Tag Archives: WordPress

WordPress Vs. Movable Type

Jul 3, 2007 by Matt | Posted in Software & Scripts 4 Comments

So, which is the better blogging software? WordPress or Movable Type?

Movable Type is one of the older blogging packages. Once they were the cutting edge, and the most popular blogging tool. Nowadays, that title has been given to WordPress.

WordPress, though in development back in 2001, is officially successor to the old B2 blogging script. I don’t believe they share any code, though. Currently WordPress is the most popular blogging tool, thanks to it’s power, flexibility, and ease of use.

Can Movable Type still compete with WordPress? Let’s see.

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Google Custom Search or Direct Database Search?

Jun 30, 2007 by Matt | Posted in Services and Tools One Comment

Here’s an important question: Should you use Google Custom Search (GCS) on your site? Or would it be better to directly search your database.

It depends on your point of view. Some bloggers use GCS, while others use their blog software’s built-in search tool (which acceses the database and searches it). Which should you use? Let’s take a closer look at each option.

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8 Useful WordPress Plugins

Jun 26, 2007 by Matt | Posted in WordPress No Comments

In no particular order, here are some WordPress plugins I find useful.

Time-Delay Posting

Jun 18, 2007 by Matt | Posted in Blogging, Featured 11 Comments

Wouldn’t it be useful if you could write blog posts ahead of time, and have them post themselves at some arbitrary date? Most blogging software (WordPress included) can do this.

Why would you want to?

  • If you’re going on a trip, you can write posts in advance…and have them post themselves while you’re away.
  • Suppose you wrote an amazing post, and then you had a flood of ideas for another post. You wouldn’t want your new post to detract from the other one, would you? Go ahead and write it, but set it to be posted the day after.

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Starting a Great Blog Part 12 – Conclusion

Jun 15, 2007 by Matt | Posted in Blogging No Comments

Congratulations, you’ve finished the Starting a Great Blog tutorial! By now you should have a blog that stands out from all the Blog*Spot and Livejournal users out there. Why? You spent the time, effort, and small amount of money, to start a better blog. You paid $7/year for a real domain name, you installed the powerful WordPress blogging system. You took the time to market your blog, submitting to social bookmarking sites and commenting on other blogs.

Great job. Now what? Well, I recommend that you not just blog, but read other blogs as well. Read blogs on the topic you blog in, and read blogs on blogging. Below are some good blogs about blogging/websites:

There are more, of course. Just cruise around Technorati and Google.

Don’t get discouraged, even if it seems as if no one’s coming to your blog sometimes. Just keep blogging, and do a bit of publicizing. After six months or so, blogs generally start to gain momentum, so to speak.

Happy blogging!

Starting a Great Blog Part 11 – Social Bookmarking

Jun 14, 2007 by Matt | Posted in Blogging No Comments

Welcome to part eleven of the Starting a Great Blog tutorial. Today we address social bookmarking, and how it’s effects on blogging.

How does social bookmarking affect blogs? Have you noticed those little icons at the bottom of posts on most blogs? You know, those little buttons to submit the post to Digg, Reddit, Del.icio.us, etc? Social bookmarking has changed blogging, most likely for the better. How?

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Starting a Great Blog Part 10 – WordPress Plugins

Jun 13, 2007 by Matt | Posted in Blogging No Comments

Welcome to part ten of the Starting a Great Blog tutorial. Today we cover WordPress’s plugin system. No, WordPress’s abilities aren’t limited to what the developers wrote in. Anyone who knows PHP can write a plugin that extends WordPress’s capabilities. Ready to get started?

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Starting a Great Blog Part 9 – Stat Tracking

Jun 12, 2007 by Matt | Posted in Blogging No Comments

Welcome to part eight of the Starting a Great Blog tutorial! We’re getting close to the end, but there are still a few installments to go. What’s today’s topic? Stat tracking with Google Analytics. What’s stat tracking? Have you ever wanted to know how many people read your blog in a day/week/month/year? How about how many repeat visitors you get? You can learn that and more with Google Analytics.

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Starting a Great Blog Part 8 – Monetization

Jun 11, 2007 by Matt | Posted in Blogging No Comments

Welcome to part eight of the Starting a Great Blog tutorial. So, what are we doing today? Monetizing your blog. While you can do this now, some people prefer to wait awhile before putting ads on their website. As a starting blog, you’re not likely to make much money off ads. I’ve been a webmaster since 2004 (though I haven’t been doing ads on any of my sites that long), and with mixed success I’ve made small amounts of money off ads. I’m still only 1/4 of the way to an adsense payment. I’ve made larger amounts of money with other ad networks, though AdSense is undeniably the easiest to deal with (despite their high minimum check amount).

The question is: Is your blog ready to have ads on it? There are no definite answers to that question. Some people wait until they have 50 regular visitors, while others jump right in and add some ads (pun unintended). It’s up to you.

Whatever you choose, I’m still going to write about monetizing your blog. Let’s start with AdSense.

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Starting a Great Blog Part 7 – Spreading the Word

Jun 10, 2007 by Matt | Posted in Blogging One Comment

Welcome to day seven of the Starting a Great Blog tutorial series! Today, the topic is Spreading the Word. It’s less fun to write zillions of posts for your blog if no one’s reading them, so you’ll probably want to pull some extra users in. How? Keep reading.

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