WordPress Tutorials can get very technical and more often than not is geared towards the more experienced WordPress users. This tutorial is for the non-techie, existing and new, WordPress users who would like to improve their blog, by focusing on key aspects of blogging with WordPress.
1. Content
Niche:
When you start your new blog, you first need to decide which topic your going to focus on. Many of us don’t do this, but choosing a niche topic, specially one that has a possibly large audience and a small offering, will greatly improve your chances of discovery. Here’s a few tips to remember when starting off.
1. Choose your niche. (For the techie – do some keyword research first)
2. Keep your focus on that topic! You’ll be tempted to start writing about other things. Rather start a new blog and use your other ideas there.
2. Quality Content:
The web is filled with millions of blogs, possibly just like yours. Just focusing on a niche topic won’t be enough if you’re looking to go to the top.
1. Focus on quality instead of quantity. You’ll be tempted to use a plugin such as FeedWordPress to populate your blog with content. This might work in certain situations, but more often than not it’s better to write quality content people will read more than once, and be excited to share with their friends. These days I focus on writing , 300 + word articles, when I get the time.
3. SEO Your Blog
It’s not as techie as it seams. SEO or “Search Engine Optimization” refers to the practice of optimizing your blog and blog posts for search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo.
1. Why SEO
In most cases you will be receiving at least 80%+ traffic from search engines. Even though search engines already love WordPress, you need to focus on certain areas of your blog to be as accessible as possible to search engines.
2. Improving SEO
You can find various WordPress Themes and Plugins, downloadable for free, which will help you optimize your blog for search engines. Stay tuned for our “The Ultimate WordPress SEO Plugin” post.
4. Get Social
These days it is essential to focus on social applications such as Facebook and Twitter. Being social allows your blog to grow in a “natural/viral” way. It also gives you a chance to be more engaging with your visitors and get them to come back.
1. Setup a Facebook and Twitter account. It’s really simple and you can find hundreds of good tutorials online.
2. Connect your blog to your social networking accounts and remember to import your posts. Stay tuned for our “Connect your WordPress blog to Facebook and Twitter” post.
5. Social Bookmarking
You can also include Facebook and Twitter here, but I will specifically look at social bookmarking services such as StumbleUpon, Digg and Reddit. Social Bookmarking allows you to bookmark your latest blog posts. This allows millions of users to vote and share your content.
1. Use an appropriate theme or plugin which makes it as easy as possible for visitors to share your content. Stay tuned for our “WordPress Social Bookmarking Made Easy 2011 ” post.
2. Look for social bookmarking services specifically made for your niche. As a rule of thumb I use Digg, Stumbleupon and slashdot for blogging/news/technology posts and Reddit for humor.
6. Offerings by us
We don’t only preach, we actually do. Here’s a few offerings from LivingWP which will help you get your blog out there.
1. WordPress Blog Directory – Submit your blog to our directory. It’s free and stays for life.
2. Join our Forum – Meet new members or post links to your latest blog posts.
3. Use our Social Bookmarking service, made especially for WordPress powered blogs.
We’ll try and add new tips as they come along.
About Sarel Jan
Technology, Blogging and Social Media is what I like. Web Development is what I love and do.
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Non-Techie WordPress Tips for Beginner Bloggers…
If you use WordPress to power your blog, use these tips to put you above the rest….