Go to Part 7
This is the final part in this series. In this part we look at how to configure WordPress to make your Mini Website more search engine friendly.
Search Engine Friendly URLs
It is important to choose a search engine friendly URL structure for your Mini Website. One of the most SEO friendly URL structure is to simply use the name of the WordPress post as the URL. For example, if your post name is called “How to Remove Stains in Carpets” then your URL structure will be something like “http://HomeCarpetCleaning.com/how-to-remove-stains-in-carpets/”.
Simply follow the instruction below to change the URL structure of your WordPress based Mini Website.
- Log into WordPress
- Select Settings –> Permalinks
- Under Custom Settings in the Custom Structure field enter the value “/%postname%/” (excluding quotes)
That’s it. Now you have a search engine friendly URL.
Removing Multiple Posts from the Front Page
By default a WordPress website always shows more that 1 post in the front page of the website. Ideally what we want is to show the best and most appropriate article in the front page. This is easily done with the following setting:
- Log into WordPress
- Select Settings –> Reading
- Set the value of the field Blog pages show at most to 1
- To show the most appropriate article or post in the front page of your website, set the date of the post to the most recent date.
Using Multiple Tags
In order to get more pages indexed by Google, add multiple tags to your posts. For each new tag you add, WordPress will create a new page for that tag. This means your website will have more pages indexed in Google.
Ending Note
Well that is the end of this series. I sincerely hope that you found this series useful. Soon I’ll be publishing this series as an eBook. Visit techthinker.com for more updates.
Making money online from the comfort of your home is a dream for many and a reality for a few. Daniel Scocco is one of those few. Daniel is a top notch blogger and an Internet Entrepreneur who makes his living from his blogs and websites. One of Daniel’s blogs Daily Blog Tips is ranked among best 100 marketing blogs in the world!
Now Daniel is offering his skills and knowledge to you through his training program called Online Profits.
I am personally able to recommend this training since I undertook the same program last year and found it to be extremely useful. The unique aspect about this program is it teaches you A to Z of Internet Marketing and how to make money online. The program is very comprehensive and easy to follow. It is hard to find a single training program that covers all the skills you need to succeed as an Online Entrepreneur. Topics covered in this training program includes Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Email Marketing, Online Communities, Social Media, Affiliate Marketing and Web Design to name a few.
The course materials for this training program has been compiled in consultation with experts from different fields and specialization. This gives the course contents enough breadth and depth. For a list of all the experts and their specializations visit the Online Profits website.
The Online Profits training program has a forum where you can interact with Daniel and fellow students. Daniel pays individual attention to each and every student. He is always prompt in replying to all of your questions and doubts. Daniel has a very good ability to explain complex things in a simple fashion. The forum really enriches the whole learning experience.
The new year brings a fresh chapter in our lives, it gives you the opportunity and momentum to learn something new that could positively change your life forever.
The Online Profits program is open for registration on January 18. The gates to this training program will be open for 5 days only, and the enrolment period will end on January 22. After this enrolment period the program closes its doors. You will not get another opportunity to enroll in this program until next year (January 2011). I hope you’ll make use of this unique opportunity.
To Your Success
Aaron
As an online entrepreneur there is often a need to create documents for the web. For example, ebooks, brochures, flyers etc. The best format to publish this material in PDF format. PDF documents can be readily viewed from web browsers. The software to create and edit PDF documents are quite expensive. If you do not want to invest in a PDF editing software then do not worry. There is a free alternative for creating PDF documents.
Welcome to PrimoPDF
PrimoPDF is a free software that you can use to create PDF documents. PrimoPDF functions like a print driver. Once you have installed PrimoPDF on your computer a print driver is setup on your PC. You can submit any document (that is printable) to the PrimoPDF print driver. Instead of printing the document the PrimoPDF printer converts the document into PDF format. PrimoPDF is very versatile since you can convert any printable document such as Word Document, Excel Spread Sheet, MS Paint Diagram etc. into PDF format.
Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
Another way to create PDF documents is to use Microsoft Office 2007. The Home and Student Edition of Microsoft Office retails for a very low price (less than $80). This version of MS Office has nearly got all the features of the standard MS Office version used by businesses. Microsoft has provided a free Office Add-on that will allow you to save a Word document into PDF format. This add-on is called Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS and can be downloaded from the Microsoft website. The PDF documents created using MS Office really looks very sharp and professional. If you do not have a decent suite of office applications then the Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 is really worth the investment.
I would like to wish my readers a very happy and prosperous 2010! I wish you good luck in your online endeavors.
Best Regards
Aaron
I live in the province of Ontario (in Canada). A month ago the province started to rollout the vaccination program for the H1N1 flu. At this time Canada did not have adequate supplies of the vaccine. As a result the vaccine was only provided to people who fell in the High Risk Group category. The High Risk Group category included children under the age of 5, people with underlying medical conditions, pregnant women and seniors. When the vaccination program started there weren’t too many clinics. Only a handful of clinics operated in the Toronto area. During this time the demand for the vaccine was very high. People were standing in mile length queues to get their jabs.
A month later in December the situation changed. Canada now has more than enough vaccine for its entire population and the vaccine is now available to anyone who wants it. There are many clinics in the city to administer the vaccine and the wait time for the shot is almost none! But, to the disappointment of health authorities suddenly there was no demand for the vaccine at all. Only 30% of Canadian chose to get vaccinated even though the H1N1 bug is still alive.
The following story teaches us important marketing principles:
1. Scarcity of resources creates high demand
Scarcity of resources always create high demand. This is why limited time offers works well in selling products and services. When resources are limited buyers feel a sense of urgency. This sense of urgency influence their buying decisions. Once the federal government had enough vaccine to cover all Canadians the sense of urgency went away in many people.
2. Herd Mentality
We humans operate like a herd of cattle. Many time we make a decision not because it works for us but because others are doing it! When people saw mile length queues for the vaccine, they joined the queues as well.
3. Habits and Perceptions are hard to change
People who haven’t taken a flu shot in the past may have been reluctant to take the H1N1 vaccine. Because they never had the habit of taking flu vaccines and many of them had the perception that the vaccine could result in side effects. It is really hard to convince this group of people due to their habits. This might explain why only 30% of the population chose to get vaccinated.
4. Fear of being left out
One way to change the habit is to invoke the fear factor. During the fall season when there were many deaths in the province due to H1N1 and when the media was covering these stories a lot of people were desperate to get the vaccine. During this time people were not concerned about the side effects of the vaccine. Because the fear of death from the flu outweighed the concerns of taking a newly developed vaccine.
The above 4 lessons can be applied in marketing to promote and sell products and services.
What do you think? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.
Go to Part 6
Building Links to Your Mini Website
In this part we will look at the link building process for your Mini Website. The efforts you have put on your site so far will be pretty much useless unless you start building links to your site. Link building will enable your Mini Website to rank well in Google searches bringing you more traffic. More traffic means more money!
There are number of ways to build links to your site.
1. Commenting on dofollow blogs
Many blogs allow you to link to your website when commenting on them. In most cases the link to your website does not bring you any SEO benefits. This is because most of the time the link to your website is specified as a nofollow link. The nofollow attribute informs Google that the author of the blog does not want Google to follow that link. Bloggers who belong to the dofollow movement believe that some link love should be passed to your website because you commented in their blogs. Therefore, dofollow blogs do not use the nofollow attribute. By commenting on dofollow blogs you can get inbound links that Google will follow bringing you SEO benefits. For more details on how to find dofollow blogs please read my article titled “Commenting smart on dofollow blogs”.
2. Article Marketing
By writing articles and submitting them to article directories you can get valuable back links to your website. Usually an article is published along with a byline or author bio where you can link to your Mini Website. There are number of article directories. The one I use is EzineArticles.com.
3. Link Exchanges
If you have friends who have blogs or websites ask them for a link exchange. If you do not have any online friends it is time to make some! Go to popular blogs or forums in your niche. Leave comments and interact with others in the forums. Once you have made some friends you could ask them for a link exchange.
4. Social Bookmarking Sites
Social bookmarking sites allow you to submit a webpage. When a webpage from your Mini Website is submitted to a bookmarking site a link is created to your website. Popular bookmarking sites include Digg, Delicious and StumbleUpon.
5. Directory Submissions
Submit your Mini Website to directories. There are number of free web directories where you can submit your website details. You want to make sure that you are building links to your Mini Website from good and trustworthy directories. When looking for a free web directory look for one that has a good page rank, good Alexa ranking and lot of back links.
Note: During the link building process try to get more links from websites that are in your niche. Google gives more value to a link when it is from a website that is related to your website’s topic. Many SEO experts also believe that few links from very high ranking website is much preferred than lot of back links from low ranking websites. Remember, link building is not a one day activity, it’s an ongoing process. You have to be patient during this process until you get your website to the number one position in Google for your chosen keywords. If you quit early you will not reap the maximum profits from your Mini Website.
In part 8, we will wrap up this series by providing WordPress tips to make your site more SEO friendly.
Go to Part 8
Please head over to TheInfopreneur.net and check out my guest post titled “3 Strategies for Beating Competition in Your Niche”. In this post you will find 3 proven methods to beat competition in a highly competitive niche.
Go to Part 5
Creating Content for Your Mini Website
In this part we look at the content creation process for your Mini Website. I recommend that you create at least 10 to 15 articles with each article containing around 300 – 500 words. It is important that your website has reasonably good quality content. Otherwise Google may not approve your application when you sign up for AdSense. When writing the article make sure you are paying attention to the placement of keywords. For more information on keyword placement please read my post titled “10 Spots to Stick your Keyword”. I would recommend an average keyword density of 2%. Your keyword placement should be natural as possible. Forcing keywords can reduce the quality of your content.
Now that you have created the content for your website, signup for the Google AdSense program. Go to https://www.google.com/adsense and click the “Sign up now” button and follow the easy to follow instructions. It is important that you signup for AdSense only after creating and publishing the content on your Mini Website. This is because when you sign up for AdSense you will be asked to enter the URL of your website. If your website in not fully developed, Google may reject your application. But don’t worry, you should be fine with 10 average quality articles.
In part 7 we will look at the process of Link Building which is very important to bring traffic to your website.
If you are a new and upcoming Online Entrepreneur who wants to make your mark in your niche, I am sure you are already feeling the pressure of competition. Nowadays for little as $20 and with some basic Internet skills anyone can venture into Online Projects. The Internet is flooded with Online Entrepreneurs with many great ideas and projects.
So the question is how to beat the competition and make yourself get heard? The primary way to achieve this is by adding value to your audience by talking to them at the right wave length.
What do I mean by wave length? For example, let us assume that you are in the business of educating people on how to create websites and blogs. This is a pretty big niche and your prospective audience will have varying levels of skills. One way to build a good audience is to speak to a specific group of people instead of talking to all of them. In our example, it could be non technical people with very limited computer skills or seniors who may have difficulties grasping computer concepts. Another group of audience might be people with limited skills in English. Another group could be people who already know a lot about websites and blogs and want to get into advanced topics. Remember, these folks want to learn the same thing, but their skills and knowledge varies.
It is important to speak to your audience at the right wave length. A novice reader can leave you if you suddenly start talking complex issues and an experienced user may leave you if you started churning out very basic content. It is ok to gradually increase (or decrease) your wave length. But if you are talking to your audience with fluctuating wave lengths, it will be hard to retain any audience. You will not satisfy anyone! So speak to your audience at a consistent wave length so that they can tune into your message.
Are you talking to your readers with a consistent wave length? Love to hear your comments and thoughts.
Photo credit: Robert in Toronto’s photostream
On many WordPress blog setup the blogroll is displayed on the sidebar. Displaying blogroll on the side bar can cause us some problems. If your blogroll is very long it will occupy valuable sidebar space. In addition displaying your blogroll on the sidebar in every page can dilute your Google Page Rank because it increases the number of outbound links on every page. Therefore, I wanted to move my blogroll from the side bar to a WordPress page.
For the non-technical person the easiest way to achieve this functionality is to manually create a blogroll page. Another solution is to use a plugin such as the Blogroll Plugin that will allow you to embed the blogroll on a WordPress page. Using the plugin relieves us from the task of manually editing the page each time you have a new blog on your blogroll. But, if you are like me and want to keep the number of plugins in your blog to a bare minimum the best way to solve this issue is by using a Custom Page Template.
The Custom Template solution does require a little bit of coding effort, but it is a very clean and simple solution.
Steps
1. Go to the template directory and copy the file name page.php to blogroll_page.php
2. Edit blogroll_page.php and insert the following code at the top of the file
<?php
/*
Template Name: Custom Blog Roll Page
*/
?>
3. Search for the line following line of code in the blogroll_page.php file
<?php the_content(); ?>
and add the following code below it
<ul> <?php wp_list_bookmarks('title_li=&categorize=0'); ?> </ul>
The the_content() function is responsible to display the contents of a page. After the page content is displayed we are displaying the blogroll using the command wp_list_bookmarks function.
4. We are done coding and now you can save the blogroll_page.php file
5. Log into WordPress and create a new page. Give it a title name. For example, “Links”.
6. If you want to display any text above the blogroll you can type it in the page contents. Please note that the function the_content() is always called before displaying the blogroll. If you just want to display only the blogroll leave the page contents empty.
7. In the edit page you will see a drop down named template. Select “Blog Roll Page” as your selection.
8. Save the page, Voila! You are done. Your blog role will now appear on the page titled “Links”.
9. Now you need to remove the blogroll from the sidebar widgets. If your theme does not support widgets you may have to get rid of the blogroll code from the sidebar.php file.
I hope you find this article useful. Do you know another way to display blogroll on a WordPress page? Please share it in the comments section.
Photo Credit: just_a_name_thingi e’s photostream