Web Pages Development

Design, Programming, Blogging, SEO – how to program the internet

Friday
Dec 10,2010

When setting up a website with a WordPress theme, a lot of things can be done to profit from it even if your site isn’t actually going to be set up for business. Many times many people simply want to create a blog about their dog and connect with some friends. There is nothing wrong with earning something extra and there are WordPress plugins exclusively developed for WordPress themes which will help to generate income from your site.

You can choose two of the most effective plugins for your affiliate blog, and they are Google AdSense and Amazon Media Manager. Needless to say you should register for an account with both sites first, but once you have your user name along with AdSense or Amazon script, it’s easy. Simply have the plugin uploaded to the wordpress account manager, or you might want to get it directly from the dashboard.

You could also want to try enrolling in other affiliate networks in which it is possible to put clickable links on your WordPress site. Often times those banners can be added with a rather simple plugin. Several advertisers have their particular WordPress plugins that you can download to add to your site to make certain that their certain type of marketing and advertising may do the trick with your theme.

In order to install the plugin, it has to be in the wordpress directory on your server. You could use two ways to do this. The first can be a bit more complex given that it requires the downloading of the plugin to your hard drive and after that uploading it to the plugin directory of the WordPress theme on your server.

One thing to be aware of is that the WordPress plugins must be in a zip format. The most basic way that you can install a plugin is through the use of the WordPress interface to be able to find the plugin you are looking for and importing it directly from the WordPress dashboard on the plugin page.

Once again, the file should be in a zip format. Whether your wordpress site is for the purpose of making your affiliate blog or personal blog, making money from your site with WordPress plugins can make your passion for blogging more profitable.

WordPress e-Commerce Tips

Saturday
Oct 30,2010

It used to be such an unreachable goal to have your own e-commerce presence, unless you had a lot of money to invest, were very tech-savvy and more than a little brave! If you didn’t want to build your own e-commerce presence, you could become an Amazon affiliate to sell other people’s products. But there’s a lot of competition among Amazon affiliates, so unless you’re a power user it’s best not to try to survive on those revenues.  Thankfully, though, there’s a relatively new solution that’s making it easy for people to start their own stores online: WordPress shopping cart plugins.

Because these shopping carts are WordPress-based, they’re obviously perfect for bloggers. Now you can now just pop in a shopping cart plugin and use PayPal if you want to sell products — either your own or someone else’s. There are a number of these plugins, both free and paid, and I’ve been through several of them. Personally, I think the paid options are better, because although the plugins are fairly easy to use, sometimes you want to customize them — and that requires support. Many of the free options don’t have strong support options, so I prefer to have someone in my corner. But that’s just my personal preference.

If you’re new to WordPress e-commerce, here are some tips to get you started:

Compare shopping cart options
Shopping cart plugins vary widely in the features they offer, and comparing them will help you understand those features. Being savvy about this before you buy or even choose a free option will help you quite a bit down the road. There’s a bit of configuring when it comes to a shopping cart, even for the simplest ones. At the very least you have to enter your product information, which can take a while if you have multiple products. So understanding what you’re getting into before you begin could keep you from having to switch later because you don’t like the feature set.

Optimize your product listings for SEO
Product listings are like any other blog post; you need to optimize them for the search engines. Although that seems like an obvious tip, it’s actually easy to forget to do it because there are often a lot of other steps involved with adding a product.

Promote your product listings individually
Get your products onto shopping comparison engines and also take advantage of social media, so you can get the maximum exposure. I personally post a link to every new product on my Facebook account, use Twitter marketing software to post them several times each to Twitter and also post to a variety of other social media sites. Using these methods build backlinks for product listings and can also bring actual sales if you’re aggressive about getting your products out there.

These three simple tips will help you get started in the world of e-commerce. If you’ve ever had an idea for a product but were intimidated about trying to sell it, you don’t have to feel that way any more. Shopping cart plugins now offer an easy way for even beginner bloggers to jump into the marketplace, just like the big boys!

Sunday
Nov 15,2009

Looking for a free WordPress email autoresponder plugin to build a list of newsletter subscribers on your blog? Let us look at the latest plugin from Gary at GetWebActive.

This plugin is free. You simply download it from the website, unzip it, upload it to your website plugins folder and activate it from your WordPress plugin panel.

Once activated, create your new list signup form and place it in a prominent spot on your blog.

Is the plugin worth the price of $0? Well, here is what it does:

* Helps you build a list of people interested in getting your newsletter. So, you can easily convert your blog visitors into sales leads.
* Allows you to create subscription form widgets that will display in your sidebar. One click and you can start accepting subscriptions.
* Provides for automated, scheduled daily mailings and auto-sending of your pre-written promotional email.
* Boasts a full autoresponder control panel integrated into your WordPress administrator login area.

Yes, it is a simple plugin but it contains features only found in expensive paid autoresponder services like AWeber; for example, it is a:

1. easy list manager with complete subscription manager and mailer software
2. WYSIWYG editor so you can compose & send HTML/plain-text messages from WordPress
3. mass mailer software permitting you to send email directly to your entire list anytime
4. portable subscription form, letting you copy the form code and place it on any website
5. auto-subscriber with a user checkbox, which offers subscriptions on each new user registration

Conclusions: This free email autoresponder is easy to use and powerful. In fact, it is packed with features normally costing hundreds of dollars per year at the paid autoresponder services. It also allows you to begin building a list as soon as you activate it. Spend about 10 minutes downloading, installing and configuring and you are ready to go.

So, I recommend you: download this free WordPress email autoresponder plugin today :)

Saturday
Nov 14,2009

Have you ever considered choosing between Blogger and WordPress? This is a decision that many bloggers take every day when it comes to setting up their blogging platform. In fact this is a very subjective question and you only will be in a better position to answer such a question. Normally your choice of blogging software will be related to the type of blogs you are looking for, your requirements and your resources. Through this article I will be providing a brief overview of both Blogger and WordPress to help you learn more on this.

Price is not an issue with both WordPress and Blogger. Both blog platforms provide a free service that will allow you to post your content on the internet. You will be able to change theme, add new gadgets and share the content of your blog without paying anything. However, if you want some additional space or some additional modifications when using a WordPress.com blog you will have to pay a fee.

When it amounts to templates it appears that Blogger has more options. The strength of Blogger rests in the fact that you are able to alter the blog template rather easily through the usage of html. With WordPress you are only limited to certain parts of the blog themes such as the header. Indeed this is a cause of major frustration for all those that desire to differentiate their blog. Nonetheless when it gets to the self-hosted version of WordPress there are some wonderful blog design that exist so as to customize your blog the way you want.

When it gets to monetization possibilities then it all depends on which version of the blogging platform you are using. If you are looking for the free version then Blogger has the advantage here as it allows ad programs to be included on their blog. The free WordPress version does not have the ability and expect to be ban if you even insert an affiliate link. If you are truly into money making then you should definitely go for the self-hosted version of WordPress as you will be allowed far more customizations and possibilities than even the free Blogger blog.

WordPress and Blogger are rightly considered as two of the best blogging platforms that actually exist. However there are some differences that exist and that will make these two blogging platforms to be targeted at specific market segments. Those that are looking for a free blogging platform for their personal blogs then both Blogger and WordPress are adequate. However if you want to make money online then I will advise you to go for the self-hosted version of WordPress. In short your choice of software will depend on your use.

Monday
Mar 30,2009

Many are using WordPress for their secondary blogs. But this also means a few issues that are boring to deal with. That’s where this alternative to WordPress will come in: MyStarterBlog.

So, what so boring in using WordPress with a secondary blog?

You must setup a MySQL Database

Depending on your skills and your host, this could be a real issue for you. Many cheaper hosting package can limit the how many MySQL database you can setup on your domain package. Because MyStarterBlog does not use any online database, this become a non issue. You just upload the files of the generated blog on your domain. You just need to upload the files to the host if you decide to change hosting company.

With WordPress, you must use a backend

Of course, it’s an advantage but also a security risk. You will need to update your blog often. You won’t have that concern since MyStarterBlog does not include a backend. Plus, instead of uploading 4000KB(first time, updates), you just need to update 200KB. You only need to uplaod a few files when you publish a new post.

WordPress is not SEO optimized

By default, WordPress does not use permalinks. With MyStarterBlog, the themes are optimized from the start so that the user can think about blogging and SEO.

That’s just the beginning with secondary blogs even if I use WordPress!