I broke down and bought the new Thesis Wordpress theme. It’s a quality wordpress theme but it’s not free. It’s the first time I’ve purchased a theme. I usually pay someone to customize a free theme. I’m still learning it but here’s my preliminary review.

Is Thesis worth it?
I think it is. I like that I can change the width of my columns and number of columns very easily. I like that it’s very easy to change the font face and size (wish that included color). Things that would take a long time are much quicker and site wide rather than having to go into many files. With Thesis I only edit one file instead of widgets or code. They have a design panel and a regular panel that has a large menu of options for making global changes.

I also like how you can choose a template for each page. Just choose from a dropdown and you can choose to show a template that doesn’t have a sidebar. So it makes it much easier to operate the site like pages of a web site rather than a blog.

Technical Skills
I’m still learning but what I don’t like is that you still need some technical skills to make changes to the header image, background image and tweaks like that. I use hooks (a separate download) which help me place ads in the right places but they’re a little complicated because you need to know CSS. There are tutorials but again I wish this was easier to use. It’s even confusing to me than editing code from the files themselves.

Aesthetics
The style is so boxy and plain. Most of the customizations I’ve seen still have that feel. I’m not sure how to round corners or make the site look more aesthetically pleasing. Even adding a new header is a pain. Many bloggers stick with Blogger because they have more designs out of the box. Of course you can pay someone to design your site. There aren’t a lot of designs that appeal to women. I talked to Joseph Scott and his wife about it last week. He works on Wordpress (programmer). I’m not sure he’s convinced that it’s as big of an issue as I think it is.

What do you think about Thesis WP theme?

I found out I was mentioned in this story about bloggers who make money on their blog. Dooce is the queen of blogging in Utah but there are several who make money on their blog and because of their blog. Most bloggers (including me) make more money because of the reputation we’ve built blogging.

Ways my blog makes money:

• More visibility = consulting opportunities. For example, someone Google’s “press release writer” and finds me and hires me.
• More visibility = other types of business opportunities, job offers and partnerships. Note: I got a job from CraigsList and an interview with an amazing organization off LinkedIn but otherwise it’s almost all because of my blog and relationships. I like having a job to go to, unlike a lot of people who love working from home on their own or just consulting.
• I sell more press releases writing and related services. I’m still ironing out the kinks but I’ve gotten more new clients this way now. Until recently it was mostly word of mouth.
• Affiliate ads (some months this is by far the biggest income but its inconsistant).
• By far the biggest is others paying me to blog on their site. I make most of my income blogging for others (including at my day job), which means I blog here less. I also tweet more than I blog now. Twitter has spoiled me.

Interestingly enough, no one has ever paid for an advertisement on my blog. I’ve had a few bites but they were either unethical or they didn’t follow through. I should pursue it more. Affiliate marketing has spoiled me.

I mostly blog because I love to write and share what is happening online and what I’m learning. I remember my boss at Tahitian Noni absolutely hating that I was blogging so much at work. Then I remember thinking, if I can’t stop doing this then someday I’ll get paid well to do it. And that is what happened.

Search engines still reward blogging because tends to be quality, frequently updated and longer. A blog is still my home base for everything I do. It’s also a public record and reference for me.

The community and recognition I get from blogging is great but at the end of the day I still absolutely love internet marketing. From the minute I learned what it was I have pursued it. Thankfully my first job out of college was answering the phones at a high end web site development company. I surfed the Internet a lot and learned it inside and out. I never knew it would make me money or that it would become my career. I learned HTML. I’ve always loved marketing. Eventually I found my niche. It’s been a fun ride and it’s still just beginning.

I just bought Thesis Wordpress theme - and the point is that it makes it easy to modify a Wordpress theme so that it’s customized to what you need. I bought the programmer’s version. You can customize the column widths, change out the header for different pages, use different themes for each page (such as pages without sidebars that you can use as a home page) and other features. This should make it easier to use a blog for a web page and a blog. Once you buy the theme you get access to the forums and the tutorials.

One of the big selling points is that you can add different styles to paragraphs. As I’ve complained about before, Wordpress makes it tough to make nice-looking text. Also, you can star content, add colored boxes, etc. to add variation to your blog posts. I found this plugin that makes customizing your CSS easier - and you can do it within your dashboard.

I had issues with viruses on my sites that I finally got rid of. I found a blog whisperer who is amazing at this - ping me if you need his contact information. I’m also reading about how to use Facebook groups to get more traffic to your blog - from Problogger.

Next up: try Thesis and see exactly how easy it is to use. If you’re ahead of me I’d like to hear your feedback.

I recently had a lot of spam drama on my blog. It explained why my blog has been so slow! I met Vlad years ago as an affiliate marketer. Then I found him again on Twitter. He has been key in helping me get rid of the spam problem and helping with other parts of my blog. He has been invaluable.

I learned two things: always upgrade your blog to the most recent version. And monitor your site by adding a Google alert like this one site:newspapergrl.com viagra OR cialis OR levitra

One thing Vlad did after securing my blog is to optimize my WP Super Cache Plugin. I asked him to write an instructive post about what he did.

In Vlad’s words:

I absolutely love this plugin. The plugin author has written a very in-depth overview of what this plugin was designed to do. It helps your blog load faster and handle higher traffic loads. Countless bloggers have written about it and how it helped to keep their servers intact when unexpected waves of Digg traffic roll in. While I’ve never had my posts featured on the front page of Digg, I do receive a lot of traffic from StumbleUpon.

The first time I realized I might need the plugin was the time I started to think I might need a dedicated host to handle the increase in traffic to my blog. Currently the websites (10+) I operate all are hosted on a shared account. Most of them are powered by WordPress. And as much as I love WordPress, it can put some heavy loads on the server.

One day instead of your website you might see an error message from your host saying following “this accounts has been suspended, please contact your web hosting provider immediately.” I would have never seen this massage had I installed WP Cache Plugin as one of my first plugins. I was ready to buy more space and WP Super Cache saved me from having to do that.

So what does WP Super Cache do?

It replicates the pages of your blog and saves them as HTML files. And instead of serving your pages to your visitors through PHP scripts, it serves them as plain old HTML files, practically eliminating sever load. If visitors to your blog do not leave comments on your blog (about 90% + of visitors), the pages will never be served via PHP to them.

Originally this plugin was designed to survive traffic from websites like Digg. I do however believe that this plugin should be highly recommended by shared web hosting providers, and even “enforced” by those web hosts that tend to oversell their servers.

Important things to remember when istalling this plugin.

WP Super Cache plugin belongs to those plugins that require extra attention. Besides installing and activating the plugin, you actually need to turn plugin on via it’s own settings:

It is important that you choose the custom (aka as “pretty”) permalinks setting in your blog as WP Super Cache will not work with “ugly” permalinks, if you have not done so already.

Finally, WP Super Cache will ask you to update the .htaccess file. If you have modified your file already, it would be a good idea to back up that file and/or manually insert the necessary code provided in the WP Super Cache plugin settings page.

Finally to assure that plugin is working properly, you need to view the source of any of the pages of your blog. Look for the following code found at the very end:

If it’s there, your WP Super Cache is working, and is or will be saving your some cash. Remember to share your blessing with the developer of this plugin.

Vlad Zablotskyy can be found blogging at SageBlogger.com, Go Beyond MLS and Vlad Zablotskyy Interpreting LLC.

Thanks Vlad for this helpful instruction! Next I’d love to get a guest post about Stumbled Upon.

I just got off the phone with my friend Chris and we talked about how we hardly blog anymore. Also about how nothing seems that exciting in tech lately. It’s mostly about Google and the iPhone over and over. Are we just cynical or have things quieted down considerably?

My take is when something is new and beginning it has a certain romance about it that is alluring. The charisma pulls you in. You’re willing to make sacrifices (go for longer periods of time without sleep or eating) and spend a lot of your time thinking about the Internet, web 2.0, your blog posts. I used to really track my numbers and have regular conversations on the phone about who said what, how many reads, the comments we got.

But later you reach a different stage - maintenance. Things are more old hat. You go to work, you come home and it’s possible you don’t get online (at least not for hours). We’ve noticed we have less to blog about and the community feeling has faded. Bart, who sits next to me chimed in that he blogs less too. I’m not saying that blogging is a waste or that it doesn’t work (it certainly does), it’s just not as exciting as it once was. The news in the tech world seems to be the same.

What have you noticed - are you still blogging as much? Is it the economy (we’re all working hard rather than talking)? Are we burned out? Or is this just a natural evolution?

My article on SEO for blogs was featured in the March/April 2008 issue of Engage Magazine. My friends Nash and Shahar started the magazine. They do a great job making internet marketing subjects simple for small business owners.
http://www.engagemag.net/archives/Engage-Mar08Web.pdf

Like many bloggers, I started on (now Google owned) Blogger, went to WordPress hosted, and last to WordPress with my own domain and host. These posts are really for me to remember, so they are a bit indulgent, please forgive me
Here are some important milestones:

• Got the domain name www.newspapergirl.com in addition to www.newspapergrl.com (without an “i” a clever but ultimately stupid idea but one that stuck). Then last year, a fellow blogger, Jeff Barr found and donated domain with the “i.” I consider it a great kindness still.
• My blog is still a reference for me. I regularly search it at work or home to find something to help a client, partner, or coworker.
• My blogging skills have been the source of jobs and helped pay the mortgage when I was a contractor and had tough times.
• Through blogging I’ve made a community of friends who are very smart and generous. I have two blog cheerleaders, Tawnie and Paul who’ve been reading from the beginning.
• Blogging has made me a better writer.
• Kept me current on my industry.
• Helped get me contract work, jobs, and build my reputation online which has helped in the real world too.
• Helped launch two other great blogs - StartupPrincess and Paul Wilson my business partner and friend who recently sold his blog and will start another one. I’ve also encouraged many businesses to blog and coached them on how to optimize their blogs for search engines.
• Made money from my blog, directly, through advertising. This isn’t significant but it’s a reward. Obviously I write here because I love to write. I have experimented with different things but I haven’t tried too hard to optimize or make money from blogging. First and foremost it’s still what it started out as being - a record of my business life.
• Got mentioned in a real newspaper - the New York Times.
• Was mentioned in a book (brilliant marketing idea!) by online PR expert David Meerman Scott, along with hundreds of other bloggers.
• Included in the 2000 bloggers meme (3rd row) and I felt even more a part of bigger blogging movement and it also brought a lot of links.

Blogging Goals:

• Since my blog has suffered neglect and it really needs an upgrade and redesign. I plan to do both this year.
• I blog on other blogs more often than on Newspapergirl (OrangeSoda local internet marketing, Marketing Pilgrim, and The Latest at Google) but I will continue to give my personal take on internet marketing here.

Installing a Wordpress blog on your own host takes a bit of of technical know-how. That’s why most start out with a Blogger blog. However, the benefits of Wordpress for search engine optimization make it worth the effort. Also, Wordpress is open source which means people are always creating free plugins and innovating. You don’t have to wait for the company to create new features.

You can create a blog instantly at www.wordpress.com but then you’ll have wordpress in your domain name (i.e. newspapergrl.wordpress.com). Wordpress doesn’t allow any advertising and they delete blogs that have ads. I know because my Wordpress blog was deleted and then brought back to life.

I solved a mystery last week when I learned Automattic employee Joseph Scott got my blog back for me (THANK YOU!). Automattic is the company that created Wordpress. You may not be as lucky, so be sure to pay the $7 a month so you can host your own blog. If you have a lot of traffic you’ll pay a lot more but that’s good enough for most bloggers.

How to Install a Wordpress Blog

1. Get a domain name for your blog or install as a subdirectory of your existing site.
2. Go to WordPress.org and download the Wordpress files.
3. Log into your web host, find the cPanel and click on mySQL Databases link or icon. You will need to create a new database (name it what you choose),and then add a new user. You’ll have to choose a username and password too. See the screen shots below (which are from BlueHost)



Here’s a screen shot of adding a new user (these are similar for most web hosts).

4. Change the config file (wp-config-sample.php) and upload it to your server via FTP. You can use pretty much any text editor to change the file. Textpad will work (find in your accessories folder).define('DB_NAME', 'dbname‘); // Put the name of the database in place of the bold text
define(’DB_USER’, ‘dbusername‘); // Put in your MySQL username
define(’DB_PASSWORD’, ‘dbpassword‘); // Insert your password
5. You need to upload the files (your host should have a file upload or FTP - find in the control panel) to where you want to install WordPress. Most people put it in one of two places, either in the root directory, so it is the first thing people see when they come to your site or in a sub-directory, a folder like “blog”.
6. Type in http://www.yourblogURL.com/wp-admin/install.php. Click on “First Steps” and set up your blog title. Get a temporary password.
7. Log into your blog go to http://www.blogURL.com/wp-admin - you can change the password and other detail of your blog under the “Options” tab.

Now, I know you probably have a headache! That’s why I just call Bluehost at around 1am when there is no wait and the customer service folks are more willing to spend the time I need to explain things. I have them walk me through it or I use their quick install. There are drawbacks to the quick install but unless you’re pretty technical you probably won’t notice!

To use the quick Wordpress blog install find the link in the control panel (at the bottom of the long list of links on BlueHost) that says Fantastico De Luxe.

Hope this is helpful. Please comment if there is anything that would make this easier for newbies. Next I’ll post some of my favorite plugins, including a 1-click Wordpress plugin tool that will save you a lot of grief.

Yesterday my business partner and I had lunch with Courtney Tuttle, a blogger and Internet marketer (www.courtneytuttle.com).Up until a few days ago I didn’t know he lived close so I contacted him and the next day we met him. Courtney is just as generous in real life as he is in his blog. He openly teaches what he’s learned as an internet marketer. He’s built a successful small business with several virtual employees.

I asked Court for a quick interview about our discussion. Sometimes I’m writing more than actually interacting, so I followed up after to get things in his own words. Keep reading to see what other topics we covered and for some excellent advice.

Please enjoy:

Q: What is the best way to make friends with other bloggers?

The best way I’ve found to make friends with bloggers Janet is by writing about them. This comes very easily to people that are unselfish and can be a huge asset. I’ve written quite a few posts that are about bloggers that I look up to and some of those posts have turned into very cool and rewarding friendships.

For an example on his blog see Top 7 Internet Marketers you Can Trust - which features Wendy Piersall and other well respected bloggers. This post is how he got to know most of them!

Q: What is the most rewarding part of blogging - to you?

Educating people on topics that they don’t understand. There is so much bad information out there it’s almost scary. I have always been honest with people about what internet marketing is and people appreciate that.

Q: What’s your favorite (most utilized) internet marketing tool?

Honestly, I’m not a big user of many tools. I do use Wordze [to find the most searched keywords] for most of my keyword research.

But I make the final decision on what keywords I want to target based on my own evaluation of the sites that rank well in Google for the keywords I’m researching. I guess I should say that my favorite ‘tool’ is testing. I have enough sites to test literally thousands of ideas and that is how I learned most of what I know.

Janet inserts - I haven’t tried Wordze.com but they really should optimize for the word Wordz - because they were nowhere on that search. Also, Court told me they have will show you what sites rank highest for the keywords you want to target and show backlinks. It also shows the rate at which they add new links. He also mentioned for less trafficked web sites, he uses StatCounter to get stats.

Q: What’s the best idea you’ve had for your business?

Getting help! Honestly I don’t know how I used to do everything on my own. I know have a group of people that help me with my day to day tasks, and that has really improved my quality of life. Increased time has helped me to think more clearly about what my business needs.

Q: How do you determine which keyword phrases to concentrate on?

Well there are a lot of different strategies that I use to select keyword phrases. For a niche blog, I choose keywords that have very little competition so that I can rank in Google very quickly. For a flagship blog, I choose the biggest and usually hardest keyword phrase in the industry because it will give me the most traffic once I get ranked in the top few sites.

Q: What’s your favorite linkbuilding strategy?

I actually don’t have a favorite because you have to have huge diversity to have success in your link building campaign. I would have to say that my most powerful link building strategy for CourtneyTuttle.com is the brand that I have created.

If you are really helping people to learn a business, they will show their gratitude and excitement by linking to you. If you aren’t giving them knowledge and skill that they can use, they probably won’t. They will start to believe in you and your brand if you can give them information that works and this will lead to praise and links. I would say that a pretty high percentage of my links are of this type.

Q: Has Internet marketing changed your life?

Well to be honest I have always approached internet marketing as pure business. I’m able to separate my life from that and other than having a nicer car than I used to, I don’t really think it has impacted my life at all. To me, business is business and life is life. I like to reserve my life time for friends and family and I try not to let my business get in the way of that.

Q: What technique for making money online consistently performs best for you?

Well I’m a web developer that likes to use a lot of diversity, but I would have to say that the content approach has always been the best model for me. My biggest skill is my SEO knowledge, and creating content sites works very well with that knowledge.

Q: How do you work for hours on end with absolutely no human interaction?

Well, to give anyone that reads this interview a little background, Janet and I had lunch yesterday and we figured out that in one area we are very different. Janet seems to really like interaction with people while she’s working. I prefer to work alone, as strange as that sounds.

To answer your question Janet, I’m just very different from most people in this area. I have a abnormally high amount of focus when I’m working on something, and distractions kill that focus for me. I can usually work two to four hours (sometimes up to 10 hours) without blinking. During some of these times that I have had huge moments of clarity that have helped my business to move forward.

To some people this trait is very strange Janet and I can understand why. Most people need constant interaction and I can understand that. As cold as this may sound, I simply don’t have that need. One thing that might to contribute to that trait while I’m working is my ability to turn off ‘work mode’.

I live with some good friends and we are always doing stuff at night. Last night, for example, there were about 15 people at my house to just hang out and watch the Jazz game.Tonight we’re having people over for game night - it’s looking like we’re going to have about 15 people again. We’re always hanging out with different people.

I don’t really feel like I have to have as much interaction during the day because I have more than enough at night. That means that during the day I can get more work done than I would be able to do otherwise and I can still be a good friend and have a social life. There are, of course, emergencies that can pull me out of work mode - taking care of family and friends has to come before anything else or you just can’t be happy.

I just read a feature about blogger John Chow on the Unusual Business Ideas that Work blog. I met John Chow at Blogworld a few months ago. The post talks about how much he’s made from blogging - $25k a month. He started out making $300 a month. He spends about $550 a month in expenses. He’s only been blogging for a little over a year.

The article talks about how he makes money giving away his ebook free (with affiliate links). The article says he uses more than 100 ad networks, like AuctionAds and Kontera ContentLink. 100 ad networks - my head hurts thinking about managing that!

“There are no rules or limits in blogging,” he said. “Your earning power is only limited by the traffic you can attract.” Which is the same with web sites, only blogs take a lot less effort to update.

Today my business partner and I met Courtney Tuttle (you should read his blog too). We discussed how web sites attract people once and they usually don’t return. Blogs create a community that people return to again and again to read the latest. That’s why blogs and social networks have such marketing power.

They sum up with this: Blogging isn’t just a pastime or marketing gambit anymore; it’s a living.

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