6 things you should do on your Wordpress blog (Tuesday Tips #2)
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In last week’s edition of Tuesday Tips, we covered a very cool trick for Blogger.com and this week it’s time to have some fun with WordPress.
So, you’ve got a WordPress blog and you want to make sure that you’re getting the most out of it. Well here are 6 things that we think you should be doing to help make your life a little easier and your blog a lot cooler.
- Get Akismet
- Use Permalinks
- Get a SiteMap
- Get Captcha for your comments
- Change your favicon
- Start an About Page with a contact form
1.Get Akismet
When you start creating good content on your blog, spammers will come and hunt you down. At one point, I was spending a helluva lot of time simply managing the spam that was being submitted to my blog. Then I met Akismet. It was a match made in heaven. When a new comment, trackback, or pingback comes to your site it is submitted to the Akismet web service which runs hundreds of tests on the comment and returns a thumbs up or thumbs down.
You’ll need a key in order to use the service, but you can get one on the Akismet site
Get it here
http://www.akismet.com
2.Use Permalinks
/they-just-look-cooler
When you start out using WordPress, you’ll notice that your posts are labeled with “ugly” links (like this http://example.com/?p=N). Permalinks allow you to make custom titles for your Wordpress blog entries, using either the date or the title of the post. This makes your link easier to read and also remember. When you’re in your dash board, go to the Settings -> Permalinks panel (Options -> Permalinks before WordPress 2.5), you can choose one of the “common” structures or enter your own in the “Custom structure” field using the structure tags. For more info on Permalinks and how to use them, check out the Official WordPress Codex
http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks
3. Get a SiteMap
Most bloggers dream of being the number one search result on the Big G. Traffic, fame and money will fall from the heavens. But the first step to get to the red carpet is to let Google know you exist, along with all the other search engines out there. This is where a sitemap comes in handy. Think of it as a road map for search engines. Your sitemap tells the search engine where to find all your content and how to get around in the backroads of your blog. It also prevents it from getting stuck in dead ends, which does happen.
The very nifty Google XML Sitemaps plugin will take care of all the donkey work for you, so that you can concentrate on writing your killer content. Every time you edit or create a post, your sitemap is updated and all major search engines that support the sitemap protocol, like ASK.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO, are notified about the update.
Get it here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/
4. Get Captcha for your comments.
This ties in closely with Akismet as it is geared to stop spammers from driving you bonkers. Captcha requires visitors to input a few characters to prove that they’re not mindless bots. If you have friends who are mindless bots, then no offence. The characters are alpha numeric and completely random. My favourite Captcha plugin at the moment is this one by Mike Challis:
It’s very easy to install and looks neat and tidy. You can get it here:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/si-captcha-for-wordpress/
5.Change your Favicon
Your Favicon is the little icon that appears in the browser window when someone opens your blog. Now, you can do this is old school way by editing your theme, but this handy little plugin gives you a shockingly easy way to update your favicon
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/shockingly-simple-favicon/
It’s also great if you’re the type that keeps switching themes so you won’t have to change your favicon every time you do.
6. Get an About page
Most blogs are about the people who write them. Yet most people don’t put much about themselves on their blog. A good About page will let your readers know who you are and why you’re writing. I like to read blogs where I can see a picture of the blogger – it helps readers build a visual connection with the author, which is always great. On your about page you should also have a contact page or at the very least contact information – you never know when someone might want to advertise on your blog or let you know about an error and not leave a comment for all to see.
When it comes to contact forms, there are literally hundreds of great ones out so have a look around and see what works for you. I’ve used the cForms II plugin and it is an easy to use hassle free form. You can get it here:
I think that once you get these quick fixes implemented on your blog, you’ll be able to offer your readers a better experience and also make your life as a blogger a little bit more bearable. I hope that this edition of Tuesday Tips has been useful!
Till next time, keep on blogging!
Lester and the Afrigator Team
P.S. – Be sure to check back tomorrow for this week’s edition of Women Wednesdays
Naija Business said,
Wrote on June 10, 2009 @ 12:53
Those are great tips. I make use of all of them except number 4. Commenters don’t like the additional job of filling CAPTCHA. But then, that is about the best way to reduce SPAM. Especially when you combine it with Akismet Plugin.
moses said,
Wrote on June 13, 2009 @ 13:02
thank you for this helpful posts. I always learn something new in blogging from sites like these seen as how am new to blogging and everything
http://kenyantykoon.wordpress.com/
moses said,
Wrote on June 13, 2009 @ 13:11
thank you for the really helpful post. Sites like this really offer much needed help seing as how am new to blogging and everything. I’ll stay tuned for more:)
http://kenyantykoon.wordpress.com/
onelargeprawn said,
Wrote on June 15, 2009 @ 10:23
If you use Twitter a lot, the Tweetable plugin will come in handy – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tweetable/
Tania said,
Wrote on June 15, 2009 @ 11:46
Sjoe, this is great for a newbie like me. I’m considering cutting the umbilical, just don’t have the guts yet!
I’ve probably missed a few chapters, but is there a “Idiot’s guide” to creating your own blog somewhere??
The Sport Extra said,
Wrote on June 15, 2009 @ 13:51
This is a nice tip on wordpress, but I think you should have included all in one seo pack as well.
Thank for the nice tip.
onelargeprawn said,
Wrote on June 15, 2009 @ 14:17
@Tania: You can either create a free wordpress blog at wordpress.com but you’ll be limited in the themes you can use and you won’t be able to install any plugins.
If you wanted to gain all the freedom of owning a blog be it choosing your own theme to installing plugins, you’ll have to purchase some hosting. Prices are pretty reasonable and most companies provides an easy software installer to install WordPress.
Imakando Musho said,
Wrote on June 15, 2009 @ 14:46
Thank you for helpful stuff, My blog is looking much better than I could have ever imagined. Find out more ways to keep us informed on how to improve our sites
Abraham van der Linde said,
Wrote on June 16, 2009 @ 15:31
Great tips for newbies.
I’m using all except no4. plus a few others. The most notable are Zemanta http://www.zemanta.com/blog/
Hope you all like it.
Netbooks said,
Wrote on June 16, 2009 @ 16:38
My blog is new. I sure will implement those tips you suggested. Thanks for the useful information. I love Afrigator.
Toyin Akiode said,
Wrote on June 17, 2009 @ 10:44
Hi Lester!
Thank you so much for this brief but powerful tutorial on what to do on our blogs. It’s such a great pointer to what can easily be done in overall improvement of a blog. Cheers
Lester Hein said,
Wrote on July 2, 2009 @ 09:51
Hi guys,
I’m glad to see that these tips are helping! I’ve started on a n00b guide to blogging, but it’s talking a little longer than expected (I’m having to trim it quite a lot – I can waffle!).
I agree that All In One SEO pack is a great plugin, but I would rather have the above running for a new blog before I started tinkering with SEO.
If you can think of any tips that you would like covered or have any questions, please feel free to drop us a line to support@afrigator.com
Lester
Tabacheoceape said,
Wrote on November 25, 2009 @ 00:13
Premium article, great looking website, added it to my favorites!