OVBlogger: Blogging and SEO

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So, I finally did it. People are always asking me:

“I don’t have Fantastico. How do I install a blog?”

or…

“I don’t know how to install plugins.”

or…

“Why do I need to ping my blog and where do I go?”

And other similar really new person blogging questions. Well… If you’re one of those folks, who wants to start a blog but doesn’t know where to begin, I’m yer gal.

Just go to http://EasyBlogTricks.com and sign up. I’ll send you 6 videos (so far), one a day for 6 days that will teach you all of those things.

Oh, yeah… The site is Free. Check it out and tell me what else you’d like to see.  I just hope it helps folks who want to use WordPress blogs for marketing, but just don’t know where to start.

Popularity: 25% [?]

It seems like every couple of weeks, we’re asked to upgrade our version of WordPress. I used to wait around for Fantastico to catch up, but one of my oldest online friends and blogging buddies, Mike Paetzold, said that it’s best to do it when there’s a security issue. Hmm… OF COURSE! So, I decided to learn that end of things, and not wait the two to three weeks that it takes Fantastico to catch up..

Know what I found?

It’s not hard at all.

And WordPress.org has a guide to help you.

Basically, these are the steps:

• Make a backup of your database. In cPanel, you go to MyPHP Admin, select your blog’s domain from the dropdown menu and go to export. There are some checkboxes, and WordPress.org shows you which ones you want to check on this page: http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups Not only that, but you get pictures to show you exactly what to do in Plesk, Direct Admin, Ensim, and vDeck, as well.

• The next step is to deactivate all of your plugins, just to be sure they won’t muck things up in case they aren’t compatible with the new version.

• Download the latest version of WordPress at http://wordpress.org and save it to your desktop.

• Extract all the files from the download and save them to your desktop.

• Pull out wp-config-sample file from the root folder (the main folder) and copy it to your desktop

• Open your .ftp program and copy the existing wp-config file from your database to your desktop.

• Copy your database name in the wp-config file and paste it into the wp-config-sample file in the appropriate place, do the same with your db_username and db_password.

• Save the wp-config-sample file as wp-config.php in the root of the new WordPress folder that you downloaded and extracted.

• In your .ftp program, delete the wp-admin and wp-includes folders in the existing blog

• Upload the new wp-admin and wp-includes folders from the new version of WordPress that is on your desktop. ***Don’t mess with the wp-content folder because that’s where your plugins and themes live. If you want to change the Kubrick theme or the Default WordPress theme to keep up with the newest version, do them individually. If you’re not using those, don’t worry too much about it.***

• Copy all the files in the new wp root directory (Control+A, and then deselect wp-admin, wp-includes, and wp-content folders) and upload and copy them over the existing files in your blog’s root directory. (I you open the main blog folder, you’ll see the wp-admin, wp-includes, and wp-content folders. Below them will be the files in question.)

• Go to http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin. You’ll probably have to log in again. But, you may also need to upgrade your database. Here’s what WordPress.org says about that:

“If a database upgrade is necessary at this point, WordPress will detect it and give you a link to a URL like http://example.com/wordpress/wp-admin/upgrade.php. Follow that link and follow the instructions. This will update your database to be compatible with the latest code. If you fail to do this step, your blog might look funny.”

• Reactivate your plugins

You should be good to go from there, but not to worry. If you screwed up somewhere, you have the backup that you did as your first step. You can just restore from there. Here are the instructions for restoring: http://codex.wordpress.org/Restoring_Your_Database_From_Backup

Still, upgrading is a pretty simple procedure when you break it down. In about 12 steps, you’re done. If you need more on this, go to: http://codex.wordpress.org/Upgrading_WordPress and let WordPress show you the way.

I’ve done this about a gazillion times now, and it’s not really as big as deal as you might think. I’ve never once had to go back to the database backup, and I”ll be you don’t either.

http://www.addsyou.com
username=MjAwOC0xMS0yOCAxOTowODoyMQ==

Popularity: 27% [?]

I have to admit that before I met Tellman Knudson, I was headed for nowhere.

Really.

I’d been online for about 3 years, trying really hard to make some kind of money. I had a couple of websites. I had a couple of products, one being totally lame-o and the other was great. Except, I had no one to sell the great one to. The bottom line was that I just didn’t know how internet marketing worked. I figured it was put a bunch of buttons and banners on your site and stick it into a traffic exchange.

Oh, yeah. That was the road to oblivion.

I really didn’t have any idea of how things needed to go down to be successful. I kept hearing that old adage, “The money’s in the list,” but did I listen?

No. I never really saw the benefit.

Well…

When Tellman found out that I wasn’t building a list…

Let’s say that I started to get serious about it about ten minutes after he found out. I finally got it. Jeez. And now that things are cranking, I’m smacking myself upside the head.

That was two + years ago, and I’ve learned SO much since that time that I’m very grateful. I knew hiring Tellman as my mentor was a good idea, but I never dreamed that I’d be working for him with all of the other amazing people at Overcome Everything.

Now, I have a list of more than 10,000 people, which isn’t huge, but it’s growing. I keep in constant contact with them, I’m making extra money every single month, and woot! I’m even winning prizes. Today, I won a Mino Flip Video Camera in the Traffic Geyser JV Contest. Not bad. I mean, I already have one, but as my friend and coworker, Mike Purvis, said, “You can never have too many.”

LOL When I grow up and am really moving, I’m looking for those Mac Book Airs, trips to Costa Rica, and big honkin’ Ferraris!

But the best thing about having a big list is that I have some really cool friends that came along with it. I mean, it’s not just about the money. Helping other folks to figure out this ONE piece to the puzzle and showing them different ways to do it is really cool for me. In fact, I have a Q&A session with my cool people tonight, and I always look forward to that. I love helping them to move forward and learn what they need to make money online, too. It rocks!

So, what’s my point?

If you’re not building a HUGE, MONSTER list of people you can relate to because they’re interested in the same things as you are, you’re wasting your time. Don’t chase every new program, every new system, just get frickin’ SERIOUS about list building. That should be your #1 priority.

With a list, everything falls into place.

Popularity: 26% [?]

So, a couple of days ago, I got an email newsletter from Steve Bass, who used to be a columnist for PCWorld, and whom I totally enjoy. I find the fact that they just booted him after umpteen years despicable. I always enjoyed reading his stuff.

But, I digress…

He has a piece in there about router hijacking. Apparently, if you haven’t changed your router password, like so many of us hadn’t … duh… your router is susceptible to attack. The issue starts with a trojan that allows hackers to hijack your router and then, everything that you send or receive goes through them first. Not good at all. I immediately remembered that my virus protection software had caught a trojan a week ago, but still, who wants to have their router hijacked, right?

I had been noticing a slowdown, too, so that really scared me. I thought that I’d been hijacked. Who knows? Maybe I was… And then again, read on…

I’ve learned a great deal since I got that router, but it just didn’t occur to me to change the password. At the time, I’m sure I wouldn’t have known how. I mean, I’m pretty techy, but the hardware stuff still alludes me somewhat.  Anyway, I figured, OK… I can do this.

So, got out my notes for the router, and logged in.

Come to find that some of my neighbors have been pirating signal from me. Oh, did I feel like a dummy!  No wonder I was losing speed. I was allowing the whole neighborhood to use my broadband. What a dope!

So, I quickly changed my password, and then, tried to allow only my computers.  There are 5 in this house. Not so easy. But I did it anyway. Thought I was pretty smart, too.

And then, I couldn’t get back in.

I forgot to add my main computer!

So, guess what? I had to reinstall my router and start all over again.

It’s fixed now, but if you have a router and haven’t changed the password or only allowed your computers, you’re in danger of not just slowing down but of having your identity stolen and a whole lot more.

Scary stuff, eh?

Popularity: 27% [?]

So, have you been watching the Nitro Videos… the XFactor videos?

Very cool.

They’re teaching 10 means of getting traffic to your website FASTER. Isn’t faster better? Sure it is!

What do these videos cost? An opt in whoopee. That’s it! You should jump right in and watch these videos, if you’re one of the hundreds of people  who have said to me, “How do I get more traffic?

Watch, and then, take action! All the education in the world won’t help you, if you don’t do something with it.

Here’s the first link:

http://easyseotricks.com/xfactor1

You’ll find yourself really loving this information. Learn from people like Willie Crawford, the late, great Gary Halbert, about the “Red-Headed Stepchild” of traffic that totally rocks and much, much more.

Yeah… I like the Nitro Marketing style. They always give you very cool information, and their products are rock solid.  Be sure to check this out. The free stuff is just amazing.

Popularity: 25% [?]

So, I installed a blog for Tellman and company a week or two ago called “Dear Tellman.” It’s pretty cool because you can go over there and ask Tellman any question you want, and every day he picks one and answers it on video.

Well… today’s was just too good not to share:

Gotta love it! Jim Morrison, one of our tech guys did all the cool backgrounds. How abou the roller coaster? That was awesome! And Torger. Is he adorable or what? I haven’t seen him for 18 months. Wow! He’s a big guy now.

Had to share. Go over to http://DearTellman.com and ask a question now! I can’t wait for the next video.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Today, one of my workmates needed to know page rank of blogs for a project she’s working on, but had no Google Toolbar or anything that would show it to her. Immediately, I asked her what browser she was using  and she told me Firefox. Yes!

Do you know how many very cool add-ons for Firefox there are? I mean, wow! You can go nuts. Here’s my list of must-have add-ons for SEO and social marketing in alphabetical order:

• Bending the Web Toolbar: I’ve told you about this one before, but it’s awesome! One toolbar gives you access to all the important Web 2.0 networking, bookmarking, content, and video sites. It also has a built-in radio. Pretty sweet. Love it, especially since it allowed me to add a calculator to my browser. I’m forever using those. Read more about Bending the Web from social marketing experts Jack Humphrey and Howie Schwartz here: http://www.jackhumphrey.com/fridaytrafficreport/make-money-while-bending-the-web/

• Bookmark Duplicate Detector: Oh, yeah… We’ve all done it, right? We think we need to save a site, and end up with a hundred bookmarks that we just keep adding. Nope! Not with this tool. It keeps my bookmarks unique and I love it.

• Clipmarks: Save the stuff you enjoy and add it to your online account. Clip it! Or, add it to your blog or whatever. Neat.

• ColorZilla: click the icon and get the hexcodes for any color you rest your mouse on. I also like a little program called “Pixie” for this, which you can get at http://nattyware.com free. It’s great for getting matching color codes when you’re not using a browser.

• Fast Dial: Allows you to add icons for all the sites you visit regularly. No more searching, even in neat bookmarks. Just click and you’re there.

• Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer: This is awesome if you have more than one computer. Foxmarks stores all your bookmarks and when you log in to your other computer with Foxmarks installed, you’re golden. All your bookmarks are always up-to-date.

• IE Tab: Switch between Firefox and Internet Explorer interfaces with the click of a mouse. This is great if you need to see web pages in both browsers or if a site just doesn’t work with Firefox. You don’t have to open the other browser, just click!

• Rank Checker from SEOBook.com Let’s say it’s SEOElite lite. You can check the rank of any site in Google, Yahoo, and Live right from your browser.

• Amason S3Fox: It’s like .ftp for Amazon S3. All you have to do to access all your S3 files is click on the icon in your browser.

• Search Status: Give you Google Page Rank and Alexa Ranking plus a bunch of other stuff. Let’s you see keyword density of pages, highlight no follow links, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

• SEOQuake: I love this one. You get this tiny toolbar that appears every time you open a web page. It’s transparent and really unobtrusive, until you open it. BAM! You have Google page rank, the number of pages indexed, the number of backlinks, and similar info for Yahoo and Live. You can also access Whois, SEODigger, and a whole load of info in a heartbeat. This is totally cool.

• Tab Mix Plus: Lets you reorder your tabs, have tabs open when you click on links, rather than leaving pages, and you can really customize this one any way you want. It’s really great, too. Worth the effort to get it and plug it in.

• TwitterFox: I know, I know… You can really customize TweetDeck so much better, but TwitterFox just sits open on my browser all day. I can see when tweets come in immediately and whether or not it’s something I might want to check out or reply to. I mean, I’m so busy that I really don’t have much time for Twitter. If I had to use Tweet Deck or another stand alone program, I doubt that I’d be able to bother with it at all. If you’re as busy as me, you might enjoy this add-on.

I have a few others that aren’t worth mentioning, but these are my absolute faves. Try them. You’ll be amazed at what you can get one free and very cool browser to do for you.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Wow! There’s a very cool article in the Web Success Diva’s blog today about…

Social marketing.

First she takes you on a tour, and explains the power of Social Networking. Not all of this is obvious. I mean, you and I know that social media is important for getting yourself out there with a target audience. Bang! Big boost for your brand, right?

But did you think about how cool social marketing is for SEO?  If you search for me right now, the first two entries are this blog and My Blog Log. My videos are on that page, including a horrible audition I did last year for Thor Schrock for his Top Affiliate Challenge. That was a kicking and screaming event. It was the end of a long day and it’s just impossible to say no to Thor, but I digress…

Aside from my own sites, there’s LinkedIn, GoodReads, Facebook, and on and on… all social media sites. Anyone who wants to know more about my brand, which is me and blogging, can do that easily.

The Diva also shows you how to use social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Plaxo. And tells you how to find even more stuff specific to niche marketing. You really should go over and read her post. It’s a winner!

Read Social Networking Taken to the Next Level Here.  And tell her Pat sent you.

Popularity: 33% [?]

So, I used Blog Talk Monitor to create this post, and wow! I found some very cool stuff for you to try. Well… one site you’ll have to wait a while for, but it WILL be awesomely cool when it “arrives.”

But first things first… I found an article on Blogger Breath entitled, “50 Blog Tools to Help You Blogging.” Well, I’m all for that, right?

I looked at all 50 tools, and of those, I found a bunch of cool Web 2.0 sites that you’ll love. Three of them were really, really cool.

The first one is DomainScour.com where you can plug in a keyword for your niche and it comes back with all the available domains. It also gives you some creative domain hacks like Blog.ging.com. Yeah, not good for biz, but interesting.

However, DomainScour is still in alpha and it didn’t work for me, but I’ll go back. Do you know how hard it is to come up with a blogging domain? Me & Tellman sat on the phone for about an hour trying to come up with something cool for about an hour one Saturday last year and bupkiss. Every cool domain we came up with was taken. I finally figured Blogging4Boomers.com would be a good one; he disagreed, and there you have it. I agree with Tellman most of the time, of course, but it was just impossible to come up with something that hadn’t already been taken. So, when Domain Scour gets it together, it will be a very useful service.

The next site I liked was GenFavIcon.com which takes any image and turns it into a Favicon. Kewl. I think I’ll change mine. Since this was so easy to do. Very cool.

And finally, the most indubitably cool site is WebsiteGrader from the same people that give you TwitterGrader . This blog got a 95.4, though the .4 doesn’t show in my sidebar. Still, not bad, eh?

I was thrilled to find that I have 1,763 inbound links. And this particular blog is only a bit over a year old. Yes!  It also gives you on-page SEO evaluation and shows you how you’re doing in the blogosphere. Interesting stuff.

The only problem is that some recommendations for improving my blog were things I can’t control, but others, I certainly can, which will help me in the SERPs. Very, very cool.

My advice? Wait for DomainScour, get yourself a cool favicon and see how your site ranks. It certainly can’t hurt, right? And imagine how it might help.

Not too shabby, huh? I love Web 2.0! It’s the most fun I have online.

If you want to see a whole bunch more cool Web 2.0 stuff, just go to http://GotoWeb20.com and have fun!

Popularity: 33% [?]

Wow… Another great piece of software from social marketing expert, Jack Humphrey. And it’s free!

Get it here: http://budurl.com/vxtu

It gives you all kinds of cool information. You can use it just to find out what others are doing in your niche, or what I want to use it for is creating content. I mean, writing in a blog every day really isn’t that hard when you check out what’s going on around you.

You don’t have to come up with stuff on your own every single day, you know. If you’re one of my loyal and totally cool readers, you’ll know that I often write about other people, things going on around the Web or like this post, some useful tool that I’ve found and want to share with you.

Blog Talk Monitor runs your searches as often as you want it to from every five minutes to every 24 hours. You select the topic, plug in some keywords and this little program does the rest. It’s sweet!

The only issue for me was that my Microsoft .NET framework wasn’t up to date, so I had to go and download .NET 3.5 and then the .NET 3.5 SP1. Gotta have those service packs. So, that took a bit of time, but not a big deal really.  You can go to: http://budurl.com/gb2p to download .NET 3.5 and if you scroll down the page, the service pack, too.

So, now I have my services up to date and Blog Talk Monitor!

Oh, and you can monitor the same terms in Google Blogs, Google News, Technorati or RSS. Sweet!

What can I say, but again, “Thanks, Jack!”  (Now you know why I promote his stuff. Always, always useful.)

Popularity: 22% [?]