Everyone knows that blogs are powerful tools for gaining traffic and rank, but how do you optimize them to get the fullest benefits from them? For optimum results I recommend Wordpress blogs. They are highly configurable and there are hundreds of plugins available to expand your blogs capabilities!

I recommend you start with a blog on it’s own domain with Wordpress installed in the route directory. So the url would look like this, www.mynewblog.com/. I suggest you decide how you will be using the blog before you pick a name. If you will be using the blog to target adsense, then you should decide which market you want to target, and research what the best keywords for that market is. For example if you were interested in ringtones, you would want to try to pick a domain name related to ringtones, and if possible include the name ringtone in the domain name. You also want your the title your blog to closely match your domain.

Once you have found a name you like and that is still available for registration you should register it for at least 2 years or more! There is some evidence to suggest that search engines, at least Google give more weight to new domains registered for more then one year! I recommend using registerfly.com. They have very cheap rates, and excellent support! Next you need to find a decent host for this blog. The host should include cpanel with Fantastico. I use hostgator.com, and trkhousting.com. Both excellent hosts for blogs with cheap rates and excellent service!

Once you have a domain name and host set up simply install wordpress from your cpanel. Next I will guide you through some simple steps to optimize it and tweak it for better search engine ranking, and security.

After your blog is installed login to it and go to,

Dashboard > Options > Writing

under writing options select: Advanced Controls

Next scroll down to Update Services. Out of box wordpress only comes with one pinging service, Ping-O-Matic. Copy and paste the following list in the Update Services field and then click on Update Options.
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping/
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogbot.dk/io/xml-rpc.php
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
Your are done in this section, now go to
Dashboard > Options > Permalinks
By default WordPress uses web URIs which have question marks and lots of numbers in them, however WordPress offers you the ability to create a custom URI structure for your permalinks and archives. This can improve the aesthetics, usability, and longevity of your links. A number of tags are available, and here are some examples to get you started.
You will want to change your permalink structure to something that is more search engine friendly.
I suggest this,
/%postname%
simply copy and past the above code in to your structure field and click on Update Permalink Structure. Wordpress will now update it’s mod-rewrites automatically by generated a new .htaccess file, you need do nothing else your done. Now your urls will look something like this,
www.myblog.com/my-first-post
The post names will now follow directly after your domain name!
Some times there is a bug that occurs when you try to create a page for the first time. You will get a 404 page error. See my article on the quick fix for this http://armyofblogs.com/wp-pages-404-error

Your done here now go to
Dashboard > Options > Miscellaneous
Check the box for Allow File Uploads
Next fill in the box for URI of this directory:
it should be the recommended URI under the box. Simply fill it in the box. Now click on Update Options button, and your done here.
Next we will be adding some very useful plugins!
Go to my wordpress plugin page and install the plugins I have listed there. I include a list of plugins with the download urls for them. Each plugin comes with easy install instructions! You should do that next! After you complete your plugin installations come back here and continue!
That wasn’t so bad was it! Your almost done and ready to get started blogging!
Ok, lets activate those plugins now if you already haven’t done so yet.
I want to spend a little time discussing your Auto Link and Deluxe Adsense plugins. Two very important and profitable plugins! I will leave it up to you to figure out the rest of the plugins, they are pretty self explanatory, but if you have any questions feel free to email me!
The auto links plugin is very powerful, and you should not be afraid to use it! The first thing you want to do is enter all your affiliate links to it! If you are not an affiliate of Amazon, sign up and enter your Amazon code too! I like to also add additional keywords to my list and link them to my affiliate links or my other web sites. Once you complete this setup, when ever you type in those keywords they will automatically create a hyperlink to that url! Very powerful tool!
next you should go create some adsense layouts to enter in your Deluxe Adsense plugin! Another very powerful tool! You can ad as many layouts as you want! Now when you write a post and insert a simple adsense code like any where in your post, the adsense ad will appear there! Placing adsense right in your post is more effective for controlling which adsense ads show up! Great way to target specific ads, and keywords! Just do NOT over do it!
Next I want to talk to you about categories and how important they are. Think of categories as keywords! You see when ever you write a post several pages are actually created! Your post gets posted on your main blog page, the article page, the category page, and archive page! It’s important to think of and use appropriate post titles, and categories related to the keywords we are targeting! All this will help in our search engine rank, and number of serps we get!
The first thing you want to do is change the default Uncategorized category to some thing else! be sure to change the Category name and category slug!
Go to Dashboard > Manage > Categories
Edit the one default category you have now to some thing you can use and keyword strong! Next add some new categories now. Don’t worry you can always come back here to add more categories, or as I prefer to call them, keywords!
Now you have a Super Blog on Steroids! All that’s needed now is the talent to write great articles, and posts and include the right keywords in each post! I hope you visit my blog http://armyofblogs.com for more advice, tips, and tricks! I get in to more detail on automation of blogs, and how to create and maintain a fleet of super blogs!

[ Submitted with ArticleSubmitter Pro - http://www.articlesubmitterpro.com]

Bud Wiser is the name I have been using in the seo and marketing community for the past 4 years. I’ve been involved in sales and marketing for 25 years.
I’ve been doing business online for 11 years. I specialize in marketing and promotions. You can find more related material on my blog Army Of Blogs at http://armyofblogs.com
You can contact me at webmaster@xtrass.com

Source: High Quality Article Database - 365Articles.com

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