February 26, 2007
Getting to know WordPress
I really had no idea how easy my life was on blogspot until I moved to my new location. I like the new place just fine, but I stay in a perpetual state of confusion. I’ve installed a few features and ended up uninstalling because I couldn’t figure out how to get them to function or, worse yet, couldn’t even get them properly tucked into the right spot in my editor. I’ve set those aside and will deal with them later when I’ve learned a little more. Since none of them are “must haves” I’ve decided not to ask for help just yet, because I need to learn how to do these things for myself. Everyone should know by now that I’m technically deficient, so it’s a steep learning curve.
I’m studying several learning sites that were recommended by friends, but I’ve found that the info that is the most useful to me for specific tasks is on tech blogs, written by people who know that their readers come with varying levels of expertise. Their writing tends to be more user-friendly, just what I need right now. So many things that occurred automagically on blogspot require a lot of user interaction in WordPress. It’s more useful for me to read someone as they ramble about the widget or gadget or plugin so that I can get a “feel” for it instead of just dry instructions that say “install this plugin.”
Today I’ve spent several hours at JMH Techtronics and have found several articles that apply to my needs right now. While my primary concern is regaining my voice and revitalizing my content, I also have to be concerned about building page rank and decreasing my alexa score. Towards that end I know that a sitemap is essential and I’ve decided that I need the Google Sitemap Generator for WordPress. Several people had recommended it, but it was the article above that helped me make the final decision that this is the way to go. There’s a wealth of information about what it can do for you and some tips about making adjustments so that it suits the needs of your blog. This plugin not only enables google notification of posts and other data, it’s also supported by Yahoo! and MSN, so all of the big guys will soon be receiving my stats. If you’re on WordPress and want to optimize your blog, you really need this plugin.
I haven’t decided yet whether to install the aLinks WordPress Plugin. I’ve got a WP plugin for that, but it’s one of those things I mentioned above that I just could not get properly installed. My keywords did not transfer with my content from blogspot, so I need to rebuild them. The aLinks plugin will turn keywords to links whenever I use them in a post, eliminating an extra step in the process. The only reason I haven’t decided whether or not to install it is that Jimi (the author of JMH Techtronics) highly recommends it for Amazon affiliates. I might post a comment over there and try to open a dialogue as to whether it’s equally appropriate for non-Amazonians.
My blog is a work in progress and probably will be for a long time to come. I’m not likely to be turning into a techie, but I’ll probably let you know about updates and other gee-whiz stuff as I discover it.
Technorati Tags: WordPress, tools, friends, blogging
Posted by skeet @ 11:27 pm • Computers & Technology
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February 27th, 2007 at 11:33 am, Crunchy Carpets Says:
Go check out www.blo-op.com Chris of Thermal’s techie site.
He is sooooo helpful with all things wordpress.
Has saved my butt a few times!