A rainy Sunday here in the coal region. Has me moving a bit slow as the weather often times creeps into the bones of this old bald guy. Time to start through the bookmarks and see what I really liked this week in my travels through the blogosphere.

Each week as I am roaming through out the old www and tutoring myself I try and grab the posts that ring true or just make me laugh. This week has been more of a truth week.

Lets start with a trip to a biggie, Pro Blogger, for a guest post that really resonated with me from Arsene Hodali titled “7 Good Things that Blogging Brings“.

Our next stop is to visit with the Sales Lion, Marcus Sheridan. What caught my eye this week was his post “Google Search Results, the Death of Niche Sites, and Why Inbound Marketing is the Future of SEO“. An interesting view and one you should consider.

Our last stop but certainly not least is at Search Engine Land for a good article from Vanessa Fox titled “Your Site’s Traffic Has Plummeted Since Google’s Farmer/Panda Update. Now What?” More of a report but one of the better articles I have seen about the hot topic of Google’s Farmer Update. (Besides if the weather is like here you have time and could definitely get some great ideas.)

That is all for this week. Hope you enjoy and hopefully increase your knowledge this week.

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: blogger, google, hot topic, marcus sheridan, panda, search-engine

WordPress and plugins go together like peas and carrots. (Yeah I know a Forrest Gump thing, love that movie.) Plugins make things easy and can be very helpful but are they getting over saturated?

Over the last few months I have seen more and more plugins released. Some are free and some are paid plugins. Now I don’t have a problem with paid plugins. Have recommended some that can do things to help or automate things.

Really it is surprising that so many authors offer so many for free.

The problem is some are for CMS purposes and some are for blogs. Some are just because of laziness. That last category is the one that can hurt you.

Quite a few of those new paid plugins are specifically for making WordPress into a CMS and that part is fine. More and more I am using WordPress as the base for all of my sites. Except for older sites almost every new site I create uses WordPress to run it. Even minisites.

The problem I am seeing is that each plugin you add has the potential to slow down the loading of your blog. As Google is using load speed as part of their algorithm, page load speed matters.

The point is that although a plugin can make something easier, what is the trade off?

Often a bit of coding, like using a widget, can add the same thing a plugin does with some html. If you add a plugin versus adding some of your own code often you slow your load speed.

Think about it next time you think about adding a new plugin. Ask if there is an easy way to do something the same or similar without adding the plugin.

That little bit of thought may help your load speed.

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: add plugin, cms content, content management system, plugin, wordpress, wordpress plugin

Closing out the month of February and this week I decided to change a couple things up. As a rule I don’t link to the “big guy’s blogs” that are super well known even though I regularly read them. Most people are already aware of them and I prefer to focus on the second tier.

Occasionally there is something there that I just feel you need to see. It won’t be a regular thing but this week there was a post that I needed to highlight.

Also have not previously linked to a post that is primarily a podcast but really enjoyed thr content on one this week. Lets start our travels there.

The first stop is DIYBlogger for a podcast which is an interview with Dan Cristo. It starts a bit slow but the content is excellent. Check out “No Bullshit Approach to Search engine Optimization and Page Rank With Dan Cristo“. Content is sometimes rated PG.

Our second stop is to Pro Blogger for a guest post by Stefanie Flaxman. Now I am not a grammar Nazi and often disagree with super strict grammarians but there are some excellent points in this post to pay attention to. Check out “Eliminate 21 Reputation-Crushing Writing Mistakes from Your Blog“.

And for our last stop this week but certainly not least lets stop by Income Diary. Load speed has become a factor in the way Google ranks your content so this is a post from Michael Dunlap titled “15 Ways To Speed Up WordPress“. Definitely some things to consider there.

That is it or this week but I will be back with more next week.

Let me know which ones you liked and if you found a good one this week leave it 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: blog, blogger, blogs, engine optimization, google, grammar, grammarians, load speed, page rank, reputation, travels

Had to do a bit of playing today to talk about some of the posting changes that are in WordPress 3.1. Regular readers know that I rarely use the built in posting area in WordPress and prefer to use a desk top application for my blog posting like Blog Desk. (Windows users only)

Even then any editing I do tends to be in HTML mode. Guess I am just old fashioned and when I started blogging before WordPress that was necessary for the old pMachine blogging platform.

When I first went to WordPress way back when they WYSIWYG frankly sucked.It has come a long way since then and there are a few things in the new version that make it even better.

Wil I change what I do? Probably not. I am old and bald and set in my ways for too long. Not always a good thing but I am nothing if not a realist.

Below is the new minimized WYSIWYG.

I have highlighted the last two icons. The furthest one changes the bar and shows all of the potential features for the WYSIWYG. The second one allows you to change to a full screen WYSIWYG for creating your post. You can see the expanded mode below.

Won’t go through all of the features because if you mouse over any icon you get a description. There is one nice feature added that I think is very helpful.

You can access related posts through the add link function. Highlight the text you wish to link and click the link adder.

When you click that you get the option to add any link or you an search and link to a post you already have on your blog. This makes it very easy to interlink your older posts to your current content with applicable anchor text. Saves you a bit of time doing it.

So that is one of the new features available in the latest version of WordPress and how to take advantage of them.

Will be adding more on new features in WordPress 3.1 at a later time.

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: anchor-text, blog, current content, link adder, new features, pmachine, realist, windows users, worpress-wysiwyg

Over the last couple days I have seen numerous blog articles show up in my reader that read like those below.

• Nobody Blogs Anymore — They’re All Microblogging
• Blogging Is Dead Just Like the Web Is Dead
• Is Blogging on the Wane?

So is it true? Is Blogging really dead?

Well lets start with the point that each of these titles come from (gasp) a blog. Makes you wonder now.

The Huffington Post (a blog) just sold this month to AOL for $300 million dollars.

Wondering if AOL is that dumb to spend that amount of money for something that is dead?

No I think the death of blogging is vastly over reported.

The better questions would be is blogging changing? The answer to that would be a definite yes. Are they going away? Not in the foreseeable future.

More people are using micro blogging and various social media. I do. But I still blog too.

They supplement each other.

Will blogs move more to different types of content?

Absolutely. You are seeing it with more video content, podcasts, etc.

So from my point despite the massive reporting blogs are not dead. What is yours? Leave your comment 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: blogging, blogging dead, podcast, video content

Another Sunday morning here in the coal region. We had our teasing of warm weather and did get rid of most of the ice but we are back to winter again. Oh well it is February and two days above 50 F were a very welcome relief.

Though it may be cold outside that has not chilled off any of the great content I have found in my blogosphere travels this week. Once again had a hard time whittling the list to just 3.

Our first stop this week is a familiar one for regular readers but with a different author this time. We will start with a trip to Traffic Generation Cafe (a regular stop for me) and this article from James The Just titled “How To Write Titles With Teeth”. Enjoy this one. I did.

Our next stop in this week’s tour of the blogosphere is to Daily Blog Tips and a guest post by Diggy titled “The 10 Commandments to Successful Blogging“. Some really great tips and the last one is the most important for you to understand.

Our last stop today will help you generate ideas. A topic near and dear to my heart. This one comes from Experiments In Passive Income and is written by Moon Hussain titled “9 Sure-Fire Ways to Ignite & Generate Great Keyword & Niche Ideas“. Get your mind churning by applying some of these.

Hope you enjoy your travels. I did finding them for you. If you found posts that really resonated with you this week feel free to add them 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: blogging, blogosphere, keyword ideas, passive income, titles, traffic generation

When I first started doing this each week I thought this would be an easy way to create a blog post and provide quality content to you, my reader. It has but it really isn’t easy.

Now it could be if I went with more than three but do you really have time to check out more than that?

It has become hard because most of the previous entries are from people that consistently put out great content and I could just promote the same 3 blogs 3 weeks out of 4.

It amazes me how much quality content is put out each week that I find. Whittling it down to 3 is what makes it tough and not constantly repeating the same authors makes it even tougher.

So here is what I found this week.

The first stop is to visit a blog I go to regularly from Alex Syseof, WordPress How To Spotter. This is a guest post from John Lombaerde titled “How Can A Keywords Ranking Analysis Help Engine Search Visibility?” It explains some things about keyword research in a simple to understand way.

The next item is from someone I have not followed before but liked the content and will be in the future. It is from Geoff Livingston and his blog is named the same titled “4 Ways to Improve Content “.

The final stop is to go to Read Write Biz for an article from John Paul Titlow titled “Is Your Website Ready For the Coming Tablet Explosion?”. It is a topic that you really need to be aware of as a blogger. More and more people are reading your content on smart phones and tablets and you need to adapt.

All places to get good quality content and worthy additions to your feed reader.

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: improve content, keyword analysis, search visibility, search-engine, smart phones, tablets

A big week end here in the US with today being the Super Bowl. Will be heading out later today to a big party to watch the game. Should be a good one but you never know.

I do know that the commercials often draw as much if not more attention than the actual game and companies pay a ton of money for them. Not just for the spot but often for the creation.

Enough about that though. It is Sunday, so it is a time for some of the items that caught my eye in my travels across the blogosphere. Each week I highlight three of the posts that really caught my attention from other people.

This week it covers three topic that are important. Anchor text, outsourcing and marketing your blog.Let’s get started.

Our first stop is to visit with Ana Hoffman of Traffic Generation Cafe. She had a lot of good posts this week but I wanted to highlight “Your Ultimate Anchor Text Tutorial – from Basic to Advanced“. A great explanation on an often confusing topic.

Our next stop on this week’s tour will be to Blazing Minds for a guest post by Nitin Aggarwal. The title is “How To Market Your Blog” and covers some good ways to generate more interest in your blog.

Our last stop this week, although certainly not the least, is to visit with Justin Brooke. He is the self proclaimed “Internet Mad Scientist” behind Site Fling. The topic that caught my attention was “Best Stuff In IM: Outsourcing Secrets Edition“. Outsourcing is a hot topic and something you need to understand if you want to grow your business.

Enjoy the goodies this week and if you are a fan enjoy the Super Bowl and the commercials tonight. Let me know what you think of my choices by leaving a comment 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: anchor-text, blog, blogosphere, confusing topic, hot topic, mad scientist, marketing, outsourcing, traffic generation

Yesterday I wrote about using Trends from a variety of places for a way to get more attention for your post. Had I posted a bit later I could have used a perfect example so instead I’ll use it today for a follow up

Anything to get an extra post in this week easily. Not really but it is a perfect example of what I was talking about.

Yesterday one of the items that showed up in Google Trends was Chinese New Year because yesterday was the start of the Chinese New Year. (Duh) It was the start of the year of the rabbit.

The funny thing is that Sheila had not read my post before creating hers either.

Here is a link to go read it and she has a great “Rabbit Rant” in the post.

Finally! The Year Of The Rabbit

Do you find examples like this worthwhile or a waste of time? Leave your comments and let me know.

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: chinese new year, google, google trends, year of the rabbit

Really looking to do some updating on this blog shortly. Have been looking at themes trying to find a new look that I like for this blog.

Spent a bit today going through this blog’s plugins. Now I may be the exception but after looking I had quite a few plugins that I was not really using any more.

You know what happens. You test something new that you want to try. You replace one plugin with another and just deactivate the old one because you are not sure you are going to like the new one.

Then time goes by and you forget to go back and remove them.

I had 15 inactive plugins and just did a quick clean up. Ashamed to say it because I know better. Learn from my laziness and check your plugins today and get rid of what you are not using.

So am I alone or do you have plugins to clean up too? Leave your 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: blog, inactive plugins, laziness, plugins