Archive for the ‘Blogging 101’ Category
How to Craft an Effective SEO Plan
Monday, November 28th, 2011
Any experienced blogger or site developer will tell you about the importance of creating a solid, goal-oriented SEO plan before launching a website. Like a good business plan, an SEO plan outlines what you hope to accomplish with your site, who you’re looking to market your site to, and how you plan to meet these goals.
Unfortunately, so much of entry-level SEO is focused on keyword development that other important factors, including content, links and promotion, are often left by the wayside. While keywords are still hugely important, a site that focuses on them exclusively is comparable to a table with one leg – it falls down, and fast. By understanding the value and proper implementation of keywords, content, marketing and links, you can easily create a site-specific SEO plan that search engines and your audience alike will notice and appreciate.
How to protect your WordPress powered blog from hackers
Friday, July 22nd, 2011
Sun Tzu, the writer who wrote one of the most quoted books on war strategy (The Art of War) once said
“If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril”
And in peril you will be if you are running a Blog on wordpress (or any other CMS for that matter) and you’re ignorant of both the vulnerabilities of these CMS and your enemy (the hackers) who might exploit these vulnerabilities to create havoc on your Blog. The bad news is, for an average blogger, it is difficult, almost impossible to master the techniques used by these hackers, and devise a counter strategy. But that doesn’t mean you should do nothing and hope that you will be safe. Thinking that hackers tend to target the popular websites, and they won’t target your ordinary blog is flawed. There are many wannabe hackers who’d hack just about any website they can get their hands on, just for the sake of bragging. You can never eliminate the danger (i.e. hackers) but you can always try and secure your castle to keep the invaders at bay, as much as possible. Remember that hackers keep on devising new ways to hack, so you need to beware and stay a step ahead of at least the amateur ones. You wouldn’t want to start from scratch, reinstall and rewrite everything, post apologies and promises that the blog will be back to its normal self, which it never will be, and what not. You can minimize the chances of your blog getting hacked with a few simple procedures and protect your own information and more importantly that of your visitors or subscribers.
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Keep your software updated.
If the hackers can get creative and discover new loopholes, you need to stay one step ahead by updating your WordPress version to take care of all the known threats. Even though the old version don’t stop working when the new ones are released, and the new versions don’t always have something new at the frontend, you need to update because there’s ought to be a reason for releasing the new version.
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Plug-ins help:
Many plug-ins exist to assist you with the safety of your blog. Some monitor files, while others use private SSL, not to mention different plug-in to back up your blog (note that backup plug in won’t secure your blog but at least it will offer a restore-able backup in case of some hiccup.
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Choose your themes carefully:
You can use third party free themes all you want but beware of the added risks, especially from amateur coders with impressive graphics but no attention to safety side. WordPress itself is somewhat secure, but you invite vulnerabilities with third party themes, plug-ins, and other installs.
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Protect your admin territory:
Most owners on wordpress go by the default username i.e. “admin”, making it a little too easy for hackers to guess. It is advisable that you create a new account with all rights and delete the default one. In addition to that, make sure that the script you use is set on no write permission (unless absolutely necessary otherwise), enabling security against java script bugs and web injections.
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Try to hide the fact that you are using WordPress:
Easier said than done, you can’t really conceal the fact, but still you can put the fact out of first sight. It’s not that wordpress works like an open invitation, but still amateur hacker might skip your website.
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Be careful about the selection of plug-ins:
There are some Plug-ins that you can’t help but use, and not all plug-ins are risky, but once in a while there is a rogue plug-in that may contain malicious code or some vulnerability. Scan the plug-in you download for viruses, and use only trusted and popular plug-ins.
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Read & Learn:
WordPress security and hacking is a hot topic, many experts often come up with different advice for the people who are not as tech savvy, hence more susceptible. You must keep an eye on all of this advice and tips to save yourself from the shock of your life (opening your website and watching some colorful text declaring that your website has been hacked).
Author’s Bio: Roberto is an Internet Marketer, semi-geek, and spends more time in the cyber world as compared to the real world. Currently, he’s working for wireless internet providers and www.internetproviders.org .
What is shared Webhosting and who is it suitable for?
Thursday, July 21st, 2011
For first time users, web hosting is a complicated minefield of jargon – you can get Linux or windows servers, virtual, private, shared… the list goes on.
When you have a business online though, all you want to know is what type of hosting would be best for you, right? So this post is going to help you with one piece of the puzzle – Shared webhosting:
What is it?
Quite simply, shared web hosting means you are sharing your web space with other websites. Your website is made up of several files of code, which are stored on a server connected to the internet – just like your personal files are stored on your PC at home. Sharing a web server simply means that your web site is stored alongside other peoples sites on the same server. The server will be partitioned and secured so that you can only access your area, and no-one else can.
The pros
Well, by sharing a server, you share the cost. For this reason, shared web hosting is the cheapest option available. You also share the management fee; this is actually built into your rent, so you don’t ever have to worry about server updates or other technical issues. You pay your fees and it all just works.
The cons
The downside of course is that as well as sharing the cost, you are also sharing the resources. There is only so much room on the server and it has to be split up between other users.
Additionally, the server has to be connected to the internet 24 hours a day, and any visitors to your website will use up bandwidth on that connection. This means that you are generally limited by how many visitors can see your site in a month.
The reality
In practice, most websites are very small in terms of file size – so they take up very little room on the server. The vast majority of web sites will sit comfortably within the limitations of even the smallest hosting package.
Again, the reality of usage is that most websites with a reasonable level of traffic will not hit the bandwidth limitations of a small hosting package.
What is right for you?
When you are starting up a new website, chances are good that you won’t have significant requirements in terms of storage or traffic, so shared hosting is normally the best option. What you need to consider is how aggressively you are going to grow your site, and what levels of traffic you will be expecting.
If you already have an established way to drive traffic to your site and you want to hit the ground running then shared hosting may not be for you – but for the majority of users, simply picking the best value option is usually a safe bet.
My name is Muzammil Bashir. I’m the Senior Editor of whoishostingthis.com– Visit our website to see the latest HostGator reviews and DreamHost Reviews.
WordPress Gravatars: What They Are and How to Install Them
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
Gravatar avatars are small images that represent an email address. Their purpose is to allow for global recognition of commenters and persons on the Internet. Rather than having a different avatar for different sites, people can register an avatar at Gravatar.com and associate it with their own unique email address.
Blog posts in WordPress that have commenting enabled typically require an email address to submit a comment. Once a comment has been submitted with the email field filled in, WordPress sends the email address as a data string to Gravatar.com; if Gravatar.com has an avatar for that email address, the avatar will be used. Often times Gravatar.com does not have an avatar associated with an email address, in which case a default avatar is used.
What are blog tags and what purpose do they serve?
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
Picture yourself: a big time sports blogger at the top of your niche. The AdSense dollars are rolling in. You’ve got more subscribers than Curt Shilling. You’re sensational. Not a care in the world.
Then a problem arises like a pigeon from hell.
You would like to give your visitors the ability to view all posts on the topic of ‘Yankees baseball’ but your a little wary of creating a new category for just five posts. You’ve got about 600 posts categorized in sections like baseball, hockey, soccer, volleyball, tennis. What do you do? Create a new category just for ‘Yankees baseball’? Unfortunately you find a few problems with that approach.
Choosing a theme for your blog
Friday, February 26th, 2010
Look far into the future when choosing a theme for your blog
Choosing a theme for your blog is not an easy task. Your theme has to be just right. It needs to have the correct column sizes, font scheme, color pallet and other visual elements to suite your tastes. Your theme should please you first. After all — you will be the one most often staring at it.
Buying a Domain for Your Blog
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
This post is part of a series called blogging 101.
Buying a domain for the first time is a thrilling experience. A domain is something uniquely yours and it is the chief identifier of your site or brand. Your domain is not only the first element of your website brand that makes an impression on your visitors but is also the most recurring. Your visitors will be forced to recognize your domain every time they type it into their address bar or view their address bar while browsing your site. That is why you should carefully consider the following 3 things when choosing a domain:
The Best Blogging Sites and Platforms | Top Blog Sites
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
Starting a blog can be very easy considering all of the free blogging sites out there. However, choosing between all of the best blogging sites can seem a bit confusing, especially if you are a first time blogger. That is why I have taken the time, after much research and digging, to compile a list of the top 10 best blogging sites.
How to host your own blog in 5 easy steps
Sunday, February 21st, 2010
Using free blogging services such as Google blogger and WordPress.com have only one advantage: they are free. But if you really want to have better customability, the option of placing advertisements in your blog and your own domain — you’ll have to host your blog yourself. This post will walk you through — step-by-step — how to host your own blog.
Choosing a name for your blog
Friday, February 19th, 2010
Never take the decision of naming your blog lightly. You might some day regret it — especially if you are looking to reach a large audience or to earn money from your blog.
The concept you need to understand the most when naming a blog is the marketing concept of branding. Your brand is your everything. Even if you don’t believe you have a definitive brand, visitors begin forming a mental image of your brand the second they first access your blog’s frontpage.
In the blogging world, your brand is heavily affected by the name you choose. Your logo, design and domain will also heavily affect your brand image but I will not go into those three brand elements in this post.
When it comes to naming your blog, the most important thing to consider is what topic your blog will be limited to (if any). This blog is obviously about blogging so, naturally, the title (Blogtap) is representative of that. If I ever wanted to blog about other topics (such as tennis) on Blogtap, I would not be committing to my brand very well and I would most likely be doing damage to my brand.
All blogs that are not personal blogs gravitate around a particular topic or niche. It is this way because of how the Internet works. Sure, you could create a blog about tennis and blogging. But the odds of finding readers that enjoy both tennis and blogging are very rare. So, if you want to reach a large audience, you should be careful about which topics your blog gravitates towards. That doesn’t mean you should always be broad and impersonal; it only means your blog should have an underlying theme that readers can relate to.
I chose blogging because that is one thing I am passionate about. If you choose what you are passionate about, everything else (like the business and marketing aspect) will fall into place.
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