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

Technorati Tags: best web hosts, web host, wordpress

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.

Rather than copy and paste there is a good tutorial on custom fields in the codex.

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

Technorati Tags: blog, codex, copy and paste, metadata, personal blog, wordpress

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

Technorati Tags: blog, google, page load speed, page speed, plugins, wp

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

Technorati Tags: article marketing, blog, eliminating spam, google analytics, plugins, podcast, podcasting, podpress, traffic

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

Technorati Tags: blog, dashboard, database backup, malicious intent, scan antivirus, security scan, wp

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.

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: Facebook, Google Buzz, interactive plugins, plugins, social bookmarking, twitter, wordpress plugins

Today’s question is on plugins. Plugins allow you to add functionality to your blog and improve what your blog can do. Because there are a lot of different things that plugins can do this will end up being a multi part post.

This is the last of the questions I have received so if you have a question on WordPress or blogging you would like answered leave it in the comments below.

What are you top plugin choices for WP?

I will be addressing this in a few parts. The first item that you need plugins for is improving your SEO. Basic WordPress code can be made much more search engine friendly with a few plugins.

My favorites are…

• All In One SEO
• Simple Tags
• WP Tags To Technorati
• Google XML Sitemap
• MaxBllogPress Ping Optimizer

All In One SEO – This plugin will allow you to create custom title tags and as title tags are probably one of the top ways to improve your on page SEO.

Simple Tags – Tags are an important part of your on page SEO and this plugin allows you to add related posts too. This allows you to create some nice interior linking and allow people to find more information from your blog on the same topic.

WP Tags To Technorati – Technorati is the oldest and used to be the largest blog search engine although since Google has their own that may not be the case.

Google XML Sitemap – Having and submitting a sitemap to the main search engines makes your site easier to get indexed and makes it easier for the spiders to index all of your pages.

MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer – Over pinging your blog is easy to do with the standard WordPress install if you edit posts and this will stop you from doing that and getting banned as a spammer from the various ping directories.

That’s all for this portion of plugins I use and remember that your questions and comments are welcomed.

Technorati Tags: blog, google, ping optimizer, search engines, title tags, wordpress, xml sitemap

Great question today and one that does get asked frequently. After all everyone I know is looking for ways to automate as much of their business as possible and creating content can definitely be time intensive.

Remember that you can leave your questions in the comments and I do answer questions here regularly that are left in the comments. Right now the queue is down so your questions are appreciated.

Would like to learn more about autoblogging and if you think it is worthwhile. Keep hearing a lot about it.

I have tried some auto blogging and five years ago it worked and worked well for Adsense blogs. Now it has not been effective for quite some time.

It is good for supplementing what you are doing and if you have new content of your own and supplement it with automation it can be helpful.

What I use is Automatic Blog Posting plugin which is a paid plugin. It pulls articles based on your keywords from Article Base so first check how much content they have for your niche.

I only use it to supplement my efforts and add an extra post or two a week to keep the blog fresh but have not found any set up I could make work over the last few years that are truly set and forget.

They are great to supplement your efforts and add new content but as the prime way of generating your content I would not recommend it.

Your comments and questions are welcomed and 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. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: answer questions, auto blog, blogging, blogs, niche

Today’s question is interesting and shows why you need to read things when signing up for things or maybe the real key is not to assume things. We all do it and I am more guilty than most. Remember you can leave your questions on blogging and WordPress in the comments to have them addressed in future posts.

I see you use the TweetMeme plugin too, have you ever found a solution so that the TweetMe Analytics show up in the dashboard like they should?

When you add the plugin it will work as is but you need to sign up at TweetMeme.com to use their services. Then you need to sign up for the free trial for the analytics for 30 days. If you find it worthwhile you will then need to upgrade there to keep it working. You can get a multi-site upgrade too if you have more than one blog.

Now I ran the trial initially but for me I can see what is happening from my TweetMeme button on my Tweet Deck reply column.

When people use the button it creates a retweet of me that shows in my replies.

This is more valuable than simple stats to me because it allows me to reply and thank those that have taken the time to retweet my content. Twitter like the other social sites works best when you are interacting and following up with those that are spreading your message.

If you really want the stats you can upgrade but I feel it is much more profitable to be interacting with those that are helping you spread your word.

Leave your comments below and ask any questions you would like addressed in future blog posts.

Just 4 days left to save $10 on Profitable Blog Steps.

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: interacting, retweet, tweet deck, tweet meme, twitter

Hopefully this is something you never need. One of the things I do and recommend is a regular backup of your database for your blog. It is a preventive item and if you ever need it you will be ever so glad that you have done this.

You can use a plugin (WPDatabase Backup) to email you a copy of your data base and I set up a special Gmail account to collect them so I can just login once a week and make sure that the automation I think I have set up is actually working .

Remember you can leave your questions in the comments for future answers here. Now to today’s question.

Mike, you mention back-up routines several times. I have learned the hard way and doing this now. I can backup and restore through cpanel. You can also backup from within WP (under tools) but nothing on that page on how to restore. Then you can export and use the file to import to another site. Just wondering when you want to do that.

You can’t import the database back into WordPress from the WordPress dashboard. You will need to login to your cpanel and use PhpMyAdmin to replace the database.

Now if I had a data base injection I would start with a new data base and import an uncorrupted past data base to this new data base. It would mean I would need to edit the wp-config.php file to point to the new data base.

Below I have added a video that will show you how to import a data base in to this new one.

The other part of the question was when you would use this. That would be a rare case where you have decided to move your content to a new domain but would need to have all the proper redirects set up on a previous domain.

Not likely for a single entrepreneur but a company that gets taken over by another would be a case where this might be used.

Remember that you can ask your questions in the comments for future posts.

One other note that the $10 discount on Profitable Blog Steps ends on the 20th. If you are looking for a step by step plan to get your affiliate marketing running better check it out.

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: database backup, importing backup database, using database backup, using phpmyadmin