When first began blogging I used Blogger as the platform for all of my blogs, I still have several hosted there. I must admit that what attracted me to the service was the ease of use and that fact that it was free. I couldn’t have imagined what my investment of a little time learning about Word Press and less than five dollars per month for hosting would mean for my results from blogging.

There are numerous advantages gained by using WordPress as the platform for your blog, the variety of plugins available is among the most significant. Plugins allow you to maximize every aspect of your blog both in appearance and function. Today, I was visiting with a marketer who is in the process of evolving his first blog and we were discussing how to make the most of your blog theme and structure.

I concluded the conversation by promising to write a short post sharing my recommendation of a few key plugins to optimize WordPress. I’ve decided to share ten, the list could easily be thirty as there really are some innovative options depending on what you want to achieve. Let me start with a quick explanation of what a plugin is and the purpose of adding them to your blog.

Simply stated, a plugin is a piece of code that controls certain aspects of your blog, from SEO optimization to appearance you can dramatically enhance every aspect of your blog. Here is a resource to help you better understand the value of using WordPress and Plugins:

Here is my top ten for today. I recommend that you install these in your blog and take care to set each one up and take full advantage of each customizable feature when available.

1. All in One SEO Pack by Michael Torbert: This plugin will provide you all of the basic features for search engine optimization and will satisfy the needs of most bloggers. There is a Pro Version of this plugin worth consideration and you can read more about Michael Tobert and his plugins on his blog http://michaeltorbert.com

I use this plugin or another called Platinum SEO Pack on all of my blogs. There are other SEO related plugins, but this is the one I would recommend for most bloggers.

2. Google XML Site Map by Arne Brachhold: This plugin makes it very simple to install a SEO friendly site map on your blog, which is essential to maximize both search engine optimization and your users experience. To learn more about Arne Brachhold and access some amazing content visit his blog http://www.arnebrachhold.de

3. SEO Title Tag by Stephan Spencer: Create a customized title tag for any post, static page, category page, UltimateTagWarrior tag page – indeed, any URL! And will auto-insert the tag name into the title on tag pages generated by UltimateTagWarrior plugin. Admin allows for mass editing of title tags. To learn more about StephanSpencer visit his blog http://www.netconcepts.com/seo-title-tag-plugin

4. Hyper Cache by Stefano Lissa: Hyper Cache system for WordPress will improve your blog perfomance and save resources. By utilizing a cache plugin you will improve page load times among a number of other benefits. To learn more about Stefano Lissa visit his blog http://www.satollo.net

5. MBP Ping Optimizer by Max Blog Press: Using this plug in will save your Word Press blog from getting tagged as ping spammer which may result in your blog being banned from these vital services.n. This plug in solves a couple of critical issues with the manner in which Word Press auto pings your post. To learn more about Max Blog Press visit their blog http://www.maxblogpress.com

6. Link Within by Link within: I love this plug in because it ensures that your older post remain relevant to new visitors to your blog by offering an attractive thumbnail of a few of your past post at the footer of every post on your blog. To learn more about Max Blog Press visit their blog, although there is not a ton of content there – just access to a few recommended uses and the download link http://www.linkwithin.com/learn

7. Pretty Link by Blair Williams: As an affiliate marketer and information products publisher, Pretty Link has become one of my favorite plugins. This clever plug in allows you to add a keyword redirect to the end of your domain name, which can be used to redirect your visitors to product sales pages, PDF doacuments, etc. This plugin cloaks, redirects and tracks your links all in one action. There is a very easy to use administration panel accessible within the WordPress dashboard. To learn more about Blair Williams visit his blog http://blairwilliams.com

8. Exclude Pages from Navigation by Simon Wheatley:  Provides a checkbox on the editing page which allows you to exclude pages from the primary navigation. This will remove the pages from any “consumer” side page listings, which may not be limited to your page navigation listings, so test the pages you exclude to ensure that they are accessible based on your initial intent. To learn more about Simon Wheatley visit his blog http://simonwheatley.co.uk

9. CommentLuv by Andy Bailey: This cleaver plugin shows the last post from your commenter’s blog by parsing the feed at their given URL when they leave a comment on your blog. This will reward your readers and encourage more comments because they are allowed to promote their post while benefiting yours. To learn more about Andy Bailey visit his blog http://fiddyp.co.uk

10. Sexy Bookmarks By Josh Jones, Jamie Carter, Gautum Gupta, Norman Yung: SexyBookmarks adds a (X)HTML compliant list of social bookmarking icons to each of your posts. This plugin does this beautifully with attractive icons and a unique multi-line listing of multiple social sites. To learn more about the authors visit his blog http://blog2life.net

Do you have a list of your favorite plugins that you can share? Be sure to add them along with a comment here and I will look forward to exploring your recommendations.

I am here to help you succeed!

(c) Copyright 2008-2010 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

*************************

James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

*************************

Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

*************************

I wanted to share the code for a neat little Word Press Plugin that will help with SEO for your blog. As you may know, when you set up your site you have the option to name your site with or without the ‘www’ identifier. So as an example you can say AskJamesHolmes.com or www.AskJamesHolmes.com either way your visitors will arrive at your site. However, this can create an unfavorable result for the search engines.

Tim Linden is the creator of StartXchange which is a manual traffic exchange that he created 9 years ago when he was 15 years young. Tim is a very talented and soft spoken guy who seems to come up with an endless list of great tools to enrich your online experience and create leverage if you are an Internet marketer.

I was reviewing my Google Analytics for this blog a few days ago and found that my data was available under the ‘non-www’ address and non existent when the ‘www’ was entered, which got me thinking. I had heard Tim make a casual reference to this plug in a week or two ago and yesterday was able to get the code from him. So guess what I am doing today?

The plug in uses a 301 Moved Permanently redirect so that the search engines will index your content using the correct variable in your URL.

The download is free and there is nothing to buy, so grab it and use it on all of your sites.

Here is a ZIP file containing the plug in code: Tim Linden Pro www Plugin

Feel free to leave a comment and if you like the plugin share this post with your friends.

I am here to help you succeed!

(c) Copyright 2008-2009 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

Get Inbound Links

Throughout my entrepreneurial career, I have yet to out spend my income when investing in professional and personal development. I have found that investing in my continuing education and dedicating myself to lifelong learning has always grown my business and therefore my income. When I made the decision to work online, I determined that I would learn from the very best mentors and verified gurus I could find and share what I learned with others. I have made this my daily practice coupled with my personal experiences to help other create successes of their own.

I want to share a lesson from Don Crowther, a faculty member at Stomper Net. I have purchased training and been a member of the Stomper Net community since 2008, I continue to benefited to the quality of their programs. I pulled out my notes as I am focusing on inbound links as I continue to evolve my blog and decided to share ten specific strategies detailed in this lesson on my podcast today. You can access a mp3 download or listen to a streaming replay on the Internet Business Blueprint show page.

The creation of quality incoming links is a key component to attracting traffic and bringing authority to your blog. If you are looking for a clever new way to trick the search engines this will not be the post for you; however, if you are looking for an actionable blueprint that will result in thousands of quality inbound links, you should keep reading this post.

The foundation for attracting quality inbound links is your content itself, be sure to develop content that is worthy of being linked to by others. The research done at Stomper Net has shown that certain types of content generates links naturally. I have found that posting topics that address two basic needs provide the most traction. The first is “how to” content and the second is a solution to a problem your market trying to solve, for example “how to get more traffic and increase conversions?”

Here is a list of ten content categories that will transform your blog into a link magnet.

1. Product or Service Reviews: If you love helping people, posting product and service reviews is a great way to share with others what is working in your business. I post a large number of reviews on my blog and I am always eager to share with my readers resources that are allowing me to grow my business with advice on how to take immediate action.

I tend to focus on what is working – on the positive; however, from the perspective of building a readership you might want to be a little creative and also post critical reviews when appropriate as controversy does tend to draw a crowd. I am not suggesting that you create content that seeks to discredit the efforts of others, but constructive advice is always appreciated when done with integrity.

2. Comparison Tables: One sure way to add impact to your blog is by adding graphics such as comparison tables on your post. Readers like visual tools when used to illuminate differences between the products and services being compared, it allows your reader to quickly identify the choice the best fits their objectives with out reading a long text heavy post.

3. Your Blog Voice: Every blog has a voice, some are intended and others are completely:

1. Controversial – Don’t be afraid to ruffle a few feathers or take a contrary opinion to the masses.
2. Consistent – Focus on consistency both in your voice and frequency of posting to your blog.
3. Clever – Be original! If your blog is just a collection of recycled content you will not grow an audience.
4. Connected – Create a web of links to other authority bloggers in your niche by reading and commenting on their blogs.

4. How to Choose Articles: If you want to grow your readership fast help people understand “how to” do what you know how to do. Once you have attracted a reader to your blog it is critical that you deliver value and make a strong first impression.

5. Top List (top 5,7,10, etc.): We have been conditioned to love list often presented as top 10 list or the best of list and you can deliver tremendous value in your blog and attract endless incoming links to your list. Invest some time to uncover what people are searching for, compile a list of the best solutions and publish that list in your post. This can be a home run for you.

6. Best of the Web List: In recent months I have personally used social book marketing tools like Stumble Upon to bookmark best of the web list more than any other category of content. The possibilities are endless; best blog themes, best Twitter tools, best blog graphics, best hosting services, best email marketing system, etc. popular categories always get re-tweeted and book marked, which can result in a bounty of fresh inbound links for your blog.

7. Product Selection Wizards: Helping your readers walk through a organized series of steps to evaluate the benefits, features, pros or cons of a product, while helping them to arrive at a logical conclusion is a great way to provide valuable content. If you highlight quality products that you have personally used in your business and share your knowledge, you can win the loyal readership in your niche and establish authority.

The elements of a good selection wizard include questions that identify the specific problem solved, opportunity to leverage, technical requirements, desired features. In the end you should be prepared to make a recommendation of one or more options for your reader.

8. Collected Consumer Review: Surveying your readership or subscribers to your list is a great way to bring authority to your blog and encourage inbound links.

9. Case Studies: These can be a powerful way of supporting your conclusions much like testimonials but perceived to be less biased. If you can a little research and identify third party validation through published case studies or document those of your clients you add tremendous credibility to your blog content.

10. Interviews: This is one of my favorite methods for creating quality content and is one of the reasons I podcast on a regular basis. There a number of free and easy to use methods to

Stomper Net recently launched a new membership level designed to make their excellent content and training platform accessible to a larger group of marketers. If you see the need to invest in expanding your knowledge of SEO and have a desire to mastermind with a community of master Internet marketers then the new more modestly priced Stomper Net Membership might be worth your exploration.

There are a bunch of reasons why StomperNet has been able to give people the crazy results we’ve helped others create for their businesses:

• Our World Class Faculty delivering cutting edge techniques
• Professional Coaches ensuring members establish and work toward their goals
• 1400 hours of Focused, Expert Training across every online topic
• A Community of Brilliant Members happily helping each other
• The Best Live Events around
• Ultra-Focused Premium Level Courses

There isn’t one answer or one element that create massive success online. It really comes down to creating an effective system, a blueprint and applying best practice principles with consistency. When you bring all of the elements together, you are on your way to creating an amazing success story of your own. Beyond the system, value can be found within a community of members that invest the time to find the answers to their questions inside of a massive library of training like that offered through Stomper Net and then share what has worked with others.

I invite you to take massive action by putting the concepts of this post into daily practice when developing content for your blog. Invest the time required to develop quality pillar content for your blog and create a daily method of operation for yourself with respect to link building.

I wish for you a blessed journey!

James

(c) Copyright 2008-2009 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

*************************
James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

*************************

Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

*************************

The founders of SEO book; Aaron Wall, Giovani Villanueava and Peter Da Vanzo have create a free set of resources with a minimum monetary value of $300 as a way to put actionable strategies to work and measure the results. I love this because it takes the risk completely off the table. By signing up for this free package of gifts, you gain instant access to the following:

1. The SEO Book

2. Keyword Research Tool

3. Rank Checker Tool

4. On Page SEO Tool

5. Link Research Tool

I recommend that you follow the banner at the bottom of this review and grab the SEO Book and your free package of SEO Tools without obligation. Read through the book and review the other tools. Decide on three strategies that you can put into action on your website (s) within the next 24 hours.

I would love your feedback on this particular free offer. I am personally considering engaging an SEO consultant and I would love to hear what you think about these resources as compared to any others you have used paid of free. Be sure to leave your comments below and enjoy this amazing free package.

(c) Copyright 2008-2009 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

*************************

James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

*************************

Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

*************************