Recent WordPress Plugin Upgrades:

• SEO Smart Links – Upgrade to 2.5.2.
• WP Shopping Cart – Upgrade to 3.7.6.
• Fast and Secure Contact Form – Upgrade to 2.5.1.
• Google XML Sitemaps – Upgrade to 3.2.3.
• Official StatCounter Plugin – Upgrade to 1.5.
• Robots Meta – Upgrade to 3.3.1.
• SEO Smart Links – Upgrade to 2.5.2.
• WP-MalWatch – Upgrade to 1.1.2.
• WP Shopping Cart – Upgrade to 3.7.6.

Check your WordPress installation using the Dashboard to see if there are any plugins you need to upgrade.

Look at Plugins–>Installed to see what plugins you have installed and which ones may need upgrading. You can also use Tools–>Upgrade to make needed plugin upgrades.

The Blogger Team has announced the Blogger Template Designer. The Blogger Template Designer will allow free bloggers greater customization of their blog templates (which dictate the presentation of the blogs) without knowing HTML or CSS.

The Blogger Team states:

The Blogger Template Designer allows you to create effectively infinite number of designs templates instead of being restricted to a limited number of rigid designs by making it easy to customize your blogs design, layout, background and much more. — The Blogger Team.

 

Features of The Blogger Template Designer:

• Beautiful new starting templates
• Choices of blog layouts with one, two and three columns
• You can now select from hundreds of background images
• Colors, fonts, and other parts of the free blog can be customized

Here is a video released by Blogger about the new Blogger Template Designer:

For too long the template choices at Blogger have been in need of updating. If you were capable with HTML and CSS, then Blogger did allow you to tweak your blog template as desired, and some were able to design their own unique Blogger templates. Overall though, most free Blogger bloggers stuck to the default and common template offerings. The end result was that for too long, too many free Blogger blogs looked like too many other free Blogger blogs. Free blogs with the same looks just kept getting stamped out one by one.

The new Blogger Template Designer is a step in the right direction for Blogger. However, if you want to have complete control over your blog the best solution is still to Own Your Own Blog by self-hosting a WordPress blog installed at your chosen web host and using your own registered Top Level Domain name as your blog’s URL.

Learn more about the Blogger Template Designer at Blogger in draft.

Recent WordPress Plugin Upgrades

• Fast and Secure Contact Form Upgrade to 2.0.2.
• Official StatCounter Plugin. Upgrade to 1.2.
• Secure WordPress. Upgrade to 0.8.2.
• WP-Table Reloaded. Upgrade to 1.7.
• Yet Another Featured Posts Plugin. Upgrade to 1.3.

Check your WordPress installation using the Dashboard to see if there are any plugins you need to upgrade. Look at Plugins–>Installed to see what plugins you have installed and which ones may need upgrading. You can also use Tools–>Upgrade to make needed plugin upgrades.

However, visiting all these Web sites can be very time consuming.

For example, if you have 10 Web sites you like to visit each day, then you’ll have to surf to each Web site and look around to see if any new content has been added that catches your fancy. The process of surfing and perusing these 10 Web sites can take up a big chunk of your time, and it can be frustrating too.

• Using RSS feeds to aggregate all of the most recent news or posts, from all of your favorite and regularly visited blogs and Web sites in one convenient reader can make your Internet surfing life a lot more enjoyable. With RSS, it will be easy for you to see what’s up and new at all of the Web sites you like to follow, and you can do this in just one place.

• RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, or Really Simple Syndication. It’s a way for Web sites and blogs to publish their content or posts in a Feed that can be read by another Web site or other software called a Reader. This means you can stay up-to-date with the content changes of the many blogs and Web sites you monitor by looking in just one place instead of actually visiting each one of the blogs and Web sites individually. You can quickly review and read all the new content from all of the blogs and Web sites you enjoy by following their RSS feeds in Reader. This saves you time and effort.

• A blog or Web site will most likely make available to its visitors an RSS feed. An RSS feed is in the form of a link. You Subscribe to these blogs and Web sites using the RSS feed so you can receive updates of their content, meaning new posts, in your chosen RSS Reader.

You will often see an RSS icon or button on the pages of the blog or Web site you want to subscribe to that looks similar to this example:
RSS Subscribe Icon/Button


Subscribe

These RSS icons/buttons provide the link you need to subscribe to the blog or Web site’s RSS feed. The RSS icons/buttons will often have a text link too. You will find the RSS icon/button for this blog located near the upper right-hand corner at the top of the page. There is another much smaller RSS icon along with the word "Subscribe" found in the right-hand sidebar.

If you click on this RSS icon, then one of two things will occur. You will either see a web page displayed with a dialog that allows you to Subscribe to the blog or Web site’s RSS feed in a Reader, or you will see a web page with a lot of code shown. If you see a web page with code, then you should copy that page’s URL (the URL will be displayed in the browser Address Bar) and then add that URL to your Reader. It’s really not as complicated as it might seem.

Here is a video that explains RSS and demonstrates the process of RSS subscription:

You will need an RSS Reader to take advantage of RSS feeds supplied by blogs and Web sites. One very popular RSS feed Reader is the free and online Google Reader.

Google Reader is my favorite RSS Reader, I currently follow over 120 blogs using Google Reader. I like to follow the RSS feeds of blogs with subjects such as; blogs and blogging, Web site design, running a small business, small business marketing, Civil War history, and some blogs about writing.

Having a place where I can check on all of these blogs and see what has been newly posted is a great time and work saver for me. I’ll check on my Google Reader account two or three times a day to see what’s up with the blogs I follow. I like Google Reader a lot, and recommend it as your RSS Reader.

A video to help you learn the basics of Google Reader:

So, if subscribing to RSS feeds is something new to you, and you like to keep track of multiple blogs or Web sites on a regular basis, then give RSS and Google Reader a try. I think you’ll appreciate the time you’ll save, and the convenience RSS provides.

Plugin developers usually release upgrades to fix bugs, add new features, improve current features, or perhaps to make their plugin compatible with a new version of WordPress. You should keep the plugins you have installed with your WordPress blog or Web site current with the most recent upgrade.

Here are some recent plugin upgrades I’ve made here at www.wpblogsandwebsites.com:

• Secure WordPress plugin. Upgrade to 0.8.

• Block Bad Queries plugin. Upgrade to 1.0.

• All in One SEO plugin. Upgrade to 1.6.10.2.

• Search Everything plugin. Upgrade to 6.5.1.

• Secure WordPress plugin. Upgrade to 0.7.

• WP-MalWatch plugin. Upgrade to 1.0.4.

• WordPress Admin Bar plugin. Upgrade to 3.1.10.

• WordPress AddToAny: Share/Bookmark/Email Button Plugin: Upgrade to .9.9.4.8.

• All in One SEO Pack Plugin. Upgrade to 1.6.10.1.

• WordPress.com Stats. Upgrade to 1.6.2.

Check your WordPress installation using the Dashboard to see if there are any plugins you need to upgrade. Look at Plugins–>Installed to see what plugins you have installed and which ones may need upgrading. You can also use Tools–>Upgrade to make needed plugin upgrades.

The free-hosted WordPress.com version of WordPress is back online.

Here is information from WordPress.com:

WP.com Downtime Summary

Highlights (Lowlights?) of the WordPress.com information link:

• WordPress.com was down for approximately 110 minutes on February 18, 2010.

• This was WordPress.com’s worst downtime in four years. 10.2 million blogs were affected, 5.5 million pageviews were lost.

• An explanation by Matt of WordPress.com; "an unscheduled change to a core router by one of our datacenter providers messed up our network in a way we haven’t experienced before, and broke the site. It also broke all the mechanisms for failover between our locations in San Antonio and Chicago. All of your data was safe and secure, we just couldn’t serve it."

• Further explanation by Matt of WordPress.com; "We need to dig deeper and find out exactly what happened, why, and how to recover more gracefully next time and isolate problems like this so they don’t affect our other locations"

For now, the WordPress.com downtime crisis appears to be over.

This outage of free hosted WordPress.com blogs was serious, it negatively affected many, many blogs which are hosted for free at WordPress.com.

WordPress blogs that are self-hosted (WordPress.org kinds of blogs) were affected somewhat by this outage if they happen to use the WP Stats plugin. This plugin depends on, and ties in to WordPress.com for it to work successfully. Obviously, with WordPress.com down, this usually very reliable and useful plugin could not work as designed, and this caused problems for self-hosted WordPress blogs using the plugin. The solution for this self-hosted WordPress plugin problem was to delete the plugin during the time of the free hosted WordPress.com blogs outage.

Those WordPress blogs that are self-hosted and do not use the WP Stats plugin were not affected by the WordPress.com downtime.

It is important to self-host your WordPress blog so you…

Own Your Own Blog!

The hosted for free version of WordPress is down.

If you have a WordPress blog with a URL like:

http://yourblogname.wordpress.com

Then you won’t be able to login to the blog, nor will the blog be viewable by visitors until WordPress.com gets things working again.

Apparently, WordPress.com is busy trying to restore its service. This effects millions of blogs, no word at this time how long it will take to get things back online.

 Own Your Own Blog!

More information here:

mashable.com

If you Own Your Own Blog and have it self-hosted then this link explains how the WP Stats plugin might be causing you some trouble because WordPress.com is down:

techie-buzz-com

This WordPress release solves a problem where logged in users can view trashed posts of other authors. You should upgrade to WordPress 2.9.2 to prevent untrustworthy users from viewing posts in the trash.

To upgrade:

• Visit the Tools->Upgrade menu to upgrade.

or …

• Download and install WordPress 2.9.2 manually.

CSS is used with XHTML and HTML to define the way a web page appears and is formatted. For example, with CSS you can fancy-up and design your web pages so they have attractive text, create unique headings, have paragraphs with different looks, divide your page using columns and banners, arrange pictures and graphics with precision, and have text that is enhanced with rollover effects or styled however you imagine. There is much, much more you can do with CSS. CSS is cool stuff.

CSS is way to separate the presentation of a web page (the way it looks) away from its structure (its XHTML/HTML). XHTML/HTML is used to provide the structure of a web page, while CSS adds the design to the web page that makes the XHTML/HTML look good. Separating the structure of a web page from its appearance (CSS) will make your web page creation and management easier.

CSS The Missing Manual

If you want all paragraphs in your Web site to always appear in a certain font family, size, and color, you could accomplish this by adding a Font tag with the needed formatting attributes to each and every paragraph in each and every web page of your web site. This adds a lot of work to your web development, and swells the file size of each of your web page files because many instances of the same Font tag and its attributes will have to be added to format each paragraph.

With CSS, you can designate and define the look you want for all paragraphs on all the web pages of your Web site. You can place all of your CSS styling for your Web site into an external file and link to the CSS external file from within your XHTML/HTML web pages.

The web pages will use the style sheet to determine how the different parts of the web page look. When you associate an external style sheet with a web page, then the web page will use the style definitions in the external style sheet to create how the web page appears. This makes changing the way your Web site or blog looks very easy.

With an external style sheet, you can quickly and easily change the way how all of the paragraphs look on all of your web pages by simply editing the styles sheet file. There is no need to go back to each and every web page and change the Font tag and its attributes in each and every paragraph when you want to make the paragraphs look different.

With CSS external style sheet files, you change one file. This CSS file then is used by every page on your Web site to display content and information with the style you want. Can you see how much of a work and time saver CSS is?

CSS Benefits:

• CSS gives you many more formatting options than XMTL/HTML does.
• CSS can add a background image to your web pages, and you can control whether or not the background image repeats (or tiles).
• Because CSS eliminates the constant use of the Font tag to create a web page’s look, web page file size is less when CSS is used. Web pages will load faster when CSS is used.
• Because all of the styles that create how your Web site looks can be put into one special style sheet file, changing or updating the way your Web site looks is much faster and easier. Change one CSS file, instead of many XHTML/HTML files.

Here are some very simple examples of how CSS can change the way your content appears. I’ve created three separate paragraph styles and added them to the style sheet of my WordPress theme for this blog. The example text in the paragraphs feature an excerpt of The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln:

A paragraph CSS styled using font-size: large; font-weight: bold; color: Red;

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

A paragraph CSS styled using font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; color: Blue;

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

A paragraph CSS styled using font-size: x-small; font-weight: normal; color: Green;

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

This paragraph is another example of CSS styling, a red border was added to this paragraph using CSS. All of the above example paragraphs had their styles changed without using the Format HTML tag. CSS was used instead, for example, here is how the first paragraph appears as code:

<p class="RedPara">“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”</p> <p>

class=”RedPara” is the code where the CSS styling is applied to the first paragraph. The class=”RedPara” means that I have created a CSS rule (or style) in my external style sheet named RedPara, and that CSS style should be applied to that particular paragraph. In this case, the text of the paragraph is shown in red, with a large font size, and in bold. Likewise, I created other CSS rules (or styles) for the above paragraphs shown with blue and green text.

You can do many, many, things with CSS to enhance the presentation of your Web sites and blogs. This explanation does not even scratch the surface of all there is to discuss about CSS. I’ll have more to say about CSS later!

You have a Web site or a blog to communicates with its visitors.

Visitors usually come to a Web site for one or more, of these three reasons:

• They are looking for information.
• They want to be entertained.
• They want to gain education, they want to learn something.

What Do You Want to Create With Your Web site or Blog and Why?

A Web site or blog must get a message across to its visitors, it must meet the needs of its visitors. Before you make the first mouse click of your new Web site or blog, you should have a Statement of Purpose.

For An Effective Web Site Web Site or Blog: Have a Statement of Purpose

In a nutshell: Explain why your Web site or blog exists.

The Statement of Purpose for your Web site or blog is its reason for being.

Some questions to ask yourself when writing your Statement of Purpose:

• Why are you creating this Web site or blog?
• What are your goals?
• What will be the focus of your Web site or blog?
• What do you want to accomplish?
• Who is going to be visiting your Web site or blog?
• What are the needs and interests of your Web site or Blog’s visitors?
• How are you going to meet the needs and interests of your Web site or Blog’s visitors?
• Are you going to inform, entertain, and/or educate?
• Who is your Web site or blog’s target market?
• What is your product, goods, or service – what are you going to provide your target market?
• What’s it all going to be about?

WHAT’S YOUR WEB SITE OR BLOG GOING TO BE ALL ABOUT … ALFIE?

DIONNE WARWICK – What’s It All About Alfie?

Your Statement of Purpose for your Web site or blog does not have to be long and drawn out. A few sentences, maybe four or five, or a small list is all it takes. Regardless of the length of your Statement of Purpose, it must provide you a clear reason for your Web site or blogging efforts. Your Statement of Purpose gives you the map to your Web site or blogging destination … to success.

My Statement of Purpose For WordPress Blogs and Web Sites:

To provide information and answers to the questions and problems people have when they begin or manage a Web site or blog powered dynamically by WordPress, or statically by XHTML/HTML. Discuss Web site and blog creation, PHP/MySQL, CSS, SEO, management, coding, and fundamentals. To help my visitors learn how to create and maintain effective Web sites and/or blogs.

You should make your Statement of Purpose available for your visitors to see. Your Statement of Purpose will help your Web site or blog visitors determine if you can meet their needs. My Statement of Purpose for this blog is shown on my About page.

Without a well prepared Statement of Purpose, a Web site or blog is likely to get off track and flounder. It will be here, there, and everywhere in subject matter and content, but not where it should be. Without a solid Statement of Purpose you greatly increase the chances of failing with your message to your Web site visitors. If you don’t know what you are trying to accomplish with your Web site or blog, then how will your visitors know? If you can’t meet the needs of your Web site or blog’s visitors, then what are the chances they will return, or buy your goods and services, or read what you have to say? Answer: slim and none.

I wanted shoes, not rutabagas!

If you walk into a shoe store looking for a new pair of dress shoes, but instead all the shoe store is selling is rutabagas, then that shoe store has failed in it’s mission to sell you shoes. How long do you think a shoe store would last if it only sold rutabagas and no shoes? It’s a shoe store right? Then why is it only selling rutabagas? Don’t make a Web site or blog that promises visitors shoes, but only has rutabagas. Use your Web site or blog to provide its visitors what they want. Meet the needs of your visitors.

Your Statement of Purpose does not have to be chiseled into stone!
Your Statement of Purpose can change as your Web site or blog changes because of changes in your goals. Chances are, as time goes on and your Web site or blog grows, your Statement of Purpose will become more defined and certain. A Statement of Purpose might be rather broad in its first creation, but will probably become more narrow with later interpretations.

If people come to Web sites and blogs to gain information, be entertained, and/or to learn something – then how are you going to do that with your Web site or blog? How are you going to meet the needs of your visitors?

Think of your Web site or blog as a brick and mortar business. As the owner of your Web site or blog you are comparable to a business owner. Every successful business meets the needs of its customers, or else it won’t be a going concern for very long! Likewise, your Web site or blog should meet the needs of its visitors who are looking to be informed, entertained, or educated.

An effective Web site or blog meets the needs of its target market – its visitors, by successfully communicating a message.

PHP helps you do magical things with Web sites. Long ago, way back in the 1994 dark ages of the Internet, a very good thing happened. A genius named Rasmus Lerdorf wanted a way to track how many visitors came to his online resume. So to count the number of his online resume visitors, Lerdorf created PHP. At that time, PHP stood for "Personal Home Page."

Today counting Web site visitors is something we take for granted, as there are many tools and gizmos available for this common analytic. However, back in 1994 when dirt was still new, what Rasmus Lerdorf did with his PHP visitor counter was BIG MEDICINE. Lerdorf’s PHP would go on to become a very, very powerful and popular Web site development language. PHP is a rich language for dynamic web site development, it has many commands and functions that can perform many web site operations.

PHP is now known as "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor." So what does that mouthful mean? The official PHP Web site (www.php.net) defines PHP; "PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML."

PHP is a server-side scripting language designed for use on the Web. This means you can put (or imbed) PHP code into a HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language, it’s the code that makes up web pages) web page. Each time the web page is displayed, the PHP code will run at the web page’s host (PHP runs at the web page’s server) and generate output to the web page that is shown on the viewer’s (or client’s) browser. Often the generated output shown on a web page by PHP code comes from a database. PHP is very good at interacting with MySQL databases and PHP is often used with the MySQL database management system.

A Web site developer using PHP will include PHP script/code within the XHTML/HTML code of a web page. The PHP script/code can do many things that make a Web site dynamic, rather than static. A dynamic web site can change its content, it can change what information is shown to a visitor.

An example of a dynamic Web site is one where visitors can view, search, and add information to the online database, and then display that information by calling it up from the database during a search operation. You happen to be viewing a dynamic Web site right now.

This blog is powered by WordPress, and WordPress uses PHP and an MySQL database to display the content shown here. A blog is often updated and changed by adding new posts … which means new data is added to the database powering the blog. Each new post to a blog changes what information is shown to a visitor.

Dynamic Web sites are easier to maintain, upgrade, and build on than static Web sites. Updating a dynamic PHP and MySQL developed site is as easy as entering new contents to a database, no web pages need to be laboriously re-coded by hand. In contrast, a static Web site requires a Web site developer to hand-code each and every web page that has content changes.

Take An Online PHP and MySQL Course
Introduction to PHP and MySQL

Here is a guest post about blogging by expert blogger Yaro Starak. Yaro is a guru on the subjects of blogging, and Internet marketing and promotion.

There are basically two types of bloggers in the world – reporters and experts – and some people perform both roles (usually the experts, it’s hard for reporters to become experts, but it’s easy for experts to report).

If you have ever taken an Internet marketing course or attended a seminar specifically for beginners, you have probably heard about the two different methodologies. Whenever the business model is based on content, and if you blog for money then the model is based on content, people are taught to either start as reporters, or if possible step up as experts.

I’ll be frank; you want to be the expert.

Reporters leverage the content of the experts and in most cases people start off as reporters because they haven’t established expertise. Experts enjoy the perks of preeminence, higher conversion rates because of perceived value, it’s easier to get publicity, people are more likely to seek you out rather than you having to seek others out, joint ventures come easier, etc. Experts in most cases simply make more money and attract more attention.

Most Bloggers Are Reporters

The thing with expertise is that it requires something – experience. No person becomes an expert without doing things and learning. Bloggers usually start out without expertise and as a result begin their blogging journey by talking about everything going on in their niche (reporting) and by interviewing and talking about other experts (reporting again).

There’s nothing wrong with reporting of course and for many people it’s a necessity at first until you build up some expertise. Unfortunately the ratios are pretty skewed when it comes to reporters and experts – there are a lot more reporters than there are experts, hence reporters tend to struggle to gain attention and when they do, they often just enhance the reputation of the expert they are reporting on.

Don’t Replicate Your Teacher

If you have ever spent some time browsing products in the “learn Internet marketing niche” you will notice a pattern. Many people first study Internet marketing from a “guru” (for lack of a better term). The guru teaches how he or she is able to make money online, and very often the view that the student gleams is that in order to make money online you have to teach others how to make money online.

The end result of this process is a huge army of amateurs attempting to replicate what their teacher does in the same industry – the Internet marketing industry – not realizing that without expert status based on a proven record and all the perks that come with it, it’s next to impossible to succeed.

Even people, who enjoy marginal success, say for example growing an email list of 1,000 people, then go out and launch a product about how to grow an email list of 1,000 people. Now I have no problems with that, I think it’s fine to teach beginners and leverage whatever achievements you have, the problem is that people gravitate to the same niche – Internet marketing – and rarely have any key points of differentiation.

How many products out there do you know of that all claim to teach the same things – email marketing, SEO, pay per click, affiliate marketing, and all the sub-niches that fall under the category of Internet marketing. It’s a saturated market, yet when you see your teachers and other gurus making money teaching others how to make money (and let’s face it – making money as a subject is one of the most compelling) – your natural inclination is to follow in their footsteps.

If the key is to become an expert and you haven’t spent the last 5-10 years making money online, I suggest you look for another niche to establish expertise in.

Report on Your Process, Not Others

The secret to progress from reporter to expert is not to focus on other experts and instead report on your own journey. When you are learning how to do something and implementing things day by day, or studying other people’s work, you need to take your process and what you do as a result of what you learn, and use it as content for your blog.

It’s okay to talk about experts when you learn something from them, but always relate it to what you are doing. If you learn a technique from an expert it’s fine to state you learned it from them (and affiliate link to their product too!) but you should then take that technique, apply it to what you are doing and then report back YOUR results, not there’s. Frame things using your opinion – your stories – and don’t regurgitate what the expert said. The key is differentiation and personality, not replication.

Expertise comes from doing things most people don’t do and then talking about it. If you do this often enough you wake up one day as an expert, possibly without even realizing how it happened, simply because you were so good at reporting what you did.

You Are Already An Expert

Most people fail to become experts (or perceived as experts) because they don’t leverage what they already know. Every person who lives a life learns things as they go, takes action every day and knows something about something. The reason why they never become an expert is because they choose not to (which is fine for some, not everyone wants to be an expert), but if your goal is to blog your way to expertise and leave the world of reporting behind you have to start teaching and doing so by leveraging real experience.

Experience can come from what you do today and what you have done previously; you just need to take enough steps to demonstrate what you already know and what you are presently learning along your journey. I know so many people in my life, who are experts simply by virtue of the life they have lived, yet they are so insecure about what they know, they never commit their knowledge to words for fear of?well fear.

Blogs and the Web in general, are amazing resources when you leverage them as a communication tool to spread your expertise because of the sheer scope of people they can reach. If all you ever do is talk to people in person and share your experience using limited communication mediums, you haven’t much hope of becoming an expert. Take what you know and show other people through blogging, and you might be surprised how people change their perception of you in time.

Reporting Is A Stepping Stone

If your previous experience and expertise is from an area you want to leave behind or you are starting from “scratch,” then reporting is the path you must walk, at least for the short term.

Reporting is a lot of fun. Interviewing experts, talking about what other people are doing and just being part of a community is not a bad way to blog. In many cases people make a career of reporting (journalism is about just that), but if you truly want success and exponential results, at some point you will have to stand up and proclaim yourself as someone unusually good at something and then proceed to demonstrate it over and over again.

Have patience and focus on what you do to learn and then translate that experience into lessons for others, and remember, it’s okay to be a big fish in a small pond, that’s all most experts really are.

This article was by Yaro Starak, a professional blogger and my blog mentor. He is the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time.

To get more information about Blog Mastermind please click this link:

www.BlogMastermind.com

Click here to download the Free Blog Profits Blueprint

If you have a blog at a free blog host, such as Blogger.com or WordPress.com, then your blog can be shutdown by the free blog host.

You can prevent this by owning your own blog.

Earlier, in my Free Hosted Blogs and Self Hosted Blogs posts, I discussed the advantages of having your own WordPress blog with your own registered domain name, hosted at a web host of your choosing. This gives you complete control over your WordPress blog. You are the Big Kahuna, the Supreme Dictator of this kind of a blog because you Own Your Own Blog. You control how your blog looks, what gets posted, what topics you cover, what features the blog has, and … well, EVERYTHING!

The trouble with a blog hosted on a free-service like Blogger.com or WordPress.com (Remember, WordPress has a free blog service too, which is WordPress.com, besides the self-hosted version of WordPress that is installed at your web host – see WordPress.org for that version.) is you must agree to the free blog’s Terms Of Service (TOS). If you violate the TOS, then the free blog host can pull the plug on your blog.

It does not matter how much work and effort you put into this blog, or how much income you might be earning from the blog, or how popular your blog is. If you violate the TOS, then POOF!!! Overnight, your blog may disappear.

I was busy searching for a theme for an associate’s blog, when I followed a link to a blog I wanted to check out, then this WordPress.com TOS Blog Shutdown notice appeared on my computer screen:

I’ll bet the blog’s creator really enjoyed the emoticon WordPress.com placed on the bottom of its shutdown notice. A snotty thing for WordPress.com to do, in my opinion.

I have no idea what this free WordPress.com blog did to get shutdown. Here is the WordPress.com TOS.

I won’t divulge the URL of the Web site (Hah! So what if I did, this blog is deep-sixed now!), but this blog had been using WordPress.com for free blog hosting. The blog dealt with WordPress themes and in some way it must have violated the WordPress.com TOS.

WordPress.com pulled the plug on this blog … it’s gone.

If you are going to have a blog, and you plan to make it an endeavor where you put time, energy, effort, and thought into it, if you plan or hope to make money from the blog, if you are going to provide a service, or sell goods and merchandise, if you want to establish professionalism and credibility, then for goodness sakes Own Your Own Blog. Don’t be at the mercy of a free blog service’s TOS.

Own Your Own Blog, it’s really that simple.

Having your own registered domain name for your Web site or blog is important. Before you can register a domain name, you have to choose one! Here’s some tips to help you find a good domain name.

Your domain name gives your Web site or blog professionalism and credibility. When someone sees a domain name that has been carefully chosen to successfully represent a Web site or blog, then trust is built between the Web site or blog and its readers and visitors.

A registered domain name is one you have the exclusive right to use. You use a domain registrar like Go Daddy to find and register a domain name for your Web site or blog. Domain name registration is very affordable.

Domain Name Registration

www.GoDaddy.com

This blog uses www.wpblogsandwebsites.com as its domain name. I blog here about WordPress, and Web sites created and using WordPress, and also about Web sites and their development and design. If instead, I blogged about how to fix and repair Jeep Grand Wagoneers (something for which I pay big bucks to my mechanics), then my domain name would be misleading. Your trust in me would not be as strong if I used www.wpblogsandwebsites.com to blog about the maintenance of Jeep Grand Wags. With www.wpblogsandwebsites.com I have branded this blog as one that discusses WordPress and Web site topics.

While it is relatively easy to register a domain name, selecting the domain name to register is not so easy! In the end, you should select a domain name that suits your blog or Web site, and one that you like too. Selecting a domain name is both a technical and personal consideration. There are no absolute rules about selecting a domain name. Some very successful blogs and Web site have not followed conventional advice about selecting a domain name and have done very well.

Some tips to consider when choosing a domain name for a Web site or blog:

• What is your Web site or blog about? The domain name should represent what your blog’s subject is.
• Who is going to be reading your Web site or blog? You’ll want the domain name to be one these people will recognize.
• Is your domain name easy to remember? Can people remember what the domain name of your Web site or blog is? Word of mouth is valuable, so make it easy for people to use their mouths when they remember or say your domain name.
• Can people spell and pronounce your domain name? Sometimes cute spellings and pronunciations of words can backfire.
• Will the domain name limit you to just one, or a few areas or subjects? As time goes on, you may find you want to branch out and widen what your blog talks about. A narrowly focused domain name may hurt you when you want to expand. Let your domain name give you some elbow room to grow.
• Your domain name should reflect the tone of your Web site or blog. Are you always going to be serious? Are you going to be humorous? Are you going to be a political blogger with your eyes bugging out in anger? You may want to have the tone of your Web site or blog shown in its domain name.
• Will your domain name be good in the future too, or will it become dated? If your domain name is geared towards one of today’s hot topics, then in a few short years (or months!) from now that domain name may look like yesterday’s news.
• Usually short domain names with correct spelling are better because they are easier to remember. This can be debated, as longer domain names, or an odd spelling, can work out great.
• A domain name with the .com domain type is the most familiar. There are others such as .net, .org, or .biz that may work well for you. As there is good use of .com in a domain name, you might find it difficult to find a suitable domain name with the .com domain type. It depends on your Web site or blog’s topic and the amount of competition you have for your domain name.
• You might consider registering multiple domain names. For example, you might register and use yourgreatdomainname.com for your blog or Web site, but you might also register yourgreatdomainname.net, yourgreatdomainname.org, and yourgreatdomainname.biz so that you corner the market on "yourgreatdomainname." You would set things up at your domain name registrar so that anyone who types in yourgreatdomainname.net, yourgreatdomainname.org, or yourgreatdomainname.biz in their browser address box winds up at yourgreatdomainname.com blog or Web site.
• Brainstorm domain ideas! Sit down with a paper pad and a pencil in a quiet place (or noisy if that makes you think better!) and think up as many words as possible that match, relate to, and represent what your Web site or blog is all about. Jot down these words and match them up, combine them, play with them and come up with a list of possible domain names. Ask friends, relatives, and associates what they think of your prospective domain names.
• Once you choose a domain name, and it’s available (you can check domain name availability at a domain registrar, like Go Daddy), then REGISTER it! Stake your claim on the Internet by getting that super domain name for yourself, before someone else grabs it. Domain name registration cost is very affordable.

An important thing to remember about choosing a domain name is that your domain name be legal. I strongly recommend you avoid using any trademarked name as/or as part of your domain name. Let’s not feed the lawyers and lets keep you out of court.

I follow my own advice with www.wpblogsandwebsites.com. "WordPress" is a trademark, and WordPress asks you to not use "WordPress" in your domain name if you are going to have a Web site or blog about WordPress. WordPress says that using "wp" instead of "WordPress" in your domain name is fine. That’s what I have done with this blog’s domain name of www.wpblogsandwebsites.com. Here is information from WordPress regarding the "WordPress" trademark:

For various reasons related to our WordPress trademark, we ask if you’re going to start a site about WordPress or related to it that you not use "WordPress" in the domain name. Try using "wp" instead, or another variation. We’re not lawyers, but very good ones tell us we have to do this to preserve our trademark. Also many users have told us they find it confusing.

 

If you already have a domain with "WordPress" in it, redirecting it to the "wp" equivalent is fine, just as long as the main one users see and you promote doesn’t contain "WordPress."

By the way, I also registered www.wordpressblogsandwebsites.com too, and it points to www.wpblogsandwebsites.com. I also happen to have this blog installed at my web host as a subdomain of my main Web site of www.nellaware.com. That’s why you may see http://wordpressblogsandwebsites.nellaware.com/ in your browser’s address bar as you visit this blog. This is fine with WordPress, as they state on http://wordpress.org/about/domains/:

"WordPress" in sub-domains is fine, like wordpress.example.com, we’re just concerned about top-level domains.

My point is, you must be aware of trademarks when you choose your domain name. I gave consideration and respect to the "WordPress" trademark when I chose my domain name for this blog. You should do the same with your Web site or blog and its subject matter. Remember, don’t feed the lawyers!

There are many factors that go into selecting a domain name, but basically you want a domain name people can remember and spell correctly. Your domain name is how people will find your blog or Web site, so pick a domain name that makes it as easy as possible for people to find you.

Domain Name Registration

www.GoDaddy.com

More helpful information:
Get Your Own Domain Name

What Is An URL?

Boren reports that WordPress version 2.9 has over a million downloads. The WordPress 2.9.1 release occurs after user feedback and fixes a few "minor issues" and an "annoying problem" of scheduled posts and pingbacks failing to be handled correctly because of some "incompatibilities with some hosts."

You may download this newest release of WordPress and install it yourself, or you can perform an automatic upgrade from your WordPress administration area’s Dashboard using Tools –> Upgrade.

Download WordPress 2.9.1

Here is a guest post by expert blogger Yaro Starak. Yaro is a guru on the subjects of Internet marketing and promotion. His words and thoughts about blogging are well worth reading. I recommend his advice.

In every bloggers life comes a special day – the day they first launch a new blog. Now unless you went out and purchased someone else’s blog chances are your blog launched with only one very loyal reader – you. Maybe a few days later you received a few hits when you told your sister, father, girlfriend and best friend about your new blog but that’s about as far you went when it comes to finding readers.

Here are the top 10 techniques new bloggers can use to find readers. These are tips specifically for new bloggers, those people who have next-to-no audience at the moment and want to get the ball rolling.

It helps if you work on this list from top to bottom as each technique builds on the previous step to help you create momentum. Eventually once you establish enough momentum you gain what is called "traction", which is a large enough audience base (about 500 readers a day is good) that you no longer have to work too hard on finding new readers. Instead your current loyal readers do the work for you through word of mouth.

Top 10 Tips

10. Write at least five major “pillar” articles. A pillar article is a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice. This article you are currently reading could be considered a pillar article since it is very practical and a good “how-to” lesson. This style of article has long term appeal, stays current (it isn’t news or time dependent) and offers real value and insight. The more pillars you have on your blog the better.

9. Write one new blog post per day minimum. Not every post has to be a pillar, but you should work on getting those five pillars done at the same time as you keep your blog fresh with a daily news or short article style post. The important thing here is to demonstrate to first time visitors that your blog is updated all the time so they feel that if they come back tomorrow they will likely find something new. This causes them to bookmark your site or subscribe to your blog feed.

You don’t have to produce one post per day all the time but it is important you do when your blog is brand new. Once you get traction you still need to keep the fresh content coming but your loyal audience will be more forgiving if you slow down to a few per week instead. The first few months are critical so the more content you can produce at this time the better.

8. Use a proper domain name. If you are serious about blogging be serious about what you call your blog. In order for people to easily spread the word about your blog you need a easily rememberable domain name. People often talk about blogs they like when they are speaking to friends in the real world (that’s the offline world, you remember that place right?) so you need to make it easy for them to spread the word and pass on your URL. Try and get a .com if you can and focus on small easy to remember domains rather than worry about having the correct keywords (of course if you can get great keywords and easy to remember then you’ve done a good job!).

7. Start commenting on other blogs. Once you have your pillar articles and your daily fresh smaller articles your blog is ready to be exposed to the world. One of the best ways to find the right type of reader for your blog is to comment on other people’s blogs. You should aim to comment on blogs focused on a similar niche topic to yours since the readers there will be more likely to be interested in your blog.

Most blog commenting systems allow you to have your name/title linked to your blog when you leave a comment. This is how people find your blog. If you are a prolific commenter and always have something valuable to say then people will be interested to read more of your work and hence click through to visit your blog.

6. Trackback and link to other blogs in your blog posts. A trackback is sort of like a blog conversation. When you write a new article to your blog and it links or references another blogger’s article you can do a trackback to their entry. What this does is leave a truncated summary of your blog post on their blog entry – it’s sort of like your blog telling someone else’s blog that you wrote an article mentioning them. Trackbacks often appear like comments.

This is a good technique because like leaving comments a trackback leaves a link from another blog back to yours for readers to follow, but it also does something very important – it gets the attention of another blogger. The other blogger will likely come and read your post eager to see what you wrote about them. They may then become a loyal reader of yours or at least monitor you and if you are lucky some time down the road they may do a post linking to your blog bringing in more new readers.

5. Encourage comments on your own blog. One of the most powerful ways to convince someone to become a loyal reader is to show there are other loyal readers already following your work. If they see people commenting on your blog then they infer that your content must be good since you have readers so they should stick around and see what all the fuss is about. To encourage comments you can simply pose a question in a blog post. Be sure to always respond to comments as well so you can keep the conversation going.

4. Submit your latest pillar article to a blog carnival. A blog carnival is a post in a blog that summarizes a collection of articles from many different blogs on a specific topic. The idea is to collect some of the best content on a topic in a given week. Often many other blogs link back to a carnival host and as such the people that have articles featured in the carnival often enjoy a spike in new readers.

To find the right blog carnival for your blog, do a search at blogcarnival.com.

3. Submit your blog to blogtopsites.com. To be honest this tip is not going to bring in a flood of new readers but it’s so easy to do and only takes five minutes so it’s worth the effort. Go to Blog Top Sites, find the appropriate category for your blog and submit it. You have to copy and paste a couple of lines of code on to your blog so you can rank and then sit back and watch the traffic come in. You will probably only get 1-10 incoming readers per day with this technique but over time it can build up as you climb the rankings. It all helps!

2. Submit your articles to EzineArticles.com. This is another tip that doesn’t bring in hundreds of new visitors immediately (although it can if you keep doing it) but it’s worthwhile because you simply leverage what you already have – your pillar articles. Once a week or so take one of your pillar articles and submit it to Ezine Articles. Your article then becomes available to other people who can republish your article on their website or in their newsletter.

How you benefit is through what is called your “Resource Box”. You create your own resource box which is like a signature file where you include one to two sentences and link back to your website (or blog in this case). Anyone who publishes your article has to include your resource box so you get incoming links. If someone with a large newsletter publishes your article you can get a lot of new readers at once.

1. Write more pillar articles. Everything you do above will help you to find blog readers however all of the techniques I’ve listed only work when you have strong pillars in place. Without them if you do everything above you may bring in readers but they won’t stay or bother to come back. Aim for one solid pillar article per week and by the end of the year you will have a database of over 50 fantastic feature articles that will work hard for you to bring in more and more readers.

I hope you enjoyed my list of traffic tips. Everything listed above are techniques I’ve put into place myself for my blogs and have worked for me, however it’s certainly not a comprehensive list. There are many more things you can do. Finding readers is all about testing to see what works best for you and your audience and I have no doubt if you put your mind to it you will find a balance that works for you.

This article was by Yaro Starak, a professional blogger and the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time.

To get more information about Blog Mastermind please click this link:

www.BlogMastermind.com

Click here to download the Free Blog Profits Blueprint

Official WordPress Graphics, Logos, and Colors

WordPress has its own official graphics, logos, and colors you can use (if you want), in order to show off that you own a WordPress powered blog or Web site.

Of course, you are free to use whatever graphics, logos, and colors you choose for your WordPress blog or Web site. If you want some official and fancy WordPress stuff, then this post will get you started.

You may find these official WordPress graphics, logos, and colors on this web page at wordpress.org: WordPress Graphics, Logos, and Colors

The three colors WordPress recommends for WordPress print or online artwork:

Blue

Blue Pantone 7468 CMYK 97, 44, 26, 3 Hex #21759b RGB 33, 117, 155

Orange

Orange Pantone 1665 CMYK 6, 86, 100, 1 Hex #d54e21 RGB 213, 78, 33

Grey

Grey Pantone Black 7 CMYK 65, 60, 60, 45 Hex #464646 RGB 70, 70, 70

You might recognize these three WordPress colors. I use them as a graphic displayed here on www.wpblogsandwebsites.com. I also use these three WordPress recommended colors in this site’s favorite icon, which is used by your browser as part of the Web site’s bookmark. I have incorporated these three WordPress colors somewhat into this blog’s WordPress theme.

Here is a sampling of some of the WordPress graphics and logos:

Here’s a chart to show this:

StatCounter’s statistics report Firefox version 3.5 had 21.71%, and Internet Explorer had 21.37% of global market share for this short two-week time period. Not much of a lead, but it is a lead!

Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Browser Version Market Share

Overall, Internet Explorer versions are still beating Firefox by a considerable margin. However, Firefox and Chrome are gaining market share as time marches on.

This new version of WordPress sports quite a few improvements, and some new features. As with every new version of WordPress, WordPress just keeps getting better and better. WordPress Works Wonderfully.

I’m using WordPress 2.9!

I have upgraded my three WordPress blogs.

I used the automatic upgrade link found on the Dashboards of my three WordPress blogs (this link appears to notify you of a new WordPress version and that it’s time to upgrade). I have been keeping all of these blogs up-to-date with the latest WordPress version. My upgrade to WordPress version 2.9 went very smoothly with all three blogs.

Here are listings from the WordPress Web site of the new features added to WordPress 2.9:

What you’ll notice new from a blogger’s point of view:

1. Global undo/”trash” feature, which means that if you accidentally delete a post or comment you can bring it back from the grave (i.e., the Trash). This also eliminates those annoying “are you sure” messages we used to have on every delete.
2. Built-in image editor allows you to crop, edit, rotate, flip, and scale your images to show them who’s boss. This is the first wave of our many planned media-handling improvements.
3. Batch plugin update and compatibility checking, which means you can update 10 plugins at once, versus having to do multiple clicks for each one, and we’re using the new compatibility data from the plugins directory to give you a better idea of whether your plugins are compatible with new releases of WordPress. This should take the fear and hassle out of upgrading.
4. Easier video embeds that allow you to just paste a URL on its own line and have it magically turn it into the proper embed code, with Oembed support for YouTube, Daily Motion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy, and WordPress.tv (and more in the next release).

WordPress 2.9 under the hood improvements:

• We now have rel=canonical support for better SEO.
• There is automatic database optimization support, which you can enable in your wp-config.php file by adding define('WP_ALLOW_REPAIR', true);.
• Themes can register “post thumbnails” which allow them to attach an image to the post, especially useful for magazine-style themes.
• A new commentmeta table that allows arbitrary key/value pairs to be attached to comments, just like posts, so you can now expand greatly what you can do in the comment framework.
• Custom post types have been upgraded with better API support so you can juggle more types than just post, page, and attachment. (More of this planned for 3.0.)
• You can set custom theme directories, so a plugin can register a theme to be bundled with it or you can have multiple shared theme directories on your server.
• We’ve upgraded TinyMCE WYSIWYG editing and Simplepie.
• Sidebars can now have descriptions so it’s more obvious what and where they do what they do.
• Specify category templates not just by ID, like before, but by slug, which will make it easier for theme developers to do custom things with categories — like post types!
• Registration and profiles are now extensible to allow you to collect things more easily, like a user’s Twitter account or any other fields you can imagine.
• The XML-RPC API has been extended to allow changing the user registration option. We fixed some Atom API attachment issues.
• Create custom galleries with the new include and exclude attributes that allow you to pull attachments from any post, not just the current one.
• When you’re editing files in the theme and plugin editors it remembers your location and takes you back to that line after you save. (Thank goodness!!!)
• The Press This bookmarklet has been improved and is faster than ever; give it a try for on-the-fly blogging from wherever you are on the internet.
• Custom taxonomies are now included in the WXR export file and imported correctly.
• Better hooks and filters for excerpts, smilies, HTTP requests, user profiles, author links, taxonomies, SSL support, tag clouds, query_posts and WP_Query

Most likely, this new WordPress version will see some incremental updates in the time to come as WordPress works on feedback from its users regarding this major upgrade.

Expect to see WordPress version 3.0 coming out sometime next spring.

I think WordPress version 2.9 looks and works pretty nice. I recommend this WordPress version upgrade. Keeping your WordPress blog and/or Web site current with the latest version is important, upgrading improves security and blogability.

You can bop on over to the WordPress Blog, to learn more about this new WordPress 2.9 version.

WordPress wins Overall Best Open Source Content Management System Award

This is an important award for WordPress because WordPress has mostly been thought of as a blogging platform by the public. We who are familiar with WordPress know that WordPress is much more than just a software platform for blogging, WordPress can also operate as a complete CMS.

President Roosevelt shown in 1937 with other big shots admiring WordPress’s 2009 CMS Award?

WordPress also was named the first runner-up in the Best Open Source PHP CMS category.

WordPress gains thousands of new users and devotees each and everyday. Blogs and Web sites are now often powered by WordPress. WordPress Works Wonderfully.

Join in on the fun, have a self-hosted WordPress blog and Own Your Own Blog!

Are you wondering just what the Sam Hill a Content Management System (CMS) is? Well, here’s WikipediA’s explanation:

A Content Management System (CMS) is a collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based. The procedures are designed to:

• Allow for large number of people to contribute to and share stored data
• Control access to data, based on user roles. User roles are used to define each use as to what information they can view or edit
• Aid in easy storage and retrieval of data
• Reduce repetitive duplicate input
• Improve the ease of report writing
• Improve communication between users

In a CMS, data can be defined as almost anything – documents, movies, pictures, phone numbers, scientific data, etc. CMSs are frequently used for storing, controlling, revising, and publishing documentation. Content that is controlled is industry-specific. (Entertainment content differs from the design of a fighter jet). There are various terms for systems (related processes) that do this. Examples include: Web Content Management, Digital Asset Management, Digital Records Management, Electronic Content Management (and others). Synchronization of intermediate steps, and collation into a final product are common goals of each.

WordPress Works Wonderfully

Go to www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com and sign up to get a free blog started. There is plenty of help available online at either of these free blog sites to get you going, you won’t find it difficult to set up a blog at either blogger.com or wordpress.com. Each of these free blog services have made it very user-friendly to get a blog published. They will walk you through the process and you will simply fill-in a series of forms to get your blog created. It will probably take you less than 15 minutes to have a free blog live on the Internet.

I suggest you choose the free WordPress blog service for your “beginner” blog. When you switch over to your own self-hosted WordPress blog after learning the basics of blogging with a free WordPress blog, then you will find similarities between the two blog platforms and this will shorten your blog learning curve.

Use your free beginner blog to blog about anything you want, but it might be a good idea to save the blog topic you really want to blog about for your self-hosted blog. Blog instead at your free blog about something else, a hobby, your city, your dog or cat, or whatever might provide enough to post about for a month or so. You just want to learn about blogging and how blogs work, so save your good stuff for the big game – when you own your own self-hosted WordPress blog!

Use the help and tutorial resources that are available with the free blog and become familiar with all you can. After you have your own self-hosted blog, you will find that you have many more features, options, and design capabilities with this kind of blog than a free blog.

New, beginner bloggers can learn a lot with a free blog. Start blogging with a free blog and then move on to a self-hosted WordPress blog. Think of a free blog as your warm-up and basic introduction to blogging. A free blog can be your INTRODUCTION TO BLOGGING 101 course.

You’ll have some fun with a free WordPress blog, and learn a bunch about blogs and blogging too.

I think that a lot of blogging is about ideas. You have to have ideas, and hopefully lots of them, to come up with things to write about in your blog. The more ideas you have, then the more you can write and create good content and information for your readers.

You have to have your blog on your mind most of the time. Maybe not always on the front burner, but back there on your mind’s back burner you should always have some blogging ideas simmering. Be ready when these blog ideas and thoughts boil up.

ONCE YOU HAVE A BLOG IDEA – YOU MUST REMEMBER IT!

If you have a mind like a steel trap and never forget anything at all, then you are all set. You’ll remember every idea or thought about your blog that comes to mind. All you need to do is sit down at your computer and start plinking away on the keyboard.

However, if you are like me, then sometimes your blogging ideas and thoughts get lost in the general mind clutter of daily living. You are fixing a cup of tea when a great idea for a post comes to mind, but by the time you’ve answered the phone and had a conversation with Auntie Sally Ann about her new kitty cat, that idea has flown the coop and your cup of tea is now cold. There is a solution for this loss of blog ideas and thoughts problem.

Invest in a couple of simple, low-tech devices that will allow you to capture each and every precious blog idea and thought you have.

My 4.5"x3.25" Blog Idea Notebook and Golf Pencil

A Blog Idea Notebook Buy yourself a small notebook that will fit comfortably in your pocket or purse and carry it with you all the time. Use a small pen, pencil, or marker that also fits easily into your pocket or purse to jot down your ideas and thoughts while they are fresh in your mind. This works. I always have a small notebook and a golf scoring pencil handy in my pocket. I jot down anything and everything that happens to come to mind about my various blogs. If a small notebook is not right for you, then fold up a piece of paper and carry it in your pocket or purse.

Use Your Blog Idea Notebook!

Review the ideas and notes about your blog you have jotted down and decide what you want to do with them. Some ideas or notes you will want to take action on, others you may want to forget about. Invent your own custom shorthand to make keeping notes easier. Keep your blog idea notebook on your nightstand so when you have a great idea at night you can save it. Jot down ideas, lists, and things to do. Use a different colored pen, pencil, or marker to highlight your good ideas and thoughts. Separate the good from the bad.

Write your name and contact information on the inside of the cover. This blog idea notebook is valuable and the content it contains is important. Make sure someone can return it to you if you ever lose it.

A Forgotten Good Idea Is Worthless

Preserve your blogging ideas and thoughts by using a simple notebook to record your blogging ideas and thoughts when they come to you. Be prepared and carry it with you all the time.

A Blog Idea Notebook is so simple, but it works so well.

You can use WordPress to make money online. WordPress gives you the platform you’ll need to construct a Web site. With WordPress you can establish your presence on the Internet. You’ll still need a good idea and goods or services you can market, and you’ll have to roll up your sleeves and get to work, if you want to make money on the Internet.

WordPress will provide you all you need of a Web site to market and sell goods or services on the Internet.

So how do you do it?

I’m not professing to be a guru who can tell you exactly how to make money on the Internet. I think it mostly depends on you. I think your knowledge, skills, and abilities, and your hard work and desire are the keys to success of making money on the Internet. This is a deep and involved subject and we’ll only take some baby steps here. Later on in this post, I have a suggestion of somewhere to go for more concrete information from someone I consider (and many others do too) an expert.

Below, I have some ideas that can help get you started. It won’t happen overnight, and you have to consider an Internet marketing business just as seriously as you would a brick and mortar business. There are no shortcuts and no guarantees, but it can be done. It’s all up to you, and you can do it.

Here, in a nutshell is the general strategy to follow:

• Have a good idea of how to solve a problem for a group of people, a niche market. Be an expert on your idea’s topic and the market you are going to target. Your topic hopefully will be something you enjoy, and something other people are searching for answers on. Offer goods or services people need. Use your talents and strengths to help people solve a problem.

• Register a domain name that accurately represents your idea or topic and what you are doing.

• Build a Web site, or pay a web designer to build your Web site. A WordPress blog is an excellent choice for a Web site platform. Once you get it set up at a web host of your choosing and have a good domain name, you can make posts and update information all by yourself. You won’t have to pay a web site developer each and every time you want something changed.

  I offer a free WordPress blog set up service. If you are interested in how I might help you, then please use my Contact form to send me an inquiry. Contact.

• Get to work putting useful content and information on your WordPress blog by making lots of posts and publishing pages. Give your Web site visitors value, help them. Help them find answers to their problems.

• Learn about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Generate as much traffic to your WordPress blog as you can. You need people to come to your online store or business, the more the merrier.

• Sell your goods or services on the Web site. Give your customers quality and a fair price.

• Always follow the four P’s of marketing principles: Product, Place, Price, and Promotion. Apply these principles of marketing to the Internet instead of a brick and mortar store. Don’t forget another marketing principle that isn’t a P, but still very important: Service. PPPPS – marketing keys to your success.

WordPress and e-Commerce Plugins

WordPress plugins are gizmos that can be used to extend WordPress and add features and capabilities to meet just about any need or situation you might imagine. There were 7,328 available WordPress plugins from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ as this post was written. That plugin count grows weekly, if not daily.

There is a rich selection of e-Commerce plugins for WordPress you will be interested in if you use WordPress to make money on the Internet. Listed here are only a few of the available e-Commerce plugins for WordPress, all are worth your consideration:

WP e-Commerce
This is a shopping cart plugin for WordPress with lots of features. You can use this plugin to sell anything online.

Quick Shop
This shopping cart plugin requires a WordPress theme with Sidebar Widgets installed.

eShop
An e-Commerce plugin with lots of features.

WP Live-Shopping
A plugin widget that lets you display live shopping offers to your visitors. Has options to alter its appearance.

YAK Shopping Cart
This is the plugin you will need if you are going to sell Yaks on your WordPress blog. Okay, I’m only joking about the Yaks, you can use this plugin to sell any product you wish. Has many options and is very worth checking out.

Are PayPal
If you want to sell your knowledge on your WordPress blog, then this plugin may be just for you. It uses the PayPal IPN (Instant Payment Notification) protocol so the payment and content delivery process is fully automated. With this plugin, you can display the content the customer paid to see, after the customer has paid to see it.

PayPal Donations
Put a PayPal donation button on your blog.

This only barely scratches the surface of how to make money online. There is much, much, more to learn and lots of work ahead of you. It can be done. Don’t stop learning, don’t give up. Learn from your mistakes.

Use the Internet to research this topic. You will have to sort through lots of Web sites that are not of much use, but sooner or later you will find a few that offer information that is as good as gold. You will have to cut through the hype and hot spit. And, yes, I do have a suggestion of somewhere to start. I think it’s a pretty good source to learn about making money on the Internet.

PotPieGirl – One Week Marketing

PotPieGirl is a lady from Georgia who has made lots of money by marketing products over the Internet. Her method is easy enough that anyone can do it.

She has come up with a recipe of making money on the Internet, and I think it works. I purchased her affordable One Week Marketing program and within three weeks of off and on effort (I did not even follow her instructions to the letter), I had two sales! To test and learn about PotPieGirl’s One Week Marketing method, I chose an herbal remedy for leg cramps that I could promote as an affiliate. I loosely did what PotPieGirl said to do, and to my surprise I actually made two sales. That did not make me rich of course, but it proved to me that her method works. All I need is more time and energy!

I think her program is worth your while. PotPieGirl’s method is all about Internet Marketing. She’s come up with some clever stuff, in my opinion. You’ll learn about Internet Marketing from PotPieGirl.

PotPieGirl is smart and entertaining, and has lots to offer if you are interested in leveraging the Internet to make money. Please see what she has to offer and decide for yourself.

"If you’re willing to do for a year what others won’t, you can do for a lifetime what others CAN’T!"
PotPieGirl

One Week Marketing by PotPieGirl

If you use this link and wind up purchasing the One Week Marketing plan from PotPieGirl, then I’ll earn a commission on the sale. This will help me support www.wpblogsandwebsites.com, and I appreciate your patronage. This is one model, and example of how you can earn money on the Internet with a WordPress blog! PotPieGirl well tell you how to promote other people’s products.

This post is only to get you started, to hopefully get you pointed in the right direction and provide some basic information. I think you will find WordPress a very valuable tool if you want to start an Internet Marketing business. I wish you the best, now GET STARTED!

You need a web host so your blog or Web site can be seen by visitors.

A quick and dirty explanation of what a web host is: A web host is a place on the Internet where you put the files that make up your Web site, so they can be viewed in visitor’s web browsers as they visit your Web site. A web host is a company that will rent you web space to store the various files that make up your blog and/or Web site, and provide the bandwidth (the measurement of data and information sent from your web host’s server to the computers of your visitors) that’s needed for your Web site to be accessible to Internet surfers.

The computers of a web host are connected to the Internet all the time, that’s 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. The computers that a web host uses are called servers, and they can be found by all the other computers that are also connected to the Internet.

You will perform what is known as an "upload" of the files that make up your blog or web site to your web host’s server. A server is a combination of software and hardware that makes it possible for web pages to be shown in a browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. A browser is also known as a client, so there is a client and server relationship needed for web pages to be shown to Web site visitors.

A web host will charge you a fee, usually on a monthly or yearly basis, for their services of storing your Web site files on their server and for making your Web site available for viewing by Internet surfers. The web hosting business field is very competitive, so there are many to choose from and more plans and offerings of web hosting than Carter has oats. There are good hosts with good plans, and there are bad hosts with bad plans … it’s a big city out there on the Internet. There are many, many, many, web hosts. A Google search for the term "web host" as I was writing this post brought up 209,000,000 results. There are plenty enough web hosts to choose from.

If you want to have a WordPress self-hosted blog or Web site, then logically it is going to have to be hosted somewhere so that your blog or Web site can be "live" on the Internet. To have a self-hosted WordPress blog or Web site, you will have to pay a web host for hosting.

When you sign up for an account with a web host, then you can upload all of the files that make up your blog or Web site to the space on the web host’s servers that you have as your space or territory. You will also set up your web hosting account, and your domain name registrar, so that your URL or domain name can be used by visitors to find and view your blog or web site.

Here is an oversimplification of how it works when someone visits this Web site:

• A visitor types in www.wpblogsandwebsites.com in their browser’s URL address input box or uses a previously set bookmark to surf the Internet to this Web site.
• Through Internet magic (I told you this would be an oversimplification!), the visitor’s browser and my Web host (I use PolurNET Communications) where I have the files that make up www.wpblogsandwebsites.com kept communicate with one another.
• The visitor’s browser downloads copies of my Web site’s files (from the PolurNET Communications server) to the visitor’s computer (a client) and displays www.wpblogsandwebsites.com in the visitor’s browser, which might be Internet Explorer or Firefox, or whatever browser the visitor prefers.

So, to sum up what a web host is: A web host is a place on the Internet where you put the files that make up your Web site. You need a web host so the files of your WordPress blog and/or Web site can be kept on a server. The server is made up of software and hardware that will send your WordPress blog/Web site files on to a visitor’s browser when he or she uses your domain name (URL) in their browser (a client) to visit and view your blog/Web site. There are lots of web hosts to choose from and they have lots of choices of hosting plans. You will pay a fee for the web host’s services, but web hosting is usually very affordable because there is strong competition amongst web hosts.

Here are some web hosts that I recommend. I like PolurNET Communications best, but they are all good, reliable hosts. If you are looking for a web host, then have a gander at the various plans offered by these web hosting companies:

PolurNET Communications

Arvixe Web Hosting

HostGator

URL stands for:

Uniform Resource Locator

A URL is the way people find your blog or Web site. It is the uniform way to locate a file (a resource) on the Internet. Really, all it is, is a fancy name for web page address. It tells a browser where a file is, and what to do with it. A unique URL belongs to each file on the Internet.

The URL is the unique address by which a file can be found on a web site. A visitor to your Web site will use an URL and software called a browser (like the common Internet Explorer or Firefox browsers) to retrieve a file of your Web site from the server of your web host, and display that file in their browser.

Here is the URL used to view this blog post that you’re reading:
http://www.wpblogsandwebsites.com/what-is-an-URL/

As you can see, a URL is made up of words (usually!) that are easy for humans to read, understand, and remember (usually and hopefully!).

For computers, URLs are really made up of a set of four groups of numbers separated by periods. This is known as an Internet Protocol (IP) Address. An example of an IP Address is: 64.202.189.170 which happens to be the IP Address of www.wpblogsandwebsites.com.

An overly simple explanation of Internet Protocol Address is that it is the numerical label that is assigned to a URL. Since these IP Address numbers are really too difficult and cumbersome for human beings to read and remember, they are instead associated with an alphanumeric form so we human types can more easily remember and use Web site addresses. People usually find it easier to remember a short string of words, rather than a list of numbers.

The alphabetic and numeric versions of a web site’s URL are reconciled through the Internet Domain Name System (DNS). DNS translates the alphanumerical address to the numeric, which is the way non-human things such as computers, browsers, and servers prefer a Web site’s address to be represented. The DNS works for you in the background as you surf the Internet.

Let’s examine the fictitious URL of:
http://www.wpblogsandwebsites.com/blog/how-to-blog.html

The format of a URL looks like this:
Protocol://site address/path/filename

So, the http://www.wpblogsandwebsites.com/blog/how-to-blog.html example URL breaks down as:

• Protocol: http
• Host computer name: www
• Domain name: wpblogsandwebsites
• Domain type: com
• Path: /blog
• File name: how-to-blog.html

If you see an URL like: http://www.wpblogsandwebsites.com/blog/ where no file name is part of the URL, then a default file will displayed by the browser. Usually the default file is something like index.html, index.htm, or maybe index.php.

There are different types of Protocols. All web pages will use some type of Protocol to transfer their data. HTTP is the most common. HTTP means HyperText Transport Protocol and it is the common way hypertext documents (web pages) are served, or transferred, over the Internet.

While the com domain type is the most familiar, there are other types of domains. Listed below are some of them:

• com: commercial entities
• net: networks or network providers
• org: organizations that are usually non-profit
• edu: education, used for colleges and universities
• gov: government
• mil: United States military entities

To get your own URL for your blog or Web site, you must register a domain name. Learn about domain names on this page: Get Your Own Domain Name.

What will make your WordPress blog successful?

Its CONTENT!

“Ultimately, users visit your website for its content. Everything else is just the backdrop. The design is there to allow people to access the content.“ From Designing Web Usability, by Jakob Nielsen.

Barnes&Noble: Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity

The content you write and include in your WordPress blog will determine its success.

The content you create and add to your blog is what will make your blog successful. If you provide your blog visitors with the information, goods, or services they are looking for to solve a problem they have, then you are on your way to blogging success.

A pretty, splashy, and trendy design is all fine and dandy, but there must be substance and value behind any glitz and glamour you dazzle your blog visitors with. Style and pizzazz is fine, as long as there is some backbone to your blog.

If all your blog has is a pretty face, then your blog will probably get no place!

How do you write good content?

Writing is a skill. You must write and practice writing, and continue to learn how to improve your writing. The more you write and blog, the better and better your writing will become! Your writing does not have to be perfect, but you must be able to effectively communicate with your readers. You want to get your message across with your writing. Learn how to research and prepare your blog posts and pages, you want to answer the common writing questions of:

• Who
• What
• Where
• When
• Why
• Another good question is: How

Barnes&Noble: Spinning Word into Gold Spinning Words Into Gold Learn how to write by reading this book.

To be a good writer, whether for a blog or any other medium, you must be a reader. If you are curious and read to find answers to your problems, then you can identify with your blog readers. Your blog readers are looking for information, for answers to questions they have. The better you know who your blog readers are, then the better you will be at crafting and writing your blog posts. A writer is usually someone who reads, anything and everything, and often. You should read more than you write … and you hopefully will be writing a lot. Reading and learning will prepare you for writing your blog posts. If you fill your blog with posts and pages that have good information and content, and if you provide value to your blog readers, then you can grow a successful blog over time.

You just have to roll up your sleeves and get to work. If you are blogging and writing about a subject you know and enjoy, then it will be fun work.

These are called “hosted” blog platforms because a blog is created and hosted on the online blogging service’s domain and web space. You will have a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) that will include your blog’s name and also the name of the online blogging service. An example of such an URL is: http://wpblogsandwebsites.blogspot.com/. This URL points you toward a free hosted blogger.com blog I set up as a demonstration. Although I was able use “wpblogsandwebsites” in the free blog’s URL, you can see how “blogspot” was added to the URL. This type of URL is not a Top Level Domain (TLD) because your blog is actually a subdomain of the free host service.

An example of a TLD is www.wpblogsandwebsites.com. TLDs are usually better than subdomain URLs because they add an impression of professionalism and seriousness to a blog or Web site. Fortunately, you often have the option of using a TLD with a free hosted blog, but then you will probably have to pay a fee to the free blog host for this privilege … which means your blog isn’t completely free after all. You’ll also have to pay to register your own domain name.

Probably the greatest advantage to a free hosted blog is the cost of hosting – it’s hosted free! You won’t have to worry about finding a suitable web host or paying a monthly or yearly hosting fee. Another big advantage to free hosted blogs is that they are very easy to set up. All you have to do is follow some online instructions, usually presented in a series of screens with fill-in-the-blank forms, and the blog is set up for you. You’ll probably choose from a determined selection of theme templates for the presentation and look of your blog.

With hosted free blogs, you don’t have to worry about keeping you blog’s platform (all of the code, stuff, and gizmos that make the blog work) updated yourself. That will be done automatically for you and behind the scenes.

Hosted Free Blog Disadvantages

• There will be less configuration choices than a self-hosted blog. You simply won’t be able to tweak you free blog as much as you could than if you self-hosted and Own Your Own Blog. At the start, this may not make much of a difference, however as your blog and your blogging demands and capabilities grow, you will probably find the lack of configuration choices a detriment. Free blog configuration limits can hold you back.

• You will have to choose your blog’s design, its theme, or look and feel, from a selection of canned themes. Some of the theme choices may have some design change options built into them, and the particular hosted free blog service you choose may allow some theme modification. Overall, you will be using themes or site designs that everybody else using the hosted free service chooses from. Your blog will probably wind looking like a lot of other blogs. With a self-hosted blog you can come up with a theme for your blog that can be unique, your own branded presentation.

• You don’t have complete ownership of your blog with a hosted free blog. The online service you use for your free blog keeps ownership of the URL associated with your blog. You will have the ownership of the content you create for your blog. You will have to live with the way your blog works on a hosted free service. You can’t change or improve the blogging platform, you just make do with what is offered. With a self-hosted blog, you own the whole shebang and can do what you want, you Own Your Own Blog. That’s a very good thing.

• I’ve discussed this above, but remember that the default URL you wind up with at a hosted free blog is not a TLD. The URL of your free blog will by default, include the name of your free blog online hosting service. A self-hosted blog with a TLD, is professional and more impressive.

• It can be a challenge to move your hosted free blog over to a self-hosted blog if you ever decide to make the switch. You will have to export your free blog content, and then import it to your self-hosted blog. This may or may not go smoothly. Personally, I’ve had good luck exporting and importing blog content from a free blog to a self-hosted blog. But, things can go wrong and my palms were a bit sweaty each time I did this. The worst-case scenario is that content can be lost or not imported to the new self-hosted blog. Your blog’s content is all the effort and hard work you put into making your posts. You don’t want that to disappear for forever with the click of your mouse. Just keep in mind that moving content from a free blog to a self-hosted blog can be risky.

Own Your Own Blog!

Owning your own blog by using WordPress as your blogging platform, having it self-hosted, and having your own registered domain name, is the most professional and serious way to go about having a blog or Web site, in my opinion. You will maintain control your blog and a third-party (a freely hosted blog company) will not impose limitations or constraints on your blog, or what you do with it.

Free host blog services all have their Terms Of Service (TOS) agreements. You must agree to the TOS if you want to use the free host blog service. If a free blog host thinks your blog violates their TOS, then it can shutdown your blog. The blog you put so much time and effort into can disappear by the actions of a third-party.

A Google search of “blogger tos shutdown” reveals some interesting situations free bloggers have encountered with TOS shutdowns by the free host Blogger.com. Here is a link you might find worrying: Who’s responsible for shutting down a number of anti-Obama Blogspot accounts?

This deals with some political blogs that have been shutdown by Blogger.com (An aside: Blogger.com is part of Google, and Google supports Obama and liberal views. Blogger blogs with opposing political views have been shut down. Take this for whatever it’s worth. I’m not turning this into a political discussion, the point is that Blogger’s TOS gives them the power to make blogs disappear, and some have disappeared.)

You have to realize that a free blog host can pull the plug on your blog. A word to the wise is sufficient …

The opposite of a self-hosted blog is a blog that is hosted at an online service such as blogger.com or wordpress.com. These are free blog hosting services, as you do not pay a hosting fee to have a blog at them. There are plusses and minuses to both self-hosted and hosted blogs. I’ll discuss free hosted blogs in another post. I’ll focus mostly on WordPress self-hosted blogs here.

There can be some confusion about WordPress blog hosting. There are two WordPress Web sites where you can start your blogging adventure.

• There is http://www.wordpress.org – This is where you can download WordPress that you will install on a web host’s server. This is for those who want to self-host a blog. You have complete control of your blog and its future. This is your choice if you want to Own Your Own Blog.

• There is http://www.wordpress.com – This is the free hosted version of WordPress. Here you can setup your blog by following online instructions and the blog is created automatically for you. Not as flexible and not as much control as a self-hosted blog.

The great advantage to a self-hosted blog is that you gain total control over your blog. This means you have the freedom to make your blog look and operate the way you want and no one can limit what you do with your blog. Probably most important, you can blog about anything you want, it’s all yours.

With a self-hosted blog you can choose how your blog looks, what theme it uses … the colors, layout, typography, and graphics. You also have total control over the technical parts of your blog. With WordPress you can choose and add from a myriad of plugins (think of plugins as special gizmos that do certain blog jobs for you) to enhance the functionality of your blog. You can tweak and adapt your blog the way you desire.

Having your own domain name (a URL) is important if you want to make a professional impression with your blogging efforts. People simply take a Web site with its own Top Level Domain (TLD, www.wpblogsandwebsites.com is an example of a TLD) name more seriously than a Web site with a URL like; http://wpblogsandwebsites.blogspot.com/. That URL points you toward a hosted for free blogger.com blog I set up as a demonstration. You can see how “blogspot.com” gets added to the URL for this free hosted blog, this means it is not a TLD.

Please note that I do not mean to say that all free hosted blogs are not professional and are substandard. I mean to explain that sometimes they are perceived that way, starting with their domain names. I have had, and do have, too many free hosted blogs myself to say they are all unprofessional and substandard. Many of them are top-notch because their creators have put a lot of effort into them. I simply think that a self-hosted WordPress blog with its own domain name looks more professional.

I know for certain that I have total control over my self-hosted www.wpblogsandwebsites.com blog, and that I don’t have total control with the hosted free http://wpblogsandwebsites.blogspot.com/ blog where I am subject to the limitations that blogger.com imposes.

Although you will have to pay for web hosting, and to register and keep a domain name (these fees are affordable as there is much competition in these markets), with a self-hosted blog, if you choose WordPress as your blogging platform, then you won’t have to pay a single cent for WordPress itself. WordPress is Open Source and is free, there are no licensing fees involved. That’s a pretty good deal!

All this sounds great about self-hosting, but what aren’t you telling me?
– Because you have total control over your blog, you must manage it. You are the one who looks out for its health. So, some technical skills and knowledge can’t hurt. WordPress is already pretty easy to manage and with the addition of a few plugins, it’s even easier. With each version and update of WordPress it keeps getting easier and easier to manage a WordPress blog. A lot of what you need to do to keep your blog running smoothly and updated is accomplished by making a few clicks within your WordPress blog’s administration interface.

- You will pay for your web hosting when you self-host your WordPress blog. When you register your own domain name for your blog, you will pay a fee to a domain registrar (GoDaddy is an example of a domain registrar). Your web hosting and domain name registration fees are ongoing. You will pay for your web hosting by a monthly or yearly plan, and your domain name registration will usually have a yearly fee with the option to pay for multiple years. As I have mentioned, these fees are affordable. They are worth their cost if you want your blog to be a professional effort.

- You will have to manage your web hosting. This sounds intimidating and there will be some things you need to learn, but good web hosts have made it as easy as possible for you to setup and choose your web hosting options. A good host will have an online interface that makes it easy to manage your hosting and will have online help and tutorials available to answer your questions. Often, a web host will have a “Live Chat” option you can use to ask questions of a real person by chatting with them through a messaging interface. Often too, phone support is available. Web hosts can’t afford to have their services be like learning rocket science for their clients. Just like WordPress, web hosts are always working to make life easy for users.

Own Your Own Blog!
In my opinion, owning your own blog by using WordPress as your blogging platform, having it self-hosted, and having your own registered domain name is the most professional and serious way to go about having a blog or Web site. You will control your blog and another party (like a freely hosted blog company) will not impose limitations or constraints on your blog.

A fact of the free host blog services is that they all have their Terms Of Service (TOS) agreements. If a free blog host thinks your blog violates their TOS, then it can shutdown your blog. Overnight, your blog that you put so much time and effort into can disappear. It happens. You might get what you pay for with a free blog.

A Google search of “blogger tos shutdown” can reveal some interesting situations other bloggers have encountered with TOS shutdowns by Blogger.com. Here is a link you might find interesting: Who’s responsible for shutting down a number of anti-Obama Blogspot accounts? This deals with some political blogs that have been shutdown by Blogger.com (An aside: Blogger.com is part of Google, and Google supports Obama and liberal views. Blogger blogs with opposing political views have been shut down. Take this for whatever it’s worth, the point is Blogger’s TOS gives them the power to make blogs disappear, and some do.) You have to realize that a free blog host can pull the plug on your blog. A word to the wise is sufficient …

If you are going to spend serious time and effort creating a blog, if you are going to blog to earn money, or sell products and services, then self-hosting is the way to go.

Be free and have control. Own Your Own Blog!

• Self-host your blog
• Register a domain name
• Use WordPress as your blogging platform

WordPress is an excellent choice for your blogging or Web site platform. There are many reasons why WordPress is so great, here are a few:

• WordPress can do just about anything you want to use it for. It can be a blog only, it can be a Web site only, it can be a Web site with a blog, it can cut your grass … okay, okay, WordPress can’t cut your grass. You can use WordPress to blog about everything your cat does, or you can use WordPress to blog about your doctoral study of lions, tigers, and bears and how to save them. You can use WordPress to create a Web site or blog, or both, about your small business and have customers order your goods and services online. Or, you can use WordPress as a site for your huge corporation. Your imagination will lead you to what you want WordPress to do for you.

• WordPress is free. It won’t cost you a penny to use the WordPress blogging platform. There are no license fees to use WordPress. Owning your own blog is something I highly recommend. If you want to Own Your Own Blog, you will have to pay a fee to a web hosting service, and a fee to register a domain name. These costs are not great, and for the control you gain over your site, they are worth it. Web hosting costs vary considerably, but there are many fine web hosts that charge a very affordable fee. Domain name registration should cost you very little.

• From humble beginnings in 2003, WordPress has grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging platform in the world. WordPress is used by millions of Web sites/blogs and these sites are viewed by tens of millions of people each and every day. WordPress is not small potatoes, WordPress is the Big Kahuna. WordPress is a mature and stable product.

• Documentation and support of WordPress abounds. The WordPress Web site (wordpress.org), is jam-packed with information. You can’t search the Internet without finding tons and tons of places that have information on WordPress. You’re looking at one of those sites right now. You can’t sling a dead cat on the Internet without it landing on a WordPress Web site of some kind. Information about WordPress is readily available.

• WordPress is constantly being worked on and improved. It’s already very good, but it keeps getting better. There are people from all over the world working on WordPress to improve it because it is an Open Source project. They are busy right now coming up with the next WordPress release. They always are.

• When a WordPress update comes out, with the current version of WordPress it is as simple as clicking a button to get a WordPress blog caught up to the new update.

• WordPress follows XHTML and CSS (this is code stuff that helps make the blog work) standards put forth by the W3C. This means your WordPress site will display properly when viewed in standards-compliant browsers. This is a good thing.

• Compared to other blogging platforms, installing WordPress is user-friendly. It can be technically challenging to install any blog if you are a newbie or a decided non-geek, and sometimes even for experienced geeks too, but WordPress installation can be considered to be less threatening and challenging than some other blog installations. You can find people who will provide a service of installing and setting up a new WordPress blog for you. These services will get your blog installed with a theme (more about themes below) of your choosing and install and setup a selection of plugins (more about plugins below) to get your new WordPress site ready for the big-time world of blogging. HINT: I provide a WordPress blog installation and setup service for a modest fee. This will protect you from the geeky technical code stuff, and get you ready for what you really want to do – which is blog! Please contact me using my Contact Form if you would like to know more.

• In order for a web host to be able to run WordPress, there are two requirements of the web host that must be met: PHP version 4.3 or greater, and MySQL version 4.0 or greater. PHP and MySQL are the backbone code of WordPress, they are what make WordPress work. Most web hosts meet these PHP and MySQL requirement easily, and probably exceed them.

• You can easily change the way your WordPress blog looks simply by installing and choosing a new theme. WordPress uses themes for the way its blogs look and feel. Themes are all about the presentation of your WordPress site. There are more free themes available on the Internet that you can use for your blog than Carter has oats. If you want, you can also buy a premium theme developed by a WordPress theme design expert. Choosing your theme for your WordPress blog is a personal choice. You have many places to look for your theme, and many, many themes to choose from. WordPress installs with some basic default themes, so you’re all set from the get-go. If you want, you can also design your own theme, or have someone tweak a theme so that it’s just right for you.

• WordPress is very flexible and customizable. WordPress plugins are gizmos you can add to your WordPress site to give it more functionality. There are tons of plugins available. Whatever job or chore you need your WordPress site to do, chances are someone has developed a plugin to do just that. There are many things you can do yourself without knowing how to code in XHTML, CSS, or PHP and MySQL (the code that makes WordPress work – WordPress is based on PHP and MySQL), depending on the theme and plugins you choose. If you are capable in these Web site development languages, then you can tweak your WordPress site to your heart’s desire. If these languages are nothing but gobbledegook to you, and you just can’t find a plugin to do what you need done, then there are WordPress coders you can hire to make the changes you want.

• WordPress provides strong aggregator support. Many standard RSS configurations are included. This means your blog readers will have choices when they choose to subscribe to your blog. Another good thing.

• WordPress will let you communicate your passion, your expertise, your knowledge, skills, and abilities, your business, to the entire world. You can do this from your top-floor corporate office, or from the spare closet in the extra bedroom of your sister’s apartment. All you need is a computer, an Internet connection, WordPress installed at a web host’s server, a domain name, and your imagination, smarts, and effort. You could change the world, or your life … for the better. It can all begin with a WordPress blog.

This Is Important
When you host a WordPress blog on your chosen web host’s server, you have total control. When you Own Your Own Blog, you are the Czar of your blog. Its future is always in your hands. Your work will not be jeopardized by the policies enacted by a third-party that hosts your blog for free.

When you install a WordPress blog at a web host of your choosing, and use a domain name for that blog you have chosen and registered, then you are going first-class with your blogging efforts.

I think WordPress is wonderful. I think you will too.

What are you waiting for?

• A blog is a kind or type of, Web site. It often has a registered domain name associated with it, and is often hosted at a paid-for web hosting service. A quick and overly simplistic definition of hosting, is that web hosting means where all the various files and gizmos that make up the blog (or Web site) are found on the Internet.
• A blog or Web site needs to hosted somewhere. Blogs can also be hosted for free at places like wordpress.com or blogger.com. These hosted-free blogs can have registered domain names associated with them too, but free-hosted blogs have limitations. Serious bloggers should strongly consider having their blog setup with paid-for hosting and certainly using a registered domain name. It’s best to Own Your Own Blog!
• A blog is a powerful and flexible way to publish information on the Internet, for just about any purpose you can imagine.

The word "blog" is created from "web log." A blog is an online chronicle, account, journal, or diary. It is made up of content that is published chronologically (the newest content appears at the top of the blog) in the form of entries that are called "posts." You are reading a blog post right now. Posts are saved in the blog, you can page backwards (travel back in posts time) through a blog and view all of the posts previously published. Blog "archives" are a special way to view older posts.

A blog can also be customized and configured so that it appears and behaves just like a regular Web site made up of individual pages linked to one another in various relationships. The blogging platform (or engine), that powers a blog can add this Web site-like functionality to a blog. For example, the WordPress blog engine is very good for configuring a blog to act like a common Web site … only with lots more flexibility, options, features, and power!

A blog can be published by just one person (probably the way most blogs make their way to the Internet) or by a team of people (an example would be a business) who create the content and information appearing on the blog.

Blogging is the process of writing the content (think words!) that make up the information in the blog posts. I was blogging as I wrote this post, then I clicked a button and published the post to the www.wpblogsandwebsites.com blog so you can read it.

Each post to a blog will have its own unique and permanent URL (Uniform Resource Locator) that someone can type into a browser address input box (or save as a bookmark in their browser) to arrive at that particular post in a blog. The author of the post, the post’s date, and categories (categories are ways to classify posts) the post belongs to, are usually included as parts of each post.

Readers of blog posts are often able to add their comments about the posts, to the posts. The reader comments (and the post author’s responses) are usually included or available to be read as part of the blog posts. So, discussion and communication are inherent to a blog.

A neat feature of a blog is that you can "subscribe" to the blog. This is done through RSS or syndication. What these fancy terms mean is that readers of a blog can use a special link that is part of the blog’s features, to view the content of the blog away from the actual blog.

A reader of your blog can keep track of what’s going on with your blog by subscribing to your blog (using the special subscriber link of the blog) with what is called a "reader" service. Google’s Reader is an example of such a blog reader subscription service.

All of this blog subscription and reader stuff comes in handy if you have a number of blogs you like to follow. Instead of having to visit each blog separately to see what’s new, all you have to do is go to your reader service. The blog reader service collects all of the new posts from all of the blogs you like to read in one place where you can view the content of the posts, or click on through to the various blogs. This makes it convenient to keep in touch with what’s going on in your favorite blogs in just one place.

WordPress is a very popular and very powerful blog publishing platform.

This Web site and blog (www.wpblogsandwebsites.com) will focus on the development and design of Web sites and blogs using the popular WordPress platform. I will also often post about static Web site development and design, that is, a Web site that does not use WordPress as its engine. I want to give information that will be helpful for the gamut of Web site owners or developers, from beginner to expert. All of that should give me plenty to write about. I hope I am able to help you with your Web site projects, and that I am able to pass along information and explanation about getting your Web site up and runnning the way you want.

Some of the topics I’ll post about are:

• XHTML and HTML
• CSS
• WordPress coding, tips, and tricks
• WordPress Plugins
• WordPress development and upgrades
• Search Engine Optimization
• WordPress blogs
• WordPress used as a Web site
• PHP and MySQL
• Anything and everything Web site related.

This blog is part of a WordPress Web site. Beside the posts and common parts of a WordPress blog, I also use WordPress to display pages just as a common Web site would. Soon (I’m working out some details!), when you go to www.wpblogsandwebsites.com, the first screen that will appear will be a page, rather than a blog post. On my pages part of this Web site, I will offer my services of installing WordPress as either a blog or a Web site, or as both a blog and a Web site, and ways that I can add customization.

Some information about me:

I have developed software and marketed it over the Internet for over ten years. I have had my own conventional, static Web site during this time where people can learn about my software and download it. I also have an interest in the Civil War and have run a popular WordPress blog since 2004 to help people learn about the Civil War. As a software developer, I am familiar with successful software and the authors who have created it. I also have another WordPress blog where I provide information about, and market software that you can "Try Before You Buy." I am a competent developer in Classic Visual Basic 6.0 Professional, HTML/XHTML, PHP & MySQL, and CSS, having completed various online courses and classes in these subjects.

Here are some of my Web sites/blogs:

• www.nellaware.com
• www.LearnCivilWarHistory.com
• www.WorthWhileSoftware.com

I hope that with my enthusiasm, curiosity, and knowledge of WordPress, and Web site design and development, that I will provide you here informational posts and services that can help you with your Web site creation. And … It won’t all be business all the time, we’ll have some fun too!

I welcome all thoughts, comments, ideas, criticism (and praise too!), you care to offer. My door is always open through my Contact page.