Galleries

WordPress is getting more robust with every release, yet for some reason, there’s still no great way to do Galleries natively. Fear not, we have found that Nextgen and CataBlog will do the job well enough!

Worpress and Search Engine Optimization

When it comes to SEO, there are absolutely no open source platforms that I’ve seen that do as superb of a job providing tools and automating the process. Keys to wordpress SEO include meta control, monitoring, links and social networking. Here are the best tools for the job:

WordPress Stats Plugin

The WP Stats is actually two essential plugins, one by the creators of WP and the other as a dashboard tool to take analytics through the roof. The WP stats plugin lets you monitor social traffic, alexa, compete, and far more — all enabled and monitored without leaving your admin!

WordPress SEO by Yoast

For years, i used the All in one SEO plugin, and even gave headspace a shot but Yoast knocked them both out of the water for me. The yoast plugin boasts some great tools to help you generate meta content, plus looks and works the way a good WP plugin should.

SEO Smart Links

Internal site links are a huge usability and SEO boost, and nothing helps you build these links better than this plugin. I usually dump in a keyword list that I’ve built with Google’s Keyword tool and over time I aim to write articles and link them to those keywords.

Worpress SEO requires a Sitemap

Don’t let the name fool you, Google SEO sitemap covers all the major search engines and notifies them automatically whenever you publish new content. Don’t skip this one, a sitemap is a must in helping a search engine index your site, and is even more crucial for frequent bloggers.

Faster page loads in WordPress

We all want more cache don’t we? WP Super Cache speeds up your site significantly making your pages load faster, which is favorable for both man and machine! Follow that with Smush.it, Database Optimization and Minification and you’re looking at a 20-30% faster site on average (estimated from personal use and client sites).

Get Social with WordPress

Social networking is huge and most blogs completely fail to engage their audience (guilty), part of the problem is obviously content but the other part is often the tools and approach. If your website is large and well known (or has the capacity to be) why not extend WordPress with BuddyPress and launch your own social network? Or keep it simple and drop in Socialize widgets and Disqus Comments so that your users can engage using existing social platforms.

WordPress Utilities you can’t Live Without

There are a TON of utilities that I would love to talk about, but for brevity I will only mention Scissors and WP DB Backup. Scissors lets you crop and rotate media which is something I hope wordpress will include in its core. WP Backup makes a data backup for you automatically and emails it to you, allowing you to have a backup outside of your host.

I hope these plugins help, and if you feel I missed one that HAS to be on the list, just mention it in the comments below and I’ll argue about it a bit

The completed list:

• Learn: skateboard, guitar, tattoo
• Program: PHP, C++, front-end, Ruby
• Develop: mobile app, websites, web app, crack, JS based app
• Start: a business
• Buy: a nice camera, a soda from an old vending machine
• Read: Screwtape Letters, Bible
• Climb: 14′ers in Colorado, bouldering, top rope, hike a mountain
• Travel: Canada, Colorado, California
• Tattoo: needle, razor, coil gun
• Family: have kids

• Yet to be accomplished

  • Develop: a large desktop app, a robust keygen
  • Catch: scorpion, sun spider, black widow, all the snakes in CO/MI
  • Start: a band
  • Skate: big spin, spine transfer, ollie down 6+ stairs
  • Program: Perl, Python, .NET, Java, FORTRAN
  • Become: a certified minister, a millionaire
  • Travel: kayak trip, Amazon, overseas, Mexico
  • Family: adopt kids, grow old with my wife
  • Buy: a gorgeous house with lots of property, a sword
  • Live: Florida, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico
  • Tattoo: bone and hammer, pneumatic gun
  • Learn: to airbrush
  • Build: a house, my own car, custom computer, flip a house
  • Speak: Spanish, Latin, Japanese
  • Own: a Boa Constrictor
  • Read: every Stephen King book
  • Lead: youth or young adult ministry
  • Try: skydiving, kite boarding, mountain boarding, bmx
  ]]> http://thinkclay.com/news/setting-goals-bucket-list/feed 9 http://thinkclay.com/news/how-to-start-a-successful-blog http://thinkclay.com/news/how-to-start-a-successful-blog#comments Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:35:40 +0000 Clay McIlrath http://thinkclay.com/?p=1275 It’s been a year and a half since i started this blog, and it’s amazing to look at how far I’ve come. This blog started out as a playground, where my best designs were wallpapers and my experience with development was limited to mostly front-end. In those days, I was proud of my average of 30-40 hits per day, and now I’m surprised if my traffic falls below 250 in a single day. The point I’m coming to is this.. blogging takes time, effort and consistency all of which make a three-legged stool. The stool cannot stand if all three legs aren’t relatively even, and as a tribute to the wisdom and knowledge I’ve retained from the past year; I’d like to share some key points on starting/maintaining a successful blog.

  Doing your time

  Regardless of having one writer or multiple writers for a blog, it’s going to take a hefty amount of effort and time to build up your blogs content and traffic. One of the areas I attribute a lot of the success of this blog to is the time dedication I’ve had. I dropped other hobbies like playing guitar and watching TV to start blogging and reading more. This has been the key to my growth as a person and having one leg of my stool strong as steel. To make sure you put in the right amount of time, trying pacing yourself, or joining in a group like project 52, where you dedicate to writing one post per week. Just remember one important rule.. too much will cause readers to flee and too little will fail to attract them. I think once a week is a good frequency for a new blog.

  Putting in the effort

  You may be thinking, “isn’t putting in time the same as putting in effort?” .. and the answer is NO. Putting in effort usually means research, capital, and marketing. To run a successful blog, you need a few ingredients to help you along the way such as a professional design, an understanding of SEO, and the right marketing tools such as twitter and facebook. Putting in effort is somewhat misleading, because some of the effort is external, but it all comes back to you. Any money or learning you put into your blog is an effort that will help you keep this leg balanced. As I mentioned with time.. a weekly schedule to teach yourself something new will really help you along.

  Remaining Consistent

  I see two very common mistakes relating to consistency:

  Scenario A involves traffic, a blogger (whether new or veteran) sees the blog as a failure because traffic is low and doesn’t seem to be climbing. The worst thing you could do in Scenario A is give up on it. Think of a blog as real estate or stock.. it’s value may fluctuate significantly, but if you look at the course and direction of the internet as a whole, it’s value is always increasing. If you look at the short term, you’ll see failure, but dedication and consistency will almost always prove successful (combine that with a good exit strategy and you have yourself a business plan).

  Hype is like dessert: most of the time it’s incredible, but too much will make you sick

  Scenario B involves lack of time or effort. Yes, I’m aware I’ve already mentioned these two points, but bare with me. If you’re putting a lot of time into your blog and it’s not growing you may be focusing on the wrong areas. I see lots of blog focus on social media or spend loads of money on advertising, and they feel highly successful because they see their numbers jump.. for a while. The problem is people get bored with hype, it’s like dessert: really great, but too much or too often will make you sick of it. People need meat and potatoes in their diet. Many loyal readers will favor quality over quantity. My site for example rivals others that have 300+ posts and write daily.. yet it only has around 60 posts.

  Put it all together

  The last piece is a not-so-secret ingredient, and doesn’t need a paragraph to explain.. you have to be passionate about what you share. Blogs can definitely be profitable, but if you content doesn’t communicate passion and true interest, people aren’t going to be interested in what you have to say. Write to share about what you love, not to make money. Once you’ve built up a successful blog of loyal readers, then try and strategize the financial successes. I’m sure other bloggers would tell you differently, but I’m telling you from my experience that heart has more value than profits. If you enjoy what you do, there’s no price that can replace that.

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