As you develop a strong list of Twitter followers it becomes necessary to consistently put information in front of those people to keep them engaged. People do not read every single tweet in their news feed so you have to push out content to your followers at different times of day on an ongoing consistent basis.

The Tweet Old Post plugin allows for that. In addition to automatically tweeting on your behalf at a regularly defined interval, it will also introduce your followers to older content you have written which is good for your traffic and your SEO efforts.

Here is a video tutorial that will overview Tweet Old Post Plugin for WordPress

SEO is at the top of every person’s mind because what is the point of having a website if nobody ever sees it. Since SEO can be a very complicated effort, we are all looking for tools to help facilitate and automate the processes. SEOPressor is one of those tools.

SEOPressor SEO WordPress Plugin

This plugin facilitates several of the simplifies proven SEO techniques including:

• Inserting Keywords in H1, H2, and H3 Header tags
• Bolding Keywords
• Italicize Keywords
• Underline Keywords
• Include Keywords in image ALT tags
• Control Keyword density
• Monitor internal links to other pages
• Monitor no-follow exterior links

The SEOPressor plugin simply allows you to enter a keyword or keyword phrase that you wish you emphasize on each page and post of your WordPress blog/site. After you have indicated what the primary word of focus is, the SEOPressor plugin will give you feedback in the form of a checklist of what more you can do to optimize that post or page. It will also generate a keyword density and overall SEO score for each page and post.

In addition you can enter words that you wish you optimize throughout your entire site. Click below to watch a quick video which outlines the features and usage of the SEOPressor plugin. When you are ready to get started you will need to decide if you want to buy a single use license (for use on only one WordPress site) or an unlimited license for use on all your WordPress sites.

SEO Pressor

Avatars & Gravatar

Quick Tip for my readers today about gravatar. When you comment on other people’s blogs you may wonder how you can get your picture to show up next to your comment; as it does in the case of many others.

Within blogs on blogspot.com those images come from each individual’s Google profile since blogger is owned by Google and is part of the Google account system.

Outside of Blogger you need to get a Gravatar. Gravatar.com is the home of Globally Recognized Avatars. You setup a free account, upload your image, and decide what email addresses to associate that image with. Most web platforms (including WordPress) work with Gravatar.com to display images.

Want to test it? Go setup your account right now and then come back here to this post and leave a comment below. As long as you use an email address below that is associated with your Gravatar account your image will be displayed!

Jacob S Paulsen

Not all WordPress themes are created equal. Naturally themes can be edited but you can imagine that it is much to your advantage to spend time looking for a theme that is as close as possible to what you have in mind. The less changes you have to make the better. When you are logged into your dashboard you can search for WordPress themes but it is my opinion that anything you will find within the free database available on WordPress.org isn’t generally worth using. Those free themes will give you something to start with as you begin creating some initial content but in the long run they won’t serve your needs.

Some people spend a lot of time searching the internet for premium themes for free. “Pirating” paid themes for free is not only illegal its also dumb. Themes are not simple and the biggest reason you should buy them from their designers is so that you will have support. When I’m looking for a theme I first start by doing a Google Image search that best describes what I’m looking for. You may try a search such as “wordpress rustic theme” or “wordpress 3-column car theme.” Try several combinations and different words as you like. If I don’t find what I’m looking for I move directly into the best WordPress Theme designers websites.

There are several top quality theme makers. My absolute favorite is WooThemes. WooThemes has sold me the themes I use on almost all my personal sites and blogs. They go a long way to create versatile, easy to use and customize, professional looking themes. You can also check out ThemeJunkie and iThemes who I also have bought themes from.

Editing Themes

Editing themes is really something that is generally reserved for “advanced users.” It requires HTML and CSS knowledge and some PHP would go a long way too. This tutorial is not designed to teach you these programing languages. I will however give you a brief outline on the way these theme files work into WordPress, where they are stored, and how you can access them.

WordPress themes are organized in folders within the www.yoursite.com/wp-content/themes directory. To edit them you need to navigate to the “Editor” sub-menu under the “Appearance” menu. When the editor loads you will see a list of all the different theme files on your far right. Clicking on any of the files will open them for editing in the main editor window in the center.

All themes are different but if you are familiar with html and other basic programming languages you shouldn’t have any issues navigating to the file you need. Refer to the WordPress.org codex for PHP questions.

If you aren’t familiar with coding I suggest you be very cautious about making any changes.

This 10 minute tutorial video is designed for people who are new to WordPress and are logging in for their first time. In this tutorial you will learn how to read your WordPress dashboard and how to edit and create new pages and blog posts.

In the past I have done a variety of tutorials about great WordPress Plugins. It started with my youtube video about how to post correctly on WordPress back in April 2009. Since I have also done a tutorial video about All In One SEO, cForms, Google Analytics, and Google XML Sitemap plugins. In January I also did a very popular article about WordPress Blog security which gave an overview of plugins that can be used to protect your site from hackers.

Today I want to talk about 10 other plugins that I use on almost all of my WordPress sites!

1. Digg Digg. This plugin tends to be the cleanest and most effective way to insert “Share Via” buttons such as Digg, Twitter, Facebook, etc. You can see how it is executed here at the top of this page.
2. Exclude Pages From Navigation. In building a wordpress site you often have pages that you do not want visible in the main site’s navigation. This plugin inserts a checkbox that allows you to designate which pages will and will not appear.
3. Hana FLV Player. If you have been looking for an effective way to insert native videos on your site this is it. I have been impressed with this plugin (which utilizes FlowPlayer) to embed native video files into a video player on your posts and pages.
4. Social Media Widget. The cleanest way I’ve see so far to insert “Follow Me” buttons for the most popular Social Media sites.
5. Tweet Old Post. This plugin will regularly tweet your older posts for you at designated intervals. If you have a strong twitter following this can be an effective way to bring additional traffic and keep your Twitter feed active.
6. WordPress Mobile Pack. This is my favorite plugin for mobilizing your blog into a friendly format for Smartphone browsers.
7. WP Polls. This is an effective and clean polling service plugin.
8. What Would Seth Godin Do. This plugin inserts a message into pages and posts that will only be visible by first time visitors to your site. An effective way to ask first time visitors to take an action.
9. WP e-Commerce Plugin. The most effective way to set up a shopping cart on your site. Its free and offers a wide range of strong options.
10. Datafeedr Random Ads V2. This plugin allows you to rotate amongst several ads in one position. You can setup ad groups and it will generate a php code for you to enter into the most appropriate places in your template.

Jacob S Paulsen

On Christmas Eve 2009 all of my websites were attacked. I have two hosting accounts with GoDaddy and all of my wordpress sites on both accounts were down. In addition two business partner’s of mine who have their own unique hosting accounts (one with GoDaddy and the other with HostMonster) also had all of their wordpress sites go down at the same time.

After almost a full month of work I have finally managed to clean my server completely of any and all malware and to rebuild my sites with MASSIVE increased security way above and beyond the standard WordPress stock installation. Knowing that I was not the only one to be attacked and that there will yet be many more people in the future I would like to outline some suggestions of both how you can prevent these types of attacks in the future and how to clean out the malware on your site if you have already been infected.

I recently purchased the “Lock Your Blog” Program from Alex Sysoef who is a WordPress Genius! The DVD is free if you pay the requested $9 shipping. In addition to having the DVD shipped to your home, you can also access the videos on his site after you pay the shipping fee. I highly encourage anyone concerned with WordPress Security to follow this link and purchase his program and go through it step by step. Just the same I will outline some of the highlights here:

PREVENTATIVE WordPress SECURITY: Keep me safe!

You have to understand that wordpress is so widely used by so many people online that it becomes a primary target for hackers. While I assume that you have already installed WordPress on your server, preventative security starts with the install process. Changing the default table prefixes and WordPress user keys is essential to protecting your site from intruders. Check out www.expertwordpress.com for a custom version of wordpress that eliminates these stock security loop-holes.

If you have already installed WordPress download and install the WP Security Scan plugin. By activating and running this plugin you will be able to determine which of the basic loop-holes you have. This plugin has a few tools that may be helpful in closing your site down from future attacks also.

Install the plugin Secure WP which will change some of the default codes in the background of your WordPress that otherwise leave you exposed including hiding the version of WordPress you are using.

Install the plugin Limit Login Attempts. The default settings are good enough but you may choose to enable to notification setting so you can receive and email when anyone tries to login more than 4 times unsuccessfully.

Install the plugin WP-DB-Backup and configure it to email you a daily or weekly backup of all your WordPress databases. This will help you restore your site should it be compromised.

Keep all your plugins and core WordPress updated. Developers update their plugins regularly to close security gaps and fix bugs that could otherwise leave you exposed. Visit the tools menu of your blog as often as possible to run all available updates.

Configure and install the Akismet plugin to automatically quarantine spam comments. Set it up to auto-delete comments after 30 days.

LIKE I MENTIONED BEFORE THERE IS SOOOO MUCH MORE YOU CAN DO IF YOU ARE WILLING TO SPEND THE $9 AND PURCHASE THE “LOCK YOUR BLOG” PROGRAM I MENTIONED ABOVE!

RECOVERY: I’ve already been hacked!

Bad news huh? Your site has already been compromised and now you need to clean it out and get it back online.

1. Contact your hosting provider and let them know you think you have been attacked. Ask them to verify that your databases are still clean of any malware. Most hosting providers do not have the resources to automatically scan and clean all of your files at any given time but they do monitor your databases and can scan them with relative ease. They may also have other suggestions to help you clean your site.

• Via your FTP client software (e.g. Filezilla) delete all your themes that you are not using. Also delete any other files that you aren’t concerned with keeping. This will speed up the time you will spend cleaning through files.

• Setup an account with Google Webmaster Tools and setup and verify your site. If Google has crawled your site recently and found any malware it will display a warning in your Google Webmaster Tools account and walk you through locating and deleting the malware. After you clean your site you will also come back here to request a new crawling to verify that your site is no longer infected.

• Also check with http://stopbadware.org/ to see if your site has been registered. They also have a lot of good tips (non wordpress specific) to cleaning your site.

Ok, now for the WordPress Security specific things you have to do. To be perfectly honest if you have been compromised then there is most likely malware code in almost every php file on your server. It spreads quickly and hides in very unique places. This essentially means you have to delete everything and start over. This means the process of cleaning malware from your wordpress site basically includes backing up all the non-replaceable files, and starting afresh. The only way to do that without losing all your content will be to purchase a new hosting account and rebuild your site almost from scratch. This will be 100% less time consuming and more secure in the long run than it would be to attempt the manual scan of every file on your server. Here is a step by step solution that should help you complete this process.

1. Just in case we fail in duplicating your site we want to create a full backup of all blog in case we have to revert back to it eventually. Do this by installing the wp-db-backup plugin and performing a backup of your databases.

• After you verify with your hosting provider that your databases are clean from any malware navigate to your tools menu and select the “Export” option. Export content from all the authors. This is the process of saving all of your posts, pages, and comments. The file needs to be less than 2MB.

• On the new hosting account install a new version of WordPress. I suggest doing a custom install utilizing the suggestions on www.expertwordpress.com. The stock version of WordPress has far too many WordPress security holes and we want to install a custom version that will avoid the common issues from the beginning.

• Follow the steps listed in the “Preventative Security” section above to secure your blog against future attacks.

• Search out, download, install, and activate a fresh copy of the theme you are currently using on your blog.

• In the Tools menu perform a WordPress Import of the XML file we saved in step 3. You should now have all your old content on your new blog as well as have the same general look.

• Make a list of all the plugins you used in your old blog and install fresh versions of each on your new blog. Double check all the settings and configurations to make sure they are the same.

• Copy the content of each of your widgets under the Appearance menu to your new site. As long as you are copying and pasting the content from within the WordPress appearance menu you will NOT have to worry about inadvertently copying over any malware code.

• Custom theme changes. By now your site should be almost 100% duplicated. The only things left to do will be to make the subtle changes that you made to customize your theme. Since these can vary in a billion ways I can’t provide instructions here but whoever helped you customize your theme last time can certainly help you do it again!

Now that you have rebuilt your site from scratch you should be safe from any potential future threats. Make sure all of your passwords including Database, Hosting Account, and WordPress passwords rank high in the password quality scale including at least one number and upper case and lower case letters.

GOOD LUCK!

Jacob S Paulsen

When helping my clients set up their own blog they often ask me what they should be writing about. Today’s blog post is to answer that question.

Determining your content will also help you configure your site categories. The WordPress blog categories are designed to help search engines categorize your content and are therfore crucial.

Before we get into the specifics of your content let’s outline the general ideas. I suggest you consider the following types of content:

1. Informative. The greatest reason why people will visit your site will be to learn and discover. In the beginning of creating your site you should determine your own niche. What specific topic or arena can you be an expert in? Write content specific to informing or educating your readers on that topic.

2. Entertaining. Your readers need to enjoy their visit to your site. Entertaining content should still be specific to your niche or topic but should be light and easy to read.

3. Personal. Your readers need to get to know you. They deserve to know who you are and what you are about. Share your goals, trials, and life especially as it pertains to the niche/topic.

Hopefully you noticed that all the content on your site should be specific to your niche. I would also suggest mixing informative, entertaining, and personal content together as much as possible.

Now let’s get more specific. Once you have found your niche and have discovered how you want to break that niche into categories you can begin writing posts. Try to think ahead by writing different types of posts and they apply to your different categories. Don’t post too often at first. 3 to 4 times per week is plenty to show people what you are about without asking them to make a daily commitment to you.

Be sure to use various mediums including audio, pictures, video, etc. This does wonders for search engine optimization but more importantly will allow you to attract all types of readers.

Be consistent. Your readers need to form a relationship of sorts with you. This is done by giving them good information. Your credibility will come from your ability to do that consistently over time.

Jacob S. Paulsen

I had a recent request on my tutorial video page to record a tutorial about using “Tell A Friend” forms to further syndicate web pages and blog posts.

Before you watch my video about how to utilize the Cforms plugin to create a “tell a friend” form I want to quickly review the true application and purpose.

In our modern marketing world the tell a friend tactic is growing less and less common. Social news and social bookmarking sites like Digg and Delicious are making it easier to share web pages, blogs, etc with your online network. You need only share a link on your Facebook profile and all of your friends are exposed to it instantly. If any of them comment on it then all of their friends also become exposed to it. This is what we refer to as “viral.” How much more powerful is that type of syndication than trying to manually enter your friends email address and name so they can get an email telling them about this page?

There are still some simple applications for the tell a friend forms but let me emphasize that you would be much better off to put a “Digg” button, or a share on Facebook/Twitter link at the end of your blog post than to request that your readers manually fill out a form with the names and email addresses of a few friends. WordPress offers several great plugins for offering simple syndication of your posts by your readers. My favorites include the “Social bookmarking” plugin and the “Digg Digg” plugin.

That all having been said here is the 10 minute or less tutorial video about utilizing the “Tell A Friend” form and the mentioned plugins.

I get a lot of phone calls from online friends who need assistance in setting up their websites and their social media profiles to begin working in internet marketing and social networking. Every once in awhile I think to myself that I should write a 2 page guide to “Online Domination Setup” which I could just email to these people who call me.

Today is that day. If you already have a website with 1000 plus visitors per week and more than 3000 twitter followers I would suggest you stop reading now and seek higher level training. For those of you who are still beginners here is what you need to know in less than two pages. To prove it I have provided a downloadable PDF file at the end of this post.

Online Marketing Umbrella Concepts:

First, you basically separate all of your online work and websites into these 3 categories:

1. Social Media – This is where you meet people and create relationships with them… NOTHING MORE.
2. Personal Website – This is where people you meet who want to learn more about you will come to do so. Your personal site needs to be in the form of a blog and it needs to contain informational, inspirational, and entertaining content. If best find a specific niche where with you can help your readers. The “niche” of this website is “Becoming More, Inspiration & Resources for Entrepreneurs.”
3. Sales Pages. This is where you will sell your products and opportunities to those who visited your personal site and wanted to know what you do for a living and to those who searched you out in search engines, etc.

Second, You will need to create a HUGE following in social media in order to really make a difference. This will require…

1. Sincerity. You will have to really care about the people you meet and have their best interests at heart
2. Marketing Ethics. Don’t SPAM people. (IE: marketing without permission or relationship)
3. Time. This will not happen over night. Do a little everyday over a long period of time and results will come.

TO DOs of Getting Started…

1. Get Your Own Website Started:
   1. Get a hosting account at either Godaddy or hostmonster. If you choose Godaddy get the deluxe hosting or higher. Buy the domain www.yourname.com as this will be the most important real estate you own in the virtual world. This one hosting account will allow you to host dozens of different websites down the road and it is necessary to get one eventually… why not now.
   2. Install WordPress onto the main directory of your website. This can be done painlessly with either Godaddy or Hostmonster. There are tons of tutorial videos on Youtube and I also have some on the “Tutorials” page of my site. Watch these same tutorials to help you set up your WordPress site with the best themes, plugins, etc.
   3. Decide what your online niche is going to be. Are you the Mountain Biking Kenyan who owns his own home business? Sorry, that’s already taken…
   4. Create content for your site and remember content should generally be either informative/educational, personal, or entertaining.
   5. Find a way to monetize your site by putting relevant ads onto your page from a affiliate group such as Linkshare or CommissionJunction If you already have your own products/opportunity to market put ads up for it or perhaps its own page.
2. Create a strong presence in Social Media. Focus on YouTube.com, Facebook, and Twitter but also any other network that is specific to your own niche or market. Example: if you live in Brazil you are likely to also focus on Orkut.comwhich is the most popular Brazilian social media site. Here are some tips:
   1. Create profiles that are both personal and professional in nature. You don’t want people to think you are a robot, but you don’t want them to think you are an amateur either.
   2. Don’t go on an adding friend frenzy. Search out and connect with the type of people that share your interests or make up your target market
   3. Don’t spread yourself to thin. If you are going to have a presence then have a real active presence.
   4. Don’t be a hypocrite. Don’t ask anyone to spend time looking at or commenting on your content unless you are willing and actively doing the same for them.
   5. Search out the best tools that allow you to syndicate content and increase your followers without spending tons of money. In my experience the paid tools are barely any better than the free ones and usually come with a sales pitch of their own.
3. Continue Your Education… by subscribing to blogs and sites to people who can help you grow. The easiest way to do this is by using an RSS reader like Google Reader. Go to http://reader.google.com and you will figure out without too much effort how to get started subscribing to other people’s sites. You will also find that most sites (like mine) have a subscribe option somewhere on the page. (top right). Your google reader will let you know every time someone who’s site you follow writes a new article/post and you will be able to keep up to date with the latest content without having to visit everyone’s site everyday.

Online Marketing Resources:

• PixelPipe.com Picture Syndication
• Ping.fm Status Update, Micro-Blogging Syndication
• TubeMogul.com Video Syndication
• TweetLater.com Schedule Tweets and Auto-Follow/Auto-UnFollow + Auto DMs
• Reader.google.com Best RSS reader for subscribing to other people’s blogs.
• Feedburner.com Program owned by Google that will help you give people to option of subscribing to your site via email.

Online Marketing Explanations:

• WordPress: WordPress is the BEST program to use to host your website, blog, or both. This is true for three basic reasons.
  • The way it interacts with the Search Engines is PERFECT!!!
  • The versatility of how it will perform or look is second to none
  • The ability for non geeky folk to be able to use it and not screw anything up is amazing
• Youtube, Facebook, & Twitter are the most important simply because they are the most popular. I would encourage you to find other social networks specific to your hobbies, passions, and specific product/opportunity.
• In setting up your sales pages as explained above you will use your same hosting account. Just buy a new domain, host it in a sub-directory (folder) and install WordPress.

Favorite WordPress Plugins: (See my tutorial videos on the “Tutorials” page for descriptions and instructions.

• All In One SEO
• Google XML Sitemap
• Google Analytics for WordPress
• Cforms
• Social Media Page

Download this Page in PDF Form.