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Posts Tagged ‘Blogs’

The Free Blog Software VS Paid Blog Software Debate

May 2nd, 2009 |

First off the bat I want to explain that I only use wordpress. I use it on all my sites even if they are not blog sites. In fact I just set up a finance comapny website for my brother in the UK and used wordpress as a CMS (content management solution) and he was astounded with the result. Due to the built in features like permalinks and and the rss feed, not even going into the sheer number of themes and plugins there are, that you can now add with a few clicks of the few mouse, it is without a doubt, hands down, the best there is. PLUS it is free and there are loads of forums dedicated to it where you can get help and support.

For the beginners (newbies) to website design, building a website, trying to make money online, the five minute install explained on the main wordpress website, http://www.wordpress.org, really does work. You can search youtube nowadays for anything and almost all reputable hosting providers offer free video tutorials on how to do things. You can also install wordpress through fantastico, if your hosting proivder offer cpanel.

The only problem with the above methods are that for each install you need to go through and delete the first post, the blogroll links and set all your settings to how you like them. Then you have to add all your plugins and themes.

I personally have two ways of installing wordpress so that all my themes, plugins and settings are ready from the off, one free and one paid, hence the debate

The FREE Way

I have a test site with a blank version of wordpress installed. It has all the plugins I want installed and a range of themes that I use often. It also has all of the settings set just how I like them, including the permalink.

When I want to set up a new site I zip up all the files via the file manager in cpanel and download them.I download the wp-config.php separately and change the details to that of the new domain. I then backup the mysql database to my desktop via php myadmin and do a find and replace with the details of the new domain.

I have done this many times and it takes about 45 minutes as I then have to check it is all working.

The PAID Way

About a year ago I found out about an online piece of ’software’, if you can call it that, that installs wordpress in a few clicks with the settings, plugins and themes set just right. On top of that, which is already fantastic, it can bookmark your posts automatically across a range of social bookmarking sites AND ACCOUNTS. It can also add keyword targeted content, to be dripped over time, in just a few more clicks. You can then submit your site to the main rss directories with another few clicks. AND this all happens from one main control panel. You can even access your wordpress admin through it. There are a few more fab features which you can read about on the sales page …

As a current member I know that a new version of Firepow is going to be released in the next few weeks. Andrew (the owner) has also told us that the price is going up, which is why I wanted to give you the chance to get in before it does.

There are two levels of membership … Basic Level, which is not basic by any stretch f the imagination as you get everything, and Premium Level, which has everything the same as the basic level, but you have the added option to you add blog posts with links back to other blogs using Firepow, owned by other people. Andrew has also added a lot of his own sites to ensure that every topic is covered. As the blog owner you can also deny articles, if you want to ensure that they are 100% on topic (I don’t as this is great for ensuring your site is using latent semantic indexing, which basically means you cover exercise if you have a weight loss site).

There is also of course a support forum and I have never had to wait more than 24 hrs (a little longer over the weekend) for an answer from the actual staff.

I think that any time saver like this is worth the money. I have a few people that work for me in India and the Phillipenes, so I can get them to set up 10 sites in less than an hour (the same time it would take to manually put up one site) and the cost to me is less than $5. I can then spend that time doing other more productive things.

What programs do you use and how do they help you?

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Posted in Wordpress |

Tags: -a-holic, Articles, Blog, Blogging, Blogs, Keywords, outsourcing, Promotion, RSS, save time, settings, Social bookmarking, Time, wordpressaholic |

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Does Having Lots Of DoFollow Links Mean Your Page Rank Could Be Penalized?

December 23rd, 2008 |

Author: Kelly Ifrah

This seems to be an unanswered question dating back to the beginning of 2007 and before. Many people have talked about loosing page rank due to outgoing links in case they were paid links, but personally I have not been affected.

As of today this site is a page rank 3 and nothing has changed with regards to dofollow and nofollow in my links. At present only my recent comments are nofollow and this is only on the home page (index page).

As it is supposed to be better for you to have no dofollow links on your site except on your home page I thought I would try an experiment with one of my niche blog sites.

So I did everything I could except make my blogroll links nofollow. I did the normal thing and did a google search for an answer, but only got details on how to change files to allow you to tick a box for the links to be nofollow. I did not want to do that as apart from it being too time consuming it means changing the relevant file every time there is an upgrade and at the moment there seem to be quite a few.

My next stop was the plugin directory at wordpress.org and here, after ploughing through a bunch of completely irrelevant plugins I found the right one by a guy called Andrew Shell. You can read about the plugin directly on his blog (click on his name). It is a simple plugin that does the job perfectly, with no bells and whistles, which is to let you select which blogroll links you want to be nofollow.

So the next time you are searching google for how to do something in wordpress and the answer is not forthcoming, think about the wordpress plugin direcory as although there is a minefield of plugins, there is more than likely one that will do the job for you.

I did think about doing one post about my favourite plugins, but I have so many it is hard to choose my favourite, so at some point I will set up a category and write about each one as and when I find them.

What is your favourite wordpress plugin? If you could have a plugin made for you what would you want it to do? As always leave your comments below.

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Posted in Wordpress |

Tags: Blog, Blogging, Blogroll, Blogs, Google, Google Search, linking structure, links, Niche blogging, Nofollow, PageRank, Plugins, Search engine, Wordpress |

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Aweber Offers Twitter Integration

December 21st, 2008 |

Author: Kelly Ifrah

I just did a bit of digging in my aweber account and noticed that I can broadcast the message I send to my lists to my twitter account as well. I only have about 200 odd followers, but still, if those 200 people are online when I send my e-mail they may well click, meaning I could get my message out to another 200 people.

You must admit this is fantastic, especially if you are in a niche and have a lot of followers.

I found a video on this and it is going to be included in IMMembership.com, which will open in January 2009.

It is easy to implement. In your aweber account settings you can add your twitter username and password. Then when you broadcast a message/an e-mail, you tick the box at the bottom of the page and it twits about it.

I really want to get more into twitter, but I have so many ‘projects’ on the go it will have to wait until Feb at the earliest I had a look around on the web and ther is lots of info on it, including rumours that they are going to start monetising it. Now if someone really thought that they would not look for a revenue stream or 5 in the future they were sorely mistaken. Honestly, who really thought that the nice people over at twitter were just letting us use their service for free and were never going to expect something in return. I doubt they will charge for it as that would mean they loose everything they have worked towards, but they might do some sort of advertising on profiles, although I hope the do revenue sharing if that happens.

Are you using twitter? Are you integrating it with your blog? Tell me about it by posting a comment.

I have heard lots of good things about Tweet My Blog, which is a plugin for wordpress and is free, but although I signed up for it I have never had the time to add it here. Now that blogrush has gone I think it is a good time to dig it out.

Follow me on Twitter … http://twitter.com/kellyifrah