The SEO News Blog from Pat Marcello

If you have questions about blogging that you’d like answers for, ask away!

1. Rating: +1

   

   Pat, This is a really cool plug-in for wordpress. How does it work? Brian

   You can add a tag to any post or page. Pretty sweet, eh?
   You can get it at: http://knowledgeconstructs.com/wordpress-plugins/faq-tastic/

   --Pat

2. Rating: +0

   

   what is blogging? reply with example how people earn with blogging tell bout blog upgradation

   Blogging is a way to communicate with your audience. For example, if your niche is golf, it's a way to communicate with other bloggers. You just write about your niche and if they like what you write about, they subscribe to your blog and perhaps, buy whatever it is you're offering. However, you should never sell in a blog. You just recommend.

   People earn in several different ways. If you notice the banners in my sidebar, they are affiliate programs that I belong to. When someone joins one of them because of my banner, I get commissions from their membership fees each month. You'll also notice the links that say "My partners." Those are paid links. Google doesn't like them, but oh well. They seem to have taken that penalty off unless you really go nuts with it. Those are just some of the ways you can make money, but if you are particularly good at this, you'll also attract sponsors that will ask to place ads.

   The best thing to do with your blog is to provide good information. When you do that, and link back to your money site, people will visit there. Since you have built a certain amount of trust in them, there's a very good chance that they will buy your product or join your membership site. My membership site is "Blogging4Boomers.com" and I don't push it in people's faces, but they come and subscribe because they want to learn from me.

   Blog upgrading is simple, if you have cPanel hosting with Fantastico. You just go in and click the button beside your blog listing and voila! You're upgraded.

   If you don't have fantastico, you'll need to download the new version and follow the instructions on the site for upgrading. It's not extremely difficult, if you're techy. If not, go to eLance.com and you can hire someone to do it for you, very inexpensively.

3. Rating: +0

   

   Hi Pat, I missed your qna call last wk so I wasn't able to ask this burning question>>>Can you explain how to best use tags on a Wordpress blog? I have three tag options on my blog...technorati tags in the post, wordpress tags and All in One SEO tags. 1. SEO tags, title and description should be different from the other two, right? 2. If keywords are already in title, should they also be tags? Can I tag too much? 3. Should I also bold the keywords in my blog post? 4. Can you give a simple example of how a post could be tagged using the three tag tools so I can get a handle on the difference? Are the qna recordings still available without password? Thanks for your help. Dean Geyer

   Hi, Dean, Sorry you missed the call, and no, you have to be a member of Blogging4Boomers. When you sign up you'll see that the call is in the member area, with the Power Point presentation I gave on Monday evening.

   Here are your answers:

   1. Well, yes. But I'm not sure I understand the question. Technorati tags are like categories. SEO tags are like keywords, right? They can be the same. The title would be different and the description should be plain English, using your keyword. (I wouldn't try to optimize for more than one at a time. When you concentrate your effort, you'll see your site ranking more quickly.)

   2. Yes and no. You can't tag too much.

   3. It doesn't hurt to bold or italicize a keyword. It tells spiders that the word is important.

   4. Let's say your keyword is golf. You would tag your golf club review post: "golf, golf equipment, golf supplies" or whatever it is your post is about. That works for WP tags, too. You can also use these as keywords. Your title might be "Kickin' Golf Club." And your description would be: "This golf club will really help your swing and lower your score." (I'm not a golfer. Can you tell?)

   Hope that helps!

   --Pat

   P. S. Love to have you on the team, Dean! Come on over and sign up.

4. Rating: +0

   

   Hi, I am new but so new b'cos I keep referring different blogs, plugins, themes, how to blog etc. but still not sure. I have no blog but I have hosting a/c in ipower.com I want to have WP blog with my own domain and the first WP blog i need for my PTC programs. I have chosen a Theme and domain and hosting a/c is already with me. My questions are: 01. How to host new WP blog in ipower in my own domain. Should I sign WP first, then chose theme and upload to WP and write few posts and then host in ipower with my own domain or straight away upload new theme to hosting a/c or else I am in fix. 02. Also I need static home page static. If some body finds my blog or types www.xyz.com, one sees the home page first. And If I write new post it goes to other pages (with links in home page) b'cos I don't want the home page with any other new things. I want it to be only having PTC programs/banners but I can delete and add new PTC programs whenever I need. I think this is enough for the time being and I will be very grateful to you if answered in detail or step by step so that I understand fully and easily keeping in view that I am new to blogging. Thanks dear. All the best to you. RAVINDER KUMAR RAWAT

   Hi Ravinder,

   Not sure what kind of hosting ipower.com is. If it's cPanel, you can install a blog quickly and easily through Fantastico or Elefante. If not, you need to have Linux hosting with MySQL databases. iPower doesn't appear to be Linux based, however. All I'm seeing is Windows. You need better hosting. HostGator is what I use and they charge only $9.95 mo. for a pretty powerful account. It has Fantastico, and your blog could be installed in about 5 minutes.

   2. WordPress has a plugin that will allow you to keep a static homepage. It's a "sticky" post. Just search for that at http://WordPress.org/extend. Instructions for installing plugins at http://EasyBlogTricks.com

5. Rating: +0

   

   You can add a blog and music and your favorite movies?

   Not quite sure what you mean... Of course you can blog about your favorite movies. That would be fun, at least to me. I have a gold card at Blockbuster. :-) If you can be a bit more specific, I'll be happy to answer!

   --Pat

6. Rating: +0

   

   What is blogging?Is blogging a secure one?

   If you don't know what blogging is, you're probably very new online, eh? :-) Blogging is writing in what's actually called a weblog is what I do in OVBlogger. I write about things that are germane to Blogging, SEO, and Internet marketing. If you're in the golf niche, you can write about golf, but then again, some people have blogs and just keep them as personal journals.

   Blog software has holes, just like anything else. The good thing about WordPress is that they are constantly improving the software and are quick to offer upgrades when holes appear. It's pretty safe, but my stuff has been hacked before and the database deleted from my server. That wasn't cool. I had about 1.5 years of content by that time.

   Be sure to back things up and you'll be OK. A great WordPress plugin for this is WP-Database Backup, and you can get it at http://wordpress.org/extend or search for it from your Plugins/Add new tab in your blog.

   Hope that helps.

   -- Pat

7. Rating: +0

   

   Hi Pat, The new Wordpress plugin "Related Websites" requires php5 and cURL. Is there some way I can find out if my host and/or installation of Wordpress supports cURL? cUrl isn't something I'm familiar with. Judi

   Hi Judi,

   If you go into your hosting admin panel, it might be there. If you're using Host Gator, you can scroll all the way to the bottom of your dashboard, and click on "Program Versions." All hosting companies will have some variation of this, though.

   If you can find it, just call 'em up, and ask! :-)

   Pat