So, here are my suggestions.

There are sooooooooo many ways to deal with spam with wordpress — you can install plugins, you can use broad spectrum spam eliminators after you have too many comments to deal with AND — MY FAVORITE — you can blacklist.

Since I have never and will never be blogging about prescription drugs and all the other RETARDED things that are constantly spammed — I pick those words to blacklist. Careful with blacklisting everything because if you blacklisted say BLACK — you would get rid of everything like blackjack and blackboard and blacklist…. etc. I have blacklisted blackjack because again, I won’t be blogging about gambling so it should never come up in a comment other than spam.

You will find you blacklist at the bottom of the SETTINGS — DISCUSSION section and trust me — it is WORTH IT. DO it once a week for a month or so and watch your comment spam take a nosedive.

YAY for KILLING STUPID SPAM — If only there was a way to send the spammer a little zap through the keyboard — lol

Things that they have had since the beginning. And while I loved the additions of tags and a few of the niceties — well it was classic wordpress that I loved.

Well so nice to see that Wordpress 2.5 has so many cool things to offer. For the new or novice user, it eliminates a lot of the “well what is that for” questions by simplifying the menu to 4 things, write, manage, design and comments. Since writing, editing and addressing comments are sort of the “day to day” things — that is kinda nice.

But what I LOVE — is the simple way to add tags (like they added with 2.3.3), simple ways to address things like settings such as permalinks and plugins . They did not piss off the long time user by trying to make it attractive for the new user.

If you are not familiar with wordpress — it is the GOLD STANDARD of blogging software and it is FREE. You can download it from Wordpress.org or you can most likely get it on your hosting account under the control panel as every hosting from small comprehensive hosts like PqHost have it as do big hosting companies like godaddy and dreamhost so if you have any interest in blogging or think of the MILLION reasons a blog can be awesome for your business – then you will go get it

Just getting kind of old to be doing like the 3rd urgent upgrade in a month

In case you need to upgrade manually — search down the blog, there is whole HOW TO on how to do that

BUT — there are also some that just want to take you for a ride. The ripoff ones are usually referred to as shavers. A good plan with a new program is to google the affliliate name and then tack the word shaving on the back. If a zillion hits from a bunch of forums where people are whining about how they got taken for a ride – be wary.

Some programs give you lots of tools — if you have a mainstream sites, amazon is completely awesome – but they also don’t pay you that much — so it can be a trade off.

So adding a few banners to your site can really help you earn a few bucks but that said — don’t go crazy with ads either because both visitors and search engines don’t want to see banners everywhere. One or two key well-performing affiliates that match with the mood of your site is way better than a bunch of misplaced ones.

While it is tempting to do more to get traffic, it will never be good traffic unless they actually are looking for what you REALLY DO.

So think LESS about what is popular and more about what you are actually about.

Sounds like common sense but you would be amazed how few people actually do this!!

There are tons of social networking sites — squidoo is just one of them and is actually kinda fun how they do it

You make a little lens and make everything all about something. And it can be anything — lists seem to be SUPER POPULAR

If you have never checked it out, go have a look. It will help your site and it is quick easy and fun!

There are a few things you will need if you want to update it yourself.

An FTP Editor — like dreamweaver. There are other options including a nice low priced one from Coffee Cup.

An FTP Upload program – such as web drive or coffee cup FTP (some hosting companies have free ones too so check there as well)

That should get you the basics.

Be sure to back up ALL of your stuff before you make changes. Your FTP upload program can be a great tool in making sure you have the latest back up so USE IT for that too!!

Instead what the client got is a difficult to use site that customers cannot understand (their price list requires that you click the Adobe logo like Joe Average would know that)

And due to the full flash design and the unwillingness to change it at all for SEO, the site gets very little traffic and a google ranking so low that nobody can find it. It is kinda sad actually

And — HERE IS THE KICKER

Well just one of the kickers because the story has a ton of sad kickers in it.

The site cannot be updated easily because the person who purchased it (and I call her that only because her being the site owner is also not 100% since the designer registered it all in his own name) She cannot even make updates because she does not know how.

Now, I have nothing against hiring a designer. There are many awesome ones who know exactly what they are doing and I will cover how to make your own changes later this week. But for today, here is how to start a website.

1 – GET HOSTING AND A DOMAIN ON YOUR OWN – You do not need a designer to do your web hosting or buy a domain for you. They are cheap and hosting is very reasonable, sometimes as low as $5 a month depending on what you want. Most hosts are domain resellers and you can buy your domain there. I like PQHOST because they are small, responsive and have a no BS attitude (www.pqhost.com) but you can use GoDaddy, Dreamhost, Network Solutions or whoever you like for web hosting. It is completely up to you.

The reason you want to control your own hosting is simple. Then you can move it to another host if you are unhappy. You can allow people, like designers, access when they are designing. And then lock them out when they are done. Also, it ensures that you are the registrant on the domain sale which is the way to ensure that you are the actual site owner.

2 – Once you have your hosting established, start designing your site either yourself or by hiring a designer. There are lots of design options so I will not list them but when you start a site, if you are talented, you can do yourself or hire, whatever works for you. Just remember when hiring, that you NEVER EVER EVER pay in advance for design.

3 – Once your design is done, it is time to SEO. This means ensuring that you have targeted keywords as well as a title and description that suit your business. For example, Atlanta Boxing Gym, Blah Fitness Inc is a lot more descriptive than just Blah Fitness Inc. If you have no idea what I am talking about here, then you need to read all the posts we have on Search Engine Optimization and consider using a service to do it.

4 — I can never stress this enough BUT BACK YOUR SITE UP. Download the whole thing to a CD, flash drive, external hard drive or all 3. But ensure you keep a backup and do regular backups. Fires, floods, hurricanes, hard drive crashes — those things happen so back up to prevent it from being a big deal.

But, with the latest wordpress upgrade, I got an error on a lot of my sites saying manual update was required. This can freak you out if you are used to the one click. But seriously not that big of a deal.

FIRST — BACK EVERYTHING UP
you really should back up weekly to an external, a cd, etc. I personally back up to 2 externals every week and then to a CD and/flash as I feel it is needed. Not to be SUPER ANAL but the more backups you have and the different types you have, the better. Think flood or fire as the worst case scenario. SO BACK IT UP. This means backing up your entire blog BEFORE you even think of starting this.

SECOND – DOWNLOAD to your desktop the latest version of wordpress. Just to a file folder — NOT TO YOUR BLOG!!!!

THIRD — Copy all the files EXCEPT the WP-CONTENT folder to your blog. This will overwrite the existing files. If you use a language OTHER THAN ENGLISH, READ THE WP INSTRUCTIONS as there are additional files for language in the WP-INCLUDES that you must retain so if your blog is NOT IN ENGLISH — BE SURE YOU READ MORE ABOUT WHAT TO DO!!

FOUR — Once the files are copied over, go to http://www.YOURBLOGNAME/wp-admin/upgrade.php

FIVE — It will tell you that your database needs to be backed up. Press the button and upgrade it.

You are done!!

So easy!!!

Fairly easy to do with the many online generators to choose from so try searching them and see which one you like. I like one called XML sitemaps — here is the link …. Site Map Generator

Basically the idea is that you use the generator, then save it using your FTP and if you use google webmaster tools, then you should put it on there so google knows that it exists.

A funny little note : I gave this instruction to someone on a forum and she had no idea what her FTP was. HAHA — it was a bit crazy because she wrote a super long response rather than just saying thank you. This blog as well as any forum posts that I write are meant to help you. Feel free to ignore them if you don’t “get” it or don’t want to get it or have no use for it. But don’t rag on me or post stupid responses — this is a free service. I mean come on, how rude. You want someone to hold your hand all the way through, then go to community college. You need a quick little how-to, then here it is.

To those who love my tips — enjoy – these are for you!!