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Posted in Wordpress
Getting Back On Track With Sites and #30DC
Well I have had a very good day, updated several of my neglected sites, had a chat with my daughter, that is always lovely and have succeeded in getting up to Day 11 with the #30DC. Haven’t finished Day 11 yet but will do tomorrow.
The part I didn’t finish was the Hubpages, so tomorrow I will be fresh and rearing to go.
I seem like I’m behind but I have done a lot of preparation for the challenge. I have watched most of the videos and there were lots of articles needing to be written, all unique so I have written as many as I needed to add to all the sites that have to be set up.
Then after watching the Traffic Bug and seeing the number of titles and descriptions needed, I used a great tool that I have, well actually two tools that I have.
The first one is Power Article Writer which is an article spinner, not the garble type spinner, the one that you select all the changes and the article reads just as well, sometimes even better than the original. So I used this tool to get the titles and descriptions, I spun out 50 of them for each article. So while adding the sites and links to Traffic Bug, I have all that I need and all so simply done.
The other tool that I use is called Content Checkup, Google it, I think it came from Jason Potash, this is one handy little tool when you want to compare the uniqueness of an article rewrite against the original.
So I popped the descriptions and titles into Content Checkup and compared them to the original and used the ones that came up over 75% unique. Mind you these aren’t for submitting articles to directories or on websites, I make sure they come up over 85% and EZA gets the 100% unique original article.
I have also set up my spreadsheet to keep track of where I’m at. All these Web 2.0 sites etc need something to keep you up to date with where you are. The other thing is after the challenge it will be a good blueprint (is that still a buzz word?) to refer too.
I did find something unrelated to the #30DC today and that is how to add shadow to an image, a <div> or a block quote. Have gotten it to work on an image, the other two will have to wait for another day.
These are my little friends to show you how smart they are with their new shadows. I’ll learn a little more and come back to show you how to do it or I should say how I do it, others may do it differently.
Posted in 30DC
Blogs Are Wonderful Things!
Blogs are wonderful things. They can be your best friend, well they let you have a vent and a rant and don’t say a word, let you get a lot off your chest and then are happy enough for you to delete all the venting and ranting and get on with it.
I’ve just done that and I do feel so much better. Now I can get on with what I should be doing and that is writing content for my #30DC site and getting as up to date as I can with the challenge.
I have a great tool for rewriting content and making it as unique as the search engines wanted it as of an hour ago (things move so fast on the Internet). It is called Wordflood and without even trying very much and article is well over 50% unique from the original, mostly I get them about 70% or above.
I have another tool called Power Article Rewriter, this one allows me to add words, phrases, sentences and by using brackets and the ‘bar’ I can then spin the article and have as many copies as I need to use on all those social sites like Hubpages, Squidoo, Blogger,Wordpress.com and many others. I also have another spinner that does the same thing but PAR does it in a much easier way.
The beauty of these tools is that the articles remain very much as they were meant to, they make sense, there is no garbage or garbled text, you see, you add the words, phrases, sentences so that it reads well and sometimes better than the original.
After seeing the latest tool introduced in the #30DC, Traffic Bug, both these tools are going to come in handy for writing the different versions of the descriptions and titles for the sites for submitting to all those wonderful places that Traffic Bug will take care of for us.
Traffic Bug looks an amazing tool and Market Samurai continues to get better and better. Between these two tools there is very little else we need.
If you haven’t started the 30 Day Challenge, it is not too late, just slip on over and sign up, http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com/ and you too will be able to use these two fantastic tools.
Now I’m off to catch up on some videos and update a couple of sites before I call it a day.
Posted in Article Writing
#30DC Day 03, Market Samurai Makes It Better!
It is Day 3 for the #30DC and I’m still researching the market, my initial ideas bombed yesterday but that’s okay as I now do not have to waste precious time only to find the market isn’t there.
I do know the parameters that are used in searching, the “more than” and the “less than” when followed, work. Market Samurai makes this researching so much easier.
There is one area early on in the keyword research that I noticed, wasn’t mentioned. I have had Market Samurai for twelve months now and when this function was added, it made me a happy girl.
You see, MS brings back 200 results with each search and as it uses Google, if there are a lot using the tool at the same time, Google can get cranky and pull the plug for a little while, well until we all settle down.
Now when I’m researching each day I only have so much time and to use that time to my best advantage, I don’t need to be hampered by not getting results returned.
One of the things that Anthony showed in his videos yesterday was the “Refresh filters”, using that instead of “Analyze Keywords”. I’ll explain, Analyze the keywords first then once the results are returned, use the parameters, the “less than” and the “more than” with the “Refresh filters” option. Google doesn’t come into it then so you are not calling on the Big G very much.
Now the other thing, not sure if this was mentioned and I missed it but before you start keyword researching, on the top right hand side there is an option for ‘Phrase Length’. As the results are limited to 200 or less then you want the biggest bang for your buck with the results.
No matter how many words are in your initial search term, if you leave this set as is, you will get results from one word to 10 words.
So I set this at a minimun of three words and maximum of five or six words.
The results are then focused more to what I want and I don’t waste my time or Google’s patience with single words in the results. To me starting off with a two or three word phrase and getting single word results is a sheer waste of time and resources.
Market Samurai is such a good tool, although it is a little like learning to drive a car, the lessons are so important so you aren’t driving by the seat of your pants. The tutorials we are getting with the #30DC are really good too, more informative than last year. Anthony has a great style and explains everything so well.
When MS is complete, you can see what is coming, there will be no need to go all over the Net, you will be able to do and access just about everything for your sites from this one tool. As it is, there is so much you can source now but it will get better and better. The ‘samurais’ have been working hard all year, the tool is updated frequently.
Hope you are enjoying the #30DC so far, follow the steps, don’t try to jump ahead as that could be a waste of time too, this is a process, learn it well, you won’t be sorry. I have done all the 30 Day Challenges, I think I’m called a veteran but each year I start off as a novice and do the steps.
A little tip, try not to get to the SEO Competition with only one idea/niche, get yourself a few. This was where I bombed out big time last year and this is such an important step.
Okay, enjoy what you are doing and try to learn something new each day, a day will never be wasted then.
Take care
Cheers from Down Under
Carmel
Day #1 30DC Keyword Research Get ‘er Done!
I have to go in to work today to finish off ‘stuff’ (great word that). I am supposed to be having a day off but at least, no clients and no phone answering, so will be able to get through the ‘stuff’ I need to.
Started the 30DC over the weekend, just day #1 so far, will start Day #2 when I get home later.
Day #1 was mainly about market research and Dan Raine gave out some great info and a mind map that is amazing. It is set out so well that keeping focus should be so much easier.
Keyword research is the most important part, take your time, don’t rush it, don’t feel like you have to get it done to keep up. You will be able to keep up. In the past 30 DCs I have gotten up to day 10 and day 14 and had to start all over and still made my $1. Actually I am still making my “$1″ from those past challenges. So don’t panic get the research done, you’ll thank yourself later.
While I was looking through the magazines on Amazon, there was, among the many I looked at, one that looked more interesting than the others, well the concept of the magazine that is. While trying to find out more about what was in the magazine I scrolled down to the reviews and found a wealth of information as to what people liked or disliked about the magazine also and more importantly for us 30DC’ers, what they would like to see and what they were expecting. Micro niches, drilling down, very interesting!
I can see me using Google’s Wonder Wheel a lot it’s a very handy tool.
Okay and off to work, catch you later.
Cheers
Carmel
Look After The Little Things, EZA Does.
Ezine Articles, no wonder they are the Big G of article directories. I had changed a couple of older sites and having not updated them for some time, had forgotten that I had added a couple of articles for them to article directories.
Received an email from Ezine Articles to say the links in the resource boxes were not working. So I have been able to go and update the resource box with new links. Nice, thank you EZA.
Now I can go and chase them in the other article directories that they were submitted to.
Moral of the story, look after the little things and one day you (and I) may be big like EZA, that is what they obviously do.
As a lovely elderly gentleman said to me many years ago, “look after the pennies/cents and the pounds/dollars will look after themselves”.
Take care
Cheers
Carmel
Posted in Article Writing
Cannot Login To Your WordPress Site/Blog?
Cannot Login To My WordPress Site
If this ever happens to you, don’t panic, don’t go changing your password. Take a deep breath, go get your coffee/tea/soft beverage of choice and prepare for an almost mind numbing experience, ( the harder beverage of choice can come later, you’ll enjoy it more then)
In more cases than not, the reason you cannot login to your WordPress site/blog is caused by a plugin. I said “take a deep breath etc” because if you have many plugins then this little job can take some time.
Firstly to be able to login, go to your FTP client and change the name of the plugins folder to anything you like as long as it is not just ‘plugins’. I changed mine to oldplugins.
Now go back and try to login, you should have access now. In the Plugins section you should have error messages for all your plugins telling you that they cannot be found and have been deactivated or something to that effect.
Next make a folder on your desktop or wherever you like and call it ‘oldplugins’ then download all the plugins from that folder on your site.
Make a new folder in your wp-comments called, you guessed it, plugins.
Now the ‘fun’ begins! Upload each plugin that is in the ‘oldplugins’ folder to the new ‘plugins’ folder, one at a time.
So what you do is:-
Upload plugin.
Activate plugin
Log out
Log in
If you get back into your site, that plugin is fine.
If you find that the plugin from your folder needs upgrading after you upload it, don’t do the upgrade before you log out and then in. If the logging out and in works, then upgrade the plugin and try the log out and in again.
Do this for every plugin and you should find that after activating one of them, you will not be able to login. That one till be the culprit.
Go back to your FTP client, delete it from your system and if it is for a function that you cannot live without, there is probably another that will perform the same or similar function.
This incompatibility can happen after installation of a new plugin or an upgrade of a plugin too, could be the WP version and the plugin version not getting along.
I did think that the way the auto upgrade for plugins in the 2.8 version was great and it still is but from now on I will only ever upgrade one plugin per login session and make sure I can log out and in again.
Thank goodness all is back to normal, well normal for me, could be different for you 
Ever Broken A Delete Key, Not On Your Keyboard Either?.
I took a leave of absence from my site so that I could get up to date with some big jobs like transferring HTML sites over to WordPress, reorganising other sites, updating and generally getting myself set up for when I start the day/night offline job, 12 hour days leave no time for other things. Just as well it’s only for a few weeks.
Now, when I was sorting out, I ‘broke’ the delete key in my Outlook Express. Didn’t know one could do that and after Googling my problem, I found out I was not the only one, felt a little better then. Well I found the solution and all is back to normal. You see I have all my email addresses forwarded to OE to make it simpler but there was a build up in various folders, so lots of sorting and lots of deleting made for a broke delete key. All fixed now.
If it ever happens to you, then here is how to do it, How To Fix The Delete Key In Outlook Express
Posted in Wordpress
WordPress 2.8 Wait!
Don’t know about you, but some days I start out with what I feel is a simple job, the first one of the day should always be pleasant and straight forward. That kind of sets the tone for the day, hopefully and most days it goes like that. Not today….
If you have anything to do with WordPress, then you will surely know that WordPress 2.8 has been released.
My advice would be, leave it go a couple of weeks, there are always things that don’t go to plan and 2.8 is no different.
Many will upgrade and have no problems but there will be issues with many others. It seems like there are a couple of plugins that can cause hiccups, like not being able to view the admin/dashboard and/or the site.
It is very tempting now that it is so easy to upgrade, to select the Upgrade option in the tools area but take it carefully.
I would be inclined, if you can’t wait, to deactivate all your plugins before you hit the ‘Upgrade automatically’ and then activate one at a time. Seems like there are a few that don’t want to play the game and from what I have seen, this seems to be the most common problem.
If you do go ahead and upgrade and if you do have problems, then this link may help you out, Troubleshooting and if you do have problems with the plugins and can’t access your Dashboard to get to the plugins area then here is a workaround that I was directed to over on the WordPress Forum. Actually that is a handy one to keep bookmarked for any other occasion that plugins or not accessing your dashboard, may be a problem.
There are some nice looking areas in the dashboard, like if you use Widgets for your sidebars, much easier to get around. You can now drag and drop widgets that have been in use and keep the settings. All the sidebars are visable and you save each widget as you go, so you don’t have to worry about setting up your widgets and forgetting to use the Save changes and losing the Widget and it’s info.
You can now Preview, Activate or Delete a theme from the actual Theme graphic also you can now select what you would like for your theme, like colors, number of columns, column widths, features like, custom headers, theme options, threaded comments etc, just tick the boxes and you will be taken to the search for themes option with all your wanted items already entered.
With the Plugins, there is now an option to group all the plugins that need upgrading automatically. So when each plugin is successfully upgraded, you return to the list with that plugin removed from the top.
Very neat and very easy, Oh Boy! when I think about how it was to upgrade a plugin, WordPress has come such a long way and it is just great!
So don’t dispair, be patient and the hiccups will be fixed and your WP sites/blogs will once more be a joy to work with.
Posted in Wordpress
Me, Murphy And 31DBBB!
I can’t believe it is Tuesday and nearly at the end of the month. I must admit I am starting to feel like I am getting on top of my workload. I probably have taken on more than I should but it makes life interesting. Although, all being well and if Murphy hadn’t stepped in, things would have not backed up. I had it all planned……
While I am behind in the 31DBBB, that’s the 31 Days to Building A Better Blog, I’m finding it excellent. Instead of just posting whatever, I now have some structure to follow. The blog that I am using, not this one, is one that I had waiting to build, not sure just what I was going to do with it or how I was going to use it so 31DBBB is just the thing.
The tasks for the first and second days, by the time I had finished those, the structure for the blog was right in front of me, mind you, it took me a little while for the ‘light bulb’ to flash on. Main thing is, that it did.
Some of the tasks have been challenging and have taken me out of my comfort zone, that’s a good thing…..afterwards that is. I’ve still a little way to catch up but now that that fellow Murphy has gone, then catch up is on the menu.
If you didn’t get onto this at the start of April then don’t fret, you can still do it. Sign up here and you will get an email each day with your tasks and the link to read the task in detail.
If you blog about anything or want to blog about something then now is your chance to start out right, I highly recommend it.
I said to someone earlier today, free is not always ‘free’ often times it gets very expensive. 31DBBB is the exact opposite, this free is so much value it’s priceless.
So do the Nike thing and Just Do It!
Cheers and take care
Carmel
Posted in Tutorials