Keep IT Simple Software Training » Blogs

RSS Feed Generator Plugins Review

Clare — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 08:21:15 +0000

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Each WordPress blog has one automatically built-in RSS Feed. Proper usage of your blog’s feed is another way of building backlinks, which helps your site get indexed faster, reach more people and enable them to subscribe to your blog. The more people subscribe to your blog the more value your website has for Google.

You can easily find your blog’s RSS Feed by clicking on the yellow (PC) or blue (Mac) sign on the right side of your browser.

Want your Feed to serve you well?

There are 2 powerful plugins, which will help you take full advantage of all the RSS feed’s benefits. Both of them will generate new feeds every time you write a new post and one of them will automatically send those feeds to RSS directories!

Read the rest of this entry

The Akismet Blog Plugin – Our Unsung Protector

Clare — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 08:05:51 +0000

When setting up our blogs there is one thing we’re always told to do, and that’s to set up the Akismet plugin, but have you ever wondered just what it does?

True, it can seem like a total hassle to get up and running – though the only time consuming bit is getting the API Key through WordPress – but it will save you a whole lot of time in the future.

Akismet helps to block out all of those nasty little spammy comments that can appear on your site from people who just send them out there in the hopes of getting a few links back to the product they’re advertising. Sometimes it even works out for them. Seeing it takes them little to no time or money to do – and they’re obviously making enough money for it to be worth doing – so they’re just going to keep on doing it, but, it could take you a fair bit of time to get rid of it.

I recently checked the stats on my blog and was surprised to see that Akismet had stopped 6,084 spam comments dead in their tracks. I decided to take a look at the comments that were still in the spam queue, and wasn’t too surprised to see what sort of links they had in them.

The one thing that did make me laugh (I have a slightly warped sense of humour) was the fact that I had more links for mobile phone ring tones than I could possibly listen to in a lifetime, especially seeing I never have, and possibly never will, own a mobile phone.

The whole point of this post is this: you may not know what Akismet is, or how it works, just know that it’s in your best interest to have it up and running.

For more ramblings from Alan Paterson visit his personal blog at http://www.alandpaterson.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alan_Paterson

What is the Importance of Link Exchange For Business Blogs?

Clare — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 09:29:59 +0000

Small businesses are transforming themselves into large ones just by blogging and covering international markets by the means of blogging. Business blogging gives a company an inexpensive means for sharing their knowledge with other businesses and consumers. Blogging can also help businesses better communicate with their employees with time spent emailing and sending out frequent memos.

Small businesses that do not have much higher budget for their blogging are unable to afford those heavy budgets of link building. Thus Link Exchange and Link swapping programs are proving out to be best deal for these businesses without affecting their budget. Small business are today greatly benefiting from regular blogging and swapping links.

Read the rest of this entry

Installing WordPress For a New Blog

Clare — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 06:59:58 +0000

Step 1 – Find Your Host
If you have not already done so, then you need to decide on where you will be hosting your website. Look around for a website host that offers the services that you need at a price you are happy to pay. To install WordPress, you will need basic hosting along with a MySQL database, so look at the price of that. If you are creating more than 1 blog then maybe look at accounts that will host multiple websites, even reseller accounts.

If you are lucky you might choose a host that has one click WordPress installation. If so, then do the next step and the one click installation and forget the rest of the steps!

Read the rest of this entry

6 Easy Ways to Increase Blog Traffic

Clare — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 08:27:09 +0000

1. Great Blogging Software is a Good start

A blog CMS that suits your requirements can make all the difference. To further make an impression and stand out, I suggest having a custom platform – blog that can be completely tailored according to your users. For general cases, Blogger, WordPress, Typepad or Movable Type will suffice. However, try to keep the look and layout as simple as possible. Imagine, in detail, how you want archiving, sub-pages, commenting, user accounts, categorization, multiple feeds etc.
Read the rest of this entry

What Could a Blog Be Used For?

Clare — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 08:26:19 +0000

A blog can be your personal inspiration!
Are you training for a marathon or trying to lose weight? Do you often wander from your goals and need a helping hand steering yourself back on track? Then blogging in a community could be just what you want. Start a simple blog, using a free community blog, and start describing your goals and ongoing training and exercise regime. Thinking of missing a session or just feeling low after a bad session? Then write a new post and share it with others and hope to get some positive comments back. Read through other blogs in the community and share your thoughts with them.

Read the rest of this entry

Google Page Rank Checker

Clare — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 08:22:25 +0000

Page Rank is a method used by Google determine the importance and relevance of a website. It is a general representation of a website’s popularity that is primarily based on link popularity. The more ranking value a website has, the more traffic and higher positions the website gets in the search engines. Ranking is measured on a scale of 1 to 10 and is primarily determined by the list of links pointing to a given page.

Knowing your Google Page Rank is a definite plus for any internet marketer, webmaster, and Search Engine Specialists. The Google Ranking tool allows you to quickly check the ranking value of any webpage whether it be yours or your competitor’s page. Just simply enter the URL and the ranking value so that you will be able to check easily the ranking value of a website in just a click away.

Read the rest of this entry

Top 10 WordPress Terms You Should Know

Clare — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 08:18:57 +0000

My new WordPress clients are often confused about some of the terminology of WordPress. This makes it more difficult to communicate effectively with them about what they want from their WordPress sites and blog. So, I’ve decided to list the top 10 WordPress related terms everyone who uses WordPress should know.

Term 1: Themes

A Theme is a collection of files that create the visual look of your WordPress website or blog. Themes are kinda like ‘skins’ that you can easily download, install and start using on your site. Themes also can include some custom features to give you greater control over the presentation and functionality of your site. In general, only one Theme can be used at a time.

Read the rest of this entry

What is a Blog Used For?

Clare — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 08:15:42 +0000

Blogs are everywhere on the internet now-a-days and people are asking the question, what is a blog? And what is a blog used for?

WHAT IS A BLOG?
What is a blog? According to Merriam-Webster.com/dictionary/blog, a blog is defined as – A website that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer, also: the contents of such a site.

In other words, a blog is an active website. Typically for blogs to perform well, content needs to be added regularly (preferably daily for a better ranking in the search engines) in the form of post.

Read the rest of this entry

Do I Have to Be on Twitter?

Clare — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 08:19:37 +0000

If you want to build your personal brand, establish an online presence, and be in the right place at the right time for your job search, then you have to utilize social media. The big 3 social media sites are LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. While LinkedIn is focused more fully on business, and Facebook leans toward the social, Twitter lands somewhere in the middle. Nearly 75 million people visited Twitter in January 2010.

Twitter relies on “tweets,” which are posts of 140 characters or less. They’re short, but frequent. Life moves fast on Twitter. But then, the world moves fast and this is a way to keep up. And yes, while some tweets are huge time-wasters (some of us don’t want to know what someone else had for breakfast), there’s quite a bit of useful information you can gain from following the right people. It’s both a way to research and a way to network. You can follow companies, customers, suppliers, vendors, industry experts, and recruiters who post jobs-anyone who’s going to be useful for you. You’ll be able to keep up-to-the minute current. And then you can be useful yourself-pass along job leads, industry info, or the great book you just read. Any help or advice you can provide your contacts is a nice way to contribute.

Read the rest of this entry