I’m thrilled to announce that Version 2.3 “Dexter” of WordPress is now ready for the world. This release includes native tagging support, plugin update notification, URL handling improvements, and much more. This release is named for the great tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon.\n\nThe entire team is really proud of this release, and I’m happy that this is our second on-time release under our new development schedule. The grand experiment of a more agile WordPress with significant features in the hands of users more often is working. I could write a blog post about each new feature, but I’ll try to be brief:\n\n 1. Native tagging support allows you to use tags in addition to categories on your posts, if you so choose. We’ve included importers for the Ultimate Tag Warrior, Jerome’s Keywords, Easy Tags, and Bunny’s Technorati Tag plugins so if you’ve already been using a tagging plugin you can bring your data into the new system. The tagging system is also wicked-fast, so your host won’t mind.\n 2. Our new update notification lets you know when there is a new release of WordPress or when any of the plugins you use has an update available. It works by sending your blog URL, plugins, and version information to our new api.wordpress.org service which then compares it to the plugin database and tells you whats the latest and greatest you can use.\n 3. We’ve cleaned up URLs a bunch in a feature we call canonical URLs which does things like enforce your no-www preference, redirect posts with changed slugs so a link never goes bad, redirect URLs that get cut off in emails on similar to the correct post, and much more. This helps your users, and it also helps your search engine optimization, as search engines like for each page to be available in one canonical location. More info here.\n 4. Our new pending review feature will be great for multi-author blogs. It grants authors to submit a post for review by an editor or administrator, where before they would just have to save a draft and hope someone noticed it.\n 5. There is new advanced WYSIWYG functionality (we call it the kitchen sink button) that grants you to access some features of TinyMCE that were previously hidden.\n\nYou’ll notice that two of those features are straight out of the most-voted for ideas list. That’s just the user facing stuff, if you’re a developer you’ll be interested in:\n\n 1. Full and complete Atom 1.0 support, including the publishing protocol.\n 2. We’re using the new jQuery which is “800% faster.”\n 3. Behind the user-facing tags system is a really kickass taxonomy system, which adds a ton of flexibility. It’s probably the biggest schema upgrade since version 1.5.\n 4. The importers have been revamped to be more memory efficient, and you can now add an importer through a plugin.\n 5. Through hooks and filters you can now override the update system, the dashboard RSS feeds, the feed parser, and tons more than you could in 2.2.\n 6. The new $wpdb->prepare() way of doing SQL queries.\n 7. Finally there were over 351 tickets in Trac closed for this release, with over a hundred people contributing. This is the polish, the hundreds of little bug fixes and features that make WordPress what it is.\n\n

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blogging seems to be all the rage now. Many of these are personal blogs, where people just give their views on various topics. Others, however, are business blogs. blogs can let more people find your site, as there will be more content for the search engines to pick up on. And they will be more likely to stick around, as you have interesting content.

The first thing you will need to do is pick someone to write your business blog. It needs to be someone who writes well and knows about your business. In some cases, those may not be the same person. Often, in very small businesses, the owner is the only employee. If that is you, it\’s possible that while you do not write extremely well, you do know a lot about your business. If that is the case, you might try a system where someone else proofreads your blog and corrects and slightly rephrases things where they could be improved.

The next think you will need to decide on is what your subject matter will be about. In some types of businesses, it is appropriate for the blog to be slightly more personal in nature. If you are marketing to high school and/or college students, they would be more interested in local events than they would in the details behind your latest business partnership.

Another option is to blog to keep clients and others updated on where you are in various projects or what inventory you have gotten in. For a golf store, you might keep your clients up to date on when you are expecting a new line of golf clubs.

A third option is like my own blog, where you give advice that will help others, regardless of whether they are your clients/customers or not. On my blog, I try to make sure that you don\’t have to have a lot of technical expertise to use my advice. I don\’t blog about how to write HTML. Instead, I blog about the types of features you can have on a site and whether it would be to your advantage to use those features. It\’s general advice that can be applied to websites whether the reader has a working knowledge of HTML or pays someone else to do that.

I\’ve found that my blog (and it\’s accompanying monthly printed newsletter that\’s basically the \”best of\” the blog entries from the previous month) seems to increase my perceived credibility and my approachability. And to get new clients and customers in the door, perceived credibility and approachability is what you need. To keep them, you will need actual credibility and good communication, so hopefully you have both.

You can also publish your blog entries to sites like ezinearticles.com or goarticles.com and include a link to your site, which is what I do. Then other sites will also publish your articles, but they have to include those links to your site also.

Personally, I post on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I think that any less frequently would be a waste of time. And remember, in addition to making sure the entries will pull in new visitors from search engines, also make sure the article is useful to them. If you are a good writer and write on the types of subjects you mentioned, you\’ll do well.

About the Author

Tim is the owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design. His company has developed and maintained website for dozens of small businesses and organizations. Tim also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners, GetASiteOnline.com.

As the old adage goes, \”There is nothing permanent in this world but change.\” And yes, it is very much true. Oftentimes, when there is a time to take the leap and make a change, it is a very risky decision for one easy reason. Changing could actually cause something to rise to success or it could also be the cause of its downfall. Many people, companies, and businesses have tried that out as part of their strategies and it would be interesting to note that they are actually living testimonials of dealing with change.

To deal and keep up with the various changes going on in the globe as well in the car and automobile world, Auto Parts On the internet continuously keeps itself updated. By doing such, this on the web store and company is able to bring up to date its categories of auto parts and accessories.

Auto Parts On the internet is one of the leading suppliers of car parts and vehicle accessories on the world wide web. It has been in service and in existence for more than twenty five years. It holds a wide collection of parts that include hard to find auto parts and truck parts. Aside from providing easy access and an easier shopping experience for customers and car owners, Auto Parts On the internet also provides important trivia, tidbits, and facts regarding various vehicles, automobiles, and auto parts.

To add up and support this online store\’s function of providing information, it has launched a blog that would provide customers, visitors, enthusiasts, aficionados, and guests further and in depth news and ideas on the realm of automobiles, automobiles, and cars. Any new broadcasts in their line of field and business would be posted and updated on the Auto Parts On the internet blog. Further awareness and information would be the main function that this online blog would serve and adhere to. Any breakthroughs, news, events, or recalls would also be posted. As long as something is noteworthy, you could be sure that you would be able to read it from the Auto Parts Online blog.

One of the latest news you can find at the Auto Parts On the web blog is about a new way for drivers of any kind of car or automobile to communicate with each, not just through honking their horns, flicking on their light signals, or the very seldom use of hand and arm gestures. The latest news that has reached the Auto Parts On the internet blog is that there has been a revolutionary and innovative design and creation that would give drivers the chance to communicate with each other not just through signals and signs but with words as well. This would be done so through the use of innovative LED displays. To find out more, interested parties and individuals can simply access the Auto Parts Online blog.

Auto Parts Online remains committed to delivering better and up to date auto parts for different vehicle types and brands. And just like that, the Auto Parts On the internet blog will also continue on keeping up with its commitment in delivering worthy and up to date news and features regarding anything and everything in and about the world of cars.

About the Author

Jenny McLane is a 36 year old native of Iowa and has a knack for research on vehicles and anything and everything about it. She works full time as a Market Analyst for one of the leading car parts suppliers in the country this day.

You have all seen the adverts. \”Freelance writers wanted!\” they scream from the pages of just about each freelance jobs site on the internet. \”Get paid to blog!\”

To many people, this sounds like some kind of dream job. If you keep a blog yourself (and google says that a few thousand of us do), then the chances are you are currently blogging for free, either because you see blogging as a good opportunity to drive traffic to your website, convert traffic that\’s already there into sales, or just because you feel you have something to say.

If this sounds like you, then of course you\’re going to jump at the opportunity to get paid for something you\’d do for free. Who would not? And if you\’re a freelance writer looking for work, you\’re probably going to jump at the opportunity to: you write, you make money. What could be simpler?

Well, the paid-to-blog business isn\’t quite that easy, unfortunately. You see, you are technically not being paid to blog. What you\’re doing is blogging on someone else\’s website, and being given a share of the google adsense profits your posts make – in most cases, 50% goes to you, the rest to the web page publisher.

Still sound good? It might well do. After all, on the world wide web, content is king. There\’s good money to be made from google adsense (the program whereby you displays google adverts on your website and are paid every time someone clicks on them). Isn\’t there?

Well yes, there is. But in order to make money from blogging on an adsense site, you\’re going to need to be able to do more than just write. First of all, you\’re going to have to be able to identify a niche to write in. This cannot be just any old niche, either: it has to be one which you can churn out content on, day in, day out – and content which people will want to read.

You also have to know how to drive traffic to the content you create. On the paid-to-blog sites, some of the traffic is already there: but in order to make real money from this type of writing, you will need even more traffic than that. Where are you going to get it? What do you know about internet marketing? About driving traffic to websites? What do you know about search engine optimisation? You will need knowledge of all of these things if you want to make money from blogging – and even if you have that knowledge, you will still need the energy and enthusiasm to blog every day.

Say you have all of that. What can you make?

Theoretically, there is no limit to what you make. There are people out there making a very nice living from blogs and adsense. There are even more people, though, who aren\’t making a cent. Realistically, you are much more likely to fall into that second group. So, is blogging for money a great freelance writing opportunity?

In a word, no. blogging networks are great places for people who\’d like to make a few dollars per month doing something they\’d happily do for free anyway, or for people looking for a lively blogging community to join. They are not for serious freelance writers who want to make a living wage from their writing.

Still want to make money from blogging? Find a corporate giant who needs someone to maintain their blog – and is willing to pay for it. Save the paid-to-blog network for your free time.

About the Author

Amber McNaught is the owner of WritingWorld.org, a site which aims to help freelance writers find freelance writing jobs