Building Static WordPress Websites Fast and Easy

<div><br/> <p>First you need to find a nice template that you like. There are many free WordPress template sites. It is very easy to find Go to Google or any favorite search engine and do a search for" Free WordPress Templates" or "Free WordPress Themes".</p><p>Static WordPress site rarely need the the blog items like calendars or archives etc. A simple solution is to navigate in your WordPress administration panel to design>widgets. You can then add or subtract the widgets you want and you can make the sidebar look exactly as you like. This way you don't have to touch any code.</p><p>Now for the plugins. I recommend these basic plugins.:</p><p>Add the all in one seo plugin.</p><p>Add the privacy policy plugin. Optional, but I always have a privacy policy on my sites.</p><p>Add a sitemap plugin if you want. This is very good for search engines to find all your content.</p><p>Add a Google Sitemap and register it at Google. This is very important and will help you do well in Google.</p><p>If you want AdSense or affiliate banners add the ads manager plugin or any of the other WordPress plugins available. I like and use ads manager. It is very versatile and it can also can be used to easily add other types of banners to a page and control it by the Admin panel. With ad manager you also need the exec php plugin. This is really important this if you are going to hard code includes into the template. I use it to add banners to the sidebar via widgets and the text widget. If you don't know what this means then you can forget it.</p><p>Find the plugins at WordPress.org or do a Google search for each of the above plugins. If I am looking for some type of plugin I usually do a Google search by "keyword" and then "WordPress plugin." I always navigate to the authors site for the latest plugin and instructions on how to use the plugin.</p><p>Activate the plugins in your WordPress admin panel. They are located in the plugins link to the right if you are using WordPress 2.5. Again, I recommend that you read the instructions that are on the individual author plugin sites as to how to use each WordPress plugin.</p><p>Create a page. Label it whatever you like. Scroll down the page writing panel to the "all in one seo" area and add keywords and description to your page. This is the same as adding the keywords and descriptions to the meta content in the head portion of your template.</p><p>Scroll down some more to comments and pings and turn off "Allow Comments" so you won't see a user comment box. I want my site to look like a static site so I don't need commenting. If you want also un-check Allow Pings. It is up to you. I always un-check both.</p><p>At the bottom of the page you will see a "page order" area. If you want to have a certain order to your pages in your category menu then name the page you want on top of the menu 1 then the next page you create 2 etc. You can later change the order of your pages by using this feature. This is good so that maybe a sales page will be on top.</p><p>I also tend to use the subcategories Parent - child a lot. As an example, I will make a page called "articles" and then add different article pages as a subcategory to articles. I then add some form of introduction to the main article page and have the other articles easily accessible off the main article page. A nice touch for me is that I like to find a template that has a horizontal menu bar with drop down lists. I think it looks very classy. For me everything is then neat and orderly. But this technique is up to you.</p><p>In the WordPress admin panel go to settings>reading. On top you will see reading settings. Then "front page displays". In the front page displays check the radio button "A static page (select below)" and then from the front page drop down menu click the page you want to use for your front page. That page I usually title Welcome or I will add a keyword rich title. If you don't want any title leave blank.</p><p>With just these little changes you have the start of a static website with WordPress. The key is to use pages instead of posts, add keywords and descriptions via the "all in one seo" and your site is a really nice static website. Remember you can control the way the sidebar looks with widgets.</p><p>Do not choose templates that make use of the WordPress tagging feature initially. Some of these templates are called newspaper themes. They are a little harder to do and take a little more to understand. Once you master the basic look then you can branch out and try the tagging features of WordPress.</p><p>You can add to this basic formula to make your site even more user-friendly. Again, the above tips will give you a basic static and great looking website.</p> </div>

WP Guide Building Static WordPress Websites Fast and Easy

First you need to find a nice template that you like. There are many free WordPress template sites. It is very easy to find Go to Googl...

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Basic Web Site Maintenance

<div><br/> <p>Getting your site up and running always seems like the biggest step. Unless you have a great deal of resources, it's hard work. You picked what type of site you wanted. Decided what design you wanted. You found your web site's niche. You perfected your content. Now, you're ready to let it do the work for you. However, now you're a site administrator so the success or failure of your site still lay in your hands.</p><p>After you take a much-needed break, you'll need to find a regular routine for your site. This may be ten or fifteen minutes a day, it may be an hour or two on the weekend, or every other week. You need to decide what you can and can't do before you set any goals.</p><p>Once you know you're schedule, you know what is feasible. Here are some tips on maintaining your web site that can keep your hard work working hard for you.</p><p>Regular Content</p><p>Because your web site will rely on the search engines for traffic, you'll need to attract their spiders. This will encourage the engines to visit your site more often. This is done by adding content to your site. The more content you add, the more often engines will visit.</p><p>Most webmasters just add a new article or two weekly. It doesn't have to be too long, just concise and informative. You can share news, any interesting events with your company, or even new developments that give your company an advantage.</p><p>Avoid Link Errors</p><p>Bad links, also known as broken links, do not work. They can lead your visitor on a bad journey through your web site. Most visitors will go elsewhere if your site isn't generally easy to navigate. You will have competition for your audience and they will likely already have any navigation issues solved. Try to explore all links at least once a month to ensure you aren't frustrating potential customers or a prospective audience with wrong turns and dead ends.</p><p>Statistics Do Matter</p><p>Web statistics are provided by most web hosting companies. These serve a greater purpose than to simply show you who is visiting. They can pinpoint what content is most popular. Statistics will show you what keywords or key-phrases are most efficient. Many can even report which country you have the most visitors from. This will help you decide what content to add in the future as well as what specific information visitors seek on your site.</p><p>HTML Concerns</p><p>With the growing use of CMS programs, general HTML errors aren't as troublesome as they once were. If you're still running a traditional HTML/CSS web site, you need to keep an eye on your code. Poorly written code will have a tremendous impact on your site's success. The worst factor about coding errors are their subtly. You won't know exactly what is wrong until the serious ordeals arise. You should always utilize any of the tools for web page validation available online. Dreamweaver users can greatly benefit from the Dreamweaver tutorial videos available across the internet.</p><p>While there are many more suggestions we can add, it's important to keep it basic. Utilizing these tips here will help keep your web site visible and your audience visiting.</p> </div>

WP Guide Basic Web Site Maintenance

Getting your site up and running always seems like the biggest step. Unless you have a great deal of resources, it's hard work. You...

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WordPress - Easy To Integrate Into Your Site

<div><br/> <p>In my search to begin blogging I decided to try out Google's Blogger two weeks ago. It was quick and easy and seemed to be a powerful platform. It is connected to Google and so I believed that a Blogger blog would give me a better chance at good SEO. In a short time I began to read articles that stated that SEO and link building would be better on a self hosted blog.</p><p>One reason is that you are not building any Search Engine love for your own site by having your blog on Blogger. Secondly, if you decide to move it Google will not give you the credit for the links that you have attached to your Blogger. Since I was so new at it I decided I would do the best thing and make a clean break from the start.</p><p>I had heard of WordPress for a long time. I knew that WordPress had a huge following and It was clear that there were an abundance of nice free themes. I set up WordPress on my site in a folder named blog. True to the claim it was an easy 5 minute setup. I have installed plenty of scripts which require one to set permissions on a myriad of folders and files. Nothing like that with WordPress. It was nice and seemed to be very stable and full featured. I like it.</p><p>I wanted to integrate my blog directly and seamlessly into my site. I searched and I found a good tutorial by <a href="http://www.burnseo.com/blog/2009/10/integrate-wordpress-into-existing-website-tutorial/" rel="nofollow" target="_new">Burn SEO</a>. The people at Burn have provided an excellent <a name="YANDEX_0"></a> <span class='highlight highlight_active'> tutorial </span><a href="http://hghltd.yandex.net/yandbtm?fmode=inject&url=http%3A%2F%2Fezinearticles.com%2F%3FWordPress---Easy-To-Integrate-Into-Your-Site%26id%3D5643772&tld=com&lang=en&la=1458449536&tm=1462297663&text=site%3Aezinearticles.com%20wordpress%20tutorial%20inurl%3Aid&l10n=en&mime=html&sign=ba392c00eb8818348dbaada71da5c6f1&keyno=0#YANDEX_1"></a></nobr> on how to integrate the <a name="YANDEX_1"></a><nobr><a href="http://hghltd.yandex.net/yandbtm?fmode=inject&url=http%3A%2F%2Fezinearticles.com%2F%3FWordPress---Easy-To-Integrate-Into-Your-Site%26id%3D5643772&tld=com&lang=en&la=1458449536&tm=1462297663&text=site%3Aezinearticles.com%20wordpress%20tutorial%20inurl%3Aid&l10n=en&mime=html&sign=ba392c00eb8818348dbaada71da5c6f1&keyno=0#YANDEX_0"></a><span class='highlight highlight_active'> WordPress </span><a name="YANDEX_LAST"></a></nobr> script into your website. It worked for me, though it took a little more time than I expected.</p><p>There are about 5 files that need to be modified in order to make it work. My site has a lot of stuff beyond a header that I needed to go into the header file, but that didn't detract. In the index.php goes everything else except the footer code. When you are finished you will have a few little syntax errors.</p><p>That is because the person who made the code examples to insert used the wrong character for escaping special characters. Use the ( ' ) comma, instead of the slanted hash marks that are in it; this will fix most of your problems. Also, keep in mind that you will need the "default theme" (original default theme- see picture) that used to ship with WordPress and not the one that comes with the current download.</p><p>Everything worked out perfectly. You will need to do some tweaking of your CSS for your archive.php, archives.php and single.php files to get them to work properly. The theme applied to your main index.php will not be recognized by the output of the Archive and Single view of the blog post. This is good; now I can move forward on a better foundation than with Blogger.</p> </div>

WP Guide WordPress - Easy To Integrate Into Your Site

In my search to begin blogging I decided to try out Google's Blogger two weeks ago. It was quick and easy and seemed to be a powerf...

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Edit Images in WordPress: No External Editor

<div><br/> <p>Have you ever had to deal with a lot of images in your WordPress blog or site? You go through all the trouble of editing your images and upload it to your WordPress site, without noticing that it is a huge filesize? It has happened to me and it is annoying to say the least.</p><p>If your image does fit under the upload cap, and finally gets finished, it will still usually load slowly on your site if the file is huge. This creates a problem for you and your visitors, because it provides a bad user experience and makes things take forever. Not the best you could have, but you for sure don't want to edit the image and reupload, then add it to your post again, right?</p><p>Well, there is a great solution already built right into WordPress for you that you can use and you won't have to reupload at all.</p><p>There is a little known feature of WordPress, that you can resize your images inside WordPress without using an external photo editor. There are other editing features in WordPress as well. When you're done the image will be the perfect size to put in a blog post.</p><p>You can always revert back to the original image if you need to, which is also built right into WordPress. This makes this very easy to do without having to load up Photoshop or Pixlr and reupload.</p><p>This makes it far easier to quickly get through a ton of photo resize edits on your own without having to do all that work again. I find it to be extremely handy to use the editor.</p><p>The photo editor was added in WordPress 3.1.3 and has been very useful ever since. Other things you can do with the photo editor include rotating a photo, flipping it left to right (which can be helpful to add a little flavor to your blog or site.</p><p>You can also crop your photo by simply selecting part of the image with a click and drag over the image. It works really well, and it seems like the WordPress team put a lot of thought into this feature. It is one of the things I probably use the most to get the media I need for my posts.</p><p>One thing to be aware of is that you can apply the edits you make to all thumbnails, or just the specific size you're looking at, which can be a massive time saver.</p><p>If you haven't tried out the photo editor in WordPress, I suggest you go into the Media tab in your admin and try it out on a photo you have in the library. You won't be disappointed.</p><p>More info on this feature from WordPress.com here: <a href="http://en.support.wordpress.com/images/image-editing/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Image Editing</a></p> </div>

WP Guide Edit Images in WordPress: No External Editor

Have you ever had to deal with a lot of images in your WordPress blog or site? You go through all the trouble of editing your images an...

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Semantic Web Development

<div><br/> <p><b>Semantic Web Modelling Centre of Excellence</b></p><p><b>Introduction</b></p><p>Semantic Web Development and dealing with complexity is a tricky issue. Representing information is a problem where complexity can preclude any single approach. In order to find our way around large quantities of information it needs to be structured. But the information already exists and is still being created, so this makes it a moving target.</p><p>I'm sure such matters will be covered at the www2006 conference at Edinburgh 23-26 May <a href="http://www2006.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_new">http://www2006.org/</a>. Kurt Cagle refers to this in his article on complexity on his Understanding XML blog at <a href="http://www.understandingxml.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_new">http://www.understandingxml.com/</a>.</p><p>The structuring of ontologies from the top down can be useful, but can only be achieved where the ontology developers have some control over the information. Much of web development and other creation of information is bottom up, in that there is no controlling authority. This is good for inclusiveness and speed of development, and something that encourages community, and encourages individuals to create their own content, which is a good thing. In his interview with the British Computer Society Tim Berners-Lee <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/blog/4" rel="nofollow" target="_new">http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/blog/4</a> answers a question on ontologies. He talks of a top level ontology that can be created to hold certain terms and the need to find out who is using these terms, so that other web pages and databases can be categorised. This would be achieved using URIs (Universal Resource Identifier) and RDF (Resource Description Framework). In answer to what Tim Berners-Lee hopes to achieve, he talks of this bottom up development that is going on, using blogs, and wikis etc and a possible approach of 'web science' - 'the science and engineering of web based things that have a bottom up Web-like structure'.</p><p>I think this approach is highly relevant to my PhD research on user-driven programming, with University of the West of England (UWE - Bristol). Not everyone has the time to learn programming especially if their main expertise is elsewhere. They then have to ask others to do the development for them and this leads to delays and mis-understandings. The approach advocated here could enable visual creation of software by members of a community. Members of this community would not need advanced programming skills if other members with more advanced development skills could create a suitable interface for the creation of software. This could be achieved in a similar way to that used in visual web page creation tools, or word processor and spreadsheet software. Also the members who do possess advanced skills could provide ways of sorting, searching and navigating the programs created using the visual development tools. Members could work with either or both groups, according to their skills and interests.</p><p>A good first step would be to link communities and sites that have a mix of those with advanced software skills who want to encourage and enable others to learn to program, and of new starters who want to learn. This could involve those who are willing to try out new techniques to make it easier for new starters to train learn and gain experience.</p><p>Sir Tim-Berners-Lee's interview - <a href="http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.3337" rel="nofollow" target="_new">http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.3337</a>.</p><p>This talk by Nigel Shadbolt explains research about coping with diverse sources of information - <a href="http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.3043" rel="nofollow" target="_new">http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.3043</a>.</p><p>This article by Bill Thompson for the BBC technology site examines new developments in Web 2.0 technologies - <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4842498.stm" rel="nofollow" target="_new">http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4842498.stm</a>.</p> </div>

WP Guide Semantic Web Development

Semantic Web Modelling Centre of Excellence Introduction Semantic Web Development and dealing with complexity is a tricky issue. Repres...

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Introduction To The PenTest Guide

<div><br/> <p><strong>Pentest - a definition</strong></p><p>Wikipedia provides the following definition about "Penetration Testing" (an activity strictly related to the IT Security world also known with the shortest name of "PenTest")</p><p>"A penetration test, occasionally PenTest, is a method of evaluating the security of a computer system or network by simulating an attack from a malicious source, known as a Black Hat Hacker, or Cracker. The process involves an active analysis of the system for any potential vulnerabilities that could result from poor or improper system configuration, both known and unknown hardware or software flaws, or operational weaknesses in process or technical countermeasures. This analysis is carried out from the position of a potential attacker and can involve active exploitation of security vulnerabilities. Any security issues that are found will be presented to the system owner, together with an assessment of their impact, and often with a proposal for mitigation or a technical solution. The intent of a penetration test is to determine the feasibility of an attack and the amount of business impact of a successful exploit, if discovered."</p><p>PenTest are usually performed by very skilled professional in this fields who are hired by companies that need to ensure their systems are compliant to the best security practices.</p><p>PenTest are also very expensive services to buy and those very skilled professionals hired to perform these kind of activities are normally paid much more than other professional in the IT field (e.g. System Administrators, Web and Software Developer, DBA, etc.).</p><p><strong>Why Another Web Site Talking About PenTest?</strong></p><p>Despite the numerous documentation available on the internet regarding penetration testing methodologies we believe that what is really missing is a practical guide written by those very same professional that give some guidelines about how a penetration test should be performed.</p><p>Despite the richest amount of information contained in the various "free" manuals available on the web (e.g. the very famous OSSTMM ) what is really lacking today is an information source illustrating how the pen test is conducted in the real scenario.</p><p>One of the thing that is often overlooked by who is new in this market is that in a real scenario (e.g. a IT Security company selling a Pen Test to another organization) all the security activities need to be performed in a very limited time interval.</p><p>It is therefore necessary to follow a methodical approach in order to be sure to cover all the are of a penetration test assessment in the time scope assigned to the project, which often includes also writing a full report that represents the final deliverable of the activity.</p><p>The idea behind this website is then to provide our personal (and practical) approach to the PenTest activities focused on the following areas:</p><p><ul><br/><li>External PenTest</li><br/><li>Internal PenTest</li><br/><li>Web Application PenTest</li><br/><li>WiFi Pentest</li></ul></p><p>Our goal is to provide enough information for every of the above areas which could be useful to who is new in this market to start with the "right foot".</p><p>We are confident that providing a methodology which is written basing on a real experience is beneficial for the market as this could lead to a discussion to improve to methodology itself.</p><p>We are also confident enough that due to the high technical level required to be a successful PenTest engineer, revealing a methodology cannot harmful to the Security market as the PenTest professionals will be always limited in number in respect to the other professionals covering the other areas.</p><p>We will start soon illustrating our approach to an External PenTest, so stay tuned!</p> </div>

WP Guide Introduction To The PenTest Guide

Pentest - a definition Wikipedia provides the following definition about "Penetration Testing" (an activity strictly related ...

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Ninja Link Building Part Six - Social Bookmarking

<div><br/> <p>Part six of ninja link building focuses on social bookmarking. This term can be confusing to beginners but all it means is building a link on any website that allows sharing and collecting of favorite websites. Different websites have different style themes. Digg for example is about news stories. One person submits a story. Anyone that reads or likes it can vote for it, increasing visibility. Then there is StumbleUpon which is a cool way to promote interesting websites that visitors can bounce around and explore. Google and Yahoo have a book marks section of their own, letting you save your favorite links.</p><p>Find a good website then create an account. You may have to confirm an email validating your address. Otherwise, it really is that easy to start building back links. Play around with catchy titles. You never know what might go viral once you put it out there for others to see. Use tags to add some extra keyword juice to the links. Get to bookmarking! This is also a great way to get search engine spider traffic to a new page quickly. The spiders search these high authority websites daily looking for new content to index.</p><p>There are hundreds and thousands of these websites. Like web directories, start with the highest ranking ones. Don't waste your time with the less known websites unless you are struggling for link building ideas. I have compiled a list for you of my top 10 social bookmarking sites that have Do Follow Links. In no particular order:</p><p>Digg.com - PR8<br/><br>Mixx.com - PR8<br/><br>Reddit.com - PR8<br/><br>Stumbleupon.com - PR8<br/><br>Folkd.com - PR7<br/><br>Oneview.com - PR6<br/><br>Linkagogo.com - PR6<br/><br>Searchles.com - PR5<br/><br>Kirtsy.com - PR5<br/><br>Bookmarktracker.com - PR5</p><p>Some of these places frown on you promoting your website too much. It is best to take a few random news story links and sprinkle them throughout your account. Maybe a Wikipedia article link or two. Keep it looking natural and you can avoid getting your account closed for self promotion. There is some software out there which will automate a lot of these steps. However, you risk getting your account or website address banned if you get caught. I'd recommend treading with caution.</p><p>This is the final part of the Ninja Link Building series. All of you should have a good grasp on link building now, so go put in the leg work! If you missed any of the previous posts you can catch them here.</p> </div>

WP Guide Ninja Link Building Part Six - Social Bookmarking

Part six of ninja link building focuses on social bookmarking. This term can be confusing to beginners but all it means is building a l...

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So What Does Search Engine Optimisation Actually Mean?

<div><br/> <p>Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is, simply, the process of making sure your web page is found in the search results when people type in one or more key phrases.</p><p>If your web page is about home improvement plumbing you'd probably like it to show up in Google when someone types the phrase "home improvement plumbing." Simple.</p><p>Note please that I said "web page" not "web site". Pages are ranked individually in the search results in Google and other search engines. Yes of course what site they're on is a factor, but in essence each <i>page</i> must stand on its own two feet, regardless of the site of which it forms a part.</p><p>Pages can be <i>submitted</i> to search engines of course, but that always smells a little desperate. If a page is worth looking at, the likelihood is that somewhere on the web there is a <i>link</i> to it. Its called the web for a reason.</p><p>So search engines like Google prefer, it seems, to find a new page by "clicking on" a link to it. Furthermore, the <i>more</i> links a search engine finds to a particular page, the more its likely to believe that that page is worth referring searchers to.</p><p>We can go further. If lots of the links have the clickable text "home improvement plumbing" search engines might surmise that the web page is about this subject. Of course Search Engine Optimisers (SEOs) - people who specialise in getting your pages to the top of search engines - have know this for a while. Many have abused it. If <i>every</i> link to the page - let's imagine there were dozens or hundreds - said "home improvement plumbing" a search engine might "smell a rat." Its not natural. In the real world links to this page might say diverse things like "click here", "plumbing information", "frozen pipes" and so on.</p><p>So yes you must have links to your new page. The more the merrier. But they must say different things to avoid looking contrived. Furthermore, if you add them all in a week, that looks contrived too. So add them over a period of time. "Organically" is the phrase people seem to like. Make it look natural.</p><p>Of course, if the content on the page is so blindingly good that webmasters <i>want</i> to link to it, it will be natural, er, naturally...</p><p>Links are good. Links with relevant but varied link text are great. Links from relevant *sites* are better. What's more likely to show the search engines that your page is highly relevant to the term "home improvement plumbing?" A link from "Bob's web directory," a link from my blog or a link from the plumbing section of About.com or Wikipedia? You shouldn't need to think too hard about this!</p><p>Again, we can go over the top and acquire (beg, barter or buy,) links from lots of big industry-related sites whilst eschewing peoples' Blogs and Bob's web directory. That's unnatural too, and may set the old alarm bells ringing. A "normal" site gets links from all over the shop - some relevant, some not. Mirror that model. Again, keep it "natural".</p><p>All this link lark is what professional SEOs call "off-page optimisation." Obviously, the work is done "off" the page that you're optimising, and that's simply why its called that.</p><p>The other side to the SEO coin is <i>on</i> page optimisation. This is where you change things on the page you are optimising to make it more "appealing" to the search engines. As always, you can overcook, and hence burn, this. (Remember the pages 10 years ago that were covered in the words "Britney Spears" and "MP3s"? Where are they now?)</p><p>A web page genuinely about "home improvement plumbing" will contain lots of words like:</p><p><ul><br/><li>pipes</li><br/><li>wrench</li><br/><li>solder</li><br/><li>copper tube</li><br/><li>leak</li><br/><li>boiler</li><br/></ul></p><p>Conversely, it probably won't contain a load of references to lung diseases, libido enhancers or <br/><br>loans.</p><p>The process of looking at the words on a page and deciding how related they are to the theme of that page is known as "Latent Semantic Indexing" or LSI. Its highly technical. I once tried reading up on the details. Yawn. So just remember that relevant pages contain related words. Its common sense frankly.</p><p>You'll notice we've mentioned the <i>theme</i> of the page quite a few times now. Of course search engines can "guess" the theme of a page through looking at all the words on it, but there is also a simple way to <i>tell</i> them clearly what you believe the theme of the page to be.</p><p>Quite simply, the title tag and main heading (h1) tag of the page should be the theme of the page. In our example we'd place "home improvement plumbing" in the title tag, and something similar (probably not identical, just to avoid a possible "over optimisation penalty" and stay on the safe side,) in the h1 tag. Perhaps "How to do your own home improvement plumbing" or "Plumbing for home improvements".</p><p>You're probably now understanding that this "be on the safe side" theme recurs in every element that makes up an SEO campaign. Don't try and force your pages down a search engine's throat. Be clear on what you'd like to rank well for, but gentle about optimising specifically for that one term.</p><p>While we're talking about on-page, there are of course other elements that you can change. URLs should contain the keywords or something like them.</p><p>What's likely to do better do you think?</p><p>site.co/home-improvement-plumbing.html</p><p>or</p><p>site.co/article.php?id=5678</p><p>How about if site.co was home-improvements.co?</p><p>Again, I think you can overcook all of this, although I know a site that does nicely enough in the results with the URL seo-seo-seo.something.</p><p>I'm cautious. Others are less so, and sometimes fortune does indeed favour the bold. Choose your own boldness vector.</p><p>So we've discussed off-page optimisation - getting links, and on-page optimisation - making sure the words on the page say what you want them to say. What else?</p><p>Well that's <i>it</i> in a nutshell. Everything related to SEO is either on-page or off-page. Links from one page to another within your site want to be relevant too.</p><p>What's going to convey more relevance? A link that says "home" or a link that says "DIY info home"?</p><p>Think about that a moment and you start to see that SEO can often contradict the desires of designers, copywriters, marketers and other stakeholders, and there's the rub. Its been turned into this supposedly "dark artform" because it involves cross-organisational co-operation and agreement. Not easy in even the smallest of companies.</p><p>Perhaps that's why one-man-bands often do so well with SEO and beat the big players with all the guns.</p><p>Anyway - now you know SEO isn't rocket science - indeed its really no more than common sense mixed with a little empathetic thinking. Whenever you think about a search engine, think "what's in it for me" from their point of view, and the answer will normally become clear to you.</p> </div>

WP Guide So What Does Search Engine Optimisation Actually Mean?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is, simply, the process of making sure your web page is found in the search results when people type i...

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15 Famous Blogs From America!

<div><br/> <p>As a young American living in this beautiful country, I am proud of that. Should be! Everybody else from different countries should feel the same way. Proud for a country that has stood up for human rights and its people, even though they really haven't followed through lately.</p><p>This part, I am not proud of. Some things that have been said by the US and actions that were taken really hasn't helped its reputation and others around the world. But anyways, enough talk of politics in this article!</p><p>The internet is a very big place. It has grown at a fast rate since the 90's. And to classify blogs or websites being from a certain region or country is quite utterly stupid. I mean someone from Siberia in an igloo can access any blog that will be presented here.</p><p>I mean it's like trying to separate the American sand from the rest of the world. Sand is sand and differentiate between the two is ridiculous!</p><p>This article is talking about blogs that are wicked famous and somewhat strange, created from the United States. <strong>I just found it curios to find out those blogs that have a "funny" smell to them.</strong> I actually find them very interesting. Makes you read, even if " 'liking' is not on your mind at the moment."</p><p>This article is not really the type on, <strong>"Hey, let's learn something new today!"</strong> Or, <strong>"Let me brush my memory and clean those focals on that particular topic"</strong> so-to-speak.</p><p>Everybody likes a laugh here and there.</p><p>If things would be so serious, damn.</p><p>Don't really know how this world would run. Let us go out from the norm and caste and enjoy the blogs being featured here.</p><p><strong>1. The Onion</strong></p><p>This has been put at the number one spot. Like legit this is pure American stupidity! But it's actually funny. A blog that produces articles which makes fun of anything unusual that has happened in this country and around the world.</p><p>They have videos on YouTube that has fooled, by the millions. I have been fooled by a video talking about how Justin Bieber was found dead. But I found out that it was a fictional story. lol</p><p><strong>2. Fail Blog</strong></p><p>A "fail" blog. Did it fail as a blog? Naw. These kinds of blogs are really humorous! I mean it's really fun to look through the blog and see hilarious articles and headlines. Like I was going through and some of these headlines is what I read, "Changing a Tire FAIL", "Nothing is responding", What happens in Vegas disturbs me greatly", and "Yo-Yo Skills Win".</p><p>It was founded in 2008 and was bought a little later by the Cheezburger Network. I took this excerpt from Wikipedia on how it became popular.</p><p>Fail Blog "really started to take off when the financial industry decided to - ahem - fail."</p><p><strong>3. PEREZ HILTON</strong></p><p>Seems like a too sunny day over at this blog. Love it though! Especially the header and design of it! Pink Yo! This blogger is one famous blogger. Everybody in the blogging world has heard about him and his name!</p><p>Get this. He said this about blogging, "because it seemed easy." I guess it is in a way, but to make it grow is like trying to count the number hairs on your head! Not to easy, eh?</p><p>His blog talks about all the latest celebrity news and gossip surrounding it, which has caused some intense controversy in that world. But still, pretty sick blog there, Perez.</p><p><strong>4. The Daily Beast</strong></p><p>A political blog. Not quite a fan, but hey "it's time to make some of the politicians!" Anyhow they don't really do anything!</p><p>I guess it is similar to Perez's blog. This time it surrounds itself in the world of politics.</p><p><strong>5. Mashable</strong></p><p>Hey. I know that one! Dude? How is this a strange one? It really didn't add this one to make fun of! I really enjoy this blog since it is similar in what it presents to my blog.</p><p>I added Mashable because they have worked so hard to produce amazing content with a humorous tongue within it! It deserved to be here! They talk about all the news of Social media,</p><p>"but also covers news and developments in mobile, entertainment, online video, business, web development, technology, memes and gadgets." - Wikipedia</p><p>Check it out! You will love it!</p><p><strong>6. Brain Pickings</strong></p><p>Haha love the logo. Toothpicks being pulled out of the man's head. Another blog that I ain't familiar with. From what I see, it seems to be a blog that helps us learn something new in the world or tickle our mind with an amazing feat! Creative stuff there!</p><p><strong>7. Laughing Squid</strong></p><p>Similar to the blog that we just saw above us. Creative people like myself can surely learn form these two. So I don't be lazy, I went the about page to get exactly what this blog is all about.</p><p>"Laughing Squid features interesting art, culture & technology from around the web." That's all we need to know!</p><p><strong>8. Pink Sith</strong></p><p>That header! Is that Darth Vader with boobs! Go to admit, that is the first time I saw Darth Vader changed to somewhat of a lady! It's pretty cool anyhow!</p><p>This blog is written and owned by Elvira with articles written on makeup and cosmetics. Ladies?</p><p><strong>9. TreeHugger</strong></p><p>No! This blog is not about the environment or the fact yo hug some trees! No! The name also caught my eye. That tells me to say this.</p><p>Have an interesting and unique name to your website. It's a crazy psychological technique that can lure visitors to your site. It always gets me. A creative name always has me wondering what the site is all about.</p><p>"TreeHugger is the leading media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream."</p><p><strong>10. Boing Boing</strong></p><p>A quite familiar blog to some of you, since is was established in 2000. What was interesting, I read that Boing Boing was first a magazine. Then it transitioned to a website, then to finally a blog.</p><p>Boing Boing seems to talk about interesting news everyday and apparently science with corruption? Don't know.</p><p><strong>11. OMG Facts</strong></p><p>OMG! Did I just add this site to the list? Haha yea! Just a blog that talks about random things and OMG incidents.</p><p>Alike to the Fail Blog at the beginning.</p><p><strong>12. The-F-Word.org</strong></p><p>Supposedly, this blog to read for are the ladies. Don't believe me! Just look at the image above at the title.</p><p>Where it says. "Food. Fat." and Feminism! Told you it was for the ladies. Haha I am just playin' with you guys. I was stumped at the beginning when I found this blog.</p><p>Looking at the name, how could you go wrong? But I was wrong and so were you. It's ok!</p><p><strong>13. Social Media Examiner</strong></p><p>The "world's largest online social media magazine"<strong>. </strong>I like the design on this blog with a safari theme.</p><p>Very well done on presenting a blog about tools you can use and tutorials to help maximize your success in the Social media world.</p><p><strong>14. Sweep Tight</strong></p><p>A site that makes you want to sweep your house right now! From here it makes you. But if you go straight to the blog, that might change.</p><p>Makes you kinda sleepy. The name of this blog is again the reason for the addition to this list.</p><p><strong>15. Copyblogger</strong></p><p>Last but definitely not the least is, the Copyblogger. Everyone in here has to know this blog! <strong>Kept this for the last because it is my favorite blog to read</strong>.</p><p>As a blogger, reading should be a daily habit. Form reading is where a ton fo inspiration lies.</p><p>Brian Clark has inspired me and his work is sometimes my inspiration.</p><p><strong>The Conclusion</strong></p><p>All these blogs are great! Not one of them is better than the other. Each blog has a meaning to it and a meaning to its readers.</p><p>Maybe one day your blog will be featured in an article like this, with the help of some <a href="http://internetdreams.com/wordpress/top-wordpress-plugins-to-reach-the-top" rel="nofollow" target="_new">top WordPress plugins</a>.</p><p>Take any blog you have seen here and read it more often. Everyone of them will have a unique purpose in your goal and ideas.</p> </div>

WP Guide 15 Famous Blogs From America!

As a young American living in this beautiful country, I am proud of that. Should be! Everybody else from different countries should fee...

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How To Turn Your Blog Into The Huffington Post

<div><br/> <p>Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. Companies come and go. And, in recent history (I mean real recent - five years or less) we've seen pillars of the American print news industry fall faster then a congressman's approval rating.</p><p>Of course, for everything that fails - there's always something, or someone, ready to take it's place. Such is the Huffington Post.</p><p>Without giving you a complete and exhaustive history of this 21st style "newspaper", its important one understands what Adriana Huffington and her team is doing right...not what the New York Times or Washington Post is doing wrong.</p><p>Even though the collapse of traditional print media has paved the way for newcomers such as the Huffington Post, Politico, Slate (I still consider them new since the majority of their audience consists of online users), these portals have been successful in - 1.) acquiring new followers, and, 2.) positioning themselves not only as substitutes for news but a large resource for commentary and discussion.</p><p>This brings me to the good stuff: how can your site mimic (not necessarily copy) some of the successful attributes that make the Huffington Post an influential voice in news and politics?</p><p><strong>Narrative, Narrative, Narrative</strong></p><p>Did I mention narrative?</p><p>Without turning this into a creative writing lecture, the tone you set for a blog / website will go far when determining what kind of user latches on. Picking a side matters. Whether you're right or wrong, we'll let history determine that. That's what they get paid to do. Your job is to represent your side with every available resource.</p><p>Look at the three leading news networks on cable TV in the United States: Fox News, MSNBC & CNN.</p><p>Fox News has traditionally pushed a conservative / right leaning agenda - MSNBC is branded as left / liberal - and CNN, to a fault, attempts to take a moderate / left approach. As options increase and groups become more segmented each of the top two networks have managed to develop a narrative and pursue it aggressively. At one time, CNN really was "The Most Trusted Name In News" (whether you believe it or not) they did a good job of selling this to their viewers. The problem is they stuck with their "we'll listen to both sides approach" while everyone continued to drift towards the left or right.</p><p>If you read the Huffington Post on a regular basis, you'll see its editors center / left leanings*. Again, I'll let you judge the ethical nature of this approach. However, everyone knows WHAT to expect upon arrival. When I visit Hawaii I expect to see beaches and palm trees. Anything different would be an utter let down. <strong>Moral of the story: </strong>pick something and say it like you mean it.</p><p><strong>Don't be a hero</strong></p><p>Most blogs start off as a one man operation. Actually, most of them stay that way. However, as your blog matures and a lot of your time is spent answering comments, emails and planning content development....you might consider hiring another blogger or bringing someone in to guest post. Again, many successful blogs are one man-shows. That's OK. All blogs have to start somewhere. Right now, set the solo concept aside for a moment and consider an alternative. In terms of developing content for the masses, while defending your position, lets take a look at how one Mega Blog does it. Yup, you guessed it - The Huffington Post.</p><p><strong>Spread the ideas around</strong></p><p>Here's where we get to the meat of the Huff Post operation: they are a blogging machine. Seriously.</p><p>Five minutes of research on Wikipedia will expose an eternity of knowledge. Check this out - straight from the source: The Huffington Post has over 3,000 bloggers-from politicians and celebrities to academics and policy experts-who contribute in real time on a wide-range of topics.</p><p>3000 Bloggers! This site would not be what it is today if Adriana Huffington was the sole creator of content. Of course she was able to built it up to a certain level - but she's been able to turn it into the powerhouse it is today because of one thing: <strong>Leverage.</strong></p><p>Once Huff Post reached a specific level of prominence Huffington automatically started to hire celebrities and politicians to write on issues "in real time."</p><p>If George Clooney contributes a post about the horror of Sudanese genocide, he's going to Tweet, E-mail and pass the article to his fans...using any means available. Since most of his fans view Clooney as an authoritative source, they will read the post and share it among their networks as well.</p><p>To see the complete list of bloggers, check out the Huff Post blogging index.</p><p><strong>How can I do this?</strong></p><p>Thanks for asking. It's not good enough to see what others are doing, there needs to be a systematic approach in making it work for you.</p><p>Even if you don't have the pull to bring in Hillary Clinton or Glen Beck...many leaders in academia, former athletes with reasonable name recognition, or industry experts are always looking for a platform to further their cause(s).</p><p>Assuming you have the extra cash to put up, paying one of these figures anywhere from $100 to $5,000 might be what you need to take the next leap.</p><p>Athletes like Curt Schilling and Curtis Granderson are active writers and maintain their own blogs. Paying a millionaire $1k for a blog post is not what attracts them - the opportunity for increased exposure is the kicker.</p><p>Donald Trump does not need to write for Forbes.com. However, to keep an on going reputation as a figure in the Biz Industry - it's necessary he keeps is name in public.</p><p>If you cant find a celebrity's personal website or get in contact with their agent - contact agencies like the Washington Speakers Bureau (WSB) and I'm sure you'll be able to find the right avenue.</p><p>A simple Google query will reveal other bureaus with less known names...at a lower cost of course.</p><p><strong>Get creative</strong></p><p>Don't stop with the ideas I mentioned. Use some creativity when developing your approach. If you want to hire a celebrity, go to a speaking agency and offer to pay a slightly lower rate if they'll record a video message instead of a physical speaking appearance. Haggle a little and say - since this won't be a closed event...your client will get more exposure by appearing on my site.</p><p><strong>Its your idea...run with it.</strong></p><p>There is no silver bullet to blogging success. Albeit, there are some proven ways and The Huffington Post is not the only site I encourage you to analyze. Go to Google Blog Search and take a look at some of the leading blogs in your industry. You'll be amazed at what you might find.</p> </div>

WP Guide How To Turn Your Blog Into The Huffington Post

Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. Companies come and go. And, in recent history (I mean real recent - five years or less) we've seen...

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How Knowledge Graph Can Boost Your SEO Campaign

<div><br/> <p>It's been around 8-9 months since Google introduced Knowledge Graph to implement Semantic Web Search, which looked like an impossible task at first, but it was finally made possible. But before we move ahead with this topic, let's define what Knowledge Graph really is, as there might be some people who are new to SEO and Knowledge Graph.</p><p>Knowledge Graph is like a depository of Knowledge, comprising of 550+ million objects and 18 billion facts that people have searched on the web till now, including Things and Places. With the introduction of Knowledge Graph in Google's search engine, the process of sorting out the results and serve the end-user with authentic and super refined results from diverse sources based on their search query has become relatively easy. The sources used for providing 'knowledge' includes; Wikipedia, CIA World Factbook, and Freebase.</p><p>Before KG came into existence, if you would have searched for "Sony Pictures", the results would have been a mix and match of several things. However, if you do search it now, it would provide you with the most authentic and related search result at the top.</p><p><strong>How it could benefit you!</strong></p><p>First of all the main benefit of Knowledge Graph is for the end-user, who uses the search engine for finding something of his own interest rather than getting SEO manipulated results.</p><p>By SEO manipulated results, we don't mean that all results were used to or are irrelevant to the consumer. In fact, if the power of Knowledge Graph is utilized strategically and thoughtfully, it will work as a boost to your existing SEO campaign.</p><p><strong>How Knowledge Graph benefit your SEO</strong></p><p>Let's cover this in two segments.</p><p><ul><li>If you're looking to augment your SEO, the foremost thing you must do is- get listed in the sources that Google utilizes to obtain data & information (which we've already discussed). </li><br/><li>Before Google released the Panda Update, companies used to make two different pages with different content but related to one theme, which are then targeted with synonym keywords. This eventually proved to be an effective practice to rank for targeted keywords. But the Panda update targeted this strategy of ranking manipulations, and washed out the spammy ones completely. This, basically made the web or search engines clutter free, and now as KG is in effect, it has become pretty easy to rank if you have got the right connections.</li></ul></p><p>Additionally, the major part of your SEO campaign is now dependent on your content that you put on your websites, and circulate on search engines via Blog Posts, Articles, and Press Releases. So, it won't be wrong to say that your web rankings are dependent on the quality of content you produce, and where you post. Therefore, work on your content strategy accordingly, but don't forget to capture the web by taking the most out of Knowledge Graph.</p> </div>

WP Guide How Knowledge Graph Can Boost Your SEO Campaign

It's been around 8-9 months since Google introduced Knowledge Graph to implement Semantic Web Search, which looked like an impossib...

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Fantastico Web Hosting

<div><br/> <p>Fantastico is a script library that's often bundled with website hosting plans. You can use it to install web applications to your website. Fantastico is very popular; their scripts have been installed in over 10,000 servers worldwide.</p><p><b>The benefits of Fantastico Internet hosting</b></p><p>Fantastico website hosting is surprisingly versatile. You can install blogs, content management systems, polls, photo galleries, discussion boards, wikis, billing systems, e-commerce systems, and lots more. Open-source software is commonly used in Fantastico hosting, but you can also install proprietary software, as long as you have a license.</p><p>Note that you can install multiple scripts, so you can have several web applications within a single Internet hosting account. Currently, around 50 applications can be installed using Fantastico scripts.</p><p>Fantastico Internet hosting makes installing web applications a breeze. For instance, you can install a WordPress blog in less than a minute. You get to save a lot of time, which works especially well for beginners with no website management experience. You don't have to set up databases or upload files. A few clicks, and you're ready to go.</p><p><b>What you can do with Fantastico hosting</b></p><p>E-commerce websites. You can use Fantastico to install e-commerce software such as shopping carts. You can choose design and features that are appropriate for your needs. Zencart and osCommerce are commonly used.</p><p>Blogs. Blogs are websites that are regularly updated. They can be personal journals, corporate newsletters, and everything in between. With Fantastico website hosting, you can install a blog on your website, as well as customize the design in a few clicks. Common examples of blog software are WordPress and b2evolution.</p><p>Forums. Forums are discussion boards that allow people to interact online. With Fantastico hosting, you can install a forum without having to write the code from scratch. You can also change the design to match your primary website. phpBB and SMF are forum application examples.</p><p>Customer service systems. With Fantastico, you can set up FAQs, help features, and chatrooms that you can use to support your customers. Many companies use Help Center Live and osTicket, for example.</p><p><b>Getting the best Fantastico website hosting</b></p><p>It's easy to find the best Fantastico Internet hosting, since majority of hosting providers bundle Fantastico De Luxe with their website hosting plans. Just check your chosen provider's feature list.</p><p>If you want to have a great website, also ensure that your web host has reliable uptime, reasonable prices, enough bandwidth and disk space, and excellent technical support.</p> </div>

WP Guide Fantastico Web Hosting

Fantastico is a script library that's often bundled with website hosting plans. You can use it to install web applications to your ...

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Creating a Checklist For Your Upcoming Web Content Management System Project

<div><br/> <p>Creating a content management-powered website is often a time-consuming process, especially if the project is sophisticated and important to your business. So you want to make sure that you're using the right system for your particular requirements.</p><p>The following checklist covers the kinds of things you should be researching or asking each vendor. Obviously, if any of these requirement items aren't relevant to you, just remove them from the list. If you're researching free/open-source systems, you may have to complete the checklist yourself, but if you send it to commercial vendors, you may well find that they're willing to complete it on your behalf.</p><ul><br/><li>Cost<br/><ul><br/><li>What is the price?</li><br/><li>What's the licensing model? (One-off, Annual, Per-User, etc)</li><br/><li>What's the code license? (Open Source, Proprietary)</li><br/><li>Is a maintenance/support contract available, and at what price?</li><br/><li>Are formal training courses available, and at what price?</li><br/><li>Is online help (e.g. forums) available?</li></ul></li><br/><br><li>Operating Environment<br/><br><ul><br/><li>What operating system does the CMS support?</li><br/><li>What database does it require?</li><br/><li>What web server does it use?</li><br/><li>What programming language does it use?</li><br/><li>What web browsers does the administration interface support?</li></ul></li><br/><br><li>Content Management<br/><br><ul><br/><li>Are permissions roles-based, and what can be locked-down?</li><br/><li>Does the CMS offer a workflow system?</li><br/><li>Can content be versioned, and an audit history accessed?</li><br/><li>Can the interface be displayed in multiple languages?</li><br/><li>Is the interface accessible?</li><br/><li>Does the interface support themes/skins?</li><br/><li>Does it support multiple websites from a single interface/installation?</li><br/><li>Does it support friendly, SEO-friendly URLs?</li><br/><li>Are a thesaurus and dictionary included?</li><br/><li>Can it import Microsoft Office files?</li></ul></li><br/><br><li>Standards<br/><br><ul><br/><li>Does it support XHTML and CSS?</li><br/><li>Can it support AJAX?</li><br/><li>Does it support Unicode/UTF-8?</li><br/><li>Does it support feeds, such as RSS and ATOM?</li><br/><li>What templating language does it use, e.g. PHP or XSLT?</li><br/><li>Can developers access an API (REST or SOAP)?</li><br/><li>Can content be uploaded via FTP or WebDav?</li></ul></li><br/><br><li>Performance<br/><br><ul><br/><li>What caching does the CMS offer?</li><br/><li>Does it support static export of content?</li><br/><li>Is load-balancing supported?</li><br/><li>Does it support database clustering?</li></ul></li><br/><br><li>Security<br/><br><ul><br/><li>Does it support LDAP or Active Directory for authentication?</li><br/><li>Can login occur over SSL?</li><br/><li>Can it restrict admin users by IP address?</li><br/><li>Is all sensitive information encrypted in the database?</li><br/><li>Does it integrate with any backup solutions?</li></ul></li><br/><br><li>Website Building Features<br/><br><ul><br/><li>Does it support the following types of content:<br/><ul><br/><li>Blogs</li><br/><li>Images</li><br/><li>Multimedia (audio and video)</li><br/><li>Polls and Surveys</li><br/><li>Forms</li><br/><li>Quizzes and Tests</li><br/><li>Wikis</li><br/><li>Forums</li><br/><li>Events</li><br/><li>Contacts</li></ul></li><br/><br><li>Which social media features are offered?<br/><br><ul><br/><li>User Profiles</li><br/><li>Comments</li><br/><li>Rating</li><br/><li>Twitter integration</li><br/><li>Friends</li><br/><li>Messaging</li></ul><li>What eCommerce features are offered?</li><br/><br><li>Is a Search Engine included, and if so, which features are supported?</li><br/><br><li>Can comments and registrations support Captcha support to prevent spam?</li><br/><br><li>Is a personalisation engine supported?</li></ul></li></ul> </div>

WP Guide Creating a Checklist For Your Upcoming Web Content Management System Project

Creating a content management-powered website is often a time-consuming process, especially if the project is sophisticated and importa...

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What Is A Natural Link Structure?

<div><br/> <p>It's a term you hear search engine optimization gurus through around a lot. They speak of the importance of having a natural link structure, but just what the heck is a natural link structure.</p><p>That's an excellent question, and it's one you need to know the answer to if you want your website to achieve its full potential in the search engines. If your link structure looks "artificial" to search engines like Google, then you're always going to be playing catch-up instead of getting ahead in the search engine ranking game.</p><p>Having a natural link structure means that you have a large variety of links pointing to your site, your links use a variety of anchor text, and those links point to a variety of different pages.</p><p>Examples of sites that have natural link structures would be websites like WebMD.com, Wikipedia.org, and Youtube.com. These sites don't need to go out asking for people to link to them. People will link to your website for a variety of reasons - perhaps you have an article that is really informative; maybe you offer a free tool for download on your site; or maybe you have a hilarious video that people need to see. And there are a whole lot more reasons why someone will link to someone else's site. Heck, sometimes people who hate you will link to you.</p><p>Websites that have a natural link structure tend to rank highly in the search engines. For example, Wikipedia tends to rank in the top ten for just about every general term these days - a lot of this is due to the sheer number of quality links coming into that site.</p><p>Here's how to make your site's link structure look natural.</p><p>Making a site's links look natural should be the goal of anyone optimizing their website. That means that you should focus on getting links from a wide variety of places. Get links from articles, directories, social media sites, blogs (very important), press releases, and just about any other place you can think of.</p><p>If you have control over the anchor text, make sure you use a variety of it. For example, if you have a site about coins, a good variety of anchor text would be "coins," "coin collectors," "numismatics", "gold coins", and so on. The point is to mix it up.</p><p>Also, don't have all your links point to you homepage. That doesn't look natural. Sites with a natural link structure have links pointing to a huge variety of internal pages on their website. For example, if you had coins.com, you'd want links pointing to coins.com/silverdollars/ coins.com/gold/ and so on.</p><p>Of course, the best way to get a natural link structure is to get it naturally. By that, I mean that your website is just so interesting and offers such great content that people can't help but tell others about it. If you have a website like that, you'll have new links pouring in all the time and your website natural search engine rankings will skyrocket.</p> </div>

WP Guide What Is A Natural Link Structure?

It's a term you hear search engine optimization gurus through around a lot. They speak of the importance of having a natural link ...

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Creating a Plan For Web Application Development

<div><br/> <p>So you have this great idea for a new website or web based service, however you don't have a clue as to how to get it started. Putting together a web project can be more challenging than you think. It is not always as simple as going to a web design firm and saying here is my idea, now build it. Considerable amounts of planning on both the client and the developers side must be put into designing and mapping a custom web based application.</p><p>Web applications generally have a much longer development cycle, require more research upfront and most importantly clear and concise goals and expectations. Otherwise a project could run for years and years with constant research and development work, instead of being launched in a timely manner, and improving over time with real world feedback.</p><p>At CWI Applications, when a client comes to us with an idea for a web application that they need, the first thing we try to do after getting a general understanding of the problems they face and the goals they want to meet, is plan an overview of the entire project. Having a good foundation is key to a successful project that stays within budget, time frame, and expectations.</p><p>Putting together a plan may seem like extra work (which it is), and many clients may think that there is no benefit of having a plan for developing your application, or do not have the time to do it themselves. Below are just a few reasons why it is a good measure to have a plan:</p><p><strong>1)</strong> Get only the features that you need. Having a plan laid out you can clearly see what functionality or features you need for the different areas of your application.</p><p><strong>2)</strong> Having a plan to follow provides a road map or blueprint that will help keep your project moving forward in the right direction.</p><p><strong>3)</strong> One of the hardest things in custom application design is completing a project within the clients ideal time frame. This is often caused by clients who add or change the scope of the project midway through. Having a plan that can be adhered to both by client and developer will help promote timely completion of the project.</p><p><strong>4)</strong> Just as having a plan will help ensure a timely completion it will also help reduce your costs. Both you and your developer will know what needs to be accomplished and that any additional items become extra.</p><p><strong>5)</strong> Having a plan to present when asking for quotes helps ensure that you will get apples to apple comparisons. There should be little variation between developers as to understanding what is required since they will have a complete outline of your needs. This will help you compare and choose a developer that meets your criteria and understands the project.</p><p>When writing your plan you should try to keep it in as simple terms as possible. Break down your ideas or concepts similar to how you would explain them in conversation. The plan does not need to be as formal as a business plan that you present to a bank, however it should be well organized.</p><p>I have included a basic outline below that could be used as a guideline in writing your plan. Wherever possible include drawings and diagrams of how you expect the functionalities to work, how the interface should look, etc.</p><p><ul><br/><li><br/><strong>Description</strong> - Detailed description of the project.</li><br/> <li><br/><strong>Goals</strong> - Detail the items that are most important to you in the goals section. For instance if you want to be completed by a specific date indicate it, or if you want it very user friendly, this is the place to indicate it.</li><br/> <li><br/><strong>Budget </strong>- This is an area that most people do not want to talk about. However indicating a ball park of what you are willing to spend on your project will help determine if your wants and needs can realistically be met. Some are afraid to say simply because they think a developer will max the budget out. An easy way to overcome this is take the maximum you are willing to spend and reduce it by 25 to 30%.</li><br/> <li><br/><strong>Target Audience</strong> - Define the different groups that will need to interact with your application and what levels of access they will need. Don't forget to include yourself and/or staff in this. / o Preferences and Benchmarks - In this section talk about any specific details that attention should be given to. For instance if you hate green indicate that. Also in this section list sites or applications that have a design, interface or overall experience that you like. It does not necessarily need to be in the same industry as your application.</li><br/> <li><br/><strong>Front-end feature list</strong> - This section details what - if any - functionalities exist on the front-end, primarily to guests.</li><br/> <li><br/><strong>Admin feature lis</strong>t - This section details what functionalities exist on the back-end. Detail any admin levels here and what each admin level has access to. </li><br/> <li><br/><strong>User feature list </strong>- This section details what functions - if any - that registered users will have access to. </li><br/> <li><br/><strong>Site Map</strong> - Outline your content in this section. Come up with the navigation you want to use and their subsections. </li><br/> <li><br/><strong>Flow Chart/Wire Frame</strong> - Diagram how you see your application working. What data do you need to collect? What data do you need to return to the user? What data do you want to be stored? Then create a visual layout of how you want your data presented. In this section depending upon your application you may have multiple views. See more about wire frame here: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website_wireframe" rel="nofollow" target="_new">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website_wireframe</a><br/></li><br/> <li><br/><strong>Summary</strong> - Brief summary of the key points of your application and the goals you are trying to accomplish. </li><br/></ul></p> </div>

WP Guide Creating a Plan For Web Application Development

So you have this great idea for a new website or web based service, however you don't have a clue as to how to get it started. Putt...

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Web Hosting - What Is It and Which Plan Do You Need?

<div><br/> <p>Web hosting - it's clearly too much hype over too small a concept. So many new webmasters get caught up in this remarkably simple concept, mistakenly believing that it's a complex, hard-to-understand idea, whereas it really is one of the simplest parts of creating and maintaining a website. There are also numerous hosting providers to choose from, again causing many to waste valuable time deciding on the right hosting plan and provider for them. Here's a brief overview of web hosting, as well as a guide to purchasing the right plan from the right provider for you.</p><p>Your website has content. Content can be graphics (pictures) or text (writing, articles, magazines, etc.). Content takes up space.</p><p>The Internet is a collection of all websites. The Internet is only as big as required; if there are 1000 websites, it will only have enough space for 1000 websites. However, you want to add a website to the Internet. How would you go about doing that?</p><p>Enter web hosting service providers. Hosting providers create the space your website will require, and they reserve it for your website's content. Without that space, you have no place to put your website content on the Internet.</p><p>Hosting providers give the space in which you can place your website on the Internet.</p><p>Apart from creating the space, they also provide you with all the tools necessary to build your site. That's where site builders like Weebly, WordPress, Drupal and Joomla come in (but that's a discussion for another day). In essence, web hosting is a very simple concept.</p><p>Even if you do understand web hosting, there's still a huge sea of web hosting providers and plans that you can get lost in. Here's a brief guide to picking the right hosting provider and plan for you.</p><p>If you're a complete newbie and all you want to do is put up ONE blog/website, then you have very cheap options. Most plans for one website will cost $3/month or less. In that case, you will want to go with shared hosting. Shared hosting is a type of web hosting where multiple websites from different owners are all hosted on the same server. Typically, your website will not be able to handle very large amounts of traffic, but shared hosting is almost always enough for most personal blogs and/or websites. Shared hosting for one website starts at $3/month or less. If you want to host multiple websites on the same hosting account, you can also do that on shared hosting, starting at $4/month.</p><p>If you're not a newbie, and you know something about coding and you're planning to create something really big (like the next Wikipedia/Facebook/social network) then you're probably going to want a dedicated server. Dedicated servers, as you could probably figure out, are a whole server dedicated solely to your website(s). They can handle much more traffic than shared servers and will typically start at $100/month.</p><p>The best hosting provider in terms of customer support is undoubtedly HostGator. It has three channels of 24/7 support: live chat, phone and e-mail. HostGator is the best newbie-friendly hosting provider there is.</p><p>BlueHost, JustHost and InMotion hosting all have excellent dedicated hosting plans, although they do not provide live chat. These three hosting types are geared more towards those in the latter category; those who know websites and who are planning to make something big.</p><p>As you can see, web hosting is a remarkably simple concept. Use this as your guide to purchasing your web hosting plan, and your website could be up and running in a few short hours! Get started today!</p> </div>

WP Guide Web Hosting - What Is It and Which Plan Do You Need?

Web hosting - it's clearly too much hype over too small a concept. So many new webmasters get caught up in this remarkably simple c...

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6 Rules to a Killer Website Design

<div><br/> <p>It is good to have trust in the capabilities of your website design firm. However, it is smarter to learn a little something about web design so that you can make sure that the web design you are getting is worth the price you are paying for it.</p><p><strong>1. Usability</strong><br/><br>Wikipedia defines website usability in these words: "Web usability is an approach to make web sites easy to use for an end-user, without requiring her (or him) to undergo any specialized training".</p><p>A usable website should have clear concise directions about usage such as menu tips, a proper navigational menu, some way to search the website and readable / viewable presentation. You would be surprised to hear that even the United States government has an entire website dedicated to web usability practices.</p><p><strong>2. Accessibility</strong><br/><br>Wikipedia describes web accessibility as, "Web accessibility refers to the practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users can have equal access to information and functionality."</p><p>When we talk about accessibility many business owners get concerned that they will be paying extra money to make their website accessible to disable people. Which is certainly not the case, if your website design is properly coded in standard HTML then most web browsers have accessibility features that can help people with disabilities to browser your website easily. For example if you have alt tags defined for your images then blind people can listen to the text and understand what's been displayed.</p><p><strong>3. Search Engine Friendly</strong><br/><br>A search engine friendly website design can not only help you get indexed on most search engines. It will also help you generate lots of traffic to your website. A Search Engine Friendly website design has proper meta tags and descriptions, title tags, it uses h1 and h2 tags appropriately, and has a keyword rich content and URL structure.</p><p><strong>4. Social Media Ready</strong><br/><br>Social web marketing is helping lots of businesses in finding new clients and customers. However to take full advantage of social media marketing your website design needs to be social media ready. This means, that you should have options available on your web pages allowing visitors to share your content on their social networks. If you are not already on social media, perhaps its about time you make yourself accounts on twitter and Facebook to promote your business and brand.</p><p><strong>5. Easily Updated</strong><br/><br>Some small businesses might not need to update their website that often. But you need to discuss this with your website design company. Most website design company does not offer a content management system with a website design. This means that if you want to update your website content you will have to pay them to do that for you. So if you plan to keep your website regularly updated with latest offerings and news then perhaps you ask your website design company for an easy way to update your website.</p><p><strong>6. Easily Maintained</strong><br/><br>A part from regular updates, you will need other features that will help you maintain your website easily. These other features include access to email accounts on your official domain name so that you can create email accounts for your staff or friends. Make sure that your website design is easy to maintain and you don't have to pay any unnecessary money to your web design company for maintenance and other non-issues.</p> </div>

WP Guide 6 Rules to a Killer Website Design

It is good to have trust in the capabilities of your website design firm. However, it is smarter to learn a little something about web ...

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Can I Make Money Blogging?

<div><br/> <p>Do bloggers make money? Can I make money blogging? The answer to this question is an absolute YES, but. That's right, you can make money blogging, but you will need to do it the right way. There are certain steps that your must take for success, or you will fail miserably. Here is a list of action steps you will need to take to start earn money writing and posting useful information on your blog.</p><p><ul><br/><li>Pick your niche, find a passion that you love or are extremely interested in</li><br/><li>Find useful blogging ideas to create content and give your readers a good experience</li><br/><li>Learn how to blog and get paid using affiliate links or your own products, it is all about getting people what they want.</li><br/></ul></p><p><strong>PICK YOUR NICHE</strong></p><p>You will want to start by finding something that you are passionate about. This takes time to build a good blog and see income start to roll in, and you are going to have to write an awe-full lot of information on your blog. Most people quit because they pick a niche that they think will make them money. Then they lose interest and get burned out before the week is over.</p><p>Find something you enjoy pick hobbies to make money, or put everything on your list, hobbies, interests, passions because they can all make you money.</p><p><strong>BLOGGING IDEAS TO CREATE CONTENT</strong></p><p>The next thing you want to do is go through and check out the internet for content ideas. Make a list of everything related to your passion and just Google each one of them to start the juices flowing. Here is a list of good places that could help you think of ideas:</p><p><ul><br/><li>Google trends</li><br/><li>Wikipedia</li><br/><li>eHow</li><br/><li>Yahoo Answers</li><br/><li>Article Directories</li><br/><li>Dummies books</li><br/><li>Amazon</li><br/></ul></p><p>Go through these and type in your keywords related to your niche, and you will probably be surprised at how much information you will find. Make sure when you add content that you are not copying and pasting content to your site. This is a sin. You need to write in your own words and come up with original and useful content that helps people or entertains them.</p><p><strong>HOW TO BLOG AND GET PAID</strong></p><p>Now that you have content to put on your site, you need to monetize your blog so you can make some money. You do this by adding affiliate links, banner ads, or you can sell your own product or service if you have one. Here is a list of places you want to sign up for so you can promote products, services on your blog.</p><p><ul><br/><li>Amazon</li><br/><li>ClickBank</li><br/><li>Google AdSense</li><br/><li>CJ (Commision Junction)</li><br/></ul></p><p>The list above, are the main affiliate sites you should sign up for to get started. Now you are ready to get started. Soon you will be making money with your blog. And when someone comes up to you and asks, "<em>Do bloggers make money</em>?" or "<em>Can I make money blogging</em>?" Make sure to tell them YES, but. Then help them get started.</p> </div>

WP Guide Can I Make Money Blogging?

Do bloggers make money? Can I make money blogging? The answer to this question is an absolute YES, but. That's right, you can make ...

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Another Extreme Sport - Free Diving

<div><br/> <p>We've discussed one of our favorite pastimes frequently here - scuba diving, but there is a further dimension to diving - freediving. Free diving has become an extreme sport where competitors attempt to attain great depths on a single breath - without the assistance of underwater breathing apparatus. However, this is not only a competitive sport. A simple definition of freediving is "an inch and a breath" - or otherwise ... an inch underwater on a breath of air. You needn't be an athlete to enjoy freediving because the sport is more about mindset, technique and correct weighting than strength.</p><p>Snorkelers do qualify, but there is one important element separating freedivers from snorkelers (and this is heresay) - apparently you achieve a feeling of true ease and relaxation under the water. You live in the moment, so absorbed that an hour under water (obviously not all in one go if you're free diving!) erases a week of worries...</p><p>Wikipedia's definition of freediving is: any of various aquatic activities that share the practice of breath-holding underwater diving. Examples include breathhold spear fishing, free-dive photography, apnea competitions and, to a degree, snorkeling. The activity that garners the most public attention is competitive apnea, an extreme sport, in which competitors attempt to attain great depths, times or distances on a single breath without direct assistance of a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba).</p><p>The record holder for freediving, an incredibly dangerous sport, is Patrick Musimi who dived an incredible 687 feet on one breath. He was under water for close to three minutes.</p><p>Patrick's record is incredible. OK - 3 incredibles... but that's how amazing his record is! His decision to step out of the freediving competitions and go for the 'no limit' category marked him out as an extroadinary human being. According to him, this category should not be considered nor used as a sport!</p><p>His quest led him to achieve 'the ultimate dive'.</p><p>In June 2005, within 3 weeks and only 10 dives in the Red Sea, Patrick Musimu marked history by diving consecutively to 100, 136, 151, 170, 185 metres, and on the 26 th of June, he finally reached the mythical mark of 200 metres.</p><p>On 30th June 2005, his body, exhausted, forced him to stop after a dive of 209,6 metres, shattering the deepest human performance registered by almost 40 meters. His record was finally broken by Herbert Nitsch on 14th June 2007 with a dive of 214m. See more in the next article...</p><p>Musimu is a very focused man. Listen to his thoughts on how he achieves his dives: "During a free dive I feel my mind detached from my body. As I merge into the maritime world, I separate from the predetermined idea I have of myself. Nothing is absolute and barriers are mere mental hypotheses. Little by little, my mind gains the conviction that there are no limits. In this quest, free diving becomes my instrument, which I play like a virtuoso in the silent world of great depths."</p><p>It is not necessary to dive to 200m. After all, it's dark down there... A 45 second dive to about 30ft is generally quite deep enough. Most of the ocean's colour and animal life resides within 30ft of the surface so there's little reason to go deeper. 45 seconds is generally enough time to take a few photographs, chill out with the fish, or even shoot your supper. Best of all the average person can master these sort of dives in about 2 weeks without spending valuable cash on expensive kit. Your essentials - mask, snorkel, fins, wetsuit and weightbelt pack easily into a duffel bag.</p><p>If you have any romantic views on achieving, or attempting to achieve, depths similar to Patrick Musimu's - please first watch the 1988 film "The Big Blue". Nothing but tragedy will be your reward so for heavens' sake admire others and stick to where there is light in the ocean! - unless of course you do it properly, take instruction, etc etc etc.</p> </div>

WP Guide Another Extreme Sport - Free Diving

We've discussed one of our favorite pastimes frequently here - scuba diving, but there is a further dimension to diving - freedivin...

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Go in For The Most Suitable Type of Web Hosting

<div><br/> <p>Websites are the driving tools behind creating an effective online presence. It is easy to get a website for individuals or for a business or for an organization. However, having a website that can be seen by anybody in the web world is what is important and that is where web hosting comes into play. It is important to get an idea of this hosting and the types that are in practice, before running our own websites.</p><p><b>Web hosting</b></p><p>Wikipedia defines it as 'a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their own website accessible via the World Wide Web'. This hosting service is provided by companies that are solely for this purpose. They provide a space for the smaller clients on their large servers along with internet connectivity. At times, the host will also extend its support in the form of an interface or a control panel for managing the web server. This will enable the users to install their own modules and service applications of their preference.</p><p><b>Types of web hosting </b></p><p>The three major categories of web hosting are:</p><p><ul><li>Shared hosting</li><br/><li>Virtual Hosting</li><br/><li>Dedicated hosting</li></ul></p><p>Shared hosting - The users website is placed on the same server as that of many others. As the name indicates, all the existing domains on the common server will share a common pool of resources like the RAM and CPU.</p><p><b>Advantages:</b><br/><br>1. Low cost<br/><br>2. Suitable for small businesses which require average traffic<br/><br>3. Can have an own domain name<br/><br>4. Excellent support</p><p><b>Drawbacks:</b><br/><br>1. Reduced security as many servers share a single server.<br/><br>2. Limited support for soft wares and database.</p><p><b>Virtual hosting</b> - This is also referred to as Virtual Private Server (VPS). This method of hosting divides the available resources into separate virtual servers in such a way that there is no change in the underlying hardware. The users will have to take care of their own server and see to its proper functioning and maintenance. It is like you are responsible for your own space in that large server which is the house of many others like yours.</p><p><b>Advantages:</b><br/><br>1. Effective method of web hosting<br/><br>2. No issues regarding speed, access and availability of the site<br/><br>3. Suitable for small to medium sized websites.</p><p><b>Drawbacks:</b><br/><br>1. Since this type of web hosting offers the user a way to use many applications that will increase traffic, users should have the technical ability to take care of these effectively.<br/><br>2. Limited RAM, CPU and server disk space</p><p><b>Dedicated hosting</b> - The user gets a full server for his/her own. In other words there is no sharing in this type of hosting and a server is totally dedicated to a single user. Since an entire server is being allocated to a single user, the costs of this type of web hosting are very high but it has high flexibility.</p><p><b>Advantages:</b><br/><br>1. Best suited for websites that aim to generate large amount of traffic.<br/><br>2. Multiple domain names, email solutions and excellent database support</p><p><b>Drawbacks:</b><br/><br>1. Very expensive<br/><br>2. Technical expertise is a must to take care of a site in this type of web hosting.</p><p>Apart from these generally used types of hosting, there are several others like reseller hosting, managed hosting, colocation hosting, clustered hosting, grid hosting etc. Recently cloud hosting has been catching up as the next generation web hosting. It offers many advantages when compared to the existing types of hosting.</p> </div>

WP Guide Go in For The Most Suitable Type of Web Hosting

Websites are the driving tools behind creating an effective online presence. It is easy to get a website for individuals or for a busin...

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