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There are several lists of “Top 10” Wordpress plugins around the Internet. Most of them, however, refer to the best or most popular plugins. Guess what, I’ve had enough of Akismet, Adsense Deluxe, Related Entries and company!

Jokes apart, those plugins are certainly awesome, but there are many others out there that can be life savers, and people often neglect them. Below you will the Top 10 Underrated Wordpress plugins; if you think there is a plugin missing on the list just post a comment.

1. Custom Querry String

Wordpress is a very flexible platform, but regulating the number of posts that are supposed to be displayed on the different pages is quite difficult. Most of the times you will want to display a limited number of posts on the Homepage while displaying a larger list for the categories, archives or search results pages, and this is not possible through the control panel. The solution for this problem is the Custom Querry String plugin, which allows you to configure this number individually for each page type.

2. Head Meta Description

While the Meta Keywords Tag is no longer used by most search engines, the Meta Description Tag still has some influence. Having the same Description Tag on all your pages, however, might be inneficient and send part of your website to the supplemental hell. This plugin is extremely easy to install and it will create a dynamic Meta Description Tag for every page on your blog, based on post excerpts or on the first words of the page.

3. Clean Archives

Most blogs have a “Monthly Archives” section on their sidebar, displaying a huge list of months and wasting some precious space. A more efficient structure for your archives would be a single page where all the posts are displayed, month by month. That is exactly what this plugin will do (you can see an example here). Notice that you might need the plugin below to install this one successfully.

4. Exec-PHP

Many plugins or Wordpress features require that you run some PHP code. When you need to use those features or plugins inside static pages or posts, however, Wordpress will not recognize the code. The solution for this problem is the Exec-PHP plugin. Once installed the plugin will enable PHP code on virtually all the pages of your blog. There are similar plugins available, but this one is the most reliable.

5. Enforce www. Preference

If your site can be accessed through http://www.domain.com and http://domain.com you might have some problems over the long run. Most search engines treat those addresses as two different domains, spliting your backlink count. In order to solve this issue you need to setup a 301 Permanent Redirect. The are several ways to setup this redirect, but if you are not familiar with PHP or if your host is not Linux based (for the .htaccess file) this plugin represents the simplest one. You just need to activate it and all the visitors and search bots will get redirected to the address that is specified on the Wordpress control panel.

6. Chunk URLs

Ever experienced someone posting a huge URL on your comment section? Those long strings are not only ugly, but they might also break the design of your website on certain browsers. This plugin will trunk those long URLs into smaller ones, and you can even specify the amount of characters that the output should contain.

7. Sig2feed

Sploggers are feed stealers are spreading out like fire. The first measure to protect your content is to add a copyright notice to your feed, possibly with a link pointing to your site. Sig2feed is a very light plugin that will do just that.

8. FeedSmith

This plugin used to be called Feedburner Feed Replacement. It was so popular and efficient that Feedburner itself decided to buy it from the developer. Basically it will forward all the requests for your Wordpress feed to Feedburner. It is very useful if you started using Feedburner after having some subscribers, or if you want to make sure that your feed statistics are completely accurate.

9. Jerome’s Keywords

This plugin is very similar to the Ultimate Tag Warrior, but it is much more user friendly. Once the plugin is installed you will be able to tag individual posts and to create an internal tag system and tag clouds. Secondly you can also use it to generate a dynamic Meta Keywords Tag.

10. WP-Cache

WP-Cache is a very robust plugin that will increase the responsiveness of your website and reduce the server load. It is also very useful to handle sudden burts in traffic coming from social bookmarking sites. The plugin basically creates static versions of your pages and serves them without querrying the MySQL database.

WP e-Commerce plugin for Wordpress

Description: The WP e-Commerce shopping cart plugin for WordPress is an elegant easy to use fully featured shopping cart application suitable for selling your products, services, and or fees online.
WP e-Commerce is a Web 2.0 application designed with usability, aesthetics, and presentation in mind.
Note: This is by far and away the most complete and powerful Shopping Plugin you will find for Wordpress. The feature list goes on and on, have a look for yourself here: WP-Ecommerce Features.

Quick Shop plugin for Wordpress

Description: QuickShop supports any Wordpress that has the Sidebar Widgets installed, really. It adds a SideBar widget that shows the user what they currently have in the cart and allows them to remove the items, not to mention a TinyMCE button to easily allow you to add products to your posts/pages.
Features: A TinyMCE button. This is practically a copy and changeover from the NextGen Gallery ; Full range of formatting for widget layout in Admin -> Options -> Quickshop ; Two widgets - one is Paypal, the other is set for your custom solution ; Now has both Paypal Subscription and Donation tags ; Ability to create different product options in a drop-down.

eShop plugin for Wordpress

Description: There is a fair few features for this powerful plugin, here are some: use Wordpress pages, or posts, to create products ; list multiple products, with add to cart form, on a single page ; products can have multiple options ; upload downloadable products ; basic Statistics ; download sales data ; 3 methods for calculating shipping charges, plus various zone settings via Country or US State… and a few more.

WP Live-Shopping plugin for Wordpress

Description: This widget enables you to display all relevant live shopping offers within your Wordpress blog in one single widget. You can add the widget to your sidebar and customize its appearance as you like inside the boundaries of LiveShoppingWidgets presentation options.

YAK Shopping Cart plugin for Wordpress

Description: YAK is a simple shopping cart plugin for WordPress, associating products with weblog entries — thus the post ID also becomes the product code.
An options screen is used to configure settings for the shopping cart. There are 3 pages in the WordPress Management screens; one for showing and fulfilling orders, another for product management, and basic sales reports.

Are PayPal plugin for Wordpress

Description: This plugin is used to monetize wordpress blog content using PayPal. It is designed to sell your knowledge.
Features: Post/Page can be set to contain hidden content ; Instead of the hidden text user is shown a message about the action he has to take to be able to see the content ; Content can be set as hidden for unregistered users and visible for registered ; Content can be set as hidden for unregistered-unpayed users and visible for registered-paid users ; Gogglebot can index hidden content so users can search for a hidden content but can not see it. Other search engines will see only visible content ; Administrator can grant users to access payed content ; All the features are configurable using administration screens ; Plugin uses PayPal IPN - Instant Payment Notification protocol so payment/content delivery process is fully automated.

Paypal Shortcodes plugin for Wordpress

Description: This plugin allow to insert Paypal buttons in your posts or pages, just using a shortcode. This plugin doesn’t have a management panel at this time, you will need to edit paypal-shortcodes.php and follow the comments.

EasyDonation plugin for Wordpress

Description: EasyDonation allows Wordpress users to easily embed a PayPal donation button with one tag.

WP Auctions plugin for Wordpress

Description: WP Auctions is a revolutionary plugin for WordPress which allows you to host auctions on your blog and to sell ANYTHING, completely fee-free!
You no longer need to worry about listing fees, seller fees, final value fees, gallery fees or any other type of fee for anything you want to sell online from this day on! Once you list your auctions, you can register your plugin with the WP Auctions Live page and generate some traffic for your website.
Features: Create and host as many auctions as you like ; Upload multiple images for each auction ; Sell items only on ‘Buy It Now’ basis ; Show 3rd party ads when there are no auctions *new ; Get payment via PayPal (PayPal account required) ; RSS feed for your auctions, and many more…

ArtPal plugin for Wordpress

Description: ArtPal is a free (GPL) Wordpress plugin, originally written for Artists, to seemlessly integrate PayPal with their Wordpress blogs so that they can sell their work online.
Features: Easy PayPal integration–all you need to supply is your PayPal email address ; Real-time sales updates–as soon as your item sells, ArtPal will disable it from being sold. You’ll never worry about your item selling twice ; Professionally supported–businesses mean business. Digital Sublimity provides commercial support, so you can be rest assured that your critical application will stay up and running when you need it.

Ever since the iPhone first appeared, its potential as a mobile blogging tool was readily apparent. Bloggers on the go would be able to tap out short, informative posts from wherever they happened to be, maybe even using the phone’s built-in camera to post mobile pictures as well.

Of course, there was just one roadblock to this paradise of phone-based blogging: the iPhone unveiled in 2007 didn’t come with any software to support such a thing. That had to wait until Apple released its iPhone SDK and flung open the doors of its App Store to third parties. But now that those two things happened over the summer, bloggers-on-the-go have several choices for making sure that a weblog update is never more than a few taps away.

But which of those choices is the best option for the iPhone-toting blogging set? To find out, I downloaded three of the App Store’s more popular options—TypePad, WordPress, and iBlogger—and put each one through their paces.

TypePad

Let’s Get Started: TypePad offers you three options when you launch the app—create a new post, take a photo with the iPhone’s built-in camera, or add an image from your library.

The TypePad iPhone blogging app—also named TypePad—only works with TypePad blogs. If you are unfamiliar with TypePad, it’s a product of Six Apart, the makers of the Movable Type blogging software. Think of TypePad as basically a paid, hosted version of Movable Type aimed at pro-bloggers who want to use Movable Type but aren’t interested in hosting it themselves.

As soon as you launch TypePad on your iPhone and log into your TypePad account, you’ll see three options: Create a Post, Take a Photo, and Add a Photo. (Note that the app only works with one TypePad account at a time, but you can post to all blogs and photo galleries that are associated with that account.) Tapping on Create a Post takes you to the post creation screen where you can add categories (existing categories are retrieved from your TypePad blog), add a photo (either an existing image from your Photo Library or one you shoot with the iPhone’s camera), and write the text of the post. Text entry is pretty barebones: if you want to add a link, or format text you have to hand type in HTML code.

Take a Photo is a great option when you want to snap a quick pic with your iPhone’s camera and post it to your blog. (Since the iPod touch doesn’t feature a built-in camera, touch users won’t be able to take advantage of this comamnd.) Tapping that option takes you right into the camera app; take a picture and it’s immediately inserted into TypePad’s posting screen. Add a title and a category (if you want), and you’re ready to post the picture right to your blog.

As of this writing, there appears to be a bug in which pictures inserted into posts are slightly cropped. This behavior isn’t limited to TypePad, however; the same thing happened to me when I used iBlogger. (It did not happen with WordPress). Given that this bug exists in two completely different apps, I’m ready to lay the blame at the feet of the iPhone software, not the apps themselves. Still, that doesn’t make the cropping any less annoying.

On the bright side, TypePad inserts pictures in such as way that they are displayed at the largest size that your blog settings allow. The pictures are nice and big on your blog, so everyone can appreciate that photo of what you had for lunch.

Add a Photo is very similar to the Take a Photo option, letting you quickly start a blog post with a picture from your camera roll.

TypePad’s mobile edition is clearly designed for writing new posts on the go. You can’t edit existing posts on your blog—in fact the TypePad doesn’t even list your current posts—but you can save a post to your iPhone and edit it later.

All in all, TypePad is great if you’re looking to post pictures taken with your iPhone’s camera to your TypePad blog, though I wouldn’t use it to draft long, text laden posts. That’s mostly a limitation of the device itself—the iPhone’s keyboard and size aren’t ideal for lengthy typing sessions.

WordPress

Get Coding: As with TypePad, the WordPress app for the iPhone and iPod touch requires you to enter any special formatting or links by hand.

Much like its TypePad counterpart, the WordPress blogging app for the iPhone only works with one blogging platform: WordPress, in this case. This is the official WordPress iPhone application put out by the people who make WordPress (and interestingly, one of the first open-source iPhone applications). The app supports posting to multiple WordPress blogs (both self-hosted and WordPress.com blogs are supported), and, unlike TypePad, it will pull down your last 10 posts so you can edit them right on your iPhone. (You can adjust WordPress’s preferences so that you can get more posts.)

Posting works very much like posting on any WordPress blog. Tap the new post button, and you’re taken to a screen where you can add a title, tags, categories, status (published, draft, and the like), and finally the post body itself. (Existing tags and categories are pulled from your blog.) As with TypePad, WordPress requires you to enter any special formatting or links by hand-coding them—there’s no WYSIWYG editor here.

WordPress lets you attach photos to a post—in fact, you can attach as many pictures as you like. You can choose from photos from your iPhone’s camera roll or take a new picture and insert it directly into the post. The WordPress app must use a different method for photo insertion because the photos are not cropped (which happens with the other two blogging apps I’m reviewing here). On the other hand, the WordPress app gives you little control over how the image is displayed in the post. Photos are inserted at the end of the post; if you want to add text after them, you have to do it manually.

WordPress’s iPhone offering also lets you password-protect posts and schedule the date on which they are posted. That latter feature lets you backdate a posts or post something with a future date.

iBlogger

Past Posts: iBlogger shows the last 11 posts on your blog, letting you edit and delete them at will.

From illumineX (the people who make the Mac blogging client ecto), iBlogger is the only app out of this trio that isn’t free. But you do get some interesting features for your $10. First off, iBlogger supports a veritable cornucopia of blogging engines including both TypePad and WordPress as well as Movable Type, ExpressionEngine, and Xanga, among others. That’s a great feature if you’re like me and have a number of different blogs powered by different blogging engines.

iBlogger lists the last 11 posts on your blog, and you can edit and delete those posts to your heart’s content. There is a View in Safari button at the bottom of the post-listing screen which will launch your blog in Mobile Safari so you can check on the status of a post.

Another great feature of iBlogger is the clever Link button in the post form. Typing the HTML code for a link via the iPhone’s on-screen keyboard is a little cumbersome to say the least. The Link button offers a work-around by prompting you for a URL and linking text. iBlogger then inserts the HTML code for you—a big time saver when you’re trying to blog on a bus.

iBlogger takes advantage of the GPS built into the iPhone 3G (or the location features in the original iPhone and iPod touch) by sporting the ability to insert a link to a Google Map that shows where you were when you posted a particular item to your blog. Like all the best location-aware applications, this is both cool and creepy at the same time.

All is not sunshine and trackbacks with iBlogger, though. Even though iBlogger is a paid application, it inserts a link at the end of every post you compose that points to the iBlogger Web site. You can turn this default setting off in the applications preferences, but it seems to me that if I am paying for an app, I shouldn’t have to advertise for it as well.

The Bottom line

All three of these apps are fine blogging clients. The choice of which to use really comes down to which blogging engine you use. If you are solely blogging on WordPress or TypePad then the official—and free—iPhone clients for those systems will suit you very well. If you’re looking for a little more power and flexibility in terms of features and what blogging engines you can post to, then iBlogger is well worth its price tag.

All apps in this round-up are compatible with any iPhone or iPod touch running the iPhone 2.x software update.

[Scott McNulty is a senior contributor for MacUser and blogs at blankbaby.]

One of the cool benefits of using Wordpress as a CMS (Content Management System) is the ability to use plugins which allows you to add on extra features with just a few clicks.

I am going to showcase the particular Wordpress plugins I use on this blog and the reasons for doing so.

Akismet

It is one of the best spam filters going around. Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not.

Why? To stop spam from reaching your blog comments.

All in One SEO Pack

Out-of-the-box Search Engine Optimisation for your Wordpress blog.

Why? To get better search engine ranking results.

Better Comments Manager

Better Comments manager allows you to view your comments post wise, it also allows you to reply to your comments from within the admin panel without you having to visit the site to respond to comments.

Why? To save time when replying to blog comments.

cforms

cforms offers unparalleled flexibility in deploying contact forms across your blog. Features include: comprehensive SPAM protection, Ajax support, Backup & Restore, Multi-Recipients, Role Manager support, Database tracking and many more.

Why? To easily create forms on your website. You can see this page as an example.

Chunk Urls for WordPress

This plugin shorten urls in comments so that they won’t break your site.

Why? Some commentators leave a full web address in their comments, this plugin shortens it to a smaller and still clickable link.

Commentluv

A plugin to show a link to the last post from the commenters blog in their comment. It will parse a feed from most sites that have a feed location specified in its head html. I have currently disabled this plugin in the past week due to a small glitch it made on my website (it put >> at the header of my site) however it is a great plugin.

Why? To give your commentators some link love and to encourage commenting.

FeedBurner FeedSmith

This plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber.

Why? To accurately record how many subscribers you have on your blog.

Google Ajax Search

Adds a Google AJAX Search box on your site. Options include searching your site through Google Blog Search and/or straight up Google, a second search option is available that is perfect for flickr.

Why? For a more accurate search result. You can find an example of this at the top right of this blog.

Google XML Sitemaps

This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO and autmatically upload it to Googles servers for you.

Why? Get your pages searched my Google more often.

Homepage Excerpts

This plugin shows excerpts on the home page rather than full posts. You can customise how many you want to display as full posts.

Why? Useful to shorten page load times on the front page.

My FTP

A WordPress FTP like plugin that can be used to manage folders and files via the WordPress admin panel.

Why? To save launching FTP Clients or logging into your control panel to upload files. This is useful if you travel a lot such as myself and are always in your admin panel.

NextGEN Gallery

This is a great plugin that allows you to have a customisable photo gallery with cool effects.

Why? Check out my graphic design portfolio to see it in action.

NoFollow Free

Remove the nofollow tag from your blog’s comments with a lot of options. Supports multilingual and a Top Commenters sidebar Widget.

Why? To encourage more commentating and to let loyal commentators benefit from commentating on your blog. Read more about nofollow here.

Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu

Replaces admin menus with a CSS dropdown menu bar. Saves lots of clicks and page loads!

Why? Save heaps of time by shortening your page loads and clicks in your Wordpress Admin. A must have.

Random Redirect

Allows you to create a link to your blog which will redirect someone to a random post on your blog in a StumbleUpon-like fashion. You can also specific in the URL `random_post_type` or `random_cat_id`.

Why? So people can browse your website in a random manner. Pretty useful for someone new to the website or those looking for something random. You can test it by clicking here.

Robots Meta

This plugin allows you to add all the appropriate robots meta tags to your pages and feeds, disable unused archives and nofollow unnecessary links. You can read about robot meta tags here.

Why? To disable posts or pages that you do not want appearing in Google Search results.

RSS Feed Signature

Add a customised signature or tag-line to your RSS feed(s).

Why? You could use this for any reason. Personally I use it for copyright, ebook advertising and related posts.

Simple Tags

Extended Tagging for your blog. It features Auto Completion, Suggested Tags, Tag Cloud Widgets, Related Posts, Mass edit tags and more.

Why? A very powerful tagging system. The related posts feature is what I find most useful.

Subscribe To Comments

Subscribe to Comments is a plugin that allows commentators on your blog to check a box before commenting and get e-mail notification of further comments.

Why? It is one of the most popular WordPress plugins out there for the simple reason that it helps foster a community around your blog by encouraging commenters to come back and stay engaged in the dialog.

SRG Clean Archives

This plugin is designed to display your archive listings in a clean, uniform, single-query fashion that’s Search Engine friendly on a dedicated page or in your sidebar.You can see it in action on my blog.

Why? Never have to worry about updating your archives.

Twitter Updater

Updates Twitter when you create a new blog or publish one.

Why? Saves me time as I do not have to Twitter about new blog posts, It does it for me. I also have my Twitter updates sent to my facebook account automatically so advertising is all automated. Very useful.

Ultimate Google Analytics

Enable Google Analytics on your blog. Has options to also track external links, mailto links and links to downloads on your own site.

Why? To track your website stats in Google Analytics.

Wordpress Automatic Upgrade

Wordpress Automatic Upgrade allows a user to automatically upgrade the Wordpress installation to the latest one provided by Wordpress.org using the 5 steps provided in the wordpress upgrade instructions. It also has a one click automatic function.

Why? Save a lot of time and effort by using the one click upgrade option.

WP-Cache

A very fast caching module that speeds up your site. It’s composed of several modules, this plugin can configure and manage the whole system. You can even tweak the plugin to make your site even faster. Another option is SuperCache however I am yet to figure out what plugin is better?

Why? To make your site run faster and more responsive.

WP-Polls

Adds an AJAX poll system to your WordPress blog. You can easily include a poll into your WordPress’s blog post/page. WP-Polls is extremely customizable via templates and css and there are tons of options for you to choose to ensure that WP-Polls runs the way you wanted. It supports multiple selection of answers too.

Why? To easily host polls such as the Mac or PC one I held earlier.

WP-Print

Displays a printable version of your WordPress blog’s post/page.

Why? Let your readers easily print your articles without your sidebars or advertising.

WP Widget Cache

Cache the output of your blog widgets. It will significantly reduce the sql queries to your database and speed up your site. Quite a new plugin which works great.

Why? To make your site run faster and more responsive. Works in conjuction with WP-Cache and SuperCache.

If you are after some more great Wordpress Plugins I would check out this powerful list of wordpress plugins and this must have wordpress plugins post.

What are some other plugins that you couldn’t live without? Are there any here that could be replaced with something better?

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WordPress is the most popular blog platform for a while now and thus the main target of hackers just due to this fact. Also vulnerabilities pop up so often that you just can’t keep up with the hackers. Recently one of the many WordPress Blogs I look after got hacked again by an “online pharmacy”. Of course I’m not the only one. It was the second hack with 3 months of this WordPress blog.

This time the hackers (or more aptly crackers) even blocked my access to the WordPress admin so that it took really hours of work to get it clean and running again. Ironically this blog was the one I kept up to date quite diligently, uploading a new WordPress version as often as I could. Sadly you have to do it almost weekly, yes there are plugins now to do that, but nonetheless you have to take a look what changed (sometimes a major overhaul of the admin interface) and whether your plugins still work etc.

In short: It’s work and it’s tedious and it’s annoying but most of all, it’s dangerous!

So I really can’t recommend WordPress blogs to clients anymore unless you know they’d be able to do all that upgrading and fixing.

In case you need a reliable, easy to look after and secure blog platform for corporate or business blogging and if you want to host it yourself (still the best option for SEO etc.) you need a WordPress alternative.

I watch the blogosphere since 2001 and contribute since 2003 so I’ve seen plenty of blog platforms. There are at least 7 great self hosted blog platforms that are good WordPress alternatives: All of them offer clean URLs, semantic markup (h1, h2 etc.) and similar SEO basics.

1. MovableType: One of the most popular blog platforms. It has been bigger than WordPress a few years ago but it wasn’t Open Source and you had to pay for it so it lost market share. Now MT has open sourced and it is marketed aggressively as the secure alternative to WordPress. It certainly is more secure and has less upgrades to be performed. MovableType had some major spam problems traditionally, this might be a drawback though. Akismet on WordPress manages spam almost perfectly by now.
2. Serendipity/S9Y: S9Y was the upstarter when it comes to blog platforms. It’s relatively new as it hasn’t been around in the early day of blogging but has a growing community. Some people in the SEO industry use Serendipity so I’d be glad to hear their opinion.
3. Drupal: Drupal is more than a blog platform but you can set a blog with it comfortably. Also it has been hailed as SEO friendly for ages. Some pretty large sites that are not blogs use Drupal too and to be honest I’ve hear of any problems with Drupal.
4. B2Evolution: This blog platform has been around for ages but never got really popular. It may be name or the lack of character, B2Evolution even attempts to mimic Wordpress looks by using the Kubrick theme, but this might be as well an advantage. anyways, just the fact that it’s around as well as “alive and kicking” for a such long time makes it a viable alternative.
5. Textpattern: Back when I started blogging it was an easy decision, Wordpress o Textpattern. It was a choice like PC vs Mac, the more design oriented bloggers have chosen Textpattern. The community seems a little dormant by now but Textpattern is still a good choice it seems to me. Also there seem to be quite a lot of plugins for SEO.
6. Mephisto: This is a comparably unknown blog platform but if you look at the code, screenshots and and Wordpress-like URLs it looks very promising. Sadly due to lack of funding and only two developers working on it Mephisto is stuck at Version 0.8
7. Typo: In version 5.1 Typo introduced many of the features we’re accustomed to from Wordpress or MovableType. Now it seems to be a really good alternative. Like Mephisto the URL structure follows WordPress defaults and the markup looks great.

In case you want to build a blog on a more stable and less insecure and hackable platform than WordPress try one of the alternatives above. Of course I haven’t tried all of them so I’d like to hear some feedback from you:

• What are the drawbacks and advantages of your blog platform?
• Why is is good for SEO or why not?
• What do you miss or why did you dump WordPress or another blog CMS in favor of it?

The Business Directory plugin for Wordpress is an easy way to host a free directory page for your readers, affiliates, advertisers, community or club members. Invite them to submit a simple advertisement listing for themselves on your blog.

Listings include company name, a short description, and contact information including a live URL. The plugin includes an admin tab that allows you to approve of listings before they appear live on the site. You can also edit and delete listings.

We will soon have a premium version of this plugin that allows you to promote a listing upgrade to your directory participants; you set the cost and collect via PayPal, they get to upload a logo and appear in the top ‘premium’ section of your Directory.

Business Directory is a great way to increase the SEO value of your site, and to monetize your community participation.

• Make Your Goal and Target Audience Crystal Clear
  My point with this entire post, but most especially this section is to ask you to admit what your real goals are with your blog. If you’re not sure, that’s fine. You might not really want to take your blog to the next level just yet. But if you’re feeling as if you want to get serious (in whatever direction that takes your efforts), give strong consideration to the following.
• If your goal is to be an entertainment or news blog, be very clear that it’s that and not a “fun” blog. Consider splitting off your personal or fun blog.
• If your blog is to be your business, treat it like that. Get into stats. Get into building audience. Get into delivering something unique. Don’t straddle back and forth on this.
• If the goal is to be a great community resource, mix your blogging time with time spent reaching out to the community you propose to serve. If that’s an offline opportunity, like something local, be there. Be active. Be a connector.
• If you’re going to be a professional about your blog, carve out the time to do it right. Never, ever, ever post a “sorry I haven’t posted lately” blog post again. Ever.
• Up the ante on delivering original material. Get outside the echo chamber. Writing a me-too blog isn’t the way to build your blog to the levels you seek to attain.
• It’s okay to use a personal voice. In fact, there’s no point blogging if you’re going to write like a cold robot. But keep personal and useful in balance.
• If you are attempting to do real business via your blog, look for ways to convert readers into customers.
  If it’s just an ad revenue business, compete, and be honest about that. Compete with others in your space for audience, value, and better deals. My point in this regard is that going halfway into the water doesn’t make you less wet.
• If your blog is the premier source of information for nonprofits, for photographers, for whatever, then be sure you’re scouring news feeds and finding information outside the blogosphere to keep that relationship informed.
  Make a point of engaging your community often in the comments section, on their blogs, on the other social networks where you cross paths.

Beauty Is More Than Skin Deep

• Consider the design elements of your blog. They do change the way people perceive your work. And, they can help you improve your potential business opportunities.
• Get your own unique URL. It matters in the long run, especially should you choose to change hosts. For instance, if you move off a blogger account at *.blogspot.com , you lose all link equity and page rank for that domain. This means you’d have to start again from scratch. Already in that position? Make the switch now.
• Consider moving to a hosted blog. You can get a hosted WordPress blog set up and running for only $10 USD a year at Bloghost.me. (Note: if you use code “brogan,” you can get it for $9 a year. Andy’s a friend.)
  Consider using a professional theme. I am an advocate for Thesis by Chris Pearson. There are other premium themes out there, as well.
• Consider getting a customized Wordpress theme. That link goes to Nico Pin, who designed [chrisbrogan.com]. There are others who do this kind of work, obviously.
• Are there several unnecessary widgets on your blog? Review them and decide which add value to your audience.
  Is your layout readable? Are your fonts clean and easy to read? Are your color choices all they can be? A little time with your stylesheet goes a long way.
• If you have ads, are you choking your community with them? Do you actually endorse the products on them? How effective have they been?
• Is your blog design and layout configured well for SEO? Several blogging platforms now have SEO plug-ins/add-ons to help with this. That doesn’t beat having a professional take a swing at improving your blog’s SEO, but it’s a good first step.
• A logo and matching favicon doesn’t hurt. You can find various price points for this, and many different people offering the service. Mine was created by Justin Evans and his team at StressLimit Design. I also have friends in California that I highly recommend, as well.
• Consider the graphics you post on your site. Do they add to the story you’re trying to tell? If not, seek upgrades. There are many freely available graphics at Flickr, if you search by the appropriate Creative Commons license level.

Make Your Content Top Notch

Growing quality blog posts isn’t magic. We don’t sprinkle cookies all over the house and hope that the Blogging Fairy comes along and writes us posts in exchange for the cookies. It takes lots of work, and a strong commitment. And if it doesn’t come naturally, you CAN learn how to improve.

• Put your blog posts on a diet. Read them with your audience in mind. Can you thin them out? Remove unnecessary words. Make them tight.
• Lead with the main point. If you’re attempting to be a quality news or opinion blog, make your main point at the top of the post. Don’t make us dig.
• Link. If you’re writing about another person, post, or website, link appropriately and thread the web. It fleshes out the story, gives us places to explore, and shows a “good neighbor” practice.
• Vary up post lengths. If you write a “feature length” post, have something brief come next to avoid reader fatigue. (Unless you’re writing an essay-length blog all the time, and hey, good luck.)
• Read. Read. Read. Get outside the blogosphere. Find sources of information that span far beyond what your competitors are covering.
• Get on a regular writing/posting schedule. Extra points for writing a few posts ahead of time for those days when you can’t get to it right away.
• Work on your titles. A great title drives visits, but also informs us as to what we’re going to learn.
• Refrain from “me too” posts. If you’ve got something to add, do that and link to the original post, but if you’re moving up to the next level, lose the “pointer” posts. (Your mileage may vary on this one).
• Consider video, audio, and rich media. If you’re doing a text-mostly blog, consider mixing it up from time to time. It might find you new audience, and it might also give people a more dimensional sense of who you are.
• Review your blog posts monthly to see if you’re covering the same ground. If you are, consider building an editorial calendar to post from, so that you don’t overlap and repeat topics too often.

Promoting Your Blog

No one loves someone who talks about themselves all the time, but if you’re going to work on bringing your blog up a few notches, make sure your efforts aren’t for nothing.

• Use a social bookmarking plugin like AddThis or Share This on your blog posts so that people who like your work can share it easily.
• Make a very prominent option to subscribe by email available on your site. More than 50% of my readers do so via email.
• Add your blog URL to your email signature.
• Make sure your blog URL is on your twitter profile, your facebook profile, added into Friendfeed, and several other outposts. This helps people discover you who might not have noticed your work before. (Note: Steve Rubel said that to me many months back. He told me that he “discovered” my blog via Facebook. I’ve been a believer ever since.)
• If you’re going to promote your blog via places like Twitter, be sure to do it tastefully instead of just dumping links into the stream. Consider asking a question, or pointing out a rather insightful comment.
• Make sure you’re doing the basics, like listing your site in Yahoo!, Google, DMOZ, and claiming it in Technorati.com (each of those sites shows you how via the help function).
• Commenting on other well-known blogs in your same space in a not-spammy way is a great way for people who might like your work to discover you. Don’t put blatant links or otherwise be rude. Just be thoughtful and helpful to the community at that site, and leave a useful comment. They’ll come, if they like what you said.
• Don’t forget posting the occasional blog post in LinkedIn’s status message. It reaches some interesting people from time to time.
• Is it fair to Digg or Stumble your own posts? There are mixed opinions on this. I’ve had little to no success with Digg in this regard. StumbleUpon is a different story. Decide for yourself if you think this is okay to do. I’ve heard it called “patting yourself on the back in public.”
• Write the occasional post that’s worthy of bookmarking. When someone adds a blog post of mine to Delicious, I often get lots more traffic than from other promotional angles.

Building Business From Your Blog

You might be trying to make money from your blog directly, perhaps through advertising or affiliate marketing. Or you might be seeking to establish thought leadership and promote consulting opportunities. You might be simply looking to drive even better awareness of a social cause or have a nonprofit or educational motive in mind. In any case, think of “business” to mean “value beyond the blogging itself.”

• Build conversion opportunities. If you’re selling something directly, think of clever ways to post about it that educate, inform, and encourage a call to action.
• Make sure your blog design points people towards the action you want them to take. (See Financial Aid Podcast for an easy example).
• Ask for the sale. If you’re selling something, don’t be shy. Ask for it. Do so in a blog post, or in an ad of your own creation. Be direct and honest about this.
• Mix free value and additional opportunities. If you’re selling something that’s not unlike what’s available on your blog for free, demonstrate the dividing line. Even consider giving a hint of what’s on the other side.
• Make it easy to opt in. Like asking for the sale, make sure you help your prospective customers/cleints/partners know how to get into your sales funnel, should they be interested.
• Make content that sells. If you’re blogging or posting video to promote a business objective, work at building the content such that it drives that end decision. Too 1.0 for you? At least open conversations up about what you’re trying to accomplish.
• Make it very easy to contact you. Make your About page very clean and easy to read. Put some real human names on the website, and even consider adding a photo, so that people know who they’re addressing. (I say this all the time, but I see so many examples daily of people who could use this advice.)
• Build relationships with similar blogs and share opportunities. If you’re blogging about real estate, get to know the other real estate bloggers and learn from each other.
• Give “serving suggestions” on your blog. If you’re blogging a particular kind of offering, is there a way to share what it does, or how you want to be involved?
• Remember: even if your blog’s main goal is selling, be human, be interesting, be involved. This isn’t the old Internet. We have these nifty social tools that remind us to be human. Let’s use them that way. My goal in writing this was to offer advice and suggestions for how one might transform their blog from “another one in the pack” to something of a destination on the web. It’s not my opinion that we should all be following this advice. There are several blogs that I love exactly the way they are, and I’m sure their respective owners do, too.

I had to migrate my Wordpress blog to another host recently and was trying to find a way to do it. I found a few pages on this topic but some of it requires shell access. Others seemed to be using words from Planet Zurich or too simplified I did not know what to do. This guide is actually my documented work while migrating my own blog.