This WordPress tip is aimed at those who have not bothered to update their software for sometime. If use or rely on Technorati they will soon stop indexing sites that have not upgraded to the latest software.

Technorati are taking this action due to the number of security breaches that have been detected in recent times. These breaches include the insertion of hidden links on blog pages created prior to the version 2.3.3 update. To quote a lengthy piece from Technorati’s blog post on the topic:

Blogs that have been compromised by this security vulnerability are typified by having links to spam destinations inserted onto the blog page. These link insertions may be invisible to casual observations; the links are often obscured by style attributes that render them invisible.

You can check your blog for links using the page source code or the Tools - Page Info - Links option in Firefox. The ramifications are, again from the Technorati blog:

Because of this ongoing problem, we’re discontinuing processing crawls of blogs that exhibit common symptoms of being compromised. We strongly recommend upgrading your WordPress installation. Even if you haven’t been afflicted by a compromise, by the time you are aware that you have been a number of negative consequences may have already occurred (for instance, flagged spam by Technorati, Google or Yahoo!) — this has been reported by many WordPress users.

The last thing you want is to suddenly lose your rankings within Google or Technorati due to ‘link selling’ when in actual fact you have been spam linked. The biggest WordPress tip for the year so far is to upgrade to the latest software, check your pages for any spam links, and protect your hard earned rankings.

I could also have written how to prevent halving your blogging income through Adsense. The income you receive for each click is based in part on your click through rate or CTR.

As you work to increase your traffic, you need to carefully watch that your CTR doesn’t start to fall. Many bloggers use traffic generating solutions which, while great for generating traffic, usually deliver poor CTR results.

Examples of poor CTR traffic include StumbleUpon, Entre Card, Blogrush and many of the other social sites. The best traffic for generating higher CTR’s is that derived from organic search results through the major search engines.

Common sense would suggest that as they have clicked a link to find you, they will also click a similar link to leave if you don’t quite match what they are looking for. If it is an Adsense link they are clicking then your CTR will rise.

With this in mind, you need to be sure your Adsense units are optimized to deliver the best results. Matching those ad units to web page is the first step, however placement can be critical. Visitors will not always travel below the fold if they feel the site is not providing what they want. Trial your Adsense units in a variety of places to see which placement produces the best results.

The bottom line when relying on Adsense for your blogging income is to ensure that any growth in traffic is not matched by a drop in your CTR. If this happens your per click return will drop dramatically. If you can increase your CTR then you may well find your per click return increasing and, with luck, your blogging income doubling.

For many businesses, having a blog is an integral part of their marketing strategies. Blog SEO is similar to website SEO where the aim is to get to the top of the search engine results pages.

To achieve this, a company that specializes in blog SEO can provide services that will further the commercial goals of your business. This achieved in a number of ways.

Metrics and statistics are a cornerstone in blog SEO, however, the most important metric of all, and the most honest, is your bottom line. Are you achieving your targets?

The only way to achieve targets is by selling and before any sale can be made, or a lead generated, or for that matter, an inquiry received; your website must be found. Building a web site and maintaining it will not generate any traffic unless you undertake some website or blog SEO programs.

Blog SEO is not simply a matter of submitting your web site to search engines. Sure, you can build the most perfect web site in the world, but they will not come unless your web site ranks for the terms your customers are typing into search engines.

The link between your blog or website, the search engines and the millions of internet users is the blog SEO specialist. Their role is to have your business promoted to a position within the search pages where potential customers can find you.

In simple terms, blog SEO oils the wheels of commerce by bringing potential customer who have already shown interest in a products or services such as yours to your blog or website.

Have you updated to WordPress 2.5.1 yet. Are you a little nervous about going through the update process. Worry no more. Keith Dsouza has written a post on a blog plugin called WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin.

As the name implies, this blog plugin will upgrade your WordPress installation to latest version almost automatically. I say almost as you do need to click through some of the processes. However it is as auto as you are ever going to get. In fact the whole process takes no more than five minutes.

The upgrade follows the recommendations for WordPress upgrades in that it:

1. Checks that everything is okay to upgrade
2. backs up your data files
3. disables plugins
4. puts the site ofline
5. uploads the upgrade files from WordPress
6. install the files
7. updates data files
8. enables plugins
9. puts your site back online

All this is done while you basically click okay at each step. You can put it on auto and the blog plugin will do many of these steps without you clicking ok. It certainly makes the upgrade process much smoother and less intimidating.

Why do we go to great lengths to undertake blog SEO programs? That sounds like a silly question. We all know that the only way to get a decent placement in the search engine results is by telling the search engine all about us.

So what exactly are you telling the search engines about your blog and what should you be telling them? The term keyword is bandied about alot and yet it is only a descriptor. Search engines want to know more than just a list of keywords. The want to know all about your blog - and that is where blog SEO comes in.

Do you need to tell the search engines what each post (page) is about? No. Search engines are not human, they cannot think or understand meanings. In fact, search engines are only interested in words. They are becoming smarter when it comes to deciphering un-natural word groupings, but they cannot put a word into a picture as a human does.

Search engines are really only focused on word matching. I enter a search term and the search engine goes through its data base trying to find entries that match that word or group of words. The search engine then delivers those results as a list based on the rankings for each page found. Blog SEO is all about (a) telling them that your page exist and (b) getting your page the highest ranking possible.

The word matching process is labeled ‘keyword’. In simple terms, a user enters a search word - called a keyword - and the matching process begins. If your blog SEO has been successful using that keyword then you may well find yourself with a high ranking for that page.

Why undertake blog SEO. To get ranked by the search engines so that internet users can find your pages and come and visit. If no one knows you exist, no one will come. Very simple philosophy, however, blog SEO is darned hard work.

Outsourcing your blog content has become popular particularly with web site owners who are also running a bricks and mortar business. Having the time to write interesting and informative content that is also search engine optimized can take time, and business owners often don’t have that time.

When trying to find a blog content provider there are several things you should look for. These include:

1. Look for a blog content provider that has been around for awhile
2. Ask to see examples of their work
3. Determine whether or not they offer extra services such as social bookmarking
4. Look for value - can they provide daily posts
5. Can they provide writers skilled in your niche

There are many good blog content providers around these days. Find one that is willing to actually talk to you and not just communicate online. Discuss your needs and get a thorough understanding of what you are receiving for your money.

Blog content providers can prove to be good value for money if you employ the right people for the job.

I say pain as sometimes it can be very tedious and even frustrating getting your blog listed into many of the blog directories. One of my biggest frustrations is trying to find a category that is suited to the blog I want listed - and every directory seems to have a different set of categories.

However, are they worth the effort? Most directory sites seem to have taken a little dip in the rankings of late, does that mean that Google no longer favors them or is it a temporary glitch? For some blog directories  it no longer matters,  they have incorporated no follow into the their out going links.

If you do decide to submit to one of the blog directories, determine if it does follow, if not, is it popular enough to deliver traffic - if not - don’t bother.

Blog directories that haven’t  gone the no follow route can still provide some good value. If they allow links to inner pages, so much the better. Blog directories that use the do follow and allow deeper linking are few and far between. If you can find one, use it and use it well.

Ensure you select the right category and write a good description. If submitting to more than one directory, use a unique description for each one - chances are you are using a slightly different category so write your description to marry your blog to the blog directories you are submitting to.

Whilst it may be a tedious job submitting to blog directories, the links you receive will all help to build on the rankings of your blog - use blog directories only if they do provide some real help.

An interesting blog plugin came to my attention recently that enable the blogger to go into some of the WordPress functions and tweak them. Some of the features of this plugin include:

• Remove “nofollow” from comment author links
• Remove “nofollow” from comment body links
• Open external comment links in new windows
• Open external post links in new windows
• Show post excerpts (instead of full content) on archive pages
• Add “nofollow” to the “Register” and “Login” links

There are more features available listed on the download site. WordPress Tweaks blog plugin can be downloaded and quickly installed with little drama. One of the convenient things about a plugin like this is that it performs several jobs and may even enable you to remove two or three plugins that you have used in the past.

With the update of WordPress to 2.5.1 it may well be time to check each of your blog plugins for updates. While you are at it double check to see whether or not you really need that plugin.

Blog plugins are everywhere and just occasionally you come across one that can do the job of two plugins. One less blog plugin means your system will run just that touch faster.

There are so many blog metrics tools around it can be hard to know which ones are best and how to use them. Here are three quick and dirty measurements that will often give you a good indication of your sites development.

Nothing succeeds like success and success can often be measured in popularity. Blog metrics could be just a simple measure of your popularity.

Is your traffic growing?
A simple tool like a site meter will tell you if your site is growing in popularity. They are not always accurate but as we are only after a rough indication, they will suffice. Your site may provide stats in the form of AWstats or similar. A steady growth in traffic indicates an increase in exposure.

Is your readership growing?
In contrast to visitors, this measures the number of subscribers you have to your RSS feeds. Is this number growing, falling or stagnant. A growth in numbers indicates a growth in interest either from your visitors, or from splogs looking to re-publish your content.

Are the frequency and quality of your comments growing?
As you gain more authority and your readership grows you should start to notice a distinct increase in the quality of the comments left on your posts. The number of comments should start to increase as well. There will always be certain topics that attract more comments than others, however the quality of the actual comment should become more focused and of more use to other readers. This acts bait to bring in more commenter’s .

These are very simple measurements. However if you can start to see a growth trend in all of these areas then perhaps it may be worth the effort of getting a more advanced blog metrics measurement tool - and learning how to use it.

In the short term, blog metrics does not need to be complicated. The three areas I have pointed out can be measured with a glance on a daily basis and will provide the basic information needed to determine growth. Blog metrics - who needs the complicated data?

One mistake that businesses make when starting a blog is to use a free theme rather than getting a customized blog design. Some times, when you use a free theme you are getting what you paid for.

Free themes are often written by amateur writers and while they often look good, that is all they are good for. When using a free theme you need to run several checks. The first and most important check is via any of the tools that let you look at your site as the search engine spider sees it. Many themes have code errors in the blog design which prevent your pages from being fully read and indexed correctly.

Other free themes may have links to dubious sites, or at the very least, sites that you may not wish to link to. These links often appear in the footer, one area that some search engines treat with suspicion. You can easily check for these by using your browsers view code option. Scroll through to the footer to see whether or not there are any strange links. If there are then ditch the theme and find another blog design.

Free themes are just that, free. Create a blog using a theme custom designed by a reputable designer and they will do their best to ensure the code flows smoothly and the blog design delivers everything that you need from it. After all, they are professionals and their income relies on delivering quality products - there name is on the blog design.

If you do decide to go with an off the shelf theme, pay the few extra dollars to have it customized to your needs. Run the two checks I have suggested to ensure that everything flows and can be read by the search engines and that no strange links are included. Your blog design delivers the first impression to your visitors, and first impressions count.

Most people don’t look too closely at their domain names. If they did they would probably think twice before registering them. Then again, what a great marketing idea. Find a great domain name that has more than one meaning to it.

A post by Jared Stenze at webupon.com lists a group of domain names that have double readings and certainly look interesting.

Just to give you a taste:

Choose Spain dot com becomes Chooses Pain dot com - (choosespain dot com)

Teachers Talk dot com becomes Teacher Stalk dot com - (teacherstalk dot com)

Therapist Finder dot com becomes The Rapist Finder dot com - (therapistfinder dot com)

Find the right word combination and you could have a very novel domain name. Find the wrong combination and it could prove to be very embarrassing. Blogging tips are everywhere but it is not often you come across one that encourages double readings (meanings) for domain names.

Blog marketing can be interesting particularly as we humans are a strange race. If there is a road accident, we cannot help but slow down and take a look. When it comes to many of the social sites, the same can be true. When a topic becomes popular, people will have a look, even if the subject matter doesn’t particularly interest them.

The best place to undertake any blog marketing campaign is when you have a crowd gathered. Sometimes you need to be a little like a hot dog vendor who always seems to know where a crowd is going to develop.

Perhaps your blog marketing hasn’t reached that stage, however you certainly don’t want to be marketing to an empty room. Being able to get into any of the social sites and read where the trends are going, what topics are heating up and which ones are cooling off can be a worthwhile art to learn. Being able to place yourself so that you capitalize on any opportunities is an even harder art to master.

Master these two areas of social bookmarking and you will find that blog marketing through social sites is much easier and the results more than worth the effort.

And with WordPress there is always more. One of the reasons that WordPress remains as the number one blog software platform is due to the fact that it stays up to date and constantly releases fixes to any known problems.

WordPress 2.5.1 has been released to block a possible security breach and patch 70 (yes 70) known bugs. These bugs include:

[sourced from WordPress.org]

• Performance improvements for the Dashboard, Write Post, and Edit Comments pages.
• Better performance for those who have many categories
• Media Uploader fixes
• An upgrade to TinyMCE 3.0.7
• Widget Administration fixes
• Various usability improvements
• Layout fixes for IE

Depending on your installation, you may be able to upgrade through your web host particularly if you are using cPanel. If not, you will need to download the upgrade and install it manually. Full instructions are available with the download.

In today’s mult-media world your blog content needs to include more than just the written word.  First it was pictures and images followed by podcasts that took the blogging world by storm, at least in certain circles. Now people looking for videos to satisfy their online needs.

Along the way there was a brief flirt with live feeds which are still popular with some online sales  sites however as a general blogging experience, it has not taken off. Gone are days of pages full of rich content, at least, written content. It seems that visitors to blogs have moved beyond the information gathering stage and are now looking to be entertained at the same time. If your blog content does not entertain, the visitor will move on.

Inserting graphics and videos has never been easier particularly if you use WordPress and you have upgraded to the latest 2.5 version. You can easily insert a video or graphic into your blog content with a few simple clicks of the mouse.

Add to this the wealth of videos and images available through sites such as YouTube and there should be no reason why your site should remain bland. Your blog content is no longer about what you say - it is all about how you say it. Perhaps I should be throwing in a few videos of my own here.

Feedburner is a handy service that enables users to subscribe to your posts through either an email or RSS client. Did you know that could also get your RSS feed turned into an audio podcast. Not by Feedburner, but my a new site that is still in beta, but working reasonably well.

Don’t get to excited. Like all computer generated voices, it leaves a lot to be desired, however to have your Feedburner posts automatically converted to a podcast does save time and makes for interesting reading.

The site, Dixero, is currently free to use. There is no information available as to whether they will charge into the future, however, free is free and the end result is not too bad. The written word is not meant to be read out aloud, that is why public speakers often hire speech writers so that the text is written as it is spoke. Feedburner feeds are the written word so the podcast does sound a little stilted.

As with all computer generated voices (you have a choice of three voices), there is little in the way of inflection or emphasis. Pronunciation is good and the finished product a true reflection of the Feedburner feed - to true, the podcast includes everything from your feed including any advertisements.

If you don’t have the time to create your own podcast, give Dixero a go and see how it converts your feed. You are not restricted to Feedburner feeds, you can grab a feed from any site and have it converted to a podcast. You can also download the MP3 version of your Feedburner feed. An interesting tool if you do not have the time to create your own podcast.