Blog Traffic Exchange

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. Blogging is all about writing down your thoughts, opinions and ideas, telling stories, posting pictures, creating videos and so much more. One of the biggest questions that comes up when it comes to blogging is which platform for blogging is better for a casual blog writer, WordPress or the Google Blogger platform?

Some people really only set up blogs to create some basic entertainment. These are people who simply enjoy writing. They sit down and begin to type, and they don’t worry about money or visitor counts or anything else like that. Blogging is a great way to meet people, communicate with people all over the world, get your thoughts out, and let out your frustrations or elations at what is happening in your life.

There are also people, however, that are concerned with earning an income, gaining traffic numbers and other serious matters, and for these people, understanding which platform is the best to use is much more important, especially when the two choices at hand are Google Blogger and WordPress. One platform, after all, may be capable of garnering more traffic than the other, and more traffic translates into increased profits for these serious Google Bloggers.

So what is the difference between WordPress and Google Blogger, and why and to whom does it matter?

Google Blogger - Google Blogger is a free, simple and quick platform to work with, but Google Blogger does not give much control, so serious Google Bloggers cannot have all of their needs met with this type of blogging platform. Also, because Google Blogger.com has control of your blog, it can be shut down or taken from you for pretty much any reason at all, meaning that you are leaving your work in someone else’s hands, and that’s not really the best option for anyone that is serious about their content.

WordPress - WordPress is ideal if you are looking for a situation that is more permanent in terms of blogging. WordPress does have a free service, but if you want a permanent or long term blog, you should host your WordPress blog on your very own server – This is something that Google Blogger has not made possible! Hosting for your own site can be found for $10 or less on many websites, and with some simple installation, you can have your own WordPress blog, completely under your own control without anyone being able to tell you what you can or cannot say online.

If you want easy, choose Google Blogger. If you want slightly more complicated but with a lot more control as a result, then WordPress is the only way for you to go.

Photo Credits: TylerIngram

Originally posted 2009-07-03 05:25:33. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The 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 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 copyright once the plugin is put in place…

For example, this website was started in 2008. So between the start date and the end of 2008, the copyright notice will look like this…

© 2008 Blog Traffic Exchange All Rights Reserved

Beginning in 2009 the copyright notice will automatically change to…

© 2008-2009 Blog Traffic Exchange All Rights Reserved

and so on and so forth.

You can adjust a variety of options including the starting year and the rights reserved statement.

I would like to thank Tough Money Love for pointing out the need for an accurate and legally binding copyright notice.  For those interested the notice requirement is in Section 401 of the Copyright Act of 1976. While the display on the copyright notice is not required in order to copyright the blog (thanks to the Berne Convention Implementation Act amending the Copyright Act of 1976), failure to use a notice provides an opportunity to an infringer to claim that the infringement was “innocent” and therefore can reduce or eliminate recovery of damages from that infringed by the copyright owner. This is a particular concern in the blogosphere where copying of content is rampant by folks who claim not to know any better. Use of the notice takes that “I didn’t know any better” defense away.

For this reason alone, not using a proper notice is silly.

For more FAQ about copyright see the US Copyright Office FAQ.

Installation

1. Download
2. Unzip
3. Upload Folder to WordPress Plugins Folder
4. Activate Plugin
5. Adjust Options if needed.

Options

• Copyright Header — Html to start copyright tag.
• Starting Year — This is the first year the copyright existed.
• Org Header — HTML to start organization name.
• Organization — The name of the organization claiming copyright.
• Org Footer — HTML to end organization name.
• URL — Link to the organization website.
• Rights Reserved — The rights reserved.
• Copyright Footer — Html to end copyright tag.
• Automatically Add to Footer — If no or your theme doesnt call wp_footer, then you will need to place the tag: <?php if (function_exists('bte_bc_tag')) { bte_bc_tag(); } ?>

Download

• BlogCopyright Current Version 1.5

Donate

Blog Copyright Options

Change Log

• 7/12/09 – 1.6 – Tested and Confirmed on WordPress 2.8.1
• 1/22/09 – 1.5 – Refactored code to incorporate my learning and to ease long term maintenance.
• 1/1/09 – 1.4.1 – Better displaying of html in the copyright statement.
• 12/28/08 – 1.4 – Better html handling within options page.
• 12/22/08 – 1.3 – Added organization header and footer.
• 12/22/08 – 1.2 – Added ability to change organization and url. Pushed to into WordPress Repository.
• 12/20/08 – 1.1 – Release to public.

Originally posted 2009-02-05 05:30:01. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

If you use Blogger in order to manage your blog then you have available to you hundreds of gadgets that Google has released; all of which can add features to your blog. A gadget is a widget that adds small programs to a blog, adding features that show off lists of quotes, mini-games, and other functionality that will enhance your site. Here are a few of the new gadgets:

- HTML/JavaScript.

This will enable you to enhance Blogger by adding your own code. This makes Blogger vastly more usable, with features that you control. You can create a mailing bot, add links and images from other pages that you own, integrate with eBay and PayPal, and other features.

- Feeds.

This gadget allows you to add a feed from other blogs, directories, or other forms of news services. This enables your readers to see into what is in your reading list, and direct readers to other sites and content. If you have an account at an article repository, then you can add a feed to new articles as they are written. You can also reinforce a relationship with another blog not only trading RSS feeds, but also guest posts and more, effectively combining your readerships.

- Followers.

This is a way for you to follow other bloggers and for others to follow you anonymously. Think RSS meets Twitter. It is an easy way to generate traffic to your website, as if you start to follow others, they may start to follow you. You can also use this as a form of gauge, counting your readers and followers.

- Google Docs.

If your blog talks about spreadsheets or other documents, you can provide templates that users can copy and use for their own needs. This allows you to provide your readers with much more than plain content. For example, a finance blog could add links to spreadsheets that implement techniques that are described in your blog. The added benefit is that if your templates are publicly listed, then visitors finding the templates will be directed to your blog in order to learn how to use the docs.

- AdSense.

If you are in it to make money, then adding AdSense to your blog is a great way to start. Google’s technology works well with Google’s technology, and adding AdSense to your blog will be seamless. You will need to have an account with AdSense first, and it is good to run the blog for a while to generate traffic before adding the gadget. Then you can just add the code and it will integrate seamlessly. Then you will start to generate revenue from your writing.

Adding a gadget is simple, just go to your dashboard and add it. Gadgets provide a functionality that will enhance your blog and your reader’s experience.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2009-02-06 09:25:05. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Are you already familiar with the micro blogging platform known as Twitter, and what it can do for the online marketing world, especially when it comes to blogging? Twitter is taking off so swiftly that it offers its own language, with tweeps/tweeples being followers of tweeting, or making posts in the Twitterverse, which like the blogosphere, is meant to describe the world of Twittering.

Twitter is already easy to use to begin with, but there are a number of tools and resources that you can add to your arsenal in order to get even more out of the platform. There is an overwhelming amount of tools, applications and plugins that are being developed specifically to make Twitter more enjoyable or more effective as part of a marketing endeavor. Here are some of the best Twitter tools and resources that will allow you to get the most out of your Twitter endeavor.

1 – TwitterFox –

This is a plugin for the FireFox browser, and it allows you to keep up not only with your Tweets but also direct messages that come your way. There are similar plugins, including Tweetdeck and Twhirl, but TwitterFox is the favorite among many because of the simplicity that it offers.

2 – TweetLater –

The primary function of this particular tool, which can be found at TweetLater.com, is to permit Twitterers to stop up on the tweets that they write so that they can be posted over time on a schedule. What makes this a useful tool for the less die hard audience is that you can you forward the e-mails about who follows your Twitter feed to your TweetLater address, and the followers will automatically get a private message from your account, which is an excellent way to automate some of your most basic marketing tasks.

3 – TwitterSearch –

This particular tool offers up a quick and easy way to search about what people are posting about when it comes to specific keywords or topics in the Twitter universe.

4 – TweetBeep –

This particular tool is the equivalent of Google Alerts but designed specifically to work with Twittering and Tweets. TweetBeep permits you to track keywords like mentions of your name, your product, your company, or any keywords that you are researching, and it notifies you when these keywords or terms are mentioned anywhere on Twitter.

5 – TwitterFeed –

This is a fun and simple service that will allow you to feed your blog posts directly to your Twitter account. You can control the frequency by which your blog posts are displayed by Twitter, and you can also choose what text will preface your blog feed. This is excellent for attracting more people to your blog by showing it in bits and pieces on Twitter.

Twitter is not going away because it is a sturdy blogging platform rather than a quick fad. These tools will allow you to maximize your Twitter use, enhancing your social networking endeavor in the process.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2009-02-06 07:55:30. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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 is easy for you to make your WordPress blog more search engine friendly.

Here are some SEO tips for bloggers using WordPress:

Make sure that your WordPress blog’s permalink structure is set up to be optimized for SEO. This way, whenever you publish a blog, the URL for your blog post will be optimized for search engines. Every time you publish a blog post, the post will have a permanent URL which is known as a permalink. The permalink option by default is set to something less than optimal, but you can easily change it to better suit your SEO needs. The most ideal website link for your blog posts is http://www.yourdomain/category/name-of-post. This will ensure that your blog post’s category and its title are going to appear in your URL rather than simply a page number.

Make sure that you install the All-In-One SEO Pack, or a similar plugin, which will allow you to better customize your blog posts for the sake of SEO. The All-in-One SEO pack is a plugin that allows you to add in custom titles, custom meta descriptions and custom keyword tags for your blog posts and your home page.

Optimize each of your blog posts for a lower competition longtail keyword. Do a little bit of keyword research before you choose a keyword to write about. Visit the Google AdWords Keyword tool and find a longtail (more than 2 words) keyword that does not have a lot of competition. Choose something with fewer than 10,000 searches per month and write a blog post about this keyword. Use different keyword phrases for each of the blog posts that you write, and make sure that you use the keyword enough times that search engines will rank you for it.

Make use of social bookmarking services in order to bookmark each of the blog posts that you make, such as StumbleUpon and Digg for example. There are a number of other services that you can use as well including SocialMarker and OnlyWire that will make it easier for you to submit your blog site to a number of different bookmarking services all at the same time.

Optimize not only your blog posts, but also your home page as well. Your homepage is likely going to get more traffic than any other one of your blog posts, so make sure that you increase the number of visitors to your home page as well as your individual blog posts in order to achieve the best SEO results.

Photo Credits: OliBac

Originally posted 2009-10-09 03:30:47. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Google said Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Blog Traffic Exchange with the final toolbar pagerank update of 2008 according to Matt Cutts.

This was the first page rank update since launching the domain in late November with this blog. So in one month how much page rank can gain?

How does one pr5 and five pr4 pages sound? (There may be others, but I haven’t found them.)

Holy smokes! From brand new domain to Google Pagerank 5 in one month! It is too bad that pr has little real value other than bragging rights. However, based on this new information this domain company this now for sale for $2,000,000 $5,000,000.

Here are the pages

Google Pagerank 5

1. Old Post Promoter — This is the plugin page for my first public foray into WordPress plugins.

Google Page rank 4

1. Blog Traffic Exchange — Main page of this domain.
2. WordPress Plugins — This is my page of WordPress plugins.
3. Remove Dates From Permalink — Ever wanted to remove the dates from your WordPress permalink structure? Here is how to do it.
4. 10 Benefits of Hosting your Own Blog — Title says it all.
5. Using Blogger is a Mistake — Title says it all.

Update 5/28/10: I now have my first Page Rank 6 page: Click to Call — A wordpress plguin that integrates with your website to enable click2call.

How did I do it? Without going into the gory details, far and away the plugins are the main reason for the solid back links.

1. Releasing and promoting 2 WordPress Plugins that are useful and are being used by people because they are useful. Old Post Promoter and Blog Copyright
2. A few relevant blogroll link exchanges with my blogging friends.
3. A little bit of social bookmarking.
4. Some directory submissions.

Stay tuned the Blog Traffic Exchange is going to have a great 2009.

Photo Credit: 1

Originally posted 2009-02-05 08:45:47. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Blogging 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