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Why is WordPress Blog Better than Blogger

By on December 15, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

Why is WordPress Blog Better than Blogger.com?
Here, we are comparing WordPress Blog with Blogger.com and out of these two, there is only one winner that stands out. These are the two most well-known blog hosts in the blogging community. Both of these hosts provide free hosting services for quite some time and it is their unique features that distinguish the better one. It is their services and features that influences our decision to choose which blog host. Thus to start the competition, their features will be compared to come up with the winner.
Free and Tailor-made
Both are free blogging hosts and allow the users to create as many blogs as they want. With optional paid upgrade, users can utilize additional features to improve their blogs.

Principle
Blogger is Google-owned while WordPress used open source project. WordPress offers more flexibility and reliability as compared to Blogger, and it is very useful especially to more advanced blogging community.

Themes
WordPress and Blogger both offer a variety of brilliant themes for the users to choose according to their own theme and needs. Themes are useful in giving a blog its uniqueness as compared to other blogs, and even the fastidious users managed to find a theme that suits them from these two hosts. Both of them provide features that allow users to design their own web page.

WordPress has limited customization compared to Blogger in terms of additional coding. Blogger allows access to coding allowing more customization than WordPress. However, WordPress counter this weakness by allowing the users to change themes as often as they want in an instance. WordPress are constantly upgrading their themes based on feedbacks from users which enables users to select from a larger variety of themes.

Speed and easiness of blog creation
WordPress only requires 2 steps in starting up the blogging process and can be done within a couple of seconds. On the other hand, Blogger needs 3 major steps with longer time required to start blogging. WordPress wins over Blogger with it simple and fast start-up.

Defense against spam
Automatic Spam Protection in WordPress is a reliable protector against spam for published blogs. However, Blogger only protects against spam in the process of blogging, and not for published blogs. Thus, WordPress is better.

Feedbacks
WordPress offers notification of feedbacks from the visitors. This helps the blogger as feedbacks are a source of improvements. Blogger on the other hand do not provide such service.

Import
WordPress has importing feature which allows the users to import their previous blog posts in other hosts such as Blogger to WordPress. Apart from this, there are a few other importing options as well.

Page management
Page management enables users of WordPress to post up as many pages as they want in a blog post. Blogger again do not have such a features.
Additional features
WordPress has added features such as Words, Spell-Check and Autosave which are similar to those in Microsoft Word. This allows the users to edit their text blogs and check for mistakes without the need to read the whole post after writing. Autosave is important when power failures occur as it allows users to save the work and not losing everything. These features are definitely a convenience to the users and provide security over their works.

It is an easy win for WordPress over Blogger with their features which provide simple and easy to understand steps in creating blog posts. WordPress definitely has advantage over Blogger in terms of attracting larger number of users due to their unique features not provided by other web hosts.

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WordPress Marketing

By on December 13, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, Blog Business, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

Wordpress Marketing

Blogging nowadays is a lot more then just jotting down your opinions and feelings onto a webpage in hopes of people finding it. Now you can take your blogs fate and rest it in your marketing skills and tactics. Every month there are new social networks being opened up for bloggers to interact with each other and to help each other with traffic. Many networks offer traffic trading programs for bloggers which can benefit your blog tremendously depending on which you choose. Sites like EntreCard and MyBlogLog are top picks for these types of programs. Besides traffic trading you can also market your blog using social bookmarking sites or social networking sites. Websites like Digg and Propeller allow you to submit each blog post to there website to receive a backlink and also traffic. People can vote for your post on whether they like it or not and you can receive very nice amounts of traffic from these sites if you have good content. Youtube is becoming huge lately to and many bloggers are using the Youtube platform to voice there opinions on topics relating to their blog topic. This helps them generate traffic to the blog and with millions of people using Youtube each day bloggers are beginning to adapt to marketing through video.

As you can see there are almost unlimited options when thinking of how to market your blog. Forums can be a great place to interact with people and the signature line can house your blog URL which will over time attract clicks and traffic. When you’re marketing your WordPress blog you should make sure that you try utilizing all the possible options that you can and make sure to get your link out there. Becoming active on other blogs is one way to do this and you should comment on the blogs in your niche that have traffic to get your name and blog out there. Often after you comment for a week or two straight the blog owner will take notice to you and may even offer you a link exchange. The more you get yourself and your blog out into the market the better chance you’ll have at obtaining traffic.

Article submissions are popular also when marketing your blog and especially in the beginning stages of your blog. Submitting to websites like EzineArticles can not only boost your traffic but it can help to get your blog indexed in the search engines. When you utilize article marketing make sure you include deep links into your articles and not just the homepage. Deeplinks are actually more important then homepage links and the more deeplinks you can get the more search engine traffic you’ll receive. It takes months to rank in the search engines but once you do the traffic will be worth it. Once you obtain the rankings in the search engines that you wanted you’ll need to continue marketing to keep those rankings.

Blogs have been known to help people get search engine traffic due to the many plug-ins available, and frankly it’s simple for anyone to do. Longtail keywords are easily attainable using WordPress and you shouldn’t have problems getting traffic from your longtail keywords. The most important part of your marketing when using WordPress is your keyword selection. You want to make sure that you’re targeting highly searched terms but with the least amount of competition. Using programs like Wordtracker will help you find keywords and keyword phrases for you to optimize on your blog.

Make sure you also use all the great plug-ins that will help you with the SEO of your blog and overall help your marketing efforts. There is plug-ins for choosing your search engine title, keywords and description which is a mandatory plug-in in my opinion and will help you rank for the terms you want to rank for. There is many more plug-ins you can utilize but I won’t go into great detail about them right now.

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WordPress Leading the Way

By on December 10, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, Blog Business, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

For many reasons, WordPress is preferred as the leading blog publisher for websites. Its structured and sophisticated features make blogging so enjoyable and fun. One of its modern features, Kubrick template, is easy to install and customize. Kubrick comes together with WordPress as the default style. For advanced version of Kubrick, K2 is modified to make blog administration easier with the addition of logistics- handling tabs. However, users feel that Kubrick is not user- friendly enough simply because there better themes out there. It is custom theme that can be personalized accordingly.
Bloggers find Kubrick boring after a few posts because of it lack of customization. Upon installation of WordPress, the default theme is Kubrick, which is not sustainable in long-term use. This is because plug- in need to be installed to keep track of comments left by readers. Although WordPress allows easy installation of plug-ins into your blog, it is still a hassle compared to other custom themes that often comes with plug-ins.
In these days, it is not a good idea to use Kubrick as the base theme for WordPress as this leads themes that are difficult to customize. Moreover, Kubrick theme has little documentation and it makes unattractive layouts. For beginners, this is a source of headache when changing layout with Kubrick seems to take forever. In short, Kubrick theme is not user- friendly to bloggers.
Kubrick theme might look too formal with its rigid vertical columns for art lovers. People with art and graphic base often choose more organic and soft-edged designs instead of rigid designs that you would see in Kubrick theme. This is why Kubrick should be changed into a more beautiful theme that suits everyone’s taste.
Also, Kubrick theme should be developed in minimal way for easier customization if it is still going to be WordPress default theme. People always prefer to break away from the default look by tweaking the codes. However, Kubrick codes are not easy to work with. The theme should be plainer so that customization is easier. Therefore, in long-term, Kubrick is not a good base theme for its bad workability.
It is not the end of the world for those who are not good in CSS and HTML editing but yearn for a revamp for their blogs. They can always download themes from websites such as WordPress Theme Generator and IMJTK. These highly informative and useful websites dedicate themselves to provide countless gorgeous WordPress themes to replace Kubrick theme. Downloading and uploading your custom theme is easier this way and saves a lot of time too.
You can also switch themes as much as you like to check the theme’s suitability to your blog. You can always remove the theme if you find the theme looks awkward in representing your blog posts. Unlike Kubrick, there is not much you can do if you find the design not attractive enough for your taste. You need to tweak the finest details to get the result you want which means more time is spent on blog layout rather than concentrating on the blog content.
All in all, custom theme is so much better than Kubrick theme because of its versatility and functionality. It is hoped that one day WordPress decides to replace Kubrick theme with a better-looking theme that is easy to be customized.

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WordPress Featured Content

By on December 7, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, Blog Business, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

People do not want to feature only their blog contents. They also want to show beautiful things like inspirational header and pretty layout. This is a theme comes into rescue. WordPress is highly respected blog publishing software which is known for its well- structured layout. Its default theme, Kubrick theme, which is designed by Michael Heilemann makes a beautiful theme for your blog. However, custom theme is making its wave for being versatile and workable compared to Kubrick.
Custom theme is a theme that is altered into a new layout design. Kubrick is losing out in this case because it is difficult to customize. Even K2, the one version of Kubrick theme is not really improved in terms of workability. If you attempt to install upgrade, strange errors might occur when you explore the Options Page. Sometimes the blogroll and side bar disappear if you messed up with the application.
We are living in a world of convenience. This is applicable to changing your blog theme. You do not have to go through the agony of tweaking Kubrick theme that might take hours to configure. Everything that you ever wanted in a blog theme can be found via World Wide Web. The themes can be downloaded into your computer before uploading the theme into WordPress.
Also, it is not wise for beginners to tweak Kubrick codes if they are not good at codes. The changing process of PHP and HTML is a bit tricky which means you need to certain knowledge before tweaking Kubrick theme. It will be easier if Kubrick theme is plainer which unfortunately not the case in reality. The best thing is to use themes provided by free websites to reduce your agony and pain in tweaking Kubrick theme.
Custom themes are more practical to be used as compared to Kubrick theme. If you are bored of the theme you are using you can simply switch it with another themes that are easily available via the Internet. The best part is that you do not have worry about losing your blog content or some functions of the blog because WordPress has it all covered. Tweaking Kubrick theme blindly might jeopardize your bog if you did not save the default codes of the theme.
Blogging is not only a platform to rant and post about personal life, it is also a place for business and advertising. Giant advertising companies search for blogs that best represent the corporate world and the blogger. Kubrick theme is not a good theme for advertisement because it does not have the space for advertisement. Unlike custom themes, people have ample of space to put HTML and Javascript codes for advertisements.
Furthermore, custom themes come in wide range of selection. Whether you want your blog to look fancy, gothic or professional, it is up to your choice when it comes to design. Custom themes are really easy to upload and they function very well. You do not have to worry if there is no comment box in custom theme because there are some themes that re created for blogs with high readership. This means it is up to you to customize your own blog layout. The restriction is your imagination, not how the theme is set to be.
In a nutshell, Kubrick is great to start up a new blog but it does not shine when a blog needs a revolutionary change. Therefore, custom theme is still very much users’ favourite in layout makeover.

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Free Hosting vs Paid Hosting

By on December 7, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

Free Hosting vs. Paid Hosting

If you’re just starting out in the webmaster arena then you’ll probably either already be debating between a free host or paid host or you will be soon. A lot of new webmasters aren’t too confident with what there doing and feel that they may not know how to do anything which is one of the reasons why people choose using a free host. There are tons of free blog hosts out there which allow you too create your very own blog on their servers for no charge at all. This means you could potentially make money without ever spending a dime of your own money, but there are downsides to using a free host.

Sure most people talk about how new webmasters should use a free host because it will allow them to test out how to run a blog and will give them valuable experience. Now this is correct in the fact that the person would learn what it takes too run a blog, but then once they do feel confident with blogging they’ll want too move on to their own domain. Now the problem with this is that you won’t be able too take your blog with you and therefore you’ll need to start from scratch from again which isn’t always fun. This is why I recommend starting out with your own paid hosting right from the beginning. For the price that it costs for a domain and a small blog hosting package nowadays there is no reason too be using free hosts.

It will cost you no more then $20 too get your first domain and first months of hosting paid for and from there you can begin making your blog and you actually will own it. On a free blog host you don’t really ever own your blog, but with your own domain and hosting you’re the complete owner to your blog and nobody will be able too take that from you. Free blog hosts have the possibilities of closing down in the future and then all of your hard work would also be lost.

I tend to not enjoy leaving my blogs in the hands of someone else and I personally have never used a free blog host and never will. When you have a successful blog on a free host not many people really care and your monetization methods are slimmer for private advertisements. Private ads are a huge part of blogging monetization and without the option you’re cutting yourself short. When you have a blog on its own domain then you’ll easily be able too sell links, banners and more once you get traffic.

The benefits of coughing up $20 to own your blog is well worth it and can save you from lots of headaches down the road. You never want too leave your web properties in the hand of someone else and by using a free blog host you’re doing exactly this. Now for children and teenagers I understand using a free blog host, but if you’re an adult and serious about giving the online world a chance then you shouldn’t be scared about paying $20 for a domain and hosting as this will be the least of your investments.

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WordPress Company Sites

By on December 4, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, Blog Business, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

A decade ago, it is not surprising and embarrassing if large corporation did not have their own websites. Now, a company without its own website loses its credibility and respect due to vast demand in online business. WordPress websites are made for companies and individuals to compete in this competitive cyber world. Whether it is for commercial or personal purpose, websites are staples in the Internet as a form of communication approach. The success of a website depends on how appealing it is to search engines. To make websites easily accessible, WordPress are created to be SEO friendly.
WordPress can be customized easily to optimize search. The term ‘SEO’ which stands for search engine optimization, is used as a tool to gauge traffic and volume of a website. It is not difficult to change WordPress URL into a more SEO friendly one with a few simple steps. Users just need to change and update their permalink structures. The reason behind this is to create a new SEO keyword-friendly URL structure. Bloggers need not worry about their old URL because all incoming links which are associated with the old URL will be directed to the latest optimized URL.
Being a platform of blogs and commercial websites, WordPress is user- friendly in terms of site administration and configuration. Users do not have to be highly- skilled in IT knowledge but to learn a few advanced technical optimization to prevent duplicate contents and make their blogs SEO friendly. Some useless archives in the blog need to be disabled to avoid duplicates which will adversely affect blog ranking in search result. It is also wise to exclude unnecessary links and pagination.
Using suitable WordPress themes can shoot your blog to stardom with better SEO. Users can download SEO friendly templates to revamp their blogs to increase popularity and readership. The secret to choose the best template that fits your blog is the matching the theme with blog contents and blog name. Search engines will easily recognize the keywords and WordPress theme used when the blog fulfills certain SEO metrics such as highlighting its contents, onsite optimization and appropriate look and feel.
On top of that, WordPress is blog- publishing software that is compatible to many useful and SEO friendly plug- ins. Killer plug –ins like Comment Luv, Feed Footer and Who Sees Ads give your blog more functionality. WordPress is already great software by itself. With enhanced features by plug –ins, your blog will be more manageable and SEO friendly. Plug – in like Google XML Sitemaps helps to make your blog more visible for search spiders. Marking the online presence of your blog through sitemaps makes you a more successful blogger.
Also, WordPress blog is made to host a more well- structured layout. It is a design stage for corporation and individuals that need no fancy design features. Moreover, design features such as Flash and Javascript might hamper search effort as they are not SEO friendly. Search engines prefer simple but loud layouts that clearly reflect the identity of the website. WordPress websites are not heavily designed so that the websites can appear easily and quickly in the search result.
You can also optimize your WordPress front page with texts. Texts, preferably permanent ones, are personalized to make blogs more visible in search engines. More tags on the front page also optimize search especially the unique ones. You can even replace the “Read More” link with something more meaningful to your every post. This little thing makes a huge difference in your WordPress SEO.
To conclude, many people underestimated the power of SEO in elevating their WordPress websites to greater height. Through intelligent comprehension and understanding of SEO, blogging is not a mere entertainment anymore, but a sign of success in blogosphere.

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Offering Certificates Coupons Discounts and Sales Through Your Shopping Cart

By on December 3, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

Offering Certificates, Coupons, Discounts and Sales Through Your Shopping Cart

Driving sales to your Website through use of promotions such as sales, discounts, coupons and certificates is what make for a successful online store. Your shopping cart can help you to drive sales if it has the right features.

Some shopping carts that have more of a storefront system contain many of the advanced features that are useful for driving traffic to the store and we all know that traffic equates to sales. Most any basic shopping cart will allow you to change prices when you want to have a sale but you usually have to do it manually, one at a time. Then, after the sale you have to change them all back again. Some shopping cart systems allow owners to set up pre-set timed sales, where the program sets the beginning time of the sale and the ending time automatically.

Another useful promotion feature of some store-front shopping carts is the ability to feature an item or items on the homepage of the store so that it can be prominently seen by customers as the enter your store. Some even have the capability of placing sale products or new products on the front page to drive sales that way.

Shopping cart software that has the capability to email customers can be set up to email customers about coupons offers or discounts. Not all shopping carts can do this and when they can what they can offer may differ such as some being able to offer a percentage or a dollar amount coupon, and others can offer either specific product coupons versus all-store coupons. Some times you can program the shopping cart to kick-in a discount when the dollar amount of the purchase reaches a certain dollar amount.

Another useful feature is when the software has the capability to offer free shipping when orders reach over $50.00. This type of offer really helps to boost sales.

Customer pricing is another type of discount that kicks in when the customer logs into the Website. The private login password identifies the customer and the customer’s assigned percentage of discount that appears on the order form at checkout.

Just as offline brick and mortar stores offer sales, discounts, certificates and coupons to entice customers into the store. The ability of shopping carts to send out emails enticing customers to visit an online store is crucial for driving sales. An online store is dead without a constant flow of interested buyers. Sales, discounts, certificates and coupons are promotional tactics that a shopping cart can be programmed to handle saving a storeowner time and money. When making a shopping cart decision don’t ignore the power of advanced features to generate greater sales, features such as the ones discussed in this article.

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