Blogging

Participate In A Forum Within Your Niche

V7network LogoProblogger is doing their blogging tips for the month of August and the tip for August 3rd centered around joining and then participating in forums that are part of your niche. Taking this tip to heart, I typed a search string into Google and a few minutes later, I discovered the v7n Webmaster Forum. This forum contains topics that I’m interested in such as SEO, Blogging, Marketing, Graphic design, ect. Because these topics are directly related to the content that I post regularly on this site, participating in this forum should be a piece of cake.

I’m participating in a forum not only for the extra boost in traffic to this site, but also to create new relationships. Relationships are one of the most powerful tools a blogger can posses as in most times, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Using this forum, I can gain a new level of knowledge of the topics I discuss which will help me out when I am suffering from writers block. The forum also provides me an avenue of sharing information that I have learned which is one way in which I can give back to the community.

So do yourself a favor. Look for a forum that relates to what you blog about and participate in it. In the long run, you’ll be glad you did.

If you happen to join this same forum, be sure to look me up as my handle is Jeffro2pt0.

My Second Co-Hosted Talkcast On Talkshoe

http://www.talkshoe.comIt turns out that Pete’s apprentice has quit the program. I think the thoughts of blogging, twitter and everything else just became too much to wrap his head around.

Since the apprentice was no longer going to be on the show, I ended up co-hosting another podcast with Pete most commonly known as xyour925job. In this latest episode, we discussed SEO, I gave an audio review of 10Links.net and shared my user experience. We then discussed Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce and why they are useful services that should be used by every blogger.

I told Pete how well my site has been doing, despite being new. I talked about a few of the strategies I have used so far and how I plan on gaining traffic in the future. At the very end of the show I mentioned that the podcastawards were taking votes for the best podcasts. The show is about an hour long. We didn’t have any callers or any chatters for that matter in this episode which means Pete and I had to try and do the show without tanking for 60 minutes. Hopefully, I provided some good information for you to use. I wouldn’t mind some critique as I am thinking about doing my own show. Any tips or words of encouragement would be appreciated.

To listen to the latest episode of the Internet Marketing And SEO Tips Podcast click the following link to download the mp3 file.

Don’t Blog As Administrator

Display Name As Seen In WordPress

Donncha has posted a WordPress blogging tip which in my opinion, should be common sense by now. Don’t blog as administrator or at least don’t let your display name show up on your blog as administrator. Not only does it send a red flag to potential hackers but it also looks pretty unprofessional too see a bunch of posts on a blog posted by administrator.

To alleviate this problem, log in to your WordPress admin panel and click on USERS. Edit your usernames profile and change the display name to something besides administrator, for example, your real name.

Don’t Blog As Administrator

Display Name As Seen In WordPress

Donncha has posted a WordPress blogging tip which in my opinion, should be common sense by now. Don’t blog as administrator or at least don’t let your display name show up on your blog as administrator. Not only does it send a red flag to potential hackers but it also looks pretty unprofessional too see a bunch of posts on a blog posted by administrator.

To alleviate this problem, log in to your WordPress admin panel and click on USERS. Edit your usernames profile and change the display name to something besides administrator, for example, your real name.

Target Equals Blank Or No

Browsing around the web, I came across a post on Problogger.net which discusses a topic that I have been wondering about for quite some time. That is, Should links open in a new window or not? The question is an interesting one and after tallying up the totals, Problogger discovered that about %54 of their commentary preferred links to open in new windows versus the %46 that believes users should be able to decide as to what sort of behavior the link performs.

Over the years, I have been trained to always implement the target=”blank” component of a link as it allowed browsers to visit that page without having to leave my own. I generally don’t use the target statement if the link is for something within the same site. After reading that post and the associated commentary, I am beginning to rethink my linking strategy.

Considering IE 7, Opera and Firefox, not sure about Safari all support tabbed browsing, I would have to think that surfers are using tabs more than they are using new/seperate windows. So if I were to place the target attribute into a link, chances are, that link will open up in a new tab vs a new window but I don’t have any stats to back this statement up, it’s only my opinion.

Because of the advent of tabs, I think I will still maintain my linking strategy. If the link is for something within the site, it shouldn’t open in a new tab or new window. However, if the link is to some place other than my own site, I am going to force that link to open in a new window/tab.

SEO At Word Camp

Word Camp is over with for 2007 but during the conference, one of the talking points of discussion revolved around SEO. Some of the tips that were highlighted during this meeting include:

Don’t put blog at root of domain

  • What if you want something besides a blog?
  • People link to a main pageand a main blog page so you get extra links

Name Directory Blog (not wordpress)

  • Case you change
  • If you upgrade.

SEO Tips

various keyword tools: AdWords, Overture/Yahoo

Use a variant of the word in post slug verses title.

use categories that are good keywords

  • dashes are best
  • next best is underscores
  • no spaces are worst
  1. Keep it simple, and search engines will like it.
  2. Don’t change your site, its not worth the hassle.
  3. Use alt tags on your images, 3-4 relevant words
  4. Don’t forget image search and video search.
  5. Full sentence verses a few words? the scoring algorithms don’t mind unless it actually notices the spam.
  6. Question marks or Hashmarks? They get truncated.

Check out all of the other great tips that were covered at the conference by visiting the WordCamp Info Blog.

Everyday Weekender

This post is a bit off topic but I wanted to let everyone know about a blog I discovered called Everyday Weekender. Everyday Weekender is a blog devoted to those who love to celebrate the weekend. Those who work regular 9-5 jobs will appreciate the content spread amongst this site which consists of cottage living, food, and do it yourself activities which are a ton of fun. While your at your cubicle, at least take a visit to this blog to stare at the header image which is as relaxing as can be. If your interested in owning a cottage or want to know more about cottage style living, this is the blog for you. On a side note, if you would like to increase your page rank, please visit this link

The WordCamp Report

The WordCamp Report

If you are a WordPress user, you are definitely going to want to bookmark this site. The WordCamp Report is specifically reporting on everything going on at WordCamp. I can’t attend because I live in Ohio but the WordCamp Report blog should keep me informed as if I were there. Special thanks to the blogs authors, Patrick Havens and Charles Stricklin for keeping those who couldn’t attend up to date.

The Global Geek Podcast Returns

The Global Geek Podcast

My favorite podcast, better known as The Global Geek Podcast is back in action. TGGP consists of two guys in two completely different locations in the world getting together once a week to bring listeners jammed pack shows which are always filled with useful information.

These guys cover everything tech, from Web2.0 blogging, the internet, to product reviews and software, even what they did on the week-end. The Global Geek Podcast sits on it’s own with the quirky attitudes and pithy, humour between the hosts and their content!

Out of the 80 podcasts that I am subscribed to in Itunes, this one is near the top of my list, not only in terms of quality but in the amount of useful information that is presented. The usual show consists of tech news, new applications, new sites and services, and then reader feedback. Every now and then, Dr Evil makes an appearance. You’ll need to listen to a few back episodes to understand who Dr. Evil is.

The language used in the show may be a barrier for some folks but honestly, it’s what makes it funny. Listening to Dave go off on a tangent either on his own, or by keeping Tim or Knightwise in line is hilarious. At any rate, I wanted to commend these two guys for putting on a stellar show every week. It’s tough work, but I have to say the results of each show speak for themselves in terms of the quality and work put into each episode.

I highly suggest you subscribe to The Global Geek Podcast and at least listen to a few episodes. I think you’ll be glad you did. By the way Dave, congratulations on the move and to Tim on getting a new job.

Click here to subscribe to The Global Geek Podcast