Cenay Nailor : The Online Marketing and Blogging Geek» Online Marketing Tips ~ Blogging Your Brand with Wordpress

Retrofitting Your Theme For The New Custom Menu Feature

Cenay Nailor — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 02:08:09 +0000

The new Worpdress 3.0 feature that adds custom menu’s is a great add-on to an already amazing piece of software. Previously, if you wanted specific items to appear in a specific order, you had to add plugins, edit theme files, update exclude lists and basically jump through a bunch of hoops.

No more. Say hello to my little custom menu. Thanks to all the Wordpress community developers. You guys really rock.

Unfortunately, if you purchased or installed your theme prior to Wordpress 3.0, your theme might not be *custom menu ready*. You have two choices. Go buy/get a new theme that is custom menu ready, or retro-fit your existing theme.

I don’t know about you, but I have dozens and dozens of hours over the last couple of years invested in custom tweaks and feature additions I don’t want to lose. I choose to retro-fit my theme.

Wordpress 3.0 Custom Navigation Menu Features

Before I jump into telling you HOW to retro-fit your theme to use this cool new feature, perhaps we should talk about what the cool new feature is. And to understand what the Wordpress community has gifted us with, we first need to explain what we had. Pages. Posts. That’s it. And most themes would display one navigation menu for pages, and another for categories of posts (if you were lucky).

If you wanted to have a single page appear in the navigation bar were the posts were displayed, you had to hack the theme. If you wanted to add a menu item to the top menu bar that pointed to another of your sites, you had to hack your theme. Remove 3 pages that you didn’t want displayed to everyone and their dog, hack the theme. Get the idea?

With the new Wordpress Navigation Menu system, you now have complete control over your menus. Want three categories, two pages and an external link on your top menu? Just drag and drop exactly those items and save the menu. Done.

Want to show a page within a list of category items on your bottom menu? Drag and drop into the order you want and save. Done.

Get the idea? Forget hacking the theme for something that should be (and now is) easy.

In Wordpress 3.0, you’ll have a new screen in your Dashboard area under the Appearance menu. It’s called Menus. (Dashboard | Appearance | Menus) In the screen capture below, I have outlined the four areas you will have more control.

Theme Locations: If your theme supports nav menus, it’ll register new locations for you to add your custom-created menus.
Menus (named): This is where the names of your menus will appear after you’ve created them. (Note that the “+” sign will create a new menu.)
Add Menu Items: There’ll be several meta boxes containing pages, other post types, categories, other taxonomies, and custom links to your menus.
Menu Items: Once you’ve added menu items to your menu, they will appear under the menu for your configuration.

Retro-fit Existing Themes

If your theme was created prior to Wordpress 3.0, check for an upgrade. If there isn’t one, you will have to hack your theme one last time to retro-fit it for the custom menus. Grab your editor and let’s go through that.

There are two methods to add a menu. Add a single navigation menu, and add multiple navigation menus. To associate specific menus with locations within our themes, we need to register these locations. Otherwise, we won’t know which menu goes where. There are two functions we can use for this:

register_nav_menu(): Registers a single theme location.
register_nav_menus(): An array of locations we want to register.

A Single Navigation Menu Item

Registering a single menu for a theme (theme location)

In this example, we’ll register a single menu called Primary Menu from our theme’s functions.php file. (To edit this file, visit Dashboard | Appearance | Editor and then select the functions.php file)

add_action( 'init', 'register_my_menu' );

function register_my_menu() {
  register_nav_menu( 'primary-menu', __( 'Primary Menu' ) );
}

In this example, primary-menu is the *slug* we will use to identify the menu in the theme files (in a future step). We could have called this anything. And Primary Menu will be the label we use to identify the menu in the admin area. Again, name this whatever makes sense to you. Once this functions.php file is saved, Wordpress now knows you intend to use a navigation menu that is customizable.

Registering Multiple Navigation Menus

If you are planning to use multiple navigation menus, (and why wouldn’t you since they are so easy?), then you need to use this instead. This will allow you to create an array (A fancy way of saying a *set* of something that are alike) that holds the menu slugs and names.

function register_my_menus() {
  register_nav_menus(
    array(
    'primary-menu' => __( 'Primary Menu' ),
    'secondary-menu' => __( 'Secondary Menu' ),
    'sidebar-menu' => __( 'Sidebar Menu' )
    )
  );
}

This completes the setup for the process. Basically, what we have done is “register” the menus with the theme so Wordpress knows we are going to allow it. Pretty simple so far, right?

Adding A Navigation Menu To Your Theme

Now, we have to update the theme so it will know where to display these fancy new menus. In your current theme, you probably have something like where the theme is to display your pages and where your theme displays your categories. (Please note, yours might be different depending on the options you added.)

What we are going to do, is just replace those two Wordpress code snippets with one that will display the menu(s) we registered.

By the way, most of this is in the header.php file as mentioned above, however, it is possible there are other locations in your theme that display menus.

The easiest and most simple method for calling the new navigation menu is…

That will load the first menu created or force Wordpress to fall back on the standard “page list” if no menus exist. However, we can have a bit more control over that by passing in information with parameters. For example, let’s specifically call our secondary menu (created earlier).

 'secondary-menu' )); ?>

And if this were enclosed in a div tag with styling rules assigned, we would be done at this point.

Some of the additional parameters that allow even more control are:

theme_location: The menu to call that is associated with the specific theme location
menu: Call a specific menu ID, slug or name.
container: The elements that wraps around the list. The default is div, but can be changed to nav if you’ve moved on to HTML 5.
container_class: The CSS class of the container. (This allows more styling options)
menu_class: The CSS class given to the unordered list. This defaults to menu.
fallback_cb: A function to call in the event that no menu items have been given. By default, wp_list_pages() will be called.
before: Text that is displayed before the link text, with within the link.
after: Text that is displayed after the link text, but within the link
link_before: Text that is displayed before the link
link_after: Text that is displayed after the link
depth: How many levels the menu should display, which is useful for things like drop-down menus. This is set to 9 (any level) by default.
walker: Allows a custom walker PHP class to be defined to create the menu.
echo: Whether to display the menu or return it for use in PHP. This defaults to true and displays the menu.

Displaying a Menu Using The Navigation Menu Widget

By default, WordPress will give you a simple menu widget (once you have registered at least one menu) that will allow you to select any of your custom menus to display. All you need is a widget-ready theme.

Visit Dashboard | Appearance | Widgets and locate the new Custom Menu widget. You will have two settings you can adjust. The first is title. What do you want to title your new widget? The second is a drop down that will let you select the menu (from the array you created earlier) that you want.

Easy peasy.

More Advanced Features (Optional)

Please note that you can stop right here if you want. In fact, on two of my blogs, I did only the minimum. I inserted the registration to the functions.php file and inserted two calls to the wp_nav_menu() function… one for the primary and one of the secondary. However, if you want to go a little deeper, then keep reading.

Check If Theme Location Has A Menu Assigned

Wordpress has a conditional tag called has_nav_menu() to check if a menu has been set to a specific theme location. In other words, suppose we are creating a container with a menu and a search form. But, if no menu is set for the theme location, we don’t want either to appear.

When you call your menu by theme location, you can first check to see if a menu is associated with the location. Note that we’re checking the theme location slug and not a menu name or ID.



	
		 'primary-menu' ) ); ?>
		
	

} ?>

See If Specific Menu Exists

When developing themes, it is sometimes handy to be able to test for a condition, such as If a specific menu is present. You can check by ID, name or slug in your PHP code like this.

if ( is_nav_menu( 'menu-slug' ) )
	/* Do something if the menu exists. */
else
	/* Do something if the menu doesn't exist. */

Get Creative With Your Wordpress 3.0 Menus

While this isn’t meant to be a be-all-end-all tutorial, you should be able to retro-fit your theme with a basic version of the menu system, and insert a new menu within the dashboard. Just remember, drag and drop into the correct order. And if you want to layer the items under one another, drag a little to the right (or left) of the position. The dashed line will show where the new item will appear in the menu hierarchy.

(Please note, if the drag and drop stuff doesn’t want to work for you, you have a plugin that is conflicting. Just disable all plugins, drag and drop to your hearts content, then re-enable the plugins again.)

Trackback, Pingback and Getting Found

Cenay Nailor — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 22:37:39 +0000

From the Skype Blog Room Questions

I am one of the resident experts featured in Julie’s Blog Support Room – Q&A Weds 6pm EDT. This Skype chat room allows visitors who have questions about blogging, to ask them online and get an answer specific to their situation. It’s been a pretty good system so far.

Since I answer a LOT of questions there, I thought I would start publishing the questions and answers here so you guys could benefit as well. So, start watching for the category FAQ to get more posts in upcoming weeks, as I re-purpose some of the work I am doing over there…

QUESTION FOR CENAY: have you heard about this new thing “Instant Blog Subscribers”? Well, in there you can post a blog and you can do trackbacks to other blogs that you’ve mentioned. Twice now I have written a post and tried to trackback to my blogs and I get a message that the trackback was refused. I have both blogs set up to allow pings and trackback so maybe I’m using the wrong link. I just used my regular link http://NinaNestoroff.com and http://ultimatelistbuildingtips.com/blog/ Is there something else I’m supposed to use in that scenario? I would appreciate any suggestions.

Also, it allowed me to do pings on weblogs.com, blo.gs and ping-o-matic, but technorait refused it saying I had given an incorrect url but it was the same that went to the others. http://instantblogsubscribers.com/?w=buildyourlists Maybe the whole w= thing is unacceptable. Any advice?

Thanks so much Cenay for your extensive knowledge and huge heart for allowing us to pick your brain!

Trackbacks and Refusals

First, you need to know that it isn’t YOUR blog settings that are allowing you to trackback to another blog, but rather THEIR settings. Each blog owner has the choice to allow it or not (including you).

On Wordpress, they can turn this option on or off at Dashboard | Settings | Discussion. It is the “Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks)” in the Default article settings section.

So, now that we understand the OTHER blog owner chooses to allow you to trackback or not, we need to understand a trackback a little better. Each post in their blog (in Wordpress), creates a trackback URL, except the home page. So, for example, let’s say I am writing a new blog post about my favorite plugins. During my research for the article I found three other posts (on other blogs) that are similar and list a couple of my favorites. I can add a trackback on MY post, which will notify their blogs about my article. And IF that blog owner allows trackbacks, my notification will trigger a reciporical link. Automatically.

Since I know this is a little hard to understand and visualize, check out another article I did called SEO: Inbound Links Without Asking Or Spamming that goes into a little more detail.

Now, regarding your additional question about the w= part of your URL and Technorati’s refusal of that link, I think the answer is less about the link, and more about the ping service.

Ping Servers Let Search Engines Know You Have New Content

Understand that not every ping server is appropriate for every blog out there. That’s one of the reasons there are so many. And not every ping server allows links with “query strings”, which is what that ?w= part or your URL is called. Spend some time reviewing possible ping servers you can use that match your blog’s genre and specific pinging methods. Don’t know where to find ‘em?

Check out another article I wrote about fasttrackking your Google Notifications here -> Giant List Of Ping Servers ~ Fast Track Your Google Notifications

Teaser Video: SEO Powersuite

Cenay Nailor — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 03:16:49 +0000

I just purchased an amazing tool to help me focus my SEO efforts, build inbound links, audit my results and check my rankings. What can I say, it was time to take my SEO and link portfolio to the next level and some of this wasn’t being handled by Market Samurai or SEO Elite, both tools I purchased for this purpose.

And because I am more than a little willing to gloat (’cause YOU don’t have this tool and I do), allow me to show you what you are missing.

(Disclaimer: Don’t get me wrong, building these things manually has been pretty easy, but the size of the site, the number of partners, the rankings I have achieved means it’s a little harder to track it all now. I went looking for a solution to simplify, and found a tool to explode my results.)

These days the Internet is a marketing battlefield. Fierce fights for search traffic are going on in every niche with the contenders ready to struggle for every position in the rankings. Just like any war, online battles are impossible to win without a sophisticated intelligence. You can have all the weaponry you can get but it’s useless unless you know what exactly is going on at the other side of the frontline. SEO Spyglass is that intelligence tool.

Ready to try it to? You can, for free. Download SEO Powersuite and check it out.

And although they offer all four tools sold separately, I wouldn’t just get one or two. I would (if I were you, cause I already did) get the complete package deal they call SEO Powersuite, which contains SEO Spyglass, Link Assistant, Website Auditor and Rank Tracker. It’s currently discounted $150.

That still too high? Contact me directly for a secret link to get another $100 off. Hurry, their offer ends August 1st.

Update: 7/27/2010 3amPssst! Guess what landed on the first page of Google for the search term “seo powersuite video”? That’s right, this post.. and in less than 1 hour. Sweet! God I love Headspace2.

Headspace2 and SEO for Video Posts

Cenay Nailor — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 19:50:18 +0000

Frequently Asked Question

Today’s entry from the mail bag comes from Marquis, regarding a recent video tutorial I did on Headspace2. Marquis writes:

Hello Cenay,

I recently viewed your Headspace2 tutorial video. This video was by far the most helpful tutorial I’ve come across. However, I am a novice when it comes to websites and SEO and I had a few additional questions regarding the Headspace2 plugin.

I am launching a sports blog that covers the latest news and headlines, as well as highlights in sports. Because most of the content will be covering breaking news, SEO is extremely important.

Under the global settings, I have the following tags listed as: sports headlines,sports highlights,sports news

Are these settings proficient? Do I need to add “sports” in the tags as well?

Also, most of the content in my posts will hardly ever have written content, as it will mostly include video and photos. Therefore, I will not have many opportunities to implement keywords within the posts. Although my posts will have keywords in the titles, will not having keywords within the posts put me at a disadvantage when it comes to SEO?

Any assistance regarding this topic would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Marquis

I emailed him back, but really felt like this answer might answer some of your questions as well. So forgive me Marquis for not asking permission to republish your question, but I had to share my answer…

Headspace2 And Video Posts: The Answer

Marquis,

The most important question first… by offering videos and NOT having text that the search engines can crawl, YES, you are at a disadvantage. As redundant as it sounds, I would place a “summary” of what the video is about in text form, and make sure you use your primary and secondary keywords within that text.

Also, you should place the keyword in all 9 places the search engines look for it. Here is a post I did detailing all 9 places to add your keyword.

Next, there are things you can do to help get your video posts found. Google created a video and tutorial section on Video Sitemaps which you can access here.

Regarding the global keyword/tags and what you should place on the post for each…

1) The global should be the generic keywords that are applicable to ALL posts.

2) The keywords on the individual posts should include words used within the body of that post content. For example, if the post/video is about the Eagles training camp and a specific player, use BOTH those words in the post and post keywords/tags.

Just remember, you are tagging so people can find your content so you will need to know what words they are searching. A little keyword research (from Google Trends for example), can help you understand how they search and what the hottest topics are.

For more in depth keyword research (something I highly recommend), I strongly advise getting a tool like Market Samurai or Keyword Elite. There is no substitute for knowing how people search for a given subject, and what your competition is doing to land the clicks for those searches.

I hope this helps.

Cenay’

Marketing Method: Follow Up

Cenay Nailor — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:14:53 +0000

Most unsuccessful marketers lack one thing, and it’s the one thing that 99% of the successful marketers have in common. Can you guess what it is? Come on, I gave you a hint (in the title).

Thanks right. Follow up.

And you can’t follow up if you don’t capture their name and email address. That part is called *Building a list*. Generally speaking, you offer something of value in exchange for permission to follow up with them. That *offer* is an ethical bribe. And frankly, it needs to be worth their name and email address in today’s world of spammers.

A free ebook they can’t get elsewhere, a newsletter, a 20% discount on a product they will likely want (based on your niche) or something of this nature. It will vary depending on the niche you are in, but not too much.

This Gets You In The Door

A name and email address in exchange for something of value is just your foot in the door, and like all good salesmen, you have to continue to earn their trust and attention. That’s where the follow up comes in. This is your opportunity to build your reputation with them. Build trust. Build a relationship. And don’t be like the other marketers that fail this part of the process by “marketing” too soon.

You aren’t an adviser yet. They don’t know or like you yet. You haven’t earned the right to recommend anything yet. To earn it, you have to continue to send them info/value/product that matches up with their needs. And for this to be successful, your message has to get past their “ad filters” (visual), their “spam filters” (physical) and reach their email inbox.

There Is One Tool You Need In Your Arsenal

Well, okay, to be fair, you really need a few tools, but without the ability to follow up over time, and get those messages past their spam filters, you are just spinning your wheels in this industry.

The tool is rightly called an “Auto Responder”. It’s an automated tool that allows you to custom craft your messages and then assign a time period when to send them. In other words, send message 1, 10 minutes after they sign up. Send message 2, 3 days later. Send message 3 and every future message 7 days later. You get the idea.

Now, you can try to remember all this, you can track your prospects in Excel and you can manually deal with the Internet Service providers that will ban your IP address or domain name (it happens all the time), or you can sign up for a service such as AWeber or iContact, Constant Contact or Get Response.

Using a service (particularly one that forces an opt in confirmation), allows you to focus on your messages, your follow up and not the mechanics.

I know which method I would prefer. How about you? Are you ready to follow up like a pro? Get an autoresponder service account. I prefer AWeber for a variety of reason, but it really doesn’t matter which autoresponder account you go with. Just go with one of them.

Each has their own merits so you can evaluate based on what you need. Trust me? Then get an AWeber account for a pittance ($19.95 a month) and double or even triple your sales numbers by allowing your prospects to get to know you first, hear from you often and purchase from you when you gain their trust.

Related AWeber Resources

This Was A LOT Easier 30 Years Ago

Cenay Nailor — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:25:43 +0000

Some of you know me personally. As in come over to my house or speak with me on the phone. For those of you, I have this message… This was SOOOO much easier 30 years ago.

For those of you not in my immediate circle (don’t you wish you were?), let me explain.

I just had to move. Suddenly. My daughter just had to move. Suddenly. I managed (with a lot of help from some really good friends) to get the majority of my things packed and moved into the new house. The remainder placed in storage. I am organized after all. My daughter’s move was scheduled the weekend following mine…

…it didn’t go as well.

Britene got everything packed, we got the u-Haul loaded and drove over to the new house. Ooops. The power company has decided it will not turn on the power (that was just disconnected the day before) because the breaker box is not up to code.

Time for Plan B.

We unloaded the U-Haul with every single thing Britene owned onto the upper deck of her soon-to-be-husband’s house. The one he has been remodeling. The one under construction. Crap.

Time to pull out all the stops and get the bottom floor ready for habitation. It just needs the electrical fixtures installed, and the wood floor installed. No problem.

Now to the part that was so much easier 30 years (and more than a few pounds) ago… construction. Cutting, fitting, bending, lifting, hammering, sawing, and generally doing the handy things I loved doing in my younger days as a trim carpenter.

I can’t decide if its the weight or the age that hurts worse. Not being able to comfortably do something I love? It’s time to lose weight and get back in shape. 49 isn’t that old, right?

So, in case you were wondering where my posts are, each night these past two weeks, I am too tired to sit at the computer. In fact, my body aches and cries and whimpers. I have to put it to bed early. I miss you dear reader. I will return soon.

Google Is Lying To You

Cenay Nailor — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 20:51:59 +0000

If you are using Google’s keyword suggestion tool, or any tool that relies on Google’s research, then you aren’t getting the truth, and I can prove it.

I know they are strong words, but hear me out. In fact, listen quick, and listen close because you can only do something about this from June 21st through June 25th. Trust me, this is a real time sensitive matter.

(For those of you who know me, you know I am not an aggressive affiliate marketer. Oh sure, I have a few products listed on my site, but they are tools I use and highly recommended if you want to succeed online. However, I don’t send out email blasts about them. Hold on your to britches, I am breaking one of my rules today. Yep, it’s that important.)

Jon Ledger just came out with a new tool called Keyword Snatcher that really blew me away. He made it available to a limited number of his affiliates a day early, and let me tell you… after you watch the video about what it can do, you are gonna grab your wallet so fast it will make your wife’s (or husband’s) head spin. I didn’t even finish watching the whole video myself, before I whipped mine out.

It’s About The Right Tool For The Job

To friends and family, this statement won’t come as a surprise since its sorta my mantra. As a former trim carpenter (in my younger/slimmer days), I learned the value of having exactly the right tool for certain jobs. For example, if you want the trim to look like it grew around the room, you needed a power miter saw (for the 45 cuts) and a coping saw to cut out the pattern.

You could use a different tool, but it would take more time, and not look as good. And for coping, nothing else would work. Period. Well, okay… you could whittle it with a knife I suppose. But think how that would look — and talk about not being time efficient!

Different Tools, Different Jobs

There are keyword research tools out there, many of which are pretty good. And for those client on a serious budget, I often start them out on the Google Suggestion Tool and work them up to my favorite overall niche tool..Market Samurai. Not today. And not for the next 5 days.

Keyword Snatcher is a must have tool for any affiliate or niche marketer, blogger, article writer or online maven. It will drill into the long tail keywords that will get you found by your target market. Period.

So, stop reading and go watch this video. If you are anything like me, you will be whipping out your wallet in short order. Hurry – Jonathon has promised it will only be available from June 21st through June 25th. Go watch the Keyword Snatcher Video now.

Update: 6.28.2010
I warned you this was a time sensitive offer. They have already pulled the tool from the market to keep the number of people who can produce this many long tail keywords to a minimum. However, like any great product early to market, there is another that just came out that can do the same thing. Keyword Magnet is even priced a couple bucks less. Want to find the words that Google is hiding from you but missed the chance with Keyword Snatcher? You still have an option with Keyword Magnet, but I would hurry, just in case.

Guest Posting Builds Your Blog’s Traffic

Cenay Nailor — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 02:09:47 +0000

If you hang around this blog at all, you know I preach quite a bit about link building, blog commenting and other sufficiently geeky subjects all related to getting your content found.

Today, I want to introduce you to yet another link building strategy with multiple benefits, this one for both of us.

Guest Posts Build Your Readership

Despite what you might think, even a moderately successful guest post can build a steady stream of traffic to your blog. Even with just the one or two links included in the author bio area. Controversial? Funny? Asshole? Any of these can insure it could be substantially more.

Yeah, I know. Defies logic, doesn’t it? Not really, when you think about it.

Add to the body of knowledge on a particular topic and folks just naturally want to know more about you. They will click your links. They will follow your breadcrumbs. They will read your blog. And if they like it, they will subscribe.

Now Offering Guest Posts

Here is where it is win-win-win for us. You get new eyeballs on your content and your rapier wit. Hopefully, you get new regular readers. I get content for my blog that presents a new perspective, a different opinion. And the reader (yes, you dear reader, my reason for living), get more … divergent ideas, laughs, insights, and resources.

Calling All Writers, Bloggers, and Readers Who Want To Write

So, if you thought about writing or blogging and haven’t taken the plunge, consider starting here. If you are a regular blogger and looking to grow your readership, feel free to submit posts and siphon off some of mine… we can share. If you are a professional grade writer, you can submit, but I can’t promise I will accept. I am looking for the “real”, and it’s been my experience that pro-writers, just lack the ability to keep it real.

So, come on… dip a toe in and let’s do this thing. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Did You Notice…?

There are new pages in the navigation bar at the top. If you haven’t checked them out recently, you might want to explore a little. The Guest Post Guidelines are in the About section. You can review my requirements and submit an article there.

Time Management Issues

Cenay Nailor — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 02:25:15 +0000

We all have them.

I was visiting with a coaching student this past week, when he asked me an interesting question. “How do you manage to get everything done?”

Though I hope I answered him fully and completely, and I know I shared my scheduling tricks, it got me thinking. I am probably not doing it right. Oh hell, let’s be honest… I know I am not doing it “right”. I am doing what works for me. Most of the time.

And that might not work for you. In fact, unless you are every bit as anal-retentive and pathologically obsessed with note taking, my method of time management probably won’t work for you. But unless you want to be wearing adult diapers because you forgot to schedule time for potty breaks, then I suggest you find something that works.

Be Consistent

My first word of warning is to be consistent. If you start out using a paper calendar, continue using it. It doesn’t do you any good to have half your notes on a paper calendar or day timer, and the other half in Outlook’s calendar. Scheduling conflicts are sure to result.

Create a legend of symbols. If a star means a scheduled appointment, and a arrow on it’s side means planned but not firm, then always use the same symbols for the same type of task. (remember the manta: Be consistent, be consistent). I also use two pens. One red for “firm appointments or actions” and a blue one for “try to get this done within this time frame”. (I did mention I am an anal-retentive obsessive compulsive Virgo, right?)

Be Flexible

Yeah, I know… this one is hard for me too. But a certain amount of flexibility is required if you don’t want the men in white to place you in a rubber room for the melt-down that will happen with stress overload.

(Okay, I am mostly talking about me here, but it could happen to you, right?)

By flexible, I mean have a system for tracking those things that need to get done, but don’t have a fixed schedule. I use a “task list” on a steno pad. I track the client name (or project name), date added to the list, and the actual task description. This is a one line description for me, just enough to remind me what the task is.

I leave room at the front of the list for a little checkmark when it’s complete. I review this list any time I have downtime, or need a “change of pace” from the current task. At least once a week, I do a full review and remove items which are no longer relevant (it happens).

What I Use

I use a Mead paper calendar book. Opened, it’s the size of a piece of copy paper (8-1/2″ x 11″), has one full page per day (except weekends). I place a box around “times” that are fixed (appointments) and place the client name next to the time.

I place *> next to items I would like to get done during a specific time, but nobody is gonna die if I miss this. I also add this task to my master list in my steno book.

Both the calendar and steno book are beside my computer mouse, ready to hand. Before I agree to any new appointment or task, I review the books to ensure no conflicts.

It’s not a perfect system, and I am occasionally waaaaaaay behind schedule, but that’s more a function of giving too much time to a task or person that isn’t on my calendar…you know, those “call in’s” on phone or Skype that just have a “quick question”. Trust me, there is no such thing as a quick answer in the world of Internet and Online Marketing.

The How and Why of Bounce Rates

Cenay Nailor — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 10:24:48 +0000

If you have been blogging for more than a month, someone has mentioned bounce rates. And if not, well, then let me be the first to introduce you to the concept.

I guess a quick definition is in order, so rather than reinvent the wheel, allow me to restate what Wiki says:

Bounce rate (sometimes confused with exit rate) is a term used in web site traffic analysis. It essentially represents the percentage of initial visitors to a site who “bounce” away to a different site, rather than continue on to other pages within the same site.

The formula used to calculate bounce rate is: Bounce Rate = Total Number of Visits Viewing Only One Page / Total Number of Visits

Simple, right?

So, who lands on your page and reads one page and then rushes off? Simple, the searcher from Google that typed in “how to edit a wordpress theme”, and found exactly what they were looking for. Once they read your post, they are off to try out your information. This is normal and somewhat what you want. Give’em what they want and they’ll come back…right?

Now, ideally, you want your other visitors to spend a little time, get to know you, learn what types of content you offer and maybe (holding breath here…), recommend your site to their friends.

I have to tell you though, that’s a different type of visitor. That is a visitor that was recommended to your site through a friend, forum, social bookmark or recommendation. They have come to explore and get to know you and what you offer. And while both types of visitors (read: traffic) are necessary, they don’t come in equal parts.

A user coming from a referring site is going to have a lower bounce rate—they are exploring vs. trying to get at a very specific piece of information, which is typically what a Googler is doing.

I preach SEO and getting organic listings. In fact, I have written a number of posts on the value, benefit and technical aspects of doing just that. However, it’s the second type of traffic that is more revealing. (Okay, so even geeks learn as they go)

And while this is all theory for me at this point, the reason I point it out is so you can understand why some channels have a lower bounce than others. If you know a Googler is out for specific information, how can you keep them from leaving so soon? Maybe you can offer them other specific information that’s relevant to them?

Something like what Amazon does with their visitors. You’ve seen it before, I know you have. “Customers who purchased this product, also purchased XYZ”. Social proof. Confirmation they are making the right buying decision. And guess what? After years of testing, this concept works.

So the lesson for we happy bloggers?

“Readers who read this, also read:” and then provide a list of related content, or content read by similar visitors. It’s just another way to present your content, but it allows them to explore more of your content on that single page that brought them in.

Where did they go from here, related posts, tag clouds, category lists and intuitive navigation is a must. BTW, when your visitors stay on your site longer, your Google reputation for that page increases. Talk about a sweet bonus…

Overview Of the Google Analytics Platform

Cenay Nailor — Wed, 19 May 2010 00:43:58 +0000

I typically watch the Google Webmaster channel on YouTube for breaking news from Google. It’s tough to keep up with all the changes and new features without it.

During my surfing, I came across a great video that explains the Google Analytics *engine* and reports. Some of this was over my head, but a good portion of it made sense. I invite you to watch this short video to learn more about Google Analytics (GA) and how you can use it to monitor your website or blog.

The Importance of Google Analytics
Well, you’ve set up your website but how do you know who has visited it and how effective it is? It may look good to you and your mum will have.
Getting to Know Your Google Analytics Dashboard
The title says it all! This is a brief post with one goal: to introduce you to the Google Analytics dashboard.
Boost Your Conversion Rates With Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a superb tool for tracking important information about your sites visitors, it lets you know what they do while on your site and can give.
A Quick Guide To Google Analytics
Google, the best search engine ever built, has been famous for everything that it provides – free of course. It has even increased the size of the Email (G-mail) storage to 2.6 GB.
8 Useful Google Analytics Tips
This is a great list of tips for someone who has been using Google Analytics and is ready to take it to the next level and/or overcome some of its shortcomings.
Google Analytics Opt-Out Extension Keeps Your Data Out of Google’s…
Firefox/Chrome/Internet Explorer: With a browser extension, users can control their privacy and stop their data from being sent to Google Analytics, a Google service which monitors and tracks traffic and visitor data for web sites.

Benefits of Search Engine Optimization

Earl Juanico — Fri, 14 May 2010 21:56:56 +0000

Sometimes a search engine optimization company will miss that obvious question posed by prospective clients and presuppose that the benefits of search engine optimization are apparent to all people. While cashing out a couple thousand on a search engine optimization operation is common-sensical to some, others may find it difficult to shell out cash unless they understand the true benefits of search engine optimization that is transmitted on to their business.

They have to acquire a certain level of trust with regards to the fact that investment in search engine optimization is certain to bring a good return to their business. Search engines account for a large chunk of Internet traffic. The current statistical data, albeit variable in some respect, all consistently point to a single bottom line–that search engines are employed by consumers millions of times every day while looking for services, goods and even real estate properties online. The primary benefit of search engine optimization is that it is capable of delivering your business website among the top-ranked searched sites in the Web. Having your business displayed at the top 10 or top 20 of the search results is indispensable to your goal of doing business from the major search engines. An important fact that spells out this benefit of search engine optimization is that nine in every ten users (or 90%) will find what they’re looking for in the top 10 results and thus would not bother to browse page 2.

It is quite a given that entrepreneurs can indeed earn a lot of money from online marketing. The hidden question lies in cost-benefit analysis. How can one advertise a product while at the same time maximizing the profit? Textbook fact states that the profit one makes has a lot to do with acquiring benefits that is quantitatively larger than the costs that you relinquish. If you purchase advertising space on Google AdWords or other services that charge per click, you may only spend 10 cents for every visitor to your site. There is certainly a problem if it takes 100 clicks before you can acquire a single sale. If the product you are selling is priced at $10 a piece, then obviously there is no profit being made. Pay-per-click marketing strategies persistently cost you more money than you can imagine. Another benefit of search engine optimization is that it can be very affordable over months and years.

Recently, the major search engines have initiated a campaign in adding more weight to original content and quality incoming links. Search engine optimization by providing original content has the benefit of attracting visitors to your website and building link popularity to your website. This guarantees increased sales. The point is that by providing original high-quality content, you are actually rendering a mutual benefit not only to your site search ranking, but also to your site visitors because they are able to obtain valuable information on your website.

Lastly, another benefit of search engine optimization is enhancing your capability of pre-selling products. If you write an article about how your product will solve people’s problem and pointing out all the benefits of that particular product, you help the site visitor to make an informed decision. The article will help place them in a better position to buy your product.

While there are other ways to advertise a website, very few can match the wide targeted audience and affordability that search engines provide.

Earl Juanico www.7seo.com

Author: Earl Juanico
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

10 Things You Should Do With Your Blog

Cenay Nailor — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 01:03:04 +0000

Occasionally, you come across a concept so profound that just reading it is enough to shift your universe. Today, I read one. In fact, once I read it, I had an epiphany and just had to share it. It’s not mine… it’s not even close to anything I have written to date (but wish I had!). It’s profound. And it’s what every blog owner needs to hear. I found it on a Bloggers blog I read regularly. (Hoping I don’t get in trouble for sharing this with you, but I just had to…)

Most of the advice for bloggers online is given from other blog owners and blogging experts. Well, I would like to turn this around and offer you some advice as a reader. Below you’ll find a list of things I wish all the bloggers I read would do.

1. Be easy to understand. Maybe I’m an expert in your field or maybe I’m just trying to be. Either way, domain-specific words and acronyms can be daunting to the uninitiated. Since blogs are the gateway to getting initiated, please spare me from having to learn the language before I can read your blog. If I need Babel Fish to parse your writing, you’ve already lost me.

2. Be relevant. I’m going to read dozens of blogs today. That may seem like a lot but considering there are over 900k posts uploaded every 24 hours; it’s obvious I’ve already done some serious filtering. Even so, that’s a lot of reading for someone who has a real job. I’ve picked blogs that I think are relevant to my career or life in some way. You’ve gone through a process to select me as a reader and I’ve reciprocated by subscribing. Make sure your posts are written for the audience you’ve cultivated.

3. Be consistent. Nothing worse than going to my favorite blog and see they’ve taken off a week or two without notice. Should I stop going there? Will it ever come back? Is there a schedule I can follow? If you want regular readers, then be a regular writer.

4. Be interesting. Let’s make a deal: I’ll give you the most valuable thing I have, my time, and you give me something interesting. It doesn’t have to be funny, although that certainly helps. But it does have to be interesting or new or at least novel. This has as much to do with personality as it does with story. If your topic is one I’m already familiar with, like a well-covered news event, then at least give me a fresh take. It’s OK to blog about events with observations, but you better make sure your observations of those events are worth reading.

5. Be thorough. I get that blogging may not be your full time job and that you won’t be able to explore every topic fully, but I still need a resolution. Give me closure. On every single post. Don’t just introduce me to topics and then leave, like a person at a party who starts a conversation and then walks away mid-sentence. Respect the rules of composition and the anatomy of any good story: make sure your posts have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

6. Have authority. I appreciate that your interest extends past what your blog may usually cover. But you need to qualify your authority so I don’t question it later. If you run a tech blog and start riffing about politics you better know enough to stand up to the political blogs I’m also reading or admit that your opinion is unqualified. I respect that you’re an expert at tech blogging but that doesn’t make you an expert at everything. To paraphrase Colin Powell on what makes a good analyst: tell me what you know, tell me what you don’t know, and if there’s any time left, you can tell me what you think.

7. Be authentic. Considering there’s now tens of millions of people throwing up everything they’ve heard or thought about on the internets, there’s a fair chance that whatever it is you’re about to write already exists in some form or another. That’s OK. I’m reading you because I think your opinion is interesting or valuable. If I find out that it’s not really your opinion, but the opinion of your Master or Advertiser or Sponsor, you’ve lost me. If I want compromised corporate crap journalism I can go to a major newspaper. I’m reading you because you have a quirky opinion that occasionally flies in the face of conventional wisdom. I dig that about you. One that trust is gone, however, so is any appeal of reading your work.

8. Show you enjoy writing. You don’t have to smile when you blog, but you should enjoy writing. You don’t have to love it every day but you should enjoy it enough to be good at it. Every day. The day you stop having fun writing a blog will be the day it becomes less fun to read. Our relationship is built on mutual satisfaction and it’s more fragile and transparent than you may realize. It’s OK to not want to blog for a day or two. Or even longer if you give your readers a heads up. Better than tossing up forced content that makes your readers the worse for reading it.

9. Be accessible. Regardless of the teachings of our social media czars, blogging is still largely about one person publishing so many people can read it. Occasionally, however, you’ll blog about something that inspires the normally uninspired to want to interact with you. Do yourself a favor and be accessible. This doesn’t mean having to respond to every comment or mail but it does mean at least taking part in a conversation you may have started. If you’re not willing to interact with readers who are looking for conversation, someone else in your space will.

10. Be something other than a blogger. As good as your writing may be, much of the value to your readers comes from your knowledge and experience in other areas. This doesn’t mean you have to “Hemingway” all over the world to bullfights and battles so you have fresh content; it does mean, however, keeping people interested in what you’re doing and thinking will be much more challenging if you never do anything interesting. Most of the blogs I read are an output of lives so full they crave to be documented, not random musings from people bored with television.

One of the best ways to improve as a blogger is to be a prolific blog reader. Hold yourself to the lofty demands to which you hold your favorite bloggers.

About the Author: Jonathan Brill is the owner of Prolific247, a company that has been building and managing business blogs since 2007. The company has a collection of best practices and current information for corporate blogging. If you’d like to learn more, you can reach them at blogger@prolific247.com.

PS: Want to have a guest post on this blog? Please check out my Guest Post Guidelines for submission rules. I would love to feature you on this blog.

Upgrade From Wordpress.com To Self Hosted Wordpress.org

Cenay Nailor — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:13:30 +0000

Many first time bloggers start out on Wordpress.com, only to discover they are limited in options, plugins, advertising and flexibility. When that happens, it’s time to step up your game and go with a mature blogging platform. I highly recommend Wordpress.org – the self-hosted option of the popular blogging software.

With the self hosted option, you no longer have anyone telling you what you can and can’t include for advertising, plugins, or content. Need a customized change? You can.

This video shows you how to take a Wordpress.com blog and move it – or upgrade it – to a self-hosted, no limits, rocking and ready to conquer the world blog. Okay, that might be overstating it a little, but it definitely has some way cool options and freedoms!

A few assumptions:

You own a hosting account where you can create it. If not, consider IX Web Hosting or Bluehost. Both have great tech support, 24/7 access and all inclusive storage, domains and bandwidth options… and by all inclusive, I mean unlimited. (I use IX myself on more than 80 sites)
You are comfortable working in multiple tabs in your browser.; (Okay, not strictly necessary but helpful)
You already use the upgraded option at Wordpress.com to have your blog on a domain you bought.
You are ready to get serious about your blogging.

Resources Discussed In Video

Small Town Wonders in Wickenburg, AZ

Cenay Nailor — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:38:01 +0000

My tag line for this site is “Cenay Nailor on Online Marketing, Blogging and Life”. If you have been following along, it has been mostly about blogging with some online marketing thrown in. The life portion hasn’t figured prominently since I am kinda a private person. (Who knew?)

Today, I am breaking the silence to share an exceptional experience I had today in the small town of Wickenburg, AZ.

Naturally, a little back story is in order.

I am traveling. I am outside my comfort zone. Therefore, true to Murphy’s Law or Karma or just plain bad luck… my working glasses broke. Yes, the one’s I use to see the computer, read, take notes or generally just about everything except watch TV or drive.

And since I am staying in my RV down in Circle City, AZ… I am way outside my sphere of influence. Vendors, businesses and people I know and deal with daily are 150 miles to the north. A jeweler that will repair my metal frame glasses down here? Who knows?

A mild panic is creeping up my spine as I can’t read the damn yellow pages. Like any true geek, I did the only thing I could. I enlarged the resolution on my computer from 1920 x 1200 to a huge 1280 x 768. The letters are now large enough to read from my desk chair. I search via Google to find someone within 20 miles that can get me back up and running.

Oh joy, there is a jeweler in a small town to the north of me only 20 miles away. Danny’s Jewelry of Arizona. Specialty of the house includes unique, quality, wearable, jewelry that features turquoise. Yes, you read that right. Remember, this is a small western town (5000 folks) that has been here since 1863.

I jumped into my truck and headed to the old mining town.

Danny’s proved to be a clean, well lit shop off one of the main drags with friendly people, lot’s of brick-a-brac, and interesting jewelry.

“$35 flat to fix ‘em, be ready in ‘bout hour” was the brisk message when I handed over my glasses. Okay, kill an hour. I can do that. I am hungry after all.

I asked about a place to eat and was directed to the “Cowboy Cafe” just ‘round the corner. I guess I made a wrong turn, because I swear, I never found the cafe. However, while wandering around, I came across the “Horseshoe Cafe”, which turned out to be very lucky for me.

I parked on the street next to the cafe and walked around front, following the smells of bacon and biscuits. Now, I make no bones about being a sucker for home cooked bacon, especially pepper bacon. So, my mouth was watering before I ever opened the door.

Not too many folks inside, but it is between breakfast and lunch (11:00am – hey, I work from home so I don’t HAVE to get up at the crack of dawn) so I am not worried. I announce my intention to eat a bite to the smiling waitress that greets me and am told I can sit anywhere I want.

During our brief discussion, I tell her I have to kill an hour (so no hurry) and one of the gentlemen sitting in the dinning room wants to know if I am packing a gun to kill this hour with. Yep, down-home.

Struggling to read the menu without my glasses, I finally give up and just order what I want to eat. She will tell me if they can’t handle it, right?

Two eggs, over easy, bacon, home fries with onions and sour dough toast. “Don’t you want to try one of our biscuits?” she asks. I am already being adventurous ordering eggs over easy so I tell her “why not?”

When my food arrives I discover I have stumbled into one of the few remaining down-home cafe’s left in America. Nothing frozen. Everything cooked fresh. And a cook that knows what the hell Over Easy means. Bacon that is not too done, not too chewy and tastes like it was cooked in a seasoned cast iron skillet. Home fries with onions cooked to perfection and served in a generous portion. A freshly baked biscuit that is at least 3 inches tall. Yep, I have died and gone to heaven right here in Wickenburg, Arizona, population 5000.

Now, I know there are reviews out there for this little cafe, I read most of them when I returned to the RV to write my own. But I have to tell you what I learned by listening carefully during my hour or so inside the walls of this homey cafe.

The new owners, Deb and O.J. have only owned it for two years. Deb was a local legend there in the kitchen (6+ years) and when the owner went to close down the restaurant, the customers got together and raised the money to buy it for Deb. The idea of going without Deb’s home cooked meals brought one big burly tow truck driver to tears. He openly wept when it was announced that Deb now owned the cafe and would continue cooking the home style meals.

Though the customers raised the cash to keep their favorite cook in the kitchen, when Deb called the owner to make her an offer, she found the price was within her budget. She bought it before the owner could change her mind and then went home to tell her husband O.J. He wasn’t as happy as the customers. At 74, he was looking forward to some travel time with his wife.

Can you guess who it was sitting at that table asking if I was packing a gun to kill an hour with? Yep. O.J., sitting there wishing there was something that would get his wife out of the kitchen!

If you ever get out anywhere near Wickenburg, stop by the Horseshoe Cafe and grab some down-home grub. That’s if O.J. hasn’t kidnapped his wife and carried her off.

And JoAnn, thanks again for a most pleasant experience. Happy women who wait tables are hard to find.

Examples of Embedded Links (Hyperlinks)

Cenay Nailor — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 22:10:50 +0000

“How do I create a clickable link in blog comments?”

Since this is a question I answer at least three times a week, I thought I would take a few minutes, and detail exactly how to create an both an embedded image link and a text link.

First, a couple of definitions.

Hyperlinks

A hyperlink is text in the current post/page that is highlighted so that when clicked, the browser automatically displays another page or changes the current page to show the referenced content. The highlighted element is known as a hyperlink (or link for short).

Embedded

A little tougher to define, embedded links are just another way of saying a link that when clicked, leads somewhere else. Embedded links can be more than text though. You can embed an image as a link to another page on the web.

Clear as mud, right?

Okay, let me break it down for you in everyday marketing terms. Let’s say you are an affiliate for a product and you want to create a hyperlink (link) to the sales page. (Do I have your attention now?) You can create a text link or an image link.

Sample Text Link

The text link will contain text such as click here to Learn more about Your Guide To A Better Blog here. We want that link to send the visitor to the sales page for that product. We also want to open the link in a new window, so the visitor doesn’t lose their place on our site.

You can copy the text below as a template to use on your site: Learn more about <a href=”http://www.UltimateGuideToWordpressPlugins.com” target=”_blank”><strong>Your Guide To A Better Blog</strong></a> here
How the link will appear in your page

Learn more about Your Guide To A Better Blog here

(Just be sure to replace the link location (href=”") with yours, and change the anchor text to include your primary keywords or phrase)

Sample Image Link

If you want to make an image *clickable*, so that it leads your visitors to another site link the text link, the image you want to use has to be located somewhere on the web. In other words, you have to first upload it to your domain. The /images/ folder is recommended, but not a requirement.It can actually live anywhere on the web, even another domain.

You can copy the text below as a template to use on your site: <a href=”http://cenay.cnusp.hop.clickbank.net”></a>
How the image/link will appear on your page

As you can see, both work to send your visitor wherever you want them, though both have their uses. I prefer images in my sidebar, and text links on my posts. However, I also will include images in the post and wrap the text around it (as in the example below) by adding a class to the image tag. I added class=”alignleft” in the sample below to force the sample text to wrap alongside the image.

How the image/link will appear with class=”alignleft”

If you’re serious about building a better blog, a blog that gets indexed and shown on the search engines almost instantly, a blog that encourages visitors to keep on returning, a blog that brands you as a trusted professional and hence increases the likelihood of them buying from you… if you are serious about all this and more, then grab the Guide To A Better Blog right now, for the introductory price of $47.

Both the text link and the image link allow for additional options like alt tags, title tags and special definitions or classes. However, the two samples shown above should be enough to get you embedding links anywhere you want, including in blog comment areas.

Create Posts That Engage Your Readers, Attract The Search Engines and Invite Comments – Part 2

Cenay Nailor — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 05:55:26 +0000

(In part 1, we covered the prep work required to create a post that both the search engines and your readers will love. If you haven’t read that one, start with Create Posts That Engage Your Readers, Attract The Search Engines and Invite Comments – Part 1)

The next step in creating posts that attract the search engines is making sure you do two simple things. First, you KNOW your primary keyword. And second, that you use it in each of the 9 places Google and other search engines will be looking for it.

Repetition is the mother of knowledge.

Attract The Search Engines

Placing your primary keyword in each of the 9 locations I am about to cover ensures both you and Google are “on the same page” about what your content is about. It’s a way to validate it and teach Google about your niche.

Browser Title

The first area the search engines will look for an idea of what your content is about, is the browser title. This is NOT to be confused with the page title. I am talking about the very tippy-top of the browser window… the title area. Now, if you are using Headspace2 and have it setup correctly, this will be handled for you. If not, go get an SEO plugin (Headspace2 is recommended, but All In One SEO can work too), install and setup.

Closer to the beginning of the browser title is the sweet spot. In fact, Google and other search engines either only look at the first 65 characters with an eye towards search engine optimization, or weight more heavily the first 65 characters. (And yes, my title is too long. I was gearing this title more towards the reader than the search engines).

Post URL (Or Page Slug)

The next place the search engines look for validation or clues about your content is your URL. This is the web address your page is located on. If you are writing web pages, this is the file name (and location). If you are blogging. this the page slug rendered down from your page title. You will see that three of the 9 areas come from your post (or page) title, so it’s important you get that one right!

The Internet has an OCD glitch when it comes to spaces in file names. Yeah, it might work this time, but don’t count on it working every time. So, Wordpress will create a page URL based on the page title. It will remove any spaces and replace those with dashes.

So, “Eating Healthy On A Budget” becomes /eating-healthy-on-a-budget with the beginning part of this URL being your domain name and template for permalinks.

A couple of notes. It’s a good idea to keep your page url’s as short as possible, so install a plugin that will remove the non-keyword words like “the, and, of, can, etc”. I use SEO Post Link from MaxPressBlog.

Page Title

The page title is called the page title, whether it’s a page or a post in your blog. This is the title of the post (or page). There are no special modifiers here so get this one right.

Like the browser title, the first 65 characters are the most important so your primary keywords should be up front. This should also (ideally) speak directly to the needs of your reader. Does it promise a result, prompt a question, provoke a response or otherwise engage the readers attention?

Body Content

If you are taking the time to optimize for a keyword, you really need to make sure the keyword is used within the body of your content. Ideally, with a keyword density of about 5% (according to most SEO experts).

Personally, I think 5% reads a little like you are stuffing keywords, so if I am at 2%, I am a happy gal. However, I feel the need to explain that those that espouse 5% density, do so for a reason… it works to get you higher on the organic results pages.

Whether you choose 2%, 5% or somewhere in between, your keywords really should appear within the first 50 words of your content, and again within the last 50 words of your post.

Bear in mind, Google has billions of pages to crawl and index on any given day. Time is of the essence and when faced with a particularly heavy day, glitchy web pages or PMS, Google will “guess-ta-mate” based on the beginning and ending of your content.

Meta Description

Each web page on the Internet can and should contain a description of the content. An executive summary. An ad for the page. Remember, the page’s meta description will be used by Google when they display your entry in the search results (if it contains the keyword the searcher typed in).

Let’s be clear here… Google is trying to serve up your content to the searcher if it thinks your content is what they are looking for. To prove it, they will display a description that contains the keyword phrase the searcher is looking for. This means it’s vitally important you understand what your content is about, understand the keywords that will be used to find your content, and that you clearly define both in the title and description.

If your primary keyword is about eating healthy on a budget, but your description doesn’t contain they keyword, Google will make one up.

Yep, you read that right. Google will scan your page and bring back parts of the content. The parts that contain the keywords. Even if that means bringing in three partial sentences.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to sound like an idiot, so I try not to give Google a reason to make one up for me.

Again, if Headspace2 is setup correctly, this becomes a field you just edit while creating your post. I strongly recommend you spend a little time crafting the perfect description, bearing in mind, you only have 150 characters to make your case.

Keywords Meta Tag

This item is pretty far down the list, and many SEO exports will tell you that Google no longer even looks at this part (bunk), but I still feel it has it’s place. It might not be as important as it once was (thanks to black hat SEO’s stuffing 983 keywords into this poor little tag), but it still has an effect.

A few guidelines though. The keywords added to the keyword meta tag must have been used in the body of your content. Put a keyword in here that isn’t used in the content, and Google will think you are a moron and therefore can’t be trusted with sharp objects or helping them understand your content.

Again, I do NOT want Google making executive decisions about my content. I know my content better than Google, I just have to prove I know it better.

Headspace2 can provide an additional field at the bottom of each post that allows to you create a unique set of keywords. Optionally, you can set headspace2 to use your post tags as your keywords.

Image File Names

Believe it or not, this will help you slightly. If your post is about eating healthy on a budget, and the image you choose to go inside your post is a woman shopping frugally and choosing healthy foods, then naming the image with words that describe the image in a light that supports your keywords will help Google understand your content.

Just remember to replace spaces with dashes, rather than run all the words together. Naming the image eating-healthy-on-a-budget-shopping.jpg gets your keyword in the post a 7th time.

Image Title Attributes

The image tag has a special title attribute that will allow you to use your keyword again in a way that Google loves. The image title is what is displayed when someone hovers their mouse over an image. A good title is one that uses your keywords again, but also somewhat describes the image. For example: Shopping for healthy foods to eat while on a budget isn’t as hard as it sounds.

Image Alternate Text (Alt Tags)

The 9th and final place Google currently looks for help in understanding your content is the image alt tag. Originally created for the screen readers built for disabled web surfers, it’s goal is to allow you to describe the content. The screen reader will read to the disabled surfer.

So, an Alt Text of “photo of woman shopping for healthy foods to eat while on a budget both describes the photo accurately, but provides one more place for you to correctly insert your keywords.

Bonus Area – Image Captions

I don’t have any numbers on this spot, but it does add your keyword phrase once more in a way that Google will not see as keyword stuffing. I use the image title for the image caption to make things easy.

Wordpress and Headspace2 Work Together

In case you hadn’t guessed by now, Headspace2 allows you to control everything you need to build SEO attractive posts. Everything that Wordpress doesn’t handle that is. Together, they are a perfect marriage in self-publishing content that attracts the search engines.

Stayed tuned for part 3 in the series which will focus on engaging the reader and inviting comments.

Headspace2 Works To Get You On Page 1 of Google

Cenay Nailor — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:48:15 +0000

You hear me ranting and raving about Headspace2 – an SEO plugin that helps Google find you. I have told you stories about how I have gotten posts on the first page of Google in under an hour. And still you don’t believe.

Today, I offer video proof.

I posted to one of my blogs and within 7 minutes, was on the first page of Google. #1 for seven different terms, #2 for another, and #3 for another. Yes, that 10 different terms on the first page of Google in under 10 minutes. Watch this video for proof, and then go get Headpsace2. Install it. Set it up. Trust me on this one… it will help your target audience find you.

After I shot this short video, I did a little more research. Here are the terms that landed on the front page of Google.

#1 Position On Google for:

vital chocolate
chava vital chocolate
chava healthy chocolate
healthy chocolate chava
healthy vital chocolate
chava chocolate healthy

#2 Position On Google for:

waiora healthy chocolate

#3 Position On Google for:

chava chocolate

Though this was only a proof video, here are some resources you will need to install and setup Headspace2:

Headspace2 Plugin Home page
Video on setting up Headspace2
Video on using Headspace2 for the multi-post pages and meta data
Wordpress Posting Basics for SEO Juice
To see the post that landed on the first page, click Healthy Chocolate : Chava Vital Chocolate

iFrameGen PHP Redirect Software

Cenay Nailor — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:25:44 +0000

Want A More Professional Approach to Affiliate Marketing?

Stop using those clunky/ugly/obvious affiliate links when promoting someone Else’s product. Have you ever seen a link that a full-time Affiliate Marketer uses? Ever wonder how they masked or cloaked those links?

Well, it’s not rocket science, but it does require a little knowledge of HTML or PHP.

Or at least it used to.

Introducing iFrame Redirect Generator , the free software that let’s you build redirect PHP pages that send your web traffic to whatever URL you want them on, while still displaying your domain name in the address bar.

And unlike many other generators out there that just give you a scaled down, stripped out PHP file, this software also allows you to enter a Title , Keywords and a Description so you can get some *Google Love* in the process.

iFrameGen contains one additional feature that other PHP generators simply don’t offer. Tracking .

That’s right. Add your Google or Woopra tracking codes, and your analytics will tell you where your traffic is coming from!

I originally wrote this software for myself, to help with my affiliate marketing. But once other marketers got wind of what I was doing, and what the pages looked like to visitors and search engines.. I got a lot of requests to build them PHP redirects.

So, I made a few modifications to make it easy for others to install, and I started giving it away. Over the last few weeks, I have released upgrades to add new features that were requested. I highly recommend this software if you don’t plan to buy a new domain for every product you will be promoting.

And hey, it’s still free!

iFrame PHP Redirect Generator – Mask Your URL’s

Updated 6/4/2010
Working on a JV with a gentlemen and when that completes, this software will be $67, so get it now while it’s still free. You are running out of time.

Create Posts That Engage Your Readers, Attract The Search Engines and Invite Comments

Cenay Nailor — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:40:05 +0000

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.

If you reference a cool piece of software or a great online tool, be sure to include the link!
Find/Create a Photo.

Since I tend to select themes that are thumbnail driven or that look good with images added to each post, I spend a little time on this step. A photo or image can engage your reader, connect with them emotionally or set the tone for the content piece.

In fact, while I am creating a post, I have both my image editor (either Fireworks or Photoshop) open and a browser window with Google Images open.

I am careful to optimize the images (see 3 Ways To A Faster Page Load for more info). I am careful to only select images where I won’t be violating owner copyright or to create my own.
Create A Clickable Headline.

Do not scrimp on this step. Remember, Google serves your headline to the searcher. This means your potential visitors evaluate this before deciding to come visit or not. A lousy headline will turn off your visitor before they ever had a chance to see your photo or content.

I recommend writing 5-10 headlines AFTER your post content has been written to find the best one. Still having trouble? Here’s a tool I use from time to time to Create Eye-Catching Headlines in 32.4 Seconds.

My headline must contain my primary keyword for the post. That keyword (or keyword phrase) should be as close to the beginning of the title as possible (for maximum search engine benefit). Google weights the first 65 characters of the title as more important than the rest (some even say Google does count anything after 65 character). So, important up front!
Create A Clickable Description.

Like the step before, I know that the description is the “ad” for my post. I know that directly under the headline, they are going to read a description of the post that will decide them on whether they make the click or not.

What is the implicit or explicit benefit to the reader? What will they get out of it? Does it solve a pain? Answer a question? Then I need to clearly state it. The primary keyword I have determined is applicable to this post also needs to appear in my description. Be consistent.
Determine Your Top 3 Related Keywords.

Semantics. Something to avoid in normal conversation if you don’t want to upset your conversational partner, but Google isn’t just anyone.

May the computer gods forgive me saying this, but Google is stupid. Well, okay, not stupid, but software none-the-less. And software — as a rule — is stupid. It can only do what it was programmed to do, and we humans lack the necessary skills to even approximate human decision making.

So, we have to teach Google what we mean, what we intend and what’s important to us (and likely to our visitors). We do this with clear and defined keywords, and semantically related words. As humans, by the age of 3, we understand that car and automobile mean the same thing. Google has to be taught. And it takes a lot of repetition. It takes a lot of validation. Google compares your site about RC models to other sites about RC models to see what words you each think are important.

So, a little research into common phrases and semantically related keywords is a necessary step in producing content Google will serve to your intended target audience. You should use those related keywords within the body of your content to help teach Google when to serve your content.

Part 1 of 2 on Creating posts that engage your readers, attract the search engines and invite comments. Stay tuned for Part 2 of creating posts that engage your readers, attract the search engines and invite comments shortly. In the meantime, start putting into practice your checklist. Like baking a cake, following a recipe can help ensure success.

Are there things you do to get ready for a post that I didn’t list? I would love to hear your ideas

SenSEO: A Checklist For SEO

Cenay Nailor — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:32:18 +0000

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 when evaluating your site, how to use it to spy on your competition, and how to stay ahead of the curve. We also discuss some of the elements that Sen SEO evaluates and why you should care about it.

Updating your theme to meet Google’s requirements
Posting techniques to get your primary keyword on your homepage
How to use Headspace to get a meta-description on your home page
How to correct some of what Sen SEO reports is wrong

Once the video starts playing, click on the video to expand it full size. Press Escape to return to normal size

Blog Success — The Jack Humphrey Way

Cenay Nailor — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:04:16 +0000

Some of my students have asked me who my mentor was…where did I learn what I know about Online Marketing. I tell them I am too much of a control freak to follow in someone’s footsteps.

Truth is, I watch what others do and then strike out on my own to test theories, try to duplicate and basically blaze my own path. And though my answer hasn’t changed much in the last 3 years, there are a couple of so called *gurus* out there that actually are honest about what they are doing.

One of them is Jack Humphrey. Though I don’t do everything Jack is doing, I do listen to what he has to say… hey, he has been online and making money successfully in a big way for a while.

If you are like me and wanting to blaze your own trail — I completely understand. But, take a minute and watch this video that Jack put together about one really simple and easy to duplicate method of making money online. Watch the free video, check out his 10 / 30 method and then decide… can Jack show you how to stop chasing the shiny objects thrown in front of you by every guru out there, and start making money online.

Go watch the free 16 minute Blog Success video where Jack reveals one method of making money online that almost all of the big-time guru’s use to make money online — even if you didn’t KNOW that was how they were really making their money.

Tracking Traffic: Where Do They Come From, Where Do They Go?

Cenay Nailor — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:17:51 +0000

Before you can increase website traffic, and improve your online marketing and personal branding, you really need to know a few things. Installing a way to track traffic is the first step in learning how to increase website traffic.

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.

Tracking Traffic with Google Analytics

Google is probably the single best form of traffic tracking you can have on your site. Multiple views into the exact traffic patterns of your visitors — means understanding how to increase your blog traffic If you know what is working, do more of that. See what’s failing? Do less of that.

It does require a Google Analytics or Adwords account though. If you haven’t taken the plunge on one or both of those yet, it’s time.

There are a few reports that I strongly recommend you get into the habit of checking if you are a blogger (which you are or you probably wouldn’t be reading my site).

Referring Sites
This report is especially important to you if you and your blog are heavy into social media sites like Twitter, Digg, Reddit, or StumbleUpon. This tells you exactly which domain referred traffic to your website.
Keywords
You are spending your nights optimizing for specific keywords (right?) so use this report to tell you if you are succeeding or not. What other keywords are being used to find you? How many visitors are coming from each keyword? It’s all here.
Content by Title
We all want to know what posts are being read and this report will tell you. It’s worth paying attention to the “Time on Page” and “Bounce Rate” columns, since a short time on page and high bounce rate might indicate a page driving visitors away from your blog. A quick look at this report is also a great way to generate that “Most Popular Posts” list.
New vs Returning
This report details your visitors into two major segments. New visitors (meaning first time only) and returning visitors. Again, a wealth of knowledge can be gleaned just from the fact your fans come back (or don’t).
Map Overlay
You’ll probably have to drill down to the country level for it to be useful, but knowing where your readers are in the world can be important information. You may discover that your audience is more international or localized than you would have guessed, allowing you to better target the content and timing of your posts. Are all of your visitors in Arizona? Time your post for 8:00 MST so it’s at the top of their feed readers in the morning.

The Google Analytics interface allows you to save these reports to your dashboard (using the “Add to Dashboard” button at the top left), so you can quickly review your favorite reports without all the fuss.

For more advanced tricks, here is a PDF I found on the net that I used to get up to speed on some of the other features. It goes into a lot of detail so print it and keep it handy: Complete Google Analytics Power Users Guide

Tracking Traffic With FireStats Plugin

I love Firestats for the quick views and immediate traffic patterns that are visible when you view the dashboard. There are a few sections to the statistics tab, all of which I review pretty frequently.

Status
There are only four numbers in this section. Visits in last 24 hours (think unique people here), Page view in the last 24 hours (what those people looked at), Visits (unique people since the plugin was installed) and Page views (unique pages viewed since the beginning of time – or rather since you installed Firestats). While it doesn’t have the detail of Google Analytics, I use this plugin more for a brief overview type look-see.
Recent Referrers
Again, think overview here… this section shows the top 10 domains that are referring traffic your way. There are three settings in this section you can change. The number of items to show (10 in this example, but can be anything you specify), the number of days to include in the view and how you want it sorted (most hits first, or most recent first).
Search Terms
One of my favorite sections, this tells me how my visitors found me. Exactly what keywords were typed at Google (or MSN or Bing or Yahoo) to get to one of my pages. Like Recent Referrers, there are a couple of settings… Number of items to show and time period to include. First time I looked at this data over a 90 day period blew my mind. People were finding me on keywords I hadn’t realized I was even optimizing for.
Recent Popular Pages
Again, 5,000 foot overview here… but which of my pages are getting the most views? Typically, the blog’s index will be on top as the logical entrance point into the blog, but sometimes and well optimized page or one that went viral on the social media circuit can out weigh even the root domain.

Like Google Analytics, there are also views into my visitors machines, operating systems, browsers, and country of origin to help me understand my target audience a little better.

There isn’t a reporting mechanism yet, but the daily view is very intriguing to me and worth the time to review from time to time.

You can start tracking traffic by downloading FireStats for Wordpress here.

Tracking Traffic With Psychic Search

Not strictly a tracking metric, this plugin shows me what my visitors were searching for on my site, once they got here. This is more about learning what they want from me, once they find me, than how they found me.

And this can be very powerful information if you think about it. They found my site because of a keyword they typed in, but once they got to explore a little and see what I offered, it prompted them to look closer. For something specific. Hear me?

Now, all I have to do is deliver what they are looking for. Can you say … this is my next post?

You can get Psychic Search from MaxBlogPress right here. And check out some of the other plugins he offers. I use two or three of his since they are so well written, do exactly what they say they will do and are a bloggers best friend.

Okay, this isn’t all the traffic tracking I use, but this does represent the minimum I put on each blog.

I also use Where Did They Go From Here? A Wordpress plugin modeled on the Amazon feature that helps them sell millions of dollars of products by placing unique views into their other products. Same concept, you just show them that visitors that read XYZ also enjoyed ABC. But that isn’t really about tracking traffic either, and is probably best served by a post all its own.

Zooming Images: Adding Cool Features To Your Site

Cenay Nailor — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:27:57 +0000

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 quick sample would serve to really highlight my point. Here is a small image of my granddaughter Raven. If you hover your mouse over her photo, a larger *zoomed* image should appear so you can really see some of the detail.

Hover Mouse Over Image

Now, try to imagine something like an image of a motorcycle you are selling or a photo of a laptop with extra and lots of little pieces. A book image or a Halloween costume. I think you get the idea.

There are several tools that will add this function to your website or blog. The one I chose is MagicZoom, which is a commercial grade tool but comes with lots of features and options. I examined others (mostly free) which I listed below. One of them should suit your needs, no matter how complicated you want to get.

MagicZoom

The one I am using is Magic Zoom, a commercial JavaScript zoom tool with its price starting at $25 for a single license. Available in several different versions, it works by hovering your mouse over the image to see a magnified version of it. Magic Zoom loads the high-resolution image in the background thus allowing your page to load faster. It offers several customization options like skinning, size and supports multiple image zooms. Check out their demo page to see all the options available. (I didn’t see any reason to reinvent the wheel here)

MojoZoom

MojoZoom is a free JavaScript Image Zoom script that works by moving your mouse over an image to see an zoomed version of it. It places a square to the right of the image with the magnified portion of the image. In addition to adding the zoom effect to your image, it will also automatically link it to its high resolution version. The developers also released a slightly modified version of the script called MojoMagnified. Both of these are independent scripts and do not require external JS libraries to work. (A personal note: I tried to get this one to work here but couldn’t. I am sure I am doing something wrong, but the doco didn’t point me in the right direction. If you are the author of the tool and would like to help me resolve that issue, please use the contact me link)

TPJZoom

TJPzoom is more or less similar to other image zoom solutions but it offers a few different options. For example when hovering over an image, you can drag up and down to increase or decrease the zoom ratio. Similarly dragging left or right will increase or decrease the zoom window size. If you specify a high resolution image, TJPZoom will use it when someone zooms on your image showing the little details of your image. The script is compatible with all major browsers including Internet Explorer 6, and setting it up takes roughly less than a 5 minutes. I personally didn’t care for the default settings which required a larger image on page and would embed the magnification within it. Just not my cup of tea, but might be exactly what you are looking for.

JQZoom

JQZoom is a JavaScript image magnifier built at the top of the popular jQuery JavaScript framework. jQzoom is a great and a really easy to use script to magnify what you want. It supports different type of zooming like standard, reverse and zoom without lens. If you’re familiar with jQuery, you can add several effects to your zoomed images like fade in or fade out. This was the first one I installed and bouyed my spirits since it was so easy to implement. I uploaded the files, added a little one liner in my post and viola! Done. My only downside was it wouldn’t wrap text around the small image — it left this huge empty space… a real no-no on web pages…

Mootools JavaScript image zoom

Based on the Mooltools JS framework, Mootools Image Zoom attempts to mimic zoom effect we see in Flash applications. It works by assigning a thumbnail of your image to its corresponding high resolution version that should be in proportional size. The zoomed area can be updated by either moving the zooming region on the thumbnail or by dragging the zoomed image. Styles are set up into stylesheet so that no modifications need to be made from JavaScript.

Whew! Services Page Finally Done

Cenay Nailor — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:05:46 +0000

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 perhaps do a little jig with me to celebrate.

And if you were thinking you needed to do something similar on your blog, let me know. I found a great plugin (inexpensive but lots of options) that let’s me add products, images and check out options. Please note the Shopping Cart on the pages that offer services. Click “Add to Cart” on a product or two to see how it behaves. (Don’t worry, you don’t have to checkout if you don’t want to). I can say with a lot of enthusiasm that WP eStore Plugin rocks!

All in all a very elegant option for bloggers who sell the occasional product, don’t have a merchant account and don’t want to build PayPal buttons for every product.

Animoto : Bringing Homemade Video To A Whole New Playing Field

Cenay Nailor — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:53:17 +0000

It used to be that only geeks with expensive software could build a video message.

Not any more.

Introducing Animoto. An online service (free accounts still available) that allows you to upload images and / or video clips and turn those into professional looking videos.

And even though I am a geek (and still kinda proud of it), I can tell you that it’s easy to use (and not just for geeks).

Here’s a sample video I created in under 10 minutes, without any forethought or organization (an unusual process for this Virgo!) After watching the video, go check out Animoto and sign up for your free account.

I am looking forward to seeing your videos so drop back by and leave a comment pointing to what you create.

Create your own video slideshow at Animoto.com.

Interested in creating videos longer than 30 seconds? (the free account only allows 30 seconds per video) Then use my promo code to get $5 off your All Access Pass. Promo Code: lkbvpahs

Write Eye Catching Headlines In 32.4 Seconds

Cenay Nailor — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:02:00 +0000

As you navigate the world of Internet Marketing, one thing should be becoming very clear to you. In fact, if this one single fact isn’t in stark relief in your mind, you might be in the wrong business.

Copywriting Is The Million Dollar Skill

Seriously. You need to convey/convince/entice your readers/buyers/customers to take an action. Read an article, buy a product, download a book….whatever.

But before you can even start on that message, you have to convince them to read your content. And we all know that starts with a headline.

I have read some of the copywriting books floating around, and paid attention to the successful marketers. I watch the email’s that come in and the links that Google indexes for keywords. Want to know what I have noticed?

An excellent headline will cause someone to open the email, click the link or follow the thought 185% more often than a poorly written one.

(Okay, I made that number up, but you get the idea)

Some of the better copywriters say you should craft your headline. Write out 20 – 50 for each piece of content you write so you can see the best one. (You can’t see the best one if you only write one, now can you?)

I don’t know about you, but for me, this was hard in the beginning. In fact, if I let it, it can still be hard. So, I work really hard not to let it. And when I get into trouble, I stop by this webpage, fill out 4 simple fields on the web form and click Generate Headline.

Instantly, I get 20+ headlines to select from. Maybe I just use them to spark an idea, but more often then not, when I generate headlines using this tool, I use one of them exactly as is.

And in case you are wondering, this is not an affiliate link or a paid service. In fact, this is a free service. Zip, zero, nada. That’s exactly how much you will pay.

The Lazy Man’s Way To Write Eye Catching Headlines In 30 Seconds Flat

Remember, No hoops, no hassles, no catch, no cash.

Clickbank Hop Ad Builder

Cenay Nailor — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:09:43 +0000

If you are doing any type of affiliate marketing, you might want to take a closer look at the Clickbank Hop Ad Builder.

This sweet little tool from Clickbank allows you to create tabbed boxes stuffed full of products that might be related to your readers interests. It can be targeted on an “ad by ad” basis. You can include one link, or 10. Multiple tabs or a single box.

The look and feel is also controlled by you.

Their interface is not overly complicated (though it could use a little work, hint, hint, wink, wink) and allows you to just cut and paste the code into a widget, post or website, exactly where you want the new ad(s) to appear.

Try the tabbed version for a well placed *themed set* of products your readers might enjoy.

Check out Clickbanks Hop Ad Builder here.

Also, if you have a favorite tool to place related post/products or videos on your site, I would love to hear about it. Just drop me a comment below. (Got a surprise for the best suggestion!)

Headspace2 Tutorial: Exploring SEO Through Plugins

Cenay Nailor — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:25:01 +0000

A recent coaching session covered the SEO benefits of installing and using Headspace2 to improve 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.

If you are looking for a bit of help in improving your organic listings in the search engines or improving your online marketing efforts, then check out this video. Additional concepts covered include the right way to post to your blog, what the search engines are evaluating first, and the one thing every post must have, in order to get found by both the search engines and your visitors.

Resources For Video

Once the video starts, click on the video to expand to full screen. Escape will restore size

My Profound Apologies

Cenay Nailor — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:11:39 +0000

If you are a part of my Tech Based Marketing Newsletter Subscribers, you have my heartfelt and profound apologies. As many of you know, my sites were hacked, my control panel invaded and 2 months of my time lost chasing the #@%@# hacker(s).

I was able to resolve my problem thanks to the wonderful folks at IX Web Hosting and their tireless efforts to help me get my sites clean and a complete backup on my local computer.

Here’s the rub.

Not sure exactly how, but my AWeber account got reset as well, so when my video site came back up, the first 10 video entries were revived and passed back to AWeber as well. Most of you got 10 emails in one day!

As you know from reading my email’s, I am not a rabid marketer. Yes, you get occasional offers from me, but mostly you get solid content from my blog. Typically, you never get more than 4 email’s in a week, and that’s only if I have been really busy creating new blog or video content.

On the day that 10 emails went out, several subscribers unsubscribed. I don’t really blame them. But I wanted you to know, it wasn’t intentional.

As a thank you for those that continued to read through to this message and didn’t unsubscribe, I have a gift for you. It’s called 7 Keys To Success. It’s a 22 page look at the 7 traits a successful entrepreneur has. No opt-in’s, no sign ups. No hassles. Just right click the link above and select Save Link As (Firefox) or Save Target As (IE) and save to your local computer.

Enjoy. And thank you again for your loyalty. I appreciate you one and all.

Make 2010 The Year You Acheive Your Dreams

Cenay Nailor — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 11:10:05 +0000

At the end of each year, most of us spend a few moments reflecting on what we have accomplished during the year.

Are we were we wanted to be?

Each year, at least for me, there is a little disappointment when I realize that – no – I did not achieve what I had set out to get done.

Is this a case of dreaming too big? Or perhaps dreaming big, and then spending too much time on other tasks?

Either way, the result is the same. Disappointment. This year isn’t any different. Well, okay, perhaps a little different. I am still a little disappointed. Still fell a little short of the goal… but not as bad as most years. The difference?

Focus. Consistent effort. And a little grit.

2009 for me, was a good year. A profitable year. I made more from my Internet activities than I did from my programming activities — a first for me. But in many ways it was an up hill battle. See, I am easily distracted. The next hottest product comes out and I want to jump all over it and test it, tweak it, make it better. What can I say… I am definitely a geek.

Having someone reign me in from time to time, and suggest that I stay on point has been a huge help (thanks Carol!). Getting a day planner and mapping out the tasks I need to accomplish also helped. Getting better at what I am doing online helped too. So did a lot of little things… so for me, it’s time to take stock of what worked and what didn’t.

So pardon me while I brain storm here…

In the “worked for me” column goes

Taking action while the thought was fresh
Not being afraid of wrong action (wrong action is a teacher)
Remembering to jot down a followup appointment to check results at regular intervals
Finding ways to automate as much as possible
Placing a value on my time and sticking to it
Brainstorming with the right people
Buying a personal or business development product and working through it front to back (and taking notes)
Stop smoking. The extra time not spent outside huffing away has been a boon.

In the “didn’t really work for me” column goes

Buying three new IM products in a week and not completing any of them
Being on the “mailing list” of 109 different marketers (too much lost time reading and sorting)
Over extending myself and not placing a value on my time
Not allowing enough personal recreation time. (It’s important to chill from time to time)
Trying to remember everything without crib notes.

I have never really been the “make a new year’s resolution” kinda gal, so I am not proposing anything so bold. I do better with little changes repeated until they become habit. Then adding another little change until it becomes habit. So, in keeping with that tradition, no bold statements earnestly stated during an alcohol induced stupor. Just plain ole fashioned statement of purpose and a recognition that I have it within my power to achieve my dreams.

Starting today.

How about you? What were the top 3 things you learned should be in the “didn’t work for you” column, or the top three things that were definitely in the ‘worked for you” column? I would value your insights.

Defend Your Blog: Scan For Vulnerabilities

Cenay Nailor — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:59:37 +0000

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.

Not sure why some people feel the overwhelming need to trash someone else’s hard work, but it’s a fact of life. And one you better be prepared to guard against.

To help you with this, I have been posting some Defend Your Blog type posts. Today is the latest one, a new plugin I found that will help you evaluate your security and make suggestions where you are vulnerable.

WP Security Scan

WP Security Scan will scan your Wordpress installation for security vulnerabilities and suggest corrective actions. And though some of the suggestions are a little vague, some are spot on and specific.

This plugin checks:

passwords (for strength)
file permissions within your installation
Database security
Version hiding
Admin protection and security

For me, this was an education on additional things to do to my site to secure it, and now that I know what to do, I will be doing these things on other blogs without installing the plugin. Just one or two blogs? Install WP Security Scan and follow what it says!

Fix The Wordpress Blank Page Error

Cenay Nailor — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:53:55 +0000

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.

A little background. PHP is the language Wordpress uses to display it’s content to your visitors. It’s software that displays an admin area to you, that allows you to insert posts, pages, links and so on.

Solution 1 – Remove Blank Lines

There are a couple of files which are used pretty much by every function in your dashboard, so there is where I wound up. See, PHP has a challenge under certain circumstances. If there is a blank line AFTER the closing PHP tag (which looks like this ?>), PHP chokes on itself. Stupid huh?

So, when you download the latest greatest version of Wordpress, I recommend you do so to your local machine first. Open wp-config.php and wp-settings.php and make SURE there is no blank line after the closing PHP tag. You know, for that matter, it wouldn’t hurt to check all of them.

Yes, the programmers at Wordpress know that PHP has this challenge. I think they just get into a little bit of a hurry when it’s time to release a new version. One extra Enter key tapped, and life for us bloggers can get real interesting.

Special Tip:
Open each PHP file in the root directory and ensure there are no blank lines at the bottom of the file. Ideally, there should be only ONE PHP tag begin and end as well.

Solution 2 – Disable Plugins

Another potentially stupid exercise that often leads to a solution is to disable your plugins. All of them. In a second tab of your browser, click onto the link that gives you the blank white page. Refresh. Did the page come back? Then it is probably a plugin. Re-enable them one at a time (checking the edit post link – if that is your error page) between each plugin.

One or more of them can cause it to break again. If that is the case, update the plugin, or remove it in favor of one that doesn’t break your admin area.

In my case, I found that three plugins AND the blank line in wp-settings.php were to blame.

Solution 3 – A New Install

Yep, a corrupt file can account for this problem as well, though you will likely see this on the entire admin area, not just one file or link. If that is the case, use a good FTP program and upload the entire folder again.

Warning:
Please note that some FTP clients can make a mess of the upgrade. I recommend Filezilla FTP Client, located at http://www.filezilla-project.org.

Solution 4 – Adding a New Define Security Keys

Wordpress has evolved over time. Settings that are required now, weren’t even a glimmer in their daddy’s eye in previous versions. The defines that make Wordpress more secure is a case in point.

If your blog has a little age on it… you might have been told you need to update the wp-config.php file to include those new define statements. Great. Follow directions but whatever you do, do NOT put them below the /* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */ comment.

More About Security Keys
Beginning with Version 2.6, three (3) security keys, AUTH_KEY, SECURE_AUTH_KEY, and LOGGED_IN_KEY, were added to insure better encryption of information stored in the user’s cookies. Beginning with Version 2.7 a fourth key,NONCE_KEY, was added to this group.

You don’t have to remember the keys, just make them long and complicated or better yet, use the the online generator. You can change these at any point in time to invalidate all existing cookies, though this does mean that all users will have to login again.

Solution 5 – Blank Admin – Bulk Disable Plugins

Sometimes, it might be necessary to disable ALL the plugins in one throw. For example, after an upgrade, NOTHING is visible in the admin area. No login, no dashboard, nothing. In this case, you can rename the plugins folder (to something like plugins-temp) to disable all plugins at once. Just login via your FTP client and rename. Attempt to log back in.

If a plugin was causing the problem, you should now be able to get in and move around. I wouldn’t bring all the plugins back online at once though. I would do it one at a time, testing dashboard features as you go.

Okay, this list probably isn’t complete, but it does contain all the major suggestions I encountered via Google. Though I read more than 2 dozen sites and their suggested solutions, they all pretty much distill down to these 5.

If you encounter another, please let me know so I can add to this list.

Pardon The Dust And Swearing

Cenay Nailor — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:00:36 +0000

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.

I began moving every domain this morning at 2am. If there is a site of mine your normally visit (for example, the How To Videos over at *I Can Do It Myself* or the behind the curtain look at Internet Marketing Techniques) then please note it might not be available for a few days. The videos occupy more than 20 gig of storage space and moving them is time consuming.

The accumulated files on a domain like images, audios, videos and PDFs has to be painstakingly placed back in exactly the same place. If you find a link or image broken, I would appreciate you letting me know. God I hate hackers.

Hopefully, more soon.

Social Media No Longer A Fad

Cenay Nailor — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:29:52 +0000

If you are still having trouble with email, then this news isn’t going to make your day. If you are one the billions that have embraced the social landscape, then this video won’t shock you.

Either way, I think you might be surprised by the numbers involved.

Building your brand online? Then you need Social Media.

Speaking of Social Media… follow me on Twitter?

One Service Rep – Above and Beyond

Cenay Nailor — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 06:08:04 +0000

Actually, it’s more like 5 service rep’s over the last two months, but today’s rep at IX Web Hosting really impressed me. Let me share a little about Carson with you.

A little background… a hacker POS found a way into my hosting account. An unsecured back door or careless password from someone on the server and the little scum sucker wiggled his or her way in. IX notified me immediately that my account password might have been compromised. They changed ALL passwords immediately and required me to do the same.

However, in the short time between hack and discovery, they were already at work. Automated bot’s ran scripts that propagated itself into thousands of files. I have spent a lot of time over the last two months restoring files, reinstalling Wordpress, updating Plugins.

Today, I went to my site (as I do almost every day) and Avast screamed a warning at me. My site was infected with malware! An iFrame was injected into my site doing God knows what. (As far as I can tell, nothing, but you know how those sneaky little devils can be).

Refresh the page, and it disappears. Owwww. This is gonna make it hard to find and fix if it won’t stay still more than a minute.

I reinstalled all files again and then went to the site again. Still there. Frustrated and pretty upset at the absolutely worthless crap some people have the need to share with others, I called IX. They offer live chat (which I mostly use), and a 24/7 ticket system (which I have to use sometimes when the live chat guys can’t help) and phone help.

Today, frustrated and ready to pull my hair out, I needed a real live human being to vent to. Someone to ask questions of. Someone who would let me know I am not alone out here. Today, that was Carson.

Carson of the southern drawl. Carson of the enormous patience. Carson, my hero.

More than 40 minutes on phone as we explored every security measure possible, Carson never once was anything but a gentleman. This despite the fact that I was a woman on a vent. Not to him certainly, but rant just the same.

By the time I got off the phone with Carson, I felt pretty good about what we were able to accomplish, and what the next steps were. It’s a rare service tech that can calm me down once I am pissed off, but Carson managed to do it without even seeming to try.

Thanks Carson. I really appreciate you.

And to those of you worried about your sites, let me share something I learned today. Make sure your permissions are no higher than 755 for any file or folder on your site. Above that, and anyone can use the *open door* to inject code. I found more than a 100 open doors!

Don’t depend on a new upload to just set the permissions for you (like I did). Make sure they are set correctly. That little extra step would have saved me a lot of grief.

So, need a host that has excellent tech support with compassionate people on the other end of that lifeline? You really have to give IX Web Hosting a try.

Protecting Your Blogs FTP Area

Cenay Nailor — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 21:54:00 +0000

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.

FTP.ALLOW

This is a simple text file you create that contains a list of allowed IP addresses. In other words, yours – both at home and work – but yours alone. It has the following syntax and does require one blank line after your instructions. (Please note, I am using bogus numbers rather than a real IP address, you will replace with yours)

ALL: 1.2.3.4

(intentional blank line)

Don’t know your IP? No problem. Just visit http://www.WhatIsMyIP.com and it will tell you your IP address. Have an IP address that changes from reboot to reboot? Again, no problem. Just add this to the line where you are defining your IP…

ALL: 1.2.3.0/255.255.255.0

(intentional blank line)

This will match against any IP in the range 1.2.3.0 – 1.2.3.255

If you have ftp-subusers defined, and they have a home directory different than the main ftp user, they will not be affected by ftp.allow and ftp.deny in your home dir. If you want to restrict their access, you need to place similar files in their home dirs.

FTP.DENY

This text file has the opposite effect. Have an IP address that is just slamming you? Ban them. Place their IP address in this text file and upload to your root, and they won’t be able to access any part of the FTP account. It has the same format as the allow file above.

ALL: 1.2.3.4

(intentional blank line)

So, let’s recap. Hackers are assholes (pardon my French). You have to take measures to keep them away from your precious data. Let’s look at two real life scenario’s.

Scenario 1

Block everything, except IP address 76.188.2.141 which is my home IP address, and IP range 12.44.215.0 – 12.44.215.255 which is the range of IPs that I have at the office (again, these are not a real IP’s, I invented them for the purpose of this example)

The file ftp.allow should look like this:


 ALL:   76.188.2.141
 ALL:   12.44.215.0/255.255.255.0

(intentional blank line)

This will specifically permit access from the said IP Address and range. Note the file ends with an empty line. Now, to deny everything else, we create a ftp.deny file that looks like this:


 ALL:   ALL

(intentional blank line)

Again, make sure you have an empty line at the end of the file.

An extended version of this scenario would be to completely disallow ftp access, except for the webshell access, and then your ftp.allow file will only contain an empty line.

Scenario 2

Allow everything, except the IP addresses that you don’t like (maybe because it was your ex-webmaster that now is trying to hack your site, or because you noted there are hackers that are trying to break into your site from those ranges, or whatever reasons you may have). Say you want to allow everything but block IP ranges 8.0.0.0 – 8.255.255.255, 176.162.54.0 – 176.162.55.255, 212.35.128.64 – 212.35.128.95 and 213.1.2.4.

Your ftp.allow file will only contain an empty line. So nothing will match, and ftp.deny will be checked. Your ftp.deny file will look like this:


 ALL:   8.0.0.0/255.0.0.0
 ALL:   176.162.54.
 ALL:   176.162.55.
 ALL:   212.35.128.64/255.255.255.224
 ALL:   213.1.2.4

(intentional blank line)

Again, don’t forget the empty line at the end. An extended version of this scenario would be to allow everything (the situation you are in probably now). If that’s the case, you don’t need to do anything, not even to create these files.

I hope this little trick will help you defend your blog. Just writing about it will place me on the radar of the assholes with nothing better to do so I better go make sure all my ducks are in a row and my backups are current.

Joke: Top 10 Candidates To Run GM

Cenay Nailor — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:18:26 +0000

Okay, was surfing today and came across this short article on AllTop (link below) that had me laughing right out loud. Now, since this is somewhat rare, I decided to share it with you. (yes, I do have a sense of humor but it tends to be dry. Even funny stuff is just a smile rather than a guffaw)

There’s a vacancy at the top of GM again. The company faces great challenges, so it’s time to think outside-the-box for a new CEO. Here are my ideas.

1. Steve Jobs (Apple). GM would create the most beautiful cars, but you’d need to refill it once a day. You could only buy accessories from the GM store after Phil Schiller approved them. Gas pumps would need new nozzles because Steve mandated non-standard gas-tank fittings.

2. Steve Ballmer (Microsoft). GM cars would look similar to those of German and Italian marques, but it would be seven revisions into the car’s lifecycle before they ran decently.

3. Sarah Palin (Unemployed). Palin would introduce cars that you couldn’t brake or steer called Rogues. Shotgun racks would be a factory option on the Cheney model. However, before they ship, she would resign. When Katie Couric asked her which car magazines she read, she responded, “Most of ‘em.”

4. Michael Arrington (TechCrunch). If Mike ran GM, any documents that you that left inside your car would be considered public information, so you might see them published in CarCrunch. When asked how he could do this, his response was, “They were sitting in our car, so we considered them our property.”

5. Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) Mark would reposition GM as the car company for young people. It would have advanced features like updating all your friends with your location. However, GM would implode as parents began buying its cars. He would face some personal issues when his former classmates accuse him of ripping off the idea of running GM.

6. Martha Stewart (Martha Stewart Living) Martha’s GM would offer cars in every shade in the pantone book. (Her personal car would be an Escalade in robin’s egg blue with a Carmel-dusk interior.) Midway in her tenure she would serve some prison time, but GM would keep rolling on.

7. Robert Scoble (RackSpace). Citing the trend of social motoring, Scoble would add recording capability to the backup cameras of GM cars. Early adopters would drive their cars around backwards, share their videos online, and then split ad revenue with GM.

8. Rupert Murdoch (News Corp.). Rupert would revolutionize the car business by requiring that people pay to visit GM.com and pay for GM brochures. In addition, searching Google for any GM cars would yield no results.

9. Tony Hsieh (Zappos). Tony would make it so that you can order a GM car online and have it shipped to you. Then you can use it and return it if you don’t like it—no questions asked, free freight both ways. After twelve months, he would sell GM to Toyota for $200 billion.

10. Biz Stone (Twitter). Biz would raise more money from the government and then give cars away with no definitive plans for achieving revenue. (He would hire Chris Anderson (Wired) to implement the idea of free cars. During times of heavy traffic, however, GM cars would sporadically fail.

Source Article: Holy Kaw! Top Ten Candidates To Run GM

Bing To Pay News Sites To De-Index From Google

Cenay Nailor — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:52:48 +0000

The fierce battle between Microsoft’s Bing & Google is getting fiercer. Ever since the launch of Bing in June 2009, Microsoft has been trying to capture the online search engine market share. Though Bing has come out as the fastest growing search engine in recent months, it still falls way behind Google. From online advertisements to cash back rewards campaigns, Microsoft has spent millions already to attract online surfers to use Bing. But now they have come up with a new strategy to garner more search volume.

As published in Financial Times on November 22, 2009, Microsoft is in talks with various news publishing companies like News Corp who owns The Wall Street Journal (in US), The Times (in UK), Daily Telegraph (in Australia) etc to have them de-index or remove their content from Google. In return, these media companies will get paid!

If that happens, we all would be really interested to see how will Google react. Will they pay more than what Microsoft offered? And if they do, we will see a new money making opportunity for the media companies to pull back their sinking ship. If search engines starts fighting for the exclusive rights of the content, we will be in a new era of web search.

Microsoft is in talks with News Corp to De-index its pages from Google

I can’t just imagine a scenario where the roles will be reversed. Google, Bing ,Yahoo and Ask are competing not only for internet surfers but they start bidding for crawl-able content on the web. Obviously, news websites & bloggers are the clear winners here. Not only are they getting paid from their advertisers, they will see a new stream of revenue flowing in from this. And I am sure this stream will get them much more than what they get paid now. I can’t stop myself from thinking of a day when every single internet user is becoming a journalist, capturing the latest news & writing a unique content to post on his personal blog and wait to be contacted from the search engines to buy his content.

We may even hit the era where more players join the search engine war. Every warrior shows the unique content. So if I want to read health news, I will go to, say, healthyengine.com (a fictitious search engine which publishes exclusive news about health industry) instead of Google because Google does not have the rights to publish those news!

Was exploring some new SEO tools when I came across this article I just had to share with you all. Watch for a new post about Rank Checking your site for specific keywords using a tool this site provides!

Source: The KPMRS Blog : Bing to pay news sites to get their content removed from Google!

Defend Against The Bot’s

Cenay Nailor — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:40:00 +0000

(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?

Sabre is the solution to stop these robotized visitors!

Sabre has a number of options you will need to complete to protect your blog, and some will probably need to be changed over time as you learn what they do. These include things like including a captcha form on the registration page to providing a special invitation code they must use.

All the features are activated by parameters so it is pretty flexible.

Download Sabre Wordpress plugin here

Here’s Some Additional Info I Found About Bot’s

Google + reCAPTCHA could raise bar in anti-bot, anti-spam battle … – Locked in a cat-and-mouse game with spammers who use bots to defeat anti-fraud mechanisms and create fake accounts, Google today announced a deal to a.

Preparing for Battle | Tamao – No need for a log-in, but there is a ReCaptcha anti-bot thing. Apparently, votes only last for seven days, which makes sense given the ephemerality of web fiction, so I’ll probably have to ask again, if it produces any visits. …

Myqanda, Possibly A Simple Anti-Bot Solution To Fight Coment Spams … – Myqanda, Possibly A Simple Anti-Bot Solution To Fight Coment Spams? I just checked my server log between Dec 19, 2006 and today. SCode Plugin has successfully prevented 2140 comment spams, but there were 122 spams which slipped through …

Installing Anti Bot Question Mod to PhpBB Forum – Each and everytime I do this it takes me at least an hour .. unlike the instructions which say 5-10 mins. Mostly because I forget all the lessons previously learned so here are my notes for next time. …

Firewall For Your Wordpress Blog

Cenay Nailor — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:22:03 +0000

(Part of an ongoing series on protecting your most valuable asset in your online marketing arsenal, your Wordpress blog)

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.

Wordpress Firewall

The second recommendation in the series is that you go and install Wordpress Firewall. This one takes a little more to setup, but guards against a wider range of threats.

This WordPress plugin investigates web requests with simple WordPress-specific heuristics to identify and stop most obvious attacks. There exist a few powerful generic modules that do this; but they’re not always installed on web servers, and difficult to configure.

It intelligently whitelists and blacklists pathological-looking phrases based on which field they appear within in a page request (unknown/numeric parameters vs. known post bodies, comment bodies, etc.). Its purpose is not to replace prompt and responsible upgrading, but rather to mitigate 0-day attacks and let bloggers sleep better at night. Its features include:

Detect, intecept, and log suspicious-looking parameters — and prevent them compromising WordPress.
Also protect most WordPress plugins from the same attacks.
Optionally configure as the first plugin to load for maximum security.
Respond with an innocuous-looking 404, or a home page redirect.
Optionally send an email to you with a useful dump of information upon blocking a potential attack.
Turn on or off directory traversal attack detection.
Turn on or off SQL injection attack detection.
Turn on or off WordPress-specific SQL injection attack detection.
Turn on or off blocking executable file uploads.
Turn on or off remote arbitrary code injection detection.
Add whitelisted IPs.
Add additional whitelisted pages and/or fields within such pages to allow above to get through when desirable.

(More about the Injection Security Filters)

Download: Wordpress Firewall plugin here

18 Wordpress Plugins I Can Not Live Without

Cenay Nailor — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:05:19 +0000

I have been promising a list of my personal *must have* plugins that I install on any new blog. Today, that promise is kept.

These are the plugins I install on every blog I create, regardless of niche or specialty. There are a few that I add to certain types of blogs that will won’t be discussed, but you can get more information on these in my book, the Ultimate Guide To Wordpress Plugins.

They are listed alphabetically, not in the order of installation.

Each of these plugins play nice with all the plugins listed here. No animals were harmed during the making of this list.

Add Signature

This plugin lets you display a custom signature at the bottom of your posts. Simply type the text you want in the options page and configure it to display on every post, or manually display it by adding the trigger text wherever you like. You can also add in author information using the included variables – login name, first name, last name, nickname, email address, website, and description/bio. And since this embeds the signature into the “content”, it is ALSO displayed if someone pulls one of your blog posts using RSS, so you still get credit and a link back to your blog (if you included a link in your signature).

Version: 1.32
Plugin Location: Dagon Design Add Signature

Advanced Excerpt

This plugin adds several improvements to WordPress’ default way of creating excerpts.

It can keep HTML markup in the excerpt (and you get to choose which tags are included) so that formatting isn’t lost when displaying an excerpt.
It trims the excerpt to a given length using either character count or word count.
You can customize the excerpt length and the ellipsis character that will be used when trimming to the specified length.
The excerpt length is real (everything belonging to HTML tags is not counted)
Possibility to ignore custom excerpts and use the generated one instead
Theme developers can use the_advanced_excerpt() for even more control

Version: 0.2.2
Plugin Location: Spare Pencil’s Advanced Excerpt

Antivirus for Wordpress

Though this only scans your theme files for potential problems, it does a good job. If you are hacked and they inject code into your PHP files, one of the first places to be infected is your theme. This early warning system will monitor and clean your theme files.

Version: 0.5
Plugin Location: Antivirus for Wordpress

CommentLuv

Comments are a wonderful thing to receive on your blog, with CommentLuv for Wordpress and Wordpress MU you can give something back to your community straight away by including a titled link for their last blog post or tweet on the end of their comment.

The plugin fetches the feed found at commenters site URL. While they type their comment CommentLuv extracts the last blog post title with link and displays it below the comment form. When they submit their comment, the last blog post link gets added on the end of their comment for all to see! If you are trying to encourage blog comments, this comment works wonders since it rewards the commenter with a “deep link” back to their site.

Version: 2.7.63
Plugin Location: CommentLuv For Wordpress

Google XML Sitemaps

This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO. This file isn’t the sitemap you want to display for your visitors, this one is for the search engines only.

If you have an adsense or video “site” you want to tie to your blog, there is an option to “add pages” to the sitemap so Google can get to them all.

Version: 3.1.9
Plugin Location: Google (XML) Sitemaps Generator for Wordpress

Headspace2

This shouldn’t come as a shock to you if you follow any of my videos or posts about SEO for your blog. HeadSpace is a powerful all-in-one plugin to manage meta-data and handle a wide range of SEO tasks. With it you can tag your posts, create custom titles and descriptions that improve your page ranking, change the theme or run disabled plugins on specific pages, and a whole lot more. Need to know more about how to use it? Check out a few of the videos I have created to show how to get the most out of Headspace2.

Version: 3.6.32
Plugin Location: Urban Giraffe’s Headspace2

Max Banner Ads

Normally adding banners to your Wordpress blog would involve either buying a premium theme that already contained code to display a banner, or breaking out your coding hat and updating your theme. Not anymore. With Max Banner Ads, you just copy and paste in your banner code/links or Google javascript snippet and then tell Max Banner Ads where to put it by clicking a link or two. Max Banner Ads gives you statistics like banner impressions and click through rates to let you correctly track how good your banner is doing.

This is ideal if you are adding new ads or banners to old post content since you don’t have to edit the older posts to get ads inserted.

Version: 1.3.6
Plugin Location: MaxBlogPress’s Max Banner Ads

Max Ping Optimizer

Getting found by Google, Yahoo and MSN requires you to let them know every time you post new content. But edit the post more than once, and you run the risk of pissing them off and being accused of *ping spamming*. Yuk.

With this plugin installed and set properly, you can throttle back the pings to once per hour, or once per day, or even once per week. (Tho why you would only ping once a week I can not imagine). This plugin allows you to correct Wordpress’ built in *bug* of pinging when ever anything changes.

Version: 2.2.5
Plugin Location: MaxBlogPress’s Max Ping Optimizer

Ozh’ Who Sees Ads

This sweet little plugin allows you to decide who sees your ad’s, and who doesn’t. Want to display ad’s to your one time visitors that came from Google, but not a returning visitor? This plugin will allow you to do that. Want to place an ad only once the post is 20 days old or more? Or until an ad has been display [X] times, or if the visitor is logged in.

And it offers these features for more than just ad’s. Any valid HTML can be displayed conditionally. And while he offers you a lot of choices to use, if there isn’t one that matches what you want, any valid Wordpress code will work — ie: On a category page, or a single page (for example).

Version: 2.0.2
Plugin Location: Planet Ozh’ Who Sees Ads

Psychic Search

One of my favorites, this plugin allows you to figure out what your visitors are looking for on your blog, and not finding! Once installed, this plugin tracks every search done on your blog, and lists all searches that yield no results. Want to impress them with your psychic ability? Try posting a new post that exactly matches what they just looked for yesterday.

As you can tell, I really love the plugins from MaxBlogPress because they are intuitive, stable and work every time. I highly recommend most of the plugins you will find here.

Version: 2.0.4
Plugin Location: MaxBlogPress’s Psychic Search

Redirection

Redirection is a WordPress plugin to manage 301 redirections, keep track of 404 errors, and generally tidy up any loose ends your site may have. This is particularly useful if you are migrating pages from an old website, or are changing the directory of your WordPress installation. It also works well if you just change the post title or category since changing either will make the original link invalid.

I created a couple of videos that do into a lot of detail about how to stop losing the search engine optimization on your site with this plugin.

Version: 2.1.24
Plugin Location: Urban Giraffe’s Redirection

Reveal ID’s

Many of the functions or options settings in today’s newer premium themes require you to know the category ID or page ID, but finding those can be a little trying. With this plugin, the ID’s are added to the edit list so you never have to wonder again.

Version: 1.1.2
Plugin Location: Reveal ID’s for WP Admin

SEO Post Link

Automatically make your post link (URL) short and more SEO friendly by removing unnecessary words from the post slug. You can adjust your settings, add words to be removed automatically and establish a limit on the page slug length. This is great for building SEO optimized URL’s.

Version: 2.0
Plugin Location: MaxBlogPress’s SEO Post Link

Subscribe Remind

Designed to help you increase your readership on your RSS feed, this plugin places a reminder at the bottom of each post (or page). You can customize the message with a little HTML knowledge. This is a no-fuss plugin that simply reminds your readers (after they finish reading your great post) to grab the RSS feed to get more like the one they just read.

Version: 1.1
Plugin Location: Trevor Fitzgerald’s Subscribe Remind

Thank Me Later

Automatically send a ‘thank you’ e-mail to those who comment on your blog. This plugin engages the visitor by reminding them to check back for responses or new blog posts. The plugin is highly configurable with multiple messages, variable delay and restrictions. You can also add the last [x] posts to the footer of the message so they are tempted with the titles of your latest content.

Version: 2.0.0.1
Plugin Location: Brendon Boshell’s Thank Me Later

Tweetmeme

The TweetMeme button plugin allows you to easily integrate the TweetMeme button into your WordPress blog. The plugin will put the button into both your content and your feed.

Using the TweetMeme Button you allow visitors to discover your new content and tweet about it. The button provides a fully integrated URL shortener and the title of the story or page. Each link which is posted on Twitter adds one to the tweet count for that story.

Version: 1.7.1
Plugin Location: Tweetmeme

WP-dbManager

Most Wordpress plugins that allow you to backup your precious database, only allow you to back it up. This plugin also allows you to schedule an optimization of the tables, send the backup via email or store on the server (or both). You can select either the normal backup method (an SQL file) or the popular gzip file (smaller file size).

This is one of the first plugins I install and one that I make sure is on every blog.

Version: 2.50
Plugin Location: Lester Chan’s WP-dbManager

WP-Greet Box

This plugin lets you show a different greeting message to your new visitors depending on their referrer url. For example, when a Digg user clicks through from Digg, they will see a message reminding them to digg your post if they like it. Another example, when a visitor clicks through from Twitter, they will see a message suggesting them to twit the post and follow you on Twitter. You can also set a default greeting message for new visitors (not matching any referrer URLs) suggesting them to subscribe to your RSS feed. Professional bloggers know that having these targeted suggestions on their blog increases their blog exposure and loyal readership. Best of all, this plugin is compatible with various WordPress cache plugins so you do not have to sacrifice speed. Even Smashing Magazine is using this plugin.

Version: 5.5.1
Plugin Location: WP Greet Box

Your Blog Is At War, Help Defend It

Cenay Nailor — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:24:45 +0000

Yep, you heard me right. Spammers, hackers, trogans and viruses… it’s a jungle out there. And your blog is a sitting duck.

I have a series of suggestions I will be making over the upcoming days to help you defend this valuable asset in your online marketing arsenal, so stayed tuned. And if you haven’t grabbed the RSS feed yet, this might be a good time…

Wordpress Antivirus

The first recommendation is that you go and install the Antivirus plugin to help keep your beautiful theme files from infecting visitors that land on your site. There is no bigger turn off for a visitor than to have YOUR site infect them.

AntiVirus for WordPress monitors malicious injections and warns you of any possible attacks. With multilingual support. Simply, the plugin you must have.

Ideal as a supplement to the manual security measures in your blogs. Hey, it’s free!

Settings include a manual scan, an auto-scan with email alerts in the effect it find something suspicious.

Download: Wordpress Antivirus here

Fake Adobe Flash Player Install – Don’t Be Fooled

Cenay Nailor — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:09:24 +0000

This ugly critter has raised it’s head once or twice in the past (June 2007, Sept 2008), but seems to be back and even more realistic than ever.

You are surfing along and when you land on a site that contains any type of flash movie (and some that don’t!), you get a popup box that says your Adobe Flash version is out of date and needs to be updated.

Since it appears real enough, and because most computer users know they have Adobe installed, many will click on it. Don’t. It is Malware.

Malware often use many techniques to manifest itself onto their host, including these fake warnings to update something on your computer. This piece of malware masquerades itself as a flash player plugin for the Firefox browser (detected by Sophos as Troj/FFSpy-A, and TrojanClicker.VB.395 as detected by TrojanHunter ).

To Repair Your Machine

Take these steps to clear your machine, and remember, a daily complete virus scan by reliable scanning software can save you a lot of grief.

First, since this is a FireFox Addon, open FireFox –> Tools –> Addons

You are looking for an addon that looks something like the one above. Remember it has undergone revisions over the years, so it might not appear exactly as shown. Uninstall this nasty little guy.

Next, the extension works in conjunction with a trojan executable. In the recent past it was smc.exe, though there are probably others by now. And if you are running SyGate as your firewall, smc.exe is a legitimate file! You will need an up to date virus and Trojan scan to remove the rest of the malicious software from your machine. TojanHunter is not a bad tool to add to your arsenal. You can download a free 30 day trial at that link.

Authors Note: Recently a few students have called to report my sites were infected. After 3 days of extreme review and re-installations of all the major files, I discovered it wasn’t me or my sites that were infected, it was the end users that were visiting. Please, take the steps above right now to clear your machine of any threat and let your surfing buddies know as well.

To Determine Your Real Version Of Flash

When in doubt, you should always visit the Adobe site for your downloads. In fact, this is true for ANY legitimate software or extension you have installed. Just like the fake email’s from PayPal or your bank, don’t trust the direct link. Type it into the address bar or closely review the link you are about to click. It should not have any extra characters in the link (for example www.AdobeX.com).

To determine the exact version of the flash player you have installed on your computer, you can visit Adobe’s Version checker at http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/

Add Amazon Store To Your Blog

Cenay Nailor — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 03:52:38 +0000

One way to monetize your Authority Niche Site is to add an Amazon store as a page within your blog. If it’s featured on the first page and contains items that your visitors are interested in, it can be a great way to bring in additional revenue.

This How To Video walks you through the process of logging into your Amazon Affiliate account, and creating a store with exactly the products you want. Adding the store to a page in your blog is shown, along with techniques to get it looking good. There is an additional video showing you how to remove the blog’s sidebar from a page template so more of the Amazon store shows up.

With the Amazon store, once it’s created, you can add products and change colors without making a change to your blog. You can have additional categories and a search feature that works within your store. Each item sold from your Amazon store pays you a *commission* or referral fee.

Watch this video if you want to start bringing in additional revenue from the traffic you are already getting, or want to increase the traffic with SEO optimized new search terms.

Cenay Nailor : The Online Marketing and Blogging Geek» Online Marketing Tips ~ Blogging Your Brand with Wordpress

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More Advanced Features (Optional)

Check If Theme Location Has A Menu Assigned

See If Specific Menu Exists

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