What Do I Write About Today?

Is that a question you often ask your self when you sit down to add content to your blog? I used to have quite frequently but here is a way to overcome that problem.

For me it starts with setting up Google Reader for each of the topics I blog on. Go to Google News and search for the primary keywords on your topic. Grab the RSS feed for that search and add it to your reader.

[hidepost]You can find the rss feed after you made your search in Google News scroll to the bottom of the page and click the RSS icon.

Copy and paste the url from the browser into your Google Reader. To do that open Google Reader and click the add subscription button in the upper left hand corner.

This will open a box where you can add that feed in then click the add button.

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Now you have a place where you can get the latest news on your topics in one place. As you find quality blogs in your niche add their feed in there too.

Now I get up in the morning open up Free Mind (a free mind map software) and then my reader. Go through and see what has been added new and in 20 minutes or less I can catch up on what is going on in my topic. This is a great way to become more expert on any topic too.

This always generates ideas for topics so I add them into the mind map as I get them. Now you could use a note book or whatever other item you prefer but I like the mind map because I can easily rearrange things and tie things together,

It also happens to be the way I outline things so it is just comfortable for me.

Now as I teach in Twitter Time Saver you can link your reader to Friend Feed and Twitter to share things while I go through catching up which allows me to add more quality content while I am coming up with ideas.

Using content in multiple ways like this allows me to leverage the time I spend on research in many ways.

Try doing this regularly and you will soon find that there are more ideas on what to write on then there is time to write them all.

Technorati Tags: blog, free mind, Google News, Google Reader, post ideas, wordpress

Got an email yesterday from a good friend with an SOS in it. Basically the message was I screwed up my blog and it no longer shows online.

Now I sent back on email asking exactly what they had done and got this response.

I uploaded wordpress by hand using the directions at http://codex.wordpress.org/Upgrading_WordPress

 

I must have done something wrong though…

Those directions are very complete and I have never had trouble when using them. I have upgraded blogs literally hundreds of times for my own and my customers.

I checked the blog and the things that normally go wrong. After all this is not the first time I have had some one have trouble and give me a holler.

None of the usual suspects like a config file that had been overwritten had happened. Gave this person a call and started asking questions. Doing that showed there had been a step or two that were skipped.

In this case the problem was caused by not turning off the plugins before upgrading. As the blog was on a very, very old version the plugins were causing a huge problem. It was very easy to fix once I knew what step had not been completed before upgrading the blog.

[hidepost]The fix was quite simple. Just delete all of the plugins on the server and add them back after we regained access to the blog. Any time you have trouble with a plugin logging in through FTP to delete or rename the plugins will usually solve the problem.

There was one more important step that they had not done that could have created a major problem had we needed to reinstall the blog. Always get a data base back up before upgrading your blog.

You should also copy your wp-config file and any theme you are using that has been edited before upgrading the theme.[/hidepost]

The point of this post though is not the problem that was created or the fix. The point is that often we skip steps even though if someone asks you would say I did what this says.

This is particularly important when you are following some one else’s steps to get a result. Let’s take getting traffic to your blog.

In 15 Minute Blog Traffic I cover a number of steps to do regularly to increase the traffic to your blog. The key to making it work is to do them on a regular basis.

If you do them all and do them consistently the system works. If you only occasionally do them or only do one or two your results will be inconsistent.

So if you are following a system and find that it is not working take a minute to review and make sure that you are not skipping steps. All too often when you think a system does not work it is your implementation rather than the system that is causing your lack of results.

It usually is with me and I am sure that most of the time it is with you too.

Leave a comment and let me know if you have found this to be true.

Technorati Tags: 15-minute-blog-traffic, blog traffic, follow system, upgrade wordpress

There are times when you have a post that is evergreen and want it to stay on your index page. WordPress will normally move each post down the page as you add additional content. This can be a problem if you want to highlight a specific post on your home page.

Now there are many reason that you might want to highlight a post.

• You create a welcome post that you want all to see first.
• You could have a very useful topic that you want to highlight.
• You want to highlight a product review.
• Or any other reason that you could thin of to do this.

The reason is not important to this article that is entirely up to you as the blog owner. The key is how can you accomplish this.

It only takes a few changes to how you normally post to have this happen.

1. Write your post as you normally would.
2. When you are ready to publish it click on edit link next to visibility in the publish area.
3. Click the box next to “Stick this post on the front page”.
4. Publish your post.

If you already have a post that you would like to show on the top of the index page the process is almost the same except you need to go into the edit post function and follow steps 2 through 4.

You can do this with more than one post but they will show on the front page in the descending order that you published them. The latest post you made sticky will always show at the top. If you had a greeting post and added another sticky post you would need to edit the greeting post again to keep it on top.

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. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: blog post, edit post function, front page, greeting post, sticky post

Over the past few days I have been talking about getting your blogging organized and staying ahead on your content creation. Then I was watching a couple conversations on Buzz and realized something I know I am guilty of and am sure a lot of others are too.

It is hard to go back and look at things from the beginning. Things that I do automatically are often not understandable or even easy for someone that is new and just starting. That old nasty word assume comes in and because of that I will be doing more back to basics posts to eliminate some of those problems.

Today it will be a step by step walk through of how to preschedule a post.

WordPress has made it quite easy but if you do not know how it aint easy for you. Without further ado lets get into it.

Write your post and get it ready to go as you normally would. When you are ready to publish it

Click the edit button next to publish immediately. This will allow you to set the date and time you wish the post to go live.

Click the ok button and then publish. That is all you need to do and now on the date and time you picked your post will go live on your blog.

I am considering doing a post each week on back to basics items. Let me know if you like or dislike the idea 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. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: back to basics, post in advance, prescheduled post, schedule post