At last count there were more than 100 pinging services available along several WordPress plugins.

Pinging, for the uninitiated, is the act of notifying a wide variety of web directories, search engines and RSS feed aggregators of a new or updated post on your blog. The more directories and search engines that are notified of your post, the more likely you are to attract visitors whilst receiving back links.

The question is, should you ping your blog? The previous paragraph makes it clear there are definite advantages to pinging, there are also definite disadvantages as well. Blog and website services that offer to ping your blog do so by linking as many directories and search engines as possible. Not all services are the same. Service A may have 40 directories, search engines and RSS aggregators on their books while service B has 50. Therein lies a problem.

Many bloggers look at ping services and compare their ping recipients. Ping service A has 40; ping service B has 50; the duplication may be only 10 so the blogger decides to use both services to ping their latest blog. What they have done is pinged 10 of those services twice. Thats ok occasionally, do it to often and you may get banned for spamming.

Using plugins can be a good idea. With plugins you can enter in the services that you wish to ping. This avoids the duplicate ping that may occur by using more than one blog and website service. When using a plugin there is one catch. Some plugins do not check for previous pings, so a simple act like publishing - with an automatic ping, followed by a quick edit for a spelling or layout change, may result in a second ping the moment you save again.

Use a good plugin and it will identify the previous ping and not ping a second time. My advice, where possible, use a plugin if it is available and only use a blog and website service to ping your blog after making a major change to the posts content - in those situations, you want the updated post out there.

We have written many articles dedicated to blog design including a previous post on keeping it simple. With the release of WordPress 2.5 I thought it was timely to look at the basic features of your blog design when it comes to user friendliness.

For whatever reason you publish a blog, the design should focus on the reader and what they need to successfully navigate through your blog. Rather than tell you how to do something, which I will do in a later post, I am going to ask you to review your blog using the following questions:

1. Overall Blog Design: Is your design easy on the eyes - some blogs are either far to soft or far to harsh - where would classify yours?
2. Navigation: Does you blog have clearly labeled navigation links particularly Home; Previous Posts through either Categories, Archives or Most Popular; and dedicated pages such as About?
3. Font Size and Color: Is the font size easy to read and are the colors of the text and links appropriate both in respect of readability and overall color scheme?
4. Subscription: If you are offering subscription feeds - are the icons clearly visible, the appropriate size and above the fold?
5. Comments: are the comments easy to access with clearly defined icons or text links?

If your blog design does not address these five basic design features then you may find that your readers are frustrated, uncomfortable reading your content and unlikely to return again. Your blog should be a friendly easy to access and easy to use site that not only welcomes the visitors, it encourages them to return again and again.

Get your blog design right and you can spend more time working on the content. Design offers friendship - content earns respect - interaction delivers loyalty. Get your blog design right and you have made the first step towards developing a loyal reader base.

Trying to get that killer article? Looking for a post that’s going to get to the front page of Digg? I am probably not going to be a lot of help today. However there is one major point when it comes your blog content that really does need addressing - is there a major point to your post?

I am sure you have seen a great title on a post and decided to check it out. Whilst reading you get that feeling of disappointment slowly creep through you as you wonder - where is this post going?

When determining your blog content a great starting place is to find a main point. From there you can derive a clever title, an opening paragraph that introduces the main point, and an article that addresses that point. It can be fairly obvious when reading a post when the author has not had a clear point to make and has started writing in a random fashion.

If you are trying to gain a reputation for providing reliable content then the last thing you want is to send a message that you are a rambler. I am sure there are some blogs where rambling random thoughts are not only appropriate but valid. These sites are often read for pleasure and humor and are generally not taken seriously.

In brief - what’s the point of having a great title if the blog content doesn’t have a point to make.

Probably not busted but this WordPress tip reveal 6 of the main myths and debunks them totally.

WordPress is really for amateurs: Really, does that make me an amateur. One of the good things about WordPress is that it is great for everyone - amateur to professional. You can virtually use it ‘out of the box’ or customize it as much as your skills allow. There are many professionals who use WordPress as their preferred blogging tool.

You can build a complete site with WordPress: No. WordPress is a blogging and CMS (content management system). There are themes and plugins that enable you do a lot with the software. In practical terms, WordPress is to heavy on CPU usage to be a viable web page. Dedicated web pages are leaner, meaner and much quicker.

WordPress can handle as many plugins as you want: No. There is a point where even WordPress cannot cope. Your server will most likely suspend you before that happens. WordPress uses a lot of CPU time and each additional plugin simply puts more stress on that CPU time. When it comes to plugins, leaner is meaner. The more plugins you have, the slower it all becomes.

WordPress is easily hacked: Only if you allow it. WordPress is as safe as most sites. If you keep your version up to date and pay attention to any notices from WordPress regarding security, you will be fairly safe.

It is hard to find help for WordPress: There is probably more documentation on WordPress than any other blogging software. WordPress.org has pages and pages of help. A simple Google search will find millions of article on just about any WordPress issue.

WordPress is limited to just 10 text boxes in the sidebar: There are several fixes to this issue. The reality is that you can have as many text boxes in your sidebars as you want. The reality. Just like plugins, the more text boxes you have the slower it all becomes.

WordPress is free: I just knew I would come across one myth that I couldn’t debunk. Yes, WordPress is free and so are many of the themes and plugins.

WordPress is a robust and very popular blog software platform that is used by millions every day. There are thousands, if not millions of WordPress tips, it just takes a little sifting to find the right ones - or you could just come back here occasionally.

Too many bloggers ignore the real power of social bookmarking when it comes to SEO and SERP benefits. There are distinct benefits from social media marketing particularly social bookmarking.

Sites that are bookmarked are often spidered much more frequently than a humble blog. That frequency can be hourly compared daily. To have a post ranked within an hour or two of posting can be important, particularly if you are trying to break a story and beat others to the punch.

The most effective social bookmarking sites for SEO purposes are StumbleUpon, Digg, del.icio.us and technorati. Don’t however limit yourself to these sites as other dedicated sites such as Sphinn are often just as quick.

When it comes to social bookmarking, content is king. The aim of any social bookmarking strategy is to get other users to ‘vote’ on your post using the sites voting pattern. For SU its a thumbs up and for Digg, well its a dig of course. These votes are a mark of popularity, the more popular the post is, the faster it will be ’seen’ by the search engines. With a post that is also optimized well in the use and placement of keywords the position within the search engine results can be maintained for an extended period of time.

Over time your post may well lose the top spot, in may in fact disappear of the front page altogether. That is fine. You have had your hit. While the topic was hot your post was as the top of the results. Once the topic goes off the boil the number of searches will reduce. Time to move on to the next ‘hot’ topic.
If you wear badges on your posts, eg, number of Diggs, Sphinns etc, it can become viral with people voting on Sphinn to outdo the Digg count. One social bookmarking site is rarely enough to get to number one. You need to work the rounds and get a boost from a number of sites. Likewise, you will not get voted on for every post. Pick your posts, pick your moments, then get the boost while its there to be picked.

Spam is one a nuisance that all bloggers seem to face on an almost daily basis. You can at least put in a few obstacles to either slow down the number of spam attacks. These blogging tips can help to at least prevent the spam comments from being published.

Use an anti spam plugin: There are several plugins you can install that will either prevent spam or at least remove it into a moderation area for you to deal with at a later date.

Use a Captcha plugin: These plugins are often considered to be a nuisance by many bloggers, however they quickly put a stop to any robot spam attacks. Captcha works by making the commentator type in a series or numbers or characters. A robot cannot read or insert these Captcha characters.

Hide your email address: You can publish your email address while hiding it from most email trolling robots. These robots search the web looking for email addresses to add to their databases. Rather than using your email address in the traditional format - publish your email address in the form of name (at) domain (dot) com. Your readers will immediately identify it as an email address but the robots cannot.

These three blogging tips will help to at least reduce the amount of spam you may get on your blog.

Your blog can be likened to a book. A nice cover, perhaps a short bio about the author (you do have an About page don’t you?), and either interesting lead in articles or short excerpts. You work hard, you have the right keywords, you have great content and you are getting traffic through the search engines. Great! Everything is working fine - or is it?

Getting your blog SEO right is only the first step. Good SEO strategies will see you listed on the front page of the search engines and will start to generate traffic. What happens when that traffic arrives on your blog?

I have come across many articles through search engines or social sites, articles that have been good enough to attract me to their site. The problem I have found is that I cannot go any further. Comments are hidden with the link not obvious - often a fancy graphic that blends well with the site - but doesn’t flag itself as a comment link.

Some sites have the ‘Home’ link hidden. Once I have read an article I often like to visit the home page to see what the latest article is - no link - or at least - no obvious link. Like most internet surfers, I don’t have time to hunt around to find these links so I leave the site and move on.

These sites have done everything possible to get me there. Their use of keywords has obviously been good, their blog SEO practices have been spot on - their site has let them down. As bloggers we have to avoid the blinker approach, an approach where you focus all your attention on one aspect of your blog which ends up being detrimental to the overall affect.

Blog SEO is important, so to is content. Your sites design and user friendliness is also just as important. Once you have attracted your visitor you want to keep them for as long as possible before finally moving on - preferably through a convenient link. Don’t stop just at keyword optimization - work on your whole blog.

If you write good content and find that when publishing your post could go into more than one category, what do you do? Do you tick each of the relevant categories boxes? I am sure your readers would appreciate it if you did tick each of the relevant categories. You cannot second guess your reader. They may place this article in the WordPress tip category, or the blog plugins or perhaps even the blogging tips.

Unfortunately, when you tick more than one category box you run the risk of having your post placed in the duplicate content pile by search engines. As they crawl your pages they read each post in each category. Use two categories for your post and the spider reads it twice - hello - duplicate content.

There is a plugin available that puts a stop to the duplicate content issue. It works by placing a ‘noindex, follow’ into the robots meta tag for each of the offending pages. A simple cure for a potentially big problem.

Blog plugins like this are everywhere, they are just difficult to track down sometimes. This plugin is available from the SEO Logs along with all the information needed to download and install. You can check out other blog plugins from our wide range of articles and blogging tips.

Blog marketing, web site marketing; it is all marketing. I am often amused to see ’specialist’ proclaim that internet marketing requires special skills that only those from within the online marketing industry can do. What a load of ####.

Marketing is marketing. Some of the tools used may require some specialized training, however the general principles of marketing still apply. It doesn’t matter whether you are using old fashioned (but still popular) print media, radio, television or any other form of marketing, it is still marketing - in this case, using the internet.

I am prepared to accept that once you have decided on your marketing strategy and the message you are trying to deliver, you may then use specialist to create some parts of the campaign - television crew, radio sound recordist or print layout artist. Likewise with the internet, you may employ a graphic artist to design a banner, or a programmer to write the software or pages, the actual campaign itself will have been designed by a marketing specialist.

When deciding on a blog marketing campaign, think first of marketing. Design a good marketing strategy then look at how you can deliver that campaign - online is not always the only way. You product, service or blog should drive the marketing campaign.

If you start to think online first and what methods could be used to deliver your campaign, you run the risk of letting the marketing vehicle drive your campaign and not the product. This could limit the effect of any blog marketing campaign and result in a waste of marketing funds.

When it comes to blog marketing, let the blog drive the campaign, don’t let other factors unduly influence your campaign.

The best blog design is one that is easy to navigate, easy to use and easy to read. A fancy blog design may look great but if the reader finds navigation difficult or the text hard to read, all that work will have gone to waste.

Some designs only need a minor tweak. I was asked by a friend to look at his blog recently to find out why he had such a high bounce rate (over 90%). The first thing that struck me was the header image, it consumed the whole opening screen. For a lot of visitors, they land on that page and don’t know what to do next. The opening graphic, being so large, also took a while to load.

The quick fix was to reduce the graphic in height by 50%. This allowed the page to load faster and of course brought the content and menus above the fold. His bounce rate is now down to around 70% - still high, but much better that the 90%. He was fortunate, his graphic allowed for 50% reduction in height without degrading the overall effect. It is rare to have an easy fix like that.

I see a lot of blogs that are far to complicated. A simple design is all that is needed. If you are looking to deliver information then that information should be your primary focus and the blog design should focus on that as well.

For blogs that are intended to produce income, your design should focus on leading your readers to your income streams. Leave the fancy designs to the blogs that are created for fun and pleasure.

Blog design - keep it simple and keep it focused on what the blog is there for.

The latest concept in online advertising is the video and audio ad units. Whilst still in its early stages, most bloggers can increase their blogging income by incorporating one of these ad units on their site.

I have my doubts as the long term value of audio ads in their current format. They do not have any user control and are generally played as soon as a page is loaded. This will have the effect of slowing the load speed of the page.

Video ad units on the other hand look to be a much better prospect. These load as static images and require the user to click to play. It takes a second click to visit the advertisers web site. Google are the latest to ad video ads to their ad unit inventory and come in a variety of sizes.

At present the number of advertisers using video ads is fairly low, however as the concept grows and the production costs fall and I can see many more advertisers adding the concept to their advertising programs.

Google have several articles relating to the concept that are well worth reading if you are looking to add other options to your blogging income portfolio.

WordPress 2.5 - the latest version of this popular blog software is almost ready for release - a release date will be nominated sometime over the next few days. You can however get a sneak preview by visiting WordPress. There sneak peak includes screen shots and a breakdown of some of the changes - and they appear to be major.

This release is later than first expected and although complete and ready for release, WordPress are only releasing it for final testing at present. Once they receive feedback on its stability and any bugs, they will release it to the general public. Once released, I suggest you carefully read all the upgrade instructions and make a full backup of your current blog before installing.

The WordPress blog software upgrade includes a fully redesigned dashboard and to quote WordPress:

[source] A customizable dashboard, multi-file upload, built-in galleries, one-click plugin upgrades, tag management, built-in Gravatars, full text feeds, and faster load times sound interesting? Then WordPress 2.5 might be the release for you. It’s been in the oven for a while, and we’re finally ready to open the doors a bit to give you a taste.

From the screen shots it does appear to be a much friendlier interface all over. Until I test it out I cannot comment on the load speed. That is one issue I hope they have addressed. Anyone who writes a blog will have that, at times, WordPress can be very slow when moving from one menu item to the next.

Overall it looks good. It looks fresh, the ability to develop color schemes will be nice but the functionality is going to be the most important issue. Be able to manipulate multiple items like your posts, pages or comments will be very handy.

For me, and for many others users, the most important component will be the ease of upgrade. If the upgrade is not a simple smooth process then I can see many bloggers shouting for help. If you are unsure or feel it may be a little difficult, wait a couple of weeks before upgrading. Let the masses upgrade first and learn from any of the mistakes they have made. If you do go through the upgrade, be sure to let others know of any problems and how you overcame them.

WordPress 2.5 - its overdue - but it looks like continuing the tradition of being the best blog software in the marketplace - and it is generally free - what more could you ask for.

How old is your blog? When was the last time you gave it a good overhaul? Blogs are a little like cars in a way. Over time they become clogged with little impurities and need a good service and tune up. You can do the job yourself - a home tune up, or you can find a mechanic, a good blog and website services specialist to do the job for you.

Giving your blog a regular service is not always difficult. It can be time consuming and may require the downloading and installing of more up to date components. The outcome may just be a leaner and faster blog that your visitors will appreciate.

Over time we tend to accumulate a lot of unnecessary fluff within our blogs. If your like me and like to fiddle a little, you will have plugins installed, some even unused. Perhaps there are a few themes just sitting and taking up space. Are your categories may be all over the place and without any structure?

Then there are some of the harder tasks like the datafile. Has that been checked and optimized at all since you started blogging? Yes - you can get a plugin to do that for you too.

If you have any doubts about giving your blog a good service, talk to a blog and website services professional. You will be surprised at how little it can cost to have your blog polished back to a shiny new lean machine. It will be brought up to date with all the latest software and running like a dream.

Preparing blog content can be difficult, particularly if you are trying to write a post everyday or even harder, trying to write a couple of posts each day. There are a couple of key points that make the preparation of your blog content just a little easier.

Format

Write in an easy-to-read light style. Blog readers have developed a reading style of their own. Don’t bother with long sentences or large paragraphs. Keep everything short and to the point. Your finished copy should be easily scanned. Articles should be between 300 and 700 words max. The ideal size is around 500 words.

Style

It seems the preferred font for reading blogs is Sans-Serif and the size at 10 or 12 points. Any smaller and it is too much of a strain. Any larger and you are shouting. White space is another key preference. Small paragraphs create their own natural white space.

Delivery

Writing blog content that can be scanned quickly means delivering the content in nice neat little chunks. Bullet or numbered points are easily scanned. Small paragraphs with headings (as I have done with this post) also make for quick reading.

Keywords

Placing keywords in the article title are almost a must now. The keyword you use is also the  ‘keyword’ for attracting your readers.  For a 500 word article, you need only use the keyword six or seven times for SEO effect. Don’t fill the article with your keywords - keep the content interesting.

When preparing your content the most important thing to remember is why you are writing and who you are writing for. Don’t fall into the trap of saying I write for myself. If that is the case., why publish on a blog? You are writing for the general population.

Keep the articles user friendly, don’t fill them with keywords or long technical words. Keep the article as simple and straight forward as possible - but don’t dumb it down.  You need to provide good blog content, not dumb blog content.

WordPress is arguably the number one platform for bloggers in today’s Web 2.0 environment. Everywhere you look there are blog plugins that can do everything from changing your admin screen to administering comments to monetizing your blog - and everything in between. Not only are you faced with so many plugins, everywhere you look there is another WordPress tip about which blog plugin is best for your blog.

As a blogger it can be difficult to know where to start. Which blog plugin is right for me? Which WordPress tip should I follow? At the risk of being added to those questions, here a few tips to help you out.

Less is More: Start with the bare bones and build slowly. Don’t add every plugin that sounds good. Plugins actually slow down the load speed of your blog  so the fewer installed, the less drain on your blogs load time.

A Plugin Should Solve a Need: Plugins should really only be installed if they are either solving a problem (for example, a spam filter for spam comments) or fulfill a need (for example, improve your RSS feed).  I have come across blogs that have had both Askismet and Big Brother installed - and they wondered why they were having problems.

Plugins Should be Optimized: If you install a plugin then read the install files and the usage files. If there is a configuration option then ensure it is configured to do what you require. Some plugins will not work unless configured correctly.

Blog plugins are generally written to fulfill a need. At last count there were over 1500 plugins - possibly more. It is obvious you are not going to need all of them. You need to be selective with your choice of plugin. If it doesn’t do the job required, de-activate it and delete it and find a plugin that will do the job.