The possibility of using a static page as a homepage is built-in in the WordPress—however, a lot of bloggers aren’t aware of it.

How to do it

Step 1: Log in to your WordPress Dashboard and create a page named Homepage and publish it.

Step 2: On your WordPress Dashboard, go to Settings | Reading. You’ll see a title saying Front page displays.

Step 3: Select the A static page radio button and choose your new front page from the drop-down list. If you please, you can also choose a new template for the posts to be displayed.

For more information check the WordPress Codex: http://codex.wordpress.org/Creating_a_Static_Front_Page

No related posts.

This is great, but you may need some actual content to test out all your theme or other changes. Creating ‘dummy’ content is one option, but it can take awhile to create and is not the same as the actual content that a ‘live’ blog contains.

So if you already have a blog online, you can follow these steps after you have your local environment (Apache, PHP, and MySQL) up and running (covered in the lesson).

Step 1: Create a backup from your current live blog.

• Log into phpMyAdmin (from a web host account), and select the “Export” tab.
• Select the database your WordPress blog uses.
• Make sure the “SQL” radio button is selected.
• Click the “GO” button.
• A new screen will display with a textarea box containing many SQL statements. These will re-create your entire database, tables with content when executed.
• Copy this script to your favorite text editor

Step 2: Modifying your backup script.

• Since we are restoring to a database from a different blog, we have to ‘tweak’ it a bit (database name and url parameters).
• Change name of the database to the database of your development blog. This should be the first command in the script starting with CREATE DATABASE.
• There are two lines that you need to specify the url of your development (http://localhost/). Do a text search on the ‘wp_options’ table. You will need to change the parameters of two INSERT INTO statements (‘siteurl’ and ‘home’).

Step 3: Copy your blog folder structure.

• Copy the entire folder struture (and all files) of your live blog to your root directory of your local Apache environment. You can create a subfolder in your root if you wish. I discuss where this location is in the lesson.
• Once copied, open up the wp-config.php file and make the neccessary changes. This would involve changing the database name (DB_NAME), database user (DB_USER), and database password (DB_PASSWORD) and MySQL host (DB_HOST). I discuss this in the lesson as well.

Step 4: Execute your modified restore script.

• Open up phpMyAdmin in your local environment
• Select the “SQL” tab.
• Paste the restore script in the textarea box.
• Click the “Go” button.
• Verify that the database and tables have been created.

Step 5: Open up your local blog

• Go to your local blog that you just copied all the files to. This will be http://localhost/. You will specify the subfolder if you created that as well.
• Log into you blog

Now you have an exact local copy of your live blog that you can develop and test.

Note: Since we didn’t change any other parameters in the restore script, some of your plugins may not work. Also, if you use custom permalinks, you may need to modify your .htaccess file. Change your permalinks to the default setting (Settings->Permalinks), if you cannot see certain pages in your local blog.

No related posts.

To access the Import tool, log in to your WordPress Dashboard and click on Tools | Import located at the top of the screen. To access the Export tool, go to Tools | Export.

Importing content
WordPress is able to import your previous blog content and automatically create post with it. WordPress can import content from Dotclear, TypePad/Movable Type, LiveJournal, Greymatter, Textpattern, Blogware, and Blogger.

To import your content from another blogging platform, you have to follow a platform specific procedure.

Importing content from an export file
The blogging clients, namely, LiveJournal, MovableType/Typepad, Blogware, and WordPress allow you to export your content into an xml , opml , or txt file. Follow this procedure to import your content from one of these blogging platforms:

1. Connect to your old blog and export your content. Save the file on your hard drive.
2. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard, then go to Tools | Import.
3. Select the blogging platform from where you’re importing the content.
4. On the next page, click on the Browse button to select the exported file located in your hard drive.
5. Once done, click on the Upload file and import button.
6. You’re done! Please note that depending on your exported file size, this procedure can take a while.

Importing content from database
If the blogging client you’re using is Dotclear or Textpattern, you have to import your content using your old blog database. Carry out the following procedure to get started:

1. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard, and then go to Tools | Import.
2. Select the blogging platform you’re using.
3. On the next page, fill out the form to let WordPress know about your old blog server, database name, password, and so on.
4. When you’re done, click on the Import button.
5. Your content will now be imported. Note that the process can take a while depending of your database size.

Importing content from Blogger
Blogger is a very popular blogging platform—owned by Internet giant, Google. If you wish to move your Blogger blog into WordPress, carry out the following simple steps:

1. Make sure you have a Google account and an upgraded (New, was Beta) blog hosted on www.blogspot.com.
2. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard, then go to Tools | Import.
3. Select the Blogger option.
4. On the next page, you have to authorize WordPress to access your Blogger account. To do so, click on the Authorize button.
5. You will be redirected to a Google page, where you’ll see your Blogger blog listed. Click on the Allow accessbutton to authorize WordPress to access your old blog.
6. Once done, you’ll be taken back to your WordPress Dashboard, where you’ll see your Blogger blog’s name. Click on the Import button to start importing your content.

After you have finished the import process, you can clear the account information that has been stored into WordPress database during the content import. Simply click on the Clear account information button to get rid of your old account information. This will not affect any of your posts or comments.

Exporting content
For some reasons—such as, moving to another blogging platform, re-using your posts on another blog, and so on—you may want to export your content into a file that can be imported on another blogging platform or a different WordPress blog.

Exporting content is a very easy process, simply carry out the following steps:

1. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard, then go to Tools | Export.
2. Select an author to export if you want to get the posts from a specific author only, otherwise select the All Authors option.
3. Click on the Download Export File button.

How it works

After having a look at the Import and Export tools, let’s have look at how they work:

Export tool

When the Download Export File is clicked, WordPress generates an XML file and prompts you to download it. This file—often referred to, as WXR (WordPress Extended RSS)—will contain your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags. It can be imported on any WordPress install by using the Import Tool.

Import tool

Depending from which platform you’re importing content, the WordPress Import Tool
functions accordingly. For some content, you just have to submit a file (for example, suppose you want to import posts from a previous WordPress installation), whereas in some other cases (for example, importing from Dotclear blogs) you have to connect to the old blog database in order to import the content into WordPress.

No related posts.

My other website, JavaScript Workshop  could be considered a niche blog, but I expanded it to cover other topics other than “JavaScript”, but that is the general idea.  This blog you are reading now is a niche blog.

Look at the top 100 blogs as tracked by Technorati.com and you’ll find that the majority of them have a defined niche. Some niches are wider than others—but in nearly all cases they’ve carved out a niche for themselves.

There are many reasons why choosing a niche is important to building a successful blog, but here are a few (10 to be exact).

1. Loyal readers—Niche blogs tend to develop a loyal readership because readers know that when they log in to a blog they’ll get relevant information on topics that they have an interest in, rather than random posts on topics that they have no desire to read.
2. Community—People like to gather with others like them. Many times when you develop a blog focusing on a single topic, you find that a group of like-minded people will gather around it not just to read what you have to say, but to interact with others who share their passions and interests.
3. Specialist authors—Authors of niche blogs have the freedom to really focus upon a topic and don’t feel guilty about doing so. This can lead to an increase in the quantity, quality, and depth of articles.
4. Brand, credibility, and profile—Blogging consistently on one single topic increases the chances of that blog (and its blogger) being seen as a credible, trusted source of information in that area. Work this correctly and you can become the “go-to” person in your niche and become known as a specialist or expert in your field. The flow on benefits of this is huge if you have a product or service of your own to sell.
5. Contextual advertising—Contextual ad networks like AdSense tend to work best on sites that are tightly focused. They serve more targeted and relevant ads when a whole site is on a defined topic—which in turn increases the likelihood of those ads being clicked by readers.
6. Direct advertising sales—Niche blogs are more attractive to private advertisers or sponsors who are looking for content to place their ads on that is relevant and closely aligned to their product or service.
7. Search engine optimization—Google and other search engines tend to favor sites with a well-defined topic with pages that relate to one another.
8. More posts—You can post more if you only have 1 topic to worry about as opposed to many topics. There is only so much you can write on a blog each day without overwhelming your readership.
9. Leverage to expand into neighboring niches—One benefit of becoming well-known in a highly focused niche is that you can position yourself to springboard into a neighboring or overarching one.
10. Higher conversion—If your blog’s business model is to sell something to your readers, it is to your advantage to have a blog that has a readership with interests that are highly aligned with your own focus.

Choosing a niche for your blog enables you, your bloggers, and your readers to become more focused and will enable you to grow a readership and monetize it more effectively.

No related posts.

Mixing up the types of post that you write can add interest and character to your blog, which will help to keep readers over the long haul.  There are many types of posts that you might like to use—here are 20 to start experimenting with:

• Instructional— I find that posts that contain tips or that are tutorials generally are the ones that are among my most popular.  One of the main things that people search the Web for is to find help in overcoming a problem.  Position yourself to answer these problems, and you can build a nice source of traffic over the long term.
• Informational—This is one of the more common blog post types, where a blogger simply gives information on a topic. It could be a definition post or a longer explanation of some aspect of the niche that you’re writing on.  This is the crux of successful sites like Wikipedia.
• Reviews—Another highly searched-for term on the Web is “review.”  Every time I’m considering buying a new product I head to Google and search for a review on it first—I know that I’m not alone.  Reviews come in all shapes and sizes and on virtually every product or service you can think of. 
• Lists—One of the easiest ways to write a post is to make a list.  Posts with content like, “The Top Ten ways to…,” “7 Reasons why…,” “5 Favorite…,” or “53 mistakes that bloggers make when…” are not only easy to write, but are usually very popular with readers and can be successful at getting links from other bloggers.
• Interviews—Sometimes when you’ve run out of insightful things to say it might be a good idea to let someone else do the talking in an interview. This is a great way to not only give your readers a relevant expert’s opinion, but to perhaps even learn something about the topic you’re writing yourself. 
• Case studies—Another popular type of post is the case study, where you walk readers through an example of something that you’re writing about.  These are useful posts for readers because they are real-life situations and often have practical tips associated with them.
• Profiles—Profile posts are similar to case studies but focus in on a particular person.  Pick an interesting personality in your niche and do a little research on them to present to your readers.  Point out how they’ve reached the position they are in and write about the characteristics that they have that others in your niche might like to develop to be successful.
• Link posts—The link post is a favorite form of blogging for many bloggers and is simply a matter of finding a quality post on another site or blog and linking up to it.  You would usually also include an explanation of why you’re linking up, a comment of your own take on the topic, and/or a quote from the post.  Adding your own comments makes these posts more original and useful to your readers. 
• “Problem” posts—Another term that is often searched for in Google in conjunction with product names is the word “problem” or “problems”— that is, where people are searching for help on a problem that they might have with something that they own or are trying to do.  Problem posts are similar to review posts but focus more upon the negatives of a product or service.  
• Comparison posts—Life is full of decisions between two or more options.  Write a post contrasting two products, services, or approaches that outlines the positives and negatives of each choice.  In a sense these are review posts but are a little wider in focus.  
• Rants—Get passionate, stir yourself up, say what’s on your mind, and tell it like it is.  Rants are great for starting discussion and causing a little controversy—they can also be quite fun if you do them in the right spirit.  Just be aware when you write passionately about a controversial topic that others are likely to comment in a similar way.  Rant posts lead to “flaming” in comment threads and to people saying things in the heat of the moment that they later regret, and which can impact their reputation.  Proceed with caution.
• Inspirational—On the flip side of the angry rant (and not all rants have to be angry) are inspirational and motivational posts. Tell a story of success or paint a picture of “what could be.”  People like to hear good-news stories in their niche because it motivates them to persist with what they are doing.  Find examples of success in your own experience or that of others and spread the word.
•  Research—Research posts can take a lot of time, but they can also be well worth it if you come up with interesting conclusions.  Present your findings with a nice chart and with useful statistics, and you’ll often find other bloggers in your niche will link up to you.
• Collation posts—These are a strange combination of research and link posts.  In them you pick a topic that you think your readers will find helpful and then research what others have said about it.  Once you’ve found their opinion, you bring together everyone’s ideas (often with short quotes) and tie them together with a few of your own comments to draw out the common themes that you see. 
• Prediction and review posts—We see a lot of these at the end and start of the year when people do their “year in review” posts and look at the year ahead and predict what developments might happen in their niche in the coming months.  Prediction posts will often cause interesting debate.
• Critique posts—Numerous bloggers have made a name for themselves by writing strong critiques of other people, products, or companies.  Though sometimes these border on being “attack posts” and have rant-like qualities, a good constructive critique can be an effective way of making an impression upon others.  People like to hear opinions, and though they might not always agree with them, if they are insightful, constructive, and respectfully written posts, they can lead to you growing your reputation in a niche.
• Debate—Debates do well on blogs and can be done in an organized fashion between two people, between a blogger and “all comers,” or even between a blogger and… themselves (try it—argue both for and against a topic in one post—you can end up with a pretty balanced post).  Probably the easiest way to do this is simply to ask your readers a question with two or more alternatives and see what they’ve got to say.  Be willing to share your own opinion to get things going.
• Hypothetical posts—”What if” or hypothetical posts can be quite fun. Pick something that could happen down the track in your industry and begin to unpack what the implications of it would be. “What if Google and Yahoo! merged?”  “What if Canon released an update to xyz camera?”  These posts can actually position you well in search engines if the hypothetical situation actually happens.
• Satirical posts—Well-written satire, parody, or humor can be incredibly powerful and is brilliant for generating links for your blog.  Keep in mind that sometimes these types of posts will be misinterpreted and cause people to react strongly.
• Memes and projects—A meme is an idea that spreads, an “idea virus” as Seth Godin would describe it.  In blogging this can be seen as an article or topic that gets copied from one blog to another, usually with a link back to the originator.  Write a post that somehow involves your readers and gets them to replicate it in someway.  Start a poll, an award, a competition, or ask your readers to submit a post/link or run a survey or quiz. 

This is not an exhaustive list but rather just some of the types of posts that you might like to throw into your blog’s mix. Not every one will be suitable for all blogs or bloggers, but using more than one format can definitely add a little spice and color to a blog.

No related posts.

• Amazon Associates: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/
• Commission Junction:  https://www.cj.com/
• Text Link Ads:  http://www.text-link-ads.com/
• Link Share:  http://www.linkshare.com/
• AdGenta:  http://www.qumana.com/adgenta.htm
• Blogads:   http://www.blogads.com/
• CrispAds:  http://www.crispads.com/
• IntelliTXT:   http://www.vibrantmedia.com/
• DoubleClick:  http://www.doubleclick.com/
• Kanoodle:  http://www.kanoodle.com/

No related posts.

Here’s how gravatars work….

A commenter creates an image suitable for a gravatar and uploads it to his account on gravatar.com.  The gravatar is rated using pretty much the same ratings as the movie industry: G, PG, R, and X.  These ratings are used by bloggers to set limits on the kinds of gravatars that appear on their sites — a gravatar with a G rating will appear everywhere while a gravatar with an X rating may not appear on many blogs at all.

Meanwhile, a blogger (like me) sets up his/her blog to enable it for gravatars.  Then, when a commenter submits a comment, the blog’s gravatar plugin (automatic since WordPress 2.5) takes the commenter’s e-mail address (submitted in the comment form) and attempts to find a match at gravatar.com.  If it finds a match, it displays the corresponding image. (The e-mail address is not used anywhere in the underlying page code.)  If there’s no image on file, the blog software either displays nothing or displays a default image chosen by the blogger.

Do you have a gravatar now? Show it off by entering a brief comment on this post.

No related posts.

1 – Who you are.  Tell me about your business, but also introduce me to the blog’s writers.  Share pictures.  The more information about yourself and your business that you are willing to share, the easier it will be for me as a reader to trust you.

2 – Why you are blogging.  Possibly the most important question you can answer, because it will force you to spell out your intentions to your audience.  And as always, consider your audience when answering this question, ask yourself, ‘Why would someone come to this blog, what would they be looking for?’   

3 – What will you be blogging about.  Answering the above question makes this one much easier to answer.  Will you be blogging about your business, or perhaps the lifestyles of your customers?  Spell out the content on your blog so that I know what to expect when I arrive.  And remember that this will also serve as a ‘bookmark’ for your writers to keep them focused on what the goal of your blog is.

4 – How I can leave feedback.  Tell me how I can be involved.  Can I leave comments?  Do you encourage comments?  What if I want to email you?  Spell out exactly how I can contact you, and don’t be afraid to encourage feedback, and even disagreement.  In fact this would be a good place to formally spell-out your comment policy, which again can serve as a reference tool for your writers as well.  

Here are some links with more information:

http://www.getelastic.com/writing-first-blog-post/

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/08/12/how-to-craft-a-blog-post-10-crucial-points-to-pause/

No related posts.