Do You Know How to Move Your WordPress Site to Another Host?

Ok, maybe everything is just fine with your current host.  That’s Great! However, stuff happens. Little things like the server goes down right before you are about to press PUBLISH. Oops, when the server comes back up only part of the post was saved.Well, that was ok but when it happens two more times in the upcoming weeks you wonder if you should investigate other options.

Or,

Everything is just dandy with your server but when you think about all 24 of your sites on one server, oh my. What happens if it goes down? It just might cut into your online action. My mom always said that” A poor mouse only has one hole to run in.”

Or,

You want to send more traffic to your other sites.  So, yes you can write posts and link to another one of your sites to get some trackback action. But it sure looks good to Google and other roaming robots traveling from top search engines, if that traffic is coming from another IP address.

I currently use Bluehost and Hostgator. The support is simply amazing.  But I wanted to share this critical and invaluable information from fellow Baby Boomer Heidi Caswell-just in case you ever need it.  So please read the post below and keep it handy.

How to Move Your WordPress Blog to Another Server

How To Get Dynamic Traffic To Your Blog Pt. 1

This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series How To Get Dynamic Traffic To Your Blog

Enjoy this powerful series by Guest Blogger Ron Whitaker

Keyboard

Image courtesy of winnond/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

OK, folks, history lesson time!

Back in the 1800s American humorist Josh Billings made the following famous quote (actually, a little rhyme!): “I hate to be a kicker, I always long for peace,  but the wheel that does the squeaking is the one that gets the grease.

Just FYI, in the 1800s, the word “kicker” meant someone who was a constant complainer.

Now, I’m not saying that all of you are complainers, but if you’re a blogger who is frustrated with a lack of traffic to your blog, you just might be a kicker! (Wow! That was so Jeff Foxworthy!)

OK, so let’s learn how to be the squeaky wheel when it comes to our blogs and getting better traffic.

In this blog post, I’m going to show you the basics of how to improve your ability to get found in the search engines using keywords and phrases.

In Part 2, we’ll discuss “where” to include those keywords.

Then in Part 3 we’ll learn some strategies [guest posting, guest commenting, link building] to get your blog in front of larger audiences.

How I Learned About All This Blogging Stuff

Back in early 2009, when I was a caregiver for my mother, I decided that at some point I wanted to start and run my own website. Now, I had a lot of web design experience, having been a web designer since 1996.

I didn’t know what type of website I was going to launch, or what my service or product would be, but I knew I wanted to start my own website at some point down the road.

Fortunately, I had a good friend, Darrell, who had a lot of experience starting and running websites.

One day, as I was speaking to him about my desire to start my own website, he told me that I would need to do SEO.

What’s SEO, I asked?

Searching Engine Optimization.

What’s that?

He explained that it included certain steps you take so that when someone was searching for a particular keyword or keyphrase, your website would rank highly in search engines, such as Google.

I suddenly realized that I had a lot of studying and learning to do before I even thought of moving forward with my venture!

So, I began studying.

And studying.

And studying…

…my brains out!

As I began studying the topic of SEO, I learned that you need to do something called “keyword research” and then implement those keywords into your content.

That’s the start of how to get traffic to your blog!

But there’s more!

What are keywords and how do I implement them in my blog posts?

Good question!

If you and I were having a conversation, and I was telling you about my trip to Flagstaff (Arizona), I would mention things like Flagstaff, Arizona, Northern Arizona, Northern Arizona University, the Arboretum at Flagstaff, the Museum of Northern Arizona, etc.

You wouldn’t hear me mention terms like Paris, Eiffel Tower, Wall of Berlin, Germany or the Louvre.

Those terms simply have nothing to do with Flagstaff!

So it is with our blog posts.

We need to focus on one (maybe two) ideas in each post.

And those ideas are communicated through words.

And we focus those ideas through what are known as keywords.

That way readers, as well as search engines like Google, know what the blog post’s focus is.

Starting a keyword research campaign

So, how do you get started?

Well, before writing a blog post, or even before launching your website, determine what the focus of the website or blog post will be.

Think about what words or phrases someone would use in a search engine that would lead someone to your site or blog post.

For example, when I started my website, a venue for baby boomers to list and sell “stuff” as they downsize, I considered words and phrases that people would enter into a search engine.

Woman sitting at computer

Image courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Phrases like “baby boomers,” “buy and sell,” and “selling stuff” came to mind.

Just as a tip, come up with longer worded phrases, as opposed to single word keywords.

Why?

As another example, if I have a website that sells t-shirts, trying to get the search engines to rank highly for the word “t-shirt” is going to be difficult.

First, it’s too broad of a term.

Second, it’ll be way too competitive.

Instead, consider a phrase like “red polo t-shirts.”

It’ll be less competitive and probably will be easier to rank in the search engines.

How do I know if anyone’s even searching on that phrase?

That’s where some online tools come in handy.

Once you’ve made a list of all the keyword phrases you can think of, take them to an online keyword research tool.

What’s that?

Keyword research tools show you how many people are searching for that word or phrase in search engines, as well as how competitive that keyword is. By competitive, I mean how many other websites are already using and ranking for that particular keyword.

Google offers a great keyword research tool. And best of all, it’s free!

You can find the Google keyword research tool by clicking this link.

Google Keyword Research Tool

Once you arrive at the keyword research tool page, simply enter your keyword into the “Word or phrase” box.

After you click the Search button, a list appears below, showing keyphrases based on your “seed” keyword.

The Competition column shows how competitive that keyword will be to rank for.

The Global Monthly Searches column shows the amount of searches performed worldwide on that keyword or keyphrase.

Google Keyword Research Tool Results

The Local Monthly Searches column shows the amount of searches performed locally on that keyword or keyphrase. Locally is based on the country you chose in the Advanced Options and Filters section above. The default is United States.

Google’s keyword research tool is a great free tool. There are also keyword research tools that come with a fee.

One of the best ones out there, and the one I use, is called Market Samurai. It’s an excellent tool, relatively inexpensive, that will definitely help you get laser focused with your keyword research.

The owners of Market Samurai also provide excellent training videos as well to help you get started with using their product.

Summary

If you’ve ever wondered how to get traffic to your blog, the foundation lies in the keywords you use.

In this post we learned that keywords are essential to showing viewers the focus of our websites and blog posts.

We learned that to focus a blog post on a particular topic, we need to discover which keywords will be the best, yet not too competitive, to include in a post.

We also learned that there are some excellent tools out there, such as Google’s Keyword Research tool, and Market Samurai, that can make the process of discovering quality keywords easier.

So, where do we go once we’ve discovered a keyword or phrase that we want to use in a blog post?

That’s next week’s topic.

Stay tuned!

Are You on WordPress.com and Want to Add a Registration/RSVP Contact Form?

I just posted about a creative way a Non-Profit organization used their WordPress.com blog to get registrations for a webinar. It is so cool. Of course if you are on WordPress.org you can use a plug in like Event Registar or RSVP Maker. I know there are others and feel free to share them.

Meanwhile check out the post on adding a RSVP contact form to your WordPress.com blog platform.

How to Add Custom Characters to Your Blog Post

This entry is part 9 of 10 in the series Baby Boomers and Social Bookmarking Can You Digg it?

Have you ever wanted to add a custom character to your blog post. You know one of those funny looking symbols that you just cannot find on your keyboard?

Well there is a button on the tool bar that will make it real easy. Let’s assume you want to create a copyright symbol.  This is what you do. Continue reading

Help, I’ve Forgotten My WordPress Blog Password and Can’t Get Up!

Have you fallen down from blogging because you lost or forgot your password?

Well this is a quick tutorial to get you back on your blogging feet!.

1.     Go to the dashboard of your blog. Now there are several ways to do this and I did a short video for those of you who need a reminder.

Please note that this video is referring to a WordPress.com hosted site. But the same applies to a WordPress.org self hosted site. I do not, however, recommend that you have Meta options on your site if you are on a self hosted WordPress.org site.


3 Ways to Sign into Your WordPress.com Site SHORT VIDEO

2.    Yes, you can skip the video and just type in the name of your blog site. But this time add a forward slash and wp-admin.
The wp stands for WordPress and the admin means you are going into the administrative area. I like to call it behind the scenes. OR You can add /wp-login.php Personally I always use wp-admin

So this is what the url structure will look like:

If you are on a WordPress.com site it would be  http://www.myblogsite.wordpress.com/wp-admin

If you are self-hosting your site it would be http://www.myblogsite.com/wp-admin

3.   Now, you will see the following login waiting for your User Name and Password. But remember you have misplaced or forgotten it. So observe the read arrow pointing to the phrase Lost your password? Go ahead click on it.

Login for WordPress blogs

Login for WordPress blogs

4.     After you click on that link it will ask you to enter the user name (if you recall it). If you don’t  try to recall the email address you used when you first signed up to blog. Hint: If one email does not work try another. The system will send you a new password. Just go to your email and grab it.

5.    But HALT WAIT, DO NOT PASS GO

You will actually receive two emails. The first will ask you to verify that you actually requested an email change. Why? Well anyone can use your user name or email, request a change and then go in and reset the password. YOUDON’T WANT THAT TO HAPPEN. So, if you get a message like that and you DID NOT request it. DO NOT VERIFY IT.

But since you have requested it right after reading this post VERIFY the first email. Then you will get an email with your new email.

Request for email or user name

Request for email or user name

6.   Now go in and key in your new password along with your user name.  If your browser is set to remember cookies(not the choc. Chip kind of cookies) you can select the option for the computer to remember your login details. However, there are times when you or someone else, may go into your browser options and choose to delete all cookies. Oops, your password is gone again. So I strongly suggest that you write it down in a special notebook just for your specific blog.

In the next post I will show you how to change your password inside your dashboard. Would that be helpful?

Meanwhile, get back on those blogging feet and start blogging!!!!

Blog Food-Google Alerts Challenge

This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series blog food

How many of you are using Google Alerts as a source of blog food?

Ok, I admit that sounds like a question I ask folks when I am doing blog training. But it is a critical question. Many of us are not tapping into this powerful, I mean powerful resource.

Ok, what is Google Alerts?

As defined by Wikipedia:

The Google Alerts is a content monitoring service, offered by the search engine company Google, that automatically notifies users when new content from news, web, blogs, video and/or discussion groups matches a set of search terms selected by the user and stored by the Google Alerts service. Notifications can be sent by email, as a web feed or displayed on the users iGoogle page.

Google Alerts only provides content from Google’s own search engine.

Currently there are six types of alerts sent when new content matches the search terms of the alert:

* Comprehensive – (default setting) aggregates News, Web and Blogs
* News – sent when matching content makes it into the top ten results of a Google News search

* Web – sent when new web pages appear in the top twenty results for a Google Web search

* Blogs – sent when matching content appears in the top ten results of a Google Blog Search
* Video – sent when matching content appears in the top ten results of a Google video search

* Groups – sent when matching content appears in the top fifty results of a Google Groups search

Users determine the frequency of checks for new results. Three options are available: “once a day”, “once a week”, or “as it happens”. These options set the maximum frequency of alerts and do not necessarily control how often they will receive alerts. Alerts are sent only if new content matches the user-selected search terms.

The first option, for example, means they will receive at most one alert email per day. The “as it happens” option can result in many alert emails per day, depending on the search.

Google Alerts are available in plain text as well as HTML. In October 2008 Google also made alerts available as RSS feeds.

MY CHALLENGE TO YOU

Develop a Google Alert for”

  • Topic Area of your blog
  • Your name
  • Blog Titles

Try doing a comprehensive notice everyday for a week. You can always edit it. Then blog every day and include the title of each blog post in your alerts.

Glean from some of the news listings and other blogs and add them to site as a blog post. Remember to provide all links included in that blog post and credit to the authors

Are you up for the challenge?

Please share some of your results.

PS Use an email address that can tolerate the traffic.

Upgrade Your WordPress.com Blog With Your Own Domain Name

If you have a WordPress.com site your url will read http://www.mysitename.wordpress.com.  Now, if you want to create a url to put on a business card that is just tooooo long for someone to key into the browser. So you can upgrade your FREE WordPress.com site by just going to the UPGRADE tab.

There you will have several upgrade options if you pay for them. The one I am referring to is 14.97 if you host your domain with WordPress.com and 9.97 if you use a domain name you already have.

To illustrate this feature I just upgraded a site I have in WordPress.com called Rosies Blog Class. Now, the url is http://www.rosiesblogclass.wordpress.com. I purchased a domain from WordPress.com which is http://www.rosiesblogclass.com.

So, if I am teaching a workshop or speaking to someone about blogging I can send them to http://www.rosiesblogclass.com and it will redirect to the site.

So, if you have a site on WordPress.com that you want to send folks to when you are not online, consider this handy upgrade.

PS Remember if you are hosting with WordPress.com and not self-hosting with a WordPress.org blog platform YOU MUST MANUALLY BACKUP YOUR SITE. Do not expect WordPress.com to do it for you. I strongly suggest that you maintain a folder on your hard drive with everything you post on your site.

If anyone has other solutions let me know.

How Do You Delete Your WordPress.com Blog?

A very good boomer buddy asked me this question today, “Rosie, how do I delete my WordPress.com blog.?” Actually, she stumbled on this site she started a very long time ago and had forgotten all about it. Of course, my desire is for her to try and develop it with the idea behind why she started it in the first place. It can have several good practice points.

But in case there is someone else reading this that has an old WordPress.com blog hanging out there is cyberspace. This is what you do:

  • Sign into your dashbroad
  • Click on Settings in the Admin. Panel on the left
  • Click on the Delete Blog Option

But just remember, if you keep it you can always make it a private blog shut off from the search engines. You can choose the option to invite folks to view your posts. PLUS this is a good option if you were writing a book or collection of poems not ready for prime time. Think about it.

Blog Food-Guest Blogger Series #1

This is the final installment of the Top Ten Reasons to Manage Your Own Website and Blog Sites!

Reason 1 – Saving Money on Your Monthly Online Budget

By Toolie

Now we’re down to the number 1 reason to manage your websites and
blogs: money. It’s simply less expensive to learn how to handle most
website and blog tasks than it is to pay someone to do them for you.

The most obvious cost to your business is any ongoing website or blog
maintenance you’re paying to a web designer. I’ve heard from clients
that they’ve spent anywhere from $75 to $600 a month on maintenance.
The difference in pricing is related to the amount of work done in
those contracts.

•  A $75 a month charge included 1 major update a month, in this case,
my speakers association chapter adding their monthly meeting to the
site.
•  The $600/month charge was for website hosting, maintenance, and
keyword optimization; that’s what my dentist pays to maintain his page
1 Google status in his geographic area.
I hope your webmaster costs are either zero or somewhere between those
two numbers!

What other costs might there be? Well, you remember the true story of
my client whose website was shut down by a disgruntled team member,
yes? She directly lost revenue because her website wasn’t available.
It would have been difficult on short notice for her to replace the
site she had planned, but if she’d had control of her domain, she
could have pointed it to an alternate site until things were resolved.

What about creating opportunities BECAUSE you have HTML and CSS
skills? The Internet likes speed! Being able to come up with a custom
page on your website or blog that specifically addresses a new
opportunity provides a huge advantage over your competitors who can’t
or don’t provide such targeted information.

In fact, imagine being able to send to a prospect in email the URL of
a specially created web page on your website. Wouldn’t you sit up and
take notice if I said I have a message just for you at  such-and-such
a page? With a simple tool, I created custom pages with individual
names on them  for the folks on my mailing list, using a simple HTML
page and a tool that merges names into those web pages. Like so many
other highly-targeted messages, custom web pages have a big impact.
And this technique is easy and inexpensive to do.

So with basic HTML and CSS skills, you can not only save maintenance
costs, you can create opportunities for new business in targeted,
memorable ways. I hope by now that you’re all out of excuses now for
putting off  earning something that can make you money.

It’s time! The product is now available for purchase. There’s no time
like the beginning of a new year to make a difference in your business
by learning HTML and CSS. Head on over to
http://www.ICanFixMyWebsite.com and get all the details of this
program. I look forward to working with you in our coaching sessions,
and getting 2010 off to a great start.

You can choose to have $10 of the product price donated to the Red
Cross for Disaster Relief to Haiti. Just choose Yes on the Order Form
(near the bottom), and I’ll take care of the rest. — Toolie

The “I Can Fix My Website” program is up and running! Get your copy
right now at http://www.ICanFixMyWebsite.com.

Toolie®