Category: Wordpress

4 Things you must do before hit publish!

Paul
Creative writing class-fine arts center (40269...

It’s all about the readers!

I’ve not been one to say this much, but if your read my blog you know I care about my readers.  I’m not saying that I will make your jaw drop most of the time but there are times that I think a blog post and want to help others when it comes to writing your own.  In this article we will discuss some basic writing ideas that I’ve come to realize and want to share with you.  I’m sure others have said something similar but I’m hoping to make it more understandable for the common reader and writer.

Before we can start talking about writing and blogging which to me are the same exact thing, some others might think of them differently.   I wanted to at least ask you some questions that we will be exploring in this article.

  • Why are you blogging?

  • How to come up with a topic!

  • Know your Audience

  • Is there a Length limit?

  • What are you trying to accomplish?

Who Influences YOU?

FOCUS ON ONE QUALITY BLOG!(Affiliate Link)
Guest post on related high quality blogs.
Collaborate with social-media savvy bloggers.

In all things you do FOCUS on RELATED collaborations!

Quantity Equals Failure. Success Focuses on Quality!


When you started blogging did you think you should have more than one blog, I did. I even tried that in the last year but I found that I didn’t get any more money than when I was blogging by myself.  I love to read what Gail writes about on her blog when she does because I get the most insight into how to blog just a little more.  I must admit, I need to start having more RSS feeds and expand my reading to even more blogs.  I have started to create a bigger list of blogs that I think I will enjoy to read on a weekly basis and this is my hope that I become a better blogger for you and others.

Writing Topics

Having been blogging for a few years, I’ve come to understand that if you don’t use the right topic, no one will come to visit your blog or read your blog post because it just doesn’t interest them to click.   Some bloggers have done some great topics Like Shevonne, who writes about her new phase of life.   She tries to get the reader involved and make them see that their is more to her than just about blog posts.    If you read her blog post you will see that she actually does a great job at drawing the reader and making them think about their own life and what phase they are in.   It is more engaging to the reader to actually have something to relate to whether it be on a blog or in person.  Find a Topic and start typing, it really doesn’t have to be a big blog post but it helps if you let your mind wander and keep it coming.

Try to limit the Length of Post!

 250 is enough
A long post is easier to forget and harder to get into. A short post is the opposite. 

Problogger

This isn’t always going to work when it comes to writing those blog posts.   I usually like to keep it under 1,000 words per post but I’ve found that sometimes, the more you write about a subject the more you will want to add to it.  Sometimes, you need to experiment and see what your readers will read and what comments you get from them.  I’ve even tried that with some of my latest blog posts but that isn’t always going to work for you and you should figure out what the sweet spot is for your blog.

Be Youself!

Trying to imitate someone is nice, and some may consider that flattery.  I don’t know if it is me or if your here just to because your found this article interesting.   Nothing can change who you are and who you will become, so just writing about a subject without at least adding your own flair of personality will not get you any where in getting people involved.   People want to connect with you and see your flaws and your personality more than they want to read a HOW TO or reviewing an product.   I’ve found this to be very true, if all your doing is just reviewing products, you may never see the true potential of revenue but if your connect with your readers in a blog post they will come back again, and again just because they want to see what else that makes you human!

Summary of the Post!

I’ve given you a lot to think about when you write a blog post and I am sure this isn’t going to be a
n easy article to digest but if your follow these rules then you will become a better writer and thus you will have people come to your blog more and more.   After all, if your writing about anything, you are wanting to connect with your readers in one way or another and that is the main reason for blogging for me at least.   Topics are only one way to engage the reader to come back time and time again.  I write to connect with my readers and If you liked this blog post please feel free to share it with your friends and family.   I’d love to hear your stories and comments because that helps me find out what I am doing wrong or what I am doing right.

If you like this post, feel free to subscribe to my RSS feed or Subscribe to my Email list.   I send one out every time I publish a blog post, so you can keep up to date on what is going on my website.

Paul Sylvester

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Why Auto blogs aren’t the way to make Money!

Paul2 Replies

A T-shirt parodying the political neologism &q... Image via Wikipedia

What is an Auto Blog?

Autoblog is a neologism and misnomer used to describe a particular type of website which uses software designed to automatically add content in a blog format.[1] The owner of an autoblog is generally referred to as an autoblogger. Engaging in this practice is called autoblogging.
Autoblogging does not require a site owner to create original web content. An autoblogger merely installs the necessary software, and configures its settings to collect the type of content desired. The automated software handles the rest.

[Via Wikipedia]

Autoblogs are basically just programs designed to publish other people’s stuff. Now I am not going to explain some stuff that you might not know. Plugins for WordPress like WordPress Magic, WP Robot, MultiPress Content, Commission Cheat, and  other autoblogging software are sometimes considered Auto Content Stealing programs. I know more about this then people who are just starting off.  I’m here today to talk about these programs in detail.

Make Money While You  are Sleeping!

You’ve probably heard that one a lot or Hidden Secrets to commissions in advertising. Most of them do somewhat what they say. I was using one in particular for almost over a year and I didn’t see any noticeable amount of money coming in from having that run day in and day out.

I’ve even seen those advertisements on YouTube and other video places claiming that you could make Millions and not do anything more than install a plugin that takes just 10 minutes install.   These programs however most of the time cost money and that is where the catch is.   I have no problem paying for something that works but most of the time if you claim I can set it and forget about it, I just say no thanks.

Does these work?

I know most of you who are asking this question, and probably saw something on another website and you are quite curious as to if these work or not.  I will give you the short answer “NO”, they aren’t really a scam because you make money but you really don’t make money like you’ve seen on the advertisements.   You basically just make enough commissions to pay for the product in one year.   I may have made more but you get the gist of that.   You also have to remember that you have to have a really high Google PR to even get the traffic that is needed to make any kind of money.

Just creating a new domain, will not help you because it will have no Google Juice for quite some time and that is if you get any at all.   Most of the time, Google looks down on this type of stuff and stops you before you even get going.

Is this Stealing content?

Most of the time you aren’t really taking anything that you shouldn’t but that doesn’t mean you could be doing that.   Most Auto Blog plugins will allow to you pick what you want to use as content and it will publish what you tell it.  The content that you will most like get are from like Amazon, Clickbank, Commission Junction, and other such Affiliate programs.   They usually allow you to use their content for your website and thus you can use them on your site.   The Kicker to this is, Google and other SEO, they will rank you lower just because of that.   They consider scraper sites to be nothing more than spam and thus you might go down in ranking if your not careful.

How do I know?

I created a Website called “unlocked cell phones blog” trying to test this out.  I created that last year about this time and set up using WP Robot, as my autoblog plugin.   After that year was up, I checked my Amazon Account tracking ID and guess what.   I only made “$56.45“.   As you can tell I pretty much made what I put into it, I bought the software for $75 and I got half that back.   I made a little more money on my other Domain Tech-linkblog.com but I couldn’t tell you for sure if it was all the plugin or if some of those was because of my old content.

Recommendations!

Here is what I recommend, if your really wanting to do this, do as much research as you can and know this.   There are websites that are specifically designed to waste your time to prevent you from finding your answers.   I know if you look on Google and others you will see that you find all these Glowing reviews and people who are just posting Videos of this type of stuff so they can make a little money.   You really have to go 3 to 4 pages in to find some truth in these AutoBlogging software.   You will find your answers if you ask the right questions and search for what makes sense.   I will not say I am totally against Auto Blogs, but I am not going to waste my money on another one of those in the future.  I now know that making money overnight isn’t always going to be possible without at least working for it.

It’s not how you do it but what you do that can make your blog a success.  You never know if your going to write the best article in your life or the worst article but until you try.  This I hope has told given you what you have been wondering or asking.   I’d love to hear your comment
s and your experiences, I might be the only one who hasn’t done so good but I’m willing to bet there are others out there.

Paul Sylvester

 

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How to customize your WordPress Theme : Overview!

Paul1 Reply

Theme are so simple!

You’ve probably read on one way or another from other blogs on how to do it.   I have thought it would be nice to discuss this at a really long length to help other bloggers customize their themes and you don’t have to pay for anything.   You can download free themes from WordPress or other sites and get any free theme and make it your own.  Editing a theme is not rocket science just a little know how and learning.   I’ve learned all this over my past few years and thought it would be high time to help others with the task.   If you ever wanted to edit your theme to make it more personable then this little tutorial is for you.

Explaining themes : Task at hand!

I won’t say the task at hand is going to be an easy one, and that I will be talking about how to do everything to your theme, but I will be talking about several areas of theme editing and customization and you are going to want to stay tuned.   In this series, I will be talking about:

  • Customizing your header

  • Customizing your sidebar

  • Customizing your content

  • Customizing your Footer

  • Adding ads to post using the Themes Function

  • Why you would want to customize your theme

As you can see this will be a little more in depth then what others might of done or not done.   I don’t know but I wanted to add my own spin to the discussion.   Anyone can edit a them but do you want to break it?   That is the most important question.   I am not going to tell you every nuance and what will happen if you do all this but this is going to be a great general guide for anyone who might want to get there feet wet and learn something new.

Why you would want to customize you theme!

If we all had the same theme, then blogging wouldn’t be so enjoyable.   I actually like going to other blogs and seeing what type of changes they have done with their theme.    I personally like to change my theme every so often to get a fresh look and feel to my theme but others like to keep the same theme for years and years and that is all fine.   It is just more about preference than anything else.   I am sure someone wants some advice on how to make a theme work with yours.

Programs needed

I’m not saying you need these programs but it will make it far less troublesome if you do use them.   You can easily use an easy text editor to edit your php files but I prefer to use some kind of PHP editor to help me code and see the path of where everything is going as I customize my themes.   Here are some programs to consider installing and using these to make your theme more your own:

  • XAMPP — Great way to see what the theme will look like before you go live with your website.   You can test out various things before anyone even sees your website or knows that you will be changing it.   Works on Linux, Windows and Macintosh

  • Notepad++ — This is a good editor for those who might want to use Windows Machine.   I do not know if it is for linux but You can always try “Sudo Apt-get Install notepad++” to find out.

  • gPHPedit — This is a good little PHP editor but it is mainly for linux.   It is one of those that might be good for occasionally editing.   I like it but can be a pain if your not used to it all.

  • Screem — I like it better than gPHPedit but  it does take some getting used to.   It is also just Linux based right now, so you will have to look for a free php editor for you system elsewhere.

These are just a few of my picks.   If you like them or hate them, I’d like to know by leaving a comment.   If you have other suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment also, so Others can try them out and see if they are right for them.

Stay Safe

Paul Sylvester

 


 

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Please Link to my site emails

Paul

From time to time I get emails asking me to link to there sites because of one thing or another. I have no problem linking to sites that I think have valuable information, but when I get email to link to sites that are really new I have a problem.

[ad]In the email he talks about how his business got scammed out of 6,000$ dollars and how he just created the site four weeks earlier due to how out raged he is that his business got scammed for so much money.

As you may have noticed this site that still remains unnamed because I am uncomfortable with adding the link to my site. Now I won’t say anything bad about [intlink id=”4110″ type=”post”]creating a site[/intlink], and I am sure it was something like the [intlink id=”1417″ type=”post”]Check cashing scam[/intlink] I came across a few months ago and talked about.

So I wanted to talk about how to get people to come to you site:

  • Submit your Site to search engines —  This is the first step to getting people to find your site.   Some sites to submit to for free are Pingomatic, Ask.com, and Yahoo.   These are the three that I suggest starting off to have Search engines finding your site.  All other search engines will come to your site over time.

  • Create informative posts —  This is also very important creating posts that people will link to your site is the most important step to building your website.   If you create posts people have heard about on other sites your site will not be put on the front of Google searches.   If you don’t have links coming from other sites, you will not get any search engine visitors to your site.

  • Don’t ask to be linked in the early stages of a new site —  That is just asking for web owners to ignore you and not link to your site.   if they see it is a new they will not want to support it because of the possible spam retribution that will happen with Google if they are a spam site building links.  This is why it is more important to build your links naturally and not beg for links.

  • Link to other sites —  This is sometimes called the “Buddy system”.   Linking to sites will most likely cause the site to link back and sometimes throwing out links to sites also help you build links to your site.

Although these are just a few ways to increase readership and visibility towards your website population.   You can find more ideas and information ways to build your website at Seobook.com, which has some great ideas to generate links to your site.

Adblock No more!!

Paul

If you are a returning visitor to my site you may notice that Adblock Plus isn’t blocking my advertising.

bypass-adblock

Let me start off saying I use Adblock Plus and enjoy it when it comes to those Annoying Pop ups and Pop unders that happens when you visit sites that aren’t that bright.  Even those annoying ads that come and speak to you saying you have won something.   These types of ads I am so glad to block.

When it comes to my site, I have worked hard on creating this content and it will help me pay for the server and domain name.   I fully understand why people want to block ads but on the flip side I also know about how they can help support a site.

Often times, I turn Adblock Plus off for places like HULU to make sure they stay free.   This is one way I can support having free shows is watching ads because there might be something I could be interested in.   This is how I show respect for advertising publishers.

I know how hard these places have worked to get people to use there service and respect the idea of having the service paying for it through ads.

I have learned how to prevent Adblock Plus from blocking my site and I intent to keep doing it.    As you know these ad blocking programs tend to break the site from showing properly.   This is one reason I decided I should bypass Adblock Plus and I will be doing more later on to tweak it.   I however won’t be doing those annoying ads on my site, that is just tactless, in my eyes.  These ads will not be POP UP or POP UNDERS.  They will not be to flashy and annoying, but they will be there.

I ask if you like a product on my site to buy it to show your support, this will keep the site running.   I hope you understand, and thank you for your patronage.