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Archive for February, 2010

Up until the other day, I was using a WordPress plugin called Redirect by Nick Berlette.  It’s a straight-forward, very simple plugin that does one thing;  redirects a page or post to another URL using a simple custom field entry.  Yesterday I ran into a problem with it on one of my blogs.  I’m sure it’s a problem I created myself with having FrontPage extensions installed on that domain and having had to move the blog from my old crappy web hosting company to SuperGreen Hosting.  Things prolly got gunked up someplace and it wasn’t worth my time trying to figure it out.

Plugin(s) You’ll Need

I found a new redirect plugin that I’ll be using for now on.  It’s so easy to use and has lots of options.  It installs as a widget on the post and page editor pages.  Gotta love those kind of plugins.  It’s called Quick Page/Post Redirect Plugin by Don Fischer.  Here’s what you can do with it.

1. It has an activate toggle to turn a redirect off and on.
2. Open the redirect link in a new window.
3. Add a “nofollow” to the redirect.
4. On mouseover, displays the post/page URL or the destination URL.
5. Set up the type of redirect.  301, 302, 307, or meta.
6. Quick Redirects.  You can also redirect other non-blog web pages on your domain to some destination.  This method is just an interface to easily accomplish that without having to login to your hosting control panel to create a redirect.

 

Blog Post Writing – Uncover 4 Hidden Steps to Breakthrough in Blog Post Writing

By Sean R Mize

1. Have a genuine concern for your readers. You’ll easily excel in the field of blogging if you are sincerely interested in helping the people that you’re writing for. Be willing to do extensive research to know exactly what they need. Have a deeper understanding of their problems and support them to reach their goals in life. These people must feel that you’re not just after their money. They must see that you’re willing to go that extra mile to bring positive impact to their lives. This is the only way to make sure that your blog will leave a lasting mark on their minds.

2. Optimize your blog posts. Aside from making your blog posts helpful, it’s also important that you make them search engine-friendly. You want your target audience to see your blog on top of search engine listings when they search for the keywords that you’re targeting. Learn more about SEO article writing and learn certain things that can make your articles more valuable to the eyes of the search engines.

3. Increase your knowledge in your niche. This is something that you need to do on a regular basis. It’s important that you keep yourself updated on latest issues that your readers might find interesting. Remember, you want to be a great source of information to these people all the time. So, always start your day by reading relevant RSS feeds and by doing research.

4. Improve your blog writing skills. Even if you’re considered a great writer, it will not harm you if you constantly find ways on how to hone your writing skills. This will benefit you as you surely want to give your audience great reading experience.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article writing success, “Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide”

Download it free here: Article Writing

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_R_Mize
http://EzineArticles.com/?Blog-Post-Writing—Uncover-4-Hidden-Steps-to-Breakthrough-in-Blog-Post-Writing&id=3745203

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By Godfrey Thaxter

Blogging is a very effective method to use for increasing traffic to your home business. Your main goal is to make sales and you cannot accomplish this without getting a lot of traffic, and this can prove difficult sometimes. By making some simple changes to your blog you can greatly improve your chances to make this possible.

One of the main advantages of having a blog is that the search engines love it. This can present a major boost to your traffic if you know how to make use of the resources that it provides. It has some great features that allow it to be more flexible than a regular website and offers an informal approach to marketing online.

Here are 6 essential tips that can increase traffic to your home business blog:

1. Post High Quality Content – Writing and posting high quality content to your blog consistently is very powerful and offers some unique advantages. It provides useful and relevant information to your visitors, and this will interest them and give them good reason to visit again. Fresh and unique content also provides the search engines with the fuel to improve its ranking.

2. Optimize Your Blog – Optimizing your blog for the search engines is very important as this will increase its visibility. People use keywords to search for information and this is why it is important to use your keywords and key phrases in all of your postings, also in the titles, headlines and the URL if possible. All of this go towards improving your ranking in the search engines and this leads to an increase in traffic, optins and sales.

3. Use Email Marketing – As a home business owner your list is your most valuable asset and you should be building it every chance you get. Place an optin form on your blog and offer something as an incentive for visitors to join your list. This will allow you to provide them with more information about your business and to recommend yours offers to them. Whenever you make a new post send the link to your list.

4. Social Book Marking – This is another very powerful method to use in driving traffic to your blog. Gaining a high ranking on some of the most popular book marking sites can really increase your traffic tremendously. Updating your blog with unique content regular will also contribute a lot to this activity.

5. RSS Feed – Having an RSS feed on your blog could also contribute a lot to your traffic increase. People who link to your RSS feed will be getting continuous updates each time you make a new post. Other sites and blogs could also link to yours which will allow more people to have access to your new content and your business.

6. Announcement To Your List – A very effective strategy that you can also use is to send an email to your list whenever you make a new post. Instead of writing a long email you can just send them a link to the post. This creates interest and will also increase the amount of visits that it gets.

Increasing traffic to your home business blog consistently is very important to your success. Every idea or tip that you can get and learn to implement will contribute to this process. Adding the above points to your marketing activities will help in your ability to increase awareness and visibility to your business.

Godfrey Thaxter is a marketing consultant who writes informative and inspiring articles providing tips and strategies for “Home Business Success” with your internet marketing business. Click The Link Now To Get Instant Access To The “Highest Quality Advertising & Marketing” On The Internet – And To See How You Can Explode Your Traffic Generation Using Articles!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Godfrey_Thaxter
http://EzineArticles.com/?Increasing-Traffic-to-Your-Home-Business-Blog—6-Essential-Tips&id=3792619

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Advantages of Hosting Your Blog on Your Domain Name For Home Business Owners – Top 5 Benefits

By Godfrey Thaxter

If you are not hosting your blog on your own domain name as a home business owner you are making a critical mistake that could cost you a lot. Hosting it on other platforms like WordPress.com or Blogger.com is begging for trouble, as using this arrangement gives you only limited control over what you can do with it. Many people have lost their blogs from posting similar content, do you want to risk this?

Owning and operating a successful home business in this volatile economic climate is very competitive and unpredictable. To keep on top of the situation you will have to get innovative and creative, and to accomplish this you have to be always looking out for new ways to get the word out about your business. Having your blog hosted on your own domain name can improve this immensely.

One of the main advantages of doing this is the fact that blogs are already favorable to the search engines. By hosting your blog on your own domain you now give your website the opportunity to gain a similar status. With the sharing of the URL, logo, title, headlines, keywords and key phrases of your main site you can now add a lot more room for the expansion of your business.

To take full advantage of this merge you should make a commitment to post unique and high quality content on your blog consistently. This will be the driving force to gain popularity with the search engines and get your site to a higher ranking.

There are many benefits to be derived from this activity, but here are 5 of the top ones:

1. More Control - Hosting your blog on your own domain gives you more control over all aspects of it including design, layout and uniqueness. This gives you the freedom to have it exactly matching your website if you want. It also gives you an advantage over others in your niche as you can make it unique to your own specifications as a “one of kind” situation.

2. Easier To Remember – The name of your blog will be easier to remember as it will have your website’s name. This will allow people to relate to it just as how they would relate to your website. Instead of typing in yourblogname.blogspot.com, it would now be yourwebsite.com/blog.

3. Develop And Promote Your Own Brand – By placing it on your own hosting you will now have the freedom to develop and promote your own brand. This is very important for search engine optimization purposes as you will be promoting your website domain instead of something else. It also allows you to use similar keywords and other optimization strategies that you are doing for your site.

4. Security Control – Another added bonus is security control. You will not have to worry about being locked out of of your account, or having your blog deleted because of similar content. This gives you the freedom and peace of mind to create something that will last for a long time.

5. Professional Image - Hosting your blog on your own domain also gives you the opportunity to present your home business more professionally. It allows you to incorporate your own website design with your logo, titles, headlines or any other features that you would like to have. All of these are very important to your visibility in the search engines.

The advantages that could present itself to you as a home business owner by hosting your blog on your own domain name is enormous. Just by giving your website the opportunity to improve its ranking in the search engines would be more than enough justification for doing this. If you have never thought about this before then it is time you do.

Godfrey Thaxter is a marketing consultant who writes informative and inspiring articles providing tips and strategies for “Home Business Success” with your internet marketing business. Click The Link Now To Get Instant Access To The “Highest Quality Advertising & Marketing” On The Internet – And To See How You Can Explode Your Traffic Generation Using Articles!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Godfrey_Thaxter
http://EzineArticles.com/?Advantages-of-Hosting-Your-Blog-on-Your-Domain-Name-For-Home-Business-Owners—Top-5-Benefits&id=3792559

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By Raynor Beins

Most internet marketing bloggers or niche marketing bloggers tend to drop everything and just give up, on average after 3 months in their field of blogging. Why is that? It’s mainly because of Content. Competitors in every niche will always be increasing because there’s always a market for every niche.

When people first start out thinking of running an internet business via blogging, they are usually extremely motivated. Why? Because their mindset is just to make money. This becomes their drive and so when they write their first post, they’re hoping to start making money almost immediately. With the honest fact, that is never the case and so they keep writing post after post filling with content and content. It will then come to a stage where they will feel exhausted because their traffic is crawling in and money is not being generated as fast as they would like.

Demoralization sets in and their drive slows down. When that happens, the content they start to write on becomes dull and boring. That’s right.

Your Attitude and Personality Will Reflect On Your Writing.

Over time, these bloggers will find themselves looking high and low for fresh content, with no luck, because:

1. They do not know WHERE to get fresh content

2. They do not know HOW to get fresh content

Getting fresh content for your blog is not as difficult as you may think. Here are some methods and tips for you to keep that motivation and drive up and running.

Select the right topics that readers want to read. If you’re a new blogger, it doesn’t matter because the internet is all about:

1. Providing Value

2. Providing Solutions

3. Providing Guidance

4. Providing Assistance and Help

5. Providing Answers

Majority of internet users will go onto the internet looking for answers because they may have a slight set-back or problem in their life. (This is aside from social networking with their friends and families)

So Where and How do you get fresh content?

1. Spy on Your Competition

Read up on what your competitors are talking about. What are their hot topics that are receiving tons of comments and feedback. Do you see any trends from your competitors? Are you up to date or back dated? If your main competitors are doing well because of their content, why not follow? Do not copy what they’ve written but you can use their ideas and with that, generate your own articles for your blogs.

For example, if you’re in the Internet Marketing industry, you can read up on top bloggers like Problogger, John Chow, Mike Filsaime, Joel Comm and more.

2. Read Forums

Forums are one of the best ways to get content. It’s right there waiting for you. Make sure the forums are related to your niche market. If you have been to forums and if you look closely, there are people there searching for answers and you can use this as your content idea for what people are looking for.

Forums are filled with fresh content for you. Use this as a tool to build your blog. Read the rest of this entry »

Deciding to sell affiliate products can be a very profitable business, but most merchants require affiliates to have a website. If you don’t know how to build a website, therein lies your first hurdle.

Not that long ago, if you wanted to create your own website, there were several skills you needed to get the job done like learning HTML and how to use web design and graphic editing software. Most of them came with a steep learning curve and that left you with some hard choices. Here are a few of them.

1) Take the time to learn it on your own

If you have a need to build a website, but don’t know how to use the tools to get the job done, it’s not impossible to teach yourself if you’ve a savvy student with the desire to learn. But, we live in a world of instant gratification and for that reason, everything around us revolves non-stop. Either you keep up with that merry-go-round or you’ll get left behind still trying to figure out how to use website development software while the other affiliates are banging out websites and making money. You’ll always need to have some basic understanding of how to insert the affiliate HTML code into your website, but if you don’t have the desire or time to learn how to actually build a site from the bottom up, you can always…

2) Hire an expensive web developer

A small straightforward site to promote an affiliate product can easily cost several hundred dollars. It also leaves you at the mercy of the developer’s schedule to build it and to maintain it. If you can make simple content changes yourself, you’ll still need a website editor and that involves that leaning curve thing again. Hopefully you’ll be a successful affiliate marketer and recover your programming expenses, but what if the commissions don’t come in as planned and you’d like another site to promote something else? Are you willing to spend more money to repeat that cycle for every new niche marketing idea you think of?

3) Use an online site builder

Most web hosting accounts come with free online site builders, but you’re stuck with the limited template selection in their gaudy greens, purples, and yellows. How can you promote bass fishing products when the closest outdoor template is one of kids playing on a swing set? Some of those templates make it impossible to modify header graphics, colors, and layout, and with good reason; they want you to pay for a professional web designer to build your site.

4) Free blogs

Free blogs are a great way to learn how to easily build a site, but some free blogs don’t allow affiliates to promote products. Some even go further and prohibit you from using the blog as a jumping off point to direct traffic to another site that contains your affiliate offer. Free blogs also don’t allow you to upload any plug-ins. There are so many wonderful free plug-ins that can turn a plain Jane looking blog into a stunning content management system.

So what’s an affiliate to do?

1) Start out with your own web hosting account that allows you to build unlimited websites and blogs. Better yet, sign up for a hosting plan from a green web hosting provider.

2) Buy your domain names cheap and take advantage of the unlimited add on domains feature on your hosting account. You’ll only need one web hosting account to host as many domains as you like.

3) Instead of building a website from scratch, install WordPress from your account’s control panel onto your new domains. You’ll be able to sell anything you like from your own site and not be at the mercy of some free blogging website.

Niche Marketing with WordPress

One of the most powerful features of WordPress is the ability to change the look and feel simply by installing one of the many free WordPress themes available for download, if you can find one with a header, color, and layout for your niche market. One caveat though, developers give them away for free for a reason. They usually contain a sponsor’s backlink in the footer and it must remain there.

The Ultimate Solution – Make Your Own WordPress Themes

So we come to the conclusion of this article with what I believe is the ultimate must-have tool in an affiliate’s arsenal; the ability to create your own WordPress themes without having to do any coding or pay someone to build a theme for you. If you can click a mouse, you can build your own theme.

You’ll be able to place the sidebars and navigation bars where you want and import your own header graphics to create laser targeted niche themes. Change colors, fonts, and layouts with the click of a button. Easily create a new theme for each product you promote, or create a master theme exactly how you like it, then only change the colors and header graphics. Download a fully functional free copy of Artisteer to see just how easy it is to create your own WordPress themes. I’ll give you fair warning, though. Artisteer is addictive.

If you display the same banner ads or PPC ads over and over in your posts or pages, there’s no need to copy and paste the code each time.  There’s a slick free ad manager plug-in that can do multiple things.

• Rotate ads within the same space by creating zones.
• Create individual ads to use when and where ever you like.
• Use a PHP code snippet to modify your theme, or…
• Use a tag to insert into your posts/pages only as needed.

Plugin(s) You’ll Need: 

1. WPAds
2. Advanced Text (optional, for display ads in sidebars)

Once installed, you can configure it in Settings > WPAds.

Description:  A brief description of what the ad is.

HTML Code:  Paste your HTML code in here.

Zones:  The name of a zone (area) on your blog.  When multiple ads are assigned to the same zone, they will rotate according to the next three settings.   You can configure an add to run in multiple zones by separating zone names with a comma.

Active:  Checkbox toggle to activate/deactivate the display of a particular ad.

Weight:  How often an ad should display in relationship to the other ads in the same zone.  1 is the default.  The higher the number, the more it displays.

Max Views:  Set the maximum number of impressions an ad should display.  Once the number has been reached, it stops displaying even when the Active checkbox is checked.

When you click the Save button, the code you’ll need to insert will display in the Zones section of the configuration screen.

PHP code:  This snippet can be placed within your theme’s template files.

Post code:  This snippet can be placed within a post or page where you want the ad to display.  You’ll need to switch to the HTML tab of the editor to insert it. 

Problems With Sidebars

I find that the post code does not work in sidebars, but the php code does if you insert it into an Advanced Text widget.  The download link for that plugin is above.  The Advanced Text widget works just like the normal Text widget, but it allows you to insert PHP code.

The search engines love blogs and they love blogs that are frequently updated.  If you’re a prolific writer and are blessed with penning more than one article per day, don’t publish them all at once.  Instead, use WordPress’ scheduling feature to schedule those extra posts in advance.  Even publishing 2-3 times/week keeps the search engines happy. 

Here’s how to schedule posts in WordPress.

On the post and page editing screens, access the scheduler in the Publish widget in the right sidebar.

When the future data and time arrives, WordPress will automatically make the post live on your blog.

If you experience that posts are not publishing according to the time zone you’ve set up under Settings > General, more advanced users can install the WordPress Core Control plug-in to manage the CRON jobs.

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There are a variety of reasons why someone would want to hide/cloak their affiliate links.  I found all kinds of expensive software to do it, but I wanted a free method.  I could use PHP, but I didn’t want to leave my WordPress dashboard, go make a php page and then upload it to my server.  So I McGyver’d it and came up with my own method using a couple of plugins.  Don’t laugh, it works.  Even for Commission Junction.

Here’s how to easily hide your affiliate links in WordPress…for free.  This works for HTML links, not Javascript.

Plugin(s) You’ll Need

1. Exclude Pages  (only if you want to keep the redirect page out of menus and widgets)
2. Redirect  UPADATE:  Since writing this post, I’ve switched to Quick Page/Post Redirect.  It has more control.

Other Considerations

My permalinks use /%postname%/ so my keyword laden titles become the page name instead of that lame p=123 format.  BEFORE you go changing your permalink structure and pissing off the search engines with a bunch of borken links, not to mention, losing your page rank, install Dean’s Permalink Migration plugin.  THEN, go into Settings > Permalinks > Custom and enter /%postname%/  (Make sure you have both the preceeding and trailing slash and percent signs).  Dean’s plugin will create 301 redirects to the new page when you change the permalink structure so your pages and posts still work and you won’t lose face with the search engines..

Install and activate the plugins.

1. Add a new a Page, not a Post.
2. Enter a short page title.  The title will become your new affiliate URL.  Say you’re selling bananas.  Enter:  bananas, or get bananas, or buy bananas, or go bananas.  If you want, you can create a parent page like go, recommends, get, etc. and then create your affiliate redirect page as a child page of the parent page.  Depends on how anal you are about organizing things.  On a big site, it’s good to have your redirects all in one spot.
3. Exclude the page from the menu by unchecking the checkbox on ‘Include this page on user menus’.  Same thing goes for the parent page if you’re making a child page.  If you don’t, the page will appear any place other pages display like in menus or widgets.  If you want it to show up in those places, then leave it checked or don’t install the Exclude Pages plugin to begin with, but I always do.

There are two different style of affiliate links…

• Simple URLs with an affiliate ID, page, or sub-directory, depending on how they structure it, or
• Snippets of code like Commission Junction with a URL and/or some type of image such as a 1×1 pixel tracking image for text links, or a banner.  If it’s a text link it will also have anchor text.

Simple Affiliate URL’s

1. While still in the Page editor, in the Custom Fields (just below the page editor), create a new custom field.
2. Name:  redirect.   (Fields you’ve already used will appear in the list box.)
3. Value:  paste your affiliate URL in here, too, BUT NOT for Commission Junction or other affiliate code that includes an banner or pixel tracking image.  Here’s how you do that…
4. Now click the Add Custom Field button to add it to the page.
5. When you’re done, click Publish.
6. Now copy the URL from the page you just created.  You should see it displayed in the Permalink right under the title, just above the editor’s toolbar.  This is the URL you will use INSTEAD of your affiliate link.
7. Here’s how to call the new redirect page for simple anchor text.  Any place in a post or page where you want to use your affiliate link for anchor text, just call your redirect page and have it open a new window, if you like.  Like this:

That’s it.  Now lets set up the more complex Commission Junction page.

Commission Junction Links or Affiliate Code With a Banner or Pixel Tracking (1×1 image) 

1. In the Page editor, click the HTML tab and paste your CJ code into the editor.  We’ll use this as a temporary workspace and we’ll do it in HTML mode so we don’t introduce goofball characters.
   
2. Looking at the image above with the yellow highlighting, copy EVERYTHING between the first set of double-quotes from the HREF anchor tag, but NOT the quotation marks.  (You will not have an SID if you’re not doing any tracking.) 
3. Now paste what you copied into the Value field for Custom Links.  So your Custom Fields redirect should look like this:
4. Now click the Add Custom Field button to add it to the page.
5. When you’re done, click Publish.
6. Now copy the URL from the page you just created.  You should see it displayed in the Permalink right under the title, just above the editor’s toolbar.  This is the URL you will use INSTEAD of your affiliate link.
7. In the HTML editor where you pasted the original CJ code, replace the HREF anchor value with your new affiliate redirect page like shown in the image below, leaving the rest of the code alone so it can display, but most importantly, still track properly.
   
8. After you setup everything above, copy the new Commission Junction code into your sidebar widget or drop it where you want it to display in your posts and pages in HTML mode.
9. Go back and remove the CJ code from the HTML editor area and republish.  Leaving it there won’t break anything, but it will inflate your CJ impression stats because the image it will cause it to track a second time when that redirect page is called.

Don’t forget to test it to make sure it goes to the merchant’s site.

About that little 1×1 pixel tracking code

If after you insert a CJ text link and you see that little 1×1 pixel even though it says border=”0″, it could be because of your theme.  Here is a slick way around that.  I stole it from Amazon’s affiliate text links.

Replace the:  border=”0″

With this:  border=”0″ style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;”

Then any border around that pixel image will vanish.

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Your WordPress data like posts, pages, and categories are saved in a MySQL database table with a ID number.  Sometimes widgets and theme settings require the entry of an ID number.  For example:  You may be asked to enter the ID# of categories you’d like to include/exclude from a widget.  How do you find that ID#?  There are a few ways, but this is the absolute no brainer way.

In your WordPress dashboard, go the Edit page for the item you need.  Example:  Let’s find the ID# of the post you’re reading right now.

1. Go to Posts
2. Go to Edit
3. Right-click on the title of the Post
4. Click on Properties to see the ID# as in the picture below: