PureBlogging

Would you like to streamline the task of managing your WordPress blog? Well, have I got a list for you… Mashable has a list of 50+ tools for the WordPress Admin that is loaded with plugins that can help you with your daily blogging tasks.

Running your Wordpress blog can feel like a full-time job sometimes. We’ve compiled an A-Z list of more than 50 plugins to help you streamline everything you need to do out back. As with any plugins list, don’t install them all at once!

I don’t have any need for most of these plugins but I will certainly test a few of them.

The following guest post has been submitted by Steven Snell from Vandelay Website Design.

What does every successful blogger have in common? They are all part of strong networks with other successful bloggers. Blogging is very community and network based and because of this you should make it a priority to grow your network. As your network grows, so will the level of your success.

How Do Bloggers Benefit From Their Network?

• Links – Bloggers link to other bloggers that they know and like. The more contacts you have, the more links your are likely to receive. Links will bring click-through traffic and improved search engine rankings.
• Opportunities for promotion – Getting some attention for your blog or for a new venture is much easier when you know influential people who can give you a hand. (And you can help others in the same situation).
• Learning opportunities – If you are networked with bloggers who have experience and knowledge, you may be able to learn something from them.
• Content for your blog – Interviews with experts are a common and popular type of blog post. If you have the connections and interview with the right blogger can give you great exposure.

How Can I Grow My Network?

• Leave intelligent comments on other blogs – Most bloggers read the comments left on their blog posts, and many times they’ll click-through to the site of the person leaving the comment. Provide thought-provoking or informative feedback and you’ll stand out. Try to focus on a few specific blogs and leave comments regularly. They’ll start to get used to seeing your name and they’ll become more familiar with you.
• Respond to comments left on your site – Many of the comments left on your blog are submitted by other bloggers. Respond to their questions and reply to their comments.
• Forums – There are several forums for bloggers, including Authority Blogger. Forums are a good place to meet other bloggers and get to know a little bit about each other. Focus on answering people’s questions and providing help to others. This way you’ll be seen as someone that others would like to have in their network.
• Communities – Blog community sites like MyBlogLog and Bumpzee are also great places to meet other bloggers. You can join a community that has a number of other members that blog on a similar subject as your blog. You can even start a community if you want.
• Guest post – Providing other bloggers with quality content for their blog is always a great way to build blogging relationships. You certainly will quickly become part of the blogger’s network if you are providing content that helps their blog.
• Encourage interaction on your blog – Networking involves a lot of interaction. Pose questions in your posts or ask for your readers’ feedback. Make an effort to get involved with those who are already reading your posts.
• Focus on positives not negatives – You will be much more likely to attract others to your network if you are generally positive rather than negative. Negativity will turn people away and make it harder to grow your network or community.
• Thank others when they link to you – You might be surprised at how much a simple thank you is appreciated. When I receive a thank you from another blogger I always keep them in mind for the future, and I’m much more likely to link to them again.
• Link to others – One of the best ways to get others to notice you is to link to their blog. When they see an incoming link or when they see statistics on the traffic they’re getting from your site, they are likely to check you out.
• Be willing to help others – In general, be willing to help other bloggers when you have the opportunity. If you do, they will repay the favor and you’ll both benefit.

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This is a guest post by Steven Snell. Mr. Snell designs websites and maintains a blog for Vandelay Website Design. You can read more of his writing and see his portfolio at www.vandelaydesign.com.

Welcome to this week’s edition of Weekend Links! Every Friday, I reward the active members of this community by featuring an interesting post from the top commentators.

If you would like to see your post featured here, just join the conversation by commenting regularly and next week you just may make the list.

Here’s this week’s list:

• Search Engine Marketing is now hosting a a set of free search engine marketing tools.
• Saman Sadeghi is an A-List Blogger! Unfortunately, I’m just a lowly B-Lister… hey, does that make me the Paris Hilton of blogging?
• Tyson gets creative and compares blogging to having a baby.
• Bloggeries has a new tool that allows you to create a poll for your blog.
• CutieGadget lists the top 10 Japanese games that you don’t need to understand Japanese to play.
• JoLynn Braley talks about a real motivation killer… hating the food you eat.
• Community Building Blog discusses using polls to understand your readers.
• Rhys reveals three less than wholesome reasons why he subscribes to your blog. So, which is it Rhys… do you fancy me or is my blog rubbish?
• Angie reminisces about the joy of blogging.
• Jamaipanese lists 3 useful sites for those who are learning Japanese. He has also created some very cool Jamaipanese style Hiragana and Katakana charts.

Congratulations everyone, you’ve been stumbled… Have a great weekend!

Lisa Barone from BruceClay.com gives a recap of the SEO advice provided by Matt Cutts at the Wordpress Wordcamp this past weekend. There are some interesting tidbits included.

Here are the highlights:

• Don’t put your blog at the root page of your domain in case you decide to do something other than a blog in the future.
• Name your directory “blog” not “Wordpress”.
• Use category names that are good keywords.
• Use the SEO Title plug-in to make your keywords more prevalent.
• If you want to get into Google News, you’ll need to add multiple authors.
• The file extension used in your URL won’t affect your rankings, unless it’s “exe”.
• Use Alt attributes when adding images, videos, audio files, etc. to your posts.
• Google does not care about the number of slashes in a URL… so URLs like blog/year/month/day/title are not a problem.
• Underscores and hyphens both will be treated as word separators by Google.

There are other SEO tips for bloggers included so I recommend you check out the entire article.

The following guest post has been submitted by Steven Snell from Vandelay Website Design.

All successful bloggers have been able to create quality content for their readers. Unfortunately, creating quality content doesn’t guarantee success for a blog. Without readers to notice the quality of the writing, nothing is gained. If you’re having trouble getting readers to notice you, consider using some of the methods listed below. They all focus on getting your articles in front of new audiences, which will increase your exposure and your subscriber numbers.

1 - Article Directories

One of the oldest methods for marketing yourself through articles is to post them on article directories. There are dozens of directories online with thousands of articles that other webmasters are free to use on their own site. You give them some great content and in return you will get to display a brief author bio at the end of your article with a link to your website.

This used to be the #1 way to spread your articles across the internet. Recently though, search engines have aimed to keep duplicate content out of the SERPs (search engine results pages), which means your article distribution with this method will rarely result in a lot of search engine traffic. Even worse, if the article is also posted on your website you run the risk of search engines identifying your website as having duplicate content. Also, the links from sites duplicating your content are unlikely to boost your search engine rankings.

That being said, article directories still have value. The key to using them successfully is to only use articles that you are not posting on your own site. This way you will not be penalized for having duplicate content on your site/blog. Even if the inbound links from your bio are not helping your rankings, they can still be a good source of click-through traffic.

Some of the most popular article directories are:

• EzineArticles.com
• GoArticles.com
• EasyArticles.com

2 – Write for Other Blogs

Most bloggers spend so much time focusing on creating content for their own blog that they neglect one of the best ways for reaching a new audience. Regardless of what topic you blog about there are probably plenty of others that have a similar audience. By writing a post for another blog you instantly increase your visibility and name recognition while potentially gaining new readers for your own blog.

Every blogger has a need for valuable content (original articles only, not something that’s already posted on your website), and if you can offer high-quality writing to another blogger they are likely to accept. Start with the blogs you read on a daily or weekly basis and look for those that might be a good fit with your writing. You can find blogs who are looking for content at Guest-Blogger.com (and create your own account while your there).

Read more »

If you’re like me, one of things you love about blogging is the community aspect. I love sharing ideas and discussing the ins and outs of blogging. I also like to share when I find a good resource.

Chris Garrett recently announced his new Authority Blogger Forum and it has already grown into a very useful resource that will certainly benefit the blogging community. There are a number of very interesting discussions already taking place and that can only get better as more people join in.

If you get a chance, come on over and join the conversation.