Having a quality WordPress blog or website alone is not a precondition for success. There is no guarantee that your blog or website would be visited by users and that its ratings would take off on popular search engines. In addition to having a well structured and well rounded page or website that sports a good theme, has quality content and is easy to navigate and has all the makings of an A-grade resource on the internet, it is essential that it is optimized for search engines. There are many plug-ins available that offer to optimize your page using keyword tags so that the maximum users are drawn from search engines. WordPress 2.7 SEO plug-ins are available for download all over the internet. Doing a simple Google search with the right keywords would give you access to them.
There are close to 60 million blogs out there on the information superhighway and if there is nothing unique about it or even if there is, your website would stand out only if it is SEO compliant. The first second of a visitor’s attention is most critical; drawing those visitors who would not find the content on your site relevant is not advisable. This practice is engaged in my many unscrupulous bloggers to attract traffic. The most searched for keywords are included in the optimization so that they get more users who take one look and scoot. The main traffic be directed to the posts and articles on your blog, users adding comments to your blog topics helps immensely too. The more number of articles you post each day and the more number of visitors that read your content spirals your popularity to the top. WordPress 2.7 SEO plug-ins could probably get you into that position.
The WordPress 2.7 SEO themes are already well designed and structured but you can still tweak them to extract maximum optimization for search engines. The other best way to optimize your blog than using SEO Plug-in is to rely heavily on the backlinks to your blog that you need to post on social bookmarking websites or places which get a lot of traffic and where users would at least give the link you posted a try if you present it attractively. The best way to get user visits is through natural recommendation which comes from other bloggers or even websites.
In order to avoid duplicate content and to boost WordPress 2.7 SEO there are something that the blogger has to keep in mind. WordPress 2.7 has included something called comment pagination which creates multiple pages within comments so that they tile up. This makes it very awkward for optimization. The problem is that many pages will be there with the same content and metadata which would not be considered a single page by the Google search engine. This can be alleviated by using a plug in to display the title on each page along with the page number, and to also include the page number in the met data description.
For those who want much more freedom, flexibility and more resources for their blogging activities or websites, getting themselves a host server is recommended rather than using WordPress’s servers. The advantage is that there are many critical security issues that WordPress has to address and which therefore restricts some of the features and freedom that it allows its users. A classic example would be the restriction on embedding SWF or flash objects on WordPress hosted blogs, pages or posts. Having a host server of your own which albeit would cost you a few dollars a month, helps get you around all these restrictions and enjoy a much fuller blogging experience using WordPress. There are many premier Canadian webhosts for WordPress that a Canadian blogger or webmaster could choose to host his WordPress blog on. Most of them come cheap and offer WordPress compatibility including the support of MySQL and php.
One among the premier Canadian webhosts for WordPress, Eden P Host specializes in WordPress Web Hosting. Their servers are claimed to be custom configured for WordPress compatibility. They even provide support for WordPress with their own in-house support staff who are well versed in all aspects of WordPress and can help out the user with anything from installation to configuration, themes, and plug-ins. The service provided is affordable and reliable as their website claims and also gives the option of having WordPress preinstalled with their hosting packages. The installation support they provide also ensures hassle free installation for the eager user.
Host Utopia is another Canadian webhost for WordPress that offers packages suited to all kinds of WordPress blogging needs. WordPress is easy to install on the Hostutopia web hosting account and their website lists step by step instructions for novice users on how to get started with their WordPress blogging experience on Hostutopia’s servers. There is a section containing instructions and screen shots for everything from installing themes to mail lists and plug-ins. Whichever package you choose to buy from Hostutopia, all of them come with WordPress compatibility. The monthly fee starts from $ 5.95 and goes up to $ 49.95.
My hosting is yet another of the many Canadian webhosts for WordPress. It offers three plans all of which offer WordPress compatibility. The most basic package is hosted on a Linux platform and is priced just above budget level. This host offers solutions that are not expensive and also offer a 30 day money back guarantee.
Everyone.ca web hosting service also offers WordPress blog hosting to its customer. They are premier Canadian webhosts for WordPress who offer WordPress software support, high speed MySQL backend support and enterprise WordPress hosting features. There are four packages that are on offer, as gold, silver, bronze and enterprise. The packages are all on the expensive side and offer from two to ten MySQL databases for the lowest and the highest package respectively. Hostpapa and 24/7 host are other premium Canadian hosting service providers that also support WordPress platform. The range of packages that are available across all these providers vary greatly in terms of features and the cost associated with each of them.
In 2006, the first ever law suit for statements made in a chat room happened when a man argued that he was being humiliated in a chat room and sued America Online and the two other chatting visitors. But later that same year, a man got awarded over $20.000 for being called a Nazi in a chat room.
Although there is no Internet law per se, almost all existing laws have been extended to encompass the Internet and the consequences are reaching far. Cyber bullying is an increasingly recurrent phenomenon which the legislation is currently trying to curb. Usually happening in chat rooms and forums, cyber bullies zero in on a victim and harass him until he either leaves the chat room or the forum. In South Korea the abuse is getting to a ridiculous extent. Two celebrities, Korean nationals, have committed suicide because of being targeted by cyber bullies’ brutal campaign. The government reacted and now all people going online have to post real names and even their social security numbers. The law makes the portals on the Internet responsible for such occurrences. This development is currently being closely watched, because this kind of abusive behaviour is not limited to South Korea.
Other countries, like Russia and China, have cyber police combing the chat rooms and any cyber bullies encountered will be vigorously prosecuted. But these countries also go after people who complain of the bad situation in the country, the government, the communism, actually anything that is negative towards the government.
The latest development concerns the abuse of children and the American legislation is working on a law, actually amendments to the existing Film and Publications Act, which seems to regulate chat rooms, where sites and portals have to more closely monitor their chat rooms and forums, making sure that there is no risk of harm for vulnerable children. Although such control cannot be warranted for full 24 hours per day, nevertheless, the security measures must react more swiftly and remove cyber bullies as soon as they display such behaviour.
Furthermore, the legislative body confirms that chat room records may be used in a possible law suit, based on grounds of the case from 2006, where 27 people were arrested following a crackdown on the Web site called Kiddypics and Kiddyvids. An Internet chat room on that site streamed live child molestations and users were logging on, chatting and apparently instigating the abuse. Although this is a very clear cut case, the future will show how far this lost anonymity in chat rooms will be used in prospective litigations.
If you are engaged in e-commerce activities like online content selling or buying and selling of products using eBay or even plan to sell products online, then it would be a good idea to get yourself a WordPress blog or website that lets you effectively market those products that you are selling. The blog or website should not only contain information about the products but also images and quick links to other resources that talk highly of them. You also would need a WordPress PayPal Plug-in to get all that money that might come your way from the earning you make out of selling them.
Wordpress offers a PayPal integrated donation plug in which allows users to donate money to you in a very simple way using PayPal. But it does not suit you if you want to get paid for selling products and need more flexibility on payment options and packages. Easypaypal is a very good WordPress PayPal plug in that allows you to collect money from those who use your website and purchase products through it. PayPal is an online payment mechanism that is very secure and offers protection against scams and fraudulent monetary activities. It allows account holders to buy and sell products using a PayPal account which can transfer and receive funds to and from bank accounts as well as other PayPal accounts or even credit cards.
The Easypaypal WordPress Plug-in works by taking the user who logs into your site directly to the PayPal website to process the payment. The Plug-in allows defining the next payment date based on the parameters that are set by you. After each payment date comes up, whenever a user logs on they will be taken to the PayPal site. It is a relatively simple and hassle free mechanism that allows you access to your money without going through multiple channels and is also convenient for the payer.
For any WordPress page or blog that has lists products for sale and has ‘paybutton’ tags, the WordPress PayPal Plug-in lets you create a ‘Buy Now’ button. This is useful for those who sell content on their blogs or webpages and would like to get paid by users who want to use the content. The text of the content and any links thereto would be hidden until the purchase is completed and the payment has been made by the user. This offers increased security and ensures a clean way of payment and delivery for online content deliverers.
For selling products, another button which does not require a login and says something like ‘Pay Now’, can be inserted under the product catalogue page where details or even pictures of the product are available for the user to view and make up their mind. This button works the same way by taking the user to the PayPal site for processing the payment and then returning them to the page.
The other options that the Easypayapal WordPress PayPal Plug-in offers is that it lets a content seller offer different packages. The user can be charged for monthly or weekly submission and can have access to predefined content for the period of subscription. They have to renew the subscription whenever it expires in order to have access to content again. The Plug-in also allows you to give trial periods to subscribers as well to try out your service for a specific trial period before they decide to pay for it. Other options include charging a user for publishing content on your site. This can avoid spamming as well as ensure that only quality bonafide content is listed on your page and you also get paid for it.
As soon as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a non-profit company overseeing the domain name allocation, besides other tasks, assigned several service providers to act as domain name registrars, the domain name registration got messy. The whole transition from government controlled assignments to the Web as we know it today was bumpy indeed. Having abandoned the netiquette, law regulations took place and made sure there was no illegal handling of things. But wannabe entrepreneurs quickly discovered how to misuse the availability of domain names, so the first thing to happen was snatching the most important web names, like Microsoft (which failed, Bill Gates grabbed it pretty fast) Intel, AMD and such. Most of the names were sold to nobodies who then tried to extort exorbitant amounts from people who had legitimate interest in holding that domain.
Unfortunately, except for the registered trademarks, most of the big companies had no luck in retaining the domain name they desired. Some just waited out and at some point a mutually acceptable agreement was reached, some bullied the domain name holders with dozens of lawyers and thousands of dollars litigation fees (big companies have lawyers on retainer, the small scammers did not) and the whole scam fizzled out as time passed and when became clear that nobody would pay.
To put an end to this, ICANN ruled that after the registration duration ended, the holder had up to six months to renew the domain name, before it was given to public for purchase by someone else. It was funny to see people laugh at Microsoft for failing to renew the microsoft.com license, but they managed to remember within the 6 month time frame, because so many public web sites were laughing at them.
However, since the number of web pages is rising by the day, the need became apparent to provide additional top level domains, like .biz, .pro, .int, etc.
Some people use the domain names to make fun of other domain names. Such one is www.mafiaa.org, making hilarious fun at the expense of the RIAA and MPAA. Come to think of it, Yahoo.com is actually a funny name. Funnier is the domain name recently acquired by Yahoo, del.icio.us. Obviously www.toostupidtobepresident.com is dedicated to the one and only soon to be ex POTUS. What is POTUS? Well, that’s another web site featuring all 44 Presidents of the United States. www.theyrule.net shows up how the big companies are interconnected and actually completely control what happens in the political, business and public world of the United States.
A blog is a personal space that you can acquire on the internet, mostly for free that allows for personal expression in a multitude of ways. One can write articles, short stories, tutorials or even comment on current affairs, economics or anything that catches your fancy. In addition to expressing your thoughts a blog also lets you weed out the defects in your writing and helps you increase your vocabulary and enhance your writing skills. There are many free blog spaces available on the internet like BlogSpot or Blogger. The new phenomenon that has caught the attention of many avid bloggers is the WordPress blog. WordPress is a phenomenal personal blogging platform that is free and also incorporates many advanced features that only premium blogging portals offer.
Blogging on WordPress blog lets you be part of a community that is growing at a rapid rate. There are only a few things that you need to be aware of and nobody is expected to have advanced knowledge of coding or html to maintain a decent blog. Even if you already have a well established blog somewhere it is advisable that you get yourself one at WordPress too. The reason is that WordPress is at the forefront of all blogging activity taking place on the internet and is much more popular than other freely available blogging spaces. WordPress is an open source publishing platform with a huge array of templates and custom designed themes and search engine friendly optimizations just a click away.
The first thing to do to get yourself a WordPress blog is to first go to the website WordPress.com and register yourself. You can create an account for free and choose to aptly name it according to the content that you intend to provide on it. Rather than going for something catchy it’s better to use a name that others can identify you with and is easy to remember, being catchy as well is icing on the cake. The name that you choose will be part of the URL which links to your blog. Hence it is vital that you choose a simple name that is not tricky to type or would end up being typed erroneously by those who are not too good with their keyboards.
Once you provide all the details required to open a free account on WordPress blog, you can log in using your unique user name and password and would be directly taken to the control page or dashboard. Once there you can proceed to type in a few words and create a test article. The purpose of the test article is to let you try out various themes and get generally familiar with all the features that WordPress has to offer to you. Once you are familiar with the intricacies of using WordPress blog you can delete the test article and start writing genuine ones.
There are standard templates and designs that you can choose from which might be too bland for your taste. You have the option of installing custom templates in such cases. Free templates and themes are available for WordPress blog all over the internet. A quick search would reveal hundreds of websites offering free themes for download. The dashboard lets you pick and choose from among the stored templates.
Word press is the first of its kind, technology savvy, open source publishing platform for hosting blogs, online magazines or e-zines. As has been the case with many online open source softwares, the wordpress software has also gained mass popularity with bloggers and publishers. It was started in 2003 with a view to enhance the flexibility that is associated with blogging. It was preceded by b2\cafelog and designed by the same creator. The growth of wordpress is phenomenal and its user base has grown from single digit numbers to millions in a few years. The tool is used worldwide on thousands of websites by millions of people each day.
The good thing about open source platforms is that at any given time, there are thousands of developers working on the tool to add enhancements and plug-ins that seek to add to the functionality of the tool. WordPress being an open source project derives the same advantages. The freedom is not just to use it but to develop it as well. There prevails an overwhelming sense of community feeling by being part of the whole project which many people find rewarding in itself.
There are two main branches that the platform has diversified into. The tool that enables publishing using a host server can be downloaded from the main website wordpress.org and installed with ease. The requirements for the tool to be functional are firstly a space on the World Wide Web which hosts the intended web page or site. The flexible customization that the tool offers addresses almost every publishing need. The only requirement is to have a host server that supports PHP and MySQL. WordPress recommends the use of an Apache or Litespeed server to host the site.
The other offshoot is a simple blogging service called wordpress.com which allows anyone looking to have a free blog to register and publish content without having to go through any of the hassles associated with hosting a website. There are no monthly payments to be made to the server host in this case. The blogging features are similar and at par with most other free blogging utilities that are available online such as blogger.com.
Wordpress makes available to its users, the cutting edge in technology and features that are at par with the best commercially available softwares of its kind. The flexibility that is offered in terms of delivery of content is immense. There are options for customized themes and templates. At one point due to spamming concerns, sponsored themes were banned. This ban has been lifted and all themes that are first vetted by a machine and a human can be uploaded to a directory that has been established for the purpose. The blogging features on wordpress include the ability to include permalinks and tagging of posts and articles. The entire platform is search engine friendly and also supports Trackback and Pingback standards. There are multitudes of plug-ins available for download and use with further scope for functionality development.
