Hola! My name is Emma & I am a freelance web designer with 13 years
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This post follows a post I did last month: Getting Started with WordPress – Part One. As promised this post will deal with creating and managing posts and pages.
Before we get onto that subject however, there is something you need to do before creating any posts or pages. This will help with the SEO of your blog.
Go to the Options page on the Word Press admin panel, and click on the sub-link “Permalinks”. You’ll see the Default set at “http://www.yoursite.com/?p=123″ which is something you definately don’t want it set at, otherwise there’ll be no keywords set in the URL of your page and will often discourage people to visit your site if it’s seen in Search Engines.
I have mine set at “Date and name based” like so: http://www.yoursite.com/2008/04/30/sample-post/. This way I can add keywords to the URL and also have it date based, so anyone who’s looking in the Search Engines can see exactly what date it was posted and know that you’re site is pretty much up-to-date.
I would however suggest if you want your URL to just be “http://www.youriste.com/sample-post” set the Permalink to Custom, and in the text box just have “/%postname%/”.
Now that is out of the way let’s take a look at creating and managing posts.
When you create a post you have four standard things:
The Title is used as the title of your post and although it’s a little useful to include keywords in it, it isn’t major to do so. In fact, most people write catchy Titles to attract readers rather than stuff it with Keywords. Keep this in mind when writing your titles.
The Post is obviously where you write the content of your post so I won’t insult your intelligence by explaining how to do that.
Categories & Tags are similar. In fact, there was a time where I would use the same words for the categories and tags. This isn’t useful though for people who are looking for something specific. The categories section should be used as a general categorization and tags to be used as something more specific.
For example, if I write a post about how to create a logo in photoshop, the Category I’d put it in would be “Design”, or “How To”, but the tags could explain it more specifically by using the words “logos”, “photoshop”, “creating” etc. You can use as many tags as you like for each post. The more specific, the better!
Now let’s take a look at the other sections of the Write Post page.
Post Slug
For me the Post Slug is the most important part of the Write Post page. If you leave this blank it will create the Post Name of your post automatically from your title.
For example, if your title was to read “What’s all this then?” and the Post was actually about what is Google Adsense, the URL of your page will end up being “http://www.yoursite.com/whats-all-this-then” which is pretty useless as it doesn’t explain what the page is about and will lose Search Engine rankings.
But, use the Post Slug and type in “what-is-google-adsense” the URL of your page will be “http://www.yoursite.com/what-is-google-adsense” and has more of a chance of being in Search Engine Results for someone searching for information about Google Adsense than if you left this blank.
And of course, this does leave the title of your page intact, so no need to worry about it being overwritten.
Upload Images
You can upload images to go into your post. Word Press automatically uploads it to a folder on your server and then inserts it into your Post. It will usually place it at the top of the Post so be sure to cut and paste the code it inserts into a place where you want the image to be.
Writing Pages
Writing a Page and Writing a Post are very similar. The only difference is that you can’t include Categories or Tags into a page.
There are a lot of useful plugins available that will help with the SEO of your blog, which I will discuss in the next part of this series. These include the All in One SEO Pack which allows you to create unique Title and Meta tags for each post and page which will help significantly with getting in Search Engines for your specific keywords and search terms.
Managing Posts and Pages
This is fairly straight forward so I won’t go into too much detail with it. Basically when managing posts and pages you can View, Edit or Delete each one. It will display what date you posted it, what categories you’ve placed it in, how many comments it has, and the author of the post (useful if you have more than one person creating posts and pages).
As I said earlier the next part in this series will discuss useful plugins for your blog and how to use them. I hope you’ve found this post useful and I hope you’ll look forward to the next in the series.
Thoughts Aside
Most of the IT professionals who have done 70-270 and 220-601 as well as 70-291 are more likely to pursue 640-802 rather than 70-290 and hence are not seen studying for 642-446 at all.
I recently moved house, and one day whilst I was packing things away I had inspiration for a post. At the time, I couldn’t write it down as my PC was packed away ready for the move. So here I am now, about a week later and the thoughts of this post are still whizzing around in my head.
Moving house and moving hosts, whilst two completely different things, do have some similarities.
Packing things away / Backing up your files
The first major thing you do when moving house is packing all of your things. This is comparitive to downloading and backing-up all of your files on your host. You would put files into different folders, just as you would put different home-items into different boxes. You’d create relevant names to what is in the box/folder so you know exactly where to put things.
Making sure you’ve got everything
I lost count of the amount of times I went in to each room to check I’d gotten everything. It is the same when moving hosts. I always double-check I’ve downloaded the correct version of a site, and make sure I’ve backed it up to a CD or a USB Stick, and then I always load the files from the CD/USB Stick just to make sure it’s the correct site, and the correct files.
Up to 48 hours to complete
Depending on where you’re moving to it can take up to 48 hours to move. Getting everything into your new house takes time and effort and you want to do it carefully. When moving hosts you need to make sure you’ve changed the DNS settings, IPS Tags, nameservers etc. and to do all this you have to do it carefully too. A domain name won’t transfer hosts if you mispell any of those things. The moving of a host, just like moving house, will take up to 48 hours to complete (or longer depending on your situation).
Putting things into your new house / Uploading to your new host
The last transition. Getting everything into your new house and making it look like home is like uploading files to your new server. You make sure everything is perfect in your new house, and you’d make sure everything is perfect on your new host.
Whilst this post doesn’t provide any useful information, I hope you enjoyed reading it, and if you can think of any other similarities with this or any aspect of web design, feel free to comment away!
The comments on this blog follow your links – I believe in giving something back to my commenters and feel it’s only right that your links get followed from this site.
I was “Stumbling” some sites using the Stumble tool bar when I “Stumbled” upon this great website that lists hundreds of Web Design Resources.
This site is a Web Design Bible and I think everyone from beginners to professional web designers should at least have this site saved in their favourites / bookmarks.
Here is a list of categories the site has. Each category has a ton of resources listed.
This list is about 40% of the categories on this site, you will have to visit the site to check out the rest: Web Design Resources.
I think this is an amazing list of Web Design Resources that shouldn’t go un-noticed. It’s definately one for my favourites. What do you think?
It’s a well-known fact that the use of professional and attractive graphical elements on websites increase the proportion of user generated activity such as sales, newsletter subscription, and the amount of time spent on a particular site. Having appealing graphics on your sales page can make the difference between 100 sales a month and 3 sales a month.
I have to agree with that statement 100%, but if you’re not graphically inclined you may struggle when it comes to attracting sales via your website.
I came accross a site that has a huge selection of Web 2.0 style banners and buttons that are ideal for attracting more sales. The only downside about this is they’re not free.
There are alot of sites that offer free banners and buttons but most of them aren’t customisable and only come in a select few colours.
This site Marketing Graphics Pro offer 6,749 for $29.95, which considering what you get for the price is worth it.
Take a look at their site and decide for yourself. They show alot of previews of what you’ll receive if you buy them and I think you’ll agree, they do look pretty snazzy!
Marc Galeazzi recently bought the MMO Blog One Mans Goal from Bryan Clarke for a huge $10k. This sale caused alot of controversy and negativity, which resulted in claims of Marc being scammed by Bryan. I became intrigued by why Marc bought the Blog in the first place, and was fascinated by his enthusiasm.
Being a full time Realtor and part time Bar tender it’s obvious that Marc is a hard worker and isn’t afraid of any challenges. Marc very kindly agreed to let me interview him regarding the sale of One Mans Goal, the controversy that followed, and his future plans for the site.
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You recently bought One Mans Goal for $10k. Do you think you’ve paid a good price for it?
Yes I do. First off, I was just looking around and not taking any action. By buying this blog I’m responsible to all of the viewers. I have to keep making posts and being innovative or I’ll lose my readership and money. With that in mind, I’ve already had a few advertisers pay for their next month of advertising and I’m adding affiliate programs now. Most of the affiliate links on the site still direct to Bryan because I haven’t had a chance to get to them. My number one concern is keeping the readers happy during the transition. I know if I can keep growing the reader base and I’m honest to them the money will follow.
There’s been a lot of negativity surrounding this issue, specifically claims that Bryan scammed you. What are your thoughts on this?
I don’t feel scammed at all and I’m still happy with my decision. As far as the negativity goes, I’m cool with it. The controversy gave me a ton of visitors and my RSS subscriber count is up 17 readers. I know some of them are staying around to watch me fail but that’s cool because when they check back and I’m killing it they will continue to stick around.
Plus, I’m going to be placing some ads on other sites over the next couple of months and people will see the banner I’m having developed and they’ll click to check my progress remembering the controversy.
What inspired you to purchase One Mans Goal? And where do you plan on taking it?
I was looking to purchase content sites from Sitepoint, when I came across this auction. I liked the style of the site; I liked how many readers there were and I felt that there was an underserved market of people who like “make money online” content but would prefer videos.
I plan on documenting my journey in the “make money online” arena and sharing and discussing interesting things I learn along the way.
Also, there is plenty of expert sites out there but not too many addressing motivation. I just want to tell people how I’m taking action, suggest they follow it and watch and wait for the results.
A blog of this nature needs to be good-looking, and although I like it, you can’t please everyone. Are there any plans to change the look of One Mans Goal to attract more visitors?
Nope, I like the theme and I’ll stick with it until there is a new innovation in blog themes. Right now I’m focusing on content and not worrying about looks. I haven’t even changed some of the affiliate links yet. In my mind, my number one priority is to take care of the people following the blog now. Once I’ve stabilized the blog I will focus on expanding the blog and looks and stuff like that.
Are there anymore sites in the pipeline or any that you’d like to create in the future?
Yes, I’m going to be starting a new site in the next month that I think everyone will like, also I’m going to be developing some content sites. Other than that, I’ll be buying content sites and forums in Sitepoint this summer when I sell a few houses. (I’m a Realtor).
Where do you see yourself and the site in 6 months time? Do you have any set targets you’d like to hit?
In 6 months I hope to be paying my bills with income from websites both purchased and developed. This will allow me to quit my night job as a bartender and still allow me to invest my Real Estate income.
Not yet, the first thing I want to see is the numbers stabilize and then make projections from there. I want to see how many people stay with me and run a couple affiliate programs to come up with a baseline.
Do you have any advice for young blog / MMO entrepreneurs like yourself?
Go out and start getting some. It doesn’t matter if you make a mistake at first. Take action, experiment and don’t stop learning. This industry isn’t going anywhere. I’m 24, in ten years I’ll have tons of experience and still only be 34. Don’t get involved in “get rich quick stuff”. Just keep plugging away and building your brand.
Oh yeah, don’t quit.
And finally, are you going to prove the negative people wrong and keep One Mans Goal going strong and potentially improve it?
Most defiantly, all of their negativity just fueled my fire. If you want to see me do something, all you have to do is tell me I can’t.
You can visit Marc’s MMO Blog and watch his progress at www.onemansgoal.com. I’d personally like to thank Marc for allowing Emz Design to interview him – it’s been a pleasure.
Do you often ask Why aren’t I generating customers from my website?, or maybe you wonder to yourself I’m getting tons of hits but no sales.
If this applies to you this article may interest you.
After reading a post at Web Forumz I became inspired to write this article.
The poster in general has their own web design company and their website is getting 2000+ visitors a month, yet no one is biting the bait or even enquiring about their services.
I took a look at their site and I could see the problem straight away. It wasn’t obvious to the visitor that this site offered web design services. Sure enough, the text in the content specified that, but the site itself didn’t look like that.
In fact, the first thing I noticed was an image of a woman in a bikini on the right hand side. It looked like an advert to an adult-related site, and without looking at the content closer you’d think that is what it was.
Sure, a woman in a bikini will please the majority of men searching for a woman in a bikini, but for someone who wants a professional website and is searching for a professional website, the chances are they will be put off by this and go elsewhere.
When you create a website you must project what you do in the layout rather than rely on the content. In some cases this isn’t a huge problem, but if you’re a Web Design company you need to project what you do, especially if you want customers to know they’ll be getting a high quality website.
Let’s face it, if they see your website as something that doesn’t immediately project what you do, they’ll probably think you’re going to repeat that process with their website.
Do as you would be done by.
Since Internet Explorer 7 came out I was using this version, along with FireFox, to test all my websites.
I was naive and was under the impression that anything that displayed correctly in IE7, would display correctly in IE6 and other previous versions. Oh, how wrong I was.
I wanted to install IE6 back on my PC but didn’t want to uninstall IE7, so I was in a pickle as to what to do. I didn’t just want to assume all my websites look great in IE6 because they did in IE7, and I know that a huge majority of Internet users are still using IE6.
It was then, that I came accross this great program: MultipleIE. This program is a must have for any web designer as it installs Internet Explorer versions 3 to 6 on your PC, without having to uninstall version 7.
