A tag management system helps a company turn the managing of tags over to the marketing team. These systems allow for a managing interface which allows a marketing team to easily keep their obligations fulfilled. As the market grows, there are a number of different organizations offering varying styles of tagging systems. This growing market is allowing companies to choose the right systems for their organization, whether they are large scale or better for the small business approach.

There are some great features that marketing teams and companies want to take into account during the time when they are deciding on a type of tagging system to take on. They will want to review the customization, structure, architecture and the site hosting.

Looking at different forms of architecture within tag management systems, it’s important to analyze the build up and exactly how tags are loaded. A client side model means that the performance is sped up by using caches with the tag management server. On a server side model, every new page view will bring on a new server request, with much more dependency on the actual server. Both models have their own level of benefits, but for the most part, organizations tend to go with the performance that comes with a client side model.

When it comes to the structure of a TMS, it’s important to review types of tags that are going to be used; including web analytics, basic tags and complex tags. It’s also important for a company to look at the amount of possible customization with each TMS option. Because the method of using TMS is still relatively new, developers are continuing to come up with great new ideas and applications. Discussing the customization opportunities with each vendor will allow an organization to realize the possibilities of growth with each option on the table.

Finally, it’s important to review the site’s hosting within each TMS. There is likely to be a decision between on premise hosting and on demand hosting. On premise hosting is common with high volume sites and allows the process to be mostly internally run. An on demand hosting environment is overseen by the provider of the services, taking away the possibility

Even though these are just a few of the indicators to look for during the TMS process, taking them into account can be crucial. All four of these indicators may hold different values to different companies and what they’re looking for. At the end of the day, tag management system options continue to grow along with development.  In the end, it’s crucial that each organization look for what properly matches the needs and environment of the company and site.

After applying Justin’s tip, your editor will look like this:

WordPress 3.2 editor with different font

While everyone has their own preference as to how one should setup a live blog, here are a few tips (as well as a couple of tools) for those of you seeking a way to update your readers in real time without using external tools (like Twitter and Cover It Live).

Do It Live Upon Another Blog?

In order to avoid confusing your readers, it’s always wise to use a separate blog underneath a sub domain or upon a new domain.

This avoids flooding your current readers (subscribed via email, SMS or RSS) with short snippets which can potentially overwhelm them.

Using a separate blog can also help you break free from the art of writing formal posts, as the purpose of live blogging is to provide informal updates as quickly as possible.

Note: As a bonus, if your live blog becomes “too popular” and ends up crashing it will not take out your main site (the latter which you can use to post live updates following the tip below).

Do It Live Within A Post

For those of you loathing to establish a second blog (whether under a subdomain or a new domain), you can also live blog under your current post.

WordPress fans can use a plugin called Live Blogging which can turn a single post into a live blog, with the ability to push out updates towards Twitter (which you can easily setup within the plugin).

Bloggers choosing this route should make sure their post is prominently featured upon the home page (so your readers can see it) as well as provide an explanation near the top of the post to enlighten new readers on your blog.

Note: If you are live blogging upon a single post, make sure your site is able to sustain traffic spikes as well as higher percentage of commenters (the latter which can sink your blog).

Automatic Updates Are Key

Make sure the blog you are using can automatically display updates to your readers without auto refreshing the browser (which is annoying).

You should also make sure comments are automatically updated as well, something third party commenting systems like Disqus can easily provide.

One of the best ways to do this is by choosing a theme similar to P2 which can make it easier for your readers to see the latest update, as well as view new comments from readers in real time.

Why Not Use Cover It Live Or Twitter?

Although tools like Cover It Live and Twitter are also excellent tools to use for live blogging, the only problem with these platforms is they either lack permalinks or you lack control of the platform (especially if it goes down).

Have you ever launched a live blog? If so, what other advice would you give to bloggers seeking to launch their first live blog?

Visit the tutorial here.

At Splashpress Media we also made sure to pay extra attention to the attachment page in our redesigns and all our newly designed pages also include an ‘Attachment gallery’ as can be seen in this ForeverGeek post. Click any image in that post or just visit an attachment page:

Justin’s entry explains how to include links to every image size in your designs.

Read Justin’s tutorial here

Luckily not much is needed to make both editors compliant with the WordPress coding standards and in an entry over at Magp.ie Eoin Gallagher, Polldaddy developer, explains how to configure Coda – and TextWrangler – to meet the WordPress coding standards.

Discover how here.

Unfortunately its immense popularity makes the software a prime target for hackers, similar to how Facebook and Twitter are prime targets since “everyone” is using them.

While there are more advanced measures that users should take when securing your WordPress site, here are the 3 most common habits I see practiced by some WordPress users that may set ones blog up to be hacked.

WordPress Updates Are For Losers

If I had a dollar for every excuse I heard for NOT upgrading one’s WordPress blog to the latest update, I’d probably have enough money to retire from blogging (not that I’d ever consider doing that).

Most of the excuses I hear for not updating resolve around concerns that it will break ones theme, various plugins, or (the worst scenario) they don’t see the value in a 3.0.x update (despite the fact that some of them are critical).

Truth be told the vast majority of WordPress sites that I have seen hacked are because the owner declined to keep their blog updated to the latest version.

If clicking upon the “easy update” button is too difficult, then users should consider asking their host to ensure that their blog is always updated to the latest version.

Note: For those paranoid about a WP update breaking your blog’s theme or a specific plugin, you should consider creating a test site in order to resolve any issues before an update goes live.

Keep Passwords Simple

Just as it would be silly to have an easy password for one’s online bank account, so it is foolish to use simple passwords for your WordPress site.

WordPress users should always utilize complex passwords for their account, utilizing numbers, letters and symbols in order to make guessing the correct password nearly impossible for a hacker.

As an extra precaution, WordPress lovers should also consider installing a plugin called Login Lockdown which will block the IP of anyone trying to access your site after numerous failed attempts.

Note: There is also another plugin called Better WP Security that is similar to Login Lockdown and looks promising, although it’s currently in beta testing right now.

It Doesn’t Matter Who You Host With

When it comes to hosting ones blog, many WordPress users choose the cheapest host around without taking a hard look at the company’s security record.

Unfortunately keeping your blog updated and creating complex passwords is not enough nowadays, as hackers may still be able to access your blog due to your neighbor not remaining vigilant (i.e. not keeping their site secure).

WordPress bloggers should only host with companies taking the security of their server as well as your site seriously (the latter which is sadly neglected by many general hosts).

Users seeking more secure options should also check out WordPress specialized hosting, who from past experience are usually more vigilant when it comes to ensuring that your site avoids being hacked.

Any Other Tips?

If someone new to WordPress came up to you asking how they could secure their site, what tips would you recommend?

Feel free to share your wisdom in the comment section below!

While WP.com and Blog.com are great ways to experience WordPress without putting a hole in your wallet, they are also very restrictive on what features (think plugins) you can install upon your site.

For those of you seeking a more flexible solution to WordPress blogging, they may want to check out Blogetery who provides users with the conviences of WP.com without sacrificing too many freedoms.

Plugins Galore

Although Blogetery does restrict which plugins users can install, the company offers a much larger inventory than either Blog.com or WP.com combined.

Users can install plugins to enhance their sidebar or insert social buttons upon their posts. As a bonus users can also activate Twitter Tools which will allow them to backup their tweets upon their blog in order to have a hard copy in the even that Twitter is subdued by the fail whale.

A few plugins (like the advanced Facebook like button) do require a premium upgrade, although Blogetery’s prices are competitive (as shown below).

The Price Is Right?

Instead of charging users various fees based upon features like space upgrades, removing ads (or inserting your own) and the ability to create custom themes via CSS, Blogetery only charges users a basic rate in order to unlock all of these features.

Users can pay an annual rate of $42/year or $5/month, making the site affordable for the aspiring blogging pro who wants to test out WordPress without breaking the bank.

As an added bonus, Blogetery allows users to setup a custom domain upon their site for free, which means users can setup a professional looking blog without having to become a professional when it comes to hosting lingo.

CDN And Backups FTW

For those of you worried about your blog disappearing again (note: it’s a long story), Blogetery has taken steps to ensure that every blog is backed up upon Amazon’s servers in real time, giving users a VaultPress like backup experience without paying an extra dime.

On top of the free backup, Blogetery also provides users with a free Content Delivery Network (aka CDN) courtesy of Amazon, helping to speed up your blog’s loading time, enabling you to focus more on content than blog optimization.

No Room For Big Blogs (Plus: AdSense Only?)

Despite offering the same features as their rivals without charging enormous fees, Blogetery does have one major disadvantage and that has to deal with space.

Unlike WP.com and Blog.com who offer users 3 GB and 2 GB of free space, respectively, Blogetery only offers users a paltry 250 mb of space for free.

Although users can upgrade to a pro account in order to receive an additional 5 GB of space, there doesn’t seem to be any way to expand beyond the 5 GB limit which may deter heavy media bloggers (i.e. those who use video, audio and lots of images) from signing up.

Blogetery also only allows users to use AdSense for advertising, which is great for most people although if you want to utilize other advertising networks you could be out of luck.

CAPTCHA Logins?!!

Although Blogetery wisely allows users to install Akismet upon their blogs (something Blog.com does not allow), for some strange reason users logging in from their computers have type in CAPTCHA’s in order to access your admin page.

While Blogetery’s use of CAPTCHA’s is understandable (as they do not want any spammers on their servers), the companies good intentions are in vain due to the fact that spammers are hiring people in third world companies to bypass automated defense systems.

Hopefully the company will consider switching to Login Lockdown (or another less obstructive measure) instead, as it’s not only a wiser solution but it would allow those who are visually disabled to log in as well.

Should You Blog On Blogetery?

While I would easily recommend Blogetery over Blog.com (mainly because they provide anti-spam defenses via Akismet), those of you with blogs over 5 GB should probably consider WP.com or self hosting.

Have you tried using Blogetery? If so, what are your thoughts using the service?

While each category has its own advantages and disadvantages, users should careful to choose the host that best fits their needs (whether those be financial, security, freedom, etc.) before launching your blog to the world.

Although everyone has their own bias (including yours truly!) over which option is the best, here is a “brief” guide to help those of you new to the world of WordPress, as well as for the many considering adopting it as your preferred platform.

Urban Cities (Generic Hosting)

Often known for their generous offers of unlimited hosting, generic hosts can be an excellent way to test out WordPress without sacrificing a large sum of money.

Aside from price one major advantage of generic hosts is their size, as the hosting company’s embrace of other software platforms (like Joomla, Drupal, various forums, etc.) helps ensure that the company won’t disappear overnight due to lack of paying clients.

While generic hosts tend to have a longer record of existence when compared against the latter 3 types, they also tend to care more about keeping their server up than your blog’s performance.

Security can also be a major issue as hackers may upload corrupted software to the server in order to hijack their neighbors blog (which unfortunately could be you).

While many generic hosts have beefed up their security recently, users desiring more support may want to consider the latter alternatives.

Gated Communities (WordPress SaaS)

Although technically still considered “generic hosting,” WordPress SaaS (Software as a Service) companies use the resources of a generic host and then customize the servers in order to help make them WordPress friendly.

Companies like BlogOnCloud9 and Page.ly fall under this category as they depend upon resources of RackSpace and Fire Host, respectively, instead of running the entire hosting experience themselves.

While they tend to be much more expensive than generic hosts, the advantage of using WordPress SaaS is that you benefit from the stability of a large host coupled with the specialized service that every WordPress user needs.

The only disadvantage of using a WordPress SaaS is that your blog is potentially vulnerable to the same security problems of a generic host (note: so make sure you research the hosting company behind them!).

However if your blog is down via a hack or nefarious plugin, the WordPress Saas should be able to help you restore your blog very quickly.

WordPress Suburbia (WordPress Only Hosts)

Unlike generic hosts or WordPress SaaS companies, WordPress only hosting companies only allow WordPress sites to run upon their servers.

Companies like HostCo and PressHarbor are excellent examples of WordPress only hosting companies, with many more popping up later this year.

These companies tend to be much more expensive than either generic hosting or WordPress SaaS, although blogs hosted upon their servers tend to run much faster than their rivals (at least from my tests) making them perfect homes for high trafficked sites.

While security upon WP only companies is top notch, most WP only companies do not boast a long record in the hosting industry, potentially making them riskier bets than a decade old generic host.

Thus far many of these companies seem to be either profitable or backed by venture capital (so they shouldn’t disappear overnight), although you should consider researching their profitability before launching a blog upon their servers.

WordPress “Free Hosters”

Unlike the previous three types of WP hosts, WordPress “free hosters” allow users to host their blogs for free, but only if one is willing to surrender a large amount of control regarding their site.

WordPress free hosters are great for users who would rather not be bothered with upgrades, maintenance, backups, etc. and who just want to focus on creating content.

The best examples of a WordPress “free hosters,”  are Blog.com and WordPress.com (the latter which is run by Automattic) which like a land lord handle all the technical details behind the scenes as long as users are willing to abide by their rules.

Although WP free hosters offer users the ability to customize their sites appearance and even use a custom domain, most charge users a small fee for the privilege of customizing a theme (via CSS) or using in house media tools for video and audio.

Despite being much more restrictive on what features are allowed to be used by their users, WordPress free hosters are much more secure than the previous 3 types mentioned earlier, due to their strict control over what runs upon your site.

Which WordPress Host Do You Prefer?

Although I would personally recommend a WordPress SaaS or WordPress only host for your blog, it is always wise to do your own research before picking a host.

For those of you who blog upon WordPress, which hosting type did you select for your blogs and why?

Image Credits: Tokyo via Wikimedia foundation, Parihav, Suburb by David Shankbone and Apartment building by Deepak.

Granted some of these services didn’t exist in 2009 (as you’ll see below), however many of their alternatives did.

Although there were numerous other things I learned about WordPress ranging from security to various SEO tips, here are the top 3 things that stood out this year to me in 2010.

Offsite Backups Are Very Important

It wasn’t until the US government took down 73,000 blogs without notifying the company that I realized the importance of offsite backup systems.

While my previous host provided backups for the blog (via Mozy), it was not exactly catered towards the WordPress platform.

Fortunately I was able to sign up for a ticket for VaultPress (by Automattic, the company behind WP.com) which was able to backup 4 of my blogs without me having to delve into the world of WordPress backups and instead focus my attention elsewhere.

Regardless of whether one thinks highly of VaultPress’s service or prefers a less expensive alternative, backing up your blog is something I wished I utilized at the beginning of the year, especially when my previous host started experiencing “problems” (as explained below).

Hosting Matters

If you told me in January that I needed to ditch my current host I would have laughed at you since (at the time) the only things I cared about when it came to hosting was bandwidth/data transfer, how much space I had on the server and last (but not least), how much money I had to pay for it.

As some of you may have guessed, I ended up picking unlimited hosting with a reputable company whose service was okay until my blogs were placed in “throttling purgatory” for using too many system resources upon the server.

This led to a search for a better host, and after reviewing companies like HostCo, BlogOnCloud9, PressHarbor and Page.ly (the latter which I ended up using) I quickly realized that most general hosting companies are more concerned with keeping their servers online than how well your blog is doing.

While switching away from them was seamless thanks to VaultPress, it’s something that I wish I would have done in the beginning of the year.

Spammers Hate Advanced Commenting Systems

Believe it or not I almost decided to shut down my commenting system across all of my blogs due to the influx of human spam that was slipping past Akismet’s defenses.

It wasn’t until I installed IntenseDebate (a commenting service by Automattic) that I discovered the best defense against a community of spammers is a community of readers.

Services like IntenseDebate and Disqus allowed readers to flag spammy comments, allowing the community to hide or even send those comments to the moderation section for review.

This made fighting spam comments a lot easier, and while there have been some false positives, thanks to IntenseDebate I can spend more time on creating content rather than moderating comments.

Note: The only side effect of advanced commenting systems is that I’ve noticed that many human spammers are now reading the posts and responding with semi-intelligent comments.

What Did You Learn?

While there are numerous other things I learned in 2010 about WordPress, these 3 items top the list as far as 2010 goes.

What about you? What did you learn about WordPress this year that you didn’t know the previous one? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below!

However one item often neglected by new bloggers is pages (or rather the creation of them).

Unlike blog posts which are frequently updated and more “newsy,” pages are for the most part edited infrequently and usually receive far more attention from readers than the authors themselves.

While bloggers are only limited by their imagination as far as what types of pages they should create as well as how many, here are 3 page types every blogger should consider have regardless how long one has been blogging.

Note: While these tips can be applied to blog platforms of all types, the second one is geared more towards WordPress users as you will read in the explanation below.

The About Page

Believe it or not the about page is one of the most visited items upon a blog regardless of how large or small the blog is.

Whether this is due towards human curiosity of the authors or SEO is a subject of much debate (as some search engines prominently link to the about page as well as to the main site).

Regardless of the reason creating an about page can help provide a basic summary of what your blog is about in a similar way a book summary explains a novel.

An About Page is also a great way to introduce your readers to information about you without having to resort to creating a specific blog post describing your hobbies (for personal blogs) or accomplishments (for more professional sites).

While content length and media (i.e. audio, video and images) will vary depending upon the blog niche, type, etc., you should always try to make it interesting for your readers as they may judge your entire site based upon that one page.

A Contact Page?

While simply linking to an email address or tweet account on your blog is okay, it would be wiser for bloggers to create a contact page instead.

Despite the fact that it throws up an extra step for your readers, a contact page can help reduce the amount of noise you receive in your inbox as it can hide your email address from not only spammers, but trolls as well.

A contact page can also be used to instruct your readers on what types of email, tweets and voicemails you will respond to, as well as when they should expect a response from you (if it’s more than 24 hours).

Since contact forms are unfortunately being used by human spammers as well, WordPress users should utilize a contact form that filters out these messages lest you find your inbox flooded with various “growth” products and SEO scams.

WordPress.com users can utilize a new contact form by Automattic (which is also available as a plugin for self hosted fans) while those who run WordPress on their own servers can use Contact Form 7 to help separate legitimate inquiries from spam.

Securing Your Assets (Legal Page)

This last one is something many bloggers have not utilized on their sites (this author included unfortunately), although in an era where people are quick to sue, a legal page should be something ever blogger should consider as a mean of protecting your assets.

A legal page should contain a disclaimer which should highlight that your opinions are that of your own and not of any employer, organization or religious/philosophy group lest your viewpoints be used against you legally offline.

You can also use a legal page to inform readers their rights when it comes to commenting upon your blog, as well as how people can use the content produced on your site upon their blog.

While you do not have to hire a lawyer to create a legal page, it can help save you hassle later on just in case someone attempts to connect your opinion to your day job.

Note: Many bloggers have brief disclaimers posted on their blog (most often near the footer). However it is recommend that you should create a page as well.

Any Other Pages?

Although blog pages can be created for just about anything imaginable, these 3 should be able to serve the basic needs of a blogger, regardless of whether they blog about technology, politics or what’s happening in their life.

Have you created pages for your blog? If so, what other pages would you recommend bloggers create for their sites?

Image Credits: My Nice Profile, Warner Bros.

Rather I am referring to using Blogger to host a replica of your site online (technically referred to as a mirror site by professional geeks) just in case your blog site goes under due to heavy traffic, hackers or (worse) a renegade plugin that is not up to date.

While the idea of using Blogger as an online backup may not suite everyone (as you will see from the reasons below), certain bloggers sporting WordPress users may need to consider creating a subdomain (or even leaving the “.blogspot” on) if your site falls underneath these criteria.

Unlimited Hosting?

If you purchased unlimited hosting for dozens of blogs for under $100 USD/year, you will probably need to consider using Blogger as a mirror site as (more often than not) your host may not be concerned if your blog starts generating “internal 500″ errors due to you using too many resources.

While your host may not cut off your blog completely from the web, they probably will not make the experience pleasurable for your readers either.

Since Blogger is already free to customize and monetize, users can simply design a mirror site and temporarily redirect users towards their blogspot clone until they can switch to a decent host or their site is viewable (minus the errors).

Traffic Czars

Some hosting companies have what is commonly referred to as “hard bandwidth limits” which means that if your blog receives a large number of users over a certain period they will temporarily shut off your blog until you upgrade to a more expensive plan.

This can be very inconvenient, especially if your blog depends upon advertisements in order to provide food on the table (not to mention buy gifts for your significant other).

Instead of wasting minutes frantically dialing your hosting company, you could instead temporarily redirect readers towards your backup site (say backup.example.com) which would allow you to cash in on the traffic while you haggle with your hosting provider.

When All Else Fails

Sometimes even the best hosting companies go down unexceptionably, for reasons beyond their own control (i.e. massive power failures or natural disasters).

Regardless of their size, hosting companies do rarely suffer outages although to their credit they usually do provide an explanation (usually on Twitter) as to why your site is down.

Instead of pulling your blog from the latest backup (and paying for a new host) or telling users to simply use a Google Cache to view your site, you could temporarily redirect them to your blogspot blog until your host is able to resurrect your site from the digital abyss.

Why Blogger Instead of _______?

While sites like Tumblr, Posterous, and OnSugar are excellent alternatives, Blogger is backed by the mighty Google which means that (financially speaking) the platform is more or less “recession proof,” reducing the chances that your mirror site will randomly disappear due to lack of funds.

Blogger is also free to use, which should help reduce your overall bill (especially if you are paying for premium WordPress hosting).

WordPress lovers can utilize a plugin called Network Publisher in order to automatically push your posts upon your backup (or mirrored) blogspot blog.

Do you use Blogger as a backup/mirror tool for your blog? Or do you use another service instead? (note: if you have another idea/suggestion, feel free to enlighten us in the comment section below).

Once you have added the code to your functions.php you can easily implement the number of Twitter followers anywhere in your theme or design.

Read the tutorial, completely with copiable code, at WPShout.

While I won’t dispute your blog or convince you to embrace Tumblr as your primary platform, refusing to create a complimentary Tumblr blog could cost you in the future (literally).

Despite the fact that WordPress will be embracing many Tumblr like features in the future, here are 3 reasons why you should seriously consider opening a Tumblr blog to compliment your WordPress wonder.

Location, Location, Location!

Whether you like it or not, many users are abandoning email as well as RSS feeds as their primary way for consuming information.

This trend is not limited to the geek realm, but also to the upcoming generation as well who are choosing sites like Twitter, Facebook and SMS as a way to subscribe to the information that they care about.

Tumblr ironically is no exception as many users are using the service as a way to not only consume news, but share their findings with friends through the art of reblogging (which is similar to Twitter’s retweet).

Just as it would be silly for a blogger to ignore Twitter and Facebook, it would be equally as foolish to ignore Tumblr (which is quickly gaining popularity among the masses).

A Deeper Connection

Unlike Twitter or Facebook, Tumblr doesn’t limit the amount of text one can type, send, etc., which means you could have a lengthier amount published to Tumblr so that your readers can receive a broader understanding on what you’re writing about.

While this fact may not appeal to every blogger, it could give your site another avenue to reach new users as well as help build brand loyalty among the youth (who have embraced Tumblr whole heartedly).

Tumblr would also make it easier to converse with readers whether in the comment section (via Disqus or Tumblr’s native system) or through a reblog.

Tumblr could also serve as a way to post shorter content that may not be worth a blog post but still be of interest to your readers.

Show Me The Money

Believe it or not Tumblr is one of the few social networks (albeit a “bloggy” one) that allows you to put your own ads and affiliate links upon the site for free.

Let me repeat that again: you can place your own ads upon your site without paying Tumblr any money, a feature lacking with both Facebook and Twitter.

Instead of sharing your content elsewhere and enriching Twitter and Facebook’s bank accounts, you could instead generate revenue off of the Tumblr traffic while at the same time boosting your blog’s SEO.

How Do I Share My Posts To Tumblr?

For those of you who self host, there are a couple WordPress plugins available that will allow you to auto post your WordPress articles upon Tumblr.

The first is Tumblrize which is a simple plugin that ports your posts to your Tumblr site. For those of you desiring an “all in one” solution there is Network Publisher which not only embraces Tumblr, but Facebook and Twitter as well.

While there are numerous WP plugins available, these are the two that I highly recommend WordPress fans using as the plugins are compatible with the latest version of WordPress.

Should I Use Tumblr?

While embracing Tumblr may not suit everyone (especially if one is running a blog about WordPress), bloggers in other niches (such as fashion, politics, food, etc.) should seriously take a hard look at using Tumblr as a serious option.

Does your WordPress blog have a Tumblr account? If so, how are you using it to help promote your blog?

A must read for anyone who want to develop themes for WordPress: Read Justin’s entry here.

Unfortunately it seems that in their excitement to configure a blog to their liking, many users forget that many of the changes they are making behind the scenes are appearing live upon the site, which can confuse many of their readers (especially if your blog breaks).

While one should always seek out for new ways to improve the appearance and functionality of your blog, users might want to consider establishing a sand box (aka beta site) where they can test out new features “live” without damaging the appearance or functionality of their site.

Avoiding Theme Headaches

Regardless of whether you purchase a theme or download one for free, you should always remember that launching a theme upon your blog will always be slightly different than the theme creators demo (or where ever you acquired it from).

Everything from post images (i.e. thumbnails, logos, etc.) to plugins to even specific browsers (like Firefox, Google Chrome and the dreaded IE6) can drastically alter your blog’s appearance and performance.

Instead of making live changes and spending the next few hours, days or weeks fixing various bugs and compatibility issues (at least with plugins and browsers), it would be wiser to demo your theme upon a beta site instead.

This not only will help you determine whether a specific theme is worth the hassle of customizing, but also reduce the amount of troubleshooting you will have to do later.

Not All Plugins Are Created Equal

Just because a plugin is listed in the WordPress directory doesn’t mean that it is safe for your blog to use.

Although the a large portion of WordPress plugins are frequently updated by their creators, many of them contain bugs that prevent them from working properly with your theme, with other plugins.

Speaking from experience I have personally encountered plugins that worked fine with one theme, only to cause my blog to implode when implementing it with different theme on the same blog (forcing me to delete the plugin folder via server side).

Troubleshooting a plugin on a beta site can help you avoid embarrassing yourself in front of your audiences, as well as give you time to find an alternative solution just in case installing your favorite plugin turns out to be a catastrophic mistake.

Prove Thy Hosting

Regardless of whether you choose WordPress specialized hosting or a company providing general hosting, you should always test the companies claims with a beta blog before migrating upon their servers.

Believe it or not most hosting companies are not created equal (especially those selling unlimited hosting and bandwidth for under $5/month).

Testing them with a beta blog first will give you a taste on how a host operates without having to hand over your data which could be used against you as “collateral” (especially if you have a personal blog with private entries that you would prefer to remain private).

Since most decent host companies provide a money back guarantee (within at least 15 days), you can test out their service with a beta site without risking your data and wasting precious time.

Any Other Reasons For A Beta Site?

Do you have a beta or demo site that you use to test out themes, plugins or hosting providers?

If so, what other reasons would you give WordPress users to start their own beta site, and would you advise using a subdomain or a secondary domain?

Feel free to enlighten us in the comment section below!

If you blog long enough, it is bound to happen to you, even if you aren’t aware. Someone will take your content and republish it on their site, sometimes with a link, sometimes without, sometimes the full work, sometimes just a snippet. There are a million ways your content can appear on other sites, some ways legitimately and other ways less so, but they are all interesting lessons in how your readers interact with your work and, in some cases, problems you have to address.

Because, while most content reuse is fairly harmless. Some uses, especially by plagiarists and spammers, can have a negative impact on your site. This makes it important to know both how to track your content, what your rights are regarding your work, when is a good idea to step in and, most importantly, what you can do if you find that you need to.

Unfortunately, the issues are far more complex than what we can discuss in a single column, but we can definitely give a good overview of the situation and what you can expect.

The Pitfall

The pitfall here is fairly simple, people are going to want to use your content on their sites. Some will have noble intentions, such as quoting your content in a response or linking to it to let their readers know about it. Others, however, will have less-than-pure motives, including spamming the search engines in an attempt to gain a higher ranking and to plagiarize your work to take credit for it.

Most of the time even the most nefarious use is fairly harmless and goes unnoticed. However, there are times that a site will either be successful in using another’s content to game the search engines or manage to convince a large number of people that they are the author of a work.

Smaller sites and newer sites are especially vulnerable to these issues. Since they don’t have the trust with Google or a large reader base, it is trivial for other sites to swoop in and replace the original. Spammers, who often have large link farm networks, can often times take the content from new sites and outrank them for unique terms and can be very difficult to unseat later.

This can be a major drag on the growth of a new site, especially one that is in a spam-friendly niche. However, too few bloggers are aware of these problems when they arise and when they are aware aren’t certain what they can or should do.

Fortunately, most of these cases can be easily prevented or resolved, if a blogger is willing to give some thought to how they want their content to be used and are willing to enforce their rules.

How to Avoid It

On my main site, Plagiarism Today, I talk at great length about content misuse issues and what bloggers/webmasters can do to prevent, reduce or stop it. However, much of the process comes down to seven steps that can to be repeated for every site:

1. License Your Work: Determine what conditions you want your work to be used under and mark it accordingly. If you are comfortable with some level of reuse, consider getting a Creative Commons license to clearly explain your terms. If you are not comfortable with any reuse, be sure to add a copyright footer that includes the year, the © symbol and “All Rights Reserved”. Though the latter is not needed under the law, it helps prevent confusion.
2. Track Your Content: For your blog’s main content, use FairShare to monitor where it is being used on the Web. For content that is outside of your RSS feed, consider using Google Alerts with several key phrases from your work. Both will notify you automatically when duplicates of your content appear online and both are free services.
3. Contact the Site Admins: If you find that your work is being misused, contact the site admin and ask that they stop. This is known as a “cease and desist” demand and can take a variety of forms and tones. These requests can be threatening and professional or friendly and polite, the choice is yours based on your approach and the case itself. Sometimes you are forced to skip this step, as with spam sites.
4. Notify the Host: If the site is within the U.S. or another nation with a notice and takedown system, contact the host of the site to have it removed. You can find who the host of a site is using WhoIsHostingThis or Domain Tools. When sending a notice to a U.S.-based host, you’ll need a to file a DMCA takedown notice.
5. Notify the Advertisers: If the site has advertisers, consider notifying them about the infringement if you believe it to be intentional. Most major ad networks will discontinue accounts of those who infringe copyright.
6. Notify the Search Engines: If contacting the host doesn’t get results or is not practical, consider filing a DMCA takedown notice with Google and the other search engines to have the content removed from there. At the very least, you will not be competing with your own work.
7. Consider a Lawsuit: Though in most cases of online content misuse, a lawsuit is neither a practical nor an adviseable step, if all else fails, it may be worth considering if the case you are dealing with may be the exception to the rule.

If you take these steps, you’ll likely find that the amount of content misuse you’re dealing with is kept to a minimum and you are able to handle any incidents that do arise. Though it is by no means a perfect system, it is one that is easy for bloggers to follow and doesn’t require any money to complete.

In short, it is meant to be a simple, effective and free way to protect, monitor and enforce your content on the Web.

Bottom Line

All in all, protecting your content from misuse is fairly straightforward and shouldn’t take a great deal of time and energy. If you’re doing everything correctly and focusing on the important cases, it won’t be a distraction from your regular blogging efforts.

However, this means being smart about how you enforce your work and realizing that, as a blogger, not all reuse of your content is bad, especially those that create an inbound link. If you license your work to encourage good use, you’ll likely find that very few people actually abuse your content and those who do can usually be stopped quickly.

This will let you protect your work while encouraging its spread and still not spending too much time thinking or worrying about these issues.

After all, if you spend all of your time thinking about copyright issues, you’re not blogging or growing your site and that could be the biggest disaster of all.

Imagine sitting down to your computer one morning and opening up your blog. However, instead of finding your homepage your admin panel staring back at you, you instead see a bright red warning screen telling you that malware has been detected on the site and you are advised not to enter.

The realization quickly sinks in that, if you are seeing that error, so is everyone else trying to visit your site. You begin to hurry and try to figure out what happened but quickly realize that your site has been compromised and, if you’re even able to log in, you have a very big mess to clean up. Worst of all, when you’re done, you have to apply for reconsideration with Google and other security companies and then wait 12 hours or more for the warning to clear off.

It’s a painful process and, in the best of circumstances it can ruin an entire day and, in the worst, it can destroy an otherwise healthy site.

Still, it is an all-too-common occurrence on the Web. Bloggers learn too late that their sites are vulnerable and are left to clean up the mess an attacker leaves behind. That mess could be as simple as adding malware to the site, inserting spam links into the theme or defacing the site but in some extreme cases, it can go as far as to delete everything the blogger has done.

To help keep you, your visitors and your site safe(r) from hackers, you need to make sure your server is secure. Fortunately, it isn’t very complicated but failure to spend the time and energy today can be very costly tomorrow.

The Pitfall

Sadly, security is one of those things that few bloggers seriously think about until after something goes wrong. However, at that point, it’s pretty much too late. Once a site has been compromised it is almost impossible to trust again, either from the perspective of a blogger trying to clean up their site or a visitor who may have been infected or attacked through it.

For all intents and purposes, every site on the Internet is vulnerable to some degree, there is no such thing as a perfectly secure site. However, there are definitely sites that are more secure and less secure and the easier it is for your site to be hacked, the more likely it will be.

Typically, hackers go after after blogs that have known exploits that haven’t been patched, sites that can be easily attacked through a simple script and/or sites that can be opened up through a very simple attack. In short, most website hacks are not done by elite hackers targeting a specific domain, but attackers running scripts to exploit a known vulnerability in as many domains as possible.

That does not mean, however, that these hacks are not dangerous. On the low end, they can deface a site as a joke, in extreme cases, it can result in a site being deleted or destroyed, something that may not be able to be recovered from without good backups.

Any attack will erode hard-earned trust with your visitors, creating a setback that will remain long after the hole has been closed and the hack cleared up, but a particularly nasty one may be a blow your site can’t recover from, bringing an abrupt end to a site you’ve worked very hard on growing.

How to Avoid It

As mentioned above, there is no way to be 100% secure with your site. If someone is motivated and skilled enough, there are always ways to attack your server. Rather than focusing on being hack-proof, the goal of security is being a tougher target. The more you raise the difficulty in attacking your site, the fewer people that will have the skill and interest in doing so.

On that note, much of the responsibility falls to your host. They, usually, have the duty of making sure your server software, including OS and various applications, are up-to-date and properly locked down. However, very few hacks actually attack a server from that angle, though at least some appear to, and most instead focus on what you put on your account, something that is your responsibility.

With that in mind, here are seven crucial steps to make your blog much more secure, regardless of where it is.

1. Choose Good Passwords: Regardless of where you host, your password is your first line of defense. Using a bad password is like buying an expensive safe and leaving it unlocked. Make sure all of your passwords are difficult to attack, including the one for your admin area, your database and your site’s control panel. Any password that can be easily attacked is an exploit waiting to happen. Also, avoid reusing passwords and consider using a login manager such as LastPass to help generate and remember all of your passwords.
2. Keep Your Software Up-To-Date: Though not relevant for bloggers on hosted solutions, for those who host their own sites make sure you keep your software up to date. This includes your blogging platform and any plugins you use. Likewise, be careful of any plugins that you choose and make sure they are maintained, current and follow the same coding/security practices as your main application.
3. Harden Your Installation: Also, if you run your own software, make sure to harden your installation. This means making sure folders don’t have unneeded permissions, blocking access to key folders, installing security-related plugins, etc. WordPress users can see our previous guide on WordPress security for more tips.
4. Be Mindful of 3rd Party Services: Any service you add to your site is a potential avenue of attack. Consider, for example, what would happen if an attacker found a way to insert code into every single Facebook widget. They would instantly have their code running on millions of sites. That type of access makes these services tempting targets for hackers and an easy way for your site to get attacked. Only run services with a good track record of security and reliability. According to security experts, this is the number one flaw that opens hosting accounts to hacking.
5. Be Wary of Social Engineering Tricks: Amazingly, the easiest and most common way for hackers to break into an account is not to take advantage of a computer exploit, but to trick its human owners into giving them access either through phishing or cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. Be careful of who you give your password to, where you type it in and what you do while you are logged in to your site.
6. Seek Outside Help: Consider having your site monitored by a service such as Sucuri to help spot malware attacks or other alterations to your site before they impact your visitors or are noticed by Google. They won’t help you prevent an attack but they will help detect and clean up after one, thus minimizing the damage.
7. Create Off-Site Backups: Having backups is crucial but it is not enough to have them on your server, keep backups of your site in several locations including on your computer and, if possible, elsewhere on the Web. Consider using services such as Backupify, SiteAutoBackup or VaultPress to ensure that you can pick back up no matter what happens to your server.

Taking these steps will by no means make your site hack proof but it will go a long way to prevent your site from being attacked and to minimize the damage any successful attacks may cause.

In short, you’ll be ensuring that your data is protected and that your hard-earned trust with your readers remains intact.

Bottom Line

Blog security is not something you can treat lightly. Whether you run a small, personal blog or a major blog for your business, you are a target and you have visitors who are trusting you to keep them safe when they are on your site. Slacking in this area can and will cost you dearly.

So take a few moments if you haven’t and take a quick security audit. Take a look at the above tips read the past articles on the topic. See what you can do to improve your site’s security and take any steps necessary to ensure that you are up to code.

Though it may seem like a lot of work for very little reward, the next time a major blog hack is going around and it passes you by, the relief and security you feel will make the effort more than worthwhile.

After all, you can’t put a price on peace of mind nor can you put a price on having happy readers who get exactly what they expect from your site and nothing they don’t.

1. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP)

The more great content people are exposed to on your blog, the higher the chances are that they’ll find something they like causing them to return to your blog again, share your content with their own online connections, and ultimately, drive additional traffic to your blog.  YAARP is a great plugin for automatically including a list of related posts at the end of each of your blog posts.  The Link Within widget is another alternative.

Unfortunately, there are some forms of comment spam that have gotten out of control over the past year or so, and bloggers need to be aware of these spam tactics, try to identify them, and mark those comments as spam using their comment spam detection tool (for example, Akismet).  Identifying comments as spam helps your spam tool better identify them in the future, so hopefully, they won’t get through to your moderation queue anymore.

But how do you know if a comment is spam if it’s not the usual link-filled or gibberish spam comment that can be identified with a cursory glance?  That’s the problem with these newer forms of comment spam — they often look like legitimate comments, until you take a closer look at them.

These days, there are comment factories that pay people a few cents to leave a comment with specific keywords linked back to a specific web page for the sole purpose of increasing incoming links to that page and therefore, increasing Google search rankings for that page in related keyword searches.  If you visit a freelancing website like oDesk.com, you’ll find many of these “jobs”.  They’re quick and easy, and people snatch them up despite the low payment.

I refer to this type of comment spam as the “nice blog” or “great information” comment, because the comment will usually sound at least somewhat legitimate.  However, if you take a look at the URL entered into the comment form as well as the keyword phrase tied to that link, you’re likely to find something suspicious.  If you follow the link entered into the comment form, you’ll probably find even more evidence of a spam link.  In simplest terms, a link on a blog dedicated to discussing finance that leads to a website filled with ads, no original content, or with a URL like postnasaldriptreatment.com (I got that on one of my posts recently, and I assure you, the post had nothing to do with post nasal drip) is almost always spam.

There are also many comment spambots that find a blog that actually publishes a spam comment through phishing and then continually sends spam comments to that blog.  You don’t want that to happen, which is why it’s essential that you identify and mark spam comments as such to the best of your ability.  In time, you’ll be better able to identify spam comments.  The first step is being aware of what to look for and “teaching” your comment spam detection tool how to deal with similar comments in the future.  Those tools aren’t perfect, but every little bit of information you give them helps them get better.

Here are a few comment spam examples that fit the two scenarios listed above (paid comments for links and automated comments), which might help you to identify similar comments on your own blog.  These were taken directly from the comment moderation queue of one of my own blogs.  Suffice it to say, they have since been marked as spam if they were not detected as such by Akismet first.  Note that these comments were copied and pasted directly without correcting any grammatical errors.

Comment Spam Example #1: Submitted to a blog post written to help women in business

– Comment linked to electriccementmixer.info

Comment Spam Example #2: Submitted to a blog post written about business thought leadership

– Comment linked to pharmacytechnicianblog.com/pharmacy-technician-program with the keyword link text of Pharmacy Technician Program

Comment Spam Example #3: Submitted to a blog post written about the top 10 cities to capture Small Business Recovery Act dollars

– Comment linked to titaniumearrings.org

As the three examples above demonstrate, if a blogger didn’t take a closer look at them to see what post they were submitted to, what keyword link text was used in the comment form, and what URL was provided in the comment form, then that blogger may have published these comments opening the doors for similar spam in the future.  Don’t let that happen to your blog.  Be diligent about fighting comment spam!

Image: stock.xchng

Professional WordPress isn’t particularly geared towards the general WordPress novice like but more-so to the WordPress developer novice, just like Digging Into WordPress. The book is setup to describe basic operation of function and then offering guidance and example demonstrating how to take it apart and reassemble that function to fit your need.

Even though this may sound like Professional WordPress is only for developers, I do believe anyone wanting to take their WordPress installation(s) to a higher level will get a lot out of this book.

The Topics Covered

Where to begin. The Professional WordPress book offers a wide range of topics navigating you through 15 different chapters. Not all will be interesting to all, but anyone looking to broaden their WordPress knowledge will find something interesting in pretty much any chapter.

• First Post
• Functional Overview
• Code Overview
• Tour of the Core
• The Loop
• Data Management
• Plugin Development
• Theme Development
• Content Aggregation
• Crafting the User Experience
• Scalability, Statistics, Security and Spam
• WordPress as a Content Management System
• WordPress in the Enterprise
• Migrating to WordPress
• WordPress Developer Community

As you can see by list of chapters the range of topics is quite extensive. The first six chapters are written for those not yet intimately familiar with the WordPress engine, but as soon as you flip the page and start with the chapters 7 & 8 you are really getting a very solid explanation of the magic behind plugin and theme development. The rest of the chapters handle very specific topics any developer will come across some day.

Solid & Extensive

All in all the chapters with all their sections cover WordPress development very extensively. And when I say extensively I mean 363 pages of very will written, good documented, full of code examples and all written in understandable English. Professional WordPress, in my opinion, is a solid and extensive book that every man and woman seriously interested in developing for this wonderful semantic personal publishing platform called WordPress, is a must have. You can order Professional WordPress through Amazon.

The process of building a blog and growing it to the point of profitability isn’t always an easy task. Attracting valuable advertisers, selling the right affiliate products aren’t always straight forward and simple and can be extremely time consuming. So here are a few plugins that will make the workload a little lighter for you so that you can focus more on building the foundation of your blog, which is, awesome content.

1. The Ad Squares Widget

This free plugin when installed allows you to place neat 125px x 125px advertisements on your blog without the hassle of diving into too much code to customize and design the ad spaces yourself. This is extremely useful since not many WordPress themes do have functional and easily customized ad areas and not all of us are web developers.

The plugin features include:

• Supports up to 8 125px x 125px ads per widget area
• Customizable ad sizes and position
• Supports all types of ad code

Download the Ad Squares Widget here.

2. OIO Publisher

The OIO Publisher plugin is a cool ad management tool that will help you to have complete control of your advertising and automates many of those time consuming administrative tasks. This plugin takes the hassle out of ad creation, setup and the payment process and automates many functions that you would need to do yourself thus savings you lots of time.

The awesome features include:

• Geo-tagging ads – Which allows you to display specific ads for visitors from different countries and territories
• Built in affiliate program – Allows people to earn commissions for selling advertising space for you.
• Sells and manages banner, text and review ads
• Generates and automatically e-mails reports to advertisers
• Integrates with Paypal and other payment gateways to receive payments for ads

Definitely a must buy for the serious blogger and takes earning from your blog to a new level of professionalism. Purchase your copy of OIO Publisher and see the full list of features here.

3. WP E-Commerce

This free plugin allows you to fully integrate e-commerce capabilities into your WordPress blog without the huge hassle of coding while sparing you the massive expense. So if you’re thinking of selling a wide variety of items through your blog then WP E-commerce will be your trusted companion.

Features include:

• Easy integration with major payment gateways
• Designed with SEO in mind to ensure that your products are found through search engines
• Tons of customizable themes
• Automatically e-mails newsletters to customers

Download a copy of WP E-Commerce here.

4. Magic Members

If you have some killer content and you would like to reserve it for paying members, then Magic Members is the plugin to get you started in creating premium members only areas on your blog. This brilliant plugin comes with a host of capabilities to help you manage your blog like a pro.

Some of the features include:

• Integrated payment options for your members to sign up
• Multiple membership levels which allows you to control access to different areas of your site
• Various subscription and billing options

We previously wrote a very in-depth review of the Magic Members plugin which will give you further insight into what we think about it. So take a look here: Magic Members

Purchase your copy of Magic Members and see the full list of features here.

Discussion

The plugins above will definitely help you to be more efficient when developing your blog further for earning and even making a living from your blog. The main keys are to: automate as many tasks as possible, save time, save energy and focus on developing content for your blog that will make your readers stay for the long-term and spend some cash.

Are there any other plugins you know about that makes earning through our blogs easier? Please let us know by leaving a comment below, we would love to hear your ideas.

The best (and I’d say the only) way to create a strong community of talented guest authors around your blog is to offer incentives. You want your guest bloggers to be sincere in their desire to provide quality – so you want to be sincere in your desire to pay back.

No, it is not about money. Guest blogging is about benefit exchange: the authors give your blog high-quality content (and thus traffic and leads) and you give your guests exposure.

So do you promote your guest authors enough?

Rewarding with Backlinks

You may not really like that but let’s face it: most (even awesome) guest authors contribute content for links. Being generous in linking is the sure-fire way to get plenty of active guest contributors.

Important note: your linking policies are up to you. My own take is that if the author provides awesome content, he 100% deserves at least two or three keyword-rich (or "SEOed") links. But that’s up to you, your niche, your experience and what you belief in. I absolutely believe there is no right or wrong way to do that.

Let me make it clear that you really should be careful with linking (at least to some extent):

• If you are too generous and let your guest authors link back to whatever they want, you have good chances to attract plenty of spammers;
• Links are not just for search engines, they are primarily for users: make sure the links are useful for your blog readers in the first place.

Here is what I can recommend:

• Always find out which web pages your guest blogger is willing to link back to (before letting him write the post for the first time);
• Maintain high standards in your linking policies and make it clear that backlinks are NOT the hugest benefit your guest bloggers are getting.

(Personal) Brand Awareness: Author Boxes and Profiles

Another great way to give your authors more exposure is to work on your blog author boxes:

• Demonstrate that your blog has the diversity of voices;
• Let your authors build their (personal) brand awareness (and thus encourage them to contribute more often).

Make sure to read this post on WordPress customizations that requires no plugins. The very first tip mentioned there is actually about creating a cool author box without any plugin needed – which may ultimately mean more freedom and customization available. Here’s another great article by Franky describing how to optimize the author pages with the description, info and Gravatar photos.

If you prefer to use a plugin, here are a few options (tested and found compatible with the most recent WordPress edition):

Author Exposed is an absolutely clutter-free nice-looking plugin that can be used in combination with any design hacks you have at your site. With it, the author info is visible only after a click: by clicking on the author name the layer pops up with author info generated from the profile page, plus gravatar photo:

If you are concerned about the link love you are giving to your authors (which you certainly should be), the box is JavaScript-driven (so not really search-friendly), so you’d better use another way (probably, in combination with this one) to reward your guest authors with well-deserved links.

Cool Author Box: This plugin creates an author box below the post displaying:

• The name and the bio of the author of the post or page
• Gravatar of the author
• Link to other posts by the same author
• Link to author’s website

I wish it were a bit more customizable in terms of look and feel:

Author Spotlight: This plugin works as the sidebar widget. It automatically detects the author of the current post (which means the widget is hidden on the home page and category pages) and displays the following author information:

• The author’s name;
• The author’s website;
• The author’s bio (with the link to the full bio);
• The link to the author’s posts.

The plugin text can be customized:

Rewarding with the Words of Appreciation

Tangible incentives (like links and author photos) are great but no community is strong enough unless its members feel welcomed and appreciated. So don’t forget to express you positive feedback in public:

• Always comment actively at your guest authors’ posts. Make it obvious you are proud of their contribution;
• If you tweet your contributor’s post, credit him publicly (by including "by @author-username" part);
• If you share at Facebook, tag your contributor for him to receive it and appreciate the credit.

Building the solid and active community of guest bloggers around your blog takes time and effort (and you obviously need to pay back) but the outcome is priceless!

Do you reward your guest authors well enough to encourage them to provide high-quality content in exchange?

This is a guest post by Ann Smarty building an ethical community of guest bloggers at MyBlogGuest.com – join and enjoy if you are serious about guest blogging!

Now I am fully aware that it’s very hard to regulate anything on Twitter unless it’s in Twitter’s API, but in my opinion the hash tag #wordpress is being used too much for just about anything related to WordPress. Varying from Theme releases, Plugin update notifications, opionions, general statements and of course the questions.. and this of course in any language spoken out there.

I do not know who started it (and if you know who I’d love to give credit where credit is due), but a couple of days ago I saw a tweet fly by suggesting we would start using the hash tag #wpq for posting questions on Twitter regarding WordPress. The general topic of WordPress has gotten so big on Twitter that I think this is a great suggestion.

Other Places To Ask For WordPress Help

One could argue that Twitter should not be the place where you should post your questions regarding WordPress, but the truth is it’s already happening and chances are slim to none that you can stop people doing so. However, there are of course a few other places you can go to, and in some cases should go to, to seek WordPress related help.

• The number one place should, of course be the WordPress forums. Do search before you post.
• WordPress + keywords / errors in Google. No brainer.
• WP Question; a paid solutions for your WordPress questions.
• WordPress Help Center; another paid solution for your WordPress questions.

Questions For You

Have you used Twitter for your WordPress questions or are you a heavy user of the one of the other places I just mentioned and what do you think of  the idea of using #wpq on Twitter for WordPress questions?

Here are 9 effective techniques and tips that can be easily implemented to make your blog lightning fast.

1. Disable Unused Plugins

This is one of the easiest things we can do to reduce load times. I know many of us get carried away trying out the thousands of cool plugins available but we need to bear in mind the fact that they use system resources. Assess whether you need the plugins that you have installed and determine if they necessarily serve a useful purpose. Also, deactivated plugins that are not deleted can possibly create loopholes and back doors that hackers can exploit so delete them and maintain security for your blog.

2. Install A Caching Plugin

I recommend using the caching plugin W3 Total Cache which can greatly reduce the load time for your blog’s pages and ease the work on your hosting server. W3 Total Cache has the highest level of compatibility I’ve seen so far, especially with Content Delivery Networks.

3. Choose The Right Web Host

Personally, I’ve had my share of headaches when it comes to bad web hosts. There are tons of web hosting companies out there claiming to be the best but don’t seem to make the cut. Regardless of how optimized and efficient your blog may be, hosting your site on slow servers can drastically reduce your blog’s speed and up-time.

4. Use Less External Scripts

A tracking system such as Google Analytics is extremely useful for tracking a blog’s traffic and visitor demographics. However, having too many scripts installed from different providers can significantly increase and stall the loading of your blog because they are being called from an external source. If the server where the script is being called from is slow or down, this will affect your site’s performance. Other examples of external scripts include, code from video hosting sites, tracking badges and advertisements from external ad networks.

5. Check For Hacks & Other Exploits

Malicious code can seriously cripple your site’s performance and if you suddenly see an increase in your site’s loading times, its worth it to check for possible malicious injections. Plugins such as WP Anti Virus can scan your files for existing exploits. Read WordPress Security – A Comprehensive Guide to significantly improve your blog’s security.

6. Optimize Your MySQL Database

Optimizing your blog’s MySQL database can greatly reduce the load on your hosting server and improve load times, especially if you have a huge long-standing blog. The WP DB Manager plugin can easily optimize your database in a single click and even allows you to schedule optimization tasks.

7. Reduce The Number Of Images

Although images can assist with the overall appeal of our blogs, they need to be used in moderation. Less is best. Remove unnecessary badges and pictures that provide no useful purpose for neither you or your visitors. Minimal blog templates and designs usually perform best since they use less fancy images and javascript in the code.

8. Use A Content Delivery Network (CDN)

A CDN is a network of expertly optimized servers around the world containing copies of your site’s data placed at various locations in the network to maximize bandwidth thus reducing your site’s load time. This works really well if you have visitors from all across the world as the servers closest to them will be used to deliver content quickly. A CDN provider such as MaxCDN can provide great performance without putting a strain on your pocket.

9. Avoid Flash Content

Flash takes a lot of time to load and can significantly increase load times. Flash should not make up the main design elements of your site.

Conclusion

There’s nothing better than a blog with great content and zero load times. Use the simple techniques above to improve the experience for your blog’s visitors while achieving maximum authority in google.

Do you know of any unique tips and tricks for increasing speed that are not mentioned here? Please share them with us in the comments, we would love to hear from you.