Keyword Conquering: How to take control of the search engine

By J.T Dabbagian of JTDabbagian.com Recently, I made a post that was a rant about the keyword “Make Money Online.” I wrote that there were alternatives to saying “Make Money Online,” but nobody ever seems to think of them. That being said, it’s important for you to realize that there are more keywords and search […]

Duplicate Content Controlled Naturally Through Themes

Worried about all the fuss over duplicated content. WordPress, Duplicate Content, and Wrong SEO Plugins by Planet Ozh will help set you straight. Keeping your site safe from the duplicate content issue, and more generally getting things optimized for search engines, should not be a plugin’s job, it must be your theme’s job, it must […]

Blog Building: Who Controls Your Blog? You? Your Host?

Do You Own Your Website? by Healthy Web Design takes a good look at the hidden pain and suffering and control that comes from choosing a cheap web host for your blog compared to making a conscious business decision on how to host your blog. It’s true, companies such as Yahoo!, SiteBuilder, and Homestead offer […]

Google Feedfetcher Takes Control. Where is Bloglines?

Well, the developers behind WordPress.com have adjusted things and Google Reader and Google’s Personalized Homepages are now included in the WordPress.com blog feed stats, listed as Google Feedfetcher. This certainly changes things. A lot. As I discussed yesterday, feed statistics spiked all over the web as Google changed how their feeds were reported and discovered […]

Introducing a New Guest Blogger: Greg Balanko-Dickson – The Remote Control CEO

WordPress.com recently introduced multiple users options on our blogs, so I’ve invited a very special guest to help me explain about blogging and the business of blogging. Greg Balanko-Dickson – Remote Control CEO is an expert on the business of blogging and websites. He is also a professional business coach and entrepreneur. He describes himself […]

Blog Exercises: Excerpts and Continue Reading

Encountered the front page of a blog where the posts ran on and on and on and on, stretching across the length of the page? Do you ever wish you had more control over the length of your posts on the front page of your site? This Blog Exercise explores the use of the “more” […]

Blog Exercises: Do You Teach or Lecture?

Do you teach or lecture on your site? We all write with a specific “voice” and “style,” representing our perspective on the information we are presenting. On this site, I’m a teacher, sharing with you lessons to help you blog, use WordPress, and publishing on the web. You may share your expertise or your experiences […]

Blog Exercises: Own Your Site and Protect Yourself

I hear it every day. A webmaster, developer, or designer does the site owner wrong and the site owner is victimized, helpless, and frustrated with what to do next. I’ve gotten calls in the middle of the night from people around the world trying to get help recovering their WordPress password because their “web guy” […]

The Brute-Force Password Attack on WordPress Sites

My mother emailed me and asked if WordPress was under attack. With all the news of last week’s attack of the Boston Marathon, the attacks on WordPress and other PHP-based web publishing sites was low on the priority list for myself and others, but this is something to take seriously. As we get back to […]

Blog Exercises: Site Policies and Bloggers Code of Ethics

It’s time to start working on all of your site policies, one by one. So far, we’ve touched on some of these in Blog Exercises: The Don’ts of Blogging, Blog Exercise: Taking a Risk With What You Blog About, Blog Exercises: Comments and The Blog Bullies, and Blog Exercises: Quoting and Blockquotes. The basic policies […]

Fight Against Trackback Death

I’ve heard the many threats of trackbacks and pingbacks dying over the years, going the way of the virtual dinosaur, but I’m terrified to hear from Andraz Tori that Typepad is killing pingback functionality and stating that WordPress might be considering it, removing the joy of getting a notification that someone online is talking about […]

Blog Exercises: Preview Posts

Do you preview a post before publishing? If not, consider adding this extra step to the publishing process. Why? I’m human. So are you. We mess things up. No matter how careful you are, you will make mistakes. That’s life. By double checking what your post will look like before you release it to the […]

Creating Footnotes in WordPress

Among the many techniques students and clients request in my WordPress and blogging workshops and classes1, requests for creating footnotes in WordPress are rare, but they do happen. There are very distinctive differences between traditional writing and web publishing styles.2 Footnotes have been replaced by links to cite a reference or resource to support the […]

A Day of Healing and Suffering at the Clackamas Mall

“I feel greedy.” We stood in the cold outside the Clackamas Mall, arms wrapped around each other, watching the crowd expand to release individuals and couples to step forward and place their candles on the memorial stage. The faces of the two deceased smiled over the mournful group gathered before them. The photographs were snapshots […]

Exploring the Alignment of the Planets in the Night Sky

In anticipation of the planets alignment, I went digging for some cool Android apps to see the stars, and some awesome astronomy blogs to keep myself updated. Let’s start with the awesome astronomy bloggers. Blogging the Stars When I think about those blogging the stars, I don’t think Perez Hilton. I think about those truly […]