What to Look for in Your Blogging Software

blogitThere are so many choices for blogging software on the market, that it can be very difficult to choose the right one. Every software choice has its advantages and disadvantages which means that you will have to make some decisions on your needs. This will help you to determine which blogging software will work for you.

Make sure that the blogging software that you choose is easy to use and install. Bloggers who are not web developers or programmers will find it difficult to use more complicated software programs. For the business blogger, it is important that the software is easy to install and use from day one.

Good blogging software will also allow you to make changes to your blog and regularly update your site. This should not be an overly complicated process. Again, unless you are a programmer, you might find some of the software on the market a little difficult to use. Research the software before you decide to use it for your blog.

Pinging is an important feature to have on your blogging software. Pinging simply means that your software will let others know that your blog has been updated. The search engines are specifically looking for fresh content on the Internet. Your software should let these services know that you have what they are looking for every time you make an update to your blog.

After some time working on your blog, you will become more comfortable with the process. Your blogging software should give you the ability to add new features to your blog to continuously improve your site and the information that is contained on the blog. You will most likely want to add these new features as your blog becomes more and more popular. Keeping your site fresh and friendly for your visitors is your goal and the blogging software that you choose should be able to help you keep your site up to date.

Consumer reviews along with blogging expert reviews will help you to determine which software program will match your capabilities and needs. In the beginning, you will need a software that will be easy to use and allow you to do everything that you want with your blog without all of the technical knowledge.

Blogging has become a communication method that has exploded in recent years. More and more businesses are finding out that their blogs are an important part of the success of the business. It is a simple way to communicate with those who are going to buy your products or read your information. With the right blogging software, it is easy for anyone to take advantage of this great communication tool and speak right to the customers that you are trying to reach. Every aspect of your blogging business should focus on bringing the latest information and content to your visitors on a consistent basis.

Photo Credits: Mike Licht,…

Originally posted 2009-07-08 05:40:13. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Blog Traffic Exchange Related Posts
  • wp1Installing a WordPress Blog If you want to install WordPress on your own server, the first step is to download the necessary files from the website at WordPress.org download. Next, you will use an FTP program to upload the files to your host site. If you use Cpanel, you can use Fantastico in order......
  • 20000Blogging Business is on the Rise You don't have to be an analyst to realize that blogging business sites are on the rise and that it has become the latest career choice for a number of people. In just a few years, the amount of blogs that are currently on the Internet has increased dramatically. While......
  • failThe Opposite of Successful Blogging There is an opposite to successful blogging, which is blogging that drives your readers in the wrong direction. Take a look at this list of things that you can do to drive readers away so that you will have a better understanding of what you need to do in order......
  • videoblogBoost Your Business Blog with Video Blogging As a result of video sharing websites such as YouTube, the popularity of hosting videos on the internet has really gone right through the roof in recent years. More and more people online are preferring the idea of watching a short video in place of reading a great deal of......
  • wpWhy is WordPress the Best Blogging Platform? There are a variety of reasons for why WordPress is one of the best blogging platforms on the internet. Many people try different blogging platforms, but they end up coming back to WordPress because it offers so much greater functionality. Here are five of the greatest reasons for why WordPress......
Blog Traffic Exchange Related Websites
  • Word Presses Plug-ins - Making Blogging Amazing As we can see over the Internet, software scripts meant for blogging make their presence felt too many numbers. WordPress stands out from others as this contains a number of unique features. If you would like to install a blog there are no charges on that. This software is......
  • blog traffic exchangeBuilding Traffic For Your Home Business Opportunity Several newcomers to running a home based business rush to get their website set up. You’ve got that perfect domain name, the hosting company is all set up and operating, you’ve put up your first few image excellent net pages. Then all anxious and ready you wait, and wait, and......
  • blog-accountingOnline blog and business accounting I've been on a quest for the past few months to to find a better way to manage my blog accounting for my blogs and business accounting for my Empty Cabin Media blog consulting business. I've been using a mixture of spreadsheets which were marginal, but didn't offer some of......
  • blog traffic exchangeBlogging for Business By Shel Holz and Ted Demopoulos When looking for a book on corporate blogging, it is always helpful to find one that is written by two of the most respected authorities on the subject. Holz and Demopoulos are internet superstars in their own regard and quite honestly, you couldn’t ask for two better people to get......
  • clamwinFree Antivirus Recommendations (Protect Yourself Online With Free AntiVirus Software). I got tired of shelling out $40+ a year for antivirus protection long ago. Aside form the price, what really bugged me was the bloat! It became more and more difficult to find a simple antivirus or rootkit scanner, without system tuning, performance monitoring and benchmarking bloat that the big......
Online Stores

Permalink Structure without Dates

linkThe structure behind WordPress is generous enough to allow for built in SEO advantages which come with building pages that static web page building and other blogging software cannot afford you. By using WordPress, you already have an advantage over bloggers, but only as long as you are willing to take advantage of the right permalink structure. By default, your dashboard in WordPress gives you three different choices that you can select from. The default permalink structure and one of the other options are both pretty terrible options. Basically, the three permalink structures that are available to you would create blog post URLs that look something like this:

- http://www.yourwordpressblog.com/?p=123

- http://www.yourwordpressblog.com/2008/01/01/the-name-of-your-post

- http://www.yourwordpressblog.com/the-name-of-your-post-123

Which of these linking strategies do you think is going to be the most ideal for SEO purposes?

The truth is, while the bottom two seem to both be advantageous, including the date in your blog posts is not the best strategy to follow, making the third option the best option for you to follow.

For starters, putting the date stamp in your URL like the second example dilutes the value of your keyword, increasing the number of characters in your URL. While there is no real rule here, and while some SEO experts do seem to appreciate having the date stamps, it does seem to be much more advantageous to leave the post date out of the URL of your permalink structure. When you are trying to rank for keywords that you use in the titles of your blogs, and when you want to be found for the titles of your blogs, you need to show Google and other search engines how important your pages are based on their URLs. If you have a date stamp in your URL, Google will perceive the date stamp to be more important than your keyword, which can have a negative effect on your SEO effort.

It is surprising how important your URL names can be when it comes to your SEO effort and the efficiency of your blog. Not only are there numerous factors that make it worthwhile for you to leave the date stamp out of your URL, but there is also no good reason not to.

There is an added bonus to leaving the date stamp out of your permalink structure, in that it allows you to revitalize old posts, bringing them back to the forefront of your blog without having to mess with the date stamps. If someone links to your blog at http://www.yourwordpressblog.com/2008/01/01/the-name-of-your-post and you decide to change the date of your blog entry to bring it back to the front of your blog, all of those links will be destroyed, and your SEO effort will be largely undone in one fell swoop.

Sound good to you? Learn how to remove dates from permalink.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2009-02-05 14:15:18. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Blog Traffic Exchange Related Posts
  • gbdHow to Relocate your Wordpress Blog to a New Domain Name Making the decision to move my blog from http://www.courseladder.com to http://www.golfballdriver.com was a big one, and a good one, and it taught me a lot about learning how to relocate your Wordpress blog to a new domain name under the same hosting provider. Course Ladder suited me for a while,......
  • BlogCopyight OptionsBlog Copyright Blog Copyright is a simple wordpress plugin by the Blog Traffic Exchange. It injects a copyright notice into the blog footer. You can see it in action on this very site. The copyright notice automatically updates the year range as time goes on removing the need to ever revisit your......
  • longexposureIncrease Traffic to Blog, pt1 This is part one in a three part series dedicated to increasing traffic to your blog in a number of different ways. Now that you have your blog set up and you are beginning to post useful information in its pages, the next step is to start attracting useful readers......
  • coffeeSEO Principles for WordPress Blogs WordPress is a relatively SEO friendly blogging tool to begin with. It offers a linking structure that makes it relatively easy for spiders to crawl your pages, and the code contains very little validation errors if any at all. However, there are a few additional steps that you can follow......
  • peopleSEO Tips for Bloggers on WordPress There are several million WordPress blogs that you can find on the internet, but unfortunately the majority of them are not properly optimized for search engines. This article is going to touch on some SEO tips for bloggers using WordPress to host their blog, because with the right tips it......
Blog Traffic Exchange Related Websites
  • victoriantorontostampsHow to Store or Display your Valuable Stamps If you are collecting valuable stamps of any type, then you need to have a good understanding of how to store and display them. Your collection of valuable stamps is going to require a lot of attention as well as care. If you are investing time and money into the......
  • blog traffic exchange Harnessing The Power Of Social Book Marking To Boost PageRank And Gather A Massive Number Of Back Links To Your Website As SEO professionals we are constantly searching for ways to get our sites ranked and indexed better. We all know that backlinks are "life blood" that get a site ranked higher in the search engines.Black hat SEO experts in the quest to get one way backlinks till now relied on......
  • success7 Ideas on Making Corporate Blogging More Efficient Sometimes increasing the efficiency of a corporate blog is as simple as implementing some small but powerful steps. Here are a few incredibly intelligent ideas for corporate blogging that will allow you to be more efficient and more effective as a result. 1 - When there is a lot of......
  • blog traffic exchangePHP, SEO, And Spiders - Oh My! Dynamic database-driven sites have become terribly standard, and relatively easy to set up and administer, through the use of Content Management Systems (CMS) and PHP server-side scripting. It's also potential to make a fancy-trying web site with very little actual content, or automatically generated code which will hurt your SEO,......
  • coffeeFacilitating Conversation for Better Corporate Blogging Content One of the biggest facets of corporate blogging is the facilitation of conversation, but facilitating communication, community and conversation is not limited to boosting traffic or boosting sales, because it can also allow you to come up with new ideas for content. If you are looking for new ways to......
Online Stores

Best WordPress Plug-Ins

plugsBlogging with WordPress offers users so many choices, including a variety of plug-ins that meet different needs. Some are for fun and others are very functional and useful for a variety of purposes. No one would want all these plug-ins in their blog, though, and some are more well-suited to some types of content than others.

But all of them when used with the right blog can make the blog more dynamic and easier for the reader to use, as well as keep them interested and coming back.

Related Posts: This plug-in shows a linked list of related posts at the bottom of a post. This is excellent for keeping readers at your blog. They’ll finish one post and see list of others that contain relevant content, and keep clicking through and reading as long as they’re interested in your content. This plug-in is great for any blog, especially those with many older posts that they still want to bring to the attention of readers.

Adsense Deluxe: This plug-in allows you to place Adsense ads on your blog. Adsense is Google’s pay-per-click program. If you run Adsense ads on your blog, when people click on them you get paid. The amount of pay varies by ad, topic and a variety of other factors, with ads ranging from 1 to 3 cents per click up to several dollars per click. Adsense uses the content of your page to determine which related ads will run, making it more likely that your audience will click on those ads. These are best for very niche blogs on a specific topic.

All in One SEO Pack: This plug-in helps you optimize your WordPress blog for search engines. It will help you choose titles, descriptions and keywords to help you get better listings with the search engines.

Feedsmith: Feedsmith sends your blog to Feedburner. This allows those who prefer reading blogs via RSS feeds to do so without having to visit your site. Many people will sign up for feeds rather than have to visit every blog site they read every day. If you don’t get your blog in a feed, you’re missing out a valuable chunk of readers. There are dozens of plug-ins designed to help you copyright and optimize your feed, including advertising on it.

Askimet: Askimet stops spam in its tracks. When comments and trackback links are spammy, Askimet catches them and asks your approval before posting. You can search comments then by IP to find all the comments by one person, as well as searching by user name. This can really save you from spam on your blog.

WP Captcha-Free: This plug-in stops automated commenting without requiring each commenter to type in a hard-to-read captcha. This blog plug-in is designed more for bot and automated spam comments, while Askimet catches individually posted comments, too.

WordPress Popular Posts:  This plug-in adds a widget to your blog similar to the Related Posts that you can customize in a variety of ways to show the information that you want it to. The plug-in shows your most read blog posts.

Photo Credits: myuibe

Originally posted 2009-06-05 05:55:24. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Blog Traffic Exchange Related Posts
  • newspaperAdvantages of Using Wordpress to Publish a Newspaper Blog If you want to have a blog or website that's in newspaper format, Wordpress is the ideal medium. There are many other services you could use, but because Wordpress is so user friendly it's easy to set up your blog to look like a newspaper (or a website, or whatever......
  • commentsImprove Your Blog Functionality You can improve your blog functionality in order to improve your traffic, readership and the number of people that comment on your blog posts. When you improve your blog functionality, it can have a profound impact on the capabilities of your blog. Here are some tips to improve your blog......
  • bestplatShould Casual Bloggers Use WordPress or Google Blogger? One of the most popular hobbies and past times on the internet today has to do with setting up and maintaining your own blog. Blogging is all about creating an online journal or diary that people can read and comment on, so there is a huge community aspect to it.......
  • coffeeSEO Principles for WordPress Blogs WordPress is a relatively SEO friendly blogging tool to begin with. It offers a linking structure that makes it relatively easy for spiders to crawl your pages, and the code contains very little validation errors if any at all. However, there are a few additional steps that you can follow......
  • wpWhy is WordPress the Best Blogging Platform? There are a variety of reasons for why WordPress is one of the best blogging platforms on the internet. Many people try different blogging platforms, but they end up coming back to WordPress because it offers so much greater functionality. Here are five of the greatest reasons for why WordPress......
Blog Traffic Exchange Related Websites
  • blog traffic exchangeJay Stockwell PPC Loophole | PPCLoophole Review If you are acquainted with Adwords, you ought to notice that you'll be able to get higher position in Google's sponsored search section by improving and obtaining higher quality score. Almost like page rank for natural listings, quality score determines how relevant one website and its ads to be placed......
  • blog traffic exchangeWordpress Blog Directory A WordPress directory sounds very cool!  Here is a great directory made up of wordpress blogs that are in the Blog Traffic Exchange: Wordpress Blog Directory. I have been thinking of getting RateLadder.com included in the Blog Traffic Exchange beta: Related Websites. Do you think it will help? It seems......
  • blog traffic exchangeMust-Have Plugins For The Inspiring Blogger I was scouring the web trying to find plugins to use for my blog and I quickly realized that many of the plugins that I was reading about were either not developed any longer or weren't even compatible with WordPress anymore. Because of this, I have decided to make a......
  • platformWhich Blogging Platform is Best? Have you spent any time looking at blogging publication platforms? You have probably already become well aware of the fact that there are numerous to choose from. Some of the most notable blogging platforms that you can choose from include WordPress, Blogger, Text Pattern, Blog Lines, Moveable Type, Life Type,......
  • quitKnowing When to Quit The sad reality is that every year thousands of corporate blog die a quiet death and the only one that notices is their owner. Whether it is through a lack of attention, or simply an inability to find the right audience, keeping a blog alive can be a difficult task.......
Online Stores

10 Benefits of Hosting your Own Blog

trafficIf you want to create an edge over many of the other bloggers on the web, then one of the best things that you can do is host your own blog. There are a number of benefits of hosting your own blog over having some other service host your blog. Here are ten of the most prevalent benefits.

1 – Professional Appearance –

Hosting your own blog gives your blog a professional appearance, because you can use your own domain name or website name and can host your blog on your own website. If you do not host your own blog, you will have a lengthy blog URL which will make it appear less professional and will make it more difficult for readers to recall the name and website for your blog.

2 – Design –

Another benefit of hosting your own blog is the fact that you have a lot more freedom regarding the design. When you host your own blog, you do not have to follow a pre set design but can design your own blog layout instead.

3 – Recall Ability –

By hosting your own blog, you can make your blog easier to recall among readers. What address do you think is easier to recall, http://www.blogsite.com or http://blogsite.blogger.com/~blogname? The easier your domain name is, the easier it will be for readers to recall it, and this is one of the greatest benefits for hosting your own blog.

4 – Content Control –

While there are not normally really strict guidelines regarding content, when you have your blog hosted by a blogging network, your choices in content can be restricted. By hosting your own blog, you can have much larger control over your content.

5 – Security –

By hosting your own blog on your own website, you can have more control over your security, and will be better able to protect your own blog rather relying on someone else to do it.

6 – Brand Promotion –

By hosting your own blog, it will be easier to develop and promote your own brand. Even if you are not selling something, hosting your own blog will provide greater individuality than what shared hosting can offer.

7 – Revenue Generation –

When you host your blog with someone else, you have less control over generating revenue. When you host your own blog, however, you have much greater control over how you generate revenue online.

8 – Growth –

While starting on a blogging network makes sense, if you want to grow your blog, you need to go independent. By hosting your own blog, you can create a much larger level of growth over time.

9 – Site Integration –

By hosting your own blog, you can integrate your blog with your website, rather than having to create a completely separate website from your blog.

10 – More Traffic –

Hosting your own blog will also allow you to generate more traffic, because your posts will be easier to find in search engines.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2009-02-01 05:05:36. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Blog Traffic Exchange Related Posts
  • gbdHow to Relocate your Wordpress Blog to a New Domain Name Making the decision to move my blog from http://www.courseladder.com to http://www.golfballdriver.com was a big one, and a good one, and it taught me a lot about learning how to relocate your Wordpress blog to a new domain name under the same hosting provider. Course Ladder suited me for a while,......
  • postoftenIncrease Traffic To Your Blog, pt3 Here is Part 3 in our series on increasing traffic to your blog. We hope you enjoyed the series, and that you can take these tips and use them to increase your readership beginning today. 13 - Post Often - Now you should be posting as often as you possibly......
  • blogging10 Steps to Start a Blog Is this your first time starting a blog? Here is a ten step checklist for starting your own blog. 1 - Choose a subject - Determine what it is that you want to blog about. You need to have a concept before you can start writing about, so that you......
  • foottraffic6 + 1 Steps for How to Increase Blog Traffic Having access to the right tips and hints for how to increase blog traffic can really come in handy. The more tips and tools that you have in your arsenal for learning how to increase blog traffic; the better off you will be when it comes to building up a......
  • piggybackIncreasing Blog Site Traffic Is attracting blog site traffic really a difficult proposition? Are there any really, incredibly simple ways that a new person to blogging can increase their blog site traffic? Here are some of the ways that you can attract new blog site traffic to your website without difficult, as well as......
Blog Traffic Exchange Related Websites
  • blog traffic exchangeMake Money Through The Internet - 4 Vital Methods To Generate Traffic To A New Website You have just finished your new website and you are ready to begin earning money through the internet! But, how can you create sales if you do not have the customers or traffic to your website? One of the biggest obstacles people face when starting a new online business is......
  • blog traffic exchangeWays To Successful Goals In Online Business Planning is the most crucial aspect of online business. The plan should include short term and long term goals. You should always be clear about your business objectives and purposes. The goals should be effective in generating new customers and keeping the existing ones. While setting goals it is important......
  • linkfenceHow do Backlinks Help Your Corporate Blog? Most people understand the basics when it comes to blogging or corporate blogging, but unless you have been trained in SEO, you probably do not understand what goes on behind the scenes. For example, are you aware of how backlinks are vital to the success of your corporate blog? If......
  • blog traffic exchangeA variety of Web Hosting packages to Choose From Deciding where to host a website once it has been completed is always an important decision to make. Nearly all of the web hosts today proffer a plethora of hosting packages. Because of this a plethora of options open themselves up to you. Because there are so many of these......
  • blog traffic exchangeWhat Is Seo: Myth Or Reality? Some Thoughts On Search Engine Optimization What is SEO? Have you ever though about what you are trying to achieve with search engine optimization, and what you were doing with your website to achieve it? Have you never wondered if there were better ways to get to where you want to be as a result of......
Online Stores