Tag: "blogging"
Watch the best WordPress Plugins in Action Before you Install Them on Your Blogsite!
Are you wasting time researching and playing with WordPress plugins and getting no where fast?
Do you avoid adding new WordPress plugins to your site because you are not sure what it is they do exactly and you are afraid to add them to your live site?
Wouldn’t it be great if you could watch a full plugin review of WordPress plugins hand picked by Plugin-Aholic Sandra De Freitas, including…
- a demonstration of what the plugin does
- what benefits it offers to your business and your users
- how to install it
- how to configure it
- a place to ask your questions about the plugins
What if you could view the plugin videos on your computer but also on your mobile devices such as your iPhone and iPad?
Sound good? Is it the answer to your dreams?
For only $4.95 a month, it can be yours! 
Check it out at http://wpblogsites.com/playground/
Spice up Your Blogs with 6 Different Blogging Formats
Blogging offers so many great rewards. A chance to get your expertise out there and create your legacy. A chance to educate your market. A great way to get Google to notice your blog and get you higher up in Google rankings. A way to give your market a taste of your style, knowledge, skills and personality so that they can get to know, like, trust you and ultimately buy from you.
Although the list of benefits can reach from here to the moon we sometimes slack on our commitment to blogging. Why is that? Are we too busy? Have we run out of ideas? Or have we just become bored of the blogging process?
For me, I know that writing is not my favourite way to create a blog post but for some odd reason it’s been the ONLY way I have blogged for years! Bad me. I know that I can pump out blog posts faster and more often if I created video blog posts, which I will be a ton this year.
Let’s look at a few more ways to spice up your blog posts and pump out more blog posts more often. See which one resonates with you and get going.
- Video- Like I just mentioned video blog posts can be really easy to create if you have all the tools ready to go and you aren’t shy.Start by getting comfortable with a web cam and creating a few test videos. Most laptops come with web cams that are sufficient for blogging. You don’t need a pricey studio to get going.Host your videos on YouTube.com or Vimeo.com. YouTube is owned by Google therefor YouTube videos show up on Google’s search results.
If you’d like to share a PowerPoint presentation or even your desktop in your video you can use ScreenFlow (for Mac) and Camtasia (for PC and Mac) to record your desktop.
Once your video is uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo embed the video into a blog post.
- Web TV – Create a channel on LiveStream.com and record a “TV” show in front of a live audience or with no audience. You can then take your LiveStream recording and embed the video into a blog post. I did just this for my last WPBlogsites TV show “Episode #2: What to do With Your Content and Course Material To Fatten Up Your Wallet“.
- Audio – Would you rather not appear on a video at all but don’t mind your voice to be recorded? Create an audio recording and upload it to AudioAcrobat.com, or record the audio using one of Audio Acrobat’s many recording options, then embed the player html code into a blog post. Use Audio Acrobat to publish your podcasts to many podcast directories.
- Images – Adding images to your blog posts makes them visually pleasing for your reader. If you can grab a nice image from istockphoto.com or take a photograph from your smart phone and upload it to your blog with a WordPress App.
- MindMaps - Use a mindmap to present your ideas, plan out an event, plan your year etc then export it as a jpg and add that to your blog post. There are a ton of mindmapping software options available. If you are just getting started try “Free Mind” for Mac and PCs.
- Cartoons – If you are a great drawer, or know someone who is, using cartoons in your blog posts is very unique! Past “Fat Blogsite Profits” participant Sue Johnstonhas been doing this on her blog and it looks amazing. It gives her an edge over her competition and allows her to express her creative side.All you need to do is draw your cartoon on a piece of paper, scan it and add the scanned image to a new blog post.
So which of the above 6 different blogging formats do you like the most? Which ones have you already tried? Which ones excite you and which ones bore you? Leave your replies in the comment box for me. Thanks!
By the way, I know this blog post contained only text. My future blog posts will contain video and maybe even some drawings! I’ll go dig out my crayola markers now!
Slug, a funny name for a useful tool
Slug is a funny name isn’t it? It always makes me smile. A slug is another neat WordPress tool for controlling the permalink (website address) of your blog posts. Here’s how it works in our example: http://wpblogsites.com/wordpress-
blogsite/dont-forget-that-blog-post-idea/
The section in bold is what’s called the slug, and you can change it to anything you like. If you don’t like the website address that WordPress came up with automatically, but you don’t want to change your overall permalink settings again, you can simply change the name of the slug for this one specific post.
- Save or publish the post that you’re working on.
- Under the post title you will see the permalink of your post, along with an “Edit” button on the right.
- Click “Edit.”
- Type in the permalink you want.
- Click “Update.”
Did you like this tip? It came right from my book “Does This Blogsite Make My Wallet Look Fat?”. Also available on Kindle!
Stop The Blogging Block!
The biggest mistake I see from bloggers is that they park themselves in front of their laptops ready to write a blog post and think that a great blog post idea will come to them. Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. Have you ever had a great idea while sitting at your computer? Probably not. So how do you gather great ideas ahead of time so that you are ready to write when you do sit at your laptop?
First get out of your office and don’t bring your laptop with you! Go for a walk or better yet take a shower or wash the dishes. They say that the sound of running water hightens creativity.
Next grab a small notebook (or start a “note” in your smartphone) and keep it with you to write down any ideas that come to you while you are away from your computer. Don’t try to rely on your brain to remember them. If your brain was that powerful you wouldn’t need an address book/contact list for your email system, you’d have everyone’s email address memorized.
Keep that notebook with you when you leave the house. I know that some of my greatest ideas have come when I am people watching. Yes, I love to people watch. Humans are fascinating.
When writing down your ideas, do not get stuck trying to create a fancy title at the moment. In fact just write the idea or some key words. You just need enough information to get you started when you do sit in front of your computer.
Many of my clients have used this strategy and have reported that it makes blogging easier, they publish posts more often and they have stopped banging their heads on their keyboards! 
How to Easily Track WordPress Visits Through Google Analytics
Track your blogsite visits, keywords, visitor locations and more through Google Analytics and this WordPress plugin. Here’s how
1) Create an account on Google Analytics and get your Google “UA” number (you will see this at the end of your account set up)
2) Log into your WordPress account.
3) Go to Plugins -> Add New
4) Search for the plugin Ultimate Google Analytics plugin by inputing “ultimate google analytics” in the search field.
5) Click “Search Plugins”
6) Install the plugin by clicking “Install Now”.
7) Activate the plugin by clicking “Activate Plugin”
Then go to options/settings -> “ultimate ga”
9) Input your Google “UA” number.
10) Leave the other settings and click “Update Options”
11) Wait some time before Google catches your code and begins to log your stats.
12) Log back in to your Google account to see all of your stats!
Be sure to use your statistics to find out more about your visitors and cater to what they want. If they keep searching for the same terms when they find you, keep blogging about those terms!
Do you like this tip? Will you use it? Tell us your thoughts
Don’t Forget That Blog Post Idea
My goal is to write a blog post 5 – 7 times a week (that doesn’t mean I will write everyday, you can breathe now!). When I aim to blog almost everyday I tend to generate new ideas for a blog posts easily. You see, when blogging is on your mind everyday you will go through your day thinking about what to blog about next. Ideas will come naturally to you. Clients and potential clients will give you ideas through conversations, questions, tweets and emails. Events in your life, commercials you see, books you read, workshops you attend etc will spark the creative bug in you.
Now that you have generated ideas for your upcoming blog posts what do you do with them? Many people feel like they “have to” write the blog post right away. Others rely on memory to remind them of all their ideas when they are ready to write. Well, you don’t have to write your posts right away and if you rely on your memory you are setting yourself up for disappointment (your brain has enough to think about!).
Instead develop the habit of gathering your blog post ideas in your WordPress account. I like to stay logged into WordPress all day. When I get an idea for a blog post I create a new post, quickly enter the idea in the title field then click “save draft”. I then go back to whatever it was I was doing when the idea came to mind.
When the time comes to write a blog post I can view all of my draft posts, scan the titles and complete the one that stands out the most.
Do you like this idea? How soon will you start implementing it? Let me know below.
