Great WordPress Plugins: Identifying Another One Of Them Another of the great WordPress plugins that deserves special mention is ""Simple 301 Redirects"". One thing about essential WordPress plugins is that if you do not know about them or do not know how to use them, you do not realize how great a functionality you are leaving out of your content management system. ""Simple 301 Redirects"" is a good example of this. I recollect that I have been in and out of internet marketing three times over the years before this my final stay. Each time I resurfaced on the internet marketing scene, had I known about this great WordPress plugin, no doubt my search engine rankings would be higher today. I simply would have deployed it to transfer my old blog posts to the new amended/updated pages and thereby seamlessly preserved the old pages rankings. But alas, each time I resurfaced on the internet marketing scene, I simply discarded the old blog posts and posted new/updated pages of these old blog posts on my new blog without linking the two. That is one of the many setbacks great WordPress plugins like ""Simple 301 Redirects"" set out to correct. It provides an easy method of redirecting requests to another page on your site or elsewhere on the web. It’s especially handy when you migrate a site to WordPress and can’t preserve your URL structure. By setting up 301 redirects from your old pages to your new pages, any incoming links will be seemlessly passed along, and their pagerank (or what-have-you) will be passed along. Note that ""age"" and ""number and nature of backlinks"" are critical factors in search engine rankings. Any action you therefore take to preserve these for your blog posts will definitely positively impact your search engine rankings. I’ll give you a perfect example here. I wrote a blog post in December 2009. At that time, I still was not as thoroughly grounded as I am now in search engine optimization (SEO) and so was not optimizing effectively for my intended keywords. I recently changed the title and made some minor adjustments to the body of the blog post and were it to be before, I would simply have left it at that. Does it strike a chord in you that anytime you do such and leave it at that you are simply beginning your SEO for that post all over again? All the backlinks to the previous post will be gone forever. So also the age, as the new blog post will now be indexed afresh while the old blog post on subsequent visits by the Google bot will read ""not found"", again compounding your crawl errors in your Google webmaster tools. Note that all these ultimately negatively impact your page rank. So what did I do? I simply inserted my old url in the ""Simple 301 Redirects"" interface and pointed it to my new url which I also inserted in the interface and saved. Just as simple as that and wow! a whole lot has happened with those simple steps. The backlinks and age of my old blog post will be seamlessly passed over to my new blog post and the page rank of my web page preserved. Let me explain another purpose to which you can deploy this plugin that I have identified as one of the great WordPress plugins. If you go into your webmaster tools account, you will see indicated, crawl errors that resulted while the search engines were trying to crawl your web pages. You can rectify some of these errors and thereby have a more ""efficient"" website which will impact positively on your search engine rankings by utilizing this plugin to redirect some incorrectly specified links to their originally intended destination. Those links that you have control over and can still amend such as your backlinks in forums, you can make amends to. But what of incorrectly specified links that you no longer have access to? For example, links on your articles republished on other sites. This is again better explained with an illustration. I erroneously inserted a link in one of my articles which was republished on another site and noticed the error from ""crawl errors"" in my Google webmaster tools account. The link led nowhere i.e. 404 page and I subsequently redirected it to its originally intended destination, thereby preserving that backlink. This becomes very important when you realize that you can have many of such errors over time.The ""Simple 301 Redirects"" plugin’s many uses can only be limited by your imagination. In summary, the ""Simple 301 Redirects"" is one more of the great WordPress plugins.
Tag Archives | wordpress plugins
Make My Own Website – Efficient WordPress Websites With WP Super Cache
Make My Own Website – Efficient WordPress Websites With WP Super Cache
Online visitors are in a hurry. One of the important questions is how to make your own website run smoothly. It does not matter, if you have a large or small WordPress website, there is a probability that your site responds with delay.
This is because when a visitor searches for specific information, the result is found by sorting through the website’s database and generating the content to display. To improve this process, you should use the WP Super Cache plug-in.
Caching is a method of create a static copy of your website in a temporary place. This technique allows quicker response when a search for information is done. The location of cached information is always the first area to look upon. Therefore, if the needed information is cached, your website can immediately provide information being searched for.
This static copy of your website is available to all of your visitors. More or less a 100% of the users in your website are served with cached information. And because of this, the search mechanism will not overburden your server.
This allows for processing of other important tasks by the server. Thus, your website can be loaded on an explorer in the most efficient way possible because your server can be fully dedicated in doing only that.
The major benefits of employing WP Super Cache plug-in your website are:
It frees your server of processing tasks because a cache file can be used in replacement of searching through the whole database.
A server with correct load can be expected to perform well even when there is high volume of traffic in your WordPress site.
Users of your website will never experience any form of slowing down since the memory in your server can be used to balance system processes.
WP Super Cache plug-in is very easy to use. You may think that its purpose is quite complicated but the installation and usage is not. Simply follow these steps and make WP Cache plug-in immediately work in your WordPress website.
Before installation, you should make sure that no other version of this tool is installed as plug-in. If there is one, remove it first before installing the new one.
Download the latest version of WP Super Cache.
Install WP Super Cache
Right after that, go to the plugin’s configuration section (under Settings/WP Super Cache) and change the status to ON.
On the same screen, in the “”Mod Rewrite Rules”” configuration section, update the rules by hitting the button there.
There are also instructions how to update your /wp-content/cache/.htaccess file (just easy copy and paste)
Save the settings and you are ready to go.
WordPress Websites All The Rage As SEO Strategies Evolve
WordPress Websites All The Rage As SEO Strategies Evolve
WordPress was once perceived as just another open source platform, created for a “”learner driver”” in the technology game. This has changed. WordPress is not just a platform for bloggers; WordPress is a platform with great potential and ROI for small and medium-sized business owners.
In recent times, due to the ongoing evolution of the web for push-button publishing and optimised user experience, WordPress websites have gained much favour in the small to medium business space. Why? WordPress blogs are becoming well-known as being superior content management systems that allow business owners to easily manage their site in order to meet the changing demands of their business as well as to optimise for organic search and integrate their site with the explosion of social media.
WordPress – Low Cost, High ROI
In a rapidly changing digital marketing landscape, many of the complex programming languages and high priced website services, with bespoke content management systems are facing large degrees of difficulty, and increased development costs to keep up with the fast paced changes being brought about by industry leaders such as Google and Facebook. Business owners don’t want to continually live in revision mode when they have to wait for developers to figure out how to make their website do what needs to be done. Because companies large or small nowadays have to justify every dollar spent, WordPress offers an excellent return on investment with minimal maintenance costs.
From its humble beginnings, WordPress has evolved with a robust and active global development community It’s superior features, and the ability to develop customised templates and useful plug-ins with easy-to-integrate functionality (which is proudly shared amongst developers at little to no cost) makes it an attractive prospect to many small to medium business owners and entrepreneurs.
WordPress Development There are expert WordPress website developers building websites for small to medium businesses all across and beyond. They will work with you to build an affordable, search engine friendly, fully customised WordPress website which will help you meet your online objectives. Whether you want them to set you up so you can run it on your own or are looking for full service website leasing services, touch base with us so they can help you put WordPress to work.
Twitter is Cool
Twitter is Cool
Twitter is a new addition to the social networking society. Maybe it doesn’t have as many options for themes as some others. But is that all that social networking is about? Heck social networking has nothing to do with what kind of theme or background you have up on your profile.
With adding Twitter to your other social networking places, you can find even more people out there. Information on specific subjects too. All though there may not be anyone on any kind of social networks depending on the subject. Some things you will find are always hard to find.
To sign up on Twitter it’s a very easy and quick process. Make your screen name and finish the steps to sign up. Update your profile, putting what you’d like others to know about you. You can choose a different theme; however, there are not a ton of different choices. But you can change the background color to have a more unique page from others. Depends on what all you want others to see on your account.
You can put anything you want to up at Twitter; well don’t put up those obscene pictures. But maybe you just want to vent about something that happened to you. Or you love some Xbox or other games that you want everyone to know about. Almost anything can be posted on Twitter.
Maybe you have a new product that you’ve tried and it didn’t work the right way. Warn others out there to save the money you spent. Or just blog some nonsense it might actually be pretty entertaining to others. This is how a lot of the bloggers out there have been noticed. They just start writing and people pull up something and find this funny stuff that they might never have found before.
Twitter is just a great way for you get to know other people in other states, or countries. You can make some lifelong friends online. Or maybe even make a love connection finding someone who has the same interests as you. All kinds of things can happen on the internet. Maybe you’re a writer and you’re trying to get noticed, you never know who might spot your work and want to have you work for them. Perhaps you have a book that you’ve completed and someone sees the blurb that you put up on Twitter. Some people have connections and may help you to become published.
Really it’s a new way to socially network, and very easy to sign up. Research information through different links on Twitter too. Blog it up and tell others about your days. Do everything you can think of, and have fun meeting those people.
You may learn things that you never would have. Knowledge is out there to be found, and Twitter is a new way to go about that search. Don’t be left out of the loop, get your very own Twitter account and see what you can find out.
Introduction to WordPress Themes
Introduction to WordPress Themes
Without a doubt, WordPress is one of the most popular blog and website creation tools. That is, WordPress.org which is the WordPress version that is hosted on the hosting company of your choice. WordPress.com is rather limited and is hosted on WordPress own servers. It is free, but you are limited to a small number of themes and the customizations options are limited. As long as you are willing to pay for your own hosting service, ie – Go Daddy, JustHost, MonsterGator, etc., WordPress.org is the way to go.
Most of the top blogs use the WordPress platform. By looking at these blogs, you can see a great variety in their design. In fact, many of them don’t look like blogs themselves, but look like traditional websites.
The reason for this is that WordPress allows users to create their own themes, and upload them to the WordPress website. Many people do this for fun or the good of the community. However, some create what is called a premium theme which is basically a paid version. Some of the themes offer a free starter theme, but a paid version gets you more features.
One of the strengths of WordPress is also a weakness. There are almost too many themes out there. It can get frustrating finding a theme that suits your purposes, especially after reviewing hundreds of similar themes. To eliminate some of the frustration, consider the following:
What do you want in a theme. On one hand, there are people who are just interested in their blog writing, and they want it to look nice. Commercialization or ads do not interest them. On the other hand, there are other people who are interested in their blog, but would also like to make a little money.
This generally involves AdSense, banner ads, etc. However, the placing of these ads (or the HTML code that supports them) on a blog or website is of prime importance to the advertiser, and also to the website owner. You don’t want ads to distract from your website, but complement it.
WordPress accomplishes this by having areas of your blog where you can place widgets. Widgets are basically place holders where you can place a great variety of content. It could include a link page, a poll, a photo, text, or HTML code that generates an ad. However, depending upon the theme, widgets will be in different places and different sizes.
The WordPress database allows you to search for specific elements of themes.
For example, when you search the WordPress database, you will find hundreds of themes that say “”ad sense ready.”” Many of these themes have only a few widget areas available for ads, and some have as many as 11 different widget areas.
Generally, the more widget areas the better in a theme, because no matter what your purpose, it gives you more flexibility.Â
Another factor that comes into play is that many themes are highly customizable. Don’t be deceived by the initial appearance, look at the option page before you move on.  Many themes have great features, you just need to choose the appropriate option. Background image, color, placement of widget sidebars, etc. are all common things that can be customized.
Finding a theme you like is a trial and error process. However, before you begin, have an idea on what you want to accomplish. Do you want widget space for small rectangle ads? Or do you want widget space that will accommodate skyscraper ads, leaderboard ads, and the other popular banner ad formats? Do you want a widget space that will accommodate a particular photo dimension format?
The process of looking for a theme you like is a daunting task, but if you have a general idea of what you want, it will make the process go faster. With the thousands of WordPress themes out there, you are bound to find one you like.
Boost Your Affiliate Commissions With WordPress
Boost Your Affiliate Commissions With WordPress
Any affiliate marketer would love to increase their earnings. If the increase in earnings can be made without additional work then that will be fantastic for you.
Now many marketers will promote affiliate programs through web 2.0 properties or article marketing, but that isn’t the only way. What if you could increase your commissions whilst building valuable virtual real estate?
Hosting a site on your own domain is a great way to build your virtual real estate empire. Throw WordPress in to the mix and it quickly becomes the affiliate marketers dream. WordPress is such a powerful piece of software you will soon wonder how you managed without it for so long.
WordPress has many benefits for the affiliate marketer. Firstly, it is loved by the search engines and is simple to set up. You can create an amazing looking site without any technical knowledge and in just a few clicks of a mouse.
WordPress also allows you to extend its functionality by using plugins. This means that with a couple of clicks you can enhance existing features or add new features to it. This allows you to create the website you want with advanced features without a technical background.
WordPress is very useful for the affiliate marketer. Out of the box it is already very search engine friendly, but add in one of the popular SEO plugins and it becomes a dream piece of software that the search engines will literally drool all over.
On top of that you can get free plugins which will not only cloak your affiliate links but also track clicks for you. Often affiliate marketers spend a lot of money on software like this, but here you can find it for nothing with advanced features.
Plus it is very easy to make very pretty looking sites that your visitors will really like. It doesn’t take a lot of work and you don’t have to know any HTML or other web design languages. So long as you can point and click you will be able to configure WordPress and make it look fantastic.
If you also monetize your website through AdSense or Yahoo Publisher Network then plugins exist which will allow you to instantly add these contextual adverts to every page on your website. If you have pages on your website already then this is a massive time saver for you.
With additional plugins you can add ClickBank products, turn keywords into affiliate links and without any additional plugins put Amazon widgets anywhere in your site.
WordPress is a very powerful platform that if you are not using as an affiliate marketer then you are missing a trick. By building valuable virtual real estate built on the WordPress platform you are creating a long term sustainable business that will earn very well for you.
Top WordPress Gallery Plug-In
Top WordPress Gallery Plug-In
WordPress is known for it’s wonderfully easy to use blogging platform that basically anyone can get the hang of within a day or two. In the past year or two thousands of developers have been developing WordPress plug-ins which is used to make your blogging a more unique experience. Some of the plug-ins is for the blog owner’s enjoyment and some are for the blogs reader’s enjoyment, either way they are very fun and helpful tools that everyone should utilize. One of the hardest things to do, and also one of the most time consuming things to do on WordPress is create a picture gallery so that it appears nicely with proper thumbnails. Many people have given making a WordPress gallery plug-in a shot but not many have made a plug-in that works properly and efficiently. The NextGEN Gallery plug-in for WordPress is absolutely the number on WordPress gallery plug-in currently and it has many great features.
One of the best features of the NextGEN gallery is the ability to be able to create thumbnails automatically without having to do them yourself. The plug-in also has some nice usable effects that you can utilize if you’d like and best of all it has an easy to use
admin interface. Adding picture galleries onto WordPress posts or pages has never been easier with the NextGEN gallery and also has never looked nicer. As WordPress blogs become more well designed and over more content it’s important that you keep yourself in this top league and by using this plug-in you’ll ensure you’re competing with the best pictures on the web. The thumbnails created look very nice for the readers and the interface to manage the pictures is better then any other. Thousands of people have already been integrating picture galleries into their blogs and it’s been helping them all out with boosts in traffic due to higher interactivity then other blogs. People like to see that you’ve spent time on your blog and not just thrown it together in minutes and although it only takes minutes to set-up each gallery it ensures a very attractive looking blog that people will want to visit often. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nextgen-gallery/
Internet Marketing Course – 4 Recommended Plugins for WordPress Blogs
Internet Marketing Course – 4 Recommended Plugins for WordPress Blogs
WordPress is probably the best interface for anyone who wants to setup a blog style website but has little or no HTML coding knowledge. I had to write HTML codes for websites generation when I was in college. When WordPress was born, it is heaven to many. I personally believe that WordPress was one of the key reasons to an explosion of websites launches over the past decade.
The following are essential WordPress Plugins for anyone who wants to monetize a website, especially one with a blog style.
1. Akismet
Most Blog style websites have a comment box at the bottom of every post that allows the readers to leave their feedback or comments. These comments are great for SEO traffic. However, the comment box is also a magnet for spam.
Akismet is a Plugin that checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam and allows you to review the comments before approving it. To activate Akismet you will need a WordPress.com API key which is free for personal websites use.
Although Akismet is a good tool, you will want to check your comments folder regularly because some good comments may actually get filtered out. This plugin works like a computer anti-spam software that automatically put junk mails into your junk box. If you know how it works, it is not perfect. But this is not to say that you don’t need an anti-spam software.
2. Social BookMarking Links Plugin
This plugin automatically add links to your favorite social bookmarking sites on your posts, pages and in your RSS feed. You can choose from 99 different social bookmarking sites! Furthermore, you can also send a link to your post via email, AIM, Facebook, Twitter and more. WordPress version 2.6 or above is required though.
When you integrate social bookmarking with your posts, visitors can bookmark your web page with their social bookmarking accounts and that creates great backlinks for you that are well-liked by Search Engines.
3. Google Sitemaps Plugin
Google sitemaps creates a compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog. It supports all of the WordPress generated pages as well as custom created ones. What’s cool about this plugin is that every time you create or edit a post, your sitemap gets updated automatically and all the major search engines that support the sitemap protocol such as ASK.com, Google, Bing and Yahoo are notified about the update.
This simply means your blog pages will be more SEO friendly.
4. Google Adsense
This plugin provides a very easy way to generate revenue from your blog using Google AdSense. It is a very simple and yet almost maintenance free way of generating passive income from your blog. After you install and activate the plugin, go to the widgets under appearance and then add the AdSense tool to the sidebar or any where you like on your blog.
Before you install this plugin, please ensure that you have an approved AdSense account from Google, which may be a painful process for some because Google mercilessly rejects your application if it thinks you are generating junk sites.
For more WordPress tutorial and SEO tools, check out Adam Short’s Niche Profit Programs which offers countless video tutorials for the serious Internet Marketers in mind.
Get Educated. Market Smart!