As far as this blog goes I guess I need to figure out what I want to do with it.  It’s been sitting idle for more than a few months and obviously has no direction but I figure that’s ok.  This internet thing isn’t going anywhere and if it does end up serving a purpose at some point, then more power to it.  And if it doesn’t, meh.

Anyway I’ve gone with the twenty-ten theme for it for now because it’s there.  I actually like the simplicity of it and it’s pretty easy to customize.  I’m using it on more than a few of my new niche sites to just because it is really simple and looks much more cleaner than the old Kubrick default theme that WordPress was using before.  I’ll work on the header.

More to come.  I plan on doing a small review on my new HTC Evo smartphone tomorrow morning!

Site Maintenance and Stuff is a post from: Pedro B

I very seriously hope I never have to do anything this excruciating again.  I had dedicated hosting that I was splitting the cost with someone else but the dude is getting out of his sites.  Which left a pretty hefty cost for yours truly to pony up and I just can’t justify the cost.  So I’m downgrading my hosting service and am now moving like fifty freakin’ websites over to this new hosting plan and it is LAME.

Most of my sites are Build a Niche Store sites, so I’m only transferring the database and theme of each of those.  But quite a few of them are WordPress sites also, and a few of those have a BANS store in a directory.  Messy stuff.  I’m seriously considering getting a server at home and putting it in the basement or something.  My bro is a geek so he could set that stuff up for me real nice and neat, then my only concern would be the cost of a business internet service.  I would want like five IP addresses and they would have to be static IP addresses.  Comcast would want a pretty penny for that but at least everything would be in-house.  That would be awesome-ness.  Check out the cheap CHEAP pc components Tiger direct is offering for some of the latest PC hardware coming out.  No I’m not getting an affiliate commission for that link, it’s just really cheap!

I’m trying to look on the bright side of things with this transfer.  Mark over at The Niche Store Builder recently wrote a few articles about Spring Cleaning for websites.  He talked about WordPress installs, Domain names, and webhosting accounts.  With the transfers I’m making I have to do all those things!  While it is lame it does let me make sure everything I have is everything I need.  The rest can be garbage.

Transfering Websites To a New Hosting Service is a post from: Pedro B

One of my BANS sites is a niche that involves Lego sets and has the word ‘’LEGO” in the domain name.  I have been purchasing domain names for two years now and own a few that include registered trademarks in the name.  An example would be NFLAnalyst.com.  Obviously, NFL is a trademark of the National Football League and, if the NFL cared to, they could take it from me.  I have to admit that I have known for quite awhile now that the owner of a registered trademark can claim trademark infringement.  There are tons of webmasters that use trademarked names as a part of a domain name.  But I honestly never thought companies cared that much.  I feel pretty dumb now.

This morning I received an email from a representative of “The LEGO Group” advising me that I have to release one of my domain names to them or face legal action.  This representative tells me the following:

The effect of your use of the LEGO mark as part of your domain name, create the false and misleading impression that you are authorized, licensed or approved to provide information about, or goods or services with respect to, the LEGO Group’s products or the LEGO Group itself.

At first when I read the email i was pretty pissed.  The domain name mentioned in the email is one of the first I used to setup a BANS system.  I have put in a lot of effort with it as it involves a niche that I am pretty interested in.  In the last month or so i have been reading a blog about the Build a Niche Store system by a guy named Dave.  Dave has a lot of good advice for new BANS users and posts daily tips for his readers.  Using his advice, I have included lots of pages of unique content, incorporated a WordPress blog into the site and did what I could to get backlinks for my site.  Since I set the site up in November as a freshly registered domain name it has received a PageRank 3!  This is an accomplishment for me as it is not easy to be ranked that quickly for me normally.

So naturally for LEGO to just send me a letter telling me it will no longer be mine, I was mad.  Unlike a few other sites I have had to transfer, I will not be able to use 301 redirects and enjoy the PageRank juice from the old domain.  LEGO will take the domain name and let it resolve to nothing probably.  But I understand right now that this is my fault.  I should not have registered a domain name with a registered trademark.  Developing the domain into a website was an even bigger mistake as that makes the domain more valuable.  I will certainly not do this again.

I’m trying to look on the bright side of things with this.  For one, I incorporated a blog in a sub domain for this BANS install.  I always wanted to make the domain name resolve to a WordPress blog and use the BANS system in a sub directory, as Dave recommends.  I’ve been meaning to do that but I hate changing URL’s and setting up redirects.  Also I have decided to make the site even better with more unique content and landing pages.  So now I can do all these things with a brand new domain name that does not include any registered trademarks.

Moral of the story would be to avoid developing a website that includes a registered trademark, unless you own that trademark of course.

Domain Names and Registered Trademarks is a post from: Pedro B

Wordpress Blog

I have gone into the WordPress Content Management System before, but now I am going to elaborate a bit with tips for your first WordPress Blog installation. WordPress is very easy to setup and begin to use. Here I will offer some suggestions and recommendations for getting the most out of your first WordPress blog.

Here is a list of what I will be covering in this post. This may be a bit more comprehensive than what you need so feel free to jump forward to the place where you are at in your first WordPress blog.

WordPress Setup

Domain Name
Hosting
Installation

WordPress Settings

Discussion Settings
Permalinks
Changing Permalink Settings

WordPress Theme

Picking a theme

WordPress Plugins

Using WordPress Plugins
Installing WordPress Plugins
Must-Have WordPress Plugins

Your First WordPress Post

Categories
Tags
Meta

WordPress Setup

Picking a Domain Name

I go a bit deeper into picking your first domain name in a different post, but I will recap – Make sure you will love it forever and try to go with dot com!

Web hosting Service

I also touched on picking a web hosting service but this is much easier than picking your domain name. There are thousands of web hosting service out there so due some searching and make sure you know what you want out of your new web hosting service.

WordPress Installation

For your first WordPress install there are a few different ways to get setup. If you have chosen Hostgator as your web hosting service then setting up WordPress is just a few clicks away!

To install WordPress with Hostgator:

First login to your cpanel using the login information provided from Hostgator to your email address. Navigate to the bottom of your screen and look for the Fantastico Icon:

Fantastico Icon

Your cpanel may look different but the Fantastico Icon should be the same. Click on it and you will be taken to Fantastico’s Navigation page where you can select different scripts to install:

Fantastico Navigation

Click on “WordPress” and you will see a new screen where you are given a brief description about WordPress and where you will see the option for a New Installation:

Fantastico WordPress

Clik on “New Installation” and you will be taken to a screen to enter basic settings for your new WordPress installation.

Fill in the basic settings for your first WordPress blog here. By default, the “Install In Domain” option will have your domain name in that field.

The next option is “Install In Directory.” Here you can decide if you would like to install in the root of your domain or if you would like to install in a sub directory. For example, if you want to have your blog show up in Http://www.yourdomain.com/blog instead of http://www.yourdomain.com than you would type “blog” in the “Install in Directory” field.

The other options are pretty self-explanatory. Fill in the login information you want to use to login to your blog and your user nickname and email. The “Base Configuration” options are not super important as you can change them later when you login to your blog.

Fantastico WordPress Options

Manual WordPress Installation

You can also setup WordPress manually. First Download the latest version of WordPress. Then follow the installation instructions included with the WordPress download. WordPress has one of the easiest installation processes available but if you are still having problems, visit the WordPress Website Troubleshooting guide.

WordPress Settings

WordPress makes this very easy but there are a few things out-of-the-box that you should change for your first WordPress Blog.

Permalinks

One of the first things to change will be your Permalink settings. Go to “Settings > Permalinks” and change to either “Day and Name” or “Month and Name.” It is very important to change your Permalink settings from the default for a few reasons. The first is that search engines will be able to read and understand what your posts are about. The other is that users will be able to tell what your post is about by glancing at the URL.

The other default Settings for WordPress depend on you. Check the Discussion settings to change any comment settings for your blog and then the General settings to personalize a bit.

WordPress Themes

The ability to easily extend the WordPress system is what separates WordPress from other Content Management Systems. The community of WordPress developers have created, and continue to create, thousands of WordPress themes that are easy to download and install. A theme allows for personalization of your first WordPress Blog and helps you stand out from the crowd. Download WordPress themes for free and try them out on your WordPress installation.

There are also many sites online that offer further customization for a fee. This is something to consider once your WordPress blog is more popular or making a steady income.

WordPress Plugins

Using WordPress Plugins

WordPress Plugins add to your blog and help you add almost anything you can think of. Extra sidebar widgets and many back-end plugins help you personalize your blog even more.

Installing WordPress Plugins

Downloading and installing WordPress plugins is very easy to do. Log into to your WordPress blog, navigate to your “Plugins > Add New” page and there you can search for plugins that are right for your Blog. WordPress even lets you install plugins right from your plugins panel! No downloading to your computer necessary.

Must-Have WordPress Plugins

Here I will list a few must-have WordPress plugins. Some, in my opinion, are essential to getting the most out of your blog, regardless of whether you are using it to make money. Others are only necessary if you are monetizing your blog.

Akismet – Akismet is a must for every WordPress installation. Akismet blocks “Spam” comments used by bots to automatically comment on hundreds of different WordPress blogs at the same time. I have spoken to a few new WordPress users who did not have the Akismet plugin turned on and were bombarded by comment spam. It is very discouraging to see porn and gambling links being posted in your comments section and may turn a first time blogger off from WordPress. It does require getting a WordPress account but it’s free and does not take much time.

All in One SEO Pack – I love this plugin. All in one SEO Pack gives you the ability to generate Titles, Descriptions and Keywords for each of your posts and let’s you block the search engines from crawling through potentially duplicate content. What I just described might be confusing to a new WordPress user but that’s what makes All in One SEO Pack so important. You don’t really have to understand those things to use it. It is ready out-of-the-box and is very easy to use.

Google XML Sitemaps – Another must-have WordPress plugin, Google XML Sitemaps generates a XML compliant Sitemap of your WordPress blog. It is very easy to install and setup and is another tool that helps you forget about the search engines and focus on writing unique content.

Here are a few more plugins for more advanced WordPress bloggers.

Share This

Wordtwit

cforms

WP Super Cache

There are many more plugins available that may help you personalize your blog even more but remember that the more plugins you have the slower your blog pages will load!

First WordPress Post

Your first WordPress post can be about anything you want it to be but here I will list a few tips for your first post and subsequent posts.

WordPress features an awesome WYSISYG (What You See is What You Get) editor that let’s you write great posts without knowing HTML. Play around with the icons in the editor and you can be writing posts with links, pictures and different types of text in no time!

The title of your first post should be a quick description of what your post is about. You should have your title in your post more than one time and you should write it in different ways in your post. So going by those rules you should probably decide on your title after you write your post. It is good to write your title in before hand, just go back to it and be sure it describes what your post is about.

Use the “Category” option that WordPress provides. Your WordPress blog will only have the “Uncategorized” category at first. You can add new ones to the right of your “Add New Post” panel. Categories should be pretty generalized. If your writing about George Bush, your category might be “Politics” or “News.”

Tags are another feature that you should use when writing your first WordPress post. The “Tag” is also to the right of your “Add New Post” panel, just above “Categories.” Tags should be much more specific to the topic you’re writing about. In the example above, if you were writing about George Bush your tags might be “George Bush” or “President.”

The most important thing to remember when starting your first WordPress blog is to have fun with it. Write about things you are interested in and that will keep you interested in your blog.

Your First WordPress Blog is a post from: Pedro B

Happy New Year

I was only mildly hung over this morning.  Woke up at a friends house after staying up all night playing Con Quien, drinking Corona’s and eating ceviche.  All around a good time but next time I’m going to sleep before 5am.  I planned on getting a bunch of stuff done today, including setting up a BANS site that I’ve had an idea for, but I ended up doing squat.  I did help my youngest sister setup her own blog so the morning wasn’t a complete waste.

The year 2009 is here and it’s time to get things in gear again, so I’m going to make a list of things-to-do this year that I can reference and look back on at the end of the year.  This is going to be a rather broad list, easily attainable and should go towards producing long term residual income.

1. Master WordPress – Over the last year I’ve come to rely more on WordPress.  I’ve played around with other content management systems but I keep going back to it as it is best suited for what I’m trying to do and it’s just to easy and powerful to ignore.
2. Spend more time with Social Networking – I really need to get that aspect more involved in what I do.  Social Networking has exploded in the last two years and just dabbling in sites like Reddit and Stumbleupon make me think that Social Networking is going to be at least as important as SEO in the next year.  These sites bring traffic.  Period.
3. Block out distractions – I’ve learned I can’t watch Monday night Football and grow my income at the same time.  And, the same task takes about four times as long to boot.  I can do what I need to get done quickly, then watch Football, listen to music, eat or whatever it is that is causing me to take a long time.
4. Focus more on Content – This one is easy.  Just create content and the rest should fall into place.  Google keeps teaching me that thin affiliate sites with zero unique content will not be rewarded in the long run.  Time to roll out Plan B.
5. Break Down Tasks – I will make my tasks shorter and easier to accomplish this year.  Sometimes I can be a bit to ambitious with what I want to do.  Then when I figure out how long something will take, I tend to move on.  I think this blog is a good example of breaking down tasks.  One article a day, properly SEO’d, content driven without a ton of emphasis on immediate monetization and in a year I should have close to 400 quality articles.  Maybe Google will love me then?

That’s a broad plan for starters.  I think the key one is breaking this all down in to short tasks.  Make it easy.  Keep it simple.

2009 Here I Come! is a post from: Pedro B

Wordpress Content Management System

WordPress is a complete content management system (CMS) that is used by millions worldwide mostly as a blogging platform.  It is open source software released under the GPL (General Public License.) WordPress is free and the latest version can be downloaded for free at any time.  WordPress was created in 2003 as a fork of B2/Cafelog, also sometimes known as just Cafelog.

WordPress Features

WordPress feaures a very clean, easy to use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, the ability to tag posts, nested category structures, the ability to create clean, search engine friendly permalinks and one of the most extensive group of users and developers for any open source CMS.  These users have helped create a huge library of downloadable, easily installed plugins and themes that can help personalize a WordPress installation.

Along with its massive base of users, WordPress developers keep up a constant stream of updates that take care of vulnerabilities and exploits that are found in WordPress installations.

WordPress is used by anyone who wants to write about anything.  Some use it to build a website as WordPress is not just a blogging platform but a complete content management system.  It is also heavily and successfully used by affiliate marketers.  Affiliate marketing using WordPress is a great way to attract and keep visitors and stay on the good side of popular search engines.

Content is, and always will be, King on the world wide web.  WordPress makes creating content easy and enjoyable.

WordPress Content Management System is a post from: Pedro B