Blogging
Create Posts That Engage Your Readers, Attract The Search Engines and Invite Comments
I know, it sounds like a tall order, doesn’t it? But you can do it with a little forethought, some planning and an eye on the SEO ball. Here is a checklist I use for my posts. Understand though, sometimes I get two out of three, sometimes only 1. A really good post will have all three, so that’s your goal.
Post Preparation Checklist
-
Gather Your Intel.
In this step, I gather up the research I am performing, material I want to quote, related sites, links or resources I want to include. I gather all that into once place. I use notepad or Dreamweaver for this, since a post’s resources will grow as I build it. Remember that to benefit a reader, it needs to offer them exactly what they are looking for.
SenSEO: A Checklist For SEO
As anyone who knows me can attest, I am a rabid Firefox fan.
I found one more reason to crow about the virtues of Firefox. It’s an addon for Firefox that allows you to check your site and give you a grade based on selected criteria.
It shows you what your competition is doing right, and what they are doing wrong. You can use Sen SEO as a checklist on your own blog. Go through this process after each new post, and you can stay in Google’s good SEO graces.
This video will discuss what Sen SEO shows you Read the rest of SenSEO: A Checklist For SEO Read more »
Tracking Traffic: Where Do They Come From, Where Do They Go?
Today, I wanted to address a little bit about tracking traffic, a necessary component to improving your online marketing and branding efforts. That’s tracking where your visitor comes from (how they found you) and where they go within your site. Their navigation path is a wealth of information if you will take the time to follow along.
What page are they on when they lose interest and move on? That one website tracking metric alone could be worth a sack of gold coins to you if you know what to do with it.
There are quite a few different types of website tracking scripts and plugins you can use for your blog, but for today, let’s not get fancy… let’s get detailed. Read the rest of Tracking Traffic: Where Do They Come From, Where Do They Go? Read more »
Zooming Images: Adding Cool Features To Your Site
It doesn’t matter if you are an online retailer, an affiliate marketer or just an avid blogger sharing photo’s of your hobbies, the ability to zoom into an image is a cool feature that will capture the interest of your audience and keep them on page longer. And a longer visit duration is better, right?
I am sure your imagination can take the lead here, but I thought a… Read the rest of Zooming Images: Adding Cool Features To Your Site Read more »
Whew! Services Page Finally Done
Have you ever had a task you knew you had to get done, but had been putting it off for so long that you lost track of everything you planned to do?
Yeah, me to. The Services Pages was one such project for me. In fact, to be fair, the Blog Installations, Plugins and Consultations, Theme Modifications and Coaching pages also needed updating as well. So, I unplugged the phone, closed Skype and turned off auto-retrieval for my email and got busy.
If you are even remotely interested in services offered here, feel free to poke around. If, like my daughter, you could care less… then just forgive my absence from the blogging scene and move along. Read the rest of Whew! Services Page Finally Done Read more »
Headspace2 Tutorial: Exploring SEO Through Plugins
A recent coaching session covered the SEO benefits of installing and using Headspace2 to increase your Online Marketing and Personal Branding. As members of that call will recognize, about 45 minutes was cut from this video. All the wasted time on technical difficulties is gone. Areas where the information was repeated (as in answering questions or covering the same concept on a different part of the call) were removed or spliced together to provide a single explanation.
< Read the rest of Headspace2 Tutorial: Exploring SEO Through Plugins Read more »
Defend Your Blog: Scan For Vulnerabilities
I hate to do it. Tempt the fates that is. After weeks of effort, lost time, missed billables, disappointed clients and frustrated days — I think I am free. Virus free that is.
And even as I am writing this post, I feel a tremor in my loins. A quick check of my site in my FTP program shows a cache directory I didn’t update! Run the file permissions recursed into subfolders and update the .htaccess file to protect the directory. Am I ready? Maybe. Read the rest of Defend Your Blog: Scan For Vulnerabilities Read more »
Fix The Wordpress Blank Page Error
So, has this happened to you? You install a new upgrade or plugin, and suddenly, various places within your dashboard no longer work? You happily click the Dashboard | Posts | Edit link to be greeted by a stark white and completely empty page.
I know. Me too.
And like you, I started Googling the answer, only to find there were dozens of “solutions” out there, and not one of them helped me. I will, for the sake of consolidating the answers into one convenient place, assemble those other solutions as well, but here is what worked for me. Read the rest of Fix The Wordpress Blank Page Error Read more »
Pardon The Dust And Swearing
It’s likely to get bad around here for the next couple of weeks. In fact, it’s bad not just here!
I own and update more than 50 blogs, and every single one of them is currently *under construction*. Or to be more accurate, being moved from one hosting control panel to another.
See, I got tagged with a virus. A little bit of injected code that someone managed to get past the defenses that were in place at the time. (Admittedly, not as much as is in place now). After chasing it for almost 2 months now, I broke down and requested my hosting company move me to a new server. They graciously agreed. Read the rest of Pardon The Dust And Swearing Read more »
Protecting Your Blogs FTP Area
Some %$@#$>%$@#$#^& found/hacked/stole your FTP account password. Now what? Well, change it of course, but that might not be enough.
(Can you feel my self restraint in not actually swearing?)
Here is a simple method you can use to prevent anyone other than you from uploading or downloading files. Read the rest of Protecting Your Blogs FTP Area Read more »
Defend Against The Bot’s
(Part of an ongoing series on protecting your most valuable asset in your online marketing arsenal, your Wordpress blog)
Sabre: Simple Anti Bot Registration Engine
Sabre is an acronym for Simple Anti Bot Registration Engine. It’s a set of counter measures against spam registration on your blog.
Your visitors are granted permission to register freely on your blog and now you are plagued by fake users automatically created by spammers? Read the rest of Defend Against The Bot's Read more »
Firewall For Your Wordpress Blog
(Part of an ongoing series on protecting your most valuable asset in your online marketing arsenal)
In the military, they call it “hardening targets” when they take steps to make it harder for the enemy to attack an asset. Here in the real world, it’s hard to think like that. But not thinking like this could cost you time, money, reputation and frustration.
I know from first hand experience.
When I started this series, it was in response to the attack my personal hosting account suffered. And because it was my hosting account, and not a single blog, but rather every single one of my sites was hit.
Take my advice and harden your assets now. Read the rest of Firewall For Your Wordpress Blog Read more »
