Tidying Up Tags – A Technical Review

I’ve written about some of the problems I’ve found with tagging, but here is a scientifically written paper on the problems, challenges, and success of tags by D-Lib Magazine called “Folksonomies Tidying up Tags?” We agree with the premise that tags are no replacement for formal systems, but we see this as being the core […]

What Do You Blog About? Check Your Tags

Once you get past the issue of explaining what a blogger is and does, then comes the question, “What do you blog about?” Do you know? Do you really know what you blog about? You might think you know but do you really know? There’s a way to check. If you are using a tag […]

The Problems With Tags and Tagging

I have talked a lot about how to put tags on your posts, including how to create a custom bookmarklet to add tags to your wordpress.com or WordPress posts, and the benefits of tagging, as well as the difference between tags and categories, but what I haven’t talked about is the issues involving tagging from […]

What’s Next? Google Tags

It appears that Google has launched a tagging program very quietly. according to Tech Crunch’s “Google Targets Del.icio.us”. You can “tag” your searches as bookmarks in the Google My Search History bar “enabling you to quickly tag and comment any web page you’ve visited”. The service is in beta testing and so far, the reviews […]

Make Your Technorati Tags Invisible

While I’m a fan of putting things out in front where everyone can see them, kinda like truth in advertising, an oxymoronic phrase, there is a growing interest in including Technorati Tags within your posts that are there, but not there. Enter the Invisible Technorati Tags. I want to emphasize that hiding anything on your […]

An Interesting Use of Category Tags in wordpress.com

Jacob Appelbaum’s blog on Hurricane Katrina is an amazing read, but it also features an interesting use of categories as tags. I’ve talked about the difference between categories and tags, the limitations of using categories as tags, how to manually add Technorati and search tags to wordpress.com, and an even easier method for adding tags […]

Categories versus Tags: Defining the Limitations

I recently talked about categories and tags, what they do and which one to choose and adding Technorati tags to WordPressMU sites, like wordpress.com, and I want to share with you a recent struggle I went through on this issue. I have spent the past five days debating about the name of a new category […]

Adding Technorati Tags to WordPressMU Sites

Note: This article is deprecated. It is no longer valid. You should not be linking your tags to Technorati, but to your own content. Single hosted versions of WordPress now come with built-in tagging and tag clouds. Manually creating a tag cloud is not necessary. WordPress.com users currently only host “global” tags, tags that link […]

Categories versus Tags – What’s the Difference and Which One?

Categories and Tags are for your visitors, not just search engines. Think of your visitors’ needs first. Categories and Tags are about navigation and sorting, grouping your content to help visitors find related information. Categories and Tags are not fashion statements. Don’t be colorful or imaginative with either. Categories are your site’s table of contents. […]

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: Dissecting Post Categories

In a recent article, Noah Weiss shared his struggle to figure out categories and tags on his personal site. I know many of you following these Blog Exercises have also struggled to figure out your categories, so I thought Noah’s site would be a perfect example, He has gratefully given me permission to rip his […]

Blog Exercises: How to Add Headings to Your Post Articles

I’ve mentioned using headings in your post articles throughout these Blog Exercises. Let’s look closer at these HTML tags that help you structure and increase the readability of your blog posts. Headings are HTML tags used to set the section or subsection titles within your blog posts. They divide your content into sections, but they […]

Blog Exercises: Does Your Site Look Spammy?

Does your site look spammy? How would you know whether or not your site looks spammy? It’s time for a spam check. Web design is hard, especially if you aren’t an expert. Yet, in many ways you are an expert if you are a fan of the web. You’ve seen enough sites to know the […]

Blog Exercises: How Many Words in a Link?

How many words should you put into a link? Is there a rule? There isn’t a rule but there are good standards and practices. These state that two words should be the minimum, and only enough words to compel someone to click through to the linked source. The words must also imply the link’s destination […]

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 […]