Askimet, you’ll receive an API key. Once that’s inserted, the rest is automatic. See my previous article: Plugin – WordPress.com Stats, for more information on WordPress.com Stats.

As with any new hobby, learning the art of blogging, can be difficult. But as time passes, the pieces will begin to fall into place.

If you’re a newbie to blogging, who is using WordPress, finding the right information can be difficult. Searching for information about blogging with WordPress, can produce millions of results.

The best source for WordPress, is in an obvious place. It’s at WordPress .org. By clicking on the following link, you will be directed to a page named WordPress For Beginners.

This site takes you step by step through WordPress. Each subject has it’s own link, letting you progress at your own speed. It’s a lot of reading, however, if you plan to create a blog that will stand the test of time, it will be time well spent.

Some of the subjects that are covered are, learning the jargon, where to start, blog design and layout, themes, using images, HTML and XHTML, just to name a few.

For WordPress newbies, this is page worth bookmarking. It contains a wealth of information.

Happy Blogging!

Category: Archives, Hints, New To Blogging  Tags: ,  Comments off

Sitemeter is one of many statistical data reporting services for bloggers and webmasters.

When one of my “Blogging Buddies”, mentioned they were using Sitemeter, I decided to give it a try. I was pleasently surprised at the detailed information Sitemeter provides.

Sitemeter contains:

1) Updated stats which shows “who’s on”

2) A map of where your visitors are coming from

3) A traffic prediction based on your current traffic trends

4) Recent visitors, by details, referrals, location, out clicks, entry and exit pages

5) Visits for the current day, previous 7 and 30 days, and previous 12 months

6) Visits and page views for the current day, previous 7 and 30 days, and previous 12 months

7) Page ranking of entry and exit pages

8.) Navigation trends, location tracking, visitor tracking and web browsers

Sitemeter has great maps and graphs, and is a superb tracking tool to help, in watching the growth of your site.

To download Sitemeter to your site, inserting HTMl code is necessary. Once inserted, you’ll see the Sitemeter logo. (You can see mine at the bottom of this post). By clicking on the logo, you will be directed to Sitemeter.

Once you have installed Sitemeter, you can change the privacy level. If set to high, and a reader clicks on the Sitemeter logo, they will be directed to Sitemeter’s home page. If the privacy level is set lower, your readers will be able to see your stats when they click on the logo.

For a free download of Sitemeter, go to www.sitemeter.com. or click on the Sitemeter logo. Sitemeter also offers a “premium service” which offers additonal data reporting information, for a small monthly fee.

WordPress.com Stats is a great plugin for checking your stats. The WordPress Stats plugin, does not count the visits you make to your site(s).

Like Akismet, with the WordPress.com Stats plugin, you need an API key. Once the API key is entered, the rest is automatic. You will then find “Blog Stats” on your WordPress Dashboard.

The WordPress Stats plugin, shows your most popular posts, the number of daily views, what key phrases readers used to find your site, what they clicked on while visiting your site, plus other useful information.

If you have more than one blog, you can toggle between the stats for each blog. The WordPress.com Stats plugin, also allows you to check your stats as often as you wish, by clicking on the “Switch” key.

The WordPress Stats plugin, provides graphs for your traffic, by daily, weekly or monthly. You can also check to see which were your most popular posts, for the last week, or the last month.

For such an easy installation (no coding), this is a great plugin for stat checking.

This is another free plugin. It can be obtained at WordPress.org.

Many thanks to the author of WordPress.com Stats, Andy Skelton.

If you have a new blog, and want to get indexed by Google, Yahoo, plus other search engines, thus improving search engine optimization, it’s apparent that a site map is imperative to install.

What is a site map? Think of a site map as a blueprint of your site. When you first generate a site map, it sends a message to the search engines, and the spiders, crawlers, and bots, “come and take at look” at what your site “looks like”, and what it includes. Each time you write and publish a post, a new site map is generated, and a new message is sent to the search engines, that you’ve “changed your blueprint”. This generates another visit from the search engines. In turn, your site gets updated in the search engine “files” and getting indexed, is the result.

Some reports claim, if you’re already getting indexed, a site map may not be necessary. However, why take a chance that a new post may not get indexed in a timely fashion.

Here’s a link to the site where I got my Google Site map Generator: Google Site map Generator by von Arne Brachhold

It’s free, easy to download, and a cinch to activate. After you have activated the plugin, and are looking at the “options”, if you’re not sure which boxes to check, just leave them the way they are. You can always make changes later.

I downloaded the 3.0b7 version, which includes the latest updates.

Thank you, von Arne Brachhold, for this great plugin.

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Category: Archives, Plugins and Widgets, SEO  Tags: , ,  Comments off