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Livermore Chamber of Commerce Marketing Summit

May 4th, 2010
by Thomas Petty.
1 comment

Last year I helped organize a marketing summit at the Livermore Chamber of Commerce. The economy was in a slump of course, and I wanted to see whatwe could do help businesses get back in the game. Even though the economy is showing signs of coming back, it’s still going to be a long road. It’s just as important today to adapt to the new ways of marketing that businesses have available to them as it was before.

The Chamber of Commerce has partnered with the Doubletree Hotel in Livermore to host the all-day session. It will include four experts who will provide participants with some very specific plans they can put in place now to help them attract their ideal customers.

E-mail Marketing

Stu Carty is a veteran sales and marketing specialist at Constant Contact with more than 20 years of experience in the enterprise software industry. He is going to demonstrate how email marketing is a cost effective and easy-to-measure tool. It’s suitable for all experience levels, and this session will teach participants how to master email marketing communications with a comprehensive look at best practices and winning strategies for getting and keeping quality subscribers. Everyone will get access to a free 60-day trial account, which is fully active.

Marketing Message

Michele Molitor, is a highly sought after executive coach, business consultant and speaker at Nectar Consulting, Inc. She helps entrepreneurs create substantial organizational growth. She leverages her extensive management, branding, design, and marketing experience from leading edge multimedia and web development companies with an engaging coaching style and interdisciplinary approach.

During this engaging talk, she’ll teach participants the keys to successfully marketing their business and attract all the clients they need to grow their organization more effectively and easily!

Social Media

Lee Richter is CEO of Richter Communications and Design Group in downtown Oakland. She has more than 20 years experience in marketing and public relations for clients such as Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Baxter Healthcare, Autodesk, Hewlett-Packard, Edmunds.com, the Republic of Tea and many others.

Social media has become the hot topic for all businesses, but most don’t know what it is, where to start or why to put together a social media plan. Lee will provide some specific steps that businesses should implement right away to set up a social media plan, and start benefitting from the power of social media.

Search Engine Marketing

Then there’s me. I’m the President of the Bay Area Search Engine Academy, which has a single goal of teaching business owners how to get positioning on the search engines through keyword research and proper content building techniques. I’m only one of approximately 2400 HFI-Certified Usability Analysts® in the world.

Because the rules of advertising have changed drastically in just the last few years, many business owners still cling to the old ways. I will teach participants five new ways to market their businesses using the power of the Internet and attract people who are looking for them.

Seating is limited to 100 people, and it includes a light breakfast and full lunch. Cost is $99 per person, and you can register online on the Livermore Chamber Web site. Participants are encouraged to bring business cards, to network, and to come with an open mind about new ways to market their business.

I hope I’ll see you there!

Posted in: Presentation.
Tagged: ·

East Bay SEO and Internet Marketing Meetup

May 3rd, 2010
by Thomas Petty.
1 comment

Last year, I joined a free system called Meetup.com. I don’t remember specifically how I heard about it, but they have a way for people with common interests to get together on just about any subject imaginable. I joined because I wanted to meet other people who are interested in learning about search engine optimization (SEO) and internet marketing.

I attended a couple meetings at a local restaurant’s bar, and got to meet some nice people. But it was a little frustrating because the bar was noisy and crowded. Not a great place to have in depth conversations about the nuances of META tags.

Earlier this year, I got an e-mail from Meetup.com that the group was adrift without a leader, and they needed someone to step up. After speaking to a friend of mine, Steve Scott, who runs a Tampa, Florida meetup and SEO Search Engine Academy, I decided to take over the group and rearrange things a bit.

The East Bay SEO and Internet Marketing meetup has about 200 members, but I honestly had no idea where they came from, what their interests are, or really anything about them, since I’d only met a handful of people at the local bar. I sent out a Survey Monkey and got some good feedback from. It seems that folks are pretty evenly split between two areas: the Tri-Valley area (Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin, and surrounding area), and further north in the Walnut Creek, Orinda, Concord area.

After doing some digging, I found two restaurants that had what I needed: free wireless access and a back room that wasn’t too expensive. Now we rotate the meetings every other month between Pleasanton at The Hopyard, and Walnut Creek at the Pyramid Alehouse in an attempt to accommodate both groups of people.

After doing some thinking, I reformatted the meetings a bit to give everyone a little of something:

  • A quiet place to network and exchange business cards (and eat a little food if desired)
  • A place where people can ask questions about SEO or internet marketing
  • Have a little mini-SEO lesson of some sort

I wanted it to be completely open to anyone who wants to join. We have food available if they want it at a nominal fee, but really I just want people to come and learn and network.

Today, we have our fourth meeting, the second one in Walnut Creek. Each meeting has had about a dozen people in attendance, and it’s been fun meeting everyone. I’m hoping that the group will continue to grow and evolve as it gets more wind in its sails, but for now, it’s a great group of people. Everyone pitches in with ideas and suggestions for those who are newer in the group and wanting to learn.

If you’re interested in meeting others who have an interest in SEO, search engine marketing (SEM) and Internet marketing, please join us on the first Monday of each month (generally) from 5:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. sharp. The full meetup calendar is available, and you can register at no cost.

Posted in: Opinion.
Tagged:

Google’s Webmaster Tools Have Exciting New Features

Apr 19th, 2010
by Thomas Petty.
1 comment
Google Webmaster Tools

Google upgraded their Webmaster Tools

Google continues to enhance their toolset to give those of us who are professionals in the SEO and Web world, more data. Feed me data! They recently launched a new version of the Webmaster Tools which gives you more data from the back end, which complements Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is great at giving you data on what happens when a visitor clicks through to your Web site, no matter where they came from. In the past, the Webmaster Tools gave us a little information about what people saw when users didn’t click though to you – valuable data too.

But with the new Webmaster Tools, you’ll get a new insight into what’s going on from the search engine perspective, even before your visitors click through to your Web site.

If you haven’t registered your Web site with the Webmaster Tools, you must do so first, in order to get any data.

Segment Data Based on Country

If your business gets traffic from different parts of the world, it’s likely that search results and interactions are going to be different. Click the dropdown choice that shows “All Countries”. You can pick a specific country, and the data and graph will change to reflect the searches that are specific to that country.

Impressions and Clickthrough Rate

In the old version of the Webmaster Tools, you could see some basic data about where your Web site showed up in the searches. Now, however, they give you impressions (the number of times your page actually showed up), how many clicks that term got, and the clickthrough rate as a percentage.

Even more exciting is the ability to click the “plus” symbol to expand out more data. They give you the specific pages that show up for a search term, the position number, and again, clickthrough rate.

The graph at the top of the page gives you the impressions compared to clickthrough rate over time. By hovering over a data point, you get a pop up bubble that shows the actual data of that specific point.

Additional Data Insight

The important point of all this is that it’s data about your Web site that Google Analytics doesn’t give you. It’s fantastic to know what people are doing once they arrive at your Web’s doorstep, but to know which pages people are wandering by without coming in the door is gold.

Posted in: Search Engine Optimization, Tips.
Tagged: · · · ·

When Social Media Turns, Well, “Social”

Apr 16th, 2010
by Thomas Petty.
3 comments

Last night I attended a local event that my friend Adam Walker Cleaveland had been bugging me to attend for some time. He and two other folks, Chris Riley (who I knew casually) and Nicole Nicolay (“Nik Nik”) have been holding a “Tri-Valley Tweetup” gathering every month for a while. The only excuse to gather is that we all use Twitter, and I think that’s a pretty loose requirement that’s easily forgiven if you don’t. I’ve been to many mixers and get-togethers, and I even run my own SEO meetup group every month. I actually like hanging out with people who have similar interests.

But these Tweetups always seem to be on an evening when something’s going on. So I just couldn’t get there. I realized yesterday that, “Sheesh, I’m going home to an empty home after work.” My wife is out of town, and my step-daughter was going to her Dad’s house. So what the heck? I have nothing better going on.

Tri-Valley Tweetup at Tenuta

Tri-Valley Tweetup and barrel tasting at Tenuta Winery

The Tweetup was being sponsored by and held at one of the local Livermore wineries, Tenuta Winery. (Later I learned that it’s the third largest in the Livermore Valley!) I got there and a couple of my other networking buds were there, June Sablan and Alice Jones – hadn’t seen them in a while, so cool: friendly faces at least.

As others gathered there, we grew to perhaps twenty people. All of us are intensely interested in social media, connecting online, blogging, and well, tweeting. Of course the fact that Rich Rollins from Tenuta was taking us on a tour and dipping wine directly from the barrels for us to taste sure didn’t hurt either.

One of my new-found friends is Sarah Kay Hoffman, and she almost instantly posted a blog about our gathering, complete with photos and videos of Rich, Adam and Butter the Vineyard Cat.

One of Sarah’s comments really struck me: “It’s when you take the ‘online’ to the ‘offline’ when Social Media is even more effective!” That small statement is so poignant and profound. So many of us spend an awful lot of time in our cubes, offices, and fuzzy slippers, banging away at the keyboard to communicate to the untold and unseen masses across the globe. Many of the people I communicate with I haven’t seen in decades – or ever.

But it’s when we as humans come together in a common setting with no agenda, just to hang, it’s when we really turn the “social media” into something “social”. I can honestly say that I’m sorry I haven’t been to any of the previous Tweetups. I had a great time seeing old friends and making new friends. It was truly a joy to just hang out and talk about random things from iPads to what we do for a living.

And no, we didn’t sit around and tweet to each other either. We actually used the spoken word.

Thus the online social connections turned offline, and business cards were exchanged here and there.

Posted in: Opinion.
Tagged: ·

How to Submit Your Website to a Search Engine for Free

Apr 14th, 2010
by Thomas Petty.
3 comments

When you’ve built a brand new Web site, or even added new pages to your existing Web site, it’s easy to get impatient and want Google and the other search engines to find you now! Unfortunately, there’s no quick road to getting indexed. It can take two, three or four weeks or more for new sites and new pages to be indexed. It’s just the way it works.

The Wrong Way To Submit Your Web Site

Many people use the “Submit a URL” option that some of the search engines offer to try to get their site listed. The belief is that this is the “right” way to get Google to notice them, and you may even be tempted to use it several times.

Don’t do it!

The truth about using these “Submit a URL” pages is that it’s a red flag for Google. Most of the spam sites also submit their sites in the hope that they’ll get listed more quickly, by using automated tools (it’s just easier that way). However, you’ll end up looking just like all the other spammers in Google’s system, and they’ll probably set you aside for awhile.

The Right Way To Submit Your Web Site

By helping Google, Yahoo! and the other search engines to trust you, and believe that you’re a legitimate site, not just junk, there are a couple things you can do. I’ve seen pages show up in Google’s index in as little as one week if you follow these instructions.

How Do You Know If Your Site Is Indexed?

First, how do you know if a page or your site has been indexed? In any of the search engines, type in the search box:

site:yourdomainname.com

Look through the pages to see if your site or specific page has been indexed. If you see missing pages, they haven’t been picked up for any of various reasons, like:

  • The pages are new and not indexed yet
  • The Web site is new, and nothing has been indexed
  • The page(s) can’t be reached by the search engines because there are no active links to that page

Step One: Build Search Engine Trust

Assuming that your page(s) have not been indexed, or you have a new Web site, you need to first register it and valdate your site with Google and Yahoo!

Google Webmaster Tools Logo

First go to Google’s Webmaster Tools site and create an account. Click the “Add a site…” button near the top and enter the URL. Then follow their instructions to Verify the site. You have three choices:

  • Upload an HTML file – Create a special file in the root of your Web site
  • META Tag – Add a special META tag to the <head> section of your Web site
  • Add DNS Record – This one is a new choice, where you a text record to your DNS configuration

Frankly I find either of the first two choices the easiest to do. Once you’ve done that, Google will check to make sure you did as instructed. Now you’ve given Google some reason to trust your site.

Yahoo! Site Explorer

You can repeat this step with Yahoo!’s Site Explorer.

Step Two: Get Your Site Indexed

Assuming your site has many pages, I like to compare it to a building. If you think of each page as a “room”, and your links are the various doors into each of your rooms. The more links you have to each of the individual pages, the more likely someone or a search engine will wander in.

Google and the other search engines index your site by finding links. By opening these “doors”, they’ll go in an check out the “rooms” (your pages). It takes time to open each door and check out all the rooms, so likewise, it will take a while for your site to be indexed.

Instead, I prefer to give Google a blueprint to all the “rooms”. This is called an XML sitemap. There are many free tools that will generate your sitemap, but I like to use XML Sitemaps. Have the tool create a sitemap, which is just a text file. Save it to the root directory of your Web site.

Next, go to the Google Webmaster Tools and Yahoo! SiteExplorer and tell them where the XML sitemap is. Yahoo! calls them “feeds”.

Maintain Your Sitemap

As you add pages to your site, make sure you keep the sitemap file up to date with the changes. Both Google and Yahoo! will periodically upload your XML sitemap file, and see if there’s anything new there. That way, they don’t have to go “discover” it by openening all your “doors” and peeking in each “room”.

Posted in: Tips, Uncategorized.
Tagged: ·

Get Your Business Listed On Google Maps In Five Steps

Apr 13th, 2010
by Thomas Petty.
3 comments

Google, Yahoo! and Bing all have local business listings with maps. The cool thing about them is that they often show up above the organic search results when someone is looking for a local business. Another benefit is that it can give you a second link on the page, if your business happens to show up in the regular search results too. In my book, more link exposure is better. This post will give you five easy steps that you can use to get listed on the map or get listed at or near the top.

Claim Your Listing or Create It

Google Local Business Listing

Bay Area Search Engine Academy's business listing on Google

Your business may already have a listing there that was automatically created because you’re listed in the Yellow Pages or in some other business database, like InfoUSA. To find out, search for your business name with your city and state. If it’s there, click the “More Information” link. You may see a link at the top right that says “Business Owner?”. That means it hasn’t been claimed and verified.

If you don’t see your listing, go to the Google Business Solutions page, then click the “Local Business Center” link.

Create a Google account if you don’t have one, or log in if you do, then create a new listing.

Fill In All The Boxes

The more complete your business profile is, the more you’ll get rewarded with a higher position. Fill in everything that you can, including your Web site address, hours, company description, what forms of payment you take, and so on. Make sure your address is correct. If the thumbtack on the map isn’t in the right place, you can also move it to put it in the rigth location.

If you have a toll-free phone number that’s fine, but if you can provide a local phone number with the area code in that area, this will help. Go ahead and list the local number too.

One of the most important parts of the form to fill out are the Categories. You can list up to 10 business categories, and Google will suggest some to you. If you don’t see yours, go ahead and create new categories. Think key words here – what products are people searching for in your town? Add those as categories.

If you want to include some other news or a special offer coupon that your customers can print out, by all means, include that as well. Mix it up and test it out to see what converts your customes.

Upload Photographs

Google gives you a place to put up to ten photos or images. Take advantage of this by adding them all. Make the first image your logo, then it will show up next to your business listing. Fill in the other nine with pictures of yourself, your staff, your store, some products or whatever else makes sense for your business. Again, the more you can fill in all the blanks, the higher you’ll be listed.

Create Videos

Videos are a terrific way of communicating some additional information about your business. Get an inexpensive video camera or use your cell phone to make five short (1 minute) videos. Try to make them as professional as possible, but don’t sweat it too much. Some ideas for some short videos might include:

  • Happy customers giving a short testimonial about how great you are
  • An inside tour of your business, restaurant or shop
  • A video introducing your staff
  • An introduction from you as the owner telling why you love to work with your clients

Just make them short – no more than 2 minutes. Upload the videos to YouTube and make sure your company name is in the Description. Then from your Google Local Business Center account, you can link them to your new five videos.

Get Reviews

Finally, encourage your customers to give you reviews. They can go into your business listing and rate you from 1 to 5 stars and tell why they love you. Make sure that you ask a few people at a time. If they see too many reviews showing up all at once, they may be a bit suspicious that you’re influencing them. Instead, over time, send a thank you card to your clients with a $5 coffee shop gift card asking them to please take a moment to review your business on Google.

Other people will read these reviews, which of course will help you attract new customers (assuming you’re doing a great job!).

Even businesses who, due to corporate rules (like franchisees) aren’t allowed to have their own Web site, can have a business listing for free. All you need is a physical address and a phone number. One of my friends gets business from it every week, because she’s listed right at the top of the Google map! It’s hard to beat “free advertising” from Google and the other search engines.

Posted in: Tips.
Tagged: ·

Facebook Security for Professionals: How To Manage Your Friends

Apr 12th, 2010
by Thomas Petty.
7 comments

I was reading recently that there are 400 million people on Facebook, which of course, includes me. It’s growing by leaps and bounds, and as I get more connected on LinkedIn and other social sites, I started having a true dilemma. How do I keep Facebook personal, but not let out too much personal information to total (or even partial) strangers?

What’s A “Friend”, Really?

You may have faced the same dilemma: Who do you accept as a “friend”?

  • High school classmates who you haven’t seen in 30 years?
  • Someone you met once at a Chamber mixer?
  • A client?
  • Someone who you’ve never met, but you’re connected to on LinkedIn?
  • Anyone around the world?

If you’re like me, you have personal information that maybe you don’t necessarily want the whole world to see, like pictures of your family, your e-mail address, phone numbers, and so on.

On the other hand, I want to connect with people who might do business with me, so I can either:

  • Not have any personal information on my Facebook profile
  • Segregate the people I connect with into groups, and give the groups different levels of permission

The former choice is OK, but friends and family want to see pictures and things that I’m up to. I could set up a second profile, but that just gets really confusing to manage.

Instead, I chose to separate people into groups and give the groups permissions that I think are appropriate.

Step 1: Create A Bucket List

You need to create a list of “buckets”, but not what you want to do before you die. Instead create buckets that you can easily segregate people into that make sense for you. I have essentially three buckets:

  • Former high school classmates
  • Professional connections (people I do know or have done business with or met at mixers)
  • People I don’t know

Classmates and professional connections, I don’t mind them having my personal contact information. However, I don’t necessarily want them to have access to photos of my children or other personal information. The people in the “People I don’t know” group are literally people I don’t know and have never met, or haven’t seen in many years. They don’t get access to my personal information, most photo albums, and have various other restrictions (which I’ll explain in a second).

If you’re a Facebook friend who hasn’t been included in any of these groups, you therefore get access to all my information, because you are someone I know and trust.

So far so good?

Step 2: Create Your Lists

In Facebook, choose “Account”, then click “Edit Friends”. At the top, is a button “Create New List”. Click that, and give it a name like “People I Don’t Know”. Click on all the people that you want to include in that list, then click “Create List”.

Create another list if you want, and include more people in that list. They don’t have to be mutually exclusive, in case you want to have permissions for different groups. Someone may be in more than one list.

Step 3: Set Your List Permissions

Now you have to take away permissions for each of the groups of people (“lists”) you created. In Facebook, choose “Account”, “Privacy Settings”, then click the “Profile Information”.

Even if you don’t set up any lists of people, you should review this page anyway. Facebook recently changed your default permissions to give more access, which is a change you may not have wanted.

From this page, you can change the settings for each level of permissions, including allowing something like this:

Who can see this: “Friends except ‘People I Don’t Know’”

Be sure to choose “Custom” for those settings that you want to exclude a group from. Choose who you want to hide it from and add as many groups as you want.

Step 4: Manage Your Lists

It’s critical to maintain these lists or what you’ve set up won’t work. Fortunately, Facebook makes it really easy. When you send a new friend request, be sure to click the “Add To List” drop down and choose which group they should be included in before you send it. If someone sends you a friend request, click the same “Add To List” drop down before you accept it.

You can always (and should) go into your “Edit Friends” list to see who you might have forgotten to include in a list. One occasionally slips through, so check it frequently.

Final Thoughts

If you want to completely separate your private persona from your business, you can create a Facebook fan page. People can become a fan without being your “friend”, and you can still tell them all the cool things going on in your business. But that’s a post for another day.

In the mean time, please comment here and tell me how you’ve implemented this security plan and how well it’s worked for you.

Posted in: Tips.
Tagged:

30 Day Blogging Challenge – Post #1

Apr 11th, 2010
by Thomas Petty.
3 comments

The other day I saw a friend of mine, Gail, who posted on Facebook that she was taking up the 30 Day Blogging Challenge that Connie Ragen Green is encouraging.

I have to confess: I have been too busy or too lazy (or both?) to post on my blog since last November. This is a very poor example I’m setting here. After all, I teach SEO and social media optimization, and blogging is one of the cornerstones of generating good traffic and links to your Web site.

I needed a kick in the pants to get me off my duff and get it rolling again. I kept telling myself that my ideas had dried up, so I didn’t have anything to say. In retrospect, this is probably just a lame excuse for laziness, right? The truth is, that I’ve written some articles for other people’s blogs, but haven’t “gotten around to” writing for myself.

So here goes. My goal is to write one post per day. But the guidelines I’m giving myself are (besides following the “rules” of Connie’s challenge) are:

  • Write meaningful articles about marketing on the Internet, not just something to fill the void
  • Get back into the habit of writing – I’ve fallen off the blogging wagon, and need to get back into a regular daily habit
  • Publish the blog posts in several social media circles to generate more traffic, including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
  • Measure the results of the effort after the 30 days have passed

Lots Of Ideas

I had been convincing myself that my ideas for new articles had dried up, when in reality, there are lots of new ideas that keep bubbling up that I want to write about. Let’s just put keyboard to screen and start writing! I’d love to hear some of the ideas or questions you have about what you’d like to learn. Please post comments here or on the Bay Area Search Engine Academy Facebook fan page on what you’d like to see.

After all, I have 30 days to write, and you the reader are who I write for.

Some ideas I’ve come up with include:

  • Using Facebook for business, including FB security for the professional, how to build a terrific FB fan page
  • Is video the next internet marketing vehicle in your future?
  • Is SEO less effective than other means of getting on Google?
  • How can you generate fabulous links and content on other people’s Web sites?

But I’d love to what ideas you have too – sky’s the limit here, so give me your best shot. Technical? Instructional? How-to? Let’s hear it!

I’ll also discuss the results of my 30-day experiment to let you know how this has worked from an analytics and readership perspective too. That’s my promise, so stay tuned!

Posted in: Opinion.
Tagged:

Easy WordPress Blog Setup Instructions

Nov 5th, 2009
by Thomas Petty.
8 comments

There are many informational articles and books out there that describe all the amazing benefits of having a business blog. I don’t disagree with them (since I’m writing one here). I’ve seen my site traffic increase, search engine rankings increase, and started conversations with people that I would never hope the meet “in the real world”. So I think there’s no debating the fact that there are many benefits to blogging and talking about your particular expertise.

What I wanted to do here is to set down some step-by-step instructions for the “regular” guy or gal that wants to get started with a solid foundation with a self-hosted WordPress blog. There are many terrific blogging platforms available, most available at little or no cost. I’m a fan of WordPress myself, mostly because it’s what I’m used to using. This post is some steps that I’ve learned along the way that will hopefully help you to:

  • Set up your blog easily
  • Make sure it’s safe from hackers
  • Give you some basics that will get you started to a successful blog

This is by no means a comprehensive list, nor is it intended to be. It’s merely a compendium of things that I’ve learned along the way that can help you get going with a minimum of effort, and these are the exact same steps I take for my clients who want me to do it for them. You can host your blog with WordPress directly free of charge. However, if you host your blog with your Web site, it becomes part of the Web site – really just an extension – and can benefit you from an SEO perspective.

List Of Resources To Get Started

Before you can start with any of this, you have to have some basic materials. I’ll assume you already have a working computer with a reasonable internet connection. Beyond that, you will need:

  • A Web hosting plan that supports both PHP and a MySQL database. I prefer CrystalTech, but you can use any hosting as long as they support PHP and MySQL databases.
  • FTP software – This is to move files to your hosting platform. I like IPSwitch’s WS_FTP Professional, but there are many free tools available as well.
  • Text editor – You can use Notepad or any pure text editor like TextPad, as long as it doesn’t apply formatting (for instance, do NOT use MS Word or Works).

Assuming you have all this, let’s get started with setting up a WordPress blog.

Download WordPress Software

The first step is that you need to get the software. Go to the WordPress.org Web site, and click the big button that says “Download WordPress 2.8.5″ (or whatever the current version is). Save the zip file to your hard drive, and unzip (uncompress) it to a folder that’s convenient to get to.

Create a MySQL Database

Go to your hosting platform and create a MySQL database. Usually you can do this through your Control Panel. You’ll need to know the following:

  • The database host server (sometimes it’s “localhost”)
  • The database name
  • The user id to connect
  • The password

Usually you can specify everything but the host, so pick a secure password that includes letters and numbers.

Upload the WordPress Software

create_directory_thConnect to your Web hosting with your FTP software, and create a folder that you want the blog to live in. I usually just create a folder called “blog”, but you can call it what you want. If you want the blog software to actually be your Web site, you don’t need to create a folder. Just upload all the files and folders to the root directory of the Web site. This is about 7.1MB of files, so it shouldn’t take very long if you have a decent connection.

Configure the WordPress Blog Software

config_setup_thYou’ll find a file called wp-config-sample.php. You need to edit this file with a text editor. You can either edit the local copy on your computer, or edit the one on the Web. Enter the database server, database name, user name, and password where it shows these settings in single quotes (see red underlines in the sample graphic).

Next, you must create a unique authentication key by going to the WordPress authentication key site. Copy and paste the four lines into the config file where it shows the sample lines.

Security Tip #1

The last and most important change is to make sure that you change your Table Prefix. Most hackers know that the default prefix is “wp_”, so change it to something totally random, like “wp_2H5i7U1ba”. Just add some random upper and lower case letters and numbers. This will make it much harder for a hacker to break into your database.

Save the file. Rename it as wp-config.php and either upload it from your computer, or just rename the one that’s on your Web site.

Kick Off The Installation Process

wordpress_setup_page_thOpen your browser and go to the Web site with the directory into which you installed the WordPress software. So if it’s in the /blog directory, go to http://www.yourdomain.com/blog and the installation process should automatically kick off. If it complains that it can’t connect to the database, check your config file to make sure you entered all the database information correctly.

It will automatically create an admin id and password. Print this page out! If you forget the password, or don’t write it down, you have to delete the database and start all over.

Security Tip #2

new_admin_id_thBefore you do anything else, create a new admin id that is something like “admin0512″ (or a name that means something to you) and very secure password using upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters. The meter will show you how secure your password is. Hackers know that the default admin id is “admin”, and will try to hack it. Now log out, log in with your new admin id, and delete the original admin id. This is critical to prevent hackers from getting into the site (or at least slow them down).

Apply a Theme

install_theme_thThere are lots of free themes (looks) that people have developed. Find one that has four or five stars and apply it to your site. The ones that have high ratings and have been downloaded thousands of times have been tested and upgraded so that they work the best for you. You can always customize it with your logo and other changes later.

Install Plugins

install_plugins_thI have a specific set of plugins (which are additional functionality that doesn’t come with the base WordPress software) that add value. I recommend that at a minimum, you install these:

  • XML Sitemaps – Creates XML sitemaps for Google automatically, which is great for getting indexed
  • Google Analytics for WP – Set up your Analytics code so you can track all the throngs of people reading your blog
  • All In One SEO Pack – Has great SEO tools for your blog
  • Akismet (already installed, but be sure to activate it) – It catches all the comment spammers and blocks them
  • WP Security Scan – Gives you a report to see if your WordPress blog is fully safe from hackers
  • WP DB Backup – Allows you to back up your database before you make any changes. ALWAYS back up your database before you upgrade or do anything!

Configure Your Ping Servers

setup_ping_servers_thWordPress comes pre-configured with a single ping server, but you’ll want to add more. Every time you create a blog post, you want to make sure that the search engines know about it. When you click “Publish”, WordPress will go tell all the ping servers that you’ve configured to notify the search engines about your new post. This is my list of ping servers. Just copy and paste the list into the configuration screen, and click save.

Configure Your Permalinks

Permalinks is a setting that tells WordPress how to display the links to your blog posts. We all know that you want your keywords in the link text if you can. The default setting for WordPress doesn’t give a very SEO-friendly link, so I recommend that you change it. Many people debate about the “right” way to set them up. Set them, and don’t worry about it. Most people set them to:

/%category%/%postname%

which will display your posts with a subdirectory of the post “Category”, then the actual words from your post title.

Now, you’re done and ready to start blogging. You might want to go to Technorati.com and register your blog there too.

Posted in: Tips.
Tagged: · · ·

Ping Server List for your Blog

Nov 4th, 2009
by Thomas Petty.
3 comments

If you’re new to blogging (or even if you’re not), you need to make sure that your blog gets found by the search engines and indexed. By letting special servers know that you’ve just posted a new entry in your blog, you can ensure that Google and the others will come index you.

Most blogging software has the ability to send out a “ping” notice when you’ve published something on your blog. Remember from the movie “The Hunt For Red October”, Captain Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) on the Russian sub sends one ping message to Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) on the American submarine to let them know they are there, as well as send a message.

Your blogging software can do the same thing and let the search engines know that you’re out there, and you’ve posted something new they should come check out. Make sure you configure it with a lengthy list of ping servers, which includes Google’s own.

Here is my list of ping servers. I’m sure there are many that are missing, but this seems to work for me. Whenever I post a new blog entry, it’s usually on Google within about 10 minutes, because WordPress sends a ping, one ping only, to the search engines.

Just highlight and copy/paste the list below into the configuration of your blog.

Blog Ping Server List

http://1470.net/api/ping

http://api.feedster.com/ping

http://api.moreover.com/RPC2

http://api.moreover.com/ping

http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2

http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping

http://bblog.com/ping.php

http://bitacoras.net/ping

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC

http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc

http://blogmatcher.com/u.php

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc

http://coreblog.org/ping/

http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt

http://ping.amagle.com/

http://ping.bitacoras.com

http://ping.blo.gs/

http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/

http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/

http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc

http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://ping.myblog.jp

http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php

http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

http://ping.weblogs.se/

http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2

http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/

http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/

http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/

http://rpc.newsgator.com/

http://rpc.pingomatic.com

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

http://topicexchange.com/RPC2

http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php

http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b

http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php

http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2

http://www.blogoole.com/ping/

http://www.blogoon.net/ping/

http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates

http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1

http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php

http://www.blogsnow.com/ping

http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi

http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/

http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php

http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud

http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php

http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php

http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2

http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/

http://xmlrpc.blogg.de

http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/

Posted in: Search Engine Optimization, Tips.
Tagged: ·

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