It is not until I found Wordpress and settle down with it. There are 5 reasons for you to choose Wordpress as your blogging system, in the order of their importance.

1. Search Engine Optimization Built-in Feature

Wordpress is programmed with Search Engine Optimization(SEO) feature. What I am talking about is the function of converting your blog article to URLs pointing to your blog article.

For example, if you blog has address of [http://www.YourBlog.com], you can have URLs like this, pointing
to your articles:

[http://www.yourblog.com/your-article-title-here]

So, if your article title is “Wordpress Private Tutorials” then you can have this URL:

[http://www.yourblog.com/wordpress-private-tutorials]

Just imagine when search engine listed those URLs to their system. When people search something about ‘Wordpress Tutorials’ or merely about ‘Wordpress’, there are big possibilities they end up clicking your URL above. Thus, you will get traffic to your blog.

This SEO feature can be activated with only a few simple steps. Most people who use Wordpress don’t activate this feature after installing their Wordpress blog.

2. Ease Of Use

I’m sure you don’t want to get headache when using your blogging system, and concentrate on the writing part. That’s why Wordpress is the right system to use, since the control panel’s user interface is beautifully built. Even if you are new to internet and blogging world, Wordpress user interface can be used by you intuitively.

3. Rich Arsenal Of Plug-ins

Wordpress ethusiast programmers are plenty. They are making good and great plug-ins you can use with your Wordpress. There are so many of them that there are more than one plug-ins available to serve a single purpose.

Searching and trying which plug-in works for you can be a risky, tedious and time-consuming task. Here’s a tip: ask person whose blog you read and in his/her blog you find an interesting function at his/her Wordpress blog.

4. Rich Arsenal Of Theme

Besides programmers, there are also many Wordpress enthusiast web designers. They created plenty Wordpress theme you can use for free. There are downsides if you use these free themes:

- You cannot modify them as you like

- You probably cannot find a theme that suits your need

- You look unprofessional since you are using a free theme.

Thing these risks when you are considering a free theme.

5. Familiar To Readers

Last but not the least, like they say, Wordpress look is very familiar to blog readers. It is since the are many people are using Wordpress as their blog system. Naturally, many readers became familiar with Wordpress look. So, if you use Wordpress, your readers can easily walk around your blog.

This is a great advantage that can keep your reader’s visit duration. ‘Visit Duration Rate’ is very important to determine how successful your blog is.

As a conclusion, despite a few disadvantages mentioned above, Wordpress still your best choice of blog system. Wordpress definitely will stay at the internet for a long time, and it is time for you to join the community if you have not yet.

Fidens Felix, owner of Visiac, LLC – an online publishing company. Read his insight at http://www.FidensFelix.com . Having an educational background in Information Technology, he is archiving how he is tweaking his Wordpress blog at his wordpress tutorial website http://www.WordpressPrivateTutorial.com.

Author: Fidens Felix
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Sponsored by: SEO Blog

As an SEO, I can see things from the other side of the table. You see, despite trying hard to make it clear I’m a good, ethical, results-oriented, smarter marketing, white-hat SEO, I have gotten no end of inquiries from bad prospective SEO clients. Sure, no one who gets cheated is ever entirely to blame, and some cheated businesses are entirely blameless. But the bad SEOs would have too small a market to stay in business if it weren’t for almost-as-bad clients.

Shades of Bad SEO Clients

First, let me make clear what I mean by “bad” SEOs. Bad SEOs are bad because they either do unethical things to get e-marketing results, or because they consistently fail to deliver results. A good SEO delivers results and does it without trampling over other people’s rights (like submitting automated comments to their websites or trying to get good sites de-indexed).

A bad SEO client, in turn, is someone who will only be satisfied (albeit temporarily) with a bad SEO. Because they refuse to consider ethical web consultants or smarter marketing strategies, they are creating markets for the e-marketing charlatans and black-hats. There are two basic types of bad SEO clients: crooks and fool–oops, I mean, ethically challenged and judgmentally-challenged.

Ethically-Challenged SEO Clients

I haven’t gotten so many inquiries asking for out-and-out unethical services. Still, I’ve been asked about blog-sp@mming software and other shady internet marketing tactics a couple times. A colleague shared this gem with me: “Have you thought about just scanning a book from the library and using it for web content? Or is that too high-risk?” (Seriously, someone asked him this.)

Of course, judging from the amount of comment sp@m and SEO-motivated hacking on the web, there is plenty of demand for this stuff.

Judgmentally-Challenged SEO Clients

A much larger group of bad SEO clients are simply those who insist on putting themselves in the way of fraud. Yes, that’s right: I’m blaming the victim. Someone who goes looking for a $5 gold watch can’t cry too long if the watch turns out to be fake or hot. With SEO, there are a few more nuances, but it’s the same essential idea.

The overwhelming majority of these judgmentally challenged souls are private individuals whose only business is the business-in-a-kit variety. Yet they are also sometimes representatives of actual successful companies. The real businesspeople tend to be quicker to let their misconceptions go (after all, they can afford the real SEO alternatives), but not always. Let’s look at some representative types of this group, straight out of my own inbox (note: these are inquiries from prospects, not actual clients).

1. Something-for-(Little More than)-Nothing Clients

Really, I tend to think these people should be in the ethically challenged group, but maybe that’s just the remnant of my work ethic making me be mean There are actually two kinds of these clients:

• The ambitious but cheap client: “I’d like to get to the top of Google for the keyword, ‘mortgage’ so I can turn over $100,000/month in revenue. I can spend up to $1,000.”
• The Adsense-is-my-business-plan client: you wouldn’t believe the numbers of inquiries I get from people who only plan to make money off Adsense or other on-site advertising–they don’t even have a plan for getting repeat traffic, nor do they have content to synergize with the SEO effort. By buying promotional services, they would essentially be buying advertising in order to make money off advertising–you see where that could be a problem?

Another way of looking at it: why wouldn’t I just create a site myself and keep all the profit from my efforts? In fact, most SEOs do have their own project sites, which are often monetized by Adsense. The money we could otherwise get from Adsense is one very low baseline for pricing our services. Legitimate SEO clients are typically selling goods or services at a profit rate that works out to ten or more times what they could get from Adsense.

In addition to the greedy, I also see a few other kinds of less common, but still problematic prospective SEO clients:

In short, if you are going to find good SEO web consultants, you need: 1) realistic expectations; 2) a realistic budget; 3) solid information. Don’t expect something for nothing, do a little reading, and it’s much less likely you’ll fall victim to bad SEOs.

About the author: Lee Rummage is a good SEO and internet marketer. Check out his internet marketing website at: http://www.onlinewebconsultants.com

Author: Lee Rummage
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Sponsored by: Footer Ad

WordPress has changed the overall appearance and functionality of standard blog sites. There are a lot of free WordPress plugins available which will incorporate various extra features to your WordPress blog. These plugins enhance the functionality of the WordPress. WordPress plugins are programming codes that are written to enhance the features of the existing WordPress. Today, there are over 200 million WordPress users worldwide.

The WordPress shopping cart plugins has enabled various online bloggers to incorporate ecommerce applications to their blogs. This has ensured that with the installation of adequate plugins, a standard blog site can be transformed into a fully fledged online shopping site. There are also various other applications for a WordPress blog site.

These WordPress blog are highly customizable. It is possible for anyone with adequate knowledge in designing and code writing to create the WordPress theme of his choice. It goes without saying that the overall appearance and functionality of a site determines the amount of response it receives and sustains. But, unfortunately not all bloggers have a flair for designing and are experts in code writing. This is where the concept of hiring a WordPress expert comes in.

This blogging tool has opened a huge number of lucrative opportunities so that designers and code writers are offering their expert assistance for bloggers who require them. There are various advantages in hiring an expert to design your blog site. One is the professionalism that it will impart to your site. If a blogger is intending to use his WordPress blog to promote his products and services, he should make sure that his site has a genuine online shopping site appearance. Hiring a WordPress expert ensures that he can infuse his ideas into the site effectively.

Since the numbers of WordPress experts available are very high, a blogger can choose the one with the highest expertise and lowest quote. Therefore, it is quite clear that hiring WordPress expert is critical for the success of your blog.

Find more about the WordPress experts here
Hire WordPress expert

Author: Satya Narayan Das
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Sponsored by: RSS Feed Submitter

The top 3 blogging platforms:

1. WordPress.com
2. Blogger.com
3. WordPress.org (self-hosted)

WordPress.com

WordPress.com is a free blogging platform that is hosted by WordPress. I believe this is a great starting point for anyone who wants to try out writing a blog.

Advantages of WordPress.com:

• You can purchase your own domain name to be forwarded to your WordPress.com sub domain address.
• You can import all of your post and comments to WordPress.org (self-hosting) once you get serious about blogging.

Limitations of WordPress.com:

• Limited themes – You have to choose the WordPress.com themes available. You won’t be able to upload a custom or premium theme to WordPress.com.
• You cannot upload plug-ins that is not available in WordPress.com directory.
• No advertising – You won’t be able to make any money while blogging on this platform.
• If you violate any of the rules your blog will be removed. You can be removed for, copyright infringement, spamming, commercial use and automatic blogging.

Blogger.com

Blogger.com is also a free blogging platform that is hosted by Blogger (Google). Don’t get too excited about Blogger being owned by Google. Blogger is not search engine optimized like WordPress.org (self-hosted). It is still a great starting point for anyone who wants to test the waters in a blogging career.

Advantages of Blogger.com

• Blogger allows you to advertise on your blog. It is very easy to ad Google Ad sense to your Blogger account and adds banner ads to the right side of your blog.
• Blogger allows more control over a theme’s template than WordPress.com. You can add a couple of sidebars to your blogger and add any code you want.

Limitations of Blogger.com

• Not suitable for an eCommerce site.
• You can’t have your own domain name.
• Same as WordPress.com, if you violate any of the rules your blog will be removed.
• People can click to the next blog by using the option at the top of the blogger.com website.
• You can’t import your post and comments once you are ready to leave blogger.com.

WordPress.org (Self-Hosted)

If you are ready and serious about blogging, WordPress.org is your number 1 solution. This is free open source software. I am also seeing more and more companies using WordPress.org as a website, like I am (Ex. Robb Report.com, BravoTV.com, Esscense.com, and etc.). You do have to pay for a hosting service and one of the best hosting services for WordPress.org is Blue Host.

Advantages of WordPress.org (self-hosted):

• This platform is the best for search engine optimization on Google by using custom permalinks.
• You have your own domain name and your own hosting service.
• Your WordPress.org blog cannot be removed for any reason.
• You can choose and upload a custom or premium theme that fits your niche.
• Add and upload any plug-in you like that will help your blog function the way you need it.
• You can make your blog a static page – the option to have the any page you choose appear first. For example, “About us” or “Services” page can be the first page that appears when someone goes to your website.
• You can make this blog into an e-commerce site, a membership site, a forum, review site, or any numerous sites you would like.

WordPress.org (self-hosted) is hands down the best blogging platform, but only when you believe you are ready to take blogging to the next level. If you have any questions about getting started with WordPress.org, please contact me.

Want more advice about driving more traffic to your online business? Then I invite you to check out my blog at http://DynastyWebMarketing.com for tools, tips and resources to be successful in your business and your life. And be sure to leave me a comment or question there, I’d love to hear from you!

Drive More Traffic To My Site
Dynasty Web Marketing

Author: Teresa Clark
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Sponsored by: Clickbank Marketplace

In this article I ponder over 10 primary reasons why your SEO strategy could miss its mark.

1. No long term perspective

Most SEO action plans are defined for a limited period of time like 6 months to a year. Many clients feel post that period there will be no SEO needed, or at max, some maintenance to keep up the rankings. It’s this short term thinking that gets website owners caught up in a wrong SEO tactics with little results. The right SEO strategy needs to create “value” throughout the life time of your online business. Is your SEO plan the right strategy?

2. Shooting in the dark

Most SEO experts don’t have a proper strategy in place to secure your rankings. What’s amazing is that the client feels SEO is not something they will understand, and don’t feel they need too. This means your SEO tactics could be shooting darts in the dark hoping to hit the bull’s eye. Are you aware of the SEO strategies being used on your website and do you understand them?

3. Lack of alignment

Most SEO action plans are not consistent, lack participation and deep perspective into search engines. Many SEO experts build random links (from relevant sites) to your website which eventually does push the rankings, sometimes temporarily. But if you want to build a strong link reputation and earn life time traffic, then proper alignment is a must. Is your SEO plan in alignment with the new link variables – consistency, relevancy, diversity, progression, participation and age of links?

4. Playing follow the leader

Most SEO action plans play follow the leader i.e. your competitors. Most clients worry too much about the competitors (and their rankings) and lesser about the “value” they are creating. A SEO tactic that focuses on chasing competitors is like a dog trying to catch its own tail. It’s always seems close, but yet the dog can never catch it. Is your SEO plan chasing its own tail?

5. Wrong expectations

Most SEO action plans make high claims and ranking guarantees. Most clients buy into this. The clients who buy into quick or cheap SEO schemes need to understand the expectations and deliverables properly. If you do not understand your SEO tactic, how it works and why it works, then good luck for the same. Is your SEO strategy based on wrong expectations on either side?

6. Chasing a dream

Most SEO action plans present the dream of tons of traffic that will come to your website. Yes, there is business that will come, but the reality is getting business online is not always easy. It involves creating value, building a brand, communicating that brand, making the brand visible, understanding your target markets and your customer, and a long term vision. And this takes time. Is your SEO plan chasing a dream, or is it grounded in reality following real world business principles?

7. The bigger the better

Most SEO action plans aim to target maximum number of web, user and social communities while link building. And many clients get impressed with the big numbers. What to be kept in mind is that it’s not possible to participate in so many communities at the same time, and over a period of time. So bigger is not always better! Do you have a SEO plan in place that focuses on “value and participation” rather than numbers?

8. Forgetting the customer

Most SEO action plans are not focused on the customer. If your potential customers are not getting any “value” from your SEO strategy then you are on the path to failure. Create value – make that value visible – leads to conversions. Is your SEO plan creating value for your potential customers?

9. Are all SEO Strategies the same?

All SEO experts follow the same guidelines; however, all SEO’s don’t have the right SEO strategy in place to get you closer to your online business goals. So take your time to understand the SEO strategy you plan to implement and why you are choosing that SEO plan over others.

10. The wrong SEO strategy

I believe there are no wrong SEO experts, but there are SEO experts with the wrong SEO strategies. So hire the expert SEO with the right SEO strategy today!

SEO Expert and Author of ZenofSeo Blog.

Author: Nevil Darukhanawala
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Sponsored by: SEO Blog

Just remember one thing, anything given for FREE most cases there is a reason for it =) I tried using blogger myself and I end up using a hosted Wordpress and I never once look back at using others.

Just in case you are not aware what Wordpress is, it’s actually a free open source software at Wordpress which you can download and install to create your blogs. However the one that I am using is what we call a server based Wordpress which is much much more powerful then the online free version.

Here Are 10 Reasons Why You Must Use A Hosted Wordpress

1. There Are 3,000 Or More FREE Templates Themes You Can Use For Your Wordpress Blog

In fact I think it growing everyday with more and more FREE Template Themes online everyday, two of my favorite resources are Theme Viewer & Wordpress Themes.

In those two website along you can find virtually hundreds of different themes and designs all for FREE and no other platform as that much resources compared to Wordpress =)

2. Over Hundreds of FREE Plug ins For Your Hosted Wordpress

Wordpress Plugin Database is one such site where you can find tons and tons of interesting plug ins to help enhance your blogging experience with Wordpress.

Some of them are so powerful that you can actually create a whole shopping cart or entertainment blog just by using the free plug ins available.

3. Wordpress Blogs Has Powerful Categories

Blogger also has something similar called labels but it’s not as powerful as categories in Wordpress, because you can actually use these categories to do your search engine optimization to get rank high in search engines

4. User Friendly & Easy To Use

If you have tried Wordpress or just sign up for hosting and install it, you will realized it is really simple to use. All you need in terms of knowledge is the know hows of using Microsoft Words and Internet Browsers and you can actually start using or posting stuff on your blog quite easily!

5. 90% Of All Popular Blogs Use A Hosted Wordpress As Their Platform

If you go to Technorati.com which they have over 107 Million blogs to date, most of them are using Wordpress and the reason is because it’s very strong and expandable with hundreds of resources you can find online.

6. Integrated Password Protection For Valuable Information

If you have a selected pool of customers or readers you like to give them special information, you can actually password protect the post to prevent outsiders from accessing your information.

7. Seamless Integration With Videos And Audio

You can easily add videos from YouTube and Audio files too with the help of plug ins and this will allow your readers to have more powerful content for your sites.

8. Encourage Interaction With Your Readers

Because a blog naturally does one thing with readers and that is to interact with them in terms of getting feedback with comments you see below. This is really important as with interaction with your readers, it allows you to be even closer to your readers and once you have built a strong relationship with your readers the chances they would buy something would be higher too.

9. Widget Ready Themes

Hate designing? Well with simple widget ready themes, you can simply drag and drop menus around the blog quite easily by just dragging and dropping around the design. One such theme that I created with those features, you can actually download it for free at this link here

10. Hosted Wordpress Is FREE To Install!

Last but not least, the hosted Wordpress is FREE to install and use as long as you have a domain name and hosted server you can host a Wordpress for FREE and it only takes about 3 minutes to setup one.

Summary

If you are looking for a good host to host your wordpress I would highly recommend you use this host. It only cost US$7.95 per month and they give you 600GB of SPACE and 6,000 Bandwidth which is ALOT!

Once you do that just go into your hosting account and install the Wordpress to get started with your blog =) And if you need more details or step by step details how to start a blog just click here to get the guide book. Do leave your feedback below if you learn something from this article.

Alvin Phang is The Author of Atomic Blogging 2.0, Currently Ranked As The World’s No.1 Blogger

Who Made Over $6,665.57 in 30 days Just From Blogging! Need More Blogging Tips?

Click Here To Grab Your Free Preview Copy Of Atomic Blogging Today!

Or Click Here To Visit My Active Blog Today To Get Free Daily Tips

Author: Alvin Phang
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Sponsored by: Social Bookmarking Software

However, although the ever-changing dynamics between search engine algorithms and SEO techniques have evolved in complexity and in many different directions, very little has been done to actually measure the effectiveness of these SEO methodologies and processes. Significant amount of money is budgeted yearly by businesses for their website’s SEO projects, but only a few actually conduct a regular review of their SEO programs. A well-designed SEO audit is therefore a necessity. The SEO website audit is also fast becoming the norm in many companies wanting an objective assessment of the effectiveness of their SEO initiatives.

As with any other audit, SEO website audit is a means to examine the efficiency and effectiveness of business websites. It seeks to identify the gaps between expected and actual website performance. The end goal of SEO audit is to recommend improvements and maximize the benefits from SEO investments.

SEO Website Audit in a Nutshell?

SEO audit is a means to track the performance of the various SEO activities conducted for a website. Through the SEO website audit, the status of the site as evaluated by search engines can be assessed. With SEO audit, there is now a way to examine the robustness of the website’s technical framework and infrastructure, which includes SEO keywords, content, meta tags, and link popularity, and in comparison with top competitors.

The SEO website audit is both a quality and performance review. It measures the value added to the website as a result of the SEO work done on it, such as search engine rankings, traffic volume, and conversions.

The output of an SEO audit is a report on the site’s performance. It contains the issues and problems that cause poor website performance, and the most efficient and effective SEO techniques to employ from thereon to improve performance. Moreover, the SEO audit report will identify SEO methodologies that can be removed from the SEO program altogether because they are not effective and are a waste of investment.

Benefits of the SEO Audit

What are the benefits of an SEO audit? Here are a few of them:

1. An SEO website audit can pinpoint reasons for poor ranking performance and provide helpful performance improvement advice.

2. An SEO audit can assess the extent and scale of poor performance. It can also rectify whatever damage done by past SEO methodologies by providing valuable decision-making information on whether to hire professional SEO experts to work on the problem, or continue with in-house SEO work.

3. An SEO website audit guarantees management buy-in and support, particularly when conducted by a third-party SEO auditor. When confirmed by concrete metrics, this can convince decision makers in the company that present and future SEO strategies are working effectively for the business.

Making SEO web site audit a part of the business road map should be one of the most important undertakings for a company. SEO audit ensures that the company’s SEO initiatives are well-validated and worth the investment.

Debbie Everson is the CEO of SearchMar.com, the leading provider of search engine optimization & online marketing solutions to over 200 small businesses. Debbie brings over 15 years of experience leading SEO and direct marketing programs for some of the most respected brands in technology, retail and healthcare. Read my SEO Blog. Follow me on Twitter. Call 866-885-6263 for a free consultation.

Author: Debbie Everson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Sponsored by: Clickbank Marketplace

There are countless benefits of making a free Wordpress platform blog such as easy uploading of pictures, working efficiently in different browsers, and in creating different categories. Along with these, making a free Wordpress platform blog also carries SEO benefits. This is mainly due to the fact that each posting in your blog could be simply tagged and for that reason, it could be searched by the various search engines.

Some of the most important benefits of making a free Wordpress platform blog include the following:

o Wordpress provides a wide range of plug-ins and various other essential tools, while making you more comfortable with the design and format, taken as a whole.

o The wonderful Wordpress resource sites and forums allow the users to spend a few good hours while navigating through the different options of design and setup.

o One of the most beneficial features of a free Wordpress platform blog is that it offers a high assessment to business organizations and firms of all magnitudes and could be modified very easily. So, Wordpress has been much in demand and the most favored choice of millions of individual firms and business organizations.

From The View Point Of A Blog Set Up

o Wordpress just takes a few seconds in setting up. You can decide to begin with Wordpress as the homepage and can easily install or download the Wordpress software for free. Wordpress makes it extremely easily for you to add movie files or text images to your system. So, if you are one of those individuals searching for a media-rich content, then selecting a Wordpress platform could be your best options.

o Another striking feature of free Wordpress platform is that, it offers a varied range of high quality hosting programs and other important service rights on the sites. So, you can select a free blog on the Wordpress.com from the Wordpress domain and also; you can choose to set up your own blog on the web host.

So, if you want comfortable, easy and fully integrated software with a rich content, then right now download and install the free Wordpress software. It can certainly enhance the quality of your blog platform, while making it all the more convenient for you to add text, images or movie files to your system. Having the free Wordpress software installed, you can enjoy the limitless benefits of this amazing software in your blog platforms.

Created by Tyrone Campbell author and admin of ChoseIt create a free subdomain blog Create an ad free, no cost subdomain blog at choseit.com or if you have a blog get free SEO and blog marketing advice instead.

Author: Tyrone Campbell
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Sponsored by: Website Value

When I first started out and was taking a tutorial on setting up online marketing, the subject of blogs came up. It was suggested that a blog was a very good tool for marketing and making yourself known on the WEB. The program suggested starting with WordPress. I had never heard of WordPress so I went to the WordPress site to find out what it was all about.

This was all new to me so I followed instructions on the site and presto…I had my first blog set up in a few minutes. It wasn’t pretty and I had no idea what I was doing. The interface was new, the tabs were a mystery and the general functions available were a guessing game for me. That said, I forged ahead, wrote a post and then tried out different tabs and selections to see what would happen.

What I didn’t realize was that there are three varieties of WordPress, and you should know that upfront, so you can decide what works best for you. I learned of these 3 options later when I used another tutorial and set up another WordPress blog on a host site.

So what are those three options?

Option One

The first one I’ll mention is one that doesn’t concern the individual affiliate marketer but you should be aware of it. It’s called WordPress MU. MU stands for Multi-User and it allows you to run several hundreds to thousands of blogs on one domain. It really applies to corporations, groups, organizations or maybe super affiliate marketers that have their own servers and run a network of blogs. Until you reach that scale you needn’t know more than that about WordPress MU.

Option Two

The next option open to you is WordPress.com. This is the one I first used. It is hosted on WordPress servers and offers an easy to use template you can follow to start your first blog. You can choose your own user name to individualize your blog and it will get assigned to the WordPress domain. For example, if you choose to go with your name to set up the blog, your domain would look like http://www.yourname.wordpress.com. This assumes your choice was available.

Another point to remember is that on WordPress.com you are subject to the guidelines of your host. That means that commercial applications such as Google Adsense and other plug ins used to create revenue streams or optimize for search engine discovery, are not available. The blogs are really designed for open and useful communication without the volume of commercial and affiliate selling that takes place on other blog environments. This isn’t to say that you cannot create links to affiliate programs and place some banners, but the WordPress.com blog is not the most optimum environment to run a marketing based business. The next option is best suited for that purpose.

Option Three

The third option is the one used by most affiliate marketers who set up their business on an independent hosted environment outside of the WordPress hosted site. It’s called WordPress.Org and is software that is downloaded to your own Web server to run on your domain. It is often accessed through the Control Panel of the Web host you have selected to use in your business or blog. Some free hosting services may not offer the Control Panel feature so you have to follow what ever process they use for downloading blog software.

In the case of WordPress.org, the software offers greater flexibility that WordPress.com and allows you to download plugins that are not available to WordPress hosted blogs. For example, you can download Google AdSense ads mentioned earlier or Google Sitemap which allows search engines to find and index you more efficiently so you can place better in search results. You can place HTML code to more effectively design web pages for commercial application in affiliate marketing campaigns. In short, it offers more options and better capabilities for running a business than WordPress.com. It is the option that you will come to by default when setting up a blog from your host site. You will notice a different set of options such as a plug-in add on feature that is not available with WordPress.com. In summary, this is the option you will find most suitable for affiliate marketing. It gives you more ways to create revenue streams for a business.

Conclusion

Depending on your objectives for blogging, these are the three options you can select from when considering WordPress. There is plenty of documentation to help you with the details of how to use the features and tools offered in each option. The point here is to make sure you are aware of what is available so you can make an intelligent decision.

With that in mind, good luck in your blogging and may your travels be prosperous.

Over the past 20 years Claude Pelanne has worked in a series of startup ventures including some of the first commercial webcasts. He is an internet marketer and serial entrepreneur. For information and tips go to http://affiliatestartingline.com.

Author: Claude Pelanne
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Sponsored by: Colic Relief

SEO – Search Engine Optimisation, is an extremely  valuable skill.

The job websites – at a time of increasing unemployment – seem to be full of very well paid positions for SEO executives. The reason for this is that actually, there are very few people in the UK who are truly skilled in SEO – and for that reason, those that are tend to choose to work for themselves regardless of the large amount of money they could earn working for an SEO firm.

The main reason that very few people in the UK have real SEO skills, is that there are very few UK SEO training courses available. You can’t just go & enroll on an SEO course at your local night school, they don’t teach it in schools, there are no college courses in SEO in the UK, that I’m aware of, and there are very few real opportunities to learn real SEO from someone who knows how it’s done.

I think the reason most SEO consultants don’t offer to train, is that training is much harder work than just doing SEO – and at the same time, when training new SEO consultants, we’re creating real competition for ourselves – and at the moment in the UK, there is not a lot of competition from REAL SEO consultant who actually do the work, and I think most consultants would agree that they’d prefer it that way – it’s difficult promoting a clients website when you’re up against another professional, so really for us, the less true SEO professionals out there, the better!

So – most SEO consultants are self taught. I have been teaching myself SEO for roughly ten years, and I dread to think how much I have spent over these years on ebooks, courses & programs, but I’m sure whatever the amount, I would have saved money by doing an intensive SEO training course, if there was one available when I started !

I have now started to offer SEO training courses in the UK, to help people who are serious about becoming professional SEO consultants. My training courses are one to one, intensive training courses, that include a year of help & support.

Are SEO training courses absolutely necesarry

No – they’re not, however finding a professional SEO consultant to train you, will help you to take a huge leap towards becoming an SEO consultant, drastically reducing the learning curve that most SEO professionals have to go through.

What kind of SEO training course should I look for?

Look for a training course which is run by actual current SEO professionals, people who’re doing this for a living. The world of SEO is an ever changing one, someone who used to be a great SEO consultant who now just trains, isn’t likely to be training you using fresh knowledge & experience.

How much should I expect to pay?

SEO is a very valuable skill, and a good SEO consultant can make a lot of money, therefore logical thinking will tell you that no SEO consultant is going to offer to train you for a small amount of money, they are in effect training a future competitor, so they need to make more money than they would make in the same amount of time working for a client, otherwise what would be the incentive to offer training courses?  So, if you do find a course which seems very cheap – just think logically about the value of such a course, and why such valuable training is being offered for bargain prices.

There are some valid reasons that a course would be offered for a smaller cost, for instance a course that was teaching a number of people at one time, would enable a lower cost – but in my opinion SEO taught in a class is never going to be as valuable as one to one training with a professional SEO.

What else should I take into consideration?

The main thing to think about – is what happens after the course? Like learning to drive, the REAL test comes after you’ve passed & you’re let alone to drive. Remember the first few weeks of driving, scary right? 

A good SEO course should include after training support. I continue to support people for a year after the course, included in the price of the course – and I offer packages for continued support after a year.

Kevin John Lewis is a professional search engine marketing / SEO Consultant

Kevin is now offering a one to one SEO Training Course in the UK – available in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Cornwall (Newquay), Glasgow & Dublin. There are only a small number of positions available on the training course in both 2008, and 2009 – so if you are interested in becoming a professional SEO consultant, act soon!

Author: Kevin John Lewis
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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