Google prefer the term ‘next’ and ‘previous’ button, too me it looks like a scroll button. Whatever you wish to call it, will it make any difference to your Adsense income?

You can see the ‘next’ ‘previous’ buttons in the bottom left of this graphic from the Adsense Blog.

The theory behind the ‘next’ ‘previous’ buttons is that if the viewer cannot see an ad that suits them they will use the ’scroll’ buttons to look at some of the other ads to find what they are looking for. Fine concept in theory, however it can be difficult enough earning any blogging income from the exist ads.

If visitors are not clicking on the ads now, I cannot see them using these buttons to look at other ads. The buttons themselves are small and there is has not been any real publicity to go with the release. Are visitors even going to realize the options is there? Eventually they will. If you rely on Adsene for your blogging income, don’t expect a dramatic increase.

The ‘next’ ‘previous’ buttons have been appearing for several months now while in test mode. It seems the concept is in open mode now and all Adsense units will display the buttons. It does provide your reader with more options and perhaps over time they will become popular. Another tool in the Google war chest to help you build your blogging income - we hope so anyway.

WordPress 2.5 has finally been released. As a blog software vehicle the improvements are quite marked and will take a little getting used to. If you need to do the upgrade yourself, don’t stress, it is a breeze taking around five to ten minutes depending on your internet connection speed. My first recommendation is to get a good file transfer program (FTP) - you will need it.

The steps are detailed at WordPress.org and are fairly straightforward.  A quick outline of what you are in for:

1. Download the upgrade and extract it to a folder on your desktop
2. Deactivate all plugins in your WordPress blog
3. Delete the wp-admin and wp-includes folder
4. Upload the replacement wp-admin and wp-includes folders
5. Upload and overwrite the contents of the WP root directory (files only) to the WP root directory on your site.
6. Upload the Default WordPress theme to the Themes folder
7. Load your  site and run the database upgrade that you are presented with
8. Reactivate your plugins - I suggest one by one checking that your blog runs smoothly after each activation
9. Done

It is that easy and so far I have not come across any drama’s. If any of your plugins are out of date you can upgrade them straight from the plugins panel. That makes for a quick, easy and smooth updating of the plugins.

The Dashboard will look a little strange but I am sure you will get used to it. All in all the upgrade process is quick and easy. As for the upgrade itself - I will get back to you on that.

There are many reasons why submitting your blog to a blog directory is a good idea. In addition to increasing your blog’s exposure, there are a myriad of other benefits; here are just a few:

1. Blog Directories are crawled by search engines  such as Yahoo!, MSN, and Google on a regular basis. Directories are structured in such a way that search engines can crawl through them quickly and index the information quickly.  Directories are generally crawled more often than individual blogs so you are more likely to get your article indexed faster through a directory than through your blog.
2. Most blog directories see a ton of traffic. Individuals like to see who else is listed in their category and what they have written. This leads can lead to an increase in visitors to your site.
3. Blog Directories generate a large number of incoming links. Many directories give you the option of providing a reciprocal link or paying a small subscription fee. As a result, the number of links generated increase the directory’s popularity and search engine ranking.
4. Some directories allow for RSS feed up-dates of your latest posts.  This can make it easy for individuals to subscribe to your blog feed.
5. Blog directories are here to stay.  Blog directories make it easier for individuals to find what their looking for.
6. Submitting to directories is easy and generally costs very little, if anything.

Directories  increase the exposure of your blog resulting in extra traffic, inbound links and better page ranking. Submitting to a blog directory is time well spent and you will grow to appreciate the benefits your  blog receives over a period of time.

A thought provoking question. When it comes to blog marketing, how far would you go? Would you use Google Adsense? Would you use some other form of paid advertising?

There is no simple answer to a question like that as each individual blog is not only different, it has different aims and expectations. If your writing a blog in order to make money from the blog, do you spend money to make money? I don’t know that I would. Organic SEO can often deliver a decent amount of traffic for free.

On the other hand, if your blog is a window to your main commercial website, then spending money on some form of advertising may prove financially beneficial.

The important factor in any campaign, even a blog marketing campaign, is the expected (and actual) return on investment (ROI). It is pointless spending money on an advertising campaign if you are not going to get that return. But then, what sort of return are you looking for?

I said I would not spend money to make money. That is not quite true. I would certainly not spend money on an Adsense campaign to bring traffic in if my only source of income was as an Adsense publisher. However if I was promoting a range of profitable affiliate links then the story may be different.

Likewise, if my intention is simply to gain new readers and new subscribers, I may decide that a paid blog campaign was worth the investment. If your blog is a window to your primary business, then is makes sense to promote it at every opportunity.

In that situation, your blog is one of your marketing tools. As such its primary focus is to draw as much traffic as possible and then funneling the buyers to your commercial site. Done effectively, you can really measure the ROI by measuring the number that arrive on your site, the number that get funnelled to your web site, and of course, the number of conversions.

Ultimately, whether you use paid blog marketing techniques or free organic strategies, marketing your blog is a necessity and a good blog marketing plan should have clear ROI expectations.

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.