No matter whether you are going to build a blog dedicated to affiliate marketing, drop shipping, or your own product, it is very important to choose  a platform that will enable you to add content easily.

Today, WordPress and Blogspot are the industry leaders when it comes to the blogging arena. When you answer the following questions, it will help ensure that you are using the best platform for your new blog.

1) Is the Interface Easy to Understand and Work With?

If you know how to compose and send emails, you will most likely have few problems using the Blogspot platform.  On the other hand, if you aren’t accustomed to posting in groups, or on social networks, you may find the WordPress platform a bit more complicated.

Nevertheless, once you get accustomed to the functions on one blogger platform, you can transfer the concepts to other platforms.  Therefore, even if you feel more comfortable with the Blogspot platform, you should not automatically eliminate WordPress from your list of possible platforms.

2) Are There Advanced Features Available?

Ideally, you should choose a platform that will allow you to take advantage of new marketing tools, as well as other technologies.  This includes incorporating social networking information, as well as many other things that will give your blog a constant source of live content.

In general, you will find that WordPress outstrips Blogspot when it comes to advanced features.  For example, if you select the Atahualpa theme, you will gain access to a page menu with listing features.

When it comes to advanced features, you should also give some thought to functions that may not be seen by users.  In particular, if you are going to have more than one writer work on the blog, it will be of some help to provide each person with an account.

Even though both Blogspot and WordPress offer account setup functionality, WordPress tends to give you more options.  On the other hand, the Blogspot platform tends to be more secure.

At the very least, you won’t have to worry about continually upgrading to a new version because hackers have found yet another hole to exploit in the platform’s overall security.

3) Can the Blog Script Be Modified Easily?

Even though WordPress has an endless number of advantages, it can be very difficult to modify the basic template.

Consider a situation where the theme you select does not come with controls for changing the header image or background color. If you look at the WordPress dashboard, you may find well over a dozen files that may have coding related to these parts of the blog.

Without a question, if you do not have experience with CSS, HTML, and PHP, you may find that making even simple changes represents a daunting challenge.

By contrast, making changes to a Blogspot template is much easier. At the very least, you can edit everything in one file.

At the same time, if you need to make changes to a widget, you can easily select an option in the editor that will give you access to the appropriate code. Therefore, even if you are not familiar with web design, you can still tweak a Blogspot template with a minimal amount of difficulty. Worst comes to worst, you can also reset the blog with ease.

During the process of choosing a blogging platform, it is very important to make sure that you will be able to manage each aspect of the blog with a minimal amount of difficulty.  This includes being able to make changes to the following basic areas:

Header and Footer
Fonts, colors, and format for posts
Background colors and designs
Number of Columns and Column Size
Login and account areas for writing teams

Once you begin comparing the general characteristics of the Blogspot and WordPress platforms, it will be much easier for you to determine which one will give you the most flexibility in each category of interest.

As may be expected, you may come across situations where one platform will suit your needs better than others.  Therefore, even though you may have chosen one platform for your first blog, there is no reason to conclude that you will never want to use a different platform at some point in the future.

About the Author:

Learn how to make money blogging today. Visit Brian’s website, http://www.HomebasedBlogging.com and learn how you can make money online from blogging using social media, affiliate marketing, podcasting, article marketing, and many other money-making topics from blogging professionals.

Article Source

Image via Wikipedia

By Gino

1. Blog Post Graphics

While great content and catchy titles are important, eye-grabbing images work best of all. Many people respond very well to visual graphics, so if you can find colorful, clever graphics that work well with your blog posts you should be able to pull more people in and then keep them there once they read the title and post.

You should not only have thumbnails, but also work interesting graphics into the post content to help break up large blocks of text.

2. Easy to Read Post Formatting

Many readers like to scan blog posts before they commit to reading the entire post and some people will just scan posts for quick info and won’t even spend the time to read. This is why it is essential to use proper formatting such as sub titles, bold and underlined text.

3. RSS Subscription Box

One of the biggest benefits of having a blog is having a large subscriber base that will see all your new posts. This why is is essential to have a link users can click to subscribe to your RSS feed. Many bloggers will create a special graphic in the top right section of a custom blog design dedicated to their valuable RSS feeds.

4. Clear Categories

Blog readers want to find good information quickly, so its important that your blog is easy to navigate. Having clear categories with your posts properly tagged and organized into the categories will make it easy for readers to find your great content.

5. Most Popular Posts

Every blog has its best posts so why not showcase them to new readers? This is a great way to turn new readers into lifetime readers. Many blogs display the top 5 or 10 most popular posts in the right sidebar of their blogs. You could even have most popular posts for each category and if you are using WordPress for your custom blog designs their are plugins available to display popular posts based on different factors such as number of comments or total views.

About the Author

Gino Orlandi is an online marketing expert who owns his own North Carolina Search Engine Optimization Business.

(ArticlesBase SC #936439)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – 5 Most Important Elements of a Blog Design

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I recently upgraded some of my WordPress sites to WP 2.9. Now I’m having problems with WordPress inserting trash code in posts and pages when I edit them.

That is, if all you do is type text with very little correction, you are fine. But if you type some text, save it, and go back later to add photos, you may be in trouble.

Whenever I start having strange problems, I check the source code. When I do that, I am finding repeated, redundant coding.

On one page I finally had to manually strip all the formatting code and reformat. That worked, but it took time. And that was a simple page with no photos.

When saving changes, after clicking the Update Page or Update Post button, I have actually watched as WordPress randomly inserted extra blank lines in awkward places.

Since 2.9 is not a security update, I am not updating any more of my WP sites to that version. I’m waiting and hoping the bugs get fixed in the next version.

I wish I could revert my WP 2.9 sites to the previous WordPress version, but I think it would take more time than I currently have available for maintenance. I’m not even sure where to get the previous version of WordPress.

Have you been experiencing this problem? If so, how did you solve it?

Note: I am a big fan of the plugin TinyMCE Advanced. I have been told that it can cause problems. Any comments you may have on these issues would be much appreciated.

Meanwhile….Happy New Year!

Kathleen Gresham

Image via Wikipedia

by Kathleen Gresham

When you say WordPress, people automatically think of blogging. WordPress is the blog engine supreme. It is free, easy to install and easy to customize.

Thinking of WordPress as just a blog engine, though, seriously limits your options. That would be a shame, because WordPress offers so many options.

WordPress is a full-featured content management system (CMS). It can keep track of multiple authors and their privileges, provide a place to store documents and allow users to download them, keep track of document revisions and allow you to compare them and reinstate earlier versions—and so much more.

Here are just a few of the things you can do with WordPress. And most options are freely downloadable somewhere on line at no charge.

1. Web Sites

WordPress allows you to build a static web site much faster than any website builder software. Especially if you are not a wizard with that particular sitebuilder. That is, unless you are a super whiz with, say, DreamWeaver, you probably cannot match the speed—and certainly not the ease—with which you can set up a web site with WordPress.

Nowadays there are some great themes with dropdown menus that look like high-quality web site templates and can be easily customized.

Not only that, the search engine optimization benefits of a WordPress site versus a conventional HTML web site are tremendous. There are so many blog networks and SEO plugins and other tools that you can use to promote a WordPress site that are simply not available for HTML web sites.

2. Forums

There are several free plugins that allow you to easily set up a discussion forum, using WordPress. You can use that forum to make money from advertising, offer support for the products or services sold by your company (on line or off line), meet like-minded people, and so much more.

3. Membership Sites

Membership sites are a great way to make residual income. You can charge a fee for joining, for example for a niche membership site, and/or charge a monthly membership fee. Internet marketers often use a membership site to post their products for purchasers to download, to offer affiliate marketing tools and status reports to their affiliates, and to offer support for their products.

Others simply charge a membership fee for members to get access to a host of free downloadable ebooks, software, or other original content in a particular niche.

4. Article Directories and Link Directories

Article marketing is a staple of online marketing, and articles sites have many purposes. If your article site becomes popular, you can make good advertising revenue. If not, you still have a good place to post original or PLR articles with links to your main blog or web site.

You can download free themes and plugins to build an article directory with WordPress. Or  you can build yourself a link directory with other free WordPress themes and/or plugins. You could, for example, add a links page from your main blog to all your other sites.

5. Blogs

Yes, of course, WordPress is still the easiest and most flexible blog engine for self-hosted blogs. The very popularity of WordPress means there are thousands of theme designers and plugin makers constantly providing excellent new free or paid products to add value to WordPress blogs.

6. Combination Sites

Lately I have been making combination website-blogs for offline and online businesses. That is easy to do with WordPress.

For example, see the site designed for Temples Gate, a charming metaphysical gift shop in Houston, Texas. The old site was unfindable on Google for any related keyword or phrase.

The new WordPress-based site rose to Google PR2 in just a few months. It gets traffic via Google searches from all over world.

The site continues to grow as we add more pages, posts, and photos. Google loves sites that steadily grow. And site visitors like to see new and different photos and text whenever they visit the site.

The embedded blog fits seamlessly into the web site, and the site is linked to a Google Calendar so that the store owner can easily add and update the classes, workshops, and other events held at the store.

We will soon add a shopping cart to encourage online purchases. WordPress makes it easy to do that, and several of shopping cart plugins are free. We are still comparing features and usability on a separate test site.

Flexibility and Free Tutorials

Some of the same features can be found on Joomla and Drupal, but nothing beats WordPress for design flexibility and the huge array of plugins, widgets and other accessories available to easily customize it. Also, there is so much free training available for WordPress. WordPress video courses abound, and many of them are free.

So think outside the box when deciding how to build your next site, whether for personal use, to enhance your offline business or for ecommerce. Consider using WordPress even if you are not building a blog. Your imagination is just about the only limit to what you can do with it.

Adding Extra Value to Your Blog

And consider all the options that the WordPress community offers for adding value to your blog. Even if a blog is your main goal, WordPress allows you to add a forum for your reader community or a paid membership area.

If you want to do business on line, WordPress is a great tool for that, too. The sky is just about the limit when it comes to WordPress.

Select Your Hosting Service Carefully

If you intend to build a business in online retail sales, however, make sure you have a good ecommerce web hosting service. Make sure  you use a service that fully supports whatever it is that you are trying to do.

My first hosting was horrible. We could not even get a simple WordPress blog to work properly on their service, and it was a nightmare. So look for quality, not just price, in selecting a hosting service, even if you are not currently planning to get into ecommerce.

What cool things do you do with WordPress? Leave a comment and let us know.

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• 
  

Kathleen Gresham designs, writes, and promotes blogs and websites and consults on search engine optimization (SEO) and directory listings for online and off line businesses in Houston, TX. For more information, see Houston Blog Web and Web Fresh Leads.

As mobile phones become more advanced with many offering access to the web, there has been more people accessing and updating blogs and free WP themes from their cell phones. Whether it’s an iPhone, Blackberry or a smart phone, many are taking advantage of the access to post and read blogs on their phones. WordPress reports that more than 60 million page views a month originated from mobile devices.

In order to make blogs more user-friendly on mobiles, WordPress just launched two new themes that will automatically be formatted to blogs that are pulled up from a mobile device. For the iPhone and Android phones, a modified version of WPtouch will be displayed for modern web browsers. For all the other mobile devices, an older edition of WordPress Mobile will be displayed.

This is mainly to speed up the loading process for those who access blogs on their mobiles. So visitors will see a simple page with a scaled-down header and will feature the abilities to access posts, pages, archives and other content. It will also allow access to comment and load posts.

Deciding to make all the blogs automatically appear this way on mobiles was so all of them would load quickly. Some content in the past had been slow at loading or sometimes wouldn’t load at all. By doing this, WordPress clears itself of these issues and can ensure quality service for mobile users. It’s always fun to see new applications come out for WordPress and other blogging platforms. Blogging is made easier with quick access to the web and can continue to grow in the future.

Original article posted on Theme Fury’s blog about free WordPress themes.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/blogging-articles/wordpress-revises-wp-on-mobiles-1360522.html

WordPress is a great tool with ton of community support.  But sometimes, when you just can’t make it do your bidding, nobody has written a plugin to do what you want, and Google reveals no acceptable hacks, you just have to fire up Notepad and summon your inner PHP hacker.  Coaxing WordPress into displaying certain posts on a static page is just one of those times.

WordPress static pages are not supposed to show dynamic stuff. But, sometimes, you want them to anyway.  Here’s a plugin that does just that. This plugin adds the ability to put a tag in your page entry and have it display a list of posts using the get_posts template tag.

By default it will show the 10 most recent posts ordered in reverse date order, but it will accept any of the options provided by the get_posts template tag.  To use it, just put the following into the HTML of any page or post, use as many times as you like
on the same page:

[get_posts]

This default usage will return the last 10 posts in reverse chronological order. Along with all the options provided by the get_posts template tag, it will also accept one additional option:

ul_class: This is the class assigned to the bullet list. Default of “get_posts_class”.

An example with a few options:

[get_posts tag="my favorite tag" numberposts=5 orderby="title]

Shows 5 posts with the tag “my favorite tag” ordered by title.

There are quite a few more options … check the wordpress.org extensions page for more detailed documentation on all the options.

Download the plugin here, and please let us know with a comment if you have any suggestions, comments, requests or questions.  And, if you like it, hit the plugin page and give it a nice rating

Sam is one of NuRelm’s founders. After a few years designing computer chips for organizations the size of small countries, he was tempted by the irresistible lures of starting a business: more work, less salary, and the ability to be as creative as he pleased provided the bills still got paid. This has worked out surprisingly well over the past 10 years, resulting in a successful company and a lot of happy clients. Sam’s electrical engineering background and years of Web application development experience, combined with the wonders of an MBA, allow him to perform feats such as installing wiring while expounding on the viability of selling Web-based software to simplify the process.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/blogging-articles/make-wordpress-obey-list-posts-on-static-pages-1335059.html

Are you looking for ways that will help you in creating autoblogs with WordPress? But before you that, you need to gain familiarity with the word “auto blogs” In simple words, auto blogs can be create using RSS feeds of websites that publish them. They are defined as self updating blogs and hence the owner doesn’t have to write content pertaining to them. In case of autoblogging, you need the user doesn’t has to follow the usual technique of writing the contents or pasting the articles from any article website. Instead, here the user needs to automate the content followed by linking it into their blog. All you need to do is opt for the right mindset and let things going.

An autoblog is in no way different from any normal blog.  Auto updating websites are believed to be a superb way for starting on the internet and are quite simple to set up. After the set up these have different uses that help a webmaster to make enough money.

Being an auto blogger your prime jobs lies in managing expectations. A wise auto blogger is one who knows the process of using auto blogs for inviting tens and thousands of visitors per month to his website and convert a couple of them into money making revenue. Once, you succeed in achieving this, then there’s no looking back.

Let us now check out a couple of autoblogging tools. Why? Well, for the simple reason that if you are making use of autoblogging, then opting for a single auto blogging may not be sufficient. In that case, you need to look for other avenues for creating auto blogs with WordPress. In other words, you need to look for ways that would help you in creating multiple auto blogs at a single go. You may be in need of some kind of reseller, for instance a Virtual Private Server which would help you in managing several domains as well as separate domains for each of the auto blogs.

Creating autoblogs with WordPress is believed to be one amongst the most viable options. With the help of WordPress, you are free to set up an auto blogging platform within five minutes or so. All you need to do is install WordPress together with plugins like FeedWordPress or WP-O-Matic

From my personal experience, I would say that the features of WP-O-Matic are a bit superior as compared to the features of FeedWordPress. In terms of effectiveness, both provide similar thing. Moreover, the blackhatters possibly give a damn care to the features as long as they find the blogs going great guns.

With the help of WP-O-Matic you can incorporate feed into various categories. However, in case of FeedWordPress, you are barred from taking up this option. Instead, while working with FeedWordPress, you will note that each and every post of yours will go into a single category…I hope none would be in favor of this option.

That’s all! Creating autoblogs with WordPress may not be that complicated once you succeed in installing the plugins with care.

Take a look at the most popular and best available wordpress auposting plugins. These plugins will skyrocket your affiliate marketing earnings.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/blogging-articles/tips-for-creating-autoblogs-with-wordpress-1329134.html

WordPress was first introduced in the year 2003 and it has turned to be extremely popular in recent times. This isn’t all, now a day; you’ll find WordPress being used in a number of websites. Now the question is what WordPress exactly is? If you ask me then I would refer it to a simple blogging tool that is provided in two ways i.e. it can be either provided in terms of a free software download option or it can be provided in terms of a hosted option. However, in addition to this, WordPress is a storehouse of various other features commonly referred to as WordPress plugins. With the help of the WordPress plugins you can customize your blog for catering to the needs of the audience as well as the genre of your website.

Now comes the question if WordPress plugins have so many benefits then what is the need of WordPress autopost plugins? According to experts, WordPress plugins are of much prominence. The networking marketers need to opt for blogs as with the web presence of network marketing, there simply cannot be any development in recent times. Time is moving at a fast pace and you on your part need to adjust with this change.

It is quite likely that you don’t have your personal website or may be that you are not in a position to go for one at this very moment. Well, there is nothing to worry, a blog is considered to be one of the simplest as well as the best suited option at this juncture. First, you can create a blog for free and second by opting for the WordPress Autopost Plugins you can improve your blog to a considerable extent.

In other words, it can be said that for converting your blog into an effective marketing tool, all you need to do is opt for wordpress. Converting your personal blog into a marketing tool was never so easy but with the introduction of wordpress it has turned out to be extremely simple. People, who are interested in venturing out with their personal, consider wordpress as their premier preference. Now there is a reason behind people opting WordPress Autopost Plugins and using it in their blogs. To be more specific, using wordpress autopost plugins for your blogs is extremely simple to do venture. Adhering to this approach will help you in drawing an increasing number of customers to your blog…aren’t that great!

WordPress Autopost Plugins offer added functionality to your blog which in turn helps in attracting more and more traffic to your website, thereby improving your presence on the web.

So friends, while selecting any wordpress theme from the autopost plugins, ensure being wiser in your approach. It is because; this approach of yours will help you in seeming your target audience in the forthcoming days.

Now that you have read the article, it is hoped that you have gained a somewhat fair idea on the necessity of WordPress Autopost Plugins in creating your personal blog.

Find the best WordPress autopost plugins at premium WordPress tools. WP Robot Plugin. helps you to post Amazon products, eBay auctions, Yahoo Answers questions and answers, YouTube videos, targeted articles and Clickbank ads automatically to your wordpress powered sites.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/blogging-articles/necessity-of-wordpress-autopost-plugins-1329141.html

There are many a WordPress theme.  How to choose one that will enhance the quality of your links and the propensity of people to buy is a task you need to undertake if you want to make money online.

WordPress themes are available free online if you do a search.  The trick is that you have to leave the link to the developer intact.  If you don’t want to lose any link juice, you can have a wordpress theme developed just for you.

Here are some things to look for in a WordPress theme – how to choose the best one, in other words.

· Probably the most important thing is that the browser is compatible across browsers.  When you build a site, look at it in Internet Explorer as well as Firefox.  Check it out on PCs and Macs if you can.  You don’t want anyone’s experience on your website to be diminished because the theme is not compatible with their browser.

· The next feature you want to look for is the ability to add widgets to your word press theme.  One of the great features of the word press software is the availability of add on scripts called widgets.  These are extremely easy to upload.  But, if your theme can’t handle widgets easily, it’s not worth it, even if it has a nice look.

· You want your word press theme to load quickly.  If people have to wait seconds to see your site, they will click the back button before you have the chance to make your case.  If you are using a free theme, try loading someone else’s site that uses the theme before you take the trouble to put it on your own site.  If the CSS is compressed, this can speed page load time.

· Is the theme SEO optimized?  It doesn’t matter how good your content is if the search engines can’t find it.  Some things to check for as far as SEO compatible themes include an emphasis on content rather than graphics, have HTML validation, and should display post extracts on archive and category pages.

· Make sure your word press theme has a search capability.  This is a basic item, but there are still some themes that don’t have the compatibility for search.

· Is the theme already overused?  If too many marketers are already using the theme, your web site might have a “me too” feel. 

· If you plan to have ads on your site – either banner ads or Adsense – make sure that the theme supports them in its design. 

· Finally, can you grow with the design?  As your site develops, will you be able to keep the same look and feel?  You don’t want to surprise existing viewers with a new theme without a strategic marketing reason for it.

Choose wisely when selecting a word press theme.  How you make money off your site may depend on the theme you pick.

Hardeep Gill is owner of cheapresalerights where he sell
master resale rights and
private label rights ebooks softwares, videos and more.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/blogging-articles/choosing-your-wordpress-theme-for-your-blog-1306717.html

A very effective strategy for any blogger on the internet would be to own your domain and pay for your hosting. By owning your domain name you establish stability you would not necessarily have by using a free blog site and the name they assigned you. Don’t get me wrong these free sites are great and can be very effective for several purposes. Many folks today however are blogging to make money and these free sites often impose certain restraints on the sites they are hosting. The blogging business is big money now a days and constrictions of any kind could mean a significant loss of income.

The general assumption is that any domain you use that you do not own is the property of a site that also provides you with free hosting.

Let’s look at 3 major advantages you have as a blogger when you own your domain name and pay for hosting compared to using the domain a free blog site assigns you that limits your individuality.

No Censorship

Free blogs can place restraints upon any of the blogs on their server. Any comments or opinions left on your blog by a reader could result in your site being suspended or shut down by the host if it is viewed as a violation.

Obviously the sharing of candid and sometimes inflammatory opinions could ‘ignite’ this reaction at any time.

In effect you inherit a type of censorship when using a free site.

More Professional Image

The name itself if it is a ‘sub-domain’ usually does not have a clean looking appearance. It shouts TEMPORARY to any visitors to your site.

Your own domain however can be whatever you choose and will not contain the additional characters that clearly denote it as a sub-domain.  

If your blog site is used for business there are likely certain formats or layouts you may need or want to use to reflect the ‘message’ of the business itself.

By using a ‘free’ site’ you are automatically limited to what they offer you.

Greater Flexibility

Look and content are totally under your direction when you own your domain and pay for hosting. This is important since a large part of a blogs influence and popularity is dependent upon it individuality. Readers ‘want’ to hear your opinion and not a modified version toned down to placate the host.

It is the difference between ‘owning’ your home or ‘renting’ it!

If you become unhappy with your hosting company you can take your domain name elsewhere. You do not risk losing all your current ‘followers’ do to a complete name change.

As you can understand especially if you are blogging to make money a very effective strategy would be to own your domain and pay for your hosting. By doing so you spare yourself the inconvenient restrictions you would face at a free site where you are renting space. This type of unpredictability and limitations is not something anyone involved in the blogging business needs. Blogging is based upon consistency, individuality, and longevity and this necessary combination would be jeopardized at any of the free sites.

TJ Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina.
To learn more about developing an Effective Strategy for your business and a free guide that demonstrates how to find both profitable markets and products visit:http://blogbrawn.com/

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/blogging-articles/a-very-effective-strategy-for-any-blogger-1300444.html