Google recently released a PDF guide on what they consider to be good search engine optimization for their search engine. Trust Google over the “SEO gurus”….

Some of the information includes:

• improving title and description meta tags
• URL structure
• site navigation
• content creation
• anchor text

This PDF guide confirms some of the SEO principles we already know and helps us to optimize for Google without the fear of running foul of their rules.

Tagged As: Anchor text, Google, Google search, Search Engine Optimization, SEO

Posted by Vincent on 18 November 2008 12:05 PM in Search Engine Optimization | 0 Comments |

I got my idea from Tim Ferris’ blog…

You see that nice speech bubble effect? It is actually quite a pain in the neck to create with pure CSS and images. It is possible to create it with pure CSS code in Firefox but not in Internet Explorer. I decided to go with Will Mayo’s CSS Speech Bubbles because the code is simpler than other similar speech bubble scripts I found on the internet. I further simplified Will’s code to cut out the unnecessary code and make it even more idiot proof.

Step 1: Download Will’s CSS Speech Bubbles

Download Will’s CSS Speech Bubbles and extract the zip file’s contents to your computer. This script uses the Curvy Corners Javascript by Cameron Cooke and Tim Hutchison. This is a really cool way …

Tagged As: CSS, css speech bubble, curvy corners, javascript, twitter, WordPress

Posted by Vincent on 6 November 2008 12:00 AM in Wordpress Help | 1 Comment |

According to the official documentation on static front pages at WordPress.org:

With the release of WordPress Version 2.1, the option to set your own front page can be accomplished via your Administration > Settings > Reading panel. However unlike the old explanation that follows, you must NOT name your home page template file “home.php”. If you do, this will cause a conflict with the WordPress 2.1 system.

I personally find that there are some weird behaviours when I use the recommended way of setting a page as my WordPress home page. I noticed that WordPress does not really recognise the home page as a page when I use the is_page() function.

I like to display my blog posts in the “/blog/” folder but I do not wish to install WordPress in the “/blog/” folder. There is a document on WordPress.org on how to make your blog appear in a non-root folder. …

Tagged As: blog folder, Homepage, Permalink, root folder, Template, WordPress, wordpress home page

Posted by Vincent on 5 November 2008 12:00 AM in Wordpress Help | 0 Comments |

Sometimes the “Page Template” field disappears when you are trying to update the page template of your WordPress pages. This usually happens after you have upgraded your WordPress to a newer version.

Here’s how you can fix the missing page template…

Step 1: Activate Another WordPress Theme

I am using my own custom WordPress theme so I activated the default WordPress theme as an example.

Step 2: Re-Activate Your WordPress Theme

Activate the WordPress theme you were using when this bug occurred.

Step 3: Reload Your Edit WordPress Page

You should see the “Page Template” field back in the “Advanced Options” …

Tagged As: page template, Template, Theme, WordPress

Posted by Vincent on 4 November 2008 12:00 AM in Wordpress Help | 0 Comments |

Image via CrunchBase

There are a couple of WordPress Comments enhancements in the market. However, I am not rushing to install Disqus, IntenseDebate or JS-Kit any time soon.

If I plan to install one of them, it has to be IntenseDebate simply because Automattic, the company behind WordPress, has acquired IntenseDebate. I believe they are going to improve IntenseDebate and integrate it with WordPress in the future so it would be wise to just follow the next WordPress commenting standard.

It would be interesting to see what develops in the coming months after WordPress 2.7 is released. I wonder if WordPress will include IntenseDebate in WordPress 2.7?

Tagged As: automattic, comments, Disqus, IntenseDebate, js-kit, WordPress

Posted by Vincent on 3 November 2008 12:00 AM in Wordpress Help | 1 Comment |

This post is an update to my previous post on “My Favourite WordPress Plugins for 2008“. I actively use these plugins on my WordPress sites. If you know of better alternative plugins, please leave a comment and let me know about it. I am researching Twitter WordPress plugins to add to this list.

Comment Spam Protection

1. Akismet is still the king of comment spam protection. It stops almost all spam comments on my blogs.

2. WP-reCAPTCHA plugs whatever Akisment fails to stop. This prevents comment spam bots from filling up your form. Once the bots see a word verification field, they won’t be able to submit a comment to your blog unless they enter the “captcha” code. After they have successfully submitted a comment, they still need to go through Akismet’s filters. Tough luck comment spammers!

Comments

1. Comment Relish automatically sends an email to a first-time comment poster of …

Tagged As: Akismet, captcha, comments, FeedBurner, Plugins, RSS, Search Engine Optimization, WordPress, wordpress plugins

Posted by Vincent on 2 November 2008 12:00 AM in Wordpress Help | 2 Comments |

I came out with this idea of combining Comment Relish with Lucia’s Linky Love plugins to generate more repeat comments on any WordPress site.

Comment Relish sends an email to a first-time comment poster of your blog while Lucia’s Linky Love enables the “follow” links of repeat comment posters. I decided to let my first-time comment posters know about how they may get “follow” links back to their web sites from their comments if they post at least 10 comments.

This is my Comment Relish code:

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Hi %AUTHOR%,
 
Thank you for posting your first comment on MaverickWebCreations.com.
 
We will turn off the "nofollow" links from your both your author and comment text once you have contributed 10 approved comments to our blog, which helps the search engines to recognize the links back to your web site.
 
This is our way of saying thanks for helping us build a community on our blog.
 
Sincerely,
 
Vincent

Feel …

Tagged As: blogging, Comment, Comment Relish, Lucia’s Linky Love, Nofollow, WordPress

Posted by Vincent on 1 November 2008 12:00 AM in Wordpress Help | 2 Comments |

This post is quite similar to my previous post on how to add MooTabs to WordPress. I recently tested Tabber on my internet marketing blog and I find that it is better than MooTabs because it is compact in file size, easier to install and customize.

The default Tabber look and feel is acceptable. I did not need to make a lot of changes to make it look good on my web site. Compared to MooTabs, Tabber requires a lot less work to customize.

Step 1: Download Tabber

Go to Tabber’s web site and download the latest version of Tabber.

Step 2: Upload Tabber to Your WordPress Theme’s Folder

I like to store my Javascript files in a folder called “js”. For my CSS files, I like to store them in a folder called “css”. Let’s assume my template folder is called “cooltemplate”, you should upload the Tabber files in the following …

Tagged As: Cascading Style Sheets, HTML, javascript, mootabs, Web design, WordPress

Posted by Vincent on 31 October 2008 12:00 AM in Wordpress Help | 1 Comment |

Yahoo Buzz is new player in the social news industry but I believe it will become a huge force to be reckoned with just because it is a Yahoo web site.

On Yahoo Buzz’s buttons page, it has 5 tips to get more votes:

1. Put Yahoo! Buzz buttons on everything you publish.
2. Consider adding two buttons for each story you publish: one at the top and one at the bottom.
3. We highly recommend the larger buttons with vote count.
4. Encourage your visitors to buzz up your stories and send them to friends.
5. See the bottom of this page for advanced button options.

Since Yahoo recommends that we use the larger buttons with vote count, let’s use the “Square Button” of the “Buttons with Vote Count” list of buttons.

Here’s How the Yahoo Button Will Look on Your Web Site…

If your blog post has been submitted to Yahoo, you should …

Tagged As: Buzz, digg, reddit, Social Media, WordPress, Yahoo, Yahoo Buzz

Posted by Vincent on 30 October 2008 12:00 AM in Wordpress Help | 0 Comments |

DZone is a great site for developers to share the latest news on programming and web development. If your site has anything to do with these topics, be sure to submit to DZone as often as you can.

On DZone’s Tools, Buttons and Widgets page, there are 2 types of voting buttons you may use on your web site. I chose to use the “Style 1 (tall)” button for my web site.

This tutorial differs from my previous posts on How to Add reddit Buttons to WordPress and How to Add Digg Buttons to WordPress because I no longer display my voting buttons at the right or left of each post. Now, I prefer to display my voting buttons at the bottom of each post on the theme file single.php.

Here’s How the DZone Button Will Look on Your Web Site…

If your blog …

Tagged As: digg, DZone, reddit, social bookmarking, social news, WordPress

Posted by Vincent on 29 October 2008 12:00 AM in Wordpress Help | 0 Comments |

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