Work At Home Business Blog

As I see the total neglected state I have left this blog in and my lack of any new ideas to post about I felt I should try to do something to make it seem as if I am still alive! Since the WordPress business and that blog site has been my top priority, I have lost interest in most things “Work at Home” related. So here are some of the latest WordPress related posts from WordPress Max.

WordPress Visual Editor Has Disappeared Or Isn’t Working

Has your WordPress visual editor stopped working? There are two quick settings to check if this has happened to your WordPress blog.

Read this article ->

WordPress Plugin Updates Not Working

Have you recently upgraded your WordPress blog and found that you can no longer automatically upgrade your plugins? There can be many different reasons for upgrade plugins not to work but here are two plugins to check for if you recently upgraded to WordPress version 2.7.

Read this article ->

Another Reason for Using Less WordPress Plugins

When I first started working with WordPress I tried all kinds of different plugins to gain an advantage and make blogging easier. Over time I discovered that some plugins have a short life span and using them can actually make more work for you or end up being a pain to get rid of.

Read this article ->

Working With Images In A WordPress Post

Adding images to a WordPress blog post is pretty easy to do, but all too often I see images that are too large or not formatted correctly. WordPress has a set of tools to use for uploading and working with images within the post content. Here is a short video showing some of the advanced tools for working with Images in a WordPress Post.

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How To Really Screw Up Your WordPress Blog

I get a lot of requests for help with WordPress blogs that are not working properly, look terrible or worse don’t show up at all. I have seen and have had to backward engineer some really interesting things for some people. So in my typical sarcastic style here is what to do if you really want to screw up your WordPress blog.

Read this article ->

Have you seen that little balloon in your WordPress dashboard but didn’t know what it is? Keeping your WordPress blog up to date can seem like a never ending task, especially if you use a lot of plugins. It seems like WordPress is coming out with incremental updates almost every week anymore, with that comes plugin updates to keep up with those changes. The good news is that WordPress now has built-in automatic plugin upgrades.

Before I get into the ease of this little option available in the WordPress dashboard, I will warn some that your sites hosting account might keep you from using it. Without going into too much techno geek speak, some hosting accounts limit access to a certain setting that will not allow this option to work, some Host4Profit accounts might need file permissions changed or access to the temp folder set. Or you might need to make your WordPress plugins folder and all the folders within it writable, meaning that you need to change the permissions on them to 666 or 777 or in geek speak CHMOD them to 666 or 777.

To upgrade a plugin you need to have your hosting account’s FTP information ready, then in the WordPress dashboard click the Plugins menu. Find a plugin that needs upgraded by looking at the warning below it about an out of date plugin and click the light blue upgrade automatically link.

That should take you the the next screen that asks for the FTP information.

I know a lot of H4P people may use this guide so your settings for this are as follows:
yoursite.com (without the the http://www.) for the Hostname and the same username and password used to login to the hosting account. All others should use the same FTP information that your hosting account specifies and the Use SSL box should not need changed. Fill in the information and then click the Proceed button.

A few cautions should be mentioned here, one is if you modified a plugin by directly editing the files, those changes will be lost and need to be done again. Some plugins will not automatically reactivate and need manually activated. Some more advanced plugins may need configured again and you should always check the plugin’s settings and functionality after an upgrade. Some even more advanced plugins with multiple folders or that require files to be placed in directories other than the plugins directory will probably not work and need upgraded manually.

Keeping your WordPress blog up to date in small increments is a lot easier than it is to let it go for a long period of time. Believe me it’s a lot easier resolving issues with one plugin than it is to fix or find replacements for a bunch of them after you upgrade from WordPress version 1.5 to 2.6! Hopefully the integrated WordPress automatic upgrade option that is coming soon will work as well as the automatic plugin upgrade works!

After putting it off for months I finally upgraded this WordPress blog to version 2.6.+ and what a trip it has been. If you have a WordPress blog prior to version 2.5 then hold on to your hats if you plan an upgrade! I wrote about all the cool features of version 2.6.+ on my other site here: Finally Time To Upgrade WordPress. After going through it I may delete that post!

Here is what you need to be aware of or do before upgrading WordPress if you are using a version prior to 2.5:

1. Backup: Backup everything including the database and all files and I mean all the files. If you get frustrated with the upgrade you can just upload the backup WordPress files and downgrade.
2. Plugins: Make a note of all the active plugins you are using. Write them down, take a screenshot anything just remember what plugins you were using so you can activate them again.
3. Backup Categories: Write down your categories and their parent relationships if you use them. This is critical, none of my categories came back with the upgrade and I had to manually edit my database to get them back. I still haven’t figured out how to put subcategories in the proper parent category.
4. Backup Widgets: If you can take a screenshot of your blog to note the locations of your sidebar widgets. Or you can view a cached version of your blog later. You will probably loose all your text widgets in the upgrade so you should open all your text widgets and copy them to a text file to rebuild the sidebar.
5. Tags: If you are currently using Ultimate Tag Warrior you won’t be in WordPress version 2.5 .+. There is built-in tagging in WordPress now but the tags will be lost until you use the built-in import function for tags. It worked and they all came back and assigned them to the proper posts.
6. Deactivate Plugins: If you are not using the Automatic Upgrade plugin make sure you deactivate all plugins before doing a manual upgrade.
7. Upgrade Plugins: Make sure to upgrade all plugins before activating them. Activate only one plugin at a time and check the blogs status. If a plugin kills your blog then you will need to delete the offending plugin from your hosting account.

Good luck upgrading!

After well over a year customizing WordPress Blogs for other people and neglecting this blog while focusing most of my attention on my WordPress Max site WordPress Guides I have finally found the time to update the look here with a new WordPress theme.

The new theme here is a highly modified version based on the Ads Theme by Blogging Secret. My intent is to bring this blog back and spend more time adding useful content and make a little more money with it as well.

If you want a customized WordPress theme I can tweak a WordPress Theme for you if you wish, just Click Here and tell me what you need done.

Blogging is fast becoming the way to setup very functional professional looking website that can generate traffic very quickly if done right. A WordPress blog is one of the most functional scalable platforms to run an online business with.

As I have been blogging about making money blogging on both of my blogs lately. I just posted another in my series of WordPress guides over on WordPressMax.com. So if you have a WordPress blog and an AdSense account you may be interested in How To Add AdSense Ads To A WordPress Blog.

Technorati Tags: WordPress blog

I recently started a new website or really a WordPress blog about WordPress. Called WordPress Max “WordPress Guides For The Geek Impaired”. As some of you may have recognized I haven’t been posting here on a regular basis as I have been busy with the new blog.

While I will keep learning and blogging about WordPress this blog has veered of the work at home subject it was first started for.

So I encourage you to drop by WordPress Max and have a look around. There isn’t much there yet but that will change soon enough. If you want to keep up to date on WordPress stop by, grab the feed or look for the email update option on the sidebar.

- Jeff

Do you want your own WordPress Blog like this one? I can help, find out more here: Blog Builder

Technorati Tags: WordPress blog, work at home

If you are blogging with a WordPress blog, or any blog for that matter, and looking for an opportunity to build some incoming links to it then this is something that should interest you.

I got several emails about the Reciprocal Review Carousel today and just had to participate.

Check it out, Reciprocal Review Carousel is a different kind of web 2.0 link building technique started by Alex over at HowtoSpoter.com. This is a great chance to get incoming links if you do it right.

Follow the directions below and make sure you do it right. Check out how this started (opens in a new window) then come back here and see what has changed on the review list below and you will see how this works immediately.

— Copy and paste the Reciprocal Review Carousel and instructions below this line. —

Reciprocal Review Carousel idea is based on a few simple yet effective link-building and blogging techniques I have learned:

Build value of the blog by creating a helpful link from within content.

Provide value to community by doing a review on a blog you personally like.

Link to YOUR blog has exact anchor text you want and helps you boost Google Rankings.

No more than 30 outbound links from any page to prevent penalties for link farming.

Viral effect of the link – as more bloggers participate, link to your blog with YOUR anchor text, coming from quality content post will spread.
Here is How to participate:

• Copy the entire text between the specified lines.
• Create a post on your site and put at least one paragraph explaining how you joined the Reciprocal Review Carousel.
• Paste the text you copied into your post.
• Remove the Bottom Review and At the Top add your own review with a link to a site reviewed, at least 2 sentences about the site and a note – Reviewed by: Your Anchor Text. Link your anchor text to your site. Here is an example:

WordPress Web 2.0 Guide is a blog providing very useful information on building your very own Web 2.0 portal based on WordPress. Detailed instructions and howto guides make it possible for anyone to create a sparkling and engaging blog and join the community of like-minded individuals. Reviewed by: WordPress Web 2.0 Spot-er

Sites Reviewed:

Dean’s Home Business Reporter is a WordPress blog of an associate whom helped I setup another blog for just a short time ago. Yet in this short time Dean has learned the power of blogging and has installed a new blog on his own that is shaping up to be a great resource for those looking for work at home business opportunities.

Reviewed by Jeff Houdyschell @ Work At Home BusinessBlog

Jeff Houdyschell’s Work At Home Business Blog is loaded with all the information you might need to know about the work at home business industry. It is designed to be easy to find what you are looking for and what he has to offer. Jeff also offers a very unique personalized WordPress Installation Service at a very affordable cost. I have used this service. I will highly recommend Jeff to any one that wants a blog installed on their own domain. Check him out you won’t be sorry.Reviewed by: Dean@Dean’s Home Business Reporter

Wolney H Filho’s Work at Home Online blog provides lots of tips and advice for people who want to start a work at home business. Wolney has over 10 years of networking experience and regularly updates his blog to give you the latest ideas on how to work at home online and how to promote your website. Reviewed by Suzanne Morrison for her Internet Business Ideas blog.

Suzanne Morrison’s Internet Home Business Ideas Blog is an excellent Blog. She can help you to make a full time income from the internet. She is part of the Plug-In Profit Site team and her blog is frequently updated with Internet home business ideas, product reviews and suggestions for and promoting your website. Reviewed by Wolney H Filho, the work at home online blog.

Mal Keenan’s Internet Marketing Blog is a frequently updated blog on everything pertaining to the world of internet marketing and home business. He includes plenty of internet marketing tips and techniques in his blog and also reviews the latest internet marketing products. Unlike some marketers who recommend every product under the sun, Mal has a very honest approach to his reviews and only recommends products that have actually worked for him. Reviewed by Suzanne Morrison for her Internet Business Ideas blog

Team Schuman’s Make Money Blog provides an awesome amount valuable and useful information. His blog along with his main site not only offer great articles, guides and tips, they also offer amazing resources and services aimed at helping you succeed and make money online. I have personally used several of these services and would highly recommend them to any one needing help. Jeff Schuman is constantly updating his site to insure the most recent information possible to help you in your success.Reviewed By: William Hutchinson’s -Hutches Affiliate Marketing Post Blog

Jeff Casmer’s 24HourWealth Blog is an excellent blog that ties in well with his top rated work at home directory. He works hard at helping people and his blog is updated reguarly with information that is timely to help you work from home and earn money.

Jack Humphrey’s blog The Friday Traffic Report is just another in a long line of things I read when it is done by Jack. Of course his Power Linking and Authority Black Book are just two examples of the tremendous information he provides. He blogs now about Web 2.0 and social marketing and if you are looking for tips to get more traffic you should check it out and subscribe to his feed. Reviewed by Jeff Schuman for his make money blog to help people make more money and get more traffic.

Peter Lenkefi writes about Web 2.0 marketing strategies at Web2Center.com. He has some killer videos over there you should check out along with a ton of good information on blog marketing and various “new media” promotion tactics. Reviewed by: Link Building Maniac, Jack Humphrey, for the Friday Traffic Report

Andy-Coates.com is an original creator of Viralink concept and a blog publishing information on Magic, Personal development and blog development. I have found a wealth of information on getting your blog noticed and generating the traffic for free. Reviewed by: WordPress Web 2.0 Guide

FitForFreedom is well-established blog where you can find multitude of information on achieving financial freedom. Blog is run by Marco Righter and his writing style greatly adds to the value of information he provides. Reviewed by: Alex

Secure Your PC For Internet blog run by Colin and provides essential information everyone accessing internet should know. Identity theft is becoming more and more of an issue and by visiting his blog you can minimize the risk of being compromised. Reviewed by: Alex

VI-SU blog is all about WordPress, AdSense, SEO and Internet Marketing. Although mostly written in German I have found that using Google translate is worth the effort for his posts. Reviewed by: Alex

Home With Heather is a great informative blog targeting WAHM (Work At Home Moms) and run by … you guessed it – Heather Masson. Information on what works for her in Internet Business written is very easy to read and comes from her personal experience. Reviewed by: Alex

— copy and paste the Reciprocal Review Carousel and instructions above this line —

Technorati Tags: WordPress blog

Using the Static page option for a WordPress blog has advantages in some situations. Learn how to setup your blog to take advantage of this option.

Click Options then the Reading subpanel. Wordpress offers a unique option to show a static page as the main site instead of the normal latest posts shown in chronological order. Now would be a good time to discuss the difference between a post and a page.

A typical WordPress blog is setup to show the latest post on the top of the main or front page, with the specified amount of previous posts shown below that, known as the ‘Loop’. Writing a post will place it within the Loop, a page will not be placed in the Loop.

Now to really confuse you; every post or page you create is actually another content page added to your website. You may hear or read the term Post page online and throughout this ebook. A Post page is the URL of the individual post within the Loop. Clicking on the title of a post from the main or front blog site will open that post in its own single Post page. So every post has its own Post page, and every page has its own Page page. Clear as mud right?

When to use a page instead of a post? Well that is up to you the blogger but a good example of a page is the default About page that is included with all WordPress installs. Perhaps you have one main specific product or service you are promoting. You could create a page for that specific product, and use it for front page.

If you choose to use a static page for the front page you should create a new page for the regular blog Loop. Before choosing the static page option, create a new blank page titled Blog. Don’t bother putting anything in the content post box as shown below, click Publish.

Back at Options, Reading subpanel, tick the A static page option; choose the front page and the page that will show the regular blog loop containing your latest posts. Shown below.

There is one word of caution about some WordPress blog themes and choosing the static front-page option. Not all WordPress themes will show the sidebar on pages or the single post page. So the link to the Blog page we created above to get your visitors from a static front page to your regular blog Loop will not be visible. You will either need to place a link to it on the static front page, choose a theme that shows the sidebar on pages or add the sidebar to the themes page template.

Adding the sidebar to the page template is not that hard. If I setup your blog for you and you need this done please contact me and I can do it for you. You can also find plenty of instructions online how to do it including here:

http://www.esmartjob.com/blog/wordpress-blog/add-sidebar-to-static-page

Technorati Tags: WordPress blog, WordPress blog, WordPress blog

Copyright © Jeff Houdyschell
http://www.eSmartJob.com

There seems to be a bit of confusion with one of my instructional posts: Get A WordPress API Key For The Akismet WordPress Plugin. Several people are telling me that they can’t find their WordPress blog API key using my directions in that post so lets try again.

In order to get a WordPress API key you first need an account at WordPress.com. If you have, or had a free WordPress blog hosted on WordPress.com, chances are you already have an API key.

First go to WordPress.com. and click ‘Sign Up’ in the top right side of the site as shown below. Please note that the login information for WordPress.com is completly different than that to login to your self-hosted WordPress blog!!!

After you sign up at WordPress.com you will need to go through the normal email confirmation routine and get your password sent to you. Once you have your username and password go back to WordPress.com and login.

After you login you will see a screen similar to this, without my picture in it I hope

Place your mouse over ‘My Account’ on the top left. A drop down menu should appear, from that click ‘Global Dashboard’.

Now you should be in the WordPress Global Dashboard. Once in here click ‘Profile’ as shown below.

Here, at last you should find the elusive WordPress API key!

Now you can use the API key for all your WordPress blogs and some of the plugins that need it to function.

Important! Your login information for the WordPress Global Dashboard is completely different than your self-hosted blog. If you click Blog Stats from within your blog you may be prompted to login to the Global Dashboard. This can be confusing because both login screens look identical. Remember that your blog is hosted on your website, not on WordPress.com.

Only your blog stats are accessed on WordPress.com and clicking Blog Stats from within your self-hosted blog actually takes you from your site to WordPress.com.

This has caused many new self-hosted WordPress bloggers to think they have forgotten their passwords, when they were actually using the wrong information to login.

Please pay close attention to where you are and use the correct login information for the specific dashboard you are accessing. If you can’t login, chances are you are using the wrong information for the site you are on. The only reason you really need to login to the Global dashboard is to check your blog stats. If you check the remember me box when first logging into the Global dashboard you will most-likely never be prompted for it again.

About the Author:
—————————————————————–
Jeff Houdyschell provides proven income opportunities, ideas and information for the best work at home jobs, visit: http://www.eSmartJob.com

Do you want your own WordPress Blog like this one? I can help, find out more here: Blog Builder

Technorati Tags: WordPress blog, WordPress blog

By Carl Hendricks,

http://www.cehmagic.com

If writing is an art, then, blogging is one way of using words to come up with an art. This is because people who are into blogging are the ones who are artistic on their own sense, carefully choosing words that would best describe their feelings, sentiments, wishes, desires, and everything.

Basically, blogs were first introduced as weblogs that refer to a “server’s log file.” It was created when web logging hit the virtual market. Since its inception in the mid-1990s, web logging gradually saturated the virtual community making the Internet a viable source of greater information.

However, with web logging, you still need a web site and domain names, but with blogging, you do not need anything just an account with blog providers. In most cases, these kinds of blogs are free of charge.

With the onset of blogging in the industry, personal journaling had been a common ground for people who wish to be known all over the world. However, not literally famous as this is not a case on being popular or well-known personality.

Generally, blogs are created for personal use. Like a journal, people can write their daily adventures, sentiments, and whatever ideas they want to express online.

Nevertheless, with the advent of the online businesses, blogs had gradually taken the limelight in providing businesses a chance to boost their productivity online. This is where the business blogs have taken the limelight.

Read the rest of the article here…

Copyright © Jeff Houdyschell
http://www.eSmartJob.com

 

Getting traffic to any site is the goal of all webmasters, repeat website traffic is the key in gaining the trust and loyalty of your visitors.

With the use of several WordPress plugins, a WordPress blog can be optimized to gain that repeat traffic. Several tools can automatically notify your readers of a new post, of course you need to supply the content to keep your visitors wanting to come back.

There is a plugin that encourage first time visitors to subscribe to your blog feed with a subtle, unobtrusive pop-up box, and another that automatically subscribes someone who comments on a post. With the subscribe to comments plugin, anyone making a comment will be notified of other comments made on that post. Of course you need to encourage this interaction on your blog. When writing a post ask questions of the readers, say something controversial, do anything to encourage them to post a comment.

Another underutilized tool is setting up your blog feed in your autoresponder. This will notify your list of all new posts made on your blog. You can even set up a new autoresponder specifically for your blog and place an opt-in somewhere on your WordPress blog

There are several ways to get repeat website traffic and WordPress makes it so much easier. Above are a few of the methods I use. What are some of the methods you use to get repeat website traffic?

About the Author:
—————————————————————–
Jeff Houdyschell provides proven income opportunities, ideas and information for the best work at home jobs, visit: http://www.eSmartJob.com

Do you want your own WordPress Blog like this one? I can help, find out more here: Blog Builder

Technorati Tags: WordPress plugin, WordPress blog, WordPress blog

Just yesterday I posted about comment spam on my Wordpress blog and about one specific program that automates the comment spam process.

The title of the post is Trackback Submitter Spammer Waste Of Money, if you Google just Trackback Submitter you will see that post is #6 or #5 on Google today, 6/19/07. So in one day a blog post is topping Google.

I pretty much blasted the program for “Spraying Internet graffiti on my website” but thats not the point here. The point is how quickly a blog post can rank in Google with a properly configured blog.

This blog is powered by WordPress and has several WordPress plugins working behind the scene generating traffic and optimizing the post’s pages for the search engines.

If you are reading this on the main blog site click the title of the post and open it in it’s own page, go ahead I’ll wait…
Now look at the very top left of your browser you will see the title of the post before the title of the blog. This helps the search engines find the keywords quicker.

Next look at the URL: http://www.esmartjob.com/blog/wordpress-blog/post-tops-google

the last two: /wordpress-blog/post-tops-google also include relevant keywords utilizing a custom Permalink structure. Read more about that here: Customize WordPress Permalink Structure

Another plugin automatically pings a list of services and sites of my choosing as soon as a post is published. While another WordPress plugin updates the blogs sitemap and notifies Google and Yahoo! that new content is ready to be crawled.

If I setup your WordPress blog for you all these WordPress plugins and options are already at work for you. Posting good relevant content consistently, will bring more traffic so keep at it.

If you want more information or have any questions about the plugins or options discussed in this post please submit them in the comments section below.

About the Author:
—————————————————————–
Jeff Houdyschell provides proven income opportunities, ideas and information for the best work at home jobs.

Do you want your own WordPress Blog like this one? I can help, find out more here: Blog Builder