Blog Tips and Tricks

Akismet.com updates design, first time in 5 years

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 06:00:00 GMT

Alex on the Akismet blog has detailed the newly launched redesign of Akismet, the popular spam Plugin and service from Automattic. See our saved copy of the old version here.

On the fresh design, Alex said:

Akismet was the very first commercial service released by Automattic. 5 years later, Akismet.com was still running with exactly the same design it’s had since day 1.

That it still looked good was a testament to the strength of understated design. Still, we thought it was about time to freshen things up with a brand new design – and a new signup process to go with it.

The new design brings a fresh look to the home page (including the slick “spams zapped” counter shown below) and a new signup process.

WooThemes delays WooCommerce Plugin and e-commerce WordPress themes for the sake of quality

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 04:00:00 GMT

With WooThemes' customers requesting WordPress e-commerce theme options more and more, WooThemes founder Adii Pienaar has posted an update on their WooCommerce Plugin and associated themes, namely on their recent delays. Pienaar lists three main reasons for the delay:

In order for WooCommerce to be as perfect as it can be they are adding “a few more features” than they normally would.
The templating systems in an e-commerce system are more complicated than typical themes, and they want to “making sure that [their] commerce themes are just as customizable as [their] other stuff.”
Since WooCommerce will eventually be released as a Plugin and stand on its own, additional consideration is being made to ensure the initial structure is what it needs to be.

Pienaar also mentions that Malan “Foxinni” Joubert's recent extended sabbatical has also slowed certain development processes, though the recent addition of Matt Cohen should help with the workload.

There are four WooCommerce themes in development, with Shopify versions of three of them already available. Pienaar, in the comments on the blog post, states that they are “hoping to have [it] ready late November.”

WordPress for Nokia app now available on the Ovi store

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 02:00:00 GMT

Isaac Keyet announced on the WordPress for Nokia development blog that the Nokia WordPress app is now available on the Ovi store. He does say, though, that:

[T]he app is not yet compatible with Symbian3 devices such as N8, C6, C7 and more. We’re working with Nokia to get the app approved for these as well. Please report any issues you find with the app here.

On the WordPress for Nokia site there is a development blog you can follow, and a forum for any questions you may have.

Fanning the Social Media Flame for Viral Exposure

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:30:00 GMT

Are you a content marketer? If so, you have a choice to make.

You can sit around and wait for your content to go viral.

You can hope you'll get sudden bursts of traffic, hope your readers will spread the word, hope your content will catch fire.

Or you can bring your own matches and lighter fluid to set the dang thing aflame yourself.

As bloggers and content marketers, which will you choose?

Sure, sometimes the passion you have for a subject will be enough to ignite a spark and compel your audience to share your content with their network. Being able to unleash something with such conviction and power that it combusts on its own is great.

Over at my SEO consulting firm Outspoken Media, we’ve been able to do it several times.

Sometimes we post something like The Power of the Unexpected, something that goes hot without us lifting a finger. As content writers, we live for these moments.

However, they almost never happen.

What is more common is that marketers need to fan their content to help it ignite and go viral. And sometimes that means stepping in when an accidental hit shows signs of life. How do you recognize those signs to take advantage? Here are some methods we use at Outspoken Media.

Identifying the spark

You know what’s normal for your community. You know how many comments an average post gets, how many tweets, how many shares, etc.

When you start to see activity that is double/triple what you’re used to seeing, act.

For example, early on we published a post called It’s Not The Recession, You Just Suck. Almost immediately after hitting the publish button I noticed the post being retweeted and passed through social media at a velocity that dwarfed anything we had seen prior.

Once we noticed we had a spark, we jumped in to add fuel and fan it.

Adding fuel to the fire

As soon as you notice a post showing signs of life, it’s up to you to keep the momentum going.

On the social Web, that means keeping the conversation alive. Find people who are talking about your post and encourage them. Respond to comments, engage, fan the debate, and keep the conversation on a healthy note.

When we called out Robert Scoble last year for spreading misinformation, he was the first person to come and engage on our post, and he did so negatively and aggressively.

The tone he set could have killed the conversation right there and caused people to be fearful of jumping in. But we weren’t going to let that happen. Instead, we went in there to engage Robert and show the community this was just the beginning of the conversation that would ultimately take place. We made it obvious that we were still in the post listening, and that everyone who commented would be heard and responded to.

No one wants to hang out at a party that’s dead or on its way out. Its important people see you’re still there.

Another way to add fuel is to allow readers to subscribe to comments so that they’re alerted each time a new voice enters the fray. This will keep them in conversation mode. It’s good for debate, but it’s also good in terms of SEO. The more page views the post receives, the more time people spend reading comments, the more it’s going to give off positive toolbar data to the search engines and help the post appear on an Alexa hotlist.

Fanning a positive flame

So, let me fill you in on something you already know — it’s really hard to have an intelligent conversation on the Internet.

Things always start out okay. Someone chimes in to offer an intelligent opinion and then, almost before your eyes, it devolves into threats, accusations and commentary about who still lives with their mother.

While it’s 100 percent entertaining to watch people have emotional breakdowns in public, conversations that get too far off track hurt your chances of going viral.

As the owner of that community, you’re responsible for fanning the flame in the right direction. When you see personal attacks being made, it’s up to you to steer the conversation back. If you think people are going too far, moderate.

Be careful, though. Viral conversations are typically rooted in debate. So you don’t want to discourage or squash it, but do keep things productive. You need to be the adult in the room, regardless of how good it feels to throw things.

Hitting the social streets

Once you’ve helped fan the flame, hit the streets!

Make sure your piece has been properly submitted to all the right social media sites, that it’s been Stumbled, that it’s on Reddit, that niche social sites are aware of it, and that it’s hit all of the communities and blogs you know are friendly to you.

Once you complete that, look outside your bubble to find other networks that may find your content interesting. What you’re trying to do here is pull people in from other networks so they’ll go out and talk about it with their community, one that doesn’t currently follow you.

It’s great that your own readers are passionate and involved in the conversation, but you want to use the natural sparks to pick up on other readers to help grow your blog and authority.

Tipping off mainstream media

You’ve covered your bases on the social networks, now look toward news sites and blog aggregators that may be interested in the conversation happening around your post.

If you’re part of the marketing community, you want to watch aggregators like TechMeme and TweetMeme. If you have a hot social media story, you want to tip off someone at Mashable. If it’s Google or heavily tech-related, tip off TechCrunch. If it’s a broader tech story, tip off more mainstream outlets, as well.

For example, our post about what we perceived to be brandjacking by Seth Godin received coverage from Business Week. My partner Rae Hoffman’s post on Google’s Real Time Spam Problem was noted in USA Today. And my other partner Rhea Drysdale is often featured on CNN.

These don’t happen by accident. They were opportunities created by tipping off the right people at the right time. This is where having a linkerati list comes into play. It helps you know who to contact for what type of story.

Making sure the post is optimized for SEO

The final thing you want to do is properly SEO your post to capitalize on search.

Going back to our Robert Scoble example, when we saw that taking off, we went back and edited the title tag to include Robert Scoble’s name. It was a small tweak that allowed us to take advantage of Google’s freshness factor and appear in his News results.

It’s a temporary rank, but it made sure that anyone who searched for Robert Scoble that day found our post. Sometimes that’s all you’re looking to do, to help keep the momentum going and get eyes to the page. You have to build awareness.

Content marketers don’t have the luxury of sitting back and hoping something goes hot. It’s up to you to help things take on a life of their own, whether it was planned from the start or you picked up on early signs of success.

Savvy content marketers always have the matches and lighter fluid ready for when a spark presents itself.

About the Author: Lisa Barone is Co-Founder and Chief Branding Officer of SEO consulting firm Outspoken Media. You can find her blogging daily on the Outspoken Media blog, as well as over on SmallBizTrends, where she helps small business owners get their feet wet in SEO and Social Media. For the real dirt, follow @lisabarone on Twitter.

P.S.

Want more hot tips on the smartest ways to mix social media, content marketing, and SEO? We've got you covered with the free Internet Marketing for Smart People newsletter. It starts with a 20-part series on the most important techniques and strategies you need to know as an online marketer.

Create a Powerful Core Community by Building a Brand Values Baseline

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:14:00 GMT

10-Point Plan: Build a Brand Values Baseline

A Decision Model for All

Any time we interact, we have a chance to build and strengthen relationships. When we strengthen relationships with the people who love what we do, we strengthen our business. When we know the values on which those relationships stand, we can identify, attract, and connect with more people like them.

That's the thinking behind building a brand-values baseline.

Whether you're a corporation or a solopreneur, you can start a power core community by finding 6 to 10 people who support and love what you do and bring them into this exercise.

Choose a location that is good for thinking and honors the participants. Think of the place you might take your most valued client or customer group to talk strategy and future relationships.
Invite 2 - 8 heroes — people you've identified as social stars, training stars, influence stars — to a meeting. The wider diversity of their skills, levels and backgrounds, the richer the experience will be. Also invite a trusted non-participant to record notes.
Explain that the room is designated a free conversation zone — that you've asked them to join you in a conversation because of their leadership skills and the respect they show for the people who work for the business. Let them know you're counting learning from them so that the company might grow.
Without much talk or fanfare, ask them to reflect on the highest reason they might believe in the work your business does. Allow them time — as long as 10 minutes — to gather their thoughts as individuals. Encourage them to write words and phrases, draw images, or make a mind map of what comes
Allow each individual to share his or her thoughts with the group. As they speak, write notes for reference and track words that express values on a flip chart.
When the entire group has spoken, review what you heard and confirm that you've heard correctly what was said. Add your own thoughts. List your own values words to the flip chart.
Review the list of words, noting the similarities between them and poses these questions.
- How might we take this list back to entire company to distill it down to no more than five words — a values baseline — that describes the values that drive what we do?
- Should we distill down now and get their approval?
- What process might we use to include everyone in this quest?
- Who does everyone include?
- How long will that take? What should each of us bring back to this meeting, if reaching a true values baseline is our goal?

As your heroes and champions get more interested in the values that underpin your business, so will the people who look up to them. A single meeting with the heroes and champions who love what you do can bring out the best in your company in less time than a whole team from a huge consulting firm.

Live your values and you'll attract the people to your brand who value what you do.

How will you / did you find your brand values baseline?

Be Irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider's Guide to Online Conversation.

Successful-blog is a proud affiliate of

Firefox 4: Not Going to See the Light of Day in 2010

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I still haven't made up my mind whether I should use Safari as my main browser. I have been using Firefox for the longest time, but Safari does have its advantages. I guess old habits die hard! In any case, I just might be making the switch before the end of the year if things continue the way are going with the release of the new Firefox.

Earlier this year, Mozilla got Firefox enthusiasts all excited about the news that Firefox 4 should be out by October or November 2010. Unfortunately, the most recent announcement has pegged the release of the latest version of the popular browser to 2011. The news does not come as a surprise to many. The beta version has been released, but it seems that glitches regarding stability are being encountered, hence the delay.

Late last week, Mike Beltzner posted the announcement:

Development on Firefox 4 has not slowed down and strong progress is being made daily. However, based on the delays in completing the “feature complete” Beta 7 milestone against which our Add-on developers and third-party software developers can develop, as well as considering the amount of work remaining to prepare Firefox 4 for final release, we have revised our beta and release candidate schedule: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/4/Beta

The frequent beta releases have been extremely helpful in identifying compatibility issues with existing web content, so we plan on continuing to release beta milestones through the end of December. Our estimate is now that release candidate builds will ship in early 2011, with a final release date close behind. Please note that, as always, this schedule is subject to change based on feedback from users and community members.

So should I switch to Safari and forget about Firefox?

WordPress Theme Releases for 11/02

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Codium Extend is a minimalist theme for WordPress and ready for all the WordPress 3.x features like custom menus, colors or background. [Link removed because download not available]

iStudio is a very stylish Macintosh-inspired theme.

Magazine Basic offers many different layout possibilities. Two custom widgets, featured posts and user login help you create a fully functioning magazine/newspaper style web site.

Awesome WordPress Plugins to Empower Your Visitors

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMT

This guest post is by Jeff Starr, co-author of the book Digging into WordPress.

Helping your visitors get the most out of your site benefits everyone. Visitors get more relevant and useful content, and you enjoy better statistics and more exposure. Unfortunately the game is set up to keep people away from your site. Think about it:

Search engines are used to find your content
Feed readers are used to read your content
Social media is used to share, tag, and organize your content

These are major obstacles, certainly, but they don't have to work against you. People use search engines, feed readers, and social media because they provide functionality missing from most websites. By integrating some of that same functionality into your site, you empower your visitors to maximize its usefulness. This may sound like a tall order, but if you're using WordPress, improving your site couldn't be easier. Let's look at some awesome WordPress plugins to make it happen.

Google-power your search results

People will always use external search engines like Google to find content on your site. That's a good thing, but you also want to empower your users with the best possible search results. WordPress' default search is limited in several ways:

does not do “exact-match” searching
only searches posts and post titles
only searches your current WordPress installation
can be painfully slow, gobbles resources

Fortunately, we can harness the power of Google and empower your users with the most accurate, comprehensive, and speedy search possible. Integrating Google Search into your site provides the following benefits:

exact-match searching (i.e., using quotes to match specific phrases)
searches your entire site plus any other desired sites or directories
usually works pretty quickly – much faster than WordPress default search
optional additional revenue through Google's AdSense program

Sound good? Here are some of the best plugins to make it happen:

Google Search for WordPress

This beautiful plugin works silently behind the scenes to replace WordPress' search results with Google's search results. You simply install the plugin and enter your Google API Key in the Google Search Settings. If you don't have an API Key, it's free and easy to get one. The only other requirement is to include “Powered by Google” next to your search form and on the search-results page. Once it's installed, all search results will be replaced by those from Google. No code-wrangling required.

More information and downloads are available at the WordPress Plugin Directory.

Google Custom Search Plugin

The Google Custom Search Plugin is another excellent way to integrate Google Search into your WordPress blog. Instead of signing up for an API Key, visit Google Search and create your own custom search engine by walking through the steps. After setting up your own form, grab the generated code and paste it into the plugin's Settings page.

More information and downloads are available at the WordPress Plugin Directory.

More from Google

The More from Google plugin works a little differently by adding to your default search results instead of completely replacing them. After installing and configuring the plugin, your search results will include matches from both WordPress and Google. If Google has yet to index your entire site, this may be the perfect way to ensure that visitors are getting the best search results.

More information and downloads are available at the WordPress Plugin Directory.

Other Ways to Improve WordPress Default Search

If Google Search isn't for you, don't fret. Here are two additional plugins that will vastly improve WordPress' default search:

Search Everything – literally searches everything in your database, based on your preferences
Better Search – highly customizable solution for improving WordPress' default search

Regardless of how you do it, improving your site's default search functionality is a great way to help your visitors use your site and find the content they crave.

Socialize and communitize your WordPress site

Bring the excitement of social-media to your WordPress-powered site! There are so many reasons to empower your readers to favorite, share, and rate your content directly on your website, and just as many awesome plugins to make it super-easy to do. Here are some of the best plugins for making your site fun, social, and more interactive.

WP Favorite Posts

WP Favorite Posts is a popular, five-star plugin that enables your visitors to add favorite posts to their own list of favorites. Installation is easy, and the plugin is straightforward and easy to modify and customize to fit any design. I use the plugin on my Angry-Birds fan site. You can see the “Add to Favorites” link in the upper-right corner of any post. There is also a link to “View Favorites”, where each user can view (and delete) their favorite links. And even cooler than all that, you can display a list of everyone's most-popular favorites, very similar to how Delicious works.

More information and downloads are available at the WordPress Plugin Directory.

Star ratings and reviews

Post ratings are a fun and informative way to engage visitors and promote content. And there are many post-rating plugins to choose from.

In terms of functionality and customization, the GD Star Rating plugin can do just about anything, but the endless configuration options may be overkill. On the other end of the spectrum, you've got the elegant simplicity of the Vote-the-Post plugin, which is lightweight, flexible, and easy to customize code-side for tight design integration. I use this plugin to enable voting at Angry-Birds.net (see any post for example).

These plugins also enable you to display lists of top-rated posts anywhere on your site, so you can uninstall that most-popular-post plugin you no longer need.

Chat forum

Chat forums aren't for every site, but when done right they're great ways to build community and facilitate conversation. As with post-ratings, there are many chat plugins available in the Directory, but there are two that stand above the rest:

Both of these plugins are popular, highly rated plugins that provide flexible, customizable chat functionality. WordSpew is great because it uses Ajax to refresh everything automatically, keeping the chat window flowing in real time. Pierre's Wordspew works without AJax, but it also uses a Flash .flv file that prevents it from working on devices like the iPad and iPhone. You can see a highly customized example of the WordSpew plugin at Dead Letter Art.

Show online users

Just like showing off counts for feed subscribers, Twitter followers, and Facebook fans, you can also show off the number of users currently online. An excellent plugin for this is WP-UserOnline, which provides several templates for easy configuration of how and where the user-online count is displayed. You can also set up a “Who's online?” page that shows detailed statistics of where your visitors are on the site, who they are, and where they came from. This awesome plugin takes only minutes to implement using template tags and/or widgets.

Social media

Even after socializing your site, you want to make sure that visitors can easily share and bookmark your content on their favorite social-media sites. I tell you the truth, there are a gazillion plugins and widgets for adding every social-media site under the sun, but you really only need one plugin to do the job. Just install and configure WP Socializer and done. Any combination of social-media buttons, icons, links displayed virtually anywhere on your site. Tons of options yes, but they are all well-organized and easy to configure from the comfort of your WordPress Admin.

Wrapping up

No matter how awesome your website, there's always room for improvement. With the techniques and tools described in this article, empowering your visitors to get the most from your WordPress site is as easy as installing and configuring a few choice plugins. As you go, keep an eye on site performance. Loading up with too many plugins can burden your server and slow things down for visitors. All the functionality in the world means nothing on a slow-loading website. A good strategy is to cherry-pick a few choice plugins and watch the results. Remember the goal is to help visitors get into your site and really use it for all it's worth.

Jeff Starr is a web developer, graphic designer and content producer with over 10 years of experience and a passion for quality and detail. Jeff is co-author of the book Digging into WordPress and strives to help people be the best they can be on the Web. Read more from Jeff at Perishable Press or hire him at Monzilla Media.

Post from: ProBlogger Blog Tips

WordPress.com launches FoodPress, showcase of food-related posts

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Automattic launched a new blog on WordPress.com called FoodPress, an aggregation of quality food-related posts on WordPress.com. This is their first entry into aggregated user content driven websites.

In a new partnership with Federated Media and along with FoodPress editor Jane Maynard, WordPress.com hopes the site will be the “go-to destination for the hottest dishes from WordPress.com bloggers.”

All content on FoodPress is chosen by Maynard, mostly by reviewing tag pages on WordPress.com like food, recipes, baking, and cocktails. Those interested in being featured on FoodPress are encouraged to use tags like these in their posts.

The future of FoodPress

Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic, said on his blog:

FoodPress is a new collection of the best WordPress food writing in the world, right now from .com only.

It's likely that not only will FoodPress likely pull from other WordPress blogs outside of WordPress.com in the future, but that Automattic will over time add additional aggregation sites to WordPress.com.

What do you think would make for a worthwhile topic to aggregate on WordPress.com?

Check If A Website Is Blacklisted

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:56:00 GMT

As you probably know the web is full of threats these days. They range from common email spam to malicious software spread by infected websites. As a result there are many blacklists around, with the goal of helping Internet service providers and companies identify the problematic websites and domains.

If you want to make sure your website is not listed on any of these blacklists you can use a tool called BlacklistAlert.org. Simply input your domain and the tool will check on more than 30 spam and malware blacklists.

This tool can also be useful in other situations, including:

If you are considering to buy a registered domain name and want to make sure it's clean.
If you just moved to a new hosting company or to a new server and want to make sure your IP address is clean.
If you are considering to exchange links or create a partnership with another website and want to make sure it's clean.

So check it out.

Original Post: Check If A Website Is Blacklisted

MarketingSherpa 2011 SEO & Social Media Benchmark Report

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:32:00 GMT

MarketingSherpa has done it again with their SEM report for 2011. With the help of Lead Author, Research Analyst Jen Doyle, they've put together an excellent resource for marketers looking for strategic guidance as well as real data about search engine marketing.

This particular report focuses on Search Engine Optimization with an emphasis on the interplay of search and social media, two topics that are very near and dear to the consulting practice at TopRank Online Marketing.

According to the MarketingSherpa report, 64% of marketers surveyed are integrating social media into their search marketing plans which syncs well with the soon to be released SEOmoz SEO Industry Report, which cites 71% of the 10k plus search marketers that responded as leveraging social tools such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

As a practical example of the intersection of SEO and Social Media, just last month over 40,000 unique keyword queries sent visitors to this blog. At the same time, because of social content distribution and engagement, our new link discovery counts (reported by Majestic SEO) went from 118,344 in Sept to 210,996 in Oct. More relevant links = more traffic, more subscribers and exposure to our social channels. More exposure to our content on social channels means more links and discovery via search. It's a cycle of Social and SEO.

As usual, this report dives in to some meaty content for marketers:

2,194 B2B and B2C marketers surveyed
169 charts and tables
Insight about the impact of social media on SEO
Data on the most effective SEO tactics
SEO budgeting and financial metrics
Research on mobile, real time, personalized and video search

One of the shocking revelations (and further need for SEO consultant expertise) is that more than half of the marketers who participated in the MarketingSherpa study either had no formal process for performing SEO, or an informal process that was randomly performed.

SEO was (correctly in my opinion) deemed most effective at generating sales and Social Media as most effective for achieving Public Relations and customer engagement objectives. A recent post on Search Engine Land by Matt McGee supports this, citing a study by ATG that search dominates social networking for product discovery.

Another interesting observation was the organic traffic conversion rate for marketers that leveraged social media was 10% higher than those that did not.

The report is full of useful charts like the one above, which cites the most effective tactics for SEO as reported by the agency respondents. Obviously, an experienced SEO agency would use a much broader array of tactics, but you get the idea.

Essentially, a report like this helps companies and agencies in a few ways, especially for client side marketers:

Use research in combination with program performance to justify and defend the SEO budget
Compare SEO tactics you use to those ranked by effectiveness
Get a better handle on the potential of integrating search and social media
Find the ROI of search and social media that other marketers are reporting
Compare your own program performance metrics to those in the industry: inbound traffic, lead quality, conversion rates, clicks, conversion and target keyword rankings. Granted, it's a generalization to do that, because such metrics can vary quite a bit between industries and don't get me started on the idea of comparing “rankings”, but in a broader sense, comparisons can be useful.
Get useful insight on the future impacts of mobile, real time, personalized and video search
Reports like this are also useful for PowerPoint presentations at conferences or internally as well as for making a point in a blog post.

We don't run ads on this blog (just where we're speaking and our blog hosting sponsor VISI) but we do review things once in a great while that have an affiliate relationship like MarketingSherpa Reports. We've been reviewing MarketingSherpa Guides and Reports for at least 6 years now and they've always been really useful. Check out the info on the MarketingSherpa site and if you think the report will be useful to you in just a few of the examples above, go ahead and buy it. We can use the referral fee to buy more coffee and write more blog posts at 5am

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Win an AppSumo WordPress Blogger Bundle from WPCandy

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:00:00 GMT

AppSumo has taken on the WordPress cause recently, offering up a WordPress Blogger Bundle valued at $957 for $32. This is a great deal, and worth checking out. But we thought, why not take it a bit further and give away a couple of bundles for free?

What we have for you

We have two full AppSumo WordPress Blogger Bundles (say that five times fast!) packaged up and ready for two members of the WPCandy community.

Just to recap, the bundle consists of:

3 months of Page.ly Business hosting
Advertiser credit for BuySellAds
6 months of inboxSEO rank tracking
Themes from WooThemes
The PadPressed plugin
Two themes from Graph Paper Press
3 months of Clicky Web Analytics Pro service
WP101 tutorial videos
Inbound Marketing preview
SEOmoz PRO three month trial
WP Auctions plugin
10$ off for Arkayne Pro package
Lock & Load WordPress theme

For the full list of bundle items, see AppSumo's site.

How to win a bundle

For a chance at one of the available bundles, all you have to do is comment with which of the items in the bundle interest you the most. Are you a WordPress theme junkie? Are you after Plugins? Perhaps the services mentioned are most interesting to you?

Tell us about what you're after in the comments, and on Friday we'll draw two names from the group to win a WordPress Blogger Bundle from AppSumo.

So who wants a bundle?

Get Started with Git

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 20:00:00 GMT

Version control: It isn't just for coders anymore. If you're a writer, editor, or a designer who works iteratively on the web and you want to reshuffle or combine pieces of your work quickly and efficiently, version control is for you, too. Al Shaw shows us how easy it is to install, set up, and work with Git—open-source, version control software that offers you much, much, more than just “undo.”

Art Direction and Design

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 20:00:00 GMT

Sure, your design's composition is perfectly balanced, the typographical hierarchy works, and the contrast is bang on. But, when you step back and take a look, how does it make you feel? Does your design evoke the right emotion? Dan Mall explains the difference between art direction and design on the web and challenges us to do it again, this time with feeling.

Carrie Rocha speaking on “Monetizing Your Blog” at WordCamp MSP

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 20:00:00 GMT

Brian on the WordCamp MSP blog announced that Carrie Rocha, blog entrepreneur and financial advisor, will be presenting “Monetizing Your Blog” at WordCamp MSP next week.

Rocha seems qualified to give this sort of talk, as according to her bio:

Carrie Rocha and her family got out of $50,000 in debt in 2 1/2 years. In March 2009 she launched PocketYourDollars.com to help teach others to do the same. Within 10 months of her blog’s launch it became successful enough that it is the sole financial support for her family of four (and they aren’t broke).

Rocha's presentation will be during the Blogger Track. If you are interested in attending WordCamp MSP, be sure to register before next Tuesday. Registration for the event will officially close on November 9th at 11:55pm.

WordPress for Android 1.3.6 brings media enhancements

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 18:00:00 GMT

Dan announced on the WordPress for Android blog that version 1.3.6 of the WordPress Android app is now available in the Android Market. This update includes a few bug fixes, as well as the following feature additions:

New attached media display. Media added to posts is now displayed in the app in a horizontal scrolling gallery.
Multiple media item sharing. Multiple items (pictures, video, etc.) can be selected and uploaded to a new post.

See the video embedded after the jump for a demonstration of the new multiple media item sharing in the app.

Friday Recap: Where Did the Week Go?

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 18:00:00 GMT

It really doesn't feel like Friday to me. As Jessica told you last week, I was off drinking/learning more about publishing and developing ideas. Well, as so often happens, karma punished me appropriately by giving me a terrible cold and what with one thing and the other it suddenly became Friday without me noticing it! What did you and I miss this week? Jessica and I will try to catch things up. Read more from Friday Recap: Where Did the Week Go?

Friday Recap: Where Did the Week Go? was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Google TV: Your TV Experience Is About to Change

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 18:00:00 GMT

What is Google TV? Google TV allows you to access the Web and watch television from your TV, giving you access to everything you would normally see in your Web browser combined with a plethora of pictures, videos, music, TV shows and a ton of additional media – all of which can be accessed simultaneously. Read more of Google TV: Your TV Experience Is About to Change

Google TV: Your TV Experience Is About to Change was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Blekko for Dummies

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 18:00:00 GMT

There’s a chatter online today that seems to be repeating the same thing: blekko. The search industry is weighing in heavily on this new search engine. And the general consensus around Bruce Clay, Inc. is that it’s really a non-issue as far as huge controversy goes; if anything, it offers up a new way to do research with some cool stats and tools. And perhaps it’s just one more place people and businesses can go as Google continues to change the face of search with things like Place Search. Read more of Blekko for Dummies

Blekko for Dummies was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Spooky SEO: Don’t Let Black Hats Cross Your Path!

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 18:00:00 GMT

Halloween is just around the corner, so what better time to take a trip down spooky lane to look at all the frightening tactics that your website may encounter with a ghoulish Internet marketing provider. Take a look at these scary Internet marketers and their tactics, so you can protect your website from harm. Read more of Spooky SEO: Don't Let Black Hats Cross Your Path!

Spooky SEO: Don’t Let Black Hats Cross Your Path! was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

If You’re Reading This, Google Hates You

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 18:00:00 GMT

Actually Google’s not the only search engine that hates you, but it’s probably the only one that matters since it owns roughly 70 percent of the search market. Anyone who has attempted to run an SEO project is aware by now that Google changes things … a lot. So often, in fact, that we’re sometimes left questioning whether or not Google really has its users’ best interests in mind. Read more of If You’re Reading This, Google Hates You

If You’re Reading This, Google Hates You was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Web Analytics: Past, Present and Future – SEM Synergy Extras

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:59:00 GMT

On today’s show, we revisited "Web Analytics In-Depth," a popular show from September 2009, where guests Avinash Kaushik, Jim Sterne and Daniel Waisberg – all leaders in their field – discussed analytics in the present and the future (with that future being the present). In the first segment, Avinash and Daniel talked about points made in a co-authored two-part paper they wrote: “Web Analytics 2.0: Empowering Customer Centricity” and “Web Analytics 2.0: Empowering Customer Centricity – Part II.” The paper touches on things like standard practices of analytics and also dives into a new, holistic way of looking at website analysis, dubbed “Web analytics 2.0.” And now that we’re in the present that the past show was referring to (Confused yet?), are the action items Avinash and Daniel deemed important then, still relevant now? You betcha. Read more of Web Analytics Past, Present and Future – SEM Synergy Extras

Web Analytics: Past, Present and Future – SEM Synergy Extras was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

4 Questions with Avinash Kaushik: Kick-Ass Web Analytics

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:59:00 GMT

Avinash Kaushik is a best-selling author, co-founder of Market Motive Inc. and is the analytics evangelist for Google. You can catch Avinash as a keynote speaker for the upcoming SES Conference in Chicago on October 19. I was very fortunate to grab some of Avinash’s time to answer a few questions on the minds of search marketers relating to Web analytics. Enjoy this insightful interview! Read more of 4 Questions with Avinash Kaushik: Kick-Ass Web Analytics

4 Questions with Avinash Kaushik: Kick-Ass Web Analytics was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Show Me the Money: SEMPO’s Newest Salary Survey, Out Now

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:59:00 GMT

Ever wonder what other professionals in the SEM space are making in relation to you? Looking for a good baseline salary because you’re applying for a job or looking to get into the industry? Wanna make sure your company or agency is offering competitive wages? These are all good reasons to promote and participate in the 2010 SEMPO salary survey. Read more of Show Me the Money: SEMPO’s Newest Salary Survey, Out Now

Show Me the Money: SEMPO’s Newest Salary Survey, Out Now was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

SEO-Ready CMS and Good Beer – SEM Synergy Extras

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:59:00 GMT

Hi, boys and girls! Today’s SEM Synergy was packed full of excitement: We learned about the importance of an SEO-friendly CMS for your website, discussed recent and upcoming Bruce gigs at all the cool conferences, and talked changes to the Google keyword tool. Our guest today was Mark Knowles, CEO and president of Pixelsilk and all-around great guy. This was the first SEM Synergy show where I took on the guest interview and sat in with Bruce in Susan’s absence. It was a lot of fun! Read more of SEO-Ready CMS and Good Beer -- SEM Synergy Extras

SEO-Ready CMS and Good Beer – SEM Synergy Extras was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Friday Recap: Cynical Pinnacle Edition

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:59:00 GMT

Susan is on vacation, doing some sort of ~~wine~~ creative writing excursion, and when she comes back, promises to have ~~a hangover~~ new prose and developed imagery skills for all our loyal readers. And since she’s not here, you get an unedited Friday Recap, which means: party time – allll riiiight (Quagmire voice). Read more of Friday Recap: Cynical Pinnacle Edition

Friday Recap: Cynical Pinnacle Edition was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Elegant Themes has a “Magnificent” new magazine theme

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 16:24:00 GMT

Nick Roach of Elegant Themes announced on their blog a new WordPress magazine theme called “Magnificent.” On the reasoning behind the new theme, Roach said:

Magazine-style themes have always been in high demand, especially those containing a multi-column, content-rich homepage. Now you can display loads of content in a beautifully simple and elegant fashion using Magnificent.

“Magnificent” has the following features:

A four column homepage with five widget ready areas
Seven available color schemes
Collection of shortcodes included

If you're interested, have a look at “Magnifient's” feature page or its demo.

The Action/Adventure Genre

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 15:00:00 GMT

Although I used The DaVinci Code as an example in my discussion of the mystery, suspense, and, thriller genres, Dan Brown's novels might be more appropriately placed in the action/adventure category.

The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (NC) includes Brown's The Lost Symbol (2009) in its list of Action-Adventure reviews. This explanatory note precedes the list:

Also known as the male equivalent of the romance novel, these books offer intrigue, edge-of-your-seat excitement, and exotic locales with characters who are smart, daring, often heroic, and sometimes evil.

Just how slippery genre labels can be, even for librarians, can be discovered in the list that follows this description of the action/adventure genre. One of the books. A Bad Day for Sorry (2009) by Sophie Littleton, is set in “a sleepy Missouri town.” and features a female protagonist in search of a missing toddler.

Agent Jeff Herman defines the action-adventure novel in terms of “premise and scenario trajectory.” The plot resembles the traditional heroic quest story, the monomyth as defined by Joseph Campbell:

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man. –The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Herman's description of the genre evokes a 21st century setting:

Some stories are stocked with an array of international terrorists, arms-smugglers, drug-dealers, and techno-pirates. Favorite settings include jungles, deserts, swamps, and mountains–any sort of badlands (don't rule out an urban environment) that can echo the perils that resound through the story's human dimension. (Jeff Herman, Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, & Literary Agents [2010], p. 893.)

The protagonist in this kind of adventure usually has a trusty posse helping him achieve the quest. Typically, one of the trusted group betrays the others.

A site called The Art of Manliness lists 50 “fictional adventure books” that belong in “The Essential Man's Library.” Although the list does include the works of living writers, it is unexpectedly heavy on the classics. Kipling and Rider Haggard, for example, are well represented. Here's a sampling:

The Call of the Wild, Jack London
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
Captains Courageous, Rudyard Kipling
She, H. Rider Haggard
Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton
Inca Gold, Clive Cussler

A list of “The Ten Greatest Action-Adventure Novels” at Amazon yields these titles:

The Stand, Stephen King
Shogun, James Clavell
The Hunt for Red October, Tom Clancy
Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
Team Yankee, Harold W. Coyle
Red Phoenix, Larry Bond

Original Post: The Action/Adventure Genre
Your eBook: Click here to download the Basic English Grammar ebook.

Brad Williams creates IPFree.ly iPhone app using WordPress

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 14:18:00 GMT

Brad Williams announced that his WordCamp Philly presentation is now available online. The presentation, titled Spooky WordPress: Disturbingly Brilliant Uses of WP, highlights some unusual uses for WordPress, including a Facebook app, contact management theme, task management theme and a ticketing system theme.

Also in the list is the incredibly odd, yet totally useless awesome IPFree.ly iPhone app. The app, available now in the iTunes app store, is a “location based plot tracking app” that allows users to track where they pee. The app is attached to a WordPress backend at IPFree.ly.

The Spooky WordPress presentation is available here.

October Trends + The 10 Horrors of Blogging

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 12:55:00 GMT

For those celebrating Halloween, it’s the spooky season, with haunted houses, terrifying costumes, and creepy decorations around every corner. What better time to look at the horrors that plague bloggers? Gruesome typos and grammatical errors, ghastly headlines, confusing echo chambers, dreadfully empty comments sections, and more!

Since it’s the end of the month, it’s also time to unveil October’s most-blogged-about stories, according to Regator.com’s trends. They were, in order: Halloween, Windows Phone, Brett Favre, Chilean Miners, Breast Cancer, ‘The Social Network’, Jon Stewart, World Series, Kanye West, and Nobel Prize. We’ll use posts from Regator about these top stories to illustrate how you can avoid the ten horrors of blogging…

The Horror: Typo terrors
Save Yourself: As The Huffington Post found recently with “The Funniest 2010 Internet Meme Hallowen Costumes,” (a repost of a post by Nerve), not even the largest blogs are immune to the occasional typo or grammatical error. It’s a horror we all succumb to now and then. Take extra time to run a spell check and review your post before hitting publish, especially your headline. Once you’ve hit “publish,” your post takes on a life of its own, appearing in aggregators, RSS feeds, and on social media. Many of these do not reindex your post if it’s altered. If you use a platform that automatically creates permalinks and you fix a headline typo after it has been published, you could end up with a headline that’s spelled correctly, but a URL that is not. If possible, have another person read over your copy before you publish and be aware of words that you consistently misspell.

The Horror: Layouts that scare your users
Save Yourself: Broken RSS feeds, difficult-to-find email subscription boxes, a lack of contact options, or an overly complex layout can send readers fleeing. Boy Genius Report’s “Live from Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 launch!” is an example of a post with clear tags, author information, and date information. And, like ProBlogger, BGR features prominent RSS and email subscription options that encourage readers to stay engaged via feed reader or email. Could you simplify your layout? Have you checked recently to ensure that your RSS feeds are working? Content may be king but the way you present it matters too.

The Horror: Uncannily familiar content
Save Yourself: Though it’s not clear whether SNL’s recent Brett Favre sketch was indeed based on Funny or Die’s sketch, Warming Glow’s “More Plagiarism? SNL Favre Sketch Mirrors Funny Or Die Video” proves that even the suspicion of swiping someone else’s content is enough to get you called out, and nobody wants that. Put simply: Never republish another blog’s post without permission. You wouldn’t want someone to take the content you worked hard on and claim it as their own or monetize it, right? Just apply the Golden Rule.

The Horror: Dreadfully dull headlines
Save Yourself: A good headline needs to stand on its own and scream, “Click me!” in an RSS reader, aggregator, Twitter feed, or email subject line. Headlines that create curiosity and intrigue, such as The First Post’s “Chilean miners ‘not ready for the outside world,'” are effective because they make readers want answers (why aren’t they ready for the outside world?). Using words such as “secret,” “discover,” and “easy” can also make titles more interesting, as can asking a question, creating controversy, and, most of all, conveying a benefit. The best headlines tell readers what they’ll get out of reading a post, whether it’s entertainment, knowledge, or a new skill. Quantifying the benefits by using a list format (e.g., “Four reasons the Chilean miners are not ready for the outside world”) often works even better.

The Horror: Sinister swiping of photos
Save Yourself: Not every photo you find on the internet is yours for the taking, and as a blogger, intellectual property is something you should be familiar with. The Big Picture’s “Breast Cancer Awareness Month” acquires the rights to some truly amazing photos and then provides clear photo credits for each. If you can’t afford or don’t want to spend money on images, there are plenty of free or cheap options.

The Horror: Ghost-town comments sections
Save Yourself: Does your comments section look like Reason’s “Aaron Sorkin's Facts and Fictions [About ‘The Social Network’]” which has 129 comments and counting—or more like a ghost town? If you said, “ghost town,” don’t lose heart. Start by making it easy to comment. The Reason example above has an inviting, clearly structured comments section that requires nothing more than a name. Forcing users to create an account will reduce the number of comments you receive. It’s also vital to keep spam comments to a minimum so the actual discussion around your content doesn’t get buried in a sea of self-promotion. Consider ending posts by asking readers to give an opinion or add to the conversation. It’s surprisingly effective.

The Horror: Frightfully useless content
Save Yourself: Darren says it again and again: Be useful and solve a problem for your readers. And he says it for a reason. If you aren’t solving a problem, whether it’s giving readers a laugh, information they’re interested in, or a new way of doing something, they won’t have a reason to return to your blog. GigaOm’s “Where to Watch Jon Stewart’s Daily Show Rally Live” is a great example of a post that gives readers something they want. As you write each post, ask yourself what readers will get out of it and have a good answer to that question before hitting “publish.”

The Horror: Eerily silent blogging schedule
Save Yourself: You need not be as prolific as Bleacher Report’s coverage of the World Series (“World Series 2010: Why the Giants Won Game 1” is one of nearly 250 posts on the subject in the last month), but you should maintain a fairly regular posting schedule so that readers know when to expect content. Whether you choose to post twice a day or once a week is up to you and should be determined by how much time you’re willing to devote to your blog and what you ultimately want to get out of it. Going on holiday? Line up posts ahead of time or consider using guest posts to maintain the schedule.

The Horror: Echo chamber of terror
Save Yourself: While 90 percent of blogs covering the story were repeating (almost verbatim…I smell a press release) the news that Kanye West’s new album had a release date, Vulture took the opportunity to get creative with “Ten Album Titles Culled From Kanye’s Twitter That Are Better Than ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,’” a choice that made this post stand out from the crowd. Finding an unconventional way to cover a popular story can be the difference between getting lost in the echo chamber and getting significant traffic. Take the extra time to get an exclusive interview, add your opinion, delve deeper, or explore unanswered questions.

The Horror: Hauntingly boring (generic) voice
Save Yourself: One of the best things, in my opinion, about blogging is that you have the ability to express yourself, not just through your opinions but through your writing voice and style. Wired Science’s “Nobel Worthy: Best Graphene Close-Ups” could have been a dry, boring explanation of graphene, but is, thanks to a humorous and conversational tone, quite engaging. Let your personal voice—whether it’s serious, humorous, conversational, or academic—shine through your posts until your writing sounds like you.

That, brave souls, is the end of our blood-curdling jaunt through the horrors of blogging. We made it out alive. Which of these horrors haunts you most frequently and how do you deal with it? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

See you next month with more blogosphere trends from Regator. In the meantime, you can get your niche’s trends or other free widgets for your blog at Regator’s new widget site.

Kimberly Turner is a cofounder of Regator.com, Regator for iPhone, and the Regator Platform, as well as an award-winning print journalist. You can find her on Twitter @kimber_regator.

Post from: ProBlogger Blog Tips