This article was submitted by Linda Bruton, on her opinion of Wordpress as a blogging platform. I agree with most of this piece, except that Blogger has the advantage of driving Google-based links into your private blogs.

I suggest using blogjet to run a string of blogs in Blogger, and a string of blogs in WordPress. Link from the Blogger blogs to your WordPress domains, and vice-versa.      

Story….

The more I use WordPress, the more I love it. It has two important features that Blogger doesn’t yet support.

I. You can set up WordPress to automatically ping all the RSS and blog feed directories every time you make a post. This is a very powerful feature if you want your blog to get a lot of traffic right away. On top of that, you’ll be quickly developing back-links to your blog almost automatically.

Think about how long it can take you to build a regular site, get the search engines to index it, get back-links to improve your listings, and then start getting traffic. A blog like WordPress can do all that “grunge” work for you automatically.

II. Wordpress allows the use of Categories. Categories are a very powerful way to improve the structure of your site both for human visitors and for the search engines.

Let’s say the topic of your site is Widgets. You could create a Category for black widgets, one for orange widgets, and one for green widgets.

Now when you add posts to your blog, you can choose which of your categories your post belongs to. Now your blog will archive your past posts not only by their month and date, as Blogger does. But also by Category.

So if you have a visitor who is especially interested in green widgets, they can easily find all your posts on green widgets. They don’t have to go through your entire archives to find them. With a blog that has been around for awhile and has hundreds of posts, that would be pretty discouraging. Using Categories makes it very easy.

Categories are also very search engine friendly. When you use Categories in your blog, there is a link on every one of your pages to your categories. Think about this: would you rather be #1 in the search engines for March 2003, or for green widgets, one of the main keywords of your site?

By using the Category feature, you will eventually have hundreds of pages on your site with links to green widgets, black widgets, and orange widgets. All those back-links to those keywords can result in much higher search engine rankings.

Another neat feature is that you can easily create an RSS feed for each of your categories. Then every time you post to your blog, it could be pinging the Blog/RSS directories for each feed.

Compare that to putting up a new page on a traditional web-site. Even if the search engines find your new page right away, it might be a month or two before it actually gets indexed and starts drawing traffic. It might be a long time before it enjoys a first page position for its keywords.

It’s almost amazing how easy all this is with a well-structured blog like WordPress with Categories enabled.

For more tips and ideas on how to make money blogging, be sure to visit my “Why Marketers Should Blog” weblog http://www.WhyMarketersShouldBlog.com

In regards to all the talk about WordPress categories, watch the video from Wolf Howl below.

WordPress Optimization Video (Wolf Howl)

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It’s ridiculous you know. I get really excited when I find a new WordPress plugin to try. 3 times out of 4 the plugin is just not what I need or I simply can’t get my head around the install procedure, but it’s always fun trying new ones.

I’ve been interested in employing a WordPress plugin that automatically handles a double opt-in newsletter. One that allows my visitors and readers the option of submitting their email, and being notified when Zulit.com has another post. So today I used the Big G to investigate further.

I found various different WP plugins that allow double opt-in subscriptions, but the one I finally decided on is the one you see now (just under my mug shot). It’s called WordPress Email Notification (aka. WPEN), created by Brian Groce You can download it here.

I gave a donation to the creator of WPEN, as this will help create a larger readership, and of course income. If you have trouble installing the WordPress email notification plugin, one of the kind folks over at Watershed studio can help you out. Make sure you read their discussion thread regarding the installation of WPEN. If you still can’t manage to install their plugin successfully, you can fire off an email for help.

Whatever you do, don’t make my initial mistake and create a seperate database for the WordPress email notification plugin. You need to use the existing database that WordPress is on. Make sure you back-up your mysql database BEFORE you attempt your install. You don’t need any ugly surprises right.

Once you have WPEN installed and working perfectly, you don’t need to worry about writing for your newsletter. Your subscribers will be sent an email every time you make a new post. You have to write and post quality articles anyway so why not move your musings via newsletter. If you want to see the WordPress email notification plugin in action, enter your email in the field just below my picture. You’ll get a standard thank you page, and then an email, which includes a link for the double opt-in confirmation.

Have fun setting up a newsletter on your WordPress blog. It’s never to late to develop a list and initiate a lasting relationship with your readership.

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It’s your humble narrator’s opinion that we should always consider making a donation to the creators if we use their WordPress plugin (if they have donation link we can use). I think it’s only fair to pay them something in return. Even $5-$10  is a nice way of saying thank you.

Of course, if you can’t install the plugin, you’re poverty stricken, or it doesn’t solve your problem, then a donation to the creator is never expected or required. As a matter of fact, a donation is NEVER expected or required — I just think if they’ve created an application that enhances your blog, and possibly creates you more traffic and money, then it makes sense to return a gesture of gratitude.

Here is a good post over at Urban Semiotic, entitled No Thanks From WordPress Plugin Creators. David Boles has another slant on the subject of donating to WordPress plugin creators. At the time of this post, he was disillusioned with the whole donation process, due to the fact that most creators don’t send a thank you email for the donations they receive. I left my comment (opinion) in his comments section, in which I express no need for a return thank you email from the WP plugin creator. I would much rather see creators using their time to create WordPress plugins then spend it sending off “warm and fuzzy” emails to every blog owner that donated a buck a or two.

I agree with David in that begging for donations is a big turn-off, and I notice the savvy WP plugin creators don’t ever come across needy. I would also agree that it’s not difficult to send an auto-responder email to contributors that donate. A very simple task that show appreciation for the donation — but personally, I don’t need the pat on the back for making my donation.

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I’ve been asked many times which plugins I use on my sites, so here is a download of all of them. This saves you from hunting the Internet for them.

Download TZ-PLUGS.ZIP  

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The question of whether or not to use of a dynamic web site (a.k.a. blog) or a static web site comes up a lot these days. I’m frequently asked the same question.

New-comers to the Internet need to decide what they need from their web site. A blog like this one is dynamic because the content is always changing, but at the same time I have static web sites that rarely change.

A static web site works well when you want to have the same products, services and/or information available to your visitors on arrival. Until recently one had to make a decision of whether to go with a blog were static web site for their business.  There are now ways to run a dynamic web site or blog, and yet still maintain a static index page.

Angela Booth had a good post today regarding this exact topic. She also refers to Michael D. Pollock’s article regarding the creation of a Wordrpess static homepage plugin. See Angela’s post here. You can also download the WordPress static index plugin here.

Technorati Tags: WordPress Static Index Plugin, WordPress Home Page Control 

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My friends and family are still very surprised (sometimes shocked) at how much my web sites earn. Average over $7,000 USD per month now, and I’m still shocked. Even more shocked that it keeps pouring in. After all – all I did was build some web sites and write some articles on them – of course I had to learn the right way to do this, and that took me 2 brutal years of blundering and guessing.

What I’ve been trying to do with this web site (blog) is shorten that pain for new-comers to the business of Internet income. The ridiculous thing is that this one web site costs only $9 a year for the domain name and $5 a month for the hosting fee. I have to have an Internet connection of course but that is it. When my father talks to me about the online business and this site, he still shakes his head in disbelief.

For The Absolute Beginners Who Have No Idea What I’m Talking About

You may have heard about online income, and I’m sure you’ve heard of scams and all that. Multi-level marketing (MLM) sites, etc. etc. Well guess what….I tried them all! (no…there is not a buy now button at the bottom of the page) I tried gaming the search engines, using fancy software, buying numerous ebooks, picking brains, begging, paying for traffic, you name it – I tried every stupid idea out there. I fell flat on my face many times, and all someone had to say to me was, “Build a WordPress blog properly and live happily ever after”. Simple right. Well no it’s not – learning how to build a WordPress blog properly took some serious effort.

That is also what this post is about. I have created some free WordPress video tutorials that show exactly how to create a WordPress blog. They’re really easy to use and new-comers should have their Blog up and running in short order. Don’t be swayed, or talked into spending a bunch of money on short cuts, tricks, magic scripts, and special software. All you need to invest is your hosting cost ($5-6 per/mo) and your domain name cost ($8-9 per/yr). WordPress is free to download and you don’t need ANY software that costs you money. All the software I use for setting up this WordPress blog is freeware.

If you are interested in creating your own WordPress blog I would watch some of the video tutorials (free) that show how to do so. All you will need to accomplish this correctly is; Filezilla FTP File (free), the WordPress File (free), and your domain and hosting (price as mentioned above). I review some of my favorite domain and hosting companies here.

Don’t Be Intimidated By Anything That Sounds Complicated Because It’s Not

I know when I started out I was saddened by how dim I was when it came to computer jargon. I thought that building a web site or blog was geek level stuff, and I could not have been more diluted in that stream of thinking. When it comes right down to accomplishing everything I’ve mentioned above, there is not much to it. Just download the free software in the paragraph above and start building. Pick a hosting company you like the looks of (they’re all good ones in my review), follow the video tutorials and away you go.

How A WordPress Blog Makes Money

So how does this site (WordPress blog) makes money? Simple. I display Ads By Google on each one of my article pages and when visitors click them I get paid. That’s it. Period. I don’t sell anthing, mail anything, talk to people on the phone, sell anything, refund anything, DO anything. Just traffic coming through this web site results in clicks and that results in money. Google send me a check every month (on time) and I cash them. I show you how to put Adsense on your WordPress blog in this video. You may think there is more to it than that…….but there is’nt. You can sign for the Google Adsense program for free as well by going here. Pretty cool right – free to join and they send you checks in the mail.

At this point you are likely saying PROVE it! Ok. Here is a Google Adsense report for April 2006. It’s higher than that now. keep in mind that is American bucks. Click the image below to enlarge the earnings report. Or click here.

A Little More Info Regarding Blogging Platforms

There are many different blogging platforms to chose from, but these days I suggest using the WordPress platform. I’ve tried using TypePad, Movable Type, and Radio Userland, but WordPress has become my mainstay. The WordPress script is free to download so all you need is a domain name and hosting account. I’ll get into what kind of hosting and domain services I use in another post.

If you are an abecedarian (new-comer) in the blogoshpere, and in the process of making a platform choice, do yourself a favor and make WordPress your choice. I strongly suggest using WordPress because you have control over your own domain and content. When you are using a service like Blogger.com you can never be sure your content is safe and sound. I want you to read this post and that should be enough to convince you to start your blogging journey with your own private hosting package.

Now don’t get me wrong; I have some good friends who blog on shared servers (and services like Blogger.com), and they make some pretty serious cyber-cake. Mind you, they build smaller niche blogs which don’t ever require serious amounts of bandwidth. Along with the problem of bandwidth elbowroom, you have the customization issue.

Customizing your blog is something you will indubitably venture towards as you become more demanding and seasoned. You will want to have full control of your blog layout; including color, advertising, links, navigation, scripts, php code, asp code, css (cascading style sheets), comments, trackbacking, rss feeds, atom feeds, reading choices, writing choices, posting choices, etc……Wordpress does all of the above.

WordPress is an open source technology which enables anyone to write code into the fray. This can be good and bad, as not all coders are equal. WordPress plugins and themes can be created by anyone who decides they want to create one. For example, the Zulit blog is using a WordPress theme written and created by Kaushal Sheth. He created this theme for WordPress bloggers to use for free, and all he requests is that we leave his link at the bottom of the page. Not a bad deal right!

Technorati Tags: WordPress Blog

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