Archive for 2010

WordPress How To – WordPress How To – Change Your Permalinks to Make Your URL's More User and SEO Friendly

One very simple, but very effective way to simplify your blogs' URL and make it user and search-engine friendly is often over-looked. By changing the Permalink Structure on your blog it will make it easier for your readers to know where they are on your site, but can also help greatly with your SEO efforts.

For New Installations

If you have a new installation of WordPress or are planning your next installation follow these simple steps to changing your Permalink structure:

Once you have installed WordPress login and you should arrive at the Dashboard.

On the left hand side of the Dashboard you will see a list of menu tabs. When you hover your mouse over the different menus, an arrow appears at the end. Hover over the Settings Menu and click on the arrow. A drop down menu should now appear.

Click on the 'Permalinks' link. You should now be at the 'Permalinks Settings' page.

You will now see that you have 5 options and on a new installation of WordPress it will be set to the Default option. As you can see from the example it gives, for each post you make it assigns a page number which isn't really ideal. You now need to click the 'Custom Structure' option and enter the following text into the box along side:

/%category%/%postname%

Now click the blue box 'Save Changes'. That's it - all done, now when you make a post you will see the category name you posted it in and the posts name, which is much more user and search engine friendly.

For Already Installed Blogs - How To Install Plugins

If your blog has been installed sometime and you never changed the Permalinks structure and have made several posts, you will first need to install a plugin called 'Permalinks Migration Plugin' before you can change your Permalink structure.

You can download the plugin at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/permalinks-migration-plugin-for-wordpress/. Once you have downloaded the plugin and installed it to your plugins folder via your FTP client, login to the Dashboard of your blog.

Once you are logged in to the Dashboard click on the 'Plugins' link in the menu down the left hand side. You should now be in the 'Manage Plugins' page, scroll down until you find the 'Dean's Permalinks Migration' plugin and click on the 'Activate' link. Now that you have activated the plugin, click on the 'settings' drop down menu on the left hand side and click the 'permalinksmigration' link.

You now need to enter in the box your current Permalink Structure, if you don't know what this is click on the 'permalinks' link under the 'Settings' menu on the left hand side and you will see which permalink structure is selected, make a note of this, go back to the Permalinks Migration page and enter it into the box and click the 'Update options' button. You can now go back to the 'Permalinks Structure' page and change it as I have done above.

All done, as you can see just a few simple steps that will make a big difference to your blog, enjoy:-)

---

By Anonymous

http://ezinearticles.com/?Wordpress-How-To---Change-Your-Permalinks-to-Make-Your-URLs-More-User-and-SEO-Friendly&id=2754512

Free Blogs – A Free Blog and Make Money Too

It's true! You can have a Free Blog and Google will pay you for allowing them to run Ads on your blog. You make money every time someone clicks an Ad, even if they don't buy anything.

You can have your own blogs, created with very little "techie" knowledge in less than 5 hours of work, each on a specific self-help topic. With your own blog or blogs you can add as many many articles, courses, and ebooks, Free and add new FREE stuff almost everyday to attract loyal readers. For the most part, once you get past the learning curve, it's fairly easy to do. Don't let your age stand in your way. Bloggers run the gamut of age and gender. You can do this too

A blog is your own address in cyberspace where you can post your comments, ideas, plans, loves, hassles, or pet peeves to share with the world - and - the world will talk back to you!

What could your blog be about? For example: I told my daughter that she should start a blog on Home Birthing or Midwifery. She does this for a living in Vermont and knows all the inside information. She did it and now has people seeking out her insight. Get the idea? You choose what your blog topic is.

Go on line to find helpful Free resources, that's right, FREE RESOURCES to get you started. Blogs are free from Blogger.com and WordPress, just to mention two. You can learn a lot about the technical stuff by joining Google Groups, for example. Bloggers ask each other questions and learn together and learn from experienced bloggers who teach you how to avoid making mistakes. It cuts down the learning curve significantly! Yes, it's free, too.

Once you build your blog, make sure you add plenty of content. Content is articles by you, or others, that will draw the Search Engines to your blog. A Search Engine got you here didn't it?

If this sounds too complicated, don't worry, be happy! Start a blog! Remember - it's totally Free.

---

Jim DeSantis - Jim DeSantis is a 15 year veteran of broadcast News. His career included stints as an Anchor, Investigate Reporter, Commentator, Producer, and Writer. Retired in ...

http://ezinearticles.com/?A-Free-Blog-and-Make-Money-Too&id=253663

Free Blogs – The Danger of Free Blogs

Many bloggers use a free blogging service to support for their first entry into the field. This makes a great deal of sense. Free providers offer some very easy to use and relatively powerful platforms. Additionally, avoiding a cash outlay reduces the risk involved to a bare minimum.

Free blog providers can be a great way to introduce oneself to blogging and to learn a little bit about the process. However, they are a poor choice for those hoping to generate significant blogging profits. There are simply too many pitfalls associated with their use.

Initially, many free blogs hamstring the user's ability to utilize one of the most effective ways of generating a profit via blogging, Adsense. Some free blog providers offer the free blog and server space in exchange for the display of their own Adsense ads. The terms of service directly prohibit the user from displaying any additional contextual advertising. This is how the free services generate their revenue, and the prohibition makes perfect sense. However, it takes the most powerful tool away from the blogger's moneymaking arsenal.

Second, whenever one uses a free service they lack control over their site. This is not simply a matter of advertising or content restrictions within one may be able to generate a profit. The lack of control is far more serious. Blogger.com, for instance, is known to regularly freeze and/or delete blogs outright for unexplained reasons. Those blogs simply disappear and a great deal of work vanishes with them. Other lesser-known services may be undercapitalized or lack profitability and may simply go under--taking the blogs right down the drain with them.

Third, there is the issue of credibility. Whether it's right or wrong, surfers tend to bestow a greater degree of credibility to (and are thus more likely to visit) sites that have their own URLs. A blog that is an obvious sub domain at a free host can make potential visitors and customers wary of a blog's legitimacy and can have a negative impact on profitability.

Finally, there is the matter of flexibility. Some free blog services limit your options in terms of appearance and may use platforms that lack some features that can really aid in profitability. For instance, the blogs at Blogger.com lack the categories found in their WordPress counterparts. Other free services may offer only a few templates that can only be tweaked ever so slightly. In order to perform optimally, one should be able to make any and all desired changes to their moneymaking blog.

You can find a variety of powerful blogging platforms that won't cost you a dime. The competitive fields of hosting and domain registration make owning your own chunk of cyberspace surprisingly affordable. Within the current context, using a free blogging service as means to launch part of your online business simply does not make sense. The minimal outlay required to own and control your own site is a definite bargain when one considers the pitfalls associated with the alternative.

---

By Anonymous

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Danger-of-Free-Blogs&id=193834

Free Blogs – Step by Step Process to Create a Free Blog on Your Own FTP Within Your Web Template

What is Blog?

Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. They are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog.

Why Blog?

As its definition it helps to publish news updates, to promote new products & services as well as different opinion from various experts who participates in blogs. Many companies today open a blog section to sell products, for customer care and after sales support. Business blogs are the fast track to increasing a website’s link popularity and Google PageRank.The regularly updated keyword rich content offered by blogs score high rankings in the search engines as a direct result of their link drawing power.

Link exchanges between themes related blogs are frequent and not at all difficult. Note that bloggers mainly exchange links for visitor traffic purposes, and not for search engine optimization. Link exchanges should generally be approached from the shared traffic perspective.

Blogs also provide an exclusive list of high PageRank blog directories. While maintaining their exclusivity in the blog only Internet directories, blogs are welcomed in the mainstream Internet directories. In that sense, blogs receive the best of both worlds.

Website owners, who are serious about improving not only their quantity of incoming links, but their theme relevant quality as well, should seriously consider adding a business blog component to their website.

Blog Setup on blogger.com

Blogs can be created from bloggers’ site as well as from own FTP (websites). People who don’t have any website, they can create a blog directly from the bloggers’ site. But who have own site, they can also create blogs from own FTP with the help of blogger.com.

Blogger.com is the most popular blogger creater in the world of blogs. Although hundreds of site provide free blogs, but blogger.com is most popular due to its features and functions. Create a blog from own FTP using Blogger.com is somewhat technical and for the first time, it takes some time & try and error to upload to blogs from own FTP.

From this article, I would like to define step by step procedures with examples that help you to create blogs in few easy steps at less time.

URL to create free blog on your own FTP: http://www.blogger.com/

Steps to setup blogs on own FTP:

1. Create a new account

2. Choose a template

3. Redesign existing template

4. FTP setup

5. Post message

6. Published blogs

(1) Few steps to create a new blog as followed:

Click on the button "Create a New Blog Now"

Create an account

Give blog title like "PPC Articles"

Give blog address like ppcarticles.blogspot.com (Must be unique)

Choose the template & continue from the bottom click button

Get message "Your blog is created" & Start posting

Get Blogger editor to write the message

Give the title

Write the message

From the bottom click on the “Publish Post” button

(2) Customized Template Design:

After creating a blog as mentioned above steps,

First create own template. To do that, click on the "Dashboard" which will bring to the main page of our account.

Here, you find the "blogname" under "Blogs" category.

Click on any created blog that you want to edit with your own template.

Click on "PPC articles"

Here, you will find four main categories from the top navigation.

They are, Posing, Setting, Template, View Blog

Click on the "Template" which will bring you to the present template code.

Here, you can edit your template as per your site design.

You may create customized template using this html code-editing wizard.

Note: While designing the customized template, it is mandatory to place all "blog tags" in between &
tags.

After, designing a new template click on the "Save Template Changes".

After clicking, you get a message - "Settings Were Saved Successfully"

Below the message "Settings Were Saved Successfully" message, you will find two buttons “Republish” (to publish entire blog) and "Republish Index" (to republish only index page)

Click on the “Republish” button.

After clicking, you will get the "Publishing is in progress".

After few seconds you will get the new message on the same page, "Your blog published successfully".

Note: If you get an error, check the "details" after the message "blog could not published".

(3) FTP Setup

Click on the "Settings" button from the top navigation of a page.

Here, you will find sub navigation under the "Settings" like, Basic, Publishing, Formatting, Comments, Archiving, Site Feed, Email, Members

Click on the "Publishing".

Here, you will find two options like SFTP or blogspot.com

Again click on the SFTP, which will bring you on the page, where you can give your FTP server details.

Fill the complete wizard as mentioned below. This wizard appears on selecting the "SFTP" option.

Setup details to publish the content in a new folder named "blogger" under the root folder on the FTP of the website.

FTP Server: yourdomain.com

Note: Do not include http:// or ftp:// in the server address.

Blog URL: http://www.yourdomain.com/blogger/

Note: The web address where this blog is viewable. This should include http://

FTP Path: blogger/

Note: This path must already exist on your server.

Blog Filename: semarticles.html

Note: If this file already exists on your server in the path entered above, it will be OVERWRITTEN. Be sure to back it up.

FTP Username: abcd

FTP Password: *********

Working URL Like: http://www.yourdomain.com/blogger/ppcarticles.html (From the blogger folder of the FTP server)

Setup details to place the content directly in the root folder & publish it.

FTP Server: yourdomain.com Note: Do not include http:// or ftp:// in the server address.

Blog URL: http://www.yourdomain.com/ogger/ (Remove folder name "blogger" from this URL) Note: The web address where this blog is viewable. This should include http://

FTP Path: blogger/ (Keep this field empty) Note: This path must already exist on your server.

Blog Filename: ppcarticles.html

Note: If this file already exists on your server in the path entered above, it will be OVERWRITTEN. Be sure to back it up.

FTP Username abcd

FTP Password *********

Working URL Like: http://www.yourdomain.com/ppcarticles.html (From the root of the FTP server)

Setup details to place the content in an existing folder & publish it.

FTP Server: yourdomain.com Note: Do not include http:// or ftp:// in the server address.

Blog URL: http://www.yourdomain.com/general/ (Place the name of an existing folder here)

Note: The web address where this blog is viewable. This should include http://.

FTP Path: general/ (Place the name of an existing folder here)

Note: This path must already exist on your server.

Blog Filename: ppcarticles.html Note: If this file already exists on your server in the path entered above, it will be OVERWRITTEN. Be sure to back it up.

FTP Username abcd

FTP Password *********

Working URL Like: http://www.yourdomain.com/general/ppcarticles.html (From any existing folder of the FTP server)

After giving a username and password of the FTP server, click on the "Save Settings" from the bottom of the page.

After clicking, it will give you a message - "Settings Were Saved Successfully".

Below the message "Settings Were Saved Successfully" message, you will find two buttons "Republish" (to publish entire blog) and "Republish Index"(to republish only index page).

Click on the "Republish" button.

After clicking, you will get the "Publishing is in progress".

After few seconds you will get the new message on the same page, "Your blog published successfully".

Note: If you get an error, check the "details" after the message "blog could not published".

(4) Shift Blog from one FTP to another FTP

To shift existing blogs from one FTP to another FTP, one requires changing only the FTP details in the admin panel of "blogger".

For that,

Login into the same blogger’ account from where you have already published the blogs.

Click on the "Settings" button from the top navigation of a page.

Here, you will find sub navigation under the "Settings" like, Basic, Publishing, Formatting, Comments, Archiving, Site Feed, Email, Members

Now click on the "Publishing".

Here, you will find two options like SFTP or blogspot.com

Again click on the SFTP, which will bring you on the page, where you can give your FTP server details.

Follow the steps mentioned in point no. 3 above, for changing the FTP details of the blog.

Replace existing FTP server details with new FTP details. This new FTP server details will create new URL to view the blogs.

For example,

[http://www.yourdomain1.com/blogger/ppcarticles.html] (URL after shifting to a new FTP)

[http://www.yourdomain1.com/ppcarticles.html] (URL after shifting to a new FTP)

Above exampled URLs replace the following URLs

http://www.yourdomain.com/blogger/ppcarticles.html (URL before shifting a new FTP)

http://www.yourdomain.com/ppcarticles.html (URL before shifting a new FTP)

After giving a username and password of the new FTP server, click on the "Save Settings" from the bottom of the page.

After clicking, it will give you a message - "Settings Were Saved Successfully".

Below the message "Settings Were Saved Successfully" message, you will find two buttons "Republish" (to publish entire blog) and "Republish Index" (to republish only index page).

Click on the "Republish" button.

After clicking, you will get the "Publishing is in progress" message.

After few seconds you will get the new message on the same page, "Your blog published successfully".

Any changes or post updates will directly reflect on URLs.

---

By Anonymous

http://ezinearticles.com/?Step-by-Step-Process-to-Create-a--Free-Blog-on-Your-Own-FTP-Within-Your-Web-Template&id=123057