Archive for November, 2009

How long should your blog post be?

Nov 30, 2009 in profitable blogging

This is a great question without a perfect answer or is there? Hmmmm.

If you look around people will tell you as a rule to make your posts 300 – 700 words but I follow blogs that regularly break these rules yet are excellent blogs.

One of my favorite blogs that I read daily often has blog posts that are very short and sometimes less than 200 words. I have seen the occasional post that is a single paragraph. The blog is Seth Godin’s and some of those very short posts are his most thought provoking.

Another blog I follow regularly and it is no where near as prolific as Seth’s but each post is a mini-report not a simple blog post. Quite frequently the posts can run 1000 words or more and anything under 700 is a short post.

The key is not how short or how long your blog posts are. The key is do you cover a specific topic and do it well.

If you can make your point in 100 words that is long enough. Very few of us are pithy and succinct enough to do that regularly.

Likewise most of us are not up to doing an epistle on a single topic regularly either,

The real key is to provide good targeted information in as many words as it takes. So go take action and get a post done today while you are motivated.

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.

Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps


Technorati Tags: blog post, blog post length, writing blog posts

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Do you plan your blogging?

Nov 29, 2009 in profitable blogging

There is one thing that you will see spread to my blogs from my decision to do The Old Bald Guy’s Tour. Adding an additional 5 blog posts a week means I must be more organized.

Now I intentionally scheduled a variety of blogs so that..

  1. I would not get bored
  2. Start repeating myself because I was writing the same subject over and over
  3. Get me access to a much wider audience

But, because I am writing on a variety of topics planning becomes extremely important to keep on track. You want to make sure to stay on topic and cover a topic in logical steps. Each visit gets mind mapped on a specific topic to make sure that the series works before I write the first word.

This is something I tell my coaching clients regularly to plan out your posts but I get distracted just like you do and end up too often bouncing from topic to topic with no rhyme or reason.

Now the funny thing is that this only tends to happen on this blog and my Mike Paetzold blog as I do carefully plan out my niche blogs. Now that may be because I am buying content and it needs to pay off but shouldn’t your efforts be just as focused?

Take the time to plan out your blog posting for longer than just today’s post. Lay it out in a mind map based on your keyword research. Each time that I do and do a related series the results tend to be much better than when I just let it fly.

So do some planning first and schedule time for your planning. Do good keyword research like was covered in EZ Keyword Research.

Once you have your keywords lay out your plan in Free Mind and if you are unfamiliar with Free Mind check out Discover Free Mind to show you exactly how to use it effectively.

Now go take action.

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.

Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps


Technorati Tags: discover free mind, free mind, plan blog posts, planning

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Blog 3 Pack Available For A Limited Time

Nov 26, 2009 in profitable blogging

Well it is Thanksgiving Day here in the US and I hope you have had a great day. Dinner is over and the kitchen is finally cleaned up so now everyone is getting ready for the Black Friday Sales.

The stores will open early with very special deals for the day.

I decided to create my own Black Friday Special and it will disappear after Monday but until then you can grab 3 of my best blog training calls for over 50% off.

They include..

  • Keyword Research Call
  • WordPress SEO Call
  • Blog Monetization Call

As these are the key items you need to have a profitable blog this should help you to get the most out of your blogging experience. Grab yours today at

Black Friday Blog 3 Pack

Before they are removed Monday evening.

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.

Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps


Technorati Tags: blog monetization, keyword-research, wordpress seo

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Comments (5)

Blog Tour, WordPress 2.9 and your questions

Nov 21, 2009 in information

Posting has been let go this week for a number of reasons but is coming back as of now. Part of it is the Old Bald Guy Blog Tour and playing with the beta version of WordPress 2.9.

The blog tour has been quite fun so far and it has brought an increase in traffic to my blogs and an increase for the blogs I have visited. I recommend you consider doing one as it can be an excellent way to increase your reach. Grab Nicole Dean’s guide – Blog World Tour Planner – and follow the steps.Thanks to all that are following along.

Will be writing more about WordPress 2.9 as I get to test it out further. Looks good so far and only one plugin problem with the one’s that I like so far and that will probably be updated as the release gets closer.

Finally my apologies for no Blog Talk Radio Show this month there just has not been time for it. I would appreciate you asking any questions you have here and I will be answering them here.

That’s all for now as I go back to writing new blog 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.

Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps


Technorati Tags: Blog Talk Radio, Blog Tour, blog tour planner, wordpress 2.9, wordpress-questions

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The Old Bald Guy’s Blog Tour Now Totally Scheduled

Nov 17, 2009 in information

Just finished the last of the scheduling for the blog tour and you can get the full details at the Squidoo Lens I created for it – The Old Bald Guy’s Blog Tour.

I am already in to week 2 and it will run until the middle of January. I did wimp out and take a two week break over Christmas and New Years so that I can spend time with my family.

The Blog Talk Radio Show has been put on hold also for the next two months which should not be a bad thing because it got very few votes in the last survey as a way people like to get information.

With discussing a wide variety of topics and maintaining my normal blogs this is something that had to be put on hold. I am interested in finding out how many people will actually miss it and you can leave any questions in the comments here and I will address them in future posts.

Well back to writing and staying organized so the schedule does not get messed up. Later all.


Technorati Tags: Blog Talk Radio, blog-questions, Old Bald Guy's Blog Tour

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Checked out WordPress 2.8.6 – Here is what I found

Nov 13, 2009 in information

Yesterday I posted a quick blurb when I first saw the upgrade link in one of my blogs. It actually showed a few minutes before the upgrade notice in the feed reader. From the WordPress blog.

2.8.6 fixes two security problems that can be exploited by registered, logged in users who have posting privileges. If you have untrusted authors on your blog, upgrading to 2.8.6 is recommended.

If you have multiple author accounts it is an upgrade that you should do ASAP. For others I would still upgrade when you get the opportunity but it is not a hot priority. I have added the upgrade video for those that will be upgrading.

Yes it says WordPress 2.7.1 but the way to do it is the same.

Upgrading is relatively painless but if you would like it done for you go to WordPress Upgrade.

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.

Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps


Technorati Tags: upgrade wordpress, wordpress 2.8.6

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WordPress 2.8.6 released today

Nov 12, 2009 in information

Have to love the automatic notification function in WordPress. Saw the upgrade link in one blog before their blog posted the release information.

This looks like a minor fix that is important if you have multiple authors but not really super time sensitive if you are the only one posting items and have no users with posting privileges.

You can see the release from WordPress at this link.

Will have more information after I upgrade and test a few blogs with this version.

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.

Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps


Technorati Tags: upgrade wordpress, wordpress, wordpress 2.8.6

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Comments (7)

Using Blog Desk to post your blog

Nov 12, 2009 in information

One of the tools that I love and is free is Blog Desk. It allows me to compose my posts on my desktop and then after I am happy with them I can then upload them and any images I added to the post automatically.

You can even change the date you want the post to publish, edit whether to allow comments and trackbacks along with allowing it to publish immediately and add any trackbacks.

2009-11-12 0623

You can add images like the one above which I grabbed as a screen capture and in this case I put it centered but you can place it to the left or right and decide if you want it embedded in the text. The image as I am writing this is on my computer but when I upload it will do the image/s along with the actual blog post so need to use ftp for the images or to log in and upload them through the dashboard.

2009-11-12 0628

It has full WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) and you can change colors, bold lettering, italics, underline, strike through, or all of the above or any combination.

This makes it easy customize your posts.

The only downside is that you can not add your tags from your desktop and that is why I use it to write my posts but always uncheck the Publish after upload option as tagging is extremely important for getting the best serps.

Using Blog Desk is just one of the 10 videos in Advanced WordPress Videos that will allow you to generate more traffic and have a better looking blog.

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.

Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps


Technorati Tags: adding-images, blog desk, blog post, blog posting, editing fonts

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Comments (11)

Trouble shooting WordPress

Nov 11, 2009 in information

It happens every so often… I get an email and /or support ticket hollering HELP!!!!

WordPress and being open source has a lot of advantages. The number of themes and plugins makes it easy to set you blog apart from others. The problem comes when you have hundreds, if not thousands of different programmers writing script to interact with each other.

One of the big things you should do is every time you add or change any one thing is to check your blog. This way you will know right away when you get a conflict. If you don’t and all of a sudden find your blog in disarray of some time here are some easy steps to find the problem.

Most problems are created because of conflicts in plugins or themes. It is one of the reasons I am always running a special test blog to make sure the pieces I want to use are compatible.

The first thing I do when there is a problem is to go back to the default theme. If that fixes the problem then I have a starting point. I now know there is an incompatibility with something I changed and the theme.

Now if I had just edited something in the theme I have a good idea I created the problem (this includes adding widgets not just editing the code) but if not it is probably between the theme and a plugin.

If it is not fixed or I want to maintain my current theme it is time to figure out which plugin is giving me trouble. Go back to your original theme and then deactivate all of your plugins.

Make sure that things are working properly with no plugins on. If they are not you definitely have a problem with your theme. If you have made any changes to the code of the theme upload your original theme files and this will fix it most times.

Now if your theme is working fine without the plugins activated it is time to activate them one by one and check each time that the problem does not reoccur. If it does you now know which plugin is causing the problem.

Change the theme back to the default and see if that fixes the problem. If it does then you need to get rid of either the theme or the plugin. If it does not then it may be a conflict between plugins.

Now if you are using quite a few plugins it may be a conflict between them. Again it is just a matter of activating and deactivating them to find which ones play nice together and a decision on your part as to which are more important to you.

As there are quite often more than one plugin to handle different aspects switching to a different one may solve the problem.

So to summarize it is just a matter of testing one thing at a time until you find the problem. Not fun but it works;) .

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.

Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps


Technorati Tags: fix WordPress, wordpress, WordPress plugin problems, WordPress theme problems

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Tony Tezak Says… is the first stop

Nov 09, 2009 in information

The Old Bald Guy Blog Tour is off and running. The first stop is at Tony Tezak Says… and the topic this week will be list building especially with free traffic sources.

As Tony is a long time traffic exchange user and has recently opened his own exchange at Tezak Traffic Power with some partners and some really neat innovations including some that will grow your list it seemed to be a good topic.

There will be at least 8 stops which will take me through the holidays as I may take some time off from the tour for the holidays.

Now the question is why the blog tour?

Nicole Dean ran one of these Nicole’s Rockstar Blog Tour this summer for three months and was a guest at one of my other blogs. It is a great way to generate additional readers for your current sites and get to meet new people and maybe even make a few dollars along the way.

If you are interested in doing a blog tour I would recommend you grab Nicole’s book on the subject Blog World Tour Guide to help you get started.

Now back to creating content talk to you soon.

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.

Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps


Technorati Tags: Blog Tour, list building, Tony Tezak

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