Wordpress Addicts

A simple Wordpress plugin is available that will help keep readers interested in your site’s content. It’s called the Wordpress Related Posts plugin–another easy to use plugin that is well worth the simple effort of uploading it, activating it, and setting it up. This plugin automatically inserts a list of related posts within your site to the bottom of a post. If the plugin doesn’t find anything related, you can set it to display random posts or the most popular ones. The ability to exclude certain categories is there as well.

You can see this plugin in action at the end of this post and on other posts on my site. There are other related posts plugins available.

It’s simple and requires no effort from you, besides the initial (brief) setup. It helps keep readers interested in your content. After reading a post, they will be more inclined to click on a related link than on their browser’s back button.

You’ve got a lot of great articles on your site, but they’re from last year, or last month, or last week, and they’re no longer on the front page of your site. You don’t want visitors to miss them. What to do?

Well, one option is to install a Wordpress plugin that lists the most popular posts on your site and add this list to your front page. I like the Wordpress Popular Posts plugin by Hector Cabrera, which allows you to do some basic configuring of how you’d like the popular posts to be determined (total views, number of comments, or average daily views) and within a time range (all-time, today, last week, last month, or last year), as well as the number of posts you’d like to display.

Another option is to use a Wordpress theme that includes the option for one or more featured posts that stick on your front page. Some themes’ default featured post is the most recent post. Instead, you’re looking for a theme that allows you to pick and choose which posts you’d like to feature, and this is usually done via an established category called something on the lines of Featured or Featured Article, and of course will depend on that particular theme’s options.

Yet another option that I like a lot involves adding a snazzy archive page to the site. Although it won’t be shown on your home page, you can name the page something more click-worthy than “Archives”, such as “All Articles” or “See All Posts”. A typical archive page is handy, but the Snazzy Archives plugin really jazzes the page up. You can set it up to show article snippets and image previews–and we all know that readers love images. Setting up this plugin is easy. There are two different layouts to choose from, and once you’ve chosen your options, you simply add a new page to your site (named Archives, or All Articles, or whatever you’d like) and place [snazzy-archives] into the page body. That’s it! Play around with it a little in order to make it fit your content the way you’d like it to. The only possible problem with this plugin arises when your theme requires you to add your image to a post through a Custom Field. Unless there is another image in the post besides that one, the Archives page won’t show the image.

While Wordpress has a host of SEO-friendly features built right into it out of the box, there are a variety of tweaks that can help you to optimize your site for the search engines in order to drive more traffic to your site.

One such tweak that is often overlooked is Wordpress category descriptions. When you add a category to your Wordpress blog, a description is optional. Most themes don’t use the category description in a visible way, although some do. Even if your theme doesn’t, it’s a good idea to write a description of each category, using important keywords for your site.

Why? Take a look at the following.

As you can see, only one of our categories contains a description. While this description is not visible on the page, taking a look at the source code reveals the description:

It’s a small thing, and takes very little time, but it affords you the opportunity to add more relevant keywords to your page without overloading your readers’ senses.

Have you ever had your Wordpress blog hacked? If yes, then you will know what a complete nightmare it is to try and restore it, especially if your blog is old and established. If you’ve never had your blog hacked, then you are one of the lucky ones :).

There are plenty of actions you can take to ensure your blog is hack proof, and here are 5 of the simplest ones you can implement on your blog right now.

1. Make sure you have upgraded to the latest version of WordPress.

This may seem like an obvious one, but there are still many people I know who do not keep their version of WordPress up to date. Every time there are new WordPress versions available they include several security patches in them. These security patches are necessary to make sure your blog stays safe.

2. Take the meta information off your front page of your blog.

Many, many blogs I visit regularly still have their meta information in their sidebar or the footer. You know that little widget that shows the following options:

* Login

*Logout

*Wordpress

*xhtml

What you are basically doing by keeping this on the front of your blog is advertising your WordPress login page to your visitors.

3. Make sure your username and password are hard to guess.

The default Wordpress username is Admin, and many people just stick with this one. Although it’s easier for you to remember, unfortunately it’s also easier for the hackers to guess. You might also change your password every couple of weeks in your dashboard.

4. Install the WP security scan plugin.

Once installed, the WP security scan plugin will scan your Wordpress blog and find anything that makes your blog vulnerable. If it does find any weak spots in your blog installation, it will suggest what you can do to fix it.

5. Make sure you back up your blog.

Lastly and probably the most important step is ensuring that you have a back up copy of your blogs files and database. Then if your blog does get hacked, you will be able to have it back online in no time at all.

As you can see the 5 steps above are not rocket science, and some may even seem pretty obvious to you. But many many blogs I have encountered do not even take these five simple steps to ensure their blog is protected.

If you own more than one Wordpress blog, then you will know how difficult it can be to keep track of updating them all. You have to go to each blog address separately, then remember your username and password to login, before you can even begin to make a post or reply to your comments. This can be time consuming, especially if you own a lot of blogs.

Well fear not, because I have discovered a super handy addon for you Firefox users called Wordpress helper, that makes updating each of your blogs as easy as a couple of clicks.

Once installed the Wordpress helper Firefox addon will look like this at the bottom of your browser.

If you click on that little Wordpress icon a box should popup like this.

At the top of that little box you will see the words “current profile”. This shows what Wordpress blog you will be using at the current time. Underneath that you will see the word “profiles”. This is where you can set up your Wordpress blogs.

If you click on any of the options under that such as “write post”, “create page” or “dashboard”, it will take you straight to the blog that is set up in your current profile.

Before you can actually use these options as a shortcut to your blogs, you have to first set up your blog profiles. To do this hover you mouse over the profiles option, and a little box will appear to the side (see pic above). Click on settings and another box will appear like this:

In this box you can type all of the blogs addresses that you own. Once you have typed in all of your blog’s addresses, and clicked on save, you will be able to choose which blog you wish to be in your current profile, and then access that blog with a click of a button.

The Firefox Wordpress addon does so much more than just this. You should download it and check it out for yourself.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for giving a nice backlink where it’s due. For example if I’m using a free theme for my Wordpress blogs I will always keep the theme creators link as do-follow. I will also reward regular blog commentors with a nice do-follow link too. But it is really not necessary to make every single link in every blog post a do-follow one, this may end up hurting your own rankings.

Unfortunately unlike in the comment area, Wordpress automaticaly makes all links in your blog posts do-follow ones. So how do we make them no-follow? Read on and you will find out.

The first thing we need to do is download, unzip and uplad the TinyMCE Advanced plugin to our plugins folder. Then login to your Wordpress dashboard, click on plugins and activate it. Next click on  your “manage” tab at the top of your dashboard, and choose the “TinyMCE Advanced” option. You should then see a screen that looks like this:

On this page you will need to drag and drop the link button onto the bottom bar along with any other extra icons you want to use, then click on “save”. Now when you go to the “write new post” page you will see an extra toolbar with your added icons on it like this:

Now when you make a link in your dashboard and you want to make it no-follow you can follow these steps.

First write whatever words you want the link to look like, then highlight them. Click on your new link button that is in your extra toolbar. Type in the URL of your link like you would to make a regular link. Next click on the “advanced” tab and look to where it says “Relationship page to target”. This is automaticaly set to “not set”. Click on it and scroll down to the “no follow option and choose that. Then click on “insert”, and you have just made your link a no-follow one.

With the imminent release of the new version of Wordpress (version 2.7) I thought it would be fitting to show you just how you can update your blog quickly and easily. There is no need to even download the new software from Wordpress.org and there is certainly no need for uploading any new Wordpress files to your host. There is a handy plugin that can do all this work for you. This plugin is called Wordpress Automatic Upgrade.

Once you have downloaded this plugin to your desktop and uploaded it to your /plugins folder, you need to activate it in your Wordpress dashboard. Once activated, and if your blog indeed needs updating, you will see something that looks like this at the top of your Wordpress dashboard:

Did you notice the little red sign that is next to the “plugins” tab? Well this sign is telling me that I have 5 plugins that need updating, so this is what I need to update first.

Click on your “plugins” tab and you will be able to see exactly which ones need upgrading. Go through each plugin that needs upgrading and click on upgrade automatically on each one.

Once all your plugins are updated you can now upgrade your Wordpress installation. You first need to click on “Click here to automatically upgrade Wordpress to the latest version” that is at the top of your dashboard, and you should come to a page that looks like this (click to enlarge):

All you need to do is simply click your way through the upgrade process until it says “Congratulations!!! Your Wordpress version is up to date”, and you’re done.

This plugin also allows you to download a backup of your Wordpress blog before the actual upgrade takes place, so don’t forget to do this once prompted just in case anything goes wrong with the process.

If you are new to using Wordpress you may be wondering what I’m talking about when I mention widgets. Put simply, widgets are what you see over on the right in my sidebar. You can use as many and as little widgets as you like in your sidebar, and you can use them for whatever reason you want. With some Wordpress themes, widgets are not limited to only your sidebar–you may be able to put some at the top of your blog or in the footer.

Wordpress has many widgets already built into its software and they are simple and quick to add to your blog. To view which widgets are available and to add them to your blog you need to first login to your Wordpress dashboard, and then click on the design tab at the top. Then you need to choose “widgets”. You should then see a page that looks like this (click to enlarge):

On the left you can see the widgets you have available and on the right you can see the widgets that you have already added to your blog. To add a widget to your sidebar you simply have to choose the one you want and click on “add”. Be sure to save your changes, then take a look at your blog to see your widget in action.

Here is a run-down of the widgets that you will already have available on your standard Wordpress installation.

Pages - This puts a list of your Wordpress pages into your sidebar on your blog.

Calendar - This is a widget that puts a calender on to the front of your Wordpress blog, which shows the dates of your posts. Clicking on a “clickable” calendar date will show your readers the post(s) published on that date.

Archives - This shows a list of your older Wordpress posts usually separated into monthly categories.

Links - This shows a list of your Wordpress links, also known as a blogroll. You can add any links you like here. You might eventually swap links with other Wordpress users, link to other relevant sites you own or think your readers will find useful, or link out to affiliate products in order to collect a commission.

Meta - This widget puts your a box in your sidebar displaying your blog information such as login and logout.

Search - This widget adds a search box on your blog, allowing your visitors to search your content using keywords.

Recent posts - This adds a list on your blog’s sidebar of your most recent blog posts.

Tag cloud - This widget adds a cloud of all the tags you have used on your posts, with most frequently used tags bolded, enlarged, or otherwise highlighted. Your blog visitors can click on these tags and easily find the content that they are looking for.

Categories - This adds a list of your Wordpress categories to your sidebar.

Text - This widget is used to place anything you like into your sidebar. You can use plain text, or use html and other types of code here.

RSS - The RSS widget allows you to take someone else’s feed and add it to your sidebar. Of course there may be better plugins available that do a better job.

This is just a small list of some of the widgets that are automatically available for use on your blog. Certain plugins that you install may give you more widget options to choose from.

Have you ever wondered how high-profile bloggers get so many comments on their blog and you can’t seem to get a comment to save your life? I mean you have great content right? You have decent traffic, so why no comments? Here are my top 5 ways to attract more blog comments today.

1. Fresh up to date content - If your content is stale and out of date then don’t expect too many comments. However, if you constantly update your blog with fresh, informative content, you will stand a much better chance of securing readers’ comments. Try to post a few controversial posts from time to time to get your blog visitors talking.

2. Invite people to comment - At the end of every blog post why not invite your visitors to leave a comment. If your blog post is about which is better, real or fake Christmas trees, for example, you might end your post with a statement like, ” So what do you guys prefer, fake or real? I’d love to hear your views. “. You are more likely to get comments if you ask for them.

3. Interact with your blog commentators - When someone does leave a comment, be sure to leave a reply as promptly as you can, especially if they are asking you a specific question about your blog post. Even if they aren’t asking you a question, leave a simple thanks to them for their comment. This will encourage them to comment again and again. It will also invite other readers to leave comments.

4. Hold a competition - There is nothing quite like a good competition with top prizes to encourage more people to comment on your blog. This could also be a good way to get extra subscribers and backlinks too. Make it so that posting a comment is one of the requirements to enter the competition.

5. Give your commenters some link love - The links leading to your blog commenters’ website from their comments are automatically “no-follow” links. But there are several plugins which turn these into “do-follow”, which means you will be passing some link juice to their site. If you are worried about attracting spam, remember that your blog is automatically set up so that you need to approve comments before they are published.

I use a plugin called No Follow Free which gives you a nice link back to your site after you have made 3 or more comments. So feel free to comment away ;-), but please no spam.

You’ve heard the saying “the money is in the list”, right? Well it’s true. If you are trying to promote or sell anything, your list will be your most targeted customers. After all, they did sign up for more information from you in the first place. It’s not hard or expensive to build a list using your Wordpress blog. In fact, you can start building your list for free with this autoresponder plugin.

After you have downloaded the autoresponder plugin and uploaded it to your /plugins directory, you will need to activate it. Once activated you will notice an extra tab at the top of your Wordpress dashboard titled  ” [GWA Autoresponder]“. Click on it and you should see a screen like this (click to enlarge):

Take a look at the html code on this page because this is what we will need to put on your blog. Usually the best place to put this code is in the sidebar, above the fold, where it will get noticed. The next step is to copy and paste the code into a “text” widget in your sidebar.

Click on your “design ” tab at the top of your Wordpress dashboard and choose “widgets”. Scroll down until you find the text widget and click on “add”. Your text widget should now appear on the right hand side of your page. Click on “edit” and paste in your code, and then click “save changes”. Now when you visit your blog you will see something like this:

That sign up form looks pretty plain doesn’t it? So what we need to do next is give your blog visitors a reason to sign up to your mailing list. Why not give them something for free? A free report or ebook specific to your niche usually does the trick.

There are plenty of places online where you can find cheap or even free PLR ebooks that you can give away. All you need to do is google it. Once you have found a good ebook that you know your blog visitors will love, it’s time to add it to your autoresponder.

First thing you need to do is add the image of the ebook above the autoresponder and add some text, so your visitors know what they are going to get when they sign up to your list. To do this you need to upload the image in one of your posts by using the “add media” function. But instead of adding the image to your post you need to copy and paste the “link url” into your text widget above your autorsponder code. If you are unsure how to do this click on the screenshot below to see exactly how I added the image to the sidebar.

Now when we take a look at the front page of your blog you should see something like this:

Now you are able to start building your list with your Wordpress blog.