I had the same wish about some of my websites that were getting  less traffic than I would like, but before making major conversions to multiple websites decided to try ‘converting’ one website [...]]]> With Google seeming to favor blogs over websites with the focus being on good, unique content, you may be wishing your websites were blogs.

I had the same wish about some of my websites that were getting  less traffic than I would like, but before making major conversions to multiple websites decided to try ‘converting’ one website to a blog first.  

I wanted to make the conversion easy and keep the website in tact.

This meant keeping my AdSense ads, my affiliate links as well as the overall site structure of the website while being able to take advantage of the benefits of having a blog at the same time.

Before we go any further, I am using the word ‘convert’ loosely. I’m not actually converting the whole website to a blog but rather having  what would ordinarily be  the website  ’home’  page  display the newly created blog.  This way  the visitor sees the blog on typing in the URL  - which in turn offers new, updated content with links to the ‘old’  website.

Note: You website will be unavailable for a bit during the conversion. This time will vary depending on your skill level to make the changes. For this reason we recommend making the ‘conversion’ during off traffic time.

7 Steps

1.   Get the Akismet Key   you will use for the new blog from www.wordpress.com.

2.   If you want to have the header logos on your website and blog the same, have them re-sized (if needed) and ready to upload. I favor using the same logo to maintain your brand and cause less confusion to the visitor.

3.   Re-name the ‘index‘ page on the server. This is the website’s home page, doing this will make your website unavailable until you have WordPress installed under the same domain name.

4.   Through the cPanel download WordPress into the root directory of the domain where you want your new blog. Follow the 15 Steps  for installing WordPress from our previous post. (Once you have installed Word press – the first page of the newly installed blog will be seen for your domain. It will display as the default WordPress page until you have configured the settings and uploaded new images.)

5.   If you have installed a new theme or even if you’re using the default WP theme, replace the images if desired (recommended).

6.   Upload a post letting visitors  know you ‘have a new look’, that ‘all old information is still available’ and that ‘you will be bringing them fresh, new content’.

Option:   Set up a text widget allowing access to the old website. This link can also be included in each post if you like.

7.  Use your blog to post new, relevant information deep-linking that post to the appropriate website page.

Conclusion

This is a pretty simple process to link your old website to your new blog. Will having a blog instead of a website make any difference? I can’t answer this question over the long haul, but so far after less than 2 weeks - the traffic  to the URL I converted to blog has more than doubled.  Visit our new blog at this link….http://bodybuildingfitnessprogram.com/

But there’s one more thing to do. Once you’ve been posting for about a month …. and this is assuming you are posting 2-4 times a week… you’ll need to set up your ‘ping [...]]]> If you followed the steps in our last post – 15 Steps to Setting Up a Blog - you’re probably already posting.

But there’s one more thing to do. Once you’ve been posting for about a month …. and this is assuming you are posting 2-4 times a week… you’ll need to set up your ‘ping list’.

When Should I Ping?

It has been recommended that your blog have a minimum of 25-30 original posts before you address pinging. This goal can be more quickly reached by posting more frequently. Once you’ve started posting, try to maintain a routine whether it be twice a week, once a week or once a month. Doing so will help you maintain your traffic.  

What is Pinging?

In blogging, pinging is a method which notifies a server that the blog content has been updated. This is accomplished by sending a signal to a ‘ping server’ that generates a list of the blogs that have new material. Most blog tools today automatically ping one or more servers each time a new post is created or an old post has been updated.

How Do I Ping My Blog?

While http://pingomatic.com/ is one of the best known, there are many ping services available. Doing a search for “blog ping services” will provide a list of ping service websites to choose from.

Another method to have your blog pinged to is add the ping service to your blog settings from the Word Press Dashboard. To do this go to Settings > Writing.

On the Writing page, go to the bottom where you will see “Update Services“. Here you can add in the URLs for the services you like and then ‘save’ the changes. To see a copy of our list of ping URLs, click here.

Final Thought

If you’re having trouble remembering all the passwords associated with your accounts – email, blogs, hosting, domain, etc. – not to mention all the online personal accounts you have – you need Roboform.    I can’t even imagine trying to manage my 200+  passwords  without Roboform – and I’m adding new ones daily.

Roboform is a password program that manages all of your passwords. It is allows you to edit, delete, and  print as well as being protected by one master password.   Please take a moment to see how Roboform can simplify your life.

I can say our future business direction will be concentrating on blogs.

From the beginning, websites have been the primary means for businesses to [...]]]> You’ll recall we covered ‘Getting Started with WordPress’ with regard to using a WordPress blog for personal vs. business purposes. The latest issue of Search Engine News  touts the power of blogs and why the search engines – Google in particular –  love them.

From the beginning, websites have been the primary means for businesses to have a presence on the Internet. However, these businesses are now finding that using a blog to communicate with their customers not only helps with ranking but also achieves the following goals ….

• ability to present new product and service information,
• acquaint customers with the company’s personnel and
• offers opportunity for dialogue with customers.

All of the above can help turn those business blog visitors  into relevant business relationships.

So What’s the Big Deal?

The ‘big deal’  is that because  blogs have ’relevant’ content that is continuously changing, they are more frequently indexed by the search engines - once you’ve established a regular pattern of posting.

Since it’s easy to add posts there can be a lot more relevant pages to a blog than a website.  And, posts - rich in relevant content and keywords - not only  improve  sales, attract links to boost page rank, but also generate loyal readership which can prove the business has real value.

What About Time?

Does it take time to maintain a good blog? Yes. Aside from the initial set up, you’ll want to post on a set schedule. Use these posts to offer helpful ideas or a solution to a problem – doing so will help connect you to your readers who obviously have an interest in your business or they wouldn’t be there.

In addition to helpful posts, you may want to cover some of the following on your business blog:

• Relate some positive experiences about your product, service, etc.
• Cover industry issues – positive and negative – let your readers make their own decisions
• Interview leaders or major customers in your business field

Once you’ve grown your blog following, you can then pass the targeted traffic along to your commercial website. . . . or as suggested in our post about QR’s offer coupons the visitor can print out and use at your brick-and-mortar business location.

Other Blog Building Tools

RSS – Really Simple Syndication allows people to subscribe to your blog.  Allows visitors to sign up for notices. 

Email Opt-in – Offer an email subscription to your visitors for press releases concerning  your business, product  freebies, special reports, coupons, etc. 

Conclusion

Blogs are here to stay and according to the Search Engine News seem to be eclipsing websites with regard to search engine ranking.

Don’t have a blog for your business?  Information on this page – Free Blog Sites  - may help you get started.  You’ll find links to free blog sites along with the pros and cons of each.

Want to grow your business?  Get a subscription to Planet Ocean  and read the complete article on why Google loves blogs. With a subscription you’ll also have access to Part Two of this article – “Maximizing Your Assets” – due out next month.

“By default WordPress uses web URLs which have [...]]]> Once you have your Word Press blog up and running you’ll want to change the Permalinks settings before you start posting. There are two reasons for doing this. (1) it makes it easier for the search engines to index and (2) it is easier for people to read.

Permalinks

“By default WordPress uses web URLs which have question marks and lots of numbers in them, however WordPress offers you the ability to create a custom URL structure for your permalinks and archives. This can improve the aesthetics, usability, and forward-compatibility of your links.”

To change the Permalinks so your visitor will see something like – http://myblog.com/wordpress/how-to-start ( which describes the post using relevant keywords) rather than http://myblog.com/??349?8700/?987?65  (which tells neither the visitor nor search engine anything),  you will need to go to the WordPress Dashboard –> Settings –> Permalinks.

Once there you will see options for making changes to the settings for your permalinks. Rather than use a date or time you want to use category and title because these typically will be key words the search engines can use to rank your blog. To do this you select ‘Custom Structure’ from the choices available. You then place the following code – exactly as you see it –  into the blank space:    /%category%/%postname%/

Go to the bottom of the page and ‘Save Changes’. Your permalinks are now both people and search engine friendly.

Add a New Post

When adding a new post, you can do this four different ways:

1. Type the post into a Text Editor, then copy/paste it
2. Type the post into Word, then copy/past it
3. Type the post into an HTML Editor*, then copy/paste
4. Type the post directly into the provided text area

* Depending on the HTML code you may find you need to use XHTML. (Read more about XHTML)

From the WP Dashboard screen select – ‘Add a New Post’. You will see a screen with picture icons to use for adding your post. The icons allow you to perform various functions with one click. There are also two tabs to the right of the text box – ‘Visual‘ and ‘HTML‘. The tabs allow you to select how you want to input the information. Each icon’s function is listed below for both Visual and HTML, respectively.

Visual Icon Legend

1. Add image
2. Add video
3. Add audio
4. Add media
5. Bold text
6. Italic text
7. Strike through text
8. Unordered list
9. Ordered list
10. Blockquote
11. Align text/picture left
12. Align text/picture center
13. Align text/picture right
14. Insert or edit a link
15. Unlink
16. Allows you to insert ‘more’ if you do not want complete post to show
17. Spell check (allows you to select language)
18. Toggle full screen mode
19. Kitchensink – lets you see all or part of icons
20. Paragraph – allows you to select format for paragraph, line, block of text. Use this to choose heading size.
21. Underline text
22. Align text (both left and right margins)
23. Select text color – click on ‘More Colors’ for full palette
24. Allows you to copy/paste in text from Text Editor
25. Allows you to copy/past in text from Word
26. Remove formatting
27. Insert/edit embedded media
28. Insert custom character – click on icon to display a selection of characters available
29. Outdent – moves highlighted text out (function is only available if there is text that has been indented)
30. Indent – moves highlighted text in (can be used more then once to continue moving text in)
31. Undo – same as Control + Z
32. Redo – same as Control + V
33. Help – click on icon to get help with Rich Text Editing

HTML  Icon Legend

1. Add image
2. Add video
3. Add audio
4. Add media
5. Bold text
6. Italic text
7. Link – opens a box that allows you to insert a link
8. Blockquote
9. Mark-up of deleted text
10. Defines text that has been inserted
11. Insert image – give location of image file
12. Unordered list
13. Ordered list
14. Lines – use this icon to place lines in lists, works for both unordered or ordered.
15. Puts a ‘bullet’ before the line of text
16. Allows you to make comments that cannot be seen by the visitor. Good for notations, prices, etc.
17. Use to insert a default ad or an AdSense Ad if you have a Google AdSense account
18. Will look up a word, phrase, etc. on line and give the answer in a new window.
19. Closes all HTML tags that may be open

Conclusion

Using a Rich Text Editor is very simple and does most of the work for you allowing you to concentrate on your content and presentation.   Should you find you don’t want the function you just used, simply highlight the same area and click on the same icon – this will toggle back to the previous layout. 

You’ll find using the text editor icons especially helpful if you are not very familiar with HTML code.  Final though – not all functions are available from both tabs so you may have to work from both to achieve the final look you want.