Tag Archives | Improvements

WordPress 2

Wordpress 2.5.1 Is Available

If you’ve yet to realize WordPress 2.5.1 is now available and you should update your current WordPress to make sure that it’s up to date. The update has some bug fixes which are important and also some more performance enhancements which were unexpected. If your blog is using any sort of open registration then you need to make sure your WordPress blog is running on version 2.5.1 because there is a serious defect in WordPress 2.5 and not many people know of it yet but the public eventually will become aware of the vulnerability and capitalize off of it. To protect your blog you should make sure to download the update which is WordPress 2.5.1.

There were some improvements made to the admin panel and more specifically the posting pages and this was well needed. More importantly though this update fixed seventy bugs and some of them were quite serious. This is why if you don’t update your WordPress software then you could run the possibility of being exposed to intruders due to bugs in the old versions. The widget admin has also been tampered with, and I feel for the better as it’s now easier to customize your sidebars.

One of the best security updates implemented in this version of WordPress if the ability to add in the SECRET KEY constant into the wp-config.php file. This will help your WordPress blog become more secure which is very important when blogging, especially once you get popular. Once you’re popular at blogging people will do anything they can to gain access to your blog, and usually the main cause of people gaining access is due to an old version of WordPress being installed rather then the newest version. If you want to make sure that your blog is safe and secure then download the update which is WordPress 2.5.1 and make sure that you get your SECRET KEY for you blog. There is also other plug-ins you can find which can benefit your blogs security features. Blogging is worldwide and very popular now and people are earning thousands of dollars blogging, if you’re one of the people out there blogging then ensure you have the most up to date version of WordPress at all times. The best place to find out about the current version of WordPress is at WordPress.com.

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How to Engage your Blog Readers

How to Engage your Blog Readers If you have a flagship blog and you’re trying to build an audience of regular readers then you’ll need to be able to engage your blog readers. If you don’t engage your blog readers then they’ll never come back to your blog or join your RSS subscriber feed. There are different techniques that you can use to assist you in engaging your blog readers and we’re going to look at some of those methods. Engaging your blog readers has nothing to do with marketing or promoting your blog. It also doesn’t involve anything to do with link building or anything of this nature. To engage your blog readers it needs to be on-site improvements that you make and we’ll take a look at those now. Blog Post Titles You should make titles that aren’t just stuffed for the search engines as this isn’t very ideal for building a reader base. You need to build nice long detailed titles so that the readers knows exactly what you’re offering within that certain post, and then they can click it if they want to read about it. Your titles should also have some personality in them and not just some generic plain title lacking any personality. Blog Post Body The blog post itself should be broken down into smaller bits of information and the best way to do this is either with bullet points or sub-titles. This way it’s much easier to follow down the page and more readers will be inclined to read the information. You want people to find the information useful and they won’t be able to do that if they don’t even read the information you post about. Use a Picture Try breaking up the text up a little bit by implementing a picture into your blog posts. Try to also add your personality into the pictures you choose so that people can begin to adapt to who you are. To build a blog readership you need to show personality and become active within your blog community. Some blogs may also require more pictures in the blog posts, for instance the celebrity niche should have small galleries under each post as the best blogs do. WordPress Theme You should buy a wordpress theme that is customized for your blog as then you’ll stand out from the other bloggers and it will seem like you care about your blog. A nicely designed theme can attract many readers to stick around to see what information you offer. WordPress themes are very cheap as well so you won’t need to break the bank when buying a theme. These are some of the techniques you can use too engage your blog readers and have them coming back to your blog more then once. If you can build a readership then as long as you continue posting engaging and informational posts then the readers will stick around and you’ll grow further. This is the most profitable blog you could develop, but it also takes the most amounts of work and time to do.

 

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How to Install WordPress Plugins

How to Install WordPress Plugins

When it comes to WordPress plugins, there are hundreds… if not thousands to choose from. Trying to decide what’s best for you and your site can be a bit tricky.

Before we get into a lot of the “”supplementary”” plugins there are a few “”core”” plugins that EVERY WordPress site should have. These plugins are critical to ensure the success of your site AND leveraging the power of WordPress with internet marketing.

I will briefly discuss each plugin and why they are so critical:

#1 –
All in One SEO Pack – WordPress itself isn’t very SEO (Search Engine Optimization) friendly. There are a LOT of improvements that could be made to each and every page and post that is created. All in One SEO Pack does a fantastic job of allowing you to update the title tags, meta description, and meta keyword to ensure your page/post is SEO friendly.

#2 –
Google Analytics for WordPress – It doesn’t matter how good you THINK your site is … without Google analytics you will never actually KNOW how visitors interact with your site AND how you can make it better. If you seriously want a site to succeed online and you do not have Google Analytics, or some kind of statistic tracking code installed on your site, you will NOT succeed. Simple as that.

#3 –
Google XML Sitemaps – This is a very powerful plugin for Search Engine Optimization. It ensures all your pages, even recent ones, can get indexed quickly and efficiently. Google themselves have stated that have a “”sitemap”” WILL help for indexing purposes.

#4 –
Add to Any: Share/Bookmark/eMail – This one may not be quite a critical as the above plugins but lends itself nicely to viral marketing. Giving your visitors the ability to “”share”” your website/page with others can tremendously help your SEO and traffic initiatives. This plugin will vary in importance depending on your site however I strongly recommend have this installed … just in case …

This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of plugins. There are other plugins that could arguably make this list however I wanted to keep it fairly short and sweet and focus on two of the most important elements of a site TRAFFIC and TESTING.

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Improve Your Shopping Cart

Improve Your Shopping Cart

If you want visitors to your site to use your shopping cart you need to make improvements to the usability of the cart and to make the purchase process as simple and short as possible.

Did you know that the checkout process is where more sales are lost than any other time during the buying process? Check your analytics and see if you have a large number of individuals leaving your site before finishing the checkout process, if this is happening than you know that you definitely need to make improvements. In order to determine where you need to make shopping cart improvements you can ask someone who is not familiar with your website to go through the process and check out the usability of your shopping cart. Ask them to specifically comment on how accessible the shopping cart is, if it is easy to use, if they ran into problems were they able to find instructions on how to use the cart, and did they find the shipping and payments methods that they prefer to use?

Investigate how easy it is to navigate around finding products. Do you have a search feature and does it give accurate results?

If you belong to any business forums ask members to rate your site and their shopping experience.

Ask yourself how organized your site is, how secure do people feel making purchases and how user friendly is the shopping experience on your site?

Your shopping cart is one of the most important parts of your Website. Periodically evaluating the shopping cart from a user’s point of view can improve not only your shopping cart but improve your sales as well.

Look at your shopping cart objectively does it meet all of your needs as the administrator? Can you manage all of the product fulfillment, payment and shipping needs in a timely manner without mistakes? Evaluate the hosting, customer service and technical support of the company who’s shopping cart you are using. How happy are you with the features? When upgrades are available is there an additional fee or are upgrades free to existing customers?

Does your shopping cart blend in well with your Website? Do you receive the information you need about your customers and their sales? Does your shopping cart have the capability to have an affiliate program, produce a newsletter or evaluate the shopping experience of your customers?

Does your shopping cart grow with your business or have you outgrown the shopping cart?

What do reviewers say about the shopping cart you are using? Can you find customer reviews of the shopping cart and if so, are they favorable?

After evaluating your shopping cart is customer service responsive to your need to make improvements? Do they give you suggestions or upgrades?

Seeing how important your shopping cart is to the success of your online business spending time evaluating how well your present shopping cart is performing and finding out what your customers think about your shopping cart is important and should be done on a regular basis.

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