Updating the Copyright Year in the Footer

Copyright info in the footer Most of us forget that we have to change certain things on our blog at the end of every year, certain things like the footer which contains the copyright year of the blog. Now most theme on WordPress have the year hardcoded, meaning instead of a php code which would display the year it is simply coded 2008 or 2009. This means that at the beginning of every year that information has to be changed.

You can do this by logging on to your WP admin and then selecting the editor of the theme. Click footer and the find the place where the copyright notice has been placed. Either you can change the year to 2009 or let this be taken care of automatically by using this php code.

If you are using the php code then this is would be a one time change as the year will be automatically updated from now on. However you would need to do this again incase you change the theme. Also note that your date settings should be correct in the settings tab otherwise the year could be displayed wrongly.

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Blogging Basics for Making Categories & Using Tags

No matter if you are just starting out or have been bogging for while now, reading this would help you a lot. When you post an article, you have to choose a category associated with it (Taxonomy in Expression Engine). Let’s say that you have written an article on Xbox 360 and that you are comparing it with PlayStation 3. I am sure you will have these 3 categories in you blog i.e. Gaming, Xbox, PlayStation. Normally you would go ahead and select all 3 categories for the article but this is where you would be making a mistake.

Always associate one article with one category, this way you can easily avoid duplicating content on your blog which is frowned upon by search engines such a Google. In the above example, the best category to choose would be Gaming.

Blog Tags This poses another question, what happens to people looking for Xbox & PlayStation… they won’t get to see the article because it is not in those categories! This is why you need to use TAGS in your blog. You can have multiple tags per article which makes it different from a category. Tags are keywords from your article which you think would be instantly recognized by visitors on your blog, thus making it very easy for them to find the right content.

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And You Thought Meta Description Tag Was Dead

If you are managing a blog, Meta description is probably as important as the title itself. In WordPress by default only the Title tag is used, which is copied from the title of the post / page itself. This is ok for most users but the problem comes when you want unique description Meta tag on each post. Now most would argue that the description tag is dead and search engines don’t take that into account, you could not be further away from the truth… If you login to Google Webmaster Tools, you will see that Google runs a diagnostic on content analysis and determines if your meta tags are ok or not.

Look at the image below, this is from one of my WordPress blogs and it shows that there is duplicate Meta description on 378 blog pages.
Meta Description on Google Webmaster Tools

Why is the description same on all pages when WordPress does not include a Meta description tag? The reason is that I had hard coded the header.php of my theme with the description Meta tag.

How can this problem we solved?
Do not hard code any Meta tags and if you have then remove them from the header.php. Then go ahead an install All in One SEO Plugin for WordPress. You will find all the info you need on their website.

Note: I know it is a tedious process to enter title and description every time you write a post but this is very important for ranking on searches so why not spend an extra minute and do it properly. If at all you leave the title, description and keywords blank in then they will be automatically taken from your post. This will ensure that you still have unique descriptions for every post.

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Using Yahoo Answers to Drive Targeted Traffic

Yahoo! AnswersI have been experimenting with Yahoo Answers and have got very good results from it. Here’s how this can work for you. Suppose you have a blog which is about dating and relationships and you think of yourself as an expert in that field. You can create and account with Y! Answers or use your existing yahoo email to login to create a profile.

While creating a profile you can choose your nic name, which can be anything… even your blog url if it is less than 28 characters. Then just search for questions which people have posted and answer them as you see fit. Make sure you read up on the community guidelines before you start answering so you would know what you can write and what you cannot.

While answering questions, you have the ability to post a url which is used an reference to your answer. Please do not blatantly abuse the system by entering your blog’s url else your yahoo answers account will be suspended.

Shaadi.com Be sincere while answering the questions, people will tend to respect you more and thereby getting you more points. Eventually this will drive traffic to your blog from the links you would have created there thus increasing your blog traffic. You can then join some dating affiliate or matrimonial affiliate scheme like shaadi.com and make money from it.

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Top 2 WordPress Hosting Providers

Of course there are many hosting services which offer 1 click WordPress hosting but my experience has been limited to a few out of which I have hosted many websites and WordPress blogs with the Bluehost and Hostgator.

Bluehost.com

Bluehost.com LogoThey offer unbeatable features with 1 click WordPress hosting (using Fantastico Script Support) for both new as well as transfer clients. Setup is usually instant and you can have your blog running in under an hour.

Features

- Unlimited Hosting space
- Unlimited File Transfer
- Host Unlimited Domains!!!
- 2,500 POP/Imap Email Accounts
- SSH (Secure Shell), SSL, FTP, Stats
- CGI, Ruby (RoR), Perl, PHP, MySQL
- 2000/2002 Front Page Extensions
- Free Domain Forever!
- Free Site Builder
- 24/7 Superb/Responsive Sales/Support

For $6.95 / month SignUp Here!

Hostgator.com

Hostgator.com LogoMostly known for reseller hosting, they provide decent 1 domain hosting as well. Unlike Bluehost, Hostgator supports both Linux as well as Windows hosting (Coming Soon!). Though Linux is the one to use when opting for WordPress Hosting. Setup is as easy as signing up and take a few min. Hostgator has 3 plans and you can choose them depending on your requirement, I recommend starting with the Hatchling plan and then upgrading as and when required.

Features of Hatchling Plan

- Unlimited Hosting space
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Host Only 1 Domain
- Unlimited POP3 Email Accounts
- SSL, FTP, Stats
- Free Site Builder
- 24/7 Superb/Responsive Sales/Support

For $4.95 / month SignUp Here!

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