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5 Simple Ways To Speed Up Your WordPress Blog

Sly — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:29:28 +0000

If you’re ready to get heavy traffic, then you need to learn how to speed up your WordPress blog. This blog has never hit the front page of Digg (yet), but when the time comes, it sure is ready for the traffic. Even without the need for preparation for heavy traffic, you still need to make your blog load as fast as possible. Visitors don’t like slow sites.

Here are 5 simple ways to speed up your self-hosted WordPress blog.

1. Keep Your WordPress Version Up-To-Date

The WordPress team don’t make new updates just for the hell of it. These updates usually come with performance enhancements that will help your blog in one way or another. Keep your WordPress up-to-date and you’re on your way to a faster blog.

2. Deactivate Unused Plugins

Believe it or not, the number of plugins you have activated is one of the reasons your blog is slowing down. What you need to do is go to your plugins page and go over all of the activated ones. See which ones you are actually using and which ones are not. Found something that you don’t need to use? DEACTIVATE IT! In fact, don’t just deactivate them…remove them if you have to!

3. Install the WP Super Cache Plugin

This plugin generates static html files from your blog. Translation: it will make your blog load faster.

Visit my top 10 WordPress plugins post to learn more (and to see 9 other plugins that you might will find useful).

4. Minimize Extra Scripts On the Sidebar

Everyone loves widgets. Yes they are fun and look cool, but what you might not know is that they slow down your blog because they are external scripts. Let’s look at the MyBlogLog script, for example, that shows the most recent readers from a blog. The HTML code that I plugged in is an external script that has to get data from MyBlogLog. What does this mean? Well, that means that it will take some extra time to load my site because that script has to run.

So what you need to do is minimize as much external scripts as you can. The MyBlogLog widget, the Twitter Widget, and chat boxes are good examples of widgets that are external scripts that can slow down your blog. Just keep the necessary ones and put away all the others.

5. Minimize the Number Of Images

This is pretty self-explanatory. Images take time to load and the more you have, the slower your blog will load as well. So to speed up your blog, just don’t place images on every white space you see. This is a time when white space is actually a good thing.

Got some other tips to help speed up WordPress blogs?

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Top 10 WordPress Plugins That Every WordPress Blog Should Have

Sly — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:02:57 +0000

WordPress is a very powerful blogging platform (and the best, in my opinion). Add the right plugins to your WordPress blog, and you get a Swiss Army Knife of blogging.

A lot of people ask me what the best and top plugins are for WordPress blogs. So that’s why I have compiled a list of the top 10 WordPress plugins that I think every WordPress blog should have. No matter what niche your blog is in, these 10 plugins are essential.

1. All In One SEO Pack
That’s exactly what it is. This plugin lets you easily optimize your blog for SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

2. Askimet
There are lots of spammers out there. With this free plugin, you can finally stop comment and trackback spams on your blog. As of writing this post, Askimet has already removed 43,545 spam comments from this blog!

3. cforms II
The best WordPress plugin that allows you to create convenient contact forms for your blog. cforms is highly customizable and is a very powerful form builder.

4. CommentLuv
Give your readers another great reason to leave comments! With CommentLuv, your commenters are rewarded by giving them a link-back to their blog’s latest post.

5. FeedBurner FeedSmith
If you use Feedburner, this is a must. Feedsmith automatically redirects your blog’s WordPress RSS link to your Feedburner one so you can easily track every possible subscriber.

6. Google XML Sitemaps
This plugin will create a Google XML-sitemap for your WordPress blog. Everytime you edit or create a post, your sitemap is updated and all major search engines that support the sitemap protocol, like ASK.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO, are notified about the update.

7. Sociable
With this plugin, you can automatically add links to your favorite social bookmarking sites on your posts, pages and in your RSS feed. Choose from over 99 different social bookmarking sites!

8. Top Commentators
Another great plugin to give your readers a reason to leave comments! The more comments they make, the higher they move up the Top Commentator list. This plugin also links back to the bloggers’ blogs.

9. WordPress Database Backup
An on-demand backup of your WordPress database tables. Better safe than sorry.

10. WP Super Cache
If you’re ready to hit the front page of Digg, or an influx of traffic from StumbleUpon, you need this plugin. This also makes your blog’s load times a lot faster.

Remember, these plugins are the ones that I recommend. They are not really ranked as the top 10 WordPress plugins ever made.

What are your top WordPress plugins?

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WordPress Tip: How To Randomly Redirect To Random Posts On Your Blog

Sly — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:42:33 +0000

Here’s a quick and fun WordPress tip for bloggers who own a WordPress blog. If you ever wanted to randomly go through your blog posts in a StumbleUpon-like fashion, then check out the Random Redirect plugin. It allows you create a link to yourblog.com/?random which will then randomly redirect to a random post on your blog.

To see it in action, click the link below.

Click Me To Visit a Random Post!

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Who Will Be the Next Blogging Idol Winner?

Sly — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:19:22 +0000

Dan from Daily Blog Tips has recently announced that Blogging Idol 2 will be launching November 1st. For those of you that don’t know, the first Blogging Idol was all about getting the most new RSS subscribers through clever and creative ways. Blogging Idol 2 will be just the same, but this time, there will be a panel of judges that will make the competition more fair.

Honestly, I can’t really talk much about the first Blogging Idol because I never took part in it. But that’s exactly why I’m really exited in this upcoming one because I know this is going to be lots of fun. Just imagine competing with multiple other bloggers out their all trying to achieve one goal: get the most RSS subscribers in a span of one month.

So anyway, you can go ahead and read this post to learn more about Blogging Idol. If you haven’t applied yet, make sure you do by contacting Dan. The deadline to apply is Thursday midnight of October 30th, so apply now if you still haven’t!

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Want To Start a Blog About Making Money Online? Think Again.

Sly — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:44:44 +0000

Here’s a quick reality check. If you want to make money online, the best way to start is by NOT starting a “make money online” blog!

A lot of people make the big mistake of starting a blog about “making money online” thinking that in the process they will make some easy money.

If I start a “make money online” blog, then I can easily make money from the blog! I just need to insert affiliate links everywhere, insert AdSense ads everywhere, sell text links, sell banners, write paid reviews, and all that good stuff I can do with it… right?

Wrong! First of all, yes it is possible to make some money from a MMO blog, but the reality is, there’s just so many out there that readers don’t have time to keep up with new ones. Also, here’s something you need to know when starting a blog about MMO (which I read somewhere but don’t remember where):

Over 75% Of All Your Readers Will Be Bloggers That Have Their Own Blog!

That’s 3 out of 4 people. What this means is that it will be harder for you to get clicks to your AdSense ads or your affiliate text links! Just think about it. When you visit a MMO blog that has AdSense ads, do you actually “fall” for them and click on the ads? I didn’t think so. You know about these things, and therefore, you try to stay away from them because you know exactly what they are for. But now let’s say you have a blog about “cooking” and is monetized by AdSense alone. You can plug in all the AdSense ads you want everywhere, and guess what? You will have a better chance of getting clicks to those ads than with a blog about MMO!

This “making money online” niche is too saturated, and the big boys are having all the fun. But if you still want to start one (or already have a blog about MMO), you will need to do some 500% more work than the big boys. Below are 3 tips and guidelines that will help you get to the top.

Make Sure Your Blog Doesn’t Suck

This is the most important thing when it comes to starting a new blog, whatever niche it might be in. But because you want to start a new MMO blog, you will need to make sure your blog is unique and doesn’t suck. Readers don’t like blogs that suck, you know.

Recommended Reading:
Your Blog Sucks and I Got 20 Reasons To Back It Up

Want To Be a Popular Blogger RIGHT NOW?

If you want to take a short cut, I just want to let you know that it’s possible. It’s not recommended for new blogs because you will need to build up some credentials and trust first. But as soon as you have your momentum started and have at least 50 RSS/Email subscribers, you can do this simple trick to get instant popularity.

Get Instant Traffic

Traffic is key. If you don’t want to take the shortcut as I talked about above, try applying some (or all) of these ways to explode your traffic. They all work and will bring in traffic instantly.

Recommended Reading:
30 Tips For Exploding Your Site Traffic

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6 Essential Elements Every Blog Must Have

Sly — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:34:49 +0000

Here’s a simple tip for all the bloggers out there. If you own a blog, chances are that you’re blog contains different types of elements somewhere whether it’s a plugin that does something, or a list of links to important articles.

Below are 6 elements every blog should have, no matter what niche is. Without these elements, a blog is incomplete.

1. Great High-Quality Content

This is a no brainer. This is the most important element of a blog. It’s the reason why your readers are reading your blog in the first place. Without this content that you write, there is no blog.

2. Visible RSS/Email Subscription Link

Every blog needs this no matter what. No excuses. A blog isn’t a blog if readers can’t subscribe to it whether if it’s through RSS or email subscriptions. You need to be able to send out content right to their feed readers or email inbox. Otherwise, it will just be a regular site.

The location of the subscription links are also important. Most of the times, they are located on the highest point of a blog’s sidebar. It’s also a good tactic to optimize them within each and every post, just below the content. Use the Subscribe Remind WordPress plugin to add a little snippet of text at the end of each post to remind readers to subscribe .

3. About Page

Readers love reading about the blogger who owns the blog. It provides them with a way to connect to you indirectly, and by having an about page, you are increasing the trust and loyalty they have for you. If you need help with writing your about page, check out Darren’s post on How To Write Your “About Me” Page from ProBlogger.

4. Contact Page

You need a way for people to reach you. Having a page that is dedicated for this is essential. If you don’t have one yet, try using the Cforms plugin. It creates nice-looking contact forms that you can put on your contact page.

5. Archives and Categories

Whether it’s on the sidebar, or on top of the page like I have for this blog, you need to provide your readers with the links to all the different categories that your posts are written on. It makes organization and navigation 300% easier for both the blog and its readers.

6. Featured Content

Whether it’s your most popular posts or most commented posts, it’s important to have some form of featured content listed somewhere. As you can see, the most popular, most recent, and most commented posts for SlyVisions are located on the sidebar. It doesn’t matter which one you have as long as you have some form of featured content. This gives new readers a quick look at your best work.

If You Don’t Have Them, You Don’t Have a Blog

These 6 elements are essential. If you don’t have them, you don’t have a blog. Just take a look at every blog you read and go over the list. Does it have those 6 elements? 99% of the time, the blog will have these elements. If you see a blog that doesn’t, do the blogger a favor and point them to this post.

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Dear Bloggers: Stop Wasting Time and Start Working!

Sly — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 02:35:41 +0000

Remember my post where I tell you, my readers, to stop lurking and start commenting? Well, here’s a follow-up to it, but for the bloggers out there. I know that many of you are bloggers with your own blog, and I also know for a fact that there are times when you are just lurking around the web and not doing anything. Let me tell you something… you need to get to work! Time is money (seriously) and with 10, 30, or 60 minutes of time that you waste, you could have done a lot of stuff!

So let’s say you spend 3-4 hours a day on the computer, doing whatever it is that you do everyday. And let’s say that you have spent 1 hour of that just lurking around instead of doing some work. Here’s what you could have done:

Write posts for later. You could have written at least 2-3 posts that you can publish at a later date. It’s always a good idea to write drafts just in case the time comes when you can’t update on a particular day.
Start a new PPC campaign(s). There are lots of money to be made through PPC marketing, and with 1 hour, you can make at least 10 new campaigns.
Post on forums. Forums are a great way of internet marketing. Not only can you bring your reputation up on a particular forum, but you can also bring in traffic if you link back to your blog with your signature. Each forum post you make increases the chances of your blog being seen by other forum members. Digital Point is a great place to start, but there are others out there too.
Submit posts to social networking sites. Social networking is a big part of internet marketing, and if you can do social networking, you’re already taking a big step ahead to success. You can submit posts from other blogs (as well as yours) to sites such as Sphinn and Mixx, or submit reviews to StumbleUpon. There are many other social networking sites out there, and you can surely do a lot in just a few minutes.
Work on getting traffic. Traffic is important, and you need it. If you need ideas, here are 30.
Make some quick cash. Site-flipping is hot, and you can start creating a site that you can flip later. Or if site-flipping is not for you, try domain-flipping. It’s easy, and you can easily make $50 in one day doing it.
Write guest posts. You’re not John Chow or Darren Rowse who can literally get thousands of traffic doing nothing, so you need to find exposure for your blog as much as you can. Guests posts are a great (but not perfect) way of doing this since you are showing other readers from other blogs who you are all about and what you can do. If you have plenty of time in yours hands, write a few posts that you can submit to other blogs as a guest post. Then just contact a few bloggers and ask if you can submit a guest post on their blog. If they say yes, great. If not, then go ahead and try other bloggers.

There more things you can do, but these things are the things I do when I know I have to do some work to not waste time. Do you have any other tips?

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Blog Flipping Gone Wild

Sly — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:12:35 +0000

I’m pretty exited in what’s going to happen in the next few weeks. What’s going to happen you ask? A blog flipping contest is going to happen, that’s what!

Quick Overview

Other than my own individual site-flipping project, I am currently involved in another project. Over at Site Flip U (a blog made by an old friend, Bryan Clark), there is a huge blog flipping competition that is going to start very soon. The competition consists of different teams with 5 people in each team. Once the competition starts, all of the teams have 45 days to create and sell a blog. Whoever sells their blog for the biggest sale-price wins.

What Exactly Do We Win?

Well, here’s the thing to all of this that makes it interesting. To enter the contest, a team has to pay up $25 for an entrance fee. All of the entrance fees will then go in a pot, and whoever wins the contest will win that pot of cash. As of writing this post, there are 4 teams that are set up. Do the math, and that’s $100 up for grabs, minus the $25 that my team has paid for.

But that’s not all. Don’t forget about the profit made by selling your team’s blog. So that means that even if there’s only 1 winning team, everyone still gets some cash from selling their own blog. Oh, and did I mention that all of the losing teams will have to send over 10% of their blog sale earnings to the winning team? Yup. More cold hard cash for the winners.

My Team

When the news about this competition first broke out, people everywhere were trying to get in on Bryan Clark’s team (including myself). But unfortunately for us, Bryan had already started drafting his team even before he published the post about the competition! So my hopes were gone in getting a guaranteed win since Bryan basically makes a living flipping blogs. Then I tried Joe. When I got his reply, he had already made his team.

But then there was Ryan. Yes, good ole’ friend Ryan Shamus who now also flips blogs for a living. When I contacted him to see if he already got his team made, I was told that there were still a few spots open. So I got in, and so did 3 other people. Meet our team, “The A-Team”:

Me (Co-Captain)
Ryan (Team Captain)
Justin Kander
R.J. Adams
Paul de la Warr

Some of you guys might not know the rest of my team members, but the only thing you need to know is that they all have mad site-flipping skills! We’re ready to kick some a$$! If you’re interested in joining this competition, hurry up and get a team started! You have just a few hours left before the doors close for new teams. Read this post to learn how to get started or to see the official rules on how the competition works, and here’s the list of teams that are participating. Other than that, I’ll wish the other teams good luck! You guys will need it.

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Working On My First Site Flip

Sly — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:00:23 +0000

Depending on the blogs that you read, you might already know that blog flipping is becoming more and more popular as a means of earning “easy” money online. A few months ago, I showed you how to make $50+ a day by flipping domains. I’ve sold domains quite a few domains for $30-$80 each, which is a great ROI from the original purchase of $7-$8. Now, I’m going to try out site flipping.

I’m not really going to go over how to do it step by step since there are already a few great blog posts out there on how to do it. Here’s one from TheNetFool, The University Kid, and SiteFlip U. I’d recommend you check out Site Flip U because the whole blog is about site-flipping. Oh, and guess who the blogger is behind the site? Bryan Clark… yup, the same guy who brought you One Man’s Goal (and sold it for $8,500 within a few months). Anway, here’s the main idea of site-flipping:

Buy a domain to make a site, or buy a pre-existing website
Get a bit traffic to the site
Sell and make money!

It’s actually a bit more complicated than that. Again, it all depends on the site you make and how you make it.

Anyway, I’m already working on my first blog-flip project that I’ll be planning to sell in the next few days (maybe weeks). I’ll post updates once in a while, and I’ll post up the results of how much I’ve made. For this project, I’m looking to get around $200+ for the site. I won’t be telling you what the domain and site is yet, so make sure you subscribe to keep up on my progress.

For those of you who have already done site-flipping, how did your first sale go? Did you make more than you expected or less? Tell your story in the comments below because I’d love to hear it. I’m pretty exited with my first project.

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90 (Or Less) Days To 1000+ Subscribers

Sly — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:00:46 +0000

Alright guys and gals. Here it is. My goal to get 1000+ subscribers in 90 days or less starts today, August 17 of 2008. The deadline is November 9 of 2008 (which actually sounds like a pretty long time from now).

So what exactly am I goiing to be doing to reach the 1000 subscriber-mark and how will I do it? Well, all I’ll need to do is read my own posts that I wrote a few months ago. For example, I’ll need to start commenting every time I visit a blog. I’ll also need to start writing more great content. After re-reading my own posts,I will then be executing every single one of the tips I have written. Then just “go beyond” and do other things I’ve never done before. Basically, I’ll need to do everything I can to bring back old readers and lure in new subscribers. Sound simple eh? I sure hope so. All I know is that it’s going to take some work plus a lot of dedication to finally reach the goal that I should have made a long time ago. Anyway, keep your eye out for me in your blog in the next few days!

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