WordPress Is Search Engine Friendly

Search engines love WordPress and there’s a good reason for that.  The WordPress developers went to the big search engines and asked them what they could do to make a search engine friendly product.  Because of that, the search engines are able to crawl through posts, pages, and categories to find and index your content.Search engines especially love sites with original content.

Pinging Your Blog

Pinging is by far one of the best features of a WordPress because it tells a web blog tracking system that your blog has been updated.  These pinging services are like search engine spiders for blogs.Pining is the fastest way to get your blog crawled and indexed.Find as many pinging services as you can because the more your blog is broadcast, the more visitors you’ll get.The URLs of the pinging services can be entered in the WordPress Settings – Writing – Update Services box.

Switching Themes Is Easy

After having developed many traditional HTML websites of my own, changing the design and layout is a major undertaking, yet one that needs to be done from time to time.Unfortunately, it’s easy to break funtionality in the process. 

WordPress makes it very easy to switch themes without affecting the data.  A theme is like a pair of window curtains around your blog.  Post, pages, categories, and widgets don’t change, only the window dressing changes.WordPress is especially fun because you can change themes around major holidays or events. 

Make Your Own WordPress Themes

Developing your own WordPress themes is fun and easy with theme development software like Artisteer.Artisteer can also make Joomla themes, standard HTML templates and more.Ever wish you could hide the sidebars completely or move them from left to right?  Want a tabbed menu instead of a navigation bar?Or perhaps make a theme with rounded corners verses square?  Here are two blogs I made with Artisteer, one about scented candles and the other about strength training.With the help of a few free plugins, you can also make themes to look more like a standard HTML website.

If you haven’t already given WordPress a try, I encourage you to do so.  If you can use word-processing software, you can use WordPress.

Go ahead… Do it… Make a comment here, blatantly telling us about YOUR blog!

We want to read about it… We want to see what you have done…We want to hear you brag… And, we want to come visit you!

Even better, if you are a subscriber to the Blogaholics-Anonymous Newsletter, your comment could be chosen to be featured in an upcoming issue! Not only that, but we will be inviting our featured bloggers to become Guest Posters here on iBlogaholic as well.

What better way to drive traffic, comments, and interest in your blog, than to blatantly brag about it here. So go ahead, be detailed and entice us to come see you. We use CommentLuv, so you will even be able to select your most recent blog post as another link in your comment.

Tell us what drives your blogging fix and leave your comment below today

== Brie ==

P.S. Don’t forget, your email address must be subscribed to the Blogaholics-Annonymous Newsletter in order to potentially become one of our Guest Posters! Go join now before you forget. It’s just over there to the right – you can’t miss it

Using a free shared blogging platform is easy, and obviously free, but it does have limitations for those of you who have big plans for your blog. This is why we recommend the self hosted Wordpress method. This method is not free, but will allow your blog to grow, and removes all the obstacles that you will encounter with a shared blogging service.

Here’s how easy it is to set up a self-hosted Wordpress blog:

#1. Register a domain name for your blog. This helps brand your name and/or niche better than using free hosted domains. My parents prefer to use GoDaddy. You can too.

#2. Use your new domain name to open a hosting account for your blog. One of the best hosting services available for a reasonable cost is HostGator. They give you unlimited usage for your blog and have a great customer support division if you ever need help. They also use cPanel which is perfect for setting up your word press blog quickly.

#3. Once you have received your welcome email from Hostgator, it will tell you what your nameservers are for your domain name. These nameservers are important and tell the world wide web where everyone can find your domain. So log into your Godaddy account, select Nameservers from your domain menu, select Custom Nameservers and enter in the two names Hostgator provided.

#4 Wait about an hour and you then should be abot to log into your cPanel. This is the control panel that you will use for your hosting account. Hostgator will have let you know what your login details are in the welcome email you received.

#5. Once inside your cPanel, look down the list of icons until you find Fantastico or Fantastico DeLuxe near the bottom. Click this to see the list of scripts that can be added to your website. Find ‘wordpress blog’ on the list and click. This will bring you to an installation page that will, within 2 clicks of your mouse, install wordpress on your domain name.

Follow the simple instructions provided, click install, and voila, you now have your own self hosted wordpress blog ready to start making money!

There are millions of blogs out there competing for popularity and visitor attention. Here are some great tips and tricks to keep you from sinking to the bottom of the blogosphere:

Tip #1: Helpful Posts - Let’s face it, no one wants to read a blog with the title “Took The Trash Out…” Chances are your readers will start to nod off after the first sentence. When you’re blogging, keep your content useful and informative, such as advice or some ‘How To’ tricks. If you’re a freelance photographer, writer, chef, baker or whatever, keeping your blog informative, is a great way to help boost your business, and keep people coming back for more.

Tip #2: Unique Content – If you’re going to use PLR (private label rights) products, at least take the time to make it unique. Don’t simply load it up without making at least some attempt at updating it. Remember, your visitors surf around to many other blogs and seeing the exact same content elsewhere is going to cause them to easily lose interest in yours.

Tip #3: Distinctive Information – This may not be easy but is extremely important to do. Make your content stand out above the rest. Granted there are only so many ways one can explain how to boil water, or fix a leaky sink, so by developing your own style and flare in how you present the information, will keep your followers coming back for more!

Tip #4: Promotion, Promotion, Promotion – This is the time to get creative! Not only are you promoting your business, but you are trying to drive new followers to your website with the hope they will become long term repeat customers. By creating contests or offering promotions to people who visit your website, you’ll not only keep the followers you already have but you’ll be attracting new visitors. At the end of every promotion or contest, you can almost be guaranteed that people will come back just to see the results.

Tip #5: Subscriber Rewards – This tip can actually run in association with Tip #4. Entice your visitors to subscribe to your blog newsletter or RSS feed by offering them something of value. This could be a free download, a sample of your product, or ‘Subscriber Only’ discounts off your top products. Your subscribers help your blog grow – treat them well!

Tip #6: Follow Other Blogs - By following other blogs within the same niche as yours will not only let you see what’s going on with your fellow acquaintances, but will give you a chance to grow in your field. Leave a friendly comment or piece of advice, and invite readers to come visit your blog for additional information. Be kind though… Don’t spam your competitions comment section with purely promotional posts.

Tip #7: Have a Laugh, Leave a Laugh – One of the best things you can do is inject a little humor and fun in your blog. Simply put, no one wants to read a boring blog! If you have a funny joke (non-offensive of course), then post it. Even if your content is serious, sometimes we all need a little tension breaker. By doing this, chances are you’ll bring a smile to someone’s face and drive their mouse to the Bookmark button

Blogging can bring in followers from all over the world and help boost your business. While there are many more tips and tricks to making your blog more popular, the ones we’ve just shared are a sure-fire bet to get your business booming.

In order to start blogging, we must understand the basic vocabulary, and what the fundamentals of blogging are. Master these key elements and you will be well on your way to discovering how easy it is to become a blogaholic like me.

Blog is short for weblog and is a series of online entries in reverse chronological order – technically, the online version of an offine diary. However, that is where the similarity ends.

Where almost all traditional diaries are kept to be the private thoughts and recordings of a single person, a blog is meant to be shared. Many blog owners even encourage reader participation. They share text, photos and videos with anyone who chooses to read. For example, you are reading a blog right now!

To start blogging, you need to choose a platform, a web host, and a domain name. Here is the nitty gritty of exactly what these terms mean:

Platform: A blogging platform is a software program that has been designed to allow you to easily write posts, add pictures/video, and update your blog whenever you wish. Compare it to the offline version of a journal or notebook. The platform also controls what your blog looks like and what features you want to add.

Web Host: A web host is is basically a virtual filing cabinet. It stores and displays all of your blog files, taking them from your personal computer and placing them onto the world wide web for everyone to see.

Domain Name: A domain name is the virtual address of where your blog resides – just like your home address. In the offline world we have address extensions such as ’street’, ‘road’, and ‘drive’. Online, our domain names have extensions such as ‘.com’, ‘.org’, and ‘.info’.

Stay close for a step by step guide about how easy it is to start your own blog.

Once you have determined your blog topic, your writing style will automatically reflect your interest in that subject. For example, forcing yourself to write daily about gadgetA, when you don’t have a mechanical bone in your body, is going to make your writing style stilted. You have to enjoy, or at the least be knowledgeable, about the topic you have chosen. A staggering 80% of blogs are abandonned or fail each year due to lack of interest by the creator. Don’t let this happen to you. Knowing what you want to talk about, and having an interest in the topic, will make your blogging experience easy and enjoyable.

Next you need to determine your blogging category. There are numerous types of blog categories, but one of the 3 most popular ones is where your blog most likely will fall into. They are:

1. The organizational blog – This style of blogging uses the power of blogs to communicate either externally with the public or internally within their organizations. It facilitates communication between employees, colleagues and other organizational personnel. In addition, organizational blogs normally publish information that is of interest to the public. They may also choose to publish seminar schedules, meetings, and announcements for their clients, customers or members.

2. The business blog – This type of blog is created for promoting the products and or services of a business, in order to increase profits and build customer interest. These blog owners are always looking for more ways to increase their reputation with both vendors and their potential customers. They do this by publishing contents that express expertise and knowledge within a specific market portion, niche or industry.

3. The personal blog – These blogs contain contents that are more of a reflection of the owners opinions and thoughts. Normally, they are used to publish articles that voice their points of view on several
topics and events. Bloggers who publish personal content usually find pleasure in detailing their daily lives, stream of thoughts and even their dislike of specific people, places, or events. Normally the blog content will reflect the authors mood at the time of posting.

Now that you should have determined which of the 3 categories your new blog will fall into, you need to determine your target audience. Before you type one word, you must understand who your target audience is – what they want, need and desire. These are the 3 key elements you will need to fullfil. The blog you create, and the contents you publish, must provide quality and value to the readers!

An organizational blogs’ target audience is obviously its members and or clients, and the contents will be specific only to them. A business blog will target the wants, needs and desires of its customers – thereby publishing information specific to fullfilling those needs. And finally, since a personal blog usually is a collection of personal thoughts and events, the target audience generally is friends and family.

By understanding your target audience, you will more effectively communicate with them, and develope long term loyal readers. Just like you and I here