Was a bit disappointed at the lack of response for resuming the Blog Talk Radio series yesterday but will ask again once the summer is over. This is one of the big vacation weeks of summer here in the US so that may have had a result on the response.
So if you are interested in getting started with blogging and social media make sure to mark your calendar and stop by tonight at 8 pm edt.
It has been a while since I have done a monthly Blog Talk Radio show on WordPress and blogging. Not quite sure why it got dropped but before I put together a new one figured it was best to see if there was an interest in it.
Time after all is the one thing that is most valuable to all of us. If it is an activity that is worth you spending your time to get your questions answered on WordPress and blogging then please leave a comment.
Now with it being the middle of the summer this may be a bad time to start this back up but even if you would be interested in this but not until the summer is over let me know.
I have always enjoyed the interactivity that BTR allows but my main desire is to provide information in formats that are most valuable to you the reader. Your input will let me know if the Blog Talk Radio is a format that has value to you. Your comments will decide.
About the author
Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy.
After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably.
Yesterday I wrote about the changes coming early next year and the need to make sure that your host is set up to handle the changes. That brought about this question in the comments.
What are the best WP.ORG Hosts, a list large or small may help a lot of folks.
Now WordPress lists their recommended hosts and you can find their list here. If you use their links they get something and it helps support the development of WordPress.
Now for me personally after working on numerous blogs for customers on a wide variety of web hosts there are two that I prefer.
The reason for my preference is always the same. The service they provide. See there are thousands of hosts out there that will support WordPress but it is the ability to get help when you have a problem that is key.
The first is Zoot Host. I just moved my dedicated server to Jon because the company I was using for 5 years was sold and the new company had terrible support.
I went from having a very responsive host to one that was piss poor to say the least. Now over the next day or so I will have problems as it always happens when moving that many sites but I know that they will get fixed asap.
The second one is HostGator. I have quite a few blogs with them and have worked on numerous blogs that they host for customers. They have always been extremely responsive whenever I have had a problem whether for a customer or for my personal sites.
So my number one thing for any host is responsiveness when I have a problem. Hope these help you and answers the question.
As always your questions and comments are welcomed and your questions often become the content for these posts.
About the author
Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy.
After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably.
Well it will remain to be seen whether they follow through with it but WordPress has announced that it will not be supporting PHP 4 and MySQL 4 when version 3.2 is released in early 2011.
The reason I say that it remains to be seen is that this was originally announced to happen with the release of 3.0 if my memory is correct (and it may have been earlier).
Now the majority of web hosts are currently running PHP 5.2 and MySQL 5 and it is easy to check through Cpanel if you are running the proper versions. Log in to Cpanel and check your general server information and you should see what version you are running.
There is plenty of time to get your server upgraded before this comes into play and the new version will not update if your server will not support it.
Okay I have been thinking about what to rant about today for over an hour while I go through my morning checklist. This has been a busy week for me and I have noticed that it is usually harder to find topics to rant about when I am creating content.
Now that is a good thing for me but it does bring up the point that when you are being proactive there is less other things to upset you. That is not a bad thing.
So I guess this rant will go in a different direction. What are you doing to be proactive?
Have you done any of the following this week and do you do them regularly?
Create new blog posts
Comment on related blogs
Add or edit an email from your autoresponder series
Submit articles to the directories
Create a video or podcast of your article
Guest post on someone’s blog
Create a new product either for sale or as a giveaway
Those are just a few things that you could have done this week to move your business forward and generate more traffic to your sites.
How many have you done this week?
Leave your answer below in the comments or ask a question about WordPress or blogging. I have writing to do so cutting this short. What about you?
About the author
Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy.
After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably.
Today’s question is a good one but one that most will not have a use for. This will require you to edit your theme to take advantage of them but it can be useful in some cases.
Your questions are always welcomed and more questions could be used so if you have a question leave it in the comments.
What’s the purpose of custom fields and how do you use them. “It states that custom fields can be used to add extra metadata to a post.” I have no clue what metadata means. Please include some examples of how you would use custom fields.
Custom fields can allow you to add specific information on any topic easily to add to your blog. One of the things that people will use this for may be to add a mood to the bottom of their post, what book they are reading or any other topics you might want to add.
You will need to add some code to your theme to display these.
This is perfect if you are writing a more personal blog in my opinion where you might want to be adding your mood, what you are reading, what you are listening to, etc.
Leave your comments and questions below. Your input is always appreciated.
About the author
Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy.
After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably.
Over the last few days we have been talking about a wide variety of plugins and why they are helpful. It has been done by category and there have been a large number of plugins discussed.
This series came about while answering a question posed here and your questions are welcomed and I will be addressing them here so leave them in the comments below.
what are you top plugin choices for WP?
Now the downside to plugins. Each plugin has the potential to slow your blog’s load speed down. The images you are using on your blog are also a factor but a slower load speed can hurt you.
How fast your page loads is now part of Google’s algorithm. If your plugins are slowing your blog down that can become a detriment to where your pages rank in Google.
There is always a trade off when you add plugins. You can check your page load speed at a variety of sites. Just do a search for page load speed.
Now to be truthful your theme and the number of images it uses will make a difference too.
So even though all of the plugins mentioned in this series and a lot of other plugins can add to your blog some neat things there may be a trade off.
Some plugins like the ones for SEO far outweigh any slowing they may cause through the improvements they can create some of the nice but not necessary items you might want to skip.
As you see the new shiny buttons of plugins add them then test the change in page speed. Take advantage of the tools Google provides for webmasters. This will allow you to get an insight into how Google sees your site.
Remember that your questions and comments are appreciated. Leave them below.
About the author
Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy.
After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably.
Almost finished the series on plugins here. There will be one more post on this tomorrow and that will be the most important one of the series so stay tuned. Remember that I am always looking to answer the questions you have here so feel free to ask them in the comments.
The original question that started this series was..
what are you top plugin choices for WP?
Today we address spam plugins and other miscellaneous plugins. There are a lot of choices and this list could be much longer but these are the ones I use at least semi-regularly.
Askimet
WP Spam Free
Podpress
Google Analyticator
WordPress Thread Comment
WP Ezine Articles
Askimet – Comes with the base installation and is a good anti-spam plugin but needs some help.
WP Spam Free – When combined with Askimet the two do a decent job of eliminating spam.
There are lost of other spam plugins but some hurt your number of comments such as the captcha plugins which keep people from commenting so it becomes a thin line to walk. Do you increase comments or reduce spam? I prefer more comments and deal with moderating the additional spam comments.
Podpress – This is the best of the podcasting plugins that I have tried. It interacts with the major podcast directories and can be tied directly into Itunes easily.
Google Analyticator – Easily adds your Google Analytics tracking code and allows you to see the stats from there within your dashboard.
WordPress Thread Comment – If you have an older theme that does not support threaded comments (they are integrated into the latest versions of WordPress) this will allow you to take advantage of them without having to hack the theme.
WP Ezine Articles – If you are a Platinum member of Ezine Articles this is a nice plugin that allows you to submit your articles to Ezine Articles from your dashboard.
Repurposing your content is a great way to get more traffic to your blog and article marketing can be an easy way to do that.
Now I could have added literally hundreds of other potential plugins but there is a trade off when you add plugins and that will be tomorrow’s discussion as we end up the series on plugins.
Your comments and questions are welcomed. Talk to you tomorrow.
About the author
Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy.
After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably.
Today we are continuing the series on plugins. Security of your blog is important and that will be our topic today.
It would be an ideal world if you did not have to worry about security but unfortunately that is not the world we live in. There are two many that like to get into your blog just because they can and even worse are the ones that want to use your blog to make money for them.
what are you top plugin choices for WP?
So because of the cretins we do need to be proactive so here are the plugins that can help you.
Antivirus
WordPress Database Backup
WP Security Scan
Antivirus – This plugin will check your theme for malicious injections and warn you when they are found.
WordPress Database Backup – Have written extensively about this plugin and it allows you to backup your database directly from your dashboard. You can automate it to email you a backup at a schedule of your choosing.
WP Security Scan – Will show you things that you need to fix and keep you updated on changes.
These plugins will help you keep your blog secure and have what you need if you do get hit by someone with malicious intent to recover.
Your questions are appreciated and become future content here and your comments are appreciated.
About the author
Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy.
After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably.
Today I continue the series on plugins I use. This goes back to a question that was asked here. Today we will look at the plugins that allow interaction and why they are worth using.
Your questions are welcomed and can be asked in the comments and will be answered here in the future.
what are you top plugin choices for WP?
Allowing people to interact and spread your word can be a good way to generate extra traffic because you can reach other people that would not know about you.
Here are the plugins I use.
All In One Bookmarking
Comment Luv
TweetMeme Retweet Button
WP Facebook Like
WP Google-buzz
All In One Bookmarking – This makes it easy for visitors to bookmark my post on a wide variety of places.
Comment Luv – Creates a link to your commenters last post which benefits the commenter and gives people an extra reason to interact on your blog.
TweetMeme Retweet Button – This allows people to tweet your post on their Twitter time line with a single click.
WP Facebook Like – Allows people to post a like of your post on their Facebook profile.
WP Google-buzz – Allows your readers to share your post on their Google Buzz page.
These plugins all allow others to spread the word easily about your content. The easier it is for people to spread your word the more likely they will do it.
Now of course you do need to create content worth talking about .
Remember to leave your comments and any questions you have on WordPress or blogging in the comments below.
About the author
Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy.
After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably.
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